Laddie Boy (July 26, 1920 – January 23, 1929) was an airedale terrier owned by US President Warren G. Harding and was a celebrity during the Harding administration. Laddie Boy was a faithful kind of dog. When the president played golf and hit a tree, Laddie Boy would run up to the tree and get the ball. Laddie Boy had his own hand carved chair to sit in during cabinet meetings. The White House held birthday parties for the dog, invited other neighborhood dogs to join, and served them dog biscuit cake. Newspapers published mock interviews with the dog. Laddie Boy was so famous, he even had a caretaker. Purportedly, the dog howled constantly the three days prior to the President's death at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, knowing of his master's imminent demise. In memory of President Harding and honoring his former employment as a paperboy, newsboys collected 19,134 pennies to be remelted and sculpted into a statue of Laddie Boy. Harding's widow died before the statue was completed in 1927 and the statue was presented to the Smithsonian Institution where it currently resides.
He was the first "first dog" to be regularly covered in the national press. He originated in Toledo, Ohio.
In the summer of 2012, Laddie Boy's collar was stolen from the Harding Home and Museum.
Famous quotes containing the words laddie and/or boy:
“Ye lassies all, where’er ye be,
And ye lie with an east-shore laddie,
Ye’ll happy be and ye’ll happy be,
For they are frank and free.”
—Unknown. The Rantin Laddie (l. 49–52)
““Oh, where have you been, Billy boy, Billy boy?
Oh, where have you been, charming Billy?”
“I’ve been to seek a wife,
She’s the joy of my life,
She’s a young thing, and cannot leave her mother.””
—Unknown. Billy Boy (l. 1–5)