NYPR Archives & Preservation
Could You Keep Up With Franklin Roosevelt's Schedule?
President Franklin Roosevelt was only 58, but 58 in 1940 was not like 58 in 2023. Life expectancy for men in 1940 was 60.8 years and indeed, FDR overcame the actuarial tables and lived another five years. Additionally, the photo here shows FDR seated in his car before the microphones. You may recall that President Roosevelt was disabled due to polio. This made walking assisted with metal braces and canes possible, but very difficult. In order to make multiple engagements in the course of a hectic schedule of city campaign events, the logistics for these location appearances frequently included a car ramp next to a podium and microphones. This allowed the President to simply be driven up to an event to deliver his remarks without his having to get out of the car.
When I consider his schedule for October 28, 1940, I get tired just looking at it. He began the day at 9 a.m. in Newark meeting with New Jersey mayors and ended it at 11 p.m. by getting on a train at Penn Station in New York. In between on that cool fall day with light rain, there were fifteen stops in an open car. Joined by his friend Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, they included meetings, speeches, tours, and an opportunity to be the first person to drive through the newly completed Queens Midtown Tunnel, weeks ahead of the general public.
WNYC managed to record the peripatetic President at four remote stops that day (although only three recordings survive). The station's first location recording was in Brooklyn, where FDR broke ground for the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. Roosevelt spoke along with New York Governor Lehman, and Mayor La Guardia. With the war in Europe now a year old, the nation's Commander-in-Chief said defense dictated transit under the East River, rather than over it. "There might be an attack on America, and if that attack were to come, it would be safer for America and all of its cities if we could have this tunnel instead of that bridge." FDR concluded his remarks by pulling a cord attached to the steam whistle of a massive shovel that cued the equipment operator to take a huge bite of earth and dump it into the back of a ten-ton truck as WNYC announcer Amnon Balber detailed the rest of the day's coverage of President Roosevelt.
The second stop, at 11:45 a.m., was at Sara D. Roosevelt Park on the Lower East Side. Named for FDR's mother when the park opened six years earlier in 1934, it was front-page news in The New York Times. (Sadly, the paper has written more recently about the park, "The Manhattan Park, Once a Gem is Now a No Man's Land.") The President received an ecstatic introduction from the Mayor and briefly remarked to the 10,000 in attendance on how this part of the city reminded him of America's multiculturalism. WNYC's announcer, with a bed of live band music, provided what's known in the trade as 'color.'
After the park, FDR headed up to Hunter College to dedicate a new North Building underwritten by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) at 68th Street. There he was greeted by 10,000 students, mostly women, as Hunter was then the world's largest all-woman college. Announcer Amnon Balber began his broadcast before the President arrived, filling the wait time with the schedules, comments on what the women ('girls') were wearing, and the Secret Service's thorough protection of the President. With FDR's arrival, Hunter President George M. Shuster approached the podium.
FDR poked fun at Mayor La Guardia's ability to get government money from him. He then went on at length to talk about the importance of teachers' colleges and what the occupational outlook was for them and others. He concluded his remarks by saying he didn't want to go back to 'horse and buggy days' except where patriotism was concerned. He received a standing ovation before the crowd sang the national anthem.
After Hunter College the President made his inaugural ride through the Queens Midtown tunnel to La Guardia Airport after which he headed up to Fordham University to review the school's Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC).
FDR ended the day with a seminal campaign speech at Madison Square Garden. Running for an unprecedented third term against Wendell Wilkie, he accused the Republican Party of "playing politics with defense, the defense of the United States, in 1938 and 1939. And they are playing politics with the national security of America today.” He stated his continuing desire to seek peace, but peace through strength.
The broadcast was a paid political announcement airing across the nation on the NBC network and the announcer took note of FDR's long day of traveling throughout the city. The President opened his remarks by noting that "another war has broken out on the other side of the ocean," referring to Italy's invasion of Greece earlier in the day. He also felt it was necessary to respond to Republican disinformation efforts "by answering major campaign falsifications with facts."
When FDR ran for a third term, America was a very different place, literally and figuratively. The media (the press, radio, and movie newsreels) tacitly made an effort not to show or call attention to his disability. Few, if any, pundits seemed to think he was too old to be President. The major talking point in this pre-twenty-second amendment era was whether or not an unprecedented third term was acceptable or not. There were no television, cable, or satellite networks. Social media was limited to gossip columns and the telephone. Still, the dedication of public works projects always goes over well with constituents when campaigning. And, coupled with FDR's wit, made for an excellent offense in the battle for public office.
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WNYC audio courtesy of the New York City Municipal Archives WNYC Collection.
FDR's Madison Square Garden address courtesy of the FDR Library in Hyde Park, NY.