A friend of mine recently called my attention to a web site that is of particular interest to speechwriters. It’s called “American Rhetoric: Top 100 Speeches” and it can be accessed at
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/top100speechesall.html
The site not only has the texts of all 100 speeches, it also has the original audio versions of the great majority of them, which can be downloaded to your iPod, for listening on the go.
Because the list favors speeches that have been recorded, it draws exclusively on speeches that have been given over the last 100 years. So you won’t find Washington’s Farewell Address or Lincoln’s “appropriate remarks” at Gettysburg. But the selection is rich and varied, and it’s a great resource nonetheless.
I was intrigued that the list included not one but two speeches by Huey “Kingfish” Long (1893-1935) – “Every Man a King” from 1934, and “Share Our Wealth” from 1935.
I mention Long, because this coming Friday will see the opening of a new film version of Robert Penn Warren’s novel, All the King’s Men, which was inspired, at least in part, by the career of the infamous Louisiana pol.
Huey Long was governor of Louisiana during the Depression, and was later a U.S. Senator. He was a radical populist and a fiery, rabble-rousing orator. During the mid-1930s, he built a national political movement whose goal was to redistribute the national wealth.
This was during the darkest days of the Depression. Millions of people had lost their jobs. Or had lost their savings when the local bank failed. Or were being evicted from their homes or family farms. They were desperate.
So Long attracted a real following.
As a matter of fact, President Franklin Roosevelt was terrified that Long would run as an independent in the presidential election of 1936. If he had, he could have split the Democratic vote and return the Republicans to power.
But Long was cut down by an assassin’s bullet in 1935. He was just 42 years old.
If you study these speeches, even in cold type, you can easily imagine the sinister appeal that Long exuded. Then you can see the film and decide if Sean Penn's performance measures up to the demagogue you’ve imagined.
