The "Did A Pretzel Kill The President?" Story

Advertisement for the British Docudrama

It was an ordinary day.  Reading about the 2006 British docudrama political thriller film about the fictional assassination of President George W. Bush on October 19, 2007 in Chicago, Illinois.  Wow!  I had never heard of this film before, but I did hear the real-life story about President George W. Bush almost dying after choking on a pretzel from Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  Company that made the pretzel was on the west side of the city, about two miles from my home.  Just how did President Bush choke on a pretzel from Lancaster, PA?  Seems that in 1992 Lancaster city resident John Moeller was hired as White House sous chef toward the end of the George H.W. Bush presidency.  John had security clearance to buy food for the White House on his own, so when he returned to Lancaster from time to time to visit with family, he would head to Lancaster's famous Central Market for produce.  

Hammond Pretzels in Lancaster County, PA.  Makers of
hand-made hard pretzels as seen in the background.

When Clinton became President, John continued working in the White House kitchen and making trips to Lancaster for home-grown food.  One trip he visited the Hammond Pretzel Bakery on South West End Ave. and purchased their hand-rolled pretzels to take back to the White House.  He would grab a bag of the pretzels and take it up to the second floor of the White House.  The Clinton's daughter, Chelsea, loved them.  Hillary Clinton asked him where he got the snacks and ended up writing a thank-you letter to the company's owners.  When President George W. Bush took over residency in the White House, John continued in his job as sous chef.  

President George W. Bush shows the effects
of eating a Hammond  pretzel.

On Sunday, January 13, 2002, President Bush was watching a football game on television when he grabbed a handmade Hammond pretzel which happened to get stuck in his windpipe.  Bush passed out briefly and fell to the floor from a couch, bruising his lip and scuffing his cheek.  He recovered consciousness on his own within a few seconds and was checked by the White House doctors.  They pronounced him fit.  Lucky for Moeller, since he feared for his job for a few minutes.  At the time no one mentioned Hammonds as the brand of pretzel that got caught in the President's windpipe.  

Pretzel's coming off the pretzel line.

Then First Lady Laura Bush went on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and told of the experience and soon Ken Duberstein, Ronald Reagan's chief of staff, who is a Franklin & Marshall College alumnus which is in Lancaster, and a big Hammond's fan, confirmed it was a pretzel from Hammonds.  In 2005 John Moeller became acting White House chef for a few months.  He was in the running for the job permanently, but was passed over in favor of Chritela Comerford, the first female White House chef.  Was it the Hammond pretzel that did him in?  Shortly after, John left the White House, but Hammond's was asked to continue to send pretzels to the White House.  The orders slowly ended until in 2011 when Lancaster City's Mayor Rick Gray, a friend of mine, traveled to the White House with his wife for a Super Bowl party and took some Hammond's pretzels with them.  Not sure if they are still the favorite snack in the White House.  As far as John, he moved back to Lancaster and now runs his city-based catering business, State of Affairs Catering.  He also has a book for sale titled "Dining at the White House" which has to have the pretzel story in it.  At least, it should!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.