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How could you overlook FDR’s Fala?
Letter to the editor (Washington Post, May 4, 2012):
“I was surprised when reading the lineup of other presidential pets in the May 1 front-page article on Bo, the first dog [‘The dog days of a reelection bid’], to see no mention of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s beloved Scottish terrier, Fala.
“Fala was of such transcendent importance that not only is he the only presidential pet immortalized in our city’s monumental core, next to his master at the FDR Memorial near the Tidal Basin, but he also was invoked by Roosevelt in a campaign speech on Sept. 23, 1944, when the president declared to laughter and applause: ‘These Republican leaders have not been content with attacks on me, or my wife or on my sons. . . . [T]hey now include my little dog, Fala, as well. Well, of course, I don’t resent attacks . . . but Fala does resent them… . I am accustomed to hearing malicious falsehoods about myself. . . . But I think I have a right to resent, to object, to libelous statements about my dog!’”
Emily S. Goldman, Washington
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Even During WWII, Dogs Mattered in Campaigns
America faced challenges even more urgent in 1944, when President Roosevelt was running for re-election against his Republican opponent Thomas Dewey.
President Roosevelt’s dog was a Scottish Terrier that he named Murray the Outlaw of Falahill, and nicknamed Fala. The rumor at the time, spread by Republicans, was that the dog had accidentally been left on one of the Aleutian islands during a presidential visit — and that Roosevelt had ordered a Navy destroyer to retrieve the stranded pooch at great expense to the treasury.
On September 23, 1944, Roosevelt immortalized the kerfuffle by addressing it during a nationally broadcast radio speech:These Republican leaders have not been content with attacks on me, or my wife, or on my sons. No, not content with that, they now include my little dog, Fala. Well, of course, I don’t resent attacks, and my family don’t resent attacks — but Fala does resent them. You know, Fala is Scotch, and being a Scottie, as soon as he learned that the Republican fiction writers in Congress and out had concocted a story that I’d left him behind on an Aleutian island and had sent a destroyer back to find him — at a cost to the taxpayers of two or three, or eight or 20 million dollars — his Scotch soul was furious. (laughter) He has not been the same dog since.(laughter) I am accustomed to hearing malicious falsehoods about myself — such as that old, worm-eaten chestnut that I have represented myself as indispensable. But I think I have a right to resent, to object, to libelous statements about my dog!Dewey foolishly tried to respond with a point by point rebuttal of Roosevelt’s speech, prompting the Democratic National Committee to put out a statement declaring the election “between Roosevelt’s dog and Dewey’s goat,” and Roosevelt himself wrote in a private letter soon after, “I deliberately wrote out a speech with the objective in mind of making Governor Dewey angry. It worked.” (The Atlantic)
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A President’s Best Friend
An editorial from Scripps-Howard News Service
Beside a statue of President Franklin Roosevelt at his newly dedicated memorial In Washington is a bronze image of FDR’s Scottish terrier Fala. This is fitting. Man and dog were virtually inseparable in life, and in public memory they should remain so.
Bred to pull foxes and other uncooperative critters from their underground lairs, the Scottish terrier has been called “a big dog in a small package.” Maybe its inspirational pluck explains why several crisis-tested presidents have owned one or more. Other Scottie-struck chief executives include Teddy Roosevelt (Jessie), Dwight Eisenhower (Telek and Caacie) and Ronald Reagan (Scotch and Soda). Currently, Gov. Christine Whitman, R-N.J., owns three. Political oddsmakers, take note
Further fanciers included Jackie Kennedy, Charles Lindbergh and author E.B. White, who, failing to find a sitter, took his dog to church on his wedding day.
Yet Fala remains the most famous Scottie, and justly. FDR conducted calming fireside chats, but with the weight of Depression and war on his shoulders, there must have been plenty of lonely fireside ruminations, too. Perhaps the destruction of Hitler and the rescue of the economy went more smoothly because in the desperate hours their architect had a shaggy head to rub. Did Fala realize his special place? Hard to say. For any Scotties makes any owner feel — presidential. — Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 6, 1997
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
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Fala Still In The News
References to Fala continue to be found in the modern media. The latest is this Businessweek story about pets in presidential politics (think President Obama’s Portuguese water dog Bo and Mitt Romney’s former car-roof-riding pet Seamus).
The magazine’s Julianna Goldman writes:
Dogs have played a significant role in presidential culture, helping to humanize the nation’s top executive for people by making him seem more like themselves or their neighbors. They also serve as best buds: former President Harry Truman, who had Feller, a cocker spaniel, stated: “If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.”
George H.W. Bush’s English springer spaniel, Millie, was the first presidential pet to write a book. Richard Nixon had King Timahoe, an Irish setter. Franklin Delano Roosevelt had Fala, a Scottish terrier he defended against a Republican attack in the 1944 “Fala Speech,” saying: “These Republican leaders have not been content with attacks on me, or on my wife or on my sons. No, not content with that, they now include my little dog, Fala.”
“It creates the picture of the family man who has a pet and is kind and gentle,” said Robert Dallek, a presidential historian. “The contrast being made is that Romney is a rather stiff-back, harsh character, and he made the dog ride on the roof of his car.”
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![No Room At The In
Eleanor Roosevelt often traveled through Portland [Maine] on her way to Campobello Island, President Roosevelt and the first lady’s summer home off the Maine coast. In 1946, while traveling with her dog Fala, the former first lady sought lodging at the Eastland Hotel. She was told that she could stay but that her dog would have to stay in a nearby kennel. She refused to leave her dog and a national controversy ensued. Much was made in the national press of the Eastland management’s decision not to allow the president’s dog to stay in the hotel. Some papers would claim it was pure politics. Others claimed that the same rules applied to everyone. Roosevelt, Fala, and their chauffeur continued on to the Royal River Cabins in Yarmouth and passed the night there before they resumed their trip ro Campobello. The headline in the local paper read: “Dogdom’s Greatest Snubbed Here.” — from The Rines Family Legacy by Frederic L. Thompson
Photo: Franklin D. Roosevelt Library](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1kbactk5P1qlqojoo1_400.jpg)
No Room At The In
Eleanor Roosevelt often traveled through Portland [Maine] on her way to Campobello Island, President Roosevelt and the first lady’s summer home off the Maine coast. In 1946, while traveling with her dog Fala, the former first lady sought lodging at the Eastland Hotel. She was told that she could stay but that her dog would have to stay in a nearby kennel. She refused to leave her dog and a national controversy ensued. Much was made in the national press of the Eastland management’s decision not to allow the president’s dog to stay in the hotel. Some papers would claim it was pure politics. Others claimed that the same rules applied to everyone. Roosevelt, Fala, and their chauffeur continued on to the Royal River Cabins in Yarmouth and passed the night there before they resumed their trip ro Campobello. The headline in the local paper read: “Dogdom’s Greatest Snubbed Here.” — from The Rines Family Legacy by Frederic L. Thompson
Photo: Franklin D. Roosevelt Library
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Fala: The White House, from the FDR Presidential Library (via Leanne Michelle, Flickr)
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Fala: “They Pick On Me Too,” from the FDR Presidential Library (via Leanne Michelle, Flickr)
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FDR and Fala, out for a ride, from the FDR Presidential Library (via Leanne Michelle, Flickr)
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New Yorker senior editor Amy Davidson’s March 8, 2012, blog post “Close Read: What Presidents Talk About When They Talk About Dogs” mentions this very Tumblr. (We’re flattered!) The peg is a New York Times column about Mitt Romney’s decision to put his dog Seamus on top of his family’s station wagon for a 12-hour ride in 1983. Davidson also recounts Richard Nixon’s famous “Checkers speech” and LBJ’s habit of lifting his beagles up by their ears.
But, naturally, Davidson’s recounting of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s famous “Fala Speech” is what perked up our ears.
Roosevelt’s speech on Fala had been Nixon’s inspiration, and was, in fact, genuinely inspiring. Fala was a Scottish Terrier. He went everywhere with F.D.R.—inspected troops, played with Churchill. (There is a Fala Tumblr with that and much more.) A story appeared saying that he had been left behind in the Aleutian Islands by mistake, and a destroyer had been sent to pick him up; whether he was strapped to the top of said destroyer is not clear. Roosevelt’s response was inimitable.
One learns a couple of things. Roosevelt was charming, his comedic timing was perfect, and he could be unrelenting, even merciless, with both. He spoke about how it all seemed to Fala; he could speak that way about anyone, from any perspective. In this case, he said of Fala, “his Scotch soul was furious”:
Well, of course, I don’t resent attacks, and my family don’t resent attacks—but Fala does resent them.
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Fala at 4 months old. One of our favorite photos of that famous pup. Enlarge to see who he’s with.
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All of the President’s Pets
Fala’s story continues to be told.
“You spend as much time in the White House as FDR did, you’re going to acquire a fair number of pets – but Roosevelt didn’t have an outlandish number. He seemed to favor Scotties like Fala and Meggie, but he also had bigger dogs like Majora (German Shepherd), Tiny (Old English Sheepdog), President (Great Dane), and Blaze (Bull Mastiff). Fala, his constant companion in Roosevelt’s later years, was named for one of Roosevelt’s own Scottish ancestors, ‘Murray the Outlaw of Falahill.’ Fala went everywhere with his president – including ships, trains, and planes – and his need to be walked during long trips often tipped civilians to the president’s presence, which led the Secret Service to code-name Fala ‘the Informer.’” — Presidential pet stories, Shine from Yahoo
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Fala At Sea
Prime Minister Winston Churchill (seated, third from left) and President Franklin D. Roosevelt (seated, center) pose with unidentified men aboard the U.S.S. Augusta. Also present is General George Marshall (standing, second from right), and President Roosevelt’s dog, Fala, seated at Roosevelt’s feet, ca. August 1941. (Truman Presidential Library)
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Statue of Fala from the Little White House at Warm Springs, Ga. (by peachy92)
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Scotties Run In The Family
Eleanor Roosevelt with Duffie, the Roosevelts’ first Scottish Terrier. Photograph taken by FDR. 1905. (FDR Presidential Library & Museum)
