Here's how an unimpressed New York Times described today, from an editorial it published on Thursday, August 26:
It must have been a pleasant relief for Mr. Harding's intellectuals to see and take part in this blithesome interlude staged by the sons and daughters of the Rialto. The Harding and Coolidge Theatrical League was out for a lark. Marion must long remember the incursion of these charming nymphs and simple children of Pan from Broadway. Mr. Harding must have been charmed with the hymns changed by his callers. Yet, great as is the energy and the metrical ingenuity of one of these productions, it was hardly calculated for the Marion latitudes. Take this stanza, for example:Harding, you're the man for us
We think the country's ready
For a man like Teddy
One who is a fighter through and throughWaiving the question of Mr. Harding's resemblance to Mr. Roosevelt, the latter's well-known delight in smacking august Senators with derisive epithets must have been the compliment rather painful to its recipient. Moreover, such is the regrettable fondness of actors and actresses for chaff, that the last line of the following passage may be thought by a cynical a friendly but irreverent gibe:We need another Lincoln
To do the nation's thinkin',
And, Mr. Harding, we've selected you.Mr. Harding's remarkable gift of edification, his bent for anagogical interpretation, his talent for turning each porch party into an occasion of political and moral favor, were again show...A jaundiced caviler might suggest that Mr. Harding's idea of popular government is the old reliable Senate stock company, full of veteran, robustious players, and differing from all other troupes in that it insists on managing, not being managed. Away with such leaden-paced and crabbed thoughts! Marion's Players' Day was a vision, a delight and a desire.
Source:
- "Players' Day in Marion." New York Times. 26 August 1920.
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