Mrs. Astor’s Horse, A Curious Saga of American Taste
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Walker, Stanley. Mrs. Astor’s Horse, A Curious Saga of American Taste. Eighth Printing. 1936. Book and dust jacket are both in very good minus condition—jacket shows light fraying.
We are all familiar with Mrs. Astor’s drawing room and the four hundred individuals it would fit comfortably. We know much less about her horse. It is a nearly forgotten expression that means “the height of ostentation,” a reference to the elaborately liveried horses that pulled Mrs. Astor’s carriage. It is an apt title for this book, which humorously skewers the excesses of American café society. As mordant as The Devil’s Dictionary, the victims here include Rudolph Valentino (and the mania he inspired), Walter Winchell, Mae West, and other hapless notables whose hubris guaranteed certain folly.
“Hollywood weddings are great sport. At one, Jean Harlow, a guest, almost broke up the proceedings by announcing at the most solemn part of the ceremony that she was leaving her husband the next day.”
--Stanley Walker
We are all familiar with Mrs. Astor’s drawing room and the four hundred individuals it would fit comfortably. We know much less about her horse. It is a nearly forgotten expression that means “the height of ostentation,” a reference to the elaborately liveried horses that pulled Mrs. Astor’s carriage. It is an apt title for this book, which humorously skewers the excesses of American café society. As mordant as The Devil’s Dictionary, the victims here include Rudolph Valentino (and the mania he inspired), Walter Winchell, Mae West, and other hapless notables whose hubris guaranteed certain folly.
“Hollywood weddings are great sport. At one, Jean Harlow, a guest, almost broke up the proceedings by announcing at the most solemn part of the ceremony that she was leaving her husband the next day.”
--Stanley Walker
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