The Eleanor Roosevelt Story [DVD] [1965]

Assembled three years after the subject's death, the Oscar-winning The Eleanor Roosevelt Story is a reverent documentary of one of the most influential--and controversial--first ladies in American history. Family photographs are utilized to trace the courtship between the shy Eleanor and her outgoing cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt. We watch as Eleanor becomes a major public figure in her own right, from her tireless support of her husband during his 1921 bout with infantile paralysis through her twelve years in the White House. Special attention is paid Mrs. Roosevelt's activities on behalf of civil rights, at a time when it was considered unfashionable (and politically suicidal) to take such stands. The documentary concludes with footage of the widowed Eleanor's tenure as a delegate to the United Nations. You may have seen the clips in The Eleanor Roosevelt Story elsewhere, but they're still worth a glance from both those who remember this remarkable woman and those to whom she has heretofore been merely a hazy name from the past. The film is narrated by Archibald MacLeish, Eric Sevareid and Francis Cole.