The State Historical Society of Missouri

March 11, 2010

Historic Jerry Litton Television Programs

Students, historians, and general audiences nostalgic for the 1970s can now view Jerry Litton’s Dialogue with Litton televised programs at the Western Historical Manuscript Collection on the University of Missouri campus in Columbia. Select program highlights are available at http://shs.umsystem.edu/whmc/collections/litton/tv/index.html and http://whmc.umsystem.edu/aad/litton.html.

The programs, hosted by Congressman Litton, were town hall style meetings broadcast each month from Kansas City to “Bring Government to the People.” With funding from the Jerry Litton Memorial Family Foundation and other generous contributors, the State Historical Society of Missouri and Western Historical Manuscript Collection arranged for cleaning, repair, and digitization of thirty-three videotapes to generate a new master file and viewing files on DVD. Hours of taped meetings with political guests such as Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, Governor Jimmy Carter, Senator Thomas Eagleton, and Senator Hubert Humphrey make for interesting television and will undoubtedly be used for research into the political and social history of the 1970s.

Jerry L. Litton, of Chillicothe, served as national secretary of Future Farmers of America while in high school and received a bachelor’s degree in agricultural journalism in 1961 from the University of Missouri. Litton’s work with the family business, Litton Charolais Ranch, was very successful, and his education, experience, gifted speaking ability, and savvy use of media technology made him an unusually popular politician who held great promise for the future.

Litton was elected U.S. congressman from Missouri’s Sixth District in 1972, the same year the Watergate break-in occurred. The Dialogue with Litton show featured Litton and a guest in an unscripted format discussing constituent concerns, often in a nonpartisan manner. These meetings were so successful that in one year, 1973-74, the original radio broadcast grew to a made-for-television program. The studio audience numbered 1,800 by the last taping in 1976.

Litton won reelection to his congressional seat in 1974 and was campaigning to win the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate race in 1976, when he died, August 3, in a plane crash before learning he had won the primary. Litton’s wife and their two children, the pilot, and the pilot’s son also perished in the accident.

The Jerry L. Litton Papers, with documents covering the years 1960-1976, were donated to the Western Historical Manuscript Collection-Columbia in 1979 by Litton’s father, Charley. Later, his mother, Mildred, added over 300 audio-visual items to the collection. This material was primarily generated by political campaigns and the television shows. The Dialogue with Litton programs provide a unique historical perspective on several issues that dominated the mid-1970s, including spiking inflation, high unemployment, emerging energy policies, and the food crisis.

posted @ 11:32 AM

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March 02, 2010

Exhibit Opening: Mark Twain & Tom Benton: Pictures, Prose, and Song

posted @ 10:33 AM

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