Dave Davies

Candice Millard.

Yeah, she's been on our show.

Terrific historian.

Yeah, and it's interesting because Garfield was kind of an accidental hero.

I mean he was initially going to nominate someone else for the presidency and the convention got deadlocked and people were so captivated by his speech they turned to him.

I didn't remember anything about James Garfield.

I'm sure most of us don't.

But when I saw you in that suit and that big beard and that long coat and vest and bow tie, I thought, yes, that's the picture we've seen of James Garfield.

Talk a little bit about –

physically occupying the care.

Did you grow that big beard?

Did you find you're carrying yourself differently?

I mean, did you feel like a president?

Did people treat you with deference on the set?

You're a little more like a statue than an active human.

Yeah.

Right, right, right.

Different era when a real farmer could be in Congress.

Well, I want to play a clip.

And to set this up, Garfield was a Republican and the Republican Party had been the dominant party in Washington for years.