JFK: Lost Inaugural Gala

[+ WilliamM]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4QXoMZyvsg

 

 

 

It snowed in Washington - huge snow storm - the night before the Kennedy inauguration.

 

So Frank Sinatra, Ethel Merman, Nat King Cole, Harry Belafonte, Ella Fitzgerald, Jimmy Durante, Helen Trubel, Gene Kelly wore a mix of street clothes and dress up, depending on whether they could change clothes.

 

I was a senior in high school in January, 1961 in Massachusetts. I remember the snow storm and gala. Bits of the gala have been on youtube (see above), but never the entire gala. PBS is showing the gala now on most of its stations.

[+ WilliamM]

That's quite a star-studded line-up.

 

All of the performers were good, especially Merman, Trubel and Gene Kelly. But, I wish there was less Kennedy & family and more of the show. Yes, I lived in Massachusetts so none of Kennedy information was new to me, and there would not have been a wonderful gala without Sinatra.

 

Entire Ethel Merman song with introduction by L. Bernstein:

 

 

[+ azdr0710]

 

[+ WilliamM]

 

I saw Merman in "Gypsy" when I was in high school, so it was sad to see her so diminished in "Airplane." But it was very funny, just hope she received a lot of money for that brief appearance.