Fireside chats
The fireside chats were a series of thirty evening radio addresses given by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt between 1933 and 1944.
Origin of radio address
According to Roosevelt’s principal speechwriter Judge Clinton Sorrel, he first used "fireside chats" in 1929 during his first term as Governor of New York. Roosevelt faced a conservative Republican legislature so during each legislative session he would occasionally address the citizens of New York directly. He appealed to them for help getting his agenda passed. Letters would pour in following each of these "chats," which helped pressure legislators to pass measures Roosevelt had proposed. He began making the informal addresses as President on March 12, 1933, during the Great Depression.[1]
Chronological list of Presidential fireside chats
- On the Bank Crisis - Sunday, March 12, 1933
- Outlining the New Deal Program - Sunday, May 7, 1933
- On the Purposes and Foundations of the Recovery Program - Monday, July 24, 1933
- On the Currency Situation - Sunday, October 22, 1933
- Review of the Achievements of the Seventy-third Congress - Thursday, June 28, 1934
- On Moving Forward to Greater Freedom and Greater Security - Sunday, September 30, 1934
- On the Works Relief Program - Sunday, April 28, 1935
- On Drought Conditions - Sunday, September 6, 1936
- On the Reorganization of the Judiciary - Tuesday, March 9, 1937
- On Legislation to be Recommended to the Extraordinary Session of the Congress - Tuesday, October 12, 1937
- On the Unemployment Census - Sunday, November 14, 1937
- On Economic Conditions - Thursday, April 14, 1938
- On Party - Friday, June 24, 1938
- On the European War - Sunday, September 3, 1939
- On National Defense - Sunday, May 26, 1940
- On National Security - Sunday, December 29, 1940
- Announcing Unlimited National Emergency - Tuesday, May 27, 1941 (the longest fireside chat)
- On Maintaining Freedom of the Seas - Thursday, September 11, 1941
- On the Declaration of War with Japan - Tuesday, December 9, 1941
- On Progress of the War - Monday, February 23, 1942
- On Our National Economic Policy - Tuesday, April 28, 1942
- On Inflation and Progress of the War - Monday, September 7, 1942
- Report on the Home Front - Monday, October 12, 1942
- On the Coal Crisis - Sunday, May 2, 1943
- On Progress of War and Plans for Peace - Wednesday, July 28, 1943
- Opening Third War Loan Drive - Wednesday, September 8, 1943
- On Tehran and Cairo Conferences - Friday, December 24, 1943
- State of the Union Message to Congress - Tuesday, January 11, 1944
- On the Fall of Rome - Monday, June 5, 1944
- Opening Fifth War Loan Drive - Monday, June 12, 1944
Rhetorical Manner
Sometimes beginning his talks with "Good evening, friends", Roosevelt urged listeners to have faith in the banks and to support his New Deal measures. The "fireside chats" were considered enormously successful and attracted more listeners than the most popular radio shows during the "Golden Age of Radio." Roosevelt continued his broadcasts into the 1940s, as Americans turned their attention to World War II.[2] Roosevelt's first fireside chat was March 12, 1933, which marked the beginning of a series of 30 radio broadcasts to the American people reassuring them the nation was going to recover and shared his hopes and plans for the country. The chats ranged from fifteen to forty-five minutes and eighty percent of the words used were in the one thousand most commonly used words in the English dictionary.[3]
Weekly address
Every US President since Roosevelt has delivered a regular address. Presidents Ronald Reagan through George W. Bush delivered weekly Saturday radio broadcasts, while President Barack Obama introduced providing his address in both audio and video forms, both of which are available online via whitehouse.gov and YouTube.[4] It has long become customary for the President's Weekly Radio Address to be followed an hour later (on the radio) by a 'response' (not always a topical response) by a member of the opposing political party. The respondent from the opposing party changes weekly, while the President is the same for the entirety of their term. Occasionally the Vice President may deliver the address in the absence of the President.[5]
References
- ^ ""Fireside Chat Microphone," 1930s". National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 2008-07-07.
- ^ What Were The "Fireside Chats"?
- ^ The 70th Anniversary of FDR's Fireside Chats, Museum of Broadcast Communications
- ^ President Obama's Weekly Video Address from the White House website
- ^ [1]
Mankowski, Diana, and Raissa Jose. "FDR's Fireside Chats." The Museum of Broadcast Communications. 18 Apr. 2009. 6969
External links
- Entry on the Fireside Chats from the Museum of Broadcast Communications
- The New Deal Network from the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute
- Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, with transcripts and MP3 recordings of most of the Fireside Chats
- The Real Deal: Media and the Battle to Define FDR's Social Programs at the University of Virginia: audio with editorial and cartoon reactions.
- Vincent Voice Library at Michigan State University, with many Roosevelt speeches in mp3 format