Aimée de Sá Sottomaior, later Aimée de Heeren (1903-2006), in 1938
The 4 Duchesses of Westminster
History of the Jewels of France
more information: Palace Hotels of the World
the beginning .... Bendor, the Carlton's most glamorous guest
Aimée de Heeren
Let us go back a few years ....
One day in 1938, a woman arrived in France who was so beautiful that she had been forced to leave her native country within 48 hours. No, she had not run five red lights driving at 200 km/h along the Avenida Atlântica beside Copacabana Beach. She was not wanted by the police.
The problem was far more serious. The country's president, the man who governed it longer than any other president and who was said to be the father of modern Brazil, had completely lost his head because he was so deeply in love with her.
This prevented the government from functioning normally. What is more, the First Lady, Darcy Vargas, had found out and was more than "furious". She threatened to divorce him and plunge the country into a constitutional crisis, for in those days a president was not permitted to be in love with anyone else. She had to leave in the night; a presidential aeroplane took her "bound for Paris". The drama was one of Brazil's best-kept state secrets, and it was only half a century after the president's death that his memoirs were made public.
Fortunately, the aeroplane carried a suitcase containing some jewellery and another filled with dollars, so that she would not arrive in Paris empty-handed.
And no sooner had she arrived at the Hotel Plaza Athénée than she received an invitation to a cocktail party on the French Riviera. She was put up in a villa on the Cap d'Antibes, but during her stay she wanted to discover a hotel she had heard so much about in Brazil. Over there it was a legend, for it was said that the Copacabana Palace had been inspired by it ... the Carlton in Cannes.
an electrifying encounter in the doorway of the Hotel Carlton As she was leaving the Carlton's lobby, without her quite realising it, someone noticed her ...
Bendor ....
Bendor was instantly transformed, as if a bolt of lightning had flashed through the hotel's hall ... And already this dream creature, far more beautiful than any girl he had ever seen in his life, had driven off in a car. Bendor was still too stunned to leap onto a scooter and follow her.
Over the following days, Bendor was at the Carlton Bar every day. On the "Flying Cloud", everyone wondered what was going on. He was hoping that this exotic apparition, with flowers all through her hair, would kindly reappear. But alas, the exotic beauty had vanished. For in Paris a new party was being prepared.
Circus Ball given by Lady Mendl in Versailles
1938: on 2 July, Lady Mendl was to give a ball at her Villa Trianon in Versailles. The whole French Riviera was talking about it. And of course Bendor was invited. There was not a major party in France or in England at which Bendor was not on the "guest list".
Elsie de Wolfe / Lady Mendl, a rather eccentric New York-born decorator, had come up with the idea of creating a circus in the grounds of her Villa Trianon, close to the park of Versailles. The Duke of Westminster had planned a shoot on that date, but a barman at the Carlton advised him: "Do go, Your Grace, everyone is going to this party, and there is a chance that Madame will be there too"
Perhaps he had to go, in the deep hope of finding the exotic apparition again. He telephoned Coco Chanel, who confirmed that she would be there as well.
Bendor was so eager to find this exotic beauty again that he arrived an hour early, which did not suit the hostess in her very last preparations. Bendor tried to find out who the guests were, but there were 700 of them. Finally he came across the writer Somerset Maugham, whom he knew well, for Maugham was forever poking fun at his adventures ... which helped make Maugham's books the best-sellers of the day.
Of course the writer, too, wanted to know whether the exotic beauty from Brazil would come ... and after two hours of waiting, who should suddenly appear in the line of arriving guests ... flowers strangely like those seen at the Carlton. It was the great moment Bendor had so longed for.
The Circus Ball was the last great party in France before the nightmare of the war. The end of an era ...
Lady Mendl's Party
Lady Mendl's Party
William Vandivert
Lady Mendl's Party
William Vandivert
Mrs. Ronald Balcom and Elsa Schiapare...
Lady Mendl Chatting with ...
William Vandivert
Lady Mendl's Party
William Vandivert
Lady Mendl's Party
William Vandivert
Lady Mendl's Party
William Vandivert
Lady Mendl's Party
William Vandivert
Lady Mendl's Party
William Vandivert
Lady Mendl's Party
William Vandivert
rivals in the USA Friends, in particular Robert de Billy, urged Aimée to leave France, where she had only just arrived. In 1939 she emigrated to the United States. Her sister Vera joined her.
In New York, Vera and Aimée arrived like "bombshells", and at once the men of East Coast high society, still very rigid at that time, completely lost their heads.
Everyone tried to win over the two Brazilians. Everyone knows what Marilyn Monroe would later say: "Diamonds are a girl's best friend", and in New York the competition was over who could give the most spectacular jewels.
Another hard blow for Bendor. In 1941 the fashion journalists of Time selected Aimée de Heeren as one of the 3 most beautiful women in the world; the other two were Wallis Simpson and the marvellous Babe Paley.
And the tragedy for Bendor was that the first great love of his life had already made a now-famous remark, there are plenty of Duchesses of Windsor, but only one Coco Chanel", and now Aimée was falling in love with the most handsome young man the East Coast could offer her. He was 25, a little young to give jewels of great value, but Aimée preferred him to the Rockefellers and the Vanderbilts, and to Bendor too.
This young man was as handsome as Bendor had been in 1924, but 1924 was already a long time ago ... and being 37 years younger makes a difference.
Aimée de Heeren's age? ... nobody knew, for it was one of the best-kept secrets in the world. Had it been known, it would have caused something of a scandal in the very puritanical East Coast of the United States at that time ... but nobody knew, least of all the editor of this site. And it was only 70 years later, shortly before she died, that Aimée told him, at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, that there had in fact been a 12-year age difference between the young man and her ...
Unlike the 4 Duchesses and the other ladies selected by Time, whenever Aimée entered a room in the 2000s, already a centenarian, with or without Bendor's jewels, every eye turned towards her,
Joseph Kennedy Jr, 1939
Joseph P Kennedy Jr WWII Pilot 1941
Anonymous
And to return to this young man from the East Coast, he had an asset that no one else had, except perhaps his three brothers: a future pointing towards the White House.
His mother, Rose, had fully understood that this exotic creature would be a major asset in winning the presidential race ...
Because of the war, fate turned out differently, and it was one of the brothers who won that race, with ... Jacqueline Bouvier at his side.
Robert Kennedy Shaking Hands
The hunt for ever more extraordinary jewels
To return to Bendor: from his distant England he watched everything that was happening in New York, and he watched all those Americans dazzled by her ...
And he said to himself: "there may be plenty of Americans circling around Aimée, but there is only one Bendor".
And this gave him a most exotic idea, very typical of him: to set off in pursuit of the lost jewels of the French Crown, for he knew.
You had to be a little crazy like Bendor and have a few magical connections, like a "Stéphane Binet of the last century" (see the following article on the French Crown Jewels).
Bendor hunted down every jewel, from those of Empress Eugénie to those that had been at the court of Versailles. Later the American publisher Malcolm Forbes also took it up, hunting Fabergé eggs, but with less success.
But his most intense desire, to be able one day to marry Aimée, was never fulfilled.
Not for anything in the world would she leave her husband, who was also very handsome, likewise younger than her, and to whom she was an extraordinary wife.
The editor of this site is too young to have known Joseph Kennedy, who died long before he was born. As for Aimée's husband, he was likewise too young, but his nephew John Wanamaker Leas often spoke to him about him. It was a dream marriage that lasted 40 years, with a woman who always remained just as beautiful.
Video of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II
A few websites related to this article:
The Cremerie de Paris exhibition centre. In the history of the Cremerie .... Aimée de Heeren, Bendor and Coco Chanel. The story of Aimee de Heeren. A website on the history of brands: Very Beautiful = VB.com. Among other things, the hotels frequented by Aimee de Heeren ... Palace Hotels of the World.com