The Presidency: Jackie, Igor & Pierre

For John Kennedy, the week was something of a grind. There were the big statistical messages, his first press conference in six weeks, a speech to Democratic fund raisers in Washington’s National Guard Armory, a flying trip to Manhattan to see Acting United Nations Secretary-General U Thant. He did get to see Broadway’s top musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, but otherwise he left the gracious life in the capable hands of his capable wife, Jackie Kennedy.

Proud of her tasteful changes in the White House decor, Jackie led a 45-man CBS crew (trailed by two tons of electronic equipment) through a day-long White House exploration; filmed last week, the guided tour will be presented on television next month. With a tiny microphone and transmitter hidden under her blouse, Jackie commented on everything from the curator’s basement headquarters to the Lincoln Bedroom upstairs. So skilled was her performance that only one retake was ordered—and that simply because one of the television cameras had gone out of whack.

Later in the week, Jackie let reporters and still photographers in for their first look at how she has redone the regal Red Room, long used for receptions before state dinners and now used mainly for ladies’ teas. Its walls and silk draperies are a bright magenta trimmed in gold, setting off the portraits of eleven past U.S. Presidents. Thomas Jefferson has the place of honor over the mantel, taking the place of Mrs. Calvin Coolidge and her pet collie.

Three times during the week, Jackie fled to Glen Ora in the Virginia countryside, where she rode to the hounds on a brown and white horse named Rufus. The hounds found no foxes, managed only to scatter a few deer. Then, turning from riding breeches to a white satin sheath skirt, a black overblouse and diamond earrings, Jackie was hostess at another of the White House parties she has initiated for performers of the fine arts. The guest of honor: famed Composer and occasional Pianist Igor Stravinsky, 79, a native of Russia who has been a U.S. citizen since 1946. The guests, including New York Philharmonic Conductor Leonard Bernstein, Chicago Merchant and Publisher Marshall Field Jr., and Jackie’s sister Princess Radziwill, met in the Kennedys’ private apartment for dinner and cocktails. Said the President to Stravinsky: “You have been through many things in your life. People have thrown sticks and tomatoes at you. Now you are here, and we are delighted to have you. You have enriched the world.”

Weary from Washington rehearsals of his opera Oedipus Rex, Stravinsky excused himself at 11 p.m. In an evening devoted to music, no one had performed, so the First Lady pointed her baton to a pianist-gone-wrong, Presidential Press Secretary Pierre Salinger. Salinger, who at one time was considered a sort of musical prodigy, obligingly sat at the piano, ripped off a composition he had written himself at 15.