“Life is a party: you join after it’s started and you leave before it’s finished.”
“Down with boredom. It has to go.”
“Most rich people are the poorest people I know.”
“Cocktails are society’s most enduring invention!”
“Only those who have earned leisure know how to use it profitably”
And I saw this one today in Bennett Cerf’s ‘Shake Well Before Using,’ (1948) an inexhaustible collection of anecdotes:
– Elsa Maxwell credits three simple words for making guests at her parties feel welcome and at home. “When they arrive,” says Miss Maxwell, “I murmur, ‘At last,’ and when they depart I protest, ‘already?’” –
Maxwell (1883–1963) was an American gossip columnist and author, songwriter, screenwriter, radio personality and professional hostess renowned for her parties for royalty and high society figures of her day. She loved life, and apparently really knew how to give parties! She knew everyone, and everyone knew her, from royalty to celebrities: Cole Porter, Noël Coward, Fanny Brice, Marilyn Monroe…and Maria Callas, whom she introduced to Onassis.
