Alain Delon, Brigitte Bardot and Eddie Barclay in St. Tropez, by Jean-Pierre Bonnotte/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images
This Bastille Day, party like it’s… the 1970s and you’re at an Eddie Barclay bash in St. Tropez.
If the name doesn’t ring a bell, he’s the famous French music producer who popularized American jazz in France and the chanson Française in the age of rock and roll. But his legacy remains as much in the decadent “White Night” parties he threw on that Cote d’Azur getaway as his musical exploits. There were dazzling fireworks, elaborate dinners on the terrace (where course after course was delivered on electric golf carts) and an all-star guest list that included Brigitte Bardot, Sophia Loren, Ringo Starr, Monica Vitti, Jack Nicholson and Alain Delon. His parties rarely ended before sunrise, sometimes continued for days and, in one instance, even city-hopped straight to Rio. Barclay was a consummate entertainer — and serial groom,
with nine marriages under his belt — who truly lived according to an oft-quoted saying of his:
“Pleasure is a profession, to be learned.”
If the name doesn’t ring a bell, he’s the famous French music producer who popularized American jazz in France and the chanson Française in the age of rock and roll. But his legacy remains as much in the decadent “White Night” parties he threw on that Cote d’Azur getaway as his musical exploits. There were dazzling fireworks, elaborate dinners on the terrace (where course after course was delivered on electric golf carts) and an all-star guest list that included Brigitte Bardot, Sophia Loren, Ringo Starr, Monica Vitti, Jack Nicholson and Alain Delon. His parties rarely ended before sunrise, sometimes continued for days and, in one instance, even city-hopped straight to Rio. Barclay was a consummate entertainer — and serial groom,
with nine marriages under his belt — who truly lived according to an oft-quoted saying of his:
“Pleasure is a profession, to be learned.”