Introducing the Television
Image courtesy of biography.com
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In 1960, approximately 88 percent of families in the United States had a television set in their own homes, meaning that over 40,000,000 families had a television. (1) Even more notable is the fact that this number was up from 4,400,000 families from 1950. (2) The first televised presidential debate placed a remarkable new tool into the hands of voters, who now could watch the candidates’ debate each other live on a stage like never before.
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Checkers
Going into the first debate, Nixon was under the impression that he understood how important a televised debate was to his success in the election. Nixon believed that he was a master of television because of the success of his “Checkers Speech,” which showed his personal side, and is widely considered to have saved his career with Eisenhower. (3) But perhaps Nixon’s hubris bested him in his first debate against Kennedy. As Don Hewitt (the producer who ran the first debate for CBS) recalls, Nixon “treated it as just another campaign appearance." (4)
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Nixon holding Checkers the dog. The speech he gave about Checkers arguably saved his career.
Image courtesy of the Richard Nixon Foundation
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How did the Candidates look on television?
Among the most widely cited aspects of the first debate - or of the entire election of 1960 for that matter - was the way in which the candidates looked.
Because the debates were watched on black and white television sets, the dark colors of Kennedy's suit starkly contrasted with the light grey backdrop of the studio, while Nixon “just melted back into the background.” (5)
But even more than the television trick of dressing for the backdrop, Nixon actually had several other things working against his appearance in this debate. In the weeks leading up to the debate Nixon suffered from “the flu, a raging fever, and chills.” (6) And on August 17th, Nixon had badly injured his knee, and then re-injured it getting out of a car the day of the debate. (7) Resulting from his hurt knee, Nixon swayed throughout the debate; never getting his posture quite right and taking viewers focus away from his arguments. (8)
Maybe in a show of masculinity, both candidates declined CBS’s offer of stage makeup. Kennedy went ahead and had his team apply makeup anyway. (9) According to Donaldson, Hewitt said "Nixon's advisors ‘did a dumb thing. Instead of [using] one of television's best makeup artists’ who had come to makeup the candidates for the program, ‘Nixon's guys smeared him with a slapdash layer of something called 'shavestick' that looked ... terrible.’” (10) Nixon himself later acknowledged his appalling appearance in the debate claiming that he “did not look well” to his mother in a phone call. (11)
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This photo does an excellent job portraying the contrast between Kennedy (on the left) and Nixon's (on the right) suit colors.
Image courtesy of nytimes.com Nixon During the first debate.
Image courtesy of deadline.com "Shavestick"
Image courtesy of bruceonshaving.com |
Footnotes:
(1) Theodore H. White, The Making of the President, 1960 (Atheneum Publishers, 1961), 112, https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781125620250/page/266/mode/2up?q=%22flexibility%22.
(2) White, The Making, 279. excerpted in Gary A. Donaldson, The First, 112.
(3) "How 'Checkers' Changed the Game of Television," Richard Nixon Foundation, last modified September 23, 2016, https://www.nixonfoundation.org/2016/09/how-checkers-changed-the-game-of-television/.
(4) Don Hewitt, Tell Me a Story : Fifty Years and 60 Minutes in Television (New York: Public Affairs, 2002), 67, excerpted in Gary A. Donaldson, The First, 114. [HathiTrust]
(5) Oliphant, Sorensen, and Wilson, "50th Anniversary," interview, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
(6) Gary A. Donaldson, The First, 109.
(7) Gary A. Donaldson, The First, 114.
(8) First Kennedy-Nixon Debate, 26 September 1960, performed by John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon, 1960, https://www.jfklibrary.org/asset-viewer/archives/TNC/TNC-172/TNC-172.
(9) Gary A. Donaldson, The First, 115.
(10) Hewitt, Tell Me a Story , 68, excerpted in Gary A. Donaldson, The First, 115. [HathiTrust]
(11) Frank Gannon, "9.26.60," Richard Nixon Foundation, last modified September 26, 2009, https://www.nixonfoundation.org/2009/09/9-26-60/.
(1) Theodore H. White, The Making of the President, 1960 (Atheneum Publishers, 1961), 112, https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781125620250/page/266/mode/2up?q=%22flexibility%22.
(2) White, The Making, 279. excerpted in Gary A. Donaldson, The First, 112.
(3) "How 'Checkers' Changed the Game of Television," Richard Nixon Foundation, last modified September 23, 2016, https://www.nixonfoundation.org/2016/09/how-checkers-changed-the-game-of-television/.
(4) Don Hewitt, Tell Me a Story : Fifty Years and 60 Minutes in Television (New York: Public Affairs, 2002), 67, excerpted in Gary A. Donaldson, The First, 114. [HathiTrust]
(5) Oliphant, Sorensen, and Wilson, "50th Anniversary," interview, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
(6) Gary A. Donaldson, The First, 109.
(7) Gary A. Donaldson, The First, 114.
(8) First Kennedy-Nixon Debate, 26 September 1960, performed by John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon, 1960, https://www.jfklibrary.org/asset-viewer/archives/TNC/TNC-172/TNC-172.
(9) Gary A. Donaldson, The First, 115.
(10) Hewitt, Tell Me a Story , 68, excerpted in Gary A. Donaldson, The First, 115. [HathiTrust]
(11) Frank Gannon, "9.26.60," Richard Nixon Foundation, last modified September 26, 2009, https://www.nixonfoundation.org/2009/09/9-26-60/.