Dorothy Hale’s Farewell Party. Myth Number Seven

Clare Boothe Luce wrote that Dorothy Hale told her she was going on a very long trip to a secret destination and was giving herself a farewell cocktail party on the evening of October 20, 1938. Clare, explained that she had been annoyed at Dorothy’s financial debt and said ‘I’m sorry I can’t make your party. The thing you look best in is your old Madame X black velvet. Hope the trip lives up to your expectations.’

Dorothy was found dead the next morning. She had fallen sixteen stories from her apartment window at the Hampshire House on Central Park South.

Portion of The Montreal Gazette Oct. 22, 1938

On the evening of October 20th, Dorothy was not giving herself a farewell party. She was hosting a cocktail party in honor of Laurence Steinhardt, who would be appointed Ambassador to the Soviet Union in 1939 by President Roosevelt. In 1938, Steinhardt served as the United State’s Ambassador to Peru. (See image of Montreal Gazette clipping, "Dorothy Hale Dies in 16-Storey Fall" right)

According to Clare’s appointment book, she had a lunch scheduled with Dorothy on Friday, October 21st. If Dorothy was to leave the next day for her long, secret trip, it is peculiar she would have scheduled a lunch date.

Myra Bairstow
info@dorothyhale.com

Quotes and Passages from “Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo” by Hayden Herrera.

Clare Boothe Luce Said Harry Hopkins Broke Off His Relationship With Dorothy Hale--Or Did He? Myth Number Five

FDR and Harry Hopkins

“Those in the know in Washington said that FDR had ordered Harry Hopkins to end his affair with Dorothy, and to marry instead Lou Macy, a close friend of the Roosevelts, which Hopkins did. Most of the gossip columnists made it brutally clear that Dorothy had been jilted.”
Clare Boothe Luce

Dorothy Hale died on October 21, 1938. Harry Hopkins, advisor to President Franklin Roosevelt, did not meet Lou Macy until the 1940s. This was over two years after Dorothy died. Harry Hopkins did eventually marry Lou Macy, but this was long after Dorothy's death.

In her famous interview about Dorothy Hale and the Frida Kahlo painting, Clare Luce insinuated that Dorothy committed suicide because Harry Hopkins broke off their relationship. The family of Dorothy Hale never believed she intended to marry Harry Hopkins. Dorothy’s father thought it was Dorothy who ended the relationship with Hopkins. Interestingly, Dorothy was seeing another man at the time of her death.

Myra Bairstow

info@dorothyhale.com

Quotes and Passages from “Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo” by Hayden Herrera