First Lady: My Thirty Days Upstairs in the White House

by Patrick Dennis (Pseudonym), Edward Everett Tanner III

"Here it is at last for all the world to share - the inside story of the ill-fated Butterfield Administration (March 4,1909 - April 4, 1909). And who could tell the tragic tale better than the First Lady herself - Martha Dinwiddie Butterfield, patent medicine heiress, social leader, Nobel Prize winner and haunted hostess of the Executive Mansion for one cataclysmic month." (from inside flap)

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Humor

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1964

About the author

Edward Everett Tanner III spent the last years of his life as a butler, in spite of having been one of the most popular novelists of the 1950s and 1960s. A bisexual, he had a wife and family, but also pursued relationships with men on the side.

Reviews

[Russell Sanders · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I didn’t know Patrick Dennis’s First Lady: My Thirty Days Upstairs in the White House was written in the mid-1960s, I would swear its satire was inspired by our former and perhaps future President. Dennis, in the guise of official press secretary to the first lady, lets Martha Dinwiddie Butterfield tell her life story, particularly those thirty days in which she was the First Lady of the land. Those thirty days tell of the corruption of her husband, his affair with an actress of dubious reputation, his appointment of his key advisors—all family members and all shady characters—the aftermath of his death while in office, a death that may or may not have been an accident, and his wife’s being held accountable for all the costs of his profligacy and thus losing her considerable fortune. The author, who is wildly funny, also created one of literature’s most beloved characters, Auntie Mame. In that book, Dennis purportedly was born around the 1920s. In this one, he was born in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Dennis inserts himself (or rather a comedic version of himself) in many, if not all, of his books. His footnotes to Martha’s memoirs are sometimes hilarious. The woman is totally clueless. She purports to have no idea of the hijinks surrounding her. Her husband is honest as the day is long, her daughter graceful as a butterfly, her brother is a shrewd businessman, her sister is a sweet bit of sunshine, and her father is a doddering, old, lovable man. In truth, the husband is a philandering crook, the daughter is hopeless, the brother a bounder, the sister conniving, and the father a thief. All this makes for a very funny book indeed. I did wonder, as I read, if a more modern audience would find the “dear old Mammy” character a racial slur or a put-down of the loveable mammies of earlier novels. I—call me a racist if you will—thought Martha’s Mammy was hilarious. An added treat are the 172 photographs taken by co-creator Cris Alexander—he, too, a character in the book as the official White House photographer. Alexander’s creations are very funny indeed. I bought this book in 1965. I’m so glad I picked it up again so many years later, for not only did I find it timely, I found it absolutely rollicking fun.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I tracked this one down last month just to see if it was as funny as I remembered. I first read it in high school right after tearing through Auntie Mame and Around the World with Auntie Mame, and if you haven't read those two books, stop reading this review right now and go get them. You'll thank me.

This was the second book like this that Dennis collaborated on with photographer Cris Alexander, the other being Little Me, the "autobiography" of relentlessly bad actress and pretty good gold digger Belle Poitrine. Alexander has once again filled the book with great photographs featuring Peggy Cass ("Agnes Gooch" in the Rosalind Russell movie Auntie Mame) as "Martha Dinwiddie Butterfield", heiress to the Lahocla Fortune created by her father, who marketed his wife's homegrown beverage that functioned as both a tonic and a dandy potato-bug killer. Martha has recreated her shiftless poor white parents as Southern aristocrats who lost their own version of Tara during the war. Martha is not the sharpest tool in the shed, which is the source of the book's humor. As she drifts through life, falling victim to professional con man George Butterfield, Martha never really understands what is going on around her. The reader does. Through a plot device, Butterfield becomes President of the United States and the hapless Martha sweeps into the White House determined to remake it in the Butterfield "style." The Butterfield "Presidency" lasts for nearly a month, before a recount returns Theodore Roosevelt to the office and Martha has to flee Washington for her life. Her all-knowing cook and confidante thoughtfully poisons George, who dies in his mistress' room. Martha subsides into genteel poverty until the end of her life, when the recipe for "Lahocla" provides the missing ingredient for the atomic bomb that ends World War II.

It's funny, really funny, although some of it may read as politically incorrect. But Dennis and his cohort of performers cheerfully skewer the Myth of the Old South, politics, presidential autobiographies and American history. I really enjoyed the reread.

[Sebastian Fortino · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am just glad I found a copy! This book seems very hard to find, even though all three involved - Patrick Dennis the writer, Cris Alexander the photographer/illustrator & Peggy Cass the 'star' are all fairly well-known today. The pictures are fabulous & I don't think it's fair to compare it to 'Little Me' although there are parallels, of course.

If you want to read something like you've never read before...this is one read for you.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite as uproarious as the Mame books, but still plenty amusing. Photos were a particular delight

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The memory of reading this glorious romp lingers 40 years after I found it in the library while at college. The archival (ahem!) photos add to the hilarity.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

The usual Patrick Dennis wit but with some sensational photos. I will say that the story does become a bit tiresome after a while because Martha Dinwiddie Butterfield is just too too. But this book does feel appropriate for our current political moment.