Five day bicycle race, Part 3

A documentary made at and about the 1976 Democratic National Convention in New York City, which was produced as a live 3-hour cablecast for five days during the convention. It was subsequently broadcast on WTTW and other PBS stations. It chronicles the events on in and around the convention, and includes interviews with various delegates, politicians, members of the media, and people connected to Jimmy Carter, including Rosalynn Carter and Jeff Carter (Jimmy's son). It also includes footage from the convention floor, and demonstrators outside the convention, led by Ron Kovic.

00:00Copy video clip URL Black.

00:04Copy video clip URL Mr. Shirley Love, a delegate from Oak Hill, West Virginia, welcomes the television audience to the Five Day Bicycle Race.

00:22Copy video clip URL Host Joel Gold introduces take two of Love’s welcome bit.

00:47Copy video clip URL B-roll of convention attendees. Titles: Breakfast at Bloomingdales. A woman from Washington, DC, notes how nice the conference is. She says she’s an active Democrat and is glad to see our diplomats so well taken care of while at the conference here in New York. She notes she and friends will listen to Paul Sarbane’s talk and then they’ll shop in Bloomingdales. Various b-roll of attendees, servers serving champagne, photographers taking pictures, people mingle.

02:58Copy video clip URL Jimmy Carter’s aunt shows off a peanut shaped pin she’s wearing. She says today is the culmination of a lot of hard work and dreams. Subconsciously, she says, she’s been thinking of Jimmy for President for about 5 years. She’s been campaigning for her nephew full-time since July.

04:46Copy video clip URL B-roll of various women modeling fashionable autumn clothes at Bloomingdales for an audience. The on-camera host interviews women in the audience about the clothes. They approve. One comes from a small town in Georgia. She says people there wear clothes similar to what she sees in New York.

10:09Copy video clip URL Gold says he doesn’t drink in the morning and notes that the models don’t sweat.

10:45Copy video clip URL Continued interview with Jimmy Carter’s aunt. She says before Jimmy was in first grade he knew he one day wanted to go to Annapolis, Maryland (the Naval Academy). “He had a goal and worked to achieve it. He got to Annapolis. He’s always been exceptional, an avid reader, interested in people.” She says the family doesn’t really advise him on political issues. She adds when Carter became governor she approached him with an idea to have hostesses at the mansion when it was open to the public. Carter told her to “talk to Rosalynn” about it. “They liked the idea and I became Chairman of the Hostess Program.” She’d like to suggest the same program at The White House if Carter gets in. When asked how she thinks Mrs. Ford’s been conducting herself recently, Carter’s aunt politely refuses to comment.

14:35Copy video clip URL B-roll of champagne being served. The on-camera host takes a sip. Interview with a couple from West Virginia, a delegate and his wife. First time in New York. “I was expecting to get mugged, and see dirty streets.” He hasn’t found any of that. “It’s been wonderful.” The wife says she’s been seeing the sights and shopping. She says Jay Rockefeller is here today. “He’ll be our next governor in West Virginia.” The man says regarding Carter “we have to keep an open mind.”

16:53Copy video clip URL Interview with Dorothy Davis, mother of Annette Carter (wife of Jeff Carter), who says the convention is fun and very interesting. Edna Langford, mother of Judy Carter (wife of John “Jack” William Carter). Their daughters married Jimmy Carter’s boys. Annette Carter joins them. Langford says they’ve been working hard contacting people they’ve been in communication with for the last year-and-a-half. They’ve not been campaigning while in New York, just having a good time. “We’ve been partying ever since we’ve been here.” Annette says “It’s been easy for me.” She says she’s 23 years old and has been married 14 months. “It’s strange at first, but it got easier.” She says she can only look forward stage by stage. “It’s overwhelming to think Carter could be in The White House.”

21:13Copy video clip URL Interview with Lacey Lee, the wife of a Georgia delegate who says that while the husbands are on the floor, the wives are taken care of by a host committee. “They plan things for us. If not for them we would have been afraid to venture on our own. We’ve been to art museums, we were with Gloria Vanderbilt yesterday, we were in Chinatown last night.” “It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before.” Lee says she’s seen many cultures in New York City she’s never seen before. “I can see they don’t want another group forced upon them. It came to my mind that this is what Jimmy was talking about when he said ‘ethnic groups.’ They seemed happy. They were doing their own thing. The people of New York have opened their arms to us. It wasn’t what I expected. They’ve been most helpful.” When asked by the interviewer to say something that would make him feel Carter is the man for the presidency, the woman responds, “Jimmy Carter can be summed up in one phrase: liberal humanitarian. He cares about people.”

25:17Copy video clip URL Continued interview with Carter’s aunt. She says, “people are people everywhere. And they’re all beautiful.”

26:39Copy video clip URL Sound fades. Black.

26:43Copy video clip URL Sound comes up. Outdoor festival in the park. TITLES: Yippie Smoke-In, Central Park. The videographer and host walk through the crowd. They smell dope. They look for yippies. A man at a microphone addresses the crowd about the smoke-in and march. “We’re not done with free television time!: A “yippie” says, “We want Nobody for President because, who gives us better schools? Nobody! Who gives us better jobs? Nobody!” The host says he’s been to the Democratic National Convention. “It’s open. There’s no real security.” “It seems like you guys are doing the same thing you were doing eight years ago and meanwhile the world has changed.” The man says, “that is and isn’t so. We’ve maintained our ideals. I suggest you come to the Republican Convention. It will be more interesting.”

29:14Copy video clip URL Another man interviewed says the reason there’s been a change in the movement these past few years is because women have gotten involved in politics and it’s made male politicians impotent. Another man says he thinks Carter is bullshit. “If he’s anti-capitalist I don’t know how he could stand for these things. He says the people responsible for Watergate are behind bars. That’s not true. Some might be, but others take their place immediately.”

30:56Copy video clip URL B-roll of people at the rally. A man in a suit rants for attention about God, Jesus Christ, and scripture. The yippies tell him to leave.

32:35Copy video clip URL Live music plays. Rally attendees stand and sit around smoking marijuana. Fade out.

33:36Copy video clip URL Fade in at the Democratic National Convention. The room is empty. Off camera, Jody Procter intones that they wait for the King of the Peanuts to return to end poverty, illness. The end of Hitler, the beginning of Carter.

39:43Copy video clip URL Fade to black.

39:44Copy video clip URL Fade in on a reel-to-reel tape recorder. Many people are sitting in the studio. Bart Friedman says to the camera (to the audience) “We’re open for phone calls.” “If you have any comments on the tapes you’ve been seeing tell us.” The two hosts joke around. One host starts taking ‘gag’ phone calls. One phone call is just a man breathing heavily. One caller asks about world commodities. The host says “buy peanuts.”

44:39Copy video clip URL Skip Blumberg and Jane Aaron interview with a man pretending to be Nelson Rockefeller. He notes that he owns Peru, the United States, Bolivia. “I own banks. I own the Long Island Railroad. My name is Rockefeller. Don’t you recognize my voice?” A man asks, “If you’re Rockefeller why aren’t you out solving the problems of the world?” “Because I’m on vacation.” Another man says, “This city needs to wake up and respect the small man paying taxes. Small people are treated like they’re nothing. If I could run the country I’d make everyone equal.”

48:43Copy video clip URL Fade out and in. Back to the studio. Image Union sign: Five Day Bicycle Race. Nancy Cain notes that we’re still on and still going live. She takes a call from a viewer. The caller says no one has the right to have so much power like the President. “But don’t you think the people choose the leader? There is a leader coming and it’s Carter. He is our new leader. But aren’t the people choosing him? We have to live with our choices? Are you willing to willing to live with your choice?” What’s my choice? “Your choice is Carter!” “Ok, I’ll take him.”

50:42Copy video clip URL Footage of a rally on the streets of New York. A man notes this is the International Committee Against Racism. “We’re here to let Jimmy ‘Peanut’ Carter and Walter ‘Monkey’ Mondale know that we know what the deal is. It’s the same black and white fight. Latino, Native American. Carter’s appeal is not to the middle class people. His appeal is to the Democratic party regime, organized labor.” The man and his group will continue fighting against racial injustice.

53:04Copy video clip URL Black. Title: End of Part 3. Stay tuned for Part 4.

53:18Copy video clip URL END.