Of the 1950s as an era of prosperity where america was a world leader 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 its a political construction. The 1950s, in fact 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 anticommunism targeted the liberal reform impulses of the new deal and frequently, anticommunist took away Civil Liberties and these are all different areas of political pressures in terms of enforcing certain ideals and resisting against those that we will look at next week, but i like ike i like ike as a political construct shifted attention away from those divisions and it created a sense of consensus. In many ways this is a political construction and at the root of it was a very innovative and transform ti 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 presidency, but in fact, it was Dwight Eisenhower. Ike harnessed the power of television to win the presidency and to put forth his vision of america and the world and this is what we are going to look at today. Dwight eisenhower brought developments to the modern american presidency through his leadership style and his organizational approach. In doing this, he built on a lot of the transformations that 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 expanded it with the National Security state. Dwight eisenhower, however, formalized it. He ran his office very much like he did the military. The bureaucracy became a very entrenched and wellfocused and executed component of the american presidency under eisenhower. For example, he had weekly Cabinet Meetings and formed the office of Congressional Liaison so that he could have a formal link to the legislative process and 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 really smooth operation in terms of links with congress, but he also brought this organizational focus to the shifting media environment and transformed the white house into a production studio. And 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, that ultimately really transformed american political communication during the 1950s. So this post world war ii era is really a key moment to understand the rise of entertainment, advertising, television and hollywood in american politics because television really does drastically change the political scene during the 1950s. So the questions that i want us to think about today as we study this particular period are how does television change leadership styles. How does it strange strategies of political communication and qualifications needed to succeed politically . And the key question that were going 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 taking a look at what are the trends that are already in place . Does television launch a significant break in terms of leadership strategies and communications strategies. So what trends are already in place before the launch of television in the 1950s . What does Theodore Roosevelt bring to the presidency . Theodore roosevelt brought, like, increased Media Connections in the beginning of the 20th century to start formalizing the process of, like, the executive office in the media. Excellent. Didnt he also have the west wing so the press would be in the white house to have a connection with them, as well . These are key in terms of he valued the press. He saw the press as an asset, something that he wanted to capitalize on their place to control and help shape Public Opinion. Excellent. Caroline . He also had the fireside chats so there was already this idea of there is this personalized president that if every person has a radio in their home they can listen to him and its like hes speaking to them and using rhetoric that is easy to understand and not complicated political jargon. Franklin roosevelt brings in this idea of the fireside chats. So theeder roosevelt uses the presidency as a bully pulpit. He creates these relationships with journalists and again, uses Public Opinion to launch and advocate for a very specific policies. Franklin roosevelt takes this a step further. So he capitalizes on radio and usees that to create an intimate connection with the american public. And ill play you a quick clip to play you a sentence of what this sounds like thinking 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 the comparably few with those who understand the particulars of banking and the overwhelming majority of you who use banks for the depositing checks. What does he do with the 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 that 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 program, how does he bypass them with the radio . If someone doesnt agree with a particular program, what is he able to do with radio . Hes able to directly appeal to the American People with radio and bypass newspapers that have editorial slants against new deal policies and just to work around old institutions that were against him . Absolutely. Thats really key. Thinking about the power that this gives. It creates that personal relationship, that 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 at this time. Newspapers were more conservative, were more critical of a lot of roosevelts policies, and so the radio becomes a new opportunity to connect directly to audiences, and if you recall, its not just radio that he uses. He also used theaters and Motion Pictures, to sell certain programs. He capitalized on the newsreels that would have 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, you get a president now he gave the land a new deal. You hold the card a new deal. He gave us what we asked for, now pay him back somehow step out in front and get back up in the present and give a man a job now bear with the president and give a man a job in the old name of roosevelt, makes the old heart proud, you take this message straight from the president and give a man a job you look like a banker. Who drives your car . I drive it myself. Have a cigar. Keep your cigar and hire a chauffeur and keep a man from becoming a loafer. My job is extermination, and you must give your workers a weeks vacation. It means no rats allowed. Whats the matter with you . Im a very sick woman. Oh, hypochondriac. Insom nia, and one fors osmosis, halitosis, or any other kind of an itis that will delight us. You have a doctor for every disease youve got and that will give you enjoyment and in that way, madam, you will help to end unemployment. Listen to me, everybody, get back at the president and give a man a job people in the front, you know that i know it. So step up and give a man a job you know who is in the back of that . No . Well, ill tell you, and when i do, it will be harder. You take this message straight from the president and give a man a job [ cheers and applause ] so what does this do thats different from the fireside chats . Go ahead. What turns president ial policy as an entertainment product. Absolutely. Its very much like the beginning of the whole concept of marketing. Absolutely. Excellent. Excellent. Kayla . I was going to say its no longer the president advocating for himself, but its normal people advocating for the president that normal people would want the president and that they are very much for his policies and that he has caused all of this economic boom and all of these all of this prosperity within the country. So the focus, the hero of this story is Franklin Roosevelt, right . Hes featured at the end. His portrait, but he has a variety of other people who are helping sell this, a comedian in this capacity, a variety of different celebrities come out for Franklin Roosevelt to do this. Radio spokesmen and radio personalities all are selling the president for him, so again, a different kind of Production Team in terms of selling a particular approximatepolicy. Excellent. Adam . It kind of creates the sound bite. Yes. If you take different snippets, give back to the president or give a man to a job. Theyre easy to remember jingles and you can put that in some sort of radio advertisement and it appeals to a more general audience. Theyll remember that message whether or not they heard the whole song or not or whether or not they heard about the different ways they could help. They will remember give a man a job. Absolutely. The slogan. Bringing in features of advertising at this time and hollywood, bringing them into politics for those particular policies. And the only reason you will not be humming give a man a job later this day is you will hum i like ike one because it is catchier. Lucas . I thought it was healthier to hold the president up and shally when we think of selling a candidate we think of getting votes and in this case, it was getting the people involved in a spike policy, so its actually helping the common man or the middleclass man to come out and without you, we cant do this, but without you, you can be a part of this grander thing thats helping all americans. That is really key, as well, when we think about media and new media and the new presidency because really effective president s are able to use new media to win elections and also to govern, and to use it as a tool to sell their agenda, as well and making that transition to communication on the campaign trail to communication once in office is really key, and this is what Dwight Eisenhower does with television is also really important because he follows that trajectory in terms of using new media to win an election and regovern as he sets an agenda as lucas pointed out. Again, we see a lot of the new possibilities in terms of presenting an agenda, shaping Public Opinion and promoting a personality that comes with radio and Motion Pictures. So what about television . Does television bring something fundamentally new to american politics and to the american presidency . I want to throw a couple of numbers out because i think it really conveys how dramatically television grew and reshaped american politics. In 1949 only 172,000 Television Set his sold. That number jumped to over 52 million by 1953. This is an incredibly dramatic growth of a new technology that for his politicians to grapple with presenting thepss and their policies tlie voters with tv screens than the radio Motion Picture shorts. And one of the key tings it go about is it caused tremendous to have anxiety and this is post world war ii that its become so powerful. There is concern over the manipulative power of propaganda at this time and the ways it could be used to undermine democracy and promote totalitarian governments and after all, joseph gobeles and adolf hitler and the nazi party in germany had a very effective propaganda machine. It is part of how they were able to consolidate power by limiting information over new medias. So, too, did Joseph Stalin in the soviet union, and so these concerns about the manipulative power of the new media and even old media, Motion Pictures in particular were really at the core of a lot of anticommunist investigations, particularly the ones that featured the Motion Picture industry in 1947. The central question that was debated in the halls of congress as a variety of actors and studio executives came to washington, d. C. , to testify about their political activity was were they using entertainment, were they using their celebrity for undemocratic purposes . One anticommunist film critic told the House Committee that, quote, glamour is appealing. The communists have made excellent use of it for their purpose. They are trying to bedazzle audiences with celebrity, and so this is a question that pervaded national politics. Is entertainment media, Motion Pictures and this new media of television that people werent quite sure what to do with, is this going to undermine democracy . Does it focus more attention on entertainment and can it be used as a way to advance communism . These were central questions that people had. So these nears of propaganda and manipulation are important to understand when we see the different ways that politicians grappled with television some of them embraced television and the ops th opportunities that it had to offer, but overwhelmingly in the 1950s they were very wary of it and the argument that i we dont want to manipulate others by embracing advertising, slick sales advertising in madison avenue. That really dominated Public Discourse during the 1950s. For example, the democratic nominee for the presidency in 1952 and 1956, Adlai Stevenson looked very disdainfully on the medium that sold president s as commodities. Quote, the idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal, i think is the ultimate indignity to the democratic process, argued Adlai Stevenson. He wanted to use this new medium to perhaps expand this message and deliver longer speeches e to emphasize his oratory, but not to use any of those slick sales techniques that not as madison avenue executives were using to sell cereal. He wanted to use this new medium to perhaps expand the message that he was already delivering to audiences and so what he did in the 1952 election is that he had 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 you it did with radio, thats fine, but im not going to appear in these short advertisements. Theres no way that i can talk about a policy in 30 seconds. So instead, Adlai Stevenson worked with the Democratic National committee and purchased longer chunks of time. So an hour, perhaps where he would then go in front of a tv camera and deliver a long speech about a particular policy. Well, what if youre going to purchase an hour of tv time and you have a limited budget, when will that time be . Any thoughts . When can you afford that time . Whenever its cheapest. Absolutely. Which would probably be late at night when its not prime time. When Adlai Stevenson did appear on tv was late at night when the only people watching were perhaps those people who were committed democrats that wanted to watch what Adlai Stevenson had to say. So thats really the only time he appeared in these purchased periods on television and me had his Advertising Team make that again that reflected radio strategies. So ill 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 mcdonald had a farm back in 31 conditions failed him with alarm back in 31 not a chick, chick here, or a moo cow there, just broken down farm anywhere are everywhere he wants to go back to the days of 1931 when he didnt have bread when the day was done farmer mac knows what to do, election day of 52 well go out with everyone in the usa to vote for Adlai Stevenson. With a vote, vote here and a vote, vote everywhere, for what is good for mack, you see is good for you and good for me vote stevenson today all right. One more and then well discuss. Ike bob. Ike. Bob. Im so glad were friend again, bob. Yes, ike, we agree on everything. Lets never separate again, bob. Never again, ike. Bob. Ike. Bob. Will ike and bob really live happily ever after . Is the white house big enough for both of them . Stay tuned for a musical stay tuned for a musical bob and ike now think alike snet with the general in the white house who will give the orders bob or ike . Lets vote for adlai and john. So bob refers to robert taft who is the other contender for the presidency in the Republican Party and he was the more conser