Peter Lawford by James Spada

Author:James Spada
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Marilyn Monroe, John F. Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, Judy Garland, June Allyson, Pat Kennedy Lawford, Kennedy Family, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Robert F. Kennedy, Ava Gardner, Lana Turner, Judy Holliday, Mickey Rooney, Good News, Easter Parade, Royal Wedding, Rat Pack, London, Hollywood, Monroe Cover-Up
Publisher: Author & Company
Published: 2011-12-11T05:00:00+00:00

Peter enjoyed stringing Milt Ebbins along in much the same way. On a flight to Washington aboard Air Force One, a Secret Service man asked Ebbins for his business card. When he took out his card case, Milt realized there was a stick of marijuana in it. A few months earlier, he and Peter had been in Birdland in New York to hear Count Basie. “Some guy came up to Peter and said, ‘Man, I love you, you’re great,’ and slapped something into his hand,” Ebbins recalled. “Peter held on to it and came back to the table and said, ‘Jesus, that guy just gave me a stick of shit.’”

Penalties for possession of marijuana were harsh in 1961, and Ebbins said to Peter, “Jesus Christ, give that to me.” He slipped the joint into his card case, planning to drop it into the toilet. “I didn’t want anybody arrested for marijuana possession,” Ebbins recalled. “There were undercover cops everywhere.” But he never got the chance that evening to dispose of the cigarette, and because he wasn’t a pot smoker he forgot he had it until that moment aboard Air Force One. After he handed his card to the Secret Service man, he whispered to Peter, “Jesus, I’ve got marijuana in here. If they find me on Air Force One with a stick of shit there’s gonna be hell to pay!”

Peter knew that there was probably no safer spot on earth at that moment, but he fed his manager’s fears. “You’re right, Milt,” he said. “You’d better get rid of it quick! Jesus, that’s all we’d need.”

Ebbins was frantic. “I know, I’ll throw it in the can!”

“Don’t do that!” Peter exclaimed in mock alarm. “They examine everything on this plane when it lands. They’ll find it!”

Realizing at this point that Peter was putting him on, Ebbins threw the stick of marijuana into the toilet. When he returned to his seat, Peter said, “If they find it, they damn well better not blame me, that’s all I can say.”

Jack Kennedy’s joshings of Peter, like Peter’s of Ebbins, were rooted in deep affection, even regard. The historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., one of the President’s most trusted aides and speech writers, came to him one day and asked for Kennedy’s permission to write film criticism for the publication Show. Kennedy said it was okay with him, “as long as you treat Peter Lawford with respect.”

Jack Kennedy liked Milt Ebbins for precisely that reason: he treated Peter Lawford with respect. The Kennedys had come to expect Ebbins to be with Peter most of the time; they laughingly referred to the two of them as Tweedledee and Tweedledum. Most of them liked Milt and appreciated his gentlemanly, caring manner and his wonderful way with a story.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.