Washington's Golden Age by Joseph Dalton

Author:Joseph Dalton
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781538116159
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2018-06-18T16:00:00+00:00

If the changing values and priorities of society ladies in Washington could be seen in one particular figure, it was with Evelyn Walsh McLean. Her Republican views had softened, she’d given her mansion on Massachusetts Avenue to the Red Cross and relocated to Georgetown where her new home was also dubbed Friendship.

“It doesn’t make a bit of difference what guests wear to dinners these days, nor what they eat, or how they get there, whether by bus, streetcar or a-foot,” McLean told Hope. “The thing about it is we’ve got to get together. We’ve got to keep in touch, discuss, argue, agree and disagree and thrash out our differences if we are to be ready to get together on the peace, and see that the right peace comes about this time.”

That bit about transportation came after the Office of Price Administration issued a ban on so-called pleasure driving. No one was terribly sure what the definition of pleasure driving really was, but it did put the brakes on how party guests, from Supreme Court Justices on down, would be getting to social functions, or most anywhere else for that matter. With walking or riding streetcars suddenly the main options, and a rationing limit of three new pairs of shoes per year, the notion of proper evening attire was called into question, and the debate about hemlines renewed. At every party, the conversations began with how you and your fellow guests managed to get there. “Nobody remembers what else we used to talk about,” said Hope.

Rationing of commodities also put a crimp in McLean’s parties, which still continued most Sunday nights though in more modest scale—four courses, instead of ten, no coffee, and only artificial flowers. In addition, McLean instituted a donation box at the front door. Upon arrival, each guest would be expected to deposit at least $2. Toward the end of the night, there was a drawing. The person who pulls the card with “V” for Victory would win the kitty and be obliged to contribute it toward his or her favorite charity, the Stage Door Canteen being a popular choice.14

Such contributions to the war effort served as a counterbalance to McLean’s famously lavish lifestyle. She once told Hope: “Honey, I’m not long for this life, and when I die, I hope somebody remembers me for something besides the Hope Diamond.”15

McLean was among the angels who contributed to the Canteen and mingled there with the boys. She was known to show up sporting the Hope Diamond and would readily slip it off her neck like a trinket and pass it around for the soldiers to admire and fondle.

McLean also took to supplementing the guest lists for her house parties with soldiers and sailors. Joining the ranks of illustrious guests at her 1942 New Year’s Eve gala were twenty uniformed young men, all winners of a lottery that same night at the Canteen. Hope tagged along behind a few of them as they went about shaking hands and ogling the crowd.

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