Snoopy and the Spy: A Tale of Tractor Wars and Resilience with Lee Klancher

In this episode of North American Ag Spotlight, Chrissy Wozniak interviews Lee Klancher, a celebrated author, photographer, and publisher, known for his contributions to agricultural storytelling through his company, Octane Press. Lee discusses his latest book, Snoopy and the Spy, a thrilling narrative set during the intense rivalry between agricultural giants John Deere and International Harvester amidst the 1980s farm crisis.

Lee’s book captures the dramatic 1980s era when John Deere and International Harvester were in fierce competition, providing new technology to farmers during challenging economic times. From sneaking into competitor events to small-scale espionage, Lee reveals stories of intense tactics between these iconic brands, showcasing the lengths they went to for dominance. Lee shares his passion for telling stories that capture the resilience and ingenuity of the agricultural community, inspired by his childhood memories and career-long fascination with machinery and farming.

Reflecting on the resilience of farmers during hard times, Lee emphasizes the universal lesson of perseverance—a message that resonates with many in agriculture today. Lee explains how farm mechanization transformed society, making time for innovation and technological advancement that shaped the modern world.
Memorable 

Links:
Dive into the riveting history of John Deere and International Harvester. Snoopy and the Spy - https://www.amazon.com/Snoopy-Spy-Espionage-Ingenuity-International/dp/1642341851

Connect with Lee Klancher and learn more about Octane Press here - https://octanepress.com/

Listen to the full episode and discover more about the fascinating and resilient history of the agricultural industry.

Be sure to subscribe to North American Ag Spotlight on your favorite podcast platform! 

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Transcript

00:00:39:07 - 00:01:10:01
Chrissy Wozniak
Hi and welcome to North American Spotlight. I'm Christy Wozniak. Today I have the privilege of speaking with an inspirational author, photographer, and publisher who spent over 30 years bringing remarkable stories to life. His company, Octane Press, publishes award winning, illustrated and narrative books. Having collaborated collaborated with renowned brands like cage, Ferrari and Caterpillar. With more than 200 books published, 30 independent book awards and over a million readers, Octane Press continues to leave its mark.

00:01:10:03 - 00:01:31:22
Chrissy Wozniak
Today, I'll be discussing his latest upcoming release, Snoopy and the spy, which chronicles the battle between agriculture, equipment makers John Deere and International Harvester in the depths of the farm crisis from Austin, Texas. I'd like to welcome Legal Archer. Welcome, Lee, and thank you so much for returning to the show.

00:01:31:24 - 00:01:36:01
Lee Klancher
Oh, great to be back, Chrissy. I always enjoy this.

00:01:36:03 - 00:02:05:22
Chrissy Wozniak
So I personally have, many of your gorgeous books and, and they tell us these stories of some of the most cherished farm equipment, that that span back through generations and generations. Red tractors, red four wheel drive tractors, red combines. And, I also had you on what color is your tractor podcast when you really small century last year I think that was but now, as I said, you've just released Snoopy and the spy.

00:02:05:22 - 00:02:07:23
Chrissy Wozniak
So tell me about this new book.

00:02:08:00 - 00:02:28:13
Lee Klancher
Absolutely. Well, it's really interesting you talk about the stories, because when I did this book, I knew what I wanted to do was just tell more of a story. The other the other books, they're big, they're thorough. If what you love is formal or kiss age or gender or any of those machines, those books are for you. And there is a lot of stories in there.

00:02:28:13 - 00:02:47:23
Lee Klancher
That is something I've always done, but they're big and they're thorough, and they're everything you ever need to know. With this book, I looked and I thought, you know, I just want to go back to the reason I got into this business, what I learned to do in the early days, which is tell a narrative nonfiction story. And it's a story that's engaging and it's fun.

00:02:47:23 - 00:03:20:07
Lee Klancher
That's interesting. So I took a look at all the work I had done over the years, and realized that the era that that late 1970s to early 1980s was just such an incredible dramatic time and that we had, in our archives that I came from this time, a lot of stories about the time that particularly from a man and but you'll and buddy old was a, sales executive for International Harvester.

00:03:20:09 - 00:03:47:24
Lee Klancher
Very colorful man, wonderful storyteller, and a real force of nature. And we realize in this time period what he was doing to try and sell tractors, to push things forward was just this wonderful human story. At a time when people are struggling. And here's this man. He's a former ex-Marine, or a former marine, and his whole attitude toward life is charge up the hill.

00:03:47:24 - 00:04:11:02
Lee Klancher
Right. And his company, Harvester, at this time was just facing really, really difficult winds. And going back into the time you would see how difficult was. I was looking at newspapers and you could every couple of weeks there was a headline. If you were if you loved this brand, if you were farming, if you were working for them, it was another disaster every week.

00:04:11:04 - 00:04:30:07
Lee Klancher
And yet, Mr. Ewell is charging up and doing everything he can to survive. And I just felt like that was a really powerful place to start. You know, we're we're all going to face tough times and do you want to lay down or do you want to charge up the hill.

00:04:30:09 - 00:04:44:17
Chrissy Wozniak
Right. Yeah. And so this is based in the 1980s for background. And and can you lay out kind of the basis of the story. Yeah. Between John Deere and, and International Harvester at that time.

00:04:44:19 - 00:05:13:12
Lee Klancher
Yeah, absolutely. And it's interesting because of there's so many things coming together. So you have to look at, harvester and deer historically. Right. You go back to 1902 International Harvester forms and they are the biggest in, in the industry by a massive margin, 80% to 90%, depending on which niche you measure. They owned Deere. In the meantime, is this independent maker who's very solid, very strong, but is fighting just to survive.

00:05:13:16 - 00:05:40:17
Lee Klancher
So that goes on through 1960, 1960. Gear gets aggressive under Bill Hewitt's leadership. And by 1963 takes over the number one spot. So put that into 19 the early 1970s. It's fascinating here. You've got this old legacy company that was the big dog, and they've been knocked off their perch and they're struggling and they they're old and a little hidebound.

00:05:40:17 - 00:06:05:01
Lee Klancher
And they've got to change. They've got new leadership. They're trying to get back towards that number one spot. And you've got Deere with Bill Hewitt at the helm who is like, yeah, we got this in 63 and we are not going let up. So those two companies were spending money just at an outrageous rate developing new equipment. And but all has a wonderful line.

00:06:05:01 - 00:06:27:09
Lee Klancher
He says, the two biggest companies in the in the world were fighting it tooth and nail. And the farmer won because all this new technology is coming up. So these two are doing everything they can to dominate the market. Well, I age to get back and survive Deere to hang on to and increase kind of a stranglehold.

00:06:27:11 - 00:06:41:22
Lee Klancher
And then the whole farm world just kind of implodes. So it's just the time is just a crucible for a lot of things. A lot of change was happening and, there's a lot of talk, you know?

00:06:41:24 - 00:06:58:13
Chrissy Wozniak
Yeah. Wow, that is really cool. I actually cannot wait to read the book. It just sounds awesome. So what was your inspiration? Why, what were the steps to go? You know, this is this is the topic. This is, you know, the inspiration. What, like why you decided this? Was it?

00:06:58:15 - 00:07:28:12
Lee Klancher
Well, there's a number of things. I knew I wanted drama. I wanted it to be fun to read. I wanted to be relevant. And I felt like more modern history would be better. From that. So I started looking a little more recently. I also knew there is this tremendous fascination with the last days of international, however student where they failed and and it is a big, tremendously complex puzzle.

00:07:28:14 - 00:07:45:18
Lee Klancher
And I spoke about it and talked about it and read about it for many years. And I knew that was something people were interested in. So I thought, well, this would be good. And then just looking for a dramatic story, I just kept coming back to you because. But, but it was very interesting. He spoke a lot.

00:07:45:24 - 00:08:25:19
Lee Klancher
He, he we interviewed him. We had more than five hours of tape. When you get him, when you get him on the phone, he just has story after story. And he also has spoke at a number of the enthusiast events, and many of those were recorded. So that gave me a lot of material. And then as I started looking at his material and look at, the newspaper articles from the time, the other interviews we had, the intrigue, it just slowly became more and more clear that there was a really rich mine of great stories, great information, an interesting time in this capsule.

00:08:25:21 - 00:08:49:22
Lee Klancher
And really, you know, what the, the the moment the lightning struck the, our house would be, one of the most interesting stories Bud tells is he snuck into a John Deere introduction in 1982. And, you know, the the dealer introductions of course, they're only for the dealers. There's there's there's security at the gates. We ask people who enter me, you have to have a pass.

00:08:49:22 - 00:09:04:16
Lee Klancher
Well, he figured a way to sneak in and, actually got caught, and that story's great. And that's where the book starts. And that's where it finishes. It starts. It's walking in the door. So, yeah.

00:09:04:18 - 00:09:08:08
Chrissy Wozniak
And I'm just curious, how did he get caught?

00:09:08:10 - 00:09:32:11
Lee Klancher
He was that's that's not entirely clear because he tells one story. And then we published that in, in a part of it in a blog post. Some people from Deere came forward and they tell a slightly different story, which is how recall stories. But he was up at the top. We know that. He claims he was a there's a bar at the top of the Superdome was held at the Superdome in New Orleans.

00:09:32:13 - 00:09:50:11
Lee Klancher
And he claims there's a bar up there. There is a bar up there, whether it was open during this year, in 1982 might not have wanted anybody drinking beer, I don't know, but, he claims he was up there drinking beer. The our dear person who told the story claims he was up in the rafters, and they saw his reflection.

00:09:50:13 - 00:10:11:14
Lee Klancher
So somebody saw him up there and said, why is this guy up here watching? And then they they did send some security people up there and, haul him out. Bud likes to say they tried to handcuff him. There's all kinds of little bits of this story that may or may not be true, but he definitely was caught, and he was definitely thrown out.

00:10:11:16 - 00:10:17:17
Lee Klancher
And then the two CEOs of Deere and IHH ended up talking on the phone to solve this. In the end.

00:10:17:19 - 00:10:37:24
Chrissy Wozniak
Wow. Oh, that is hilarious. I love it. So what did you learn? And I remember asking you this before with with farmhouse century. And it's neat because, you know, at the time you said that you know, when you're doing this deep dive, you're learning so much as well. So what did you take away? What did you learn while writing this book?

00:10:38:01 - 00:10:58:15
Lee Klancher
So it was so much so I think the the times became clear to me. In 1982, I was a sophomore in high school. My parents were teachers and farm country, and I don't know, I personally, I think a lot of, high school kids live in a little bit of a bubble. So did I know how hard those times were?

00:10:58:15 - 00:11:24:18
Lee Klancher
I don't think I did. I've studied it, I've read about it. I've seen the numbers. I know the interest rates were so high. But going back to this material and growing day by day and, and, I gathered a lot of material from the time, including pictures of farmers. So I was reading stories about what farmers were going through, seeing, the newspapers.com lets you look at headlines day by day, and it's incredible.

00:11:24:24 - 00:11:47:23
Lee Klancher
It puts you very much in that time. And, you know, the fight we went through as a country to fight the egg industry went through, the fight farmers went through at that time. I, I don't think I really, truly appreciated the depth of that until, doing this book and, and going back and that was, you know, that was really mixed.

00:11:47:23 - 00:12:07:01
Lee Klancher
You, you see all these you know, I think we all know farmers are resilient. You and I were chatting about that a little bit before the opening, and, you know, seeing this, seeing just how hard that time was and seeing what people had to say and how they found ways to get through it was was very inspirational.

00:12:07:03 - 00:12:33:12
Lee Klancher
It's a little scary to look at it too, but it also, you know, you. That was wonderful. So, that was a piece of it. And then especially for the also the international harvest of people, some of those people that went through it, I've known for many years now because of the books, and they were telling stories, and I really came away admiring their gumption for sticking it out, and really came home admiring.

00:12:33:12 - 00:12:52:06
Lee Klancher
But, you know, I just I just felt like what he did, I think he knew. He had to know that his efforts to keep this company going probably weren't going to end well, but it didn't matter. He was going to fight the fight. And, you know, on a real deep level, that was the big takeaway.

00:12:52:08 - 00:13:17:24
Chrissy Wozniak
Yeah, yeah, I love that. It's so inspiring. And, and like you said, we were we were speaking before about, the impacts of the two hurricanes that have just gone through Florida and then and then up through the eastern states. And, and it is, it's incredible to think about the resiliency of farmers. And really, in those bad times, the humanity that comes out of it.

00:13:18:01 - 00:13:40:00
Chrissy Wozniak
And, I was just, I'm part of American anger women. And and I wrote an article just last night about about the effect on farmers through this hurricane and, and the, the positivity and the banding together to help each other are just so, so inspirational. And I'm sure, like, like you said, I was in grade school during the 80s.

00:13:40:00 - 00:13:50:09
Chrissy Wozniak
I don't remember any of that. But but, you know, you hear the stories and it's just they just went through so much. But again, these hard times make stronger people, right?

00:13:50:11 - 00:14:13:17
Lee Klancher
Yeah. They do, they do. And you know, I also think it's it's universal. It's good to be reminded. And I mean, you know, you see these things. You're like, oh that's a disaster. That's terrible. But disasters big and small happen to all of us, you know. And that's part of life. It doesn't mean and so, you know, knowing watching people who can persevere through it, I think is just a great lesson.

00:14:13:17 - 00:14:16:10
Lee Klancher
So yeah. Yes, yes. It's good. Yeah.

00:14:16:12 - 00:14:25:18
Chrissy Wozniak
For sure. So from that, what life lessons can readers learn by reading this book?

00:14:25:20 - 00:14:50:08
Lee Klancher
I think there's, I think they definitely can take away similar things that, that hey, when when things are tough, you can, you know, you can step up. These people got through times that were competent. Management can be difficult. There also is because but is so colorful and so fun. There is a lot of humor throughout it.

00:14:50:10 - 00:15:11:18
Lee Klancher
And, he carries that, right? Right through the last day. And he's, he's very comfortable. The first time he sees the two plus two tractor plays a role in this. First time he sees one, he said, that's the ugliest thing God ever made. So, you know, I think a little levity is, is is part of it as well.

00:15:11:20 - 00:15:17:19
Lee Klancher
And in, in, useful thing,

00:15:17:21 - 00:15:34:09
Chrissy Wozniak
Yeah. I love that. And I know you've said before in, in, something I read that you wrote, I can't remember which one, but that the digital world would not have evolved without the farm tractor. And this is life, right? So what did you mean by that?

00:15:34:11 - 00:15:56:11
Lee Klancher
So what I meant by that is if you go back not that far in history, let's say a few hundred years, we all, as a society spent, most of our time making and gathering food. Right? We were, agrarian country, 80 to 90% of us. Again, not that few hundred years ago. We're just out getting food.

00:15:56:13 - 00:16:32:12
Lee Klancher
If you were doing that, you didn't have time to go mess around with your garage and play with printed circuit boards and create a computer, which is how, you know, Bill gates and, others. That's where computers came into the world. So, in, in this is something I've thought about a lot. I, I really what I love about the tractor and farm mechanization is that enabled our society to have time because, okay, so farming becomes mechanized so we can eat without spending, you know, 14 hours a day.

00:16:32:14 - 00:16:49:07
Lee Klancher
Sowing potatoes. So then there's time to develop these technologies and develop all the things that make our modern world, you know, for better or worse, some days. But, obviously mostly for better. So that's why I've used that line. Yeah.

00:16:49:09 - 00:16:50:19
Chrissy Wozniak
And and it's so true.

00:16:50:21 - 00:17:11:18
Lee Klancher
Yeah. And again, in this, in this book, you're seeing more of that, that technology. I mean, the technology didn't stop advancing. So and that's another fun part of it. Yeah. Another fun part of the book is the espionage that went on. And I did this is a through line just because there's so much of it and it's so entertaining.

00:17:11:20 - 00:17:52:15
Lee Klancher
These guys, you know, the the deer and the harvester teams and all the farm makers pretty much were testing and using machines in similar places. And a lot of their headquarters are in similar places. Moline, Illinois, there's two plants back to back or that used to be, so these guys, would be using small planes to fly over test grounds, sneaking around at night, driving machines when they found them, unwrapping them from, truck stops and driving them around, taking them apart, sneaking photos, doing all of this, kind of small scale espionage that, makes for for great stories as well.

00:17:52:15 - 00:18:05:01
Chrissy Wozniak
Oh, yeah. For sure. So when are you going to write the story about, John Deere and Kinsey and and they're, back and forth that Kinsey story. I just love it. I'm waiting for that one.

00:18:05:03 - 00:18:29:03
Lee Klancher
I love that as well as does, John, as you probably know of doctor Me loves to tell those stories that. Yeah, John did a pretty good job of chronicling some of that in his book. He has a book, about it, but yeah. Jenkins and would would definitely is a book in and of himself because he certainly has, yeah.

00:18:29:05 - 00:18:31:15
Lee Klancher
Battled with that company quite often.

00:18:31:17 - 00:18:52:20
Chrissy Wozniak
Yes. Yeah, yeah. And the, the brand loyalty has always captured me, especially in agriculture. You know, we have it with our trucks too, but in, in agriculture, there's, it's just so deep and, I guess that leads to my next question is, is this brand loyalty, especially in, you know, Snoopy and the spy? We're talking to John Deere and International Harvester.

00:18:52:20 - 00:19:04:00
Chrissy Wozniak
And, you know, those fights. What role do you think brand loyalty is going to have on the farm going into the next few decades? It feels like there's less brand loyalty. But but what do you think?

00:19:04:02 - 00:19:26:05
Lee Klancher
I don't know, it's it's, I would have a I'd struggle to say there's less because the circles I travel in, I see it so much, and I spend more time, probably in vintage tractors circles than than on modern farms, though there's plenty of modern farms. I go and shoot, and there's obviously plenty of people who still their blood is regulated by this grain.

00:19:26:07 - 00:19:52:05
Lee Klancher
So, you know, maybe it won't be why it is deep going forward. But, it's certainly hasn't gone away. I mean, I write in the book a little bit about that because the book is designed for people to read that maybe, maybe they don't know everything about tractors. They can enjoy this. And, and talk about the fact that, you know, themed weddings, you know, who has themed.

00:19:52:05 - 00:20:00:01
Lee Klancher
What do they have? Coca-Cola themed weddings? I'm not sure they do. They certainly have, you know, red and green tractor themed weddings.

00:20:00:01 - 00:20:20:06
Chrissy Wozniak
Oh, yes. That's that's a really good point. I've, I've never thought about that. You. I've seen hundreds of wedding pictures with their tractors. But you're right. Who has, like, the bottle of Coke or. Yeah. That's interesting. I never thought about that in my. My marketing brain never went there. So thank you for that.

00:20:20:08 - 00:20:38:19
Lee Klancher
You bet, you bet they are. They're incredible. By the way, I am going to since we're talking this, I've got something fun we haven't even released. I can show you this is the first time that's been seen. So this has a. Rick. Can you see this? All right. Yes. Okay. Has a red tractor there on the cover right.

00:20:38:21 - 00:20:41:07
Lee Klancher
If you open it up.

00:20:41:09 - 00:20:44:22
Chrissy Wozniak
Oh, wow. Hold it up a little bit more. There we go.

00:20:44:24 - 00:20:57:11
Lee Klancher
You know, you can turn it around, which I won't do because it's a little awkward. And then you don't have to have the book on your table with a red cover. You can have a green tractor.

00:20:57:13 - 00:21:01:03
Chrissy Wozniak
Oh, my gosh, that is the coolest thing ever.

00:21:01:05 - 00:21:14:19
Lee Klancher
Isn't that fun? I love it! Our production editor found a book that had this had a double sided jack. That is what it's called. And she was like, we're going to use this on something. I'm like, here we go.

00:21:14:19 - 00:21:24:03
Chrissy Wozniak
So, oh, that is so great. Because really, what farm wants to at Green Farm wants to have a red tractor on the coffee table. They'll never do that. No, you don't want your book hidden. So.

00:21:24:03 - 00:21:25:17
Lee Klancher
No. Right. Right. This way.

00:21:25:17 - 00:21:26:02
Chrissy Wozniak
They can.

00:21:26:02 - 00:21:28:13
Lee Klancher
They they can read it in public without shame.

00:21:28:13 - 00:21:50:17
Chrissy Wozniak
Yes, yes. Oh that's great, I love it. So, I guess my last question then, for you is, you know, you're such a great storyteller. You have so much interest, so much history, so much knowledge. But where where does this passion come from? Why? Why are you so passionate about agriculture, industry and and history?

00:21:50:19 - 00:22:11:03
Lee Klancher
Oh, boy. That's a I'll give you as short as I can burst. My passion for storytelling, comes from way back. The two things I loved as a kid were, anything with motor and wheels and books. So I read the entire science fiction library at, I was in a little town called Rice Lake that had a pretty good library.

00:22:11:07 - 00:22:27:24
Lee Klancher
I read every book on the shelf. So I'm an avid reader, and from a very young age I wanted to write. So that's what I've studied through college, through everything. In college, I was going to be a science writer. I try to be an engineer for a while, realized that was a bad thing, and I said, I'll be a science writer.

00:22:28:01 - 00:22:59:01
Lee Klancher
And, my interests as a kid were motorcycles and cars. I wanted to go fast. That was, and I, I still race bicycles to this day. I like I like that so. But tractors were, just something I used. The new wasn't something I had that passion for. But right after college, a local book publisher, saw some early work I was doing at the publications at the University of Minnesota and said, hey, you know, we think a good science writer like you could write a book.

00:22:59:03 - 00:23:14:07
Lee Klancher
And I'm sure they were thinking, and you're a kid, so you're probably cheap and we can afford you. But, you know, as a 25 year old young man, yes, of course, I'm going to write a book. And and the first thing they gave me was farm all tractors. It was a small book on that. And I went out and I started taking.

00:23:14:07 - 00:23:32:10
Lee Klancher
In fact, before I took the assignment, I did a photo shoot and, I went to a local tractor show and just took some pictures, took my camera, kind of screwed around, and I was real close to this old farm. All taken picture. And the smell reminded me so much of my grandfather. And my grandfather was a farmer.

00:23:32:12 - 00:23:58:09
Lee Klancher
Grant. My dad's not a gearhead. He was a baseball player, but my grandfather was. So grandpa and I bonded over machinery. And, that was a real powerful moment. Then once I studied and we touched on this, once I started to understand what ag equipment did for our society, how important these machines are. You know, motorcycles. Great fun.

00:23:58:11 - 00:24:22:22
Lee Klancher
It's sexy. It's it's neat. It is transportation in parts of the world. But it didn't change our society in a fundamental way like a farm tractor did. So I love that I also, I was an outdoor photographer in the early days. Travel staffer and photographing these is mostly outside. You're capturing the light and, the setting, it's very, you know, farms are beautiful.

00:24:23:01 - 00:24:54:15
Lee Klancher
It's very similar. I love that, and I also just love, tractor collectors. They are. And farmers. They're my people. That's where I grew up. And they're also, you know, tractor collectors. Sometimes car collectors can be a little to, worried about their machine. And tractor collectors are just really loose and really fun. So the whole thing just sort of came together and, became this thing that I just adore learning about and talking about.

00:24:54:15 - 00:25:10:07
Chrissy Wozniak
So I love it. Yeah, great. Great answer. Well, thank you so much for joining me again. Thank you for, for telling me about the book. And I can't wait to get my hands on it and read it. It's going to be great, I know it.

00:25:10:09 - 00:25:15:07
Lee Klancher
Wonderful. Thanks so much for having me on, Christy. It's always a great conversation.

00:25:15:09 - 00:25:31:11
Chrissy Wozniak
And thanks to all who are watching. You're listening. If you want to learn more, the link to the book, is in the show notes. Don't forget to subscribe to North American Spotlight on Rumble, Spotify, Apple Stitcher, Amazon, wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you like the episode, I would love it if you shared it.

00:25:31:13 - 00:25:32:06
Chrissy Wozniak
Have a great day!