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  4. Screen Gems Collection (outtakes from the television series “Decision:  The Conflicts of Harry S. Truman”)

Motion Picture MP2002-113

Screen Gems Collection (outtakes from the television series “Decision:  The Conflicts of Harry S. Truman”)

Administrative Information

Footage
290 feet
Running Time
8 minutes 42 seconds
Film Gauge
35mm
Sound
sound
Color
Black & White
Produced by
Screen Gems in association with Ben Gradus
Restrictions
Unrestricted
Description

Harry S. Truman discussing with interviewer Merle Miller such topics as books, high school friends, the burning of the original house on the Grandview farm, and his father's job as a road overseer. Sound only.

Date(s)
ca.
1961 - 1963

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This item does not circulate but reproductions may be purchased.

To request a copy of this item, please contact truman.reference@nara.gov​​​​​​​

Please note that this video belongs to a different video collection than the items available to be borrowed by teachers, from our Education Department.

Moving Image Type
Screen Gems

Shot List

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Reel 1

0:00   Unidentified voice: “Talent Associates, Truman Story, Take 21 from role 41 continued with overlap” This soundtrack is from Talent Associates, the early producers of the television series, and includes questions from Merle Miller to Mr. Truman. Question about book – do you make comments in the margins of books? Mr. Truman replies yes, with history books, to note things to check.
1:55   Question: have you read Gibbons Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire? Mr. Truman replies that it was a most interesting book and he read it cover to cover.
32   They discuss Mr. Truman meeting Ed Hines at Noland School, that he knew his relatives; Mr. Truman knew Rufus Burrus as a youngster, and took music lessons from Mr. Burrus’ aunt.
3:30   They discuss the Latin inscription on the Independence High School “Youth the hope of the world”
4:06   Mr. Truman talks about moral codes, mentioning Exodus 20th, the Sermon on the Mount, the Golden Rule, and Confucius. These are the codes Mr. Truman tries to observe.
5:42   Question about what makes a man great, is it that a man in public life must be trustworthy; then Mr. Miller asks about the sign that Mary Jane Truman had described that was a quote from Mark Twain. Mr. Truman replies that the quote is “Always do what’s right; it will please some people and astonish the rest.” He said Mary Jane had the sign.
6:54   Question about the burning of the Grandview farmhouse. Mr. Truman replies the house burned in 1893 and destroyed all of the records of Solomon Young’s wagon train trips and his grandfather Truman’s records. Question about the job of road overseer. Mr. Truman replies that his father was a road overseer, and Mr. Truman succeeded him in that job. He describes the job (to keep the side road in good shape, oiled, etc.)