Starring Adele Astaire, page 34
“I heard in America the most popular baby name is Freddie,” Violet said with a wink.
“He sure has become America’s favorite, though he’s always been mine.” I glanced at Kingman. “And you, too, dear.”
Kingman chuckled. “I would never come between the love of you and your brother. The two of you are a pair, and belong that way.”
“Oh, Kingsie.” I leaned over and gave him a kiss.
When I settled back against my chair, Violet was watching me with a nostalgic look in her eye. “I like seeing you like this, Delly.”
“What do you mean? With a cocktail in hand?”
“Your enthusiasm for life returned.”
Magazine discarded, I reached for Violet’s hand and squeezed. Throughout the war years, when I’d been suffering from the loss of my babies and Charlie’s vices, I’d become a person hardly anyone recognized, including myself. I’d lost touch with a good friend because she reminded me of who I used to be, and the dreams I used to have. In the past decade she’d become one of the most famed stage stars of the age, and a devoted aunt to Pris’s children. Paul remained the only man she’d loved to date, though she wasn’t always alone.
“I’m so glad you’re here.” Emotion made my voice wobbly. “I really missed you.”
“No war could sever our friendship, and certainly not an ocean.” Violet shifted in her chair, fanning herself with her own magazine. “What are you looking forward to next?”
“I’m looking forward to grandchildren to spoil,” I said.
Kingman had three sons, all of whom I’d adopted and doted on. They were adults now, venturing out and forming families of their own. But I was endlessly grateful to finally have gotten the family I’d desired after so much pain and loss.
“You’ll be a delightful grandmother,” Violet said, thunking her coconut with mine, saying, without saying it, that she was happy for me, for finally getting what I’d always wanted.
With an exaggerated sigh, I said, “I suppose I’ll have to spend more time at our house in Middleburg, Virginia, than here, but I don’t mind. You’ve got to come visit me. We’ve the most wondrous horses on the farm. And sheep! We have sheep! And goats. The landscape reminds me of Lismore.”
“When do you go back to Ireland?” Violet asked, closing her magazine and tossing it under her chair.
“Later this summer.” I gave an exaggerated pout. Truly, I was grateful the Cavendish family still allowed me my summers at Lismore. Kingman and I split the rest of our year between our house in Virginia and the villa in Jamaica. And of course we visited Freddie in California often. Mom was still as energetic as ever, making her home between the two of us, though now she was in California helping care for Phyllis, who’d, devastatingly, been diagnosed with lung cancer. “I wish you could come. Lismore is gorgeous in August. Well, really, it’s gorgeous any time of year, but summer is my favorite.”
In addition to the Cavendish family generally granting me access to the castle every summer for the rest of my life, they had also given me an annual stipend as the widow of Lord Charles Cavendish. I remained close with the whole family, visiting Chatsworth, even, which pleased me because I’d been quite close to Charlie’s siblings and my niece-in-law, Deborah. I’d even remained close to the Kennedy family, following Kick’s tragic death in a plane crash several years after the war’s end. I needed the connection, and so did they, to the once-vibrant young woman. Kick’s brother John, an up-and-coming senator, and his wife, Jackie, had recently visited Round Hill before Violet had arrived.
Later that evening, as we dined on lobster and champagne, and the sun settled below the horizon, there came a beating of drums. The magical sound thrummed in the air; a nostalgic beat that called to something buried deep within the human psyche. A call to nature. In response I began to sway. I might have given up my career as a performer, but the body never forgets.
“Oh, the fire dancers!” I squealed, leaping out of my chair. “I can’t resist, and neither should you, Vi.”
I grabbed hold of Violet’s hand and tugged her away from the table. In our dinner finery, the two of us joined the dancers on the patio, the rhythm of the music sinking into my bones the way it always had. I closed my eyes and let the rhythm take me away. In that instant, I was so filled with contentment.
There was nothing better than living in the moment, embracing joy when it was there to be had, and letting go of all the little things that tried as they might to hold me back. Life was shouting “Encore!” for me over and over each day and for the people I cared to share it with.
If there was one thing I’d learned in all the varied moments of my existence, it was that life itself was my most authentic performance yet.
Author’s Note
My journey into the life of Adele Astaire began when, while researching my novel The Mayfair Bookshop, I read a letter Nancy Mitford wrote to her sister. Of course I had heard of Fred Astaire many times and knew he had a sister, but I had never really studied her history or realized that at the height of their theatrical career she was the more famous sibling. Nancy wrote the letter in 1933, after having lunch with Adele: “Delly said I don’t mind people going off and fucking but I do object to all this free love. She is heaven isn’t she?”
After reading that rather shocking statement, I thought, “Oh my, who in the world is this Delly, and how have I not heard of her before?” The footnote stated that Delly was Adele Astaire, sister to Fred Astaire. I was immediately intrigued and spent the next two days in a deep research dive learning everything I could and then determining that I had to write about her. Fortunately, my agent and editor agreed—and now, here we are!
This book, while produced with a heavy dose of research and staying true to much of Adele’s life timeline, is also a work of historical fiction. Because it is fiction, I have used creative license in writing the story. The purpose of this author’s note is to share with you what I learned and what I may have altered, or things that surprised me. Beyond being a writer, I am a huge history nerd and love to share things I’ve discovered.
I bought as many books as I could find about Adele and her brother (of which there are many), but what I really needed was to spend some time with the Adele Astaire Collection, which is housed in Boston University’s Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center. Unfortunately, this was during the pandemic, and the library was closed to outside researchers. I contemplated hiring a student, but there really is something about doing the research yourself. I plugged along with my story, emailing the library monthly to see if there was an update on the opening. But they remained closed until November 2021. By that time, I was desperate. I’d written all of Violet’s part and most of Adele’s, but felt that without getting to dive deeper into Adele’s history I wasn’t going to have an authentic enough finished project.
At last, the wonderful librarians contacted me, giving me two whole days with the collection the next week, if I could make it. I immediately booked a flight to Boston.
Those two days were amazing, and I wish I could have stayed longer. With the list of things I’d wanted to find out, along with my notebook, pencil, and laptop, I pored through the scrapbooks filled with newspaper clippings, reviews, and pictures. Touched a costume from Adele’s Vaudeville days. Read through letters, calendar notebooks, and, best of all, Adele’s personal diary. It was through this investigative study that I was able fill a lot of holes in the research I’d done already; for example, a better timeline for her relationship with William Gaunt, as well as the articles that she and Freddie wrote for the London papers. I was able to get a true feel for Delly’s voice, and I was pleasantly surprised to see I’d already nailed it in the pages I’d previously written.
There are some audio recordings on YouTube of Freddie and Delly that they did for a couple of their plays: “I’d Rather Charleston,” “Fascinating Rhythm,” and “Hang on to Me” from Lady Be Good; and “Oh Gee Oh Gosh Oh Golly” and, my personal favorite, “The Whichness of the Whatness” from Stop Flirting, to name a few. I listened to them hundreds of times. Unfortunately, the only recording of Delly dancing is from a rehearsal for Smiles with her brother and Marilyn Miller—and it’s really more of a shuffle. She’s on the far side of the recording and you can just barely make her out. Another recording of her with Freddie is from when he visited London with the USO tour, and she greets him onstage. I so wish there were more recordings of her. She was such an incredible person, and I feel as though we are all deprived of not only her dancing genius but her comedic genius, as well. I have watched dozens and dozens of videos of Fred, as well as his movies, which are a treat.
I’ve been a fan of theatre since I was a little girl and my dad took me to see a Punch and Judy puppet show. In fact, I had a brief stint in theatre myself as a teenager, acting at a local community stage for a couple of years. I’ve also always loved to dance, though I lack any sort of grace. Writing this book was truly a passion project that allowed me to return to my roots and live vicariously through the characters.
Violet Wood is a fictitious character, though I based some of her history on other performers of the time, like Daisy Violet Rose Wood (aka Marie Lloyd), from whom I borrowed part of her name. I wanted to use the juxtaposition of Violet’s character to explore Adele’s journey. You’ll notice often when one is up the other is down, and vice versa. Both of them started with meager means, and they both struggled in different ways to reach their opposite ends.
The Limelight clips at the beginning of each chapter were created by me, as is the name of this fictional theatre gossip magazine. I love to read about celebrities, notable figures, and royals in magazines, and gossip rags have been a part of our history for ages. I used the short clips to update readers about the goings-on of the various characters, otherwise the book would have been eight hundred pages. I also created them for a bit of cheeky fun.
Adele’s hair was extremely long early on in her career. Like some other performers of the age, she fashioned it up into rolled curls that made it look like she had a bob. In order to figure out how she did that, I actually consulted a hairstylist. The style of Adele’s hair was one of the things I discovered when I went to the archival research center, as I saw her in a picture with her hair down and it came to her waist.
There are a lot of real historical figures who make cameos in the book, and I did this not only to add authenticity to the era, but also because most of them truly did interact with Adele and were a meaningful part of her life. Mimi Crawford, Noël Coward, Marilyn Miller, the princes of England (whom she did date and dance with), Princess Elizabeth (aka Queen Elizabeth II), George Raft, Adelaide Hall, Duke Ellington, Bojangles, the Nicholas Brothers, Texas Guinan (who really did tell people to leave their wallets on the bar), Tilly Losch, Shirley Temple, Prince Aly Khan, and so on. There were a host of others I couldn’t put in the book because it would have just been too many.
Though I made Mr. Moore take advantage of the chorus girls early on in the book, I have no proof, nor did I find any suggestion, that the real Mr. Moore did so. However, the abuse we hear of happening today in Hollywood and other performing arts environments was certainly occurring during Adele’s time onstage. Many female performers did not feel empowered enough to say no, and were left pregnant, their futures in tatters. Often they’d be sent away for a time, giving their babies up for adoption. Some relinquished showbiz to concentrate on parenting. The majority of them received no help from the men who were partially (if not fully) responsible for their situations. This is why I had Violet fall victim to a preying producer, to bring attention to women being taken advantage of in the arts.
The Shaftesbury Theatre in London’s West End was originally the New Princes Theatre, and then Princes Theatre. On its website it says it was renamed Shaftesbury after a renovation in the 1960s; however, the photos from 1923 with Fred and Adele Astaire’s Stop Flirting billboard show Shaftesbury plainly on the building, as does a copy of the program, so I chose to use this as the name in the book. It is a working theatre to this day, and I had the pleasure of visiting it recently on a trip to London.
Adele and Charlie did lose a daughter first, followed by twin boys, and then there was another miscarriage. The grave markers for the children simply say Baby Girl and Baby Boy. I couldn’t find if they named the children on any vital records, and there weren’t any christenings because they passed away quickly, so the name “Annie Evelyn” was created by me, using the fairly common naming system of culling from the names of grandparents.
Though I couldn’t go into much depth with the Great Depression on account of space, I tried to depict a true representation of New York City during that time. I listed the amount of money that Fred and Adele lost during the crash, which was about $73,000, three-quarters of their savings—a huge amount of money even today! Doing the math, that is equal to roughly $1.2 million now. They were the lucky ones. People lost their homes, roughly 25 percent of people lost their jobs, and they couldn’t feed their children. The homeless and unemployed truly did build their own shacks—their squatter communities were called Hoovervilles—in Central Park, and they popped up across the nation. The term was named after President Hoover and was used as a political label to place blame.
“Simpsonitis,” in reference to the obsession some of the aristocracy in Adele’s circle seemed to have with Wallis Simpson, who married the former King Edward (aka David), was a term Adele wrote in her diary that seemed very fitting for her own feelings and the behavior of her social circle. Additionally, the mention of the quote she’d written on notepaper at the Ritz about a woman being judged by her depth and quality of passion was actually on a piece of blue notepaper from the Ritz in the Adele Astaire Collection, in Adele’s hand.
Many of the books mentioned in the novel were ones Adele listed during an interview, as well as writers she counted as friends, such as Anita Loos (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes). The one person I couldn’t figure out how to include, but wish I could have, was A. A. Milne. Adele was close to him and his son, Christopher Robin, the inspiration for the character of the same name in Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh books. Adele even sent Christopher Robin Christmas gifts. I was able to include Milne’s book Four Days’ Wonder as one of the ones Adele bought at Foyles.
The Cavendishes really did commission two Spitfire planes named the Cavendish and the Adele Astaire during World War II because Charlie was unable to serve due to his illness. From the severity of Charlie’s illness so early on (Charlie and Adele had to postpone their wedding due to his hospitalization), I assume his penchant for drink was quite extensive and likely had been going on for a long time before he and Adele met. He died at thirty-eight years old from acute alcoholism, which was devastating to Adele. A prolific diary writer, there are years missing from Adele’s diary in which she suffered alongside him, and she would come back to the journal saying so. I tried to show the slow descent of Charlie’s health in the novel, and the heartbreak she must have felt. For as much of a “Good-Time Charlie” as she was, it had to have been absolutely crushing to suffer so much loss after wishing so hard to be a wife and mother. And she never stopped loving him.
In the end, I think Adele found happiness with Kingman, an intelligence officer and assistant director for the CIA. They remained happily married until his death in 1971 due to a brain hemorrhage. Nora Davis (Foster) was a radio broadcaster at Rotherwas in Hereford. Anna Neagle and Gracie Fields were two celebrities she had on the show. As I was doing research for Violet’s conscription, I came across Nora’s story, and I thought it would be the perfect place, given she was in the entertainment industry. Wilf “Wolf” Bowen was in fact the supervisor of the munitions factory. The accidental explosion as well as the Luftwaffe bombing both occurred. I thought it was important to include in the novel some of the lesser-known work that women did, and the risks that came with it.
Adele, Freddie, and their mother, Ann, remained close all their lives. In 1972, the sibling pair was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. Three years later, at the age of ninety-six, Ann passed away. Adele passed away in 1981 at the age of eighty-four after suffering a stroke, and having maintained good health and physical fitness. Freddie passed away of pneumonia in 1987 at the age of eighty-eight, leaving behind two children, Freddie Jr. and Ava.
I hope that you enjoyed the novel and this brief foray into the life of Adele Astaire. Her time on this earth was full of so many fascinating moments that it was impossible to put them all into this book. Additionally, I’m certain to have left out something from this author’s note that I altered, omitted, or added to Adele’s story. The research process for this book and the writing of it were years in the making, and I promise that every decision made as far as what to add or omit or alter was done with great consideration. To that end, this is a work of fiction, with the purpose of inviting you into this captivating world full of strong women, their relationships, the struggles they faced, and the ways in which they overcame them, as well as the triumphs they celebrated in their careers and personal lives.
Acknowledgments
Though I research, plot, and write alone in the confines of my very messy office, no book is ever truly a solitary venture. In addition to the ghosts of the past, there are many people who helped in the creation of Starring Adele Astaire.
I want to thank my incomparable agent, Kevan Lyon; my wonderful editor, Lucia Macro; and her associate editor, Asanté Simons. Thank you to the hardworking people in the sales, marketing, publicity, and production departments, including Jessica Rozler. My gratitude to all the remarkable people of William Morrow, including the publisher, Liate Stehlik; my cover designer, Lauren Harms, for the gorgeous artwork; Diahann Sturge for the dazzling interior design of the book, Jane Hardick for the thorough copyedits, and Jen DePoorter and Megan Wilson for the brilliance in marketing, along with my team at Kaye Publicity.
