I FIRST VISITED PALM BEACH on holiday. We were staying at a beach hotel several miles north of the resort. We drove our hired car down the famous Worth Avenue, the big shopping street, very similar to Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles. The same brand name fashion houses, Gucci, Chanel, Valentino and dozens more. Then we drove around the island. Palm Beach is an island roughly five miles long and less than five miles wide. All the beautiful mansions were surrounded by hedges and manicured gardens. It was rather like driving along the French Riviera, passing all those enormous villas and wondering what was going on inside. It was a few years later before I managed to see inside some of them.
At the time, we thought we could never meet anyone or get to know the residents, just as in Cannes or Nice, but then again you didn't have the language barrier you had over there. I once interviewed some women who lived on the Cote D'Azur for a magazine article, including the American wife of the crooked Mayor of Nice, when she was in her twenties, and she charmingly showed me her bedroom and private quarters in the manorial mansion. They were hounded after a scandal and fled to South America. But that is another story.
It was about 10 years later, when I was in New York, that I met a woman on the tennis courts who wanted me to drive down with her to Palm Beach, where she had a home. Evidently there were a great many New Yorkers who only went to Palm Beach for the winter months. She lived at the Palm Beach Tennis Club and said we could play tennis every day as well as go to other events.
I was suffering from a really bad cold that I had had for weeks and couldn't shake, when she called to invite me again. It was freezing outside. I was feeling miserable, so after a call to Canada to discuss all this, I was off. It was the beginning of a new life.
I felt the need of companionship and comfort of having someone who was interesting. She had been an actress, had married twice and had three children. Her father had been a Supreme Court Judge, and had left her a small fortune. However she had an enduring quality: she was so thrifty, and so amusing, I learnt a great deal from her. The first week we were there she took me on a tour of all the thrift shops in Palm Beach and West Palm Beach, as that is where she shopped. I was amazed. No Worth Avenue for her. She also darned her stockings and socks; watching her darning her pantyhose was a revelation.
Her refrigerator was full of foil-wrapped food, leftovers that she had taken as doggy bags from restaurants. Not from Private Clubs: they wouldn't allow it, but from regular places. And yet she was a millionaire several times over.
All these endearing habits went with her tremendous generosity But only close friends knew that side of her. She gave large parties and had a social standing in Palm Beach. She introduced me to all her friends. At Christmas time she would buy secondhand ties for the men in her life, and put each of them in a small jiffy bag, sealing them with a pretty bow.
Much has been written about Palm Beach. Most of the outside world has been told that it is a very wealthy enclave for blue-rinsed, old rich people who have canes, Cadillacs and crutches. A British documentary which was shown worldwide treated the place with contempt. Just a place for loud, very rich Americans. It is not until you stay here and find out what really goes on, do you have the knowledge to criticize. Yes, most of the residents are very rich, but most of the women spend their time and money on charitable organizations. Almost everyone works for a charity. The balls--- The Heart Ball, the Red Cross Ball, the Salvation Army Ball---are to raise money for charity. Millions are given each year to these organizations. Social life is very regulated and there are several levels of society in the town.
Also it is a very cultural town. If anyone decides to retire to Florida, the best place to pick is Palm Beach because of a unique society: the Society of the Four Arts. It is like a mini-Lincoln Center in Florida. Remember, many of the residents are from New York and the northern cities, so they want to keep up with what is happening on the world stages.
The Society of the Four Arts has three buildings in a tropical garden in the centre of Palm Beach. Almost every day of the Season--- from December to April---there are concerts, lectures, films, art exhibitions, classes and book groups. There is a library in a picturesque old building, an auditorium, an art gallery, classrooms, and a second concert hall in a beautiful tropical setting. International speakers and artists come from all over the world. To become a full member of the Society one has to be on the waiting list, which only clears when someone dies. You are also expected to donate a certain sum each year, in the thousands of dollars, to maintain your membership. One can join the Library for a modest fee and borrow the latest books, and DVDs.
I became friends with my namesake, Molly Charland---spelt with a C---and was invited to launch my books at a book launch there every year, as well as a lecture. The invitation was a great motivating factor in getting a book finished so it could be promoted in their annual catalogue of events.
The other great venue is the Kravis Center, a huge theatre across the bridge in West Palm Beach on the mainland, where they have three auditoriums. One very large one for touring Broadway shows, two for smaller producions, and an outside space. Recently they have added a Cabaret room and they invite artists from New York. There is also Cabaret Room in the famous old Colony Hotel at the top of Worth Avenue. I became the Food and Entertainment Editor for the Palm Beach Society Magazine six years ago, so I have the job of not only reviewing shows and cabaret, but the new restaurants that open as well.
The heavy social scene is usually between Christmas and Easter. The balls, parties and concerts take place at the celebrated Breakers Hotel, with tickets starting around $800 up to $1,500 per person. There are also many events at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump's mansion, which used to be Marjorie Merriweather Post's home. It is all rather over-the-top now, because the gift bags you receive on your way out contain items that have become ridiculous. Last year one gift bag contained a mini computer! It is not just cosmetics and perfume anymore.
There are three private clubs in town, or rather four, if you count the new Palm Beach Jewish Club where Madoff met and befriended most of his clients and made off with their money. Top of the list is the Everglades Club on Worth Avenue, where most of the old school set belong; they are very discriminating about new members, who have to be interviewed, proposed and seconded; then the Bath and Tennis Club, which is on the beach, and the Beach Club, also facing the beach, where many members have cabanas for the day, so they don't have to mingle with anyone and can dine outside on the patio. It is not necessary to become a member of a Club to enjoy the social life but there is a Social Register published each year which most Club members go by when issuing invitations.
Probably out of experience and past indiscretions, these Clubs keep close watch on member's behavior and have strict rules. Many people come to Palm Beach, including people seeking other people's fortunes.
West Palm Beach is a thriving newly-built city just across the bridge and growing rapidly. High rises are quickly going up and new restaurants open every other week. Real estate prices are going up, too. Ten years ago, there were incredible bargains, but you have to search for them now. It is still half the price of living in New York and other American cities, and the weather is wonderful.
I decided to rent a small auditorium and present the Spoken Word programs that I had done at the Algonquin Hotel in New York. I hired some local actors and they helped spread the word.
But it wasn't enough. I wrote another play The Private Life of George Bernard Shaw, and we had a reading of it at the Society of the Four Arts. I cast the 11 women that Shaw had had a relationship with, and just one man: Shaw himself. Fortunately there was a British actor living in the area and he played Shaw. Later on, when the British actor, Barrie Ingham---who had played Shaw for me at the Algonquin Hotel with Rosemary Harris---and his wife arrived in Palm Beach, I arranged for him to do some readings at the Chesterfield Hotel as a showcase. Molly Charland came and the folks from the Four Arts, who were very impressed; so after I had introduced them, he became a very popular teacher at the Society of the Four Arts for several years after that. We were all very shocked when he died in 2015. He had been a leading actor with the RSC in London and played leads with Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, as well as making films.
The place was a good place to write. There was no excuse. Plenty of time, glorious weather and interesting people. There are a great many Brits living there, including Churchill's granddaughter, artist Edwina Sands and Robert Spencer, second cousin to the late Princess Diana.
On the French Riviera, Cannes, is well known for its glamor, but they also have their famous world renowned Film Festival and in Venice, not only a Film Festival but their historic Carnival. It gives added interest to these places. So it would be good to have a similar attraction in Palm Beach we are trying.
For the past few years there has been a great deal of publicity about saving the Royal Poinciana Playhouse, and unless you know the history of this venue, you probably won't know that is featured in the history of legitimate theatre. International stars from all over the world played there, beginning in the early 1950s; the list of legendary stars is amazing. Christopher Plummer, who starred there, is a strong supporter of saving the theatre.
From legitimate theatre performers such as Helen Hayes, Carol Channing, Nathan Lane and other Broadway stars to movie stars such as Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, Ginger Rogers and Claudette Colbert, all performed there. The adjoining dining room, the Celebrity Room, was a great draw, because it was convenient to have dinner before or after the performance.
Now we have the Kravis Centre supplying us with Broadway stars, international orchestras, ballet and opera companies and number-one road productions of Broadway shows.
However, there is still a need for a more intimate theatre, such as the Royal Poinciana, to produce shows that wouldn't fill the Kravis, but would be welcomed at a smaller theatre.
Reading the list of celebrities and performers who have worked here makes one wish that Palm Beach could be regarded as a theatre town once again. Performers love to work there during the winter season. Chris Plummer's former wife, Tammy Grimes, is still waiting!
She remembers the heyday of the Poinciana, as do many of the great stars.
John Gielgud loved coming here, and he gave poetry recitals at the Society of the Four Arts, Noel Coward swept into town, as did Douglas Fairbanks Jr. who settled here for a time, buying a house and inviting more theatre friends to join him. Others who performed at the theatre include Julie Harris, Michael Redgrave, Peter Ustinov, Charlton Heston, Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy, Mary Martin, Lucie Arnaz, June Allyson, Alan Alder, Rosemary Clooney, Joel Grey, Jerry Herman, Celeste Holm and of course, Palm Beach resident Arlene Dahl. One unexpected name is Dame Margot Fonteyn.
We also now have the fast growing Palm Beach Dramaworks, in West Palm Beach who have a lovely little theatre at the bottom of Clematis Street, and who are dedicated to producing serious plays and play readings. They present highly professional work, and have slowly built up a solid reputation of good theatre.
Which leaves us with the thought of a theatrical restaurant! As Food and Entertainment Editor here, I love to ponder this subject. I wonder if we could persuade Max Klimavicius to open a branch of Sardi's here, next door to the Royal Poinciana, or perhaps Joe Allen? All theatre towns have a theatre restaurant... where the performers all go to wind down, after a performance. There is a Joe Allens in London's West End theatre district (great food at reasonable prices) and another one just steps away from Broadway in New York...where you can often find Joe sitting at the bar.
It is an exciting thought, a theatrical restaurant, because it could be a wonderful venue with a possible cabaret room as well. But first we have to get the Royal Poinciana open again, and once more put Palm Beach on the international theatre map. British and US actors would be delighted to come here. Now if we could get one of them to open a restaurant, we'd be half way there. How about it Michael Caine?
Robert Russell runs the Royal Room at the Colony Hotel and he brings down performers such as Steve Ross, Tommy Tune, K.T. Sullivan, and many more from New York. It makes the town a first class cabaret venue.