Read Online Margaret Truman by The President's House: 1800 to the Present : The Secrets, History of the World's Most Famous Home - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: The President's House: 1800 to the Present : The Secrets, History of the World's Most Famous Home
Tags: United States, Fiction, General, History, Biography & Autobiography, Biography, State & Local, Architecture, Washington (D.C.), Buildings, Public; Commercial & Industrial, Artists; Architects; Photographers, Juvenile literature, Presidents & Heads of State, Presidents - United States, Presidents, Middle Atlantic (DC; DE; MD; NJ; NY; PA), Presidents - United States - History, Washington (D.C.) - Buildings; Structures; Etc, White House (Washington; D.C.) - History
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refreshments, which were the main reason most of them came.
Van Buren was particularly impatient with the Fourth of July receptions, which interfered with his summer escape to New York. Determined to find a way out, he let it be known that the president would be out of town on July 4, 1839, and the White House would not be open for callers. Presumably his successors were equally eager to escape Washingtonâs beastly summers. Never again was there a reception on the Fourth of July.
XI
About fifty thousand people attend White House dinners and receptions each year. I am convinced that the White House catering staff deserves most of the credit for their success. Usually, they have a little more lead time than Lyndon Johnson gave them in 1963. But they are used to working miracles on short notice.
When former prime minister Ehud Barak of Israel visited the White House in 1999, Bill and Hillary Clinton planned an official working visit that included a luncheon for eighteen people. When word of Barakâs arrival got out, so many people wanted to meet him that on five daysâ notice the luncheon for eighteen turned into a dinner for five hundred.
Eleanor Roosevelt, who could never be called a social butterfly, was nevertheless a demon hostess. She was forever inviting supporters of the many causes she espoused to the White House for tea. There were so many of these gatherings that she frequently had two a day. One of my favorite White House staff members, Alonzo Fields, used to call them âdoubleheader teas.â
Lou Henry Hoover gave Eleanor Roosevelt a run for her money when it came to inviting people to the White House. In 1932 alone, she presided at forty teas and held receptions for eighty different organizations. She and the president were also quick to extend luncheon and dinner invitations, often on very short notice. Once, after ordering food for a one oâclock luncheon for six people, Ava Long, the White House housekeeper, was informed a half hour before the guests were due to sit down that the number had changed to forty.
Mrs. Long instructed the cook to grind up every morsel of food she could find in the refrigerator and mix up a batch of croquettes. The end product was served with a mushroom sauce and several guests actually raved about it. When one woman asked what the dish was called, Mrs. Long replied tartly, âWhite House Surprise Supreme.â The housekeeper pulled off another surprise supreme when she handed in her resignation not long afterward.
XII
My favorite example of staff inventiveness was told by my friend Fields (the White House maître dâhôtel and butlers are always called by their last names) some years after he left the White House.
When the Twenty-first Amendment repealing Prohibition was ratified in 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was deluged with gifts from wineries all over the world. Little of it was good enough to serve at the table, but FDR was too much of a penny-pincher to throw it away, so Fields was instructed to find a way to use it up.
Punch is one of the standard drinks at White House receptions. For a crowd of 1,200 people, Fields and his staff would prepare about 45 gallons of fruit punch for the nondrinkers and 110 gallons of spiked punch for those who liked stronger stuff, obviously the majority. Fields uncorked a few of the gift wines and went to work experimenting with various combinations until he came up with several recipes that passed his taste test. One of the most lethal contained muscatel, sauterne, applejack, and scuppernong. Another, only slightly less dangerous, combined blackberry wine, claret, sake, and sherry.
It didnât take long for the wines to disappear, but Fields occasionally had twinges of anxiety. âI could always see the headline,â he said. âPresidentâs party has tragic end. Guests go berserk after drinking spiked punch at the White House. Chief Butler being held for
Van Buren was particularly impatient with the Fourth of July receptions, which interfered with his summer escape to New York. Determined to find a way out, he let it be known that the president would be out of town on July 4, 1839, and the White House would not be open for callers. Presumably his successors were equally eager to escape Washingtonâs beastly summers. Never again was there a reception on the Fourth of July.
XI
About fifty thousand people attend White House dinners and receptions each year. I am convinced that the White House catering staff deserves most of the credit for their success. Usually, they have a little more lead time than Lyndon Johnson gave them in 1963. But they are used to working miracles on short notice.
When former prime minister Ehud Barak of Israel visited the White House in 1999, Bill and Hillary Clinton planned an official working visit that included a luncheon for eighteen people. When word of Barakâs arrival got out, so many people wanted to meet him that on five daysâ notice the luncheon for eighteen turned into a dinner for five hundred.
Eleanor Roosevelt, who could never be called a social butterfly, was nevertheless a demon hostess. She was forever inviting supporters of the many causes she espoused to the White House for tea. There were so many of these gatherings that she frequently had two a day. One of my favorite White House staff members, Alonzo Fields, used to call them âdoubleheader teas.â
Lou Henry Hoover gave Eleanor Roosevelt a run for her money when it came to inviting people to the White House. In 1932 alone, she presided at forty teas and held receptions for eighty different organizations. She and the president were also quick to extend luncheon and dinner invitations, often on very short notice. Once, after ordering food for a one oâclock luncheon for six people, Ava Long, the White House housekeeper, was informed a half hour before the guests were due to sit down that the number had changed to forty.
Mrs. Long instructed the cook to grind up every morsel of food she could find in the refrigerator and mix up a batch of croquettes. The end product was served with a mushroom sauce and several guests actually raved about it. When one woman asked what the dish was called, Mrs. Long replied tartly, âWhite House Surprise Supreme.â The housekeeper pulled off another surprise supreme when she handed in her resignation not long afterward.
XII
My favorite example of staff inventiveness was told by my friend Fields (the White House maître dâhôtel and butlers are always called by their last names) some years after he left the White House.
When the Twenty-first Amendment repealing Prohibition was ratified in 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was deluged with gifts from wineries all over the world. Little of it was good enough to serve at the table, but FDR was too much of a penny-pincher to throw it away, so Fields was instructed to find a way to use it up.
Punch is one of the standard drinks at White House receptions. For a crowd of 1,200 people, Fields and his staff would prepare about 45 gallons of fruit punch for the nondrinkers and 110 gallons of spiked punch for those who liked stronger stuff, obviously the majority. Fields uncorked a few of the gift wines and went to work experimenting with various combinations until he came up with several recipes that passed his taste test. One of the most lethal contained muscatel, sauterne, applejack, and scuppernong. Another, only slightly less dangerous, combined blackberry wine, claret, sake, and sherry.
It didnât take long for the wines to disappear, but Fields occasionally had twinges of anxiety. âI could always see the headline,â he said. âPresidentâs party has tragic end. Guests go berserk after drinking spiked punch at the White House. Chief Butler being held for
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