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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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Ickes was sitting at this table with other Cabinet officers.

The whole Cabinet wasn't there, but I don't remember which ones were. I remember that Ickes was there and that Henry Wallace was there, but I don't remember too much else. However, there are photographs that will show. That was one of the things that, I thought, was most preposterous.

Up at one end of the room, quite near the Cabinet table, was a little raised platform with palms and ferns. Out onto that came, early in the dinner, a band. I'm not a night club haunter and I had never seen a band like that before. It just seems ridiculous, but if you don't go to nightclubs you don't see these things. There was no reason why I should go to nightclubs. They don't personally entertain me and there was no political reason why I should have gone to one during the years that I had been in the Cabinet. I've been told that there are common, but there was a little sign in front of each player, standing up straight, painted all kinds of funny colors and designs. When they came on they brought those little boards and set them down. They were little boards that went down to the floor and hid their legs. But there was no reason to hide their legs. They weren't bare. To this day I don't know why they had them.





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