Im jamie colby. Today im driving outside tacoma, washington, on the way to meet the hares o heirs of a man who started with nothing. He left his heirs enormous wealth, but also an overwhelming task. Im doug lemay. My father earl lemay passed away in 2000 2000 is and left us with a fulltime collection. His father lived here for more than two decades. He now lives and works here. Hey, doug. Hi, jamie. Glad you could come. Im so happy to be here. Is this a house or garage . Well, its a fivebedroom house with with as doug shows me around, its easy to see this isnt just a home, but a reflection of his fathers passion for the automobile. I mean, doug, i have to be honest, ive been to car shows that havent had this many cars. Dad did it for a long time. Everywhere you looked, theres a collector car. Whats your dream ride . A 1930 cadillac 452 convertible . A 1961 metropolitan . Its probably here. Somewhere. There are even rooms completely filled with the same model or manufacturer. Jamie thes
Cspan audience that is here as well, and everyone watching live online, all 10 of you im sure. [laughter] doug this is a way to bring authors to be mount vernon community, free every month. We try and bring relevant books and important history topics as well. We have a great one for you this evening. Had a longn has relationship with the ford family and ford motor company, going back to henry fords original donation of the fire engine which helps keep the mansion safe. Mount vernon is continually interested in making sure that the mansion is safe from destructive fire, and that is important to us going forward. I would, of course, mention the relationship to forward is crucial. The association that operated the estate has never taken on a government money. We only accept money from private, patriotic people and foundations. That allows us to maintain the house for the public. But it is a continual challenge going forward. An extremelyave exciting speaker, paul brandus, who is going to
All right. Good to see everybody today. Lets get this thing going. For those of you who dont know, i am douglas bradburn. Welcome to mount vernon. Welcome to the fred w. Smith National Library for the study of George Washington, which is where we are. Im the founding director. This is our evening bookstores. The Ford Motor Company has been a great supporter of mount vernon since henry ford donated the first fire engine to the estate. We want to make sure that the mansion doesnt burn down. Thats been a longtime concern of ours. And an ongoing issue. But were really thankful to ford the ford family and the Ford Motor Company, for their continuing support for all of our projects. Mount vernon, of course, doesnt take any government money. Its all supported by private funds. So we depend upon people patriotic citizens around the world to support the mission of educating people about George Washingtons life and legacy. Its great to see everybody out here tonight. Its great to welcome cspan a
Change but i was also tripping on potholes like everybody is. I was stuck in traffic. I was hearing sad stories of innercity people who couldnt get jobs or had to take two or three buses and the subway to get to school. So that was going abroad and writing a maglev train in shanghai where we went to another city. Subway connections to the train. The train was so fast we went to another city in 20 minutes that otherwise took an hour and a half by bus. So all of those things together made me feel this is a really Important Mission and i had already been talking to you. You were such a help in this whole project. I had already been talking to you about the need for a new vision for america because you have been putting forth a vision just at the end of the Clinton Administration when you are leaving office. Unfortunately the world changed in the 2000s. We have a lot of defense spending. We have a lot of other preoccupations and a financial crisis so we havent made the kinds of investments
Made far from it. Fell dead Holding Without affect on the audience. But given the time to make deeds of his words it might have been one of more far reaching. Tragically he was not to be granted that time. As has been noted there was one in the audience that night who would use lincolns words as the catalyst for one of most heinous and destructive acts in our nations history. From childhood we are taught to know John Wilkes Booth is to hate him. Hes demonized as the embodiment of evil and yet few of us really know very much about him other than the fact that he was a handsome and popular member of the nations leading thespian family until he jumped the track. His own brother described him as a good hearted harmless though wild brained boy. What has been wanting in the pantheon of lincoln scholarship is a highly readable biography of booth until now. After spending a quarter century in the most pain staking research dr. Terry alfred has written fortunes fool. A book that will long defin