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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class, a

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Speaker 1: show that answers the call of history every day of

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Speaker 1: the week. I'm Gab Blusier, and in this episode, we're

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Speaker 1: looking at the day when the telephone finally made its

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Speaker 1: way onto the desk of a US president. The day

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Speaker 1: was March twenty ninth, nineteen twenty nine. President Herbert Hoover

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Speaker 1: had the first telephone installed in the Oval Office. Phones

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Speaker 1: had already been around for more than half a century

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Speaker 1: by that point, but no commander in chief had ever

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Speaker 1: had one at his desk prior to Hoover. Previous presidents

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Speaker 1: had believed the new technology would spoil the sanctity of

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Speaker 1: the Oval Office, but Hoover felt the added convenience was

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Speaker 1: worth the risk. The White House had been slow to

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Speaker 1: adopt many of the technological breakthroughs of the nineteenth century.

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Speaker 1: For example, it didn't have gas lighting until the eighteen fifties,

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Speaker 1: well after many Americans, and it didn't get its first

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Speaker 1: typewriter until eighteen eighty, ten years after the invention hit

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Speaker 1: the market. However, that's not to say that Hoover's predecessors

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Speaker 1: were total Luddites. In fact, Rutherford B. Hayes had been

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Speaker 1: an early adopter of the telephone. He had one installed

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Speaker 1: in the White House telegraph room way back in eighteen

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Speaker 1: seventy seven. In those days, phone service was still in

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Speaker 1: its infancy, as evidenced by the White House phone number,

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Speaker 1: which was just one. The country's first telephone exchange wouldn't

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Speaker 1: be set up in Connecticut until one year later, so

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Speaker 1: when the White House phone was first installed, it was

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Speaker 1: directly connected to just one other early user, the Treasury Department.

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Speaker 1: It's no surprise then, that President Hayes didn't receive many

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Speaker 1: phone calls and continued to use the telegram as his

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Speaker 1: primary communication tool. Later administrations added more phones to the

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Speaker 1: Executive mansion, as well as a switchboard to connect them all,

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Speaker 1: but until Hoover came along, the closest any phone got

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Speaker 1: to the Oval Office was the foyer just outside it.

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Speaker 1: That setup had worked perfectly well for Hoover's predecessor, Calvin Coolidge.

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Speaker 1: His reserved nature had earned him the nickname Silent Cow,

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Speaker 1: and true to that name, he refused to use the

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Speaker 1: telephone during his entire term. But Hoover was much more

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Speaker 1: hands on than Coolidge. And some historians believe he had

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Speaker 1: the phone installed in his office as a way to

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Speaker 1: signal that difference. Silent Cow had avoided calls altogether, but

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Speaker 1: the new president would stay in constant contact with his government.

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Speaker 1: The only problem was Hoover had to leave the Oval

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Speaker 1: Office every time he wanted to make or receive a call.

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Speaker 1: He grew tired of the arrangement just a few weeks

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Speaker 1: into his term and insisted that a phone be installed

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Speaker 1: at his desk as soon as possible. It took a

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Speaker 1: good deal of trial and error to get the line

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Speaker 1: working properly, and even when the installation was complete, Hoover

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Speaker 1: complained that his son still couldn't get through to the

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Speaker 1: Oval Office from an outside line. Growing pains aside, the

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Speaker 1: desk phone proved a worthy addition to the Oval Office

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Speaker 1: and quickly cemented its place there. The location of the

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Speaker 1: Oval Office was moved by Hoover's successor, FDR in order

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Speaker 1: to make it wheelchair accessible, but the Presidential phone survived

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Speaker 1: the move and has stayed there in some form ever since.

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Speaker 1: Having a phone close in hand gave Hoover a new

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Speaker 1: level of autonomy compared to previous presidents, but his communications

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Speaker 1: powers weren't absolute, as he was still reliant on the

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Speaker 1: original White House switchboard to connect his calls. Surprisingly, that

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Speaker 1: dependence remained true for many future presidents. In fact, the

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Speaker 1: White House phone system wouldn't be truly modernized until the

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Speaker 1: nineteen nineties, when President Bill Clinton ordered a complete overhaul. Apparently,

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Speaker 1: when he first took office, Clinton was taken aback at

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Speaker 1: the antiquated system, which was essentially a nineteen sixties plug

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Speaker 1: in place switchboard manned by more than a dozen operators.

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Speaker 1: President Clinton is also the reason why the Oval Office

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Speaker 1: now has a private line. He pointed out that anyone

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Speaker 1: in the White House could listen in on his calls

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Speaker 1: just by picking up an extension and dialing in. It

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Speaker 1: was a fair concern and as surprising that no one

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Speaker 1: else had voiced it sooner. As for why Clinton in

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Speaker 1: particular would be worried about someone overhearing his phone calls,

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Speaker 1: I'll leave that for you to decide. These days, calling

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Speaker 1: the President isn't as simple as just dialing one. The

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Speaker 1: number of the Oval Office phone is a closely guarded secret,

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Speaker 1: and all of its incoming calls are routed through a

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Speaker 1: private switchboard. As for the original Oval Office telephone. It

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Speaker 1: now resides at the Hoover Library and Hoover's hometown of

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Speaker 1: West Branch, Iowa. So while you probably won't ever talk

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Speaker 1: to a president's on the Oval Office phone, you can

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Speaker 1: at least go look at an Oval Office phone that

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Speaker 1: a president once talked on. In my book, that's almost

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Speaker 1: just as good, and depending on the current president, it

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Speaker 1: might even be preferable. I'm Gay Bluesier and hopefully you

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Speaker 1: now know a little more about history today than you

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Speaker 1: did yesterday. You can learn even more about history by

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Speaker 1: following us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at TDI HC Show,

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Speaker 1: and if you have any comments or suggestions, feel free

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Speaker 1: to send them my way by writing to this Day

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Speaker 1: at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays for producing

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Speaker 1: the show, and thanks to you for listening. I'll see

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Speaker 1: you back here again tomorrow for another day in History class.