The Oval Office

Problems in the West Wing

2008-05-13T02:54:00.001-04:00

No, it's not political. It's hydrological. As usual, the Hou Chron blog is there... and ankle deep in water.

Jenna gets hitched

2008-05-11T23:34:00.002-04:00

CNN has pics of the lovely outdoor wedding and tent reception. WH.gov has some too. Seems like the White House would have been a nice setting too.... I'm just saying....

No word on whether the president calls his new son-in-law "Hanky Panky" or "Hager the Horrible," but you know it has to be one of those.

Number 1 Observatory Circle

2008-05-08T00:34:00.002-04:00

MSNBC has a great tour of the vice-president's residence.

New front page - Johnson 1 East Room

2008-05-02T15:17:00.002-04:00

I've changed the front page to one of Andrew Johnson's East Room.

Also, I've added two new pics of the north side from 19th century postcards in my collection.

Oval Office 2008

2008-04-24T01:44:00.003-04:00

Very nice photo of the Oval Office the other day, courtesy of Time's WH blog.

LibriVox presidential projects

2008-04-19T19:15:00.003-04:00

LibriVox, the free audio book site supported by volunteers, is looking for readers for a couple of presidential projects: A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln by John Nicolay and Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography by, one supposes, Theodore Roosevelt. Consider volunteering for a couple of chapters or take note of them to listen to later when they're finished.

PS I never did read any of the Kennedy-Khruschev telegram exchanges from congratulations to missile crisis to condolences. They found two readers to do them all(!)

Pope visit

2008-04-16T19:36:00.003-04:00

Pope Benedict visited the White House today. It is his birthday, no less. I hope the president bought him Prada.....

HouChron is backstage....

Grand staircase decorations

2008-04-14T23:46:00.002-04:00

Ndkott (and JFK) wonders about the nature of the designs around the grand staircase. I think they are emblems of each of the original 13 states, but I'm not sure. Any better answers?

The president's call button

2008-04-11T01:35:00.005-04:00

Time has graciously served up a nice photo of the president's call button, under discussion here recently. Thanks Brooks Kraft!

Happy 90th, Mrs. Ford

2008-04-08T03:06:00.002-04:00

Today, Betty Ford turns 90 years old. Best wishes to her and her family.

New front page - Ike in the theater

2008-04-01T23:50:00.004-04:00

President Eisenhower sits quietly and comfortably in his easy chair in the Family Theater, where he spent so many hours watching western after western. No foolin'.

Resolute desk

2008-03-28T20:55:00.001-04:00

Time has a really nice photo of the Resolute desk plaque.

Easter egg roll

2008-03-24T22:13:00.002-04:00

Former First Lady Barbara Bush attended this year's WH Easter egg roll, along with former Presidents Washington, Roosevelt 1, Lincoln, and Jefferson. Former football great Troy Aikman read One Fish, Two Fish for some reason.

Art question

2008-03-22T13:52:00.006-04:00

Océano Pablo Navarro from Spain writes:

I found the enclosed picture of the Reagans with Prince Charles and Lady Diana in the Yellow Oval Room [actually the West Sitting Hall] and though I've searched all the web, I couldn't know who is the painter of the impressionist beach scene hanging on the wall.
Could you please give me this information?

Update: He got a reply back from Hillary Crehan of the WHHA that...

The painting in the image is entitled: At the Seaside by Edward Potthast. This painting was borrowed from a private collection and is shown hanging in the West Sitting Hall.

Road trip: Reagan Library

2008-03-13T15:51:00.005-04:00

I'm currently working in far-flung Rancho Cordova, California, near Sacramento, which Google places 6 hours away from the Reagan Library in Simi Valley and 6-and-a-half from the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda.

I think I'll plan to stay over one weekend and visit those locations as well as San Francisco. Does anyone who has visited those libraries have any travel tips? Traveling on business, I have the luxury of staying overnight in that area, giving me a jump on the next day.

Welcome, newcomers!

2008-03-13T15:45:00.005-04:00

I just looked at the Web stats for the WHM for the first time in several weeks and found that traffic is up considerably. The site first broke 30,000 page views a week in February of 2007 and held steady thru-out summer and fall until December, when visitorship went up markedly. Since then, we've been enjoying about 60,000 page views a week.

Welcome to everyone who found us in the last couple of months!

The president's box

2008-03-06T23:47:00.003-05:00

Got a note asking about the box with the medallion on top that appears in some of the photos for the President's Dining Room. It's quite prominent in the one I added recently. A similar box appears in photos of the Cabinet Room. I believe these are buttons the president can use to summon a White House steward into the room for more water or to clean up a spill or something. Anyone with more info? Are they radio controls or wired? I think that presidents have had similar call buttons since the house was wired for electricity (and bell pulls before that), but this president seems to like to keep his on display.

New front page - Reagan Green Room

2008-03-01T21:57:00.001-05:00

I've changed the front page to the 1982 Green Room, a nice bit of color in the gray weather.

Gizmodo hating on Laura

2008-02-28T07:11:00.001-05:00

Gizmodo takes exception to the Bush 2 renovation of the Family Theater in a new article using the Architectural Digest photos.

WordPress and more

2008-02-25T04:05:00.004-05:00

I haven't been paying a lot of attention to this site recently, partly because I've run out of photos and other good historical material to improve it. This is something I anticipated happening after about 3 months, but I got such good encouragement and tips from other enthusiasts that I had plenty to keep me busy for a year and a half. Thanks!

The other reason is that I went researching WordPress as an alternative to Blogger (since many have had trouble with the Blogger commenting system) and ended up creating a whole new site relevant to a different hobby of mine: movies. As regular readers know, I've done several audio commentaries for movies set in the White House and more still for other movies. I decided to create a site where others can submit their commentaries, so there is a central repository for movie and television commentaries available on the Web. Check it out at Zarban.com, if you like that sort of thing.

I'm liking WordPress a lot, so I may convert this blog one of these days.

Soldiers' Home opening

2008-02-18T21:48:00.006-05:00

After a $15 million renovation, the Old Soldiers' Home presidential retreat beloved by the Lincolns is set to reopen tomorrow (for tourists, not soldiers). Apparently, it took a lot to get the old soldiers out.

Nancy Reagan hospitalized

2008-02-17T23:48:00.000-05:00

86-year-old Nancy Reagan was hospitalized after a fall in her home. She attended the funeral of Merv Griffin last year and seems to otherwise be in good health. Best wishes to her and her family.

Got it!

2008-02-15T22:29:00.005-05:00

I got a copy (two, actually) of AD at O'Hare while traveling today. The photos are beautiful, altho I wish we'd seen one or two of the private rooms (even the Family Kitchen!). The Green Room looks great and the Lincoln Bedroom is marvelous, but the Queens' Bedroom is as frumpy as ever. You'd think that first families would be more adventurous with the lesser known guest room. The Vermeil Room is somehow still boring, despite the goldware. It's nice to see the Palm Room, tho.

Also, I must say, the Porsche advertising insert was very persuasive. It fairly convinced me that I want a Porsche. But what is with that ad on page 35? Are they selling Isabella Rosselini? As much as I admire her beauty and talent, I won't be a part of the illicit film star trade.

Architectural Digest

2008-02-12T01:25:00.000-05:00

I still haven't had a chance to pick up the new Architectural Digest with pics of the Bush redecoration. I've looked for it locally, but couldn't find it. I didn't want to go all the way to Barnes & Noble or Borders because I knew I'd be passing thru O'Hare airport Monday and it would certainly be there. Cue the severe weather flight delays.... and I had to rush to catch my connection.

This week I'm in Sacramento. Surely these people are civilized. The weather certainly is.

Presidents in movies and TV

2008-02-10T20:33:00.000-05:00

As a result of a reader of the WHM Movies and TV page, I was prompted to consider how the US president is portrayed in movies and TV. I thought it would be a good discussion topic.

SPOILERS AHEAD

One thing that comes to mind is political party. Without studying it in depth, I think few movie presidents have actually been described as Republican or Democrat. They just don't talk about it. Jed Bartlett of The West Wing TV show was a Democrat, tho.

I've also noticed that there aren't many presidential marriages portrayed as happy. Notably, in the movies Dave and The Sentinel, the first couple were estranged, and in Murder at 1600 and Absolute Power, the president was cheating on his wife. In The American President, the president was widowed shortly before taking office. Real presidents get the benefit of the doubt, tho. In Nixon, the marriage seemed solid, for example.

I can't think of any works that portray fictional presidents as really corrupt, altho I think the president murdered his mistress in Absolute Power. I can't remember if we see much of Nixon in All the President's Men. It's actually surprising, now that I think of it, that pretty much all fictional presidents are portrayed as thoughtful, well-meaning, tough-minded, and kind-hearted, even when they're ordering mass destruction (Failsafe and Dr. Strangelove).
The president takes forceful action in Independence Day and Air Force One.

In the new movie, Vantage Point, I believe the president uses a double who gets murdered. Dave also featured a double, but for the-prince-and-the-pauper comic effect.

Presidents are probably most often the target of assassination. In the Line of Fire and The Sentinel come to mind, as well as JFK. I think both Parallax View and Manchurian Candidate are about candidates for president.

Diversity is pretty important to Hollywood. Female presidents feature in 1964's Kisses for My President (gotta see that one) and the TV shows Commander in Chief and 24. Black presidents feature in The Fifth Element and the TV show 24.

Even so, the great majority of fictional presidents are white, middle-aged, male, and of European descent, just like every president so far in real life. I can't think of any fictional presidents from the South, however, and we've had a number of those. Their names are almost uniformly bland too: Bartlett, Shepherd, Marshall, Palmer, Taylor, Allen, McKenna, Ballentine, Neil, Mitchell. One exception is Dr. Strangelove's President Merkin Muffley, and--of course--The Simpsons Movie's President Arnold Schwarzenegger.

List of fictional presidents from Wikipedia (as usual, way overdone, including presidents in short stories).