(Melchizedek Communique, MC111209) The bathtub mystery deepens.

In the previous Communique ("Mystery of 'Fillmore's Bathtub'") an inaccuracy has been discovered. It ought to have been evident to Melchizedek Communique that the H.L. Mencken essay celebrating the 75th anniversary of the White House bathtub would have to signify 1842. The essay, "The Neglected Anniversary," published December 28, 1917, in the New York Evening Mail, having 75 subtracted from the year 1917, yields 1842. Millard Fillmore became President in July of 1850, consequent to the suspicious death of President Zachary Taylor. Hence, the earlier assertion of "the 75th anniversary of a bath tub installed by Millard Fillmore in the White House" is inaccurate. Melchizedek Communique regrets its oversight.

If one goes by Wikipedia (not a perfect source but fairly accurate), "A Neglected Anniversary" by Mencken claimed "that the bathtub had been introduced into the United States as recently as 1842" and then "went on to describe how the introduction of the bathtub initially was greatly discussed and opposed, until President Millard Fillmore had a bathtub installed in the White House in 1850, making the invention more broadly acceptable." ("Bathtub hoax", Wikipedia, Nov. 11, 2009)

The Wikipedia article (op. cit.) also mentions an annual "Fillmore Days" held in Moravia, New York, where one event involves four-wheel bathtubs racing down Main Street, in honor of the Mencken hoax.

"There are surely many different examples illustrating the naivety of the public when it comes to information given by the media," observes writer Ewelina Warner. "One example is the Bathtub hoax which despite being uncovered remained in existence for at least forty years." ("Mystification as a Cultural and Humoresque Phenomenon in Modern Czech Literature Against the Background of European Cultures," by Ewelina Warner. University of Glasgow: School of Modern Languages and Cultures, August 1, 2007)

Mencken's bathtub hoax essay "was broadly believed to be true to the extent that people were requesting more information and often used the article as a source of information, sometimes even for their academic papers." As recently as December 2001, according to Warner (op. cit.), the prestigious Washington Post seriously referenced Mencken's hoax essay.

According to a footnote given by Warner (op. cit.), information on Mencken's "The Neglected Anniversary" can apparently be found in The Bathtub Hoax and Other Blasts and Bravos by H.L. Mencken, by "R. McHugh", published in 1958.

In chapter 19 of his fascinating book, Millard Fillmore, author Robert J. Scarry includes results of his meticulous research into the history of White House bath tubs. The earliest instance he finds is a tin tub in 1814, during the James Madison administration. But this is not the obviously impressive bath tub mentioned by Franklin Pierce in 1853. Melchizedek Communique is of the opinion it must have been Martin "O.K." van Buren who installed the fancy tub. "Old Kinderhook" is known to have had installed, at his Kinderhook, New York home, a "copper lined bathtub, soldered in five pieces" and "installed in a wood casing." This propensity for elegant bathing must have accompanied van Buren to the White House, where he logically would have had a duplicate tub installed.