Workers At the White House

"We mended everything in that White House that had a hole in it," recalls seamstress Lilian Rogers Park of her service at the White House from 1929 through the 1950s. If only Ms. Park could stitch up a few major gaps in the current administration. Lilian Park and several other former White House workers share delightful stories in this charming tribute to the 200th anniversary of the "number one house in America," filmed in 1992 at the Festival of American Folklife. Combining stories, black & white archival stills, and occasional narration by author and host David McCullough (The American Experience), Workers at the White House offers some choice tales: Truman catching a house servant sitting in the Oval Office chair ("George, you're in a mighty hot seat!, Johnson lecturing his chief cook on the proper way to serve green beans, and a delightful story about Churchill's prodigious imbibing capabilities. A handsome oversize booklet includes more background information and a bibliography for further reading. Sure to be quite popular, this is enthusiastically recommended. (R. Pitman)