With the media all in a dither this calendar week over William and Kate ’s 10 - Clarence Shepard Day Jr. jaunt through North America , allow ’s take a look at the press carnivals that environ Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Diana ’s first official sojourn to our royal - loving shoring .
Falling in Love With Queen Elizabeth II
As a princess and heir to the throne , twenty - five year - older Elizabeth first toured the U.S. in 1951 , when she got to ride around in President Harry Truman ’s state of the art transformable , but her first visit as queen was n’t until October 1957 .
Just 31 old age old at the time — two class older than Kate is now — vernal Elizabeth step off a plane from Ottawa , “ pause almost imperceptibly , ” accord to a breathless newsman ’s minute - by - minute account , smiled at a crowd of 10,000 yawl admirer in Jamestown , Virginia , and see her host , then - Vice President Richard M. Nixon .
The queen ’s nimble , meticulously scheduled visit includeda speechto the fledgling United Nations General Assembly in New York , a military flyover , a 21 - gun salute , Christian church , and a 1,500 - guest stately dinner . Each Clarence Shepard Day Jr. ’s activities were type out and distribute like scripts . “ If a pocket-sized functionary was supposed to take two steps forward , one step back , shake off hands , or even take off his chapeau , it was all compose out for him , ” harmonize to theRichmond Times - Dispatch .
But — never mind all that . OMG , what was she wear down ?
“ Getting off the plane at the aerodrome in her ‘ scarab blue ’ coat and her spruce little chapeau made of pheasant feathers , Queen Elizabeth see even untried and perkier than most multitude plausibly await , ” cover Charles McDowell , Jr. , a stave author at theTimes – Dispatch . “ She smiled easily , moved graciously … At least a dozen women were heard to announce within two minutes , ‘ She is radiant . ’ ”
vocalize familiar ? The Queen , like her new granddaughter - in - police force , Princess Kate , has always catch American crowd . When she returned to North America in 1959 and met President Dwight D. Eisenhower to open up the St. Lawrence Seaway , a congressman in the bunch summed up the American sentiment : “ We have all fallen in love with the Queen , Ike ! ”
Princess Diana and 7,000 Pounds of Luggage (oh, and Prince Charles, too)
Princess Diana ’s famed first visit to the U.S. in 1985 stimulate up such royal delirium — throngs of well - wishers in D.C. had to be kept from block dealings ; television keystone were visibly aflutter — that even the austereNew York Timesdescribed the American populace as forgivably “ sensation struck ” : The Princess of Wales ’ arrival , it said , “ cater a respite from such serious but mortal dull concerns as unbalanced budgets and arms control talk . ”
Indeed , there was nothing boring about Princess Di ’s and , oh yeah , Prince Charles ’ four - day tour in the U.S. , during which no moment went untelevised , and none of Diana ’s dozen of outfits went unscrutinized . The noted couple reportedly move around with 7,000 pound of luggage — a haul that , by our calculations , would have cost the modern traveler $ 6,950 in extra luggage fee . ( In fairness , fourteen of Diana ’s clothes were later on auction , in 1997 , for almost a million dollars — so perhaps the manner icon ’s math works out in the end . )
The dark Princess Di go far in Washington D.C. , she and Charles attended a black tie gala dinner at the White House , hosted by President Ronald Reagan and his married woman . The eve included businessmen , politicians and Hollywood notable like Clint Eastwood , Tom Selleck and Neil Diamond , and a few requisite gaffes : President Reagan expressed his great happiness to welcome “ … er … Princess David — Princess Diane — here on her first trip to the United States . ”
The eventide also included perhaps the most famous fifteen moment in any modern royal history : Princess Diana , dressed in a deep blue velvet off - the - shoulder joint gown and a sapphire and diamond throttler , waltz around withSaturday Night Feverstar John Travolta . That dress sell for $ 800,000 at a Canadian auction last calendar month .
The Media’s Media
Saturday Night Livehas shower attention on the women of Windsor over the years , with dubiously flattering results . Queen Elizabeth has been played by a miscellanea of SNL doer since the ‘ 70 , include Joan Cusack and , most of late , the bespectacled ( and , yes , male ) Fred Armisen .
Princess Diana was flawlesslysatirized by Madonnain 1985 , and last fall , Princess Kate was represent by Anne Hathaway in a disturbing , if screaming , imagination of life behind closed doors at the ol’ Buckingham Hotel . And you wonder why the royals do n’t sleep with to vacation on our side of the pond .
