Mrs. Roosevelt Meets the Public

Airing concurrently with her radio show, The Eleanor Roosevelt Program, this television program ran on NBC between 1 October 1950 and 15 July, 1951. It aired weekly, on Sunday afternoons, between 3:30 and 4:00 pm (though the final three episodes aired at 5:00 pm instead).

1950

Episode 1: October 1, 1950. Eleanor Roosevelt interviews her guests about The United Nations’ role in Korea, plans for post-war Korea, and possible reforms within the UN. Her interview with Dean Acheson is recorded and plays before the rest of the discussion.

Episode 2: October 8, 1950.

Episode 3: October 15, 1950. ER and her guests, Dr. Ralph Bunche and Ambassador Ernest Gross, answer questions about the United Nations on the first day of the annual observance of United Nations Week.

Episode 4: October 22, 1950. ER discusses crime and corruption with Judge Samuel S. Leibowitz and District Attorney Miles F. McDonald.

Episode 5: October 29, 1950. ER discusses the upcoming midterm election with Louis H. Bean.

Episode 6: November 5, 1950. ER questions the New York City mayoral candidates: Paul Ross, Edward Corsi, Ferdinand Pecora, and Vincent Impellitteri.

Episode 7: November 12, 1950. ER, Senator John Sparkman, and the crew of the "The Spirit of Freeport" discuss issues related to the Korean War.

Episode 8: November 19, 1950. ER discusses the selective service and questions that arise regarding the draft for the Korean War with Major General Lewis B. Hershey.

Episode 9: November 26, 1950. ER questions Senators Homer Ferguson, Theodore Green, and Owen Brewster on the Internal Security Act (the McCarran Act).

Episode 10: December 3, 1950.ER and guests, Major Alexander P. De Severesky, and Senators Harry P. Cain and Joseph O'Mahoney, discuss dropping the atomic bomb in Korea. The ERPP does not have a transcription of this program.

Episode 11: December 10, 1950. ER and students discuss young people's questions and concerns with Mrs. Alice Tomson, editor of Seventeen, Dr. Harold Taylor, President of Sarah Lawrence College, and Mr. Mark McCloskey of the New York City Board of Education.

Episode 12: December 24, 1950. On her Christmas show, ER and exchange students visiting the United States discuss the meaning of Christmas and holiday traditions around the world. Her guests include Bishop Henry K. Sherrill, with music provided by Robley Lawson and the choir from the Congregational Church at Manhasset.

Episode 13: December 31, 1950. ER and her guests, George Sokolsky, Richard Harkness, Max Lerner, and Major George Fielding Elliot, review 1950 with a focus on foreign policy and the Korean War.

1951

Episode 14:January 7, 1951. ER and her guests, Senator Homer Capehart and Secretary of the Army Frank Pace, discuss US foreign policy in Europe, and German rearmament.

Episode 15:January 14, 1951. In a continuation of Episode 13, ER and her guests, George Sokolsky, Richard Harkness, Max Lerner, and Major George Fielding Elliot, review 1950 with a focus on foreign policy and the Korean War.

Episode 16: January 21, 1951. ER and her guests, Commissioner Frieda Hennock of the Federal Communications Commission and Mr. Neville Miller, president of the FCC Bar Association, discuss the future of television.

Episode 17: January 28, 1951. ER and her guests, Secretary of Agriculture Charles F. Brannam and Representative Jacob K. Javits, discuss farm policy and food prices.

Episode 18: February 4, 1951. ER, Professor Henry Steele Commager, and Senator George W. Malone discuss U.S military involvement in Europe and the Far East.

Episode 19: February 18, 1951. ER and her guests, Senator Wayne Morse, Assistant Secretary of Defense Marx Leva, and Dr. Harold Dodds, talk about the problems of military manpower and a universal draft.

Episode 20: February 25, 1951. ER and her guests, Federal Civil Defense Administrator Millard F. Caldwell, Senator Hubert Humphrey, Democrat of Minnesota, and Arthur Wallander, New York City’s Director of the Office of Civil Defense, discuss civil defense and the atomic bomb.

Episode 21: March 4, 1951.

Episode 22: March 11, 1951. In this episode, ER discusses inflation and the importance of controlling price levels. She has the director of price stabilization Michael B. DeSalle and Secretary-Treasurer of the CIO James B. Carey on to discuss the advantages and disadvantages to price control.

Episode 23: March 18, 1951. ER sits down with Secretary of the Army Frank Pace, Jr., Secretary of the Navy Charles P. Matthews, and Secretary of the Air Force Thomas K. Finletter to discuss the increasing tensions in the Korean War. And to address the problems with the rivalries between the Army, Navy, and Air Force.

Episode 24: March 25, 1951. ER spends her Easter episode by having Rev. Dr. Franklin Frye, president of the United Lutheran Church of America, to discuss the circumstances of refugees from all over the world. Musical guests William Warfield and the Cantata Singers perform selections from Bach's Passion According to St. John.

Episode 25: April 1, 1951. ER discusses the problems of inflation and price control during the Korean War with Leon Keyserling, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, Allen B. Klein, president of the American Farm Bureau, and George Harrison, Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks.

Episode 26: April 8, 1951. ER and her guests Paul Hoffman, former director of the Economic Cooperation Administration, and Nelson Rockefeller, chairman of the International Development Advisory Board, discuss the importance of US aid in the development of countries in danger of falling to communism and whether or not that aid should come from private or public funds.

Episode 27: April 15, 1951. Elliott Roosevelt moderates as Senator William Benton, Senator Homer Ferguson, Senator Owen Brewster, and Congressman Samuel Yorty debate whether Truman was right in relieving General Douglas MacArthur of his command of United Nations forces in Korea. Elliott Roosevelt and his guests respond to questions asked by four representatives of a forum on women’s colleges hosted by Mademoiselle Magazine.

Episode 28: April 22, 1951. Senator Margaret Chase Smith hosts in place of ER, and discusses morality in American politics, culture, and society. Her guests include fellow senator Estes Kefauver, and Lawrence Kubie, a psychiatrist with the Yale School of Medicine.

Episode 29: April 29, 1951. ER and her guests, British M.P.’s Michael Foot and William J. Brown, discuss the similarities and differences between English and American foreign policy in Asia.

Episode 30: May 6, 1951. ER and guests, writer Rebecca West and Sir Hartley Shawcross, president of the Board of Trade in England, discuss the problems of domestic communism and their shared foreign policy concerns, including the USSR and Germany.

Episode 31: May 13, 1951. ER discusses the Schuman Plan and the efforts to unify Western Europe. ER interviews Robert Schuman and Jean Monnet in Paris, while Elliott Roosevelt leads a discussion at the Park Sheraton Hotel with Paul Porter, Roger Seydoux, and Heinz Krekeler.

Episode 32: May 20, 1951. In ER's absence, Elliott Roosevelt hosts a discussion about Iran's attempt to nationalize its oil reserves, includes official statement from the government of Iran.

Episode 33: May 27, 1951.

Episode 34: June 3, 1951. ER and her guests, Professor Hussein Kemel Salim Bey, Dean of the Faculty of Commerce of Fuad, first university in Cairo, Egypt, and Harry Zindler, member of the Israeli delegation to the United Nations, discuss the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Arab states.

Episode 35: June 10, 1951. ER interviews Roger Fleming of the American Farm Bureau and James Carey of the CIO about whether or not to extend the Defense Production Act.

Episode 36: June 17, 1951. In this episode, ER discusses federal price controls with Senator Blair Moody and Herman Steinkraus, president of the Bridgeport Brass Company.

Episode 37: June 24, 1951.

Episode 38: July 1, 1951. ER discusses heroin addiction among teenagers with Harry Anslinger, commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, Dr. Kenneth W. Chapman of the Bureau of Medical Services U.S. Public Health Service, and Max Rubinstein, a principal of a New York City junior high school.

Episode 39: July 8, 1951. ER discusses advances in cancer research with John H. Teeter, head of the Damon Runyon Memorial Fund and Dr. C.P. Rhodes, Vice President of the American Cancer Society.

Episode 40: July 15, 1951.