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7342893
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Pool Report #2, Lincoln Home, Springfield, Illinois
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document
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1
Source metadata
id
7342893
sourceUrl
contentType
document
title
Pool Report #2, Lincoln Home, Springfield, Illinois
citationUrl
collections
White House Press Releases (Ford Administration)
Press Releases
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7342893
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5
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1976-03-05
month
3
year
1976
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nara-archive
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b52e9c9791e48eb5
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Digitized from Box 22 of the White House Press Releases at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
MARCH 5, 1976
POOL REPORT #2
LINCOLN HOME, SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS
Uneventful trip from airport to the Lincoln home; virtually no crowds
along the route, Police estimated the crowd around the home at
about 5,000. Ford entered the home from the rear, walked through
the kitchen, to a sitting room, past the entrance foyer and into the
"formal parlor, " where the superintendent of the site, Albert W.
Banton, Jr., told the President that he was standing in the room where
a committee called on Lincoln to inform him he had been nominated
for President. Ford pointed to a small rocking chair and footstool
and said, "his long legs stretched out from that chair." Then the
pool was ushered out and the President stayed inside for about ten
minutes before emerging at 12:05 p.m.
The pool noted two hostile signs in the crowd: "fat cats for Ford",
and "we beg your pardon". After the speech the President worked
the crowd for about ten minutes. The crowd immediately surrounding
the President was mostly kids let out of school for the morning.
Several times Ford was being pulled in two directions by the surging
crowds and had to admonish them: "Take it easy. take it easy. "
On the way back to his limousine behind the home, Ford stopped to
chat with men dressed in the uniform (civil war era) of the 7th
Illinois cavalry. One of the cav's "officers" said the President had
promised to invite thom to the 1977 inaugural parade. The President
also shook hands with a drum and bugle corps from Sacred Heart
Elementary School. Just before leaving the President was given a
photograph of Lincoln in front of his home. We presume 'that it
may have been a photo taken at his farewell address because of the
large crowd in the picture, but we do not know for sure. Ford said
it would be prominently displayed in his private study at the White
House. He also said, "you fellas do a fine job. I'm an old has been
of the Park Service" a reference to his stint as a summer ranger at
Yellowstone National Park eons ago.
As the motorcade pulled out from behind the home, your poolers
noticed that an agent facing the rear in the backup car behind the
Presidential limousine was cradling a submachine gun beneath his
olive-green topcoat.
On the two minute drive to the hotel, Ford and Congressman Findley
stood in the limousine and waved to the moderately heavy crowds. At
the hotel, he worked a fairly good crowd in the lobby to the accom-
paniment of "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and "Hold That Tiger", played by
two bands--one a group of Shriners and the others dressed up like a
bunch of clowns.
Ed Walsh - Washington Post
Tom DeFrank - Newsweek
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