The bulk of the Merriman Smith Papers arrived at the Historical Society in 1988 in great disorder and in poor physical condition apparently due to years of storage in poor conditions in North Carolina. The papers consist of CORRESPONDENCE, SUBJECT FILES, WORKING FILES, SPEECHES AND WRITINGS, VISUAL MATERIALS, and AUDIO RECORDINGS. It is unlikely that the collection represents the entirety of the Smith papers that once existed, for in editing Merriman Smith's Book of Presidents: a White House Memoir, Smith's son Tim mentioned having consulted 26 cartons of papers; whereas only 18 cartons were received in the Archives.
The CORRESPONDENCE consists of general and family mail, with spotty coverage before 1950. Notable from this period is a humorous note from President Truman in 1945 and many reader responses to Thank You, Mr. President. After 1950 the correspondence consists of exchanges with readers, book editors, and newspapermen about his stories and freelance writing. A substantial portion concerns arrangements for public speaking. Political news and gossip can be found occasionally. Of special interest is the letter Smith wrote to President Johnson on June 15, 1965 as Merriman Jr., was about to leave for Vietnam and Johnson's response written on June 22. After Smith's son was killed in 1966 the President movingly read Smith's letter to the public.
The family correspondence includes information on Smith's acrimonious divorce, letters to and from his attorney and his children during and after the couple's separation, and letters about his treatment for alcoholism written in a frank, reporter-like fashion. Many letters to Gailey Johnson prior to their marriage in 1966 also concern aspects of his recovery.
The SUBJECT FILES consist of additional correspondence as well as other types of documentation, all of which is alphabetically arranged. The most important files document his relationship with various UPI executives and editors, although these files are probably only a small portion of the communications of this type that once existed. Nevertheless, together with the material in the WORK FILES, the Merriman Smith collection provides good evidence of the wire service's operations and the activities of its staff and executives such as C. Edmond Allen, Hugh Baillie, Frank Bartholmew, Julius Frandsen, Earl J. Johnson, Mims Thomason, Gerald J. Rock, H. Roger Tatarian, and Lyle Wilson. These exchanges concern news events, arrangements for travel, congratulations on Smith's handling of particular stories, and routine matters such as expense accounts. Most of Smith's wire service memoranda are brief, but occasional longer items document a wartime FDR press conference with Black journalists, Smith's insights into the Johnson presidency (May 15, 1966), and news about the war in Vietnam (February 13, 1966, Labor Day 1967, and February 2, 1968). Filed with some UPI publications are reprints that illustrate national front page coverage of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Kennedy's assassination, and events of October 1942.
Also in the subject files are research materials on alcoholism and schizophrenia (perhaps the mental illness from which the first Mrs. Smith suffered), congratulatory letters and telegrams about his Pulitzer Prize and materials from the presentation ceremony; and scrapbooks concerning his youth, the death of his son, and writings, 1946-1948. From his early reporting career there are legal documents dated 1940 from the Osceola Migratory Labor camp and speeches by Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier at a British war relief appearance in Atlanta in 1940. There are also exchanges with Curtis Brown Ltd., Nev Wagner, and William Morris, all of whom represented Smith as a public speaker. A large collection of photocopied biographical clippings provides good coverage of Smith's career as a public speaker. Several of these presentations such as Smith's remarks about President Johnson's anti-war critics provoked national editorial comment.
The memorabilia in the subject files is of particular interest; it includes invitations and menus for various events at the White House to which Smith was invited (including the marriage of Lynda Bird Johnson and Charles Robb); souvenirs of helicopter flights from the White House lawn and on Air Force One; and copies of humorous skits of the Gridiron Club. Some of the unidentified slides in the collection are thought to illustrate Gridiron Club performances.
The SPEECHES AND WRITINGS series includes published news stories, edited book drafts, manuscript and printed copies of articles, short stories, and speeches, all of which are arranged alphabetically by genre. The writings include his freelance works which contain drafts and printed materials for Nation's Business, This Week, the High Point Hospital newsletter, and other publications. Articles for which the publication status is not indicated are filed as general articles. These drafts primarily concern President Eisenhower and the Secret Service's protection of the President. Three folders contain transcripts written by Smith for UPI's audio broadcast service, 1966-1970.
The book files document all five of Smith's books (Thank you, Mr. President, 1946; A President Is Many Men, 1948; Meet Mr. Eisenhower, 1955; A President's Odyssey, 1961; and The Good New Days, 1962). The files include drafts indicating editorial revisions and significant deletions, book reviews, and research. The published copies of each book are available in the Historical Society Library. Smith's columns, “Backstairs at the White House” and “Washington Window” are only minimally documented in either print or manuscript form and only a few are dated. Smith's fiction writing consists primarily of proposals and incomplete drafts making it difficult to determine if any was published. Apparently most complete of these efforts was a 1938 short story, “Nigger in the Woodpile” that is known to have been rejected. For “Hail to the Chief,” probably intended as a longer work, there is a proposal and several draft chapters. Other genres in which Smith worked include: Potus, a play; treatments for a television program to be entitled “Washington Correspondent”; and ideas for humorous sketches about President Johnson to be used on the television program That Was the Week That Was.
It is likely that Smith's published news stories, which are present as photocopied scrapbooks and loose clippings, represent only a portion of his career output. In addition to photocopied clippings, the collection includes souvenir copies of his most famous stories about Roosevelt and Kennedy, and “The Murder of a Young President,” a booklet reprint of his Kennedy assassination coverage. Related to the news stories are wire service bulletins, the original cabled stories transmitted to UPI by Smith while traveling with the President. The relationship of the original wire service bulletins to the published story has not been researched.
The WORK FILES are an artificial series created when the Smith papers were first unpacked in the Archives that was probably meant to encompass a variety of material related to reporting. The series is arranged chronologically by President, with two additional files about Smith's coverage of the Adlai Stevenson and Hubert Humphrey presidential campaigns. In general, the series consists of background information that is focused around how the news media covered the President while he was traveling. Most of the work files include reporter's notebooks (only a portion of which are even roughly identified) and the detailed narrative travel logs released by the President's press officers. There are logs for Roosevelt's home front inspection trip in 1942, the 1943 and 1944 Quebec conferences, his 1944 Pacific inspection, and the meeting at Yalta in 1945. President Truman's logs represent the 1945 Berlin Conference, Caribbean vacations in 1946 and 1948, and his official visit to Brazil in 1947. President Nixon's trip to Europe in 1969 is also documented in this way. Other materials included additional cables to UPI's Washington desk; travel instructions; selected official White House press releases; menus, invitations, and other memorabilia; and background information on nations that were visited and the ships on which the President traveled.
Unexpected information of special value in the WORK FILES includes narrative memos on three Smith's interviews with President Eisenhower (1954, 1960, and 1965), a transcript of an appearance on Face the Nation, notes on 1961 interviews of Lawrence O'Brien and Robert F. Kennedy by Sander Vanocur and Ray Scherer; an interview of President Johnson by UPI colleague Helen Thomas; Smith's recollections of events witnessed on Air Force One on November 22, 1963; and notes on President Johnson's meeting with Pope Paul VI in 1965.
The VISUAL MATERIALS series includes photographic prints, transparencies, negatives, 16 mm film and 8 mm film. The photographs, transparencies and negatives consist of candid and informal portraits of Smith; photographs of him with Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy; as well as images of all six Presidents that he covered. The majority of these prints were taken by UPI or official White House photographers. However, there are also photographic prints taken by Smith and most likely all the transparencies and negatives were made by him. Events that Smith personally documented include: Eisenhower en route to Korea in 1952 and on several golfing vacations; and Johnson while traveling in Asia and the South Pacific in 1966 and 1967. Smith is known to have been an avid amateur photographer, but the images in this series probably represent only a small portion of his work. The collection includes two photograph albums presented to Smith by President Johnson. One documents the President's 1967 trip around the world; the other, which is entitled “Thank you, Mr. Smith,” was a gift for Smith's 55th birthday. All of the photographs in the second album have been humorously captioned. Other individuals of note in the photographs include James Cagney, Winston Churchill, John Foster Dulles, William D. Leahy, George Reedy, and Pierre Salinger. The collection also includes 16 mm and 8 mm films shot by Smith. Events documented in the films include a trip Smith made with President Truman in 1947 to Rio de Janeiro and Key West; and Smith receiving the Medal of Freedom from President Johnson. Also included are movies of Gailey Johnson Smith in 1935 in her playroom and at the Chicago Zoo.
The AUDIO RECORDINGS, 1961-1970, document Smith's career and have been divided by topic as follows: President Kennedy, President Johnson, President Nixon and Vice President Agnew, Merriman Smith, Labor News Conference, Humor, and Uncategorized. Included are press conferences with Johnson, Nixon, and George McGovern and a 1965 interview of President Eisenhower. Most tapes are arranged chronologically, then alphabetically for undated tapes. Exceptions include uncategorized tapes which are arranged alphabetically, and Labor News Conference tapes which are arranged by original number.
