This story originally appeared on AL.com in 2018. It has been updated.

The first presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle took place Thursday night, pitting a former president and convicted felon against the current president whose debate performance has reportedly put his own party into panic mode. But decades before Donald Trump and Joe Biden squared off in Atlanta, there was a political appearance in Alabama that changed the course of the state’s history. It involved a larger-than-life, hard-drinking governor known as “Big Jim.”

“Big Jim”

A native of Coffee County, James Folsom – better known as “Big Jim”- stood a towering 6 feet, 8 inches. After brief stints at the University of Alabama and what is now known as Samford University, Folsom worked as a merchant sailor, boxing sparring partner and doorman at a New York theater, according to the Encyclopedia of Alabama.

After Folsom made his way back to Alabama, he entered the political arena – unsuccessfully. He lost a bid for a state convention on prohibition and another two races for Congress. He ran for governor in 1942, finishing in second place. He ran again in 1946, winning the race with the help of a hillbilly band that traveled with him and promises to clean up Montgomery. At the time, Alabama was one-party state – Democrat.

Folsom married Sarah Carnley in 1936 and the couple had two children. Sarah Folsom died in 1944 and four years later, he married Jamelle Moore, with whom he would have seven children.

Political scandal part one

Two months before Folsom married Jamelle Moore, however, he made national news when Christine Johnston, a 30-year-old widow who worked at the Tutwiler Hotel in Birmingham, filed a paternity suit against him alleging he was the father of her 22-month-old son. Shortly after the suit was filed, Folsom appeared in New York with hundreds of models who had voted him “The Nation’s Number One Leap Year Bachelor.” Folsom later settled with Johnston and, years later, admitted he was the child’s father.

Folsom was known to drink – a lot. To the affront of many in Alabama, he served alcohol in the governor’s mansion. He also served alcohol to Harlem Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, who was visiting Montgomery for a Black voter registration drive. That occasion, which angered many pro-segregationists in the state, led to a famous comment from Folsom: “They say I drank Scotch and soda with Adam Clayton Powell. That’s a lie. Anybody who knows me knows I don’t drink Scotch.”

Second term

At the time, Alabama’s Constitution prohibited governors from succeeding themselves, so the soonest Folsom could run again was in the 1955 race. He did, defeating seven challengers without a runoff and becoming only the second person to serve two full terms as governor from Alabama (1947-1951) and (1955-1959).

Folsom was known as a moderate on the biggest issue of the day – segregation.

“Negroes constitute 35 percent of our population in Alabama. Are they getting 35 percent of the fair share of living? Are they  getting adequate medical care to rid themselves of hookworm, rickets and  social diseases?” Folsom said in an early political address. “There has been too much “stirring of old hatred and  prejudices and false alarms. The best way in the world to break this  down is to lend our ears to the teachings of Christianity and the ways  of democracy.”

Folsom threw his hat into the ring again in 1962 against opponents that included George C. Wallace, then-Birmingham Public Safety Commissioner Bull Connor and state Rep. Ryan DeGraffenried Sr. Wallace took shots at Folsom’s hard-partying ways, pledging he “wouldn’t serve one drop of alcohol in the Governor’s Mansion.” Folsom’s hard-partying ways and his moderate stance on segregation put him at odds with many in Alabama and he quickly fell behind Wallace.

The appearance

Facing a strong challenge from one-time ally Wallace, Folsom planned a live primary-eve television appearance as a final plea to voters. The appearance was supposed to be filmed in Birmingham but, late that afternoon, the venue was changed to Montgomery. Somewhere along the way, someone gave Folsom a glass of alcohol. Others say he was given to sedatives to calm his nerves. Whatever it was, the results were a disaster.

The first sign of a problem was the disappearance of a film that contained a pre-recorded advertisement from Folsom. The missing ad meant the former governor had to ad-lib and it didn’t go well. He couldn’t remember the names of his children, he mumbled and fumbled his words and he messed his wife’s hair. Images designed to be shown behind him were projected upside down, adding to the tragic comedy of the night. Most who saw the appearance assumed Folsom was drunk.

Folsom claims he was drugged

Folsom never admitted to being drunk during the appearance, claiming someone had “slipped him a mickey,” or a drug before his appearance. Folsom’s family blamed the Wallace family, saying they sabotaged the appearance.

Folsom’s physician later said he thought the appearance was the first of what would be several strokes suffered by the former governor.

Rumors quickly spread that Folsom was drunk on television. The next day, Folsom came in an embarrassing third in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, behind Wallace and DeGraffenried. Wallace went on to win the general election.

Wallace as governor

One year after defeating Folsom, Wallace stood in the school house door to block African American students from entering the University of Alabama. The incident was a pivotal moment in the early civil rights movement.

Folsom ran for governor again in 1966, a race eventually won by Lurleen B. Wallace. He ran for office several more times, none successfully. He suffered from ill health in his later years, losing almost all his vision.

Folsom didn’t lose his sense of humor, even as he lost almost all his sight.

“I’ll tell you about this blind business,” he quipped. “The men look uglier and the women look prettier.”

Folsom died in Cullman on Nov. 21, 1987 at age 79.

Folsom’s legacy

Folsom’s son, Jim Folsom Jr., or “Little Jim,” was Alabama’s Lt. Gov on three occasions and served as governor of the state from 1993 to 1995 after Guy Hunt was removed from office after being convicted of ethics violations. Folsom Jr. was defeated in his bid for a fourth term by Republican Lt. Gov. by Kay Ivey, who would go on to be governor after Robert Bentley was removed from office in 2017 as part of a plea deal related to his own ethics violations. Ivey went on to win two terms of her own in 2018 and 2022.

George Wallace, Folsom’s foe, was first married to Lurleen Wallace, who defeated Folsom in the 1966 gubernatorial race to become the state’s first female governor. Wallace’s second wife, Cornelia, was the niece of Folsom Sr. She married Wallace in 1971, shortly before he was inaugurated for the second of his four terms as governor. The Wallaces divorced in 1978.