Better Late ...

General George Marshall had stayed on in Honolulu until the last minute, taking it easy, soaking up the sun, reading three or four books a day. The ten-day vacation had done him a world of good. When he stepped out of his big C-54 at Burbank's Lockheed airport he was tanned, rested and jovially noncommittal about his new job.

Before he took off again for Washington he had time for a long visit with his old friend and wartime military secretary, Frank McCarthy, now assistant to Board Chairman Byron Price of the Motion Picture Association of America.

That night, winging east across the U.S., he was still right on schedule. But near St. Louis the weather began building up. Running into ice, the pilot headed north to Chicago, touched down at the Douglas airport just two hours and 40 minutes before General Marshall was scheduled to take the oath of office in Washington as Secretary of State.

With airports socked in to the eastern seaboard and as far south as the Carolinas, there was no chance of getting to Washington on time. The ceremony was postponed until the next day. Then, in Harry Truman's White House office, in the presence of cabinet and congressional bigwigs, Chief Justice Fred Vinson was scheduled to administer the oath to General George Marshall, 48th Secretary in the line started by Thomas Jefferson.

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