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When Queen Elizabeth II ascended the throne on June 2, 1953, the city of London was abuzz, even with the rainy weather. After spending the day in the drizzle reporting on the coronation, 23-year-old Jacqueline Bouvier, later Jacqueline Kennedy, returned to her apartment with her good friend, Aileen Bowdoin. She took off her shoes and warmed her feet, trying to recover from the cold, but soon she’d head back out for one of the evening’s most exclusive social events.
Bouvier was covering the coronation as a photographer for The Washington Times-Herald. And the trip prompted her to pull off one of her first displays of social savvy, as detailed in The Kennedys and the Windsors: The Story of Two Dynasties, One Born, One Made, a new book, out today, by journalist Caroline Hallemann.
For Bouvier, the place to be was Londonderry House on Park Lane. American socialite Perle Mesta was hosting a coronation-week ball there, and it quickly became one of the most sought-after invitations in London. “Tickets were a hot commodity,” Hallemann writes. “There were several parties that evening, as London sought to celebrate both the country’s new queen and an over‑the‑top postwar frivolity, but Perle’s was a particularly coveted invite for Americans.”
Mesta had just come back from diplomatic service and turned the 1853 mansion into what she later called “the most lavish party” she had ever hosted. What started as an intimate dinner grew to a gathering of about 150 guests, followed by a supper dance with around 700 people. It was American high society at its liveliest, though, this time, in London.
But Bouvier didn’t initially receive an invitation. As Mesta recalled, according to The Kennedys and the Windsors, Bouvier showed up at her Grosvenor Square home—“a striking young girl, hatless, swinging her camera, chattering enthusiastically to her companion.” She knocked on the door and introduced herself.
Bouvier then said she and Bowdoin were the daughters of Mesta’s old friends, adding that she was in London to cover the coronation (“I’m here on assignment,” she confirmed). Mesta later said she had no idea she was talking to a future first lady, but she knew that “young girls like parties,” so she invited them in.
Inside Londonderry House, everything was extravagant. Hallemann describes frescoed ceilings and rococo chandeliers in rooms that “practically bulged” as attendees moved through the ballroom, library, and dining rooms. The guest list included actor Humphrey Bogart, businesswoman Elizabeth Arden, media mogul William Randolph Hearst Jr., and actress Lauren Bacall, whom Bouvier described as “the belle of the ball” in a “tight white lace dress.”
Bouvier moved through the party as both an observer and a participant. Hallemann’s book cites a memoir from Perle’s niece recalling that “Young Jacqueline Bouvier, who was covering the coronation, came to the ball and was cut in by many attractive men.”
The evening stretched into the early hours of the morning as guests sipped champagne and cocktails, and impromptu performances unfolded. Supper lasted late into the night, and at around 3 a.m., eggs and sausage were served. At one point, people sat down on the dance floor in their gowns, not wanting the revelry to end. As dawn approached, Mesta dismissed the orchestra until Prince Jean of Luxembourg and his bride asked, “May we have just one more dance?” The music continued.
In her Times-Herald report, Bouvier described the party with amazement, calling it “the show to see in London last week” and saying it was “second only to the Coronation.”
President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jackie Kennedy visited Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip in 1961.Bettmann – Getty Images
(Bettmann – Getty Images)
The story is an early glimpse of how Jackie navigated elite social circles. She did just that in a much more formal setting years later: On June 5, 1961, now married to President John F. Kennedy, she joined him at Buckingham Palace for a state dinner with Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip.
The atmosphere was, as expected, more ceremonial and reserved than at Londonderry House. The young reporter who once talked her way into London’s most exclusive American party was now a first lady mingling with the Queen of England.
The Kennedys and the Windsors: The Story of Two Dynasties, One Born, One Made is out today and available to purchase here.
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