C-SPAN SERIES, MAMIE EISENHOWER May 09, 2014 9:55 a.m. ET

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FEMALE: Today, it is our pleasure to entertain for the first time, our first lady, at this her belated birthday party.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

SINGERS: To Mamie many happy returns. To Mamie with music, 160 million join in our chorus (inaudible). To Mamie with music, to Mamie, (with love).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SUSAN SWAIN: A birthday tribute to Mamie Eisenhower, televised nationally by CBS in March of 1956, just a few weeks after her husband, President Dwight Eisenhower, announced his bid for reelection.

Tonight, 1950s America and the life and times of First Lady Mamie Eisenhower.

Good evening and welcome to C-SPAN series, "First Ladies: Influence and Image." Tonight is Mamie Eisenhower's turn.

And here to tell us about her life are two people who have spent a lot of time with first ladies, and in particular in Marilyn Holt's case, Mamie Eisenhower. She's a historian and author of a biography called, "Mamie Eisenhower, the General's First Lady."

We also welcome back Edith Mayo to the table. Edie's been one of our guiding forces among academic historians on first ladies for this whole series. It's nice to see you again.

EDITH MAYO: Nice to be back.

SWAIN: Well, what should we take away watching that piece of video from the 1950s?

(LAUGHTER)

About her popularity? About the use of television?

MARILYN IRVIN HOLT: The film clip you showed from the birthday celebration in March, '56, this is shown. And obviously, it's an election year. And immediately, the Democrats want equal time because this is in their view a campaign ad.

And William Paley, who was president of CBS, and a very close friend of the Eisenhowers, says, "No, no, no, it's not equal time because this is nonpolitical entertainment with the first lady."

Well, obviously, Mamie's birthday is in November, we're just a few days away from it right now. And this is in March. So obviously, there was some political background to this. But if you watched the show at the time, what you saw besides the singing and the celebrating were a lot of people talking about Mamie, and with real affection, and wanting to get across or reemphasize how really popular she was at the time.

SWAIN: Edie Mayo, what should we know about television and the presidency in the 1950s?

MAYO: Well, the Eisenhower campaign was the first televised campaign. And so there were a whole range of new techniques that were brought to the fore for that campaign. And there were -- there were these wonderfully rehearsed man-in-the-street interviews that were supposed to be spontaneous, but were obviously quite rehearsed. But that was -- that was quite a new feature for a campaign.

And then you had all the, you know, the little bouncing balls and bouncing elephants and so forth that were "Ike for president" and "We like Ike" and "I like Ike" and "Everyone likes Ike." So there were a whole range of new techniques that came to the fore.

And I think -- I think part of the excuse, if you will, about having this celebration for Mamie was that she so epitomized the '50s, particularly with American women. That if she hadn't been there to do it, someone would have had to invent her, I think.

SWAIN: We'll have 90 minutes to learn more about Mamie Eisenhower and her full life, with the eight years that the Eisenhowers spent in the White House. And the one special thing about this program, we have live cameras at the Eisenhowers’ farm in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. That farm is about 90 miles away from Washington, D.C. It takes about two hours to drive there and then outside of the very famous historic town of Gettysburg. It's about six miles away from town center. The Eisenhowers bought this in the 1950s and spent their White House years and also their retirement years there.

Right now, you're looking at Mamie's bedroom. You will learn about Mamie's affection for pink during this program, and you can see lots of evidence there in the bedroom that she created for herself in her retreat away from public life. We'll be back to that later on throughout the program.

We're going to go back in time and learn a little bit about Mamie Eisenhower -- Mamie Geneva Doud -- her biography. And to do that, let's go back to that special in 1956 where they talk a bit about her biography as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FEMALE: And I hope that you, the members of our organization, and our distinguished guests, will enjoy this salute to our first lady.

SINGERS: A birthday party is really a party when some of the party presents (inaudible).

MALE: How do you do? And thank you for inviting me.

You know, birthdays almost seem synonymous with memories, like albums. So we've brought along this special album for you. It's filled, we hope, with fond remembrances, musical and pictorial.

And now here's a picture of the three Doud sisters, circa 1906. And here's a Denver debutante visiting in San Antonio, Texas about 1915. And your wedding dress, and the (Thomas Stefans) portrait in your inaugural gown when you became our first lady.

SINGERS: ... the memories you gave to me. Take one fresh and tender kiss. Add one stolen night of bliss. One girl, one boy, some grief, some joy. Memories are made of this. You can't beat the memories you gave to me...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SWAIN: A little bit of a capsule view of Mamie Eisenhower's biography. But tell us a little bit more. She was born in Boone, Iowa and it's worth noting that she is the end of a generation, really, the last first lady born in the 19th century.

IRVIN HOLT: She was born in 1896, Boone, Iowa. And she was our very last first lady to be born in the 19th century. Her family lived in Boone until she was about eight years old. And then they moved to Colorado and that's where she grew up.

And one of the photographs shows here in San Antonio. The family would winter in San Antonio partly because of one of her sisters' health problems, rheumatic fever. She was almost an invalid. And so they would winter. And while they were in San Antonio, they went to -- well, they went with some friends to Fort Sam Houston and that's where Mamie was first introduced to Ike.

SWAIN: Second lieutenant at the time.

IRVIN HOLT: Second lieutenant, very serious. She says he said when they've written about this meeting that he was really not interested in any kind of girl or girlfriend. He was very, you know, duty and his job in the military. And Mamie just kind of swept him off his feet.

SWAIN: Or vice versa.

IRVIN HOLT: Or vice versa.

SWAIN: And whirlwind courtship.

MAYO: Absolutely.

SWAIN: And they married a short time really after they met. What's interesting is that her -- she was wealthy. She was a debutante. And her father warned her off of military life.

IRVIN HOLT: He warned her off. He said -- first of all, his -- Mamie's parents really liked Ike, going to the phrase of the campaign. They thought he was a wonderful young man. And her father even told her that when he was coming around to visit, that she ought to quit being so flighty and going off with other young men to parties; that they should pay attention -- she should pay attention to Ike.

But when they got married, he told Mamie they absolutely could not expect any money from him. They would have to live on Ike's military pay. And Mamie's response was, "Well, I didn't care about that. I just wanted that man."

SWAIN: It was probably quite a surprise, even with her father's warning, to go from a debutante's life to a tiny military apartment.

IRVIN HOLT: Well, living a very comfortable life with plenty of money. I think it was quite a shock for her. But she had learned from her father about budgeting and how to spend money and how to save money. So, though I think it was difficult in the early days of their marriage, she always managed to live on Ike's salary.

MAYO: And not only that, but in kind of a atypical role-reversal, Mamie is the one that handled the family's finances.

IRVIN HOLT: And later, she said that was the secret to a good marriage. If you wanted to keep within your finances was that the husband should turn the check over to his wife; that if he started purchasing things and opening accounts that, you know, everything would just go to hell in a hand basket.

SWAIN: Well, it's interesting because we're going to talk about her as the epitome of the media creation of the 1950s woman, that women lived in all kinds of ways in the 1950s. But there's this stereotype of the '50s woman that she seems to embody.

But she was handling the finances. He was domestic. He cooked the meals.

IRVIN HOLT: He cooked the meals.

MAYO: Yes, he did.

Mamie, she took a domestic science class when they became engaged, but because they moved their marriage date up to July the 1st, rather than in November after she turned 20, her domestic science classes were cut short. And I'm not sure she was that serious about them anyway.

So, he really did the cooking. He knew how to do that.

SWAIN: I want to invite you, as we do each week, to be participants in our program as we learn more about American history through the lives of the first ladies. We have three ways you can be involved. Our phone numbers will be on the screen. You can dial us if you live in the Eastern or Central time zones at 202-585-3880. If you live out west, Mountain/Pacific and farther west, 202- 585-3881. You can tweet us using the Twitter handle at first ladies.

Or you can post on our Facebook page, where there's already a number of comments and a good conversation going on. We've mixed your comments in throughout our 90 minutes together.

So they are married. How soon after their married is their first child born?

MAYO: I'm thinking it's three years.

SWAIN: And he get the unusual nickname of "Icky."

(LAUGHTER)

IRVIN HOLT: Icky. Doud Dwight. When I see it spelled, I want to pronounce it "Ike-e," because it sounds better than "icky." But Doud Dwight. And he was just the apple of their eye.

And also, everybody on "The Post" -- he -- wherever they were, he was like the little mascot that everybody just took to. And he died at the age of three. Scarlet fever. And it happened so quickly that -- and in that time period -- it sounds strange to say today, but couples could almost expect to have at least one child die of some childhood disease, because the medical care -- there just weren't the things that you could do about it. And the Eisenhowers were absolutely devastated.

SWAIN: Now, Edie, you can verify -- 'cause you've been with us all along the way for this whole series -- that many of the presidents and first ladies lost children.

MAYO: Yes, yes. It's a recurring theme in most of the presidential families all the way from the beginning.

SWAIN: But even though it's commonplace, it's certainly never easy.

MAYO: No. It's -- it's always a horror story, no matter when it happens. And in a -- you know, in an era before antibiotics and modern drugs...

SWAIN: Mm-hmm.

MAYO: ... you -- you have it happening frequently.

SWAIN: They did have another son. Excuse me.

IRVIN HOLT: Yes. Then their son, John, is born. And one of the things that John said -- and I think he said in several different venues -- is that his parents never made him feel as if he was a replacement for the child that they lost. That he was his own person, his own special self. And that -- I think that was the way the Eisenhowers as a couple were. They took people as they were, but that didn't mean that they totally forgot the first child. They just made another place for another child in their lives.

And Mamie was, I would say, overprotective of John.

SWAIN: Understandable, huh?

IRVIN HOLT: With -- yes.

MAYO: Yes, very much.

SWAIN: So, though their early years at -- was one of Ike being gone a lot. So how often were they together?

IRVIN HOLT: There -- there was one year in which they moved three times. So -- and sometimes, when he was posted for a very short time, Mamie might go back to Denver and live with her family. And there was a period of time when Ike was on a transcontinental convoy, which was a military exercise to take military trucks and other transport all the way across the country to test the roads, the bridges. And really, they found out how bad America's transportation road system was. But during that whole time -- months -- Mamie was with her parents because she couldn't live on the post.

So, they were back and forth. And that's something that every military wife faced at one time or another. You might live in who knew how many different posts in a very short period of time. You could expect multiple moves, and, really, sometimes long separations.

SWAIN: And this would carry to their White House years? They were always entertainers.

MAYO: Yes, absolutely. They -- they did a lot of entertaining on their various posts. And many times, the Eisenhower home was called "Club Eisenhower" because of their entertaining of the troops and -- and, you know, the military personnel.

IRVIN HOLT: Yes.

MAYO: And going back to, you know, how many moves they made over the period of years, I think that's why they -- they, number one, treasured their years in the White House, because it was a permanent home for eight years. And then, you know, purchasing the farm in Gettysburg. I mean, that was their -- their -- their first home.

SWAIN: Family home.

MAYO: I have a photograph to show the audience about -- of Mamie in a jeep.

SWAIN: How -- at what point in their -- in his career did they become popularly known?

IRVIN HOLT: I would say at -- well, in the '30s, certainly.

SWAIN: That early?

IRVIN HOLT: But even -- even when they were first married, and they were at Fort Sam Houston, they very quickly became a couple that invited other military couples into their home. They'd have, like, Saturday or Sunday night evenings, pot luck, play cards -- very social -- and they had a rented piano that Mamie played, and they sang.

This photograph was taken in 1944 -- the summer of '44, not too long after D-Day. And this is at Camp Lee in Virginia.

Someone -- Mamie's behind the wheel of the jeep as if she can actually drive it. By her own accounts, she had not driven an automobile since 1936.

SWAIN: Oh, my.

IRVIN HOLT: But they wanted a photo opportunity. And the two women who are in the jeep with her are also friends of hers, longtime military wives who had had the same kind of moving experiences, long...

SWAIN: Separations?

IRVIN HOLT: ... separations from their husbands.

SWAIN: So, the war comes, and Dwight Eisenhower, of course, as all of our viewers know, was tasked with leading...

IRVIN HOLT: Mm-hmm.

SWAIN: ... the allies in Europe. Where was Mamie during the war?

MAYO: For the -- for most of the time, she lived in Washington, D.C. in an apartment. She wanted to be in Washington, hoping that there would be times that Ike would be allowed to come back home, which he did a couple of times. And also, their son, John, was at West Point. So, any opportunity that he had for time off -- vacation time, like in Thanksgiving or Christmas -- she wanted to be close at hand in order to see John. And it was only later in the war that for a period of time, she went to stay with a sister.

SWAIN: Let's take our first phone calls from Mark watching us in Indianapolis.

Hi, Mark. You're on the air.

MARK (ph): Yeah, hi. How are you doing? I just have a question for your -- your guests. I'm just wondering if any one of them could tell me what life was like in the Philippines or Panama for Mamie Eisenhower. And also, I just can't wait until next week when you guys finally talk about Jackie Kennedy.

Thanks for your call.

SWAIN: Thank you.

Life in the Philippines?

IRVIN HOLT: Life in the Philippines and life in Panama -- both of them were extremely uncomfortable for Mamie. The heat and the humidity. Particularly in Panama, it was somewhat primitive. The Philippines physically where they lived was much more comfortable. They had a very nice apartment. It was air-conditioned after a period of time.

She really had a difficult time in terms of just the environment. She did not do well in the heat. And there were periods of time, especially in the Philippines, that she suffered some health problems.

SWAIN: In -- earlier in our history, there were a number of generals who were elected to the White House. In more modern times, how did the world prepare the first couple for life in the White House?

MAYO: Well, I think particularly for Mamie -- of course, with Ike, there were all kinds of executive and administrative decisions that he was used to making as a general. But for Mamie, the entertaining of heads of state while he was commander of NATO really, you know, according to her own testimony, was -- was something that really prepared her for entertaining in the White House.

I mean, she knew how to do it. She was confident about doing it. She actually loved that part of the first lady's role.

SWAIN: Jeffrey is in Milledgeville, Georgia. Hi, Jeffrey, you're on.

JEFFREY (ph): Hey, there. Good evening.

My question was about how politically involved Mamie was before she was -- entered the White House. Because I know I've read that the General Dwight Eisenhower was not political before he was elected president. And that, you know, before he was even elected in 1952, he didn't know which party he was a member of. So I was wondering if Mamie was any more political than her husband.

SWAIN: Did she ever express much interest in politics?

IRVIN HOLT: No. Actually, she once said that she and Ike were probably two people that knew less about politics than anybody else. Now, Mamie did make comments about politics in terms of party, but that was with her father and letters back and forth. And her father was a pretty strong Republican. And so Mamie I think just out of politeness would sometimes commiserate with him in a letter that Roosevelt had done something that her father didn't approve of. But Mamie was not political in the least.

SWAIN: We're at the World War II years, and we've gotten questions from both Facebook and Twitter. And we knew we were going to get them. And that's about Kay Summersby. Brandon McCall asked on Twitter: Did Ike have an affair with Kay Summersby? And if so, did Mamie know and how did she handle it?

Who was Kay Summersby?

IRVIN HOLT: Kay Summersby was often referred to as Eisenhower's driver, but there were several people that drove Ike around. Her primary job was to keep his appointments calendar, to make sure that the right people got in and out and to meetings. And she was at Eisenhower's headquarters. She was engaged to an American officer who was tragically killed in the fighting in North Africa. And she stayed on at the headquarters and rumors began that they were having an affair.

The research I did and I think what other people are beginning to look at -- for example, the letter that Truman said he had that Eisenhower was going to ask Mamie for a divorce. I think there have been a number of historians that have debunked that now. I don' believe that there was an affair because it's hard, for one thing, I mean, there's other proof, but it's hard to imagine that Eisenhower, the allied commander of the European theater, is acting like a school boy, puppy love kind of, you know, following Kay around, which is what she alleges in her book "Past Forgetting."

Did Mamie know? Well, there wasn't anything for Mamie to know except the rumors were extremely hurtful to her. And it was the kind of thing that went on and on, especially after Summersby's book and there was the made-for-TV movie. And that was very hurtful for Mamie.

SWAIN: Edie, what do you have to say about the affair?

MAYO: I have not -- I have not done that kind of research in any kind of primary sources. I, like everyone else, have heard the rumor. I know the family denies it very vehemently. But it's interesting to hear somebody who's actually looked at the primary sources.

IRVIN HOLT: And it's not just the family. When Summersby's book came out, and several people who were still alive and had been at the Eisenhower headquarters, including one of Summersby's roommates, just came out and said, "No, this never happened." It was, like, the person who was saying this happened, they didn't even recognize. They couldn't explain why she would have decided to say this.

SWAIN: (Jane) is watching us in Killeen, Texas.

JANE (ph): Thank you.

A lot of military wives and wives of retirees are watching tonight. Thank you so much for the show. Much of this is still true.

My question, were Mrs. Eisenhower and Mrs. Nixon friendly? Did they play bridge together? Their children were of different ages. How did that work out?

MAYO: They were friendly. And I think the friendship continued after the Eisenhowers were out of the White House. But there was always a friendly relationship. The story goes that Mamie liked Pat immediately when she first met her. She said, "Oh, you're just the cutest little thing, the prettiest little thing." And I think it took off from there and the friendship continued

SWAIN: Bernard in Albany, Georgia. You're on.

BERNARD (ph): Hello, how are you doing this evening?

SWAIN: Good evening.

BERNARD (ph): Yes, oh how are you doing this evening?

SWAIN: Yes, sir. We're fine. What's your question for us?

BERNARD (ph): OK. I understand that during the inauguration ball, I can't remember if it was in '53 or '57, she wore a pink gown. And from that point on, that gown -- that color was named "Mamie pink." Do you all know anything about that? Does that color still exist, "Mamie pink"?

SWAIN: Well, thanks. We're going to see a lot of it during this program, as a matter of fact.

(LAUGHTER)

You asked the right question of our guests. Our guest, Edie Mayo, has actually in her role at the Smithsonian, was responsible for creating the very popular, still popular first ladies' gowns exhibit. So what about her gown?

MAYO: Yes, it's "Mamie pink." It was a pastel peau de soie. And she decided that she wanted to have a little extra flair, is the way she put it. So she had Nettie Rosenstein, who was the designer, put 2,000 rhinestones, pink rhinestones on the gown so that it would sparkle and glitter. And "Mamie pink" was a color that was very, very popular in the '50s, part of not only a wardrobe color scheme, but also a household color scheme.

And she had, you know, charcoal gray and pink was also a big color combination in the '50s. And she had a number of gowns, formal gowns that were charcoal gray and pink. So I don't know whether the -- that particular shade still exists, but it certainly -- it certainly was popular in the '50s.

SWAIN: Dwight Eisenhower's career continued to be successful. Here's just a look a some of the important positions he held before the White House: supreme allied commander during World War II. After the war, he came back to Washington and served in D.C. as the Army chief of staff at the Pentagon. He left the military and went to Columbia University in New York, where he served as president. And then President Truman appointed him as supreme NATO commander.

It was around this time as he was at Columbia University in that late 1940s, 1950, where the two of them began to consider their retreat in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. We're going to take you there in just a moment, but first of all we're going to hear from Mamie herself many years later as she -- at the farm and talking about how important it was for the Eisenhowers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAMIE EISENHOWER: I'd sort of like to have you all come and sit here on the porch with me, where Ike and I spent so many happy hours. And where we could sit and look out and the green and trees and the grass and the Angus cattle are still up here in the fields.

PETER SLEN: And on your screen now is the formal living room at the Eisenhower farm in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Joining us in the entryway is Alyce Evans, who is a park ranger, National Park Service.

Alyce Evans, how is it that the Eisenhowers came to Gettysburg? And why this property?

ALYCE EVANS: Well, when the Eisenhowers began to think about retirement, Gettysburg was a natural choice. The Eisenhowers had actually lived here once before in 1918 during the First World War. And also, General Eisenhower was fascinated by the history of Gettysburg. He was a Civil War buff from childhood. So that definitely pulled him here.

He was very interested in farming. He wanted to find basically a farm that needed a little bit of help, and that would keep him busy in retirement.

SLEN: So this was a working farm when they bought it?

EVANS: Yes, it was. It was a dairy farm.

SLEN: And how many acres?

EVANS: 189 acres.

SLEN: Bought in 1950, when did they start living here?

EVANS: It's a little complicated. Shortly after they purchased the farm, he was sent overseas to work with NATO. So he returns, of course, in '52 to run for the presidency and the house begins renovations in '53. So it was not inhabitable until 1955.

SLEN: So during his presidency, how many days did they stay here at the farm?

EVANS: We can document 365 days that they spent here.

SLEN: One full year.

EVANS: Yes. So very important in the presidential years.

SLEN: After the presidency?

EVANS: This was their primary residence. It was actually the only home they ever owned in their 50 years of marriage together. So until both of their deaths -- his in '69 and her in '79 -- this was their primary residence.

SLEN: After JFK's inaugural ball or inauguration in January of 1962 (sic), what happened?

EVANS: Well, they got in the car, drove up in this terrible snowstorm, a Secret Service car following behind them. They get to the front gate. They get to open it themselves. The Secret Service kind of waves them off, and there they are. They start their retired life together.

SLEN: And President Eisenhower did the driving?

EVANS: Yes, he did.

SLEN: Well, we're here in the entryway, and we've been hearing about the color pink already in our program. I just want to start by pointing out a very pink room over here.

EVANS: Yeah, the dining room, of course, shows I think Mamie's love of color there, the rich, dark pink-red there, so very typical of Mamie. It's decorated for Thanksgiving right now. This is very typical of the sentimentality she had towards holidays. She loved having her friends and family together on those important days.

SLEN: And how original is everything?

EVANS: The house is 98 percent original. We have very few reproductions. The table is actually -- their silverware, their dining table ware there.

SLEN: And you have the place setting. You see Mamie on the right on the end, and the president on the left on the end. But then you've got Dick and Mrs. Nixon. And that's how the name cards read.

EVANS: Yes. Oh, yes, yes. But of course, especially after it became apparent their families would be united in marriage, when David Eisenhower began dating Julie Nixon, and then of course the engagement announcement. I mean, they were definitely very close to the Nixons. They were friends as well as political partners.

SLEN: How much of the decorating did Mamie do in this house?

EVANS: Mamie -- this is really her. This is her taste, her design. She did have an interior decorator that assisted her, Elizabeth Arden, but she was sort to consult with. This really is Mamie's taste.

SLEN: And throughout the evening, we'll bring you into other rooms and other areas of the house. But finally, Alice Evans, just to put a period on a conversation that they were having back in Washington, Kay Summersby. You and I had a little conversation. Did Mamie Eisenhower ever meet Kay Summersby?

EVANS: She did once at a kind of formal event in Washington after the war. It wasn't, I mean, Mamie was not really affected by that meeting. You know, she was aware of the rumors, but you know, she just met the -- very graciously met her and then went on with her life. It wasn't something that affected her.

SLEN: And we will be back to the Eisenhower Farm in Gettysburg later.

(VIDEO CLIP ENDS)

SWAIN: It was around the time of the purchase of the farm that the Eisenhowers began to be drafted by both political parties, and they were not partisan, as we've just told us, and both parties thought they could recruit him.

Tell us the story of how the Republicans were ultimately successful.

IRVIN HOLT: Well, the Republicans, what you find there is there is this grassroots movement, Citizens for Eisenhower, little groups of people all over the country forming and pushing for Eisenhower to run for president and to run as a Republican.

And when he's in NATO, when they're in Europe and he's at NATO, there are people actually flying, including Jackie Cochran, to see Ike, to try and talk him into running on the Republican ticket. And he is not -- he doesn't come out and say what he will or will not do because of his position and what he's doing at NATO.

And one of the stories Mamie tells is they're in France, he's with NATO, it's about Christmas time, there's a -- people are sending Christmas packages from the United States, and they open this one package and it's from a group, Citizens for Eisenhower. And there are all these little beanie hats and ties and "I Like Ike" pins, and that's what they all say, "I Like Ike." So they're having guests over, and while Ike is in the library, phone call or whatever, Mamie gets this box and they all put this paraphernalia on, so when he comes back into the room, there they are, and she said he took one look and his face turned red with anger and then just burst out laughing because they all looked so ridiculous.

SWAIN: President Truman appointed him to the NATO position, thought perhaps that Eisenhower was a Democrat. What was the tension between the Trumans and the Eisenhowers over this?

MAYO: You know, I don't know that much about that. I'm sure you know more about that than I do.

IRVIN HOLT: Obviously, there's been a great deal said and written about, you know, how badly Truman and Eisenhower came to dislike each other. And how did they feel, and how cold were they? But Mamie and Mrs. Truman were good friends. Mamie went to Mrs. Truman's Spanish classes. There's a photograph of Bess showing Mamie around the White House, and they look like two girlfriends giggling in a corner.

Mamie knew how -- and regardless of what somebody's political affiliation was, she could get along with them. And that was the case. If their husbands were having problems, that didn't affect how Mamie and Bess Truman would get along.

SWAIN: Well, once the decision was made, how wholeheartedly did Mamie throw herself into the campaign?

MAYO: I think very wholeheartedly. I think she loved the attention. I am not sure that her part in the campaign was scripted. I think she just sort of threw herself into it, and you know, it turned out to be a watershed for presidential wives and political campaigning. I think she was a -- a great boon to the Republican Party.

They liked the fact that she connected with the women of America, and people started asking for her on the Eisenhowers' campaign train. They did a whistle stop across the country, and people would, at the end of Ike's speech, would -- would say, "We want Mamie," and there was a lot of clapping and you know, calling for Mamie to come out on the -- on the rear of the train. And so then he began saying, "and now would you like to meet my Mamie?" And this is a wonderful photograph of them.

And of course she was a tremendous hit. She would court local politicians, she would give little interviews. So, she turned out to be quite an asset.

SWAIN: We visited the Eisenhower presidential library and museum in Abilene, Kansas, which is the hometown of Dwight Eisenhower, and obviously a place that you can go visit. You're seeing pictures of it on the screen right now. And they showed us some of the campaign memorabilia that they have in the collection that's related to Mamie Eisenhower. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM SNYDER: The 1952 campaign is significant because for the first time in American history, women outnumbered men in the electorate. The Eisenhower-Nixon campaign catered to this new demographic, with all kinds of fashion accessories, including the Eisenhower official campaign hat, designed by one of Mamie's favorite hat designers, Sally Victor.

Also, all kinds of rhinestone jewelry, including earrings and heart-shaped pendants. "I Like Ike" buttons as clip-on earrings for the ladies.

Notice that Mamie's name comes first on the Mamie and Ike charm bracelet. There's even a "Mamie Pink," Mamie Eisenhower comb. "We Want Mamie" and "I Like Mamie" buttons.

And of course, no lady is not complete without a corsage.

All of these accessories would've been worn with this wonderful Ike print dress, often worn at campaign rallies and conventions. Now, let's go to the museum to see some more campaign memorabilia and what Mamie wore to the first inauguration.

Out here in the museum, we have a number of drawers full of campaign memorabilia, including the wonderful "I Like Ike" gloves that go with the Ike dress, Mamie and Pat on campaign buttons, and even "I Like Ike" stockings for the ladies.

Of course, all of this heavy campaigning and Mamie's involvement lead to Eisenhower winning the 1952 election. Mamie becomes first lady and proudly wears this suit to the inauguration. This was designed by Hattie Carnegie, and of course the pillbox hat by her favorite hat designer, Sally Victor.

(VIDEO CLIP ENDS)

SWAIN: This is really your area of specialty.

MAYO: Yes. And we have a wonderful collection of Ike memorabilia and campaign materials from Mamie.

SWAIN: Has there ever really been an election since where there was so much popular culture?

MAYO: No. Not to that extent. The Republican Party just went completely wild with putting out materials that promoted the campaign and Mamie herself. And I think that this resonated with people because, as the curator was saying, this is the first time that women's vote had caught up with the number of men voting. Women had gotten the vote in 1920, but their voting participation had always lagged behind until 1952.

So Ivy Baker Priest, who was the head of the women's division of the Republican party, had come up with three areas that would appeal particularly to women in the campaign, and they -- they emphasized bringing the boys home from Korea, which was imaged in the sense of bringing your husband, your son, your boyfriend home, and Ike was the great military hero who was going to do that.

The second thing that they emphasized was the so-called mess in Washington, which supposed scandals within the Truman administration, and it was imaged in the sense that any housewife could clean up a mess in her home. So, there were all kinds of cleaning pails and scrub brushes and brooms and lapel pins in the shape of brooms that were put out by the Eisenhower campaign, so that women would identify with cleaning up the mess in Washington.

And the third thing was the economy. And that was imaged as every woman has to stay within her budget and why shouldn't the government do the same? And so they put out all kinds of enormous grocery bags that said, you know, "Ike and Dick" on them. That was supposed to indicate that -- that you know, any woman could balance her home budget, and therefore the government should do the same. And the grocery bags were going to be extra large, because this was how much more your -- your budget was going to go if you elected Ike and Dick.

SWAIN: In about -- in 1953, about 50 percent of American homes had television, and that number just kept growing and growing as we got closer to the 1960s. And also the rise of the public relations profession in the United States, and we see it here in full flower, with all of these (inaudible).

MAYO: Yes, there were a lot of advertising men who migrated bodily into the campaign and imaged Ike and Mamie as a commodity, a product that could be sold to Mrs. American Consumer.

SWAIN: And worth noting that on the other side, Adlai Stevenson was divorced?

IRVIN HOLT: Right.

MAYO: And he was also a Unitarian, which many people thought was something like an atheist, whereas Ike and Dick were imaged as, you know, family, God-fearing men. And that was going to be the bulwark against what was then called godless communism.

SWAIN: And we also had the great war hero against the cerebral.

IRVIN HOLT: Exactly.

MAYO: Exactly.

IRVIN HOLT: And also with Mamie, even though you have these campaign managers, image makers, and so forth, she is someone that the image makers are not making her who she is. She is being herself.

MAYO: And that's why I said earlier, if she hadn't come along and done what she did, just being herself, she would've had to be invented.

IRVIN HOLT: Exactly. Because she's so natural in that situation.

MAYO: Yes.

SWAIN: And a question from Brian Watkins, "how much influence did Mamie have in Ike's declaration as a Republican?" Do we know?

IRVIN HOLT: We don't know for sure. I have wondered, but I don't think that there's any discussion that they made public about how they decided or he decided. And I'm not sure if her father, being a Republican, and he and Ike being on very good terms had an influence. I just don't know.

SWAIN: Here's...

IRVIN HOLT: Well, it more -- it has more to do with who would have been running for president in the Republican slot if not Eisenhower. And Eisenhower really agreed to run because when he looked at the other candidates, he couldn't see them -- especially if they were going to be isolationists -- in the world as it was, after World War II.

SWAIN: Post-World War II.

IRVIN HOLT: It was almost as if he said, "Well, if it has to be me, I can handle this better than these people can."

SWAIN: David is watching us in San Francisco, and you're on. Hi, David.

DAVID (ph): Hi.

SWAIN: We're listening. David, go ahead, please, with your question.

DAVID (ph): Yes. I was curious as to what Eisenhower's stance or position was on the civil rights issue in the 1950s.

SWAIN: Okay. Thanks very much. We'll talk a little bit more about that later, but briefly?

IRVIN HOLT: Well, Eisenhower is finally beginning to be recognized by historians for his contributions as -- in the civil rights era, not only for Brown v. -- what happened with Little Rock and sending troops in, but Eisenhower, for example, integrated Washington, D.C.

SWAIN: In what way?

IRVIN HOLT: Well, in every way. Washington had been a segregated city...

SWAIN: Since...

IRVIN HOLT: ... in terms of where people can stay...

SWAIN: ... since Woodrow Wilson?

IRVIN HOLT: Yes. Going back to Wilson. And Eisenhower -- they just simply integrated the city.

But they’re –

SWAIN: How do you integrate the city? In official Washington, how do -- what were they doing?

MAYO: Well, I think they were -- they were inviting blacks to attend White House functions. I don't know how they dismantled the segregation in the -- the government positions, but that also was something that went on during the Eisenhower administration -- was a desegregation of the federal workforce.

SWAIN: Well, it's notable in the -- people wearing the Eisenhower -- the Ike dresses.

IRVIN HOLT: Yes.

SWAIN: That there were several African-American women...

MAYO: Right, right. And I -- I think he never really -- until recently, got the credit for the very strong stand that he took in Little Rock in sending the federal troops.

SWAIN: Mm-hmm.

MAYO: I mean, that was just a shocking thing, I think, in the 1950s. I mean, by the time you get to the '60s -- and everybody knows about Lyndon Johnson -- but, you know, in the '50s, this was -- this was a quite shocking move.

SWAIN: Edie Mayo made the point of the incredible entertainers that the -- the couple were throughout their professional lives together, both military, private, and then to the White House. And one of the things that really changed about the -- the number of social events they would have is the rise of air travel, and also post-war diplomacy. So, there were many more visits of official people coming to Washington during the Eisenhower years than previous presidents had seen.

We're going to return to Gettysburg to the farm to look at how they -- the Eisenhowers entertained there, to help us understand how they did this officially. Much of it translated into their time in the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER SLEN: I'm with Alyce Evans.

What are we seeing on the screen right now?

EVANS: We're seeing, of course, Mamie and her iconic inaugural gown from 1953. This is actually a copy of the White House portrait, done by Thomas Stevens.

SLEN: And right below that is a piano.

EVANS: Yes. Of course, Mamie was a big piano player. She didn't think a home was a home without a piano. You see, of course, her sentimentality in all the photographs of friends and loved ones, family members on the sofa -- on the piano there.

SLEN: Now, Alyce Evans, we are in the formal living room, a rather large room.

EVANS: Yes.

SLEN: How much entertaining was done in there?

EVANS: Surprisingly, not a lot of entertaining. You would think in this gorgeous space that they would want to use it. President Eisenhower was not a particularly big fan of this room and its decor. But it definitely shows Mamie as first lady in this room -- her understanding of etiquette and sort of rules and regulations. Especially if someone had taken the time to present them with a gift, she wanted to put that gift on display.

SLEN: Well, how did they furnish this room?

EVANS: This room is mostly decorated with gifts given to them throughout the years from friends, family and dignitaries. There's only five objects in this room that they purchased for themselves.

SLEN: How is it that the Eisenhowers were able to keep their gifts?

EVANS: I get that question a lot. You know, President Eisenhower was our last president who as allowed to keep all of his gifts.

SLEN: Now, Alyce Evans, we're looking at a lot of tchotchkes.

EVANS: Yes. Yeah. Mamie, of course, let slip at a press conference she liked porcelains, so a lot of those gifts were presented to her.

SLEN: And before we get too far, I want to ask you about this portrait of Mamie Eisenhower, this other one that we have up here in the yellow dress.

EVANS: Yes, that portrait was actually done before she was first lady. It was actually painted in 1948 while Ike was still at Columbia University. I think this portrait is really -- it really captures her spirit. You know, I think you see a little bit of her vitality, and certainly, her femininity in this portrait.

SLEN: Before we leave this room, two other items we want to ask you about. Number one, the table in front of the couch. By the way, is the -- the upholstery on the couch -- is this all original from the Eisenhowers?

EVANS: Yes, it is. Yes. This sofa is actually quite interesting. They purchased it in 1933, and then actually had a slipcover made for it to match the new decor here. But the coffee table in front of the sofa, I think, is one of the most important pieces in the home.

This was actually a gift from Mrs. Syngman Rhee, the wife of the president of South Korea. And it came on the year anniversary of the cease-fire there in Korea -- the end of the Korean War. It's a gift to Mamie, though. It says, in Korean, basically, "From the wife of the president of South Korea to the wife of the president of the United States." So, Ike might have found the solution to the Korean War, but Mamie got the table at the end.

SLEN: Where did that fireplace come from?

EVANS: The fireplace was actually a gift from their White House staff on the occasion of their 38th wedding anniversary. I know this piece was actually in the White House at one point. It was installed while Franklin Pierce was our president.

SLEN: How did they -- how were they able to get some White House property here in their home?

EVANS: Well -- well, you can sort of trace that back to Julia Grant. You know, she was actually redecorating the White House, and marble had kind of fallen out of fashion. Wooden fireplaces were the rage. She had the marble fireplaces removed, and they were put into storage, and then, basically, auctioned off. They were sold into private hands. During the '50s, the White House staff was able to track down this piece and present it to the Eisenhowers, 'cause it was in the Lincoln White House. And Lincoln, of course, was a very important figure to President Eisenhower.

SLEN: So, Alyce Evans, how would the Eisenhowers use this room? When was it used?

EVANS: Really, the big time of year it was used was Christmas. They would put their Christmas tree in front of the fireplace. They'd have presents for all their grandchildren spread all across the room.

Mamie would be at the piano playing Christmas carols. There'll be sing-alongs. So, that was really when this room was used -- in those important family times.

SLEN: When world leaders would come to see President Eisenhower here, he wouldn't entertain them here?

EVANS: No, he would not. He would do that on the porch.

SLEN: And we will see the porch next time we come back to Gettysburg.

(VIDEO CLIP ENDS)

SWAIN: Thanks to our colleague Peter Slen, who is in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania at the Eisenhower Farm.

So, the entertaining at the White House was notable. For example, the queen of England, Queen Elizabeth came.

IRVIN HOLT: Yes.

SWAIN: How important an event was that?

IRVIN HOLT: Well, the Eisenhowers entertained more heads of state, more foreign dignitaries...

MAYO: Yes.

IRVIN HOLT: ... had more state dinners than any previous administration. And certainly part of that has to do with the change in transportation...

MAYO: And his position.

IRVIN HOLT: And his position.

MAYO: His leadership in Europe.

IRVIN HOLT: Yes.

MAYO: All those years.

IRVIN HOLT: And he knew, he had met all these people, and Mamie had...

MAYO: Right.

IRVIN HOLT: ... in NATO. And so, when Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip come to the United States, Eisenhower says, well, we have this -- we reacquainted ourselves -- yes, there they are -- reacquainted ourselves with old friends, because they knew Queen Elizabeth when she was still princess.

And they felt that way about so many of the people that they had met; they were just re-meeting them again and entertaining them in a different place.

MAYO: But interestingly, it's Mamie Eisenhower who returns large scale, elegant entertaining to the White House. Most people think of Jacqueline Kennedy as the person who did that, but it's really Mamie Eisenhower, after several decades of curtailed entertaining in the White House with the depression and World War II, and the then the Truman renovation of the White House when they were living at the Blair House and couldn't entertain in the White House.

So it's Mamie who brings back really large scale, elegant entertaining...

(CROSSTALK)

MAYO: ... to the White House.

SWAIN: And she has a period of exhibitions and presidential and first lady memorabilia.

How significant a decision was it, and why was it made, that presidents after Eisenhower could no longer keep the gifts they were given?

MAYO: I think they were afraid that it would look like bribery or some kind of, you know, prompting of a returned political favor for the gift. And so, that was -- that was made illegal.

SWAIN: And where do all those gifts go? Because presidents still get lots and lots of gifts from the public and from world leaders.

MAYO: They usually -- they either go to the State Department or they go to the National Archives. And through the archives, they often turn up at presidential libraries. But they're not owned by the president and first lady.

SWAIN: Now, one of -- one statement a president and first lady can make is not -- is who they invite, but also who they do not invite. And one person they did not invite to the White House was Senator Joe McCarthy.

IRVIN HOLT: Actually, Mrs. McCarthy was invited. She was invited to teas, a receptions. She did not attend.

SWAIN: And what's the significance of that?

IRVIN HOLT: I think she was making a political statement on her husband's behalf not to cross the door into the White House.

SWAIN: Now, some people watching this don't know who Joe McCarthy is, so a very quick snapshot...

IRVIN HOLT: Oh my goodness.

SWAIN: I know it's true.

(CROSSTALK)

MAYO: Well, he was -- he was...

(CROSSTALK)

MAYO: He was the senator that went after so-called Communists in government positions. And it was sort of like a Salem witch hunt, if you will. They saw Communists under every...

(CROSSTALK)

MAYO: ... desk, under every chair. He went after all kinds of people that were supposed to have had some affiliation with the Communist Party or a Communist Party front or somebody who leaned toward the Communists in the '30s and '40s. And he did a great deal of harm to a great number of people's careers and personal lives.

And the reason that Mamie would not invite him to the White House entertainments was that she disagreed with the -- the methodology that he used and the ruining of people's reputations and careers.

SWAIN: And this question is actually connected. Lauren Drop on, Facebook, writes, "I remember reading somewhere that she was a big fan of 'I Love Lucy.'" That's Lucille Ball.

The TV star, the comedienne.

The viewer asks, "Did she try to help Lucy in any way when Lucy was being investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee?"

IRVIN HOLT: Absolutely yes.

When Lucy had been brought before the committee and, of course, she and Desi Arnaz are terrified that their careers are over with.

MAYO: That they're ruined.

IRVIN HOLT: And it's Ike's birthday. We're back to the birthday times again. It's Ike's birthday, and Mamie invites Lucy, Desi and Vivian Vance and...

(CROSSTALK)

SWAIN: William Frawley.

IRVIN HOLT: ... to the White House, and she says to entertain. Well, they do a little bit of entertainment for Ike's birthday, but then Mamie makes a point of having Lucy and Desi sit with her and Ike for the dinner portion of the evening.

She's not saying anything about it. She's just making a very public statement...

(CROSSTALK)

IRVIN HOLT: ... about who she invites and where they sit, and how they're treated when they arrive.

SWAIN: Mamie Eisenhower brings a general's wife's sensibility to the running of the White House.

We're going to return to the Eisenhower Library in Abilene, Kansas, to learn more about how she approached life in the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM SNYDER: As a young girl, Mamie was diagnosed with a heart condition. In later years, she was under doctor's orders to stay in bed three days a week.

Well, that was a little too much for Mamie, so she compromised and stayed in bed every day until noon.

But, she was a busy lady. She would still meet with her staff. And to do that, she would get up in the mornings, do her hair, put on her make-up, and then wear these lovely bed jackets and lay back down in bed. As we'll see in the library we have many notes from those meetings.

While wearing the bed jackets that we saw in the museum, Mamie would often meet with her secretary to plan the day's events. As first lady, Mamie ran the White House with military precision. Her schedules were often blocked out in as few as five minute increments for a day.

We have schedules from every year that Mamie was first lady. For example, on this schedule, we see that not only did she have a diplomatic dinner, but the next morning she was planning to cut the ribbon at the National Presbyterian Church bazaar.

The handwritten notes are changes that Mamie would make when she would meet with her social secretary, (Mrs. McCafferty).

Some of the things that Mamie would discuss with her social secretary were of a personal nature. For instance, here she's shopping for Christmas gifts for their grandchildren, and she wants to buy this doll for her granddaughter Susan.

But Mamie was always particular about the budget, and she even kept her figures so that she would never go over budget, even shopping for family presents.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SWAIN: Life in the Eisenhower White House, how many people lived with them there?

IRVIN HOLT: Well, they sometimes had Mamie's mother, Elivera, live there. The Eisenhower grandchildren did not live there; they visited very often, spent huge amounts of time. And the press loved them, loved to photograph them playing in the front of the building or sometimes they would have photographs of them inside playing.

But, basically, it's Ike and Mamie and for long periods of time Mamie's mother.

MAYO: Mamie also said that any day was a good day when her grandchildren were there.

IRVIN HOLT: Yes.

SWAIN: The -- someone asked us earlier and made the reference to the stereotypical 1950s woman. Here's one way that that stereotype plays out. It was documented that Mamie visited the Oval Office just four times during Ike's presidency.

So, will you talk a little bit about the separation of the wife's role versus the husband's role that was a stereotype of the 1950s?

MAYO: Yes, very much a division of labor. The women would -- would handle the food, the entertainment, the family. The president would handle the country, the politics.

SWAIN: But we had just had a Roosevelt administration where...

MAYO: But that was such a departure -- that, and such an anomaly for the time that it didn't get institutionalized until much later.

IRVIN HOLT: And part of that was Mamie's military background, too. She once made the comment that a wife never went near her husband's command post, his point of operations. It just simply wasn't done. And so again, that separation of their spaces.

SWAIN: And it was a busy eight years in the Eisenhower White House for the president. And we have a list of just some of the big things that were happening during the Eisenhower presidency, to show you. And here we're doing it while we're looking at video, so if we can make the transition.

The -- Russia launches Sputnik and the Cold War really bursts onto the international scene, tension between the United States and Russia; there was the Red Scare. And we heard earlier about Senator Joe McCarthy and the role that he played in the United States during the Red Scare; the Rosenberg espionage trial; also the U-2 spy plane shot down over Russia.

Here at home, Rosa Parks did her famous bus ride in Montgomery, Alabama. There was the Arkansas school desegregation case which both of our guests referred to; also, the creation of the interstate highway system. NASA was established, and our two last states, number 49 and 50, came into statehood, Alaska and Hawaii.

And Mamie Eisenhower was not involved in any of this. She wasn't an issues person at all.

MAYO: She did not discuss issues publicly. That was not her job, as she saw it. Privately, she was very opinionated; had some very strong ideas on a number of social issues, but she simply was not an activist the way that we think of women speaking out today.

And in fact, she was probably the last presidential wife that didn't have a particular cause while she was in the White House. That was something that, you know, that Eleanor Roosevelt had done, but Bess Truman had not done. And so Mamie -- her whole background would not have lent itself to her doing that. But she's -- she's the last first lady where that's the case.

IRVIN HOLT: She had -- she launched lots of charity drives. She was a spokesperson for the American Heart Association. But you can't say that those were causes and projects the way that it became institutionalized.

MAYO: They're totally unpoliticized.

IRVIN HOLT: Yes.

MAYO: They're very traditional.

IRVIN HOLT: After -- with Jacqueline Kennedy, after her and Mrs. Johnson's beautification projects, a first lady was expected to have a project.

MAYO: Exactly. She wasn't considered a serious first lady if she did not have a cause or project.

SWAIN: 19 years after she left the White House, Mamie Eisenhower sat down with Barbara Walters to give her views on the role of the first lady. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARBARA WALTERS: Do you think president's today need their wives' help?

MAMIE EISENHOWER: I don't know. They're getting it, but I don't know whether they want it. Maybe they don't want it.

(LAUGHTER)

I don't think that you can -- I think you have to do -- your husband has to -- a man has to be encouraged. I think I told Ike every day that we lived how much I thought he was, how good I thought he was. You know, your ego has to be fed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SWAIN: A little bit on the role of the first lady. Gary Robinson wants to know what would Mamie say is her greatest contribution to the role of first lady.

MAYO: I would think that she would say that it was giving Ike a comfortable home life where he could relax and get away from the pressing issues of the day. I think her greatest contribution was in institutionalizing the first lady as the campaigner. I think that's the role that has -- has really carried on with later first ladies and in American political life.

SWAIN: What would your answer be?

IRVIN HOLT: I would agree that privately, it would be creating that home. And when she said "homemaker," she meant it in the truest sense -- making a home that was comfortable and welcoming and gave Ike a place to escape, and for their friends and family to enjoy themselves and to be together.

Publicly, I think her contribution as a first lady was projecting someone who really was interested in anyone and everyone without any consideration for their political, social, religious background. To say that she was nonpolitical, almost it sounds like, well, it's too good to be true. But I think basically she was interested in people for who they were, and they -- they realized that in her and responded to her.

SWAIN: Were their public opinion polls in politics at the time?

IRVIN HOLT: There were public opinion polls, but -- but it was -- they really didn't ask those kinds of questions so you can't gauge it against today.

SWAIN: One of the things she did to preserve Eisenhower's sense of peace, I guess, was the creation of Camp David, named after their grandson. We now hear about it all the time in politics. There was something there before called "Shangri-La."

MAYO: Shangri-La.

SWAIN: So how did -- how did it become an official presidential retreat?

MAYO: There had been previous presidential retreats. The Hoovers had set up Camp Rapidan on the Rapidan River in Virginia. But that had sort of been unused because it was a rocky, hilly kind of terrain that Franklin Roosevelt couldn't use. And so Roosevelt had set up this presidential retreat called Shangri-La. And then when Eisenhower was in office, he renamed it Camp David after his grandson.

SWAIN: Regina Crumkey wants to know: Did Mamie invite any former or future first ladies to the White House? Pat Nixon probably doesn't count...

(LAUGHTER)

... because she was the vice president's wife. But were they friends with the Reagans, for example? I know they traveled to California frequently.

IRVIN HOLT: They really didn't know the Reagans. They knew the Reagan -- they new Nancy Davis Reagan's parents and socialized with them in California. And Nancy Reagan did meet them and actually in the collection at the Eisenhower Presidential Library, there is a notice of Ronald and Nancy Reagan's marriage, but it's a marriage announcement. It's not an invitation to the wedding.

So, they really knew each other more different generationally because Ike and Mamie were better friends with her parents. But as for first ladies, yes, Mamie was friends with Bess Truman, although Bess didn't often come to the White House afterwards; with Edith Wilson; and certainly all the, well, Mrs. Kennedy, Mrs. Johnson would have come to the White House as senate wives when their husbands were in Congress because they would have been invited to those functions.

MAYO: Luncheons.

SWAIN: While we're talking about family life and how Mamie's job was really to preserve and encourage it, we're going to return to their farm at Gettysburg and learn a little bit more about family life.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER SLEN: Alyce Evans is with the National Park Service, a park ranger and a Mamie expert here at the Gettysburg Eisenhower House. First of all, how much square feet does this entire property have -- I mean, inside?

EVANS: Inside, it's about 14,000 square inches (sic).

SLEN: About 14,000. OK. What room are we in now?

EVANS: We're in the porch. I think it's one of the most important rooms in the home.

SLEN: Why?

EVANS: This is really where they lived, and that's what Mamie said that, you know, "We lived on the porch." This room was really the private life of the Eisenhowers here, and the family center of the home.

SLEN: And it was set up with some couches and chairs, and over here a TV.

EVANS: Yes, a sign of, you know, the family of the 1950s is going to be spending time here, the television. They were our first presidential couple to really watch television together in the White House.

SLEN: So what would be a typical evening here on the porch?

EVANS: Well, the Eisenhowers would have their dinner here on TV trays, watching Walter Cronkite on the Evening News; depending, you know, what time of year, what time it was, watching "I Love Lucy" or "The Lawrence Welk Show." Ike liked westerns like "Bonanza" or "Gunsmoke."

SLEN: And where would the president sit?

EVANS: The president would sit in that chair facing the television, that rocking chair.

SLEN: This rocking chair, and that's his actual chair.

EVANS: Yes, that is the actual chair he sat in.

SLEN: And then there's an old fashioned or an early version of a remote.

EVANS: Yes, there is. That was, of course, the president's sort of territory there. Mamie used to joke that he used to flip all the time through all three channels looking to see what was on.

SLEN: And where would Mamie be sitting?

EVANS: Mamie would sit across from him.

SLEN: Off to the left.

OK. What kind of conversation would they have? Would they talk?

EVANS: Oh, yes. The Eisenhowers were great conversationalists, and that's certainly a skill that Mamie had not just as first lady, but as a hostess. She loved people and she loved socializing.

SLEN: When Ike was president and after the presidency, what kind of -- what kind of guests would come and be here on the porch with them?

EVANS: All guests came to the porch here in the house, be it their grandchildren, you know, visiting and coming in to see grandma and grandpa. I think also very equally important, dignitaries came to this room to talk to the president. And if the first lady was here, of course, she'd be involved in those conversations.

SLEN: Who were some of those dignitaries?

EVANS: Lots of big-wigs from that time period -- Winston Churchill, of course; Charles de Gaulle, and I think probably most famously, Nikita Khruschev and his visit in 1959 to the United States.

SLEN: And?

EVANS: And Khruschev sat here and sort of had a little thaw in the Cold War here with the president and his family.

SLEN: Well, moving on down, there seems to be a little breakfast room here. Is that -- this what this is?

EVANS: Yeah.

SLEN: What would this room (have been) used for?

EVANS: This was -- yeah, sort of an area that would -- the couple would play cards here. The ladies would play here and the gentlemen would sometimes play at the other end of the room or in Ike's den.

I like this area because I think it's really Mamie here in this part of the room. The president liked to paint here on the -- the porch. And she -- they spent so much apart in their married life but especially in their retirement years. If Ike was here painting, she would be at this table playing cards, solitaire or reading a book, doing crossword puzzles. (She said she) just liked to be in the same room with him because they had spent so much time apart in their married lives.

SLEN: Now Alyce Evans, in this little space here with the wicker chairs, et cetera, I counted 12 ashtrays and four lighters.

EVANS: Yes.

This is the 1950s and 1960s. Both the president and first lady smoked.

Ike actually gave up cold turkey though after the war, which is amazing for a man who smoked four packs of cigarettes a day during the war.

Mamie smoked for a little bit longer than her husband did.

SLEN: Now behind us, it's all covered up now but what is behind these screens and these drapes?

EVANS: The Eisenhowers had a beautiful view of their cattle fields where Eisenhower raised black angus here on the farm and also portions of the Gettysburg National Military Park.

SLEN: What kind of security would they have?

EVANS: Of course, they had Secret Service during the eight years that he was president. And then after Kennedy's assassination, they had Secret Service again until both of their passings, Mamie until '79.

SLEN: Well, one interesting story you told me about Mamie Eisenhower, T.V. and Secret Service.

EVANS: Oh yeah.

Mamie came up with some unique tasks for her Secret Service men. She loved soap operas. Her soap opera of choice was "As the World Turns" and as first lady and even in retirement, you know, sometimes she had to miss her daily episode of "As the World Turns."

So guess who's watching it? A Secret Service man taking notes for her.

SLEN: And he would have to present those...

EVANS: Oh yes. He'd have to present so she wouldn't miss any of those important plot twists.

SLEN: After Dwight Eisenhower's death in 1969, she stayed here.

EVANS: Yes.

SLEN: What kind of visitors did she have on her own?

EVANS: Mamie tried to continue, you know, entertaining to a degree. I mean, it was much more quiet when Mamie was here.

But of course, friends and family were always welcome. Mamie was very lonely, of course, after the president died so she very much welcomed friends and family to come here and keep her company.

SLEN: Did she have live-in help?

EVANS: Yes.

There were three staff members that lived in the house. Mamie had a series of maids that assisted her.

And then there was Sergeant Moaney and his wife. Sergeant Moaney had been assigned to Ike during the war and his wife, Dolores, came here with him and became the cook, he was the valet and they were very close to the Eisenhowers.

SLEN: And Dolores is still living?

EVANS: Yes, Dolores is still living. She lives in Washington, D.C. She still keeps very close contact with the Eisenhower family.

SLEN: Well, we have one more stop on our tour. And we'll be upstairs the next time you come back to the Eisenhower Farm.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SWAIN: Thank you, Peter Slen.

And we were all wondering about the Secret Service agents who got the duty to transcribe the soap operas during the Eisenhower administration.

Well, Mamie Eisenhower was enormously popular but she really was shielded from the press. She gave only news conference in 1953. She'd been asked by the New York Herald Tribune to write a regular column. She declined.

This was all the advice of their -- of the Eisenhowers' P.R. people...

MAYO: Yes.

SWAIN: But she always made it onto the (Best Dressed List).

MAYO: Yes. Every year she was in the White House.

SWAIN: Next, we're going to show a little bit of Mamie's style and...

MAYO: Wonderful.

SWAIN: ... this is -- this is you...

(LAUGHTER)

Get ready to talk about this when we come back.

We're going to return to Abilene and the Eisenhower Library for a look at Mamie's style.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILLIAM SNYDER: I'm surrounded by just a few of the items that kept Mamie on the 10 Best Dressed List every year she was first lady.

She often worked with Mollie Parnis, one of her favorite designers for her suits and dayware outfits.

This is the outfit she wore to the formal opening of the Saint Lawrence Seaway where she and Ike met Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip.

Another custom design dress is this that is referred to as the "Eisenhower Toile." This is a printed cotton fabric with many of the houses that the Eisenhowers lived in during their marriage. It also includes the five-star symbol for the five-star General Eisenhower.

These are a few examples of Mamie's day dresses. She was very fond of the color pink and wore it in many different shades and styles.

Many of the dresses you see are sleeveless. She always said that her arms were Ike's favorite feature and so she chose to show them off.

This is a handmade dress that shows Mamie's attention to budget. This one has an exceptionally long hem in it that she would raise and lower so that the hem line was always in fashion.

Jackie Kennedy is well known for the little black dress. And here are two examples of Mamie's favorite little black dress.

Mamie always said she would never dress like an old lady. These gowns that she wore well into her 70s and 80s show her love of bright colors and wild fabrics.

Like any high-fashion lady of the day, Mamie loved hats. This is just a small sampling of some of them that we have in the collection and one of the favorite designers was Sally Victor.

No outfit is complete without a fabulous pair of shoes and no one knew that better than Mamie. As a matter of fact, many of the shoes we have in the collection say, "Made expressly for Mrs. Dwight Eisenhower."

Mamie's love of fashion did not begin in the White House. This dress and undergarment from the mid-1920s shows her love of fashion. She was about 30 years old, too old to be considered a flapper but still very stylish for the day.

Let's go take a look at some of the exhibits that focus on Mamie's style.

Mamie was well known for her trademark hair style. (These) special bangs were called the "Mamie look" and you could even purchase fake bangs to clip into your hair into your hair at all of the drug stores during the 1950s.

Mamie often would go to the Elizabeth Arden salons to get her hair done and Elizabeth Arden had one of her hair stylists create these drawings so that Mamie could take them with her so that if she had to go to another stylist, her hair would always be perfect.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SWAIN: OK, Edie Mayo, you are on.

(LAUGHTER)

This series is called "Influence and Image."

How much did she influence American women's looks in the 1950s?

MAYO: Oh, she was extremely popular.

She, you know, set off a rage for pink. She set off a rage for bangs. Everybody wanted to look like Mamie.

She was -- it seems a little strange to us post-Jacqueline Kennedy but she really epitomized the best in -- in taste and dresses and -- and accoutrement, if you will, for the 1950s and everybody tried to copy her look.

And the -- the interesting thing about the bangs was that they -- she first started wearing bangs in the 1920s after the death of their son, Icky, had sort of resulted in the Eisenhowers growing somewhat apart. And when they were sent to Panama, his commanding officer's wife sort of took her under her wing and said, "You have to do something to rescue your marriage."

And one of the things she decided to do was to take a renewed interest in her personal appearance. And that's when she had her bangs done. And so that was a -- a sort of symbol to both of them of the rapprochement in the marriage.

Later when she was in Paris, when -- when Ike was the head of NATO, she started frequenting the Elizabeth Arden salon in Paris run by Elizabeth's sister, Gladys. And then when she came to New York, she frequented the New York salon of Elizabeth Arden.

And after the inauguration, the first inauguration, Elizabeth Arden wrote to her and said, "Now that you're in the public eye, I noticed that when you first came back, your hair looked absolutely beautiful but it hasn't been quite the same since.

So I asked our stylist to render these structural drawings -- which you saw in that film clip, which are now at the Eisenhower Library -- "of the steps that a hair stylist must take in order to achieve the 'Mamie look' and the 'Mamie bangs.'

And therefore you, you know, in your travels across the country and around the world, you can take these structural drawings with you and go into any Elizabeth Arden salon and have your hair turn out beautifully."

SWAIN: And here's a connection with our current first lady...

(LAUGHTER)

... who made waves with her bangs...

MAYO: Right.

SWAIN: ... and with her...

MAYO: And with her sleeveless gown. Absolutely.

SWAIN: ... harkening back to Mamie Eisenhower.

We have a list of the things that Mamie Eisenhower was created first for.

One was they were the first -- first couple to kiss at the inauguration and has been a historical trend, as women weren't even invited to early inaugurations and then there was a splash the first time a woman rode in the inaugural parade.

MAYO: Yes. Mrs. Taft. That was quite a...

(LAUGHTER)

... thing.

SWAIN: So they actually went so far as to kiss one another after the inauguration to demonstrate their affection for one another.

She completed the White House china collection, created the Vermeil Room at the White House, invited -- the first to invite T.V. actors to the White House -- we've talked about the "I Love Lucy" group there -- and used -- first to use Camp David as an official retreat for the president.

And Edie Mayo would add "establish the role of the first lady as a campaigner...

MAYO: As campaigner.

SWAIN: We have really -- we're running out of time pretty quickly here. I'm going to go to Robert watching us in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Robert, you're on. Your question.

ROBERT (ph): Hi.

My question is Jackie Kennedy has been mentioned a few times tonight and I'm curious how the Eisenhowers viewed the Kennedys and in particular, how Mamie viewed Jackie and the differences between them.

IRVIN HOLT: Well, I would say that Jackie and Mamie got off to a very rocky start and that was never righted.

Part of it is the -- the difference in age but it really -- beginning with a misunderstanding and it was just very rocky when Mamie took Jackie through the White House for her tour before the inauguration. And Mrs. Kennedy was telling Mamie already the plan she had for renovations and that didn't really sit very well with Mamie and it went on from there.

But I have to say that later, when they were trying to raise funds for what's now the Kennedy Center, the Eisenhower administration had already been planning for a cultural center in Washington, D.C. And when the Kennedys were continuing the plan for that, Ike and Mamie, as retired first couple, did a lot of public speaking and appearances on television to promote the cultural center.

SWAIN: Our guests talk about the fact that the Eisenhowers were smokers and in 1955, Eisenhower -- President Eisenhower suffered a heart attack. He spent 19 days in Walter Reed Hospital, presumed that at some point during that time, Dick Nixon took over the role, or was he able to carry on his duties the whole time?

IRVIN HOLT: To -- no. Nixon -- they wanted things to carry on as normally as possible. You're talking about the first or second...

(CROSSTALK)

IRVIN HOLT: His first one.

Nixon continued to hold cabinet meetings. They wanted for the country to see that everything was moving along as it should be because when the first announcement came of Eisenhower's heart attack, the stock market plummeted, there was almost a panic. And so to show people they were on an even keel, Nixon stepped in.

SWAIN: And even despite this, Eisenhower made the decision to seek reelection, and we have a very brief clip, a 1956 campaign ads, looking at, again, how Mamie appealed to women during the 1956 election.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FEMALE: So much of our future rests with the women of our country. They're the homemakers. The whole family unit revolves around them. Everything that affects the family's welfare affects them first. And everything in the family's life benefits from their influence.

They do the family buying. They see that everybody in the family circle is well-clothed and well-fed.

But beyond this, they are the custodian of its values and aspirations for the future. In their hands lies the training of our young people to whom they pass on the rich heritage of our nation, its love of peace and justice, and its passion for freedom.

The women of our country swept Dwight D. Eisenhower into office four years ago. They will probably decide the election this time. And they like Ike.

And here's somebody else they like, too. Ike's beloved Mamie, whose smile and modesty and easy, natural charm make her the ideal first lady. Let's keep our first lady in the White House for four more years.

November 6, vote for Dwight D. Eisenhower.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SWAIN: And keep the Eisenhowers in the American public did. The Eisenhowers served out the next four years, and then, of course, the 1960 election brought John Kennedy into the White House, where he campaigned against Eisenhower's vice president, Richard Nixon.

The Eisenhowers went back to public -- or private life, back to Gettysburg. We're going to go back there again soon. Right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SLEN: And for 19 years, Mamie Eisenhower lived in this house and all of her life, nearly, she had this picture on every dresser in every house she lived in. Alyce Evans, what is that?

EVANS: And that's Ike's senior picture from West Point, as he gave her that photograph while they were dating. It says, "To the dearest and sweetest girl in the entire world." And she always had that on her dresser after that.

SLEN: And, of course, a pink phone and lots of pink things here in the dressing room.

But now, to an explosion of pink, the master bedroom.

EVANS: Well, I think the decor in this room is very telling of their lives together. Every bedroom they ever lived in, Mamie painted the walls this color green and then decorated in pink. They were their two favorite colors. So I think this is real dedication, a real love, that a five-star general slept under the pinkest sheets here.

SLEN: The original duvet cover...

EVANS: Yes.

SLEN: ... bedspread. And this is where they shared until 1969, when Ike died.

Now, the breakfast set on the bed?

EVANS: Yes. Mamie, of course, spent most mornings in bed, sort of conserving her strength. She had suffered from rheumatic fever as a child.

So she would have breakfast in bed. She'd have a cute pink tray brought up, with a special breakfast set, and she would have her breakfast her. Then she would answer letters, plan her agenda for the day, meet with staff members or the cook, whoever she needed to, to plan the day.

SLEN: 1979, she had a stroke, right there.

EVANS: Yes, yes. She had the stroke that would eventually end her life here. They found her and then she was taken to Walter Reed, where she would eventually pass away then in November. She had the stroke in September.

SLEN: Alyce Evans, the Eisenhower home, open to the public.

Will they be able to see everything that we've seen today?

EVANS: Yes. If you come and visit us, you'll see every room and much more.

SLEN: Hours?

EVANS: This is ours, the American people's...

SLEN: No, hours? Sorry.

EVANS: And we're open from 9 am until 4 pm is the last bus of the day. The site closes at 5'o clock or 5:15.

SLEN: Just off the edge of the Gettysburg Civil War Battlefield, this is the Eisenhower farm in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SWAIN: And our thanks to the staff of the Gettysburg farm and also to the Eisenhower Library in Abilene, Kansas,

This is the time when I want to tell you about this book that we have, for those of you who have been watching us, along the way in a series. We have worked with the White House Historical Association to make available this special edition of their very popular first ladies biography book. And it is available, if you go to C-SPAN's Web site at cpsan.org, you'll see a tab for first ladies and then a tab for shop.

This is the only item available. And we're selling it to you at cost, so that if you would like a memento of this series and to learn more about the first ladies, it's available to you.

Also, each week we have a special featured item from the first ladies, and this week it is Mamie Eisenhower's award from the American Heart Association -- I have to say, surprising as a big smoker -- as volunteer of the year for her work after Eisenhower's heart attack.

Well, we have just a couple of -- really a very short time left.

Her final years and her legacy. How do we wrap this all up with what we should understand about Mamie Eisenhower?

IRVIN HOLT: I think perhaps one of the things most telling, she didn't think about having a legacy. She thought about what she had done as a first lady as important job, her contribution to American life.

And probably her legacy would be what she said to Barbara Walters in that one interview, that when asked, "How do you want to be remembered?" and she said, "Just as a good friend."

MAYO: And I think that's how she felt about the American people, that she was a good friend to them.

SWAIN: And the American people returned that...

(CROSSTALK)

MAYO: Absolutely.

SWAIN: And it is a generational change. In our next program, we will be moving into the youngest couple moving into the White House with the Kennedys. And we look forward to learning about how the country continues to change.

That's it for our Mamie Eisenhower program. Our special guests for tonight, we thank them so much for their work.

And your biography is available if people are interested, Marilyn Holt, "Mamie Dowd Eisenhower: The General's First Lady."

And for folks who didn't get enough tonight and they'd like to learn more.

Edie Mayo, always great to have you on the program. Thank you so much for your time.

Thanks to you for watching at home. Great to have you in the audience.

END