Igor Cassini was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
syndicated
gossip columnistA gossip columnist is someone who writes a gossip column in a newspaper or magazine, especially a gossip magazine. Gossip columns are material written in a light, informal style, which relates the gossip columnist's opinions about the personal lives or conduct of celebrities from show business ,...
for the
Hearst newspaperWilliam Randolph Hearst was an American business magnate and leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father...
chain. He was the second journalist to write the
Cholly Knickerbocker column.
Career
Born as
Igor Cassini Loiewski, he also worked as a publicist, ran the
Celebrity Register, edited a short-lived magazine called
Status, was a co-director of the fashion company House of Cassini, founded by his elder brother,
Oleg CassiniOleg Cassini was a French-born American fashion designer noted for being chosen by Jacqueline Kennedy to design her state wardrobe in the 1960s....
, and was a television personality in the 1950s and 1960s.
Cassini's height of influence was in the 1950s, when the Hearst chain claimed 20,000,000 readership for papers that carried his column. He coined the term "
Jet set"Jet set" is a journalistic term that was used to describe an international social group of wealthy people, organizing and participating all around the world in social activities that are unreachable to ordinary people...
" to described the global movements of what had been "
café societyCafé society was the collective description for the so-called "Beautiful People" and "Bright Young Things" who gathered in fashionable cafes and restaurants in New York, Paris, and London beginning in the late 19th century...
" — those who entertained at restaurants and night clubs and hobnobbed with the stars of the entertainment industry. His pen name evoked the fictional quintessential New Yorker, "Diedrich Knickerbocker", who was created by
Washington IrvingWashington Irving was an American author, essayist, biographer and historian of the early 19th century. He was best known for his short stories "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle", both of which appear in his book The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. His historical works...
. The term "café society" had been invented by Maury Paul, Cassini's predecessor as "Cholly Knickerbocker" at the
New York Journal AmericanThe New York Journal American was a newspaper published from 1937 to 1966. The Journal American was the product of a merger between two New York newspapers owned by William Randolph Hearst: The New York American , a morning paper, and the New York Evening Journal, an afternoon paper...
.
Later in his career, Igor, who was known as "Ghighi", hired a young assistant from Texas named
Liz SmithMary Elizabeth "Liz" Smith is an American gossip columnist. She is known as The Grand Dame of Dish.- Early life and career :...
. He also was the host of
The Igor Cassini Show, an interview program that aired on the
DuMont Television NetworkThe DuMont Television Network, also known as the DuMont Network, DuMont, Du Mont, or Dumont was one of the world's pioneer commercial television networks, rivalling NBC for the distinction of being first overall. It began operation in the United States in 1946. It was owned by DuMont...
from October 25, 1953 to February 28, 1954, as well as another television program,
Igor Cassini's Million Dollar Showcase.
His autobiography, co-written with Jeanne Molli,
I'd Do It All Over Again: The Life and Times of Igor Cassini, appeared in 1977 (ISBN 0-399-11553-6).
Family and childhood
He was born in
SevastopolSevastopol is a city on rights of administrative division of Ukraine, located on the Black Sea coast of the Crimea peninsula. It has a population of 342,451 . Sevastopol is the second largest port in Ukraine, after the Port of Odessa....
,
RussiaRussia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, now Ukraine, and his elder brother,
Oleg CassiniOleg Cassini was a French-born American fashion designer noted for being chosen by Jacqueline Kennedy to design her state wardrobe in the 1960s....
, became a fashion designer best known for dressing
First LadyFirst Lady or First Gentlemanis the unofficial title used in some countries for the spouse of an elected head of state.It is not normally used to refer to the spouse or partner of a prime minister; the husband or wife of the British Prime Minister is usually informally referred to as prime...
Jacqueline Kennedy. They were the sons of Countess Marguerite Cassini, an Italian-Russian aristocrat, and her husband, Alexander Loiewski, a Russian diplomat. His maternal grandfather, Arthur Paul Nicholas Cassini, Marquis de Capuzzuchi di Bologna, Count Cassini, was the Russian ambassador to the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
during the administrations of
William McKinleyWilliam McKinley, Jr. was the 25th President of the United States . He is best known for winning fiercely fought elections, while supporting the gold standard and high tariffs; he succeeded in forging a Republican coalition that for the most part dominated national politics until the 1930s...
and
Theodore RooseveltTheodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
(see
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/19/nyregion/19cassini.html?ex=1300424400&en=993242ca44b2b428&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss).
Cassini's father later adopted his wife's surname, which they deemed more distinguished, and when the family lost its status and fortune in the wake of the
Russian Revolution of 1917The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...
, the family moved to Italy, where Marguerite Cassini went to work as a fashion designer. Igor Cassini Loiewski was raised in
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, and moved to the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1936 with his parents and elder brother.
Marriages
His first marriage, in 1940, was to Austine Byrne McDonnell (1920–1991), a Hearst journalist known as "The Most Magnificent Doll Among American Newspaperwomen". She also screentested for the role of
Melanie WilkesMelanie Hamilton Wilkes is a fictional character first appearing in the novel Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. In the 1939 film she was portrayed by Olivia de Havilland...
in the motion picture
Gone with the WindGone with the Wind is a 1939 American historical epic film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. It was produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming from a screenplay by Sidney Howard...
. At the time of their marriage, they both worked for the
Washington Times-HeraldThe Washington Times-Herald was an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C.. It was created by Cissy Patterson, when she bought the Herald and the Times from William Randolph Hearst, and merged them. The result was a '24 hour' newspaper, with 10 editions per day, from morning to...
. They had no children. Known as Bootsie, she divorced him in 1947 and the next year became the third wife of William Randolph Hearst, Jr. During and after her marriage to Cassini, she wrote "These Charming People", the society column of
Washington Times-HeraldThe Washington Times-Herald was an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C.. It was created by Cissy Patterson, when she bought the Herald and the Times from William Randolph Hearst, and merged them. The result was a '24 hour' newspaper, with 10 editions per day, from morning to...
, under the bylines Austine Cassini and Austine.
His second wife was Elizabeth Darrah Waters whom he married in 1948 and divorced in 1952. They had one daughter, Marina.
His third wife, whom he married in 1952, was Charlene Stafford Wrightsman (1927–1963), the younger daughter of Charles B. Wrightsman, an oil millionaire whose collection of French furniture — much of which was acquired through the designers
Denning & FourcadeRobert Denning & Vincent Fourcade, Inc. was an interior design firm which for over forty years was a leader in opulent interiors with offices in New York City and Paris...
— and decorative arts fills several galleries at the Metropolitan Museum. She was previously married (1947–1950) to the actor
Helmut DantineHelmut Dantine was a film actor remembered for playing many Nazis in thriller films of the 1940s. The Vienna-born actor appeared uncredited in Casablanca early in his career .Dantine's father was the head of the Austrian railway system...
, by whom she had a son, Dana Wrightsman Dantine. She and Cassini had one son, Alexander.
On April 8, 1963, while in her bedroom, with her 14-year-old stepdaughter, Marina Cassini, by her side, as the teenager watched the
35th Academy AwardsThe 35th Academy Awards, honoring the best in film for 1962, were held on April 8, 1963 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in Santa Monica, California...
on television, Charlene Cassini swallowed 30 sleeping pills and died the next day. She reportedly was distraught after Attorney General
Robert F. KennedyRobert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy , also referred to by his initials RFK, was an American politician, a Democratic senator from New York, and a noted civil rights activist. An icon of modern American liberalism and member of the Kennedy family, he was a younger brother of President John F...
had indicted her husband for failing to register under the U.S. Registration Act, as an agent of a foreign government (a public relations agency he helped found, Martial & Company, had taken on the
Dominican RepublicThe Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
as a client). She also suffered from headaches following a minor household accident, was depressed after the suicide of a ski instructor friend, and had become bitterly estranged from her father.
After his wife's death, Cassini later wrote, "We discovered the apartment, particularly her closets, littered with all kinds of pills, hidden in vases, under linens, stuffed in her shoes and the pockets of her clothes."
Cassini's fourth wife was the actress Gianna Lou Müller, better known as Nadia Cassini, whom he married in 1969 and divorced in 1972.
His fifth wife was Brenda Mitchell, a top fashion model, from whom he also was divorced. They had two sons, Nicholas, formerly a professional golfer on the
Nationwide TourThe Nationwide Tour is the developmental tour for the U.S.-based PGA Tour, and features professional golfers who have either failed to score well enough at that level's Qualifying School to earn their PGA Tour card, or who have done so but then failed to win enough money to stay at that level...
and Dimitri, who is involved in International Real Estate.