Ronald Reagan on set as the television host for the General Electric Theater. 1954-62.
Source: reagan.utexas.edu
The Development of TV Spots
Television became an important part of campaign fundraising for the 1952 presidential election.
These storyboards are from an Eisenhower campaign strategy book that illustrates how money-raising goals were achieved through “TV Spots.”
“Spots for Eisenhower” -the entire book at The Presidential Timeline
Source: presidentialtimeline.org
Creative Women Behind Ike’s 1952 Campaign
During the 1952 campaign, Jacqueline Cochran, businesswoman and aviatrix, persuaded employees at Walt Disney Studios to produce an animated cartoon in support of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s candidacy.
Staff at Disney worked off the clock to produce the short animated commercial, “We’ll Take Ike.” The lyrics for this song were written by Gil George, who was actually Hazel George. She was first hired as a nurse at Disney Studios. After her knack for writing was discovered she wrote song lyrics for The Mickey Mouse Club and a number of Disney animated feature films.
In the pictured telegram, Jacqueline Cochran wrote, “I personally believe the proposed short could be the greatest piece of propaganda in the whole campaign…” 9/30/52
Also pictured, a letter from Bill Anderson at Disney that accompanied an autographed animation cel setup and copy of the song, “We’ll Take Ike” for the newly elected President Eisenhower. 11/19/52.
-from the Eisenhower Library
Source: presidentialtimeline.org
“Each viewer will see the General just as if he were talking to him.”
For the first time in 1952, television became an important part of campaign strategy for the Presidential election. These notes describe the direction and goals for an upcoming TV appearance in Kansas City by Dwight D. Eisenhower. 9/19/52.
Source: presidentialtimeline.org
Candidates on TV
Dwight D. Eisenhower watching his running mate, Richard Nixon, on television. 9/23/52.
Source: presidentialtimeline.org
The Motion Picture Preservation Lab has been hard at work preserving hundreds of outtakes from President Truman’s 26 part television documentary - Decision: The Conflicts of Harry S. Truman, broadcast November 1964. We’re nearly done! Follow us over the next few Fridays to see what we encountered, and what we’ve accomplished!
The reels pictured here are suffering from extreme levels of vinegar syndrome, as indicated by the yellow strips in the can.
(via todaysdocument)
Source: preservearchives
Watching lift-off from the White House
President John F. Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and others watch the lift-off of the first American in space, Astronaut Alan Shepard. The television is in the Office of the President’s Secretary in White House. 5/5/61
-from the JFK Library
Source: jfklibrary.org
FDR Opens the World Fair on Long Island, New York
On April 30, 1939, Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first president to appear on television by addressing the opening ceremonies of New York World’s Fair.
Listen to his remarks - from The Presidential Timeline
Source: presidentialtimeline.org
President Bush is the first U.S. President to speak live on Chinese Television - February 26, 1989.
Source: presidentialtimeline.org
This photo is of Catcus Pryor, long time radio and television host of KTBC.
In 1942, Lady Bird and Lyndon purchased Austin radio station KTBC with Lady Bird’s inheritance. By the 1950s the Johnsons expanded the radio station into the television market, and Pryor was one of the first faces Austinites got to know over the air. Always the entertainer, Pryor would emcee at programs for the Johnsons.To learn more about Pryor please see our press release honoring this man after his death in 2011.
Worth reblogging for his name alone.
(via lbjlibrary)
