“When Will a Woman Become President of the U.S.?”
The Simmons Program
Tuesday, September 4, 1934, 9:30–10:00 p.m. (NBC Blue Network)
A little more than a year after telling reporters she would give up commercial broadcasting, Eleanor Roosevelt was back at the microphone and getting paid top dollar for her work. On May 12, 1934, she spoke for six minutes as a guest of fast-talking news commentator Floyd Gibbons. ER spoke to farm wives on an NBC program sponsored by the construction materials company Johns Manville. She was paid $3,000. ER explained to reporters that she took the job to help sustain the work of the American Friends Service Committee. One radio writer quipped that her exceptionally high fee might lure other big names to the microphone: “One-time guest appearances may bob up with such paid guest stars as Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, and Ramsay MacDonald. Mrs. Roosevelt has broken the barrier.”1 ER told reporters she would seek similar radio opportunities, but that no reference to any products would be made in future broadcasts.
That plan changed a month later. ER announced she would start a series of five radio programs as a news commentator sponsored by the Simmons mattress company. The prime-time series on Tuesday nights mixed ER’s take on the news with musical numbers and commercials for “millionaire sleep” on Beautyrest mattresses. At the time, virtually all the prominent radio news commentators were men.
ER held forth on the value of relaxation, change in public schools, and a typical day in the White House. She took up the question of whether professional women could really be themselves in the workplace and whether a woman would ever be president. Along the way, ER made a number of subtle, positive references to New Deal initiatives such as relief for the unemployed and a new federal insurance program guaranteeing bank deposits. She also commented on the recent arrest of a suspect in the kidnapping of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s baby son.
The first lady also let listeners in on the relentless work schedules that she and FDR maintained. She described their days as packed with meetings and obligations that ran well past the dinner hour. She said it was rare that either one of them left their desk before midnight, presenting listeners with a view of a modern, professional couple equally engaged in public service.
In announcing the Simmons series, ER told reporters her $3,000 fee for each program would be donated directly to the Quakers. In time, her critics would challenge that arrangement.
(MUSICAL THEME: “NOCTURNE”)
ANNOUNCER: The Simmons Company, makers of the Beautyrest Mattress, has the honor and privilege of bringing to you this evening your friend and neighbor, Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt. In keeping with Mrs. Roosevelt’s active part in encouraging the development of American music, the Beautyrest Orchestra, under the direction of Willard Robison, will play “Arkansas Traveler,” one of our native melodies. But first let me ask: How would you like to live like a millionaire for one-third of your life? Amazing as it may sound, you can! For you spend eight hours out of every twenty-four—a full third of your life—in bed. During this vitally important third of your life, the Simmons Beautyrest Mattress will give you the most luxurious sleep in the world—the same restful, refreshing slumber that has made the Beautyrest preferred by millionaires, as well as millions of others, all over America.
(ORCHESTRA STARTS)
ANNOUNCER: (OVER MUSIC) Patriarch of the hills. Wanderer through the Ozarks. Sing us the saga of rural life—on your ancient fiddle—happy toilers . . . free to live the night in gay revelry . . . await the start of the barn dance and the happy tunes of the Arkansas Traveler.
(ORCHESTRA: “ARKANSAS TRAVELER”)
ANNOUNCER: And now, Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, who is going to tell what she considers are the highlights of the week’s news! Mrs. Roosevelt.
(APPLAUSE)
ER: Ladies and gentlemen, we begin with a heroic tale! A swim of five miles is an achievement for anyone! But I heard this morning that a fifteen-year-old, Lewis Deane of New York, swam five miles towing behind him a sailboat with his girl in it. The boat was becalmed just as evening came on. So young Deane slipped over the side. Holding the tow rope grimly in his teeth, he fought his way—literally inch by inch—to the shore five miles distant. Here indeed is an example of courage and determination which all of us should keep in mind when we become becalmed in our own lives.
The textile strike has dominated the front pages of the newspapers during the past few days. The public earnestly hopes that an early settlement can be effected between the employees and employers. The sooner an agreement can be reached, the better for both sides, as well as for the public. The present difficulties in industry require good leadership for both sides and a desire to cooperate in reaching a fair settlement to all concerned. The public earnestly hopes for a speedy settlement.
I notice a little item about a gentleman from New York State who thought he had lost his entire life savings—$6,100—because he was afraid to put them in a bank and forgot that he had hidden them in his mattress. The gentleman should be told that at present there is no further need of worrying when he puts his money in a bank. The deposit is guaranteed by the government up to the limit allowed on deposits.
To the youth of today who are interested in airplanes, it will probably be a matter of interest to know that the federal government during the last few days has asked scientists of seventy-one universities to aid them in finding what are known as “ghosts of the air.” This means a deviation in the radio beam which guides aviators and which has, on several occasions, led them astray—a phenomenon not yet satisfactorily understood.
Now the word comes to us that the women scientists are not finding it any too easy to get jobs. Some employers say they would rather have a second-rate man than a first-rate woman. Take the case of the chemists. A chemist must carry his experiments from the laboratory through to the point of factory production. And many industries do not care to have women around in factories. Women chemists are unpopular. There is one bright spot, however, for women chemists. Men do not like the routine of making analyses, so this opens up a chance for women. Nor do they apparently like library research work. Here is another opening, and for those women who have a knowledge of French or German there seems to be a chance at some of the more highly paid positions.
At the convention of dancing masters in New York this past week, it was predicted that there would be a return to more dignity in dancing and that waltzes and two-steps are to be revived. It will indeed be pleasant to revert to the dances of our youth and if you want really to be demonstrative, a waltz can most perfectly serve the purpose.
Job insurance or unemployment insurance seems to be a certainty before very long, but the exact kind of insurance we shall have is still open to discussion—is it to be contributed to by employer, employee, and the state? Or just by employer and employee? And how long a period shall it cover? Many observers coming back from Europe, where unemployment insurance has been in operation for some time, feel that while it is a good measure to meet temporary ups and downs, it would not be adequate to meet major depressions in any case. It is, however, a step which everyone will back and it seems to me that the exact form in which it passes is not so very important. But I do hope it will cover as long a period of unemployment as possible.
The touch of autumn weather we have had tempts me to think primarily of what we can do in the out-of-doors. And I imagine many people’s interest will turn to the National Tennis Championship being played this week at Forest Hills, New York. The important question, of course, is whether or not America’s best can turn back the threat of Fred Perry of Great Britain. And I am warned that we should most certainly look out for that attractive and colorful star from Czechoslovakia, Roderich Menzel, as well as many other of the foreign aces.
And now we have a new author-aviator in Mrs. Anne Morrow Lindbergh, who recently published a magazine article entitled “Flying Around the North Atlantic.” Colonel Lindbergh could not ask for a more delightful interpreter. There is quiet humor and friendliness about this article, which everyone will surely enjoy.
People who thought they were going to make fortunes out of the sale of liquor are beginning to discover that this is not a gold mine any more than any other industry. The rush for permits in this business is slowing down. Bootleggers who wish to reform are not being ruled out, though if they have a police record they may not find it easy to enter into this business in a legal way. This brings us to the question of crime, for the bootlegger is closely allied to the whole crime situation. It is interesting to find that Mr. [Joseph] Keenan, Assistant Attorney General of the United States, in an address in Milwaukee to the American Bar Association convention, points out that public opinion will have to change before we make a really successful fight against crime in this country. In England, people give the police, in fighting and suppressing crime, far greater support than we do, Mr. Keenan asserts. I, personally, think that public opinion must demand from our newspapers and movies an attitude which will not make the [John] Dillingers of the country heroes to our small boys. Then and then only will the government’s anticrime campaign succeed.
Do you ever eat hot dogs when you are motoring? Well, I understand we are to have a variety straight from Paris. It is a kind of baby hot dog called “saucisses de Francfort” and before long I expect to see signs all along the roads advertising hot puppies imported from France, Germany, and England. Strange that even in a taste like this we are not completely isolated from the rest of the world.
Out in Chicago a few days ago Lillian D. Rook, secretary of the National Association of Women Lawyers, made the statement that she expects to see a woman president of the United States. This was done at the convention of the association. We will deal a little more at length with this subject later on this evening. Much that was said in this convention was on the subject of increasing the number of women judges. This will be received with sympathy by a great many women who have a feeling that some of our laws will be interpreted more sympathetically by women judges. Now, as I promised, I will be back in a few moments to tell you what I think about a woman’s chances of becoming president of the United States!
(APPLAUSE)
ANNOUNCER: A breathless waiting, a touch of cool breeze unexpected and soothing and a bright full color of casual flowers—the music of a summer far away sings through the night suggesting a memory. Nay, more than a memory. All too lovely to be forgotten yet too delicate to last.
(ORCHESTRA: “LAMENT FOR THE LIVING”)
(MIDDLE COMMERCIAL)
ANNOUNCER: Mrs. Roosevelt promised us that she would give her opinion of the question “When will a woman become president of the United States?” Mrs. Roosevelt!
ER: I do not think that it would be impossible to find a woman who could be president, but I hope that it doesn’t happen in the near future. There are exceptional women just as there are exceptional men, and it takes an exceptional man to be a successful and useful president. Though women are doing more and more, and are proving every year that they are capable of assuming responsibilities which were considered to be out of their province in the past, I do not think that we have yet reached the point where the majority of our people would feel satisfied to follow the leadership and trust the judgment of a woman as president. And no woman could, therefore, succeed as president any more than could any man who did not have the trust and confidence of the majority of the nation, for this is a democracy and governed by majority rule.
People say no woman could stand the physical strain, but that I think is nonsense and answered over and over again by women through the length and breadth of the land. No man works harder in the fields than the farmer’s wife, in her home and on the farm. Women have carried the same jobs in factories, even in mines, up to a few years ago. And besides their industrial jobs [women] have almost always carried on the work of the home. Sometimes badly, to be sure, but still that work has always been before them when the other work was done. The stories of women who clean office buildings all night and go home and get their children off to school and somehow manage to snatch some sleep during the day, and then go back to work at night and yet keep the home going would seem to indicate that while women may not have as much muscular strength as men, they have as much endurance and ability to bear strain as the male of the species.
Women have not as yet had, however, as many years of background in public life. Or as many years of experience in learning how to give and take in the world of affairs. And I personally would be sorry to see any woman take any position of responsibility which she was not well equipped to undertake and where she could not command the following which she would need for success. Someday a woman may be president, but I hope it will not be while we still speak of “a woman’s vote.” I hope it will only become a reality when she is elected as an individual because of her capacity and [because of] the trust which the majority of the people have in her integrity and ability as a person.
It is not a new thing for women to wield political power. They have done it through the men in the past and women have been independent rulers in their own right. Witness Catherine of Russia and Queen Elizabeth of England. In fact, birth seems to have created more confidence in some countries of the past than does ability today! The future lies before us, however, and women have a big contribution to make. So let us hope that when a woman does assume any important office, it will be because the services she can render are apparent to all.
(APPLAUSE)
ANNOUNCER: Few of us can afford the mansions, yachts, jewels, or other expensive possessions of the millionaire. But all of us can afford the same luxury enjoyed by the richest man in the world when he sleeps. For the Beautyrest Mattress—the most comfortable money can buy—costs only two and one-fourth cents a day, just about what you pay for your daily newspaper! Right now your leading furniture and department stores are making a very special feature of the Beautyrest Mattress, Simmons beds, and scientific springs. See them—tomorrow—and open your bedroom door to millionaire sleep! You are invited to tune in next Tuesday night on another broadcast by Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt. Until then, the Simmons Company bids you good night.
(MUSICAL THEME: “NOCTURNE”)
ANNOUNCER: This is the National Broadcasting Company.