Just finished reading: Upstairs at the White House
I just finished reading Upstairs at the White House: My Life with the First Ladies, by J. B. West and Mary Lynn Kotz. This has been on my shelf for a long time. I wish I read it before watching The Residence, but that’s neither here nor there. (I collected some related doodles here.)
Flip through my sketchbook.
Then scroll through some doodles below.
The Trumans broke their bed
After spending the summer apart, the Trumans were enthusiastic to see each other. In fact, the they broke the bed during the night.
Blair House
While the White House underwent major renovations, the Trumans lived at Blair House. Named for Francis Preston Blair (who was added to my ongoing eyebrow collection posthaste), it was used to entertain many presidents and other notable figures. It’s also where Robert E. Lee turned down the offer to command the Union Army. (The Lees and Blairs were related by marriage.)
Patting his old bald head
Mamie Eisenhower was thrilled when their king-size, pink-tufted bed arrived because she could “reach over and pat Ike on his old bald head anytime” she wanted to.
Somehow, Mamie came across as “Mrs. Average America” although she’d never been a “congenial suburban housewife. She grew up with maids and butlers and was used to managing a household staff. In fact, she gave “orders, staccato crisp, detailed and final, as if it were she who had been a five-star general.”
A lot going on here…
General Motors execs supported Dewey but Henry Ford backed Truman.
Truman got rid of the Cadillacs and leased Fords.
His new limo was custom-built with “sufficient room for high silk hats.”
His successor wasn’t having top hats, though. Congress pushed back on Eisenhower, who was unmoved: “If we were going back to tradition we would wear tri-cornered hats and knee britches.
Speaking of britches… Ike didn’t get into his by himself.
When his regular valet (pictured below) was away, George Thompson (not pictured below because I messed up) filled in. He was shocked that he “even had to hold up his undershorts for him to step into.”
Maybe Ike wasn’t porky-pigging it at West Point to be funny. Maybe he just didn’t have anyone to help him step into his undershorts…?
Presidential Grave Hunter: One Kid’s Quest to Visit the Tombs of Every President and Vice President, by Kurt Deion
It should be noted…
When Queen Elizabeth visited the White House, she sent her personal maids to bed early and so they wouldn’t have to wait for the state dinner to end. Then, get this…
She changed out of her clothes herself.
The staff was shocked that she left her tiara and jewels out and unlocked. I was shocked that Ike couldn’t get into his underpants without help, but she managed to get into her PJs all by herself.
Eisenhower had the gardeners flick dew off blades of grass with fishing poles
UNIMPORTANT NOTE: My husband thinks it’s important that I point out that this was on the green. I disagree because (A) I don’t care and also (B) that’s the only thing there is at the White House — a putting green — and thus, in conclusion, obviously. It’s not like there’s an 18-hole course on-site.*
Ike was also peeved that Truman basically tamed the squirrels by feeding them table scraps and they buried their treasures in the green. He asked the Secret Service to shoot any squirrels they see nearing his putting green. The agent pushed back, pointing out that “if there’s a shooting out here, we have to first inform the police and it’s not exactly as if the squirrels were facing a firing squad and [they] could schedule it in advance, so there’d be bound to be some fuss made and the press would get a hold of it…”
*Yet
Mamie Eisenhower longed to be “in the pink” always
Vicks VapoRub
As a woman over 50, Mamie Eisenhower didn’t get out of bed before noon.* She caused quite a stir when she called the housekeeper one day at 7 a.m. in a panic.
During the night, her nose was all stuffy. Without waking the president, she applied Vicks to her nostrils. For some reason, that seemed to make her nose drier. She kept applying more.
In the morning, she realized she was shoving ink up her nose … and it was EVERYWHERE.
*Her rule, not mine.
Come on, Mamie…
Just when I was really starting to enjoy Mamie Eisenhower, she disappointed me.
Jackie Kennedy had a c-section after JFK was elected and requested a wheelchair for the White House tour.
Mamie didn’t like that idea. “I’ll tell you what,” she said to Mr. West, “We’ll get a wheelchair, but put it behind a door somewhere, out of sight. It will be available. If she asks for it.”
Jackie didn’t ask for it. But a couple of months later, she asked Mr. West about it. The tour had exhausted her and she her back to bed for two whole weeks after. West diplomatically explained they had it, but were waiting for her to request it.
Jackie giggled (which made me like her even more), admitting she was too scared of Mrs. Eisenhower to ask for it.
Onassis, peacocks, and confiscated liquor
Three random and unrelated doodles:
After Jackie’s baby died, she spent six weeks in Greece with her sister on Aristotle Onassis’ yacht, which surprised me. I should have selected a different reference photo. If he was there, I’m sure he wasn’t smiling like this.
Jackie kept requesting animals for the White House. Mr. West lied when she asked for peacocks, recycling an earlier excuse given by the zoo about deer: “The zoo says peacocks are dangerous and unpredictable.”
The Kennedy White House spent a lot more on liquor than the previous administration, which served confiscated bootleg whiskey.
LBJ had swim trunks of all sizes lining the walls of the White House pool
… which surprised me because I’ve heard clothing was quite optional while swimming with LBJ. Even discouraged.
In any case, the “scores of bathing trunks” came in “all sizes from King Farouk to Mahatma Gandhi”… which I desperately wanted to draw, but it felt disrespectful.
You can find a doodle of King Farouk here, with an explanation about how the term "paparazzo” traces back to him. And find out how Mariska Hargitay ties into it!
An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s, by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Three presidents featured in this book skinny-dipped
Not together.
That I know of.
Though Mr. West acknowledged that if a First Family asked him to “have their quarters painted purple with polka dots” he wouldn’t blink an eye, he was sad to see the pool disappear:
The indoor White House swimming pool was put in for President Franklin Roosevelt, with money raised by school children who collected millions of dimes.
Truman would swim in his glasses, with them fogging up
JFK would swim nude, throw on a bathrobe, get back upstairs, take off his robe, get into bed, and eat lunch. (Naked?) He repeated most of that again at the end of the day.
Nixon replaced the pool with a press briefing room.
Hello! (Goodbye)
When I start a presidential book, I always mark the end of the book so I’m not caught of guard. For reasons too boring to get into this time I didn’t. The early Nixon stuff was fascinating and I was excited to dive in.
But there was nothing to dive into.
The end of the book snuck up on me. Kind of a bummer.
Here’s a Nixon doodle to close this out…
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Why is Bess blushing?