Brocade & Old Lace

It was First Ladies' Day at the Smithsonian Institution, the nation's attic. With sartorial deference to mistresses of the White House, past and present, Dwight Eisenhower donned a white dinner jacket to help Mamie open the institution's new display of old finery worn by the nation's First Ladies.

The Smithsonian had worked for two years freeing the historic gowns from their small, musty cases and setting them in period restorations of White House rooms. Mamie Eisenhower, in white brocade with fan to match, spotted a lace wedding dress that she had worn on a happy July day in 1916. Gazing misty-eyed, she tugged fondly on a presidential arm.

While Mamie, her mother Elivera Doud and her sister Frances ("Mike") Moore gushed over Martha Washington (Mechlin lace shawl and pink faille dress hand-painted with native North American flowers and insects), Ike went by the Blue Room (as it was in McKinley's time) and the Red Room (Coolidge era). At the end, he impatiently chewed his upper lip and, to hurry his ladyfolk along, called, "Say, come look at Mamie."

The mannequins all had the same masklike faces, but their wigs were individual. Mamie's unmistakable bangs topped the mannequin wearing Mamie's pink peau de sole inaugural-ball gown with pink rhinestones and long, matching suede gloves.

Suddenly, Ike found himself in a covey of society reporters who wanted to know which dress he liked best. He easily ruled out Grace Coolidge's red velvet, low-waisted, high-hemmed style of the '20s. "A little odd," thought the President. Then, glancing to see that Mamie was out of earshot, he blurted, "I guess I like that one on Mrs. McKinley." Ida Saxton McKinley was indeed handsome in high-necked, ivory-hued satin with flowing train. Not pretty oldfashioned? asked a newshen. "Well, I guess so," Ike admitted, reluctant to be pinned down any more on the sensitive subject of feminine fashion. To escape, he scanned the room for Mamie and, not seeing her, fled, exclaiming, "Hey, I've lost a wife."

During the brisk, busy week in Washington, the President greeted France's ex-President and Madame Vincent Auriol in his best French, spoke to the National Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters, shook hands with 900 disabled veterans, breakfasted with 18 Republican women politicians. He also: EURJ Told Republicans at a $25-a-plate dinner, "I am so proud of being a member of the Republican Party ... We are not trying to go back to the horsecars; we are not trying to fly to Mars." ^f Golfed with two Augusta Masters Tournament winners, Gary Middlecoff and Byron Nelson. When Nelson said, "I prediet you shoot a 68 today, Mr. President," Ike replied: "You shoot the 68, and I'll shoot the 86." The President lost at golf; Nelson lost at predicting. C| Awarded the "Handicapped Man of the Year" trophy to Judge Sam M. Cathey of Asheville, N.C., who was blinded in his youth, went on to graduate Phi Beta Kappa from the University of North Carolina and serve on Asheville's municipal bench for 24 years.

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