I imagine Harry Truman himself would have enjoyed this performance by James Whitmore, but he would have disliked the closing music. Truman is known to have hated The Missouri Waltz, especially after having heard it at nearly every whistle stop he made in 1948.
Whitmore was nominated for an Oscar for this “movie”. Makes me wonder why more theatrical one man/woman shows were not filmed in this way and then submitted for Oscar consideration. I think there may have been a rule change introduced that prevented this from happening again.
One man/woman shows are pretty tough to do even for the best of actors and it’s largely considered a novelty. Plus when it’s only one actor that gives them a license to ham it up and overact. So I think the academy chose to deter future nominations. That said, more of them should be preserved (i.e. Holland Taylor as Ann Richards) and at least Hal Holbrook’s Mark Twain show was.
I agree, it's weird that there isn't more. Spalding Grey was nominated for an independent spirit award for Swimming to Cambodia. Pryor was nominated for a National Board of Review for his stand up special in '79.
This has got to be one of the greatest performances i have ever seen one person give. WHAT AN ACHIEVEMENT... I was captivated the whole time and could not believe how one person could hold an entire 1.5 hrs. That is SIMPLY AMAZING.... unbelievable... VERY underrated actor....
Truman is actually one of my favorite presidents, I've always been a sucker for the underdog. Not an impressive resume for the job, a man of modest means, some failed business ventures, got his entry into politics via Boss Pendergast, ultimately got a Senate seat, then was cast into the thankless task of being FDR's 3rd Vice President, presumably never to be heard from again, then thrust into the limelight upon FDR'S death. Was a POTUS ever tossed into a deeper end of the pool than Truman? He'd only been VP for a couple of months and had met with FDR perhaps twice during which they discussed nothing of consequence. FDR had been and always will be our longest serving president, most thought of Harry as a nobody who could never fill his shoes. Germany was ready to throw in the towel but the Japanese were still fighting desperately on Okinawa. Then a week or two into his office Secretary Stimson took him aside and said, "Mr President, we've had some eggheads cooking up a little something in the NM desert that you need to know about now." Truman had to decide what to do about the bomb (he chose the least abhorrent option, IMHO) and also how to deal with Uncle Joe Stalin in the postwar world. The Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan were masterstrokes, IMHO. If the lights are on, the trains are running on time, the food supply is stable, and there's work to be had, demagogues touting Marxism or other totalitarian ideologies lose their audience. Containment kept communist expansion at bay until it went out with a whimper instead of an apocalyptic bang, though it took decades of nuclear deterrence and some close calls to achieve the result. Our motto at SAC was Peace is our Profession. The MAD doctrine was a suicidally risky way to keep the peace, but it worked. But I digress, the bottom line is that Truman was a better POTUS than many give him credit for, IMHO. Give 'em hell, Harry!
Great performance my parents and i saw this and i loved it. Harry was a no nonsense type of guy spoke plain and to the people that's in part why he won the '48 election.
One-man shows are such a challenge to pull off. The actor has no one and nothing to back him up or lean upon other than his command of the character and has to imply any action going on around him while delivering his monologue, and has nobody else to react to. It has to be the loneliest acting job to do. I've seen both this production and the PBS special one-man presentation Harry Truman: Plain Speaking which stars Ed Flanders as Truman. Both are very well done for the media they were designed for --- the Whitmore show here for a live audience and the Flanders special for a closed television studio.
I expressed the same sentiments as you did about a one-man show after I watched Robert Morse as Truman Capote, another stunning performance in a one-man show. I marveled at Morse's solo performance, and I marvel again at James Whitmore.
When Truman talks about McCarthy the similarities to Trump are bone chilling. Like McCarthy, Trump and his minions call everyone who disagrees with them Communists. It isn’t coincidence that Trump was good friends with McCarthy’s lieutenant Roy Cohn.
I love those moments when Whitmore very subtly breaks up on the stage (I think the British call it "corpsing"). It doesn't hurt his performance at all; it just makes things more fun for that audience.
I saw this film when it was first released, one of the few instances of a movie getting a standing ovation. Whitmore's performance as Truman is pure genius, matched only by his acting in "Black Like Me," another portrayal of a real-life heroic man in a controversial story!
I happened upon this in 1983 while on deployment in the Navy. It aired over AFTV. I loved it so much I bought a video copy. Now I queue this up a couple of times a year. Hoping for another upfront no nonsense president again.
"Congratulations Tom Dewey" ( at 1:26:45 ) was actually written years later by Milt Larson and Richard Sherman - of the Sherman brothers, for an album of similarly apocryphal comic songs.
That's so cool. (This was my dad's show and Whitmore and he became incredibly close. He was an incredible man. Every time I watch this I still manage to be stunned at the performance. Really glad my dad thought, "I will find a way to make it pay for itself but we're getting this on film. Even better was him letting it be free to the world early on instead of lording the copyright.)
Truman stood for a big government driven by everyone paying their fair share in taxes, nationalized healthcare, and a progressive stance on social rights. There are lots of politicians who have that same perspective today, and you call them liberal nuts too.
When he was doing "Give 'Em Hell, Harry" back in 1976, Whitmore came to San Diego State University, where I was a journalism student, and gave a speech supporting Jimmy Carter for president. Some of us went up to him afterwards to get a quote from him and get his autograph.
LOL, this is what I've been saying. Yup. Dad saw this and thought, well, first he thought, "THIS IS AMAZING AND WHITMORE NEEDS AN OSCAR." Then he thought, "we could use this to get Democrats elected." So he organized a whistle stop campaign and they did just that... and had a helluva time doing it. If you saw (heard) a loud red headed Irishman around that was my dad. 🙃
It won't be done overnight, but after reading the comments I will look into it. I didn't really think about it before because it's so obscure, but it's crazy how well it has held up.
What is man that he should live without the gospel for salvation. Where shall a person go for safety from the living God. The sin of man is so great that Jesus had to pay for it on the cross.. The gospel 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 and read Romans 10:9-10. Romans 5:1 the peace with God. Videos to understand the gospel: The Grace Gospel, do you know what it is? and Why Rightly Dividing Bible Study l and ll. For those who stay in unbelief Revelation 20:12-15. For eternity with out end. May God bless all who search for his truth. Always give thanks to God.
Yes, Ed Flandes in "Plain Speaking," was better in that he looked and sounded more like Harry S Truman. Nonetheless, this is a good performance by James Whitmore.
@@WAL_DC-6B Strange, because Margaret Truman thought Whitmore put in an uncannily spot on impression of her father. Personally, I thought Ed sounded mostly like Ed.
Truman favored universal health care. JFK supported Medicare...that your Republicans STILL are trying to destroy...sorry "reform with privatization." Look up either man and what he said about Republicans...who back then weren't half as radical as they are today.
Donald Trump is the modern day version of Harry Truman. Sadly, Harry would be treated the exact same way as Prez Trump now. He was anyway, for the most part.
Thomas McDonald, Oh, my Lord, no. You obviously know little about either man. Harry Truman was an honest and straightforward man, a dirt farmer, with no ego who genuinely cared for the average American and eschewed too much wealth for too few, including himself. He worked for 15 years to pay back every creditor every dollar he owed rather than declare bankruptcy and leave his creditors receiving pennies on the dollar. Truman read all 3,000 books in his local public library before he began high school. Trump, on the other hand, is a vain, narcissistic, entitled flimflam man, who was born to great wealth and privilege. He cares for no one but himself and cares nothing for average Americans, holding them in contempt, and enacted policies to concentrate even more wealth in the fewest hands. He repeatedly uses bankruptcy to shield himself from his disastrous business practices and to stiff all of those to whom he owes money. Trump doesn’t even read. He got into Penn’s Wharton School using wealth and influence and one of his Wharton professors characterized Trump - years before he sought political office - as the dumbest student he ever had. And as Republican Senator Mitch McConnell said, Trump is morally and practically responsible for the insurrection on 6 January. Truman would prosecute Trump. Please completely read objective biographies of both men and then get back to us.
I will add that Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden are all far more conservative than either Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, and Trump and the Republicans claim all the former are "socialists" so you can't possibly consider Trump a contemporary version of Truman. Truman personally faced down the KKK and white supremacists. Trump is not even willing to denounce or separate himself, and in fact, courts and offers dog whistles to exactly the same people Truman denounced.
Harry Truman would never stand to be mentioned in the same sentence as trump, let alone be present in the same room with him. Had Truman been aware of him and his (mal)administration, he would have spent every waking moment sounding the alarm, opposing him, condemning trump and all he stands for. Truman was an actual president. Truman understood that the president must be a person of decency, competence, empathy and intelligence. Truman was a patriot and an honest man, a great president. He also knew, read and understood history and the responsibilities of the presidency and all it stands for. trump is...I must remember I am in polite company. Never equate Truman with that monster.
Thomas McDonald Trump and Truman are about as far apart as two human beings can be. Truman wasn't a pussy draft dodger for one. Also while president he pulled over and helped a lady herd her hogs back into a pen. Trump gassed a bunch of people in order to get his picture taken in front of a church holding a bible that he has never read while Truman read it twice.
The post World War II policy of the U.S. government after control of much of eastern Europe some Asian countries and east Berlin was given to the Soviet Union was to stop the spread of communism through "containment." North Korea was supported by the Soviet Union because it was part of the communist bloc since its formation and South Korea was our ally. So the invasion of South Korea by North Korea was seen as a communist threat and an attempt to spread communism. In addition, we had what was known in the U.S. as the "red scare" where Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin began a witch hunt where he accused many government officials and famous people of being communists and communist spies.
@@retroguy9494 -They called it a witch hunt, but some of the people he investigated at first were, in fact, communists or communist sympathizers. Unfortunately, the investigation took on a paranoid life of it's own, targeting people who were far outside the yoke of anything resembling communism; Hence, in the end, the "witch hunt" description.
@@williamanthony9090 Yes, you are correct! But some of those people that were sympathizers (and there were VERY few) were insignificant. Very low level people who did not matter in the general scheme of things. And not one person actually went to jail for it. It all began with a lie with a speech to a women's club in Wheeling West Virginia where he waved a piece of paper claiming he had 200 names of communists in the State Department. The AP ran the story. But there were no names. It was a lie. McCarthy was a liar, a crook and a mentally unstable alcoholic. The republican party should have stopped him, but didn't. Sadly, the result was that a lot of GOOD INNOCENT people got hurt. Lost their jobs, were blacklisted, etc.
