Royalty from around the world, film stars, international aristocracy, jet set figures, millionaires, industrialists and playboys. On 4 and 6 September 1968, Portugal witnessed a colossal (and never to be repeated) parade of celebrities who had been invited to attend grand parties at the lavish properties in Colares owned by the French oil millionaire Pierre Schlumberger, who was married to Maria da Conceição, a Portuguese woman of German descent, and Alcoitão, the home of the Bolivian “king of tin” Antenor Patiño and his wife Beatriz.
Audrey Hepburn, Gina Lollobrigida, Capucine, Zsa Zsa Gabor (who would cause a scandal by leaving the Hotel Ritz without paying the bill, then slapping the unfortunate employee who presented it to her at the Hotel Palácio do Estoril, and would end up as a guest of the owner of the Estoril-Sol hotel), Yul Brynner, Maria Félix, Curd Jurgens, Gunther Sachs, Henry Ford II, Dominguin, Soraya, the former Empress of Persia, the Begum Aga Khan, Ira de Furstenberg, Margrethe of Denmark, the Duchess of Argyll, Vala Byfield, who was at the time one of the most beautiful women in the world, and Baroness Rothschild, were just some of the international figures who attended one or both of the parties (which lasted until dawn, with breakfast served beside the swimming pools). And they also brought world premiere high-fashion models from Dior, Balenciaga, Valentino, Balmain, Hermès, Marc Bohan, Givenchy and Nina Ricci, while showcasing valuable jewellery. The Portuguese guests in attendance included Mary Espírito Santo, Maude Queiroz Pereira, Maria Amélia de Mello, Maria Teresa Pinto Basto, João Mayer and Ricardo Ricciardi.
The chronicles of the parties by Vera Lagoa were published in the pages of the now-defunct evening newspaper Diário Popular, containing all the details expressed in an uncompromising manner (the legendary journalist and author wrote that Gina Lollobrigida “looked very tacky. I always thought so, but this time she went overboard” and said Vala Byfield was “the best-dressed of them all”). The 30 secret police agents who were assigned to monitor the party at Quinta Patiño were required to wear smoking jackets. The Patiño party took place on the night Portugal’s Prime Minister António de Oliveira Salazar was taken to the hospital for emergency surgery after falling from a chair at his residence in the Forte de Santo António on 3 August. News of Salazar’s condition spread like wildfire among the “king of tin’s” 1,500 guests, with the events of that night foreshadowing the beginning of the end of the authoritarian New State regime.