POW Week at the Nixon Library
A sheriff-led motorcade will escort Vietnam POWs to the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, California at 12:30PM PT. Their arrival at the Library coincides with the 40th anniversary of President Nixon’s POW homecoming dinner at the White House.
An All-American Homecoming is a new exhibit at the Nixon Library about the POWs visit to the White House. The event occurred on May 24, 1973, and it remains the largest dinner ever held at the White House. This week, the Nixon Foundation is hosting a series of events to celebrate the POWs.
Tomorrow evening, on the anniversary of the original White House homecoming, the Foundation will hold a reunion dinner for the POWs in the Nixon Library’s “East Room.” The original menu will be recreated, including American comfort foods like sirloin steak and potatoes.
Learn more about POW Week at the Nixon Library through the Nixon Foundation.
Photo: Entertainers sing “God Bless America” to the returned POW troops at the White House. From L-R: Phyllis Diller, Former Miss America Mary Ann Mobley, actress Joey Heatherton, President Nixon, Songwriter Irving Berlin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Pat Nixon and Comedian Bob Hope. 5/24/73.
Irving Berlin and other stars at the White House
Richard Nixon is joined by First Lady Pat Nixon and several celebrities in the singing of “God Bless America.” (Left to Right) Phyllis Diller, Mary Ann Mobley, Joey Heatherton, President Nixon, Irving Berlin, Sammy Davis Jr., Pat Nixon, and Bob Hope. The event was a White House Dinner for POW’s held on May 24, 1973.
In which Bob Hope is putting into an ashtray held by the President in the Oval Office.
Richard Nixon and Bob Hope, White House, 4/20/1973
Source: research.archives.gov
The Queen was easy to deal with. She was very definite about what she wanted and what she didn’t want. She loves Bob Hope and Telly Savalas, so we invited Bob Hope and Telly Savalas - both came - and if I hadn’t kept mixing up Your Highness with Your Majesty (he’s His Highness, she’s Her Majesty) I’d give myself four stars for the way that visit went off.
First Lady Betty Ford’s Description of the State Dinner for Queen Elizabeth on July 7, 1976
From her 1978 memoir, The Times of My Life.
Source: fordlibrarymuseum.gov
I like Ike
President Eisenhower with Vic Damone, Jane Powell, Bob Hope, Pearl Bailey, and other stylish folks from the Fifties. June 7, 1956.
The Queen was easy to deal with. She was very definite about what she wanted and what she didn’t want. She loves Bob Hope and Telly Savalas, so we invited Bob Hope and Telly Savalas — both came — and if I hadn’t kept mixing up Your Highness and Your Majesty (he’s His Highness, she’s Her Majesty) I’d give myself four stars for the way that visit went off.
-Betty Ford on the White House State Dinner for Queen Elizabeth, from her 1978 memoir
President and Mrs. Gerald R. Ford hosted a White House dinner in honor of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip on July 7, 1976. The visit by the Queen was part of the celebration of the bicentennial of the American Revolution.
Here, the First Lady is pictured dancing with Prince Philip.
-from the Ford Presidential Library and Museum
