The first televised White House address aired
On this day · 5 October 1947
President Truman's TV debut was an appeal to skip meat on Tuesdays, the medium's first turn at the presidential bully pulpit.
On October 5, 1947, President Harry S. Truman delivered the first television address ever broadcast from the White House, a plea for Americans to conserve food so the United States could ship grain to a hungry, war-ravaged Europe.
The asks were homely and specific. Truman urged the public to use no meat on Tuesdays, no poultry or eggs on Thursdays, and to save a slice of bread each day. The campaign, run through the Citizens Food Committee, aimed to free up grain while steadying domestic prices.
“The cost of living in this country must not be a football to be kicked about by gamblers in grain,” he warned.
Television was still a novelty, so most Americans heard the speech on radio and never saw Truman’s flickering image. Yet the broadcast marked the quiet arrival of a tool that would reshape the presidency: the camera in the room where decisions are announced.
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