Lunch With Churchill

   
     In 1944 either Irving Berlin or Isaiah Berlin had lunch with Winston Churchill. Apparently there was some confusion and Sir Winston assumed that the Berlin he was dining with was the other Berlin. An amusing anecdote about the incident has been circulating for years and you may be aware of it. You may not know, however, that another version surfaced in a letter to The New York Times a few days ago. Here it is:

Irving or Isaiah?
To the Editor:
In his review of James Kaplan’s “Irving Berlin: New York Genius” (Dec. 8), Eric Grode mentions a luncheon that supposedly occurred between Irving Berlin and Winston Churchill at which Churchill thought he was actually dining with the philosopher Isaiah Berlin. According to Grode, the book’s author was skeptical about the validity of this tale.

In fact, an event like this really did happen, but Kaplan (and Grode) got the story backward. Many years ago, Isaiah Berlin told me and my father, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., that he once received an invitation for lunch with Churchill. When he met with the prime minister, Churchill began asking him about his shows. Berlin realized, to his chagrin and embarrassment, that Churchill thought he was talking with Irving Berlin.

Stephen Schlesinger
New York

  So, according to Mr. Schlesinger, Churchill met with Isaiah and asked the philosopher perplexing questions about show tunes. Perhaps because it was a slow news day (excluding the tweetings and shootings), I did some poking around. All of the other versions of the story have Churchill asking Irving questions that were puzzling and related more to politics than music. One summary of the discussion is found on a website devoted to Isaiah and it indicates that Churchill thought he was talking to Isaiah.  Here is a typical summary of those in the 'Irving School' and it is offered by our very own Robert Fulford:

A bizarre social event in 1944 involved him [Isaiah Berlin] in some harmless gossip and became one of the great anecdotes of the era, told and re-told in many versions. He wasn’t there when it occurred but his editors say it brought him more fame than anything else in his life. Lord Halifax, his boss at the British embassy in Washington, loved to tell it and often insisted that Berlin describe it in detail.

According to a summary Berlin made from what he was told, it began when Clementine Churchill said to her husband, Winston Churchill: “Irving Berlin is in town.” Winston thought she was talking about Isaiah Berlin, whose reports on US politics he had often read. “I want him to come to lunch,” Winston said. So the great songwriter was summoned, along with a few other guests. Irving Berlin did not know why he was there, and Winston, sitting next to him, did not know who he was.

When it all ended Winston’s assistant private secretary explained the confusion. Winston was so amused that he told the cabinet about it at their meeting later the same day — and they began spreading it. Lifted on the wings of celebrity, the anecdote went viral. Soon it appeared in at least four books (on Churchill and Irving Berlin) and countless newspaper pieces.

After the war Winston asked Isaiah to lunch and said, “You will doubtless have heard of a very grave solecism which I was so unfortunate as to have perpetrated.” Heard of it? Sometimes it must have seemed that he heard of little else.

   There are other accounts, some of which contain the questions Irving found difficult to answer. I did not find any which indicated Isaiah was involved. I did not find any which suggested that Churchill was really confused and asked one of the Berlins to hum a few bars from The Hedgehog and the Fox.

Sources: 
The Schlesinger letter appears in the Book Review section of The New York Times, Dec. 27, 2019.
The Fulford article is found in the National Post. See, "How Isaiah Berlin Committed The Sin of Success," Jan. 5, 2016.

Post Script:
If you remain as confused as I am you can undertake you own search. Do so with some diligence since searching for "Churchill and Berlin" will take you a while.

The Bonus: In the Fulford article I did find this variation of Sayre's Law which is offered by Isaiah, not Irving - “Certainly no politics are more real than academic politics, no love deeper, no hatreds more burning, no principles more sacred.”