RSVP: EISA MAXWELL'S OWN STORY

..... Or parlaying parties into an international reputation -- this is how the girl from Kenkuk, Iowa, who had so background for it, got into the business of hostessing for society. Seventy now, working since 1906, she left San Francisco to tour with a Shakespeare company, played piano in a nickelodeon in New York, went to England, South Africa, and really started working into the social pattern in London before World War I. The piano had more than enough keys to open purses and curiosity; she wrote topical songs and collected prestige; she worked for favorable publicity for the Allies when she got back home and her parties went from corny to lavish as her planning improved. The prevailing wins were precarious but Maxwell's inside track with theater, music, politics widened and her hotel and clothing credit expanded. Name dropping is inevitable here and she wanders from the Wind to the Khans, Mrs. Belmont to the Rothschilds, G.B.S. to Molyneux and N Coward; there are dear friends and a few enemies; there are dividends and windfalls and parties, parties and parties. For those who live vicariously, there's guilt as well as gold to decorate these frolics of the poor little rich boys and girls and an unself conscious guide to lead you through them. Marketable.