How to Throw a Party

The best you can offer your guests is the unexpected,” wrote legendary party giver Elsa Maxwell in How to Do It, or the Lively Art of Entertaining in 1957. With party season around the corner, here’s some classic advice (and a few cautionary tales) from the people who did it best.

Enlist a pro

Shirley MacLaine was arranging a Hollywood homecoming for her husband, Steve Parker, and called on Bricktop, the famous owner of the Paris nightclub Chez Bricktop, to organize a chic, elegant party. “Well, then,” Bricktop replied, “you have to have chic, elegant people.”White Christmas star Danny Kaye, who was asked to perform, watched Bricktop enchant the crowd with songs from 1920s Paris. “I’m not going to follow that,” he said.

Invent a theme

In 1927, Elsa Maxwell gave a “Come as You Were” party, asking guests to arrive dressed as they were when they received the invitation. Cards went out at all hours, and guests arrived in tuxedos with no pants, ordinary street clothes, and carrying their underwear. The same year, Maxwell organized Paris’s grandest scavenger hunt. Items included music-hall star Mistinguett’s shoe, a black swan from the Bois de Boulogne, the red pom pom on a French seaman’s hat. Before it was over, Mistinguett had to entertain barefoot at the Casino de Paris, a ferocious swan sent two people to the hospital, and interior decorator Elsie de Wolfe, wife of British diplomat Sir Charles Mendl, was accused of theft by the French Navy.

Keep it simple

Elsie de Wolfe had a maxim when she entertained at her Villa Trianon in Versailles, which Maxwell happily recalled: cold room, hot plates, low table decoration. Rosalind Russell wrote that Coco Chanel (another champion of Spartan grandeur) gave her one drink when she lunched at the Rue Cambon—sherry or whiskey. For a centerpiece, Chanel chose an immense rock crystal.

Food!

Maxwell suggests Diana Vreeland’s Ris de veau à la Lyonnaise, Cole Porter’s Cherry Compote with Red Wine, and Joan Fontaine’s Andalusian Gazpacho. She also put ten celebrities to the test in the kitchen of Romanoff’s Beverly Hills restaurant for a kind of silver screen Iron Chef. Claudette Colbert and Joan Fontaine received honorable mention, but first prize went to Clark Gable for his egg recipe. We suggest themed food or BBQ.

Go with the flow

At one of Charlie Chaplin’s soirées, Elsa Maxwell watched Albert Einstein eyeing the string quartet. They were playing a piece by Mozart, a favorite of Einstein’s, and Maxwell realized the genius was longing to join. She asked the violinist if Einstein could borrow his instrument; the fiddler was only too happy, and Einstein delighted the crowd.

Make lemonade

The couturier Jean Patou invited Charlie Chaplin, Elsa Maxwell, and others to a bullfight in Bayonne, southwestern France. A hurricane brewed and the guests got worried. “It’s nonsense to sit around like this,” Chaplin said to Maxwell. “Let’s amuse ourselves. Play something from Carmen and I’ll take it from there.” He became the bull and matador himself and put the party at ease.

And when all else fails . . .

Harpo Marx was staying at Moss and Kitty Hart’s Bucks County country house when the local minister came to call. The Harts, bewildered, enlisted Harpo to cut the visit short. Harpo disappeared. They showed the minister into the living room, double-height with a balcony, and ordered tea. Polite conversation was in full swing when the balcony door burst open and Harpo emerged—naked with shaving brush in his hand. “Moss, it’s time to shave the cat!” Harpo bellowed . . . and the minister fled.