Warren G. Harding with Blanche Ring, Al Jolson, and Charles Evans Hughes Photograph

This photograph, which measures 6.5" by 5.5" (17 by 11 cm), shows (from left to right) Warren Harding, actress Blanche Ring (1877-1961), entertainer Al Jolson, and politician Charles Evans Hughes during the "front porch" campaign of 1920. Jolson (1886-1950) was especially well known for the 1927 film the Jazz Singer, the first talking picture. Hughes (1862-1948) was governor of New York, and a presidential candidate in 1916 (running against Woodrow Wilson). He served as Harding's secretary of state and in 1930 became chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Harding ran his 1920 presidential campaign from the front porch of his Victorian house in Marion, Ohio. People came from all over Ohio and the United States came to hear him speak. His speeches were often recorded on phonograph and printed in newspapers around the country. Warren Gamaliel Harding (1865-1923) was born in Corsica (now called Blooming Grove), a small town in Morrow County, Ohio. Harding graduated from Ohio Central College in Iberia at the age of sixteen. His family moved to Marion, where Harding taught school and briefly studied law. He worked occasionally as a reporter for a local paper before buying the Marion Star in 1884. Within five years, the Star was one of the most successful small-town newspapers in the state. Harding became popular as the leader of the Citizen's Coronet Band, which played at political rallies, and for his skill as an orator. Willing to follow the lead of political bosses, Harding advanced rapidly in Ohio politics, serving as state senator and lieutenant governor. In 1914 Harding was elected to the U. S. Senate. He won the presidency with sixty percent of the popular vote, promising a "return to normalcy" following the wave of reforms begun during Theodore Roosevelt's administration. As president, Harding appointed several friends to federal office who proved untrustworthy. His administration was tainted by corruption, and the infamous "Teapot Dome" scandal (in which Harding's Secretary of the Interior leased a U.S. petroleum reserve to a private oil company) nearly destroyed his presidency. After he died in office in August 1923, other scandals were uncovered, further tarnishing Harding's reputation.