Hail to the Chiefs Part XXX: Silent Cal
If this blog entry were a movie, here's how it would look. The first thing you would hear is the raucous sound of a 1920's jazz band. Fade into a lively scene absolutely saturated with color and motion. First we pan in on the Algonquin Table. Then zoom over to the Harlem Renaissance. Over here is the whole speakeasy culture that popped up thanks to Prohibition. Back in the corner are some flapper girls doing the Charleston. Hi Great-grandma! And to your right....why there is Scott and Zelda! Now the camera zooms to the veeeeeery back of the room. We see a very serious looking man, who is still in black and white. He just sits there puffing his cigar and is the only one in the room that does not seem to be having a good time. That fellow, of course, is Calvin Coolidge.
John Calvin Coolidge Jr. was born on July 4, 1872, in Plymouth Notch, Vermont. If Alice Roosevelt Longworth is to believed, he was "weaned on a pickle." Coolidge was the great straight man of the 20's....ALL the great wits had something sassy to say about him. Always introverted and shy, his biographers suspect that the death of his mother when he was 10, and his sister when he was 15, pushed him further into his shell. (Tricky to write a biography about someone that doesn't talk much. If he came from my neck of the woods I'd call him a classic Monosyllabic Midwestern Male.)
Coolidge went to Amherst College.....which I'm guessing wasn't all liberal and experimental then like it is today. After that, instead of going to law school, he opted to study law independently, the old fashioned way, so that he could stay closer to his family. He began a law practice in Northampton, Massachusetts.
One morning a young woman named Grace, who was a teacher at the local school for the deaf, was taking a stroll down the streets of Northampton. She happened to look up at a window and spied Calvin Coolidge, in his long underwear and wearing a hat, shaving at his bathroom mirror. The sight made her laugh. Later they were introduced in what I can assume were more dignified circumstances. Although what a great meet-cute that would make if someone were crazy enough to make a Calvin Coolidge biopic. (Note to casting agents for said biopic: cast Jesse Tyler Ferguson, the red-headed gay brother character from "Modern Family" as Silent Cal! If he shaved his beard off, he'd look just like him....plus has the right comedic timing.)
At this point in the story, what would you expect a shy laconic New England lawyer to do next? My guess would be he'd buy an invisibility cloak, and spend many contented hours solving sudoku puzzles. Nope! He went into politics. Ole C.C. worked his way up first through local committees, to City Council, to the state legislature, eventually becoming governor of Massachusetts.
He didn't really expect to become president. Even the vice-presidential nomination was a surprise. The first choice had been Henry Cabot Lodge.....and Coolidge just happened to be the next person on the list from Massachusetts.
In August of 1923, Calvin Coolidge was in Vermont visiting his father. There was a knock on the door from the nearest owner of a telephone. Warren Harding had died in San Francisco. Coolidge's father found a copy of the presidential oath of office that he just happened to have lying around the house. Calvin Coolidge became the first president to be sworn in by his own father. Later there were some complaints that this was less than legal, as Daddy Coolidge was a Notary Public, and could only swear in government workers in the state of Vermont. So Coolidge got sworn in AGAIN in Washington by a judge. However, according to the Constitution, Coolidge became President the very minute that Florence Harding offed her hu....er I mean that President Harding died. So really he could have gotten sworn in by a golden retriever, and it would have been just as legal.
Coolidge has a reputation for being a giant step backwards to the 19th century. In terms of how he ran his administration, and his policies, that is largely true. However in terms of publicity, self-promotion and campaigning, he couldn't have been more modern.
Coolidge liked to delegate. This was just fine with his eager Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, who Coolidge sarcastically would refer to as "Wonder Boy." Coolidge raised tariffs, refused to forgive war debts to the European nations......which helped keep economies in countries like Germany in the toilet. His work days were usually pretty short. Rising at a reasonable hour, taking a nap in the middle of the day. He said it was an hour, although one of his aides contested it could go as long as 4. It was also well-known that he went to bed early every night. One evening he was at a Marx Brothers stage show. Groucho spied him in the audience and said "Isn't it past your bedtime, Calvin?" When he was awake, he was rather half-assed about his efforts to get legislation through.
Although, like Harding, Coolidge did have a better track record with Civil Rights. (Thanks to kensmind for his blog entry which brought this to my attention: potus-geeks.livejournal.com/126476.html It was barely mentioned in the biography I read.) Coolidge passed the Indian Citizenship Act which gave all Native Americans born in the U.S. citizenship to the United States. He also was a supporter of anti-lynching legislation. He rejected the idea that the United States was a "white man's nation", bringing up that African-Americans had fought loyally during World War I, and deserved equal protection under the law. Although, still a product of his time, he also suggested the the Nordic race would be diluted if it intermarried. This is one reason he was for restricting immigration to keep out more of those pesky Italians and Slavs. (But too late...my relatives were already here! HA!)
The fact that Coolidge was not a big talker in some ways came to his advantage. When he did speak, it was memorable. If he was around today, I'm convinced he'd be using twitter. Quotes like "The business of America is business" and "America must be kept American" would go nicely in the 140 character format.
Coolidge was also not one to shy away from a photo op. Which is why we have gems like this:
He would give speeches on the radio. His voice was actually well-suited for it. And 40 years before the Beatles stumbled across the same idea, Coolidge realized rather than traveling around the country himself, it would be a lot easier to just send a filmed version.
Coolidge was a big fan of film. He took a trip to Hollywood after he was president. This is probably my favorite story in the David Greenberg biography: "...he visited the MGM studios, where he watched as the filming of a Ramon Novorro film was disrupted by a rampaging trained bear, leading Coolidge to break out in uncharacteristic hysterics." Now that I would have liked to see. It is always funny to see somebody who is normally deadpan, lose it.
One day in 1927 Calvin Coolidge held a press conference, and passed out identical slips of paper to each of the reporters. This was his way of announcing that he would not seek a third term.
He couldn't have picked a better time to leave office. Just six months after his administration ended, the Great Depression started. His policies, which had been so popular at the time, in hindsight were looked at with a much more critical eye. Coolidge died in 1933, feeling like he no longer fit in with the times. When Dorothy Parker heard that Coolidge died, she quipped: "How could they tell?"
However, this is not the end of the story. A little under 50 years later Ronald Reagan, who had been a teenager during the Coolidge administration, took office. In the Cabinet room he removed the portraits of Jefferson and Truman, and replaced them with Eisenhower and Coolidge. In a lot of ways his administration can be seen as a descendant of the Coolidge administration. His concept of trickle down economics is very similar to Coolidge's ideas. I also suspect that part of how Reagan presented himself as president was inspired by Silent Cal.
Now mysteriously there were no Coolidge references on Sesame Street, or even schocky 80's movies. However he does get mentioned in "Louisiana, 1927" one of my favorite Randy Newman songs. Coolidge was president during the 1927 Mississippi flood. He was criticized for not doing enough, as he didn't think it was appropriate for the Federal Government to step in. Originally written in the 1970's, this song had a resurgence of popularity in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina.
www.youtube.com/watch
John Calvin Coolidge Jr. was born on July 4, 1872, in Plymouth Notch, Vermont. If Alice Roosevelt Longworth is to believed, he was "weaned on a pickle." Coolidge was the great straight man of the 20's....ALL the great wits had something sassy to say about him. Always introverted and shy, his biographers suspect that the death of his mother when he was 10, and his sister when he was 15, pushed him further into his shell. (Tricky to write a biography about someone that doesn't talk much. If he came from my neck of the woods I'd call him a classic Monosyllabic Midwestern Male.)
Coolidge went to Amherst College.....which I'm guessing wasn't all liberal and experimental then like it is today. After that, instead of going to law school, he opted to study law independently, the old fashioned way, so that he could stay closer to his family. He began a law practice in Northampton, Massachusetts.
One morning a young woman named Grace, who was a teacher at the local school for the deaf, was taking a stroll down the streets of Northampton. She happened to look up at a window and spied Calvin Coolidge, in his long underwear and wearing a hat, shaving at his bathroom mirror. The sight made her laugh. Later they were introduced in what I can assume were more dignified circumstances. Although what a great meet-cute that would make if someone were crazy enough to make a Calvin Coolidge biopic. (Note to casting agents for said biopic: cast Jesse Tyler Ferguson, the red-headed gay brother character from "Modern Family" as Silent Cal! If he shaved his beard off, he'd look just like him....plus has the right comedic timing.)
At this point in the story, what would you expect a shy laconic New England lawyer to do next? My guess would be he'd buy an invisibility cloak, and spend many contented hours solving sudoku puzzles. Nope! He went into politics. Ole C.C. worked his way up first through local committees, to City Council, to the state legislature, eventually becoming governor of Massachusetts.
He didn't really expect to become president. Even the vice-presidential nomination was a surprise. The first choice had been Henry Cabot Lodge.....and Coolidge just happened to be the next person on the list from Massachusetts.
In August of 1923, Calvin Coolidge was in Vermont visiting his father. There was a knock on the door from the nearest owner of a telephone. Warren Harding had died in San Francisco. Coolidge's father found a copy of the presidential oath of office that he just happened to have lying around the house. Calvin Coolidge became the first president to be sworn in by his own father. Later there were some complaints that this was less than legal, as Daddy Coolidge was a Notary Public, and could only swear in government workers in the state of Vermont. So Coolidge got sworn in AGAIN in Washington by a judge. However, according to the Constitution, Coolidge became President the very minute that Florence Harding offed her hu....er I mean that President Harding died. So really he could have gotten sworn in by a golden retriever, and it would have been just as legal.
Coolidge has a reputation for being a giant step backwards to the 19th century. In terms of how he ran his administration, and his policies, that is largely true. However in terms of publicity, self-promotion and campaigning, he couldn't have been more modern.
Coolidge liked to delegate. This was just fine with his eager Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, who Coolidge sarcastically would refer to as "Wonder Boy." Coolidge raised tariffs, refused to forgive war debts to the European nations......which helped keep economies in countries like Germany in the toilet. His work days were usually pretty short. Rising at a reasonable hour, taking a nap in the middle of the day. He said it was an hour, although one of his aides contested it could go as long as 4. It was also well-known that he went to bed early every night. One evening he was at a Marx Brothers stage show. Groucho spied him in the audience and said "Isn't it past your bedtime, Calvin?" When he was awake, he was rather half-assed about his efforts to get legislation through.
Although, like Harding, Coolidge did have a better track record with Civil Rights. (Thanks to kensmind for his blog entry which brought this to my attention: potus-geeks.livejournal.com/126476.html It was barely mentioned in the biography I read.) Coolidge passed the Indian Citizenship Act which gave all Native Americans born in the U.S. citizenship to the United States. He also was a supporter of anti-lynching legislation. He rejected the idea that the United States was a "white man's nation", bringing up that African-Americans had fought loyally during World War I, and deserved equal protection under the law. Although, still a product of his time, he also suggested the the Nordic race would be diluted if it intermarried. This is one reason he was for restricting immigration to keep out more of those pesky Italians and Slavs. (But too late...my relatives were already here! HA!)
The fact that Coolidge was not a big talker in some ways came to his advantage. When he did speak, it was memorable. If he was around today, I'm convinced he'd be using twitter. Quotes like "The business of America is business" and "America must be kept American" would go nicely in the 140 character format.
Coolidge was also not one to shy away from a photo op. Which is why we have gems like this:
He would give speeches on the radio. His voice was actually well-suited for it. And 40 years before the Beatles stumbled across the same idea, Coolidge realized rather than traveling around the country himself, it would be a lot easier to just send a filmed version.
Coolidge was a big fan of film. He took a trip to Hollywood after he was president. This is probably my favorite story in the David Greenberg biography: "...he visited the MGM studios, where he watched as the filming of a Ramon Novorro film was disrupted by a rampaging trained bear, leading Coolidge to break out in uncharacteristic hysterics." Now that I would have liked to see. It is always funny to see somebody who is normally deadpan, lose it.
One day in 1927 Calvin Coolidge held a press conference, and passed out identical slips of paper to each of the reporters. This was his way of announcing that he would not seek a third term.
He couldn't have picked a better time to leave office. Just six months after his administration ended, the Great Depression started. His policies, which had been so popular at the time, in hindsight were looked at with a much more critical eye. Coolidge died in 1933, feeling like he no longer fit in with the times. When Dorothy Parker heard that Coolidge died, she quipped: "How could they tell?"
However, this is not the end of the story. A little under 50 years later Ronald Reagan, who had been a teenager during the Coolidge administration, took office. In the Cabinet room he removed the portraits of Jefferson and Truman, and replaced them with Eisenhower and Coolidge. In a lot of ways his administration can be seen as a descendant of the Coolidge administration. His concept of trickle down economics is very similar to Coolidge's ideas. I also suspect that part of how Reagan presented himself as president was inspired by Silent Cal.
Now mysteriously there were no Coolidge references on Sesame Street, or even schocky 80's movies. However he does get mentioned in "Louisiana, 1927" one of my favorite Randy Newman songs. Coolidge was president during the 1927 Mississippi flood. He was criticized for not doing enough, as he didn't think it was appropriate for the Federal Government to step in. Originally written in the 1970's, this song had a resurgence of popularity in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina.
www.youtube.com/watch