Episode 9: Trailblazers of Media
Shaniece Bickham discusses how first ladies have used radio, television, and social media to creatively share their messages with the public, starting in 1931 with Lou Hoover and through Michelle Obama.
TRANSCRIPT
Teri Finneman: Eleanor. Dolley. Mamie. Jackie. They were the nation’s original influencers. Some were fearless, some were fragile. All left their mark on the nation’s history. In this podcast, we'll reflect on the fascinating legacies of the women forever tied to the White House. I'm your host, Teri Finneman, a journalism historian who studies media portrayals of first ladies with production editing by Bella Koscal. This is the First Ladies podcast.
Throughout history, many first ladies have been at the forefront of strategic communication and using new technology to communicate with the public. In this episode, we visit with Shaniece Bickham about how first ladies have charted their own paths through electronic and digital media.
Shaniece, welcome to the show. Why did you become interested in studying first ladies?
Shaniece Bickham (1:05): So, I actually became interested once I gained attention to first lady Michelle Obama. I really gravitated to her because of her background. She seems to me to have a “just like me” background and it was very similar to mine, being that she grew up as a first-generation college student, came from humble backgrounds, from a family who believed in hard work and education, and to see her reap the results of that was really amazing to me. So, that was my initial start into having an interest in researching first ladies. Now obviously, at that time, I just was a person who liked the first lady, but I actually gained more interest in it when I started working on a book chapter for one of Lisa Burns’s books that looked at Michelle Obama's work with the media and her strategic communication in that area. So, that was sort of my first introduction into first lady research.
Teri Finneman (2:14): All right. We're going to talk about a number of first ladies today, starting in 1931. Lou Hoover delivered the first radio broadcast by a first lady. What did she talk about, and how did she use radio throughout her time as first lady?
Shaniece Bickham: Yes so, what's interesting about first lady Lou Hoover, and I want to say that I enjoyed this project because it did allow me to explore other first ladies and to look at how they use media strategically and then a lot of times just by nature by them being a first lady, but she is actually the first first lady to use radio, even though that has typically, that title has been associated with Eleanor Roosevelt. So, she gave her first radio broadcast in 1931, and she was really using it as an opportunity for her to rally the country, if you will, and also rallied the youth organizations that she was working for. So, at this time, the country was, of course, going through the Great Depression, and she, by nature, had been a volunteer and had dedicated a lot of her life to volunteerism.
(3:30): So, that first radio broadcast, she had two Girl Scouts with her, and her goal was to encourage them and other people who were involved in those types of organizations with helping families who might perhaps be struggling because of the unemployment crisis and other issues associated with the Great Depression.
Teri Finneman: You mentioned Eleanor Roosevelt and I had no idea until I read your chapter that she actually did radio segments even before she became first lady. You note that she first served as a regular guest on a radio program sponsored by Pond’s Cold Cream, and then from 1934 through the 1940s, Roosevelt appeared on numerous radio programs. What was she talking about on these shows?
Shaniece Bickham (4:18): Yes so, what's interesting is first lady Eleanor Roosevelt started her first radio program when she was first lady elect, which probably isn't the proper term for that, but it was after her husband had won the election but before he had been sworn in. And so her first program was a radio program that was sponsored by Pond’s Cold Cream, and it was called The Ponds Dance Program, and what she did on that program, and you'll see sort of this same pattern in other programs, but she talked about sort of topics of the day related to women. So, you know, how ladies operated in society during that particular time as compared to when she was growing up. She had one topic where she focused on how mothers should treat their daughters-in-laws or sons-in-laws once their children became married.
(5:20): And then, she just sort of offered little nuggets and tidbits along the way to kind of give women in society tips as they carry about their daily lives. So again, this program was sponsored by Pond’s Cold Cream, so everything pretty much that they talked about was centered around women.
Teri Finneman: Most people don't know that it was actually Eleanor, not Franklin, who was the first to address the nation after Pearl Harbor was attacked. Talk about how that came to be and what she said to the nation.
Shaniece Bickham (5:54): Yes so, she gave her address, I believe it was on December 7, 1941. And to me, she had a calming voice. So, I was able to go back and listen to the speech, which was a wonderful thing to be able to do, and she really spoke to families, and more specifically mothers, and she talked about the fact that she recognized that a lot of them would have sons and possibly husbands who would go off for deployment. And so, in that moment, I feel it was a needed voice and a calming voice, considering everything that was going on during that time.
Teri Finneman: We then go through a string of decades of first ladies who did not actively seek or want to be media spokespersons for the administration, like Bess Truman, Mamie Eisenhower, and Jackie Kennedy. However, Kennedy, of course, is well known for her televised White House tour in 1962, which drew 80 million viewers, so talk about how this major television event came to be.
Shaniece Bickham (7:02): So, with first lady Kennedy, even before I started doing first lady research, she's always struck me as interesting, yet mysterious, and I think that's because she had a way of wanting her privacy. So, when she decided to do this White House tour, to me, it had that popularity because people were so excited to get a glimpse into someone who they perhaps didn't know very well beyond the television appearances that she had beside her husband. So, that television tour, or that White House tour that aired on television, it was the first one. It was a one-hour tour. It aired on CBS News, and it really showcased the home, but it gave the audience a glimpse at her personality as well.
(7:57): And what I find that was interesting about the tour, as it wasn't necessarily just the, “Oh, come look and see all of the splendor that's here,” she connected it instead to the historical elements and the importance of the historical pieces that were in the home, and that tour actually served as an introduction to America in regards to her interest in the arts. So, I think the significance of that tour was not just the fact that she did it and she was the first, but the fact that we, or the Americans who were able to view it at that time, had a chance to realize and learn more about her passion, which of course was the arts.
Teri Finneman (8:42): Then you get to Betty Ford, who ended up using the media as a platform to discuss breast cancer and prescription drug addiction, topics that were unheard of at the time to talk about out loud. You note that her candidness was also on full display during a CBS 60 Minutes interview where she talked about her support for abortion rights. Tell us about her impact using media to bring these topics to light.
Shaniece Bickham: So, what really stood out to me with first lady Ford, as you mentioned, is her candidness, the fact that she had an outspoken personality, and she was really speaking on things that we might find commonplace today, but during that time, it really wasn't an era where you saw women speaking out that boldly about any topic, and then the fact that she was speaking on controversial topics, I believe that that's what makes it even more significant. And you know, the interesting thing about her is she was able to have that personality and that boldness to speak, and she wasn't afraid to do so.
(10:01): And then there was a moment, I believe it was before that 60 Minutes interview, where she was the first to use a CB radio, and so that kind of really brought attention to sort of this opposite side of her, where you did see her kind of in a more fun role, as opposed to when you saw her really speaking about those serious issues of that time.
Teri Finneman: You note Nancy Reagan joined her husband as a guest on his radio show and delivered an address from Camp David about her “Just Say No” anti-drug campaign, but she also hit [top] TV shows at the time like Different Strokes and Punky Brewster to spread this message. What do you think of this strategy of first ladies spreading their platforms through popular culture?
Shaniece Bickham (10:52): So, I would say that it was genius, again kind of going back to the time that it occurred in. So, for us, looking at things in 2024 that might seem commonplace, but we're talking about the 1980s, and what she was able to do was to take a very real message, something that America was facing in real time, and then incorporate that message into fictional sitcoms in many cases. So, for example, with the Diff’rent Strokes appearance, the Punky Brewster appearance, those were shows that were “make-believe” in essence.
But again, she was able to portray herself in those shows and drive the message of “just say no” to those viewing audiences, and of course, as we know that anti-drug campaign really stretched far, particularly with after-school programs and special clubs, youth clubs, and I think that her being visible in that strategic of a way really contributed to the success of that campaign in terms of how much awareness was brought to it.
Teri Finneman (12:17): In 2001, another first lady first occurred when Laura Bush delivered the weekly presidential radio address. You note this was a historical moment because she wasn't serving as a guest of the radio show, but instead as the host. Bush turned to radio to express her concerns for women in Afghanistan. How do you see this as a turning point for first ladies?
Shaniece Bickham: I find that important and significant because she was able to step out to the forefront outside of her husband's shadow. So, as we know, the first lady typically has been a traditional role and one of the things that I liked about my chapter is the fact that I was able to bring out a lot of the things that the average person, unless they were living through that time, didn't know about. And so, when she was able to take over the radio, if you will, the radio show, the presidential radio show, to me, served as a significant moment for her to be able to step out and give her own message to Americans as a whole, but specifically to women in America.
Teri Finneman (13:31): So going back to Michelle Obama, who you talked about at the beginning of the show, we've been talking about radio and television and first ladies increasingly using media tools, but Michelle Obama is truly the most media savvy first lady we've had. Not only did she use those old standard approaches to messaging and take them to a new level through her frequent appearances on TV programs, but the explosion of the Internet and social media during her time as first lady opened a whole new world of direct communication with the public. How do you think social media has advanced the office of the first lady?
Shaniece Bickham (14:08): I have to go back to the need I feel for first ladies to have their own voice, and social media, if done correctly, gives first ladies that voice that they need. So, over the years, of course, our first ladies have become visible on X, formerly known as Twitter, where they have their own social media handles. They've been able to develop their own social media campaigns related to their platforms, specifically with Michelle Obama. She was very, very successful with promoting her campaigns, whether it was “Let's Move,” or “Joining Forces,” or “Reach Higher,” she was able to connect directly with her audiences through those platforms and then connect it all the way back to traditional electronic media with her television appearances.
(15:10): So, we do know that she is the most televised first lady, but when you look back to first ladies who preceded her, you'll see that, you know, they were doing radio shows, they were doing television shows, and so, she was able to amplify and add onto what they had done in the past.
Teri Finneman: And then our final question of the show is why do you think studying first ladies matters?
Shaniece Bickham (15:38): For me it matters, and I have to go back to what I said earlier. I think the average person, they see the first lady on the news or they see her making appearances with her husband, but they really don't think about the impact that she has independent of that, and that was sort of my initial draw to first lady Michelle Obama, because I was able to see her successes independent of her husband's successes.
And then as I continue to research, I learned about the other first ladies and all of the wonderful things that they had done while their husbands were in office and also before they went into office, and now even after they're out. But I think that there's not enough research out there that really brings that to light, and the ones that, the research that is there, society as a whole, they don't really get the full effect of it as we do. So, my goal is to continue researching all the first ladies and doing the little bit that I can to help bring their contributions to the forefront.
Teri Finneman (17:01): Okay, well, thanks so much for joining us today.
Shaniece Bickham: Thank you for having me.
Teri Finneman: We hope you enjoyed the show. Tune in next time to uncover more untold histories of the nation's first ladies. I'm Teri Finneman, and this is The First Ladies podcast.
Show music credit: "Winning Elevation" by Hot_Dope.