JFamily Weekly
October H, 1962
Presidents and First
Success opened the door of the White House to a great actress hut she had
As A result of Jacqueline Kennedy's
Jl. efforts, the White House now re
flects all the best aspects of American
culture. This is important to everyone,
but it is especially important to me.
I was born in Washington and came of age
there. In my memory, the White House stands
out as a place of childhood awe and later as the
scene of cherished moments with Presidents and
First Ladies.
But when I was a youngster, my life was re
mote from the glitter of Washington society. Our
home was a funny little house on Q Street, and
the only time I got to the White House was for
the egg rolling at Easter.
After the egg roll, we children sat around a
red-checked tablecloth on the White House lawn,
eating our colorful prizes. Above us on the bal
cony, President Theodore Roosevelt addressed
the crowd. But to a child's eye he seemed a re
mote and not quite real figure.
Presidential inaugurations also were big
events for Washington children. I recall watch
ing an inaugural parade from the front room of
one of the many shabby hotels (really flop
houses) that then lined the streets from the Cap
itol to within several blocks of the White House.
My family and I shared a room rented for 25
cents a day, and we watched the gala event while
munching deviled eggs and ham sandwiches,
staple "picnic" fare in the pre-hamburger era.
Woodrow Wilson was the first President I saw
face to face. I was a minor player at Poli's The
ater, where the President frequently came to see
our beautiful star, Izetta Jute, who was his
friend. After one of our shows, Izetta introduced
me to the President. He shook my hand. I simply
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Family Weekly, October 14, 196!
J .. . -dTinirrT nil J . In - ifr in i
By HELEN HAYES
First Lady of the Theater
with Flora Rheta Schreiber
couldn't believe this was happening to Helen
Hayes Brown !
We were humble people. My Grandfather
Brown was an obscure Government clerk. My
father managed a wholesale meat-packing con
cern. Mother had been a cashier in a drugstore
before her marriage and as a housewife worked
so hard that I can still see her hands, lye
stained from household labors.
My early identity as a girl from "the other
side of the tracks" and the distinction between
the two sides is even sharper in Washington than
elsewhere haunted me at this first meeting with
Woodrow Wilson, as it was to haunt me all
through my life whenever I met the great.
I felt this awe, for instance, when I first met
the Franklin D. Roosevelts, while I was playing
the queen in "Victoria Regina" at Washington's
National Theater. Mrs. Roosevelt invited me to
lunch at the White House and, by a happy inad
vertency, I mentioned that I didn't have a per
formance that evening. "Then you must come to
dinner and the diplomatic reception," she said.
She sent a car for me, even though I was stay
ing at the Hay-Adams Hotel, just across Lafa
yette Park from the White House. Stepping into
the car, I asked myself: do I dare ask the driver
to take me around town? I wanted my family in
Washington to see me riding in a White House
car and about to dine with the President of the
United States. But I couldn't summon enough
Heon Hayes (centerj and fellow
actress June Havoc banter
with President Kennedy before
leaving on 26-nation tour
to showcase American theater.
courage to make that suggestion to the driver.
Arriving at the White House, I found the
dinner was a small one, including only President
and Mrs. Roosevelt, their daughter Anna, Secre
tary of State and Mrs. Cordell Hull, two Midwest
governors, and me. When the President entered
the room, he greeted me with: "And how is Your
Majesty?" It was a charming bit of persiflage,
and at persiflage he was always a master.
When Mrs. Roosevelt told us that she had in
vited 2,500 persons, to the diplomatic reception,
the President groaned.
"I tried to cut the list, but I couldn't," she said.
"It isn't just the diplomats but all the others to
whom it means so much. There's the backwash of
other administrations, the widows of people who
were important, all those fringe people. This is
the one thing these people have to look forward to
all year shaking hands with the President."
2,500 Hands to Shake
It was the sort of earnest husband-wife spat
that could have taken place at any dinner table.
I felt that they were both right Mrs. Roosevelt
for her broad humanity and the President be
cause it would be a difficult ordeal for him to
stand while shaking 2,500 hands. Until this mo
ment, I hadn't realized how greatly crippled he
was from polio.
During the reception, Mrs. Roosevelt told me
that the President needed a respite. She asked me
to chat with him in his study.
I felt I would be struck dumb if left alone with
the President and I fulfilled my own prediction.
He talked about his State of the Union message,
which he was to deliver in a few days. "As a
woman with no ax to grind, what do you think I
should say?" he asked.
"You are asking me, Mr. President?" I heard
Miss Hayes met Cen. Eisenhower
at a Red Cross rally. They
clicked instantly but she froze
in Ike's presence when he was
about to become President.
Ladies I Have
a hard time forgetting she was from "the other side
myself asking with a nervous little laugh.
He tried to draw me out, but I wouldn't be
drawn. He pressed a stein of beer on me. I hate
beer, but I drank it as though I were about to
die of thirst. It was the only thing I seemed
capable of doing during the 30-minnte visit.
I think my mother had something to do with
my reticence in the presence of the great. When
I was a child actress, most stage mothers en
couraged their children to go up to the producer
after the show and say hello, but Mother insisted
I should not impose on "big" people.
But my modest mother had her own moment of
recognition by a "big" person, for in Herbert
Hoover she found an admirer. When I met Pres
ident Hoover, he told me that Mother's "Letters
to Mary," which appeared in The Saturday Eve
ning Post, was "one of the best things I ever
read." I couldn't wait to tell her about it.
I have known the Eisenhowers since Ike was a
general. I first met him when we shared the same
stage at a Red Cross rally.
When a photographer asked him to pose with
my 6-year-old daughter Mary, he bowed deeply,
turned to her, and said: "I would be honored to
pose with you." Then he playfully remarked to
me: "Your daughter is taller than you. My son
John is taller than I am, too. It's awfully hard
having your own child talk down to you.'' Ike and
I commiserated with each other over our chil
dren's natural strategic advantages. That was
the beginning of our friendship.
During General Eisenhower's first Presidential
campaign, I was touring the country in the play,
"Mrs. McThing." When I stepped off the train at
Denver, Colorado's Governor Dan Thornton was
there to greet me. "General Eisenhower wants me
to bring you right over to visit with Mamie and
her mother," he said.
7T ir
When I entered the Eisenhowers' hotel room,
the General greeted me warmly. Instinctively, I
drew back. He was not yet President, but I knew
he would be, and as much as I admired him as a
man and a friend, I froze as I had done years
before with Franklin Roosevelt.
"Go up and see Mamie," General Eisenhower
said gently. I was glad to run away from my own
embarrassment.
Later, when I was playing at the National
Theater in Washington, Mamie came to a matinee
and invited me to bring the four children in the
cast to the White House pool for a swim. Leaving
the young actors and the Eisenhower grand
children splashing under the watchful eye of a
When Helen played "Victoria Regina" in Wash
ington, Mrs. Roosevelt invited her to lunch.
Known
of the tracks"
Secret Service man, Mamie, her daughter-in-law
Barbara, and I visited in the upstairs family sit
ting room. Suddenly the President appeared.
"Who are those children in the pool?" he asked
Mamie. "I heard splashing and I thought it was
David, but he wasn't there. I went to the dress
ing room to look for him; he wasn't there, cither.
But I found a strange boy on my exercise horse
stark naked. When the boy saw me, he said,
'Cheese, it's Eisenhower!' and ran off."
Mamie Yearned for a Private Life
I had to explain that the strange boy was
Bobby Mariotti, who played my son on the stage
and that he was Mamie's guest. The bewildered
President was delighted to have me solve the
riddle of the strange boy on the exercise horse.
As the Eisenhower second term entered its
final phase, Mamie showed signs of wanting to
be a private citizen again. One afternoon when I
was visiting with her and her sister, Mrs. Moore,
Mamie showed us her packing. "You have plenty
of time a year and a half, to be exact," Mrs.
Moore reminded her.
"But it will take such a long time to get out of
here," Mamie replied.
The house that Mamie was eager to leave will
always hold memories for me not only the mem
ory of large events but also of small things.
The house has all kinds of strange errors of
architecture. Mrs. Roosevelt showed me the room
in which the King and Queen of England slept
and which, to her embarrassment, had no closet
only a wardrobe.
I also shall never forget the time Mrs. Roose
velt showed me the President's bathroom with the
Presidential shield firmly embossed over the tub.
"It is a funny place for the Presidential shield,"
she remarked.
(Continued on page 6)
Family Weekly, October H, 1062
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