Fabulous indeed. In November, the voters not only chose JFK over Richard Nixon, they helped usher in an incomparably glamorous era of entertaining in the executive mansion—a glittering cavalcade of poets, princesses and petits fours that Baldrige, 72, lovingly re-creates in her new book In the Kennedy Style: Magical Evenings in the Kennedy White House. The young President was tested in those years by the Cold War and the Cuban missile crisis, but he and Jackie were also concerned with setting a high standard of hospitality. "Being a good host is part of character," says Baldrige, author of 16 books and one of America's reigning experts on manners and etiquette. "The Kennedys understood this very well and entertained constantly."
And memorably—as on the fabled evening in 1961 when the First Couple offered a dinner by famed presidential chef René Verdon and a concert by renowned cellist Pablo Casals. In the audience was Alice Roosevelt Longworth, who recalled Casals's White House recital for her father, Teddy Roosevelt, in 1904. "It was one of the most moving nights," Baldrige says. "You could hear a pin drop." At another affair, visitors were treated to a gourmet luncheon with Prince Rainier of Monaco—and the sight of JFK going gaga over a radiant Princess Grace. "They were supposed to have had previous little romances," says Baldrige. "So much has been rumored and grossly exaggerated."
The youngest of three children of H. Malcolm Baldrige, a Republican congressman from Nebraska, and his wife, Regina, Letitia (whose late brother Malcolm was Secretary of Commerce under President Reagan) had an early education in discretion and protocol. In 1948, at 22, she was named social secretary to the U.S. ambassador to France; she later held the same position in Rome under Ambassador Clare Boothe Luce, a period Baldrige calls "the most extraordinary four years of my life."
Her White House service followed a stint as the first woman public relations director at Tiffany's, and in 1963, after she left the Kennedy staff, she met and married real estate executive Robert Hollensteiner, now 66. "He was tall enough," jokes the 6'1" Baldrige, "and he didn't ask me any questions about the White House." (The couple live in a spacious Embassy Row apartment in Washington and have two grown children, Malcolm, 30, a bank loan officer, and Clare, 33, a homemaker, plus three grandchildren.)
In 1964, Baldrige founded her own public relations firm. "I was one of the first women business owners," she says. "I just enjoyed all of that, always sticking my nose out." And Baldrige had seen ample proof in the White House that power and femininity aren't incompatible. "Jackie was cool, funny and witty," Baldrige says. "She was never caught off-guard." Under the First Lady's aegis, once-stodgy state dinners had become more relaxed, though still carefully choreographed. Among Jackie's innovative touches were smaller tables to encourage conversation and finely tuned guest lists, which included musicians, artists and writers as well as the usual heads of state. A White House invitation became the hottest ticket in America. "The lobbying was ferocious," says Baldrige, "and feelings were hurt."
Recalling an elegant evening with French statesman André Malraux, with the men in black tie and tails and Jackie wearing a watermelon-pink strapless gown cut "much too low," Baldrige realizes those days are gone, probably forever. "Hillary dresses beautifully," she says, but guests today often arrive late and wearing inappropriate dress. "The Clintons reflect what is happening today—informality," she says with a sigh. "It's just a different world."
Alec Foege
Sandra McElwaine in Washington
- Contributors:
- Sandra McElwaine.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
