Best Little Stories from the White House

by Kelly, C. Brian

• ISBN13: 9781581824667
• ISBN10: 1581824661
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-09-30
• Publisher: Cumberland House

Summary

A fascinating collection of more than 100 vignettes drawn from the life and times of America's most famous and legendary home. Here are stories about the house itself and how it has evolved over the years, as well as stories about its famous occupants. Best Little Stories from the White House is a fascinating collection of more than 100 vignettes drawn from the life and times of America's most famous and legendary home. Here are stories about the house itself and how it has evolved over the years, as well as stories about its famous occupants. For instance did you know: Woodrow Wilson used to chase up and down the White House corridors playing "rooster fighting" with his daughter Nellie. Winston Churchill once suffered a minor heart episode while struggling with a stuck window in the White House. Among the menagerie tended by Theodore Roosevelt's children was the pony Algonquin, whom the siblings sneaked upstairs in the White House elevator to cheer up their sick brother. "Silent" Calvin Coolidge liked to play pranks on his staff - he would press the call buttons on this desk, then hide behind the door as Secret Service agents, secretaries, military aides, and other support staff streamed in to look for him. At Boris Yeltsin's first state dinner at the White House - the first state dinner for a non-Communist Russian leader since the nineteenth century - George and Barbara Bush presented him with an automatic tennis-ball server. Also included are stories of the experiences of several first ladies, including Dolley Madison, Harriet "Hal" Lane (niece of James Buchanan), Mary Lincoln, Jacqueline Kennedy, Barbara Bush, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Laura Bush.

Author Biography

C. Brian Kelly, a prize-winning journalist, is president and founder of Montpelier Publishing and a columnist and editor emeritus for Military History magazine. He is also a lecturer in newswriting at the University of Virginia Ingrid Smyer is a freelance writer and editor

Table of Contents

Introduction	xi
Beginnings	3	(80)
One Dread Moment	4	(3)
Day in the Life of ...	7	(5)
Passing the Baton	12	(5)
Jackie's Painful Tour	17	(2)
A Most Rowdy Party	19	(5)
Reportage at Close Quarters	24	(3)
Boardinghouse Manners	27	(3)
New Boss in Town	30	(5)
Bless This House	35	(2)
Steppingstone President	37	(2)
Early Blow for Lincoln	39	(2)
President ...In Secret	41	(2)
Hooting at Owls	43	(2)
Prophetic Words Repeated	45	(2)
Lincoln's Farewell to Herndon	47	(3)
Auspicious Change	50	(1)
Ike's First Presidential Crisis	51	(3)
Coolidge's Favorite Prank	54	(2)
First in Line	56	(1)
Lincoln Escapes a Trap	57	(3)
Transition in Dallas	60	(7)
``Good to Be Home''	67	(2)
Public Housing	69	(2)
Born There	71	(1)
9/11	72	(6)
``Mr. President,'' Said Each	78	(5)
Middles	83	(180)
Joe and Edy Saga	84	(6)
A Most Courageous Patient	90	(4)
Hardly Anyone Knew Her	94	(4)
Writing the Great Document	98	(2)
End to an Affair	100	(4)
A Swim in the Potomac	104	(3)
Bachelor Status Ended	107	(3)
All the Way With LBJ	110	(2)
Rebel in the House	112	(1)
Poker Players, Do Your Duty	113	(2)
Dancing in the Moonlight	115	(5)
Daily Mission Accomplished	120	(2)
Three Days of Oratory	122	(3)
Press Conference Tactics	125	(2)
``This Damned Old House''	127	(3)
Anger in Stages	130	(3)
Bungee Jump With No Rope	133	(3)
Harry Homebody	136	(2)
White House Honeymoon	138	(2)
Fishing Was His Passion	140	(3)
Righteous Crusade Sabotaged	143	(1)
Collaborators	144	(3)
Controversy Over Dinner	147	(2)
``Royal Pup'' Chastised	149	(2)
Early Social Doings	151	(2)
Busy, Busy, Too Busy	153	(4)
Unfit for a Queen	157	(2)
Skinny-Dipper	159	(2)
Dinner With Old Hickory	161	(1)
Persistent Bodyguard	162	(2)
Alice's Bad Idol	164	(2)
Slaves in the Attic	166	(2)
Public Audience Room	168	(3)
Doing Nothing	171	(2)
Fit for Clerks or Queens	173	(2)
Man Reclining on Bed	175	(2)
Sentimental Evenings	177	(2)
JFK Misses Lunch	179	(2)
Two-Stepping at the White House	181	(3)
Jackie to the Rescue	184	(2)
Old Compatriot's Visit	186	(2)
Minor Embarrassment	188	(1)
``Mrs. Presidentress''	189	(3)
Power Dive Underway	192	(1)
Violent Reaction	193	(2)
High-Toned Ball	195	(1)
Locked Out	196	(2)
Ugly Fellow Encountered	198	(1)
Small Talk Among World Leaders	199
Chippewa Revenge	191	(2)
Wedded There	193	(4)
Progress Report	197	(2)
Workers All	199	(14)
Silver Jubilee	213	(2)
Horses	215	(2)
Boy With Message	217	(2)
Alice's ``Majicks''	219	(1)
Looted, Burned...Gone	220	(1)
Herbert the Modern	221	(4)
``Get That Father Out of Jail!''	225	(2)
Bookends	227	(1)
Discovery Corps	228	(2)
White Lodge Visited	230	(3)
Guests From the Street	233	(2)
More of Progress	235	(3)
Visiting Mothers	238	(2)
Happy Days Afloat	240	(1)
Telephonitis in the White House	241	(3)
Rose Garden Created	244	(2)
Pluses and Minuses of Unimpeachment	246	(3)
Unofficial Annex	249	(3)
Honest Man at Gettysburg	252	(1)
``Only a Poor Indian''	253	(1)
Dolley's Black Benefactor	254	(3)
Presidential Spy Plane	257	(6)
Ends	263	(72)
Leavetakings	264	(3)
Nixon Resigns	267	(6)
Ford Theatre Aftermath	273	(2)
``You Yellow Rat!''	275	(3)
In Order to Stop Speeders	278	(1)
Mid-Century Melodrama	279	(4)
``Looked Like a Dead Man''	283	(4)
Another View on Wilson	287	(2)
Two Murders Unavoided	289	(1)
Sickroom Cooled	290	(3)
1:00 P.M. in Dallas	293	(4)
Died There	297	(3)
Outlaw of Falahill	300	(2)
Wretched Little Sofa	302	(2)
Freedom at Last!	304	(1)
Life After the White House	305	(5)
Lincoln and Stanton	310	(1)
Piece of Paper Misplaced	311	(3)
Funeral Train	314	(2)
First to Come---First to Go	316	(3)
For the Record	319	(2)
Long, Long Wait	321	(2)
Nickel-Plated Shovel	323	(2)
Wartime White House	325	(3)
Struggle With the Phone	328	(3002)
Political Know Nothings	3330
Roaring Crowd	331	(4)
As for the Future White House	335	(6)
Twenty-first Century White House	336	(5)
First Ladies in Review	341	(50)
Acknowledgments and Further Readings	391	(4)
The Presidents and Their Terms	395	(1)
The First Ladies (and Presidential Spouses)	396	(1)
Index of Personalities	397