Audio Tour

Click to hear a clip from the first and only audio tour of the White House!

Use the URL below to purchase A Walk Through the White House on Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003LXZXU0/ref=cm_cr_mts_prod_img

The White House is the world’s most famous House, but it’s still a mystery to most people.  Now, for the very first time, you too can take a virtual walk through her historic rooms with my voice in your ear, sharing all the same fun and surprising behind-the-scenes stories I used to tell the celebrities – from the Queen of Sweden to the Grateful Dead -

White House North Front, winter 2010

who came to visit the President and First Lady.

A Walk Through the White House is a 40-minute recording of my very best stories, bringing to life the official and intimate history of America’s House.  Available as an MP3 download at Amazon.com, this is the perfect companion for those lucky enough to step into the White House on the self-guided tour, those who tried, but couldn’t get a tour, and the millions more simply interested in this icon of American public life.

We start with a little of the history of how the White House came to be built, and her earliest inhabitants.  Then we walk, room by room, through the public spaces, some of them open on tours, some not.  Did you know that President George Washington insisted the government build “The President’s House” but is the only President who never lived there?  President Jefferson brought the first pasta machine to America, having developed a taste for it while Ambassador in Paris.  The Monroes ordered plain wood furniture, but French cabinetmakers couldn’t imagine that in the President’s home, so they made it gilt instead.

And how about that hot August night when British Marines did their best to burn the House to the ground?  Only a violent thunderstorm saved the outer walls.  Did you know the White House has actually been built THREE times?

All these stories, and many others you won’t hear anywhere else, come to life with exciting sound effects and music you can download to your MP3 player or iPhone.  Just click on the link above to hear a sample!

Here’s a review of  A Walk Through the White House:

I’ve heard quite a few audio tours and this is by far and away the best! Melinda not only gives the history of the White House as she guides you, but the stories she tells along the way make the walls come alive. Actually, even without being on-site the place takes on a new meaning. I was interested in the details of the construction, re-construction and updating of America’s house as well as the antecdotes about the presidential residents. Melinda’s sense of humor peppers her attention to detail and the well-researched history to make a very delectable product. It can be used in the classroom, at home to just make an armchair tour, or take on a walk-though. I’ve listened to it several times, and every time I play it I’m both entertained and learn something new!  – Alice Donenfeld Vernoux, Laguna Hills, CA

And, for those who prefer to read about the White House, I’ve taken the transcript of the audio tour and added even more stories.  Here is a sample from the eBook:

For most of its history the Green Room has been a small parlor, but in President Jefferson’s day it was a dining room.  He liked it because there was a dumb waiter, and the kitchen staff downstairs could put the evening’s food and drink in the dumb waiter and send it up.  Then the President and his guests could serve themselves, without the need for servants, who might be listening to their secrets and talking to their enemies.  A nice way to get privacy.

Jefferson was very different from President Washington.  We forget that in the early days of the republic our founding Fathers and Mothers were making things up as they went along.  After all, the world had lots of experience with kings and emperors, but how would a president behave?  How would he live?  Protocol is the art of defining public life, and they had to create the protocol for the elected leaders of a free people.  George Washington, for example, didn’t shake hands, as he thought that was too informal and intimate for a President.  Martha Washington didn’t have a problem because her skirts were so wide it would have been difficult to even reach her hand!

But Jefferson, the first Republican in the White House, believed that Presidents were simply the first citizens among many.  He didn’t much like the formality of Washington and Adams and thought it was too much like the royal courts he experienced in Europe.  He famously greeted the British Ambassador wearing his bathrobe and slippers, and the ambassador was greatly offended.  Protocol, you know.  When Jefferson had a large dinner, in the State Dining Room, he didn’t use protocol to assign seats, which was another problem.  When dinner was ready, he simply took the arm of the prettiest lady in the room and walked her in, while all the other guests scrambled behind, trying to get a seat up close to the president.  There were a LOT of complaints about Jefferson’s style, but he did things his way.