A witty and charming account of the wildly entertaining Elsie de Wolfe in 1950s Hollywood, recounted by her dear friend, the beloved creator of Madeline.
Ludwig Bemelmans's charming intergenerational friendship with the late-in-life 'First Lady of Interior Decoration' provides an enormously enjoyable nostalgia trip to the sun-soaked glamour of Los Angeles, where de Wolfe surrounded herself with classic movie stars and a luminous parade of life's oddities.
With hilarity and mischief that de Wolfe would no doubt approve, To the One I Love the Best lifts the curtain on 1950s Hollywood-a bygone world of extravagance and eccentricity, where the parties are held in circus tents and populated by movie stars.
Bemelmans, who was working at MGM, had originally come to the California home of de Wolfe just for cocktails, but by the end of the night, he was firmly established as a member of the family: given a bedroom in their sumptuous house, invitations to the most outrageous parties in Hollywood, and the friendship of the larger-than-life woman known to her closest friends simply as 'Mother.'
To the One I Love the Best is a touching tribute to a fabulously funny woman and an American icon.
Acerbic, colorful, and spirited stories from a bygone era: behind the scenes in a grand New York hotel, from the author of the Madeline books
Picture David Sedaris writing Kitchen Confidential about the Ritz in New York in the 1920s, which had the style and charm of The Grand Budapest Hotel . . .
In this charming and uproariously funny hotel memoir, Ludwig Bemelmans uncovers the fabulous world of the Hotel Splendide-the thinly disguised stand-in for the Ritz-a luxury New York hotel where he worked as a waiter in the 1920s. With equal parts affection and barbed wit, he uncovers the everyday chaos that reigns behind the smooth facades of the gilded dining room and banquet halls.
In hilarious detail, Bemelmans sketches the hierarchy of hotel life and its strange and fascinating inhabitants: from the ruthlessly authoritarian maître d'hôtel Monsieur Victor to the kindly waiter Mespoulets to Frizl the homesick busboy. Bemelmans' tales of a bygone era of extravagance are as charming as they are riotously entertaining.
“In an old house in Paris
that was covered with vines
lived twelve little girls
in two straight lines
the smallest one was Madeline.”
Nothing frightens Madeline—not tigers, not even mice. With its endearing, courageous heroine, cheerful humor, and wonderful, whimsical drawings of Paris, the Madeline stories are true classics that continue to charm readers even after 75 years!
Pepito has moved to England. To help celebrate his birthday, Miss Clavel and the girls pay him a visit. When his mother won't let Pepito keep one of his birthday presents--a horse--Madeline is more than willing to help out.
Ludwig Bemelmans (1898-1962) was the author of the beloved Madeline books, including Madeline, a Caldecott Honor Book, and Madeline's Rescue, winner of the Caldecott Medal.
