The lights went out, amber and purple auroras spread from the ceiling. Sousa rapped with his baton. His band struck up The Star-Spangled Banner . . . and National Chairman John T. Adams launched into a brief address: "It is only 60 years since Lincoln was President ..."
THAT was TIME, just a little over a year old, reporting on its first presidential nominating convention 44 years ago. The story, while distilling all the essential facts, leaned heavily on the color of straw hats flying, placards pumping and delegations drowning out one another in...
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