Feynman mentions two princesses whom he sat next to at the Nobel Prize dinner (having seen the menu, I can’t agree it was a banquet) and I would enjoy hearing what the experts here have to say. During the meal, he sat next to a Princess, he didn’t name her, but he said had been to a college in the US and so he expected her to be more worldly. But when he stopped the server from pouring wine into his glass, because he “didn’t drink”, she gave him a short lecture and told him to note that the server had 2 bottles, one of which contained liquid for those who didn’t drink.
After the meal, he walked around and then sat down next to another princess whom he claims was Danish. She gave him very short shrift, an icy stare and turned her back on him.
There is a photo of Feynman at the dinner, easily findable on the web, google Feynman Nobel dinner 1966, showing him sitting next to a princess, not identified anywhere on the web, but whom I believe firmly to be Sibylla. I originally thought this could not be her since she was only 58 at the time, but she did look older than her clock age in the 1960s.
Feynman is smoking which suggests post eating and to anyone who thinks he was impolite, by modern standards, smoking at the dinner table next to a princess, there is a picture of Sibylla a few years early at the Nobel dinner, sitting next to Linus Pauling and holding a cigarette under his nose. Both Feynman and Sibylla died of cancer in their 60s.
Is it possible that Feynman (or his ghost writer) got the Danish bit wrong (there are other more serious errors, perhaps deliberate in his recollections) and meant German Sibylla? This was the first Nobel dinner after the Queen died (earlier that year), so Sibylla would have been top lady, and I suspect she was not wearing a tiara like she did for Pauling, out of respect for the Queen.
So if anyone can add info here, like was there a Danish Princess? or confirm that really is Sibylla in the photo, I would be most grateful.