Quote of the day:

It’s frightful that people who are so ignorant should have so much influence.
—George Orwell

Gerald Ford was not known as the sharpest knife in the drawer. So it shouldn’t have surprised anyone when on October 29, 1975, he walked into a press conference at the National Press Club and gave a speech that his speech writer had intended to be only the first draft and expected the rhetoric to be toned down. But Ford plowed ahead willy-nilly and the next day New Yorkers were greeted with this now infamous headline:

It might have been Ford’s lowest moment, but he had already pardoned a crook, so he couldn’t really sink any lower than that, could he?

In any case, there is now a new documentary, Drop Dead City, documenting the details of the case, and a recent episode of the Bowery Boys Podcast features interviews with the filmmakers: “#457 FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD” 

Of course, the president never literally said DROP DEAD. But his words did signal the severity of New York City’s problem — the city was on the brink of bankruptcy. 

In this episode, Greg dives into life in New York City during the year 1975 and the circumstances surrounding its most dire financial crisis, one which threatened the livelihoods of its millions of residents and damaged New York City’s reputation for decades.

Directors Peter Yost and Michael Rohatyn join Greg to discuss their new film on the New York financial crisis Drop Dead City, which uses gritty archival footage and a series of special guests (such as Harrison J. Goldin, Charlie Rangel, Betsy Gotbaum and former Bowery Boys guest Kevin Baker) to explain this complicated story. 

If Michael’s name looks familiar, that’s because his father Felix Rohatyn played a critical role in bailing out the bankrupt city.

It’s a good episode and worth a listen. And a reminder that even back in the 1970s, the president was being manipulated by Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney.

I’ll be looking for the movie when it comes out on DVD.