As Election Day rolls around, let’s flashback to June 1972. To promote his movie, “The Candidate,” Robert Redford came to West Palm Beach, speaking from the back of a campaign-style train.
His audience of 600 young men and women — described by The Post as “teenyboppers” — outdrew a recent crowd for a presidential candidate at the time, Sen. Edward Muskie.
The liberal movie star said that bothered him: “What matters on Election Day is image,” Redford told the crowd at the city’s train station. “What does it mean when more people turn out for me than a presidential candidate?”
Redford, who played California senatorial candidate Bill McKay in the movie, also discussed what he called the negative aspects of political campaigns, saying theatrics obscured meaningful discussion of policy and platforms. The promotion also was used as a voter registration drive, and 200 signed up.
Redford, flashing a grin and a Nixon-like peace sign, told the crowd during a two-minute speech: “Let me make one thing perfectly clear. I’m not a candidate … Under no circumstances will I run, unless it is for cover.”
The “teenyboppers” groaned in disappointment.
