Word: lehr
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...Paris in 1929 Mrs. Elizabeth Drexel Lehr heard that her husband was dead. To the daughter of Philadelphia Banker Joseph William Drexel, that event meant that the "tragic farce" of a 28-year marriage had ended, that she was now free to tell her story. A bitter, disillusioned book, "King Lehr" is memorable for the lurid light it throws on U. S. Society of the Gilded Age, may confidently be opened as one of the most startling and scandalously intimate records of life among the wealthy yet written by one of them...
...young widow when Edith Gould introduced her to Harry Symes Lehr, Elizabeth Drexel was amused and entertained by him, found him tactful, with a flair for drawing out unsuspected talents, with an al- most feminine desire to please and say the right thing. Penniless, Lehr was a "little brother of the rich," hobnobbed with Wanamakers, Goulds, Fishes, Astors, Oelrichs. Born in Baltimore, son of a once-wealthy importer, he consciously made entertaining rich people his career. Tom Wanamaker was glad to let him occupy his apartment. Wetzel made his clothes free. Kaskel & Kaskel gave him the latest designs in shirts...
Sentimental, unworldly Elizabeth Drexel was amused and touched when Harry Lehr told her of the difficulties of living by one's wits. Courtship was brief and high-minded, although Elizabeth was hurt that Lehr pressed her for exact details of her fortune, wanted a marriage settlement. She gave him $25,000 a year and expenses. When he took his fiancee to lunch with Mrs. Astor, Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish, Mrs. Oelrichs, Mrs. Belmont, they passed judgment on her, told him frankly, "We will make her the fashion. You need have no fear." But on their wedding night he dined alone...
...bewildered bride was too humiliated to confide in anyone, would not hurt her strict Philadelphia parents with the scandal of a divorce. Devoted and attentive in public, Lehr made her a social favorite. They took part in social life during its most ostentatious period, attended the Harriman ball that cost $100,000, the $200,000 James Hyde ball that became a great scandal, caused Hyde's disgrace. For that ball Sherry's was made over by Stanford White as a reproduction of the court of Louis XVI; Réjane was imported from France to recite Racine...
Grand Duke at a dinner and ball, but refused to include Jimmie Cutting. Mrs. Goelet demanded that he be invited. Mrs. Fish refused. Mrs. Goelet therefore would not let the Grand Duke attend the Fish party given in his honor. Unwilling to disappoint guests anxious to see royalty, Harry Lehr masqueraded as the Tsar of Russia, made a joke of the conflict, amused the absent Grand Duke...