They do that to this day because, well, it works, as it did with President Johnson. It's also about the British need to maintain the "special relationship" with the U.S., how Texan LBJ wasn't a big fan of snooty Brits always "looking down their noses," and how British governments strategically employ royal visits to achieve diplomatic ends. ![]() That includes the naughty but wildly popular, reckless and irrepressible, underestimated and underemployed, often bored and unhappy Princess Margaret, who died in 2002 at age 71 after a series of strokes following a lifetime of drinking, smoking, scandal and personal travails.īut "Margaretology," the term the press gave her fans in her youth (in her day she was as big as Princess Diana), is about more than a dinner: It's about the sympathetic relationship between the queen and her sister, marked to play different and rigid roles and struggling to come to terms with that. Truth is important to a historical association charged with protecting, preserving and providing public access to the 229-year-old history of "the people's house," even if it's 722 years younger than Windsor Castle.īut literal fact is less important to the creative British geniuses behind "The Crown," the Netflix global phenomenon that tells the sprawling story of the British monarchy, how dutiful Queen Elizabeth II, now 94, learned to be a sovereign, and how the members of her Windsor family play their roles. And how Margaret was annoyed at her husband for dancing with Hand's wife, Ann Hand, rather than with Her Royal Highness. How Cristina Ford, the wife of Henry Ford II, suffered a "wardrobe malfunction" when her breast popped out of her dress while she was dancing with then-Defense Secretary Robert McNamara. (He's right: The photo is real but it was taken by her husband in Kensington Palace years before the 1965 tour, so viewers might have been confused by its inclusion in the episode.)īut Hand has his own anecdotes he shares: How he ended up thrown into Margaret’s lap during the limo ride over from the British Embassy to the White House. "I couldn't believe it," he tells Page.Īnd that bathtub scene, of sultry Margaret in suds wearing her wedding tiara? There's no bathroom like that in the White House, Hand says. Huge applause, roars of laughter! LBJ, the episode makes clear, was charmed.īut Hand begs to differ about these details: The scene in “The Crown” was “fake news” and “outrageous,” “all made up,” he declares. There was a dirty limericks contest, which Margaret, then in her mid-30s, won.Īt one point, Margaret stood on a chair and sang a duet (she loved musicals, playing piano and performing) with 59-year-old LBJ, then bent down and gave him a big kiss on the mouth. ![]() In "The Crown" telling, there was a lot of drinking. Thus, the last-minute White House dinner was arranged. ![]() backing to get a loan from the International Monetary Fund. on a private visit-turned-official at a tense moment in cross-Atlantic affairs, when the United Kingdom faced a looming deficit and needed U.S. Margaret, the younger sister of Queen Elizabeth II, and Snowdon were visiting the U.S. ![]() So Hand was on hand that time Princess Margaret and her then-husband, the Earl of Snowdon, were hosted at a white-tie dinner at the White House in 1965, and a raucous, lip-smacking time was had by all, according to "Margaretology," Episode 2 of Season 3 of "The Crown." The first panel of experts will feature LBJ's daughters, Lynda Johnson Robb and Luci Baines Johnson, plus Lloyd Hand, one of few surviving close Johnson aides, who was chief of protocol for the LBJ White House. The first lecture will be posted on YouTube and Facebook. The other three lectures are expected to be in-person at the historical association's headquarters on Lafayette Square on the north front of the White House. Page is USA TODAY's Washington bureau chief. The historical association, a private, nonprofit organization founded in 1961 by former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, will debut the first of four free lectures for the series, “White House History with Susan Page,” on Monday with a virtual program focused on the 36th president, Lyndon Baines Johnson. The White House Historical Association, which serves Americans' fascination with their Executive Mansion (the building, that is), is launching a new lecture series featuring a corrective for fans of "The Crown": Enjoy, but don't believe everything you see on TV.
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