Elsa Maxwell (May 24, 1883 – November 1, 1963) was an American gossip columnist and author, songwriter, screenwriter, radio personality and professional hostess renowned for her parties for royalty and high society figures of her day.

"[6] She is also mentioned in Rodgers and Hart's "I Like to Recognize the Tune" from Too Many Girls, Irving Berlin's "The Hostess With the Mostes' on the Ball" from Call Me Madam and in "Listen, Cosette!"

"Her imprimatur of social acceptability carried so much weight that the Waldorf Astoria gave her a suite rent-free when it opened in New York in 1931 at the height of the Depression, hoping to attract rich clients because of her.

[3] Beginning in 1942 she also hosted a radio program, Elsa Maxwell's Party Line,[7] for which Esther Bradford Aresty was a writer and producer.

[9] Maxwell was a closeted lesbian who publicly condemned same-sex love despite enjoying an almost 50-year partnership with the Scottish singer Dorothy Fellowes-Gordon ("Dickie").

The Duke and Duchess frequently entertained her and sometimes Fellowes-Gordon at their chateau on the Riviera and over the coming years they attended Elsa's parties in Paris, Monte Carlo, New York and elsewhere.

In Action Comics, number 3 (1938) by Jerome Siegel and Joe Shuster a partygoer comments "Elsa Maxwell has nothing on Blakely when it comes to throwing a novel party".

The song's fourth chorus has the following lines: "When Elsa's parties are no fun / When FDR declines to run / When Eleanor of 'My Day' is done / Will you still be mine?"

In The Second Confession by Rex Stout, published in September 1949, Nero Wolfe's assistant Archie Goodwin references Elsa Maxwell after being congratulated for helping a more slender woman out of the pool.

Elsa Maxwell was the name of Higa Jiga's goat that was used to test the sweet potato brandy in the 1956 movie Teahouse of the August Moon, starring Marlon Brando and Glenn Ford.

[25] In an episode of I Love Lucy titled "Housewarming", which originally aired on April 1, 1957, Ethel Mertz (Vivian Vance) derisively refers to Betty Ramsey (Mary Jane Croft) as "the Elsa Maxwell of Westport".

[26] In The Spy Went Dancing by Aline, Countess of Romanones (1991), Elsa Maxwell is mentioned as being a society hostess who held "fabulous parties" in 1947 New York.

On track 15, "Saturday Night, Sunday Morning", Maxwell calls President Kennedy (Meader) to see if he and Jackie (Naomi Brossart) would be interested in going to a party she was hosting that evening.

In Season 1 Episode 31 of The Beverly Hillbillies ("The Clampetts Entertain") which originally aired on April 24, 1963, the character Martin Van Ransohoff mentions Perle Mesta and Elsa Maxwell.