Give 'em Hell, Harry!

Give 'em Hell, Harry!
Give 'em Hell, Harry!
	Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Steve Binder; Peter H. Hunt; (stage production directed by)
Written by	Samuel Gallu
Produced by	Bill Sargent; Joseph E. Bluth
Starring	James Whitmore
Cinematography	Ken Palius
Edited by	Steve Binder
Music by	Pearl Kaufman
Production; companies	Permut Presentations; Theatrovision
Distributed by	Theater Television Network
Release date	September 18, 1975
Running time	104 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$230,000
Box office	$11,000,000

Give 'em Hell, Harry! is a biographical play and 1975 film, written by playwright Samuel Gallu. Both the play and film are a one-man show about former President of the United States Harry S. Truman. Give 'em Hell, Harry! stars James Whitmore, and was directed by Steve Binder and Peter H. Hunt.

Title origin

The title comes from an incident that took place during the 1948 Presidential election campaign. In Bremerton, Washington, Truman delivered a speech attacking the Republicans. During the speech, a supporter yelled out, "Give 'em Hell, Harry!" Truman replied, "I don't give them Hell. I just tell the truth about them, and they think it's Hell." Subsequently, "Give 'em Hell, Harry!" became a lifetime slogan for Truman supporters.

History

The play previewed in Hershey, Pennsylvania, followed by its official opening at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D. C. Its April 17, 1975, premiere was hosted by Truman's daughter Margaret, and attended by President Gerald Ford. The play then went on to a six-city tour, during which it was videotaped for film on the stage of the Moore Theatre in Seattle, using a live editing process called Theatrovision.^[2] Although the play has been regularly revived, it did not make its New York debut until July 2008 at St. Luke's Theatre.

Awards

James Whitmore was nominated for Best Actor by both the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes. It is only the third film to have its entire credited cast (Whitmore) nominated for an Academy Award, the first two being Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf in 1966, where almost all members excluding the extras were nominated and Sleuth in 1972.^[3] Whitmore was also nominated for, and won, a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Recording.

References

^ Box Office Information for Give 'Em Hell, Harry! Box Office Mojo. Retrieved June 13, 2018.
^ Ebert, Roger (January 1, 1975). "Review: Give 'em Hell, Harry!". Chicago Sun-Times.
^ "Follow these clues to the original 'Sleuth'". USA Today. October 11, 2007. p. 2D.

External links

This article about a biographical film is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

[1] Box Office Information for Give 'Em Hell, Harry! Box Office Mojo. Retrieved June 13, 2018.

[2] Ebert, Roger (January 1, 1975). "Review: Give 'em Hell, Harry!". Chicago Sun-Times.

[3] "Follow these clues to the original 'Sleuth'". USA Today. October 11, 2007. p. 2D.

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v t e Grammy Award for Best Audio Book, Narration & Storytelling Recording
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