Fala
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- This article is about FDR's dog. For information on the language, see Fala language.
Fala (April 7, 1940 – April 5, 1952) was a famous Scottish Terrier, the beloved dog of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. One of the most famous presidential pets, Fala captured the attention of the public in the United States and followed Roosevelt everywhere, becoming part of Roosevelt's public image. Given to the Roosevelts by a cousin, Fala knew how to perform tricks; his White House antics were widely covered in the media and often referenced both by Roosevelt and his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt. Fala survived Roosevelt by seven years and was buried alongside him. A statue of him alongside Roosevelt is prominently featured in Washington, D.C.'s Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial.
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[edit] Early life
Fala was born on April 8, 1940, and was given as an early Christmas gift to Roosevelt from Mrs. Augustus G. Kellog of Westport, Connecticut, through Roosevelt's cousin, Margaret "Daisy" Suckley. As a puppy, Fala was given obedience training by Suckley, who taught him to sit, roll over, and jump. His original name was Big Boy; Franklin renamed him Murray the Outlaw of Falahill after John Murray of Falahill, a famous Scottish ancestor. This was later shortened to "Fala."
[edit] White House years
Fala moved into the White House on November 10, 1940. He spent most of his time there until Roosevelt died and was succeeded by Harry S. Truman in April 1945. Fala also traveled with Roosevelt to his home (Springwood) in Hyde Park, New York and Warm Springs, Georgia (Roosevelt's favorite spa town).
Every morning Fala was given a bone that came in with Roosevelt's breakfast tray; at nights he was fed dinner. However, in Fala's first few weeks in the White House, he was sent to the veterinarian after getting a severe gastrointestinal disorder; it was later discovered that the White House staff was constantly feeding him, and he became ill after eating too much. Roosevelt ordered that "not even one crumb will be fed to Fala except by the President" and the dog was in good health thereafter.
An MGM film about a typical day in the White House featured Fala. Fala also became an honorary private in the U.S. Army by "contributing" $1 to the war effort for every day of the year and setting an example for others on the home front.
Fala was often with Roosevelt on the scene of important events; he traveled on Air Force One, the president's airplane, and the Ferdinand Magellan, Roosevelt's custom-made train car, as well as by ship. Fala was with Roosevelt at the Atlantic Charter Conference, Quebec, and the meeting with President Manuel Ávila Camacho of Mexico in Monterey.
In 1943, Fala was the subject of a short series of political cartoons by Alan Foster entitled "Mr. Fala of the White House."
[edit] Fala speech
On September 23, 1944, Roosevelt gave his famous "Fala speech" while campaigning in the 1944 presidential election. The 39.5 minute speech was delivered at a campaign dinner in Washington, D.C., before the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America. In the speech, Roosevelt attacks Republican opponents in Congress and details their attacks on him. Late in the speech, Roosevelt addressed false Republican charges that he had accidentally left Fala behind on the Aleutian Islands while on tour there and had sent a U.S. Navy destroyer to retrieve him at an exorbitant cost:
- "These Republican leaders have not been content with attacks on me, or my wife, or on my sons. No, not content with that, they now include my little dog, Fala. [laughter] Well, of course, I don't resent attacks, and my family doesn't resent attacks—but Fala does resent them. [laughter] You know, Fala is Scotch, and being a Scottie, as soon as he learned that the Republican fiction writers in Congress and out had concocted a story that I had left him behind on the Aleutian Islands and had sent a destroyer back to find him—at a cost to the taxpayers of two or three, or eight or 20 million dollars—his Scotch soul was furious. [laughter] He has not been the same dog since! [laughter] I am accustomed to hearing malicious falsehoods about myself--such as that old, worm-eaten chestnut that I have represented myself as indispensable. But I think I have a right to resent, to object to libelous statements about my dog [laughter]."
[edit] After Roosevelt's death
In April 1945, Roosevelt died in Warm Springs of a cerebral hemorrhage. Fala attended the funeral and went to live with the widowed Eleanor Roosevelt at Val-Kill. She often mentioned Fala in her newspaper column, "My Day."
- It was Fala, my husband's little dog, who never really readjusted. Once, in 1945, when General Eisenhower came to lay a wreath on Franklin's grave, the gates of the regular driveway were opened and his automobile approached the house accompanied by the wailing of the sirens of a police escort. When Fala heard the sirens, his legs straightened out, his ears pricked up and I knew that he expected to see his master coming down the drive as he had come so many times. Later, when we were living in the cottage, Fala always lay near the dining-room door where he could watch both entrances just as he did when his master was there. Franklin would often decide suddenly to go somewhere and Fala had to watch both entrances in order to be ready to spring up and join the party on short notice. Fala accepted me after my husband's death, but I was just someone to put up with until the master should return. -Eleanor Roosevelt, On My Own
Fala often played with his grandson, Tamas McFala. He died in 1952 and was buried next to the Roosevelts in the rose garden at Springwood.
[edit] See also
- Checkers speech, a famous address by Richard Nixon with a similar tone to the "Fala speech."
- List of United States Presidential pets
[edit] Sources
- "Biography of Fala." Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. [1]
- "Fala, Roosevelt's Best Friend." Museum Management Program, National Park Service. March 16, 2005. [2]
- "FDR's Fala, World's Most Famous Dog." [3]
- "Fala Roosevelt." FindAGrave.com. [4]
