This is a double post - it originated on the L. Duff-Gordon thread, but should be over here also as it relates to the unsinkable Madeleine Astor - Mac Smith
Speaking of Titanic divas to whom men cling in times of bad weather - here in Maine we are going to get our fourth snow storm this week tonight, and already there are 3-foot snowdrifts along the roads, making pulling out from a stop sign deadly. It is cold and miserable, and January is only half over, not to mention February.
This is when I turn to Madeleine Astor. In Maine, Bar Harbor symbolizes the beauty of summer, and to me, Madeleine Force Astor symbolizes Bar Harbor. It was here that J. J. Astor IV met his second wife while she played tennis on the courts at the Kebo country club. After her marriage the local papers were vicious in their items concerning Col. and Mrs. Astor:
"THE ASTOR-FORCE CASE AGAIN
For it's off with the old love, and on with the new;
Divorces are easy and we all draw a few.
The lady is "cute," and she's only eighteen,
But whether the new Force'll hold him is yet to be seen." (1911 Bar Harbor newspaper)
Boarding the Titanic, stewardess Violet Jessop commented on how sad Mrs. Astor looked (can't find the clipping), making Ms. Jessop reflect that she was glad she had not married for money the one chance she had had.
The sadness of Mrs. Astor upon entering the Titanic (smacking of the character "Rose" in the 1997 movie "Titanic") is not surprising because, with all the viciousness that she had felt because of the wedding (including a huge social snub at she and J.J.'s first big party they planned in New York in January 1912, I believe), Madeleine knew that she was headed back into the lion's den, at the
beginning of the social season, five months pregnant. (She must have been showing by then.) If the public and the press had been this bad thus far, imagine what she would hear when she and her husband arrived in America on the Titanic.
That did not happen, but that summer she returned to Bar Harbor.
She started off slow, following dictates of mourning, except that she would not wear black, her mother announced.
In 1916 she married William Dick. At the time of her marriage a local paper wrote about her time since the loss of her first husband:
"Bar Harbor has been largely devoted to dancing for the past few seasons, and at the regular dances at the Swimming club, the Malvern, and various other places where society gathers, she was generally to be found. In fact, after an extremely quiet period after the Titanic disaster, it seemed that when convention and her own wishes allowed, she inteneded to make up for the gloomy years that she had spent after the ocean tragedy."
The articles also says "Last summer she was the acknowledged leader of society, and both the Swimming club and the Kebo golf club were almost daily visited by her."
Madeleine arranged impromptu picnics at Echo Lake, where she burned her finger while broiling chops over an open fire, as well as many other last-minute picnics and other social activities, at which Mr. Dick was often in attendance but not "with" Mrs. Astor.
"Before her marriage to Col. Astor, the Forces have been coming to Bar Harbor for many years, and she and her sister had grown up here. They had a small cottage in an unfashionable locality, entertained very modestly, and had rather a modest place in fashion's whirl here. Her marriage to Col. Astor, whom she won solely by her beauty and charm, at once placed her in a position to dictate to the
resort here and families who would have gladly snubbed her as plain Madeleine Force, were forced to recognize her unquestioned social leadership as Mrs. John Jacob Astor and mother of the heir to the Astor millions. Since her marriage, her social position has been unquestioned here."
Madeleine Talmadge Force Astor Dick Fiermonte, 90 years later you still rock my cold winter world. You go, girl!!!
Mac Smith
