0:01

Live from Television City in

0:03

Hollywood.

0:06

On the evening of October thirteenth,

0:08

nineteen fifty seven, millions

0:10

of Americans sat down to

0:13

watch a special event on television

0:15

featuring some of the country's most

0:17

popular entertainers.

0:19

Ing Crosbie, Frank

0:22

Sinatra, lorosbry

0:24

Clony, Loie Armstrong.

0:28

But the real star of the show

0:35

its

0:44

yes, the Edsel, the car

0:47

that the Ford Motor Company, sponsors

0:49

of this show, was introducing to the

0:51

public with unprecedented fanfare.

0:54

Here's being Crosbie with old blue

0:56

eyes, Frank Sinatra.

0:59

This is an opening show.

1:00

Oh you're know on TV for Edzel to go all the way.

1:02

It's a great card too, bing and they're putting on a great

1:04

square.

1:04

It was a big night when the Edzel

1:07

first came out. This was a big deal,

1:09

right.

1:10

It was about as big a deal as you can imagine.

1:13

But not too big to fail. Just

1:15

two years after its launch, the

1:18

ed Sell was out of gas. The

1:20

very name immortalized as

1:22

a byword for failure. But

1:25

Edzell wasn't just the name of a car.

1:29

Edgell was the name of Henry Ford's

1:31

only son.

1:32

And one of history's most famous

1:34

NEPO babies. Yes,

1:37

nepo baby. The nepo is short

1:40

for nepotism. You may have heard

1:42

the term nepo baby to describe

1:44

celebrity children born to celebrity

1:47

parents and all the advantages that

1:49

come with that. But family

1:51

connections affect every field of

1:53

work and always have And

1:55

when family is involved, so

1:58

is drama. In

2:00

this episode, we'll tell you the story

2:03

of Henry and Ed sul Ford.

2:05

Oh the pressure of being the son

2:07

of that guy.

2:09

It had to be tough, knowing that you

2:12

would never be able to top what your father

2:14

had done because it couldn't be done anymore.

2:17

You'll also hear about the first father

2:19

and son to make it to the White

2:21

House. Service is the family

2:24

business.

2:25

Service is the family business because the family

2:27

business is America.

2:28

And speaking of the White House, we'll

2:31

recount the tale of the

2:33

famous daughter who strolled into

2:35

sixteen hundred Pennsylvania Avenue

2:37

on four legs. Was Pushinka

2:41

a nepo baby?

2:42

I would have to say yes, I mean, look at

2:44

the lineage she came from.

2:46

Three stories, three families,

2:48

three big names, well

2:51

two if you don't count the dog from

2:53

CBS Sunday Morning and iHeart

2:56

I'm Morocca. And this is

2:58

mobituary

3:07

this moment, NEPO, Babies

3:10

of History, Edzel,

3:12

Ford, John Quincy Adams,

3:15

and Prushinka the Dog. You

3:28

say the word ed Sel and

3:30

most people think what.

3:32

A synonym for failure or commercial

3:34

product failure in any event.

3:36

That's Matt Anderson. He's the curator

3:39

of Transportation at the amazing

3:41

Henry Ford Museum of American

3:44

Innovation in Dearborn, Michigan.

3:46

For ten seasons, I've hosted

3:48

the CBS television series Innovation

3:51

Nation at the Henry Ford, and

3:53

Matt is my go to guy for

3:55

all things automotive.

3:58

I like to think that the ed Sel was

4:00

overstyled, oversold,

4:03

and overpriced.

4:05

Would you say it was a bad car.

4:08

I don't think the Edzel was a bad car

4:10

per se. I mean it was a solid vehicle.

4:13

The engineering did work, but it

4:15

just wasn't what the market wanted. Ford

4:17

promised something entirely new in automotive

4:20

engineering and design, and in the end, the Edgel

4:22

just had things that are kind of gimmicky.

4:25

The Edzel was meant to compete with mid

4:28

priced cars like Chrysler's Dodge

4:30

and GM's Pontiac and Buick,

4:33

and it boasted several genuine innovations

4:36

like system warning lights on the dashboard,

4:39

which every car made today has, But

4:42

it also had features no one seemed

4:44

to need, like a rolling dome

4:46

speedometer, and debuting

4:48

in the midst of a recession, it's

4:50

low miles per gallon was a non starter

4:53

for most consumers. As

4:55

for the design of the car, it got

4:58

attention all right, the wrong to

5:00

attention the oddly shaped

5:02

vertical grill at the front. Comedian

5:05

Danny Thomas said it made the car

5:07

look like an Oldsmobile sucking

5:09

a lemon. Others likened the

5:11

grill's shape to something more

5:13

risque.

5:14

That was a comment made at the time. It

5:17

made ever since, yes, at the Edzel represented

5:19

a certain anatomical part, and we'll leave it at

5:21

that.

5:22

The company had spent ten years

5:24

and two hundred and fifty million dollars

5:26

on the Edsol. After just three

5:29

model years and a loss of three hundred

5:31

and fifty million, the Edzel was

5:33

discontinued over sixteen

5:36

years after the man for whom it was

5:38

named, someone who had nothing to

5:40

do with the car, had died. The

5:43

final insult to a man who

5:45

never got the credit he deserved from

5:48

the public or from his own

5:50

father.

5:51

When folks generations into the future

5:54

think back on the twentieth century. There are just a few

5:56

names that are going to be remembered, and Henry

5:58

Ford's is one of them.

6:00

Henry Ford revolutionized

6:02

mass industrial production with

6:04

the assembly line. He introduced

6:06

the five dollar workday, helping

6:09

to create a middle class, and

6:11

he was the man behind the vehicle that

6:13

changed America.

6:15

The Model T which Henry Ford had designed

6:17

and introduced, changed the automobile

6:19

from being a plaything for the wealthy into a

6:21

tool of everyday life.

6:24

It ended the isolation of the farmer

6:26

and made the Sunday ride at National

6:28

Institution.

6:30

When Edsel Ford rolled off

6:32

the assembly line on November sixteenth,

6:34

eighteen ninety three, courtesy of Henry

6:37

and Clara Ford, the family

6:39

wasn't yet wealthy. Henry was

6:41

still just getting started.

6:43

Just about six weeks after Edsel was born,

6:45

he built his first internal combustion engine

6:48

and it worked. He only ran it for about

6:50

thirty seconds or so, but that moment

6:52

kind of was a Eureka moment for Henry

6:54

Ford and knew that this was what he was going to do. He was

6:56

going to get into the automobile business.

7:00

An only child, Edseell grew

7:02

up alongside that business. At

7:04

age two, he wrote in his father's

7:07

first gas powered automobile, the

7:09

Quadricycle PSI, I've driven

7:11

in a replica of the original, four big

7:13

bicycle wheels, a little buggy seat and

7:16

no brakes. You had to use your foot

7:18

to stop at Fred Flintstone style. As

7:21

a young boy, Edsell spent hours

7:23

drawing imaginative designs for his

7:25

own cars. As a teenager,

7:27

he spent as much time as he could after

7:29

school at his father's auto plant, helping

7:32

with the mail, attaching brass tags

7:34

to new vehicles, and in nineteen

7:36

oh eight, when Edseell was sixteen years

7:39

old, Henry unveiled the

7:41

Model T.

7:42

I think it's a measure of the esteem

7:44

in which his father held him at that point that

7:47

Edzell was a part of a very small group who

7:49

was involved in designing the Ford Model

7:51

T. Henry literally built a kind of a secret

7:53

room in the corner of the factory where his top

7:55

engineers would sit and work through

7:58

what this automobile should be, and Edzell was there for

8:00

all of those discussions.

8:03

As soon as he graduated from high school,

8:05

Edzell went to work for his father full

8:07

time, a newspaper at the time described

8:10

him as quote a quiet, hard

8:12

working youngster with a desk in his

8:14

father's office, as familiar

8:16

with every branch of the business as any

8:18

of the officers in the company.

8:20

He was elected to the board of directors

8:23

in nineteen fifteen when he was all of twenty

8:25

two years old. So he moves pretty

8:27

quickly from the bottom up to the upper reaches

8:30

of Ford Motor Company.

8:31

Do you think that he worried that people

8:33

thought he was there only

8:35

because he was the boss's son.

8:38

That had to nagg at the back of

8:40

Edgell's conscious that people somewhere

8:42

up or down the line at Ford Motor Company would

8:44

have thought he was just there by virtue of

8:46

who his father was.

8:48

When Edzell asked for an exemption

8:50

from military service during World

8:52

War One to keep working at Ford

8:55

Motor Company, he was accused of

8:57

being a draft dodger.

8:59

I think that on him because he really did

9:01

believe that he was of more value

9:04

working at Ford Motor Company than overseas.

9:07

But Edseell, who was named president

9:09

of the company at age twenty five, would

9:11

prove himself worthy of his position

9:14

and in many ways a stark contrast

9:17

to his father.

9:18

They were very much different. In fact, about

9:21

as polar opposite as you could imagine. Henry

9:23

grew up on a farm. He never finished

9:25

his grade school education and kind of

9:27

worked his way up to his ultimate

9:30

career goals.

9:31

Here's Henry espousing his belief

9:33

that success starts and ends

9:36

with hard work.

9:38

The young man makes his mind the work.

9:40

There's no event of what he can do, makes

9:44

up his mind to.

9:46

That's the idea.

9:47

Where he has much

9:50

an.

9:50

He must study.

9:51

And Henry was

9:53

proudly unpolished. On

9:55

the other hand, ed Sell was urbane

9:57

and sophisticated. Henry did

10:00

trust experts. Edseell admired

10:03

them. Henry had little interest

10:05

in the arts. Edzell was a great patron

10:07

of music and art in Detroit. He

10:09

commissioned the monumental Detroit

10:12

Industry Murals from Mexican

10:14

artist Diego Rivera for the

10:16

Detroit Institute of Arts, and

10:18

let me tell you, if you are ever in the Motor

10:20

City, you must must go see

10:22

them. Henry never drank and

10:25

kept a close circle of friends. Edsell

10:27

loved to socialize. You

10:30

know, people talk about work life balance

10:32

today. Did they differ on that score?

10:35

Absolutely? Henry lived and

10:38

breathed his work. Even when he was at home,

10:40

he was still thinking about what was going on at

10:42

the Ford Motor Company. Whereas Edsel

10:44

he would put in his forty hours of fifty

10:47

hours, whatever it took in the company. But when he went home,

10:49

that was his time to enjoy with his family,

10:51

to enjoy recreational pursuits, to

10:54

enjoy education in Richmond, whatever it might

10:56

be.

10:57

Edseell married Eleanor Clay in nineteen

10:59

sixteen. They wasted no time

11:02

in starting a family. Their first

11:04

child, Henry Ford, the second, was

11:06

born in nineteen seventeen. They went

11:08

on to have three more. Now, in terms

11:11

of whom you'd rather have.

11:12

As a boss, Henry had a very

11:14

gruff management style, his way or the highway.

11:17

Edzel preferred to let people talk about

11:19

different options and think it over and come to

11:22

a logical conclusion.

11:23

Edseel was just a lot friendlier.

11:25

And ed made a point of greeting everybody

11:28

on the way into work in the morning, from the

11:30

people on the ground level there right on

11:32

up to the senior executives. And Henry

11:34

always had a kind of a holder look about

11:36

him, particularly as he got older, you know, almost a

11:39

scowl about him, which would make him a little

11:41

scary.

11:43

And not to be rude, but from certain angles

11:45

he could look like mister Burns from the

11:47

Simpsons.

11:48

That's an adequate embarrasson

11:50

I think there.

11:51

I wonder if Henry was

11:53

a jealous of his son when he saw how much

11:55

employees liked Edsel.

11:57

I would imagine to some extent too, Henry

11:59

was probably yellis just of Edzel's

12:01

youth. It's inevitable as we get

12:03

older, and here's Edzel rising up and just

12:05

hitting the peak in the prime of his own life.

12:08

And it's a time that's passed for Henry. So that had

12:10

to have been a part of it too.

12:12

Did Henry ever try to undermine

12:14

his son?

12:15

Unfortunately, Henry undermined

12:17

his son at just about every turn.

12:21

Edseell may have been the company's president, but

12:23

Henry never actually gave up the wheel.

12:26

He retained full authority. Case

12:29

in point, when the Highland Park plant

12:31

was becoming overcrowded, senior

12:34

managers appealed to Edseell.

12:36

So after listening to this and seeing the evidence,

12:39

Edgel said, let's build an annex, a new building

12:41

for administrative offices. And they

12:43

gotten to the point where they dug a hole for the

12:45

foundation.

12:47

But when Henry saw the hole, he didn't

12:49

like it. He put the kebash on

12:51

Edsel's expansion plans.

12:53

And try to reason with his

12:56

father pushed back against this idea. Henry wouldn't

12:58

hear it, and Edsel finally just as

13:00

okay, fine, we'll close everything down, We'll

13:02

fill in the hole. You'd think that would

13:04

be the end of it, but it wasn't. Henry said no, no, don't

13:07

fill in the hole. Leave it that way. And

13:09

so for several months afterwards,

13:11

everyone who came into Ford Motor Company saw

13:14

this big, gaping hole in the

13:16

ground. They were infect reminded

13:18

every morning of who had the final

13:20

say at Ford Motor Company. So absolutely

13:23

humiliating.

13:24

And to do that to his own son, yeah,

13:27

very very cruel. Driving

13:29

father and son farther apart where

13:31

they're differing views on the world. Henry

13:34

was viciously and very publicly

13:36

anti semitic.

13:38

That is the darkest stain on Henry Ford's

13:40

character and one that has not gone away and

13:42

won't and shouldn't. He was a virulent

13:44

antisemit.

13:46

In nineteen eighteen, Henry purchased

13:48

the Dearborn Independent newspaper,

13:51

which a year and a half later under his

13:53

direction, began publishing a series

13:55

of articles entitled The International

13:58

jew The World's Problem, which

14:01

claimed there was a vast Jewish conspiracy

14:04

and blamed the Jewish people for everything

14:07

from war to jazz music. The

14:09

newspaper was distributed at dealerships

14:12

across the country, reaching

14:14

a circulation of nine hundred thousand,

14:17

and.

14:18

Edzell and Clara too. To their credit,

14:20

they were on the board of directors

14:23

quote unquote of the Dearborn Independent because it was

14:25

owned entirely by the Ford family. They

14:27

resigned. Edgell in particular, said

14:29

no, I'm not going to have anything to do with this newspaper.

14:31

He knew he couldn't stop his father from

14:33

publishing it, but at least he wasn't going to be

14:35

a part of it.

14:36

And then in the mid nineteen twenties came

14:39

a rift over Henry's other child,

14:42

his beloved Model T.

14:44

The car was absolutely cutting

14:47

edge in nineteen oh eight nineteen oh

14:49

nine when it was built and introduced, but by the mid

14:51

twenties eight to ninosaur.

14:53

The Chevrolet was helping General Motors

14:55

roar passed Ford. But Henry

14:57

didn't want to hear it.

14:58

That slump in the Model Tea's sales which

15:01

really fall off a cliff. Starting about nineteen twenty

15:03

five is where the break between Henry and

15:05

Edsel really begins, where they're more

15:07

or less friendly and familial

15:09

relationship starts to fall apart.

15:12

After years of pleading, Edzell

15:14

finally convinced Henry to trade

15:16

in the Model T for the bigger and

15:19

better looking Model A.

15:21

The Model A is no doubt the first

15:23

Ford automobile that had real style

15:25

to real class.

15:27

Boy, it seems like the cars that each of

15:29

them championed were sort of a reflection

15:32

of them temperamentally right. The

15:34

Model T so important, ultimately

15:37

very practical, The Model A

15:40

nicer to look at, more comfortable to

15:42

drive.

15:43

Yeah.

15:45

With its design supervised by

15:47

Edseel, the Model A went on

15:49

to sell over four and a half million

15:52

and put Forward back on top. Henry

15:55

took the credit, but it was Edsel's

15:57

triumph and not his only one.

16:00

Ed Soul was the driving force behind

16:02

Ford's first luxury vehicle,

16:04

the Lincoln Continental, which

16:06

architect Frank Lloyd Wright called the

16:08

most beautiful car in the world.

16:11

To this day, critics enthusiasts

16:14

alike will refer to it as one of the most beautiful

16:16

American production cars ever built.

16:18

The United States, even when it is running

16:21

and low, is a pretty big business proposition.

16:23

You are now hearing rare audio of

16:26

the press shy ed soel Ford appearing

16:28

alongside his father in nineteen

16:30

thirty five.

16:31

What I believe the country is getting ready to make a

16:33

very decided step forward next year, and

16:36

we are doing all we can to help it along.

16:39

What do you think of that, Brodoc? But I think

16:41

everybody has decided that they've.

16:43

Got to go to work.

16:45

By that point, Ford Motor Company,

16:47

under ed Sel, was playing a major

16:50

role in aviation.

16:52

People might not realize Ford Motor Company

16:54

was very busy in the aviation business in the

16:56

nineteen twenties into the very early nineteen thirties.

16:58

They built one hundred and ninety nine four Trimotor

17:01

airplanes, which were really the first

17:03

successful all metal commercial aircraft

17:05

flown in the United States.

17:09

When America entered World War II,

17:12

Edsel oversaw production of one

17:14

bomber per hour at the company's

17:16

Willow Run plant.

17:18

It was Edseel that was there running the

17:20

company, meeting with the government, meeting

17:22

with the military, making things happen.

17:25

I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say that

17:27

Edgell made his dying breadth

17:30

toward for World War II production of Ford

17:32

Motor Company. He gave his every last ounce

17:34

to that effort.

17:35

It was during the war, in nineteen

17:37

forty three that Edseell began experiencing

17:40

intense pain in his stomach. His

17:43

physician diagnosed him with ulcers.

17:46

When the pain didn't subside, Edseell

17:49

visited specialists who discovered

17:51

that he was suffering from stomach cancer.

17:54

Sadly, at that point it had spread

17:56

to other organs, and you have to wonder if

17:58

they had not misdiagnosed it as ulcers.

18:01

You know, even in the early forty stomach cancer

18:03

wasn't necessarily fatal.

18:05

But even as he weakened, Edzell

18:08

continued working at the office,

18:10

does he tell his father?

18:12

Edgell tells his father about his condition.

18:15

Unfortunately, Henry sort of dismissed

18:17

the whole thing. He said, well, no, Edgell's just

18:19

feeling sick because he's partying too

18:22

much, he's drinking too much, he's not eating

18:24

the right foods, and Henry was a fanatic

18:26

on diet. I think Henry refused

18:28

to accept that his son could be terminally ill

18:30

because this was the person who was going

18:32

to keep for Boter company going.

18:35

Eventually, Edzell was confined to

18:37

his home in Gross Point. Henry

18:40

and Clara visited their son's bedside,

18:43

but even in Edzell's final weeks

18:45

of life, Henry was ignoring reality,

18:48

insisting to associates that Edzell

18:51

would be back at work in just a few

18:53

weeks. Edzell

18:56

Bryant Ford died on May twenty

18:58

ninth, nineteen forty three. The

19:01

obituary from the New York Times read,

19:04

in the untimely death of Edsel Ford

19:06

at age forty nine, the nation

19:08

has suffered a serious loss. Self

19:11

effacing and instinctively avoiding

19:13

the limelight. He had been for more

19:16

than two decades, in every sense,

19:18

a full partner of his father.

19:23

There's a great story about some

19:25

of the Ford production managers coming in to

19:28

work the day after Edgel passed

19:30

away and seeing the flag and

19:32

half deaf, and they just upped the

19:34

car and kind of burst into tears because they all

19:36

knew what that meant and who they

19:38

had lost. So, you know, people

19:41

really did admire Edsel, and in

19:43

whole life, Henry had just been trying

19:45

to turn Edseel into something that he

19:48

wasn't He wanted his son to be more like

19:50

himself, the same personality, the same

19:52

kind of throat instincts, and

19:54

that just wasn't going to happen.

19:58

After Edzell's death, had his own

20:00

health went into rapid decline. He

20:03

suffered a series of small strokes and

20:05

a brain hemorrhage, and four years

20:07

later died at his home in Dearborn

20:10

on April seventh, nineteen forty seven.

20:13

A decade later, the Ford Motor

20:16

Company debuted its ed Cel

20:18

line. How should edsel

20:20

Ford be remembered?

20:23

Edsel Ford should not be remembered

20:25

for the Edseel automobile. And that's

20:27

one of the great ironies in

20:29

American automotive history. People hear that name,

20:32

they think about that failed car, and of course only

20:34

did he have nothing to do with it. It

20:36

really is the antithesis

20:38

of what he stood for. And he should be remembered

20:41

for his successes, certainly aviation

20:43

for the Lincoln Continental, and he should also be remembered

20:45

for his work during World War Two. So

20:48

there's no question that he served his country in

20:51

the highest and best sense.

20:55

Coming up the Adams family,

20:58

a NEPO baby seeks to redeem his

21:00

father at the ballot box.

21:02

I think he realized that he would

21:05

have to carry

21:07

on the family's name but also make it his own.

21:15

Imagine a Mount Rushmore of Nepo

21:17

babies. We would probably

21:19

include edsel Ford. We'd

21:21

also have to save a spot for Jesus, since

21:24

after all, he's the son of God. I'd

21:26

give the third spot to e Liza Minelli.

21:29

She's the daughter of Judy Garland and director

21:31

Vincent Manelli, so she had a leg

21:33

up in Hollywood from birth, but she

21:36

earned that Oscar for Cabaret. As

21:39

for that fourth slot, well, considering

21:42

that the actual Mount Rushmore is for presidents,

21:45

I'm giving it to our sixth president,

21:48

who was also the son of our

21:50

second president. I'm talking

21:52

about John Quincy Adams.

21:54

And yes it's Quinsy, not Quincy.

21:57

Now edsel Ford's father helped invent the

22:00

modern age, that's daunting. But

22:02

John Quincy Adams's dad helped

22:05

invent a country, the United

22:07

States. When your father is

22:09

not just your father, but is a founding

22:12

father, that's got to be a lot of pressure.

22:14

It's a tremendous amount of pressure. And it's

22:16

not just any of the founders.

22:19

It's John and Abigail Adams.

22:22

Alexis co is a presidential historian.

22:25

She calls John and Abigail the original

22:28

helicopter parents. And yes,

22:30

I realized helicopters didn't exist

22:32

in the colonial era, but you get the picture.

22:35

They were involved in every aspect of their children's

22:37

life.

22:38

They were all up in it, right.

22:40

There is a really long to do list. It's

22:42

exhausting.

22:43

Just one item on that list translating

22:46

the works of Greek historian Thucydides.

22:49

Mind you, Quincy was just ten

22:51

years old at the time.

22:52

And from a young age he showed promise.

22:55

It wasn't just that he was the eldest son,

22:57

It's that he was exceptional.

23:01

The second of six, Quinsy was

23:03

born July eleventh, seventeen

23:05

sixty seven in Braintree,

23:07

Massachusetts.

23:09

He is funny, he is pithy, but he's

23:11

so serious and like

23:13

his parents, and more like his father, he's

23:15

always stressed out.

23:17

Well, of course, this is not a normal

23:19

child rearing. Aside from being the son

23:22

of a founding father. There's a revolution

23:24

going on.

23:25

Yeah.

23:25

Literally outside their home they're

23:27

seeing soldiers march by. They

23:30

are aware that they are

23:32

a prominent family in what

23:35

the British are calling a rebellion.

23:37

They're not calling it a revolution.

23:39

If this rebellion fails, his

23:42

father could be executed

23:44

right.

23:45

Very likely it is a

23:47

treasonous act.

23:48

During the height of the Revolutionary War,

23:51

the young boy traveled with his father on

23:53

missions to Europe on behalf of the fledgling

23:56

Republic. Crossing the ocean

23:58

wasn't exactly smooth sand First,

24:01

their ship was struck by lightning, and

24:03

then they traded fire with and captured

24:05

an enemy vessel. At

24:07

the ripe old age of fourteen, Quincy

24:10

was sent off without his father to

24:12

Russia, where he served as secretary

24:14

to the American diplomat, Francis Dana.

24:18

The CBS News archives don't go back

24:20

that far, but here's the dramatized

24:23

version courtesy of the HBO John

24:25

Adams mini series, with the excellent

24:28

Paul Giamatti in the title role.

24:30

You must not let the idea of going to Russia frighten

24:33

you. You're fourteen years

24:35

old, Johnny, already

24:37

a man and never

24:40

one for childish pursuits. Yes,

24:45

and I have confidence that you will make both

24:47

of us very proud.

24:49

I would rather stay you with you, father.

24:51

Funny. When I was fourteen, my father

24:54

was sending me off to the drug store with quarters

24:56

to play Ms. Pac Man.

25:02

Now, even as a kid, Quinsy documented

25:05

it all, but his diaries

25:07

had pictures.

25:08

He's a doodler, So we have all these great

25:11

journals in which he's drawing

25:13

ships and people, and

25:16

he's writing not only for himself and

25:18

for the letters he has to write home, but

25:20

also because he's really aware that

25:22

they are significant

25:24

in history if they make it. But if they make

25:26

it.

25:26

I love though that he's doodling because

25:28

it's the reminder that he's just a kid.

25:31

He's fourteen, so he's doodling in

25:33

the eighteenth century equivalent

25:35

of a trapper keeper basically right.

25:37

Absolutely, And while there were

25:40

no pop stars around back then, Quincy

25:42

definitely had an American idol.

25:45

He was nothing

25:47

short of a fanboy for George Washington.

25:50

When he was abroad on his own and he was

25:52

living at the Hague, he put up what is basically the

25:55

equivalent of a poster of George Washington.

25:58

And George Washington was impressed by

26:00

young Quincy, as were many of

26:02

the founding fathers.

26:03

They all believed that he had incredible

26:05

potential to continue their legacy without

26:08

However, nepotism, because, of course, we were not

26:10

a monarchy.

26:12

Now. Most of the children of the founding fathers

26:14

could only land jobs through their connections.

26:17

By and large, they were a pretty mediocre

26:20

bunch, including Quinsy's own

26:22

siblings. His brother Charles

26:25

was described by their father, John Adams

26:27

as quote a madman possessed

26:30

of the devil. At fifteen,

26:32

Charles was caught streaking across

26:34

Harvard Yard. By age thirty,

26:36

he'd abandoned his law practice,

26:38

and his family brother

26:40

Thomas, was described as a bully

26:43

and a brute, and was equally unsuccessful.

26:46

Their sister Nabby, married a man,

26:48

Abigail Adams, deemed wholly

26:50

devoid of judgment. His shady

26:52

business dealings consigned Nabby

26:55

to a life of financial insecurity.

26:58

Quincy, on the other hand, sought only

27:00

to please John and Abigail.

27:03

The first and deepest of all my wishes,

27:05

he wrote, is to give satisfaction

27:07

to my parents. He

27:10

graduated with highest honors from

27:12

Harvard, whereby all accounts, he kept

27:14

his clothes on in public, before

27:16

embarking on a brilliant career in

27:19

diplomacy, serving every president

27:21

from Washington through Monroe. Quinsy

27:24

helped negotiate the Treaty of Ghent

27:26

ending the War of eighteen twelve, and

27:28

as President Monroe's Secretary of

27:30

State, he formulated the policy

27:33

barring European involvement in the

27:35

Americas, also known as the

27:37

Monroe Doctrine. Now

27:40

early in his diplomatic career, his

27:42

father served as the nation's first

27:44

vice president. Then in seventeen

27:46

ninety six, John Adams was

27:49

elected the nation's second president.

27:52

Shortly after his father's inauguration,

27:54

Quinsy married the British Louisa

27:57

Catherine Adams. She would become

27:59

our first fife foreign born first lady.

28:02

They would have four children. Of

28:04

course, there were some family drama of their

28:06

own when they named their eldest

28:08

after none other than George

28:10

Washington.

28:11

Which was not totally unheard of, but

28:14

it's certainly significant to name your child

28:16

George Washington when your

28:19

father was also kind of a big deal.

28:21

Let me ask did that hurt his parents' feelings.

28:24

Here's what's interesting is John Adams would

28:27

complain about the smallest

28:29

of things for pages upon pages,

28:31

and he would not only do it in one letter, he'd repeat

28:34

it in nine different letters. But

28:36

sometimes he left this kind

28:38

of personal business. Shall

28:40

we say to Abigail, and

28:43

Abigail wrote to Quincy's

28:46

brother that when Quinsy

28:49

named his child George Washington,

28:52

that it hurt his father's feelings.

28:54

It seems that Quinsy got the memo. He

28:57

named his second son, John

29:01

George Washington Adams, was born

29:03

just a few months after his grandfather

29:05

was voted out of the White House. John

29:09

Adams was the first president to

29:11

lose a bid for reelection and serve

29:13

only one term, a tough

29:15

pill to swallow for the whole Adams

29:17

family. How did this affect

29:20

John Quincy Adams.

29:22

I think he realized that he would

29:25

have to carry

29:27

on the family's name but also make it his own.

29:30

And so Quincy decided to run

29:32

for president in eighteen twenty four. According

29:35

to biographer Paul C. Nagel, one

29:38

of Quincy's motives was to quote

29:40

emulate or surpass his revered

29:42

father's distinguished career and

29:44

thereby burnish the Adams family

29:47

name. After a nasty

29:49

four way race that included Andrew

29:52

Jackson, John Quincy Adams

29:54

was elected our sixth president.

29:57

When he notified his father, the

29:59

aging and normally reserved former

30:01

president responded movingly, never

30:04

did I feel so much solemnity

30:06

as upon this occasion, the

30:09

multitude of my thoughts and the intensity

30:11

of my feelings are too much for a mind

30:14

like mine. In its ninetieth year.

30:17

It's the first American dynasty.

30:20

It's significant. He's proud,

30:22

but he's also got to then

30:25

sort of instill certain boundaries with his

30:27

father, with other people, and he's

30:29

well aware that he needs to be his own.

30:31

President.

30:32

John Quincy Adams became the first

30:35

non founding father to hold

30:37

the nation's highest office, but

30:39

he'd seen all his predecessors in action

30:41

up close. This is where being a NEPO

30:44

baby, I think is probably useful for

30:46

everyone, because he kind of knew all these guys

30:48

growing up.

30:49

He did, and he took notes. He

30:51

understood it was a great privilege.

30:53

Alas much like his father's

30:56

time in office, Quinsy struggled.

30:59

He'd come into the office without a popular

31:01

majority, and throughout his term

31:03

he faced opposition on everything

31:05

from his support for education to

31:08

his proposal for a national observatory.

31:11

His happiest time as president kneeling

31:14

in the White House garden growing vegetables.

31:17

It was during his term that his father

31:19

died on July fourth, eighteen

31:21

twenty six, the very same

31:24

day, Thomas Jefferson died, the

31:26

fiftieth anniversary of the country's

31:28

founding. Yes, that sound you're

31:30

hearing is thunder.

31:34

In the following presidential election, a

31:37

dispirited Quinsy was trounced

31:39

by Andrew Jackson. He returned

31:42

to Massachusetts an unsuccessful

31:44

one termer, the only one term

31:46

president since his father.

31:48

I think he almost always felt like he was on the precipice

31:51

of failure. To have it realized

31:53

was probably the worst thing that ever happened

31:56

to him.

31:58

And then months later a terror personal

32:00

loss. His son, George

32:03

Washington Adams died by suicide

32:06

by throwing himself from a ferry into

32:08

the Long Island Sound. Quinsy,

32:11

like John Adams before him, was a

32:13

demanding father, and it may have

32:15

been an imminent confrontation with the old

32:17

man that pushed George over

32:19

the edge. At this point,

32:22

John Quincy Adams could have retired

32:24

to a quiet life.

32:27

He would have felt as if he

32:29

was wasting his potential, because

32:31

these are people who believe

32:33

in service.

32:35

Service is the family business.

32:37

Service is the family business, because the family

32:39

business is America.

32:41

John Quincy Adams did not retreat

32:44

into private life. Instead, after

32:46

much encouragement, he decided to

32:49

run for a seat in the House of Representatives

32:51

from his home state of Massachusetts, and

32:54

he won in a landslide. But

32:57

wasn't this a step down from the presidency.

33:00

Absolutely not. It's doing

33:03

real work, meaning legislation, representing

33:06

people, not just this

33:08

performance of being

33:11

the president and hosting and all those things

33:13

which nobody really likes. You're

33:16

actually doing work, and I think

33:18

he loved it.

33:20

At age sixty four, service

33:22

in Congress meant a chance at redemption

33:24

for himself and the Adams family,

33:28

and in this final act Quincy

33:30

found a new passion in the fight

33:32

against slavery. It's important

33:35

to note of the first twelve presidents,

33:37

John Adams and John Quincy

33:40

Adams were the only two not

33:42

to own slaves.

33:44

This is the most important case I've come before this

33:46

court because what

33:48

it didn't fat concerns

33:53

it's the very nature of man.

33:55

That's Anthony Hopkins as John

33:57

Quincy Adams in the nineteen ninety seven

34:00

Steven Spielberg film Armistad.

34:03

In eighteen thirty nine, fifty three

34:05

enslaved Africans managed

34:08

to take control of their captor's ship,

34:10

the schooner Armistad, before

34:12

the ship itself was taken into custody

34:15

off the coast of Connecticut. The

34:17

fate of the Africans, whether they'd

34:19

be allowed to return to Africa, divided

34:22

the nation. The case made

34:24

its way to the Supreme Court, and

34:26

the now seventy two year old Quincy,

34:29

who had earned the nickname Old Man

34:31

Eloquent, argued the case on

34:33

behalf of the Africans. Here's

34:36

Hopkins as Quinsy, addressing

34:38

the court, we.

34:39

Desperately need your strength and wisdom

34:42

to triumph over our fears, our

34:44

prejudices, ourselves.

34:48

Give us the courage to do what is right.

34:51

And if it means civil war, then

34:54

let it come. And

34:57

when it does, finally

35:02

the last battle of the American Revolution.

35:08

Quincy's stature as a former president

35:10

and the son of a founding father meant

35:12

he could not be easily dismissed. Invoking

35:16

the Declaration of Independence, he

35:18

called for the African's inalienable

35:21

rights of life and liberty

35:23

to be restored. The Court

35:25

agreed and ruled for the Africans.

35:28

It was a great triumph for Quincy,

35:31

perhaps the most significant

35:33

of his long, long career. Seven

35:38

years later, moments after casting

35:40

a vote, John Quincy Adams

35:42

suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and

35:45

collapsed on the floor of the House of

35:47

Representatives. He died

35:49

two days later. The

35:52

Bible's Book of Luke includes the verse

35:55

to whom much is given, much is

35:57

required. You may be more familiar

35:59

with the version in Spider Man. With

36:01

great power comes great responsibility.

36:05

John Quincy Adams used all

36:07

that he'd been given in life to

36:09

serve others until the very

36:11

end. A Nepo baby done

36:14

good, coming

36:17

up after the break? Is she fluffy?

36:20

She is definitely a fluffy dog.

36:23

For babies can be Nepo babies do.

36:33

Mister Khushav and I

36:35

had a very full and frank exchange of views

36:38

on the major issues that now divide are

36:41

two countries.

36:42

That's President John F. Kennedy

36:44

in June of nineteen sixty one, just

36:47

back from his summit meeting in Vienna

36:50

with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev.

36:53

It was an especially tense time

36:55

between the superpowers. The

36:58

arms race was in full swing, and

37:00

only months before Soviet Yuri

37:03

Gagarin became the first

37:05

man in space. But in

37:07

the public relations arena it was

37:09

no contest. The Soviets

37:12

were definitely playing defense. Against

37:15

JFK and First Lady

37:17

Jackie Kennedy. So Khrushchev

37:19

launched his own charm offensive

37:22

by sending a glamorous young emissary

37:25

to the White House. Her

37:27

name was Pushinka, and

37:30

she was the daughter of a famous Soviet

37:33

cosmonaut. When Pushinka

37:35

arrived on us soil, she

37:38

was naturally met with suspicion.

37:40

Could she be a spy? Some

37:42

wondered if she might be bugged. Legendary

37:46

White House correspondent Helen Thomas

37:48

wrote at the time that a dark

37:50

eyed, platinum blonde temptress

37:53

has invaded the White House. But

37:57

Pushenka was no spy. She

37:59

wasn't even human. Pushinka

38:02

was a small white dog. Her

38:05

name actually means fluffy in

38:07

Russian. I first learned about

38:10

Pushenka back in twenty oh four

38:12

when I was writing my thriller about presidential

38:15

pets and their secret role in presidential

38:17

decision making, entitled All the

38:19

President's Pets. Pushinka

38:22

was the daughter of the pioneering

38:24

Soviet space dog Strelka.

38:27

In August nineteen sixty, Strelka

38:30

and her co pilot Belka made

38:32

headlines worldwide as the

38:34

first two dogs to come back from

38:36

space. Alive. Side note,

38:39

Leika was the actual first dog

38:41

in space. In nineteen fifty seven. The Soviets

38:43

shot her into space without any expectation

38:46

she'd survive. She didn't. I

38:48

don't even want to know what the Soviets did to cats.

38:51

So yes, Pushinka was

38:54

a NEPO puppy.

38:56

She is definitely a fluffy dog.

38:58

Alan Price is the direct of

39:00

the John F. Kennedy Library and

39:02

Museum.

39:03

Kushink is a beautiful dog, absolutely

39:05

and a lovely temperament, very friendly dog.

39:08

And the Kennedys were very comfortable

39:10

around dogs. When they moved into

39:12

the White House the winter before, they

39:14

brought a long clipper, the German shepherd,

39:17

Shannon the Cocker spaniel, and

39:20

Wolf the Irish wolfhound. And

39:22

then there were all their other pets.

39:25

They've got Tom Kitten the

39:28

cat. They have hamsters

39:30

named Debbie and Billy. They've

39:33

got parakeets named blue Bell

39:35

and may Bell. It's

39:37

really just incredible.

39:39

They had a rabbit named Jaja, a

39:41

gift from a magician.

39:43

They embrace ponies.

39:45

They have three of them, right. They've

39:47

got Macaroni and tex

39:50

and Leprechaun.

39:52

Funny enough, the President was allergic

39:54

to both horses. And dogs, But

39:57

it seems he loved dogs more than

39:59

he hated to break out. Enter

40:01

Poushinka, the only dog

40:03

that came with a passport. Seriously,

40:06

she actually had a passport. I

40:08

like to imagine the day Poushenka

40:11

came to Washington, the other pets

40:13

lined up inside the White House's grand

40:15

foyer, awaiting her arrival,

40:18

wondering who is this mysterious

40:20

creature they've been hearing about. Suddenly

40:23

the front doors open, the sunlight

40:25

floods in, first a silhouette,

40:27

then the sound of the dainty padding

40:29

of feet, as the glamorous Pushinka

40:32

strides in her nose in the air,

40:35

taking it all in but not terribly

40:37

impressed. The sense of nepo

40:40

entitlement would be galling if

40:42

she weren't so beautiful. Indeed,

40:46

before long, Pushenka set

40:48

tongues wagging, none more so

40:50

than that of Charlie, yet another one

40:52

of the family's dogs, a

40:55

roguishly handsome Welsh Terrier

40:57

and favorite of the President's Soon

41:00

enough, Charlie and Pushinka

41:02

were an item.

41:03

I believe they were exclusive, though there

41:05

were certainly other dogs who may

41:07

or may not have been interested.

41:09

Now, Charlie may have had the confidence to

41:11

put the moves on Pushenka because

41:13

he too came from privilege. It

41:15

was said that his uncle was Skippy, the

41:18

wirefox terrier who famously plaid

41:20

Asta in the thin Man series. So

41:23

yes, Charlie was a nepo nephew.

41:28

It should be noted that Poushenka

41:30

wasn't just physically attractive.

41:33

She's a very smart dog. She learns very

41:35

quickly from the gardeners that she

41:37

can climb the ladders on the children's

41:40

slide, and so they put a peanut on each

41:42

step to get her to climb higher and hire and then

41:44

learn to slide down the slide on her own.

41:47

The relationship between Charlie and Pushenka

41:50

progressed quickly. I like to

41:52

imagine that they did that lady in the tramp thing

41:54

with the string of spaghetti. I assume

41:56

all dogs who fall in love do that. And

41:59

in June nineteen teen sixty three, Pushinka

42:02

and Charlie became parents to

42:04

four adorable pups named

42:06

Blackie, Butterfly, White Tip,

42:08

and Streaker. President Kennedy

42:11

dubbed the offspring Pupnicks. Five

42:14

thousand Americans wrote to the Kennedys

42:16

pleading to adopt the Pupnicks.

42:19

Two lucky Midwest families were

42:21

given the honors. To

42:23

some the union of Charlie and Pushinka

42:26

became a symbol of peaceful coexistence,

42:29

a heartwarming image during a particularly

42:32

frosty period. But

42:35

just five months later, the meaning

42:37

attached to the dogs would change.

42:40

President Kennedy was assassinated

42:43

in Dallas, Texas.

42:44

Today he was shot.

42:46

When President Kennedy is assassinated,

42:49

these pets become a big part

42:52

of the memories that America holds

42:54

of a time that ends so abruptly.

42:57

Within weeks of the murder of President

43:00

Kennedy, the family and all their

43:02

pets vacated the White House.

43:04

Charlie was sent to live with a Secret Service

43:06

agent. But what happened to Prushenka?

43:10

So you still have Pushenka?

43:12

And how old is she now?

43:14

She's going on four years. Oh now,

43:17

that's the voice of Chief White House

43:19

Gardener Irvin Williams. He

43:21

was interviewed in nineteen sixty five

43:24

as part of an oral history for the JFK

43:26

Library. He recalled that

43:29

he met with Missus Kennedy just two

43:31

days after the president was buried.

43:34

And she asked

43:36

me that time, did I still want

43:38

Pushenka and I said

43:41

I should did, and she's

43:43

as well. The sheika is yours

43:45

forever.

43:47

They were very close.

43:48

This is Irvin Williams's son,

43:51

Bruce Williams.

43:52

She kind of hung out in his office.

43:55

I have a picture of her under his death.

43:58

Candidly, when I wrote about Shinka

44:00

in my book on Presidential Pets twenty

44:02

years ago, I never gave much thought

44:04

to what happened to her after the President's

44:07

assassination. But after some

44:09

Internet sleuthing, we were able to

44:11

track down Bruce. We connected

44:13

on zoom. He's now in his mid

44:16

sixties.

44:17

I can get the picture and read to hear the

44:19

caption.

44:20

Bruce showed me a framed photo of

44:22

the famous White House Rose Garden

44:25

that his father helped design. Missus

44:27

Kennedy signed the photo.

44:30

She says for Irwin Williams, who made

44:32

this garden so beautiful, for the President

44:34

who loved it so much, And it

44:36

says who will care for it now

44:39

that he is gone?

44:41

With deep regrets, Jacqueline Kennedy.

44:44

So, Missus Kennedy trusted your father

44:47

to take care of the rose garden. Yes,

44:50

she also trusted him to take

44:52

care of Pushinka.

44:54

Yes, And he was very happy

44:56

to do that, and that's

44:58

when she came home to our house.

45:01

The Williams family lived in a more modest

45:04

home in Vienna, Virginia, just

45:06

outside of Washington. Bruce

45:08

was just six years old, the

45:11

fourth of five kids. So

45:13

one day, just Pushenka shows

45:15

up in your house.

45:17

Yes, my father comes home from work and

45:20

Pushenka comes in behind him,

45:23

and she immediately runs under

45:25

a chair, and five

45:27

kids are now eyeballing

45:29

her, and my brother

45:32

sticks his hand in and she nips

45:34

them. So we all realized

45:36

that we just need to leave her alone.

45:39

But Pushenka soon adjusted to

45:41

her new suburban life. Often

45:44

she'd perch on top of the couch gazing

45:46

out the window. The Williams has

45:49

lived on three acres, so Pushenka

45:51

may have very well assumed that this was her

45:53

country home or datcha.

45:55

And she knew when my father was coming home

45:58

because she would get up and go to the door. Her

46:01

tail was really almost like a fan

46:03

or a fluff or something. It was just full

46:05

of hair. Was very cute.

46:07

And was she as soft as you wanted her to

46:09

be?

46:10

Oh?

46:10

Yes, but she really wasn't a

46:12

lap dog. I mean she liked her belly

46:15

to be rubbed, especially when you were

46:17

outside in the yard. She would like

46:19

roll over on her back and legs

46:21

up in the air and you could rub her belly.

46:24

In honor of her heritage, Bruce

46:27

and his siblings photographed Pushinka

46:29

in a Russian fur cap, and I have to tell

46:32

you, I love this picture.

46:33

That was something we did as kids, so

46:36

I think that's when we realized that she was a

46:38

Russian dog.

46:40

I mean in that picture she really looks like

46:42

Julie Christi and doctor Shabako. You

46:47

can just hear Laura's theme just

46:49

playing from that movie there.

46:51

I think she was just a little princess in

46:54

her own right.

46:55

As for this princess's throne,

46:57

my.

46:57

Father had a little bathroom that he would get

47:00

ready in the morning, and

47:02

she found the niche behind the toilet,

47:05

and that was her home until nineteen

47:07

seventy seven. That was her happy

47:09

place.

47:10

And though she had receded from the spotlight,

47:13

Pushinka was still receiving fan mail

47:16

until the very end. Pushinka

47:20

died in nineteen seventy seven. She

47:22

was sixteen. Bruce's

47:24

father, Irvin Williams, was devastated.

47:27

I was the one who took her to have her put down,

47:30

and he didn't want to be home when

47:32

I did that. I mean, she was really

47:34

bad, but he couldn't bring it himself

47:36

to do that. So I

47:40

was the one who volunteered to do that. I

47:42

mean it was sad to do, but she

47:44

was at peace. That was the important part.

47:47

Irvin Williams died in twenty

47:49

eighteen. He was the longest

47:52

serving gardener in White House history,

47:55

serving presidents from Harry Truman

47:57

through George W. Bush. But

48:00

he once told a reporter that he would probably

48:03

be remembered more for his association

48:05

with Poushenka, and it seems

48:07

that Irvin Williams was more than fine

48:09

with that. Poushenka's

48:11

ashes were sprinkled in his casket

48:14

and engraved on the back of Williams's

48:17

tombstone were the words with

48:19

trusted companion Poushenka.

48:22

So she's with him the rest of his life

48:25

or internity wherever they're going.

48:29

Was Poushinka a nepo baby?

48:32

I would have to say yes, I mean,

48:34

look at the lineage she came from.

48:36

But there's oftentimes a bad association

48:39

with nepo baby. Did Poushinka

48:42

give off the kind of arrogance

48:44

often associated with nepo babies.

48:48

I would say, no, she

48:50

was just just a dog. I

48:53

think she'd just like to be by

48:55

herself and away from kids.

48:57

And behind the toilet and behind the it.

49:08

I certainly hope you enjoyed this Mobituary.

49:11

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49:33

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49:40

It includes plenty of stories not

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in the podcast. This episode

49:45

of Mobituaries was produced by

49:47

Liz Sanchez. Our team

49:49

of producers also includes Zoe

49:52

Culkin and me Moroka,

49:54

with engineering by Josh Han.

49:57

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49:59

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50:01

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50:04

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50:07

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50:09

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50:11

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50:13

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50:16

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50:19

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50:22

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50:24

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50:27

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50:29

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