Roosevelt and Churchill recall the friendship that saved the World
By Rachel Haynie

English actor–scholar Howard Burnham as Winston Churchill

Art has imitated life again. Two actors have become friends, just as the world leaders they personify became friends.

USC history professor emeritus Dr. Ed Beardsley and the English actor– scholar, Howard Burnham, will characterize Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), and Winston Churchill, respectively. Saturday at 1 pm will be the third and final time the duo will dramatize their characters during the Greatest Generation series at the SC State Museum.

Beardsley is well known for his engaging and accurate portrayal of FDR. It was the idea of State Museum Curator of History Dr. Fritz Hamer to team Beardsley with Englishman, Howard Burnham, who has played Churchill on other stages. Burnham is a Literary Resident of the Richland County Public Library.

Hamer’s concept was to have the two impersonate the great wartime allies, reflecting on their friendship, and especially on the D–Day Normandy landings. The portrayals have been part of the museum’s year–long salute to the Greatest Generation.

“Ed and I have built up a friendship over the past year, just like FDR and WSC,” Burnham said. “Not that we would presume to equate ourselves with those two monstrous egos!”

“We have had great fun planning our programs in Fran’s Restaurant on Forest Drive, where we have sometimes startled other patrons with our animated discussions of D–Day weaponry and tactics,” Burnham added.

This will be the third time Beardsley and Burnham will share the museum’s auditorium stage. The context is the Second Quebec Conference of September 1944 when the two leaders met to review the rapid advance of the allies through France and to look forward to the end of the war.

The second half of the program will be an inter-active exchange with the ladies and gentlemen of the press, played by the audience.

“We have to think on our feet – or in Ed’s case in his wheelchair!” said Burnham. “Some of the public’s questions that get thrown at us are pretty smart. I don’t think we have blundered as yet, but it can be quite exciting.”

The duo is discussing plans for a sequel. “We hope the State Museum may do an exhibit on WWI.” Burnham said. “Ed has already performed as Columbia– raised Woodrow Wilson, and I have for a long time wanted to impersonate Kaiser Bill.”

The dramatization is free with museum admission.