Letter from Phyllis Goldston, PhD, and Harold Goldston, EdD, from the North Shore Center to Geraldine Ferraro. Letter critiques Ferraro\u27s communication skills and proposes that Ferraro take one of the North Shore Center\u27s speech courses. Includes data entry sheet.https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/vice_presidential_campaign_correspondence_1984_new_york/1279/thumbnail.jp

Ferraro, Geraldine

Gildston, Harold

Gildston, Phyllis

English

Fordham University School of Law

Fordham Law SchoolFLASH: The Fordham Law Archive of Scholarship and HistoryNew York Correspondence7-13-1984Letter from Phyllis and Harold Gildston of theNorth Shore Center to Geraldine FerraroPhyllis GildstonNorth Shore CenterHarold GildstonNorth Shore CenterGeraldine FerraroFollow this and additional works at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/vice_presidential_campaign_correspondence_1984_new_yorkPart of the Law CommonsThis Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Correspondence at FLASH: The Fordham Law Archive of Scholarship and History. It hasbeen accepted for inclusion in New York by an authorized administrator of FLASH: The Fordham Law Archive of Scholarship and History. For moreinformation, please contact tmelnick@law.fordham.edu.Recommended CitationGildston, Phyllis; Gildston, Harold; and Ferraro, Geraldine, "Letter from Phyllis and Harold Gildston of the North Shore Center toGeraldine Ferraro" (1984). New York. 273.https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/vice_presidential_campaign_correspondence_1984_new_york/273• DIRECTORS~ B'/.,O;. gJ.L • . B'I.. (/). g(_JJ gJ.L .... SJ.(!). "L July 13, 1984 Co1nmittee for Walter l"londale for Pr••ident 2201 Wisconsin Avenue NW W.shingtan, D.C. 20007 Geraldine Farrare, Cangr .. ....a.an 108-18 Queens Blvd. Forest Hills, N.Y. 1137~ Congratulations to both of you. 279 MIDDLE NECK ROAD GREAT NECK. NEW YORK 11023 (5161 482·4444 UL 1 To you, 11r. 1'1ondale, congratulations ara in ordar because you .. 1ected a woman as a running mata and because you ••l•cted Beraldine Ferraro in particular. Congratulation• the challeng•. We intrinsically. But will be detriM&ntally to you Ms. Ferraro for electing to take on believe you have what it tak•• to win, we also feel fairly certain that your t•am influenced by your manner of communication. Our re1narks are addressed to you Ms. Ferraro, although we expect that you, Mr. Mondale, will taka serious nota of tham and provide the moral and financial support to effectuate our suggested plan of action. You can make the difference between tha Democrats winning and losing but you can only do so if you come across as strong and yet sympathetic, assartiva and yet feminine. (Tha .. are not g~~ criteria but are likely to b• nac••sary images for tha electorate.) Unfortunately, your style of conNDUnication will b• your graat•st handicap and could lose th• election far you and th• Detnocrats. New Yorkers aay not •ind your mild to "'°derate sub-standard articulation and weak vocal projection. But to most of the rast of the country your mode of speaking is 1nildly "foreign." It's not southern enough to Appeal to the southarnars, not midwestarn enough to appeal to midwestarnars and not standard enough to b• responded to neutrally by those with dialectical prltf•rences for other than the dial•ct common to th• greater .. tropolitan New York area. With all due respect, what you need most is a crash course in how to communicate more effectively. The course should include the following: ,... First, you need just enough training in diction to clean up the local dialectical variations in your speech without making you sound either affected or insincere. Second, you would do well to have vocal training to allow you to "project" your voice in such a manner as to "project" an image of strength and assurance and yet maintain a certain softness. Finally, you would greatly benefit by learning how to use the proper rhythm, stress, phrasing and body language to reach people emotionally. Your speech patterns tend to give the impression of your being somewhat weak, dry, and uninteresting. As you well know, a national media campaign is not like a neighborhood campaign. You don't have the time to nurture people's affections by your kind words and good deeds. Your impact must be immediate and definitively postive. Unfortunately, you do not have communication skills at this point to present the truly fine qualities you do, indeed, possess. We would be willing to train you in an intensive crash program covering a week or two Car whatever is needed to arrive at reasonable goals). It will require tremendous effort on all our parts to achieve the necessary results so rapidly but there is no choice. When we finish our program you will be able to project an image that will bring most of the "on-the-fence" voters into your camp plus a hefty percentage of Republicans as well. You will be responded to as a person with the power of communication to touch the hearts and minds of a broad cross-section of the electorate. We are licensed doctors of speech and professors at major universities with a combined experience of 50 years of teaching voice, diction, public speaking, and body language. At our private center and "on location" we have taught many prestigious professionals, including actors, politicians and lawyers. ewe, ourselves, did not train Ronald Reagan but it should be obvious that a good part of his appeal comes from his extensive voice and speech training.) We promise you whatever degree of confidentiality you choose vis-a-vis our relationship. Walter Mondale has chosen you. the U.S. to choose you. Now you want the people of PG/HG/mjr Very truly yours, 1i~4:_fif_l11i!_Y1._d__[J_~ PhytJis Gildston, Ph.D. Harold Gildston, Ed.D. .: . GM ll"H P!ll n1N1 : ;1 ~ ... • ·.. . : :· ., ! . !. '\' I a..!&...: • S .. 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Letter from Phyllis and Harold Gildston of the North Shore Center to Geraldine Ferraro

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Letter from Phyllis and Harold Gildston of the North Shore Center to Geraldine Ferraro

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