J.B. Pick

Jay. Bert Peck (not "Pick", as the IMDB movie credit reflects), was a retired Garland, Texas deputy sheriff who gained unfortunate notoriety as a stand-in for Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ). Being LBJ's cousin, he closely resembled Johnson and had a similar voice with a Texas drawl. With the release of Columbia's Matt Helm thriller, House of Seven Joys (renamed The Wrecking Crew), starring Dean Martin and Elke Sommer, a related news item appeared in the People section of Time magazine, August 2, 1968 and in Newsweek three days later revealing Peck's previously low-keyed role. A scene in The Wrecking Crew depicts an aide informing the US President (shown from the back and side) that thieves stole $1 billion in gold bullion; in this scene, Peck played LBJ. A second scene showed him dancing with Elke Sommer. Later, Peck appeared on the Tonight show and was interviewed about the role and about his doubling for Johnson by Johnny Carson. Billie Sol Estes wrote that Johnson was paranoid about Peck's ability to keep quiet as a result of this publicity. These scenes with Peck were originally in the movie, as written in the news articles, but were deleted later. Also deleted were references to the "presidential" scenes, and the credits were altered to read "J. B. Pick" instead of "Peck. Also, instead of listing his character name (LBJ), it is listed as "uncredited." Records relating to Peck's appearance on the Tonight Show were also "cleansed," with neither "Peck" nor "Pick" currently listed among the hundreds of other guests tabulated by the show's staff. Why were these alterations necessary, and by whose order? Jay Bert Peck was murdered in his home on the evening of Friday, July 4, 1969, shortly after all of his publicity. According to his obituary in the Garland Texas News on Sunday, July 6, 1969, he had achieved considerable fame from his appearance on the Johnny Carson show. More information about Peck can be found in the book, LBJ: From Mastermind to "The Colossus" by Phillip L. Nelson. Show less «