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That evening came a moment for which all Washington womanhood had been waiting: Jacqueline Kennedy, stunning in a white gown of silk ottoman, emerged coatless from the house with her husband, lifted her skirt daintily above the snow and headed off for the festivities of inauguration eve. The first big event was the inaugural concert, held in Constitution Hall, unmarred for the Kennedys even by the fact that 60 out of 100 musicians, including Soloist Mischa Elman, had failed to make it through the snowstorm for the occasion.
Next on the list was Frankie Sinatra's Hollywood-style Gala at the cavernous National Armory. Happily for the Democratic Party coffers, the tickets had been sold long before the snowstorm—and just as Sinatra had predicted, the show made a mint: nearly $1,400,000 (single seats, $100; boxes, $10,000). Unhappily for the showfolk, however, only two-thirds of the ticket-holders (some 6,000 people) turned up, and what with the traffic delays, the extravaganza got under way nearly two hours late. The biggest stars, of course, were the Kennedys themselves, and they had a fine time watching Conductor Leonard Bernstein, Ethel Merman, Milton Berle, Nat King Cole, Mahalia Jackson, Juliet Prowse, Sir Laurence Olivier, Jimmy Durante and a squad of others, including Brother-in-Law Peter Lawford.
Father Joe Kennedy's big bash at a downtown restaurant followed Frankie's Gala. An exhausted Jackie Kennedy went home, but all the rest of the clan, surrounded by the Hollywood troupe and scores of Kennedy friends, crowded in for a sedate but delightful few hours of champagne, caviar, hors d'oeuvres and supper. It was 4 a.m. before Jack Kennedy slipped into bed.
Inaugural Day came clear and cold. Three thousand men, using 700 plows and trucks, had worked throughout the night removing almost eight inches of snow from Washington's main streets. Jack Kennedy's big day began when he attended Mass at nearby Holy Trinity Church, then drove to the White House with Jackie for coffee with Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower, the Lyndon Johnsons, the Richard Nixons and several congressional leaders. Then, the day's preliminaries done, President Dwight Eisenhower and President-elect John Kennedy emerged in top hats and smiles, stepped into the black, bubble-top presidential limousine, and drove down Pennsylvania Avenue toward Capitol Hill and the drama that awaited them there.
"Father Joe?" Shorn of snow, shining in the sun's glare, the wide avenues and the Capitol plaza bristled with tens of thousands of onlookers in bright stocking caps, fur coats and warm blankets as protection against the 20° temperature. The big inaugural platform on the steps of the Capitol's east portico was studded with eight white Corinthian columns matching those of the Capitol itself. U.S. flags whipped in the stiff wind above the great marble office buildings and the Library of Congress.