The Silver Screen Oasis

Dear Christy,

Can't answer the perfume query; I'm not atuned to colognes or perfumes much.
I do use Givenchy's Pi for myself because it's light, but don't notice other people's fragrances.

I can tell you that I do notice and really can't help noticing some real stinkeroos on buses sometimes, but not the fragrant ones usually.....

Larry

Do you remember any of the outfits she wore? What colors did she seem to favor?

And we all know one of her most beloved lines about "bourbon," but did she prefer champagne? Or martinis?

Hi Christy,

I wouldn't doubt that she had 'mucho' to say about her costumes in some of the films she was in.
"Airport" would have been her style and 'TCaT' would also. And, I can see her in that coat from "NbNW"....
I've only seen "Bon Voyage" once years ago, but she played a rich Countess - so she may have dressed herself in that one too.
I really don't know how much influence or input a character actress had in the say of her wardrobe, but I can't see Jessie wearing anything she didn't like or think appropriate.

Champagne was not something my grandmother or I liked much; and Jessie really did drink bourbon.
In Nell's home's, there was only 1 or 2 glasses of wine(s) served at meals, as she was adamently opposed to drunkenness and never would allow anyone to drive drunk....
I do remember a case of bourbon delivered to Nell's villa on Cap Ferrat for one of Jesse's visits. But, not much of that was drank and most of it may still be there today for all I know!!

Larry

OK, Larry. I am dying for more juicy Jesse gems! So she really drank bourbon, and when she said "avez vous bourbon," she was calling on practical personal experience of a yet undetermined nature.

So at the fancy embassy dinners, did you have appetizers with drinks before dinner? Or just gather and march into the dining room? Was Jesse an appetizer aficionado, a nibbler, or someone who would wait for the entree?


I feel like she would be the kind of lady who would dine a bit and chat a while, and take a bite, and chat some more. What kind of formal dinner guest are you?

Hi Christy,

Today, I am not one for formal dinners and I do not attend many any more, not that I did that in the past much either.

I did escort Jessie to the Yugoslavian Embassy in Rome, but I don't know how she got invited as The General was not in Rome at the time. They may have scoured hotel registers and someone knew she was "somebody"... She meerly commandeered me, as she knew I was pliable.... That dinner was not a high class affair - more a hillbilly hogfest. Waitresses plopped meat and potatos and veggies out of a large bowl onto our plates - splat!!!
We laughed about it often...

Hollywood dinners were formal often. We always dressed for dinner at Nell's - suit & tie and evening gown & jewels.
Nell was the next thing to Catherine the Great and her politics were to the far right of CtG.... She was a great friend of Mamie Eisenhower and truly "liked Ike"....
She abhored the Kennedys enmass and thought they were nouveau slush, even though she herself wasn't far removed from the gutter.

Only if guests were present would there be canapes. Usually soup, salade, entree and dessert. A wine would come with the entree only as Nell was averse to drunks bigtime!!

Jesse and others did bite, eat and converse.
At a formal dinner party, usually one would have hors d'ourves and a highball or a wine for about a half hour and then progress into dinner, escorting either whom the hostess paired you with or just pick your own lady if the hostess hasn't specified.
Usually there is a place card present but not always.
The person seated at the host's and hostess' right is the guest(s) of honour and sometimes the is a seating plan in order of precedence. But, not today really as everybody is deemed as "equal"

Travelling with Nell could get "touchy" as she was like to banish people from her table if she was slighted. Such happened to poor Dolores Gray onboard the Queen Mary in 1947, when Dolores unwittingly oneupped Nell in the number of steamer trunks each brought onboard.
Stupid really - Nell detested her evermore but I remained a good friend to Dolores - and that was a bit of a sticky wicket.....

Larry

Larry, you have GOT to write that book about Nell! Starting with her time at the court of the Tsar, her sad departure, just before the Russian Revolution, clear up to the day of her untimely death....what a story!!!!

Thanks so much, Larry. I love hearing about your dinner parties. I thought Dolores Gray was so much fun, so please feel free to tell us about her, too. I especially enjoyed her in The Opposite Sex and Designing Woman. I know she enjoyed great success on the London stage for three years with Annie Get Your Gun.

Sue Sue Applegate wrote:I thought Dolores Gray was so much fun, so please feel free to tell us about her, too. I especially enjoyed her in The Opposite Sex. . . .

Poor Dolores:

Hi,

PT:
I can't get over seeing Agnes in cowboy boots - instead of "Hi" I should have started with "Howdy" I guess....

Nancy:
Nell was never at the Court of the Tsar, but in the Dowager Empress' Household; there is a difference.... I know it all sounds so glittering and glamourous, but the Tsar's court was pretty glum and non-existant as they hardly entertained or appeared in public.
They lived outside St. Petersburg and seldom went to the city.

The Dowager Empress lived in the Anichkov Palace on the Fontanka Canal, right in the middle of town and she did entertain.
She is known to have had "the best table in Europe" and very wonderful dances. Nell was Chatelaine of the Household, meaning chief lady-in-waiting (but in public) and did not accompany her for private visits to relatives. So, she never really saw Nicholas and Alexandra - only twice, I think....

The day Nell died, she was going to Mae Murray's funeral. She came downstairs and as she approached her butler at the front door, she dropped dead at his feet. Poor Herbert!!
Herbert died on April 30th - 47 years and 1 month to the day Nell died. He was 98...

Larry

How old was Nell when she was with the Dowager Empress? Didn't the D.E. meet her as a young (13-15?) year old in Paris? She must have really found favor in the D.E.'s eyes to become Chatelaine.

as Oliver Twist said, "I want some more, please!"

Fascinating, Larry. Did Nell move to London after the troubles?

Vecchiolarry wrote:I can't get over seeing Agnes in cowboy boots - instead of "Hi" I should have started with "Howdy" I guess....

I love AM in a cowgirl outfit -- she is such a dudette!
And in the sixth season of Bewitched, she would dress as a cowgirl yet again:



She's all ready for the Calgary Stampede!

Well Howdy!!!

Agnes looks great and yes, she could have fit right in with the Calgary Stampede.. It is due to begin on July 7th and run till the 15th - it is the Centennial Year for the Stampede.....
Agnes could have been Parade Marshall - if she didn't want to ride a horse, then she could have ridin' shot gun on the stage coach!!!
_______________________________________________________________________________

Nell was 10 in 1900, when the Dowager Empress and her sister, Queen Alexandra, encountered her at the Paris Exhibition.... They were exhibiting some of their belongings and were checking reaction of the public, I think....
Both were taken with Nell's admiration of all the beautiful things they owned and in due time Nell and her sister, Carrie, were enrolled in the Smolney Institute in Russia.
She only became Chatelaine because she married the Chevalier of the Household, Prince Cantacuzene....
After the Russian Orthodox Church annulled her marriage, she moved to Paris in April 1914.
In June 1914, WWI started and the Prince was murdered by the Bolsheviks.
The Dowager Empress escaped to the Crimea and onto a British warship.

Larry