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Speaker 1: Hello and welcome.

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Speaker 2: That's my favorite murder.

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Speaker 1: That's Georgia Hartstar, that's Karen Kilcara, and it is the

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Speaker 1: holiday season. Yay.

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Speaker 2: We decorated, except by we, I mean not we, other people.

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Speaker 1: Molly, our producer, decorated gorgeous, so pretty. It looks really nice.

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Speaker 1: There's a kind of it has like an ice skating vibe.

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Speaker 1: Totally right.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, h what are you looking forward to with our

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Speaker 2: little holiday break coming up?

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Speaker 1: I can't wait to see Millenia's decorations. I can't wait

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Speaker 1: to see what she's doing to bring the spirit of

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Speaker 1: the season into the White House. I can't wait for

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Speaker 1: those cookies that are peanut butter cookies with Hershey's kisses

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Speaker 1: on top. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Do you know I got to seize Advent calendar if

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Speaker 2: it's got me? A Sea's Advent calendar.

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Speaker 1: With different candies and every day, every.

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Speaker 2: Day has a different Seas candy. It's the cutest thing

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Speaker 2: I've ever seen.

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Speaker 1: That's the best. But you know, what did you bring

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Speaker 1: me candy?

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Speaker 2: Thence went into the Sea's Candy at the Americana and

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Speaker 2: there was a Murderino working what and she and her sister.

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Speaker 1: I'll have that one.

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Speaker 2: Erica and Sylvia, and I think Sylvia worked there. Gave

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Speaker 2: us a fucking bag of straight up seas candy.

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Speaker 1: Oh my god, well just put your face in there. No, actually,

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Speaker 1: maybe don't do that. That's germs smelling, I know.

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Speaker 2: And there's one way there that's caramel and marshmallow. I

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Speaker 2: kind of tell by looking out with them what they are.

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Speaker 1: Now. Yeah, I'm pretty good at it. Yeah, I think this.

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Speaker 1: There's circular ones. I don't know as well because they're

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Speaker 1: usually trefily. But sorry, there's there's a square one over here.

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Speaker 1: Can I eat it? Well? Do you want to eat it?

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Speaker 1: I can't.

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Speaker 2: Oh, I give it to you before we started, like

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Speaker 2: I should have done tho you before.

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Speaker 1: There, Sylvia, Erica, thank you so much. Thanks y'all. That's

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Speaker 1: the best news of all time, I.

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Speaker 2: Know, except friends at sea for two hours, Friends at seas,

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Speaker 2: Friends at Caesar.

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Speaker 1: I got a box of seas from my accountant, like

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Speaker 1: you know when you get a kid at Christmas, and

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Speaker 1: it was just a one pound box of seas. I

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Speaker 1: opened it. I was like, oh, that's really nice. I

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Speaker 1: opened it. I was like, am I going somewhere? Should

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Speaker 1: I give that? And I was like, oh no, I'm

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Speaker 1: fully free to eat this at will.

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Speaker 2: A Sea's candy box to yourself.

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Speaker 1: Poke your finger right through the bottom, eat a bite

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Speaker 1: of each of them, never eat one you don't want again.

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Speaker 1: Oh my god, it was a dream.

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Speaker 2: That is one of the struggles with being married, I

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Speaker 2: think is having to not look like a raccoon when

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Speaker 2: you're midway through a seize candy box and like, I

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Speaker 2: don't want Vince in my family. You take a bite

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Speaker 2: and you put it back like that's what. Like, you

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Speaker 2: open it and there's so everyone could taste them, and

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Speaker 2: Vince's like you.

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Speaker 1: Just said, for I was smelling it and you're worried

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Speaker 1: about germs. That's true. That's true. Family, say yeah, you

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Speaker 1: know what you're getting with those people.

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Speaker 2: Actually, this is a good segue. I have a holiday

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Speaker 2: pick aside. Oh perfect, Do you want to do it

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Speaker 2: real quick?

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Speaker 1: I love it?

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Speaker 2: What a way to celebrate, right, So we do pick

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Speaker 2: a side where we just tell people if they're right

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Speaker 2: or wrong and argue about it. So here's a good

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Speaker 2: holiday one. This is a dm on Instagram from Chantel.

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Speaker 2: My family has always made present opening a big deal

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Speaker 2: and it's important not to rip through them all and

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Speaker 2: take the time to say thank you after each gift.

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Speaker 2: Multiple people can open it once, but once you have

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Speaker 2: it open, you show the group, say thanks, and move on.

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Speaker 2: My partner's family thinks that it takes too long and

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Speaker 2: will open multiple presents without telling anyone what he got.

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Speaker 2: It's not to be rude, and he is thankful, however,

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Speaker 2: and messes up everyone's vibe. And I want to know

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Speaker 2: what you got. Hopefully this year we can come up

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Speaker 2: with a game plan before opening begins. I mean, the

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Speaker 2: the amount of emotional tetris we put ourselves through to

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Speaker 2: like not be like that sucks, you shouldn't do that.

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Speaker 1: It's like they don't understand what Christmas is, right, because

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Speaker 1: Christmas is, yes, you're no longer eight years old, but

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Speaker 1: Christmas is being excited about the box, trying to figure

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Speaker 1: out what someone might have given you opening it up.

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Speaker 1: It's a planner. You're like, thanks, and you do, and

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Speaker 1: then you go through it because it's still a gift totally,

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Speaker 1: and you're still but you're waiting for the big one

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Speaker 1: or whatever, and that is just the like, isn't that

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Speaker 1: the tradition?

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Speaker 2: I think not doing the rules of the family whose

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Speaker 2: house you're at is weird. Yeah, like whatever it is,

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Speaker 2: if you're there, you follow their rules or it's weird.

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Speaker 1: But also I think I don't know if someone has

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Speaker 1: a diametrically opposed to how you celebrate a major holiday,

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Speaker 1: then it is like what camp is that? Right? It's

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Speaker 1: almost like everyone got up, Like the second you're done

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Speaker 1: with presence, you just go watch TV in your room,

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Speaker 1: like what's happening? Right? Don't you want to?

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Speaker 2: I think that I wonder how many of these we've

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Speaker 2: done that? Are you should break up that they're asking

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Speaker 2: for legit advice and we're just like that's not the

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Speaker 2: right person for you then.

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Speaker 1: Or maybe like if that's kind of like more his speed,

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Speaker 1: he gets to do that at home and then when

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Speaker 1: he's somewhere else or when he's at that house. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: of course.

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Speaker 2: But we shouldn't have to tell him that he should

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Speaker 2: if he doesn't know that.

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Speaker 1: No, you're right, we should don't have to talk. I

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Speaker 1: don't think this is uh, there's a side here.

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Speaker 2: I think that this person's doing what is it called

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Speaker 2: emotional gymnastics? Oh to like not be like this really

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Speaker 2: upsets me and I don't like it. And it's okay

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Speaker 2: if I don't like it right, you know what I

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Speaker 2: mean without me being me saying he's bad or you know.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, because maybe it doesn't even really upset you. It's

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Speaker 1: just like what are you doing? Why would you want

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Speaker 1: to do it that way? I think that's like the

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Speaker 1: mad The basis of every fight is why are you?

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Speaker 1: Why do you want to do things this way? You're

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Speaker 1: the one doing it? Like is this pleasant? Yeah?

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Speaker 2: Are you getting more out of this than you would

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Speaker 2: if you just like follow the rules? Just like family they've.

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Speaker 1: Got you have to go off and privately open. Maybe

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Speaker 1: it's somebody that gets embarrassed and can't talk about their

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Speaker 1: feeling of spotlight embarrassing.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it can be a really awkward like embarrassing to

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Speaker 2: have it on the spotlight on you.

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Speaker 1: And then if you're not grateful, it looks like it Yeah,

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Speaker 1: or some storyline maybe.

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Speaker 2: Oh shit, we're empathizing. Now, do you want to hear mine?

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Speaker 1: Yeah? This one is It says DM on Instagram from Natasia,

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Speaker 1: but that's spelled Nastassia and the first s is a

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Speaker 1: dollar sign. Yeah, you've got a battie on her hands

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Speaker 1: and it says December baby here my birthday is on

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Speaker 1: the twenty eighth of December. I've always believed that I

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Speaker 1: deserve Christmas and birthday presents. My friend's sister shares the

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Speaker 1: same birthday and they give her conjoined Christmas birthday. To me,

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Speaker 1: that's crazy. I wholeheartedly believe that December babies deserve double

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Speaker 1: presents for being born around the holidays. Change my mind,

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Speaker 1: No way, I'm standing ground. That's fair. I'm standing my ground.

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Speaker 2: Everyone gets a Christmas and a birthday, why shouldn't you.

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Speaker 2: I would just wait a couple of days, you know,

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Speaker 2: after Christmas to do it right or like before?

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Speaker 1: Do it before or after? Double presence is a given,

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Speaker 1: yeah or like.

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Speaker 2: But if it's like not, then the present is like

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Speaker 2: fucking better than everyone else.

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Speaker 1: It's always a bike. It's always a ten speed bike.

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Speaker 1: It's always a motorcycle. Yeah, it's one of those motorcycles

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Speaker 1: that kids can ride on the street. Now. They don't

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Speaker 1: need helmets and they don't need terrifying there's no yeah.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's fair enough to want about those things. Yes,

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Speaker 2: but absolutely, if your birthday week is Christmas, that's fucking bullshit.

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Speaker 2: And Christmas would want presents if it was your birthday

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Speaker 2: that everyone was celebrating that's right.

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Speaker 1: And also Christmas would want more attention if everyone was

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Speaker 1: paying attention to you, Well, it's Christmas sat in the corner.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I would have a New Year's Birthday party. That

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Speaker 2: would be fun.

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Speaker 1: Oh, just like build the momentum all the way. Just

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Speaker 1: to follow that up, should we give our December donation? Oh?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, speaking of giving in presence, do it so.

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Speaker 1: As you might know by this point, we've had a

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Speaker 1: holiday tradition for the last three years where we make

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Speaker 1: donations throughout the month of December, giving to charities that

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Speaker 1: make a real difference in people's lives.

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Speaker 2: So today we're donating ten thousand dollars to Feed the Children.

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Speaker 2: They're dedicated to ending childhood hunger here at home and

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Speaker 2: around the world.

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Speaker 1: Feed the Children provides food, school supplies, clean water, household

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Speaker 1: and hygiene essentials to help families thrive, and in twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty four alone, they distributed more than eighty point six

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Speaker 1: million pounds of food and essentials across the United States.

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Speaker 2: Incredible. If you'd like to join us in supporting their work,

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Speaker 2: head to Feed the Children dot org. And if donating

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Speaker 2: isn't possible right now, you can also explore volunteer opportunities

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Speaker 2: at Feed the Children dot volunteer hub dot com.

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Speaker 1: There's always a way to give love that. Yeah, well,

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Speaker 1: we have a network. Do you want to talk about

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Speaker 1: it really quick before we get into this is a

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Speaker 1: solo episode, so we just get our business taken care

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Speaker 1: of so.

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Speaker 2: Real quick on the Exactly Right Network. This week on

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Speaker 2: The Knight, Hannah and Paytia look into a twenty seventeen

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Speaker 2: tip about a suspicious co that led FBI agent Mark

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Speaker 2: Hastbaka to expose a serial con artist. They break down

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Speaker 2: how he uncovered her long running scheme.

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Speaker 1: And then over on Brief Recess, Michael and Melissa sit

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Speaker 1: down with political satirist Walter Masterson for a sharp, lively

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Speaker 1: conversation about politics, performance and the art of calling out

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Speaker 1: the absurd.

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Speaker 2: And on Dear Movies, I Love You, Millie and Casey

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Speaker 2: take a look at the very best films of twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty five, their favorites of the year, stand out, first

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Speaker 2: time watches, and what they think twenty twenty six will bring.

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Speaker 1: Also, if you're looking for a last minute gift, the

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Speaker 1: Exactly Right Store has everything you need to make the holidays.

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Speaker 1: Marry and fright check out our new skeleton Santa unisex

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Speaker 1: crew neck. Who's got I got it? This is so good?

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Speaker 2: Yes, Oh, I feel like you could wear this year

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Speaker 2: round and just be like the coolest kid entirely.

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Speaker 1: There's just the whole vibe of it.

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Speaker 2: If you want that to an ugly sweater party for Christmas.

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Speaker 1: You'd win. You'd win hands down. There's also the skeleton ornament.

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Speaker 1: I haven't Oh yeah, the little guy, he's prescially if

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Speaker 1: you want to put him on our tree, this skeleton

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Speaker 1: ornament is going to turn out to be like an airloom.

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Speaker 1: If that gets passed down, it works perfectly in front

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Speaker 1: of the other one. That's the way you do it.

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Speaker 2: Toxic Masculinity ornament.

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Speaker 1: That's a beautiful ornament and it looks very fragile, but

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Speaker 1: it's actually not.

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Speaker 2: Does it look to you like I realized I saw

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Speaker 2: the video the other day and it looks like the

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Speaker 2: baby Bell cheeses.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, oh, that'd be Baby Bell cheese as an ornament.

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Speaker 2: Is such a good idea. They kind of have that

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Speaker 2: like some kind of okay.

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Speaker 1: Well, then there's also this guy Toxic Masculinity sweatshirt.

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Speaker 2: Right, and then also of course the Mothman plushy keychain,

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Speaker 2: so precious, hanging on the tree, so typical, although.

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Speaker 1: It's kind of heavy. Thanks, what if we put him

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Speaker 1: right here? It's perfect?

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Speaker 2: Oh can't.

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Speaker 1: He's just gonna sit down love it. Yeah that's good.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. So if you ever wanted to match your tree

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Speaker 2: now you can. Had to exactly right store dot com

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Speaker 2: to shop now.

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Speaker 1: And order please by December fourteenth, so that you can

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Speaker 1: get your items by December twenty fifth.

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Speaker 2: Thank you guys for doing that.

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Speaker 1: Yes, we love to make fun merch for you. Okay,

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Speaker 1: your solo today, it's solo time and I hope you

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Speaker 1: like this. It's a Christmas story. Oh and it's well

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Speaker 1: you'll see this story starts. It's mid December, the holiday season.

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Speaker 1: The world is a wash in the sea of red

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Speaker 1: and green, and along with many other major winter cultural observations,

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Speaker 1: Christmas is here. But my story is from an era

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Speaker 1: when our modern holiday mania began, the early nineteen hundreds

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Speaker 1: in New York City, and there was one man who

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Speaker 1: took people's holiday cheer and goodwill and lots and lots

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Speaker 1: of their money and used it all to make himself

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Speaker 1: into a jazz age celebrity. This is the story of

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Speaker 1: New York's Santa claus Man John Duval Gluck.

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Speaker 2: Wow, I've never heard this one.

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Speaker 1: So Maren used the writing and research of a writer

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Speaker 1: named Alex Palmer who published the book The Santa claus Man,

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Speaker 1: and John Gluck is his great grand uncle. Wow. So

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Speaker 1: it's a family story. Cool. The rest of the sources

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Speaker 1: are in our show notes. Okay, so we go. Let's

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Speaker 1: go back to the origins of Santa Claus. If you would,

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Speaker 1: for just one moment, please, this jew needs to know

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Speaker 1: what right? Don't you wonder where Santa Claus is originally from?

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Speaker 1: I thought he was Jewish.

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Speaker 2: I thought he was Jewish.

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Speaker 1: Turkey, Oh, you know, not far away. Sometime around two

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Speaker 1: hundred and eighty a d a series of legends emerge

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Speaker 1: about a selfless Christian bishop named Nicholas who roams the

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Speaker 1: countryside giving away the fortune he inherited at birth. That's different.

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Speaker 1: In what is maybe the most famous of these stories,

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Speaker 1: Nicholas tosses gold to three young sisters to save them

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Speaker 1: from being sold into slavery by their destitute father.

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Speaker 2: Wow.

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Speaker 1: Over the years, these stories spread throughout Europe, and Nicholas

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Speaker 1: becomes known as the patron saint of children.

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Speaker 2: Wow, you don't hear a lot about charitable billionaires these days.

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Speaker 1: No, No, I bet you. His dad didn't even get

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Speaker 1: into the bees. He was down and.

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Speaker 2: Insane low ms what would be in today's money.

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Speaker 1: Though, having to calculate today's money from two eighty, the

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Speaker 1: calculator just snaps in half. Okay. So Saint Nicholas's feast

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Speaker 1: day is December sixth, and that's when it's said that

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Speaker 1: he died, so it becomes a very lucky day from

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Speaker 1: many Europeans, and a day where adults bring little candies

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Speaker 1: or modest gifts to children in the spirit of Saint Nick.

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Speaker 1: This is of course a couple weeks before December twenty fifth,

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Speaker 1: which is the day Christians observe the Birth of Christ.

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Speaker 1: So over the years, basically those two days blend together,

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Speaker 1: with the Birth of Christ winning out and Saint Nicholas coming.

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Speaker 2: Interesting, he just becomes a mascot instead of the actual

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Speaker 2: reason for the season.

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Speaker 1: Yes, exactly, Digust he gets blended in. But then as

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Speaker 1: century pass he remains so popular and beloved that even

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Speaker 1: after the Protestant Reformation, when devotion to saints fades across

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Speaker 1: much of Europe. You know, the Protestants. They stripped out

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Speaker 1: all that.

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Speaker 2: Stuff, for sure, heresy all that shit.

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Speaker 1: But old Saint Nick indoors. This is particularly true in

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Speaker 1: the Netherlands, where he's known by the truncated nickname Cinerclas.

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Speaker 1: And it's through the Dutch settlers emigrating to New York

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Speaker 1: in eighteenth century that we first met Saint Nick here

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Speaker 1: in America.

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Speaker 2: Got it.

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Speaker 1: So I don't know why I can't read today, so

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Speaker 1: in I should just do it from memory. So in

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Speaker 1: eighteen oh nine, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow author Washington

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Speaker 1: Irving publishes a satirical history of New York City that

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Speaker 1: depicts Saint Nick is a kind of paternal mascot for

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Speaker 1: Dutch New Yorkers, and basically he's described as a pipe

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Speaker 1: smoking gift giving a man who rides through the sky

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Speaker 1: in a flying wagon. And around the same time, the

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Speaker 1: wealthy founder of the New York Historical Society named John

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Speaker 1: Pintard campaigned to actually make Saint Nicholas the city's patron saint.

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Speaker 1: It doesn't work. What finally catapults Saint Nicholas into the

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Speaker 1: American zeitgeist is a single poem written in eighteen twenty

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Speaker 1: two by another New Yorker, Clement Clark Moore, called a

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Speaker 1: Visit from Saint Nicholas. Now we kind of know it

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Speaker 1: better as the Night Before Christmas. Wow, So in it

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Speaker 1: more picks the version of Saint Nicholas that's still with

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Speaker 1: us today. The plump, rosy cheeked, white bearded man who

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Speaker 1: flies around in a sleigh pulled by eight reindeer. You know,

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Speaker 1: all of this delivering gifts to children. The poem is

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Speaker 1: an instant hit when it comes out, and it spreads

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Speaker 1: far beyond New York, and it actually never really fades

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Speaker 1: in popularity, so people like latch onto it, and we've

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Speaker 1: never let it go. So this brings us back to

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Speaker 1: the early nineteen hundreds. Saint Nicholas, now better known as

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Speaker 1: Santa Claus, has become a mainstream American icon and tradition.

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Speaker 1: Department stores are booming at this time the early nineteen hundreds,

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Speaker 1: advertised is taking off. So every holiday season Santa Claus

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Speaker 1: appears in newspaper ads and elaborate window displays. Wow, it

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Speaker 1: just takes off, just like that. Yeah, it's this time

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Speaker 1: of year, right, everybody. He actually becomes so ubiquitous that

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Speaker 1: virtually every American child knows who Santa is and what

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Speaker 1: he does, and they start to write him letters asking

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Speaker 1: for what they most want for Christmas. This is before

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Speaker 1: the concept of the North Pole was discovered to be

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Speaker 1: Santa's home, and so most kids think that he lives

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Speaker 1: behind the moon or somewhere in the clouds. But over

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Speaker 1: time kids start giving their Christmas lists to their mail carriers.

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Speaker 1: Suddenly thousands of So this happened basically just culturally by itself,

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Speaker 1: thousands of letters addressed viral. Christmas went viral, Yeah, but

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Speaker 1: the hardest way possible. In the early nineteen tenderly totally. So,

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Speaker 1: thousands of letters addressed to Santa Claus, the clouds or

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Speaker 1: even Heaven are circulating through the US postal system, most

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Speaker 1: of them winding up in Washington, d C. In what's

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Speaker 1: known as the Dead Letter Office. Oh yeah, so wonderful,

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Speaker 1: albl bye em. This is basically a graveyard for the

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Speaker 1: nation's undeliverable mail, and per policy, these letters either need

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Speaker 1: to be returned to sender or destroyed, but postal workers

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Speaker 1: can't bring themselves to throw a child's letter to Santo.

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Speaker 2: I was gonna say, send it back, That's what they

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Speaker 2: couldn't do because then it's like there's nobody at this

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Speaker 2: fucking heaven.

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Speaker 1: They basically see that there is this issue where it's

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Speaker 1: like we throw it away and it goes unanswered, we

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Speaker 1: send it back and hearts are broken. Okay, So many

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Speaker 1: spend their own time and money buying the gifts on

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Speaker 1: the list and then delivering them. Some postal workers loop

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Speaker 1: in local churches and charities to help them out.

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Speaker 2: Okay, stop it, I'm going to cry right fucking now.

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Speaker 2: I mean, I've never heard this before, so above and beyond,

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Speaker 2: I can't even believe that they're gonna say they write

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Speaker 2: back to them.

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Speaker 1: No, they fucking they do it. They fill it out.

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Speaker 1: And also that idea of like, because the postman is

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Speaker 1: really a part of your life, but it's just very specific. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: you know, kind of outside your door, you know them.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, the connection doesn't have to be there, just happened,

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Speaker 2: and they're like, great.

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Speaker 1: Let's do it, let's do this, let's get this kid

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Speaker 1: exactly what they want. Oh okay. So these beautiful but

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Speaker 1: technically forbidden acts of kindness become so commonplace that in

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Speaker 1: the early nineteen I can't open other people's yayay, it's

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Speaker 1: not allowed. But it's like Santa. So it becomes so

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Speaker 1: commonplace that in the early nineteen tens, the Postmaster General

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Speaker 1: has to step in and change the rules. Not only

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Speaker 1: are local postmasters now formally authorized to open letters to Santa,

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Speaker 1: but they can bundle them all together and hand them

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Speaker 1: off to charities to make sure people.

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Speaker 2: Don't always suck. Like, that's the thing you got to

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Speaker 2: keep in mind this holiday season.

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Speaker 1: These are the stories. Yeah, Like, here's the turn. After

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Speaker 1: ten years, we're going to start telling only good people's stories.

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Speaker 2: I don't have one of those today though, Oh my

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Speaker 2: story is not that okay. So then after that in

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Speaker 2: the New year, twenty twenty.

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Speaker 1: Six later, you're fifteen okay. So this is when a

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Speaker 1: thirty five year old New Yorker named John Duval Gluck

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Speaker 1: comes into the picture. So John's born on Christmas Day,

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Speaker 1: so we know where he would be in that argument

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Speaker 1: and double presence. And he is born to a family

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Speaker 1: that loves the holidays. His parents are very good at Christmas.

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Speaker 1: They've embraced the giving spirit. They actually have a Gluck

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Speaker 1: family tradition. One of the men in their family plays

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Speaker 1: Santa Claus every year, and it said plays I don't

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Speaker 1: know if that meant like for the community or just

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Speaker 1: at home, but it's like clearly they're into it. So

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Speaker 1: when John hears about the Postal Services new policy on

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Speaker 1: Santa letters, there may have been part of him that

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Speaker 1: wanted to help spread the cheer like his family had

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Speaker 1: taught him to always do. But it seems John's also

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Speaker 1: one of those kind of people who wants people to

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Speaker 1: pat him on the back for doing the nice thing

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Speaker 1: more than they want to do the nice thing. Virtue signaling,

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Speaker 1: that's right, right, But in nineteen ten there's.

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Speaker 2: No signaling then, yeah, because they didn't have that yet,

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Speaker 2: virtue telegraph telegraphing.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. So John inherits his father's customs brokerage business at

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Speaker 1: a young age, so he makes a very nice living,

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Speaker 1: but he has his own insecurities, as we all do.

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Speaker 1: He is the shortest of his four brothers, and he

408
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Speaker 1: seems to overcompensate for it by being a big ham.

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Speaker 1: He's also balding, which is likely a difficult for him.

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Speaker 1: He's a short king. He's a short bald king.

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Speaker 2: Like, fucking own it and it's hot, you own it,

412
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Speaker 2: it's sexy, it's it.

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Speaker 1: Works every time. But what he does instead of owning

414
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Speaker 1: it is. He grows an impressive, meticulously maintained mustache to

415
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Speaker 1: make up that didn't work on me. I don't know,

416
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Speaker 1: just a big old back then, yes.

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Speaker 2: Not now now it's just like what are you a

418
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Speaker 2: fucking mixologist? But back then plower worked on me.

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Speaker 1: I don't know. Honestly, bald beard is my number one combination.

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Speaker 2: Bald beard, beer belly, Like, oh I vince fucking April,

421
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Speaker 2: I will marry there shit out of you. The moment

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Speaker 2: I saw him across the room and ring a Fred

423
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Speaker 2: Perry collared T shirt, I was like, that's his look,

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Speaker 2: that's my fucking future husband.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and like cool tennis shoes, Like come on, yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's exactly that's all I want. It really is because

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Speaker 1: it says a lot about what's going on.

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Speaker 2: Oh, sorry to make it about me.

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Speaker 1: So while John loves to brag about being born on Christmas,

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Speaker 1: it is clearly bittersweet for him because it steals his

431
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Speaker 1: birthday thunder every year. He was probably very jealous when

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Speaker 1: he watched family members putting on that Santa suit and

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Speaker 1: getting all the attention, and he wanted it for himself.

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Speaker 2: He wanted to put on his birthday suit and get

435
00:21:31,160 --> 00:21:32,400
Speaker 2: all that attention and be like.

436
00:21:32,640 --> 00:21:36,760
Speaker 1: Look at my mustache. So, when New York's postmaster starts

437
00:21:36,760 --> 00:21:40,240
Speaker 1: to formalize how letters to Santa should be handled, John

438
00:21:40,280 --> 00:21:43,919
Speaker 1: pitches himself as the person to handle it, pointing to

439
00:21:44,000 --> 00:21:48,000
Speaker 1: his customs brokerage background as proof that he understands logistics.

440
00:21:48,440 --> 00:21:51,080
Speaker 1: He claims he can process the letters and deliver all

441
00:21:51,080 --> 00:21:52,200
Speaker 1: those gifts, no problem.

442
00:21:52,280 --> 00:21:54,439
Speaker 2: Please tell me he does it and everything's okay and

443
00:21:54,480 --> 00:21:55,800
Speaker 2: he doesn't steal money from them.

444
00:21:55,880 --> 00:22:00,080
Speaker 1: I'll tell you this, it's the worst, bad version of

445
00:22:00,119 --> 00:22:02,480
Speaker 1: what we're usually waiting for at the end of a

446
00:22:02,480 --> 00:22:05,920
Speaker 1: story like this, the worst part. It's the worst No, no,

447
00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:09,680
Speaker 1: it's the least bad. Okay, I said worst bag. Yeah,

448
00:22:09,720 --> 00:22:12,439
Speaker 1: that's like he murders children. No no, no, no okay,

449
00:22:12,720 --> 00:22:15,440
Speaker 1: So least bad's fine, Okay, least bad. He's the inverse

450
00:22:15,440 --> 00:22:19,960
Speaker 1: of Albert Fish. Okay, can handle it. So he gets

451
00:22:19,960 --> 00:22:22,040
Speaker 1: the green light. Now he's in charge of thousands of

452
00:22:22,080 --> 00:22:24,880
Speaker 1: wish lists from children all over New York to Santa.

453
00:22:25,280 --> 00:22:29,600
Speaker 1: So in nineteen thirteen, John Gluck officially launches what's called

454
00:22:29,960 --> 00:22:33,359
Speaker 1: the Santa Claus Association out of the back room of

455
00:22:33,359 --> 00:22:36,480
Speaker 1: a restaurant called Henkel's shop shop on West thirty sixth

456
00:22:36,480 --> 00:22:40,120
Speaker 1: Street in Manhattan. Take me there, just the smell. Oh

457
00:22:40,160 --> 00:22:42,280
Speaker 1: my god, sorry, but I just saw this girl. Actually

458
00:22:42,320 --> 00:22:44,920
Speaker 1: don't know who it was, but they were going around

459
00:22:45,119 --> 00:22:49,160
Speaker 1: New York and there are little vending machines that look

460
00:22:49,240 --> 00:22:52,800
Speaker 1: like old stamp vending machines, like sticker ones, but yes,

461
00:22:52,840 --> 00:22:55,919
Speaker 1: but there's art in them. And so this somebody is

462
00:22:55,960 --> 00:22:59,840
Speaker 1: making like original watercolors, incredible of anything you'd want in me,

463
00:23:00,440 --> 00:23:02,360
Speaker 1: And so she kept they were a dollar, so she'd

464
00:23:02,400 --> 00:23:04,240
Speaker 1: have to get the quarter. So she'd like, we found

465
00:23:04,280 --> 00:23:06,240
Speaker 1: another one in this place, So we found another one.

466
00:23:06,600 --> 00:23:08,760
Speaker 1: At the end, she goes, I had one more for

467
00:23:08,920 --> 00:23:10,879
Speaker 1: my last one or whatever, and she opens it up

468
00:23:10,920 --> 00:23:13,280
Speaker 1: and it's an everything bagel and it is the most

469
00:23:13,320 --> 00:23:17,480
Speaker 1: perfect little drawing and everything bad drawing. This person know

470
00:23:17,480 --> 00:23:20,119
Speaker 1: where to put it down here up here, it's like

471
00:23:20,320 --> 00:23:23,919
Speaker 1: this big and it just says everything exclamation. It's like,

472
00:23:24,000 --> 00:23:26,760
Speaker 1: that's a tattoo. Yes, I'd get that tattoo. This person

473
00:23:26,800 --> 00:23:28,680
Speaker 1: was going around doing that, and then they were meeting

474
00:23:28,760 --> 00:23:30,879
Speaker 1: up with other people and trading like, we got this

475
00:23:30,920 --> 00:23:33,480
Speaker 1: one already. It's sucking cute.

476
00:23:33,520 --> 00:23:35,000
Speaker 2: I want that to happen to me, except I don't

477
00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:36,600
Speaker 2: want to drive her across town, so.

478
00:23:36,800 --> 00:23:39,359
Speaker 1: I know I'll do it in New York. Right. It

479
00:23:39,400 --> 00:23:41,520
Speaker 1: makes me want to go to New York in the

480
00:23:41,520 --> 00:23:46,000
Speaker 1: holidays the best, so good Nartie. Okay. So John's running

481
00:23:46,000 --> 00:23:48,840
Speaker 1: the Santa Claus Association out of this fairly modest setup,

482
00:23:48,960 --> 00:23:52,000
Speaker 1: but he's proud. He makes it known that reporters are

483
00:23:52,040 --> 00:23:54,359
Speaker 1: always welcome to drop by, and he's always ready with

484
00:23:54,400 --> 00:23:57,280
Speaker 1: a punchy quote when they get there. And that results

485
00:23:57,280 --> 00:23:59,840
Speaker 1: in John getting a lot of feel good coverage in

486
00:24:00,000 --> 00:24:04,120
Speaker 1: city newspapers about the Santa Claus Association. Readers take note

487
00:24:04,160 --> 00:24:07,280
Speaker 1: of this charismatic man who seems to exemplify the spirit

488
00:24:07,359 --> 00:24:11,199
Speaker 1: of Saint Nicholas. So here's how the Santa Claus Association works.

489
00:24:11,640 --> 00:24:15,880
Speaker 1: In December, the Postal Service hands over several heavy bags

490
00:24:15,880 --> 00:24:19,040
Speaker 1: containing all the undeliverable letters to Santa written by young

491
00:24:19,080 --> 00:24:23,280
Speaker 1: New Yorkers, usually well over ten thousand pieces of mail us.

492
00:24:24,080 --> 00:24:28,120
Speaker 1: Then John's volunteers, mostly society women or secretaries loaned out

493
00:24:28,119 --> 00:24:31,920
Speaker 1: by local businesses, start to sort through them and they

494
00:24:31,920 --> 00:24:35,919
Speaker 1: read each letter. They categorize it into different stacks. If

495
00:24:35,920 --> 00:24:38,960
Speaker 1: they get any repeats, from the same child. They pull

496
00:24:39,000 --> 00:24:42,040
Speaker 1: them out so duplicits don't go in. Any letters that

497
00:24:42,119 --> 00:24:45,480
Speaker 1: describe hunger, homelessness, or abuse are forwarded to the Public

498
00:24:45,520 --> 00:24:49,520
Speaker 1: Charities Commission, and those are investigated by city workers there.

499
00:24:49,760 --> 00:24:52,600
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I know, any that seems suspicious, like

500
00:24:52,600 --> 00:24:54,880
Speaker 1: maybe an adult wrote them. They go into their own

501
00:24:54,960 --> 00:24:59,879
Speaker 1: pile for further review. About seventy percent of these letters passing.

502
00:25:00,960 --> 00:25:03,800
Speaker 1: Then they're matched with the donors from New York Society,

503
00:25:03,800 --> 00:25:06,320
Speaker 1: who purchase the gifts and then have the option to

504
00:25:06,400 --> 00:25:07,600
Speaker 1: deliver them themselves.

505
00:25:07,960 --> 00:25:09,840
Speaker 2: I want to do this, right, Do I sign up

506
00:25:09,880 --> 00:25:10,080
Speaker 2: for this?

507
00:25:10,240 --> 00:25:13,280
Speaker 1: I know, I think I'd be good at it. Filing,

508
00:25:13,280 --> 00:25:15,720
Speaker 1: I'm really good at filing, filing, and just putting things

509
00:25:15,720 --> 00:25:17,000
Speaker 1: in like you belong over here.

510
00:25:17,160 --> 00:25:19,160
Speaker 2: Oh my god, I'm so good at categorizing things. Yeah,

511
00:25:19,160 --> 00:25:20,280
Speaker 2: fucking give me something, I'll.

512
00:25:20,119 --> 00:25:25,480
Speaker 1: You want toys? You want many? Okay? Yeah. But most

513
00:25:25,480 --> 00:25:28,520
Speaker 1: donors just send the presents back to the Santa Claus Association,

514
00:25:28,640 --> 00:25:31,560
Speaker 1: which is then tasked with getting them to the right household.

515
00:25:32,040 --> 00:25:35,720
Speaker 1: It's a huge undertaking. Obviously, John quickly realizes he needs

516
00:25:35,760 --> 00:25:39,560
Speaker 1: way more manpower to actually receive the letters, wrap the gifts,

517
00:25:39,600 --> 00:25:44,320
Speaker 1: deliver the gifts serendipitously days into the Santa Claus Association's

518
00:25:44,840 --> 00:25:48,000
Speaker 1: soft launch amid all its glowing recent press. So I

519
00:25:48,000 --> 00:25:50,280
Speaker 1: guess sorry, it was a hard launch. Leaders from the

520
00:25:50,320 --> 00:25:53,720
Speaker 1: American Boy Scouts reach out great. They offer hundreds of

521
00:25:53,760 --> 00:25:57,960
Speaker 1: Scouts to help with wrapping and delivering packages. It sounds lovely,

522
00:25:58,080 --> 00:26:01,320
Speaker 1: but it's actually a very smart piece because the American

523
00:26:01,359 --> 00:26:04,800
Speaker 1: Boy Scouts have had a terrible reputation at this point. Oh,

524
00:26:05,040 --> 00:26:08,240
Speaker 1: because this is not the Boy Scouts of America. This

525
00:26:08,320 --> 00:26:11,360
Speaker 1: is the American Boy Scouts, not the same group. And

526
00:26:11,520 --> 00:26:15,800
Speaker 1: actually Boy Scouts of America has since rebranded as Scouting America.

527
00:26:15,920 --> 00:26:17,760
Speaker 2: Right, so, just to keep it all you've seen that

528
00:26:17,800 --> 00:26:20,280
Speaker 2: documentary Oh so bad.

529
00:26:20,400 --> 00:26:24,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, both organizations come out of the so called Scouting

530
00:26:24,240 --> 00:26:27,639
Speaker 1: movement of the early twentieth century. They have very different mos.

531
00:26:27,800 --> 00:26:31,920
Speaker 1: The Boy Scouts of America currently, Scouting America is simply

532
00:26:32,240 --> 00:26:36,359
Speaker 1: geared at creating good citizens, whereas American Boy Scouts, the

533
00:26:36,440 --> 00:26:39,399
Speaker 1: one who are offering their helps to John Gluck, is

534
00:26:39,400 --> 00:26:43,000
Speaker 1: geared at training young men for military service. Okay, the

535
00:26:43,040 --> 00:26:46,679
Speaker 1: American Boy Scouts arm their young scouts with actual guns,

536
00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:53,080
Speaker 1: which has expectedly tragic consequences. In nineteen twelve, the year

537
00:26:53,119 --> 00:26:56,360
Speaker 1: before the Santa Claus Association is established, a twelve year

538
00:26:56,359 --> 00:26:59,080
Speaker 1: old Scout fatally shoots a nine year old boy in

539
00:26:59,119 --> 00:27:02,520
Speaker 1: the bronx after the younger boy makes a comment about

540
00:27:02,520 --> 00:27:03,240
Speaker 1: his uniform.

541
00:27:03,320 --> 00:27:05,600
Speaker 2: Oh my god, I mean, what happens when you give

542
00:27:05,680 --> 00:27:09,440
Speaker 2: children guns? They shoot each other. It's like basic fucking.

543
00:27:09,119 --> 00:27:13,360
Speaker 1: Matter, pretty clear. So membership noves dives following this tragedy,

544
00:27:13,720 --> 00:27:16,399
Speaker 1: but the American Boy Scouts hold firm on its gun

545
00:27:16,440 --> 00:27:19,240
Speaker 1: toting policy for children. A right, guys, just fucking keep

546
00:27:19,320 --> 00:27:21,120
Speaker 1: on keeping on. Yeah, So what they try to do

547
00:27:21,320 --> 00:27:23,920
Speaker 1: is a little damage control by changing its name to

548
00:27:23,960 --> 00:27:27,399
Speaker 1: the United States Boy Scouts. That doesn't really work, so

549
00:27:27,560 --> 00:27:30,720
Speaker 1: then they look for other ways, and here they find

550
00:27:30,920 --> 00:27:34,800
Speaker 1: the Santa Claus Association. Okay, given how scandalized the group

551
00:27:34,880 --> 00:27:37,200
Speaker 1: is at the time, people in John's position would have

552
00:27:37,240 --> 00:27:40,480
Speaker 1: turned their offer down. But John jumps at the opportunity

553
00:27:40,720 --> 00:27:43,320
Speaker 1: because not only can the Scouts handle deliveries at no

554
00:27:43,440 --> 00:27:46,000
Speaker 1: cost to him, but he figures they can also help

555
00:27:46,080 --> 00:27:49,720
Speaker 1: verify the letters that are in further review by going

556
00:27:49,760 --> 00:27:52,680
Speaker 1: door to door to see if they are actually families

557
00:27:52,680 --> 00:27:57,280
Speaker 1: in need. Okay, so he also likes the idea that

558
00:27:57,320 --> 00:27:59,919
Speaker 1: these troops of boys all in uniform are working on

559
00:28:00,119 --> 00:28:03,520
Speaker 1: behalf of the Santa Claus Association, like it's his little army.

560
00:28:04,000 --> 00:28:06,320
Speaker 1: He thinks it gives the whole thing a patriotic, wholesome

561
00:28:06,400 --> 00:28:09,520
Speaker 1: energy that will play well in the press. So on

562
00:28:09,640 --> 00:28:14,200
Speaker 1: Christmas of nineteen thirteen, the Santa Claus Association successively delivers

563
00:28:14,520 --> 00:28:18,680
Speaker 1: two more than thirteen thousand New York City children. Wow. Yeah,

564
00:28:19,200 --> 00:28:22,800
Speaker 1: this generates even more good press, and almost overnight, John

565
00:28:22,840 --> 00:28:26,520
Speaker 1: becomes a local celebrity. He's suddenly rubbing elbows with politicians

566
00:28:26,520 --> 00:28:31,040
Speaker 1: and society families, even early Hollywood stars. Within just a

567
00:28:31,080 --> 00:28:34,360
Speaker 1: few years, the Santa Claus Association becomes a full fledged

568
00:28:34,359 --> 00:28:38,760
Speaker 1: part of New York's increasingly glitzy holiday season. Everybody wants

569
00:28:38,840 --> 00:28:41,000
Speaker 1: to be a part of it. It said that John's

570
00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:45,000
Speaker 1: donor list includes members of the Vanderbilt and Astor families,

571
00:28:45,360 --> 00:28:48,760
Speaker 1: and eventually even Presidents William Harding and Calvin Coolidge.

572
00:28:48,840 --> 00:28:51,360
Speaker 2: You know, when you have those numbers like thirteen thousand children,

573
00:28:51,560 --> 00:28:53,360
Speaker 2: like you're allowed to be a little bit of cocky.

574
00:28:53,680 --> 00:28:55,040
Speaker 2: Look at me, look at me, persons.

575
00:28:55,080 --> 00:28:57,640
Speaker 1: Okay, thank you're right, Because he got it done. He

576
00:28:57,840 --> 00:28:59,200
Speaker 1: said he was going to do it, and then he

577
00:28:59,240 --> 00:28:59,920
Speaker 1: actually did it.

578
00:29:00,040 --> 00:29:01,840
Speaker 2: Yeah, And the more attention he gets, the more people

579
00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:04,720
Speaker 2: will contribute. So I'm fine with him being a fucking

580
00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:05,960
Speaker 2: braggert or whatever.

581
00:29:06,080 --> 00:29:08,720
Speaker 1: It's for such a good cause, like who cares. So

582
00:29:08,800 --> 00:29:10,920
Speaker 1: now even more people want to volunteer their time with

583
00:29:10,960 --> 00:29:15,160
Speaker 1: the association. So to accommodate the increase in volunteers as

584
00:29:15,160 --> 00:29:17,959
Speaker 1: well as the ever increasing numbers of letters to Santa

585
00:29:18,400 --> 00:29:23,000
Speaker 1: John moves his headquarters into the Hotel Astor in Times

586
00:29:23,040 --> 00:29:26,720
Speaker 1: Square and then into the Woolworth Building, the tallest in

587
00:29:26,760 --> 00:29:30,040
Speaker 1: the world at the time. Of course, the genius of

588
00:29:30,120 --> 00:29:33,000
Speaker 1: John's whole system is that the Santa Claus Association doesn't

589
00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:36,320
Speaker 1: have to spend very much money to actually fulfill its mission.

590
00:29:36,960 --> 00:29:40,640
Speaker 1: Volunteers are donating their time, the Scouts donate the labor,

591
00:29:41,040 --> 00:29:44,280
Speaker 1: and of course the donors pay for all the presents.

592
00:29:44,840 --> 00:29:49,040
Speaker 1: Yet John is constantly fundraising. He says it's for operational

593
00:29:49,080 --> 00:29:53,040
Speaker 1: basics like postage stamps and packing supplies, but these are

594
00:29:53,120 --> 00:29:56,440
Speaker 1: fairly inexpensive purchases even when you buy them in bulk.

595
00:29:57,000 --> 00:30:01,720
Speaker 1: But John's fundraising is limitless. But it's the Santa Claus Association.

596
00:30:01,920 --> 00:30:04,200
Speaker 1: It brings joy to New York City's children, It gets

597
00:30:04,240 --> 00:30:07,719
Speaker 1: great press, it has solid endorsements from high society. So

598
00:30:07,800 --> 00:30:10,400
Speaker 1: no one's asking any questions about where all this money's going.

599
00:30:11,040 --> 00:30:13,480
Speaker 1: But if someone were to dig into John, they would

600
00:30:13,520 --> 00:30:16,959
Speaker 1: see some red flags. Not only is he the only

601
00:30:17,080 --> 00:30:20,400
Speaker 1: one handling the purse strings at the Santa Claus Association,

602
00:30:20,480 --> 00:30:25,160
Speaker 1: where they're ostensibly raising like near millions of dollars even

603
00:30:25,200 --> 00:30:28,160
Speaker 1: back then, but he also seems to be getting enormously

604
00:30:28,240 --> 00:30:31,960
Speaker 1: wealthy himself, far beyond what a normal business owner would.

605
00:30:32,440 --> 00:30:35,680
Speaker 1: He's also developing a slippery relationship with the truth and

606
00:30:35,960 --> 00:30:39,760
Speaker 1: some people notice. One example, he describes himself in a

607
00:30:39,800 --> 00:30:43,520
Speaker 1: publication as a sociologist. He also claims to have degrees

608
00:30:43,520 --> 00:30:47,240
Speaker 1: from elite universities in the US and abroad. He only

609
00:30:47,280 --> 00:30:50,960
Speaker 1: actually has a high school diploma. He also starts putting

610
00:30:51,360 --> 00:30:55,600
Speaker 1: ESQ after his name in some documents, implying that he's

611
00:30:55,640 --> 00:30:56,080
Speaker 1: a lawyer.

612
00:30:56,200 --> 00:31:01,640
Speaker 2: Falls flag Esquire, sorry not false flag, stolen bower, thank you.

613
00:31:01,800 --> 00:31:04,000
Speaker 1: Then he starts telling people he has worked with the

614
00:31:04,040 --> 00:31:08,120
Speaker 1: Secret Service, which is this should be a secret. It's yeah,

615
00:31:08,200 --> 00:31:12,120
Speaker 1: first of all, it's a secret. Secondly, why are you

616
00:31:12,280 --> 00:31:14,800
Speaker 1: like Why is that the lie that all liars love

617
00:31:14,840 --> 00:31:18,640
Speaker 1: to say? Right, I'm with the government, right black ops.

618
00:31:22,440 --> 00:31:25,560
Speaker 1: So now it's nineteen fifteen, the Santa Claus Association's third

619
00:31:25,640 --> 00:31:29,080
Speaker 1: year in operation. John Gluck makes a big Christmas Day

620
00:31:29,160 --> 00:31:32,440
Speaker 1: announcement to a group of reporters, declaring that he's going

621
00:31:32,480 --> 00:31:35,720
Speaker 1: to build a permanent home for this Santa Claus Association

622
00:31:36,200 --> 00:31:39,080
Speaker 1: in midtown Manhattan. He's going to call it the Santa

623
00:31:39,120 --> 00:31:42,440
Speaker 1: Claus Building, and he promises that it'll be quote the

624
00:31:42,480 --> 00:31:46,400
Speaker 1: most unique building in America and a quote national monument

625
00:31:46,520 --> 00:31:50,120
Speaker 1: to the Christmas spirit. There is a world, there's another

626
00:31:50,240 --> 00:31:52,680
Speaker 1: timeline where this all went beautifully totally.

627
00:31:52,760 --> 00:31:55,760
Speaker 2: All year they operated as like a charitable foundation for

628
00:31:55,880 --> 00:31:56,400
Speaker 2: children in.

629
00:31:56,360 --> 00:32:00,880
Speaker 1: Need, giving children a need what they need. Yeah, and

630
00:32:00,920 --> 00:32:03,920
Speaker 1: we all went up from there, right, But now we're

631
00:32:03,960 --> 00:32:08,200
Speaker 1: in the Donald Trump timeline where we steal from children's charities.

632
00:32:08,240 --> 00:32:12,120
Speaker 1: That's right. And when I say we, I mean you. Okay,

633
00:32:12,160 --> 00:32:14,520
Speaker 1: how did you know? Who told you? When did you

634
00:32:14,560 --> 00:32:18,280
Speaker 1: get that job? Okay? So Gluck claims that this building

635
00:32:18,320 --> 00:32:20,480
Speaker 1: will be made of white marble, It will have a

636
00:32:20,520 --> 00:32:24,560
Speaker 1: deep arched entrance and a massive fifty foot stained glass

637
00:32:24,600 --> 00:32:28,920
Speaker 1: window of Santa Claus himself. Okay. The facade will feature

638
00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:32,280
Speaker 1: scenes from Saint Nicholas from around the world, sculpted by

639
00:32:32,400 --> 00:32:38,080
Speaker 1: artists from those companies. Thank you from those countries. Jesus Christ.

640
00:32:38,320 --> 00:32:40,400
Speaker 1: I want to stop podcasting so bad.

641
00:32:42,120 --> 00:32:45,320
Speaker 2: We're almost there. One more day of recording. We're almost done,

642
00:32:45,640 --> 00:32:47,760
Speaker 2: so close, We're so close.

643
00:32:49,560 --> 00:32:52,440
Speaker 1: You've got this. When you finish that, you're done. I'm

644
00:32:52,440 --> 00:32:54,160
Speaker 1: just going to keep my eyes on the page and

645
00:32:54,240 --> 00:32:56,920
Speaker 1: just get through it. Leave that, leave that in please,

646
00:32:57,840 --> 00:33:02,479
Speaker 1: okay reality. So yeah, we're so soon. He gets some

647
00:33:02,520 --> 00:33:06,000
Speaker 1: famous artists committed to this project. John says the ground

648
00:33:06,040 --> 00:33:09,600
Speaker 1: floor of the building will be devoted to different charitable organizations,

649
00:33:09,600 --> 00:33:12,520
Speaker 1: including the Santa Claus Association, but other ones as well.

650
00:33:12,920 --> 00:33:15,200
Speaker 1: Then there's going to be an auditorium where plays will

651
00:33:15,240 --> 00:33:18,120
Speaker 1: be produced, as well as an enormous kitchen that could

652
00:33:18,120 --> 00:33:21,360
Speaker 1: provide meals for a thousand people at a time. He's

653
00:33:21,600 --> 00:33:25,040
Speaker 1: just talking. The second floor will be filled with toys

654
00:33:25,080 --> 00:33:27,680
Speaker 1: from around the world. Some of these will be donated

655
00:33:27,720 --> 00:33:31,480
Speaker 1: to children in need, but others will be for sale.

656
00:33:31,760 --> 00:33:35,120
Speaker 1: John also promises a rooftop garden. He's like Faure Schwartz,

657
00:33:35,520 --> 00:33:39,600
Speaker 1: but also north Strom Cafe it's gonna be amazing. He's

658
00:33:39,640 --> 00:33:42,920
Speaker 1: like that one swindler that did the whole Anna Delvi.

659
00:33:43,080 --> 00:33:43,640
Speaker 2: M hm.

660
00:33:43,640 --> 00:33:45,680
Speaker 1: There she was like super pretending to be richen.

661
00:33:45,720 --> 00:33:47,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, and she was going to build a club, like

662
00:33:47,040 --> 00:33:49,560
Speaker 2: a private, like members only club in New York and

663
00:33:49,600 --> 00:33:51,320
Speaker 2: it had all these crazy things and it's like, that's

664
00:33:51,320 --> 00:33:51,760
Speaker 2: not real.

665
00:33:51,880 --> 00:33:54,920
Speaker 1: She's Santa Claus Association. She tries Santa Claus. That building.

666
00:33:56,360 --> 00:33:59,040
Speaker 1: I mean, it is that. Basically, this guy's just thinking

667
00:33:59,120 --> 00:34:02,880
Speaker 1: up the mall. It's sounds like, okay, he promises a

668
00:34:02,920 --> 00:34:05,720
Speaker 1: rooftop garden and a swanky restaurant to boot. As writer

669
00:34:05,800 --> 00:34:09,040
Speaker 1: Alex Palmer reports, quote, the Santa Claus building would blend

670
00:34:09,080 --> 00:34:14,160
Speaker 1: spiritual ideals and consumerism so completely as to make them indistinguishable.

671
00:34:14,160 --> 00:34:18,680
Speaker 1: It can't happen. Yeah, sorry, they're not the same. So

672
00:34:18,840 --> 00:34:22,760
Speaker 1: Gluck's announcement makes headlines beyond New York, with newspapers reporting

673
00:34:22,840 --> 00:34:25,080
Speaker 1: on the Santa Claus building as far away as Kentucky

674
00:34:25,120 --> 00:34:28,319
Speaker 1: and Oregon. But all that marble and stained glass will

675
00:34:28,360 --> 00:34:31,240
Speaker 1: not come cheap. John estimates that the building will cost

676
00:34:31,320 --> 00:34:34,520
Speaker 1: in the ballpark of three hundred thousand dollars to construct,

677
00:34:34,800 --> 00:34:36,840
Speaker 1: which is what in today's money.

678
00:34:36,960 --> 00:34:39,920
Speaker 2: Three hundred thousand dollars in nineteen fifteen is going to

679
00:34:39,960 --> 00:34:43,400
Speaker 2: be Hold on, let me think D nine hundred and seventy.

680
00:34:43,080 --> 00:34:49,239
Speaker 1: Five ten million dollars. Holy shit, Yeah no, it's twenty twenty.

681
00:34:49,600 --> 00:34:50,120
Speaker 1: Makes sense.

682
00:34:50,200 --> 00:34:52,400
Speaker 2: Like every time we do this, it's like, that's not

683
00:34:53,040 --> 00:34:55,200
Speaker 2: that doesn't add up from what happened last time in

684
00:34:55,280 --> 00:34:55,960
Speaker 2: nineteen fifteen.

685
00:34:56,040 --> 00:34:56,520
Speaker 1: You know what I mean.

686
00:34:56,680 --> 00:34:58,439
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not yelling at you, but like that's why

687
00:34:58,440 --> 00:35:00,799
Speaker 2: we hate this. It's just never do we.

688
00:35:00,800 --> 00:35:03,200
Speaker 1: Ever go up that high from stories from nineteen fifteen.

689
00:35:03,200 --> 00:35:05,240
Speaker 1: I think they've broken a barrier here.

690
00:35:05,320 --> 00:35:07,520
Speaker 2: Like I try to be logical for real, but then

691
00:35:07,560 --> 00:35:11,279
Speaker 2: it's like, just never imagine that. Our economy is not

692
00:35:11,360 --> 00:35:12,040
Speaker 2: about logic.

693
00:35:12,320 --> 00:35:14,560
Speaker 1: I don't think you know what. That's not on me. Yeah,

694
00:35:14,640 --> 00:35:17,239
Speaker 1: that's not You forgot about the great depressions coming up?

695
00:35:17,680 --> 00:35:19,360
Speaker 1: The bunch of two thousand and eight is going to

696
00:35:19,400 --> 00:35:23,319
Speaker 1: be in there. So for the next decade, John fund

697
00:35:23,400 --> 00:35:26,200
Speaker 1: raises for the Santa Claus building year round. We've got

698
00:35:26,200 --> 00:35:29,840
Speaker 1: to make a building for Santa Claus. He publishes newspaper ads,

699
00:35:29,880 --> 00:35:33,880
Speaker 1: sends out mailers which prominently feature renderings of the building.

700
00:35:33,960 --> 00:35:36,319
Speaker 1: So it's real, real, here's the Blueprint. Yeah for real.

701
00:35:36,480 --> 00:35:39,920
Speaker 1: He hosts ritzy over the top galas that bring the rich, wealthy,

702
00:35:39,920 --> 00:35:42,480
Speaker 1: and charitable together in the name of giving. I love

703
00:35:42,520 --> 00:35:47,320
Speaker 1: a gala. I mean real long earrings, the longest.

704
00:35:47,239 --> 00:35:57,000
Speaker 2: Gloves, tiny food on silver charring. Wow, little Keisha's take

705
00:35:57,080 --> 00:35:58,000
Speaker 2: my money.

706
00:35:58,280 --> 00:36:00,960
Speaker 1: Give it to me gala. The last galle you got

707
00:36:00,960 --> 00:36:01,319
Speaker 1: to go to.

708
00:36:01,600 --> 00:36:03,680
Speaker 2: We went to the Ronald McDonald How's Gala, like two

709
00:36:03,760 --> 00:36:06,080
Speaker 2: years ago, and son I bought a table and had

710
00:36:06,120 --> 00:36:08,960
Speaker 2: all our like a couple of our friends at the partied.

711
00:36:09,120 --> 00:36:13,120
Speaker 1: Yeah, NICs really lovely. We're a beautiful foundation. Yeah, because

712
00:36:13,120 --> 00:36:15,360
Speaker 1: you used to work there, so like he was legit.

713
00:36:15,560 --> 00:36:17,879
Speaker 1: That's when I first met you. Guys. You're a young,

714
00:36:17,960 --> 00:36:22,600
Speaker 1: scrappy couple. What about you. The last gala, huh, I

715
00:36:22,680 --> 00:36:25,000
Speaker 1: went to one for Pedaluma Schools, but I think it

716
00:36:25,040 --> 00:36:28,400
Speaker 1: was like two years ago, yeah or more. Yeah, just

717
00:36:28,400 --> 00:36:31,480
Speaker 1: telling you about this gala because writer Alex Palmer reports

718
00:36:31,480 --> 00:36:35,360
Speaker 1: that in nineteen twenty four, at a Santa Claus Association

719
00:36:35,520 --> 00:36:39,200
Speaker 1: party hosted on the roof of the Waldorf Astoria, Quote,

720
00:36:39,239 --> 00:36:44,759
Speaker 1: attendees included English actress Violet Inglefield wearing jewels so extravagant

721
00:36:44,800 --> 00:36:46,799
Speaker 1: that she had to be escorted to the party in

722
00:36:46,840 --> 00:36:50,120
Speaker 1: an armored car. Damn, her diamonds went all the way

723
00:36:50,160 --> 00:36:52,759
Speaker 1: to the ground. We don't know how much money John

724
00:36:52,800 --> 00:36:55,359
Speaker 1: is pulling in during this period, because, of course, there's

725
00:36:55,360 --> 00:36:59,239
Speaker 1: no accounting going on at the association, and he's the

726
00:36:59,280 --> 00:37:01,520
Speaker 1: only one in charge, and he's not doing any bookkeeping.

727
00:37:01,880 --> 00:37:04,319
Speaker 1: But what we do know is there's never any real

728
00:37:04,440 --> 00:37:07,920
Speaker 1: movement on the Santa Claus building, and there won't be

729
00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:11,480
Speaker 1: for a full ten years after John makes this announcement,

730
00:37:11,960 --> 00:37:15,160
Speaker 1: not even a hint of a possible construction timeline. But

731
00:37:15,239 --> 00:37:19,200
Speaker 1: nobody asks too many questions. The Santa Claus Association continues

732
00:37:19,239 --> 00:37:22,160
Speaker 1: to respond to children's letters year after year. There's no

733
00:37:22,239 --> 00:37:26,759
Speaker 1: shortage of heartwarming stories about it every holiday season in

734
00:37:26,800 --> 00:37:29,799
Speaker 1: New York's papers. And John is at the center of

735
00:37:29,880 --> 00:37:32,400
Speaker 1: all of it. So he's got to have goodness in

736
00:37:32,440 --> 00:37:36,080
Speaker 1: his heart right somewhere. Yet John is steadily escalating in

737
00:37:36,120 --> 00:37:39,880
Speaker 1: his bad behavior. For example, he's become increasingly committed to

738
00:37:39,920 --> 00:37:43,320
Speaker 1: the United States Boy Scouts, not the Boy Scouts of

739
00:37:43,360 --> 00:37:49,040
Speaker 1: America now called Scouting Away, it's called Yes. He's now

740
00:37:49,160 --> 00:37:52,959
Speaker 1: fundraising for them, but for a fee. But to raise

741
00:37:52,960 --> 00:37:56,400
Speaker 1: this money he's been exploiting people's confusion about the United

742
00:37:56,400 --> 00:37:59,760
Speaker 1: States Boy Scouts and the Boy Scouts of America finally

743
00:37:59,800 --> 00:38:02,239
Speaker 1: come back to bite him when he gets taken to

744
00:38:02,320 --> 00:38:04,600
Speaker 1: court by the Boy Scouts of America and in the

745
00:38:04,640 --> 00:38:08,319
Speaker 1: process it is revealed that he's been pocketing very large

746
00:38:08,360 --> 00:38:12,759
Speaker 1: amounts of the organization's funds. This nearly wrecks John's credibility

747
00:38:12,760 --> 00:38:15,600
Speaker 1: in the public eye, but he's a very slick mover

748
00:38:16,440 --> 00:38:21,000
Speaker 1: and he manages to kind of fix it, mostly because

749
00:38:21,000 --> 00:38:23,680
Speaker 1: of how beloved the Santa Claus Association is. He just

750
00:38:23,800 --> 00:38:26,080
Speaker 1: like plays that up. When things get dicey for him,

751
00:38:26,120 --> 00:38:28,960
Speaker 1: he just hides behind his famous charity and he basically

752
00:38:29,000 --> 00:38:32,400
Speaker 1: just rides out any scandal. So now it's the nineteen twenties,

753
00:38:32,480 --> 00:38:34,640
Speaker 1: which is known as the Golden Age of fundraising?

754
00:38:34,800 --> 00:38:35,440
Speaker 2: Did you know that?

755
00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:40,000
Speaker 1: When I you know, it's like, Maren, you are lying,

756
00:38:40,640 --> 00:38:43,160
Speaker 1: you are lying on paper. But I guess it was.

757
00:38:43,440 --> 00:38:47,560
Speaker 1: And it's because the economy's booming. There's new millionaires popping

758
00:38:47,640 --> 00:38:50,680
Speaker 1: up all over the place, and it's still the progressive

759
00:38:50,680 --> 00:38:53,440
Speaker 1: era where service is front and center for so many

760
00:38:53,800 --> 00:38:56,440
Speaker 1: people are giving like never before. And as the head

761
00:38:56,440 --> 00:38:58,600
Speaker 1: of one of new York City's most well known charities.

762
00:38:58,920 --> 00:39:01,800
Speaker 1: John Gluck knows this very well, so he starts creating

763
00:39:02,080 --> 00:39:05,360
Speaker 1: a suspiciously large number of side charities from the Santa

764
00:39:05,400 --> 00:39:09,000
Speaker 1: Claus Association. The missions of these groups are usually very

765
00:39:09,080 --> 00:39:13,920
Speaker 1: vague or weirdly specific, with names like the Defense Reports

766
00:39:13,920 --> 00:39:19,040
Speaker 1: Committee or the Serum Control of Cancer or there was

767
00:39:19,080 --> 00:39:22,399
Speaker 1: even something called the Window Cribs Society. Have you ever

768
00:39:22,400 --> 00:39:25,160
Speaker 1: seen the pictures of the babies in the Window Crib? Yes,

769
00:39:26,000 --> 00:39:29,120
Speaker 1: this is John. I love that. Okay. The Window Crib

770
00:39:29,200 --> 00:39:33,000
Speaker 1: Society advocated for chicken wire cages that parents could hang

771
00:39:33,080 --> 00:39:36,560
Speaker 1: outside their apartment windows so their babies could get some

772
00:39:36,719 --> 00:39:37,319
Speaker 1: fresh air.

773
00:39:37,440 --> 00:39:40,840
Speaker 2: Oh, you've seen the photos from then are just so creepy.

774
00:39:40,880 --> 00:39:43,920
Speaker 2: It's a baby fucking twelve stories up on basically like

775
00:39:43,960 --> 00:39:45,120
Speaker 2: a security gate.

776
00:39:45,400 --> 00:39:49,080
Speaker 1: Chicken wire. Yeah, like a chicken wire awning. Yeah, it's

777
00:39:49,120 --> 00:39:53,480
Speaker 1: like a cat cage nailed to a kitchen window and

778
00:39:53,520 --> 00:39:56,000
Speaker 1: the babies crawled out into it. Yeah, for fresh air,

779
00:39:56,160 --> 00:39:56,839
Speaker 1: for fresh air.

780
00:39:57,000 --> 00:39:58,840
Speaker 2: And I promise you that's not what you're getting in

781
00:39:58,920 --> 00:40:00,279
Speaker 2: fucking New York to begin with.

782
00:40:00,400 --> 00:40:04,799
Speaker 1: Hong Kong, Hong Kong bebe. But I think that's the

783
00:40:04,800 --> 00:40:07,120
Speaker 1: craziest because I've always seen that just in kind of

784
00:40:07,160 --> 00:40:10,399
Speaker 1: like interesting facts you should know about. This was because

785
00:40:10,400 --> 00:40:12,880
Speaker 1: it really was a trend. People were doing it, but

786
00:40:12,960 --> 00:40:16,280
Speaker 1: it was all Santa Claus Society just trying to basically

787
00:40:17,080 --> 00:40:24,080
Speaker 1: launder money. Okay. Also perfect distraction. Yes, babies and chicken

788
00:40:24,200 --> 00:40:25,520
Speaker 1: people are just so freaked.

789
00:40:25,239 --> 00:40:27,680
Speaker 2: Out all the time you can't focus.

790
00:40:28,400 --> 00:40:31,280
Speaker 1: Okay. So these groups never do a whole lot aside

791
00:40:31,280 --> 00:40:35,120
Speaker 1: from fundraising, but to make them seem legit potential donors,

792
00:40:35,480 --> 00:40:38,000
Speaker 1: John starts to claim that they're backed by members of

793
00:40:38,080 --> 00:40:42,760
Speaker 1: New York's high society without those members' permission. Of course,

794
00:40:42,800 --> 00:40:46,080
Speaker 1: when rich socialites and business people discover they've been unknowingly

795
00:40:46,200 --> 00:40:50,080
Speaker 1: endorsing cage windows for babies, they are furious. And this

796
00:40:50,200 --> 00:40:53,520
Speaker 1: is when reporters and city officials finally start poking into

797
00:40:53,560 --> 00:40:57,040
Speaker 1: the world of John Gluck. But of course, what John

798
00:40:57,080 --> 00:40:59,440
Speaker 1: does when there's heat on any charities, he just shuts

799
00:40:59,480 --> 00:41:02,160
Speaker 1: it down for anything escalates and then goes on to

800
00:41:02,200 --> 00:41:05,480
Speaker 1: create a new one. And he every time pulls in

801
00:41:05,600 --> 00:41:09,200
Speaker 1: some unknown amount of cash with his fundraising, and then

802
00:41:09,239 --> 00:41:12,080
Speaker 1: of course pockets most if not all of it, but

803
00:41:12,239 --> 00:41:15,120
Speaker 1: also growing a list of donors, so he gets out

804
00:41:15,160 --> 00:41:17,960
Speaker 1: there and he kisses babies and cages and shakes hands

805
00:41:18,000 --> 00:41:21,520
Speaker 1: and then finds new people to give him money. It's

806
00:41:21,560 --> 00:41:25,000
Speaker 1: said by the nineteen twenties, John's master mailing list contains

807
00:41:25,360 --> 00:41:30,080
Speaker 1: roughly seventy six thousand names. Wow, pre internet. So now

808
00:41:30,080 --> 00:41:32,720
Speaker 1: it's the late twenties and a straight laced, rule loving

809
00:41:32,719 --> 00:41:36,319
Speaker 1: public servant named Bird S. Kohler is now the New

810
00:41:36,400 --> 00:41:40,279
Speaker 1: York City's Commissioner of Public Welfare. And this very outspoken

811
00:41:40,320 --> 00:41:44,160
Speaker 1: man who believes that charity should be tightly regulated and

812
00:41:44,200 --> 00:41:45,279
Speaker 1: heavily scrutinized.

813
00:41:45,280 --> 00:41:45,920
Speaker 2: He is fun.

814
00:41:46,080 --> 00:41:49,760
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, this is like the prohibition era brings

815
00:41:49,760 --> 00:41:51,640
Speaker 1: in all these guys. I mean he's great, but who

816
00:41:51,680 --> 00:41:54,160
Speaker 1: would you rather be at a party with? No? Clearly,

817
00:41:54,200 --> 00:41:56,680
Speaker 1: John Glug is the man. I mean he's like, he's like,

818
00:41:56,960 --> 00:41:59,759
Speaker 1: let's you and me do some good and then I

819
00:41:59,800 --> 00:42:00,960
Speaker 1: will also get money.

820
00:42:01,040 --> 00:42:01,400
Speaker 2: Yeah.

821
00:42:01,560 --> 00:42:04,120
Speaker 1: Yeah's fun. He's fun. He's already a rich guy. He's

822
00:42:04,160 --> 00:42:05,680
Speaker 1: a rich guy that knows how to make rich guy

823
00:42:05,719 --> 00:42:09,399
Speaker 1: give him money, and he does it. But basically, Bird

824
00:42:09,480 --> 00:42:12,759
Speaker 1: Kohler sees how flashy and hammy and publicity hungry John

825
00:42:12,800 --> 00:42:16,680
Speaker 1: Gluck is, and he's instantly suspicious about his intentions, so

826
00:42:16,760 --> 00:42:19,640
Speaker 1: he hits the Santa Claus Association with an official audit.

827
00:42:20,560 --> 00:42:24,080
Speaker 1: Things very quickly unravel. Cohler learns that since the Santa

828
00:42:24,080 --> 00:42:27,640
Speaker 1: Claus Association began, John Gluck has been running the whole

829
00:42:27,680 --> 00:42:31,160
Speaker 1: thing himself with zero oversight. He has made up dozens

830
00:42:31,200 --> 00:42:34,239
Speaker 1: of employees, all listed on the payroll to give the

831
00:42:34,280 --> 00:42:37,959
Speaker 1: illusion that there's financial accountability within the organization. You can't

832
00:42:38,040 --> 00:42:40,560
Speaker 1: do that, No, you're not allowed to do that. That's

833
00:42:40,600 --> 00:42:44,000
Speaker 1: actually illegal. As a result, huge sums of money have

834
00:42:44,080 --> 00:42:46,759
Speaker 1: flowed in and out of the charity without any documentation

835
00:42:46,920 --> 00:42:50,600
Speaker 1: on how it was spent. So in nineteen twenty seven alone,

836
00:42:50,800 --> 00:42:53,759
Speaker 1: Cohler learns that the Santa Claus Association raised at least

837
00:42:53,800 --> 00:42:56,400
Speaker 1: one hundred thousand dollars.

838
00:42:57,520 --> 00:43:01,480
Speaker 2: What was the other one? It's three hundred, I don't know.

839
00:43:02,080 --> 00:43:07,719
Speaker 1: You do a million, two millions and it's all gone. Yeah,

840
00:43:07,800 --> 00:43:10,960
Speaker 1: so he In the end, Bird Kohler's audit of the

841
00:43:11,000 --> 00:43:14,400
Speaker 1: association concludes that John had embezzled virtually all of the

842
00:43:14,520 --> 00:43:18,359
Speaker 1: charity's funds, millions and millions in today's money that had

843
00:43:18,400 --> 00:43:21,680
Speaker 1: been donated not only for the Santa Claus building, but

844
00:43:21,880 --> 00:43:25,520
Speaker 1: also for the operational expenses. Of it. These findings generate

845
00:43:25,560 --> 00:43:29,000
Speaker 1: a tsunami of nationwide press that exposed John's schemes and

846
00:43:29,040 --> 00:43:32,760
Speaker 1: sully his reputation for good. People are outraged, and of course,

847
00:43:32,800 --> 00:43:36,080
Speaker 1: practically overnight all the social capital that he had spent

848
00:43:36,160 --> 00:43:40,880
Speaker 1: a decade cultivating is over. The Post Office meanwhile, abruptly

849
00:43:40,960 --> 00:43:44,080
Speaker 1: ends its partnership with the Santa Claus Association. Yeah, so

850
00:43:44,120 --> 00:43:48,200
Speaker 1: in nineteen twenty eight, John shutters the organization officially, even

851
00:43:48,239 --> 00:43:50,720
Speaker 1: though he can no longer treat it as his personal

852
00:43:50,719 --> 00:43:54,040
Speaker 1: slush fund. Now we are sadly back to square one,

853
00:43:54,480 --> 00:43:57,920
Speaker 1: needing to answer kids letters to Santa Claus. So after

854
00:43:57,920 --> 00:44:01,360
Speaker 1: the collapse of the Santa Claus Associations, all organizations step

855
00:44:01,400 --> 00:44:05,240
Speaker 1: in to help with letters to Santa. Decades later, Operation

856
00:44:05,400 --> 00:44:08,400
Speaker 1: Santa Claus replaces this system and in the coming years

857
00:44:08,760 --> 00:44:12,880
Speaker 1: expands into a nationwide program. So today you can visit

858
00:44:13,320 --> 00:44:18,000
Speaker 1: the United States Postal Service operations Santa dot com and

859
00:44:18,040 --> 00:44:21,839
Speaker 1: you can read children's wish lists. They're scanned and they're

860
00:44:21,880 --> 00:44:25,000
Speaker 1: shared there for you to read for yourself, and you

861
00:44:25,040 --> 00:44:28,120
Speaker 1: can answer one if you would like to. It's estimated

862
00:44:28,120 --> 00:44:31,600
Speaker 1: that the Santa Claus Association provided somewhere around a quarter

863
00:44:31,680 --> 00:44:34,640
Speaker 1: million gifts for New York City's children. We will never

864
00:44:34,719 --> 00:44:38,760
Speaker 1: know what good the money John embezzled could have done,

865
00:44:39,080 --> 00:44:43,000
Speaker 1: because he was getting millions in the spirit of give

866
00:44:43,440 --> 00:44:45,880
Speaker 1: somebody who doesn't have what they need for the holidays

867
00:44:45,920 --> 00:44:49,719
Speaker 1: something great. Meanwhile, John Gluck gets away with it. He's

868
00:44:49,760 --> 00:44:53,480
Speaker 1: never prosecuted for any financial crimes, which is actually often

869
00:44:53,560 --> 00:44:58,120
Speaker 1: attributed to the Great Depression hitting and overshadowing this entire scandal.

870
00:44:58,680 --> 00:45:00,440
Speaker 1: What we know for sure is that he winds up

871
00:45:00,520 --> 00:45:04,160
Speaker 1: leaving New York and resurfacing in Miami, where he reinvents

872
00:45:04,239 --> 00:45:06,680
Speaker 1: himself as a real estate broker, and he lives there

873
00:45:06,760 --> 00:45:10,000
Speaker 1: until the early fifties, when he dies at age seventy three.

874
00:45:10,400 --> 00:45:14,000
Speaker 1: Alex Palmer writes in his book John Gluck never heads

875
00:45:14,040 --> 00:45:17,359
Speaker 1: another charity, though it's unclear if this is because he

876
00:45:17,400 --> 00:45:21,960
Speaker 1: finally learned his lesson or because post depression reforms finally

877
00:45:21,960 --> 00:45:26,160
Speaker 1: put guardrails on fundraising for charity. He's like, now it's

878
00:45:26,200 --> 00:45:28,840
Speaker 1: not worth it. Yeah, And that is the story of

879
00:45:28,880 --> 00:45:34,760
Speaker 1: New York City's opportunistic Santa claus Man, John Gluck. Happy Holiday.

880
00:45:35,520 --> 00:45:36,840
Speaker 2: So he never had to give back any of the

881
00:45:36,880 --> 00:45:38,440
Speaker 2: money he lost it, but he.

882
00:45:38,480 --> 00:45:40,719
Speaker 1: Spent it all. He spent it on himself and like

883
00:45:40,800 --> 00:45:44,680
Speaker 1: did whatever. But then like basically the market crash of

884
00:45:44,760 --> 00:45:48,680
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty nine and overnight it was like no one

885
00:45:48,719 --> 00:45:52,720
Speaker 1: had anything. Nobody was looking for the millions he stole

886
00:45:52,760 --> 00:45:55,160
Speaker 1: when people were jumping out of windows.

887
00:45:55,200 --> 00:45:59,360
Speaker 2: Totally. Wow, that's fucked up. I've never heard that before.

888
00:45:59,440 --> 00:46:02,400
Speaker 2: I haven't ether must be because it's right by the Great Depression.

889
00:46:02,800 --> 00:46:05,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right. It got good. That's a fucking good

890
00:46:05,239 --> 00:46:07,719
Speaker 1: fraud star, isn't it good? Yeah, it was gonna it

891
00:46:07,760 --> 00:46:11,719
Speaker 1: was going to be a story for New York for yeah,

892
00:46:11,719 --> 00:46:14,960
Speaker 1: a live show. Yeah, good one. All right, well, thank

893
00:46:15,000 --> 00:46:15,399
Speaker 1: you job.

894
00:46:15,960 --> 00:46:19,080
Speaker 2: I'm glad we're donating to feed the children. It's fitting.

895
00:46:19,280 --> 00:46:23,560
Speaker 1: Finally someone gives back after this gigantic ripoff. Although goad.

896
00:46:23,719 --> 00:46:26,879
Speaker 1: It's like the Santa Claus Building if it was made

897
00:46:26,920 --> 00:46:32,120
Speaker 1: in like nineteen fifteen, by now, it would be gorgeous.

898
00:46:32,120 --> 00:46:34,840
Speaker 1: They would be They would be carrying cancer in there, Yeah,

899
00:46:34,880 --> 00:46:37,600
Speaker 1: they would be doing everything all the You would have

900
00:46:37,680 --> 00:46:40,799
Speaker 1: this kind of like focused attention on goodness.

901
00:46:40,960 --> 00:46:44,160
Speaker 2: What is it about him that made him not do that?

902
00:46:44,400 --> 00:46:44,760
Speaker 1: Greed?

903
00:46:44,960 --> 00:46:47,839
Speaker 2: Greed that sucks? Oh men?

904
00:46:49,360 --> 00:46:53,520
Speaker 1: Oh you men, you well that's that's where we're going

905
00:46:53,560 --> 00:46:56,800
Speaker 1: to bring you down to this holiday season. Good job, guys,

906
00:46:56,840 --> 00:46:59,800
Speaker 1: we did it. Guys. Focus on the Santa Claus Building

907
00:47:00,080 --> 00:47:00,840
Speaker 1: in your mind.

908
00:47:00,920 --> 00:47:04,080
Speaker 2: Don't be like the Santa Claus guy.

909
00:47:04,280 --> 00:47:06,720
Speaker 1: No, no, be the doorman of the Santa Claus building

910
00:47:06,920 --> 00:47:10,120
Speaker 1: and open open the door of the Santa Claus Building

911
00:47:10,360 --> 00:47:12,640
Speaker 1: in your heart, in your heart, and welcome all of

912
00:47:12,680 --> 00:47:17,120
Speaker 1: the children in, adult children in. That's right this holiday season.

913
00:47:17,120 --> 00:47:21,440
Speaker 1: That's right. And stay sex and don't get murdered. You

914
00:47:21,480 --> 00:47:22,719
Speaker 1: thought I'd never get to it.

915
00:47:24,160 --> 00:47:26,520
Speaker 2: Bye, Elvis, do you want to cookie?

916
00:47:34,080 --> 00:47:35,760
Speaker 1: This has been an exactly right production.

917
00:47:35,960 --> 00:47:38,640
Speaker 2: Our senior producer is Molly Smith and our associate producer

918
00:47:38,719 --> 00:47:39,440
Speaker 2: is Tessa Hughes.

919
00:47:39,520 --> 00:47:42,680
Speaker 1: Our editor is Aristotle Ascevedo. This episode was mixed by

920
00:47:42,760 --> 00:47:46,520
Speaker 1: Leona Scuolacci. Our researchers are Mary mclachan and Ali Elkin.

921
00:47:46,640 --> 00:47:49,920
Speaker 2: Email your hometowns to My Favorite Murder at gmail dot com.

922
00:47:49,640 --> 00:47:52,160
Speaker 1: And follow the show on Instagram at My Favorite Murder.

923
00:47:52,239 --> 00:47:55,080
Speaker 2: Listen to My Favorite Murder on the iHeartRadio app, Apple

924
00:47:55,120 --> 00:47:56,640
Speaker 2: Podcasts or wherever you get your.

925
00:47:56,520 --> 00:47:58,799
Speaker 1: Podcasts, or you can watch us on YouTube. Search for

926
00:47:58,840 --> 00:48:02,040
Speaker 1: My Favorite Murder. Then can subscribe God, I