Hitting the Trail

It was not long after the major party conventions declared their presidential tickets - the Dems would be backing Estes Kefauver and W. Avrill Harriman to try and keep the Oval Office, while the GOP hoped that the combination of Walt Disney and Ike Eisenhower would help get them to the White House for the first time in over two decades - that the candidates began strategizing their national campaigns and heading out to give speeches and host rallies. Disney and Kefauver were both masters of media, including, crucially, the upcoming new medium of television. This, along with the massive importance placed on this race by the media, would make the 1952 Presidential Elections some of the most exciting in living memory.

For the Disney campaign, they would be banking most heavily on the presence and influence of Walt Disney during the campaign process. While Ike's name was certainly a major selling point for the ticket, the General was still busy with his work as NATO Commander, vowing to not leave until he was certain he would be headed to the White House. This meant that Disney would often be on his own for talks, interviews, and debates - a spotlight that very few men in America could be as comfortable in as Walt. Disney was a voracious campaigner - he would sometimes give up to four speeches a day during his major cross-country road trips - and took to the trail like an experienced pro.

Disney giving a speech in St. Louis, MO

More important events were planned around the General's schedule, such as major interviews, rallies in key states, and big donor meetings. One of these largest events was a multi-day rally in Miami, Florida, which included meetings with local GOP politicians and multiple town hall meetings. One of Disney's major campaign goals was to begin winning states in the South for the Republicans again, and he was convinced that Florida could be the first domino to fall. The Miami rally was also the debut for Disney's first major campaign promise - connecting the country from "sea to shining sea," a massive infrastructure plan that would look to create transit links between the major population centers across the nation.

Disney and Eisenhower attending a town hall with Miami Mayor Haydon Burns

Fortunately for the Democrats, if there was one man who could match Disney's charisma as a speaker, it was Estes Kefauver. The Tennessee Senator had been lauded as an inspiring orator since his entry into politics, and his speeches often saw attendance that outpaced the record-setting 1948 Truman campaign. Often appearing with his wife Nancy, who was nearly as charismatic a presence as he was, Kefauver reinvigorated the Democratic Party, selling a new image of a "down to Earth" party who wanted action to address issues as opposed to just talk.

Estes and Nancy Kefauver at a campaign rally in Nashville, TN

Kefauver also knew that selling another four years of democratic control to the American people would take more than the usual tactics, and so began a taping tour of 27 different televised interviews and town halls. For the first time, television would take a center stage in a national election, bringing the election to American homes like none before in history.

Kefauver and Harriman recording a television interview in Providence, RI

Disney, of course, was no stranger to television either, and played to what was easily his greatest campaign strengths - cartoons. The core of the TV campaign was proposed by one of Eisenhower's campaign staffers, Colonel Jacqueline Cochran, who suggested a minute-long cartoon ad that would bring the emotional message of the campaign to living rooms across America. The resulting ad, "We Want Walt!", was a massive hit, with the eponymous catchphrase becoming a nationally-recognized slogan practically overnight.

The ad begins with a bouncing "Walt" campaign button. Uncle Sam, dressed as a drum major, leads a parade, including a circus elephant, followed by a crowd of people with different occupations. Democratic vice presidential candidate W. Avrill Harriman, former Secretary of State Dean Acheson, and President Harry S. Truman are depicted as Democratic donkeys. The ad's narrator concludes: "Now is the time for all good Americans to come to the aid of their country."

Still from the "We Want Walt!" campaign ad

Perhaps most revolutionary, however, was the night of October 6th, 1952, when Estes Kefauver and Walt Disney met for the first-ever televised presidential debate. Both men, having such an affinity for television, felt it only natural to play to their combined strengths and appeal to Americans from the television sets, and hosted an event that would be more popular than even the Kefauver Hearings and the Alger Hiss trial of the last few years. The debate was shown in bars, theaters, and homes across the nation, with an estimated viewership of almost 40 million people live, the most viewed live broadcast in American history to that point.

Kefauver and Disney at the October 6th Presidential Debate

Television was, without a doubt, a key medium in this election, but the vast majority of advertising, as with every election year, was in a wide variety of physical campaign merchandise. Posters, buttons, ad cards, banners, and more were all seen from coast to coast, the faces of Kefauver, Disney, Eisenhower, and Harriman becoming the most recognizable in America. From July to November, the election was never more than a few feet from the minds of every man, woman, and child in the United States, setting the stage for an election to remember..

"Vote Kefauver" policy poster

"Forward with Disney" campaign poster

Kefauver-Harriman "leaping donkey" campaign banner

"We Want Walt!" campaign button

"Real Men" campaign poster