When my photographer ate a handful of the sweet fruit flavored candies called Mike and Ike during our tribute to Dwight Eisenhower on our show ‘Hail to the Chief’, we had no way of knowing it might be our final time in the studio. It’s sad, but true. It’s very likely Tom and I won’t be back for the JFK show or any of the other Presidents following Kennedy. The sad fact is, Tom and I have it a snag with copyright rules that prohibit our use of some of the more recent historical photos used on our show.
My photographer and I have never made one red cent from this blog or any of our shows. And we aren’t complaining about that! But, unfortunately, our lack of compensation apparently doesn’t matter when it comes to the law. Rules governing the use of certain historic photos have put a crimp in our creative style and those rules will bring ‘Hail to the Chief’ to a screeching halt. In the past, Tom has presented a photo of me at a Presidential site, which was at times followed by an actual photo of the particular President when he was photographed at the same location. But on the day before we were scheduled to begin taping of our JFK episode at GBS Media in Port Huron, we were informed by the staff of the rules.
Don’t take it the wrong way – there are thousands of images we can use without permission; photos that have been placed in the ‘Public Domain’. Unfortunately, most of those photos don’t help tell the story we need them to. The main focus of our show, as well as this blog, has always been the images captured by my photographer of me at a historic site. At times, however, we’ve used archived photos to help bring the Presidential site to life.
Today, the final episode of ‘Hail to the Chief’ is available at bluewaterhealthyliving.com. If you’re interested in watching our tribute to 34th President Dwight D. Eisenhower, please click on the link provided below.
All good things eventually come to an end, and ‘Hail to the Chief’ just might be one of them. Thank you for your support of our show since we began taping in August 2021. Our JFK Tribute was on track to be our finest show ever, but unfortunately, no one will never know – which is symbolic of the JFK assassination.
