Trendsetters: Elsa Maxwell

Elsa Maxwell (1881-163) was the original “hostess with the mostess.” Credited with the introduction of the scavenger hunt and the murder mystery party, she rose to prominence through sheer will and found her fame hosting parties for the rich and famous in Europe and New York City. She believed a true, original idea would make for a better party than even the finest dining and champagne.

Further Reading

• Inventing Elsa Maxwell
• R.S.V.P: Elsa Maxwell’s Own Story
• How to Do It or The Lively Art of Entertaining

All month, we're talking about Trendsetters: women whose vision, style, and willingness to break barriers changed culture — from what we wear to how we behave.

History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn’t help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.

Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more.  Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures. 

Womanica was created by Liz Kaplan and Jenny Kaplan, executive produced by Jenny Kaplan, and produced by Grace Lynch, Maddy Foley, Brittany Martinez, Edie Allard, Lindsey Kratochwill, Adesuwa Agbonile, Carmen Borca-Carrillo, Taylor Williamson, Sara Schleede, and Abbey Delk. Special thanks to Shira Atkins. 

Original theme music composed by Miles Moran.

Follow Wonder Media Network:

• Website
• Instagram
• Twitter

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hello from Wonder Media Network. I'm Jenny Kaplan and this
is Womanica. This month, we're talking about trendsetters, women whose vision, style,
and willingness to break barriers changed culture from what we
wear to how we behave Today, we're talking about the
original hostess with the mostas. This woman wrote the book
on throwing parties, raising the bar for high society fun

(00:25):
on both sides of the Atlantic, and she did it
all from humble beginnings. At least, that's the story she
stuck to please meet. Elsa Maxwell. A great hostess, has
great party stories. For Elsa, her own birth was a
go to. She was born on May twenty fourth, eighteen
eighty three, in a private box in the Kiakook Opera

(00:47):
House during the climactic Aria of Mignon. Well that was
what she amused people with anyway. Elsa was born on
May twenty fourth, just two years early in eighteen eighty one,
and she was born in Keiacook, Iowa, just in her
grandmother's house on North fourth Street rather than the local

(01:08):
opera house. Later on, Elsa would tout her birthplace of
kia Cook as a symbol of her simple origins. It
wasn't exactly a lie, but right after she was christened,
her family moved back to their large house in San Francisco,
where Elsa did all her growing up in the upper
middle class. Still in Elsa's own retelling of her childhood,

(01:30):
her modest upbringing inspired her glamorous life. She was turned
away from a party when she was just twelve years
old because her parents were too poor. After that, she
swore she'd give great parties all over the world and
invite everyone to attend, except for the rich, who would
only be invited if they had something more important than
money to bring with them. In her mid twenties, Elsa

(01:55):
was living a fairly plain existence, playing piano and selling
music in New York City. Nineteen ten, she found her
first foray into society. She joined forces with a young woman,
a Vanderbilt by marriage, who needed to fundraise for her
women's club. Also used her musical chops to whip together
a short opera for the show. It was fairly unremarkable,

(02:17):
except for the fact that it introduced Elsa to the
high society women she'd eventually rubbed shoulders with. Knightly. Elsa
wasn't particularly beautiful or wealthy, or socially prominent. She hadn't
married rich. In fact, she hadn't married at all. She
wasn't a spectacular piano player or singer or actress. What
Elsa was was fun. The best parties are given by

(02:43):
people who can't afford them. She once wrote, the glimmer
of an original idea can make an evening more successful
than a lavish dinner in a well stocked bar. Elsa's
parties were just that original. She always had a trick
up her sleeve. She popularized the scavenger hunt and the
murder mystery party. She commandeered friends' homes to turn them

(03:04):
into playhouse destinations, barnyards, casinos, places where the upper crust
could play pretend for a night. When advising others on hosting,
she begged them, if they were going to throw in
the towel and throw a dinner party anyways, at least
serve the courses backwards, do anything, but at least do
something weird, she said. Over the course of the next

(03:26):
few decades, you'd be hard pressed to find a party
also wasn't invited to. She worked her way up the
social ladder, collecting contacts and locales from her last soiree
to plan her next one. Her guest lists were expansive,
connecting the rich, but boring with the interesting. Yet penniless.
She held her guests to just two qualifications, first that

(03:48):
she knew and liked the person, and second that they
had something to contribute to the party. Also was an
extremely public figure, but she kept her cards close to
her chest. Nobody ever knew quite how she made her money,
how she gathered the capital to throw the parties she did,
or what she did at home. Out of the spotlight

(04:08):
of her parties. She denied she ever gained money from
her events. Her longtime partner, Dorothy Fellows Gordon or Dickie
for short, was born into a well to do English
family and might have supported them. Both. Dickie and Elsa
lived together for many years. The exact nature of their
relationship was another secret Elsa kept out of the tabloids.

(04:30):
Elsa kept spirits up through both world wars, the Depression,
and the changing tides of fashion for more than three decades.
She wrote a guide on how to host parties and
a truthfulsh autobiography of her life called RSVP. Elsa enjoyed
putting herself at the crossroads of culture, claiming credit for
popularizing Monaco as a vacation destination and even touting herself

(04:53):
as a matchmaker to the stars. By the nineteen sixties,
Elsa had begun to slow down. She attended her last
party in April of nineteen sixty three in a wheelchair.
That November, she died at the age of eighty well
eighty two. Elsa never married. Her life, she used to say,

(05:13):
belonged to her many friends. The world is my husband,
she wrote, I married the world. All month, We're talking
about trendsetters. For more information, find us on Facebook and
Instagram at Wamanica Podcast special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my
favorite sister and co creator. Talk to you tomorrow