Presidents and First Ladies Trivia

[Steve]

For the purple wedding shoes, I'm going to say Martha Washington.

Do you have any information on Florence Harding's first vote?

[RJNorton]

(10-15-2017 02:37 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Let's try this one on fashionista First Ladies: Which of the First Ladies wore a $46,000 Inaugural gown? And, which of the ladies, before becoming a First Lady, wore purple shoes as part of her wedding ensemble?

Which of the First Ladies wore a $46,000 Inaugural gown?

Jackie Kennedy?

And, which of the ladies, before becoming a First Lady, wore purple shoes as part of her wedding ensemble?

Melania Trump?

[Eva Elisabeth]

#1- Mamie Eisenhower?
#2 - (my kind of color...) - Eleanor Roosevelt?

[L Verge]

That would have been my first guess also, Roger, but it was not her. Same century, however.

Believe it or not, Eva, Mamie Eisenhower was considered a fashionista in her day, but I don't think Ike's pay grade, even as President and a retired general, could have afforded that gown. Think which Presidents have had the deepest pockets in the last century.

As for the purple shoes, this First Lady would have been considered a fashionista long before anyone else ever thought of the word. Hint: Her husband was also a general.

[Steve]

I stand by my Martha Washington answer. The images of her wedding shoes on the Mt Vernon website sure seem purple to me:

http://www.mountvernon.org/george-washin...ashington/

As for the inaugural dress question, $46,000 for a dress seems excessive, even for today. If it's not Jackie Kennedy, my first guess would be Nancy Reagan since she had been an actress and designers routinely loan them extravagant overpriced dresses for Red Carpet events. However, your "deep pockets" comment gives me pause on that. The two richest Presidents of the late 20th century were Lyndon Johnson and Bill Clinton. I'm going to go with Lady Bird Johnson.

[L Verge]

(10-15-2017 07:56 PM)Steve Wrote:  I stand by my Martha Washington answer. The images of her wedding shoes on the Mt Vernon website sure seem purple to me:

http://www.mountvernon.org/george-washin...ashington/

As for the inaugural dress question, $46,000 for a dress seems excessive, even for today. If it's not Jackie Kennedy, my first guess would be Nancy Reagan since she had been an actress and designers routinely loan them extravagant overpriced dresses for Red Carpet events. However, your "deep pockets" comment gives me pause on that. The two richest Presidents of the late 20th century were Lyndon Johnson and Bill Clinton. I'm going to go with Lady Bird Johnson.

I apologize, Steve, I did not see your first post, and Martha was indeed the lady with purple wedding shoes. As for Florence Harding being the first First Lady to gain the right to vote, I took that from the website on First Ladies.

As for the expensive Inaugural gown, you should have stayed with Nancy Reagan. Her gown may have been on loan (2nd Inaugural, btw), but that was not cited. There was mention, however, of Lady Bird not caring for expensive clothes, especially with all that was happening during that time.

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Just found this reference to Mrs. Clinton's inaugural attire that might change the answer as to who wore the most expensive gown: New Yorker Sarah Phillips, who designed Hillary Rodham Clinton's 1993 inaugural gown, puts the full cost of that violet beaded lace sheath in the range of $50,000, with the Presidential Inaugural Committee paying $10,000 and Phillips and the workshop covering the bulk of the costs. Phillips isn't sure whether Clinton herself paid anything toward the dress, but the Smithsonian's website describes the gown as a ``gift of Hillary Rodham Clinton and the Presidential Inaugural Committee.''

Oh, the games that politicians and their ladies can play...

[Eva Elisabeth]

Nancy Reagan still tops here - if you check inflation, 46,000$ in 1983 would have been 104,012 in 2016, 50,000$ in 1993 84,250$ in 2016.

(This considered there still might have been a more expensive dress.)

[L Verge]

I guess my subtle (or not so subtle) take-away here would be the enormous amount of money that is spent on frivolous things... I remember looking at one recent gown and thinking it was one of the ugliest creations I have ever seen. What research I could find on it, however, put the cost at between $15,000 and $20,000 - an el cheapo.

Moving right along, here's another question: Which First Lady was a direct descendant of Pocahontas? P.S. I wonder how many people under the age of 40 even know who Pocahontas was?

[Steve]

I came across this while looking into the earlier question because the 19th amendment passed when Wilson was President, Edith Wilson. Pocahontas probably has hundreds of thousands of descendants today, so she could very well have more First Lady descendants.

[L Verge]

Edith Bolling Galt Wilson, second wife of President Woodrow Wilson, was a 9th generation descendant of Pocahontas. Nancy Reagan also claimed Pocahontas on her family tree. Congratulations to Steve and Eva.

I also found mention that Edith's great-great grandmother was a sister to Thomas Jefferson, but I also found a line that descended from Martha Custis Washington down through Robert E. Lee. With a tree like that, enriched by the Bolling and Galt names, no wonder Edith felt she had the ability to govern behind the scenes during Woodrow's final illness!

In searching this, I also found a cute quip related to the above topic about First Ladies and their clothing costs: "As far as the slight derision the press suggested about her sense of fashion style, Ellen Wilson [the first wife of Wilson who waws First Lady for only about a year] cared little. Bragging that she spent less than one thousand dollars a year on clothes, one newspaper columnist added sarcastically,'and she looks it.'” Seems the cruel press never changes.

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Just one thing more on the Pocahontas line: There are said to be over 100,000 descendants of Pocahontas alive today. In the last century, some others have included a veritable Who’s Who:Nathaniel Hawthorne, Clement Moore, Robert Penn Warren, Emily Dickinson, Walt Disney, John Wayne, Amelia Earhart, Laura Ingalls, Jane Austen, Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Norman Rockwell, Laurence Olivier, Henry David Thoreau, Presidents George H. and George W. Bush, William Henry and Benjamin Harrison, Nixon, Ford and First Ladies Edith Roosevelt, Nancy Reagan, Bess Truman, Frances Cleveland, Jane Pierce.

There were also numerous self-identified African-Americans with the surname of Bolling who achieved great prominence in American life, the most famous of which is perhaps Booker T. Washington.

For a woman who died at age 22, Pocahontas did a good job of assuring her line!

[Steve]

Not just two, but five First Ladies!

[RJNorton]

What event in American history happened where this man is standing?

[Steve]

Is he standing in a street or a parking lot?

[RJNorton]

Steve, he is standing in a street.

[RJNorton]

Hint #1: The street is in Washington, D.C.