To those who rely on TikTok for news and information, John F. Kennedy, one the most charismatic figures that America ever produced, has been reduced to a vague, flickering image like an actor in a silent movie. Hubert H. Humphrey is not just invisible but forgotten. However, to most members of that generation, both the 35th President and Lyndon Johnson’s unhappy Vice-President, loom large in our memories.
With the 2024 Election almost upon us, the New Republic has conceived a list of the 100 most significant political movies ever made. Turner Classic Movies has made a commitment to show them all prior to November 5, 2024.
And so it was that this bleary-eyed political junkie hauled himself out of bed at 6:00 am on a recent Saturday to see “Primary”, a 1960 documentary which follows both Kennedy and Humphrey touring the hinterlands of Wisconsin, as they slug it out in an important primary election. Until the glorious day when a real time machine is actually invented, films like this represent our best opportunity to reconnect with a vanished America that is both fascinating and confounding.
I had forgotten just how handsome JFK was! That electric smile lit up a room, a hall, and the entire television screen. Girls and women of all ages were thrilled to see him and happily made a beeline just to be in his presence. The Kennedy campaign had its own theme song, “High Hopes”, which was re-purposed from a Frank Sinatra song. Campaign volunteers sang it lustily and off-key at every appearance.
At one point, the camera captures a bemused Jackie Kennedy trying not to laugh at a particularly awful rendition of the song. Humphrey’s campaign song was so bad that while a recorded version sometimes blared from his campaign bus, nobody ever attempted to sing it in public.
To see “Primary” is to visit a lost world that most of us would not want to rejoin. First of all, there is not a Black, Hispanic, or Asian face to be seen in the entire film. In 1960. the U.S. Surgeon General’s warning about the dangers of smoking had yet to be issued. Many, if not most, Americans smoked. At one campaign rally, an unseen woman sternly instructs the audience not to smoke, pointing out that at a prior rally, a man had accidentally set a woman’s dress on fire with his cigarette. As the female emcee is speaking, the camera finds a man at the back of the hall, who is clearly in no mood to give up his cigarette. This was also an era in which many women were seen in public with scarves covering their hair and not for religious reasons!
Hubert Humphrey chose to compete in Wisconsin, in part, because he was already well known there; his native Minnesota was just next door. In addition, while the state had some important Catholic communities, the number of Protestant residents were much larger. While Humphrey could never compete with JFK’s movie star looks, we’ve forgotten what a superb retail politician he was. HHH was warm, empathetic, and able to connect with almost every person who crossed his path. As a man of modest means who was badly outspent by the Kennedy machine, Humphrey tells a nine-year-old boy that he might need to borrow his play money. He jokes with an overly friendly man about coming to the White House to have dinner with the Humphrey family.
In one of the most memorable---and unexpected scenes in this film, Humphrey, speaking to a group of small farmers rails against the Eastern Media Establishment for not understanding what farmers really need and not giving a damn about them in general.
If you have never seen “Primary,” I can honestly say that reconnecting with the past has rarely been so much fun. It is accessible at the link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqBHydYg04s
Dick Levinson has lived in Philadelphia since 1995. He is a member of the Editorial Board of The Village View, the monthly Penn’s Village newsletter where he is a frequent contributor. He is a Librarian at the Parkway Central Library’s Senior Center.
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