The late Jewish broadcast journalists Barbara Walters and Morley Safer came in for criticism or perhaps plaudits–depending on how you look at it — in the one-woman play Tea for Three: Lady Bird, Pat & Betty, which is touring the country.
In the 90-minute drama actress Elaine Bromka portrays Lady Bird Johnson, Pat Nixon and Betty Ford reflecting on their lives and tenures near the end of their husbands’ respective terms as U.S. Presidents.
In her role as Pat Nixon, Bromka, who co-authored the play with Eric H. Weinberger, accuses Walters of misleading her about the subjects an on-air interview would cover. On Mrs. Nixon’s return from a good will trip to Africa, Walters indicated she wanted to cover her impressions of the trip. Instead, according to the monologue, Walters never asked about Africa. She focused on such politically sensitive topics as abortion, the War in Vietnam, and the legal problems of Spiro Agnew, who ultimately had to resign the vice presidency in a plea deal.
Walters again was singled out in the script, this time in the persona of Betty Ford when she was asked about the Supreme Court’s Roe vs. Wade decision legalizing abortion. Mrs. Ford answered it was about time, delighting liberals and enraging conservatives.
Mrs. Ford found her voice as First Lady, coming out for the Equal Rights Amendment, educating women about mastectomies, which she had endured, and speaking out about other sensitive topics.
Morley Safer shocked her with a question about what she would do if her unmarried daughter should announce she was pregnant. Mrs. Ford answered that she would be supportive and sympathetic.
We caught up with Bromka’s one-woman show on Saturday evening, May 13, the only night it was presented at the Curtis Theatre in Brea. Former San Diegans Abe & Bea Goldberg, who are now Orange County residents, accompanied us and secured the tickets.
The three First Ladies were presented in chronological order. The character of Lady Bird Johnson, wearing a fuchsia dress with a black braid, spoke in a southern accent. When she campaigned for her husband, she confided, her drawl became more pronounced the deeper in the South she traveled.
She said she had planned to become a teacher, but Lyndon Johnson blew in, asked her to meet him for breakfast and proposed then and there. He kept calling and writing to her until she accepted.
Like Pat Nixon and Betty Ford, who were her successors as First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson was presented toward the end of her husband’s tenure in the presidency, when protesters opposing the Vietnam War chanted “Hey, Hey LBJ, How many kids did you kill today?” and the country was so roiled over the war that his reelection was untenable.
“Lyndon didn’t start this horrible war — he inherited it!” Lady Bird says in frustration. “It’s killing him too! …. God help me, I’m glad he’s not running again!”
Bromka changed from a black wig to a dusty blond one and to a bluish dress to make the switch from Lady Bird Johnson to Pat Nixon.
As the Vietnam War chased Johnson from the White House, “Watergate! Watergate!” was Richard Nixon’s undoing. In Pat Nixon’s persona, writer and actress Bromka declared that she didn’t believe her husband was at fault; in fact, she speculated, the whole burglary might have been set up by political opponents.
“Politics is an ugly, dirty business– I loathe it,” she said.
Like Lady Bird Johnson, Pat Nixon looked forward to getting out of the pressure cooker and going to a home on the beach.
“I’ll lie down and cover my body with sand,” she vowed.
It was quite a change in mood when Bromka portrayed Betty Ford. She came out in bare feet and in a multicolored house dress, with an alcoholic drink always in her easy reach.
What dashed her husband, Gerald R. Ford’s election chances, she said, was his pardoning Richard Nixon for his Watergate offenses.
Enchanted by the bully pulpit she enjoyed as First Lady, Betty Ford was disappointed she would be forced to give it up.
“I love this job,” she says in the play. “I’ve been able to make a difference. I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
Republished from San Diego Jewish World