Historic Partners: Gerald R. Ford and Woodrow Wilson
In his 1979 autobiography, “A Time to Heal,” President Ford mentioned former President Woodrow Wilson. This is an important year for Ford and Wilson. It is the 45th anniversary of the publication of Ford’s autobiography. It is also the 80th anniversary of “Wilson,” Hollywood’s first biographical picture, or “biopic,” of an American president.
President Ford’s first mention of Wilson is regarding former powerful White House chiefs of staff. “Wilson had his Colonel House, Eisenhower his Sherman Adams, Nixon his Haldeman, and I was aware of the trouble those top assistants had caused my predecessors.”
Edward M. House was a diplomat and an adviser on European affairs to President Wilson. House helped Wilson with the Fourteen Points, the Treaty of Versailles, and the Covenant of the League of Nations. House was an influential figure in the Wilson administration and in world affairs. After Wilson left office, House was honored on the cover of Time magazine in 1923.
Ford’s second mention of President Wilson is important to the upcoming 50th anniversary of the president’s pardon of former President Richard Nixon on Sunday, September 8, 1974. Mr. Ford cited Wilson and “The pardon power entrusted to the President.”
In 1915, George Burdick, editor of the New York Tribune, published sourced articles about customs fraud by U.S. Treasury Department employees. When Burdick refused to reveal his sources to the government, President Wilson offered him “a full and unconditional pardon for all offenses against the United States which he … has committed or may have committed or taken part in.”
Burdick still refused to testify. He went to prison. In 1915, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed his conviction set him free. Mr. Ford wrote: “In their opinion the Justices … reaffirmed that ‘the President has power to pardon for a crime of which the individual has not been convicted and which he does not admit.’”
This Supreme Court opinion also found that a pardon “carries an imputation of guilt, acceptance, a confession of it.” Mr. Ford wrote that since these two opinions “were clear and unambiguous and had remained the law of the land for nearly sixty years,” he had “legal authority to move ahead” with a pardon for former President Nixon.
According to Richard Norton Smith, author of “An Ordinary Man: The Surprising Life and Historic Presidency of Gerald R. Ford,” the “obscure” 1915 Supreme Court decision helped an ailing nation in 1974. “[T]he Burdick ruling gave Ford the legal and political rationale he was seeking for an act designed to refocus attention on issues greater than the fate of Richard Nixon.”
President Ford’s Sunday morning pardon of former President Nixon was a dramatic moment in U.S. history. It ended the judicial and political proceedings of the “long national nightmare” of Watergate. It meant that the country could focus on the future. Nixon’s health was also factored into the pardon.
President Wilson, during his two terms in the White House, pardoned 2,480 people, George Burdick among them. President Ford, in his short but historic term in office, pardoned 409 people, Richard Nixon among them.
Presidents Wilson and Ford had historic and dramatic terms in the White House. Adding to drama in the Wilson administration, the president suffered a debilitating stroke in 1919, near the end of his second term. His health prevented him from seeking a third term in office. Wilson received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1920. He died in February 1924.
In 1944, 20th Century Fox released “Wilson,” a $5 million Technicolor film production about Wilson’s life. Producer Darryl Zanuck, an admirer of Wilson, made the film to honor Wilson on the 20th anniversary of the president’s death. Politics might also have been a factor. An ill President Franklin Roosevelt, seeking his fourth term in the White House, faced popular GOP challenger Thomas Dewey.
Some in Hollywood suggested that Zanuck’s expensive film project about Wilson was designed to help Roosevelt’s 1944 presidential campaign. This angered Zanuck. “Politics? Nuts! It’s showmanship!“, he said.
In a July 1944 press interview, Zanuck, born in Wahoo, Nebraska, said, “Your ordinary cab driver today has a better understanding of world affairs than did some of our so-called statesmen of a couple of decades ago.” He continued: “If the man in the street can become aware of the world, the movies certainly would be lagging if they failed to show an equal knowledge. Significant films can be made entertaining.”
“Wilson” was released in August 1944. Filmed in Technicolor, “Wilson” runs 154 minutes, or 2 1//2 hours. It was a big financial investment for Hollywood that required a big time investment from audiences.
Patriotism, American values, and world peace are at the heart of the film. They were also Woodrow Wilson’s life goals through his scholarship and politics. Zanuck said the film was “the tragic story of one man who literally gave his life to cause of peace.” Wilson’s tireless campaign for the League of Nations may have caused his stroke.
“Wilson” is visually stunning. It was reported to be “the biggest, costliest production ever turned out at the 20th Century Fox studios, with 50 interior sets, and 38 exteriors, sets that include the House of Representatives, rooms in the White House, a huge convention hall.” Scenes at Princeton University were filmed on location.
A Midwestern critic succinctly reviewed the film. “It is not a sharp or complete analysis of the man and his times, the battles he fought, the complexities of his position, nor the recounting of paradoxical incidents, so much as it is a warm and sympathetic portrayal of the man himself,” the critic wrote.
Canadian actor Alexander Knox portrayed Wilson, a Virginian. A stage actor, Knox had a remarkable voice and screen presence. According to Fox Publicity, “every word in [Knox’s] portrayal of Wilson was a direct quote from Wilson’s writings, letters, or recorded remarks.” If true, Knox had the unique film experience of speaking dialogue written by the president he portrayed.
At the 1945 Academy Awards, Wilson got 10 nominations. It won 5 Academy Awards, including Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing, and Best Art Direction. “Wilson” failed at box offices. Why? Too long, maybe. Too boring, maybe. Bad marketing, maybe.
In 1954, Zanuck told TV’s Ed Sullivan that “Wilson” was released during World War II when “world cooperation” was not popular. It was an odd statement. Global cooperation helped end WWII approximately 1 year after “Wilson” was released. Ten months after the film’s release, the United Nations charter was signed by 50 nations.
The AP’s 1979 obituary for Zanuck mentioned several of his famous films. “Wilson” was not among them. The New York Times April 1995 obituary for Knox called him “Hollywood’s Wilson.”
For me, the charm of “Wilson” is that Zanuck spared no expense to recreate the atmosphere of the 1910s. The music, the costumes, the dialogue, the sets and Technicolor combine to create a beautiful sense of what the era was like. The era molded the life of Wilson, the lives of our ancestors, and the life of Gerald Ford, who was born on July 13, 1914, during Wilson’s historic presidency.
James Patterson is a former U.S. diplomat, life member of the American Foreign Service Association.
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