Transcripts For CSPAN3 Lectures In History Dwight Eisenhower And 1950s Political Advertising 20240712

Prosperity. And the American People were happy in suburban homes with their nuclear families. I like ike. Its so simple and it conveys that happiness. This idea, however, is a myth. And it is a political construction. The 1950s, in fact, it was a time wrought with racial discrimination, conflict, intense political and social pressures to conform to a suburban ideal that imposed gender hierarchies and mandated heterosexuality in the law. It was a time in which anti communism targeted the liberal reform impulses of the new deal and often anticommunists took away civil liberties. These are all areas of political pressure in terms of enforcing certain ideals and resisting against those that we will look at next week. I like ike, as a political construct, shifted attention away from those divisions and it created a sense of consensus. In many ways, again, this is a political construction. At the root of it was an innovative and transformative Marketing Campaign that transformed a military hero into a political celebrity. And he used that attention to win the presidency. Often we think of john f. Kennedy or Ronald Reagan as ushering in the television presidency, but, in fact, it was Dwight Eisenhower. I cant nest the power of television to win the presidency and to put forward his vision of america and the world and this is what we are going to look at today. Dwight eisenhower brought several important developments to the modern american presidency, through his leadership style and organizational approach. Doing this, he built on a lot of the transformations we already looked at this semester. For example, Franklin Roosevelt launched the executive office of the presidency and last week we looked at how harry truman extended it. With the National Security state. Dwight eisenhower formalized it. He ran his office very much like he did the military. The bureaucracy became very entrenched and well executed in the american presidency under eisenhower. For example, he had weekly Cabinet Meetings and form the office of Congressional Liaison so that he could have a formal link to the legislative process. This was especially important because throughout the 1950s, the Democratic Party controlled congress. So eisenhower recognized that to get things done, he needed to have a smooth operation in terms of links with congress. But he also brought this organizational focus to the shifting media environment and transforms the white house into a production studio. To do that, he worked very closely with hollywood figures and madison avenue Television Executives and advertising companies, to navigate the new, mass medium of television. It ultimately really transformed american political communication during the 1950s. So, the postworld war ii era is a key moment to understand the rise of entertainment, advertising, television and hollywood in american politics, because television really does drastically change the political theme during the 1950s. So the question that i want us to think about today as we study this particular period is, how does television change leadership styles . How does it change strategies of political communication and what is needed to succeed politically . And the key question we will come back to at the end of class is, does television revolutionize the american presidency or does it build on trends that are already in place . So, to get at that question we need to start by thinking about what are the trends that are already in place . Does television launch a significant break in terms of Leadership Strategy and communication strategy . So, what trends were already in place before the launch of television in the 1950s . What does Theodore Roosevelt bring to the presidency . Theodore roosevelt increased Media Connections at the beginning of the 20th century to start formalizing the process of the executive office in the media. Excellent. Didnt he also set up the west wing as a source to have the press within the white house yes. In order to have a connection with them, as well. Yes. He saw the press as an asset, something he wanted to capitalize on to control and help shape Public Opinion. Excellent. Caroline . He also had the fireside chats, so there was already this idea that there was this personalized president. If every person has a radio in their home he can listen to them and he is using rhetoric that is easy to understand and not super complicated political jargon. Yes. So Franklin Roosevelt really brings in this idea of the fireside chats. Theodore roosevelt uses the bully pulpit. He creates these relationships with journalists and uses Public Opinion to launch and advocate for very specific policies. Franklin roosevelt takes this a step further. He capitalizes on radio and uses that to create an intimate connection with the american public. And i am going to play you a quick clip, just to give you a sense of what this sounded like. Again, thinking about if you were a listener. You were tuning into your radio during the 1930s to listen to your president. This would have been what you heard. Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States. My friends, i want to talk for a few minutes with the people of the United States about banking. To start with the comparatively few who understand the mechanics of banking, but more particularly with the overwhelming majority of you who use banks for the making of deposits and withdrawing of checks. What did he do, just in that very simple opening . He definitely personalizes the chat. He uses i, you, we, and he creates this personal link between the presidency and the people, so that they feel like he is on their side and they also have a place in this huge, bureaucratic thing that he has begun to create. Absolutely. Personalizing the presidency. That is so key. For those of you who looked at a lot of critics of new deal programs, how does he bypass them with the radio . If someone doesnt agree with a particular program, what is he able to do with radio . He is able to directly appeal to the American People with the radio and bypass, say, newspapers with an editorial slant against new deal policies and just to work around old institutions that were against him. Absolutely. That is really key, thinking about the power that this gives. It creates that personal relationship, the intimacy between the president and an individual, in their home. And then it also allows him to challenge the narrative. Overwhelmingly at this time people got their information from newspapers and many newspaper editors were against the new deal, overwhelmingly. Newspapers were more conservative, more critical of a lot of roosevelt policies. So the radio becomes a new opportunity to connect directly to audiences. And if you recall, it is not just radio that he uses. He also used theaters and Motion Pictures to sell certain programs. He capitalized on the newsreels that wouldve been shown at the beginning of a Motion Picture feature, but he also worked with a variety of different studios in hollywood to create production shorts like this one, which promoted the National Recovery administration. [ applause ] you and you and you, youve got a president now he gave the land a new deal. You hold the new deal. You, and you, and you, shoulders to the plow. He gave us what we asked for, now pay him back somehow. Step out front, and give a man a job. And give a man a job. In the old name of roosevelt, make the old heart sound. You take this message straight from the president and give a man a job. You look like a banker who drives a car . I drive it myself sir, have a cigar. Take your cigar and hire a chauffeur and keep a man from becoming a loafer. You look like a grocer . No sir, my job is extermination. You must give your assistance each a nice weekend vacation. We want you to hire a crowd. You will hang up this sign, it means no rats allowed. And how about you . I am a very sick woman. Oh. Hypochondriac. You must get something to soothe you. Two for halitosis. One for eczema, bronchitis, or any other kind of an itis, that will delight us. That way madam, you will help to end unemployment. Now, listen to me, everybody. Step out, get back, and give a man a job. You know that. I know it. Now, step up and give a man a job. You know who is president of the nra . No . Ill tell you. You take this message straight from the president and give a man a job. [ applause ] so what does this do that is different from the fireside chats . Go ahead, brent. It turns president ial policy into an entertainment product. It is very much like the beginning of the whole concept of marketing. Absolutely. Excellent. Excellent. Kayla . I was going to say it is no longer the president advocating for himself, but it is normal people advocating for the president. That normal people would want the president and are very much for his policies. And that he has caused the economic boom and prosperity in the country. So the focus, the hero of this story, is Franklin Roosevelt. He is featured at the end, his portrait, but he has a variety of other people helping sell this. A comedienne in this capacity. A variety of celebrities come out for Franklin Roosevelt to do this. Radio spokesman and personalities are all selling the president for him. Again, a different kind of Production Team in terms of selling a particular policy. Excellent. Adam . It kind of creates the soundbite. You can take different snippets of what the guy is saying. Give back to the president or give a man a job. Those are easy to remember jingles, so you could put those in radio advertisements that appeal to a general audience. They will remember that message, whether or not they have heard th remember give a man a job. Hae absolutely the slogan so lp. Again bringing some of these , e features of advertising at this hollywood, bringing them into politics to sell particular policies. Brin and the only reason you will not be humming, give a man a job later this day is because youre going to hum the i like ike one because its a lot catchier. Lucas . I thought it was interesting talking about, you know, holding the president up but also using it as a selling point. When we think about selling a president or candidate we think of getting votes but in this case it was actually getting th people involved in a specific cd policy so its actually helpinge the common ttinman, or the midd class man to come out and, without you, we cant do this but with you you can be part of this grander thing thats t you, helping all americans. Andcant that is really keye well when we think about media. And new media and the presidency because, really, effective president s are able to use new media to win elections but then also to govern, to use it as a d tool to sell their agenda as ecn well. Andt also making that transiti communication on the campaign o trail to communication once in office is really key. Unicatio and this is why what dwight key. Eisenhower does with television is also really important because he follows that trajectory. Y. In terms of using new media to win an election andfo then reshe how hewin governs and how he s the agenda, as lucas pointed ane out. Againtsagen we see a lot of the possibilities in terms of presenting an agenda, shaping o Public Opinion andss promoting y personality that comes with radio and Motion Pictures. So what about television . Does television bring something fundamentally new to american ac politics . Because i think it reallyan conveys how dramatically television grew and reshaped american politics. In 1949 only 172,000 Television Sets had sold. Only that number jumped to over 52 million by 1953. This is an incredibly dramatic growth of a new technology that forced politicians to grapple with presenting themselves and t their policies, to voters through tv screens rather than g newspaper articles, radio ticles broadcasts, or even these motioe picture shorts. And one of the key things to think about is that this growth of a new technology caused y tremendous anxiety and concern. M and its really important to understand that this is post world war ii that it becomes so powerful. There was deep concernwar overe in manipulative power of propaganda at this time and the ways it could be used to undermine democracy and to promote to tal yaren governments after all demr adolf hitler and theac nazi par in germany had a very effective propaganda machine. Its part of how they were able to consolidate power by limitinn information over new medias. So, too, did Joseph Stalin in li the soviet union. Soviet these concerns about the manipulative power of the new media and even old media, Motion Pictures in particular were at the core of a lot of communist investigations, particularly tht ones that featured the Motion Picture industry in 1947. The the central question that was i debated in the halls of congrest as a variety of w actors and studio executives came to actors washington, d. C. To testify about their political activity o wasli were they using they entertainment . Were they using their celebrityi for undemocratic purposes . One anticommunist film critic told the House Committee of unamerican activities that, quote, glamour is appealing. The communists have made shrewd isd excellent use of it for their a purpose. They are trying to bedazzle of audiences with celebrity. Y. Th andeir so this is a question tu pervaded national politics. Is entertainment media, Motion Pictures and this new media of television that people werent u quite sure whatre to do with, i this going to undermine democracy . Does it focus more attention on . Entertainment . And does can it be used as a way to advanced communism . Nce these were central questions that people had. Ques so these fears of entertainment propaganda and manipulation are really important to understand when we see theopaga different ways that politicians grappled with television. Ways th some of them embraced television and the opportunities that it had to offer. But overwhelmingly in the 1950s they were very wary of it. And the argument that we dont want to in a manipulate others byem embracing advertising in madison avenue that really dominated Public Discourse during the 1950s. For example, the democratic nominee for the presidency in aa 1952 and 1956, adadai stevensono looked that sold president s d as commodities, the idea that you can merchandise candidates s for high office like breakfast cereal i think is the ultimate indignity to the democratic atip process, argued Adlai Stevenson. He wanted to use this medium to perhaps expand his message, to deliver longer speeches, to emphasize his oratory. He w but not to use any of those slick sales techniques that madison avenue executives were using to sell cereal. Dison he wanted to use this new medium to perhaps expand the message n that he was alreadydy deliverin to audiences. And so what he did during the 1952 election is that he did allow some advertisers to create some catchy jingles for him but he refused to be a part of that production. He said if you want to do that the way that we did with radio, thats fine but im not going t appear in these short advertisements. Theres no way that i can talk about a policy in 30 seconds so instead talk Adlai Stevenson wo with thead, Democratic National committee and purchased longer chunks of time. E so an hour, perhaps, where he t would then go in front of a tv camera and deliver a long speech about a particular policy. Well, if youre going to purchase an hour of tv time, and you have a limited budget, whene will that time be . An any thoughts . A when can you afford that time . Ryan . Whenever its cheapest. Absolutely. Which would probably be lite at night when its not prime time. Exactly. So when Adlai Stevenson did appear on tv it wasni late at night when the only people watching were perhaps those people who were committed late democrats that wanted to watch y what Adlai Stevenson had to sa. So thats really the only time he appeared in these purchased periods on television. And he had his Advertising Team make ads, again, that reflected radio strategies. So im going to show you two of them and i want you to think about how these are perhaps more reminiscent of something youd hear over the radio than something youd see on tv. Old macdonald had a farm back in 31 conditions filled him with ld alarm back in 31 31. Not a chick chick here not a moo cow there just broken down farmland everywhere to the days of 1931 when he didnt have bread, when the day was done farmer mac knows what to do dn election day of 52 wa going tos godo out with ever in the usa to vote for Adlai Stevenson tt keep his farm this way stev with aenso vote vote here and vote vote there and a vote for stevenson everywhere for if its good for mac you see its good for you and its good for me loves that farm, vote stevenson today and one more and then well discuss. Ike . Bob. Ike. Bob. Im so glad were friends again, bob. Yes, ike, we agree on everything. Lets never separate again, bob. Again, ike. Bob. Ike. Bob. Ike. Will ike and bob really li happily ever after . Is the white house big enough for both of them . Stay tuned for a musical the interlude. Reuben reuben ive been thinking bob and ike now think alike with the general in the white house whod give the orders bob or ike lets vote for adlai and the john sogein bob refers to robert, who was the other contender for the presidency in the Republican Party. And he was the more conservative candidate. And eisenhower was promoted at this time as the moderate nhower republican. And so that, you know, makes a particular argument about their relationship. So what did you notice about th these twowo commercials . Caroline . All the visuals were merely like ornamentation, like you mentioned earlier, these could have been just been played over thentioned radio and honestly have had the same effectiveness and also it doesnt really feature any of thehe candidatest all, like facialwise so then people watching it might not make that rhetorical connection. Excellent, great. Tc brent . This might justhingmigh bet. Things from a modern lens but theyre not very good. Like from the base standpoint of getting a stance across, we dont know who farmer mac is, we dont know what caused his farm to be bad and how voting for Adlai Stevenson would fix that problem and that was a bigger f problem with the first one than the second one. The second one just doesnt go anywhere, its 30 seconds of can i change the channel to see literally any other political advertisement . Especially that really catchy i like ike one that seems to be going around that my friends are talking about. Excellent. Jack . Well, its a lot like what t you see today where its like slandermy campaigns, like your getting nothing of yours across, just bashing everything what they do, like talking nothing about you, just them, just talking about all the negatives. And thats whats really slan interesting isde you do see tha negativedo approach of lets gae critiques. Eisenhower and critie the Republican Party. So that negative aspect is absolutely there, rather than a positive message about why you democratic for the candidate. Noah . It kind of seemed like the commercials were really just preaching to the choir. R. The first one just saying adlai is good for farmers, doesnt say how. People who already are familiar with the farming policies. Second advertisement trying to compare ike and bob, you know i doesnt explain why, so i mean the only people that are going to have their minds changed. Actually no one is. Theyre going to see that and have their beliefs either affirmed or offended. Not getting them anywhere. Absolutely. I think thats really important, too, when you think about the Democratic Party at this time is thaty. Media is a side componen. Itsyou clearly not a priority. Fororme stevenson, for the Democratic National committee at this particular time. Y why . Wheres the strengthno of the Democratic Party at this time . Why do they win elections . Ryan . It would be like remnants of roosevelts coalition. Re absolutely. And something 0smn else, the first advertisement especially pointed out is like, look back to 1931, look 20 years ago, like when republicans did bad things. Lo i mean, i feel like in the modern era, 20 years ago is a completely different environment than now. That t so its really trying to harken back to arguments theyve been making for the last two decadesa excellent, kayla . Yeah, i was goingng to say ye can sees. The contrast between Democratic Party and theyre trying to theyre continually asking people to look back at what weve done, not even what stevenson has done, necessaril, but what other democrats have done and just linking that the Party Together and thats the only thing that they share but because hes a democrat he d will be as successful as past democrats, or as with ikes campaign, it was very much suoking towards the future and not well because they didnt really have a great past in recent years to look back to. Th that they would want to advertise so they had to push past that. And you can see that contrast vs here. E, and also justth likeey a lack prioritizing media. Honestly not like theres no creativity here, which would ioi make senseti because they didn prioritize it and that definitely hurt them. In this. Becaus i think thats really important to think about, that the Democratic Party had been i office for 20 years. That is a long time to control the white house and they had done so in a way that built a coalition with very specific new deal programs that gave benefits to voters. That brought workers and farmers into that Democratic Coalition e with allnefi of thets programs weve looked at. And so they were relying on crac those structures of economic incentive. To bring voters to the polls. Ton they werent worried about getting new voters. They just wanted to capitalize on the coalition that they had mobilized for the last 20 yearso in many ways theyre using the samealit strategies in terms of rhetoric on who theyre appealing to. To turn out to the polls. Brent . On the subject of lack of a creativity one thing i just to realized is both of those ads used already commonly known, suc commonlyt accepted meters and cosical structures that they justmm twisted slightly. There really was no creativity at all. There re build on ey tri familiarity rather than bringing something new and innovative. And so, again, i think its really important to kind of ino think about that theres no one way that is predetermined of how american politicians will turn to a new medium. There are a lot of different strategies at play. And even Dwight Eisenhower was t really reluctant to embrace more madison avenue driven style. And nothing really exposes the initial thinking of Dwight Eisenhower like his announcement speech when he was announcing his candidacy in abilene, announ kansas. And he turns out to a park in abilene, its rainy, its stormy. And everyone tells him, weve got Television Cameras set up. You need to go into this barn to deliver your address to tv audiences across the country. And he says absolutely not. Yom going to talk to my supporters here. This b and he was proud that they came out toac support him and he wan. To connect to the audiences tha were in front the audience a that was in front of him. O conn so he endured the wind and the rain. And all of this was captured on a camera. The and heres what it looked like. 20 odd years ago i left abilene. Since then i have seen demonstrated in our own land and in far corners of the earth, on battlefields and around council tables, in schoolhouse and factory and farming community, the indomitable spirit of hous americans. Lookesctory this looking bae american record through these s years iveon gained personal renewed dwoegs to ameri devotion to america, there is nothing before us that can affright or defeat a people who in one lifetime have accomplished so much. Ladies and gentlemen, i believe we can have peace with honor, reasonable security with national solvency. I believe in the future of the United States of america. What did you notice in here . What captured your attention . Kayla . I think if you muted this hes out at war somewhere, this speaking to his, troops. I dont know. Maybe its because we know hes a war general. But the wind and the rain and si his hair flying everywhere, and all of that and he has like a very grimaced expression. He looks like a war general, er which i think is good for him. Thats what he was running on. Excellent. Did anyone know that eisenhower actually had hair until you saw this . Because you actually see his hair blowing in the wind. Later in the speech it starts raining harder and he cant really see through his glasses so hes struggling with his r i glasses as hes reading the speech. Robert montgomery at this time is areally hollywood actor. And a republican. And he watched this speech and n he was horrified. He recounts how he immediately wacked up the phone, called the pipublican party, and said let me work onck your campaign with you. Repu missing anu. Ally opportunity to shift from this ideaea of a military hero and t emphasize that you are a e political leader, that you want to be president and you can command not just audiences in front of you, but audiences across the country. And so Robert Montgomery asked,i can iti work on your campaign . Cm and he was notan the only one. S Dwight Eisenhower was friends yr with a lot of executives in new york city that worked on madiso avenue. With executives. And they also worked very diligently with him to revamp his media strategy. He was originally very resistant to this. He did not want to make helevision such a priority in his campaign. But over and over again figures like Robert Montgomery and but advertising executives like ry n Rosser Reeves emphasized that you need to take television seriously and you need toto see that you can get something across, something meaningful a acrossyo to viewers by embracin some of these production tactics. And so this is what his campaign looked like, that was very different from Adlai Stevenson. He had this very catchy i like ike, ike for president spot that ill show you in a moment but then he also had a very innovative series of campaign. Spots called eisenhower answers america. So i want you to think about ca what this does in terms of presenting eisenhower as a personality, and how perhaps toi this is different from what weve seen with Adlai Stevenson but then what weve seen before in previous campaigns. So here is the first one and this is the song that youll bem singing the rest of the day. Ike for president ike for president ike for president you like ike i like ike fo everybody likes ike for president hang out the banner beat the drum we dont want john or dean or harry just get we in step with the thats hip get in step with ike you like ike i like ike everybody likes ike for president well take ike to washington travel day and night you like ike i like ike the everybody likes ike for president hang out the banner beat the drum well take ike to Washington Well take ike to washington now is thewill time for all americans to come to the aid of their country. So this also uses cartoons al but what does it do thats different from stevenson . Tanner . Yeah, so this one kind of has more of a bandwagoning effect. No he even says its time for all good americans to come together so it brings up the notion that, you know, you should join in on this party. Caroline . It is catchy. It has a chorus that repeats rather than the farmers one relied on the fact that everyoni would know that song already. And im in choir. That we do a lot of 40s and 50s music. This is periodesque. And we it already appealed to the masses in thatt pop culture ide. Excellent. Thats a really key point. Lucas . Weve already commented how m democrats were looking backward in this campaign and republicans were looking forward andidea i oked at these before in the past. Al one thing thatread always standa to me is the sun rising at the end and it really seems like its a new day after this 20 years of democratic democratt being in office. All of these differenta visuals, the music, the sound to it. They all emphasize innovation ei and lookingc, forward. And enthusiasm. So creating that bandwagon, that join us, this is something exciting moving forward. Dont you want to be a part of it . Ryan . I also noticed how the ent . Visuals were important because there was an illusion to harry truman within the advertisement wed thats important because truman is like on the campaign trail for stevenson. Even though he wasnt up for election, of course. Mpaign so i think unlike the democratic ads we saw earlier in the he lecture the visuals for i like ike are very important for selling the message of the advertisement. Yeah, so there still is a critique of the Democratic Party in here, but the emphasis is definitely on that positive iti message, you dont want to be a part of that Democratic Party ii truman and whats been running for 20 years. You want to be a part of this party of the future. Well, i have two points. First, to continue on the visual point, it really helps with the rewatchability. Its like yes. I could probably recite not t wi ike bit, because uld thafsz t that was too boring to Pay Attention to. But the other piece i could from memoryite that after watching it once. But i like ike, it has all of those little visual subtleties like Adlai Stevenson on a donkey riding in the background in silhouette that i didnt even catch that the first three time i watched that video. I have watched it many times now. Ti but also its very personalizing. And digging into the sort of i dont know if this had been explored in psychology yet but its the idea of peer pressure. I like ike, you like ike. T why dont you like ike . You should like ike. Everyone should like ike. Th absolutely. Of and you know that its ike. Lik where in the democratic commercials they didnt talk as much as stevenson. You but this you know the ike. Candidate. You know its about ike and ike the personality is at the forefront of all of the catchy h songs, the imagery, the slogans that come together to promote the ike the personality here. You dont actually see actual eisenhower himself appearly in this commercial. But, Rosser Reeves, an is com advertising executive at this time, talked with eisenhower repeatedly and said we need to getat you as an individual into these short spots. And he came up with this idea about eisenhower answers america. And the notion is that these would be 20 second spots, very short. E noti and they would have different individuals asking eisenhower a question about his platform, his policies, what he would do as president. And this is, where eisenhower. Really reluctant. This required him to spend an eh entire dana television studio. Rehearsing all of these different lines. They made him take off his glasses. Studio, he couldnt see. So but really, really large cue cards in terms of so he could raze tead the lines. They worked on the lighting, pu makeup on him to make him look attractive. This is where Robert Montgomery again, played a role in terms of thinking about how do we preseny actors and using all of those tools of the trade to present of ike here in a very effective, to efficient way. Eisenhower again was not happy with this. Reluctantly agreed to do it because he saw the potential of reaching new audiences. He did grumble along the way an. One of the most famous quotes in terms of a critique that he s offered was he was exasperated after an entire day of filming off of these commercials and he said, oh, why dont you just hire an actor . It foreshadows the changes that would come in terms of who was d qualified, how we think about qualifications for the presidency. Im going to play a couple here i want you to think about how e. You see all of these production tactics at play with this spot campaign. Eisenhower answers america. General, the democrats are swer telling me i never had it so good. Can that be true when america is billions in debt . E when prices have doubled, when taxes break our backs and we are still fighting in korea . Its tragic, and its time for a change. This one. En eisenhower answers america. You know what things cost today. High prices are just driving me crazy. Yes, my mamie gets after me living. E high cost of its another reason why i say its time for a change. Time to get back to an honest dollar and an honest dollars worth. What do you bout notice with thosei two quick clips. Jack . The big thing i noticed was that both clips, they were looking up at him at a very steep angle which is like they putting him on a pedestal, p please help us. Absolutely. We need help. Excellent. Great, tanner . Ed yeah, so he kind of uses Rosser Reeves unique selling a proposition in this in saying like with these short spots he doesnt give he just gives simplistic answers, not giving very like detailed in depth perceptions to it. Thats what i would have to say. Hes refusing the slogans youve never had it so good as a Democratic Party slogan. Is hes refuting them, not in a lot of detail but hes saying, well, what about the cost of living, you know, and tries to point to refute the an too slogan. S so its not very specific in spf terms of all theic details thate gives, but its a little bit sln more specific than. The slogano that, again, with 20 seconds he can try to refute some of the democratic slogans that theyre running on. Excellent. Kayla . A . Excell yeah, i think today we can laugh at these because you can clearly see him reading the cue cards and thatt like very awkwad pan to the front was kind of comical. But i think for the time this is brilliant because its a person and eisenhower together and theyre talking to each other. It goes one step further than t the fireside chats. Its not just personable over the air waves, its personable in person, with the candidate and the American People have a chance to directly talk to him about their concerns. Excellent. Again, it does personalize this conversation that ordinary americans are talking with this anesidential candidate. It also, if you notice the people they bring in allows him to speak to particular the demographics, women, africanamericans, trying to bring them into the Republican Party. Timing of these afri mattered. So while icans, Adlai Stevenson purchased longer chunks of timet later at night, what the unks o Republican Party did is that they purchased expensive slots that were only 30 seconds long, that were maybe a minute long for the ike for president spot and they purchased those at the end of the most popular shows. So frequently going to carolines point earlier, about how this fits in with the ose at Popular Culture of the 1950s cai when a show would end and this would seamlessly come on youre capturing viewers who are uld already tuned in to a television variety show. And they continue to watch thato because it fits in to those themes that music that perhaps e theyre used to hearing. G. And so what this does is it creates an opportunity for ike p the personalityor to reach out new voters. Ality and toto reach out to perhaps independent voters, or people who had previously voted for the Democratic Party. Or to emphasize this idea that s perhaps youly havent voted before. But theyre going tooperh reach to people as media consumers. And thats a word that was used in their campaign and in studier of their campaign during the 1950s. This notion of how can we appeal to voters as media consumers . No here is another innovation they brought to the campaign trail that you can find through the cspan Video Library that has all of these programs. This is their election eve innoa program where you see Richard Nixon and Dwight Eisenhower sitting nextth to one another lookingpr clearly uncomfortablen camera, but they went on camera. And thats the key thing is they went on camera the night beforen the election, and they talked about whatthin they wanted to dt office. And then the election eve special goes from them to then showing scenes of them, ial eisenhower leading troops in world war ii, and some scenes of them campaigning around the country. So again it gavey. That persona connection. The election eve program from 1956 goes a step farther. In that they organized ike celebrations all across the country. In san francisco. Inco detroit. And they had cameras there capturing the surge of support that eisenhower had across the country. And it showed it. It linked region to region. Through this election eve , special. Andlinked then ended at the whi house. So again, its trying to createi a national electorate, to to overcome different divides in region, and even class. And social status through television, trying to build a new constituency for the Republican Party through that language of television. And for the Republican Party and Dwight Eisenhower it worked. Media analysts, after the 1952 o election noted thatn eisenhower and republicans used this new efdium more effectively, to attract a wider range of voters and to bring in new people to the Republican Party. At and so i think thats a really key thing here, thinking about i how you could use a new medium to bring in individuals that may not have been engaged in the political process before. They they may not be invested in like workers are whose al negotiating rights depended on building that new deal coalitioc or farmers who their economic interests depended on new deal programs, rather youre appealing to media consumers and finding aa way to get them ino invested emotionally into the c political process. So one of the effective things that eisenhower does is he in brings these innovations from thempaign campaign trail to then housed itself and transforms th white house into a production studio. Literall and this is very literally. Y. They tookthey t the basement a basement kitchen of the white house and turned it actually into a production studio itself with cameras. Help and he had the help of Robert W Montgomery who went from a Campaign Adviser on his media strategy to the First Television adviser as an official function of the white house staff. And he ultimately eisenhowers researching ways f that he can capitalize on television and get people interesteded in what hes doings an individual from the white house. So he experimented with television the same way that fdr had experimented with radio. Mend and again, this is on purpose. What Robert Montgomery talks about in internal memos is he f says fdr was have innovative an we need to pick up from where h left off and take the presidenc into the next chapter with television and so he has a variety of different tactics ern that het introduces. In 1954 theres the first televised Cabinet Meeting. Net mt this is also available through v theai cspan archives. And i would show you a clip but it is incredibly muddled and i think that shows as to how it it not as effective. Ef eisenhower was really reluctant to have a televised Cabinet Meeting but his press secretarys said thats this is a great t opportunity to like radio before James Hagerty his press secretary said that television u allows you to go to the people. Quote, and go directly to them without them having to read warped and slanted stories by the press. Pres so again that same way of using a new medium to by pass Critical Coverage in the press and allow eisenhower to connect directly e to viewers. So he tries a televised Cabinet Meeting. But the issue with the televisn Cabinet Meetingcr is that it wa incredibly scripted as you can imagine. They set upup cameras and people script had scripts that they were wa literally reading and it was clear that this wasas scripted. So yes, they talked about the tk issues of the day,ed Foreign Policy and economic challenges but they did so in a way that d didnt seem like it was actualli a fly on the wall where you were seeing these policy discussions, rather, it was just another opportunity to bring other brin figures of the president ial administration into the media eye to talk about policy. Lso ha he also had the first televised press conference. And this is a tradition that has become ingrained in the presidency ever since then. But again, he had reporters. Was it was televised but it was not televised live. Live he had reporters come in, ask certain questions of eisenhoweru but at the end of the day James Hagerty and Robert Montgomery were ablert to edit and to cute anat they didnt like from this press conference. And so some people celebrated ni theseon innovations as democrac in action. Others lamented that it was cens white house censorship and news management. Madan that this was just anothe form of manipulation. Perhaps the biggest innovation i thatsenh Dwight Eisenhower brin with television to the office of the presidency is the tradition that still persists to this dayi and that is the idea of sitting at his desk and giving an address about a National Crisis as it unfolded. I want you im going to play this quick clip of an address that he delivers during the little rock crisis when the segregationists who did not want to integrate schools in little rock refused to allow africanAmerican Students to enroll in their high school. And so ultimately because brown v. Board had just recently beent passed Dwight Eisenhower decided that it was his role as pr president to enforce the brown v. Board decision and send federal troops to little rock to ensure that these could American Students enroll. And to integrate the high school in little rock. And he delivers this address during this moment of National Crisis. During this moment in which he had just sent federal troops ton thet south to implement a national law or the decision that had been handed down by th Supreme Court. Su and so think about the controversies. Weveoked looked at these debaa over race and federal authority versus states rights and how a theyve really embroiled rica american politicsn over the previousce century. Its this moment of crisis. And he uses television to frame whats happening as it is unfolding. An again, i want you to think about how this is different from the newsreels and the fireside chats that Franklin Roosevelt used. Office in the white house in washington, d. C. We present a special address by the president of the United States dwightwe d. Eisenhower. Mr. Eisenhower discusses the integration problem at little ar rock, arkansas. Ck, ladies and gentlemen, the men, president of the United States good evening, my fellow citizens. Minutes this evening i should like to speak to you aboutut the serious situation tt has arisen in little rock. To make this talk i have come to the president s office in the i white house. I could have spoken from rhode island, where i have been staying recently. That but i felt that in speaking frol the house ofinco lincoln, of jackson, and of wilson, my words would better convey both the sadness i feel and the action i wass compelled today to make, and the firmness with which i inten to pursue this course until thee orders of the federal court at little rock can be executed without unlawful interference. U in that city, under the leadership of demagogic detremists disorderly mobs have deliberately prevented the carrying out of proper orders from a federal court. Local authorities have not eliminated that violent opposition. Andthe under the law i yesterd issued a proclamation, calling upon the mob to disperse. N this morning the mob again fron gathered in front of the centrao high school of littleol rock. Obviously for the purpose of, again, preventing the carrying out of the courts order relating to the admission of negro children to that school. Lh whenever normalenev agencies prd inadequate to the task and it becomes necessary for the executive branch of the federale government to use its powers and authority to uphold federal courts, the president s responsibility is inescapable. In accordance with that responsibility i have today issued an executive order utive directing theor use of troops under federal authority to aid in the execution of federal laws at little rock, arkansas. This became necessary when my proclamation of yesterday was nb not observed and the obstruction of justice still continues. So what does he do here . What power does this give him . Carolyn . So he as the executive shows that he is listening to whats happening around the country and hes likeshows theh one to, you know,e have a stak in it. To he talks about the executive in order that he makes. And of course the Supreme Courtk subsequently has, i think its cooper v. Aaron, where they bro enforce like the brown decision. But as the executive hes is showing like, yes, i am the figure that represents america and im here talking about this first. Sorepr i think that that effect really interesting and important. Excellent. Caitlin . Yeah, i wasitlin . Going to s shows very clear executive power in this moment that i am the e president of the United States and youou will obey this execute order that i have am trying to enforce because of a Supreme Court decision. This is how our laws work. Our out also he doesnt directly call out he calls out like the police there in little rocku but he puts the emphasis really on these demagogue extremists, the people rather than the government there, the local government, and governor fabis, im from little rock so this is important to me. He doesnt call out the local government there for not enforcing anything which i think is interesting because i think toth ays hesan tryingythi hes not trying to isolate and push them away for not doing their job, basically, but hes putting the emphasis really on the people and these mobs and that theyre out of control but its not really thear politicia that are really toe blame for this. Why do you think he does es that . Whats thethat goal . Go because thats on purpose, the way he frames it. I think hes trying to like keep them in draw them into the party, especially as theres theyre kind of undergoing this shift between de the democrats and the Republican Party like ideals i think are i starting to shift and southern democrats, that the idea of the southern Democratic Party is e t changing and so hes trying to pull inin southerners and southn politicians to into the y. Republican party. Ab absolutely. So at the same time that he is t forced to finally take a stancee on the little rock crisis and send krotroops in and he does f that its his obligation as thed executive to follow the law of the land but at the same time the republican National Committee is undergoing a ety variety of studies that they call operation dixie where theyre thinking about ways in which they can capitalize on th divides growing in the Democratic Party between southern conservatives and more liberal northern democrats that want to actocrats on civil rig. So its a really calculated move in terms of how he frames it, e that you absolutely hit on. Excellent. Id find it kind of drew ironic that he chose Andrew Jackson of all people to talk about when talking about the enforcement of a Supreme Court u decision given thatt one of gi jacksons most famous decisions was not to listen to the Supreme Court in the case of the indian removal act. But also one thing he makes very clear is this is to continue off of the absolving Government Point he makes it very clear reo that this is a last resort. Its very much the people are not listening to what has been said previously so we have to send the army in to enforce this decision because we are a nation of laws and those laws must be followed. Excellent, great. Ryan . Highlight what eisenhower said at the beginning, he was like ive com to the white house when i coulds have just been ine wh rhode isl and thats clearly for the of visual aspect of this address because its over the radio, doesnt matter where he is. Over but he goes back to the white e house to, one, lend credibilit to what he is saying and two, o draw comparisons to those n president s he mentioned, barrino jackson not respecting the Supreme Court, hes trying to th lend legitimacy to his actions e and the actions of the federal n government through the location hes hegivi giving the ng addre yes, thats very key, youre absolutely right. He recognizes the visual power of the oval office. And this is something that presd president s time and time again. Will continue to invoke, that a visual power and they will use h these addresses from that very same spot to talk to the countr in moments of crisis. And so, again, this is a really new development that eisenhower recognizes in terms of shifting the Power Dynamics and as you and caitlin mentioned, overwhelmingly its the president thatsesiden taking a and the president dominates television, especially in in comparison to congress at this time. So its co part of that visual shift in terms of who is taking action, who is leading the leavn country. Thats centering morethe in th executive branch than in the legislative branch. So, to get to the question that te started with today. Does television revolutionize id the presidency or does it just build on trends that are already in place . Does something fundamentally ange with television in the presidency . Caroline. I think its a mix of both. I dont know if thats the best answer. For historians. Theres always trends in the media and even with just the presidency we talk about th eisenhower being the first presd personality president and that t translates into fdrs radio addresses where he uses rhetoric that Everyday Americans can understand but i think thehe thn biggest thing with television being introduced into the presidency is this idea of a mediaia institution. Ediate douglas in her article gets inta that a little more later with kd kennedy. Buty re this idea that there a these agencies now, pr ke agencies pr as a profession e comess into existence in this because there is this idea that there is a way to use media, not even paid advertising, to make your message more known and make it seem credible and make people jump on board with it and this idea that there are these normsh that have to be addressed and t understood with television as well. Well the idea that there is this institution behind television, not just not just the medium itself, not just the fact that its visual but that theres an institution surrounding it. A great observation. You saw that in the beginning oe this. Where if you notice they showed him walking up to his desk. K. They showedd the tv cameras ando frequently footage of eisenhowe in the oval office would show that that production scene seen around it, newspapers would report on that and say, oh, thea realy th excitement was behind camera and they would describe what was happening. G. There is an education that the entire public gets about how media as an institution works. That comes with the use of television and the implement cation of this studio in the oval office. Excellent. Tanner . Yeah, id like to bring a point, like with television now its going to bring a lot more transparency to the executive branch now that they do have visuals andhave this being moree personable, like when they get into familys homes and they gather around the tv and get toh watch theer actual president gi speeches andd address certain ci agendas and everything else. Excellent. Great. Ryan . I think the use of television is revolutionary in the fact that it changes who can be major party candidates. S. I thin i think it would have been much more difficult for fdr with his polio to be a successful president in the 1950s because his campaign and staff was ythig always doing everything they ply could to play down his physica ailment. Ead but instead with television its much easier to use the cult of l personality that roosevelt used to appeal to the people and thee i think youll see later candidates in kennedy and reagan use different backgrounds than say the Party Politics that trm crewman or mckinley or any of the a lot of the antebellum president s came out of and that i think, is the biggest change e that television creates on the s presidency. Excellent, yes, it challenget party structures. S. And itit allows for those peop who can command Media Attention to not have to negotiate and bed wheel and deal behind the scenes to gain power and privilege within the party. To but to go to the public. And, you u know, this does set e very nicely what comes next on thursday, which is the 1960 election. When john f. Kennedy does exactly that. Brent . Sorry about the delay. But what i was going to say was also on the opposite side of th that as kelly mentioned in thei article that we read you had things like the Eisenhower Nixon Research Group that sort of codified a Party Machine version too. T it was less about being the king maker, and more about taking nt what limited money they had, which it was millions of dollars. Ns it wasnt limited by like normal scope. But it was they did have a budget and figuring out what th most effective way to spend thav money e was. Absolutely. So new challenges within the party itself to think about how to adapt and take advantage of the media landscape. Ndsc and thenap the role of individus that then who are not out orh not a part of the party can think about ways in which they can foreground themselves to make the party take them y. Seriously. Again, isan something that Stanley Kelly talks aboutr i tably, in this particular excerpt. And im going to give you a brief second to read this. And its part of the reading bu i think it really gets at the core of what youre talking about in terms of changing parte structures. That happened because of publi relations and television. So if youre a candidate that is looking to win a president ial nomination from your party, and its really telling that this is stanley kel kelley jr. , hes a political scientist at princeton and one of the first people to actually study this question of Public Relations and Power Dynamics, how this new industry of Public Relations is shifting the Power Dynamics in american politics during the 1950s. This comes out in 1956. If you are an astute and eager public official and you want to think about a president ial nomination how would you take this advice that he gives and perhaps apply it to your campaign . Caitlin . I think you have to become a celebrity. Absolutely. Within your own rite, somehow politically or otherwise, you could be reagan and be an actor, or a radio talk show host, or something on the radio that he did, i dont remember. Or, you know, you become a political celebrity. But either way you have to make publicity for yourself. Absolutely. In order to capture the public imagination before you even Start Talking about your policies. In order to get that attention that you are a person, and that youre seeking this nomination and that youre like a person of the people, again a celebrity. Excellent. The importance of a systematic large scale privately sponsored publicity buildup in order to gain political legitimacy and this is something that john f. Kennedy studies and recognizes and uses in his campaign to win the democratic nomination in 1960. And its notable as we will talk about on thursday that his challenger was Lyndon Johnson, the most powerful democrat in the country that had all of the authority of working within the Democratic Party, since the time of the new deal, building up his credibility and his authority, his ability to manipulate votes in the senate. Those two were the leading contenders of for the democratic president ial nomination in 1960. And its very telling that john f. Kennedy is on the ticket as president and Lyndon Johnson is on the ticket as vice president. And so how that came about, and the 1960 campaign, when we have all of these conflicting ideas about who should have authority. All of that will be the story we look into on thursday. Great job today. Weeknights this month on American History tv its the contenders, our series that looks at 14 president ial candidates who lost the election but had a lasting effect on u. S. Politics. Tonight we feature 1964 republican president ial nominee barry goldwater, the senator from arizona who was called mr. Conservative, lost in a landslide to president lyndon b. Johnson but paved the way for younger conservatives. Watch tonight starting at 8 00 eastern and enjoy American History tv this week and every weekend on cspan3. Next on American History tv, university of virginia Professor William hitchcock talking about Dwight Eisenhowers political and military career, the White House Historical association hosted this event. And now to the lecture part of our program. Our speaker tonight is dr. William hitchcock, author of the age of eisenhower, america and the world in the 1950s, dr. Hitchcock is the william w. Cork ran professor of history at the university of virginia where he