Go ahead, sir.[note 1] The Presidential Recordings Program revised the following section of text in 2021 for inclusion in The LBJ Telephone Tapes, a project produced by the Miller Center in partnership with the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library to commemorate the library's 50th anniversary.

Hello?

Hello?

Mr. Haggar?

Yes, this is Joe Haggar.

Joe, is your father the one that makes clothes?

Yes, sir. We’re all together.

Uh-huh. Y’all made me some real lightweight slacks that he just made up on his own, sent to me three or four months ago. It’s a kind of a light brown and a light green, rather soft green and soft brown.

Yes, sir.

And they’re real lightweight. Now, I need about six pairs for summer wear.

Yes, sir.

I want a couple, maybe three, of the light brown, kind of a[n] almost powder color, like a powder on a lady’s face.

Yes, sir.

Then there were some green, and then maybe some other light pair. If you had a blue in that or a black, I’d have one blue and one black. I need about six pairs to wear around in the evening when I come in from work.

Yes, sir.

And I need—they’re about a half a[n] inch too tight in the waist.

Fine. Do you recall the exact size? I just wanted—I want to be sure we get them right for you.

No, I don’t know. Y’all just guessed at them, I think, and sent them. But wouldn’t you have the measurements there?

We’ll find them for you.

I can send you a pair. I want them a half an inch larger in the waist than they were before, except I want two or three inches of stuff left back in there so I can take them up. I vary 10 or 15 pounds a month.

All right, sir.

So leave me at least two and a half, three inches in the back where I can let them out or take them up, and put a—make these a half inch bigger in the waist. Make the pockets at least an inch longer. Money—my money and my knife and everything fall out. Wait just a minute.[note 2] End of 2021 revisions. [The President steps away from the phone.]

Would you hold on just a minute, please?

Yes.

Hello?[note 3] The Presidential Recordings Program revised the following section of text in 2021 for inclusion in The LBJ Telephone Tapes, a project produced by the Miller Center in partnership with the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library to commemorate the library's 50th anniversary.

Hello.

Now, the pockets, when you sit down in a chair, the knife and your money comes out. So I need at least another inch in the pockets.

[That’d] be fine.

Yeah. Now, another thing: the crotch, down where your nuts hang, is always a little too tight. So when you make them up, give me a[n] inch that I can let out there, because they cut me. They’re just like riding a wire fence. These are almost—these are the best that I’ve had anywhere in the United States.

Fine.

But when I gain a little weight they cut me under there. So leave me . . . You never do have much margin there, but see if you can’t leave me about an inch from where the zipper [belches] ends around under my—back to my bunghole.

All right, sir.

So I can let it out there if I need to.

That’d be fine.

Now, be sure you got the best zippers in them. These are good that I have. And if you get those to me, I would sure be grateful.

Where would you like them sent, please?

White House.

Fine.

Now, I don’t guess there’s any chance of getting a very lightweight shirt, sport shirt, to go with that slack, is there? That same color?

We don’t make them, but we can have them made up for you.

If you might look around, I wear about a 17.

[Pause.] Do you like—

Extry long.[note 4] Here, President Johnson uses the colloquial pronounciation of “extra.”

Do you like it in the same fabric?

Yeah, I sure would. I don’t know whether that’s too heavy for a shirt or not.

I think it’d be too heavy for a shirt.

I sure want—I sure want the lightest I can in that same color or matching it. If you don’t mind, you figure out somebody up there that makes good shirts and get me one to match each one of them, and if they’re good, we’ll order some more.

Fine.

I just sure will appreciate this. I need it more than anything and . . . Now . . . That’s about it. I guess I could get a jacket made out of that if I wanted to, couldn’t I?

I don’t know. I think that—did Mr. James Haggar have a jacket made?[note 5] “James Haggar” might refer to James J. Haggar, a grandson of Haggar Clothing Company founder Joseph M. Haggar Sr.

Yeah, he sent me some jackets for some earlier, but they were way too short. They hit me up about halfway down my belly. I have a much longer waist. But I thought if they had material like that and somebody could make me a jacket, I’d send them a sample to copy from.

Well, I’ll tell you what: if you will send us this, we’ll get it—we’ll find someone to make it.

OK.

And we can supply the material to match it.

OK. I’ll do that. Now, how do I—you give this boy [Kenneth “Ken” Gaddis] the address, ʼcause I’m running for a funeral, and give him the address, just how to address these trousers.[note 6] Sgt. Kenneth “Ken” Gaddis was a valet to President Lyndon B. Johnson. Roughly 20 minutes after this phone call, President Johnson left his ranch by plane, bound for Austin, Texas, where he attended the funeral of Mrs. Bess R. Beeman. Beeman was the onetime chair of the Texas 10th Congressional District Women’s Division; a receptionist at city hall in Austin, Texas; and a longtime friend and supporter of Lyndon B. Johnson. So we’ll send them to you, and don’t you—you get the measurements out of them and add a half inch to the back, give us a[n] inch to the pockets, and about a[n] inch underneath so we can let them out.

In other words, you like just a little more stride in the crotch.

Yeah, that’s right.

We’ll take care of that.

I want you to build these at least a half inch more, and then leave me some in there.

Yes, sir.

OK, here he is.

Glad that you enjoyed the others.[note 7] End of 2021 revisions.

OK, go ahead, please.

Hello.

Hello?

Who is this, please?

This is Sergeant Gaddis.

Pardon?

Ken Gaddis with—I need a address where we can mail these trousers down there.

Fine. If you will send them to Joe Haggar . . . H-A-G-G-A-R.

Uh-huh.

Haggar Company, 6113 Lemmon Avenue.[note 8] The Haggar offices were two blocks from Dallas’s Love Field, the airport from which Air Force One took off after John F. Kennedy’s assassination.

Sixty-one thirteen?

Lemmon Avenue.

Lemmon?

L-E-M-M-O-N.

Avenue.

Avenue. Dallas, 9.

Dallas, 9.

Yes.

OK.

And this is Ken Gaddis? G-A-D-D-I-S?

That’s correct.

Fine. Now, you’re going to send to me a pair of the trousers—

Right.

—that we made before.

Right.

He has told me what he wants done to them, and I assume everything else about them was OK.

Right. This is correct with just the exceptions that he gave you.

Fine. We’ll take care of that. Now, is he going to—are you going to send a jacket?

Well, I don’t know that right now, but if we do, I’ll send it to the same address.

Right. We’ll just have to find somebody that can make that. We don’t make the jackets, but we can get enough material to where they can be matched.

Uh-huh, fine.

Good.

OK, sir.

Fine. Let me ask one other question. He mentioned something about a size 17 shirt. Is he that big?

Well . . . not really, but he does prefer things to fit rather loosely.

That’s an awfully big shirt.

Uh-huh.

We want to try to get the shirts to match these slacks, and . . . you know what his sleeve length would be?

[haltingly] Well . . . I know on dress shirts he likes the . . . Let’s see. I think it’s—the left 33 and a half? And the right 34. [speaking aside] Yes, sir!

OK—

[speaking to Haggar] Just a moment. [aside to President Johnson] Yes, sir?

That’ll be fine, and I’ll wait till you send these slacks to me, and we’ll make them up for him. . . . Hello? . . . Hello? . . . Hello? . . . Hello?

OK.

I’ll wait till you send these slacks, and we’ll make them up for him.

OK, now, the President just told me that we are going to send the jacket also.

Fine.

Now, when I do this, I will also send some shirt sizes, and so forth.

Fine.

OK?

Thank you very much.

OK, thank you.

Yes, sir.

Bye.

Bye.