President and the showgirl
QUESTION
Did Soviet president Nikita Khrushchev have a private meeting with Marilyn Monroe?
KHRUSHCHEV didn’t have a private meeting with Marilyn Monroe, but they did meet when she was the star guest at a Hollywood reception for the Soviet president at the Café de Paris in Hollywood on September 19, 1959.
US president Dwight D Eisenhower had invited Khrushchev, in effect general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party and in reality the USSR’s leader, to a summit meeting at Camp David to resolve a crisis over the fate of the city of Berlin.
Khrushchev eagerly accepted and took the opportunity to make a 13-day tour of the US where he was greeted by a host of film stars. The Café de Paris reception was hosted by Spyros P Skouras, president of 20th Century Fox.
Anyone who was anyone in showbiz was there, including Elizabeth Taylor, Debbie Reynolds, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Dean Martin, Gary Cooper and Kirk Douglas.
Skouras was particularly keen for Marilyn Monroe to attend because it was said that all the Russians knew about the US were Coca-Cola and her.
Shortly before Khrushchev’s visit to the US, the American National Exhibition had opened in Moscow. It was the first time the Russians had seen Marilyn’s films and 40,000 people a day crowded into cinemas to watch Some Like It Hot.
Skouras pleaded with Marilyn not to be late for the reception – she was a notoriously bad timekeeper – and to ‘wear the tightest, sexiest dress she had’.
‘I guess there’s not much sex in Russia,’ replied Marilyn. After delivering a 45-minute diatribe, Khrushchev was introduced to Marilyn. Having been coached by the Russian-speaking Natalie Wood, Marilyn greeted Khrushchev saying: ‘We, the workers of 20th Century Fox, rejoice that you have come to visit our studio and our country.’
Khrushchev grasped her hand for an uncomfortably long time. Accustomed to dealing with leering men, she told him: ‘My husband, Arthur Miller, sends you his greetings. There should be more of this kind of thing. It would help both our countries understand each other.’ Back home, she told her maid what she really thought of Khrushchev: ‘He was fat and ugly and had warts on his face and he growled.
‘He squeezed my hand so long and hard that I thought he would break it. I guess it was better than having to kiss him.’
Olivia Curtis, Norfolk.
QUESTION
Has the bell from the Lusitania been recovered? If so, where is it now?
THE bell from the RMS Lusitania, sunk by a German torpedo off the Old Head of Kinsale on May 7, 1915, was recovered by divers in 1982 and is now in the Imperial War Museum in London.
Weighing just over 100kg and standing nearly 50cm high, the bell (pictured right) was severely cracked as well as being very tarnished when it was brought to the surface. It belonged to the Hutton-Williams family collection before going to the Imperial War Museum.
The wreck was bought in 1968 for £1,000 by an American multimillionaire, venture capitalist and dive enthusiast, Gregg Bemis, who died in May this year at the age of 91. He had been involved in protracted legal proceedings in Ireland, Britain and the US to establish his right to the wreck. In 2007, a Supreme Court decision did just that and also established his right to licensed dives.
Some artefacts that have been recovered from the Lusitania over the years have been put on display. The Imperial War Museum also has a camisole owned by a survivor of the disaster, Margaret Gwyer, and it also has examples of the Lusitania ‘victory’ medals that were minted in Germany after the sinking of the ship, and some British copies of those medals too.
Two Co. Cork harbour towns that are close to where the Lusitania sank also have gathered some artefacts over the years since the sinking. The museum in Kinsale has some chairs and timbers that were washed into the town’s harbour after the sinking of the ship, while the museum in Cobh has long had such artefacts as delph and a deckchair.
Some artefacts from the ship are also in the Collins Barracks section of the National Museum of Ireland, which has long had a lifebuoy and an oar from a lifeboat on the Lusitania.
The largest artefact, one of the Lusitania’s propellers, is on display on the quayside at Liverpool, its home port; the propeller had been bought by the Merseyside Maritime Museum for £20,000. IS THERE a question to which you have always wanted to know the answer? Or do you know the answer to a question raised here? Send your questions and answers to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspondents, Irish Daily Mail, Embassy House, Herbert Park Lane, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4. You can also fax them to 0044 1952 510906 or you can email them to charles.legge@dailymail.ie. A selection will be published but we are not able to enter into individual correspondence.