The Queen Visits America
For a show that opened in 1952 — and has never missed a curtain — you might have thought the viewing public would have tired of it by now. But this show has got legs like no other.
It's a show with a somewhat perverse appeal. Instead of giving its audience something new all the time, it gives it the same old thing over and over.
Watchers of the main attraction of that show, England's Elizabeth II, would have it no other way.
"Thank God she never changes. That would be fatal," society editor Victoria Mather told CBS Sunday Morning correspondent Mark Phillips.
Elizabeth's first state visit to America was in 1957. Then, ties were narrow, cars were big, and Dwight Eisenhower was president.
Then, the 31-year-old monarch said, "I express to you the friendship and respect felt by my people of every race and creed in the British Commonwealth nations."
Presidents have come and gone, fashion has changed over the years — even if hers hasn't very much — but the show has always gone on.
Elizabeth, who just turned 81 and is in the 55th year of her reign, is now on her 10th American president.
And from Churchill to Blair, she's been through 10 British prime ministers. Yet with all the exposure she's had over the years, this little woman in big hats has somehow managed to combine a massive public profile with a remarkable degree of personal privacy.
About her family, we seem to know everything: Her lovelorn son Charles, now happily married, at last. Her grandchildren, harry who likes a party and now is off to war, and William, who recently dumped his not-posh-enough girlfriend.
But for the queen, beyond the pageantry and the jewelry, there's mystery. Almost nobody knows what's she's really like or what she really thinks, although almost everybody seems to have an opinion.
"It is a kind of mother/grandmother figure, the slightly correct bosom of the nation," says writer David Starkey.
"What she symbolizes is the British people's political immaturity," says author Will Self.
"She's just amazing, I mean, she's one of our leaders, isn't she?" says one child.
It's a sense of mystery that has served her well.
The brilliant, brilliant mystique of the queen is that we know so little, and the crumbling of the modern royalty is that we know too much.
The world may now know a little more about the queen because of the popularity of
"The Queen," the movie of the same name featuring Helen Mirren's portrayal of her during the aftermath of Princess Diana's death.
We'll never know if that portrayal was accurate but in show biz terms, the queen — the real one — is hot.
"The Queen" has been extremely good for the queen.
"Helen Mirren is a lot younger than the queen," says author Will Self. "Helen Mirren is a better actor than the queen, Helen Mirren has a more melodious voice, Helen Mirren has acted as a superb saleswoman for British industry. I understand the sale of Barbour waxed jackets went through the roof in the States after the movie appeared."
The queen may not have formal power anymore — the government of today tells her what to do — but she does have influence. And when Diana died, the government told her to help heal a shocked nation by paying her respects.
"What is interesting there of course is not the power that the queen held, but the power that the queen was deprived of," says David Starkey. "The fact that on the prime minister's advice she was forced to do, if we believe in it, what she didn't want to do — that she was forced to bend the knee to a girl that she distrusted, if not that she actually disliked."
Starkey has written and commented widely on Britain's 1,500 years of royal history, and whether he's studying the ancient Tudors or the modern Windsors, some things never change.
"She has with all her tiny size an immense dignity, that immense dignity that comes from never once in the whole of your life ever been publicly contradicted."
"Or expressed an opinion."
"Well, she does occasionally express opinions, in some cases very forcibly. No, I think it's a fact that you get perpetual formal deference."
"It is fascinating watching her entrance into a room," Starkey continues. "The buildup of expectancy, the entrance, the movement, the deference, and she's the only person in the world who sits down without ever looking to see if there is a chair behind her. Now that does something you know?"
"And that sense of entitlement is enhanced somehow by the world around her. The more politicians come and go — and Tony Blair is about to leave — the more sublime and above-it-all she appears."
"Our prime ministers may be of different worth. She not only transcends the transgressions of the politicians, she retains Britain's dignity."
"You are looking at widespread disillusionment with elected politicians and it makes her look better, and it makes Prince Charles look one whole lot better."
The royals, of course, don't have to get elected, and it's been a long time since they had to make hard decisions that affect the nation. Queen's don't have to 'do,' they just have to 'be.'
"The queen not only stands apart from the hurlyburly of adversarial day-to-day politics but also stands apart from the hurlyburly and bed hopping and generally bad behavior of her immediate descendents," says Self. "She represents a kind of transcendence of the next two generations of her own family which curiously chimes in with the kind of the attitude that the British have about the breakdown of their own family life. She becomes a kind of head of a dysfunctional family that is kind of enduring, if you like, a kind of 'Tony Soprano of the monarchy' in that way" —
— a concept which is even more amusing when you learn that, for her coming U.S. visit, the royal household called in celebrity photographer Annie Leibowitz for the official photos.
Move over, Tony. That other family firm is in town.
