…Pearls before swine.”
Wealthy socialite, well-known conservative, staunch anti-Communist, former U.S. Ambassador, playwright, politician and all-round doyenne (a word much underused these days) of all things mid-twentieth century and American, Clare Boothe Luce died thirty-seven years ago today, on October 9, 1987. She was eighty-four years old.
Her extraordinary life, which began under the stigma of illegitimacy and–along its way–touched most aspects of American society, from her early days in the theater to the US House of Representatives (she was twice elected to represent Connecticut’s 4th District); from her first marriage to George Brokaw, heir to a millionaire New York clothing business to her second marriage to noted publisher Henry Luce; from her conversion to the Catholic Church and subsequent elevation to the title Dame of Malta to her steamy affairs with (among others) Joseph Kennedy, Randolph Churchill, and British author Roald Dahl; and from her stint as a US Ambassador under President Eisenhower (first to Italy and then to Brazil, an appointment which she eventually declined due to the strong political opposition she had encountered on the way to senatorial approval), to her surreptitious support of Cuban exiles in their raids against their homeland in the 1960s; all elevated her profile and fame to the point that Ronald Reagan, who proudly counted himself as just one of the American President’s who’d received the benefit of her counsel over the years, awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1983.
I’m not sure they make ’em like Clare Boothe Luce anymore. I mean, really. Who do we have as womanly heroines today?
Meghan Markle? Taylor Swift? Kamala Harris?
You tell me.
Today’s quote of the day comes from a small vignette whose authenticity has been questioned, but which is generally believed to be true, as an early version of it was recounted by Hollywood columnist Sheila Graham, who claims to have heard it directly from one of the combatants. (As written in Graham’s Hollywood column on Friday October 14, 1938):
Dorothy Parker tells me of the last time she encountered Playwright Clare Boothe. The two ladies were trying to get out of a doorway at the same time. Clare drew back and cracked, “Age before beauty, Miss Parker.” As Dotty swept out, she turned to the other guests and said, “Pearls before swine.”
Perhaps one of the few times in her life Clare Booth Luce was bested by a person of her own sex. (Apologies to Matthew 7:6, of course.)
I’m not fully on board with Matthew on this one. Even swine (two-legged ones at least) have rights, and perhaps some of them are susceptible of reason and goodness, if a person works at it long enough and hard enough. (It is, indeed, a slog, both in terms of time and energy.) But the “Clare and Dotty” story always makes me smile.
Clare Booth Luce, Rest in Peace.
