Dwight Eisenhower dedication to WRC-TV May 22 1958 presentation available on Veoh.com

[Sandy G]

Another thing to marvel at is Ike's use of an apparently stock 1958 Caddy 75 limo, rather than the ugly rolling bomb shelter presidents have to use nowadays. I wonder if the building, brand-new in '58, is still there & still in use ?

[sweitzel]

It is still there, it is still WRC NBC4.

[egrand]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

Another thing to marvel at is Ike's use of an apparently stock 1958 Caddy 75 limo, rather than the ugly rolling bomb shelter presidents have to use nowadays. I wonder if the building, brand-new in '58, is still there & still in use ?

Sandy, there might have been some mild armoring such as steel plates inserted in the panels and trunk to surround the back seat, but for the most part it was probably stock. The White House used a lot of stock cars before the Kennedy assassination, especially for short distances that weren't deemed a threat.

Even the Lincoln X-100 that Kennedy was shot in had limited armoring. And, many times on trips he and Johnson were driven around in stock Continentals borrowed from local dealers so they didn't have to get the big car out, even on their trip to Texas. That changed after November 22, 1963.

Here's some articles on a '55 Cadillac limo that was modified for parade use:
http://blogs.wsj.com/drivers-seat/20...imo-next-week/
http://www.carbuzz.com/news/2012/12/...ction-7712189/

A funny story about Ike and cars: when he was getting ready to leave office in 1961 he realized that he'd forgotten how to drive. He hadn't driven a car since he became NATO commander in '51. Those 10 years and the stroke he had in '57 made him forget how. He worried that retiring to his farm in PA he needed to learn to drive again. So, some Secret Service agents thought it'd be easy since cars now had automatic transmissions, power steering and brakes. They took him to the WH garage and after a couple of hours he just couldn't get the hang of it. Finally, he got out of the car, blurted some cuss words, and said, "I guess Mamie will have to drive me around!" He then ordered her a new Plymouth Valiant.

[Sandy G]

Hehehehe... I like the- Probably apochrophal- story that LBJ, being a Texas Redneck after all, was whooping it up on the LBJ Ranch in a new 1964 Lincoln convertible. He jumped a ditch, which caused the car's front end to collapse-They WEREN'T meant to do THAT- He called up Henry Ford 2nd & proceeded to bawl him out...

[egrand]

I don't doubt it a bit. LBJ was a real piece of work.

You might get a kick listening to this. It's legit, a real recording of LBJ on the phone trying to order some pants: http://youtu.be/S3GT9UN7nDo

[Sandy G]

He was. There was ANOTHER story that part of the modifications Hess & Eisenhardt had to do to X-100 after the assassination was repair the trunk lid, which LBJ had put a big dent in after he'd tried to jump/vault over the rear end of the car. I've had my '67 Lincoln convertible since '83, I was a LOT younger then, but I NEVER had a desire to try to "Jump/vault" over it...

[egrand]

Wow!

To bring all this back to TV's, Lady Bird Johnson owned a TV station in Austin. For years LBJ pressured the FCC to not grant any other licenses for Austin so they could have a monopoly. It was CBS primary and NBC secondary affiliate. He would call up the networks and threaten to switch which news they showed if one did a story he didn't like.

[mpatoray]

LBJ also strong armed RCA and told them not to see broadcast TV equipment to ANY other Texas TV station. Otherwise he would have the government pull all of their RCA contracts, which would have effectively killed the company. That is why in most pictures of TV stations in Teas you see GE, Marconi, Dumont and other brand of equipment not RCA.