Tim Russert interviews fellow Buffalo-native, James T. Molloy, retired doorkeeper of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Originally aired June 18, 2008, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Transcript
Tim Russert (TR): Jimmy, tell me how it all started. James T. Molloy (JM): Well, I thought everybody’s father was a policeman or a fireman. TR: What was your dad? JM: My father was a fireman. Worked in the same firehouse for 37 years down in what they call the old first ward, the Irish neighborhood near the waterfront: truck eight, engine eight. TR: Did your dad have a second job occasionally? JM: Oh, yeah. Many jobs. There weren’t many people who had one job. TR: We call it the second front. JM: The second front. You got it. TR: Now, when your dad was off working, he probably couldn’t go to some of the events at school and some of the other things. JM: Very true. Yeah. I went to a local high school in south Buffalo. I was playing ball one day over at ”Kaz” park and I looked up and there was the hook and ladder, truck eight, which my father was the driver. TR: (laughter) And it just so happened… JM: And it just happened to be at ”Kaz” park where the ball diamond was, you know. And you grew up in that same atmosphere so you understand it, you know. TR: Uh-huh. So you came to Washington and you’re the doorkeeper of the House of Representatives. JM: Yeah, it was a big deal. TR: What was it like the first time you walked down that aisle and said, Mr. Speaker, the President of the United States. JM: The first one was President Jerry Ford. I was perspiring and everything, I mean I was in the job only a short period of time, about three, four weeks. TR: What did your mom and dad say when they saw their son? JM: My father never made a big deal of anything. But my mother, she just loved it. She could get any conversation turned to that, you know. TR: (laughter) Well we had at NBC, Tom Brokaw would be anchoring, and I would send Tom little notes, and I would say, okay, Jimmy’s about to introduce the President of the United States, let’s lay it on tonight. And Tom would say, ”you’re about to hear the voice of James…” JM: He was great. TR: ”T. Malloy, the proud son of Cathrine Malloy of, was it, 106 Bloomfield?” JM: You got it. TR: 106 Bloomfield Avenue. And finally, your last hurrah, he said, ”you’re about to hear the voice of James T. Malloy, an extrodinary man, a gifted firefighter, a man who studied the law, I would say in every sense of the word, a true renaissance man.” JM: Well, when all this would go on, you know, it would play in all the local saloons in south Buffalo, and all the firehouses, and they would be watching this thing. One fireman turned to the other and said, ”what the hell did he, what did he call him?” And he said, ”he called him a reservoir man or something.” They later found out after looking it up that it was kind of a compliment, you know. TR: It was indeed. JM: Yeah, yeah. TR: Now you left the doorkeeper position when? JM: Ninety-four. Ninety-four. TR: When Newt Gingrich, the Republican… JM: When Newt Gingrich abolished the doorkeeper. My last official act was to introduce Newt Gingrich as the speaker, and then I raced down, filed my papers… TR: So you retired. JM: I retired, yeah. TR: Before we go, the best way I ever described you James T. Malloy, was a good man who knew everybody and was always proud of taking care of his own. JM: Well, I’ll accept that. I like that. Again, you always look back to where you started from. Where you started from, where I started from. You know, and Washington’s a great place. TR: But it’s no south Buffalo. JM: No, it’s no south Buffalo. TR: (laughter) Amen. James T. Malloy, thank you very much. JM: Thank you, Tim.