Give em Hell, Harry!

Title origin

The title comes from an incident that took place during the 1948 Presidential election campaign. In Bremerton, Washington, Truman delivered a speech attacking the Republicans. During the speech a supporter yelled out "Give 'em Hell, Harry!". Truman replied, "I don't give them Hell. I just tell the truth about them and they think it's Hell." Subsequently, "Give 'em Hell, Harry!" became a lifetime slogan for Truman supporters.

History

The play previewed in Hershey, Pennsylvania, followed by its official opening at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C.. Its April 17, 1975 premiere was hosted by Truman's daughter Margaret and attended by President Gerald Ford. The play then went on to a six-city tour, during which it was videotaped for film on the stage of the Moore Theatre in Seattle, using a live editing process called Theatrovision. Although the play has been regularly revived, it did not make its New York debut until July 2008 at St. Luke's Theatre.

Awards

James Whitmore was nominated for Best Actor by both the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes. It is only the third film to have its entire credited cast (Whitmore) nominated for an Academy Award, the first two being Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf in 1966 and Sleuth in 1972. Whitmore was also nominated for, and won, a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Recording.