Sorry Mr. President

OUR OFFICE...

My office was on 5900 Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles.  This is considered part of the "Miracle Mile". To one side of our building was the "Petersen Automotive Museum", the other was Aaron Spelling's office, the other was the La Brea Tar Pits and  outside of my widow I looked at the ocean. I was on the 24th floor and it was awesome. 

I was working for a very old friend of my fathers by the name of Sam Riddle.  Our company did a ton of TV shows but one of our main clients was the United Negro College Fund (UNCF).  Every year we produced a "telethon" supporting the UNCF that was called the "Lou Rawls Parade of Stars".  It was an intense show to produce because we had to coordinate so many celebrities at one time and much of it was "live".

One year, we arranged for President Clinton to call in a make a "pitch"; he a relatively new President.  Unfortunately, things didn't go so well.

In the TV/Movie production business, there are employee's called "runners".  They basically do everything that nobody wants to do for about a $100.00 per day if they're lucky and are pretty much worked to death.  This unfortunate position is sort of a "right of passage" in the entertainment industry. And once you move up to the next level, that is if you aren't run off from the abuse as a runner, you typically become somebodies assistant. But unfortunately  you're then subjected to much worse abuse plus longer hours.  

On a side note, there is a movie called "Swimming with Sharks" with Kevin Spacey that surrounds the "runner/assistant/producer" culture in Hollywood.  Check it out sometime, it's a great movie.

So to get back on track, we're "live" on the air.  We're preparing to do a transition from a pre-taped  portion at the Apollo in Harlem to the studio in Los Angeles with Lou Rawls saying a few words then patch in President Clinton over the phone.  Everybody is excited, tired and stressed. At the time I'm in the room where the call  is going to come in from the White House.  And then it happens....

One of the "runners" comes into the room to deliver something.  At that moment the phone rings.  This kid picks up the phone before anybody could react.  He says "Lou Rawls Parade of Stars, how can I help you"? He then says "yeah right" and hangs up. About 5 of us were sitting there staring at him in complete disbelief. This poor kid who was just trying to help looked up at us, his eyes wide open. He didn't have a clue what he'd just done but he was very aware he was in trouble.

He timidly says "it was a prank call, some guy saying he was the President", he then kind of smiled and said "the guy was good, he did sound like him".  Nobody said a word, we all just stared at him. We weren't mad we just didn't know how to react to what just happened.  To pull off getting the President of the United States as a guest on a TV show is almost impossible.  And to coordinate the Commander and Chief to call at a specific time on a live show was not easy.  In fact I bet the odds of summiting Mt. Everest in a thong and using dental floss rather than rope may be more likely. We could have pre-recorded the President but he was booked at the very last minute so we didn't have the time.  

This poor runner stood there and literally turned pale as we looked at him.  He realized he'd just fucked up in the worst way.  And this unlucky runner who was at the wrong place at the wrong time with the best of intentions had something happen that "never" does.  The President actually called himself. Normally an aid from the White House calls, establishes the connection, then patches the President in.  Good old President Clinton that day decided to pick up the phone and dial himself.

The only words said other than what came from the "runner" was from a Producer in the room who said "oh fuck". She was a major Producer in the industry at the time, had been doing the Academy Awards for years. So when she said "oh fuck", I knew it was bad.

Then I realize that Lou Rawls is starting to get nervous as he's live on TV because the segment with President Clinton isn't happening and Mr. Rawls is running out of things to say.  Sam Riddle, the Executive Producer walks onto the set and starts ad libbing with Lou Rawls to buy time but even Sam doesn't know what's happened.  And the runner is still standing there frozen in his tracks with his hand on the phone.

Then the phone rings, nobody moves a muscle.  The phone rings again and the runner literally starts to take steps away from the phone with his hands up, palms out at chest level; he wants nothing to do with that phone. I get up and by the 3rd ring answer: "Lou Rawls Parade of Stars, this is Donnie".  The person on the other line says' "Hi!... it's Bill, somehow just got cut off".  I was so relieved that the President of the United States actually called back and wasn't mad that I forgot the magnitude of who I was on the phone with. I said "Bill, patching you through right now and thank you for calling back".  President Clinton started laughing as I transferred the call to the sound engineer, the "oh fuck" Producer punched me in the arm as she mouthed "Bill?!" and the runner still had his hands up in the air.

Post Script: This runner is a man I respect beyond words.  He has a beautiful family and moved on from the "Clinton" event to enjoy a very successful career in Hollywood.  You'd be quite surprised what he's directed and who is is.