December 5 - Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years

Today’s movie is a biographical drama with a scene that happens on December 5. Watch it tonight and enjoy.

ELEANOR AND FRANKLIN: THE WHITE HOUSE YEARS

Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt visit the White House on the day before her uncle Theodore Roosevelt’s inauguration for his second term. We jump ahead to FDR’s first inauguration where he gives his famous “Fear Itself” speech. In his first Hundred Days FDR pushes an extraordinary amount of progressive legislation through Congress, while Eleanor is his eyes and ears touring the country to gauge public opinion. On December 5, 1933 [30:28 to 36:43] the President and his staff celebrate the end of Prohibition. FDR creates Social Security and is elected to a second term, but has to drop his court-packing plan to circumvent Supreme Court opposition to his agenda. His son James has to undergo major surgery, which causes Eleanor to think back to the death of her infant son Franklin, Jr. When the DAR refuses to let African-American Marian Anderson sing in their Constitution Hall, Eleanor resigns from the organization and arranges for Anderson to give a concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. When the war breaks out in Europe FDR decides to run for an unprecedented third term in office and wins. FDR’s personal secretary, Missy LeHand has a stroke. FDR meets Winston Churchill and together they issue the Atlantic Charter. The FDR’s mother who had been living in the White House with them dies. After Pearl Harbor FDR asks Congress to declare war on Japan in his famous “Day of Infamy” speech. He is a tireless war leader, including traveling to the Casablanca Conference where a policy of unconditional surrender was decided on in regards to the Axis powers. Eleanor often visited wounded troops and FDER runs for and wins a fourth term as President. Only three months into it, FDR dies of a stroke. After his death Eleanor learns her own daughter betrayed her by allowing FDR’s mistress to dine at the White House while her mother was away. FDR is buried at Hyde Park.

FDR was a great President. However his adultery made him a despicable person. This is a movie that tells a story with great historical accuracy.

FDR by Jean Edward Smith (Random House, New York, 2007) at page 316 gives the date Prohibition ended

Producers - Harry R. Sherman and David Susskind

Director - Daniel Petrie

Screenplay - James Costigan and Joseph P. Lash

Awards – The film won the Outstanding Achievement in Costume Design for a Drama Special, Outstanding Achievement in Make-Up, Outstanding Art Direction or Scenic Design for a Dramatic Special, Outstanding Directing in a Special Program - Drama or Comedy, Outstanding Film Editing for a Special, Outstanding Individual Achievement in Any Area of Creative Technical Crafts and Outstanding Special - Drama or Comedy Emmys. It was also nominated for the Outstanding Achievement in Film Sound Editing for a Special, Outstanding Achievement in Film Sound Mixing, Outstanding Achievement in Music Composition for a Special (Dramatic Underscore), Outstanding Cinematography in Entertainment Programming for a Special, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama or Comedy Special (Herrmann), Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama or Comedy Special (Alexander), Outstanding Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Comedy or Drama Special (Harmon), Outstanding Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Comedy or Drama Special (McGinn), Outstanding Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Comedy or Drama Special (Murphy) and Outstanding Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Comedy or Drama Special Emmys at the 29^th Primetime Emmy Awards.

Runtime – 3 hours

Released – March 13, 1977

Starring –

Edward Herrmann as Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR), 32nd President of the United States

Jane Alexander as Eleanor Roosevelt, 34th First Lady of the United States

Priscilla Pointer as Marguerite Missy LeHand. Long-time secretary to Franklin

Walter McGinn as Louis Howe, intimate friend to both Roosevelts and political advisor

Rosemary Murphy as Sara Delano Roosevelt, Franklin's mother

Blair Brown as Anna Roosevelt Halsted, Eleanor and Franklin's eldest child

David Healy as Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States, uncle to Eleanor

Peggy McCay as Grace Tully, long-time friend/secretary to Eleanor

Donald Moffat as Harry Hopkins, one of Franklin's closest advisors

Toni Darnay as Malvina Thompson, Eleanor's personal secretary

Barbara Conrad as Marian Anderson, an American contralto singer.

Morgan Farley as William Plog, managed the Roosevelts' Hyde Park estate

Mark Harmon as Robert Dunlap, a soldier

Anna Lee as Laura Delano, FDR's cousin

Linda Kelsey as Lucy Page Mercer Rutherfurd, mistress of FDR

Colin Hamilton as Irwin "Ike" H. Hoover, Chief Usher of the White House

Ray Baker as James Roosevelt, oldest son of the Roosevelts

Brian Patrick Clarke as John Aspinwall Roosevelt, youngest child of the Roosevelts

Don Howard as Elliot Roosevelt, son of the Roosevelts who served in World War II

Joseph Hacker as Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr., son of the Roosevelts

Charles Lampkin as Irvin McDuffie, FDR's African-American valet

Arthur Gould-Porter as Sir Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Robert Karnes as United States Supreme Court Justice Charles Evans Hughes

David Lewis as United States Supreme Court Justice Melville Weston Fuller

Gregory Koontz as Curtis Roosevelt, eldest grandson of the Roosevelts

Davy Muxlow as John Roosevelt Boettiger, Roosevelt's grandson

Copyright by Ivan Walters in 2014.