#thomas dewey

[wandererseas]

Fraser be like: the vibe I bring to the function is 19th century naval officer

[capispaghetti]

Forget Ray wars, who's your favourite detective side character

Huey, Louis, or Dewey??

[mortmere]

Odds + Asylum + Chicago Holiday Pt 2

(Stacked Rewatch / Timestamp Roulette Art Challenge)

Oh dear - a three-episode week in the stacked rewatch, and I left it all to the last day which also turned out to be a headache day. But I'm not leaving any eps "for later", so here are super quick digital freehand doodles, one per episode. D-U-N done!

[1863-project]

I've been seeing screenshots of this tweet making the rounds lately:

I did a thread on Twitter adding some historical context, but it's easier to write long-form stuff on websites like Tumblr, so I'll do it here, too.

This is a screenshot from a 1944 election propaganda film called Hell-Bent For Election. The locomotives do indeed represent FDR (left) and his rival, Thomas E. Dewey (right). Dewey would famously try to run again in 1948 and was considered the favorite against Harry Truman, leading to the famous Dewey Defeats Truman newspaper headline. The film was directed by Chuck Jones (yes, that Chuck Jones) and distributed by United Auto Workers. It was made amidst WWII, and it isn't subtle about making sure the viewer knows a vote against FDR is a vote for Hitler. (Weirdly enough, there's a character that can easily be read as an antisemitic caricature trying to get the protagonist to vote for Dewey despite what we know was happening in retrospect; this is actually quite jarring and uncomfortable from a historical perspective.)

OP probably doesn't know this, but FDR isn't being depicted as a bullet train. The Shinkansen doesn't show up until the 1960s, and at any rate, the US was very much at war with Japan at the time this film was made, so there's no way FDR would be depicted using Japanese railroad technology even if it did exist at the time. What he is being shown as, however, is a streamliner.

Notice this gap here? Streamlined steam locomotives usually still had their drive wheels exposed to a degree to make maintenance easier. In particular, FDR resembles a New York Central Mercury (4-6-4 Hudson) with his chin as an added cowcatcher.

The streamlined cladding for the Mercury was designed by Henry Dreyfuss, who would go on a few years later to design arguably the most famous streamlined NYC Hudson locomotives: the Dreyfuss Hudsons.

You can see a bit of influence from these in the FDR locomotive, as well, as it has a ridge along the top. These pulled prestigious passenger trains known for high speed, including the flagship 20th Century Limited. FDR was, of course, from old money and could afford that sort of thing, but that's likely not the reason they depicted him as a streamliner here.

Streamlined locomotives emerged in the 1930s despite the economic hardships in the United States at the time. They were designed to evoke a sense of speed and modernity, and they represented a society moving forward. By depicting FDR as one, it projects a sense of strength, especially in comparison to the tired old Dewey locomotive, which looks nearly half a century old. This was a crucial portrayal considering that FDR had polio (or possibly Guillain-Barré Syndrome, another explanation) and due to ableism he had to hide that affliction to avoid being seen by opponents (both political and wartime) as "weak." Additionally, Dewey's consist (the train cars he's pulling) is made up of outdated policies, including a caboose labeled with "Jim Crow."

I find the use of a streamliner rather ironic because at the time this film was made, many streamlined locomotives were being un-streamlined so the extra metal could be used for the war effort. It's a bit of an odd choice from that angle, but it's clear that the imagery of streamliners and what they represented in the minds of the public was still going strong.

Also worth noting: yes, FDR won the November 1944 election and began a fourth term in office. He died only a few months later, in April 1945, and was succeeded by his Vice President, Truman, who finished his term and then, as mentioned above, beat Dewey again in an upset to win a full term in 1948.

(Truman gleefully holding up the incorrect Chicago Tribune at St. Louis Union Station, 1948)

So that's that, I suppose! You can watch the film here, as it's in the public domain:

(If you enjoy my historical writing, consider donating to my Ko-Fi so I can keep AGI running as smoothly as the 20th Century Limited! Thanks for reading!)

[electronicsquid]

Kids wearing fake mustaches (Dewey Dusters) at the drug store

(Wallace Kirkland. 1948)

[racefortheironthrone]

I was surprised to find that in 1948 Truman lost New York, which would have made his re-election much safer. Was it Wallace taking away important votes or there was a bourgeois backlash in the middle classes favouring Dewey after years of New Deal hegemony or was it local factors?

Thomas Dewey was the sitting Governor of New York, and before that a hugely popular prosecutor. He was the local factor.

[deadpresidents]

A Southern Rebellion in 1948 Almost Threw American Democracy into Disarray

The 1948 presidential election almost became a constitutional crisis.

[audiemurphy1945]

Ben Shahn, A Good Man is Hard to Find (Truman and Dewey), 1948