A Tony Night

The windows down at Bergdorf's, inspired by the late great Tony Duquette. 9:30 PM. Photos: DPC.

Warm and mild for mid-November in New York with grey skies promising rain.

Down at Bergdorf’s last night, after the store closed and the new displays in the Fifth Avenue windows were completed, they opened up for a private book signing party for Wendy Goodman and Hutton Wilkinson their new book “Tony Duquette” with a foreward by Dominick Dunne.

Tony Duquette was a very prominent interior designer, set designer, costume designer, artist, sculptor, jewelry designer, painter, fantasist who lived most of his life in Los Angeles in houses that were environments for his rich and inventive imagination. Ms. Goodman is the writer, biographer who has been researching and writing this book for the past couple of years. Mr. Wilkinson is a Los Angeles native, son of an architect who went to work for Tony as his assistant when he was a teenager. The partnership lasted for the rest of Tony’s long life and Hutton became his heir and executor and keeper of the flame when he died in 1999 at age 85.

The young Tony with antlers ...

... late in life

During his long career, Tony and his wife Beegle (birth name Elizabeth) had residences and studios in West Hollywood (in what is now the Margo Leavin Gallery), in Beverly Hills on Dawnridge in a fantasy house inspired by their visits to Venice; in the hills above Malibu (in what he called “The Ranch”) which was completely destroyed by fire, as well as San Francisco, in another building that was also completely destroyed by fire.

Tony was discovered by Elsie de Wolfe, Lady Mendl, the international interior designer who is regarded as the woman who gave the business its name and direction. I don’t know how they met (I’m sure it’s in the book), but Lady Mendl, who had moved to Hollywood during the Second World War, having evacuated her famous house in Versailles, commissioned Tony to make a secretary for her. That was the beginning of a long and successful business relationship and friendship. In her Will she left the piece to him.

Mary Pickford (second from left), Louella Parsons, and Gloria Swanson

Mary Pickford, Buddy Rogers, Beegle, and Tony Duquette at Pickfair

He and Beegle were at the center of Hollywood social life from the late 1940s throughout the next four decades. They were married at Pickfair when it belonged to its original owner, Mary Pickford and her husband Buddy Rogers, who were matron of honor and best man. Pickfair from the 1920s through the 1960s was one of the most famous houses in America. “Little Mary” was the first great female movie star in the world, who with her first husband Douglas Fairbanks Sr, Charlie Chaplin and director D.W. Griffith created United Artists (now the home of Tom Cruise’s production company) in 1919.


the master bedroom at Dawnridge, inspired by his Venetian trips.

The Duquette cocktail receptions and dinners and luncheons were always special occasions and always glamorous. They brought out the biggests stars of the day as well as international fashion figures, all of whom paid homage to their host and his astonishing artistry. Visiting his houses was like taking a trip into another world, unabashedly creative and fabulous in the true sense of the word.

I knew him in the 1980s when I lived in Los Angeles. He was a friendly man but a man who was always at work. His manner was light and breezy. He had an impish personality in conversation, and a sharp eye. He’d use anything he could find on the streets and roadsides and transform them into images of jewel-like objets. Much of his creations were woven with whim; the work habits had the quality of a child intensely at play. The artistry of the man was so all encompassing that you had the feeling he was always at it.

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	Click cover to order.

The last time we were there was for the wedding of Marin Hopper and John Goldstone [2] who married in the garden of the property in 2004. Every inch of the place, inside and out had been touched by the man’s hand and imagination.

Besides his brilliant artistry, it so happened that he was a shrewd businessman who over time acquired a great deal of property in Southern California, some of which he used for his projects and lifestyle and others which he turned into long term lucrative assets.

The book, published by Harry Abrams doesn’t come out until mid-December, a perfect time for the perfect Christmas gift for anyone who loves design interior design, Hollywood, the movies, or a vivid imagination with the power to actualize. Timothy Street-Porter, the distinguished photographer did the cover.

They were lined by the score last night at Bergdorf’s to buy one of the special edition of 500 copies, in linen case and designed by its two creators. The fashionistas, the interior designers and even Caroline Kennedy and Ed Schlossberg were patiently waiting in line to get their copy of one man’s treasures.