Biography

Effectively summed up in a 1957 obituary by the newspaper Toledo Blade": She Collected Men, Chinchilla, Diamonds".

Thought to be the inspiration for Lorelei Lee, the character created by Anita Loos in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)

In February 1928 she acquired the Portuguese Diamond from Black, Starr & Frost. She traded a $350,000 pearl necklace for the diamond and $23,000 in cash. According to New York newspaper accounts, it was mounted on a diamond-studded platinum choker to be worn close around the throat. The jewelry firm's spokesperson at the time indicated that the diamond was found at the Premier Mine, Kimberly, South Africa, in 1910, and that the firm had obtained it shortly after its discovery. Sometime prior to 1946 she placed the diamond on consignment to the group of jewelers mentioned above, in an unsuccessful attempt to sell it. Harry Winston acquired the Portuguese Diamond from her in 1951, and for the next several years it traveled the country as part of his "Court of Jewels" exhibition. In 1957, Winston sold the diamond to an international industrialist, who then traded it back in 1962. In 1963, the Smithsonian acquired the Portuguese Diamond from Mr. Winston in exchange for 2,400 carats of small diamonds.

Made her Broadway debut in the 1917 Ziegfeld Follies.