Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. I started looking for a job, very unsuccessfully,
if I may say so. In New York in those days, in 1938. I even started
selling perfumes, I remember, for a company called Chevalier Garde.
Mr. JENNER. Did you have any interest in that company?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. No; just purely as a salesman. I even sold some
materials for Shumaker and Company.
Mr. JENNER. Where were you residing then, with your brother?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes; part of the time. Then I had my own room.
Mr. JENNER. Your brother was then living on Park Avenue, was he?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. 750?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. And you--how long did you stay with him?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. I think as soon as I arrived we went to spend the
summer on Long Island, Belport, Long Island.
Mr. JENNER. And at Belport, you made what acquaintances?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Lots of people, but especially Mrs. Bouvier.
Mr. JENNER. Who is Mrs. Bouvier?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Mrs. Bouvier is Jacqueline Kennedy's mother, also
her father and her whole family. She was in the process of getting a
divorce from her husband. I met him, also. We were very close friends.
We saw each other every day. I met Jackie then, when she was a little
girl. Her sister, who was still in the cradle practically. We were also
very close friends of Jack Bouvier's sister, and his father.
Mr. JENNER. Well, bring yourself along.
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. That friendship more or less remained, because we
still see each other, occasionally--Mrs. Auchincloss, and occasionally
correspond.
Well, then, I realized there was no future selling perfume or materials
in the State, and having had that background of the oil industry in my
blood, because my father was the director of Nobel Enterprises, which
is a large oil concern in Russia, which was eventually expropriated and
confiscated, and I decided to come and try to work for an oil company.
I arrived in Texas.
Mr. JENNER. Excuse me, sir. Before we get there--because that skips
some things--one of your efforts was as an insurance salesman?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes; that is right.