April 17, 2013

Finest Hour 153, Winter 2011-12

Page 35

As They Saw Him

By Dana Cook

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Mr. Cook ([email protected]) publishes literary, political and show business encounters; his first on Churchill appeared in FH 147.


OUTRAGED: LONDON, 1912

Ford Madox Ford, Novelist:
The Marconi Commission* must have been one of the most farcical…. Suddenly there was a roar like that of a charging wild boar. Mr. Churchill was pushing aside the people in the doorway as if he had been a forward in a game of football and near the goal. His top hat was pressed down over his ears, his face was as pallid as wax, whiter than the paper on which this is written. His features were so distorted that he was almost unrecognisable. He dashed himself at the chair [and] shouted: “If any man has dared to say that I would do such a damned swinish thing as to buy any share in any filthy company in any way connected with any governmental action… If any man has dared….”

The chairman said: “There, there Mr. Winston, we all know your admirable record.” The Tories shouted in unison: “An outrage….” Mr. Churchill slammed his fist violently on the table before him and began again: “If I could get my hands on his throat….to say that I could be capable of such infamy….”
Return to Yesterday (London, 1932)

*In the Marconi Scandal of 1912, high-placed members of H.H. Asquith’s Liberal government were said to have bought shares in an American subsidiary of the Marconi Company, knowing of government plans to issue a lucrative contract to the British company—what today would be known as “insider trading.” The charges, centering around Lloyd George, were never proven, but reverberated politically for years.

HOUSEGUEST: LOS ANGELES, 1929

Marion Davies, Actress:
He came with his son Randolph…they stayed at the beach house. MGM gave a big reception for Churchill. And he had a sort of lisp, but it didn’t come out over the microphone. He couldn’t figure it out and I couldn’t figure it out, but a lisp just does not register….He was a very good guest because he had so many things to do that he didn’t become a nuisance. And he stayed quite a while, maybe three or four weeks. Then he went back to England. He liked his scotch and his cigars. They were what kept him alive.
The Times We Had (Indianapolis, 1975)

BELOW THE SALT: 1938

Rosalind Russell, Actress:
Metro sent me to England to make a picture called “The Citadel”….[at] the American Embassy…Rose Kennedy brought a cherubic-looking gentleman over to meet me and said he would be my dinner partner. She introduced him as a Mr. Churchill, there was no Sir Winston about it. In fact, Churchill wasn’t much in favor then. When people looked at him they tended to have this “remember the Dardanelles” expression on their faces….I chatted with various agreeable strangers until time to go in to dinner. Then Mr. Churchill came and offered his arm…. “Well,” he said, “I understand you’re an actress from the United States, and I’m sure you’re very fine, but still and all you can’t amount to much if you have to sit down here with me.”
Life is a Banquet (New York, 1977)

RUSHKIN’S SEX LIFE: SURREY, 1939

Peter Quennel, Novelist:
[Churchill and his son Randolph] had just attended some political rally; and during supper they were still deep in an important conversation. But, when the old statesman announced that he must go home and, dutifully attended by Randolph, ambled out toward the street, he could be heard enquiring who I was. “An author,” Randolph replied; “He’s writing a book on John Ruskin.” “Ah, Rushkin, Rushkin,” responded the senior Churchill in his sibilant, sonorous voice that has been so often parodied; and, reflectively, as he bade his son farewell: “Rushkin—a man with a shingularly unfortunate shex-life….”
The Wanton Chase (London, 1980)

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