Nobody hosts like a Palm Beacher. From Mary Lily Kenan Flagler and Mollie Wilmot, to Marjorie Meriweather Post, here are a few lessons and rules to live by – or not – this upcoming season, by some of Palm Beach’s most iconic hostesses.
Mollie Wilmot
Rule: “If a giant freight boat crashes into your seawall, throw a party for the sailors, and don’t forget the tea sandwiches!”
Socialite and department store heiress Mollie Wilmot (1923-2002) woke up to quite a surprise the morning after Thanksgiving 1984: a 197-foot Venezuelan freighter, the MV Mercedes I, had crashed into the seawall of her oceanfront mansion, with its entire crew. So Mollie did what any gracious Palm Beach hostess would do: she served the sailors finger sandwiches, caviar and coffee, and offered martinis to the reporters who hurried to the scene. And just like that, a Palm Beach legend was born.
Mary Lily Kenan Flagler
Rule: “If the noises from the railroad tracks are disturbing you while you entertain, move them!”
Mary Lily Kenan Flagler (1876-1917) was famous for hosting a wide-range of activities for her guests beyond dinner, including tennis, boating, bathing and fishing. But her elegant gatherings at Whitehall were tainted by the noise and smoke from the nearby railroad tracks her husband, Henry Flagler, had built to connect the estate to the Royal Poinciana Hotel. Ever attentive to her guests’ comfort, Mary Lily complained about the disturbance, and Henry obliged in grand fashion, relocating the entire branch four blocks north and building a new trestle over Lake Worth Lagoon with a walkway for hotel guests. The trains were gone, and the parties were saved.
Jayne Wrightsman
Rule: “The water in your salt water pool should be changed twice a day, and kept at a constant 90°F.”
At her Palm Beach home, the 28-room mansion known as Blythedunes, philanthropist Jayne Wrightsman (1919–2019) made sure her swimming pool was filled with saltwater, changed twice daily, and heated to a perfect 90°F, so that even a visiting president, who might also have been a certain neighbor down the road, would always find the water just right. After all, in Palm Beach, you never quite know who might stop by for a swim.
Marjorie Merriweather Post
Rule: “Alcohol is prohibited, but surely that means guests can have one drink before dinner!”
It is said that during Prohibition, Marjorie Merriweather Post (1887–1973) allowed guests at her Palm Beach estate, Mar-a-Lago, exactly one cocktail before dinner. Technically, alcohol was forbidden, but certain rules have always been open to interpretation in Palm Beach. Post was an expert in entertaining, and her dinners for more than a hundred guests ran like clockwork, with the dining table inspected twice daily, menus planned to perfection, and every candle, napkin, and flower placed just right. Amid all this, one perfectly poured drink, after all, could hardly count as a crime.
Mary Astor Paul Munn
Rule: “Bring Guest Books back, and make them extra sweet!”
At her Addison Mizner–designed villa Amado, Mary Astor Paul Munn (1889-1950) turned signing the guest book into an art form. Visitors didn’t just write their names; they left lipstick marks beside them, each shade a souvenir of who had passed through her halls. Among them were the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Marjorie Merriweather Post, Rose Kennedy, and members of the Hearst and Sanford families. The result was a cheeky historical chronicle of Palm Beach society, immortalized in crimson and coral.
