Historical Figures You Didn’t Realize Were Friends
Muhammad Ali once said, “Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It’s not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything.” Like Ali and his own best pal, photographer Howard Bingham, some friendships in history have been formed by figures with wildly different backgrounds and career choices. The following friendships are as surprising as they were genuine — though they were not all long-lasting. From Mark Twain and Nikola Tesla to Hunter S. Thompson and Pat Buchanan, here are five unlikely bonds between notable figures you never knew were friends.
Mark Twain and Nikola Tesla
A friendship between the famed writer Mark Twain and inventor Nikola Tesla might, on the surface, seem unlikely. And yet, before the two met, they already shared some significant interests. Tesla had once been bedridden for nine months with a severe bout of cholera, during which time he read some of Twain’s earlier works. He later described them as “unlike anything I had ever read before and so captivating as to make me utterly forget my hopeless state.” Twain, meanwhile, was fascinated by technological innovations and, in particular, electricity. When the two men eventually met in the 1890s, they became friends and spent a lot of time together in Tesla’s lab and elsewhere. One famous account tells of Twain’s participation in an experiment involving an electromechanical oscillator, which Tesla believed might be therapeutic. But when Twain sat on the vibrating plate, it served as something of a laxative, forcing the acclaimed author to run for the bathroom.
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Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini
The story of Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini is one of both friendship and rivalry. The celebrated mystery author (and creator of Sherlock Holmes) and the famous illusionist first met in 1920, during the magician’s tour of England. Their shared interest in spiritualism — and the use of séances to contact the dead — initially brought them together. But the two men took fundamentally different paths thereafter. Conan Doyle (in stark contrast to his highly rational and analytical Holmes) became increasingly obsessed with and convinced by the existence of spiritual powers. Houdini, on the other hand, began exposing fraudulent mediums and decried spiritualism as "nothing more or less than mental intoxication.” After Conan Doyle’s wife, Jean, supposedly contacted Houdini’s mother during a seance in 1922, Houdini publicly announced that he did not believe the message came from beyond the grave. This is partly because the message consisted of 15 pages of handwritten, English-language notes, and his mother didn’t speak English. Not long after the séance, the friendship began to break apart.
Ella Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe
Ella Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe struck up a friendship in the 1950s. Hollywood’s favorite blond bombshell was a huge fan of Fitzgerald’s music, and went to see her perform in Los Angeles in 1954. The two met in person, and soon formed a tight bond. Monroe famously helped Fitzgerald land a gig at L.A.’s renowned Mocambo nightclub, which had previously rejected Fitzgerald due to what they saw as her lack of sex appeal (not because of her race, as the story often goes). Monroe ensured that numerous A-list celebrities attended each performance, drawing plenty of media attention. The gigs were a turning point in the career of the “First Lady of Song.” When asked about their relationship, Monroe said, “Well, my very favorite person, and I love her as a person as well as a singer, I think she’s the greatest, and that’s Ella Fitzgerald.” The two women remained friends until Monroe’s death at the age of 36.
John F. Kennedy and Frank Sinatra
It’s not known precisely when John F. Kennedy and Frank Sinatra first met, but by the end of the 1950s they were well acquainted. The politician and crooner notoriously shared a love of nightlife and women, so it’s perhaps no surprise they got along. But beyond their mutual admiration, their relationship was beneficial to both men. Sinatra gained access to the corridors of power, while Kennedy counted on Sinatra’s star power to win him votes in the 1960 presidential election. When Kennedy won, the President-elect publicly thanked Sinatra for his efforts in the campaign. But the friendship collapsed after JFK entered the White House, partly because First Lady Jackie Kennedy reportedly disliked the singer, and also due to Sinatra’s alleged connections with organized crime.
Hunter S. Thompson and Pat Buchanan
The “gonzo” journalist Hunter S. Thompson made no secret of his intense hatred of Richard Nixon, who he said represented “that dark, venal, and incurably violent side of the American character.” It’s something of a surprise, then, that Thompson ended up being good friends with the conservative politician Pat Buchanan — who was once one of the most trusted advisers to none other than President Nixon. Thompson, most famous for his counterculture magnum opus Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1972), met Buchanan during Nixon’s presidential 1972 campaign. He later said of their friendship, “We're still friends. Patrick is a libertarian, or at least in that direction. I think of politics as a circle, not a spectrum of one line, not just right and left. Patrick and I are often pretty close. Patrick's an honest person.” The two remained friends until Thompson’s death in 2005.
