Adorable Story #77: Patricia "Honeychile" Wilder (Part 1)

The woman with chameleon blood

Honeychile was an unusual doll. You rarely find a girl who’s pretty and funny at the same time. Usually if a girl is funny, it’s because she is unattractive and being witty is a way of attracting attention. But Honeychile was naturally funny. […] She must have had chameleon blood.”

— Bob Hope

Princess Alexander Hohenlohe in Mittersill, Austria, 1958. Before her marriage, the Princess’ name was Honeychile Wilder — Photo © by Slim Aarons / Getty Images

Patricia Anne zu Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst (née Patricia Wilder) started as an actress in Broadway and Hollywood in the 30s, became a famous socialite in New York and the inspiration for Truman Capote’s Holly Golightly in the 40s, and Ian Fleming’s Honeychile Rider in Dr. No in the 50s.

Later in life she married Prince Alexander Hohenloe and relocated with him to Austria and, after he died, to Marbella.

Table of Contents: Origins / New York City / Hollywood / Halcyon Days / Truman Capote / WWII & South America / Egypt / King Farouk / Alexander Hohenlohe / Ian Fleming / Marbella / Later years / Did you know?

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Origins

Patricia “Honeychile” Wilder was born in Macon, Georgia on September 8th, 1913 (although she claimed all her life to be born in 1918) to Oscar Owen Wilder and Laura Bryant Wilder. She was part of a large, humble family and had 12 brothers and sisters.

While still a teenager she decided to leave Georgia, and move up north. From the moment she arrived in the mid-1930s in New York she took the city by storm.

New York City

Within a day of her arrival in New York, Patricia — after a fortuitous encounter in the office of talent agent Louis Schurr — was hired as a showgirl and was soon appearing with Bob Hope at the Palace Theater.

In his own words, Bob Hope described Patricia as follows:

“she had a spoon bread Southern accent. I was looking for a different personality and when she said “Ha you, Mistah Hope?” I knew I had one. I took her on a couple of tryout shows. I was worried about the possibility of her having stage fright – until she walked out before her first Capitol audience and said, “Pardon me, Mistah Hope. Does the Greyhound bus stop heah?” then instead of looking at me, she looked at the audience and smiled. I knew then that Honeychile had been born unembarrassed. In fact, she had so much poise I began to worry about whether anyone would notice me on the stage”

It was during this stint that Patricia Wilder played the role of “Honeychile” in Bob Hope’s show, and the character was billed as the girl with the Southern drawl and the numbed brain.

Little did she know that she would keep this nickname for the rest of her life.

Hollywood

Not long afterwards, Patricia left New York City and made her way to Hollywood to pursue a career in acting.

After a screen test, RKO signed her up with a contract.

While in Hollywood, Patricia remained in close contact with Bob Hope, continuing to work with him on his radio shows during her entire career, and she also had a film role alongside him in the 1936 film Walking on Air.

Reflecting on her early days in Hollywood, Bob Hope wrote:

“Her first morning in Hollywood, she rented an apartment, paid a one hundred dollar deposit and reported to the studio. At the end of the day she couldn’t remember where the apartment was. She never did remember. She just found another one.

It was also during her first day in Hollywood that she waited a long time to see the head of RKO, Sam Briskin. When she was finally admitted to his office, she said, “I’ve been waiting to see you for two hours. Who do you think you are, Darryl Zanuck?”

She received her first Hollywood role in 1936: a minor part alongside James Stewart in the movie Speed.

1936 was a busy year: Patricia had a credited role as “Babe,” alongside Gloria Stewart and Lee Tracy in Wanted: Jane Turner. Additionally, she also starred in So and Sew.

Slowing down the next years, she had minor role appearances in 1937 and 1938.

Disenchanted and dissatisfied with the path of her career, Patricia retired from acting after 1938 by choice.

While acting in Hollywood, Patricia had romances with Clarke Gable and Tyrone Power (extensively featured in the Adorable Story #33), but she left both of them for her horseback riding teacher.

Although she was never really considered a “star” by Hollywood standards, she soon became quite famous as a socialite in New York.

It was around this time that Patricia started to settle into the role that would come to define her: starting off as the femme fatale and eventually becoming a celebrated international hostess.

There was hardly a night the slender beauty with the Southern accent couldn’t be found at the Colony or the Monte Carlo for dinner, followed by stops at the Stork Club, the Cafe Pierre and El Morocco.

She had lunch at Club 21 so often that the bartender created a Honeychile drink in her honor: a whiskey sour made with honey rather than sugar.

Halcyon Days

As she would later recall, those were the years when she lived life to the fullest: Conde Nast would send his limousine to take her to black-tie dinners at his town house; George Gershwin asked her to sit next to him at the piano while he was composing Porgy and Bess, and she used to go bar-hopping with Walter Winchell and his friend J. Edgar Hoover.