Birds Of A Feather

THESE COULD BE THE GRAND LADIES APPEARING in the Ascot scene of My Fair Lady , clothed and hatted by Cecil Beaton. In fact they are guests at the October 12, 1910, wedding of Kathleen Ewing and Edward H. Daly, with John Parley, archbishop of New York, officiating. “A special train brought bishop and guests from Grand Central Terminal to the bride’s home in Tarry town, New York, where the event took place,” writes their daughter, Eleanor Boylan. Afterward, all the female guests, including the bridesmaids, were asked to gather on the porch overlooking the garden to pose for this striking tableau. Mrs. Boylan recalls a bit of family lore: “The bridesmaids’ hats had been designed by Wanamaker, and when they arrived, complete with egret plumes, my Aunt Clara (highlighted, center right) said, ‘I will not wear anything that a beautiful bird had to die to provide,’ and there was a hasty substitution of flowers. That was a young woman very much ahead of her time!”

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