Jackie, Ethel, Joan: Women of Camelot

by J. Randy Taraborrelli

  Anyone seriously interested in the personal life of John F. Kennedy before he knew Jackie should consult the JFK personal papers and correspondence, 1933–1950, Box 4A in the JFK Library.

  The Skakels; Not One to Feel Sorry for Herself; White House Infidelities; The Bouviers

  As well as having utilized the previously cited Oral Histories, personal interviews were conducted with Joan Braden, Sancy Newman, Luella Hennessey, Leah Mason, Gore Vidal, Anthony Sherman, George Smathers, Betty Beale, Lem Billings, Bess Abel, James Bacon, Letitia Baldrige, Ben Bradlee, George Christian, Leo Damore, John Davis, Joseph Gargan (questionnaire), Jeanne Martin, Joseph Paolella, Pierre Salinger, and George Smathers.

  Volumes consulted: To Jack with Love; Black Jack Bouvier: A Remembrance, by Kathleen Bouvier; The Bouviers, by John Davis; The Auchincloss Family, by Joanna Russell Auchincloss and Caroline Auchincloss; Our Forebears, by John Vernou Bouvier, Jr. (privately printed); The Kennedy Legacy, by Theodore Sorenson; With Kennedy, by Pierre Salinger; Upstairs at the White House, by J. B. West; Diamonds and Diplomats, by Letitia Baldrige; Power at Play, by Betty Beale; Ethel Kennedy and Life at Hickory Hill, by Leah Mason (unpublished manuscript); The Other Mrs. Kennedy, by Jess Oppenheimer; Ethel, by David Lester; The Kennedy Women, by Laurence Leamer; Jack and Jackie, by Christopher Andersen; All Too Human, by Edward Klein; The Sins of the Father, by Ronald Kessler; Seeds of Destruction, by Ralph C. Martin; First Ladies, by Carl Sferrazza Anthony; Jacqueline Kennedy, by Gordon Langley Hall; The Kennedy White House Parties, by Ann H. Lincoln; Jacqueline Kennedy: La Premiere Dame des Etats-Units, by Peter Peterson; Jackie: The Exploitation of a First Lady, by Irving Shulman; Jackie, Oh!, by Kitty Kelley; The Pleasure of His Company, by Paul B. Fay, Jr.; The Bouviers, by John Davis; Kim Novak: Reluctant Goddess, by Peter Harry Brown; Jacqueline Kennedy: Beauty in the White House, by William Carrl; Jackie: The Price of the Pedestal, by Lee Guthrie; The President’s Partner, by Myra Gutin; The Kennedy Promise, by Henry Fairlie.

  Videos, articles, and other material reviewed and consulted: news and other published accounts of Skakel and Bouvier family history; questionnaire answered by John Davis; transcript of Stephen Smith interview by Lester David; Ted Sorenson interview on Today Show, 1998; Rose Kennedy obituary, January 23, 1995, by John J. Goldman, Los Angeles Times; “A Left Coast Kennedy: Max Kennedy,” by Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times Magazine, March 14, 1999; The Kennedys (APB Video); Jackie O. (APB video).

  Jackie’s First Meeting with Ethel; Jack Proposes Marriage; All of This, and More; Joseph and Jackie’s Deal; Sisterly Advice; The Bennetts

  As well as having utilized the previously cited Oral Histories, personal interviews were conducted with Joan Braden, George Smathers, Mary Fonteyn, Paul B. Fay, Jr., Sancy Newman, Chuck Spalding, Lawrence Alexander, Larry Newman, Joseph Paolella, Joseph Livingston, Ted Livingston, Joe Gargan, Mary Lou McCarthy, Bess Abel, Betty Beale, Oleg Cassini, Paul Fay, David Lester, Lem Billings, Morton Downey, Jr., Geraldo Rivera, Luella Hennessey, Frank Mankiewicz, and Jeanne Martin.

  Volumes consulted: Changing Habits: A Memoir of the Society of the Sacred Heart, by V. V. Harrison; The Society of the Sacred Heart in North America, by Louise Callan; Ethel, by David Lester; A Woman Named Jackie, by C. David Heymann; All Too Human, by Edward Klein; Living with the Kennedys, by Marcia Chellis; Kennedy Wives, Kennedy Women, by Nancy Gager; The Kennedys: An American Drama, by Peter Collier and David Horowitz; America’s First Ladies, by Christine Sandler; Jackie, by Hedda Lyons Watney; Torn Lace Curtain, by Frank Saunders; JFK: The Man and the Myth, by Victor Lasky; My Story, by Judith Exner, as told to Ovid Demaris; Bitch, by Buddy Galon; The Censorship Papers, by Gerald Gardner; The Whole Truth and Nothing But, by Hedda Hopper and James Brough; Uncommon Grace, by J.C. Suares and J. Spencer Beck; Remembering Jackie, by Life editors; The Woman in the White House, by Winzola McLendon; Ethel Kennedy and Life at Hickory Hill, by Leah Mason (unpublished manuscript); Presidential Wives, by Paul F. Baker.

  Videos, articles, and other material reviewed and consulted: “Kennedys in Hollywood” (E-Channel broadcast); news accounts of the deaths of George and Ann Skakel; Secret Service record at John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library; various news accounts of Bennett family history; John Davis questionnaire; “With Kennedy,” by Pierre Salinger, Good Housekeeping, August 1966.

  A Legacy of Infidelity; Jack’s Affair with Marilyn

  As well as having utilized the previously cited Oral Histories, personal interviews were conducted with Peter Summers, Leo Damore, George Smathers, Helen Thomas, Michael Selsman, Barbara Gibson, David Powers (questionnaire), Joe Gargan (questionnaire), Jimmy Haspiel, Micky Song, Cindy Adams, Liz Carpenter, Hildi Greenson, Jim Ketchum, Joseph Paolella, Larry Newman, and Pierre Salinger.

  Volumes consulted: Gloria and Joe: The Star-Crossed Love Affair of Gloria Swanson and Joe Kennedy, by Axel Madsen; Swanson on Swanson, by Gloria Swanson; JFK: The Presidency of John F. Kennedy, by Herbert Parmetl; John Kennedy: A Political Profile, by James MacGregor; Honey Fitz, by John Henry Cutler; John F. Kennedy and American Catholicism, by Lawrence H. Fuchs; JFK: Reckless Youth, by Nigel Hamilton; Rose Kennedy: A Life of Faith, Family and Tragedy, by Barbara Gibson and Ted Schwartz; The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys: An American Saga, by Doris Kearns Goodwin; The Kennedy Women, by Laurence Leamer; Times to Remember, by Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy; Marilyn: The Last Take, by Peter Harry Brown and Patte B. Barham; The Decline and Fall of the Love Goddess, by Patrick Agan; The Masters Way to Beauty, by George Masters; Marilyn Monroe: An Uncensored Biography, by Maurice Zolotow; Marilyn Monroe: Confidential, by Lena Pepitone; Robert Kennedy and His Times, by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.; Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, by Lester David.

  Videos, articles, and other material reviewed and consulted: questionnaire answered by Joe Gargan; Marilyn: The Last Word (documentary); “Jacqueline Kennedy,” by Mary Van Rensselaer, Ladies Home Journal, April 1961; “Of Man, Myth and Might-Have-Beens,” by Bob Adams, St. Louis Dispatch, November 22, 1988.

  Jackie’s Expensive Diversion; Madcap Ethel during the Kennedy Presidency; Joan’s Social Impasse; Trying to Understand Each Other; Jackie’s Documentary: A Tour of the White House; The Voice; “Secrets Always Come Out”

  Interviews with Jim Ketchum, Larry Newman, Pierre Salinger, Hugh Sidey, Mickey Song, Joan Braden, Helen Thomas, Paul Fay, Betty Beale, C. Wyatt Dickerson, Letitia Baldrige, Barbara Gibson, Rita Dallas, Luella Hennessey, Ben Bradlee, Mari Kumlin, and David Powers (questionnaire).

  Volumes consulted: In the Kennedy Style, by Letitia Baldrige; Designing Camelot: The Kennedy White House Restoration, by James A. Abbott and Elaine M. Rice; The Kennedy White House Parties, by Anne H. Lincoln; Uncommon Grace, by J.C. Suarez and J. Spencer Back; A Woman Named Jackie, by C. David Heymann; My Life with Jacqueline Kennedy, by Mary Barelli Gallagher; The Other Mrs. Kennedy, by Jess Oppenheimer; The Last of the Giants, by Cyrus Leo Sulzberger; Joan: The Reluctant Kennedy, by Lester David; A Tour of the White House with Mrs. John F. Kennedy, by Perry Wolf; JFK: The Memories, by Hugh Sidey, Chester Clifton, and Cecil Stoughton; John F. Kennedy, President, by Hugh Sidey; Office Hours: Day and Night, by Janet Travell; Upstairs at the White House, by J.B. West; The White House Chef Cookbook, by Rene Verdon.

  Videos, articles, and other material reviewed and consulted: news accounts of Joan’s fifteenth anniversary party for Ethel and Bobby; “Jackie Kennedy: A Tour of the White House” (broadcast); “At Home with the Kennedys” (broadcast); transcript of David Lester’s interview with Lem Billings; “A Visit to Camelot,” by Diana Trilling, The New Yorker, June 2, 1997; “Havanas in Camelot,” by William Styron, Vanity Fair, July 1996; “Say Good-bye to the President,” 1985 BBC documentary; “In Step with Ethel Kennedy,” by James Brady, Parade, April 3, 1988; “A Last, Loving Remembrance of JFK,” by Jim Bishop, Good Housekeeping, March 1964; “Jacqueline Kennedy: The Future of a Noble Lady,” by William V. Shannon, Good Housekeeping, April 1964; “Smashing Camelot,” by Richard Lacayo, Time, November 17, 1997; “The Dark Side of Came
lot (Judith Exner),” by Kitty Kelley, People, February 29, 1988; “The Exner Files,” by Liz Smith, Vanity Fair, January 1997.

  A note regarding President Kennedy’s indiscretions: The Secret Service kept handwritten logs in which were recorded the names of all visitors entering the White House and the person they intended to visit. When a visitor was going to see the President, the gate logs would indicate it by nothing a visit to “Evelyn Lincoln,” “Residence,” “President,” or “Mansion.” When the visitor was a woman being smuggled in for JFK, the gate log would read “David Powers Plus One” or “Kenny O’Donnell Plus One.” These logs, organized chronologically by month and year, were used as research for this book and made available to the author by the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston.

  A note regarding the oft-reported press conference to be held by Marilyn Monroe in 1962, during which she planned to reveal government secrets: In 1985, when Ethel Kennedy was told about the supposed press conference by an associate at ABC News during a meeting with her at Hickory Hill, she said, “Oh my God! Bobby didn’t discuss those things with me unless I pushed and pushed for information—and I almost never did unless it involved the safety of the family. He would never have discussed anything like that with Marilyn Monroe. Please, let’s be sensible. It’s ridiculous.” (Ethel made these comments in a meeting at Hickory Hill with high-level executives at ABC-TV to voice her extreme unhappiness about a planned twenty-six-minute segment of the show 20/20 detailing the intimate relationship between the Kennedys and Marilyn Monroe. The program was ultimately canceled, some have alleged, because Ethel used as leverage her close relationship with ABC president of News and Sports, Roone Arledge. Also, David Burke, a vice president of ABC News, was a top aide to Ted Kennedy; and Jeff Ruhe, an assistant to Arledge, was married to Bobby’s and Ethel’s fifth child, Courtney Kennedy, twenty-nine at the time.)

  Also regarding that episode of 20/20, Geraldo Rivera, who worked for the program at the time, told me during one appearance of many I made on his show: “I alleged at the time and have said repeatedly that, in my opinion, the story was killed not because it lacked journalistic merit—because I think the story was absolutely solid journalistically—but rather because of the relationship between certain members of ABC News management and the Kennedy family. I said at the time that it smacked of cronyism. I will say it until the day I die.” Hugh Downs has a two-word explanation as to why the show didn’t air: “Cold feet.”

  Bobby Meets Marilyn; “Life’s Too Short to Worry about Marilyn Monroe”; Jackie’s Ultimatum to Jack; Bobby’s Rumored Affair with Marilyn

  Personal interviews with Peter Dye, Max Block, Nunziata Lisi, Jeanne Martin, Patricia Brennan, Joan Braden, James Bacon, Clint Hill, Gore Vidal, George Masters, George Smathers, Chuck Spalding, Leah Mason, Jim Whiting, Micky Song, James Haspeil, Ben Bradlee, Morton Downey, Jr., Jim Ketchum, Sancy Newman, Anthony Sherman, Geraldo Rivera, Bernard Flynn, and Paul Fay.

  Volumes consulted: Marilyn: The Last Take, by Peter Harry Brown and Patte B. Barham; Marilyn Monroe: The Biography, by Donald Spoto; Marilyn Monroe: An Uncensored Biography, by Maurice Zolotow; The Curious Death of Marilyn Monroe, by Robert Slatzer; Marilyn Monroe in Her Own Words, by Robert Taylor; Robert Kennedy at 40, by Nick Thimmesch; Marilyn Monroe: A Complete View, by Edward Wagenknecht; The Fitzgeralds and The Kennedys: An American Saga, by Doris Kearns Goodwin; The Kennedy Men, by Nellie Bly; The Marilyn Conspiracy, by Milo Speriglio; Marilyn: The Last Months, by Eunice Murray with Rose Shade; The Ultimate Marilyn, by Ernest W. Cunningham; The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe, by Donald H. Wolf; Chief: My Life in the LAPD, by Darryl Gates; The Intimate Sex Lives of Famous People, by Irving Wallace, et al.; RFK, by C. David Heymann; Marilyn and Me, by Susan Strasberg; The Kennedys in Hollywood, by Laurence Quirk; Peter Lawford: The Man Who Kept the Secrets, by James Spada; The Unabridged Marilyn, by Randall Riese and Christopher Hitchens; Crowning Glory, by Sydney Guilaroff as told to Cathy Griffin; Hollywood Is a Four Letter Word, by James Bacon; Show Business Laid Bare, by Earl Wilson; Sinatra: A Complete Life, by J. Randy Taraborrelli; Sinatra: The Man and the Myth, by Bill Adler, Where Have You Gone Joe DiMaggio?, by Maury Allen.

  Videos, articles, and other material reviewed and consulted: transcripts of interviews with Milt Ebbins (August 6, 1992), Pat Newcomb (August 3, 1994), Joseph Naar (December 18, 1994), Rupert Allan (March 13, 1995), and Ralph Roberts (March 2, 1992), by Donald Spoto, all from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences Library; “The Legend of Marilyn Monroe,” ABC- TV, 1967; Monroe’s Last Picture Show, by Walter Bernstein; “Marilyn Monroe: A Serious Blonde Who Can Act,” Look, October 23, 1951; “Nine Kennedys and How They Grew,” by Jerome Beatty, Readers Digest, April 1939; “Kennedys in Hollywood” (E-Channel), includes interviews with Barbara Gibson, Paul Fay, Oleg Cassini, John Davis, and Lynn Franklin; Joan Rivers Show, 1992, special on the Kennedy women, with John Davis, Cindy Adams, Barbara Gibson; James Bacon (column), Beverly Hills 213, August 26, 1998.

  Joseph’s Stroke; At Horizon House; The Walking Cane; Life at the Hyannis Port Compound; The Fourth of July in Hyannis Port, 1962

  As well as having utilized the previously cited Oral Histories, personal interviews were conducted with Barbara Gibson, Elliot Newman, Steven Silas, Betty LeRoy Thomson, Peter Dilliard, Frank Mankiewicz, Stephen Webb, Inez Foxworthy, Sheridan Bonswell, Patricia Moran, David Powers (questionnaire), Joe Gargan (questionnaire), and George Smathers.

  Volumes consulted: The Kennedy Case, by Rita Dallas and Jeanira Ratcliffe; Living with the Kennedys, by Marcia Chellis; Kennedy, by Jacques Lowe; Torn Lace Curtain, by Frank Saunders; Peter Lawford: The Man Who Kept the Secrets, by James Spada; The Peter Lawford Story, by Pat Seaton Lawford; The Kennedy Women, by Laurence Leamer; Times to Remember, by Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy; The Sins of the Father, by Ronald Kessler; Seeds of Destruction, by Ralph G. Martin; Rose, by Gail Cameron; Life with Rose Kennedy, by Barbara Gibson and Caroline Latham; Jackie after Jack, by Christopher Andersen; Among Those Present, by Nancy Dickerson; My Twelve Years with John F. Kennedy, by Evelyn Lincoln.

  Videos, articles, and other material reviewed and consulted: transcript of Frank Saunders interview by Jeffrey Stephenson (from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences), “Joseph Kennedy: A Life” (MGM video); “Jackie Onassis” (APB Video).

  Joan’s Many Faux Pas; Pat Finds Jackie “So Insecure”; Marilyn Monroe’s Death; Jackie Goes Away to Think

  As well as having utilized the previously cited Oral Histories, personal interviews were conducted with Helen Thomas, James Bacon, Nunziata Lisi, Patricia Brennan, John Bates, Leah Mason, George Smathers, Pierre Salinger, and Gore Vidal.

  Volumes consulted: Joan: The Reluctant Kennedy, by David Lester; My Life with Jacqueline Kennedy, by Mary Barelli Gallagher; Marilyn: The Last Six Months, by Eunice Murray with Rose Shade; The Kennedys in Hollywood, by Lawrence Quirk; The Curious Death of Marilyn Monroe, by Robert F. Slatzer; Marilyn: The Last Take, by Peter Harry Brown and Patte B. Barham; The Fifty Year Decline and Fall of Hollywood, by Ezra Goodman; Who Killed Marilyn Monroe?, by Charles Hamblett; From under My Hat, by Hedda Hopper; Hollywood’s Unsolved Mysteries, by John Austin; The Strange Death of Marilyn Monroe, by Frank A. Capell; Marilyn Monroe, by George Carpozi; RFK: The Man Who Would Be President, by Ralph De Toledano; Marilyn Monroe Story, by Joe Franklin and Laurie Palmer; Confessions of a Hollywood Columnist, by Sheila Graham; Don’t Get Me Wrong, I Love Hollywood, by Sidney Skolsky.

  Videos, articles, and other material reviewed and consulted: James Brady in Parade magazine, January 1999; notes, transcripts, and correspondence between Bobby and Ted Kennedy and original manuscript of What Makes Teddy Run, by William Peters, in Redbook, obtained from the Kennedy Library, by James Spada; the Hedda Hopper Collection (of published and unpublished columns with notes) housed in the Margaret Herrick Library at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences; “JFK’s Women,” Time, December 22, 1975; “The Kennedys in California,” Los Angeles Times, March 23–28, 1962; t
he 1982 report of the Los Angeles district attorney on the reinvestigation of Marilyn Monroe’s death; “The Bobby Kennedy Connection,” New York Post, 1986; Justice Department memorandum of August 20, 1962, quoting Robert Kennedy on his relationship with Marilyn Monroe (he denied it was anything more than passing); “The Bobby–Marilyn Affair,” National Review, August 1988; “Camelot after Dark,” by Paul Chin, Joe Treen, and Karen S. Schneider, People, May 27, 1991.

  A note regarding the Redbook story: Bobby found a myriad of problems—at least a dozen—with the feature that Ted hadn’t noted, none of which had anything to do with Joan. For instance, a college roommate of Ted’s, Ted Carey, recalled at the time that he (Carey) wasn’t doing well in school and mentioned to Kennedy that he’d give anything to chuck it all and take off for Africa. Ted encouraged his friend’s whim and, daring him, offered to buy both of them a one-way first-class ticket to Cairo for a trip that would commence immediately after Carey’s final exam. They made the bet, but Ted never thought Carey would follow up on it. However, Carey called Ted’s bluff and, after the final exam, sent word to Ted that he was on his way to Boston’s Logan Airport. Much to Ted’s surprise, Carey got on a plane headed to New York, en route to Cairo. Ted got cold feet and had Carey paged at the New York airport and told him that he had stopped payment on the check for the tickets because he’d changed his mind. Instead, he paid for Carey to spend a weekend in New York, as a consolation prize. The writer observed, “I think the main reason Teddy backed down was if Carey didn’t get back in time to register for the new term, the story might get in the newspapers. His father has always had almost an obsession about keeping the family name out of the papers in affairs like this, and Teddy knew it.” Of that and other stories from Carey, Bobby wrote: “I would also tell him [author] that you are not enthusiastic about the stories from Ted Carey. Tell him the story about the canceled check is not accurate. Perhaps with a smile, you can get him to eliminate the whole thing.”