ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, October 7, 1996 TAG: 9610070133
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KEVIN KITTREDGE STAFF WRITER
JOHN ZWEIFEL has dedicated 40 years to perfecting his White House replica - and he's still going.
Of course the question is "Why?"
Why would anyone - unasked, unpaid, unencouraged - spend his life making a mini-White House? One complete with tiny, hand-stitched carpets, 2-inch oil portraits and light bulbs the size of fleas?
The answer can only be John Zweifel himself.
The same John Zweifel who carved an entire circus at age 14.
Who later made a working trolley car - in which he used to take his wife out to dinner back in Evanston, Ill.
You talk to John Zweifel for a while and you stop asking questions.
Because after a while, you just know.
After all, this is a man who wears red, white and blue underwear.
There is a book out about Zweifel and his masterpiece, which is poetic justice, given that he got the brush off in high places for years. The book - "The White House in Miniature," written by Gail Buckland and published by high-brow W.W. Norton & Co. - has this to say about Zweifel:
"No 'normal' person could have achieved what John Zweifel with the help of his wife, his six children and his thousands of volunteers and craftspeople have accomplished."
No, sir.
Zweifel's White House is 60 feet long. The televisions work.
"You change the channels with tweezers," he said.
It has toured the world, won accolades from presidents.
It will be at the former Brendle's department store at Tanglewood Mall through Saturday.
Admission is six bucks for adults.
Go anyway.
Because this little White House is a little miracle.
It has been to all the 50 states. It has been to London, and to Tokyo Bay.
There was a four- to five-hour wait to see it in Wichita. In Lombard, Ill., a reported 85,000 people saw Zweifel's White House on a single day.
It has been displayed at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and at the presidential libraries of Ronald Reagan and John F. Kennedy.
It was attacked by terrorists in Holland. A group calling itself Onkruit - Dutch for "the weed" - broke into a building in The Hague and trashed Zweifel's White House with axes, paint and solvents in 1982.
Zweifel would not let anyone take pictures.
"I locked the door on it," he said. "I didn't want to show America destroyed."
After six weeks and thousands of hours of labor by Zweifel and others, the damaged portions were re-opened.
These things happen in the miniature White House:
Smoke comes from the chimneys.
Guards move about.
A grandfather clock keeps the correct time.
A pump send water into the fountain of the Jacqueline Kennedy garden.
The telephones in the Oval Office and the library ring - programmed by endlessly looping tapes. A staggered current and microchips make the fires in the fireplaces blink.
There's a movie on in the movie theater - while on top of the White House a breeze from a hidden fan stirs the American flag.
There are hanging flowers, light switches in all the right places. There are discarded memos in the trash cans in the office of the White House calligraphers.
The rugs are exact copies made by volunteers, in petit point - needlepoint's baby sister. One poor volunteer worked a decade on a tiny rug for the White House Blue Room - only to learn in the end the original was about to be replaced.
It took Zweifel decades to build the miniature White House, which began touring in 1975 - and he has kept it up to date since. He checks in regularly with the White House curator to keep things current. Always, he said, "It's the way it looks today."
Although Zweifel spearheaded the project, he has had help. His wife, Jan, an interior decorator, reportedly did the paintings - copying in oil from reproductions of the originals on the White House walls. Zweifel has used family, friends and volunteers as his labor force, according to Buckland's book, and has hired skilled craftsmen for some things as well.
He once estimated the cost of building it at a million dollars.
Writing in Zweifel's visitor's book, Ronald Reagan once called the miniature White House "Great."
Gerald Ford called it "A magnificent reproduction. Congratulations."
Amy Carter called it "Excellent."
When Nancy Reagan saw his White House, according to Zweifel's account, she cried. "She said 'It's just like going back to a home where you lived for a long time.'"
Bill Clinton gave Zweifel an Arkansas Traveler Award when the miniature White House visited Little Rock, during the governor's first term in office in 1979.
'"He kept patting me on the back, saying, 'Someday I'm going to live there,'" Zweifel said.
Zweifel has been here before.
In 1976, he brought a circus to Roanoke. The Big Top of 1918, powered by 40 tiny motors, included three big top acts and a calliope that puffed real steam.
A designer by trade, Zweifel also has created exhibits for Disneyland and the 1964 World's Fair. He's done work for Mattel, Disney, Fisher-Price, the Ford Motor Co. and the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry.
He moved to Orlando, Fla. - where he still lives - in 1973, to work as a consultant to theme parks.
He was born in Minnesota, the son of a man who would eventually own a string of car dealerships. Earl Zweifel, writes Buckland, was a practical sort who did not approve of his son's toy-making and offered little support. Zweifel eventually attended the Art Institute of Chicago, and first thought of making replicas of White House rooms in the 1950s - an idea that became a passion in the turbulent '60s.
"I got sick and tired of hearing negatives on our country," Zweifel said last week during a break from assembling his White House. "I was trying to find some symbol where I could express my love."
Like any lover, he met some obstacles. For example, Zweifel spent 10 years just trying to get the White House to pony up a few vital statistics.
The layout of portions of the White House - particularly the living quarters - were kept secret, Zweifel said. Blueprints were unavailable.
He started asking for information during the Kennedy administration. He hit a brick wall in the latter '60s and '70s. Finally, Gerald Ford - who inaugurated a new era of openness at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. - all but handed Zweifel the keys.
"He said, 'You can come live here for two weeks. No limitations,'" Zweifel said. "Only in America!"
He is man a few days shy of 60, wearing a white USA cap and a blue golf shirt. He has a sweet smile but frequently stops talking to bark out orders to his volunteer helpers. He drives the truck that carries the several hundred boxes that contain the miniature White House himself. He spends three days with precious little sleep at every stop setting it up. "It's taken a toll on me," he said.
His wife, Jan, was unable to come to Roanoke because of an illness in her family, Zweifel said.
Volunteers at every stop help keep costs down; Zweifel insists he only tries to cover costs and when possible charges no admission. His visit here was underwritten by the Kroger Co.
Zweifel and his White House were invited here by Marguerite Price, who was doing research for an exhibit on doll houses when she heard about the miniature White House.
She was hooked. "I just couldn't let it go," Price said.
Arranging a visit was difficult - in part because the miniature White House requires several thousand square feet of floor space. Eventually, Tanglewood Mall management offered the Brendle's space for free.
Another six months and it could not have happened. After touring off and on since the '70s, the White House will head for Florida in February for retooling. Then it goes to Washington, D.C., for permanent display, at a site still to be determined.
There, Zweifel will continue to maintain and update it, he said.
And when he's gone?
No problem.
"I have six kids," Zweifel said. "And two grandchildren."
LENGTH: Long : 164 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: DON PETERSEN/Staff. 1. The fully assembled White Houseby CNBis 60 feet long. This photograph shows (from left) the North Front
and Portico, the West Colonnade and the West Wing. 2. Zweifel
positions the furnishings in this cutaway South Front of the White
House, where many rooms are visible. 3. That's designer and builder
John Zweifel back there peeking through the entrance to the State
Dining Room of his miniature White House. The room is set up for 80
tiny guests. The chairs are 2 1/2 inches tall, weighing 3 ounces
apiece. 4. Tiny wrought-iron furniture, potted plants and shrubs
decorate the patio outside the Oval Office. color. 5. John Zweifel
is the designer of the miniature White House. He checks in regularly
with the White House curator to keep things current. Always, he
said, "It's the way it looks today."