JOSEPH P. KENNEDY - THE PATRIARCH : MISTRESS MANIFESTO BOOK REVIEW

 JOSEPH P. KENNEDY - THE PATRIARCH : 

The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy by David Nasaw. 

MISTRESS MANIFESTO BOOK REVIEW

first posted February 26, 2018

This is a fine work, well researched with permission of the Kennedy Family who allowed sealed documents at the Kennedy Library to be open to the author, and can be read just for the historical content.  Joseph. P. Kennedy was the self made man who fathered U.S. President John F. Kennedy and left his many children millions.  We Americans seem to know a lot about them, and this vast family still has some illustrious members. Of surprise to me (and I've read so many books about the Kennedys and Jackie and Marilyn) is that Joseph P. Kennedy had quite the relationship with Franklin Roosevelt before and after he became President of the United States and was no stranger to visits to the White House, but also that he socialized with William Randolph Hearst and his Mistress Marion Davies.  Author David Nasaw's focus is entirely on Joseph P. Kennedy so the relationships of all other's named, including his wife Rose, are not detailed, and if you've read a lot of books or seem a lot of films around the Kennedy's much of the information you read here may seem repetitive.  However, I'm reviewing this book for MISTRESS MANIFESTO because of the many characters in it that you have read about here (and can easily summon up using the Google Search feature embedded in the side bar to bring up past posts about!)

These include: 

Joseph P. Kennedy's Mistress Gloria Swanson

William Randolph Hearst and his Mistress Marion Davies

Missy Lehand, said to be the in-Whitehouse Mistress of President Franklin Roosevelt,

Kathleen "Kick" Kennedy, daughter of Joseph P. and Rose Kennedy.

Clare Boothe Luce (Who I owe a month to.)

And of course Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, who I think would have made a better Mistress than a Wife.

I came away with an understanding that Joseph, though frequently not home due to business, and the fact that he and Rose seemingly lived separate lives though united by their children. wrote loving letters to his children and had not abandoned his fatherhood.

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Here's where you can find posts in my archive:

November 2019

MARGUERITE "MISSY" LEHAND :OFFICE WIFE AND WARM SPRINGS MISTRESS OF FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT

July 2013
MARION "ROSEBUD" DAVIES : MISTRESS OF NEWSPAPER MAN AND HEARST CASTLE BUILDER  WILLIAM RANDOLPH HEARST

March

KATHLEEN “KICK” KENNEDY ; Sister of J.F.K., Widow of Billy Hartington, Mistress of Peter Wentworth Fitzwilliam When They Died in A Plane Crash

JESSE JACKSON PASSED AWAY : KARIN STANFORD - A MISTRESS OF JACKSON, - WAS OUR MISTRESS OF THE MONTH IN MAY 2011!

There's some really interesting posts from way back in the day :  This was the start of May 2011, when I elected KARIN STANFORD as Mistress of the Month!  You can read that month by going into my archived posts: see the sidebar of this blog!  - Missy

Here's a redo of the initial post.

MISTRESS OF THE MONTH KARIN STANFORD :

HE WAS MARRIED WITH FIVE CHILDREN, 

SHE WAS 19 YEARS YOUNGER, 

HE'S PAYING $4000 a MONTH IN CHILD SUPPORT

KARIN STANFORD is Mistress of the Month for May 2011!

She's Jesse Jackson (Sr.)'s ex, with whom he has a daughter, Ashley. Karin has gone after child support and been fairly quoted in the news, though she says it was the FEDS who outed them.

Jesse Jackson is one of those Christian Ministers who has a lifestyle that's barely conservative, a charismatic man, and one who had Presidential ambitions. It was he who counseled then President of the United States, Bill Clinton, when Bill got caught lying about Monica Lewinsky. It just may be that because of his affair with Karin, Jesse had to give up on a White House Future.

Karin says she has "no regrets," and thinks of their daughter as a miracle child, born in 2000. Karin started life over as a professor of Pan-African Studies and Politics - at California State College, Northridge, in Los Angeles California, and is the author of a book titled "Cancer Survivors, Breaking the Silence - Inspirational Stories of Black Cancer Survivors", as well as other books.

Like many modern mistresses, she is an educated woman, who could support herself well, without a man's help. Never the less, love and awe of a man, led her to being a mistress, at least for a time in her life. 

UPDATE AUGUST 2013: Karin, if we count hits only, is probably the most popular mistress I've written about. A recent comment about what would have happened if a CONSERVATIVE Public Figure had been involved with Karin intrigues me. As recent new information comes out about Monica Lewinsky and President William Clinton comes out, I think that in fact there have been many politicians linked with women other than their wives. Some of these mostly men are Republicans, some are Democrats. Some of these men have suffered for it, even if it only appeared they had an affair, or it was discovered they had many affairs, and some have fathered children in long term adultery. Consider Gary Hart. However, defining who is a mistress these days is complicated by the general lack of marriage, couples who lived together, people who have an alternative lifestyle such as living in deliberate polygamy or living with more than one lover all in the same household. I don't dwell on those who have affairs but not RELATIONSHIPS, and where there is a child there is usually a RELATIONSHIP.

C 2011 - 2026 Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot  All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights

THE MISTRESSES OF AMERICAN PRESIDENTS ; DEAREST MADAME by IRMA HUNT

THE MISTRESSES OF AMERICAN PRESIDENTS ;  DEAREST MADAM by IRMA HUNT

from July 25 2009

DEAREST MADAME by Irma Hunt is an old book published in 1978. And though we find defining who is or isn't a mistress or mantress difficult, since all adulterers are not mistresses and not all mistresses are adulterers (and legal marriage isn't the only way to be married), here is the list as presented by Irma Hunt...

Sally Cary Fairfax - George Washington
Sally Hemmings - Thomas Jefferson  (This one is controversial via other sources)
Maria Halpin - Grover Cleveland
Carrie Phillips - Warren G. Harding
Lucy Mercer - Franklin Roosevelt
Kay Summersby - Dwight Eisenhower
Judith Campbell - John F. Kennedy  (In my opinion Campbell was not a mistress.)

I was horrified to read how badly Maria Halpin and Carrie Phillips were treated. Of all of these Lucy Mercer comes closest to being an actual mistress by my way of thinking. Sally Hemmings - Thomas Jefferson could not legally marry her. Kay Summersby had her own job with the army first and had an affair with the married Dwight while his personal driver and assistant but he made no promises to her so I think of it as a wartime romance, and Judith Campbell may have been a party girl who got around, but besides having sex with J.F.K. it doesn't sound like he supported her financially. Only Lucy Mercer sounds to have had an actual long term LOVE AFFAIR with the unhappily but loyally married Roosevelt...

C 2009  All Rights Reserved  Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot 

Missy here:  Looking at this list of possible future subjects I see I did devote posts to some of these personalities that I label POLITICAL MISTRESSES!

November 2012

CARRIE PHILLIPS 

and the United States President Warren Harding Affair 

November  2016

ELIZABETH L. RAY : Mistress of Representative Wayne L. Hays. She said, “I Can’t Type, I Can’t File, I Can’t Even Answer The Phone.”

July 2018

SALLY HEMMINGS; Was She a Willing Mistress to Thomas Jefferson or a Raped Slave?

October 2019

LUCY MERCER RUTHERFURD : FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT'S MISTRESS WHOSE EXISTANCE WRECKED ELEANOR AND ENHANCED HIS LIFE

July 2021

JUDITH KATHERINE IMMOOR  AKA CAMPBELL EXNER : MISTRESS OF PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY : COURIER BETWEEN KENNEDY AND MOBSTER SAM GIANCANA

There's more! Click on the label POLITICAL MISTRESSES

BLAZE (THE FILM) MISTRESS MANIFESTO FILM REVIEW

The film came out in 1989.  It does not feel dated.

Based on Blaze's autobiography, which she wrote with a co author, the film goes quickly through the stripper's life, beginning with her goodbye to her mother in rural West Virginia.  Her mother's advice was never trust a man who says "You can trust me." She says there are few men as good as her daddy.  She warns her daughter about boys.

Blaze's early dream is to be a country music singer. Far from home, she works at a donut shop until a customer grooms her to be a stripper. He is not honest, but convinces her that the audience is full of military men who may loose their lives in Korea. Can't she give them what they want - a strip - for America?  She defines herself as a dancer, not a stripper.

Blaze quickly becomes a star, traveling the circuit. Implied is that she has earned her independence. When Governor Earl Long of Louisiana shows up to see her perform in New Orleans, she asks him if she can trust him. He says "No you can't" and their romance is sparked. This is a man that Blaze can relate to.

Actor Paul Newman portrays the Governor as a wily older man who is sure he wants to keep his political office even if doing so requires unconventional ways. There's a bit of "only in Louisiana." Politically there's a situation in which the press and the voters want to know how he's going to deal with racism.  Black leaders say they need jobs, good jobs. He manages to do that by shaming an administrator at a segregated hospital.  Blaze retains her "down home" sensibilities.  Earl Long keeps his boots on - an old coot he is. There are some silly-funny sex scenes

When confronted by his political cronies about being involved with a stripper Long denies it, just as he does when confronted with IRS tax problems.  Blaze Starr is depicted stripping with one of Long's campaign buttons in her garter.  He wins the election but has had serious health problems for some time and dies, just after he lies and says she can trust him that he will marry her.

This film was based on the autobiography by Blaze Starr and co-author Huey Perry. 

Blaze was a production consultant and had a bit part in the film.

C 2023 Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot  Film Review 

All Rights reserved including Internet and International Rights

ABOUT GOVERNER EARL KEMP LONG A FAN OF BURLESQUE : BEING WITH BLAZE HURT HIS MARRIAGE BUT NOT THEIR CAREERS

Excerpts page 210 on  Stage Door Johnnies and Governor Earl Kemp Long....

Tee Tee Red, another dancer, about him:

One of the more flamboyant of the Johnnies was Louisiana's Governor Earl Long.

Like Blaze, Tee Tee Red met Governor Earl Long when she was working New Orleans. 'Blaze and I were in competition with him.  They called him the crazy governor,' she said  He would drive down the street in his limousine, throwing hundred dollar bills out the window.  He also regularly passed out food to the poor. "He didn't care what people said.  He was a lot of fun. He'd throw his money around. He could do whatever he wanted. He would buy the club out if he wanted to.  He'd order champagne for everybody," Tee Tee said.

The forty-fifth Governor of Louisiana was colorful, charismatic, and a compelling speaker. Because of his erratic behavior - he blatantly flaunted his many dalliances with strippers - his wife Blanche had him committed to a state hospital.  (Hell hath no fury like a wife publicly humiliated.) However, there was no law that said he couldn't run the state from a mental hospital suffering from dementia. He endured strokes and heart attacks that contributed to his declining mental health. He was iracible and unkempt, erratic in speech. In 1959 he famously said on the floor of the State Legislature: "I'm not nuts.  If I'm nuts, I've been nuts all my life.  Thank ya, and God bless ya."

Page 210

Governor Long was a regular at the Sho Bar.  He would see Blaze until he died in 1960 of a heart attack. Blaze refused money he had left for her in his will...

Also from the film, based on Blaze Starr's memoir:

Blaze was shown going in front of the voters as Earl went for reelection.

The governor was almost abducted to be taken to Mandeville State Hospital. the state mental hospital. She loyally went there to see him.  When accused of letting his involvement with Blaze hurt his career, he said no, it was his progressive ideas.

The couple are shown living together. Though married, he asked Blaze to marry him.  However, he died soon after he had won the election.

VLADIMIR PUTIN's MISTRESS ALINA KABAEVA COMES OUT OF THE HOUSE

RUMORED MISTRESS OF THE MONTH ALINA KABAEVA  and VLADIMIR PUTIN

Back in February 2011 - twelve years ago! - here at MISTRESS MANIFESTO, this was the headline for my first post about Alina and in recent weeks she has finally spoken.  Alina says Putin is a nice man and she loves him. That month she was Mistress of the Month and it was dedicated to her.

What happened is that, due to Russia's aggression against Ukraine, the reporters have all been trying to find out more about Putin's personal life, which he has always kept private. Locating a gorgeous house that displays his wealth, but which he says he does not personally own, Alina was also located.  It appears that she is living on the property in a house of her own, very much the Lover next door. These reports have been all over the Internet, with Daily Mail On Line (Daily Mail UK) perhaps having the scoop.

The rhythmic gymnast is a champion athlete and also quite beautiful. She is also a patriot of Russia. From a womanly point of view, I think it's wonderful that she is happy and has achieved a romantic whirl of a relationship.  However, one always does wonder how much she knows or understands about Russia's destruction of Ukraine and its people.  I would wonder about her as I have wondered about Adolph Hitler's long time mistress Eva Braun.  You see, maybe this is erroneous but Eva has not been considered highly intelligent while Alina Kabaeva (also spelled Kabayeva) is certainly highly intelligent. Yet, far from the warfront in a palace, she may be kept ignorant or devote herself more to the man than the country.

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THIS?

Missy

P.S.  You can find those posts in my archives.  You may also want to use the word Russia in the search feature of this blog to see what else I've posted in the many years that I've been researching and writing MISTRESS MANIFESTO !

DO MORE DEMOCRATS OR REPUBLICANS KEEP MISTRESSES?

QUESTION FOR MISSY

Hi Missy, with the election coming, I was just wondering if more Democrats or more Republicans keep mistresses?

Rod

ANSWER FROM MISSY

Republicans.

A number of POLITICAL MISTRESSES - Mistresses of Politicians - profiled here were women who worked for the men they were Mistress to.

CHECK THESE OUT IN MY ARCHIVE!

Rielle Hunter - and John Edwards  June 2012

Carrie Phillips - and Warren Harding  November 2012

Elizabeth Ray - and Wayne L. Hays  November 2016

Sally Hemmings - and Thomas Jefferson  July 2018

Missy Lehand - and Franklin D. Roosevelt October 2019

REPUBLICANS HAVE MORE MONEY.  They may simply be sneakier, have more cooperative wives, or pay off their mistresses when they are done with the relationship... and my guess is since they have more money, their Mistresses get more spoiling!

Speculation!

Missy

MARY PINCHOT MEYER - THE PROGRESSIVE

SMITHSONIAN - PRESIDENTIAL LOVE LETTER

Excerpt:  Meyer was a fascinating woman in her own right - the daughter of a Progressive Party philanthropist and a journalist, she herself perused a career in the press at a time when women were still largely marginalized in the field.  She briefly served as editor for Atlantic Monthly and brushed shoulders with Communists, pacifists, and intellectuals over the year.  She was also a talented artist.  Those bohemian leanings are said to have perhaps softened Jfk:s view of the Cold War during their years-long affair.

COMING UP : SOME THINK THIS PRESIDENTIAL MISTRESS - and MURDER VICTIM - WAS HIS "SOUL MATE"

We know he was married and a womanizer but was this particular relationship the one that could have broken his famous marriage?  And was this Mistress murdered for her involvement by government operatives?  The case remains unsolved.

FIND YOUR SENATORS and READ ABOUT JOHN F. KENNEDY's BOOK PROFILES IN COURAGE

SENATE GOV (UNITED STATES) FIND SENATOR/ PROFILES IN COURAGE

John F. Kennedy is possibly the most popular president, other than Abraham Lincoln.  Yet this compartmentalized and complicated man had an unconventional private life due to his womanizing. His widow, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, who went on to marry Aristotle Onassis, is esteemed as a most popular first lady.

 Published in 1956, written while the Senator was recovering from back surgery,  Profiles in Courage was Kennedy's second book. His first, Why England Slept, was his Harvard graduation thesis. This link has a summation of the book, chapter by chapter.

COMING UP : THIS WHITE HOUSE INTERN WAS MORE INVOLVED THAN MONICA LEWINSKY EVER WAS

This White House Intern was provoked to tell her story when a respected historian outed her and still waited years.

RED WHITE AND BLUE FIREWORKS

Remember this date 100 years ago was the first that WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES COULD VOTE.  Participation in civics is an important right and responsibility.

COMING UP - A SEASON OF PRESIDENTIAL MISTRESSES

It's going to be interesting.  Time has passed, books have been written, lecturers and interviews done, and we always wonder who else might reveal a relationship with this President, other than his one and only wife, who remains one of the most popular and respected in American history...

JUDITH CAMPBELL EXNER VERSUS MONICA LEWINSKY : MUST WE COMPARE THEM? PATT MORRISON DID

LA TIMES : SAGA OF THE POLITICAL PARTY GIRLS from 1998

Well written - creatively written - but do I agree with Patt Morrison, an esteemed journalist and television personality circa 1998?  In this article Patt says Monica Lewinsky seems so much less innocent than Judith Campbell Exner was at the same age. Yet, when I talk to older men they tell me that women in the 1950's were more mature than women of the same age in the 1960's.  She also credits Judith with being far more discreet and not telling about her affair with J.F.K. to just anybody.

TORMENT FOR LUCY MERCER AND FRANKLIN

Page 115-116 quote from Franklin and Lucy by Joseph E. Persico

"The torment for Lucy was no less. She was flying in the face of her (Catholic) Churches' teaching, which had been her moral compass since childhood. She had sacrificed crucial years when a young woman should be seeking the security of a good marriage. Her foreboding was assuaged by the hope that someday they might marry.  But what if in the end Franklin would not leave his wife?  Their lives had become a melange of happiness and anxiety, pleasure and guilt, risk and deception.  yet the price was paid and the affair went on."

MEET YOU HALF WAY

ELEANOR and FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT

Eleanor Roosevelt and Franklin Roosevelt were cousins but the connection wasn't close. Their ancestor in common was five generations earlier. Their marriage was the only marriage each of them made and it lasted until his death but it accommodated at least two women who were with Franklin, before and after his Presidency and possibly Eleanor also had a relationship outside the marriage - with a lesbian woman. He is the United States only President to be elected four terms and kept to keep his disability from Polio a secret. 

COMING UP : TWO MISTRESSES OF A REMARKABLE AMERICAN PRESIDENT

In the past here at MISTRESS MANIFESTO BLOGSPOT, I've dedicated months to Monica Lewinsky, Sally Hemings, Carrie Phillips, Elizabeth L. Ray, Madeleine Duncan Brown, who you may associate with President William Jefferson Clinton, President Thomas Jefferson, President Warren Harding, Congressman Wayne Hays, President Lyndon Baines Johnson.  Also Karin Stafford, once mistress of politician preacher Jesse Jackson, who once wanted the Presidency.  As well as Reille Hunter, mistress of John Edwards!

I've tagged these posts Political Mistresses (and you can use that tag to search for the posts in the archives.)

I featured Karin in May 2011, Madeleine in November 2011, Monica (an honorary mistress) in March 2012, Carrie in November 2012, and Elizabeth in November 2016: guess November elections always make me think of politics and politicians.  You can check the archives or run a search within this blog for these past posts!

So for the next two months I'll be electing two women who were not just "office wives" to one particular President, but more.

10th ANNIVERSARY of MISTRESS MANIFESTO BLOGSPOT

A whole decade ago, I had the idea for this blog, and began posting.  It took a while before I began with the Mistress of the Month magazine idea, but for a while I was just warming up.  Through these years there have been times when I thought I was going to run out of interesting Kept Women and Kept Men to feature or write about.  I haven't.  At the moment, I have no plans to stop blogging but I would love your suggestions.  Check out the list of persons and subjects  I've covered in the past which is called Archive in PAGES.  Do you know of someone I haven't covered that you can recommend?  Links, books - tell me what you know!  Leave a comment; all comments are read by me first and then published if they keep to my comments policy!

THANKS FOR READING MISTRESS MANIFESTO BLOGSPOT!

Missy

JOHN EDWARDS and RIELLE HUNTER and BUNNY MELLON

Back in 2008 the John Edwards- Rielle Hunter affair was the end of his candidacy for President of the United States.  Meryl Gordon's book on Bunny Mellon dedicates much of Part 17, Chapter 25 begins the details of Bunny's involvement in helping candidate Edwards hide his mistress Rielle who was pregnant with his child, from the American public through donations that clearly went beyond the campaign limits, though Bunny claimed not to know what happened to the money to a point or that this candidate who she loved and felt could be the next John F. Kennedy, had a mistress. 

Probably the reason Bunny remained unpunished was that she was 95 years old when she was so sure that Edwards would be the next president - and should be - since she was a patriotic liberal Democrat - and deserved the money for "personal expenses"  and a couple years closer to 100 when the game was over. Andrew Young was so willing to do anything to help his candidate win that after the 2006 meeting of Rielle and John that began their affair, he collaborated with a scheme to funnel money to Edwards. Young eventually even claimed to be the father of Rielle's child.

Edward's wife Elizabeth battled breast cancer at the time and as a result she got all the sympathy.  How could Edwards have an affair when his faithful wife she fought for her life?

Edwards hired Rielle to produce campaign videos for him and continued to pop up to see him on the campaign trail. 

The way around the campaign donations limit was, according to Gordon's book, sneaky fun for Bunny.  She was paying the living expenses for Rielle, thus keeping her so Edwards would not have to, by sending checks that were supposed to be for the purchase of antiques and furniture to one person who then routed the money to Young and to Young's wife's bank account.

The National Enquirer broke the story of the affair and then the "love child," and terminally ill Elizabeth separated from her husband.  Edwards only admitted the truth about his dual life after Andrew Young's book was ready to hit the shelves. In my opinion, he made a mess of things by continually lying to the public with his wife at his side, denying everything, though I can understand he at least didn't want to publically humiliate her.

Bunny's checks were monthly and for increasing amounts - $175,000,  $200,000 - and were not for the campaign itself.  Well, the FBI became involved.  Bunny said that she had no problem with a man having a mistress, nor did she think having a mistress would make a man less eligible for candidacy, but she thought a man should afford his mistress on his own.

Because Edwards and Bunny had become friends, frequently speaking on the phone, he and his daughter imagined they would be welcome to her funeral - but they were relegated to an overflow tent.


* Rielle Hunter is a self made woman who changed her name from Lisa Jo Druck and is said to have made the first pass at Edwards.