The Last Hurrah is a 1956 novel written by Edwin O'Connor. It is considered the most popular of O’Connor's works, partly because of a significant 1958 movie adaptation starring Spencer Tracy. The novel was immediately a bestseller in the United States for 20 weeks, and was also on lists for bestseller of that year.The Last Hurrah won the 1955 Atlantic Prize Novel award, and was highlighted by the Book-of-the-Month Club and Reader's Digest. The Last Hurrah received very positive critical reviews, including an "ecstatic" one from the New York Times Book Review.
The book is currently not in print.
The plot of The Last Hurrah focuses on a mayoral election in an unnamed East Coast city. Veteran Irish, Democratic Party politician Frank Skeffington is running for yet another term as Mayor. As a former governor, he is usually called by the honorific title "Governor." While the city is never named, it is frequently assumed to be Boston. Skeffington is assumed to represent Boston mayor and Massachusetts governor James Michael Curley. The story is told in the third person, either by a narrator or by Adam Caulfield, the Mayor's nephew. Skeffington is a veteran and adept "machine" politician, and probably corrupt as well. The novel portrays him as a flawed great man with many achievements to his credit.
The Last Hurrah may refer to:
The Last Hurrah is a 1958 film adaptation of the novel The Last Hurrah by Edwin O'Connor. The picture was directed by John Ford and stars Spencer Tracy as a veteran mayor preparing for yet another election campaign. Tracy was nominated as Best Foreign Actor by BAFTA and won the Best Actor Award from the National Board of Review, which also presented Ford the award for Best Director.
The film tells the story of Frank Skeffington, a sentimental but iron-fisted Irish-American who is the powerful mayor of an unnamed New England city. As his nephew, Adam Caulfield, follows one last no-holds-barred mayoral campaign, Skeffington and his top strategist, John Gorman, use whatever means necessary to defeat a candidate backed by civic leaders such as banker Norman Cass and newspaper editor Amos Force, the mayor's dedicated foes.
In "a New England city", Frank Skeffington (Spencer Tracy) plans to run for a fifth term. Skeffington rose from poverty in an Irish ghetto to become mayor and former governor, and is skilled at using the power of his office and an enormous political machine of ward heelers to receive support from his Irish Catholic base and other demographics. Rumors of graft and abuse of power are widespread, however, and the Protestant bishop, newspaper publisher Amos Force (John Carradine), banker Norman Cass (Basil Rathbone), and other members of the city's traditional elite the Irish Catholics replaced oppose Skeffington; so do the Catholic cardinal (Donald Crisp), Skeffington's childhood friend, and other Catholics. Skeffington's opponents support the candidacy of Kevin McCluskey (Charles B. Fitzsimons), a young Catholic lawyer and war veteran with no political experience.
All my friends
always see to win me over
Let's get together
try to shake this place
There she is
I'm too shy to get to know her
But maybe I'll go tell her
to her face
Hey! All around
we've got people dancing
like there no tomorrow
Cause who knows
This could be our last hurrah
Dive! Through the sky
A sea of people
And we're crashing through the floorboards
First floor
Living like this is our last hurrah
Here we are
Losing track of time forever
Our beating hearts could drown
the music out
Day breaks through the curtains to find
That we've been up all night
And none of us mind
That we'll want to sleep all day.
So here goes
We've got people dancing
like there no tomorrow
Cause who knows
This could be our last hurrah
Dive! Through the sky
A sea of people
And we're crashing through the floorboards
First floor
Living like this is our last hurrah
[2x]
Living like it's gonna be
our last hurrah
Living like it could be...
Hey! All around
we've got people dancing
like there no tomorrow
Cause who knows
This could be our last hurrah
Dive through the sky
A sea of people
And we're crashing through the floorboards
First floor
Living like this is our last hurrah
Oh woah
Always seem to win me over
Oh woah
This could be our last hurrah
Oh woah
We're dancing like there's no tomorrow
Oh woah