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The histories of the White House and of Ford’s Theatre are obviously linked by their association with Abraham Lincoln. Their histories conjoined on the spring evening of April 14, 1865, when a popular comedy of the day became a tragic backdrop for a horrific real-life drama of national intrigue and violence. However, they are similar in another way: their respective images in
President Taft, a frequent theater goer, was seated in his box at the National Theatre with his aide Archibald Butt, when he rose and said, “Archie, this is hot!” He led the way out, believing it undignified for the president of the United States to appear to condone a risqué show.Nearly all the presidents have enjoyed theatrical performance and sough
Mobility is essential to the presidency. The necessity of reaching the far-flung corners of the U.S.A. seems a requirement. It always has been achieved to the extent the times permit. For George Washington travel seems to have been a simpler matter, although the nation was smaller, the roads muddier. He journeyed by coach to the east and on
Eighteen years ago when the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library was dedicated, President Reagan expressed his dream that it would bring the presidency closer to the American people. The opening of the Air Force One Pavilion at the Reagan Library in 2005 featuring SAM (Special Air Mission) 27000 marked an important milestone in achieving President Reagan’s wish. For President Reagan, nothing better re
By the summer of 1946, President Harry S. Truman needed a vacation. Catapulted into the presidency by the sudden death of Franklin D. Roosevelt in April 1945, the former vice president had presided over the end of World War II that spring and summer and the uneasy peace that followed. During that time, U.S. relations with the Soviet Union deteriorated as
Prior to President and Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt’s visit to Panama in 1906, no American president had set foot outside the country during his tenure in office, not even crossing a bridge to Canada or Mexico. In an August 1906 letter to Andrew Carnegie, President Roosevelt bemoaned the “ironclad custom which forbids a President ever [going] abroad” that kept him from engaging in dir
Every effective politician understands the importance and tone of public contact. From the first, presidents, as the nation’s chief magistrates, have recognized the need to leave the White House and mingle with the voters, especially when an election is in the offing. President Grover Cleveland was a Democrat in a largely Republican nation. His opponents had held the White Ho
