Credit: Hollywood On Productions – Chris Brown, Janet Donovan, Brendan Kownacki
It’s a good thing that Myra MacPherson doesn’t mind being called a broad because if you walk into a room where Frank Sinatra is holding court you know what the odds are.
MacPherson, now a prolific journalist and author, was six months into her job as a cub reporter for the now defunct Washington Star which folded in 1981. Sidney Epstein, the paper’s editor, was a serious but fun-loving man who often made decisions that stemmed from his gut and so assigned Myra to cover JFK’s Inaugural – probably to the chagrin of seasoned reporters. But then again, one of Epstein’s hires at The Times-Herald where he previously worked was Jacqueline Bouvier. He either had a nose for the news or just liked the ladies – we’re thinking both.
Myra at her home in NW Washington
John F. Kennedy was the 35th President of the United States and his Inauguration was held on January 20, 1961. It was a cold and blustery day but the Hollywood contingent remain in tact. Sinatra organized and hosted the pre-Inaugural party and stars included the great Gene Kelly, and according to most accounts Bette Davis, Fredric March, Laurence Olivier, Sidney Poitier, Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Gene Kelly, Bill Dana, Milton Berle, and Ethel Merman.
Inside the Inaugural with MacPherson:
