Elizabeth Arden's most unlikely love - an obese lesbian

A painstakingly researched new biography of beauty legend Elizabeth Arden has revealed an extraordinary - and rarely mentioned - intimate friendship she had with a woman so morbidly overweight, she had to walk with crutches.

Theatrical agent Elisabeth ‘Bessie’ Marbury was widely acknowledged to enjoy the company of other women - and had lived with her lover, interior decorator Elsie de Wolfe, for more than 30 years.

Marbury was the polar opposite of Arden. While the beauty magnate had dedicated her career to health and beauty, her namesake was undeniably fat, and more interested in political activism than physical appearance.

However, the pair bonded over business, and their relationship - whether or not it was ever physical - was one of mutual adoration.

‘Marbury was an exceptionally successful woman in the man’s world of commerce,’ writes Stacy A Cordery in Becoming Elizabeth Arden: The Woman Behind the Global Beauty Empire.

‘She took risks to create new pathways of doing business that treated the artists more fairly. She purposefully hired women, and she rested her decisions on cold calculations even as she valued relationships above all.

‘It’s no wonder that she saw Elizabeth Arden as a kindred spirit… In no time, she became the most important person in Arden’s life.’

Marbury and de Wolfe had already drifted apart by the time Arden met her - de Wolfe living mainly in France, while Marbury bought a home at 13 Sutton Place in Manhattan, and ‘transformed what had been a disreputable location overlooking the East River into a gentrified hot spot for the broadminded.

‘At Sutton Place,’ writes Cordery, ‘Bessie Marbury, so morbidly overweight she walked with crutches, “had become the social lioness of New York.”

‘Instead of gathering to meet intellectual and artistic swells or the city’s scions and socialites she’d invited, “they came to see Bessie holding court in a capacious antique chair set beside the fireplace in her library, smoking endless cigarettes, issuing edicts making or breaking reputations … and enjoying every minute of it,’” she adds, quoting to a Vogue article from the time period.

One friend wrote that she ‘wore her hair tossed carelessly on the top, and appeared in nondescript black dresses. But so pertinent and pungent was her wit that people crowded to be with her.’

Marbury was 25 years older than Arden, but the pair were clearly inseparable and, by 1930, ‘their friendship was so obvious as to be mentioned in the press.’

The relationship surprised friends who knew Bessie well. She was known to be impatient with ‘credulous’ women using creams and potions instead of growing old gracefully.

‘Nevertheless, the two admired each other’s unusual business expertise,’ writes Cordery. ‘While women have always been involved in commerce, there were very, very few female CEOs equivalent to Arden’

But while both powerful women were part of this elite group of independent businesswomen, Marbury had something Arden needed: status.

The beauty maven had long craved a closer relationship with her clients. However, while the Gilded Age was over, certain society rules lived on, and those circles were closed to her as a tradesperson - albeit an immensely successful one.

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‘Elisabeth Marbury was descended from established New England families with unimpeachable social credentials,’ writes Cordery, which made her solid 'old money'.

And so, Bessie became Arden’s introduction to high society.

‘Arden could never be “old money” like Marbury,’ writes Cordery, ‘but becoming part of the postwar smart set was possible,’ thanks to her devoted new friend.

‘With Marbury’s help, and that of others too, Arden moved on to the periphery of high society in the postwar years. 

'As Lady Troubridge [a regular in Marbury's group of intellectual creatives] described, the innermost circles remained firmly closed: “The old aristocracy [was] as aloof, as critical, and as oblivious of the rest of the world as they ever were. They meet these ‘[fashionable] people’ often, particularly at charity balls and bazaars, and they are exceedingly civil, but there it ends. They never mix… If any outsider tries to get in, they close the ranks.”’

Marbury even influenced Arden politically, leading her to support the Democratic Party instead of her old alliance to the Republicans.

‘Always keen to learn from the older woman, Elizabeth understood that what Bessie taught she could learn nowhere else. She loved her and was grateful to her,’ writes Cordery.

Around 1925, Marbury bought a lakeside property in Maine, and was spending more and more time there. By now, her former lover was long out of her life, having married the diplomat Sir Charles Mendl, himself a gay man. The pair never lived together, but Elsie was able to call herself 'Lady' as a result of the union.

Arden often visited her friend in Maine - occasionally bringing her husband Tom Lewis with her.

And when the house next door came up for sale, Arden snapped it up, lovingly refurbishing it with the help and advice of her old friend and new neighbor.

She called the house Maine Chance - ‘she appreciated a good pun,’ writes Cordery.

‘Arden’s country home brought Elisabeth and Elizabeth closer. Their friends intermingled, wandering across the shared lawns for drinks and socializing. Every possible weekend, Arden escaped New York City to rusticate.’

However, Bessie’s health was declining, much to the distress of Arden, and she died, age 76, on January 22, 1933.

Her friend, the actress Rosamond Pinchot, wrote in her diary that day: ‘She was so alive, full of enthusiasm and humor… She was over 75 and must have weighed 200 pounds anyway.

‘Her face wasn’t a bit good looking. It was big and fat like the rest of her. Her eyes were tiny, almost hidden, and yet when she spoke - or looked at you - you felt her great force, her intelligence, her life.’

Her funeral was testament to her standing in society. A 20-limousine cortege made its way down 5th Avenue to St Patrick’s Cathedral, as 20,000 watched silently from the sidewalk.

‘Elizabeth Arden could not hide her heartache. She broke down in front of the open coffin at a private Sutton Place service for Marbury’s closest friends,’ Cordery writes.

‘Arden said a final goodbye as she placed a rose on the casket just as it was lowered into the ground at Woodlawn Cemetery. She took what comfort she could from the diamond name bracelet Bessie left her that spelled out Elisabeth.’

The bulk of Bessie’s estate - including the Maine property - went to her old lover de Wolfe Mendl, in recognition of their many years together. 

Marbury had expressed hopes that it might be turned into a charitable vacation site for women workers - to give them a rural respite from the city. But de Wolfe Mendl, less inclined to social activism, was keen to sell quickly and take the money.

Arden intervened.

‘She was more than happy to push out the woman whose marriage of convenience broke the heart of her friend - so she bought Lakeside Farm herself. Better for Arden, who loved Marbury, to hold the property… it eliminated the threat of Mendl capriciously disposing of it,’ writes Cordery.

For a time, the house became her main focus, landscaping it with the flowers her beloved friend had always planted, and fundraising for what friends described as ‘a Marbury memorial.’

But she also had other, more pressing distractions. As she was mourning Marbury, Arden’s husband Tom - long the subject of rumors of affairs with young demonstrators for the brand - committed the ultimate crime against his business titan wife.

‘In early 1933, Tom tried to wrest control of the company from her,' writes Cordery. 'He ordered “all the salespeople, buyers, and salons” to “direct all correspondence dealing with the firm to him at another address.”

‘That was the final straw. His attempt to take her place as CEO instantly backfired. Arden learned about his machinations and countermanded Tom’s directive less than 24 hours later. Before another day ended, she had moved all his belongings out of their home.’

The book adds: ‘She learned to live with her husband’s adultery, but she would not ignore his takeover attempt. So she sent Tom Lewis packing, first from her life, and then from her company.’

Cordery reflects that Bessie's death may have acted as the impetus she needed to dump the husband who had already humiliated her so frequently.

‘Such was the extent of her business success that the failure of her marriage seemed less to shake than to inspire her. Confident - even imperious - Arden retained the helm.’

Becoming Elizabeth Arden: The Woman Behind the Global Beauty Empire by Stacy A Cordery is published by Viking