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Armory for 10,000 people, including the Johnsons and the Humphreys, who were introduced by Gala Chairman Arthur Krim, president of United Artists and a tireless Democratic Party fund raiser. The two-hour variety spectacular featured Alfred Hitchcock, Woody Allen, Johnny Carson, Mike Nichols, Elaine May, Carol Burnett, Julie Andrews and Carol Channing. Harry Belafonte, wearing one of his custom-made undress shirts, knocked out a Michael Row the Boat Ashore, slipping in a few lines about Mississippi and Alabama. Barbra Streisand belted out Happy Days Are Here Again and People for the folks listening without loudspeakers in Baltimore. Dame Margot Fonteyn and fiery young Rudolf Nureyev stopped the show with a magnificent pas de deux. Singer Bobby Darin dedicated a little number he had just turned out on the train coming into town:
Make room for me in the Great Socie-tee,
Make room for me, mister, my brother and my sister,
Make room for me, mister, I've got a dream.
I want to he part of the Great Socie-tee,
Free from pover-tee, built by you and me . . .
The gala was only a warmup. Next day Lyndon and Hubert and their entourage crisscrossed the city tirelessly, ebulliently, paying calls at receptions and parties that seemed to be glowing everywhere, like so many hearthsides on a winter's day. There was a good deal of social handicapping about which ones were the really chic occasions (among the leaders: a joint reception given by Philanthropist Mary Lasker and Washington Lawyer Abe Fortas, parties thrown by Gwen Cafritz and Perle Mesta).
No Reluctance. Hubert, naturally, was in great good humor. "I weighed the decision on the vice-presidency very carefully," he confessed to a group of Young Democrats. "Not long—but carefully." He was not sure just what qualities he had for the job, he said, "but I know one that I didn't have-reluctance!" Hubert allowed as how he had done some research on former Vice Presidents, and on their contributions to the office. He had found them, he said wryly, a most illustrious group. "Who can forget those storied Vice Presidents of the past?" he cried. "William A. Wheeler! Daniel D. Tomkins! Garret A. Hobart! and Henry Wilson!"* Thoroughly elated but also slightly troubled by his new position, Humphrey insisted to friends that "things will be just like they always have been between Muriel and me and our friends."
Walk right in, sit right down . . .
Lyndon, meanwhile, journeyed to a Governors' reception at the Sheraton-Park Hotel. Mrs. Mark Hatfield, wife of Oregon's Republican Governor, pinned a red carnation on Johnson's lapel. Leaving the Michigan booth, Lyndon called to Republican George Romney, "Pick up the phone and call me any time!" He lingered long, speaking softly to Governor Paul Johnson at the Mississippi booth. Connecticut's John Dempsey urged Lady Bird, with a nod at the President: "Take care of him, sweet Lady."
The Inauguration Eve concert, with Washington's National Symphony under Howard Mitchell, and with Violinist Isaac Stern, Pianist Van Cliburn, and Singers Todd Duncan and Theresa Coleman, was the cultural event of the week.