Posted on 01/15/2005 11:49:11 AM PST by wagglebee
The Washington press corps is beside itself because President Bush will celebrate his second inauguration with $40 million worth of festivities - at a time when the nation is at war and the tragedy of the tsunami disaster is still fresh.
Instead, they say, Bush should do what Franklin Delano Roosevelt did for his third inauguration on the eve of World War II, and pull the plug on all the ostentatious presidential partying.
There's a reason, however, that the press cites Roosevelt's 1941 inauguration instead of, say, his first in 1933 - which was the Great Depression's worst year.
That's because - with the nation facing economic ruin, bread lines stretching around every other city corner, millions of Americans on the verge of losing their homes and a worldwide banking collapse looking imminent - the Democrats' man of the people threw a party that rivaled Hollywood's best and biggest.
In fact, Hollywood's stars turned out in droves to party with the new president - as Stephen Talbott, son of then-Warner Brother's actor Lyle Talbott, recalled a few years back.
The famed studio actually chartered a train take its Silver Screen icons from California to D.C. - and scheduled it to arrive the very day FDR would take the oath of office.
"It was a fabled train," Talbott recounted in a 2001 Washington Post article, "covered in silver and gold, ablaze with lights, awash in forbidden alcohol, and filled with movie stars and platinum-blond chorus girls."
The partying began with the inaugural parade, where America's favorite cowboy Tom Mix and a dozen beautiful young women marched to herald FDR's arrival.
"The sparkling contingent of chorus girls rode a carousel float down Pennsylvania Avenue past a smiling president," Talbott noted.
"Mix, a Saturday matinee idol, charmed spectators along the route by performing elaborate horse tricks. When he reached the reviewing stand, the actor paused dramatically and saluted the new president with a wave of his trademark 10-gallon white hat."
If there were any concerns about the economic privations that had crippled the nation, they had been dispensed hours earlier with Roosevelt's famous "nothing to fear but fear itself" inaugural address.
"That night," said Talbott, "all the actors attended the inaugural ball, where they danced to the music of two popular bands, Rudy Vallee's Connecticut Yankees and Guy Lombardo's Royal Canadians."
FDR himself, however, skipped that night's festivities. Reports at the time said he was anxious to get to work on a remedy for the nation's devastated banking system, which was on the verge of collapse.
A more likely reason, however, was that his presence at the inaugural ball would have highlighted a personal problem that the Roosevelt White House would struggle to keep a secret for the rest of his days in office. He was confined to a wheelchair, crippled with polio - a predicament that made it impossible for him to dance night away with the other revelers.
In fact, the March 4, 1933 inaugural festivities were the last of FDR's four terms in office, a fact that suggests that it was his disability - and not World War II - that turned FDR into an inaugural ball party-pooper.
I thought long and hard about buying a ticket to one of the balls this year, but in the end I sent my check to the USO for a care package for the troops in harm's way.
I think you are right. They probably also think that President Bush shouldn't be throwing it in their faces since so many of their ilk are still suffering from severe depression and pyschosis. Now if John Kerry had won or Bill Clinton was in this position, you'd see the biggest in your face bash that anyone could dream of. They are pathetic.
That is why 'Louie the Sun King' Kerry and Terroraza 'Let them eat quiche' Heinz57 were the perfect first couple candidate for them...
imo
The Coalition of Evil would have a lot more credibility if they could come up with one - JUST ONE - good thing to say about President George W. Bush.
Get used to it folks. Every time W's head rises above ground level the're gonna take a shot at him. Most of them will miss the mark wildly, but all together they hope Bush will choose to keep his head down as much as possible.
"'The sparkling contingent of chorus girls rode a carousel float down Pennsylvania Avenue past a smiling president,' Talbott noted."
Were this Kerry's par-tay, we'd have this float loaded up with transvestites, driving past a smiling President. *Rolleyes*
Did we dodge a bullet, or what? (Thank You, Lord!)
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