Most people today won't know who Ilka Chase was, but I've been a fan of hers after watching seeing her in classic films like Now, Voyager and The Man I Love. I happened upon a nice hardcover of her second autobiography Free Admission, then found a nice Pocket Book paperback of this title online and decided to read it first.
Ilka Chase was a Broadway actress, radio host, movie actress and above all a society gal. Her mother was an editor of Vogue magazine, and in Past Imperfect - The Indiscretions of a Lady of Wit and Wisdom she details her youth in European boarding schools, ski trips to Biarritz, and tours of Italy. In her thirties she played in New York reviews and originated the role of Sheila in Claire Booth Luce's hit play The Women in 1938. Moving on to Hollywood, her roles in pictures were usually as the worldly sophisticate; for me her best role is of Lisa Vale in Now, Voyager.
Instead of a review of her projects - there is very little about the movies or plays - she spends the book recounting trips to Norway and Denmark with her second husband, commenting on the roles of women in the 1940's, and hobnobbing with the International set on Park Avenue. The kind of anecdotes that start with an impromptu Christmas party that turns into a collection of who's who, with a group of people discovering they are not at the right party after all (Are you the Mann's?...No, we're the Murrays, you should be across the hall"), so Ilka goes across and invites everyone to join them for cocktails. Witty and knowledgeable, she holds her own with friends like Eugene O'Neill and Irving Berlin, William Hearst and Conde Nast. She's sure to say Hello, Joe when passing Joe DiMaggio in Toots Shor's, and if you know who Elsa Maxwell is, you are in the right company. Is it her class or just a higher quality of writing in 1942 that she peppers her tales with words like crepuscular and pullulate? Perhaps out of fashion but adding to the mood. Above all it's her dry wit and ebullient outlook that entertains, regardless of what she reminisces about.
I would have liked a little more about her work (she does have a few chapters on her 1940's radio programs like Luncheon at the Waldorf) but discovering not one but two autobiographies from someone I admire is a treat. The second book is cleverly titled Free Admission, and she has also written several novels including New York 22 and In Bed We Cry.
If you know who she was, or are a fan of 1940's New York, recommended.
1942 / Paperback / 250 pages
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