FRIDA KAHLO MEXICAN PAINTER EXTRAORDINAIRE (C)

FRIDA KAHLO MEXICAN PAINTER

By Polly Guerin

Dear Frida: I admire your fortitude, your originality and personal oeuvre that identified with Mexico, your beloved homeland. We recognize you in dozens of self-portraits with your bold unibrow and mustache, the flower crown in your hair and the native costumes you preferred wearing as a symbol of your Mexican heritage. As an iconoclastic artist you painstakingly rendered striking, often shocking images that often reflect your own pain and turbulent life. Yours was a journey that began as a self-taught artist and evolved over time with kudos of the international recognition.

CULTIVATING A MEXICAN IDENTITY

No matter where she traveled, whether in Paris, New York or her native country Frida fashioned herself elaborately in the Tehuana costumes of Indian maidens, creating an identity that clearly was unique and captivating. She painted using vibrant colors in a style that was influenced by indigenous cultures of Mexico. Frida Kahlo (born Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderon, July 6, 1907-July 13, 1954) was one of four daughters born to a Hungarian-Jewish father and a mother of Spanish and Mexican Indian descent, in the Mexico City, suburb of Coyoacan. She was born amidst political chaos in her homeland and throughout her life Frida preferred to claim 1910 as the year of her birth which coincided with the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution (1910).

AN ACCIDNET ALTERING LIFESTYLE

Some say that Frida adopted the Tehuana form of costume to hide her legs. There may be some truth to it. A polio survivor at fifteen, Frida’s young life was dramatically altered due to a tragic accident. Frida had entered in the premedical program at the National Preparatory School in Mexico City, but that ended when she was gravely injured in a trolley car accident three years later when she was eighteen years old. Despite spending a year in bed and enduring more than 30 operations recovering from fractures of her back, collarbone, ribs and a shattered pelvis, shoulder and neck injuries. The injuries left her broken as a youth and debilitated throughout much of her adult life. She suffered a life of constant pain and often had to wear a body brace to support her weakened condition.

BECOMING FRIDA KAHLO, THE PAINTER

One wonders what Frida could do to while away the dreary hours of recovery. It was during this year of convalescence that Frida began to paint with oils. Her paintings were mostly still lifes and self portraits filled with the bright colors of Mexico’s native folk art. Her talent evolved dramatically with self-expression and her profound reactions to life that she produced in surrealistic style in her paintings. About a third of her body of work, about 55 paintings, consists of self portraits. In some she stares out passively, in others Frida’s oeuvre was fantastic and sometimes gory depictions that symbolically articulated her own pain. Revealing different states of her mind are portrayals revealing her heartbreak, abortion and miscarriage. Yet there was a feeling of realism in many of her works which she rendered with real images in the most honest, straightforward way.

DISCOVERING DIEGO

High up on a scaffold, the celebrated muralist Diego Rivera sat contentedly high on his perch doing what he loved doing, painting grand public murals with political themes. She encountered the larger than life Diego in such a manner but had actually met him first as a schoolgirl. At 21, Frida fell in love with Rivera, whose approach to art and politics suited her own. Although he was 20 years he senior, they were married in 1929 and she became his third wife. The two became intertwined in a tumultuous marriage. Although as a couple, they remained childless one can observe Frida’s anguish of miscarriage in her painting. During most of their life together Frida was often immobilized in a cast in her bed, or confined to a hospital room awaiting an operation or recovering from a surgery. Her torment was abetted by Diego’s incorrigible philandering, once with Frida’s own young sister, Cristina. Yet, Frida remained loyal often referring to him as her "Baby. "

FRIDA’S DEVOTION TO RIVERA

Frida took great pride in keeping a home for Diego and loved fussing over him, cooking for him and even bathing him. Their love proved sustainable. The couple traveled to the United States and France, where Frida met luminaries from the worlds of art and politics, and had her first solo exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York City in 1938. Though they divorced in 1939 the two remained inseparable and remarried in 1940. Frida’s painting “The Two Fridas,” a double self-portrait, painted in 1939 at the time of her divorce from Diego is believed to be an expression of Frida’s feelings at the time.

FRIDA EMBRACES LIFE

She delighted in children and had many pets including the mischievous spider monkey that appears in “Self-Portrait with Monkey.” She loved visitors and often begged friends and “lovers to visit, not to “forget” her. Sadly after a lifetime of great fortitude and constant pain Frida Kahlo died at the age of 47. The legendary artist has of late been transformed into a veritable cult figure with numerous books and films depicting her life. At one time there was even a cult of young women who would affect the Frida Kahlo look, simulating Tehuana costumes, the flowered headdresses and long skirts of the artist. In a lovely tribute to Frida Kahlo this Deco Diva and her iconic works continue to attract admiring followers.

DOROTHY DRAPER PRIMA DONNA DECORATOR

DOROTHY DRAPER PRIMA DONNA DECORATOR

By Polly Guerin

Dear Dorothy: Long ago dining was no ordinary affair at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s restaurant. It was a memorable experience with its regal reflecting pool topped by skipping water sprites, and above hovered huge iron birdcage chandeliers. “Isn’t this a marvel?” my companion said. “It’s the best ambiance in town.” Indeed I did agree. The design environment was an incredible style, a fairytale-like setting enhancing the pleasure of our self service lunch. As we sat at a table at the edge of the reflecting pool we took it all in as the rightful ownership of typical New Yorkers. The birdcage chandeliers were pure decoration for no birds were noticed, but I shall never forget that it was Dorothy Draper who installed this enchanting environment, which was nicknamed "The Dorotheum." Sadly the restaurant no longer exists. Gone is the reflecting pool, the darting water sprites and the birdcages, all banished to oblivion and replaced with the museum’s new wing.
DOROTHY DRAPER’S OEUVRE

To Dorothy, public space represented a place for people to come and feel elevated in the presence of great beauty, where the senses could look and feel and absorb the meaning of a quality of life. Her design vision looked away from the period room styles of the past and moved forward into modernism with what became known as “the Draper touch.” Her oeuvre embraced an explosion of vivid, splashy colors, oversized prints, aristocratic flourishes like big, Baroque white plasterwork and most striking chessboard tile floors. Most stunning was her signature ‘cabbage rose” chintz, paired with bold stripes and intricate mirror frames over fireplaces. It was refreshing it was daring, it was the new wave of decorating with panache.

CLIENTS AND PROJECTS

Carleton Varney, the biographer of “The Draper Touch,” said of his mentor, “People came to Dorothy because she did the unexpected, and had this brilliant sense of color. She took a world that was drab and dreary and made it colorful. In 1937 she made the Hampshire House like an English country house with flowered chintzes. Dorothy was wealthy and had every social credential, which is why all the best hotels in the world came to her. Dorothy hardly bothered with private homes; her creative and unique style was reserved for hotels and large spaces which were her métier.” Her society friends admired her particular blend of French and English elements and her distinctive taste gave her the ability to take control of a hotel project in all aspects of design right down to the designs for menus, matchbook covers, and the staff uniforms. As such she decorated the sprawling Greenbrier Hotel, White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia in an enchanting blaze of color, stripes and chintz.

PROFESSIONAL STATUS

Decorating was not a recognized profession back in the 20s and 30s and decorating was mainly a male dominated occupation. Although women of a certain class did not work back then that did not stop Dorothy. With no other credentials than her incredible good taste, sense of color and decor Dorothy Draper became a self-taught decorator (no professional schools existed) and opened the Architectural Clearing House, arguably the first ‘official interior design business in 1923. Therefore, Dorothy Draper stands alone as the first person to “professionalize” the interior design industry in the United States.

THE PRIMA DONNA

In her day, Dorothy was the prima donna of the decorating business. Talk about branding Dorothy had it all. She gave decorating advice in her regular column for Good Housekeeping magazine, designed fabric lines for Schumacher, furniture for Ficks Reed, Heritage, and also designed theaters, department stores, commercial establishments and private corporate offices. Dorothy dominated the decorating business well into the 50s and designed the interiors of jet planes (Convair & TWA). She did a line for Package and Chrysler in the 1950s including a pink polka dot truck. The cosmetic industry acquiesced to her genre enlisting her creative for the Dorothy Gray cosmetic firm.

TO THE MANOR BORN

No doubt, it bodes well if you’re born into the right circles and have acquired class, bearing and distinction. No wonder Draper was able to parlay her blue-blood background into big business, particularly at a time when it was considered daring for a woman to go into business for herself. She had connections to the high society social world. Born a Tuckerman, to a wealthy and privileged family in 1889, the six foot tall debutant from Tuxedo Park grew up in New York surrounded by the best of American upper-class WASP style. Like so many young women of her era she wanted out of the confines of this society and did so by marrying Dr. George Draper, FDR’s personal physician and brother to actress Ruth Draper. However, when her husband asked for a divorce in the 1930s, it was almost a fortuitous ending to her marriage; her ambition took off with new zeal and highly visible commissions followed.

THE DRAPER LEGEND

Much of Draper’s oeuvre survives to this day. Imitators may aspire to create the Draper Touch but can never truly repeat her brand of creativity. Her eye-popping colors and never before seen combinations, such as aubergine and pink with a splash of chartreuse and a touch of turquoise blue elevates one’s visual surprise and pleasure as does the white furniture frames embracing oversized floral print chintz. Thank you Dorothy for making a world that was drab and dreary into a colorful symphony of color, joyful prints, shiny black and dull white contrast, pristine white moldings, mirror and furniture frames de rigueur interior design.

CLAIRE MCCARDELL AMERICAN FASHION ICON (c)

Claire McCardell creator of “The American Look” (c)

by Polly Guerin

Dear Claire: Paris can still claim its title as Haute Couture fashion capital of the world but American Sportswear, the concept of mix and match coordinated pieces is duly a credited to your creative innovation. As a pre-eminent American ready-to-wear fashion designer in the 20th century you understood the new independent woman and her active lifestyle from living in suburbia and chauffeuring children to school and husbands to the train station to engaging in sports activities, the gym and cultural pursuits. McCardell was a woman of her time. She knew what women wanted and patterned many of her design ideas after her own wardrobe needs.

THE NEW CASUAL CHIC

McCardell gave new meaning to term ‘Casual Chic’. Stylish, functional, affordable and versatile the coordinated garment pieces produced the concept of “separates” that made dressing from day into night and weekends spontaneous and comfortable. Her easy-to-wear approach to fashion is synonymous with the term ‘leisurewear’ and produced a loyal following among women of the pre WWII era, who rejected the formality of the French Couture. Women owe you a debt of gratitude to McCardell’s design concepts for even today casual wear is a mainstay of the American woman’s wardrobe.

FREEING FASHION’S RESTRAINTS

McCardell freed women from wearing the structured undergarments such as corsets, crinolines and girdles underlying the corporeal restrictions and dictates from Paris in the 40s and 50s. In her book, “What Shall I Wear?,” (Simon & Schuster 1956) she wrote that McCardellisms were ‘A glossary of terms that speak to me of fashion…and haven’t very much to do with Webster.’ She referred to separates as Strip-Tease or Matches: Clothes in pieces. You can wear all of them at one time or only two or three pieces, but they all go together and are made of related fabrics.
FABRIC INNOVATION

Cultivating the cult of soft, fabric draping and gathering to accentuate the natural shape of the body McCardell fashions had vast appeal, not only for their easy-wear facility but they were relatively inexpensive. These versatile separates and dresses were produced in materials borrowed from men’s wear, lingerie and even children’s wear incorporating natural-fiber fabrics such as cotton, twill, gingham, denim and jersey. McCardell knew a woman’s need for pockets and pleats were plenty. She was the first with the “riveted look,” using work-clothes grippers for fasteners and ornamentation and snappers made it easy to snap jackets, blouses and pants on and off. When the advent of WWII brought shortages of leather McCardell put her models in fabric Capezio ballet slippers, often matching the fabric of the garment. The fad caught on and gave the ballet slipper new meaning as footwear.

VERSATILITY IS THE KEY

Tying and wrapping were one of the hallmarks of McCardell’s design oeuvre. The 1938 MONASTIC DRESS, described as any loose, shift-like dress without a waistline, to be sashed at the whim of the customer, proved a popular easy-wear fashion. McCardell wrote, “It was a full and shapeless forerunner of the pleated Grecian sheath and all the other unwaisted dresses. It seemed to have no form. But when it was belted, it did great things for the female figure.”

The POPOVER DRESS, (1942) a versatile wraparound, coverall sort of dress could be used as a house dress, a bathing suit cover-up, dressing gown or glamoured up as a party dress. These dresses were not only a favorite for active women but they also accommodated the inexact sizing and fit of ready-to-wear apparel. When it was introduced it sold for $6.95. McCardellism interpretation of the Popover, “Something that goes over everything. It is an apron one day, a bathrobe the next, a dinner dress, if necessary, with lots of beads.”

CAREER DIVERSITY

McCardell had a series of short term jobs before becoming the assistant to fashion designer Robert Turk who was head designer for Townley Frocks Inc. Opportunity came quite suddenly for the young McCardell when Turk drowned in a swimming accident and she stepped up to design the 1931 collection. She continued as designer till Townley closed is operation in 1939. Hattie Carnegie then hired McCardell to work for her famed dressmaking firm, but that affiliation did not last but one year due to Carnegie’s clients who wanted more elaborate fashions. Then onto a brief stint with Win-Sum, a low-end manufacturer until Townley reopened in 1940. With her distinct style and the importance of her design oeuvre the company soon began issuing its fashion collection under the label “Claire McCardell Clothes by Townley.” She was the first American Designer to have name recognition. By the end of the forties, Townley was Lord and Taylor’s best ready-to-wear seller. In 1944, McCardell was a highly acclaimed American designer and received numerous awards and she eventually appeared on the cover of Time magazine May 2, 1955. BECOMING A FASHION ICON

As a child, McCardell (1095-1958) lived in Frederick, Maryland, the daughter of Adrian and Eleanor McCardell and her early interest in fashion emerged serendipitously. Playful and creative she would cut figures from her mother’s fashion magazines and create paper dolls and fashion imaginary garments. It is not surprising that the spirited young girl began sewing her own clothes as a teenager. After first attending Hood College in Maryland she switched to Parsons in 1925 to pursue her interest in fashion and received her certificate in Costume Design. After years on Seventh Avenue as the recognized pioneer of American sportswear, she returned to Parsons in 1944 as a critic and instructor.

McCARDELL’S WIT

In her book McCardell wrote: "My idea of clothes is the dress that dances well, walks well, sits well; the bathing suit that you can swim in; the ski suit that’s warm; and the house dress that can receive unexpected guests. " A fascinating garment in her collection was the Diaper bathing suit, made of light cotton, with a panel that wrapped up between the legs, and was secured by thin strings. Thank you Claire McCardell we are indebted to your design ingenuity that gave us the ‘AMERICAN LOOK.’

THE WHIMSICALITY OF FLORINE STETTHEIMER

Painter Extraordinaire, Chronicler of New York Society (c)
By Polly Guerin
Dear Florine: I was originally introduced to your whimsicality when I visited the Museum of the City of New York where your sister Carrie's "Stettheimer Dollhouse" is ensconced and to which you had contributed your unique creative inspiration. The dollhouse, a depiction of an upper-class residence of the 1930s, is truly an Art Deco treasure wherein reside the Lilliputian works by your artist friends, including Marcel Duchamp’s “Nude Descending A Staircase,” and sculptures by William Zorach and Gaston Lachaise to name a few. I was so inspired by this dollhouse that I wrote a time-travel murder mystery novel called, “The Dollhouse Murder,” a story that dwells in the fantasy of Miss Carrie’s dollhouse with you and Duchamp as central characters, as well as the Baron and Baroness de Meyer and Alexander Archipenko.
FLORINE’S BRILLIANT CAREER
However, Florine, this is about your brilliant career as painter, poet, designer and social hostess extraordinaire, yet even at your death in 1944 you were somehow unrecognized for your brilliant repartee on the social life of the upper-class in New York between WWI and WWII. This may partially be due to the fact that Florine decided not to show her work in a came to the studio she maintained in the Beaux Arts Building at 80 West 40th Street, on Bryant Park. With its gilded furniture and cellophane drapes Florine’s studio was the background for the fashionistas and artists of the era to convene and socialize.
A FOLKLORIC DECORATIVE STYLE
Florine’s whimsicality in a modernist style, all of her own invention, portrays decorative detail and joyful brilliant colors that gives us pause to admire her as an amazing Art Deco diva. Her paintings reveal a naïve modernism of simple forms and vivid colors depicting friends and family with a wry intimacy and warmth, like Sunday Afternoon in the Country (1917). This fantasy portrayal of the cognoscenti leisurely passing the time include friends from Florine’s circle, The Baron and Baroness de Meyer, the Marquis de Buenavista, and Edward Steichen photographing Marcel Duchamp and Florine at her easel.
A DECORATIVE STYLE
Florine’s paintings were never literal but rather the viewer entered a magical world conceived with a bit of frivolity. In Picnic at Bedford Hills (1918), another example of the artist’s oeuvre, Florine sits alone holding a parasol; her sister Ettie is recumbent on a carpet in conversation with Elie Nadelman and her sister Carrie with Marcel Duchamp are setting out the picnic repast. It recalls a languid summer’s day executed in vivid colors and painted on a field of bright yellow. Florine’s Cathedrals series: The Cathedrals of Broadway (1929) and the Cathedrals of Fifth Avenue (1931) and the Cathedrals of Wall Street (1932) are each crammed with identifiable public figures and places in caricatured allegories. These three paintings reside in the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
HOSTESS OF AN AMERICAN SALON
Florine and her two sisters Miss Carrie and Miss Ettie, and their mother Rosetta presided over a New York salon that had considerable to do with shaping the intellectual and cultural pulse of the city. The artistic cognoscenti of the era were frequent visitors to teas, lunches or dinners, while others in the art circle coveted an invitation. An important addition to Florine’s circle was Marcel Duchamp, an avant-garde artist, a suavely handsome and cultivated personality who felt quite at home in the genteel intellectual circles of the female ménage. Duchamp figures importantly in privileged position in life pervades her work chronicling boating parties, picnics, summertime escapades, parades and society.
BORN TO PRIVILEGE
Florine was born in Rochester, New York (August 29, 187l-May 11, 1944) the fourth of five children to Rosetta Walter and Joseph Stettheimer. The members of her family were wealthy and influential assimilated Jews. Although the father abandoned the family for reasons that are unclear Rosetta never remarried and her three youngest daughters, Carrie, Florine and Ettie remained single and lived with their mother until her death in 1935. The family spent much of Florine’s early life with extensive travels throughout Europe where she began to study art. In the mid-1890s she studied at the Art Students League of New York, but realized her full potential upon her permanent return to New York which was precipitated by the start of World War I.
FLAUNTING PAGEANTRY With MIRTH
Upon assessing Florine’s oeuvre it is clear that her privileged position invades her work with lively, colorful accounts not only of her daily life but in whimsical paintings that chronicle of the upper-class ways of New Yorkers. Look deeper into Florine’s paintings and you will see that this amazing Art Deco diva freely depicted a magical world that remains as enchanting today and evocative of admiration.

EDITH WHARTON AND THE MOUNT (c) By Polly Guerin

www.womendeterminedtosucceed.blogspot.

Friday, February 26, 2010

EDITH WHARTON AND THE MOUNT (C)

By Polly Guerin

It was many years ago when I first visited Edith Wharton's former Berkshire estate, “The Mount” in Lenox, Massachusetts---a pilgrimage of sorts to pay homage to Wharton's amazing oeuvre producing over forty books during her lifetime. 

    The library at that time (2010) was rather barren of books save for a few first editions, less than I expected. However, I had my picture taken there by her desk and commanded this moment to memory and asked Wharton to be my muse. Her characters, such as Ellen Olenska in the Age of Innocence and the charming but ill-fated Lily Bart in The House of Mirth, are the most memorable among her books that I have read. These personalities still resonate with readers, even today.

    Wharton's life and the society that she wrote about stand as a testament to the obstacles that she encountered to find happiness and self fulfillment.  She broke through polite society's restrictions to become a Pulitzer Prize winning American novelist, short story writer and interior designer.

LOOKING BACK ON THE GILDED AGE

Wharton’s life spanning the years (1862-1937) was truly amazing era which put her in an ideal position to chronicle the lifestyles and the social ambitions of the newly rich of the Gilded Age. As a participant in fashionable society and a keen observer of the regime set by the old money set, she was in an enviable position to combine an insider’s view of America’s privileged classes.

     With a brilliant, natural wit Wharton also wrote humorous incisive novels and short stories. In this privileged position Wharton witnessed the variegated changes in Old New York and in Newport, Rhode Island where she summered and observed the cognoscenti of the era.

     Eventually, seeking a different venue, she built her own house, The Mount, in Lenox in 1902.

EARLY RECOLLECTIONS

Literary legal eagle, Louis Auchincloss in a talk in 2002 at the New York School of Interior Design had quite a bit to say about Edith Wharton. “Shy, yes,” he said, but she had a definite aggressiveness, too. In Newport circles, she was considered a little fast---I know my grandmother thought that!” Although Edith Wharton had a rather strained relationship with her mother she was not without early support. Her mother had her poems privately printed when she was sixteen and the copy that Auchincloss gave to the Morgan Museum had Wharton’s own pen corrections in it. 

      In 1885, at 23 year of age, Edith Newbold Jones married Edward (Teddy) Robbins Wharton, from a well-established Boston family who was 12 years her senior and a gentleman of her social class. Wharton at that time had very little knowledge of what to expect in marriage and she bitterly remembered that her mother refused to answer any questions that she may have posed. This fact wasn’t the only reason why it wasn’t a happy union, and aside from travel the couple had a lackluster relationship and more importantly, little in common intellectually. She divorced Teddy Wharton in 1913.

THE DECORATION OF HOUSES

Edith Wharton’s writing career as an interior decorator may have been launched with the publication of her first book, The decoration of Houses, (1897) written with her architect friend, Ogden Codman, but it was just the forerunner of this born storyteller’s oeuvre. The two taste masters denounced Victorian decorating practices and advocated the elimination of overstuffed furniture, artificial plants, festoons of lace on mantelpieces and dressing tables, heavily curtained windows. They endorsed a style of minimalism, bringing a breath of fresh air into interiors by stressing rooms based on simple, design principles, stressing symmetry and balance in architecture and thereby launched the careers of professional decorators to interpret the new style.

LONDON AND PARIS BECKON

Heading frequently to London and Paris she forged friendships with Bernard Berenson, the painter John Singer Sergeant and scores of French writers and artists including Jacques-Emile Blanche, Andre Gide and Jean Cocteau, always writing and managing to produce a volume a year. 

     In Paris, one of the most romantic cities in the world she began an affair in 1908 with Morton Fullerton, a journalist on the London Times, and all that she painfully missed in her marriage, love and intellectual communion, was fulfilled. However, Auchincloss described Wharton’s lover, Morton Fullerton as follows: “It is always sad to see a first-rate human being temporarily in the grips of a fourth-rater.” Wharton herself finally wrote that she would have been better off had she never met him. 

AN EX PATRIOT AMERICAN

In Paris, Wharton on her own terms and newly divorced became part of the intellectual circles where the artists mingled with the rich and high-born interlopers. She settled in Paris, in the historic Faubourg Saint-Germain arrondissement on the Left Bank. Life was a whirlwind of visiting Americans as well, including Henry James, Theodore Roosevelt and Henry Adams. 

     But World War I was looming and Wharton became fiercely dedicated to the Allied cause. Traveling to the front lines, unusual as it was for the time, she often in the company of Walter Berry and her chauffeur, made excursions in her automobile into the front lines to observe the fighting. 

     An early war journalist she wrote reports for American publications in which she urged the United States to join the war effort. In addition, Wharton helped establish workrooms to employ women who had no means of support and tirelessly led the committee to aid refugees. 

     During the war years she also collaborated on war charities with ElisinaTyler (Countess Elisina de Castelvecchio), for which the French Academy in 1920 awarded them jointly a gold medal inscribed with both their names.

FRANCE AND GREAT REWARDS

The final stage of Wharton’s life was spent in two beautiful houses in France---the summers at Pavillion Colombe, in a small village just north of Paris, and the winters at Chateau Saint-Claire at Hyeres---where she continued to write and enjoy the company of her beloved miniature dogs that were always a key element of Edith’s intimate household. 

     In recognition of her accomplishments the grand dame of American letters was the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize in 1921 for The Age of Innocence, and an honorary Doctor of Letters from Yale University in 1923. The lifestyle of the social and moneyed world in which she lived and depicted in her fiction may have vanished, but her books and authoritative works on architecture, gardens, interior design and travel have survived the test of time. Her achievements continue to leave a lasting impression of a remarkable woman who gave us a peak into the Gilded Age and other venues of witty storytelling.

RESTORING THE MOUNTAfter further touring The Mount several years ago, I was disappointed at the time that Edith Wharton’s boudoir and bedroom were empty, the furnishings long gone, but somehow her spirit lingered on. I was happy to learn recently that the NYC based designer, Michael Simon will soon be restoring these areas so that it reflects the time period in which she lived. The Mount is in every aspect of the estate, including its gardens, architecture and interior design, evokes the spirit of Edith Wharton who created an environment that would meet her needs as a designer, gardener, hostess, and, above all, as a writer. Within a year Wharton wrote: "Lenox has had its usual tonic effect on me, and I feel like a new edition, revised and corrected...in the very best type.” In a letter to her lover Morton Fullerton, she revealed how much of herself she put into The Mount. “I am amazed by the success of my efforts. Decidedly, I’m a better landscape gardener than a novelist, and this place, every line of which is my own work, far surpasses The House of Mirth.” The Mount, located on a hillside in the Berkshires overlooking Laurel Lake was designed according to the principles stated in Wharton's 1897 book, The Decoration of Houses. The house and the restored Italianate gardens can be visited from May through October. Ticket Office: 413.551.5107. www.edit

MARYLOU WHITNEY SARATOGA'S GRAND DAME (c)

MARYLOU WHITNEY SARATOGA’S GRAND DAME ©

By Polly Guerin

My dear Marylou: I remember it well. It was a pristine summer day in June and I was looking forward to interviewing you at Caty Hill your 135 acre estate in Saratoga Springs, New York and there you were in an elegant creamy beige pant suit with a marvelous gold broach perched on the shoulder of your jacket that quite nicely accented your glossy blonde hair. You were a vision of chic yet when children came in from the pool, draped with damp towels; you let them climb on your lap. Your nonchalance was impressive, yet I knew that you were the grand dame of Saratoga Springs. What’s more your charity and benevolence in the cultural and sport areas was legendary. And so the interview took place and I took copious notes of a woman who is truly an amazing diva par excellence, Alaska frontierswoman, Adirondack environmentalist and patron of the arts, horse breeder and racing enthusiast. Let’s raise our champagne glasses as we salute your life and its finest achievements.

A VISIT AT CATY HILL

You sat behind the great Whitney desk and with your friendly and open manner you gave a most interesting discourse on your current life and activities. Have you been to the races?” you asked me. “I’ve been attending a writer’s conference here in Saratoga I replied, but I haven’t been to the races.” With that Ms. Whitney whipped out a pink booklet and I wondered if I was getting a pink slip dismissal, but no instead, she gave me two complimentary tickets to sit in her royal box at the Saratoga racetrack so that I could view the races first hand like a society lady. Thank goodness I wore a picture hat that day, because fashionable millinery is de rigueur at the race track.

THE QUEEN OF SARATOGA

On the eve of the Whitney Handicap at Saratoga Race Course, droves of onlookers would turnout to watch who’s who of the horse and society worlds walk the red carpet at Canfield Casino. Everyone, however, awaited the arrival of crucial social figure Marylou Whitney, the philanthropist and grand dame who annually made a spectacular entrance in a themed event that announced the festivities each season. A gala it was in every description, showmanship par excellence, which she put on since 1978 with her late husband Cornelius “Sonny” Vanderbilt Whitney, who died in 1991. They had been the king and queen of the horsey set and later Marylou continued producing the gala with her current husband John Hendrickson. As the Queen of Saratoga, Marylou bestowed a magical influence on Saratoga Springs not only through philanthropy but through a huge impact casting the social spotlight on Saratoga’s summer horse village. “Marylou saved this town,” at least that is what people say.

THE ANNUAL GALA

Every year, on the eve of the Whitney race, Marylou costumed herself in keeping with a fantasy theme, such as Snow White or Little Bo Peep or the Good Witch from The Wizard of Oz. Whether she appeared as a fairytale princess, a flapper era debutante or an Alaskan heroine her entrance was a crowd pleaser for Marylou was much loved by the town as their patron and savior. Although these events had carnival aspects, they were not stuffy affairs, and catered to the local crowd as well with dog and clown acts, fortune tellers and booths set up where people could eat burgers and indulge in make-your-own-sundae tastings. The social elite paid stiff sums for the fundraiser benefits, which included the National Museum of Dance, and for the privilege to attend a private party inside the casino with Marylou and her entourage of celebrity friends.

SARATOGA SPRINGS BACK

Nary a lightweight when it came to philanthropy Marylou’s was instrumental in reversing the tide of decline of a seemingly sleepy Saratoga in the 1950s by putting the Saratoga Springs, 150 miles north of New York City, high on the social scene by throwing those high-profile parties that brought celebrities, media, and much-need dollars to the racetrack. Her late husband’s family was a major force in thoroughbred horse racing and in 2003; she made a $100,000 donation to the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation. The “Marylou Whitney Stables owns Bridstone, the 2004 Belmont Stakes and Travers Stakes winners.

MARRIAGE AND A NEW LIFE

In October 1997, when she was 72 years old Marylou (b. Marie Louise Schroeder 1925) married John Hendrickson, a (then) 32-year-old tennis champ and former aide to Governor Walter Joseph Hickel of Alaska. She met the very-junior John Hendrickson when she was in Alaska helping to ready her dog team for the Iditarod at a dinner party held by Governor Hickel. According to accounts there was an immediate attraction and she began spending a lot more time in Alaska. Hendrickson is no lightweight and had been managing land holdings in Alaska, so it is not surprising that later, as a vice president, he joined Whitney Industries, a lumber and logging business with 51,000 acres of critical Adirondack real estate. As for the glaring age difference between her and Hendrickson, Whitney once said, “He’s basically 31 going on 60. He’s older than me because I newer grew up. Perhaps it is because my father called me ‘Baby.” Hendrickson seems to be assuming a bit of the protector role that her late husband Sonny also played in her life.

ADIRONDACKS AND PHILANTHROPY

Hendrickson’s deft sale of 15,000 acres of Mrs. Whitney’s land in the Adirondacks proved he was more than just a semi-pretty face With John taking the lead some acres were sold to New York State and the acquired lands are called the Willam C. Whitney Wilderness Area. In 2007 Marylou and her husband John Hendrickson donated 250,000 to the Long Lake Library. In celebration of the gift, the library will be renamed The Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney Long Lake Library. Together they have followed in the Whitney family’s legendary philanthropy and gave generous donations to the Long Lake Medical Center and the Long Lake United Methodist Church. And as breast cancer activists Marylou and Hendrickson donated $2.5 million for the Marylou Whitney and John Hendrickson Center Facility for Women at the University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center.

HAIL TO THE QUEEN OF SARATOGA

Sadly Marylou suffered a stroke in early 2006, which seriously curtailed her celebrated activities in Saratoga. The planned summer gala that traditionally opened the racing season was to be “A Night in Alaska” by dog sled, and for the only woman who’s ever been to the South Pole and the North Pole within a period of four months, ‘A Night in Alaska’ would have been the quintessential event of all times. However, since having a stroke, Marylou has forsaken champagne nights, but the horse town has not forsaken the stalwart Queen of Saratoga and neither has anyone who has any horse sense. We salute her amazing ‘joie de vivre,’ her generous sense of philanthropy, a champion race horse owner and breeder and last but not least for putting Saratoga Springs on the map for future generations.

ESTHER HOWLAND FIRST LADY OF AMERICAN VALENTINES (c) By Polly Guerin

LOVE TOKENS FROM THE HEART, THE GOLDEN AGE OF VALENTINES ©By Polly Guerin

Lacy and be-ribboned, gilded with hearts, intertwined and pierced by Cupid’s dart, “Love Tokens From the Heart” were the fru-frou confections of lavish sentimentality, which identify with the Golden Age of Valentines, the years 1830 to 1860. These lavish confections, spilling forth with fancy paper work and sentimental verse, expressed an era and a time when the delicate art of romance was heightened by sending of charming valentine cards and greetings. So engaging is the custom that modern sentimentalists will be sending over a billion Valentine greetings, February 14th, making Valentine’s the second largest card-sending holiday.
THE POSTMAN COMETH
A popular magazine in 1850 explained the significance of the expected Valentine: “But of all the clamorous visitations in expectation is the sound that ushered in…a Valentine. The knock of the postman on the door this day is light, airy, confident and befitting of one that bringeth good tidings. A blessing on St. Valentine, the patron saint of the day, fraught with so many heart flutterings and heart enjoyments!”
   As the postman’s footsteps were heard along the street on Valentine’s Day ladies awaited the tell-tale knock at their door, which signaled the momentous arrival of a sweetheart’s sentiments. To be passed by was a devastating personal experience as it was observed by one’s next door neighbor who was peeking out of the window and awaiting the post as well. So much for Victorian fables!
   The custom of sending valentines to loved ones was so well established that there was practical help for swains whose feeling went deeper than words. If the muse did not inspire there were little books of love poems, called “valentine writers”, which were available for copying by lovers who could not conjure up an original rhyme. Commercial valentines were soon to lead the way to a prolific business that spread from England to America.
TWO HEARTS ENTWINED
The first valentines were imported from England, where new graphic art techniques enabled publishers to produce valentines of extraordinary beauty, intricacy and delicacy. Of all the well-known makers in England and America two stand out above all others, Jonathan King of London and Ester Howland of Worcester, Massachusetts, the first lady of the American Valentines.
   The real inspiration behind Jonathan King’s business was his wife Clarissa who added glitter to cards simply by decorating them with powdered colored glass. King’s valentines were highly ornamented to catch the eye and prettily enhanced with fine net, lacy paper, silver and gold glitter, cupids, flowers and love birds.
   Valentine “bank notes” issued by the Bank of True Love were also in vogue at the time. Typically the sender promised to pay the sincere homage and never-failing devotion of an affectionate heart. The idea was pure fantasy and wit, but the notes were printed on actual bank note paper that looked so real that they very soon outlawed.
AMERICA'S SWEETHEART
The history of valentine greetings in America has one special heroine—Esther Howland. Esther was the daughter of Southworth A. Howland who ran the largest bookstore and stationery shop in Worcester, Massachusetts. The well-educated young woman, a graduate of Mount Holyoke Seminary was preparing to go into teaching, but when she saw a British valentine that her father had imported to introduce in his emporium, it sparked her artistic talent. Quite enchanted with the cards, Esther hit on the idea that she could make Valentine cards as pretty as the European kind, if not nicer, and set about doing so.
   When her brother, Allen, was scheduled to go on a horse-and-buggy sales trip for their father's business, to get orders for the next season, Esther convinced him to take along a few samples of her cards. The handmade cards cost from $5 to $l0, a price that only the wealthy could afford, and the response was overwhelming. Esther expected her brother to sell $100 to $200 worth of the expensive cards. Instead he returned with orders for $5,000 worth.
A BUSINESS WOMAN
   In 1847, with such good sales results, Esther was able to convince her family to let he go into business.She persuaded her father to import embossed lacy paper and materials from England, and color pictures from a lithographer in New York. With all the material assembled, as well as artificial flowers, feathers, glitter, silk and lace, spun glass, colored papers, portraits and romantic scenes, Esther rounded up her "staff," selecting young women eager for a trade, friends and family and set up her enterprise.
   She took over a bedroom in the family home as her workshop and created prototype designs for her helpers to copy. Then they worked in an assembly-line fashion. One person cut out pictures; another made backgrounds, and so on around the table the valentine confections were assembled as each girl added further embellishment. As time went on, Esther Howland's, assembly-line production of her trademark Valentines did exceedingly well and the business expanded to a $100,000 a year enterprise. It was an astonishing accomplishment and huge sum for 1848.
IMITATORS EMERGE
It was not long before other entrepreneurial individuals recognized a good thing and established similar businesses with valentine cards that bore a striking resemblance to Esther Howland’s. Legend has it that among one of her employees was George Whitney, who later established his own business. The striking resemblance of the Whitney valentines in decorative art collections today prove out the fact that Whitney’s valentines closely resemble those of Esther Howland, even to the small red “W” stamp at the back of each card, similar to the “H” used by Miss Howland. When her widowed father became deathly ill in 1880, his dutiful daughter gave up her business to be at her father’s side.
SHE BROUGHT ROMANCE TO MILLIONS
By all accounts Esther Howland by Victorian standards was an attractive young woman and wore the fashionable attire, perhaps having her gowns made by a seamstress who copied styles form Godey’s Lady’s Book, at that time, the quintessential arbiter of style. It featured colored fashion plates from England, selected by the venerable editor, Sarah Josepha Hale, whose opinions on domesticity and fashion ruled the lives of Victorian readers.
.  Esther came from  an excellent entrepreneurial family, she had  a good education and a fine bearing and with such business success one might have thought that many a beaux would have courted the First Lady of Valentines.. However, the opposite was her misfortune. She never had a sweetheart of her own and died a spinster in 1904.
   Let's toast the First lady of Valentines whose greetings lavished with lace; love and sentimentality were the epitome of a romantic bygone era. Let's raise a glass of champagne to her memory and her charming valentine's that brought such happy sentiments to so many people.♥
FYI: For individuals interested in the decorative arts, Howland's Valentines are considered valuable collectibles today.
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