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| A January 1925 edition of The Palm Beach Post was filled with society news and advertisements like this. (Source: newspapers.com) |
We seem to live in a weird version of the Roaring Twenties of a century ago. Everything is frenzied and fast-paced. Development races along. The famous and super-rich party on. Social media influencers drool over it all.
I wanted to learn how upscale folks partied during the wild times of the 1920s. And learn how newspaper society columnists - the social media influencers of their day - wrote about the celebrities of that era.
Where else to look in pioneer Florida but Palm Beach. It was as famous then as now for money and status. But only during the season, generally January to March.
The January 18, 1925 issue of The Palm Beach Post gushes about the winter season. And I mean gushes. Social-media influencers today have nothing on those old-time newspaper society writers.
Breathy articles about people and places are interspersed with numerous large ads for housing and hotel developments. It was the high times of the1920s Florida Boom. There was so much to write about and advertise that the newspaper edition had 66 pages that day.
Let's turn to the glee sprinkled through that edition's society pages. It'll give you an idea what the rich and famous of 1920s Florida did in world that was spinning quickly and crazily. Much like ours is today.
The hyperbole is all there in print. All I did is quote it and add my occasional note. Enjoy!
- "The Royal Poinciana welcomed many additional guests yesterday and everyone was on the qui vive to see the register and note who had come and who was with them and so on."
- I had to look it up: qui vive means "on the alert or lookout."
- "All records for the opening of the Coconut Grove, the dear old Coconut Grove, beloved of Palm Beach and world famed as its greatest attraction, were absolutely smashed yesterday. ...before the first bar of music was heard the Coconut Grove was like a great garden full of fluttering, vari-colored flowers, and all Palm Beach in gala array had filed through ..."
- "Mrs. Mc_ was looking very charming in a petunia printed silk frock with a small cloche to match; Mrs. M_ was a symphony in sky blue; Miss W_ was a poem in rose ..."
- I omitted their full names.
- "Whitehall welcomed for the season today Mr. and Mrs. R_ of Chicago, who will spend the entire season here and are known to all the smart colony here."
- People didn't just visit Palm Beach. Members of the elite social circle considered themselves a colony.
- "One hardly knows where to begin in the chronicle of the day's events at The Breakers yesterday, for so many celebrities appeared upon the scene that it is difficult to know to whom to give this place of honor."
- The honor went to author Ring W. Lardner, responsible for penning "the most delightful description of Palm Beach and its hectic life that has ever found its way into print." I'll have to go seek out his book. BTW, I never heard of him or any of the other celebrities mentioned in that article.
- "Dr. Bertha Scher, whose wonderful work in restoring youthful contours to face and neck ... has brought her a large clientele of society women in New York, Virginia, Hot Springs and Hollywood, Cal., where she has lately achieved a great success among motion picture stars... Many in Palm Beach are now availing themselves of Dr. Scher's treatments which remove ravages of sun, wind and sea..."
- Hard to think of a time when Hollywood needed a state identifier, even in that silent-movie era.
- "The beautiful rooms (at Whitehall) made a perfect background for the rare jewels and lovely gowns of the women and everyone was quite lost in admiration upon entering the rooms of the superb collections of canvases, an exhibition of rare distinction and beauty."
- This was about an art exhibit at Whitehall, where the "great foyer made a wonderful promenade and the patio with its roof of star-pierced sky and" (many other superlatives) "combined to make the whole scene one of such rare loveliness that everyone was entranced..."
