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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio, Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: a dramatic reading of the notes I took in my

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Speaker 1: middle school history class some twenty years ago. I'm Gabe Lousier,

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Speaker 1: and thankfully none of what I just said was true.

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Speaker 1: This is a more or less normal history show, and

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Speaker 1: in this episode we're looking at the story of a

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Speaker 1: much better April Fool's prank. It's the day when the

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Speaker 1: BBC convinced its viewers that pasta wasn't made from flour

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Speaker 1: and water, but actually grows on trees. The day was

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Speaker 1: April one, nineteen fifty seven. As an April Fool's Day prank,

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Speaker 1: the British Broadcasting Corporation aired a made up report about

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Speaker 1: harvesting ghetty from trees. The three minute segment was played

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Speaker 1: completely straight, with no indication it was a hoax besides

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Speaker 1: the little known fact that spaghetti does not grow on trees.

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Speaker 1: The report, which was narrated by revered broadcaster Richard Dimbleby,

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Speaker 1: followed a family from Tacchino in the south of Switzerland

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Speaker 1: as they sat about their annual spaghetti harvest. They're shown

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Speaker 1: plucking strands of fresh spaghetti noodles from a tree and

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Speaker 1: then laying them out on tarps to dry in the sun.

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Speaker 1: The BBC's Spaghetti hoax is one of the earliest examples

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Speaker 1: of a TV broadcast being used to play in April

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Speaker 1: fool's joke, but when it first aired, not everyone was laughing.

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Speaker 1: The mastermind behind the prank was a BBC cameraman named

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Speaker 1: Charles de Yeager, and amazingly, he had been planning the

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Speaker 1: joke since childhood. Di Yeager was born in Vienna on

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Speaker 1: February nineteen eleven. Growing up, he had a school teacher

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Speaker 1: who often teased the class by saying they were so

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Speaker 1: gullible they'd even believe that spaghetti grows on trees. For

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Speaker 1: whatever reason, that visual stuck with Dieger well into adulthood.

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Speaker 1: One of his earliest jobs was working as a freelance

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Speaker 1: photographer in Austria. Then in the nineteen thirties he moved

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Speaker 1: to Britain and began working for the Free French Film

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Speaker 1: Unit during World War Two. He joined the BBC in

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Speaker 1: July of nineteen forty three, taking a job as a

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Speaker 1: sub editor for Central European news reports. Five years later

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Speaker 1: he became a newsreel cameraman for the BBC, the first

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Speaker 1: at the network to film outside of the United Kingdom.

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Speaker 1: It was during these years that Dieger developed a reputation

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Speaker 1: for his sense of humor. For example, the BBC once

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Speaker 1: sent him too the Vatican to interview Pope Pious the Twelfth.

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Speaker 1: He had a hard time setting up the interview, but

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Speaker 1: was eventually told by a priest that His Holiness would

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Speaker 1: meet with him on Tuesday afternoon. De Yeager jokingly replied, yes,

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Speaker 1: but is he a man of his word? The cameraman

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Speaker 1: was eager to bring his comedy to the airwaves as well.

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Speaker 1: He never forgot the idea of a spaghetti tree and

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Speaker 1: was convinced it would make a perfect visual joke for

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Speaker 1: April Fool's Day. But try as he might to sell

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Speaker 1: the idea, and he did try several times, none of

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Speaker 1: his bosses at the BBC would ever sign off on it.

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Speaker 1: That is until nineteen fifty seven, when de Yeager began

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Speaker 1: working as a cameraman for the current affair show Panorama.

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Speaker 1: At the time, it was the biggest news program on

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Speaker 1: British television, drawing about ten million viewers every Monday night

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Speaker 1: at eight. The show's catchphrase was a window on the world,

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Speaker 1: and it was de Yeager's job as the traveling cameraman

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Speaker 1: to provide that window. He was well suited to foreign

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Speaker 1: assignments as he was fluent not only in English and German,

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Speaker 1: but in French and Italian as well. In early spring

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Speaker 1: of nineteen fifty seven, Diyeager realized that April First happened

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Speaker 1: to fall on a Monday that year, the same day

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Speaker 1: when Panorama aired new episodes. He couldn't let the chance

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Speaker 1: slip by without trying, so once again, he pitched his

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Speaker 1: spaghetti prank to the network. This time, though he wasn't alone.

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Speaker 1: One of his colleagues, a writer named David Wheeler, agreed

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Speaker 1: to write the narration for the project and helped de

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Speaker 1: Yeager pitch the idea to Michael Peacock, the lead editor

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Speaker 1: on Panorama. They emphasized how little the segment would cost

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Speaker 1: to produce. Since di Yeager was already scheduled on an

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Speaker 1: assignment in Switzerland in the coming weeks, Wheeler could write

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Speaker 1: the script and de Yeager could shoot the footage alongside

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Speaker 1: his other project. Peacock was convinced and gave them the

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Speaker 1: go ahead to stage one of the first major pranks

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Speaker 1: in TV history. Armed with a budget just one hundred pounds,

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Speaker 1: di Yeager traveled to Switzerland in March and began searching

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Speaker 1: for a location that would work as a convincing spaghetti orchard.

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Speaker 1: With help from the Swiss Tourist Office, he finally found

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Speaker 1: a suitable spot, a grove of evergreen laurel trees along

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Speaker 1: the shore of Lake Lugano. Di Yeager bought twenty pounds

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Speaker 1: of uncooked homemade spaghetti and placed it between wet cloths

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Speaker 1: to keep it from drying out before it was time

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Speaker 1: to shoot. Next, he hired a group of local young

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Speaker 1: women to appear in the segment. He asked them to

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Speaker 1: come dressed in the traditional clothing of their region, and

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Speaker 1: when they arrived, he had them hang the spaghetti from

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Speaker 1: tree branches. Once all the noodles were in place, de

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Speaker 1: Yeager filmed the girls as they climbed ladders carrying wicker baskets,

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Speaker 1: which they then loaded up with fresh picked spaghetti noodles.

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Speaker 1: When he got all the footage he needed of the

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Speaker 1: actual harvest, de Yeager organized a spaghetti feast for the

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Speaker 1: actors and then filmed them enjoying the fruits of their labor.

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Speaker 1: That footage was sent back to London, where it was

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Speaker 1: edited down to just under three minutes. Music was added

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Speaker 1: to the background to set the mood, and the tongue

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Speaker 1: in cheek narration that David Wheeler wrote was recorded and

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Speaker 1: sink to the footage. The narration itself was read by

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Speaker 1: Richard Dimbleby, a well respected figure who had anchored Panorama

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Speaker 1: for the last three years. His participation in the prank

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Speaker 1: is a big reason why so many viewers ultimately fell

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Speaker 1: for the joke. As one of the hosts colleagues put it, quote,

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Speaker 1: Dimpleby had enough gravitas to float an aircraft carrier, so

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Speaker 1: when he told the public that in Switzerland, spaghetti grows

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Speaker 1: on trees, many people at home figured it had to

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Speaker 1: be true. Michael Peacock had signed off on the prank,

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Speaker 1: but he didn't let anyone else at the BBC know

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Speaker 1: that until the last possible minute. After all, if any

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Speaker 1: higher ups heard about the plan before airtime, they might

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Speaker 1: put their foot out and cancel the whole thing. So,

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Speaker 1: as far as most people at the network knew, the

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Speaker 1: show would have only three segments that night, A lengthy

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Speaker 1: story about the leader of the Church of Cyprus, a

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Speaker 1: clip of the Duke of Edinburgh attending the premiere of

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Speaker 1: a war movie, and a short feature about a wine

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Speaker 1: tasting contest. However, after the third segment finished, there were

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Speaker 1: still about three minutes left in the time slot. That's

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Speaker 1: when Richard Dimbleby looked straight into the camera and with

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Speaker 1: a straight face, introduced the real last story of the evening.

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Speaker 1: He said, quote and now from wine to food, we

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Speaker 1: end Panorama tonight with a special report from the Swiss Alps.

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Speaker 1: The screen then cut to the yager's footage and from

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Speaker 1: a trusted voice, viewers at home heard the following report

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Speaker 1: Here indeed, to Gino, on the borders of Switzerland and Italy,

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Speaker 1: the slopes over looking Lake Lugano have already burst into flaw,

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Speaker 1: at least a fortnight earlier than usual. But what you

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Speaker 1: may ask, has the earlier and welcome arrival of bees

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Speaker 1: and blossom to do with food? It's resulted in an

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Speaker 1: exceptionally heavy spaghetti crop. The last two weeks of March

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Speaker 1: are an anxious time for the spaghetti farmer. There's always

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Speaker 1: the chance of a late frost, which, while not entirely

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Speaker 1: ruining the crop, generally impairs the flavor and makes it

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Speaker 1: difficult for him to obtain top prices in world markets.

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Speaker 1: But now these dangers are over and the spaghetti harvest

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Speaker 1: goes forward. Spaghetti cultivation here in Switzerland is not, of

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Speaker 1: course carried out on anything like the tremendous scale of

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Speaker 1: the Italian industry. For the Swiss, however, it tends to

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Speaker 1: be more of a family affair. Another reason why this

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Speaker 1: may be a bumper year lies in the virtual disappearance

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Speaker 1: of the spaghetti weevil, the tiny creature whose depredations have

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Speaker 1: caused much concern in the past. After picking these spaghetti

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Speaker 1: is laid out to dry in the warm Alpines sun.

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Speaker 1: Many people are often puzzled by the fact that spaghetti

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Speaker 1: is produced at such uniform length, but this is the

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Speaker 1: result of many years of patient endeavor by plant breeders

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Speaker 1: who have succeeded in producing the perfect spaghetti. And now

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Speaker 1: the harvest is marked by a traditional meal. Toasts to

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Speaker 1: the new crop are drunk in these boccolinos, and then

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Speaker 1: the waiters enter bearing the ceremonial dish. And it is

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Speaker 1: of course spaghetti picked earlier in the day, dried in

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Speaker 1: the sun, and so brought fresh from garden to table

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Speaker 1: at the very peak of condition. For those who love

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Speaker 1: this dish, there's nothing like real home grown spaghetti. When

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Speaker 1: the segment ended, the show cut back to Dimbleby one

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Speaker 1: last time. He said, quote, now we say good night

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Speaker 1: on this first day of April. He was trying to

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Speaker 1: emphasize the date to make sure viewers got the choke,

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Speaker 1: but it still went over some people's heads. As soon

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Speaker 1: as the episode ended, hundreds of viewers began calling the BBC.

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Speaker 1: Peacock's boss, Leonard me All, later recounted the scene in

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Speaker 1: the BBC's telephone exchange that night. He said, quote the

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Speaker 1: calls came in incessantly. Some were from viewers who had

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Speaker 1: enjoyed the joke, including one from Bristol who complained that

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Speaker 1: spaghetti didn't grow vertically, it grew horizontally. But mainly the

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Speaker 1: calls were requests for the BBC to settle family arguments.

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Speaker 1: The husband knew it must be true that spaghetti grew

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Speaker 1: on a bush because Richard Dimbleby had said so, and

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Speaker 1: the wife knew it was made with flour and water,

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Speaker 1: but neither it could convince the other. That may sound ridiculous,

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Speaker 1: and it is, but to be fair, spaghetti and many

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Speaker 1: other kinds of pasta weren't widely eaten in the UK

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Speaker 1: until the following decade. Canned spaghetti was likely the only

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Speaker 1: kind you'd find at a British market, so the foods

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Speaker 1: origin wasn't immediately obvious, especially without a list of ingredients.

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Speaker 1: I mean, most people could probably still guess that what

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Speaker 1: was in the can didn't come from a tree, but

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Speaker 1: not everyone is that discerning. Viewers continued calling the BBC

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Speaker 1: about the hoax for the rest of the month, Most

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Speaker 1: of them just wanted to know how they could start

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Speaker 1: growing spaghetti themselves. In fact, the BBC got so many

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Speaker 1: calls from people asking how to grow a spaghetti tree

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Speaker 1: that the operators eventually settled on a standard reply. They

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Speaker 1: instructed all aspiring spaghetti farmers to quote, place a sprig

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Speaker 1: of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope

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Speaker 1: for the best. That said, some viewers did criticize the

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Speaker 1: network for airing a fictional story during what was billed

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Speaker 1: as a factual news program, but David Wheeler, the man

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Speaker 1: who wrote the script, long maintained that the spaghetti hoax

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Speaker 1: was ultimately for the viewer's own good. In two thousand four,

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Speaker 1: he told the BBC quote, I think it was a

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Speaker 1: good idea for people to be aware they couldn't believe

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Speaker 1: everything they saw on the television, and that they ought

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Speaker 1: to adopt a slightly critical attitude to it. In that sense,

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Speaker 1: the spaghetti tree hoax taught TV viewers an important lesson

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Speaker 1: in those early days of the medium. Just because it's

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Speaker 1: on TV doesn't mean it's true. All these years later,

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Speaker 1: that same need for a critical mindset now extends to

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Speaker 1: cable news and to pretty much all of the Internet.

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Speaker 1: Misinformation abounds more accessible and more convincing than any other

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Speaker 1: time before. That's why the story of the BBC's spaghetti

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Speaker 1: prank is still relevant today. It reminds us that if

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Speaker 1: we want to avoid falling for something as silly as

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Speaker 1: spaghetti growing on trees, we have to use our heads

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Speaker 1: instead of just going with our gut. I'm Gabe Lousier

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Speaker 1: and hopefully you now know a little more or about

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Speaker 1: spaghetti history today than you did yesterday. If you enjoyed

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Speaker 1: today's show, you can learn more about the topic by

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Speaker 1: following us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at t d

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Speaker 1: I HC Show. You can also rate and review the

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Speaker 1: show on Apple podcasts, or you can write to us

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Speaker 1: directly at this Day at I heart media dot com.

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Speaker 1: Thanks to Chandler Mays for producing the show, and thank

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Speaker 1: you for listening. I'll see you back here again soon

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Speaker 1: for another day in History class