Kitty Kelley’s Books on First Ladies Strike Out : Smithsonian: Museum display was removed because it gave the author “more notice than she deserves.”

The inclusion of Kitty Kelley’s irreverent books on two former First Ladies--”Jackie, Oh!” and “Nancy Reagan”--was a remarkable innovation in the Smithsonian’s renovated First Ladies exhibit.

But they disappeared within months. Why?

Roger Kennedy, then-director of the National Museum of American History, said in July, 1992, that he wanted the display removed because it gave Kelley “more notice than she deserves” and “the net effect of the presence of those books is to sell them, and that offends me.”

But Barbara Bush reveals in her new book, “Barbara Bush: A Memoir,” that she used her influence as First Lady to get rid of the Kelley books.

She saw them during a private tour of the renovated exhibit before it opened in March, 1992.

“There, prominently displayed, were Kitty Kelley’s books about both ladies,” Barbara Bush wrote.

“These were ugly books,” she added in her letter, “written by someone who did not know either woman and both books were largely discredited.

“Somehow or other I thought the Smithsonian was better than that (and mentioned it at a later date to Roger Kennedy, the director of the National Museum of American History. He agreed and I hope they are gone.)”

Kennedy, now director of the National Park Service, refused to be interviewed on the subject, said spokeswoman Joan Anselmo.

Back in March, 1992, Kelley declared herself “astounded” that the museum included her tomes in a section called, “Capitalizing on the First Lady’s Image,” and said she was “delighted and pleased that the Smithsonian does not bow to political pressure.”

But asked now how her earlier optimism squares with Mrs. Bush’s revelation, Kelley roared with laughter.

“It’s surprising that the nation’s champion for literacy has gotten into the book-bashing business,” she said. “ ‘Bar’ must have been pretty agitated.”

Curator Edith Mayo said before the exhibit opened that museum officials were “very good about not having any kind of pressure coming in from outside. We certainly didn’t submit it to anyone for review.”

And she said in a recent interview that she did not know about Mrs. Bush’s comments to Kennedy until the book came out.

“It’s unfortunate that Barbara Bush did not read the label,” Mayo said.

The books were “part of a series of objects from the mid-19th Century to the present that used the First Family or First Lady’s image to make a fast buck.”

Other objects included Kennedy masks, puzzles and games.

The text near Kelley’s books contrasted them to the “relatively benign” late 19th-Century attempts to use the First Lady’s image to sell products.

“Tabloids and books furnishing endless gossip and speculation about First Ladies have grown both most intrusive and most sophisticated,” it says, adding that efforts “to capitalize on the First Lady’s image for profit or votes” have “dramatically increased.”

But Mayo said the public, as well as Mrs. Bush, failed to consider the text.

“We were inundated . . . by people who thought somehow we were promoting them as authentic biographies or that we were trying to promote Kitty Kelley or her work,” Mayo said.

Although such calls started right after the exhibit opened, Mayo said no immediate changes were made to see if the concerns died down. They didn’t.

On July 30, 1992, Kennedy made no mention of Mrs. Bush’s comments when he told Mayo in a memo released by the Smithsonian, “I’d be very grateful if we could get Kitty Kelley out of the First Ladies hall.

“I have the feeling we have given her more notice than she deserves. . . . While the intellectual point is very clear (that the First Ladies are subject to large amounts of inquiry of one sort or another), the net effect of the presence of those books is to sell them, and that offends me.

“So, I would be most grateful if they could get out of there as soon as that can be conveniently done,” he said in the memo.

Mayo said she complied immediately.

The Kelley contretemps was just one of several misunderstandings to plague the exhibit, Mayo said.

Officials removed a photo of a Gerald Ford Administration children’s party that showed a black woman dressed as a clown, Mayo said, “because somehow, people thought we were making fun of this black woman . . . although she happened to be a professional clown.”

Other queries simply floored Mayo, such as those asking whether some U.S. Presidents were bigamists because they were shown with different wives--first wives who died and second wives who succeeded them.

“You just have to wonder what in the world is going through people’s minds,” Mayo said.