WEBVTT 1 00:00:04.440 --> 00:00:11.439 It's The Dearly Departed podcast, featuring your host, historian Scott Michaels and filmmaker 2 00:00:11.519 --> 00:00:24.640 Mike Dorsey. It's The Dearly Departed Podcast. And I am Mike Dorsey and 3 00:00:24.760 --> 00:00:31.640 I am Scott Michaels Hi, and today we're doing a film that is certainly 4 00:00:31.679 --> 00:00:36.920 I think close to your heart, Scott Todd Browning's Freaks from nineteen thirty two. 5 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:40.880 Yes, yeah, it's it's. Um. I think I saw this 6 00:00:40.960 --> 00:00:44.679 the first time in the early eighties that was, you know, so scandalous 7 00:00:45.200 --> 00:00:48.799 and uh and I fell fell in love with this movie because it's just so 8 00:00:49.079 --> 00:00:55.039 bizarre and uh. Yeah, so I'm thrilled, thrilled. Yes, and 9 00:00:55.280 --> 00:00:59.280 several people have recommended that we um that we do this one and are excited 10 00:00:59.320 --> 00:01:03.079 that we're doing it finally, So I'm really excited for this conversation. Um, 11 00:01:03.120 --> 00:01:07.480 Before we get into that, I wanted to get into new news since 12 00:01:07.519 --> 00:01:18.799 we did our last show, News of the Week. First of all, 13 00:01:18.959 --> 00:01:23.519 you can you can buy the crypt that is next to Marilyn Monroe right now, 14 00:01:23.560 --> 00:01:26.519 the one is kind of between her and Hugh Hefner. I guess no, 15 00:01:26.599 --> 00:01:30.920 I think it's I think it's below her below her. Okay yea, 16 00:01:32.319 --> 00:01:36.719 And it is being auctioned off. Starting bid is supposed to be two million 17 00:01:36.760 --> 00:01:42.439 dollars. Yeah, that's what they say. When Hugh Heffner bought next to 18 00:01:42.480 --> 00:01:46.000 Maryland. Uh, he did that like in the nineties, I think, 19 00:01:46.359 --> 00:01:49.480 and or even eighties, you know. And I was doing some research on 20 00:01:49.560 --> 00:01:55.680 that just this week about that the paper. The newspaper articles are vague because 21 00:01:55.719 --> 00:01:59.159 they're saying it's like two spaces over, but there's it's her and Hugh in 22 00:01:59.159 --> 00:02:01.640 a wall. There's no nothing, you know, neck between them. But 23 00:02:01.680 --> 00:02:07.200 I believe it was Jerry Herman, the playwright, the musician, the composer, 24 00:02:07.280 --> 00:02:10.039 playwright, and and he had it below her, but I think it 25 00:02:10.120 --> 00:02:15.400 was two spaces below her. So yeah, but that's the woman above. 26 00:02:15.400 --> 00:02:17.719 I remember a couple of years ago she was trying to sell it Puncher because 27 00:02:17.759 --> 00:02:22.240 he's the one that was supposed to be flipped upside down and facing on top 28 00:02:22.319 --> 00:02:25.120 of Maryland. That did really happen, They really did do that, but 29 00:02:25.879 --> 00:02:30.159 she was asking for some extortionate amount of money. But I don't think that 30 00:02:30.199 --> 00:02:32.439 ever showed up. So who knows what's going to happen. But Jerry Herman 31 00:02:32.560 --> 00:02:37.599 is buried in New York, so he's not using it. Yeah, he 32 00:02:37.680 --> 00:02:40.199 bought it. Um. He's I think most famous he for writing I believe 33 00:02:40.240 --> 00:02:45.599 the score, composing the score for Hello Dolly, one of his bigger musicals. 34 00:02:46.240 --> 00:02:50.120 But he had bought it for seventy five thousand back in nineteen ninety seven 35 00:02:50.199 --> 00:02:54.199 because he tested he was HIV positive and he I believe he was living in 36 00:02:54.319 --> 00:02:58.159 la at the time, so he bought it and then he ended up living 37 00:02:58.199 --> 00:03:00.520 to a ripe old age. I think he lived be like eighty eight and 38 00:03:00.560 --> 00:03:04.159 you know by then, you know, his life had changed or whatever. 39 00:03:04.199 --> 00:03:06.719 So he decided not to use it. He was buried on the East coast, 40 00:03:07.120 --> 00:03:10.159 so um Wild bought it for seventy five grand, you know, twenty 41 00:03:10.159 --> 00:03:13.960 five years ago, twenty four years ago, and now it's two million dollars 42 00:03:14.599 --> 00:03:17.919 and he's not able to enjoy it. And he can't enjoy it exactly. 43 00:03:19.039 --> 00:03:21.960 I wonder who you probably got a boyfriend or a husband or something at that 44 00:03:22.000 --> 00:03:24.400 point. I would imagine who's got whoever the air was, Yeah, and 45 00:03:24.479 --> 00:03:29.759 maybe they'll be buried together something back back east. Um, they a typical 46 00:03:29.840 --> 00:03:34.199 crypt like this in that cemetery. If it was anywhere else is Pierce Brothers 47 00:03:34.240 --> 00:03:38.599 Westwood Village typically would go for about one hundred and eighty grand. Um, 48 00:03:38.800 --> 00:03:44.159 so a huge markup for being you know, next to Maryland for sure. 49 00:03:44.520 --> 00:03:46.319 For sure. Yeah, because as yeah, the cemetery would sell it at 50 00:03:46.319 --> 00:03:52.360 that at that fee, the fair price. But yeah, if you go 51 00:03:52.360 --> 00:03:57.199 off off off the estate, yeah, or off of the private sale, 52 00:03:57.240 --> 00:04:00.360 then you get you know, you can make all that money. Geeze. 53 00:04:00.879 --> 00:04:04.319 Imagine imagine spending two million dollars and then her estate decides to move her, 54 00:04:05.479 --> 00:04:09.560 yeah, somewhere else. That's what happened to Judy Garland. You know, 55 00:04:09.680 --> 00:04:13.840 people people from all over bought graves. A friend of mine bought a grave 56 00:04:13.919 --> 00:04:16.759 in that cemetery because of Judy, and people were you know, spending a 57 00:04:16.800 --> 00:04:19.360 fortune. And then yeah, they took Judy out, and all those people, 58 00:04:19.959 --> 00:04:25.759 um, you know who who are dead and are buried near Judy are 59 00:04:25.839 --> 00:04:30.399 no longer. It's sort of sort of sad, but you know, I 60 00:04:30.439 --> 00:04:32.839 would have a closet like if she moves, you have to move me wherever 61 00:04:32.920 --> 00:04:39.720 she yet if it meant that much to me. Yeah, Um, the 62 00:04:39.800 --> 00:04:45.600 Kurt Cobain death House where he where he committed suicide and uh is back just 63 00:04:45.639 --> 00:04:48.279 sold again. I guess it's changed hands a couple of times since then. 64 00:04:49.000 --> 00:04:53.000 They're Kurt and Courtney's house here in la is for sale right now too. 65 00:04:54.079 --> 00:04:57.759 Oh really, yeah, where is and where is that one? That one's 66 00:04:57.839 --> 00:05:01.279 up by high Tower? You know that crazy old tower right off the Highland 67 00:05:01.319 --> 00:05:04.759 that you have to take the elevator up to. But yeah, we hit 68 00:05:04.800 --> 00:05:08.720 a house way up there and it was I mean, if you go on 69 00:05:08.759 --> 00:05:12.399 YouTube, a lot of people urban explored it. You know it was empty 70 00:05:12.439 --> 00:05:15.720 and it was trash and maybe there were squatters, but uh yeah, so 71 00:05:15.759 --> 00:05:17.879 you could get you in pretty easily. Up until just a few weeks ago, 72 00:05:17.920 --> 00:05:24.000 I think I was only aware of his the apartment that he had rented 73 00:05:24.040 --> 00:05:28.240 for a time in the Fairfax District. They're just a near near Fairfax High 74 00:05:28.240 --> 00:05:31.480 School, in that neighborhood where he wrote part of in Utero, their second 75 00:05:31.480 --> 00:05:34.399 album. He wrote there in that this little it was really just a crash 76 00:05:34.439 --> 00:05:39.560 pad. It wasn't anything fancy. Yeah, I've heard stories. I think 77 00:05:39.560 --> 00:05:44.000 there's pictures available of that, and it was pretty it's pretty trashed. Yeah, 78 00:05:44.040 --> 00:05:46.519 And he used to just wander over to Canters all the time. I 79 00:05:46.519 --> 00:05:48.720 guess for to get food. So it was you know, it's a few 80 00:05:48.720 --> 00:05:58.920 blocks east of there Umu. The Durst trial has started up finally, you 81 00:05:59.000 --> 00:06:02.800 know, because it's why does it think? Why do things take so long? 82 00:06:02.920 --> 00:06:05.759 You know, I don't I don't understand that how, you know, 83 00:06:05.839 --> 00:06:10.399 like the Hollywood Ripper, the one we covered for that E show. You 84 00:06:10.439 --> 00:06:13.079 know, it was over twenty years and he's finally convicted for that. It's 85 00:06:13.120 --> 00:06:15.319 like, what is that? He never even had It wasn't like an appeal. 86 00:06:15.839 --> 00:06:19.519 This is his first trial over twenty years after the murderer. Just so 87 00:06:19.920 --> 00:06:24.399 this Durst thing, I forget what was Susan burmant It was in the nineties, 88 00:06:24.519 --> 00:06:27.519 wasn't it when she was shot in the head. Yeah, but they 89 00:06:27.560 --> 00:06:30.920 didn't but remember they didn't They didn't really have a case until the Jinks came 90 00:06:30.920 --> 00:06:35.759 out. And the Jink's documentary series is the one that kind of captured sort 91 00:06:35.759 --> 00:06:40.759 of a confession, you might argue, Um, plus they found that, 92 00:06:41.279 --> 00:06:45.800 they found that he plus they found that letter. M you know that well, 93 00:06:45.800 --> 00:06:48.000 they had the letter that showed the same handwriting and the same misspelling of 94 00:06:48.079 --> 00:06:54.439 Beverly Hills. And I believe he has now admitted that he wrote the letter 95 00:06:54.560 --> 00:06:58.199 to the Beverly Hills Police Department that, you know, telling them that there 96 00:06:58.240 --> 00:07:00.959 was a body a cadaver I think is the word he used at Burman's house. 97 00:07:01.000 --> 00:07:03.279 So he I think he's admitted that he wrote that, but he's claiming 98 00:07:03.319 --> 00:07:09.319 that he found her already dead. Um, I mean she did. Her 99 00:07:09.319 --> 00:07:13.079 father was big and organized crime wasn't For anyone that doesn't know we're talking about 100 00:07:13.199 --> 00:07:15.879 this is this is a murder that happened in Bennedict Canyon where she was shot 101 00:07:15.959 --> 00:07:20.519 execution style. And this Durst guy, it's called The Jinks. It's an 102 00:07:20.519 --> 00:07:25.720 amazing docuseries. He was cooperating completely and then that one thing. He went 103 00:07:25.720 --> 00:07:29.399 to the bathroom and said, so they'll never catch me on Mike, which 104 00:07:29.439 --> 00:07:32.639 so stupid, but I forget what the quote was. But anyway, he's 105 00:07:32.680 --> 00:07:38.639 finally on trial and yeah, and he's you know, she was an interesting 106 00:07:38.639 --> 00:07:41.959 person. They were friends, but she was involved with organized crime. You 107 00:07:41.959 --> 00:07:46.199 know, she she was documenting or wrote a book about it, about the 108 00:07:46.240 --> 00:07:48.399 mafia, or she was from a Yeah, she was from kind of a 109 00:07:48.439 --> 00:07:53.240 mafia family like her her dad or somebody I believe it was involved in a 110 00:07:53.360 --> 00:07:58.920 yeah, um, and and I believe the suspected motive is that she you 111 00:07:58.920 --> 00:08:01.839 know, his first wife disappeared and was never found. And he's the heir 112 00:08:01.959 --> 00:08:09.040 to this huge real estate fortune in Manhattan that his brother actually operates because dirty, 113 00:08:09.319 --> 00:08:11.360 you know, Derst is considered he's just always had kind of mental issues, 114 00:08:13.000 --> 00:08:16.079 so he was not put in charge of the family business. And his 115 00:08:16.120 --> 00:08:20.920 wife disappeared and has never been found, and of course suspected that he did 116 00:08:20.959 --> 00:08:24.399 something, but it's they've never just liked with all these other ones, they 117 00:08:24.399 --> 00:08:26.519 were never able to build a case on it. And uh, and so 118 00:08:26.560 --> 00:08:31.480 that I believe they think the motive was that this suit that Burman, who 119 00:08:31.519 --> 00:08:35.000 had become a close friend and confident, may have threatened to go public or 120 00:08:35.039 --> 00:08:39.159 to go to the police with what she knew about the wife's disappearance, and 121 00:08:39.200 --> 00:08:43.399 that maybe that was his motive. So but that's you know, that's what 122 00:08:43.399 --> 00:08:46.759 the courts are going to figure out now, so hopefully interesting to the bottom 123 00:08:46.799 --> 00:08:52.080 of it. Yeah, what a kook, really, But I highly recommend 124 00:08:52.120 --> 00:08:54.120 the Jinks if you haven't watched it, it's so good. Okay, So 125 00:08:54.559 --> 00:09:01.480 greenblats the famous Delhi on Sunset Boulevard closed down and it's utra is currently unknown. 126 00:09:03.840 --> 00:09:05.600 Yeah, which is a big bummer. I was never a big Greenblats 127 00:09:05.679 --> 00:09:09.720 person, but what a history it has in this city, going back to 128 00:09:09.759 --> 00:09:15.320 the thirties. You know, they were the green Blacks. Was originally where 129 00:09:15.320 --> 00:09:18.000 the laugh Factory is one door over, and I forgot what year was that 130 00:09:18.039 --> 00:09:20.720 they moved, you know, over to where they are now or where they 131 00:09:20.759 --> 00:09:24.759 were now. Sure that came out of nowhere. I mean that was Alison 132 00:09:24.840 --> 00:09:30.000 Martino, our mutual friend who does vintage Los Angeles. She um, yes, 133 00:09:30.080 --> 00:09:33.720 she's posted I heard that green I've heard that Green Blats is closing and 134 00:09:33.799 --> 00:09:37.639 the boom it was the next day it was. That was the last day. 135 00:09:37.679 --> 00:09:41.720 So you know it's like they notified the workers tomorrow we're closed. That's 136 00:09:41.759 --> 00:09:45.360 it. Yeah, Yeah, it's sad. It really isn't all these businesses. 137 00:09:45.679 --> 00:09:48.799 You know the block where the Viper Room is just going and with a 138 00:09:48.919 --> 00:09:52.879 range over placed down at the far end of Beverly Hills or at the at 139 00:09:52.879 --> 00:09:56.519 the far end of West Hollywood that's being torn down. That was originally the 140 00:09:56.519 --> 00:09:58.720 cock and Bowl where Jim Morrison used to you know, run out into the 141 00:09:58.759 --> 00:10:05.600 st eating wave down. The Standard Sunset is closed down back in January, 142 00:10:05.600 --> 00:10:09.320 and now people are trying to make sure that that building is protected enough. 143 00:10:11.120 --> 00:10:15.240 The Standard. Really I didn't hear that. Yeah, yeah, the Standard, 144 00:10:15.440 --> 00:10:18.080 same thing. They you know, they jacked up the lease and it 145 00:10:18.200 --> 00:10:20.639 just and right in the middle of the pandemic and they were like, we 146 00:10:20.679 --> 00:10:24.639 can't do it. It's already a struggle enough, you know with the hotel 147 00:10:24.679 --> 00:10:28.360 bookings down. This was back in January. And yeah, so they closed 148 00:10:28.399 --> 00:10:31.360 the doors, and the Standard in downtown LA, which is super famous filming 149 00:10:31.399 --> 00:10:35.919 location. Their rooftop pool and bar area has been in a bunch of stuff. 150 00:10:35.399 --> 00:10:39.039 They're also closed right now, but I think that's more temporary, Like 151 00:10:39.080 --> 00:10:43.519 I think they're planning to reopen. But but the Sunset one, they're just 152 00:10:43.519 --> 00:10:46.519 they're out, so I you know, hopefully, you know, whenever, 153 00:10:46.720 --> 00:10:50.120 you hope that just not a precursor to you know, it was just jack 154 00:10:50.159 --> 00:10:52.960 their rant up. So they move out so you can tear the place down 155 00:10:52.000 --> 00:10:56.080 and sell it for whatever it's worth now, you know. Yeah. Yeah, 156 00:10:56.080 --> 00:10:58.799 it's funny about that because that well, they used to be like a 157 00:10:58.879 --> 00:11:03.679 motor lodge. It was like the Sunset Motor Lodge in the fifties. But 158 00:11:03.759 --> 00:11:07.320 across the street from it is that we're the little Cabo Cantina. That little 159 00:11:07.360 --> 00:11:09.879 shack is still there, which has a great history too, I mean the 160 00:11:09.919 --> 00:11:13.240 old Source restaurant. I don't know if he saw that documentary, but the 161 00:11:13.279 --> 00:11:18.080 Source was a vegetarian restaurant but it was a cult and it's a really good 162 00:11:18.120 --> 00:11:22.919 documentary. And it's this role rickety shack of a building that's still there. 163 00:11:22.000 --> 00:11:26.519 All that new building around it, yet that little shack is still there. 164 00:11:28.159 --> 00:11:33.159 And the Annie Hall filmed a whole scene there at the Source and that's where 165 00:11:33.159 --> 00:11:35.519 he There used to be a dirt lotnext door to it. They built over 166 00:11:35.519 --> 00:11:37.679 it a few years ago, but that's what the dirt lot is where he 167 00:11:37.679 --> 00:11:41.000 backs into the cop car when he's trying to leave and uh, and you 168 00:11:41.000 --> 00:11:43.759 can see what is now this, you know, what became the Standard hotels 169 00:11:43.799 --> 00:11:46.519 across the street under a different name at the time, but you can see 170 00:11:46.519 --> 00:11:52.279 it prominently as like the backdrop. So yeah, freak yeah, I don't 171 00:11:52.279 --> 00:11:54.159 know how that place survived. I mean, they have lousy mrgaritas, at 172 00:11:54.200 --> 00:11:58.679 least the ones I had it was. It's a cool plato. It's an 173 00:11:58.679 --> 00:12:03.600 old La place, which is rare anymore, right, right, um, 174 00:12:03.639 --> 00:12:07.639 but on the good news, I mean good news. I think anyways, 175 00:12:07.639 --> 00:12:11.480 this kind of mixed some people. But Tarantino bought the Vista Theater, the 176 00:12:11.600 --> 00:12:15.519 famous Vista, he bought that up, and and you know, I think 177 00:12:15.559 --> 00:12:18.679 some people are concerned. You know, we already have the new Beverley, 178 00:12:18.080 --> 00:12:20.200 you know, is he gonna just have another new Beverley. I think he 179 00:12:20.200 --> 00:12:24.200 said he's planning on just leaving it as you know, as he is. 180 00:12:24.240 --> 00:12:28.279 I don't know, so the first run run house, yeah, that's always 181 00:12:28.320 --> 00:12:33.480 been yeah, yeah, and he's I don't know if he's gonna I think 182 00:12:33.480 --> 00:12:35.960 it's digital. I don't want to know what. He's such a purist about 183 00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:39.000 stuff like that, so I don't know what. But yeah, it doesn't 184 00:12:39.039 --> 00:12:41.480 sound like he's he's not doing a new another new Beverley. And even if 185 00:12:41.480 --> 00:12:45.679 he was, so what you know, people are going to the movie. 186 00:12:45.679 --> 00:12:48.960 At least it's not closing down and getting torn yeah you know, yeah yeah, 187 00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:54.120 And they have that that fantastic um little Walk of Fame out in front 188 00:12:54.120 --> 00:12:56.080 of it with all the cult movie stars. You know, I love that. 189 00:12:56.200 --> 00:13:01.320 It's like the cash from Dark Shadows and Mary Warren off bud Court from 190 00:13:01.320 --> 00:13:05.440 Harold and Maud, A little the Cash from Poltergeist. It was just like 191 00:13:05.480 --> 00:13:11.639 an alternate um uh grummins Chinese theater, Chinese theater. I love it. 192 00:13:11.720 --> 00:13:13.840 I love that place. So for that place, that alone, that should 193 00:13:13.840 --> 00:13:18.440 be a historic marker on that place. I just love it. Just love 194 00:13:18.440 --> 00:13:22.879 it. Um. I wanted to talk about have you watched the Val Kilmer 195 00:13:22.919 --> 00:13:28.200 documentary yet? No? Yeah, I believe it's on I watched I think 196 00:13:28.200 --> 00:13:31.399 on Amazon Prime. I think it's streaming on Amazon if you're a subscriber. 197 00:13:31.879 --> 00:13:37.320 Um, it's really good. I really enjoyed it. You know, he 198 00:13:37.440 --> 00:13:41.240 has not been able to really speak since he had you know, throat cancer 199 00:13:41.240 --> 00:13:43.399 surgery back in twenty fourteen, so he has you know, kind of a 200 00:13:43.480 --> 00:13:52.679 voice box type thing in his throat, so he Um. But it's really 201 00:13:52.679 --> 00:13:56.639 really good. And what he ended up having having done is his son, 202 00:13:56.679 --> 00:14:00.200 who sounds very much like him and as an actor, recorded the vo kind 203 00:14:00.240 --> 00:14:03.080 of as him. So you know, Val wrote the voice over and then 204 00:14:03.120 --> 00:14:05.639 had his son read it as him. It's really and you actually forget that 205 00:14:05.639 --> 00:14:09.360 you're not listening to Val Kilmer while you're watching it. Um. I thought 206 00:14:09.360 --> 00:14:13.240 it was really good. It was very introspective and um, I thought, 207 00:14:13.279 --> 00:14:16.320 pretty honest, which is always important. It didn't feel like a fluff piece. 208 00:14:18.000 --> 00:14:20.399 You know. Obviously it portrays him in mostly positive light, but it's 209 00:14:20.440 --> 00:14:22.960 interesting. He owns up to a lot of his mistakes in it. And 210 00:14:24.600 --> 00:14:26.200 um, he's a deeper person than what I ever thought he was, you 211 00:14:26.240 --> 00:14:28.320 know what I mean. I always thought it was kind of a pretty boy 212 00:14:28.360 --> 00:14:33.320 type actor. Um. Talented, sure, but you know, but he 213 00:14:33.399 --> 00:14:35.200 was very hardcore. He was the youngest at the time, at least the 214 00:14:35.240 --> 00:14:41.519 youngest person ever admitted to Juilliard as an acting student. Interesting. Um. 215 00:14:43.360 --> 00:14:46.000 Yeah. And and coincidentally was there with Kelly McGinnis, who ended up you 216 00:14:46.039 --> 00:14:52.679 know who. They both ended up in Top Gun. So I recommend yeah, 217 00:14:52.039 --> 00:14:56.720 yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, I don't I wish I 218 00:14:56.759 --> 00:15:00.440 did. She seems cool. Oh, I thought you is the one that 219 00:15:00.480 --> 00:15:03.559 lived in the house, the cool house. I know, Kelly, that's 220 00:15:03.639 --> 00:15:05.440 Kelly Lynch. Yeah, okay, sorry, I know Kelly. Sorry sorry, 221 00:15:05.639 --> 00:15:09.840 Um yeah, val And it's a good documentary. I really recommend it. 222 00:15:09.960 --> 00:15:13.000 Check it out. I was like, there's a lot of buzz about 223 00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:15.840 that, but I'm like, like you said, I thought he was just 224 00:15:15.840 --> 00:15:18.159 a pretty boy actor. He's in the Doors. He's been in a couple 225 00:15:18.200 --> 00:15:22.559 of movies I like, but not enough to I would never buy a big 226 00:15:22.919 --> 00:15:26.919 biography about him or anything. So I don't know. There's a healthy A 227 00:15:26.919 --> 00:15:30.240 healthy, A healthy. Portion of the documentary is about the Door doing the 228 00:15:30.240 --> 00:15:33.559 Doors movie too. It's really interesting and how he prepared for the role and 229 00:15:33.679 --> 00:15:39.320 just listening to you know, Morrison music NonStop and watching lots of footage of 230 00:15:39.360 --> 00:15:43.080 Morrison to try and get his mannerisms down and all that stuff. You mean, 231 00:15:43.200 --> 00:15:45.639 he really you could see, really dove into his part, into the 232 00:15:45.639 --> 00:15:46.879 parts he was in. Um. I can also see how he was a 233 00:15:46.879 --> 00:15:50.120 bit of a difficult actor too, so to work with, so you can 234 00:15:50.159 --> 00:15:54.759 definitely see how he got that reputation. Um, is this something they're doing 235 00:15:54.840 --> 00:15:58.320 while he's still here? You know, like when when they give the lifetime 236 00:15:58.320 --> 00:16:03.279 achievement a war people, you know, it's usually you know what I mean, 237 00:16:03.559 --> 00:16:07.200 Well, it sounds like he kind of produced it, So I don't 238 00:16:07.200 --> 00:16:10.279 know, man, Maybe, I mean, you know, he almost died 239 00:16:10.320 --> 00:16:11.720 from cancer. Maybe he did feel like it's time to do it and his 240 00:16:12.159 --> 00:16:17.240 acting career is sort of over unless he can get his voice back. So 241 00:16:18.440 --> 00:16:19.960 maybe he just felt like he I think he says kind of near the beginning, 242 00:16:21.039 --> 00:16:25.360 he's kept so much stuff from his from his career. I mean, 243 00:16:25.399 --> 00:16:29.080 he even has all those old auditions because he used to tape his auditions and 244 00:16:29.159 --> 00:16:30.559 you know, send them to various directors. He's kept all that stuff. 245 00:16:30.600 --> 00:16:33.480 He's got it all on storage. I think he kind of felt like, 246 00:16:33.519 --> 00:16:36.919 I have all these and he's a very creative person. He does he paints 247 00:16:36.919 --> 00:16:38.320 and does collages and stuff, and I think he just felt like, what 248 00:16:38.320 --> 00:16:41.720 do I do with all this stuff? Like yeah, you know, um, 249 00:16:42.000 --> 00:16:45.279 and so it's kind of like, let's make a film with it. 250 00:16:45.360 --> 00:16:48.879 So that's what he did. So, UM, I liked it. I 251 00:16:48.879 --> 00:16:52.120 thought it was really good, really well done. UM. And I also 252 00:16:52.200 --> 00:16:57.039 did not know he had a brother whom they they Funnily enough, they his 253 00:16:57.120 --> 00:17:00.200 brother was wanted to be a director and they to make little their own little 254 00:17:00.240 --> 00:17:04.599 home movies, and they they would recreate stuff, so like they recreated scenes 255 00:17:04.640 --> 00:17:10.720 from Jaws together using like you know, eight millimeter camera and some other stuff. 256 00:17:10.759 --> 00:17:11.920 And his brother was super He said, his brother was, you know, 257 00:17:11.960 --> 00:17:15.599 more talented than he was. And his brother drowned when he was fifteen 258 00:17:15.680 --> 00:17:19.839 in the family pool. He had an epileptic seizure in the pool and drowned. 259 00:17:21.400 --> 00:17:23.640 Wow, and so that and that's why he I believe he was at 260 00:17:23.720 --> 00:17:27.440 Juilliard val was when that happened. So it was just this devastating obviously, 261 00:17:29.240 --> 00:17:33.400 Yeah, you know, it permanently impacted him. And even his brother's artwork 262 00:17:33.480 --> 00:17:36.200 has appeared in at least one of his early films. They put it in 263 00:17:36.279 --> 00:17:38.440 like the set decorations in the background. So that's kind of cool. But 264 00:17:38.519 --> 00:17:41.960 yeah, I was just gonna say, whenever someone is as talented and successful 265 00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:45.119 as Valez and he says, yeah, you know, my brother was even 266 00:17:45.160 --> 00:17:47.640 better than I was, you wonder what that career could have been like. 267 00:17:47.720 --> 00:17:53.799 You know. Yeah, for sure. He had also a relative that had 268 00:17:53.920 --> 00:17:59.039 murdered a couple of people in West Hollywood stuck him in a trunk. Really 269 00:17:59.119 --> 00:18:03.640 yeah, yeah, that didn't make it into the documentary. I'm trying to 270 00:18:03.680 --> 00:18:08.079 think of what the actual relation was. But that happened in uh what year 271 00:18:08.200 --> 00:18:11.759 was that. It looks like an older newspaper that I'm looking at. I 272 00:18:11.759 --> 00:18:15.720 can't I can't pull up the date, but it looks like sixties or fifties, 273 00:18:15.960 --> 00:18:18.839 but I think it might have to do well, here's let's see. 274 00:18:18.880 --> 00:18:22.799 My friend Shannon Mead did all this leg work on this and she sent the 275 00:18:22.839 --> 00:18:26.160 information to me. It was fifty nine. But yeah, gunshot wound and 276 00:18:26.240 --> 00:18:30.200 stuck in a truck of a car and it has a relation to to Val 277 00:18:30.279 --> 00:18:38.559 Kilmer. I forget exactly what it was and then killers. Yeah anyway, 278 00:18:38.839 --> 00:18:44.799 so yeah, that that's an interesting thing. But anyway, that just stuck 279 00:18:44.799 --> 00:18:48.519 in my mind. I wanted that addressed that because that's a that's a nice 280 00:18:48.559 --> 00:18:49.799 little bit of trivia and a family. Not nice, but you know, 281 00:18:52.160 --> 00:19:00.400 Kilmer barely newer um. One last thing I wanted to talk about in the 282 00:19:00.480 --> 00:19:03.640 kind of News of a week. You made a cool post on Facebook and 283 00:19:03.640 --> 00:19:07.319 I already knew this, but I'd never heard it before. You were a 284 00:19:07.440 --> 00:19:12.119 radio DJ at a country station in central Michigan back in the eight early eighties, 285 00:19:12.240 --> 00:19:18.039 right, and you dug up an old you dug up an old tape 286 00:19:18.039 --> 00:19:23.599 of you doing your job, which is amazing, Like DJ skills for the 287 00:19:23.759 --> 00:19:27.519 very best a new country. Tune into the hit Bound Showdown weeknights at seven 288 00:19:27.559 --> 00:19:30.839 oh five right here on the Big M every night. Will premiere two new 289 00:19:30.839 --> 00:19:33.839 country songs. You tell us which one you like best, and it may 290 00:19:33.880 --> 00:19:37.319 become the hit Bound song of the week the hit Bound Showdown only on your 291 00:19:37.359 --> 00:19:41.880 country music station WMLM. I'm Scott Michaels be with you here till just about 292 00:19:41.920 --> 00:19:47.680 six o'clock. We're gonna take you back now with the Statler Brothers. Yeah, 293 00:19:47.720 --> 00:19:51.000 that's funny. It was funny, you know, I just I put 294 00:19:51.039 --> 00:19:55.079 it up for giggles, and it's funny. I really like country music. 295 00:19:55.119 --> 00:19:56.359 Guess what people are going, Oh my god, my ears, it's awful 296 00:19:56.400 --> 00:20:00.640 and I'm like, I don't know, I like it, but but yeah, 297 00:20:00.640 --> 00:20:03.960 it was an interesting little chapter. And uh and that's you know, 298 00:20:03.960 --> 00:20:10.680 there were like two things I kept from my education. It was typing in 299 00:20:10.759 --> 00:20:15.000 high school and and voice work with with the broadcasting that was Those are the 300 00:20:15.039 --> 00:20:18.319 two things, right, and all of my education that I ever used. 301 00:20:21.400 --> 00:20:23.359 I know. I went to business school and I learned a lot of important 302 00:20:23.359 --> 00:20:26.960 things, but spy, the most important I learned was learning how to use 303 00:20:26.000 --> 00:20:30.359 Microsoft Word and Excel, like actual skills that you know you actually need in 304 00:20:30.640 --> 00:20:36.240 your life. What could have been with your DJ career, Scott, It's 305 00:20:36.279 --> 00:20:38.480 funny now, Troy said last night, because you're you're you, you're old. 306 00:20:38.559 --> 00:20:41.599 Your Michigan accent is really pronounced. You know, he's really pronounced. 307 00:20:41.640 --> 00:20:45.599 And as like, I don't know if I had an accent. Apparently I 308 00:20:45.640 --> 00:20:48.680 did, but I don't know. Apparently it's really obvious in the video, 309 00:20:49.400 --> 00:20:53.559 didn't. I had somebody have to point it out to me. Um and 310 00:20:53.680 --> 00:20:59.839 our our mutual friend Kelly. She went to college near where you were DJ 311 00:21:00.079 --> 00:21:03.240 at that time. She went to Central Michigan. Oh right, Mount Pleasant, 312 00:21:03.240 --> 00:21:07.359 it's like great above us, about about forty minutes of chips. Yeah, 313 00:21:07.440 --> 00:21:11.160 interesting, did Yeah, is there any other news you wanted to No, 314 00:21:11.359 --> 00:21:14.000 I would say August is here, and that's like I always called that 315 00:21:14.119 --> 00:21:17.960 the holiday month and not you know, it's like Maryland. You've got the 316 00:21:18.000 --> 00:21:21.680 Mandison thing, You've got Princess Diana, you've got the Menendez verse, and 317 00:21:21.680 --> 00:21:25.000 and that's you know, it's a it's a pretty magical month as far as 318 00:21:25.039 --> 00:21:30.160 all this all this stuff goes. I'll come and both our birthdays. Yeah, 319 00:21:30.240 --> 00:21:33.200 yeah, when yours? Is this your birthday? Ohay? Is it 320 00:21:33.319 --> 00:21:37.960 okay? So you'd like right before Maryland Day. Yeah, I was born 321 00:21:38.000 --> 00:21:44.599 two weeks after Maryland died. But uh uh and yeah, yeah, and 322 00:21:44.720 --> 00:21:51.519 my birthday is the same birthday as Roman Polanski and Vincent Pouliosi. August eighteenth, 323 00:21:51.559 --> 00:21:55.039 I have, um Barack Obama is the big the biggest one that I 324 00:21:55.119 --> 00:22:00.640 have. Um man, wait what what? What day is yours? Eighteen? 325 00:22:00.440 --> 00:22:07.839 Yeah? Because Elvis died on August sixteenth, and I have now outlived 326 00:22:07.880 --> 00:22:11.200 I'm now older than Elvis was when he died. I have outlived him by 327 00:22:11.240 --> 00:22:15.039 a year. Now. I think I am Humphrey Bogart's age right now that 328 00:22:15.119 --> 00:22:19.559 he died. Oh really you so, do you get any hate mail or 329 00:22:19.559 --> 00:22:30.039 anything? Oh? Heye mail, um, hate mail? This is okay. 330 00:22:30.319 --> 00:22:33.039 Troy saves these six for me because I can't. Oh, you know, 331 00:22:33.119 --> 00:22:37.359 I told him the Patreon video that the Janet Lee story about you know, 332 00:22:37.440 --> 00:22:42.200 my bringing a knife to her her book signing, and one of them, 333 00:22:42.400 --> 00:22:45.200 one of the comments, it's just kind of a funny one, she 334 00:22:45.240 --> 00:22:51.319 goes, and that's funny. What a childish moron. Unsubscribing Immediately, it's 335 00:22:51.319 --> 00:22:55.000 like, well it's childish, no doubt about it. Um, You're like, 336 00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:57.119 you are following the wrong person if you're not amused by that story. 337 00:22:59.119 --> 00:23:02.839 And there was one about Oh here's one. This was interesting. This is 338 00:23:03.000 --> 00:23:06.680 regarding the Anthony Burdaine thing that I had when he when he took the tour, 339 00:23:07.279 --> 00:23:10.839 and it was we recorded it. My friend Jane recorded it and I 340 00:23:10.920 --> 00:23:15.559 uploaded it. So she writes, this is my first time viewing this video. 341 00:23:15.759 --> 00:23:19.119 What disturbs me the most is the man talking saying that what happened to 342 00:23:19.160 --> 00:23:23.079 the black Dahlia was spectacular, which it was. I mean, you know, 343 00:23:23.079 --> 00:23:26.640 they look up the definition. I mean it's like it's it's crazy right. 344 00:23:26.960 --> 00:23:32.279 And you are seriously a creep because what was done to her was absolutely 345 00:23:32.359 --> 00:23:36.119 butcher, absolutely butchery. Men like you have no heart, no soul. 346 00:23:36.359 --> 00:23:38.960 And Anthony Burdain, God rest his soul. He will be missed. This 347 00:23:38.960 --> 00:23:42.200 is the guy who's talking about autoerotic asphyxiation and all the murders. But he's 348 00:23:42.440 --> 00:23:45.799 God rest his soul. He will be missed. But to the creep interviewer 349 00:23:45.839 --> 00:23:48.079 of this video, be careful what you're saying, because you seem to be 350 00:23:48.119 --> 00:23:52.799 a sadist. That truly disturbed me and it should be to others, including 351 00:23:52.799 --> 00:23:56.920 that lady in the van. Must be my friend Jane. Men run the 352 00:23:56.920 --> 00:24:00.960 world and women are preyed on. This creep who think the brutal murder of 353 00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:04.559 a beautiful woman human being was spectacular, You should go to jail for that 354 00:24:04.640 --> 00:24:11.759 period. The Black Jail is infamous, amongst other sad Hollywood celebrity stories are 355 00:24:11.839 --> 00:24:17.960 ip But but I looked at you know, I talked to the about the 356 00:24:18.000 --> 00:24:19.559 Manson murders, and I said that they were fantastic. And if you look 357 00:24:19.599 --> 00:24:23.680 up the definition of fantastic, they were spectacular. I did look this up. 358 00:24:23.720 --> 00:24:27.200 It says, you know, an elaborate show or display pertaining through the 359 00:24:27.279 --> 00:24:30.920 nature of a show or a spectacle marked characterizes a great display. And the 360 00:24:30.960 --> 00:24:34.440 black tellus to whomever did it, you know, that was that was set 361 00:24:34.480 --> 00:24:38.160 up. What they did to her was a creation. And that's what I 362 00:24:38.200 --> 00:24:41.519 meant by that. It was it wasn't like, wow, it was so 363 00:24:41.599 --> 00:24:44.680 cool. It wasn't like that. It wasn't cool. It was spectacular. 364 00:24:44.880 --> 00:24:48.839 It's like, fantastic is not you know, necessarily oh my god, it's 365 00:24:48.839 --> 00:24:52.920 so wonderful. It's like, you know, the word exciting. Bad things 366 00:24:52.920 --> 00:24:56.559 can also be exciting. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So it doesn't mean, 367 00:24:56.680 --> 00:24:59.440 you know, it's just kind of funny that all that thought went into 368 00:24:59.480 --> 00:25:02.839 it. Um, it was like, all right, whatever, but Block, 369 00:25:03.000 --> 00:25:04.920 you know, Troy Block shows and he saves me the best, sends 370 00:25:06.000 --> 00:25:07.960 the best for this. But the other the piece of email I got that 371 00:25:08.160 --> 00:25:11.240 was interesting that it should you know, we don't. We talked about Zack 372 00:25:11.359 --> 00:25:18.759 selling the zach Begans sold to La Bianca House and apparently it's slated for demolition 373 00:25:18.839 --> 00:25:26.400 now so uh so that will happen. Yeah, it is so um, 374 00:25:26.559 --> 00:25:30.000 which is what would have likely happened anyways. So you know, him buying 375 00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:33.319 at a guest kept it alive for a couple more years, but you know 376 00:25:33.359 --> 00:25:38.960 it's kind of inevitable. Yeah, yeah, it's la. We got some 377 00:25:40.039 --> 00:25:44.079 nice notes on Patreon. Deborah told us you guys rock keep up all the 378 00:25:44.160 --> 00:25:48.519 good work. Thank you, Deborah, and Jonathan said he'd been a Jonathan 379 00:25:48.599 --> 00:25:52.440 said he's been a fan of the since the website and on to six degrees. 380 00:25:52.519 --> 00:25:55.039 I love what you do and proud to support you. Keep up the 381 00:25:55.119 --> 00:25:59.359 great work. And we also got some nice Patreon notes from Becca and Elaine. 382 00:25:59.680 --> 00:26:03.519 So, um, we do have a Patreon page where you can get 383 00:26:03.559 --> 00:26:07.200 advanced Um, look at these episodes when they come out, Seeing before everybody 384 00:26:07.200 --> 00:26:11.039 else does. And we also do an extra mini show, which are usually 385 00:26:11.119 --> 00:26:14.200 you know, in that forty five minute to an hour range. Um, 386 00:26:14.240 --> 00:26:15.680 so we call mini shows, but they're actually gotten to be pretty long. 387 00:26:17.240 --> 00:26:22.680 And we also post those to Patreon, so those are Paton exclusive. Yeah, 388 00:26:22.720 --> 00:26:26.039 and you can get access to that for as little as two bucks a 389 00:26:26.039 --> 00:26:30.839 month. So check out our Patreon Dearly Departed podcast on Patreon. Go check 390 00:26:30.880 --> 00:26:34.039 it out. We just recorded a new episode for Patreon just before we did 391 00:26:34.039 --> 00:26:38.240 this one, so um, and we really appreciate everybody for supporting us over 392 00:26:38.279 --> 00:26:45.799 there. So main feature, yes, let's talk about it. Yeah, 393 00:26:45.799 --> 00:26:53.279 it's Todd Browning's Freaks. It's time for the main feature. Google gobble, 394 00:26:53.359 --> 00:26:59.759 Google gobble. We accept her one of us. I had never actually watched 395 00:26:59.759 --> 00:27:03.240 this movie. It had been on my list for ever and ever, and 396 00:27:03.279 --> 00:27:06.839 I finally watched it this past week because we wanted to do this episode, 397 00:27:07.480 --> 00:27:12.359 and I freaking loved it. It's so good. It exceeded my expectations. 398 00:27:12.400 --> 00:27:17.279 To be honest, I thought it was really really brilliant filmmaking, and the 399 00:27:17.359 --> 00:27:21.279 story behind it is equally as fascinating as the story was of the film itself, 400 00:27:21.279 --> 00:27:26.400 I thought. But for people who don't know it's about sideshow acts otherwise, 401 00:27:26.519 --> 00:27:30.319 you know, referred to his freaks and it's based on them, you 402 00:27:30.359 --> 00:27:34.039 know, with this a circus or a carnival, right, Yeah, it's 403 00:27:34.039 --> 00:27:41.160 a traveling side show. Yeah. Yeah. Made in nineteen thirty two and 404 00:27:41.480 --> 00:27:45.759 Todd Browning, the director, he actually had originally worked in as he had 405 00:27:45.759 --> 00:27:51.440 actually worked as a carnival He had been a contortionist and was a carnival barker 406 00:27:52.160 --> 00:27:56.079 for years starting when he was a teenager before he began his film career. 407 00:27:56.160 --> 00:28:00.640 So it's interesting he had wanted to do this story, which was adapted from 408 00:28:00.640 --> 00:28:03.240 a short story called Spurs, for years and years. He'd been trying to 409 00:28:03.240 --> 00:28:07.319 get MGM to do it, going back to the twenties during the Silent era, 410 00:28:07.680 --> 00:28:11.319 and finally they finally did it. It's fascinating that MGM produced it. 411 00:28:11.880 --> 00:28:17.440 And there's the stories about the cast of The Wizard of Oz going to the 412 00:28:17.440 --> 00:28:21.880 commissary and everyone, you know, they were so freaked out about how outrageous 413 00:28:22.119 --> 00:28:26.960 their costumes were during the filming of The Wizard of Oz and then the Freaks 414 00:28:26.960 --> 00:28:29.880 thing, they just had to give them their own place because nobody could deal 415 00:28:29.920 --> 00:28:33.160 with being in the room with them, you know, the Siamese twins and 416 00:28:33.160 --> 00:28:37.000 and the half Man and all that stuff. It was just too much. 417 00:28:37.039 --> 00:28:41.880 And it's shocking that MGM made the movie. It really is shocking that they 418 00:28:42.039 --> 00:28:48.319 made this movie because it doesn't seem like something MGM would do. Back then, 419 00:28:48.359 --> 00:28:52.079 they were very prestigious, you know what, more stars than in the 420 00:28:52.079 --> 00:28:56.079 Heavens or whatever their their tagline was at the time. And and what's also 421 00:28:56.160 --> 00:29:00.640 just thing was Todd Browning had just done Dracula for Universal the year before and 422 00:29:00.920 --> 00:29:04.720 which kicked off, you know, Universal's whole monster craze in the thirties, 423 00:29:06.000 --> 00:29:08.960 and I'm really surprised that he didn't just do this there makes I don't know 424 00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:15.519 the whole story about why it went to MGM Universal, but yeah, that's 425 00:29:15.559 --> 00:29:18.279 interesting. And maybe they just gave him say you come here, you come 426 00:29:18.319 --> 00:29:21.160 here, and we will you could do whatever you want, We'll give you 427 00:29:21.200 --> 00:29:26.599 a movie. And he's like, oh, you mentioned Louis Mayer going what 428 00:29:26.400 --> 00:29:30.839 they kept the sideshow acts like in their own the actors in their own tent 429 00:29:30.160 --> 00:29:37.680 on, you know, the lot um to keep from disturbing the other people 430 00:29:37.720 --> 00:29:40.680 on the lot and and they had they had their own commissary and everything, 431 00:29:41.240 --> 00:29:44.720 so they were really kept separate, almost kind of like when you know the 432 00:29:44.759 --> 00:29:48.799 Munchkins being kept down the street in the hotel. Yeah yeah, yeah, 433 00:29:48.160 --> 00:29:52.960 over every day. It was such an interesting movie because they gave everyone at 434 00:29:52.960 --> 00:29:59.680 those side chow performers their own moment to shine. You know. They had 435 00:29:59.720 --> 00:30:04.000 their a little like um, the the half Man half woman, uh you 436 00:30:04.039 --> 00:30:07.640 know, literally not like a trans person was literally down the middle half man 437 00:30:07.720 --> 00:30:11.799 he would just talk and he talk and then to both sides and then uh 438 00:30:11.799 --> 00:30:15.559 you know, Johnny Yak had his thing where he climbed the ladder. This 439 00:30:15.680 --> 00:30:18.119 is the half Man, and uh yeah, they all had a chance. 440 00:30:18.160 --> 00:30:22.400 If Prince Randian, you know, mate full who had no arms and no 441 00:30:22.559 --> 00:30:25.960 legs, would full roll a cigarette in his mouth. You know, they 442 00:30:26.000 --> 00:30:29.119 let him do that, a little spiel, you know, they got to 443 00:30:29.640 --> 00:30:33.279 got to do it. So it's it's also, i mean, despite the 444 00:30:33.359 --> 00:30:37.200 kind of derogatory title, it's gotten a lot of credit over the years for 445 00:30:37.279 --> 00:30:41.200 showing um these circus performance as real people. Yeah yeah, and it was. 446 00:30:41.400 --> 00:30:48.119 It's also it's considered derogatory derogatory nowadays, but that's the term they embraced 447 00:30:48.200 --> 00:30:52.599 themselves so I, you know, be an UNPC for this, I don't 448 00:30:52.640 --> 00:30:56.759 care. You know, they called themselves that, they embraced it and uh 449 00:30:56.079 --> 00:31:00.119 so, and it's still the name of the movie. So I I it's 450 00:31:00.160 --> 00:31:04.039 just it wasn't disrespectful at all to these people. In fact, if anything 451 00:31:04.079 --> 00:31:08.799 else, it was respectful to these people because it showed how loyal they were 452 00:31:08.839 --> 00:31:14.799 to themselves. And uh and I think that that was that that sort of 453 00:31:14.880 --> 00:31:18.880 code of honor that they had. You know, you mess with one, 454 00:31:18.920 --> 00:31:22.240 you mess with all kind of a thing, but the whole one of us, 455 00:31:22.279 --> 00:31:23.240 you know, we accept you. I mean that was a big deal. 456 00:31:23.680 --> 00:31:29.720 When when during the wedding and the uh in the in the film what 457 00:31:29.759 --> 00:31:34.480 a what a sinister movie is fascinating, just sinister. It was such a 458 00:31:34.519 --> 00:31:37.920 controversial film when it came out. It did not do well. It was 459 00:31:38.119 --> 00:31:41.839 you know, it was it was financially a loss. Um. The UK 460 00:31:42.119 --> 00:31:47.839 banned it for like thirty years. You believe that, Yeah, yeah, 461 00:31:47.880 --> 00:31:51.599 I do. That was we talked about this before. They banned A Clockwork 462 00:31:51.599 --> 00:31:53.960 Orange until the nineties. Uh. The extrascist too, they were all they 463 00:31:55.000 --> 00:31:57.960 couldn't you couldn't watch them there, you couldn't you couldn't get them. Freaks 464 00:31:57.960 --> 00:32:00.359 came out in nineteen thirty two, and you couldn't see it in the UK 465 00:32:00.440 --> 00:32:07.079 until the sixties. And and you know it, so Irving Thalberg, who 466 00:32:07.079 --> 00:32:10.279 we've talked about a lot. I've read one of his big biographies. I'm 467 00:32:10.319 --> 00:32:13.839 a big fan of, you know, his life. He was the head 468 00:32:13.880 --> 00:32:17.640 of production for MGM at the time The Boy Wonder and the original running time 469 00:32:17.680 --> 00:32:22.559 was about ninety minutes long, and he's the one that basically took the film 470 00:32:22.599 --> 00:32:24.559 away, which was common at that time. He took it away from Todd 471 00:32:24.559 --> 00:32:29.200 Browning and chopped it up, chopped it down to about I think sixty four 472 00:32:29.240 --> 00:32:35.440 minutes, and the original full length version is considered lost. So um, 473 00:32:35.519 --> 00:32:37.799 and I would love to see the full version because you definitely can feel this 474 00:32:37.920 --> 00:32:44.920 kind of ham fisted intro and ending. It would kind of slapped onto an 475 00:32:44.960 --> 00:32:49.839 otherwise really great film. Did you I noticed I saw on YouTube there's a 476 00:32:49.839 --> 00:32:54.519 couple of alternative endings that were actually filmed. Oh and I've never seen anyone. 477 00:32:54.559 --> 00:32:58.160 I haven't seen this movie yet. I mean, you're these are gonna 478 00:32:58.160 --> 00:33:00.759 be spoilers all over the place, but um, you know, so if 479 00:33:00.759 --> 00:33:05.480 you haven't seen the movie, you should probably stop now and before we where 480 00:33:05.519 --> 00:33:09.119 we talk about it because and then watch it and come back because speaking of 481 00:33:09.160 --> 00:33:14.119 spoilers, that final scene in the rain is so brilliantly done. It's so 482 00:33:14.160 --> 00:33:15.640 good. It's so good, all shot at low level, you know, 483 00:33:15.759 --> 00:33:19.799 kind of under with the wagon wheels, under the wagons, with everybody in 484 00:33:19.799 --> 00:33:22.920 this chase through the mud. It's so so interesting, and it just gets 485 00:33:23.279 --> 00:33:27.839 cut It just gets cut off almost in the middle of it. It feels 486 00:33:27.880 --> 00:33:30.200 like, I guess before they catch up with her an attacker. I guess 487 00:33:30.240 --> 00:33:35.000 that was too shocking maybe for the for audiences. Yeah, just there's a 488 00:33:35.039 --> 00:33:38.599 quick dissolve back to these the scene that would the film opens with, right, 489 00:33:38.920 --> 00:33:44.759 I mean, yeah, to to clarify the stories about the sideshow freaks, 490 00:33:45.079 --> 00:33:49.839 and I meant there's also the strong Man and the trapeze artist woman and 491 00:33:49.880 --> 00:33:52.240 the t and they find out that one of the freaks, one of the 492 00:33:52.279 --> 00:33:55.759 little people, Harry Doll, had money. So the strong Man and the 493 00:33:55.799 --> 00:34:00.599 trapeze artists, uh I, figure out up plan for her to fake being 494 00:34:00.640 --> 00:34:05.640 in love with Harry Dhal and get married to him, and then she tries 495 00:34:05.640 --> 00:34:08.559 to poison him and the other freaks find out about it, and that's the 496 00:34:08.599 --> 00:34:14.679 spectacular ending. So, yeah, the revenge and see especially Prince Randy and 497 00:34:14.679 --> 00:34:17.119 the guy they called the caterpillar man. Uh, you know, crawling through 498 00:34:17.159 --> 00:34:21.360 the mud like a like a like a caterpillar. And it was with a 499 00:34:21.400 --> 00:34:22.400 knife in his hand, in his mouth. You know, I know what 500 00:34:22.440 --> 00:34:27.679 he's going to do with it, either have arms or legs, but uh, 501 00:34:27.760 --> 00:34:30.400 it's just so and you know, just crawling through the mud. And 502 00:34:30.639 --> 00:34:36.400 yeah, it was really really really something to see. And uh, but 503 00:34:36.599 --> 00:34:39.039 that's a code of code of code of honor, you know, for them. 504 00:34:40.679 --> 00:34:45.559 Yeah, and Thalberg was no. One of his innovations was test screenings, 505 00:34:45.920 --> 00:34:50.320 which is common practice now, but you would take at early edited the 506 00:34:50.360 --> 00:34:52.320 film and you would screen it for a test audience, engage their reaction, 507 00:34:52.360 --> 00:34:55.440 and then you would go and make changes if you felt like I needed it. 508 00:34:55.840 --> 00:34:59.960 And apparently at these test screenings, people were running out of the thea 509 00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:06.760 at the site of some of these performers back then. Yeah, for sure, 510 00:35:06.800 --> 00:35:12.760 I can understand that. I remember when about in the nineties I saw 511 00:35:12.960 --> 00:35:17.159 several times the Jim Rose circuside show, I guess, and he sort of 512 00:35:17.960 --> 00:35:21.760 revived it, but it was all geeks. I mean, there's freaks who 513 00:35:21.800 --> 00:35:25.920 are physically different, you know, they were born differently. The Siamese twins, 514 00:35:25.920 --> 00:35:30.920 the man with you know uh, you know, short arms or something 515 00:35:30.960 --> 00:35:34.000 like that. They were physical you know, what they would call deformities. 516 00:35:34.760 --> 00:35:37.840 Geeks are the people that create themselves. You know, the tattooed guy, 517 00:35:38.320 --> 00:35:43.519 the pierced guy, eating animal, eating bugs, you know that kind of 518 00:35:43.559 --> 00:35:47.719 thing. And Jim Rose, Jim ro Circuside show was is all geeks and 519 00:35:47.840 --> 00:35:52.639 there was the one guy called the Plunger and it was just acts. But 520 00:35:52.880 --> 00:35:57.400 people were puking watching this stuff. And this is in the nineties. Mister 521 00:35:57.480 --> 00:36:01.800 Lyfto who who had a pierced nipples and peers penish and he was you know, 522 00:36:01.840 --> 00:36:06.480 picking up like big weights and swinging around on his nipples and you know, 523 00:36:06.519 --> 00:36:08.559 people just couldn't cope with that. So that was a small level of 524 00:36:08.559 --> 00:36:12.880 what what freaks was like for people. I mean they you know, they 525 00:36:13.280 --> 00:36:17.119 reacted very differently back then and and yeah, call it exploitation. So so 526 00:36:17.239 --> 00:36:22.119 what you know, they were born, they found their their their tribe and 527 00:36:22.239 --> 00:36:24.920 uh and they all loved each other and they and it's how they and it's 528 00:36:24.920 --> 00:36:29.800 how they made their living. It's what they weren't doing side shows. They 529 00:36:29.800 --> 00:36:34.360 were performing in you know, what films they could get. So yeah, 530 00:36:34.480 --> 00:36:37.920 yeah, it was interesting to read about how, um some of them were 531 00:36:37.960 --> 00:36:43.800 in different films, you know, you know, portraying Johnny Act the Halfman 532 00:36:43.960 --> 00:36:46.119 and SCHLITZI was in was in a few different films too. It's just interesting 533 00:36:46.119 --> 00:36:50.519 because you just think freaks is all they ever did. But uh, and 534 00:36:50.559 --> 00:36:52.519 what an impact that made. I mean, I remember when I was a 535 00:36:52.599 --> 00:36:58.440 kid, in the back of magazines there were always these ads for uh, 536 00:36:58.480 --> 00:37:02.119 you know, the Three Legs good Man and the very it was called Very 537 00:37:02.159 --> 00:37:07.320 Special People was the first book that was made, probably in the seventies about 538 00:37:07.320 --> 00:37:10.039 these people, and I couldn't I could not stop looking at that. The 539 00:37:10.159 --> 00:37:14.199 Guinness Book of World Records came out, and there was another one that was 540 00:37:14.599 --> 00:37:16.840 that man, it was so big he had to be buried in a piano 541 00:37:16.920 --> 00:37:20.639 case. You know. It was just stuff like that was just so fascinating 542 00:37:20.679 --> 00:37:24.119 to me and and still is. And that's why that's why, you know, 543 00:37:24.159 --> 00:37:30.199 I love all this stuff. When recently Troy and I were in Florida 544 00:37:30.239 --> 00:37:35.199 and we went to Gibsonton and GiB Or GiB towns where all those circus performers 545 00:37:35.199 --> 00:37:40.679 would go on the off season. And it started with Jeannie and Altmany. 546 00:37:40.920 --> 00:37:45.639 Altomani was like eight petal and Geanie TooMany was like eighteen inches. She was 547 00:37:45.679 --> 00:37:50.039 a half lady. And they got married and just decided to create this place 548 00:37:50.079 --> 00:37:53.360 where these carnies could go on the off season and they put they created what 549 00:37:53.480 --> 00:37:58.719 was called the Giants Camp and it was all these little little houses, little 550 00:37:58.760 --> 00:38:02.119 tiny little cabin that they had and they were they had a bait store, 551 00:38:02.440 --> 00:38:07.840 and Gibson was just this vocal point for all of these people place they could 552 00:38:07.840 --> 00:38:10.199 go. And you know they have even the post office, like the counter 553 00:38:10.239 --> 00:38:14.760 of the post office is only like two feet so little people could use it. 554 00:38:14.800 --> 00:38:19.480 I mean, it was really accommodating to UH to to those people because 555 00:38:19.840 --> 00:38:23.039 that's there was a tribe and that's where the UH showed. It was Showtown 556 00:38:23.159 --> 00:38:27.960 Bar, Showman's Bar, where you know these people, well a lot of 557 00:38:28.000 --> 00:38:31.599 them did do pretty hardcore drinking and UH and you know you would just see 558 00:38:31.639 --> 00:38:37.519 these unusual people sitting at the bar and you know, just amongst each other. 559 00:38:37.880 --> 00:38:39.800 It's fascinating. It's not like that anymore. I mean, Gibsonton is 560 00:38:39.800 --> 00:38:45.599 sort of one of those places I described it as a place where people end 561 00:38:45.679 --> 00:38:47.920 up. Uh now, you know before it was, it's not. It's 562 00:38:47.960 --> 00:38:52.559 not a glamorous place like I'd hope they don't embrace nowadays that sort of culture. 563 00:38:52.599 --> 00:38:57.559 Yeah, the Barn of Museums in Sarasota not far away, and it's 564 00:38:57.599 --> 00:39:01.760 still the showman's sort of union and that's there. But there's not much tribute 565 00:39:01.800 --> 00:39:06.920 to to those people that made it well known. It's not really a tourist 566 00:39:07.000 --> 00:39:08.800 destination. Although there was bar one bar there that we went to. It 567 00:39:08.960 --> 00:39:14.440 was called the Alafia Brewing Company, and we went on a Friday night and 568 00:39:14.480 --> 00:39:17.239 they did a proper show inside with the posters like this. They had the 569 00:39:17.280 --> 00:39:22.320 Fiji Mermaid and they had uh, you know, the twenty foot Boa Constrictor 570 00:39:22.320 --> 00:39:25.519 and you know, the little boy came out pressing his face into glass. 571 00:39:25.760 --> 00:39:30.239 That was neat to see because I was a genuine nod to the old Gibsons 572 00:39:30.320 --> 00:39:36.079 in But yeah, it was still a neat place to to visit most definitely. 573 00:39:37.840 --> 00:39:43.360 Um So, do you want to get into the the actors? Sure? 574 00:39:43.559 --> 00:39:45.079 Sure, sure, sure, um. I was going to mention, 575 00:39:45.480 --> 00:39:52.760 uh wallace Ford, who was the kind of one of the main good guys 576 00:39:53.280 --> 00:40:00.039 that was kind of befriended the circus performers in real life. In real life, 577 00:40:00.119 --> 00:40:04.639 he was a World War One veteran, and I thought it was interesting 578 00:40:04.679 --> 00:40:08.880 his background. He was born Samuel Grundy Jones, and where he got the 579 00:40:08.960 --> 00:40:14.239 name wallace Ford is interesting and also a tragic. His childhood friend, I 580 00:40:14.280 --> 00:40:16.400 believe they were kind of riding the rails and you know, hitchhiking around and 581 00:40:16.519 --> 00:40:22.079 whatever, and his childhood friend had an accident with one of the trains and 582 00:40:22.199 --> 00:40:25.159 fell, I think, and was run over or something like or crushed and 583 00:40:25.400 --> 00:40:30.719 died. So when wallace Ford began his showbiz career, he took on that 584 00:40:30.840 --> 00:40:34.280 name of his friend. His friend was named wallace Ford, so he changed 585 00:40:34.280 --> 00:40:37.480 his name from Samuel Jones to wallace Ford as kind of a tribute to his 586 00:40:37.519 --> 00:40:44.039 friend. And that's that's that became his stage name. Wow. Interesting. 587 00:40:44.119 --> 00:40:46.880 He was a really likable, a really likable guy in the movie. I 588 00:40:46.960 --> 00:40:51.039 love that. There's a memorable scene with him in Schlitze. That's so sweet. 589 00:40:52.159 --> 00:40:55.199 Yeah, just a friend to the unusual people. Yeah, and he 590 00:40:55.280 --> 00:41:00.480 had a long Hollywood career in stage career, and he had supporting role also 591 00:41:00.559 --> 00:41:04.880 in The Last Patrol and Shoutow of a Doubt, spell Bound Um. And 592 00:41:04.920 --> 00:41:08.519 he passed away on June eleventh, nineteen sixty six. He was sixty eight. 593 00:41:09.320 --> 00:41:14.559 He had a heart failure. Um. He passed away at what the 594 00:41:14.920 --> 00:41:19.400 Motion Picture Country Home, the kind of retirement community that's in Woodland Hills. 595 00:41:20.320 --> 00:41:22.159 Yeah, okay, well, yeah, a lot of them did die out 596 00:41:22.199 --> 00:41:25.159 there. That was a cool place. And then his kind of and then 597 00:41:25.199 --> 00:41:30.719 his kind of fellow sort of protagonist and friend to to to the sideshow acts, 598 00:41:30.920 --> 00:41:37.840 Leila Hyams. She played Venus Um and she passed away on December fourth, 599 00:41:37.920 --> 00:41:43.679 nineteen seventy seven, at seventy two from also from natural causes. Yeah, 600 00:41:43.679 --> 00:41:46.280 she was my friend. Gary Sweeney did a ton of research on her. 601 00:41:46.320 --> 00:41:50.079 I guess he's he's going to try to get a book off the ground 602 00:41:50.119 --> 00:41:53.000 about her. But she was I mean again, they were the two likable 603 00:41:53.039 --> 00:41:58.679 you know that were quote unquote normal in the movie. And her name was 604 00:41:58.760 --> 00:42:00.599 Venus in the movies. She wasn't owner the Lost Souls too, but that 605 00:42:00.679 --> 00:42:05.719 was like the long ago one. She was in silent movies and stuff. 606 00:42:06.159 --> 00:42:08.679 But but yeah, very and she was she was. Yeah, she died 607 00:42:08.960 --> 00:42:14.800 in seventy seven, was scattered at sea from from helicopter, as I understand. 608 00:42:14.880 --> 00:42:20.119 But uh, but um and then uh Olga back Lanova, who was 609 00:42:20.159 --> 00:42:24.239 the unlikable person in this in this film, Yeah, Cleopatra really the antagonist. 610 00:42:24.320 --> 00:42:29.239 She's the one that schemes uh to to to you know, fake being 611 00:42:29.280 --> 00:42:31.920 in love with this little person so she can get his money. She had 612 00:42:31.920 --> 00:42:35.960 a really interesting life. She was born in Moscow to kind of a showbiz 613 00:42:36.000 --> 00:42:39.840 family there and ultimately immigrated to the US and became a citizen here. Um. 614 00:42:39.920 --> 00:42:44.440 And she passed away on September sixth, nineteen seventy four. She was 615 00:42:44.480 --> 00:42:47.119 eighty one. Um. And I believe she passed away in Switzerland. And 616 00:42:47.519 --> 00:42:51.719 there was a I saw somewhere that she may have had Alzheimer's, but it's 617 00:42:51.760 --> 00:42:55.719 unconfirmed. Yeah, I've heard that she died in some sort of retirement community. 618 00:42:55.880 --> 00:43:00.840 So it makes sense. Uh, she was, you know, there 619 00:43:00.960 --> 00:43:04.599 was I don't know. I was reading something about kudos for her acting. 620 00:43:05.320 --> 00:43:07.679 I was there. She was chewing up the scenery in this movie. I 621 00:43:07.719 --> 00:43:10.559 mean it was just like you know, it was. There was nothing subtle 622 00:43:10.599 --> 00:43:14.360 about that performance. And when she was laughing, it wasn't like ah, 623 00:43:14.519 --> 00:43:19.320 it was like you know, so it was so over the top. So 624 00:43:19.760 --> 00:43:22.440 I love her drunk brooding though in the big you know, the big dinner 625 00:43:22.480 --> 00:43:29.519 scene. Oh and then she starts mocking and yeah, yeah that is um, 626 00:43:30.039 --> 00:43:34.079 yeah she was. But you know, it's it's it's a poor movie. 627 00:43:34.199 --> 00:43:37.079 I think none of those people were except for those two leads were good 628 00:43:37.119 --> 00:43:39.199 actors. You know, they're no one. They're probably the only real actors 629 00:43:39.920 --> 00:43:45.039 in the movie. The uh Lila Haimes and um and Wallace Ford, but 630 00:43:45.079 --> 00:43:49.920 the others are were all not really good actors. The other and the the 631 00:43:49.920 --> 00:43:53.119 side show people were not actors at all. Surprisingly, they carried themselves, 632 00:43:53.199 --> 00:43:55.920 but like Violet and Daisy Hilton, you know, they got they got to 633 00:43:55.920 --> 00:43:59.599 walk by and you know, oh no, and that was the end. 634 00:43:59.599 --> 00:44:02.679 It was like they had twenty minutes of filmmak. You know. But I 635 00:44:02.800 --> 00:44:07.480 really I got to say that the Doll family, Daisy Earls and Harry Earls, 636 00:44:07.480 --> 00:44:09.960 they really grew on me on this film. I thought that that for 637 00:44:10.119 --> 00:44:14.480 being not professional trained actors, I thought they did a really good job. 638 00:44:15.400 --> 00:44:17.639 Um. I don't know if that was Browning getting a good performance out of 639 00:44:17.639 --> 00:44:22.320 them or or what it was, but I liked them in it. Yeah. 640 00:44:22.360 --> 00:44:24.280 It's kind of a love story with a brother and a sister. It's 641 00:44:24.360 --> 00:44:30.719 kind of interesting that kind of creeps some people out right brother and sister in 642 00:44:30.760 --> 00:44:34.440 real life. Yeah. Um, and in you know Schlitzi, who probably 643 00:44:34.599 --> 00:44:38.360 I don't think really had the mental capacity to act, is you know, 644 00:44:38.519 --> 00:44:44.119 really act act Um. It's interesting watching him in these scenes because, um, 645 00:44:45.159 --> 00:44:47.519 it's almost like you're getting his real reactions to what's happening in a way. 646 00:44:47.760 --> 00:44:52.719 Yeah. Yeah, you know what. I loved love performing and loved 647 00:44:52.719 --> 00:44:55.360 being the center of attention and loved affection. Uh. And yeah, it 648 00:44:55.440 --> 00:45:00.400 was clear. I guess Schlitze could they say she could one of her well 649 00:45:00.480 --> 00:45:04.559 to him, Uh, one of her big one of her big tricks, 650 00:45:04.599 --> 00:45:07.599 you say her because Schltzi was billed as a woman. You know, let's 651 00:45:07.599 --> 00:45:12.400 see the female, you know, the Aztec will girl or whatever what the 652 00:45:12.440 --> 00:45:17.360 princess Princess Haja was and uh, but you know, just referred to as 653 00:45:17.360 --> 00:45:21.599 a female because the dresses that they put on her, a little bow in 654 00:45:21.599 --> 00:45:23.639 her hair, but it was actually a male but he was incontinent, which 655 00:45:23.679 --> 00:45:28.840 is why the the war. What what she wore? And um, she 656 00:45:28.840 --> 00:45:36.320 wore dresses born with microcephaly um, which means she she she had a small 657 00:45:36.360 --> 00:45:39.320 cranium basically and so uh, which also meant, you know, a smaller 658 00:45:39.320 --> 00:45:44.639 brain, and so it affected you know, mentally affected if so physically affected 659 00:45:44.679 --> 00:45:47.199 and mentally affected. Um. I was wondering. I was going to ask 660 00:45:47.239 --> 00:45:50.519 you about this. You know. Of course, the Ramolans had their one 661 00:45:50.519 --> 00:45:55.000 of their big hits which was called pinhead um, which was about schlitzy uh. 662 00:45:55.000 --> 00:45:59.280 And they turned you know, google gobble, which was what the freaks 663 00:45:59.280 --> 00:46:00.920 in the show moved we say, they turned that into Gabba Gabba hey, 664 00:46:01.719 --> 00:46:05.199 which I thought was interesting. Was now you, of course we're a big 665 00:46:05.280 --> 00:46:08.000 Ramones fan or the Ramones your entry too, freaks? Was it because of 666 00:46:08.039 --> 00:46:12.199 the song Pinhead? No, not at all. No, In fact, 667 00:46:12.199 --> 00:46:15.880 there wasn't until many years later I realized Gabba Gabba was a play on the 668 00:46:15.880 --> 00:46:20.599 freaks google Gobble. I didn't know it for years. So Pinhead I didn't 669 00:46:20.599 --> 00:46:22.679 get that. I mean, there was Zippy the Pinhead, but I was 670 00:46:22.719 --> 00:46:27.159 never a fan of that comic based on Schletzee and but I, um, 671 00:46:27.199 --> 00:46:30.719 but no, I didn't know about the that I knew the song. But 672 00:46:30.960 --> 00:46:32.280 I was telling story last night. It's like I listened to songs. I 673 00:46:32.280 --> 00:46:36.239 can sing songs, but I don't process what they're about, you know. 674 00:46:36.320 --> 00:46:38.440 So then you got the weeks aptew weeks after one of us, and you 675 00:46:38.480 --> 00:46:42.920 know, I don't want to be a pinhead no more. I just wanted 676 00:46:43.000 --> 00:46:45.039 Yeah, it's just uh, I didn't really process that it was about being 677 00:46:45.039 --> 00:46:51.000 a freak in their own interpretation of it. But uh, but chlet's see. 678 00:46:51.000 --> 00:46:53.559 And it's funny because schlet's See lived at the end of her life on 679 00:46:53.760 --> 00:47:02.360 Santa Monica Boulevard at just a couple of streets m east of Western, right 680 00:47:02.400 --> 00:47:06.679 by the one on one where you know the Tiki theater, that Porno theater. 681 00:47:07.079 --> 00:47:09.599 So I almost right across the street from there. And uh and schlet's 682 00:47:09.599 --> 00:47:14.719 See apparently had a sister. I was watching this guy called Wayne Kaiser on 683 00:47:14.719 --> 00:47:17.599 YouTube and he did a really extensive biography. I didn't know a lot of 684 00:47:17.599 --> 00:47:21.679 the stuff that he had, but he it slically was born with a sister 685 00:47:21.840 --> 00:47:27.519 named Anthelia. And uh, and no one knows really what happened to the 686 00:47:27.559 --> 00:47:30.760 sister, but like most of them, were sold like a lot of these 687 00:47:30.000 --> 00:47:37.599 children at a young age that were born unusual, different shaped and etc. 688 00:47:37.559 --> 00:47:44.679 Were sold off by their parents and to the circus and technically not technically not 689 00:47:44.840 --> 00:47:46.800 legal, but kind of people just turned and looked the other way when it 690 00:47:46.880 --> 00:47:51.599 happened back then, I guess, yeah, yeah, everywhere. Yeah, 691 00:47:51.639 --> 00:47:55.280 So Schlitzy went by the name Simon Metz. Then it was Schlitzee Sertise, 692 00:47:55.760 --> 00:48:00.159 you know, at all to do with with with his guardians, and at 693 00:48:00.199 --> 00:48:02.760 the end of his life, another guy by the name I guess, after 694 00:48:02.840 --> 00:48:07.760 they were dumbish let's see, dropped her off at a hospital because they know 695 00:48:07.800 --> 00:48:09.840 what to do with her and uh, and they were going to give a 696 00:48:09.920 --> 00:48:15.960 psychiatric evaluation and the colors she wouldn't be able to support herself. And then 697 00:48:15.079 --> 00:48:20.119 apparently this person who worked at the hospital recognized let's see and got in touch 698 00:48:20.119 --> 00:48:22.599 with a guy who was running a side show. At this point, Schletsy 699 00:48:22.719 --> 00:48:28.239 was in her sixties and and this guy convinced the hospital to let him adopt 700 00:48:28.280 --> 00:48:30.719 her and put her up in this little apartment and it would take her out 701 00:48:30.760 --> 00:48:37.199 to you know, Hollywood Boulevard or Griffith Park, MacArthur Park and would just 702 00:48:37.559 --> 00:48:43.199 just dance around and perform for people and just a kind Although it's interesting because 703 00:48:43.280 --> 00:48:46.400 Tiny Doll, whom I'll show you, I got some of my freak stuff 704 00:48:46.440 --> 00:48:50.760 out here, but I don't know what's showing. But Tiny Doll was the 705 00:48:50.760 --> 00:48:53.920 youngest of the Doll family. There was Harry, Daisy, Gracie and Tiny 706 00:48:54.239 --> 00:48:58.880 and Tiny autographed this for me. This is her with the cast of Freaks, 707 00:48:59.480 --> 00:49:01.840 but she was actually in the movie. And it's funny because her brother 708 00:49:01.920 --> 00:49:06.840 and sister. There's Daisy. I don't think Harry is in this, but 709 00:49:07.400 --> 00:49:10.599 there's Prince Randian and it's it's almost the entire cast. And there's Todd Browning 710 00:49:10.679 --> 00:49:14.440 back there too. But you should bring that you bring it over to the 711 00:49:14.480 --> 00:49:17.559 camera. Yeah, I can see if I could do it without the reflection 712 00:49:17.719 --> 00:49:23.239 of yeah, there it is. Wow. So if you're watching the video 713 00:49:23.360 --> 00:49:29.039 version of this, we can see this. There's the there's Daisy, Yeah, 714 00:49:29.039 --> 00:49:31.639 there's Daisy Dolls there, the Hilton sisters co joined twins. There's schlit 715 00:49:31.719 --> 00:49:36.760 see Zip and Pip, Johnny eck Hugo will forget his name, but that's 716 00:49:36.840 --> 00:49:38.840 crazy. Wait, that's must be daisy. No, that's tiny right there, 717 00:49:38.800 --> 00:49:44.800 say I'm looking at it backwards, and Todd Browning is um back here, 718 00:49:44.920 --> 00:49:49.400 I think, and um, but yeah, this but the point when 719 00:49:49.400 --> 00:49:52.599 it's tiny doll. When asked about Schlitze, it is the only person I've 720 00:49:52.599 --> 00:49:57.559 ever heard anything say neck and she said that. She said, she said 721 00:49:57.599 --> 00:50:01.920 Schlitzy was ferocious, so they bite people and attack people. Yeah, so 722 00:50:01.960 --> 00:50:05.760 maybe it was when she was provoked or so, I'd look at their schtze 723 00:50:05.880 --> 00:50:14.840 behind me. It kind of looks like me. I'd rather that's funny, 724 00:50:14.840 --> 00:50:16.440 because all the stories I've ever heard was that he was very she was a 725 00:50:16.519 --> 00:50:20.079 very sweet person, and you know, yeah, like you said, like 726 00:50:20.159 --> 00:50:23.360 being the center of attention and like performing and um, couldn't could not speak 727 00:50:23.480 --> 00:50:28.599 very well, could only speak mainly in monosyllabic words, but could form sentences. 728 00:50:28.639 --> 00:50:30.599 But they said they got the sense that she could understand most of what 729 00:50:30.679 --> 00:50:35.760 was being said to her, even if she couldn't verbalize back as well. 730 00:50:36.360 --> 00:50:38.159 Mhmm. Yeah. They said you were one of her big tricks, which 731 00:50:38.159 --> 00:50:42.159 she could count to ten, but she could never say the word seven. 732 00:50:42.360 --> 00:50:45.320 I think it was I don't know it was two syllables. I don't know, 733 00:50:45.760 --> 00:50:49.280 but uh, but I loved I loved Shu. In fact, when 734 00:50:49.280 --> 00:50:52.840 I turned forty, as it was twenty years ago, now, that's when 735 00:50:52.840 --> 00:50:54.800 I realized I was never going to have a legitimate job. So that's when 736 00:50:54.800 --> 00:51:02.280 I got my schlitz Eat tattoo. It's so fun amazing, Yeah, that 737 00:51:02.400 --> 00:51:06.880 was. I was thrilled with that. So so when after Schlitzy died, 738 00:51:06.960 --> 00:51:09.960 you know, she's buried in a grave. It couldn't heaven cemetery out in 739 00:51:10.039 --> 00:51:15.960 Roland Heights and unmarked, and that was I was gonna say. That was. 740 00:51:15.159 --> 00:51:20.400 She passed away on September twenty fourth, nineteen seventy one, seventy years 741 00:51:20.400 --> 00:51:23.800 old, and they think possibly it was pneumonia. Yeah, brochioll Pneumonia is 742 00:51:23.840 --> 00:51:29.119 the cause of death. And she died in a nursing home right on um 743 00:51:29.920 --> 00:51:32.519 Fountain and just off Western. Yeah, it's called a Fountain View, a 744 00:51:32.679 --> 00:51:37.880 nursing home or something, and that's where she ended up passing away and was 745 00:51:37.920 --> 00:51:42.599 buried in an unmarked grave. And my friend Ceci found out about that and 746 00:51:42.679 --> 00:51:45.320 let me know, and I'm like, you know, at that point, 747 00:51:45.360 --> 00:51:49.519 we hadn't been marking people's graves yet we haven't done any of that stuff yet, 748 00:51:49.519 --> 00:51:52.079 so I just let it go. And then they started talking about on 749 00:51:52.119 --> 00:51:54.760 the Finding Death message board. And then Shelley litch Off, another friend of 750 00:51:54.800 --> 00:51:58.760 mine, said well, let's start a fundraiser and she got in touch with 751 00:51:58.800 --> 00:52:00.800 the cemetery and they said, well, the one thing that was wrong is 752 00:52:00.840 --> 00:52:04.519 that they didn't pay the bill for the team stone, So we just raised 753 00:52:04.519 --> 00:52:08.239 whatever Shelley did. The fundraiser raised the money and we're gonna have the ceremony. 754 00:52:08.639 --> 00:52:13.719 This is a funny part funny in a bizarre way that things work out. 755 00:52:14.119 --> 00:52:16.800 So we contacted the cemetery, made the arrangements, the stone was going 756 00:52:16.880 --> 00:52:21.079 to be, the stone was going to be placed, and we decided to 757 00:52:21.079 --> 00:52:24.320 have the ceremony and Verne Langdon was this guy who had a big Carney history 758 00:52:24.400 --> 00:52:29.320 and he came along and did a eulogy. We contacted the cemetery and said, 759 00:52:29.320 --> 00:52:30.840 we want to do this thing, and they said, well we can. 760 00:52:30.960 --> 00:52:34.800 We can give you a priest, but we're gonna have to charge you 761 00:52:34.920 --> 00:52:37.159 three hundred dollars for the priest to come out and do this. So we're 762 00:52:37.199 --> 00:52:42.239 like, no, you know, we just we just Uh, no, 763 00:52:42.559 --> 00:52:44.360 you're not gonna pay for this. I mean, it's a priest. You 764 00:52:44.400 --> 00:52:45.760 should be able to, you know, give me five minutes and do a 765 00:52:45.800 --> 00:52:49.800 blessing, how you know, in a Catholic cemetery. Anyway, we got 766 00:52:49.800 --> 00:52:52.239 our own priest, a gentleman by the name of Brian, stepped up and 767 00:52:52.280 --> 00:52:57.039 said, I'll do it. I'm a minister, and he put together this 768 00:52:57.400 --> 00:53:00.400 lovely eulogy. We took a bus out there, about a dozen of us 769 00:53:00.760 --> 00:53:06.480 and and Brian gave this eulogy that was non denominational, and it was just 770 00:53:06.519 --> 00:53:13.119 a really lovely, touching eulogy. And we unveiled the gravestone, the tombstone, 771 00:53:13.159 --> 00:53:15.440 the grave marker, and I put a pink hat on it with a 772 00:53:15.480 --> 00:53:17.480 big feather, because that's what the line was in Freaks. You know, 773 00:53:17.519 --> 00:53:21.840 we're gonna get your big with a big feather on it. And we put 774 00:53:21.840 --> 00:53:25.480 that on the grave. So then later on we find out that Brian, 775 00:53:25.599 --> 00:53:29.360 who's a buddy of mine, and I got permission to talk about this from 776 00:53:29.400 --> 00:53:31.960 him because I didn't want to be disrespectful to anybody. But it's like like 777 00:53:32.000 --> 00:53:37.800 Brian, who was a minister in the Church of Satan, No, he 778 00:53:37.920 --> 00:53:49.679 never specified. So so we got to talking, I mean night it is 779 00:53:49.719 --> 00:53:52.400 really funny the way we're talk a satanism. You know, there's a lot 780 00:53:52.440 --> 00:53:55.880 of stigma attachment. It's more about atheism really, you know, it's just 781 00:53:55.920 --> 00:54:02.280 about it's just about being your best life to yourself and not worrying about what's 782 00:54:02.320 --> 00:54:07.079 going to happen afterwards. But it goes under this. It's like Anton Lavay, 783 00:54:07.119 --> 00:54:09.679 it's show business. That's what it is. It's just show business is 784 00:54:09.760 --> 00:54:14.880 punk rock. And it's like it was more to free people out than for 785 00:54:14.920 --> 00:54:16.719 a lot of people. But Brian, again I had no idea. It 786 00:54:16.840 --> 00:54:24.639 was a lovely ceremony the Catholic, yeah, and the church wouldn't do it, 787 00:54:24.719 --> 00:54:28.760 so we got another guy. And it's just ironic that the you know, 788 00:54:29.239 --> 00:54:31.280 he's not like a blood, there's none of that. I mean, 789 00:54:31.320 --> 00:54:36.519 Brian's just a decent, funny eye who's an artist and uh and uh. 790 00:54:36.760 --> 00:54:40.360 But it was just you know, a fascinating little twist to the to the 791 00:54:40.440 --> 00:54:47.360 story, which is, uh, it's funny, funny. It's funny how 792 00:54:47.360 --> 00:54:52.639 things work out. But I have a buddy named Steve Bellgard who's been working 793 00:54:52.679 --> 00:54:57.719 on the SCHLITZI documentary for years is called One of Us and I reached out 794 00:54:57.719 --> 00:55:01.159 because the pandemic and everything kind of put a kabash on stuff. And they're 795 00:55:01.159 --> 00:55:05.960 working on the animation staff, which is nice because he's albing to read you 796 00:55:05.960 --> 00:55:08.519 what he wrote me about is said, we're editing it, and I told 797 00:55:08.639 --> 00:55:14.159 and the animation will be finished. Principal photography has done, Andrew Luke Oldham 798 00:55:14.199 --> 00:55:19.320 already did the narration. Uh, Steve's daughter Emma is composing the score and 799 00:55:19.360 --> 00:55:21.760 all they're doing is just have to put it all together, so in twenty 800 00:55:21.840 --> 00:55:23.760 twenty two. But it's interesting is that the young adults who are working on 801 00:55:23.800 --> 00:55:29.320 this are on the autism spectrum and the people doing the animation and his daughter 802 00:55:29.440 --> 00:55:35.320 Emma is also on the autism spectrum. So it's an inclusive documentary about this 803 00:55:35.400 --> 00:55:42.639 lovely character that everyone knows but doesn't really know what Schlitze was all about. 804 00:55:42.760 --> 00:55:46.079 And yeah, it's a it's a funny story. I love that, love 805 00:55:46.159 --> 00:55:52.960 that story and uh and and also Schlitzi is uh a friend, well friend, 806 00:55:52.000 --> 00:55:59.760 an acquaintance. Naomi Grossman portrays Schlitze aka Pepper in American Horror Story and 807 00:55:59.760 --> 00:56:05.679 it's a recurring character or a pinhead. When they did the institutional Um I 808 00:56:05.760 --> 00:56:08.840 forget that was called the one with the really dark season. Everyone loves it, 809 00:56:08.920 --> 00:56:13.880 just really bothered makes it so dark. But Pepper the Pinhead is played 810 00:56:13.880 --> 00:56:17.400 by Naomi Grossman and is based on Schlitzian freak show. Freak Show the whole 811 00:56:17.400 --> 00:56:22.519 season. Did you watch that American horror story season I'm not. I'm not 812 00:56:22.599 --> 00:56:24.079 a big horror fans. No, I have not. I haven't really watched 813 00:56:24.119 --> 00:56:30.320 that show much. It's with the whole season was about Jessica Lang running a 814 00:56:30.719 --> 00:56:35.480 very much like Olga. You know, maybe the character might have been slightly 815 00:56:35.480 --> 00:56:39.639 based on her. Um ran this traveling side show and they used actual you 816 00:56:39.679 --> 00:56:44.800 know people and the who were born with disabilities. And my friend Matt Fraser 817 00:56:44.800 --> 00:56:47.400 who was a friend, was a Philidamite. Uh you know, Matt was 818 00:56:47.440 --> 00:56:54.639 born with short arms, very short like like to hear and uh. And 819 00:56:54.760 --> 00:56:59.440 it was from a drug that was given to people in England for while they 820 00:56:59.440 --> 00:57:04.119 are pregnant. It to um to help with morning sickness and ended up creating 821 00:57:04.159 --> 00:57:07.519 these what they call birth defects. Back then on what the Home, it 822 00:57:07.559 --> 00:57:09.440 was a huge scandal. It's one of the biggest scandals in history of when 823 00:57:09.480 --> 00:57:12.880 it comes to that UM. I can't remember what it was called, but 824 00:57:12.920 --> 00:57:16.000 I remember reading about it years ago and it was a huge hoot. I 825 00:57:16.039 --> 00:57:20.800 think someone had brought me the possibility of doing even doing a documentary about the 826 00:57:20.840 --> 00:57:27.119 whole I'm sure. Yeah. The mad generation had affected almost He was Matt, 827 00:57:27.239 --> 00:57:30.840 Matt Fraser's his name, and I helped him when I was living in 828 00:57:30.880 --> 00:57:34.239 England with his first show called Celo, and it was about Seal the Seal 829 00:57:34.320 --> 00:57:37.519 Boy, who had the same It wasn't through the same cause of of of 830 00:57:37.599 --> 00:57:42.480 the Philidamite drug, but he was also born with that. So Matt's first 831 00:57:42.480 --> 00:57:47.320 show UH was about Celo, and then Matt features quite heavily in this UH. 832 00:57:47.400 --> 00:57:52.559 In that season of American Horror Story, which is really good, they 833 00:57:52.559 --> 00:57:55.199 had the Princess, the little um from East India, she's she's it's the 834 00:57:55.199 --> 00:58:00.920 littlest person in the world, and they had and they made Um the young 835 00:58:01.039 --> 00:58:05.079 lead I forget his name, be like Lobster Boy, who will talk about 836 00:58:05.119 --> 00:58:07.440 in a little bit. So it was fascinating. The whole season was based 837 00:58:07.519 --> 00:58:13.519 on real freak show performers and a lot of them were actually in this movie, 838 00:58:13.599 --> 00:58:15.000 I love that Matt just embraces that. You know, he's like a 839 00:58:15.039 --> 00:58:19.000 black belt. I mean, man, Matt's Matt Rocks and he's awesome. 840 00:58:19.360 --> 00:58:22.559 But he um. And he helped on a show, another show that we 841 00:58:22.599 --> 00:58:27.360 may call freak Out. Uh that that was that was on in England. 842 00:58:27.360 --> 00:58:30.079 There was a eurotrash and another show I worked on, but freak freak Out 843 00:58:30.159 --> 00:58:35.320 was a good show. And Uh, anyway, it's a people out and 844 00:58:35.320 --> 00:58:37.920 about embracing it, you know, just owning it. Uh, you know, 845 00:58:38.000 --> 00:58:42.480 being stared at your whole life and people you know, here's like I 846 00:58:42.840 --> 00:58:44.880 don't know, it kind of got over that a long time ago, where 847 00:58:44.880 --> 00:58:47.559 if I see somebody with you know, and and it's appropriate and I'll say, 848 00:58:47.559 --> 00:58:50.719 so what's up with that? You know what did you you know? 849 00:58:50.760 --> 00:58:54.039 What what? Uh? What's the story instead of pretending it's not there. 850 00:58:54.119 --> 00:58:57.639 Yeah, I was in an elevator not that long ago with a woman with 851 00:58:57.960 --> 00:59:01.039 only one leg and it does that recent that just happened or you know, 852 00:59:01.119 --> 00:59:06.440 it's just it's like it's right there. I think they people would appreciate the 853 00:59:06.559 --> 00:59:09.199 honesty or the you know, just the you want to know ask you know, 854 00:59:09.320 --> 00:59:13.639 they can they can say pissed off. So um, but ninety percent 855 00:59:13.719 --> 00:59:15.320 of the time whenever I've done that, I've never had a problem with it. 856 00:59:15.360 --> 00:59:17.280 So we'll just say one hundred percent of the time I've done that, 857 00:59:17.559 --> 00:59:22.079 people have been really receptive to talking about stuff like that. So rest in 858 00:59:22.119 --> 00:59:25.920 peace, Schlitzy. We love hey. Yeah, at Queen of Heaven Cemetery 859 00:59:27.440 --> 00:59:31.639 and thanks to the nice people that find a death for him, it's done. 860 00:59:31.760 --> 00:59:36.119 She has a gravestone. It's great. It's a good story. And 861 00:59:36.199 --> 00:59:39.119 now you that's a tradition for you. You you guys do fundraisers for various 862 00:59:40.119 --> 00:59:45.800 for unmarked graves of various celebrities and people that have kind of you know, 863 00:59:45.880 --> 00:59:50.840 died in obscurity or or died without money and have been buried in unmarked graves. 864 00:59:50.880 --> 00:59:53.719 I think it's really cool. Yeah, when we were in Gibsonton, 865 00:59:53.920 --> 00:59:58.280 we went to find a couple of people's graves. We found the Tomainies, 866 00:59:58.320 --> 01:00:00.760 Hell and Jeanie, the Little eighty and the Giant and we were in a 867 01:00:00.800 --> 01:00:04.800 cemetery and of course it was closed the gates, I mean, the office 868 01:00:04.880 --> 01:00:07.400 was closed because of COVID, but there were two people in it that. 869 01:00:07.440 --> 01:00:12.000 We spent hours, Troy and I did, going up and down every aisle 870 01:00:12.079 --> 01:00:15.199 to try to find these people. One of them was Gracie Doll, of 871 01:00:15.239 --> 01:00:20.639 the of the Doll sisters, and the other guy was one of the munchkins 872 01:00:20.679 --> 01:00:25.039 too. Well, all the Dolls were were munchkins in the Wizard of Oz. 873 01:00:25.079 --> 01:00:30.400 All four of them were. Uh. And there were three Lollipop kids. 874 01:00:30.039 --> 01:00:34.000 We know who Jerry Marin was who passed away not that long ago, 875 01:00:34.639 --> 01:00:37.519 and uh, and then Harry Doll was the other one of the Doll family 876 01:00:37.960 --> 01:00:40.840 was the other Lollipop kid. And there was one other guy and i'll um 877 01:00:42.280 --> 01:00:49.440 with he was in that cemetery with Gracie Doll. Jackie Gerlick was his name. 878 01:00:49.800 --> 01:00:52.679 But we had no luck. We had no luck finding him. But 879 01:00:52.719 --> 01:00:54.519 a lot of those people, now it was I didn't want to get into 880 01:00:54.519 --> 01:00:57.760 all that yet. Sorry, I'll stop, I gotta stop talking for a 881 01:00:57.800 --> 01:01:02.320 second. Well, we're talking about the Doll family. So they were German 882 01:01:02.400 --> 01:01:07.159 dwarfs who immigrated to the US and then all four of them went on to 883 01:01:07.199 --> 01:01:12.559 act in films and working on you know, various circus acts. Um, 884 01:01:12.639 --> 01:01:15.239 that's how they made their living. And you know, we talked earlier about 885 01:01:15.360 --> 01:01:19.880 how sometimes these performers would take on the name last names of whoever their guardians 886 01:01:19.880 --> 01:01:24.199 were or whatever. And Daisy and Harry went under the names Earls for a 887 01:01:24.280 --> 01:01:28.000 time because that was the name of their manager when they came to the US, 888 01:01:28.360 --> 01:01:30.199 and then I think after their aunt manager died, they then changed it 889 01:01:30.280 --> 01:01:34.039 back again. But for a time. You know two of the dolls where 890 01:01:34.039 --> 01:01:36.800 I had the last name of Earls. Um, so I thought that was 891 01:01:36.880 --> 01:01:40.679 kind of an interesting tradition back then. Um yeah, they changed back to 892 01:01:40.760 --> 01:01:44.960 Doll after their manager died. I think they were they yeah, they were 893 01:01:45.000 --> 01:01:47.599 born Schneider, then Earls. They took the name Earls, and then they 894 01:01:47.880 --> 01:01:50.840 went to the dolls. I don't know if they ever well, their death 895 01:01:50.840 --> 01:01:54.159 certificate says Earls on it, but in parenthesis somebody did write, you know, 896 01:01:54.239 --> 01:01:59.480 Harry Doll Daisy Doll on it. So so yeah, and they went 897 01:01:59.519 --> 01:02:02.400 into the day and Stay and Harry were both they were both three foot three, 898 01:02:06.400 --> 01:02:09.639 that's lit. Yeah, and they had to do well, I mean, 899 01:02:09.679 --> 01:02:13.079 they really had to do some real acting. I mean they had to 900 01:02:13.119 --> 01:02:15.880 do real scenes. They had to carry you know, they had to hold 901 01:02:15.920 --> 01:02:21.440 their own um. They weren't you know in the background. Um and I 902 01:02:21.480 --> 01:02:24.400 don't know. I I liked. I thought they both did really find performances 903 01:02:24.440 --> 01:02:29.119 for not being you know, professionally super professionally trained actors. That's not what 904 01:02:29.159 --> 01:02:32.199 they did for a living generally. You know, Daisy was better than Harry, 905 01:02:32.599 --> 01:02:37.800 I think. But but yeah, coming out of nowhere, coming out 906 01:02:37.800 --> 01:02:40.440 of nowhere to give these guys leads in a movie, Um, yeah, 907 01:02:40.679 --> 01:02:45.159 something they they didn't. In fact, they weren't. I don't think they 908 01:02:45.159 --> 01:02:47.920 did the freak show circuit. I think they were with the circus, so 909 01:02:47.960 --> 01:02:52.320 they were you know, of course accentuated for their height, uh, you 910 01:02:52.360 --> 01:02:54.400 know, riding around him little ponies and stuff like that. And they were 911 01:02:54.480 --> 01:02:59.199 hired by Yeah, they were with Ringling Brothers and Barnum Bailey. But they 912 01:02:59.239 --> 01:03:02.960 never went the of the side show. As far as I know, they 913 01:03:04.000 --> 01:03:07.320 didn't there. That's another interesting thing about these people is that they would you 914 01:03:07.360 --> 01:03:10.320 know, some people just wouldn't do it. You know. Robert Wadlow will 915 01:03:10.360 --> 01:03:13.199 talk about him, the tall guy. You know, he was with the 916 01:03:13.239 --> 01:03:15.639 circus, but he would not go to a side show. He was a 917 01:03:15.679 --> 01:03:17.920 man who was looked at because of his height, took advantage of that and 918 01:03:19.039 --> 01:03:22.480 made a career out of it, but wouldn't go the freak route. And 919 01:03:22.519 --> 01:03:25.239 I think the Dolls were like that too. Yeah, I can see that. 920 01:03:25.679 --> 01:03:31.280 Daisy Earls passed away on March fifteenth, nineteen seventy two, and Harry 921 01:03:31.320 --> 01:03:36.239 Earls or Doll, passed away on May fourth, nineteen eighty five, five 922 01:03:36.320 --> 01:03:39.440 years later, and he was eighty three. And I don't have causes of 923 01:03:39.519 --> 01:03:45.440 death. Yeah they well, I mean natural causes. I'm sure was nothing. 924 01:03:45.679 --> 01:03:49.039 I know that Tiny Dollars was the last of them, died in two 925 01:03:49.039 --> 01:03:54.320 thousand and four. But yeah, and they're all cremated except for Gracie, 926 01:03:54.360 --> 01:03:58.719 who's supposedly in that cemetery. But uh, you know, we had no 927 01:03:58.840 --> 01:04:02.000 luck. But it was like finding a needle in a haystack there. But 928 01:04:02.079 --> 01:04:04.480 yeah, they lived in a little home, all four of them together in 929 01:04:04.519 --> 01:04:10.719 the house. And they all died in that house in Sarasota. And sweet, 930 01:04:11.400 --> 01:04:14.639 sweet, my little oh, I told you my friend Sadie. She 931 01:04:14.719 --> 01:04:16.960 was four foot two. But she would do again. She would do nothing. 932 01:04:17.000 --> 01:04:19.480 She'll do a lot of you know, so go in animal costumes, 933 01:04:20.199 --> 01:04:24.679 but she'll never do a circus. And that was just their their kind of 934 01:04:24.880 --> 01:04:29.719 thing. Yeah, as opposed to dwarves, because the dwarves are a whole 935 01:04:29.760 --> 01:04:32.760 different a whole different thing. Because I saw Willy Wonka this week. It 936 01:04:32.800 --> 01:04:35.480 was a fiftieth anniversary, so I went to the movies to see it, 937 01:04:35.920 --> 01:04:39.679 and I thought it was going to be this like amazing digital print. It 938 01:04:39.760 --> 01:04:41.679 wasn't. It was a nice print, but it was, you know, 939 01:04:41.800 --> 01:04:46.360 obviously it was not remastered visually, but it was interesting to see the Umpa 940 01:04:46.440 --> 01:04:51.360 Loopa's on the big screen again and the famous dwarves, Herve Biliche of course, 941 01:04:51.559 --> 01:04:58.159 um Tattoo Vern Troyer, Tony Cox, who's still alive. I saw 942 01:04:58.199 --> 01:05:02.039 him my CBS lately, the guy that the black guy in um in Bad 943 01:05:02.119 --> 01:05:08.159 Santa and Okay, yeah, yeah, Kenny Baker, Billy Bartie, David 944 01:05:08.239 --> 01:05:14.639 Rappaport, Zelda Rubinstein from Poldergeist, Peter Dinklich from ELF. We talked about 945 01:05:14.639 --> 01:05:20.559 it in the UH in the other podcast. Um Johnny Eck, Johnny Ech, 946 01:05:20.639 --> 01:05:24.960 the half Man who had the half Man he had no no lower half 947 01:05:24.960 --> 01:05:29.639 from the waist down basically are and um uh And I thought this is interesting. 948 01:05:29.679 --> 01:05:34.000 Apparently DiCaprio has been wanting to do a film about his life since the 949 01:05:34.119 --> 01:05:39.480 nineties. Uh. And there's a screenplay written by the screenwriter who wrote Edward 950 01:05:39.480 --> 01:05:44.719 Scissor Hands. Uh And supposedly the screenplay is amazing. And but I mean 951 01:05:44.880 --> 01:05:47.639 trying for probably you know, thirty years now almost to get a film made, 952 01:05:48.280 --> 01:05:51.440 um and for whatever reason hasn't happened yet. But if that that would 953 01:05:51.440 --> 01:05:58.880 be really fascinating. Yeah, he was an interesting man. Um. Yeah, 954 01:05:58.960 --> 01:06:00.280 I did realized he had a twin brother. I didn't know that until 955 01:06:00.320 --> 01:06:03.880 recently. They were they were and they would do that magic act where they 956 01:06:03.880 --> 01:06:08.719 would he saw somebody in half and Johnny would get out and run around. 957 01:06:09.719 --> 01:06:11.840 You know, there's a few people that have been doing that if you've seen 958 01:06:11.880 --> 01:06:15.159 them recent on YouTube, those pranks where there's a couple of other people that 959 01:06:15.239 --> 01:06:19.559 do that on the beach on Venice Beach. Oh my god, it's hilarious 960 01:06:19.639 --> 01:06:25.159 to it. But I mean I read that like people would run screaming from 961 01:06:25.159 --> 01:06:28.360 the tent or wherever it was they were doing that performance that because it was 962 01:06:28.360 --> 01:06:31.159 a saw in half act. And yeah, and the brother would be the 963 01:06:31.280 --> 01:06:34.440 legs and you know, Harry Ech of course would be the top half and 964 01:06:34.480 --> 01:06:40.079 they would start chasing after his legs basically, and people would run screaming from 965 01:06:40.079 --> 01:06:45.000 from the building. Men would abandon women, like just run for their lives. 966 01:06:45.519 --> 01:06:48.320 Look them up on YouTube. There's a couple of prank videos like that 967 01:06:48.320 --> 01:06:53.119 where somebody does that on Venice Beach and it's terrifying because you think somebody's literally 968 01:06:53.119 --> 01:06:56.400 caught half and I he'd run to run faster on his feet, on his 969 01:06:56.400 --> 01:06:59.440 hands, and most people can in their feet, and he would just run 970 01:06:59.440 --> 01:07:01.639 after people. It was just, oh my god, you'd lose your mind. 971 01:07:02.800 --> 01:07:08.960 But apparently he had um. He had he had legs, apparently, 972 01:07:09.480 --> 01:07:12.119 and we had him like tucked up. He didn't want his legs, you 973 01:07:12.119 --> 01:07:14.519 know, he didn't. I mean they were probably not very big. But 974 01:07:14.599 --> 01:07:18.760 he apparently did have legs, and he and uh and uh someono tucked into 975 01:07:18.800 --> 01:07:24.599 his clothing. At least that's what in one of the documentaries I saw mentions 976 01:07:24.679 --> 01:07:30.239 that and uh but they were Yeah, he was born to fraternal twins, 977 01:07:30.239 --> 01:07:32.639 and that he lived and died in the same house and born and died in 978 01:07:32.679 --> 01:07:36.559 the same house. He could run, He could do um tight rope. 979 01:07:36.599 --> 01:07:41.679 He could his trick was like going up on down on the ladder and uh. 980 01:07:41.800 --> 01:07:45.400 And there's a famous picture him and him on a bicycle, a double 981 01:07:45.400 --> 01:07:48.599 bike and Johnny, you know, the half man is on one side and 982 01:07:48.599 --> 01:07:53.679 then the other guy who has no arms is with his peddling and Johnny's stirring. 983 01:07:54.119 --> 01:07:59.360 It's a great picture. Wow, But yeah, he was. It's 984 01:07:59.360 --> 01:08:03.000 interesting because I literally just found this guy. His name was Jeffrey Pratt Gordon, 985 01:08:03.719 --> 01:08:08.239 and I saw he did a little interview about Johnny eck on YouTube, 986 01:08:08.320 --> 01:08:13.119 so I reached out on Facebook and we've been corresponding, and I asked him 987 01:08:13.199 --> 01:08:16.000 about the house he bought, Johnny X house and he's like a Johnny K 988 01:08:16.079 --> 01:08:20.439 historian. There's Johnny I think Johnny K Museum dot com is what it's called 989 01:08:20.640 --> 01:08:25.760 his website, and he sells like Johnny ac t shirts and stuff like that. 990 01:08:25.800 --> 01:08:29.039 But he bought the house that he says. The house was built in 991 01:08:29.079 --> 01:08:33.039 eighteen ninety six. The Eckhart was there in Eckhart as he shortened it to 992 01:08:33.119 --> 01:08:38.560 eck They bought it in nineteen o six. John Senior, Amelia, their 993 01:08:38.600 --> 01:08:41.840 mother, and their older sister Carolyn. Both parents died in the home in 994 01:08:41.920 --> 01:08:44.800 thirty nine, a month apart from each other. They were set up for 995 01:08:44.880 --> 01:08:47.960 viewing in the living room parlor, thus the name parlor for funeral homes. 996 01:08:48.720 --> 01:08:51.520 And uh and he says, yeah, I still owned the house. He 997 01:08:51.560 --> 01:08:56.359 and his brother were born in the second floor on August twenty seventh, nineteen 998 01:08:56.399 --> 01:09:00.920 eleven. Johnny died directly below that room on j New or fifth, nineteen 999 01:09:00.039 --> 01:09:05.039 ninety one. His brother passed away in ninety five at at Church Home Hospital 1000 01:09:05.640 --> 01:09:10.680 and was the only This was their only home they ever knew. That's kind 1001 01:09:10.720 --> 01:09:15.000 of neat that somebody who had a real respect and an honor for these for 1002 01:09:15.119 --> 01:09:18.560 Johnny ex because he was an accomplished he could act. He's a good looking 1003 01:09:18.600 --> 01:09:24.199 guy. He uh, he was. He would paint and you know, 1004 01:09:24.239 --> 01:09:28.680 there's a thing and I think it's a Baltimore thing where they paint on screens 1005 01:09:29.239 --> 01:09:33.239 and there you could see John johnny x artwork on this on this website. 1006 01:09:33.800 --> 01:09:38.640 It's He's an interesting man, very interesting man, and a very kind man. 1007 01:09:38.760 --> 01:09:42.439 I've heard only nice things about him. We had, you know, 1008 01:09:42.479 --> 01:09:46.840 another really fascinating story were the Siamese twins, Violet and Daisy Hilton. You 1009 01:09:46.880 --> 01:09:50.319 know, the term Siamese twins came come from the original ones that were Changanang 1010 01:09:50.359 --> 01:09:55.239 Bunker, and who were the you know, they were born in what was 1011 01:09:55.319 --> 01:10:00.880 then Siam and then it now is Thailand. But they're the ones very famously 1012 01:10:00.880 --> 01:10:05.520 you know, fathered twenty one children and they were the original Siamese twins and 1013 01:10:05.560 --> 01:10:10.840 that just became the term for co joined twins. So Violet and Daisy Hilton 1014 01:10:11.159 --> 01:10:16.520 were actually born in Britain and sold and exploited and uh and they actually escaped 1015 01:10:16.640 --> 01:10:19.960 their manager. I guess this woman at bottom was really nasty, beat them 1016 01:10:19.960 --> 01:10:25.159 and put them on display. And then when she died, someone else inherited 1017 01:10:25.239 --> 01:10:30.680 these two girls and the same abuse. So somehow they came to America. 1018 01:10:30.960 --> 01:10:33.840 Somehow they got to an attorney and you gotta help us, you got to 1019 01:10:33.880 --> 01:10:39.159 get us out of here, and uh and this guy did and freed them 1020 01:10:39.199 --> 01:10:46.359 from from their their their you know, abusive guardians. Legal they were purchased. 1021 01:10:46.359 --> 01:10:48.520 You know, it's so sad, but they were both they had a 1022 01:10:48.560 --> 01:10:54.520 combined weight of one hundred and sixty six pounds to Hilton sisters. They stood 1023 01:10:54.520 --> 01:11:00.640 four foot nine and they you know, they toured with Bob Hope and yeah, 1024 01:11:00.760 --> 01:11:03.680 yeah they were legit. I mean they're you know, to to to 1025 01:11:03.680 --> 01:11:08.720 to know them. If they were standing next to each other, they had 1026 01:11:08.760 --> 01:11:11.439 an odd little angle, but no one knew there. A lot of people 1027 01:11:11.439 --> 01:11:14.560 didn't even know they were connected. They would walk very smoothly, get in 1028 01:11:14.560 --> 01:11:17.159 and out of cars really easy, you know. So they but they had 1029 01:11:17.159 --> 01:11:21.079 to have their dresses specially made or modified because they had to be connected. 1030 01:11:21.239 --> 01:11:26.600 And they were connected by um, let's see, their lower spines and hips 1031 01:11:26.680 --> 01:11:32.079 were fused. They had the same blood circulation and uh and the same with 1032 01:11:32.119 --> 01:11:36.399 the Bunkers. And uh. There was a movie they did on their own 1033 01:11:36.479 --> 01:11:44.600 after Freaks called UM Change for Life, about this love affair that they were 1034 01:11:44.640 --> 01:11:50.479 having and how they would uh their their respective partners and uh and I think 1035 01:11:50.560 --> 01:11:56.680 one was but they represented that one would kiss and the other one would feel 1036 01:11:56.680 --> 01:11:59.560 it. So it was just I don't know, I don't think that was 1037 01:11:59.600 --> 01:12:03.399 true that get really happened that way. But they retired. They moved to 1038 01:12:03.479 --> 01:12:11.279 Charlotte, North Carolina, and they worked in a supermarket together and Violet or 1039 01:12:11.359 --> 01:12:15.399 Daisy would run the cash register and the sister who was sitting next to her 1040 01:12:15.439 --> 01:12:19.359 obviously because they were connected, would you know, like weigh the produce or 1041 01:12:19.359 --> 01:12:23.920 something. And the people that worked in the supermarket and they went theredn't didn't 1042 01:12:23.960 --> 01:12:27.840 even know. They were like Siamese twins and they lived a little horse and 1043 01:12:28.000 --> 01:12:33.880 uh yeah, it is interesting they were. They were imagine, imagine not 1044 01:12:34.039 --> 01:12:40.439 spending a minute by yourself, you know, connected from birth and never having 1045 01:12:40.520 --> 01:12:45.039 a moment to yourself. There was another pair of twins, Ronnie and Donnie 1046 01:12:45.079 --> 01:12:49.239 gay Galleon, who would you know, brothers that were just they would beat 1047 01:12:49.279 --> 01:12:51.399 the ship out of each other, you know, and they were connected. 1048 01:12:51.399 --> 01:12:56.680 They couldn't go anywhere, you know. It's like, you know, just 1049 01:12:56.720 --> 01:12:59.399 a whole life of compromises is what they'd have to do. You know, 1050 01:12:59.479 --> 01:13:05.039 just the ire life is a compromise. It's fascinating. But yeah, so 1051 01:13:05.079 --> 01:13:08.840 they were. They had a colorful life, and they ended up, you 1052 01:13:08.880 --> 01:13:11.520 know, being out of the picture completely. Didn't want to do any of 1053 01:13:11.560 --> 01:13:15.680 that stuff anymore. I think they did show Freaks once at their home in 1054 01:13:15.920 --> 01:13:17.920 Charlotte or that. I don't know if they went to it or they asked 1055 01:13:17.960 --> 01:13:20.199 them to go. I don't know if they ever did show up on it, 1056 01:13:20.479 --> 01:13:27.039 but they passed away in an interesting way. You probably have that too, 1057 01:13:27.119 --> 01:13:30.960 because I don't the date. I think, well, one of them 1058 01:13:30.000 --> 01:13:33.199 died. They had influenza pneumonia, died of pneumonia, and they say one 1059 01:13:33.199 --> 01:13:36.960 of them died and it was several hours later before the other one died, 1060 01:13:38.279 --> 01:13:41.720 which has got to be just terrifying. Well, that's what happened to the 1061 01:13:41.760 --> 01:13:47.000 Bunkers, you know, the original Siamese twins. They had different lives and 1062 01:13:47.119 --> 01:13:51.079 they could I think it was Houdini taught them or was at the Hilton sisters 1063 01:13:51.439 --> 01:13:57.199 taught them how to separate their brains, you know, from the other one, 1064 01:13:57.479 --> 01:14:00.720 how they could put themselves in some sort of trance to dismiss the other 1065 01:14:00.760 --> 01:14:04.920 one completely. So when they want to, you know, have marital relations 1066 01:14:05.000 --> 01:14:09.920 and stuff, because what they would like the Bunkers, they were both married, 1067 01:14:10.199 --> 01:14:12.840 so they would spend a week at this house and then spend a week 1068 01:14:12.880 --> 01:14:15.600 at that house, so they could all have their own you know, their 1069 01:14:15.600 --> 01:14:19.479 own deal and h but he was again Chang and ang um. One of 1070 01:14:19.520 --> 01:14:24.359 them became a heavy drinker and the other one was one of them had a 1071 01:14:24.399 --> 01:14:28.199 stroke and one of their legs was paralyzed. Imagine being connected and they're having 1072 01:14:28.239 --> 01:14:34.840 a a you know, a leg that didn't work anymore, and they contracted 1073 01:14:34.880 --> 01:14:39.439 bronchitis. And one of them, Uh, they were sitting at because they 1074 01:14:39.479 --> 01:14:43.000 want to sleep because they had congestion issues. So they slept in a chair 1075 01:14:43.039 --> 01:14:45.680 in front of the fire and one of them died and and so you know, 1076 01:14:45.720 --> 01:14:47.840 they found him and the other one says, well, I'm going to 1077 01:14:48.239 --> 01:14:51.800 it's like two hours later he died too. But I think they could have 1078 01:14:51.800 --> 01:14:58.760 been fairly simple operations to nowadays to separate them. But they didn't want to 1079 01:14:58.800 --> 01:15:00.720 do it, you know, so what they knew, and the Hiltons were 1080 01:15:00.760 --> 01:15:03.119 that way too, the Hilton sisters, they just didn't want to do it. 1081 01:15:03.560 --> 01:15:09.359 And uh, and you have you seen um they're called the Chappelle sisters, 1082 01:15:09.560 --> 01:15:14.119 Lorie and Dorry Chappelle. Uh. They're connected by the head. And 1083 01:15:14.159 --> 01:15:19.199 they showed up on Mari and they showed up on Jerry and one of them 1084 01:15:19.239 --> 01:15:24.520 has spina bifida and you know, it's like on a tray and the other 1085 01:15:24.560 --> 01:15:30.159 one can can you know, move pretty well on her own and uh and 1086 01:15:30.199 --> 01:15:36.039 then Dorry, who was the one on the tray, um became country singer 1087 01:15:36.560 --> 01:15:43.000 called changed her name to rebut so touring on a tray with her sisters all 1088 01:15:43.039 --> 01:15:47.880 and her around the whole time as his country singer called rebut and now identifies 1089 01:15:48.079 --> 01:15:55.479 as a male goes by George so So and also Lorie. The other one 1090 01:15:55.560 --> 01:15:58.640 is a trophy winning bowler, which is something that I find fascinating. But 1091 01:16:00.079 --> 01:16:03.079 by Changan Aang Bunker, by the way, when they died, um they 1092 01:16:03.119 --> 01:16:09.800 have they still have family reunions of all their ancestors, of all their descendants. 1093 01:16:10.119 --> 01:16:13.600 And there's the last one was in two thousand and six, fifteen hundred 1094 01:16:13.840 --> 01:16:18.159 descendants of Chang and Yang Bunker and Harry mount Airy, North Carolina Mount. 1095 01:16:18.239 --> 01:16:25.680 Yeah mount Airy. So um and that interesting, Well that's wild. And 1096 01:16:25.720 --> 01:16:29.720 then just I got in a deep dive for a moment about twins, and 1097 01:16:30.000 --> 01:16:34.159 yeah, all these other people were twins. You know Nelson, Ricky Nelson's 1098 01:16:34.239 --> 01:16:40.960 kids, Jerry Hall, Linda Hamilton, Mary Lew Henner, Scarlett Johansson, 1099 01:16:41.680 --> 01:16:45.640 Corey Kennedy, Liberaci had a twin that died of as an infant. Elvis 1100 01:16:45.640 --> 01:16:48.600 had a twin that died as an infant, the Olsen twins, and Aaron 1101 01:16:48.920 --> 01:16:54.000 Murphy and Diane Murphy was tabith on be which all these people had a b 1102 01:16:54.199 --> 01:16:58.079 Davis was a twin. Isn't it interesting? And but you know they made 1103 01:16:58.119 --> 01:17:04.000 on the Brady Bunch Alice sure sure um. Also Aston Kutcher. Oh really, 1104 01:17:04.479 --> 01:17:09.199 I didn't know that as interesting. Giovanni Rubisi too is another one. 1105 01:17:09.600 --> 01:17:13.920 But it's a fasting. Yeah yeah. And some of them, you know, 1106 01:17:13.960 --> 01:17:16.880 it's known because like the like with them the Olsen twins that you know, 1107 01:17:17.039 --> 01:17:20.359 we always knew they were twins because they worked as child actors and and 1108 01:17:20.479 --> 01:17:25.560 Hollywood productions like working with child actors who have twins because of labor laws, 1109 01:17:26.119 --> 01:17:28.520 um and you know, limits with how many hours a day they're allowed to 1110 01:17:28.560 --> 01:17:30.960 work. So if you have twins, you can just rotate them in and 1111 01:17:30.960 --> 01:17:35.680 out, um without overworking anyone twins. So it's interesting when they when it 1112 01:17:35.800 --> 01:17:40.039 a celebrity becomes famous, not as a child actress, so you don't know 1113 01:17:40.079 --> 01:17:43.680 that they have a twin because you know they became famous later in life. 1114 01:17:43.600 --> 01:17:46.520 Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, it's very interesting. And I know that 1115 01:17:46.960 --> 01:17:51.720 sometimes like one change is appearance quite drastically and they had to you know, 1116 01:17:51.760 --> 01:17:55.239 stick with one fax ended. That was the way with the with the Tabitha 1117 01:17:55.319 --> 01:17:59.520 Zombie which Aaron and Diane Murphy and uh and they then it just went down 1118 01:17:59.560 --> 01:18:02.920 to you know Aaron Murphy as the Tabitha for the rest of it. You 1119 01:18:02.960 --> 01:18:08.279 know, it was just the way things ended up. But anyway, so 1120 01:18:08.399 --> 01:18:11.840 yeah, famous Twins the co joined twins Violet, Daisy, Chang and Yang. 1121 01:18:14.039 --> 01:18:16.960 So um, how about what's different? This is? This is this 1122 01:18:17.039 --> 01:18:20.520 is like epic. This thing is a really long podcast. Uh. Robert 1123 01:18:20.520 --> 01:18:24.600 Wadlow was another one. He wasn't in Freaks, but he was a very 1124 01:18:24.600 --> 01:18:29.079 famous man. He was the tallest man in the world eight foot eleven twenty 1125 01:18:29.079 --> 01:18:35.279 two eight and he would he didn't stop growing. There was no sign of 1126 01:18:35.359 --> 01:18:41.159 him stopping. Uh. And uh, I forget what why? Why? 1127 01:18:41.199 --> 01:18:44.560 They what? They he had an infection or something. Well, actually, 1128 01:18:44.560 --> 01:18:46.920 no, I know how he died. He was traveling with a shoe company 1129 01:18:47.199 --> 01:18:50.760 and he was like he was like he would show up at shoe stores and 1130 01:18:50.880 --> 01:18:56.399 open them or whatever. He was like twenty something, right, yeah, 1131 01:18:56.479 --> 01:19:01.439 yeah, And and he had a by all accounts, a really nice guy. 1132 01:19:01.880 --> 01:19:05.600 We were when Jordan and I went on that trip recently, we stopped 1133 01:19:05.760 --> 01:19:09.760 and in Illinois to go to his museum, which was closed because of COVID, 1134 01:19:10.079 --> 01:19:13.000 but going to his grave and went to his house and all that stuff, 1135 01:19:13.000 --> 01:19:15.239 and that was pretty cool. But he was in Manistee, Michigan, 1136 01:19:15.920 --> 01:19:21.600 doing a shoe store in a shoe store promotion that they had hired him to 1137 01:19:21.640 --> 01:19:27.399 do, and he wore ankle braces because he was so big he needed the 1138 01:19:27.399 --> 01:19:33.640 support, and one became irritated and infected and they couldn't take him to the 1139 01:19:33.680 --> 01:19:36.880 hospital because they couldn't accommodate him. So they stayed in the hotel room for 1140 01:19:36.960 --> 01:19:43.079 like ten days, put two or three beds together so he could be comfortable. 1141 01:19:43.399 --> 01:19:47.960 But he ended up passing away there in Michigan and Manistee, Michigan, 1142 01:19:48.199 --> 01:19:54.520 and shipped back to Illinois twelve Paul bearers and eight assistants. They said the 1143 01:19:54.560 --> 01:20:02.479 coffin was ten foot by nine foot and weighed over a thousand pounds. Robert 1144 01:20:02.520 --> 01:20:05.439 Wadlow is one of those famous attractions. If you go to Ripley's, believe 1145 01:20:05.439 --> 01:20:10.520 it or not, there's almost always a Robert Wadlow statue on the outside of 1146 01:20:10.560 --> 01:20:14.119 it, which is which is neat. But I did a lot of research. 1147 01:20:14.119 --> 01:20:16.960 I love Robert Wadlow on him and I'm gonna be doing something about that. 1148 01:20:17.000 --> 01:20:19.800 We got into his school and it was neat. It was neat to 1149 01:20:19.840 --> 01:20:24.239 tell there. I liked him a lot. It was neat. But um, 1150 01:20:25.279 --> 01:20:28.199 we can there's a couple of ones that you know, they don't have 1151 01:20:28.319 --> 01:20:30.880 much of a history to them as so much as uh, I don't know 1152 01:20:30.960 --> 01:20:34.039 much about him. I mean, the Prince Randian was a fascinating one to 1153 01:20:34.039 --> 01:20:40.079 look at. We mentioned him earlier, who was armless and legless and would 1154 01:20:40.159 --> 01:20:44.359 wear like this wool kind of garment around him. It just looked like a 1155 01:20:44.399 --> 01:20:49.760 potato sack really, And and he could His talent was he could roll cigarettes 1156 01:20:49.800 --> 01:20:55.359 with his mouth only and he could shave himself too, So that's what he 1157 01:20:55.399 --> 01:21:01.159 would do for his entertainment portion of of the side show, for his little 1158 01:21:01.159 --> 01:21:09.119 feature. And he was actually born in Guyana, spoke five languages, fathered 1159 01:21:09.319 --> 01:21:15.479 five children that I'm really curious about. And he had it was called Tetramelia 1160 01:21:15.560 --> 01:21:18.800 where he was born without limbs. But um, yeah, And he died 1161 01:21:19.640 --> 01:21:24.880 December nineteenth, nineteen thirty four, New Jersey, was sixty three years old. 1162 01:21:25.319 --> 01:21:31.600 A spontaneous rupture of the heart and my heart attack basically. Yeah. 1163 01:21:31.720 --> 01:21:35.840 Then up to the Tomaani's Genie and Altomany. We mentioned them a little while 1164 01:21:35.840 --> 01:21:40.640 ago. They're the ones to start at Gibsonton where all these lovely, wonderful 1165 01:21:40.680 --> 01:21:47.399 people were able to to live and not be bothered by others, and opened 1166 01:21:47.479 --> 01:21:51.039 up their Giants fishing camp. They adopted two kids. He was eight foot 1167 01:21:51.119 --> 01:21:59.560 four, she was he was worth twenty six shoe and uh and opened up 1168 01:21:59.600 --> 01:22:04.119 their little restaurant and Jeannie TooMany stayed there until she passed away. Uh and 1169 01:22:04.279 --> 01:22:10.840 uh and their their old giants camp. It's they've kept one of the cottages 1170 01:22:11.199 --> 01:22:15.560 and there is a statue of Altomani's boot in front of it. But it's 1171 01:22:15.600 --> 01:22:18.680 like on a busy road and if you literally, if you don't look, 1172 01:22:18.840 --> 01:22:23.399 you wouldn't you wouldn't see it. And it's it's sad because these people were 1173 01:22:23.439 --> 01:22:28.600 important at that for the whole town and for the community. And she said, 1174 01:22:28.720 --> 01:22:30.119 she she said, you know, people always looked at this oddly because 1175 01:22:30.119 --> 01:22:32.399 she was the half girl. Of course they were going to look at her 1176 01:22:32.399 --> 01:22:35.039 oddly. She goes, When I was young, I had a ball, 1177 01:22:35.159 --> 01:22:40.880 she said. I loved the attention. And uh so taking these you know, 1178 01:22:41.319 --> 01:22:45.760 lemons and making lemonade as it were sure they were the world's strangest married 1179 01:22:45.800 --> 01:22:50.319 couple. And uh and uh, Yeah, and they're and they're forever and 1180 01:22:50.399 --> 01:22:54.680 Gibsons in two they're buried in the same cemetery, although a little bit further 1181 01:22:55.039 --> 01:22:59.239 from each other. But uh, yeah said, but lovely, lovely people 1182 01:22:59.319 --> 01:23:03.039 from all account and then, uh, I'll just do a little brief thing 1183 01:23:03.039 --> 01:23:08.079 on Grady Styles. I did a YouTube video about him and his murder. 1184 01:23:08.119 --> 01:23:13.640 They called him the lobster Boy. He was extraductively was what I think it 1185 01:23:13.720 --> 01:23:17.079 was called, where he was born with it with his fingers fused together and 1186 01:23:17.319 --> 01:23:20.880 his arms. And he came from a family that did that on purpose to 1187 01:23:20.920 --> 01:23:25.880 be in the side show, you know, like they purposely made more lobster 1188 01:23:26.000 --> 01:23:29.680 babies so they could carry on this family tradition. There was a book that 1189 01:23:29.720 --> 01:23:32.039 was really big in the nineties called Geek Love, and it was about that 1190 01:23:32.319 --> 01:23:35.960 sort of that was one of the main parts as his family were creating their 1191 01:23:36.000 --> 01:23:43.439 own quote unquote freaks, so to continue that family tradition. It um, 1192 01:23:43.880 --> 01:23:49.159 it's fascinating, it's fascinating. And Grady Styles was a nasty drunk, mean 1193 01:23:49.319 --> 01:23:54.680 drunk would beat people, strangle people, had butt people, and his wife 1194 01:23:54.720 --> 01:23:59.640 basically took a contract out on him. And it's it's it's a fascinating story 1195 01:24:00.399 --> 01:24:04.600 because he had a lobster child and as two lobster children and then um, 1196 01:24:05.159 --> 01:24:09.000 but the woman, the mother who's beating, the wife who married him twice, 1197 01:24:09.279 --> 01:24:13.119 was married to him for a second time, who and her her son 1198 01:24:13.319 --> 01:24:16.119 from a different relationship, the human blockhead who would pound nails into his head. 1199 01:24:16.880 --> 01:24:19.039 She told her son, I got to get out of this relationship. 1200 01:24:19.239 --> 01:24:25.560 So blockhead hired another guy to kill him and uh and did for like fifteen 1201 01:24:25.600 --> 01:24:29.119 hundred dollars and uh, they you know, it was done in a minute. 1202 01:24:29.119 --> 01:24:32.399 They rolled in a minute when the police are doing the investigations. But 1203 01:24:33.000 --> 01:24:36.880 yeah, it's a fascinating story. Greedy Styles and it's on my YouTube channel 1204 01:24:36.880 --> 01:24:41.119 if you wanted to, uh to find out more about it. Just h 1205 01:24:41.640 --> 01:24:44.279 and Greedy Styles the Third. He's still around there. Remember for a while 1206 01:24:44.319 --> 01:24:47.279 there was that freak show in Venice. It just closed like three years ago, 1207 01:24:47.760 --> 01:24:50.800 and they had Greedy Styles the Third there and it was it was mostly 1208 01:24:50.840 --> 01:24:56.640 geeks, you know, and people shoving nails into their faces and swallowing sword 1209 01:24:56.720 --> 01:25:00.159 swallowers and say, there were very few I think, uh, you know, 1210 01:25:00.199 --> 01:25:06.439 proper what they would call physical sideshow attractions and um and uh yeah, 1211 01:25:06.439 --> 01:25:09.479 but that was that was a freak show. A lot of little people. 1212 01:25:09.560 --> 01:25:12.680 And and Grady the Third, I don't know where he is anymore, but 1213 01:25:12.680 --> 01:25:15.640 he's still around. I guess he's active on Facebook. I haven't looked. 1214 01:25:15.920 --> 01:25:20.079 Huh. There's just one other point I wanted to make is that modern day 1215 01:25:20.159 --> 01:25:25.159 freak shows. I think it's on PC and they would never let it happen 1216 01:25:25.880 --> 01:25:30.600 now, But have you turned on TLC, you know, the Learning the 1217 01:25:30.720 --> 01:25:36.560 Learning Channel, it's my six hundred pound life. It's the world's fattest people, 1218 01:25:36.600 --> 01:25:41.960 but it's the hoarders, it's the little families, and it is like 1219 01:25:42.000 --> 01:25:46.720 the you know, they're they're going under the under the umbrella of being the 1220 01:25:46.800 --> 01:25:51.760 Learning Channel and almost being educational, but they are just doing the freak shows, 1221 01:25:51.800 --> 01:25:55.800 you know, and and it's under a different guys. But I just 1222 01:25:55.840 --> 01:25:59.159 found that. I found that interesting. It still exists and they're masking it 1223 01:25:59.239 --> 01:26:04.439 as this educational television, but it's really exploitation in its own way. Yeah. 1224 01:26:04.479 --> 01:26:10.920 But so we wanted to talk about Todd Browning and when you read something, 1225 01:26:11.239 --> 01:26:14.199 Yeah, so I had a couple of guys I wanted to talk about 1226 01:26:14.239 --> 01:26:19.399 Todd Robbins, who was the author who wrote the short story Spurs that Freaks 1227 01:26:19.479 --> 01:26:24.720 was based on. So when Browning wanted to make Freaks, he optioned the 1228 01:26:24.840 --> 01:26:29.680 rights or bought the rights to the Spurs short story. And Spurs was based 1229 01:26:29.800 --> 01:26:33.760 actually in France and when a French traveling carnival or circus, and most of 1230 01:26:33.800 --> 01:26:39.520 the story of course was thrown out. Very little of it survived into the 1231 01:26:39.560 --> 01:26:44.479 screenplay. I think the big dinner scene was the main thing that and I 1232 01:26:44.479 --> 01:26:46.720 think one other scene were the two main things that stayed. And I believe 1233 01:26:46.760 --> 01:26:51.560 the overall the kind of plot of the scheming trapeze artist, you know, 1234 01:26:51.600 --> 01:26:56.399 trying to get the guy's money, I think that was taken from that, 1235 01:26:56.560 --> 01:26:58.640 you know, the short story. But I think everything else, of course 1236 01:26:58.760 --> 01:27:02.039 was changed, and of course was moved from France to the US the setting. 1237 01:27:02.359 --> 01:27:05.800 But Todd Robbins was an interesting guy. He was born into a wealthy 1238 01:27:05.880 --> 01:27:14.520 family in the northeast US and um, yes, the author of the short 1239 01:27:14.560 --> 01:27:18.279 story today. Sorry, So Todd Robbins had an interesting life. He was 1240 01:27:18.319 --> 01:27:23.279 born into wealth, he was born, you know, up in the northeast, 1241 01:27:23.319 --> 01:27:26.720 and his dad died when he was fairly I think still a young man, 1242 01:27:27.119 --> 01:27:30.199 Robbins was so he inherited you know, so much wealth at that age. 1243 01:27:30.279 --> 01:27:32.000 He really didn't need to work anymore. Um, And he became an 1244 01:27:32.000 --> 01:27:38.039 author and he eventually immigrated to the French riviera and was there when World War 1245 01:27:38.079 --> 01:27:42.359 two started, and he had every opportunity to leave. He could have gone 1246 01:27:42.359 --> 01:27:44.920 back to the UK, or he could have even gone back to the US 1247 01:27:45.039 --> 01:27:47.119 to we're kind of right out the war, but he was kind of like 1248 01:27:47.199 --> 01:27:50.760 defiant and he refused to leave France. So he ended up being sent to 1249 01:27:50.800 --> 01:27:55.760 a concentration camp that was in France, um you know by that in Germans 1250 01:27:55.800 --> 01:27:59.399 when they invaded and it was not um, not that there were any good 1251 01:27:59.399 --> 01:28:01.880 concentration camps. It was not like a death camp or something horrible like that, 1252 01:28:01.880 --> 01:28:06.359 but it was where um, a lot of them you know, Americans 1253 01:28:06.359 --> 01:28:10.159 and Brits that were caught, you know, civilians that were you know, 1254 01:28:10.239 --> 01:28:13.720 became part of occupied you know, France. It's where they were sent um. 1255 01:28:13.760 --> 01:28:16.359 And so he went through that experience and they don't they don't know which 1256 01:28:16.439 --> 01:28:19.520 camp he was in. He never wrote about it, but he was. 1257 01:28:19.680 --> 01:28:23.640 But they've kind of guessed at which one he probably was sent to and then 1258 01:28:23.800 --> 01:28:25.880 uh, and then he eventually, you know, he survived and he got 1259 01:28:25.880 --> 01:28:29.960 through the war and he passed away there in the French Riviera in nineteen forty 1260 01:28:30.000 --> 01:28:33.239 nine on May tenth, and he was sixty years old. But he had 1261 01:28:33.279 --> 01:28:36.720 a crazy he had a crazy one crazy story that I really liked was he 1262 01:28:36.800 --> 01:28:42.239 was when he was in college in America. They went to some he and 1263 01:28:42.279 --> 01:28:45.159 some buddies went out for a night out and they ended up in some theater. 1264 01:28:45.840 --> 01:28:48.079 Uh. And it was there was a boxing event going on, and 1265 01:28:48.119 --> 01:28:53.199 there was this frenchman in the ring who was touting himself as like the champion 1266 01:28:53.319 --> 01:28:57.439 boxer of France, and they had they had a fight in the guy won, 1267 01:28:57.760 --> 01:29:00.359 and then they challenged anybody in the in the audience that wanted to fight 1268 01:29:00.439 --> 01:29:03.199 this guy. If they won, they would be crowned, you know, 1269 01:29:03.239 --> 01:29:06.119 the boxing champion of France. They would become the new guy. And so 1270 01:29:06.199 --> 01:29:11.039 Todd Robbins friends goaded him into doing it. I guess he was a pretty 1271 01:29:11.039 --> 01:29:15.680 athletic guy. And when he got in the ring, the French fighter looked 1272 01:29:15.720 --> 01:29:19.439 at him, was like no, and and left and so he so he 1273 01:29:19.560 --> 01:29:25.720 unofficially, by default, Todd Robbins became the you know, the unofficial so 1274 01:29:25.920 --> 01:29:30.840 called you know, champion boxer of France. Um, he was just be 1275 01:29:30.960 --> 01:29:33.279 getting of the ring and it turned out that this this boxer was actually this 1276 01:29:33.319 --> 01:29:36.159 Frenchman was actually just an actor and he was just trying to get money to 1277 01:29:36.199 --> 01:29:40.720 go home. So it was all, you know, wow set up. 1278 01:29:40.760 --> 01:29:45.840 But yeah, it was really a fascinating story. So he probably Spurs that 1279 01:29:45.960 --> 01:29:49.000 was The Freaks was based on. It's probably the biggest most famous work he 1280 01:29:49.079 --> 01:29:51.520 did, right, I mean, yeah, yeah he had other um he 1281 01:29:51.560 --> 01:29:55.319 was published if if he had a few other books published, I believe, 1282 01:29:55.319 --> 01:29:57.720 full length novels and stuff. But yeah, I think Spurs is probably what 1283 01:29:57.760 --> 01:30:01.039 he's bost best known for because Odd Browning you know, took on Yeah, 1284 01:30:01.479 --> 01:30:05.159 and I thought it was interesting since Todd Browning himself had a history with you 1285 01:30:05.199 --> 01:30:10.039 know, carnivals and circuses working with them, that he would take on this 1286 01:30:10.600 --> 01:30:13.239 film. And it's almost like he was the right person to tell the story 1287 01:30:13.279 --> 01:30:16.439 because he showed all these performers as real human beings and showed them with some 1288 01:30:16.479 --> 01:30:21.159 compassion, which another director that didn't have that background might not have done or 1289 01:30:21.199 --> 01:30:25.680 probably wouldn't have done. So it's almost like, you know, like they 1290 01:30:25.720 --> 01:30:29.000 did today, they would call that representation. You know, representation matters. 1291 01:30:29.520 --> 01:30:33.560 Having this director that probably, you know, I'm sure had befriended performers like 1292 01:30:33.600 --> 01:30:40.920 this when he worked and that circuit himself had a much more sympathetic eye towards 1293 01:30:40.920 --> 01:30:44.079 those characters than someone else might have had, I think. Um. But 1294 01:30:44.199 --> 01:30:48.319 Todd Browning, uh, he made his became a famous director in the silent 1295 01:30:48.399 --> 01:30:53.600 era, and was most famous because he did ten films with Lon Cheney and 1296 01:30:53.680 --> 01:30:58.239 when he went on to make Dracula in nineteen thirty one, he wanted Cheney, 1297 01:30:58.279 --> 01:31:00.560 but Chaney died and so he got as he kind of put it, 1298 01:31:00.640 --> 01:31:03.960 he kind of got stuck with Bella Daghossi was not his first choice, but 1299 01:31:04.119 --> 01:31:09.159 of course Bello Legossi, you know, made the role famous, and Todd 1300 01:31:09.199 --> 01:31:13.119 Browning's Dracula with Bella Legossi as a major, major milestone in the history of 1301 01:31:13.119 --> 01:31:17.239 horror film production and kicked off, as we said earlier, Universal's whole monster 1302 01:31:17.359 --> 01:31:23.000 movie horror run in nineteen thirties. It's so famous. Yeah, yeah, 1303 01:31:23.079 --> 01:31:27.800 so he had also Browning had also previously done another film, a silent film 1304 01:31:27.840 --> 01:31:31.520 about circus carnival performers that he made in nineteen twenty seven called the Show. 1305 01:31:31.560 --> 01:31:35.039 So it wasn't even the first time he'd done this subject matter before. But 1306 01:31:35.239 --> 01:31:44.119 here's the interesting story that I really wanted to tell. So in nineteen fifteen, 1307 01:31:44.359 --> 01:31:47.880 Todd Browning was not yet a famous, established director yet, he was 1308 01:31:47.920 --> 01:31:54.640 just kind of in early stages of his career. And he was driving at 1309 01:31:54.720 --> 01:31:58.039 night with two other people, both in the show biz and one of them 1310 01:31:58.079 --> 01:32:00.800 was Elmer Booth, who at that time had some fame as a silent film 1311 01:32:00.800 --> 01:32:05.960 actor. And there's two versions of events. One is that Browning was driving 1312 01:32:06.039 --> 01:32:10.079 drunk, and the other one was that it was foggy and visibility was bad. 1313 01:32:10.720 --> 01:32:14.119 It may have been a combination of the two. But he ran into 1314 01:32:14.239 --> 01:32:18.159 a train, into like a flat car on a train, and it was 1315 01:32:18.239 --> 01:32:25.000 carrying rails and it was you know, it instantly killed Elmer Booth from you 1316 01:32:25.000 --> 01:32:30.840 know, severe head trauma from running into the rails, and Todd Browning and 1317 01:32:30.880 --> 01:32:35.079 the other passenger were seriously seriously injured, broken bones, lacerations to their face, 1318 01:32:35.159 --> 01:32:39.199 and it apparently took him quite a long time, quite a few months 1319 01:32:39.760 --> 01:32:44.000 to recover from this accident. So here's where it gets interesting. I went 1320 01:32:44.039 --> 01:32:45.399 back and read the original stories. You know, in the old stories, 1321 01:32:45.439 --> 01:32:50.319 they would actually print the people's addresses in the newspaper. And the address that 1322 01:32:50.359 --> 01:32:55.840 they gave for Todd Browning was forty five hundred Sunset Boulevard, which was where 1323 01:32:55.960 --> 01:32:59.800 d W. Griffith Studio was based at that time. And d W. 1324 01:33:00.000 --> 01:33:02.560 Griffith was getting ready to make Intolerance his big epic, and Elmer Booth was 1325 01:33:02.600 --> 01:33:08.479 actually slated he was going to get a role in that film, and Browning 1326 01:33:08.560 --> 01:33:12.920 was ended up working as an assistant director on Intolerance. He was one of 1327 01:33:12.920 --> 01:33:15.840 the many assistant directors they had working on because it was such a huge production. 1328 01:33:15.359 --> 01:33:19.720 So Elmer Booth dies and d W. Griffith feels bad for Booth's family. 1329 01:33:20.159 --> 01:33:25.560 And Elmer Booth had a younger sister named Margaret Booth, and d W. 1330 01:33:25.800 --> 01:33:29.439 Griffith hired her as what they didn't used to call cutters, which were 1331 01:33:29.479 --> 01:33:32.520 now called film editors, and a cutter literally because they would take scissors and 1332 01:33:33.600 --> 01:33:40.039 razorblades physically cut the film to edit it all together. So Margaret Booth gets 1333 01:33:40.119 --> 01:33:44.079 hired almost kind of out of sympathy for her family by dBW Griffiths, because 1334 01:33:44.119 --> 01:33:45.840 you know, they lost their breadwinner and Elmer Booth when her brother died. 1335 01:33:46.239 --> 01:33:53.000 So Margaret Booth starts working as a cutter. So fast forward to nineteen thirty 1336 01:33:53.039 --> 01:33:59.800 two and Freaks has been made, and as we talked about earlier, Irving 1337 01:34:00.000 --> 01:34:02.840 Alberg took the movie away from Browning and chopped almost a third of it off. 1338 01:34:03.920 --> 01:34:13.279 Yeah, yeah, and guess who was the supervising editor at MGM by 1339 01:34:13.279 --> 01:34:20.439 this point Margaret No kidding, yep, Margaret Booth was the supervising editor at 1340 01:34:20.520 --> 01:34:25.079 MGM, and she was made supervising editor in nineteen thirty two. She'd been 1341 01:34:25.079 --> 01:34:29.600 an editor there for several years. She had become good friends with Irving Thalberg. 1342 01:34:30.000 --> 01:34:32.159 In fact, Irving Thalberg, as the legend goes, coined the term 1343 01:34:32.279 --> 01:34:36.680 film editor it never existed before, and bestowed it upon Margaret Booth. She 1344 01:34:36.800 --> 01:34:41.720 was disposedly, as legend goes, the first person to be given the film 1345 01:34:41.840 --> 01:34:45.239 editor title in the twenties, and so she'd been an editor at MGM for 1346 01:34:45.359 --> 01:34:50.680 years by this point, gets made the supervising editor, and she never forgave 1347 01:34:50.840 --> 01:34:58.439 Todd Browning for the death of her brother and Irving Thalberg and MGM takes his 1348 01:34:58.520 --> 01:35:00.199 movie away from him and edit the hell out of it and cuts in. 1349 01:35:00.279 --> 01:35:03.720 I don't know if she ever had anything to do with Freak. She's not 1350 01:35:03.760 --> 01:35:08.800 credited on it. But they also said that when she became supervising editor for 1351 01:35:08.800 --> 01:35:12.239 the next thirty years, there wasn't a project that came out of MGM that 1352 01:35:12.359 --> 01:35:18.600 she didn't have oversight over as an editor. Wow. So it's interesting whether 1353 01:35:18.680 --> 01:35:23.880 or not, you know, if she had anything to do with it getting 1354 01:35:24.159 --> 01:35:27.239 chopped down over this, you know. And she had no love for the 1355 01:35:27.239 --> 01:35:30.760 guy obviously because she for the death of her brother. So I don't know. 1356 01:35:30.880 --> 01:35:34.039 And she ended up having one of the most prolific careers. She's a 1357 01:35:34.159 --> 01:35:38.560 very, very famous editor in film history, not just because she's, you 1358 01:35:38.560 --> 01:35:40.960 know, supposedly the first person to get the title, but she had a 1359 01:35:41.000 --> 01:35:45.680 seventy year career in post production in Hollywood. She edited Annie in nineteen eighty 1360 01:35:45.680 --> 01:35:48.800 two. She was in her eighties, that's how long her career went. 1361 01:35:49.279 --> 01:35:53.760 She also edited A Goodbye Girl. She edited Mutiny on the Bounty back in 1362 01:35:53.800 --> 01:35:56.239 the thirties. I mean, she was in the middle of it. What 1363 01:35:56.359 --> 01:36:00.560 a what a life and and and in its part because her brother died and 1364 01:36:00.640 --> 01:36:04.039 she got offered that job. And at that time, in the early years, 1365 01:36:04.079 --> 01:36:08.000 most of the cutters were women. Most of the film editors were female. 1366 01:36:08.680 --> 01:36:11.520 Um, in those early years, really, I didn't know that. 1367 01:36:11.920 --> 01:36:15.720 And there a story and in one of the seasons of American Horror Story there 1368 01:36:15.760 --> 01:36:24.880 was a character named Margaret Booth, which I assume maybe is connect. It 1369 01:36:24.960 --> 01:36:27.439 wasn't based on her in any way. I don't think the character was like 1370 01:36:27.520 --> 01:36:31.039 her, but it was she was named Margaret Booth. Yeah, yeah, 1371 01:36:31.039 --> 01:36:34.439 I'm going to look that up because that's symbolic of something, you know, 1372 01:36:34.680 --> 01:36:38.079 it's got to be. So maybe it is the Freak Show season, I 1373 01:36:38.159 --> 01:36:44.600 wonder. Hum. And then of course there's a six degrees of Manson connection, 1374 01:36:44.960 --> 01:36:48.239 because there always is. Uh. One of her early film credits was 1375 01:36:48.359 --> 01:36:53.199 in nineteen twenty three was a film called The Wanters, and this is a 1376 01:36:53.279 --> 01:36:55.880 year before MGM got formed, but it was for Louis B. Mayer, 1377 01:36:56.039 --> 01:37:00.159 his original production company, and which also featured Norma Shoe, who was Irving 1378 01:37:00.239 --> 01:37:04.239 Thalberg's went on to be Irving Thalberg's wife and the queen of MGM in the 1379 01:37:04.359 --> 01:37:13.039 thirties. Um and Uh, the writer of the Wanters was Paul Byrne Oh 1380 01:37:13.119 --> 01:37:15.560 my gosh, okay, and of course Paul Burne, you know, built 1381 01:37:15.600 --> 01:37:19.880 the house that eventually Jay seburn lived in when at the time of the murders, 1382 01:37:19.920 --> 01:37:24.199 of the Manson murders, when he became when he was killed. That's 1383 01:37:24.239 --> 01:37:27.199 good, that's good. It's like one of the sixty years ago we gotta 1384 01:37:27.279 --> 01:37:30.359 do this, he gotta figure it out. You did it. It's really 1385 01:37:30.479 --> 01:37:33.720 good. There's got to be a reference in there somewhere. There has to 1386 01:37:33.800 --> 01:37:36.319 be, man, I know some people get annoyed. It very very good. 1387 01:37:39.520 --> 01:37:42.600 Yeah. I didn't know that until I was reading a little bit about 1388 01:37:42.600 --> 01:37:47.720 it that he is an uncredited Todd Brownie was an uncredited writer on um Intolerance 1389 01:37:48.439 --> 01:37:56.319 did w griwth movie interest. That's interesting and they it's kind of newsy now 1390 01:37:56.479 --> 01:38:00.520 because um, you know, Intolerance was the largest movie show ever if you 1391 01:38:00.560 --> 01:38:02.319 look it up, it's insane the amount of extras that were in this thing, 1392 01:38:02.359 --> 01:38:05.359 Intolerances of I thought it was kind of a hard movie to sit through, 1393 01:38:05.800 --> 01:38:14.760 but uh, but it's a silent movie and epic huge sets that were 1394 01:38:14.800 --> 01:38:16.840 actually they said one of the first tourist attractions in Hollywood. People came here 1395 01:38:16.920 --> 01:38:19.680 because they didn't tear them down through it. Yeah, that was right. 1396 01:38:19.840 --> 01:38:24.119 So we talked about the Vista Theater. We talked about the Vista Theater earlier, 1397 01:38:24.199 --> 01:38:27.399 and that's where basically the set was kind of in that block of streets 1398 01:38:27.439 --> 01:38:30.279 there, which was right next to where dd Wig Griffith studios were, and 1399 01:38:30.359 --> 01:38:35.199 they remained standing of a set. There's a picture of the set being built 1400 01:38:35.239 --> 01:38:38.840 and you can still match up the houses that are still there. It's it's 1401 01:38:39.319 --> 01:38:44.039 all still there. So um. Margaret Booth died in two thousand and two 1402 01:38:44.079 --> 01:38:47.279 at the age of one hundred and four. She lived in three different centuries. 1403 01:38:48.520 --> 01:38:51.000 No, kid, I was born in eighteen ninety eight, so she 1404 01:38:51.079 --> 01:38:55.800 lived in the eighteen hundreds, the nineteen hundreds and to two thousands' is that 1405 01:38:55.920 --> 01:39:01.439 crazy? Um? And then you know Todd rounding his career kind of faded 1406 01:39:02.239 --> 01:39:05.399 throughout over the thirties. He did some more films, but by nineteen thirty 1407 01:39:05.479 --> 01:39:10.159 nine reportedly he felt like, you know, the industry had kind of passed 1408 01:39:10.239 --> 01:39:14.520 him on the sensibilities of the audience as had changed from the types of films 1409 01:39:14.520 --> 01:39:17.279 that he made, and so he basically virtually retired by the end of the 1410 01:39:17.399 --> 01:39:21.079 nineteen thirties, and then he went in he became a recluse. He had 1411 01:39:21.119 --> 01:39:26.399 a home in Malibu and he just disappeared into the home. And his wife 1412 01:39:26.439 --> 01:39:30.159 died in nineteen forty four, and he had been become he'd become such a 1413 01:39:30.199 --> 01:39:33.439 recluse by then. That apparently that one of the bigger bituaries reported that he 1414 01:39:33.560 --> 01:39:39.119 had died then, not not his wife. There was confusion, and then 1415 01:39:39.199 --> 01:39:43.560 he you know, he kind of lived in an alcoholic, reclusive lifestyle and 1416 01:39:44.000 --> 01:39:48.720 died himself on October sixth, nineteen sixty two, and the cause was unknown, 1417 01:39:48.760 --> 01:39:53.279 but he had been treated for cancer over those last few years of his 1418 01:39:53.359 --> 01:39:57.520 life, and of course he had years of alcohol abuse, so I know 1419 01:39:57.680 --> 01:40:01.840 that he had. Oh there was a story, did you did you see 1420 01:40:01.960 --> 01:40:06.520 read that story about the guy showing up at at his grave at his funeral 1421 01:40:06.600 --> 01:40:11.520 with a case of Coors Beer. I don't know where I already if I'm 1422 01:40:11.560 --> 01:40:14.279 finding that, but yeah, here's the story I got. It was he 1423 01:40:14.439 --> 01:40:19.119 was he was embalmed by Gates, Kingsley Gates. They're the people whom they're 1424 01:40:19.159 --> 01:40:25.760 in Santa Monica still after visiting hours, a gentleman only known as Lucky sat 1425 01:40:25.800 --> 01:40:30.760 with Browning's corpse and polished off a case of Coors beer. He knew nothing 1426 01:40:30.880 --> 01:40:34.279 of Browning's life, Hollywood life, but the two were drinking buddies and the 1427 01:40:34.359 --> 01:40:40.279 pact was made while Todd was still alive. So, um, that's an 1428 01:40:40.319 --> 01:40:44.720 interesting story. There was a thing about Todd Browning had a parrot and the 1429 01:40:44.760 --> 01:40:54.399 only thing it knew how to say it was worse Dorothy. Okay, that's 1430 01:40:54.439 --> 01:40:59.159 hilarious. Oh yeah, and I forget who he was with, because he 1431 01:40:59.319 --> 01:41:01.640 kind of chummed up with a bunch of people. But he's buried in this 1432 01:41:01.840 --> 01:41:06.319 little place with his wife Alice, and these other people called Houghton h o 1433 01:41:06.479 --> 01:41:09.720 U G h t O N and a little column barry him. Is the 1434 01:41:09.800 --> 01:41:14.680 most unassuming little place. Um. Yeah, his wife was probably like, 1435 01:41:14.760 --> 01:41:19.359 who the hell is Dorothy? Yeah, the parent saying some other woman's name. 1436 01:41:19.960 --> 01:41:24.840 It was the League Wizard of Oz fans here. That must be it 1437 01:41:25.680 --> 01:41:30.399 must be it. Um. But um, I think so did we do 1438 01:41:30.560 --> 01:41:34.399 freakes? I think we're done with freaks. Um. I wanted to give 1439 01:41:34.399 --> 01:41:38.239 a I wanted to give a quick shout out. We talked earlier about you 1440 01:41:38.279 --> 01:41:42.800 know, you mentioned some documentaries, Uh, related to some of these characters, 1441 01:41:42.840 --> 01:41:45.560 and that reminded me that, um, you know our mutual acquaintance friend, 1442 01:41:45.720 --> 01:41:49.720 Jeffrey Schwartz. Uh, he's a documentary filmmaker. He did Divine, 1443 01:41:49.800 --> 01:41:55.960 a Divine documentary, and tab Hunter Confidential and Alan Carr really really good showbiz 1444 01:41:56.039 --> 01:41:59.439 docs. Um. And he has a new one coming out called Boulevard, 1445 01:41:59.520 --> 01:42:05.479 a Hollywoo story that's all about how Glorious Swanson tried to get a Sunset Boulevard 1446 01:42:05.640 --> 01:42:10.279 musical off the ground. Um. Maybe you know she was trying to do 1447 01:42:10.359 --> 01:42:14.000 it herself. And I did this story, and yeah, it's amazing. 1448 01:42:14.039 --> 01:42:17.439 It's a story I knew nothing about, and apparently I m I AMDB it 1449 01:42:17.479 --> 01:42:19.800 popped up. I got a special thanks credit for it, which is really 1450 01:42:19.920 --> 01:42:24.720 nice. Nice. I don't know, I don't remember what I did, 1451 01:42:24.800 --> 01:42:29.319 but I'm I appreciate it always and I'm freaking fascinated by this story just reading 1452 01:42:29.359 --> 01:42:32.840 about it, and um, it apparently premiered it out fast this past this 1453 01:42:33.000 --> 01:42:36.800 month, and hopefully we'll be out, you know, for people to watch 1454 01:42:36.880 --> 01:42:41.319 and rent soon. I don't know what the release plan for it is, 1455 01:42:41.479 --> 01:42:45.640 but I'm sure distribution and you know, be out in the next few months 1456 01:42:45.640 --> 01:42:48.079 hopefully. So it is fascinating. I mean, Glorious Swanson was a smart 1457 01:42:48.159 --> 01:42:53.560 lady and she bought the rights to a musical version of Sunset Boulevard in the 1458 01:42:53.680 --> 01:42:55.800 sixties. She was going to get this thing out the ground. I think 1459 01:42:55.840 --> 01:42:59.840 she may even got the rights in the fifties, but but she was working 1460 01:43:00.000 --> 01:43:02.239 with these guys. She got the permission from Paramount Studios to do this, 1461 01:43:02.920 --> 01:43:08.159 and then Paramounts started backing off on it, and they started saying, well, 1462 01:43:08.600 --> 01:43:12.640 you know, we can't we don't want it to uh take away from 1463 01:43:12.800 --> 01:43:15.840 the actual movie itself. And I know they really jerked her around because she 1464 01:43:15.920 --> 01:43:19.119 spent a lot of money on it. She hired these two guys that were 1465 01:43:19.399 --> 01:43:25.920 composing the music, and and Paramount really jerked her around on it. It's 1466 01:43:26.000 --> 01:43:29.079 it's it's very interesting. Yeah, I'm like, I'm looking forward to this 1467 01:43:29.239 --> 01:43:32.960 documentary because she ended up. Yeah, it's probably one of the biggest disappointments 1468 01:43:33.000 --> 01:43:35.479 of her life, if there was one, was that this thing didn't get 1469 01:43:35.479 --> 01:43:39.359 off the ground, because it was a real passionate project for her. So 1470 01:43:39.600 --> 01:43:43.359 I'm excited to see it. I guess Andrew Lloyd Webber got one off the 1471 01:43:43.399 --> 01:43:46.039 ground in the nineties, but that's not the same It wasn't the same project 1472 01:43:46.119 --> 01:43:51.479 that she was. Correct, Yeah, thank you before we wrap, well 1473 01:43:51.560 --> 01:43:55.439 for people watching the video version, what is the big banner behind you? 1474 01:43:55.720 --> 01:44:00.319 By the way, that we referenced a couple of times this was I had 1475 01:44:00.359 --> 01:44:03.359 this made actually, Uh so I had a customed done for me and uh 1476 01:44:03.560 --> 01:44:09.880 it was just grady, But yeah, I had this done. I don't 1477 01:44:09.880 --> 01:44:11.840 know. It was the last time I got an income tax refund, so 1478 01:44:11.880 --> 01:44:15.439 it had to be in early two thousands. And this is what I this 1479 01:44:15.600 --> 01:44:17.720 is what I spent the money on. So it's genuine, like it's a 1480 01:44:17.800 --> 01:44:21.119 tart. It's done, you know, it's like a real proper tar carembus, 1481 01:44:21.199 --> 01:44:26.399 and it's got the groments that you hanging on Johnny act. These are 1482 01:44:26.520 --> 01:44:29.680 my three favorites. And uh and thank you for asking about it, Mike, 1483 01:44:29.680 --> 01:44:33.199 because I'm putting this up on eBay because yeah, so after this thing, 1484 01:44:33.600 --> 01:44:38.119 after this thing airs, it's not a little commercial. Now I'm putting 1485 01:44:38.159 --> 01:44:42.039 this up on eBay, so because I can't use it anymore and it's just 1486 01:44:42.119 --> 01:44:44.279 too big. I got no space for it. And I love it. 1487 01:44:44.439 --> 01:44:48.800 And I think it's heavy. It's heavy duty. So anyway, you're welcome. 1488 01:44:50.119 --> 01:44:56.600 We're now like the home shopping Network suddenly no, yeah, three for 1489 01:44:56.760 --> 01:45:00.680 three, low low payments. But yeah, that was fun. Now it 1490 01:45:00.760 --> 01:45:04.279 was exhausting. It was a lot of information about a lot of different people. 1491 01:45:04.479 --> 01:45:08.319 And the video version is probably going to be you know, a little 1492 01:45:08.319 --> 01:45:11.000 bit more. We'll put the images up so people are gonna know who we're 1493 01:45:11.000 --> 01:45:14.439 talking about. You know, we can throw pictures up there and of who 1494 01:45:14.520 --> 01:45:17.359 these people were in the movie. And yeah, but they are all so 1495 01:45:17.720 --> 01:45:21.079 interesting. They're all, like the books, are very special people. And 1496 01:45:21.520 --> 01:45:26.119 uh and I agree, I agree that they were, and they're still we're 1497 01:45:26.159 --> 01:45:30.159 still talking about them. Yep. Absolutely. Um, all right, well, 1498 01:45:30.239 --> 01:45:32.359 thanks everybody. Thanks to everybody for listening. Thanks again to all of 1499 01:45:32.399 --> 01:45:36.520 our Patreon supporters and uh and everybody else that listens to our show. We 1500 01:45:36.600 --> 01:45:42.960 appreciate everyone, and we have fun and you know, during these times especially, 1501 01:45:43.279 --> 01:45:46.239 I listened to podcasts a nice escape, and hopefully you know, we're 1502 01:45:46.279 --> 01:45:50.119 doing the same. Oh you know what, somebody, Alison Martino texted me 1503 01:45:50.199 --> 01:45:56.119 yesterday, there's a new documentary about that murder house in Los Felish woman put 1504 01:45:56.239 --> 01:46:00.720 Yeah, it's like a seven episode podcast about and for those who don't know, 1505 01:46:00.800 --> 01:46:02.399 there's this old house up in less Fields neighborhood in La up in the 1506 01:46:02.520 --> 01:46:05.920 hills by by Griffith Park. And this house has been sitting here empty for 1507 01:46:06.239 --> 01:46:11.399 decades and you look inside and all these old you know, gift of Christmas 1508 01:46:11.479 --> 01:46:14.680 gifts and things like that are still there from the fifties because the family that 1509 01:46:14.760 --> 01:46:16.720 lived there, the father killed the wife, tried to kill the daughter with 1510 01:46:16.760 --> 01:46:21.199 a hammer, uh and uh, and he ended up being he killed himself. 1511 01:46:21.239 --> 01:46:26.640 He drank sinaide and in this house and so this but it's always been 1512 01:46:26.760 --> 01:46:30.640 kind of a strange story. But this woman actually did put it together. 1513 01:46:30.960 --> 01:46:33.000 And apparently there was another death in that house she was being vague about. 1514 01:46:33.000 --> 01:46:36.960 Of course, she wants people to watch the Yeah, the home. The 1515 01:46:38.039 --> 01:46:42.039 home stayed vacant for decades and decades um. And you could even look in 1516 01:46:42.119 --> 01:46:45.239 through the windows and see old Christmas decorations from yeah, you know, from 1517 01:46:45.319 --> 01:46:48.399 back of then. It kind of was left untouched and I think kind of 1518 01:46:48.520 --> 01:46:54.159 was used as storage basically by the estate over the years a friend of mine, 1519 01:46:54.199 --> 01:46:58.239 because it was inherited. Yeah, sorry, I think I think there 1520 01:46:58.560 --> 01:47:03.159 it was inherited by their landscaper or something, and then the landscaper died and 1521 01:47:03.199 --> 01:47:04.920 the Sun got it, and the Sun is the one who had it. 1522 01:47:05.000 --> 01:47:08.800 Now he's dead and that's why I went for sale again. It's called um 1523 01:47:09.159 --> 01:47:14.479 los Feeless Murder Mansion podcast and the family. What's interesting now because you talk 1524 01:47:14.520 --> 01:47:17.680 about the Christmas presents, the family was perils and their Jews, so it's 1525 01:47:18.680 --> 01:47:24.880 it's interesting. So there's it's there's a lot of confusion about that story, 1526 01:47:25.039 --> 01:47:29.399 and this podcast is supposed to be addressing that. That's interesting. A friend 1527 01:47:29.399 --> 01:47:32.039 of mine who's the producer I has, I believe he has the film rights 1528 01:47:32.159 --> 01:47:35.560 to that, to the house and the story. Oh nice, and I 1529 01:47:35.600 --> 01:47:39.960 think trying to get something going. So that's really I'm almost positive at the 1530 01:47:40.039 --> 01:47:43.119 los Field's Murder House. Yeah, so that's really interesting. I wonder if 1531 01:47:43.159 --> 01:47:45.039 he knows that that podcast is coming up, maybe something could happen. Who 1532 01:47:45.119 --> 01:47:49.600 knows, Maybe it'd be a good episode of American Horse. Oh actually the 1533 01:47:49.680 --> 01:47:54.600 first one is that already The Murder Mansion, right, but um, but 1534 01:47:54.800 --> 01:48:01.399 yeah, well thanks freaks, yeah, thanks freak good Google Google Goggle, 1535 01:48:02.199 --> 01:48:05.520 Google Google Goggle. One of us will accept you one of us. Yeah, 1536 01:48:05.560 --> 01:48:09.680 we accept you. We accept you. So you're one of us listeners 1537 01:48:09.800 --> 01:48:13.119 and we'll see you on the next one. Thank you, Take care. 1538 01:48:15.840 --> 01:48:21.720 This has been an episode of the Dearly Departed podcast. Dig up more episodes 1539 01:48:21.800 --> 01:48:29.720 at Dearly departedpod dot com and on iTunes and Google Play. See you next time.