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"Je te baptise." In the New Society, the big affair—except for White House receptions—is out, and the little dinner party is in. Black tie is favored over white tie Dancing is back and Lester Lanin is hot. The Washington Star's veteran society columnist, Betty Beale, is in deep disfavor; she once wrote that Jackie had done the twist, and nowadays any New Frontiersman who gets over-mention in her column is likely to be left off the next guest list.
Boat rides on the Honey Fitz, where Jack Kennedy sits in an easy chair in the stern and white-jacketed stewards serve daiquiris, are pure gold. So are tennis and swimming invitations at Bobby's Hickory Hill digs. There, the parties sometimes get a little boisterous. Guests have been pushed into the pool, and Teddy Kennedy, in an outburst of youthful exuberance, last year dived in fully clad (when Old Joe heard about it he raised a ruckus ).
There is no question whatever about the brightest star in the capital's social sky: Jackie Kennedy. Mr. and Mrs. Paul Fout recently rose several pecks in the order because they ride at Middleburg with Jackie in the Orange County Hunt.
And last week Jackie put all her social skills on display in a calendar of events that was, to her, delightfully French. Flying to Groton, Conn., she christened the 7,000-ton Polaris submarine Lafayette, first of the "nucs" named for a non-American. Jackie laid aside her bouquet of roses, smartly smashed a champagne bottle on the boat's bow. "I christen thee Lafayette," she whispered as the unchecked vessel glided into the Thames River. And: "Je te baptise la Lafayette."
The occasion of the week, indeed of Washington's season so far, was a formal White House dinner honoring visiting French Minister of Cultural Affairs André Malraux. On the day of the dinner, Jackie shepherded her guests for an hour through the capital's National Art Gallery. At a new gallery acquisition. John Singleton Copley's The Copley Family (circa 1776), Malraux commented: "Some paintings are here because they belong to humanity, and some are here because they belong to the U.S. I am glad to see that this one is here for the second reason." He had also enjoyed Domenico Veneziano's Madonna and Child, a pair of El Grecos, and Rembrandt's Girl with a Broom. Asked about her favorites, the First Lady replied: "Mine are whatever his are."
Seating Science. A secret of Jackie's success is that she takes immense pains with her parties. Before the Malraux dinner she asked for suggestions from the French embassy and the State Department, scattered seating charts across the floor of her sitting room, knelt among them to work out an arrangement. Two weeks before, at the Nobel laureates' dinner, science held the White House spotlight. For Malraux, Jackie marshaled the arts. Playwrights Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams and Paddy Chayefsky were there, along with Actresses Julie Harris and Susan Strasberg. The Kennedys also scored a real social coup by the presence of reclusive Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh. When the White House sounded them out to see whether they would like to come, Lindy was delighted.