President Harry S. Truman gleefully displays a premature early edition of the Chicago Daily Tribune from his train in St. Louis, Missouri, after his defeat of Thomas E. Dewey in the 1948 presidential election.
This video showcases the 33rd President of the United States of America, Harry S. Truman playing the piano and singing Hail Hail The Gang’s All Here.
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd president of the United States from 1945 to 1953….when he had succeeded to the office upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt….after serving as his vice president. As President, he implemented the Marshall Plan to rebuild the economy of Western Europe….and established the Truman Doctrine and NATO.
Truman was elected to the United States Senate in 1934….who gained national prominence as chairman of the Truman Committee….which was aimed at waste and inefficiency in wartime contracts. Soon after succeeding to the presidency he became the only world leader to have used nuclear weapons in war. Truman’s administration engaged in an internationalist foreign policy and renounced isolationism. He rallied his New Deal coalition during the 1948 presidential election….and won a surprise victory that secured his own presidential term. When he left office, Truman’s presidency was criticized….but scholars rehabilitated his image in the 1960’s….and he is ranked as one of the best US presidents.
Hail, Hail, the Gang’s All Here is an American popular song first published in 1917….with lyrics written by D. A. Esrom (pseudonym of Theodora Morse) to a tune originally written by Arthur Sullivan for the 1879 comic opera The Pirates of Penzance. The tune occurs in Act II as part of “With Cat-Like Tread” and echoes the Anvil Chorus from Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Il Trovatore.
It appears that the lyric “Hail, hail, the gang’s all here” had unofficially been added to Sullivan’s melody many years before 1917…..when it was referenced in American newspapers as a familiar song as early as 1898, sung at political and other gatherings.
