WEBVTT - The Jiggle & the Giddy Up 0:00:16.155 --> 0:00:31.355 Pushkin, Hey, Last Archive listeners, It's been here and I 0:00:31.395 --> 0:00:33.395 want to share a story I made with the show 0:00:33.515 --> 0:00:36.835 Revisionist History that I think belongs in the Last Archive 0:00:36.875 --> 0:00:41.715 two because it's about history, democracy, and a question of truth. 0:00:42.795 --> 0:00:45.675 In nineteen thirty six, the Olympic Games were hosted by 0:00:45.755 --> 0:00:49.075 Nazi Germany. The modern Olympic movement was at a low ebb, 0:00:49.515 --> 0:00:52.075 and without the thirty six Games, there's a good chance 0:00:52.155 --> 0:00:54.715 that we wouldn't have the Olympics we have now. But 0:00:55.115 --> 0:00:58.755 participating in games held in Nazi Germany raised a whole 0:00:58.755 --> 0:01:02.115 lot of ethical and political questions. We tend to think 0:01:02.155 --> 0:01:05.915 of Nazism as a geographically bounded thing, something people in 0:01:05.955 --> 0:01:09.315 Germany in the nineteen thirties dealt with, but even just 0:01:09.355 --> 0:01:12.155 a few years after Hitler's rise, before the start of 0:01:12.195 --> 0:01:15.715 the Second World War, the Nazi Olympics forced countries around 0:01:15.755 --> 0:01:18.355 the world to make a decision about whether or not 0:01:18.595 --> 0:01:21.355 they were going to take a stand against Nazism. In 0:01:21.395 --> 0:01:24.715 the US, there was a boycott movement. It failed, but 0:01:25.035 --> 0:01:28.675 the political tensions around the games were fertile ground for myths. 0:01:29.435 --> 0:01:32.555 Myths that tended to justify the choice to go to 0:01:32.635 --> 0:01:36.795 Nazi Germany. In this episode, we look at probably the 0:01:36.835 --> 0:01:41.635 most influential of those myths, a tale about Jesse Owens. 0:01:42.595 --> 0:01:45.035 This episode and the next are two of a series 0:01:45.035 --> 0:01:48.315 that revisionist history host Malcolm Gladwell and I worked on together. 0:01:49.035 --> 0:01:52.515 It's called Hitler's Olympics, and if you like these episodes, 0:01:52.875 --> 0:01:56.475 I strongly encourage you to check out the whole series. Okay, 0:01:56.995 --> 0:01:57.915 here's the episode. 0:02:02.035 --> 0:02:04.315 Collet Street tears around the Gray Serger with a speed 0:02:04.355 --> 0:02:07.435 of the wind, increasing his lead with every stride, also. 0:02:07.235 --> 0:02:11.235 Running about four thousand athletes impeded in the nineteen thirty 0:02:11.235 --> 0:02:16.235 six Olympic Games. Jesse Owens is the one people remember. 0:02:16.395 --> 0:02:21.195 Streak Jesse Owens in the one hundred meters at Bulding 0:02:21.555 --> 0:02:23.875 the outca second on him. 0:02:27.035 --> 0:02:30.435 Jesse Owens was born in Alabama, the son of a sharecropper, 0:02:30.835 --> 0:02:35.715 self effacing, soft spoken, and an unbelievable athlete. In nineteen 0:02:35.755 --> 0:02:38.195 thirty five, as a twenty one year old, he had 0:02:38.235 --> 0:02:42.035 already set three world records in a single day, all 0:02:42.075 --> 0:02:45.435 in the same hour. With a bad back, the. 0:02:45.395 --> 0:02:47.675 Worlds most runner makes the others look as if they're 0:02:47.675 --> 0:02:50.035 walking as he wins the final and equals the worlds 0:02:50.115 --> 0:02:50.955 record of time. 0:02:51.835 --> 0:02:55.835 And in nineteen thirty six even the Germans were expecting 0:02:55.875 --> 0:02:57.795 something great from him. 0:02:58.995 --> 0:03:01.635 How many board medals do your host to win? 0:03:01.755 --> 0:03:06.795 The two part time, it's to desire very athlete to 0:03:06.915 --> 0:03:07.995 win a first place in the. 0:03:08.075 --> 0:03:11.235 Inn the Olympic Games in nineteen thirty six, he was 0:03:11.235 --> 0:03:13.675 slated to compete in three events. 0:03:13.755 --> 0:03:14.875 And since I'm in. 0:03:14.915 --> 0:03:17.675 Three events, I hope to emerge with three victory. 0:03:17.995 --> 0:03:25.315 I hope one meters, two broad jump, one hundred meters, 0:03:25.515 --> 0:03:29.395 two hundred meters and the broad jump. Later they added 0:03:29.395 --> 0:03:32.395 a fourth event, the four by one hundred meter relay. 0:03:32.955 --> 0:03:36.955 He would win gold in all four, the only person 0:03:37.235 --> 0:03:40.235 to win four gold medals in the Berlin Olympics. And 0:03:40.395 --> 0:03:44.235 that is why you know the name Jesse Owens. But 0:03:44.315 --> 0:03:47.995 it all could have turned out differently because of that 0:03:48.075 --> 0:03:54.115 broad jump. You've seen a broad jump before today, it's 0:03:54.155 --> 0:03:55.995 called the long jump, and it's one of the more 0:03:56.075 --> 0:03:59.555 dramatic Olympic sports. The jumpers sprint down the runway, hit 0:03:59.555 --> 0:04:03.195 a takeoff board and they look like they're flying and 0:04:03.235 --> 0:04:06.515 then they land in a huge spray of sand. So 0:04:07.075 --> 0:04:10.795 the morning of August fourth, nineteen thirty six, ten thirty 0:04:10.835 --> 0:04:15.435 am in the Reichsportfeld. It's the long jump qualifying rounds. 0:04:15.955 --> 0:04:19.435 Best jumpers gone to the final. Owens had just run 0:04:19.475 --> 0:04:22.635 his heat in the two hundred meters immediately after he 0:04:22.635 --> 0:04:25.235 headed over to the pit. It was the third day 0:04:25.235 --> 0:04:27.275 of the games, and by then he already had his 0:04:27.315 --> 0:04:31.235 first gold medal, so it was a surprise when he 0:04:31.275 --> 0:04:34.235 botched his first jump. By some accounts, he thought it 0:04:34.315 --> 0:04:37.795 was a practice run, no sweat, though he had two 0:04:37.995 --> 0:04:42.035 more tries, so he lined himself back up and started 0:04:42.115 --> 0:04:46.795 jogging down the runway. He took off and came up short. 0:04:48.155 --> 0:04:51.995 He had one jump left. If he screwed up that 0:04:52.115 --> 0:04:54.595 last jump, he'd have been out of the contest, and 0:04:54.635 --> 0:04:57.275 he'd have gone from being the only athlete to win 0:04:57.395 --> 0:05:00.115 four gold medals in nineteen thirty six to one of 0:05:00.195 --> 0:05:03.435 three athletes who'd won three goals, right up there with 0:05:03.515 --> 0:05:07.275 Conrad Frey and Hendrika Mastenbrok, who actually would have had 0:05:07.395 --> 0:05:10.955 more total medals than him. And I asked, be honest, 0:05:11.435 --> 0:05:15.755 have you ever heard of Conrad Frey and Hendrika mastenbrook No, 0:05:16.435 --> 0:05:21.035 And probably if he'd missed that final qualifying drum, you 0:05:21.115 --> 0:05:27.555 wouldn't have heard of Jesse Owens either. So after the 0:05:27.595 --> 0:05:34.035 first two misses, Owens was rattled. But then something miraculous happened, 0:05:34.995 --> 0:05:39.675 something that changed the course of Jesse Owens's life and 0:05:39.755 --> 0:05:41.395 made him a legend. 0:05:45.075 --> 0:05:48.795 I'm Malcolm Gladwell. Welcome to Revisionist History, my show about 0:05:48.795 --> 0:05:53.555 things overlooked and misunderstood. In this episode, Ben and daph 0:05:53.595 --> 0:05:55.875 Haffrey and I are talking about one of the biggest 0:05:55.875 --> 0:06:00.155 stories to emerge from the Berlin Games, A story about 0:06:00.155 --> 0:06:03.955 two athletes making good on the promise of the Olympics, 0:06:04.515 --> 0:06:10.275 cross cultural understanding, sportsmanship against all odds, the moment that 0:06:10.315 --> 0:06:13.475 became key to the Olympic mythology and to the legend 0:06:13.595 --> 0:06:19.355 of Jesse Owens. A powerful, incredibly important story that's hiding 0:06:19.755 --> 0:06:20.835 a very big secret. 0:06:27.555 --> 0:06:30.635 It was cool that day in August. Clouds had rolled 0:06:30.635 --> 0:06:34.315 in over the stadium. Around one hundred thousand people were 0:06:34.315 --> 0:06:39.555 in the stands watching in America's most famous athlete. Jesse Owens, 0:06:39.715 --> 0:06:44.115 was screwing up badly, which makes no sense. All he 0:06:44.195 --> 0:06:47.555 had to do was jump seven point one five meters 0:06:47.555 --> 0:06:50.755 to qualify. He already had a world record for jumping 0:06:50.795 --> 0:06:54.035 a meter farther than that, So what was going wrong? 0:06:55.555 --> 0:06:58.915 Malcolm and I had decided to ask an expert a legend. 0:06:58.955 --> 0:07:01.915 Actually it was about ten years ago or so. The 0:07:01.955 --> 0:07:04.635 age is sixty five, I think. And I jumped further 0:07:05.515 --> 0:07:06.595 than my high school mark. 0:07:07.315 --> 0:07:07.835 Is that right? 0:07:07.955 --> 0:07:08.355 Yeah? 0:07:08.395 --> 0:07:10.595 And you're the first American who jumped fifty seven feet. 0:07:11.115 --> 0:07:11.315 Yeah. 0:07:12.715 --> 0:07:15.795 One of the greatest American triple jumpers of all time, 0:07:16.715 --> 0:07:17.555 Milan Tiff. 0:07:18.795 --> 0:07:21.915 I actually jumped sixty feet, but they didn't wouldn't recognize 0:07:21.915 --> 0:07:23.715 it because I jumped out of the pit. 0:07:24.755 --> 0:07:26.115 And where should you do that? 0:07:26.395 --> 0:07:26.675 Right here? 0:07:26.715 --> 0:07:29.555 You say, wow, Yeah, I jumped. 0:07:29.595 --> 0:07:32.595 I completely jumped over the sand pit and landed on 0:07:32.635 --> 0:07:34.715 the grass. I had grass stands all over the back 0:07:34.755 --> 0:07:34.955 of me. 0:07:36.835 --> 0:07:39.035 Going to see Milan was Malcolm's idea. 0:07:40.115 --> 0:07:42.955 So when I was in high school, starting at the 0:07:42.995 --> 0:07:46.475 age of twelve, I became a competitive runner, and I 0:07:46.555 --> 0:07:49.475 was obsessed with track and field, and I subscribed to 0:07:49.555 --> 0:07:52.395 Track and Field News, the Bible of the sport, as 0:07:52.435 --> 0:07:59.875 it's called. And Miller Tiff was this extraordinary. First of all, 0:07:59.915 --> 0:08:02.955 he was astonishing looking. He looked there was something kind 0:08:02.995 --> 0:08:06.635 of ethereal about him, and he had as a kid, 0:08:06.675 --> 0:08:09.155 he couldn't walk because he had I think polio or something. 0:08:09.355 --> 0:08:13.195 And he was also an artist, really really bright colors 0:08:13.315 --> 0:08:17.795 and kind of wildly imaginative and a little bit psychedelic. 0:08:18.435 --> 0:08:20.995 But I was I was just obsessed with him as 0:08:21.035 --> 0:08:26.155 this kind of like this this strange, otherworldly figure, and 0:08:26.155 --> 0:08:28.195 he was a favorite in nineteen eighty. Had we not 0:08:28.235 --> 0:08:30.835 boycotted the nineteen eighty Games, he might well have won 0:08:30.875 --> 0:08:33.715 a gold medal. Anyway, I cannot wait. He's going to 0:08:33.755 --> 0:08:36.435 be He's going to be a little bit. He might 0:08:36.475 --> 0:08:38.195 be a little I don't know, but I have a 0:08:38.235 --> 0:08:41.675 sense that he might be. He might be a little 0:08:41.995 --> 0:08:42.555 out there. 0:08:44.195 --> 0:08:47.155 This turned out to be pretty prescient. After meeting Milan Tiff, 0:08:47.275 --> 0:08:49.595 I felt like I had taken some kind of intense 0:08:49.635 --> 0:08:52.315 psychedelic the effects of which I've yet to wear off. 0:08:52.475 --> 0:08:54.475 The first humans. It's unbelievable. 0:08:54.915 --> 0:08:57.595 I understood that to walk is just to take a 0:08:57.675 --> 0:09:01.435 number of tiny, long jumps. I found myself transfixed by 0:09:01.435 --> 0:09:04.795 an actually gorgeous painting of Milan's portraying a pair of 0:09:04.875 --> 0:09:08.995 empty tidy whities suspended in a blue abstract space called 0:09:09.315 --> 0:09:12.115 Mysterious slee palm springs. 0:09:12.275 --> 0:09:14.835 And the birds and the trees would all fly down. 0:09:14.915 --> 0:09:17.315 They're just tapped into the same frequency as I have 0:09:17.435 --> 0:09:18.515 when I'm running and jumping. 0:09:19.395 --> 0:09:21.835 We flew out to Los Angeles, where he lives, so 0:09:21.875 --> 0:09:24.395 he could take us out to the UCLA track, And 0:09:24.555 --> 0:09:27.435 when we got there, there were several helicopters hovering above 0:09:27.515 --> 0:09:29.715 us the whole time, which only made everything a little 0:09:29.795 --> 0:09:33.515 more surreal, and Olympic legends just walking up to him, 0:09:33.555 --> 0:09:38.195 literally bowing down this I think because they wouldn't normally 0:09:38.315 --> 0:09:41.515 see him. He told us he prefers to run in 0:09:41.555 --> 0:09:48.395 the morning, by which he meant three am. Tiff took 0:09:48.475 --> 0:09:50.835 us out to the broad jump pit to help us 0:09:50.875 --> 0:09:54.875 get inside Jesse Owens's mind, which we thought he could 0:09:54.875 --> 0:09:57.955 do because he's a master of the approach the part 0:09:58.035 --> 0:10:02.315 Jesse Owens was screwing up, but also because so you 0:10:02.355 --> 0:10:03.955 actually knew Jesse Owens when you were a kid. 0:10:04.075 --> 0:10:08.275 Yeah, yeah, you know, I sit and he'd tell the stories. 0:10:08.635 --> 0:10:11.475 Yeah and not here all the stories. And you know, 0:10:11.555 --> 0:10:14.195 he talked about his experience in Berlin. 0:10:15.555 --> 0:10:18.475 You know, we asked him to tell us about how 0:10:18.515 --> 0:10:19.955 you're supposed to approach a jump. 0:10:20.435 --> 0:10:23.075 Yeah, you gotta have a gidea up first, that kind 0:10:23.075 --> 0:10:25.595 of rockings. You have to have some or jiggle where 0:10:25.595 --> 0:10:27.595 you will call it. Yeah, you have to have a 0:10:27.675 --> 0:10:30.275 jiggle or a gide up before you even get into 0:10:30.275 --> 0:10:30.675 your run. 0:10:30.955 --> 0:10:33.795 Yeah, that ajustice of your run. Is that why this 0:10:33.835 --> 0:10:36.395 is obviously the broad jump, but lose long. I noticed 0:10:36.435 --> 0:10:38.195 he does this sort of like hitch in his leg 0:10:38.235 --> 0:10:39.275 before he starts running. 0:10:40.275 --> 0:10:43.555 Yeah, it's like a dance. It's like it's like a preparation. 0:10:43.675 --> 0:10:45.195 Can you show us what your gidea. 0:10:44.995 --> 0:10:47.915 Up was, Well, it's like a one two, three, four five, 0:10:48.355 --> 0:10:49.355 then you start your run. 0:10:49.555 --> 0:10:50.035 Yeah. 0:10:50.075 --> 0:10:53.715 And I taught it to Willie Banks world record, taught 0:10:53.755 --> 0:10:57.435 it to bike Pile world record. 0:10:58.475 --> 0:11:00.675 We gave it a shot on the track where at 0:11:00.715 --> 0:11:04.075 the very same time actual Olympic athletes were practicing for 0:11:04.115 --> 0:11:08.195 this year's games. Was it embarrassing? It was mortifying. Did 0:11:08.235 --> 0:11:11.875 we set a world record? Not even close. Did we 0:11:11.955 --> 0:11:16.035 become friends with any Olympians? They were otherwise occupied. But 0:11:16.195 --> 0:11:20.795 this is the kind of dedication that deep historical investigations demand. 0:11:21.155 --> 0:11:22.955 What was Did Jesse Owens have a gide yo? 0:11:23.435 --> 0:11:26.475 No, he had a stance start because he was a sprinterer, 0:11:27.715 --> 0:11:30.635 you see. Yeah, that's why he was losing the steps 0:11:30.635 --> 0:11:33.635 all the time. He didn't have a jiggle, Well, he 0:11:33.715 --> 0:11:35.715 didn't have a g no. He didn't have a jiggle 0:11:35.795 --> 0:11:39.035 or a giddy oh yeah, And it took his competitor 0:11:39.075 --> 0:11:41.915 to say, man, come on, you gotta do something first. 0:11:43.355 --> 0:11:47.155 Jesse Owens's competitor, facing down the pit, the export fold 0:11:48.075 --> 0:11:55.315 loots Long Lutz Long was Germany's champion broad jumper, Hitler's champion, 0:11:55.755 --> 0:11:58.755 and he looked the part, a fine ak line nose 0:11:59.075 --> 0:12:02.155 framed by your classic blonde hair and blue eyes. As 0:12:02.195 --> 0:12:05.115 Owens wrote later, Hitler was in the stadium that morning 0:12:05.155 --> 0:12:08.915 to watch. Owens knew that he'd like nothing better than 0:12:08.955 --> 0:12:11.155 to see a black man and lose to an Arian. 0:12:11.915 --> 0:12:15.315 The thought was nanging at him, messing up his focus. 0:12:15.915 --> 0:12:18.355 And then he'd looked up at the box where Hitler 0:12:18.395 --> 0:12:21.595 had been watching the games and saw that when Owens's 0:12:21.595 --> 0:12:26.915 turn came, Hitler had just left. It made his blood boil. 0:12:28.115 --> 0:12:30.955 That's why he was fouling out. He was psyched out 0:12:30.955 --> 0:12:33.715 by all of it, distracted, and when he saw how 0:12:33.755 --> 0:12:37.035 amazing Lutslong was at the broad jump, he began wonder 0:12:37.275 --> 0:12:39.715 if there was something true about all this Arian stuff. 0:12:40.635 --> 0:12:44.435 He was down to his last jump, and then came 0:12:44.475 --> 0:12:49.635 the miracle. In an autobiography he published in nineteen seventy eight, 0:12:49.675 --> 0:12:52.555 Owens wrote, Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder. 0:12:53.435 --> 0:12:54.315 It was Lutslong. 0:12:55.635 --> 0:12:59.275 Look, there is no time to waste with manners. What 0:12:59.435 --> 0:13:00.475 has taken your goat? 0:13:01.235 --> 0:13:02.915 Obviously we had to reenact this. 0:13:04.195 --> 0:13:06.635 I had to smile a little in spite of myself 0:13:06.875 --> 0:13:11.115 hearing his mixed up American idiom ah nothing. I said, 0:13:11.515 --> 0:13:14.115 you know how it is? He was silent for a 0:13:14.115 --> 0:13:18.875 few seconds. Yes, he said, finally, I know how it is. 0:13:19.395 --> 0:13:22.955 But I also know you are a better jumper than this. Now, 0:13:23.475 --> 0:13:24.875 what has taken your goat? 0:13:25.875 --> 0:13:27.235 I laughed out loud. 0:13:26.995 --> 0:13:30.195 This time, but I couldn't tell him him above all, 0:13:31.115 --> 0:13:33.635 I glanced over at the broad jump pit I was 0:13:33.675 --> 0:13:37.635 about to be called. Lutz didn't waste words, even if 0:13:37.635 --> 0:13:41.235 he wasn't sure which ones to use. Is it what 0:13:41.475 --> 0:13:46.155 reichkanze Hitler did? He asked. I was thunderstruck that he'd 0:13:46.195 --> 0:13:50.475 say it. I started to answer, but I didn't know 0:13:50.515 --> 0:13:54.915 what to say. I see, he said, Look, we talk 0:13:54.955 --> 0:13:58.995 about that later. Now you must jump, and you must qualify. 0:13:59.835 --> 0:14:01.315 But how I shot back? 0:14:02.235 --> 0:14:02.835 I have thought? 0:14:03.035 --> 0:14:06.435 He said, you are like Aya. You must do it 0:14:06.595 --> 0:14:07.835 one hundred percent? 0:14:08.195 --> 0:14:10.475 Correct? I not yet? 0:14:10.555 --> 0:14:13.595 You must be sure not to foul. I nodded again, 0:14:13.955 --> 0:14:17.115 this time in frustration, and as I did, I heard 0:14:17.155 --> 0:14:21.715 the loudspeaker call my name. Lutz talked quickly. Then you 0:14:21.795 --> 0:14:25.435 do both things, Jesse. You remeasure your steps, You take 0:14:25.475 --> 0:14:28.875 off six inches behind the foul board. You jump as 0:14:28.915 --> 0:14:31.995 hard as you can, but you need not fear to foul. 0:14:33.315 --> 0:14:35.995 All at once, the panic emptied out of me like 0:14:36.035 --> 0:14:36.915 a cloudburst. 0:14:38.075 --> 0:14:40.715 Owens jogged up to the line and laid a towel 0:14:40.755 --> 0:14:43.635 to mark where Long had told him to jump. He 0:14:43.755 --> 0:14:47.835 lined up on the runway, maybe wiped his hands on 0:14:47.875 --> 0:14:52.715 his jersey, and then he ran one step, two steps, 0:14:53.035 --> 0:14:55.675 closer and closer to the pit, and then he hit 0:14:55.715 --> 0:14:58.115 that mark on the towel, leapt into the air. 0:14:58.635 --> 0:15:01.275 And when he finally got that, he qualified. 0:15:01.395 --> 0:15:04.075 And later that day, with Hitler back in the stands, 0:15:04.435 --> 0:15:08.115 in the metal event itself whol record, he set an 0:15:08.115 --> 0:15:13.715 Olympic record. And that's when Lootes along the aryan poster 0:15:13.875 --> 0:15:18.435 child who had just lost to Jesse. Owens hugged him 0:15:18.475 --> 0:15:22.315 in front of Adolph Hitler, and the Hitler was pist man, 0:15:24.275 --> 0:15:28.795 but Long didn't just embrace him. According to Jesse, Owens 0:15:29.235 --> 0:15:33.595 later that night they met up in the Olympic village. 0:15:34.555 --> 0:15:37.795 The hours ticked on and they stayed up late, talking 0:15:37.875 --> 0:15:40.755 about their lives, the state of the world, and the 0:15:40.875 --> 0:15:44.795 uncertain future. Some kind of strange bond had been formed 0:15:44.835 --> 0:15:48.035 between the men that day, because then the next day 0:15:48.395 --> 0:15:52.515 they did it again, and after that, again and again 0:15:53.235 --> 0:15:57.475 and again. Every single night of the Games they met 0:15:57.595 --> 0:16:01.755 up to talk. They became friends. The dream of the 0:16:01.755 --> 0:16:05.475 Olympics was real for them. They bridged an unbridgable gap 0:16:05.515 --> 0:16:11.395 between two cultures, two races. Something unbreakable had bound them. 0:16:11.795 --> 0:16:14.195 After the Games, when Owens was back in America and 0:16:14.275 --> 0:16:17.635 Lutzlang was still in Nazi Germany, they wrote letters to 0:16:17.715 --> 0:16:20.635 each other, even after long was serving in the Wehrmacht 0:16:20.635 --> 0:16:24.915 the Nazi Army, back and forth across the Atlantic for years. 0:16:25.795 --> 0:16:31.035 They kept coming until right before Lutzlang was killed in 0:16:31.075 --> 0:16:35.155 the war. He was stationed in the deserts of North Africa. 0:16:35.915 --> 0:16:39.435 On some lonely desert hour, he sat down to write 0:16:39.515 --> 0:16:41.195 one last letter to his friend. 0:16:42.555 --> 0:16:45.195 I am here, Jesse, where it seems there is only 0:16:45.235 --> 0:16:49.115 the dry sand and the wet blood. I do not 0:16:49.235 --> 0:16:52.715 fear so much for myself, my friend, Jesse. I fear 0:16:52.755 --> 0:16:56.035 for my woman who was at home, and my young son, Karl, 0:16:56.835 --> 0:17:01.555 who has never really known his father. My heart tells me, 0:17:02.355 --> 0:17:05.035 if I be honest with you, that this is the 0:17:05.115 --> 0:17:08.835 last letter I shall ever write. If it is so, 0:17:10.075 --> 0:17:14.595 I ask you something. It is something so very important 0:17:14.635 --> 0:17:18.395 to me. It is you go to Germany when this 0:17:18.515 --> 0:17:23.315 war done. Someday find my Carl and tell him about 0:17:23.355 --> 0:17:27.475 his father. Tell him, Jesse, what times were like when 0:17:27.515 --> 0:17:32.395 we were not separated by war, I am saying, Tell 0:17:32.475 --> 0:17:35.995 him how things can be between men on this earth. 0:17:41.435 --> 0:17:44.675 There are tears in your eyes. You would not be alone. 0:17:44.715 --> 0:17:47.235 This story is a big part of the legend of 0:17:47.315 --> 0:17:51.915 Jesse Owens. If you look up Jesse Owens in the 0:17:52.075 --> 0:17:56.315 Encyclopedia Britannica, there's the story when they made a star 0:17:56.515 --> 0:18:00.435 studied Hollywood film about Jesse Owens's life. Lutslog and that 0:18:00.595 --> 0:18:04.715 qualifying jump are the pivotal moment. Retelling this story would 0:18:04.715 --> 0:18:08.235 help launch the career of the greatest Olympic documentarian of 0:18:08.275 --> 0:18:11.555 all time, Bud Greenspan. And I'm not an auctioneer, but 0:18:11.755 --> 0:18:15.075 I think it is the reason why Lutslog's silver medal 0:18:15.555 --> 0:18:18.915 sold for nearly half a million dollars two years ago, 0:18:19.395 --> 0:18:23.195 about five times the amount earned for any other silver 0:18:23.235 --> 0:18:27.395 medal at auction. It's arguably the most important story in 0:18:27.475 --> 0:18:31.195 Olympic history. It is proof of the Olympic Dream. It 0:18:31.275 --> 0:18:33.915 made the case that it was good that America went 0:18:33.955 --> 0:18:37.155 to the Vilin Games because it made possible this improbable 0:18:37.195 --> 0:18:41.995 friendship that transcended even the Second World War, a story 0:18:42.395 --> 0:19:03.435 that was just too good to be true. This entire series, 0:19:03.595 --> 0:19:06.155 we've been telling stories about the way people made sense 0:19:06.195 --> 0:19:10.595 of having the Olympics in Nazi Germany, the distortions, And 0:19:10.635 --> 0:19:13.715 when I kept hearing about Jesse Owens's friendship with lutzlog, 0:19:13.795 --> 0:19:15.595 I thought we got to do an episode on this. 0:19:16.155 --> 0:19:19.115 Here's two people who saw each other clearly through all 0:19:19.155 --> 0:19:22.915 that moral fog. So I wanted to read more of 0:19:22.955 --> 0:19:25.475 what Owens and Long wrote to each other in those letters. 0:19:26.075 --> 0:19:28.595 I wrote to the Jesse Owens Archive at the University 0:19:28.595 --> 0:19:30.675 of Ohio for copies of the letters, and they didn't 0:19:30.715 --> 0:19:33.955 have any. They suggested I write to the family, but 0:19:34.555 --> 0:19:37.155 they didn't have any either. It seems strange to me 0:19:37.195 --> 0:19:39.595 that no one had kept them. So then I thought, 0:19:40.515 --> 0:19:42.795 maybe I'm just looking in the wrong country. 0:19:44.155 --> 0:19:48.395 My name is gelindorre I was living in Leipzig and 0:19:48.515 --> 0:19:52.155 working in Leipzig for more than thirty years, and the 0:19:52.275 --> 0:19:56.995 last twenty five years as the director of the sports 0:19:57.075 --> 0:19:58.355 Museum in Leipzig. 0:19:59.035 --> 0:20:04.475 And Leipzig has a connection to Long's life, right, that's right. 0:20:06.035 --> 0:20:12.195 Lutslan was born in Leipzig nineteen thirty and he lived 0:20:12.235 --> 0:20:15.195 there almost till the end. 0:20:16.035 --> 0:20:19.155 Roar and her colleague, the sport historian Volka Kluga have 0:20:19.235 --> 0:20:22.515 looked more deeply into the Jesse Owens Luteslong story than 0:20:22.515 --> 0:20:23.155 anyone else. 0:20:23.515 --> 0:20:26.435 We got a lot of questions from all over the 0:20:26.475 --> 0:20:28.675 world about legend. 0:20:29.475 --> 0:20:32.075 Jesse Owens told this story a lot of times. There 0:20:32.075 --> 0:20:34.595 are a few different versions. But Roor dug through the 0:20:34.595 --> 0:20:38.115 official reports about the games. They're over a thousand pages long. 0:20:39.035 --> 0:20:45.235 There is a very good documentation about the Olympics called 0:20:45.715 --> 0:20:50.995 Official Report of the nineteen thirty six Olympics, and they 0:20:51.115 --> 0:20:55.875 describe it very exactly what happens and where. 0:20:57.035 --> 0:21:00.915 Alongside that official report, the most important bit of documentary 0:21:00.955 --> 0:21:04.795 evidence is an article Kluga turned up written by Lutzlong himself. 0:21:05.075 --> 0:21:07.155 He was published about a week into the games, and 0:21:07.195 --> 0:21:11.755 it's called mine kamfmitt Owens I struggle with Owens, which 0:21:11.955 --> 0:21:15.555 I suspect is a deliberate reference to Hitler's memoirs, but 0:21:15.835 --> 0:21:18.915 homages to Hitler aside. The article was part of the 0:21:18.955 --> 0:21:22.435 surprisingly positive press coverage in Germany about Jesse Owens's win, 0:21:23.155 --> 0:21:27.475 including a series of photographs of Jesse Owens and Luteslong 0:21:28.075 --> 0:21:32.435 lying together in the grass of the Reichspoortfeld smiling. The 0:21:32.475 --> 0:21:35.795 photos are sometimes billed as having been taken after the competition, 0:21:36.035 --> 0:21:39.155 when Owens won and Long hugged him. Long's wearing a 0:21:39.235 --> 0:21:42.075 dark turtleneck sweater and it looks like he's cracking a joke. 0:21:42.675 --> 0:21:45.435 Owens is beaming at him and wearing his Team USA 0:21:45.515 --> 0:21:49.235 crew neck. In the photo, they're so close it almost 0:21:49.235 --> 0:21:52.955 looks like they're touching. They look like real friends. So 0:21:53.035 --> 0:21:55.475 Gerlinda Ror and I turned our attention to that. 0:21:56.195 --> 0:22:02.315 So between the first three jumps and the final three jumps, 0:22:02.995 --> 0:22:05.475 these photographs were doing. 0:22:06.275 --> 0:22:09.515 Oh so these photos are taken even before Jesse Owens 0:22:09.595 --> 0:22:14.315 win the gold. Yes, oh wow, so it's even its prior. 0:22:15.635 --> 0:22:17.795 There's a good chance that photo was taken or at 0:22:17.835 --> 0:22:21.555 least commissioned by Lenny Riefenstahl, the legendary filmmaker for the 0:22:21.595 --> 0:22:24.795 Third Reich. The photos float freely around the Internet now 0:22:24.875 --> 0:22:26.955 you can find them on Getty images. But at the 0:22:26.995 --> 0:22:29.955 time they were part of the Nazi propaganda push, meant 0:22:29.955 --> 0:22:32.915 to show that the Nazis weren't as prejudiced as they seemed. 0:22:33.835 --> 0:22:37.075 So we know that Lutzlang and Jesse Owens met at 0:22:37.155 --> 0:22:39.515 least for the time it took to take that photo, 0:22:39.875 --> 0:22:42.915 and they smiled at each other. Who knows what they said. 0:22:44.675 --> 0:22:49.515 But here's the strange thing. In his article, Lutslog mentions 0:22:49.595 --> 0:22:53.835 Jesse Owens's difficulty qualifying. He describes each of the three 0:22:53.915 --> 0:22:57.475 jumps he took, but he doesn't say anything about helping 0:22:57.555 --> 0:23:01.275 him with the approach, which is strange because that's the 0:23:01.315 --> 0:23:05.235 most important detail in the whole story. Owens is Long's 0:23:05.275 --> 0:23:08.715 biggest competitor. Owens is what stands between Long and the gold, 0:23:08.915 --> 0:23:10.915 and yet Long go out of his way to help 0:23:10.955 --> 0:23:13.555 Owens get to the final You would think in an 0:23:13.635 --> 0:23:16.795 article about the Olympic Spirit, Long would mention that they 0:23:16.835 --> 0:23:20.075 were trying to prove that they were unprejudiced. Also, in 0:23:20.155 --> 0:23:22.275 Nazi Germany, it would have been away for an arian 0:23:22.395 --> 0:23:25.715 to take credit for a black man's success, but he 0:23:25.755 --> 0:23:30.395 doesn't mention it. Okay, so maybe all the meaningful stuff 0:23:30.435 --> 0:23:32.555 happened in those long talks in the Olympic village. 0:23:32.715 --> 0:23:37.075 What about those I didn't think that. It cannot be 0:23:37.075 --> 0:23:41.315 because Lutsloan didn't live in the Olympic village. Oh really, 0:23:42.195 --> 0:23:47.635 he didn't live here. I know from his family and 0:23:47.955 --> 0:23:54.555 from photographs and from a diary of his mother that 0:23:55.035 --> 0:23:59.515 after the opening of the Olympic Games he went back 0:23:59.755 --> 0:24:01.875 home from Berlin to Leipzig. 0:24:02.275 --> 0:24:05.435 And did he go home to Leipzig after the broad jump? 0:24:05.635 --> 0:24:07.475 He wasn't. He would go home at the end of 0:24:07.475 --> 0:24:07.915 each day. 0:24:08.235 --> 0:24:14.155 No, not each day. After his competitions started. He lived 0:24:14.315 --> 0:24:16.715 in Berlin in another hotel. 0:24:17.795 --> 0:24:20.995 All right, So the long talks seem less likely, though 0:24:21.035 --> 0:24:24.395 there are two pieces of evidence that cut the other way. First, 0:24:24.595 --> 0:24:27.275 a few days after the broad jump, a newswire service 0:24:27.275 --> 0:24:31.115 wrote that quote something like a damon and Pytheis's friendship 0:24:31.155 --> 0:24:34.995 has sprung up between Ludslog and Jesse Owens. Though I 0:24:35.035 --> 0:24:36.955 think that's just a reference to the hug on the 0:24:36.995 --> 0:24:39.875