The royals - Kitty Kelley [100]
In preparation for the Kennedy visit, the Lord Chamberlain, who usually exercises his powers of censorship only on an objectionable word or sentence, had banned a theatrical review that lampooned the President’s wife. The show, set to open in a Newcastle theater, was to have had a male chorus singing:
Here she comes, sing do re mi
Oh, what a change from old Auntie Mamie.
Then an actress was to appear in a black wig and impersonate Mrs. Kennedy in a satirical skit. Her routine, a string of barbed wisecracks, included the refrain
While Jack fumbles with Russia,
I use all my guile,
So the press and the public
won’t guess for awhile,
He’s just Ike dressed up Madison Avenue style.
I’m doing my best to be everyone’s choice,
playing Caroline’s mother with Marilyn’s voice.
The mention of Marilyn Monroe prompted the censor’s scissors. “The review deals unsuitably with a head of state’s private life,” was the Lord Chamberlain’s official explanation, which only added credibility to the rumors of the President’s intimate relationship with the Hollywood star.
Despite their differences, the Queen and the First Lady shared a similarity in their husbands, who were charismatic men. Extraordinarily handsome and witty, both were attracted to pretty actresses like fish to shiny metal objects. Neither man was hamstrung by romanticism, and both understood the social necessity of marrying well.
The Queen had not been impressed by the Kennedys’ ascent from the Irish bogs to the White House. She still remembered her parents’ antipathy toward the President’s father, Joseph P. Kennedy. As Ambassador to the Court of St. James’s he had opposed U.S. intervention on the side of the British in World War II, so President Franklin Roosevelt recalled him. Understandably the Queen was not enthusiastic about Kennedy’s son.
She came around eventually, but she was a late convert. During the 1960 presidential campaign, she privately supported Kennedy’s opponent, Vice President Richard M. Nixon. Publicly she remained silent, but her husband, who could and did speak out, made it clear. During a trip to New York City to open a British exhibition, Prince Philip showed a canny understanding of presidential politics. He did not overtly endorse Nixon, but he evoked the “special relationship” between America and England by saying, “The Queen was particularly delighted that our dear friend President Eisenhower agreed to join her as a patron for this exhibition.” Then he toured the exhibit with the Vice President and New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller and posed for pictures. When photographers begged the Prince for more photographs, he insisted on posing with the Vice President. “We can’t take a picture without Mr. Nixon,” he said.
When Kennedy won the election, the Queen was smart enough to realize the political importance of good relations with the United States. So she followed her Prime Minister’s recommendations to entertain the President and his wife at Buckingham Palace.
Jacqueline Kennedy later told Gore Vidal about the Queen’s dinner party, where she sat between Prince Philip and Lord Mountbatten. During the reception before dinner, she talked to the Queen, whom she found chilly and standoffish.
“The Queen was only human once,” she recalled. “I was telling her about our state visit to Canada and the rigors of being on view at all hours. I told her I greeted Jack every day with a tearstained face. The Queen looked rather conspiratorial and said, ‘One gets crafty after a while and learns how to save oneself.’ Then she said, ‘You like pictures.’ And she marched me down a long gallery, stopping at a Van Dyck to say, ‘That’s a good horse.’ ”
The Queen and the First Lady shared more than their mutual love of horses. Both were to become mythic figures and the most celebrated women of their era. Both were monarchs—Elizabeth in fact, Jacqueline in fantasy. The crucial difference between them was politics. The First Lady disliked politics and was totally apolitical; not so