October 5, 1947: The 1st Televised White House Speech

President Harry S Truman (left) and Charles Luckman,

Chairman of the President's Citizens Food Committee,

under a portrait of President Ulysses S. Grant

October 5, 1947: President Harry S Truman becomes the 1st President to deliver a speech from the White House that is broadcast on television.

With World War II only a little over 2 years in the past, there are still food shortages. The Marshall Plan, devised by his Secretary of State, former General George C. Marshall, is trying to do something about this, but it hasn't yet been approved by Congress. (That will take until the following March.) So Truman asks the American people to voluntarily observe meatless Tuesday and poultryless Thursdays. Most do.

Truman said:

The situation in Europe is grim and forbidding as Winter approaches. Despite the vigorous efforts of the European people, their crops have suffered so badly from droughts, floods, and cold that the tragedy of hunger is a stark reality.

The nations of Western Europe will soon be scraping the bottom of the food barrel. They cannot get through the coming Winter and Spring without help, generous help, from the United States, and from other countries which have food to spare.

I know every American feels in his heart that we must help to prevent starvation and distress among our fellow men in other countries.

But more than this, the food-saving program announced tonight offers an opportunity to each of you to make a contribution to the peace. We have dedicated ourselves to the task of securing a just and a lasting peace. No matter how long and hard the way, we cannot turn aside from that goal.

An essential requirement of lasting peace is the restoration of the countries of Western Europe as free self-supporting democracies. There is reason to believe that those countries will accomplish that task if we aid them through this critical Winter, and help them get back on their feet during the next few years. They must do most of the job themselves. They cannot do it if thousands of their people starve. We believe they can, and will, do the job if we extend to them that measure of friendly aid which marks the difference between success and failure.

Their most urgent need is food. If the peace should be lost because we failed to share our food with hungry people there would be no more tragic example in all history of a peace needlessly lost. 

As a gesture of bipartisanship, Truman asked former President Herbert Hoover to assist. Hoover had become known as the President who presided over the start of the Great Depression and didn't do enough to solve it. But one of the reasons he was elected in the first place is that, during World War I, he led a food drive for the starving nations of Europe. Truman knew that he could do it again, and Hoover was moved by Truman's invitation.

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October 5, 1947 was a Sunday. Game 6 of the World Series was played at Yankee Stadium. The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the New York Yankees, 8-6, and forced a Game 7, which the Yankees won. I have a separate entry for this event. On this day, Harry Truman giveth, and Al Gionfriddo taketh away.

These games were played in the National Football League:

* The New York Giants lost to the Philadelphia Eagles, 23-0 at the Polo Grounds.

* The Detroit Lions beat the Boston Yanks (yes, baseball fans, a team with that name existed), 21-7 at Fenway Park in Boston.

* The Washington Redskins beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 27-26 at Griffith Stadium in Washington.

* The Chicago Cardinals beat their crosstown rivals, the Chicago Bears, 31-7 at Comiskey Park.

* The Green Bay Packers beat the Los Angeles Rams, 17-14 at the Dairy Bowl in the Milwaukee suburb of West Allis, Wisconsin. The Dairy Bowl was a football stadium built in the infield of a speedway, now known as the Milwaukee Mile, at the Wisconsin State Fair Park.

And in the All-America Football Conference:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Cleveland Browns, 26-17 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The Baltimore Colts and the San Francisco 49ers played to a tie, 28-28 at Baltimore Municipal Stadium (later converted into Memorial Stadium).

* The Buffalo Bills beat the Los Angeles Dons, 27-25 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. In old Spanish California, a "Don" was equivalent to an English "Lord." The title was also in Italy, which is why Mafia boss were called "Dons."

As for the Bills, this is not the team we know today: When the NFL absorbed the Browns, the Colts and the 49ers after the 1949 season, many people expected them to take the Bills as well, but they didn't. It became known as "The Screwing of Buffalo." When the AFL was founded in 1960, a new Bills team was established, and that's the team we know today.

* Two days earlier, the football version of the Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Chicago Rockets, 35-31.

Also on this day, Brian Johnson, who was hired to replace the late Bon Scott as lead singer of rock band AC/DC, was born.