Posted on 01/15/2005 7:09:52 PM PST by Carl/NewsMax
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 biggest and best.
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 in a 2001 Washington Post article.
The famed studio actually chartered a train to 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, covered in silver and gold, ablaze with lights, awash in forbidden alcohol, and filled with movie stars and platinum-blond chorus girls," he said, drawing on recollections his father had shared with him.
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 with 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 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 the 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.
Rush elaborated on this very thing on his Friday(?) show.
The MSM has it all wrong on the past celebrations and really wrong on what President's say in their inaugural address.
Gotta remember those raised on the messages of the main stream media think the Great Depression was caused by a shortage of Zoloft!
Although it's hard to believe now, the American people during Roosevelt's four terms in office didn't know that he was confined to a wheelchair. I was a little boy during the war and remember that that was the case.
People knew he had childhood polio, but were constantly told that he had overcome it and risen above it, and assumed that he had learned to walk again.
Public events were staged in such a way that Roosevelt was seated, or propped against a podium, or other tricks were used to conceal the truth. Photographers were not allowed to photograph him in ways that might show the truth. One photographer who did had his film confiscated by federal officers.
I heard all of this confirmed in a talk at NYU by one of FDR's recent biographers. It's astonishing to think that anyone could manipulate the news to that degree, but Roosevelt succeeded in bringing it off. He was a master of rhetoric and a consummate image maker.
During the Great Depression people enjoyed seeing spectacles of the Good Life. Hollywood turned out a whole succession of glittering movies as well as a few grim ones.
Tom Mix was one of the greatest film pioneers and movie stars of Hollywood's early days as well as the 20's and the 30's. It's sad that he's not remembered more often.
Sigh...only a liberal would be able to deceive everyone for so long.
Bush should do what Franklin Delano Roosevelt did for his third inauguration
THIRD Inauguration. This is Bush's second. When he gets reelected again he'll forego his THIRD inauguration. :)
Jealous, Jealous, Jealous, Jealous, Jealous, Jealous. The dem/libs should be calle the GREEN party cause they truly are GREEN WITH ENVY.
I remember my mom talking fondly about the movies they went to see in "those days", and how much she and her friends enjoyed them.
Civil War didn't stop Abraham Lincoln's 2nd Inaugural bash. Mary's gown cost $2,000 in 1864. How much is that today?
I have a feeling that his nagging wife (there will be no good food served in this house), Eleanor had something to do with the no celebration attitude and that those who could celebrate did so and heartily. We won. Go ahead and just love it.
What is it with Democraps in having Presidents that lie their asses off about the true nature of their health? Woodrow Wilsons wife ran the White House after he suffered a stroke. FDR a cripple. JFK a junkie and a physical wreak. Clinton....lord knows what that scumbag had/has since he would never release any of his medical records. American people should have listened to W.C. Fields when he referred to FDR as "Old Gumlegs!"
Yes, Heaven forfend they be told that the Great Depression was caused by government policy.
Wait a frickin' minute here. Roosevelt's inauguration was on January 20th, 1941. We were not at a state of war until DECEMBER 8TH, 1941, the day after December 7th!
My history may be weak but I learned in grade school and junior high that FDR was nothing less than a saint, case in point, he was elected 4 terms as POTUS. This is an accomplishment that none before and none since(due to the term limit)have ever achieved.
As I remember it, though, he was responsible for the CCC and WPA and other programs that encouraged workers to underachieve so that more people could be employed at the expense of taxpayers, not to mention his being the president responsible for the "temporary" income tax.
Could someone smarter than me please explain why he was so great and how the MSM of the day, that being newspapers, were any different than the Dem spin machine of our time?
"It's astonishing to think that anyone could manipulate the news to that degree, but Roosevelt succeeded in bringing it off. He was a master of rhetoric and a consummate image maker."
We've come along way, now they manipulate us!
"$40 million worth of festivities" they make is sound like the champagne is going to flowing...how much of the is earmarked for the much needed security that has to be put in place because of international & home grown terrorists?
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