History Comes Alive! Photo Preview of Anthony LaPaglia as Richard Nixon in Checkers

One of the first political scandals to play out on television happened exactly 60 years ago, when vice presidential candidate Richard Nixon took to the airwaves to deliver what came to be known as “the Checkers speech.” Accused of breaking campaign finance rules, Nixon defended himself in a half-hour life broadcast in which he invoked his daughters’ pet dog Checkers and his wife’s insistence on wearing a “respectable Republican cloth coat” rather than fancy furs. Tony winner Anthony LaPaglia is currently playing Nixon in the Vineyard Theatre’s off-Broadway production of Checkers, a fascinating history play by Oscar-nominated screenwriter Douglas McGrath. Click below to see photos of LaPaglia, Kathryn Erbe (as Pat Nixon) and more scenes from Checkers.