The Tragic lives of Truman Capote's Swans

The year is 1958 and Truman capot is in a quandary  a young homosexual man from Louisiana with dreams   of being a successful writer in New York City  Truman pursued his ambition with single-minded   tenacity and he had largely succeeded before the  age of 25 he was a best-selling author for so long   he had been the brilliant young writer but now  he was 33 years old and he had still not rein the   literary Masterpiece that was expected of him he  had just published a Nolla Breakfast at Tiffany's   but he needed something new and exciting something  that would cement his place among literary Legends.   He loved the stories that his rich women friends  would tell him. they had taste and style and   lived in an exalted world that banned entry to  Outsiders but Truman was welcome. Marcel Proust had written a classic novel that took a critical  look at French high society and Truman decided he   would do the same about the Contemporary upper  class based in large part on the stories that   his rich women friends had told him in confidence.  taking out a notebook, Truman wrote down a number   of names that would probably be characters in  his book including well-known Society women of   the day such as the Duchess of Windsor and Elsa  Maxwell. he mentioned only one of his so-called   "swans", CZ Guest, but that did not mean he would eschew immortalizing the others in his Masterpiece. Truman   wrote to publisher Bennett Cerf at random house  saying that he was working on "a large novel, my   magnum opus. a book about which I must be very  silent so as not to alarm my sitters and which   I think will really arouse you when I outline it  only you must never mention it to a soul. the novel   is called "answered prayers" and if all goes well I  think it will answer mine." Truman capote met Babe Paley in January 1955 when director David O Selznick and  his wife Jennifer Jones brought Truman along for a   trip to Jamaica when. David told Babe's husband  Bill that he would like to bring Truman along   with them, Bill thought that he was talking about  former US president Harry S Truman. in Truman's   opinion babe Paley was the most beautiful woman in  the world and the most beautiful woman of the   20th century. "when I first saw her I thought that I  had never seen anyone more perfect. her posture, the   way she held her head, the way she moved" Truman  reported. "Mrs. P had only one fault" Truman wrote   in his notebook "she was perfect. otherwise, she  was perfect." Babe slept in a separate bedroom   from her husband, she was up before him applying  makeup before she even saw her husband. she could   never have a strand of hair blow out of place  or allow a look of displeasure to pass across   her face. the saying "you can never be too rich or  too thin" was sometimes attributed to Babe. it was   here in the early days of his friendship that  he saw in full display that money did not buy   happiness. Babe's neurosurgeon father, Dr Harvey  Cushing was one of the greatest doctors of the   first half of the 20th century. Associated first  with John Hopkins University, then the leading   research institution in America and later Harvard  University and Yale University he understood the   prime value of education. But that was for his two  sons not his three daughters who were brought up   largely by their mother, Catherine Stone Cushing.  in 1926 Dr Cushing's eldest son William died in   a car crash a shock from which his father in some  measure never recovered. Catherine had what was   any Mother's dream, that her daughter's Marry well. only her dream was a little different. not content   with mere wealth and certainly not concerned  about love, she was after European nobles with   castles and Grand Estates for her daughters. that,  or marrying them off to the richest men in America.  as Babe's mother laid out her grand scheme it did  not seem outlandish. her daughters were raised to   please men and when they reached young adulthood  they appeared to be ready. in 1930 the middle   daughter, 22-year-old Betsy was the first to go  marrying James Roosevelt whose father Franklin D   Roosevelt would become president two years later.  that Christmas Babe attended a holiday party for   young people at the White House. by New Year's Eve  most of the college students had already taken the   train back North. that left the president and first  lady to greet the new year at a small party that   included James and Betsy Roosevelt and Babe. the  youngest of the Cushing sisters was Babe, having   a dream of a life then early in 1934, disaster  struck. a severe auto accident knocked out Babe's   teeth and left her a mass of bruises, blemishes and  scars. plastic surgery was in it's infancy but by the   time the surgeons finished with their operations,  her beauty was back, unblemished and perhaps even   heightened. surgery couldn't fix her teeth though,  so every morning for the rest of her life the   first thing Babe did when she woke up was put in  her teeth. with her sister recovered by 1935, Betsy   threw a tea dance for babe in the White House. the  dance was a serious business not just to introduce   her sister to the elites of Washington but to put  her in a position where she might find a proper   husband. Betsy did the same thing for her elder  sister Minnie and there the marriage game had   taken on a special urgency since Minnie was in her  mid-30s. at a White House Party Betsy introduced   Minnie to Vincent Astor whose family fortunes  went back to the fur trade in the 18th century.   one of the richest men in the world, Vincent had  been married for 2 and a half decades to Helen   Huntington Astor. Minnie began spending so much  time with the 15 years older Vincent that she   appeared less a friend than a mistress. as Minnie  chased after her golden prize, Betsy's marriage   ended in divorce. leaving his ex-wife with their  two children, James Roosevelt headed west to start   what he hoped would be a career in Hollywood  leaving Mrs Cushing to find a new husband for   Betsy. after Dr Cushing died in 1939 she moved to  New York City to be closer to her daughters. babe   later joined her mother in New York and became  an editorial assistant and later an editor at   Vogue. photographed frequently for Vogue at first  babe was timid but slowly she learned and made   the camera hers. designers Vied with one another to  give her their clothes or to sell them to her at   large discounts so that she would walk through the  corridors at Elite Manhattan parties advertising   their Wares. babe was a talented, creative person  and probably could have become a leading fashion   editor but she was not going to test herself that  way. she was her mother's daughter and being a   Cushing meant marrying well. she was in her mid 20s  and time was fleeting. Babe's mother had inculcated   in her three daughters not just the aspiration  but the necessity that they marry rich socially   prominent men. it wasn't happiness or children  that mattered it was a rich husband. babe had   taken on that ideal as her own and was as obsessed  with it as her mother if the Cushing sisters had   constructed a perfect husband for babe they could  not have done better than Stanley Grafton Mortimer   Jr his lineage went back to John Jay the first  Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court   Stanley's paternal grandfather had inherited  a fortune that he slowly gambled away. his son   followed in his Father's Footsteps squandering  Millions more and doing nothing productive. but   still there was enough fortune and social standing  left in the family to make Stanley Mortimer a   strong match for babe and when she was 25 years  old she wed 27-year-old Stanley on September 21st   1940 at St Luke's Episcopal Church in East Hampton.  Babe's sister Minnie grabbed the wedding bouquet   and married Vincent Aster a week later Stanley was  a manic depressive and was only at the beginning   of a long and painful decline that would come to a  head in 1969 when he shot himself in an attempted   suicide. for all his self-indulgent qualities, when  the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7th   1941 Stanley went the next day to enlist in the  Navy Air Corps. babe was pregnant and joined her   husband as he took the train South for Naval Cadet  training. babe had just been named as the second   best dressed woman in the world right behind  the Duchess of Windsor. babe was not the only   well-born wife of a Cadet but she couldn't take it.  she had seen enough of how the lower classes lived   in Pensacola and had no intention of spending  any more time in that world even if it meant   leaving her husband behind. taking the train back  to New York, babe found found her editor's job at   Vogue waiting for her. as she faced the war alone her  sister Betsy married again to jock Whitney a man   almost as fabulously wealthy as Vincent Astor. babe  gave birth to a son, Stanley in 1942 and a daughter   Amanda 2 years later. she had a mother, nannies and  Maids close by and she handed the child rearing   burden to others. by the time Stanley arrived back  in the States at the end of the war their marriage   was near an end. as the couple worked out their  divorce they were like two strangers divvying up the   assets. she accused Stanley of being habitually  intemperate from the voluntary abuse of alcohol   and he gave up custody of his son and daughter and  had settled a $440,000 trust fund on his ex-wife   it was time for babe to go husband hunting again  but that process had already begun while she was   still married by the end of the war babe had  likely already begun a relationship with Bill   py William Bill py was Jewish in Babe's World  though not babe herself was very anti-semitic   after college college at the Wharton School Bill  moved to New York where he founded CBS network in   1931 Bill met Dorothy Hurst Dorothy divorced her  troubled husband John Randolph Hurst to Mary Bill   Dorothy was 7 years younger than 30-year-old Bill  the pale could not have children so they adopted   a son and a daughter but fatherhood did not end  Bill's compulsive Affairs after her divorce babe   and her two children were living with her mother  when Bill and Bae were married in a small ceremony   on July 28th 1946 7 babe was a month pregnant  with William Cushing paly although there was   respect affection and physical attraction their  marriage was ultimately a business deal babe   gave Bill entry into Old society and Bill gave  babe money and provided her with the lifestyle   that she and her mother felt was entitled to her  William and babe in spite of their successes and   social standing were barred from being members of  country clubs on Long Island because he was Jewish   babe had two children with Bill William and Kate  and two children with Mortimer Stanley and Amanda   while Bill had two children Jeffrey and Hillary  with his ex-wife the pales copied old society   and everything including child rearing and so  the children would often be shuttled into the   arms of nannies and private schools out of sight  and out of mind in some instances Truman took the   place of the children on Bill and Babe's Farm babe  didn't really have friends she had acquaintances   it was too big a risk to trust people disclosing  confidences that would one day be used against her   and her husband Truman was the exception as babe  and Truman grew closer he would come to understand   that nothing in his closest friend's life was as  it seemed she spent her life creating this image   that she had everything but it was just not true  here was this woman envied beyond measure for her   perfect life when Truman was the only one who  saw that her existence was a tragedy babe was   afraid of her husband from the time that she put  her teeth and eyelashes in in the morning to the   time when she bade Bill good night she looked to  prevent matters that might set her husband off she   never knew what would set him off but whatever  happened it was Babe's fault it was difficult   enough when Bill was there but when he was away  she had another kind of worry when he was not   working or at home he was usually off with one  woman or another to Bill babe was simply another   acquisition he hadn't had sex with his aging wife  for years but despite all the indignities Babe had   to endure she was undoubtedly at the top of New  York's Social Circles babe once took a lover of   her own and even introduced him to Truman but  she soon broke off the relationship as she was   AF PR that bill would find out Bill's Affairs  embarrassed her they challenged her own ideals   of femininity as a woman she told only Truman of  her husband's mirriad lovers holding little back   and afterward Truman ran out and would tell  another friend half Whispering these tales   that he claimed were only for her alone until he  reached the next friend and then the next as dear   as babe was to Truman her confidences were not as  precious babe may not have known that Truman was   betraying her as savagely as her own husband  but she did have a sense of her own terrible   loneliness Truman claimed that babe tried to kill  herself twice taking pills and slashing her wrists   and that he saved her there came a point where  babe could not handle life with Bill anymore   and she decided to leave despite all that she  had told Truman about the daily indignities of   life with Bill he urged her to stay Bill bought  you Truman told her look upon being Miss William   S paly as a job the best job in the world accept  it and be happy with it like her sisters babe had   sought wealth and position not happiness and she  had achieved precisely what she wanted she must   Truman advised buck up and live the life that she  had successfully sought and so babe did at one of   Diana freeland's dinner parties Truman met Nancy  slim Hayward her dearest friend was babe paly and   Truman would have known all about slim her husband  at the time was Leland Hayward a leading Hollywood   agent who had become a powerful film and Broadway  producer like almost all of Truman swans slim was   tall 5' 8 and 1/2 in tall to be precise although  the Hayward spent lots of time on the East Coast   slim was the quintessential California girl  she had a casualness to her no matter what she   wore or Where She Went slim was as fascinated by  Truman as he was by her she would later recall I   was enchanted by him he wasn't just bright he was  riveting and so shrewd a conversationalist that   when he led with his vulnerabilities and quirks  you couldn't help but take an instant liking to   him Truman seemed to be exposing his most private  Secrets but he was playing one of his most astute   psychological games these intimacies were valuable  commodities that he used to draw out the secrets   of his listener once he had their confidences he  had the beginning of what he'd call friendship   it took more than one evening Truman invited  slim to lunch and then to tea each time further   ingratiating himself from then on when Slim's  phone rang in the morning often it was Truman   slim met director Howard Hawks at the Clover Club  in a legal Casino in Hollywood Hawks had made such   Classics as bringing up baby and Scarface with  all his successful credits Hawk was still only   42 years old his premature L gray hair had  earned him the nickname The Silver Fox Hawks   had an emotionally distressed wife and three  young children a fact that circumscribed his   life very little Hawk's greatest Obsession other  than film making was women this Obsession was both   personal and professional women played iconic  roles in his movies and he chose the actresses   he featured in his movies with immense care the  audience paid attention to her on the screen not   just because she was gorgeous but because she  stood up for herself her dialogue sizzled with   wit as she challenged the male lead to act as he  should Hawks liked it when they held their ground   and fired back his women had a distinctiveness  and a keen desire to give as well as they got   slim was the hawan ideal come to life the married  Hawks considered women one of the natural perks of   his position that evening at the Clover Club  when Hawks came out of the gambling rooms he   saw slim dancing to the live bands after an  introduction he led slim to the dance Flore   Hawk's techniques worked so well and so easily  that he had gotten predictable in his approach   roach do you want to be in movies he asked no slim  said she hadn't been in La that long but she had   seen The Melancholy lives of most actresses she  wanted to live well but she didn't want to have   to hustle through the film studios well then would  you like to come to my house tomorrow for a swim   she said yes and the next day slim headed out  to the Hawks home in Benedict Canyon although   he remained a perfect gentleman on their first  Pool Date within a few days they were having a   full-blown Affair it didn't matter to either of  them that Hawks was twice as old as 21-year-old   slim slim had not had many lovers but she'd had  enough to know what a good lover was from the   first nights together Hawks showed no interest in  a woman's pleasure sex was simply a physical need   that had no relation to the person he was with  she said but that did not turn her away slim was   ambitious she was interested in living a life of  Splendor and she saw that Hawks would be able to   provide her with this Hawks represented exactly  the package I wanted slim would later recall he   had the career the house the four car cars  the yacht this was the life for me Slim was   born in Selena California in July 1917 and she was  brought up nearby by in Pacific Grove next door to   montere Slim's businessman father Edward Gross  owned several sardine canaries in the coastal   town her father was the first and most important  man in her life defining what a man was to the   little girl to him fear was a far more powerful  virtue than love and he ruled the home like a   cruel martinette consumed by hate he lashed out  against Jews Catholics Democrats and anyone who   challenged him Slim's mother rainel boy or gross  managed to stick out a tiny Preserve of peace and   love away from her husband who largely ignored  their children but then there was the terrible   winter night in 1928 that changed everything her  8-year-old younger brother buddy was standing in   front of the fireplace in his long night shirt  when the Garment touched the flames and caught on   fire in his Panic he tried to outrun the Flames  11-year-old slim her older sister Theodora and   their mother tried to catch the terrified child  but by the time Slim's mother was able to catch   buddy and throw him to the ground he was so badly  burned that he soon died Slim's father blamed his   wife for the death and never stopped blaming her  Slim's father placed a marble melum on the family   burial plot and brought Buddy's casket there slim  went out to the cemetery to honor her brother and   she noticed that there were four other places in  the mausoleum for other family members it took   her a while to realize that the remains of slim  her two sisters and her father were to be placed   there her mother was to be buried elsewhere  in the aftermath of Buddy's death the family   fractured even further for slim it was an immense  blessing when she was sent to the Dominican conven   School in San rafhael the town was 140 Mi south of  montere a good day Drive In Those Years yet Slim's   mother never failed to show up for visitors day  each week one day slim was pulled out of class and   found her father sitting in the visitors reception  room for the first time he had left Slim's mother   Slim's sister had left too siding with their  father and even taking the furniture in her   room now it was Slim's turn if you also leave your  mother's house it will prove to the court that she   is an unfit mother and I won't have to provide  any support for her it was a cruel thing to ask   a daughter to do but he sweetened the deal to  make it almost irresistible to her I'll give you   a horse a little boat and a car when you're ready  for slim this decision would Define her I love my   mother she said I'm staying with her her father  turned and walked away and she would not see him   again until he was close to his death bed several  months shy of her high school graduation her   mother helped her buy a yellow Packer convertible  and in early 1935 she cruised South to the Furnace   Creek in in Death Valley slim spent 2 months at  the in and her devoted mother did not come down   once one of her editors later spec C at that slim  may have had an abortion during her stay she met   Warner Baxter and William Powell top Stars at the  time Powell named her his slim princess the source   for the nickname she would carry for the rest  of her life after her lengthy stay slim left the   desert and returned to Southern California to live  with her mother in Caramel she had no interest in   completing her high school education getting a job  or doing anything much Beyond taking some singing   lessons and having a wildly successful social  life Slim's life was one party and Tennis date   after another but she had gotten a tast tast of  La life and couldn't get enough of it every month   she would drive down from Northern California  in her convertible to spend a few days with the   Hollywood set Slim's mother was devoted to her  daughter so much so that in the spring of 1938   Mrs gross and slim moved to LA together every  night slim headed out from the Charming house   on Sunset Boulevard above UCLA to one occasion  or another although she had a high purpose in   mind finding a rich and proper husband from the  night slim had showed up in the Clover Club and   met Hawks she wanted nothing more than to be with  him Hawk's wife Ethel felt in and out of coherence   she had long struggled with her mental health  and they had been estranged for years he wasn't   living with her any longer and simply wanted out  Hawk's lawyers tried to work their magic but it   was difficult to divorce a wife as ill as athl  until Hawk was free slim tried to spend as much   time as she could with him sharing his life and  traveling with him in December 1939 slim and Hawk   drove from New York to Ernest Hemingway's home  in Key West where the director wanted to purchase   the film rights to the author's novel To Have and  Have Not to an entire generation Ernest Hemingway   was the personification of Manliness and he and  slim bonded in a way that lasted the rest of   their lives Hemingway was attracted to her but he  was just getting rid of one wife and moving on to   the next not every bride had a renowned movie star  like Gary Cooper give them away at their wedding   like slim dead when she finally married Hawks on  December 10th 1941 3 days after Pearl Harbor she   had practically been living with the director for  2 years while he dealt with his sick wife whose   advisers had her file for divorce in the first  months of their marriage both slim and Hawks got   what they wanted and more from the relationship  Hawk finally possessed the woman who had Bewitched   him the embodiment of his ideal in so many ways  and slim got the life of luxury that she had been   chasing slim was excited with everything her new  husband was doing and she shared in his work as   much as she could not only did she go out to the  studios to see him at work she read scripts and   passed on her thoughts one day she saw a picture  of a model in Harper's bizar who she thought might   be perfect for the part of the female lead in the  director's new film To Have and Have Not Hax had   enough faith in his wife's judgment that he flew  the 18-year-old woman Lauren ball to Los Angeles   and gave her a screen test ball had an androgynous  quality that Hawks liked in a woman and he signed   her to play opposite Humphrey Bogart in the film  The Director was putting an idealized version of   his wife on the screen even calling her slim and  naming the bogart character Steve which was his   own nickname as he worked on the script he noted  his wife's witticisms and asked her what the ball   character would say in a given situation but  Hawk's slim stand in Lauren mcau is distinct   from her namesake in one way rather than fall for  the director to whom she owed the role she began   an affair with the decades older Humphrey Bogart  Hawks wasn't used to settling for second best and   this time he doubled down not only did he have  an affair with the second female lead in the film   Dolores Moran but he also spent some time with an  extra Dorothy Davenport who even looked a bit like   slim slim knew about these Affairs and many others  Hawks had hardly gotten back from their honeymoon   when he started up his trrs he would come home  at 3: in the morning smelling of another woman   but that wasn't what began to GW at her it was  the man himself everything real about him was   on the screen and that wasn't real at all Hawk's  Heroes were truth tellers and Hawks Was a Serial   liar who exaggerated everything about himself he  posed as the Great Captain of his boat the Seahawk   but in truth he got seasick as soon as he left  the dock he acted as if he was an Intrepid pilot   but he couldn't actually fly a plane on his own  he told Tales of flying planes in World War I in   the legendary Lafayette esquadro until his lungs  were scarred by poisonous mustard gas well in fact   he had never served in combat it wasn't the lying  and lering that got to slim but how her husband   wasn't there for her emotionally she seemed to  have everything including the handsome wildly   successful husband but in truth she had nothing  that really mattered to her and she was sure that   no one would understand she entered Good Samaritan  Hospital a number of times for what were called   rest a mark of the emotional exhaustion that her  empty marriage was causing her as a young woman   of certain class in time slim had looked out on  the world and concluded the best thing for her   was to marry a rich man she had gotten what she  wanted and this is where it had led her h fo's   former wife had gone crazy and now Slim herself  seemed to be heading in that direction there was   only one way out to marry another rich man finding  him while still married to Hawks was going to be   a challenge but slim was up to the task slim soon  began an affair with Clark Gable who is recently   widowed after his wife Carol Lumbard died in a  plane crash in 1942 slim was eventually asked   to pose for Harper bizaar and she was such a  hit that her image graced the covers of four   other magazines that year she was even asked to  become the official West Coast editor of Harper's   bizar but soon discovered that she was pregnant  Hawks had no interest in his newborn daughter   Kitty Stevens Hawks who was born on February 11th  1947 shortly after giving birth to her daughter   she left her behind with her nanny to party in  New York before traveling to Cuba to vacation   with Hemingway there she met William S paly in  Leland Howard when she returned to California   she couldn't get Leland out of her head he had  been married to the actress Margaret Sullivan   for years and they had three children but their  marriage was strained and was nearly over soon   Leland and slim were having a clandestine Affair  and Harwood Hawks soon found out slim and Leland   divorced their respective spouses and moved to  New York where he was beginning a career as a   Broadway producer in June 1949 they had a small  wedding at Kula Farm the estate owned by Leland's   friend bill py and his new wife babe slim now  had the loving creative passionate husband that   she had always wanted but the jealousy did not go  away for either of them B became Slim's closest   female friend and they had Truman in common when  Truman complained to slim that she didn't conf   finded him she told him it was because she didn't  trust him when Leland asked slim to go check on   the progress of a screenplay that Peter Videl  was writing with Ernest hummingway she began   an affair with Peter Leland had struggled with  his health for years and he wasn't as interested   in sex anymore according to slim more so than  Slim's Affairs and even better Destruction for   Slim's life was Truman in 1958 she went off with  room into Russia with Carrie Grant she soon told   her husband of her Affairs her friend Leonardo  hornblow tried to talk her out of doing it but   she believed that she could do and say almost  anything hornblow was convinced she did it out of   a sense of pure egotism she wanted Leland to know  how desirable she was for years he had tolerated   her sharp tongue and put Downs as just the price  of marriage and he had stayed faithful to her   but he couldn't stand this he got up and left the  room but slim thought everything was just fine she   was looking forward to traveling with her husband  to Munich while he was negotiating with baroness   Maria vont trop for her life story which would  eventually be adapted into the hit musical The   Sound of Music as Slim Was preparing for the trip  Lauren ball called and asked if slim could leave   early and meet her in Madrid Lauren's husband  Humphrey Bogart had died a year earlier in 1957   Leland had no objections to his wife's departure  he would meet her in Europe in a few weeks just   before slim set off babe py called and asked for  a favor too for the first few days that slim would   be in Europe Babe's friend Pamela was going to  be staying in the paly's Manhattan apartment   with slim mind of one evening Leland would escort  Pamela to a Broadway play like everyone else slim   knew Pamela's reputation since the early 1940s  when Pamela had married Winston Churchill's son   she had had a staggering array of Affairs although  not as beautiful as babe or slim she possessed a   manner that men found irresistible in the years  that followed her first marriage she had dated   and been kept by some of the most powerful men in  the world but none of them wanted to marry her so   despite her jealousies and suspicions slim was  fine with Leland escorting Pamela several months   later Leland told her that they were going to  a dinner party at Carlton house where Pamela   was staying slim noticed how close Pamela and her  husband seemed to be and she put it together that   the two were having an affair she soon arranged  for Leland and her to have a vacation in Europe   that she hoped would bring them back together  Leland delayed joining her on the trip for   weeks and when he did arrive he told her that he  thought that they should take a sabatical from   each other for a few weeks Leland wasn't good at  ending things and he didn't come out and say that   their marriage was over but slim knew it was after  he left the room she cried uncontrollably when   she arrived back at the house at Manhasset she saw  that Pamela had already been there and had put red   stickers on all the furniture that she wanted in  the divorce settlement everyone that Truman knew   took sides in the battle between Pamela Churchill  and slim Keith babe and her sister mini vowed to   fight eternally against that [ __ ] Pamela while  Babe's other sister Betsy supported the soon to be   new Mrs Hayward despite the fact that Pamela has  slept with her husband jock Whitney during World   War II there was hardly anyone in Truman's social  world with as bad a reputation as Pamela Churchill   jumman would anoint her one of his swans a Black  Swan perhaps but a swan no less Pamela was brought   up in the countryside of Southwestern England her  parents Lord and Lady Digby lived in Dorset in the   Grand Manor House overseen by over 20 servants  upper class British women were not educated so   much as groomed when it was time for Pamela and  her sister Sheila to go to boarding school her   parents chose Downham a school in hartfordshire  that had a reputation as a finishing school   rather than for its academics Pamela's next great  activity was to be presented to the king and queen   she was considered plump and not particularly  beautiful when people praised her beauty they   pra ined her reddish hair and her luminescent pale  skin she dealt with her insecurities by projecting   an aggressive outgoing manner that only made  people move farther away from her after her debut   Olive Bailey an anglo-american ays took Pamela  under her Wing she would throw parties at leed's   Castle and there Pamela observed Bailey's social  life Olive had lovers and this was something that   Pamela took note of as well she realized that  sex could be a useful device for getting what   she wanted within a short time Pamela transformed  from an obvious provincial to a sophisticated   Quicks spoken woman who seemed more mature than  her years she began the first of her affairs with   older married men they were often far more likely  to give gifts and money than men her own age some   of her contemporaries were already married but  there was no gentleman asking her to be his wife   when Germany invaded Poland and World War II began  in 1939 the weekend parties at lead's Castle ended   and with them the easy fality that had propelled  Pamela's life she got a small apartment and a job   as a French translator one evening when things  had hardly settled down in her life she received   a call from Randolph Churchill everyone knew of  his father Sir Winston Churchill Randolph was in   the British Army and was looking for a night's  entertainment and a mutual friend Mary Dunn had   suggested that he call Pamela after their first  date together Randolph asked her to marry him and   she said yes Randolph told a friend in Pamela's  presence that he was marrying her because he was   going to war and wanted a male heir to Randolph  Pamela was little more than a broodmare almost any   other groom would have waited a decent interval  before resuming his womanizing but Randolph didn't   give up any of his Pleasures Pamela tried to make  the most of her troubled marriage when she became   pregnant in early 1939 and Randolph went off  to training camp she moved with her in-laws to   admiralty house the church Hills treated her in an  intimate loving way that her parents had not that   spring the Germans invaded France and Pamela's  father-in-law became prime minister sometimes a   pregnancy brings a troubled marriage together but  when Pamela gave birth to their son at Checkers   on October 10th 1940 Randolph was off in the arms  of one of his lovers Pamela lost the weight she   had gained during her pregnancy and transformed  herself into a stunningly attractive woman seeing   no reason why she should tell her in-laws that  she PL to divorc their son she spent weekends   with the church Hills Dining with world leaders  and top British officials German planes unloaded   bombs on London and no one in the city was free of  the threat of death Pamela would later call these   years the most exciting time in my life she soon  began an affair with ail Herman and fell in love   with him ail was was an important Ambassador and  Churchill would often invite him over to Checkers   for weekends it was during one of his stays at  Checkers that he met Pamela a woman 30 years   his Junior when Randall found out about the affair  he saved most of his anger not for his adulterous   wife or for her lover whom he considered to be  a friend but for his parents who he believed   solicited the affair a man who had a long list of  lovers was generally esteemed but a woman who did   the same was Shameless Pamela had thought that she  had gotten away with her Affairs but men gossiped   just as much as women and they s Savaged Pamela  legendary Polo player Tommy Hitchcock Jr had come   to London he had heard the rumors about Pamela and  ail's Affair and called his nephew to ask if the   story was true I don't really know but I wouldn't  be surprised why not Tommy asked let's just say if   she had as many Pricks sticking out of her as have  been stuck into her she'd be a porcupine Truman   appropriated the line for a chapter in his novel  answered prayers Pamela's affair with averil had   cooled by the time he left London in 1943 within  2 months Pamela had found her next important lover   the CBS broadcaster Edward R Morrow people assumed  that with all her lovers Pamela was a woman of   wanted sexuality who gave men who shared her bed  Pleasures that they could not find elsewhere but   that wasn't true she told several people that she  didn't actually like sex that much it was little   more than an obligation a sweaty ritual that she  could not avoid when Pamela was in New York she   took up with Stanley Mortimer who a strange  wife babe was on her way to becoming Mrs bill   paly after the war Pamela moved to Paris and her  son son little Winston stayed in London where he   was brought up largely by a nanny after she moved  to Paris she began an affair with Prince Ali Khan   after alian abandoned Pamela farita Hayworth she  began an extremely complicated 5-year long affair   with the Fiat Heir Giani anelli during their  affair she had an abortion gian's sisters hated   Pamela and they didn't want him to marry her they  invited Mela KOLO de castano an Italian princess   and they soon began an affair after Mela became  pregnant Giani married her on November 19 1953   Pamela was rich beautiful and available it was not  long before she began an affair with Baron Ellie D   Ro's child who was married to a woman named lilan  who Pamela described as looking like an Old Toad   Pamela had been playing this game of romance her  entire adult life she had gained a reputation as   a woman that one did not marry if you had money  in a certain way about you you could have her   without that formality Pamela had not lived for  love she had sought privileged status and riches   and she had almost always sought men whom she  thought could give her what she wanted she had   thought that would lead to marriage but it almost  never had after all those years she became a bit   desperate so in Pamela met the highly successful  movie and Broadway producer Leland Hayward in   New York she knew this was her chance Leland  was going through a rough patch with his work   and was unhappy in his marriage he knew little  about Pamela's past to him the name Churchill   still resonated with magic Leland wasn't her  first choice of marriage alar Roth's child was   but he had made it clear to Pamela in every way  that he wasn't going to leave his wife for her   and so 40-year-old Pamela sold her Paris home and  left France for New York to be with Leland Pamela   and Leland were married in a Las Vegas ceremony  in May 1960 Pamela quickly became a part of the   NYC social scene and was befriended by Truman to  her husband Pamela was Nanny nurse and lover all   wrapped up in one package slowly she took over  Leland's life leading him away from his Showbiz   friends to her International Friends Pamela was  an energetic woman and once she had her two homes   set up she needed something to focus on so in  October 1963 she opened a boutique on East 57   Street selling Antiques and reproductions Pamela  proved to be a natural businesswoman and the shop   was a success but Leland began to suffer from  serious health problems and in May 1967 she felt   she had to sell a few months before Leland married  Pamela his ex-wife Margaret Sullivan died and a   few months later his daughter Bridget committed  suicide as he dealt with these tragedies his   professional life took a turn for the worst and  he became an alcoholic when Leland suffered his   series of Strokes she brought him to their estate  Haywire where he died on March 18th 1971 at the   age of 68 during their 11 years of marriage Pamela  and Leland had run through most of his fortune and   she was left almost bereft financially there was  only one way she knew how to survive through the   largeest of rich men despite being 51 years old  she was a player and the Very month after Leland's   death Pamela went off to Palm Springs to stay  with Frank Sinatra he was only a friend but in   the winter the California desert res resort was  filled with Millionaires and from there Pamela   flew to England with no real money she had to fly  coach and when she arrived in London she had to   stay with her son Winston in his tiny apartment  after spending a short time in London she went   off with Gloria and LEL Guinness on their yacht  sadly Gloria had not set her up with any rich   men during the cruise and Pamela left before  the trip was over in early August she flew to   New York again to take up Residence at Haywire  Truman claimed that Pamela came off the Guinness   yacht very depressed and they talked one morning  and Truman said well listen Pamela what about ail   Harman let's remember his wife Marie died a year  ago K Graham the publisher of the Washington Post   is giving a big dinner and he's going to be  there Pamela arrived early at the dinner and   when she saw that she was seated next to ail she  insisted that she'd be seated back to back with   him poor averil had to keep twisting and turning  his neck to speak to Pamela ail was spending the   week at his Georgetown mansion and flying up to  his estate on the North Shore of Long Island for   the weekend shortly after the dinner ail received  a call from Pamela who invited herself up for the   weekend about a month later on September mber 27th  1971 6 and 1/2 months after Leland's death Pamela   married ail in a small ceremony in Manhattan  instead of a honeymoon the couple flew immediately   to Washington where Pamela set out to transform  ail's life it was not enough just to bring an   expensive decorators to transform the dodgy great  house into something with pizaz the great house   and everything around ail had to be stamped with  her image through the house she placed the Digby   family crest which included an ostrich holding a  horseshoe in its teeth and two chained monkeys and   beneath it the family motto Pima put the crest  on needle point pillows that were all over the   house stationer and matchbooks not all of the  guests who came to the family home for dinner   knew enough Latin to realize that the Digby family  motto Deo nonn Fortuna meant from God not Fortune   anyone who knew Pamela's story would have thought  that the word should have been reversed to be one   of Truman swans it wasn't enough that a woman be  elegant beautiful and Rich they also had to be   amusing and of all his friends no one was more  amusing than Gloria Guinness of all Truman's   friends no one was a person of such mystery and  complexity as Gloria her Mexican birth was as   hidden as debated as so much else in her life  there were rumors that she had been a bee girl   in New York City hustling in bars but the real  story was far more interesting Gloria's journalist   father Jose Rafael Rubio Torres was a supporter  of the reformist president Francisco Madero the   battering Realm of the Mexican Revolution glorio  Rubio alator was born in guadalahara on August   27th 1912 at the beginning of the struggle for  Independence the next year Francisco Madera was   deposed arrested by his enemies and murdered as  he was being transported between jails leaving   behind his Family Gloria's father fled to the  United States where he died in 1916 glorious   aristocratic mother took her to live with her  relatives on their grand estate but the revolution   soon spread to the countryside taking away land  and giving it to the peasants over a million   Mexicans died during those years of atro it and  bloody Revenge Senora de alator was astounded   at her daughter's Beauty Gloria you are the most  beautiful girl in Mexico and you are smart never   settle for anything less than the best you can  have anything you want Gloria saw how her beauty   intrigued men it was like a magical Talisman  that could get her what she wanted but it was   also a dangerous gift in 1933 20-year-old Gloria  married 47-year-old Jacobus hendrik schultens the   Dutch born superintendent of a Sugar Factory in  verac Cruz he was over twice her age and one of a   breed of foreigners whom the Mexicans believed  were exploiting the resources of their Nation   Shulton had wealth and Status though and for  Gloria she saw him as a way out but the marriage   was a failure and after 2 years she divorced him  and headed almost peniles to Paris all Gloria had   was her beauty and her youth but handled properly  that could get her almost anywhere in Europe she   was considered an exotic Beauty with her almost  black almond shaped eyes and her black hair it   was glor's Beauty matched with her extraordinary  sense of style in her wit that gained her entries   into the venues of the old Elite with her ability  to sniff out the wealthiest she found herself in   a new set of Elites there were maharajas from  India Merchant princes from South America Rich   Nobles from Italy American exp Patriots and marad  others they traveled the world in their own closed   circles and they worked at nothing as hard as  outdoing one another in 1935 Gloria married a   man who fit perfectly into this new international  set fron Egon graft Von firstenberg a divorced   39-year-old German count with a young daughter  from his first wife the marriage gave Gloria the   title Von fenberg the firstenberg were one of the  oldest German families with a castle in West faia   as well as a home in Berlin Gloria gave birth to  a daughter in 1936 and a son 3 years later as the   Nazi theorist saw it Gloria's Mexican blood  fouled a pure Aryan line going back centuries   when Gloria married the Aryan racial laws had not  been cast in concrete and being married to such a   highly placed husband Gloria had to to be accepted  Gloria was a new bride in 1939 when Hitler showed   off Germany's capital in the Years following  there were gigantic parades celebrating Hitler   the streets lined with hundreds of thousands of  cheering Germans applauding the Triumph of the   Thousand-Year Reich but by 1943 British bombers  began to pumble bin day-to-day including 18800   kg bombs that could render an entire block into  Rubble while her husband was off fighting Gloria   was alone with her two children in the midst of  a cruel War the worst it got the lder the night   life grew and the heavier the drinking and the use  of amphetamines this was the life Gloria embraced   it was a choice that some wom made in London  and in Moscow some women would consider this   a betrayal to be partying while their men were off  dying but guilt was something that never troubled   Gloria she would later say I heard from my husband  infrequently and spent every moment in the interim   driving myself mad with worry worry that I would  hear he was missing or dead I started to go out at   night to take my mind off it I guess I got lost  in the social world it was so easy there were a   dozen parties every night then even as the bombs  fell we danced and sang and flirted and wore the   best we had it was wild at one of those parties  Gloria met Walter shelling BG a high-ranking   Nazi official Gloria would never forget what she  was wearing the night she met the Spy Master nor   would she ever forget the way shellenberg had  looked at her body they soon began an affair   during their Affair shellenberg took her places  that only the Nazi Elite frequented places she   could not have gone to otherwise but there came  a time in war ravaged Belin that Gloria decided   enough was enough not only did she want to divorce  her husband but she wanted to leave Germany and   take her two children with her it's believed that  Gloria became a messenger of the gapo in exchange   for allowing her to leave Berlin with her children  after she left Berlin she became engag to Ahmad   fakri B whose father in 1946 was a foreign  minister in the Cairo regime that attachment   likely gave Gloria the money that allowed her to  fly to Paris where she met duve Cooper the British   ambassador to France he was completely taken with  Gloria despite already having a wife and mistress   they had dinner together and afterwards they went  upstairs to a bedroom he would later write in his   diary for the first time Gloria gave herself to me  I don't think I have ever loved anybody physically   so much or have been So supremely Satisfied the  Ambassador was so in love that he dismissed the   warnings when he was told that Gloria had been a  spy for the gapo in Spain when she said it wasn't   true he believed her and went to her house when  she returned to Paris she was was as interested in   carrying on her affair with Duff as she had been  before but she believed that he was no longer in   love with her that December she took her children  and left Paris for Kenya Gloria's third marriage   lasted only 3 years without money or prospects  what was this mother of two in her late 30s   going to do she had long since had her way of  gravitating towards the rich and powerful and   she did it once again when she met banking Heir  LEL Guinness while Gloria was partying with the   Nazi Elite in berin Lo was flying fighter planes  with such distinction that the French named him   an officer of the Legion of Honor lel's father  had died recently leaving him a Fortune of $200   million 2.39 billion in today's money making  him one of the richest men in the world Loa   was naturally suspicious and distrustful after he  found his wife in bed with prince alian who would   later G to have an affair with Pamela Churchill  their divorce was one of the most scandalous of   the century for Laurel's second marriage he  was the one caught cheating and that marriage   also ended in divorce most inheritors of great  fortunes live in worry that someone would try   to take away a of their money and a windfall  of Good Fortune it is almost impossible that   Loa would have married Gloria without limiting  what part of his fortune she might obtain none   of this negotiation was ever made public and in  April 1951 they married an entb France from the   Day 38-year-old Gloria married LEL Guinness she  had a single goal to sit at top the glittering   social world that she had gained entry into just  before World War II although 44-year-old Loa was   a member of the British establishment Mexican  born Gloria had no European social background   and she had of course had relationships with  Nazi war criminals that was a stain that was   hard to wash off and almost anyone else from her  background would have acted repentant but that   was not Gloria she had no self-doubt and made no  fumbling gestures as she took what she considered   to be her righteous place in the world she soon  befriended the Duke and Duchess of Windsor the   Guinness family tree was complicated lel's son  Patrick fell in love with Gloria's daughter from   her first marriage to count firstenberg so Patrick  married his stepsister in October 1955 Gloria   decided that she wanted to be a writer and she  began working hard at it she wrote a play that a   producer agreed to bring to the London stage but  LEL told her that he didn't want her to do it so   the play was never made he told her to cease and  assist and devote herself to her wely duties he   was very jealous of his wife wherever they went  she outshone him if she became a writer of a   play or published a novel that she was writing she  would be impossible Gloria had built an incredible   life with LEL and she thought of it as hers but it  wasn't really if Loa wanted to take it back so she   turned her back on her dreams of writing just  as Gloria was was in a painful withdrawal from   her dreams harpa bizar came to her and asked  her to do a four times a year column for the   monthly she could do that without upsetting her  husband or disrupting her life to Gloria fashion   wasn't just clothes it was a philosophy life was  about dressing well acting well and living well   in 1967 Gloria received the first University  of Missouri award as America's best fashioned   journalist Gloria flew on the Guinness plane from  Paris to New York to accept her award anyone who   saw Gloria that day would assume this woman lived  life of Splendor only a few understood like Mary   Wells Lawrence who considered her friend the  saddest woman I ever met Truman first met Lucy   Cy guest after watching a performance of My Fair  Lady CZ was born Lucy Douglas Cochran in Boston on   February 19th 1920 her nickname came about because  her sister could not pronounce the word sister and   began calling her [ __ ] which evolved into CZ CZ  grew up in Brahman Boston and she learned nothing   of the ravages of the Great Depression ression the  1930s were a great time to be reaching maturity if   one had money when czy was a teenager her mother  sent her to a school in South Carolina for well   brought up young women no teenager in Boston  was written about in The Press more than CZ   and the stories chronicled all the pleasures of  her privileged young life she loved to ride and   go to the theater and Opera what set Cy apart from  most of the other Debs was not her height but her   beauty her looks were such that she won the title  North Shore's prettiest Beauty had been C's magic   wand all her life all she had to do was wave it  and she got whatever she wanted combining Beauty   with wealth she walked where she wanted to walk  and she got what she wanted to get determined to   succeed not just in the society ballrooms but  also on the stage Cy got herself a theatrical   agent and took whatever gig she could get her  interest in Show Business got a boost when she   began an affair with the movie star Victor Mature  for the first time Cy had reached the national   gossip columns theater was in her family blood and  before her sister joined the woman's AR Army Corps   she acted in Summer Stock when C decided that she  was going to be an actress she wanted to go right   to Broadway she didn't have to go out to hustle  connections they simply appeared before her in her   natural habitat in Boston she met the theatrical  producer Lee Schubert who arranged for her to   appear in The Chorus Line in zigfield Foles czy  had never experienced the tedious often demeaning   process of trying out for parts she knew the right  people in the right places and she did not have to   demean herself by hustling to get ahead it was  at a Hollywood party that the producer Daryl   zanek met CZ and signed her to a film contract  at 20th Century Fox and just like that she was   off to Hollywood with plans of becoming a  star but she didn't realize that overnight   success often happens after years of hard work  the auditioning process was often humiliating   nothing but rejection after rejection and she  began to lose interest in acting as a profession   though she had lost interest in acting her social  life was far from boring she spent a lot of time   with Australian born swashbuckler Errol Flynn  who was almost twice her age and married she   eventually got an uncredited part in Diamond  Horseshoe starring Betty gyel but that was it   only 6 months into her film career she abandoned  Hollywood for Mexico City where she took up with   a handsome bull fighter CeCe may not have been a  great actress but she was incredibly photogenic   one of those mesmerized after seeing one of her  photos was Winston Frederick Churchill guest   an heir to the Fitz steel Fortune his mother had  married Frederick Edward guest a first cousin to   Winston Churchill and the Winston guest had been  brought up in both England and the United States   Winston had no qualms about his wealth and he did  pretty much whatever he wanted to do and what he   wanted to do was to meet the blonde in the picture  you can have affairs God knows I've had plenty but   you marry someone from your own environment czy  would later say if she married Winston she would   be embracing not only him but his entire way  of life Winston had been previously married to   a Woolworth ays and had two children but when he  met CZ he was decidedly free the couple flew to   Havana to Ernest Hemingway's country estate to be  married by a notary on March 8th 1947 ultimately   Winston wanted a traditional aristocratic wife  and told her to tone down the publicity style   is about surv fing it's about having been through  a lot and making it look easy czy said style was   the essence and by the time Truman met her in 1955  she had achieved a presence that had made her one   of the social leaders of the generation not long  after meeting Truman she invited him to her Palm   Beach home as a house guest at Winston's estate  Villa Artemis although CeCe might parade with   the best of them in New York she was in essence  a country girl Truman said that she needed a home   and a husband and dogs and horses and children  in that order Cy and Winston both had reputations   for having Affairs but in their world that was  standard like their parents before them CZ and   Winston shuttle their two children Alexander and  Cornelia off to nanni's governesses tutors and   Maids czy was convinced that a good govern did a  better job bringing up children than a mere mother   that doesn't mean I never saw them she insisted to  s quinn of the Washington Post in 1977 of course   I saw them I went fox hunting with them Winston  felt even worse about his wife's proclivity for   publicity when he learned in 1962 that Cy was  about to be on the cover of Time magazine in a   story about about American society the fact that  CeCe was willing to Poe for the cover photo on   the front lawn of their estate Templeton wearing  writing clothes suggested that the world of the   Old Guard was largely dead Winston did everything  he could to stop the story but he could do nothing   against cz's energy and will CZ believed God had  placed the rich just where they belonged at the   top of everything and everyone she was convinced  that the upper class was better in every way soon   Winston's Investments turned bad and he lost  a lot of money Winston and Cy were no longer   able to live the way they had before and soon  he went bankrupt and was forced to sell their   Manhattan apartment they would also be forced to  auction off Priceless items of Art and furniture   and eventually would even have to sell their grand  estate Templeton buying a far smaller estate and   naming it Templeton as if they had never even  left Truman met Mela anelli in New York City   in the late 50s born an Italian princess Mela was  not only a member of the Italian nobility she was   married to Giani anelli air to the immense Fiat  fortune and the former lover of Pamela Hayward   Mela was a reader and she had read Truman's first  two books before she had met him and agreed with   his assessment of himself as being a young genius  Truman soon became what she called her closest   friend in answered prayers Truman intended to rip  open the lives of people such as Mela exposing   whatever Darkness he found in the meantime he  would accept their hospitality and with his   almost photographic memory store away everything  he learned he would call asking to visit her in   Turin as if he was making a reservation in a  grand hotel Mela came from a noble Neapolitan   family whose Roots went back centuries her father  Felipe was the eighth Prince de castaneto mela's   mother Margaret Clark was from Illinois the Aris  to a whiskey Distillery Fortune as a young woman   Margaret set out for Italy where she bought a  splendid 16th century Villa in Florence shortly   after marrying her husband Felipe's problems like  so many Aristocrats was that he was running out   of money so Felipe was dependent on his wife's  Fortune when the 1929 crash took away most of   Margaret's money filipo had no choice but to work  an elegant man with impeccable manners he was a   natural for diplomatic service for a number of  years he was assigned to Anchor a turkey where   Mela experienced a different kind of life during  the war filipo worked in Lugano Switzerland where   he was secretly a member of the resistance before  the war ended he went to Naples to fight for the   underground mela's 18-year-old brother Carlo also  went off to Italy to fight against the fascists   he was captured and could have been executed after  the war filipo became the deputy Secretary General   of the Council of Europe with such parents Mela  was a sophisticated young woman after studying   set design and art in Paris she moved to New York  City where she worked first as a model and then as   a photographer's assistant she had been engaged to  a French Aristocrat who lost her when he sought to   delay the wedding for a week while he went grous  hunting Giani was not a perfect catch he was a man   who did not love and could not love and in fact  he looked on the whole idea as little more than   emotional Indulgence to Giani even women of his  class were somewhat inferior beings and largely   interchangeable she saw that for her husband  a woman is to be conquered not to be loved and   Giani was a man of endless conquests in the first  months of his marriage Giani was present neither   physically nor emotionally she was pregnant and  alone and she was almost certainly depressed   Giani had an almost formal relationship with his  wife he knew something was wrong but he didn't go   to her to talk and figure out why things were not  right instead he wanted her to get busy performing   her rightful tasks as a mistress of his homes Mela  gave birth to her son Eduardo in June 1954 almost   as soon as Eduardo was born she handed the baby to  nannies and governesses as was the upper class way   mela's two children Eduardo and Margarita born in  1955 suffered from the lack of emotional residence   and closeness to their parents years afterwards  Mela discussed motherhood with her niece many   women have chosen motherhood over marriage I did  the opposite she said in a voice touched with   remorse and assuming that a woman had to choose  between the two she felt that to protect her   marriage she could not serve her husband and her  children Giani needed an air but he was not about   to share his wife with children running in and out  of his life disrupting everything and so Mela set   out to become the kind of wife Giani wanted my  central preoccupation was Giani and creating an   environment for our art collection that he could  relate to she said Mela was often consumed with   jealousy it wasn't the mere acts of her husband's  betrayal itself that troubled her but something   else she was giving everything that she had to  him and he was finding something in these women   that he could not find in her I saw myself being  so jealous for a long time she said in 1991 one   realizes it was not worthwhile the things were  of very little consequence and always very short   despite what Mela said some of gian's Affairs were  a major consequence and far from short Giani had   a relationship with a voluptuous Swedish star  Anita akber for several years he even began an   affair with one of mela's friends who was so much  like Mela that Giani was basically sleeping with   his wife's clone Giani was what these days  would be called a sex addict never able to   stop never getting enough and always looking some  people thought Mela was one of the most beautiful   women in the world but even that wasn't enough  to keep her husband home Mel didn't think she was   beautiful that is why probably I gave myself  so much trouble to be elegant I didn't like   especially the image of myself so I tried through  Elegance to reject an image I liked more than the   natural one she would say Truman had brought a  few chapters of answered prayers on vacation with   Mela she thought him a literary genius and was  honored to be getting a sneak peek at his work   before it was published although she spoke English  fluently she was a slow reader so she asked him if   he would read the chapters to her as Truman read  out loud to her she felt that something was wrong   this wasn't the work of the great writer she had  come to admire it was shallow and trivial and just   plain nasty some of these people she knew some she  didn't but it was all the same everyone had seen   Truman's dark Petty side but now it had taken  over and consumed his writing Truman had told   her once you must realize that I'm going to do to  America what PR did to France but these chapters   weren't that at all morela was angry at how Truman  was betraying his best self morela was having a   Great Awakening and it was disturbing her husband  thought Truman the most riveting of guests but   when the author was alone with Mela he put Giani  down in the sest of ways Mela noticed him doing   the same with babe and Gloria and their husbands  it was as if Truman would only be happy if they   left their husbands and he was undisputably the  most important man in their lives in the past   decade morela had probably spent more time with  Truman than anyone else outside of her immediate   family she was closer to him than to any other  man in her life except for her husband yet despite   all that she had the startling insight into the  relationship for him I remained Mrs anelli the   wife of a tycoon Mela said the next time Mel saw  Truman was when he was visiting Turin on a foggy   winter day they went to visit one of her favorite  antique stores while Truman was bargaining with   the proprietor for a piece of English Locker  that he wanted he kept turning toward Mela to   tell her the most vicious stories about one of  her friends he kicked at her mercilessly this   was the kind of thing that m had seen Truman  do so often and in her way she had indulged   him always providing an audience for his savagery  but this time something snapped within her Truman   no longer existed for her when he left Turin a few  days later she vowed to end the Friendship Truman   was so self-absorbed that it took him a long time  to realize that Mela had cut him out of her life   the next time Mela came to New York Lee set up a  dinner for the three of them when Mela arrived at   Lee's apartment she expected it would be a dinner  party with all sorts of interesting guests but it   was only Truman and Lee it was not until Truman  was driving Mela back to her apartment late that   night that he spoke the only words that mattered  that evening why don't you want to see me he asked   but Truman it's not true I want to see you but you  know how things are you live over here I live over   there Mela never saw Truman again in 1962 Truman  sat down with Lee Rodwell for an intimate lunch   in a Manhattan Restaurant Lee had never talked  with Truman like this before and she had every   reason to be suspicious her sister Jackie was the  overwhelming popular first lady an iconic figure   who is changing the way Americans thought about  dress decor and culture Lee had a gilded lifestyle   she was married to Stannis Rell a Polish prince  who had left his native country with a title that   no longer held any real meaning and she had two  grand homes in England and later a major apartment   in New York City with her sister in the white  house she had to be careful how she acted what   she said and to whom she said it she must have  known that Truman was an Infamous gossip it was a   measure of the emotional pain that LE was suffered  uffing that despite his reputation she told him   the most painful secret of her life she was wildly  jealous of Jackie it was natural that Lee would be   somewhat Covetous of a sister who was the first  lady and the most admired woman in the world but   her feelings went far beyond an understandable  emotion she was consumed with jealousy it was   all she could think about all she could talk  about she had what anyone would consider to   be everything more than everything and she was  so dissatisfied so lost after lunch Truman did   what Lee should have expected him to do he wrote  his friend sisle beaten and told him all about it   had lunch one day with a new friend princess Lee  my God how jealous she is of Jackie I never knew   understand her marriage is all but phito Caroline  Lee boier was born at Doctor's Hospital in New   York City to stock broker John vau Bouvier III  known as Blackjack and his wife Jack's daughters   loved everything about their father he showed them  endless charm and devotion and they adored their   father they thought him to be the model of what  a man should be Lee was a happy child until her   parents separated for several months in 1936  Jack's endless fering and self-absorption had   become too much for Janet but soon the couple got  back together before separating for good A year   later all Lee had wanted was a happy home with  a mother and father and she cried and cried when   her parents divorced Lee and her sister Jackie set  off each morning in their linen jumpers to the cha   and School for Girls there was just enough space  and age between the two girls that they played   in the same set and attended the same school  schs but Jackie did things and one places that   Lee could not Lee was jealous but that word could  not capture the complexities of what she felt the   sisters were exceedingly close and when challenged  they stood together like an impregnable Fortress   yet they fought incessantly once Jackie knocked  her little sister out with a croquet Mallet there   came a day when Lee was big enough and bold enough  to toss her big sister down the stairs from that   moment on she realized I could stand up to her  and the childhood fights were over Lee said the   father visited on weekends and despite how much  she had adored him it was obvious to her that he   preferred Jackie who resembled him more Lee would  comfort herself by retreating into a world with   Imaginary Friends her mother soon remarried  to Hugh ainos the first time she visited his   estate it was like a fairy tale but ainos had two  children from his previous marriage and her mother   would have two children with him and soon enough  Lee and her sister were not her mother's primary   concern when Jackie went off to miss Porter School  in Farmington Connecticut Lee had a respit from   her sister and yet Jackie still overshadowed  her life her mother eventually enrolled her at   Miss Porter's as well and despite the fact that  Jackie was now off to college she had left her   mark on the school and Lee was always hearing  about Jackie Lee was very insecure and felt   that she looked better if she was skinny so she  dropped so much weight that her features stood   out more she was so skinny that her mother and  her school were worried about her but she felt   she wasn't even skinny enough anorexia was the  swan's occupational disease and Lee was obsessed   with her weight all her life in June 1951 18 y old  Lee and 21-year-old Jackie sailed to Europe away   from all the Strife of their competition back home  they discovered that they were wonderful traveling   companions in April 1952 Lee married Michael  Canfield the adopted son of Cass Canfield one   of the most successful book publishers in America  when Michael learned that his biological father   may have been a British Prince and his mother a  sexually adventurous American he began dressing   like British nobility and took on an upper  class British accent just before their wedding   Michael's father hosted a an Usher's dinner in  his Manhattan townhouse the guests got a little   drunk and well into the evening Michael's soon  to be father-in-law Hugh ainl mumbled he will   never be able to afford her he will never be able  to afford her Michael looked like the kind of man   that Lee wanted but soon after their wedding she  discovered he did not have enough of the other   traits that she insisted upon he was working  at his father's Publishing Company Harper and   brothers in Manhattan and the newly WS were living  in a two-bedroom apartment most people would have   found acceptable but Lee thought the life Michael  was providing for her was barely acceptable to   Plate his increasingly unhappy bride Michael  agreed to go to London where he would run Harbor   and brother's British office once the couple  got there Le realized her husband's position   did not have quite the social cache she felt to  be appropriate she pushed Michael to become social   secretary to her friend and bassador Winthrop  Aldridge taking that position meant getting an   open invitation to every Grand party in a state in  Britain Lee and Michael went to endless events Lee   was obsessed with royalty celebrity nobility and  money with the social entry her husband's new new   position gave her she was like a child in a candy  shop with a full purse upper class Brits were   known for being Randy though it was considered  the norm for a wife to provide an air before she   began to have affairs of her own but Lee had no  use of such formalities and she began taking on   lovers at the drop of an invitation in the fall of  1956 Lord and Lady Lampton invited Lee and Michael   for a shooting weekend at Fenton their Country  House near the border of Scotland one of the other   guests and an advent Hunter was Stannis La staz  Rosell and his wife Grace Roswell born a Polish   Prince when he took British citizenship stas  gave up rights to his hereditary title in Britain   people take titles very seriously and some found  it unappealing that stas ran around insisting that   people call him Prince Lee knew nothing of this  and with her fairy tale view of the world still   somewhat intact she thought there was nothing more  exciting than spending the weekend with the prince   almost 20 years older than Lee he had the sort of  confidence that came with the generations of being   told that the world is yours he had arrived penist  in London but his connections he got into real   estate business and made himself a considerable  Fortune looking at stas Lee checked off every   attribute she sought in a man and they began an  affair the radells became the Canfield's closest   friends and everyone knew what was going on after  Lee and stas divorced their spouses the pregnant   Lee and the Fallen prince married in March 1959  in a civil ceremony with her beautiful homes her   son Anthony born 4 and a half months after the  marriage and her daughter Anna Christina born 3   months premature in 1960 and her loving husband  Lee had what appeared to be everything but she   soon grew tired of stas and starting in 1961 she  began spending more time in America despite the   fact that Noble and Royal titles were banned in  America when she moved around New York City she   was referred to as Princess Radell painfully  it had turned out that stas was not the prince   charming of Lee's childhood dreams but an aging  quirky man who took far more than he gave although   Lee still bore his name she had moved on and took  as her lover Aristotle Onasis Jackie was having   having a terrible time after giving birth to his  stillborn son Patrick in that October Lee asked   Ary to invite the first lady to join them on his  yacht the Christina o as soon as Jackie walked up   the gang plank Lee knew she had made a mistake  Aristotle was mesmerized by Jackie and could   not keep away from her he made little attempt  to hide his feelings and compounded with the   gifts he gave the sisters when they left the yacht  Jackie received a superb necklace of diamonds and   rubies while Ary gave Lee three bracelets that  were so dinky that she believed her 5-year-old   niece Caroline when I have worned them to her  own birthday party Lee flew back to Washington   a month later to Aid and comfort Jackie after the  assassination of her husband President Kennedy as   bere as she was Jackie was not going to wear  widows weeds all her life and she moved with   her two children John and Carolyn to New York  to start a new life Lee also moved to New York   she had creative Instinct but she never seemed  able to focus she dressed well and lived well but   that was about it in New York she began writing  again about fashion but the disciplined routine   of a MAG azine writer was not for her and she soon  sought other diversions that her friend Truman was   happy to provide Truman had vowed his love and  eternal Devotion to babe and Mela but that was   nothing compared to the passionate vows he made  to Lee in 1967 Lee and Truman went on a vacation   together and Lee told Truman about her latest  dreams she had the idea of going on stage and   from there possibly to Hollywood stardom there  was no reason to think this was any different   from any of her other Pursuits which there was no  reason to think this was any different from any   of her other Pursuits which had been dropped as  soon as there was any heavy lifting she couldn't   pass to others but Lee seemed determined she was  taking acting lessons in London and her advisor   suggested that when she was ready she could take a  small part in a provincial theater production and   build from there Truman got her a top agent  who booked her into the ivanho restaurant a   dinner theater in Chicago because she was Jackie  Kennedy's sister people would always come to see   her but the reviews of her shows were almost  always negative she was a terrible actress back   in London in 1968 Lee had been so up upset to  hear that Bobby Kennedy had been assassinated   that she couldn't even drive straight and  she crashed into another vehicle her sister   was even more devastated fearing that America had  turned into a land of uncontrolled violence where   if your name was Kennedy you were not safe there  was only one reasonable solution to get out that   Autumn a distraught Lee called Truman she had just  heard what she considered to be a betrayal Beyond   imagination Jackie had agreed to marry Aristotle  Onasis despite her pain to the world Lee displayed   only sisterly devotion and happiness with her  sister's new husband in the summer of 1971 Lee   visited Jackie on AR's island of Scorpios and she  was introduced to Peter beard who is spending his   summer on the island the Y graduate had become a  wildlife photographer and conservationist dos had   gone off on Safari with Peter and considered him  a friend but that didn't matter to Peter or Lee   and they soon began an affair stas accepted  his diminished circumstances and played the   understanding patient husband B had dreamt of  a grand future in which she abandoned stas and   moved moved to America to live with Peter while  keeping her title of Princess after a few years   together Peter had moved on from her for good  to a younger model the affair had been the most   daring of her life and it was painful to be a  cast aside 40-year-old woman knowing how much   Lee loved publicity Truman gave her the greatest  gift he could a one-page celebration in Vogue in   June 1976 he called it Lee a fan letter from  Truman capot there was one assertion after   another about how great Lee was with her first  class intelligence her beautiful eyes wide apart   golden brown like a glass of Brandy resting on  a table in front of a fire light Truman was not   done giving later that year in a cover story  on Lee and people he gave a gushy tribute that   opened the piece she's a remarkable girl she's  all the things people give Jackie credit for all   the looks style taste Jackie never had them at  all and yet it was Lee who lived in the shadow   of this super something person it was not enough  to PR praise Lee Jackie had to be denigrated when   64-year-old Jackie died of Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma  in May 1994 she left nothing not even a vas or a   rug to Lee it was the purest statement possible  of what Jackie thought of her only sister Truman   received all kinds of warnings against publishing  his 11,000 word excerpt of answered prayers titled   lot Basque 1965 scheduled for inclusion in the  1975 edition of Esquire when his biographer Jared   Clark read the pages he was a gast he knew that  Truman's swans women who considered him their   dearest friends would be upset about the stories  he told some of these secrets that had been told   to him in the deepest of confidence never mind  that Truman had been telling these Tales around   town for years you can't publish this Clark told  Truman the characters are barely cloaked everyone   you're writing about will recognize themselves  he explained to Truman and worse others would   recognize them too but Truman dismissed  his worries with a wave of his hand they   won't know who they are they're too dumb as the  excerpt opens lady AA kirth based on Slim Keith   is seated at a privileged table sring Crystal  champagne and spouting outrageous tales about   those in the grand dining room and Beyond this  big brassy daughter of the American West opines   that Princess Margaret is a drone who doesn't like  poofs that judgment could not have set well with   Lady aa's guest PB Jones a bisexual Hustler lady  AA goes on to reminisce about a weekend she spent   at the kennedies when she was only 18 years  old late at night Randy old Joe entered her   bedroom to assault her the most painful tale  was not about royalty domestic or otherwise   but about lady AA recent ex-husband Lord kirth  this D uninteresting Brit had the considerable   audaciousness to leave her for another woman after  taking another flute of champagne lady AA mused on   her lonely fate approaching an age where only  gay men would treat her with kindness I adore   them I always have she said but I'm really not  ready to become a full-time [ __ ] Mo I'd rather   go Dyke Truman's friends Gloria Vanderbilt and  Carol Cillian made appearances under several of   their own names referring directly to each  woman's multiple marriages and divorces he   called Gloria Gloria Vanderbilt to Chico decowski  lumid Cooper and Carol Carol Marcus celan celan   since she married him twice mathau Truman didn't  stop there in savaging his lifelong friends his   fictionalized dialogue had both of them gossiping  relentlessly about others in their Social Circle   he summed them up with a devastating kiss off  charmingly incompetent adventuresses but the   woman most hurt by Truman's betrayal in the  story's Pages was the one whose approval and   attention he actually desired the most babe in  the published story Truman included a character   named Dylan a successful businessman based on  Bill paly and laid out the todry details of his   supposed one night stand with what was obviously  the very real Marie Herman the story is told by   Lady AA who had an affair with Dylan when she was  very young he asked her never to repeat the story   but oh well the event in question had happened  back in the late 50s when Marie's husband ail is   governor of New York lady AA set the question out  very straight why would an educated Dynamic very   rich and well-hung Jew go Bonkers for a cronous  Protestant sized 40 who wears loow heeled shoes   and lavender water especially when he's married to  Cleo Dylan to my mind the most beautiful creature   alive Cleo Dylan was of course a thinly veiled  babe paly and why bill which she on her with the   governor's wife was simple and direct the herment  were at the center of power and the epitome of   the Protestant establishment that had barred  the Jewish businessman from its clubs and his   sons from its schools as successful as Dylan was  in as much as he had a assumed a wasp's identity   he was still a Jew banned from the Racket Club an  exclusion that wrangled him profoundly if Dylan   could just sleep with the governor's wife he could  get even for all those brutal slights when they   spent their first night together he brought  her back to his apartment and they spent the   night in his marital bed it did not go well she  insisted that he keep the lights out and before   he had even finished she was already getting  dressed to leave when he turned the lights back   on and looked down at his seats it could have  been the decapitated horse had scene from The   Godfather the sheets were so bloody the governor's  wife was having her period Dylan had thought the   governor's wife did this to get even with him but  he had no time to worry about that he had to get   the sheets clean before his wife returned from out  of town the businessman did not finish until 8:00   in the morning when he fell asleep on the Soggy  sheets by the time the November Esquire started   showing up in subscribers mailboxes Truman was in  California where he was playing the lead role in   a movie and was staying with his friend Joanne  Carson the ex-wife of Johnny Carson while not a   swan Joanne did make an appearance in theot Basque  1965 Joan is portrayed as Jane Baxter the wife of   Bobby Baxter the night talk show King Bobby goes  down to Miami where he calls his wife while he's   in bed with another woman Truman's narrator gives  two reasons why Jane doesn't leave Bobby one money   and two identity it was a devastating depiction  and immediately recognizable to anyone who knew   anything about Johnny Carson's famously roving  eye but Joanne was so insecure and so desirous of   having Truman as a friend that she did not let the  shattering portrayal bother her at first Truman   was excited about the reception that his work  would receive but as news started trickling in   about how upset his friends back East were about  their betrayals Truman's excitement curdled Joanne   said that that week Truman looked like a baby who  had been slapped as close as he was with Joanne   he did not talk with her about the pain he felt  instead he went into his bedroom and laid there   reading and rereading the passages that had  so offended if only Truman could talk to his   swans he believed he could soothe their rumpled  feathers but almost no one was willing to deal   with him slimus in her suite at the Pierre hotel  when babe called have you read Truman's piece in   Esquire babe asked no slim said well get it and  read it and call me back babe said slim sent her   maid down to grab a copy she had scarcely read  a page before realizing that Truman had based   the narrator on her this so-called lady AA kirth  who spewed grotesque gossip about women who were   Slim's friends and constantly complained about  being single again after her husband left her for   another woman slim saw that Truman did not trash  all of his swans Truman story had Lee using her   real name sitting in a restaurant at a prominent  table with her sister Jackie Truman had pieced   upon Lee's attitude toward her sister and put it  front and center in the story the author described   leg gron jacene as unrefined exaggerated looking  an Artful female impersonator impersonating Mrs   Kennedy as for Lee she was marvelously made like  a figurine and there was nothing in there about   Mela veiled or not and Cy guest was also not  a character in The excerpt and she became even   closer to Truman in the following years as soon  as Slim finished reading she called babe I feel   absolutely as though I've been hit all the breath  is out of me Slim said babe never spoke to Truman   again the story of Dylan and the governor's wife  left a stain on Babe's life larger than the one   in Dylan's marital bed had Truman ever really  cared for her was any of his friendship real if   he could do such a thing Truman tried calling  babe for days but the first time in their long   friendship he could not get through to her finally  he reached Bill who took the call have you read my   Esquire piece Truman asked I started Truman but  I fell asleep then a terrible thing happened the   magazine was thrown away B said said I'll send  you another copy Truman said don't bother Truman   I'm preoccupied my wife is very ill Bill told  him babe was in fact dying of lung cancer she   had always been skinny but now with her illness  she was by any standard far too thin and she wore   thick makeup to cover up the darkness that had  fallen across her countenance a third of her right   lung had already been removed but the cancer came  back and in May 1975 surgeon remove the rest of   her lung for most of their marriage bill had been  largely dismissive of babe in the last months of   her life Bill decided that he wanted to sucker  his wife as he had never done before and show   her how much he cared but babe wanted none of  him and in these fateful final days she pushed   him away and faced her death without the two most  important men in her life her husband and Truman   capot she died on July 6th 1978 at the age of 63  the first of the swans to die in her last months   she wrote her will and left pieces of porcelain  for CZ slim Gloria and morala she also prepared   detailed instructions for her funeral including  an invitation list that did not include Truman   despite the initial Fallout Truman was convinced  that once the swans realized how much they needed   him they would all come fluttering back but that  did not happen babe was a gentle sort and even if   she had been healthy she never would have spoken  openly about Truman's betrayal slim had no such   qualms and she raged against him for the rest of  her life as painful as it was for the swans they   had husbands lovers children other friends and  extensive social lives they could move on Truman   could not he had realized too late that he needed  these women more than they had needed him Pamela   Harman died on February 5th 1997 in Washington DC  Pamela became a leading political figure raising   millions of dollars for for Democratic candidates  after the death of her husband ail Herman   President Bill Clinton appointed her ambassador to  France and she returned to Paris the city in which   she had lived for many years 76-year-old Pamela  died after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage while   taking her daily swim in the par Ritz pool Gloria  Guinness died on November 9th 1980 of a heart   attack Cy guest died at the age of 83 and 2003  she was a defender of the old order she didn't   cook because she didn't have to cook she loved  her Gardens and spent most of her time tending   them when she developed cancer and lost her hair  czy bought a blonde wig and fought the Dying Light   until the very end in 2014 Sam cashner and Nancy  shenberger interviewed Lee in her apartment for   a dual biography there were writing of the the  Two Sisters they noticed that when speaking of   Jackie Lee always referred to her as my sister and  never by name that must have been a measure of how   painful the memories were her third marriage was  to Herbert Ross and like her other marriages it   did not last she became an interior designer but  when it became difficult she gave it up her son   Anthony died of cancer at the age of 40 in 1999  she continued to project the image that she lived   in Happy Times until she died at the age of 85  in November 2000 Mel's only son Eduardo killed   himself by jumping off a high bridge in Turin his  father Giani was devastated in part because he had   treated arder so poorly gian's despair likely  accelerated the cancer that killed him a little   over 2 years later to deal with her own grief  Mela did what she always did she built herself   a splendid new home a few years before she died at  the age of 81 Mela wrote A Memoir titled the last   Swan and so she was Truman capot died on August  25th 1984. according to the coroner's report the   cause of death was liver disease Complicated  by Phlebitis and multiple drug intoxication   after blowing up his life and destroying his  closest friendships to create a great American   novel of his generation Truman capote never even  completed answered prayers. thank you for watching   this video please subscribe to my channel for more  content on historical figures and the lives they lived

Channel: Stories Through Time

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Keywords: history, trumancapote, feud, swans, fxfeud, fx, naomiwatts, leeradziwill, jackiekennedy, reallife, Royalty, highsociety, show, tv, Ryan Murphy, 1950’s, high society, fancy, Kennedy’s, Kennedy family, jfk, RFK, america, 1960's, 1970's, drugs, alcohol, wealth, rich, richlife, richlifestyle, wealthy, upperclass, money, golddiggers, gay, homosexual, television, biopic, biography, novel, authors, entertainment, movies, italy, newyork, nyc, manhattan, tiffany's, breakfastattiffany's, youtube, fashion, beauty, documentary, information, love, tvshow

Id: F8ShmKLvt3s

Length: 80min 35sec (4835 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 04 2024