Blogpost #99 — June 24, 2020
http://dennyhatch.blogspot.com/2020/06/99-johnson-bogert-ad.html
Posted by
Denny Hatch
Two
Off-the-wall Political Ads—
The Greatest in Television History
The Greatest in Television History
The
year was
1964. The young, dazzling and handsome President John F. Kennedy was
assassinated three years
earlier. He was succeeded by a hulking 6’ 4” 250-lb. Texas good-ole-boy with a
southern drawl who had spent 24 years in Congress ending up as Senate
Majority
Leader. Unlike John Kennedy, LBJ knew everybody of consequence in
Washington
and, above all, was a master at manipulating the levers of power.
Johnson had spent a whirlwind year in
office overpowering the political establishment by engineering passage of a
major tax cut, the Clean Air Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The 1964 Election
After just
one year in office it was election time. The Republicans were on a powerful
small government kick that recoiled against the wild extravagance of the
Democrats. They engineered the nomination of LBJ’s total political opposite —
Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater — author of the manifesto, The Conscience of a
Conservative.
To many Republicans, Goldwater was a
savior of the Republic. To Democrats he was a seen as an extremist arch-villain
out to shut down the money trough and to lead us into nuclear war. The election was a
48-year-old precursor of Trump v. Clinton. But oh-so-tame by comparison.
Think back on the wild statements, insults, outlandish promises and lies of Donald Trump in the 2016 election. Compare all this to the single pronouncement by Goldwater that drove the Democrats totally, positively nuts:
Think back on the wild statements, insults, outlandish promises and lies of Donald Trump in the 2016 election. Compare all this to the single pronouncement by Goldwater that drove the Democrats totally, positively nuts:
“Extremism
in defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in pursuit of justice is no
virtue.”
Suddenly into This Political Maelstrom
Steps My Oldest Friend in the World
I met William
Bogert (1936-2020) in the 5th grade at the Lawrence School in
Hewlett, Long Island. Bill was smart as hell, a book worm with a huge
vocabulary who by age 10 was absolutely fixated on becoming an actor. We became
close friends in grade school before moving on to separate boarding schools and
colleges.
In the 1960s we were both living in Manhattan. Bill was focused like a laser beam on his acting career while I served two years in the Army and then stumbled around New York as a book publicist and later traveling incessantly as a salesman covering bookstores, wholesalers/jobbers, schools and libraries in the East and Midwest.
Imagine then my astonishment when I turned on the television set and… OMG, outta the blue, there was apolitical Bill — who had never showed much emotion — suddenly exhibiting severe angst nationwide on the boob tube.
It was an extraordinary off-the-wall performance for President Johnson’s campaign — a four-minute solo stream-of-consciousness tour de force that Bill wrote delivered in a single take.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiG0AE8zdTU
Nobody in the world had ever seen such an audacious political ad on television before and only once since — when 50 years later — Bill reprieved it for Hillary Clinton in 2016.
https://time.com/4410286/hillary-clinton-re-ups-confessions-of-a-republican-ad/
In the 1960s we were both living in Manhattan. Bill was focused like a laser beam on his acting career while I served two years in the Army and then stumbled around New York as a book publicist and later traveling incessantly as a salesman covering bookstores, wholesalers/jobbers, schools and libraries in the East and Midwest.
Imagine then my astonishment when I turned on the television set and… OMG, outta the blue, there was apolitical Bill — who had never showed much emotion — suddenly exhibiting severe angst nationwide on the boob tube.
It was an extraordinary off-the-wall performance for President Johnson’s campaign — a four-minute solo stream-of-consciousness tour de force that Bill wrote delivered in a single take.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiG0AE8zdTU
Nobody in the world had ever seen such an audacious political ad on television before and only once since — when 50 years later — Bill reprieved it for Hillary Clinton in 2016.
https://time.com/4410286/hillary-clinton-re-ups-confessions-of-a-republican-ad/
The Other 1964 TV Ad Was This Tony
Schwartz
Bombshell That Ultimately Crushed
Goldwater!
Tony Schwartz
(1923-2008) — world famous for this controversial ad was not the Tony Schwartz
who ghosted Donald Trump’s Art of the Deal. This Tony Schwartz was a sound
engineer and record producer. I worked with him very briefly in the late 1950s
when I was in the Army (stationed “overseas” on Governor’s Island in New York
Harbor where I produced and wrote a radio series for WQXR featuring the Seventh
Army Symphony Orchestra headquartered in Germany.
The Tony Schwartz one-minute “Daisy” spot plus Bill Bogert’s nationwide TV agony riff helped LBJ win 44 states and 61% of the popular vote.
For
over 70 years
Bill and I saw each other frequently and picked up conversationally
right where we left off the last time. I went to the funerals of his
parents on Long
Island. And I remember Peggy and I bumped into him on a red-eye flight
from L.A.
to New York; we sat together, mesmerized as we flew through a lightning
storm. We were both members of The Players, the actors’ club on Gramercy
Park
South founded by the great Shakespearean thespian Edwin Booth
(remembered today
as the brother of John Wilkes Booth). We’d connect at an occasional Pipe
Night—that honored such great performers as Milton Berle, James Cagney
and
Gregory Peck.
Bill stayed with us in Stamford, Connecticut a couple of times and he came to my 70th birthday bash for a day of horseracing at Philadelphia Park.
One of my great regrets was being out of the country when Erin died 1992 and we missed her funeral. Bill never recovered from the loss. He never remarried. I doubt he ever dated. The last 27 years of his life were tinged with sadness. You can sense that in the interview with Rachel Maddow.
I called to check in on him last October. He sounded frail but okay. We talked about Peggy and me stopping in to see him when we were next in New York. Bill said he'd like that very much. Bill died this past January. He was a helluva guy. I miss him.
Historians Weigh in 52 Years Later
A “Republican Confession” from 52 years ago has a lot to say about this year’s election. “Confessions of a Republican,” a four-minute television ad from the 1964 US presidential election, has been making a comeback online.
—Adam Freelander, March 9, 2016, Quartz
https://qz.com/634578/a-republican-confession-from-52-years-ago-has-a-lot-to-say-about-this-years-election/
For obvious reasons, the ad — called “Confessions of a Republican” — began attracting online attention from conservatives early this year. Quartz ran a story about it on March 9, and Rachel Maddow aired it on her MSNBC show the same night. She then gleefully interviewed the actor from the ad — William Bogert, now 80 years old — in May, and he was just as charming as you might hope.
—David Leonhardt, The New York Times, October 25, 2016
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/25/opinion/campaign-stops/a-republican-confession.html.
The Daisy Ad changed everything about political advertising. Since the famous television spot ran in 1964, advertising agencies have sold presidential candidates as if they were cars or soap.
—Robert Mann, Smithsonian Magazine, October 25, 2016
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-daisy-ad-changed-everything-about-political-advertising-180958741/
Tony Schwarz (1924-2008)
Schwartz was an amazing guy
on the cutting edge of stereo vinyl records, electronics and wire recorders — — the high technology of the times.The Tony Schwartz one-minute “Daisy” spot plus Bill Bogert’s nationwide TV agony riff helped LBJ win 44 states and 61% of the popular vote.
Bill Bogert's Last Hurrah
Bill
Bogert may
have been the hardest working guy I ever knew. With a madcap bi-coastal
life he
kept up a performance schedule that would kill the average dude. He
never
turned down a gig. If he landed an assignment in New York one day and
another job the following day in Los Angeles, he was on the overnight
flight memorizing
his sides (a printed booklet with the actor’s specific part in the
script of a
play, TV commercial or screenplay) and on the set, on time, knowing his
lines
and hitting his marks.
Bill’s legacy of performances is staggering. Like Woody Allen’s Zelig, he would show up everywhere — in television series, films, and commercials — one of those busy, perpetually working actors you would see, recognize and have no idea who he was.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0091722/?ref_=nm_mv_close
In 1976, Bill and Jim Henson Muppeteer Erin Ozker fell crazy in love and married. Born in Turkey, Erin was beautiful, vivacious and funny as hell. Everybody who ever met Erin instantly adored her.
Toward the end of Erin's deliriously happy but tragically short life she said: “Cancer isn’t the worst thing
that ever happened to me. Finding an apartment in Los Angeles is worse.”
Bill’s legacy of performances is staggering. Like Woody Allen’s Zelig, he would show up everywhere — in television series, films, and commercials — one of those busy, perpetually working actors you would see, recognize and have no idea who he was.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0091722/?ref_=nm_mv_close
In 1976, Bill and Jim Henson Muppeteer Erin Ozker fell crazy in love and married. Born in Turkey, Erin was beautiful, vivacious and funny as hell. Everybody who ever met Erin instantly adored her.
Erin Ozker (1948-1993)
Bill stayed with us in Stamford, Connecticut a couple of times and he came to my 70th birthday bash for a day of horseracing at Philadelphia Park.
One of my great regrets was being out of the country when Erin died 1992 and we missed her funeral. Bill never recovered from the loss. He never remarried. I doubt he ever dated. The last 27 years of his life were tinged with sadness. You can sense that in the interview with Rachel Maddow.
I called to check in on him last October. He sounded frail but okay. We talked about Peggy and me stopping in to see him when we were next in New York. Bill said he'd like that very much. Bill died this past January. He was a helluva guy. I miss him.
Historians Weigh in 52 Years Later
A “Republican Confession” from 52 years ago has a lot to say about this year’s election. “Confessions of a Republican,” a four-minute television ad from the 1964 US presidential election, has been making a comeback online.
—Adam Freelander, March 9, 2016, Quartz
https://qz.com/634578/a-republican-confession-from-52-years-ago-has-a-lot-to-say-about-this-years-election/
For obvious reasons, the ad — called “Confessions of a Republican” — began attracting online attention from conservatives early this year. Quartz ran a story about it on March 9, and Rachel Maddow aired it on her MSNBC show the same night. She then gleefully interviewed the actor from the ad — William Bogert, now 80 years old — in May, and he was just as charming as you might hope.
—David Leonhardt, The New York Times, October 25, 2016
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/25/opinion/campaign-stops/a-republican-confession.html.
The Daisy Ad changed everything about political advertising. Since the famous television spot ran in 1964, advertising agencies have sold presidential candidates as if they were cars or soap.
—Robert Mann, Smithsonian Magazine, October 25, 2016
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-daisy-ad-changed-everything-about-political-advertising-180958741/
Even 52 years later, the Daisy Ad packs an emotional wallop. The
one-minute spot was only broadcast once (though it was repeated on the nightly
news), but the message set up Johnson’s 1964 landslide.
—Walter Shapiro, Roll Call, June 7, 2016
https://www.rollcall.com/2016/06/07/the-daisy-ad-a-half-century-later/
—Walter Shapiro, Roll Call, June 7, 2016
https://www.rollcall.com/2016/06/07/the-daisy-ad-a-half-century-later/
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