Eleanor and Franklin part one (1976 miniseries about the Roosevelts)

Eleanor and Franklin (1976) is a mini-series broadcast on ABC on January 11, 1976, starring Edward Herrmann as Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) and Jane Alexander as Eleanor Roosevelt. It was based on the 1971 Pulitzer Prize-winning and best-selling biography by Eleanor’s personal secretary Joseph P. Lash. The film relates their lives in flashback from the perspective of the the newly-widowed Eleanor (in 1945), who recalls - the time they were children as cousins who met briefly - their courtship and marriage - bearing and raising a large family - her social efforts as he rises to Assistant Secretary of the Navy in World War I - his hidden affair with Lucy Mercer - her help and encourgement with his famous bout with the affliction of polio - her campaigning with Louis Howe, their mentor, crony and campaign manager during her husband’s runs for political offices in the New York state legislature - his unsuccessful effort for Vice President in 1920 - his election as Governor of New York and his rivalry with the failed candidate for the presidency in 1928, Al Smith - his election to the Presidency in 1932 during the “Great Depression“. Part two, about FDR’s years in the White House and World War II, is here: More movies about American presidents: