To the One I Love the Best

<b>A witty and charming account of the wildly entertaining Elsie de Wolfe in 1950s Hollywood, recounted by her dear friend, the beloved creator of <i>Madeline</i></b><br><br>Ludwig Bemelmans’ charming intergenerational friendship with the late-in-life “First Lady of Interior Decoration” provides an enormously enjoyable nostalgia trip to the sun-soaked glamour of Los Angeles, where de Wolfe surrounded herself with classic movie stars and a luminous parade of life's oddities.<br> <br>With hilarity and mischief that de Wolfe would no doubt approve, <i>To the One I Love the Best </i>lifts the curtain on 1950s Hollywood--a bygone world of extravagance and eccentricity, where the parties are held in circus tents and populated by ravishing movie stars. <br> <br>Bemelmans, who was working at MGM, had originally come to the California home of de Wolfe just for cocktails but by the end of the night, he was firmly established as a member of the family: given a bedroom in their sumptuous house, invitations to the most outrageous parties in Hollywood, and the friendship of the larger-than-life woman known to her closest friends simply as 'Mother'.<br> <br><i>To the One I Love the Best </i>(which refers to de Wolfe’s dog)<i> </i>is a touching tribute to a fabulously funny woman and an American icon.<br> <br><i>Be pretty if you can, be witty if you must, but be gracious if it kills you. </i>- Elsie de Wolfe