#jack ford

[genevieveetguy]

. If you don't want anything you won't have anything, and if you don't have anything, you're as good as dead.

Wanda, Barbara Loden (1970)

[dailybehbeh]

Behbeh

[harrisonarchive]

George Harrison and Jack Ford backstage during the Dark Horse Tour, Salt Lake City, Utah, 16 November 1974. Photo © Bettmann/Corbis.

“The most important aspect of George Harrison‬ and his concert was the tremendous fulfillment and positive feelings given to the crowd.” - Jack Ford, Bettmann-Corbis caption

“We were playing Salt Lake City and during the intermission, or between the two shows, somebody said, ‘President Ford’s son is here and is it okay to bring him backstage to meet you?’ I said, ‘Sure, sure.’ I mean, I’ll meet anybody, they don’t have to be the President’s son, because I don’t have any ideas of the First Family or of President Ford. [...] So I met his son, and his son was fantastic, his son was just a really nice, very, very good guy. In fact I got a really good feeling from him first time I met him.” - Geprge Harrison, KHJ, 21 December 1974 (x)

[harrisonstories]

@GeorgeHarrison tweeted the photo on the left with the following caption in 2017: “On This Day 19DEC1974 George holds a press conference at the United Nations to bring awareness to the famine in Africa and to announce that the proceeds from his two concerts at The Garden will go to UNICEF to benefit children in those areas. AP Photo/Suzanne Vlamis”

Dr. Mike Jones: You say in the documentary Living in the Material World, [George] refused honours. He said to you one time, “You go and pick it up.” I mean, what was that about?

Olivia Harrison: Yeah. Oh, you know, there’s a saying, an Indian saying. It’s like, “Do a good deed and drop it in the well.”

Jones: Yeah, yeah.

Olivia: And so, yeah -- he just wasn’t in the mood to be congratulated for those sort of things. In fact, he went to the United Nations at the end of his 1974 tour because he’d given money to, all along the way, San Francisco free clinic, somewhere in the south, free clinics all over the United States, housing, self-realisation fellowship. He donated the benefits of the concerts to these charities, and they wanted to honour him, and he was furious that he had to go and somebody had made this appointment and agreed that he would go.

And he really, uh, wasn’t too willing, but he went because they were waiting for him, and they said, “How do you feel?” And he said, “I feel sad. I feel sad if just somebody like me has to help, how united are you nations?” And I thought, “Oh boy, they asked the wrong question there.” [laughs] You know. The President’s son was there, and they gave George an award, and afterwards Jack Ford said, “Wow that was amazing what you did.” He said, “What did I do?” He said, “You didn’t even open it. You just put it in your pocket.” He just went, “thanks” and put it in his pocket because he said, “Well I didn’t know what I was supposed to do with it.”

And that was it. For a forest to be green each tree must be green. How united are your nations? That’s what he said, and I think it was as relevant then as it is now, you know, if not more so. I think he would -- I think that All Things Must Pass -- it’s really an appropriate anniversary. And those words that came from the Tao Te Ching, really, Lao Tzu, will resonate especially at this time. In the world, in our lives, everything will change. That’s the one guarantee. Hopefully for the better.

- George Harrison: Transcending The Beatles, University of Liverpool (30 Nov. 2020)

[thebeatleaesthetic]

George Harrison at the White House

On December 13, 1974, keyboardist Billy Preston, sitarist Ravi Shankar, saxophonist Tommy Scott, manager Denis O’ Brien, publicity agent Michael Sterling, and George Harrison’s father, Harry, all accompanied the former Beatle to the Ford White House. Harrison and company were in the midst of their 1974 North American tour and were performing in nearby Landover, Maryland, on December 13. 

Jack Ford said he invited George and friends to the White House because he had been invited backstage at the Salt Lake City show.  "They were so hospitable to me I wanted to return the favor," he said.  

A lunch of vegetables and beef was served in the solarium while George's Dark Horse album was played in the background.  It was reported George stuck to the vegetables.

Jack and his sister Susan acted as tour guides as the entourage viewed the White House rooms. In the East Room, Harrison and Preston sampled a few bars on the 1938 Steinway piano situated in the historic room. President Ford met briefly with them for about 15 minutes in the Oval Office. Politics was apparently avoided that day. After the meeting, Harrison stated, “I didn’t ask him [Ford] about Bangladesh or anything else political . . . I didn’t want to bug him.” Tom Scott recalled they were brought to a conference room outside the Oval Office to wait until the President became available.  "We walked into the presidents' conference room with the oval table and the chair and signs saying, 'Secretary of Defense,' 'Secretary of this and that' and we sat down in the chairs, clowning around."  Scott went on to say that George and Billy did some jamming on a piano in the room, but then it was time to meet the President. As Harrison’s entourage was leaving the office, Jack told his father, “I promised George a WIN (Whip Inflation Now) button.” When one could not be immediately found, the president sent appointments secretary Terry O’ Donnell to find one. In return for the WIN button, Harrison gave the president an “Om” mantra pin representative of Harrison’s interest in Eastern spirituality.

Harrison would remember Ford as quite amiable both in the immediate aftermath of the visit as well as in his 1980 autobiographical work, I Me, Mine. Harrison confessed that he felt “good vibes about the White House.” On whether the president was a follower of Harrison’s musical output, Harrison admitted shortly after the meeting, “I don’t think he’s too familiar with my music.” Later that evening at the Capital Centre, Harrison was seen onstage wearing the pin given to him by President Ford.

[illilis]

Edward Holcroft as Jack Ford in The Sense of an Ending (2017)

[george-harrison-marwa-blues]

George along with his father, Harold, Ravi Shankar, Tom Scott and Billy Preston visit the White House by invitation of First Son, Jack Ford and then President Gerald R Ford, 13 December 1974. George was the first ex-Beatle to ever tour the White House.

[fordlibrarymuseum]

Art in the Archives: Andy Warhol

With his signature Polaroid camera in hand, pop artist Andy Warhol stopped by the White House with Bianca Jagger on July 2, 1975, for a tour with Jack Ford.

Warhol grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and studied commercial art at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University). After graduating in 1949 he moved to New York City and began working in advertising and magazine illustration. 

In the 1960s Warhol first exhibited some of his best known pop art works, including his paintings of Marilyn Monroe and Campbell’s Soup Cans, and established his studio “The Factory.” He worked collaboratively with artists and musicians at his studio on silkscreens, films, and other works. During his career Warhol would explore numerous types of media, ranging from sculpture to performance art to Time Capsules, which were cardboard boxes filled with ephemera from his daily life.

This visit was Warhol’s second time at the White House that year, as he had attended a state dinner hosted by President Ford in honor of the Shah of Iran on May 15, 1975. David Kennerly, Personal Photographer to the President, captured images of Warhol’s photo shoot with Jack Ford and Bianca Jagger on the Truman Balcony. The two photographers also took time to discuss their work that day. “I enjoyed very much meeting you when you were here and was particularly glad you got a chance to see the slide show,” Kennerly wrote to Warhol following the visit. “I refined it after I showed it to you and it turned out to be a lot better when I finished it.”

Image: Andy Warhol Taking a Polaroid Picture while Sitting with Jack Ford and Bianca Jagger on the Truman Balcony, 7/2/1975