This black and white 1950’s installment of “The Greatest Drama”, an early non-fiction television show, focuses on the political career of 1940 Republican presidential nominee Wendell Willkie, using newsreel footage and impassioned narration to make a case for Willkie’s “victory in defeat” (TRT 12:41). Willkie was an American lawyer and corporate executive who was the 1940 Republican nominee for President. Willkie favored greater U.S. involvement in WWII to support the British and Free World.

The New York City Victory Parade of 1946. Title overlay: “The Greatest Drama” (0:07). Wendell Willkie and his wife wave from an open convertible during a 1940 campaign event (0:28). Willkie dons glasses and speaks into radio microphones for NBC, CBS, Mutual, others (0:42). Sign: “Elwood City Limit.” A white barn in rural Indiana. Cows graze (1:11). Willkie’s childhood home (1:24). Still photographs of Willkie’s parents (1:30). Indiana University in Bloomington. Sign: “Campus Entrance” (1:39). Maxwell Hall (1:46). Title: “1918” over a montage of WWI cannonfire (1:53). Title “1924” over Akron Ohio. Ku Klux Klansmen assemble on a hillside in daylight and beneath a flaming cross at night (2:04). Title “1933” over a New York City skyline. Bustling Manhattan crowds (2:34). Willkie in profile and head-on in closeup (2:48). A Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Dam under construction. Headlines flash: “Willkie Asks Private Distribution of TVA Power” and others over newspaper printers (2:59). Willkie and David E. Lilenthal at the 1939 sale of Commonwealth and Southern (C&S) to TVA Power (3:24). View from a steam powered locomotive. Another engine passes (3:48). Willkie speaks into radio microphones at a press conference. A train driver leans out from his cab. Willkie shakes hands on the campaign trail, wearing a straw boater hat (3:52). A crowded auditorium audience applauds (4:02). Willkie with his wife, Edith Wilk (4:12). The 1940 Republican National Convention (4:21). Ohio Senator Robert Taft with his secretary and in a smiling closeup (4:36). New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey laughs (4:43). Michigan Senator Arthur Vandenberg (4:47). Willkie speaks from behind a podium. The crowd cheers (5:04). Willkie and staff review incoming mail. Willkie flashes a smile (5:21). Franklin Delano Roosevelt at the U.S. Capitol and in closeup. Dissolve to a Nazi Reichsadler (5:28). Adolph Hitler in closeup. German troops march. Wipe to a steam locomotive (5:38). Title: “Chicago” over a campaign event at the Union Stock Yards (5:51). Willkie speaks from atop a bale of hay to press photographers (6:00). Title: “Los Angeles” over Willkie at a campaign event. A banner reads “God Bless America” (6:06). Title “Pontiac, Michigan.” An unsympathetic crowd jeers and boos. Some men wave their arms dismissively (6:17). Title: New York” over Willkie onstage at a single microphone, gripping its stand with both hands. A smiling and applauding audience (6:36). Text over kaleidoscopic newspapers: “Roosevelt Re-elected.” Willkie delivers a respectful concession speech (6:44). Willkie is photographed relaxing in nature, smoking in a riverside lounge chair (7:13). Willkie delivers the “loyal opposition” speech to radio microphones (7:30). Willkie disembarks from a KLM Royal Dutch AirLines plane. London after the Blitz (7:47). Willkie meets King George, Winston Churchill, and U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull (7:58). Wearing a pith helmet in Africa, Willkie meets Italian prisoners of war among British military officers and inspects a tank (8:22). Saint Basil’s Cathedral (8:39). Joseph Stalin laughs, pipe in mouth (8:52). Willkie reviews troops in China. He shakes the hand of General Joseph Stillwell (9:04). Wilkie meets Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Mei-ling, aka “Madame Chiang” (9:19). Willkie delivers his “one world” speech (9:25). Title: “1944” over the White House. Willkie speaks. Dissolve to a speech at Little White Schoolhouse (9:35). Title: “Wisconsin Turns Thumbs Down On Willkie” over newspapers. On a farm near Rushville, Indiana (10:10). Aerial view of 1940’s Manhattan (10:33). Lenox Hill Hospital (10:50). Police Officers direct pedestrians in front of Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. Willkie’s casket is carried to a hearse (11:04). Willkie’s hometown funeral service (11:39).

This episode of “The Greatest Drama” was written and produced by Michael Sklar and narrated by Raymond Edward Johnson for Movietone General Telecasting.

This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com