Margaret Truman by The President's House: 1800 to the Present : The Secrets, History of the World's Most Famous Home Page A

to keep things moving at the proper pace; and, perhaps the biggest perk of all, a contingent of servants to take care of the cleanup.
    When we lived in the White House, I often used to slip downstairs before an important dinner just to take a look at the State Dining Room. It was a truly magnificent sight—the paneled walls, the marble mantel, the dining table set with gold flatware and gleaming crystal and china.
    The room is also a mini-museum of American history. Inscribed on the mantel is John Adams’s famous prayer invoking blessings on the White House. Hanging above it is George P. A. Healy’s portrait of Abraham Lincoln.
    There’s a small, and fortunately invisible, piece of Truman history in the State Dining Room. Way back in the dark ages—1946—I had a dinner dance at the White House for some of my friends. The party was held in the East Room, but in the course of the evening, one couple wandered down the hall to the State Dining Room.
    Intrigued by the massive chandelier that hangs above the mahogany dining table, the young woman asked her escort to lift her up so she could touch it. When he did, she grabbed the metal arms to steady herself. Whereupon he decided to walk away and leave her dangling high above the floor. Fortunately, one of the butlers heard her screams and helped her down.
    The young woman and I were the only people who didn’t find this prank amusing. Even my father, whom I expected to be as indignant as I was when I told him about it the next day, burst into laughter.
    IV
    Planning for a White House formal dinner is no easy matter. The guest list, menu, table settings, and floral arrangements are chosen weeks in advance, and the White House kitchen swings into action early in the morning of the appointed day. The menus vary but there are a few rituals that are always the same.
    One is the entrance ceremony for the president. It consists of a small parade led by the Presidential Color Team. In my day, they were called the Four Horsemen but now there are five of them, one for each branch of the armed services— Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, and Coast Guard. Back then, the Air Force was part of the Army.
    It is the Color Team’s job to go to the president, who is usually in the living quarters upstairs, and request permission to secure the colors. This means removing the American and presidential flags and carrying them down the Grand Staircase to the room in which the president will be receiving his guests. As the president and first lady follow the Color Team downstairs, the Marine Band announces their arrival with a fanfare, “Ruffles and Flourishes,” followed by “Hail to the Chief.”
    At a dinner Jack and Jacqueline Kennedy gave in honor of my father in 1962, my parents and my husband, Clifton Daniel, and I had a private pre-dinner visit with the Kennedys, so we were part of the march down the Grand Staircase. For my parents, it must have seemed like old times, but I had not taken part in the ceremony that often and Clifton was a complete novice. He scolded me for forgetting to tell him that the line of march comes to a halt during the brief pause between “Ruffles and Flourishes” and “Hail to the Chief.” As a result, he kept on walking and almost rear-ended Jackie.
    By the way, if you’ve ever wondered where “Hail to the Chief ” came from, it’s an old Scottish air that was introduced by Sarah Polk for a supremely practical reason. Her husband, James, was not a particularly imposing man and she was afraid he might be overlooked when he entered the room at a large gathering.
    V
    President William Howard Taft once remarked to his chief military aide, Major Archibald Butt: “The White House is a big political asset when used wisely.”
    Unfortunately, toward the end of his single term, Taft used the White House unwisely. When he and his wife celebrated their silver wedding anniversary in 1911, they