Video of the Day: Steve Jobs Plays Franklin Roosevelt in a Lost Ad

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We have nothing to fear but a terrible impression of the 32nd president himself.

Everyone knows about Apple's famous "1984" television ad, the landmark Super Bowl spot that introduced the Macintosh and helped create the company's image as a merchant of cool.

But Paul McNamara at Network World has found a previously unknown film. It's "1944," a nine-minute, in-house spoof of Apple's own ad, set four decades prior. For political junkies, the highlight is this brief clip in which a young Steve Jobs plays the 32nd president, armed with only a pince nez, a cigarette holder, and an atrocious imitation of Roosevelt's aristocratic peal. Suffice it to say, Jobs -- a pop culture aficionado who loved the Beatles and dated Joan Baez -- probably made the right decision in sticking with tech moguldom rather than trying to make it in entertainment.

To see the full video, and for more background on it, check out McNamara's post.

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David A. Graham

David Graham is an associate editor at The Atlantic, where he oversees the Politics Channel. He previously reported for Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, and The National.

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