October 5, 1947…First Live Television Speech From The White House

On this day in 1947, President Harry Truman became the first president to broadcast a speech live from the White House. The subject was food conservation, and Truman asked Americans to cut back on their use of grain in order to help starving Europeans. At the time, Europe was still recovering from World War II and suffering major shortages.

Although the majority of Americans did not see this live, because not many had a TV set, his speech signaled the start of a powerful and complex relationship between the White House and a medium that would have an enormous impact on the American presidency, from how candidates campaigned for the office to how presidents communicated with their constituents. Each of Truman’s subsequent White House speeches, including his 1949 inauguration address, was televised. In 1948, Truman was the first presidential candidate to broadcast a paid political ad.

Below, NBC’s WRC is shown providing TV pool coverage of the speech with CBS’s WTOP handling the radio pool. In those early pool days, coverage alternated between CBS and NBC, and both used unmarked cameras and microphones for these occasions. -Bobby Ellerbee

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