Scatter Brained

C H A P T E R   6

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158
S C A T T E R B R A I N E D
Lyndon B. Johnson
 proposed to his wife, Lady Bird, on their 
fi rst date, a breakfast, then bought her a wedding ring for 
$2.50.
Richard M. Nixon
 loved football. As president, he’d occa-
sionally call up NFL coaches to chat and off er  strategic 
 advice.
Gerald R. Ford
 was originally named Leslie Lynch King Jr. 
after his biological father, who abandoned the family when 
Ford was an infant. Th
  e next time Ford saw him was 15 years 
later, when Leslie Sr. showed up without warning and gave 
the kid 25 bucks.
Jimmy Carter
 wrote a children’s book called “Th
  e Little Baby 
Snoogle-Fleejer.”
Ronald Reagan
’s
 1965 personal memoir, 
Where’s the Rest of 
Me?
 opens with the line, “Th
  e story begins with the closeup 
of a bottom.”
George H.W. Bush
 was the fi rst president to use any of the 
following words in his inaugural address: “cocaine,” “bacte-
ria,” and “easygoingness.”
Bill Clinton
 was eight years old when he was beaten up by a 
sheep. Th
  at was the day, according to his autobiography, that 
he learned that he could take a hard hit.
George W. Bush
 was the fi rst sitting president to acquire an 
iPod and correspondingly the fi rst to admit a weakness for 
Blackie & the Rodeo Kings. Speaking of which . . .

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159
09
 Rock!: 
Historic Concerts You Totally Missed, Dude
Who, Where, When:
 Th
  e Moondog Coronation Ball (featur-
ing the Dominoes, Tiny Grimes, and others), Cleveland Arena, 
March 21, 1952
If measured in terms of crowds enthused, rebellion 
sparked, or authorities frightened, the fi rst-ever rock con-
cert—assembled by Cleveland DJ Alan “Moondog” Freed, 
who famously popularized the phrase “rock and roll”—was 
an unqualifi ed success. If judged, conversely, by its ability to 
host music and not be cancelled, the ball was kind of square. 
Nobody knows if it was a matter of overzealous youths 
crashing the gates or simply an overzealous Freed forget-
ting to count how many tickets he’d hawked, but with con-
certgoers numbering twice the arena’s capacity of ten 
thousand, the fi re marshal dropped the ball before openers 
Paul Williams and the Hucklebuckers closed their fi rst num-
ber. Decades later, 
Life
 magazine would dub Freed’s folly the 
birth of rock.
✖  ✖  ✖
Who, Where, When:
 Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festi-
val, Newport, Rhode Island, July 1965
Mere moments into this mythical early performance, 24-
year-old troubadour Bob Dylan brought folk fans to their 
feet. Bad news was, most of them were heckling, hissing, or 
hightailing it out of there. What had so enraged these oth-
erwise peacenik Peters, Pauls, and Marys? Most famously, it 
was Dylan’s 11th-hour decision to round up a rock band and 
go electric. Beyond just the ruckus, though, what really