Desmond Guinness & Paige Young 1973. 1969 Flashback. Part #2
In Part #1, I recommend books for more historical context.
1954: Desmond Guinness
has grown up after a prestigious education at Eton and Gordonstoun.
He marries beautiful Hermione Maria-Gabrielle Von Urach who had German royalty and titles on her father’s side. Despite this, her parents had relatively little money.
“Mariga” had an English mother who was institutionalized when “Gabrielle” was only 6 years old.
She was brought up by her godmother Hermione Ramsden. Locations were Surrey and Norway with 17 different governesses over the years.
This beautiful and cultured young couple shared a love of architecture, art, and history.
Desmond studied French and Italian at Christchurch, Oxford.
The couple had no need to work for a living.
Their wedding day in 1954 received attention in dozens of newspapers. I will show only a handful.
Desmond and Mariga purchased the decaying Leixlip castle of Ireland, restored it and made it their primary residence.
Cropped photo by Slim Aarons of Desmond Guinness at Leixlip Castle Ireland.
From DiscoverIreland. “Leixlip village was established by the Vikings and Adam de Hereford, a follower of Strongbow, built the castle. It is located in County Kildare and has an interesting history.
Features of Leixlip Castle include, The Front Hall, which boasts a 17th century Brussels tapestry depicting Theodotus offering the head of Pompey to Caesar. The Dining Room is furnished with Chippendale Chairs and Bavarian tapestries.
The plasterwork in the Library dates from the mid 18th Century. The carpet is French Savonnerie. A treat in the Drawing Room is the large 18th century Dolls House that originally came from Newbridge House and drawings of the six Mitford sisters by William Acton.”
Mariga Guinness quickly became celebrated for her talents and capabilities in interior decorating, she had an innate understanding of composition and balance.
Mariga and Desmond were known for giving fabulous high society parties in Leixlip, where the guests ooohd and ahhhhhd over what Mariga had “done with the place” to make Leixlip a family home.
The marriage produced two beautiful children, Marina and Patrick, as evidenced in a famous photo taken by photographer Slim Aarons, seen below.
Desmond and Mariga founded the Irish Georgian Society (IGS) in 1957/58, (1955 according to one source) dedicated to preservation of Irish Georgian castles and Irish castles in general.
The couple restored several historic castles and published books on the topic.
I found in my research that Desmond toured the US extensively (for IGS) from about the mid- 1960s through the 1980s.
I read literally dozens of articles about his visits in newspaper archives, there’s probably hundreds.
Desmond was warmly welcomed at numerous US high society and historical society gatherings. He would give a lecture or present a slideshow and conduct meet and greets.
His visits were covered by local newspaper society columnists who would write about the local VIP folks at either a party, luncheon, cocktail party, dinner, or some combination of, in honor of the Hon. Desmond Guinness.
I’m including a only a few of many newspaper examples from 1969.
I picked 1969
out of the many years Desmond travelled the US because it’s the same year Paige Young was touring the US and Canada for her Playboy promotion. See chapter on 1969: Most Public Year
Desmond visited towns one may not have expected him to visit, like Des Moines, Shreveport, and the Corning Glass Center in Ithaca, New York.
“Suzy”
aka Suzy Knickerbocker, was a syndicated society columnist for over 50 years and worked for many different newspapers. In 1969 she was at the height of her career for writing about the famous and wealthy and non-famous but wealthy and socially connected.
A typical example of a Suzy column below from 1969
Suzy had a fondness for writing about European society types, with or without titles, Royals and would-be Royals.
Suzy K. wrote adoringly about Desmond (mainly) and Mariga several times.
Desmond Guinness had a busy schedule of traveling to fundraise for IGS for decades.
Let’s return to 1973 Santa Barbara
Desmond had already been the houseguest of Douglas Campbell in Los Angeles for 2 weeks when:
Paige Young appears as the date of Desmond Guinness, at a series of high society parties over a weekend in Santa Barbara.
It was described by LAT society writer Jody Jacobs as a season of cloudy, overcast, rainy weather.
This Suzy syndicated column below, appeared just 2 days later on October 12.
The timing is intriguing. Desmond is seen out with a date, Paige Young, and his divorce is announced in these Suzy columns only two days later.
Was Desmond feeling unencumbered that weekend in Santa Barbara, knowing his pending divorce would soon be made public?
1973: published before the marital separation:
Desmond’s date with Paige in California was just 5 months in the future and the bombshell news that he and Mariga were separating. Note The next to last sentence. “pretty English cousin Penny Cuthbertson.” Penny and Desmond would wed in the 1980s
Did Desmond and Paige spend time in Los Angeles together as well as Santa Barbara?? Or Ireland?
Desmond and daughter Marina appeared in Raleigh, NC on or around March 28th, 1974, see article below. And Desmond was in Miami just on the 19th.
In the lower 2nd column below, writer describes Marina’s (Desmond’s daughter was on her first trip to the U.S.) lovely velvet and brocade dress. She is wearing the same dress in the LAT photos with Beverly Hills designers and art patrons Beegle and Tony Duquette.
This article below by Mary Day Mordecai, is unusual because it brings up the uncomfortable subject of Desmond’s mother Diana Mitford and step-father Oswald Mosley. I found this mention to be rare!
Notice the comment and story about Stanley Kubrick!
Back in Los Angeles…..Mar. 31st.
According to Paige’s neighbor Melanie, Paige was afraid of a sex tape being seen by certain people or a certain person, and that “Cici Huston’s brother,” was a phrase Paige threw around a lot connected to the tape. (David Shane) He had possession of the tape and would not hand it over to her.
I have to wonder if at least one person in Paige’s mind was Desmond Guinness (and his crowd?)
It is interesting that Desmond visited Los Angeles twice, 6 months apart, a several week stay both times.
He was photographed with Paige in Santa Barbara on October 9th or 10 of 1973.
The separation from his wife Mariga made the Suzy columns only two days later on Oct. 12.
Desmond was back in Los Angeles in March of 1974, this time bringing his daughter Marina.
The following article by Suzy, was published 10 days before Paige’s suicide. Desmond in bold.
Desmond and his brother Jonathan Guinness were listed in Paige’s phonebook at the time of her suicide.
This indicates she saw Desmond outside of the their dates in Santa Barbara.
See chapter on Paige’s phone book, will be published soon.
