Transcript of Televised Tour of the Renovated White House with President Harry S. Truman, Walter Cronkite, Bryson Rash, and Frank Bourgholtzer
Images (19)
Document
| id |
id
170104261
|
|---|---|
| contentType |
contentType
document
|
| source |
source
import
|
Source image fields (6)
Extracted text
OCR Page 1 of 19PRESIDENT: I'm glad to have this opportunity to show the people just what the
revamped White House looks like on the State Floors. Those who are f'amiliar
with it will see very little change. Some of the main changes, of course, are
the State Stairway, which now is a State Stairway, and the seal has been taken
out of the floor and put up above the Blue Room on this floor and the old seal
is above the Diplomatic Reception Room on the ground floor which we will look
at as we go down.
MR. CRONKITE: Shall we do that now, Mr. President?
PRESIDENT: Whenever you are ready.
MR. CRONKITE: Let's go. This is the main foyer up here that we greeted you
in and we're going downstairs now to the ground floor.
PRESIDENT: That's right -- the ground floor. This stairway we're using is
used by the people who come to receptions.
MR. CRONKITE: They assemble down here on this floor and then go upstairs and
the receiving line is
PRESIDENT: Yes, E0 upstairs and into the East Room and then they are received.
MR. CRONKITE: And now that we're dowm in this corridor, I assume that the
Executive Offices are off this corridor on the other wings, aren't they, sir?
PRESIDENT: The Executive Offices are on the west end of the White House and
there are offices also on the east end which
MR. CRONKITE: Those are the business offices of the White House.
PRESIDENT: That's the business offices.
MR. CRONKITE: Is this the seal up here, Mr. President?
PRESIDENT: That's the old seal. that was in the floor of the main hallway on
the first floor.
MR. CRONKITE: Was it your decision to move that, Mr. President?
PRESIDENT: Well, I don't like to see people walk over the seal, so we put it
up over this door -- this old one up over the door here and the new one over
the Blue Room Door so people could see it without desecrating it by walking on
it.
MR. CRONKITE: I noticed upstairs, Mr. President, that the eagle on the seal
over the Blue Room -- the new seal faces in the other direction.
PRESTDENT: Yes, this seal had the eagle facing in the wrong direction -- facing
toward war, the arrows -- it should f'ace toward the olive branch which is peace.
We also notice, in addition to the 13 stars over the eagle's head which repre-
sent the 13 original states, the new seal has 48 stars around the outside
representing the whole Union.
MR. CRONKITE: Did that take any special Executive Order to do this?
PRESIDENT: Yes, that was made by my order.
MR. CRONKITE: And this is the Diplomatic Reception Room --
Preservation Copy
Relations
belongs_to