Blue Mule

The Democratic National Convention looked different back in 1932 than it looks this week. Both conventions were held in Chicago, Illinois. But back then the convention welcomed a delegate from the Land of Oz—Hank the Mule.

Former Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels met Hank the Mule at the 1932 Democratic National Convention, as you can see in the photo. Daniels was a delegate at large from North Carolina. Hank was played by Tex Morrissey, third wife of the originator of the role, Fred Woodward. Morrissey played Hank throughout the USA from the late 1920s until the early 1950s.

Hank the Mule impressed then-Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt so greatly that Roosevelt asked Hank to accompany his presidential campaign. No surprise that a mule—even a foreign mule from the Land of Oz—would be a Democrat.

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