Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure: The True Story of a Great American Road Trip by Algeo Matthew

Author:Algeo, Matthew [Algeo, Matthew]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Independent Publishers Group
Published: 2009-04-30T16:00:00+00:00

* * *

10

New York, New York,

June 27–July 5, 1953

Harry’s private railcar, which was attached to the regular Philadelphia Express, arrived at Penn Station in New York around 9:40 on the morning of Saturday, June 27. “I’m having the best time in the world,” he told reporters as he stepped onto the platform. From the station he was driven to the Waldorf-Astoria by Ed Hastings, the hotel’s vice president.

When he first learned the Trumans were planning to visit New York, Hastings had written Harry, offering the couple accommodations at the Waldorf. Truman, who had spent many nights at the hotel as president, replied that he would “very much like to take advantage of” Hastings’s invitation. “I’ll need a couple of bedrooms and a parlor,” Truman wrote. “Please inform me just what the expense will be for that sort of arrangement.”

Hastings immediately wrote back: “For this, your first visit of a few days, the management of the Waldorf-Astoria will be pleased to have you as our guest.” If the former president found the accommodations acceptable, “we can then discuss the matter of rates, for future visits.”

“It certainly is kind of you to give me such service,” Truman answered. “Your suggestion is all right and I more than appreciate it.”

Which is how the cash-strapped former leader of the free world was able to afford eight nights at one of the finest—and most expensive—hotels in the world.

After he checked into his suite, Truman went downstairs for a haircut and shoeshine. A clutch of reporters and photographers were waiting for him.

Truman was photographed smiling broadly in the barber’s chair, his legs crossed, a white smock covering his blue suit. It was a rare public appearance without his eyeglasses.

The haircut cost $1.50. Truman tipped the barber a buck. The shoeshine cost fifteen cents. He tipped the bootblack a quarter. Truman’s big tips were reported with some incredulity in the next day’s papers, as if the former farmer and haberdasher from Missouri was a bumpkin. Truman “shattered a theory,” the New York Daily News reported, “that tourists were lousy tippers.”

As was becoming customary, Harry invited reporters up to his suite for an impromptu press conference—though Harry insisted it was only a

“talk.”

He said he stood by his speech the night before in Philadelphia. “I’ve been in politics forty years,” he added, “and I’m not out of it yet.”

He expressed concern over the health of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who had recently suffered a stroke. “I think very highly of Winston Churchill,” Truman said. “I hope it is not serious. He’s a great man. The world needs him.” (Churchill recovered and lived another eleven years.)

Truman said he was “just a plain tourist” in New York. Although he and Bess had visited the city many times before, they had never really gone sightseeing. “I really don’t know much about this big city,” he confessed. Their guide would be Margaret, who had moved to the city the previous January to pursue a career in television. He reported that Margaret had

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