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

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

0:24
Speaker 1: No man, oh man. Okay, So let's start today with
0:28
Speaker 1: very crass uh crass intro to the subject of our show.
0:32
Speaker 1: Let's set the towne all right, yeah, agreed. So, once
0:36
Speaker 1: upon a time, there's this guy who urinates on a
0:41
Speaker 1: secret service man who is shielding this guy from public
0:44
Speaker 1: view on. The secret service man is horrified because you know,
0:49
Speaker 1: he's in the Secret Service and therefore gonna go out
0:52
Speaker 1: on a limb and say he's not used to people
0:54
Speaker 1: peeing on him. The person the subject of today's podcast,
0:58
Speaker 1: when when he see he's the shocked expression of horror
1:03
Speaker 1: on this guy's face, he only says, that's all right, son,
1:07
Speaker 1: it's my prerogative. It's my prerogative. Hello everybody, thank you
1:12
Speaker 1: for tuning in. My name is Ben, my name is Noel.
1:15
Speaker 1: And the shoe pisser in question, uh is none other
1:20
Speaker 1: than Lyndon Baines Johnson, the thirty six president of these
1:26
Speaker 1: fair United States and notorious shoop here. Yes, yes, out
1:34
Speaker 1: of all the presidents, he is the most notorious when
1:36
Speaker 1: it comes to the high crime of shooping, or at
1:40
Speaker 1: least the eccentric behavior. This is the president who took
1:43
Speaker 1: the oath of office on November, almost immediately following the
1:50
Speaker 1: assassination of President Kennedy. It's true and on that day
1:54
Speaker 1: when he assumed his new job as president and took
1:58
Speaker 1: residence in the White House, US, he immediately set to
2:01
Speaker 1: overhauling the telephone system in the White House in a
2:06
Speaker 1: very very big and dare we say, ridiculous way? Oh
2:09
Speaker 1: we dare we do? Dare my friend, because this was
2:14
Speaker 1: just baffling. So the first thing he did was that
2:19
Speaker 1: he had phones installed everywhere, beneath dining tables, coffee tables,
2:25
Speaker 1: in tables and bathrooms, on windows sills. And you can
2:28
Speaker 1: find in the oral history for the LBJ Presidential Library
2:32
Speaker 1: by James Jones, the argument that the president led the
2:36
Speaker 1: construction of a wired mobile phone network using phones as
2:40
Speaker 1: call relay points, just so wherever he went in the
2:43
Speaker 1: building he would never have to get off the phone
2:46
Speaker 1: unless he wanted to. Yeah, he was a notorious multitasker.
2:49
Speaker 1: He would often take several calls at the same time.
2:52
Speaker 1: I'm trying to picture that. It's like, did he have
2:54
Speaker 1: handlers that would pass him the phone and then say,
2:57
Speaker 1: excuse me, the President needs a minute, And then he
2:58
Speaker 1: would get another one, and then he would have another
3:00
Speaker 1: one passed back to him. I'm confused. We do, however,
3:03
Speaker 1: know that he was a big fan of the power
3:06
Speaker 1: move and he apparently liked to use the phone as
3:10
Speaker 1: a tool. It was even said as a weapon, because
3:13
Speaker 1: he could bully people very easily on the phone, Like
3:17
Speaker 1: he was so comfortable with that that he had it
3:20
Speaker 1: down pat and could essentially get people to do what
3:24
Speaker 1: he wanted by speaking to them in a certain way.
3:26
Speaker 1: And the beauty of this is you don't have to
3:28
Speaker 1: depend on our word for this. Because he also recorded
3:32
Speaker 1: like every conversation that he had, which I think there
3:35
Speaker 1: are nine thousand tapes around that you can actually get
3:38
Speaker 1: your hands on, and he had them transcribed and in
3:41
Speaker 1: his evening reading materials for the day, his handlers would
3:45
Speaker 1: slip him these transcripts so he could go over the
3:47
Speaker 1: day's business. And it wasn't all pure paranoia right then,
3:50
Speaker 1: I mean, it was to kind of show that he
3:52
Speaker 1: had gotten things done. But also he could call people
3:55
Speaker 1: out on things, couldn't he, right, Yeah, And he used
3:58
Speaker 1: this method off if there was someone in the press
4:01
Speaker 1: that he felt had misquoted him in an interview, he
4:04
Speaker 1: would go back and check the transcripts if there were
4:07
Speaker 1: another member of Congress or another politician who was waffling
4:11
Speaker 1: or backing away from something they had agreed to on
4:14
Speaker 1: the interview, Johnson had no compunction whatsoever about going public
4:18
Speaker 1: with it. But there's another thing you can find here,
4:22
Speaker 1: nine thousand tapes. That's a lot of tape. Uh. He
4:25
Speaker 1: would signal to his secretary with like a little wave
4:28
Speaker 1: of his hands his finger in let's roll circle, uh
4:32
Speaker 1: to turn on the recorders. But his staff sometimes forgot
4:36
Speaker 1: to turn them off. So you can also hear him
4:39
Speaker 1: having these very strange, mundane conversations. There's one where he's
4:43
Speaker 1: trying to get a guy to come cut his hair
4:45
Speaker 1: for free as the president. And actually, can we can
4:50
Speaker 1: we play a clip of this Casey and I now
4:53
Speaker 1: about getting in the paper and getting advertised. I'm a
4:58
Speaker 1: poor manna, I don't make much money, but I got
5:00
Speaker 1: a wife and a couple of daughters and four or
5:02
Speaker 1: five people that run around. Woman. I like the way
5:04
Speaker 1: you make them look. This is your country, and I
5:07
Speaker 1: want to see what you want to do about When
5:08
Speaker 1: do you want me to come? Well? Defends first on
5:11
Speaker 1: how my kid had cost me. Okay, so a notorious multitasker,
5:16
Speaker 1: shoop here and cheapscape. Well, he liked he liked a deal.
5:21
Speaker 1: But it's interesting to us. In a time when phones
5:25
Speaker 1: were known thing, but they weren't as ubiquitous as they
5:29
Speaker 1: are today, it's strange to us that his mission was
5:33
Speaker 1: to make every place where he spent any sustained amount
5:36
Speaker 1: of time essentially one big telephone office. And this didn't
5:40
Speaker 1: stop at the White House, did it. Now he was
5:43
Speaker 1: a native Texan, as you could probably hear from his
5:46
Speaker 1: drawl um. But he had a ranch house, like a
5:49
Speaker 1: really sweet, sprawling ranch house in Austin, Texas. So on
5:52
Speaker 1: this property he had a giant oak tree wired with
5:56
Speaker 1: a telephone jack and a thirty five ft cord. And
6:00
Speaker 1: and that wasn't it. I mean he had I think
6:03
Speaker 1: he was probably the first president or maybe human that
6:07
Speaker 1: had a phone installed next to a hammock. So you know,
6:10
Speaker 1: he was getting his R and R. But if an
6:12
Speaker 1: important call came down, he was gonna take it. And
6:15
Speaker 1: you have to wonder was he a hammock swinger or
6:19
Speaker 1: was he just laid there because he'd wonder about the cord.
6:22
Speaker 1: He He also had at least fifteen local and long
6:26
Speaker 1: distance lines at this ranch, which became known as the
6:29
Speaker 1: Texas White House. Do we mentioned that part yet? No,
6:32
Speaker 1: the Texas White House, and he had seventy two handsets.
6:35
Speaker 1: Here's one that I thought of when we earlier mentioned
6:39
Speaker 1: his notorious multitasking. One of these handsets was built to
6:43
Speaker 1: handle twenty four calls at once and it's a single handset.
6:47
Speaker 1: So was this conference calling? Was he switching back and forth?
6:51
Speaker 1: Was it just a cool gadget that he felt a
6:54
Speaker 1: man of his station deserved. Well, he certainly was an innovator,
6:57
Speaker 1: at least in unreasonable requests lead to technological advancements, because
7:02
Speaker 1: before we had anything approaching cellular phone service, he had
7:07
Speaker 1: phone operators go with him on Air Force one so
7:10
Speaker 1: that he could stay in contact with the Texas Switchboard.
7:13
Speaker 1: And just to give you a sense of his daily
7:16
Speaker 1: telephone call uh workload. Um, it's estimated that he took
7:21
Speaker 1: somewhere in the neighborhood of between forty and one hundred
7:24
Speaker 1: calls a day, and that includes like ones that he
7:27
Speaker 1: took at the same time. Again, I'm picturing him with
7:30
Speaker 1: one phone on one ear and one on the other,
7:31
Speaker 1: like a cartoonish absurd thing. I don't know, but it
7:36
Speaker 1: didn't stop on the phone. He he was a maximizer.
7:39
Speaker 1: He liked to make the most of every single second,
7:42
Speaker 1: and he did not like to stop talking. There are tales,
7:45
Speaker 1: in addition to urinating on secret Serviceman, where he would
7:48
Speaker 1: force people to follow him into the bathroom while he
7:52
Speaker 1: dropped trial and or adduce and continued talking to this
7:59
Speaker 1: reporter and or head of state even right, yeah, the
8:03
Speaker 1: Johnson treatment. He would get in people's faces as well.
8:07
Speaker 1: He would follow them into the bathroom and harangue them
8:09
Speaker 1: while they were while they were peeting. But Nold absolutely right.
8:13
Speaker 1: He was also fond of making people follow him into
8:16
Speaker 1: the bathroom and lecturing them, continuing his lecture rather while
8:20
Speaker 1: he was using the restroom, And if he were defecating,
8:24
Speaker 1: he would just leave the door open so he could
8:26
Speaker 1: still stare at them. That's uh, it was just cartoonish.
8:31
Speaker 1: What I mean, what kind of like Austin Powers Mike
8:34
Speaker 1: Myers sort of joke is that, you know, that's a
8:36
Speaker 1: little creepy if and he was you know, very much
8:40
Speaker 1: a very much a creep and philanderer. He also you
8:45
Speaker 1: can find snippets of him. We didn't think he was
8:47
Speaker 1: being recorded talking about stuff like this on the phone.
8:50
Speaker 1: He was notorious for cheating on his wife, Ladybird as
8:54
Speaker 1: she was popularly called, And we came to find that
8:58
Speaker 1: his staff was also involved in this. Because again he's
9:02
Speaker 1: always wired, right, He's always about about building these contraptions,
9:05
Speaker 1: these phone networks. He built something else. He's talking about
9:08
Speaker 1: the buzzer. Oh, yeah, you know the one. What's what's
9:11
Speaker 1: happening with the buzzer? What's the buzz about the buzzer? No? Yeah,
9:13
Speaker 1: so it's you know, it was a button um that
9:17
Speaker 1: he had his staff uh installed in the oval office
9:23
Speaker 1: so that his handlers and secret service protectors could give
9:28
Speaker 1: it a good buzz. It would be connected to his
9:30
Speaker 1: office if his wife was cited, because he was notorious
9:34
Speaker 1: for hiring pretty young things to work in and around
9:38
Speaker 1: him in his office and uh, you know, more than
9:40
Speaker 1: a few rumors about him possibly getting a little attention
9:45
Speaker 1: on the side when old Ladybird was not around, right, right,
9:50
Speaker 1: you know, buzz buzz buzz. We know Ladybird has been cited. Um,
9:55
Speaker 1: you know, pants on, I guess which which fits? Unfortunately
10:01
Speaker 1: with his character. While we're doing the crass Johnson facts, uh,
10:05
Speaker 1: we should admit that he was probably out of I
10:09
Speaker 1: don't want to say he was the most likely out
10:11
Speaker 1: of all presidents, but he's definitely in the top five
10:13
Speaker 1: presidents most likely to send someone a dick pick because
10:17
Speaker 1: he was fond of showing both men and women. His
10:20
Speaker 1: genitals is Johnson. He named it also, yeah, he apparently
10:24
Speaker 1: named it jumbo. Okay, yeah, so, at least by his
10:28
Speaker 1: own admission, well endowed fellow. I just why would this
10:33
Speaker 1: guy be allowed in public restrooms? Why would he be
10:36
Speaker 1: allowed in public He seems like a nightmare. And speaking
10:44
Speaker 1: of pants, yes, yes, yes, I'd love to hear another clip. Uh.
10:48
Speaker 1: This one is a conversation between President Johnson and his
10:53
Speaker 1: tailor where he describes to him the Taylor um some
10:57
Speaker 1: particulars about the measurements for these custom slacks. He needs
11:03
Speaker 1: some extra room in h in certain areas, shall we say,
11:08
Speaker 1: mist uh, Joe? Or is your father the one that
11:13
Speaker 1: makes a closet there? We're all together? Uh? You all
11:18
Speaker 1: made me some real right weight slacks. Now, I need
11:24
Speaker 1: about six pairs for summer wear. I want him a
11:27
Speaker 1: half inch larger than the waist than they were before,
11:30
Speaker 1: except the two or three inches of stuff left back
11:33
Speaker 1: in there. So I can take them up. I very
11:35
Speaker 1: ten or fifteen pounds a month, So leave me at
11:40
Speaker 1: least your I have for inches the backgrod let him
11:43
Speaker 1: out to take them up. Yeah. Now another thing, that
11:47
Speaker 1: crutch down where your nuts hang is always a little
11:50
Speaker 1: too tight. So when you make them up, give me
11:53
Speaker 1: a each that I can let out there because they
11:56
Speaker 1: cut me. It's just like riding a Why these are
12:00
Speaker 1: almost the best that I've had anywhere in the United States.
12:04
Speaker 1: But uh, when I get a little late, they cut
12:07
Speaker 1: me unto there. You never do have much margin, that
12:10
Speaker 1: WI see. If you can't leave me about it an
12:12
Speaker 1: age from the part of the separate damn uh around
12:17
Speaker 1: under my back of my bung hole. So I let
12:21
Speaker 1: it out there if I need to. Ah, Yes, the
12:24
Speaker 1: old Johnson bung hole. Yes, it's true. That is indeed
12:28
Speaker 1: the thirty six president of these fine United States. Hey,
12:32
Speaker 1: you know what we've got going on today? That's not
12:35
Speaker 1: too far off right. Oh my gosh, what if Johnson
12:37
Speaker 1: had Twitter? I can't imagine. My favorite part is where
12:41
Speaker 1: he says, you know, Dann will the nuts hang, And
12:44
Speaker 1: he does have He does have a compelling accent. He
12:47
Speaker 1: was known as a gifted vocal communicator despite the the aggression.
12:54
Speaker 1: It's interesting because he came from a poverty stricken community
12:58
Speaker 1: and grew up impoverished with oral storytelling backgrounds. And he
13:03
Speaker 1: always knew that he wanted to be a politician, right
13:08
Speaker 1: because his after they lost the family farm, his father
13:11
Speaker 1: became a politician instead. But he never lost this focus,
13:18
Speaker 1: the central focus on the power of communication. And although
13:23
Speaker 1: he recorded so much of his phone correspondence, he still
13:29
Speaker 1: adhered to rules once articulated by Earl Long, who was
13:33
Speaker 1: Louisiana's three time governor, and it reads the following, don't
13:37
Speaker 1: write anything you can phone. Don't phone anything you can
13:40
Speaker 1: talk face to face, don't talk anything you can smile,
13:44
Speaker 1: don't smile anything you can wink. Don't wink anything you cannot. So,
13:50
Speaker 1: because of his reliance on the telephone, despite the energy
13:56
Speaker 1: he put into uh, you know, having face to face
13:59
Speaker 1: communication over written correspondence, these recordings become better sources than
14:05
Speaker 1: documents for tracing what he actually did. And you can
14:09
Speaker 1: see sort of the let's say, the edges of the
14:13
Speaker 1: unrecorded conversations he had where he was dragging people into
14:17
Speaker 1: the bathroom. Oh no, it's a highly highly teachable moment
14:20
Speaker 1: of being really able to see the way a very
14:23
Speaker 1: powerful man like this actually conducted business because apparently, uh,
14:26
Speaker 1: in a lot of his public addresses he was a
14:28
Speaker 1: lot more stiff and more formal, and you know, we're
14:32
Speaker 1: we're we're dinging this guy for a lot of things
14:35
Speaker 1: that are very dingworthy. Rightly so, but you know, he
14:39
Speaker 1: also had some problematic policies. It wasn't he wasn't just
14:42
Speaker 1: you know, not the best president because of you know,
14:45
Speaker 1: his tendencies to to flash and urinate on people. Um,
14:49
Speaker 1: he also that's no problematic attitudes towards uh, you know,
14:53
Speaker 1: the US involvement in Vietnam, Isn't that right? Then? Yeah,
14:56
Speaker 1: it's commonly seeing by historians as a which misstep for
15:01
Speaker 1: his administration, perhaps indeed the chief misstep, and that would
15:04
Speaker 1: be the escalation of the war in Vietnam. You can
15:09
Speaker 1: read an article about this on CNN, UH called how
15:13
Speaker 1: lb J Wrecked his presidency. That should just give you
15:15
Speaker 1: a taste of where people are coming from here. By
15:18
Speaker 1: Julian Zelizer. I love that name. Those are two z's
15:21
Speaker 1: very strong name. Zelizer. It's interesting because again in these recordings,
15:25
Speaker 1: we find that off stage when He wasn't grand standing
15:29
Speaker 1: to the public. He was conflicted and deeply so about
15:34
Speaker 1: what the hell they should do. He calls it a mess.
15:37
Speaker 1: He can't see a way out of it. Sure, um,
15:39
Speaker 1: And you know, and the guy was not without his
15:41
Speaker 1: strong points. He did sign the Civil Rights Act of
15:44
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty four, which was the US labor law that
15:48
Speaker 1: outlaw discrimination based on religion, sexual orientation, origin of birth,
15:54
Speaker 1: or race. So you know, that's a pretty big step. Um.
15:57
Speaker 1: So I gotta give credit where credit is due, I guess.
16:00
Speaker 1: And you do hear some of his more tender side,
16:03
Speaker 1: I guess, and some of these phone calls as well.
16:05
Speaker 1: Obviously was a very big caricature of a personality. But
16:09
Speaker 1: in this call where he's talking to Jacqueline Kennedy after
16:13
Speaker 1: the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Um, he's very kind
16:17
Speaker 1: to her. In other words, the government would be represented
16:21
Speaker 1: by Bobby and Teddy and Chief Justice and Rush. They're
16:27
Speaker 1: gonna be over there anyway that he wants to go with.
16:30
Speaker 1: You would be whoever you want to take in your
16:32
Speaker 1: own party. And if you'd like to do that, you
16:35
Speaker 1: just let me know and I'll have it all set up.
16:39
Speaker 1: Are you and it'll be at your disposal whatever you
16:42
Speaker 1: want it for whatever time you want to. No, no,
16:49
Speaker 1: it's not at all. It's very important to us, very
16:52
Speaker 1: important to the country, and you you just let me
16:58
Speaker 1: know how you feel if you have a chance to anything.
17:08
Speaker 1: And additionally, under his administration, he passed one of the
17:13
Speaker 1: most important and influential acts in recent history, and there's
17:18
Speaker 1: the Voting Rights Act in we have a clip there
17:22
Speaker 1: as well. There is no constitutional issue here. The command
17:27
Speaker 1: of the Constitution is playing. There is no moral issue.
17:36
Speaker 1: It is wrong, deadly wrong to deny any of your
17:43
Speaker 1: fellow Americas the right to vote in this country. And
17:50
Speaker 1: there you're kind of getting that slightly more stilted speechie
17:54
Speaker 1: written part of his personality. And it's really interesting to
17:58
Speaker 1: have the opportunity to kind of weigh those two sides
18:01
Speaker 1: with these candid recordings of his phone calls versus his
18:04
Speaker 1: public persona. Because as far as we know, other than
18:07
Speaker 1: Nixon and I don't think anyone's getting their hands on
18:10
Speaker 1: those tapes anytime soon. Um, not a lot of presidents
18:13
Speaker 1: did this, and they certainly are not accessible to the
18:16
Speaker 1: public in this way. So good on Johnson. I do
18:20
Speaker 1: want to say there's a great quotation by Nixon which reads,
18:25
Speaker 1: people said by language was bad, But Jesus you're sort
18:28
Speaker 1: of heard. I'll be jo you go. So I hope
18:31
Speaker 1: you like that Bootleg Nixon. That was good. You had
18:35
Speaker 1: you had the mumble Josh rock barn. For some reason,
18:41
Speaker 1: we should do it that. It revides me to the
18:43
Speaker 1: old school, Uh, Tim Curry Pennywise when he's mainking, when
18:47
Speaker 1: he's like scaring the kids. Don't you have Prince alberta
18:50
Speaker 1: con rock rock Rock He's now. There's another thing that
18:56
Speaker 1: you and I talked about off air that I've always
19:00
Speaker 1: seen as a very clear indication of Johnson's character, and
19:04
Speaker 1: that's his favorite car prank. This is a good one. Uh.
19:07
Speaker 1: There's a fantastic article from our buddies over at Mental
19:10
Speaker 1: Flaws called LBJ the President who marked his territory. I
19:13
Speaker 1: think we know what that refers to. But yeah, he
19:15
Speaker 1: would do this thing where he would take visitors to
19:17
Speaker 1: his Texas ranch for a little car ride, and he'd
19:20
Speaker 1: drive him down a big old hill towards the lake
19:22
Speaker 1: and act like he was losing control of the car
19:24
Speaker 1: and yell, the brakes are out, we're going in, We're
19:26
Speaker 1: going in and then what happened, And then they would
19:29
Speaker 1: indeed hit the water and they would float, and he
19:33
Speaker 1: would continue steering the vehicle because you see, it was
19:36
Speaker 1: not an ordinary car. It was a type of amphibious
19:39
Speaker 1: vehicle called and and pip car, and it was apparently
19:42
Speaker 1: the only one manufactured for uh civilian use ever. Um
19:48
Speaker 1: And it's funny. I actually a couple of weekends ago,
19:50
Speaker 1: I went with my daughter to a place here around
19:52
Speaker 1: Atlanta called Stone Mountain, and they have this thing called
19:55
Speaker 1: Ride the Ducks where you get to take a ride
19:58
Speaker 1: in this thing called a duck boat, and it looks
20:01
Speaker 1: like a van, but it's like a boat, and you
20:03
Speaker 1: you write it just like this. You literally he does
20:05
Speaker 1: the same thing. Even the driver he was his name
20:07
Speaker 1: was Professor Hollywood, and he was within these real cookie
20:12
Speaker 1: star glasses and telling us all these great tales about
20:14
Speaker 1: movies that were shot around Stone Mountain and stuff. And
20:16
Speaker 1: about the time he and a group of school kids
20:18
Speaker 1: encountered Dwayne the Rock Johnson who came out of his
20:21
Speaker 1: Hey and a different Johnson, but yeah, he hauls asked
20:24
Speaker 1: for this lake and you just go right in, make
20:26
Speaker 1: a big old splash, and them before you know it.
20:27
Speaker 1: You're floating along, you know, the lazy river. Its pretty cool.
20:31
Speaker 1: But we we knew what was We knew we knew
20:33
Speaker 1: it was coming though, so not not not mean spirit
20:35
Speaker 1: in the way that that Johnson was Hollywood. Didn't pull
20:38
Speaker 1: a fast food on you, Professor Hollywood, Professor Hollywood. He
20:41
Speaker 1: didn't go to Hollywood Academy for nothing. Hollywood University, Yes, yes,
20:46
Speaker 1: they're in Hollywood, California, or one of the many other
20:50
Speaker 1: towns in the United States named Hollywood. Indeed, so we're
20:59
Speaker 1: giving a brief overview of a contradictory character. And it's
21:05
Speaker 1: clear that his administration enacted some incredibly profound, important, and
21:12
Speaker 1: beneficial legislation for the American public. But also it's clear
21:17
Speaker 1: that most historians agree there were numerous missteps along the way,
21:22
Speaker 1: both in his political and in his private life. Uh.
21:28
Speaker 1: One thing that we found interesting here is that a
21:32
Speaker 1: lot of people don't talk about the emphasis he had
21:37
Speaker 1: on technology as an early adopter. I mean, what he
21:40
Speaker 1: was doing really was a pioneering work for sure, like
21:44
Speaker 1: I said, all based on some sort of outlandish requests.
21:49
Speaker 1: But what is technology if not trying to fill a
21:52
Speaker 1: need that may seem outlandage at the time, but will
21:55
Speaker 1: ultimately become the law of the land when people realize,
21:58
Speaker 1: you know, how could we ever have done without this?
22:00
Speaker 1: You know, I mean not to say that I have
22:02
Speaker 1: fifty telephones installed in my house, but um, you know
22:05
Speaker 1: the fact that you can be untethered. He was essentially
22:08
Speaker 1: trying to create the circumstances that we have with a
22:11
Speaker 1: cell phone, but with the limitations of being wired in.
22:16
Speaker 1: He wanted to never be any less than arms reach
22:19
Speaker 1: away from the phone. And it makes me think of
22:21
Speaker 1: our old office been in Buckhead used to be the
22:24
Speaker 1: former headquarters of La Face Records. Story. You know about
22:28
Speaker 1: a baby Face more known as a producer and songwriter
22:31
Speaker 1: for like Madonna and stuff. I think he had a
22:33
Speaker 1: couple of hits on his own. But there was this
22:35
Speaker 1: weird bathroom. I'll let you tell it, Ben, it's your story,
22:37
Speaker 1: but this is weird bathroom that always kind of struck
22:39
Speaker 1: us a little odd, right, Yes, yes, So in the
22:43
Speaker 1: old office that our company used to dwell in had
22:47
Speaker 1: a strange executive suite all its own. A little bit
22:52
Speaker 1: less than half of the entire office space was taken
22:54
Speaker 1: up by what we believe was the Baby Faces office
22:58
Speaker 1: himself and had an executive washroom. This washroom had a
23:03
Speaker 1: very very low commode that was directly opposite a full
23:09
Speaker 1: length wall mirror, so that it was unavoidable too if
23:13
Speaker 1: you were sitting on the commode, it was unavoidable to
23:15
Speaker 1: not see yourself. And directly to the right of this commode,
23:19
Speaker 1: if you picture yourself sitting here again very low to
23:22
Speaker 1: the ground. There was a red telephone, a red landline
23:25
Speaker 1: telephone like Batman style, like would it would it? Would
23:28
Speaker 1: it glow? Do you think you know? I hope? So
23:31
Speaker 1: it rang once and I never answered it. No way. Yeah,
23:33
Speaker 1: I was outside of the restroom. I didn't like to
23:35
Speaker 1: hang out in there. It was kind of creepy. Are
23:37
Speaker 1: you messing with me? No? It rang, So we have
23:40
Speaker 1: to wonder who has the phone number to uh the
23:46
Speaker 1: face bathroom. Let us know. You can write to us
23:48
Speaker 1: a ridiculous at how Stuff Works dot com. You can
23:51
Speaker 1: check out our new Facebook group, the Ridiculous Historians. You
23:53
Speaker 1: want to be a moderator, you like that kind of stuff,
23:56
Speaker 1: shoot us an email at that aforementioned address and we
23:59
Speaker 1: will look at your credentials and see if you've got
24:02
Speaker 1: the stuff we will. We will go through your transcripts.
24:05
Speaker 1: You do you probably just the desire is enough. Well,
24:09
Speaker 1: if you're listening to this show, you have impeccable taste,
24:12
Speaker 1: and thank you so much for listening. It's pretty clear
24:17
Speaker 1: that the three of us find President Johnson fascinating character.
24:21
Speaker 1: We'd like to hear some of your Johnson uh, President
24:24
Speaker 1: Johnson trivia as well. We'd also like to thank Julia Layton,
24:28
Speaker 1: our regular contributor, who wrote an article about lb j's
24:32
Speaker 1: phone usage for how stuff works. And of course we
24:35
Speaker 1: can't say it enough. Super Producer Casey Pegram, I'm gonna
24:40
Speaker 1: hang out. I'm gonna lean back and make eye contact
24:42
Speaker 1: with him. Thank you. You're great. That was a really
24:47
Speaker 1: tender moment you just had with super Producer Casey. And
24:49
Speaker 1: just just to throw out there too, we we call
24:51
Speaker 1: him super producer Casey. What that entails is he edits
24:54
Speaker 1: the show. He also does all the cool sound design,
24:57
Speaker 1: any of the little bumpers and all that stuff. That's
24:59
Speaker 1: him and and of course he's a contributor vocally. Uh,
25:02
Speaker 1: we're gonna try to twist his arm and him do
25:04
Speaker 1: that a little more often. What we'll see what we
25:06
Speaker 1: have that shapes up. Yeah, it's a footnot door, a
25:08
Speaker 1: little bit at a time. He also gives us great
25:12
Speaker 1: life advice. He's like sort of a life coach slash
25:14
Speaker 1: super producer. We also like to thank our composer Alex Williams,
25:17
Speaker 1: who wrote our theme and uh I thank you again,
25:21
Speaker 1: Ben for just being you and such a handsome devil
25:24
Speaker 1: you Hey, thank you know, you know what, Thanks to
25:26
Speaker 1: both of us, You're not going around peeing on people.
25:29
Speaker 1: Neither of us are perfect, but we'll we'll always have that,
25:33
Speaker 1: I think so. So you can find us on Facebook.
25:36
Speaker 1: You can find us on Instagram. You can find us
25:38
Speaker 1: on Twitter. My trusted co host is disclosed. The email address.
25:42
Speaker 1: You can visit our website, Ridiculous History Show dot com
25:45
Speaker 1: and check out every episode we have ever done. Hey,
25:48
Speaker 1: if you haven't already done it, do us to solid.
25:49
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Speaker 1: Apple podcast something really nice and spiffy to make us
25:54
Speaker 1: feel good about ourselves and help that algorithm so people
25:57
Speaker 1: discover the show. Because if we like doing it and
25:58
Speaker 1: we want to keep doing it, stay tuned next time.
26:01
Speaker 1: When Nolan I get into an eggnog Riot like a
26:04
Speaker 1: zoot suit riot. You know the back beats a little
26:07
Speaker 1: bit different. Where should I say a whisk we use
26:09
Speaker 1: whisp with diagnog, I have a gnogged a little less
26:11
Speaker 1: saxophone maybe, oh yeah, yeah yeah, Okay, goodbye everyone,