During the 1956 campaign, Uncle Earl was faced with a problem many felt he couldn’t solve: Television. Earl never could speak effectively on the radio. He couldn’t read from a script, and he couldn’t ad lib or speak to a mike. He had to be on the stump and looking at a live audience to do his thing. A few tapes were made, unknown to him, while he spoke to big gatherings and they were very, very good. But Earl couldn’t use the electronic media, period. That is, he could not personally use it. He had solved the radio problem in 1948 by letting others, myself and Mary Evelyn Parker included, do much of his radio campaigning.

Bill Dodd, a real friend until he died, tells the story pretty much as it happened. The final point, "Tell them I lied," has become famous....but it was reported by me to all our friends, not Dodd. He places himself in the governor's suite when that happened, but in fact, only Mr. Louie Roussell was present. The governor was seated behind his desk studying the Racing Form, since he was addicted to horse bets. He would bet every horse running in every race on a given day to make sure he had winners. One small detail: I didn't write the letter to the theater owners about lifting the amusement tax; it was Earl who wrote the letter and I promoted it by making copies and sending it to theater owners over the state.