Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Y Hey ho, and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Josh, and there's Chuck and Jerry's even here, and
Speaker 1: we're all wishing you glad tidings and merry tidings and
Speaker 1: decking the halls and all of that for this very
Speaker 1: special Christmas edition of Stuff You Should How did you
Speaker 1: say stuff you Should? Hoe? I did? That's great, I thought.
Speaker 1: I don't know. It just came to me. And you know,
Speaker 1: it basically made up for the pan of apple Pie
Speaker 1: turnover analogy in the buffet episode. If you ask me,
Speaker 1: you rid it twice though, didn't you? The apple Pie one? No,
Speaker 1: I hit the three time thing did for for genuine
Speaker 1: community effect. And I think that episode might. I don't know,
Speaker 1: is that gonna come out before this one? Yeah? It come.
Speaker 1: It came out on the okay, and what day is
Speaker 1: this one out? I believe is it on Christmas Day
Speaker 1: this year? I don't know. I'm going to look right
Speaker 1: now to see. And as I'm talking, no, today, this
Speaker 1: one comes out. So buthdays came out of but it's
Speaker 1: Christmas Eve. That's even better. Almost. Yeah, Merry Christmas Eve, everybody, Yeah,
Speaker 1: Merry Christmas Eve, and we like to remind people as
Speaker 1: per tradition, we fight tooth and nail for this. Uh.
Speaker 1: It is an ad free episode and that's all we
Speaker 1: have to say about that. We don't do ads for
Speaker 1: these episodes. Nope, this is a it's a it's a
Speaker 1: very special thing every year, this one in the Halloween episode. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we didn't even talk about which how we're going to
Speaker 1: order these, but I'll go ahead and make a pitch
Speaker 1: for lead treat Censel to go first. Okay, that's what
Speaker 1: I've got it up. First to Chuck. It's a Christmas miracle,
Speaker 1: so Tinsel. I think we've talked about in another episode
Speaker 1: before Chuck. Um where that came from. I believe it
Speaker 1: was in one of the really early Christmas episodes. But um,
Speaker 1: we can give a little background here in that think
Speaker 1: starting around the sixteenth century UM or the seventeenth century,
Speaker 1: very wealthy aristocrats UM started putting actual like gold and
Speaker 1: silver strands or like more commonly I think these kind
Speaker 1: of like twisted almost candy cane looking hooks made of
Speaker 1: gold and silver. They would put it all over their
Speaker 1: their tree. UM hang this stuff, and they called it tinsel,
Speaker 1: which is from Old French for eston cell or sparkle,
Speaker 1: and that's kind of where tinsel came from. But you
Speaker 1: have to be fairly wealthy to put strands of pure
Speaker 1: gold and silver on your Christmas shoe. You know. That
Speaker 1: kind of is how it goes. Yeah, I'm surprised that's
Speaker 1: a French word. It sounds very German. Tinsel, yeah, tinsel does.
Speaker 1: But eston cell, well, that sounds very French. You're right,
Speaker 1: it does. It's almost like that a Spree brand of clothing,
Speaker 1: but just it takes a real sharp turn after that
Speaker 1: first es syllable. So yeah, the rich people were doing
Speaker 1: this on the tree, they kind of kept it to themselves. Uh.
Speaker 1: And then the industrial age rolls around and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden we had less expensive varieties of this kind
Speaker 1: of thing, which meant aluminum copper great for both, and
Speaker 1: lead not great. Well, the aluminum wasn't so great either.
Speaker 1: They would make an aluminum paper tinsel with acetate and
Speaker 1: that stuff would go up faster than a matchbook on
Speaker 1: like a dead tree. And you know, this is a
Speaker 1: time when everybody was smoking everywhere all the time. So
Speaker 1: the the illuminum one was particularly bad. And the copper.
Speaker 1: I saw it still around, Chuck. They make garlands of
Speaker 1: copper tinsel, but it's not for decorations. It's for you
Speaker 1: to walk through to discharge static, like if you're going
Speaker 1: into say like a computer clean room or something like that.
Speaker 1: They make copper tinsel now, but that didn't really catch
Speaker 1: on either. So they settled finally, like you said, on lead.
Speaker 1: And you know that's kind of problematic because leads as poisonous,
Speaker 1: as we talked about in Our Wise Lead So poisonous episode?
Speaker 1: Did we do that? Yeah? Don't you remember? Um In
Speaker 1: Mother Jones, Kevin drum like made the made them the
Speaker 1: case that the the end of leaded gas actually was
Speaker 1: responsible for the decline and violent crime over there. You
Speaker 1: did an episode and that was a good A long
Speaker 1: time ago. So this was before the FDA got involved
Speaker 1: and knew that lead was you know, in our plates
Speaker 1: and in our paint and in our jewelry was killing people.
Speaker 1: And there was a German company called uh Staniel fabriqu
Speaker 1: Epstein and they had an imperial pattern on lead tinsel
Speaker 1: in nineteen o four and people love this stuff. It
Speaker 1: translated uh Stanniel Lamenta into tiny Blade, which is hysterical
Speaker 1: if you think about it, it's kind of what they were.
Speaker 1: But it was people love this stuff because they started
Speaker 1: making it in South Philly too in the early fifties.
Speaker 1: It really hung on it really looked great. It hung
Speaker 1: on the tree very heavy, obviously because it's lead, and
Speaker 1: it looked Apparently this woman, Susan Wagoner wrote a book
Speaker 1: called hand Crafted Christmas where she talks about how wonderful
Speaker 1: it was and it didn't turn ish and it just
Speaker 1: gave a really kind of heavy icicle look to the tree. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And so that German patent was issued in nineteen o four,
Speaker 1: and I guess it took almost fifty years before it
Speaker 1: made its way over to the United States. But by
Speaker 1: the fifties there is a company called bright Star Manufacturing
Speaker 1: that was making lead tree tensil for use in the
Speaker 1: United States to UM, but the party didn't last very long.
Speaker 1: About a decade really before UM it was becoming quite
Speaker 1: obvious that lead poisoning was was a real problem. And
Speaker 1: the thing is, it's like you said, there's a you know,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of um places where lead turned up
Speaker 1: in your house, including on the plate you ate from.
Speaker 1: So tree tinsel was probably one of the lesser evils
Speaker 1: in your house too, that that you were going to
Speaker 1: get lead poisoning from. But it was also one of
Speaker 1: the easiest things to phase out. And so the FDA
Speaker 1: kind of zeroed in on getting rid of lead tree tensile,
Speaker 1: using these kind of back channel methods to to get
Speaker 1: rid of it before anybody knew what was going on. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so they ended up making a deal, the f d
Speaker 1: A with tinsel importers and said, you know what, you've
Speaker 1: got no product here that you can sell here anymore.
Speaker 1: And this was in the early seventies. Uh, your time,
Speaker 1: face it, Your time here is done. And the thing is,
Speaker 1: though they didn't get the word out, it's not like
Speaker 1: they that was like burning up the headlines all over
Speaker 1: the country, because what they were afraid of was people
Speaker 1: love this stuff, and if they hear that it's going
Speaker 1: to go away, people are going to go out and
Speaker 1: start buying up all the lead tinsel. Total. It's going
Speaker 1: to be counterintuitive to our goal here, which is to
Speaker 1: get rid of the lead tinsel. Right. It would take
Speaker 1: you know, years and years before they finally got phase
Speaker 1: would be so much easier if it just didn't come
Speaker 1: back one year and that's basically what happened. The FDA
Speaker 1: managed to kind of secretly get rid of lead from
Speaker 1: Christmas tinsel and say, come up with some other stuff,
Speaker 1: and uh, in very short order plastic came along to
Speaker 1: replace it. But what what was crazy, Chuck, is that
Speaker 1: um lead tinsel remained available in Germany until really yeah,
Speaker 1: they did not get rid of the the lametta until then.
Speaker 1: It's very surprising. Germans are tough. So I want to
Speaker 1: say also, um, big shout out to our friend and
Speaker 1: longtime listener Robert Paulson for suggesting that one. And as
Speaker 1: you'll see later on in the episode, he's basically the
Speaker 1: secret elf for this year's Christmas extravaganzas so thank you
Speaker 1: very much, Roberts. His name is Robert Paulson. Should we
Speaker 1: move on to Charles Dickens? Oh yeah, I thought we
Speaker 1: would just leave it at his name is Robert Paulson.
Speaker 1: But yes, all right, here we go with a little
Speaker 1: bit on how Dickens saved Christmas. Enough enough, he's going
Speaker 1: from name uh um so um. Everybody thinks like a
Speaker 1: Christmas Carol is the most Christmas e thing that anyone's
Speaker 1: ever come up with, and until a Christmas story came
Speaker 1: along that was true, and Christmas Carol is kind of
Speaker 1: responsible for um a lot of the traditions that we
Speaker 1: think of as Christmas Eve these days. Um it basically
Speaker 1: came from the end of christ of Dickens pen things
Speaker 1: like this idea of having your family around you and
Speaker 1: and and being charitable and um spreading goodwill and peace
Speaker 1: and all of that stuff. Like, all of that kind
Speaker 1: of came from this Christmas Carol. And in fact, even
Speaker 1: wishing people marry Christmas was a Dickens invention too. But
Speaker 1: what a lot of people don't realize is that um
Speaker 1: Dickens when he wrote a Christmas Carol, he basically grabbed
Speaker 1: Christmas out from the clutches of oblivion and dragged it
Speaker 1: back into popular culture. That he was largely responsible, or
Speaker 1: one of a few Victorian authors who were responsible for
Speaker 1: saving Christmas from obscurity from around that time about the
Speaker 1: middle of the nineteenth century. It is hard to believe,
Speaker 1: but that is true that in eighteen sixty three Christmas
Speaker 1: was dying in no small part to uh at the
Speaker 1: hands of a man named Oliver Cromwell, Boo, Lord and
Speaker 1: Protector of England, very famous seventeenth century Puritan who didn't
Speaker 1: like Christmas. He didn't like the people were going out
Speaker 1: and having a good time and drinking and eating too much.
Speaker 1: And he was like, listen, there's no scriptural basis for Christmas.
Speaker 1: It's not in the Bible. Uh, there is no you know,
Speaker 1: there's the Sabbath, of course, but it doesn't say, hey,
Speaker 1: everyone get together on and get drunk, does it right?
Speaker 1: And I mean that's definitely what they were doing. In fact,
Speaker 1: like since the medieval era in Britain and other parts
Speaker 1: of Europe, especially like Celtic centric but pagan basically parts
Speaker 1: of Europe. Um, they would get together, uh and kick off.
Speaker 1: I guess the whole thing on Christmas kind of like
Speaker 1: Fat Tuesday ends Marty Gras. It's like, in reverse, Christmas
Speaker 1: kicked off twelve days of festivals and celebrating, of gathering
Speaker 1: at the tavern, of having friends and family over for
Speaker 1: a big feast um, and all of it can be
Speaker 1: traced back to these pagan winter solstices. But then when
Speaker 1: Christianity came along, they said, oh, we'll just say it's
Speaker 1: the birth of Jesus kicking all this stuff off. But
Speaker 1: it was a big, long twelve day winner festival of revelry,
Speaker 1: and um, people really appreciate it. And Cromwell said, no,
Speaker 1: that's too much fun. Christmas is here here by band,
Speaker 1: and he got it pushed through Parliament that Christmas was
Speaker 1: in fact banned. Yeah, and a couple of acts of
Speaker 1: Parliament and forty four and forty seven sixty seven. He uh,
Speaker 1: he pushed it underground essentially because people uh still did
Speaker 1: their celebrating. It just wasn't as a raucous at the
Speaker 1: local tavern. It was a little more at home behind
Speaker 1: closed doors. But he certainly could not dampen people's spirits. Uh,
Speaker 1: they just took it inside basically. Uh. Then the Industrial
Speaker 1: Revolution comes along and people worked on Christmas and it
Speaker 1: wasn't like, well, we gotta work on Christmas this year.
Speaker 1: It was like Christmas was kind of like any other day,
Speaker 1: and you just worked because the factory was open, because
Speaker 1: there were seven days in a week and you were
Speaker 1: expected to work all of them. Yeah, Cromwell couldn't quite
Speaker 1: get rid of it. And he actually he and the
Speaker 1: rest of the Puritans got pushed aside when the monarchy
Speaker 1: came back and all that stuff got overturned. But just yeah,
Speaker 1: about a hundred years later, when um England went through
Speaker 1: the first Industrial evolution. That was I mean, that almost
Speaker 1: did it in because, like you said, everybody was too
Speaker 1: tired to celebrate Christmas. They didn't have any time off.
Speaker 1: But also very importantly, chuck a lot of those people
Speaker 1: who had been celebrating these Christmas is in the medieval
Speaker 1: style with feasts and friends and family and revelry and
Speaker 1: carols and all that stuff. They used to do that
Speaker 1: back in the country during the agrarian age. Well, the
Speaker 1: agrarian age had come to an abrupt halt during the
Speaker 1: Industrial Age, and so all those people had moved from
Speaker 1: the country to the city and they didn't have these
Speaker 1: longstanding multi generational community ties any longer. So celebrating Christmas
Speaker 1: kind of fell away. It stayed back there in the
Speaker 1: in the rural areas, and it didn't quite make that
Speaker 1: transition to the city. So between these long seven day
Speaker 1: work weeks and then this transplanting from the countryside to
Speaker 1: the city, Christmas was almost lost had it not been
Speaker 1: for Dickens. That's right. Then a Christmas Carol comes along, uh,
Speaker 1: and that kind of did it. People loved it. It It
Speaker 1: was a very big hit Uh, he didn't make a
Speaker 1: ton of money on it because and that was kind
Speaker 1: of his fault because he really wanted, um, a really
Speaker 1: good looking book that was packaged well, he didn't want
Speaker 1: to charge a lot for it. Um. And like you
Speaker 1: said at the beginning, a lot of the things that
Speaker 1: we think of it Christmas, like saying Mary Christmas, um,
Speaker 1: wishing for a white Christmas. This all comes from Dickens
Speaker 1: version of a Christmas Carol and it was a big hit.
Speaker 1: And he he worked in stuff like um ghost stories,
Speaker 1: which in the medieval times they told Christmas ghost story,
Speaker 1: so that's people think that's kind of where he got
Speaker 1: the ghostly visitors from. I think we talked a couple
Speaker 1: of I think the Live Christmas Show we talked about that,
Speaker 1: didn't we I think so? Yeah. But yeah, thanks to uh,
Speaker 1: thanks to Dickens, Christmas was a big hit again and
Speaker 1: his not been threatened since, except for you know, people
Speaker 1: trying to kill Christmas. Now. I guess it's rampant, isn't it.
Speaker 1: The new Cromwells. Right, that's right. Well, now you can
Speaker 1: say Merry Christmas everybody, and you can know you're giving
Speaker 1: a hat tip to get old Charles Dickens. Al Right.
Speaker 1: Next on our list of merriment is finance and economics,
Speaker 1: but in a very fun way. I think I gotta
Speaker 1: feel like we've talked about this before because it seems
Speaker 1: so familiar. But the PNC Christmas Price Index, Uh, since
Speaker 1: the PNC Bank has been doing this where they calculate
Speaker 1: the current annual cost or the cost of that year
Speaker 1: for the items on the song from the song that
Speaker 1: Twelve Days of Christmas. Obviously we're talking about French hens
Speaker 1: and leaping lords and five golden rings and all of
Speaker 1: that livestock and jewelry and entertainment. They have very in
Speaker 1: a very fun way, since the mid eighties, have been calculating,
Speaker 1: hey what would that cost this year? Yeah. And in fact,
Speaker 1: there's one particular economist at the bank, Rebecca McCann. Fun
Speaker 1: job kind of yeah, it kind of oversees this whole thing.
Speaker 1: She's like, yeah, it's super fun. I don't get to
Speaker 1: stop doing any of my regular work. They make me
Speaker 1: do this on top of everything probably and I don't
Speaker 1: even give me a bonus anymore. They did away with
Speaker 1: bonuses in the merger. So it's funny when you when
Speaker 1: you think about this a lot of these are pretty
Speaker 1: easy to get, like turtle doves and partridges. You could
Speaker 1: call bird suppliers or hatcheries for hens and swans, or
Speaker 1: a nursery for pear trees and stuff like that, or
Speaker 1: obviously jewelry chains for gold rings. But it gets a
Speaker 1: little trickier when it comes to uh, ladies dancing and
Speaker 1: lords of leaping, Like, what do you pay for that? Well,
Speaker 1: she calculated the cost by getting in touch with things
Speaker 1: like like dance companies the Philadelphia Ballet I think was
Speaker 1: one of them, for the Pennsylvania Ballet. The other one, Um,
Speaker 1: she got in touch with philadanco UM, which is a
Speaker 1: dance company in Philadelphia, believe it or not. And Um said, basically,
Speaker 1: you know how much would it cost to to put
Speaker 1: on a show or to rent I guess eleven lords leaping?
Speaker 1: You know? And I'm sure they hung up a couple
Speaker 1: of times on her before she finally convinced him to
Speaker 1: to give her a straight answer. Um, but yeah, she
Speaker 1: really like she she goes through and figures out the
Speaker 1: price of each of these things. But then she's also
Speaker 1: being an economist, says, well, it's more than just that,
Speaker 1: you also have to pay for things like gas for shipping. Um,
Speaker 1: the cost of services has gone up recently, but the
Speaker 1: cost of goods has gone down by comparison. She takes
Speaker 1: all of this, all these different prices together, UM, adds
Speaker 1: them up, and that is the Consumer Price Index every year.
Speaker 1: That's right, the Christmas Price Index. That's right. I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: so it actually it reflects the Consumer Price Index, which
Speaker 1: is a legit thing that's used as a metric to
Speaker 1: track the economy of the United States. This is a
Speaker 1: slightly more tongue in cheek, although we're gonna see it
Speaker 1: actually does have some like real world reflections to it,
Speaker 1: and it is you know that if you went through
Speaker 1: and hired eleven lords of leaping, this is probably roughly
Speaker 1: what you would pay for it, you know. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think the saddest one for me would be made of milking.
Speaker 1: And it's also the easiest one to figure out, because
Speaker 1: all she has to do is plug in minimum wage,
Speaker 1: because that's what a milking made would probably get paid.
Speaker 1: But that one hasn't changed obviously since two thousand nine,
Speaker 1: as uh horrifically, the federal minimum wage has been locked
Speaker 1: in place for eleven years. It seven. Yeah, so that
Speaker 1: was a bit of a bummer, and then, um, the
Speaker 1: big surprising thing for for me definitely was that, um,
Speaker 1: there were a number of things that you couldn't get
Speaker 1: this year McCann found out, and that the this year's
Speaker 1: total Christmas Price index was about sixty percent less than
Speaker 1: last year's. The cost of it In two thousand nineteen
Speaker 1: it was thirty eight thousand, nine nine dollars and fifty
Speaker 1: In twenty it costs you just sixteen thousand, one hundred
Speaker 1: and sixty eight dollars and fourteen cents. And you say, like, okay,
Speaker 1: well that's great. You know things prices are going down. Well, no,
Speaker 1: the like I said, the reason why the cost had
Speaker 1: gone down is because you couldn't get things like Lord's
Speaker 1: leaping or drummer's drumming, or pipers piping, or ladies dancing
Speaker 1: because of COVID nineteen. Yeah, kind of rise me. And
Speaker 1: it's not very fun. It's not you could get a
Speaker 1: drumline outdoors, space them out and pay them money. I guess.
Speaker 1: So maybe McCann wanted to point out that there's a
Speaker 1: coronavirus pandemic going on right now. Yeah, I think that's
Speaker 1: kind of the deal, is there. I think there's a
Speaker 1: bit of a of a nod and a wink and
Speaker 1: a message to be sent each year when this is released.
Speaker 1: But um, the thing is chucky. Even if you're like, whatever,
Speaker 1: I don't care about the pandemic. I'm I've got this
Speaker 1: this price in hand. I'm gonna go with the two
Speaker 1: thousand nineteen prices because I'm really going to twist the
Speaker 1: arms of those dance companies and get them to to
Speaker 1: lend me some dancers. Um, do you have to stop
Speaker 1: and ask yourself like, are these actually good gifts anymore? Yeah,
Speaker 1: the answer I think would be no. I mean yes,
Speaker 1: the the birds are calling, those are canaries. That's a
Speaker 1: pretty good idea. Or if you have like a a
Speaker 1: farm friend and you're like, not only did I get
Speaker 1: you some chickens, I got you some French hens. I
Speaker 1: think they might be slightly impressed. Everybody would like five
Speaker 1: gold rings that kind of thing, But if you put
Speaker 1: the whole thing together all at once, it can be
Speaker 1: kind of overwhelming. And they they mentioned this on an
Speaker 1: episode of Christmas episode at the Office, where Aaron, the receptionist, says,
Speaker 1: whoever is my secret? Saying it that's buying me the
Speaker 1: twelve Days of Christmas presents, like, please stop, it's ruining
Speaker 1: my life. She said. The French ends are plucking at
Speaker 1: her hair to make nests out of it. That's another
Speaker 1: terrible stuff. So I guess if that's a if that's
Speaker 1: your idea, if that's you're thinking that you're going to
Speaker 1: buy your true love the presents from the twelve Days
Speaker 1: of Days of Christmas, just don't don't do it. Maybe
Speaker 1: some leaping words, but then stop. Al Right, shall we
Speaker 1: move on to our next segment? Yes, let's we need
Speaker 1: to thank Robert Paulson for this one too. Write the
Speaker 1: little Elf from Los Angeles came to visit us yet again. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the little elf who could? So this is about the
Speaker 1: first department store Santa Claus and we need to caveat
Speaker 1: this in a big way because um is when Colonel
Speaker 1: Jim James, Colonel Jim Edgar Brockton, Massachusetts claims and people
Speaker 1: look at him as the first department store Santa Claus. Uh.
Speaker 1: And we were emailing back and forth because Macy's they say,
Speaker 1: goes back to eighteen what sixty something? Yeah, there's apparently
Speaker 1: there was another one called I think J. W. Parkinson's
Speaker 1: from Philadelphia who hired somebody to dress up as Santa
Speaker 1: and climb the roof. Um, even before Macy's. But Macy's
Speaker 1: was the first to actually have a Santa in their store. UM.
Speaker 1: And there's postcards from the seventies that clearly show this.
Speaker 1: That's that Macy's was the first. And yet you can
Speaker 1: go all over the internet and you you search the
Speaker 1: first department store Santa, you're gonna come back with James Edgar.
Speaker 1: And people even mentioned this in the same article that yeah,
Speaker 1: Macey's had it first, but this guy's the first. Just
Speaker 1: you know, let's go out back and fight over it
Speaker 1: if you want to. Yeah. I think what you found
Speaker 1: and what we're just gonna agree on is that it
Speaker 1: said he was the first known what it what it
Speaker 1: was the exact wording, not known quantity, but known individual,
Speaker 1: known entity. I think is how they put it in
Speaker 1: the weirdest possible way. Yeah, the only thing we could
Speaker 1: figure out was is that James, Colonel Jim Edgar was
Speaker 1: the first person to say, Hey, I'm Santa Claus in
Speaker 1: this town and my name's Colonel Jim Edgar, and everyone
Speaker 1: knows it's me that's doing this thing. And he became
Speaker 1: known as the guy, whereas I guess Macy's just had
Speaker 1: nameless Santa Claus. So maybe that's the difference that's got
Speaker 1: that's is, That's all I can figure out. But let's
Speaker 1: put all that nitpicky stuff aside. Okay, but I think
Speaker 1: it's important that we said, and I'm glad you man,
Speaker 1: I'm glad you brought it up. But the thing is
Speaker 1: that I think a lot of the reason why people
Speaker 1: are really willing to go out back and fight you
Speaker 1: over Jim Egger being the first Santa Claus is because
Speaker 1: this guy's character was as close to Santa's probably ever,
Speaker 1: any any Santa's helper whoever put on the suit and
Speaker 1: when worked at a department store over the holiday season
Speaker 1: ever has Yeah, he seemed like a really good guy.
Speaker 1: And there are stories that abound about the good things
Speaker 1: that have happened with Colonel Jim and in his wake.
Speaker 1: Uh And one that happened in his wake was about
Speaker 1: thirty years after he started doing Santa. I guess he
Speaker 1: was gone at this point. But Brockton, mass was a
Speaker 1: shoemaking town. It was very famous for making shoes, but
Speaker 1: by the ninet twenties and thirties it had fallen upon
Speaker 1: hard times, and there was a truant officer that found
Speaker 1: out that hundreds of kids we're not even going to
Speaker 1: school because they didn't have new shoes or means to
Speaker 1: repair their shoes. And so that truant officer's name was
Speaker 1: Charles Brooks explained this to William Wright, uh, the president
Speaker 1: of Edgar's department store, and he said, what should I do?
Speaker 1: What should I do? And he said, you know what
Speaker 1: you do? You do what James Edgar would have done.
Speaker 1: And the guy says what And the other guy goes, God,
Speaker 1: do I have to spell everything out for you every Tuesday?
Speaker 1: I have to explain everything I say. And the other guy,
Speaker 1: the truant officer, said please, just one more time. I
Speaker 1: have to know what would James Edgar do? And he said,
Speaker 1: well he rip off Macy's and yeah, um, So what
Speaker 1: he said was that the James Edgar would um fix
Speaker 1: these shoes and that he would use his company to
Speaker 1: do that. And so that's exactly what the president of
Speaker 1: this James Edgar's department store did. They removed the third
Speaker 1: floor of the department store. Amuse but I think a
Speaker 1: three thousand dollars shoe repairing machine, hired six cobblers in
Speaker 1: the town and started repairing children's shoes for free. Amazing,
Speaker 1: you found another little piece about James Edgar and what
Speaker 1: kind of guy he was to write. Do you want
Speaker 1: me to talk about it? Because I will. That'd be great.
Speaker 1: So he Um, this is why I said he he
Speaker 1: had the character of Santa Like. He would dress up
Speaker 1: as a clown or that kind of stuff like and
Speaker 1: and wander around and finally one day he decided to
Speaker 1: dress up like a like a Santa Um. But he
Speaker 1: loved children, um like really genuinely loved the kids. And
Speaker 1: I read Chuck that when he died uh and the
Speaker 1: local school let out for lunch, all the kids went
Speaker 1: down to his funeral to pay their respects, like hundreds
Speaker 1: of children in town. And that was because he did
Speaker 1: things like he was well known to take care of
Speaker 1: his his staff, his employees. He made them shareholders in
Speaker 1: the business. Um. He lived on a second floor walk
Speaker 1: up apartment, even though he's very healthy man, because he
Speaker 1: wanted to have more money to share with his employees. UM.
Speaker 1: He would close early four nights a week so that
Speaker 1: his employees could go spend more time with their families
Speaker 1: and he had a really great quote that I think
Speaker 1: sums them up pretty well. I've made a barrel of money,
Speaker 1: and I have spent it as freely as I've made it.
Speaker 1: Thousands of it goes back to the people from whom
Speaker 1: I made it for. I fully believe in that kind
Speaker 1: of in exchange. And he seems to be the kind
Speaker 1: of guy who really literally put his money where his
Speaker 1: mouth is. He would he would take his money, put
Speaker 1: it in his mouth and be like Carker, I wanna
Speaker 1: good one. Thank you. So the the whole reason people
Speaker 1: say Jim Mega was the first department store saying is
Speaker 1: because he did this thing in nine and you know,
Speaker 1: he attracted kids from all over the Northeast and um
Speaker 1: in very short order. Starting the next year, department stores
Speaker 1: all over the place suddenly had Mall Santas or department
Speaker 1: store Santras So, which is so a lot of people
Speaker 1: point to Jimer's influence is the reason why I love it.
Speaker 1: So hats off to you, Colonel Jim. We salute you, sir, Yes,
Speaker 1: yes we do, all right. So the leg lamp from
Speaker 1: a Christmas story. I know that we had to have
Speaker 1: talked about this at some point when we talked about
Speaker 1: a Christmas Story and one of our previous holiday episodes,
Speaker 1: but we're gonna talk about it again. We could talk
Speaker 1: about this every year and I'd be happy. Man. Everyone
Speaker 1: knows the very famous major award from the Christmas Story
Speaker 1: when the old man wins this award that is brought
Speaker 1: into his house in a crate pulled out to the
Speaker 1: horror of his wife, the wonderful Melinda Dylan, and the
Speaker 1: leg lamp, the the kitschy item that everyone likes to
Speaker 1: have on their tree or in their actual window to
Speaker 1: this day, was born. Yep, so Um, there's some there's
Speaker 1: some really great background about that leg lamp in particular Um.
Speaker 1: As far as the movies production went, it was designed
Speaker 1: by the production designer. I believe his name was Reuben
Speaker 1: what was his last name, Chuck, Reuben Freed, Reuben Freed,
Speaker 1: and so Reuben Freed. Um based it on the description
Speaker 1: by Jeane Shepherd, who wrote the book and God We
Speaker 1: Trust all others paid cash Um that a Christmas Story
Speaker 1: was based on and Um. Apparently Jean Shepherd was involved
Speaker 1: in the production and saw some drafts of what Reuben
Speaker 1: Freed had drawn up and said, Yep, that's it. But
Speaker 1: he apparently Jean Shepherd apparently based it on a knee
Speaker 1: high sign that he'd seen as a child. Right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: kneehigh soda. Uh is you can still get any house.
Speaker 1: I like the kneehigh orange and grape. And I think
Speaker 1: it had a pair of pair of gams, had some
Speaker 1: ladies legs, and he liked the look of him. And
Speaker 1: this is how I love the reading. Actually, uh and
Speaker 1: this is from I actually got this part from the
Speaker 1: Man behind the leg Lamp from Read Krieger from inventor
Speaker 1: Digest dot com a few years ago. And this is
Speaker 1: from the actual short story My Old Man and the
Speaker 1: Lascivious Special Award that heralded the birth of pop art.
Speaker 1: And I guess it was that the deal is and
Speaker 1: God we trust all of us to pay cash. Was
Speaker 1: a collection of short stories. Yeah, and that that Bob
Speaker 1: Clark interpreted them perfectly into the movie A Christmas Story.
Speaker 1: So this is how it was described in that book,
Speaker 1: the leg lamp. From ankle to thigh, the translucent flesh
Speaker 1: radiated a vibrant, sensual, luminous orange yellow, pinkish nimbus of
Speaker 1: pagan fire. All it needed was Tom Tom's and maybe
Speaker 1: a gong or two and a tenor seeing in a high, quavery,
Speaker 1: earnest voice, A pretty girl is like a melody. Such
Speaker 1: great writing, it is really great. I love Jean Shepherd stuff,
Speaker 1: even though I've never read a lick of it. I
Speaker 1: just love a Christmas story that much, right, exactly so.
Speaker 1: The leg Lamp actually made its first debut before Christmas
Speaker 1: Story did. It showed up on a PBS UM special
Speaker 1: called um The Phantom of the Open Hearth and I
Speaker 1: watched it, Dude, I watched it, and it is wrong.
Speaker 1: It is the most alien thing I've ever seen. Ralphie
Speaker 1: is like fifteen and a bit of a punk. Uh
Speaker 1: Randy is like about what Ralphie's ages and a Christmas story.
Speaker 1: It's just really weird in mid seventies, so it should
Speaker 1: be stricken from the memory of humanity. But if you're interested,
Speaker 1: you should go check it out and you'll see what
Speaker 1: I'm talking about. It's just it's it's just very weird.
Speaker 1: But they have a leg lamp in there. They basically
Speaker 1: adapt the same short story, but this leg Lamp is
Speaker 1: way more tasteful than what Reuben Freed came up with.
Speaker 1: And once you've seen the Reuben Freed one. Everything else
Speaker 1: is kind of pales in comparison to it. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: do you remember Reuben Fried's version had a at a
Speaker 1: stocking and a little fringe hanging down. It was a
Speaker 1: very sexy lamp and uh, I think that's what made
Speaker 1: it so iconic. I believe they made three of them
Speaker 1: for the movie. The story is that they were all
Speaker 1: broken during the production of filming, although uh, and this
Speaker 1: is from from Reed Krieger's article, Supposedly there was a
Speaker 1: special effects like prop shop in Toronto that said that
Speaker 1: they had one of them, one of the originals, until
Speaker 1: the early nineteen nineties, which may be true. Yes, there
Speaker 1: it was. Um, there was a guy named Martin Malavoir
Speaker 1: and he worked on the movie. He worked on several movies,
Speaker 1: but he worked on a Christmas story. And he said
Speaker 1: himself he had several of these things in his shop.
Speaker 1: That they actually made more than a dozen, not just three.
Speaker 1: So it's not entirely clear, but there doesn't seem to
Speaker 1: be any surviving ones. He said he threw his out
Speaker 1: in the nineties, which is terrible. It's like me throwing
Speaker 1: up Burt Reynolds's door or Jackie Gleason's store. Yeah, or
Speaker 1: Burt Reynolds mustache. Don't throw that out. But the one
Speaker 1: thing I couldn't find was whose leg it was molded from,
Speaker 1: because it was supposedly molded from actual human models leg
Speaker 1: and it could not. That seems to be lost to history.
Speaker 1: Another kind of fun fact here, if you notice carefully,
Speaker 1: when they're bringing that crate in, uh, it says his
Speaker 1: end up instead of this end up And a lot
Speaker 1: of people think that's just a little joke, but apparently
Speaker 1: it's just a movie thing. That crate was too big
Speaker 1: to fit through the door, so the set carpenters came
Speaker 1: in and shaved four inches off, which included that letter T. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's good. And then that UM. That lamp is just
Speaker 1: so iconic it actually has patented. The lamp itself is
Speaker 1: patent number three three six four five four two, And
Speaker 1: there's a Christmas ornaments you can get. We actually have
Speaker 1: a string of lights of leg lamp lights, but the
Speaker 1: ornament itself is has a patent. UM and the town
Speaker 1: of Cleveland, where we talked about Christmas Story being shot
Speaker 1: partially UM turned one of its skyscrapers, like they changed
Speaker 1: the lights so that it created a leg lamp to
Speaker 1: commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the movie in two thousand thirteen.
Speaker 1: And that's right. And as we said back when we
Speaker 1: initially talked about The Christmas Story House, if you were
Speaker 1: a fan of that film, I highly highly recommend you
Speaker 1: visiting the Christmas story House. Uh there in the shadow
Speaker 1: of Cleveland. It's to walk around that home is uh
Speaker 1: is a pretty great thing, very special place to be.
Speaker 1: I gotta go. You saw, Oh you never went. No,
Speaker 1: it's still not been. Yeah, you guys will make it
Speaker 1: over there at some point. Go to Cleveland. Cleveland's great.
Speaker 1: Go the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Check out this.
Speaker 1: You probably don't care about the NFL Hall of Fame.
Speaker 1: That's kind of cool though if you're into football, But
Speaker 1: it's worth it to go to the Rock and Roll
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame. And uh in the Christmas story House?
Speaker 1: Are you talking about the Hard Rock Cafe Cleveland? No,
Speaker 1: the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I don't I
Speaker 1: don't know what that means. It's where you walk around
Speaker 1: at the end when they have everyone's uh original clothing
Speaker 1: and these iconic outfits like Princess Purple Rain and Quick
Speaker 1: Jaggers thing and Bruce Springsteen's outfit from Born in the USA.
Speaker 1: And you just walk around and look at them all
Speaker 1: and think, was Prince nine years old? Yeah he was
Speaker 1: a little guy, wasn't it was Mick Jagger twelve. They're
Speaker 1: all tiny. Well, a lot of energy. It's like a
Speaker 1: small dog. Small dogs have a lot more energy than
Speaker 1: big dogs, you know what I mean? That's right, um man,
Speaker 1: I guess that's it. About the the leg lamp huh yeah, well,
Speaker 1: actually were I want to know where you hang those lights?
Speaker 1: Do you string those on the tree or they like,
Speaker 1: you know, on a archway or something archway or something. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: because you can't just throw one string of leg lamp
Speaker 1: lights among your other lights now. And plus, I mean
Speaker 1: the trees already got it going on those leg lamp lights.
Speaker 1: They can really light up a neglected or overlooked area
Speaker 1: and they're so bad corner. Yeah, exactly awesome. I gotta
Speaker 1: get some of those myself. I'll get you some for Christmas,
Speaker 1: all right, Chuckers. So it wouldn't be if we didn't
Speaker 1: have a Christmas segment about COVID nineteen. This is for
Speaker 1: all the kids out there, because I know kids listen
Speaker 1: to this with their families on Christmas Eve. It's a tradition.
Speaker 1: Nothing else happens on Christmas Eve, and just across America,
Speaker 1: just people listening to this. So this is from people
Speaker 1: dot Com from Rachel to Santis and uh, this is
Speaker 1: a great article from Dr Anthony Fauci revealing to all
Speaker 1: the kids all around the country and all around the
Speaker 1: world that they don't need to worry about Santa Claus
Speaker 1: coming in with COVID because Santa Claus is basically immune
Speaker 1: to coronavirus because, as Fauci says, quote of all the
Speaker 1: good qualities, he has a lot of good innate immunity. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So Dr Faucci uh is reassuring us that Santa is immune.
Speaker 1: And it makes sense, Chuck, because you know, um, as
Speaker 1: everybody knows from a night before Christmas, Santa is actually
Speaker 1: an elf. He's a jolly old elf, so of course
Speaker 1: he would be immune to something like COVID nineteen. That's right.
Speaker 1: And that's not to say that Santa's helpers who are
Speaker 1: in department stores and malls all over the country and
Speaker 1: all over the world, like James Edger, That's right. Those
Speaker 1: guys are oftentimes are elderly gentlemen. Sometimes they may be
Speaker 1: carrying a little extra weight. And I guess the nicest
Speaker 1: way to say that say this is that those Santa's
Speaker 1: are high risk, right, But everybody wants to see Santa's
Speaker 1: helpers in the mall whenever they get a chance to,
Speaker 1: even during a pandemic. So there's a lot of these
Speaker 1: Santa's helpers who are figuring out how to do it
Speaker 1: as safely as possible. This year. Um, there there's things
Speaker 1: like virtual um virtual Santa visits, which apparently Macy's, which
Speaker 1: apparently is the originator of the department store Santa. Uh.
Speaker 1: This is the first year since the eighteen sixties that's
Speaker 1: that macy will not have a Santa at their department
Speaker 1: store in person. They're still going to have a virtual
Speaker 1: Santa though. The ghost of Colonel Jim Edgar is right
Speaker 1: now just saying, why are these two loud mouths messing
Speaker 1: with me? Right? I will haunt you? Yeah? And he
Speaker 1: has been? Has he been haunting you? He's been haunting
Speaker 1: me for the best couple of days for sure. Is terrifying. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: they're doing some virtual Santa meeting by appointment. I thought
Speaker 1: this was fairly creative. Um. This one Santa named Stephen Arnold,
Speaker 1: who is a professional Santa, said he has three engagements
Speaker 1: where they are setting him up in that sort of
Speaker 1: a protective bubble built to look like a snow globe.
Speaker 1: And I thought that was a very cool, kind of fun,
Speaker 1: creative idea. Yeah. The other two engagements, he's going to
Speaker 1: be sitting on a giant fire truck or a giant
Speaker 1: sleigh and like it don't climb up me fire trucks basically,
Speaker 1: but his foot sticking out like fayback, yeah, fayback. Um.
Speaker 1: But yeah, there's there's no reason you can't see Santa,
Speaker 1: but probably just virtually this year, you know. But at
Speaker 1: the very least you don't have to worry about the
Speaker 1: real deal coming through on Christmas Eve and Christmas, you
Speaker 1: know when saying it comes through, because he's not going
Speaker 1: to be spreading COVID. He's just going to be spreading
Speaker 1: glad tidings and jolly nous, So you don't need to
Speaker 1: worry about that. Kids. You need to put out those
Speaker 1: cookies and milk. You need to put out those carrots
Speaker 1: and celery for those reindeer, and make sure you're cooperating
Speaker 1: with your parents or else you're gonna get cold in
Speaker 1: that stocking. That's right, and it always helps to put
Speaker 1: out probably triple or quadruple the amount of celery or
Speaker 1: carrots you think you should kids. That's right? Is that it?
Speaker 1: I think so, Chuck, I think it's time we wish
Speaker 1: Merry Christmas to everybody in the Charles Dickens way. That's right.
Speaker 1: Put a figurative bow on it, and what else. We'll
Speaker 1: put your finger right here, and I'm going to tie
Speaker 1: the bow. And then when I counted three, move your
Speaker 1: finger at the last second. Is I tightened the bow?
Speaker 1: You're ready? Three? Two? Three? Ouch? Okay, we just got it.
Speaker 1: Got you a little bit that you're gonna lose that nail.
Speaker 1: So happy holidays everyone, no matter how you celebrate it,
Speaker 1: We're thinking of you. It's been a tough year for everybody.
Speaker 1: We look forward to a light at the end of
Speaker 1: the tunnel next year, and uh, we just hope we're
Speaker 1: with the friends and family that you really care about,
Speaker 1: and everyone's forced to keep it small, but hopefully that
Speaker 1: will not tarnish your Christmas and that everyone has a
Speaker 1: really great holiday. Yeah. I just remember there's going to
Speaker 1: be another Christmas. Six year, and the year after that
Speaker 1: and the year after that, and we can all make
Speaker 1: it through this one because Christmas isn't necessarily about traveling
Speaker 1: or flying or doing or seeing. It's about feeling and
Speaker 1: family and charity, and you can experience all of that
Speaker 1: online this year. So no matter where you are, no
Speaker 1: matter how you celebrate it, no matter who you are,
Speaker 1: Merry christ Us, Happy Holidays, however you say it, Hopefully
Speaker 1: the joy of the season alights upon you and yours. Huzzah.
Speaker 1: Stuff you should know is a production of I Heart Radio.
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