Laddie Boy

The first presidential pet to become a full media celebrity. Harding gave reporters unusual access to his Airedale terrier, rarely went anywhere without him, and when the press lost interest he wrote letters to newspapers "from" the dog. Laddie Boy attended cabinet meetings and had his own chair, like any cabinet secretary. The 1920s idea of the president as a friendly public figure shows clearly here, and so does the grief after Harding's death in 1923. The nation's newsboys collected some 19,000 pennies in his memory, and the coins were made into a statue of Laddie Boy. The Smithsonian owns it, though it is not on display.