POP!
A bright white light shot across the room. It grew white…whiter…crystal white. From within its depths came the sounds of static and faint voices.
“I’m just a hunka, hunka…khhhh…hound dog…khhhh…left the building…khhhh…”
“Here we go again!” squealed Olive.
I braced myself.
The day after Eleanor left, I headed over to the library to do some research on her stories. I didn’t think she’d lied or anything. I mean, we’re talking Eleanor Roosevelt here. But I’d done the same thing after Ben’s visit—double-checked his facts—so it seemed only fair.
Here’s what I learned:
STORY #1: FALA MAKES A MOVIE
Fala really was a movie star. In December 1942, directors from the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios in Hollywood arrived at the White House to make The President’s Dog. Directors planned on filming Fala doing all kinds of dog stuff, like chasing squirrels and digging up bones—a typical day in his life.
Fala was already famous. Since his arrival at the White House as a puppy in late 1940, Americans had been reading stories about his antics. And they were crazy for him. I mean nuts. Every week, he got bags of fan mail. People sent him letters, pictures of their own pets, rubber bones, and stuffed toys. Fala got so much mail Eleanor finally had to hire him his own secretary to handle it all.
Those Hollywood directors were pretty confident they’d have a hit on their hands…if only they could get the stubborn Scottie to cooperate. It wasn’t until Eleanor suggested bribing Fala with bacon that he finally started acting. Good thing, too, because the director had brought along a stunt double just in case.
The following spring, The President’s Dog hit theaters. Shown before the main feature, it was short—just ten minutes long—and was what studios called a morale booster. That is, it was made specifically to cheer people up and take their minds off their troubles. And boy, did people have troubles just then! A year earlier, the United States had entered World War II. Hundreds of thousands of Americans were far from their homes, fighting across Europe and the Pacific. They needed all the morale boosting they could get. Fala’s movie did just that. Reporters called him a dog hero. And President Roosevelt praised him for doing his “bit for the war effort.” In fact, the Scottie’s film was so popular that a couple of years later, Hollywood directors made a second one—Fala at Hyde Park.
STORY #2: HOT DOG PICNIC
Eleanor really did throw a hot dog picnic for the king and queen of England at the Roosevelt family estate in Hyde Park, New York, in 1939. King George really did scarf down two hot dogs. Queen Elizabeth really did turn all flustered and ask how to eat it. And get this: FDR really did tell her to “push it into your mouth and keep pushing until it’s gone.” Ha! He said that to a queen! Geez, that President Roosevelt must have been some funny guy. Too bad the queen didn’t take his advice. Instead, she really did cut up her hot dog with a knife and fork.
But here’s what Eleanor didn’t tell us about the picnic.
Back in 1939, many Americans didn’t like the British royalty. They still believed the king was an evil colonial ruler. No kidding. They were holding grudges for like…one hundred and fifty years!
FDR wanted to change their thinking. He knew it was only a matter of time before World War II broke out in Europe, and he wanted to be able to help England when it did. So he encouraged Eleanor to throw a simple, all-American picnic. Sure, the event looked casual and sort of tossed together, but a lot of thought went into it. Anyway, the plan worked. The picnic was a success. Not only did the royals and the Roosevelts became good friends, but the next day, the front page of the New York Times read, “King Tries Hot Dog, Asks for More.”
This changed people’s opinion of the king. Suddenly, they saw him as a regular guy who gobbled hot dogs off paper plates just like they did.
When war did erupt in Europe three months later, Americans felt bad for their new royal friends. It didn’t take much for FDR to convince them to send money and supplies. Good thing, too, because without that help, England would probably have lost the war within months.
STORY #3: FLYING WITH AMELIA
In Eleanor’s time, air travel was still new, and most people thought it was dangerous. They stuck to trains or cars. But not the First Lady. If she could, she always traveled by plane. She hoped her example would encourage others to fly, and prove to them that airplanes were safe.
Flying, of course, is what brought Eleanor and Amelia Earhart together. In November 1932—just days after her husband was elected president—Eleanor drove to Poughkeepsie, New York.
That’s where Amelia Earhart was giving a speech about her flying adventures. When she finished, Eleanor introduced herself and told Amelia about her love of airplanes. Right away, Amelia offered to teach her to fly. She even helped Eleanor get her student pilot’s license. By the time they went on that night flight six months later, they were best friends.
Heading out to an airfield in Arlington, Virginia, they borrowed a small passenger plane owned by Eastern Airlines. I know that sounds sort of crazy, but I guess if you’re Eleanor Roosevelt or Amelia Earhart, people will lend you anything…even an airplane! The women flew to Baltimore and back. Amelia was at the controls most of the time, with Eleanor in the seat beside her.
They weren’t entirely alone, though. Since she didn’t mention him in her story, Eleanor must have forgotten that her brother, Hall, went along. So did Amelia’s husband, George Putnam. They rode in the main cabin, along with two Eastern Airlines pilots and a group of women reporters. Geez, talk about a crowd.
Later, they all went back to the White House. And here’s where history gets a little foggy. Some historians say that afterward, Eleanor drove Amelia around in her roadster, which is a 1930s kind of car. Others don’t mention it at all. Was it true or not? (Finally, I asked Mrs. Bustamante. I mean, if a librarian can’t help you, who can? Anyway, she handed me a book by Pam Muñoz Ryan that includes the car ride story. She says Ms. Ryan is a “trustworthy source,” so I’m going with it.)
In July 1937, while trying to fly around the world, Amelia disappeared. She was never heard from again. When Eleanor heard the news, she cried. She told reporters that she was sure her friend’s last words were “I have no regrets.”
STORY #4: SAD LITTLE ELEANOR
The Roosevelt family had wealth, power, and high social status. But none of it brought young Eleanor any happiness. That’s because her mother, Anna, treated her coldly and called her names like “ugly duckling” and “Granny.”
Her father, Elliott, made her feel safe and loved. But Elliott wasn’t around much. An alcoholic, he often disappeared for weeks on end. Eventually, Anna separated from him. Eleanor—who was just five at the time—was too little to understand why. All she knew was that life was scary and confusing without him. She started keeping more and more to herself.
Thank goodness her father took her to the Newsboys’ Lodge that Thanksgiving morning in 1890. Despite his personal problems, he wanted to teach his six-year-old about doing good works.
It was sort of a Roosevelt family tradition that they use their power and position to help those less fortunate. They started schools and hospitals in New York City’s slums. They even built the Newsboys’ Lodge for homeless boys who made their living selling newspapers on the streets. And here’s the thing: The family didn’t just give money to these charities. They rolled up their sleeves and got to work!
That day, Eleanor scooped potatoes and served slices of pie. By late afternoon, she was tired. She was also full of good feelings. She didn’t feel unattractive and inferior. She didn’t feel scared or unhappy. “The feeling that I was useful was perhaps the greatest joy I experienced,” she later said about that day.
From that moment on, Eleanor devoted herself to helping others. When she grew up, she worked in
slums and taught underprivileged kids. Later, she fought for civil rights and racial justice for African Americans. She championed women’s rights. She was even appointed to the first American delegation to the United Nations and wrote a document called the Declaration of Human Rights. It stated that all people deserved liberty and equality, no matter their race, religion, or nationality. All this and more earned her the nickname First Lady of the World.
P.S. Remember that Horatio guy? He’s a character in a famous play called Hamlet. In it, Horatio’s best friend, Hamlet, claims he has talked to a ghost. No way does Horatio believe him. So Hamlet says, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” Huh! That’s the very line both Eleanor and Mr. Selff quoted. Since it’s written in Ye Olde English or something, it’s kind of hard to understand. But basically it means this: the universe is full of unexplainable mysteries.
Boy, did Hamlet ever get that right!
Just in case you want to fact-check Eleanor’s stories yourself, here are the books I used, also called my
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cooney, Barbara. Eleanor. New York: Puffin Books, 1999.
Fleming, Candace. Our Eleanor: A Scrapbook Look at Eleanor Roosevelt. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2005.
Freedman, Russell. Eleanor Roosevelt: A Life of Discovery. New York: Clarion Books, 1997.
Kimmelman, Leslie. Hot Dog! Eleanor Roosevelt Throws a Picnic. Ann Arbor, MI: Sleeping Bear Press, 2014.
Rappaport, Doreen. Eleanor, Quiet No More. New York: Disney-Hyperion, 2009.
Ryan, Pam Muñoz. Amelia and Eleanor Go for a Ride. New York: Scholastic Press, 1999.
Suckley, Margaret L., and Alice Dalgliesh. The True Story of Fala. Delmar, NY: Black Dome Press, 1997.
Thompson, Gare. Who Was Eleanor Roosevelt? New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 2004.
The First Lady is definitely “Everywhere Eleanor” when it comes to the internet. There are gazillions of websites about her, as well as videos and photos. Here are my favorites:
youtube.com/watch?v=qpVNY5FJCis
This is it! Snippets from Fala’s star performance in The President’s Dog. I laughed at the scenes with the scrapbook. You can totally tell by Fala’s excited behavior that the pages are sprinkled with bacon. It’s the same way he acted when he got a whiff of Tommy’s trench coat.
youtube.com/watch?v=oSMV5zxHaxc
A great biography put together for Eleanor’s 125th birthday, this video is full of newsreel clips and photographs. Not to sound sappy or anything, but it was just so good to see Eleanor again, you know?
youtube.com/watch?v=6HY8vxYX78s
And because it’s so weird, here’s a short clip of Eleanor doing a commercial for Good Luck Margarine. See what I mean about her fluttery voice? By the way, any money she made from doing commercials she gave to charity.
CANDACE FLEMING is the author of Ben Franklin’s in My Bathroom!, the first funny title in this hysterical series, as well as the middle-grade novels The Fabled Fourth Graders of Aesop Elementary and The Fabled Fifth Graders of Aesop Elementary. She writes nonfiction books, too, including The Great and Only Barnum, Amelia Lost, and Our Eleanor, which is also about Eleanor Roosevelt. Once, Candace followed Eleanor’s recipe for her favorite dessert: blueberry pudding. It called for blueberries, white bread, and cream. And guess what? It turned out a soggy mess. Candace lives in Illinois, but you can visit her on the Web at candacefleming.com.
MARK FEARING is the illustrator of Ben Franklin’s in My Bathroom! and more than a dozen picture books, including Chicken Story Time by Sandy Asher and Three Little Aliens and the Big Bad Robot by Margaret McNamara. Growing up, Mark knew of Eleanor Roosevelt and her husband, Franklin, because his parents lived through the Great Depression. As he gets older, he is even more impressed with the issues Eleanor championed, and keeps in mind a saying often credited to her: “It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.” Mark lives with his wife, daughter, and dog in Oregon. Visit him on the Web at markfearing.com.
What’s next on
your reading list?
Discover your next
great read!
* * *
Get personalized book picks and up-to-date news about this author.
Sign up now.
Eleanor Roosevelt's in My Garage! Page 10
