White house, her Kidney Disease makes it hard for her to change clothes several times a day. Physically difficult for her. So clothes dont have as much meaning for her in the white house as they did in the senate years. She was asked by a woman journalist, she liked get to give preference to, what is your opinion on the length of skirts . They were creeping up. They wanted to know, specifically, what would you tell these young girls across the country who have skirts almost up to their knees . And she said, i am not going to even utter a comment about that except to their mothers. [laughter] that was pretty smart. Her skirt like tended to be just a few inches above the tops of her shoes. Because she is mindful of her age and she has swollen ankles. Because of her Kidney Disease. Ok. Now, when she goes into the white house, there is all this fuss made about the harding blue. She has a gallon made an harding blue and there is all this description gown made an harding blue and there is all this description how it is not quite what real blue. It is in between electric blue and, you know, i dont know. There was also a marion blue, which was a navy. There was also a florence lavender. And these colts were being made in these colors clothes were being made in these colors. Grace could come at the same time, she had a veil designed, the Grace Coolidge avail in navy blue. Vaeil in navy blue. You could just like your first lady or president ial life, i guess. A big fuss is made about this. But she is going to cover her arms, usually. Again, mindful of her age. She is great to just appropriately. She does get a little bit of criticism from the Washington Society pages about being a tad on the funky side. But by and large, women across america think she is just just kind. It was liked, it was very possible popular. Ladies, i kind of went to combine these next peers. I want to make sure we get in every question. You can take this anywhere you want to go. But this has to do with the press, the relationship with the press, the public and private persona of each, and how each coped that way, which kind of goes into their partnerships somewhat with their husbands on how they supported them and policies with how did World Politics or how did world events shape what happened . I would like to start with you because we were talking about this. Yeah. I mean, lou hoover is just mind blowing. Really. Im not kidding. This is a woman who spoke mandarin chinese. She was, at the time of the boxer rebellion, she had no fear. The chinese were hiding out in a Little Common where they were staying and lou is the one going out and getting the supplies and her tires being rated with bullets on her bicycle. And then she writes to a friend and says you missed all the excitement. [laughter] she has traveled to country after country. She is an organizer in london, you mentioned this. If anybody should have succeeded, it should have been these selfmade couples. They were wealthy and generous to a fault. Here we have the press going along with how they are using the press or not being used. The public is seeing them, not seeing them. And will defense or world events, or maybe Something Else interfering and changing the road that the couples took. Can you start that off . I know that is a lot to go on, what it is kind of tied in. The hoovers inherited an extremely booming economy, which will hear about when we talk about florence and grace. The roaring 1920s were also a time of enormous prosperity. And when Herbert Hoover comes into office in 1929, part of what he says in his inaugural speech is that he has great optimism for the country. And there is just no hint, at least in the hoover horizon that the waters underneath maybe a little bit troubled. So there was a bit of a stock market crash on october 23rd or 24th. And it is giving an inkling that there is going to be some problems. Then the day that we now refer to as black tuesday, october 29 1929 hits, and the stock market tanks. And you have to understand that after coming out of these years after met his prosperity, it is really difficult, at first, to determine whether or not this is just a blip on the economic radar screen, or if this is the beginning of a problem. Of course, as we know, as we had the benefit of 20 20 hindsight it was the beginning of a very severe problem. It becomes very clear in the 1930s that the economy is in very dire straits, with the depression that probably hadnt been experienced in most of the lifetimes of those people. Probably the last time there had been a depression of thats a very would have been that severity would have been doing the harassment, cleveland years. So the white house was scrambling on how they were going to deal with this. And hoover is dealing with the very uncooperative congress. There were several Different Reasons for that lack of cooperation. He is tying to get them to pass a variety of release measures. Hoover was not a republican, in the sense that we think of many republicans today where as you want to reduce the amount of government involvement in what is going on, hoover was very much someone who said find ways for government to be beneficial and lets facilitate that. He had a lot of enemies in congress for a lot of Different Reasons. And there was not that support. He formed what was called the president s Emergency Committee for employment, which got this acronym peace. If any of you ever read the story i forget its now, but it is about the dozen children, some of you may remember that. Cheaper by the dozen. She was an engineer. And a close friend of lous. And lou recruited lillian to try and find employment for women. Lou used to relationship with the girl scouts because she had been National President of the girl scouts, she got on the radio and she encouraged girl scouts to look for ways that they could help and volunteer in their communities. Lou used the radio to try encourage volunteerism amongst communities, for people to help one another and support one another during this difficult time. And what is lesser known about her and really wasnt known until after her papers became opened was that she was privately supporting people who would come to her attention. As my colleagues appear are well aware from looking at the correspondence, everything go every single first lady gets memo letters from the public. And lou was no exception. She had enough of a radar to figure out what was legitimate and what needed to be passed on to a staff member to handle. She got a particularly interesting letter. She had a network of people all across the country and should pass that led to somebody in that geographical area. And basically she was asking them, would you look this person up . And do it anonymous mostly anonymously, but let me know if this is legitimate. Lou was privately sending money to a variety of people, particularly women across the country, anonymously through these conduits to give support including a lot of africanamerican women to help them fund college educations. And much of this about lou did not come into the public arena until after her papers were opened up in 1984. To get to the press question that is really the downfall of both hoovers. Their press secretary bags most of them to go public with many of their private philanthropic acts because bert had been an orphan and he would periodically invite children to the white house and just let his hair down, so to speak, and play ball with them and entertain them and allow them to have meals and enjoy themselves in the white house. He was a doing at the doing it as president. And particularly when the 1932 campaign started to get really heated, there was just pressure on the part of their press secretary, let us to some photographs, hold some press conferences, let people see this human side of you because people perceive both of you of being as being very stiff and stuck up and rich and not caring. The press secretary knew the whole other side. And both of them said no. Bert had been raised a quaker, lou had taken on a lot of the quaker teachings and they both said, no, we are not doing this for press. We are doing it because it is the right thing and we dont want to explain the systems two. In the end, their decision not to play to the demands of the press played a pretty significant role in the public pass perception public possible publics perception. Thank you. Grace coolidge . Basically, when the colleges came in to the white house coolidges came into the white house, there was a. Of mourning p there was aeriod of mourning for 90 days there was a period of mourning for 90 days. Remember, this is an interwar time period between world war i and world war ii. So they were cutting back on the budget, scaling back the navy. It was not time to engage the world. It was isolationism. Grace carried on florences devotion to the veterans and having musicals with them as guests and visiting walter beat hospital, visiting the veterans there. She wanted to highlight american music, she followed florences lead on having wonderful music of the white house. But say coolidges didnt really stick with the times. She and her husband were in an age of excess. She was warm and gracious, and that was very important. That gave stability to the nation. When the flood of 1927 came, it did devastate vermont and she and her husband toured the state afterwards. They waved at people and their train stopped many times. At one time, Calvin Coolidge went out and said, vermont is the state i love. And gave a wonderful homily of what he loved vermont because it is where he got his bride, grays. Grace. And grace turned to the newspaperman and said, did you get that . That is really good. And she was right. She also devoted herself to death children, since she had taught deaf children, since she had taught deaf children. When she came back from europe, calvin sent a destroyer to pick them up. I thought that was kind of wonderful. And also the coolidges had introduced their morals, so we know what came out of that was a marriage of Charles Lindbergh and anne. And they were very happy about that. In terms of the press grace did not try to cultivate any kind of press relation. But she allowed herself to be photographed. She did say to the press, leave my boys alone. The children of the first family , and we have seen that i think continually, should be left alone. But she was happy to pose at about 12 00 noon on the steps take questions, and pose with people who want to do visitor. She said she was a national hugger. She wanted to hug everybody. Just as calvin would take his jokes and be a little bit more remote, she wanted to be the warm one. Her radiance came across. And i think the nation did appreciate that. What about the press lady herself . [laughter] well, i think we have to start with the time period that the hard things arrived at the white house. Old or one, still very fresh on everybodys mind. Nearly everything in the hiding administration relates to that. As far as policy and everything that they are doing. Some kind of a reaction to the experience of the soldiers or the women in this country during the war. And think of the wilson administration, particularly at the end when, you know, the public didnt know how ill he was. But the white house is silent during the last couple of years of the wilson administration. There is no entertaining. And a lot of that is due to wartime, but it is also due to president wilsons health. So, one of the things that i think florence was most proud of is saying, you know, and she said this very early after the election, even to Close Friends was, i really want to open the gates of the white house as soon as i get there. It is time for the people to be allowed back in. And she believed that fervently. As did warn, too, that it was the peoples house. And the president s first order of business was issuing that proclamation that, yes, the gates are to be open and people can come on the lawn. A lot of the white house staff thought that was really out of line. And they said, well, the blinds are open. And florence famously said, let them look in. It is their house. She had the marine corps band play concerts every saturday afternoon. And as a member of the public, you could just come on the grounds and spread a blanket and listen to them. She thought that that was her job. As first lady, coming out of that were experienced, coming out of the wilson years, that was her way of bringing back normalcy. Florence working on the policies , bringing back at normalcy to the american people. And that meant bringing light back to the white house. She immediately has 60 vases of flowers filled every day. Flowers is her communication device. There are no cell phones then. And she used the white house green houses and because of her love for flowers, she says, well that is going to bring color in the white house. That is the way for me to express my care for your. If she sent to a box of flowers and she did to just ordinary people sometimes people, as cindy was saying, people would read to her with her problems their problems. Sometimes there would be a windows messenger bringing a box of files to the door. And a whole neighborhood would say, wait a minute, you got something from the white house because he that would make someone feel special. And she did that quite a that. More than anybody realized. And, as far as the press, she was an open door policy, really. She, you know, she was in summer is more open with the public than she was in revealing her own life. Her private life. And, again, she thought this was her duty to do this. She would often, when the public was taking a tour of the rooms, she would come down the stairs, to the shock of everybody, and say, i will guide you through. How thrilled these people were when that happened. Of course, her favorite famous handshaking. When they would stand in line sometimes for hours, shaking hands. She would have her gloves on, but sometimes her hand would become so swollen she said, forgive me, im going to shake with my left hand. And then have to switch gloves sometimes because her hands were so swollen they would have to cut the gloves off. And this is a woman, again, that Kidney Disease who should not be standing on her feet for that long anyway. But she says, i dont want to disappoint anybody. I am going to say until that last person in line comes through. It is not a token just a for her. It is not, i will put in my appearance for five minutes and then im out of here. She is going to stay until that last person comes through. And she is not going to just shake their hand, she is quick to Say Something meaningful to you. She is going to ask, how are you . And she rates until wait until your respons. Respond. I think that does come through and i dont think she is given enough credit for that. The president , everyone knows he has that very outgoing personality. Where what you saw was what you got. But florence often is is given the impression that she is aloof. That she is rather shrewish, and she is not. She is different from her husband, but she engages with people in different ways. I have always thought she was fabulous. What i have read about her, and never thought i didnt, either. I want to combine two more, if you dont mind. Before we get to the questions which i hope you have. We have been talking here, there are stresses involved certainly, in being locked out of normal life into a next ordinary position. We are normal americans, as are these ladies. And the second level has to be terrible. I want to go to how they relieved their stress, but also, if you would preface it, so we could lighten it up a little, we know they had pets, some of them loved sports, we already talked about florence and her music. Is it true that mrs. Harding im sorry, mrs. Hoover played the piano in the private quarters . Is that a true thing . I dont remember, but she was definitely a lover enter your reason why they were therefore times, there was a gentleman who worked with, i believe, the Steinway Company who is responsible had insinuated himself into the various administrations of the white house to secure the performers for white house social event. And that is likely why he was therefore times because there four times because this gentleman walked towards with lou. Lou wanted american musicians. And he was not always willing to promote american musicians and would write her letters explaining why that particular person she wanted wasnt that the same caliber as perhaps a nonamerican board virtuoso that he was attempting born virtuoso that he was attempting to promote. One of the visitors to the white house said, he looks like a convict. But plays like an angel. [laughter] well, you could lighten it up with all these other things that certainly they used. I want to go to each of them with they had on the public stage. Awful for them. I will let anyone of you start that sad affair that wants to take it on first. And then go right to stress release, if you will. I will take it on because it has happened so rarely in white house history. The loss of your child. And calvin and grace had this happen during their time at the white house. The two boys john and calvin junior, played tennis and he loves tennis with the assistant White House Position and i think it person from the secret service. After that, young calvin, had been wearing socks, had a blister and he really didnt tell anybody about it. It seemed to move into an infection. By the time the white house physicians saw him, it was too late. And already, the infection had moved up its leg his leg. Within just a few days, calvin junior dies. At the white house. And both the parent were absolutely devastated. And so was his brother. I interviewed the brother because john cole at, the surviving son, lived quite a long time, into his 90s. But the whole family was extremely upset. Grace carried it this off with she reminds me of kennedys behavior after the assassination of her husband. Grace coolidge and her husband have people come to the white house and have a service in north hampton. Then the 16yearold is buried in plymouth, vermont. And grace had to move on because the campaign was coming and with her faith, she was very religious, and with her joy in life, she carries on. I really think the president could not have carried on without this a very strong woman. So it is very important to note the role of a first lady when Tragedy Strikes of this nature. Is this when her interest in baseball really began . Yes, her interest start. She did enjoy her baseball. She listened on the radio. She had her own booth when the senators played in washington and when she eventually went to boston with the red sox. Some people called her the first lady of baseball because of her interest in it and also how much the players adored her. And we see right behind her she has her dark with her. She dressed her dogs up. More than that, she and her husband had many pets. They were given a raccoon for thanksgiving dinner. And they did not wish to eat rebecca. [laughter] so they trained her to cope with life at the white house. This is the only time i have really read in my studies that the staff was not happy. Rebecca jumped in the top and through the soap out. Rebecca was difficult, so they got ruben tuesday stay with rebecca, another raccoon. That was even worse. [laughter] then he sits down and draws an outside house for them to live in. That doesnt work, either. Eventually, rebecca has to be given to israel. So that was so cute because rebecca was brought to the easter egg rolling would take the dogs and make little Easter Bonnet for them. They did love the pets. For the president , it was a real relaxation. Lucinda can we talk to the loss of a husband . Sherry i like to start with the relaxation part. And it will pull the bottom out. Florence had a lot of different interests, should played the piano beautifully and she would often play the end of a perfect day, she was known for that signature song. She loved tennis, sports, very interested in history and Political Affairs herself. She always had been. She loved to use the white house yacht, the mayflower. She found that very relaxing. Again, i dont like to keep going back to the Kidney Disease, but on days when she felt good, that was a good place to entertain Close Friends and relax a little bit. She also, i think, relaxed a lot because she invited different people to the white house read she was very interested in hearing your views. This was in the days when he was still leave a calling card. She would pick one at random and invite them for to you that afternoon. It could be anybody. She is described as always listening to people very intently. She always said she looked in their eyes to see their soul. That was her way of knowing if you were being genuine with her. She would always class per hands around her knees and lean forward and intently Pay Attention to what you are saying. That was even a former relaxation for her. She likes mahjongg, should like to play bridge, she loves to go horseback riding as a younger woman, but didnt get to in the white house. She loves to write in automobiles and like to go as fast as possible. Likes to go motoring, as they called it. Her tragedy, we saw a reputed again with the kennedys is husband dies in office. The ironic part always is that her health was always considered to be much worse than his. They didnt publicly know then that their president suffered from congestive Heart Failure before he took a very famous trip across the country to the western states in alaska. She had nephritis, Kidney Disease. She had a couple of scares during the trip, but it amazed me that she even endeavored to take the trip. I think a lot of us if we had a chronic condition like that would say i think i will stay close to home. She says we are going to alaska, lets go. She loved to travel. She had a sense of adventure and that feeling that i know i have bad health, but im going to cram as much as i can into my life. She exemplified that. Her husband dies in San Francisco of a heart attack, is reported to the press earlier that day that he died that he might be coming out of the woods and of course, he dies. Much like grace, much like jackie
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