Mrs. Astor and the Gilded Age

These women are included in the book, Crowning Glory: American Wives of Princes and Dukes, with a preface by His Royal Highness Prince Michael of Greece and Denmark:

Dorothy Adriance
Estella Dolores Alexander
Josephine Angela
(Ava) Alice Muriel Astor
Margaret “Peggy” Wright Bedford
Eugenia “Jennie” Enfield Berry
Marian Berry
Florence Binney
Lida Lacey Bloodgood
(Caroline) Lee Bouvier
Suzanne “Susie” Bransford
Catherine Britton
Ethel Julia Bronson
Mary Gwendoline “Mamie” Caldwell
Eleanor Calhoun
Jane Allen Campbell
Marguerite Gibert Chapin
(Esther) Millicent Clarke
Margaret Clarke
Grace King Connelly
Hope Cooke
Lucy Cotton
Claire Coudert
Florence Crane
Martha “Sunny” Sharp Crawford
Aimee Crocker
Nina Crosby
Elisabeth Curtiss
Josephine Mary Curtiss
Mathilde Barclay Davis
Dorothy Evelyn Parker Deacon
Gladys Marie Deacon
Joan Douglas Dillon
Margaret Preston Draper
Audrey Emery
Elizabeth “Bessie” Hickson Field
Marie Elisabeth Forbes
Caroline Forster
Caroline Fraser
Margaret A. “Gogo” Geary
Alice Gibson
Maud Staples Ely-Goddard
Anna Gould
Julia Dent Grant
Stevens “Stevee” Anna Greeff
Alice Green
Eleanor Margaret “Peggy” Green
Lisa Halaby
Elizabeth Frances Hanan
Mildred Haseltine
Dorothy Haydel
Zefita Suzanne Hayward
Rita Hayworth
Florence Ellsworth Hazard
(Marie) Alice Heine
Elise Friedericke Hensler
Margaret Hirsch
Virginia “Ella” Hobart
Claire Huntington
Helen Husted
Barbara Woolworth Hutton
Evangeline Johnson
Eileen Johnston
Martina Potter Jones
Nancy Southgate Jones
Agnes Elisabeth Winona Leclercq Joy
(Margaret) Brooks Juett
Elise Cragin Kay
Grace Patricia Kelly
Helen Kelly
(Agnes) Raffaella Kennedy
Josephine Kleiner
Jacqueline (“Jackie”) Lane
Marguerite Lawler
Frances Alice Willing Lawrance
Mary Esther Lee
Amanda Leigh
Nancy Leishman
Bertha Emma Lewis
Helene Lewis
Anita Lihme
Mathilde Elizabeth Lowenguth
Virginia Woodbury Lowery
Evelyn “Eva” Bryant Mackay
(Helen) Isabelle McMillin
Vernon Marguerite Rogers Magoffin
Estelle Romaine Manville
Mary McCormic
Alexandra Miller
Nancy Ann Miller
Angela Mills
Prudencienne Milmo
Mattie Elizabeth Mitchell
Beatrice Molyneaux
(Mary) Elsie Moore
Helen Stuyvesant Morton
Helene Moulton
Julia Mullock
Mae Murray
Pola Negri
Lida Eleanor Nicolls
Valerie Norrie
Kathleen Norris
Natalie “Lily” Oelrichs
Sarah Elisabeth “Betka” Paine
Myra “Daria” Abigail Pankhurst
Evelyn “Eva” Florence Pardridge
May Amelia Parsons
Elizabeth “Betsey” Patterson
Jeanne Marie Beard Perkins
Frances Kathryn Peters
Virgilia Peterson
Romaine “Tootie” Dahlgren Pierce
Henrietta Guerard Pollitzer
Jamie Porter
Marian “Polly” Hubbard Powers
Elizabeth Bleeker Tibbits Pratt
Anne Hollingsworth Price
Lillian Warren Price
Katharine Quay
Marie Jennings Reid
Amelie Louise Rives
Elizabeth Reid Rogers
Helena Rubenstein
Margaret Stuyvesant Rutherfurd
Katherine “Kay” Linn Sage
Adele Livingston Sampson
Peggy Thompson Schulze
Laura Schwarz
Rosalie Dorothea Selfridge
Conchita Sepulveda
Helen Seton
Theodora Mary Shonts
Helen Karr Simpson
Virginia Sinclair
Hazel Singer
Isabelle Blanche Singer
Winnaretta Eugenie Singer
Marian Adair Snowden
Eleanor Lorillard Spencer
Elizabeth Helen Sperry
Helen Macdonald Stallo
Laura Macdonald Stallo
Gladys Virginia Steuart
Frances Simpson Stevens
Anita Rhinelander Stewart
Nonnie May “Nancy” Stewart
Nevada Hayes Stoody
Lucie Grundy Tate
Dorothy Cadwell Taylor
Emily Stuart Taylor
Mabel Taylor
Natividad Mercedes Terry
Allene Tew
Lucy Tew
Anne Huntington Tracy
Cecilia Ulman
Louise Astor Van Alen
Consuelo Vanderbilt
Rosalie Van Zandt
Medora Marie von Hoffmann
Elizabeth Ashfield Walker
Helena “Ella” Holbrook Walker
Clara Ward
(Bessie) Wallis Warfield
Ruth Morgan Waters
Margaret “Peggy” Carrington Watson
(Ethel) Margaret Whigham
Susan Whittier
Elaine Daniels Willcox
Thelma Jeanne Williams
Catherine Daingerfield Willis
Ada Winans
Beatrice Winans
(Elinor) Douglas Wise
Mildred Lucile Withstandley
Mary Augusta “May” Yohé
(Maria) Consuelo Yznaga
Helena Zimmerman

You can read more about those who succeeded at entering my ballroom, as well as the majority who tried and failed, at: www.americanprincesses.com

While it is true that I completely dominated New York society in the last quarter of the 19th century, I never purposely sought publicity. My Savannah-born friend, Ward McAllister, often beseeched me to invite newspaper owners to my salon but, with a very few exceptions such as George Smalley, I did not relent. When I tell you about a few of those who tried – without success – to cross my threshold, I think you will see the wisdom of my judgment.

Mrs. Astor

Cecilia Ulman, born NYC 6 July 1863, died Paris 9 April 1927, was the wife of Ferdinand Blumenthal, the senior member of the firm of F. Blumenthal & Co., leather merchants, who came to the U. S. from his native Frankfurt-am-Main around 1875. He established a New York City office of his family business which had been founded in 1715, and opened factories in Wilmington, DE, which were incorporated into his firm. He retired early and had a home at 19 Spruce St., NYC, and at 34 Avenue du Bois de Boulogne in Paris, which was referred to as a “showplace” containing “a famous collection of art.” He was a well-known collector of antiques and his Paris home was filled with paintings of the Barbizon school including a number of Corots. He was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor for his interest in French arts. Blumenthal died 20 October 1914 on board the steamship Patria on his way from Naples to NYC, leaving two sons by Cecilia, William and Cecil.

She then married as his second wife at Paris’ Church of St. Pierre du Groscallou (where she was escorted down the aisle by the American Ambassador, William G. Sharp) on 14 November 1917, Louis, 2nd Duc de Montmorency, Count de Perigord, born Paris 22 March 1867, son of 1st Duc de Montmorency, prominent figure at the court of Napoleon III, who was a son of the 3rd Duc de Valencay of the Princes de Sagan and Dukes de Talleyrand-Perigord. He succeeded his father 26 March 1915. His first wife had been a daughter of the Duc de Rohan. The Duke was 48 at the time of his second marriage and had no children by Cecila. After Cecilia’s death in 1927 he married again, in 1950, at the age of 83 and died the next year at Paris 26 September 1951 and the line is now extinct. After her marriage to the Duc de Montmorency, wags in Paris referred to the former Mrs. Blumenthal as the “Duchess of Montmorenthal.”

In May of 1919, Cecilia’s brother, J. Stevens Ulman of New York City, one of the first prominent Jewish members of society, announced the engagement of his nephew, “Cecil Charles Blunt,” who was a Vice President of F. Blumenthal Co. The bride was Donna Anna Laetitia Pecci (1885 – 1971), only daughter of Count and Countess Camillo Pecci of Rome (Pecci was a nephew of Pope Leo XIII, as his father was the Pope’s younger brother). The two were married in 1919 and adopted the name “Pecci-Blunt” after Cecil was created a Count by his wife’s great-uncle, the Pope. She became a great patron of the arts and owned an art gallery which featured the work of new and emerging artists. The world premiere of Ned Rorem’s “War Scenes” took place on 23 March 1955 at a private concert in the Countess Pecci-Blunt’s Roman palazzo. Many of the Blumenthal paintings were inherited by Count Cecil Pecci-Blunt and three Corots and one Delacroix are now in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

The Pecci-Blunts had a daughter, Laetitia, who married Prince Don Alberto, Prince of Venosa (of the Boncompagni Ludovisi family). Both she and her father, Count Pecci-Blunt, retained their U. S. citizenship. Count Pecci-Blunt met a younger man, Cecil Everley, who was then serving behind the counter at the London department store, Lillywhite. He was formerly a footman to the 7th Earl of Beauchamp who was publicly disgraced in 1931 for homosexual offences (King George V is reported to have said at the time, “I thought men like that shot themselves.”). Count Pecci-Blunt and Everley began an intimate relationship and the Count gave him a house in California and another, La Rondine, on Cap d’Ail, in the south of France. Everley, who was known as good-looking but boring, once asked society hostess Daisy Fellowes, after her sale of the Sister Anne, “Do you miss your yacht?” (purchased with the substantial fortune inherited from her American grandmother, Isabelle Singer, Duchess Decazes) to which she replied, “Do you miss your tray?” Cecil Beaton’s diary referred to Cecil Everley as “a rather pathetic and silly chorus boy sissy.” Everley began painting in California in 1953 and his works eventually were in the collections of the Aga Khan, Princess Grace and Princess Caroline of Monaco, Greta Garbo, Greer Garson, and Estee’ Lauder. Count Cecil Pecci-Blunt divided his time between his life with his wife and children and that of his life with Cecil Everley. His long-suffering wife was referred to as “La Reine des Deux Ceciles.”