The first televised US presidential debate
Witness History
BBC
4.5 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 9 August 2024
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In 1956, the two largest US parties agreed to participate for the first time in a televised debate ahead of the presidential elections. But instead of incumbent President Dwight D. Eisenhower and his Democratic opponent Adlai Stevenson, the audience watched two female representatives defending their candidates.
Former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Senator Margaret Chase Smith took the stage to represent the Democratic and Republican candidates. It was a 30-minute format in which speakers focused on international affairs and civil rights. A panel of journalists asked questions and both women were allowed to render a final statement, setting the path for future debates.
Historians Kate Scott and Janann Sherman tell Stefania Gozzer how the event took place.
Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.
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(Photo: Eleanor Roosevelt and Margaret Chase Smith. Credit: CBS News)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This was in a impregnable fortress. The only way you get out was in a wooden box. |
| 0:05.0 | The controversial maximum security prison impossible to escape from. |
| 0:09.0 | One of the duties of a political prisoner is the escape. |
| 0:12.0 | The IRA inmates who found a way. |
| 0:14.4 | I'm Carlo Gableer, and I'll be navigating a path through the disturbing inside story |
| 0:21.5 | of the biggest jailbreak in British and Irish history. |
| 0:25.0 | The narrative that they want is that this is a big achievement by them. |
| 0:28.5 | Escape from the maze, listen first on BBC sounds. |
| 0:35.0 | Hello, you're listening to the Witness History podcast from the BBC World Service with me, |
| 0:43.2 | Stephanie Agotzer. |
| 0:45.0 | Let me take you to the 4th of November, |
| 0:47.0 | 1956 to the set of the CBS TV show, Face the Nation, |
| 0:51.0 | where the first televised American presidential debate is about to take |
| 0:55.4 | place. |
| 0:56.4 | Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt and Senator Margaret Chase Smith, Face the nation. You're about to see the widow of the late Democratic President, Mrs Franklin D Roosevelt, |
| 1:10.4 | and the only woman to have served in both the House and Senate of the United States |
| 1:14.8 | Mrs Margaret Chase Smith. |
| 1:17.2 | Face the nation with questions from veteran correspondence representing the nation's |
| 1:21.2 | press. |
| 1:22.2 | Yes, you heard it right. The speakers are two women. To understand this, let's take a quick look |
| 1:27.8 | back at what was happening in that electoral campaign. Incumbent President Dwight D. Eisenhower is trying to secure a second term, |
| 1:37.0 | and his opponent, Democrat Adlery Stevenson, has a difficult path ahead. |
... |
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