Please note that the following is a digitized version of a selected article from White House History Quarterly, Issue 61, originally released in print form in 2021. Single print copies of the full issue can be purchased online at Shop.WhiteHouseHistory.org No part of this book may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. All photographs contained in this journal unless otherwise noted are copyrighted by the White House Historical Association and may not be reproduced without permission. Requests for reprint permissions should be directed to rights@whha.org. Contact books@whha.org for more information. © 2021 White House Historical Association. All rights reserved under international copyright conventions.
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“The Man Who Kept THE PRESIDENCY On Time” Johnny Muffler’s Fifty-Four Years with the White House Clocks
C O U R T E S Y O F T H E M U F F L E R FA M I L Y
ELYSE WERLING
a s e v e ry h i s t o r i c m o m e n t pa ss e s i n t h e w h i t e h o u s e , dozens of clocks are marking the time, ticking and tocking in nearly every room throughout the Residence, East Wing, and West Wing. Wall clocks, mantel clocks, bracket clocks, tall case clocks, each has a different provenance, but all are in need of regular balancing, oiling, and winding. For more than fifty years, that responsibility went to one man: John Muffler, fondly known to his colleagues as “Johnny.”
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muffler first saw the white house during World War II, when, as a member of a Navy Honor Guard, he was part of an event for British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. “I remember Mr. Churchill and Mr. Roosevelt were down there under the old magnolia, and I looked up at the house and saw staff people leaning out the windows to watch and I said, ‘Gee, I wish I were up there and a part of all of this.’”1 And eventually he was. In March 1943 Muffler married Marie Ellen Tracey, the daughter of Richard (“Dick”) Tracey, who had been working at the White House since 1926, as a footman, valet, and chauffer.2 In 1945, after Muffler returned from overseas military service and enrolled in an electrician training course, Tracey recommended his son-in-law for an electrician’s job at the White House. “And then I was up there,” Johnny Muffler concluded.3 He worked “up there” at the White House for fifty-four years, becoming chief electrician and then senior maintenance adviser.4 Because Muffler worked at the White House all through the Truman renovation, he knew the building’s modern wiring and the ins and outs of its walls better than anyone. While President Harry Truman was temporarily living at Blair House, Muffler took on the role of “the man who kept the presidency on time” by winding the clocks at Blair House each Friday. He continued maintaining the clocks when the Trumans moved back into the White House. When Truman became annoyed, however, that the chiming clocks at the White House could not be perfectly synchronized to sound at exactly the same time, he asked that the chimes be turned off.5 Caring for the clocks is the role Muffler is most fondly remembered for today, but he had other responsibilities, including maintaining the lamps. Muffler remembered that First Lady Bess Truman personally asked him to supply President Truman with lightbulbs because “he’d like to do a few things like that himself.”6 Muffler enjoyed sharing his memories of his time in the White House. He remembered President John F. Kennedy asking him to install a secret button under his cigar ash tray that would summon his secretary into his office. The president would use the device to signal to her that he wanted her to help him subtly end a meeting. Muffler also recalled that President Lyndon B. Johnson, upon seeing him at work on an electric chandelier, stopped to gruffly ask if he worked for the power company. “No sir,” Muffler replied, “I work for you—and the
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United States government.”7 Muffler’s son Rick joined the White House calligraphy team in 1978 and worked there until his retirement in 2014. Almost every day, Rick would take his bag lunch down to the Electric Shop to eat with his father. Rick was the third generation of this family to work in the White House. Together, family members worked at the White House from 1926 to 2014, and for a cumulative 127 years.8 Johnny Muffler was a well-known, well-respected, and much-loved member of the staff. Both Nancy Reagan and Hillary Rodham Clinton mentioned him by name in their autobiographies, and he enjoyed helping them personally. He repaired Mrs. Clinton’s wristwatch, for example, and she had this to say about him in a July 1995 interview with National Geographic: Oh, I love Mr. Muffler. I mean Mr. Muffler is always around and he is such a cheerful, kind presence. I’m always glad to see him. . . . He’ll come by and say, is there anything you need done or any little thing I can do to fix something or help out. I can’t do anything like program VCRs or set digital clocks, so I’m always needing his help to come to my rescue. But he’s a perfect example of the kind of dedicated service that people have given to the White House and to the presidents and their families over 200-plus years.9
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Johnny Muffler at work in his White House office. below
Johnny Muffler made friends at the White House for more than half a century and is remembered fondly by his colleagues and the first families he served. He is seen here (row two, second from right) with fellow members of the Executive Residence staff golf team.
O P P O S I T E C O U R T E S Y O F H E N R Y A N D C A R O L E H A L L E R / A B O V E : W H I T E H O U S E H I S T O R I C A L A S S O C I AT I O N
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Johnny Muffler carried the keys required to wind the White House clocks on a brass pocket ring. In 1992, he added one of his clockwinding rings to the contents of a time capsule created during the George H. W. Bush administration to commemorate the two-hundredth anniversary of the laying of the White House cornerstone. Installed near the Rose Garden, the specially built steel-and-concrete time capsule was also filled with a 1992 White House Christmas Ornament, a copy of the Bushes’ schedules for the day, an American flag that flew over the White House, paint chips from the exterior restoration of the mansion, a White House commemorative stamp, a White House Grounds brochure, a 1991 White House inventory, seeds from the Jackson magnolia, an engraving of the White House, a Bush family photograph, and newspapers of the day.
Former Curator William Allman remembers Muffler at the Residence Staff Christmas Party in the year he retired: He was getting frail. I saw him standing in the Cross Hall with his wife Marie. I said, “Johnny, why don’t you sit down on the settee?” And with an old school sense of Residence staff propriety, he replied, “In all my 51 years at the White House, I never once sat on the furniture.” I assured him that, as a guest now, he should sit, and he did.10 That “old school sense” shaped every aspect of Muffler’s long service at the White House. Once asked which clock was his favorite, Muffler replied, “I’ve gotten so that they’re all my favorites.” He continued, “I had an uncle a long time ago who told me, ‘Find yourself a job that you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.’ This has been it for me.”11
notes 1.
Quoted in Lawrence L. Knutson, “He’s Having a Great Time as White House Clock Man,” Los Angeles Times, December 22, 1996.
2. Richard Muffler, “The Tracey/Muffler Family,” recorded family history, e-mailed to author. 3. Quoted in Knutson, “He’s Having a Great Time.” 4. Richard Muffler, “Tracey/Muffler Family.” 5. William Allman, “Ask the White House,” June 5, 2003, www. georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov. 6. Quoted in Knutson, “He’s Having a Great Time.” 7. Quoted in ibid. 8. Richard Muffler, “Tracey/Muffler Family.” 9. “Interview of the President and First Lady by National Geographic,” July 25, 1995, 8, transcript, Office of the Press Secretary, The White House, filed under FLOTUS Press Office Interview Transcripts Volume V 10/19/94–04/10/97, William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum, online at Clinton Digital Library, www.clinton.presidentiallibraries.us. 10. William Allman, e-mail correspondence with author, February 7–9, 2021. 11. Quoted in Knutson, “He’s Having a Great Time.”
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