Doris Lilly
Doris Lilly(c.1922/26 December 1926 – 9 October 1991) was an American newspaper columnist and writer.[1]Lilly wrote newspaper columns onhigh societyfor theNew York Postbetween 1968 and 1978, and theNew York Daily Mirror.[2]
Life
[edit]Lilly was born in South Pasadena in California and she was schooled in Santa Monica.[1]Lilly was a contract player for film producerCecil B. DeMillein her youth, before dating actorRonald Reaganin the 1950s after his divorce fromJane Wyman.[1]Two letters that Reagan sent her during their relationship were auctioned atSotheby'sby Lilly in 1988 while Reagan was serving asPresident of the United States;the letters were bought byMalcolm Forbesand given to Reagan's wife,Nancy.[1][3]
Lilly was a socialite and wrote several books about people of great wealth includingGlamor Girl(1977; with co-author Robin Moore) andThose Fabulous Greeks: Onassis, Niarchos and Livanos(1970).[1][2]Lilly has been cited as, and claimed herself, that she was an inspiration for Holly Golightly, the lead character inTruman Capote's novellaBreakfast at Tiffany's.[1][4]
The similarity of the title of Lilly's first book,How to Meet a Millionaire,to that of the 1953 musical filmHow to Marry a Millionaire,has contributed to a misconception (unfortunately included in several of her obituaries) that the movie was an adaptation of the book; in fact, however, the film's credited sources were two plays (one byZoe Akins,the other by Dale Eunson and Katherine Albert). Lilly published an updated version of the book in 1984 asHow to Meet a Billionaire,commenting that "A million dollars isn't much money these days. You can't even get a decent house for that."[1]TheNew York PostcolumnistCindy Adamssaid that Lilly was "never fond of poverty", and Lilly herself said that the people she wrote about as a gossip columnist were sometimes "shallow" but were "pleasant and they smell good and they eat well and drink good wines, and that's all right."[1]
Lilly wrote for several publications, including as a contributor toAvenue,Cosmopolitan,Ladies' Home Journal,McCall'smagazines, as beauty editor ofTown and Country.[1]On television Lilly was a commentator onWPIXand a guest on panel shows andThe Merv Griffin Show.[1]
Bibliography
[edit]- How to Meet a Millionaire(1951)
- How to Make Love in Five Languages(1965)
- Those Fabulous Greeks: Onassis, Niarchos and Livanos(1970)
- Glamour Girl(1977, with Robin Moore)
- How to Meet a Billionaire(1984)
References
[edit]- ^abcdefghijBruce Lambert (11 October 1991)."Doris Lilly, 69, Gossip Columnist Who Wrote of Millionaires, Dies".The New York Times.p. 13.
- ^abSam G. Riley (1 January 1995).Biographical Dictionary of American Newspaper Columnists.Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 183–.ISBN978-0-313-29192-0.
- ^Bernard F. Dick (14 March 2014).The President's Ladies: Jane Wyman and Nancy Davis.Univ. Press of Mississippi. pp. 93–.ISBN978-1-61703-980-5.
- ^Andrew O'Hagan (22 January 2013).The Atlantic Ocean: Reports from Britain and America.Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. pp.79–.ISBN978-0-547-72789-9.
- 1920s births
- 1991 deaths
- American columnists
- American socialites
- American women novelists
- Television personalities from California
- American women television personalities
- Deaths from cancer in New York (state)
- New York Post people
- Mass media people from Pasadena, California
- Journalists from New York City
- 20th-century American novelists
- American women columnists
- 20th-century American women writers
- Journalists from California
- Novelists from California
- Novelists from New York (state)
- American women non-fiction writers
- 20th-century American non-fiction writers
- 20th-century American women journalists
- 20th-century American journalists