![]() Today the Presidential Inaugural Committee plans all the official inaugural balls.ģ. Gerald Ford was a fashion model in his youth (even appearing on the cover of Cosmopolitan).įord’s first love was a woman named Phyllis Brown, a gorgeous blonde who became a fashion model. Four hundred tickets were sold, and so began a Washington tradition. ![]() The price of admissions was four dollars per ticket. That evening his wife, Dolley Madison, hosted a gala at Long’s Hotel. Washington’s plantation manager James Anderson, a Scottish man with distilling experience, urged him to start the venture, which was also an efficient way to use unsold ground wheat, corn and rye.Ģ. James Madison held the first Inaugural Ball.Īlthough there was a ball in 1789 to honor the election of George Washington, the first official inaugural ball did not occur until 1809, when Madison took office. With sales of $7,500 that year, it was perhaps the country’s largest distillery. At peak production in 1799, the distillery used five stills and a boiler and produced eleven thousand gallons of whiskey. Whiskey was one of Washington’s most important business ventures at Mount Vernon. ![]() To commemorate the Presidents' Day holiday, we offer some nuggets excerpted from the book that reveal a few unexpected facts about the sartorial habits, social practices and defining characteristics of our commanders-in-chief.ġ. George Washington owned a profitable whiskey distillery. Think you’ve got a firm handle on the presidents? The Smithsonian Book of Presidential Trivia from Smithsonian Books just might make you question how comprehensive your head-of-state knowledge actually is.
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