It’s All Been Done

Apparently I am not the first person to compare photographs of Jackson playing the accordion. Check out this spread from Life magazine, published May 28, 1951:

The text reads:

On April 12, 1945 Chief Petty Officer Graham Jackson had been scheduled to play his accordion for President Franklin D. Roosevelt at Warm Springs, Ga. Jackson did play for the President as his coffin was carried from the Warm Springs Foundation. Life’s picture (April 23, 1945) of Jackson fingering his accordion while tears streamed down his cheeks was one of the most eloquent tributes among the many tendered F.D.R.

Six years have passed and, partly because of Life’s picture, former Navyman Jackson’s fortunes have changes with them. Today he runs a radio program of his own from his home at Atlanta, Ga. But every Thanksgiving and Christmas Jackson goes back to play for the patients at the Warm Springs Foundation which his late chief helped develop.

And the caption beneath the lower photo:

Jackson smiles today, now that he is a radio performer in Atlanta. He modeled his house after Roosevelt’s Little White House in Warm Springs.

And a note from me:

Jackson was already a radio performer, a recording artist, and a successful entertainer long before the death of FDR and the initial publication of this iconic photograph. I consider it highly unlikely that Life magazine had any significant impact on his career, and I can demonstrate the he smiled plenty before 1951.