To Tell The Truth

with

Eleanor Roosevelt

by

Gail Skroback Hennessey

To Tell the Truth Plays are based on the Game Show created by

Mark Goodson Productions

Host: Today’s guest is Eleanor Roosevelt.  Only one of the three on the panel is the real Eleanor Roosevelt .  The other two on the panel are impostors.  Your job is to listen carefully to the information presented and decide which of the three  guests is the REAL Eleanor Roosevelt. Let’s begin by meeting our guests.

Eleanor Roosevelt 1:  What a pleasure to be able to meet with you today.  My name is Eleanor Roosevelt.

Eleanor Roosevelt 2: Hello, my name is Eleanor Roosevelt.

Eleanor Roosevelt 3: I look forward to telling you about my life.  My name is Eleanor Roosevelt.

Host: Let me read this brief summary on Eleanor Roosevelt.

“I, Eleanor Roosevelt, was born  Anna Eleanor Roosevelt in 1884 . A shy girl, I went on to become one of the most  active First Ladies ever. As the eye, ears and legs for my husband, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, I traveled the country returning with information that helped shape the policies of my husband’s 12 years in the White House.   One little girl who had heard about me when shown the Statue of Liberty for the first time, said, “That’s Eleanor Roosevelt!” Called a  humanitarian , I worked at the  newly formed  UN after my husband died.  The organization  stood for a moment of  silence  in my honor at my death in 1962 and some called  me, the  “First Lady of the World.”

Signed,

Eleanor Roosevelt

Host: Let’s begin the questioning with Panelist 1:

Panelist 1: Your family was very wealthy and you got to travel a lot as a little girl.  As a young girl you didn’t think you were very pretty and didn’t like the fact your teeth stuck out. You sometimes cried about your looks until your father took you to see a Thanksgiving for poor boys. Many had no family and slept  in wooden sheds. This trip  made you realize how lucky your life was even if you weren’t pretty.  Tell about a memory of your childhood.

Eleanor Roosevelt 1: When in Italy, my father paid for a boy to give me a donkey ride.  When we returned my father was surprised to see the boy riding with me walking beside the donkey.  I told my father that the boy was poor and didn’t have any shoes to wear and his feet were all cut up from walking on the rocks.  I had shoes so I let him ride.  My father said he was very proud of my kindness.

Eleanor Roosevelt 2: On a trip on the ship Britannia, at the age of about 3, the ship was hit by another ship  in dense fog.  The collision ripped a hole in my ship and we had to evacuate to lifeboats. One of the sailors TOSSED me to my father in the boat. He said he would catch me and he did but I still  didn’t want to travel by boat for a few years after this happened.

Eleanor Roosevelt 3: My mother who was very pretty was talking to her friends one day and didn’t think I would understand what they were saying since I was just a young child.  She said that I was a funny child,very shy and old fashioned.  She said that I was called “Granny”.  I overhead the comments and it hurt.

Panelist 2:  Do you have any memory about going to school?

Eleanor Roosevelt 1: At about the age of 10, I went to a private school in Paris , France.  It was awful.  I didn’t understand the language and the other girls were not very friendly to me.  They made fun of me and it was a very lonely and unhappy time for me.  When a roommate accidently swallowed a penny , she got so much attention.  I thought I¹d say I had done so , too, thinking I could get the other girls to care about me.  Instead, I was teased even more and finally went home where I did admit to my mother that I hadn’t swallowed the penny.

Eleanor Roosevelt 2: After returning from the private school in Paris, my mom opened a school in our house.  I loved school but my shyness continued to be a problem.  I KNEW my spelling words (store and potato) but when called upon, I misspelled them both.  My mother had entered the room and I was so nervous I couldn’t concentrate.  Mother seemed disappointed in me as she also knew I could spell the words.  I worked hard and by the next month , was the head of the class in my studies.

Eleanor Roosevelt  3: After my parents died, I went to live with my grandmother.  She didn’t think girls should go to public school so I had a private tutor who taught  me at home.

Panelist 3: You adored your father and missed him terribly when he died when you were just a girl.  He often gave you advice such as when you worried that you’d never be as pretty as your mother.  He told you the story of the Ugly Ducking and said that “We mustn’t spend too much time thinking about ourselves. We must think about other people, too.” You spend your adult life thinking and caring about others.  What else did he say to you that  stayed with you into adulthood?

Eleanor Roosevelt 1: My father told me , “All your life you are going to have to live with one person....Eleanor Roosevelt”.  

Eleanor Roosevelt 2: My father told me ,   “ Always brush your hair each day and wear clean socks”!

Eleanor Roosevelt 3: My father told me , “ Marry a wealthy man so you always have money to buy shoes!”

Panelist 4:  You married a distant cousin named Franklin D. Roosevelt so unlike many women who get married and take their husband’s last name, your name stayed the same! Your husband became a senator for the state of New York and  when Franklin got polio, the disease almost killed him.  You stayed by his side night and day nursing him back to health AND convincing him that he could STILL be in politics even if he was confined to a wheelchair. Winning the race for  governor of New York, Franklin  went on to become the  32nd President of the United States. What is a memory of your life as First Lady?

Eleanor Roosevelt 1: In my first year as First Lady , I traveled more than 40,000 miles  reporting back to Franklin what I saw.  It was a difficult time called the Great Depression when many people didn’t have jobs and many were hurting for money . I invited an older man and a women with ten children to the White House on the same day the King and Queen of England arrived.  I said that the White House “belonged to the people...their taxes support it...they should be made to feel welcome.” By the way, I served hot dogs to the King and Queen, a food they never had before coming for their visit.

Eleanor Roosevelt 2:  I loved being the First Lady and had the internet installed in the White House so that Franklin could see video streams of the people and places I visited.

Eleanor Roosevelt 3: I didn’t like being the First Lady and that is why I spent so much time on buses, airplanes and trains traveling about the country and the world.

Panelist 5: When you first came to the White House, you insisted on running the elevator yourself.  When told it just isn’t done, you responded , “It is now”. As

First Lady, you wrote a newspaper column called , “My Day” and gave much of the money to the poor.  During World War 2, you traveled to Europe and the South Pacific to see the wounded soldiers.  It was a brave thing to do as First Lady.  After Franklin died, what did you do?

Eleanor Roosevelt 1: I was asked by President Truman to work at a new organization called the United Nations where I became chairman of the United Nations Commission for Human Rights.  I was very proud of the Declaration of Human Rights that I helped get passed.

Eleanor Roosevelt 2: I was asked to host a television show where I interviewed world leaders for CNN.  I then retired to Italy and raised donkeys.

Eleanor Roosevelt 3: Since I had done so much for Franklin when he was President, I decided to go into politics ,too. I was elected the first woman President of the United States and Susan B. Anthony was my Vice President.

Host: Panelists and members of the audience, it is now time to decide who you think is the REAL Eleanor Roosevelt.  Is it number 1?  Is it number 2?  Is it number 3?  The votes have been cast.  Will the REAL Eleanor Roosevelt, please stand up?

Answer: 1

Responses to Panelists 1 and 2 are all correct.

*** Using the script, find four characteristics of Eleanor Roosevelt and support your answer with evidence from the play.

Sources:

Eleanor Roosevelt, Courageous Girl by Ann Weil

Eleanor Roosevelt by Charles P. Graves

Eleanor Roosevelt by  Wyatt Blassingame

World Book Encyclopedia