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Lee Metcalf was born January 28, 1911, in Stevensville, Montana (MT) to Harold and Rhoda Metcalf. When he was about one year old, Lee’s parents moved the family to Puento (present Covina area), California, in order for Rhoda Metcalf to be close to her father Robert C. Smith. Lee grew up in Los Angeles-area until the age of five, when the Metcalf family returned to Stevensville, where the family had a 300-acre farm. Lee attended grade school and high school in Stevensville, graduating from high school in 1928.

Lee went on to study history for one year at Montana State University (MSU) in Missoula, Montana (later the University of Montana). He was a Rhodes Scholar candidate in his freshman year (1928-1929). Lee left MSU in 1929, when his family moved to Alhambra, California. In 1930, Lee Metcalf moved to Downey, California, where he lived with his parents after they moved to CA again.

In 1930, Lee enrolled at Leland Stanford Junior University, where he studied history and economics, took two years of Latin, and joined the Sigma Chi fraternity. He graduated from Stanford with a bachelor’s degree in History and Economics (pre-law course) and returned to Montana to attend the Montana State University Law School in Missoula from 1934-1936. There he met his future wife, Donna Hoover, when she was a journalism student at MSU. Metcalf graduated with a law degree (LL.D.) from MSU in June 1936. He was admitted to the Montana state bar in 1936 and opened a law practice in Stevensville, Montana.

Metcalf ran for a seat in the Montana state legislature in 1936 and was elected as a Democrat to the Montana House of Representatives from Ravalli County. In August of 1937, Montana Attorney General Harrison J. Freebourn appointed Metcalf as Assistant Attorney General of Montana and he served in this position from 1937 to 1941.

On August 21, 1938, Lee W. Metcalf and Donna A. Hoover married at the Hoover family house in Wallace, Idaho, and they spent their honeymoon in Canada before returning to live in Helena.

World War II delayed Metcalf’s career plans, but after returning from his war service in the U. S. Army, Lee Metcalf declared his candidacy for associate justice of the Montana Supreme Court. He served one six-year term in that office. In 1952, Lee Metcalf ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in Montana’s 1st congressional district and defeated his Republican opponent, Wellington D. Rankin. He was subsequently re-elected to three more terms in the House of Representatives in 1954, 1956, and 1958.

In 1960, after Democratic incumbent James E. Murray decided to retire, Metcalf ran for Murray's seat in the U.S. Senate. He won the Democratic nomination and defeated Republican Orvin B. Fjare, a conservative former U.S. Representative. Metcalf was reelected to the U. S. Senate in 1966 and 1972. In 1977, Metcalf announced that he would not seek a fourth Senate term in 1978. He died on January 12, 1978, at the age 66.

Senator Lee Metcalf began making weekly radio programs when he first came to Congress as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives in 1953: Montana was one of three states in the western United States in the 1950s that had no Washington, D.C., correspondent. Metcalf learned from his fellow Democratic congressmen, Senators James E. Murray and Mike Mansfield, about the process for creating media messages to send back to Montana. Mostly, the three Montana U.S. congressmen produced in the U.S. Senate Recording Studio congressional session radio reports at the start and end of session. Usually, the reports had a runtime between fifteen and thirty minutes. As the senior Montana congressman, Murray led all of these efforts. In 1956, at the start of the 84th U.S. Congress’ second session the Montana congressional delegation began shooting television session reports. Murray, Mansfield, and Metcalf kept copies of the film reels containing the reports. All three men filmed reports in 1956, 1957, 1958, and 1959—though more regular reports began in 1957.

Lee Metcalf shot various television programs and campaign pieces from 1957 to 1960. Metcalf relied on network and local television networks to shoot television programs on various issues, not having the office funds or staff yet which he needed in order to create his own regular television series. Metcalf began in 1960 shooting a series of low-budget 60-second campaign films in the U.S. House of Representatives Recording Studio that aired on Montana television stations between September and the election in November 1960.

In November 1960, Lee Metcalf won Murray’s Senate seat over Republican challenger and former U.S. Representative Orvin Fjare. In January 1961, the newly-minted Senator Lee Metcalf sat down in the Senate Recording Studio with the new Senate Majority Leader, Mike Mansfield, to record the two’s first congressional session report on their own, without Senator Murray. The report detailed the legislation and issues facing the 87th U.S. Congress in its first session.

By 1963, Metcalf’s early experience with televised congressional reports initially had him recording at least two of what he called his “Report from Washington” television programs. He began shooting regular weekly to bi-weekly “Report from Washington” segments—typically lasting between four and five minutes—starting in 1964. From January 1965 to December 1966, Senator Metcalf shot over 78 weekly television programs. In 1965, he titled the programs “Report from Washington”, but later changed the name of the program to “Washington Report”.

From January 1965 to July 1965, Metcalf’s 1964-1965 Montana congressional intern Ron Richards was responsible for managing the production of Metcalf’s television programs. Richards had been involved in radio production while a graduate student at the University of Montana-Missoula in the early 1960s. Metcalf utilized young professionals he chose as congressional interns to run various aspects of his office. In the case of those with media and journalism experience, Metcalf’s office managers assigned them to help write and edit Metcalf’s newsletters, as well as to write scripts for Metcalf’s radio and television programs. Richards documented Metcalf’s regular filming and broadcast practices for the next Montana congressional intern in 1965-1966, Gene (Eugene) Marianetti.

Gene Marianetti was the news director for radio station KMNO in Great Falls, Montana, in the early 1960s; Vice-President of the Montana Associated Press Stations in 1962; and president of the Great Falls Press Club in 1963. Gene wrote all the scripts and planned the Metcalf’s shows, including selecting interview candidates, selecting film inserts, and other parts of the recording process. Gene did voiceover work for Metcalf’s campaign commercials for television as well as the Open and Close for Metcalf’s “Washington Report” TV program, from the fall of 1965 to the end of 1966. He also created campaign films (ads and spots) using silent film segments shot by Phil McMartin of the NRECA.

Phil McMartin was the primary photographer/film producer for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA). The association offered Metcalf to have Phil McMartin follow Metcalf around to shoot silent film segments which could be utilized for Metcalf’s campaign films. NRECA was extremely interested in helping Metcalf because of Lee’s vital role in promoting and supporting rural electrical cooperatives. The NRECA’s offer allowed Gene Marianetti to be able to put together a number of different campaign films. The filming that was done in 1966 was related to specific subjects (education, Native American issues, War on Poverty, etc.) while Metcalf was touring specific areas. Gene Marianetti and Phil McMartin started working closely together in 1966 on Metcalf’s campaign film production. They would go down to the studio [likely the Senate Recording Studio] to look at the raw footage that Phil shot; separate the footage between what they would use in Metcalf’s campaign films and what they wouldn’t; and create silent film clips on reels that Gene and Metcalf’s office could use repeatedly for campaign commercials.