"THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, AUGUST 3, 1957,
RA B
PRINCES, PEERS AND FILM STARS HER ALLURE DAZZLED THEM ALL...
CUNSHINE splashed pools
of light across the room, catching bar bair na she stood there → pale and haughty uppraising me with her candid eyes.
"Yours is a fantastie story," I said. "No," she said impatiently. "No, No. I have done nothing that's interesting."
Thus telephcop TOOR. She excused herself to take a call from St Moritz. Then another, immediately following, from New York.
Finally she returned.
םיךיי
"If I had my way," she said, boor up everything that's ever been written about me."
"That would be like tearing
up your past," I said.
She gave me a curious looks. "Don't you see,” the maid, "It
isn't interesting any more.
just im't interesting......"
IL
THAT was my first meeting with the woman known as Laily Sylvin Ashley. And that was oli she would nay.
The title she
acquired with
her first marriage, and despite four subsequent unions she has nover relinquished it.
Douglas Fairbanks son. she married, and Baron Stanley of Alderley: and Clark Gable; and Prince Dmitri Djordjadze.
But still she remains ... Lady Sylvía Ashicy.
Sylvia Ashley...whose nama is legend among the smart sel; whose appearance commands Attention from the
instant
malires d'hotel of two fot- thents, who is called by Amed- can society columnist Cholly Knickerbocker: "One of the great sirens of history,"
She needs a house? Lord Astor will lend her ane. She wants un amusing house guest? Cole Porter will go anywhere for her. She'd like a party?
Mrs Lorelle Hearts will take over the Stork Club in New York and throw one for ber.
A woman, you will perceive, with a very special kind of ap- peal.
Five marriages, countless romances, und 35 years of spec- tacular living with the world or her playground have left her
face unspoiled.
The crows"-feet experience one looks for around the eyes of a woman of 53 do not exist on the face of Sylvin Ashley. She has come a long way...but you
read the log of journey in her face.
carnot
DISCREET TINT
that
TERS is a curious beauty. The face is angular with a pro- nounced Jawline. There is a noticeable gap between her two front teeth. Her hair, discreetly tinted, is
an old- fashioned style-almost shoulder length with a louse curl at the India
-Wor
N
Birthplace of a celebrity! No. 11, Tall-place. Paddington, where Brivin Axbicy. noe Edith Louiza Hawken. DAN born on April 1, 1901.
The search for
SYLVIA
ASHLEY
What is the magical quality that takes a woman from the a humble home to the peak of society. quality that captivates men and arouses envy in women?
Sylvia Ashley hus that quality. It has brought her glittering success in the international smert set. And
by RODERICK MANN
Her father, Arthur Hawkes, was 23-end worked as a runner just around the corner at Henty Ward's horse-repository, as the
With his Edgware Road.
Zi- year-old wife Edith ho occupied two rooms on the first floor of No. 112. The rent: 75. 6d. They christened the Edith Louisa.
today begins a candid appraisal of this intriguing personality. It tells how an earl desperately tried to prevent her marriage to his son; how she shocked Hollywood by her romance with Douglas Fairbanks sen.; how her marriage with Clark Gable broke up. This is the story of a woman described as one of the greatest sirens of history.
house in Hanover Square. And she got it.
• At a London charity ovoni Sylvia Ashley (back to the camera) chata to the Duke of Kent (father of the present Duke). Right eerstro : Mrz, Archie Campbell, Bylvia's friend from her show' days.
But the
carf was under
As she stopped out-glowing dozen cacorts ready and willing in the silver lame evening coat to take her to the night-spot of estimating the chorm of Sylvia the had bought-a hundred her choice, faces poored dowia from A hundred windows,
Hawkes. And the determination "Undo'a" in Albamaries Street of his son, -which the Prince of Wales The couple went ahead with The sentiment was the samic Inved: the Embassy Club-where their plans, amid a welty of everyone went on Thursdays: speculation. The wedding was Murray's River Club by ixed for February 3 at St Paul's, Maidenhead Bridge,
Knightsbridge.
"Louic nl each one:
Hawkes has done herself all right,"
Her father thought the same and was proud of her. Though
her only
On Ture
By the winter of 1926 she he saw
had moved into her last London cccasions.
show, The Whole Town's Talke In 1025 two major events look ing, at the Strand, place.
And purred her way into the Lord 26-year-old Sylvia moved for good from heart of Wharncliffe and took n 25-0- Anthony Ashley. week mound flour flat at 16, West Halldin Street, Just off Belgrave Square,
Ashley was a pliasunt, dark young man, educated at Eton and Cambridge. At the Univer- She and her close friend sity he had studied agriculture, Dorothy Fickt were invited to He liked dancing and he had join
cruise on board a yacht won himself something of a re- charbored by the Duka of putation as a jazz drummer, side of the stuge.
She's going to Sutherland. play the nurse in our next pro- duction."
Usually the duke and duchess
Now she was happy....with the touch of fine dresses against "I went and looked. A pair spent the winter on the Riviera, her fair skin, the bustle of the of friendly eyes looked back at like so many of their friends. salon, the atmosphere of wealth. me from under a nurse's cap. On this occasion they decided
She was a great success. She She looked adorable.
"You ought beautiful. She was incredibly that a cruise
to be an actress," they told her, So she decided to nudition at the Winter Garden,
BETTER PARTS
MADLY IN LOVE
Then, two days before the wedding, the Earl of Shafics. bury sprang a bombshell.
CONSTERNATION!
To the newspapers he ans
nounced,
"There will be no wedding. My son le not engaged to marry Miss Sylvia Hawkes,"
Consternation in society circles. And knowing-looks at
Whameliffe Gardens,
But it was a futile announce- ment.
For, despite the pleas of his fint the untan wad
bound to 10 North Africa HAVING viewed Sylvin only parents prove tlisastrous,
would be more amusing.
They wanted some young people to make up the party. horothy they knew. And. through ler, Sylvia was invited. It was the turning point in
S. And as the weeks went by her career,
But it was a melancholy home-
George Grosanlth, the pro- coming. There were domestic
ducer, a toll man with a tumed- CHE was! differences,
trees. The parents could up nose, was aucissonins in the
slalle,
"No. 48-Miss Sylvia Hawkes," the assistunt stage announced manager,
BS
once over the footlights, he Tony Ashley's mind was mado arranged an introduction, dalter-
ed his first "Hello"....and fell up madly in love with her.
"You are wasting your time," To have a handsome young he told them.
al her fect way nobleman flattering enough.
J
The night before the wedding he had arranged to stay at the But Ashley was no ordinary Kulghtsbridge home of his good frica Archie Campbell-who Bristocrat.
friend had married Sylvia's Dorothy Field,
Inter they' separated,
and she got better parls she be
The cruise-In the yacht Azhar Hiewkes moved out to
gan to-be-noticed.
Albion-enchanted her. They stay
Dorothy Field, another of the with friends. Shortly
and Winter Garden
He was heir to the Eart of beauties, took visited Dakar, Bathurst, afterwards Mrs Hawkes went to
Dorothy shot a She Marrake,
Shaftesbury, Lord Steward of Grossmith; weary from a long Sylvin under her wing, child live in Luton, taldng Vera with
morning, watched
a the King's Household, and one her.
Sylvia taught her how to play the Crocodile Sydvia caught an
golb, fish.
V's closest friends, tripped
of George stage and ukilole: she introduced her to on to the
But ftung some music at the pianist. people.
important she The Countess of Shaftesbury- The piano played Where My And Sylvia, with her now found herself being accepted. Extra Lady of the Bedchamber Caravan has
intimate friend of Resped, Sylvia found poise, her new-found Without qualifications. Nobody was on
ever-ready patronised her: though she was Queen Mary. opened her mouth and moved crent,
When she was still small, the family moved across Edgware Road to Whamcliffe Cordens-n hugo block of 540 flats bounded on one side by Cunningham Place and on the other by Lisson Grove.
An extraordinary Women Sylvia; Kay mannered, haut- monde, haute-couture Important the birthplace for another girl án cafe society: her charna embracing the best drawing- Tooms in the land.
she?
person was
THE OBVIOUS CYLVIA stayed on at Wharn
cliffe Gardens, looked after by her Aunt Nelly.
School behind" her, Sylvia (Five
Later years
Bernard began to cast around. Shaw was to use this street as
There was one obvious place with # success story: Eliza for an ambitious local girl to Doolittle Pygmalion.)
go in those days, and it was- İlterally.staring her in the face,
What sort of a
It was a great improvement. The Great Central Station, a True, the canal ran right below few hundrat
down
· yardı Why would she never discuss and the view was only of railway
the windows of their new fat Lisson Grove. her background? What of her
Ines, father, of whom so little was towers but there was sanite- navy
coal heaps, end water known? Was it mere coincidence tion. And courtyards in which railway as a clerk. Her salary Ahat of her five marriages three the child could play.
had been to men of title: two
to world-famous film stars? Why As they sat down for their did the name of Ashley mean so first meal in the new flat, Arthur much to her? It had not beca a Hawkes and his happy marriage.
wife decided that the increase In
Ton-ry
To find the answers to these were paying Ds. 8d. a week and other questions I travelled was well worth it.
12,000 miles to the canyons of
In a newly bought costume of bluc sho joined the
was 30. Od,
0
But she was not satisfied, She wanted glamour; not high stools and lodgers. She wanted world of handsomo men-about- town; not penny-pinching clerks in stiff white collars.
Hollywood and the night-clubs FAVOURITE GAME to try
of New York,..to America's playground Palm Beach...to NASSOU in the Bahamas...and finally back to London,
Tu London-and shabby side-street in Paddington.
THE YEAR was 1904
incan,
the
beginning of the Edwardian era,
Three-tenths of the people of London were still living on the borderline of bare subsistence- yet life over all was good.
After a few mopthis she lett her lucie in the world of beauty. After several miner posidore, the took a job, al
LIFE
IFE at Wharncliffe was fun Mudame Forsander's Hairdress- for "Loule," ng abe was mg and Beauty Salon In called.
Oxford Streșt-as a mandeurist. Her fair hair in curls, her accent unistakeably cockney, was very pretty. Though not Madame Forsander Boys; "She gaiety kafectious, she played particularly adept at her job. I Tunember one. titled customer
her
days away. "Kings and Queens was her moaning to me after Sylvia had favourite game, though Theatre attended ber: 'She was like a ran it a close second.
All the kitten playing with a bail of plays which Sylvia invariably wool," starzed were acted out on the That year Quees Alexandra stone steps of the flats. visited the Alexandr Trust price of admissica the East End and was served zei ordinary meal of the day: oxtail soup, mast lamb and mint sauce,
windmill.
sho
The (It was Madame Forsander, was a toy incidentally, who gave Sylvia the
famous
hairstyle which wears even to this day, When it rained she stayed in she arrived at the Curford Street cabbage
and potatoes, plum and practised the piano, ot pudding and coffee. It cost d. which she was very good. Some salon her hair was in a fringe.)
It was a world of clear-cut times her father took her down social distinctions.
When
"There's no doubt about 12"
he
to the Working Mon's Club, says Madame Forsander, While the well-to-do spent where she would stand on a had something. Why, within a their lelaure time sauntering table and sing.
few months of arriving as my down Piccadilly, shopping in the
salon sho
wana lunching along arondes or visiting their cluba,
On Sunday she would always the street at Francati's -- and the poorer classes spent theirs in be dressed in white and the that was expenalvo,“ the parks, at the music-halls, family would go out in Hawker's and In the pubs.
pong-cut, widing up the day
andi
her
more
AND WON FOR HER FIVE HUSBANDS
TEX McLEOD
will opin ropes and yarns at the MIDNIGHT FOLLIES
HOTEL METROPOLE from Nov. 16th to 28th
Elsa Macfarlane,
Dorothy Field and Sylvia Hawken with their Ukeleles.
The usual FOLLIES Show,
ifer pamo was in small type; -- but abe was in the show that mattered
..the how to which the smart set of London Blocked in 1921 Handame young Guards The officers jostled at the state door. Prince of Wales was a frequent visitor.
With husband No. 4 ... Clark Gable,
DIFFICULTY...
HOWARDS bedtime the phone now
rang in the Campbells hall The bulle answered it, and had come difeully undersland- ing who was calling.
Finally, he announced
to
Their magniloent seventeenth. Mrs Campbell: "There's a Lord century family eat at Wimborne Raspberry, It sounds like St Gles in Dong-standing in ma'am... wanting to speak to a beautiful wooded park was Lord Ashley,"
a show place. Their motto
The Earl of Shaftesbury, his #Love; Serve" was an impressive voice shaking with emotion, was
making a fñal altempt to dis- suade his son from marriage. Ashley refused to take
onc.
Lord
Ashley was indeed a
catch.
As he and Sylvia began to be call.
been
the
around the lown the The morning of February ↑ romance became, inevitably, the dawned grey and overcast, talk of Mayfair. But it was a mere whisper compared with
Shortly after first fight,
a
the rumbles that were toon to lurge touring car swept out of the gates of the Shaftesbury be heard,
estate in Dorset and headed One day, towards the end of towards London at high speed January, 1027, Sylvia was scen At the wheel was a uniforın- wearing a magnificent solitaire ed chauffeur. In the badc soát diemand. Yes, sho find Ashiny sat the grim-lipped earl and admitted they were inderd countess, bound for West Halkin engaged.
Street and a last effort to make · When would the wedding be? Sylvia the reason. They would not say.
The bombshell: 'There
will be no wedding...
naive enough.
Nobody ques-
At his country seat, the Earl
-and choked,
Just after nine, the big cen pulled up outside her fat and· the earl and countess jumped out,
Leaving his wife outside on the pavement, the 60-year-ola Barl bounded up the short fight - of steps and hammered
Sylvia's door.
doned her. She was one of the of Shaftesbury heard the nows FROM THE WINGS
group.
"It cannot be," he said, must not bo."
`UNTHINKABLE'
"It
T that very same moment Arthur Hawkes was putting
sult in on his best
Carlisle Place, Paddington,
He had not been invited to
Hawkes came When Sylvia back from that cruise she know she had accomplished a fat almost without parallel in those days - the had crossed the unbridgeable gap between Pad- dington and Park Lane,
18 two daughters, Lady Mary the wedding, which upset him. 1 and Lady Dorothy Ashley watch it from the wings. For But her greatest triumpli was, Cooper both, necording to the ho was proud of his Sylvia. It.
With Dorothy, columns of the day, "expert
yot to come.
HIS
But he was determined to
the joined the Midnight Folles dancers who have few rivals in Whir every horse-keeper's
... they've said that
her arms-bat Grossmith heard sparkle, captivated them. Scon at the Hotel Metropole.
the latcal sope some coughter who could marry into
society. the invitations began flowing
The Follice was the first high- similarly unenthusiastle about
Then, just as he was setting shouted: "Don't be nervous. not a word,
After a few moments he la: soon the flowery were knee-night-show London had the prospect of having the date out, a friend broke the news to
deep on the dressing-room ever had. The average cost of ing Sylvia as a sister-in-law. him: Just begin. your I understand.
floor.
WEOK.
"Arthur the cabaret was £1,000
"Such an alloco 'Is unthink- It was intoxicating. wober."
Around midnight, the vestibult spoking Sylvia Qung him a withering She began going out with the of the holel was like Bebrettable Lady Dorothy was re- you are dood."
was look
kind of men iho had only come life. You couldn't see ported as mying to a friend.
The news had reached Whara- hardly recognisable. She work- "Ïva - already sung the first dreamed about back on her the carpet for the titled young life too....people there ed hard at her dancing, which verge” the rapped.
clerk's stoot at the Great men and handsome Guards could talk of little else. It was a magic world. And the enjoyed, and at her singing Grosmith smiled. "T Hiko Central Station: handsome, all jostling for the privilege of most magical of all were the though her voice was not very you," he said.
Everyone congratulated Arthur Hawkes
It was a world of change. The with drinks at The Welsh Hory the name of Sylvia sa line own, By this time she had adopted, eld Galety had just born do at Herlon.
She beşten to make other changes too. molished. Flats were coming into fashion: the standard of living in 1010, Sylvia's sister Lilters Life was fun, especially when,
Sha altered was riding for all,
Into the world, at 113, Hall Yarn was born. The two chil- volce, until her
dren adored each other. Place, Paddington. Bylvia -was born on April 1,
NO FOOL...
Occasional visits to the Metro-strong.
politan Music Hall, Ederwerp Road, to which she was taken as
THE doctor who delivered the a special treat. The thelly UP THE LADDER
child
She was in....
It was a tremendous moment. The door had opened, Tho from the coal way of escape heap and canal was clear,
Heather Thatcher who W3
THEY PEERED
A
alegant mon; men of wealth taking the girls to supper. and sopliftention.
The Prince of Wales wan' a frequent visitor: so was Prince But he shook his head. He
of knew nothing Codings (later the Duke
of the cognge- Kont
ment. took a long look at glamour of it all sopiivaina HET.
"Within month, Sylvia In the last sroide" of "Juisamry, her and told the proud father. Bylvia inished #chool - at
Hawkes wak the toest of the 1937, he wrote to the Bel of "well-I's April the first... Garth Street, just around the other polse, her looks and with her recalls Sylvia's Arst living of the flat in Wharn- AW moths later, confident of lo appear on the singo ALL this time she was still
town.
Shaftesbury, uniting it the stāries- but she looks no fool to me.". Co the same your that the her mocent, she took the next day at the Winter Gardens.
about. his daughine and -- the. Hall Place was a grey, un- war cuded-1918.
ellite. Ari night after night the After the shows (she and cart's son, were true. distinguished street of · small- For father came back, from step up the ladder.
****Cleorge Greewith drew me neighbour had a tron show is Dorothy waps both “duabiing"? He got his 19plyi« THEEW JUNE windowed, three-storey houses, the Army, He had been a She applied for a job ar a on one side and sald: Go mid for our drew up to take Brivia pt the Winter Garden and the no train fu the swayruns. They Ésw of which badi balha, sergeant in the Vettemary Corgi, modig må Tyrvilles, the fashion, look, at the gut wanding on the on the temp..
Next week
ENTER DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS
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