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one and May twenty twenty two. Potential

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savings will vary. Hello,

1:27

and welcome to this day in esoteric political

1:29

history from radiotopia. My name

1:31

is Jody Avingen. This

1:35

day, February second nineteen twenty

1:38

nine. I'm not the country's in mourning

1:40

a little bit because a famous political figure

1:42

has just passed away at the end

1:44

of January, Laddie Boy

1:47

was no longer with us. A true political

1:49

celebrity, Latta Boy was Warren

1:51

Harding stock. Everyone knew that. Warren Harding stock,

1:54

Laddie. But for real, Latimore was kind

1:56

of the first first pet and in

1:58

many ways set the template for

2:00

presidential pets going forward. We love

2:02

to talk about presidential pets on this

2:04

show. So let's get

2:06

into it. You've got your socks and your milis and

2:08

your checkers. But for today, it is

2:10

all about Laddie 1929. I

2:13

wanna give a shout out to Aaron for

2:15

suggesting that we talk about Lattie Boy.

2:17

Here to do that as

2:18

always, Nicole Hammer of Vanderbilt

2:20

1929 Carter Jackson of Wesley. Hello

2:22

there.

2:22

Hello, Jody. Hey

2:24

there.

2:26

Laddie Boy was a very good boy. Very

2:28

good 1929. I'll say that. I'll say that.

2:30

I guess we should describe Laddie

2:33

1929 maybe that will start to paint

2:36

a picture of why Laddie Boy was such

2:38

a

2:38

celebrity, but I didn't wanna take a crack

2:40

at talking about what Latta Boy looked like.

2:42

Well, Laddie was an airdale terrier.

2:44

And if you've ever seen airdale terriers,

2:47

they are majestic dogs.

2:49

They're kinda just funny shape. Yes.

2:52

They're majestic. Majestic. They have

2:54

pride. They they are funny

2:57

shape. Now they have, like, these weird, like, parallelogram

2:59

heads and They're very

3:01

big, so they have like these long bodies

3:05

and these kinda shaggy coats. They're

3:07

great. I love them. Anyway, he

3:09

got Laddie Boy from

3:12

his supporter when Lattie

3:15

Boy was seven months old and

3:17

the hearting presidency was just a few

3:19

months 1929. And right

3:21

away, Laddie became an instant

3:23

celebrity as the first really celebrity

3:26

presidential pet?

3:28

I mean, this dog is getting

3:30

royal treatment. This dog

3:32

gets birthday Laddie, like,

3:35

this dog is, you know, set

3:37

up to, like, retrieve balls of the

3:39

golf course, and it's pretty much with the

3:41

president at his side wherever he

3:43

goes. I can't think

3:45

of any other dog that gets, like, a

3:48

miniature bronze statue made

3:50

of

3:50

itself. Like, it's just it's over the top.

3:52

It's over the top. And

3:54

we'll talk about that bronze statue, which is a really

3:56

fascinating angle here. One

3:59

thing I was just putting two and two

4:01

together is we were discussing what

4:03

the air air to air to air to air terrier and what

4:05

Laddie Boy looks like. I was gonna make

4:07

a joke that kinda like all

4:09

dogs before nineteen thirty basically

4:12

looked like this. Like, you know, if you just think like old

4:14

timey dog, it looks like this. But the

4:16

reason for me at least that that's launched, I'm

4:18

just realizing and I looked it up in

4:20

real time. But I've been

4:22

watching Annie with

4:24

my daughter. Mhmm. Annie is set

4:26

in the, like, twenties and thirties.

4:29

Right? And the original

4:31

dog from Annie was an airbag

4:34

terrier in the broader production. And then it was

4:36

an Otterhound in the eighty two movie

4:38

adaptation, which is the one I've been watching, although I

4:40

really like the more recent adaptation as well. And I even

4:42

like the live version, we've been watching all the Annie's. But

4:44

anyway, old timey die, log. If

4:46

you've seen

4:47

Annie, they were sort of in the rough you're in

4:49

the right sort of

4:50

And there was the rough. Rough. The

4:52

rough area, very hard. Yeah.

4:55

Well, am looking at a picture of Lanny 1929,

4:57

and I have to say pretty

5:00

good dog. Yes. Yeah.

5:02

For sure. Yeah. So what is your sense of

5:04

why other than attractiveness. Laddie

5:06

Boy really was a sensation in

5:08

this way. When Harding was president, 1929

5:11

you say, well, you know, we're hooking us to when Latta Boy

5:13

died in nineteen twenty nine. Laddie outlived

5:15

harding. But why why Laddie

5:17

sister's sensation? I

5:19

think at least part of it is, like, previous

5:21

presidents had had dogs.

5:23

I mean, George Washington had dogs. He listens

5:26

as Grant had dogs. Like, previous

5:28

presidents had had dogs, but Lanny

5:31

Boy was the one who was, like, treated

5:33

not only as part of the family, but

5:35

treated in the way we treat dogs now, like

5:37

their kids. Like,

5:39

they're pampered 1929,

5:41

like, Laddie had his own seat

5:43

in the cabinet meetings that he could sit

5:46

1929. was present in like every

5:48

picture that was taken with

5:50

Warren Harding. And it's worth noting that,

5:52

first of all, you know, common photography

5:55

of presidents was still in a

5:57

relatively early era and harding

5:59

himself as a newspaperman. 1929 so

6:01

he understood what good press

6:03

relations look like and seemed to have

6:05

a good understanding that if a dog is in the photo,

6:07

it is going to be a photo that people spend a lot more

6:10

time looking So if you look at pictures of Harding,

6:12

chances are there's a picture

6:14

of Lanny Boy somewhere somewhere

6:16

in there.

6:17

Yeah. No. I mean, I think It's

6:19

the PR of pets. People

6:22

love pets. People love

6:24

their companions. And I think

6:26

that when you know a person has

6:29

as a cat or a dog, you

6:32

think of them in a particular kind of way.

6:34

Like, we have all these, you know, stereotypes

6:36

about pet owners, but there's something There's

6:39

something very human I think about having

6:42

that sort of relationship that people are endeared

6:45

And so Laddie just really

6:47

becomes this iconic

6:50

dog that people can attach to the president

6:52

1929 and therefore make the president

6:55

a little bit more of a real person.

6:57

1929. this president was

6:59

attached to this doc. I mean, this

7:02

Harding seemed obsessed with this doc, including

7:04

making one thousand miniature

7:06

bronze statues of the dog which you would basically

7:09

hand out as like party favors to visitors

7:11

to the White

7:11

House. The little bronze. That's actually awesome.

7:14

It's

7:14

amazing. I wonder what is it? 1929 is it? The M

7:16

and M's the White House branded M and M, but rather have

7:19

the signature statue of the dog Let

7:22

me read you a quote that appeared

7:24

in the newspaper. This says,

7:26

quote, so many people express a wish

7:28

to see me I shake hands with so many

7:30

callers at the executive mansion that I

7:32

fear that there are some people who will

7:35

suspect me of political inclinations. But

7:37

from what I see of politics, I am

7:39

sure I have no such aspirations. That

7:43

is Warren Harding, writing an

7:45

op ed in the voice of Laddie Boy

7:47

and publishing it in a newspaper, which

7:49

apparently he would do from time to time would write

7:52

communicate with the press through his

7:54

dog's

7:54

voice. So I I love

7:56

it. That's what Barbara Bush did with Millie. Right? She

7:58

ended up writing this this

8:01

book about white house

8:03

pets, I think, or life in the White House from the

8:05

perspective of her 1929.

8:07

And Harding had her beat by, like,

8:09

sixty years. It's kind of amazing.

8:12

I love Laddie boys so much.

8:23

These pets probably have seen some stuff. They could

8:25

probably dish some dirt if they actually ever were able

8:27

to 1929. To communicate. And

8:29

they were really close apparently. The dog

8:32

just howled for three days when Harding

8:34

died in August of nineteen twenty three. And so,

8:36

you know, as we said, Harding dies dies in

8:38

office, the country

8:40

is mourning, the dog is mourning, and one of the

8:42

ways in which people mourn for

8:44

the dog, and and tell her this is the story you referred

8:47

to, but because

8:49

guess he used to be a paper boy. Newsboys

8:51

around the country were enamored

8:54

with Harding. And as a tribute to him,

8:56

they collected nineteen

8:58

thousand one hundred and thirty four pennies,

9:01

melted them, and sculpted them into

9:04

a statue of Laddie 1929

9:06

the statue was then presented to

9:09

the Smithsonian institution. And I believe,

9:11

I think, for instance, humans about this. I believe it's still kicking

9:13

around, and you can go see it in this in this on it.

9:15

And I think I I

9:17

should have looked up at something like, you know, the only

9:20

presidential pet to have a statue anywhere

9:22

in in Washington,

9:25

Certainly the Smithsonian. That's just wild

9:27

to be. That's wild. You can

9:29

actually go to South Dakota if you make

9:31

your way to wrap city. And there is a

9:34

bronze statue of

9:36

Laddie Boy there that's part of, like,

9:38

it's city of president's installation,

9:41

and you can see the statue there. But, I

9:43

mean, that's that's a lot of hard work.

9:45

It's a lot of pennies. It's a lot of money.

9:47

It's a lot a hard work and nuts all to

9:49

get this Laddie

9:50

together. No newspapers were delivered

9:52

that day. Yeah. I know. It was the death

9:54

of a president, and no one could get their paper because

9:56

the paper boys were off

9:58

smelting 1929 making statues

10:01

of dogs.

10:01

And going door to door with some candy and

10:03

pennies. Yeah. It's wild.

10:06

Well, we should say that FDR's dog Fala,

10:08

who I think we might

10:09

have talked about here before, actually

10:12

also has a statue on

10:15

at the Franklin, Delano Roosevelt, Memorial

10:17

in the Nashville

10:18

Mall. So Fallout out there somewhere

10:20

memorialized Maybe it's follow that

10:22

I'm thinking of then that has it, but then Laddie Boy

10:24

has this statute. And apparently,

10:27

the Braun Statue of Latta Boy is in the

10:29

Association Association archives record unit

10:32

two eighty five box eighteen folder

10:34

seven if anyone ever wants to count. Wow.

10:38

Laddie Boy there. And then one

10:40

other tidbit, which is fascinating, is that apparently

10:43

in two thousand twelve, the

10:45

Harding, Home, and Museum which

10:48

is the presidential museum, was burglar.

10:52

And Laddie Boy's

10:54

collar may have been the only thing

10:56

still actually stolen. But

11:00

the collar has, like, a

11:02

gold in

11:02

it, and it's, like, was really valuable. But I mean,

11:05

it's just I just love the idea of like Not

11:07

just any gold, African gold

11:09

nut. Yes. It who

11:12

knows how much that was

11:13

worth. Right. And and and if I love the

11:15

idea of, like, I'm gonna break into a presidential

11:17

museum. What am I gonna find there? And it's, like, the

11:19

only thing you see that's of worth because

11:21

you have played yourself Laddie broken into

11:23

hard music. That is

11:26

the is the Laddie boy's collar. But apparently,

11:28

yeah, that was that was stolen in two thousand

11:30

twelve. And

11:31

if any of our listeners have a lead on it, let's

11:33

find a way to get that back. We could solve

11:35

that mystery. Yeah. Yeah.

11:38

Alright. 1929 did you what did you call

11:40

Laddie at the very

11:41

top. Did you say Magnificent?

11:43

Did I say Magnificent --

11:45

Majestic. -- I think that's what I said.

11:47

Because the times when Lat Boy died in nineteen twenty

11:49

nine to effect that they were marking. The New York Times

11:51

ran a story describing the terrier as

11:54

magnificent. So

11:56

there you go.

11:58

They are not wrong. Back to you. Paper and paper.

12:00

Exactly. Alright. Oh,

12:02

lot one last thing. Nikki, you

12:04

you pointed out to us. You send a text around it. You have

12:07

a book of presidential pets.

12:10

1929? It's letter by letter?

12:11

Letter by letter. It's an alphabet of presidential

12:14

pets.

12:14

And what's the l? This

12:17

is gonna be very disappointing, I think, to

12:19

our listeners. But the l is actually for

12:22

liberty who was the

12:24

dog of Ford. I

12:28

know. I'm like, there's such a

12:30

better

12:30

dog, but that is what we

12:32

are stuck with, Ellis, for Liberty. Won't

12:35

want.

12:36

Okay. Well, if we ever make our presidential

12:38

pet book, Alan will absolutely be

12:40

fine.

12:40

That's why I'm not saying the title. Yeah.

12:42

They come. Not getting him a free public city. Sticking

12:45

Instagram.

12:47

Jade. That's alright.

12:49

Nicole Hammer. Thanks to you as always. Thank

12:51

you,

12:51

Jody. And Kelly Croda Jackson. Thanks

12:53

to you. It's my pleasure.

13:25

Radio to be.

13:28

ERX.