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Hollywood 
A National Stage where Iconic Movie Stars meet Presidents & First Ladies.
Another First Lady at the Oscars (& President & First Daughter)
February 24, 2013 is definitely a footnote for FLOTUS history. Tonight’s surprise appearance by incumbent First Lady Michelle Obama announcing the winner of the 2013 Best Picture of the Year Academy Award by live remote from the White House was… Read More ›
The Reagans Host Old Hollywood & New “Royalty” at the White House
There seemed to be a time that, rather than go to Hollywood and take a tour bus through Beverly Hills hoping to glimpse one of the famous names of its Golden Era, one had a better chance of seeing them… Read More ›
Chaplin, Streisand, Sinatra & More: The Inaugural Gala That Was
For half a century, it was a quadrennial display of the performing arts, a time capsule of the nation’s pop culture, a snapshot too of the varied entertainment tastes of the President about to assume office. It was called the… Read More ›
Reagan’s 1985 Big Chill Sunday Inauguration with Videos, Part 7
Unlike Eisenhower’s private Sunday swearing-in ceremony in 1957, which banned television cameras and limited the recording of the event to two still black-and-white pictures, the first of Reagan‘s two second-term oath-taking on that day of the week was carried live… Read More ›
The Movie Mickey Mantle & Maris Made…with Fred Mertz
One need not obsess over baseball stats to be struck by the fact that it was exactly 50 seasons ago that yesterday’s World Series winners, the San Francisco Giants had also played the World Series – but lost. In 1962,… Read More ›
Obama Rescues Campaign Tradition: Vote for President…with the Best Music
In the eleventh hour President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign for a second term seems to have unwittingly saved the grand tradition of campaign music from oblivion. At Obama rallies in Virginia, Ohio and Iowa this week and last, Bruce Springsteen… Read More ›
Fighting Bigotry Shaped Truman’s 1948 Campaign Tunes (& Carmen Miranda Sang One)
In the fall of 1945, six months after inheriting the presidency upon the April death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman was back home in his beloved state of Missouri, visiting the county fair in the small town… Read More ›
Cool but Contemplative: Jolson Jazzes with Coolidge’s 1924 Campaign Song
He came back – with another song. This time, however, when the legendary screen and stage actor, Al Jolson first performed the official campaign song of a Republican presidential campaign, he didn’t have to march the streets of small-town Oho and… Read More ›
The First President To Win With Actors: Al Jolson’s 1920 Campaign Song for Harding
George Clooney, fundraising and providing thematic strategy for President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign or Clint Eastwood speaking at the convention nominating Mitt Romney: neither story causes a blink in either Hollywood or Washington. Yet preceding even the famous efforts of… Read More ›
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