booktv sits down with longtime white house employee, stewart stevens. mr. stevens a former chandelier in window cleaner at the white house for seven presidents wrote about his experience in his self-published memoir "the white house chandeliers."

>> how did you get to the white house? >> guest: well when i think back i was in the military police so i went to number 14 precinct and talk to the sergeant about being in the police. i had to take a test and they said i passed the test but they weren't hiring any blacks. so that didn't work and then i went to the fire department and i had to sign a sheet of paper that was longer than your leg tt wait to join the fire department today knew i had to wait and i couldn't wait that long so i went back and i was telling my dad and he said well you are going to have to wait on them to call you and we were waiting you were going to have to find a job do h so if you save a lot of money.

you have picked up a few bad habits so you are going to have to get yourself together. i said yes, sir. i want -- i went to a restaurant and they wanted to -- me to be a busboy. it's a little more than washing dishes at home you know that i started working in the kitchen washing the washing of pots and pans and whatnot and witnessed people finished eating and things i would go up in picket the dishes and take my tray and bring it back to the kitchen where i could wash them. so, i didn't really know and i would see out this money laying on the table. i thought it was for me so i started picking up some of that in putting it on the tray and taking it back.

they started saying they weren't getting any tips so i saw the busboy pick up some tips and they called me and told me saying you are not supposed to pick up the tip.p.o you just pick up the dishes and wipe off the table. you don't pick up the tips so i said yes sir, okay. so i stopped picking up the tips but somehow i didn't get along too good there so i left there and i went and told dad, i said i'm not making it at this job. i'm picking up tips and they were excited so i said hey this is not going to work. my two brothers came by and my dad said your brother tried to get a job but he is not able to get a job can you all help them get a job. my two brothers didn't have

anything like a business going but they were trying to do some work for themselves like washing windows or going to the stores and washing the storefronts and things like that and finally they said well we will take him with us and show them how to wash windows. so, they did. they taught me how to wash windows. not too long after that i was down at the executive officewasn building on 17th and pennsylvania avenue and i was cleaning the front of the clea building which was 30 feet high and the reason i knew because i had six pieces of bladder and each piece of the latter was 6 feet. there was a section of the latter for you to put them together. i got up there and i started

cleaning the glass and i was doing good. i like the job pretty good and mr. rochester came out of the building and i didn't know it at the time. he stood back and he watched me so when i got down he said young man he said i see you doing a good job washing the windows. i said yes sir i been doing it long time. he said had he you been in the military and i said yes. he said have you ever been in trouble and i said no, sir. he said well, we have the gentleman over at the white house that's going to be washing the windows but he doesn't know what he is doing and we need somebody to wash the windowsat that knows what they are doing. he said what i'm going to do, i'm going to give you a temporary pass and i'm going to give you a.i will g >> of papers for you to take

home and fill them out. every night he said you fill them out because the secret service is going to check everything and if we find anything wrong then you can't work at the white house. i knew when i was coming up i might have done a few crookedven things but nobody knew nothingin about it and i did not to go to court or anything like that and it didn't mess up my record. i took the papers home and my mom and dad helped me of the papers and everything. ov i went to two mr. charlie rochester. i asked the secret service and they came to me and gave me the position to see mr. rochester that i would talk to him and he said this is what i'm going to do. he said why i'm going to do i'm

going to take it to the white house and let you meet mr. wilson about washing the windows. i said yes sir. so i get over to the white house and i was a little nervous. i said mr. wilson he was actually cutting the putty out of the windows loading the class into the train. the f he had the razor blade and he was cutting all the patio. i told him i said mr. wilson and his said yeah. i said i mr. stevens and mr. mr. rochester sent me over to help you because i'm a window washer. he said well i am glad to see you he said the cause they are trying to make a window washer out of me and i'm not a window washer. he said, so i'm glad to see you. i said okay, one thing i said when you clean a window youn th can't cut the putty out of there

because that's what holds the glass of the window. i started working, i think ittoh was "the new press" building. they just had built "the new press" building and so my job was to watch all of the windows. after i had wash the windows working for the contractors wh because when you work for contractors they get paid by the work you do. that's how you get paid, by the work that you do. so i was real fast so i started cleaning all of the windows, cleaning them and cleaning them fast and everything and i saw a lot of the guys who work there. some of them are goofing off.

some were going to the lockerr room and playing chess. i wasn't into that. i have a family here and i have to support my family. i knew if i lost this job i'd have to go back out in the cold and wash windows so i said okay. mr. wilson said steve, you do whatever you want to do. he said you can have it because i'm through with it. it he left that i cleaned the windows then one day i cleaned all the windows. i was just walking around china to keep from getting into trouble. so i'm to mr. rick scott. plus the chief usher of the white house. >> guest: that's right he was the chief usher because at one time he was secret service. >> host: mr. stevens have you

gotten your permission at this point to work for the white house and had your papers gone through and you are all cleared? >> guest: .at that time. i was still under secret service clearance, i mean my temporary pass and i went to mr. skelton. he had his glasses down over his no's and he said steven what can i do for you? i said well i have been used to working fast and getting my work done and said and i'm doing it too fast here so i don't have enough to keep me busy and i don't want to get in no troublee so he said well what if you got in mind? i said i see a lot of dirty chandeliers and lightbulbs and things. they have got cobwebs all over them. i said they are sewed dusty and they don't really look like chandeliers. so he said so you want to start

trying to clean the chandeliers? i said yes sir i have had little experience with that because i worked at the commerce for a little while and they had chandeliers down there and i had cleaned some of the chandeliers down there. those he said well we want to give you a try. he said and i'll tell you something these are the most expensive chandeliers. you have to be careful and if he gets a break in them you are gone. i said yes sir, no problem. i got the payment that had come up and put up a scaffold for me. the red road comes to the lead at the white house. let's get the main entrance. >> guest: the main entrance, yes sir. that's where it started right there. they put up a scaffold and i

started cleaning the chandelier and there were two main ones. they were the prettiest chandeliers in the house. i really think they were a real crystal. there were like diamonds. they were flashing all kinds of colors and everything so when i started cleaning them i made up by own solution. a lot of that was 100% pneumonia with no greece, no greasy pneumonia. this was clear pneumonia and i would take a little bit of pneumonia, just a little bit and put it in a bucket of water. >> host: amman yet? >> guest: pneumonia get that much hotter because when the water gets stronger the ammonia

get stronger. had the shammy and a clean rag. i had a rag that i could lay the crystals on psychic with them in the bucket and i would take them out of the bucket and i would polish them with my shammy and then i would lay them on the rag i would put up some pieces and take down some more pieces. finally i went all around the chandelier and then i had to move me over here. took me six, seven, eight hours. >> host: 6000 pieces. >> guest: i hadn't gotten to p them, no sir.

i didn't mind working overtime because like i said i needed the money for my family. i started on the other one and i cleaned that one and when i finished cleaning them they were really like to diamonds. you couldn't buy a diamond that looked any better. they were picking up the flag, the rugs all of the color all around. i got the pictures to come and take the scaffolding down. i went back washing windows. somebody asked somebody who is cleaning the chandeliers? he told them, steve. the word god all around the white house that steve isf cleaning chandeliers and you ought to go up and see how they look. everybody started talking about how bright the chandelier was,

how clean they were and came and told me he really did a good job on the chandeliers. but at that time i really didn't know what i was asking for. they say sometimes if you ask you might not get it. there were so many chandeliers, man. >> host: what made you write your book, "the white house chandeliers"? why did you write this book? >> guest: well, to be honest with you i had all of mytures pictures in the closet and all of my boxes and things and they had been in what there for a while. my wife passed and my daughter came to me and she said daddy, what are you going to do with all that stuff? she said why don't you write a book? >> host: about your white house experience.yo

>> guest: about my white house experience. a said yeah honey i would like to write a book about my white house experience but you know i'm not all that good at writing a book. i didn't do that well in school. i picked up a lot of stuff working in different places i said but i really don't know how to write a book. she said i'll tell you what, you tell me what happens and i'm going to write it down. so i called my daughter and i started talking just like i'm talking to you and i started telling her everything and shehk started writing everything down. she just kept writing and kept writing so we started another day, the same thing. i went bright -- right back to it and i told her she wrote it all down. i did that i guess for about three or four weeks and it took

that long to tell her everything. i was trying not to leave out nothing but i've left out some things because i didn't think it was appropriate to put it in the book. so i left sub of the doubt. >> host: what happens at the white house stays at the white house? >> guest: absolutely. just like what happens in vegas stays in vegas. speaking of that when i first started we had to sign papers to that effect. we signed papers about finances, everything you can think of, medical records, tax papers we design everything so anytime they wanted to they could go and pull your records out. >> host: as a security check.

mr. stevens he started workingrt there when richard nixon was president. you remember the first time you saw him in the white house? >> guest: yes, sir. the first time i had seen him he didn't come down like the other presidents. he came down around 6:00. it was a good time until i saw him. he got done at the oval office at 8:00 or 9:00 i think. i was working and if he came out of the main residence there are couple of doors that you go into and then you would go intou another set of doors to go up the long-haul to go into the oval office. the he came here one day and he didn't seem like he was too friendly of the guy to me when i first met him.

we got along good because he was a nice president. he was. one thing he believed in doing, he asked everybody the names of wa our children he wanted to know how old they weren't at christmastime he would send presence to everybody, all of my children read piece at some expensive gifts. i mean robots and all that kind of stuff. i never really had big good conversation with him but i had to work in his office where he used to go upstairs and study most of the time. he would go up and sit in that room and he was studying and he wasn't the type of president to

be disturbed. he mostly wanted to be to himself. he wasn't happy and jolly like the other presidents but that wasn't for me to judge. my thing was to do my work andnd get out of his way and get out of the rest of their way, just get out of the way you know. i saw him a couple of times after that and he finally got so he would throw his hand up and say good morning and i would saf good morning mr. president. i remember this. president carter he came in atg 6:00 in the morning like he did every morning had his bible in his hand went to the oval office and he and i got to be wrote good. he said and he say good morning i say good morning mr. president. he said what's your name? then he looked down my belt

buckle up because i kept -- it was brass of my that rascal shiny. t everybody saw it and they'd say good morning steve. i didn't know their names. i said hey my man, how is everything you know? we got to talking but anyway president, i just said it. >> host: president carter? >> guest: president carter, yes.t to be he and i got to be very good friends that we talked a lot. >> host: did it ever occur to mr. steven said you wereth standing there with the present of the united states having a conversation? >> guest: it really hit any when he said, i say good morning mr. president and he said good morning, steve. that's when it hit me. you know, you are talking at the top people in the united states and they recognize your name.

that really made me feel good and i made sure that i was going to be there when they came through there reagan and all of them. everybody came to see me and they got to see my name so i was just a regular person a regular job minding my business. t m >> host: you said very kind things about hillary rodham clinton and nancy reagan. what was your interaction with the first lady's?ag >> guest: well, the first lady's, the main ones that would notice the chandeliers first. women, they pick up a lot of stuff that man pass right on by. i have always said to me and myself how much smarter women are than men because i have seen

a lot of smart ladies at the white house. mrs. reagan, mrs. clinton, they were a couple of smart ladies. also mrs. barbara bush. she was really a smart lady. the only thing i heard that about ms. hillary clinton was one night they were in bed on the second floor. they had pull her fruit -- bulletproof glass the slidesglth back and forth. sometimes it's got a little warm in there so they would -- i don't know whether was a present for her but they would slide the window back and the window so they could get some air. the secret service was right down under there. they were down there talking in hooting and hollering and they were having a good time because

it was at night. made so ms. hillary went to the window and hollered out the window andd she said if you all don't cut that noise out, trying to get some sleep and if you don't cut that noise out you won't be working here no more. sure enough i didn't see them on that job no more.i i didn't see them. i don't know where they went bue anyway mrs. reagan, the way i described her was a person that was very much in love with her husband. i mean very much in love withlow her husband.very muc i would hear them all the time. they used to have to go out in the diplomatic reception room and go out on the lawn to make speeches and get on the plane or wherever.

a lot of people thought then roa white house had her front door and a backdoor. well they didn't have a frontk door and a backdoor because they were thinking about the dignitaries to, they had to come in the backdoor so they named it the north door and the south door. that's what the portico names came from. a beautiful place and mrs. reagan was just a very nice lady. she kind of stayed to herself but she would always speak andy laugh and she would get soap crazy about ronnie. everything was ronnie. she would talk about ronnie all over the white house because she loved him that much. he was the same way and think

god he didn't get killed when he had that attempted assassination on his life. >> host: were you at the white house said they? >> guest: yes sir, i was there that day and what happened was the president went out to make a speech someplace up there and the secret service, he had all the secret service around them like they normally do. anyway, when he came out hinckley fired two or three shots and the secret service guy ride we grabbed the president, pushed them into the limousine and the secret service guy got hinckley and they had to get, the one that got shot in the head. >> host: james brady.

>> guest: yeah brady.e he got shot in the head. >> host: where reagan white house? >> guest: i don't know what part of the white house i was at but i heard it from the ushers office and i thought the president had an attempted assassination of president reagan. when i was told everything that went on because when the secret service grabbed him and pushed him into the automobile they pushed into hard and he wantedrd to know why are you pushing meo so hard? they were trying to hurry up and get him out of there. you know like that, when the president is any kind of danger right away they get someone to rush them right out of their no problem. t what they did was come he said i want to go back to the white house and one of the secret service guys notice that he had some blood running out of his no's. nose

they told them we are not taking you back to the white house. we are taking you to george washington hospital. so they took him to george washington hospital and they examined him with an examination being the president, the best examination he could get in they found out he had a bullet somewhere in his load -- in his lung and they told him he was going to have to have surgery. by that time the word had gotten back to mrs. reagan and she came in and man, she was upset.e she was so upset she was worried she was crying. she ran over to ronnie and she said how are you doing ronnie? he said hi nanci i'm doing fine and everything is all right.so t

the doctors came to him and told them that he was going to have to have immediate surgery. >> host: what was it like at the white house while this was all going on? >> guest: everybody was scared to death. like i said it was one happy family. everyone knew everybody. everybody concentrated on doing things for the president and whatever the president wanted he got it. we were right there. we had everything he needed. for instance when patricia got varied in the rose garden, man i'll tell you we were robbed but let me get back to the story. they rushed into the hospital and the doctors found out he had to have emergency surgery. mrs. reagan had come in and she

had to step back and she said ronnie, he said i'm going to be all right, i'm going to be all right, i'm going to be all right the doctors there were getting ready to perform surgery he looked at them and said are you all democrats or republicans? you know they all kind of smiled and they went on with their work after they did the surgery and everything he stayed in the hospital for a day or two but nobody knew just how serious it was because he he was so close to losing his life. >> host: do you remember when he came back to the white house? >> guest: yes sir, i surely do. when i came back everybody welcomed him and we were all standing outside and we were calling for him. he was tough, man. he was a movie star. he was just waving and now like you is all right and they had a

wheelchair and roll them into the door. he went upstairs and he was up in the bedroom for a few days. he occurred to everyone outside clapping and hollering for him h so he got out of his bed and stood up at the window and just waved at him. he wasn't supposed to be up out of the bed.ns, i unde >> host: mr. stevens i understand you are pretty good porsha player. >> guest: i wouldn't say that.>> i knew president bush. he was such a nice president and by him having so much of her resume that he had the man had gotten into everything you knowd he passed around that he was going to have a horseshoe pitesi made.

the right distance, he wanted the iron pegs the right distance like they are supposed to be. right awake he had a horseshoe pit made over by the swimming pool. they had moved the swimming pool for more used to being the old place when president, that's okay it will come to me as i go on. he had the horseshoe pit made perfect and then he issued an order for everybody to get a partner in him and his son were going to meet him over the horseshoe pit. they were going to let the best man win. don't be worried about playing the president. he pitched the best he can pitch and whoever won or lost he gave

them a present.ent. so i would have around and i picked up the a guy in a coffee shop. his name was matthew and he told me steve, i pitch for shoes and i look at him and i said jimmy, i know how to pitch them. i said i have pitched a little bit but i'm not that good. he said we are going to practice. he said we will get it. i said okay, so everybody else, all the guys, i can't remember whether any women were in all. i don't think any women werere involved, only the men take their partners. they went over and practiced a day or two and then the president was ready. i'm trying to think, i believe him and george w. were partners. a couple of the guys got up there and they were gone. they knocked him off right away.

they got rid of them. they were good together so my partner and i went over there. the first horseshoe i threw hit the tag and it leaned up against the peg where you are supposed to get three pointed thing, something like that. my partner he threw a ringer. rg we knew, we are going to get this guy you know? man, when they got the horseshoe's they pitched five after five after five of them and they just shut us out. they shut us out and we felt bad because we were shut out but we felt good to get hey we met the president. >> host: did you understand you are playing horseshoes with the president of united states? >> that's why we didn't do

anything. he was such a good person and he was really into horseshoes. when he lived in texas he sent for some of the guys from texas to come down to texas to play horseshoes with him him. you really love playing horseshoes. >> host: these are a couple of the stories you have included in the "the white house chandeliers" my experiences while working for seven u.s. presidents. we are hearing her home in the suburbs of washington. you've got quite a museum of white house memorabilia here. >> guest: yes sir. >> host: where did you collect if and when did you get a? >> guest: it started with president nixon. after every year all of the house residence there, they got presents from the president and i got four from each president. i got eight from the other

president that served to times which made me have more. it was everything, man. if you get a chance to look at it and it got there. the name comes the date and everything. a lot of it was bicentennial year. >> host: looking at here collection i've seen personal modes from richard nixon, ronald reagan, bill clinton, hillary rodham clinton just to name agal few. >> guest: yes. i got to know the presidents very well by meeting them, going back and forth through the hallway but sometimes they woule come down in i would be up on the ladder.

we had light globes from one end of the hallway always down to the other one. was my responsibility to make sure they were pained every monday. sometimes they would come down and i would get down off the ladder and speak to them.er and i respected the president and then i'd get back up and do my work and stuff. but jimmy carter, president clinton was very special because i lost my mother and he camee o downstairs into the oval office and i spoke to him and he came over to me and he said steve, he said i heard that you lost your mother. he said my sympathy., i've been there. the same thing happened when i lost my father which was a year or two later. he came to me and said the same thing. he sent me, every birthday he

sent me a card. i got 10 or 15 of those things every birthday he would send me one. president carter, he had taken the cake and this is what happened. most of us that worked at the white house have never been to camp david. i was one of them. i've never been to camp david today at heard a lot about it, but i knew that it was a presidents retreat where they would go out and play golf and enjoy themselves and didn't have to worry about much. i guess they had all their phones at things with them but they were just enjoying themselves. one sunday they were getting ready for christmas and we had 13 days to get ready for

christmas and to set up a christmas tree, fix the chandeliers and clean them. i cleaned the east room from ceiling to floor, four of them o and i had to clean all of the windows and the chandeliers in the bowling alley.owling they have mirrors in the bowling alley that went from one wall all the way down to the other law -- wall and the same thing on the other side. it was my responsibility to keep all of the mirrors clean. even in where they have the gymnasium, they had windows all over the place because peoplese like to watch themselves when they were working out in the gym now getting back to president carter one sunday we got thehat order that president carter had told him get him ready he was going to take him to camp davidd for dinner. i was kind of excited.

all of us left. nobody had a chance to wash or take a bath or anything. we put on tuxedos and we worship sharp and dirty. i mean, we have been working andbeen w sweating getting ready for christmas day. he took us to camp david and he got up and introduced all of us. we walked around and everything. we had all of the big roundtable set up and all of the trimmingse just like we were professionals. a lot of them didn't know about five or six water glasses and eight or nine pieces of silverware. we didn't know anything about that.ich fork anyway we all had separate tables.

i think it was six array to a table and president carter got up and asked for a blessing over the food. the butlers went around pouring the wine in the glasses. everybody had a nice glass and he poured mine and everybody, we were just so happy and laughing and smiling. when they got to presidentilingw carter the bus but it was kind of new and he poured wine into president carter's class and president carter stood up and he said steve and i said yes. he said you know i'm religious and i don't drink wine. he said would you like to haveve mine and i said yes sir mr. president. i reached over and he handed me a glass of wine and i had two

glasses of wine in my hand. everybody else had one. i drank mine instantly so i had one more left. lef i took my time and sat down and i was eating and sipping the wine. the wine was finally gone and then we had a big glass of cold ice water sitting on the table. we really had a fabulous time. when we got back to the white house one of the guys said to me , we went into the south porter company which is the dream big door where they always go out into the reception room. the guys told me steve -- he said you drank the president's

wine. offer i said man, he offered it to mea you never tell the president know. he said you know you are smart and i said no never tell the president know. that's why i drink his wine and it was good wine and i was ready to drink some more. we had a good time and we left from there and went back to the white house taking off of our tuxedos and all of that stuff back to her were close. i went back on the scaffold because i had to finish theebeca chandeliers and everybody else was hanging christmas wreaths and christmas tree and all that kind of stuff.stuff, b it was a wonderful experience, man. i just can't tell you how wonderful it was. >> host: cal -- stewart stevens senior and the book is called "the white house chandeliers" my experiences while working for seven u.s.he presidents.us

mr. stevens worked for the white house from 1970 to 2002. where can people find the book? >> guest: well, we have it on our web site which is stewart stevens,, sr..com and we also have it at a couple of bookstores. we are working to get in into some more of bookstores. we go around to different places to sell her books. >> host: you can find it onll line as well. >> guest: yes sir command can find on line. >> host: thank you for your time and thank you for being with it to be today. thank you for having us into your home.