Friday, February 22, 2013

Huey Long

Known as the Kingfish and beloved by the people, Huey Long was a populist Louisiana Governor and Senator who used bullied tactics and unscrupulous political methods but brought real change to his Depression stricken state. It is thought he would have seriously rivaled FDR for the presidential nomination had he not been gunned down on the steps of The State Capitol at Baton Rouge in 1932. "Huey Long" is another great early profile from Ken Burns which features the expected excellent stock footage and contains interviews with Robert Penn Warren, who wrote the Pulitzer Prize winning novel All the King's Men based on Long's life, colleagues and family members, and constituents who still look back fondly on the man who many say is the closest the U.S. ever had to a dictator.