Marriage and Family
De Wolfe's 1926 marriage to diplomat Sir Charles Mendl was page-one news in the New York Times. Shortly after her marriage, she scandalized French diplomatic society when she attended a fancy-dress ball dressed as a Moulin Rouge dancer and made her entrance turning handsprings. A guest chided her: "Elsie, it is wonderful to be able to turn handsprings at your age. But, after all, you are, you are Charlie's wife, and do you think it is in perfect taste for the wife of a diplomat to perform acrobatics in a ballroom?"
The Times said that "the intended marriage comes as a great surprise to her friends," perhaps because since 1892 de Wolfe had been living openly in what many observers accepted as a lesbian relationship. As the Times put it: "When in New York she makes her home with Miss Elizabeth Marbury at 13 Sutton Place."
The daughter of a prosperous New York lawyer, Elisabeth (Bessy) Marbury, like de Wolfe, was also a career pioneer. She was one of the first theater agents. Her clients included Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw. During their nearly 40 years together, Marbury was initially the main support of the couple. Dave Von Drehle speaks of "the willowy De Wolfe and the masculine Marbury... cutting a wide path through Manhattan society. Gossips called them "the Bachelors."
Read more about this topic: Elsie De Wolfe
Famous quotes containing the words marriage and/or family:
“Men commonly couple with their idea of marriage a slight degree at least of sensuality; but every lover, the world over, believes in its inconceivable purity.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Govern a small family as you would cook a small fish, very gently.”
—(20th century)