by Hal Vaughan
21. According to French counterintelligence: SSF, Dec. 814.
22. But Spatz was certainly: MI6, Ledebur report, BNA.
23. Isabelle Fiemeyer described: Chanel experienced a moment of religious fervor in Venice while she prayed and mourned Boy Capel. There, she began a lifetime habit of collecting religious cards with prayers to Catholic saints: Saint Thérèse de l’Enfant-Jesus, Saint Agatha, the Madonna of the Oliviers, and a prayer card dedicated to “The Blessed Pierre Marie Louis Chanel (1803–1841)” of her family. She kept the cards in a small wallet along with a note written in her hand: “I am a Roman Catholic; in case of a serious accident or transportation to hospital, I request a Catholic priest come to me. If I die I request the blessing of the Catholic Church, signed Chanel, 31, rue Cambon, Paris” (author’s translation). When Chanel died in 1971, the wallet was found in her handbag along with photographs of her nephew, André Palasse and his two granddaughters. Isabelle Fiemeyer, Coco Chanel: un parfum de mystère, pp. 65–66.
24. Chanel biographer Pierre Galante: Galante, Mademoiselle Chanel, p. 50.
25. The city had “forgotten the black years”: Ibid., p. 51.
26. “liberated from prejudices”: Ibid., p. 64.
27. “Chanel launches”: Ibid., p. 54.
28. “Women were no longer to exist”: Madsen, Chanel: A Woman of Her Own, p. 116.
29. In one of her maxims: Vaughan translation of Chanel’s citations, proverbs, and maxims found at Citations Chanel: http://www.citation-du-jour.fr/
30. “Chanel’s genius”: Gold and Fizdale, Misia, p. 230.
31. “An orphan denied a home”: Morand, L’Allure de Chanel, p. 32; my translation.
32. The swank flat: Galante, Mademoiselle Chanel, p. 60.
33. “but the greatest concentration”: Pierre Assouline, Simenon: A Biography, p. 73.
34. Later, Chanel and her entourage: Galante, Mademoiselle Chanel, p. 2.
35. “Love affairs between writers and artists”: Ibid., p. 62.
36. Chanel’s newfound friends: Wallach, Chanel: Her Style and Her Life, p. 42.
37. “You do not know dear”: Fiemeyer, Coco Chanel: Un parfum de mystère, p. 87; my translation.
38. “What would become of dreams”: Edmonde Charles-Roux, Chanel, p. 220.
39. She was generous and tactful: Ibid., p. 224. Today, the manuscripts are kept at Yermenonville, France, at the home of Gabrielle Palasse Labrunie.
40. Prince Félix chose Dmitri: On the night of December 16, 1916, two men, with the help of British secret agents, managed to poison Rasputin. They then clubbed him almost to death. But the “holy monk” would not die. They finished the deed with gunfire and threw his nearly dead body in the icy river Neva, where he died of hypothermia. Dmitri Pavlovich was later suspected of having shot the monk.
41. Rumors now spread: Gidel, Coco Chanel, p. 171.
42. “It was like a winning lottery ticket”: Madsen, Chanel: A Woman of Her Own, p. 135.
43. “I want you to meet”: Galante, Mademoiselle Chanel, p. 146.
44. “But if you want”: Ibid.
45. She would come to believe: Haedrich, Coco Chanel: Her Life, Her Secrets, p. 156.
46. an individual whose: APP BA 1990.
CHAPTER THREE: COCO’S GOLDEN DUKE
1. Mademoiselle is more: French Vogue, March 2009, p. 295.
2. One biographer claimed: Paul Morand, The Allure of Chanel, p. 157.
3. “a man of great generosity”: Ibid., p. 186; my translation.
4. Chanel and the prince met: Claude Delay, Chanel solitaire, p. 125. Janet Wallach, Chanel: Her Style and Her Life, p. 2. Delay, a respected French psychoanalyst and prize-winning author, is the only Chanel biographer to tell this anecdote of Chanel and the prince. It may be one of Chanel’s many inventions, but her brief affair with the prince was also confirmed to this author by Edmonde Charles-Roux in 2010.
5. Legend holds that the butler: Charles-Roux, Chanel, pp. 249–50.
6. “The Duke frightened me”: Chanel to her friend, the Russian refugee and designer Lady Iya Abdy, in Field, Bendor, the Golden Duke of Westminster, p. 183.
7. Chanel was “a little like Cinderella”: Galante, Mademoiselle Chanel, pp. 96–99.
8. To them, she was “the former demimondaine”: APP BA 1990.
9. In one of her more sarcastic moods: Delay, Chanel solitaire, p. 126.
10. “He had a yacht”: Field, Bendor, the Golden Duke of Westminster, p. 184.
11. “I loved him”: Morand, The Allure of Chanel, p. 158.
12. One of Bendor’s chums: Ridley George, Bend’Or, Duke of Westminster, p. 74.
13. Churchill thought Bendor: Ibid., pp. 196–197. Churchill and Bendor fought side by side in the Boer War. They were together on the Western Front in 1918 with the Prince of Wales.
14. A French lady described Bendor: Charles-Roux, L’Irrégulière, pp. 417–18; my translation.
15. When his homosexual brother-in-law: Homosexual activity was a criminal offense in Britain in 1931. The Seventh Earl of Beauchamp held the Order of the Garter and carried the Sword of State at King George V’s coronation in 1909. He was a pillar of the Church of England and the House of Lords, and was the father of Lady Lettice’s seven children. He was ruined and fled to France. Lady Lettice, Beauchamp’s wife of twenty-nine years, divorced him. The king’s reaction to Beauchamp’s evildoings was, “I thought that men like that shot themselves” and “I thought that people only did that abroad.” When the devastated Lady Lettice suffered a “nervous collapse,” she went to live with her brother, claiming to Bendor that she had never heard of homosexuality and could not understand what her brother was talking about. Field, Bendor, the Golden Duke of Westminster, pp. 244–47.
16. Chanel could match: Morand, The Allure of Chanel, pp. 136–38; my translation.
17. In another picture: Wallach, Chanel: Her Style and Her Life, p. 72.
18. In a Vogue photo: Ibid., p. 75.
19. In one rare photo: Chanel was addicted to Camel cigarettes according to Gabrielle Palasse Labrunie. Interview by author at Yermenonville, France, June 9, 2009.
20. Another snapshot shows: Photo in Charles-Roux, Le Temps Chanel, p. 244.
21. There is also a delightful November 1929 snapshot: Justine Picardie, Coco Chanel, p. 166.
22. “Rumor is busy”: Field, Bendor, the Golden Duke of Westminster, pp. 184–85.
23. “My real life began with Westminster”: Haedrich, Coco Chanel, p. 124.
24. “A very charming picture”: Sir Winston Churchill Archive Trust, CHAR 2157.
25. “The famous Chanel turned up”: Churchill may be referring to the fact that Vera had been with Mrs. Churchill on the Western Front as a nurse in World War I. Field, Bendor, the Golden Duke of Westminster, p. 201.
26. “Chanel is here in place of Violet”: Ibid.
27. “[Chanel] created elegant clothes” Wallach, Chanel: Her Style and Her Life, p. 166.
28. “She really had two real loves”: Galante, Mademoiselle Chanel, p. 95.
29. His scheme was to convince Chanel: Field, Bendor, the Golden Duke of Westminster, p. 201.
30. A picture taken at her La Pausa retreat: Photo in Wallach, Chanel: Her Style and Her Life, p. 82.
31. Bendor purchased it: Galante, Mademoiselle Chanel, p. 116. Note: author Charles-Roux states Chanel used her own money: Charles-Roux, Chanel, p. 255.
32. When completed by Chanel: Galante, Mademoiselle Chanel, p. 120.
33. “I never wanted to weigh”: Ibid., p. 141.
34. Chanel’s friends thought: Ibid., p. 111.
35. She steadfastly refused: Field, Bendor, the Golden Duke of Westminster, p. 185.
36. “All I want”: Ibid., p. 207.
37. “those Jews”: Roger Peyrefitte, Les Juifs, pp. 71–72.
38. “The Duke makes frequent trips”: APP BA 1990, Chanel file; my translation.
39. The Sûreté suspected him: Ibid.
40. “I never tried to get him�
�: Morand, L’Allure de Chanel, p. 192; my translation.
41. Misia was crushed: Edmonde Charles-Roux, L’Irrégulière, p. 458.
42. One legend has it: Marcel Haedrich, Coco Chanel: Her Life, Her Secrets, p. 130.
43. Coco scorned nights out: Henry Gidel, Coco Chanel, pp. 237–38.
44. The maxims included: Ibid., p. 238.
45. He left a touching few lines: Ibid., p. 240; my translation.
46. “Imagine”: Gold and Fizdale, Misia, p. 240.
47. “One must not let oneself be forgotten”: Haedrich, Coco Chanel, p. 205.
48. While the duke wandered around: Field, Bendor, the Golden Duke of Westminster, p. 225.
49. Loelia remembered Chanel: Galante, Mademoiselle Chanel, pp. 113–14.
50. Dincklage and his German half-Jewish wife: Reliable sources and biographer Edmonde Charles-Roux (L’Irrégulière, p. 545) write that Dincklage and wife were traveling and living on the Côte d’Azur from 1928. French police and counterintelligence sources claim he entered France in 1929.
51. Dincklage had earned this plum posting: CHADAT 7NN 2620.
52. “We were by the sea”: Marje Schuetze-Coburn, Bill Dotson, Michaela Ullmann, Against the Eternal Yesterday—Essays Commemorating the Legacy of Lion Feuchtwanger, p. 26.
53. The Dincklages were not the first: CHADAT 7NN 2620.
54. It was good cover: The Abwehr often used agents from Jewish families. Being Jewish was good cover, and the Abwehr could threaten reprisals against the agent’s families in Germany. Jews cooperated with the intelligence service either by patriotism for their German homeland or, after 1933, as a means of protecting themselves and their families from Nazi persecution.
55. And Maximiliane had solid credentials: German Abwehr officers Ledebur and Feihl stated that Maximiliane owned shares in I. G. Farben. The author Sybille Bedford, Catsy’s half sister, speaks of Catsy’s mother as being wealthy in her own right.
56. A 1929 German Registry document: German archives of Berlin, 1929: “Dincklage,” p. 139.
57. Indeed, French military intelligence: CHADAT 7NN 2973.
58. A 1934 secret Sûreté document: November 17, 1934. Ibid.
59. “There were Huxley picnics”: Sybille Bedford papers, HRC, Box 46–1, July 1932.
60. Coton described Sanary: Jacques Grandjonc and Theresia Grundtner, Zones d’ombres 1933–1944: Exil et internement d’Allemands et d’Autrichiens dans le sud-est de la France, pp. 50–52.
61. Coton later wrote: Ibid.
62. Later, Coton’s spying: CHADAT 7NN2973.
63. In 1931, the shift in political sentiment: Warsaw: Archiwa Akt Nowych; du Plessix Gray, Them, p. 136.
CHAPTER FOUR: A HOLLYWOOD DIVERTISSEMENT
1a. God makes stars: Samuel Goldwyn.
1. about $14 million: This figure was arrived at using the Consumer Price Index.
2. “The Italian Wizard”: Meredith Etherington-Smith, Patou, pp. 121–30.
3. Chanel had taken women: Bet Moore, “Two for the Runway,” Los Angeles Times, May 4, 2005.
4. Later, Chanel would say: In a telephone conversation with the author on September 6, 2009, Gabrielle Palasse Labrunie confirmed Chanel’s judgment of Hollywood as “vulgar.” Also Edmonde Charles-Roux, L’Irrégulière, pp. 474–75; my translation.
5. “There are great Jews”: Delay, Chanel solitaire, p. 149.
6. “What looked young last year”: Vogue, cited in Etherington-Smith, Patou, p. 115.
7. His stars were to be dressed: “Mlle Chanel to Aid Films,” New York Times, January 20, 1931.
8. She and husband, José-Maria Sert: Arthur Gold and Robert Fizdale, Misia, pp. 249–57.
9. “Tatar charm”: Ibid.
10. “Coco and Misia were seen”: Ibid., p. 231.
11. “a snobbish little pederast”: Francis Steegmuller, Cocteau: A Biography, p. 389.
12. Although both were fervent Catholics: Together, the Serts begged the French Catholic episcopacy for an annulment of their marriage. Roussy would die later in 1938 of tuberculosis, and the Serts would reunite. Gold and Fizdale, Misia, pp. 281, 303–12, 332, 335.
13. At a suite in the Hotel Pierre: “Chanel Visits America,” New York Times, March 8, 1931.
14. Dressed in a simple rose-red jersey: Ibid.
15. Astute as ever: Ibid. 64 “rather bewildered at the score”: Ibid.
16. “If blonde”: Los Angeles Examiner, March 17, 1931.
17. “gawked at Paris mannequins and laughed”: Galante, Mademoiselle Chanel, pp. 159–61.
18. “Two Queens Meet”: Ibid.
19. “actors [were] strong”: Ibid.
20. “I never was a dressmaker”: Paul Morand, L’Allure de Chanel, p. 59; my translation.
21. Chanel had hoped: Sunday Express (London), February 21, 1932, as cited in Galante, Mademoiselle Chanel, p. 162.
22. “The Hollywood atmosphere”: Charles-Roux, Chanel, pp. 269–70.
23. “Chanel made a lady”: Madsen, Chanel: A Woman of Her Own, p. 194.
CHAPTER FIVE: EXIT PAUL, ENTER SPATZ
1. “a bath of nobility”: Pierre Galante, Mademoiselle Chanel, p. 164.
2. In a rare photograph: When Boy Capel realized that Chanel, being slightly cross-eyed, needed glasses, he arranged for her to see a specialist. Still, Chanel refused to wear spectacles. Janet Wallach, Chanel: Her Style and Her Life, p. 104.
3. “bright, a dark golden color”: Madsen, Chanel: A Woman of Her Own, p. 197.
4. “I am timid”: Marcel Haedrich, Coco Chanel: Her Life, Her Secrets, pp. 236–37.
5. Age had not weakened: Janet Flanner, “31 rue Cambon,” The New Yorker, March 14, 1931, p. 25.
6. “Mademoiselle Chanel”: Ibid.
7. “I signed something”: Galante, Mademoiselle Chanel, p. 149.
8. Despite the world economic crisis: Wallach, Chanel: Her Style and Her Life, pp. 87–92.
9. “All those bluebloods”: Madsen, Chanel: A Woman of Her Own, p. 109.
10. “It’s disgusting”: Galante, Mademoiselle Chanel, p. 166.
11. Germany’s next most powerful man: Robert S. Wistrich, Who’s Who in Nazi Germany, p. 78.
12. Canaris cooperated: Ibid., p. 29.
13. Later, Himmler’s SS: Abwehr, from German abwehren, “to ward or fend off,” was the intelligence and counterintelligence (spy and spy-catching) agency of the military Reichswehr, later the Wehrmacht under Hitler. David M. Crowe, Oskar Schindler, p. 15.
14. Operating under diplomatic immunity: CHADAT 7NN2973.
15. By 1932 the Dincklages: Ibid.
16. Writing about Dincklage’s power of attraction: Manfred Flügge, Amer Azur: Artistes et écrivains à Sanary, pp. 61–62, and from Flügge’s interview with Sybille Bedford in Chelsea, England, January 2000. Edmonde Charles-Roux, L’Irrégulière (p. 556) tells how Dincklage provided “physical satisfaction” to Chanel and his many mistresses.
17. The two naval officers: In their book, Zones d’ombres, Jacques Grandjonc and Theresia Grundtner reveal how a French naval officer, Charles Coton, befriended the Dincklages in 1930 at Sanary and that Dincklage was known to be a German agent. For Charles Coton, see Jacques Grandjonc and Theresia Grundtner, Zones d’ombres, 1933–1944: Exil et internement d’Allemands dans le Sud-Est de la France, pp. 50–52. For Gaillard, see CHADAT 7NN 2973.
18. Within weeks of arriving in Paris: Vans were hired from Gustav Knauer, Wichmannstrasse 62. The couple moved to 64, rue Pergolèse.
19. She was issued: Dincklage letter to Herr Goersch circa 1958; letters 1961; PAdAA Document 681/5, October 3, 1933.
20. French police and military intelligence: CARAN F/7/15327 “Feihl Statement,” PAdAA, Deutsche Botschaft file.
21. Dincklage had also planted: Ibid.
22. By 1934 the Berlin Nazi machine: CHADAT 7NN 2737.
23. In Paris: Ibid.
24. The French military counterintelligence service: Ibid.
25. The Inter Press dispatch: Ibid.
26. Finally, the report confirmed: Ibid.
27. According to one biographer: Charles-Roux, Chanel, p. 290.
28. In the February 24, 1933, edition: Le Témoin, February 24, 1933, n.p.
29. No man before Iribe: Charles-Roux, Chanel, pp. 290–91.
30. Iribe had become: Ibid.
31. She was “devastated”: Gabrielle Palasse Labrunie, telephone interview with author, September 7, 2009.
32. “I need it to hold on”: Isabelle Fiemeyer, Coco Chanel: Un parfum de mystère, p. 109. Sedol, a strong French sedative, was manufactured by Theraplix. It contained morphine chlorhydrate.
33. “My baby has a heart”: Wallman/Wartell/Crosby, My Woman, recorded by Ted Lewis and his band, Columbia Records 2635-D. Chanel sang it while driving with Gabrielle Palasse Labrunie. Telephone interview with Labrunie, September 6, 2009.
34. “Your Queen succeeds”: Randolph Churchill, “Mlle Chanel’s Tribute,” Daily Mail, June 20, 1934.
35. “We are strong”: William L. Shirer, Berlin Diary, p. 21.
36. He was tracked: CHADAT 7NN 2719.
37. “The Germans are by no means”: BNA, letter on British Embassy Berlin letter paper, dated January 3, 1935.
38. The editors revealed: Wistrich, Who’s Who in Nazi Germany, p. 38.
39. Allard’s postwar book: Quand Hitler espionne la France, pp. 38–50.
40. The newly single Dincklage: Ledebur report, FSS. Ledebur named the two girls “the Joyce sisters.”
41. The letter makes a feeble attempt: German Foreign Ministry Archives, 1934.
42. “To the Honorable Ambassador”: Ibid.
43. Prior to Dincklage’s: CHADAT 7NN 2973. While photos of Dincklage and Lucie Braun were mentioned as attached, only the latter photo remains in the file.
44. “I fear I shall not”: Telegram dated December 2, 1935, Chartwell Trust.
45. His former agent in Toulon: CHADAT 7NN 2973.
46. By November 1938: Ibid.
