In the event, the incomparable Molly Raiser became Chief.
I recall visiting her Georgetown townhouse to congratulate
her. She promptly took me upstairs to show me a room
entirely decorated in Christopher Hyland textiles: small
consolation, but perhaps a message that it was best I
attend to business back home.
A state dinner serves two lofty purposes: assisting in the
deliberation of weighty matters and the delectation of
fine victuals. Now to the first purpose: stomachs may
wait, in anticipation.
The Chief of Protocol of the United States, the White
House Social Secretary and several other staff weigh
in on the numerous components that make state visits,
the state dinner in particular, to the White House highly
memorable, prestigious and desirable to attend. History
attests to this fact.
At the advent of World War II, official Washington was
aflutter, power brokers jockeying for invitations to the
state dinner to be given by President and First Lady
Franklin Roosevelt in honor of their Britannic majesties,
Queen Elizabeth and King George. In William Seale's
The President's House, he writes, "the Roosevelts held a
state dinner on the first evening and after it King George
and President Roosevelt talked in the Oval Room until
the early morning."
HYLAND
