Nixon, Carlson & Elman on Ray Charles and Cultural diplomacy

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Great job.

Well, how are you?

How are you?

Glad to see you.

You've been having a great success out here.

Like everybody.

Yeah.

Why don't we sit over here?

Right there.

Yeah, here we are.

Oh, yeah.

Right.

Well, I'd say

I think that if you're able to achieve any success in what you're doing, you should put something back.

And for life you get some equipment.

And you can think that you can help some kid along the way that wouldn't have made it otherwise.

And you don't know who it is.

It might be just one.

It might not have to be a thousand, but just one.

And you can think that because Gary Washington, the senator you're working for, they help all these little retarded kids.

And when they talk about retardation, those might be geniuses.

That's right.

Exactly.

Right.

45.

I didn't feel like you were up to... Well, I was 15 years old.

I was going to say you were pretty young then.

That's right at the end of the war.

Exactly.

Well, that's what I studied.

Tommy, what about you?

Yeah.

Tommy, what's it?

You're...

I'm talking to Sammy Davis, the person I first heard him from back in New York when I was my student.

Yeah, his father is on...

I lived next door to a gentleman who was a pianist and I loved to hear him play.

And so, he would let me bang on the piano.

He was my sole inspiration because he could have, you know, pushed me off the stool or maybe get out of the tub a little bit, but he didn't.

I think this man really was responsible for the whole thing.

Because that was the beginning.

And you had the key to say, go play and don't bother me.

Now you're going to Europe.

Let me say that it just does this country a lot of good for you to do that.

We appreciate it.

Because, you know, the Europeans.

Well, I hate them.

I mean, I've seen them in, of course, all those countries.

But I hate them even when I was in Russia, for example.

They just love to have our entertainers.

Well, I think that we... Ray's going to Czechoslovakia, Mr. President.

What's that?

Ray's going to Czechoslovakia.

Czechoslovakia.

Oh, they'll go out of their minds.

Prague.

You see, they're there.

But the people, that's the only way they can express themselves is that you're

So that's all.

I think it's really good.

Yeah, right.

Two hours or so, everybody can forget everything and just have a real marvelous time.

I have to brag about the music, you see.

That's really all we have now.

But you go on this tour.

What do you take with you on the way?

Do you take a band with you?

Yeah, we have eight people in the band.

They're five people.

great experience for all of us.

Yeah, well, that's right.

But, you know, we've been doing this for quite a while.

Yeah, I think, you know, you mentioned that God will change, you'll change a guy, or somebody will leave, or you're going to get married, or she has to be replaced.

Now, it's the usual thing.

which I see it almost every time I go back to the radio stations for instance play a variety

I must tell you, they have some very, very beautiful stuff.

No kidding.

Did you go to the Kabuki, what they call the Kabuki dancers?

No, no.

I only went to, I'm trying to think now, the name of the place which escapes me.

I tried too far.

But I've got a chance to get some real authentic, you know, whether it just isn't.

Oh, Japanese.

Real Japanese.

And they have some, the music,

You understood it, though.

Oh, yeah.

I really understood it.

And I think that the people here would understand.

You know, you can't understand a food or language or anything if you're not exposed to it.

Right.

See, you've got to be able to hear it and get some kind of feel for it.

Right.

And I really wish that that's one of the

I see what they could do.

They could write Chinese music, Japanese music, you know.

Yeah.

All right.

for each of them and have them do one or two.

Mr. President, I do want you to know that the Children's Center is a great company to benefit for.

They're under a new building, and the building is only possible because Lee Elton, the board of aid associates, talked to former Secretary Stanton, and Mr. Stanton called in Secretary Rodney Pesta, and he cracked the bill.

He's one of the few federal presidents

Cat breaker.

Thank you.

The lifestyle.

each has a role.

And then there are certain ways that people communicate across those services.

But I think it's a, I think it's a rather, the main thing is to appreciate and respect what other people are like, whatever they are.

I like that.

Because basically, at the moment, we say that everybody's got to be just like us.

And that's a very arrogant thing to do.

It may be wrong.

But I'm worried.

I'll tell you what.

I don't know what.

There we are.

Right.

That's true.

Well, I wish you well.

Thank you.

I wish I could wait.

But I can't travel quietly.

These are the presidential compliments.

You can deal with the president.

Right.

And that's for you.

Thank you.

And many people wear the short sleeves.

Is that me?

I'm ready to challenge them.

I'm not an expert on it.

All I can say is that I like the style.

Oh, I like that.

You do that.

When I started picking them up, and I think what I, you know, you take the great artists, you know, you have your own small ones,

And so you usually associate one song with another, which really is a style, a certain instinct that they have.

And he's captured a public imagination that way.

I mean, there's a lot of those, but, you know, he's got opera.

He's got each in his own way.

There's got to be something.

Oh, yeah.

They're all big leaders.

You're all getting over 400.

Oh, yes, great.

Well, I hope to wish you many years of success in TV.

Have a nice day.

Nixon, Carlson & Elman on Ray Charles and Cultural diplomacy

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on September 15, 1972

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