Betsy Bloomingdale: US hostess whose philanderer husband caused scandal
1922-2016
BETSY Bloomingdale, who has died at the age of 93, was a fashionable hostess and philanthropist whose life was touched by sordid scandal; but as the wife of Alfred Bloomingdale, the heir to the US department store chain, she remained the dazzling queen of the fashionable world that straddled Hollywood, the White House and the ateliers of Paris.
Wealth notwithstanding, Betsy’s energy was phenomenal and she set a standard that left all other “ladies who lunch” swimming in her slipstream. The look of delight that played permanently on her unlined face belied a steely core.
For more than 50 years she travelled widely (“Betsy Bloomingdale’s black-and-white tweed luggage never seems to cool off,” gushed Women’s Wear Daily in 1966. “She’s always off to New York, Honolulu, Europe . . .”), seemed to be at every political, fashion or Hollywood party worth a mention in the gossip columns and still managed to host her own lavish dinners and parties.
With the publication of Entertaining with Betsy Bloomingdale: A Collection of Culinary Tips and Treasures from the World’s Best Hosts and Hostesses in 1994, she revealed some of the secrets of her hostessing skills, including the fact that she had kept a diary of every dinner party she had hosted since 1959, complete with photographs of the place settings.
“Giving a party or hosting a dinner is in many ways like a performance,” she wrote. “You are the producer, director, stage manager, and finally the actor. Dozens of details might go into the simplest occasion.”
Her personal style — lots of colour, particularly red, and carefully chosen accessories — was as meticulously chronicled as her table settings. She kept detailed notes of when each gown had been worn, and which earrings, belts and tights had been chosen to complete the outfit.
It was her love of fashion, however, that led to the first of her brushes with scandal when, in 1975, she was stopped by customs officials while bringing two Dior couture garments into the US. It appeared that the invoice for the items had been altered to make them seem less expensive.
The following year she pleaded guilty to one count of concealing an invoice from federal customs officials and had to pay a large fine.
But this incident paled into insignificance in comparison to the revelations about her husband’s private life which emerged in the early ’80s.
Since the ’60s Alfred had been embroiled in an affair with a much younger woman, Vicki Morgan, whom he had been supporting financially.
In 1981, however, when Alfred was admitted to hospital for surgery for cancer of the oesophagus, Betsy took over the family finances and stopped Morgan’s allowance. The following year, Alfred died and Morgan sued for palimony. She took her story to the press, revealing that Alfred enjoyed sado-mashochistic sex with
She took her story to the press, revealing that Alfred enjoyed sado-mashochistic sex with prostitutes
leather-clad prostitutes.
For Betsy, however, the story did not end there. In 1990, the journalist and author Dominick Dunne, a friend of the Bloomingdales, turned Alfred’s relationship with his mistress into a novel, An Inconvenient Woman. Remarkably, Betsy rose above it, refusing to allow the publication of the book to affect her friendship with Dunne; he continued to sup at her elegantly laid table. — © The Daily Telegraph, London