June 11, 1920: first use of “smoke-filled room”

On this day in 1920, to break the impasse at their nominating convention, the leaders of the Republican Party met in Room 404 at Chicago’s Blackstone Hotel, which one reporter referred to as a “smoke-filled room”.

The 1920 election was the first to use the primary system for choosing presidential candidates. At the convention in Chicago, most of the votes were going to two men: Leonard Wood, an Army General, and Frank O. Lowden, Governor of Illinois.

After several split ballots, party brass decided to pick someone. They retired to a room at the Blackstone Hotel and picked Warren G. Harding, a Senator from Ohio, who had been receiving between 6% and 11% of the vote.

Raymond Clapper, a journalist for United Press, coined the phrase “smoke-filled room” to paint a picture of a few fat cats smoking cigars while deciding the future of the nation. Even though smoking indoors is generally frowned upon these days, the phrase continues to pop up often.

Governor Calvin Coolidge of Massachusetts was voted as Harding’s running mate; Harding became the first of three sitting Senators to be elected President. (The other two: JFK and Obama.)

For more on the 1920 Republican convention, visit WBEZ Chicago. The book 1920: The Year of the Six Presidents tells of Teddy Roosevelt’s plan to run in 1920 (before his 1919 death) – hat-tip to Ben Ingram.

Image: Clifford Berryman (1869-1949), “Nearing the End of the Primaries” (1920), via Library of Congress