Abstract

During her fictional 1940 presidential campaign, popular radio star Gracie Allen was the target of criticism after her colleague told a joke referencing First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Allen responded to the criticisms with a public letter. In this analysis, Benoit's image repair typology is used to study Allen's letter. A total of 5 implications are drawn, including issues of celebrity roles, the effectiveness of mortification during image repair efforts, and challenges and benefits of humor in an image repair situation, to better understand historical political radio humor—an under-explored focus of image repair scholarship.

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