Rest in Peace, Mr. President


In 1980, I was broadcasting in Hartford, CT. Our radio station was going live from the Sammy Davis Jr. Greater Hartford Open. It was a hot and muggy day in the suburb of Wethersfield. And because it was, I interviewed the 37th President of the United States, Gerald R. Ford, in WTIC’s air conditioned motor home studio.

As I remember it, there was more than air-conditioning. One of our account executives had been a Michigan alumnus, so Ford agreed to stop in, on his way to playing in the “Pro-Am” event.

It happened quite suddenly, and I quickly realized that I would have to simply blank out my stand-comedy act from my head. I worked on stage a lot, and did impressions of whoever was in office.

The other thing I thought about was, be patient. We’d all seen President Ford on TV many times, and you always got the sense that he simply wanted to say whatever the necessary words were, at whatever pace they entered his mind, and that, above all, throughout this torturous process, no matter how lost he was, he was going to be a good sport about the whole thing.

And while some people today call it media bias, the truth was, he did fall down a lot, boarding airplanes, or climbing other flights of steps.

Then the ex-President came toward our studio, and I got the shock of my life. First of all, this fellow, whoever he was, was moving at a good clip, and at the same time, removing his golf gloves, and climbing into our mobile home, while insisting, “Just for a minute, okay? Just for a minute.” The slowpoke I’d seen on the tube was nowhere in sight.

This was right at the time that people were speculating about a Reagan-Ford ticket, and after a few niceties, I asked Ford about it. There’s a tape in an attic somewhere that has the answer, but I do remember that whatever he said moved that front page story another eighth of an inch forward, and I was delighted.

He was pretty quick to respond to questions, stayed longer than expected, and then got out of there to hit the links. The Gerald Ford I met was confident, responsive, positively charming, and entirely unidentifiable as the robotic dweeb I’d seen pushing those WIN (“Whip Inflation Now”) buttons on TV.

It's a good thing Chevy Chase didn't hang out with Mr. Ford before playing him on SNL. There's no way he could have done the bumbling buffoon routine, if he'd seen the man I saw that day.