The Case of the Ruby Slippers (13 page)

Instead of answering, Tessa bumped her bare heels together three times. “The moral of this story,” she said, “is there's no place like home—
duh
. Especially when home happens to be the White House.”

The Case of the Ruby Slippers
revolves around a surprise birthday party in the White House East Room, a party with live music and lots of guests, including celebrities. But White House parties aren't always such a big deal. If you had been invited by the first residents of the White House, President John Adams and his wife, Abigail, you'd have drunk tea, wine, or punch, and eaten cookies or fruit. It's easy to see why they kept it simple. The house itself wasn't finished when they moved there in 1800, and only about half the rooms were usable.

President and Mrs. Adams only lived in the White House for a few months before the new president, Thomas Jefferson, was inaugurated. Jefferson knew a lot about good food and wine, and he enjoyed entertaining. To encourage conversation, he introduced something new, a round table so that guests could see one another's faces at dinner.

It was also President Jefferson who opened the house for public tours and welcomed the public to receptions on New Year's Day and the Fourth of July. The public tours continue to this day, but the New Year's tradition ended in 1933 when President Herbert Hoover wore himself out shaking hands with 6,000 guests!

The most famous White House hostess was President James Madison's wife, Dolley, who moved into the executive mansion in 1809. Even today Dolley Madison's name is synonymous with hospitality, which is why Hostess Brands has a line of snack cakes named after her. Mrs. Madison introduced both the waltz and the ice cream cone, which she served for dessert after a fancy dinner. She also held weekly afternoon receptions in the Red Room for guests from both political parties, hoping to encourage them to get along better.

Another renowned hostess was President John Kennedy's wife, Jacqueline. Mrs. Kennedy grew up in a wealthy family and was educated in France. When she moved into the White House in 1961, she hired a French chef to take over the kitchen, causing one lucky guest to say, “People talk about what Mrs. Kennedy has done redecorating and restoring the White House, but they should talk more about how she has improved the food.”

Mrs. Kennedy also liked sophisticated entertainment. Once she invited the daughters of Vice President Lyndon Johnson to a formal dinner, and they thought the invitation was a mistake. Did she realize they were teenagers, only seventeen and fourteen? Yes, she did. Professional actors would be performing scenes from Shakespeare after dinner, and Mrs. Kennedy thought the girls, Lynda and Luci, would enjoy it.

Lynda and Luci's mother, Ladybird Johnson, let them go. But she did give them one piece of advice: “Don't drink any of the wines at the White House!”

Similarly, “Be good” was the only advice Susan Ford's parents—President and Mrs. Gerald Ford—gave her before her senior prom in 1975. They must have had a lot of confidence in her. They were leaving for Europe the day before Susan's senior prom was being held in the East Room of the White House.

Susan, her seventy-two classmates and their dates danced to the music of two bands, the Outer Space and the Sandcastle, drank punch, and ate Swedish meatballs, quiche and chicken in sweet-and-sour sauce. Susan said the prom was pretty much like any other—except that everyone had to be cleared by the Secret Service, and chaperones included White House aides and the press.

Probably the biggest White House party ever was the celebration of President Andrew Jackson's inauguration in 1829. The new president was the first from a frontier state, Tennessee, and the first born to a poor family. He was elected in part because of a change in laws that allowed more people to vote. This made him popular with a broader group of people than the upper class landowners who had elected previous presidents,
so popular that an estimated 30,000 people came to Washington, D.C., for his inauguration.

Some of these people were unaccustomed to either cities or polite behavior. There were nowhere near enough hotel rooms, so they camped out and got pretty crazy. According to one White House witness, “Ladies fainted, men were seen with bloody noses and such a scene of confusion took place as is impossible to describe. Those who got in could not get out by the door again, but had to scramble out of windows.”

Among those making their escape was Andrew Jackson himself. Protected by a group of close friends, the president—who was also a military hero—hurried out the backdoor and spent the night at a hotel.

In that case it was party guests who behaved badly, but occasionally it has been a member of the White House family. President Abraham Lincoln's son Thomas, nicknamed “Tad” for “tadpole,” was known to drive his pet goat, Nanko, through his mother's tea parties, and President Theodore Roosevelt's daughter, Alice, liked to appear before startled guests with a boa wrapped round her neck—and not the feather kind either. Alice kept a live boa constrictor as a pet.

Better behaved was Caroline Kennedy, who was three when she moved into the White House. Wearing pink pajamas, she would sit quietly at the top of the grand staircase and watch the dressed-up, grown-up guests in the entry hall below. When her parents saw her, they waved.

Like the Kennedys, Franklin Roosevelt (president
from 1933–1945) and his wife, Eleanor, loved to entertain. In a single year, they had 323 guests stay overnight, served meals to 4,729 people, and welcomed more than 14,000 to teas or receptions. The Queen's Bedroom was named for one of their overnight guests, Britain's Queen Elizabeth. But not all the Roosevelts' guests were famous. Mrs. Roosevelt annually invited new graduates of Washington, D.C., schools to a celebratory tea party.

When it comes to birthday parties at the White House, a few stand out. President Benjamin Harrison's grandson, widely known as Baby McKee, celebrated his third birthday party in the state dining room in 1890. Seated in fifteen high chairs around the table, the toddler guests ate biscuits shaped like chicks, bonbons, bouillon and cream. The Marine Band, led by John Philip Sousa, provided entertainment.

In 1968, President Lyndon Johnson's grandson, Lyn, celebrated his first birthday in the Rose Garden. This was during the Vietnam War, and President Johnson's relationship with the press was not always friendly. That day, the president faced reporters with the birthday boy in his lap. “You got a platform, anything you want to tell them?” the president asked. Young Lyn cooed in reply, and President Johnson translated: “He says no comment.”

In 1956, President Dwight Eisenhower's grandson, David, turned eight. The East Room celebration was family only until two special guests showed up: the most famous TV cowboy ever, Roy Rogers, and his wife and co-star, Dale Evans. Rogers brought his guitar and sang some cowboy songs, which impressed David but not his three-month-old sister, Mary Jean. She slept through the whole thing.

When President Eisenhower himself turned seventy four years later, some 6,000 people thronged the White House. The World War II army general and graduate of West Point got choked up during a serenade by the Army Band. Eisenhower was the first president to turn seventy in office, and he planted an oak tree on the South Lawn to mark the occasion.

In 1996, President and Mrs. Bill Clinton threw a surprise party to honor the ninetieth birthday of jazz legend Lionel Hampton. Among the soloists was President Clinton himself on saxophone for Rodgers and Hart's “My Funny Valentine.”

More recently, President Barack Obama became the sixth sitting president to turn fifty in office. He celebrated in August 2011 with guests including singers, actors, basketball stars and government officials. After a Rose Garden barbecue, world-famous musicians Stevie Wonder and Herbie Hancock performed onstage in the East Room. In keeping with tradition, the president's family served him birthday cake. But Mr. Obama actually prefers pie, and there were four kinds on hand: apple, peach, huckleberry and cherry.