CONFERENCES,THE NATIONS: The Secretary & the Blonde

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CONFERENCES

Between Yalta, where he sat at the right hand of Franklin Roosevelt, and Mexico City, where he will sit at the head of the U.S. delegation, Secretary of State Edward R. Stettinius Jr. sat for one evening in the Imperial box at Moscow's famed Bolshoi Theater. He got a great ovation as he entered, accompanied by Foreign Commissar Viacheslav Molotov, Vice Commissar Andrei Vishinsky, and Boss Ed Flynn. The two Eds were then treated to a performance of Swan Lake, the same ballet which entranced Wendell Willkie two years and five months ago. At the end of the performance it was Secretary Ed, not Boss Ed, who sent a bouquet to the beautiful blond ballerina, Marina Semenova—a 3,000 ruble ($250) bouquet.

Having shown the Russians that diplomacy, grand style, was not dead in the U.S.—and done whatever other business he had—the smiling U.S. Secretary of State flew to Mexico for his next appearance on the vast stage of world affairs.