Elsa Maxwell
Elsa Maxwell was an American gossip columnist and author, songwriter, and professional hostess renowned for her parties for royalty and high society figures of her day.
In spite of the persistent rumor that Elsa Maxwell was born at a theater in Keokuk, Iowa, during a performance of the opera Mignon, she actually admitted late in life that the outlandish story was a fabrication that she went along with, since she was actually born at her maternal grandmothers home in the same town. Elsa was raised in San Francisco, where her father sold insurance and did freelance writing for the New York Dramatic Mirror. Maxwell never completed grammar school because her father did not believe in formal education as a result, he tutored his daughter at home. Her interest in parties began when she wasyears old and was told she would not be invited to a party because her family was poor. She developed a gift for staging games and diversions at parties for the rich, and began making a living devising treasurehunt parties, comeasyouropposite parties and other sorts, including a scavenger hunt in Paris in 1927 that inadvertently created disturbances all over the city.
Source: Wikipedia