Stephen Early: The man who shaped FDR’s image

THE FOLLOWING is an excerpt from The Making of FDR, by Linda Lotridge Levin, Professor of Journalism at the University of Rhode Island. It is taken from “Launching the Juggernaut,” Chapter Six.

“It was much like the bugle call I heard in 1917 when I resigned from the AP to go into the Army. So I resigned from Paramount. I reported to FDR for duty in the Mayflower Hotel on the evening of March 3, 1933, the eve of his first inaugural. I went into the White House with the understanding that I would serve two years and then be permitted to return to private life.”

— Stephen Early

EARLY CLAIMED that Roosevelt’s request for him to handle press relations for the White House came as a surprise. Perhaps it did. But in reality, while Early had no official ties to the President-elect, he had kept in touch with Roosevelt over the years, apprising him of political gossip in Washington when he was with the Associated Press and Paramount, attending the annual Cuff Links dinners to celebrate FDR’s birthday, and, on request, shipping the latest films from Paramount to the Governor’s mansion in Albany.

It is hard to believe that as election day grew closer and it became apparent that his old friend Franklin Roosevelt would be elected President of the United States, Early did not speculate on what role, if any, he might be playing in the new administration, especially since he had seen Paramount reduce salaries and lay off employees during the last three years. Soon after Roosevelt was nominated, he telephoned Early and asked him to help run his campaign. Early replied, “You don’t need me, and after all, in 1920 I helped you to be the worst defeated candidate in Democratic history.”

Nonetheless, in December, Roosevelt called Early to Warm Springs, Georgia, where Roosevelt stayed frequently to enjoy the baths that soothed his crippled legs, and the President-elect asked Early to become one of his three secretaries to handle the press. The two old friends discussed the job offer.

But first they undoubtedly reminisced about cronies from the Navy Department, about the ill-fated 1920 campaign, about the Newport Navy affair, about their respective families, about the recent campaign and probably the health of Louis Howe, which by now was rapidly declining.

They may even have harked back to their first meeting, at the Democratic National Convention in 1912. Roosevelt may have thanked Early again for being his eyes and ears in the nation’s capital. Certainly their conversation must have touched on the condition of the economy, especially the massive unemployment and the bank closures.

However the conversation went, Roosevelt asked Early to come with him to the White House to handle the press. Early then gave him an ultimatum: he would stay with Roosevelt for only two years. It’s easy to imagine that Roosevelt told him that two years would be fine, but secretly he knew he would be able to persuade Early, his loyal friend of so many years, to remain longer when the time came.

In the final analysis, the two men recognized they played well off each other’s strengths and vulnerabilities. They nurtured each other professionally and even socially. FDR had once wanted to be a journalist, but found he was a far better politician; Early wanted to be part of the power structure and had found his way there by being a successful journalist. Both appreciated a good joke, verbal or practical; they enjoyed the sweet success of winning a bet, or in Early’s case, a winning horse. As adults, they knew each other better than some siblings do.

As newspaper stories about Early throughout his years in the White House never failed to mention, the two men traced their friendship to 1912. In fact, until he died Early kept on the wall of his den at home a photograph of a young and stern-faced Franklin Roosevelt, inscribed “To Steve Early with more warmth and informality than this picture would indicate.” It was dated 1914.

Roosevelt was never considered an intellectual, nor was he a man who dealt in the abstract. Pondering the ramifications of an idea for any length of time, looking at the philosophical structure of a plan of action, did not in the least interest him. Neither did Early, the newsman, used to racing out to cover an event and then hurrying back to the office to write an account of it before moving on to the next story, care to look too deeply into the issue of the moment.

Thus, the professional marriage of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Stephen T. Early, after years of friendship, was consummated the moment that Early agreed to sign on as the Presidential secretary in charge of press matters.

Permission to reprint an excerpt from The Making of FDR in The Jewish Voice & Herald in its printed edition and its web site, JVHRI.org, is granted by the author, Linda Lotridge Levin.

Professor Linda Lotridge Levin chairs the Department of Journalism at the University of Rhode Island. She also serves as the president of the New England Press Association. Levin, who has documented the history of the Jewish “alternative” press in Rhode Island, was the recent keynote speaker at The Voice & Herald’s editorial board retreat.