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Elsa Maxwell (b. May 24 1883, Keokuk, Iowa - d. November 1 1963, New York City) was an American gossip columnist and author, songwriter, and professional hostess. Her parties for royalty and high society figures of her day earned her the nickname "the hostess with the mostest".
Maxwell is credited with the introduction of the scavenger hunt and treasure hunt for use as party games in the modern era (). She appeared in the 1943 film, Stage Door Canteen, alongside Judith Anderson, Tallulah Bankhead, Katharine Cornell, Lynn Fontanne, Helen Hayes, Gertrude Lawrence, Alfred Lunt, Lord Menuhin, and Cornelia Otis Skinner.
In 1953, Maxwell published a single issue of her magazine, Elsa Maxwell's Café Society, which had a portrait of Zsa Zsa Gabor on the cover. Anne Edwards' biography of Maria Callas (Callas, 2001) claims both that Maxwell introduced Callas to Aristotle Onassis, and also that Maxwell was a lesbian who tried to seduce Callas herself.
Bibliography
- RSVP: Elsa Maxwell's Own Story, by Elsa Maxwell, 1954.
- How To Do It, or The Lively Art of Entertaining, by Elsa Maxwell, Little, Brown and Company, 1957.
External links
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