FDR - Jean Edward Smith [168]
As the convention unfolded, Roosevelt stayed close by the telephone in Albany. Howe and Flynn kept in constant contact with FDR over a direct line in Howe’s hotel suite, while Farley marshaled the forces on the floor. From time to time Farley would bring delegates in to talk to Roosevelt. “These conversations were carried on at all hours of the day and night,” Flynn recalled. Occasionally a rudimentary speakerphone was rigged up and FDR would talk to an entire state delegation (“My friends from Nebraska …”). There was no question who was calling the shots for the campaign. All major decisions were made in Albany. “In most matters,” said Flynn, “we found it wise to get Roosevelt’s judgment. We did nothing without first consulting him.”90
The nominating session convened at 3 P.M. Thursday, June 30. More than three thousand delegates and alternates crammed the convention floor, waiting for the oratory to begin. Since Farley’s team dominated the Arrangements Committee, the Roosevelt delegations enjoyed prime seating. “We put California behind New York and both of them a half mile away from Texas,” said Roosevelt floor leader Arthur Mullen. The galleries, on the other hand, were controlled by Chicago mayor Anton Cermak, who packed them with anyone-but-Roosevelt partisans. FDR’s supporters received only one hundred of the twenty-five thousand passes available.91
When the clerk called the roll, Alabama yielded to New York, and Judge John E. Mack of Poughkeepsie, FDR’s old political mentor, made his way to the podium to nominate Roosevelt. When he concluded, thirty-four state delegations and six of seven territories flooded the aisles, standards aloft, chanting for Roosevelt. Giant FDR banners unfurled from the rafters, and the organist broke into “Anchors Aweigh,” Roosevelt’s theme song. “Sounds like a funeral march to me,” said Ed Flynn, who was in Howe’s suite listening to the demonstration. “Why don’t we get something peppy for them to play, like ‘Happy Days Are Here Again’?” Howe agreed and sent word to the stadium.92
From that moment on, “Happy Days” would forever be identified with Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal. Written by Jack Yellen and Milton Ager for the 1929 Hollywood musical Chasing Rainbows, it captured the robust optimism that Roosevelt exuded. As delegates sang and danced, James Roosevelt, FDR’s oldest son, grabbed the New York standard and joined the parade, “charging down the aisles like a sophomore storming the goal posts of a rival college after his team had won,” said Raymond Daniell in The New York Times.93
Garner was nominated by Senator Tom Connally, and the organist belted out “The Eyes of Texas” and “California, Here I Come” as the Texas and California delegations trooped the hall. Then Al Smith, “The Sidewalks of New York,” and another emotional demonstration as the convention paid homage to its former standard-bearer. “The Smith demonstration was the realest thing in the convention,” wrote Kansas City editor William Allen White.94
After Smith was nominated, the convention took a three-hour dinner break. On his way back to the convention after the recess, Farley paid a goodwill visit to Garner headquarters and spoke with Sam Rayburn, the Speaker’s manager in Chicago. It was not the first time they had talked. Farley had dangled the vice presidency before, and now made the offer. “This is the time,” he told Rayburn. “I know positively that we can bring about his [Garner’s] nomination.”
Rayburn asked Farley what would be necessary.
“Have the Texas delegation record its vote for Garner on the first ballot, and then before the result is announced switch to Roosevelt.”
Rayburn declined. “We’ve got a lot of people up here from Texas who’ve never been to a convention before, and they’ve got to vote for Garner a few times. How many ballots can you hold your lines without breaking?