National Geographic: Inside the White House Page #5

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and to Presidents and their families

for over 200 plus years.

United Nations War Council.

President Roosevelt

and Prime Minister Churchill

at the White House...

Because of what happens here,

even in the wee hours of the night,

someone is always on call.

Alonzo Fields,

White House butler for 21 years,

developed a unique relationship

with Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

Around 1:
30, I decided that

the Prime Minister satisfied

and I was thinking of going...

really going to bed.

And the bell buzzed.

I went in, the Prime Minister

is walking up and down...

...with this scotch in his hand,

talking, quoting,

and saying different things and he says,

"We're trying to find out

from the Russians

what we can do for them.

But what can we do?

It's like an iron shade."

And then he stopped

and stomped his foot,

"Oh, make that an iron curtain."

And then he saw me

and my eyes saw the bottle was empty.

"My poker face didn't fool you."

He says, "Yes, my man,

I need some more to drink."

He says, "I have a war to fight.

And I need fortitude."

So I proceeded and got

a bottle of scotch and opened it

and poured the Prime Minister

a drink and then I said to him,

"Mr. Prime Minister,

will that be all for the night?"

And he says, "I don't know.

I can depend on you."

And I said, "Well, Mr. Prime Minister,

what is it?"

And he says, "Well, if ever

I'm accused of being a teetotaler,

I want you to come to my defense."

I says, "Mr. Prime Minister,

I'll defend you to the last drop."

It's hard to imagine today,

but back in the Madison Administration

during the War of 1812, the British Army

captured the city of Washington

and burned the White House.

The Madisons were trying to keep

a cheery face on it all

and they had a dinner party.

And some of the most amusing

in context

letters of the Madison paper

are regrets to

that particular dinner party

that night in August.

Lo and behold,

you could hear the gunfire.

Mrs. Madison finally fled herself,

left the house alone with Paul Jennings

a slave.

Jennings was to bank the fire,

ironically, to keep it

from burning down.

But the British came in

at eleven at night.

They saw the dinner.

The officers sat down

and had the dinner.

The furniture was piled up

in the rooms with lamp oil on it,

the windows broken out.

And about 1 a.m.,

the British stood with flaming javelins

in a circle around the house

and Lieutenant Pratt fired his pistol.

The javelins were thrown

in the house and it exploded.

Mrs. William Thornton a British citizen,

was there and said,

"It glowed like a great plum cake."

The White House is reduced to ashes

except for the stone walls

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