Circumstances sometimes restrain inaugurations’ pomp

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger arrived at his inauguration ceremony on crutches. But one California governor had an even tougher time getting to the big event in 1862: Leland Stanford showed up at a stand-in capitol in a rowboat because Sacramento streets were flooded on his inaugural day.

True to Schwarzenegger’s Hollywood roots, his Friday inaugural was among the most lavish in Sacramento since 1931, when Gov. James “Sunny Jim” Rolph, atop a stagecoach, led an eight-mile pioneers’ parade up Capitol Mall.

Inaugurations throughout the decades have reflected the personalities and style of the governors-elect as well as the politics of the day.

California’s first inaugural ball, for Peter H. Burnett, a Democrat, was held in San Jose in December 1849, nine months before California joined the union. Controversy over the slavery issue stalled the state’s application for statehood.

San Jose residents, making a bid to keep the state capitol in their town, sponsored the inaugural ball in a two-story adobe hotel, where “spirits were plentiful.” But the invited elite, who could find no place to sleep except in San Jose’s saloons and stables, decided to look for capital quarters in Vallejo and Benicia before settling in Sacramento.

In 1895, Gov. James H. Budd refused to dance at his inaugural ball and insisted that nothing stronger than lemonade -- his favorite drink -- be served.

Some California governors have balked at grand events. Those men included Hiram Johnson, who wrote that he didn’t want a gala ball for his 1911 inauguration. “I prefer that your plans be not carried out,” he wrote to the committee handling the affair. “The course of the administration I am about to enter is simple and direct, and I wish my inauguration to be of the same simple and direct character without ceremony or ostentation.”

In 1939, screen celebrities, including actress Anna May Wong and Al Jolson, were among the 4,000 guests who packed the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium for Gov. Culbert L. Olson’s grand bash. The next day, Olson collapsed from “nervous exhaustion.” His was the last big inaugural blowout until Pat Brown took office 20 years later.

Gov. Earl Warren also opposed an inaugural ball. The only California governor elected to three terms, beginning in 1943, resigned in October 1953 to become chief justice of the United States. It would not be in keeping with the times, he said before his first term, to ask people to go to a ball by automobile or public transportation because the federal government was trying to discourage such activity during wartime.

Although the public was welcome to attend his inaugural speech, he pointed out that there were few seats in the state Assembly chambers, adding: “It will be first come, first served.”

Sworn in for a second term, he again turned down a celebration, citing an “acute housing shortage” after World War II and few places for visitors to stay. With the outbreak of the Korean War during his third term, he declined a festive ball once more.

Warren was followed into office by Gov. Goodwin Knight, in yet another no-ball year.

“I can’t figure out which 2,500 of the 12 million people [in the state] I’d invite,” he told a Times reporter. “Then, where would we house them after they got here?”

But nearly five years later, in 1958, during Knight’s last year in office, he did spring for a governor’s ball and three-day celebration when the old state capitol building in Benicia was dedicated as a state landmark. Dressed in 19th century garb, Knight and many notables, including actor Leo Carrillo, gathered for a special session of the Legislature, a torchlight parade, concerts and a ball to recall the brief era, 1853 and 1854, when Benicia reigned as the capital.

California’s original Hollywood governor, Ronald Reagan, celebrated in 1967 with glitz to “rival the color and excitement of a Hollywood motion picture premiere,” with entertainers Jack Benny and Danny Thomas, The Times reported.

Airlines added flights from Los Angeles to Sacramento to accommodate some of Reagan’s 7,000 friends and supporters. A 400-year-old Bible believed to have been brought to California by Father Junipero Serra was used to administer the oath of office just after midnight, and First Lady Nancy Reagan wore a white wool and silk gown sprinkled with real diamonds and emeralds to the ball a few days later.

“It’s a little grander and has a little more glitter than she usually allows,” said designer James Galanos.

Generally, first inaugurals are more flamboyant than second-term ones. But for his second go-around in 1971, Reagan was sworn in during daylight hours and replaced the ball with an “all-star gala,” including Benny, Dean Martin, Jimmy Stewart, John Wayne and Frank Sinatra.

Reagan’s successor, Jerry Brown, shunned pomp and circumstance and flowery speeches. In 1975, he spoke for less than eight minutes before a packed Assembly chambers audience that included his father, former Gov. Pat Brown. After his speech, the new governor drove his 4-year-old blue, state-owned Plymouth to a chowder-and-beer lunch in Berkeley that was Dutch treat. He then flew coach class to Los Angeles for a meeting with Mayor Tom Bradley and dinner at a no-frills Chinese restaurant in the garment district with friends and staff.

“My father was very upset that we didn’t have an inaugural ball,” Brown later told a Times reporter. “He wanted more ceremony. But I didn’t think that was the mood.”

When Republican George Deukmejian was sworn into office in 1983 on the steps of the Capitol, 8,000 people endured 42-degree weather -- cold for Sacramento. His 17-minute address, promising a “common sense society,” was partially drowned out by a low-flying news helicopter. Although his ball lacked the glitz of the Reagan galas, Bobby Vinton sang “Deukmejian, Deukmejian, he’s our kind of guy” to the tune of “Chicago.”

In 1991, Gov. Pete Wilson ordered up an inaugural celebration to reflect the kaleidoscope of colors, languages, religions, nationalities and cultures of California’s 30 million residents -- events with an estimated $2.5-million price tag. Celebrations included a Mexican fiesta, bagpipers, folk singers and a dancing Chinese lion.

Although Charlton Heston and Arnold Schwarzenegger attended, singer Wayne Newton got top billing. Wilson’s second-term parties were somewhat scaled-down affairs, estimated at $2 million and change.

When Gray Davis took office in 1999, a weekend’s worth of inaugural events included two balls: a black-tie affair with lemon grass salmon as the main course, the other a “rock ‘n’ roll ball” with hot dogs and lollipops. In all, 13 events cost donors $3.7 million.

For his second term, there were no furs or tuxes, just a jeans-and-barbecue event to “celebrate California,” costing less than $1 million.

Donna Summer was among entertainers at Schwarzenegger’s evening capper, singing her disco hit “She Works Hard for the Money.”

As for money, the governor’s political team raised about $2.75 million to stage the inaugural events.

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cecilia.rasmussen@latimes.com