Aileen Mehle

Aileen Mehle
Suzy Mehle On A Sofa In Her Mansion by Raymundo de Larrain for Vogue magazine
Background information
Born as:	Aileen Elder
Born	Jun 10, 1918 El Paso, Texas, U.S.
Died	Nov 11, 2016 - at age 97 New York City, New York, U.S. Respiratory ailment
Spouse(s):	Roger W. Mehle (1939–1946; divorced) Mark Kenneth Frank Jr. (?–1957; divorced)
Children:	Roger Mehle Jr.
Occupation:	Society columnist (1950–2005)
Editor's note about articles in this category

Aileen Mehle (née Elder, June 10, 1918 – November 11, 2016), known by the pen name Suzy or Suzy Knickerbocker, was an American society columnist who was active in journalism for over fifty years. Her column was syndicated to 100 newspapers and read by over 30 million people.

Early life

Mehle was born in El Paso, Texas, on June 10, 1918. She was the daughter of Aileen (O'Keefe) and Lawrence Herman Elder, who worked for an oil company. As a child, Mehle relocated to California with her family. She later attended Long Beach Junior College and Santa Barbara State College, which is now known as the University of California, Santa Barbara.

In the early 1940s, she moved to Florida with her mother and her infant son.

Career

While living in Palm Beach, Mehle became friends with Jan Cox, the wife of the editor of "The Miami Daily News". Cox's husband overheard Mehle complaining about the quality of writing in his paper and invited her to submit sample columns; she did and was hired to cover society news. She adopted the pen name "Suzy" and wrote for the paper until 1957, when she moved to New York. There, she was hired by "The Mirror" and wrote a column for the paper (which was syndicated by King Features Syndicate) for the next six years until the paper ceased publishing. In 1963, she took over Igor Cassini's column in the "New York Journal-American", which he wrote under the pen name Cholly Knickerbocker. Mehle added this surname to her pen name "Suzy" and became "Suzy Knickerbocker." She wrote six columns a week for the paper until it closed. Mehle then joined "The Daily News", followed by "The New York Post". From 1985 to her retirement in 2005, Mehle wrote for "Women's Wear Daily", "Architectural Digest", and "W magazine".

In 1988, James Revson, a rival gossip columnist at Newsday, accused Mehle of inventing aspects of her articles. He claimed she reported on social events she hadn't attended personally, instead relying on press releases and guest lists. This controversy became popularly known as "Suzyscam" and "Suzygate" in the media.

Mehle acknowledged that her writing predominantly revolved around trivial and superficial topics, explaining that one of her aims was to add a touch of glamour to everyday lives. She was also recognized as the "social historian" of her time. Her writing style was viewed as sharp and lively, showcasing her talent for making flattering comments while protecting individuals’ reputations from potential damage.

Television appearances

In the 1960s, Mehle frequently appeared as a guest panelist on the game show "What's My Line?", possibly an attempt by the producers to replicate the perky newspaper columnist persona of regular Dorothy Kilgallen, who had died mysteriously several months before Knickerbocker’s first guest show. She also appeared as the mystery guest on October 23, 1966. Additionally, she made a cameo appearance in the Batman TV series.

Honors and recognition In 1991, Mehle received an honorary doctorate from Marymount Manhattan College. The school also holds a scholarship fund in her name, the Aileen Mehle Scholarship Fund for Journalism.

Personal life

Mehle married Roger W. Mehle in 1939 and had a son, Roger, in 1941. The couple divorced in 1946. She married a second time to Mark Kenneth Frank Jr.; they divorced in 1957.

Aileen Mehle died at her home in Manhattan on November 11, 2016, at the age of 98.

Obituary article

From Eomen's Wear Daily

By Lorna Koski, Lisa Lockwood - November 11, 2016, 4:43pm

Aileen Mehle, a witty and ebullient beauty best known as the columnist Suzy—whose stories on Nouvelle Society and the frenzied celebrity culture that succeeded it appeared in WWD and W between 1991 and 2005—died Friday at age 98, according to friends.

She was born Aileen Elder in El Paso, Texas, married Rear Admiral Roger W. Mehle Sr. on June 20, 1939, and had one son, Roger W. Mehle Jr., born December 28, 1941. The union foundered after only a few years, as the writer later intimated, because taking orders wasn’t her strong suit.

The gossip columnist gained prominence in New York society through Truman Capote, who began praising her while she was writing a society column about Florida’s Palm Beach and Miami for the Miami Daily News. After Mehle’s second marriage to Mark Kenneth Frank Jr. ended in the late Fifties, she relocated to New York.

When she arrived in Gotham, the city had seven daily newspapers, each featuring a gossip column. The most prominent columns belonged to Walter Winchell (read by an estimated 30 million people) and Igor Cassini, brother of designer Oleg Cassini, who wrote under the pseudonym Cholly Knickerbocker. Igor’s right hand was another young woman from Texas, Liz Smith, who would go on to develop quite a reputation as a columnist in her own right. Mehle borrowed the last part of her byline from Cholly: Suzy Knickerbocker.

A titian-haired temptress whose personal style echoed that of Elizabeth Taylor in the Sixties and Seventies (think caftans, massive jewelry, and sky-high hair), Mehle was very attractive to men and was linked with shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis, film producer Walter Wanger, and Frank Sinatra, among others. However, after her second attempt at matrimony, she never married again. She appeared as a panelist on the CBS TV show “What’s My Line?” in the mid-Sixties and in an episode of the ABC TV show “Batman” in 1967.

Former Tiffany chairman John Loring, writing about Mehle in Harper’s Bazaar in 2012, quotes her as saying that in her gossip reporting, she didn’t believe in the “jackhammer approach.” He also cited Sinatra’s remarks about her: “I adore Aileen Mehle. She brings an ingredient to her reporting rarely found in a gossip column — humor. It’s important to remember that a lady writer in her position has a great deal of power. Aileen wields that power with a feather duster.’

Loring also noted Mehle’s remarks to Life magazine in 1966: “What I do is somewhere between ditch-digging and galley-slaving. It is a neck-swiveling, don’t-miss-anything job. When I walk into a party, while I’m saying, ‘Hello darling, hello dear, how are you?’ to everyone I haven’t seen since yesterday, I case the place. I have a fast eye. I also listen, listen, listen. When I come home dog-tired at 1 a.m., I often haven’t a line to go on. I’ve even put my little head down on the typewriter and cried a few rusty tears. But then I snap out of it and get to work.

The leading characters in her columns, she added, were “the glamour groups — the terribly rich, terribly important, terribly powerful celebrities and social figures….Everything they do is covered with a lovely, glistening patina….No matter what I say about them, it can’t begin to compare with what they say about each other.”

Although she referred to Truman Capote as the Tiny Terror and called Zsa-Zsa Gabor “Miss Chicken Paprika of 1914,” Mehle was generally quite gentle with her highly placed subjects, who considered her one of their own.

Mehle began covering social events in the days when ladies used to lunch, and the group she wrote about included Babe Paley, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Slim Keith, Gloria Guinness, the Duchess of Windsor, and C.Z. Guest, who frequented such restaurants as The Colony, Quo Vadis, La Côte Basque, Le Pavillon, and La Grenouille.

Later, Mehle often traveled with her great friends Pat and William F. Buckley, who was the editor of The National Review and she, a fund-raiser extraordinaire. In a December 2008 Vanity Fair article, she recalled Pat, who raised tens of millions of dollars for hospitals and cultural institutions, and put the Met’s Costume Institute ball on the social map. “I don’t know how Bill could have picked any woman in the world to be his wife other than Pat, because she could match him — even intellectually, and certainly as far as humor was concerned,” Mehle said. “Most women would have felt challenged by Bill, but she held her own. She blurted out anything she felt like blurting out. If she loved you, she loved you madly. If she hated you, look out. Don’t forget, she was six feet tall. But she always wore flats so she wouldn’t be taller than Bill.”

Mehle also remembered the pair arriving at a Bahamian airport with 42 duffel bags. “You know how many times she counted those bags?” Mehle asked. “Not Bill. He never counted bags.”

In her Suzy columns, she also covered the social and fashion doings of Valentino, Yves Saint Laurent, Karl Lagerfeld, Oscar de la Renta, Bill Blass, Carolina Herrera, Donna Karan, Arnold Scaasi, and many other designers.

In October 1987, following the Black Friday stock market crash, Mehle, who had written enthusiastically about what WWD dubbed Nouvelle Society, told the newspaper, “Do I think this will put an end to party-going? Heavens, I think if you lined up these people against a wall and shot them, they’d still come to life and throw another party. It’s not making me happy. It’s depressing to lose money, but I think it will take a few weeks to see what is going to happen. Maybe they’ll think twice about spending money on a certain charity. But there are far too many charities in New York anyway. New York has turned into one big charity ball.”

In May 1991, Mehle received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Marymount Manhattan College. A party held in her honor, as reported by WWD, raised over $250,000 for the Aileen Mehle Scholarship Fund for Journalism at the school.

In July of that year, it was announced that Mehle would be joining WWD and its then-sister publication, W, that October.

The late John B. Fairchild, who was the chairman and editorial director of Fairchild Publications, remarked, “Suzy is the best there is, and we’re thrilled to have her. She’s always been number one, and now she’ll have the kind of visual material to make her even more than number one.”

Ed Nardoza, the editor in chief of WWD, stated: “I was Aileen’s editor during her time at WWD, but that’s not quite accurate. She truly didn’t require an editor. Editing her Suzy column was an absolute delight. Aileen was an exceptional reporter, especially adept at crafting a sharp observation without overwhelming her subjects. As Mr. Fairchild would put it, ‘Always the scalpel, never the hammer.’ She was an insightful, clever, and entertaining chronicler of an elite world, particularly before social reporting became harsh and merciless. Her columns provided beautifully written insights into a realm of power, glamour, and privilege.

“We laughed constantly, particularly over my editing inquiries, often about whether names like Oatsie or Muffy were real,” Nardoza recalled. “However, one of the greatest perks of working with Aileen was the occasional opportunity to sit beside her at social events. It was remarkable to see how every influential person in the room was captivated by her, seeking her warmth, approval, and, naturally, a mention in her column. At one gala, she referred to me as ‘my dear editor’ when introducing me to William F. Buckley Jr., who leaned in and whispered in that distinct, aristocratic tone, ‘You’d better treat her well, or I’ll give you a damn good thrashing.’”

In February 1992, in her Suzy column, Mehle wrote bluntly about the CFDA’s big award show at Lincoln Center: “I hope they made a lot of money. Certainly, it was well-produced, and parts of it were great fun, but lo-o-o-o-ng. Too damn long. Men particularly hate that. (Has anyone ever complained about any show being too short?) At least half an hour could have been cut without sacrificing anything at all vital or anybody’s fragile ego — who really needs those film flashes at the beginning of the show? Besides being old hat — they’ve done it every year for years — they flash on and off so fast no one knows who or what is in them.” The columnist’s suggestion for change: “Forget the gimmicks and get the first presenter on at 7:31 pm.”

A July 1995 column on the wedding of Marie-Chantal Miller to Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece, though, had Mehle in full gushing flower: “Marie-Chantal Miller, fair-haired, fine-boned, exquisite as a Florentine bella of the Quattrocento…on July 1 in London glided down the aisle of the sumptuous Greek Orthodox Cathedral of Aghia Sophia to become a Royal Highness. Dressed in shimmering white satin of surpassing elegance with a tulle headdress held in place by a blazing diamond tiara (was it ‘something borrowed’ from the Queen of Denmark?) and trailing an endless tulle veil embroidered with appliquéd flowers and butterflies of fine lace, Marie-Chantal was the stuff of dreams. It is just as well that her father, Robert Warren Miller, master of all the duty-free shops he surveys, is a billionaire. It took the house of Valentino two months to make the veil alone.

In October 1999, Mehle noted, “I just returned from four heavenly days in beautiful Scotland, where the notoriously unpredictable weather turned out to be perfect — sunny blue skies, soft silvery clouds, and no need for umbrellas or raincoats. It was merely a simple visit to the countryside with little happening. Let’s see, I had dinner with Prince of Wales and Camilla Parker Bowles at Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, where Mary Queen of Scots once faced significant challenges along with her entourage.”

In a February 2005 column for WWD, the writer reminisced, “I first met Camilla Parker Bowles around 20 years ago. At that time, Prince Charles had been married to Princess Diana for several years. Camilla attended a small private party at the house where I was staying in the Cotswolds, right across from Highgrove, the Prince of Wales’ lovely country home. While it wasn’t exactly public knowledge, the British elite and those in royal circles certainly knew that Camilla was the Prince’s mistress. No sooner had she entered than polite whispers began to circulate.

“Several friends eagerly informed me that this radiant woman, despite his marriage, was the true love of his life, and that they were very much intertwined, Diana or not. After that, you can imagine how I took a closer look at her. Some believed she couldn’t compete with the youthful and beautiful Diana. However, others, particularly myself, found her intriguing, charismatic, and undeniably alluring—cool and self-assured. There was no pretense. I took a liking to her immediately...

"During Charles and Diana's marriage, I sensed that Camilla would ultimately prevail and that Diana would never truly compete with her. Following Diana’s death, I observed numerous moments of Camilla and Charles together. I was convinced that their marriage was inevitable and that it would eventually happen."

In December 2011, Mehle wrote in Architectural Digest about her 2008 move from the ornate Upper East Side townhouse, where she had lived for 25 years but which was being sold, into a building designed by Gilded Age architect Horace Trumbauer. “‘Do you know, Mrs. Mehle, that you have just moved from one ballroom into another?’” she writes that her new doorman enquired. Here’s how she described working with decorator Mario Buatta to change its unusual decor, most of which had been installed by Fiat heiress and cabinet minister Suni Agnelli, including what Mehle called “a crazy fan-shaped staircase leading to the second-floor gallery”:

"Quickly, we removed the troublesome staircase completely and replaced it with a beautiful curved one," wrote Mehle. "We adorned the extravagant fabric with yards of moonlit Indian silk. We created a tented dining area and used tassels generously. In the heart of the dining room, we placed my cherished antique secretary, a piece I adore so much that I nearly carry it with me every time I relocate. We also polished the crown moldings, which stretched on for acres."

“When I say ‘we,’ of course I mean Mario. He has an incredible eye. When he’s around, the mirrors glitter, the silver shines, and the birds sing. Dear Mario. He almost built me a new apartment.

“Oh, I almost forgot, it was Suni Agnelli who adorned my bedroom walls with stunning Chinese fabric, featuring magnolias, birds, and butterflies. She even placed a marble bathtub right in the center of the room (we ended up moving it). Dear, sweet Suni.”

Friends remembered Mehle on Friday afternoon, with Cornelia Guest describing her as “a mix of my sister, my mother and my grandmother in one.”

“It really is the end of an era,” Guest said. “She knew where all the bodies were buried — but never told.”

“The first thing that comes to mind is that she was an exquisite writer,” said William Norwich. “People will focus on society and her hair and her Avedon picture, and all of that is true, but I’d like to talk about the writer. We may remember her for her items in W, but back in the day, she used to write about 1,200 words a day, six times a week in the Daily News, and it had a beginning, middle, and an end; it was basically what she had done the night before. She was such a natural writer and such a stylist. She was a woman, a single mother finding her way in a very tricky world and doing it with great humor and great delicacy.”

He mentioned that there was a time when she wrote pieces for Vogue that were not gossip. One such piece was “The Cost of An Affair.” It was a two-page spread featuring a chart detailing the costs of having an affair. “It was hysterical,” he remarked. She also penned an essay about “beware of the little brown wren,” which referred to the type of person who could truly steal your husband, as opposed to the va-va boom type. “She was a great stylist in her own way and she was a wonderful writer.” He recalled that she would attend parties in the Eighties and write, “My God, these parties are like going to see a bunch of crows on the telephone line. Everyone in black and everyone is skinny,” or she composed a whole piece about ‘Ladies, please eat the cookies.”

When he was a student at boarding school, they would receive several copies of The New York Times and one copy of The Daily News for the drama teacher. “I would take the Daily News and I would read Mrs. Mehle’s column every day. The teacher would say, ‘What are you reading?’ and I would say, ‘I just love this column.’ And he told Norwich that she writes in the genre of social vanities and he recommended several writers. “I was 15, 16 reading all of that, and that’s how I became a writer,” he said.

Blaine Trump recounted meeting Mehle for dinner at a friend’s apartment, where they immediately connected. “She reminded me so much of my mother—glamorous, intelligent, and adored by my mom. We celebrated holidays in Millbrook and Aileen frequently visited. We traveled to Greece and took many trips together. She was a blast to be around. No one else compared to her. After my mother passed away, she stepped into that role for me."

Blain Trump described her (Aileen Mehle) as a “glamour puss.”

“I always said she was allergic to anything unattractive. She had the best sense of humor, and she was so beautiful, inside and out. Those big blue eyes and that big smile! When she walked into a room, you knew she was there. I just loved her. She was a wonderful friend.”

Trump said Mehle gave her something that she carries with her, a little anecdote that says, “Darling, it’s either them, or me, and it’s got to be me.” Trump mentioned that there were all these people pulling at you in New York to go to this and that, and you just can’t do it all. “That was her philosophy. She’d go to all these parties, and she just put her pen down one day and said, ‘I’m not writing anymore. I don’t want any more deadlines. I’m done.’ She was really the social historian.

“I gave her a 97th birthday dinner [in June 2015] at my apartment in New York. She said, ‘Well darling, if I’m still here this time next year, I want the same dinner, the same menu and the same friends.’ Her e-mail was Aileen100@live.com. I said, ‘If you could make it to 100, I’ll give the dinner.’ Trump said Mehle wasn’t up for a party for her 98th birthday last June, but she said, “I might be ready for the 99th.”

Mehle is survived by her son, Roger. A small family service will be held for her in Los Angeles, and friends say she will be buried near her mother. Friends hope to organize a memorial for Mehle in New York next spring.

External links

Source of Raymundo photo

Jump to: Main Page • Micropedia • Macropedia • Icons • Sexology • Time Line • History • Life Lessons • Links • Help
Chat rooms • What links here • Copyright info • Contact information • Category:Root