Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 461 › Conversation 461-012

Nixon, Heltemes & Dole on Easter Seal Society and Hollywood

Tuesday, March 2, 1971 · 12:53 PM–1:07 PM ET · Oval Office · 14 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Ziegler, Ronald L.; Heltemes, Peter; Heltemes, Jack; Heltemes, Jack (Mrs.); Heltemes, Jack, Jr.; Heltemes, Holly; Dole, Robert J.; Young, Robert; Young, Robert (Mrs.); Parker, David N.; Bill, GeorgeConversation461-012 on Tape 461 (tape position 02:07:52–02:22:02)StartTuesday, March 2, 1971 at 12:53 PMEndTuesday, March 2, 1971 at 1:07 PMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 461-012 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon met in the Oval Office with the Heltemes family—the 1971 Easter Seal poster family—accompanied by Senator Robert Dole and other guests. The meeting served as a ceremonial event to honor the poster child and distribute presidential gifts, including Apollo-themed viewers and cufflinks. Following the departure of the Heltemes group, Nixon held a broader discussion with his remaining visitors regarding the state of the film industry, expressing his preference for family-oriented entertainment and criticizing the prevalence of explicit content in modern movies.

Audio

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NARA Description

On March 2, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon, Ronald L. Ziegler, Peter Heltemes, Jack Heltemes, Mrs. Jack Heltemes, Jack Heltemes, Jr., Holly Heltemes, Robert J. Dole, Robert Young, Mrs. Robert Young, David N. Parker, and George Bill met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:53 pm and 1:07 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 461-012 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 461-12

Date: March 2, 1971
Time: Unknown after 12:53 pm until 1:07 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Ronald L. Ziegler

     President’s schedule
          -Easter Seal meeting
                -Press
                -Heltemes family
                -Poster child

Peter Heltemes, Mr. and Mrs. Jack Heltemes, David Heltemes, Jack Heltemes, Jr., Holly
Heltemes, Robert J. Dole, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Young, David N. Parker, and George Bill entered
at 12:55 pm; members of the press were present at the beginning of the meeting

     [Unintelligible]

     Easter Seal Poster Child
          -Importance

     [Unintelligible]

     Presidential gifts
          -Apollo viewmaster
          -Cufflinks and pins

     [General conversation]

     Young
         -A telethon
         -A meeting with the President in 1961
               -Christmas
               -University of Southern California

Ziegler, the Heltemes, Dole, Parker, and Bill left at an unknown time before 1:07 pm

           -Family

     San Clemente

     Young family
Show the rest of the log (32 more lines)
     Young
         -Golf
                 -Presidential golf balls

     [General conversation]

     Leslie T. (“Bob”) Hope
           -Christmas show
           -Talk with President
                 -Previous meeting with the President
                      -Delores (Reade) Hope

     Movies
         -Telegram
               -Charlton Heston
         -Screen Actors’ Guild
               -Foreign films
                     -Costs
                     -Effect on Hollywood
         -”I am Curious Yellow”
         -Need for family entertainment
         -Trend
               -President’s view
         -Julie Nixon Eisenhower
         -”Airport” and “Sound of Music”
         -”Around the World in Eighty Days”
         -Older movies
         -Young people’s interest

     Farewells

Mr. and Mrs. Young left at 1:07 pm

Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 8 minutes of this recording (about 60% of it) is represented by only a few words. Listen to the audio rather than relying on the text below; a corrected transcript is queued.

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Names and numbers are often wrong; speakers are not identified. Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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The boy here.
Stand up, stand up, stand up.
Sure.
All right.
Thank you.
All right, baby.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
Thank you for your help.
Oh, come on.
Let's do it again.
Watch this.
Thank you.
Yeah!
I hope that, uh, you know, you can just take a picture of that.
There, and just take a picture.
Ah, that was a good answer.
Let's go.
All right.
All right.
We're all in a hard situation right now.
This is a bad deal.
We know that, but we're all in a hard situation.
We're worried about it.
I'm sorry.
We're worried about it.
Okay.
Thank you.
All right.
All right.
Now, let's see, we've got a few little hips.
Look at this.
Oh, here we go.
These are, here's the Apollo viewer, you know, who just gave us an astronaut.
This is something you can take and you can look and see what they see under the stars.
And you all can see it too.
Man, let's see.
Now, let's see, for everybody else, we're going to do two, two, two, two, two, two, two, two, two, two, two, two.
All right, see, now we're going to need to do the keyboard himself.
We can hack off that.
Some of them won't even say it, and then he goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on
And all the other people here, you can shoot them later.
He's a grand president.
Yes.
Well, how are you?
Other grandparents are asking about you.
I'm sorry.
Fargo, right?
Thank you.
Thank you.
I am sorry.
Now let's go around and get the rest.
Yes, how are you?
Nice to see you.
Oh, that's good.
I don't know.
I don't know.
All of you get these things, too.
I guess we have enough to go around this area.
We'll take care of all of them.
Oh, that smile, you're gonna make rocks.
Hello, how are you?
Mr. Bell, where is that right there?
Hi, how are you?
I just wanted to tell you that when I saw you last year, we missed you a couple of times.
But you still come sometimes.
I want to tell you that we always remember you.
And the party that you're catching in the N-61 at your house, Merry Christmas time.
And all the kids, you know, are from Iowa.
From Iowa, from USC.
Yeah, yeah.
And they're all, where are they now?
California.
They're all girls?
Yes.
Oh, honey, honey, they all merit it.
One, two, three, four, three, four.
We've got some two hours.
And don't you play golf?
Yes.
Yes, you do?
Yes.
Oh, wonderful.
Yes, it is.
The presidential seal on it.
Oh, well, you know, it's very good.
No, I'm not a golfer.
Well, if you have two more of them, you're a couple of aces, my guy.
I was thinking about the wheelchairs.
I don't have an excuse.
I was the worst doctor in my family.
I don't want to work.
We're so delighted to see you.
I don't look at it much, but you know, when you see a good, clean, decent program like Boston, they should be growing.
We're also going to have a lot of good people.
We are getting a lot of great guys.
I'm a friend, and I do a lot of great stuff.
And I'd rather not make fun of the success of the show.
This is not a theory, this is a very deep revision of the repository of
You know, I was talking to you the other day.
He was here, you know, he was out in the fields.
After we saw our son off, he was very brave.
He did it, sitting in front of Jack.
He told me, you know, Charlie, this line has never happened.
You know him good.
The president was being active.
He killed his son.
He wired him.
about these, what is happening, that these, these movies, and of course Hollywood produces its share of lousy movies, both on the television and Star Trek, too, but these movies that they, some of these from abroad, they said, I didn't see it at all, and he got a little bit of time to read it, and he said,
Make that call.
That bank costs $40,000 to $35,000 to produce and make that 15 million a day.
But we've just got to stop that kind of stuff.
I'm telling you this, honey, because your jobs in Hollywood go away.
And also Hollywood brings on this stuff so that families can look at it, you know.
I don't just swear stuff, I understand.
We all understand the words and it isn't like it was in the old days where you never showed a...
or something like that.
We understand that.
But they've gone completely over the internet.
There's more of them, you know, other than the original.
It's a mask.
You know, I have guards that are out there that are pretty lively.
Well, no.
The proof of the pudding is that you take two of the greatest all-time courses because the airport didn't sound beautiful.
Both of these pictures were down in the square.
So, there's an obvious thing, you know, you've got to take it, you've got to take it, take the old kind of groundwork and make it in.
What was it?
And in our drafting, we were quite surprised at this, because we knew against the entity.
The younger people, it's amazing, they're interested in the material things.
They're interested in the human characteristics of trustworthiness and responsibility, otherwise they wouldn't watch.
And because now we have a device, you don't even have to get up out of your chair.
They have remote control.
You can change channels like that.
I know.
So that's how quickly they can get rid of you.
Right.
And the fact that it has an enlarged audience.
Right.
A bunch of young people with heights.
It's going to be a very long time.
I hope.
Really very long.
Frank, I have one more.
We're going to have a show.
That was a few of them.
Goodbye.
Goodbye.
Tell them I know you guys.
I remember how full of life they were.
Thank you.
Thank you, too.
Like I said, you've got one of the classy guys here.
So if I didn't take care of him, we'll see you now.
Thank you.
Bye.
Thank you very much.

Also recorded on March 2, 1971

  • 049-002 12:44 PM · 11 min — unknown person(s) met in the Cabinet Room of the White House at an unknown time between 12:44 pm and 1:07 pm.
  • 461-011 12:44 PM · 9 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Ralph E. Ulmer, Mrs. Ralph E. Ulmer, Gary Ulmer, Tana Ulmer, Roger E. Johnson, David N. Parker, and White House photographer met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:44 pm and 12:55 pm.
  • 049-008 1:07 PM · 52 sec — Unknown person(s) met in the Cabinet Room of the White House on an unknown date, sometime between 1:07 pm on March 2, 1971 and 8:32 am on March 8, 1971.
  • 049-010 1:07 PM · 1 min — Unknown person(s) met in the Cabinet Room of the White House on an unknown date, sometime between 1:07 pm on March 2, 1971 and 8:32 am on March 8, 1971.
  • 049-011 1:07 PM · 9 min — a White House tour group met in the Cabinet Room of the White House on an unknown date, sometime between 1:07 pm on March 2, 1971 and 8:32 am on March 8, 1971.
  • 461-013 1:07 PM · 6 sec — unknown person(s) and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House from 1:07 pm to 1:08 pm.
  • 461-014 1:08 PM · 16 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Kenneth R. Lyons, Charles W. Colson, and White House photographer met in the Oval Office of the White House from 1:08 pm to 1:23 pm.
  • 461-015 1:27 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 1:27 pm and 1:35 pm.

All 21 conversations from March 2, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 461-012, March 2, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/461-012 (accessed November 2, 2026).