Vote Dizzy!

In 1964, legendary jazz musician Dizzy Gillespie ran for President as a write-in candidate. Some of the more interesting details about his campaign:

• If elected, he’d rename the White House to the Blues House.
• Running mate was slated to be Phyllis Diller. “She seems to have that sua-a-a-a-ve manner; she looks far into the future. She’s looking into the future. So I’m a future man, I said to her.”
• His nominees for a stacked cabinet: Duke Ellington (minister of foreign affairs), Charlie Mingus (minister of peace), Peggy Lee (minister of labor), Malcolm X (minister of justice), Louis Armstrong (minister of agriculture), Ray Charles (Librarian of Congress), and Miles Davis (head of the CIA). Of Davis, Gillespie said: “O-o-oh, honey, you know his schtick. He’s ready for that position. He’d know just what to do in that position.”

Gillespie dropped out before the election, paving the way for Lyndon Johnson’s victory over Barry Goldwater, who Gillespie said “wants to take us back to the horse­-and-buggy days when we are in the space age”.

Tags: Dizzy Gillespie · music · politics