The ceremony was held on the White House’s South Portico rather than at the Capitol. It would be the smallest and soberest inauguration on record, out of deference to soldiers fighting overseas. The Marine Band played “Hail to the Chief”; the Episcopal bishop of Washington, Reverend Angus Dun, offered a prayer; then Chief Justice Harlan Stone approached the speaker’s platform. In the crowd were Eddie Jacobson, Truman’s old haberdashery partner, and Ted Marks, the best man at Truman’s wedding. So too was Jim Pendergast, the nephew of Tom Pendergast. The incoming VP was the first to take the
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