Vol. 2, Issue 2
June July August 2015
2015 Event
Calendar
June 18 – Silent Movie Night, 7 p.m., at
the Harding Home. Freewill donation.
July 17-18 – Sixth Annual Warren G.
Harding Symposium at the Marion
Campus, focusing on The Modern First
Ladies: Portraits in Contrast. See
hardinghome.org to register.
July 17 – Annual Presidential
Wreathlaying, Harding Memorial. No
charge.
August 13 – The Real Boardwalk
Empire, 7 p.m. in the Harding Home
tent. What’s the truth about shady
characters Harry Daugherty, Jess Smith
and Gaston Means? $12 at the door,
$10 in advance. $10 at the door, $8 in
advance for Friends and OHC
members.
October 11, 84th Annual Harding Scout
Pilgrimage, 3 p.m. at Harding
Memorial. Free admission.
October 15, The Klan in Ohio, 7 p.m.
Location TBA. We’ll examine the
reasons behind the membership climb
and explore the role of the Klan in Ohio
and in the president’s hometown. $10 at
the door, $8 for Friends and OHC
members.
October 22, The Harding Letters
Revisited. 6:30 p.m. at MTC Health
Technologies Building. The release of
the letters from Harding to Carrie
Phillips reveal more than mushy
sentiments. $10 at the door; $8 for
Friends of Harding Home or OHC
members.
See EVENTS, Page Four
“The official photograph of the Convention will now be taken. As far as possible everybody will face
the camera, located in the northeast corner of the Coliseum, and remain perfectly quiet for a few
moments.” -- Chairman Will Hays. (U.S. Library of Congress photograph)
‘Three cheers and a tiger!’
for Ohio’s Warren G. Harding
Everyone could feel the change in
momentum on June 11, 1920.
The Republicans, gathering in
Chicago
for
their
national
convention, had endured seven
deadlocked rounds of voting to
decide
on
their
presidential
candidate. Certainly, the next ballot
would secure the nomination for
Gen. Leonard Wood or Ill. Gov.
Frank Lowden.
Just as the results of the eighth ballot
were announced, a Missouri delegate
stood and announced loudly, “Mr.
Chairman, Missouri wishes to
change her vote to 36 for Harding,”
according to the official convention
transcript.
“The Convention was in disorder,
and there were cries of “no”
answered by cries of “yes, yes,” the
transcript reflected. The chairman
ruled that changes could be made
in the next vote. Quickly, a delegate
from Kentucky asked for a recess,
which was seconded. Frank Willis of
Ohio, who had nominated Warren
Harding and could sense the
momentum swinging toward the Ohio
senator, demanded a roll call on the
motion to recess. The motion carried,
and the convention recessed until 4
p.m.
Late that afternoon, the pivotal ninth
ballot was taken. When Connecticut
gave all but one of its votes to
Harding, “the majority of Ohio
delegates mounted their chairs, and
cheered vociferously.” Kansas gave its
entire block to Harding, which ignited
a parade around the convention hall.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we must have
order,” the chairman, pounding his
gavel, shouted to the celebrating
delegates. The vote tally pushed HardSee TIGER, Page Three
Issue #: [Date]
Dolor Sit Amet
Harding Symposium offers closer looks
at trio of talented First Ladies of the ‘20s
Three strong women with very different personalities, yet similar
convictions, set the tone for the 1920s from their positions as First
Ladies.
A panel discussion about Florence Harding, Grace Coolidge and
Lou Hoover will lead off the July 18 workshop sessions during the
July 17-18 Warren G. Harding Symposium. The Symposium
theme is “The Modern First Ladies: Portraits in Contrast.”
The panel session features Cynthia Bittinger, author and former
Executive Director of the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation;
Annette Dunlap, author and historian; and Sherry Hall, author and
manager of the Harding Home Presidential Site. Lucinda Frailly
of the National First Ladies Library, which is a Symposium cosponsor this year, will be moderator.
“I think our audience will be amazed at the unconventional
backgrounds of each of these women, which certainly impacted
how each interpreted being First Lady,” Hall said. Lou Hoover, for
example, was the first woman to graduate with a degree in geology
from Stanford University and was fluent in five languages, Hall
noted.
“Lou Hoover’s background was incredibly diverse,” Hall
continued. “She was well-traveled, involved in so many efforts to
move women’s role in society forward, and acted on her belief that
education and physical fitness were vital in order for women to
succeed.”
Although her husband discouraged her from stepping out on her
own as First Lady, Grace Coolidge found a way to be true to her
causes. “She reached out to those with disabilities, drawing on her
skill of teaching deaf students that she had done right out of
college,” Bittinger said. “She showed innovation, even using the
radio to broadcast choirs at Christmas singing at the White House,
with newspapers printing the lyrics so you could sing along.”
Florence Harding (above) had a strong connection with
America’s working women because she had been one
herself. (National First Ladies Library photograph)
Grace Coolidge (below) helped to assemble Christmas
baskets for those less privileged. (Library of Congress
photo)
Florence Harding, who had once been a single working mother as
well as a member of her husband’s newspaper circulation
department, naturally found common ground with the thousands of
women working outside the home following World War I. She
sympathized with the women who were trying to balance home
life with the necessity to earn their own livings.
The three women all knew each other, although they were not
close friends. Herbert Hoover was Harding’s secretary of
commerce, while Calvin Coolidge was Harding’s vice president.
The Hoovers were part of the entourage touring the western
United States and Alaska in 1923. President Harding died in San
Francisco during that trip.
To see the schedule and register for the Harding Symposium, go to
hardinghome.org and follow the Symposium link, or call the
Harding Home at 800.600.6894.
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Dolor Sit Amet
Happy about something? Try
shouting out, “three cheers and a
tiger!” just as Harding supporters
did in 1920.
‘Boardwalk Empire’ lands in Marion
as unsavory characters come to life
If you can ignore the strange looks
you may receive, you can feel good
that you’re dipping into history as
you rejoice.
Remember HBO’s Boardwalk Empire?
Now, the drama series set in the 1920s
and loosely based on facts, gives way
to real life in “The Real Boardwalk
Empire” at 7 p.m. Aug. 13 at the
Harding Home tent.
Add a ‘tiger’
to your cheer
The phrase goes back to 1822, or
1842 – depending on the source
you consult. Whenever it started,
here’s the translation: three cheers
usually mean either, “hurrah,
hurrah, hurrah,” or “huzzah,
huzzah, huzzah.” The addition of
the “tiger” requires you to emit a
low-sounding hurrrrrrrrrr escalating
in volume to a deafening “rah!”
So, think of the “tiger” as the
bombshell of all “hurrahs,” and,
above all, use it wisely!
Harding Home staffer Jon Andersen
will introduce you to some, ah,
questionable characters who knew
President Harding and inadvertently
helped to tarnish the reputation of his
administration.
Jon will separate the truth from the
absurd as he introduces you to
Attorney General Harry Daugherty,
Harry’s pal Jess Smith, Jess’s ex-wife
Roxie Stinson and political insider
Howard Mannington.
Was there really an “Ohio Gang?” And
what really went on in that “little green
house on K Street?” Did Daugherty get
Harry Daugherty
away with theft from office? And was
the death of Smith ruled a suicide to
cover up a darker story?
“They” say that truth is stranger than
fiction. If so, this is one strange tale!
Tickets are $12 at the door, $10 in
advance. Friends of Harding Home and
Ohio History Connection members get
$2 off at the door and $2 off in advance.
TIGER, From Page One
ing to the top. He led Wood by 125
½ votes and Lowden by 253. Still,
Harding did not have a majority of
votes to secure the nomination.
Overnight,
contingents
of
Republican leaders and delegates
informally wandered in and out of
hotel-room gatherings, theorizing
over whether Wood or Lowden
would blink first and release his
delegates to Harding. (Forget the
sinister
“smoke-filled”
room
meeting called by a Senate cabal –
it wasn’t that organized.)
According to the Washington Post,
the Lowden camp was the first to
offer its votes to Harding in an
effort to beat Wood.
At 6:05 p.m., June 12, Harding
earned the nomination on the tenth
ballot when Pennsylvania pushed
him over the top. The convention
then chose Calvin Coolidge as
Harding’s VP.
Marion youth help spruce up Harding grounds
Seventh graders from Grant Middle
School in Marion helped to spruce up
the Harding Home and Harding
Memorial in late May in preparation
for summer visitors. The students did
a LOT of weeding, planted flower
boxes and learned about their
hometown president along the way.
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Harding’s bond with Laddie Boy reveals ‘every man’
witty newspaperman from Marion
returns. He was an everyman!
By Jonathan Andersen
Harding Home Staff
This last Christmas I received a framed
photograph of President Warren
Harding standing with his beloved
Airedale, Laddie Boy, and I have
finally found a good spot to hang it up
in my home. It has left me sitting in my
chair, where I do most of my Hardingrelated reading, occasionally glancing
up at Warren with Laddie. I always
find myself smiling when I look at it.
So many people never get to see the
side of Warren that I have over the last
three years I have spent researching
him, and the president’s relationship
with Laddie Boy is the perfect example
of who he was. Sure, you have seen
other presidents with their pets, such
Library of Congress photo
as Checkers with Nixon or Fala with
Roosevelt, but it’s different with Laddie
and Warren. There are so many pictures
of the two of them together where you
can easily see the worries and pressures
of the presidency just drift away
momentarily, and the happy-go-lucky,
Now, I am aware that some have found
this attribute to be a weakness or a sign
of inferiority in Warren, but instead, I
argue it is what makes him a more than
fitting president. He had the political
experiences and the knowhow, but
there he was -- acting like any other
person with his dog. Warren never
forgot who he was, and being in the
public eye never changed that. This is
clearly evident in the photos of him
golfing, or fishing or shooting the
breeze with friends. But it’s the
pictures of Laddie and Warren which
have always struck a special chord
with me. It is in the photos of Laddie
and Warren that I see the “every man”
-- the man who understood what
everyone was going through, because
he was one of them.
This side of Warren Harding becomes
more evident with every research
project I complete with the Harding
Home Presidential Site, but I still
return to the smiling man with his dog
to find “him.” There is the man behind
the Presidency! Take a look for
yourself at those photos, and you can’t
ignore his giant personality. It leaves
me longing for the relatability of a
president like Warren G. Harding.
Events, from Page One
New Harding Home objects
Mary Ellen Dune of Marion recently donated several objects connected to Florence
Kling Harding. Pictured at right is a chair which had been in the Kling home. Pictured
above is a black, wicker writing desk and chair that had been in the Sawyer
Sanitarium. Mrs. Harding lived the last few months of her life in a cottage at the
sanitarium to be near her doctor, Charles Sawyer.
November 15, Beyond the Ropes,
1:30 & 3:30 sessions at the Harding
Home. We’ll surprise you with an
indepth look at something in our
collections. Reservations required
due to limited seating. $10 per
person; free for Friends of Harding
Home & Ohio History Connection
members.
The Warren G. Harding Home & Memorial
are historic sites of the Ohio History Connection,
locally managed by Marion Technical College