Guest Diary• BY:
Jill Krementz
Beginning in 1968, I photographed the Democrats and Republicans convening in cities that included Chicago, San Francisco, Miami Beach, Detroit, New Orleans and New York City.
Looking back on those smoke-filled arenas packed with candidates, delegates, movie stars, and the media who covered them makes me wonder how I survived to tell the tale. What do I remember most? The jockeying to get a floor pass that in the end didn’t much matter. My favorite photographs weren’t necessarily on the floor but on the edges.
It’s hard to predict what the political powwows will look like four years from now. In the meantime, I have enjoyed my virtual sabbatical.
Republican National Convention, Miami, July 1968
Gov. Dewey ran for President against the incumbent Harry Truman in 1948 and was incorrectly declared the winner on election day in an eight-column banner headline on the front page of the Chicago Daily Tribune.
A.J. Baime’s Dewey Defeats Truman: The 1948 Election and the Battle for America’s Soul was published in July, 2020. That’s synchronicity!
Democratic National Convention, Chicago, July 1968
Photographers like me were low on the pecking order when it came to scoring a floor pass. I realized that my best work was on the edges. You can see the stairway leading to the convention floor in the distance.
Democratic National Convention, Miami Beach, July 1972
The Women’s caucus was holding a press conference at the Carillon Hotel.
Right: Catherine Mackin, NBC’s first female correspondent to serve as a floor reporter.
“Cassie” was 43 when she died from kidney cancer in 1982.
“I am not the candidate of Black America, although I am black and proud. I am not the candidate of the woman’s movement of this country, although I am a woman and I am equally proud of that.”
The Congresswoman had arrived in Miami with 152 delegates hoping for a deadlocked convention but McGovern had put together 1,729 delegates and he had no incentive to make any deals.
Shirley Chisholm returned to New York where she continued to represent the 17th Congressional district centered in Brooklyn.
She died in 2005.
Right: Shirley MacLaine, New York delegate, tallying numbers after a floor fight.
Sadly, Gail Sheehy died suddenly and unexpectedly this past August 24th from double pneumonia.
Jack Newfield was there as a delegate and a columnist for The Village Voice.
Pierre Salinger and Victor Navasky.
Navasky’s subsequent article, “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Coronation,” appeared the following week in The New York Times Magazine.
Right: NBC Correspondent Sander Vanour.
Republican National Convention, Miami Beach, 1972
Right: Historian Theodore White.
I never went to a political convention where I didn’t see Teddy White with a cigarette in his mouth and a pencil in his hand.
In Kurt’s words:
“Dr. Kissinger, after all, has been a leader of incredible wounds between the mightiest nations of all. But the administration he serves is bad news for those nations that are feeble, or what the King James version of the Bible calls, ‘the meek.’
“Happy Days Are Here Again” was written by Shana’s father, Milton Ager, a successful Tin Pan Alley composer.
The song, selected by Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s political advisors to precede the President’s acceptance speech at the 1932 Convention, has become the unofficial theme song for the Democratic Party.
More words from KV:
“The Republicans were as high as kites at their convention. The enemy candidate was buried up to his neck in Populism, whereas their own candidate was buried up to his neck in God. Nothing remained to be done, so autographing parties starring the President’s wife and daughters loomed large on the official schedule for every day.”
According to Kurt:
“Young girls had flown to Miami at their own expense. They were living proof that young people were crazy about Mr. Nixon. I had heard them cry out their admiration for Ethel Merman at a party for celebrities and youth on the afternoon before.
‘’I am from Harper’s Magazine,” I said, “and I would like to ask you if you think an atheist could possibly be a good President of the United States.”
“I don’t know,” she said.
“Why not?” I said.
“Well,” she said, “this whole county is founded on God.’”
During Nixon’s presidency, Sinatra visited the White House on several occasions.
Democratic National Convention, New York City, 1976
Socialite Howar was on hand to write an article about the party scene published by … you guessed it … New York Magazine: “Laughing All the Way Through The Democratic Convention.”
Right: Rolling Stone’s Convention Reporter Hunter Thompson.
Right: Richard J. Daley was a delegate from his hometown of Chicago.
Peter is recuperating from COVID following a lengthy hospital stay. I’m sure he’s tapping his feet to the tune of “Happy Days Are Here Again.”
Congresswoman Jordan from Texas was the first African-American woman to deliver a keynote address at the Democratic National Convention.
Republican National Convention, Detroit, 1980
Democratic National Convention, NYC, 1980
Just before he signed off, his CBS colleagues at the network surprised him by putting up a photograph of his first convention coverage.
I photographed in color to contrast the present with the earlier days when we viewed TV in black and white.
This Convention is a one photograph layout because it’s the photograph I most care about.
Democratic National Convention, San Francisco, 1984
The Golden Gate City welcomed 10.000 convention delegates and guests.
Mrs. King expressed high hopes for the Walter Mondale/Geraldine Ferraro ticket.
Right: Mari and James Michener, epic chronicler of everything from Poland to paradise in sunny San Fran.
The actresses were at a special event, “Celebration of Women.”
Look closely — that’s Carol Bellamy and Lynda Bird Johnson standing behind them.
Republican National Convention, New Orleans, 1988
Mort generously invited me to join him on his airplane.
Right: Susan Zirinsky and Ed Bradley.
As you all know, Susan is now the President of CBS News.
Right: Photographer Diana Walker was on assignment for Time magazine.
Right: Conservative George Will.
Right: Andrea Mitchell.
I overheard Chris asking: “You haven’t bought this building have you Donald? I hope you’re going to let us stay here until after the Convention is over.”
Chris Wallace, now with Fox News, commented in his closing remarks that Trump’s acceptance speech sounded more like the State of the Union and “the real fireworks were on the mall, not on the podium.”
Who knows what lies ahead? The Television crews covering conventions have been shrinking for years. Magazines and newspapers are dying. Have we turned into A Nation of the Virtual?
