Story highlights
- The first televised U.S. presidential debate happened on September 26, 1960
- A youthful and healthy-looking JFK won the TV debate over Nixon
- About 40% of Americans tuned into the "Great Debates" of 1960 between Kennedy and Nixon
Explore America's most dramatic presidential elections on CNN's Original Series "Race for the White House," narrated by Kevin Spacey, Sundays at 9 p.m. ET. The article below first published in 2004.
(CNN)On radio, most pundits and polls scored the September 26, 1960, debate between presidential candidates Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy a draw, with some giving the Republican contender the edge.
But on television, it was no contest.
Throughout the 60-minute program set in a Chicago TV studio, the 43-year-old Kennedy "looked to be radiating health," said presidential historian Robert Gilbert. Kennedy wore a dark suit and had a wide smile and vivid tan.
Nixon, on the other hand, appeared pale and a bit listless. He had just gotten out of the hospital, where he had lost weight after a knee injury. In a gray, ill-fitting suit and hastily added pancake makeup, Nixon looked -- even if he did not necessarily sound -- a pale shadow of the aggressive, composed senator from Massachusetts.
"I was listening to it on the radio coming into Lincoln, Kansas, and I thought Nixon was doing a great job," former Sen. Bob Dole, the GOP's 1996 presidential nominee, recalled in a PBS interview. "Then I saw the TV clips the next morning, and he ... didn't look well. Kennedy was young and articulate and ... wiped him out."
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About 40% of the nation's 180 million people tuned into the "Great Debates" of 1960, a series of four televised matchups between Kennedy and Nixon. Many political experts, like the New York Herald-Tribune's Washington bureau chief Earl Mazzo, credited Kennedy's debate performances for lifting him over the top in a tight election.
The forums' wide exposure and impact on the election made them perhaps the most renowned political debates since 1858, when U.S. Senate candidates Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas faced off in Illinois towns.
The Nixon-Kennedy debates' significance extended well beyond 1960. The use of television to transmit an image or idea instantly to millions soon made presidential campaigns more of a spectator sport.
"I don't think it's overstating the fact that, on that date, politics and television changed forever," said Bruce DuMont, a nationally syndicated radio talk show host and president of the Museum of Broadcast Communications. "After that debate, it was not just what you said in a campaign that was important, but how you looked saying it."
Cosmetic politics
Not everyone was impressed with the first debate or excited about the prospect that TV could change the face of politics.
One day after the Chicago encounter, CBS-TV newsman Edward R. Murrow said, "After last night's debate, the reputation of Messieurs Lincoln and Douglas is secure."
Historian Henry Steele Commager, in a subsequent New York Times piece, said he hoped "TV debates will be eliminated from future presidential campaigns" after the 1960 affairs.
"The present formula of TV debate is designed to corrupt the public judgment and, eventually, the whole political process," he wrote. "The American presidency is too great an office to be subjected to the indignity of this technique."
Photos: John and Jackie: A love story
John Fitzgerald Kennedy and his fiancée, Jacqueline Lee Bouvier, playing tennis in 1953. They were one of history's power couples, a dashing Democrat and an elegant wife. They were both from influential families and became superstars before he entered the White House. Take a look back at the couple that embodied the image of a perfect family.
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Photos: John and Jackie: A love story
\ – John Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier met in 1951 and after a brief engagement, they married in Rhode Island in the century-old church of St. Mary's on September 12, 1953.
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Photos: John and Jackie: A love story
\ – John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy at the U.S. Capitol on May 6, 1954.
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Photos: John and Jackie: A love story
\ – The couple strolling in the Georgetown area of Washington on May 8, 1954.
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Jackie looking over John's shoulder as he reads the May 7 issue of the Christian Science Monitor on May 9, 1954, Mother's Day.
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Photos: John and Jackie: A love story
The Kennedy's cuddle daughter Caroline while relaxing on a bed at home on March 25, 1958.
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John and Jackie at Eleanor Roosevelt's 75th birthday celebration in 1959.
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The then-senator engages in his favorite pastime of sailing at Hyannisport, Massachusetts, with Jackie in July 1960.
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Shortly after his acceptance of the Democratic Party nomination for president, Kennedy and his wife smile and wave from the back of an open-top car in Massachusetts in July 1960.
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Jacqueline greets her husband in 1960.
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Jackie watches her husband during a presidential debate in September 1960.
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Kennedy lends an ear to his wife as they sit together at a table during cocktail hour before dining at a society gala at the Walford Astoria Hotel in 1960.
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Kennedy, campaigning for president, listens to the whispers of his wife in 1960.
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Jackie shares a moment with her husband before he became president, in January 20, 1961, in the rotunda of the Capitol. She became the youngest first lady in nearly 80 years.
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President Kennedy and Jackie greet guests at a party for Nobel Prize winners at the White House on April 29, 1961.
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The Kennedys stand at attention during the playing of the national anthem at the start of a reception during their state visit to Mexico City on June 30, 1962.
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John and Jackie at Union Station after the departure of King Hassan of Morocco on March 27, 1963.
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President Kennedy, John F. Kennedy Jr., Jackie and Caroline with puppies Blackie and White Tips, and family dogs Shannon, Clipper, Wolfie and Charlie on August 14, 1963.
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Jackie stands with her two children and her brothers-in law Ted Kennedy and Robert Kennedy at the funeral of her husband on November 26, 1963.
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While the debate's "cosmetic aspect" dominated the postmortem commentary, according to DuMont, Kennedy and Nixon did touch on weighty issues, including civil rights and the threats posed by communist China and the Soviet Union.
"The question now is: Can freedom be maintained under the most severe attack it has ever known? I think it can be," Kennedy said.
Before the debates, Nixon had the higher public profile as vice president to the popular President Dwight D. Eisenhower. So -- much like his challenge to veteran Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge in debates during a 1952 senatorial race -- Kennedy gained in stature simply by sharing the stage with his Republican opponent.
"The fact that a person can stand next to a famous person and go toe to toe with them, it elevates them in the public eye," said DuMont.
Photos: The first televised debate
The first televised presidential debate took place on September 26, 1960, when U.S. Sen. John F. Kennedy, left, faced off against Vice President Richard Nixon, right. The debate was one of the most-watched broadcasts in U.S. history.
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Photos: The first televised debate
The candidates shake hands as moderator Howard K. Smith looks on. The one-hour debate took place in Chicago at the studios of CBS affiliate WBBM.
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CBS President Frank Stanton fixes the debate stage.
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Stanton, right, and producer Don Hewitt check a television monitor before the debate.
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Kennedy's wife, Jacqueline, watches the debate from the wings of the studio.
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Much has been made about the two men's appearance and how that affected the perception of those who watched the debate on television. Nixon declined CBS' offer of makeup, instead choosing to wear a product called LazyShave to hide his five o'clock shadow. He was also still recovering from the flu and a knee injury. The telegenic Kennedy, meanwhile, did wear makeup, and he appeared rested and relaxed.
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A CBS camera flashes a 30-second warning to those on stage.
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Kennedy, 43, was a Democratic senator from Massachusetts. He would become the youngest president elected to office.
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Nixon, 47, was vice president under Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Eisenhower had reached his two-term limit.
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The debate started with eight-minute opening statements and then moved on to alternating questions from panelists, seen here in the foreground.
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A family gathers around a television to watch the debate. More than 66 million people watched out of a population of about 180 million. "I don't think it's overstating the fact that, on that date, politics and television changed forever," said Bruce DuMont, a nationally syndicated radio talk show host and president of the Museum of Broadcast Communications. "After that debate, it was not just what you said in a campaign that was important, but how you looked saying it."
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Photos: The first televised debate
Nixon wipes his face with a handkerchief during the debate.
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Kennedy slaps his hands together as he makes a point.
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The debate was the first of four held within a month.
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Kennedy would go on, of course, to win the election in November. After a few years out of the spotlight, Nixon ran for President again in 1968, defeating Hubert Humphrey in the general election.
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Some publications initially gave the vice president a slight edge, with The New York Times writing, "On sound points of argument, Nixon probably took most of the honors."
But as the buzz grew about Nixon's pallor and Kennedy's vigor, most pundits identified the senator from Massachusetts as the clear winner -- a strong enough verdict, say historians, to discourage Nixon from debating in 1968 or 1972.
After citing its support for Nixon, even the staunchly conservative Union Leader newspaper in Manchester, New Hampshire, concluded, "Frankly, we thought Nixon was clobbered."
A turn in television
To air the 1960 debate, CBS bumped one of its most popular programs, "The Andy Griffith Show," a lighthearted program about a sheriff raising his son set in a quaint North Carolina town.
"The innocence of the 1950s ended with (the bumping of) 'The Andy Griffith Show,' and the seriousness of the 1960s began with the first Kennedy-Nixon debate," said DuMont, noting television until 1960 was largely defined by comedies, variety acts and game shows but little hard news.
The medium also gave politicians the chance to address tens of millions of people at once. About 90% of Americans could access television and its three major networks by 1960, said Alan Schroeder, author of "Presidential Debates: 40 Years of High-Risk TV."
"The 1960 debates are the turning point from retail politics -- glad handing and meeting everyone face to face -- to the politics of mass media," said Schroeder.
Politicians, careful to avoid Nixon's pitfalls, have stressed style as well as substance in recent decades, knowing that their words and actions not only will appear in newspaper accounts but will be repeated over and over in Americans' living rooms.
"Since the age of television, presidents have become like movie stars," said Gilbert.
