FDR really knew how to hook his listeners—er, friends.

Starting off with "my friends" (1) is pretty direct way to establish a personal connection with your audience. It might seem a little cheeseball today, but back when "First Fireside Chat" was given, it was something completely different—FDR made an attempt to connect with and relate to the people he leads.

By saying "my friends" Roosevelt levels the playing field, putting himself among the American people, sharing their struggles and their depression. Listeners saw the president less as an aloof politician, and more of a human being who was working to help because he understands and cares for his buds.

The second line is important as well, but in a different way. FDR gets his speech going the same way a good academic essay is written—by making it very clear what he is about to say.

He says that he's going to talk for a few minutes about banking: less about the "mechanics of banking" (2) but more about the basics of keeping money in the bank, and pulling it out. While lines like these might sound boring, as an audience member people no doubt appreciated hearing what this talk was going to be about, and their interest was certainly piqued with the subject of money.

Remember: with the banks closed for the past few days, no one had been able to get any cash, and there were no such things as credit cards or ATMs. People were all ears.