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Day 53: May 8
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Made for each other
(Source: argonautconference)
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I would prefer to visit the house on a winter afternoon, and have tea with the creature who brought F.D.R. some of his greatest moments of personal happiness. (I’m talking about his dog Fala, of course, Daisy’s gift to the president the year after the events depicted in the film.)
— David Netto, referring to Wilderstein, home of Margaret (Daisey) Suckley, FDR’s cousin, Ghosts of the Hudson Valley - NYTimes.com
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FDR’s Fala featured in book ‘Dogs of War’
Fala, the beloved Scottish terrier who brought levity to Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s presidential years, is in the news again.
The diminutive canine took away some of the burdens of a presidency that stretched from the dark days of the Depression to the near end of World War II. Fala delighted Roosevelt at the White House, at his New York home at Hyde Park and at the Little White House, Roosevelt’s rural Georgia retreat at Warm Springs.
Fala is one of a trio of famous pooches profiled in “Dogs of War,” written by Kathleen Kinsolving. In the book, Kinsolving relates the stories of Fala, Willie and Telek – all owned by key figures during World War II.
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According to “Dogs of War,” FDR’s cousin, Margaret “Daisy” Suckley, decided in 1940 “that FDR might benefit enormously from the friendship of a new dog.” When a friend offered her a Scottish terrier pup, she presented “Big Boy” for Roosevelt.
The president renamed the dog “Murray, the Outlaw of Falahill,” in honor of a Scottish ancestor. It was a nickname, Fala, which stuck with the endearing dog as he moved onto the world stage with his famous owner. (The Times-Herald)
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It was Fala, my husband’s little dog, who never really readjusted. Once, in 1945, when General Eisenhower came to lay a wreath on Franklin’s grave, the gates of the regular driveway were opened and his automobile approached the house accompanied by the wailing of the sirens of a police escort. When Fala heard the sirens, his legs straightened out, his ears pricked up and I knew that he expected to see his master coming down the drive as he had come so many times. Later, when we were living in the cottage, Fala always lay near the dining-room door where he could watch both entrances just as he did when his master was there. Franklin would often decide suddenly to go somewhere and Fala had to watch both entrances in order to be ready to spring up and join the party on short notice. Fala accepted me after my husband’s death, but I was just someone to put up with until the master should return.
— Eleanor Roosevelt (via necroromantic)
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April 21, 1945
Dear Fala,
You probably don’t remember me. But I knew you back in our kennel days when we were a couple of young pups—in fact we chewed our first bone together, remember? In writing you this letter, I’m speaking for dogs throughout the world. For we are all deeply grieved to hear of the death of your master. Your personal loss is felt by all of us. You know as well as I do that leading a dog’s life is no bed of roses. But a dog’s life is for dogs. Human beings shouldn’t horn in on our territory. But lately a lot of men and women and kids have been leading a dog’s life, and your master was one of the humans who didn’t like to see that sort of thing happening. That’s why we respected him—he wanted to keep human beings in their right place. And he did something about it. He made plans, and people had confidence in his plans because his integrity and sincerity were felt the world over. In other words, he made a lot of people see the light, or as we’d put it, he put them on the right scent. Let’s hope they can keep their noses to the ground and work it out for themselves, even though his personal guidance has been taken away from them.
With deepest sympathy,
Fido
(via Letters of Note)
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Fala and FDR, ca. 1944 (Harry S. Truman Library and Museum)
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1944 - Fala figures in campaign
President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s small Scottie dog, Fala, figured in the 1944 presidential campaign when FDR was seeking a fourth term. The issue stemmed from Republican critics spreading a claim that the president had accidentally left the dog behind after visiting the Aleutian Islands earlier in the year and sent a Navy destroyer to retrieve it. Speaking at a Teamsters Union dinner in Washington, Roosevelt said sarcastically that his dog had been libeled. “I don’t resent attacks. My family doesn’t resent attacks. But Fala does resent attacks,” he said. (Tulsa World)
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Franklin D. Roosevelt with Fala and Ruthie Bie in Hyde Park, New York, 1941 One of the few photographs of Roosevelt in his wheelchair.
Franklin D. Roosevelt contracted infantile paralysis, more commonly known as polio, in 1921 when he was thirty-nine years old. After several years of rehabilitation, he returned to politics. Concerned his disability would be used against him in the political arena, Roosevelt was reluctant to be photographed or filmed in situations that highlighted his disability.
More - Franklin D. Roosevelt and Polio
This week in history, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed. To honor the anniversary, The U.S. National Archives has created a space to explore disability history through Presidential records. Throughout the week, we’ll be featuring records and posting questions to explore disability history.
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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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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.
