Posted on 07/12/2022 8:49:40 AM PDT by Borges
When President McKinley was shot in 1901, few thought his life was in danger. And so V.P. Theodore Roosevelt continued family vacation in the Adirondacks until a messenger arrived with the news that McKinley had died and therefore they were now the first family.
Years later, TR's oldest daughter Alice Roosevelt Longworth recalled the evening for a friend. who remarked: "Oh, that must have been a moment of terrible sadness." Upon which Alice looked at him, askance. "Are you joking?”
The country would have been better off with McKinley.
Where is the humor?
I don’t get it.
who else can hear Harris cackling right now.
Becoming President was a dream come true for TR.
Vaughn Meador was a comedian in the early 1960s who had two highly successful hit records because of his dead-on impersonation of JFK (JFK said “I always thought he sounded like Bobby”).
Meador was on a plane to Las Vegas on November 22, 1963 and was unaware of the news while he was in the air. As he was met at the airport in Las Vegas, a greeter asked him “Do you know Kennedy’s been shot?”. In his Kennedyesque accent, he replied “No, but if you hum a few bars, I’ll try to fake it.”
Needless to say, his show in Vegas was cancelled and Meador’s entire career was collateral damage to the shooting in Dallas.
Here’s some real humor: Andrew Jackson beat the shit out of the guy who tried to kill him.
You are thinking about the OTHER Roosevelt. FDR.
“Where is the humor?” [nickcarraway, post 3]
“I don’t get it.” [Laslo Fripp, post 4]
Alice Lee Roosevelt (1884-1980) was the eldest child of Theodore Roosevelt. Aged 17 when her father became President, she became one of the first national celebrities (this was before film stars took over) - the absolute center of attention in society, fawned over by the media.
She loved all of it, much like her father did.
Alice was a difficult child and a tempestuous teen, flouting social conventions. The story goes that one day early in her father’s Presidency he was meeting with Western novelist Owen Wister (author of _The Virginian_). She flounced into his office, interrupting them to complain or demand something. After she flounced back out, the President supposedly said, “I can control Alice, or I can run the country. I can’t do both.”
She openly enjoyed life among the social set and resented the end of her father’s terms as President, looking down on William Howard Taft and his wife as dull and conventional. Despite all the attention, she could not resist poking fun at her fellow socialites and political mavens, who often found themselves targets of her razor-like wit.
Alice remained politically astute, connected, and involved all her life. Married Congressman Nicholas Longworth III (R-Cincinnati) in 1906, conspired with her cousin Franklin Roosevelt to bug the offices and homes of high officials during the Wilson administration, and she strongly supported her father’s run for the Presidency in 1912, cooling her relationship with Longworth (who later became Speaker of the House).
She birthed a daughter, Paulina, in the 1920s; the daughter married Alexander Sturm (co-founder with William B Ruger of Sturm Ruger Firearms). Sturm died suddenly in 1951 and Paulina died suddenly in 1957, after which Alice took over raising her granddaughter Joanna.
She supposedly had an embroidery on her couch that stated “If you have nothing nice to say - sit down right here by me”.
Thank you for that detailed response. I learned a lot from it. Much appreciated.
“She supposedly had an embroidery on her couch that stated ‘If you have nothing nice to say - sit down right here by me’.” [Borges, post 13]
“Thank you for that detailed response. I learned a lot from it. Much appreciated.” [Laslo Fripp, post 14]
Glad to help.
Many more details - some at least as outrageous - can be found in _The Roosevelts: an American Saga_ by Peter Collier and David Horowitz. And in _Alice: Alice Roosevelt Longworth, from White House Princess to Washington Power Broker_ by Stacy Cordery.
The wiki article about Alice Roosevelt says on the last day of her father’s presidency she buried a voodoo doll of Nellie Taft (incoming Pres. Taft’s wife) on the White House grounds.
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