Department Store Display : Rolls-Royce on Teacups Baffles Charles and Diana
The Prince and Princess of Wales, on the final day of a three-day whirlwind visit to Washington, appeared puzzled today by a display in a J. C. Penney store that featured a Rolls-Royce mounted on teacups.
Charles and Diana, the future king and queen of England, drove to Virginia for their visit to the store and were greeted by about 3,000 cheering people. They took a private 40-minute tour of the Springfield Mall Penney’s to help tout $50 million in British merchandise purchased by the chain.
The royal couple were a bit bewildered by the decorative centerpiece of the store--a Rolls-Royce perched atop British Wedgwood teacups. Diana walked around the car three times, kneeled to look underneath and asked, “Is it china?”
Charles wondered aloud, “How are you going to get that thing off?”
At the store, Charles and Diana were presented with a huge white Americana quilt, replete with bird and heart decorations. While Diana admired the quilt, Charles turned and quipped, “Is it a queen-size or king-size?”
Blue Maternity Outfit
During their tour of the store, the royal couple admired a blue two-piece maternity outfit, raising a new round of speculation on whether Diana is pregnant.
“Both of them did stop,” said Jane States, a salesperson in Penney’s maternity department. “He admired a powder-blue ‘lady-in-waiting’ suit, and she remarked to him that this is the maternity department. I don’t think he was aware of it at first,” States added.
“There was a little chuckling” between the couple, “but (Charles) did inquire about the price” after finding out that it was maternity wear. The price of the suit was $110.
Before getting into a steel-gray Rolls-Royce for the return 10-mile trip to Washington, Charles and Diana strolled over to a crowd of several hundred cheering people behind a concrete barricade. The royal couple chatted and shook hands with dozens of American admirers, many of whom had camped out in the store’s parking lot since early morning to get a glimpse of the pair.
“I followed (Diana) all through Europe,” said Regina Martin, a 16-year-old from Fairfax, Va. “I have her stamps, her coins, her books, her dolls. She’s the closest thing we have to a Cinderella in the world.”
Kim Benson, 18, came “to see her clothes. But I would only want to be Diana for a day. She doesn’t get to do a lot of things normal people do.”
Today’s activities also included a Veterans Day visit by the couple to Arlington National Cemetery in honor of American and British war dead and a third black-tie dinner, this one at the National Gallery, site of the “Treasure Houses of Britain” exhibit. Saturday’s gala was at the White House, Sunday’s at the British Embassy.
During the afternoon, the couple again followed separate schedules. Diana and Nancy Reagan visited Straight Inc., a suburban drug rehabilitation program for teen-agers. Charles made an appearance at the Library of Congress.
