Cafe Society

Aristocrats, millionaires, painters, fashion designers, choreographers, and musicians of the café society fox-trot aboard cruise liners and mingle at dazzling parties in Paris. Exclusive, extravagant, and beautiful, these cosmopolitan socialites were the patrons who galvanized the phenomenal success of the greatest creators of the early twentieth century. It was a whirlwind of sumptuously decorated villas and yachts, up-and-coming haute couture and jewelry designers, and elite evening parties, immortalized by fashion photographers like Cecil Beaton. Combining elegance and fantasy, the members of the café society enjoyed a sophisticated, avant-garde lifestyle. Some of the century’s most original talents—from Cole Porter to Yves Saint Laurent—stepped into the limelight via the café society. Through archival photographs and period documents, this volume recounts in historical detail the intrigue and impact generated around the world by this stylish jet-set.

The Baron de Cabrol’s legendary scrapbooks capture a golden era of glamour and reveal the sheer elegance and decadence of the cosmopolitan café society. The glamorous aristocrats Daisy and Fred de Cabrol formed one of the most prominent twentieth-century high-society couples on the international scene. Leading members of the exclusive café society, they socialized with the biggest names in the haut monde—from the Maharani of Kapurthala to Queen Amelia of Portugal to their close friends the Windsors. Reproducing pages from the scrapbooks crafted with beauty and wit by the Baron de Cabrol between 1938 and the 1960s, this volume reveals the privileged and extravagant world of the café society. Through collages, watercolors, and previously unpublished archival documents, readers will discover the exceptional journey through the golden age of elegance and art.

Set against the drama of the Great Depression, the conflict of American race relations, and the inquisitions of the House Un-American Activities Committee, Cafe Society tells the personal history of Barney Josephson, proprietor of the legendary interracial New York City night clubs Cafe Society Downtown and Cafe Society Uptown and their successor, The Cookery. Famously known as "the wrong place for the Right people," Cafe Society featured the cream of jazz and blues performers--among whom were Billie Holiday, Big Joe Turner, Lester Young, Buck Clayton, Big Sid Catlett, and Mary Lou Williams--as well as comedy stars Imogene Coca, Zero Mostel, and Jack Gilford, the boogie-woogie pianists, and legendary gospel and folk artists. A trailblazer in many ways, Josephson welcomed black and white artists alike to perform for mixed audiences in a venue whose walls were festooned with artistic and satiric murals lampooning what was then called "high society." Featuring scores of photographs that illustrate the vibrant cast of characters in Josephson's life, this exceptional book speaks richly about Cafe Society's revolutionary innovations and creativity, inspired by the vision of one remarkable man.

While tracing the historical emergence of the café as a social institution and noting its multiple faces and functions in the modernity of the occident, three themes run like threads of varying texture through the chapters: the social connectivity and inclusion of cafés, café as surrogate office, and café as site of exchange for news and views.

The narrative of Details Are Unprintable primarily unfolds over a seven-month period from October 1943 to April 1944—from the moment the body of twenty-two-year old Patricia Burton Lonergan is discovered in the bedroom of her New York City Beekman Hill apartment, to the arrest of her husband of two years, Wayne Lonergan, for her murder, and his subsequent trial and conviction. But this story goes back in time to the 1920s, when Wayne Lonergan grew up in Toronto and then forward to his post-prison life following his deportation to Canada. It is the chronicle of Lonergan in denial as a bisexual or gay man living in an intolerant and morally superior heterosexual world; and of Patricia, rich and entitled, a seeker of attention, who loved a night out on the town—all set against the fast pace of New York’s ostentatious café society. Part True Crime and part a social history of New York City in the 1940s, this book transports readers to the New York World’s Fair of 1939 when Patricia’s father William Burton first encountered Lonergan; the Stork Club, 21 Club, and El Morocco to experience with Patricia a night of drinking champagne cocktails and dancing; and the muggy New York courtroom where Lonergan’s fate was decided. What truly happened on that tragic night in October 24, 1943? Should we accept Lonergan’s confession at face value as the jury did? Or was he indeed a victim of physical and mental abuse by the state prosecutors and the police, as he maintained for the rest of his life? This book considers these, and other, key questions.

The story of the night club impresario whose wildly successful interracial club, Cafe Society, changed the American artistic landscape forever

In the midst of the Great Depression, an elite group of New Yorkers lived seemingly unaffected by the economic calamity. They were writers, playwrights, journalists, artists, composers, singers, actors, adventurers and socialites. Newspaperman Maury Paul dubbed them the Café Society. It was the time of Prohibition, speakeasies and exclusive nightclubs for the smart set to see and be seen. Their lives were the stuff of newspaper columns and magazine articles, eagerly read by millions of Americans who wanted to forget the Depression. This book describes the emergence of Café Society from New York’s old society families, and the rise of the new creative class.

In the midst of the Great Depression, an elite group of New Yorkers lived seemingly unaffected by the economic calamity. They were writers, playwrights, journalists, artists, composers, singers, actors, adventurers and socialites. Newspaperman Maury Paul dubbed them the Cafe Society. It was the time of Prohibition, speakeasies and exclusive nightclubs for the smart set to see and be seen. Their lives were the stuff of newspaper columns and magazine articles, eagerly read by millions of Americans who wanted to forget the Depression. This book describes the emergence of Cafe Society from New York's old society families, and the rise of the new creative class.