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Embassy House Hotel, 29-30 Queen's Gate, South Kensington, London SW7 5JB, Regno Unito
Edith Louise (Rosenbaum) Russell (June 12, 1879 – April 4, 1975) was an
American fashion buyer, stylist and correspondent for Women's Wear Daily,
best remembered for surviving the 1912 sinking of the RMS Titanic with
a music box in the shape of a pig. The paper mache toy, covered in pigskin and
playing a tune known as "The Maxixe" when its tail was twisted, was used by
Edith Russell to calm frightened children in the lifeboat in which she
escaped. Her story became widely known in the press at the time and was later
included in the best-selling account of the disaster A Night to Remember
by Walter Lord. Russell was also portrayed in the award-winning British
docudrama produced by William MacQuitty that was based on Lord's book.
Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on 12 June 1879, the fashion writer,
consultant, importer, buyer and stylist Edith Louise Rosenbaum began her
career abroad as a saleswoman in 1908 for the Maison Cheruit in the
Place Vendome in Paris. Later she wrote for the magazine “La Derniere
Heure a Paris” (published by Wanamaker Department Store’s Paris bureau)
and was a sketch artist for the Butterick Pattern Service.
Beginning in 1910, Rosenbaum presided as chief foreign correspondent to
"Women's Wear Daily," dispatching weekly fashion marketing reports and
seasonal collection news to New York from the publication's Paris
branch.
By 1912 Rosenbaum was operating a successful buying and consulting
service based in Paris and designing her own popular retail line of
clothes, called ”Elrose,” for Lord & Taylor in New York.
Meantime, Rosenbaum had carved a niche for herself as perhaps the first
professional fashion stylist. Her clientele of largely entertainment
celebrities included Broadway comedienne Ina Claire, Folies Bergere
showgirl Mistinguett, and opera diva Geraldine Farrar.
Apart from her eventful public career, Rosenbaum had a notable private
life. In 1911 she was seriously injured in an automobile accident in
France while en route with friends to attend the races at Deauville. The
crash proved fatal for her fiance Ludwig Loewe, a wealthy German gun
manufacturer.
The following year, she was a survivor of the “Titanic” disaster,
achieving a measure of notoriety owing to the news of her escape in a
lifeboat with a musical toy pig. Rosenbaum later filed two of the
largest damage claims against the ship's owners, the first for financial
loss of her merchandise importations and the other for personal injury.
Rosenbaum was American press attache to the Chambre Syndicale de la
Haute Couture Francaise between 1914 and 1919. She also served as war
correspondent for the “New York Herald” in 1916-17. In 1918 she changed
her name to Russell owing to the French fashion industry's boycotting of
German-name merchants and other tradespeople.
In 1923 Russell received a meritorious service award from the Associated
Dress Industries of America and in 1925 was recognized for her work
during World War I by the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union.
Throughout the 1920s Edith Russell contributed fashion and society news
to such magazines as “Cassell’s” in London and “Moda“ in Rome. Though
semi-retired from her import business by 1934, she continued traveling,
lecturing, and writing.
Her adventures during the next several years included dancing with
Mussolini at a dinner party and breeding dogs for Maurice Chevalier. She
also made life-long friends with the young British actor Peter Lawford
and his parents and spent much time with them at their home in Palm
Beach. She was later a godmother to Lawford’s children with the former
Patricia Kennedy.
By the mid-1940s Edith Russell, who had maintained residences in New
York and in Paris’ Champs Elysees, made her permanent home in London at
Claridge’s and later at the Embassy House Hotel.
In 1953 Edith Russell was invited by Twentieth Century Fox Studios to
attend the New York premiere of the film “Titanic,” starring Barbara
Stanwyk, Clifton Webb, and Robert Wagner. She was interviewed by “Life”
magazine during her stay in America and also met with historian Walter
Lord who included her story in his best-selling book “A Night to
Remember,” published in 1956.
Russell afterwards served as a technical advisor to producer William
MacQuitty on his 1958 film adaptation of Lord’s book. She was portrayed
in the movie as well and attended the premiere as MacQuitty‘s guest of
honor.
She made the rounds of the press during the latter 1950s and throughout
the 60s, telling her account of the “Titanic” sinking in numerous
interviews in newspapers and magazines and on television and radio. The
majority of her TV and radio appearances were with the BBC. She
generally brought along her legendary musical pig which she played for
audiences. She was made an honorary member of the Titanic Historical
Society in 1963.
Until the mid 1960s Russell traveled frequently from London to Florence,
Italy where she visited her long-time friend, Jeanne Sacerdote, formerly
known as the couturiere "Jenny."
Despite her advanced age and physical frailty, Russell remained active
and outspoken in her last years. She attended fund-raisers, gave
luncheons and teas for visiting friends, tried unsuccessfully to
interest publishers in her memoirs, and continued to be interviewed by
reporters about the “Titanic.”
On 4 April 1975 Edith Russell died at the Mary Abbott Hospital in
London, following a ten day illness. She was 96.
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- Randy Bryan Bigham :
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