I'm Just Wild About Harry

“I'm Just Wild About Harry” appears twice as a musical emblem of public enthusiasm for Harry S. Truman: first at a late-campaign rally in New York City, then in the procession celebrating his second inauguration. In both scenes, the song is heard amid crowds and spectacle, linking his campaign appeal to the public rituals of presidential power.

Campaign Rally in New York

During his final campaign push in New York City, Truman made speeches at Union Square, City Hall, and Sara Delano Roosevelt Park, addressed a dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria, and ended the day at Madison Square Garden. There, a crowd of 16,000 roared its approval as the band played “I'm Just Wild About Harry.” The song sounded while two of Truman’s former political adversaries, Albert Whitney and Harold Ickes, stood with him onstage. Truman pledged his faith in the New Deal and his support of Israel, and again drew a strong response with a doctor story.

The performance belonged to a day of relentless public contact. Earlier, confetti, ticker tape, and shredded telephone-book pages had showered Truman’s open car as he waved to spectators along 42nd Street; loudspeakers in the garment district blared “Happy Days Are Here Again.” At Madison Square Garden, “I'm Just Wild About Harry” gave the final rally its own musical punctuation, before Truman went out to address another crowd that night.

The Inaugural Procession

The song returned during the procession for Truman’s second inauguration, when an old-time circus calliope tooted “I'm Just Wild About Harry” as the parade passed the White House. The procession stretched seven miles and took three hours to pass the reviewing stand. More than 15,000 people took part, alongside over 40 bands, 55 floats, vehicles, and more than 100 horses; a mounted posse of Kansas City cowboys and four mules from Lamar, Missouri, were among its participants.

Truman watched from a glass-enclosed stand with Alben W. Barkley beside him. He clapped, waved, chatted, laughed, and moved along to the music. In this setting the song was no longer confined to a campaign rally: it became one sound within a vast public celebration of the presidential office and the democratic transfer of power.

Recurrence and Significance

The two appearances give the song a modest but distinctive narrative role. At Madison Square Garden it accompanied a candidate asking for support near the end of a hard-fought campaign; at the inauguration it joined a procession that carried the spectacle from the seat of the national legislature to the White House. The first performance frames the song as part of Truman’s energetic appeal to voters, while the second places it within a civic pageant watched by crowds and led past the presidential residence.

The book does not supply the song’s lyrics or discuss its origin. Its significance here rests on its recurrence and placement: the tune is heard first amid campaign promises and a cheering rally, then as the calliope music of an expansive inaugural parade. That return makes it a musical thread joining Truman’s electoral effort to the public celebration of his presidency.