Prospects of Mankind (1959–61)

From Paul Noble

Preparing for a taping of “Prospects of Mankind.”

Left to right, Bob Moscone, Dave Davis, Virginia Kassel (behind Dave), Paul Noble, and Eleanor Roosevelt, at Slosberg Music Center, Brandeis University, fall 1959.

Mrs. Roosevelt and her staff. Henry Morgenthau, Eleanor Roosevelt, Paul Noble, and Diana Tead Michaelis, fall 1959.

Edward R. Murrow, new director of the United States Information Agency, appeared on “Prospects of Mankind,” along with (from left) Roscoe Drummond, Herald-Tribune columnist; Professor Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.; Mrs. Roosevelt; Mr. Murrow; and Chanchal Sarkar, associate editor of an Indian newspaper.

On January 2, 1960, Senator John F. Kennedy flew to Boston to appear on Prospects of Mankind, right after putting his hat into the ring in the presidential race in Washington.

In this historic photo, Mrs. Roosevelt and JFK stand together facing a battery of newsreel cameras and reporters in Slosberg Music Center at Brandeis after the taping of a “Prospects of Mankind” discussion on the future of NATO.

John F. Kennedy appeared twice more on “Prospects of Mankind,” once to announce the formation of the Peace Corps (February, 1961, soon after his inauguration), and again in the spring of 1962 for a program on the Status of Women.

Mrs. Roosevelt died that fall, and this photo is one of the final ones of her with President Kennedy. Henry Morgenthau is at the left.

From David Michaelis — 2000

WGBH was the alpha and omega of my mother’s [Diana Michaelis] career. … In 1959, to be a young woman and an associate producer and writer on a monthly television program moderated by Eleanor Roosevelt, the universally respected “First Lady of the World,” was to be truly present at the creation of the postwar cosmos.

And though I was too young to have actual memories of her work (my brother, however, vividly remembers the fire that destroyed WGBH in November 1961), Diana spoke so often in later life about the people and ideas on “Prospects of Mankind,” I seem to remember her pre-interviewing everyone from the aged Bertrand Russell to the young Henry Kissinger to the impossibly young-looking Senator John F. Kennedy

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From Dan Beach — 7/2/2007

Eleanor Roosevelt joined by Edward R. Murrow on “Prospects of Mankind” — shot at Brandeis where the show was located after the fire.