Cold Open

It’s March 6th, 1933, in the White House, in Washington, D.C., two days after President Franklin D. Roosevelt took office.

America’s new First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, descends the stairs from her private quarters and walks down a long hallway. She's about to do something unprecedented, something many consider shocking or even scandalous, but she is determined to see it through.

At the end of the hall… an usher opens the door to the Red Room, a parlor typically used for entertaining.

Today, though, the Red Room is packed with reporters—35 of them in all, and every one of them is a woman. This is the first time a First Lady has ever called her own press conference—and Eleanor has made the controversial decision to only include female journalists.

A hush falls over the room as the reporters spot Eleanor standing in the doorway. There aren’t enough chairs in the cramped space, so many of them sit on the carpet or lean against the walls. Producing a box of candied fruit from a pocket in her dress, Eleanor asks the woman nearest to her to pass it around before moving into the center of the room.

Cameras flash as she collects her thoughts, and then, Eleanor begins to speak.

The reporters scribble on their notepads, hanging on her every word. Calmly, Eleanor explains why she's called this press conference and why she has excluded men from it. She says that, for too long, women have lacked a voice in America. But from now on, she intends to use these meetings to speak to women directly, and she promises to be their representative and advocate in her husband’s new administration.

Having delivered this brief but powerful message, Eleanor exits the Red Room, leaving reporters to whisper and exchange excited glances. Many are very aware that they’ve just witnessed something momentous.

Eleanor Roosevelt will become the most powerful First Lady in American history and redefine the role for all who follow her. Her time in the White House will coincide with one of the worst economic depressions in history as well as a traumatic World War. But her steady, calming presence will be a constant source of reassurance to Americans after Eleanor’s first press conference at the White House on March 6th, 1933.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham, and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is March 6th, 1933: The First Lady’s First Press Conference.

Act One: The Journalist

It’s late October 1932, on an overnight train in New York, five months before Eleanor Roosevelt hosts her first press conference in the White House.

Eleanor lies in a bunk in a sleeping car, gazing at the ceiling as the cold fields of upstate New York pass by in the darkness outside. On the bunk opposite her is reporter Lorena Hickok. Eleanor is on the campaign trail for her husband, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lorena has been sent to interview Eleanor for the Associated Press.

But granting unprecedented access, Eleanor has asked Lorena to accompany her upstate to Potsdam, where she is traveling for a friend’s funeral. As a result, Eleanor and Lorena have been speaking all day. Their conversation has been wide-ranging, covering everything from the terrible economic depression still crippling the nation to the rising political turmoil in Europe.

So, Lorena’s piece is shaping up to be much more serious than the typical interview with the wife of a campaigning politician. Privately, she wonders whether her editors will dare print it. They are expecting her to deliver quotes about entertaining, homemaking, and motherhood—not economic reforms or the possibility of war in Europe. But Lorena doesn’t care. She’s fascinated with Eleanor, who is bold, composed, confident, and complex. Eleanor was born into a powerful family. She is the niece of former President Theodore Roosevelt and her own husband’s fifth cousin, once removed. But she's also suffered great tragedy in her life. Both her parents and her brother died when she was young, she was raised mostly by tutors abroad. She carries an air of deep melancholy but also shows profound empathy for others. Lorena admires this. She wants to speak to Eleanor for as long as she can, and the two women talk freely into the early hours of the morning.

By the time they arrive in Potsdam, Lorena has fallen in love with Eleanor. Lorena is openly gay, but Eleanor, of course, is married to a man, one of the most powerful politicians in America. As a political insider, though, Lorena has heard rumors that Eleanor’s relationship with her husband has been purely platonic for years. And if that’s the case, Lorena wonders whether there is even a tiny chance Eleanor has fallen for her, too.

But none of these musings are as pressing for Lorena as finishing her piece on Eleanor. And despite her earlier concerns, Lorena is delighted to hear that her editors run her article, politics and all. It turns out to be a hit with readers, so Lorena is able to convince her bosses to keep her on assignment, covering Eleanor. So over the rest of the Presidential campaign, the two women grow closer as they attend speeches, conventions, and rallies together. Lorena begins showing Eleanor her articles prior to publication, allowing the prospective First Lady to shape the public’s impression of her. And the two then begin spending time together outside of work as well, attending the opera together and dining alone in Lorena’s apartment. Grateful for the positive publicity, Eleanor’s husband begins inviting Lorena to join them for Sunday dinners, and while this blurs the lines of Lorena’s journalistic integrity even further, she can’t resist. She feels compelled to be at Eleanor’s side. The two women call each other nightly on the phone, and on days when they’re apart, they write long letters to one another.

And as the campaign progresses, it becomes clear that Roosevelt is set to win the election comfortably. American voters are desperate for change, and blame the incumbent president, Herbert Hoover, for the stock market crash and all the unemployment, homelessness, and hunger that followed. So, it’s no surprise to either Eleanor or Lorena when Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected in a landslide in November 1932.

Following her husband’s inauguration, Eleanor gives her first interview as First Lady to Lorena. By now, Lorena is convinced that Eleanor should have greater influence in the new administration than is traditional for a First Lady. In the past, the wives of Presidents have been mostly ceremonial figures. But Lorena urges Eleanor to take on a more vocal role on behalf of America’s women. And heeding Lorena’s advice, Eleanor gives her first press conference the next day, making a point of inviting only women reporters.

Over the years that follow, Eleanor hosts hundreds of such press conferences. She maintains her ban on male journalists throughout—ensuring that if newspapers want to cover what the First Lady has to say, then they have to employ women. But although she was inspired to be more assertive by Lorena Hickok, Eleanor’s relationship with her will not survive. Over Eleanor’s time in the White House, the two women will slowly drift apart as Eleanor becomes a national figure in her own right. Alongside her husband, she will help America recover from the worst economic crisis in living memory and lead it through some of the darkest years in its entire history.

Act Two: War

It’s the morning of December 7th, 1941, at the White House in Washington, D.C., more than eight years after First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt began her regular press conferences.

Eleanor has just had lunch in her private residence when she suddenly hears a phone ringing down the hall. It’s quickly followed by another. And then another. Curious, Eleanor steps out of her residence room and is confronted by staff rushing past her, their faces pale with alarm. Before anyone can even speak to her, a cold certainty grips Eleanor—America is under attack.

So, she strides through the White House to the Oval Office. Inside, her husband Franklin D. Roosevelt is at his desk, a phone pressed to his ear, speaking in low, measured tones to his Secretary of the Navy. As he hangs up, he turns to Eleanor, his expression unreadable and his demeanor utterly steady. He tells her that the U.S. military base at Pearl Harbor has been attacked by the forces of Imperial Japan.

Both Eleanor and her husband remain composed in the face of dire news. They exchange only a few calm words to confirm what they will do—they don’t need any more than that. Though Eleanor and her husband’s romantic relationship has been over for more than a decade, the couple remains extremely close. They speak every day and confide deeply in one another on both personal matters and political strategy. And now, in the face of this catastrophe, they quickly agree that the American people need reassurance from their leaders—and that Eleanor will be the first to speak to them.

Ever since the success of her first press conference in 1933, Eleanor has been addressing the nation several times a week. She still speaks with female reporters at the White House, but she also makes regular radio broadcasts so she can address the American people directly.

The Roosevelt presidency has coincided with a time of unprecedented unrest in the United States. The upheaval and widespread suffering of the Great Depression has only been followed by the horrors of World War Two. President Roosevelt steered the American economy back to growth with his New Deal policies. But now, a new crisis threatens the nation. The attack on Pearl Harbor has made war unavoidable, and the administration must once again rally the spirit of Americans.

So, a few hours after word of the Japanese attack reached the White House, Eleanor is at the NBC radio studios in Washington, waiting in a sound booth for her cue. She waits patiently, even stoically, until the “on air” sign in front of her lights up. Eleanor then leans close to the microphone and begins to speak.

She confirms the terrible rumors that Americans all over the country have been hearing. The Japanese attacked the U.S. Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor at 8 o’clock that morning. Nearly 20 vessels were sunk or destroyed, including eight battleships, and thousands of sailors have likely been killed. She says that the country is now at war and urges the public to be brave. In particular, she addresses her message to America’s mothers. Eleanor herself has four sons who will soon doubtless be called up to fight, and she asks the nation's women to support their young men as they depart for war and to bolster each other by coming together in their communities to support the war effort. Only through cooperation and sacrifice can victory be secured, but Eleanor insists that America will prevail, and she ends her speech with a rallying cry:

"Eleanor: Whatever is asked of us, I am sure we can accomplish it. We are the free and unconquerable people of the United States of America."

Leaving the studio, Eleanor returns to the White House, where she greets many of the women reporters who attend her weekly press conference. They have been waiting all day to speak with her and are hungry and exhausted. So, Eleanor invites them into the kitchen and makes them some scrambled eggs. There, over the countertop, she speaks to them candidly about the uncertain days that lie ahead for them all.

Even Eleanor cannot know what the future will hold, of course, but she is certain about one thing: she will keep speaking to the American people as long as they are willing to listen. Her voice will be a constant source of reassurance through all the triumphs and tragedies of the war ahead. But before final victory can be secured, the nation will have to face one more tragedy, one which will strike Eleanor herself: the death of her husband, America’s commander-in-chief, President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Act Three: Death

It’s April 12th, 1945, in the Red Room in the White House, almost three and a half years after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Eleanor Roosevelt stands before a crowd of women journalists. This is her 348th press conference as First Lady. And twelve years after her first historic address, the atmosphere has evolved. No one is sitting on the floor, and male reporters have gotten used to the fact that they are not allowed in. For the women of America, though, the press conferences have become a cherished weekly event, a chance to hear their own concerns discussed on the national stage.

Eleanor begins her address today, the same way she always does, with a summary of her week’s schedule. She feels her time is not her own, but it belongs to the American people, and they have a right to know how she intends to spend it. Then, she moves on to the war. Victory is imminent in Europe, but the conflict is expected to drag on longer in the Pacific. Still, she allows herself and her audience to look to what will come next. Nothing like this war can ever happen again, and for peace to reign in the future, communication and cooperation between countries will be key.

To the reporters present, Eleanor seems just as candid, composed, and wise as ever. But the reporters don’t know that Eleanor’s mind is elsewhere. Her husband, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, is in poor health, and there is growing concern, he may not have long to live.

And mere hours after this press conference in the Red Room, Eleanor hears the news she has been dreading: her husband has collapsed and died in Georgia after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage. Eleanor immediately meets with Vice President Harry Truman at the White House, where he is sworn in as the nation’s new leader.

The press conference on April 12th, 1945, will be Eleanor’s last public address as First Lady. After 12 years of service, she now steps aside to allow Harry Truman and his wife Bess to fill the shoes she and her husband occupied for so long. But Eleanor won’t leave public service. After the war, she will be made one of America’s first representatives in the new United Nations. And there, in the international peacekeeping organization she had long promoted, she will continue to serve her nation and break new ground for women in public life, just as she did the day of her first press conference at the White House on March 6th, 1933.

Outro

Next on History Daily. March 7th, 1827. In North-West England, a wealthy teenage heiress is kidnapped and forced into marriage with an ambitious conman.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Supervising Sound Designer is Matthew Filler.

Music by Thrumm.

This episode is written and researched by Owen Long.

Edited by Dorian Merina.

Managing producer Emily Burke.

Executive Producers are William Simpson for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.