Lost in the Mist of Time: Way before Monica, there was Mimi…and Mary Catherine, and…

Selling a book has everything to do with getting sudden, splashy attention. The most effective way to do that is to combine a couple of hot words like "intern" and "president" — then sit back and watch the show. The media will do the rest.

That's what happened last week with the story of yet another "revelation" that John F. Kennedy was as horny a dog as Clinton ever tried to be. The end result was a great deal of tabloid clamor and TV bubble talk about a biography of Kennedy that contains far more interesting and new information about his physical health than his dalliance with an "intern" named Mimi. Because of the clever combination of those two words, Mimi, who is now 60 years old, was last seen on the 6 o'clock news running down Madison Avenue ahead of a pack of drooling pressies. She is now a grandmother, an officer of an East side church and a woman of graceful and dignified mien. She was also able, for more than 40 years, to keep her mouth shut about an affair with JFK that went on for several months in 1962 and 1963.

And so it was that last week my phone began to ring with reporters asking if I had ever known someone named "Mimi." It is commonly known that I worked in the JFK White House in a totally utilitarian capacity during that blink of time. Considering the fact that anyone else who was there then is either dead, sworn to silence, or gaga by now, the media had its work cut out.

I didn't know anyone named Mimi, but I did know (and here names are changed to protect the women who surely don't want to be annoyed with phone calls) Kiki, Muffy, Chapin, DeeDee, and Mary Francis, Mary Ellen, Mary Grace, and Mary Margaret. They all had the same things in common: a Catholic upbringing, big blonde or red hair, a closet full of sleeveless linen dresses, and disabling crushes on John F. Kennedy.

He was so gorgeous. That was back when you didn't call a man a hottie, hunk, or stud muffin. He was tall and always tan (if you read the really important parts of the book you'll learn that was from cortisone injections not sun lamps). He smiled a lot and walked with kind of a stiff bend to his shoulders that made you think he was leaning forward to listen to only you. The girls — and they were truly girls — didn't just love him, they worshiped him with the same squealing hysteria their mothers felt for Sinatra. This adoration extended beyond the staff and into the pressroom where female reporters went weak in the knees in his presence and later at their typewriters.

None of the girls called him sexy because no one — and certainly not the Muffykikideedee — would admit that what they felt about the boss had to do not with furthering the idealism of the New Frontier but with trashy, squirming lust. To the Muffykikideedee, admitting to lust would be a sin. Then, of course, there was the incandescent Jackie and those two angels Caroline and John-John; to think that way was a guarantee that you would fry in hell forever.

To work in the Kennedy White House was to dwell in a magic kingdom where the light was always gold. You were invited to parties, envied by your peers. The fact that you were constantly hit on by loud Irish guys with red faces and unfortunate teeth didn't matter. You floated in Oz. You were among the chosen.

JFK once touched Mary Francis (was it Mary Catharine?) and she didn't come down from her lust high for days. She had been rushing through a hallway in the West Wing with some papers when suddenly ahead of her she saw HIM moving toward her with half a dozen other men. When the group reached her he slowed his pace, smiled, and touched her shoulder. When she returned to the office she was shivering.

Everyone heard the rumors about certain women, women in the press corps, women on the campaign, movie stars, and friends of his wife — even his wife's secretary. It was said that two girls in the press office used to go up to the private quarters at lunch when Jackie was out of town. The Muffykikideedee knew these were just the lies of the jealous. There were stories about naked pool parties that were beyond belief. Mary Francis would cup her hands over her ears and say, "La-la-la, I don't want to hear."

Then he got shot and the dream ended. The older women, in the warrens and basements and cubicles, who really made the place run properly and supervised the girls, got bigger, better jobs. The girls got married and life went on.

Then came the news stories, the books, the scandal sheets, the TV documentaries. A mobster girlfriend, more movie stars, tales of how that nice Dave Powers or Kenny O'Donnell who used to tell all those racy Irish jokes would go out on F Street and find...well, hookers is what they were...for the Man. Most grew up about JFK. Some never believed. Others remained sad and hurt and terribly disappointed but still secretly in love with his style, his panache, the legend of Camelot, and those fleeting golden days when proper people simply didn't talk about such ugly, dirty stuff.

Forty years later the phone rings and a tabloid journalist asks, "Did you ever know a Mimi?" I said "No" but afterward, thinking about it, I probably did.

I probably knew a lot of "Mimis" and didn't know it. Maybe the Muffykikideedees were putting me on with all their breast clutching and adoration because they knew I didn't have a crush on JFK. I just liked the parties and the golden light. Maybe they were all members of a secret club who "lunched" and splashed naked in the pool.

Now I think, somewhat wistfully, that back then a certain kind of girl didn't talk about that stuff. Mimi was one of those.

I will never forget it. Kennedy had been shot. The top news voice on the radio station where I worked was a 57 year old network news reporter recently retired from CBS. He worked part time at our stations... just to keep his hand in. He was a good friend of the station owners.

This Washington insider had been part of the CBS news staff for years. He had pipes that made my 25 year old voice sound like a real beginner. That is what I was at the time. But the station manager decided to pair us as the anchors for the primary coverage of the Kennedy assassination. I was susposed to appeal to younger listeners. We were using about 50/50 network coverage to the local anchor coverage. It was a new experience for me.

As the coverage went on, my CBS mentor started telling me(off the air) about the Kennedy's he had been covering up until the summer of 1963. He told be about Fiddle and Faddle the two gals on the white house staff who were employed to provide sex for JFK. He talked about Marilyn Monroe and her relationship with both JFK and RFK. He talked about the Greek Shipping magnate that Jackie was having sex with from time to time. He told me how they pretended it was Jackie's sister Lee who was the Greek's girl friend, but it was really Jackie who was the magnates sex interest.

I was so angry I nearly lost self control. I could not believe the things he was telling me about the Kennedy's could be true. They had to be vicious lies about the sainted Kennedys.

It was years later when I got to D.C. that I learned that the old reporter who broke me in knew exactly what he was talking about. During the breaks in the broadcasts we did over 3 days after Kennedy was killed, he told me everyone in the Washington press corp knew about Kennedy and his string of sex partners.

For what it is worth, some of the ladies (word used advisedly) that provided "services" for JFK referred to him as the "Minute Man" from Boston. It was the first time I heard the phrase, "This won't take long .. did it."

Making this revelation about an intern today, makes little sense for the media. The media at the time knew full well what the Kennedy brothers and wife were doing. During the Clinton-Monica situation lots of people in the media remembered JFK and RFK and their sexual exploits with interns and lots of other political groupies.

Oh by the way, LBJ had a room at the Mayflower Hotel where he from time to time slipped out to have a little afternoon delight. Rumor had it Kathern Graham, owner of the Washington Post, was one of the visitors to the LBJ room at the Mayflower.

But there is always lots of available sex for politicians and media people. If you are on the air or in the congress there are lots of females who want to cross every politician and media star off their list of "Made" men.

Someone said they were going to have a parade of all the media and congressmen who had not had sex with a female intern. They had to cancel it because those eligible to march wanted to make it a Gay Rights parade. Condit, Gingrich, and Clinton were and are not the exception... they were and are the rule as is Peter Jennings et all.

There have been presidents who were faithful to their wives. Nixon, Carter, Ford, Reagan and both Bushs come to mind. There have been many others who were not. One president, who served in the 1800s and was a widower, reportedly kept a hooker in the white-house to take care of such needs as might arise from time to time. The press often referred to him off the record as a "Widower with assets." I can't remember his name.

There have been sex scandals since before the time of the old testament. The Bible is full of such stories. Men and women have not evolved much over the centuries.

Some women are attracted to power, that is for sure. Thanks for the comments.

Many of them try to use sex as a means to get lawmakers and powerful media men to get them jobs.

If a powerful committee chairman of a committee wants a female hired at the agency his committee oversees, she will be hired. And if an Intern at ABC Washington wants a recommendation for a staff reporter job at WLS, a little extra effort for the anchor man is considered to be a small price.

Then there are the groupies that just want the thrill of getting the powerful men they want. But the interns usually want something in return.

But the speculation, as in the Condit situation, that an intern is threatening the congressman, has little merit. If it did congressmen would only do groupies and not interns. Since the media is doing the same thing with their interns, it is hard to get media coverage.. So exposures don't usually work. Only people who can hurt the intern ever know about the situation. Exposure just ensures the end of any chance for career help for the intern by any powerful man in exchange for anything. Typically when it does not work. When the girl does the congressman, but the congressman does not repay with career help, the intern just tries to find another powerful male to help her.... If at first you don't succeed,try another congressman..is the rule.

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