Transcripts For CSPAN3 American History TV In Grand Rapids MI 20160918

Program was started by a three person committee, but they wanted they wanted to take it possible for American Cities to commission an original work of art for that city. We were the first city to ever receive a grant from the endowment to be used specifically to commission an original work of art for a specific civic site. It was 16 years old. It was in the spring of 1930 and he was working at bills place when he noticed a new car pulled up and stopped in front of this store. This big fellow stepped out any stepped into the entryway of the sedre and cost pau for a long time. Ford asked him if you help him. The man city where Leslie Lynch King junior. He said no, im gerald ford junior. He said you are my son, im your father. I want to take you to lunch. Welcome to grand rapids on American History tv. With the help of our Comcast Cable partners, for the next 90 minutes we will take you to michigans secondlargest city. Once called Furniture City. We begin with a tour of the newly updated gerald ford president ial museum where we will learn about the early life and career of the 38 u. S. President. We are at the Gerald R Ford president ial museum in grand rapids, michigan. We are in the new exhibits. The exhibits opened just a few weeks ago and its a brandnew exhibit on gerald ford, his life and times that took about six months to complete. The spaces are broken down into his what we call his foundation years, his youth. We move into his congressional period. Then has president ial and pose president ial experience. In the first gallery we feature his foundational years. He grew up in grand rapids, michigan, but he was not born in grand rapids. He was born in omaha, nebraska. His mother had married a businessman in omaha by the name of leslie king. She was dorothy king. They had a child in july of 1913. They named him Leslie Lynch King junior. He is the person we know is gerald ford. We have his christening gown and a few other things of interest, but one of the things we featured is the baby book. A lot of mothers keep books on their children, even today. Dorothy was no exception back in 1913. She began keeping a book on the babys experience. We cant present the real thing, but we present a duplicate and flip form. Some of the things you see are the first picture of dorothy with the baby. He was born in a house in omaha, nebraska, his grandfathers house. Some of the other interesting features about it is she records babys first outings. The first entry is this taxicab ride. It occurred to lease after his birth. Two weeks after his birth. That is when dorothy king was fleeing Leslie Lynch King. He proved to be a very abusive husband. Began on thee wedding day, through the honeyman, and extended into the time of her pregnancy. As soon as she recovered her strength after the birth of the him into asecret taxi cab and drove them over to council bluffs, iowa where the sheep she records babys first train ride. She takes him to chicago where her parents lived outside of chicago and harvard, illinois. She has fled her husband. Her husband files suit for abandonment for divorce on grounds of abandonment. Grounds countersues on for abuse. The judge decides in her favor. A house thatnion, still exists in grand rapids. That is the home of his youth. To grandrought junior rapids because her parents were developing real estate in the area, along with another partner of her fathers. Here she met a paint salesman by the name of gerald ford. By february, 1917, they had gotten married. They had themselves and the young child who they continued to call junior. In time he just became gerald ford junior. There never was an adoption, but there was a family. Gerald senior was a loving father. They would go on to have other children. Tom, dick and jim. The kids became active in school and social organizations. Each one of them became a boy scout. Gerald became junior became an eagle scout by the time he was 14 years old. Asior often is described that boy scout, the ideal boy scout. That wasnt always the case. Ford brought with him into his youth some of the characteristics that his birth father exhibited. One was his temper. Temper. Ad an excitable told was a story that is of him as a young child in his front yard where neighbor kids wanted to climb a tree but he claimed that his history in when let them climate. He stepped on their fingers when they grabbed her lens for limbs. His mother determined that temper were not be carried into adulthood. He would not get away with the things his birth father got away with. She did a number of Different Things to help curb that. She made them memorize poetry. Poem if. Bible verses. One became his favorite that he would lean on into adulthood. He was also ridiculed by his mother when he exhibited these tempers. She would show him faces he was making. She would shame him and show him the ridiculousness of his behavior. He recalled all of these things in his adulthood. Helped himhow that to control a temper that never left him. But did not control him either. Junior lived in what we recall a lower middle class family. Dorothy married gerald ford senior it was a paint salesman. Ford was ambitious and wanted to start his own company. He bought part of the company he worked for and turned it into the ford paint and varnish company. It was a company he started two weeks before the stock market crash in october, 1929. He was able to hold on to the company through the depression. It stayed in the family until the 1960s. It was one he struggled to hold onto. But it was that kind of family that ford grew up in. Ford himself was made to work, to earn his money. One of the jobs he had was at a burger joint across the street from south high. A place called bills place. Hired star athletes from the high school to entice other kids to come to his burger joint and spend their lunch money. One of the star athletes was junior forward. Junior ford. People would come to see the friday night stars whatever eating their lunch. It was at bills place where one of the important events, formative events in juniors life took place. He was 16 years old. It was in the spring of 1930. He was working at bills place when he noticed a new car pulled up and stopped in front of the store. That was unusual for this part of grand rapids because nobody owns a new car. This was a brandnew lincoln automobile. This big fellow stepped out of it and stepped into the entryway sed for aore and pau long time and stared at junior. Ford asked him if he could help him. The man looked at him and said, you are Leslie Lynch King junior. He said no, im gerald ford junior. He said you were my son. Im your father and i want to take you to lunch. That shocked junior. Andent back to see bill said this guy says hes my father anyone to take me to lunch. Bill said i guess you better go with him. They went to a place called the cherry inn and had lunch together. Junior, his birth father and his birth fathers wife margaret. Life ind him about his wyoming. He lived outside riverton, wyoming between riverton and shoshone. He wanted junior to come out and live with him. Course young ford had no interest in doing that. He lived in a very happy home and why would he be at all eager to make a change . D demeuredath and said im happy here. Asked howter difficult it was written to hold his temper at that moment . Tosaid there are times you bite your tongue and be polite and this was one of those moments. Otherwise he was angry. He didnt understand what was going on. This fellow claimed to be his father. If he was his father, why wasnt he involved in his life . This fellow was a stranger to him. He knew also he was going to have to go home and tell his parents about it, about the experience. He wasnt looking forward to that. It was a hard dinner that night. Afterwards he took his parents to the living room and explained what had happened, the experience he had. He said there were tears shed in the living room as his mother told him the story about his birth father, her leaving him and coming to grand rapids. Parents were in their own way ambitious. Ambitious to make something of themselves, to be something in grand rapids. Junior ford also was very ambitious. One of the things he wanted to schoola leader in his and on the playing field. In school what he wanted to be was president of the Student Council, president of the senior class. At the beginning of the senior year students competed for these different offices as they do today. Ford ran on the progressive ticket. He did that because some but he got in front of him and waned republican ticket. One that was left to him in this roosevelt era, teddy andy bu and the bull moose era and he put together a team. Every member of his team was elected to their offices but he lost miserably to a fellow by the name of leo van tassle. He was elected president by an overwhelming margin. As Everybody Knows these offices are popularity contests. Why ines the question, the world of the most popular student at south high lose so terribly to somebody who wasnt that popular . Coach, acause his fellow named coach gettings called the other athletes into a room and said i want you to torpedo that election. Ford is the captain of the team for the football team. He needs to be on the practice field. He doesnt need to be wasting his time at Student Council meetings. The other athletes took that to heart and went out and make sure ford lost. Ford was wellknown as an athlete. He made his name as an athlete. He was on the swim team at the ymca. He was on the track and field team at south high. He played basketball at south high, but he was best known on the football field. He was a star center for the state championship south high football team. And he was captain of the team. But he wasnt just an athlete. He was also a scholar. In the classroom he was solid. In fact self i gave an award to the outstanding male scholar and female scholar. Dorothy gray was the female scholar and gerald ford was scholar for both his gpa and for his civic activity. He wanted to go to the university of michigan. The university of michigan was recruiting him as an athlete. He found it difficult however because his parents didnt have a lot of money and he didnt have enough money to pay the tuition is first year. It became a Community Affair to get gerald ford to the university of michigan. They stepped in and said we will help you financially to get there. He starts a book sale, a Library Book Sale that establishes a scholarship to provide money to needy students. The first scholarship recipient is gerald ford. They give him 100, which pays his first years tuition at the university of michigan. 50 person after. He is 18 years old when he is seeing our city thats when he gets to the university michigan. He wants to have fun as well as apply himself to his studies. He earns solid grades at the university of michigan and he excels on the football field once he is given the opportunity to perform as a starter his senior year. Fraternity,o a delta cap epsilon. A epsilon has reputation as the party house. You wonder why this otherwise serious student would want to ek. Dge to d its as much a case that they want him as he wants dek. It is constantly being threatened with expulsion. Ther gpa is traditionally lowest among the greek fraternities on the university of michigan. Thee was hope among some of brothers if they could get ford, he can help their gpa. And he could help right their s hip. They give him responsibility by his senior year of turning the budget around. One of the other things in the depression era was that the house is financially strapped. They were in the red. They turned the treasurers responsibility to afford. By the time he graduates he may not have helped their gpa that much, he does help keep them on campus, and he puts them in the black. He puts them on a paying basis. By the time he leaves he was to enter law school. He would like to enter law school at the university of michigans law school. The problem is that dont have a job for him. Ford needs a job in order to go to school. He still has to pay his tuition some like it is coming out of the university of michigan somewhere around 1000 in debt. The football coach at the university of michigan, coach him to theoduces coach at yale. He has a job for him to coach Junior Varsity football, line coaching for the varsity team, and coaching boxing at yale. That parents for the paycheck. It does not get him into Yale Law School. He approaches yield law school Yale Law School and processes him. They said he would be a fine student not if he has a job. Law, takego to yale on the load of study that is amended by them and hold a job. So the reasoning goes. Ford also talks with his coaches well,that, who tell him, you cant really go to law school and fulfill your coaching responsibilities. He has the dynamics working against his ambition to become a lawyer. He just he takes some provisional classes elsewhere to demonstrate he can do the work. Using that he gets himself admitted into yield law school. He does not tell them he has this other job. He does not tell the other his other coaches he is going to go to law school. This means he is able to do both. Higgins of graduating and the while of his law school fulfilling his coaching responsibilities. Yale ever since more than just him. Attaining the means to fill a profession. It means him opening up. He spent six years at yale. He meets a time woman by the name of phyllis brown. Betty ford will be the great love of gerald fords life. Betty is not his first love however. Phyllis brown is a professional model. Younger than he, she is about 21 years old but she is one of the top models in new york city. Her,oaches have a term for and name for her. They call her perfect body brown. Ford is competing for her attention. He says in order to compete for her attention he has to take on her interests. Her interests largely revolved around his strength, which is sports. She plays tennis, golf, and she skis. All these things are rather new to gerald ford. He takes them up and becomes more than proficient at each one of them. That he is able to capture catch her eye and by 1938 is presumed they are going to be married. He brings her back to michigan for a couple of summers. He visits her up in maine. Eventstend any number of and broadway plays in new york. She goes out on modeling shoots. He follows her on those shoots. At times he ends up in the magazines alongside her. These are photographs from one of those shoots where she is on a ski slope in vermont. There he is alongside with her in one of the national magazines. Phyllis brown represents to gerald ford and opening up, a broadening of his experiences, of his vision. He sees the west coast. She introduces him to a large part of that. He sees new york city. She is there at his side to guide him through those experiences. Purveying urbane, and witty. He is midwestern. If not plodding, stalin and his attitude. Stalid in his attitude. When it comes down to the decision of returning to grand rapids to start his life as an attorney, or staying in new york where she has her modeling career, that is where a parting of the ways comes in. She remains in new york city. He returns to grand rapids to begin his career as an attorney. Later this hour we continue our tour of the gerald ford residential museum, as they look at his world war ii service, his courtship of betty ford, any 24 year congressional career which launched him into the white house. Cspan is visiting the city of grand rapids to learn more about its history. Of the next we visited the grand Rapids Public Museum where curator alex forrest will explain how grand rapids became known as Furniture City. Alex forrest for over 100 years now grand rapids has really sort of set the tone for what furniture will look like and feel like and how it will act. Although it doesnt do it for Home Furnishings anymore, theres a good chance most people over the course of any given day will see or interact with a piece of furniture made in grand rapids. We are at the grand Rapids Public Museum in the museums Furniture City exhibit. This is the oldest piece of grand rapids furniture in the museums collection. It is a windsor chair made by a , ouramed William Haldane best guess is around 1840. The first settlers dont start coming to grand rapids until about 1830. William haldane is in that first early group went to grand rapids is just a tiny village on the banks of the grand river. He is the first guy that steps up a woodworking, or making cabinetmaking shop as they called it. This first year is a treated to him. It is pretty primitive, made by hand. The spokes on the back were made with a spoke shave, instead of being turned on a laive. It was probably just a oneoff that somebody paid him a buck or two to make a chair. People who arrived in town needed furniture for their house. It might not look like any thing special but it is the beginning , of the Furniture Industry in grand rapids. Grand rapids became the Furniture City in the 19th century and there were several different factors that combine to help grand rapids earn that title. Having the Raw Materials needed to make furniture. The great hardwood forests of michigan. The transportation to ship those Raw Materials and ship the finished goods to market came in the form of the grand river. It runs right in the middle of grand rapids. And finally the labor force. Grand rapids had many immigrants from European Countries that had the skills to carve wood, operate machinery, and build furniture. All those three things combined in the years following the civil war to make a perfect storm for grand rapids to become the Furniture City. There was a whole class of wealthy town leaders who decided wanted to invest in the Furniture Industry. These were those who wanted to control the banks, they control the capital. They had access to funds to set up a furniture factory. By working together, this first round of Furniture Companies was 1860s and in the 1870s. These are some of the earliest Furniture Companies in grand rapids they got the ball rolling to start that. This is a highly idealized painting of the furniture factories in grand rapids, michigan. It is certainly true that this was one of the Biggest Furniture manufacturers and they had huge factories on the grand river, there is a bit of exaggeration going on in this piece. It really does convey the sort of scope and scale of a grand rapids furniture factory. Usually furniture factories will be four or five stories tall of thefferent aspects manufacturing process taking place on each level of the factory. A lot of times they would be easy access to railroad, like right here were Raw Materials could be brought in. Almost every furniture factory will have to dry and yard drying yard where materials can be dried to the appropriate level of humidity to be turned into furniture. Most factories are designed with a courtyard in the center to allow as much natural like to come in to the factory. Some of them predated electricity. Even once electricity came along, it was expensive. You wanted to have as much Natural Light, especially for people like decorators. It would help with painting and things like that to use Natural Light over electric light. You also course, you also needed all of your administrative options. Buildingministration is featured right here, where all of the companys secretaries and salesmen, managers will be based out of to run a very Large National company. When this painting was made in the 1920s, there were probably around 300 Different Companies furnitureapids making or somehow supporting that Furniture Industry, so in this painting you can actually see the grand rapids of bolstering company here, which would be an example of companies themselves that did not make furniture do theves but what upholstery. Finishing, brass finishing, all of these companies would succeed in grand rapids and supply. Photographers were a huge what youre taking photographs of catalogs to put a in to sell furniture. The worlds fair in philadelphia and 1876 was called the centennial exposition, and grand rapids had been making furniture for several decades by that point, but at that worlds fair in philadelphia, three different grand rapids Companies Submitted bedroom suites to a competition, and all three won gold medals pierce of this nationwide exhibition where Companies Nationwide were submitting fo furniture, it was pretty much agreed that grand rapids was the best and really put grand rapids on the map as the furniture capital of the country. We call this the centennial bed, and at that is because it is an example of the type of furniture that won so many awards at the worlds fair in philadelphia in 1876. Is aparticular piece perfect example of grand rapids furniture. Looks like itthat could be handcarved by a master carver, but in fact, it is actually lots of little pieces that were made using machinery that are all assembled, layer upon layer, to make that finished product that looks so elaborate. The pieces that come off the s ide are really pieces you did not see before this time period. They are incredibly impregnable. Theyre easy to break off. But they give the piece an extra level of detail that at that time period in the 1870s was really quite popular. Another thing they were able to do beautifully was combine the hardwood walnut with, like, the veneers, so thats intersection in the headboard is walnut broiled the near that they used that they used beautifully, and it really stands out and makes an interesting look. Piece wouldw this be considered truly practical, but it would have been affordable for a middle class or upper middle class family, and something that would have been seen as a status symbol in your home, if you had a home and a bedroom that was big enough for a piece like this, it really would mark you as a person of high status, and more importantly, maybe, a person of good taste. Grand rapids mark was synonymous with quality, and a lot of places throughout the country, the idea that a piece of furniture was made in grand rapids was much more significant than an individual company that it might have been made by that most companies would not have heard of. Grand rapids Furniture Companies realize this and a lot of them banded together into an organization that actually used trademark made in grand rapids. The heyday was really the 1920s. Business was good. There were probably between 300 and 400 Different Companies that were making furniture in grand rapids or were one of the auxiliary industries that was somehow supporting the Furniture Industry, and business was really good. Was an event called the furniture market that took place twice a year in grand rapids where all the companies would release their new lines, and all the buyers from all of the country, from new york, from california, would come to grand rapids for a week and basically have a huge party, check out all of the new lines of furniture, and place their orders. Those were really the good times for grand rapids furniture. And then of course, that all comes to a crashing halt with the Great Depression in the 1930s. When the stock market crashed in 1929, the depression takes hold of a 1930s, the furnituremaking model that has been established in grand rapids really starts to fall apart. People who were very wealthy and maybe werent as affected by the depression as much were not the ones who were buying grand rapids furniture. The vast majority of people by a grand rapids furniture were middleclass people who all of a sudden found themselves in a lot of financial difficulty during the depression. So of course the orders went way down, and many, many grand rapids Furniture Companies when out of business. That isr big factor starting to take place at the same time and is going to continue through the rest of the 20th century is manufacturing shifting from places like grand rapids to the south, especially North Carolina, where labor is cheaper, grand rapids no longer has the advantage of Raw Materials that they once did in the 19th century. The Hardwood Floors of michigan are gone. The transportation has really changed with trucking and railroads. There is really no big event is to being in a place like grand rapids anymore, and so the availability of cheap labor in the south really undermines the grand rapids Furniture Industry over the course of the 20th century. If you look in the back of this display under the large black and white for graph there, you will see the beautiful Frank Lloyd Wright designed secretary desk. This is really the highlight of the museums collection. This particular piece was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and manufactured by company here in grand rapids in the late 1930s for a contract for in racine,ckax wisconsin. The transition that grand rapids had to go through to remain relevant in the Furniture Industry after the Great Depression, it uses new materials like tubular steel, metal. It really puts the design of the peace at the forefront as opposed of manufacturing. Only maybe 100 of these desks were ever made, and because they were designed by frank would Frank Lloyd Wright, they has interesting quirks to them. The chair for this secretary only has three legs. The story that goes along with it was because wright wanted the secretaries to sit up straight at their desk. If you lean over, you would tip over backwards. Some of the Largest Office furniture manufacturers are still located in grand rapids in west michigan. Area are located in this ,nd are still huge employers very important for the region, and are making lots and lots of furniture for businesses, schools, and hospitals. Sixwise, what is called the seating industry there are two Companies Based out of grand rapids. Company inn seating the urban Seating Company that between them, the majority of all the fixed eating in the world this is from places like stadiums, movie theaters, is a, and trains this very different type of furniture than what was made in the 1800s where it was carved board. Wood. What has evolved, and the Common Thread that kind of runs through it is the idea of design. People who come to the museum and see this exhibit about furniture, first and foremost, to understand the hurt history of this town, but a lot o that a lot of the beautifl furniture was made right here in grand rapids. More important than that, it gives you a sense of place to can understand what a lot of these buildings in grand rapids that are now being used as condos and upscale shops and things like that that originally started out as furniture factories, it really gives you a better understanding of your see and things that you every day maybe as you walk around downtown, sort of having a bit of context for why things are set up the way they are. I think if people can realize that, we will have succeeded. Long, American History tv is joining our Comcast Cable partners to showcase the history of grand rapids, michigan. To learn more about the cities on our current tour, visit cspan. Org citiestour. We continue now with our look at the history of grand rapids. So we are at the gerald r museum indential grand rapids, michigan, and we are in the gallery where we got gerald ford, through his educational experience, and he is beginning his career. It is not especially clear, even to him, because at the same time he is establishing the law practice, he is applying to become a field agent for the fbi. He wants to be a gman. He has his application into washington for that, and he is writing letters, and tour the end of 1941, trying to figure out what the status of his application is. Grand rapids in 1941, he finds himself, along with america, caught up with world affairs. That happens in december 1941 pearlhe japanese bomb harbor. Very quickly thereafter, he shifts his attention to the United States navy. He wants to become a naval officer. Application to be commissioned as an officer in the navy. By 1942, he has joined the navy. Annapolis down to where he goes through an officer Training Program for 30 days. Then he is an North Carolina as an athletic officer, training pilots and physical activity and grows bored with every quickly. As he is downkly there, he is writing letters to people he knows and washington, d. C. He is fortunate to find a person who can help him to that end, and he gets him assigned to an Aircraft Carrier that is being built. The uss monterey holds about ,500 sailors, about 30 planes and ford is responsible for putting the sailors through calisthenics. He is the athletic officer aboard the ship. Heis the gunnery officer, so has a responsibility for gun proofs. They get to the pacific in late 1943, and almost immediately are against theaction gilded islands, and he would be involved in action against the japanese and the gilberts and the marianas and the Marshall Islands along the philippine earn, and the ship will eight battle stars and ford along with the ship. A few months after he joined the monterey and they are in the pacific, an opportunity arises for him to become the assistant he has earned a reputation as a solid officer, and he has given that responsibility by the captain. He is named the navigator, which means that he moves from the santella of the ship to the t ail of the ship to the command bridge of the ship, and he is now the ships tower on the command bridge as the officer of the deck. He stands alongside the cap to the navigator of the ship and in his own word is now in the center of the activity, in the center of the action. He spends as much time in with then the pacific ship as any other world war ii president we have appeared as i said, he earns eight battle stars. They are in the marianas turkey shoot. They are supporting the landing in the philippines, and it is during that activity in december of 1944 where he comes very close to losing his mind, not to the japanese but to a typhoon. The ship is caught up in a typhoon, and he is washed over overboard. He is able to save himself by the thinnest of means, caught, and that arrests his motion, and he is able to run himself a catwalk and then gather himself and make his way to his general quarter station. Burning. Ip is the ship has returned to courpo. He isistmas day, 19 44, detached from the ship and sent to the stage where he becomes an trainingofficer, again , and it is there that he ends his naval career. He leaves the navy in 1946 and returns to grand rapids and picks up his professional career there. Again, he is involved in a number of civic activities. His name is wellknown in grand rapids. His father is involved in the ,epublican party, and he then having been bitten by the political bug long ago, having worked in window wealthys w ell wilkes 1940 campaign campaign, this challenge is the sitting congressman, bartel yachtsman, isolationist, but gerald ford has left his isolationism behind with the war. He has become an internationalist, and it is going to be this, largely, that is the separating point between bartel yorarkmen. Ford being ambitious approaches a number of Civic Leaders and him. Hem about challenging they say they are not interested in doing it, but if he would run, they would support him. With their support and with the rapids of the grand press, he throws his hat into ,he ring, challenges yachman beat him in the primaries, jo beats him in the primaries, and that is the hardest job. As he is campaigning, he met a woman by the name of betty blumer warren. He becomes interesting. Ed. They become an item. Betty grew up in an uppermiddleclass home, attended central high. There is a five year difference between gerald ford and betty bloomer. She was born in 1918. She knew of gerald ford, a High School Star athlete growing up, but she had never met him before. Meet onenot mee another until 1947. They were introduced at a party. She was working as a fashion designer, fashion purchaser for purple shiners Department Store, one of the Big Department stores in Downtown Grand Rapids or she had started there as a model. Theyodel dresses and what call the tea room where women would come to have tea, and young women would model dresses for the older women, and betty ford was one of those models. She loved dance. She studied in vermont and in new york for modern dance, and then had come back to grand salesmanad married a by the name of bill warren, and now, in 1947, she is in the midst of securing a divorce from mr. Warren. Fords introduced to gerald jerry is quite interested. Late that evening after the party, he called her up and invites her out for a drink. She is kind of angry about that because she is working on an ad campaign for the Department Store, so she has homework to do, but also she chides him. You are an attorney, and you know better than to call me up because you know i am in the middle of tha divorce. He says, do not worry about it, i know it plays that is private, and we can have a drink and persuades her to do that, and from that moment, they become something of an item. Gerald ford and that he wore in our october of 1948. It was an announcement that was put off because he was running for congress and did not want to get married until october because he wanted to handle the primary. As soon as they are married, he wins the election, and they are off to establish a home in washington. By 1950, they have their first child, michael, then jack follows, then steve, and then by 1957, susan has arrived. Four 1957, they have children at home as ford is moving up in leadership ranks and with increasing responsibility on capitol hill. The kids recall that their dad was home, that he set the briefcase aside, and he was a dad to them. Fishing,hem teaches the boys how to use the lawnmower, how to do things around the house, and takes Family Vacations with them. Trips and backng to grand rapids. They have the grandparents there in washington on occasion. In many respects, it is a typical middleclass experience except that their dad increasingly has building response believes on capitol hill. This is gerald fords congressional desk from early in his career. The items on top of it are original to his Congressional Office. The desk itself was the congressional desk he used in his grand rapids office, but it is much the same as the one that he would have used in his Congressional Office in washington, d. C. Because they were made by the same company. Gerald ford as a congressman enters congress in 1949, launching upon this new career, his ambition became not for the presidency an office he did attain but he wanted to become, rather, the speaker of the house, an office he was never able to attain. A fascinatings career 25 years in congress, beginning in 1949 in postwar america. And in some of those critical moments of postwar america, he is right there at the cutting edge of them. He knows he is introduced to president truman because in his first congressional term, he is on the public works committee, which means he oversees the maintenance, the Construction Maintenance of federal buildings. One of those federal buildings is the white house, and as the white house is crumbling around president truman, congressman ford overseas a lot of the reconstruction of the white house during the truman administration. Truman is also trying to build a cold war strategy, a strategy for fighting the soviet union. Gerald ford is involved in that. This internationalist congressman from grand rapids gains an important seat on the appropriations committee. He oversees in time the armys budget, and so he is involved in the cold war strategy as he travels from base to base around the globe, looking at american interests and particularly u. S. Army around europe and southeast asia. Ford is a republican on capitol hill. Engaged in partisan struggle. He is interested in republican policies, just as the democrats are interested in democratic policy, but you have to find a way to Work Together on capitol hill, and ford quickly earned a reputation as somebody who could work with both sides of the aisle. He there were times when he challenged his republican leadership, and he worked with democrats. There were times when he pulled democrats into what were republican issues, to further legislation on the hill. So he earned a reputation, even as he pursued partisan politics and a leadership position in the republican party, as being able to work with leaders in the democrat party. In 1964,came to a head following the assassination of president kennedy. President johnson pulled together a commission to investigate the assassination of president kennedy, which would take the name of the warre n, named after chief justice or a warren. Earl warren. Members ofcked two the house of representatives to sit on my commission. One was gerald ford. It was largely because he have being able ton of Work Together with people of differing ideas, to reach reasonable conclusions, and so he became one of the seven commissioners. After he completes his commissions work, he and rapidian, jack stiles, worked on a book called a portrait of the assassin. It is portrait of the assassin, not portrait of an assassin. He believes firmly that lee harvey always love had acted alone, as the lone gunmen. There was no evidence that was brought to the commission that would refute that finding. He would remain open to other evidence that might prove otherwise, that might counter during his lifetime, he never saw any. Showwould conclusively that it was lee harvey always walled alone who acted as the assassin of president kennedy. So congressman ford is earning a reputation of hard work. What he is being known for is being able to move legislation on capitol hill, to be able to craft the coalitions necessary to get legislation passed, and it is that reputation that moves him forward in conversations about leadership. So in 1964, ford mounts a campaign against Charlie Halleck and by narrow margin is able to defeat him and become the minority leader himself. What ford wants is to become a Majority Party come and that is what he begins working at. He begins doing on capitol hill, but he is never able to gain a majority of republicans on capitol hill. He is kind of locked in that minority position, and republican cannot find a way to build a National Majority position on capitol hill that suld have secured for ford ambition to be speaker of the house. Other things what intervene, however. A lot of that happened with the election of one of his friends, Richard Nixon, and 1968. Richard nixon is selected as his running mate, the governor of maryland, spero hagman. 1972 in aelected in landslide election, a landslide for the executive branch. It barely moves the needle for republicans on capitol hill. The 1972 election, decides he is going to run one more time in 1974, and in 1976, he is going to retire from congress. But again, history intervenes with that. Hagman has to step down because alfaescence melfi of what happened in office. He has to step down, and next and is able, through the provisions of between fifth amendment, to nominate somebody agnew to become the Vice President , but it requires confirmation on both the senate and the house of representatives. Ford is a natural selection. He is not in it since first choice, but he is a solid choice for Richard Nixon. Ford, however, because of his coalition building, because of his work, because of his reputation is easy selection. Carl albert said, i can get you jerry ford if you want jerry ford. Nixon makes that choice, ghost of an extended investigation, Background Investigation because even as he is elected, there is a worl whirlwind of controversy surrounding Richard Nixon over watergate, nefarious activities that have taken place during the 1972 election and before involving secret tapes,ugging of opposition offices and a number of other issues that many people believed the president himself had been involved in. What next and was involved in was obstructing the investigation into that. Even as ford is being investigated for the vice presidency, there are a number of capitol hill who believe they are choosing not be president necessarily but it likely the next president of the United States. Ford to fillnates the vacancy of the vice presidency to over 400 fbi agencies spread out across the United States to investigate congressman ford, and he passes that investigation, the result os of which are handed to congress, congress schedules a vote on congressman fords nomination, and this is the card that speak of the house carl fordt head hands to jerry noting the house vote. Hisvoting in support of nomination, 35 opposing. That was another vote held in the senate, and only three senators voted against his nomination to the vice presidency. Congressman ford in december 1973 is sworn in as Vice President. This is the bible on which he is sworn in. Again, he has it open to his favorite passage, the passage that he and betty had leaned on many times in their lives, of proverbs 3 58. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your path. He had it open to the same passage when he is sworn in months later as president of the United States. He will only be Vice President for eight months. He does not know it at the time. What he does know is there is controversy surrounding president nexen. His responsibility is to forward next and thnixons agenda on capitol hill and promote nixons plans abroad. He spends time promoting that message in campaigning for next ixons agenda. Have covered about four galleries in the museum dealing with his early life, his maybe ine career, congress, the remainder of the hisum is dedicated to presidency and his postpresidency. I hope the visitors to the museum are able to take away what a unique time it was and what a unique man ford was in how he was able to meet the challenge. Ford never aspired to become president , yet throughout his life, events and people he encountered prepared him for the burden that he was asked to bear in august 1974 when he did become president. An office he never campaigned for, an office he never aspired to, but one that was a essentially handed to him, entrusted to him by those who knew him closest, those on capitol hill. And to be able to appreciate how he rose to handle those responsibilities. During michigans warmer months, you can find fishermen waste deep in the grand river, which runs through grand rapids. One popular spot for locals is called the fish ladder. It was built in 1974 and is designed to help fish swim against the strong currents during migration season. We continue our coverage of grand rapids, michigan with the help of our Comcast Cable partners. La grandee visit vitesse, a movement to promote spaces. Rt in public that calder gave it was la grande vitesse. He was living in france at the time, so he named his pieces in french, but it really means the grand rapids. This town had rapids in its river, and that is what that represents. When you walk around it, you will see how it looks like the water is undulating and roaring, cascading down, and it has tremendous energy, and it changes every step you take. It is never the same. Alexander calder was an american artist. He was born in 1898. He was the son and grandson of doctors. Thegrandfather created statue of william penn on top of the Philadelphia City hall. Carter invented the idea of movement to sculpture, the first person who ever did that, so he created a new art form. It is very interesting that he added time and space to sculpture before man began exploring time and space. Two months after we dedicated the calder in 1969, Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. [laughs] kind of fitting. Lyndon johnson was the president the National Endowment for the arts and the National Endowment for the humanities were created, and Congress Approved funding, but they were very new and breaking new ground all the time. The art in Public Places program was started by a threeperson committee at the endowment. What they wanted to do was to make it possible for American Cities to commission an original work of art for that city, and they said, this is the seed money. We will give you 45,000. You have to match it and anything else you need. I was active at the art museum at that time, and they were going to have an exhibit of american sculpture, and the man who was responsible largely for accumulating that collection was a man named henry gell zeller. Metropolitanthe museum in new york. I asked him to come to grand rapids to lecture. I picked him up and brought him for a little tour of the city. We were in the middle of urban renewal at the time, and this place was a holy ground. I said this is where the new city hall is. You should have a piece of sculpture there. I said, that is a great idea, how do i do that . He said, you write to your congressman. Our congress not the time was zero for. I found out there was going to be money made available for sculptures. Can you help me get some of that money for grand rapids the next thing i knew, the phone rang, and it was roger stevens, who was chairman for the National Endowment for the art at the time, and he said apparently you would like to have a piece of art in your city. I think it is a very good idea that that can happen. Lets meet in chicago. So we had to apply for the grant , the city and the county had to fill out an official grant application, send it on to washington. Then the council reviewed it and voted on whether to give the city of grand rapids the money or not. We were the first city to ever receive a grant from the endowment to be used specifically to commission an original work of art for a specific civic site. We put together a panel of people who would collect the artists. There was really only one person considered. That was Alexander Calder because he was and continues to be, in my opinion, the preeminent sculpture of the 20th century. The subject was created for grand rapids, for this particular project. It was not sitting on a shelf someplace. Picked out quite us. We met calder in december of that year, 1967, and we had the architectural model of the plaza and the building, so he saw it, he knew where he wanted it, and whatever he wanted, by golly, he was going to get it because he knew best. And then he went to his foundry in france where they had people who had done large pieces with enlargedfore, and they the small pieces and created the races and put it together, and they had to take it all apart and put in 10 huge wooden crates, and they were brought on a boat from brussels and then by ,ruck from detroit, came here and the pieces that were laid elt in 27 sections by ste workers, and they had a huge grain. It took them three days to put it together. Another three days to do all of the welding. Red we painted it calder and dedicated it. It gives me bro pleasure to welcome you to the dedication of la grande vitesse. Translated, it means the great swiftness, but as calder said, it means the grand rapids. Dedicated june 15, 1969. This is the dedication for grand rapids. It is a great occasion not only by alexandere deal calder, because it is truly monumental. As i understand it, the largest calder in the western hemisphere. It is a germanic and significant moment in the lives of our community because it illuminates our city in the eyes of each and every one of us, even though as expert ore not as knowledgeable as many others in these particular fields. Nancy one of my favorite stories about it was i was down here on a sunday morning, and people were always coming after andch to see the calder, there was a grandfather with his little granddaughter, and they were Walking Around, and he was kicking at it with the toe of his shoe, and he said, well, i could have done that. And his granddaughter looked up at him and said, well, why didnt you, grandpa . [laughs] nancy he cannot answer that. This has brought a lot of positive attention to the endowment. I mean, we were on the front page of the new york times, the day of the dedication, the day after. We have been featured in tons of books and articles, and it is always positive. Thatly, this was an artist not everybody knew about. His object was going to be abstract, it was not going to be a man on a horse or somebodys dog, it was something that you had to take to your heart and then reacts to it. Were people who wanted a man on a horse, you know, but that is not what calder did. So there was some controversy at first. But over the years, and it has been 47 years now, people have grown to really love it. Startsing either at the calder, finishes at the calder, i will meet you at the calder, the buses go around the calder i mean, it is just the heart of the community. The Frederick Meyer gardens and Sculpture Park opened on the north threat Northwest Side of grand rapids in 1995. And outdoorindoor gardens and sculptures. One of the parks wellknown attractions is the american by nina. Ulpted it was inspired by an unfinished Leonardo Da Vinci sculpture. Cspan is featuring the city of grand rapids on American History tv. Up next, we take you back in time to see what grand rapids looks like at the turn of the 20th century. We are here at the streets of grand rapids exhibit. This immersive exhibit is a recreation of what Downtown Grand Rapids would have looked 1890s, so there are historic businesses, the sort of towns and sites that you would have expected to see if you were Walking Around downtown over 100 years ago. We chose to base this exhibit on the 1890s because when we first opened it in 1994, it was representing a period of time that was 100 years ago. The 1890s are really interesting because so much was changing, both in terms of grand rapids and the immense growth that was taking place at that nationwide, the new inventions like electricity were sort of becoming more widespread, the automobile was just about to be invented, so it was sort of a really interesting time. Period that we could base the streets of grand rapids on. The train station, the union depot, which would have been right in the center of grand rapids, and it was where all of the trains arrived. It makes sense as sort of an Entrance Point to the exhibit because pretty much anybody who was coming to grand rapids in the 1890s would have of rights by train, and the train station would have been one of the first trains that they would have seen. It would have been incredibly busy, a huge, bustling place. There were 10 different Railroad Lines that serve grand rapids in the 1890s with dozens of trains arriving and departing every day. People would be arriving in grand rapids from points all over the country, perhaps people who were coming to live here would mostly be coming from the east coast, whether they were yankees who had been in the United States for generations or maybe new immigrants coming from europe, but also people from all over michigan and all over the midwest were coming to grand rapids as a disorder starting to become a regional hub for west michigan. We are standing right in the center of Downtown Grand Rapids. This intersection at the corner of perl and monroe has been the heart of grand rapids from the earliest days when the city was first founded in the 1830s. What we have done here is whated a recreation of the square might have looked like in the 1890s with a series of different businesses represent different architectural styles of the period, run by real people from grand rapids, different ethnic backgrounds, and showing some of the Different Industries that were around town. Run by the store is kamensky family, so they would have been polish. The print shop right here is run by dutch immigrants, and the upper house here is william powers, one of the founders rapids, a yankee who came to grand rapids and set up a lot of different businesses here in town, including the entertainment business of the opera house. The mural behind me here really gets sort of a good idea of what the square would have been like on an afternoon with lots of people. The streetcars are rattling by, so by the 1890s, grand rapids had electric streetcars. Monroe was one of the few paved streets in town at that point, and some of the big commercial buildings right downtown, the wonderfully building was shown here as approximately a 1, 2, 3, so thistory building really conveys the scope of grand rapids in the 1890s, which is starting to become quite a large city with probably close to 80,000 people, and probably the regional commercial Economic Center for western michigan. Inside theding drugstore, and this particular store is not from grand rapids. It was originally in sault ste. Marie, michigan, and was in from the 1900s through the 1960s. Donated theugstore drugstore and all of its contents to the museum. It is one of the more accurate recreations that we were able to have in old grand rapids because that rudell drugstore had all of the same furnishings as a had when it was originally built. The rudell drugstore was in a transition area. , so the people who transition every period, so the people who operated it would have had some knowledge. Of cases in a lot still compounding their own prescriptions, medicines right in the store, so they would have have the ingredients that they needed make a particular medicine and could have put it together right in front of the customer. They also had a lot of off the remedies, different patents medicines, all sorts of quandary is that someone might moret to find out modern walgreens or city yesterday, things like sodas, close guard, camera film, toothbrushes all of those things would have been available as well. We are standing in front of the Department Store, which was one of the important pictures of grand rapids for really over a century. It started in the 1870s more as a sort of general store, but really one of the transitions that this exhibit chronicled is the transition to a more specialty store. By the 1890s, it is really sort of an Upscale Department store that is modeling itself after in aar Large Businesses bigger cities around the country where they would sell all sorts clothing,or the home, shoes, all kinds of more Upscale Department store products. So having a Department Store like this was one of the signals that grand rapids was really starting to become a large city as opposed to the small town it had been before. The goods that were sold here were really more targeted at a middleclass and urban audience, things that are really beyond the sort of groceries and maybe farm instruments that would have been more in demand as sort of an oldfashioned general store. A store like this one, in addition to imported goods that they would get from all over the world, frankly, also was able to feature some products that were made right here in grand rapids. A good example of that over here is the carpet sweeper display. Right here on the same time period, bissel, right here in grand rapids, invented the carpet sweeper. This wonderful devices not use any electricity. You can use it to clean your carpet. As you can see, there is a whole advertising display, various bissellt models of carpet sweeper that would have been for sale. At this time is becoming an international company. It is so useful and popular that it is marketed all over the world. Company is still in business, so based right here in west michigan. We are leaving grand rapids, we leaving the scene as the sun is setting on our fall evening, and it is sort of a good way to close out the exhibit, and we hope that as people finish walking through the exhibit, they will kind of think a little bit about all of the immense changes that would have taken place in grand rapids and all around the country as the 1800s come to a close. A lotow, you start to get of changes in society that people are having to cope with. Really trying to take a critical look back on the good old days and thinking what made them to go to old days . The automobile had not yet been electricity is just being invented, immigrants are coming to the country from all over the world, the ethnic makeups of our cities are changing, grand rapids is growing tremendously in terms of its industry and economy, so it is a period of a lot of change, but sort of a hopeful ending as the sun sets and everyone heads home for the evening. All weekend long, American History tv is joining our Comcast Cable partners to showcase the history of grand rapids, michigan. To learn more about the cities on our current tour, visit cspan. Org citiestour. We continue now with our look at the history of grand rapids. Gerald ford passed away on december 26, 2006. He was buried on the grounds of the museum january 3, 2007. We were open all night leading interment,ay of his and over 17,000 grand rapidsians lined the outside of the museum, across the river, and into the city, waiting to pay their respects to the president. The gravesite rests on the grounds of the museum. It is an ovalshaped tomb. It was a site selected by gerald and betty ford while they were building the museum here. Asked them if they had considered a burial site on the grounds. They had not really considered it. They asked the architect to investigate that. He went to other president ial Library Sites and can back with the report of what others did,ncluding eisenhower and truman and the decision was made. We got the grounds for richard there is a beautiful sight. It overlooks the river and overlooks the city of their youth, and it was an easy decision for them to make. So as part of the museum construction, the tomb site was constructed as well. Betty ford passed away on july 8, 2011. She was buried next to her 14, the 98thly anniversary of gerald fords birth. I think there is a measure of pride and appreciation, respect for the fords and what they mean , the attention that they brought to this town, not just during the funeral but during the entirety of his professional career and of her activity. Ofy were very much a product grand rapids. Grand rapidsianians. Him andd saw that in his presidency, and her, in her battle with addiction and her reaching out to help other people as a consequence of experiences she had in life with Breast Cancer and chemical dependency. Mounted onto the tomb above their names is a phrase they chose that says, lives dedicated to god, country, and love. They both were deep believers, had a Strong Spiritual lives that could also be seen in another plaque near the gravesite where they had their proverbs etched. His in public service, hers in service to those who were in need, both physical need and emotional need. Chored byat and anchored by god. A love of the city, a love that they carried with them until the very end. Welcome to grand rapids, michigan. Director don decker will provide a tour of a Frank Lloyd Wright home, also known as the meyer may house. Don for those of you that watch real estate programs like house hunters and so on on House Garden Television network, specifically find buyers with homes looking for an open floor plan plus stainless steel appliances and Granite Countertops in the kitchen. As they look at late 1800, early 1900 homes, it is inevitable that they do not find that open concept, yet here is a home that wright created in 1908 that has very much those characteristics of openness and a fluid feeling. We are in a southeast grand rapids, michigan at the meyer may house, which is a private residence designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1908. We are told it is today the most conference of labor stored of wrights comprehensively prairie of wrights style homes. Meyer may house grand rapids, michigan commissioned him to build a house for himself, his wife, and what they hoped would be children. Meyer may was a local clothing merchant. Located inas Downtown Grand Rapids to he was successful as a merchandiser and a marketer. He was nationally recognized, for example, for being the first to display clothing on wooden hangers in a retail setting. He was very progressive, he was , andsuccessful financially those were two character six that were very important if you are going to be a client of Frank Lloyd Wright because wright was going to build and design a home very different and the neighboring home, having that progressive nature, having developed a thick skin that an early adapter has to have as they are doing things that has not been done previously was an important consideration. The neighborhood that may wanted his home built and was a it is known as the Heritage Hill historic district. It is about a quarter of a mile wide and a milelong and encompasses about 1200 residential properties. It was the premier residential neighborhood in the late 1800s and early 1900s. If your business was successful and you had a successful professional this is where you , wanted to live. Most of the architecture was very traditional Northern European architecture. May house iseyer not reflective of that architecture. As a matter of fact, Frank Lloyd Wright was reacting to characteristics of other architecture that he felt were inappropriate. The neighborhood response when the home was under