At the New York World's Fair on April 30, 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first commander in chief to appear on television when he formally opened the festivities on a NBC telecast. Since that time, every president and presidential candidate has used the medium -- to various degrees of success, most famously in the John F. Kennedy-Richard Nixon debates of 1960, when Kennedy's calm, self-assured demeanor helped him win the election over his Republican opponent, who was ill at ease and perspiring profusely in front of the cameras.
As the conventions approach this summer to anoint the presidential campaigns of GOP veteran Sen. John McCain and the Democratic newbie Sen. Barack Obama, the UCLA Film and Television Archive is offering a free program Friday, "Four Presidents on Television," at the Billy Wilder Theater. UCLA television archivist Dan Einstein will host the event, which features TV appearances by Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Nixon and Kennedy. (UCLA first presented this program during its preservation festival in 1996.)
Telecast Nov. 18, 1959, Truman's appearance on "The Jack Benny Program" finds the legendary comedian traveling to Independence, Mo., to visit the former head of state and the Truman Library. "Evidentially, Truman and Benny, if not friends, had known each other since the 1940s," says Einstein. "In the summer of 1959, he invited Truman to be on the show. I guess he proposed to Truman that they tape something at the Truman Library, which had just opened."
So in September, Benny, his manager and writers ventured to Missouri and enlisted the CBS affiliate in Kansas City to provide the production facilities.
The quality of the videotape footage from the library is far inferior to what was shot later with Benny on his soundstage in Hollywood. "Remote recording was really difficult, with big, huge cameras and machines," says Einstein. "When they came back, they discovered they had used the wrong microphones, and the sound and picture quality were terrible. Benny didn't want to run the thing, but they had to because there was so much publicity."
Despite its problems, the show was well-received by critics and audiences. And though Truman awkwardly reads cue cards in a comedic bit in his office with Benny, the former president is folksy and funny while leading the comedian around the library. "There is a real kind of warmth there," Einstein says.
