When Johnny Carson retired from The Tonight Show, on May 22, 1992, an era also ended for the de Cordovas. “Attached at the hip” is how Nancy Reagan, another of Janet’s friends, characterizes it. Janet could be a very demanding and difficult lady, but there was something special about her bond with Gracie.” It’s like something out of Trollope or Edith Wharton-a lady and her maid. They know exactly whom you are quoting, what you mean. If you say ‘Javier is dead,’ it’s like a code for a certain generation. Gracie, as usual, took her her breakfast tray at precisely nine o’clock.Īccording to Dunne, “In Trousdale, there is a kind of urban legend. I called the police, and I told them not to use their sirens.’ She added, ‘I didn’t want them to wake up my lady.’” Janet de Cordova, a late riser and a heavy user of sleeping pills, was still in bed. He said, ‘Why didn’t you call us?’ Gracie said, ‘I didn’t want to wake you up. De, I have something to tell you.’ Freddie asked, ‘What’s that, Gracie?’ She said, ‘Javier is dead.’ Freddie was stunned. Gracie fixed de Cordova’s breakfast, then, according to a close friend of the de Cordovas’, “waited until after he ate to approach him, saying, ‘Mr. He began to go through a pile of newspapers and the Hollywood trades, in preparation for his ritual midmorning phone call with Carson, in which they discussed the headlines that might make fodder for Carson’s monologue that night. Javier was removed on a gurney and driven to Cedars-Sinai hospital, where he was pronounced dead.Įarly in the morning, Gracie Covarrubias returned to the house, and at eight o’clock Freddie de Cordova appeared at the breakfast table. When the paramedics arrived, they muted their sirens. The problem was downstairs, in the servants’ quarters, where Gracie Covarrubias, the longtime housekeeper, was trying to revive her husband, Javier, who was dying of a heart attack. Freddie de Cordova, the executive producer of Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show, and his wife, Janet, a leading local socialite sometimes referred to as the Duchess of Trousdale, were asleep in their separate bedrooms. On March 20, 1990, in the middle of the night, paramedics were called to the de Cordova home at 1875 Carla Ridge Road, in the Trousdale section of Beverly Hills. STYLISH TO THE END Janet in Mexico in 2009, the year she died, in the home of Gracie Covarrubias, her faithful housekeeper.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |