Today, we continue our occasional series where we interview noted personalities from the world of travel, heritage and culture.Author and Presidential Historian William G. Clotworthy’s career involved two distinct venues -- modern visual communications (advertising and broadcasting) and American history. Bill says, “As I’ve grown older, I recommend the latter. The pressure is minimal; one works at one’s own pace -- no deadlines, only dead lives.”
Bill began working as an NBC page in 1948, and for the next 42 years he worked in the advertising and broadcast business as a producer of television shows and commercials for many prestigious companies, such as General Electric, 3M, DuPont, Campbell Soup, Armstrong and others. He associated with famous personalities, such as Bing Crosby, Groucho Marx, Danny Kaye and Johnny Carson, and he spent six years supervising General Electric Theater and its host, Ronald Reagan. The final link in what Bill calls, “the chain of glamour,” was 12 years as NBC censor on “Saturday Night Live.”
“Perhaps I’ll call my memoirs ‘From Howdy Doody to Saturday Night Live,’” he says.
Where is your hometown? Westfield, New Jersey
Where do you live now? Midlothian, Virginia
How did you start writing about presidents? In retirement, I began to travel, lecture and write -- an adventure that led to becoming what my publisher calls, “one of America’s leading authorities on publicly accessible places associated with presidents in the United States.” My books are: “Homes and Libraries of the Presidents,” “Presidential Sites” and “In the Footsteps of George Washington.” I am currently at work on “Homes of the First Ladies” and hope for a 2010 release date. In between trips to Mount Vernon, Monticello and other prestigious sites, I found time to write a little memoir on my television experiences, “Saturday Night Live: Equal; Opportunity Offender.”
Have you found inspiration in your work? Looking back (a quirk of aging), I have found the most interesting part of my career is the latter part. Somehow, there is a deeper feeling of accomplishment. I am proud to have been associated with many great personalities and would not trade my years with Ronald Reagan for anything, but nothing has moved me as much as visiting log cabins in Hodgenville, Kentucky; Kinderhook, New York; Moravia, New York; Mercersburg, Pennsylvania; or rude houses in Pineville, North Carolina; Point Pleasant, Ohio; or West Branch, Iowa; even a walkup apartment above a bakery in Tampico, Illinois – all birthplaces of men who grew up to become president of the United States!
Tell us about the people you have met at presidential homes. The host personnel at presidential sites, whether park rangers, museum curators, teenage volunteers or senior citizen docents, are invariably friendly, knowledgeable and anxious to enhance every visitor’s enjoyment of the facility. It has been my privilege to meet and benefit from these stewards of our great American heritage. I am proud to be a historian.
Where have you traveled while researching presidential sites? Is there any place you recommend people visit? I have not traveled extensively in researching my work. After all, Herbert Hoover was the first president born west of the Mississippi, and the majority of the sites I’ve studied lie within the original 13 states. I have missed a few: Teddy Roosevelt’s cowboy log cabin in Medora, North Dakota; George W. Bush’s boyhood home in Midland, Texas; and the newly opened Abraham Lincoln Museum in Springfield, Illinois. But, I’ve been to Plains, Georgia (Carter); Key West, Florida (Truman); Hope, Arkansas (Clinton); Fairfield, Vermont (Arthur); and Stonewall, Texas (Johnson).
If I were to recommend a single must-see, it would be Mount Vernon, the home of George and Martha Washington. Owned and operated by the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association since 1861, it is America’s most popular historic home and now features a brand-new education center concentrating on Washington’s entire life, not just his life at Mount Vernon as a plantation owner.
My particular favorite exhibit? With the assistance of brilliant forensic anthropologists, computer scientists and sculptors, three accurate life-size models were created of Washington as a 19-year-old surveyor, a 45-year-old general and a 57-year-old president. This is part of a remarkable and insightful journey into understanding the one man most responsible for creating our nation.
What’s your next trip? Medora, North Dakota, to visit what I’ve missed -- the Teddy Roosevelt cowboy log cabin. I’ll go as soon as the ice melts, perhaps one day in mid-August.
Readers: What presidential sites have you visited or hope to visit? Tell us in the comments section below.
Photo courtesy of William Clotworthy and McDonald & Woodward Publishing
1 comments:
Please share your thoughts!