| Rose Mary Woods's Telephone | |
|---|---|
| |
|
Origin |
Rose Mary Woods |
|
Type |
Telephone |
|
Effects |
Erases written and recorded material |
|
Downsides |
Effect |
|
Activation |
Answering the phone. |
|
Collected by |
|
|
Section |
|
|
Aisle |
283466-9184 |
|
Shelf |
291802-7705-329 |
|
Date of Collection |
October 13, 1975 |
| [Source] | |
Origin[]
Rose Mary Woods (December 26, 1917 – January 22, 2005) was Richard Nixon's secretary from his days in Congress in 1951, through the end of his political career. Before H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman became the operators of Nixon's presidential campaign, Woods was Nixon's gatekeeper.
Fiercely loyal to Nixon, Woods claimed responsibility in a 1974 grand jury testimony for inadvertently erasing up to five minutes of the 18 minute gap in a June 20, 1972, audio tape. Her demonstration of how this might have occurred – which depended upon her stretching to simultaneously press controls several feet apart (what the press dubbed the "Rose Mary Stretch") – was met with skepticism from those who believed the erasures, from whatever source, to be deliberate. The contents of the gap remain a mystery.
Effect[]
This was the phone Woods used during the Nixon administration. Every day, the phone will ring, but no one will answer. During the time that the phone is on, all written amd recorded information in a 10 foot radius will be erased. Books, documents, cds, dvds, vinyl discs, audio and video tapes will begin to go blank. Once all information is erased, the phone will shut off. There is no direct way to reverse the effect, although hanging up the phone while in use does stop it.