Helen Hope Montgomery Scott
Encyclopedia
Helen Hope Montgomery Scott (1904 - January 9, 1995) was a socialite
and philanthropist
who Vanity Fair
once called "the unofficial queen of Philadelphia's WASP
oligarchy
." She is most famous as the inspiration for Tracy Lord, the main character in the Philip Barry
play
The Philadelphia Story
, which was made into the film
of the same name. Mrs. Scott was a longtime chairman and executive director
of the Devon Horse Show
, and sponsored other events to raise money for the Bryn Mawr Hospital
, her favorite charity
. She was viewed as the epitome of Main Line
high society
and was a symbol of an aristocratic but free-spirited style and elegance.
Hope Scott was one of the four children of Colonel Robert Leaming Montgomery, who founded the investment firm known today as Janney Montgomery Scott. Her mother was Charlotte Hope Binney Tyler Montgomery, whose family had made its fortune in banking. In 1923 Helen Hope Montgomery married Edgar Scott, an investment banker and heir to a railroad fortune. After her marriage Mrs. Scott began to appear regularly on the New York Couture Group's annual list of best-dressed women. Her beauty and slim, angular figure (size eight throughout her life) was much admired, inspiring artists such as Cecil Beaton
and Augustus John
. Mrs. Scott became famous for lavish parties at Ardrossan, the Montgomerys' 750 acres (3 km²) estate
in Radnor, Pennsylvania, where she entertained notables of society, politics, and the arts, including Averill Harriman, Cole Porter
, and Katharine Hepburn
. Her son, Robert Montgomery Scott, was a noted local philanthropist who served as president of the Academy of Music
as well as the Philadelphia Museum of Art
.
, the Foxcroft School
in Virginia
. She had begun riding at the age of four, and horsemanship
was a major interest of hers throughout her lifetime. She was officially introduced to society as a debutante
at the Philadelphia Assembly Ball
in 1922. One of the oldest and most exclusive social gatherings in the United States
, it has been held every year since 1748 and is strictly reserved for members of the city's Social Register
.
Philadelphia was America's leading city in the 18th century and continued to be an important commercial center through the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its upper class
at that time embraced a form of the class-consciousness described by Edith Wharton
in such novels as The Age of Innocence
, and the term WASP
(White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) is said to have been coined to describe its members. Philadelphia society, more traditional than that of New York
or San Francisco, consciously copied the manners and pursuits of the English
aristocracy
with private gentlemen's clubs, leisure pursuits such as fox hunting
and rowing
, and the annual debutante ball, held in the ballroom of the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel
.
As the beautiful daughter of an "old money" Philadelphia family, Helen Hope Montgomery received four marriage
proposals the evening of her society debut, but did not accept any of them. The following year she met 24-year old Edgar Scott, a grandson of Pennsylvania Railroad
president Thomas A. Scott, at a Main Line dinner party. They dated only a dozen times before deciding to marry, but her parents insisted they wait nine months more. Their marriage was described as the society wedding of the year, and covered in minute detail by the press. The newlyweds moved into Orchard Lodge, a ca. 1720 fieldstone
house given to Mrs. Scott by her father as a wedding present, which is on the Ardrossan estate in Radnor Township.
encapment. In addition to acquiring right-of-way for its rail lines, the railroad also purchased farmland for suburban development and marketed properties as vacation homes allowing Philadelphia's wealthy urbanites to escape the city's notoriously humid summers. These suburbs, known as "The Main Line," developed rapidly. Wealthy Philadelphians purchased nearby farms and, hiring leading architects such as Horace Trumbauer
and Frank Furness
to design mansions, created an imitation of aristocratic English country living.
The Montgomery family had originated in Ardrossan
, a Scottish
town in Ayrshire
. Colonel Montgomery was born into modest circumstances in Darby, Pennsylvania
, and was determined to achieve social prominence. Upon becoming wealthy (as a result of his firm's handling the incorporation of the Baldwin Locomotive Works
) he acquired several adjacent farms on the Main Line and developed them in 1909, naming the property Ardrossan. "The big house," the 45-room Georgian
mansion that was to become an iconic symbol of the old Main Line, was completed in 1911 from a design by Trumbauer. The interior design was handled by White, Allom & Company, whose clientele included English royalty. The manor house features 50 rooms, 13 feet (4 m)-high ceilings, and a dining room with accommodations for 30. Among the family portraits that decorate the walls are some painted by Gilbert Stuart
and Thomas Sully
, together with a famed portrait of Hope Scott by Augustus John. The piano in the ballroom was a gift to Colonel Montgomery's middle daughter, Mary Binney Montgomery Wheeler, from Leopold Stokowski
, who unsuccessfully proposed marriage to her twice. In its heyday, a full-time staff of 12 managed the housekeeping. In addition to the manor house the estate was home to more than 38 structures, including a number of historically significant homes; one structure dates to 1689 and another was built in 1742. Until the death of Mrs. Scott, it was a working farm, featuring a prize-winning herd of Ayrshire dairy cows
.
with Josephine Baker
in Paris
and the foxtrot with the Duke of Windsor
at El Morocco
. Confident and high-spirited, she is said to have convinced Edward VIII
to stand on his head and reveal what was beneath his kilt
(long johns), and claimed to have had to fight off the advances of a lecherous Augustus John
. On one occasion she seated her dog as a guest at a formal dinner party. Her insouciance was to make her indirectly responsible for James Stewart
's only Oscar, Katharine Hepburn
's development into a major film star and, it is said, the popularity of "Tracy" as a girl's Christian name.
Edgar Scott had been a classmate of future New York
playwright
Philip Barry while at Harvard and the Scotts were lifelong friends of Barry and his wife, Ellen. The idle rich were a source of inspiration to Barry, who had also become interested in the then-new phenomenon of the tabloid newspaper. Tabloids were notorious for gossip and scandal, anathema to conservative high-society families, and while on a visit to St. Paul, Minnesota, Barry had heard of a local criminal enterprise in which prominent wealthy families were blackmail
ed with threats of exposing family scandals. Furthermore Ellen had suggested basing a play on Philadelphia's social elite. The result was The Philadelphia Story, a comedy of manners
about a tabloid's invasion of a society girl's wedding, which appeared on Broadway
in 1939 starring Katharine Hepburn. The motion picture rights were purchased by Hepburn's then-boyfriend Howard Hughes
, and her reprise of the role in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
feature film is said to have restarted her stalled movie career. A later remake of the film, High Society, starred Grace Kelly
.
Mrs. Scott won many awards for horsemanship during her lifetime. Together with her husband she participated in fox hunting events and horse show
s. A principal organizer of the Devon Horse Show after the Second World War, Mrs Scott was elected chairman and executive director of the annual event, which raised money to support the Bryn Mawr Hospital. She also served as a director of the United States Equestrian Team
and of the American Horse Show Association. She continued to be socially active until her death in early 1995 at age 90. Her husband Edgar survived her for four months, passing away on May 26, 1995. She was also survived by her two sons, Edgar Jr. and Robert, and several grandchildren.
Socialite
A socialite is a person who participates in social activities and spends a significant amount of time entertaining and being entertained at fashionable upper-class events....
and philanthropist
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...
who Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
once called "the unofficial queen of Philadelphia's WASP
White Anglo-Saxon Protestant
White Anglo-Saxon Protestant or WASP is an informal term, often derogatory or disparaging, for a closed group of high-status Americans mostly of British Protestant ancestry. The group supposedly wields disproportionate financial and social power. When it appears in writing, it is usually used to...
oligarchy
Oligarchy
Oligarchy is a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with an elite class distinguished by royalty, wealth, family ties, commercial, and/or military legitimacy...
." She is most famous as the inspiration for Tracy Lord, the main character in the Philip Barry
Philip Barry
Philip James Quinn Barry was an American playwright born in Rochester, New York.-Early life:Philip Barry was born on June 18, 1896 in Rochester, New York to James Corbett Barry and Mary Agnes Quinn Barry. James would die from appendicitis a year after Philip's birth, and his father's marble and...
play
Play (theatre)
A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...
The Philadelphia Story
The Philadelphia Story (play)
The Philadelphia Story is a 1939 American comic play by Philip Barry. It tells the story of a socialite whose wedding plans are complicated by the simultaneous arrival of her ex-husband and an attractive journalist.-Production:...
, which was made into the film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
of the same name. Mrs. Scott was a longtime chairman and executive director
Executive director
Executive director is a term sometimes applied to the chief executive officer or managing director of an organization, company, or corporation. It is widely used in North American non-profit organizations, though in recent decades many U.S. nonprofits have adopted the title "President/CEO"...
of the Devon Horse Show
Devon Horse Show
The Devon Horse Show, also known as The Devon Horse Show and Country Fair is an annual horse show which has been held late May through early June in Devon, Pennsylvania since 1896. ....
, and sponsored other events to raise money for the Bryn Mawr Hospital
Bryn Mawr Hospital
Bryn Mawr Hospital is a Pennsylvania hospital near Philadelphia that is part of Main Line Health, a community-based not-for-profit health system, comprising Lankenau Hospital, Paoli Hospital, and Bryn Mawr Rehab Hospital. It is located on 130 South Bryn Mawr Avenue in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania....
, her favorite charity
Charitable organization
A charitable organization is a type of non-profit organization . It differs from other types of NPOs in that it centers on philanthropic goals A charitable organization is a type of non-profit organization (NPO). It differs from other types of NPOs in that it centers on philanthropic goals A...
. She was viewed as the epitome of Main Line
Pennsylvania Main Line
The Main Line is an unofficial historical and socio-cultural region of suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, comprising a collection of affluent towns built along the old Main Line of the Pennsylvania Railroad which ran northwest from downtown Philadelphia parallel to Lancaster Avenue , a road...
high society
Upper class
In social science, the "upper class" is the group of people at the top of a social hierarchy. Members of an upper class may have great power over the allocation of resources and governmental policy in their area.- Historical meaning :...
and was a symbol of an aristocratic but free-spirited style and elegance.
Hope Scott was one of the four children of Colonel Robert Leaming Montgomery, who founded the investment firm known today as Janney Montgomery Scott. Her mother was Charlotte Hope Binney Tyler Montgomery, whose family had made its fortune in banking. In 1923 Helen Hope Montgomery married Edgar Scott, an investment banker and heir to a railroad fortune. After her marriage Mrs. Scott began to appear regularly on the New York Couture Group's annual list of best-dressed women. Her beauty and slim, angular figure (size eight throughout her life) was much admired, inspiring artists such as Cecil Beaton
Cecil Beaton
Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton, CBE was an English fashion and portrait photographer, diarist, painter, interior designer and an Academy Award-winning stage and costume designer for films and the theatre...
and Augustus John
Augustus John
Augustus Edwin John OM, RA, was a Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher. For a short time around 1910, he was an important exponent of Post-Impressionism in the United Kingdom....
. Mrs. Scott became famous for lavish parties at Ardrossan, the Montgomerys' 750 acres (3 km²) estate
Estate (house)
An estate comprises the houses and outbuildings and supporting farmland and woods that surround the gardens and grounds of a very large property, such as a country house or mansion. It is the modern term for a manor, but lacks the latter's now abolished jurisdictional authority...
in Radnor, Pennsylvania, where she entertained notables of society, politics, and the arts, including Averill Harriman, Cole Porter
Cole Porter
Cole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, he defied the wishes of his domineering grandfather and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn towards musical theatre...
, and Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies...
. Her son, Robert Montgomery Scott, was a noted local philanthropist who served as president of the Academy of Music
Academy of Music (Philadelphia)
The Academy of Music, also known as American Academy of Music, is a concert hall and opera house located at Broad and Locust Streets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was built in 1857 and is the oldest opera house in the United States that is still used for its original purpose...
as well as the Philadelphia Museum of Art
Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Philadelphia Museum of Art is among the largest art museums in the United States. It is located at the west end of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park. The Museum was established in 1876 in conjunction with the Centennial Exposition of the same year...
.
Early life and social environment
Helen Hope Montgomery was initially educated by a governess, later spending a short period at a girl's boarding schoolBoarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
, the Foxcroft School
Foxcroft School
Foxcroft School, founded in 1914 by Ms. Charlotte Haxall Noland, is an independent boarding and day school for girls in grades 9–12, located near Middleburg, Virginia, United States....
in Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
. She had begun riding at the age of four, and horsemanship
Equestrianism
Equestrianism more often known as riding, horseback riding or horse riding refers to the skill of riding, driving, or vaulting with horses...
was a major interest of hers throughout her lifetime. She was officially introduced to society as a debutante
Debutante
A débutante is a young lady from an aristocratic or upper class family who has reached the age of maturity, and as a new adult, is introduced to society at a formal "début" presentation. It should not be confused with a Debs...
at the Philadelphia Assembly Ball
Cotillion
In American usage, a cotillion is a formal ball and social gathering, often the venue for presenting débutantes during the débutante season – usually May through December. Cotillions are also used as classes to teach social etiquette, respect and common morals for the younger ages with the...
in 1922. One of the oldest and most exclusive social gatherings in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, it has been held every year since 1748 and is strictly reserved for members of the city's Social Register
Social Register
Specific to the United States, the Social Register is a directory of names and addresses of prominent American families who form the social elite, . The "Directory" automatically includes the President of the United States and the First Family, and in the past always included the U.S. Senators and...
.
Philadelphia was America's leading city in the 18th century and continued to be an important commercial center through the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its upper class
Upper class
In social science, the "upper class" is the group of people at the top of a social hierarchy. Members of an upper class may have great power over the allocation of resources and governmental policy in their area.- Historical meaning :...
at that time embraced a form of the class-consciousness described by Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton , was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer, and designer.- Early life and marriage:...
in such novels as The Age of Innocence
The Age of Innocence
The Age of Innocence is a novel by Edith Wharton published in 1920, which won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize. The story is set in upper-class New York City in the 1870s. In 1920, The Age of Innocence was serialized in four parts in the Pictorial Review magazine, and later released by D...
, and the term WASP
White Anglo-Saxon Protestant
White Anglo-Saxon Protestant or WASP is an informal term, often derogatory or disparaging, for a closed group of high-status Americans mostly of British Protestant ancestry. The group supposedly wields disproportionate financial and social power. When it appears in writing, it is usually used to...
(White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) is said to have been coined to describe its members. Philadelphia society, more traditional than that of New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
or San Francisco, consciously copied the manners and pursuits of the English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
aristocracy
Aristocracy
Aristocracy , is a form of government in which a few elite citizens rule. The term derives from the Greek aristokratia, meaning "rule of the best". In origin in Ancient Greece, it was conceived of as rule by the best qualified citizens, and contrasted with monarchy...
with private gentlemen's clubs, leisure pursuits such as fox hunting
Fox hunting
Fox hunting is an activity involving the tracking, chase, and sometimes killing of a fox, traditionally a red fox, by trained foxhounds or other scent hounds, and a group of followers led by a master of foxhounds, who follow the hounds on foot or on horseback.Fox hunting originated in its current...
and rowing
Watercraft rowing
Watercraft rowing is the act of propelling a boat using the motion of oars in the water. The difference between paddling and rowing is that with rowing the oars have a mechanical connection with the boat whereas with paddling the paddles are hand-held with no mechanical connection.This article...
, and the annual debutante ball, held in the ballroom of the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel
The Bellevue-Stratford Hotel
The Bellevue is a landmark building at Broad & Walnut Streets in Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It has continued as a well-known institution for more than a century. In the past 30 years the hotel has undergone minor name changes, but still is widely known by its historic name, The...
.
As the beautiful daughter of an "old money" Philadelphia family, Helen Hope Montgomery received four marriage
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
proposals the evening of her society debut, but did not accept any of them. The following year she met 24-year old Edgar Scott, a grandson of Pennsylvania Railroad
Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad was an American Class I railroad, founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the "Pennsy", the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
president Thomas A. Scott, at a Main Line dinner party. They dated only a dozen times before deciding to marry, but her parents insisted they wait nine months more. Their marriage was described as the society wedding of the year, and covered in minute detail by the press. The newlyweds moved into Orchard Lodge, a ca. 1720 fieldstone
Fieldstone
Fieldstone is a building construction material. Strictly speaking, it is stone collected from the surface of fields where it occurs naturally...
house given to Mrs. Scott by her father as a wedding present, which is on the Ardrossan estate in Radnor Township.
Ardrossan
The Pennsylvania Railroad, at one time the largest publicly-traded corporation in the world, was the source of many great Philadelphia fortunes. The railroad's main trunk line to Harrisburg, developed in the 1840s, ran west from the city through the farming country near Washington's famed Valley ForgeValley Forge
Valley Forge in Pennsylvania was the site of the military camp of the American Continental Army over the winter of 1777–1778 in the American Revolutionary War.-History:...
encapment. In addition to acquiring right-of-way for its rail lines, the railroad also purchased farmland for suburban development and marketed properties as vacation homes allowing Philadelphia's wealthy urbanites to escape the city's notoriously humid summers. These suburbs, known as "The Main Line," developed rapidly. Wealthy Philadelphians purchased nearby farms and, hiring leading architects such as Horace Trumbauer
Horace Trumbauer
Horace Trumbauer was a prominent American architect of the Gilded Age, known for designing residential manors for the wealthy. Later in his career he also designed hotels, office buildings, and much of the campus of Duke University...
and Frank Furness
Frank Furness
Frank Heyling Furness was an acclaimed American architect of the Victorian era. He designed more than 600 buildings, most in the Philadelphia area, and is remembered for his eclectic, muscular, often idiosyncratically scaled buildings, and for his influence on the Chicago architect Louis Sullivan...
to design mansions, created an imitation of aristocratic English country living.
The Montgomery family had originated in Ardrossan
Ardrossan
Ardrossan is a town on the North Ayrshire coast in south-western Scotland. The name "Ardrossan" describes its physical position — 'ard' from the Gaelic àird meaning headland, 'ros' a promontory and the diminutive suffix '-an' - headland of the little promontory...
, a Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
town in Ayrshire
Ayrshire
Ayrshire is a registration county, and former administrative county in south-west Scotland, United Kingdom, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine. The town of Troon on the coast has hosted the British Open Golf Championship twice in the...
. Colonel Montgomery was born into modest circumstances in Darby, Pennsylvania
Darby, Pennsylvania
Darby is a borough in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States, along Darby Creek southwest of downtown Philadelphia. It has a public library founded in 1743 and a cemetery more than 300 years old. The Quakers lived there early in the colonial era. Darby was settled about 1660 and was...
, and was determined to achieve social prominence. Upon becoming wealthy (as a result of his firm's handling the incorporation of the Baldwin Locomotive Works
Baldwin Locomotive Works
The Baldwin Locomotive Works was an American builder of railroad locomotives. It was located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, originally, and later in nearby Eddystone, Pennsylvania. Although the company was very successful as a producer of steam locomotives, its transition to the production of...
) he acquired several adjacent farms on the Main Line and developed them in 1909, naming the property Ardrossan. "The big house," the 45-room Georgian
Georgian architecture
Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1720 and 1840. It is eponymous for the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I of Great Britain, George II of Great Britain, George III of the United...
mansion that was to become an iconic symbol of the old Main Line, was completed in 1911 from a design by Trumbauer. The interior design was handled by White, Allom & Company, whose clientele included English royalty. The manor house features 50 rooms, 13 feet (4 m)-high ceilings, and a dining room with accommodations for 30. Among the family portraits that decorate the walls are some painted by Gilbert Stuart
Gilbert Stuart
Gilbert Charles Stuart was an American painter from Rhode Island.Gilbert Stuart is widely considered to be one of America's foremost portraitists...
and Thomas Sully
Thomas Sully
Thomas Sully was an American painter, mostly of portraits.-Early life:Sully was born in Horncastle, Lincolnshire, England, to the actors Matthew and Sarah Sully. In March 1792 the Sullys and their nine children immigrated to Richmond, Virginia, where Thomas’s uncle managed a theater...
, together with a famed portrait of Hope Scott by Augustus John. The piano in the ballroom was a gift to Colonel Montgomery's middle daughter, Mary Binney Montgomery Wheeler, from Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Anthony Stokowski was a British-born, naturalised American orchestral conductor, well known for his free-hand performing style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from many of the great orchestras he conducted.In America, Stokowski...
, who unsuccessfully proposed marriage to her twice. In its heyday, a full-time staff of 12 managed the housekeeping. In addition to the manor house the estate was home to more than 38 structures, including a number of historically significant homes; one structure dates to 1689 and another was built in 1742. Until the death of Mrs. Scott, it was a working farm, featuring a prize-winning herd of Ayrshire dairy cows
Ayrshire cattle
The Ayrshire cattle is a breed of dairy cattle originated from Ayrshire in Scotland. The average mature Ayrshire cow weighs 1,000-1,300 pounds . Ayrshires have red markings. The red can be an orange to a dark brown, with or without coloured legs. They are known for low somatic cell counts,...
.
The Philadelphia Story
Mrs. Scott became a noted figure in the international social scene of the 1920s and 1930s. She danced the CharlestonCharleston (dance)
The Charleston is a dance named for the harbor city of Charleston, South Carolina. The rhythm was popularized in mainstream dance music in the United States by a 1923 tune called "The Charleston" by composer/pianist James P. Johnson which originated in the Broadway show Runnin' Wild and became one...
with Josephine Baker
Josephine Baker
Josephine Baker was an American dancer, singer, and actress who found fame in her adopted homeland of France. She was given such nicknames as the "Bronze Venus", the "Black Pearl", and the "Créole Goddess"....
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and the foxtrot with the Duke of Windsor
Duke of Windsor
The title Duke of Windsor was created in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1937 for Prince Edward, the former King Edward VIII, following his abdication in December 1936. The dukedom takes its name from the town where Windsor Castle, a residence of English monarchs since the Norman Conquest, is...
at El Morocco
El Morocco
El Morocco was a 20th century Manhattan nightclub frequented by the rich and famous in the 1930s and 1950s. It was famous for its blue zebra-stripe motif and its official photographer, Jerome Zerbe.-History:In 1931, John Perona , an Italian...
. Confident and high-spirited, she is said to have convinced Edward VIII
Edward VIII of the United Kingdom
Edward VIII was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth, and Emperor of India, from 20 January to 11 December 1936.Before his accession to the throne, Edward was Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall and Rothesay...
to stand on his head and reveal what was beneath his kilt
Kilt
The kilt is a knee-length garment with pleats at the rear, originating in the traditional dress of men and boys in the Scottish Highlands of the 16th century. Since the 19th century it has become associated with the wider culture of Scotland in general, or with Celtic heritage even more broadly...
(long johns), and claimed to have had to fight off the advances of a lecherous Augustus John
Augustus John
Augustus Edwin John OM, RA, was a Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher. For a short time around 1910, he was an important exponent of Post-Impressionism in the United Kingdom....
. On one occasion she seated her dog as a guest at a formal dinner party. Her insouciance was to make her indirectly responsible for James Stewart
James Stewart (actor)
James Maitland Stewart was an American film and stage actor, known for his distinctive voice and his everyman persona. Over the course of his career, he starred in many films widely considered classics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime...
's only Oscar, Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies...
's development into a major film star and, it is said, the popularity of "Tracy" as a girl's Christian name.
Edgar Scott had been a classmate of future New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
Philip Barry while at Harvard and the Scotts were lifelong friends of Barry and his wife, Ellen. The idle rich were a source of inspiration to Barry, who had also become interested in the then-new phenomenon of the tabloid newspaper. Tabloids were notorious for gossip and scandal, anathema to conservative high-society families, and while on a visit to St. Paul, Minnesota, Barry had heard of a local criminal enterprise in which prominent wealthy families were blackmail
Blackmail
In common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...
ed with threats of exposing family scandals. Furthermore Ellen had suggested basing a play on Philadelphia's social elite. The result was The Philadelphia Story, a comedy of manners
Comedy of manners
The comedy of manners is a genre of play/television/film which satirizes the manners and affectations of a social class, often represented by stock characters, such as the miles gloriosus in ancient times, the fop and the rake during the Restoration, or an old person pretending to be young...
about a tabloid's invasion of a society girl's wedding, which appeared on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
in 1939 starring Katharine Hepburn. The motion picture rights were purchased by Hepburn's then-boyfriend Howard Hughes
Howard Hughes
Howard Robard Hughes, Jr. was an American business magnate, investor, aviator, engineer, film producer, director, and philanthropist. He was one of the wealthiest people in the world...
, and her reprise of the role in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
feature film is said to have restarted her stalled movie career. A later remake of the film, High Society, starred Grace Kelly
Grace Kelly
Grace Patricia Kelly was an American actress who, in April 1956, married Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, to become Princess consort of Monaco, styled as Her Serene Highness The Princess of Monaco, and commonly referred to as Princess Grace.After embarking on an acting career in 1950, at the age of...
.
Later life
Upon her father's death in 1949, Mrs. Scott undertook the management of the Ardrossan estate, modernizing the farming facilities and becoming hostess of "the great house," although her brother and one of her sisters continued to live on the estate.Mrs. Scott won many awards for horsemanship during her lifetime. Together with her husband she participated in fox hunting events and horse show
Horse show
A Horse show is a judged exhibition of horses and ponies. Many different horse breeds and equestrian disciplines hold competitions worldwide, from local to the international levels. Most horse shows run from one to three days, sometimes longer for major, all-breed events or national and...
s. A principal organizer of the Devon Horse Show after the Second World War, Mrs Scott was elected chairman and executive director of the annual event, which raised money to support the Bryn Mawr Hospital. She also served as a director of the United States Equestrian Team
United States Equestrian Team
The United States Equestrian Team, or USET, was founded in 1950 at the Coates estate on van Beuren Road in Morristown, New Jersey, and is the international equestrian team for the United States...
and of the American Horse Show Association. She continued to be socially active until her death in early 1995 at age 90. Her husband Edgar survived her for four months, passing away on May 26, 1995. She was also survived by her two sons, Edgar Jr. and Robert, and several grandchildren.