The Fighting Roosevelts

Produced just before the death of former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, The Fighting Roosevelts boasted an endorsement from “Colonel Teddy” himself. The film was carefully calculated to perpetuate the legend of Roosevelt as the sickly, myopic effete Easterner who turned into a “real man” when he headed to the Wild West. In fact, the actor playing Roosevelt was never seen without wearing his “traditional” jackboots and wide-brimmed hat. The overall moral of the film was that any red-blooded American male could become President if he only submitted himself to a lifetime of hard work and strenuous exercise. Of course, it wouldn’t hurt one bit if that selfsame American Male was swept up in a six-month Cuban war that was fomented by a newspaper circulation battle, or if he happened to be the vice-president of an assassinated Chief Executive.