Labor Day initial proposal in the spring of 1882. According to McGuire, on May 8, 1882, he made a proposition to the fledgling Central Labor Union in New York City that a day be set aside for a "general holiday for the laboring classes". According to McGuire he further recommended that the event should begin with a street parade as a public demonstration of organized labor's solidarity and strength, with the march followed by a picnic, to which participating local unions could sell tickets as a fundraiser. According to McGuire he suggested the first Monday in September as an ideal date for
On the First Warm Day discs to 19 cents by early August. Rosemary Clooney recorded "First Warm Day" one month before her 24th birthday. At about the same time, the veteran performer from the previous generation for whom the song was written, 52-year-old Mabel Mercer (who first sang one of Bart Howard's compositions in 1938 and employed him as her piano accompanist during the late 1940s), recorded the song for issue on an Atlantic Records EP. It was also included on her first 10" Atlantic LP album, "Songs by Mabel Mercer, Vol. 1" (1953), and subsequently reappeared on Atlantic's double 12" LP album, "The Art