American Presidents: Totalus Rankium - 38.1 Gerald Ford

Episode Date: November 12, 2022

After the chaos of Nixon, Ford is not as well known. So who was this all American footballer done good? Where did he come from? Find out!

Welcome to Totalus Rankium. This week, Le Fond Gérald Part 1. I'm not saying it any other way, that's it, that's what it's written down as. Fine, fine. Off we go then. Hello and welcome to American Presidents, totalus ranchium, I am Jamie. And I'm Rob, ranking all of the presidents from Washington to Biden. And this is episode 38.1. And who is it, Jamie?

The well-known French president, Gérard Ford. Yes, or Gerald Ford, as he's also known. Yeah. There's no reason, is there, for the French accent. Nope, not in the slightest.

Cool. We're just doing it. Right, okay. Well, here we are. New president. Definitely only two episodes for Gerald because because for reasons you'll see. But yeah, two episodes. This is episode one. Let's do this, Jamie. Let's open up. Eiffel Tower in the background. You can see the Arc de Triomphe in the background. You can see the River Seine with Notre Dame in the background. It's like a stereotypical summer's or late spring day guy carrying baguettes down the street, string of onions around his neck,

black and white shirt. Courtney and playing. Yes, all of that. In fact, I'll put some music on now so we're in the mood. That's exactly what it is right now. Everything's very, very French. And you pan across all of the landmarks. They're all lined up so it's nice and easy to just pan across them all.

Very convenient. Very convenient. And then it just ends on two incredibly French people. These are the Frenchest people you've ever seen in your life. And one of them turns to the other and says, Oui. Because that's a French word. And the other one goes, Oui.

And then one of them says, I wonder what Gerald Ford is doing now. And then smash cut to America where Gerald Ford is. Nice. Okay? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

It's a smooth transition there. it yeah where um you don't even know it's jared ford by the way it is just the close-up of someone in a football helmet on a football field and they're all saying football terms to each other oh i believe that we can win that kind of thing no no that's encouragement there's like they say numbers and stuff don't oh 42 48 yeah yeah they're all saying that they. They say numbers and stuff, don't they? Oh, huh, huh, 42, 48. Yeah, yeah, they're all saying that. They're all saying numbers and talking about sheds and things. And, yeah, so all that's going on.

And then the one that's in main focus has lots of helmets and shoulder pads all over him and very, very tight trousers. And he runs to a certain place on the field and everyone cheers because that means he scored a point. And that's how American football works. Yes, it does. And then...

So he kicks it down the field, like dribbling with his foot. Yeah, he does that. So you've got to, you know, do it properly. Obviously. And then all of the players, like all of them from both teams, both teams in American football? Three teams, four teams? from both teams. Both teams in American football?

Three teams? Four teams? There's at least two teams in American football. There's probably two. So let's say there's two teams in American football. They line up, they all do the can-can, and they all hold up a sign saying Gerald Ford. Oh.

Yes, that's how we're opening today's episode. Nice. So what are you expecting from Gerald from that introduction? I imagine he played collegiate football, something like that. Let's find out, shall we? Or he was on the sidelines and didn't. Or he's a manager. Maybe he's a manager.

Oh, maybe. Maybe he was the ball. Maybe he was the ball. Who knows? Well, we start in 1913 on the 14th of July in Nebraska. Nebraska, France. No, no, Nebraska in the United States, I'm afraid to say. But if you really want it to be, it can be Nebraska in France.

It's Nebraska in France, yes. Okay, Nebraska in France. And we start with the birth of today's president, and that obviously is... Richard Nixon? No, no. Leslie Lynch King Jr. is president and that obviously is richard nixon no no leslie lynch king jr leslie lynch king jr um there's a whole lot going on in that name yes yes there is uh okay right um we've got another president who did not go by their birth name i can see why we've had a few well we've got quite

a few so far. It got me thinking, how many have we had up to this point? Well, our first one, and please write a comment on Facebook or Twitter or something if I've missed one out here. To begin with, we've got Hiram. Can you remember who Hiram was? George. No, Hiram Grant. He changed his name due to an admin accident, remember,

when he entered West Point and they called him Ulysses. Oh, yes. That's his middle name. Yes. So Hiram went under the name as Ulysses Grant. That's a hell of a typo to make. Going from Hiram to... Oh, yeah, yeah.

By writing Hiram and it being titled as Ulysses. That's weird. Yeah, yeah. Listen to the episode. It explains what happened. Oh, okay. Then we've got Stephen. Do you remember who Stephen was?

Stephen Fry? No, Stephen Cleveland. Oh. Went by Grover. We had Thomas. Jefferson. No, Thomas Wilson. Oh.

Went by Woodrow. And then we had John, not Adams. F. Kennedy. No, John Coolidge. Calvin. He went by Calvin. Most of these are just going by middle names. And then we got David. Who was David? Trump. No, Dwight Eisenhower.

It was actually David Eisenhower. And we've got one more coming up, but I'm not going to spoil that one. Who do you think, after Ford, who do you think's name isn't their birth name? Isn't it Carter, Jimmy Carter? Oh, okay, interesting. I'm not going to spoil it. If you know, after Ford, who do you think's name isn't their birth name? Isn't it Carter, Jimmy Carter? Oh, okay, interesting. I'm not going to spoil it.

If you know listening at home, well done, you get a ranking point. Okay, right, we have Leslie Lynch King Jr. The mother was called Dorothy Gardner. This is the 20-year-old daughter of a mayor of a small town in Illinois. And when in college, she met the charming brother of a classmate, and this was Leslie Lynch King, who became senior at some points, but I'm assuming not at this point. Now, Leslie was a good-looking young man in his late 20s

who had gone through military school. His father was a wealthy businessman and banker. When I say wealthy, mean multi-millionaire he had made money right enough money to build a mansion in nebraska of all the places well it's a good album by bruce so maybe they heard that and then went oh let's let's go where the music came from anyway the two were married within the large social event for the daughter of a former mayor and the son of a multi-millionaire but unfortunately this was not a romantic whirlwind far far from it and just to warn you and the listeners it gets a little bit not just a little bit it gets a lot grim very quickly here right yeah because the uh the two set

off on a honeymoon that quickly turned into a tour of places for leslie to abuse his new wife it starts off by him openly slapping her in a hotel lobby in Portland, Oregon, just because he felt like it. This went further in California, where he beat her to the ground and started kicking her. What? Yeah, not great. Far from great. As is common in these situations, Dorothy blamed herself to begin with. She was trying to figure out what on earth she had done to make her brand new husband suddenly turn on her and turn into this violent man who

she didn't know. Oh, she married a c***. That's what happened. Unfortunately so, yeah. Turned out not only was he a c***, he was a liar as well. Because when they got home from their honeymoon, it became clear that he was stone cold broke. So he wasn't a multi-millionaire? Well, his dad was, but he wasn't. And he was stealing from his father's business to stay afloat because he was stone cold broke. So he wasn't a multi-millionaire? Well, his dad was, but he wasn't. And he was stealing from his father's business to stay afloat because he was just peeing money up the wall on various things.

Now, after a while, she decided she can't do this. He's a horrible, horrible man. He's lied to her. This is not what she wants for her life. Now, divorce at this time was a big no-no, but she was going to have to go through it anyway. She could not do this. So she was going to have to go through it anyway. She could not do this. So she was going to escape back home.

She had all the plans set. She was going to divorce and escape. But in an awful twist of fate, just before she left, she realised she was pregnant. See, that's alarming in itself, because there's things you can infer from that. Oh, yes, definitely. Now, the in-laws begged her to stay. You need to stay. Our son needs a family,

so he will become a sensible, responsible young man. Because at the moment, he's off the walls. He needs to settle down. Please stay. Dorothy felt trapped. I mean, she wanted to escape, but she also wanted to desperately believe that she could have a nice life

and maybe things could work out. So she endured an awful pregnancy with a man liable to blow up at any point. At last, she gives birth to Leslie Lynch King Jr., a name that Leslie Sr. insisted upon. And then Leslie changed his ways, saw his son, and forever lived a life of being kind to people and caring for them, putting their needs over his... No, no, this is lies, Jamie. It's lies. Of course he didn't. He stayed exactly the same. In fact, he barged into the birth room the very next day to verbally abuse the sick and tired mother. The doctor who was present at the time was so worried by this that he got a nurse to sit with Dorothy around the clock. Not because she necessarily medically

needed it, but he felt she needed to be kept safe. And it's just as well, because a couple of days later, Leslie burst into the room with a carving knife and threatened to kill both Dorothy and the baby. The nurse called the police, who got there in time, and took Leslie away. So 16 days after giving birth, Dorothy and the child fled. She was given advice by a lawyer, which was essentially, get out, get out now, don't stop to reconcile, don't stop even to pack, get out the house, get out of the state. You are in danger. This man's not going to change.

So she did just that. she met up with her parents and then as a family to get away from the scandal of divorce as much as the physical threat of leslie they moved dorothy to grand rapids in michigan well she's away yeah she's away she's safe a divorce was filed and granted and leslie was told to $25 a month in maintenance. You will be shocked. Shocked, I say, to learn that he refused to pay. However, the father-in-law stepped in and said, okay, we'll pay this. Yeah, it's our grandson, we'll pay instead.

And then he sacked his son for being a horrible layabout. Good. Yeah, that's good, isn't it? Anyway, Dorothy's out. She's settled down in Grand Rapids with small little baby Leslie that she did not call Leslie, as you can imagine. She called him Junior to begin with, and that soon turned into Junie. After about a year, she happened to go to a social event held by the local church where she met a man.

A man named Gilles Ferald food who let's just say he was french shall we yeah i mean he wasn't but i know it will cheer you up yeah yeah because you've decided that gerald ford is a french name yeah yeah cool okay uh ford had a reputation for being french for being french i mean everyone knew he wasn't french but he tried so hard to be french and everyone just just kind of went along with it. I mean, it bordered on offensive how French he tried to be. But that was just Gerald.

Yeah, it's a Francophile. Anyway, he also had a reputation for being honest and respectable. He had quit school at 14 to look after his widowed mother and his sisters, and since become an upstanding member of the local community. And he got by by selling paint and varnish very big paint and varnish area apparently kept grand rapids at the time so that's fun

that sounds like there's a river nearby maybe it's full of people doing you know scenic portraits maybe maybe that's it i was more thinking like paint your room paint rather than uh oh no i think like a little artistic little ones don't want a little foil rollery. Maybe he's got, like, his main business, which is selling paint, which he does being a gruff American, and then he sells his watercolours and

his oil paints, being French, to give it that sort of slightly French artistic feel. Yeah, okay, he does that. Buys this new wonderful paint, all the way from California. Yeah. Louisiana, that sounds French. Well, yeah, it's French.

Yeah, exactly. Cajun. It's fine. Cajun. Anyway, Gerald and Dorothy get married in February of 1916. Oh, only three years afterwards. Yes, yes, she manages to turn her life around. And the two of them, for the rest of their lives, get on fantastically, apparently.

Good. So that's nice. She deserves it. She does deserve it. Yes, so at this point, everyone starts calling little Junie, Junie Ford. It's not official. They've not legally changed his name, but it's Junie Ford from this point on. And Junie, being 18 months old at this point, grew up just believing that

Gerald Ford was his father. There was no reason for him not to think that at this time. Now, considering how close Junie was to growing up in a household of hate and violence, he ended up very lucky in a very stable home, from all accounts. His secret stepfather to begin with taught him all the things

that a father was supposed to do in those times. Camping and fishing, catching and throwing various shaped balls. Let's try the square one. Ow! Yeah, when Junie was five years old, his mother gave birth to a brother, and over the next few years, two more sons were born. And things were going very well for the Fords. America was going through the post-war boom. Grand Rapids was expanding rapidly. And Ford's business was taking off.

He was able to buy a house and a car. Nice. Yeah, very nice. The four brothers, 11 years separated Junie to his youngest brother Jim, by the way, were often given days off to just go and explore, which was typical at the time. It's like, off you go, get out the way, were often given days off to just go and explore, which was typical at the time.

It's like, off you go, get out of the house, be back by dinner time. So they did. They went off and they explored. But there was a rule. After dinner, everyone had to do their homework, definitely. And then it was off to bed with a story read by their father. Sports also very, very big in the household

because Gerald Ford Sr. believed you could learn all the life lessons you needed by kicking and throwing various balls into various goals. That's all you need. Teamwork, perseverance, how to win. Balls. Lots of balls.

At some point in his childhood, Junie was told that his mother had been married before and the man that he lived with was not his biological father. In fact, I'll quote here, it didn't make much of an impression on me at the time. I couldn't have cared less because I was as happy a young boy as you could find.

So it wasn't a big secret that Gerald Ford wasn't his real father. He was told at some point and he couldn't even remember when. That's good. It's like the soup's through in half the mouth half the mouth oh by the way i'm not your dad huh yeah you always picture that scene don't you but apparently that's not what happened uh with with young gerald ford uh anyway juni carries on with the stereotypical life of an all-american boy of the age he joined the boy scouts of course he did and then he went off to high school. His parents had a choice between three schools. Two were seen as very elite and prestigious schools, which they thought they'd be able to get young Juni into because the business was doing quite well. The third school, however, did things like let in Italians and Greeks.

Yeah. They are not the French like my ancestors. Well, no, no, but he did. That's the one that his parents chose. They wanted him to get a wider experience of life. Oh, okay. That's good. Yeah, definitely good. This certainly has an impact on Gerald Ford later in life.

So he enters the school. By this point, by the way, he'd adopted his father's name entirely. Everyone now called him Jerryerry yes and i was typing jerry out several times and thinking of jerry and yeah so just just know that jerry is gerald ford okay yeah right and it's not a nickname for a member okay no so anyway he's in high school are you ready for the hijinks can't wait well that's that's a shame because jerry ford was an all-american model student oh i'll quote look for the good in every person that way you'll never hate anyone apparently he said to a classmate at one point no one says that rubbish

i'd like to think he said on his first day extending his hand to the teacher teach hello good morrow teach look out for the good in every person that way you'll never hate anyone here is your apple sir and then he went and sat down oh turn to the person next to him smile three times a day that way you'll spread your happiness and he just spoke like that all the time, I guess. Oh, just, oh, you know, you get those, like, pictures of inspirational comments. Oh, no. No, that's what he does, isn't it? Oh. Yeah.

He worked hard. He was focused. He had a plan, by the way. He was going to be a lawyer. That was his plan. He was going to work hard. He was going to make his parents proud. And going to love, laugh, and live.

Yes, exactly. And play sports. Definitely play sports. It is the taking part that counts. And the to love, laugh and live. Yes, exactly. And play sports. Definitely play sports. It is the taking part that counts. And the balls. The balls are important. The coach at the school saw something in Jerry and very quickly selected him as a centre player for the football team.

Centre back. Oh, I don't think so. I think he was... You know, at this point in my research, that thing happens that happens a lot. The book I'm reading has assumed knowledge that I don't have, not being American. Usually I go and look it up just to figure out what they're talking about. No, this time, didn't do it.

I didn't look up the rules and positions of American football. I didn't even look up how to say it. The centre player of a football team probably sounds silly. I know that. It probably sounds as silly as saying there was a defender player in a normal football team. You don't say that. You say they play in defence. You don't say he's a defender player, do you?

So probably it's not how you say it, but I didn't look it up. He's the player that defends the goal and stops the ball from going into the net. You can guess what position he played. I know it's something to do with being centre and I know it's important. I don't know American football. What do you think it's called? Centre back. I think he was near the front. I could have sworn I remember seeing something. Do you think there's a centre

forward? That would make sense. It makes sense. It's a centre back, wouldn't it? And do you get wings in American football? Like wingbacks? Probably. Wing forwards? Half wing. You don't get scrum halves, do you? Because they don't do scrums. Wing fly. I don't know.

I don't know. No, I don't know either. Fly half. He was the guy who said hut. Hut! Hut! Yeah. That's during, what's that called?

When they, when they. The scrum. But they don't call it a scrum, do they? No, they call it a cuddle. What do they call it? I don't know. A cuddle? A team talk?

Team talk, yeah. By the way, we have probably just made many American listeners want to claw their own ears out in the last two minutes. It's fine. I mean, there's nothing wrong with their version of rugby. It's fine. No, there's not. All you need to know for now, by the way, is that he was on the first team,

and he was making a name for himself very quickly as one of the football stars of the school, along with a couple of others, but he was very much the football star. Good for him. So good was his playing, by the way, even got him a job. A fan of the matches owned a Greek diner.

So he offered Jerry a job because that's just how things worked back then, I suppose. You're an amazing football player. You'd be great at waiting tables. Yeah, he fried burgers and he served food in this Greek diner for a while. It was great. He made some money. One day when he was working, serving food up,

a man came in and said, are you Leslie King? Jerry said no. Now, by this point, by the way, he knew Gerald wasn't his real father, but he didn't know the name of his birth father or his own birth name. As far as he was aware, he was called Junie or Gerald Ford. The man then introduced himself. He was his father. Oh, yes. Leslie King had come to Grand Rapids to track his son down. Oh, and also, yeah, he did happen to be there to pick up a brand new car, but honestly

mostly it was to track my son down. So, they went to lunch and there was Leslie's new wife and their, well, I say new wife, like newer wife, and their ten-year-old daughter, and Leslie invited his son to come and live with them all.

That's a good grimace there. I mean, I don't know how much does Gerald know about the badness that was Leslie. Probably not the details, but you get the feeling that the family were fairly open and honest. He probably knew that his mum didn't like his biological father. Anyway, Jerry says no. He likes it where he was. Thank you very much. Later in life, Gerald Ford recounts this and said he wanted to ask why his father

was there showing off his brand new car but hadn't paid his mother a thing to help his entire life. But he was too awkward to do it. He didn't say that. So after what could have only been a very awkward lunch, Leslie finally said goodbye

but also asked his son, if you don't want to live with us, can I help financially? You look shocked. Yeah, because I thought he was poor and lazy and didn't do anything. Oh, did his dad die? He's got all the inheritance. No, not that, no. Jerry said, well, that would be nice.

So the son of the multi-millionaire reached into his pocket and gave his son $25 and then left. This is the only financial contribution he ever gave. Ah, okay. Yeah. Still, the Fords didn't need the financial help. Gerald was doing well in his all-American paint shop with his secret French side room artisanal paint shop on the side. So it's all going well.

Yeah. So well, in fact, he was able to afford his own shop outright at this point. He bought a shop in October of 1929. That's nice, isn't it? Brand new shop. Got a stocket full of paints. This is just after the crash. What's that?

October 1929? No, Jamie, that's not just after the crash. That is literally three weeks before the crash is when he brought his new business. Excellent. Three weeks before the crash. Yeah. Times got hard. Jerry's grandfather then died, which he predicted a moment ago.

But this is when it happened. The child support disappeared. Dorothy attempted to get Leslie to pay child support once more, but again, he refused. And because it crossed state lines, there was nothing they could do about it. But if times were tough at home, school was going well. He was in his final year at this point, and he'd been made football captain. That's a term I can understand, I get that. That means he was, like, in charge.

Yeah, you could say, right, you go over there, you go over there, hut, hut! Yeah, he's still saying hut a lot, I'm sure. Then he was made all-State Team Captain. So, yeah, he was the star player of the state for his age group. Football, by this point, had pretty much become Jerry's life. But the good times couldn't last. Times were tough. The Fords could not afford to send Jerry to college.

But unknown to the Fords, the principal of the school had reached out to the coach of Michigan University and put a word in for Jerry. Come and meet the kid. He'll be the school had reached out to the coach of Michigan University and put a word in for Jerry. Come and meet the kid. He'll be an asset for your team. Okay, at this point, I did go, right, I do need to go down a football rabbit hole here because this is now becoming important. Didn't look up what the position was, but no. Right, college football in America. For anyone not in America and does not realise this, because college football in America doesn't really have parallels outside of America. That kind of thing just doesn't happen in other countries. Colleges and universities in America have football teams that arguably rival the

national professional teams. At least they certainly do in support. They're like feeder things, aren't they? Because then they get called up to the NFL. They can be, but you can argue they are a rival in their own right as well. They have a lot of support. College football had been around in various forms and degrees for the last 60 years at this point. Mid-1800s is when it started in its basic form. Over the last 30 years, and when Gerry was playing,

college football had become a large regional pastime. The rules had solidified across the country. Regions were now starting to join and it was just about starting to become a national sport. So it was becoming big. Money was starting to pour into the teams and rivalries grew. A college football star in the early 30s would have been reasonably famous at this time. But it is still early days. We're not quite at the point where universities are scouting for players

and just giving them free education just so they can come and play for them, which is what we've got now. The football teams in the college have become so big that they are pretty much aside from the college with ties, their own thing, their own entity. But it's, like I say, it's still big back then. And yes, the Michigan coach would have been very interested in a star player who could make the team better.

But like I say, early days, this is before scholarships. You can't get a scholarship just for being good at football. But the coach did turn up and was impressed. So they had a bit of a discussion. How about you serve meals at the university hospital and then we will pay for all your meals. So you won't need to pay for any food when you're here. That is a huge expense gone. Yeah. You could afford to come here. Excellent. But what about the $100 tuition fee? That's going to have to be paid. Well, the principal of the

high school stepped in yet again. The school, he announced, were now awarding a prize for their honour students. Yes, that's right. Here it is. It's now a new award. And oh, who's the first winner? Oh, it's you, Jerry. Here's $100. But you have to answer a question first. What colour is the sky? That's a really hard question. I'm not answering it. It's a trick question. No, it's not. No, it's not. It's not it's too hard i can't answer there no scholarship for you damn wow no jerry jerry did answer his his question not that there was a question he answered the question of do you want a hundred dollars and he said yes please that was his question you win yay so that's good so he's got tuition paid for he's got all his meals paid for but obviously he's going to need a little bit on top of this just for day-to-day expenses.

Well, his stepdad had a sister and husband who were doing all right for themselves. Not amazingly, but they're doing okay. And they agreed to send Jerry $2 a week for expenses, which is very generous of them. So Jerry is off to university, all thanks to his teachers and his family. Oh. That is nice, isn't it? which is very generous of them. So Jerry is off to university, all thanks to his teachers and his family. That is nice, isn't it? Jerry adapted to university life exactly as you would expect. He buckled down.

He won the award for first-year player who demonstrated the best attitude. That's a lot to win a trophy. Yeah, it is a lot. Yeah, he did at university what he did at school. He got on with stuff and he had a good attitude. However, Jerry found it tough being a small fish in a big pond all of a sudden. He was used to being star captain, centre man, or whatever they call his position. He spent the first two years on the bench.

Yes, he trained. Yes, he was part of a team, but he was not part of the first team who were actually playing. He later said that it was a simple fact that the other centre person player, an older boy called Bernard, was simply better than him. So, fair enough. He found it hard not to play, but he understood, obviously. If someone else is better than me, obviously they're going to be on the first team.

The coach was impressed. I quote here, They're going to be on the first team. The coach was impressed. I'll quote here. Jerry Ford is one of the finest boys I've ever met. I'm not talking of football ability, but of character. He is always cheerful, always does the very best that's in him.

He's never complained, never crapped, always boosting for Bernard, who was keeping him on the bench. Give me 11 boys with the disposition of Jerry Ford. Nice. I'm just trying to find a an inspirational quote about disappointment one's best success comes after their greatest disappointments yes he said that i also said sometimes the biggest disappointment leaves you in the right place he made sure he stood in front of posters with sunsets oh when he said this it's weird you said that because about three of the the images i have up are just sunsets.

Yes, of course they are. They're inspirational quotes. All inspirational quotes are put in front of sunsets. Everyone knows this. Don't let today's disappointment cast a shadow on tomorrow's dream. Yeah, he said stuff like this all the time.

Anyway, a few years go by, a couple of years. By his senior year, he's back in as a starter, by the way, obviously. He's a bit older now, so he's back in as a starter, by the way, obviously. He's a bit older now, so he's back on the first team. And once again, he becomes the star of the team once more. But the team were not

doing well, to put it bluntly. They were losing everything. He's not much of a star then, is he? Well, he was the best player, arguably. But he... the team weren't great. The last two years, by the way, they had won two national trophies. But certain players had moved on and the team dynamic had changed

and they were struggling to win a single game. Well, yeah. Well, as he said, success is not final. Failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts. Yes, that's exactly the kind of thing he said. Anyway, one day the team were up to play Georgia Tech. This in itself was unusual.

Like I say, the sport wasn't quite national yet, and playing a team from the South was not common. And you can probably see where this is going. All of a sudden you're playing a team from the Deep South. Oh, dear. You're in Michigan. Yeah. Jerry had a close friend on the team, by the way.

Willis Ward. Willis was also one of the best on the team, just like Jerry was. He was very well respected. And guess what? He happened to be black. Yeah. Yeah. Georgia Tech found out that Michigan were going to field a black man

and obviously refused to play unless he was removed. This hit national news. Like I say, college football was getting big, and this mixed it with race politics, and people love their race politics. So, yeah, this was national news. Are Michigan going to dump Willis or not? Guess what they do.

They dumped him. Yeah, of course they dumped him. They didn't make a stand. They capitulated. They announced Willis would not play uh this infuriated jerry infuriated willis more obviously but this is jerry's episode infuriated jerry he went straight to the coach and said two words and i quote i quit oh made a stand which he immediately went back on uh so i was gonna say he probably had a quote for it

something along the lines of there is a difference between giving up and knowing when you've had enough yeah even the darkest nights will end and the sun will rise he was thinking that when he said the words i quit yeah uh yeah uh well apparently the reason why he went back on his word and he did play in the end is because willis convinced him, saying, look, all I want to see now is those Georgians defeated. So go out. You're one of the best players. Go out and kick their arses. And they did. Michigan win the game, the only game they won that season. Willis, by the way, went on to excel, not in football, but in athletics. If you think of what time period

were him, he beat Jesse Owens two times out of the five times they raced. Wow. So he wasn't quite as good as Jesse Owens, but he was up there. It looked to many like he was off to Berlin for the 36 Olympics. But understandably, he decided, I don't really want to go to this racist, fascist nation. I mean, yes, it might be nice to go and beat the Germans and stick my finger up at Hitler, but you know what? It might also be nice not to go to Nazi Germany. So he decides not to. Yeah, there you go.

So Willis goes on to have a... I went down a bit of a Willis rabbit hole because he had an interesting life, but it's not his episode, so back to Jerry. Obviously, university life was not all about football. He did have lessons. He did okay. Middling.

He got B in economics and business. Yeah. And things were going as well as they could, but money was always an issue at this point. By his last year, he was $1,000 in debt, and he was not allowed to graduate until he'd paid the money back. Really? Oh, yeah.

Yeah, if you're in debt, you can't graduate, which is still true to this day. I mean, if you're at university and you've got a library fine, they stop you from graduating. That's a good point, yeah. Yeah. But, yeah, so he couldn't graduate until he paid $1,000 back, and that was tricky.

In fact, more than tricky, it was impossible. He didn't have the money. He was desperate. He wrote to his father, Leslie. Not his father, Gerald. He wrote to his father leslie not not his father gerald he wrote to his biological father leslie you once said you'd help financially well now i need help son of a multi-millionaire can i have a thousand dollars so i can graduate leslie's response ha ha ha ha ha ha no p. Here's a photo of my new car.

That response would have at least shown that his biological father cared enough to do a response. No, he just didn't hear back. Oh, that's even worse. Yeah, even worse. So instead, he's got to get a job. He's got to earn the money. But all he knows is football. All he loves is football.

But he is close with the coach. So he goes to the coach and asks for a job. If you've got anything at all I can do for a bit of cash, essentially. Coaching? Yeah. The coach went, no, we don't. We don't have any. However, I do have a friend who coaches at Yale.

And I recently heard he needs an assistant line coach. How about that? This was beyond anything Jerry was looking for. He was looking for a bit of cash. This was like a... I'd have cleaned out the jockstraps for the job I had to do. This was a full-time job, paying $2,400

a year. Not only that, it would mean he was going to Yale. Yeah. I mean, was going to Yale. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, okay, to work. Yeah. But he wants to become a lawyer.

That's still his ambition. Mm. I mean, yes, football's his life and his love, but he knows he can't do that forever. He wants to become a lawyer. And, well, if he's in Yale, who knows? Maybe he could work something out at Yale. So he snaps up the position. He was able to pay off the debt, knowing that he'd be able to earn the money in the future. So he snaps up the position. He was able to pay off the debt,

knowing that he'd be able to earn the money in the future. So he graduates. He goes home for summer. He works in his dad's paint shop for a while. He legally changes his name at this point to Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. There you go. Everyone's calling him that anyway,

but this is now his official name. So was Gerald Ford Sr., was his middle name Rudolph? Yes. Very French name. Yeah. Rudolph. And then off to Yale he goes. He fits in very well with the team.

He gets on with his coaching job. All reports from back then, the students say he was a decent coach. I mean, he was kind of born for coaching, wasn't he? With his inspirational quotes. That's true. Yeah. Never give up, never surrender. He said.

Which is close to a Bruce Springsteen. Fights till the dying sun. That doesn't make sense. Shh, he's a coach. Why has he always got a sunset behind him? He's always standing on a bridge over a river. Weird. Why is he always in silhouette? He's now walking on a bridge over a river. Weird. Why is he always in

silhouette? He's now walking across the beach. Holding hands. There's always footprints in the sand wherever he goes. Yeah, anyway, like I say, he's not lost sight of what he really wanted. He wants to go to law school. He's in Yale. What better

than Yale Law School? So he applies and was rejected immediately. They wants to go to law school. He's in Yale. What better than Yale Law School? So he applies and was rejected immediately. They laughed him out the building. He wasn't a Yale man. Who's this assistant coach who's come up here thinking he can just join the law school?

He was not a Phi Beta Kappa, after all. What? You know, the weird society things they've got in America. Oh, sorority. Yeah. Yeah, I don't understand that. Fraternity.

Oh, it's all horrible. We've talked about them before and how toxic they are, yeah. So instead, he enrolled in two courses in Michigan Law School, just to try and appear like he knows what he's doing a bit more, and he got two Bs under his belt, and then he applied yale every sting is an opportunity so he uh he tries again he's got two b's from michigan law school a couple of small courses can i now please join you at yale law school he said he was rejected out of hand again by two professors, but a third professor said, tell you what, you can start on a trial basis. You can be a part-time student.

You can take two courses but no more. We'll see how you go. Don't want to waste my time on a football coach. So over the next year, he continued as he usually did. He worked hard. He studied in the morning. He coached in the afternoon. He buckled down.

He got reasonable results. Nothing amazing. Again, he's got Bs. And this was enough for the year after for him to be accepted as a full-time student. So he gets in. But he couldn't afford to stop coaching. So he did his full-time coaching

job and his full-time studying law at Yale at the same time. That must be tricky, especially if you'reale at the same time that must be tricky especially if you're coaching at the same time your lecture's gone it's like throw the ball really long through that window go and grab it and listen for a few minutes grab the ball listen to lecture few minutes run back out again do a bit of coaching and he keeps doing the same thing like back and forward he probably wrote lots of law all over the uniforms so when all the students were playing, he could just read the uniforms as they went past.

On the balls as well. Yeah, on the balls, definitely. In fact, I'll quote him here. I wrote all the law on all the uniforms. No, no, sorry, wrong quote. I found I could handle two full-time jobs at once, but I must say I worked my ass off. That's not to say he had no time for anything

else, by the way. He did find some time for the ladies. Because this time he met 17-year-old Phyllis Brown. And when he wasn't working, Jerry was with Phyllis, playing tennis, golf, skiing. It helped that she came from a very rich family, so they could

afford to do these things, which was very useful. Phyllis not only came from a rich family, she was also quite the looker. Enough so that she was able to get a model job in New York City. She did adverts for Coca-Cola and things like that. Yeah. So, yeah, she moves to New York City, which was a bit of a shame. She was a bit further away. But that did mean Jerry headed off to Manhattan to visit Phyllis,

and there he got a sense of the high life. All of a sudden, he found himself in a world where he was going to Broadway shows, going to Carnegie Hall. Yeah, life is looking good for Gerry. And then, in the summer of 1940, Gerry was introduced to politics. Now, Gerry had been listening on the radio to Republican presidential hopeful Wendell Wilkie. This was, by the way,

Roosevelt's third attempt. So this is, Roosevelt's been in for two terms, and he's trying to get the third term. And there were many, as we covered in his episode, who were saying, no, no, no, you can't have three terms. No one's allowed three terms.

It's not written down anywhere, but no, no, you can't do more than two terms. It's undemocratic. Also, Wilkie was running on an anti-war platform. Jerry particularly liked the idea of not going to war. It's a very sensible idea. Not wanting to go to war makes a lot of sense. His stepdad at the time was very active in the Republican Party, and said he could get Jerry a job working for the campaign in Grand Rapids over the summer. Campaign for Wilkie, which Jerry

really wanted to do. But it went nowhere. The contacts weren't strong enough. He just wasn't accepted into the campaign office. But actually Jerry used this as an opportunity. He said an inspirational quote to himself and realised that as one door shuts, another one opens,

let's go and campaign in New York, he thinks. That way I get to hang out with my hot model girlfriend. And also, the national headquarters for Wilkie was in New York City. So I'll be right in the thick of campaigning. Not just in Grand Rapids. This is brilliant. And it works perfectly.

He's snapped up. He's campaigning in New York City. He spends the summer handing out leaflets, stuffing envelopes, taking in shows, just having a lovely time. As we've seen, Wilkie loses the election. Roosevelt wins the third term. But Jerry had caught the political bug.

I'll quote him, By participating, I learnt not only a little about politics, but more importantly, I learnt about myself. I liked politics. I liked everything about it. Anyway, it's back to Yale. He finishes up his law course. He finishes up his coaching job. He finishes, he graduates. He's now set up to do what he'd been working towards for years now, join a law firm, become a lawyer. Or had he? Because that politics bug really was within him now. He couldn't shake the feeling that actually he wanted to be a politician.

Now he could, it was just a crazy idea. Instead of joining a law firm in New York City with his girlfriend, which was the plan, he could end the relationship with Phyllis, go back to Grand Rapids, move back in with his parents and get involved in local politics. Hmm. I mean, what are you going to choose? Well, no, I would choose. I have a very strong feeling. I know what Gerald's going to choose, but no, well, no, well no well no why is he going to make the bad choice well for him he makes the the right choice he's the choice he wanted to do he goes back to grand rapids he ends the relationship with phyllis he later says that it never worked out with phyllis

she was too much of a free spirit it was fun he liked her but if he was going to be a politician he needed a more sensible girlfriend he couldn't afford to have skeletons pop up so yeah he was already thinking at this time ford's wife needs to be beyond suspicion kind of thing so yeah he goes back to grand rapids and becomes a single man moves in with his parents but obviously you can't just go back to grand rapids and say right i'm a politician now he's got to get there. So he's going to do what most people do. He starts a law firm, he makes some money, makes some connections, and uses that to get into politics. So he goes into business with a fellow student from Michigan,

and they open up a teeny tiny little office. They had no clients whatsoever. They literally start a business, they rent out an an office and they sit there and go right what do we do did they what did the business do or did they not know lawyers oh yeah they were lawyers yeah they had an advert they had a sign outside uh they sat there for a good few hours uh and then a man walked in and just said oh can, can I have, like, oh, I didn't write it down. Something really simple. Just, like, look over this deed document or something. They charged $10 and there you go.

That was their first bit of business. As we've seen before, this is very common. It's just surprising that it's still going on in the 1930s because we were talking about this in our first few episodes. Very little has changed. It is still university, become a lawyer, start your own little law firm, make connections, become a politician. And yeah, this is exactly what's going on,

apart from the fact that Pearl Harbor happens. Oh, I remember that. Oh, yes, yeah. Tiny little law business was slowly but steadily starting to break even. We can now pay for rent! Yay! Yeah, exactly. But then everything is just blown apart, much like the warships stationed in Pearl Harbour.

Because, yeah. Nice. Sorry, too soon? Yeah. To the likes of Jerry, it was obvious what he had to do. Yes, he'd been campaigning not to go to war before, but this was different now. Before, he'd been campaigning not to go to war before, but this was different now. Before, he didn't want to join a foreign war, whereas now this was personal. It was his duty

to sign up and fight for America, so he signed up for the Navy. In April of 1942, he was made Lieutenant Junior Grade in the Navy Reserve. As we've seen before, if you've got a degree, then you're going straight into officer class. He reported for duty in the V5 instructor school at Annapolis, Maryland. And here he trained for a month in the basics of being an officer. Essentially how to salute, how to dress correctly, how to drill. As in do military drills, not how to put holes in things. Presumably.

I'm assuming. And then he was sent to North Carolina, and here he was to be a coach training cadets in a, quote, physical strength, courage, and concentration under fire. Basically, they took one look at what he was doing before and went, oh, you're a coach. That'll do. Yeah, go and make everyone fit.

That's a transferable skill. Yeah, it very much was because, yeah, he had to go there and basically put the new crooks through military drills and sport. Sport makes them fit. He fit in like a duck in a duck-shaped box. That would be Lafhankov at the same time. Thank you. That's definitely a saying, isn't it? Yeah.

I think I was going for a duck through water and realized that he wasn't going through something he was fitting in something so i hastily changed it to what a duck would fit into a fridge a duck would fit in a fridge yes so he fit in like a duck in a fridge ford by this point had decided however that he didn't want to spend the war training cadets he signed up to fight. And he wanted to be a pilot. That's why he joined the Navy. Yeah, what?

Always used to confuse me when I was younger. It's like, why are there so many pilots in the Navy? No, obviously the Navy had planes. And obviously they had aircraft carriers that needed pilots and all sorts. So yes, being a pilot in the Navy obviously does make sense. It just sounds silly. Yeah, anyway, he wants to be a pilot. He took lessons in his spare time when he wasn't training. He was determined to be a pilot, but there were two things wrong.

One, he was 29, so he was considered too old to be a pilot. And also his vision wasn't 20-20, so that's definitely it. No piloting for you. Okay, I'll change my dream, he thought. I'm going to be on a PT boat. If you remember back to Kennedy's episode, PT boats were the cool motorbikes of the sea. Everyone wanted to be on a PT boat. They were considered to be amazing.

Now, as we discovered in Kennedy's episode, they were actually really useless. They just had some really good PR. Yeah, everyone thought they in Kennedy's episode, they were actually really useless. They just had some really good PR. Yeah. Yeah, everyone thought they were cool, but they weren't actually that great. Anyway, this wasn't going to fly either. Ford didn't have Kennedy's connections, so he wasn't simply offered a job as a PT captain like Kennedy was.

In fact, he wasn't even allowed to go near one of them. Okay. Don't touch it. I'm going to adjust. I was going to adjust. I'm going to adjust my dream once again He said standing next to a sunset Any warship

Any warship will do I just want to be on a ship active duty And he had made just about enough connections Through his education That he managed to wrangle a position On the USS Monterey New aircraft carrier that had just been built Was a light cruiser essentially With a platform welded on top of it to make a flight deck.

Quickly made, quickly put together. Get it out on the front line. That's never a good sign, though. Well, they did the job, these boats. They certainly did. Boats, ships, cruisers. That's a boat. Everything's a boat in the water.

Floaty things. Anyway, Ford and the Monterey left New Jersey, avoiding the German submarines, and then headed through the Panama Canal, and after a stop in San Diego, they headed off to Pearl Harbor to refuel. To pass the time on the way, the men built a basketball

court on one of the ship's aircraft elevators, which just sounds quite cool. Especially if it's still going up and down at the same time. Yeah, it's increased increased difficulty raise the elevator do you think the the baskets were fixed on a wall that wasn't moving so the floor would move up and down and yes excellent that is a much more exciting version of basketball we need to create that sport oh easy and the fact that it's also on a a ship boat thing that's waving in the water, that's going to make it hard, isn't it?

Oh, this is so cool. So much fun. Anyway, Ford was instrumental in this. He convinced the captain that this is the best way to keep up fitness. Yeah, we can all do boring drills and stuff, but if we build basketball courts that move, then we'll all keep fit. So anyway, they built that. It's great.

After refuelling in Hawaii, they then set off again and then into battle. And I've said this a few times when we've covered World War II. Not a World War II podcast. No. I'm not going to go through everything that happens. But just know, on the 19th of November, 1943, Ford sees his first action,

and action continues for the next year and a half. The Monterey is involved in lots of fighting. However, that said, if you were in battle in the pacific theater there are worse places to be than on the aircraft carriers so don't think that gerald was really safe all the time he was in danger but he's not storming the beaches yeah that's not to say he was having a great time far from it uh but uh he wasn't living day to day Hoping he'd just get through the day However, things did get hairy Regularly enough, in one engagement

A torpedo narrowly missed their ship And hit the one next to them Which was somewhat unnerving, watching that ship go down Ford himself was said to keep cool under fire One time it's reported that he Asked someone else what the hurry was Who was running past him This man was running past him. This man was running past him because the Japanese

plane was strafing the ship with bullets. Oh. Yeah. So that was the hurry, but Ford just was calmly walking around saying, what's the hurry? Because he was cool under pressure. Or he hadn't noticed. Pyoom, pyoom, pyoom! Hey guys, game of

basketball! come on Probably call under pressure He was made gunnery officer And then due to troop movement and various things He was made assistant navigator Meaning he'd be on the bridge with the captain during combat Where he could see everything that was going on And again, if you're going to be in combat

Being next to the captain, that's a good place to be. Despite a few close calls, the Japanese did not manage to damage the Monterey at all. It did its job. Didn't even chip the paint. No, instead it was the weather that got it in the end. I say the weather, it's not like a light shower. In 1944. Just dissolved into the ocean.

Knew we shouldn't have built a magnesium ship yeah yeah you you get some speed out of it yeah no it was a typhoon a massive typhoon in december 1944 ripped apart the fleet the monterey lost all its planes they all fell off and the crew spent the terrifying time putting out fires and just praying that the ship would stay afloat. Typhoons and hurricanes are scary things. Being on a ship in the sea whilst one's going over you, I can only imagine what that must be like. Very horrible.

Yeah. Anyway, once the typhoon passed over, it was very clear. The Monterey was in no shape to continue. It needed heavy repairs to the point that it needed to go back to the US. It limps all the way back to Washington state. Meanwhile, Ford was told he was needed on the US training program. He was going to train other men again. Ford didn't like the idea of this, so applied to go back for active duty, not once but twice.

I want to be back on the ship. I liked it there. But the war ended before that could happen. So there you go. If I'm ever president, I'm going to start another war so I can go back on it. He promised himself, standing in front of a sunset. Ford was a changed man by the war, which is hardly surprising. Obviously, war changes people in many ways.

But the main way it changed Ford, according to himself, was politically I'll quote him here Before World War II I was, like a lot of middle westerners, an isolationist At Yale I was involved with America First A very respectable group of people who just thought that the United States should not get involved in European wars Well, I went to war. When I came back, I had become a devout, enthusiastic internationalist. I saw the mistakes of this country in staying out of international affairs. So a huge political change in him.

It's like a sense of realism all of a sudden as well. Yeah, he realised it's like you can't just pull down the shutters and hope the rest of the world goes away. The world doesn't work that way. It really doesn't. It's not going to work. So with this new political leaning, Ford started to think about his future once more. He decided he was going to be a politician and he was going to do it by being a lawyer for a bit. But then the war happened. And he enjoyed the war as much as you can enjoy war.

But it gave him a sense of structure importance. He felt like he was doing something worthwhile. And as with everyone faced with such horrific things, going back home, he really had to reflect. So what is it that I want out of life? Was my original plan still what I want? Do I want to go back to a tiny office and try and make it in politics? Yes. Yes, I do, he thought. I'm still going to do that. But he got a break because his friend, who he'd been in business with before, he hadn't signed up to go to war. In fact, he'd stayed and carried on being a lawyer, and he'd been employed in the most prestigious law firm in Grand Rapids. So when Ford got back, his friend offered him a job in this law firm, the most

prestigious law firm in Grand Rapids. Excellent. Ford takes it. He moves back in with his parents, because where else is he going to go? Which obviously soon led to questions such as, when the hell are you moving out, Gerald? But more, more loving and friendly than that, obviously. It was more put like this, why don't you settle down and find a wife? Or in other words, seriously, Jerry, you're in your 30s now. Please move out. Yes. Please.

Please take the Nirvana posters down from the bedroom. Come on. It's time to move on. Now, as it happens, it wasn't long before he met someone at a party, Betty Warren. Betty worked as a fashion coordinator, but she was unfortunately married. Aww.

Yeah. But that was soon to end. Oh, hey! Yeah, the last couple of years, she'd been getting a divorce. The divorce was still only ongoing because her alcoholic husband had fallen into a coma at one point, which slowed the divorce proceedings down somewhat. Yeah. So at first, Betty wasn't interested by Ford's advances. She refused to date while she was still married. I mean, like I said, divorce was still very scandalous at this

time. So dating whilst married. Oh, no, no, no, no. But she was happy to have a friend and the two became friends. And as soon as the divorce came through, they became more than just good friends. Really good friends. Really good friends. Did he introduce her to Jerry? He stood up with his hands on his hips and announced, I am Jerry. I am the member. I am, Gerry.

I am the member. Anyway, so he's got his girlfriend slash fiancée. It happens over time. And meanwhile, Ford is getting more and more interested in politics. He was frustrated with the current Republican congressman. This was a man called Junkman. That's a good name. Junkman, yeah, or Junkman. Junkman is how I pronounce it, but again, this is America

and they pronounce things differently over there, so it could be Junkman. Well, he was doing everything he could to push against the Marshall Plan, which was the big political debate of the day, obviously. Ford's new international outlook meant that this really annoyed him. A member of his own party was not moving with the times. Come on, Republicans, he thought, it's time to be internationalist. Stop looking inward. Now, slowly over the oncoming months, an idea formulated in Ford's mind.

If he didn't like what Yonkman was saying, he could run against him. They live in a democracy, damn it. There's nothing stopping him. Yeah. Yeah. And he wanted to be in politics. Yeah, this was a big leap. This was going straight to becoming a member of the National House. Straight into Congress.

But there's nothing stopping him. No. He ran the idea by his parents and his former business partner, and they went, well, yeah, if you want to give it a go, give it a go. So he hires a manager. I'd like to think he scanned the books looking for a potential manager and stopped on one with the coolest sounding name, because he hired a man, a businessman, an aspiring novelist called jack styles that's an awesome name jack styles is a fantastic name you're not losing anything when you've got jack styles as your manager if he's your wingman that that's fantastic i am jack styles i'm not sure what it is about jack styles it's just such an

amazing name but it is an amazing name yeah So anyway, straight away, Jack Stiles peered over the top of his sunglasses that he was obviously wearing and just said the words, let's get to work. And then he leaned behind him and flicked a switch on the montage machine. The two of them got to work. All sorts of campaigning ideas. There was them scribbling on bits of paper and nodding to each other. Chalkboards came out. There was a big board with red string. There's plans, a document folder with the word plans written on it. There's got Jonkman. He is the congressman for the district, and he is embedded. This is a heavily Republican area, so no Democrat's going to win. So it is all about who the Republicans put

forward. And Jonkman, he's a man of the party machine. The local party boss had put him in place. He's undefeatable. No one can beat him. No one's going to go against him. So that's a problem. Also, we've got a problem that he is Dutch and we are in a majority Dutch area. Lots of people are going to vote for him because he's just Dutch. Yeah, but Ford is French. Maybe, but they're not in a majority French area. So yeah. The second problem is that if anyone else runs against Jonkman, Ford's going to lose because who the hell is Ford? So it needs to be a two-horse race, and he needs to overcome the fact that Jonkman is Dutch in a Dutch area and the party favourite.

Yeah. Essentially, this is insurmountable. There's nothing you can do about any of this, surely. Well, there's certainly nothing we can do about the fact that he's Dutch and we're in a Dutch area. But could we work on, is anyone else running? Let's at least find that out first. So they went to go and visit some people. Ford and Jack Stiles, during one of their montage meetings,

figured out who is likely to run. And they came up with three leading citizens of Grand Rapids who they felt would be able to beat Yonkman and Ford if they ran. So they turned up to their houses. They had meetings with them. And they said, we think you should run against Yonkman and we want to help you. And then they waited for the response. And all three had the exact same response, which was exactly what they wanted to hear. Oh no, we're not going to run against Jankman. He's unbeatable. Why don't you run, however? I'll support you. Don't actually like the man myself. So they managed to drum up

some secret support by going to people they thought might run. They realised no one's running and they just start drumming up a little bit of support there. Okay, what next? Element of surprise. Jonkman's not expecting to be challenged. He's a shoo-in. If Ford could get endorsements lined up, he could then come out of the block full speed once he announced his candidacy. To his relief, as he started to quietly ask around, it turns out loads of people hated Jonkman. He was obviously just a member of the local party machine. No one really liked the guy, but it's like, well, it's just, he's in charge, isn't he? He was put there, there's nothing we can do about it.

We can't go against the Republican party machine, because that means going against the local party boss, who I've mentioned a couple of times now, but let's put a name to him. His name was Mackay. And what Mackay said went in that region. He was in charge of the Republican Party. What Mackay wants, Mackay gets. Yes. And Mackay wanted Yonkman in place. Mackay wants Yonkman. Is Mackay essentially Arnold Schwarzenegger with a sword on his wall behind in his office? Yeah. Yeah. Right. Okay. So this was good news, or at least as good as it could be for Ford, because, okay, there was actually some dislike of Jonkman and Mackay.

So maybe I will be able to get some support. And then there was the secret ace in the box, to mix my metaphors, because there was also the support that his boss could give him. Remember, he was working for this prestigious law firm. The boss at that law firm was a man named Julius Amberg. Julius Amberg was a devout Democrat, and he despised Yonkman far more than the Republicans who disliked Jonkman. Oh, Amberg just detested Jonkman. And he was more than willing to do anything that would damage the man. In fact, Amberg told his employee Ford, turn up to work for, I don't know, an hour every day, and you can spend the rest of your time campaigning. Nice.

I'll pay you all your wages. If it gives Jonkman a good kicking, yeah. Just show up every now and again. So in June 1948, Ford ends his staff campaign and announces that he's going to run. For his headquarters, they came up with an ingenious idea. We're not going to have an office. We're going to rent an army tent. We're going to paint it red, white, and blue,

and we're going to put it up in the car park of a popular department store downtown. They leased this space for two reasons. First of all, this car park happened to be just outside McKay's headquarters. Oh dear. Yeah. The political boss who had put Yonkman in place looked out the window one day to see this huge tent in the car park and realised that this young upstart was running against his man. He was furious. So he complained to the president of the department store.

I'll quote here, get Ford off this property. Now this led to the second reason Ford had chosen this place. The president of the department store contacted the lawyer to see if anything could be done to remove the tent. Guess who their lawyer was? Who? It was Ford's boss, Amberg. Yeah! Amberg called Ford and asked, Oh, the department store is a very good client of ours, and they want to know if perhaps,

I know you signed a contract, but perhaps you could move. Ford replied, oh no, no, we've got a contract, and I'm staying. Amberg replied, and I quote, excellent. That's exactly what I was hoping you would say. The campaign was very one-sided. Everyone knew that Jonkman was going to win, so Jonkman didn't campaign. Meanwhile, all-American football star slash war hero Ford went around talking about a future where the United States would bring peace to the world. They wouldn't shy away and batten down the hatches. No. International America.

He went door to door, factory to factory. Meanwhile, Jonkman was in Washington, DC still. Ford went on to win 24,000 votes to 14. Wow. Yeah. This was an election that was impossible to win, and he won 2-1. Wow. Yeah.

That's good. That's great. That's very good. He celebrated by marrying Betty. Aww. Just to... If you hadn't figured out already that Ford could be a little bit calculating and cold, remember how he dumped his ex because he thought he might want to get into politics?

Yeah. He'd put off his marriage during the campaign because he was worried that wedding a divorcee might have problems. Which, to be fair, his opponents could have used it against him, but it's a bit harsh. But anyway, they celebrate.

That's not calculating calculating that's just strategic i would strategic yes exactly uh anyway they get married at this point they wed in october of 1948 after the wedding betty met the extended family and one of jerry's sister-in-laws said to the new bride and i quote betty jerry's mistress won't be another woman but it will be his work. His sister-in-law was on to something. When they returned from their honeymoon, they arrived back in Grand Rapids on a Sunday afternoon. Betty probably was expecting just to relax.

But no, Jerry says to Betty, and I quote, I've got a very important political meeting at 7.30. Do you suppose you could fix me up some soup and a sandwich before I leave? So he was straight back into work. Yeah, no rest for him. Anyway, two months later, he's in Washington being sworn into Congress, the chamber of the House of Representatives. Just from nowhere, like that.

It's quite impressive. He met a couple of the other young representatives within his first day. Nixon, Kennedy, it's all that crowd. So starts a two-decade-long career in the House of Representatives. He was 37 when he joined, and he held his seat until 1973. He starts off by joining the House Appropriations Committee. This is a committee that evaluated federal spending. It's not flashy, but it is important. It's one of the most important jobs, really. It's like, what's the government the most important jobs really it's like what's

the government spending its money on it's certainly a cog in the government machine two years later he was moved to one of the subcommittees of appropriations but one he definitely enjoyed a bit more because it was the defense subcommittee what are the armed forces spending now he wanted to be in the navy subcommittee but it was decided no, you've got too many friends in the Navy. All the generals will be lining up asking for favours and you won't be able to say no because you were in the Navy. So instead, you've got the Army, which in the end Ford really enjoyed because obviously the Navy and the Army have a bit of a rivalry

and he was able to force the Army generals to go through their spending point by point, which he did enjoy. In his time on the committee, he ended up saying he knew more about the military and the programmes in the military more than any general did. And there's a reason for this, because the top brass kept changing, but the subcommittee stayed the same for several years. He really got to know his military unions. Which are a bit like normal unions yeah but they know how to salute and fire guns are they camouflaged yes that's why no one's ever seen one before he went to korea in 53 to do some inspections of the troops then on to hawaii in

san francisco on the way back just generally doing committee stuff as per usual we're back in a oh they've joined congress There's not much to talk about their lives anymore because it is just admin work. However, he did get a name for himself for being a bit of a hawk at this time. He wanted a strong military to make sure that the Soviets couldn't capitalise on the post-war world. He also made a name for himself for voting for all the civil rights bills. Good. Yes, that's good. But he wasn't well known, as you can imagine. He was still relatively new to Congress, and outside of Congress, he was unheard of.

I mean, he's just someone on the Appropriations Committee. Six years into this, he was summoned to the chair of Appropriations, to his office, and he was given a room number. Go to this number tomorrow. When he went to that number, it was all very strange and hush-hush, there were some armed guards there. He'd be freaking out by that point.

You'd be freaking out. Follow me, they say. No. Off they go. Once they get to another room, his identification was checked over. Make sure he's definitely Gerald Ford. Okay, yes.

Yes, you are. Inside you go. He found that he was getting a new job. No longer was he on the defence subcommittee, but the intelligence one. Oh, yes. This is the holy grail of appropriations, this is. The very head of appropriations, as in the whole thing, not subcommittees. He was on it, as were two other senior Democrats, plus Ford and one other Republican. Just the five of them. They looked over what the CIA was spending. No notes were taken.

No staff were present. It was all very hush-hush. The five of them lined up outside the room each time, picked up their cigars, filed them, turned out the lights so it was a nice dark room and then they chatted in their dark smoky room that's what they did for eight years ford worked on this committee never speaking about it all very hush hush and obviously he was much more well known in congress after this he'd been working there for years now and also he was on a very cool subcommittee that one's a bit jealous of that one but again obviously the, no idea who he was. Even less reason to know who Gerald Ford is.

Ten years of working in Congress turned Ford into a veteran. He was well respected by his colleagues. He got on with the job, no fuss, very much like he had done his entire life. We're getting up to 1960 now, and the Eisenhower administration was coming to an end. Vice President Nixon was going to run against Kennedy. Now, as I say, Ford had met Nixon on his very first day he'd come to Congress, and the two had formed a friendship, a working friendship. They weren't like best, best friends. An acquaintance. They got on. Yeah, they got on well enough. They worked well together.

They would have meals together and things like that. Yeah. And this continued after Nixon became vice president. They were both veterans of the Pacific, obviously. They both have similar views on the military and their politics lined up fairly well. In fact, the two of them got on well enough that Nixon seriously considered Ford to be his running mate against Kennedy at one point, but if you remember his episode, the party forced Henry Cabot Lodge upon him, so that didn't happen. So as you can imagine, Ford throws his support

behind Nixon during the campaign here, but as we know, Kennedy wins. Flash Ford through all of Kennedy's presidency, because Ford's just getting on with his job. Him and Betty were driving home from a teacher conference one day when news comes over the radio. Kennedy has been assassinated. Ford is shocked. He was never really close to Kennedy, but they got on well enough. They had an office down the hall from each other for a while. So yeah, a colleague has just been assassinated. It's shocking stuff. So yeah, a couple of days later, Ford gets a call from the new president, President Johnson. We're putting a commission together to investigate the assassination. Now, you have a reputation for being non-partisan when it comes to matters of national security.

Well, I'd like you to join. So there you go, Ford agrees. He's on the Warren Commission. For 10 months, he and various high-up officials on the commission investigate the murder of Kennedy. Ford goes to Dallas. He goes up to the window in the book depository where the shots were taken. He retraced the movements of the car. They question Jack Ruby. They go through countless testimonies and interviews. This is months of work. And in the end, the results were clear. Lee Harvey Oswald shot Kennedy. Yeah. I mean, he admitted to it. He said he would do it beforehand. Everyone saw it happen. They caught him with a gun in his hand.

Yeah. I'm glad I killed the **** that he said when he was captured. However, there was some debate. Some on the staff wanted the report to state, and I quote here, there was no conspiracy, foreign or domestic. Ford and one other person on the commission objected to this, so it was changed to, the commission has found no evidence that either Oswald or Ruby were part of any conspiracy, foreign or domestic.

Ford just wanted to make it clear, no, we found no evidence of it, but there is a difference between saying there isn't something and saying there's no evidence of it. And he just felt that the second statement was more truthful. Incidentally, Ford lived longer than anyone else on that commission until the end of his days he maintained that it was very obvious that Oswald killed Kennedy. There was no conspiracy.

It was straightforward killing. That was his belief. But he did feel like a government statement should be as factual as possible. So that's why it got changed. Obviously, the commission has found no evidence statement has been used by conspiracy theorists a lot. Anyway, we're now rapidly moving through the years. We're now in 1965. Johnson wins his first election and stays on as president.

Republicans lose the House and they start looking for a new House minority leader. Now, there's a whole civil war going on in the Republican Party at this point. You've got the old guard, and you've got the young Turks, as they were known, the young'uns coming up, and they wanted Ford to represent them. Get rid of the old guard, let's get a new leader in the house. So they approach Ford. Incidentally, this is our first notable inclusion into politics of Donald Rumsfeld. He's 30 years old at this point. He is someone who approached Ford.

Anyway, Ford, do you want to represent us? Do you want to run for the House Minority Leader? Now, by this point, Ford is so well established, he seems like a good choice to most. He's just seen as a safe pair of hands. But did Ford want to lose his really cool CIA intelligence appropriation seat? I mean, it's a good position to be in. For the last 14 years, he'd become an expert on how the government spends money, especially in the military and intelligence. Did he really want to come away from that? Not really, but he wanted to become the Speaker. That was his ultimate goal.

And to become the Speaker, he needs to ultimate goal. And to become the Speaker, he needs to be the leader of the Republicans in the House when they've got a majority. While being the minority leader is a very good step towards that. So yes, fine, I'll do it. He goes for it, and sure enough, he was elected. In 1968, his friend Nixon won the presidency. That is where we will leave it today. Ford getting on with his job. And, oh, what's that over there? Is that someone breaking into the Watergate Hotel? Oh, I don't know.

Let me listen in. Yes. Yes, it is. So there you go. That's Ford. Yeah. At least the early life of Ford. Do you know what?

Compared to Nixon, he seems just like a bit of a hard worker. And, like, he's obviously very a focused individual yes and it's a shame his presidency will be so crap well we will see i get the impression he's the kind of guy that i could happily disagree politically with yes yes you could have a conversation with rather than a... Yeah. He's the kind of guy you want in politics because he's a bit boring. Yes. And he just gets on with the job. And there's no drama. Politics should be boring.

It shouldn't be as... Politics should be boring. If all the presidents were really good at their jobs, this podcast series would have been the most boring thing in the world. Yeah, true. But I'm quite impressed with the way he just gets on with stuff. There's no flashiness in this life. Nope.

There's no huge excitement. But he's quietly just getting on with it. I've been impressed so far. This has been almost the most impressed I've been in terms of modern politician. I've thought, you know, yeah, get on with it. Yeah. Okay, then. Well, you say, yeah, get on with it. Yeah. Okay then. Well,

you say his presidency won't be good? Yes. Why do you think that? Because I know a bit about him. Well, we will see, won't we?

Right. Okay. Well, thank you very much for listening, everyone. And thanks for downloading us on iTunes,

Podbean, and wherever else you do. All the places, yeah. Don't forget, if you would like to support us in Patreon, you can do that and get access to all our Hamilton episodes. There are six of them now, and we're only about halfway through. And you get all the

Roman stuff as well, which is great. And when we say the Hamilton things, that's not us recreating the musical. Or is it? You wouldn't know. You won't know. You've got to join the Patreon to find out. Is it me and Jamie singing slash rapping all the songs? Yeah. Maybe it is.

I don't know. But it's no promise. There's no guarantee. It's a gamble. Are you going to take that gamble? Ooh. Ooh. Right.

Okay. In that case, all that needs to be said is... Goodbye. Au revoir. Au revoir. Au revoir. What's wrong with you, boy? When are you going to get out and get a life? I mean, you need to settle down. You're still living with your parents and you're 34. Come on, man. Sorry, Mother.

I was away thinking. But, Jerry, what's going through your head? I mean, all the time you're just in your head, you're trapped alone, and all you're just thinking about are other things and going along, and it's really terrible that you just keep... When you have a dream, you've got to grab are other things and going along. And it's really terrible. When you have a dream, you've got to grab it and never let it go. There is always a light. If only we were brave enough to see it.

If only we're brave enough to be it. Out of a mountaintop of despair. A stone. Act as if what you do makes a difference. Success is not final. Failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue. Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it. It is often the small steps, not the giant whips that bring you late bound.

It is our ship to change. Be there for others. But never leave yourself. What is a peace? A peace? What is a peace? So the potential of this vehicle is reverses. The potential of this vehicle is reverses.

And getting caught in the rain. And getting caught in the rain. And getting caught in the rain. Gerald. Gerald, are you listening to me, Gerald? Gerald! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. What's going on in your head? I don't know.

I can't make it stop. May contain traces of nuts.