Word: hoover
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...growth of the Bureau's image is a classic example. Hoover did not win the nation's heart by his silent devotion to duty; rather, he consciously carved out his niche by means of a concentrated campaign of public relations. Most observers of the FBI trace the beginning of the campaign to the Kansas City Massacre of 1933--a cold blooded-shoot-out in which Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd and a group of hoolums attempted to free one of their cohorts who was being taken to prison. Although the plan failed. FBI Special Agents and a local police chief died...
...Hoover was shocked by the flagrant lawlessness of the attack. Criminals like John Dillinger, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, Ma Barker, and Alvin "Old Creepy" Karpis had captured the public imagination; movies and newspaper accounts portrayed them as misguided but romantic outlaws fighting the system which had caused the Depression. Hoover must have felt that an entire generation of American children was threatened by the growth of this myth, and he determined to offer an alternative model: the FBI director and his corps of brave Special Agents...
...Hoover hired a famous Washington newsman--Henry Suydam of the old Brooklyn Eagle--to teach him the skills of public relations and image-making. Within a year he had learned them so well that he was able to dismiss his flack, and carry the Bureau's public relations himself. He has done so with great success ever since...
...starring the former criminal hero, James Cagny) and You Can't Get Away With It educated the screen audience about the omniscience and implacability of the Bureau and its Director. War on Crime, a comic strip drawn by a close personal friend of Hoover's, drew on FBI files for its plots. A highly successful radio series, The FBI--In Peace and War, captivated a nationwide listening audience. Thousands of children sent in boxtops for Junior G-Man badges and pictures of Hoover...
...campaing was a bananza for the entertainment industry, the newspapers, and the FBI. FBI pictures were guaranteed a wide audience; Pictures of Hoover eating a 'G-Man Sandwich' at Toots Shor's were great filler for the Saturday editions; the FBI became a cultural ideal...