Elaine Lorillard
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| Elaine Guthrie Lorillard | |
 Duke Ellington and Elaine Lorillard
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| Born | Elaine Guthrie October 11, 1914 Tremont, Maine |
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| Died | November 26, 2007 (aged 93) Newport, Rhode Island |
| Cause of death | Infection |
| Known for | Newport Jazz Festival |
| Spouse | Louis Lorillard |
| Parents | Walter Guthrie Eliza Pray |
Elaine Guthrie Lorillard (October 11, 1914 – November 26, 2007) was an American socialite who was a founder of the Newport Jazz Festival. [1]
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[edit] Early years
She was born as Elaine Guthrie in Tremont, Maine. She was the daughter of Walter Guthrie and Eliza Pray. Her father owned a printing company in Tremont, and her mother was a pianist. Elaine attended the New England Conservatory of Music, and in 1943 she went to work for the Red Cross, where she taught music and painting to orphans in Naples, Italy. In Naples she met United States Army Lieutenant Louis Lorillard (1919-1986) and they married in 1946. Louise was a descendant of Pierre Lorillard, the founder of the P. Lorillard Tobacco Company in 1760. In Naples she first was exposed to Jazz.[1]
[edit] Jazz Festival
While visiting George Wein's club in 1953, she told him jazz might liven up the "terribly boring" establishment. Her husband, tobacco heir Louis Lorillard, who died in 1986, gave a $20,000 grant to a festival, the first of which in July 1954 attracted 11,000 fans.[2] [3] Lorillard, who later divorced Louis, and argued with Wein over who deserved the credit and the profits from the festival. She sued the festival in 1959. She and Wein reconciled in 1992. [4]
[edit] Death
She died of an infection in the Heatherwood Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Newport, Rhode Island where she had been treated for dementia at the age of 93.[4] [1] [5]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c "Elaine Lorillard, 93, a Founder of the Newport Jazz Festival, Is Dead.", New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-12-12. "Elaine Lorillard, a socialite who with her husband, Louis, lured jazz greats to their hometown in Rhode Island for a two-day concert series in the summer of 1954, starting the Newport Jazz Festival and creating the model for what became a worldwide circuit of outdoor jazz festivals, died on Monday near her home in Newport. She was 93."
- ^ "Our Man in Jazz.", The Nation. Retrieved on 2007-12-12. "It all began in 1954, with the first American jazz festival at Newport. Elaine Lorillard, one of the restless rich women who appear again and again throughout jazz history, showed up at Wein's Boston club, Storyville, with the idea of bringing jazz to the seaside-cottage elite."
- ^ "Elaine Lorillard; helped start Newport Jazz Festival", The Boston Globe, December 3, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-12-10. "Mrs. Lorillard and her husband, Louis, hired George Wein, then an owner of the Storyville jazz club in Boston, to make it happen. On Saturday and Sunday, July 17 and 18, 1954, at the hallowed Newport Casino on Bellevue Avenue amid the manicured courts of the Tennis Hall of Fame, the sounds of Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Gene Krupa, and Billie Holiday filled the night and day. A tradition was born."
- ^ a b Associated Press. "Elaine Lorillard, jazz festival pioneer, dies", Newsday, November 29, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-12-10. "Elaine Lorillard, the socialite who encouraged a club owner to start the Newport Jazz Festival, has died of an infection, nursing home officials said. She was 93."
- ^ "Jazz festival founder Elaine Lorillard dies.", Newport Daily News. Retrieved on 2007-12-12. "Elaine Lorillard, whose dream of a small local jazz festival mushroomed into one of America's legendary ..."
