Lyndon Baines Johnson was a protege of the powerful longtime Speaker of the House, Sam Rayburn, a fellow Texan, and was once photographed kissing the top of Rayburn’s bald head: http://images.chron.com/blogs/txpotomac/sam%20rayburn%20lbj.jpg
Gene Rayburn, best known as a game-show host, replaced Dick Van Dyke in the lead role of the Broadway musical Bye Bye Birdie after Van Dyke left to star in the classic sitcom that featured his own name in the title.
Gene Roddenberry, who had been raised in a very conservative Christian household, was, late in life, an atheist with a particular aversion to the “body and blood of Christ” symbolism of the Eucharist.
Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, wife of Gene Roddenberry participated in nearly every Star Trek project, either on-camera or as a computer voice. She parodied her own performance as the voice of Stewie Griffith’s computer in an episode of Family Guy.
Nitpick: It’s Griffin, not Griffith.
Then-Majel Barrett also played the female second-in-command of the USS Enterprise, known simply as Number One, in the first pilot “The Cage,” but was replaced as First Officer by Mr. Spock, played by Leonard Nimoy, in the second pilot, “Where No Man Has Gone Before.”
Actor George Lindsey, best known as Goober on The Andy Griffith Show, was Gene Roddenberry’s first choice to play Spock on Star Trek but turned it down, according to Leonard Nimoy himself on TV Land’s Star Trek marathon on November 17th, 2006.
Lindsay Wagner is an actress best known for her role as The Bionic Woman. Reverse her first and last name and you have the last names of two consecutive mayors of New York – Robert Wagner and John V. Lindsay.
Nitpick: The mayor’s name was actually Robert F. Wagner, Jr. His son, Robert F. Wagner III, became New York City Deputy Mayor.
John V. Lindsay, Republican of New York, is elected President of the United States in a speculative political novel written by New York Times columnist Tom Wicker early in 1968, before the upheavals of that year, including Lyndon Johnson’s decision not to run for reelection, and Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination.
New York Times theatre critic and fiction and nonfiction author Michael Walsh’s novel “As Time Goes By” covers Richard Blaine’s life pre-, during, and post-Casablanca.
James G. Blaine lost a close election to Grover Cleveland in 1884. Blaine’s candidacy brought to light several serious scandals (as did Cleveland’s, but the difference was that Blaine was charged with enriching himself through corrupt political dealings, while Cleveland was charged with fathering a child out of wedlock*). However Blaine blamed his loss on a campaign speech by a supporter (with Blaine present) that called the Democratic Party the party of “Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion.” “Romanism” was meant to refer to Catholics. Blaine did not distance himself from the remarks, but the Irish in New York state resented being grouped with drunkards and Confederates, so they voted heavily for Cleveland, allowing him to win the state and thus the election**.
*Cleveland admitted paternity, saying, famously, “Tell the truth.”
**It’s possible the Irish vote would have gone to Cleveland anyway; he was from New York and Tammany got out the vote for him.
Grover Cleveland was the only U.S. President to serve two non-consecutive terms. In 1888 he won the popular vote, but lost to Benjamin Harrison in the electoral college.
Grover Cleveland is also the only U.S. President to be married in the White House. On June 2, 1886, he married Frances Folsom in the Blue Room. At 21, she was the youngest First Lady in history; he was 49. They later had five children.
Frances Folsom attended Wells College. The school was founded by Henry Wells, who had teamed with one William Fargo to found a banking and express company as a reaction to the California Gold Rush of 1848-49.
Prior to founding their eponymous company, Henry Wells and William Fargo (along with John Warren Butterfield) founded American Express in Albany, NY in 1850.
Two years later, when the rest of the board objected to west coast expansion, Wells and Fargo founded Wells Fargo & Co. on their own.
Two famous natives of Albany, Georgia whose names are displayed prominently in the city are Jim Fowler (of Wild Kingdom fame- he designed their zoo) and Ray Charles (who has a statue in Albany, though he only lived there for his first few months).
Marlin Perkins, who gained his greatest fame as host of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, had earlier served as the expedition’s zoologist during Sir Edmund Hillary’s 1960 search for the Yeti in the Himalayas.
John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts was, in 1960, the last incumbent U.S. senator to win election to the Presidency before the victory of fellow Democrat Barack Obama of Illinois in 2008.
Warren G. Harding – the only other incumbent Senator to be elected president – came to prominence with a quote in a speech to the 1916 Republican convention: “We must have a citizenship less concerned about what the government can do for it… and more concerned about what it can do for the nation.” This is strikingly similar to John F. Kennedy’s more famous “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.”
Theodore Sorensen, President Kennedy’s advisor and wordsmith, helped him write his book Profiles in Courage, about six giants of the U.S. Senate, as well as his inaugural address and many other speeches. They had such a close working relationship that, late in life, Sorensen said it was hard for him to tell where the President’s writing stopped and his began.