Khrushchev: 'Why Not Disneyland?'

Photograph by Bruce Cox / Los Angeles Times Actor David Niven, center, in a toast at Twentieth Century Fox studios with Nikita Khrushchev, left, Eric Johnston of the Motion Picture Producers Assn., Andrei Gromyko and studio executive Buddy Adler. Photograph by Bruce Cox / Los Angeles Times Sept. 19, 1959: Khrushchev addresses a luncheon at Twentieth Century Fox's Cafe de Paris. The man at the far left is unidentified in the caption information, but I believe he is ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. Next is Soviet envoy Mikhail Menshikov; studio President Spyros Skouras; translator Oleg Troyanovsky; Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev; Eric Johnston of the Motion Picture Producers Assn.; Andrei Gromyko;  studio executive Buddy Adler; and Khrushchev's son Sergei. Reporter Marvin Miles covers Khrushchev's speech and interviews Marilyn Monroe.  The Times' Philip K. Scheuer is seated with Judy Garland, Shelley Winters and Shirley MacLaine.   Photograph by Larry Sharkey / Los Angeles Times Khrushchev addresses the luncheon. Nina Khrushchev is seated between Frank Sinatra and Bob Hope. "I'm furious. I see vodka on their table!" Shelley [Winters] joked, indicating the still unoccupied table. The waitresses had just set before us bottles of Wente Bros. Pinot Chardonnay '57. Judy [Garland] raised her glass. "I think we'll all get blind drunk and hiss and boo and carry on." Scheuer says of Khrushchev: "Most of all he bemoaned that he had been advised against visiting Disneyland -- 'for security reasons.' "what is it they have -- a rocket launching platform -- there?' he demanded, grinning." Photograph by the Los Angeles Police Department After lunch, Khrushchev and his entourage went to Stage 8 to see scenes reenacted from "Can-Can" Photograph by Bruce Cox / Los Angeles Times Maurice Chevalier and Louis Jourdan perform for Khrushchev.

Photograph by Bruce Cox / Los Angeles Times Dancers perform a scene from "Can-Can" for Khrushchev. Sept. 22, 1959: Khrushchev calls "Can-Can" immoral.

Photograph by the Los Angeles Police Department A crowd presses around Khrushchev and Skouras at the studio, accompanied by Troyanovsky. Photograph by the Los Angeles Police Department Khrushchev gets into a limousine under the watchful eye of Police Chief William H. Parker. Next, a tour of the San Fernando Valley.