Vacant, March, 1940 - November 5, 1940
VP candidate for Surprise Party (1940)
Running mate with nominee: Gracie Allen (1895-1964)
Popular vote: unrecorded write-in votes, perhaps in the hundreds.
Electoral vote: 0/531
The campaign:
Gracie Allen of the Burns and Allen comedy team launched one of the early celebrity joke campaigns for President in 1940. She deliberately did not choose a Vice-Presidential running mate, she said, because her administration would not abide any vice.
Some other Gracieisms during the campaign:
"You know, I’m tired of knitting this sweater, I think I'll run for president,” she announced to her family in early 1940. Other sources say her writers cooked up the idea.
"I don't know much about the Lend-Lease Bill, but if we owe it we should pay it."
When asked with which party she was affiliated: "I may take a drink now and then, but I never get affiliated."
"I will make no fire-side chats from the White House between April 15 and October 15. It is asking too much and I don’t know how President Roosevelt stands it. Washington is awfully hot in summer."
"Congressmen are well paid. Why should they be allowed to make those playing cards on the side? We favor putting Congress on a commission basis. Pay them for results. If they do a good job and the country prospers, they get 10% of the extra take."
"END SECRECY IN FOREIGN AFFAIRS, DEMANDS GRACIE: If Charles Boyer is going around with Greta Garbo, the people are entitled to know about it. But I’m not really worried about this. Our Foreign Relations will be all right so long as they bring their own bedding and don’t stay too long."
"I propose to extend the Civil Service to all branches of the government, because I think a little politeness goes a long ways, don't you?"
"My opponents worry about the national debt being almost up to $45,000,000,000. What’s the matter with that? We should be proud of it; after all, it's the biggest in the world! But that's a lot of money, so my plan is to put it in a safe bank. Even at 2% it's a good investment, and putting it in three banks would make 6%."
"Presidents are made, not born. It's silly to think that Presidents are born, because very few people are 35 years old at birth, and those who are won't admit it."
Election history: none
Other occupations: none
Buried: vanished in thin air
Notes:
The mascot of the Surprise Party was a Kangaroo, with the motto: "It's In The Bag!"
Gracie was endorsed by Harvard University.
The voters of Monominee, Mich. nominated Gracie for mayor but since she was not a resident she
was disqualified.
Even though part of the gag supposedly was that a woman would have the nerve to actually run for
President, Gracie managed to get in some digs at the gender bias in American politics.
One newspaper suggested Groucho Marx fill the vacant VP spot.
