Such is the premise of Swimming
At The Ritz, a play by Charles
Leipart based on the true life
of Pamela Harriman which will
have its U.S. premiere in January.
The play is being presented by
New Jersey Repertory Company
in a limited run from January 8
through February 1.
New Jersey Stage spoke with the
playwright about what drew him
to Pamela’s story.
years, she becomes the lover and
wife of some of the richest and
most powerful men of the 20th
Century. Ultimately she becomes
the First Lady of the Democratic
Party, helps elect a U.S. President
and when her life ends, she is the
U.S. Ambassador to France. That’s
where we meet her in 1995 in a
private suite at the Paris Ritz Hotel. Down to her last 10 million.
How did this happen to chubby
Pamela?
What attracted you to the story
Did she actually burn through
of Pamela Harriman? I was fasthe entire inheritance in real
cinated. Pamela Digby, a chubby life? In fact, she did. By 1995 Pa17-year-old daughter of a minor
mela had gone through the entire
British baron of diminishing for115 million dollars left to her by
tune, arrives in London to work
Averell Harriman’s death in 1986.
in a 20-pound-a-week governAs Pamela says in the play, “the
ment clerical job--about 3 dolcost of fresh flowers alone.” She
lars in U.S. currency in 1937 (the
was spending her way through
World Depression years). She
the 40 million dollars of a trust
becomes the daughter-in-law of
fund left in her care for the HarriWinston Churchill and at 19 finds man daughters and grandchildren
herself pregnant with Winston’s
when the Harriman clan brought a
grandchild and he has her sharlawsuit against her to reclaim their
ing the bomb shelter at 10 Down- inheritance. To keep the family
ing Street. Subsequently over the wolves from her door, Pamela put
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pg 99