George,

I have just one reminiscence of Lady Bird Johnson. It is a small thing, but offers an insight into her relationship with LBJ.

In mid-1967 I was second assistant at the Carl Fischer Photography studio in New York. Carl was a leading advertising illustrator as well as a (big ticket) general assignment photographer. Look Magazine hired Carl to photograph men who were leaders in various fields along with their wives, for a feature article--we knew at the time it was lame, but it was good money and some fun to be had.

Among the couples to be photographed were Mr & Mrs Harold Geneen (chairman of ITT), the sculptor Alexander Calder and his wife, and president and Mrs. Johnson. All to be photographed 'in limbo' on a seamless background, rather than in a room setting or out of doors.

The other people came to our studio on East 83rd Street in Manhattan, but for the president, we went to Washington--Carl, first assistant George Rosenblatt, and I.

I will not dwell on the elaborate preparations we made in advance of the trip--a reshoot for any reason was out of the question--but we were told that this would be the first time a photographer would be permitted to create a set to photograph a president in the White House.

The shoot was scheduled for around 11:00 a.m., so we flew down the afternoon previous, and at 8:00 a.m. started setting up in a room adjacent to the press room, just down the hall from the Oval Office (my recollection is that it was called the Fish Room, but that may not be correct).

We erected a tall framework from which the nine-foot-wide seamless paper was unrolled, carefully placed a lovely White House wing chair, and set a powerful electronic flash and umbrella at exactly the distance and angle it had been for tests in our studio in New York.

Presidential assistant Tom Johnson came in to make sure everything was set, then went out and returned shortly with the president and Mrs. Johnson. Carl was introduced to them while George and I huddled behind him. He asked the president to sit and Lady Bird to stand slightly behind the chair, with a hand on his shoulder. Which they did.

Carl's method was to work his way into a portrait, speaking politely and softly, while continuing to take photos rather rapidly, to get them accustomed to the flashing light and the sound of the camera and strobe, while he was getting a feel for the situation.

Not that day.

For the intended picture, Carl needed to be on a ladder, working with a Hasselblad on a tall tripod. He climbed up and composed the picture with small adjustments, then fired off a frame while looking down at the groundglass. He straightened up and started to make a suggestion but the president pushed up against the arms of the chair to get up--he apparently thought we were finished. For a split second we froze, and no one spoke. Lady Bird, instantly understanding what the difficulty was, pushed him back down into the chair and said, "Now Lyndon, sit down and let this man do his work."

We were extemely grateful.

Dave Sagarin (August 21,2007)