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Canadian Review of American Studies/Revue canadienne d'etudes amencaines Volume 25, Number 1, Winter 1995, pp. 45-72 "'Such Insulting Trash and Triviality'" Franklin D. Roosevelt's Fala Speech Reconsidered Gil Troy 45 Franklin D. Roosevelt's Fala speech of 23 September 1944 marks a celebrated moment in American electoral history. Running for his fourth term, President Roosevelt faced a surprisingly vigorous challenge from his Republican opponents. With World War II still raging and his health failing, the president had decided to limit his public appearances. After a·disastrous speech in Seattle during the summer, Democrats began to worry that Roosevelt might lose the election. But in his rollicking address to the Teamsters Union convention that autumn night, the old master revived his campaign. The centrepiece of his comeback speech was a sarcastic defense of his Scottish terrier, Fala, from Republican attacks. Appealing as it may be to keepers of the Roosevelt myth, this scenario is not accurate. A closer look at the public reaction to the fala speech reveals that the American people were not as charmed as Democratic partisans, and subsequent historians, claimed. In fact, many voters from both parties found the president's ribaldry offensive. Even Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had done so much to redefine the role of candidates in presidential campaigns, had to conform to the traditional notions of dignified behaviour for the president of the United States. The Fala episode raises questions about how candidates are supposed to behave-and how that behaviour can be assessed. No polls were taken to prove just what the Fala speech accomplished. And even the most sophisticated polls offer no guarantee against myth making. 46 Canadian Review of American Srudies/ Revue canadienne d'etudes amencames Still, regardless of the extent to which the Fala speech helped or hurt the Democrats' chances in 1944, the episode is instructive. Both the speech and the legend that grew around it reflect Franklin D. Roosevelt's need to reassure his core constituency, as well as all Americans, in their historic search for a balance between democratic engagement and traditional dignity in presidential campaigning. Unresolved questions about campaigning propnet1es have repeatedly led to strategic miscalculations-and historiographical errors. In 1844, 1884, 1960, and 1976, among others, candidates found their missteps exaggerated and used as simplistic explanations for complex phenomena-their defeats. Comparing famous campaign blunders with this celebrated masterstroke enhances appreciation for the folkloric and narrative functions of campaigns, and places the Fala speech in its proper context. FDR in 1944: A Tired Old Man? Roosevelt's 1944 campaign began slowly, reflecting his own ambivalence about a fourth term. Roosevelt had aged, seemingly overnight. When the presidential speech-writer Robert Sherwood returned to the White House after eight months in Europe, he was "shocked" by Roosevelt's emaciated, "almost ravaged appearance" (1948, 821).Though anxious to retire to his Hyde Park estate, Roosevelt knew that as long as America remained in the war, he would have to remain as president. A good soldier, Roosevelt could not "leave his post." 1 To oppose the president, the Republicans nominated the forty-two-year-old governor of New York, Thomas E. Dewey. Trim, mustachioed, and energetic, Dewey enjoyed considerable fame from his days as a gang-busting prosecutor. Though somewhat stiff and self-righteous, he demonstrated impressive popular appeal in the presidential primaries. The Republican convention thus drafted him to lead a campaign of youth against the 'tired old men' of the New Deal. With Dewey offering such a dramatic visual contrast to their boss, Roosevelt's aides tried to stage-manage appearances more carefully than ever before. It was not an easy task. While pro-Roosevelt journals printed photo- Gil Troy 47 graphs that showed a thinner but still jaunty president, opponents published pictures of a sick, often-grimacing, old man. 2 As he redoubled his efforts, the White House press secretary Stephen Early complained: "The rumor factory is working overtime-making all it can out of rumors and lies about the President's health." 3 Later that fall, the producer Walter Wanger would send movie technicians to the White House to adjust the lighting for presidential portraits. Although the Hollywood touches would help...

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