The Georgetown Ladies' Social Club: Power, Passion, and Politics in the Nation's Capital

by C. David Heymann

Overview

In this definitive portrait of the political and social life of Georgetown, bestselling biographer C. David Heymann chronicles the dinner parties, correspondence, overlappings, and underpinnings of some of the most influential women in Washington's history.

"The Georgetown Ladies' Social Club" — a term coined by Ronald Reagan — comprises a list of formidable and fascinating women, among them Katharine Graham, Lorraine Cooper, Evangeline Bruce, Pamela Harriman, and Sally Quinn. Their husbands, government officials and newsmakers among them, relied on the ladies for their sharp wit and sensitivity, refined bearings, and congeniality. In a city characteristically and traditionally controlled by men, the Georgetown wives were, in turn, afforded an abundance of behind-the-scenes political clout.

Filled with intriguing and often startling insights into Washington life, from the latter days of the Kennedy and Truman administrations to the Clinton era and the advent of President George W. Bush, The Georgetown Ladies' Social Club is a compelling testament to the sex, lies, and red tape of American politics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780743428576
Publisher:	Atria Books
Publication date:	11/02/2004
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

C. David Heymann (1945-2012) is the author of several New York Times bestselling biographies, including Bobby and Jackie, American Legacy, The Georgetown Ladies' Social Club, and RFK: A Candid Biography of Robert F. Kennedy. He lived in Manhattan.

Read an Excerpt

Author's Note

The White House, Capitol Hill, the Pentagon, and the Supreme Court immediately come to mind when considering the major spheres of influence in the nation's capital, but the true seat of power in Washington, D.C., may well be Georgetown, a tiny, picturesque, eighteenth-century village cozily nestled in the oldest section of the city. Lyndon Baines Johnson, while serving in the Oval Office, noted that "every student of Washington's political process ought to know that the business of government is often transacted during evening hours, sometimes over a drink and sometimes over a meal — but almost always in Georgetown."

What President Johnson did not say is that these evening transactions are largely conceived, created, produced, and directed by women. On the pages that follow I attempt to trace and chronicle the evolution, over the last fifty years, of female power in Georgetown through the public as well as the personal lives of five women — Katharine Graham, Evangeline Bruce, Lorraine Cooper, Pamela Harriman, and Sally Quinn — and through the lifestyles of a sizeable constituency of supporting players — both male and female.

This is the story then of a group of highly motivated and independent women who all happened to reside in the same place at roughly the same time. They pursued common goals and common interests. Their paths frequently intersected and overlapped. They socialized with many of the same people. They were married to well-educated, successful, power-driven men whose careers in almost every instance took precedence over the careers of their wives. Marriage and children aside, these women were bound together not only by their hard-won successes and victories but also by their losses and defeats. At the center of each of their lives can be found secrets so deep and dark that they threaten to destroy everything these women worked so long and diligently to achieve. What these Georgetown ladies ultimately share is their ability to maintain a public pose, to protect the image they sought to create, no matter what the cost, no matter what the burden.

"The Georgetown Ladies' Social Club" was actually a term coined by none other than Ronald Reagan to identify an elite corps of prominent and powerful Washington women whose connections, courage, wealth, vision, intelligence, and ambition afforded them an abundance of social and political clout in a town traditionally and historically run by men. Richard Nixon, brought down by one of them, referred to all as "a shadow conspiracy of women." The description is biased but apt. The ladies in question emerged from the shadows into the light. Their parties, their personalities, and their presence forged change and lent shape to the human drama of the twentieth century and are still being felt in the twenty-first century.

Copyright © 2003 by C. David Heymann

Table of Contents

Contents

Author's Note

Chapter one: The Last Party

Chapter two: Phil and Kay

Chapter three: The P and Q Street Axis

Chapter four: The Turning Point

Chapter five: The Ambassador's Wife

Chapter six: The Senator's Wife

Chapter seven: Dead Men Walking

Chapter eight: An Inconvenient Woman

Chapter nine: The Big Do

Chapter ten: The Mighty Quinn

Chapter eleven: Lorraine and Vangie

Chapter twelve: Georgetown Goes Hollywood

Chapter thirteen: Queen Pamela

Chapter fourteen: Who Killed Georgetown?

Epilogue

Explanation of Sources

Acknowledgments

Bibliography

Index

Editorial Reviews

The Toronto Sun An informative and entertaining book — like the women it profiles.

The Washington Post Think Entertainment Tonight does Georgetown.

Liz Smith New York Post One juicy story after another. Mr. Heymann doesn't hold back. I couldn't put this book down....Don't miss it!

From the Publisher

An informative and entertaining book—like the women it profiles.

Toronto Sun

Think Entertainment Tonight does Georgetown.

Washington Post

One juicy story after another. Mr. Heymann doesn't hold back. I couldn't put this book down....Don't miss it!
—Liz Smith

New York Post

Dogged diva biographer Heymann (Liz, 1995, etc.) purports to show that governments rose and fell by the promptings of those in DC's glittery ghetto. From his report, however, the signal events were simply what Susan May told Missy and what Oatsie said about Rip and Adlai. Five Georgetown duchesses-Katherine Graham, Lorraine Cooper, Evangeline Bruce, Pamela Harriman, and Sally Quinn-headline, supported by a large cast of featured players, including Liz Taylor, Warren Buffett, Ben Bradlee, and JFK. There's Capote and his wretched Black and White caper for Kay Graham. Were these the best and brightest? Is this how Dolley Madison did it? Amid the clatter of teacups and tumblers of scotch, we hear the piercing clank of dropping names. It's a toast to the sort who "liked pleasure and . . . had great fun with it." Heymann informs us of loves, feuds, and peccadilloes. The tittle-tattle covers the fortunes, talents, connections, alliances, dalliances, table manners, looks, wardrobes, sleeping habits, and mental aberrations of yesteryear's Georgetowners. CIA spooks, a mysterious murder, Joe Alsop's sexual orientation, and Phil Graham's madness all come up for discussion. Some of it is patently questionable. Did a hostess really revive Alan Greenspan with an oxygen tank she "happened to have on hand"? Did "everyone come dressed as a ground hog" to a Groundhog's Day fête? It's all cold dish, largely enclosed in quotation marks, an inflated and fetid hodgepodge suited to a tabloid's party report. Admittedly, contrary to all decency, this sort of thing can become addictive and may even find a solid audience-but what's the point? Shallow and nasty enough to make readers queasy. (16 pp. b&w photos, notseen) Agent: Owen Laster/William Morris

Kirkus Reviews