WEBVTT - Hitler’s Olympics, Part 2: Pangloss, Polonius, Prufrock 0:00:08.400 --> 0:00:18.480 Bushkin. We can't. I have never had a single conversation 0:00:18.520 --> 0:00:22.040 where both you and I were not kind of grinning 0:00:22.600 --> 0:00:24.840 as we told charge all stories. 0:00:27.240 --> 0:00:29.479 Well, I think there's something kind of lovely about his 0:00:29.600 --> 0:00:32.040 un self consciousness. I mean, he's a rare breed in 0:00:32.080 --> 0:00:35.160 this day and age, the like, completely unself conscious man 0:00:35.200 --> 0:00:39.480 who never for a second doubts his abilities, even though 0:00:39.479 --> 0:00:41.960 there's so much evidence for why he should be doubting 0:00:42.000 --> 0:00:42.720 his abilities. 0:00:45.440 --> 0:00:48.680 I'm talking to Ben Adaph Haffring, my partner in our 0:00:48.720 --> 0:00:52.720 series on the nineteen thirty six Olympics, the most consequential 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:54.560 Olympic Games in history. 0:00:55.600 --> 0:00:59.639 And he's also just a really excellent partner in the 0:00:59.760 --> 0:01:03.200 goal of mocking him, because he really preserves all of 0:01:03.240 --> 0:01:07.959 the evidence of his follies and he reads like a 0:01:07.959 --> 0:01:09.360 great character out of literature. 0:01:10.160 --> 0:01:14.640 This episode is about Charles Hitchcock Cheryl, the man who 0:01:14.680 --> 0:01:17.160 in the early nineteen thirties was at the center of 0:01:17.200 --> 0:01:20.200 the debate over whether the United States should go to 0:01:20.240 --> 0:01:23.160 the Berlin Games. In fact, if you ask why the 0:01:23.160 --> 0:01:26.640 Olympic Games are the Olympic Games, how it flourished. It 0:01:26.760 --> 0:01:30.080 endured over the course of the most tumultuous century in history. 0:01:30.520 --> 0:01:33.160 There are really only two people who matter. One is 0:01:33.200 --> 0:01:36.240 Avery Brundage, and we'll get to Brundage later in the series. 0:01:36.840 --> 0:01:42.399 The other is Charles Hitchcock. Cheryl. Cheryl is a forgotten figure. Today, 0:01:42.720 --> 0:01:45.800 traces of him persist only in little scraps here and there. 0:01:46.120 --> 0:01:49.400 But in his day, when Cheryl gave an after dinner 0:01:49.400 --> 0:01:53.280 speech somewhere, it made the Times. When Cheryl complained about 0:01:53.280 --> 0:01:56.520 his neighbour's dog, it made the Times when he died. 0:01:56.800 --> 0:02:00.559 The New York Times wrote no fewer than five stories five. 0:02:00.960 --> 0:02:04.920 He was everywhere. He knew everyone. He was friends with 0:02:05.040 --> 0:02:09.720 every American president, from Teddy to Franklin Roosevelt. He attended 0:02:09.800 --> 0:02:14.360 every reception of importance, every luncheon that mattered. In his 0:02:14.440 --> 0:02:18.520 sixty nine years, he crossed the Atlantic ninety times. He 0:02:18.680 --> 0:02:21.280 was in constant motion. He was Zelig. 0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:23.320 He's Forrest Gump. 0:02:23.400 --> 0:02:25.720 He's Forrest Gump. You know I'm about to you know 0:02:25.760 --> 0:02:29.680 who he is? Hold on, hold on, hold on, Oh no, 0:02:29.760 --> 0:02:33.399 wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait, he's polonious. 0:02:33.560 --> 0:02:35.400 I have to get this right here. We are okay. 0:02:37.160 --> 0:02:39.320 So this is from love song with j alf Proof 0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:43.360 Rock maybe T. S. Eliot's most famous poem, and proof 0:02:43.480 --> 0:02:49.200 Rock is a kind of self aware version of Charles Cheryl, Oh, 0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:53.520 yes here we are okay. No, I am not Prince Hamlet, 0:02:53.560 --> 0:02:56.200 nor was meant to be. I am an attendant. 0:02:55.680 --> 0:02:59.440 Lord, the one that will do to swell a progress, 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:04.480 start a scene, or to advise the Prince, no doubt, 0:03:04.639 --> 0:03:09.440 an easy tool, deferential, glad to be of use, politic, 0:03:09.639 --> 0:03:14.040 cautious and particulous, full of high sentence, but a bit 0:03:14.080 --> 0:03:21.679 of cuse at times, indeed almost ridiculous, almost at times. 0:03:21.960 --> 0:03:24.080 The fool that's him? 0:03:24.720 --> 0:03:28.959 That is him? And also can I do another literary pe? 0:03:29.000 --> 0:03:32.520 This is he's also Pangloss, you know, Condide's sort of 0:03:32.840 --> 0:03:39.200 utopian philosopher who's completely fatuous. The Pangloss quote is it 0:03:39.280 --> 0:03:42.280 is demonstrable that things cannot be otherwise than as they are. 0:03:42.560 --> 0:03:45.280 We're all being created for an end, all is necessarily 0:03:45.320 --> 0:03:48.240 for the best end. And that's also Ryl's kind of 0:03:48.960 --> 0:03:53.520 that's his philosophy of inconsequence, why really bother because everything's 0:03:53.560 --> 0:03:55.400 so great and it's just how it ought to be? 0:03:56.080 --> 0:04:01.560 Zelig force Gump, polonious Pangloss. Oh, and one more. 0:04:01.760 --> 0:04:05.480 That reminds me of the Dorothy Thompson who goes Nazi 0:04:05.680 --> 0:04:08.840 quote that he has been treated to forms of education 0:04:09.000 --> 0:04:12.400 which have released him from inhibitions. His body is vigorous, 0:04:12.600 --> 0:04:16.440 his mind is childish. His soul has been almost completely neglected. 0:04:16.640 --> 0:04:22.000 A yes. Remember Dorothy Thompson's parlor game where she describes 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:25.000 going to parties, looking around the room and picking out 0:04:25.040 --> 0:04:28.640 which person was most likely to go Nazi. Thompson had 0:04:28.640 --> 0:04:34.720 two particularly interesting archetypes, misters B and C. Charles Cheryl 0:04:35.240 --> 0:04:41.400 was the embodiment of mister B. Mister B has risen 0:04:41.480 --> 0:04:45.360 beyond his real abilities by virtue of health, good looks, 0:04:45.680 --> 0:04:48.479 and being a good mixer. He married for money, and 0:04:48.560 --> 0:04:51.120 he's done lots of other things for money. His code 0:04:51.160 --> 0:04:53.760 is not his own. It is that of his class, 0:04:53.800 --> 0:04:57.880 no worse, no better. He fits easily into whatever pattern 0:04:57.960 --> 0:05:04.240 is successful. That is his measure of value. Success. Nazism 0:05:04.440 --> 0:05:07.760 as a minority movement would not attract him. As a 0:05:07.800 --> 0:05:15.200 movement likely to attain power, it would. My name is 0:05:15.200 --> 0:05:18.880 Malcolm Gladwell. You're listening to Revisionist History, my podcast about 0:05:18.880 --> 0:05:23.200 things overlooked and misunderstood. This is episode two in our 0:05:23.240 --> 0:05:27.840 series Hitler's Olympics, How and Why America went to the 0:05:27.920 --> 0:05:36.120 nineteen thirty six Games. Charles Cheryl grew up in Washington, 0:05:36.200 --> 0:05:39.600 d c. His father made a lot of money lobbying 0:05:39.640 --> 0:05:42.760 for the big railroad interests. He went to college at Yale, 0:05:43.080 --> 0:05:45.640 then worked for a time as a lawyer on Wall Street. 0:05:46.240 --> 0:05:50.799 He was tall, slender, with a long imperial nose, bright 0:05:50.960 --> 0:05:54.320 twinkling eyes, a full head of blonde hair, and a 0:05:54.360 --> 0:06:00.000 thriving mustache. He wrote twenty books, mostly about stained glass. 0:06:00.720 --> 0:06:03.599 It's his memoirs, though, that are ar tour de Force, 0:06:03.880 --> 0:06:10.920 an unpublished three hundred and sixty page compendium of every anecdote, accolade, witticism, 0:06:11.200 --> 0:06:17.480 and celebrity encounter in his entire life. Here is my favorite. 0:06:19.200 --> 0:06:22.159 In October nineteen thirty one, I had the honor of 0:06:22.240 --> 0:06:25.880 lunching alone at the White House with President Hoover because 0:06:25.880 --> 0:06:29.000 he wanted me to undertake a certain matter, which I 0:06:29.040 --> 0:06:33.279 guessed he thought me reluctant to do. That opening is 0:06:33.440 --> 0:06:36.920 very Charles Cheryl. He was not the sort who volunteered. 0:06:37.400 --> 0:06:40.960 That would be ghusch. He waited for opportunity to ask 0:06:41.000 --> 0:06:46.440 him to lunch. It was an excellent luncheon, he continues, 0:06:47.040 --> 0:06:49.520 and I was pleased to see upon each of the 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:54.560 four corners of the table small silver dishes containing cherries. 0:06:55.520 --> 0:06:58.400 I am very fond of cherries, and so looked forward 0:06:58.480 --> 0:07:02.880 to indulging in them when the arrived. Therefore, while I 0:07:03.000 --> 0:07:05.480 was partaking out of a cup of soup, the President 0:07:05.720 --> 0:07:09.000 ate the cherries out of his dish and remarked to me, 0:07:09.800 --> 0:07:13.240 I see you do not like cherries, and then proceeded 0:07:13.520 --> 0:07:16.440 to eat all the cherries out of all four dishes. 0:07:16.760 --> 0:07:19.960 This stunned me, but of course I made a comment 0:07:20.040 --> 0:07:25.480 upon his disposal of all the cherries in sight. The 0:07:25.520 --> 0:07:28.440 President then makes a pitch for the post. He wants 0:07:28.520 --> 0:07:32.920 Cheryl to take some minor ambassadorship or blue ribbon panel. 0:07:33.440 --> 0:07:37.800 Cheryl demurs. The President is crestfallen, but as they leave 0:07:37.840 --> 0:07:44.360 the luncheon, Cheryl turns to Hoover and gently says, I think, sir, 0:07:44.840 --> 0:07:47.200 that you do not realize that a man does not 0:07:47.360 --> 0:07:50.160 always know just what the other man likes or does 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:53.880 not like. For example, at luncheon, you said I did 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:57.760 not appear to like cherries, But you are mistake, because 0:07:57.800 --> 0:08:00.000 I am very fond of cherries. But there might be 0:08:00.280 --> 0:08:02.960 something else which I would like to do to serve you, 0:08:03.280 --> 0:08:05.960 which I like as much as I like cherries, and 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:09.520 possibly it is something that you have not thought of 0:08:10.080 --> 0:08:15.600 in connection with me. And then the kicker, perhaps this 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:19.440 remark of mine has something to do with his subsequently 0:08:19.520 --> 0:08:25.120 asking me to undertake the embassy to Turkey. I mean, 0:08:25.760 --> 0:08:28.200 can you see why we are so fascinated with Cheryl? 0:08:28.560 --> 0:08:30.800 It's all there in the showdown over the cherry bowl, 0:08:31.200 --> 0:08:34.680 his willingness to speak truth to power, his will to succeed, 0:08:35.080 --> 0:08:40.840 his daring conversational gambits. Cheryl's most enduring fame, however, was 0:08:40.960 --> 0:08:44.440 as a sportsman. He was a champion sprinter at Yale. 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:47.360 He never went to the Olympics, but he did briefly 0:08:47.360 --> 0:08:50.240 share the world record for the hundred yard dash. But 0:08:50.280 --> 0:08:52.680 that was just part of it. You know how sprinter's 0:08:52.679 --> 0:08:55.120 crouch at the start of every race instead of standing. 0:08:56.040 --> 0:09:01.960 Charles Cheryl invented the crouching start, or at least he 0:09:02.040 --> 0:09:02.600 says he did. 0:09:02.880 --> 0:09:04.920 Any One that looked at my hand will be that 0:09:05.000 --> 0:09:08.400 I have a luck line which surprises all of those 0:09:08.440 --> 0:09:09.840 who are wise in such. 0:09:09.720 --> 0:09:13.800 Such Cheryl was much sought after as an after dinner speaker, 0:09:13.960 --> 0:09:16.200 and he would often begin with a story or two 0:09:16.480 --> 0:09:21.640 of his halcyon days at Yale as a champion athletic innovator. 0:09:22.080 --> 0:09:26.400 Which brings me to the athletic thought that although I 0:09:26.520 --> 0:09:33.200 should play credit for the invention of the catching start, 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:37.120 the real fact is that it's due more to luck 0:09:37.240 --> 0:09:40.400 than brain. I happened upon it and it turned out 0:09:40.480 --> 0:09:43.600 to be worth at least the yard, and I got 0:09:43.679 --> 0:09:46.880 credit or something with my luck really deserved. 0:09:49.280 --> 0:09:51.240 You know how you have an uncle who stole home 0:09:51.280 --> 0:09:53.560 in the little league to win the county championship and 0:09:53.640 --> 0:09:57.800 he's still telling that story fifty years later. Cheryl was 0:09:57.920 --> 0:10:00.239 like that with the crouching start. 0:10:01.679 --> 0:10:04.600 He has this glorious life that everyone in the world 0:10:04.640 --> 0:10:07.600 is basically supporting, because even he get has all these 0:10:07.679 --> 0:10:12.880 letters from presidents just being not saying anything important, but 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:17.440 being like, Chaz loved your book on stayin Glass. Yeah, 0:10:17.720 --> 0:10:21.800 like three paragraphs from Teddy Roosevelt telling him how great 0:10:21.840 --> 0:10:23.720 his book on stained Glass is. And I believe that 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:26.280 he actually read Charles Cheryl's book on Stained Glass. But 0:10:26.880 --> 0:10:29.080 for what reason other than to make Cheryl feel good 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:31.360 about himself, which is just the mission of even the 0:10:31.360 --> 0:10:32.800 most powerful man in the world. 0:10:33.720 --> 0:10:37.520 Do you know about the Teddy Roosevelt. There's a great 0:10:37.520 --> 0:10:42.320 Teddy Roosevelt moment in uh oh, yeah, he goes to 0:10:42.320 --> 0:10:46.800 see Roosevelt. This is from his tires and he's he 0:10:46.840 --> 0:10:48.800 waits for half an hour before going into the president 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:51.760 study because Booker Washington had been called called in to 0:10:51.840 --> 0:10:54.320 advise up upon a speech touching on the colored race. 0:10:54.640 --> 0:10:56.679 So just so we know, like he's. 0:10:56.480 --> 0:10:58.160 Like, something meaningful is really going on. 0:10:58.559 --> 0:11:02.040 Booker T. Washington was one of the most important African 0:11:02.120 --> 0:11:05.120 American leaders of his generation, and they're talking about the 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:08.240 central problem facing the American public. And Cheryl is like 0:11:08.280 --> 0:11:12.560 waiting impatiently because he said, I followed him and after 0:11:12.559 --> 0:11:15.120 the purpose of my visit was concluded a rose to leave. 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:18.320 The President asked my opinion of two bronzes. One was 0:11:18.400 --> 0:11:20.800 the Bronco Buster, which had been presented to him by 0:11:20.800 --> 0:11:23.200 the old Regiment, the rough Riders. The other was the 0:11:23.280 --> 0:11:26.000 Crouching Start by Tate McKenzie. 0:11:26.440 --> 0:11:29.520 Ah, that's that's what I found in the museum. 0:11:29.600 --> 0:11:33.120 We are deep into digression mode here, But at some 0:11:33.200 --> 0:11:36.560 point in our mutual obsession with Charles Cheryl Ben found 0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:40.520 himself in a community museum in some waspy corner of Connecticut, 0:11:40.720 --> 0:11:44.439 and stumbled upon a statue of a tall, handsome man 0:11:45.160 --> 0:11:50.080 in a crouching start. Chills went down his spine exactly exactly, 0:11:50.559 --> 0:11:54.320 I laughingly declared my inability to give any unprejudiced answer 0:11:54.600 --> 0:11:57.880 because I was the first runner to use the crouching start. 0:11:58.400 --> 0:11:58.840 Not true. 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:01.600 By the way, come back here and sit down, snapped 0:12:01.760 --> 0:12:06.800 out the President, and then followed a rapid fire useilade 0:12:07.320 --> 0:12:11.960 as to why that start had been invented, its advantages, limitations, etc. 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:14.679 Until I felt as if a stomach pump had been 0:12:14.720 --> 0:12:16.040 applied to my brain. 0:12:16.880 --> 0:12:20.360 Like just so we understand, Roosevelt has just met what 0:12:20.480 --> 0:12:24.160 Booker t WASHINGTD to discuss the central issue facing the Republic, 0:12:24.320 --> 0:12:28.640 which is the continued like crime be committed against the 0:12:28.640 --> 0:12:29.200 black people. 0:12:30.840 --> 0:12:33.880 Cheryl shows up, Now what does the president do? Finally 0:12:33.920 --> 0:12:36.280 comes alive with the question of the origin of the 0:12:36.320 --> 0:12:40.800 crouching start. Presidents were impressed by Charles Cheryl, and so 0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:44.000 was an organization that lies at the very heart of 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:51.160 this story, the International Olympic Committee the IOC. The IOC 0:12:51.360 --> 0:12:54.079 is the governing body of the Olympic Games then is now. 0:12:54.200 --> 0:12:57.920 It is based in Lauzon, Switzerland, neutral territory. It has 0:12:58.000 --> 0:13:02.040 ultimate control over all aspects of the games, the rules, 0:13:02.200 --> 0:13:05.160 the events, the schedule, where the games are held, Who 0:13:05.200 --> 0:13:10.480 gets invited. The organization's founder was Pierre de Coupertan Baron 0:13:10.760 --> 0:13:14.559 de Cupertin, a French aristocrat. He got the modern game 0:13:14.640 --> 0:13:18.280 started in Greece in eighteen ninety six, planted the seed, 0:13:18.679 --> 0:13:22.080 and from the beginning he surrounded himself with his friends, 0:13:22.800 --> 0:13:27.520 basically other aristocrats. He referred to them as the trusted Men. 0:13:28.640 --> 0:13:32.000 The Baron's successor to run the IOC was Count Henri 0:13:32.200 --> 0:13:36.880 dubayers LeTour of Belgium. Someone once wrote of the Count's wife, 0:13:37.120 --> 0:13:42.559 the Comtesse Elizabeth von Clarie Unaldringen. She traveled widely as 0:13:42.600 --> 0:13:47.120 her husband was a passionate tourist. The comtest was also 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:49.400 a Nazi, who wrote a personal note of thanks to 0:13:49.440 --> 0:13:52.800 Adolf Hitler after he invaded her country. But we're getting 0:13:52.840 --> 0:13:57.679 ahead of ourselves. Another Olympic committee member, his Excellency the 0:13:57.720 --> 0:14:02.040 most excellent, the Marquise of sam the Spanish aristocrat who 0:14:02.080 --> 0:14:05.760 ran the IOC for twenty one years. One biographical note 0:14:05.760 --> 0:14:09.840 on Samarank reads that quote. During his studies he practiced 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:14.360 roller hockey, for which he created world Championships, which the 0:14:14.400 --> 0:14:17.960 Spanish team won roller hockey. He picks a sport no 0:14:18.000 --> 0:14:21.240 one plays, and then invents a world championships where he 0:14:21.320 --> 0:14:23.600 has to be the favorite. I mean, that is just 0:14:23.640 --> 0:14:29.040 about the most perfect description of enterprising white guy privilege ever. 0:14:30.120 --> 0:14:34.240 And let's not forget about Lord David George brownlow Cecil Berlin, 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:37.560 heir to the Marquess of Exeter, who once ran around 0:14:37.560 --> 0:14:40.320 the upper promenade deck of the Queen Mary Ocean Liner 0:14:40.360 --> 0:14:45.320 in fifty seven seconds dressed in street clothes, a record 0:14:45.360 --> 0:14:48.720 that I'm pretty sure still stands. Burgley was the one 0:14:48.720 --> 0:14:52.120 who bestowed the golden bronze medals on the American runners 0:14:52.200 --> 0:14:54.800 John Carlos and Tommy Smith at the Mexico Games in 0:14:54.840 --> 0:14:58.400 nineteen sixty eight, where on the victory stand the two 0:14:58.560 --> 0:15:02.520 famously raised glove fists in a black power salute. When 0:15:02.560 --> 0:15:05.880 asked why Carlos and Smith wore gloves that day, Burley said, 0:15:06.800 --> 0:15:12.680 I thought they'd hurt their hands. These were the men 0:15:13.080 --> 0:15:16.160 of the Io Sea. They would meet every year or 0:15:16.200 --> 0:15:18.480 so in a grand hotel in one of the many 0:15:18.520 --> 0:15:21.880 storied capitals of Europe, put on long black coats and 0:15:21.960 --> 0:15:24.840 striped pants and bowler hats, drink a lot of Chateau 0:15:24.920 --> 0:15:28.640 Lafitte Rothschild, and regale each other with stories of past 0:15:28.800 --> 0:15:34.680 athletic triumphs. It was the greatest men's club in the world, 0:15:35.280 --> 0:15:38.080 and in retrospect, it was surely only a matter of 0:15:38.120 --> 0:15:41.840 time before the IOC set their sights on a certain 0:15:42.520 --> 0:15:48.240 dashing mustachiote sprinting champion from New York City who held 0:15:48.320 --> 0:15:53.120 the ear of Presidents. Let me read to you from 0:15:53.160 --> 0:15:56.400 the June eighth, nineteen twenty two edition of the New 0:15:56.480 --> 0:16:02.440 York Times. Olympic Committee Aleks Mister Cheryl will bring a 0:16:02.520 --> 0:16:05.640 vast store of athletic knowledge to the Committee. While at 0:16:05.720 --> 0:16:09.640 Yale he won the intercollegiate one hundred yard dash championship 0:16:09.880 --> 0:16:14.200 four years in succession. He was wait for it, the 0:16:14.280 --> 0:16:17.760 originator of the crouching start, which is now used in 0:16:17.840 --> 0:16:23.120 all sprints in every section of the world. Zelig Forrest Gum, 0:16:23.320 --> 0:16:28.320 Polonius Pangloss, Mister b and the Thomas Edison of the 0:16:28.360 --> 0:16:31.440 crouching start. Our man of parts has now been given 0:16:31.680 --> 0:16:36.040 his greatest role ever a member of the International Olympic Committee, 0:16:36.120 --> 0:16:38.960 and over the next decade his medal will be put 0:16:39.000 --> 0:16:42.480 to the test do I dare to introduce yet another 0:16:42.560 --> 0:16:47.000 literary analog, Hercules, of course, whom the Oracle of Delphi 0:16:47.280 --> 0:16:52.240 directed to perform twelve trials in exchange for immortality, the 0:16:52.280 --> 0:16:55.440 slaying of the Hydra, the cleansing of the augien Stables, 0:16:55.480 --> 0:16:58.440 on and on. You read the Greek myths and immediately 0:16:58.480 --> 0:17:02.000 your thinking of Charles Hitchcock Cheryl. And by the way, 0:17:02.240 --> 0:17:04.720 where is the most famous depiction of the labors of 0:17:04.760 --> 0:17:08.879 Hercules in a sculpture found in the Temple of Zeus 0:17:09.359 --> 0:17:20.320 at Olympia. It all fits. Adolf Hitler's rise to the 0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:24.679 leadership of Germany was swift. In nineteen twenty three, in 0:17:24.760 --> 0:17:28.359 his mid thirties, he makes an incredibly clumsy coup attempt 0:17:28.400 --> 0:17:32.000 in Munich and gets arrested. Spends nine months in prison, 0:17:32.160 --> 0:17:35.160 where he writes Mankomfe his vision for a new ary 0:17:35.200 --> 0:17:38.880 in Germany, cleansed of Jews and outsiders, and as soon 0:17:38.920 --> 0:17:42.480 as he gets out, his star ascends. By the time 0:17:42.520 --> 0:17:46.280 our famous American journalist Dorothy Thompson interviews Hitler at the 0:17:46.320 --> 0:17:49.919 Kaiserhoff Hotel in nineteen thirty one, the Nazis are the 0:17:50.040 --> 0:17:53.600 second biggest party in the German parliament, and gaining ground, 0:17:54.280 --> 0:17:57.120 and Thompson is trying to figure out whether Hitler can 0:17:57.160 --> 0:18:01.200 actually get elected Chancellor, especially since he makes it clear 0:18:01.800 --> 0:18:06.919 that he doesn't actually believe in democracy. Thompson wrote, people 0:18:06.960 --> 0:18:10.359 were to awaken, and Hitler's movement was going to vote 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:15.200 dictatorship in in itself a fascinating idea. Imagine a would 0:18:15.200 --> 0:18:18.800 be dictator setting out to persuade a sovereign people to 0:18:18.960 --> 0:18:24.280 vote away their rights. In nineteen thirty three, Hitler pulls 0:18:24.320 --> 0:18:28.199 it off. It comes to power almost immediately. There's a 0:18:28.200 --> 0:18:32.199 boycott of Jewish businesses. People start beating up Jews in 0:18:32.240 --> 0:18:37.640 the streets. Jews get banned from professional organizations and sports clubs. 0:18:38.200 --> 0:18:41.600 The Nazis, it turns out, care a great deal about sports, 0:18:42.000 --> 0:18:46.439 about physical fitness, about vigorous competition, and their vision of 0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:51.080 sports does not include Jews. Germany's best tennis player at 0:18:51.119 --> 0:18:54.640 the time is Jewish doctor Daniel Prenn, and he gets 0:18:54.720 --> 0:18:57.879 kicked off the country's Davis Cup team. In the spring 0:18:57.920 --> 0:19:00.240 of nineteen thirty three, the head of the German an 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:04.320 organizing committee for the Berlin Games, Teodolibald, is stripped of 0:19:04.359 --> 0:19:06.879 his post because there were some Jewish people in his 0:19:06.960 --> 0:19:10.879 family tree. In May of nineteen thirty three, the German 0:19:10.920 --> 0:19:14.520 Sports Commissioner gives an interview where he says that German 0:19:14.640 --> 0:19:19.480 sports are for arians. The American Jewish Congress sends a 0:19:19.520 --> 0:19:22.960 telegram to the American delegates to the IOC. It says, 0:19:23.640 --> 0:19:27.320 no jew in America or in other countries could, in 0:19:27.400 --> 0:19:31.120 self respect undertake to appear in Germany under present conditions. 0:19:32.160 --> 0:19:36.199 The Olympic ideal and the Nazi agenda are on a 0:19:36.240 --> 0:19:44.040 collision course. Now it's June nineteen thirty three. The IOC 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:47.159 has its big meetings set for Vienna. It was almost 0:19:47.160 --> 0:19:50.520 certainly at the Hotel Imperial, a magnificent building in the 0:19:50.560 --> 0:19:56.480 Italian Neo Renaissance style, marble lobby, coffered ceilings, crystal chandeliers. 0:19:56.800 --> 0:19:59.320 No other place would be up to the IOC's standards. 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:03.040 Little known fact about the Imperial, by the way, Hitler 0:20:03.080 --> 0:20:05.920 worked there briefly as a janitor when he was bombing 0:20:06.000 --> 0:20:09.720 around Vienna in his twenties. Sixty six delegates are coming 0:20:09.760 --> 0:20:13.639 for the IOC meeting from every country of significance in 0:20:13.680 --> 0:20:17.080 the world. The Men's Club has gathered in their long 0:20:17.160 --> 0:20:21.120 black coats, their striped pants and bowler hats. A special 0:20:21.200 --> 0:20:25.000 program is printed up for all in attendance, which begins 0:20:25.400 --> 0:20:31.640 on its opening page with a questionnaire. Are you a sportsman? One? 0:20:31.840 --> 0:20:34.600 Do you play the game for the game's sake? Two? 0:20:34.760 --> 0:20:38.320 Do you play for your team and not yourself? Three? 0:20:38.480 --> 0:20:43.680 Do you carry out your captain's orders without question or criticism? Four? 0:20:44.200 --> 0:20:49.520 Do you accept the umpire's decision absolutely? Five? Do you 0:20:49.600 --> 0:20:55.439 win without swank and lose without grousing? And then the 0:20:55.480 --> 0:20:59.959 crucial one six would you rather lose than do anything 0:21:00.080 --> 0:21:04.960 which you are not sure is fair? The Vienna meeting 0:21:05.160 --> 0:21:10.280 focuses squarely on that sixth question. A true sportsman would 0:21:10.359 --> 0:21:13.159 rather lose than do anything that wasn't fair, And the 0:21:13.240 --> 0:21:16.680 delegates are perfectly aware of what's going on in Germany. 0:21:17.359 --> 0:21:21.320 Not letting Jews compete simply because they are Jews is 0:21:21.720 --> 0:21:24.959 for the sportsman surely the definition of unfairness. 0:21:25.760 --> 0:21:34.440 But our International Committee does not concern itself with internal 0:21:34.480 --> 0:21:39.480 athletic conditions in any country, but only with the choice 0:21:39.520 --> 0:21:43.760 of that country's members for its Olympic team. 0:21:44.119 --> 0:21:47.400 This is Cheryl in a speech outlining the Commission's dilemma 0:21:47.440 --> 0:21:48.280 that week in Vienna. 0:21:48.760 --> 0:21:52.520 Now that's very important to remember with that choice, we 0:21:52.640 --> 0:21:56.840 insist that race, religion, color, and sofar shall. 0:21:56.560 --> 0:22:02.320 Not interfere cognitive dissonance upon us. And the Olympic committee 0:22:02.320 --> 0:22:05.720 members have four ways they can resolve it. They can 0:22:05.800 --> 0:22:09.080 move the game somewhere else. They can cancel the games 0:22:09.119 --> 0:22:11.080 the way they did in nineteen sixteen in the middle 0:22:11.119 --> 0:22:14.040 of the First World War. They can keep the games 0:22:14.040 --> 0:22:18.480 in Berlin and simply let everyone boycott. Or they can 0:22:18.560 --> 0:22:21.240 convince the Nazis to have a change of heart when 0:22:21.240 --> 0:22:24.560 it comes to their Jewish athletes. What should they do? 0:22:26.359 --> 0:22:28.560 Let us put ourselves in the mind of our hero, 0:22:29.040 --> 0:22:33.680 Charles Hitchcock Cheryl. He has sailed the Atlantic ninety times. 0:22:34.000 --> 0:22:37.200 He has written a book on German stained glass windows. 0:22:37.480 --> 0:22:41.400 He knows the Teutonic soul and did not Charles Hitchcock 0:22:41.520 --> 0:22:44.600 Cheryl stare down the President of the United States over 0:22:44.640 --> 0:22:50.480 the thorny issue of the disputed cherrybyl Why bow to tyranny? 0:22:50.760 --> 0:22:55.600 Why not compel tyranny to bow to you? The last 0:22:55.640 --> 0:22:59.879 option to convince the Nazis to be less Nazi was 0:22:59.880 --> 0:23:03.680 the only choice. Cheryl sends a telegram home to the 0:23:03.720 --> 0:23:08.480 American Jewish Congress, rest assured that I shall stoutly maintain 0:23:08.600 --> 0:23:14.520 the American principle that all citizens are equal under the law. 0:23:15.200 --> 0:23:17.919 The key business of the Vienna meeting was conducted by 0:23:17.960 --> 0:23:21.200 a six man executive committee headed by the Belgian count 0:23:21.320 --> 0:23:25.679 Henri du Baye LeTour, and Cheryl, by virtue of his 0:23:25.760 --> 0:23:29.720 stature as a diplomat and storied athlete, is the key 0:23:29.800 --> 0:23:34.359 player in that inner circle. They meet behind closed doors. 0:23:34.760 --> 0:23:39.159 Imagine a room full of mustachio gentlemen in an ornate 0:23:39.240 --> 0:23:44.679 conference room festooned with portraits of other mustachio gentlemen. Cheryl 0:23:44.920 --> 0:23:48.040 by LeTour and the English delegate on one side of 0:23:48.040 --> 0:23:52.200 the long oak conference table, the Germans on the other. 0:23:53.119 --> 0:23:56.399 It was a trying fight, Cheryl explains later in a 0:23:56.480 --> 0:23:59.720 letter to a friend. The British said, let the Germans be, 0:24:00.119 --> 0:24:04.640 but Cheryl would have none of it. The Germans yielded slowly, 0:24:04.840 --> 0:24:08.560 very slowly. First they conceded that the other nations could 0:24:08.600 --> 0:24:12.800 bring Jews. Then I went at them hard, insisting that 0:24:13.040 --> 0:24:17.159 as they had expressly excluded Jews, now they must expressly 0:24:17.200 --> 0:24:23.280 declare that Jews would not even be excluded from German teams. 0:24:24.280 --> 0:24:27.040 He would tell this story often in the intervening years. 0:24:27.760 --> 0:24:32.840 I personally fearing unfair treatment of Jewish athlete in the 0:24:32.880 --> 0:24:38.880 selection for the German nineteen thirty sixth Olympic team. Made 0:24:38.920 --> 0:24:42.119 it my business who pushed the points so far that 0:24:42.240 --> 0:24:47.880 our committee received from the German Ministry of Interior Ministerium 0:24:47.880 --> 0:24:52.560 dos Center a letter of three short paragraphs, third of 0:24:52.600 --> 0:24:58.199 which reads, as a principal German Jews shall not be 0:24:58.280 --> 0:25:03.399 excluded from German team at the game of the eleventh Olympia. 0:25:03.720 --> 0:25:07.399 At his next year, I had the honor of drafting 0:25:07.760 --> 0:25:12.960 that third paragraph. Perhaps you will agree that I felt 0:25:13.920 --> 0:25:18.760 everyone at home and abroad thought that I was thus 0:25:18.880 --> 0:25:23.320 doing my best for the Jews. 0:25:24.840 --> 0:25:28.600 In Vienna, there are reporters gathered at the hotel waiting 0:25:28.640 --> 0:25:33.920 for news to break. Cheryl emerges, triumphant that games will 0:25:33.960 --> 0:25:36.800 go on. A cheer goes up around the world. The 0:25:36.840 --> 0:25:40.640 New York Times, Charles Cheryl's newspaper of record, calls him 0:25:40.840 --> 0:25:45.320 a hero. The straightforward character of the promise obtained from 0:25:45.320 --> 0:25:48.679 the German government came as all the greater surprise, and 0:25:48.720 --> 0:25:51.800 the opinion was expressed that a real blow had been 0:25:51.880 --> 0:25:55.359 struck in the cause of racial freedom, at least in 0:25:55.400 --> 0:26:00.520 the realm of sports. Charles Cheryl confronts the contradt of 0:26:00.560 --> 0:26:04.280 the Berlin Games, the cognitive dissonance of a pure competition 0:26:04.480 --> 0:26:09.080 in an impure place, and he resolves it how not 0:26:09.200 --> 0:26:13.040 like Dorothy Thompson. She said, you resolve it by not going. 0:26:13.480 --> 0:26:17.000 He says, no, you resolve it by making the impure 0:26:17.040 --> 0:26:21.600 place pure, by staring down his German counterparts across the 0:26:21.600 --> 0:26:26.480 negotiating table, and through sheer force of personality and intelligence 0:26:26.840 --> 0:26:30.640 and courage and good old fashioned New York City moxie, 0:26:31.040 --> 0:26:35.880 bending them to our will. The Vienna Declaration was Charles 0:26:36.080 --> 0:26:41.320 Hitchcock Cheryl's finest hour. The controversy over the Games faded, 0:26:42.040 --> 0:26:49.400 The Olympics were saved. Problem solved, right, Oh, no, problem 0:26:49.680 --> 0:26:50.520 is just beginning. 0:27:00.480 --> 0:27:03.320 I want to keep talking about what's funny about Charles Cheryl, 0:27:03.359 --> 0:27:05.560 because I do think he's hilarious and he brings me 0:27:05.600 --> 0:27:08.440 so much joy. I think he also raises a number 0:27:08.440 --> 0:27:13.240