FDR and Orson Welles on campaign trail

[Wellesnet]

On November 4, 1944, Franklin D. Roosevelt made his final campaign stop with a speech before a crowd of 40,000 at Fenway Park in Boston. He was joined by Orson Welles and Frank Sinatra.
https://www.wellesnet.com/fdr-orson-welles-frank-sinatra/

[Le Chiffre]

Interesting how Welles and Sinatra were both classified 4F during the war, and both suffered steep career declines after the war. Welles did manage to toss the Isaac Woodard case in the face of conservatives before leaving for Europe, but this final political salvo cost him what was left of his radio career. That's why the complete OW Commentaries series at the Lilly website is so invaluable and was such an amazing surprise. We hear what happened to the Roosevelt era through Welles's own thoughts and words.
https://orsonwelles.indiana.edu/collections/show/9

[Wellesnet]

Eight years before, in 1936, FDR mocks Republican hypocrisy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3RHnKY ... YNA-j8Gbx8

[Wich2]

Interesting how Welles and Sinatra were both classified 4F during the war, and both suffered steep career declines after the war.

Duke didn't go, either, and there were grumblings about him, too.

In a Public biz, perception means a lot; and being seen as "sitting out" something that world-changing, is a big deal. Especially when so many of your audience did serve, as well as peers like Stewart, Fonda, Olivier, and Ford, Wyler, Capra.

- Craig

[Le Chiffre]

In all three cases, those grumblings were perhaps a bit unfair, since all three did a lot to keep morale up during the war by entertaining the troops and/or the American public. In fact, if Welles had been drafted, it's a good bet that the government might have had him do pretty much what he wound up doing anyway: propaganda.

But yes, perception does mean a lot, and both Welles and Sinatra were leftists in their mid-twenties, prime fighting age. Wayne, on the other hand, was pushing 40 by war's end, plus he was a staunch right-winger, so he seemed to recover more quickly.

[Wellesnet]

FDR Had a Famous Ghostwriter: Orson Welles
The legendary actor stumped and even wrote speeches for the 32nd president:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/ ... yiPhwbzdvw

[NoFake]

Beat me to the punch! I was just going to post that.

[Le Chiffre]

According to Callow's HELLO AMERICANS, Welles also had input into speeches by FDR's Secretary of Treasury Henry Morganthau and General Dwight Eisenhower, at that time the Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe:

Early 1944-
'It is entirely characteristic of the extremes so often simultaneously present in Welles's life - one foot in heaven and the other in hell - that on the very day he received a chastening tutorial from the head of an advertising agency on the obligations of being the host of a comedy show, a letter arrived from Henry Morganthau, Secretary of the Treasury, one of the two or three most powerful men in the country, to confirm that they wanted Welles to spearhead the radio campaign to launch the desperately needed Fifth War Loan Drive.

Welles immediately hurled himself, as only he could, into the task of producing the broadcast...It was just like the old days: adrenalin overriding everything. But despite the exhilaration, there was no doubt in Welles's mind of the seriousness of the undertaking, or of the gravity of the hour. Suddenly he was at the heart of great events...

Within days, Welles had a request for (The Treasury Department): WE NEED A TWO-LINE MESSAGE FROM EISENHOWER AS FOLLOWS: "WE KNOW WHAT WE ARE FIGHTING. OUR TERMS ARE ON THE RECORD - UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER. WE WON'T TAKE ANYTHING LESS AND THAT'S WHAT WE'RE GOING TO GET." THE MESSAGE NEEDN'T BE LONGER THEN THIS AND MAYBE EISENHOWER WILL AGREE TO THOSE EXACT WORDS. A week into the job, and Welles is writing dialogue for the Supreme Commander of Allied Expeditionary Forces; ten days earler he had been enduring lectures about the comedy form...Such was the helter-skelter of Welles's life.

The broadcasts succeeded beyond all expectation in the task of raising money, and it was understood the Welles was more responsible than anyone for that result.

'I want you to know,' Morgenthau wrote to him, 'how much I appreciate your help in Texarcana, Los Angeles, and Chicago. The material you prepared for me is by far the best I have ever had."

"If you don't take an interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools" - Plato