that's a lot of question, and we're going to let newton minow, who was actively involved in the 1956 uld have helped given the fact that, again, president eisenhower was at the top of the ticket. but i think what richard said about kennedy was exactly correct. the opportunity to be at the convention and be seen as a vice presidential possibility introduced jack kennedy to the country, and i remember a few years later i saw him at a dinner, and i said, you know, we called him jack then. i said jack, if you're still interested, you could get the nomination for vice president next time. he looked at me and said vice president? vice president? i'm going to run for president. he was only 39 years old, but he had made up his mind. >> can i ask you -- the caller raises a point that i'm sure governor stevenson heard many times during his lifetime, this notion that he talked over the heads of people. what was his reaction to that, what's your reaction to that? >> i think he did not talk over the heads of the people. used to call him an egghead and his followers eggheads, and he made fun of tha

we are now joined by newton minow.ormer chairman of the federal communications commission. for our purposes tonight, he has worked with and was an associate of adlai stevenson for many years. newton minow if you could start by telling us when did you first meet of honor -- gov. stevenson ? >> i was a law clerk at the supreme court. one of our professors came to visit one day. he later offered my co-clerk a job as his assistant in springfield. it turned out that howard was not interested, but i was. i ended up being interviewed by the governor. at 7:00 for breakfast in the spring of 1952. he said to me, if i hire you, young man, it is there any reason why he would not take the job? it is my current boss runs for president, and it was rumored that he would be a candidate, if he asked me to stay with them, i would like to do that. the governor looked at me and said, i do not think that is very likely. i then drove into his next appointment. i went to work at the supreme court. i picked up "the new york times ." it said tr

richard norton smith and i are now joined by newton minow.ver heard the phrase "tv is a vast wasteland," that was newton minow's phrase. but for our purposes tonight, he worked with and was an associate of adlai stevenson for many years. newton minow, if you could start by telling us, when did you first meet governor stevenson? >> i was a law clerk at the united states supreme court for chief justice vinson. and one of our law professors carl mcgowan came to visit one day. he later offered my co-clerk a job as his assistant in springfield as assistant counsel to the governor. turned out that howard wasn't interested, but i was. and i ended up being interviewed by governor stevenson at 7:00 a.m. for a breakfast in the spring of 1952. and he said to me, if i hire you, young man, is there any reason why you wouldn't take the job? and i said, if my current boss boss, chief justice vinson, runs for president, and it was rumored in the press that he would be a candidate for president, and if he asked me to stay with him, i'd like to do that. and go

>> newton minow, did he ever talk to you about that?tragic accident in childhood when there was a loose gun in the family and adlai accidently shot and killed another child. i never heard him say a word about it. i never saw any evidence that it affected him, but i'm not a -- who knows. >> he was 12 years old at the time. but one did get the sense that the family kind of moved on, i mean, it was not something that they dwelled on, and i think years later, he expressed astonishment that his wife knew about the incident, which suggests he really kept it close to his vest. >> who was his wife? >> well, his wife was a woman who came from a very fine, upper-class family. she was not very interested in politics. in fact, disliked politics, and when adlai went into politics, i don't think she was very happy about it, and sadly they came to a parting of the ways. >> and that was in 1949, after he had run for governor. >> he had been elected before the divorce. >> right, then divorced. did that hurt him in the 1952 and 1956 presidential campaign

newton minow, you as well, richard norton smith, this has been "the contenders," and we leave you with this week's "contenders" from the 1956 convention. >> i say trust the people. trust their good sense. their decency, their fortitude, their faith. trust them with the great decisions. i say it is time to take this government away from men who only know how to count and to turn it back to men and women who care. >> while congress is on break, we're showing you american had history tv, normally seen weekends here on c-span3. coming up, adlai stevenson's acceptance speech at the 1952 democratic national convention. and in about 20 minutes, a discussion on the impact of the 1952 campaign between adlai stevenson and dwight eisenhower. >> tonight, american history tv in primetime focuses on the presidential campaign of adlai stevenson. we begin with the contenders, our c-span series of candidates who didn't win. and that's followed by adlai stevens stevenson's democratic election speech. american history tv primetime starts at k eastern each night this week. at c-span.org, you can watch our

for part of the year, newton minow and his wife josephine, or jo, live in a suburban chicago condo building that overlooks my backyard. a backyard that served as an extension to my home office, where i wrote most of the 1,000 or so stories during my 32 years as a network correspondent for nbc news. not long ago, as a neighborly favor, i conducted a series of on-camera interviews with newt, knowing that the personal reflections and anecdotal accounts of his remarkable life would be a treasured addition to the minow family archives. to expand the scope, jo was also interviewed, as were the three highly accomplished minow daughters- nell - lawyer, author, shareholder activist and movie critic.