AS HE COULD IN SO MANY other areas, President
Kennedy was able to steal
his brother-in-law Peter
Lawford’s thunder
with women
as no
one
else
ever
had.
If Peter’s friends
had discovered
that no
girl
of theirs
was safe around him, Peter quickly learned
the
same thing about
Jack.
Peter's friend Bob Neal, widely
renowned
as a playboy, was
happy
to be
third
Musketeer when he
was with Jack and Peter.
He recalled
a cocktail
party
at the Manhattan apartment
of Earl
E. T. Smith, who had
been
President Eisenhower’s ambassador
to Cuba.
Peter
brought Neal
and
Peter's manager Milt Ebbins
to the party,
which
included many
of thePresident’s closest
associates, among them his
aide Dave Powers and his
brother-in-law Steve Smith.
Neal
saw
the
President sitting on
a couch flanked by two young women. Peter greeted
Jack
and
shook his
hand; Ebbins
and
Neal
followed suit. As
hepumped Bob’s
hand Kennedy said to
him, “My God, Bob Neal.
That’s the man we’d
all like to
be.”
A
few
minutes later
Peter
pulled Neal aside
and
they went out
on a balcony overlooking
Central
Park. “What was
he talking about,
you’re the man everybody wants to
be?”
“I don’t
know,” Neal replied. “Why
don’t you ask
him?”
Ebbins overheard the question and answered it
for
Peter. “Jack’s
heard
about all
the
great-looking
girls
Bob’s
been
dating
lately.”
“Oh,” Peter said.
“I get
it.”
A
few
minutes later, Peter walked
up to
Neal
and
whispered,
“You see that
guy over there?
He’s with
a beautiful
girl from South
America.”
Neal
had indeed seen
her.
Peter’s voice turned conspiratorial.
“He’s
had about twelve drinks too many. Why don’t
we separate
them?”
“Good idea,” Neal replied. “How
do we do that?”
“Let’s
get them into the elevator
first, and we’ll figure it
out once we get
down
on the ground.”
Within minutes,
Peter
and
Bob
were
in Ambassador Smith’s
private elevator
with the hapless man and the girl from South
America. Just as
the
elevator operator
started
to close the doors,
they heard a commanding
voice
— “Hold the elevator!”
“The operator
stuck his
head
out of the door and here came
the
President,” Neal recalled.
“He
strode into the elevator and he said, ‘where
do you
two
fellows think you’re
going?’
Peter
looked at
me and then said, ‘Well,
sir, it’s past our
bedtime and we
thought we
would go
back
to our
hotel.’
“Jack replied, ‘You’re exactly
correct.’
Then he turned
to the gorgeous girl and said,‘Young lady, would
you join
me for a drink at
the
bar?’ She
said, ‘I’d
be delighted
to, Mr. President,’
and
off
they went.
We two jerks
wound up
on Fifth Avenue with
a guy
who couldn’t
find the floor with his
hat.
The
President knew what
we were doing.”
And the President
always made
sure
that nothing similar happened to
him. During a visit to
the
Lawfords’ in Santa
Monica, Kennedy discovered that
a certain friend
of Peter’s was
in the
house. “Either he
goes
or I go,” he
told
Peter.
“But Jack,” Peter pleaded, “he’s
one
of my
best
friends! What
am I going to
say
to him?”
“I don’t care, just get
rid of
him.” The President started to
change
out of his bathing
suit
and
back
into
street
clothes,
prepared to
leave.
Peter
grabbed Milt
Ebbins, who’d been watching
all this, and pulled
him into an adjoining
room. “What am
I going to
do, Milt?”
“You’ve got
to tell the guy
to leave.
Make up
some excuse.
You
can’t
let the President of the
United
States
leave here because
you
don’t want to
insult
your
friend.”
Peter made
an excuse about
security
considerations,
and
his friend left.
What had the man done to
so offend the leader
of the free
world? During
Kennedy’s last visit
to California, the hapless fellow had
made a pass at one of
Jack’s
girls.
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