Quote Source: “Arkansas Congressman and the Argentine Stripper” – Ghosts of DC, https://ghostsofdc.org/2019/02/20/arkansas-congressman-and-the-argentine-stripper/
Cathy and I arrived in the DC Area in August 1973. So, I remember the hoopla surrounding Fanne’s early AM dip in the TB with a rather incoherent Chairman Mills and buddies in tow.
No internet in those days. Every day, I got up early to thoroughly read the Washington Post before heading for the downtown “Shirley Express” bus that would take me within walking distance of my job at the BIA, then located in the now-long-gone International Safeway Building (yes, it contained a real Safeway grocery store on the ground level).
A couple of days later, the Post reported that Mills finally acknowledged that he was in the car with “family friend” Fanne. That, apparently, was after an evening of boozing and enjoying the entertainment, perhaps at the Silver Slipper, where FF originally displayed her considerable assets to the Chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee. Reportedly, on this or another occasion, Ol’ Wilbur dropped $1,700 on refreshments for the gang. Impressive fiscal responsibility at a time when I recollect that the top Civil Service salary was frozen at $36,000.
“Family friend” Fanne and her then ex-husband lived in the same Arlington apartment complex, on Eads Street, as the Millses. Supposedly, the foursome played “contract bridge,” although it’s pretty evident that Wilbur and Fanne had actually turned bridge into a “full contact sport.”
Even in those days, the obligatory sexist xenophobic slur was inevitable. “Never drink champagne with a foreigner,” became one of the Chairman’s deflections. This was despite the fact that by then Foxe was U.S.citizen. It worked with the voters of “Bible Belt” Arkansas, as Mills was re-elected only a month later.
But, Mills’s obsession with Foxe, the “Argentine Firecracker” had since morphed into the “Tidal Basin Bombshell,” brought him down shortly thereafter. As reported in a detailed obituary by the Post’s Adam Bernstein (on which I drew for this account):
Ms. Battistella [Fanne Foxe] — christened “the Tidal Basin Bombshell” — was inundated with striptease offers that paid more than five times the $400 a week she had been drawing at the Silver Slipper. Mills pleaded with her not to bare herself again publicly.
“Mr. Mills wanted me to stay home . . . to study and get a job,” she told The Post at the time. “He wanted me to leave the whole [stripping] thing in the Tidal Basin. But my going back to work started the whole thing up again . . . not because of the publicity but because I promised him for the kids’ sake I wouldn’t go back to being a stripper.”
Fresh off reelection to his 19th term in office and reportedly fortified with two bottles of vodka, Mills appeared in the wings during a performance by Ms. Battistella at Boston’s Pilgrim Theatre. As Mills teetered onstage, she later said, she tried to make light of the situation, announcing: “Ladies and gentlemen, I have a visitor for you, and he wants to say hello. Mr. Mills, where are you?”
“Here I am!” he declared as he wandered out grinning. The crowd, which included reporters who had been tipped to his presence, began to holler, whistle and stomp. Mills took a microphone and walked to center stage, rambling incoherently.
Then, backstage, Mills delivered one of the most excruciating news conferences ever captured on film. Slurring his words, and with barely controlled fury, he declared that all Ms. Battistella’s future performances were off, as she struggled to defuse his wrath.
Back in Washington, Mills was removed as Ways and Means Committee chairman and sought treatment for alcohol addiction. He claimed to have no memory of the entire year of 1974 and blamed his indiscretions on mixing alcohol with “some highly addictive drugs” for back pain. With his career in tatters and citing exhaustion, he left office in 1977 and became an advocate for recovering alcoholics until his death in 1992.
Ms. Battistella prospered — for a while — and wrote of her unyielding loyalty to Mills even after he disappeared from her life.
Perhaps, Mills’s claim that the entire year of 1974, during which he chaired the powerful House Ways & Means Committee, was a “no remember,” tells us all we need to know about the Congressional budget process.
Foxe rose to #3 on Time’s list of “10 Best Mistresses,” while she and Mills also achieved a coveted #3 ranking on Bloomberg’s list of “Ten Best U.S. Sex Scandals.” While Foxe’s “Bombshell” career eventually faded along with the memories, she proved to be as multi-talented and resourceful as many other immigrants. Reinventing herself, she remarried, moved to Florida, raised another daughter, had seven grandchildren, and earned a B.A. in communications, and Master’s degrees in marine science and business administration.
Quite a remarkable life! I’m surprised that nobody ever turned it into a movie. She also seems like someone who could have written a lively autobiography. But, perhaps she just wanted to move on.
R.I.P. Fanne!
Now, about Elizabeth (“Can’t Type, File, Or Even Answer The Phone”) Ray, “secretary” to Rep. Wayne Hays (D-OH), then Chair of the House Administration Committee, self-styled “Meanest Man in the House,” who didn’t let his marriage to his legislative aide after divorcing his wife of 38 years interfere with his “arrangement” with Liz . . . . Obviously, Hayes was as good at “administration” as Mills was at balancing the budget. I checked and learned that Ms. Ray is 77 and still going strong!
Colorful times, with unforgettable characters, to be sure!
PWS
02-25-21