Milton Rice Polland, June 13, 1909 (Milwaukee, Wis.) – September 2, 2006 (Los Angeles, Calif.)
VP candidate for Big Whig Party (1984)
Running mate with nominee: Larry Harmon (1925-2008)
Popular vote: ? (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
Larry Harmon (aka Lawrence Weiss) campaigned for President while in costume as his signature character, Bozo the Clown. He promised to serve only a single term and draw a salary of just one dollar. He announced his availability as a write-in candidate on March 1, 1984, "I believe in peace, love, understanding. That's my platform. I am willing to, and I want to, work for $1 a year. I don't even want a second term. What I want to do, I can do in four years."
He also promised to wear his Bozo suit while meeting with international leaders.
Harmon asked 75-year old Milton Polland, a behind-the-scenes political figure active in Wisconsin and California and internationally active businessman to be his running mate. Polland agreed he would step down as VP once elected. In some twisted rationale Harmon thought that act would happily clear the way for House Speaker Tip O'Neill to become the new Vice-President. But hey, we're talking about clown logic here.
Polland was probably ready for a fun distraction even though he didn't appear to campaign at all. Starting in 1983 he was in the midst of defending himself in a $15 million lawsuit along with others involving of charge of conspiracy regarding the sale of the Fort Lincoln Life Insurance Co. It appears he eventually walked away from that unscathed.
Exactly how Harmon and Polland were connected prior to the 1984 race was never spelled out. He seemed an odd and unfunny choice as a running mate for a clown. Polland had been a longtime liberal Republican operative in Wisconsin having been a significant figure in Wendell Willkie's 1940 and 1944 campaigns, as well as with Earl Warren's national ambitions in 1948 and 1952. In 1968 he chaired a group called National Republicans for Hubert Humphrey. When Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty dropped out of the 1972 race for the Democratic nomination, he met with Humphrey in Polland's LA apartment. So the guy was connected.
Sometimes too connected it seems and this would land him in courts. He was one of the figures and witnesses identified in a 1949 payoff scandal involving White House aide Harry Vaughan trading his influence for cash. He was a witness in the 1974 trial where Robert Maheu sued Howard Hughes specifically to address the charge that the latter gave Hubert Humphrey a secret cash donation of $50,000 in 1968.
The Big Whig Party ticket were certified write-ins in, they said, half the states, but only in Arizona were their votes reported, a huge sum of 21. In the Missouri write-in candidate registration they both were listed as residents of Los Angeles, which would have posed a Constitutional problem had they emerged victorious, although Polland could have truthfully claimed he was also a resident of Wisconsin. But since Polland had already agreed to resign if elected I guess that solved that potential problem.
In 2003, at the age of 93, Polland became Chairman of Penthouse International (Penthouse magazine) and remained active and engaged in business until his death at age 97! A most interesting character who bounced around from Willkie, to Warren, to Humphrey to Bozo with connections to Maheu and Yorty. That is one eclectic and fascinating career.
Election history: none
Other occupations: life insurance executive, Ambassador-at-Large for Republic of the Marshall Islands, Ambassador to the US from Nauru, chairman of National Republicans for Hubert Humphrey 1968, securities broker, Chairman of Penthouse International (Penthouse magazine) 2003,
Buried: Westwood Memorial Park (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Notes:
Jewish.
His obituary states "In 1972, he ran in the United States national election as the Vice Presidential
nominee for the American Independent Party" which does not line up with the historical facts in
many respects. The AIP VP in 1972 was William Daniel Dyke, a Wisconsin Republican who may
have had an association with Polland.
Worked on the campaigns of two men who like himself also ran for Vice-President: Earl Warren
(Republican VP nominee in 1948) and Hubert Humphrey (Democratic VP elected in 1964).
Buried in the same cemetery with Eddie Albert, Shana Alexander, Richard Anderson, Eve Arden, Jim Backus, Richard Basehart, Whit Bissell, Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury, Fanny Brice, Les Brown, Sebastian Cabot, Truman Capote, Harry Carey Jr., John Cassavetes, James Coburn, Ray Conniff, Richard Conte, Tim Conway, Bob Crane, Rodney Dangerfield, Richard Dawson, Peter Falk, Farrah Fawcett, Jay C. Flippen, June Foray, Stan Freberg, Eva Gabor, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Christopher George, Merv Griffin, Armand Hammer, Jonathan Harris, Hugh Hefner, Florence Henderson, Jim Hutton, Louis Jourdan, Brian Keith, Cecil Kellaway, Stan Kenton, Jack Klugman, Don Knotts, Burt Lancaster, Ed Lauter, Peter Lawford, Joanna Lee, Peggy Lee, Janet Leigh, Jack Lemmon, Oscar Levant, Robert Loggia, Karl Malden, Dean Martin, Quinn Martin, Walter Matthau, Rod McKuen, Marvin Miller, Marilyn Monroe, Lloyd Nolan, Carroll O'Connor, Roy Orbison, Bettie Page, Donna Reed, Buddy Rich, Wayne Rogers, G. David Schine, George C. Scott, Robert Stack, Alvin Toffler, Mel Torme, Cornel Wilde, Billy Wilder, Carl Wilson, Estelle Winwood, Natalie Wood, Darryl Zanuck, Frank Zappa.
