Introducing Mandy

Mandy Rice-Davies, (born Marilyn Davies, 21 October 1944) is undoubtedly best known for her role in the 1963 Profumo scandal, the sex and spy shenanigans that rocked British society in the early 19860s and led to the downfall of the Tory government. Ahh, simpler times: today it seems that a government of any stripe can get away with anything. 

For those unaware, or in need of a refresher, it all began one weekend in July 1961 when William, Viscount Astor (known to everyone as Bill) and his wife Bronwen were hosting a house party at their Buckinghamshire pile, Cliveden House, with guests including the president of Pakistan, and the then-Secretary of State for War, John Profumo and his wife, actress Valerie Hobson. At the same time in Spring Cottage, a small house on the Cliveden estate, 19-year-old Christine Keeler was attending a different party held by Stephen Ward, a friend of the Astors and a keen amateur artist who had recently been invited to Buckingham Palace, where the Duke of Edinburgh and Princess Margaret had sat for pencil portraits. 

On the Saturday evening, guests from both parties mingled at the Cliveden swimming pool. Keeler, who had been swimming naked, was introduced to Profumo (although it was later established that the pair had met previously), and they began an affair shortly afterwards. Sadly for Profumo, Ward was also friends with Captain Yevgeny Ivanov, a naval attaché at the Soviet Embassy in London - and Ivanov was also having an affair with Keeler. Profumo broke off the affair, and that might have been the end of it had all of this not occurred at the height of the Cold War. MI5 wanted to use Keeler to entrap Ivanov, who they saw as a potential double agent, and they encouraged Ward to ensure that this happened. MI5 knew of Profumo’s liaison with Keeler, and rumours began to circulate around Fleet Street about the affair, but even then it may have blown over if Keeler had not become involved in another scandal, a shooting incident at Ward’s London home in December 1962 that led the press to investigate her more thoroughly. 

Christine Keeler was as the apartment with her friend Marylin Davies. The man who had tried to shoot the lock off the door, and admitted that he had intended to kill Keeler, was Johnny Edgecombe, a petty criminal and thug who had already carved up one of Keeler’s other lovers, Aloysius “Lucky” Gordon, on the dancefloor of Soho’s Flamingo club, formerly owned by Jeffrey Kruger, the founder of Ember Records. Kruger, who had helped bail Joe Meek out when he was setting up his studio at Holloway Road, could never be accused of missing an opportunity. Ember would issue the single Christine by Miss X (which I wrote about back in 2015), inspired by Christine Keeler: the enigmatic Miss X was actually Joyce Blair, the sister of dancer and choreographer Lionel. The company also issued an album that lampooned the whole affair, Fool Britannia, featuring Peter Sellers and Joan Collins.

 

Questions were being asked about the relationship between Profumo and Keeler and about the Government’s involvement in another spy scandal concerning John Vassall, a naval attaché at the British embassy in Moscow. Labour MPs George Wigg and Barbara Castle took advantage of Parliamentary privilege, which provides immunity from legal action, to refer to the rumours linking a minister with Keeler and then raised questions about how the scandal related to the Vassall case. Wigg demanded that there should be either an enquiry into the rumours or a denial from Profumo, although he stopped short of identifying him in the House. 

The following day Profumo made a personal statement in which he admitted he knew Keeler and Ward, but he insisted that ‘There was no impropriety in my acquaintanceship with Miss Keeler and I have made this statement because of what was said yesterday in the House by three MPs and which remarks were protected by privilege. I shall not hesitate to issue writs for libel and slander if scandalous allegations are made or repeated outside this House.’ 

Keeler was absent for the duration of the Edgecombe trial. Barbara Castle suggested that Profumo could be involved with her disappearance, but Miss Davies was happy to tell reporters that she believed that her friend was somewhere on the Continent: ‘Christine has very influential friends who mix in diplomatic and political circles in European capitals.’ Among her influential friends was Alex Murray, the former lover of both Lee Middleton (Lady Lee, who would later marry DJ Kenny Everett) and Lionel Bart (Bart once revealed that his ballad As Long As He Needs Me, which was featured in Oliver! and had provided Shirly Bassey with a big hit in 1960, was written about Murray) who, under his real name Alex Wharton, had recorded Keeler’s confessions on to tape for a possible ‘tell all’ book about the affair. 

On 5 June 1963, Profumo was forced to admit that he had lied to the House, and he resigned from office. The following month, Ward stood in the witness box of the Old Bailey, charged with five counts of living off immoral earnings. The jury found him guilty, but he was not there to hear the verdict. Ward was in a coma when the sentence was passed, having taken an overdose of sleeping tablets. He died three days later, leaving suicide notes addressed to several people including Lord Denning and Vickie Barrett, who had claimed that Ward had picked her up in Oxford Street and had taken her home where she was “required to be intimate with some men and to whip and cane others.’ Ward admitted knowing Barrett and having sex with her but denied acting as her pimp. He did admit to paying the rent on the flat occupied by Keeler and Rice-Davies, and to introducing them to Lord Astor and others. Barrett's letter said: ‘I don't know what it was or who it was that made you do what you did. But if you have any decency left, you should tell the truth. You owe this not to me, but to everyone who may be treated like you or like me in the future.’ 

The series of scandals scuppered the Conservative government. Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, who openly supported Profumo as he lied to the House, resigned in October and the following year the Labour party won the General Election, ending 13 years of Tory rule. 

 

Rice-Davies traded on the notoriety the trial brought her, and in 1964 released a four-track EP, again for Ember, entitled Introducing Mandy. That would be her only UK release, but it was followed in several European countries by the single Hey Mr Robinson (a nod to Labour grandee Geoffrey Robinson, who was alleged to have passed on highly sensitive intelligence including defence secrets to communist agents), backed with Auf Die Grosse Liebe, both sung in pigeon-German and with the tune for the latter based on Au Clair de la Lune. 

 

Over the next few decades she would be involved in several enterprises, including running nightclubs, issuing her autobiography ad even acting, appearing in the Tom Stoppard play, Dirty Linen and New-Found-Land. She went on to appear in a number of television and film productions, including the comedy series Absolutely Fabulous and Chance in a Million. Her film career included roles in Nana, the True Key of Pleasure (1982), Black Venus (1983), and Absolute Beginners (1986). She was played by Bridget Fonda in the 1989 film Scandal, alongside Joanne Whalley as Keeler. 

 

Mandy Rice-Davies died, aged 70, on 18 December 2014 after a long battle with cancer. 

 

Here are a couple of tracks from Miss Rice-Davies, the aforementioned Hey Mr Robinson and, from the Introducing Mandy EP, her flat but fun cover of the classic You Got What It Takes. Enjoy! 

 

Download Robinson HERE

 

Download Takes HERE