we want to have the writers come in the day before and test the mikes, be sure the sound levels are right and that they have the podium at height that they want and so forth and there are no surprises, and he said, oh, you just want people to come in there so you can censor them. i said, eric, i promise you, they will have been glad to have been here and not just arrive that morning and be presented with lights in their eyes and so forth, so we finally went ahead with that. and they did come, and several of them thanked me and thanked eric for having them come over and see the room, test things out and so forth. he had invited robert loyle, so loyle, he came, but then he came, or did he write

something -- >> he wrote something out of time, but then did he come actually, was he there? >> i don't think he did. >> so he was invited and then, i guess, he wrote, probably, an op-ed piece in the "new york times" how terrible the johnsons were and how terrible the whole administration was and he wasn't going to come to the white house festival of the arts, and somebody came, an accolade of robert loyle, i guess, and was circulating a petition during the -- during the party, and i don't think he got any signatures. that was the good thing. >> and there was the earth kit? she created her own stir. >> yes, and she was very late at arriving to the ladies' lunch. the ladies had gathered, it was

one of mrs. johnson's women doers luncheons. there were two thing that she did that we never could get a good word for, women doers luncheons, anyway, that's what they were called, and beautification, stuff of that, i always wanted a new name. so ertha kitt was late, late, late. the ladies had had sherry and orange juice in the blue room, and we were getting ready to take her plate off the table. the luncheon was in the family dining room, so just about that time, all the ladies had gone

in, and eartha kitt came up the stairs to the main floor, and she came across the -- the foyer, this large marble foyer, and she was doing dancers leaps all across, it was quite stunning and beautiful, but i thought she was going to crash into me in the doorway, so i moved sideways and she went on in the blue room, and i said oh, the luncheon has actually already started, but i'll take you to her table. so we went in there, she sat down, she never ate a thing, but he kept filling up her wine glass, and she kept emptying it, so, i guess, she was high as a kite, but the president came in and was making some remarks to the women who were there saying how terrific it was and women could make anything happen, and this, i think the subject of

this luncheon was about a crime, and as soon as the president left, eartha kitt stood up and started talking to mrs. johnson about how terrible it was that we were sending these boys halfway around the world to die, and she had just had this baby pulled out of her gut and she didn't want him going over and dying in southeast asia, and betty hughes, whose husband was governor of new jersey, stood up, and the hughes had a batch of children, and i think a couple of them were serving in the pacific, and mrs. hughes, i won't say it's the one time i remember mrs. johnson being -- taken off guard, but betty hughes picked up the ball and ran with it, and about what a wonderful country we are and we're here to talk about "x" and make these good things happen for our country, and so forth. why don't you ask me about some

of the good things that happen, rats. richard, you're the pits. i thought you were my friend. >> we'll get to joan crawford later. laurie, you, of course, also had the first gulf war. which certainly didn't have the same impact --

>> or as long. >> -- as vietnam, but it must have transformed daily life in the white house. >> well, it did. i mean, i think that was the only calm period in terms of events, because up until that time and then afterwards, we were, you know, having state dinners once a month and entertaining non-stop, but absolutely, when the war was on, everything came to a stop, and, i mean, everything shut down really. i think everyone was as concerned and knew how -- what a

grave decision it was that president bush had made and felt -- felt that emotion that he did, and i know mrs. bush, certainly, did and conveyed it to all of us on the staff, so it was a very -- i really remember it as being a quiet time and having to cancel a couple state dinners. i think one was saudi arabia. >> certainly, in the reagan white house, there was no shortage of hollywood

celebrities. i want to ask each of you some of your favorite memories, positive memories. as i said, we're saving joan crawford for last. tell us about running into, i suppose, people who you'd seen on the screen all your life. >> well, it was amazing. i was much younger. i'm dating myself now, but it was 19 -- i guess, '83 -- or '84 when i had first begun my job as a deputy social secretary, and, actually, they came to me 24 hours before, and it was before the chinese state dinner, and it was january, and they said, you know, cathy, we'd like you to succeed linda faulkner, and i had been there in the correspondence section and done a lot of events and they thought i was up to speed, so i said i was honored to do this, they said you should go home and get a dress, i knew exactly. i had a basic black full-length it becomes second hand and you recognize you do the same pattern over and over again, and a house as large as it is, there are so many limited rooms, specifically something as complex as a state dinner, so i remember standing at the top of the stairs, and i was beginning to greet the guests as they were given their escort envelopes by

the calligraphers and as i was at the top of the stairs to escort them into other military social aids, so i looked down the stair case and who is coming up, but gregory peck, i really did, i was star struck, one of my first movies was to see "to kill a mockingbird," so he was a real hero to me. so that was being around hollywood glitter and such incredible actors and actresses, john wayne and jimmy stewart, he was so serene and so calm and he was just like, you know, in a wonderful life. claudette colbert, loretta young, they were all the reagans' friends, it was fascinating. >> famous story, president reagan got to turn the table on

bob hope, who he once introduced, i believe, it may have been a dinner for queen elizabeth, but any event, hope was there, and president reagan introduced hope as someone who had performed for seven american presidents and entertained four. great line. >> great line. >> did the bushes have favorite entertainers? >> oh, yeah. i think, we had -- we always had an eclectic mix. i remember having lyle lovett, we had natalie cole, who was fabulous, for one of the dinners. we had opera singers, we had the boys choir of harlem, i think,

for one of the ladies lunches. we always try to -- you would try to have sense who the visiting head of state, if it was the state dinner, if they had a preference, whether it was classical or temporary, and we'd try to book them. and booking the entertainment is challenging. >> has it gotten harder? have you ever had an entertainer say, a, we want to be paid, or, b, we won't come because of politics? >> no, we didn't ask them. no. no, but they -- no, most of them usually came from new york, and so i think we sent them shuttle tickets, a driver would pick them up at the airport, we'd put them up, they would come to dinner. >> and the honor thing, clearly. >> they got a program with their

name on it, and they were -- they were treated well. it was fine. the wonderful thing, one of the many wonderful things about being at the white house were those white house operators, so you could find people, and one time, this will really date me, but i was trying to reach ben crosby, and i reached mr. crosby, and we were chatting on, and i said, mr. crosby, where did the white house operators find you, and he said, i'm on a sailboat off tahiti, so they were wonderful, but we had -- the entertainment, when we were first in the white house, was different than the entertainment

after the vietnam war heated up, because we had a lot of -- we had a lot of dance, and at one point, a couple of newspaper people came to me and said, i didn't realize that the president was such a big fan of ballet. well, the thing, the ballet dancers, they are too busy running their own -- keeping their bodies in shape, they don't have time to be out protesting. so we had -- we had the american ballet theater, we had the joffrey ballet, we just became big fans of ballet.

>> and i read somewhere, you really wished you could have done a square dance, but you felt you couldn't because of the cultural condescension in texas. >> i couldn't do a barbecue either. we did do a barbecue at the tail end. it was a staff party, because i

told the president, i said, all these people who work for you here, they won't feel they really worked for you if they don't have any texas barbecue, so we did have a texas barbecue then, and it was kind of a tail end of one of the country fairs that we had. gosh, that was fun, and it came about, because the president called me and said, the congress has been so great this year. they've worked hard, they've stayed late, they passed my program, and i want you to think of something really fun to do for the congress, and then as i was leaving the office, he said, well, he said, you know, people appreciate what you do for their kids more than what you do for them, so think of something that would be fun to do for the kids, so i thought, oh, we can do a country fair. and we had a carnival on the south lawn with a merry go round and a ferris wheel and fortune teller tents, and all kinds of games and hot dogs and baseball players from baltimore who came and ran a tent that you knock down bottles and so forth, and when i was working on getting the props for the -- for the carnival setup, i called this

place in new york where we ordered a lot of props, and i said, i need -- i have two fortune teller tents, and i need a crystal ball, two crystal balls, and this guy that i was talking to said, where do you want me to send these crystal balls? and i said, send them to the white house. and he says, lady, i'll send them, but you got to tell the president they don't really work. but they were -- the country fairs were a great success. >> laurie, any crystal balls in the first bush white house?

>> no, i'm sorry, we didn't get any crystal balls. we would have liked one, but -- >> were there favorite entertainers? >> favorite? >> favorite entertainers? >> well, when you were talking about bob hope, it reminded me he came a couple of times to our state dinners. you know, he would walk in and just act like he owned the place and said i have been here so many times, you weren't even born when i was here, so he was fun, and we did -- we had elizabeth taylor once, which was very exciting, and she, of course, was very glamorous, and we had don johnson and melanie griffith one year, and that was quite interesting. she wrote the cutest note to the president and barbara afterwards saying, my mother never told me what i should wear to the white

house, and the reason was that she had come in what she thought was a lovely little outfit. it was a gold, all gold sequins. that part was okay. it was very low and very short. >> it was a very little outfit. >> a very little outfit, and so she looked adorable in it, of course, because she had a beautiful figure, but she was very cute, and it was cute of her to write and say, you know, i didn't realize i should have -- i was maybe not quite properly dressed. >> let me ask you, because the white house, obviously, reflects the broader culture. a lot of people think that broader culture has been coarsens over the last half century, has that, in any way, found its way in the white house? how's the dress code, for example, compared to -- >> when we were there, i even noticed over the four years, but people, you know, i think,

originally came to a black-tie dinner in a long gown and even wore long gloves way back, but they weren't wearing long gloves, but many people, they wore beautiful gowns and lots of jewelry and all of that and looked elegant, but, you know, as time went on, you saw things like pants and short dinner dresses and just, you know, a lessening of the formality that had originally been there. >> we also know, we won't mention them, because to do so would gratify their insatiable desire for publicity, but we all know of gate crashers.

you had a rather distinguished official party crasher in senator thurmond. >> oh, he crashed all of ours. >> he didn't crash, he was always invited, but he always had ms. peach blossom or ms. watermelon queen or something that he would show up with who wasn't on the guest list. well, i wasn't -- i wasn't -- it was not my role to make senator thurmond mad. president had enough problems with president thurmond without my getting crossways with the watermelon princess, so he came in, but i want so say one thing about entertainers, because we had -- i don't know, did you all

o have the brits that came just twice a year, three or four times a year? so prime minister wilson was coming, and we didn't have a week's notice, so i thought it's not a big deal and i'll just call bob merrill, who was a baritone for the metropolitan, and he had done so many things for the white house, and it was easy, and his wife was always his accompanist, so i called bob and asked if he'd be available at "x" time, and he said, yes, i think i can, i have a rehearsal, but i think i can juggle that, which he did, he said, yes, we'll come down the shuttle, as usual, send a car for us, okay, good. i said when you get the program organized of what you're going to sing and play and so forth, just call the office and we'll have the program printed up, so

all is sweetness and light, the invitations are out, this time by telephone because there's not enough time to send them out properly, and i get a call from walt rossdale, who was then the president's national security adviser, and he had just read in

the paper, liz carpenter put out the press release that bob was singing, what he was singing, and so forth, and he said, you cannot -- you cannot sing for the british prime minister who's just announced a pull-out of troops east of suez, you cannot sing "on the road to mandalay," and you cannot -- you cannot sing for the british prime minister who's just announced devaluing the british pound, "i got plenty of nothing," so i'm making my little speech, this is not politics, this is art, and, well, you know, we came to the party and realized it is politics, so i call bob and, i said, do not answer your phone, but this is the situation. tell me what else you might sing and we'll have another set of programs printed up, so, which he did, but i said, when you and merriam come, make sure she brings all the music, so at the

arrival ceremony out on the south lawn, then the british prime minister and the president come into the diplomatic reception room, and the first -- the first negotiations was, because they've had cartoons in the london papers about how the white house is making fun of the prime minister with this show they are putting on for him, so the prime minister has been given words that we're changing the program, so he says, you cannot change the program. i cannot survive the change of the program. you've got to do the program, so that's what we did, and then at the end, bob merrill said that he wanted to do an encore, "it ain't necessarily so." >> that calls to mind the famous incident in 1976, time of the

bicentennial when the fords were entertaining queen elizabeth ii and someone had not checked the music program, so the time came

when the president invited her majesty to take the dance floor, and as they did so, the band broke into a lusty rendition of "the lady is a tramp." they did check after that. both of you had the privilege of entertaining her majesty. is there anything unique about preparing for the british royal family? >> we had a little incident on the south lawn, which started off the visit, and at the arrival ceremony, the president makes remarks first and greets the dignitary, in this case, queen elizabeth, and they are all standing out there, and then the queen stepped up to the microphone to make responding remarks. well, the chief of protocol, who's standing there with them was meant to pull out the step behind the microphone to raise her to the right height, and she had a lovely purple hat on that day with sort of a brim and stripes around it, and she's -- but he did not pull out the step. she went ahead and made her remarks, and, of course, in the paper the next day, it was the

talking hat, but she had a great sense of humor and addressed the joint session of congress that morning, and as i wasn't there, but i was told that she opened by saying, i hope everyone can see me. and then we had one other cute story that no other visiting dignitary ever did while i was there, and that was, at the end of her visit, she called over the people -- she asked that the chief of protocol bring over the blair house the top people, staff, who had planned and orchestrated her stay there, and i was lucky enough to be one of those people, and we went in and had a little private audience, each of us, by ourselves, and she presented us with a gift, and we spoke to her maybe three or four minutes and then went in one door and out the next, and it was very special, so she is an extraordinary, lovely woman, i think. >> i didn't have the opportunity to host the queen when i was at the white house, but i went to london with george and laura bush in, i guess, it was 2003, when they hosted a return dinner at the american ambassador's residence, winfield house, which is a stunning, stunning home, and this is when the bushes

were, the night before, hosted at buckingham palace, a white-tie dinner, which i don't think occurred for an american president in many, many years, almost back to coolidge or wilson, so that was a big occasion, and so we -- ambassador and mrs. farish were the american ambassador, and he was hosted there, he had his own chef, and it was an elegant menu, beautiful centerpieces of gorgeous fall apples, this was november, and bright red cloths, and a lot of gold, and when i was there early in the afternoon working and sorting out the seating, i did fully,

immediately was aware of this tiny little dog, their dog, who really had free reign of this beautiful home, and i thought, okay, that's all right, the farishes live here all the time, they entertain all the time, this won't be a problem. the guests arrive, we had cocktails and the receiving