Dancing with the Devil: The Windsors and Jimmy Donahue [Hardcover]

Christopher Wilson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 17, 2001

The story of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor is one of the most romantic of all time: Edward VIII abdicated his throne and gave up an empire so that he could marry the woman he loved, American divorcee Wallis Simpson. Very few people suspected, and even fewer actually knew, that the Duchess cuckolded him—and almost gave him up—for a gay playboy twenty years her junior.

Blond and slender, Jimmy Donahue was the archetypal post-war playboy. He could fly a plane, speak several languages, play the piano, and tell marvelous jokes. People loved him for his wit, charm and personality. The grandson of millionaire Frank W. Woolworth, Jimmy knew he would never need to work. Instead, he set about carving for himself a career of mischief. Some said evil.

Gay at a time when the homosexual act was still illegal, Jimmy was notorious within America’s upper class, and loved to shock. Though press agents arranged for him to be seen with female escorts, his pursuits, until he met the Duchess of Windsor, were exclusively homosexual. He was thirty-five when he was befriended by the Duke and Duchess of Windsor in 1950. The Duchess was fifty-four, and despite the difference in age, there was an instant attraction. A burgeoning sexual relationship – a perverse sort of love – was formed between Jimmy and the Duchess. Together with the Duke, they became an inseparable trio, the closest of friends. As Jimmy had planned, the royal couple became obsessed with him.

With information from surviving contemporaries, Dancing with the Devil is the extraordinary tale of three remarkable people and their unique and twisted relationship.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

It shouldn't be a fascinating read, this book--it really shouldn't. It's just higher gossip about how Wallis Simpson took a younger lover after her marriage to Edward, and how she and said lover enjoyed nights of "nonpenetrative and principally oral sex." I mean, who cares? Shouldn't our minds be on higher things?

The trouble is, it's all absolutely fascinating. The lover was the mad, bad, and dangerous-to-know Jimmy Donahue: grandson of Woolworth's founder Frank W. Woolworth, heir to millions, and considered to be dashingly good-looking. (From the photos in the book, he looks a bit like a baby-faced bore, but maybe having those millions in the bank skewed perceptions of him, somewhat.) Donahue could fly a plane, could speak several languages, was a marvelous raconteur, and, on top of all this, was a promiscuous homosexual. That didn't stop him from forming a passionate friendship with Wallis, however, that soon turned into more than mere friendship. Wilson suggests that this constituted, on Wallis's part, perhaps "the greatest betrayal in history." Edward gave up his throne and kingdom for the woman he loved, only to have her take off with another man. However, it was never quite so simple as this. Edward didn't want a normal sexual relationship with Wallis, really--he got all of the satisfaction he wanted from playing with her feet--while she evidently continued to adore him, even if she found that the need for sexual satisfaction drove her into Donahue's arms. It might even have been that Edward knew, but didn't mind. The whole thing reads like some kind of royal soap opera, and, as such, it's absolutely riveting. --Christopher Hart, Amazon.co.uk

From Publishers Weekly

Those interested in the empty but privileged lives of American Wallis Simpson (1896-1986) and her husband, the duke of Windsor (1894-1972), who renounced the British throne for her in 1936, will be absorbed by this gossipy story of a strange love triangle. After the abdication, the royal family refused to accept the duchess, so the Windsors embarked on a life of travel and conspicuous consumption. In 1950, they befriended Jimmy Donahue (1915-1966), a playboy and an heir to the Woolworth fortune. Although Donahue was 19 years younger than the duchess and an active homosexual, the two began an amorous relationship that lasted four years. According to the author, despite the Windsors' epic romance, the duchess was apparently unfulfilled sexually (though she did, according to an unnamed source, indulge her husband's foot fetish and interest in masochism). Donahue's mother, Jessie, controlled his purse strings, because her son had repeatedly demonstrated his recklessness, but she approved of his relationship with the duchess. Jessie and her son paid for the Windsors' extravagances in exchange for using the royal connection for social advancement. Wilson, a London journalist and observer of royal romance (A Greater Love: Prince Charles's Twenty Year Affair with Camilla Parker Bowles), writes in a brisk, entertaining style, but there is little here to justify his description of DonahueAa self-indulgent substance abuserAas charming. Indeed, Donahue took pleasure in scandalizing those in his social circle; for instance, he would strip or display his genitals to waiters and party guests, and he enjoyed cuckolding Edward Windsor. The duke, who not only endured his wife's affair in silence but accepted gifts from her lover, did, however, eventually call a halt to the relationship. Photos not seen by PW. (Jan.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1St Edition edition (January 17, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312272049
• ISBN-13: 978-0312272043
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #974,703 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Take it to the beach..., February 7, 2003

By 

Kamahinaohoku "jswier12" (bergenfield, nj United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dancing with the Devil: The Windsors and Jimmy Donahue (Paperback)

OK, so the author isn't going to win the Nobel Prize for Literature for this book. But why should he? It's a book about an affair. A tawdry affair at that.

Initially, I payed attention to the other reviewers and didn't buy the book. But I have a fascination with Wallis and Edward (as vapid as they might have been...)and wanted to know more about Wallis' relationship with Jimmy Donohue. I must have read at least 10 to 15 books about the couple, and despite what the one of the reviewers said, I've only come across a few rare references to him. This book fills in the gaps.

So is it great literature? No. Is it an interesting book? Yes, if you like the subject matter, and know something about the Duke and Duchess of Windsor to begin with. I enjoyed the book.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Uncovering of a Gigolo?, January 9, 2001

By 

anne (metcalf) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dancing with the Devil: The Windsors and Jimmy Donahue (Hardcover)

This book gives you a ringside seat into the lives of three famous people - The Duke and Duchess of Windsor and Woolworth heir Jimmy Donahue. Author Christopher Wilson does a wonderful job of taking the reader into an era that will never be seen again. From the '30s through the '50s the rich lived their lives showing only what was appropriate for the public to see. Any questionable behavior was covered up by their wealth. Enter Jimmy Donahue. Here was a very rich, spoiled, irresponsible, homosexual mama's boy who used his personality and charm to accomplish anything he set his mind to. This included his attempt to be the obsession of both the Duke and Duchess. It wasn't a far cry to upset an already dysfunctional marriage but it was interesting to read the winding road to hell that Donahue lead them to. What's also very interesting is the bizarre relationship Wilson writes of between Donahue and his mother Jessie - very controlling and always covering up every scandal involvoing her son. This book is complete gossip but if that's your liking this book is for you. For all his shocking exploits, in the end, Jimmy Donahue ended up a mere unknown. A complete opposite of how hard he tried to stay in the public eye.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful!, January 15, 2001

By 

K. Plunkett-Powell - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dancing with the Devil: The Windsors and Jimmy Donahue (Hardcover)

3Dancing With the Devil : The Windsors and Jimmy Donahue2 is a sweeping adventure of scandal and euphoria among glitzy cafe society, adeptly brought to life by biographer Christopher Wilson.

In this case, the name 3Donahue,2 is directly related to a very famous name: Woolworth. When 35 & 102 chainstore mogul Frank Winfield Woolworth died in 1919, he left as part of his substantial legacy great hopes for his cherubic grandchildren. He visualized his heirs evolving into hardworking, benefic, God-fearing, and rational adults. But alas, if he did happen to look down from the heavens years later, I know that several of his descendants would have provoked a disgruntled sigh; including the spendthrift, serial divorcee Barbara Hutton...

But the mischievous, downright extraordinary exploits of his grandson Jimmy Donahue would have sent Woolworth longing for Divine intervention. The fact is that, the only thing Frank Woolworth and his grandson Jimmy shared (other than a notable gene pool) was a compulsion for the spotlight.

That compulsion, along with a host of others (some advantageous, most unsavory) are unveiled in this wonderful, fast-paced book. In Dancing With the Devil, we meet dashing Jimmy Donahue, a man who had entirely too much free time on his hands, and entirely too much money at his disposal. We learn that Jimmy1s access to money, along with his excessive adoration for luxury, his psychological baggage (he even witnessed the suicide of his manic depressive and bisexual father) and the questionable role model Jimmy found in his jetsetting mother --all combined to create an intriguing, complex and colorful personality. Wilson depicts an international playboy who defied reigning sexual taboos and balked at authority, yet was sometimes ridden by deep guilt. Donahue exhibited such random amounts of innocent rakishness and sensual greed; of hearfelt generosity and rash wastefulness-- that even his closest contemporaries were not sure what to think of him.

Wilson expertly peppers his historical accounts with authentic detail, smoothly leading us into post WWII Paris, then sweeping us back to the United States to the playgrounds of Palm Beach and Long Island. Clearly, Wilson did a great deal of research on this book, conducting scores of interviews and tracking down hard to find information.

Of course, Wilson1s readers are also treated to little known details about the odd triangle between Jimmy Donahue and the Windsors, thus providing an interesting account of the last untold episode in their lives.

As in Jimmy Donahue1s life, there is nary a dull moment in Dancing With the Devil. (Do check out the 3Acknowledgments2 which reads like a Who1s Who in and of itself). Definitely recommended!