Duke and Duchess of Windsor

The Classicist: Paradise Lost - 40 Years of Cafe Society

Filed under: Art, Books, The Classicist, Wealth

In the 1920s, '30s, '40s and '50s the so-called Café Society in Europe drew together aristocrats, millionaires, artists, authors, couturiers, choreographers and musicians in a "glittering world of fashion and frivolity, opulence and ostentation", notes Thierry Coudert in his ultra-stylish new book, Café Society: Socialites, Patrons and Artists 1920 to 1960 from Flammarion. Those decades were the "apotheosis of an era that was to have a profound influence on the history of taste" Coudert writes, with the likes of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Lady Diana Cooper, Diana Vreeland, Cole Porter, Noel Coward and Cecil Beaton setting the tone and deciding which artists, designers, and musicians were in vogue. The cover of the book (above) depicts heiress Barbara Hutton, then the Countess von Reventlow, at a tennis match in 1940, while Yves Saint Laurent, Orson Welles, Salvador Dali, Jean Cocteau and many more make cameos in the impressive volume.

Gallery: Cafe Society

Tags: Aristocrats, art, artists, books, Café Society, Cafe Society, coffee table books, Diana Vreeland, Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Duke of Windsor, Europe, fashion, France, Noel Coward, socialites, society, style, wealth, Yves Saint Laurent

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Great Whale Cay: An Island With Substantial Social History, For Sale For 120M

by Susan Kime (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Real Estate Developments

The thing is, there are a lot of islands for sale, worldwide. Some are in the Caribbean, some along the Pacific Rim, some others in the Mediterranean. There are often restrictions and limitations on the purchase, and much of the time, there is no social history at all. But Great Whale Cay breaks this stereotype, as it is an island in the Caribbean with an exceptional social history, centered around one eccentric, memorable person. According to Kate Summerscale, the author who wrote and published her biography, called The Queen Of Whale Cay, Marion "Joe" Carstairs was born in London in 1900, and was a cigar-smoking, cross-dressing, motorboat-racing woman, who had tumultuous affairs with leading actresses, including Tallulah Bankhead, Mabel Mercer and Marlene Dietrich. With her close-cropped hair and tailored Savile Row suits, Carstairs was delighted when anyone actually mistook her for a man. An heir to the Standard Oil fortune, she abandoned civilization at the age of 34 to become the self-appointed ruler of Great Whale Cay, a 5 1/2 mile long island in the Bahamas. There she lived for more than 40 years, attended by a kaleidoscopic parade of beautiful women, avid sports and fishing enthusiasts, royalty, hearty partygoers -- and a small leather doll named Lord Tod Wadley, whom she treated as her best friend and lifelong companion.

Gallery: Great Whale Cay