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The following night, the Shah entertained the Kennedys at a brilliant banquet that would have pleased Scheherazade. The setting was the brand-new Iranian chan cellery, a tasteful combination of modern architecture and ancient Persian mosaics, rugs and objets d'art. As they dined on caviar — freshly flown from the Caspian Sea — and pheasant à la périgourdme, the Kennedys and their hosts looked out on a rain-washed courtyard where Persian fountains played. And once more, the ladies were the radiant center of attraction — Jackie, in a strapless pink satin Dior gown, looked more like a Persian princess than the Empress Farah, in an orange chiffon sheath and her fabulous tiara and jeweled accessories.
After his own sumptuous state dinner. President Kennedy put his finger adroitly on the mood of the city. Rising to make the traditional toast, he addressed himself to the Shah but opened his remarks with his eyes on the young Empress. "His Highness and I have a 'burden' that we carry in common," he said with a smile. "We both paid state visits to Paris last year, and from all accounts, we might as well have both stayed at home."
* The others: official receptions for the Supreme Court, the Vice President and the Speaker, the Diplomatic Corps, the Cabinet, and the Military. *Walter Terry, the New York Herald Tribune's dance critic, invited to cover the performance, recalled that a toe dancer named Mile. Celeste had danced en pointe for an enchanted Andrew Jackson in the Cabinet Room in 1836 and had become a political cause celebre (an anti-Jackson cartoon implying frivolity in high places was titled "The Celeste-al Cabinet''). Four years later, the sensational Fanny Elssler, the great European ballerina, was so popular in Washington that Congress, unable to reach a quorum when she performed, was forced to adjourn so that the members could watch her dance.