Tuesday, March 19, AD 2024 6:24am

Wilson Speaks

A recording of Woodrow Wilson from the 2012 campaign.

 

 

 

Ah, how our technology changes our perceptions of public figures.  Until the internet this type of recording was not widely available.  My perception of how Woodrow Wilson sounded was shaped five decades ago by the portrayal by Alexander Knox of Woodrow Wilson in the film Wilson (1944).  Go here to view that movie.  Where it is so easy now, with the internet, to hear the actual historical figure since the advent of recordings, films will have less ability to shape the perception of a historical figure.  Of course when the original film was released 74 years ago, quite a few people in the audiences would have heard Wilson through recordings or in person.  Now those people are all gone while the film remains, a memorial to Wilson as film director Daryl F. Zanuck, a fan of Wilson, intended it to be, but perhaps less of a memorial as time, and technology, march on.

 

0 0 votes
Article Rating
5 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
David Breitenbeck
Wednesday, February 21, AD 2018 6:02pm

I’d always imagined him sounding like E.G. Marshall, for some reason. I can’t help thinking it would have been an improvement.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Wednesday, February 21, AD 2018 9:24pm

He and his wife reportedly despised his vp, Thomas Marshall. I’m wagering it was because they were innocent of humor and Marshall was not.

So many years in academe and so many years in New Jersey gave him that twee speaking voice. I’ve had people near and dear to me of the older generation who grew up in the Shenandoah Valley. They had intense twangs. This native of Staunton, Va. had not a trace of a Southern accent.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Wednesday, February 21, AD 2018 9:33pm

I’d always imagined him sounding like E.G. Marshall, for some reason.

TR had a surprisingly high-pitched voice, with some patrician inflection. Coolidge sounded like the old coot in the Pepperidge Farm commercials. I suspect the advent of radio broadcasting gave an advantage to better voices.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Thursday, February 22, AD 2018 7:45am

Marshall was prevented by Wilson’s wife and staff, and by Wilson himself, from meeting with Wilson after Wilson’s stroke until Wilson’s final day in office. Marshall’s best known comment:

The conduct of the Wilsons (and their enablers) was completely irresponsible. It took Congress 50 years to come up with an architecture to address presidential disability and when they did they created a structure that only works when the President is willing to acknowledge he is disabled and turn the reins over to someone else, something Wilson was unwilling to do.

Marshall was an extremely interesting and able politician who, like most Veeps, regretted taking the office.

Since the time of John Adams the uselessness of the semi-elective vice-presidency has been remarked upon, but no one ever thinks to abolish the office. It’s replicated in all but a few state governments as well. It’s one indication, among many others, that convention trumps functionality in our political architecture.

Discover more from The American Catholic

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading

Scroll to Top