Salka Viertel was an influential actress, writer, and organizer of Jewish European immigrants in Hollywood. Viertel co-wrote screenplays for several Greta Garbo films. Her Hollywood salon welcomed émigrés such as Thomas and Heinrich Mann, Bertolt Brecht, Fred Zinnemann, Arnold Schoenberg, and Reinhardt.

Geneviève Straus-“an incomparable woman, unique, with infinite grace, and a supreme spirit”- was a muse to Marcel Proust and hosted influential salons attended by artists, politicians, and nobility.