1 hour 43 minutes

This Portrait Conversation, Episode 21, features special guest Lady Patricia Farmer, Real Estate Innovator, Historical Curator & Author. Lady Patricia (“Patty”) shares her life story including how her interest in real estate in New York City led to her research into the relationship between the early days of Playboy and the careers of up and coming, as well as established, jazz musicians in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.

Patty Farmer is a historian, best-selling author, businesswoman, and former model. She’s been fascinated with the glamour, magic, and history of New York City’s quintessential Plaza Hotel ever since the day her mother introduced her to the ritual of afternoon tea at the hotel’s Palm Court when she was just seven years old. She continues her in-depth research uncovering all the secrets and history this mythical, landmark hotel holds.

Patty has followed the entertainment industry as an insider, and archivist all her life. Her work draws upon a lifetime of close friendships and socializing among personalities and celebrities around the world and has spent the last decade writing about some of our most significant cultural institutions. In her best-selling book Playboy Swings, she chronicles—through hundreds of personal interviews—the careers and personalities of the country’s leading jazz artists. Terry Teachout, in a review for the Wall Street Journal, said, “Playboy Swings is a well-researched, fascinatingly detailed new book by Patty Farmer. It goes a long way toward answering the question of how Jazz acquired its cultural cachet.”

Website: patty-farmer.com

Books available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble