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Complete disclosures available at public.com/slash disclosures. Mm. You ever wonder how far an EV can take you on one charge?
Well, most people drive about 40 miles a day, which means you can do all daily stuff no problem. Go to work, grab the kids at school, get the groceries, and still have enough charge to visit your in-laws in the next county. But they don't need to know that. And the best part, you won't have to buy gas at all. The way forward is electric.
Explore EVs that fit your life at electricforall.org. Um This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people coming to you from where the West begins in Fort Worth, Texas. Here to tell the story of the most famous presidential impersonations is Peter Funt. Author of Playing POTUS. the power of America's acting presidents.
So, although there were some presidential impersonations in the 1930s and 1940s, The genre really began in 1962 when JFK was president. And an album came out, a record album. that was called the first family. The voice was provided by an unknown, at that time, comedian by the name of Vaughan Meader. The question is, would you want your son to be present?
Definitely not. I uh think he should finish school first. And he managed to capture Pretty much the charm, the charisma, that Kennedy captivated much of America with. You know, they called the period Camelot for a good reason, because the nation was in love with this young, charming president. Kennedy's assassination.
Kind of shut down the whole enterprise for a while. The nation was in shock, and frankly, comedians. didn't really know what to do next. Lyndon Johnson became president. This was a guy who was far more mockable in terms of his comedic traits than Kennedy was.
But for a year or more, Impressionists didn't want to touch it. It was just too insensitive considering what had happened with Kennedy. But eventually, the comedian started. There was a guy named David Fry. Our fellow Americans, I come here tonight with a heavy heart.
Yeah, yeah. We must do something to end the problems. in this great land of ours. I have decided to take the following step. Look at the ball!
And he did a pretty pointed LBJ. And in fact, along with the Smothers brothers, Who were comedians and entertainers? They were also very politically focused against the president they didn't care for, which was LBJ. Don't forget, this was a period where the Vietnam War was just ripping our country apart, and the civil rights movement was also a big deal. It was a very tough time for Lyndon Johnson to be president, and a very easy time to make comedy about Johnson.
Live from New York in the United States. Saturday night. Yeah. I'd say good comedians never shy away from controversy. and they're always looking to push the envelope.
And as the presidents came and went, It just seemed like a logical avenue for comedy, but really the big turning point came in 1975. Right at that time, Saturday Night Live had its television debut. And right on the very first episode of Saturday Night Live, although they did not do a presidential impersonation on that first show. Chevy Chase. Anchored weekend update and set the stage immediately for criticizing the president.
He said one line that was so damning to Gerald Ford. Ford's new campaign slogan. Mr. Ford was on the campaign trail announcing in Detroit that he has written his own campaign slogan. The slogan?
If he's so dumb, how come he's president? Three weeks later, they decided on SNL to do a sketch that would involve Gerald Ford. And they decided that Chevy Chase would play the part.
Now, Chevy Chase really isn't an impressionist. He is a comedian. He's not an impressionist. And the beauty part of his Gerald Ford was he made no effort to sound like the guy, no effort to look like the guy. In fact, nothing he did about Gerald Ford actually rang true, except that it was so funny.
Chevy Chase, an up-and-coming comic, had made Uh his mark. Falling down. He loved to do prat falls.
Well, Gerald Ford had had some unfortunate mishaps, the most infamous of which was slipping and falling on the steps of Air Force One. For President Ford, the year seemed full of snags. In June, he fell down the plane's steps on arriving in Austria. And he quickly got an impression among the public as kind of a klutz.
Now, parenthetically, he was not a klutz and he did not fall down a lot, even though he did on one or two occasions. But Chevy Chase and the writers at SNL ran with this. Chase would play Ford, and he'd bumble, drop things, and Really act like a clown, and the payoff was invariably that he'd fall down. And that's what Chevy Chase was so good at. And it just became funnier and funnier each week.
So much so that the public began to think that maybe this guy who's president is a klutz. And then, if you project that further, well, if he's so clumsy, maybe he ain't very smart either. And it began to work against Gerald Ford, arguably actually contributed to Ford's defeat.
So there we have. The first example of presidential impersonations affecting the presidential election, and it's sort of gone on a roller coaster ever since. And by the way, what Chevy Chase didn't include and what America didn't know was that Gerald Ford may have been the greatest athlete to ever become and be president. He was on the championship football team at the University of Michigan when he was an undergrad and was also a tremendous golfer. But the facts never get in the way of good comedy.
The story of playing POTUS. here on Our American Stories. This is Lee Habib, host of Our American Stories. Every day on this show, we tell stories of history, faith, business, love, loss, and your stories. Send us your stories, small or large, to our email, oas at ouramericanstories.com.
That's oas at ouramericanstories.com. We'd love to hear them and put them on the air. Our audience loves them too. In football, you've got guys from everywhere. Different backgrounds, different beliefs, all of it.
You don't agree on everything. but you got each other's backs. That's how it works. And right now, off the field, hate's going up everywhere. Different communities, different ways.
And Jewish communities are getting hit hard. That's not how a team operates. The blue square is just one way of showing you've got people's backs. Go to bluesquarealliance.org, grab one, share it, be a good teammate. I'm U.S.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. Mm. We all get distracted when we drive. whether it's from our phones, Or kids in the backseat bickering. But how we handle these distractions can be a matter of life.
or death. Before you get on the road for your next road trip, Please put your phones on silent. and take a mental note. to focus on driving. Paid for by Nitza.
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So visit us at cvs.com or just come by our store. We can't wait to meet you. Store hours vary by location. You ever wonder how far an EV can take you on one charge?
Well, most people drive about 40 miles a day, which means you can do all daily stuff no problem. Go to work, grab the kids at school, get the groceries, and still have enough charge to visit your in-laws in the next county. But they don't need to know that. And the best part, you won't have to buy gas at all. The way forward is electric.
Explore EVs that fit your life at electricforall.org.
