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

C. David Heymann (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2003

In this definitive and first-time portrait of the political and social life of Georgetown, bestselling biographer C. David Heymann chronicles the dinner parties, correspondence, intersections, and overlappings of some of the most powerful women behind American politics.

Henry Kissinger pronounced that "the hand that mixes the Georgetown martini is time and again the hand that guides the destiny of the Western world." In this compelling book -- a heady mix of politics, sex, scandal, and power -- Heymann reveals the real moguls of Washington. "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.

In a city characteristically and historically controlled by men, these women's social status and personal wealth (in addition to their courage, vision, and voracious ambition) afforded them an abundance of behind-the-scenes political clout. Through a combination of primary-source documents and personal interviews, Heymann offers intriguing and often startling insights into Washington life, from the latter days of the Truman administration to the advent of President George W. Bush. Filled with the history and lore of Georgetown itself, The Georgetown Ladies' Social Club is a riveting exposé of the powers behind the throne, the women who made and make Washington tick.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Heymann, bestselling biographer of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Barbara Hutton, offers a captivating chronicle of the female power behind American politics in the latter half of the 20th century. In a time when men wrote the rules of the political game, he writes, five formidable women greatly influenced who won and who lost: Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham; Lorraine Cooper, wife of Kentucky's Sen. John Sherman Cooper; Evangeline Bruce, wife of U.S. ambassador David Bruce; Democratic Party fund-raiser (and later ambassador) Pamela Harriman, married to the powerful and wealthy Averell Harriman; and Sally Quinn, Washington Post writer and wife of the Post's former executive editor Ben Bradlee. While they had husbands in high places, these women wielded a vital political influence in Georgetown by organizing the parties where momentous meetings took place and decisions were made. These women were so compelling not only for their professional and political accomplishments and legendary dinner parties but for their dynamic, and often clashing, personalities and ambitions. Heymann deftly explores these personalities through interviews with family, friends, enemies, admirers and detractors. The resulting anecdotal social history of Georgetown is a winning combination of sex, scandal and political escapade. It also provides a complex portrait of its subjects. "What the Georgetown Five 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," writes Heymann, whose earlier books have become award-winning TV miniseries. 16 pages of b&w photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Heymann, the author of biographies of Jackie and Robert Kennedy, Gloria Vanderbilt, and Elizabeth Taylor, turns his attention to a group of women whom Ronald Reagan dubbed the Georgetown Ladies' Social Club: Katharine Graham, Lorraine Cooper, Evangeline Bruce, Pamela Harriman, and Sally Quinn. These influential hostesses wielded political and social power from their Georgetown homes, where the politicking done behind the scenes was sometimes as important as what was happening on Capitol Hill. Their stories overlap, but the similarities are striking. All of the women began their rise by standing on the shoulders of their husbands--ambassadors, a senator, newspapermen--but eventually they came to brandish power of their own. Following a loose chronological order, this well-researched account (bolstered by many primary-source interviews) tells the story of a time and a place, Washington from the 1950s into the present. Not surprisingly, the book is incredibly dishy, with some of the most intriguing stories having little to do with the ostensible subjects (e.g., the story of the mysterious murder of JFK's mistress, Mary Meyer, sister-in-law of Ben Bradlee). Heymann pulls out all the stops here, and the result is a well-researched, fast-paced, and fascinating look at dinner-party power-broking. Expect plenty of buzz around this one. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Atria; 1 edition (October 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743428560
• ISBN-13: 978-0743428569
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #904,077 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Heymann's Writing is Entertaining and Informative, October 31, 2003

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Georgetown Ladies' Social Club: Power, Passion, and Politics in the Nation's Capital (Hardcover)

C. David Heymann, a quintessential New Yorker, has written a book about some quintessential Washingtonians --- five women who through their marriages, friendships, and careers set the scene of mid-to-late twentieth-century D.C. The women are Katharine Graham, Evangeline Bruce, Lorraine Cooper, Pamela Harriman and Sally Quinn (the only one of the quintet still living), along with dashes of Jacqueline Kennedy and Elizabeth Taylor (presumably Heymann couldn't help himself, having written biographies of those two in the past).

Heymann is an entertainment writer (several of his books have been TV miniseries), and this book does not try to act as history --- instead, it's a fast-moving mix of interviews, hearsay, anecdotes, quotes and fact. New York Post gossip columnist Liz Smith said the book is "one juicy story after another." However juicy they may be, most of the stories in THE GEORGETOWN LADIES' SOCIAL CLUB have been told before: Phil Graham's mental illness and suicide, Joe and Susan Mary Alsops's sham marriage, Jackie Kennedy's distraught widowhood, Mary Pinchot Meyer's still-unsolved murder, Pamela Harriman's easy-to-bed, easy-to-wed persona, Elizabeth Taylor's gluttonous time in Virginia --- these have all been fodder for Smith and her ilk for decades.

What hasn't been told before is how these women were interconnected. One of the most fascinating things Heymann shows readers is just how small Georgetown is, and therefore just how amazing it is that all of these women had residences within minutes of each other. However, between all of the marriages, affairs, divorces, births, deaths, scandals, elections and parties, it is sometimes difficult to keep track of who knew whom when and why. A timeline would not have been a bad addition to the book, along with some kind of historical exegesis, especially considering that there are huge gaps of more than years between the English Pamela Digby's wartime wedding to Winston Churchill's son and Smith graduate Sally Quinn's seventies marriage to recently divorced Ben Bradlee.

Despite the sometimes breathless and rushed pace, Heymann's writing is entertaining and --- when it comes to the two women whose stories have rarely been told --- informative as well. Evangeline ("Vangie") Bruce, wife of Ambassador David Bruce, and Lorraine Cooper, wife of Kentucky Senator John Sherman Cooper, were very powerful women in their own right, although the general public did not hear their names with the same frequency as Graham's or Harriman's or Quinn's. After all, neither Bruce nor Cooper had a spouse who killed himself, a string of wealthy lovers, or a career as a sharp-nibbed reporter.

The work of these women was behind the scenes, as they carefully crafted dinner parties and cocktail hours with all of the cunning and cleverness of four-star generals. Both had high standards for themselves and others, going so far as to tell members of Congress where to find a good tailor and providing safe havens for presidential misbehavior. It was Ronald Reagan who coined the term "the Georgetown Ladies' Social Club," and no wonder --- the politician from Hollywood recognized others who were involved in acting.

If the world of the Georgetown Ladies no longer exists, then this book is an intriguing look at an underrated part of American history. If the world of the Georgetown Ladies still exists, albeit in another guise, then this book is an intriguing let-the-players-beware...

--- Reviewed by Bethanne Kelly Patrick

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous dish and finally Washington as it truly is!, October 21, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Georgetown Ladies' Social Club: Power, Passion, and Politics in the Nation's Capital (Hardcover)

This book portrays the female movers and shakers of Washington DC and reads like a novel. The characters are interconnected and in this highly privileged world, it is clear that money talks. Kay Graham and Pamela Harriman wielded power and achieved something great; lesser known ladies such as Evangeline Bruce and Lorraine Cooper typified the 1960's and 1970's in Washington; Sally Quinn still rules the roost. There is high camp in the chapter profiling the obese wannabe senator's wife, AKA movie actress Liz Taylor. There is mystery, with the death of Mary Pinchot Meyer. What was the role of the CIA in Georgetown? That is an intriguing sidelight in this rarified world. Georgetown Ladies' Social Club is the first social history of Georgetown, the exclusive enclave that controls Washington DC. The writing is crisp and fun to read. I really recommend this book and couldn't put it down.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars These were not "ladies", February 10, 2005

By 

HeyJudy "heyjudy" (East Hampton, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Georgetown Ladies' Social Club: Power, Passion, and Politics in the Nation's Capital (Hardcover)

THE GEORGETOWN LADIES' SOCIAL CLUB is a fascinating read.

The title of this book actually was a phrase first coined by then-President Ronald Reagan, according to author C. David Heymann.

Heymann has attempted the unusual: A group biography which interweaves the stories of the different members of one discrete, if informal, group.

Heymann does a good job in exploring the personal histories of the members of this club, a troop which primarily included Katherine Graham, Evangeline Bruce and Pamela Harriman. Of this bunch, only Sally Quinn, the youngest, still is alive.

Heymann offers the standard versions of their lives, but he also dishes some dirt about their affairs, promiscuity and family suicides.

It is amazing how much power these women had yielded over the highest ranking members of the federal government. This power was gently applied during socializing at various festivities which ranged from barbecues to black-tie dinners.

The heyday of the ladies was during the Kennedy administration and, in consequence, THE GEORGETOWN LADIES' SOCIAL CLUB re-acquaints its readers with the Camelot myth.

Perhaps unavoidably, in the effort to be scholarly and thorough, the prose in this volume is less interesting than the women it is describing. To paraphrase an old joke, these were no ladies. Bluntly, they sound like witches, every one of 'em. Yet probably just because of this personality trait, their stories make for an fascinating read.