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.