Hollywood Royalty Dines with Queen

Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. (left), and Ronald Colman in The Prisoner of Zenda

LONDON. Many britons were surprised when President Eisenhower named a banker instead of a movie star the next U.S. Ambassador to England. They welcomed the choice of banker Winthrop Aldrich, long known as a friend of the British. But newspaper gossip columnists and– all unwittingly – Queen Elizabeth II herself had led them to expect that the job would go to Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., screen actor and spare-time diplomat., Fairbanks Junior, now a greying 43 with a hairline moustache and a friendly smile, has never achieved the film fame of his father. But with no apparent effort he has performed in Britain a feat of social climbing that leaves the most ambitious Washington hostess gasping. A few weeks ago, on November 19, he reached the top. Queen Elizabeth and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, came to dinner.

The young monarch and a handful of other guests ate off green china in the big dining room of the Fairbanks house in a secluded byway of the classy South Kensington district. For Fairbanks and his wife, the former Mary Lee Epling Hartford, daughter of a Virginia doctor, the party was a triumph. For the starchy "old guard" of society it was something to set eyebrows rising above lorgnettes. The question is: what has turned a Hollywood glamor boy into a respected, statesman-like figure? 

His' Father's Footsteps 

It's probably a case of literally following in father's footsteps. With his wife, Mary Pickford, Fairbanks, Sr., made contacts in London society which have opened many crested doors to his son. Most important was a friendship with Lord Louis Mountbatten, now Earl Mountbatten of Burma, an uncle of the Queen's husband. Fairbanks, Jr., inherited from his father a love for England. His career as an ex-official statesman started when President Roosevelt asked him to help smooth the visit of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth to the U.S. in 1939. Then, in 1940, Roosevelt sent him as an envoy to several Latin American countries. In World War II, Fairbanks served in the U.S. Navy. He was appointed to the staff of Lord Mountbatten. He took part in the raid on Dieppe, finished the war with rows of decorations. His biggest role since the war has been with C.A.R.E.. This won him an honorary knighthood in 1949. As a foreigner, he is not entitled to a "sir" before his name. He prefers to be known as Commander Fairbanks, but he does not object when Britons call him "Sir Douglas." 

Nobody knows just what other statesman plays host to Queen & Prince. About his official capacity, if he has any, the U.S. Embassy says only: "About a year ago the State Department asked Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., to be available for occasional consultation with the American Embassy in London. He now has an advisory status on the information side." 

He Won't Talk 

Fairbanks is silent about his diplomatic and social honors. To his credit, he talks only about his professional career– making movies here for U.S. television. Though he won't say how he managed to get the Queen to come to dinner, friends claim it came about quite naturally. Talking with Prince Philip, with whom he has much in common because of his friendship with the Mountbattens, Fairbanks mentioned that his house in South Kensington was decorated and ready for guests. Thereupon, Philip indicated that a Fairbanks' invitation to a quiet, informal evening would be accepted. And, for the benefit of ambitious hostesses, that's the inside story on how it happened!

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