Test. Test. Test. Test. Test. Test. Test. Test. On this schedule not only did she have a diplomatic dinner, but the next morning she was scheduled to cut the ribbon on the Presbyterian Church bazaar. Some of the things that mamie would discuss with her social secretary were of a personal nature. For instance here, shes shopping for Christmas Gifts for their grandchildren and she notes to buy this doll for her granddaughter susan, but mamie was always particular about the budget and she kept her figures so she would never go over budget. Life in the Eisenhower White house. How many people lived with them there . They sometimes had mamies mother elvira lived there. The eisenhower grandchildren did not live there. They visited very often, spent huge amounts of time and the press loved them, loved to photograph them playing in the front of the building or sometimes they would have photographs of them inside playing, but basically, its ike and mamie and for long periods of time, mamies mother. Mamie also said any day was a great day when her grandchildren were there. Someone made reference to the stereo typical 1950s woman. Heres one way that the stereotype plays out. It was do you meaned thcumented visited the oval office four times during the presidency. The separation of the wifes role versus the husbands role that was a stereotype of the 1950s a. Yes. Very much a division of labor. The women would handle the food, the entertainment and the family. The president would handle the country, the politics. But we had just had the Roosevelt Administration where but that was such a departure. And such an anomaly for the time that it didnt get institutionalized until much later. And part of that was mamies military background, too. She once made the comment that a wife never went near her husbands command post. His point of operation. It just simply wasnt done. And so again, that separation of their spaces. It was a busy eight years in the Eisenhower White house for the president and we have a list of just some of the big things that were happening during the eisenhower presidency to show you and here were doing it while were looking at video. So if we can make the transmission. Russia launches sputnik and a cold war really bursts on to the international scene. Tension between the United States and russia. It was the red scare and we heard earlier about senator joe mccarthy and the role he played during the United States during the red scare and the espionage trial and the u2 spyplane shot down over russia. Here at home, rosa parks did her famous bus ride in spomontgomer alabama and the desegregation, nasa was established and our last states came into statehood, alaska and hawaii and Mamie Eisenhower was not involved in any of this. She did not discuss issues publicly. That was not her job as she saw it. Privately, he was very opinionated and had some very strong ideas on a number of social issues, but she simply was not an activist the way that we think of women speaking out today. And in fact, she was probably the last president ial wife that didnt have a particular cause while she was in the white house. That was something that, you know, that Eleanor Roosevelt had done, but bess truman had not done and her background would not have lent itself to her doing that, but shes the last first lady where thats the case. She launched lots of charity drives. She was a spokesperson for the american heart association. Right. But you cant say that those were causes and projects the way that it became institutionalized they were totally unpoliticized and were very traditional. With Jacqueline Kennedy and after her and mrs. Johnsons beautification projects. A first lady was expected to have a project. Exactly. She wasnt considered a serious first lady if she did not have a cause or a project. 19 years after she left the white house Mamie Eisenhower sat down with Barbara Walters to give her views on the role of the first lady. Lets watch. Do you think president s today need their wives help . I dont know, but i dont know if they want it. Maybe they dont want it. [ laughter ] i dont think that you can i think you have to your husband a man has to be encouraged. I think i told ike every day that we lived how much i thought he was, how good i thought he was. You know, your ego has to be fed. A little bit on the role of the first lady. Gary robinson wants to know what would mamie say is her greatest contribution to the role of first lady . I would think that she would say that it was giving ike a comfortable home life where he could relax and get away from the pressing issues of the day. I think her greatest contribution was in institutionalizing the first lady as the campaigner. I think thats the role that has really carried on with lehrte first ladies and in american political life. What would your answer be . I would agree that privately, it would be creating that home, and when she said homemaker she meant it in the truest sense. Making a home that was comfortable and welcoming and gave ike a place to escape and for their friends and family to enjoy themselves and to be together. Publicly, i think her contribution as a first lady was projecting someone who really was interested in anyone and everyone without any consideration for their political, social, religious background. To say that she was nonpolitical, it almost sounds like, well, its too good to be true, but i think basically, she was interested in people for who they were and they realize that in her and responded to her. Were there Public Opinion polls and politics at the time . There were Public Opinion polls, but and how did but it was they didnt really ask those kinds of questions so you really cant gauge it against today. One of the things she did to preserve eisenhowers sense of peace, i guess, was the creation of camp david named after their grandson. Now we hear about it all of the time in politics. There was something there before called shangrila. So how did it become an official president ial retreat . There had been previous president ial retreats. The hoovers had set up camp rapadan on the rapadan river in virginia, but that had sort of been unused because it was a rocky, hilly kind of terrain that Franklin Roosevelt couldnt use, and so roosevelt had set up this president ial retreat called shangrila and then when eisenhower was in office he renamed it camp david. Did mamie invite any former or future first ladies to the white house . Nixon probably doesnt count since she was the Vice President s wife, but were they friends with the reagans, for example . I know they traveled to california frequently. They really didnt know the reagans. They knew nancy davis reagans parents and socialized with them in california and nancy reagan did meet them and actually in the collection at the eisenhower president ial library there is a notice of ronald and Nancy Reagans marriage and its a marriage announcement. Its not an invitation to the wedding. So they really knew each other more different generationally because ike and mamie were better friends with her parents, but as for first ladies, yes mamie was friends with bes truman, although bess didnt often come to the white house with edith wilson and mrs. Kennedy, mrs. Johnson would have come to the white house as sen senate wives. When their husbands were in congress because they would have been invited to those luncheons. Were talking about family life and how mamies job was really to preserve and encourage it, we will return to their farm in gettysburg and learn a bit more about family life. Alice evans is with the National Park service, a park ranger and a mamie expert here at the gettysburg eisenhower house. How many feet does this property have . Inside about 14,000 square inches. About 14,000. What room are we in now . We are in the porch that is one of the most important rooms in the home. This is where we lived. We lived on the porch. This room was the private life of the eisenhowers here in the Family Center of the home. And it was set up with some couches and chairs and over here a tv. Yes, a sign of the family of the 1950s will be spending time here in television. They were the first president ial couple to really watch television together in the white house. What would be a typical evening on the porch. The eisenhowers would have their tv dinners on tv trays and they would watch Walter Cronkite anded they would watch i love lucy shows and the gun shows. Twhere would the president sit . That rocking chair. There is an early version of the remote. That was the president s territory there, maimy used to joke that he used to flip all of the time through all three channels looking to see what was on. Mamie would sit . Across from him off to the left. What kind of conversation would they have . Oh, yes. The eisenhowers were great conversationalists, as a hostess she loved people and she loved socializing. When ike was president and after the presidency, what kind of guest would come and be here on the porch with them. All guests came to the porch here in the house be it their grandchildren visiting to come in to see grandma and grandpa. Equally important dignitaries came to the room to talk to the president and if the first lady were here hed be involved in the conversations. Lots of big wigs and Winston Churchill and Charles De Gaulle and Nikita Khrushchev and his visit in 1959 to the United States. And . Khrushchev sat here and sort of had a little thaw on the cold war here with the president and his family. Moving on down, there seems to be a little breakfast room here . Is this what this is . What would this room be used for . Its the area and the couple would play cards here and the ladies would play here and the gentlemen would be in another room or ikes den. I like this area because its really mamie. The president liked to paint here on the porch, and they spent so much time apart in their married life that especially in their retirement years if ike was here painting shed be at this table playing cards, solitaire, reading a book or crossword puzzles. She liked to be in the same room with them because they spent so much time apart in their married lives. With the wicker chairs, et cetera. I counted 12 ashtrays and four lighters. This is the 1950s and 60s. Both the president and first lady smoked. Ike gave up cold turkey after the cold war which was amazing for a man that smoked four packs and mamie smoked longer than her husband did. Behaind her, what is behind the drapes . They had a view of beautiful cattlefield and the Gettysburg National military park. What kind of security would they have . Of course, they had secret service during the eight years that he was president and after kennedys assassination they had secret service until both of their passings, mamie until 79. One interesting story you told me about Mamie Eisenhower, tv and secret service. Mamie came up with unique tasks with secret service men. She loved soap opera. Her favorite was as the world turns. Guess who is watching it . A secret service man taking notes for her. Hed have to present. You wouldnt miss any of the important plot twists. After the important plot twists in 1969 she stayed here. Yes. What kind of visitors did she have on her own . Mamie tried to continue entertaining to a degree. It was much more quiet when mamie was here. Of course, friends and family was always welcome. Mamie was very lonely after the president died and she very much welcomed friends and family to keep her company. Did she have livein help . There were three Staff Members and mamie had a series of maids that helped and sergeant and his wife. He was the valet and they were very close to the eisenhowers. And dolores is still living . Yes. Dolores is still living in washington, d. C. And keeps in close contact with the eisenhower family. We have one more stop on our tour and well be upstairs the next time you come back to the eisenhower farm. We were wondering about the secret Service Agents who got the duty to transcribe the soap opera story in the Eisenhower Administration. Mamie eisenhower was enormously popular and she was shielded from the press and she gave only one News Conference in 1953. Shed been asked for the New York Herald tribune to write the column and this was the advice of the eisenhowers pr people and she always made it on to the best dressed list. Yes, every year she was in the white house. Next, well show mamies style. Wonderful. Get ready to talk about this when we come back. We will return to abilene and the Eisenhower Museum for mamies style. I am surrounded by the style that kept mamie on the ten best dressed. She worked with one of her favorite designers for her suits and daywear office. This is what she wore to the sea Lawrence Seaway where she and ike met Queen Elizabeth and prince philip. This is a quilted cotton fabric with many of the houses that the eisenhowers lived in during their marriage and it includes the fivestar for the generalizen hower. She was very fond of the color pink and wore it in many different shades and styles. Many of the dresses you see are sleeveless. She always said that her arms were ikes favorite feature and she chose to show them off. This shows an exception to budget. This had a long hem that she was raise and lower so the hemline was always in fashion. Jackie kennedy was known for the little black dress and here are two examples of mamies favorite little black dress. Mamie always said she would never dress like an old lady. These show her love of brit colors and wild fabrics. Like any highfashion lady of the day, immaie loved hats and this is a small employ saling of some that we have in the collection and one of her favorite designers was sally victor and no outfit is complete without shoes and no one knew that better than mamie. Many of the shoes say made expressly for mrs. Dwight eisenhower. This dress and undergarment from the mid1920s shows her love of fashion. She was about 30 years old, too old to be considered a flapper, but still stylish for the day. Lets go take a look at some of the exhibits that focus mamies style. Mamie was well known for her trademark hairstyle. The special bangs were called the immaie look and you can purchase fake bangs to clip into your hair during the 1950s. Mamie would go to the Elizabeth Arden salons to get her hair don and Elizabeth Arden had one of her hairstylists create these drawings so if she would have to go to another stylist her hair would always be perfect. Okay, you are on. This series is called influence and image, how much did she influence american womens looks in the 1950s . Oh, she was extremely popular. She set off a rage for pink. She set off a rage for bangs. Everybody wanted to look like mamie. It seems a little strange to us postJacqueline Kennedy, but she really epitomized the best taste in dresses and accoutrement, if you will, for the 1950s, and everybody tried to copy her look and the interesting thing about the bangs was that they she first started wearing bangs in the 1920s after the death of their son icky had sort of resulted in the eisenhowers growing somewhat apart and when they were sent to panama, his Commanding Officers wife sort of took her under her wing and said you have to do something to rescue your marriage and one of the things she decided to do was to take a renewed interest in her personal appearance and thats when she had her bangs done and that was a sort of symbol toeth both of them of t reproach in the marriage. Later when she was in pair i when ike was the head of nato, she started frequenting the Elizabeth Arden salon in paris run by elizabeths sister gladys and when she came to new york she frequented the new york salon of Elizabeth Arden, and after the inauguration, Elizabeth Arden wrote to her now that youre in the public eye i notice that when you first came back your hair looked absolutely beautiful, but it hasnt been quite the same since so i asked our stylist to render shes stru structural drawings that you saw in the film clip which you saw in the library of the steps that a hairstylist must do to achieve the mamie look and the mamie bangs and therefore, you, in your travels across the country and around the world you can take these structural drawings with you and go into any Elizabeth Arden salon and have your hair turn out beautifully. And here is the first lady who made waves with her bangs and sleeveless gowns. Harkening back to Mamie Eisenhower. We have a list of things that Mamie Eisenhower was created first for. One they were the first, first couple to kiss at the inauguration. This has been historical. Women were arent even invited to earlier inaugurations and there was a splash the first time the woman rode in the inaugural parade. Mrs. Taft. They went so far as to kiss one another during the inauguration to demonstrate their affection for one another. She completed the white house china collection and created the vermeil room. Invited tv actors to the white house and we talked about i love lucy, and she would establish the role of the first lady as a campaigner. We have, really, were running out of time pretty quickly and robert from portsmouth, new hampshire. Youre on. Your question . Hi. My question is Jackie Kennedy has been mentioned a few times tonight and im curious how the eisenhowers do the kennedys and in particular how mamie viewed jackie and the differences between them. I would say that jackie and mamie got off to a very rocky start and that was never righted. Part of it is the difference in age, but it really beginning with the misunderstanding and it was just very rocky when mamie took jackie through the white house for her tour before the inauguration and mrs. Kennedy was telling mamie already the plan she had for renovations and that really didnt sit very well with mamie, and it went on from there, but i have to say that later they were trying to raise funds for whats now the kennedy center. The Eisenhower Administration had been planning for a Cultural Center in washington, d. C. , and when the kennedys were continuing the plan for that, ike and mamie as retired first couple did a lot of public speaking and appearances on television to promote the Cultural Center. Our guests talk about the fact that the eisenhowers were smokers and in 1955 eisenhower president eisenhower suffered a heart attack. He spent 19 days in walter reed hospital. I presume at some point during that time nixon took over the role or was he able to carry on his duties at the time . No. Nixon they wanted things to carry on as normally as possible. Youre talking about the first his first one. Nixon continued to hold cabinet meetings. They wanted for the country to see that everything was moving along as it should be because when the first announcement came of eisenhowers heart attack the stock market plummeted. There was almost a panic and so to show people theyre on an even keel nixon stepped in. And even despite this, eisenhower made the decision to seek reelection and we have a very brief clip in the 1956 campaign ads looking at again how mamie appealed to women during the 1956 election. So much of our future rests with the women of our country. Theyre the homemakers. The whole family unit revolves around them. Everything that affects the familys welfare affects them first and everything in the familys life benefit from their influence. They do the family buying. They see that everybody in the Family Circle is well clothed and well fed, but beyond this, they are the custodian of its values and aspirations of the future. In their hands lies the training of our young people to whom they pass on the Rich Heritage of our nation. Its love of peace and justice and its passion for freedom. The women of our country swept dwight d. Eisenhower into office four years ago. They will probably decide the election this time and they like ike, and heres somebody else they like, too. Ikes beloved mamie whose smile and modesty and easy, natural charm make her the ideal first lady. Lets keep our first lady in the white house for four more years. November 6th, vote for dwight d. Eisenhower. And keep the eisenhowers in and the American Public did. The eisenhowers served up the next four years and of course, the 1960 election brought john kennedy into the white house where he campaigned against eisenhowers Vice President richard nix op and the eisenhowers went back to private life and back to gettysburg and well go back there soon right now. And for 19 years, Mamie Eisenhower lived in this house and all of her life, she had this picture on every dresser and every house she lived in. Thats ikes senior picture and he gave her that photograph while they were dating. To the dearest and sweetest girl in the entire world and she always had that on her dresser. A pink phone and lots of pink things in the dressing room and now to an explosion of pink, the master bedroom. I think the decor in this room is very telling of their lives together. Every bedroom they ever lived in, mamie painted the walls this color green and decorated in pink, their two favorite colors and this is real dedication and the fivestar general slept under the pinkest sheets. The original duvet cover and this is where they shared until 1969 when ike died. The breakfast set on the bed. Mamie spent most mornings in bed. Shed have breakfast in bed and shed have a cute pink tray with a special breakfast set and she would have her breakfast here and she would answer letters and plan her agenda for the day and meet with Staff Members or the cook, whoever she needed to to plan the day. 1979 she had the stroke. She had the stroke that would eventually end her life and they would take her to walder reter. It is open to the public. Will they see everything we see more hours . This is ours, the American People. Hours . It closes at 5 00 or 5 15. Just off the gettysburg battlefield and this is the eisenhower farm in pennsylvania. Our thanks to the staff of the gettysburg farm and the eisenhower farm in abilene, texas. Those of you who have been watching along the way in the series, we have worked with the White House Historical association to make available this special edition of their very popular first ladys biography books and available if you go to cspans website at cspan. Org and youll see a first ladies and the tab for shop and this is the only item available and were selling it to you at cost so if you would like a memento of the series and its available to you. Each week, you have a special featured item of the first lady, and this week it is maimys award for her work after eisenhowers heart attack. We have a couple of very short time left. Her final years and her legacy. How do we wrap this all up with what we should understand about Mamie Eisenhower. I think perhaps, one of the things most telling, she didnt think about having a legacy. She thought about what she had done as the first lady, as an important job. Her contribution to American Life and probably her legacy would be what she said to Barbara Walters in that one interview, that when asked how do you like to be remembered . Just as a good friend. I think thats how she felt about the American People. That she was a good friend to them. And the American People returned that friendship. Absolutely. And it is a generational change in our next program. We will be moving into the youngest couple moving into the white house with the kennedys and we look forward to learning about how the country continues to change. Thats it for our Mamie Eisenhower program. Our special guests here tonight. We thank them so much for their work and your biography is available if people are interested, marilyn holt, mamie dowd eisenhower, the generals first lady and folks can get enough tonight and theyd like to learn more. Always great to have you on the program. Thank you so much for your time. Thanks to you for watching at home. Great to have you in the audience. If you enjoyed watching first ladies, pick up a copy of the book first ladies. Influence and image through interviews with top historians now available through paperback, hard cover or as an ebook. Tonight on American History tv beginning at 8 00 p. M. Eastern, a look at the lives of Lady Bird Johnson and pat nixon. Cspan in cooperation with the White House Historical association produced a series on the first ladies examining their private lives and the public roles they played. First ladies, influence and image features individual biographies of the women who served in the role of first lady over 40 ford administrations. Watch American History tv tonight on cspan3. The president s from public affairs, available now in paperback and ebook. Presents biographies of every president organized by their ranking and by noted historians from best to worst and features perspectives into the lives of the nations chief executives and leadership styles. Visitor website, cspan. Org the president s. To learn more about the president s and historian featured and order your copy today wherever books and ebooks are sold. And i think every first lady should do something in this position to help the things she cares about. I just think that everything in the white house should be the best. The entertainment thats given here. It is the same the world over and so, of course, is our