Scope and Content Note
Part I
Part I of the papers of George V. Denny (1899-1959) spans the years 1934-1959, with the bulk of the material dated 1958-1959. It consists chiefly of correspondence, memoranda, speeches, writings, and printed matter and is arranged in four series: General Correspondence ; Subject File ; Speech, Article and Book File ; and Miscellany .
The aspect of Denny's career covered most fully in the papers is his tenure, 1958-1959, as president of International Seminars and Town Meetings, formerly International Seminars, a nongovernmental corporation organized "to promote mutual understanding and unity, people to people." As an educational and public relations organization, International Seminars specialized in Inter-American relations with the aim of improving the climate of public opinion toward United States citizens and enterprises in South America and vice versa. Both the General Correspondence and the Subject File of Part I record the organization, administration, and fund-raising of this corporation as well as Denny's direction of its chief project, the Inter-American Seminar, which was held November through December 1958 in eight major South American cities. Preparation and management of the seminar represent the largest single segment of the Denny Papers. The file includes correspondence, invitations, memoranda, reports, and informational files on both the American participants who represented twenty-one national organizations and the activities of the seminar in each host city. Four recordings by Denny recounting his experiences in South America received with the collection were transferred to the Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division.
Another sizable portion of the papers concerns the People-to-People Foundation, 1957-1958, which Denny served as vice president. At a White House conference in 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower espoused the idea of the People-to-People Program as a means of creating understanding and winning friends for the United States. The objective of the program as stated by Eisenhower was "to leap governments--if necessary evade governments--to work out not one method but thousands of methods by which people can gradually learn a little more of each other." To implement this idea the People-to-People Foundation was organized in 1957 under the leadership of former Secretary of Defense Charles Erwin Wilson. The role of the foundation was chiefly that of coordinating the work of various committees, conducting research, proposing programs and projects of public education and public relations, and raising funds for various committees. The papers document these efforts through memoranda, correspondence, and printed matter. In addition to Denny's own letters, there is an exchange of letters between Charles Erwin Wilson, Sherman Adams, and other members of the Eisenhower administration regarding People-to-People.
Part I of Denny's papers contains relatively little material on America's Town Meeting of the Air. A small subject file for Town Hall includes program plans, memoranda, ratings, surveys, correspondence, and printed matter relating to both Town Hall and America's Town Meeting of the Air. There are reproductions of letters from the early audience mail, but originals and letters from the later period are scarce. There is no correspondence between Denny and prominent public or private participants on America's Town Meeting.
In 1931 Denny began his association with Town Hall, then known as the League for Political Education. Assuming leadership of Town Hall in 1937, Denny aimed to make Town Hall "a sort of people's university" with America's Town Meeting as its most conspicuous part. By bringing eminent speakers before a real audience for the discussion of controversial issues in a program to be broadcast to a vast unseen audience, Denny hoped to extend free speech and free discussion. The broad implications of the Town Hall movement as an educational and political force are evident in Denny's speeches and writings. Denny's writings also reveal his views and philosophy of the role and the responsibilities of radio in a democratic society. Transcripts of each program of America's Town Meeting can be found in the Bulletin of America's Town Meeting of the Air. A complete set of the Bulletin was received with the collection and is now in the Library's general collection. Amplifications of the views expressed on America's Town Meeting and at the Town Hall seminars can be found in a small group of pamphlets in the Town Hall pamphlet series.
Also depicted in Part I are Denny's work for the United States Office of War Information and his organization of the Niagara Frontier Convocation. In 1943 Denny visited England as a representative of the army to demonstrate discussion group methods to the British and Canadian armies and to set up "Army Talks." Included in the Office of War Information material is a diary kept during his trip to England plus correspondence, memoranda, proposed and actual discussion group plans, and reports which demonstrate the utility of discussion techniques for military use. Sponsored by a committee of one thousand business and industrial leaders, the Niagara Frontier Convocation was held in December 1951 with the theme "The Outlook for Mankind in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century." Denny outlined the program and selected the participants for this conference, revealing in his papers his own view of the questions facing humanity.
A popular lecturer at schools, universities, and various other forums in the 1940s, Denny's correspondence from 1940 to 1952 reflects this aspect of his career, while his correspondence during 1958-1959 reflects his association with International Seminars. His chief correspondents, primarily from the later period, include Norman P. Auburn, Norman Cousins, Milton Stover Eisenhower, Hubert H. Humphery, Karl E. Mundt, Edward Scofield, and Charles Erwin Wilson.
Part II
Part II of the Denny Papers spans the years 1930-1959, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1950-1955. The papers consist of awards, correspondence, financial records, magazine articles, newspaper clippings, office memoranda, photographs, press releases, printed matter, reports, research notes, social invitations, speeches, telegrams, travel records, and writings. The papers are arranged in four series: Correspondence ; Speeches and Writings ; Subject File ; and Oversize .
The papers of Part II are not a simple chronological continuation of the papers of Part I. Instead, Part II contains information that is supplemental or additional to many of the files already in Part I, with the dates of the papers in Part II generally overlapping those found in Part I. Part II contains, for example, further material on Denny's association with International Seminars and Town Meetings and the People-to-People Foundation, as well as additional papers that document his management of Town Hall.
The Correspondence series contains testimonial letters from listeners, broadcast executives, and commercial sponsors of America's Town Meeting of the Air. Most of these letters are printed copies, some of which have been bound. This series also contains incoming and outgoing general correspondence that documents Denny's business, personal, and social activities. Much of the general correspondence pertains to America's Town Meeting programming and Denny's speaking engagements and publications. Prominent correspondents include Charles Dana Bennett of the Foundation for American Agriculture, Robert S. Byfield, Sir George Edward Gordon Catlin, a British political scientist, Elizabeth S. Colclough, Foy D. Kohler, Cyrille Makinsky of France-États-Unis, Harriet F. Pilpel, Philip D. Reed of the General Electric Company, John Sparkman, and Frank Stanton.
The Speeches and Writings series of Part II contains typed, printed, or handwritten copies of Denny's speeches and writings as well as related correspondence and research notes. Denny was a professional speaker who was widely recognizable to the American public due to his prominent television and radio broadcasts of America's Town Meeting of the Air. As moderator of the program, which generally pitted notable figures on opposing sides of controversial issues, Denny was perceived as neutral and therefore in demand as a speaker at college commencements, business conventions, and local and national issues forums. Most of his writings, like his speeches, reflect his personal views and philosophy on the role and responsibilities of television and radio in a democratic society.
The Subject File comprises the bulk of Part II and contains administrative records of several organizations managed by Denny, including Town Hall, International Seminars and Town Meetings, and the People-to-People Foundation. These files include correspondence, financial records, printed matter, publicity material, and reports. The series also contains considerable material documenting Denny's affiliation with America's Town Meeting, particularly program files containing program plans, internal memoranda, ratings, audience surveys, correspondence with panelists, and printed matter. Denny's initial attempts to garner financing to televise America's Town Meeting are documented in files related to the Ford Foundation. There are administrative records and photographs covering the Round-the-World Town Meeting that Denny conducted when he took the town meeting concept on a global tour in 1949.
Denny's personal life is documented in the Subject File by biographical records and material on his residence and community involvement in West Cornwall, Connecticut. The Republican presidential candidacies of Wendell L. Willkie were the topic of several America's Town Meeting programs, and Part II includes many of Willkie's speeches, writings, and position papers.
The Oversize series contains advertisements, posters, and reprints of newspaper articles, all publicity material for America's Town Meeting and Round-the-World Town Meeting.