In September of 1959, Nikita Khrushchev made his Hollywood debut. The Soviet premier had arrived in the United States for a twelve-day tour at the invitation of President Eisenhower. During his stay, Khrushchev visited a meatpacking plant in Des Moines where he tasted a hot dog (and by all appearances, loved it). In San Jose, he toured IBM, but was apparently more impressed by the cafeteria than the computers. The visit to Los Angeles was at Khrushchev's request. His children wanted to see Disneyland.
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But Khrushchev's visit to Hollywood quickly went off script. Spyros Skouras, the president of Twentieth Century Fox, used the trip to advertise the studio's upcoming musical Can-Can. The Soviet leader was taken to the set and posed for photos with Shirley MacLaine, who greeted him in Russian. A luncheon had been organized for the occasion, and all of Hollywood was desperate to get a peek at Khrushchev (though some, notably then-Screen Actors Guild president Ronald Reagan, declined the invite). In the waning years of the blacklist, a picture with a communist leader had all the allure of scandal without any actual repercussions. Elizabeth Taylor, Eddie Fisher (and Fisher's ex-wife Debbie Reynolds) were all in attendance, as were Zsa Zsa Gábor, Frank Sinatra, and most importantly—Marilyn Monroe. Monroe, who at first was reluctant to come, changed her mind when the studio bosses told her that in Soviet Russia, America meant two things: “Coca-Cola and Marilyn Monroe.”
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