DC By the Book

Excerpt: New Dealers had marred the beauty of the Tidal Basin by throwing up a monument to Thomas Jefferson, completed and dedicated only now, in the spring of 1943. Critics said of it that it was surrounded by so many columns that they formed a cage for the statue of Jefferson inside.

Excerpt: The military presence was oppressive, particularly the anti-aircraft batteries that stood in parks and were mounted on the roofs of buildings. Even the White House grounds sprouted anti-aircraft batteries surrounded by heaps of sandbags. Lighter batteries were mounted on the White House Roof.

Excerpt: The Gayety Burlesque flourished. A Washington institution that had been attended every time the show changed by no less a figure than Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, was now filled every night with raucous young men in uniform who demanded that the strippers take off more and more. And they did, until there was no more to take off. The vice squad, which had once carefully monitored these performances, turned away. It would have been unpatriotic to deny the GIs their fun. ---------- The Gayety Theater opened in 1907, and although the ornate columned front wasn’t that wide, it funneled into a area that extended all the way to the other side of the block to accommodate a 65-foot wide stage that became the city’s premier burlesque house. Live entertainment of the time tended to be divided among class lines: there was “proper” theater of the classics, Shakespeare, and the like. Occupying the respectable middle ground were vaudeville variety shows. At the bottom end was burlesque, with bawdy and risqué shows designed to appeal to young working men. Burlesque was a highly organized enterprise -- Instead of individually booking artists, theaters became members of circuits or “wheels” that centralized bookings and schedules. There were around a hundred theaters across the country, divided into Western and Eastern circuits, and the 1,500-seat Gayety was part of the Eastern or “Columbia” circuit. It was at the center of a raucous strip of bars, restaurants, and theaters that ran up and down 9th street, and prospered for its first two decades. Despite being “low” entertainment, its clientele often featured members of Congress and a notable Sunday afternoon regular was Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes who would read a book while the comedians were on and then mark his place and put it away when the strippers came on. But by the end of the 1920s, movies were claiming an ever-increasing chunk of entertainment dollars and eyeballs, and vaudeville theaters had become more established as the home of live entertainment. The Columbia burlesque circuit folded in 1931 and for the next two decades the Gayety stage mainly hosted striptease, with its final show in early 1950. It was purchased and renovated in a more respectable playhouse operating from 1952-59 as the Sam Shubert Theater. A fire in 1959 did enough damage that repairs were deemed uneconomical and it was put up for sale. Although a citizen’s group was formed to try and preserve and restore it, a developer was quicker to the punch and purchased the property in order to build a parking lot.

Excerpt: The conference met chiefly in the oval Diplomatic Reception Room on the ground floor of the White House, a room chosen because it was adjacent to the Situation Room or Map Room and had a connecting door to that room. During Winston Churchill's first visit to the White House, in 1941, he had suggested to the President that he should have a special secret room where the latest reports could be constantly assembled into situation reports to which the Commander-in-Chief could refer at any time. This advise culminated in the Situation Room, its walls permanently covered with maps, with markers stuck in to show the position of forces an any given day.

Excerpt: You know the BB Bar on D? The Ben Butler?... He knew the Ben Butler. It had been a popular bar in the old days. Being about halfway between the Capitol and the White House, it was frequented by journalists and lobbyists and a few politicians. It was also near the Gayety Theater, to which many of them would repair for another form of relaxation. It had been, sequentially, a saloon, a speakeasy, and a post-Prohibition bar. In its saloon days the bartenders had scattered sawdust on the floor, because some customers elected to spit tobacco juice. During Prohibition, women had joined its clientele; and not only did the sawdust disappear, but the spittoons were removed. Sawdust invaded women's shoes, and the cuspidors offended the fair sex. The proprietors had replaced sawdust with peanut shells. Peanuts were served at the bar and on every table, and customers were welcome to cast the shells on the floor. They made a satisfying, somehow dissolute, crunch underfoot. Other bars had succumbed to spun aluminum, stainless steel, and pink lights. The BB had remained traditional, with heavy oak tables and chairs. Its staple was mugs of beer, sometime served with shots of whiskey. A long bar ran the whole length of the east side. A buffet was spread in the back, not free as in saloon times but offering substantial sandwiches for twenty cents, a platter consisting of a sandwich, potato salad, and baked beans for fifty cents. A pickle or a deviled egg could be had for a penny. The lights--incandescent bulbs burning in milk glass shades--did not glare on he drinkers but shed a friendly light on them. Little are was displayed on the walls, except a small collection of ancient circus posters, the value of which on one in the BB ever guessed.

Excerpt: When Mrs. Roosevelt returned to her study, Stan Szczygiel was there with a large portfolio of blueprints. They showed the many tunnels and conduits that led into and out of the White House... She put a finger on the blueprint. "I seem to remember that these are pedestrian tunnels, meant to be walked through." "to the Treasury Department and the Old Executive Office Building. Those are open during the day, but people who walk through them must go through security checkpoints and must show identification. They are also patted down for weapons. At night, barred gates are locked at both ends of those tunnels. Even then, there's a guard on duty at the White House end of the tunnel."

Excerpt: The architecture of the White House affords three large oval rooms on the north facade, stacked on top of one another. The most famous of these oval rooms is the Blue Room on the first floor. Above and below it are oval rooms that are less well-known but have of course the same dimensions. The Trident Conference was meeting in the ground-floor oval room. The oval room on the second floor had long been used as a private office for the President, but to avoid confusion with the Oval Office in the West Wing, it was never called an office but the President's Study. The President worked there sometimes, but it was also the place where he pored over his stamp collection. It was decorated to suit him, with ship models. Knowing the President would not be using the room that afternoon, Mrs. Roosevelt invited Julie to meet with her there.