LANDSLIDE - A Portrait of President Herbert Hoover
A One-Hour Documentary
presented by
Iowa Public Television

In association with Stamats Communications and Iowa Public Television, The Duncan Group has completed a one hour public television biography called LANDSLIDE - A Portrait of President Herbert Hoover.

The film premiered nationwide on PBS on MONDAY, OCTOBER 26.

The documentary was directed by Chip Duncan and produced by Chip Duncan and Tracy Dorsey with Bob Huck and Patricia Ostermick. Tom Hedges and Stevie Ballard of Cedar Rapids-based co-producer Stamats Communications are the executive producers. Iowa Public Television was the presenting station for the PBS system.

For more information, please contact Patty@DuncanEntertainment.com.

Producer Chip Duncan interviews Tim Walch, Director of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library in December, 2007.

In this one-hour documentary, The Duncan Group explores the facts and fictions behind the presidency of Herbert Hoover including The Great Depression and its lasting impact on government. We also explored the role of the Federal Reserve and monetary policy during the Hoover presidency and into the early years of FDR. The documentary also explores Hoover's early life abroad, the international experiences that led to his decision to run for office, Hoover's presidency and political philosophy, and the lasting impact of his policy decisions made during and after the depression. Along with the depression, the film provides detailed discussion of the 1927 Mississippi flood, the 1928 election campaign, monetary and agricultural policies throughout the Hoover presidency, the Bonus March and the 1932 presidential election.

Interview subjects for LANDSLIDE - A Portrait of President Herbert Hoover include several notable scholars such as David Kennedy, Amity Shlaes, Robert Reich, Tim Egan and Timothy Walch among others.

At the time of his landslide victory in 1928, Herbert Hoover, was by many accounts the most respected man in America. An Iowa orphan-turned-exceptional mining engineer, adventurer and international businessman, he'd made his fortune by the age of 40. When the world plunged into the chaos of World War I, he turned his considerable talents to humanitarian relief, delivering more than $5 billion in food and medical aid to Europe - and later Russia - saving an estimated 20 million men, women and children from starvation. On the home front, as the country's first U.S. Food Administrator, he galvanized American housewives behind the cause of conservation to feed the troops and our Allies overseas, then continued his stellar political rise as an uncommonly forward thinking secretary of commerce for both Presidents Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge.

Producer Tracy Dorsey and Photographer Bob Huck interview author Amity Shlaes at the Council on Foreign Relations in January of 2008.

Throughout the 1920's, both Republicans and Democrats eyed the politically-unaffiliated Hoover as a potential leader. Even Franklin D. Roosevelt lavished him with praise, writing, "He certainly is a wonder, and I wish we could make President. There couldn't be a better one…" When, in 1928, an adoring public made Roosevelt's wish a reality, even Hoover worried that his exaggerated public image would be his undoing. "They have a conviction that I am a sort of superman, that no problem is beyond my capacity," the President-elect confided to a reporter. "If some unprecedented calamity should come upon the nation… I would be sacrificed to the unreasoning disappointment of a people who expect too much."

And come it did. On October 29, 1929 - just six months after Hoover took office - "Black Tuesday" left Wall Street staggering under the loss of an estimated $26 billion lost in stock value. Despite Hoover's reassurance that "The fundamental business of the country… is on a sound and prosperous basis," the giddy, get-rich-quick confidence of the America's Jazz Age was shaken. As 1929 gave way to 1930, additional cracks in the foundation of American prosperity - a decade-long agricultural crisis, over production in the industrial sector and a frail international economy - became apparent. Suddenly even the most hardworking of Americans were battling unemployment and despair.

Despite popular misconception, Hoover toiled to correct the country's economic course. In many instances, his anti-depression efforts - from his early experimentation with public work programs and voluntary cooperation between government and business to the ultimate, if largely ineffectual, appropriation of federal loans to stimulate business - were unprecedented. Underlying every corrective measure was Hoover's unwavering belief in "American Individualism," the unique American ability to overcome any hardship with hard work, integrity and a commitment to community. But to the public, Hoover often appeared at best incompetent and at worst, heartless. The "superman" who had saved millions the world over from starvation after World War I, had seemingly left the American public, hungry, penniless, fending for themselves.

One time Hoover assistant C.Y. Wilder shares personal photographs with Photographer Bob Huck and Producer Tracy Dorsey at her New York home in January of 2008.

Following a landslide defeat by his one-time admirer, Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Great Engineer became a "walking corpse" given to moments of seeming disorientation. He left the White House angry and embittered, his reputation in shreds. For years he actively campaigned against what he called Roosevelt's "fascist" New Deal. He considered it a betrayal of American freedom that actually prolonged the Depression. Only after Roosevelt's death, with the world reeling in the aftermath of World War II, did Hoover begin to restore his image, once again assuming the role of humanitarian to feed the world's starving.

Today, while many historians judge Hoover's presidency a failure, many also suggest he was not responsible for, and could not have averted, the Great Depression. And yet, the man's extraordinary business career, his personal strengths and weakness, and his philosophy of American Individualism continue to spark controversy.

LANDSLIDE - Video Clip

Notable Hoover Quotes

Q&A with the Producers of LANDSLIDE - A Portrait of President Herbert Hoover

Ten Interesting Facts About President Herbert Hoover

Interview Transcripts: LANDSLIDE - A Portrait of President Herbert Hoover

www.IPTV.org

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© 2008 The Duncan Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable laws.

For more information, please contact Patty@DuncanEntertainment.com.