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Inviting Musicians to the White House
Tin Pan Alley and the American musical theater were in a great state of verve and vitality in the period between the two world wars, and White House guests lists of the time reflected this. In 1924 President Coolidge invited legendary showman, Al Jolson to help him launch an election campaign at a White House pancake breakfast. After the breakfast, forty
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Noah Brooks and the Lincoln White House
Although President Abraham Lincoln had friends and supporters in the press such as Pennsylvania newspaper editor John Forney; Henry J. Raymond, editor and owner of the New York Times; and Lawrence A. Gobright of the Associated Press, probably none was closer to him than Noah Brooks (1830-1903), the Washington, D.C. reporter for the Sacramento, California Daily Union. The two
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John Quincy Adams and Music
Both John Quincy Adams and his wife, Louisa Catherine, were great devotees of music, and often sang ballads and arias together, while Louisa played the White House American-made Babcock piano, now housed in the Smithsonian Institution. At one of the decade’s most important historic events -- the ground-breaking ceremony for the excavation of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal in 1828 --
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Photographs of the Lincoln White House
Abraham Lincoln assumed the office of president of the United States on March 4, 1861, an innovative period for photography. He was the first president to be photographed extensively and is thought to have sat for as many as thirty-six photographers on sixty-six occasions. 1 His White House also became the subject matter for a growing number of photographers. Their work enables us
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Music in the President's House
Before the White House was completed in 1800, President George Washington and his wife Martha lived first in New York City, then Philadelphia. Washington enjoyed the theater and liked to dance, especially the minuet, which he danced with great pleasure at his inaugural ball. Music in the president’s home was an intimate amusement and young Nelly Custis, the president’s musi
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Music in the Reagan White House
Called "In Performance from the White House," the PBS programs from the White House during the two administrations of Ronald Reagan broadened to include not only classical styles as seen under the Carters, but Broadway, country, jazz and gospel, always with creative theatrical flair. One of the Reagans’ most successful televised series, "A Tribute to American Music," took place from fa
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Gettysburg and Golf Courses
On July 12, 1957, Dwight D. Eisenhower became the first president in office to employ a helicopter in his transportation service. This event marked a significant development for both the White House and the helicopter industry. In the short term, the helicopter became a key feature of presidential safety in the event of nuclear war. At the same time, Eisenhower’s occasionally co
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New Music Styles at the White House
Music in the White House during the administrations of Presidents Nixon, Ford, and Carter reflected a wider segment of American culture than ever before, with the appearance of jazz, gospel, ragtime, and popular song, as well as classical concert and vocal forms. Following various official state dinners, Pearl Bailey, with Richard Nixon at the piano, sang for President Pompidou of
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The Man Who Came to Dinner at the White House
To Alexander Woollcott, the White House was the “best theatrical boarding house in Washington.” To his hostess, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Woollcott was “a perfect guest,” one she welcomed “with open arms.” To White House Chief Usher, Howell G. Crim, however, the former drama critic, popular lecturer and radio personality, sometime actor, and Algonquin Round Table habitué was “impossible.” The White House house
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Comfort in My Retirement
They have been four years of incessant labour and anxiety and of great responsibility. I am heartily rejoiced that my term is so near its close. I will soon cease to be a servant and will become a sovereign. As a private citizen I will have no one but myself to serve, and will exercise a part of the sovereign
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Presidents' Passion for Music
Abraham Lincoln could neither sing nor read music, but he loved music with a passion. He attended the opera at least thirty times while he was president, and when once criticized for these diversions during the turbulent Civil War years, he said frankly, "I must have a change or I will die." Inside the White House, music reflected America’s ec
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The Hoovers' Musical Firsts
The roster of prominent artists who performed for President Herbert Hoover at the end of the 1920s and into the early 1930s includes Grace Moore, Rosa Ponselle, Jascha Heifetz, Vladimir Horowitz, and many others. In 1931, President and Mrs. Hoover were the first to invite an artist to play for a head of state. With the performance of the Hampton and