On July 15 , several weeks after the Republican-controlled Congress had adjourned for the year leaving much business unfinished , Truman took the unprecedented step of using his presidential nomination acceptance speech to call both houses back into session . He delivered that speech under trying circumstances . With no air conditioning , delegates sweltered in the Philadelphia convention hall 's oven-like atmosphere . By the time the president finally stepped before the cameras in the first televised Democratic convention in 1948 , organizers had lost all hope of controlling the schedule
Democratic convention in 1948
1948 Democratic National Convention
Turnip Day Session