In Baltimore, Maryland, at the Camden Yards baseball park, home of the Baltimore Oriole’s professional baseball team, there is a statue of Babe Ruth, the famous New York Yankee slugger.  Although he became famous as a Yankee, George Herman Ruth ( b. 1895, d. 1948) had lots of history in Baltimore.  He was born there, first of all, and he learned the game of baseball on its sandlots.  And later, as a professional player, Ruth would hit home runs out of earlier Oriole Parks – for all his old friends and school chums to see.  The statue of Ruth at today’s Camden Yards Oriole Park portrays him as an older boy, at the edge of young manhood, about the time he was leaving  the Baltimore orphanage where he had spent his boyhood.  The statue is named  “Babe’s Dream,” alluding no doubt, to his longing for a big league future, or at least something better than an orphanage.

     Ruth was born on February 6th, 1895, a Baltimore saloonkeeper’s son.  He became something of a problem child, and at the age 7, his parents placed him in Baltimore’s St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys for his “incorrigible” behavior.  The school was run by Catholic Xaverian brothers, and Ruth spent almost his entire youth there.  St. Mary’s was the place where Ruth – with the help and encouragement of Brother Matthias Boutlier — developed into a promis- ing baseball player.

Statues & Icons Series      This story in one in an occasional series that will explore how America, and other countries, honor their icons – from famous politicians and military leaders, to movie stars, TV celebrities, and sports heros.  Societies have been erecting statues or otherwise commemorating their famous and beloved figures for thousands of years.  But in modern times, even fictional characters, their ranks swelled by cinema and television, are now joining those up on the pedestal, some for purely commercial reasons.  As statues and busts, the famous personages are typically cast in outsized proportions, some placed in parks or other public spaces.  Still others are found on postage stamps, murals, buildings, near sports arenas, or used in various place names.  Not all of those so honored, however, meet with public approval, though some have broad and continuing support.  The stories offered in this series will include short sketches on some of these figures – past and present – providing a bit of the history and context on each and how the proposed honor came about.

     In 1914, Ruth was first signed to play professional baseball by the Baltimore Orioles manager Jack Dunn who had heard about his play at the St. Mary’s orphanage.  The Orioles were then a minor league team, and Ruth was signed on as a 19 year-old pitcher.  When the other players on the Orioles first saw Ruth, they nicknamed him “Jack’s newest babe” – a moniker that stuck and stayed with Ruth for the rest of his life.

Baltimore News

     In March 1914, Ruth did well in spring training with the Orioles at their camp in North Carolina.  He pitched successfully against the major league Philadelphia Athletics on March 25th, and was also hitting some notably long shots as a hitter.  Baltimore’s newspapers began to pick up on the young rookie.  There were also a few early baseball trading cards of Babe Ruth as a Baltimore Oriole.  They were issued in 1914 by the Baltimore News, along with a team photo card with Ruth included.  However, the minor league Orioles’ business suffered that year.  The professional Federal League had established a Major League team in Baltimore that year directly across the street from the Orioles.  As a result, the Orioles’ attendance plummeted,  seating as few as fifty fans in the stands for some games.  To avoid bankruptcy, owner Jack Dunn was forced to sell his best players.

Ruth To Boston 

     About mid-season 1914, in July, Dunn decided to trade Babe Ruth.  Dunn packaged Ruth with two other players and asked Connie Mack of the Philadelphia Athletics for $10,000 for all three players.  Mack refused the offer.  The Cincinnati Reds also passed on the deal.  However, on July 9th or 10th, 1914, Dunn sold the trio to the Boston Red Sox for a reported $25,000.  Ruth then appeared in five games for the Red Sox that season, but was sent down to the minors for the remainder of the season – to the Providence Grays of Providence, Rhode Island.  At the conclusion of the baseball season that year, Ruth married Helen Woodford, a waitress he had met in Boston.  They were married in Ellicott City, Maryland.  In the next three years, Ruth played major league baseball for the Boston Red Sox, primarily as a pitcher, but he was also becoming a much-noted power hitter.

     According to Lee Montville’s book, The Big Bam, Ruth would play in a pair of games in Baltimore in April 1918 in which the Boston Red Sox played Jack Dunn’s minor league Orioles.  Some of Ruth’s old friends from St. Mary’s were likely in the stands, along with a few of the Xaverian Brothers.  Ruth was in his early 20s by this time. Ruth went 4-for-4 against the Orioles – all four of his hits were home runs.   On the following day, he hit two more home runs in his first two at- bats.  In the first game, on April 18, 1918, Ruth went 4-for-4 against the Orioles – all four of his hits were home runs.   He also had two walks that game.  On the following day, April 19th, he hit two more home runs in hist first two at- bats.  No doubt, his old Baltimore pals were pleased.  After that game, the Red Sox went on to play the New York Yankees at the Polo Grounds for opening day of the 1918 baseball season.  Ruth’s first at bat, he hit a lined shot to center field that gave him an inside-the-park home run.  The Red Sox beat the Yankees 10-0.

     Ruth had become a hitting sensation for the Red Sox, drawing crowds wherever he played.  But Boston sold him to the New York Yankees in 1920, where he would go on to have a colossal career, becoming a para- mount figure in the game, rejuvenating baseball as a business and setting home runs records.   There is more about his life and career at this website.  See, for example, “Babe Ruth Days, 1947-48″,  as well as other sites and numerous books about him. 

     During his career, Ruth would make appearances from time to time in Baltimore as a player at earlier Oriole Parks and other locations, and some photographs of him playing at these parks surface from time to time.  There are several photographs of Ruth at Oriole Park in the 1930s, for example, some showing him in action, as the one above.

     Another photograph of Ruth at Oriole Park of the 1930s, shows the Babe in his New York Yankee uniform autographing a baseball in the midst of a crowd of kids.  He is standing near the dugout at the old Oriole Park in Baltimore, as four other Yankee players can be seen in the photo as well.  The photo was taken by famous photographer Leroy Merriken.  On the back of the black-and-white sepia image, Merriken wrote in blue pen:  “Babe Ruth 1936, Oriole Park. Photo by LeRoy Merriken.” As of February 2009, one web site  advertised this photo as an “original unpublished Babe Ruth photograph,” calling it “rare and historic,” offering it for sale at $1,200.

Babe’s Statue

     Decades later, Babe Ruth would return to Baltimore in his iconic form.  In fact, in 1991, as the Baltimore Orioles professional baseball team was making plans for a new stadium in Baltimore, there were some who wanted to name the new park after Ruth.  But that plan was nixed, according to press reports of August 1991.  Sometime later, in 1992, the Ruth statue was proposed and eventually approved for Oriole Park at Camden Yards.  Among those supporting the idea were: Larry Lucchino, Baltimore Orioles CEO and president, then overseeing the building of the new ballpark; Peter Angelos, who would become the Orioles new owner in 1993; Michael Gibbons of the Babe Ruth Museum, who directed the project and helped raise funds for it; and the City of Baltimore.

     Susan Luery, a sculptor and Baltimore native, was commissioned to do the Ruth statue.  She produced the 9.5-foot bronze likeness of the young Babe after reading books about him and talking to people with both knowledge of Ruth and baseball.  She also had a look-alike model come into her studio while she worked on the statue.

     “I was intrigued by the concept of Babe Ruth as an American icon – I thought he was amazing,” Luery later said in an interview with The Examiner.  “Going into this, I really didn’t know anything about him, but I learned about his disregard for authority, his joy for life, his talent and sense of humor.  This [Baltimore] is where Babe Ruth got his start.  From a sports aspect, this is important to Baltimore history:  He was more than just a ballplayer.”

     Luery spent seven months forming the 28-inch model statue before creating the large-scale version.  The final statue was nearing completion in late 1994, and ground was broken on its location at Camden Yards on the Babe’s 100th birthday in February 1995.  In May, the statue was officially unveiled at an Oriole’s game at which Luery and Ruth’s daughter,  Julia Ruth Stevens, threw out the game ball.  The 9.5 foot bronze statue portrays a young Ruth leaning on a bat with his left arm, fielder’s glove hanging from his right hand, resting at his hip.  Ruth is gazing out into the future.  “A man looking at his destiny,” is how Susan Luery put it.  “His poise was in the sense of determination that he was a great player,” she said.  “He’s facing out – he had everything in front of him.”  Indeed he did; Ruth’s career rose pretty much straight into the record books from there.

Camden Yards

     The Ruth statue is located at the Eutaw Street (Gate H) entrance to Oriole Park at Camden Yards.  The location is roughly behind centerfield, where the majority of fans enter the ballpark.  The location, in fact, is also not far away from where Ruth and his parents lived in the early 1900’s – at 406 Conway Street, in what is now the ballpark’s centerfield.  Babe’s father operated Ruth’s Cafe on the ground floor of their residence at the time, and Babe often used the nearby train station.

     The Eutaw Street promenade is popular with fans who come to the park, as it runs parallel to the long B & O warehouse and separates it from the ballpark’s seating areas.  It’s also in the general area where Baltimore Orioles’ playing legends are honored with large wall numerals, among them, power hitters Frank Robinson (586 career homers) and Eddie Murray (504 career homers). “…I was totally captivated by the magnificent sculp- ture of Babe Ruth…”
                  - Howard Buchanan Also nearby is the Babe Ruth Museum and Birthplace, the Baltimore row house where Babe Ruth was born, which includes an extensive collection of Babe Ruth memorabilia and exhibits.  The Babe Ruth statue, however, remains a favorite photographic venue and meeting location for many who come to the park.  And for some, the statue is the high point of their visit.

     Howard Buchanan from Cumberland, Maryland, a local official considering Susan Luery in 2005 for a sculpture project in his own town, wrote of his experience coming to Camden Yards to see a baseball game and the Ruth statue:

     “In June 2005, my wife, Rosalyn, son John and daughter Beth treated me to a Father’s Day gift of a weekend in Baltimore.  The main item on the schedule was to see a baseball game, Orioles vs. Twins.  The game was only the second Major League game that I had ever seen.  I was impressed with the condition of the facilities, the ball diamond and the general condition of everything in sight.  However, more than by anything else, I was totally captivated by the magnificent sculpture of Babe Ruth.  To any boy growing up in the 1930s and ’40s, Babe Ruth was a national hero, and here in this beautiful park, in this magnificent city where he was born and educated, this icon of American athleticism.  How appropriate…”

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Date Posted:  29 March 2009
Last Update:  29 April 2010
Comments to:  jdoyle@pophistorydig.com

Article Citation:
Jack Doyle, “Ruth at Oriole Park, 1930s-2009,”
PopHistoryDig.com, March 29, 2009.

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Sources, Links & Additional Information

Associated Press, “Baseball; Ruth a Strikeout For Oriole Park,” August 15, 1991.

“Sports Briefly,” The Sun (Baltimore, MD), September 1, 1993, p. 2-D.

David J. Williams, “Sculptor’s Model Fine Tunes His Pitch Being the Babe,” The Sun, June 3, 1994, p. 1-D.

“Q&A,” The Sun, Sports, July 7, 1994, p. 7-C.

“Statue Of Babe Has Just One Catch,”Seattle Times.com, June12, 1995.

Charlie Vascellaro, “‘Pigtown’ Site Is House That Babe Ruth Built,” Washington Weekend, Cover Story, Washington Times, February 5, 2004

Leigh Montville, The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth, New York: Doubleday, 2006.

Elizabeth Skalski, “Babe Statue Labor of Love for Baltimore Sculptor,” The Examiner (Baltimore, MD) and Examiner.com, August 14, 2007.

“Original Unpublished Babe Ruth Photograph by Leroy Merriken,” Vintage Baseball Collectibles, as of February 2009.

Jim Rednour, “Ruth Heralded as Hometown Hero With Statue at Camden Yards,” Monday, December 31, 2007.

“1914 Baltimore News Babe Ruth Rookie Card,” June 25, 2007, WatermelonAntiques.com, explores some comparative auction values of the rare Babe Ruth baseball card.

Tyler Kepner, “Visiting the Birthplace of the Babe,” New York Times, Blogs, April 19, 2008.

“Buchanan Says Oriole Park Likeness of Babe Ruth Helped Inspire Courthouse Project,” Cumberland Times-News (Cumberland, MD), December 13, 2008.

Susan Luery, Sculptor.

“Oriole Park at Camden Yards,” Wikipedia.org.

John Eisenberg, From 33rd Street to Camden Yards: An Oral History of the Baltimore Orioles New York: McGraw-Hill, March 2001.

Jack Doyle, “Babe Ruth Days,1947 & 1948,” PopHistoryDig.com, April 17, 2008.

Thom Loverro, Home of the Game: The Story of Camden Yards, Taylor Trade Publishing, April 1999.

Peter Richmond, Ballpark: Camden Yards and the Building of an American Dream, Fireside, July 2007.

The Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum, Baltimore, Maryland.

Mike Jensen, “Number 3?”(Babe Ruth), Obit-Mag.com, July 20, 2007.

 

     For more than a decade, Dinah Shore was one of the first television celebrities whose name became synon- ymous with a product – and not just any product.  For Dinah Shore was perhaps the one person in the 1950s and early 1960s most responsible for putting Chevrolet automobiles in the driveways and garages of millions of Americans.  In doing so she became the “queen of General Motors” in its heyday – a super-salesperson and more.  For in this role, Dinah Shore also became a 1950s’  cultural icon — and for millions, a much-admired and trusted personality. 

     But before she became “Ms. Chevrolet”, Dinah Shore  was a well-known singer and entertainer who worked hard at her craft; a person who had traveled from blues on the radio and entertaining the troops during WWII, to leading a nation to suburbia and the open highway.  In later years she also helped define the female talk show format with a genteel, kitchen-table style, presaging in some ways Oprah Winfrey’s show and “The View,” though without the sharp elbows in the latter case.

The Chevy Jingle

     In her prime-time days as a 1950s TV variety-show hostess and performer, Dinah Shore rose to the top of her craft and became a national celebrity.  With a likeable mixture of Southern charm, good looks, and friendly hospitality, she became one of America’s favorite TV personas of the era, making millions of viewers feel good about themselves and their country.

“See the USA in your Chevrolet, America is asking you to call… Drive your Chevrolet through the USA, America’s the greatest land of all…”                                                                  - Dinah Shore, singing.

     On her TV show for many years she sang “the Chevy jingle” at the opening and closing of every show.  The short song – which included the lines “See the USA in your Chevrolet… America’s the greatest land of all” – became something of an anthem for the era; a tune approach- ing patriotic status.  Her sweeping good-bye kiss thrown to the audience at the end of the song and each show became her trademark gesture, and a genuine part of her hospitable style.

 

Tennessee Roots

     Born in March1917 to Solomon and Anna Stein Shore in the small town of Winchester, Tennessee, Dinah Shore was first named Frances Rose.  As a child she was called “Fanny Rose” or “Fannye” by nickname and sometimes teased at school.  She also did battle with polio in her right leg for six years, but with a regimen of tennis and swimming overcame it, leaving some damage to her right foot.  She began singing and performing at an early age.  “When I was four or five,” she would later recall, “my father had a general store in Winchester and I don’t think the farmers could ever leave on Saturday afternoon until I had been placed up on the counter to sing.”  Also encouraged by her mother who once had operatic ambitions, Dinah learned to play the ukelele, took voice lessons, and ventured out in amateur dramatics with a night-club appearance at age fourteen.  She went on the Vanderbilt University where she studied sociology.  While in college, she made her radio debut with a regular 15-minute program on the Nashville station WSM.  The radio theme song there, “Dinah,” a 1925 hit tune, later inspired her name change.  She used her radio earnings to help pay her college costs.

     By 1938, she was in New York, and bounced around some in auditions, radio work, and a big band singing.  Xavier Cugat hired her to sing with his band which played at the prestigious Waldorf-Astoria.  She recorded some hit songs with Cugat, “The Breeze And I” of 1940 among them.  About that time, Victor Records offered her a contract on their Bluebird label.  In 1942, “Blues in the Night” became her first million-selling record… She had also been singing on CBS Radio and became a house singer on NBC Radio’s Sunday afternoon jazz show that was “networked” coast-to-coast.  The music played there featured notables such as Sidney Bechet, Jelly Roll Morton, and the young Lena Horne.  As a vocalist on the show, Dinah Shore built a national following and by 1940 had become a well known on radio, recordings, and juke-boxes.  Through 1941 she also appeared regularly on Eddie Cantor’s radio show “Time To Smile.”  By 1942 she had her own networked radio show and her recording career had taken off by then, too.  “Blues in the Night” was her first million-selling record in1942 and two years later she had her first No. 1 hit with “I’ll Walk Alone,” a World War II song of longing.

     Dinah Shore was also a hit with the troops during World War II, making appearances in Normandy and other Allied bases in Europe.  She did one tour visiting hospitals and G.I.s in which she sang more than 150 songs in eleven straight hours.  She also made numerous appearances on the Armed Forces Radio’s live show, “Command Performance,” popular with the troops.  And on domestic radio, she also had her own half-hour show in 1943, “Call for Music,” sponsored by General Foods. In Hollywood, she had appeared in a few films, such as Belle of the Yukon, Up in Arms, and others, but acting was not her strong suit.  She also did several songs for Walt Disney productions, with her voice used in Disney animations.  Her recordings, meanwhile, continued to do well.  Through the 1940s she sold one million copies of “Yes, My Darling Daughter.”  Between 1940 and 1955, she would have some 75 hit records.  Among these were: “The Gypsy” (1946), “The Anniversary Song” (1947), “Buttons and Bows” (1948) and “Dear Hearts and Gentle People” (1949).  Her record sales were well over 6 million by the late 1940s.  That’s about when she began to venture into the new medium of television starting on the Ed Wynn Show.

 

TV & Chevrolet

This photo and one below from 1952 TV ad with Dinah Shore for the 1953 Chevrolet Bel Air model.

     In 1950 she made a guest appearance on Bob Hope’s first NBC television special.  The following year, NBC gave her a quarter-hour show in the early evening which ran twice weekly.  It was called the Dinah Shore Show.  It was the first network show hosted by a woman.  GM’s Chevrolet division became her sponsor.  For some months prior to the show, talks had gone on with the sponsor. According to Bruce Cassidy in his book, Dinah!: “The Chevrolet Division of General Motors made no secret of it: they wanted to sell cars not only to men but to women as well.  Dinah Shore had already proved herself as a ’seller’ with the servicemen in World War II.  Her image was that of the girl next door… The women [in her audience], it was hoped, would approve of having her in their homes.”  Chevy and GM joined Dinah Shore from the beginning of her TV career.  It also didn’t hurt that RCA and NBC corporate chief David Sarnoff liked Shore’s choice of music and her mainstream appeal.  The Dinah Shore Show, in its shorter-length, twice weekly format, would run through July 1957.  However, she would soon have a full hour on Sunday nights, reaching millions.  Some of her longer shows began as specials in 1956.  More on the longer show in a moment.

     General Motors by then, as other major companies, had begun to use television-show sponsorship and television advertising to push their product.  Chevrolet, in fact, even in the early 1950s, had the single largest advertising budget in the business, handled by the advertising agency Campbell-Ewald.  Some years later, Campbell-Ewald would take credit for “launching” Dinah on her November 1951 show where she began singing the Chevrolet song.  By the fall of 1952, Dinah Shore, in addition to singing the Chevy jingle on her new show, was also making TV commercials for Chevrolet.  She had made one “See the USA” TV commercial in 1952 featuring the Chevrolet song and Chevrolet cars traveling the roads of America.

     Another film short made for Chevrolet in the fall of 1952 features its new 1953 Chevrolet Bel Air model (earlier photos above right).  The 12-minute film, titled “A New Star,” opens on the set of television studio as Shore is filmed singing an entire song about spring.  After the song, she addresses her audience to talk about the beauty and various features of the new Chevy model, then heads to the dressing room for a wardrobe change for another song.  A salesmen then comes on with “actor consumers” as the filming “the ad” continues.  The salesmen makes his best Chevrolet pitch as the camera pans the new car.  Dinah, meanwhile, returns in a new outfit and sings the whole version of “See the U.S.A. in your Chevrolet.”  Throughout her career with Chevrolet as her sponsor, Dinah Shore would continue to make TV and print ads, auto show appearances, new dealer dedications, race track appearances, and other Chevrolet product endorsements and special appearances.

Dinah’s Chevy Show

     By 1956, Dinah’s show was expanded to a full one-hour – now named the Dinah Shore Chevy Show.  The hour-long show ran from October 1956 through 1963.  It marked a generally buoyant, time in America; the Eisenhower and Kennedy years; a time mostly of peace, prosperity, and optimism, though with the Cold War shadow.  Dinah’s show ran on weekend evenings, mostly Sundays, and included popular guests of the time such as Peggy Lee, Frank Sinatra, Pearl Bailey, George Burns, Jack Lemmon, Mahalia Jackson, Groucho Marx, Bing Crosby, Red Skelton, Shirley Temple, Nat King Cole, and others.  Dinah would sometimes sing or dance with guests, or engage in comedy skits.  She was the perfect hostess; a cheerful personality who fit the times and set people at ease.  Dinah Shore became quite popular by the late 1950s, winning Emmy awards for her show and named several times to lists of “most admired” woman.  But her show’s most enduring image was her signature “See The USA…”song, as she beckoned an eager nation to the open road.

     By December 1957, Chevrolet was paying $145,000 (in 1950s’ money) per weekly installment of the Dinah Shore Chevy Show.  Her show by then, although not the nation’s top show, still had an audience of about 44 million.  A GM spokesman told Time magazine in December 1957 that the company considered its link with Dinah to be “one of the most enduring love affairs in TV.”  Indeed, Dinah Shore was helping to make Chevrolet the most popular automobile brand in America.  In the 1950s, Chevy sales in the U.S. averaged 1 million or more cars and trucks a year.

TV Guide, June 1953.

TV Guide, March 1955.

TV Guide, Dec 1956.

TV Guide, Dec 1957.

TV Guide, April 1959.

 

GM’s Money & Models

     It wasn’t just Dinah Shore powering Chevrolet sales forward.  Chevrolet itself was spreading TV advertising dollars around liberally, as the company had been doing since the late 1940s and the days of radio.  By 1960, Chevrolet alone was spending something on the order of $100 million annually (in 1960s’ dollars) on TV ads and sponsorship.  Chevy was associated with a number of TV shows at various times during the 1950s, including: Dave Garroway’s “Wide Wide World”, Robert Trout’s “CBS News”, Lowell Thomas’ “High Adventure”, and various shows by Pat Boone, Garry Moore, and Milton Berle.  But the performer who would personify Chevy in that era was Dinah Shore.  By the early 1960s, her show was regarded as “a Sunday night staple.”  Advertising Age would later write that Dinah Shore “helped make Chevy the unchallenged leader in America and the Chevy jingle one of the most famous in TV history.”  But General Motors was doing its part, too, turning out the hardware.  By the mid-1950s, as GM became one of the most powerful companies in the world, attractive new Chevy models were hitting showrooms all across America.

     In October 1954, Chevrolet’s new line-up boasted a spiffy new model – the ‘55 Chevy – with a 265 cubic inch V-8 engine that put out 160 horsepower.  It was the first mass-market car with a V-8 engine.  In earlier years, GM had put V-8s into its up-scale Cadillac line, but the high-revving, “small block” V-8s, as they came to be known, were the first to be put into everyday, “working-class” Chevys.  These models sold like crazy.  And the good times continued though the next few years with other Chevy models.

     By 1958, Chevy introduced its Impala model, a lower-end luxury car that also became wildly popular.  Dinah Shore appeared in TV ads and film shorts hyping the new Impala.  She and Pat Boone did one together in the fall of 1958, doing a little song and dance on a Chevrolet set to tout the new 1959 Impala.  By 1960, the Chevrolet Impala became the best-selling automobile in America.  Five years later, it would set an all-time industry annual sales record for an individual model, selling more than 1 million.

     When the Dinah Shore Chevy Show began in 1956 it started as a series of monthly specials broadcast for an hour on Friday nights.  From 1957-1961 it became the Sunday night staple, broadcast at 9 pm. In the fall of 1961, CBS came up with a new show – a western named Bonanza, destined to become one of the all-time TV powerhouse shows.  Bonanza then took the 9 pm time slot.  Dinah’s show then became the Dinah Shore Show, broadcast on Friday nights at 9:30pm.  In its last two seasons, The Dinah Shore Show went back to Sundays at 10 pm, broadcast on a rotating basis with assorted specials.  The last telecast was May 12, 1963.

     By 1962-63 – roughly coinciding with the final run of her show – Chevy sales alone were more than 2 million a year.  All GM models in those years accounted for fully half of all vehicles sold in the U.S.  Dinah Shore had certainly done her part for Chevrolet and beyond.  Even after her show went off the air, she continued to sing the Chevy song for the company in advertising for several more years.  Her name would remain associated with the Chevrolet brand for many years after her formal arrangement with the company had ended.

     “The Chevrolet brass were ecstatic,” wrote Bruce Cassiday in his biography of Dinah.  “For ten years, right up into the fall of 1961, when she began a reduced schedule, Chevy sponsored her and listened to the jangle of cash registers as American’s bought Chevrolet’s by the millions to the tune of Dinah’s voice singing ‘See the USA in Your Chevrolet…’.”

     By 1964, America had changed.  The cars were different and so was the music.  Ronny and the Daytonna’s 1965 hit song “Little GTO” came out shortly after a GM whiz-kid engineer/executive named John DeLorean put the actual GTO Pontiac, with its giant engine, on the street.  Wilson Pickett’s song “Mustang Sally “of 1966 told a story about Ford’s hot new Mustang model.  The muscle car era was in full swing.  Detroit’s automakers by this time were heading in a whole new direction – and not always for the better.

Smog, Safety & MPG      As Dinah Shore was helping America enjoy its love affair with the automobile, there were some serious automotive downsides that started to become apparent nationwide at about that time.  Dinah, of course, had nothing to do with these.  But by the mid-1950s, a new dangerous kind of air pollution called smog had begun to form in Los Angeles, later connected nationwide to uncontrolled automobile tail-pipe exhausts and engine emissions.       Safety and auto accidents also became national concerns. Congress, in fact, had first attacked what was called the “horsepower race” in 1957, believing the rising horse-power in automobiles to be partly responsible for killing and maiming tens of thousands in speed-related accidents.  Automakers then pledged not to pitch their wares for speed and to stop using racing results in auto advertising.  But all of this was soon forgotten and pushed aside by 1962, as the muscle-car era dawned.       Pollution control in automobiles, meanwhile, remained minimal, even as a U.S. Justice Department lawsuit was initiated in 1969 against Detroit’s auto- makers alleging a 1954-to-1969 conspiracy to hold back pollution-control technology.  This suit was settled out of court, but the automakers continued to drag their feet on pollution control and automotive fuel economy for decades.  On the safety front, a consumer advocate named Ralph Nader, emerged in 1965 with book Unsafe at Any Speed, attacking the poor safety record of Detroit’s automakers, sparking a consumer movement and new auto safety laws.  By the mid-1970s, fuel economy became the major concern, with Detroit again faring poorly in the miles-per-gallon (MPG) competition as Japanese automakers engineered more efficient models.

Dinah Can’t Help

     Years later, in May 1999, Chevy tried to make an advertising comeback with Dinah Shore, even though she had passed on by then.  In a campaign aimed at resurrecting its Impala model, the company brought back Dinah’s “See the U-S-A- in-Your-Chevrolet” anthem and mounted a brief ad campaign with her appearing in some retro ads.  Using a bit of televised techno-wizardry, they had Dinah on-screen, appearing to chat with then Chevy General Manager, Kurt Ritter about Chevy’s greatness.  Off screen, Ritter explained that the old Chevy jingle scored well with Baby Boomers who fondly remembered the Eisen- hower years.  Chevy also found that even GenX-ers who never knew Dinah Shore, were intrigued with the cheery message she offered, encouraging them to get in their car and hit the road.  Back in Impala’s heyday, Chevy had sold over a million of the full-size models annually.  But by 1999, Chevy had stiff competition from the Ford Taurus, Honda Accord, and the Toyota Camry.  They were hoping to sell 400,000 or so, but even that was optimistic.  And as it turned out, even Dinah Shore couldn’t help at that point.

     What had become clear by the 1990s, if not long before, was that Detroit’s Big Three automakers, led by GM in particular, had failed in the 1950s and 1960s to adopt the early technological advances in safety, pollution control, and fuel economy that would have kept them in a world leadership position through the 21st century.  Detroit’s Big Three automakers became their own worst enemy for decades, spending time and money opposing progressive public policy and technological change rather than leading it.  Further nay-saying to automotive fuel economy from the 1980s through the early 2000s made matters worse.  Other poor decision-making over the years — including bad invest- ments, ill-advised mergers and acquisitions, and an over-the top emphasis on SUV and light truck production — all contributed to Detroit’s contin- uing problems, leading, in part, to their current economic woes.

 

Dinah the Icon

     Dinah Shore, meanwhile – after her variety show went off the air in 1963 – would fade from the public eye briefly.  But she would later continue her television career with a series of talk shows.  During the 1960s, she raised a family, occasionally made a few TV specials, continued singing, and was still listed in Gallup polls citing her among America’s most admired women. 

“See The USA…” See the USA in your Chevrolet America is asking you to call Drive your Chevrolet through the USA America’s the greatest land of all On a highway, or a road along the levy Performance is sweeter, nothing can beat her Life is completer in a Chevy So make a date today to see the USA And see it in your Chevrolet Traveling East, Traveling West Wherever you go Chevy service is best Southward or North, near place or far There’s a Chevrolet dealer for your Chevrolet car See the USA in your Chevrolet The Rocky’s way out west are calling you Drive your Chevrolet through the USA Where fields of golden wheat pass in review Whether traveling light or with a load that’s heavy Performance is sweeter, nothing can beat her Life is completer in a Chevy So make a date today to see the USA And see it in your Chevrolet. ______________________________ Dinah Shore singing “See-The-U.S.A…”, 1952.

     In 1970, she initiated her first talk show, Dinah’s Place (NBC, 1970-74), followed by Dinah! (1974-79),  and Dinah and Friends (1979-84) – the latter two, 90-minute daily shows syndicated on CBS stations.  A Conversation with Dinah (1989-91) was her final talk show series which ran on the Nashville Network cable channel.  During all of this, she became one of the most popular personalities on daytime TV and a pioneer for others who followed in that format.

     Divorced from former husbands George Montgomery, an actor, and Maurice F. Smith, a tennis player, Dinah Shore’s love life received some national tabloid attention when she became involved with a much younger Burt Reynolds for six years.

     Shore was also an avid golfer and a long- time supporter of women’s professional golf.  In 1972, she helped found the Colgate Dinah Shore golf tournament, which today is known as the Kraft Nabisco Champ- ionship.  The tournament is held each spring near Shore’s former home in Rancho Mirage, California.  The event remains one of the four major golf tournaments on the Ladies Professional Golfers Association Tour.  Shore also wrote series of cookbooks, including in 1971,the best- selling Someone’s in the Kitchen With Dinah.

     In 1993, she was diagnosed with cancer.  She passed away less then a year later in February 1994 at her home in Beverly Hills.  Today, in her childhood hometown of Winchester, Tennessee, there is a “Dinah Shore Blvd” that leads to the town square where her father once had his store.  In California, too, there is a road named after her  — “Dinah Shore Drive” –  a busy road that runs through the desert cities of Rancho Mirage and Cathedral City.  Her former husband, actor and sculptor George Montgomery,  produced a life-size statue of his former wife that stands near the 18th hole at the Mission Hills Country Club golf course in Rancho Mirage, California.  The statue, along with “Dinah’s Walk of Champions,” were dedicated formally by Nabisco in March 2000 with remarks by former president Gerald Ford.  In August 2009, she was one of twenty 1950s’ TV icons to appear in a commemorative U.S. postage stamp series honoring “the Golden Age of Television.”

 

50 Years Broadcasting

     Dinah Shore had a presence in broadcasting – and in the public eye – that spanned more than 50 years.  Hers was a career that began in late-1930s radio and continued with television until 1991.  And whether in radio, popular recording, or television, she made her mark.  She had 75 hit records between 1940 and 1955.  In television, her ten Emmy awards makes her the most honored female in the award’s history.  In 1992, she was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ TV Hall of Fame.  She  also won a Peabody Award and a Golden Globe.

     Still, in all of her career accomplishments, Dinah Shore is perhaps best remembered for burnishing the Chevrolet brand into the national psyche.  The 1951 through 1963 era framed a “feel good” time for most Americans, happy about their cars and the open roads they drove on.  It might well be called “the Dinah Shore era.”  It was certainly a golden era for Chevrolet and General Motors.  And Dinah Shore helped make it golden – at least for a time.

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Date Posted:  22 March 2009
Last Update:    5 August 2010
Comments to:  jdoyle@pophistorydig.com

Article Citation:
Jack Doyle, “Dinah Shore & Chevrolet, 1956-1963,”
PopHistoryDig.com, March 22, 2009.

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Sources, Links & Additional Information

“Dinah Shore With Troops Abroad,” New York Times, Wednesday, August 2, 1944, Business, p. 32.

“Dinah Shore Stirs 7,000 at Stadium; Radio and Film Star Shares Honors With Goodman in Philharmonic Program,” New York Times, Wednesday, July 4, 1945, Amusements, p. 10.

“Dinah Shore in London; Singer Wins Ovation in Show at Palladium Theatre,” New York Times, Tuesday, August 31, 1948, Amusements, p. 15.

George Gallup, “Dinah Shore Favorite in Vocalist Poll,” Los Angeles Times, January 1, 1951, p. 17.

The Dinah Shore Show (sample, 15-minute show). Dinah sings “Getting to Know You,” “Stardust,” and others, November 29, 1951. In the NBC Collection of the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Jack Gould, Radio & Television, “Dinah Shore Scores in Her New N.B.C. Video Series…,” New York Times, Monday, December 3, 1951, Business, p. 37.

“Dinah Shore’s TV Art.” Look, December 15, 1953.

Val Adams, “N. B.C. Still Seeks Spot for 2 Stars; Cuts in Sunday Drama Shows Urged to Open TV Time for Dinah Shore and Bob Hope…,”New York Times, Tuesday, July 24, 1956, p. 53.

“Television: Is There Anyone Finah?,” Time, Monday, December16, 1957.

“Dinah Shore Brings ‘Chevy Show’ East,” New York Times, Monday, January 13, 1958, p. 49.

Val Adams, “Dinah Shore, Hope Named for Prizes; To Receive Peabody Awards Here Today…”, New York Times, Wednesday, April 2, 1958, p. 63.

“‘Chevy Show’ Is Set for Tv All Summer,” New York Times, Wednesday, April 2, 1958, p. 63.

The Dinah Shore Chevy Show ( sample, 60-minute show). Cast: Gwen Verdon, Art Carney, Louis Jourdan, October 5, 1958. In the NBC Collection of the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

“Dinah Shore and Her TV Glad Rags,” Life (cover story), February 1, 1960.

“Dinah Shore Is Award Winner,” Washington Post-Times Herald, August 27, 1960, p. D-7.

George Eells, “Dinah Shore: How She grew, How She lives, How She Dresses, How She Drives Herself,” Look (cover story), December 6, 1960. In-depth article with photos. Dinah Shore cover photo by Bob Vose.

Dinah Shore Renews Pact for ‘60′-61 Season,” Los Angeles Times, April 15, 1960, p. A-9.

“Dinah Shore, Chevrolet To Part After 10 Years,” Washington Post-Times Herald, February 17, 1961, p. C-8.

Dorothy Kilgallen, “Dinah Shore to Plug Peace Corps,” Washington Post-Times Herald, December 8, 1964, p. B-12.

Bruce Cassiday, Dinah! A Biography, New York: Franklin Watts, 1979.

Jack Lloyd, Knight-Ridder Newspapers, “Bubbly Dinah Shore Does a Really Live Show,” Chicago Tribune, August 28, 1986, p. 10.

Ken Gross, “Impala: It’s Not A Great Car,” Automotive Industries, May 1999.

Jack Doyle, Taken for A Ride: Detroit’s Big Three and The Politics of Pollution, New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, June 2000.

Stephen Holden, “Dinah Shore, Homey Singer And Star of TV, Dies at 76,” New York Times, February 25, 1994.

Jim Brennan, “Favorite Automobile Spokesperson: See the USA in Your Chevrolet with Dinah Shore,” Car Domain.com, February 24, 2009.

“Biography for Dinah Shore,” TCM.com, accessed March 2009.

PBS, “MWAH!: The Best of The Dinah Shore Show 1956-1963,” March 2003. This hour-long, PBS TV special includes videotape footage of Dinah doing duets with guests Ella Fitzgerald, Jack Lemmon, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Pearl Bailey, George Burns, Groucho Marx, Peggy Lee, and Mahalia Jackson.

Tim Brooks and Earle March, The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present, Eighth Edition, 2003.

Video. “A Great New Star,” is a 1952 video produced by the Handy (Jam) Organization for the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Corp., featuring Dinah Shore as hostess, who sings two songs, including the Chevy jingle, in an extended promotion piece for the new 1953 Chevrolet Bel Air model. This piece is set around the making of an advertisement, providing the viewer a behind the scenes look at studio process and actors, along with Dinah’s singing. You Tube offers the clip in two parts, each running about 6 minutes.

Dinah Shore, Someone’s in the Kitchen with Dinah, Garden City, New York: Doubleday, August 1971.

Dinah Shore, The Dinah Shore American Kitchen, 1990.

Douglas Gomery, “Dinah Shore: U.S. Musical Performer,” The Museum of Broadcast Communications, accessed March 2009.

Henry B. Aldridge “The Dinah Shore Show,” The Museum of Broadcast Communications, accessed March 2009.

 

     In the spring of 1966, all was not well in the world.  The Vietnam War was raging and  American involvement there was escalating.  U.S. troop strength had reached 200,000 by then, and draft quotas at home had doubled.   Earlier that spring, in April, U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright (D-AR), one of the few Senators challenging U.S. involvement in Vietnam, had given his famous “Arrogance of Power” speech  at Johns Hopkins University – a speech critical of the “might-makes-right”  approach and more, aimed squarely at the U.S.   In Vietnam, meanwhile, the military government of South Vietnam under Premeir Ky was doing battle with Buddhist rebels in Da Nang in mid-May.  Also at this time, China had come forth with its Cultural Revolution pronouncement.

     Despite these woes, the day-to-day rhythms of life went on as normal throughout much of the world.  In America, Vice-President Hubert Humphrey and U.S. Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall dedicated the new Gateway Arch in St. Louis on May 25th, 1966.   Busch Stadium, home to baseball’s St. Louis Cardinals, had opened there earlier that spring.  In the world of boxing, late May, Muhammad Ali, then known as Cassius Clay, would knock out the U.K.’s Henry Cooper in a six-round heavyweight match in London.

     In music, the Beach Boys had released their Pet Sounds album, and Bob Dylan his Blonde on Blonde album.  About that time as well, around mid-May 1966, a new song titled “Paint It Black” by the British rock group the Rolling Stones, began to be heard across the U.S. and in the U.K.  It was one of those hard-driving rock ‘n roll tunes from this raucous new group that was catching on in a big way.

 

“Paint It Black”   [music player]

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     “Paint It Black,” written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, is not a happy tune in its lyrics, but in 1966 its musical appeal pushed it to the top of the pop charts.  Released as a single, the record reached No. 1 in the U.S. and the U.K. in late May, holding the top position for two weeks or so.  It remained in the Top 40 for ten weeks through the summer.  The song became popular throughout Europe and around the world.

“Paint It Black” I see a red door and I want it painted black No colors anymore I want them to turn black I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes I have to turn my head until my darkness goes I see a line of cars and they’re all painted black With flowers and my love, both never to come back I see people turn their heads and quickly look away Like a newborn baby it just happens ev’ryday Adaptation. movie I look inside myself and see my heart is black I see my red door and it has been painted black Maybe then I’ll fade away and not have to face the facts It’s not easy facing up when your whole world is black No more will my green sea go turn a deeper blue I could not forsee this thing happening to you If I look hard enough into the setting sun My love will laugh with me before the morning comes I see a red door and I want it painted black No colors anymore I want them to turn black I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes I have to turn my head until my darkness goes Hmm, hmm, hmm… I wanna see it painted black, painted black Black as night, black as coal I wanna see the sun, blotted out from the sky I wanna see it painted, painted, painted, painted black Yeah

Hot Group

     The Rolling Stones by this time already had two big breakthrough hits in 1965 – “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction” and “Get Off of My Cloud” – along with two top albums that year; Out of Our Heads and December’s Children.  Their third album Aftermath, which included “Paint It Black” in the U.S version, was also a hit.

     “Paint It Black” is about a man whose lover has died, and is beside himself with grief, seeing his whole world “painted black.”  He even wants the sun “blotted out.”  He’s depressed, feeling down, worthless, and without direction or connection.  Some say that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were then on an introspective writing streak partly influenced by Bob Dylan’s work.  “Paint it Black” came out a few months after the Stones had released their last single, “19th Nervous Breakdown.”

     “Paint It Black” also has some eastern musical influences, as a sitar is used in the song.  The sitar’s use came about through Brian Jones, then the group’s lead guitarist, who had visited with the Beatles’ George Harrison who was also then using the Indian instrument.  The sitar’s use in the song, says music critic Richie Unterberger, “qualifies as perhaps the most effective use of the Indian instrument in a rock song.  The exotic twang was a perfect match for the dark, mysterious Eastern-Indian melody. . .”

 

Long Sales Life

     “Paint it Black” would become one of those songs from the Rolling Stone’s catalogue that would enjoy a second and third sales life, in some cases, 30 and 40 years after its initial release.  It would be re-issued as a single on at least two other occasions – once in June 1990 when it hit the U.K charts for three weeks, and again in May 2007 when it hit the U.K. charts for a week or so, reaching No. 70.  The song has also appeared on at least a dozen Stones albums and compilations.  Billboard rated “Paint it Black” No. 21 on its list of the 100 top songs of 1966.  But beyond the conventional record business, pop chart performance, and awards, “Paint It Black” has also found its way into a number of other uses, particularly in film, television, and video games.  These uses have kept the song very much alive and well for many years beyond the 1960s.

Vietnam Association

The ‘Tour of Duty’ TV program, late 1980s, used ‘Paint It Black’ as its opening theme song.

Later packaging of ‘Paint It Black’ with red banner corner note that reads: ‘As Featured on the TV Series Tour of Duty’.

     In the late 1980s, “Paint It Black”  became associated with the Vietnam War due to its use in both the ending credits of the 1987  film Full Metal Jacket and its use as the theme song for Tour Of Duty, a CBS-TV show about the Vietnam war which ran from 1987-1990.  The airing of the song on the TV show, which played around the world, contributed to its revised popularity in the late 1980s-early-1990s.  In May of 1990 in the Netherlands,  after “Paint It Black” was re-released there as a single again, it hit the No.1 position  on the Dutch Top 40 chart.  Later marketing and packaging of the song in those years also referred to the Tour of Duty TV show.

     Some Vietnam veterans have identified with the song as well.  One writer to SongFacts.com – “Bill,” from Queens, New York – made the following observation about the song’s Vietnam association:

“…While the Rolling Stones’ song “Paint It Black” was not written about the Vietnam War, it has great meaning for many combat veterans from that war.  The depression, the aura of premature death, loss of innocence, abandonment of all hope are perfectly expressed in the song.  When you walk off the killing fields, still alive, physically intact, you want everything painted black, like your heart, your soul, you mind, your life.”

     “Paint it Black” was also used on the NBC-TV show American Dreams  in a 2004 episode when a central character in the show — young J.J. Pryor from Philadelphia, PA — goes missing in Vietnam.  The song’s other film appearances, either in its original or cover versions, include: 1997’s The Devil’s Advocate, a thriller/horror film starring Keanu Reeves, Al Pacino, and Charlize Theron; 1999’s For Love of the Game, a film about baseball with Kevin Costner; and, Stir of Echoes, a supernatural thriller, also in 1999, starring Kevin Bacon.

     On television, “Paint It Black” has also had more recent uses, as in a July 2003 pilot episode of the cable TV show Nip/Tuck – a show described by New York Times writer Alessandra Stanley as “a ‘Miami Vice”-style drama about two dashing and unscrupulous plastic surgeons in South Florida.”  In the pilot episode, as a facial reconstruction takes place, “Paint It Black” plays on.  Cover versions of the song have also been used in a number of other TV shows and films.  Writer Stephen King has used “Paint It Black”  in his Dark Tower series of novels; the song is heard by several characters as they pass the same music shop in New York at different time periods.  Janet Fitch’s 2006 novel Paint It Black is named after the song, and uses the first four lines from the lyrics as a quote preceding the first chapter.

 

Video Games

     The video game industry has also discovered “Paint It Black.”   The song is used in a number of games – either during game play or heard in the background.  Among games using the song are: Conflict: Vietnam, Twisted Metal: Black, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, and the Eve of Destruction modules for Battlefield 1942, Battlefield: Vietnam, and Battlefield 2.  “Paint It Black” is also used in one version of the karaoke game SingStar.  The song has also been used in some video game advertising.  A number of video game players have stated that their first experience with the song was hearing it on one of the games.  A parent named “Viki” from Liberty, Texas wrote SongFacts.com to share her view of the song as used on the Guitar Hero game:

“…I love hearing this song come out of my 12-yr-old kid’s room when he’s playing Guitar Hero 3.  He asked me if I’d ever heard of it.  I laughed so hard and told him I was raised on it!!  You can diss Guitar Hero all you want, but it’s introducing a whole new generation of kids to classic rock songs – which are WAY better than the crap they’re coming out with now!!”

“…Every kid these days knows ‘Paint It Black’ because it’s in Guitar Hero…”

      Another writer, responding in late October 2008 to a short story in the New York Times about some Beatles music being planned for a new interactive video game, raised concerns about which songs should be included in video games, noting the prominence of “Paint It Black”:

“…I’m a music teacher, and lately I’ve been finding that Guitar Hero and similar games actually help and inspire kids to learn to play real instruments – they don’t necessarily replace real instruments in kids’ minds.  My only concern is the extent to which Guitar Hero creates a rigid repertoire of songs that kids know – every kid these days knows “Paint It Black” because it’s in Guitar Hero, but it’s strictly a matter of opinion whether that’s a better Rolling Stones song than “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” or “Street Fighting Man,” which no kid knows or cares about.  Similarly, the producers of the new Beatles game need to take very seriously their responsibility of passing on the right songs to the next generation….” - I. Barry D’Paul

 

“Paint it Lost”

     In any case, “Paint It Black” has had a long and varied career since it was first launched in May of 1966.  In 2004, the song was ranked No. 174 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time.”  But sadly for the Rolling Stones, “Paint It Black” is one of the tunes they no longer control; losing rights to the song during their younger years.  In a legal settlement with an earlier manager named Allen Klein, the Stones relinquished their publishing rights, along with lucrative royalties, to this song and others.  In 1965, Klein, a New York manager also involved with other rock groups, had helped the Stones negotiate a new contract with Decca Records, then winning the group their first million-dollar payday.  But in the process, Allen Klein also helped himself.  His company, ABKCO, still retains the rights to the Stones’ early songs from the 1960s to 1971.  The Stones parted ways with Klein in 1970, and have long since become a much more sophisticated and business-  savvy rock ‘n roll group.  See, for example, “Stones Gather Dollars, 1989-2008.”

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Date Posted: 19 March 2009
Last Update: 19 March 2009
Comments to:  jdoyle@pophistorydig.com

Article Citation:
Jack Doyle, “Paint It Black, 1966-2000s,”
PopHistoryDig.com, March 19, 2009.

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Sources, Links & Additional Information

“Paint It Black,” Wikipedia.org.

“Paint It Black,” Song Facts.com.

Alessandra Stanley, Television Review, “Snipped, Implanted, But Short Of Perfect,” New York Times, July 22, 2003.

Richie Unterberger, “Paint It Black, Rolling Stones,” Song Review, All Music.com, as of February 2009.

I. Barry D’Paul, comment to the New York Times, October 30, 2008.

“Allen Klein,” Wikipedia.org.

Jack Doyle, “Stones Gather Dollars, 1989-2008,” The Pop History Dig.com.

“J. William Fullbright,” Wikipedia.org.

 

     Barbara Lewis was born in February 1943 in rural Salem, Michigan, about 15 miles from Ann Arbor, home of the University of Michigan.  Music was a part of her family life; both parents played musical instruments and had led orchestras.  She attended high school at Lyon, Michigan, where she was the only African-American student.  At one point there,  she had finished second in a school talent contest.  She had been writing music since the age of nine, and began recording in her teens.  She worked with record producer Ollie McLaughlin, a black disc jockey at Ann Arbor’s WHRB radio station, since renamed. 

     By 1962, she had cut a record, an upbeat song titled “My Heart Went Do Dat Da,” which became a local hit but did not chart nationally.  However, the song  convinced Ollie McLauglin that Lewis had potential.

     In January 1963, McLaughlin took Lewis to the Chess Studios in Chicago the day before they had  arranged a recording session.  There she watched Etta James cut a single, and came home a bit depressed, saying to her Mom, “I’ll never have a hit like that.”  But on the next day, for her own session, she brought a song she had written, “Hello Stranger.”  The lyrics came to her from traveling around town with her father.  “I would make the circuit with my dad and people would yell out: ‘Hey stranger, hello stranger, it’s been a long time’,”  Lewis recalled. “…But I know that second verse [in the song] makes it sound like lovers.”  And indeed, that’s the interpretation that sticks for most listeners —  a romantic, come-hither plea to a returning lover.

“Hello Stranger” Music Player Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

     The song’s arrangement uses a signature organ riff in the lead along with drums and cymbal as the vocals come in.  At the recording session, DJ Ollie McLaughlin managed to pull in as background singers a good popular group called the Dells.  The Dells have a memorable part backing Lewis with classic sounding “shoo-bop, shoo-bop, my baby” vocals.  Lewis had also written the background vocals.  In the recording session, Lewis was in a tiny booth with the five Dells and two microphones.  Riley Hampton did the arranging and John Young played the keyboards.  They did 13 takes before they were satisfied with the song.  At the end, one of Dells, Chuck Barksdale, became very excited about what they had recorded.  As Barbara Lewis later recounted: “Chuck kept jumping up and down and saying, ‘It’s a hit, it’s a hit.’ …I didn’t really know. It was all new to me.”

     And the song was a hit.  “Hello Stranger” broke into the Top 40 in May 1963 and rose to No. 3 that summer remaining in Top 40 for about 10 weeks.  It went to No. 1 on the R & B charts.  A debut album also titled Hello Stranger followed, with a dozen songs, all of which Lewis wrote.  It was unusual at the time – a time when professional song writers in New York’s Brill Building and elsewhere across the land were turning out songs for new groups – for the performer to also write the music.  Still, despite her talents, Lewis’s share of the rewards for her music was not what it should have been, especially in the early years.  When she began her career, she was naïve about the business side of her music, and executives got most of the money.  Some of her royalty checks were sent to fictitious persons.  At one point, Lewis was given a check for $500, with her handlers telling her it was the best they could do.

     Barbara Lewis soon found herself  in the work-a-day world, where she did everything from running her own jewelry store to working security.  But in her various jobs, she never touted her former fame to co-workers; nobody knew she had earlier been a popular recording artist.  “I never felt like a big star, anyway.  …I went back to Michigan and I never told a soul….” - Barbara Lewis “I never felt like a big star, anyway,” Lewis told former Minneapolis Star writer, Chuck Laszewski, in a 2008 interview for MinnPost.com.  “I went back to Michigan and I never told a soul.  I would hear it on the radio and it was disassociation.  It was another lifetime.  I was never sad about it.  I just went about my life.” 

     By 1993, however, Lewis began wondering if she could still sing and perform.  She made a few calls to old contacts and before long was once again playing on the nostalgia circuit.  As of mid-2008, she was still performing, explaining to Chuck Laszewski: “Last year, I worked an awful lot.  My voice is better than it ever was.  …I still sing the songs in their original key.  I’ve been very, very blessed.”

 

Long Coattails

     Over the years, Lewis’s songs, or the ones she initially recorded, have also found lots of willing users among other artists.  In fact, even in the 1960s and 1970s, her contemporaries were covering her songs.  In 1965, the same year that Lewis cut her second hit song, “Baby I’m Yours,” Peter & Gordon of the U.K. did the song for the British market, becoming a Top 20 singles hit there.  The following year, the U.K.’s Cilla Black recorded the song on her album Cilla Sings a Rainbow.  In 1969, Dusty Springfield did Lewis’s 1966 song, “Don’t Forget About Me.”  Country singer Jody Miller remade “Baby I’m Yours” in 1971 and released it as a single, reaching No. 5 on the Country Singles chart. Canada’s Suzanne Stevens hit with a 1975 disco version of “Make Me Your Baby.”  Back in the U.K., Linda Lewis had a top forty hit in 1976 with “Baby I’m Yours.”

     In 1977, “Hello Stranger” was recorded by U.S. singer Yvonne Elliman, which hit No. 15 on the pop chart and No.1 on the Adult Contemporary chart. It also hit the U.K. singles Top 30. Debby Boone’s 1978 version of “Baby I’m Yours” – a B-side to her “God Knows” song – peaked separately at No. 18 on the Adult Contemporary chart and No. 33 on the Country Singles chart. A range of artists — from Debby Boone to the Arctic Monkeys — have covered her songs. ”Baby I’m Yours” was also done by Tanya Tucker in 1983, and also made the Billboard country chart.  In 1990, U.S. singer Cher released her version of “Baby I’m Yours” as the first European single release from the soundtrack to the movie Mermaids. In 1995, “Baby I’m Yours” was featured on the soundtrack from the film The Bridges of Madison County.  Other artists who have recorded “Baby I’m Yours” include Petula Clark, The Paramounts, Billy Preston, and Maureen McGovern.  And last but not least, in 2006, the Arctic Monkeys released a cover of  the song in a collaborative effort with The 747s.  It was released as a B-side of the single, “Leave Before the Lights Come On,” which hit No. 4 on the U.K. Singles Chart.  There are also a range of other artists who have done Barbara Lewis tunes, as this is not a complete list.

“The Best of…”

     In July 1994, Rhino Records released a compilation of Lewis’s tunes, titled Hello Stranger: The Best of Barbara Lewis, a 20-tune compendium of her hits, basically tracking her career.  This album also includes Lewis’s endorsement on the back as well as extensive liner notes.  In one review of this album, Stephen Thomas Erlewine at All Music.com, says that Lewis’s work, along with Atlantic’s production, resulted in “an alluring body of work that still sounds seductive, yet comforting, years after their release.”  He calls The Best of…, “an excellent compilation.”  Other online reviewers, such as Dave Moore at Hitsville Soul Club.com, have gone through Lewis’s discography in detail, offering additional perspective on her music and its impact, including some of her lesser-known songs.

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Date Posted:  17 March 2009
Last Update:  1 March 2010
Comments to:  jdoyle@pophistorydig.com

Article Citation:
Jack Doyle, “Hello Stranger, 1963-1966,”
PopHistoryDig.com, Mach 17, 2009.

_____________________________

 

Sources, Links & Additional Information

“Barbara Lewis” and “Baby I’m Yours,” Wikipedia.com.

Richie Unterberger, Song Review, “Hello Stranger,” All Music.com.

Chuck Laszewski, “‘Hello Stranger’: Barbara Lewis In Town For ‘Taste’,” MinnPost.com, Monday, June 30, 2008.

Dave Moore, “Barbara Lewis: No Stranger To Soul,” Hitsville Soul Club.com, August 2005.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Hello Stranger: The Best of Barbara Lewis, Album review, All Music.com.

“Barbara Lewis,” African American Registry.com.

“Barbara Lewis Fan Club,” Squidoo.com.

 

     In the 1968 presidential race, Hollywood and celebrity involvement in politics reached a level not seen in several decades.  The participation of movie stars, singers, directors, authors, sports figures, and other celebrities in the election was more prominent among Democrats perhaps, but was also a factor on the Republican side.  Historically, Republicans were more suspicious of liberal-leaning Hollywood than Demo- crats.  And Hollywood itself, especially after the communist witch hunts of the late 1940s and 1950s, was leery of politics generally. 

     “People in Hollywood are generally afraid to be active in politics,” said actor Dick Powell in September 1960.  “This is especially true of some in television who believe that their sponsors would not want them to be identified with a political party.”  Another actor, Vincent Price, added in the same 1960 interview: “Here in Hollywood, actors are not supposed to have political opinions.”  But many did, of course.  Dick Powell, for example, was then, in September 1960, heading up a group of Hollywood Republicans supporting the Richard Nixon-Henry Cabot Lodge ticket then bidding for the White House.  But by the early 1960s, and in 1968 in particular, celebrity involvement in politics would become much more prominent.

     In fact, by the mid-1960s, Republican actors began running for, and winning, public office.  Actor/dancer George Murphy was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1964, and actor Ronald Reagan won the California Governor’s race in 1966.  Murphy was a film actor who danced with Shirley Temple in the 1938 film Little Miss Broadway and acted opposite Judy Garland in Little Nellie Kelly (1940).  Murphy became active in California politics in the 1950s and had served as director of entertainment for Dwight Eisenhower’s presidential inaugurations of 1953 and 1957.  By 1964, Murphy became a politician himself, winning a California U.S. Senate seat.

     Ronald Reagan had been movie actor in the 1930s and 1940s, appearing in variety of films, and also became a familiar 1950s TV host for the popular “General Electric Theater.”  Reagan’s second wife, Nancy, had also appeared in Hollywood films.  In addition to Reagan and Murphy winning office, one of Hollywood’s most notable childhood stars from the 1940s, Shirley Temple, ran for an open seat in Congress in 1967, but did not win.  Still, by the time of the 1968 presidential election, with Ronald Reagan as California’s governor and George Murphy in the U.S. Senate, Hollywood and its celebrities were clearly a presence in Republican politics.  But among the candidates for the Republican presidential nomination that year, was the very un-Hollywood former Vice-President, Richard M. Nixon.

 

Three to Tango ipod

Nixon’s Rise 

     Richard Nixon had grown up in the shadow of Hollywood, but was certainly not a Hollywood type himself or inclined toward its culture or lifestyle.  Still, throughout his political career, Nixon would find a measure of star power in his campaigns, with various celebrities and studio executives supporting him.  Yet in his early career, Nixon would probe Hollywood as a Congressman hunting communists, and in 1950 he would launch a Senate bid opposing former Hollywood actress, Helen Gahagan-Douglas.

     Nixon first made his way onto the national scene in 1946, elected as a Congressman from California.  In Washington he quickly made a career for himself in the late 1940s as a member of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), which pursued alleged communists in government and in Hollywood.  Although Nixon became known for his role in the Alger Hiss case  — a State Department official accused of being a Soviet spy – he also helped HUAC query Hollywood actors and executives suspected of communist activities or lacking in their loyalties.  In 1947 hearings, for example, he asked Jack Warner of Warner Brothers, “How many anti-communist movies have you made?” 

     In 1950, Nixon ran for a U.S. Senate seat from California, opposing Democrat Helen Gahagan Douglas.  Douglas was a 1920s Broadway actress who starred in the 1935 movie She.  Elected to Congress in 1944, Douglas served three terms in the U.S. House as a liberal New Dealer.  She was married to a former actor, Melvyn Douglas, later a Hollywood executive and also among “suspect  liberals.”  During Nixon’s Senate campaign with Gahagan-Douglas, he cited her alleged “Communist-leaning” votes in Congress.  On the campaign trail he called her “the Pink Lady” (”pinko” being short slang for communist), saying at one point she was “pink right down to her underwear.”  Nixon won the election, but many felt he had run a smear campaign against Douglas.

     As a young Congressman and then a Senator, Nixon rose quickly in the Republican party, becoming Dwight D. Eisenhower’s vice-presidential running mate in 1952 (though Nixon did have one brush with controversy that year nearly costing him his career; see “Nixon’s Checker’s Speech”).  The Eisenhower/ Nixon ticket, in any case,  won two successive terms  — 1952 and 1956.  But when Nixon ran for President in 1960, opposing John F. Kennedy, he lost.  Then in 1962, he tried to become California’s Governor and lost again, this time to Democrat Pat Brown.  In each of these elections, from the early 1950s, there was always some contingent of Hollywood – both actors and studios – supporting Nixon and/or the Eisenhower/Nixon ticket.  Nixon first met entertainer Bob Hope in the 1950s when Nixon was Vice President.   Hope would become a friend and supporter thereafter.  In 1960, when Nixon ran for the White House, Hollywood stars George Murphy and Helen Hayes formed a “Celebrities for Nixon Committee.”

     Another Hollywood supporter helping Nixon in 1960 was Mervyn LeRoy, a film director and producer.  In the 1930s LeRoy directed Edward G. Robinson in Little Caesar (1931) and as head of production at MGM in 1938, produced The Wizard of Oz.  Involved in advancing the careers of Clark Gable, Loretta Young, Robert Mitchum and Lana Turner, LeRoy also produced musicals in the 1950s and a series of hits for Warner Brothers such as Mister Roberts, The Bad Seed, No Time for Sergeants, The FBI Story and Gypsy.  In August 1960, LeRoy was heading up a drive in Hollywood to recruit others for Nixon.  In addition to LeRoy, George Murphy, and Helen Hayes, the 1960 Nixon/Lodge ticket also had other Hollywood backers, including: Jimmy Stewart, Gary Cooper, Rosalind Russell, Robert Montgomery, Robert Cummings, Robert Taylor, Irene Dunn, Cesar Romero and Mary Pickford.  Again in 1962, when Nixon ran for Governor of California,  he found a similar roster of Hollywood supporters – among them, Jimmy Stewart, Red Skelton, Rosalind Russell, Dick Powell, June Allyson, Robert Young, Tony Martin, Cyd Charisse, Irene Dunn, Johnny Mathis, Louise Beavers, and Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.

     But after Nixon lost badly to Pat Brown in the 1962 California Governor’s race – by nearly 300,000 votes – he charged that the media had showed favoritism to Brown.  Many pundits at the time thought Nixon was finished as a politician, especially since he declared the day after his loss: “You won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference.”  But several months later, Nixon appeared on The Jack Paar Program, (a talk show similar to that of today’s David Letterman or Jay Leno ) leaving the door open to his political future.

     And sure enough, by the mid-1960s, Richard Nixon was rising from the ashes of his prior losses, on his way to one of the biggest political comebacks in American history.  Nixon joined a New York law firm after his California gubernatorial defeat, and from there laid the groundwork for his return.  He campaigned vigorously for Republicans in the 1966 Congressional elections, providing a key base of indebted members.  Republicans added 47 House seats in that election, three in the Senate, and eight governorships.  Nixon was also traveling and advancing his ideas on national politics and international affairs among Republican insiders.  So it was no surprise to party regulars in January 1968, when he formally announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination.

 

Romney, Rocky & Reagan

• Imprint release

     Nixon’s initial challenger for the Republican nomination was Gov. George Romney of Michigan, father of Mitt Romney, the recent Republican presidential candidate of 2008.  George Romney was a successful business leader at the American Motors car company from 1954 to 1962, maker of one of the early compact cars named the Rambler.  He became Governor of Michigan from 1963 to 1969.  Romney formally entered the race for the Republican presidential nomination in late November 1967, saying, “A Republican president can work for a just peace in Vietnam unshackled by the mistakes of the past.”  Although Romney led Nixon among moderates in very early polls, he soon met with political misfortune.  Romney had initially supported the war in Vietnam, but later moderated his position after making a fact-finding visit there in 1965.  “I no longer believe that it was necessary for us to get involved in South Vietnam to stop Communist aggression in Southeast Asia,” he explained at one point, urging “a sound peace in South Vietnam at an early time.”  This was a sharp reversal from his earlier belief that the war was “morally right and necessary.”  However, in making his reversal on the war, Romney explained during one interview of being misled by military officials, using the term “brainwashed,” which would turn out to be an unfortunate choice of words that eventually undid his presidential bid.  By February 1968, less than two weeks before the New Hampshire primary, Romney pulled out of the race.

     Nelson Rockefeller, governor of New York, became the heir apparent to moderate and anti-war Republicans after Romney went down.  A descendant of the Rockefeller oil fortune, Rockefeller had been New York’s governor since 1959.  He had also run for the Republican presidential nomination twice before – once in 1960 losing to Nixon, and agin in 1964 losing to conservative Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater. 

     In the first primary of 1968 – New Hampshire on March 12th, now without Romney – Nixon took 78 percent of the vote.  Republicans wrote in the name of then yet-to-announce Rockefeller, who received 11 percent of the vote.  Rockefeller became something of a reluctant candidate, but allowed party members and others to work on his behalf.  And eventually, Rockefeller did get into campaign mode, putting forward a plan to disengage from Vietnam and also offering some novel Republican strategies to address urban problems.  But throughout the 1968 primary season, Nixon generally led Rockefeller in the polls, although Rockefeller won the April 30th Massachusetts primary.

     The other Republican candidate then on the horizon, and a potential problem for Nixon, was filmstar-turned-politician Ronald Reagan.  Even before he became California’s Governor in 1966, Reagan had begun to attract a national following, especially among conservatives.  He had given an important, televised speech supporting Barry Goldwater for President in 1964 which had marked him as a rising star. 

     By 1968, with support from conservatives, Reagan emerged as Nixon’s chief rival in the Nebraska presidential primary of May 14th.  Still, Nixon took 70 percent of the vote there to 21 percent for Reagan, and 5 percent for Rockefeller.  Nixon continued to win the primaries, with the exception of California, which he conceded to Reagan — a primary in which only Reagan’s name appeared on the ballot. 

     Reagan’s large margin in California, however, gave him a narrow lead in the nationwide primary popular vote – Reagan had 1,696,632 votes or 37.93% compared to Nixon’s 1,679,443 votes or 37.54%.  Some believe that if Reagan had made a committed run for the nomination, and had mounted a serious campaign earlier, he could have beat Nixon.  Still, by the time the Republican National Convention assembled in August 1968, Nixon had 656 delegates, needing only 11 more to reach the nomination at 667.

 

Celebrities for Nixon

      Ronald Reagan, of course, was Hollywood personified, and with wife Nancy Davis who had also been an actress, they were well-connected throughout Hollywood.  But Richard Nixon had his own Hollywood connections, reaching back to the older network of stars who had supported his earlier campaigns.  Nixon’s Hollywood stars, however, were somewhat older than those on the Democratic side in 1968. Nixon’s group included stars who had reached their peak in earlier years, such as Ray Bolger and Rudy Vallee, for example – but stars, nonetheless, who still had a following.  “I have been making speeches for the Republicans, trying to create more party unity,” explained Ray Bolger to a reporter in April 1968.  “They sought me out, but I happen to be very fond of Dick [Nixon] and think he’s very able.  I’ve played golf with him.”  Rudy Vallee was also quoted at the time saying that Nixon was “the most qualified man in this country, intellectually and emotionally.”  Nixon’s campaign would also recruit other TV entertainers, athletes, and singers to help in his 1968 presidential bid.  Among these stars, for example, were: Pat Boone, Connie Francis, Jackie Gleason, Hugh O’Brian, Ginger Rogers, and last but not least, John Wayne.

     Wayne had backed Nixon over Kennedy in the 1960 presidential race, and in 1968 he was backing Nixon again.  Wayne liked Nixon for his anti-communist stance.  A supporter of the Vietnam War, Wayne was a critic of Lyndon Johnson’s handling of the War.  Wayne had made a popular war movie at the time that used Vietnam – a very patriotic film called The Green Berets (June-July 1968).  The film had a premier in Atlanta, Georgia on June 25, 1968, which coincided with that city’s “Salute To America” celebration.  Wayne served as grand marshal in the parade, and the overall event attracted some 300,000 people.  The Green Berets film, meanwhile, was cheered in the south, but protested in northern cities and university towns.  Nixon’s campaign staff had noted Wayne’s appeal to blue collar voters and a certain segment of the white southern vote.  One of Nixon’s campaign aides at the time, Kevin Philips, explained Wayne’s appeal to a segment of voters Nixon needed: “Wayne might sound bad to people in New York,” he said, “but he sounds great to the schmucks we’re trying to reach through John Wayne — the people down there along the Yahoo Belt.  If I had time I’d check to see in what areas The Green Berets was held over [in theaters], and I’d play a special series of John Wayne [Nixon campaign] spots wherever it was.”  Wayne was also scheduled to speak at the Republican Convention in Miami that August.

     Among other Nixon supporters were famous athletes, including, former heavyweight boxing champ Joe Louis, Los Angeles Lakers basketball star Wilt Chamberlain, and Green Bay Packer quarterback Bart Starr.  Joe Louis was long retired from the boxing ring by then, but his name was still well known to sports enthusiasts.  Bart Starr was probably the most famous professional football player in the country at the time.  He had led the Packers to NFL Championships in 1961, 1962, 1965, 1966, and 1967.  In 1966 and 1967, he also led the Packers to convincing victories in the first two Super Bowls and was named the Most Valuable Player of both games.  Pro basketball player Wilt Chamberlain  — the LeBron James and Shaqueal O’Neill of his day – was nearly ten years into his career by then, and had played for the Harlem Globetrotters, the Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors, and Philadelphia 76ers.  He would help Nixon reach out to the black community and tout Nixon’s ideas on “black capitalism.”

     Another Nixon sup- porter in 1968 was Tex Ritter, a singing cowboy who began a radio career in the late 1920s, and also had success with stints in radio, film, Broadway, and recording.  Ritter, father of the late actor John Ritter, was also known for singing the famous High Noon film song of 1952, “Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darlin.”  It won an Academy award for Best Song of the year and also became a popular hit.  Ritter sang the High Noon song at the Academy Awards ceremony in 1953, the first to be televised.  By 1968, Ritter had also become quite active in Republican politics, supporting the runs of various candidates including, John Tower of Texas, Howard Baker of Tennessee, George Murphy of California, Barry Goldwater of Arizona, and Ronald Reagan in California.  A personal friend of Nixon’s, Ritter also wrote a campaign song for Nixon in 1968.  On one occasion when Ritter was on tour in Germany, Nixon arranged for a plane to meet Ritter and his wife so that Ritter could entertain a political gathering being held for Nixon in Nashville, Tennessee where nearly 25,000 supporters were gathered.  Nixon would also garner the support from Roy Ackuff of the Grand Ole Oprey.

 

Miami Convention

     On August 5, 1968 at the opening of Republican National Convention, Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami Beach, Florida, there were mini-skirted Rockefeller girls, Nixon men on stilts costumed as Uncle Sam, and live elephants out in the street.  Celebrities such as Hugh O’Brien and John Wayne were on hand too.  On the first morning of the convention, delegates cheered enthusiastically as John Wayne spoke.  Nelson Rockefeller, technically still in the running at that point, had his celebrities, too – among them, Kitty Carlisle, Teresa Wright, Nancy Ames, Hildegarde, and singer Billy Daniels.  On the evening of August 7th, 1968, an estimated guest list of some 8,000 were wined and dined at a Nelson Rockefeller reception.  Lionel Hampton’s band provided music, and among the guests were hundreds of celebrities.

     During the main business of the convention, however, Nixon was nominated on the first ballot with 692 votes.  Rockefeller was second at 277, and Reagan third at 182.  For vice president, House Minority Leader Gerald Ford proposed New York City Mayor John Lindsay.  However, Nixon turned to Maryland Governor Spiro Agnew as his running mate.  After Nixon received the nomination, celebrities who had lined up for the other candidates shifted their support to Nixon.  By September 1968, “Celebrities for Nixon-Agnew,” had more than 100 famous names on its roster, among them, Rory Calhoun, Ray Milland, Art Linkletter, Guy Lombardo, and Connie Francis.  Three weeks later, the Democrats convened their national convention in Chicago, nominating Vice President Hubert Humphrey and U.S. Senator Ed Muskie from Maine (see companion piece on the Democrats).

     The Democrats’ gathering in Chicago had been quite messy and divisive, with fighting over the Vietnam War and clashes in the streets between police and demonstrators, all televised to a national audience.  Nixon and his campaign capitalized on the Democrats’ misfortune by staging a massive campaign appearance in Chicago that fall, with Nixon’s “law and order” speeches blending imagery of the Democrat’s convention violence along with the general unrest in the country that year.  This “law and order” theme, coupled with his courting of the “law-abiding” middle class, was used heavily in political campaign ads that fall.

     In May 1968, Nixon had given a radio speech that focused on the “silent center” of American voters — “the millions of people in the middle spectrum who do not demonstrate, who do not picket or protest loudly” – but were at the heart of America.  Nixon courted this constituency and refined his message in the fall calling these Americans the “silent majority”.  The core of the idea, according to Nixon speechwriters, was found in a 1948 book by historian Arthur Schlessinger, Jr., called The Vital Center.  But Nixon made it his own during the campaign, hitting the theme time and time again, at the convention and throughout the fall of 1968.  Nixon claimed to speak for this majority of law-abiding citizens; citizens who felt in 1968 they were being blamed for the social problems of the day; citizens the liberals “talked down to.”  Amidst the growing social upheaval, Nixon appealed to these voters, promising a return to the stability of the Eisenhower years.

 

The Celebrity Preacher

     Another prominent American who had the ear of the middle America, and was also a supporter of Richard Nixon in 1968, was evangelist Billy Graham.  Graham was a very popular religious leader with a huge following.  A long-time friend of Nixon’s, Graham had prominently supported Nixon over Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election.  In the 1950s, he had also supported Eisenhower.  When Nixon was Vice President, Graham arranged for Nixon to address major gatherings of Methodists, Presbyterians, among others, and wrote at least one speech for him, according to Garry Wills.Billy Graham’s huge popu- larity in the south was  seen as especially helpful to Nixon’s “Southern strategy.”  “Graham worked closely with Nixon in the 1968 campaign, advised him on relations with the Evangelical community, and vouched for him in that community,” explains Wills in his book Head and Heart: American Christianities.  Graham’s huge popularity in the south, in particular, was regarded as especially helpful to Nixon’s “Southern strategy” in 1968, a bid to appeal to conservative white Democrats in southern states, many still fearful of racial desegregation.  Although Graham had desegregated his own religious activities in the South during the 1950s, he denounced civil rights agitators in the 1960s.  His endorsement of “law and order” fit nicely with Nixon’s plan to attract Southern whites to the Republican side by denouncing liberal activists.

     Graham also rose publicly to Nixon’s defense during the fall election campaign after Humphrey supporter George W. Ball, a former ambassador to the Unite Nations, had made a negative comment about Nixon’s character.  “Mr Ball reflected on Mr. Nixon’s character and personal integrity,” said Graham to reporters in September 1968.  “I have known Richard Nixon intimately for more than 20 years.  I can testify that he is a man of high moral principle.”  Ball had said he thought Nixon a man “more interested in public opinion polls that principles.”  Ball said he found “no pattern in Mr. Nixon’s life.  He is a man who is one thing one day, and another the next”.  Billy Graham was also advising Nixon when he chose Spiro Agnew as his vice president at the Republican convention, although Graham had favored Sen. Mark Hatfield of Oregon, an active Christian.  At one of his crusade services in Pittsburgh shortly before the 1968 election, Graham accorded Nixon a place of prominence and praised Nixon “effusively,” according to author Michael G. Long in his book, The Legacy of Billy Graham.

 

Connie & Jackie

     Nixon also enlisted singing artists and television personalities to offer public endorsements or do campaign ads.  In September 1968, the Nixon campaign made a TV commercial with singer and movie actress Connie Francis.  Francis was then a popular singer and had a large following.  Among her hit songs in the 1950s and early 1960s were: “Who’s Sorry Now”(#4, 1958), “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool”(#1, 1960), “Don’t Break the Heart That Loves You”(#1 1962), and others.  She had also appeared in few films, such as Where The Boys Are and Follow The Boys (1963).  In the late 1960s, Francis had a number of albums on the market and was also appearing on TV shows and performed for audiences abroad as well.  In her appearance in the Nixon campaign ad, Francis commented on finding disrespect for America in her travels abroad, while also noting a deplorable lack of respect for authority at home.  In the ad, Francis said Nixon would set things right if elected president.  The spot ran during the popular Laugh-In TV show.  New York Times writer Jack Gould, reviewing the Connie Francis ad, said it “embraced all the ills of the oversimplified campaign ad…”

     In the fall of 1968, Jackie Gleason, the TV entertainer and film actor – making his first endorsement in national politics – threw his support to Richard Nixon.  Gleason was the star of The Jackie Gleason Show and The Honeymooners, both of which were popular TV shows of the 1950s and early 1960s.  Gleason had also made a few movies by then, including The Hustler of 1961, in which he played opposite Paul Newman as pool shark Minnesota Fats. ( Newman had supported Democrat Eugene McCarthy).  Gleason in 1968 was still a popular celebrity and had a following throughout the country. 

     In the fall campaign, Gleason kicked off a one-hour long televised rally for Nixon from New York’s Madison Square Garden on October 31, 1968.  He introduced the hour with his personal endorsement of Nixon, stating on the tape it was his first ever political endorsement as he made his appeal to voters. 

     On the tape, after a narrator introduces Gleason – who is dressed in a dapper suit with a carnation in his lapel – he makes his pitch:

     “I love this country.  It’s been good to me – beyond my wildest dreams.  And because I love America so much, lately I’ve been concerned.  Like a lot of you, I’m concerned about where American is going in the next four years.  That’s why I’ve decided to speak up for Richard Nixon.  He sees it like it is.  And he tells it like its is.  I’ve never made a public choice like this before.  But I think our country needs Dick Nixon –  and we need him now.  I think we’ll all feel a lot safer with him in the White House.
     In the next hour, you’re going to see him, hear him speak.  Listen to him.  Make up your own mind.  Never mind what everybody else tells you he says.  Listen to him say it, yourself.  And see if you don’t agree with me.  Dick Nixon’s time has come.  We need him.  You and I need him.  America needs him.  The world needs him.  …And so Madison Square Garden, ‘a-wa-a-a-y we go!’.”

• Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat

     Following the election, Nixon and Gleason would continue to have contact with one another, particularly in Florida.  Gleason lived in Florida and Nixon had a compound on Biscayne Bay only miles away, where he would vacation during his presidency.  In addition, both were avid golfers, and Gleason would have Nixon as a guest at some of his later celebrity and charity golf tournaments.  During his Presidential years, Nixon would also play golf with Hollywood celebrities from time to time.

T.V. Strategy

     Back on the 1968 campaign trail, meanwhile, Nixon and his handlers were careful in how they used television.  Although Nixon disliked the press, and he had fared poorly in his televised debates with John F. Kennedy in 1960, his 1968 campaign made great creative use of television in political advertising.  In addition to celebrities such as Connie Francis and Jackie Gleason pitching for Nixon, there were also some well known and up-and-coming politicians who made political spots supporting Nixon.  Former actor and California governor Ronald Reagan made a Nixon TV ad urging voters not to vote for the third-party candidate (i.e., George Wallace), calling it a “wasted vote.”  Hollywood’s U.S. Senator George Murphy of California also urged voters in a TV ad to elect Nixon, stressing Nixon’s qualifications in world affairs.  And a Congressman named George Bush (i.e., George Bush senior) made a TV ad for Nixon focused on youth and Nixon’s “new answers for the 70s” — stressing Nixon’s “confidence in kids.”  Law and order and crime were also themes in Nixon’s TV ads.  Some played on fear, as in one showing a woman walking down a poorly lighted street while the narrator spoke of a rising crime rate, violence, and assault, and the  need to make streets safe.  Using the “law and order”theme, the campaign also turned out ads that tried to associate Nixon’s opponent, Hubert Humphrey, with social protest, rising crime, and violence in the streets.  One ad showed a smiling Humphrey as images of Vietnam, protests, and the out-of-control Democratic convention rolled by to a Dixieland rendition of “A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight.”  The spot ran once in prime time but was pulled after Democratic protest.  Nixon meanwhile, mindful of how television hurt him in 1960, refused to debate Humphrey directly and held few press conferences during his campaign.  But he did appear in a series of hour-long TV programs and biographical profiles – programs produced by media consultant Roger Ailes, then in one of his first political jobs (Ailes is today the president of Fox News Channel).  In these controlled settings, Nixon was interviewed by panels of carefully-selected citizens.  He occasionally faced tough questions, but the discussions took place in front of partisan audiences from which the press was excluded.

 

“Sock it To Me”

     Nixon did, however, make one notable TV appearance in the 1968 election; an appearance on one of the more popular TV shows of that day – Laugh-In.  Formally known as Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In, the comedy and variety show was something like the Saturday Night Live of its day, though more of a fad show.  But it was quite popular among the young.  It offered witty skits and political barbs, and made stars of Goldie Hawn and Lily Tomlin.  But most importantly for advertisers and politicians, Laugh-In had a very good rating, with millions watching.  In mid-September 1968, Nixon broke from his general election campaign to appear on the show and recite the show’s signature catchphrase, “sock it to me,” often done by noted celebrities. Some believe that Nixon’s ‘sock-it-to-me’ appearance on Laugh-In helped him win the election, as it cast the otherwise formal and stodgy Nixon in a few seconds of self-deprecat- ing humor. Nixon’s taped appearance ran on September 16, 1968.  Nixon himself had been reluctant to do the spot, not being a big fan of TV to begin with.  And most of his aides were not very keen on the idea either, and advised against it.  But one of the show’s writers, Paul Keyes, was a friend of Nixon’s, and when Nixon was out in California for a press conference they took a camera and got him aside to do the phrase.  But it wasn’t easy. It took several takes.  Nixon kept saying the phrase in an angry tone.  Finally, Nixon did the line as a question, “Sock it to me?, with emphasis and uptick on the “me.”  That was the version used, and the producer thought it made Nixon look good – so good, in fact, they thought Hubert Humphrey should appear on the show in an equal role.  For Humphrey, they were thinking of using a variation of the phrase – “I’ll sock it to you, Dick” – as if responding to Nixon.  But Humphrey’s handlers thought it would appear undignified, so Humphrey did not appear.  Happily for Nixon, his Laugh-In appearance may have helped him in the election.  Some believe that the brief clip had cast the otherwise formal and stodgy Nixon in a few seconds of self-deprecating humor.  Even Humphrey would later tell the show’s producer that not making the appearance on Laugh-In  might have cost him votes in the election.  Nixon would also make an appearance with Laugh-In’s Dan Rowan and Dick Martin at a campaign stop in Burbank, California in October 1968 (see photo at beginning of story above).

 

Nixon Wins

     On election day that November, in one of the closest elections in U.S. history, Nixon beat Humphrey by a slim margin.  Although Nixon took 302 electoral votes to Humphrey’s 191, the popular vote was extremely close: Nixon at 31,375,000 to 31,125,000 for Humphrey, or 43.4 percent to 43.1 percent.  Third party candidate George Wallace was a key factor in the race, taking more votes from Humphrey than Nixon, hurting Humphrey especially in the south and with union and working class voters in the north. Wallace recorded 9.9 million votes, or 13.5 percent of the popular vote, winning five southern states and taking 45 electoral votes.  Democrats retained control of the House and Senate, but the country was now headed in a more conservative direction.

     In his victory, Nixon brought some of his famous friends along with him to celebrate at the inaugural festivities.  And beyond that, a few also made it into the realm of policy and received formal appointments.  Shirley Temple Black was appointed by Nixon to be U. S. Representative to the United Nations.  Other of Nixon’s famous friends became informal advisors and helped set a new cultural and even moral tone in the country. 

     In June 1969, Esquire magazine poked fun at the new “Nixon style” in Washington with a cover story depicting Nixon supporters Lawrence Welk, Rudy Vallee, Billy Graham, and Art Linkletter along with Nixon himself for the story, “Getting Hep to the Nixon Style.”

     Nixon would subsequently win re-election in November 1972, crushing Democrat George McGovern. But the Watergate scandal – which began as a back-pages, police-blotter news story about a bungled break-in at the Democrat’s Washington, D.C. headquarters – was already in motion.  Watergate would soon unravel to become a full-fledged national scandal that would shake the federal government to its core, bringing Nixon to impeachment and then resignation as President in August 1974.  Meanwhile, back in California where Nixon’s career had begun, there were those who remembered the 1940s and 1950s, and proudly sported a popular bumper sticker during the Watergate years that read: “Don’t Blame Me, I Voted for Helen Gahagan-Douglas!”

(Note: See also companion piece on the Democrats in 1968 ).

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Date Posted: 11 March 2009
Last Update: 11 March 2009
Comments to: jdoyle@pophistorydig.com

Article Citation:
Jack Doyle, “1968 Presidential Race, Republicans,”
PopHistoryDig.com, March 11,2009.

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Sources, Links & Additional Information Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon video

Murray Schumach, “Producer Plans Drive for Nixon; Mervyn LeRoy, Heading the G.O.P. Hollywood Push,”New York Times, Tuesday, August 23, 1960, p. 26.

Murray Schumach, “Hollywood Slate; Luminaries Come to the Aid of Their Parties in the Presidential Race,” New York Times, Sunday September 25, 1960, p. X-9.

Murray Schumach, “Hollywood Joins Political Battle; Stars Jump on Bandwagons in Brown-Nixon Contest,” New York Times, Monday, September 17, 1962, p. 37.

“The Brainwashed Candidate,” Time, Friday, September 15, 1967.

Chris Bachelder, “Crashing The Party: The Ill-Fated 1968 Presidential Campaign of Governor George Romney,” Michigan Historical Review, September 22, 2007.

Warren Weaver, “M’Carthy Gets About 40%, Johnson and Nixon on Top in New Hampshire Voting; Rockefeller Lags,” The New York Times, Wednesday, March 13, 1968, p. 1.

Louis Calta, “Entertainers Join Cast of Political Hopefuls; They Get Into Act to Back 3 Candidates for the Presidency,” New York Times, Saturday, April 6, 1968, p. 42.

Associated Press, “Celebrities Endorse Candidates,” Daily Collegian (State College, PA), May 5, 1968.

“NFL Quarterbacks Head Busy Day for Athletes,” The Washington Post, Times-Herald, May 23, 1968, p. C-9.

“Wilt Chamberlain for Nixon,” New York Times, Saturday, June 29, 1968, p. 30.

Tom Wicker, “Nixon Is Nominated on the First Ballot,” New York Times, Thursday, August 8, 1968, p. 1.

“Wilt Chamberlain Will Push ‘Black Capitalism’ Program,” New York Times, Thursday, August 8, 1968, p. 30.

Robert J. Donovan, “GOP Names Nixon on First Ballot,” Los Angeles Times, August 8, 1968, p. 1.

Don Irwin, “Nixon Comeback Had Its Start in Ashes of 1964 GOP Debate, Los Angeles Times, August 8, 1968, p. 1.

“Chamberlain to Aid Nixon’s Slum Program,” Los Angeles Times, August 8, 1968, p.10.

“Nixon Image Defended; Billy Graham Blasts Ball,” St. Petersburg Times, Monday, September 30, 1968, p. 10-A

UPI, “Billy Graham Says Nixon Is Not ‘Tricky’,” The Washington Post, October 1, 1968, p. A-4.

“Nixon Gets Quasi-Psychedelic Plug,” New York Times, Wednesday, October 9, 1968, p. 33.

Thomas J. Foley, “Politicians Take Cue From Show Business; Nixon, Humphrey Both Use Panel Shows, Documentaries in Biggest TV Campaign, Los Angeles Times, October 6, 1968, p. A-16.

For 1968 campaign ads, see Museum of the Moving Image, “The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials: 1968.”

Gary A. Yoggy (ed.), Back in the Saddle: Essays on Western Film and Television Actors, 1998, McFarland & Company, Inc., 1998, 224pp.

Norman Mailer, Miami and the Siege of Chicago, Weidenfeld and Nicolson,1968.

Garry Wills, Head and Heart: American Christianities, New York: Penguin Group, 2007.

Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy, Billy Graham: The Preacher and the Presidents: Billy Graham in the White House, Center Street, 2007.

Seth Dowland, “Judgment Days: Two New Books Find Good and Evil in the Rev. Billy Graham’s Presidential Politics,” Mountain Express, Vol. 14 / Issus 11, October10, 2007.

Cecil Bothwell, The Prince of War, Brave Ulysses Books, 2007.

Ann Heppermann & Kara Oehler, “This Weekend in 1968: Political Plays to the Silent Center,” American Public Radio, May 17, 2008.

“The Presidents Series: Richard M. Nixon,” American Experience, PBS/WGBH, 2002-2003.

 

     “I Won’t Back Down” is the first single from Tom Petty’s first solo album, Full Moon Fever, released in 1989.  The song was written by Petty and his writing partner at the time, Jeff Lynne.  It reached No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100  single’s chart.  It also appeared on Billboard’s mainstream and modern tracks charts, which rank radio play.  The song’s popularity helped send Full Moon Fever  to the multi-million-selling sales club.  By October 2000, the album had sold more than five million copies.

A Fighter’s Song

     “I Won’t Back Down” says it all in its title; it’s a fighter’s message;  he’s standing his ground and he won’t back down.  The lyrics — shown below in sources — suggest a struggle against the odds, whatever they might be; and a determined stand against the powers that be, whoever they are.  And Petty’s defiant tone in the performance provides just the right touch of attitude.

“I Won’t Back Down”   Music Player Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

     The song reaches anyone who has been wronged, as well as those who might be out to prove a point.  It has a kind of universal and personal appeal.  Plus, it’s good rock ‘n roll.  It’s also a perfect song for a political campaign.  And not surprisingly, more than a few politicians – Republicans, Democrats, and Independents – have all used it.

The Politics of Song

     Politicians, especially in recent years, have begun scouring the pop, country, rap and hip hop music charts for tunes that strike a chord with their would-be supporters.  They “borrow” these tunes and use them as theme music during their campaigns, playing them before speeches and at rally locations on the campaign trail.  Sometimes, however, they don’t bother asking the artist’s permission to use the songs, or acquire all the requisite legal blessings.  Such “oversight” can sometimes lead to embarrassing situations – for both candidate and artist.

     Happily, for most of those using Tom Petty’s song in various campaigns over the last decade or so, there have only been only one or two of those awkward situations.  Notably in this category, however, was the year 2000 presidential campaign of then Texas Governor W. Bush.  Bush had used “I Won’t Back Down” at campaign events during the 2000 race, becoming practically “a fixture” at those events, according to one report.  Tom Petty wasn’t happy about that. In early 2000, Tom Petty’s publisher sent George Bush a “cease and desist” letter to stop his campaign from using the song. So, he had his publisher send Bush a “cease and desist” letter.  That meant Bush was compelled to stop using the song at his campaign events.  Petty did not want the use of his song to be construed as an endorsement of candidate Bush.

     Petty’s publisher, Randall Wixen of Wixen Music Publishing Inc., wrote to Bush in early February 2000 telling him to “immediately cease and desist all uses of the song in connection with your campaign.”  Wixen said in his letter to Bush that the use of the song “creates, either intentionally or unintentionally, the impression that you and your campaign have been endorsed by Tom Petty, which is not true.” 

     About a week later, Michael Toner, a lawyer for Bush’s campaign, wrote back to Wixen, saying:  “We do not agree that the mere playing or use of a particular song at a campaign event connotes any impression, either intentionally or unintentionally, of endorsement.”  Nevertheless, Toner confirmed that the Bush campaign would not use the song at any future campaign events.  “So we backed down,” said Bush spokesman Dan Bartlett, jokingly, to reporter Jake Tapper, then covering the issue for Salon.com.

 

Dems Like Tune

     On the Democratic side of the aisle, a number of candidates – “fighters” all  — had used Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” in their political campaigns.  Virginia Democrat Jim Webb, a Vietnam Vet and former Secretary of the Navy who mounted a pugnacious, reform-minded run to win a U.S. Senate seat in 2006, used the Petty song in his campaign.  On November 3rd, 2006, right before the election, Webb’s campaign staged a lively outdoor rally with prominent Democrats at Virginia Union University in Richmond.  At that rally, Webb took to the stage to the beat of Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down.”  Webb won the race over  Republican incumbent George Allen.

     Another U.S. Senator in 2006, Democrat Robert Menendez of New Jersey, during his re-election bid, made “I Wont’ Back Down” his campaign’s theme song.  It could be heard playing on sound systems from schools to senior centers all across the state.  It was played wherever Menendez appeared, usually as he entered the room or took the stage.  In some cases, the song was played live by a local band rather than the pre-recorded Tom Petty version.

     In West Deptford, NJ that fall, a local group of senior musicians called The Entertainers was used – four guys that had been playing local gigs for seven years.  When the Menendez campaign told the band the Petty song was the song they would be using, the band leader had never heard of it.  He then ran out and bought the CD, found the lyrics online, and had The Entertainers rehearse it briefly before Menendez’s appearance.  Later that same day, as Menendez was joined by former President Bill Clinton at Essex County College in Newark, the Tom Petty version was back on the sound system.  Menendez was 52 at the time of his re-election bid.  He was being challenged by Republican  Thomas Keane, Jr., a state senator and son of former governor and 9-11 Commission member Thomas Keane.  Menendez, the son of Cuban immigrants, had previously served as a school board member, mayor and state legislator before being elected to Congress in 1992.  In January 2006, he was appointed by New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine to fill the Senate seat vacated by Corzine to serve as Governor.  Menendez then won the seat in the general election that fall, becoming New Jersey’s first elected Hispanic senator.  In 2006, he prevailed over Keane and was re-elected to a second term.  Tom Petty’s tune, no doubt, played at his victory party.

 

Some “Backing Down”

     Sometimes, however, the political candidates using a particular song come to bad end – certainly, no fault of the song’s artist.  In two cases where the Petty song was used prominently in campaigns there came a bit of irony, as the candidates in these instances – both fighters in the populist mold – would unfortunately, “back down.”  One was the promising New York Democrat and progressive, Eliot Spitzer, who had used “I Won’t Back Down” in launching his gubernatorial bid and throughout his campaign.  The song had played prominently in Buffalo as Spitzer launched his bid, and it was frequently heard on the campaign trail as well.

Other Venues      “I Won’t Back Down” has also been heard in other prominent venues, some political. After Al Gore conceded the 2000 presidential election to George Bush, Tom Petty and other musicians attended a gathering of supporters at Gore’s Vice Presidential home in Washington. Petty performed the song for Gore and his supporters at the gathering.      Petty also played the song as part of the September 21, 2001 benefit telethon for the victims of the 9-11 terrorist attacks. Nearly 60 million people in the U.S. watched that televised special, which included celebrities such as Julia Roberts, Tom Hanks, Bruce Springsteen, and Tom Cruise. The song became a bit of a patriotic anthem after the 9-11 attacks. “I Won’t Back Down” was also one of four songs Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers performed during the 2008 Super Bowl halftime show.

Spitzer, as New York  Attorney General, had  come on like gangbusters, taking on the powerful at every turn, even on Wall Street.  And if ever there was a guy who wasn’t going to “back down,” it was Spitzer through and through, with his sights set on Washington and bigger things ahead.  But alas, it was Spitzer’s personal peccadilloes and call-girl revelations that brought the later-elected New York Governor down.

     A somewhat similar case was that of the formerly, much-admired Democratic Presidential candidate John Edwards, who also cultivated the image of a fighter.  Edwards speeches were filled with references to fighting corporations and American revolutionaries, often urging his listeners to rise up against special interests.  Through 2007 and 2008, Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” could be heard in a repertoire of Edwards campaign songs that fit his themes and underlined his message.  In gearing up for the New Hampshire primary in August 2007, for example, Edwards spoke in the town of Hookset.  After the event, the campaign played “I Won’t Back Down” as Edwards shook hands of supporters on the way to boarding his “Fighting for One America” campaign bus.  However, many months later, after the primaries had ended, Edwards’ revelations about a campaign relationship outside of his marriage helped take him out of the national political arena.

Basic divx  

“Defiance” Music?

Three to Tango divx

     Then comes Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton during her hard-fought 2007-08 Democratic presidential primary campaign.  In late April 2008, after she had won the Pennsylvania primary, but was nevertheless being urged to drop out of the race given an uphill delegate climb, she emerged at her victory party to Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down.”  And again in June, after a Hillary speech in New York that was not a formal concession speech, “I Won’t Back Down” was piped out over the sound system.  Was the candidate sending out a little message of defiance here? Certainly it appeared that way to a few reporters.  Nothing wrong with that, however.  At least she kept them guessing for a time.

     Political candidates come and go, of course, but the music lives on to play in many other battles. Doubtless, Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” will be heard in other campaigns to come.  And that’s not a bad thing, as we need all the fighters we can get  — or at the very least, those who want to try.  So let the music play that brings forth the battlers and revs up the troops!

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     Stay tuned to this site for future stories on the mixing of music and politics.

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Date Posted:    7 March 2009
Last Update:   16 October 2009
Comments to:  jdoyle@pophistorydig.com

Article Citation:
Jack Doyle, “I Won’t Back Down, 1989-2008,”
PopHistoryDig.com, March 7, 2009.

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Sources, Links & Additional Information

Frank Bruni, “The 2000 Campaign: Campaign Notebook; A Wistful Bush Reflects On Hearth and Home,” New York Times, Friday, January 28, 2000.

Randall D. Wixen, Wixen Music Publishing, Inc., Calabasas, CA, Letter to Governor George W. Bush, Austin, TX, Re: Tom Petty/”I Won’t Back Down”, February 4, 2000.

Michael E. Toner, General Counsel, George W. Bush for President, Austin, TX, Letter to Randall D. Wixen, Wixen Music Publishing, Inc., Calabasas, CA, Re: Tom Petty/”I Won’t Back Down”, February 11, 2000.

Jake Tapper, “Don’t Do Me Like That: Tom Petty Tells George W. Bush to ‘Back Down’ From Using one of Petty’s Songs at his Events,” Salon.com, September 16, 2000.

Patrick Healy, “Democracy in Action,” New York Times, May 30, 2006.

Andrea Bernstein, “Spitzer Bus Tour Is Unofficial Campaign Kick-Off,” WNYC.org, Radio & print report, June 3, 2006.

David W. Chen, with reporting by Jonathan Miller & Nate Schweber, “As Expected, New Jersey Primaries Create Senate Race Between Kean and Menendez,” New York Times, June 7, 2006.

“I Won’t Back Down” Tom Petty & Jeff Lynne Well I won’t back down, no I won’t back down You can stand me up at the gates of hell But I won’t back down Gonna stand my ground, won’t be turned around And I’ll keep this world from draggin’ me down Gonna stand my ground, and I won’t back down Chorus: Hey baby, there ain’t no easy way out Hey I will stand my ground And I won’t back down. Well I know what’s right, I got just one life In a world that keeps on pushin’ me around But I’ll stand my ground, and I won’t back down Hey baby there ain’t no easy way out Hey I will stand my ground And I won’t back down No, I won’t back down ________________________ Note: song is longer than appears when full chorus & recurring refrains are added.

Cynthia Burton, “Menendez: He Has Risen Despite Defying Alliances,”Philadelphia Inquirer October 15, 2006.

Todd Jackson and Michael Sluss, “Senate Hopefuls Still Pounding the Pavement; George Allen Gets an Endorsement and James Webb Trots out Some Democrat Heavyweights,” Roanoke.com, of The Roanoke Times, November 3, 2006.

David W. Chen, “A Fight Song Comes Alive,” New York Times, November 5, 2006.

Peter Nicholas, Edwards Levels Attack on Clinton-era White House,” Los Angeles Times, August 24, 2007, p. A-12.

Adam Nagourney, “Do You Know the Words to the Edwards Fight Song?,” The Caucus Blog, New York Times, December 19, 2007.

Adam Nagourney, “On the Trail: The Edwards Playlist,”New York Times, December 20, 2007.

Sarah Wheaton, “Accompaniments; Theme Songs and Others,” New York Times, February 16, 2008

Imprint ipod Gail Collins, “Hillary’s Smackdown,” New York Times, April 24, 2008.

 Kleinheider, “That Ain’t Any Kind Of Concession Speech I Ever Heard Of,” NashvillePost.com, June 3, 2008.

“I Won’t Back Down,” SongFacts.com.

“I Won’t Back Down,” Wikipedia.com.

U.S. Senator Robert Menendez, United States Senate.

U.S. Senator Jim Webb, United States Senate.

“Eliot Spitzer,” Times Topics, New York Times.

“John Edwards,” Times Topics, New York Times.

     Ralph Kramden is the name of a fictional New York City bus driver who starred in the popular 1950s television comedy The Honeymooners.  Actor Jackie Gleason played the role of Ralph, who was a memorable, one-of-a-kind character.  In the show, Gleason’s Ralph Kramden made $62 a week driving his Madison Avenue bus route.  At home, in a small Brooklyn walk-up apartment, where most of the shows were set, Ralph was always coming up with some “get rich” scheme or other venture in which his wife, Alice, and neighbors Ed Norton with wife Trixie, were typically recruited as skeptical and/or uncooperative accomp- lices.  The schemes usually ended badly for Ralph, with wife Alice typically adding a final cut of the “I- told-you-so” variety.  Alice was played to a tee by Audrey Meadows, with equally good performances by Art Carney as Norton and Joyce Randolph as Trixie.  Although all of the skits were humorous, and some slapstick, many also had a dramatic component or a pointed lesson that viewers could identify with. The show had a strong “everyman” appeal and following when it first ran in the 1950s, with each of its characters popular among the general public.  TV historians often rate the show as one of the best of the early situation comedies.

Statues & Icons Series      This story is one in an occasional series that will explore how America, and other countries, honor their icons – from famous politicians and military leaders, to movie stars, TV celebrities, and sports heros.  Societies have been erecting statues or otherwise commemorating their famous and beloved figures for thousands of years.  But in modern times, even fictional characters, their ranks swelled by cinema and television, are now joining those up on the pedestal, some for purely commercial reasons.  As statues and busts, the famous personages are typically cast in outsized proportions, some placed in parks or other public spaces.  Still others are found on postage stamps, murals, buildings, near sports arenas, or used in various place names.  Not all of those so honored, however, meet with public approval, though some have broad and continuing support.  The stories offered in this series will include short sketches on some of these figures – past and present – providing a bit of the history and context on each and how the proposed honor came about.

     In recent years the television series came to be owned by the media conglomerate Viacom. Viacom’s cable TV channel, TV Land, began airing The Honeymooners series as part of its classic TV programming.  Sometime in 1999, TV Land came up with the idea of developing and erecting statues of some of its fictional TV characters as a way to publicize the network and its shows.  The statue for Ralph Kramden became the first of these projects, to be located in New York city at the New York-New Jersey Port Authority Bus Terminal building in mid-town Manhattan.  TV Land developed the statue in cooperation with the Jackie Gleason estate and commissioned sculptor Robert DuGrenier to create the likeness.

     The statue, which portrays Kramden in his bus driver’s uniform carrying a lunch pail, was formally dedicated at a brief ceremony in August 2000.  At the time, the Port Authority management regarded the Gleason-Kramden statue as an art project in its public space, providing a service to its patrons.  The statue’s presence at the terminal, said management, would help make commuting more enjoyable for the 185,000 passengers who then came through the depot every day.  Cedrick T. Fulton, general manager of the bus terminal, said he envisioned bus passengers stopping to have their pictures taken with the statue.  TV Land, for its part, said its Kramden statue was “honoring a public icon.”  The cable TV channel paid for the statue, but was not charged a promotional or advertising fee by the Port Authority.  Rob Pellizzi, TV Land’s vice president for marketing, indicated that the statue was then part of a larger publicity campaign to promote the show and the cable channel.

 

TV Land Promo

     In addition to the statue, TV Land was then airing television ads with Art Carney’s character from the show, Ed Norton, dancing to the song “Wild Thing,” a hit from the 1960s by the British group The Troggs.  As part of this TV Land campaign, some city buses were also painted from top to bottom with scenes from the series, some showing bus driver Kramden behind the wheel.  Pellizzi indicated at the time that TV Land was thinking of promoting other shows in “similar partnerships” – with permanent statues placed across the country.  They were calling their program “TV Land Landmarks”

     “Creating TV Land Landmarks helps us recognize those locations throughout the country that are closely identified with TV that people want to visit,” explained Larry W. Jones, Executive Vice President and General Manager of TV Land in a press statement for the Ralph Kramden ceremony. 

      “As Jackie Gleason’s Ralph Kramden character evokes New York City,” Jones continued, “TV Land felt strongly that the Port Authority Bus Terminal was the perfect location from which to kick off this initiative.”   Jones added that his company was optimistic about bringing the statues initiative “to other landmarks around the country over the next few years” – projects which TV Land later did pursue.  To date, among the shows and characters that TV Land has included at other “landmark” locations are the following: the Mary Tyler Moore Show (Minneapolis, MN), The Andy Griffith Show (North Carolina), The Bob Newhart Show (Chicago), Bewitched (Salem,MA), Elvis Presley’s Aloha from Hawaii show, and the “Fonzie” character from the Happy Days show (Milwaukee, WI).  These TV Land statues and landmarks will be profiled in future stories at this website.

 

The Honeymooners

     Although The Honeymooners ran on CBS for only one season in 1955-1956, the show left a very influential mark on early television and had an extremely loyal following.  Some early baby boomer kids also watched the show with their parents.  The Honeymooners ranked as the No. 2 TV show during its run, and garnered Emmy Awards for the acting of Audrey Meadows and Art Carney in their supporting roles.  In syndication, The Honeymooners series has had a long life, not only in the U.S., but also in many countries around the world.  In some markets, the syndicated shows have been aired for decades, almost from the time when the show ended in its original broadcast.  Viacom aired the original series, and also some later discovered “lost” episodes, at least from the mid-1980s.  Honeymooners episodes also appeared on Showtime, and in more recent years, on the TV Land channel.  The episodes in syndication have also been released in VHS and DVD formats.

     In August 2000, an unveiling ceremony was held in New York City.  Joyce Randolph, who played Ralph Kramden’s neighbor “Trixie” on the show, was one of the special guests.  “He loved hoopla,” said Ms. Randolph of Gleason, “and the statue is gorgeous.”  Also attending the ceremony were New York transit authority officials.  “Who better than Ralph Kramden to greet commuters and bus drivers in front of the place where more than 200,000 commuters and 7,000 buses pass through every day?” said Ken Philmus, director of tunnels, bridges, and terminals.  “We think this is a wonderful gift to all the people of New York city.” 

     Some passers-by that day also watched the dedication.  “I like that guy Kramden,” said one construction worker, Tino Riveria, looking on at the dedication.  “He was a big mouth, but there are millions of big mouths in New York.  So naturally, people here are going to identify with him.” Another observer was Ruthie Escalante, a record store clerk.  She told a reporter that Kramden’s nonstop battles with his wife – and reconciliation at the end of each show  — came about as close to defining married life as anything she had seen on television.  “Gleason really told it like it is,”she said.  “And I watch the reruns all the time with my husband. It is a ritual.”

     TV Land, however, was not the first to honor Jackie Gleason and Ralph Kramden in a public venue.  In 1988, one of the New York city bus service depots in Brooklyn was renamed the “Jackie Gleason Bus Depot.”  All buses that originate from that depot bear a sticker on the front that has a logo derived from the “face on the moon” opening logo that ran on The Honeymooners opening credits.  The MTA also renumbered one of its busses to 2969 and made it the “official Jackie Gleason bus.”  There is also a statue of Jackie Gleason in his Ralph Kramden bus driver’s attire at the Academy of Television Arts & Science’s Hall of Fame in North Hollywood, California.  That statue, however, is posed in Gleason’s famous “and away we go” stance, which he often did at the opening of his TV variety show.  The North Hollywood statue also pre-dates TV Land replica.

     The eight-foot, 1,000-pound likeness of Ralph Kramden/Jackie Gleason is found today at the 40th Street and 8th Avenue terminal entrance.  The plaque on the base of the statue reads:

“Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden: Bus Driver - Raccoon Lodge Treasurer - Dreamer.  Present- ed by the People of TV Land.”  

     As of 2008, the Port Authority Bus Station served some 7,200 buses and about 200,000 people on an average weekday. Over 3 billion passengers have used the building since it began operation in 1950.

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     Stay tuned to this site for other stories in the “statues & icons” series.
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Date Posted:  7 March 2009
Last Update:  7 March 2009
Comments to:
jdoyle@pophistorydig.com

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Sources, Links & Additional Information

Dean E. Murphy, “Hey, Norton, Get a Load of Ralphie Boy,” New York Times, August 26, 2000.

“Ralph Kramden Statue,”TV Acres.com.

Stephen M. Silverman, “Ralph Kramden Home to Roost,” People.com, August 26, 2000.

PR Newswire, New York, “TV Land Honors Ralph Kramden – America’s Most Famous Bus Driver – With Statue at Port Authority Bus Terminal,” August 28, 2000.

“Gotham Honors A Heavyweight,” CBS, New York, August 28, 2000.

“Gleason Gets Statue In New York,” TV Land, studio briefing, August 29, 2000.

Josh Getlin, “Ralph Kramden Statue By Windsor Sculptor Is Unveiled in New York,” Los Angeles Times, August 29, 2000.

See also Honeymooners.net, described as “a site with everything you could possibly want to know about the classic sitcom.” Registration required.

TV Land’s website had previously offered a 360-degree virtual tour of the Ralph Kramden statue in its setting, and also included a brief promotional film clip on the statue. However, much of that has since been taken down, now replaced by a brief narrative description.

An extensive fan website on all things Honeymooners if found at HamniaHamina.com.

See You Tube for a selection of posted Honeymooners episodes.

“TV Land”, Wikipedia.com.

“The Honeymooners”, Wikipedia.com.

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