This is Later with Lee Matthews the Lee Matthews Podcast. More of what you
here Weekday Afternoon is on the Drive. You may have seen some of his
books before James Dean died Here Roadside Baseball, Bingo, A Change of Seasons
of John Oates Memoir. His name is Chris Epting. His newest creation is
It Happened Right Here, taking a journey across North America to the exact locations
where the most significant events in pop culture took place. Welcome Chris Epting,
Olle, thank you for having me. This must have been difficult to narrow
down and to qualify what is and is not American pop culture. Yeah,
you know, there's always that kind of challenge of what matters to me?
Is a reader going to care about that? And at that point you just
kind of go on instinct. I mean, the American pop culture experience is
so broad and diverse and varied. I decided with this book to really throw
everything in there. The book is almost five hundred pages that it's an exhausted
tour around the country, whether we're talking crime, food, rock and roll,
sports, or whatever it happens to be. Give us an example of
what you considered one of America's top landmarks for pop culture. Well, I
mean starting with you know, where James Dean was killed in nineteen fifty five,
That to me kind of started a lot of pop culture fascination in this
country because he only had one film out at that time, and Revel Without
a Cause came out a week after he was killed, which really kind of
solidified his you know, legacy as a pop culture icon. And so from
there that's always been a big one. I mean, of course, fifty
second and Lex in New York City, where Marly Marilyn Monroe's dress famously billowed
up at the seven year It's you know where Babe Ruth in his first home
run. You know, all kinds of things like that. I liked first.
I like where things kind of first happened, where things were invented.
So there's a lot of that. There's a lot of classic film sites and
television sites, whether we're talking Hitchcock films, whatever happens to be. So
I really just tried to come at this with, you know, something for
everybody in there, where no matter wherever you open up this book, there's
something on the page. Maybe it's where were the Rolling Stones played? Their
first American show, or where the Beatles played their last show, and everything
in between. So what is present where James Dean died? Is there?
I know there's a marker out in the middle of an Iowa cornfield that commemorates
the day the music died. But is there any kind of monument out in
the desert where James Dean was opening up his portia? You know, there
was, Actually there is a sign there that I was part of placing a
number of years ago. It's now referred to as the not the crash site,
but the James Dean Memorial Junction, and at Highways forty six and forty
three right there, which they actually just regraded about a month ago because it's
still a dangerous intersection. And so so that's what's there today, and it's
you know again, it's one of those places where you can go reflect.
I wanted every place in this book, whether you go visit or not,
just kind of imagine being there so readers can get a sense of what it
was like when pop culture history was made. And it doesn't matter what pop
culture. I mean, James Dean is fairly older pop culture. But then
you've got a lot of contemporary stuff too, like where Facebook was created.
Absolutely. You know, it's funny. When I first started writing these books,
there was no Facebook, and so I thought it would be fun to
put that dorm room where it happened. And to your point, more modern
sights, you know, with streaming television shows like Missus Masal and Stranger Things,
I've got locations from all of those shows, as well as going back
to things like The Brady Bunch and the Andy Griffiths shows. So I wanted
to really touch upon all generations with that. It's used it as an opportunity
to help people celebrate the past but also kind of look at the present as
well and realize we're living. It's still you know, there's still pop culture
landmarks being created as we speak today. It happened right here America's pop Cultural
Landmarks. Chris Epting is the author, and it's an exhaustive look and fascinating
of the history of over a thousand landmarks and their exact locations. Do you
have anybody getting your books and then making pilgrimages to these o these sites?
You know, I have to say, that's a great question, and I
hear from people literally almost every day. If people who will send me pictures
of themselves with the book in the in a location, and it's become a
really fun road trip thing for people to kind of check a lot of these
places off their list. So yeah, people, I think a book like
this, whether you want to hit the road or not, it can be
very motivational because it makes you realize these road trips are not that hard to
put together, and they're often things within driving distance to go out and enjoy
and have a fun you know, a fun day out or a couple of
days out. Say yeah, I am from people all the time. And
that's the most fun of having written this book is the fact that people take
it with them and they go out there and they experience the places first day
and find their own landmarks. People will then write me and say, hey,
did you know you know, like this scene from that film, and
I I won't know it. I didn't know it before. It's a great
way to kind of expand the next edition. I've had that happen to me
before. I'll be somewhere and wait a minute, I've seen this before,
and then all of a sudden it'll dawn on me that it was in some
movie or where I just still happen to be. Okay, they might,
they must have had the camera right over there and so on. That's when
you do that and you realize that whatever the film happens to be here,
whatever it is, you never looked at it the same way again because you
were in that space, you know. And I think a lot of this
is random history. You know, History brushes up against places, whether it's
an accident or a movie location or whatever. But then that place is kind
of forever change. I remember finding the cornfield in north By, Northwest,
the same Hitchcock film, and it looks like a million other open spaces in
central California, but it's different. It's special because that's where Carrie Grant was
chased by a crop sector, you know, and that's what makes it special.
And so those are the places I've always in search of, those places
that have their their little moment in the sun, just for a fleeting second,
that makes them special. We're talking to Chris Epps. His book Is
It Happened Right Here? Taking you on a journey across North America to see
exact locations where the most significant events in American pop culture took place. What
would you say as one of the more dubious locations you point out, Well,
dubious, that's a big question. I mean, for me, what's
interesting is sometimes the battles that wage over actual locations. For instance, in
the book, I detail three places that claim birthplace of the cheeseburger, and
you realize they could all be right. What was happening one hundred years ago
was that people were experimenting, you know, and just because it hadn't happened
before, people got the same idea in the same general point of time,
so they could all claim it. But it is pretty funny when places dig
in him and sometimes go to war over their own claim over what's theirs?
You know what I mean? Oh, I know it all too well.
We had a battle with Yo over who was going to have the cowboy logo
for their football team, the you know, University of Wyogaming or Oklahoma State
University. That's just like that. So this day I pull into a Wyoming
gas station. Oh you're from Oklahoma, Yeah, you stole our cowboy fun
Well, but again that's that's pop culture too. I mean again, these
locations to me are all about those those little mini wars that can take place
the debates that you can have at homebor or work and over you know who
was really first and all that, And so there's a lot of mythology attached
to some of these places as well. Any of these places, like I
know, the we've read so much about where the home alone set was and
the houses of a museum and so on. It's overth have any of these
places as a result of your books and your attention become more marbleized, if
you will, or more of an event than they were prior to the book.
I have heard that one in particular location in Hot Springs, Arkansas,
it's an allegation farm where in nineteen eighteen Babe Ruth hit a home run from
across the street. The boat landed in one of the pools where the alligator
was about five hundred and forty foot home run allegedly, And I wrote about
that and that the people that still owned the alligator farms. You know,
we're getting people wandering in wanting to know more about this story. So yeah,
it's always fun where you can shine a light on things and unpack a
story on a deeper level and have it helped the business or whatever happens is
to be and encouraged people to go out and check it out. Well,
there's still some summer left for you to go and see some of these sites.
Maybe they're closer to your home than you know. It happened right here.
A journey across North America and the exact locations where significant events and pop
culture happened. Chris Epting as the author, And thank you for this exhaustive
research. And you must have had fun going to all these places. I
love it, you know what. I'm a wanderer by nature, and so
to go out and look for these stories across this amazing country far As really
has always been a nice opportunity at least, So thank you. I'll regy
nine. Then thanks for listening to Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews
Podcast, and remember to listen to The Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to
seven and iHeartMedia presentation