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Columbus Day Parade Draws Politicians Like Flies

Oct. 12, 1964 - With the politicians swarming around like so many vote-hungry flies, 100,000 marched up Fifth Avenue today under sunny skies in the annual Columbus Day parade — a patriotic event that is supposed to be non-political.

The Genoese mariner who discovered the New World 472 years ago was all but forgotten as Republican Senator Kenneth Keating, his Democratic rival, Robert F. Kennedy, and even Senator Hubert Humphrey, the Democratic Vice Presidential nominee, energetically projected their charm for the benefit of all those Italian-American voters.

The reviewing stand at 64th St. was awash with leading lights of both parties, all grinning, shaking hands, and back-slapping in a heartwarming display of pseudo-friendship.

Humphrey greeted Keating with a shout of “Hello, Senator-ay,” which was presumably supposed to sound Italian, and Keating replied with an equally hearty, “Welcome to Columbus Day.” Then the two went into a clinch like Italian brothers seeing each other for the first time in 30 years.

Governor Nelson Rockefeller, as avid a politician as the next one, cut in with, “That’s the stuff!” Then he exhorted the crowd to call out, “We want Keating.”

Humphrey stayed for only a few minutes and then took off for the World Series game, but Kennedy and Keating marched in the parade. Kennedy went the whole distance, from 46th St. to 86th St., with a stopoff at the reviewing stand, but the two Republican Senators, Keating and Jacob Javits, hoofed it only as far as 74th St. and then backtracked to the stand.

Kennedy, who set off a furor when he joined the march in the recent Pulaski Day parade, had three sons with him today: Joseph, 12; Robert Jr., 11; and David, 9.



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