Give 'Em Hell, Harry!

Give 'Em Hell, Harry!, by Samuel Gallu, is a faithful and often humorous portrayal of President Harry S. Truman's life and presidency. It spans his childhood, his "political apprenticeship" as a judge in Jackson County, MO, his years in the US Senate and his momentous two terms as President. Actor James Whitmore originated the role in 1975. Clifton Truman Daniel took up the mantle in October of 2017, marking the first time in history a US president would be portrayed onstage by a direct descendant.

LECTURES

Clifton Truman Daniel is the oldest grandson of President Harry S. Truman and his wife, Bess. He is the son of author Margaret Truman and former New York Times Managing Editor E. Clifton Daniel Jr. Mr. Daniel is honorary chairman of the board of the Truman Library Institute and board secretary of the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation. He is the author of Growing Up With My Grandfather: Memories of Harry S. Truman and Dear Harry, Love Bess: Bess Truman’s Letters to Harry Truman, 1919-1943. In addition to portraying his famous grandfather on stage, Mr. Daniel gives a series of lectures on various aspects of the Truman presidency and US and White House history. The following is a short collection of his media appearances. 

white house restoration

In a Feb. 28, 2018 lecture for the White House Historical Association, Clifton Truman Daniel outlines the causes for the White House's deterioration and the 1948-1952 gut rehab that booted his grandparents across the street to Blair House, but preserved this symbol of American democracy. See full video

freemasonry

The Missouri Lodge of Research presents for its September 2012 Truman Lecture Series, Clifton Truman Daniel, grandson of MWB & President Harry S Truman, at their annual meeting on September 28, 2010. His presentation is titled: "Growing up Truman".

Hibakusha

NYC High Schools Presentation By Clifton Truman Daniel, the oldest grandson of 33rd U.S. President Harry S. Truman, on Atomic Bomb Survivors of Japan and their stories.  6 min 28 secs, HD, in English May 1, 2014, 9:00am ~ 10:30am Martin Luther King, Jr. Educational Complex NYC New York, NY.

Other media appearances on C-SPAN available through their website. 

WRITTEN WORKS

The following is a sample of works created by Clifton Truman Daniel

Dear Harry, Love Bess: Bess Truman’s Letters to Harry Truman, 1919-1943

One evening in 1955, Harry Truman came home to find Bess burning her letters to him. “What are you doing? Think of history,” he said. “Oh, I have,” she said and tossed in another stack.

Bess Truman thought her business was hers and nobody else’s, so she destroyed her half of the more than 2,600 letters she and Harry exchanged during their courtship and marriage. While making an inventory of the Truman home in the 1980s, archivists discovered 180 letters Bess had missed. Her grandson Clifton Truman Daniel shares them here, along with portions of Harry’s responses, family photographs, and stories. These letters provide new insight into the lives and personalities of Bess and Harry Truman during the formative years of his political life. Despite Bess’s shy and self-effacing manner, her lively correspondence offers a glimpse of a caring and witty woman who shared her concerns about family, politics, and day-to-day activities with her husband.

Growing Up With My Grandfather: Memories of Harry S. Truman

The president's grandson, the son of Margaret Truman, reflects on the legacy of his ever-popular grandfather, his childhood in the midst of privilege, and the academic and professional failures that resulted from his drinking problem. 

LECTURES

Gammy and Grandpa: Growing Up Around Harry and Bess Truman

The architect of the Marshall Plan, the Truman Doctrine and the Berlin Airlift was a
terrible babysitter and subversive husband who would travel halfway around the
world to meet with Churchill and Stalin, but weasel out of mowing the lawn.

Harry and Eddie: The Recognition of Israel

They met in Kansas City when Grandpa was 21 and Eddie was 14 and struck up a
50-year friendship that spanned two world wars and a presidency. In 1948, Eddie
would risk it all for the sake of the nascent Jewish state.

Dear Harry, Love Bess: Bess Truman’s Letters to Harry Truman

Grandpa came home one day in 1955 and found my grandmother burning her
letters to him in the fireplace. “What are you doing?” he said. “Think of history!” She
said, “Oh, I have.” The 184 letters that survive paint an intimate portrait of my
grandparents’ marriage during Grandpa’s years as a county judge and US senator.

Beneath the Mushroom Cloud: Survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

My grandfather never spoke to me about the atomic bombings. In 1999, my son,
Wesley, brought home a book, Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. It was the
first human story of the bombings I’d seen and it led to a meeting with Sadako’s
brother, Masahiro, a trip to the memorial ceremonies in Hiroshima and Nagasaki
and meetings – and friendships – with survivors.

This Place is Haunted Sure as Shootin’: The White House Restoration

The creaks and pops may have sounded ghostly, but they were warnings. Fire, marshy ground and decades of renovating, sawing and drilling had left the interior of the Executive Mansion sagging like a cooling soufflé. The lecture features photos taken during the 1948-52 restoration by National Park Service photographer Abbie Rowe.