chapter seventeen
and exactly who WAS
and freaked out about at least one other lovely thing (or
leg) or two
at the Pat and Dick Nixon Annual White House Cabinet and Staff
Party
around that particular Christmastide of '72
a
1972 Nixon presidential campaign 'button'
(traditionally pinned to a supporter's lapel)
which prophetically featured Dick Nixon's criminal conspiracy
mug shot
White House Secret Service File
on
William S. Blackburn
CLASSIFIED: PERSONAL
AND CONFIDENTIAL
Exhibit #2a:
Continued transcription of the White House dictation
Tape, the
President’s 12/1/72 letter to Mr. Waring:
P.S. Fred,
I’m returning your letter of stage directives which you’ll
find enclosed.
What did you and uh, Mr. Blackburn intend by that
innuendo 'the nature of
your problem'?
And please tell your people to stop sending to
the U.S. White House any correspondence which contains insults
disguised to look like a form letter.
Protocol requires a formal one-of-a-kind letter
carefully written as
innocuously as possible to show respect toward the honor
and privilege of singing and dancing with the President of
these great
So remember that now.
And remind your people, especially your
aggressively intrusive and informal types like Mr. Blackburn.
Incidentally our phone number is right on our
very formal and classy letterhead.
RMN, P
Bill yawned. "We
went to the White House for rehearsal, at which time I was
informed that they didn't
bring my tuxedo. So I couldn't even go upstairs in the White
House."
MAKE IT SAFE
BY NIGHT AND DAY....
"Oh, there was so
much going on. We went to have lunch and one of the
Pennsylvanians stole a plate out of the White House. That
pissed me off. And I was mad at somebody else because he was
shootin' off his mouth downstairs and I said, ‘You know, they
could have these dressing rooms bugged’! It was
stupid, 'cause he was callin' him 'Tricky Dicky' and all this
stuff."
BLESS THESE
WALLS SO FIRM AND STOUT...
"And I was bugged
'cause I wasn't gonna be able to go up there in a tux."
KEEPING WANT
AND TROUBLE OUT....
"And Betty Ann fell
asleep on the stage during rehearsal.
"And I was walkin'
around the White House with this brown suit that she didn't
want me to buy; she wanted me to buy the blue one. I was
walkin' around with a turtleneck brown suit and a clipboard in
my hands, and everybody was comin' up to ask me questions."
Mj frowned at this.
"I'm not kidding
you, it was amazing how the people kept coming up to me and
saying, 'Uh, what are we gonna do with this, what are we gonna
do with that’? y'know like I owned the place."
"Exactly like the
Telethon in
"No, this time I
only had a clipboard," Bill said.
And he was well
established as a reliable storyteller a long way back; which
meant that the man must have mixed and matched the same set of
tricks for accruing psychological power wherever he went.
"W'l anyway, I was walking around there and I look up there on this monitor." Bill's ho-hum attitude toward the White House suddenly turned to interest: "And I see on the monitor Betty Ann's sound asleep during rehearsal right in the White House.”1
Bill did a snore
that got even the baby awake laughing; while Betty Ann smiled
her sparkly Ipana toothpaste commercial smile at mj, with its
huge long cheek dimples and heart-warming glow, too
heartwarming in mj’s case whenever she aimed it at him, as
now.
"So, what I was
tryin' to get to, finally this Secret Service guy I met and
was talking to said, 'This is such bullshit, they didn't bring
you a tuxedo, well I'll fix it,' and he takes me up –."
Mj interrupted. "As
I remember you were sitting at Thomas Jefferson's desk."
"No no. No."
"That's what you
told me before. They had put you in another room for awhile,
and it just happened to be the room –."
"Oh, Thomas
Jefferson's room! It was his room!"
"Oh."
"I didn't say 'his desk'. It was decorated in that
period and all that stuff. And I was right at the base of this
stairs. He was introducing me to everybody, this Secret
Service guy, these cabinet ministers were goin' up and down
these red and velvety stairs, and there was this beautiful
gorgeous room like a president's library and... that
president's period and old president's furniture and all this
stuff. I was sitting in there, in his room,
Bill sighed.
He was not impacted
by the White House the way most adult Americans would have
been. Even sitting in the chair of the author of the
Declaration of Independence got little mention. And that made
some sense when you remembered he had barely been impressed
with Pat Nixon as First Lady either. He was just impressed
that she was a real
human being when she was with him, despite the fact she
was First Lady, that’s all. He had never heard a
story about Jefferson’s surprisingly heartfelt and sympathetic
down-to-earth humanity, like the way he genuinely befriended
and mentored a much younger Meriwether Lewis, for example,
despite his potentially corrupting position; or then Bill
might have found for Jefferson a place in his pantheon of
heroes along with Chief Joseph and Mrs. Nixon; but stories of
(OR: maybe: while also evaluating and monitoring, or even containing Bill Blackburn, maybe even at the President’s behest, so as to keep Bill from Mrs. Nixon, this Secret Service agent was being careful not to lose Bill’s interest, so he could constantly keep track of Bill’s whereabouts. Who knew? But in any case, Bill certainly did not see it that way, either while at the White House or later, during mj’s interviews. Bill, who was normally right on target when he assessed people the first time, never saw the agent as part of a plan to keep Bill from Pat. Bill blamed not the White House, but Waring and his organization for forgetting Bill’s tux, necessitating that Bill remain far from the party and concert and Fred.)3
"The agent told me
the whole place was bugged, the phones, everything except the
president's bathroom and bedroom. And he told me the reason
for this is because all these idiots are runnin' around. They
have a three-hundred man police force, he showed me, right on
the White House grounds. And he told me that bein' a member of
the Secret Service, one of his jobs was to protect the
President and the grounds, the White House, and other
dignitaries that he's assigned to. And he took me and showed
me this room in the basement, where all the monitors and all
the tapes are running, and you can see and hear what's
happening in every corner except the President's bedroom and
bathroom."
Betty Ann looked
somber. Bill was telling the truth about the President’s
bedroom and bathroom, apparently, a new aspect of the story mj
had never heard before.
"And they were just getting ready to start the concert
in the... whatever room that was in. People were moving around
for seats. Kissinger, Agnew, the Nixons.4 And lots of young
people, and older people in tuxes. And the tape monitor in
that room, you could hear voices and shuffling of feet. He
turned it up and I didn't think anything of it. I had been in
other situations like this, in the military where everything
was monitored on TV screens, everything was bugged."
Bill sighed. "This
was... not bugged because they were tryin' to scheme or use
somebody, it was bugged very simply to protect. It was a
defensive mechanism, that's all."
BLESS THE ROOF
AND CHIMNEYS TALL ! ...
"And we talked
about this, and he was very open about it. He said, even the
President had gotten bugged about the TV monitor in his living
room, personal quarters. And periodically they had trouble
with the President over this because, if anyone hassled the
President... if they are to protect the man, to observe...."
LET THY PEACE
LIE OVER ALL....
"Because Dick got
in a fight one night with Pat in the presidential living room,
forgetting it was bugged, then flew like crazy down to this
room where we were in the basement to demand the Secret
Service abolish the tape. 'Erase that tape’! Scrap it,
because, he could only fight in the bedroom and bathroom. And
it all seemed very logical."
A Huron brave was
supposed to report in
after an adventure, and Bill Blackburn showed what a good
scout he was for the tribe: "I went back and I told Betty Ann.
I came back and I told you. It was months later, Watergate
pops up, right? About all the bugging. And Sam Ervin and all
these Democrats down there were jumpin' on this like a
horrible thing 'and we never knew this' well bullshit. If this
man walked me into that room, I mean it was no security
clearance or anything necessary, 'cause he wouldn't've brought
me into the room."
BLESS THIS
DOOR THAT IT MAY PROVE...
Mj agreed, just to
keep things rolling, because the real significance of the
White House tapes lay in something else, in fact, as the
interviewer felt. It lay in whether a man or woman was
qualified to be President of the
So mj said, "It couldn't've been that much of a secret," just to help Bill on to another subject; because Sam Ervin’s possible mistake was a minor point compared to the American people’s definite mistake in electing Nixon president in the first place.5
"No! No. That's the
only thing that really bugged me about this whole
investigation. They're still goin' on about it down there.
What happened was wrong, but the fact remains that that was
not that big a secret."
EVER OPEN TO
JOY AND LOVE....
White House Secret Service File
on
William S. Blackburn
CLASSIFIED: PERSONAL
AND CONFIDENTIAL
Exhibit #2b:
Transcribed White House Tape
dictation of the President’s letter to Mr. Waring,
continued:
P.P.S. Fred, after uh, thinking over the
inferential tone, implied by Mr. Blackburn in his letter of
uh, demands and instructions to the White House, I had our
people check things out today. Of course, in fact in other
years I think we have checked out all the Pennsylvanians, and
to no one's surprise they always have passed muster to a man uh, and
woman. Except Mr.
Blackburn this year.
Now get this. Your man has been discovered by our
Secret Service (you can check the S. S. papers enclosed), to
have associated, maybe intimately, with Patty! Once at least
we have him on camera, backstage at Bob Hope's Telethon, where
he tried to appear – the agents told me – as her uh, escort! Imagine! And
probably seek uh,... advantage
because of it! Just uh, remarkable. Naturally, I am uh, shocked
and offended.
Fred, he is your man and I hold you responsible.
Please look into it
from your end before you bring Bill Blackburn along to
1600. That sort of thing. If you must bring him,
we'll have to keep him from the special guests and Patty,
don't you think? Have the S.S. tie him up in the basement? I
tried to believe Patty's story he was an accidental
acquaintance. But you can see from the pictures, he sits by
her like the damn King of Sweden uh, or something. She says:
"He was such a nice gentleman! A FAR-mer." He's a uh, FAR-tin'
BUF-foon in
our Secret Service pictures.
[My swear words are always off the record,
please, Connie. I do tend to get carried away some days.]
Fred, this is confidential. Between friends. No
protocol please.
[Back on the record now, Connie.]
I believe that, at the same time, I must say that
uh, if you would do this, Fred, if not for me then, for your
favorite President, Ike. Ike would have wanted this expedited,
appropriately, and with dispatch.
And Fred, you should see the photos of your man
looking up Pat's dress. Now, we are certain, he uh, learned
that, WORKing all those years with YOU! Ha! DN. uh,....
"So what I was
tryin' to get to,” Bill said, “this guy, he says, ‘This is
such bullshit, they didn't bring you a tuxedo’. And he takes
me to this monitor room and turns up the sound in the concert
hall and gets the screen lines so we can see the
Pennsylvanians comin' in. And here's Betty Ann sittin' there
staring at me cute as pie, same as she always looks, fifteen
years old, cuddling her little Cordovox, and Fred isn't out
there yet. People are just sitting and waiting and talking.
And then Nixon – WAS president – stands up and goes up there
to the mike and turns and looks out and –...."
Bill beamed like a little kid
expecting a friend’s response and announced in a very funnily
official formal tone, unlike any tone he had used all night;
more bass and less tense: "We have another tape to give you,
this thing that the Pennsylvanians taped, the whole damn
concert at the White House."
Mj was overjoyed,
indeed.
BLESS THESE
WINDOWS SHINING BRIGHT...
Bill groped under
his chair and pulled out a machine ready to run. "Do you want
to hear it?"
Was a man born of
woman and man?
LETTING IN
GOD’S HEAVENLY LIGHT.
Did a
Dlune finally got
what was happening and perked up about a real tape from the
real White House: "You're kidding!!"
White House Secret Service File
on
William S. Blackburn
CLASSIFIED: PERSONAL
AND CONFIDENTIAL
Exhibit #2c:
Transcribed White House Tape
dictation of the President’s letter to Mr. Waring, cont’d.:
P.P.P.S. And
Fred, I've thought about it more and,... I also have to take
exception to Mr. Blackburn's phrase, "HUNG! prior to arrival"!
Isn’t that uh, aggressive language for a letter to The
President of these United States about his nice friendly
Christmas party? And what about the insolent uh, bold-faced
innuendo, "Better facilities make for a better show?" Fred,
uh, Mr. Waring, if your people doubt our facilities or
faculties or capabilities to run this country of ours just
tell them to just... say
it straight out! D!
1
Shortly before publication of the present ‘look’ at his fourth
book, Dr. Lorenzo said to Sammy Martinez in private that he
‘laughed a good one just the other day’, when he read these
words about Betty Ann falling asleep during rehearsal at the
White House. He was reviewing it for the thousandth time and
realizing for the very first time -- ever -- that Bill was
alluding to their first married night, their first honeymoon
night in bed, the night before. Bill had couched his words so
carefully that even after one thousand reads, Betty Ann’s
innocence had remained protected. Or could it have been his own
younger mj lorenzo innocence – or something else – that
explained why he had missed it the first one thousand times? as
he asked Sammy. And the latter chose to change the subject. But
the Dr. brought it up again later, saying it was really true
that he had always thought the glimpse of Betty Ann sleeping and
snoring was funny for reasons quite unrelated to sex, like
‘sleeping and snoring at the White House as the President
was walking in’ or ‘sleeping and snoring during a Fred
Waring rehearsal’ and, of course, ‘sleeping and snoring right
on the Secret Service monitor’: while the thought of
‘sleeping and snoring the next day at work because of their
first honeymoon night the night before’ had eluded him
somehow. And it was from experiences such as this funny one and
many others like it that the Dr. had concluded during his ‘old
age’, as he said to Sammy (who was 14 years younger), that down through the
ages people who had said things like ‘life is but a dream’ were
really right. Virtually every human being who ever existed went
through life thinking things were one way when they were really
another.
2
As of 2013 the ‘Jefferson Room’ and every major officially named
room in the White House could be viewed in 3D at the official
U.S. White House website.
3
It was not Bill Blackburn, but mj lorenzo after years of
reviewing his material and digesting it mentally, who eventually
felt that any possible sabotaging of Bill’s chances to party at
the White House on his honeymoon and/or get near Pat Nixon
during the party and concert, might have originated at least as
likely with the President, as with Fred Waring. Maybe even MORE
likely: since subsequent historical study revealed that
President Nixon about that time was probably even more
off-kilter and out of control emotionally and mentally than Fred
Waring.
4
Henry Kissinger was Nixon’s excellent pick for Secretary of
State. Spiro Agnew was Nixon’s un-excellent unheard-of Vice
President until his resignation in 1973 after he had been found
guilty of tax evasion. He was succeeded by Gerald R. Ford,
minority leader in the House of Representatives; who later that
same year became president when Nixon resigned.
5
One particular paragraph from the digital Encarta encyclopedia
article on Senator Sam Ervin (of North Carolina) sheds more
helpful light on the bizarre and exasperating political
atmosphere of these disastrous final years of the Nixon reign.
After outlining Sam Ervin’s stellar political career, the
article states: “In early 1973 Ervin agreed to preside over the
hearings of the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign
Activities that was investigating the Watergate affair. His
strong ethical convictions and expertise as a constitutional
scholar made him highly effective in soliciting testimony. The
committee was the forum for a number of revelations, including
testimony by former presidential counsel John Dean that
implicated Nixon in the Watergate cover-up and disclosed the
existence of a White House "enemies" list. Testimony by
presidential aide Alexander Butterfield revealed the existence
of a secret taping system in the White House that had recorded
various conversations documenting Nixon administration
involvement in the break-in and subsequent cover-up efforts.
Additional revelations and later investigations further
demonstrated that Nixon had been a party to the cover-up. Facing
impeachment proceedings in the U.S. Congress, Nixon resigned
from the presidency on August 9, 1974. In April 1996, after more
than two decades of bitter court battles that continued beyond
Nixon's death in 1994, attorneys for the estate of the former
president agreed to a slow but steady release of more than 3000
hours of secret Nixon White House tapes that had been kept in
the National Archives and never made available to the public.” Microsoft Encarta 2006.
1993-2005 Microsoft Corporation; article entitled: Sam Ervin.
