Nixon, Woods & Bull on White House social events and Seating arrangements

3:16:02Say, are the Conways invited tonight?
3:16:04Yes.
3:16:05I wonder if they're coming.
3:16:06They are.
3:16:07Well, he's sick today, I think.
3:16:09The flu.
3:16:10The flu.
3:16:10Is that what it is?
3:16:12And Mr. Weyerhaeuser.
3:16:32Mrs. Connolly, if she calls and says they can't come, tell her to come, that others are coming.
3:16:49I know you like W&U Tech, you can photograph it.
3:16:56Yes.
3:17:03It's apparently an epidemic state in parts of the country.
3:17:13Do you have time to think a little bit about your case tonight?
3:17:24Would you like to think about it?
3:17:27I'm sorry, the wall at the Threshing's home suggested that my drunk fellow might be at the table with Mrs. Wallace.
3:17:32No?
3:17:33Mrs. Wallace, she's with me.
3:17:38Oh, fine.
3:17:39You can have my drunk fellow.
3:17:43He's fine.
3:17:46So if she likes him, how do you know?
3:17:48Well, they're invited because they suggested it.
3:17:52I guess they work together on those things.
3:17:53But don't get me wrong.
3:17:55The Lindberghs,
3:17:57The host.
3:17:58Would you like Bob Wolf at your table?
3:18:01It passed.
3:18:01Well?
3:18:02It passed.
3:18:03Wait a minute.
3:18:11He is such a celebrity, or was he going to be at another table or something?
3:18:16Lucy was thinking of, and I agree with her, putting him in that center table with Mrs. Connelly as the host of that table and have Bob close to that table.
3:18:24Right.
3:18:30For me, I just don't know where I correspond.
3:18:34You want Mrs. Waller here?
3:18:38Yeah.
3:18:40She should be at my table.
3:18:49Well, put someone there who also dominates us.
3:18:51We won't put her right next to you, though.
3:18:54Oh, no.
3:18:54Yes.
3:18:55Let's put Mrs. Waller on your right and her on your left.
3:18:58Sure.
3:19:01That's going to be a very entertaining evening, isn't it?
3:19:08We have a teenager in your scene, and she'll take more of the load off when you grow up, actually.
3:19:18Fine.
3:19:18It's sort of funny this, because, you know, at the last minute, there's quite a few.
3:19:21We don't even have one senator or congressman now, and we've had quite a few.
3:19:27Um...
3:19:29And we're going to put, you know, Billy Graham has to be the table of his own and peel, I think, don't you?
3:19:35I don't think they should be.
3:19:38Because they're big enough to keep the table going.
3:19:40What about Lionel Henson?
3:19:44I don't suppose you want him or even yours at Pat's table?
3:19:46He's young and he could do that.
3:19:47Pat's table.
3:19:57And do you think Steve Royce is apparently a very good friend of DeWitt Wallace?
3:20:02Steve Royce is a...
3:20:03He used to be out at the Huntington.
3:20:06Fine.
3:20:06I'm sure he's fine.
3:20:07Okay.
3:20:10And I don't know, maybe she might like, well, either Jenna Lindbergh or maybe Chris, maybe she'd like Crescent Myers or two.
3:20:15Or he's big enough to be at a table by himself, too.
3:20:28No, he's not very good at talking.
3:20:30He is, but he's smart and he won't talk.
3:20:37I don't know if there are any other women here, but you need to quiet them down.
3:20:43Well, if you have Alice and DeWitt, you don't need any talky ones.
3:20:48Well, you don't have DeWitt.
3:20:50You've got a lot of Mrs. Lawson.
3:20:51Mrs. and Alice, you see.
3:20:52Well, how about putting maybe Mrs. Rawlins there?
3:20:56Or Mrs. Lockheed.
3:20:58Go for it.
3:21:16We've got Harold Kellner, Keith Bunsen, Tom Patterson, Alan Wallace.
3:21:21You've got to have him.
3:21:22No, not Wallace.
3:21:24It might be a really good name for men.
3:21:28Well, you've got just yourself.
3:21:29Oh, you could put Bunsen.
3:21:30Bunsen's all right.
3:21:31You know, you've just got yourself a lot of trouble.
3:21:34What about George Tenney?
3:21:37He's just a little sick.
3:21:37He's always going to be hitting me.
3:21:40I know.
3:21:40Always.
3:21:46don't mean a hell of a lot.
3:21:48And either of mine or Pat's one of the two.
3:21:52You know, he's likely to be better than Pat's, so that he doesn't do... Or anything, anything.
3:21:57I just don't want to... Well, he may not think that there are a lot of other people much more important than all those other people.
3:22:05And, uh, but in my people, the function's fine.
3:22:08I'm just, I'm trying to, you know, he's kind of an older corporation now, so...
3:22:19Martin Hayden, you wouldn't want him on your table.
3:22:24Yes, he'd be fine.
3:22:27Yes, he'd be fine.
3:22:29Because it's hard to pick out one man.
3:22:31Yes, it's fine.
3:22:31Of course, maybe you were making a mistake.
3:22:35I don't think so.
3:22:36I'm sure I'm talking all right.
3:22:37Sure.
3:22:37He's hurt.
3:22:38They haven't been here before.
3:22:40he could be i don't mind but he doesn't need to be he can be he's a great father yeah put him in the table now that's enough that you got him
3:23:05Well, you could, yourself and Mrs. Lawler, and Lyons are from Mrs. Lawler.
3:23:11Mark and Hayden would be five, and then we'll take...
3:23:14There's six of each, so twelve?
3:23:18Eight, I guess.
3:23:19Eight.
3:23:20Give me these people.
3:23:21You want four men?
3:23:23We need three men besides me.
3:23:26Well, why don't the others want... And Hayden and the Mary and Ethel are seven.
3:23:30That's good.
3:23:39And you know, now, the way people have understood it, there's even, there's going to be an uneven number, and I'd be an extra woman.
3:23:45So I don't really think I ought to go.
3:23:47I'll come in later for the entertainment.
3:23:49Oh, you know, what's the difference between the two?
3:23:54Well, extra women at least, and there's a change in the next.
3:23:59You know, they, it's down to 91 now.
3:24:05And you just can't invite outside people, you know, like we couldn't.
3:24:08We got these calls yesterday and today.
3:24:21Do you know who we were when Mrs. Mila Ting was, T-Y-A-G?
3:24:27She's Henry Luce's first wife.
3:24:30She's the mother of Hank Lewis and was a good friend of Ben.
3:24:33She's coming.
3:24:35I'll write that out on a note.
3:24:36I just now found out who else she was.
3:24:38I asked Hope.
3:24:48That's fine.
3:24:49Okay, well, Lucy just wanted to have your table be thorough.
3:24:52It would be wonderful.
3:24:53Sure.
3:24:53Fine.
3:24:54Fine.
3:24:59Well, there are two inches of snow in Kent this morning.
3:25:04Oh, really?
3:25:05I bet it was.
3:25:06Was it quite cold up there?
3:25:23It was cold last night, but I, of course, I missed my house.
3:25:33It was nice.
3:25:33It was a good break.
3:25:36Good break.
3:25:36Just to be... Well, just to get away, I guess we're not even... Out of here.
3:25:43Really get there and spend here.
3:25:44Well, yeah, it's just good sometimes to be able to look out across the country.
3:25:47God, this is a wonderful place.
3:25:50You know, I have no complaints about it.
3:25:52Yeah.
3:25:53It was nice.
3:25:55That building was very pretty.
3:25:58They restored it, you know, to the old high ceilings and stuff.
3:26:02They read a nice letter from you.
3:26:04Chief Justice was there.
3:26:07It was very, very, very nice.
3:26:10And I saw John and Ollie Volpe at an earlier thing.
3:26:21I told him you were at home.
3:26:23And he said, this is the third time the son's been in the hospital.
3:26:25And he had changed his mind.
3:26:28And I told him that you had mentioned calling, but we thought maybe later we'd see how it's going along.
3:26:34He said, oh, that's right.
3:26:36And I said, if you get to this point, you know, if you make a call with helping me, that's the point.
3:26:41So you let me know because the president wanted to call him.
3:26:44And we thought we should wait and talk with you first.
3:26:50Good, you've done it right.
3:26:55Incidentally, when you're thinking of dinner lists sometimes, a burger's always a good one to have on, so why don't you see it?
3:27:09Just a very good sign.
3:27:10Well, this list, I take no blame for, because I didn't do it, but this is done by Hall and Schultz, and it doesn't have as much liquid in my hand.
3:27:20Because we're too many of the same people.
3:27:22How many have been here six, seven, eight times?
3:27:27And like, we've got so darn many people who have done more than friendly quarreling to a hater, and they're back again.
3:27:32They weren't the ones who requested the walls.
3:27:39They were put on by tax drivers.
3:27:49There are a couple things that I think you might not be aware of.
3:27:52Sam's written a very nice letter.
3:27:54And here's a memo back from Erlandson on that.
3:27:56He will write the memo.
3:27:58But I think you ought to read it.
3:27:59He said that he wanted to push it with John Rachel.
3:28:03Yeah, John, yes.
3:28:08You don't want to see this.
3:28:10Grant sent a copy of the letter he wrote to John Connolly on it.
3:28:17I don't think so.
3:28:18Unacquainted, that's better.
3:28:20Unacquainted.
3:28:23The tattoo of John Connery, unacquainted, was initiated by his recent visit to the Buckeye Commission.
3:28:30So that's John Rumsdorff, is that right?
3:28:33Rumsdorff, exactly, yeah.
3:28:36Is that alright by this?
3:28:37Yeah.
3:28:37I think what he's usually in California.
3:28:59Well, in our text, he's written... My idea is that Laurie would probably have a cop-out to him out there.
3:29:05You know, he'd probably want to give him the cash.
3:29:08He might.
3:29:09But he needs personal basis.
3:29:14We were out in California.
3:29:16He's done all the things, but...
3:29:18I already said I didn't think you could do it, but Kenny Ball wrote the letter, and Clint Harris wrote about it to me.
3:29:23What did he write?
3:29:24Well, he had to put your name on a fundraising campaign to raise $10,000.
3:29:27And I said, oh, you can't get a president's name on something like that.
3:29:32So I just...
3:29:33Yes, I had to put my name on any blogger.
3:29:41And if you're reading over the weekend...
3:29:44I've heard from him for years.
3:29:46She's known in New York.
3:29:47And an interesting one from Irv Davidson.
3:30:02Oh, very good.
3:30:03The lobbyists are in the meeting.
3:30:04Yeah, but the letter's about a talk he had with George Meany, his wife, on an airplane.
3:30:08I mean, the memo.
3:30:10And so I think you ought to read it if you have the chance at all.
3:30:13Put it in my little...
3:30:15In my little thing?
3:30:16Yes, sir.
3:30:17And then there's a letter to you from Franklin about European community, et cetera, and, you know, a lot of things.
3:30:28I think maybe you might hear that.
3:30:29Hear that?
3:30:30Hear that?
3:30:32For their response, I think I know what it is.
3:30:37Yeah, I would like to have it filed.
3:30:40I'll read it and see what it is.
3:30:43Yeah, I've got another.
3:30:46Yeah, like when you put those red folders, I'd like to take them.
3:30:49Then I get them in a helicopter or something.
3:30:52It's just the best thing to do.
3:30:56And then I don't, I feel that I'm not going to use the time very well, and it's good relaxation.
3:31:01And then I read them all, and it's very helpful to have them do it.
3:31:05It gives me a little feel of the man, which I need to get.
3:31:07Yeah, unless you run into these people or anything.
3:31:10Oh, my gosh.
3:31:11They like to know these things.
3:31:12Now, I don't know if you want to answer that dinner this late and invite any of the others.
3:31:23I don't think we can do that very well now.
3:31:31I wonder if one of the circumstances that Wallace, the Wallaces and us, really wouldn't be better off tonight as Idlewants than our talk to these people particularly now.
3:31:48Should we more move out?
3:31:51I don't know, I don't think so.
3:31:55I think they've set it up not to.
3:31:56They've set it up, I think, to bring those people in.
3:31:58They're getting treated royally.
3:32:00They're going to duplicate the dinner over there or do something.
3:32:06They'll be brought in and be put, seated in the east row for the entertainment.
3:32:10I don't think you need to take care of those people.
3:32:15I thought you were going to say entertainment would be better if you and Pat and the Wallacians were at one table.
3:32:25What do you think?
3:32:26I thought...
3:32:27I don't know.
3:32:32I don't know what you said.
3:32:41I wondered, I think it isn't that way, that we just shouldn't be in sort of like a head table.
3:32:48It isn't too late that you put just a... No, I mean, leave it around.
3:32:53Leave it around the table.
3:32:54Around the table, but...
3:32:55I think it might be kind of nice for the wall.
3:33:02Yeah, it's nice for them.
3:33:03They're being honored.
3:33:04He gets a chance to hear me talk, which he wants.
3:33:06Otherwise, I'm not going to have, she's not going to have this.
3:33:08I won't have breakfast with her.
3:33:10I'll be up and going.
3:33:14Let's all sit at the same table for a change.
3:33:16Well, I'll call Lucy now and tell her that.
3:33:18I think it would be good.
3:33:19No, that's what I hear about.
3:33:21Just leave the people at the table.
3:33:23I still think I'd have Mr. Longworth.
3:33:29You wouldn't?
3:33:31I wouldn't, but maybe you would.
3:33:32I think she's trying to take over a little too much of all of us.
3:33:36Well, all right.
3:33:37Maybe.
3:33:37Maybe Pat would like her, too.
3:33:46Would you still put Martin Hayden?
3:33:48You wouldn't put Martin Hayden there, then, would you?
3:33:50Well, I don't know what other... You just gotta remove one man, so which one do you remove?
3:33:55Leave Lawrence Rockefeller, who else?
3:33:57He's a little bit boring, but... Is he?
3:34:00Oh, yes.
3:34:01Don't put him by himself.
3:34:04He likes him.
3:34:04Right, fine.
3:34:07And maybe we shouldn't do it.
3:34:08Oh, yes, fine, fine.
3:34:09But we've got to let Rockefeller regret it.
3:34:11He isn't gonna be... That's fine, fine.
3:34:14governor maybe then i don't know who's our other person the mayor of indiana steve royce lionel hansen general lindbergh
3:34:44I don't think I'm sure, but it looked like he was there before they caught him.
3:34:47He was gonna be across the line or something like that.
3:34:51He's coming along.
3:35:00Got them all paid.
3:35:01These are all compacts.
3:35:04I really wrote as much as I love them.
3:35:06I've seen them all so many times I haven't got a hell of a lot to talk to you about right now, you know.
3:35:10You can overdo that.
3:35:14I couldn't agree more.
3:35:18It's about power and business and, you know, being in love.
3:35:22Well, don't worry about too much, uh...
3:35:29I don't think we should put the comments there.
3:35:32I don't know whether Lindbergh may have thought of Alice.
3:35:35I don't know, maybe Alice.
3:35:47You know, I think you may be right.
3:35:48Alice was on the conversation very much.
3:35:50I don't want to hear more from me.
3:35:53Well, that's very nice.
3:35:54She had the way of trying to take over.
3:35:56I put her at another table where she can sort of be the grand dame.
3:36:01Where is it?
3:36:03And, uh, so then you have Wallace's and ourself, there's four.
3:36:07How many do you need?
3:36:08Four more?
3:36:09He hasn't gone to eat two other couples, right?
3:36:11Right.
3:36:12And we won't make them any man-like.
3:36:13Yeah, that's right.
3:36:15Well, our drug caller's okay, and we've got to get him.
3:36:22All right, hey.
3:36:24He's done.
3:36:27He's done.
3:36:28Her doctor, who saved your life, is going to be here.
3:36:31Are they very fond of that Dr. Howard Rask?
3:36:33She's very fond of Dr. Peter Manning, president of Juilliard School.
3:36:37Well, I have, uh...
3:36:38I know, but I shouldn't ask you, except I hate him.
3:36:47Are you bored to death?
3:36:48No, I'm not bothered.
3:36:49I can think about it.
3:36:50Or I'll just put anybody in there.
3:36:52I don't really care.
3:36:54But, uh...
3:36:54I hate Lindbergh, so okay.
3:36:59Of course, of course, he's a hell of a celebrity.
3:37:01He's all right here for you.
3:37:02He doesn't carry a table.
3:37:04I think he'll talk about himself about carrying a table.
3:37:09He can't carry a table with somebody else there with him.
3:37:15But I would say that the, I certainly think he could put, I think Howard Rust is okay.
3:37:24That's all right.
3:37:31Well... No, I don't give a damn about the women.
3:37:35We could put... We could put Mrs. Rawlinson, Mrs. Mulcahy, if you want, or somebody else.
3:37:43They're fine.
3:37:44That kind of person is fine.
3:37:45Yeah, we could put...
3:37:47Sometimes we could put Mrs. Bob Post there.
3:37:48She's great.
3:37:49Put her at the table.
3:37:51Laura's home.
3:37:52But that's coming a long way.
3:37:54Right, right.
3:37:55That's fine.
3:37:58And maybe, uh, I don't know, that Mrs. Dan Seymour, J. Moses Thompson?
3:38:03No.
3:38:03Duh.
3:38:04Except by her, it's something more than that.
3:38:09No.
3:38:09What's Jane Sutbridge's wife like?
3:38:12Um, you asked me to labor, they won't want to labor.
3:38:14Oh, but they're against labor.
3:38:16Oh, what about Mrs. King, Mrs. Liz Harrington-Lewis's first wife?
3:38:20Sure, got her.
3:38:24They were supposed to be, you know, very, very good friends, so...
3:38:27I really think, though, that something like that was not done with that one.
3:38:40Hell no, I go...
3:39:12Maybe Julie's right.
3:39:29The letter to me that I've already written.
3:39:31I know it's a very nice letter, but I don't know what to do with this damn thing.
3:39:37I don't know either.
3:39:38What do you think?
3:39:39Do you care about him?
3:39:40Yes.
3:39:40He's in a private meeting in the bathroom.
3:39:42It's about 3 o'clock.

Nixon, Woods & Bull on White House social events and Seating arrangements

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Also recorded on January 28, 1972

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