A Quiz: Cole Porter Edition

What did Cole Porter have in common with Averell Harriman, Brooke Astor’s second husband (Buddy Marshall), Jacqueline Onassis’s father (Jack Bouvier), and U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson?

• During World War II, all were lovers of Pamela Churchill.
• The KGB had kompromat on all of these men and tried to blackmail them with it.
• All sang on the Yale Glee Club together.  
• All were the basis for characters in the “La Côte Basque” chapter of Truman Capote’s scandalous unfinished novel, Answered Prayers.

The answer is after the JUMP.

The correct answer is that they all sang on the Yale Glee Club together.

"Songs of Yale," Yale Glee Club

Cole Porter (Center) with Glee Club Members

Pamela Churchill, daughter-in-law of Winston Churchill, cast a fairly wide net in the mid-20th Century, but Cole Porter was not of the correct sexual persuasion to be one of her conquests. Of the above men, only Averell Harriman, whom she would marry three decades later, carried on a wartime affair with Pamela.

If the KGB had kompromat or attempted to blackmail any of these men, it remains undisclosed. Given that Averell Harriman was President Harry Truman's Ambassador to the Soviet Union and Dean Acheson was his Secretary of State, the Soviets have have been thrilled to have compromising information on either.

Lastly, Cole Porter appeared in "La Côte Basque" and Truman Capote did not even bother to disguise his name.” It is also possible that Averell Harriman is the governor referenced in that chapter, but others believe it to be Nelson Rockefeller.