National Geographic: Inside the White House Page #2

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that get to do it.

So I take a lot of pride

in what I do and I love it.

Can I speak to Jim please?

Chief Usher Gary Walters

is the house conductor.

He directs everyone

from butlers to plumbers,

all the people who serve the family

and make the house work.

Although he built the house,

George Washington died

before it was finished.

John Adams, intimidated by the expense

of running such a home,

said he'd prefer a row house instead.

But Washington's house held

irresistible allure,

and on the night of November 1, 1800,

Adams became the first President

to sleep in the White House.

Well, he woke up the next morning

and he wrote a letter to his wife.

It seemed to settle in on him.

And it's really, you might say,

the first experience, you know

of a President having in that house

and see by now

it is the President's house.

It seems almost an afterthought,

it was very beautiful,

when he says, you know,

may heaven bestow the best of blessings

on this house and may none

but honest and wise men

inhabit it hereafter.

When the Johnsons

entered the White House,

the nation was still in mourning

for President John Kennedy.

One of the times that was

a throat gasping time

for me

was the morning of a December the 22nd,

when I came down to the first floor

where all of the chandeliers

had been draped in black net,

and to come back and see that gone

and the Christmas tree

brilliantly alight,

I think we had it in the Blue Room.

That was just a...

you just gasp with sort of a relief,

and now we are started,

and life will go on.

For the first families,

from the moment they move in,

life goes on in the public eye.

For their own sanity,

there must be a refuge

and at the White House it is upstairs.

Only above this stair

is privacy absolute.

Never, while the Presidential family

is in residence,

may cameras pass beyond this gate.

Cameras above the first floor

are still rare,

because this is where the families live.

The second and third floors

are one of the few places on earth

where the families

are not accompanied by Secret Service.

At the heart of the second floor

is the Yellow Oval Room

which leads to the Truman Balcony.

These rooms provide a haven,

a place safe from everything

but history.

For me, I would get so caught up

in what I was doing

that you forget where you are...

that this is home.

But then we'd sit down at dinner

at night

and here would be

Abraham Lincoln's plate,

and then it would all just kind

of come back,

here I am in this historic house,

and it was overwhelming sometimes.

While overwhelming, this public housing

does come with some useful amenities.

Living in the White House

is quite a dream for any homemaker.

There's somebody to do everything,

and it's not just the wonderful

butlers and maids,

but if you need a plumber,

all you do is pick up the phone

and the plumber is there right away.

Well, when President Johnson

first came into office,

the Chief Usher call me up and said

the President wants to talk to you

about the shower.

He says, "Come up," so I came up.

The President stepped off

the elevator coming down

going to the Oval Office that morning.

So, he told me he wanted more water,

colder water, and he said,

"If I have to, I'll go over

to the Elms and take my shower."

So the first thing I did,

I got a chauffeur and went to the Elms

to see what he had over there.

And we came back to the White House

and we thought we had it,

you know, perfect for him, you know.

We had it much better

than he had at the Elms.

But, he wasn't satisfied with that.

He wanted 50 degree cold water.

He wanted body sprays around him.

And then he told me that

he wanted a showerhead

about two feet off the floor.

He said, "I want a showerhead

right there."

I said, "Well, you hold your finger there

Mr. President.

Let me mark that spot."

In your home, probably you have

about eight to ten pounds

of running pressure on your showerhead

when it's running.

His was 110 pounds of pressure

while it was running.

It was like a mini-car wash.

The Chief Usher was Rex Scouten.

He said,

"I have to try that shower out."

And it just kind of pinned him

right up against the wall.

The employees are like a family

because everybody see, you know -

it's like you've got

different departments

and everything like that.

But it's not operated that way.

If you see something

that needs to be done,

regardless of which department it is,

you do it.

That's why we say it's like a family.

I remember one time teasing a member

of the staff, one of the butlers,

and they are really like family

and treated our children like family,

and I said,

"If you don't behave,

I'm going to get you fired."

And he burst out laughing and said,

"Presidents

come and go, butlers stay."

In 1945, a young electrician

named John Muffler came to work here.

For the last 50 years,

in addition to electrical jobs,

he has handled the little annoyances

of life for ten first families,

like replacing watch batteries

and fixing eye- glasses.

You want to do the Ground Floor, right?

No one in the history of the House

has served here longer.

Am I going too fast for you?

The man with the longest tenure here,

fittingly, also is in charge of time.

Every Friday, Mr. Muffler

winds the clocks

in every part of the White House.

How many clocks are there in the place?

Several.

...Mr. President?

Yes, it's a beautiful clock.

And it still keeps good time.

Do all these clocks run,

Mr. President...

Yes, they all run.

We have a special man

who winds clocks every Friday.

I'd always managed to be there

when he'd come in somehow,

and one morning he said to me,

"Son, do you know why

when I come into this office,

these pictures are all crooked

and all bent out of shape?"

I said, "No, Sir, Mr. President,

unless the cleaners,

when they're dusting,

they move the pictures around."

He said, "No, no, no,

that's not the reason."

He said, "Would you like to know?"

I said, "Yes Sir, Mr. President,

I would."

And he said, "The rotation

of the earth causes that."

And I said,

"Yes Sir, Mr. President."

But he went over every morning

and straightened 'em...

Oh, I love Mr. Muffler.

I can't do anything like program VCRs

or set digital clocks

and so I'm always needing his help

to come to my rescue,

but he's a perfect example

of the kind of...

...dedicated service that people

have given to the White House

and to Presidents and their families

for over 200 plus years.

United Nations War Council.

President Roosevelt

and Prime Minister Churchill

at the White House...

Because of what happens here,

even in the wee hours of the night,

someone is always on call.

Alonzo Fields,

White House butler for 21 years,

developed a unique relationship

with Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

Around 1:
30, I decided that

the Prime Minister satisfied

and I was thinking of going...

really going to bed.

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