On the afternoon of Jan. 20, not even Barack Obama will enjoy the best seat for his inaugural parade.
“The president has one of the worst seats for the parade — ground level, can hardly see a thing,” said Charlie Brotman, the man who will hold the best-seat honor. “They’re not kidding about calling me the president’s announcer — I need to tell him what’s coming!”
And if anyone in Washington is up for that task, it’s 81-year-old Brotman — a 14-time veteran of introducing the floats and the bands and every last marcher for inaugural parades.
His first shot came in 1957 at the second inauguration of Dwight Eisenhower. And Brotman has stood atop a building near the president’s reviewing stand for each subsequent commander in chief. Gerald Ford, who replaced Richard Nixon after he resigned, did not have a parade.
“I’ve discovered over the years that the parade itself is literally replicating the personality of the president himself,” Brotman said.
For military man Eisenhower, that meant one band, one marching unit and one float. That straightforward celebration was followed four years later by the youthful John F. Kennedy’s fete.
“I thought to myself, ‘This Kennedy fella knows how to throw a parade,’ ” Brotman said. “This guy knows how to do a little showbiz here!”
Brotman’s announcements helped stop a mob from forming when Nixon started signing autographs “to humanize himself a bit” at his first inauguration, and Brotman received a reprimand from the Secret Service when he asked President George W. Bush if he would be pitching the first ball for the then-new Washington Nationals baseball team. Brotman, who was the announcer for the Washington Senators for years, also did the honors at opening day for the Nationals in 2005.
“They may have thought I was embarrassing the president, or maybe it was for security purposes,” he said.
A memorable moment came near the end of Ronald Reagan’s marathon first inaugural. The four-hour parade finished long after sundown with the pitch-perfect tones of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir breaking through the darkness.
“I had binoculars and could barely see them, but Reagan was still there,” Brotman said.
Brotman’s exuberance for Obama’s bash, which the announcer says will likely be the biggest and best yet, is as bright as it’s been for them all.
“My friends keep asking me when I’m going to retire from this. Retire from what? This is fun stuff!”
