I’m Just Wild About Harry Truman

A new edition to the Travalanche Hall of Presidents — today we tip our hat to Harry S. Truman (1884-1972).

Controversial in his own time, Truman has ranked high among both the public and Presidential historians for decades. He presided over the end of World War Two, the Marshall Plan, the establishment of NATO, the racial integration of the U.S. armed forces, and the end of official discrimination of the U.S. Civil Service. He’s also the only President (and the only world leader) to ever use nuclear weapons in war, which has tarnished his legacy (substantially, among some), although it could be argued that any alternative scenario would have likely been about as bad in terms of loss of life.

America dodged a bullet in Roosevelt’s selection of Truman as his running mate in 1944. At first blush, Truman would have seemed poor stuff from which to make a great President. Prior to becoming a U.S. Senator, he had been a haberdasher and a local judge, serving as an artillery captain in World War One prior to that. He’d grown up on a Missouri farm. Much like Lincoln, he surpassed the expectations of everyone who judged by things like background and formal education. To this day, Truman is someone you can point to and say, “anyone can become President”. It’s not always a good thing, as we have learned, but just as often, it is. As we pen these words, the current President is working hard to undo Truman’s legacy, and that of every other President going back to McKinley. Many’s the time I’ve thought of Truman’s famous sign “the Buck Stops Here” when appalled by the minute-by-minute buck-passing of the present President.

Truman played the piano! That probably won’t strike you as earth-shaking, but at the time it was a novelty to see a President do something like that, and it was humanizing. There had been musical politicians before. New York Mayor Jimmy Walker had been a Tin Pan Alley songwriter. But most Presidents prior to Truman were mirthless, scowling figures who seemed as they never even listened to music, let alone played it.

Another democratizing feature — his first name! Though “Harry” is actually on his birth certificate, it of course strikes one as informal. His name is not Harold. He was named after a relative whose first name was Harrison, but nicknamed Harry. The President was simply named Harry at birth. Likewise, his middle initial, “S”, was simply an initial, standing for no particular name, or rather two at once (his grandfathers names were Shipp and Solomon). At any rate, no doubt the precedent of having a President named Harry, surely enabled our later encounters with a Jimmy and a Bill.

But his fortunate naming resulted in a ready made campaign song when he ran for office, “I’m Just Wild About Harry”, by the great vaudeville team Sissle and Blake, whom I wrote about here.

Both of my parents were big fans of Truman’s; he was probably the last big D Democratic president my conservative father had anything good to say about. They liked plucky little guys. “Cocky” was the word they’d use. Plain-spoken and tough in spite of small stature and coke-bottle spectacles. They were especially amused by his private use of profanity, which was of the commonly approved, hell-damn-son-of-a-bitch variety, not the kind of sewage that has come out of the mouths of so many of his successors.

Anyway, Truman was plainly an entertaining character, and many are the actors who have played him on stage and screen over the years. You’ll note that the horserace begins shortly after he died in late 1972. Here are some of the notable ones:

Robert Vaughn

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. played him in The Man from Independence (1974).

James Whitmore

Whitmore, already famous portraying Will Rogers, played the President in Give ’em Hell, Harry (1975).

Ed Flanders

The St. Elsewhere actor played him in Truman at Potsdam (1976), Harry S. Truman: Plain Speaking (1976) and MacArthur (1977).

Gary Sinise

Lt. Dan played him wearing some kind of bird beak in Truman (1995)

Gary Oldman

Christopher Nolan gave Truman a raw deal in that incoherent bit of claptrap Oppenheimer (2023). Oldman did as he was directed I’m sure, but Truman’s portrayal in the movie was scarcely short of an outrage.

For posts on several other U.S. Presidents go here.