Dimitri Jorjadze
Dimitri Djordjadze, Prince Djordjadze (October 26, 1898 – October 1985) was a Russian prince, Ambassador Hotel executive and race car driver.
His name was pronounced dð-MÉ-tré jôr-JAD-zeh. Prince Djordjadze was a member of the nobility of the province of Georgia, who became exiled after the overthrow of Czarist Russia and the subsequent Bolshevik takeover.
The six foot three inch Prince Djordjadze was probably best-known in racing circles. In early July 1931, he won the Touring Car Grand Prix, 24 Hours Spa Race, in Belgium. He covered the greatest distance, 1,580.7 miles at a speed of 65.8 miles per hour, in a Mercedes-Benz SSK with Goffredo Zehender.
Djordjadze had two wives, American Anna Audrey Emery (married March 1937 in Maidstone, England); and English Sylvia Ashley (married 1954).
In June 1940, he bought the historic South Carolina plantation known as Boone Hall, eight miles from Charleston, from Thomas A. Stone of Canada. Boone Hall is one of the handsomest and most historic plantations in the South.
Djordjadze also raced his horses in Los Angeles. He was associated with Serge Obolensky in the hotel business in New York.
He and Ashley were friends for years before the sudden decision to marry. Instead of taking a leisurely European honeymoon, they planned a trip to Nassau, because his business in New York kept him there.
There is a biography about the life of Prince Djordjadze, The Man in a Panther Skin: the Life of Prince Dimitri Djordjadze (1985) by Gale Elton Mayo.
The United States Social Security Death Index shows the last residence of Dimitri Djordjadze as U.S. Consulate France (Nice).