| PETER
DUCHIN AND BROOKE HAYWARD DUCHIN |
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Peter and Brooke Duchin are a perfect blend of Broadway, Hollywood
and New York society. I can’t think of another individual
who possesses a comparable connection to those three glamorous
worlds (especially when they were glamorous). Brooke, born Brooke
Hayward, the daughter of film star Margaret Sullavan and
agent-producer Leland Hayward, despite her very
strong Hollywood connections (because her mother was once married
to Henry Fonda and her father was married to Slim
Hawks Hayward Keith, she is stepsister to Peter
and Jane Fonda as well as Kitty Hawks,
as well as, although we don’t go into that – Winston
Churchill II, son of Brooke’s last stepmother, the
(to her) notorious Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman).
Peter Duchin’s father Eddy Duchin was one of the most famous
American bandleaders of the 1930s’ and 40’s. His mother, Marjorie
Oelrichs was a famous society beauty, whose ancestors were a major shipping
family (the American agents for North German Lloyd) in the 19th century in New
York. A great-aunt, Blanche Oelrichs, wrote plays under the
name of Michael Strange and was married to John Barrymore with
whom she had a daughter, the famously infamous Diana Barrymore.
A century ago, the Oelrichs’ social standing in New York society attracted
a very rich and ambitious young woman from San Francisco named Tessie
Fair, whose rough-hewn father, James Graham Fair was
one of the partners in the discovery of the Comstock Lode. Miss Fair married
Duchin’s great-great-uncle Herman Oelrichs, and built
Rosecliff, the famous Newport mansion. The Rosecliff that was featured in the Robert
Redford film version of The Great Gatsby. Tessie’s sister Virginia,
(always known as Birdie) married Willie K. Vanderbilt
Jr. (she was his first wife).
The marriage of Peter’s father and mother was cut short tragically
when his mother died in the hospital five days after giving birth to Peter. Their
story was portrayed in the 1956 now classic film The Eddy Duchin story,
starring Tyrone Power and Kim Novak, playing
his mother and father.
Peter grew up under the care and surrogate parenting of Marie and Averell
Harriman, close friends of his parents. After school and a few years
living in Paris, he followed in his father's footsteps, in his mid-twenties,
in the 1960s, as a pianist/bandleader. His first memorable gig to New Yorkers
was in the old Maisonette nightclub in the St. Regis Hotel. Young and handsome
with patent-leather dark hair, all the debutantes and young female movie stars
would show up every night to dance in the presence of the new (up very late)
matinee idol. His popularity grew steadily during an era when most of the famous
society bandleaders like Meyer Davis, Lester Lanin and Emil
Coleman were retiring, opening up a new and lucrative field that has
supported him and his scores of musicians ever since.
He first married Cheray Zauderer, a New York socialite, and
they raised a family of three children here in New York and in Bedford. In those
years the Zauderer-Duchins were very much a part of the social scene of Jackie
Kennedy (later Onassis) and were frequent guests of Aristotle
Onassis on his famous yacht the Christina. Peter was the main
attraction on the stage of the Plaza ballroom the night Truman Capote held
his famous Black and White Ball in 1966, as he had a few years earlier during
the John F. Kennedy inaugural evening in Washington. The memories
of all this were put down in his autobiography published a few years ago A
Ghost of A Chance.
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Inside
the Duchin loft
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Brooke
Hayward started an acting career in her late teens, and
was sidetracked when she married Michael Thomas,
the writer who at the time of his marriage to Brooke was an investment
banker. The couple had two sons. After her divorce from Thomas,
she married Dennis Hopper, then considered one
of the leading bad boy actors both in Hollywood and on Broadway.
During the 1960s, the Hoppers were the toast of the Hollywood hipsters
which included her stepbrother Peter Fonda and the upcoming, then
unknown Jack Nicholson. The stars of all three
men rose to the heights with the Fonda-Hopper film Easy Rider,
the seminal film which by its expression tracked the transition
of young Americans of those Viet Nam wartime years into what became
known as the Hippie Generation — as well as making the stars
and producers establishment rich.
In 1977 Brooke wrote a family biography, her
very moving autobiography, called Haywire was
the first book of its kind, recording the real life nitty-gritty
of what the world theretofore knew and saw as a completely
privileged and glamorous existence. Both her mother and
her younger sister were suicides, which drove Brooke
to come to terms with it on paper. The book was an enormous
success.
It was after that the couple, who had known each other and had all kinds of connections
to each other for years – including the infamous connection of “stepmother” Pamela – got
together. For the past two decades, they’ve been a popular force in the
social and musical life of New York. They share a love for opera and classical
music and work to actively promote it with the New York City Opera, the Glimmerglass
Opera Company, and the Gotham Chamber Opera.
They are a very popular host and hostess (when they entertain their myriad friends
from all walks of life) at their loft in New York and their house in Litchfield
County. Peter basically still lives the show-biz life that Brooke has been used
to all her life – playing the one-night stands for all kinds of occasions,
weddings, debutante parties, charity galas, private parties, all over America.
Brooke was contracted to write another book (about Hollywood) after the success
of Haywire but the desire and drive to achieve that has not ever been
high on her must-do list. She is, however, currently at work on a new book project
covering those years in Hollywood when she was married to Dennis Hopper. If you
haven’t had the compelling experience of reading Haywire, you
can still find it in your local library or at times on Amazon.
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The
waterfall at their house in the Litchfield County
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They’re
a very laid-back couple in their bearing, despite the ultra-glamorous
backgrounds and growing up. They’re the kind of people who
can be described as “knowing everybody” because the
worlds they’ve inhabited are so eclectic and sophisticated.
However, all that aside, having seen it all, met them all, known them all, Brooke
and Peter, to their friends, are something like “just folks,” zero
pretense, dwelling in fascinating living environments which reflect a highly
refined aesthetic, a sense of comfort and ease. Beauty abounds, and music of
course, and dogs, and friends, and lots and lots of conversation and good food.
Ideal? Of course, nothing is ideal that lives. Idyllic? Close, or at least closeby
most of the time. The master bedroom of their house in the country sits by a
waterfall, with nature’s very own music lulling them to sleep every night,
and they are the kind of people who you could even think planned it that way.
Always a pleasure to be in their company. |
Albemarle,
Rufus
Aston, Muffie Potter
Basso, Dennis
Benedict, Daniel
Capehart, Jonathan
Cominotto, Michael
Curry, Boykin
Dahl, Tessa
DeWoody, Beth Rudin
Duchin, Peter and Brooke
Duff, Patricia
Eaton, Phoebe
Fales-HIll, Susan
Fekkai, Frederic
THE FULL LIST
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