FDR defends his dog in a speech- September 23rd, 1944

On this day in 1944, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt defended the reputation of his dog, who had recently been the subject of a political attack.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class. It's a production of I
Heart Radio, Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class,
a show that shines the spotlight on the big and
small moments of history. I'm Gabe Louizier, and this episode
is about the loyalty we owe the furry friends we

(00:21):
share our homes with, even when that home happens to
be the White House. The day was September. During a
campaign dinner, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt defended the reputation of

(00:43):
his dog, who had recently been the subject of a
political attack. The dinner was hosted by Roosevelt's longtime supporters
from the labor movement, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. At
the time, Roosevelt was campaigning for a fourth term. This
was three years before the twenty second Amendment would impose

(01:05):
a two term limit on US presidents. The speech to
the Teamsters union was broadcast nationwide. It addressed labor issues
and gave an update on America's status in World War Two,
but Roosevelt also used it as a chance to debunk
an offensive story that had been circulating about his dog,

(01:26):
a small black Scottish terrier named Foula. A year earlier,
Faula had accompanied the President on a c trip to
the Illusian Islands in Alaska, which had recently been recaptured
from Japanese forces. Soon after the trip, someone started a
rumor that Faula had been accidentally left behind on one

(01:48):
of the islands, and that Roosevelt had ordered a Navy
destroyer to go back and rescue the dog. This alleged
fetch quest would have reportedly cost taxpayer as much as
twenty million dollars on top of the risk it would
have posed to the lives of the sailors. So, as
you might expect, Roosevelt's GOP rivals quickly seized on the story.

(02:12):
The Republican candidate New York Governor Thomas Dewey claimed it
was further proof of the corruption and incompetence of the
Roosevelt administration. This despite the fact that the incident never happened.
The President pushed back in his speech, half jokingly, saying, quote,
these Republican leaders have not been content with attacks on

(02:35):
me or my wife or on my son's No, not
content with that they now include my little dog, Faula.
I am accustomed to hearing malicious falsehoods about myself, but
I think I have a right to resent and object
to libelous statements about my dog. Roosevelt went on to

(02:56):
suggest that his Republican opponents must be very, very desperate
if they would stoop to attacking the character of a
defenseless dog just to smear his campaign. But here's where
things get even weirder, because, according to Paul Sparrow, the
director of the FDR Library, we actually have filmmaker Orson

(03:17):
Welles to thank for the Faullus speech. Apparently he's the
one who suggested making the attacks on Foula into a
campaign issue, which turned out to be a great idea
because the speech was a hit with the public and
the press. Time magazine bizarrely described Roosevelt's performance in boxing terms, saying, quote,

(03:40):
the champ had swung a full roundhouse blow, and it
was plain to the newsman on the Dewey special that
the challenger had been hit hard, as plain as when
a boxer drops his gloves and his eyes glaze. The
fallas speech had done wonders for FDRs press coverage, and
he would ultimately in a fourth term with four hundred

(04:02):
and thirty two electoral votes to Dewey's nine. But to
be clear, the President's outrage wasn't all for show. Roosevelt
did indeed have a soft spot for his dog. His cousin,
Margaret Daisy Suckley, had given Faula to him in when
the dog was still a puppy. Faula lived in the

(04:23):
White House from then on, much to the dismay of
Eleanor Roosevelt, and he followed the President just about everywhere,
including on state visits and overseas trips. At home, Fallis
slept in a special chair at the foot of FDR's bed,
and in the morning, the kitchen staff would send up
a fresh bone for him with the President's breakfast tray.

(04:45):
It's reported that the dog was so cute the staff
started feeding him treats whenever he begged for them, which
was often so often in fact, that Fallis started getting
stomach aches and the President had to order his staff
to cut it out with a snack. Roosevelt's fondness for
his dog is well documented. The terrier appeared numerous times

(05:07):
in Life magazine and seemed to relish the attention. According
to one Life reporter quote, when cameraman visit the White House,
to photograph the President or visiting dignitaries. Falla often insinuates
himself into the foreground and poses like any publicity seeking ham.
That trick apparently worked well for Faullah, because he became

(05:30):
a national celebrity. He started in an MGM short film
about life at the White House and was so popular
that he received thousands of letters from across the country.
In fact, Falla got so many letters from various people
and animals that a secretary was appointed to help answer
all of his fan mail. It was either the best

(05:52):
or worst job in the White House. In April of nine,
less than three months into his fourth term, President Roosevelt
died at age sixty three. Faulla attended the funeral and
then went to live with Eleanor Roosevelt in Hyde Park,
New York. He spent his retirement there chasing squirrels and

(06:13):
cats and getting into trouble with Thomas mcfalla, his grandson.
On April five, fifty two, Fala passed away, just shy
of his twelfth birthday. He was buried in the family
rose garden beside the sun Dial, not far away from
the graves of President and Mrs Roosevelt. Despite what his

(06:35):
naysayers would have us believe, Falla was a very good dog.
I'm Gabe Louzier and hopefully you now know a little
more about history today than you did yesterday. If you
enjoyed the show, consider following us on Twitter, Facebook, and
Instagram at t d I HC Show. And if you

(06:57):
have any comments or if you'd like to tell me
who you think the best presidential pet was, you can
reach me at this day at I heart media dot com.
For the record, though the answer is Calvin Coolidge's pet raccoon, Rebecca.
Thanks to Chandler Mays for producing the show, and thank
you for listening. I'll see you back here again tomorrow

(07:19):
for another Day in History class. For more podcasts from
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