[ichabod1]

You watch the Nuremburg rally and you can see the theatrical effects -- the burning torches, huge flags, one man gesticulating and shouting -- it IS hypnotic.

The only clips we ever see is of Hitler screeching and screaming. I understand he had the orators sense of when to swell and when to diminuendo... that he would "play" those huge crowds. Bellowing one minute, sentimental and weepy the next, they fell for it.

[killjoy]

I understand he had the orators sense of when to swell and when to diminuendo... that he would "play" those huge crowds. Bellowing one minute, sentimental and weepy the next, they fell for it.

[ruoflaw]

I read about hitler giving those speeches...he had to have extra thick underwear in the front and it wasn't because of a weak bladder

[Cacique]

If you have not seen Leni Riefenstahl's film "Triumph of the Will" then I suggest renting it. You will get the general idea. As for the small screen being intimate, that is true if you are sitting at a desk in the whitehouse and giving an address to the nation. However, I still feel that TV is still useful for oratory. It depends where it is given. That's why it works so well in churches or even large rallies. Martin Luther King's speech at the Washington monument was done in the television age. The setting made it even more effective. I would place him up there among the top ten orators of the 20th century.

Tony Blair is most effective when he is in parliament, which is a church like setting.

I think that a great orator could very well manipulate television and use it to great advantage. Great orators studied other orators. Hitler studied Mussolini, Mussolini of course had Cicero. Perón was military attaché to Italy and got to see Il Duce up close. Nasser studied Perón's success and copied it.

There are no great model's to play off of and copy today. Also the skill or oratory and debate is not taught as much as it once was even in law school, though it is a skill that lawyer's should excel at.