“Making the Wheels Go ’Round in the White House”
It’s a Woman’s World Program for the Selby Shoe Company
Friday, March 15, 1935, 8:00–8:15 p.m. (CBS)
The first installment of Eleanor Roosevelt’s radio show for the Selby Shoe Company caused the program’s director to break out in a cold sweat. The broadcast originated from the roof garden of a hotel in Syracuse, New York. Some 350 people had been invited, but the room was too small to comfortably accommodate them, the sixteen-piece orchestra, the announcer, the technicians, and Mrs. Roosevelt. “Even today I marvel at the dexterity with which the slide trombone player managed to miss the back of the second violinist’s head,” director R. Calvert Haws later recalled.1
Haws had been fretting about the broadcast for weeks. He had been told that ER was hard to handle and that she discouraged supervision. He also learned that the first lady would arrive fifteen minutes before the live national broadcast and that there would be no rehearsal.
When the cue came, the band played, shoe manufacturer Roger Selby introduced ER, and she spoke for eight minutes about George and Martha Washington. One problem: her portion of the broadcast was supposed to fill nine minutes. “Nothing is more devastating momentarily to a radio director than to have a spare minute pop up,” Haws wrote. Fortunately, the conductor was startled into action by the sudden silence, struck up the orchestra, and stretched the theme music to fill out the show.
Haws later discovered that no one had ever told the first lady that she needed to stay within an exact allotment of time on the radio. He also discovered that ER was perfectly happy to rehearse but no one had ever asked. “Other directors had been merely too much in awe of her to offer helpful suggestions,” Haws recalled. He also declared that her performance at the microphone was much improved after his intervention.
ER was paid $4,000 for each of the eight programs of It’s a Woman’s World. ER’s topics included whether a woman’s place was in the home, keeping the White House going on a budget, and the life of a wife of a public official. She also answered listener questions that had been mailed in to her.
The national economy was still in depression in 1935. FDR created the Works Progress Administration (WPA) that year to employ millions of Americans in public construction projects. He signed the Social Security Act into law to combat poverty among the elderly. And with prodding from ER, he established the National Youth Administration to help jobless young people.
Overseas, Adolf Hitler had assumed total dictatorial power in Germany. The 1935 Nuremberg laws stripped Jews of most of their rights as German citizens. Fascist Italy invaded Ethiopia. Relenting to public opinion, FDR signed the first US Neutrality Act, which banned the export of arms, ammunition, or other war matériel to foreign nations at war.
This was the backdrop for ER’s 1935 radio broadcasts. There were troubling headlines aplenty, but there were diversions, too. Bing Crosby and Bob Hope entertained on the radio. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers were dancing cheek to cheek in the movies, where Shirley Temple was “The Littlest Rebel” and Errol Flynn was “Captain Blood.” When ER revealed on the radio that the White House needed repairs and had been providing shelter to mice, the New York Times reported the comments. In a separate article, the paper also observed that ER’s radio earnings put her in the same salary bracket as the president.
ER: Over and over again, women ask me these questions: Just what is the daily routine in the White House of the president’s wife? Are you always busy, as we are in our homes, or do you have hours of luxurious ease? I can readily understand that friendly curiosity, so for my first talk in this series I have outlined a typical day in the White House. Compared to many hurried days, this one would seem exceptionally calm and restful, but let’s begin with the morning of that typical day.
Seven thirty and a cold morning! How I hate to get out of my bed and shut down the two windows between which my bed is placed. At last I screw up my courage, and with a leap I am out on the floor and hastily closing the windows. Then fifteen minutes of setting-up exercises, a cold sponge, and on with my riding clothes. Breakfast at eight fifteen in my sitting room. Or, if there are a number of children at home or guests in the house, in the West Hall. With my breakfast I read the morning papers if I am alone. Otherwise I look them over noting what I must read later on, then I run down and get into my car and drive myself out to the place where the horses are waiting. An hour’s brisk ride along the Potomac, a bath on my return. If I am lucky, I will be at my desk between ten thirty and eleven o’clock.
Then comes the head usher, Mr. [Raymond] Muir, with his lists and plans for the day: when cars will be needed for the household, or for guests’ going and comings, the arrangements for receiving groups and any number of other things for which he is responsible. The housekeeper, Mrs. [Henrietta] Nesbitt, must be seen each morning and told as nearly as possible how many guests there will be for meals during the day. She brings her menus for the day with her and any state functions are planned for in advance. After talking with Mrs. Nesbitt, then comes Mrs. [Edith] Helm, whose business it is to attend to the social side of the White House. She plans with me for the teas and musicals and state functions and makes sure that no one who should be asked is forgotten. This usually takes until twelve o’clock, when the real work of the day begins.
Individual interviews are usually given between twelve and one and two and three. This has not been uninterrupted time by any means. One or the other of the president’s secretaries may have had to ask an important question about the president’s plans which include me. Or members of my family and friends have perhaps called me on the telephone. My secretary, Mrs. [Malvina] Thompson, who has been with me for fourteen years, has been in and out with questions which have come to her either by telegraph, telephone, or mail, and which must be attended to immediately. After sorting the morning’s mail, she brings me my personal mail unopened.
I shall give you a typical list of appointments and engagements. At twelve a representative of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration who is in charge of the supervisors of social work throughout the country came in with her entire group of fourteen regional supervisors. We discussed the social-service work being done throughout the United States and the different problems of these women in different parts of the country.
At one thirty I changed my dress and went to a luncheon given by one of the cabinet wives. Back at the White House by three to receive the gentleman in charge of an investigation being made by one of our larger publications as to the attitude of youth on certain questions affecting policies at present before the country. At three forty-five, I received a lady who wished to give the president a very beautiful book which she had just finished. Unfortunately, the president was unable to receive it personally and therefore, I received it and expressed to her my husband’s deep appreciation.
At four the entire group of cabinet ladies met to see some moving pictures of the work which is being done to remove the alley slums in the District of Columbia and to hear a talk from a housing expert as to what are the problems of housing in the District, with the object of trying to throw their influence to planning some useful project for the poor people of the District.
Five o’clock, a group of some ten people were received at tea. Usually at teatime my small grandchildren come in for a visit and occasionally they romp through the halls and make so much noise that it is a little difficult to hear what my guests are saying. In the meantime, certain people have come to me with questions as to the diplomatic dinner—about those who were ill and therefore not able to come to the dinner scheduled for that evening—the arrangements for a very gifted dancer who was to dance after dinner, where was she to dress, the change of costume must be made quickly. This last question was solved by building a dressing room with screens beside the stage in the East Room. This particular dinner was the largest ever given in the State Dining Room and it required much thought in having the tables arranged to seat the guests and still allow sufficient room for the butlers to serve.
By six I went in swimming with my husband. After that we dressed and were ready for our guests at eight, which included all the diplomatic corps and the secretary of state and Mrs. [Rose] Hull, with a few others entitled to be asked to this dinner. At the music afterwards some three hundred were added to the party. As a rule, the president does not wait to say good night to his guests, but I always remain until I have said good night to everyone. On this occasion, the president also remained, as he wished to be particularly cordial to his foreign guests.
This is typical of a day in the White House. Each day brings different questions and different problems but the time is allotted practically in the same way. Occasionally during the social season I cannot get time to ride in the morning and I am not able to look at any of the innumerable letters which I must personally answer, so when the day is too full after my guests have gone, another couple of hours in the middle of the night are devoted to doing the mail. Between one and two I usually get to bed at this time of the year.