Sept. 28—When President Lyndon B. Johnson stopped in Portland for a campaign visit 60 years ago Saturday, throngs of supporters filled the streets from the airport to City Hall.
The president visited Portland on the evening of September 28, 1964, as part of a daylong campaign tour of New England. His plane was late, landing in Maine just before 6:30 p.m., the Press Herald reported. And while Johnson’s visit lasted only a few hours, the city has remembered it for decades.
Maine State Police estimated the crowd contained about 100,000 people, although local police estimated the number at between 50,000 and 75,000. Newspapers including the Press Herald reported that Johnson’s visit was the largest gathering ever in Portland, for which the 1960 census reported a population of nearly 73,000.
“There were so many people in Portland on Monday night that it almost exceeded any estimate,” Press Herald reporter Maxwell Wisenthal reported the next morning. “That was the story of the president’s visit to Portland. It wasn’t his speech.’
Archive photos of the event show streets lined shoulder to shoulder by visitors of all ages. One photo, housed at the Maine Historical Society, shows people with handwritten signs and paper “USA” hats. In another shot, printed on the front cover of the next day’s Press Herald, attendees climbed onto the ledges of buildings, competing for a better view of the president.
Earle G. Shettleworth Jr., Maine’s state historian, said he was among the thousands who greeted Johnson that evening. Reached by phone Friday afternoon, Shettleworth said the president’s motorcade crawled along at a speed of several miles per hour as people poured from the sidewalks, leaving only a narrow strip of road open.
At 16, Shettleworth said he had never seen such a crowd in Portland. A friend, whose father was chairman of the local Democratic Party, invited Shettleworth to watch Johnson’s speech at City Hall Plaza, just a few feet from where he spoke.
“I don’t remember it being a long speech, and then he turned to the people standing on the stage or near the stage,” Shettleworth said. “Then I got the chance to raise my hand and shake his hand.”
Sixty years later, Shettleworth said he could barely remember the content of Johnson’s speech, but memories of the crowd’s energy remained vivid. He said it was “certainly the largest crowd up to that point in Portland history,” and perhaps the largest since.
Johnson’s arrival came less than a year after he assumed the presidency in the wake of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Shettleworth noted.
“You have to put the big turnout for Johnson in Portland in the context of the Kennedy assassination,” he said. “There was an outpouring of goodwill to support Johnson early in his presidency.”
The Press Herald’s Wisenthal reported that Johnson was in the city for just over two and a half hours before boarding a flight to Boston. There, the Boston Globe reported, hundreds had gathered at the airport to greet the candidate. Throughout the journey, local newspapers reported similarly huge crowds.
Harold C. Pachios, an attorney who worked on Johnson’s campaign and helped coordinate the visit, said even Johnson was struck by the response he received from supporters in New England.
“He always remembered it. For the rest of his life he remembered that day,” Pachios said. “They were the largest crowd Lyndon Johnson ever had in his political career.”
Mainers closed in on Portland for Johnson. Across the state, Democrats chartered buses to take visitors into town, even as far away as Aroostook County, Pachios said. He said there must have been about 100 buses parked on Marginal Way by the time the president spoke.
“There’s never been a crowd this big in the state of Maine. Not even close,” he said. “The crowd was so thick that the column could hardly pass through.”
As the car struggled to get going and the president fell further behind schedule, Johnson’s Secret Service hoisted him onto the roof of his limousine.
Pachios, who had an excellent view from the motorcade, said the president spoke directly to supporters as the car crept through the city streets. He estimated that the half-mile drive from Congress Square to City Hall took about 20 minutes.
A handful of local politicians, including Republican Gov. John Reed, accompanied Johnson on his trip to City Hall, shaking hands with the president and members of the public during stops on street corners, the Press Herald reported.
Herb Adams, a former state lawmaker and historian, said Johnson’s visit to Portland had a dual purpose as he also hoped to boost then-U.S. Sen. Edmund Muskie’s reelection campaign.
“For Lyndon Johnson, this is one of those two things,” Adams said. He added that, with visits from Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, “Maine in 1964 Was the Political Place to Be.”
When he finally arrived at City Hall, Johnson spoke for only a few minutes. He promised “a government that will meet the challenges of the future without abandoning the traditions of the past,” and pledged that Maine would receive fair compensation for its tax dollars and contributions to the country as a whole.
“I tell you tonight that New England has done more than its share of the nation’s past,” Johnson told the crowd. “And I promise you tonight that New England will get its share of the nation’s future under the Johnson administration.”
He praised Maine’s natural beauty and said its people helped the rest of the country learn about independence and courage. He said Maine has long been seen as a key indicator for national elections, a trend he hoped to see continue in that year’s election.
“Maine will once again be a leader for the nation, a leader in creating a more abundant America, a leader in building the Great Society,” Johnson said in his remarks. “Yes, Maine will once again be a leader and will serve as a bastion of freedom and peace in the world.”
After the president’s speech, police and Secret Service agents formed a human wall, but they struggled to hold back the crowd as attendees reached out for a chance to touch the candidate.
“I’m coming back to Maine!” Johnson shouted through the window of his Lincoln, the Press Herald reported. “What a welcome.”
Weeks later, Johnson won the presidency, defeating Republican Barry Goldwater in a landslide. According to the American Presidency Project at the University of California Santa Barbara, he received more than 90% of the electoral votes and just over 61% of the popular vote. In Maine, Johnson won almost 69% of the vote.
“It was just a unique day in American politics,” Pachios said. “And Portland was a major player in that.”
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