Aristocracy Too

Aristocracy Too! I’ve switched back to Time Life –The United States and O’Donovan writing only fifty years ago with no knowledge of what Chastellux had written we get confirmation; ‘How does one generalize about a country that is furiously democratic, whose origins lay in a conscious rejection of the European edifice of King, bishop, nobleman and subject- and which yet retains one of the few surviving genuinely exclusive aristocracies of the world? That this should be even though to be so is an offensive heresy to most Americans. But in a dozen cities like St Louis, Boston, Charleston, Baltimore, Philadelphia and even Washington you find them flourishing, less mobile than even the French aristocracy, less showy and less tolerant than the British. They are synonymous with ‘society’. They tend to play a considerable role in public service, and they provide more than their share of Senators and Congressmen. They are not easily recognized by strangers since they share the regional accents of America. Yet there they are, an impenetrable, cultivated nucleus whose chief aim is neither wealth nor power- though they usually have both already- but the preservation of their identity: The bloodline. All over America there are these small camouflaged citadels of purest snobbery.’ P12 ‘The Practical Idealists- P O’Donovan –The United States Time Life 1965. I have a remarkable book which as soon as I saw it in ‘Hard to Find’ I knew I had to purchase it. Undated ‘A Wonderful Time’ by Slim Aarons –Harper and Row New York. And our photojournalist has devoted his life to getting photos of this Elite American Aristocracy who were genuinely shy about having their photos taken in this late 1950s period. It shows the two Cushing boys – Freddie and Howard and their sister Minnie surf board under her arm surfing at their private beach by Newport’s most exclusive club. A whose who of names including a former English King and his American wife, Salvador Dali, Phillip Van Rensselaer, Senator John Kennedy catching the eye of the photographer at April in Paris Ball and in New York an impressive line up of named children waiting for a dancing class including Stephen C Sherrill and Austin Hearst. But my favorite for children who are the same age as me at that time is of Mrs Cabot and her children Henry Bromfield Cabot 3 standing on the bonnet of the sports car and his sister Camilla smirking at younger brother Andrew Hull Cabot on the boot with mum door open in the middle- mansion behind. For the photographer the most important photo he has included where he has battled with poor light to get a grainy image – is the 1958 Debutante Cotillion in the main ballroom of the Copley Plaza. Attendance at these events as those familiar with New York’s founding Queen Carol Astor – Attendance at these balls marks acceptance into the utterly exclusive club of American Establishment. But the recreations shown are varied and diverse. Fairfield Country Fox Hounds, Newport to Bermuda race and of course the America’s Cup gatecrashed but upstarts Australians….Ah!!! Queen’s Birthday at Bermuda’s Government House, Bath and Tennis Club at Palm Beach, Gulf stream Polo Club, Palaces at Acapulco Laguna Beach Bowling Club, Skiing in Vermont and on it goes- Venues changing but the family names never dying out. Take just one example to close. I mentioned in connection with New York a Dutch family – Van Rensselaer whose arrival as land owners is spoken of in Phillip Shorto’s ‘The Island at the center of the world’ New York story of the 1620s… But another author told of an armed insurrection when the hundreds of surf-tenant farmers on the vast Van Rensselaer estate broke free from hundreds of years of servitude and rebelled against a European system which the 1776 Revolution was supposed to have ended! I’ve never been to USA- but all is Not free as we are told… Am I right?