Latest / Ridiculous History / CLASSIC: Lyndon Johnson Chatted on the Phone More than a Teenager

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CLASSIC: Lyndon Johnson Chatted on the Phone More than a Teenager · Ridiculous History

0:00
Speaker 1: Get guys.
0:01
Speaker 2: I often think about how I've said this on error
0:04
Speaker 2: in different shows. I often think about how various historical
0:08
Speaker 2: figures would react to social media or the ubiquity of
0:12
Speaker 2: communication devices. And in this classic episode, I learned that
0:18
Speaker 2: I would never want Lyndon Johnson to have my phone number.
0:22
Speaker 1: Na man, like you ever had you ever got? I mean,
0:25
Speaker 1: you know, this day and age, a phone call is
0:27
Speaker 1: almost an active aggression, you know, or it's like we
0:30
Speaker 1: try to keep it to text, but I don't know.
0:32
Speaker 1: You ever have the unfortunate situation where someone called you
0:35
Speaker 1: and you realize because of the echo or something, or
0:37
Speaker 1: just you hear a little PLoP. Are you? Are you
0:40
Speaker 1: on the toilet? Bro? Like, what are you doing to me?
0:44
Speaker 1: That's not cool? What's that tinkling sound?
0:46
Speaker 3: Nah?
0:47
Speaker 1: Man, that's not okay. We actually recently talked about Louis
0:51
Speaker 1: the fourteenth and his you know, lack of bathing or
0:55
Speaker 1: personal hygiene. He often and those in his court at
0:59
Speaker 1: Versailles take meetings while on the commode. They didn't have
1:03
Speaker 1: a telephone, but you know who did was Lyndon Johnson,
1:06
Speaker 1: and he had one in his boudoir and would often
1:10
Speaker 1: take calls while dropping a deuce.
1:13
Speaker 2: And he installed telephones in multiple locations in the White House,
1:19
Speaker 2: which already had phones, by the way, and in his
1:22
Speaker 2: branch in Texas. Also adding to the creepy vibe, our
1:28
Speaker 2: buddy Lindy recorded pretty much every phone call he had,
1:33
Speaker 2: including the ones where he is trying to brag about
1:36
Speaker 2: the size of his Australia while he's getting the tailor
1:39
Speaker 2: to redo his pals mis Johnson.
1:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I'm not mistaken. I haven't listened back to
1:45
Speaker 1: this one as of yet, but I think we have
1:48
Speaker 1: a clip in it that is a delight. And he's
1:52
Speaker 1: talking about making room for his his bunghole around his
1:56
Speaker 1: but he uses the term bunghole, which I've never heard
1:58
Speaker 1: outside of Beavis and butt Head until this particular exploration.
2:02
Speaker 2: And we'll also learn about his notable sidekick.
2:05
Speaker 1: That's right, Jumbo, let's roll the footage.
2:11
Speaker 2: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio.
2:38
Speaker 1: O man, oh man.
2:40
Speaker 2: Okay, So let's start today with the very crass, a
2:44
Speaker 2: crass intro to the subject of our show. Let's set
2:47
Speaker 2: the tone, all right, Yeah, agreed. So, once upon a time,
2:51
Speaker 2: there's this guy who urinates on a secret service man
2:56
Speaker 2: who is shielding this guy from public view.
2:59
Speaker 1: Go on.
3:00
Speaker 2: The secret Service man is horrified because you know he's
3:04
Speaker 2: in the Secret Service, and therefore we're gonna go out
3:07
Speaker 2: on a limon say. He's not used to people peing
3:08
Speaker 2: on him. The person the subject of today's podcast, when
3:14
Speaker 2: he sees this shocked expression of horror on this guy's face,
3:18
Speaker 2: he only says, that's all right, son, it's my prerogative.
3:23
Speaker 1: It's my prerogative.
3:25
Speaker 2: Hello, everybody, thank you for tuning in.
3:28
Speaker 1: My name is Ben, my name is Nol. And the
3:30
Speaker 1: shoe pesser in question is none other than Lyndon Baines Johnson,
3:38
Speaker 1: the thirty sixth President of these fair United States and
3:43
Speaker 1: notorious shoe here.
3:46
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, Out of all the presidents, he is the
3:49
Speaker 2: most notorious when it comes to the high crime of
3:54
Speaker 2: shoe pen or at least the eccentric behavior. This is
3:57
Speaker 2: the president who took the oath of office on November two,
4:00
Speaker 2: twenty second, nineteen sixty three, almost immediately following the assassination
4:05
Speaker 2: of President Kennedy.
4:07
Speaker 1: It's true, and on that day, when he assumed his
4:10
Speaker 1: new job as president and took residence in the White House,
4:14
Speaker 1: he immediately set to overhauling the telephone system in the
4:19
Speaker 1: White House in a very very big and dare we
4:22
Speaker 1: say ridiculous way?
4:23
Speaker 2: Oh we dare we do? Dare my friend? Because this
4:27
Speaker 2: was just baffling. So the first thing he did was
4:33
Speaker 2: that he had phones installed everywhere, beneath dining tables, coffee tables,
4:39
Speaker 2: in tables and bathrooms, on windows sills. And you can
4:42
Speaker 2: find in the oral history for the LBJ Presidential Library
4:47
Speaker 2: by James Jones, the argument that the president led the
4:50
Speaker 2: construction of a wired mobile phone network using phones as
4:54
Speaker 2: call relay points, just so wherever he went in the
4:58
Speaker 2: building he would never have to get off the phone
5:00
Speaker 2: unless he wanted to.
5:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, he was a notorious multitasker. He would often take
5:05
Speaker 1: several calls at the same time. I'm trying to picture that.
5:08
Speaker 1: It's like, did he have handlers that would pass him
5:10
Speaker 1: the phone and then say, excuse me, the President needs
5:12
Speaker 1: a minute, and then he would get another one, and
5:14
Speaker 1: then he would have another one passed back to him.
5:16
Speaker 1: I'm confused. We do, however, know that he was a
5:19
Speaker 1: big fan of the power move and he apparently liked
5:22
Speaker 1: to use the phone as a tool. It was even
5:26
Speaker 1: said as a weapon. Because he could bully people very
5:30
Speaker 1: easily on the phone, Like he was so comfortable with
5:33
Speaker 1: it that he had it down pat and could essentially
5:37
Speaker 1: get people to do what he wanted by speaking to
5:39
Speaker 1: them in a certain way. And the beauty of this
5:42
Speaker 1: is you don't have to depend on our word for this.
5:44
Speaker 1: Because he also recorded like every conversation that he had,
5:49
Speaker 1: which I think there are nine thousand tapes around that
5:51
Speaker 1: you can actually get your hands on, and he had
5:53
Speaker 1: them transcribed, and in his evening reading materials for the day,
5:57
Speaker 1: his handlers would slip him the transcripts so he could
6:01
Speaker 1: go over the day's business. And it wasn't all pure paranoia,
6:04
Speaker 1: right Ben. I mean, it was to kind of show
6:06
Speaker 1: that he had gotten things done. But also he could
6:09
Speaker 1: call people out on things, couldn't he.
6:11
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, And he used this method often if there
6:15
Speaker 2: was someone in the press that he felt had misquoted
6:17
Speaker 2: him in an interview, he would go back and check
6:19
Speaker 2: the transcripts. If there were another member of Congress or
6:23
Speaker 2: another politician who was waffling or backing away from something
6:27
Speaker 2: they had agreed to on the interview, Johnson had no
6:30
Speaker 2: compunction whatsoever about going public with it. But there's another
6:35
Speaker 2: thing you could find here, nine thousand tapes. That's a
6:37
Speaker 2: lot of tape. He would signal to his secretary with
6:42
Speaker 2: like a little wave of his hands his finger in
6:44
Speaker 2: a let's roll circle to turn on the recorders, but
6:49
Speaker 2: his staff sometimes forgot to turn them off. So you
6:52
Speaker 2: can also hear him having these very strange, mundane conversations.
6:57
Speaker 2: There's one where he's trying to get a guy to
6:59
Speaker 2: come cut his hair for free as the president. And actually,
7:04
Speaker 2: can we play a clip of this casey and I
7:07
Speaker 2: talk to you.
7:08
Speaker 3: Now about getting in the paper and getting it advertised.
7:10
Speaker 1: I give you my solemn word.
7:12
Speaker 3: I'm a poor man. I don't make much money, but
7:14
Speaker 3: I got a wife and a couple of daughters, and
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Speaker 3: full five people had run around with me, and I
7:18
Speaker 3: like the way you make them look. This is your country,
7:20
Speaker 3: and I won't see what you want to do about it.
7:22
Speaker 3: When do you want me to come? Well, as depends
7:25
Speaker 3: first on how much it'll cost me.
7:27
Speaker 1: Okay, so a notorious multitasker, shoe pier and cheapskate.
7:33
Speaker 2: Well, he liked he liked a deal. But it's interesting
7:37
Speaker 2: to us in a time when phones were known thing,
7:41
Speaker 2: but they weren't as ubiquitous as they are today. It's
7:45
Speaker 2: strange to us that his mission was to make every
7:48
Speaker 2: place where he spent any sustained amount of time essentially
7:52
Speaker 2: one big telephone office. And this didn't stop at the
7:55
Speaker 2: White House, did it.
7:56
Speaker 1: Now he was a native Texan, as you can probably
8:00
Speaker 1: hear from his drawl, but he had a ranch house,
8:03
Speaker 1: like a really sweet, sprawling ranch house in Austin, Texas.
8:06
Speaker 1: So on this property he had a giant oak tree
8:10
Speaker 1: wired with a telephone jack and a thirty five foot cord.
8:14
Speaker 1: And that wasn't it. I mean he had I think
8:17
Speaker 1: he was probably the first president or maybe human that
8:21
Speaker 1: had a phone installed next to a hammock. So you
8:24
Speaker 1: know he was getting his R and R. But if
8:27
Speaker 1: an important call came down, he was going to take it.
8:29
Speaker 2: And you have to wonder was he a hammock swinger
8:33
Speaker 2: or was he just laying there because you'd wonder about
8:36
Speaker 2: the cord. He also had at least fifteen local and
8:40
Speaker 2: long distance lines at this ranch, which became known as
8:43
Speaker 2: the Texas White House. Do we mention that part yet?
8:46
Speaker 4: No?
8:46
Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, the Texas White House. And he had seventy
8:49
Speaker 2: two handsets. Here's one that I thought of when we
8:53
Speaker 2: earlier mentioned his notorious multitasking. One of these handsets was
8:57
Speaker 2: built to handle twenty four calls at one and it's
9:00
Speaker 2: a single handset to was this conference calling? Was he
9:03
Speaker 2: switching back and forth? Was it just a cool gadget
9:08
Speaker 2: that he felt a man of his station deserved.
9:10
Speaker 1: Well, He certainly was an innovator, at least in unreasonable
9:13
Speaker 1: requests that led to technological advancements, because before we had
9:17
Speaker 1: anything approaching cellular phone service, he had phone operators go
9:22
Speaker 1: with him on air Force one so that he could
9:25
Speaker 1: stay in contact with the Texas switchboard. And just to
9:28
Speaker 1: give you a sense of his daily telephone call workload,
9:33
Speaker 1: it's estimated that he took somewhere in the neighborhood of
9:36
Speaker 1: between forty and one hundred calls a day, and that
9:40
Speaker 1: includes like ones that he took at the same time. Again,
9:43
Speaker 1: I'm picturing him with one phone on one ear and
9:45
Speaker 1: one on the other, like a cartoonish absurd thing. I
9:49
Speaker 1: don't know, but it didn't stop on the phone. He
9:52
Speaker 1: was a maximizer. He liked to make the most of
9:55
Speaker 1: every single second, and he did not like to stop talking.
9:58
Speaker 1: There are tails in addition to to urinating on secret servicemen,
10:02
Speaker 1: where he would force people to follow him into the
10:05
Speaker 1: bathroom while he dropped trow and or adduce and continued
10:13
Speaker 1: talking to this reporter and or head of state even right, Yeah.
10:17
Speaker 2: The Johnson treatments. He would get in people's faces as well.
10:21
Speaker 2: He would follow them into the bathroom and harangue them
10:24
Speaker 2: while they were while they were peeing. But uh, Noel,
10:26
Speaker 2: absolutely right. He was also fond of making people follow
10:30
Speaker 2: him into the bathroom and lecturing them, continuing in his
10:33
Speaker 2: lecture rather while he was using the restroom, and if
10:36
Speaker 2: he were defecating, he would just leave the door open
10:40
Speaker 2: so he could still stare at them. That's uh, it
10:44
Speaker 2: was just cartoonish. I mean, what kind of like Austin
10:48
Speaker 2: Powers Mike Myers sort of joke as that.
10:50
Speaker 1: You know, that's a little creepy if you ask me.
10:52
Speaker 2: And he was, you know, very much a very much
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Speaker 2: a creep and a philanderer. He also you can snippets
11:00
Speaker 2: of him. We didn't think he was being recorded talking
11:02
Speaker 2: about stuff like this on the phone. He was notorious
11:06
Speaker 2: for cheating on his wife, Ladybird as she was popularly called,
11:10
Speaker 2: and we came to find that his staff was also
11:14
Speaker 2: involved in this, because again, he's always wired, right, He's
11:18
Speaker 2: always about building these contraptions, these phone networks. He built
11:21
Speaker 2: something else.
11:21
Speaker 1: He's talking about the buzzer.
11:22
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, you know the one. What's happening with the buzzer?
11:26
Speaker 2: What's the buzz about the buzzer?
11:27
Speaker 4: No?
11:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, so it's you know, it was a button that
11:31
Speaker 1: he had his staff install in the Oval office so
11:37
Speaker 1: that his handlers and secret service protectors could give it
11:42
Speaker 1: a good buzz. It would be connected to his office
11:45
Speaker 1: if his wife was cited, because he was notorious for
11:49
Speaker 1: hiring pretty young things to work in and around him
11:52
Speaker 1: in his office, and you know, more than a few
11:55
Speaker 1: rumors about him possibly getting a little attention on the
12:00
Speaker 1: side when old Ladybird was not around, right right, you know,
12:05
Speaker 1: buzz buzz buzz. We know Lady Bird's been sighted, you know,
12:10
Speaker 1: pants on, I guess.
12:12
Speaker 2: Which fits unfortunately with his character. While we're doing the
12:17
Speaker 2: crass Johnson facts, we should admit that he was probably
12:23
Speaker 2: out of I don't want to say he was the
12:25
Speaker 2: most likely out of all presidents, but he's definitely in
12:27
Speaker 2: the top five presidents most likely to send someone a
12:30
Speaker 2: dick pic because he was fond of showing both men
12:33
Speaker 2: and women. His genitals is Johnson. He named it also, yeah,
12:37
Speaker 2: he apparently named it Jumbo.
12:40
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, so at least by his own admission, well
12:45
Speaker 1: endowed fella.
12:46
Speaker 2: I just why would this guy be allowed in public restrooms?
12:49
Speaker 1: Why would he be allowed in public He seems like
12:52
Speaker 1: a nightmare. And speaking of pants, yes, yes, yes, I'd
13:01
Speaker 1: love to hear another clip. This one is a conversation
13:05
Speaker 1: between President Johnson and his tailor, where he describes to
13:09
Speaker 1: him the tailor, some particulars about the measurements for these
13:15
Speaker 1: custom slacks. He needs some extra room in certain areas,
13:21
Speaker 1: shall we say.
13:22
Speaker 3: Misser Joager Joe is your father, the one that makes clothes.
13:29
Speaker 3: You're altogether. You all made me some real light weight slacks.
13:37
Speaker 3: Now I need about six pairs for some aware. I
13:41
Speaker 3: want him half inch larger in the waist than the
13:43
Speaker 3: where before, except I want two or three inches of
13:46
Speaker 3: stuff left back in there so I can take him up.
13:48
Speaker 3: I bury ten or fifteen pounds a month, all right,
13:53
Speaker 3: So leave me at least two and a half freat
13:56
Speaker 3: inch in the back rock and let him outter take
13:58
Speaker 3: them up.
13:59
Speaker 4: Yeah.
14:00
Speaker 3: Now, another thing that crutch down where your nuts hang
14:04
Speaker 3: is always a little too tight. So when you make
14:06
Speaker 3: them up, give me a ach that I can let
14:09
Speaker 3: out there, because they cut me. It's just like riding
14:12
Speaker 3: the wire fence. These are almost the best that I've
14:16
Speaker 3: had anywhere in the United States. But when I gained
14:20
Speaker 3: a little weight, they cut me under there that you
14:23
Speaker 3: never do have much margin there. But see if you
14:25
Speaker 3: can't leave me about it? An age from the ware
14:27
Speaker 3: the separate pms around under my back to my bunghole,
14:34
Speaker 3: so I can read it out there if I need to.
14:37
Speaker 1: Ah, yes, the old Johnson bunghole. Yes, it's true.
14:42
Speaker 2: That is indeed the thirty sixth president of these fine
14:45
Speaker 2: United States.
14:46
Speaker 1: Hey, you know what we've got going on today? It's
14:49
Speaker 1: not too far off right.
14:50
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, what if Johnson had Twitter?
14:53
Speaker 1: I can't imagine. My favorite part is where he says,
14:55
Speaker 1: you know, Dann, where the nuts hang, And he does
14:58
Speaker 1: have he does have e a compelling accent. He was
15:02
Speaker 1: known as a gifted vocal communicator despite the aggression. It's
15:09
Speaker 1: interesting because he came from a poverty stricken community. He
15:12
Speaker 1: grew up impoverished with oral storytelling background, and he always
15:18
Speaker 1: knew that he wanted to be a politician, right because
15:23
Speaker 1: after they lost the family farm, his father became a
15:27
Speaker 1: politician instead. But he never lost this focus, the central
15:33
Speaker 1: focus on the power of communication. And although he recorded
15:39
Speaker 1: so much of his phone correspondence, he still adhered to
15:44
Speaker 1: rules once articulated by Earl Long, who was Louisiana's three
15:49
Speaker 1: time governor, and it reads the following, don't write anything
15:52
Speaker 1: you can phone. Don't phone anything you can talk face
15:55
Speaker 1: to face. Don't talk anything you can smile. Don't smile,
16:00
Speaker 1: you can wink, don't wink anything you can nod. So,
16:05
Speaker 1: because of his reliance on the telephone, despite the energy
16:10
Speaker 1: he put into, you know, having face to face communication
16:14
Speaker 1: over written correspondence, these recordings become better sources than documents
16:20
Speaker 1: for tracing what he actually did. And you can see
16:24
Speaker 1: sort of the let's say, the edges of the unrecorded
16:28
Speaker 1: conversations he had, Oh yeah, where he was dragging people
16:31
Speaker 1: into the bathroom. Oh no. It's a highly highly teachable
16:34
Speaker 1: moment of being really able to see the way a
16:37
Speaker 1: very powerful man like this actually conducted business because apparently
16:41
Speaker 1: in a lot of his public addresses he was a
16:43
Speaker 1: lot more stiff and more formal, and you know, we're
16:47
Speaker 1: dinging this guy for a lot of things that are
16:49
Speaker 1: very ding worthy, right so, rightly so. But you know,
16:53
Speaker 1: he also had some problematic policies. It wasn't he wasn't
16:57
Speaker 1: just you know, not the best president because of you know,
17:00
Speaker 1: his tendencies to flash and urinate on people. He also
17:05
Speaker 1: had some real problematic attitudes towards the US involvement in Vietnam.
17:09
Speaker 1: Isn't that right, Ben?
17:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, It's commonly seen by historians as a huge misstep
17:15
Speaker 2: for his administration, perhaps indeed the chief misstep, and that
17:19
Speaker 2: would be the escalation of the war in Vietnam. You
17:23
Speaker 2: can read an article about this on CNN called how
17:27
Speaker 2: LBJ Wrecked his presidency. That should just give you a
17:30
Speaker 2: taste of where people are coming from here by Julian Zelzer.
17:33
Speaker 1: I love that name. Those are two z's very strong name. Zelizer.
17:37
Speaker 2: It's interesting because again in these recordings, we find that offstage,
17:42
Speaker 2: when he wasn't grand standing to the public, he was
17:45
Speaker 2: conflicted and deeply so, about what the hell they should do.
17:50
Speaker 2: He calls it a mess. He can't see a way
17:52
Speaker 2: out of it.
17:53
Speaker 1: Sure, and and the guy was not without his strong points.
17:56
Speaker 1: He did sign the Civil Rights Act of nineteen sixty four,
18:00
Speaker 1: which was the US labor law that outlawed discrimination based
18:04
Speaker 1: on religion, sexual orientation, origin of birth, or race. So
18:09
Speaker 1: you know, that's a pretty big step. So got to
18:12
Speaker 1: give credit where credit is due, I guess. And you
18:15
Speaker 1: do hear some of his more tender side, I guess
18:18
Speaker 1: in some of these phone calls as well. Obviously was
18:20
Speaker 1: a very big caricature of a personality. But in this
18:24
Speaker 1: call where he's talking to Jacqueline Kennedy after the assassination
18:29
Speaker 1: of John F. Kennedy, he's very kind to her.
18:33
Speaker 4: In other words, the.
18:34
Speaker 3: Government would be represented by Bobby and Peddy and Chief
18:39
Speaker 3: Justice and Rush. They're going to be over there anyway
18:43
Speaker 3: that he wants to go with you with be whoever
18:45
Speaker 3: you want to take in your own party, And if
18:48
Speaker 3: you'd like to do that, you just let me know
18:52
Speaker 3: and I'll have it all set up for you and
18:54
Speaker 3: it'll be at your disposal whenever you own it, for
18:57
Speaker 3: whatever time you own it. Was n No, it's not
19:04
Speaker 3: at all. It's very important to us, very important to
19:07
Speaker 3: the country, and you you just let me know how
19:12
Speaker 3: you feel that if you have a chance to think
19:14
Speaker 3: about it. You know, I'm saying anything.
19:21
Speaker 1: Thing I ever heard of.
19:22
Speaker 2: And additionally, under his administration he passed one of the
19:27
Speaker 2: most important and influential acts in recent history, and as
19:32
Speaker 2: the Voting Rights Act in nineteen sixty five. We have
19:36
Speaker 2: a clip there as well.
19:37
Speaker 4: There is no constitutional issue here. The command of the
19:42
Speaker 4: Constitution is plain. There is no moral issue. It is wrong,
19:53
Speaker 4: deadly wrong to deny any of your fellow Americans right
20:00
Speaker 4: to vote in this country.
20:04
Speaker 1: And there you're kind of getting that slightly more stilted
20:08
Speaker 1: speechy written part of his personality. And it's really interesting
20:12
Speaker 1: to have the opportunity to kind of weigh those two
20:14
Speaker 1: sides with these candid recordings of his phone calls versus
20:18
Speaker 1: his public persona, because as far as we know, other
20:21
Speaker 1: than Nixon and I don't think anyone's getting their hands
20:24
Speaker 1: on those tapes anytime soon. Not a lot of presidents
20:28
Speaker 1: did this, and they certainly are not accessible to the
20:31
Speaker 1: public in this way. So good on Johnson.
20:33
Speaker 2: I do want to say, there's a great quotation by
20:37
Speaker 2: Nixon which reads, people sat by language was bad. But Jesus,
20:42
Speaker 2: so you're sort of heard LB dre there you go.
20:45
Speaker 2: So I hope you like that bootleg Nixon.
20:48
Speaker 1: That was good. You you had the mumble Josh right burn.
20:52
Speaker 2: Ra for some reason we were doing it that it
20:56
Speaker 2: reminds me of the old school, Uh Tim Curry anywise, Yeah,
21:00
Speaker 2: when he's making when he's like scaring the kids, you
21:03
Speaker 2: have Prince albarda.
21:04
Speaker 1: Con rop rop rop. He's kind of Nixon.
21:09
Speaker 4: Yeah.
21:09
Speaker 1: Wow.
21:09
Speaker 2: Now there's another thing that you and I talked about
21:12
Speaker 2: off air that I've always seen as a very clear
21:16
Speaker 2: indication of Johnson's character, and that's his favorite car prank.
21:21
Speaker 1: This is a good one.
21:22
Speaker 4: Uh.
21:22
Speaker 1: There's a fantastic article from our buddies over at Mental
21:25
Speaker 1: Floss called LBJ the President who marked his Territory. I
21:28
Speaker 1: think we know what that refers to. But yeah, he
21:30
Speaker 1: would do this thing where he would take visitors to
21:32
Speaker 1: his Texas ranch for a little car ride, and he'd
21:34
Speaker 1: drive him down a big old hill towards a lake
21:36
Speaker 1: and act like he was losing control of the car
21:38
Speaker 1: and yeah, all the brakes are out, we're going in,
21:40
Speaker 1: We're going in. And then what happened?
21:43
Speaker 2: And then they would indeed hit the water and they
21:46
Speaker 2: would float and he would continue steering the vehicle because
21:49
Speaker 2: you see, it was not an ordinary car. It was
21:52
Speaker 2: a type of amphibious vehicle called in and thip car.
21:56
Speaker 1: And it was apparently the only one manufactured for civilian
22:01
Speaker 1: use ever. And it's funny. I actually a couple of
22:03
Speaker 1: weekends ago, I went with my daughter to a place
22:06
Speaker 1: here around Atlanta called Stone Mountain, and they have this
22:09
Speaker 1: thing called Ride the Ducks where you get to take
22:12
Speaker 1: a ride in this thing called a duck boat, and
22:15
Speaker 1: it looks like a van, but it's like a boat
22:17
Speaker 1: and you ride it just like this. You literally, he
22:20
Speaker 1: does the same thing. Even the driver was his name
22:22
Speaker 1: was Professor Hollywood, and he was wearing these real kooky
22:26
Speaker 1: starglasses and telling us all these great tales about movies
22:29
Speaker 1: that were shot around Stone Mountain and stuff. And about
22:31
Speaker 1: the time he and a group of school kids encountered
22:33
Speaker 1: Dwayne the Rock Johnson who came out of his Hey,
22:35
Speaker 1: a different Johnson, but yeah, he hauls ass for this
22:39
Speaker 1: lake and you just go right in, make a big
22:41
Speaker 1: old splash, and then before you know it, you're floating along,
22:43
Speaker 1: you know, the Lazy River. Pretty cool, but we knew
22:46
Speaker 1: it was we knew we knew it was coming, though,
22:48
Speaker 1: so not mean spirited in the way that the Johnson
22:51
Speaker 1: was Hollywood.
22:52
Speaker 2: Didn't pull a fast food on you, Professor Hollywood, Professor Hollywood.
22:55
Speaker 2: He didn't go to Hollywood Academy for nothing.
22:57
Speaker 1: Hollywood University.
22:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, yes, they're in Hollywood, California, or one of
23:03
Speaker 2: the many other towns in the United States named Hollywood. Indeed,
23:12
Speaker 2: so we're giving a brief overview of a contradictory character.
23:19
Speaker 2: And it's clear that his administration enacted some incredibly profound, important,
23:26
Speaker 2: and beneficial legislation for the American public. But also it's
23:31
Speaker 2: clear that most historians agree there were numerous missteps along
23:36
Speaker 2: the way, both in his political and in his private life.
23:42
Speaker 2: One thing that we found interesting here is that a
23:47
Speaker 2: lot of people don't talk about the emphasis he had
23:51
Speaker 2: on technology as an early adopter. I mean, what he
23:54
Speaker 2: was doing really was a pioneering work, for sure.
23:59
Speaker 1: Like I said, all based on some sort of outlandish requests.
24:04
Speaker 1: But what is technology if not trying to fill a
24:06
Speaker 1: need that may seem outlandish at the time but will
24:09
Speaker 1: ultimately become the law of the land when people realize,
24:12
Speaker 1: you know, how could we ever have done without this?
24:14
Speaker 1: You know, I mean not to say that I have
24:16
Speaker 1: fifty telephones installed in my house, but you know the
24:20
Speaker 1: fact that you can be untethered. He was essentially trying
24:22
Speaker 1: to create the circumstances that we have with a cell phone,
24:27
Speaker 1: but with the limitations of being wired in. He wanted
24:31
Speaker 1: to never be any less than arms reach away from
24:33
Speaker 1: the phone. And it makes me think of our old office,
24:36
Speaker 1: Ben in Buckhead. It used to be the former headquarters
24:40
Speaker 1: of La Face Wrecords True Stories. You know about a
24:42
Speaker 1: baby Face more known as a producer and songwriter for
24:45
Speaker 1: like Madonna and stuff. I think he had a couple
24:47
Speaker 1: of hits on his own. Oh yeah, but there was
24:49
Speaker 1: this weird bathroom. I'll let you tell it, Ben, it's
24:51
Speaker 1: your story with It's this weird bathroom that always kind
24:53
Speaker 1: of struck us a little odd, right.
24:55
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, So in the old office that our company
24:59
Speaker 2: used to well in had a strange executive suite all
25:04
Speaker 2: its own. A little bit less than half of the
25:07
Speaker 2: entire office space was taken up by what we believe
25:11
Speaker 2: was Babyface's office himself, and it had an executive washroom.
25:16
Speaker 2: This washroom had a very very low commode that was
25:21
Speaker 2: directly opposite a full length wall mirror, so that it
25:25
Speaker 2: was unavoidable to if you were sitting on the commode,
25:28
Speaker 2: it was unavoidable to not see yourself and directly to
25:32
Speaker 2: the right of this commode, if you picture yourself sitting
25:35
Speaker 2: here again very low to the ground. There was a
25:37
Speaker 2: red telephone, a red landline telephone like.
25:40
Speaker 1: Batman style, like would it glow? Do you think you know?
25:44
Speaker 1: I hope? So it rang once and I never answered it.
25:47
Speaker 1: No way.
25:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was outside of the restroom. I didn't like
25:50
Speaker 2: to hang out in there. It was kind of creepy.
25:51
Speaker 1: Are you messing with me? No?
25:52
Speaker 2: It rang damn, So we have to wonder who has
25:58
Speaker 2: the phone number to the leface bathroom.
26:01
Speaker 1: Let us know. You can write to us at ridiculous
26:03
Speaker 1: at HowStuffWorks dot com. You can check out our new
26:06
Speaker 1: Facebook group, the Ridiculous Historians. You want to be a moderator,
26:09
Speaker 1: you like that kind of stuff, shoot us an email
26:11
Speaker 1: at that aforementioned address and we will look at your
26:14
Speaker 1: credentials and see if you've got the stuff. We will.
26:18
Speaker 1: We will go through your transcripts. You probably do. You
26:21
Speaker 1: probably just the desire is enough.
26:23
Speaker 2: Well, if you're listening to this show, you have impeccable
26:25
Speaker 2: taste and thank you so much for listening. It's pretty
26:31
Speaker 2: clear that the three of us find President Johnson a
26:35
Speaker 2: fascinating character. We'd like to hear some of your Johnson
26:38
Speaker 2: President Johnson trivia as well. We'd also like to thank
26:42
Speaker 2: Julia Layton, our regular contributor, who wrote an article about
26:45
Speaker 2: lbj's phone usage for how stuff works, And of course
26:49
Speaker 2: we can't say it enough. Super Producer Casey pegram, I'm.
26:54
Speaker 1: Gonna hang on.
26:55
Speaker 2: I'm going to lean back and make eye contact with him.
26:58
Speaker 1: Thank you. You're great. That was a really tender moment
27:02
Speaker 1: you just had with Superproducer Casey. And just just to
27:04
Speaker 1: throw out there too, we call him super producer Casey,
27:06
Speaker 1: but what that entails is he edits the show. He
27:09
Speaker 1: also does all the cool sound design, any of the
27:12
Speaker 1: little bumpers and all that stuff. That's him And of
27:14
Speaker 1: course he's a contributor vocally. We're gonna try to twist
27:18
Speaker 1: his arm and make him do that a little more often,
27:19
Speaker 1: but well, we'll see how that shapes up.
27:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a foot in the door a little bit
27:23
Speaker 2: at a time.
27:25
Speaker 1: He also gives us great life advice, oh big time.
27:27
Speaker 1: He's like sort of a life coach slash super producer
27:30
Speaker 1: we'd also like to thank our composer Alex Williams, who
27:32
Speaker 1: wrote our theme and uh, I don't thank you again,
27:35
Speaker 1: Ben for just being you and such a handsome devil.
27:38
Speaker 2: Hey, thank you, you know what. Thanks to both of
27:41
Speaker 2: us for not going around peing on people. Neither of
27:44
Speaker 2: us are perfect, but we'll always.
27:47
Speaker 1: Have that, I think so. So.
27:49
Speaker 2: You can find us on Facebook. You can find us
27:51
Speaker 2: on Instagram. You can find us on Twitter. My trusted
27:54
Speaker 2: co host has disclosed the email address. You can visit
27:57
Speaker 2: our website, ridiculoush hisstoryshow dot com and check out every
28:00
Speaker 2: episode we have ever done.
28:02
Speaker 1: Hey, if you haven't already done it, do us a
28:04
Speaker 1: solid if you like to show write us a review
28:05
Speaker 1: on Apple Podcast, something really nice and spiffy to make
28:08
Speaker 1: us feel good about ourselves and help that algorithm so
28:11
Speaker 1: people discover the show because if you like doing it,
28:13
Speaker 1: and we want to keep doing it.
28:14
Speaker 2: And stay tuned next time. When Nola and I get
28:16
Speaker 2: into an eggnog.
28:18
Speaker 1: Ryot, is that like a zoot Suit ryot?
28:20
Speaker 4: You know?
28:20
Speaker 2: The backbeat's a little bit different. Where should I say
28:22
Speaker 2: a whisk? Do we use whisps with eggnog?
28:24
Speaker 1: I haven't nogged a little less saxophone. Maybe oh yeah,
28:27
Speaker 1: yeah yeah, okay cool, goodbye everyone. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
28:42
Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
28:45
Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.