“When I was a child, my parents used to listen to Paul Harvey’s “The Rest of the Story.” The premise of the broadcast segments – which proposed to reveal the hidden, or unknown back-story of familiar people, incidents, or phenomena – was alluring even to an 8-year-old. There was more to know than first appeared! It was a formula designed to draw people in, and Paul Harvey – with his smooth voice and artful story-telling – was a master of taking what seemed like a simple story and weaving much more complexity into it.” Those remarks are according to a post on Abiding Peace. We don’t hear or read as much about Paul Harvey as we did some 20 or more years ago. This article aims to remedy that for at least the next few minutes, because for decades Harvey was a family favorite for people across the country. But why? What insights and lessons did he offer? Let’s probe that by taking thoughts and comments from a few named sources that span the left-right media divide in Part I and then dive into an analysis with MHVille commentary in Part II.

 

DBN https://www.npr.org/2014/10/09/354718833/the-rest-of-the-story-paul-harvey-conservative-talk-radio-pioneer

Part I

1) From left-leaning NPR are the following observations on Paul Havey “Talk Radio Pioneer”

“…Paul Harvey was also a delightful history teacher — with a velvety voice that turned the news into narrative and entertainment each week on his famous segment The Rest of the Story.

For more than three decades, from the 1970s to his death in 2009, Harvey would address his millions of listeners six days a week, giving them the backstory to people, things and events both famous and not-so-known.

From the origin of Coca-Cola to an account of JFK’s assassination through his widow’s eyes, from his tales of Elvis Presley’s childhood to the Revolutionary War, the Oklahoma native had a magical fluidity to his storytelling. To hear him now is to feel at least a little nostalgic for that classic-radio mid-American accent — the kind that makes you think of political power in the 1940s and ’50s, from FDR to Truman.

Indeed, Harvey came out of that age of politics: He briefly served in World War II but was discharged (possibly for psychiatric reasons, an account he disputed). He made his way to Chicago, where he took up broadcasting on ABC — and he didn’t leave the airwaves for years.

He quickly made his name by explaining the “mysteries of history” and commenting, sometimes with extreme fervor, on the decline of American moralism. There is his classic, Jonathan Edwards-esque If I Were the Devil: How to Destroy America.

 

 

And how many know that Harvey earned a permanent spot in the history textbooks when he coined the phrase Reaganomics?

A longtime lover of history — a love cultivated by a single mother who raised him after his policeman father was killed — Harvey made waves early, getting his first radio gig at just age 14. And even though he would have plenty of mentors along the way, his work was most often honed by his wife — and producer — who was also a fervent student of history and a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis.

But as I and any other editor, writer, reporter or media professional will tell you, it’s often not enough to have the right voice, stories and supporting team. What every storytelling program needs is an investor, and among Harvey’s truest gifts was his ability to keep sponsors.

Much like the ubiquitous voice on NPR thanking the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Harvey’s voice, transitioning seamlessly from a story to commentary to a carefully placed advertisement, became a kind of brand kingmaker. People trusted what he was telling, and so they trusted what he was selling.

Harvey’s success in bringing backstories and history to life arguably paved the way for many American documentary programs like Behind the Music. He was a master at connecting yesterday to the present and to tomorrow — he was an early proponent of drawing insight from the past in order to do better in the future.

His guest hosts in the 1990s and 2000s are faces we still see in conservative circles of power and politics. When Harvey passed away in 2009, his show was taken over briefly by his son, followed by Gil Gross and then Mike Huckabee. But it didn’t last without him and ultimately gave way to a new generation of increasingly strident political and family-values radio.

For now, though, listen to Harvey, who’s speaking in the aftermath of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, as he discusses the “utter futility of words.” Coming from him, they were anything but.”

 

 

So, Carlos Watson via NPR deemed Harvey a conservative, but nevertheless still heaped praise on the legendary broadcasting gent from Tulsa, OK.

By the way, for more of the rest of the story on Watson of OZY Media fame (or infamy), see the report linked below. Per the U.S. Justice Department website: Carlos Watson, Founder and Former CEO of Ozy Media Inc … (Dec 16, 2024) “Carlos Watson, Founder and Former CEO of Ozy Media Inc., Sentenced to 116 Months in Prison for Leading Multi-Million Dollar Fraud Scheme.”

 

 

2) It seems that some on the left believe Harvey must have been a smooth, genocidal racist. Why? Because of what left-leaning FAIR’s Jim Naureckas called a rant during one of his broadcasts as Harvey was aging and ever-closer to his death. His post is entitled: “The Rest of Paul Harvey’s Story.”

 

“On the death of radio’s Paul Harvey, it’s hard for me not to think of his June 23, 2005 broadcast as his most revealing moment.

That’s the episode where he delivered this memorable rant (Extra! Update, 8/05):

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Winston Churchill said that the American people–he said, the American people, he said, and this is a direct quote, “We didn’t come this far because we are made of sugar candy.”

And that reminder was taken seriously. And we proceeded to develop and deliver the bomb, even though roughly 150,000 men, women and children perished in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. With a single blow, World War II was over.

Following New York, September 11, Winston Churchill was not here to remind us that we didn’t come this far because we’re made of sugar candy.

So, following the New York disaster, we mustered our humanity…and we sent men with rifles into Afghanistan and Iraq, and we kept our best weapons in our silos.

Even now we’re standing there dying, daring to do nothing decisive, because we’ve declared ourselves to be better than our terrorist enemies–more moral, more civilized.

Our image is at stake, we insist.

But we didn’t come this far because we’re made of sugar candy.

Once upon a time, we elbowed our way onto and across this continent by giving smallpox-infected blankets to Native Americans. That was biological warfare. And we used every other weapon we could get our hands on to grab this land from whomever.

And we grew prosperous. And yes, we greased the skids with the sweat of slaves.

So it goes with most great nation-states, which–feeling guilty about their savage pasts–eventually civilize themselves out of business and wind up invaded and ultimately dominated by the lean, hungry up-and-coming who are not made of sugar candy.

To Harvey, in other words, failing to use nuclear and biological weapons because we feel guilty about genocide and slavery means that we’re “made of sugar candy.” And this will mean the end of U.S. civilization. …”

 

That FAIR author’s bio-in-brief says: “Jim Naureckas is the editor of FAIR.org, and has edited FAIR’s print publication Extra! since 1990. He is the co-author of The Way Things Aren’t: Rush Limbaugh’s Reign of Error, and co-editor of The FAIR Reader.”

From FAIR’s footer is this self-description.

What’s FAIR

FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation. We work to invigorate the First Amendment by advocating for greater diversity in the press and by scrutinizing media practices that marginalize public interest, minority and dissenting viewpoints. We expose neglected news stories and defend working journalists when they are muzzled. As a progressive group, we believe that structural reform is ultimately needed to break up the dominant media conglomerates, establish independent public broadcasting and promote strong non-profit sources of information.

 

3) From the CivFanatics Forum under the title: “Paul Harvey Time for the End of the Story” is this about the award-winning and legendary broadcaster.

“Paul Harvey is an amazing member of the US broadcast journalism scene. Quite possibly the best known radio journalist of all time, a member of the Broadcasting Hall of Fame, his News and Comment has been carried by the Disney-owned ABC radio network(s) daily since 1951. The Rest Of The Story, a feature which goes for “the story behind the story” has spawned a syndicated TV show and a couple of books. His value to ABC and its affiliates is such that this year, at age 86, the network signed him to a 10 year, $100 million contract.

Always a conservative, “heartland of America” guy (he’s originally from Tulsa, OK, began his career there and gained notoriety in Chicago), Mr. Harvey didn’t appear to be an extreme conservative idealogue until perhaps the last 15 years or so. Regarding the Vietnam war, he told Richard Nixon, “Mr. President, I love you, but you are wrong.” Although I haven’t listened to Harvey myself in years, his popularity remains high with his programs reaching an estimated 22 million people weekly. …”

4)  Per Tight Knit in a post entitled “The Rest of the Story” by Kurt Rump was the following on ABC Radio’s Harvey.

And Now… The Rest of the Story 

Does that phrase stir up any memories for you?  

If you spent any time listening to the radio during the 30+ years spanning May, 1976 through February, 2009, you instantly connected The Rest of the Story with the distinctive voice of news broadcaster and radio personality, Paul Harvey.  

With a little help from Wikipedia, let me refresh your memory. The Rest of the Story was a Monday-through-Friday radio program that consisted of stories on a variety of subjects, presented as little-known or forgotten facts, with some key element of the story (usually the name of some well-known person) held back until the end.  

It was a great recipe for storytelling.  

Paul Harvey was the host. Each broadcast opened the same way; “You know what the news is. In a minute, you’re going to hear the REST of the story.” (I can still hear his unique voice and delivery style.) This was followed by a 30–second commercial, at the conclusion of which Paul resumed, “And now… the rest of the story.”  

Did you stop everything to listen to one of those broadcasts when it came on the air? 

I sure did.  

What was it about those stories that you enjoyed so much? 

For me, it was that every story was like a puzzle… a mystery to unravel. Paul gave you the puzzle pieces as he began painting a verbal portrait of someone… or something… or someplace. The more clues he revealed, the harder you looked for threads that were familiar to you.  

Was there something in his clues that you recognized? Could you solve the puzzle with the information he gave you? Or did you need to wait for Paul to give you the punchline?  

That is exactly how I feel when I start paging through old family photos.  …

[MHProNews note: Rump then muses about seeking out the history of people in old family photos from elders who may know, and then said the following.]

You are a product of all that came before you. The better you know them, the better you will know yourself.  

That’s why, at some point in our lives, we all want to know our ancestors better. We all want to know… the rest of the story.  

 

Part II – Additional Information, including on The Tucker, with more MHProNews Analysis and Commentary

1) Kurt Rump has a point when he says that we: “are a product of all that came before you. The better you know them, the better you will know yourself.”

The better we understand our own history, along with the authentic history of our Republic and profession, it is entirely possible that we can be better because the more you know, the more you can grow.

 

2) Before we pivot to the MHVille specific of this story, let’s step back and recall the underlying theme and message of the ‘based on a true story’ movie Tucker. Tucker was a car named after a man who was famous for a time long before Tucker Carlson made the scene as a cable news, podcast personality and author. Preston Thomas Tucker (21 September 1903 – 26 December 1956) designed and built a car that existed before much of this audience was born. Preston Tucker’s car challenged the elites of Detroit, and per the storyline, they slyly conspired to undermine and destroy their rival.

 

 

TUCKER: THE MAN AND HIS DREAM – (Trailer) by Rialto Pictures.

At about the 1:32 mark, the actor Jeff Bridges who portrays the historic character Preston Tucker says: “When big business closes the door on the little guy with his new idea we are sabotaging everything that the country stands for.”

IMdB says the fuller quote in context, part of the rest of the story, is this.

Preston Tucker: [making his closing arguments to the jury] .When I was a boy, I used to, uh… I used to read all about Edison, and the Wright brothers… Mr. Ford, they were, they were my heroes… ‘rags to riches’ that’s not just the name of a book; that’s, what this country was all about!… We invented the free enterprise system, where anybody, no matter who he was, where he came from, what class he belonged to… If he came up with a better idea, about ANYTHING, there’s no limit to how far he could go… I grew up a generation too late I guess because now the way the system works… The loner; the dreamer; the CRACKPOT, who, comes up with some CRAZY IDEA that everybody LAUGHS at, that LATER, turns out to REVOLUTIONIZE THE WORLD… HE’S SQUASHED, FROM ABOVE, BEFORE HE EVEN GETS HIS HEAD OUT OF THE WATER, BECAUSE THE BUREAUCRATS, THEY’D RATHER KILL A NEW IDEA THAN LET IT ROCK THE BOAT!… IF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WERE ALIVE TODAY, HE’D BE THROWN IN JAIL FOR SAILING A KITE WITHOUT A LICENSE!

[jury laughs]

Preston Tucker: … It’s true!… We’re all puffed up with ourselves now because we invented *the bomb*… Dropped the… Beat the daylights out of the Japanese; the Nazis… But if ‘big business’ closes the door on THE LITTLE GUY WITH A NEW IDEA, WE’RE NOT ONLY CLOSING THE DOOR ON PROGRESS, BUT WE’RE SABOTAGING EVERYTHING THAT WE FOUGHT FOR!… EVERYTHING THAT THE COUNTRY STANDS FOR! And one day, we’re gonna find ourselves at the bottom of the heap, instead of king of the hill, having no idea how we got there; buying our radios and our cars from our former enemies!… I don’t believe that’s gonna happen; I *can’t* believe it, cuz… if I ever, stop believing in plain old common horse-sense of the American people… there’s no way I could get out of bed in the morning… Thank you.

3) As with all historical fiction, there can be a certain amount of poetic license. That can include projecting or injecting into a historically inspired movie thoughts or words that may or may not have been said quite that same way.

That noted, among the takeaways from the movie “Tucker: the Man and His Dream” is sabotage tactics are nearly as old as humanity itself. Let’s illustrate that point two ways, the first using another clip from Paul Harvey that is part of a car enthusiast’s YouTube video. Note that Harvey, as he tells the story at about 4:45, mentioned how “Detroit” had “monopolized” the car business and thus undermined the impressive new rival, the Tucker?

 

 

 

4) The next example, per left-leaning Google’s AI powered Gemini.

“The United States had the most automakers in 1908, when there were 253 active manufacturers. By 1929, the number of automakers had dropped to 98, and by the 1930s, it had dwindled to 44. The Great Depression eliminated most of the smaller firms, leaving the market dominated by the “Big Three” Detroit-based companies: Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler.

The 1950s were the pinnacle of American automotive manufacturing. The US auto industry was the largest ever created, and was many times larger than the automotive industries of the rest of the world combined. By 1960, one-sixth of working Americans were employed directly or indirectly by the industry. …”

5) Now, let’s stop and think. Why is it that the post-World War II America was in some respects better for working- and middle-class Americans? In part it was because ours was a nation of producers, not just importers. Production capabilities helped America win World War II. Production – from farm and field goods to raw materials, to refined and shelf-ready items – yielded arguably one of the better periods for much of the American working-class men after WW II. It was entirely possible for a man to support a stay-at-home wife and often a sizable family with just one income. Ponder that reality compared to today.

While technology has advanced since then, and ours has become an ever more consumer-oriented society with more cars, more clothes, more products, stuffed in bigger houses that may need on- or off-site storage for even more stuff, family life has changed dramatically. It may take both parents to work to make ends meet and perhaps more than two jobs. Families today are significantly smaller than in the 1950s and 1960s. Even then, millions of household’s struggle. Debt is much greater now, for both individuals and the federal government. While there were social ills during that time, to be sure, let’s not forget that Black family life was more cohesive then, it wasn’t just Whites that had a seemingly safer and more stable neighborhoods and lifestyles. Let’s not forget that society was more religious then too, which may not be a coincidence when it comes to other factors that should be considered.  As relevant as that may be, let’s not get bogged down on all that now, let’s pivot back to lessons from Preston’s Tucker and Paul Harvey.

 

6) While Gemini readily provided a reasonably insightful summary of the automotive industry, when a similar and analogous question was posed by MHProNews on manufactured housing was asked of Gemini, why is it that Google’s AI couldn’t give as specific an answer on mobile homes and manufactured homes as it did on the automotive insights shown above? This was the inquiry.

How many mobile home or manufactured home producers existed in that industry heyday and during what years did that occur?

According to available information, the “heyday” of the mobile home industry, with the highest number of producers, occurred in the late 1960s and early 1970s, with estimates suggesting there were potentially hundreds of mobile home manufacturers operating during this period; however, the exact number is difficult to pinpoint due to variations in data collection and the industry’s rapid changes at the time.

“Key points about the mobile home industry peak:

• High production numbers:

During this peak period, mobile home shipments often exceeded 500,000 units per year.

• Market crash in the mid-1970s:

The energy crisis and subsequent economic downturn significantly impacted the mobile home industry, leading to a sharp decline in production and a large number of manufacturers going out of business.

• Name change:

The term “manufactured home” replaced “mobile home” in 1976 due to new construction standards and a desire to improve public perception of the housing type.”

 

A prior inquiry posed to Gemini (regrettably, not saved) produced a less informative response that mentioned that in the early 1970s, mobile homes reached about twenty percent of the housing market share. Apparently, Gemini overlooked research by Elena Falcettoni, James A. Schmitz Jr., and Mark L. J. Wright (among others) about how mobile home production was hovering around 1/3 of all new single-family housing starts in the early 1970s and was threatening to go even higher. That is when government subsidies, the requirement for an attached chassis, local zoning barriers, financing disparity, and a barrage of negativity (not just fuel costs), drove the early HUD Code manufactured housing production sharply lower than mobile home production was just a few years before. But the reality is that even Champion Homes’ graphic below (annotated by MHProNews) shows that the percentage of single-family housing starts enjoyed during that 1970s per HUD Code mobile home era around 30 percent, or more than 3 times the current level of about 9 percent market share.

 

 

In fact, entirely missing from that AI generated narrative by Gemini was any mention of that evidence-backed thesis of multiple Federal Reserve linked researchers, officials, and economists, who say that the mobile home industry of yesteryear was sabotaged by builders in collusion with HUD.  They refer to that with the notion of ‘sabotage monopoly’ tactics. Then recall that Harvey in his description of what happened to the Tucker automobile line blamed monopolists too? Note that the movie Tucker focused on that ‘sabotaging monopolists’ assault on a car that was ‘too good’ for Detroit to compete with?

 

 

6) Now, let’s draw some added insights for MHVille from those two seemingly disparate sets of facts and experiences. In “Tucker: the Man and His Dream” a story is painted of an apparently corrupt U.S. Senator, working in collusion with the interests of automakers in Detroit and various federal agency officials. By the way, when the Tucker plant (which did exist) was closed, it was later taken over by the producers of the Lustron, a prefabricated house that was also quite historic. While Gemini gave a somewhat errant answer on the first effort, with some prompting it eventually said this.

The Tucker plant was originally leased to the Lustron Corporation to build prefabricated housing after the National Housing Agency (NHA) ordered the WAA to terminate Tucker’s lease. The NHA believed that houses were more important than cars in the post-war economy. 

 

7) So again, factory-built housing was seen as a need, but according to Falcettoni, Schmitz, Wright et al, it was “sabotaged” by conventional builders, local zoning officials, and HUD. What did that quote from the movie Tucker say?

…But if ‘big business’ closes the door on THE LITTLE GUY WITH A NEW IDEA, WE’RE NOT ONLY CLOSING THE DOOR ON PROGRESS, BUT WE’RE SABOTAGING EVERYTHING THAT WE FOUGHT FOR!… EVERYTHING THAT THE COUNTRY STANDS FOR! And one day, we’re gonna find ourselves at the bottom of the heap, instead of king of the hill, having no idea how we got there; buying our radios and our cars from our former enemies!… I don’t believe that’s gonna happen; I *can’t* believe it, cuz… if I ever, stop believing in plain old common horse-sense of the American people… there’s no way I could get out of bed in the morning… Thank you.

 

8) The U.S. de facto shipped off some jobs initially to Japan and other places, but for decades, much of that “offshoring” of production jobs that had once made the American Dream a reality for millions, we shipped those jobs off to Communist China. Now, the powers that be apparently realize that we are spending more on military, social services, debt service, and other expenses as a result? Pardon me, are we to seriously believe that some didn’t realize well in advance that we would end up in a time much as we find ourselves today?

 

 

8) The powers that be involved in manufactured housing include multi-billion and even some multi-trillion-dollar operations. Are we to believe that an accurate history of our product can’t be produced and publicized? Are we to believe that some dramatic, or comedic, movie or TV series couldn’t be launched that makes people hungry for affordable housing want to stand in line to buy a manufactured home? A little bit of historical insight, a Paul Harvey-esque “rest of the story” will tell us that what Marty Lavin, J.D., called “the big boys” want to keep manufactured housing down. At least at this time. No matter that it goes against everything that wars were fought for or that the country was founded on.

 

9) Go back to that movie Tucker again. Federal agents were following Tucker for economic and political purposes. Let’s not be naïve and fail to recall that the FBI’s history under J. Edgar Hoover wasn’t filled with some pretty dark chapters. Why are we surprised that the federal spy and ‘law enforcement’ agencies were weaponized against President Trump? Time and again, throughout the history of the FBI and the CIA, there have been examples of those agencies being used for political purposes that were often linked to “special interests.”

 

 

10) When the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR) publishes its data next week on November 2024 production levels, per a source deemed reliable, it will reflect a month-over-month decline even though there was a year-over-year increase. Manufactured housing has favorable laws passed by widely bipartisan votes, as this platform has said scores of times. Why is it that MHI can’t seem to get those laws enforced? They brag about how they represent all segments of the industry and that they are the largest national trade association. While there may be elements of truth to those claims, there is also a burden of responsibility for those same claims. MHI teamed up with MHARR to get the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act of 2000 enacted into law. Something similar occurred to get the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 enacted. So, why is MHI working with trade groups that are largely conventional housing focused? Why did they stop working with MHARR? Isn’t it apparent from publicly traded statements by MHI members that they are more consolidation focused then the traditional umbrella trade notion of protecting the industry, educating the public, and earnestly promoting the industry?

11) The rest of the story in manufactured housing at this point is a bit similar to that of the sabotage of the Tucker, only it is not as complete. Our manufactured home industry is down, but MHVille is not out. The big boys are dominating, but some independents continue to hang in there and fight for what made the American Dream the beacon of light for so much of the world. But we can’t be so naïve as to think that there haven’t always been dark forces at work in our country that have sought to manipulate the system away from its better intentions into something that was never the advertised product.

12) We don’t do podcasts at this time. We don’t produce other possible productions that might allow for a great voice to cause people to lean in as they did with Paul Harvey. MHVille has scores of heroes and heroines. They deserve to have their stories told. But instead, the RV MH Hall of Fame has become just another plaything of the same types of insiders that dominate MHI too. Awards are handed out to people and companies that tow the party line because the insiders generate the party line.

 

13) For years, MHI has been parading around, as Danny Ghorbani put it, ‘like a show horse.’ They should have, said Ghorbani, been performing the duties of a workhorse on behalf of all segments of the industry, not just its insiders.

But in fairness to MHI, public officials bear responsibilities in this picture too. Just as in the story Tucker, without corrupt and/or inept or under-informed personalities involved, the industry could be soaring today. The public thirst for affordable housing could be satisfied by the free market. Taxpayers could be saving billions annually. And the economy might be generating an estimated $2 trillion dollars more a year in total GDP. Who says? How about Cavco Industries and their CEO?

 

 

It seems that the powers that be at MHI who deftly manipulate manufactured housing during much of the 21st century have learned the art of how to raise and plunge the production of the industry and do so without ever approaching the last highwater mark of 1998. This might give insiders certain benefits, particularly when it comes to acquiring the property/businesses of others.

 

 

14) Long before some of the conservative talk radio hosts took to the airwaves, Paul Harvey was already there doing something different, yet curiously similar in this sense. Harvey painted a picture that was distinct from the mainstream media narrative of ‘the news.’ Harvey wove in elements of history that others may not have been other wise familiar with. Harvey wasn’t just entertaining his listeners, he was informing, and in some cases, inspiring them. No broadcaster has a perfect record, so the shots taken by leftists against him could readily be countered by one posted below.

Harvey’s commentary starts at about the 18 second mark.

Paul Harvey – Slavery was a People Problem – the Rest of the Story

 

 

That episode of Paul Harvey’s rest of the story happens to make a point that MHProNews has made several times over the years.  Truth is where you look for it and find it. With most of us mere mortals, the principle of separating the wheat from the chaff must be applied.

 

15) Our industry, and our Republic, is not what it could or should be. But to change that dynamic people must be properly informed. It isn’t enough just to gripe or moan that things are bad, or could be better. People must be shown why they are bad and how it can be better. That is the rest of the story.

Stay tuned in 2025 for more mind opening facts, here on MHProNews, on our MHLivingNews sister site, and in our developing series on the mainstream Patch.  Thanks to all who make this day-by-day effort possible. Without them, we would not be the runaway largest information resource serving manufactured housing, which is a nice added parting fact in the rest of the story.