LADYDRAGON.COM - FDR: A PRESIDENCY REVEALED

Thursday April 07, 2005

FDR: A PRESIDENCY REVEALED

Featuring rare and never-seen before footage, photographs and oral histories from private collections

Two-part, four-hour special offers a fresh perspective on the public and private Franklin Delano Roosevelt

World Premiere on The History Channel

Sunday-Monday, April 17-18 9pm/8c

15 Sec Clip

15 Sec Clip #2

2 Minute Video

To a generation of Americans, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was seen as the savior of the American Dream. But behind Roosevelt’s titanic struggle to pull America from the abyss of the Depression and the horrors of war were personal struggles just as significant: physical incapacity, distance from his wife, and badly deteriorating health, even as he orchestrated World War II. The new two-part, four-hour special from The History Channel goes beyond the public façade of FDR and into the complex life that shaped one of America’s greatest leaders. The special presentation, FDR: A PRESIDENCY REVEALED premieres Sunday-Monday, April 17-18 at 9 pm ET/PT on The History Channel.

Drawing on previously unseen and unheard footage, FDR: A PRESIDENCY REVEALED provides a definitive look inside the life of a man who was known the world over, but was intimate with very few. It begins at the opening of FDR’s first term as president, with America facing declining markets, 25 percent unemployment and the imminent collapse of the nation’s banking system, and continues to his death twelve years later, after a re-invigoration of the U.S. economy and just prior to the surrender of Germany. The details in between paint a remarkable portrait of courage, triumph, tragedy, and struggle.

Highlights of FDR: A PRESIDENCY REVEALED (PART ONE) include:

· Previously unseen home movies from his beloved estate in Hyde Park, New York, showing the private side that FDR so fiercely protected, and the early memories of his grandson Curtis: “He loved to play games, loved to be silly.”

· Historians’ views on FDR’s New Deal and his first hundred days in office, the most prolific and innovative legislative period in the nation’s history

· Commentary about his commitment to civil rights, including disapproval from his own wife and interviews with modern-day dissenters

· Excerpts from and background on FDR’s famous Fireside Chats, by which he developed a bond with the American people that would strengthen over time

· Detailed oral history accounts from Eleanor Roosevelt on the day FDR contracted polio and became paralyzed while visiting his summer home on Campobello Island in New Brunswick, a source of insecurity and pain the rest of his life, and touching first-hand accounts of his fruitless struggle to walk again

· A balanced look at FDR’s failures, including a disastrous attempt to reconfigure the Supreme Court

· Details of FDR’s flawed relationship with Eleanor, including an affair he had in his thirties with Lucy Page Mercer that nearly resulted in divorce

· An inside look at the most overlooked event in FDR’s entire presidency, when Arthur Kent, an American working at the U.S. Embassy in England, was found to have intercepted months' worth of secret correspondence between FDR and Winston Churchill, with the intention of providing the information to political enemies in an attempt to expose FDR as a liar for promising American neutrality in the fight against Germany

Highlights of FDR: A PRESIDENCY REVEALED (PART TWO) include:

· A first-hand account from cousin, confidante, and caregiver Daisy Suckley of FDR’s death in Warm Springs, Georgia, just months into his fourth term.

· FDR’s struggle to convince the isolationist Congress of the growing threat posed by Adolf Hitler

· The devastating losses of both his mother and his beloved personal assistant, Missy LeHand; declining health and the growing threat of war; and Curtis Roosevelt’s disclosure of the loneliness FDR felt during his latter terms

· Eleanor’s audio comments on his strangely detached demeanor in the wake of the Pearl Harbor attack

· An inside look at FDR’s bond with Churchill, forged on mutual respect and a desire to keep the free world strong

· Footage from his secret escapes to Hyde Park during the war, in which he would relax with friends and mix martinis with a dash of absinthe, said by many to be the worst they’d ever tasted

· Stunning details of FDR’s ability to perform his job in the face of gravely deteriorating health, including an advanced state of congestive heart failure during his third term

FDR: A PRESIDENCY REVEALED uses the recently discovered diary and voice recordings of Suckley, 70 rarely seen photographs, an in-depth oral history recording from Eleanor, and extensive personal interviews with Curtis Roosevelt to cast FDR in a more human light than ever before. Historical perspective is provided by noted biographers Doris Kearns Goodwin and Jon Meacham, as well as historians and authors including William Leuchtenburg, David Kennedy, Craig Wilder, Thomas Fleming, and Robert Dallek. On-location filming at Hyde Park, New York; Warm Springs, Georgia; and Campobello, New Brunswick, combines with extensive color and black-and-white footage of the life and times of FDR to take viewers on a journey back to twentieth-century America’s defining time, and inside the life of the man who defined it.

FDR: A PRESIDENCY REVEALED was produced for The History Channel by Team Productions, LLC. Executive producer for The History Channel is Susan Werbe. It’s written and produced by David C. Taylor, and narrated by Edward Herrmann.

Now reaching more than 87 million Nielsen subscribers, The History Channel^®, "Where the Past Comes Alive^®," brings history to life in a powerful manner and provides an inviting place where people experience history personally and connect their own lives to the great lives and events of the past. In 2004, The History Channel earned five News and Documentary Emmy® Awards and previously received the prestigious Governor's Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for the network's "Save Our History^®" campaign dedicated to historic preservation and history education. The History Channel web site is located at www.History.com