FDR’s Hyde Park picnic is still news sixty years after. Memorable, too, are Great Britain’s King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, first-time visitors to the United States and their first hot dogs.
The picnic was an informal diplomatic affair for 150 guests at the American Hyde Park FDR’s “other” White House. Its pretext was a change of pace from the ponderous formality of a state visit. The subtext was conducting delicate diplomacy to get Roosevelt’s support against the Nazi regime threatening war in Europe. Despite being hammered by an isolationist movement arguing that Hitler was Europe’s problem and not America’s, Roosevelt was supportive.
Jun 12 was beastly hot, and favored guests sat four to a table, like bridge players, under the porch of Top Cottage, FDR’s hideaway. FDR dined with the Queen; his mother Sara Delano, dined with the King, but it is unknown who ER dined with. After an initial obligatory photograph of FDR, ER, the Royals, and Sara Delano, ER disappears from the photographic record of the day.
The Roosevelts and the Royals were no strangers to picnics. But the Royals were unfamiliar with hot dogs, chosen because they symbolized American cuisine. FDR and ER were unenthusiastic eaters, but their grasp of cultural symbols was astute. But for the good humor of the King and Queen, the hotdogs might have been a disaster. Other items on the menu included Virginia Ham, Smoked Turkey Cranberry Jelly, Green Salad, Rolls, Strawberry Shortcake, Coffee, Local Beer, and Soft Drinks.
Recapping the day, the Queen wrote affectionately to her daughter, who she called Lilibet, now Queen Elizabeth II, “There were a lot of people there, and we all sat at little tables under the trees round the house and had all our food on one plate – a little salmon, some turkey, some ham, lettuce, beans & HOT DOGS too!” She remembered salmon and beans wrong, but got the “hot Dogs” right, and wrote the words in capital letters. Eleanor got it wrong, too. Years later in her Autobiography, she inaccurately remembered that she had “corralled two friends to cook hot dogs on an outdoor fireplace, and we had smoked turkey, which Their Majesties had not tasted before, several kinds of ham cured in different ways from different parts of the United States, salads, baked beans, and a strawberry shortcake with strawberries.” Neither FDR nor the King mentioned the food or the martinis.
Roger Michell. Hyde Park on Hudson (2012)
See http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/aboutfdr/royalvisit.html, Felix Belair, Jr. Special to The New York Times. New York Times (1857-Current file); Jun 12, 1939; ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851 – 2005) http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/weekinreview/king_tries_hot_dog.pdf]; Margaret Daisy Suckley. Diary of Margaret Daisy Suckley http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/aboutfdr/pdfs/royal_suckleydiary.pdf; Will Swift. The Roosevelts and the Royals: Franklin and Eleanor, the King and Queen of England and the Friendship ; F Felix Belair, Jr. Special to The New York Times. New York Times (1857-Current file); Jun 12, 1939; ProQuest Historical Newspapers; http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/weekinreview/king_tries_hot_dog.pdf]