The "S" in Harry S. Truman

Factual Questions
1

Every reputable source (encyclopedias, history books, etc.) says that the “S” in Harry S. Truman’s name didn’t stand for anything. SUpposedly, the Trumans had two sets of in-laws whose names began with “S,” and his parents gave him the initial “S” so both sets of relatives could think he’d been named after them.

However… not long ago, I saw an old GEorge Burns movie called “18 Again.” Not a very good movie, but… in this movie, George Burns’ mind inhabits the body of a young coillege student. This student has a history professor who enjoys himiliating students. He embarrasses a girl by asking what the “S” in HArry S. Truman stood for, then smugly telling her it didn’t stand for anything.

At this, the 18 year old with George Burns’ mind jumps all over the teacher (supposedly, the Burns character had been a friend of Harry’s years earlier) and says, “You idiot! You actually believed that old story?? The S stood for Sergei. But Harry was president during the Cold War, and thought it would look bad if people knew he had a RUssian middle name. So he made up that story about how the S didn’t stand for anything.”

Now, I KNOW that comedy movies are not a great source for historical data… but is there any truth to this story? If not, anybody know where the writers came up with that idea?

2

The Cold War indeed started during Truman’s presidency, but he’d already been walking around with that S since 1884.
So where did the movie writers come up with that idea? You’d have to ask the writers.
It didn’t come from asking anyone on this board.

3

Back in the 40s it was understood that the S meant nothing.

However,to stop copnstant speculation Mr. Truman often said that it stood for “Shippe”.

4

I heard it was a mispronunciation of a nickname he earned while in the army, “Hairy-Ass”.

5

Ursa–An old fellow I worked with years ago always pronounced it that way.
He voted for Dewey.

6

As a footnote on style, Truman’s name is properly written as “Harry S. Truman”.

I know the S isn’t an abbreviation, but Harry used S., so that’s the proper way.

“East is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does.” – Marx

Read “Sundials” in the new issue of Aboriginal Science Fiction. www.sff.net/people/rothman

7

According to Compton’s Online Encyclopedia:

See http://www.optonline.com for more information.

8

It’s not actually an S at all – it’s the family crest of Jor-El and his family. It was on the blankets that Kal-El (aka Harry) was wrapped in when they sent him away from dying Krypton. Oh, wait – I meant to post this in the Superman thread … :wink:

–Da Cap’n
“Playin’ solitaire 'til dawn
With a deck of fifty-one.”

9

C’mon, Cap’n…Siegel and Shuster created Superman in 1939. Wasn’t Harry (Superman?) Truman still running a haberdashery in Kansas City then? Heck, he didn’t get nominated for Vice-President until summer 1944… :stuck_out_tongue:

“If you drive an automobile, please drive carefully–because I walk in my sleep.”–Victor Borge

10

Truman was already in the Senate in 1939. He was never directly tied to Superman despite Joseph McCarthy’s claims in the early 1950s.