from Pittsburgh Post Gazette:BEDFORD, PA -- As President Barack Obama and his family settle into the White House this week, James William Floyd Allen can't help but think about the many unforgettable moments that unfold behind the scenes at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. The former housekeeping director at Bedford Springs Resort, Mr. Allen, known as "Skip," spent more than 24 years at the White House, first leading tours there as a U.S. Secret Service agent and later serving as an usher. He always wore a black tie and tuxedo for state dinners.
He recalls the night when Miss America, an especially beautiful, thin woman, arrived late for one of those dinners. He greeted her as she emerged from the car. At that moment the back zipper broke on her strapless gown. While the nation's reigning beauty queen quite literally held herself together, Mr. Allen reached into his pants, unfastened the safety pin he always used to keep his tuxedo shirt in place and pinned Miss America together.
After that close encounter, Mr. Allen always carried four safety pins, as well as an extra napkin and set of silverware for dinner guests who dropped or misplaced those items. Allen served seven first families, starting with the last 20 days of President Jimmy Carter's administration and ending with President George W. Bush in 2004. His favorite was President Ronald Reagan, a jovial man who always said hello, had a story to tell and did not take himself too seriously.
Late in the evening of his Jan. 20, 1981, inaugural, Mr. Reagan's signature was needed on a document, so Mr. Allen hurried upstairs to see the new president. He stood and waited while the president, dripping from a shower, wiped off his hand and wrote his name. Less than an hour later, Mr. Allen had to obtain the president's signature again on another document. This time, Nancy Reagan answered the door and the president emerged from his dressing room wearing his underwear. "Oh, Ronnie, put on a robe," Mrs. Reagan said. The president demurred, saying, "That's all right. He's already seen me naked."
The four White House ushers report to the chief usher, whose job is like that of a general manager at a large hotel. "Our job is to keep the president's family happy," Mr. Allen, 66, said as he stretched out on a sofa in his beautifully decorated living room full of mementos in Bedford, where he has retired. "Whatever they want and can be done is done for them so they feel comfortable in the White House," Mr. Allen said. The White House employs roughly 100 people, including butlers, cooks, carpenters, engineers, florists, plumbers and housekeepers, but an usher's job can be unpredictable.
As he left town one weekend, the 41st president, George Herbert Walker Bush, told the chief usher that he'd love to have a horseshoe pitch on the mansion's south lawn.
"So, over the weekend, we put in a horseshoe pitch," Mr. Allen said, adding that when President Bush saw it, he remarked, "I'm glad I didn't ask for anything extensive." Mr. Bush's successor made a different request. "They installed a running track for President Clinton because he ran every day. It was recently taken out," Mr. Allen said, adding that the late Gerald Ford had a swimming pool installed, which First Lady Barbara Bush also used.
Doing a job well, quickly and unobtrusively is the ushers' credo, a tone set by the late Irwin Hood Hoover, known as "Ike," who supervised the wedding of Alice Roosevelt Longworth.
Planning receptions and state dinners is one thing but furniture design is quite another.
During the Clinton administration in 1997, Gary Walters, the chief usher, asked Mr. Allen if he could design a new table for the state dining room. After consulting with banquet planners, butlers and White House curators about dimensions and style, Mr. Allen designed the long table, which is still in use. "I think it's one of the few pieces of furniture in the White House that has a plaque on it," he said. The plaque is under the table, "but I know it's there."
Mr. Allen, whose Aunt Dess taught him how to sew, performed other feats at the White House, too. He fashioned a decorative Santa's sleigh out of a baby car seat, designed the elaborately folded tablecloths for a state dinner honoring the emperor of Japan and built a model of Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home. He also assisted Hillary Rodham Clinton's decorator, Kaki Hockersmith, who redid one of the rooms on the third floor. Ms. Hockersmith wanted to install a 20-foot-long wooden drapery rod in a room that had a solid bank of windows. "It wouldn't fit in the elevator and it wouldn't go up the staircase," Mr. Allen said. So, they tied a rope around the rod, hoisted it onto the White House roof, angled it through a window and onto the bracket.
He said he'd instantly recognize the purple and gold china ordered by Mary Todd Lincoln. The Obamas dined on a reproduction of that pattern yesterday. First ordered in 1861, the French porcelain dinner plate features a royal purple border lined with gold dots and is edged with a gold cable design. At the center, a version of the arms of the United States, which features an eagle, is painted in enamel. "Before Lincoln, there was no state service. He was the first to have officially bought a service for the White House. Everybody else brought their own and used what they had," Mr. Allen said. The $300 bill for the royal purple porcelain, which had service for 24 place settings, brought public scorn upon Mrs. Lincoln. "A big dinner, back in those days, was 24 people. A big dinner today is 140," said the former usher.
At antique shops and flea markets, Mr. Allen has collected remnants of past White House administrations, including a crystal cordial glass from the Benjamin Harrison era, a ramekin used in the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and demitasses from the tenures of Harry Truman and Theodore Roosevelt. His favorite presidential china is the cobalt blue and gold pattern chosen during Woodrow Wilson's terms.
Marylynne Pitz can be reached at mpitz@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1648.
First published on January 20, 2009 at 10:47 pm
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