|
Dick Tuck (1924) was a Democratic Party campaign strategist, advance man, and political prankster. He began his career dogging Richard Nixon in the 1950s while working for senate candidate Helen Gahagan Douglas, who had been subject to red-baiting by Nixon. 1924 (MCMXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ...
It has been suggested that Democratic presidents be merged into this article or section. ...
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. ...
Helen Gahagan in the 1920s Helen Gahagan (25 November 1900 - 28 June 1980) was a United States actress and (under the name Helen Gahagan Douglas) a politician. ...
Tuck's most famous prank against Nixon is known as "the Chinatown Caper." During his campaign for Governor of California in 1962, Nixon visited Chinatown in Los Angeles. At the campaign stop, a backdrop of children holding welcome signs in English and Chinese was set up. As Nixon spoke, an elder from the community whispered that one of the signs in Chinese said, "What about the Hughes loan?" The sign was a reference to an unsecured $205,000 loan that Howard Hughes had made to Nixon's brother Donald. This article is about the largest city in California. ...
For other people named Howard Hughes, see Howard Hughes (disambiguation). ...
After the first Kennedy-Nixon debate, Tuck hired an elderly woman who put on a Nixon button and embraced the candidate in front of TV cameras. She said, "Don't worry, son! He beat you last night, but you'll get him next time."
Tuck has been credited with waving a train out of the station while Nixon was still speaking, but he denies committing this prank. The prank became a Trivial Pursuit question, but is not accurate. Tuck has said he did wear a conductor's hat and waved to the engineer, but that the train stayed put. His pranks against Barry Goldwater in 1964 were seen as light-hearted fun. He was dubbed by one newspaper, "the Democrat Pixie of 1964." Trivial Pursuit is a board game where progress is determined by a players ability to answer general knowledge or popular culture questions. ...
Barry Goldwater Barry Morris Goldwater (January 1, 1909 – May 29, 1998) was a United States politician and a founding figure in the modern conservative movement in the USA as well as being a major inspiration for many of his youthful followers to join the libertarian movement. ...
In 1964, Tuck ran for the California State Senate. His campaign billboards merely said "Tuck," but on the eve of the election he painted an extra line on the billboards, converting the T in his first name to an F. Tuck lost the election. He said about his defeat, "The people have spoken, the bastards."
Tuck was a key adviser in Robert F. Kennedy's presidential campaign. In 1968, he rode in Kennedy's ambulance as the mortally wounded candidate was rushed to the hospital.
Tuck claimed that the Watergate break-in was an attempt to find information about the Hughes-Nixon relationship held by Larry O'Brien of the Democrat Party. The Watergate building. ...
OBrien, c. ...
Tuck was first a campaign operative and claimed he was never malicious in his political pranks. Richard Nixon had an obsessive anger towards Tuck, as recordeed in his presidential tapes. But Nixon also admired Tuck, comparing the dirty tricks committed by his staffer, Donald Segretti, unfavorably to the intelligence behind some of Tuck's political pranks. In politics and business, dirty tricks refers to duplicitous, slanderous, and/or illegal tactics employed to destroy or diminish the effectiveness of opponents. ...
Donald H. Segretti (born September 17, 1941) was a political operative for the Committee to Re-elect the President (Nixon) during the 1970s. ...
Unfortunately, every great "prank" Dick Tuck claimed to have pulled or has been associated with him are mere fabrications. Author Neil Steinberg in his 1992 book, "If At All Possible, Involve A Cow: The Book of College Pranks" interviewed Mr. Tuck. Dick Tuck admitted to making up every single story. In fact, the more one researches his "pranks" the more one realizes that he is the originating "source" of each story. Tuck is never mentioned on any of Nixon's secret recordings nor is he listed in any internal White House memos. Most articles that are published on Dick Tuck are merely retellings of his accounts for Playboy Magazine in 1974. Still, perhaps that was Dick Tuck's greatest prank of all.
References
- San Francisco Chronicle May 15, 1974 - R. Carrol
- California Living Magazine, June, 23, 1974 - S. Berman
- Washington Post June 17, 1997 - Karl Vick
- If At All Possible, Involve A Cow: The Book of College Pranks, August 01, 1992 - Neil Steinberg; St. Martins Press ISBN: 0312078102
The San Francisco Chronicle, the self-described Voice of the West, is Northern Californias largest newspaper. ...
...
External links |
Feeds |
Contact