While serving as governor, Lee Sherman Dreyfus gave most of his speeches extemporaneously. He spoke from outlines or from notes jotted on small pads of paper. With the possible exception of the State of the State and Budget messages, all other printed texts of Dreyfus speeches are transcripts. (See Series 2106 for printed texts of speeches.) His speeches were recorded by staff members (Sue Riordan, Media Coordinator and Steve Swasey, Communications Assistant), by interns, or by Dreyfus himself. Frequently, recording notes were written during the speech. In these, topics covered or the first few words of a sentence were keyed to numbers from the counter of the tape recorder. These notes were used in the excerpting of the tapes for the Governor's Actuality and Information Line. The Actuality Line set up by the Governor's Office provided journalists from around the state with access to short taped excerpts from Dreyfus' speeches and press conferences. Complete tapes of speeches and press conferences were also made available upon request.
For a biography of Governor Lee Sherman Dreyfus see the Wisconsin Blue Book 1981-1982.
