Presidents and Celebrities: Warren Harding and Al Jolson
In 1920, Warren Harding tried a campaign strategy that had been used successfully by another Ohio Republican President, William McKinley. It was called a front porch campaign, and instead of taking his campaign out on the road, he stayed at home and had the people come to him. Harding had remodeled his front porch to resemble McKinley's. He remained at home in Marion, Ohio and gave addresses to visiting delegations. In the meantime, his Democratic Party opponents, the ticket of fellow Ohioan James Cox and his running mate, a young Franklin Delano Roosevelt, stumped the nation, giving hundreds of speeches.
Harding's background was as a newspaperman, and he knew how to get good press. He fell into a camaraderie with the press covering him (at the time there was only print media, electronic media in the form of radio was in its infancy.) Harding enjoyed a relationship with reporters that few presidents have equaled. He set up a comfortable space for them to write their dispatches and saw that they were fed and watered. His "return to normalcy" theme found a nice backdrop in the homey, small-town atmosphere that Marion provided, one that induced nostalgia in many voters. The front porch campaign also allowed Harding to avoid mistakes, and it proved to be a brilliant strategy. Harding did make several short speaking tours, but for the most part, he remained in Marion. He also used his "stay at home" approach as a means of mocking his predecessor, Woodrow Wilson, who had travelled to Paris and later across America to promote his plan for the League of Nations. Harding argued that the country had no need for another Wilson, and that they wanted a president "near the normal".
To attract crowds Harding would invite celebrities to come to Marion and give public endorsements of him. One of these was the 1920s movie star Al Jolson. Jolson was a Lithuanian-American singer, comedian, actor, and vaudevillian and was one of the most famous and highest-paid stars of the 1920s. Jolson billed himself as "The World's Greatest Entertainer." Today Jolson is best remembered today as the star of the first talking picture, The Jazz Singer (1927), and he went on to star in a series of successful musical films during the 1930s.
In August of 1920, Jolson came to Marion to publicly endorse Harding. He traveled to Marion on the same train as the 1916 Republican presidential candidate Charles Evans Hughes. Hughes was a lawyer in New York City. He came to Marion to meet privately with Harding about campaign strategy, and he agreed to make a few public remarks at the Harding-Coolidge Theatrical League rally on the front porch of Harding’s home. According to one contemporary newspaper report, “The Hardings took the old front porch rocking chair into the house today and welcomed a host of jazz kings, shimmy artists, vamps and other varieties of stage and movie stars who came to call on the Republican presidential campaign today.” Headlining the rally was Al Jolson. In his crooner voice, Jolson sang the campaign song “Harding You’re the Man For Us,” which Jolson had composed and wrote. The chorus he sang went: “So it’s Harding, lead the GOP. – Harding, on to victory, we’re here to make a fuss, Warren Harding you’re the man for us.” (A version of the song can be heard in the YouTube video below, along with some vintage video from the event).
Jolson was a staunch Republican, and on August 24th, 1920, Jolson and 70 of his fellow actors got on trains and rode to Ohio. With the help of the jazzy marching band, they paraded down the street from the station to Harding’s house. The campaign had renamed the route Victory Way, and had it decked out with cardboard arches.
Jolson climbed onto the porch and declared himself the president of the “Harding-Coolidge Theatrical League.” Florence Harding pinned a flower to Jolson’s lapel. Harding then stepped forward for his speech. It it he talked about actors and plays that he loved, including one that he had mistakenly called Shakespeare’s “Charles the Fifth.” (I think he likely meant Henry the Fifth). He said that in the play, the king walks among his soldiers to learn their concerns—just as he, Harding, had learned the concerns of U.S. citizens by standing on his porch. He then led the group in a rendition of “Harding You’re The Man For Us,” which Jolson had written quickly for the occasion, possibly while on the train. In the song he called Harding “a man who’ll make the White House/Shine out just like a lighthouse.”
About 20 actors and actresses, a jazz orchestra, and a 100-piece band paraded through downtown Marion shortly before noon, with their parade ending up at Harding’s home. When Harding addressed the crowd that day, he told them: “I have been thinking lately that there is a great likeness between political life under popular government and many of our most successful productions on the stage. Successful government, like a successful play, he said, must involve the whole cast and not just one lead actor. I think it is a very practical thing to suggest that our American popular government ought not to be a one-lead or a one-star drama of modern civilization."
According to author David Pietrusza, in his excellent chronicle of the 1920 campaign entitled 1920: The Year of Six Presidents, "Jolson puckishly whispered into Harding's ear that he wanted the ambassadorship to China" before performing his composition. Pietrusza goes on to write:
At White Oak Farm, on the edge of town, the candidate and his Marion cronies mixed with Jolson's Hollywood and Broadway pals. Mixing it up meant violating the Volstead Act. "[Jolson] got drunk as a skunk," one witness recalled, "and sang 'Avalon' from the train depot platform. He just gave it all it was worth. They had to pour him into the train when he left."
Hughes also spoke and told the crowd, "There is no hope for the world unless America can protect and maintain her own institutions. The world cannot survive unless America survives.”
After the rally, the actors and musicians went to the home of Dr. Charles E. Sawyer for a chicken dinner and lawn party, while Harding and Hughes met privately for about an hour. Hughes had been New York governor from 1907 to October 1910, when he resigned to accept nomination as associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. He would later become Secretary of State in the Harding administration.
Harding also invited sports celebrities. On September 2, the Chicago Cubs came to Marion to play an exhibition baseball game against a team of local semi-professional players. Harding threw out the first pitch and then turned to the cameras, suited up in a Cubs uniform, and talked about how the Democrats weren’t good team players.
Other celebrities who made the trek to Marion to support Harding during the campaign included actors Douglas Fairbanks, Lillian Gish, Pearl White, and Mary Pickford. Lillian Russell, an opera-turned-screen-star lent her stumping skills to Harding during his campaign. She made three or four speeches a day in 15 states.
Harding's campaign strategy was a successful one. He went on to win 60.3% of the popular vote, compared to James Cox’s 34.1%.
Harding's background was as a newspaperman, and he knew how to get good press. He fell into a camaraderie with the press covering him (at the time there was only print media, electronic media in the form of radio was in its infancy.) Harding enjoyed a relationship with reporters that few presidents have equaled. He set up a comfortable space for them to write their dispatches and saw that they were fed and watered. His "return to normalcy" theme found a nice backdrop in the homey, small-town atmosphere that Marion provided, one that induced nostalgia in many voters. The front porch campaign also allowed Harding to avoid mistakes, and it proved to be a brilliant strategy. Harding did make several short speaking tours, but for the most part, he remained in Marion. He also used his "stay at home" approach as a means of mocking his predecessor, Woodrow Wilson, who had travelled to Paris and later across America to promote his plan for the League of Nations. Harding argued that the country had no need for another Wilson, and that they wanted a president "near the normal".
To attract crowds Harding would invite celebrities to come to Marion and give public endorsements of him. One of these was the 1920s movie star Al Jolson. Jolson was a Lithuanian-American singer, comedian, actor, and vaudevillian and was one of the most famous and highest-paid stars of the 1920s. Jolson billed himself as "The World's Greatest Entertainer." Today Jolson is best remembered today as the star of the first talking picture, The Jazz Singer (1927), and he went on to star in a series of successful musical films during the 1930s.
In August of 1920, Jolson came to Marion to publicly endorse Harding. He traveled to Marion on the same train as the 1916 Republican presidential candidate Charles Evans Hughes. Hughes was a lawyer in New York City. He came to Marion to meet privately with Harding about campaign strategy, and he agreed to make a few public remarks at the Harding-Coolidge Theatrical League rally on the front porch of Harding’s home. According to one contemporary newspaper report, “The Hardings took the old front porch rocking chair into the house today and welcomed a host of jazz kings, shimmy artists, vamps and other varieties of stage and movie stars who came to call on the Republican presidential campaign today.” Headlining the rally was Al Jolson. In his crooner voice, Jolson sang the campaign song “Harding You’re the Man For Us,” which Jolson had composed and wrote. The chorus he sang went: “So it’s Harding, lead the GOP. – Harding, on to victory, we’re here to make a fuss, Warren Harding you’re the man for us.” (A version of the song can be heard in the YouTube video below, along with some vintage video from the event).
Jolson was a staunch Republican, and on August 24th, 1920, Jolson and 70 of his fellow actors got on trains and rode to Ohio. With the help of the jazzy marching band, they paraded down the street from the station to Harding’s house. The campaign had renamed the route Victory Way, and had it decked out with cardboard arches.
Jolson climbed onto the porch and declared himself the president of the “Harding-Coolidge Theatrical League.” Florence Harding pinned a flower to Jolson’s lapel. Harding then stepped forward for his speech. It it he talked about actors and plays that he loved, including one that he had mistakenly called Shakespeare’s “Charles the Fifth.” (I think he likely meant Henry the Fifth). He said that in the play, the king walks among his soldiers to learn their concerns—just as he, Harding, had learned the concerns of U.S. citizens by standing on his porch. He then led the group in a rendition of “Harding You’re The Man For Us,” which Jolson had written quickly for the occasion, possibly while on the train. In the song he called Harding “a man who’ll make the White House/Shine out just like a lighthouse.”
About 20 actors and actresses, a jazz orchestra, and a 100-piece band paraded through downtown Marion shortly before noon, with their parade ending up at Harding’s home. When Harding addressed the crowd that day, he told them: “I have been thinking lately that there is a great likeness between political life under popular government and many of our most successful productions on the stage. Successful government, like a successful play, he said, must involve the whole cast and not just one lead actor. I think it is a very practical thing to suggest that our American popular government ought not to be a one-lead or a one-star drama of modern civilization."
According to author David Pietrusza, in his excellent chronicle of the 1920 campaign entitled 1920: The Year of Six Presidents, "Jolson puckishly whispered into Harding's ear that he wanted the ambassadorship to China" before performing his composition. Pietrusza goes on to write:
At White Oak Farm, on the edge of town, the candidate and his Marion cronies mixed with Jolson's Hollywood and Broadway pals. Mixing it up meant violating the Volstead Act. "[Jolson] got drunk as a skunk," one witness recalled, "and sang 'Avalon' from the train depot platform. He just gave it all it was worth. They had to pour him into the train when he left."
Hughes also spoke and told the crowd, "There is no hope for the world unless America can protect and maintain her own institutions. The world cannot survive unless America survives.”
After the rally, the actors and musicians went to the home of Dr. Charles E. Sawyer for a chicken dinner and lawn party, while Harding and Hughes met privately for about an hour. Hughes had been New York governor from 1907 to October 1910, when he resigned to accept nomination as associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. He would later become Secretary of State in the Harding administration.
Harding also invited sports celebrities. On September 2, the Chicago Cubs came to Marion to play an exhibition baseball game against a team of local semi-professional players. Harding threw out the first pitch and then turned to the cameras, suited up in a Cubs uniform, and talked about how the Democrats weren’t good team players.
Other celebrities who made the trek to Marion to support Harding during the campaign included actors Douglas Fairbanks, Lillian Gish, Pearl White, and Mary Pickford. Lillian Russell, an opera-turned-screen-star lent her stumping skills to Harding during his campaign. She made three or four speeches a day in 15 states.
Harding's campaign strategy was a successful one. He went on to win 60.3% of the popular vote, compared to James Cox’s 34.1%.