Jimmy Carter, who turned 100 today, was governor of Georgia in 1973, but on the national stage, he was still Jimmy who?
As he prepared for a longshot bid for the presidency in 1976, he and his advisers were already laying the groundwork that year, which included developing a national profile by non-traditional means, which meant a game show.
What’s My Line? had been on the air for nearly 25 years as one of the producer Goodson Todman’s most popular panel game shows, in which a celebrity panel tried to guess the occupation of a guest. Typical programs were highlighted by a celebrity “mystery guest,” which required the panel to wear a blindfold to avoid instant recognition.
But when Carter’s office called the show suggesting him as a guest, the casting director agreed on the condition that he appear as “a Mr. X with the panel unmasked,” according to executive producer Gil Fates’ history of the show.
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“That was fine with Mr. Carter’s good ol’ boys, so we booked him for the taping session of December 13, 1973,” Fates wrote. “Few people realized it at the time but James Earl Carter was already in full cry after the Democratic nomination.”
In other words, Carter was enough of an unknown that the show was convinced that the panel would have no clue of who he was when he first walked out on stage.
They were right. In the episode — which is available on YouTube — Carter appeared in close up with a toothy grin, and the sign “JIMMY CARTER GOVERNOR OF GEORGIA” superimposed on the screen for viewers. He took his seat, and host Larry Blyden told the panel that “all I can tell you about X is that he provides a service.”
Panelist Arlene Francis, kicking things off, asked, “Is it a service that has to do with women?”
“Yes, it certainly is,” Carter said, to audience laughs.
“He looks like the singer Don Cherry with hair,” said panelist Soupy Sales.
Then he asked whether Carter’s occupation had “anything to do with the world of fashion.”
“No,” Carter replied.
Panelist Dana Valery commented that Carter’s appearance “has a very spiritual aspect.”
“Does he recruit nuns?”
Carter laughed.
Eventually, after seven rounds of questions, the panel narrowed Carter’s occupation down to something in government.
“Are you a state official? Are you a governor?” asked Gene Shalit.
“Yes,” Carter said, beaming, although Shalit still couldn’t quite place the state.
The game over, Blyden gave Carter a chance to explain his gubernatorial accomplishments, which included streamlining state government and serving as chairman of the Democratic party campaign committee.
Decades before the state would become a production center, Carter also talked of a “good program for recruiting motion pictures to Georgia,” noting the state’s good weather and that “we never had a film yet that came in over the budget or over the schedule.” Deliverance was the first big movie, and The Longest Yard had recently completed production. In the coming years, Smokey and the Bandit would also shoot in the state, and help usher in a southern-focused pop culture legacy of the Carter era.
As Jonathan Alter noted in his biography His Very Best, Carter did other stunts to boost his profile, including “high kicking in a chorus line with the Rockettes.”
A year later, in December, 1974, Carter announced his presidential run, the first Democratic candidate in the race.
Carter certainly wasn’t the first presidential prospect to tap popular culture for attention, but as he launched his campaign he formed a tight connection with artists like Gregg Allman, Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan. As shown in the documentary Jimmy Carter: Rock and Roll President, they helped further his name recognition as Carter surprised much of the D.C. political establishment by winning the Democratic nomination.
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