Mrs. Cheney sleeps whilst the Duke of Edinburgh, The Queen,
Mrs. Bush, and the President listen to the
after-dinner entertainment at last night's state dinner.
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This is the U.S. Army Chorus. If you look at the paintings on the wall behind them, you'll see Dolly Madison on the left and the famous Gilbert Stewart portrait of George Washington that Dolly cut from its frame and rescued before she fled Washington as the British were about to burn the White House. These paintings are both in the East Room, so the group has all moved from the State Dining Room at this point in the evening.
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Famed violinist Itzhak Perlman, an Israeli-American who once had polio and now must use crutches to walk, was the headliner at the state dinner for H.M. The Queen and H.R.H. The Duke of Edinburgh. Perlman plays the Soil Stradivarius violin, an amazing instrument. I've not yet heard what all he played. He's quite the entertainer, though, and I'm sure everyone was captivated.
Above, you can see Nancy Reagan, the Vice-President, Mrs. Cheney (who looks positively squeezed in!), the Duke of Edinburgh, the Queen, Mrs. Bush, and the President listening to Perlman's performance. As you might be able to guess from looking at all these pictures, things inside the White House are rather cramped. It was part of the original design and intention of the architects of the capital city that the White House not be a palace, but merely be a large house adequate for the president and his family.
All photos on this page copyrighted by the Associated Press.
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