By 1950, Margaret Truman, daughter of the president, had been singing for several years and was quite popular. Her radio debut, on the Ford Sunday Evening Hour in 1947, had attracted a record 15 million listeners, and the volume of congratulatory calls was so high that the White House switchboard had to temporarily shut down. It was followed by a performance at the Hollywood Bowl in front of 20,000, and a subsequent concert at the Syria Mosque auditorium, in Pittsburgh, that prompted nine curtain calls and three encores. In 1950, she embarked on another singing tour, this one culminating in a performance at Constitution Hall in our nation’s capital.
Not everyone was impressed.
