Give 'em Hell, Harry!

Give 'em Hell, Harry!
Give 'em Hell, Harry!
	Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Steve Binder; Peter H. Hunt (stage production)
Written by	Samuel Gallu
Produced by	Bill Sargent; Joseph E. Bluth
Starring	James Whitmore
Cinematography	Ken Palius
Edited by	Steve Binder
Music by	Pearl Kaufman
Production; companies	Permut Presentations; Theatrovision
Distributed by	Theater Television
Release date	September 18, 1975;
Running time	104 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$230,000
Box office	$11,000,000 or $4 million

Give 'em Hell, Harry! is a biographical play and 1975 film, written by playwright Samuel Gallu. Both the play and film are a one-man show about former President of the United States Harry S. Truman. Give 'em Hell, Harry! stars James Whitmore, and was directed by Steve Binder and Peter H. Hunt.

Title origin

The title comes from an incident that took place during the 1948 presidential election campaign. In Bremerton, Washington, Truman delivered a speech attacking the Republicans. During the speech, a supporter yelled out, "Give 'em Hell, Harry!" Truman replied, "I don't give them Hell. I just tell the truth about them, and they think it's Hell." Subsequently, "Give 'em Hell, Harry!" became a lifetime slogan for Truman supporters.

History

The play previewed in Hershey, Pennsylvania, followed by its official opening at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D. C. Its April 17, 1975, premiere was hosted by Truman's daughter Margaret, and attended by President Gerald Ford. The play then went on to a six-city tour, during which it was videotaped for film on the stage of the Moore Theatre in Seattle, using a live editing process called Theatrovision.^[3] It was also recorded and released by United Artists Records.

Although the play has been regularly revived, it did not make its New York debut until July 2008 at St. Luke's Theatre. Clifton Truman Daniel portrayed his grandfather in the title role in several performances in 2023.^[4]

Accolades

Award	Category	Nominee	Result	Ref.
Academy Awards	Best Actor	James Whitmore	Nominated	^[5]
Golden Globe Awards	Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama		Nominated	^[6]
Grammy Awards	Best Spoken Word Recording		Won	^[7]

Give 'em Hell, Harry! is only the third film to have its entire credited cast (Whitmore) nominated for an Oscar, the first two being Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in 1966, for which almost all members excluding the extras were nominated, and Sleuth in 1972.^[8]