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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class, a

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Speaker 1: show that tallies the wins and losses of everyday history.

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Speaker 1: I'm Gay, Blues Yay, And in this episode, we're talking

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Speaker 1: about the time when Oscar winning actor Clint Eastwood decided

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Speaker 1: to try his luck in the wild West of local politics.

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Speaker 1: The day was April eighth, nineteen eighty six. Actor and

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Speaker 1: director Clint Eastwood was elected mayor of Carmel, California. He

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Speaker 1: won the office in a landslide victory, claiming seventy two

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Speaker 1: and a half percent of the roughly three thousand votes cast.

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Speaker 1: The actor's star status certainly helped tip the odds in

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Speaker 1: his favor, and it probably didn't hurt that Ronald Reagan,

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Speaker 1: another cowboy actor, was the sitting president at the time.

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Speaker 1: What's harder to understand, though, is why a successful actor

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Speaker 1: like Clint Eastwood would want the job of mayor in

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Speaker 1: the first place. He had resided in the small coastal

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Speaker 1: town officially known as Carmel by the Sea since the

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Speaker 1: early nineteen seventies, with just forty five hundred residents and

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Speaker 1: one square mile of land. The quiet, wealthy hamlet was

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Speaker 1: the perfect retreat for a celebrity looking to escape the

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Speaker 1: Hollywood spotlight. But after fourteen years of living there, Eastwood

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Speaker 1: had discovered that not everything was as idyllic as it seemed.

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Speaker 1: It turned out that the citizens of Carmel had long

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Speaker 1: been divided over how to manage the town's development. The

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Speaker 1: disagreement centered on his zonning law that had been approved

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Speaker 1: by the city council way back in nineteen twenty nine.

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Speaker 1: It resolved that the city of Carmel by the Sea

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Speaker 1: was quote determined to be primarily, essentially and predominantly a

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Speaker 1: residential city wherein business and commerce are subordinated to its

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Speaker 1: residential character. The goal then was to essentially treat Carmel

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Speaker 1: like it was a gated community. Outsiders could come and

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Speaker 1: go as they pleased, but because the town had no

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Speaker 1: tourist friendly restaurants, shops, or activities, there was really no

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Speaker 1: incentive for them to visit. The policy quickly proved controversial,

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Speaker 1: and from that point on there was a heated struggle

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Speaker 1: between those who wished to preserve Carmel just the way

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Speaker 1: it was and those who wanted to grow its economy

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Speaker 1: by welcoming new businesses and visitors. That battle was still

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Speaker 1: being waged in the mid nineteen eighties, but for the

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Speaker 1: most part, the traditionalists had won out. There was hardly

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Speaker 1: any public parking in Carmel, and the city didn't even

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Speaker 1: have street signs. There were a handful of stores and

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Speaker 1: sit down restaurants on the main drag of Ocean Avenue,

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Speaker 1: but because of city law, they weren't allowed to sell takeout,

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Speaker 1: not even ice cream cones. The policy had been touted

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Speaker 1: as a way to cut down on litter, but its

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Speaker 1: true purpose was to ward off tourists in a bid

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Speaker 1: to preserve the town's character. Restrictive zoning policies like that

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Speaker 1: were the reason that Clint Eastwood felt compelled to run

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Speaker 1: for mayor. In addition to his personal home, Eastwood owned

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Speaker 1: a few small businesses in Carmel, including an English style

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Speaker 1: pub called The Hog's Breath Inn. He had long grappled

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Speaker 1: with the city's strict rules, regulations, and taxes regarding building permits,

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Speaker 1: and in the early nineteen eighties he decided to fight back.

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Speaker 1: The tipping point came when he filed for permits to

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Speaker 1: erect a small office building and retail complex next to

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Speaker 1: his restaurant, only to have the plans immediately rejected by

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Speaker 1: the city council. Eastwood was so frustrated with Carmel's hardline

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Speaker 1: stance on development that he actually sued the city. He

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Speaker 1: eventually wanted out of court settlement, too, and was allowed

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Speaker 1: to proceed with a modifiedion of his building proposal. In

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Speaker 1: the wake of that victory, several residents reached out to

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Speaker 1: Eastwood and encouraged him to consider running for mayor in

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Speaker 1: the upcoming election. The actor was fifty five years old

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Speaker 1: at the time and still riding high at the box

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Speaker 1: office after more than three decades of movie making. He

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Speaker 1: had no strong need or desire to break into politics,

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Speaker 1: and certainly didn't have political ambitions beyond Carmel, but he

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Speaker 1: did like the idea of fighting the city's bureaucracy on

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Speaker 1: behalf of his neighbors. He hired a campaign manager and

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Speaker 1: conducted opinion polls to see if people liked the idea

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Speaker 1: of him running for office. The response was overwhelmingly positive,

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Speaker 1: so on January thirtieth, nineteen eighty six, Eastwood filed the

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Speaker 1: necessary paperwork just a few hours before the deadline. He

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Speaker 1: took a reserved approach to campaigning and made sure not

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Speaker 1: to trade too much on his celebrity status. He didn't

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Speaker 1: give any interviews with the national press and politely declined

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Speaker 1: to give autographs at campaign events. He also did hardly

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Speaker 1: any paid advertising, relying only on buttons and bumper stickers

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Speaker 1: to help get the word out. Eastwood's opponent in the

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Speaker 1: race was two term Mayor Charlotte Townsend. The candidates had

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Speaker 1: drastically different ideas about how Carmel should be run, but

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Speaker 1: Eastwood was careful not to attack Townsend's policies directly. Instead,

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Speaker 1: he billed himself as a peacemaker, someone who would build

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Speaker 1: bridges between business owners and the residential community. As a

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Speaker 1: non celebrity incumbent, Mayor Townsend had more to lose in

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Speaker 1: the race and was therefore a bit more confrontational in

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Speaker 1: her campaigning. On one occasion, she suggested that Eastwood was

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Speaker 1: too aloof to be an effective public official, pointing out

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Speaker 1: that he had an unlisted phone number, whereas she took

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Speaker 1: calls from residents every day. Eastwood wisely took the taunt

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Speaker 1: in stride, responding only with a promise to get an

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Speaker 1: answering machine if elected. Although the actor shunned the spotlight

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Speaker 1: during the campaign, his run for mayor still drew national attention,

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Speaker 1: so much so that on election day, four hundred reporters

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Speaker 1: turned up at Carmel's Community Center where the voting was

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Speaker 1: set to take place. And just to give some perspective,

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Speaker 1: that means there was approximately one journalist for every twelve residents.

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Speaker 1: With such a small population, it didn't take long to

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Speaker 1: count the votes. That same evening, Clint Eastwood was declared

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Speaker 1: Carmel's new mayor, having received two thousand, one hundred and

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Speaker 1: sixty six votes to Charlotte Townsend's seven hundred and ninety nine.

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Speaker 1: Eastwood was sworn in the following week, and as one

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Speaker 1: of his first acts in office, he dissolved the planning

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Speaker 1: board that had vetoed an earlier attempt to repeal the

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Speaker 1: city's ban on ice cream cones. As a result, residents

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Speaker 1: and visitors alike were now free to enjoy ice cream

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Speaker 1: on the beach, and shopkeepers were even permitted to sell

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Speaker 1: it to them. The rest of Eastwood's two year term

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Speaker 1: proved equally productive. He oversaw construction projects to make Carmel

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Speaker 1: more tourist friendly, including the installation of more public toilets

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Speaker 1: and stairways, leading to the beach as well as a

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Speaker 1: dedicated public parking lot. To please the residential community, he

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Speaker 1: expanded the local library with the children's annex, and prevented

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Speaker 1: a historic animal sanctuary the Mission Ranch from being bulldozed

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Speaker 1: by condo developers. It was on that last point, in particular,

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Speaker 1: that Carmel was grateful to have a millionaire mayor, because

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Speaker 1: when city officials couldn't afford to buy back the property,

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Speaker 1: Eastwood put up nearly five million dollars to buy the

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Speaker 1: ranch himself and then donated eleven acres of it to

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Speaker 1: be used as a nature preserve. The job of mayor

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Speaker 1: kept Eastwood pretty busy, but he still found time during

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Speaker 1: his tenure to direct two movies, Heartbreak, Ridge and Bird,

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Speaker 1: and to star in a third called The Deadpool, the

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Speaker 1: fifth and final entry in the Dirty Harry series. Despite

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Speaker 1: his accomplishments, there was a downside to Eastwood's run as mayor.

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Speaker 1: Tourism spiked dramatically during his term, clogging the city streets

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Speaker 1: and occasionally leading to fist fights over the limited number

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Speaker 1: of parking spaces. Eastwood's more relaxed approach to zoning also

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Speaker 1: allowed for fly by night businesses to pop up in town.

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Speaker 1: Including a tacky gift shop called Clintsville. The nearby Hyatt

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Speaker 1: Regency hotel also capitalized on Mayor Eastwood's stardom by launching

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Speaker 1: an ad campaign with the slogan go ahead, make My Stay.

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Speaker 1: Some Carmel residents thought the combination of Eastwood's celebrity and

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Speaker 1: his pro business policies was bad for the city, and

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Speaker 1: while the actor likely still could have secured a second term,

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Speaker 1: he decided not to seek reelection in nineteen eighty eight.

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Speaker 1: After two years of navigating red tape and debating the

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Speaker 1: minutia of zoning laws, Eastwood had had enough. He returned

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Speaker 1: to movie making full time and allowed his political career

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Speaker 1: to ride off into the sunset. I'm Gabe Luesiay, and

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Speaker 1: hopefully you now know a little more about history today

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Speaker 1: than you did yesterday. If you'd like to keep up

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Speaker 1: with the show, you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook,

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Speaker 1: and Instagram at TDI HC Show, and if you have

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Speaker 1: any comments or suggestions, feel free to send him my

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Speaker 1: way by writing to this day at iHeartMedia dot com.

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Speaker 1: Thanks to Kasby Bias for producing the show, and thanks

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Speaker 1: to you for listening. I'll see you back here again tomorrow.

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Speaker 1: For another day. In history class,