Still Laughing by George Schlatter

Author:George Schlatter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Unnamed Press

HAIL TO THE CHIEFS

I was not a big supporter of the first Gulf War. Any time there is a lot of oil and a lot of money involved, I get nervous. So in 1991, when ABC’s John Hamlin called and asked if I would like to produce a television special in connection with the fiftieth anniversary of the USO and celebrating the victory of the Gulf War, my initial reaction was that I did not want to do a show celebrating the victory. However, I told him that I would produce a show celebrating the USO and the American veterans of all past wars, including the Gulf War. John got it immediately and sold the idea to his bosses, Ted Harbert and Bob Iger. But then I added one more stipulation, and that was that President Bush would be there, as would President Reagan and President Ford, and that all the ex-presidents would be surrounded by enlisted men and women. Not officers, or brass, or suits. There was no way I was going to show President George H. W. Bush sitting there with his chief of staff, John Sununu, looking over his shoulder.

Of course my demand was a major stumbling block because, well, people at the White House naturally wondered who the hell was I to tell the leader of the free world whom he could sit with. Admittedly they had a good point, but if they wanted me there, the president had to be sitting with enlisted men and women from the Gulf War, as well as veterans from Vietnam, Korea, and World War II. I even wanted to include veterans from our very brief and very ridiculous war in Grenada, which, by the way, we won in an hour (but we made the point, as they have not attacked us since).

My demand caused, as they say in diplomatic terms, a shitstorm. They wouldn’t budge, and I wouldn’t budge. That’s where Spencer Geissinger stepped in. Spencer worked with the White House as our conduit to 41, aka President Bush. He was a terrific-looking guy and had been trying to do naughty things to our talent booker, an adorable, little blond girl with a cute smile and all the accompanying attributes. I explained the situation to her, and she said she would try to have Spencer work it out. We had a meeting, and it still hadn’t been resolved. Finally the Bushes were arriving at LAX with this one major issue still open. But then my talent booker called me and said she’d heard from her friend Spencer on board Air Force One, and that Mrs. Bush understood the situation and had convinced the president that he should indeed be seated among the servicemen, not officers and suits. I don’t know how my talent booker did it. But as we know, politics makes strange bedfellows. Or as sometimes has been said, bedfellows make strange politics.

This made me very happy, because we had laid out a hell of a show. We

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