Tom and Harry: The Boss and the President

Directed by Terence Michael O'Malley

'Tom and Harry: The Boss and the President' is the only feature length documentary film that goes into great detail about the complex relationship between Harry Truman and Political Boss Tom Pendergast and the political machine that had a vise-like grip on Kansas City in the 1920s and 1930s. Tom Pendergast personally chose Harry Truman to run for the United State Senate in 1934. But by 1940, when Truman was seeking re-election, Pendergast was in prison and Harry Truman's political future hung in the balance as his two democratic primary opponents roundly decried Truman's association with the corrupt political machine. 'Tom and Harry: The Boss and the President' is chock-full of interesting film clips and photographs from the 19th century up to the 1940s. The film was released at four theaters simultaneously in Kansas City and is the definitive telling of the Pendergast Machine and Harry Truman's participation in it.