Adlai Stevenson and Estes Kefauver - First Televised Debate, 1956

Four years prior to the celebrated Kennedy/Nixon debate, Democratic primary contenders Adlai Stevenson and Estes Kefauver politely squared off in the first presidential debate conducted before television cameras. On May 21, 1956, Miami’s ABC affiliate WTVJ broadcast a one hour meeting of these “friendly rivals,” moderated by Quincy Howe. Shown only in the Miami region, the debate took place the day after the U.S. tested its first airdropped H-bomb, at Bikini Atoll, and nuclear proliferation, racial segregation, and the balance between big and small business dominated the discussion. Stevenson went on to win the primary but lose the election to Eisenhower. Four years later, Stevenson failed in his third attempt to gain the Democratic nomination, and the Kennedy era ushered in an ever more “connected” populace, with the expectation that politics be continually played out in the media. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum acquired the 16mm print of the debate from Adlai Stevenson in 1962, when he donated his papers to the Illinois State Historical Library, ALPLM’s predecessor.