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Use
Acquisition Information
Preferred Citation
Historical Note
Scope and Content of Collection
Related Collections
Title: The Governor and the Students videotape series
Date (inclusive): 1973-1974
Collection Number: 84078
Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
1 manuscript box and 77 videotapes
(27.4 Linear Feet)
Abstract: Videotape cassettes and selected transcripts of broadcasts of a televised series of question-and-answer sessions with high
school students conducted by Ronald Reagan as governor of California relating to California state political issues. Produced
by JRH and Associates, Inc.
Creator:
Reagan, Ronald
Creator:
JRH and Associates, Inc
Physical Location: Hoover Institution Library & Archives
Access
The collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual
or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.
Use
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Acquisition Information
Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in 1984.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], The Governor and the Students videotape series, [Box number, if appropriate], Hoover Institution
Library & Archives.
Historical Note
Ronald Reagan described
The Governor and the Students this way:
"During my last two years in office we had a program in cooperation with the department of education. Each week a different
high school class would come to the Capitol and I would field their questions (or try to) for one hour. The program was entirely
unrehearsed. I would meet them only a few minutes before we actually started and, of course, had no preview of their questions.
The hour was taped for television and made available for closed circuit classroom use in all of California's 1100-plus school
districts. It was also played on the educational TV network." [Box 1; original source unidentified]
The program gave Reagan a way to connect with young people. Modeled on the press conference format, the idea for the show
originated with Reagan aides Michael K. Deaver and Joseph R. Holmes. High school students were chosen over college students
based on the theory that they lived with their parents, had not been exposed to liberal college professors, and would therefore
be more polite and less radical.
The shows were taped on a weekday after school, and the videotapes were distributed to TV stations in California to air at
no cost. While most were public broadcast stations, it aired on a commercial station in Visalia because there was no public
broadcast station in that area. The series was produced by JRH and Associates in Sacramento. The name Young People's Television
(YPTV) is also associated with this program.
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection consists of videotapes and selected transcripts of broadcasts of a televised series of question-and-answer
sessions with high school students conducted by Ronald Reagan as governor of California relating to California state political
issues.
Transcripts are available for ten programs, and lists of questions asked by the students are available for another ten shows.
Labels on the videotapes provide limited information about their contents. Fully identifying each tape by date and version
is dependent on, and limited by, its label. Some tapes are labeled as opening and closing credits sequences. Based on the
videotape labels, it appears that the programs are about 30 minutes in duration.
Related Collections
Deaver & Hannaford, Inc. records, Hoover Institution Library & Archives
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Video tapes
California -- Politics and government -- 1951-