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Mary LaskerMary Lasker
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Part:         Session:         Page of 1143

although there was terrible difficulty getting away and it was fiendishly cold. We left fifteen minutes before the show was over, in order to find the car promptly

I will try to get another copy of these pictures to give you. In this, you see the President's box, decorated by us for the Inaugural Concert, which took place the next night. This is from Life.

We took some of the decorations, these, from the Inauguration Gala and used them at Constitution Hall, which belongs to the Daughters of the American Revolution. Constitution Hall had never been insulted by any type of decoration in 15 years, and it was quite a shock to the management when they heard that we wanted to have it decorated. They were very dubious about it.

Q:

Did the Daughters have to give their approval?

Lasker:

Well, the Daughters were horrified. But as we said we weren't going to do anything except put things up with paste and that absolutely no harm would be done to anything, they would be down the next morning, they couldn't think now to prevent it. And so it was done.

It actually looked beautiful. I had the President's and Vice-president's boxes decorated with red and white carnations, and smylax (?), and beautiful swags of stars and stripes of a specially made silk that Mr. Paddock had ordered for the Inauguration Gala.





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