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.”