She was known for her cultural exploration of the Far East, for her extravagant parties in San Francisco, New York and Paris, and her collections of husbands and lovers, adopted children, Buddhas, pearls, tattoos, and snakes.

The train carrying the eloping couple broke loose at the summit of a hill in Tehachapi, killing twenty-one people and seriously injuring another twelve.

Ashe, whose forefathers had given their name to Asheville, North Carolina and whose uncle was the great Civil War Admiral David Farragut,[4] was credited with pulling people to safety.

After drawing his wife and her maid through the window of the sleeper, he rescued ex-California Governor John G. Downey from between broken timbers, and saved his life.”[5] Not long after the birth of their daughter, Alma, Crocker and Ashe's marriage collapsed.

After the public humiliation of losing her child to her ex-husband, Crocker decided to accept an invitation that she had received years earlier by King Kalākaua to tour Hawaii, then known as the Sandwich Islands.

Gillig was a Navy commodore, a prestidigitator, and a respected amateur opera singer who cultivated his voice under the Polish master Jean de Reszke.

[9] Crocker's 1936 autobiography, And I'd Do It Again, chronicles many adventures the heiress had while touring the Far East, sometimes with Gillig and sometimes traveling alone including: an escape from headhunters in Borneo, a poisoning in Hong Kong; a murder attempt by knife-throwing servants in Shanghai; three weeks in the harem of Bhurlana (She claimed to be the first English speaking woman who had ever seen the inside of a harem); a search for Kaivalya (Liberation) at the cave of the Great Yogin Bhojaveda in Poona; and two bizarre sensual experiences, one with an Indian boa constrictor, and another with a Chinese violin in "the House of the Ivory Panels.

"[8]: 150–157  After touring off and on in “the Orient” for over six years she began appearing at social events in San Francisco and New York sporting tattoos, wearing snakes around her neck at parties and declaring her love for the Buddha.

Gouraud wrote the ragtime melodies “Keep Your Eye on Your Friend, Mr. Johnson,” “She's a 'Spectable Married Colored Lady,” “I'se Workin'—I'se Hustlin,” “He's My Soft Shell Crab on Toast,” and “My Jetney Queen.” He set the town singing with the broadly comic number-one hit of his song writing career, “Waldorf-Hyphen-Astoria.” Marrying a showman was controversial at the time to her family and peers as Jackson was considered an "upper servant" at best and beneath the dignity of New York high society.

Crocker befriended all of the popular performers of the era including Anna Held, David Belasco, John Drew, and the Barrymore family.

[8]: 288  Crocker would eventually be invited to play herself on Broadway at the grand opening of the Folies Bergère Theater in Rennold Wolf's vaudeville “profane satire” piece Hell, with music by Irving Berlin.

The Gourauds made headlines in the early 1900s when their lavish mansion on Long Island Sound burned to the ground, and when, on another occasion, several of Crocker's prize winning French bulldogs were poisoned.

The power couple was known to go on "slumming" tours through the dregs of lower New York City with good friend and self-proclaimed mayor of Chinatown Chuck Connors, whom Crocker claimed silently ruled the underworld.

Another memorable appearance was as Madame de Pompadour, Louis XV's mistress, in a costume party in Paris, and yet another gala that she hosted where her pet boa constrictor, Kaa, was the guest of honor.

Crocker, appearing in pearls “that would clothe a baby and ransom a king,” delighted the company when she danced La Madrilena, an Argentine tango (then denounced and forbidden by the Catholic Church) with one of her most recent admirers.

She sometimes co-hosted events with Bohemian artist friend Edmund Russell, a well-known "Delsartean" lifestyle coach, an actor, an apostle of Madame Helena Blavatsky, and Aimée Crocker's portrait painter.

She briefly lived in an artist colony at Hôtel Biron whose other residents included Henri Matisse, Auguste Rodin, Jean Cocteau and Isadora Duncan.

[16] After Gouraud's death, Crocker was romantically linked to many high-profile men, including: Eduardo García-Mansilla, the great Argentinean musician, composer and diplomat, with whom she wrote a song, Mon Amour; operatic baritone Genia D'Agarioff, credited with being the first to sing in the Russian language in London and Paris; composer, performer, designer, director, and arranger Melville Ellis; Jacques Lebaudy, the self-proclaimed "Emperor of the Sahara"; and legendary French actor Édouard de Max, “The Most Beautiful Man in Paris.”[17] Another notable suitor during this period was famous ceremonial magician, occultist, Tantra master and hedonist Aleister Crowley, who wrote about their memorable decade-long affair in graphic detail in his journals.

Her fourth husband, Alexander Miskinoff, caused a stir on two continents when he was accused of having an extramarital affair with Crocker's then 15-year-old adopted daughter, Yvonne.