Views from a Smoke-Filled Room

As our American political season drags on with a presumptive nominee on the Republican side and a continuing battle royal on the Democratic side, it's worth remembering some great moments in presidential politics that dealt with cigars.

Los Angeles - Perhaps the most famous image of the political process that brings cigars into the mind's-eye is the "smoke-filled room."

This is a fairly modern concept, originating in 1920 at the Republican National Convention in Chicago. Theodore Roosevelt, who had served as President from 1901-1909 had been the favorite, but died in 1918 and there was no front-runner. Twelve different candidates received votes on the first ballot, led by Major General Leonard Wood of New Hampshire and followed by Illinois Governor Frank Lowden, California Senator Hiram Johnson, Pennsylvania Governor William C. Sproul, Columbia University President Nicolas Murray Butler and in seventh place, Senator Warren Harding of Ohio. Among the also-rans on the ballot were Massachusetts Governor Calvin Coolidge and California businessman and post-World War I aid administrator Herbert Hoover.

Even after nine ballots there was no consensus, with Harding, Lowden and Wood the top three on the final vote of the evening. Just as the Harding strategists had foreseen, there was a meeting of the party's top officials that night to try and break the deadlock.

The room itself was reportedly Suite 404 of the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago, although other sources say the room in question was on the eighth floor. Cigars were no doubt plentiful and the argument raged for some time before an agreement was made to select Harding.

Of course, the meeting was not open to reporters, who camped out in the hallways and watched for signs of the outcome. Soon after the meeting broke up, the Associated Press sent a dispatch which reported "Harding of Ohio was chosen by a group of men in a smoke-filled room."

An American icon was born.

It was quite appropriate that Harding was a devoted tobacco user, reportedly smoking two cigars a day, along with cigarettes and a pipe and he also chewed tobacco. He won in a landslide against Ohio Governor James Cox in 1920, but died in office in 1923 and his administration was beset by scandals collected under the nickname of "Teapot Dome."

But the image of the "smoke-filled room" will always be part of American lore, long surviving the ill-fated man who became President because of it.

(Rich Perelman is editor-in-chief of CigarCyclopedia.com, offering comprehensive daily coverage of cigars, accessories, issues, people and prices at www.CigarCyclopedia.com.

Rich Perelman

2/19/08

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