It’s not a day, it’s an Inauguration extravaganza

You can forgive George Schlatter if initially he had no goals for the 2000 inauguration, simply because he wasn’t expecting to be involved. The veteran Hollywood producer, who founded the American Comedy Awards and whose credits include the classic “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In,” got a call out of the blue one day.

“I was an unusual choice,” explained Schlatter, who also produced the entertainment for the 2004 inauguration. “My comedy has always been anti-establishment. But they called me. I didn’t know anybody. I had no Republican contacts. They didn’t know they won the election until Christmas. I got a call while I was skiing.

“I said, ‘You’re putting me on.’ Then the calls got heavier and heavier, so I went to Washington.”

He recalled his first meeting in the nation’s capital to discuss the inaugural festivities. “I walked into the room and there was no persons of color and no Jews,” he said. “I said, ‘We need a half a dozen brothers and some yarmulkes.’ A fresh-faced kid said to me, ‘Mr. Schlatter, how do you spell ‘yarmulke’?’

Rounding up entertainment for that one was difficult, Schlatter said, because at the time the Republicans had few Hollywood contacts. “We had to grovel,” he said. He ended up with mainstream and country acts like Clint Black, Lyle Lovett and the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra.

“This time,” Schlatter said of the Obama inaugural, “everybody wants to be involved.”

And sometimes weather conditions have a say in the matter. For Bush’s second inaugural, it was 3 degrees outside. “The spit valves on all the instruments froze,” Schlatter remembered.

But as far as the planning of entertainment, the conflict will be between the forces of splurge and scrimp.

“There is a sense with the Olympics of looking at the last Olympic city and trying to put on a bigger show than the last one,” Thompson said. “In that case, if there happen to be bad economic times it’s not as dicey. Often in bad economic times people want the opposite of that. They want some excess. When it comes to awards ceremonies, Super Bowls, excess is forgiven because there’s an appetite for it.

“This is different. This is the ceremonial opening of a new government regime. The messages sent are different than other messages. There are messages that will be sent by excess that may not be the right tone for an administration of change.”

Beschloss said Americans will be following it all with preconceived ideas of what will transpire on the stages. “A lot of people expect the inauguration to be professionally done with first-rate entertainment,” he said.

But he referred to a previous inauguration spectacle as a reference point for this one and others since.

“When Reagan came in, that was the best example,” he said. “There were a lot of comments at a tough economic time that there were too many furs and jewels and limos,” he said. “Any president since then has been sensitive to that.

“I would be very surprised for this inauguration if there is any degree of conspicuous consumption.”

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