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Speaker 1: The Thinking Atheist. It's not a person, it's a symbol,

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an idea.

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Speaker 2: The population of atheists this country is going through the.

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Speaker 1: Rule, rejecting faith, pursuing knowledge, challenging the sacred. If I

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tell the truth, it's because I tell the truth, not

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because I put my hand on a book and made

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a wish and working together for a more rational world.

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Speaker 2: Take the risk of thinking. Feel so much more happiness, Truth, fusion,

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wisdom will come to you that way.

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Speaker 1: Assume nothing, question everything, and start thinking. This is the

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Thinking Atheist podcast hosted by Seth Andrews.

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Speaker 2: If I can beg your indulgence, today's show is going

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to allow me to take a little bit of a

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holiday vacation and spend some more time with my family.

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So rather than go in and prepare all the new material,

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I have gone back and grab some older material. This

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is actually from my true Stories channel, and I've just

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hand selected some fascinating short form stories. They run between

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I don't know five and eight minutes long, a lot

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of history and very often a twist ending. So if

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you've already heard these but forgotten them, it'll be like

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a new thing, right And if you are familiar, you

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can just skip forward five, six, seven minutes and the

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next one should be fresh for you. And if you

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haven't subscribed, it's True Stories with Seth Andrews on all

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major podcasts apps We've got. I think I'm coming up

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on three hundred and sixty shows so far, and I

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have learned a lot. You know, there are some celebrity shows,

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and there're some interesting trivia, dumb criminals and that kind

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of thing, But I think some of the ones that

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really resonate with me are the ones where I'm learning

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something about history that I never knew and it sounds

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lame when I say it like that it's a history lesson,

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but you're like, did that really happen? Is this the

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origin of that thing? Why did I not know this?

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Why did my teachers never teach this? And you're going

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to hear a few of those on the broadcast, just

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one after the other. Eleven total stories. Thank you so

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much for allowing me to assemble these for you so

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that I might have a little extra time to spend

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the holiday with my family. So grank it up, buckle up,

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and here we go. I'm not a drinker, not a

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big fan of drunk people, but I do have to

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sit back in awe of those who can just knock

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back the alcohol like it's candy. Now, most of us

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have been to a wild party where the booze was

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really flowing, and most of us have stories that go

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along with those parties. Well, I want to tell you

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the story of one particular kegger that became one for

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the books. It's a Friday night. The place is called

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City Tavern, and a group of guys got together no

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fewer than fifty five men plus nine musicians and seven

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weight staff. This was quite a party, I mean, and

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even the waiters got in on the bender. They were

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drinking as well. It was supposed to be a work night.

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These men were all co workers, But how much work

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could you actually get done pouring through boxes of paperwork

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while you are running up the following bar tab specifically,

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fifty six bottles of Madeira wine, sixty bottles of claret,

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twenty two bottles of porter, twelve bottles of beer, nine

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bottles of cider, and seven large bowls of alcoholic punch.

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Holy cow, that is a lot to imbibe, and it

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doesn't include the musicians and the waiters. They ran up

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their own separate liquor bill. They had an additional twenty

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one bottles of wine. It was such a wild, intoxicated

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binge drinking bash that somebody actually kept the receipt, the

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itemized bill from City Tavern. They did the math adjusting

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for today's dollars. Just for the men supposed to be

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working that Friday night, more than forty five gallons of

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booze were served, which would today be a barred tab

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of over seventeen thousand dollars. Now, not everybody got drunk.

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They may have had a few SIPs here or there,

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but they kept their dignity and sobriety. But this party

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was so epic that the receipt is preserved even today,

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over two centuries after it happened, discovered first in a

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box of documents by a professor, a guy named Gordon

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Lloyd of Pepperdine University. He found it and he posted

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it publicly in digital form. You could actually see the

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receipt for the party on the internet today. Okay, why

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should we care so much about a two hundred and

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fifty year old drinking party. Maybe it has something to

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do with the attendees, Those fifty five guys at City

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Tavern in Pennsylvania, some of those men with names like Washington,

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Jefferson Franklin, America's founding fathers, working after hours on a

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Friday night at a restaurant pub in seventeen eighty seven,

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and the job they were working on was no kidding

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the United States Constitution. Dave Carroll was angry at the airline,

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and he had a good reason. This was back in

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March of two thousand and eight. Dave was traveling with

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his folk rock band called the Sons of Maxwell. He

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had just arrived in Chicago from Canada on his way

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to Nebraska for a tour. It was the last leg

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of the journey it would be on United Airlines. So

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Dave was at the gate in Chicago, standing there with

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the other passengers, watching with increasing alarm and concern through

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the window as the baggage handlers were loading the plane.

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The baggage vehicle rolled up, Employees grabbed passenger luggage and

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then carelessly with abandon just chucked every piece onto the

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conveyor belt. And of course one of those bags belonged

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to Dave Carroll. It was his guitar case. Well, everybody

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finally boarded that United flight landed at its destination, and

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big surprise that guitar was damaged. As you can expect,

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Dave was pretty upset and he took his complaint to

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the airline. Hey, your people broke my twelve hundred dollars

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tailored guitar. You need to do the right thing here

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and compensate me. Now. I know that airline workers do

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a difficult job, and I know that a lot of

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airline employees are at the mercy of the higher ups.

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But having said that, we have all found ourselves frustrated

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when the airlines complicate our lives. Many of us know

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what it's like to stand there at customer service and

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feel helpless, like we are at the world's worst DMV,

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like nobody really cares. We're never going to get our

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problems solved, and Dave Carroll got passed around the system.

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United Airlines bounced him from one agent to the next agent,

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to the next agent, and finally they instructed him to

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bring the broken guitar back to Chicago for inspection. Yeah,

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after David jumped through all of the hoops, the airline

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ultimately denied his claim. Well, this musician was so frustrated

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that he wrote a letter to United and he told

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them that he was going to write and release a

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song about the whole debacle. And he was true to

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his word, and he posted his song with a video

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that is viewable even today on the Sons of Maxwell

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YouTube page. The song title United Breaks Guitars and I

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know you aren't just dying to hear a clip from

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that tune, so I will oblige.

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Speaker 3: Unite you wron unite who you are.

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Speaker 2: You've broken you should fix it.

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Speaker 3: Your libel just admitted I should have phoned with someone

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else for gone by car because un race guitars.

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Speaker 2: Now here's the funny part. Dave's complaint song went viral,

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Like immediately went viral. This was not good publicity for

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United Airlines, and within just a few days they reached

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out to Dave to offer compensation. Dave responded, keep your money,

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give it to charity or something. Now these days, Dave

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Carol is no longer angry. He was actually interviewed by

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the Guardian just one year after the incident. He said

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the song was fun to record. He expressed gratitude that

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you United Airlines had inadvertently given him an outlet where

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he could sing his frustration and bring weary travelers from

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all over the world together to enjoy a moment of

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levity after that moment of calamity. It's amazing what happens

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when people get creative to solve their problems. Your voice

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might feel lost in the cacophony of the system, but

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when you sing the song and strike the nerve, you

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might be more powerful than you think. Are you a

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movie buff or at least a frequent movie goer, or

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do you watch a lot of television. Well, the next

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time you are viewing, I want you to keep your

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sonar up and be listening, because there is a sound

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that you may have heard hundreds of times and never

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actually noticed. It is this stock sound effect. You and

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I already know that much of film and television sound

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is added in post production, and there are sound effects

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libraries that have thousands and thousands of options whatever you need.

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Crowd noise, card tires, squealing, gunshots, birds chirping in the trees,

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even shoes walking on grass. And throughout cinema history, sound

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designers have always been on the hunt for a really

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good scream. And so we traveled back in time to

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nineteen fifty one. There's a movie Western called Distant Drums,

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and in that film is a tense scene. Soldiers are

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on the run from seminole Indians. They're wading through swamp

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in the Everglades and the water is up to their

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chest and suddenly one of the soldiers gets dragged under

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the water by an alligator, and when the gator bites him,

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the soldier screams, and the voice that was dubbed in

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for that scream was said to come from an actor

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named SHEB Woolley. And for that yell, shev didn't even

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get a film credit. Well, Warner Brothers needed sounds for

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their own stock library. Producing sounds from scratch was much

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more expensive than just going and grabbing something that was

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already on file. And this brings us to nineteen fifty

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three and another big screen Western, a movie called The

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Charge at Feather River, and there's a character his name

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is Private Wilhelm. Private Wilhelm gets shot in the thigh

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with an arrow and for that, once again the producers

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needed a really good scream, and so they browsed through

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the Warner Brothers library and there it was, and it

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was perfect. It was at this point that somebody actually

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gave this sound the name. They named it the Wilhelm

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Scream after that character in the movie Private Wilhelm. Such

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a distinct yell and useful and cheap. Warner Brothers used

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it twice the following year, in A Star Is Born

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and the horror film Them. Then in nineteen fifty five

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it was used in Land of the Pharaohs and The

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Sea Chase. The scream remained popular into the nineteen sixties

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with The Wild Bunch and the Green Berets. But oh no,

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Hollywood was not done with Private Wilhelm yet. Listen carefully

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to Star Wars Episode four, the film that started the

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entire franchise, and there's a scene where a storm trooper

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falls and there is the Wilhelm scream. Two years after that,

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it was included in the American Graffiti sequel. Into the eighties, nineties,

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two thousands, everything from Willow, Grimlins, Die Hard with a Vengeance,

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Beauty and the Beast, Poltergeist, Lethal Weapon four, the Fifth Element,

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all of the Indiana Jones movies, and I'm not even

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close to being done. Private Wilhelm continues to scream in

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toy story, Pirates of the Caribbean, Avatar, Kung Fu Panda,

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Deadpool two, Lord of the Rings, and the entire Marvel

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cinematic universe, and I haven't even gotten into TV yet

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because it has been included in hundreds of shows from

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the Boys to The s Umsons to Breaking Bad. The

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Wilhelm scream has become part of a collection of original

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sound effects which was donated to the USC School of

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Cinematic Arts. It is a legitimate and celebrated piece of

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American film history, that sound, that yell from a nineteen

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fifty one movie extra who was denied so much as

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a name in small print on the movie credits. Now,

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I said that the man behind the Wilhelm scream has

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never been totally verified, but film historians have done a

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lot of digging and they say that it is likely

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that this bit part player, this voice actor in post production.

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The man chev Woolley does deserve the credits, and this

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guy had done some acting mostly though it was just

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voice acting. He did pick up lines when her movie

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studios needed something specific in post not even a film actor.

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He was a voice dubbed in for another voice, which

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makes sense, I suppose since back in the nineteen fifties, SEB.

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Woolley was known for his voice, but not as an actor.

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He was known as a singer he's the guy who

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sang the nineteen fifty eight novelty classic Purple People Eater.

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Right now, parents are singing the song in their heads

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while their kids are scratching their heads. Come on, go

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listen to the song, the one eyed, one horned Flying

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Purple People Eater. And then next time you're at the movies,

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keep your ears wide open. You just might hear the

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famous Wilhelm scream. And that's a true story. Did you

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ever hear that story about the guy who tied a

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bunch of helium balloons to a lawn chair and then

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he just went for a ride, like he's floating in

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the atmosphere. I always thought that was a myth, right,

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that's an old legend. It's a funny story that we

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tell that never happened. Oh No, In my research, I

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found out about this guy and I did a story

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on him. And we're going to hear about lawn chair

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Larry after the break, continuing my sort of holiday show,

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a smattering of short form true stories to entertain you

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this Christmas season. There are no surprises at the end

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of this one. I think the story itself should be plenty.

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This is the wild, weird tale of Larry Walters, the

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man who took a ride into the sky. That is

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almost impossible to believe. Now, Larry had always wanted to

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be a pilot. He tried to join the Air Force

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back in the seventies. He was rejected because of his eyesight.

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He just couldn't see very well, but he would not

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give up on his dream of flights. In fact, back

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when he was a teenager, he used to fantasize about

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this specific scenario, an alternative way to surf the skies.

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And then finally, when Larry was thirty three, he decided

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it was time to take that childhood fantasy and make

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it reality. And here's what he did. The year was

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nineteen eighty two. Larry and his then girlfriend started construction

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on a homemade aircraft. No fuselage, no wings, no engine.

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Larry's aircraft was a lawn chair. But how do you

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get a lawn chair to fly? He needed lift, and

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so he purchased forty five weather balloons that he would

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then tether to the chair. Now this was going to

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look suspicious. Who walks into his store and says, hey,

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I would like forty five weather balloons. Someone's going to

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take notice. And so Larry lied. His employer was a film,

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TV and media production studio called film Flare, and he

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grabbed a blank requisition form and he forged some important details,

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and then he went in to a balloon and helium

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cellar and said, hey, we need props for an upcoming

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television commercial and it's for my company, film Flare. And

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they bought this lie and they sold him everything he needed,

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which meant lawn Chair Larry could set his way into

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the heavens with the balloons and the tethers and the

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helium and a parachute. He also carried a camera, a

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Cbee radio, a sandwich, some beer, and a pellet gun. Yes,

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a pellet gun, you see. Helium would make the ascent

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no problem, but I mean at some point he was

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going to have to stop going up, especially given the

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conditions way up there, lack of oxygen, the temperatures are

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sub freezing. Who knows what else could happen at high altitude.

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So when he reached a certain threshold, the plan was

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to pull out the pellet gun and start popping the

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weather balloons to level him off and then allow him

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to drift. Okay. Launch day the second of July nineteen

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eighty two. Larry Walters at his home at sixteen forty

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four West seventh Street in San Pedro, Los Angeles. There

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he was, and he took the chair and he tethered

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on the unfilled balloons, and then he tethered that chair.

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He roped it to his jeep to make sure he

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wouldn't fly away prematurely, and because he wanted time to

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contact the authorities. Like the whole plan was to tell

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air traffic control, Hey, I am launching. You might want

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to tell aircraft flying around where I am and what's

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going on, because you know, nobody wants to become a

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kind of roadkill in the sky. I mean, beyond accidental

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impact with another plane. Imagine if the military activated fighter

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jets and shot him down with a missile or something.

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So he did want to be upfront about all this,

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and so they filled the helium balloons. But before they

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could do the final checks, that rope to his jeep snapped,

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and prematurely, Larry's homemade chair craft rose up and up

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like a phoenix. At the moment of that unexpected premature launch,

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the jolt knocked Larry's eyeglasses off of his face. They

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just fell down to the ground. Larry's girlfriend, Carol was

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talking to him on the CB. She panicked saw him

301
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rise up into the clouds. She wanted to abort. Check

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00:23:35,759 --> 00:23:42,880
out this actual audio from their radio conversation. Come down,

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you gotta come down. If you can't see coming down,

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I've got my other classes. I can see perfectly.

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Speaker 1: Don't worry you copy yourr I copy.

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Speaker 2: Are you sure you okay to see there? You came here?

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Speaker 3: Are you okay?

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Speaker 1: I may okay. I'm going through a sinful lay.

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Speaker 2: Or my Autoito's one thousand, five hundred marie le right

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now he do that? Oh my god, you're going hercutionary

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Get down now, you come down. Everyone watch down now.

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And here he was Larry in a floating chair in

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Federal airspace, rising up a thousand feet five thousand feet

314
00:24:24,799 --> 00:24:30,440
ten thousand feet, up and up and higher and higher

315
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until finally, at a freezing sixteen thousand feet after forty

316
00:24:36,599 --> 00:24:40,880
five minutes of flight or float, I guess he was floating.

317
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Larry pulled out his trusty pellet gun and he started

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strategically taking out the balloons. He leveled off, began to

319
00:24:50,000 --> 00:24:57,359
lose altitude, and then Larry accidentally dropped his pellet gun,

320
00:24:59,039 --> 00:25:01,960
so he's it's totally out of control, as you would

321
00:25:02,000 --> 00:25:04,920
expect in this scenario. It's not like the craft can

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00:25:05,039 --> 00:25:10,359
be steered. But this backyard balloon daredevil went down and

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00:25:10,559 --> 00:25:15,079
down and down toward the earth into Long Beach, California,

324
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crashing into a power line. The line snapped it dumped

325
00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:23,279
him onto the ground. He was unharmed. The whole neighborhood

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00:25:23,400 --> 00:25:26,759
lost power for about a half an hour. Now, when

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Larry stood up, unscathed from his amazing and historic flights,

328
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was he greeted with cameras and smiles and high fives

329
00:25:36,680 --> 00:25:42,480
for his great accomplishment. He was not waiting on the

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ground was the Long Beach Police Department, And the problem was, ultimately,

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nobody knew how to charge him, Like what specific law

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00:25:51,839 --> 00:25:54,200
had he broken. There wasn't anything on the books that

333
00:25:54,519 --> 00:25:57,359
covered this. He wasn't even a pilot, so it's not

334
00:25:57,599 --> 00:26:03,039
like they could revoke his pilot's Ultimately, he got off

335
00:26:03,079 --> 00:26:05,279
with a kind of slap on the wrist. He paid

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00:26:05,279 --> 00:26:09,440
a reduced fine of about fifteen hundred dollars for operating

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00:26:09,519 --> 00:26:13,359
an air craft without permission. I think fifteen hundred bucks

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is a small price to pay to become a legends,

339
00:26:18,920 --> 00:26:22,319
and Larry did get his fifteen minutes of fame. A

340
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few days after his stunt, he was a guest on

341
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the David Letterman show. Time x Watches featured his story

342
00:26:29,359 --> 00:26:32,000
on one of their print advertisements. He even did a

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short stint on the circuit as a motivational speaker. The

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00:26:36,799 --> 00:26:40,920
Darwin Awards gave him an award. Now I know he survived,

345
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but they gave him a special award called at Risk Survivor.

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And yet, unfortunately, I must tell you that Larry's personal

347
00:26:51,640 --> 00:26:56,599
story would end tragically more than a decade after his flight.

348
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The literal heights that he had achieved in his life

349
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sadly could not heal the personal lows in his heart.

350
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Larry took his own life on the sixth of October

351
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nineteen ninety three, at the age of forty four, eleven

352
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years after he had taken that balloon ride to the sky.

353
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But Larry's story lives on, and the chair itself has

354
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become a piece of flight history. It was ultimately donated

355
00:27:25,640 --> 00:27:29,200
to the Smithsonian and it sits on display right now

356
00:27:29,480 --> 00:27:34,319
at the Stephen f Udvar Hazy Center in Virginia. And

357
00:27:34,440 --> 00:27:39,200
of course, every legendary aircraft needs a name. This particular

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00:27:39,400 --> 00:27:44,880
vehicle has been dubbed Inspiration one. And perhaps we can

359
00:27:44,920 --> 00:27:49,839
all take inspiration from this man who refused to be grounded.

360
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A man who embarked on one of the strangest journeys

361
00:27:53,640 --> 00:27:57,000
of the twentieth century. A man who took a chair,

362
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a cbe, a pellet gun, a sand which, and some

363
00:28:01,200 --> 00:28:06,759
beer up into the heavens, leisurely drifting in the winds,

364
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gazing down at the coastline, and writing his name into

365
00:28:12,039 --> 00:28:18,920
the history books from his lawn chair three miles high

366
00:28:20,079 --> 00:28:40,759
in the sky. John Donahue went to Vietnam, and he

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wasn't supposed to be there. In fact, the United States

368
00:28:44,039 --> 00:28:49,519
military didn't even know he was there. Here is what happened.

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John was better known to his friends by a nickname.

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They called him Chicky, and Chicky Donahue had served in

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the Marine Corps from nineteen fifty eight to nineteen sixty four.

372
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He became a merchant seaman and one day he was

373
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just hanging out that one of his favorite New York

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City bars, and he was sitting there talking to the bartender.

375
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The bartender himself was a former gi He called himself

376
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Colonel Lynch. He hadn't actually been a colonel, but that's

377
00:29:21,680 --> 00:29:26,359
what people called him, Colonel Lynch, and he was angry.

378
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Remember this is nineteen sixty seven. The Vietnam War well underway,

379
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and soldiers and support personnel were getting drafted and wounded

380
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and killed on the battlefield. And then Colonel Lynch would

381
00:29:41,079 --> 00:29:44,480
look out his New York City windows and there would

382
00:29:44,559 --> 00:29:49,720
be those Vietnam War protesters. The whole thing just made

383
00:29:49,799 --> 00:29:54,200
his blood boil. His own friends and neighbors were across

384
00:29:54,279 --> 00:29:58,960
the ocean bleeding and dying, and yet these demonstrators had

385
00:29:59,000 --> 00:30:04,440
the gall to our chin protest. Here Colonel Lynch stood

386
00:30:04,519 --> 00:30:07,319
behind the bar, cursing the whole thing, and he looked

387
00:30:07,359 --> 00:30:10,319
at Chicky and he said, you know, I'd like to

388
00:30:10,519 --> 00:30:14,079
go over there, just go to Vietnam and track down

389
00:30:14,160 --> 00:30:18,119
those boys from my neighborhood and buy them all a beer.

390
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And Chicky looked back and he said, all right, I

391
00:30:23,960 --> 00:30:28,880
can do that. I'm sorry. Chicky was going to travel

392
00:30:29,000 --> 00:30:33,000
more than eight thousand miles from New York to Vietnam

393
00:30:33,880 --> 00:30:39,240
on a beer run. Yes, And here began one of

394
00:30:39,319 --> 00:30:45,400
the most bizarre journeys of the twentieth century. John Chicky Donahue.

395
00:30:45,480 --> 00:30:48,279
He just decided he was going to go to Vietnam

396
00:30:48,680 --> 00:30:53,759
to hand out beer to four specific men. Now he

397
00:30:53,960 --> 00:30:56,440
wasn't actively serving in the military, but he did know

398
00:30:56,599 --> 00:30:59,319
the system, he knew the lingo, he knew how the

399
00:30:59,480 --> 00:31:04,720
military he worked, and so he sported an important looking mustache.

400
00:31:05,000 --> 00:31:08,839
Remember that the military didn't allow facial hair, so apparently

401
00:31:09,000 --> 00:31:11,960
people saw him and just assumed he was some kind

402
00:31:12,039 --> 00:31:15,400
of higher up, and even when he was pressed about

403
00:31:15,440 --> 00:31:19,599
who he was, he would just respond, I'm a merchant mariner.

404
00:31:20,640 --> 00:31:24,160
And nobody questioned him after that, possibly because they had

405
00:31:24,240 --> 00:31:28,599
no idea what a merchant mariner actually was. John got

406
00:31:28,680 --> 00:31:31,559
himself a job in the engine room of an ammunition

407
00:31:31,759 --> 00:31:34,559
ship that was heading to Vietnam. This was a month

408
00:31:35,160 --> 00:31:39,319
long journey, and Chikey had bought himself a duffel bag

409
00:31:39,680 --> 00:31:44,079
full of beer cans. Now, the problem was that's a

410
00:31:44,160 --> 00:31:50,720
long journey, thirty days, and Chicky liked beer. He would

411
00:31:51,160 --> 00:31:54,920
later admit that he himself on that trip had drank

412
00:31:55,039 --> 00:31:59,519
over sixty cans of beer and by the time the

413
00:31:59,599 --> 00:32:03,440
ship docked, his duffel was looking kind of saggy. But

414
00:32:03,599 --> 00:32:08,200
never fear, Chickie found some enlisted men's clubs, and he

415
00:32:08,799 --> 00:32:14,680
requisitioned more, and then he embarked on his impossible journey,

416
00:32:15,000 --> 00:32:20,200
a personal journey. Sometimes John found himself running for his life,

417
00:32:20,559 --> 00:32:25,599
escaping enemy ambushes, sleeping in foxholes. The war was becoming

418
00:32:25,799 --> 00:32:29,559
a close up experience. He was realizing just how dumb

419
00:32:29,759 --> 00:32:34,240
and dangerous his stunt really was. And as he was

420
00:32:34,319 --> 00:32:38,119
there dodging the bullets while soldiers all around him did not,

421
00:32:38,839 --> 00:32:42,359
John's perspective on the war began to change. She'd arrived

422
00:32:42,480 --> 00:32:47,519
with blind duty to country, but John would leave distrustful

423
00:32:47,759 --> 00:32:53,519
and angry about the lies, the waste, the politics masquerading

424
00:32:53,640 --> 00:32:57,559
as a fight for freedom. He arrived pro war, he

425
00:32:57,799 --> 00:33:03,400
left antie. But of course he was there in Vietnam,

426
00:33:03,480 --> 00:33:05,759
and he was a man on a mission, and he

427
00:33:06,039 --> 00:33:09,440
was very, very clever. He managed to work his way

428
00:33:09,519 --> 00:33:13,480
around the country through the system looking for these four guys,

429
00:33:14,119 --> 00:33:17,759
and he would smooth talk his way onto a military plane.

430
00:33:18,400 --> 00:33:23,200
He would slide himself onto road convoys, riding on the trucks,

431
00:33:23,400 --> 00:33:26,599
and believe it or not, against all of the odds,

432
00:33:27,519 --> 00:33:32,640
Chicky found and delivered beer from his duffel bag to

433
00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:39,680
all four of Colonel Lynch's neighbor friends the soldiers Tommy Collins,

434
00:33:39,839 --> 00:33:45,720
Bobby Pappis, Rick Duggan, and Kevin mcloon. I mean, just

435
00:33:45,839 --> 00:33:49,400
imagine it. Chickie Donahue walks up and says, hey, your friend,

436
00:33:49,519 --> 00:33:53,880
Colonel Lynch wanted me to bring you some beer. Can

437
00:33:54,000 --> 00:33:58,440
you even imagine? And then, of course, after that the

438
00:33:58,559 --> 00:34:02,559
mission was done. As the guns blasted and the bombs fell,

439
00:34:02,759 --> 00:34:07,079
Chicky managed to get himself back out of Vietnam. He

440
00:34:07,240 --> 00:34:13,079
left uninjured, but he did leave a changed man. Now

441
00:34:13,199 --> 00:34:16,400
what in the world would motivate somebody to enter a

442
00:34:16,599 --> 00:34:21,360
faraway war zone with a duffel bag of beer. Chicky

443
00:34:21,480 --> 00:34:25,480
did a reunion interview with CBS News. He actually sat

444
00:34:25,679 --> 00:34:30,239
next to the other four men reunited after decades, and

445
00:34:30,360 --> 00:34:33,440
he said this before the cameras. He said, quote, I

446
00:34:33,599 --> 00:34:37,000
did the right thing. I was letting these kids die

447
00:34:37,159 --> 00:34:41,119
without me helping them, and that's what I wanted to do.

448
00:34:42,760 --> 00:34:45,679
This story was actually made into a feature film in

449
00:34:45,840 --> 00:34:48,880
twenty twenty two. The movie was not well reviewed. It

450
00:34:49,000 --> 00:34:53,000
was not well received, but the real life story has

451
00:34:53,440 --> 00:34:57,920
passed the test of time. The real accounts of John

452
00:34:58,360 --> 00:35:03,239
Chicky Dona Hugh, the man who braved possible death to

453
00:35:03,400 --> 00:35:09,559
bring some cold brew, desperately needed goodwill, and just a

454
00:35:09,760 --> 00:35:30,920
little taste of home. The due date for the baby

455
00:35:31,559 --> 00:35:36,320
was in late October of nineteen sixty seven. This was Smyrna, Georgia,

456
00:35:36,599 --> 00:35:40,320
the suburb of Atlanta. The parents were poor. They could

457
00:35:40,400 --> 00:35:46,400
not afford the hospital bill, but that bill would be

458
00:35:46,599 --> 00:35:51,599
paid by none other than civil rights activists Coretta Scott

459
00:35:51,760 --> 00:35:57,119
King and Martin Luther King Junior. And here is the

460
00:35:57,320 --> 00:36:00,920
story of how these legendary figures would come to do

461
00:36:01,159 --> 00:36:05,599
such a wonderful thing. The new parents were Walter and

462
00:36:05,840 --> 00:36:09,440
Betty Lou and they were theater people, I mean the

463
00:36:09,599 --> 00:36:14,519
starving artist actors turned playwrights. They'd actually met touring in

464
00:36:14,639 --> 00:36:17,960
the theater for the US Armed Forces, and then they

465
00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:21,800
would go on to co found the Atlanta Actors and

466
00:36:21,960 --> 00:36:27,440
Writers Workshop and run a children's theater school. But talk

467
00:36:27,480 --> 00:36:30,960
about struggling artists, I mean people in the theater world

468
00:36:31,000 --> 00:36:34,199
will tell you all the stories about sleeping on the

469
00:36:34,280 --> 00:36:38,440
floor and the unpaid bills and the broken down cars,

470
00:36:38,599 --> 00:36:42,840
and the stretching of every grocery dollar, the sacrifices made

471
00:36:42,960 --> 00:36:47,320
for their art. But when you love something, as actors,

472
00:36:47,639 --> 00:36:52,719
love acting and directors love directing. As Walter and Betty

473
00:36:52,880 --> 00:36:59,119
Lou loved the theater, money and status often become secondary considerations,

474
00:37:00,000 --> 00:37:04,000
and Betty Lou was becoming more and more pregnant throughout

475
00:37:04,079 --> 00:37:07,159
those months. In mid nineteen sixty seven, they faced this

476
00:37:07,440 --> 00:37:12,159
looming financial challenge, how will we pay for the delivery

477
00:37:12,239 --> 00:37:15,320
of this child? Now, this is where some might say

478
00:37:15,440 --> 00:37:21,320
that fate stepped in the stars aligned, so to speak. Remember,

479
00:37:21,440 --> 00:37:25,800
they had this children's theater program. Coreta King had called

480
00:37:25,920 --> 00:37:29,880
Betty Lou at the school and she said, my young

481
00:37:30,039 --> 00:37:32,800
children are having a hard time finding a place that

482
00:37:33,000 --> 00:37:37,119
will have them. Remember this was the late nineteen sixties,

483
00:37:37,440 --> 00:37:41,519
with racial tensions and legal fights and segregation laws and

484
00:37:41,679 --> 00:37:45,000
riots in the streets suffocating the United States and a

485
00:37:45,119 --> 00:37:48,119
haze of bigotry in the fight for human rights, and

486
00:37:48,239 --> 00:37:50,840
the King family at the front of it all, and

487
00:37:50,960 --> 00:37:54,719
their children were looking for a place to go to school. Well,

488
00:37:54,800 --> 00:37:59,159
Betty Lou said, Hey, fine, I'm glad you called welcome. Yes,

489
00:37:59,280 --> 00:38:02,199
bring the girls. They are more than welcome to attend.

490
00:38:03,000 --> 00:38:07,079
And Walter himself served as acting coach for the young

491
00:38:07,480 --> 00:38:13,239
Yolanda King in the only racially integrated theater troope in

492
00:38:13,320 --> 00:38:17,840
the entire city of Atlanta. And it was a beautiful

493
00:38:17,880 --> 00:38:20,719
and necessary thing. It was a moment of humanity with

494
00:38:20,840 --> 00:38:24,639
a white couple and black family working together as teachers

495
00:38:24,760 --> 00:38:29,079
and allies and friends. And then came that delivery date,

496
00:38:29,199 --> 00:38:33,679
October twenty eighth, nineteen sixty seven. This financially strapped young

497
00:38:33,840 --> 00:38:37,320
couple would rush to the hospital and see the birth

498
00:38:37,440 --> 00:38:42,119
of this beautiful baby girl. And then they would receive

499
00:38:42,280 --> 00:38:47,440
the beautiful gift of Coretta and Martin Luther King, who

500
00:38:47,599 --> 00:38:54,760
stepped in and paid that hospital bill entirely. Now, I'm

501
00:38:54,880 --> 00:38:57,400
sorry to say that this is not a fairy tale,

502
00:38:57,519 --> 00:39:01,599
this is real life. Walter and Betty Lou would divorce

503
00:39:01,719 --> 00:39:06,239
only four years later, and that acting school, the Theater

504
00:39:06,320 --> 00:39:09,639
School for Children, would one day close its doors for

505
00:39:09,840 --> 00:39:14,000
lack of funding. But Yolanda King would grow up to

506
00:39:14,079 --> 00:39:18,000
be an actress and activist. She would do an interview

507
00:39:18,159 --> 00:39:20,960
in two thousand and one with CN and she would

508
00:39:21,039 --> 00:39:24,840
reflect and reminisce about those days that the children's theater,

509
00:39:25,599 --> 00:39:28,239
about the teaching and the training, and the support and

510
00:39:28,360 --> 00:39:32,199
love and goodness she received there, And she would remember

511
00:39:32,920 --> 00:39:37,280
the young baby born in late October of nineteen sixty seven,

512
00:39:37,679 --> 00:39:44,199
a baby named Julia, a baby born to perform, trained

513
00:39:44,440 --> 00:39:49,159
by her own parents, beginning her long acting journey in

514
00:39:49,360 --> 00:39:54,599
nineteen eighty seven, becoming a household name in nineteen ninety.

515
00:39:55,559 --> 00:39:59,719
That Julia, whose delivery into this world was paid for

516
00:40:00,119 --> 00:40:04,639
by civil rights icons Coretta Scott King and Martin Luther

517
00:40:04,840 --> 00:40:12,039
King Junior, was none other than the pretty woman Darby Shaw,

518
00:40:12,480 --> 00:40:18,320
the Runaway Bride, Aaron Brockovich, Heidi Bergmann, and so many

519
00:40:18,440 --> 00:40:27,000
other big screen icons played by the actress Julia Roberts.

520
00:40:40,920 --> 00:40:45,559
The term for it is moral panic, and moral panics

521
00:40:45,639 --> 00:40:51,000
have been with humankind in some form throughout history. Moral

522
00:40:51,159 --> 00:40:55,519
panic happens when people get hyper focused on a certain threat,

523
00:40:55,880 --> 00:40:58,599
usually one that isn't really a big deal until the

524
00:40:58,760 --> 00:41:01,000
media gets a hold of it, and then there's a

525
00:41:01,159 --> 00:41:06,280
surge of hysteria before things cooled down, at least until

526
00:41:06,400 --> 00:41:11,480
the next moral panic. In the twentieth century, alone prohibition

527
00:41:11,760 --> 00:41:17,480
called alcohol a harmful vice. Elvis's gyrating legs were selling

528
00:41:17,719 --> 00:41:23,000
sex to teenagers. Communists were infiltrating the government offices of

529
00:41:23,199 --> 00:41:28,000
Free America. Rock music was of the devil, and today

530
00:41:28,159 --> 00:41:31,519
we have all kinds of supposed devils that are coming

531
00:41:31,639 --> 00:41:35,920
for polite society, from video games to vaccines to the

532
00:41:36,079 --> 00:41:40,800
deep state. Probably the most famous moral panic in our

533
00:41:40,960 --> 00:41:44,920
history books were the Salem witch trials back in sixteen

534
00:41:45,079 --> 00:41:49,239
ninety two. But there was a fascinating fear that was

535
00:41:49,400 --> 00:41:54,440
scaring whole cultures of people in the early eighteen hundreds

536
00:41:54,840 --> 00:42:00,719
throughout Western Europe, Great Britain, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, even

537
00:42:00,800 --> 00:42:04,599
in patches of the very young United States. There was

538
00:42:04,679 --> 00:42:11,400
an addictive drug spreading like wildfire in cities, communities, private

539
00:42:11,559 --> 00:42:17,920
homes not previously available to the commoners, those on lower incomes.

540
00:42:18,280 --> 00:42:22,440
Only the wealthy classes were rich enough to indulge, and

541
00:42:22,719 --> 00:42:27,159
they were the elites. But the commoners, nah, they couldn't

542
00:42:27,360 --> 00:42:30,880
manage this drug, They couldn't understand how to use it.

543
00:42:31,039 --> 00:42:34,360
They would not be able to control it, exposing the

544
00:42:34,599 --> 00:42:39,519
everyman and every woman and their children to this narcotic

545
00:42:40,320 --> 00:42:44,280
well that could crash polite society to the ground. And

546
00:42:44,400 --> 00:42:47,920
it wasn't just rich people looking down and lamenting the

547
00:42:48,039 --> 00:42:53,199
decline of civilization. Middle class parents were terrified about exposure

548
00:42:53,360 --> 00:42:58,639
to their children. This inexpensive addiction could very likely rot

549
00:42:58,800 --> 00:43:03,840
their brains and destroy their futures. Rumors abounded that this

550
00:43:04,119 --> 00:43:08,920
drug was responsible for violent crime like murders, assaults, even

551
00:43:09,119 --> 00:43:12,760
riots in the streets. Mom and dads read reports of

552
00:43:12,920 --> 00:43:16,840
children who were getting lost in deluded hazes and taking

553
00:43:17,039 --> 00:43:21,199
their own lives. One example from that time period was

554
00:43:21,280 --> 00:43:24,039
the story printed in the New York Herald on the

555
00:43:24,159 --> 00:43:27,800
fifth of July eighteen seventy five, a story about a

556
00:43:27,920 --> 00:43:33,880
teenage serial killer named Jesse Pomeroy. Pomeroy had targeted and

557
00:43:34,199 --> 00:43:38,400
murdered young children, but at his trial it was alleged

558
00:43:38,519 --> 00:43:42,519
that his brain had been damaged and the culprit was

559
00:43:42,679 --> 00:43:47,159
this drug, a substance and scourge that was ravaging not

560
00:43:47,440 --> 00:43:50,880
just his brain but all the land. Oh yes, it

561
00:43:51,159 --> 00:43:56,440
was moral panic. Clergy called it poison. Letters to newspaper

562
00:43:56,760 --> 00:44:01,119
editors implored young people don't do it. It was kind

563
00:44:01,159 --> 00:44:04,519
of a just say no campaign for the eighteen twenties.

564
00:44:05,199 --> 00:44:08,920
And then, of course, those higher ups, the wealthy elites,

565
00:44:09,039 --> 00:44:12,400
the power players, were looking down from their high balconies

566
00:44:12,599 --> 00:44:17,480
as this drug, once expensive and exclusive and used only

567
00:44:17,719 --> 00:44:21,840
in gilded mansions, was being sold for five cents on

568
00:44:22,159 --> 00:44:27,679
everyday streets to the most common of citizens. And yet

569
00:44:28,039 --> 00:44:32,519
this dangerous stimulant wasn't a pill, It was not a tonic.

570
00:44:32,639 --> 00:44:36,400
It was nothing you would sniff or inject. The addictive

571
00:44:36,639 --> 00:44:41,280
substance that so many were desperate to cloister for themselves.

572
00:44:41,679 --> 00:44:46,360
The thing they feared might ignite the streets' infect brains

573
00:44:46,679 --> 00:44:50,960
and turn the lower class against the ruling class was

574
00:44:52,719 --> 00:44:59,719
the reading of books. Something formerly very expensive was suddenly not.

575
00:45:00,559 --> 00:45:04,639
Books had previously been made in a hand assembled matrix,

576
00:45:04,920 --> 00:45:09,360
coated with special ink, and pressed as pages one by

577
00:45:09,599 --> 00:45:13,880
one before they were bound together. But here, centuries after

578
00:45:14,079 --> 00:45:19,000
Gutenberg printed his first Bible, printing press technology had made

579
00:45:19,079 --> 00:45:23,440
things faster and much cheaper. By eighteen sixty, books were

580
00:45:23,480 --> 00:45:29,159
being printed on inexpensive wood pulp paper. The literary snobs

581
00:45:29,199 --> 00:45:33,559
of that time insulted bad paper novels by calling them

582
00:45:34,400 --> 00:45:38,599
pulp fiction, and yes, that's where the term came from.

583
00:45:39,039 --> 00:45:43,000
A whole genre of cheaply made Gothic books were sold

584
00:45:43,119 --> 00:45:47,280
for one cens and those were known as penny dreadfuls.

585
00:45:47,800 --> 00:45:51,800
Some books were called yellowbacks because they were printed not

586
00:45:52,000 --> 00:45:56,599
on paper but on pressed straw. No longer was the

587
00:45:56,679 --> 00:46:01,559
written word sequestered from every day on. No longer could

588
00:46:01,679 --> 00:46:06,079
the throne rooms and locked chambers restrain and control the

589
00:46:06,239 --> 00:46:11,760
words and ideas pressed, printed and bound. Throughout our history,

590
00:46:11,880 --> 00:46:16,000
the printed word has remained one of the most intoxicating,

591
00:46:16,360 --> 00:46:22,719
brain expanding and dedictive drugs around. It frees the mind,

592
00:46:23,119 --> 00:46:27,719
it fills the heart, it motivates the body, and just

593
00:46:27,840 --> 00:46:31,000
a few hundred years ago, it was the book that

594
00:46:31,239 --> 00:46:36,960
sent societies worldwide into moral panic, in no small way

595
00:46:37,280 --> 00:46:42,000
because the few wanted to think for the many. As

596
00:46:42,079 --> 00:46:47,000
the famous activist and journalist Margaret Fuller once said, today,

597
00:46:47,400 --> 00:46:57,199
a reader tomorrow, a leader still to come, I've got

598
00:46:57,280 --> 00:47:00,519
some deep thoughts for you. We're going to talk about

599
00:47:00,559 --> 00:47:05,199
Big Bird going to space and a World War One

600
00:47:05,440 --> 00:47:18,079
story that's all about love. We continue next. Thank you

601
00:47:18,239 --> 00:47:23,119
so much for listening, and thanks for your support on Patreon, patreon,

602
00:47:23,239 --> 00:47:27,400
dot com, slash Seth Andrews. I hope the holidays have

603
00:47:27,519 --> 00:47:30,800
been good to you so far. As we head toward

604
00:47:30,880 --> 00:47:34,039
the big December twenty fifth day, whatever your plans may be,

605
00:47:34,400 --> 00:47:37,239
just be safe, be well, do it on your own terms.

606
00:47:38,039 --> 00:47:41,079
And we are doing a holiday thing, a compilation of

607
00:47:41,239 --> 00:47:50,800
true stories. Cliches often exist for a reason. These things

608
00:47:50,880 --> 00:47:55,159
have become well known enough to become cliche. There used

609
00:47:55,159 --> 00:47:57,960
to be a popular feature on Saturday Night Live. It

610
00:47:58,079 --> 00:48:03,000
was called Deep Thoughts Jack Handy, and there were witty

611
00:48:03,079 --> 00:48:06,840
observations like at my funeral, I'd like there to be

612
00:48:06,920 --> 00:48:10,639
a pinata so people can be happy, but fill it

613
00:48:10,800 --> 00:48:16,639
with bees so they're not too happy. Beyond the punchlines,

614
00:48:16,719 --> 00:48:20,119
we've all heard the classic wonderings about the world we

615
00:48:20,360 --> 00:48:23,000
live in, you know, the rusty old staples that we've

616
00:48:23,039 --> 00:48:26,159
heard a thousand times. Why do we drive on parkways

617
00:48:26,239 --> 00:48:30,119
and park on driveways? Why do you come akzi pilots

618
00:48:30,199 --> 00:48:34,079
wear helmets? That kind of thing. Well, today we're not

619
00:48:34,199 --> 00:48:37,519
really doing true stories, but I want to share some

620
00:48:37,679 --> 00:48:41,199
stuff that speaks to the true things that we do

621
00:48:41,639 --> 00:48:45,920
every day, we say, every day, we think every day,

622
00:48:46,639 --> 00:48:51,639
without necessarily being aware of the irony. These observations and

623
00:48:51,800 --> 00:48:55,880
questions will hopefully give you a smile and just maybe

624
00:48:56,840 --> 00:49:06,000
make you think. Have you ever noticed that fat chance

625
00:49:06,360 --> 00:49:12,840
and slim chance mean the exact same thing? If poison

626
00:49:13,119 --> 00:49:17,760
goes past its expiration date? Does it become more poisonous

627
00:49:18,119 --> 00:49:22,960
or less? I can't do this, but perhaps you can.

628
00:49:23,440 --> 00:49:28,280
Are you able to say the words quickly? Irish wristwatch?

629
00:49:30,400 --> 00:49:33,639
And I know you're trying it right now, Irish wrist watch,

630
00:49:33,760 --> 00:49:36,960
you have to really work at it. I wonder if

631
00:49:37,320 --> 00:49:40,760
twins ever stop to consider the fact that one of

632
00:49:40,880 --> 00:49:51,480
them was actually unplanned. Take a look at the word swims. Swims.

633
00:49:52,599 --> 00:49:56,199
Now write it down and flip it. Look at the

634
00:49:56,280 --> 00:49:58,960
word upside down. Have you ever noticed that it still

635
00:49:59,079 --> 00:50:06,599
says the word swims. Here's an interesting observation. Most of

636
00:50:06,719 --> 00:50:10,760
those doctors who informed Stephen Hawking he would only live

637
00:50:10,960 --> 00:50:17,199
for two years, most of them actually died before he did.

638
00:50:19,360 --> 00:50:24,039
Why is it that things go off when they're actually starting.

639
00:50:26,039 --> 00:50:30,679
Have you ever wondered if animals actually need glasses but

640
00:50:30,800 --> 00:50:35,760
they haven't evolved the ability to invent them. I've often

641
00:50:35,840 --> 00:50:39,679
wondered about that the near sighted or far sighted animal.

642
00:50:41,199 --> 00:50:44,639
Check this one out. If you say this sentence, the

643
00:50:44,800 --> 00:50:49,840
quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog, you just

644
00:50:50,119 --> 00:50:56,639
used every letter in the English alphabet. It's a common

645
00:50:56,800 --> 00:51:01,079
saying that something is the best thing since sliced bread.

646
00:51:02,320 --> 00:51:06,000
I wonder what the best thing was before the invention

647
00:51:06,159 --> 00:51:12,880
of sliced bread. Is there a synonym for the word synonym?

648
00:51:14,920 --> 00:51:19,559
When we clap our hands in applause, we're actually high

649
00:51:19,679 --> 00:51:25,840
fiving ourselves for something that somebody else has done. I

650
00:51:25,960 --> 00:51:27,920
never thought of it this way before, But if you

651
00:51:28,079 --> 00:51:31,519
rip a hole in a net, there will actually be

652
00:51:32,280 --> 00:51:37,960
fewer holes than there were before. If you try to

653
00:51:38,199 --> 00:51:42,480
fail at something, and then you succeed at failing, have

654
00:51:42,679 --> 00:51:50,519
you actually succeeded or failed? Drinking from a straw is

655
00:51:50,599 --> 00:51:58,239
the opposite of snorkeling. The youngest picture of you is

656
00:51:58,360 --> 00:52:03,800
also the oldest picture of you. Do you ever wonder

657
00:52:04,000 --> 00:52:07,920
if cats break our stuff on purpose? So then we'll

658
00:52:08,000 --> 00:52:11,440
go and order new stuff and they can play in

659
00:52:11,559 --> 00:52:17,000
the empty boxes. If you find the perfect hiding spot,

660
00:52:18,039 --> 00:52:23,159
is it still the perfect hiding spot? You can give

661
00:52:23,280 --> 00:52:29,039
both an approval and a rejection by saying the word pass.

662
00:52:31,119 --> 00:52:34,760
When you and I wear name brand clothing. We just

663
00:52:34,960 --> 00:52:42,480
paid that company to be their billboard. I wonder because

664
00:52:42,519 --> 00:52:49,960
of its color? Is carrot juice also orange juice? Why

665
00:52:50,199 --> 00:52:52,440
is it that we say that we bite down on

666
00:52:52,679 --> 00:52:58,320
something when we can only move our lower jaw? Aren't

667
00:52:58,320 --> 00:53:04,079
we actually biting up? Here's something interesting. You and I

668
00:53:04,639 --> 00:53:08,000
have probably seen more of the surface of the moon

669
00:53:08,719 --> 00:53:14,639
than we have of the Earth. If you and I

670
00:53:15,079 --> 00:53:20,280
can't see air, does that mean that fish can't see water?

671
00:53:22,519 --> 00:53:29,960
Mirrors don't actually break, they simply multiply. If you turn

672
00:53:30,079 --> 00:53:33,920
your socks inside out, does that mean that the entire

673
00:53:34,239 --> 00:53:41,000
universe is wearing your socks? And you are not? No one,

674
00:53:41,679 --> 00:53:45,599
not one person, not ever, No one has ever been

675
00:53:45,880 --> 00:53:51,800
inside an empty room. Why do we talk about a

676
00:53:51,920 --> 00:53:55,320
lot of hair with the word hair, but when we

677
00:53:55,480 --> 00:53:58,039
only have a few strands of them, we say the

678
00:53:58,239 --> 00:54:03,920
plural hair. Have you ever noticed this one? When you

679
00:54:04,119 --> 00:54:07,199
eat at a restaurant, it's weird for you and your

680
00:54:07,320 --> 00:54:11,840
partner to eat the exact same thing, But when you

681
00:54:11,960 --> 00:54:15,079
have dinner at home, then it becomes weird for you

682
00:54:15,239 --> 00:54:21,440
to eat something different. You do not know what you

683
00:54:21,679 --> 00:54:27,039
have forgotten. And here's a deep one to finish today.

684
00:54:27,880 --> 00:54:31,440
Have you ever stopped to wonder which places that you've

685
00:54:31,519 --> 00:54:38,840
already visited for the last time? Just some fun stuff

686
00:54:38,920 --> 00:54:44,320
to ponder, observations and questions as we explore just a

687
00:54:44,440 --> 00:54:57,440
few of our deep thoughts, curiosities, and true stories. Okay,

688
00:54:57,880 --> 00:55:01,519
grown ups, if you would like to shield your young

689
00:55:01,960 --> 00:55:06,400
sesame street watching children from talk about the nuts and

690
00:55:06,599 --> 00:55:11,719
bolts and players behind the fuzzy fur and feathers, you

691
00:55:11,840 --> 00:55:14,400
might want to wait until the kids are playing in

692
00:55:14,519 --> 00:55:17,440
the other room before you listen to this one. I

693
00:55:17,559 --> 00:55:21,000
am here to tell stories. I am not here to

694
00:55:21,360 --> 00:55:26,400
ruin childhoods all right, you've had time to hit the

695
00:55:26,559 --> 00:55:32,599
pause button, so here we go. Carol Spinney lived an

696
00:55:32,679 --> 00:55:36,840
ironic life. On one hand, he was loved by the

697
00:55:37,119 --> 00:55:41,840
entire world. On the other hand, nobody knew who he was.

698
00:55:42,760 --> 00:55:48,800
He was a hidden figure, hidden behind a character. Since

699
00:55:48,880 --> 00:55:53,400
the launch of the legendary children's television show Sesame Street

700
00:55:53,480 --> 00:55:57,920
in nineteen sixty nine, Carol the Man had been Carol

701
00:55:58,239 --> 00:56:04,039
the Puppeteer, living and walking and talking underneath the feathery

702
00:56:04,199 --> 00:56:09,719
skin of Big Bird. He really was a renaissance man.

703
00:56:09,840 --> 00:56:13,119
He had done so much in his life. He illustrated

704
00:56:13,159 --> 00:56:17,679
a comic strip for the military. He animated cartoons, He

705
00:56:17,760 --> 00:56:22,000
had done puppeteering for several children's shows in the fifties

706
00:56:22,079 --> 00:56:25,400
and sixties. He wrote several books. He was a painter,

707
00:56:26,239 --> 00:56:30,119
And finally, one day he met Jim Henson, who was

708
00:56:30,320 --> 00:56:35,320
impressed with his puppeteering, and Carol Spinney joined the Sesame

709
00:56:35,480 --> 00:56:40,039
Street family to become Big Bird for a full forty

710
00:56:40,480 --> 00:56:45,400
nine years. There's a wonderful documentary about this man. It

711
00:56:45,599 --> 00:56:49,800
released in twenty fourteen. It's called I Am Big Bird,

712
00:56:50,480 --> 00:56:55,679
and it will just fill up your heart anyway. Years ago,

713
00:56:56,039 --> 00:57:01,199
Carol Spinney, the puppeteer was invited to become Carol Spinney

714
00:57:01,760 --> 00:57:07,079
the scientist. NASA wanted to get more kids interested in

715
00:57:07,320 --> 00:57:12,599
space involved in science, and they approached Carol Spinney to

716
00:57:12,800 --> 00:57:17,159
talk about getting Big Bird in the space program as

717
00:57:17,239 --> 00:57:24,360
in actual space flight. Big Bird really going into space.

718
00:57:24,559 --> 00:57:28,639
What an amazing idea. And so the puppeteer and the

719
00:57:28,920 --> 00:57:34,360
engineers started talking about logistics. How might we make this happen.

720
00:57:34,519 --> 00:57:40,239
Let's get the next generation excited about space. And yet

721
00:57:40,960 --> 00:57:45,679
space would be the problem, not outer space, but the

722
00:57:45,840 --> 00:57:53,079
space inside the spacecraft. NASA astronaut requirements don't allow anyone

723
00:57:53,199 --> 00:57:58,039
to exceed six feet three inches in height. The Big

724
00:57:58,199 --> 00:58:04,679
Bird costume is a eight feet two inches. Carol Spinney's

725
00:58:04,800 --> 00:58:09,039
journey as the Big Yellow Bird was grounded before it

726
00:58:09,159 --> 00:58:13,320
could even begin. Somebody else was chosen to launch a

727
00:58:13,400 --> 00:58:18,039
space in his place. And it's here that our story

728
00:58:18,199 --> 00:58:23,559
takes a somber turn. Sesame Street actually stopped filming on

729
00:58:23,760 --> 00:58:27,639
launch day. Everyone took a break and gathered around the TV.

730
00:58:28,119 --> 00:58:32,079
Carol Spinney right there with his fellow actors and puppeteers,

731
00:58:32,880 --> 00:58:34,960
and we can only wonder what he might have been

732
00:58:35,079 --> 00:58:38,159
thinking on that day as he watched the mission that

733
00:58:38,440 --> 00:58:42,840
once might have included him. He watched instead the other

734
00:58:43,280 --> 00:58:48,320
educator and inspirer who joined the astronauts, a woman, a

735
00:58:48,599 --> 00:58:56,320
teacher named Christa mcculloff, the woman who would perish with

736
00:58:56,599 --> 00:59:01,239
six others on the morning of January twenty eighth, nineteen

737
00:59:01,760 --> 00:59:06,760
eighty six. The Space Shuttle launch that Carol Spinney had

738
00:59:06,880 --> 00:59:38,599
missed was the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger. Mary

739
00:59:38,800 --> 00:59:44,480
Ann Smith was a knocker upper and people paid her

740
00:59:45,039 --> 00:59:49,480
for this service. Now, hang on, hang on, this is

741
00:59:49,639 --> 00:59:53,960
not what you might think. It is knocker uppers. This

742
00:59:54,360 --> 00:59:58,480
was a thing back in the nineteenth and early twentieth century.

743
00:59:58,639 --> 01:00:02,480
The Industrial Revolution had been well underway and people were

744
01:00:02,559 --> 01:00:08,079
working long hours and factories or underground and mines. They

745
01:00:08,239 --> 01:00:13,559
needed the services of a knocker upper. Now picture this

746
01:00:13,760 --> 01:00:17,159
profession in the United Kingdom in the nineteen thirties, a

747
01:00:17,239 --> 01:00:22,559
profession usually populated by older people, and they would walk

748
01:00:22,800 --> 01:00:26,559
the streets early in the mornings or at the midday

749
01:00:26,679 --> 01:00:31,639
hours through dusk into the late night. Mary Smith had

750
01:00:31,719 --> 01:00:35,880
become a known face around London's East End, and her

751
01:00:36,000 --> 01:00:41,239
price was sixpence a week, that is half a shilling,

752
01:00:41,679 --> 01:00:45,599
which comes to about six pennies a week in those days.

753
01:00:46,000 --> 01:00:53,639
Mary the knocker upper was an alarm clock. Now, mechanical

754
01:00:53,840 --> 01:00:56,960
alarm clocks did exist back then, but they were not

755
01:00:57,360 --> 01:01:00,880
reliable and frankly they were really expended if most people

756
01:01:00,920 --> 01:01:04,920
could not afford one, and so the alternative was to

757
01:01:05,079 --> 01:01:10,039
hire a knocker upper, someone like Mary Smith, someone who

758
01:01:10,079 --> 01:01:13,679
would show up at a designated time to get them

759
01:01:13,840 --> 01:01:18,079
out of bed. And Mary's method was a simple one.

760
01:01:18,239 --> 01:01:21,199
She got herself up around three in the morning, she

761
01:01:21,360 --> 01:01:24,360
got dressed, ate a small breakfast, and then she would

762
01:01:24,440 --> 01:01:30,599
grab her pea shooter, a straw and an arsenal of

763
01:01:30,840 --> 01:01:34,400
peas that she would shoot through it like you would

764
01:01:34,400 --> 01:01:37,840
shoot a blow dart gun. And every day she would

765
01:01:37,960 --> 01:01:40,599
go out and take to the dark streets and she

766
01:01:40,639 --> 01:01:43,360
would find your house and stand at the window or

767
01:01:43,519 --> 01:01:48,880
door and she would fire projectile peas upon it until

768
01:01:49,000 --> 01:01:53,199
you got up. And don't even think about ignoring this sound.

769
01:01:53,559 --> 01:01:57,199
That diligent Mary would not leave until she was sure

770
01:01:57,320 --> 01:02:00,719
that you were wide awake. And she was good. There's

771
01:02:00,760 --> 01:02:04,360
actually a children's book written about this woman, and it

772
01:02:04,519 --> 01:02:09,239
depicts her walking London, waking up everyone from common fishermen

773
01:02:09,719 --> 01:02:13,840
to the mayor. And of course people haven't changed. They

774
01:02:13,920 --> 01:02:18,239
were then like we are today. Some woke up cheery

775
01:02:18,400 --> 01:02:23,159
and grateful, and others woke up grumpy and gripy. But

776
01:02:23,360 --> 01:02:27,000
Mary Smith would be there sometimes, as the story goes,

777
01:02:27,639 --> 01:02:30,519
shouting a good morning up toward the house and even

778
01:02:30,599 --> 01:02:35,280
offering you a cup of hot tea. This was a

779
01:02:35,400 --> 01:02:40,280
somewhat popular profession. Mary's direct competition was an old man

780
01:02:40,599 --> 01:02:44,039
three miles away, and he was also a knocker upper.

781
01:02:44,719 --> 01:02:47,920
His method was to bang on windows and doors with

782
01:02:48,079 --> 01:02:55,039
a long fishing rod, irritating but effective. Of course, today

783
01:02:55,679 --> 01:02:59,039
we have all kinds of annoying ways to get ourselves

784
01:02:59,119 --> 01:03:02,320
out of bed. Any of these things are novelty alarm

785
01:03:02,440 --> 01:03:05,679
clocks that we can buy online. In fact, you can

786
01:03:05,760 --> 01:03:09,400
purchase right now a flying alarm clock. It's got an

787
01:03:09,440 --> 01:03:13,039
actual rotor blade, like a helicopter blade, and it launches

788
01:03:13,159 --> 01:03:16,960
and flies and bangs around your room. You can buy

789
01:03:17,119 --> 01:03:22,280
a clocky. This is a mobile alarm with wheels. It

790
01:03:22,480 --> 01:03:26,679
drives around and smashes into the furniture and the walls

791
01:03:27,000 --> 01:03:29,639
until you get up to shut it off. There's a

792
01:03:29,880 --> 01:03:33,639
target shooting clock. You actually keep a laser gun by

793
01:03:33,719 --> 01:03:36,559
your bed. The clock itself has a bull's eye on

794
01:03:36,639 --> 01:03:38,119
the other side of the room. You have to get

795
01:03:38,199 --> 01:03:41,400
up and aim your gun and hit the bullseye to

796
01:03:41,559 --> 01:03:46,440
shut the alarm off. There are police siren alarms, fire

797
01:03:46,559 --> 01:03:53,920
station bell alarms, symbol alarms, glowing pillow alarms. Your pillow

798
01:03:54,320 --> 01:03:58,400
turns into a white lights as you've got your head

799
01:03:58,719 --> 01:04:03,159
buried within it. And there are hideous contraptions that come

800
01:04:03,559 --> 01:04:09,480
without a snooze button. Wait a minute, no snooze. That

801
01:04:10,119 --> 01:04:16,039
is simply unthinkable, And perhaps my favorite modern contraption is

802
01:04:16,239 --> 01:04:20,440
the most insidious. It is called the Snooze and lose

803
01:04:21,000 --> 01:04:25,280
smart alarm clock, and it does have a snooze button,

804
01:04:26,440 --> 01:04:30,679
But every time you press it, it taps your bank

805
01:04:30,800 --> 01:04:36,280
account and it donates money to an organization that you hate.

806
01:04:38,360 --> 01:04:41,519
You've set it all up in advance. Every time you snooze,

807
01:04:42,079 --> 01:04:45,239
money goes out of your account into the account of

808
01:04:45,360 --> 01:04:50,039
someone you detest. Oh, it makes you appreciate the old

809
01:04:50,360 --> 01:04:56,079
time knocker uppers people like Mary Smith, that lovely woman

810
01:04:56,440 --> 01:05:00,639
who visits your home with kind words, hot tea and

811
01:05:01,079 --> 01:05:07,199
her tiny little pea shooter. Given the alternatives, it doesn't

812
01:05:07,320 --> 01:05:36,000
sound at all like a bad way to start the day, Okay,

813
01:05:36,039 --> 01:05:38,960
And let's finish with one that ties directly into the

814
01:05:39,039 --> 01:05:44,440
Christmas holiday season. Except this story isn't resented. This is

815
01:05:44,519 --> 01:05:48,760
about a Christmas that happened over one hundred years ago

816
01:05:55,679 --> 01:05:59,199
in the muddy trenches on the Western Front. It was

817
01:05:59,400 --> 01:06:05,320
the First World War and it was hell for the holidays.

818
01:06:05,800 --> 01:06:09,880
Nineteen fourteen saw the beginning of that four year conflict.

819
01:06:10,000 --> 01:06:13,199
In five months after the first shots were fired, both

820
01:06:13,239 --> 01:06:17,639
the opposing British and German forces found themselves at war.

821
01:06:18,440 --> 01:06:24,440
On Christmas Eve, the soldiers, already so exhausted and weary

822
01:06:24,559 --> 01:06:27,719
and sometimes bored and trying to pass the time, would

823
01:06:27,760 --> 01:06:31,480
be so close to the trenches of the enemy that

824
01:06:31,679 --> 01:06:35,559
many who could bridge the language barrier would engage in

825
01:06:35,760 --> 01:06:40,320
conversation from one trench to another. A German might ask

826
01:06:40,440 --> 01:06:44,320
someone in the British army about English football, or the

827
01:06:44,480 --> 01:06:51,199
weather in London, or somebody's sweetheart back home, and vice versa.

828
01:06:51,760 --> 01:06:56,400
Many British soldiers would engage in conversation with the enemy

829
01:06:56,800 --> 01:07:02,800
in German conversations before and between the bullets and bombs.

830
01:07:02,880 --> 01:07:07,719
It was so strange to see. Christmas nineteen fourteen, roughly

831
01:07:07,920 --> 01:07:11,920
one hundred thousand British and German troops sat within their

832
01:07:12,000 --> 01:07:17,800
trenches during a short informal cease fire. British machine gunner

833
01:07:17,880 --> 01:07:22,199
Bruce Bairn's father was there. He was shivering in the mock,

834
01:07:22,639 --> 01:07:27,239
jammed into a trench probably eight feet deep by six

835
01:07:27,360 --> 01:07:31,599
feet wide, weary of all the sleepless nights and the

836
01:07:31,719 --> 01:07:37,000
stale food and the wet cigarettes. But something magical would

837
01:07:37,119 --> 01:07:43,519
happen on that Christmas Eve. It was around ten o'clock

838
01:07:43,519 --> 01:07:48,400
at night that Bruce heard a sound. He was hearing

839
01:07:48,599 --> 01:07:53,440
voices from the enemy trenches across the field. So Bruce

840
01:07:53,559 --> 01:07:57,920
and a few buddies gathered around to listen, and they

841
01:07:58,039 --> 01:08:02,239
realized what they were hearing was the sound of singing.

842
01:08:03,280 --> 01:08:08,360
The German troops were singing Christmas carols, and it wasn't

843
01:08:08,440 --> 01:08:13,400
long before British soldiers were singing right back to them.

844
01:08:14,440 --> 01:08:17,800
And the songs continued for a while until finally a

845
01:08:18,000 --> 01:08:24,279
German soldier shouted out in English, come over here. A

846
01:08:24,399 --> 01:08:31,159
British sergeant responded, you come halfway. I will come halfway.

847
01:08:32,680 --> 01:08:36,479
And what happened next would come to be described as

848
01:08:36,560 --> 01:08:42,680
a Christmas miracle. The sworn enemies of both sides slowly

849
01:08:42,880 --> 01:08:46,720
climbed out of their trenches, and they stood upright and

850
01:08:47,039 --> 01:08:51,279
walked forward into this empty middle zone that they called

851
01:08:51,399 --> 01:08:55,560
no man's land. And the soldiers smiled at each other

852
01:08:55,880 --> 01:09:01,960
and shook hands and exchanged names. They traded cigarettes and

853
01:09:02,319 --> 01:09:06,960
chocolate and bottles of liquor. The killers of two world

854
01:09:07,199 --> 01:09:11,439
powers were meeting in peace for a holiday party that

855
01:09:11,479 --> 01:09:15,000
would last into the night and ring in the first

856
01:09:15,239 --> 01:09:20,239
hours of Christmas Day. Gunner Bruce Bairn's father would one

857
01:09:20,319 --> 01:09:24,199
day write these words about that magical moment. He said,

858
01:09:24,560 --> 01:09:28,680
there was not an atom of hate on either side.

859
01:09:29,640 --> 01:09:33,840
Another British soldier, a guy named John Ferguson, would document

860
01:09:33,960 --> 01:09:37,520
the day. He said, quote, here we were laughing and

861
01:09:37,760 --> 01:09:41,560
chatting to men whom only a few hours before we

862
01:09:41,840 --> 01:09:46,800
were trying to kill. This strange phenomenon was also happening

863
01:09:46,920 --> 01:09:52,760
on battlefields elsewhere. Small pockets of French, German, Belgian and

864
01:09:53,000 --> 01:09:57,359
British troops were holding their own festive seaspires. Across the

865
01:09:57,479 --> 01:10:01,359
Western and parts of the Eastern Front. There was a

866
01:10:01,439 --> 01:10:04,880
British fighter. His name was Ernie Williams, and he would

867
01:10:05,000 --> 01:10:10,399
report hundreds of soldiers representing both the British and German armies.

868
01:10:10,840 --> 01:10:15,479
They were playing a large scale version of soccer, and

869
01:10:15,680 --> 01:10:19,520
beyond the handshakes and the laughter, and the music and

870
01:10:19,600 --> 01:10:25,199
the wine, both enemy camps respectfully allowed the other camps

871
01:10:25,319 --> 01:10:30,840
to collect their dead for a proper burial. The generals

872
01:10:30,880 --> 01:10:34,960
in the field were horrified by all of this. British

873
01:10:35,239 --> 01:10:39,199
generals Sir Horace Smith Dorian would go on to lament

874
01:10:39,479 --> 01:10:43,520
the apathy of his men who were punished for fraternizing

875
01:10:43,600 --> 01:10:47,359
with the enemy. There was a government notice published calling

876
01:10:47,520 --> 01:10:53,279
this interaction treason and sadly, once the singing, then soccer,

877
01:10:53,600 --> 01:10:58,319
and drinks and dancing had waned, the British and the Germans,

878
01:10:58,720 --> 01:11:03,479
under orders from their superiors, were once again forced to

879
01:11:03,680 --> 01:11:09,960
declare war upon the men they had befriended only moments before.

880
01:11:12,279 --> 01:11:16,520
If you travel to the National Memorial Arboretum in England,

881
01:11:16,640 --> 01:11:20,359
you can see there is a statue there commemorating the

882
01:11:20,560 --> 01:11:26,199
nineteen fourteen Christmas Truths. There's a bronze statue of two

883
01:11:26,520 --> 01:11:32,119
hands shaking just like those shaking hands from the Christmas

884
01:11:32,279 --> 01:11:38,199
Eve battlefields of World War One, marking those few brief

885
01:11:38,439 --> 01:11:44,279
moments when warriors welcomed each other in peace, not rivals,

886
01:11:44,439 --> 01:11:50,159
not killers, not victims, not even nations, but men brothers

887
01:11:50,560 --> 01:11:56,600
on this earth, human beings standing side by side and

888
01:11:56,760 --> 01:12:01,319
face to face in Christmas goodwill on a small patch

889
01:12:01,399 --> 01:12:06,800
of land that, just for a few precious moments, belonged

890
01:12:07,680 --> 01:12:28,439
to them all. Rudyard Kipling once wrote these words. He said,

891
01:12:29,000 --> 01:12:32,359
if history were taught in the form of stories, it

892
01:12:32,439 --> 01:12:36,760
would never be forgotten. And I agree. If you want

893
01:12:36,800 --> 01:12:40,079
to get and keep someone's attention, if you want to

894
01:12:40,199 --> 01:12:44,920
interest them, amuse them, distract them, shock them, move and

895
01:12:45,159 --> 01:12:49,319
motivate them, or maybe just join them. As we appreciate

896
01:12:49,439 --> 01:12:52,960
our connection to the elements of our world, few things

897
01:12:53,079 --> 01:12:57,119
are as powerful as the elements of a story. There

898
01:12:57,239 --> 01:12:59,159
was a whole lot going on in the world that

899
01:12:59,319 --> 01:13:02,760
disturbs and distracts us. There is so much to worry

900
01:13:02,800 --> 01:13:06,000
about and grieve. There is work to do, But I

901
01:13:06,119 --> 01:13:10,319
think it is important we never lose the moments of story,

902
01:13:11,159 --> 01:13:14,960
the ability to take the journey, the realization that we

903
01:13:15,159 --> 01:13:20,920
can expand and even liberate minds through stories. What kind

904
01:13:21,000 --> 01:13:24,520
of stories lie ahead for you and me? What will

905
01:13:24,840 --> 01:13:31,039
real world circumstances and fantastic fictions bring us who really knows,

906
01:13:31,800 --> 01:13:35,039
but let us tell them together to each other and

907
01:13:35,359 --> 01:13:39,600
for each other. I think perhaps the author Richard Denny

908
01:13:39,800 --> 01:13:42,880
was right when he said authors do not choose a

909
01:13:43,039 --> 01:13:49,199
story to write. The story chooses us. Thank you so

910
01:13:49,399 --> 01:13:52,520
much for listening, and have a wonderful holiday.

911
01:13:56,880 --> 01:14:25,119
Speaker 3: The Cotta