I recently read Frances Kiernan's bio of Brooke entitled The Last Mrs. Astor. I recommend it for its insightful treatment of her leadership of the Astor Foundation.It is also not without nuggets:
"As someone in a highly visible position she could not wear the same outfit too many times. Such gowns as she did not pass on to the Costume Institute she passed on to her friend Kitty Carlisle Hart, who put them to immediate use in her role as a regular panelist on the television game show "To Tell the Truth". In those days TV shows did not provide performers with lavish wardrobes and the newly widowed Kitty Carlisle Hart did not have much money to spend."
2 comments:
how very odd. i looked that that picture and started to cry. why am i crying look at those grand old women??
I can't seem to shelve the Kiernan, because the dust-jacket photo of Mrs Astor (taken in an apartment building only a few blocks from where I live) is so wonderfully green.
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