The Presidency: The 35th: John Fitzgerald Kennedy

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The Boom. The rush to Washington began early, and by midweek it seemed easier to get a Cabinet job than a bed. Hotels, motels and boardinghouses were jammed, and the overflow reached as far away as Baltimore and Annapolis. Inaugural committees, swamped for tickets to the official functions, were in despair. It was hard enough to satisfy the requirements of the bigwigs who poured into town; even more embarrassing were the littlewigs who had been sent souvenir inaugural invitations and, mistaking them for the real thing, commandeered white ties and tails and rushed straightaway to Washington. Scalpers swept into action, unloaded $3 grandstand seats for $15 apiece, sold reservations for windowside tables in key restaurants along the route.

And then, adding to all the excitement and giving even more bang to the boom of the Washington real estate market, came the members of the Kennedy clan. They congregated in the Georgetown area soon to be vacated by Jack. The President-elect's sister and brother-in-law, Jean and Steve Smith, already lived on O Street. Now old Joe Kennedy and his wife Rose rented a P Street home for a tidy $200 a day. Ted Kennedy and his wife took overa place just across the way, next to the Christian Herters. Kennedy Sisters Eunice Shriver and Pat Lawford rented still another, a block away.

Bouffant & Beads. Swirling with Kennedys, Washington society turned itself inside out in its most glittering display in years. Dinner dances, luncheons, buffets, receptions, cocktail parties—they flashed on and off like the lights on an electronic computer. No event could be considered a success without the appearance of at least one Kennedy—and, since there were more than enough Kennedys around, there were few failures on that account. The inaugural committee threw a huge affair at the National Gallery to welcome Bess Truman, the Cabinet wives, the Kennedy and Johnson ladies, and other women of importance; the hall became a rustling sea of mink and jewel, bouffant hairdo and beaded gown. Over at the Statler-Hilton, House Speaker Sam Rayburn hosted a party for Lyndon Johnson; at the Mayflower, Young Democrats danced with anxious glances at the entrance, hoping for the arrival of Jack Kennedy. He did not show—but Brother Bobby and his wife Ethel saved the day. Hour after hour, top names turned up at parties given by other top names. Kennedy looked in on a dinner for Harry Truman; Pundit Walter Lippmann gave a cocktail party for some seven score luminaries in arts and science ("nobody below the rank of Nobel prizewinner"); Eleanor Roosevelt and former New York Senator Herbert Lehman tirelessly made the rounds.