Art News

Critique of Richard Nixon’s Television Image Up for Sale at RR Auction in New Hampshire

CONCORD, N.H. (AP).- Some advice for presidential candidates, culled from a 1967 critique of then-candidate Richard Nixon: Avoid greasy hair products. Don’t clench your fists. And for goodness sake, drop the zombie routine. “Loose fingers, hanging downward from bent wrists moving toward the camera in a swimming motion are confusing, and have grotesque connotations,” a media consultant wrote to Nixon, who was still striving to improve his television image seven years after sweating his way through the nation’s first televised presidential debate. That consultant’s 10-page report — featuring dozens of passages underlined by Nixon — was saved by the former president’s longtime joke writer, Paul Keyes, and is up for auction in New Hampshire. Keyes was an Emmy Award-winning comedy writer and producer for some of TV’s classic shows, including