After Camelot: A Personal History of the Kennedy Family--1968 to the Present
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In a sense, Peter Lawford’s life was begun under a cloud of controversy. His mother, May Somerville Bunny, was married to another man when she became pregnant with Peter, who was born Peter Sydney Vaughn Aylen on September 7, 1923, in London. When Mary finally confessed to her husband, Captain Ernest Vaughn Aylen, that he wasn’t really the child’s father, Aylen immediately filed for divorce. A year later, in 1924, May Somerville Bunny married the child’s true father, Sydney Turing Barlow Lawford, a captain in the British army who had served in the Boer War in South Africa. Peter began acting early in life, making his debut at the age of seven in the British comedy Poor Old Bill, starring Leslie Fuller and Iris Ashley. Eight years later, after the family moved to America, Peter made his Hollywood debut as a bit player in Lord Jeff, and then in 1942 was given a more substantial role opposite Mickey Rooney in A Yank at Eton. Though Peter made many successful films in the 1940s, it really wasn’t until the 1960s when he linked up socially with Frank Sinatra—with whom he had made It Happened in Brooklyn in 1947—that Peter became truly famous. “At that time, anyone connected to Sinatra was thought of as instantly cool,” Milt Ebbins said. “Peter brought the idea of Ocean’s 11 to Frank, and he was cast in it along with Dean, Sammy, and Joey [Bishop]. Pat put some of her Kennedy dollars behind the film, thinking Peter would star in it. But, much to her dismay, Frank starred in it instead. Still, when you think of all the films Peter had done by that time—thirty-one by my count—it’s ironic that he’s most known as one of the Rat Pack.”
Peter Lawford would make another seventeen films after Ocean’s 11—including another one with the Rat Pack called Sergeants 3. However, a falling-out with Frank Sinatra over the Kennedys pushed Peter out of the Rat Pack, and out of favor with Sinatra, too, for the rest of his life. Some of the Lawfords’ intimates maintain it also marked the beginning of the end of their marriage.
“At the time, Bobby Kennedy was investigating the underworld with a kind of eagerness you could not believe,” recalled Jeanne Martin, Dean’s widow. “He was determined to not only bring down the underworld, but also J. Edgar Hoover [director of the FBI] who he believed—we all believed, actually—had it in for the Kennedys because he was constantly having the family investigated for one thing or another. Bobby felt that Hoover was a crook. During the course of his investigations into the underworld [in February 1962], Bobby stumbled onto the fact that Sinatra was tied to some very powerful gangsters such as Sam Giancana. Because of this discovery, Bobby appealed to Jack, telling him that given Sinatra’s associations there was no way he could stay with Sinatra at his Palm Springs estate during an upcoming trip he was taking to California. Frank had been planning on the trip in a big way, really looking forward to it.”
Frank Sinatra had very strong feelings for Jack Kennedy. He believed that the new president was a great man, someone who had not only inspired the country into service but was personally inspiring to Sinatra as well. Sinatra had been very helpful in getting JFK elected by stumping for him across the country, and had even produced his victory party after the election. The idea that JFK was coming to Sinatra’s home was, as far as the entertainer was concerned, quite an honor. For Kennedy’s visit, Sinatra had new phone lines installed for the Secret Service, and had even famously built a helipad for the president’s helicopter. As a finishing touch, he put up a gold plaque in the bedroom in which Jack was supposed to sleep that said “John F. Kennedy Slept Here.”
Though the story of what happened next has been told many times, it’s still worth repeating: When John F. Kennedy decided that he wasn’t going to stay at Frank Sinatra’s after all, he dispatched Peter Lawford with the disappointing news rather than give it to Sinatra himself. As Peter explained to this author in a 1981 interview,* “I guess you could say that I ended up being the fall guy. One morning, Bobby called me and told me to call Frank and tell him that the president would not be staying at his home because of his [Sinatra’s] ties to Giancana. Very reluctantly, I made the call, but I couldn’t bring myself to tell Frank the real reason. I said it was because of security concerns. I said that the house was indefensible—that was the word I used. Still, Frank blew up and slammed the phone down. It was actually Bobby who called Frank back and, from my understanding, told him the truth. From that moment on, I was persona non grata where Frank was concerned. It ruined everything between us. What I felt at the time and what I still feel is that Frank had such admiration for Jack, he was disillusioned by the fact that Jack didn’t come forward to talk to Frank about it man-to-man. That’s not how Frank did things. If Frank had a beef with you, you knew it. He didn’t send other people to do his dirty work. Frank was very disillusioned where Jack was concerned and, I guess, had to take it out on someone. And that someone was me.”
It’s always been reported that the primary reason Sinatra cut Lawford from his life was over the Kennedy matter, and certainly Peter suggested as much to this writer. That scenario has always made Sinatra seem a little unhinged, especially added to the oft-told story (which may or may not be true) that Sinatra then went out to the newly built helipad and, in a fit of pique, destroyed it with an ax. But Frank’s very close friend and confidant Tony Oppedisamo perhaps puts the event in better perspective: “From what he told me, Frank had felt for a long time that the relationship with Peter had become very one-sided,” recalled Oppedisamo. “He felt that Peter’s loyalties didn’t run as deep for him as his [Sinatra’s] ran for Peter, and this event with Kennedy served to reinforce that in his mind. Loyalty mattered to Frank a great deal. If the tables had been turned, he would have fought like hell for Peter, and he didn’t feel that Peter did that for him.
“Also, at this same time, Sinatra was very unhappy about the way Peter was handling Marilyn Monroe,” continued Oppedisamo. “Frank felt that Marilyn was very fragile and in a lot of trouble at that time with her mental state, the drugs she was taking… all of it. He cared about her a great deal. He also knew Peter was a good friend of hers, and he felt Peter should have been doing more to help her. So there were a lot of things going on at this time. It wasn’t as simple as Frank just getting pissed off about the president and then cutting Peter out of his life.”
“After the Kennedy snub, Frank dropped Peter from the next two Rat Pack films, Robin and the 7 Hoods and 4 for Texas,” recalled Jeanne Martin. “This was so devastating to Peter that it sent him into a deep and awful depression. Peter then took out his frustrations on Pat, feeling that she should have had more influence over her brothers, or at least tried to talk to them about it. But in fact, Pat really had no influence over the situation either. It was completely out of her hands.”
From all accounts, Pat Kennedy was the least politically motivated of the Kennedy family, and definitely the least ambitious. In her 1987 book The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys, Doris Kearns Goodwin wrote that Rose Kennedy was bothered by Pat’s lack of ambition. “Although she had a good mind, a fine physique and a beautiful face which could easily have led her to excel in school, in sports or in appearance, Rose contended ‘she would never make the effort to achieve distinction’ in any of these areas.” Actually, Pat was the Kennedy sister who, as Jeanne Martin put it, “loved a good time. She was just a regular gal and all the stars loved her—Judy Garland, Jackie Cooper, Lauren Bacall, Humphrey Bogart, Martha Raye, Jimmy Durante. She had her problems, of course. She drank too much. Of course, her marriage didn’t make things any easier for her, especially the way she ended up stuck in the middle between Peter and Jack.”
The sixth of Joseph and Rose Kennedy’s nine children, Patricia Kennedy would grow up privileged, of course, her background including an education in the finest convent schools, with graduation from Rosemont College, a private women’s liberal arts school in Pennsylvania. She traveled the world over and, like her siblings, wanted for nothing. Though she probably wouldn’t have been thought of as a real beauty, she was striking just the same, with an angular face, red hair, cobalt blue eyes, a sharp nose, and of course that typica
lly full Kennedy smile. Like everyone else in the immediate family, she was also extremely athletic.
Before having her children, Pat had been a television producer. She’d enjoyed her brief time in show business and wished it could have continued, but was instead influenced by the Kennedy women’s ethos of duty to family. Any thoughts of career had to take second place to the more practical responsibilities of a mother and wife. Pat met Peter Lawford in 1949 in London and married him six years later. At the time, Pat was two weeks shy of thirty and with a personal family fortune of about $10 million. Peter, at thirty-one, was worth about a tenth of that amount. Most of the Kennedys felt he was nothing but a fortune hunter. Joseph Kennedy certainly did not approve of him; the fact that Peter was Protestant and English didn’t help matters. Christopher Lawford, Pat’s son, recalls his mother saying that Joe Kennedy sent her on a trip around the world in the hope that she might forget about Peter. “It didn’t work,” she told her son. “I got to Japan and turned right around.”
It took a great deal of courage for Pat to marry Peter considering her father’s disapproval of him. Eunice and Jean both married men whom Joseph sanctioned because they were motivated, financially secure, and stable. However, Peter was much more easygoing and laid-back, not at all competitive—a lot like Pat in that respect. And while he was hopeful that his life as an actor would continue to work out, he didn’t seem all that concerned about the chances that it wouldn’t. An amiable fellow, Peter was well liked by the family—even if not by Joseph—and especially by President Kennedy. It’s fair to say that Peter loved nothing more than being a member of America’s royal family, the Kennedys. It quickly became the crux of his identity. He felt that the men in the family—Joseph, Jack, Bobby, Ted, Sargent, and Steve—were so inspiring, he was just proud to be a part of their lives. He took it all very seriously—the campaigns, the camaraderie, the closeness.
“And Pat was crazy about him,” explained Jeanne Martin. “She just worshipped the guy, truly.” Unfortunately, despite Pat’s strong emotion, the marriage was troubled almost from the start. “I don’t think Peter was faithful even from the very beginning,” said Milt Ebbins. “Then, after he got involved with Sinatra and that group, forget it. His behavior really got out of control. He would be unfaithful to Pat more times than she could count. They had a lot of volatile fights about it. Pat had a temper on her, and Peter gave her plenty of reasons to express it.”
“There was a point, around 1963, where she couldn’t take it anymore,” said one of her closest friends. “I think the difference between Pat and the other women in the family was that Pat just had a lot more anger where the infidelity was concerned. It outraged her in a way it didn’t necessarily outrage Jackie or Joan, for instance. She had known that her father had been unfaithful to her mother, and it just upset her that these men got away with it. She was determined to be the one Kennedy woman to do something about it. She was determined to make a statement, so to speak. But it ate away at her, Peter’s cheating. I think it’s safe to say that she never really forgave him for it. She was tough, though. Pat would put up a front and act as if she was unaffected, but deep down she was very fragile. Her self-esteem was wrecked by his unfaithful behavior and I think she actually never quite recovered.”
“Pat told Peter she wanted out of the marriage in 1963,” confirmed Milt Ebbins. “Peter and I then went to Jack and sat down with him in the Oval Office to discuss it. The president was truly concerned. He was very sorry that the marriage was ending, but I think he felt it was Pat’s fault because I distinctly remember him saying, ‘It’s okay, Peter, I know my sister better than you do. I understand, believe me.’ He asked when it was going to happen and Peter said it was imminent. I said, ‘I’m not happy about this. I’m afraid it’s going to detract from the [1964] election.’ And Jack agreed, saying, ‘Maybe you two should wait until after the election.’ Peter said he thought he could get Pat to agree to that. Before leaving, Peter said to Jack, ‘I sure hope this doesn’t mean the end of our friendship.’ Jack patted Peter on the shoulder, shook his hand, and said, ‘Don’t worry, Peter. I promise, I will always be your friend.’ When we left, Peter was crying, he was so moved by what Jack had said.
“Then, of course, Jack was murdered shortly after that meeting. Everyone was so devastated, it put the divorce on the back burner for almost two years. However, my memory has it that Peter and Pat weren’t living together during that time.”
In December 1965, Pat learned that one way to obtain a so-called “quickie divorce” from Peter Lawford was to do it in Sun Valley, Idaho, because there she would only need to establish a six-week residency before filing the necessary papers. Since it was to be the first divorce in the Kennedy family, Jackie felt that Pat would need emotional support so she showed up unannounced in Sun Valley to surprise Pat. One can only imagine Pat’s amazement at opening the door to the small home she had rented in Sun Valley to see her famous sister-in-law and her two young children—Caroline and John—standing there, suitcases in hand. And one can also only imagine Jackie’s surprise when she found that Ethel and Bobby and their children were already present in support of Pat. Chalking it all up to “crossed signals,” Jackie, Ethel, and Pat spent three days together, during which time they solidified their bond as sisters-in-law while Bobby spent the days skiing with the many children—his, Pat’s, and Jackie’s.
While in Idaho, Jackie revealed that she had first noticed problems in the Lawford marriage all the way back in 1955. “I’m amazed it has lasted this long,” she told Pat, who had to agree. “That’s a very long time to be so unhappy.”
During this time, Peter was involved with a stewardess who worked for an international airline. None of the Kennedy women could believe it. “From what I understand, Jackie kept saying, ‘But Pat is so smart and funny, why would Peter end up with a stewardess? What can they possibly have to talk about?’ To which Ethel said, ‘They’re not talking. Believe me.’ ”
It’s interesting that Jackie—and maybe to a lesser extent, Ethel—would be so friendly with Pat. There were arguably a few reasons why the two might have had a problem with her, not the least of which was that Pat had allowed her home on the West Coast to be used by Jack for his assignations with other women. It had been Peter Lawford’s idea, and he was probably pressured into it by Frank Sinatra, but still it was Pat’s house too. Another reason Jackie and Ethel might have had reservations about Pat was that one of Pat’s best friends had been Marilyn Monroe in the later years of the screen star’s life. “You’re a Kennedy now,” Pat told Marilyn at one point in their friendship, which was unusual because Pat and the rest of the Kennedys were usually not very welcoming of outsiders. In fact, when Jack won the Democratic nomination, the Kennedy family was supposed to join him onstage at the convention at the Coliseum in Los Angeles. However, when Peter started to walk on with the rest of them, Pat stopped him. “You’re not actually a Kennedy,” she told him, “so I don’t think it’s right.” Jack overheard her comment and said of Peter, “He’s married to you, so that makes him a Kennedy, don’t you think?” She just shrugged. “Besides, he’s a good-looking movie star,” Jack added with a wink at Peter. “So we can certainly use him up there.” Peter had even taken the citizenship test just to become an American so he could cast his vote for JFK, but it didn’t much matter to Pat. So for Pat to tell Marilyn Monroe that she was a Kennedy was quite unusual, and for Marilyn to then get involved with Jack (and maybe Bobby) was, as far as Pat was concerned, a bit of a betrayal.
“Pat was torn about it,” said Patricia Brennan. “On some level, I think she never really believed that Marilyn, Jack, and Bobby had anything serious going on, but there was a lot of evidence to the contrary. I know that she told Marilyn [on April 8, 1962, at Pat’s home in Malibu] that if it were true, she might be able to get past it to continue their friendship, but she seriously doubted that her sisters, Eunice and Jean, and sisters-in-law, Jackie and Ethel, would ever be able to reconcile it.”
Pat would stay behind after all of the Kennedys departed Idaho to ensure her “residency,” and the divorce was then granted in January 1966.
True to her nature, Pat tried to make her break from Peter seem painless, though it was actually very difficult for her. The beach estate she and Peter owned on Sorrento Beach in California was an opulent palace that had been key to the lifestyle she had so enjoyed. The poolside parties that Peter hosted at this home at 625 Palisades Beach Road in Malibu (now Pacific Coast Highway) were the stuff of Hollywood legend. Acclaimed lensman Bernie Abramson, whom Peter and Pat considered to be the family’s personal photographer, recalled, “Every celebrity in town would come to the Lawfords’ for barbecues and cocktail parties—Sinatra, Marilyn, Angie Dickinson, Dean Martin, Judy [Garland]. When Pat and Peter broke up, I don’t know who was more upset, the couple themselves or all of the people who loved coming to the house and enjoying themselves there. Pat was always the perfect hostess. Her brother Jack once told me, ‘She gets that from Mother [Rose]. Nothing rattles her in a social situation. Whereas Jackie acts cool and collected, secretly she’s a bundle of nerves. But Pat, she actually is cool and collected.’ It was true. I still see her in my mind’s eye flitting around the room in one of her colorful caftans, a cocktail in her hand, charming everyone in the room.”