This is an open letter to Richard Nixon. Dear, Richard do go and see the Rocky Horror Picture Show. All those unfortunate incidents will seem trivial after you've seen the Rocky Horror Picture Show, President Ford. He'd love to see it, but he doesn't have the same amount of freedom. You do see the Rocky Horror Picture Show rated up under 17, not admitted without a parent. Hello to all of you unconventional conventions out there. Welcome to Rocky Talkie, the podcast about everything and anything Rocky Horror. I'm Aaron. And this week we're asking a question, what about? Well, that clip might give you a clue. Meg and I are joined by one of our absolute favorite guests, Randy Highland from the J C C P out of Pittsburgh. Hey, Randy, how are you doing? Hi, guys. I'm doing great and I'm very excited to join the show today. Hi, Randy. We're so excited for you to be here. Thanks so much for coming on. We got a really fun topic for today, but before we dig in, we have to know how have you been, how was Halloween at J C C P? Did you guys have an awesome season. Uh We definitely did. It was uh really chaotic I directed. So I had like, I don't know, 40 some rehearsals to run, which was a lot. Oh, that's a lot. Oh, we do a lot of rehearsing at the J C C P. But, um, yeah, it was a really great season and uh we had five sold out October shows, which is really good for us. And uh also we had a really fun one, our October 15th show, there was a little bit of an incident and the projector gave out uh at the start of the movie. Oh, literally during the 20th century Fox fanfare, the picture quit. No. Yeah, apparently there was like a, a short in the projector and it shorted out the bulb and essentially no video for the rest of the film. And so we did the entire show with just audio. Oh my God for the whole night. Yeah, it was great. Wow. It was one of my favorite shows that we've ever done, to be honest. Um Yeah, I was gonna say that does sound kind of fun showing off like how good we actually are and like the fact that we do rehearse and do know this movie and do can perform without the screen and all that. So it was really exciting. Oh, that's so crazy. You're basically just doing the stage show at that point. Like that's great. Yeah, I mean, it was, it was super great and um we had a great time with it. It's a show, I'll never forget. That blows me away and like, it sounds like the audience was here for it. Like, that's cool. You know, like something that they didn't expect in something they'd never seen and probably won't see again. Right. Right. We had 400 people in the audience. Not one person asked for a refund. Nobody left, which I thought was awesome. So, oh, that's amazing. Well, congrats to you guys out in Pittsburgh. That sounds fucking phenomenal, man. It was great. Thank you. Yeah, that sounds like an incredible time. I'm glad you had that cool experience that you were able to turn into a net. Positive. So last time you were here, Randy, we talked about all of Lou Adler's Empire on the Sunset Strip. If our listeners haven't checked that one out, it's episode 80. And boy, did it cover a lot this time. We've got a fun topic related to the movie that we haven't discussed before that I think you wrote into us. Right, Randy. I did. So a couple of weeks back, I was having a discussion with um some of my friends in cast about the idea that Brad was listening to a tape of Nixon's resignation speech. This is at the start of the driving scene and the idea of a tape deck on an early seventies car really stuck in my head because like Mercedes didn't put the first cassette tape into factory car until like 1971. And so like having a car with a tape deck in the early seventies would have been really unusual. So I reached out to Aaron about Brad's car and what model of car it would have been that would have had a tape deck or to be able to listened to this speech and all that. I had gone down a whole rabbit hole on it and was really interested. So I messaged Aaron and here we are today. Perfect. And yeah, that's what we're gonna talk about today is uh what I have now dubbed the Nixon conundrum. Um OK, boys. So for all the less nerdy nerds out there, let's explain why this matters and why it's been a topic in the Rocky community like literally forever, right? So this is a thing that is tied to the criminologists speech. That's right before driving scene and then Nixon's speech that we hear on the radio during driving scene. So the criminologist says that it was a late November evening. Uh and then we hear Nixon's resignation speech which happened in August of 1974. That's not in November, that's in August. So why the Rocky community asks, would his resignation speech have been playing in November? So Rocky fans have been trying to reconcile this for decades. One of the most often floated suggestions is that maybe Brad taped Nixon's speech and was listening to the recording in the car with Janet. Ok. Um A that's super fucking geeky. Brad's a big nerd. Why, why, why would you do that? Why would you record a president's resignation speech and listen to it on a loop in the car? What the fuck? Yeah, that's, that's the question, right? Like is this possible, is this the thing that could have happened? And does it explain it? Yeah. So could Brad have recorded Nixon's resignation speech in a August and then later played it in the car on that late November evening. All right, good question. Let's do it. Ok. So actually guys, first things first, I bet there are some folks out there that weren't really paying attention during their US poly class. So could we get like the spark notes version of Watergate? Ok. So Watergate, this all takes place during the 1972 presidential election in that election, incumbent Republican President Richard Nixon defeated Democratic Senator George mcgovern of South Dakota on June 17th, 1972. After receiving an anonymous tip, police arrested five men inside the offices of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate Complex in Washington DC. One of the men was James W mccord Junior, a former CIA employee and a security man for Nixon's Committee to reelect the president popularly known as creep, an appropriate acronym if I've ever heard one. Yeah. So from the items in these guys possession, it was pretty clear that they intended to steal democratic secrets about the election and that they were planning on putting surveillance devices in the D N C headquarters. This as you might expect was a pretty big scandal, but it didn't really impact the election. Obviously Nixon won and the full scope of the Nixon administration's involvement wouldn't be revealed until a couple of years later, shortly after the break in Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, two reporters from the Washington Post were approached by a secret informant who revealed the Nixon administration's involvement in the break in and their attempted cover up of the crime that informant was dubbed Deep Throat, which yes was a reference to the porno film starring Linda Lovelace that had come out earlier that year, come out a funny story. We actually know now who Deep Throat was in 2005. It was revealed that former FBI associate director Mark felt had been the insider who tipped off the two journalists Woodward and Bernstein's investigative work was published in the February 1974 book, All The President's Men, which would go on to become the 1976 film starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford. Shortly after their book was released, the shit really began to hit the fan for Nixon between February and August of 1974. Nixon was overwhelmed with controversy around the break in and his administration's attempt to cover up as a result, Nixon lost support from both sides of the political aisle and was facing an arduous impeachment in an effort to save face and avoid the consequences. He made a speech from the Oval office on August 8th, 1970 before announcing his resignation from the presidency and it's his resignation speech that we hear playing at the start of driving scene. I have never been a quitter to leave office before my term is completed, is opposed to every instinct in my body. But as president, I must put the interests of America first. What does America need? Dick? America needs a full time president and a full time conference, particularly at this time with problems we face at home and abroad, which if you've ever wondered that Callback is not just the audience calling Nixon a Dick. He was widely known as tricky dick for his devious campaign tactics during his 1950 run for Congress. And in 1953 when he became vice president alongside Dwight D Eisenhower, the two campaigned under the slogan I can Dick all American partners, oddly uh progressive for a Republican candidate in the fifties. But OK. Mhm. So uh Nixon's resignation speech is what we're hearing at the start of driving scene. But just moments earlier during the Criminologists speech, he reveals that it is a late November evening and with Nixon's speech happening in August, that's why the rocky community is trying to reconcile all of this. And yes, it's probably just a mistake, but that's not any fun So yeah, instead of calling it a mistake, the theory is that Brad being a super nerd may have just recorded Nixon's speech and he was listening to it on a tape for fun after he proposed to Janet. So the real question here is, could Brad have even owned a tape recorder that he could have used to record Nixon's resignation speech off the radio. And let's just be clear here when we say tape, we, we don't mean a cassette tape. We're talking about an eight track tape. And yes, I can already hear you saying it though. Cassettes and eight tracks were both available since the early sixties. Eight track was the more relevant format up through the mid seventies. And it's the format that makes sense in this context as we will talk about here in a minute. Oh my God, grandpa, this is straightforward enough. We tracked down some vintage consumer electronic catalogs from the mid seventies and indeed, you could get an eight track record play stereo for around 190 bucks adjusted for inflation. That's around $1150. Today, there were several of these recorders on the market with a wide range of price points assuming that Brad was working a minimum wage job in 1974 when minimum wage was $2 an hour. Yikes, he would have spent just over two weeks worth of wages to pick up one of these recorders. So while we were looking this up. We also found a Reddit thread on an r ask people about their memories from the seventies and one of the users who was a teenager in 1974 said that their favorite memento from that decade was an eight track tape that they had used to record Nixon's resignation speech off the radio. So not only was it absolutely feasible, we've got a first hand account of someone who is as big of a fucking nerd as Brad. So, yeah, I can hear you out there asking why are we focusing on eight track as the format of choice here? Well, it's because Brad was listening to it in his car and in the late sixties and seventies, if you had a tape deck in your car, it was an eight track, but did Brad's car have an eight track player? And this is what I had originally reached out to Aaron about the model of Brad's car because most cars in the early seventies didn't have a tape player. And also it just really was kind of an unfamiliar looking car. To me, it, it, you know, it was evocative of maybe a, a Jeep wagon or something like that. It's definitely not that. So that's how we all started this conversation. And you asked me what was the model of Brad's car? And I told you, I have no fucking clue, man. I'm sorry. Um That, that's helpful. Yeah, thanks sweetie. Hey, I mean, but if somebody asks me a question about Rocky, I'm sure is fuck gonna find out the answer at least as best as I can. So it turned out that this actually wasn't that hard to find on the scale of, you know, random rocky trivia. So I dug through the news group, I found a bunch of old posts. I collated a bunch of information. I looked up a bunch of facts. Uh And, and then I realized that there is an entry on Rocky Horror wiki dot org that just kind of tells you, uh that Brad is apparently driving a 1967 Ford Country Squire. Wait, ok. Hold on two things. First of all, what a Richard O Bernstein Cinderella Rock driving like a Lamborghini coach or whatever it fucking was thing like, of course, Brad would drive a Country Squire. Um And second of all, uh it was in 1967. Yep, which means Brad's driving an eight year old car in November of 74 which is still better than the 17 year old car that Irwin lapse was giving away and shocked, but I digress eight years because even in 1967 the automotive industry still did that thing where the model years are one year ahead of the year, you can actually buy the thing. This was actually a practice that car manufacturers adopted from the fashion industry in the 19 twenties as a form of planned obsolescence because of course it is. Ok. So how did anyone figure out the model, the car is visible on screen for like two seconds. So, and I didn't know this before I started looking into it. It was actually a fairly recognizable model. It's got that word exterior and it's got this like, apparently really streamlined aesthetic that was very specific to this car. Um In a 2003 discussion on the Rocky News group, friend of the show, Art Laurie pointed out that quote, embarrassingly enough. A few two of us were alive when these cars were on the road, which all right. Fair art. And uh he, he was able to just instantly ID, the model in here. So, all right, can I just say, fucking shout out to Arthur? I just love that. Like, we don't have to constantly hassle Arthur to be on the show. I can just go look up stuff that he posted on the news group 20 years ago and get instantly usable quotes. So thank thanks Internet archive. Um Anyway, so I guess that makes sense when Rocky came out, it was like a 10 year old car model. So for those who give a shit about that kind of thing, I suppose it wouldn't have been that obscure of a fact at all. And when you dig into the features that this car has, boy, does it say a lot about our boy Brad, the 1967 Ford Country? Squire wagon featured a full set of full down seats in the back with a large cargo capacity. Perfect for being shot down by Janet wherever they might park. God, I think my favorite thing on this car is the magical rear door which opened both like a regular tailgate and also could swing open side to side. This feels like a really fucking baller feature. Like by the end of the sixties, most station wagons featured this magical door design, which is cool as fuck for a station wagon especially. Yeah, apparently it was super useful for like, I mean, the ads all were like you can load your kayak in or you can fold it down and have a picnic. Like it's, it's this really weird feature that like apparently was like huge selling point during the sixties, I can bring my kayak on a picnic. So yeah, part part of what we know about this model of car is because there is a set of dealer advertisements for the 67 Country Squire up on youtube. So these are films that would have been shown to the four dealer reps and it was to tell them all about the features on the latest car models that they could then go later pair it to the people who are, you know, trying to buy a new car. The dealer ads specifically tout the fold down seats that magical door. And most importantly, they do feature an optional eight track player. So this was actually one of the first years that eight track players were even an option in cars. The entire boom for eight track as an audio format is widely attributed to its inclusion in American cars in the late sixties. In 1965 Ford first introduced factory and dealer installed eight track players as an option on three of its 1966 models. They were the Mustang, the Thunderbird in the Lincoln to support the newfound install base R C A Victor introduced 175 8 track tapes that were recordings from their catalog in 1965. They were so popular that just one year later by the 1967 model year, that's the year of our Country Squire. All Ford vehicles offered an eight track player upgrade. Boom. Indeed, we have cracked this one wide open. Brad could have the radically recorded Nixon's speech on an eight track tape and then he could have theoretically played it on the tape deck on his brand new eight year old 1967 Ford Country Squire wagon. We did it guys. Boom. Or, and not to be like a total bitch here, but he could have had the aftermarket eight track installed like I'm sure that was a thing, right? And it didn't necessarily have to be an eight track cassettes were still a thing too. Brad could have had a portable cassette player just sitting on a seat who's to say that audio is even coming through the car speakers. I myself used to drive around with a laptop open on my passenger seat playing law and order S V U as I drove around to and from school and college. Wow, that sounds safe. It was not. No, but I had Olivia Benson with me to protect me also. And I hate to be the bearer of bad news here, Aaron, but Brad's car doesn't appear to even have an A track player. I'm, I'm sorry, what, how, how do you, how do you even know? Do you not remember? We see the front dash when Brad turns around to back up the car right before the tire blows on a 1967 country Squire. The factory included a track was mounted separate from and above the radio. Get fucked sweetie. And well, I know you went through all of this research, but if you look at frame 18,870 of the movie and do a little bit of zoom and enhance. There's no eight track or eight track player anywhere to be seen. Well, that's, that's some fucking bullshit. I don't, I don't like that also. Like Nixon's speech could have just been playing on the radio, right? Who's to say it's even the whole speech, the couple of lines that we hear are truly some of the most recognizable even I've heard them other places and I don't listen to anything it's literally where he announces his resignation. This is only three months after the first time in history. A US president stepped down like news cycles were slower. Watergate was drug out forever. Even today. If you flip on the news odds are, you'll still hear a quote that a politician made like months ago. It could have just been some other news story that used part of the speech for context. But, but I looked at the dealer information sheet honestly. Yeah, the more we dig into this, the more it seems the rocky community has been wrong in calling it a mistake for the last 50 years. There's plenty of reasonable explanations for why this fragment of a speech could have been on the radio even three months after it first aired. The seventies were also the dawn of public broadcasting. The passing of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 laid the groundwork for the creation of both PBS and N PR with the initial N PR broadcast in 1971. It's not that hard to believe that Brad had his radio permanently tuned to the news. Oh, I suppose that's fair and really not to belabor the point. But if you go check the newspapers from November of 74 Nixon's resignation and all of the impending fallout was still front page shit. Like there was a huge scandal about the Democratic organizations and that the IRS had targeted them under Nixon's purview. Surely a radio story about that might have included a quick aside about the resignation with, with the audio clip to go there, you know. Well, you guys have, have really deflated this one like the tire on a 67 Country Squire. Am I right county Squire? I gotta take that again. It's well, perfect. I still fucking hate you. Sorry, buddy. This is a pretty wild ride though. That's fair. Like the ride in the 67 Country Squire. Well, hold on. I've got another question though. Ok, so Brad's driving an eight year old car, right? He certainly didn't buy it new. Like, I mean, maybe he did, but probably not because how old did he say he was? He's like 22 or something. He's too old to be flirting with Janet, that's for sure. So, ok, he didn't buy this car new when he was 14. Do you guys know where it came from? Like, do we have any good speculations on that? I know that you can own a refurbished car today for like $18,000. So in 1967 the Country Squire stickered for 3000 $359 and that's almost 30 grand adjusted for inflation and modernization of money. I have my doubts that Brad was able to buy that by himself, especially when he was 14 years old. I mean, maybe it was his dad's car. Oh, well, that's too obvious. Daddy. Bostwick got it. Father. Boswick. I mean, if that's the case, then daddy's gonna be real mad that he just left it in the middle of the woods because he got a flat tire, man. My, my dad would have reamed my ass if I had done that. What else do you do? It's not like you, you pull out the magical phone you have in your pocket and like call somebody to come change your tire. It would have been a lot shorter of a movie. Although it would make sense why Janet was marrying him. I got to say if he comes from like hella money where Daddy Bostwick is just buying him a $30,000 car right out of high school. Wow, you heard it here first guys, Janet's a gold digger says meg, I ain't saying she gold digger. What I am saying is if this guy is replaying like Nixon's speeches on his fucking tape deck or even listening to the news in the car after he gets engaged, like there's no reason for him to have gotten engaged and immediately listened to the Nixon speech regardless of why it's happening or the logistics behind it, he's just a fucking dweeb. But it makes sense why she would be on board for that if Father Bostwick has lots of money. Wow. I mean, I definitely can't imagine like listening to a tape of a presidential resignation in the car with my fiance. That's very strange to me. Like especially like immediately afterwards, you know. Yeah. Right. Like it would help if the movie had been like 12 hours later, right? Like this is a long ass drive. They've already had the fight that they had after they got engaged, right? Where Janet's like, why the fuck are we going to see Doctor Scott? You know, so this is like fine, I'm just gonna turn on N pr and you can read your newspaper. You bitch like so, so here's one maybe he bought the car from Doctor Scott and still owes him money and that's why he needs to go and visit him. Oh I like that one. That's fun. Ok? And we have to like stay real chummy with him because I owe him for his car. That's I mean Scott didn't need it anymore, right? It's not like he was driving anywhere. Oh yikes that's probably not very appropriate. That's ok. He's a Nazi. You can make fun of Nazi. We can make fun of Nazis. I like that. I like no, here's, here's my favorite conspiracy theory though. The car was actually Ralph's like Daddy Boswick did buy Brad a car but he bought him that hot 1967 Ford Galaxy that Ralph is driving that he drives away with but but Brad being a dick, he raced Ralph for Pinks and he lost. So they had to swap. So he got the shitty car that Ralph had and Ralph got his really cool 67 Ford. Galaxy E E but Aaron, have you never raced for Pinks before? You keep both cars? Well, I, I, I guess I haven't, what if he was really nice and like lent his friend his car for his honeymoon because it was nicer. Oh, well, that's just Brad being a nice guy and we don't, we don't want any of that here. Oh, yeah. Fuck that. He's an asshole. We've established that, I mean, are, are, are none of us going to like throw out the option here that maybe it's Janet's car. Nobody says this is Brad's car, right? I want to say she's a woman and can't own things. It's the seventies, but I also want to say good for her for not having to drive around and for making her man drive also where Janet get $30,000. She's like 19 in this story, right? From Daddy, Daddy Sarandon. All right. That's the answer. It was daddy surrender's car and Brad's just driving it. I like it. That's why she's so pissed that he didn't get the tire replaced because he already fucked it up last time she loaned it to him. Oh, that's almost a reefer madness reference. I'll take it. There you go. Right. It's almost nine PM and wreck Dad's Packard. All right guys. We did it. We solved the case. I think so. All right. Well, that's our show, Randy. Thank you so much for joining us on air. This week for giving us this wonderful little question to like dick around with. It was a good one. We absolutely love having you here as always. Thank you, Randy so much for joining us and thank you out there for listening to us pontificate about this nonsense. It's super fun to dig into these weird stupid things. Thank you for bringing this one up, man. I really enjoyed getting to have an excuse to go watch some seventies car commercials. Thank you for getting an answer for me and thank you for having me on the show. I really enjoyed it. We'll talk to you soon, man. Talk to you soon. Bye. I.