Ó Suzanne McCorkle, Boise State University
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Speakers tell stories for a multitude of reasons: to excite, to substitute for rational explanations, to entertain, to criticize, to instruct, to fill time, to create solidarity, or to build barriers. Following the time-honored principles of good public speaking, Church crafted stories and narratives to invigorating his message, rather than as a substitute for substance.

While stories alone cannot "prove" a point logically, stories combined with other factual materials can form an emotional hook to anchor a message in the listeners' experiences. Stories assist listeners in connecting new knowledge with older, more familiar contexts--putting complex issues in everyday terms. Stories function as metaphorical glue to help individual listeners combine into a collective audience. Church's public presentations were notoriously meaty--full of details, with elaborate explanations of history, context, and policy. Frank Church's storytelling followed the tenets of classic public speaking training to enliven his content and assist listener attentiveness and understanding.

Stories are a technique of public speaking. Because every story has a context that guides listeners in determining what is humorous or how to interpret an analogy, stories are windows into the dominant thinking of an era. This descriptive analysis examines Frank Church's use of stories as an oratorical technique. The interpretation of a story's effectiveness is based upon the dominant thinking of the point in history in which the story was recounted.

The following essay explores how Frank Church used stories to embolden his messages. The essay is organized around the places stories occur and the functions they fulfill within a speech introduction, a transition within the body of the speech, a conclusion, and as logical proof. Special occasion or special purpose stories unique to particular contexts will be included within the latter section.

Many of Church's stories functioned to bridge the gap audiences initially feel when confronting a public speaker. The speaker needs to demonstrate that he or she is linked or identified with the listeners. Identification describes any attempt to show commonality between the speaker and the listener, speaker and the topic, or speaker and the occasion. Creating a link between speaker and audience is one of the tasks an opening section of a speech must perform if the speaker is to succeed--a well crafted story can create instant bonds between speaker and listener.

A second task of a speech introduction is to get the audience's attention. The story and narrative are venerable techniques to build identification and interest. The story need not be an original invention of the speaker, nor be irrefutable fact. As long as the story is not misleading, trite, overly transparent, poorly delivered, offensive, or demonstrably plagiarized, a speaker can mold a story into an effective tool. Church's strategic use of stories in the introduction section of his speeches illustrates the art of careful selection of the right tool for the right audience.

Stories About Church's Youth. Stories, usually humorous, opened many of Frank Church's speeches. Early in his Senate career, the stories recounted functioned to dispel a bias which might have hurt his believability--at 32 Frank Church was the antithesis of the stereotypical or imposing, gray-haired politico. Instead of ignoring the perception that he looked too young to be a credible leader with valuable ideas, Church confronted the attitude by telling humorous stories about his age.

In 1959, he traveled around the U.S. giving a speech titled "Negotiations for Peace." Usually, Church would open by thanking the person who introduced him and the group who extended the invitation. Next, the youthful senator would offer some version of the "Nepotism" or "Page Boy" stories.

The "Page Boy" story, perhaps the most famous anecdote from his early years in the Senate, became a trademark of Church's 1950's non-Senate speeches. Both the "Nepotism" and "Page Boy" stories confronted the audience's attitudes about youth at the outset of the speech. By tackling this bias in a humorous fashion, Church demonstrated his sensitivity and dismantled a potential barrier to the believability his message. The humor eased Church's audience past any discomfort about his youthful appearance. After the story, Church typically commented on timely items in the news and proceeded to the topic of his speech--the cold war and the value of negotiating with the Soviets.

Humorous Stories Which Linked to the Topic. Church artfully employed humorous stories to introduce a serious topic. These stories secured the audience's attention by relating an amusing anecdote then twisting the punch line to become the topic of his address.

The serious content of a speech was more easily attended to after a bond of humor was forged between speaker and audience. The Sam Irvin story uses the humor of the story's punch line in a transition to the thesis of the speech: What is fiction and what is fact? Both the "Sam Ervin" and "Boy in the Molasses" stories allowed humor to act as a bridge to more serious themes.

Twisting the punch line to fit his own purposes in the thesis of his speech was an art at which Frank Church excelled. When speaking on the fourth of July in Grangeville, Idaho, Church told a story which satirized three professions while converting the punch line into praise for the occasion and transitioning to the topic of his address.

While most of the introductions were pre-planned and are reflected in the speech drafts and final text, Church occasionally spontaneously selected an opening story spontaneiously based on common experiences of his audience or recollected events from conversation preceding the speech. Church's speech manuscripts contain handwritten notes jotted at the top of the first page with the names of stories he might use. Other introductions, however, were planned for particular types of impact. Stories that functioned as analogies were the latter type.

Humorous Analogies with Links to the Topic. Some stories in the opening section of Church's speeches were shaped as broad analogies. The moral or ending of the story contained a direct link to the thesis of the speech. "The Two Tramps" and the "Windmill" stories illustrate humorous narratives where the story content served up a broad analogy to the speech topic.

While the drunken, stumbling portion of the analogy presumably did not fit, Democrats could identify with hard uphill struggles and "winning the hard way." Church's humorous story no doubt struck a familiar chord in the mind of his audience and re-forged bonds of companionship among Democrats.

Some of the best stories a speaker can select are those developed from his or her own humorous past experiences. The "Page Boy" story is one example. The "Windmill that Runs on Water" is another illustration of self-based humor that provided a broad analogy to the specific speech topic. The story was based on Church's recollection of an experience while speaking in rural Idaho.

Church's story invited attention and built a bridge to the audience constructed on their common history. The punch line, "running entirely on water," was repeated as a transition to his speech thesis. The use of the story as a broad analogy to his topic drew the audience into the speech and, presumably, helped to sustain their interest.

Humorous Stories with Serious Overtones. In some of Church's speech introductions, the story was humorous, but preceded a somber analogous point when the topic of the speech was revealed. "Why Is Daddy is so Rich?" and the "Winston Churchill Train" stories provide examples of this technique.

Both of the following stories were contained in a small three-ring notebook Church used to collect quotations, stories, one-liners, and anecdotes. The "Churchill Train" story was categorized under "Churchill" and "England" in the notebook. "Why is Daddy so Rich?" was categorized under "Economics." "Why Is Daddy so Rich?" is an excellent illustration of how a humorous story can be utilized to make a surprise serious point.

"Why Is Daddy so Rich?" was crafted to invite laughter. Church, however, immediately twisted the story to evoke somber contemplation of a speech's serious theme.

Like the "Teenage Son" anecdote analyzed earlier, stories can be borrowed from others and still deliver the effect desired by a speaker. Church carefully credited those from whom he borrowed stories or other information. The experiences of other speakers, like 1988 presidential candidate Joe Biden, show how quickly a public official's credibility can be eroded if he or she is discovered to take others' ideas without giving credit or to borrow so much that he or she seems to have no original ideas.

The Winston Churchill story illustrates a borrowed story adapted to create a serious punch line. Bethine Church relates that the train story was one of Frank's favorites about Winston Churchill.

The parallel statement of the punch line from the story moved the audience from a moment of humor to a moment of dramatic contrast. Church artfully crafted analogous contrasts to impact his introductions.

During the mid-1960s, Church spoke out frequently against the radical right and what he considered deleterious effects of intolerance on the political system. "The Right Wing Frog" was co-opted from the radical right literature to form the opening of a speech titled "The Radical Right is Still on the Rampage."

Church inserted humor about the smart Idaho frog into an otherwise serious story about the radical right's strategy. Church then twisted the story for a dramatic introduction of his thesis that the radical right was gradually contaminating our political system with "the slowly boiling outrages of extremism." The story itself functioned as a broad analogy to the speech topic and perhaps was indicative of Church's own "slowly boiling outrage" at a national rise of extremism and intolerance.

A second location for stories is the transition between sections of a speech. Church occasionally used stories for this function. A story imbedded within the speech would serve as a humorous transition from one major topic to another. The "Texas Rancher" is an example of how a story helped listeners move their focus from one topic to another.

A second example of a story functioning as a transition was presented to a National Water Resources Association Convention in Boise. The story served as an analogy for the importance of water in an arid Western state like Idaho and helped move the attention of the audience from one aspect of the problem to another.

"Well, first they kicked my dog," said the farmer.

A final example of stories used within the speech body created an inspirational moment for high school students at their commencement exercises and linked to Church's message urging participation in the political process.

The stories Church wove into the substantive content of these speeches added interest and color to the message. They further functioned to link one idea to another.

A third site of stories functions to summarize the address or to leave the audience with a moral. Church placed stories in the conclusion section relatively infrequently.

As Chairman of the Senate Committee on Aging, Church was called upon to speak about policies regarding aging. In 1974 at an American Nursing Home Association conference in Honolulu, Church used a story in the conclusion of an address about the mixed progress our nation had made in support of the aged. The example shows how a basic story was adapted to a specific topic, occasion, and audience.

The "Expert's Solution" summarized Church's overall message and left his main idea with the audience by tying it to a humorous hook.

While a majority of Church's speeches did not use stories in the conclusion section, an exception to this rule occurred when he spoke about Israel. Church was a long-time supporter and frequent visitor to Israel. During the McGovern Presidential campaign, he was treated as the foreign policy minister of McGovern's "Shadow Cabinet." For many years Church was invited to speak to Jewish groups regarding U.S. foreign policy and on those occasions related two stories which emerged from his conversations with Golda Meir.

The Senator usually paired the Cake Story with a story about Golda Meir and Anwar Sadat.

As stories to finalize a speech, "Golda Meir's Cake" and "Negotiating with Sadat" demonstrated Church's personal relationship with world leaders and ended his sometimes somber message on an up-beat tone.

The fourth location for stories in political discourse is as proof of a claim. The ethos and pathos dimensions of stories are integral to the applications discussed in the sections above. From his classical training in public speaking, Church was well aware of the weakness of stories as logical proof. It is not surprising that few stories within the body of Church's speeches were crafted as logical proof. Part of what characterized Church's oratory was reliance on logical proofs (statistics, examples, testimony from authorities, historical precedents, etc.) to create a rational position based on a foundation of concrete facts. It follows that stories, a form of proof with low logical potency, would rarely be used. The stories in Church's speeches primarily functioned as attention-getting devices or as visceral impacts to points he had already proved logically. The well-chosen story, however, can emotionally illustrate a point in ways that are far more memorable than logic alone. When Church did use a story for proof, it was shaped for maximum emotional, as well as logical, impact.

In a speech to the Food Producers of Idaho in 1978, Church presented a story to prove his degree of commitment to a bill that would help family farmers by restricting the amount of land a corporation could control.

One of the most difficult tasks for a speaker is expanding the views of listeners who have already taken a firm opinion on that topic. In the 1980 reelection campaign, Church's opponent charged him with being overly friendly with Castro, exploiting an already existing anti-Cuban bias.

Church visited Cuba in 1977 on a mission for President Carter to investigate future normalization of relations between the two nations. As is frequently the case in the public forum, a legitimate attempt by Church to understand the motives of Cuba and Castro were twisted and perceived as sympathy for Castro and, hence, communism.

Shortly after his tour of Cuba, Church spoke in Washington D.C. on the steps that might be taken to normalize U.S.-Cuban relations. An experience during the trip was used to illustrate the popularity of Castro.

The tale of Castro interacting with his people helped Church explain why Cubans were devoted to a man who was not respected in the U.S.

The most effective story found within the argument section of Church's speeches is about a Pennsylvania egg farmer. Church often told the story after the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence completed investigations on CIA and FBI covert activities.

The opening lines of the "Pennsylvania Egg Farmer" were delivered in a humorous fashion. Church mimicked holding the eggs protectively in front of him when confronted by the big farmer. The remainder of the story, however, was far from humorous. Church used the initial humor as a contrast to enhance the impact of his spellbinding serious point. The story served both as emotional and case-specific proof of the "terrible penalty" we all paid for our government's moral weakening during that era.

Irony, Satire, and Special Occasions. As his career developed, Church devised stories replete with irony or satire pertaining to special occasions. Several stories emerged at the beginning of Church's 1976 Presidential bid to explain who he was and why he started the campaign so late. The Campaign Mascot story explained how the turtle became the Church Campaign totem (1976, April 3). A comparison to a Senator Snort cartoon joked about his late entry into the primary season as a trick to save taxpayer money (1976, March 19). "The Farmer's Surprise" compared his own upset primary victories to the surprise in a joke (1976, May 7).

Few speeches evidence stories satirizing the shortcomings of other nations. Church occasionally related stories that were humorously critical of the Soviet Union (1981, November 15, in the context of discussing intolerance toward Jews; 1980, February 13, in the context of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan) and head the Palestine Liberation Front, Yasser Arafat (1980, February 13).

Two notable stories became trademarks of speeches after the bitter 1980 re-election campaign and Church's subsequent defeat.

The audio- and video-tapes of Church's speeches occasionally give light to seemingly off-the-cuff stories told mainly for his audience's enjoyment. "The Heart Transplant" illustrates the joke that lacks sophisticated integration into the speech's theme or content. After discovering that most of his audience were bankers, Church related the following story.

While the heart story contains no specific link to the topic, presumably it assisted the speaker-audience identification process.

Speeches at dinners or fund-raisers on behalf of other Democrats featured stories where the punch line included the another person, usually the honoree, such as Senator Alan Cranston (1969, November 1), Idaho Democrat Stan Kress (1978, October 20), or Hubert Humphrey at a Wendell Anderson event (1978, October 8).

Exceptions to Effectiveness. It is difficult to determine the effectiveness of a specific story for a specific audience and context. Audio- and videotapes generally demonstrate the expected responses to humorous and dramatic content. After an extensive study of the speech texts, audio- and videotapes in the Frank Church Archives, few stories emerged that could be interpreted as offensive or ineffective within the norms of the era. A notable example of an ineffective story comes from a 1980 speech to the Idaho State University Nursing School in Pocatello.

The unfortunate Valentine's Day recitation of the rather ambiguous language in the Kennedy story is the only found instance of its use.

While Frank Church's primary oratorical prowess grows from thorough preparation, resounding delivery, and a detailed logical development of ideas, his stories demonstrate the careful application of time-honored principles. Students and citizens seeking a model of speaking can look to Frank Church's speeches for the art and craft of utilizing stories to impact one's serious message.