It is a simple mansion, built of stone and irony,
a symbol of freedom invested with the labor of slaves
and great statesman alike.
It is like no other place on earth,
a house alive with the past and present.
I deem this reply a full acceptance of the unconditional surrender of Japan.
...that a strong and a confident
and a vigilant America stands ready tonight...
It is an odd place,
where the monumental and the mundane coexist.
To provide a nuclear strike capability against the Western Hemisphere...
therefore, I shall resign
the Presidency effective at noon tomorrow.
It is where the most critical decisions in our history are made.
And where any American can visit.
And all the things that American
Independence means to you and to me and to ours.
My fellow Americans, our constitution works -
here the people rule.
Now you will journey through time and a day
meeting the people and hearing the stories
that give this powerful place its soul.
For this is more than just an office or a monument or a home,
it is an American idea known as the White House.
This isn't the biggest house.
Many and most, in even smaller countries are much bigger.
This isn't the finest house, but this is the best house.
It's the best house
because it has something far more important than
numbers of people who serve,
far more important than numbers of rooms
or how big it is,
far more important than numbers of magnificent pieces of art.
This house has a great heart,
and that heart comes from those who serve.
At the White House, there is no such thing as a typical day
For those who serve inside, today will be one of the most intense.
These people, stagehands to history
are preparing the house for the visit of Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
Hi, Brenda, this is Gary Walters at the White House.
How are you today.
Fine. Is Jerry in?
Each time a foreign leader visits the White House,
the President has an opportunity to showcase the power
and heritage of the nation
in a setting that embodies them in every wall,
floorboard, and stone.
This is the symbol not only of the Presidency,
but in the eyes of the world, of the United States of America.
Nothing compares to the simplicity and the strength
nothing, nothing in the world like it.
...black tie, the dinner is...
will start off with the private reception...
Very shortly the Yeltsins will arrive.
To insure a flawless visit,
there are briefings on the 1000 details of protocol and timing.
Then in terms of the movements, the arrival back here by the car,
going up to the stage...
The high point of the visit will be the state dinner tonight.
Dramatic, entertaining, and essential,
the state dinner is the ultimate expression of White House power.
Not a thing. Not a thing.
Okay, we're gonna start the escorts out to the South Lawn now...
More than 200 reporters will cover the visit of the Russian leader.
It will begin in a few moments with a carefully orchestrated event
called the arrival ceremony.
Will you repeat the name again please.
Ladies and Gentlemen this is an audience check
from the South Lawn of the White House.
Checking one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten
ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.
I'm Mrs. Gore. I'm Secretary Christopher.
Inside the White House, with only minutes to go,
the President and the First Lady receive their final briefing.
The only thing I don't remember is what are the cues for down here -
both coming and going?
I hope I don't sneeze...
Ladies and Gentlemen.
The President of the United States and the First Lady.
The White House is so universally recognized today
that it's hard to imagine when it didn't exist.
But almost 13 years after the United States
had declared independence,
the city of Washington
was still nothing but untamed woodlands.
In 1789, Congress agreed to build a new capital city.
Ridiculed in New York and Philadelphia,
the city and the President's house would never have been built
had it not been for one man.
Washington wanted the city built.
By law it had to be occupied by November 1, 1800
and many forces were acting against this new city
in the wilderness.
Washington wanted it, he wanted it in the middle of the country,
he wanted it on the Potomac River.
And he was determined in having those buildings,
because in having the buildings, he would have his capital.
Its foundations were dug by slaves, the intricate stonework
carved by Scottish masons.
More than half the workforce were foreign born.
The workers lived at the job site
and each morning received a lb. Of meat and all the cornbread they could eat.
After one especially randy night there,
the commissioners overseeing
the project closed down the only house of prostitution
to have ever operated on the White House grounds.
When it was finished, it was immense;
a bigger home would not be built in this country
until after the Civil War.
Today, the power of the symbol is inescapable,
something every visiting leader learns upon arriving.
At that moment...
...I become the United States and he becomes Russia.
And we stand for all of our people.
And if this state visit goes well,
then it's proof that the Cold War is really over.
And we're making a newer and better world.
And I don't want to mess it up.
I want to do it right, because it's the United States.
Conceived by President ennedy in 1961,
the modern ceremony not only impresses the visiting leader,
it gives him the distinction of being welcomed here.
Together we have agreed to safeguard nuclear materials
and to shut down plutonium production reactors.
Together we can and we will make a difference
not only for our own people but also for men, women,
and children all around the world.
The receiving line's going on right now inside.
The President and Mrs. Clinton are receiving the official party.
We have a full day, full slate in front of us.
We have some canopies to put up yet, flower material to put around,
there's a lot of activities going on, yeah.
See ya later.
All right, Jim what else you got?
In the White House basement,
the first preparations for the state dinner are underway.
Here the butlers will find some of the 1,500 different pieces of china
to set tonight's tables.
It's one of a hundred different tasks the White House staff will finish
in their push to the dinner, now ten hours away.
Upstairs, in the entrance hall,
a receiving line welcoming the Russian delegation is concluding.
Just a few steps away,
the china is wheeled into the old family dining room.
The White House is barely large enough to hold a dinner like the one
planned for tonight.
So this elegant room has been converted into a giant pantry
so butlers like Buddy Carter can serve tonight's 150 guests.
There are so many people that are capable of doing this job,
but I'm one of the few selected that get to do it.
So I take a lot of pride in what I do and I love it.
Can I speak to Jim please?
Chief Usher Gary Walters is the house conductor.
He directs everyone from butlers to plumbers,
all the people who serve the family and make the house work.
Although he built the house,
George Washington died before it was finished.
John Adams, intimidated by the expense of running such a home,
said he'd prefer a row house instead.
But Washington's house held irresistible allure,
and on the night of November 1, 1800,
Adams became the first President to sleep in the White House.
Well, he woke up the next morning and he wrote a letter to his wife.
It seemed to settle in on him.
And it's really, you might say, the first experience, you know
of a President having in that house and see by now
it is the President's house.
It seems almost an afterthought, it was very beautiful,
when he says, you know,
may heaven bestow the best of blessings on this house and may none
but honest and wise men inhabit it hereafter.
When the Johnsons entered the White House,
the nation was still in mourning for President John ennedy.
One of the times that was a throat gasping time
for me was the morning of a December the 22nd,
when I came down to the first floor
where all of the chandeliers had been draped in black net,
and to come back and see that gone
and the Christmas tree brilliantly alight,
I think we had it in the Blue Room.
That was just a... you just gasp with sort of a relief,
and now we are started, and life will go on.
For the first families, from the moment they move in,
life goes on in the public eye.
For their own sanity, there must be a refuge
and at the White House it is upstairs.
Only above this stair is privacy absolute.
Never, while the Presidential family is in residence,
may cameras pass beyond this gate.
Cameras above the first floor are still rare,
because this is where the families live.
The second and third floors are one of the few places on earth
where the families are not accompanied by Secret Service.
At the heart of the second floor is the Yellow Oval Room
which leads to the Truman Balcony.
These rooms provide a haven,
a place safe from everything but history.
For me, I would get so caught up in what I was doing
that you forget where you are... that this is home.
But then we'd sit down at dinner at night
and here would be Abraham Lincoln's plate,
and then it would all just kind of come back,
here I am in this historic house, and it was overwhelming sometimes.
While overwhelming, this public housing does come with some useful amenities.
Living in the White House is quite a dream for any homemaker.
There's somebody to do everything,
and it's not just the wonderful butlers and maids,
but if you need a plumber,
all you do is pick up the phone and the plumber is there right away.
Well, when President Johnson first came into office,
the Chief Usher call me up and said
the President wants to talk to you about the shower.
He says, "Come up," so I came up.
The President stepped off the elevator coming down
going to the Oval Office that morning.
So, he told me he wanted more water, colder water, and he said,
"If I have to, I'll go over to the Elms and take my shower."
So the first thing I did, I got a chauffeur and went to the Elms
to see what he had over there.
And we came back to the White House and we thought we had it,
you know, perfect for him, you know.
We had it much better than he had at the Elms.
But, he wasn't satisfied with that.
He wanted 50 degree cold water.
He wanted body sprays around him.
And then he told me that
he wanted a showerhead about two feet off the floor.
He said, "I want a showerhead right there."
I said,"Well, you hold your finger there Mr. President.
Let me mark that spot."
In your home, probably you have about eight to ten pounds
of running pressure on your showerhead when it's running.
His was 110 pounds of pressure while it was running.
It was like a mini-car wash.
The Chief Usher was Rex Scouten.
He said, "I have to try that shower out."
And it just kind of pinned him right up against the wall.
The employees are like a family because everybody see, you know -
it's like you've got different departments
and everything like that.
But it's not operated that way.
If you see something that needs to be done,
regardless of which department it is, you do it.
That's why we say it's like a family.
I remember one time teasing a member of the staff, one of the butlers,
and they are really like family and treated our children like family,
and I said, "If you don't behave,
I'm going to get you fired."
And he burst out laughing and said,
"Presidents come and go, butlers stay."
In 1945, a young electrician named John Muffler came to work here.
For the last 50 years, in addition to electrical jobs,
he has handled the little annoyances of life for ten first families,
like replacing watch batteries and fixing eye- glasses.
You want to do the Ground Floor, right?
No one in the history of the House has served here longer.
Am I going too fast for you?
The man with the longest tenure here, fittingly, also is in charge of time.
Every Friday, Mr. Muffler winds the clocks
in every part of the White House.
How many clocks are there in the place?
Several.
...Mr. President?
Yes, it's a beautiful clock.
And it still keeps good time.
Do all these clocks run, Mr. President...
Yes, they all run.
We have a special man who winds clocks every Friday.
I'd always managed to be there when he'd come in somehow,
and one morning he said to me,
"Son, do you know why when I come into this office,
these pictures are all crooked and all bent out of shape?"
I said, "No, Sir, Mr. President, unless the cleaners,
when they're dusting, they move the pictures around."
He said, "No, no, no, that's not the reason."
He said, "Would you like to know?"
I said, "Yes Sir, Mr. President, I would."
And he said, "The rotation of the earth causes that."
And I said, "Yes Sir, Mr. President."
But he went over every morning and straightened 'em...
Oh, I love Mr. Muffler.
I can't do anything like program VCRs or set digital clocks
and so I'm always needing his help to come to my rescue,
but he's a perfect example of the kind of...
...dedicated service that people have given to the White House
and to Presidents and their families for over 200 plus years.
United Nations War Council.
President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill
at the White House...
Because of what happens here, even in the wee hours of the night,
someone is always on call.
Alonzo Fields, White House butler for 21 years,
developed a unique relationship with Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
Around 1:30, I decided that the Prime Minister satisfied
and I was thinking of going... really going to bed.
And the bell buzzed.
I went in, the Prime Minister is walking up and down...
...with this scotch in his hand, talking, quoting,
and saying different things and he says,
"We're trying to find out from the Russians
what we can do for them. But what can we do?
It's like an iron shade."
And then he stopped and stomped his foot,
"Oh, make that an iron curtain."
And then he saw me and my eyes saw the bottle was empty.
"My poker face didn't fool you."
He says, "Yes, my man, I need some more to drink."
He says, "I have a war to fight. And I need fortitude."
So I proceeded and got a bottle of scotch and opened it
and poured the Prime Minister a drink and then I said to him,
"Mr. Prime Minister, will that be all for the night?"
And he says, "I don't know. I can depend on you."
And I said, "Well, Mr. Prime Minister, what is it?"
And he says, "Well, if ever I'm accused of being a teetotaler,
I want you to come to my defense."
I says, "Mr. Prime Minister, I'll defend you to the last drop."
It's hard to imagine today, but back in the Madison Administration
during the War of 1812, the British Army captured the city of Washington
and burned the White House.
The Madisons were trying to keep a cheery face on it all
and they had a dinner party.
And some of the most amusing in context
letters of the Madison paper
are regrets to that particular dinner party
that night in August.
Lo and behold, you could hear the gunfire.
Mrs. Madison finally fled herself, left the house alone with Paul Jennings
a slave.
Jennings was to bank the fire, ironically, to keep it
from burning down.
But the British came in at eleven at night.
They saw the dinner.
The officers sat down and had the dinner.
The furniture was piled up in the rooms with lamp oil on it,
the windows broken out.
And about 1 a. M., the British stood with flaming javelins
in a circle around the house and Lieutenant Pratt fired his pistol.
The javelins were thrown in the house and it exploded.
Mrs. William Thornton a British citizen, was there and said,
"It glowed like a great plum cake."
The White House is reduced to ashes except for the stone walls
that General Washington had cherished so.
Upstairs on the Truman Balcony we have one block that's unpainted.
But whenever we have people up there, I take them outside and I look at it,
and I say, "You remember this house burned in 1814."
I look at it all the time,
every time we have any kind of international incident.
When Captain O'Grady was rescued out of Bosnia,
I went out on the Truman Balcony and I looked at the burn marks.
But I'm very aware every day I go to work about how this house
carries the whole story of America
and how we're still creating that story and what our obligations are.
Throughout the day during a state visit
meetings between the official delegations are held and the press moves
from room to room for photo opportunities.
...care to respond to the health care situation...
Those living here are surrounded by constant reminders...
...that they are not living a private life.
"I feel as though I have just turned into a piece of public property,"
Jacqueline ennedy said after only two months in White House.
Grandpa lives in the big White House in Washington.
And Grandma lives there too.
And there she is with two of the grandchildren...
as the entire family goes to the East Room
to pose for the News of the Day camera.
The South Lawn has always been the quintessential American backyard...
...something between a playground and a formal garden.
President Wilson kept a flock of sheep here
and he also welcomed the first autogiro.
Each morning during the Hoover Administration
the Cabinet played an exercise game with an eight-pound medicine ball.
When lke installed the first putting green,
the stage was set for confrontation with the local constituents.
Squirrels have created a nutty problem at the White House
with President Eisenhower complaining
that the four-legged vandals are tearing up his private putting green.
The President, a very earnest golfer,
brought on a mighty political storm
with his decision to banish the squirrels,
even though nobody has found out
whether the animals are Republicans or Democrats.
Well, the South Lawn is well inhabited by squirrels.
And up at Camp David,
I noticed that the oak trees shed acorns to a great extent.
And the squirrels didn't do much about them.
So when the day came to go back down to the White House,
I'd fill my pockets with acorns.
And there, up and down and in the Rose Garden,
there would be these squirrels and I'd throw the acorns out to them
and you'd see them, wham, they'd just go and grab for those acorns
One occasion, at Camp David, I didn't get any acorns,
and when I came back,
well, I went into the Oval Office and we were having a meeting there.
I looked and in every one of those windows,
the squirrels were standing on their hind legs
and looking through their front legs inside.
And they're looking at me.
And they literally... I could see were saying,
"Where are the acorns?"
At about 3 p. M.,
the pianist for tonight's entertainment practices in the East Room.
One floor below, in the White House kitchen,
chef Walter Scheib is gearing up for dinner now only five hours away.
In addition to the normal pressure to please, turn-of-the-century chefs
...had to routinely serve seven-course family meals
and twenty-course state dinners.
The pleasures of these meals were not lost on President Taft,
who tipped the scales at more than 300 pounds.
Though a success in the kitchen,
the chef's handy work was causing problems elsewhere.
White House bathtubs proved too narrow for Taft;
to his consternation
the President was frequently left stuck in the tub.
White House ushers were sent scurrying to find a proper vessel.
When it finally arrived, it was 41 inches wide,
could hold nearly 65 gallons of water, and all the men who installed it.
Tonight's guests will be served
one of the legendary White House desserts,
the creation of pastry chef Roland Mesnier.
That goes back.
This is when I am even more nervous than normal.
You have to remember, you know, when you serve a state dinner,
who are your guests?
The dining room is filled with extremely important people,
people who have been everywhere, that have tasted all sorts of food,
and our job is to make sure that the guests will leave the White House
feeling that the President and Mrs. Clinton did an excellent job
receiving the guests, not the pastry chef, no,
or anybody else, but that the President and the First Lady.
That has to be very well understood.
I think if you can do that, then I think you do your job very well.
Mesnier's almond baskets will be the dinner's grand finale.
It's the type of culinary touch
that has always attracted the attention of gourmets,
including Julia Child.
While history has recorded the names of almost every White House chef,
the names and lives of the kitchen assistants and the servants
who toiled on the staff have gone largely unrecorded.
In 1909, Mrs. Taft considered firing all of the white ushers
because they couldn't be treated like servants in the same way as blacks.
She was persuaded not to.
Despite the discrimination, black Americans who worked here then
created a vibrant world.
Their White House positions placed them in the upper strata
of Washington's black society.
James Coats, Adolph Bird, and Arlen Dixon,
I remember the first three butlers I met during the Tafts Administration.
Lillian Rogers Parks, a White House seamstress for 30 years,
was introduced to that society by her mother, Maggie Rogers,
a maid to Mrs. Taft.
They had their homes and they entertained
and then we had clubs.
That was very classy.
And that gave them the idea to get together
and have a little a club at the White House
called the Chandeliers.
Named for the cut glass fixtures in the East Room, the Chandelier Club,
like many social clubs in the early 1900s,
held a ball each year.
Though it was not staged there,
the White House imprimatur made the Chandelier Ball exclusive.
The Marine Band played and White House dignitaries always attended.
But outside the ball, black workers were still treated
as second-class citizens.
In 1902, President Teddy Roosevelt invited the noted educator,
Booker T. Washington, to the White House for dinner.
Press reaction in the South and the North was severe.
Roosevelt was chastened.
No black American received another social invitation
to the White House for 28 years.
In the entrance hall, the honor guard practices
for their ceremonial march later this evening.
They are performing a kind of ritual that helps define what has become
a national shrine.
For the occupants of the late 1800s, the White House was too small
and not nearly grand enough for the nation's aspirations.
There were frequent and elaborate plans to expand or even abandon it.
I don't think the White House would have survived the late 1860s,
had it not been where Lincoln had lived.
You think of Lincoln in his nightshirt going down the hall at night
with the wind blowing
and his dreams that his secretary sold him out,
and his wife's problems, the child's death.
And it all happened in the White House.
And it's from the White House
he left in his carriage to go to Ford's Theater
and it was to the White House he was brought back dead.
It's not too excessive to say that Lincoln sanctified the White House.
Now those... this is what we call pull sugar,
which is simply water, glucose and lemon juice...
With only hours to go before the evening begins,
pastry chef Roland Mesnier is finishing tonight's culinary grand finale.
Until you feel that you are... that the ribbons is wide enough
because as you pull it thin, it will get narrow on you.
That's...
just like a baby, very, very careful,
you have to kind of have to tickle it and massage it and be nice to it.
See, look at these.
Precision and timing is the key to beautiful ribbons.
It makes you very nervous because of the kind of material we're using.
Some as you can see shatters just like this.
And, you know, one touch, and that's it.
One wrong move, in the corner of the dough.
So I think every state dinner I age about two or three years.
Mesnier's creations represent the sophistication
of the White House staff.
But it wasn't always this way.
At the end of the 19th century,
the President's house reflected the manners of a frontier nation,
not the style of an emerging imperial power.
It was a home comparable to many other residences from its beginnings,
and then enormous demands came upon it
and we've had a rather imperial community come to Washington.
General Grant, goodness, he went out and got an old orderly
in the military that was a friend of his to come be the chef.
And they had a state dinner and here, apple pie came out
and big slabs of roast beef with gravy dripping off of the plates
and Mrs. Grant was mortified.
These ambassadors didn't know what to do with it -
get on the floor and chew it or what.
By 1902, a brilliant young man named George Cortelyou
had changed all of that.
At Roosevelt's request, he created an almost regal White House style
that redefined the house for the new century.
As part of the new look, Teddy Roosevelt officially changed
the name of the mansion:
The new letterhead read simply:
"White House, Washington."
As part of Teddy Roosevelt's re-invention of the White House,
he added a new wing.
It is in this Wing, not in the house itself,
that the most famous room in America stands: The Oval Office.
Frankly... and definitely there is danger ahead.
Danger against which we must prepare.
We are now prepared to destroy, more rapidly and completely,
every productive enterprise the Japanese have in any city.
We shall destroy their docks, their factories, and their communication.
It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear missile
launched from Cuba... against any nation in the Western Hemisphere
as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States.
Because of the history that has been made here,
the White House is the most potent symbol of power in the world.
Inside the symbol with only an hour before the first guests arrive,
the White House staff is in a whirl of final preparation.
No, no, no. They greet these people here...
Each of the head people: The tables have been set up very well.
I've personally checked them...
I hope there's nobody here.
It's those mundane chores that have to be done.
That's part of what the evening's about
...is part of setting a mood
as well as entertaining guests.
We're trying to set a mood which is a nice pleasant evening for everybody.
Since any of these plates could be the President's,
each has to be perfect.
Though each guest eats the same meal,
everyone doesn't get to dine with the President.
All of tonight's 151 guests will not fit in the State Dining Room
so some of them will have to eat here in the Ground Floor Map Room.
To the Russians who have been relegated here,
someone may have to explain the American concept of "the kids table"
You gotta know what you're doin'.
Not just anyone can serve the President and his guests.
Besides careful training,
each of these waiters has undergone an FBI background check.
The State Dining Room, like the rest of the house, is ready,
but Gary Walters isn't taking any chances.
If the Chief Usher had made a similar inspection of the House 45 years ago,
he would have found a few things out of place.
In 1948, the White House was completely gutted.
The floors that Jackson, Lincoln,
and two Roosevelts had walked across were gone.
After five years of demolition and construction,
the White House was res rebuilt.
The inside of the house was put back exactly as before.
Though it was now constructed of steel and concrete,
Jefferson and Lincoln would have easily recognized their old home.
And the idea is preserved.
That's really what it is.
The idea of the house and the symbol is bigger than any material part of it.
And that has remained intact
and is really more powerful than ever today.
By the time the President and First Lady reach the first floor,
everything is ready.
All the preparations have led to this moment;
now all they need are guests.
At night, it's a very different thing than what happens at the beginning
of the state visit.
We will have worked all day long.
And the visit will either have been a success
or a moderate success or maybe not so successful,
but what you want to do at night
is to simply seal the best possible relationship you can
between the leaders of the countries.
So at night you really just want them to enjoy themselves,
you want them to have a good time at the dinner,
to say what they want to say at the toast
and just be glad that they can be there.
In the family's private quarters
on the seldom seen Second Floor of the White House,
one of the most critical moments of the visit unfolds.
Here, the President and First Lady have a chance to relax with their guest
in the warm atmosphere of a home.
The press waits at the foot of the Grand Stair where in a moment
one of the most formal ceremonies of the state visit will occur:
The Presidential entrance march.
Ladies and Gentlemen, President of the United States and Mrs. Clinton,
accompanied by the President of the Russian Federation and Mrs. Yeltsin.
The receiving line is charged with excitement
because famous as the guests may be,
they are about to meet the two most powerful men in the world.
The rising anticipation of the evening is peaking by the time
the official toasts are made.
President Yeltsin's should be finishing any minute now.
He's going a couple a minutes over his five minutes.
He's up to about eight minutes now of speaking.
And finally, dinner begins.
While dinner continues upstairs, downstairs,
the staff is battling back an avalanche of dishes.
Working hard. Working hard.
Cocktails is serving.
After the cocktails that's when it starts flowing in.
Start coming down and after that, it's nonstop.
Do you kind of forget where you are?
No, no. You know you're in the kitchen washing and drying dishes.
At the top of the winding stair that connects the two worlds,
days of work are about to payoff for pastry chef Roland Mesnier.
If you are hungry enough, you can eat the whole thing, yes.
On evenings like these,
dinner is followed by a performance in the East Room.
During the civil rights movement, singer Sarah Vaughan performed here.
At the end of the evening,
a staff member found her sobbing in her dressing room.
When asked what was wrong,
she said, "Nothing is the matter.
It's just that 20 years ago when I came to Washington,
I couldn't even get a hotel room, and tonight I sang for the President
of the United States in the White House-
and then he asked me to dance with him.
It is more than I can stand!"
Tonight, Diva athleen Battle lends her voice to the house.
I think one of the attractions of the White House,
one of the things that makes it so precious in our country,
is the fact that a family really is living there every day.
That it's a center not only of political power and prestige
on a global basis,
but has that human touch of individuals enjoying life within those...
I guess you might say, hallowed halls.
Tomorrow it will start all over again
and every day for as long as there is a republic.
Families will come and go, just as butlers and maids do,
dignitaries and old gentlemen who wind clocks.
These are the people who furnish this house and give it life
and as they do, an American idea endures.