Fanny

If you were to ask me at any point before last Thursday as to what word(s) I'd associate with Fanny Fox I would have immediately replied: Argentine Firecracker. That's because I'm an old guy who clearly remembers when poor Wilbur Mills was caught up in a scandal with the Tidal Basin Bombshell. In fact, the only thing I learned from Robert McFadden's obituary in Thursday's NYT was that Fanny is spelled with an e at the end, not a "y," and that Fox has an "e" at the end as well. When you're an exotic dancer you have exotic name spellings.

Wilbur and Fanne were big news in 1974. Obviously, such big news that someone at the NYT assigned the legendary reporter Robert McFadden to write her six-column obituary. I can't tell if this was an advance obit cobbled by Mr. McFadden years ago, anticipating when the notoriety of Ms. Foxe's night with Wilbur dies down and she passed away and then updated, or an obit written on deadline. It doesn't matter. Fanne is not going away unnoticed.

The above photo shows Wilbur with Fanny sometime before that famous dash and splash incident at 2 a.m. at the Tidal Basin in front of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. Wilbur's got a mug on him that makes him look like a cross between George Burns, Milton Berle and Joe E. Brown. Off to the left in the photo is a relic of the '70s: a pay phone.

Wilbur sounds like such a helpless first name. But not Wilbur Mills. He was an 18-term Arkansas Democrat who was Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, where all the revenue bills must pass through. Control the purse strings, control the country, and Wilbur was politically powerful.

But, as the obituary points out, the wheels came off his life when at 2 a.m. on October 7, 1974 the National Park Police pulled the car over that Wibur Mills was in for speeding and not having its lights on.

Ms. Foxe jumped out of the car and straight into the Tidal Basin. Mr. Mills was found in the car with a scratched face, intoxicated with some other occupants. Ms. Foxe had two black eyes. A lot to explain.

Ms. Foxe was a $500-a -week stripper at a club called the Silver Slipper in Washington. She lived in the same building as Mr. Mills and met and his wife in 1973. Ms. Foxe and her husband and the Millses would go dancing together. After the press coverage of what had been her affair with the 65-year-old Congressman she changed her stage name from The Argentine Firecracker to The Tidal Basin Bombshell and now charged $3,500 a week for her performance at the Silver Slipper. 

Sound a bit like Stormy Daniels? Better, actually. Ms. Foxe went on the perform, write a tell-all-book and do TV talk shows and starred in a few movies with thin plots. Her charms wee always on display.

As for Wilbur, he admitted to a drinking problem and later became a counselor for alcoholics, as well as a major lobbyist for a law firm specializing in tax advice and legislation, something he obviously knew a thing or two about.

As with any public figure that becomes ensnared in a sex scandal Wilbur Mills was the subject of constant late-night ridicule by Johnny Carson and others. I remember though that Carson soon refrained from making jokes about Wilbur when he realized the source of his behavior was a drinking problem. Carson himself had been a drinker and he knew what embarrassments could come from that. Carson soon refrained from making fun of the guy.

As for Fanne Foxe, she was no dummy. The joke about strippers is that they do what they do so they can earn money for medical school. But Annabel was the daughter of a medical officer in Argentina and was enrolled in a pre-med program before setting out to be a dancer.

After the dust from the Mills affair settled and she remarried, she earned a bachelor's degree in communications and a masters in marine science in 2001.

Her endeavors afterward earned her some money, a comfortable life, and praise from her three children. And they, after all were the only people she was interested in pleasing.

http://www.onofframp.blogspot.com