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Enhanced Transcript
The American Experience: Eleanor Roosevelt
Written and Directed by Sue Williams
Margaret Drain, Executive Producer
Mark Samels, Senior Producer
David McCullough, Series Host
Eleanor Roosevelt
David McCullough: Hello and welcome to the American Experience. I'm David McCullough.
She was a Roosevelt who married a Roosevelt. But it's important to know she was a Theodore-Roosevelt Roosevelt and certain traits from that side of the family were strong in her.
"Get action!" Seize the moment!" had been by-words for generations. "Man was not meant to be a oyster," her grandfather was famous for saying; nor were women either, she was to show.
The old ideal of noblesse oblige was gospel: With privilege went the obligation of honorable, generous, and responsible behavior. Like her Uncle Theodore, she triumphed against the odds.
She wore frumpy clothes. Her teeth needed straightening. But in all, in her way, she was beautiful, radiant. There were never any make-overs, no Hollywood savvy. (In one of the most endearing moments in the film that follows, she has to be told who Frank Sinatra was.)
She was terrified of speaking in public at first, and her high-pitched voice could sail off uncontrollably. Yet she became one of the most effective speakers of her time.
She was a wife, a mother, teacher, first lady of New York, first lady of the land, newspaper columnist, author, world traveler, diplomat, and a tough seasoned politician.
I once asked a friend who knew her, who was a neighbor at Hyde Park, what word came to mind when remembering her. "Thoughtful," he said. "She was always dropping by with something for us, and she always did it herself, never sent somebody else, as she could have so easily."
It's been said that no one was ever great by imitation. Easy to imitate, she never imitated anyone. She was ever and entirely herself, and a very great woman..."Eleanor Roosevelt" is directed by Sue Williams.
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