On New Year’s Day 1970, maestro Leopold Stokowski was visiting Palm Beach. Soviet ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin was due for a vacation at The Breakers. Dina Merrill and Cliff Robertson were put up at Mar-a-Lago. Alvin and Lilly Fuller were ensconced in their new Chinese-style house with a ten-tier pagoda by the pool. During the holidays, Carola and Leon Mandel seated thirty-eight for a formal dinner at their South Ocean Boulevard estate where, according to Suzy, guests were served the very same pheasant and quail that their hostess shot and bagged.
For the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, the 1970 season would be their final holiday on Palm Beach, a welcoming refuge where they had been coming since 1947 when they stayed at the Everglades Club. Ellen Ordway hosted a dinner for the nomadic nobles at Villa Bel Tramonto before seeing them off at the train station. That summer, during their jaunt abroad, Gertrude Legendre and Ellen lodged at Croxteth in Liverpool where the Earl of Sefton and the Countess Sefton, you remember Foxie, provided comfortable accommodations. Foxie was a lifelong pal of the Duchess of Windsor. Down East, Brooke Astor chartered a yacht for a daytime sail and lunch for George Garrett’s birthday.
Welcome to the 1970s.
Palm Beach January-March 1970
Wally Findlay Galleries held an exhibition of Jane Pickens Langley’s paintings.
Jane Langley’s paintings were popular in Newport, Palm Beach and New York.
Palm Beach Life magazine. Jane Langley opening at Wally Findlay Galleries on Worth Avenue, “a social blockbuster.”
March 1970
Boca Grande
Boca Grande, aerial. “On a grey, and gloomy drizzly day Ethel Garrett, Alice Stearns and I fly over to Boca Grande to spend a day with friends.”Boca Grande. “The cottage where the Scotts are staying …” The current daily tariff at the Gasparilla Inn & Club is $845 for a two-bedroom villa and $950 for a three-bedroom cottage.Sally Biddle Gowen.Ethel Garrett, having a little touch-up.Huberta Schaeffer.
Hialeah Park
“Jim Brady flies us down to Hialeah for a day at the races.”
James Cox Brady’s plane.Hialeah Park race track. The statue in the middle of the fountain is of Citation. Today, the former flamingo thoroughbred showcase is known as the Hialeah Park Casino.Hialeah Park.
March 1970
Seminole Golf Club
Juno Beach
Ruth Draddy shakes hands with Betty Iglehart, left, and Linda Iglehart.Winston Guest.L. to r.: T. “Tommy” Suffern Tailer and John Ordway; Ellen Ordway and Bob Leidy.Lulu Balcom, Ron Balcom, and the recently married Eleanor “Ellie” Vietor Cernadas Rutherfurd.Jackie Coogan Ordway, her mother Lesly Ordway, and Janet “Jinky” (Mrs. Wiley) Reynolds.Lillian Fanjul.Father and son. Ogden Phipps and Ogden “Dinny” Phipps.
April 1970
Palm Beach
Cynthia Phipps and Peter Manigault. Phipps was Lilly Pulitzer’s half-sister, the daughter of Ogden and Lillian Phipps.Peter and Landine Manigault.Twin sisters. Dorothy Eyre and Peggy Isham Frazer.L. to r.: Bunny du Pont.; Dorothy Earl Laughlin, of Santa Barbara.
Seminole Golf Club
Juno Beach
Ogden Phipps and Libby Pratt.Howard Cushing.Libby Pratt.
May 1970 Duke & Duchess of Windsor Mini-Season
“Duke and Duchess arrive by jet.”
“Ellen Ordway’s dinner at Villa Bel Tramonto for the Duke and Duchess …”
Edward, Duke of Windsor.Susie Gardner and Ogden Phipps.Ogden Phipps and the Duchess of Windsor.Ellen Ordway says her last good-bye to HRH.
June 1970
Brittany
“Gertrude and I visit with Isabel and Trafford Klotz at their castle…”
Rochfort-en-Terre. Isabel and Trafford’s castle. Courtyard entrance.The topiary garden at the Klotz castle.Topiary garden.Isabel Klotz joins Ellen Ordway and Gertrude Legendre on the terrace for lunch.Rochfort-en-Terre, Klotz castle garden.
“Isabel drives us to Vanne where she does all her “big shopping.”
Vanne, street scene.Vanne, street scene.Vanne, town square.
June 1970
London
Syon Park, Brentford, Middlesex. London. The Duke and Duchess of Northumberland’s residence, designed in 1762 by Robert Adam.Syon House.Syon House.
June 1970
Croxteth, Liverpool
“Gertrude and I visit Hugh and Foxie.”
Croxteth.Croxteth. Gertrude Legendre and Countess “Foxie” Sefton. “Foxie gives us a tour.”Croxteth.
Croxteth. Foxie and Gertrude walking back inside through “the kitchen end,” as Foxy calls it.Croxteth.Croxteth. Gertrude talks a look at the cattle.Camera at the ready, Gertrude Legendre has made a new friend.Croxteth. Head caretaker’s cottage.Croxteth. The gardens and greenhouse.Croxteth. The rose garden.Croxteth, living quarters. “What matters. Hugh Molyneux, 7th Earl of Sefton, and his two little Jack terriers.”Foxie with the puppies.Croxteth. “Foxie and Hugh have the loveliest collection of paintings …”Croxteth, living quarters.Croxteth, living quarters.“Hugh’s jade collection …”“Hugh ready for dinner.” Hugh William Osbert Molyneux, 7th Earl of Sefton (1898-1972).Countess “Foxie” Sefton (nee Josephine Gwynne Armstrong, 1903-1980).
Costello Lodge
County Galloway, Ireland
“We go to Ireland to see Peter’s new investment …”
Built in 1913 in the Lutyen architectural style, Costello Lodge, “one of the foremost salmon fishing locations,” was originally built for J. Bruce Ismay, chairman of the White Star Line, who gained infamy when he boarded a lifeboat and survived the sinking of the RMS Titanic. According to available heritage records, the house was rebuilt following a fire during the 1920s.Peter Ordway.L. to r.: John Ordway joins us; William Henry Lodge.Peter Ordway.
1 July 1970
Dublin > Boston > Northeast Harbor
TWA, Dublin to Boston.
July 1970
Down East
“We picnic on Little Gott Island and Black Island …”
“We join the Toogoods …”Christopher Newbold.Stanley Pierson and Arthur Pierson.Katherine “Kitty” Roosevelt Draper.Ford Bowman Draper, no relation to Don Draper, was affiliated with Du Pont.Edith Akeroyd Purviance.“Along the rocky shore …”Coxie Toogood, Augusta Harrison, Ellen Ordway, and the dogs. “Off to Baker’s Island.”The most adorable Cardigan Welsh Corgis.“Landine Manigault comes for a visit …”
August 1970
Aboard Sea Star with Brooke Astor
“Brooke charters a yacht for George Garrett’s birthday …”
The Sea Star.Ethel Garrett, Brooke Astor, Eddie Graves, and Sid Scott.The Sea Star crew is kept busy.Ethel Garrett and Brooke Astor, keeping warm.Anne Gates and George Garrett.Brooke Astor and Tom Gates.Ethel Garrett, Brooke Astor, and Tom Gates. Brooke appears to be double-checking that she indeed looks like Mrs. Astor. During the 1960s and 1970s, Astor gave several interviews where she said it was important “to look like Mrs. Astor, it is what people expect …”Eddie Graves and Brooke Astor, “our hostess.”The Sea Star has a well-choreographed crew.The crew stays on their feet.Bass Harbor Lighthouse, Arcadia National Park.
August 1970
Down East
Charles Newhall.Nathalie Pierrepont, the dogs, and Ellen Ordway. In 1951, Mrs. Pierrepont sold the palatial Pierrepont estate on Sunrise Avenue at Palm Beach to the owner of the lakeside Biltmore Hotel who considered converting it into a beach club. At the time, the Biltmore had a long-term lease on Villa Marina, the former Sanford family house on the corner of Grace Trail and North Ocean Boulevard. Both properties flanked the Sun-and-Surf Club, the former Otto Kahn-Leonard Replogle estate. Both properties were later developed as condominiums.
“The Grassi family comes for dinner …”
Bud Grassi.Temple Grassi and his mother Edith Gwathmey Grassi.Robert Bacon Whitney.
September 1970
Labor Day Weekend
The Fairlee, Northeast Harbor. “Mr. and Mrs. Luken take us out to watch the sailing races …”The Toodgoods with family and friends aboard Trailaway.Aboard Jericho. Anne Gates, Ethel Garrett, Elinor Douglas, Jimmy Douglas, Tom Gates, Cora Clarkson, and George Garrett.Aboard Jericho.Alan and Nina Cooke Emlen and their daughter aboard Dry Fly III.Susie Sage.Mrs. William Wister.Bill Wister.
News from here and there
Sydney L. Wright, obituary. “My first cousin died …” Wright’s mother and Ellen’s mother were sisters.
“A very cherished friend passes away …”
Mrs. Henry Carnegie Phipps, obituary.
Then and Now
Barend Van Gerbig, 1953 and 1970.Livingston Biddle, 1936 and 1970.Ordway-Quesada wedding announcement and engagement photograph.
October 1970
Palm Beach
Spottswood “Spotty” White.Warrington Gillet Jr. and Gayle Jennings.“Warry being briefed on how to grow mint in your own backyard.”
December 1970
Christmas greetings
Gertrude Legendre.Rip and Jan Frazer.Prince Charles and Princess Joan of Luxembourg.Edward and Wallis, Duke and Duchess of Windsor.
Ellen Glendinning Ordway Photograph Collection courtesy of Gayle Abrams & Lucius Ordway Frazer.
