Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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

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.

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.

I like The Georgetown Ladies' Social Club very much. I have always been fascinated by the rich and/or famous, and this fills the bill very well. All of the women portrayed are or were interesting in their own right but were first actually noticed for their husbands instead of themselves. I believe any of these women could have accomplished anything in business, just like the men did, but unfortunately women didn't count for much in the past except for decorating the husband's arm, raising children and throwing parties. I love this book and recommend it with five stars.

This book falls into the "guilty pleasure" category, and does it ever succeed on that level! It's forty years or so of American political history -- the McCarthy era, the Cold War, Vietnam, Watergate, the Reagan years -- told from the perspective of the Georgetown social set. It doesn't purport to be a comprehensive history of the period. Instead, it chronicles the lives, the successes, and the follies of five wealthy, highly connected hostesses in the nation's capital. Above all, we learn about the spectacular social events that they put on.

This book is like People magazine on steroids. Nasty spats, unsolved murders, extramarital love affairs, lifelong vendettas -- all here. As can be imagined, JFK and his women play a role, as does Elizabeth Taylor in her John Warner years. (Remember the late 1970s?) Some of the sourcing is a bit dubious. Of course, most of the main characters are now deceased and can't sue for libel anyway. Pamela Harriman would not have liked her characterization, it's fair to say.

All in all, lots of fun, and if you learn something about power and privilege in America, all the better.

It's an interesting story, with a lot of gossip and background on each of the Washington ladies profiled. But it sorely needed a good edit -- there were repetitions and unevenness that a good editor ought to have caught.

OK book, but nothing to rave about.

You can't help but continue to turn the pages. However, the book is highly repetitive and consists largely of quotes. The stories are interesting, and each deserves to be told, but the "he said, she said" tone forces one to question the legitimacy of Heymann's authority on the subject. As a member of both the D.C. and media communities, I can appreciate these "biographies" enough to recommend this book to others. But only to those who truly have an interest in the neighborhood and its history. Otherwise the nearly 400 pages of this text can be summed up with the following:
The women of Georgetown (particularly those who chose homes on "N" Street) had a significant influence on the men and politics of the day. Why? Because they knew how to through great parties. They invited the "who's who" and ensured the alcohol flowed freely enough to induce conversation. These conversations among policy makers must have changed the tone of policy, though Heymann fails to cite substantive examples, and when all else fails, he inserts a tale or two about the Kennedys!

I learned a lot from this book about Washington and how Georgetown influenced American party politics. However, I found the arrangement odd -- greatly researched and well-organized at the beginning and poorly structured at the end.

Highly recommended to me by trusted reader-friend. Wasn't greatly moved until around page 75 but after lots of name-dropping and historical family and friend lineage it got good; in fact it got better and better throughout. Glad I persevered. Provided extremely intriguing social history, insights and plenty of discussion among many friends afterward.

When my book club chose this book, I was reluctant to read it, as I don't usually like nonfiction, however, I was quickly drawn in. While I have always maintained that women are amazing sources of strength and power, this was brought home as I read about the ladies in Washington behind the successful men who always made the news. These women held the real power in Washington and through their social gatherings that they so skillfully orchestrated, they literally changed the world and were instrumental in affecting social and political change. This book allows you to go behind the scenes to see how politics really works and the important role that women played, and continue to play.