Speaker 1: I guess what will? What's that mango? So do you
Speaker 1: know that Peppi Lapew was based on a real person,
Speaker 1: Peppe Lapew. I haven't heard that name a long time.
Speaker 1: You're talking about the cartoons scum. Yeah, the French skunk
Speaker 1: who's such a romantic So I'm not sure if you
Speaker 1: remember any of his lines. I looked them off, but
Speaker 1: you're a couple of them. Z Cabbage does not run
Speaker 1: away from Z corned beef. And you may call me
Speaker 1: street car because of my desire for you, which is
Speaker 1: such a great, terrible pickup line. Yeah, I should have
Speaker 1: used some of those. Those are pretty much the worst
Speaker 1: best lines ever. Well, actually, did you know the name
Speaker 1: of the kitten that he was always trying to chase?
Speaker 1: I was trying to remember this, Yeah, so I was
Speaker 1: curious about that. I totally forgotten that it's a Penelope
Speaker 1: pussy cat. But according to this book, the Godfather was
Speaker 1: a girl. Pepe was based on this cartoonist named Ted Pierce,
Speaker 1: who was absolutely certain that all the ladies used to
Speaker 1: dig him, despite very little evidence suggesting that. So he's
Speaker 1: the self declared ladies man. He'd go partying all night
Speaker 1: and then coming to the office just totally smelly, and
Speaker 1: he'd put in a full day's work and then go
Speaker 1: straight to hopelessly wooing again. And of course, you know,
Speaker 1: his office mates took notice. They decided to memorialize his
Speaker 1: efforts by drawing this love Struck cartoons skunk in his honor.
Speaker 1: I feel like maybe we worked with that guy at
Speaker 1: some Yeah, but that's the first of a ton of
Speaker 1: fictional characters we're covering today who are all based on
Speaker 1: real people. Let's dive in. Y Hey their podcast listeners,
Speaker 1: Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as
Speaker 1: always I'm joined by my good friend manes Hot Ticketer
Speaker 1: and sitting behind the soundproof glass. He's been working on
Speaker 1: this list for a couple of days is now, and
Speaker 1: I didn't know exactly what it was. It turns out
Speaker 1: it's a long list of comedians. He thinks Seinfeld might
Speaker 1: be based on I think, but that's our friends and
Speaker 1: producer Tristan McNeil. Tristan, the show is based on Terry Seinfeld.
Speaker 1: It's in the name. You don't have to overthink. He
Speaker 1: is always overthinking, but that's just I guess it's just
Speaker 1: part of his genius. But thinking about this, it is
Speaker 1: funny how so many books and characters are based on
Speaker 1: real events and people's lives, and I guess that shouldn't
Speaker 1: be that surprising. But I know, we were talking recently
Speaker 1: about our friend John Green when he wrote his first book,
Speaker 1: Looking for Alaska. You know, some of the pranks that
Speaker 1: took place in that book were real pranks that he
Speaker 1: or his friends had participated in back in high school.
Speaker 1: And even the school itself was based very much on
Speaker 1: the school Indian Springs in Alabama, where John went to
Speaker 1: high school, and it was definitely informed by his experience there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, you see that in first novels, especially like
Speaker 1: where people tend to write very autobiographically. But you know,
Speaker 1: I'm always made when writers keep pulling from the things
Speaker 1: around them. And you see that in Dickens, like where
Speaker 1: people have actually um traced all these characters from Great
Speaker 1: Expectations or some of his other famous books to real
Speaker 1: people that Dickens used to interact with. And we're going
Speaker 1: to see a lot of that in today's show. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right. I know there are a lot of guesses
Speaker 1: as to who Miss Havisham might actually be, or like
Speaker 1: which house inspired the setting of the book and you
Speaker 1: know things like that. Yeah, and you know, settings that
Speaker 1: are a funny thing too, Like I remember when I
Speaker 1: was I was really getting into writing, and I first
Speaker 1: realized that people did this with entire worlds as well.
Speaker 1: Like I went to this talk where this author said
Speaker 1: he couldn't figure out how to make a believable South
Speaker 1: American city and he didn't have I guess that like
Speaker 1: tolkin Ish quality of being able to just invent worlds.
Speaker 1: So he took this old map of Bolivia or someplace,
Speaker 1: and he crossed out the names of a little town
Speaker 1: and put in his own fictional street names and whatever.
Speaker 1: And it's kind of clever. I mean, that's pretty ingenious, actually, yeah,
Speaker 1: And so he could actually visualize every time, like you know,
Speaker 1: where mountain passes where, or borders between areas would be.
Speaker 1: And you know, this is a little different, but there's
Speaker 1: actually this great story on this American life where this
Speaker 1: kid really falls in love with science fiction and this author,
Speaker 1: Pierce Anthony. Have you ever read any Pierce Anthony? Do
Speaker 1: you know? I don't. I mean that doesn't say a
Speaker 1: whole lot. I don't read a ton of science fiction,
Speaker 1: but no, Yeah, so I was only familiar with him
Speaker 1: because my dad was really into science fiction, and Pierce
Speaker 1: Anthony wrote this fantasy book called A Spell for Chameleon,
Speaker 1: which was really popular when I was younger. But um,
Speaker 1: Pierce Anthony had all these fantasy stories that were set
Speaker 1: in this world called zanth and his books were filled
Speaker 1: with puns, pretty easy to read. But you know, this
Speaker 1: high school kid figured out that zan was actually using
Speaker 1: all these context clues this little town in Florida, and
Speaker 1: he came up with this theory that, you know, Pierce Anthony,
Speaker 1: his family must live there. So he decided to run
Speaker 1: away from home to find them, and he took a
Speaker 1: boss I think or he charged his mother's credit card
Speaker 1: to get there. It's a long story, but it's ultimately
Speaker 1: really sweet because the author and his wife take this
Speaker 1: young fanboy in, they feed him, they let crashed on
Speaker 1: the couch, and you know, and then they convince him
Speaker 1: to call his mom and step dad to let him know,
Speaker 1: you know, he's safe. But um, you know that this
Speaker 1: whole idea that you can create a whole secret fantasy
Speaker 1: world that's based on these very real landmarks around your
Speaker 1: little hometown, that's just kind of an amazing idea to me.
Speaker 1: Yeah it is, and it's actually not something i'd really
Speaker 1: thought about. But but speaking of that realm of fantasy,
Speaker 1: you've kind of put us there. So it makes me
Speaker 1: think we should kick this off with one of my
Speaker 1: favorite fictional characters, and that Severest Snape. Now, if you're
Speaker 1: a fan of Harry Potter, you probably have I don't know,
Speaker 1: like me, pretty complicated feelings about the Potions Master, and
Speaker 1: because you know, he's both a good person at heart
Speaker 1: but also very much a Slytherin, and he obviously takes
Speaker 1: pleasure in berating and putting down his students. And one
Speaker 1: of the things I didn't realize until we were reading
Speaker 1: up for this week was that J. K. Rolling based
Speaker 1: her character on one of her actual teachers. It was
Speaker 1: this chemistry professor named John Nettleship. So I'm definitely curious
Speaker 1: about this because I love Harry Potter, and it's almost
Speaker 1: funny that she didn't use the name Nettleship, because you know,
Speaker 1: it sounds like such a name from Harry Potter. I
Speaker 1: know it definitely does, so Rolling quietly wrote this character
Speaker 1: into her books. But what's funny is that everyone realized
Speaker 1: that the Snape character was based on Nettleship except for him.
Speaker 1: So there's all these accounts of this online, but I
Speaker 1: kind of like the way Quirk Books puts it, So
Speaker 1: let me just read this says when people started asking
Speaker 1: him if he was Professor Snape, it was his wife
Speaker 1: who had to let him down gently by explaining, of
Speaker 1: course you are, but I didn't want to tell you.
Speaker 1: Like apparently, he just been enjoying the books like everybody
Speaker 1: else until this was pointed out to him. That's so
Speaker 1: funny that it was his wife who saw the connection
Speaker 1: and then that she hit it from him. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: of course, you know, he was horrified by this at first.
Speaker 1: He was even quoted as saying, I knew I was
Speaker 1: a strict teacher, but I didn't think I was that bad.
Speaker 1: And then, you know, he realized the similarities were pretty glaring.
Speaker 1: He was this short tempered chemistry teacher, had the long hair,
Speaker 1: and this not tory like gloomy lab and it did
Speaker 1: take him a little while to adjust to this legacy.
Speaker 1: But of course then when he saw Alan Rickman playing
Speaker 1: him on screen, he suddenly grew to like the character
Speaker 1: much more, which makes a ton of sense. That's pretty
Speaker 1: great and what a legacy. So I'm curious. We've covered
Speaker 1: Harry Potter, now a little bit of pepular Pew. Where
Speaker 1: do you want to go from here? Well, I know
Speaker 1: you were looking into some of the comic characters we have,
Speaker 1: of course started with pepular Pew, But do you want
Speaker 1: to run down a few more? I know you looked
Speaker 1: up a bunch of them. Yeah, definitely. So Scrooge mctock
Speaker 1: is one. You know, he's a miser. He very much
Speaker 1: worked his way up from nothing, and he is built
Speaker 1: on the idea of Andrew Carnegie. Um Tony Stark or
Speaker 1: iron Man is based on Howard Hughes, who I guess
Speaker 1: was inventing things for the Defense Department at the time
Speaker 1: that the comic was made. Yeah, Charlie Brown is based
Speaker 1: on the creator, Charles Schultz. He was apparently super precocious.
Speaker 1: He was actually promoted a half grade twice, so he
Speaker 1: was very young for his class, and he was also
Speaker 1: a little depressed. But um, there's a story about him
Speaker 1: that his dad would start giving him a haircut because
Speaker 1: he was a barber, and then customers would walk into
Speaker 1: their store and he just have to walk around for
Speaker 1: the rest of the day with half a haircut. His
Speaker 1: dad was finally freed up to finish him. You know,
Speaker 1: it sounds like a very Charlie Brown thing. Peppermin Patty
Speaker 1: was actually his athletic cousin, and Schroeder I found out
Speaker 1: was based on his friend's mom, who every time they
Speaker 1: went over she was always annoyingly playing Beethoven in their house.
Speaker 1: She wrote that you wrote that end of the comic strip.
Speaker 1: But you know, Batman's kind of interesting. He was based
Speaker 1: on a number of characters. He was based on Zoro Dracula,
Speaker 1: a movie about a bat whisper. But you know, the writer,
Speaker 1: Bob Kaine's major inspiration was actually Leonardo da Vinci. Da Vinci.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have guessed that, yeah, me either, because you know,
Speaker 1: Batman seems more like a crime fighter than an artistic type.
Speaker 1: But I guess as a teenager, Bob Kine found this
Speaker 1: book of Da Vinci inventions, and he was especially enamored
Speaker 1: with all the flying inventions, so he'd like trace them
Speaker 1: or draw them out, and one of them was this
Speaker 1: giant pair of wings that could be attached to a
Speaker 1: man's back to fly, and obviously that gets roped into
Speaker 1: the whole Batman series. But there's a lot of fun
Speaker 1: stuff out there. One I really want to talk about, though,
Speaker 1: is Tintin, which I read it as a kid. Did
Speaker 1: you ever read this as a kid? I didn't, but
Speaker 1: I know you've you know, mentioned them a lot before. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you know I was hooked. My son is now hooked.
Speaker 1: And for anyone who doesn't know, Attintan is this wonderful
Speaker 1: Belgian comic about a reporter. He travels the world with
Speaker 1: his dog Snowy, ends up sucked into all these amazing
Speaker 1: adventures and ends up trying to have to stop crimes.
Speaker 1: But it was actually only this week that I learned
Speaker 1: that Tintin maybe based on a real person. So apparently
Speaker 1: in this Danish newspaper wanted to honor Jewels firm, so
Speaker 1: they created a contest where one lucky teen would get
Speaker 1: to travel the world for forty six days unaccompanied. And
Speaker 1: out of this stack of applications, this fifteen year old
Speaker 1: boy named Pal hauled one and the press just fell
Speaker 1: in love with him immediately. He got to travel to Canada, Japan, Korea, China,
Speaker 1: the Soviet Union. Apparently the Soviet Union wasn't friendly to
Speaker 1: tourists and it was a big deal that he went there. Um,
Speaker 1: he went to Germany lots of places before returning to
Speaker 1: Copenhagen forty four days later. And it was such a
Speaker 1: phenomenon that there were crowds kind of there to meet
Speaker 1: him at every pit stop. But when he got back
Speaker 1: to Copenhagen there were twenty two thousand people waiting for
Speaker 1: him to return, and in fact, it was so crowded
Speaker 1: that the police crowd served him just to get him
Speaker 1: to safety. Unbelievable, twenty two thousand people. So they both
Speaker 1: traveled the world, but where where there were there similarities
Speaker 1: beyond that, so I mean there were some Tintins. Obviously,
Speaker 1: this fresh faced character with unruly hair, Pal was the same.
Speaker 1: They also dressed suspiciously alike like Pal, were breeches and
Speaker 1: the page boy hat, and I guess a similar overcoat.
Speaker 1: But the biggest of it might just be the timing.
Speaker 1: Tintin debut a few months after the teenager returned home,
Speaker 1: so everyone just assumed Pal was Tintin. And in fact,
Speaker 1: when Pale died, his obituaries and these were everywhere from
Speaker 1: like the Telegraph to the Observer to the New York Times,
Speaker 1: they all noted how his adventure had sparked the comics series,
Speaker 1: but her Je, who was Tintin's creator, completely denied the story.
Speaker 1: And there's another person that some Tintin fans think might
Speaker 1: have inspired the character, and who's that. So it's a
Speaker 1: French photojournalist who I've never heard of, named Robert Sex,
Speaker 1: and uh, these people might be right. So Sex also
Speaker 1: had unruly hair. He traveled on a motorbike like Tintin,
Speaker 1: took his dog with him, which is also true to
Speaker 1: the comics. Snowy, who was Tintin's dog, is called Millow
Speaker 1: in French, and Sex's best friend in real life was
Speaker 1: Rennee Melo. But the biggest evidence is just where this
Speaker 1: guy traveled. So his adventures took him to Moscow, out
Speaker 1: to the Belgian Congo, to the US, and those ended
Speaker 1: up being the settings for the first three Tintin book books.
Speaker 1: But you know, the hardest thing for Belgian fans to
Speaker 1: swallow about this theory is that, uh, it would actually
Speaker 1: make one of Belgium's most famous characters French. And perhaps
Speaker 1: that's why I Hear was always denying this theory as well. Huh, Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, you know you mentioned Jules Verne in there
Speaker 1: and around the world in eighty days. And related to that,
Speaker 1: did you realize that Phileas Fogg, the main character from
Speaker 1: the book, is also based on a real person. No,
Speaker 1: I mean, I do think it's funny that, like, if
Speaker 1: you dig deep enough, it feels like every character has
Speaker 1: a background somewhere. Like, uh, I read that the lamb
Speaker 1: from Mary Had a Little Lamb is based on a
Speaker 1: real lamb, which is so insane because that lamb doesn't
Speaker 1: have that much personality but it does nothing. But I
Speaker 1: cut you off, Well, what's the story with Phileas Fogg? No,
Speaker 1: I just want to go back to talk about this lamb.
Speaker 1: That's the most boring story ever. No, that's pretty great. Well,
Speaker 1: he's apparently based on this rich, eccentric named George Francis
Speaker 1: Train who decided a campaign for I think it was
Speaker 1: the eighteen seventy two presidential election, and he did this
Speaker 1: by going across the world in eighty days for some reason,
Speaker 1: and he had this campaign slogan, get on board. And
Speaker 1: obviously this wasn't a great way to campaign though, since
Speaker 1: he virtually disappeared for those months. But what's amazing is
Speaker 1: that he did actually make it back in eighty days,
Speaker 1: and so Jules Verne claimed that the idea was entirely original.
Speaker 1: But there are all these similarities in the stories, including
Speaker 1: how Train hires a private train along the way and
Speaker 1: finds himself in prison, and part of it. Train was
Speaker 1: actually insulted that he didn't get any credit and often
Speaker 1: yelled about how quote Verne stole his thunder, which is
Speaker 1: just kind of funny to imagine him yelling this. But anyway,
Speaker 1: Phileas Fogg and Trained stories ended very differently, though, so
Speaker 1: while Fogg found love at the end of his journey,
Speaker 1: Train was always on the edge of being put in
Speaker 1: an asylum. His next campaign was actually to be dictator
Speaker 1: of the United States, which you can imagine didn't go
Speaker 1: over well, and he actually was put in jail briefly
Speaker 1: for obscenity and and you know, he spent his final
Speaker 1: few years handing out dimes to passers by at Madison
Speaker 1: Square Park and it's it's a very weird story. But
Speaker 1: he actually had the strict policy of only having conversations
Speaker 1: with children and animals, which sounds like a really great
Speaker 1: voting demographic, right, children's animals. That's the way to campaign,
Speaker 1: So I know, We've got a number four stories to
Speaker 1: get to, but before we do, why don't we take
Speaker 1: a quick break. Welcome back to Part Time Genius, where
Speaker 1: we're talking about the real people some fictional characters were
Speaker 1: based on. So well, I know you want to talk
Speaker 1: about Olivia Pope because you are such a fan of Scandal,
Speaker 1: but I think he said you had another famous female
Speaker 1: you wanted to get to first. That's right. I don't
Speaker 1: want to talk about a Levia just yet. I actually
Speaker 1: want to talk about Miss Piggy. And you know, I
Speaker 1: think we all want to believe that the Diva is
Speaker 1: one original, but this is actually a pretty interesting story
Speaker 1: because it turns up Miss Piggy was created as this
Speaker 1: homage to a jazz singer who was named Peggy Lee,
Speaker 1: and in fact, Miss Piggy's original name was actually Miss
Speaker 1: Piggy Lee. So I'm curious, like, why don't I know
Speaker 1: this story? Because I feel like I know stories about
Speaker 1: like animal being based on the Who's drummer Keith Moon.
Speaker 1: There's that story about the Swedish chef who's based on
Speaker 1: a real Swedish chef who was on Good Morning America
Speaker 1: and got so nervous that he was shaking and even
Speaker 1: mumbling strange words that he didn't recognize. And you know, though,
Speaker 1: the Muppets have never shied away from telling those origin stories,
Speaker 1: So why don't I know this one? Well, the muppeteer
Speaker 1: who created her was named Bonnie Ericsson, and and Bonnie
Speaker 1: loved the singer Peggy Lee growing up in North Dakota,
Speaker 1: and her mom was also a huge fan, and so
Speaker 1: Bonnie grew up viewing Peggy as kind of this strong
Speaker 1: and independent an artist. So in a way, calling the
Speaker 1: muppet Piggy Lee was It was really more of a
Speaker 1: sweet joke to honor the singer. But then as Miss
Speaker 1: Piggy got more and more popular, no one really wanted
Speaker 1: to offend the star. And this was partially because she
Speaker 1: had gained a little bit of weight later in her
Speaker 1: career due to some health problems, but was still performing
Speaker 1: in some of those original tight outfits from her youth,
Speaker 1: so they decided to back off on the comparison understandably.
Speaker 1: But any speaking of Bonnie Erickson, and this is an aside,
Speaker 1: but did you know that she didn't just work on
Speaker 1: Muppet character She also designed some famous mascots, including one
Speaker 1: of our favorites, the Philly fanatic. I feel like I'm
Speaker 1: a Phillies fan. I love the fanatic, but I had
Speaker 1: no idea that there was a Muppets connection there. Well,
Speaker 1: that might be her most successful one. She also had
Speaker 1: some duds along the way, as we all do. So
Speaker 1: she designed a Dandy mascot for the Yankees, which is
Speaker 1: a little strange. He was kind of this cute looking,
Speaker 1: heavily mustachio New Yorker. But he only lasted three seasons
Speaker 1: and as part it because he was never allowed out
Speaker 1: of the nosebleed section, so he he wasn't allowed to
Speaker 1: do appearances because the management was worried that he might
Speaker 1: distract players for some reason. That's really funny. And looking
Speaker 1: at some of her other designs, she designed these kind
Speaker 1: of sweet, weird animals for the Chicago White Sox. Their
Speaker 1: name were Ribby and rue Barb. So I don't understand this,
Speaker 1: Like the White Sox feels like you should be designing
Speaker 1: like White Sox characters. Like why Ribby and Rubarb, who
Speaker 1: I've never heard of? Like were they popular? Now? They
Speaker 1: definitely weren't popular. Actually, I was doing some reading on it, so,
Speaker 1: as Espionation puts it, quote, the two fuzzballs look like
Speaker 1: the product of a bad experience with lsd. Ribby was
Speaker 1: a purple and eater, and Rubarb look like the love
Speaker 1: child of the San Diego Chicken and a swiffer. I
Speaker 1: feel like I like them even more now and I
Speaker 1: almost want like a T shirt with them. But uh,
Speaker 1: how long did they last? Well? Unfortunately, not very long.
Speaker 1: And that's parson because of when they were a mission.
Speaker 1: I mean it was this was at a time where
Speaker 1: there was this unofficial mascot name Andy the Clown, who
Speaker 1: was still working the crowds at that time. And for
Speaker 1: some reason, there were seriously strong allegiances to Andy. And
Speaker 1: this was despite the factor, maybe because he told these
Speaker 1: dirty jokes as he walked around the stadium. And anyway,
Speaker 1: kids and adults didn't take kindly to Ribby and Rhubarb,
Speaker 1: invading on what they saw as Andy's turf and and
Speaker 1: and there are stories of fans of all ages just
Speaker 1: verbally abusing Ribby and Rhubarb and it it sounds pretty horrible.
Speaker 1: So finally the Socks management had to, you know, find
Speaker 1: a way to humanely put the characters out of their misery.
Speaker 1: But I don't know, just just this fact that the
Speaker 1: White Sox took a chance on these giant muppet like
Speaker 1: beasts for a little while. Is is pretty great and
Speaker 1: it kind of makes me respect those that they decided
Speaker 1: to give this a shot. But actually, I'll have to
Speaker 1: find some photos for you because they're pretty great. Oh.
Speaker 1: I love that. I feel like we should start to
Speaker 1: bring back Ribby and Rubart campaign. It is good. So
Speaker 1: I feel like we're on a little with women characters.
Speaker 1: We've got Miss Piggy. We're gonna get to the Olivia
Speaker 1: Pope story. But before we do that, I I didn't
Speaker 1: want to talk about two other female characters I think
Speaker 1: are interesting. And these examples both come from the book
Speaker 1: The Godfather Was a Girl by em and Evans. We
Speaker 1: leaned on this book for the episode and it's really terrific.
Speaker 1: But the first is The Godfather from the movies and
Speaker 1: Mario Puzzo's book. And while there are plenty of gangsters
Speaker 1: and mafios in that series that are based on real criminals,
Speaker 1: like there's a character based on Bugsy Siegull, there's one
Speaker 1: based on Mayer Landski. The voice of Don Corleone is
Speaker 1: actually based on Mario Puzzo's mother, and I had never
Speaker 1: heard this before, but as the book puts it, quote
Speaker 1: Puzzo was partially inspired by an illiterate Neapolitan immigrant who
Speaker 1: had raised him and his levin siblings single handedly amid
Speaker 1: the squalor of the New York slums. Quote, whenever the
Speaker 1: Godfather opened his mouth, Puzzo said, in my own mind,
Speaker 1: I heard the voice of my mother, A wonderful, handsome woman,
Speaker 1: but a fairly ruthless This person. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: you think about this, Raising twelve kids in that era
Speaker 1: of New York definitely couldn't have been easy. And as
Speaker 1: interesting as the Godfather is, I'm almost more interested in
Speaker 1: her story and and like just how ruthless she could be.
Speaker 1: Totally the use of that word ruthless is important. And
Speaker 1: so that's one character. The second person who I guess
Speaker 1: gets an unfair wrap, according to the book, is actually
Speaker 1: Lady Macbeth. And thanks to Shakespeare, you know, her name
Speaker 1: is synonymous with ambitious women, but also women who were
Speaker 1: like cold hearted and cunning and you know, duplicitus. But
Speaker 1: I I didn't realize this. That depiction was basically created
Speaker 1: to flatter the royals at the time, and according to
Speaker 1: the book, the real wife of Macbeth, was quote universally
Speaker 1: acclaimed as a Saint lean popular figure. We know, for instance,
Speaker 1: that she donated money and land to monks, and from
Speaker 1: the very fact that she was the first Scottish queen
Speaker 1: to be named in history, she had to be popular. Also,
Speaker 1: the book wanted to point out that the real McBeth
Speaker 1: became King of Scotland after killing Duncan on the battlefield,
Speaker 1: and the author points out in ten forty that was
Speaker 1: basically akin to winning an election. So I guess that
Speaker 1: means the next time you hear someone using the word
Speaker 1: lady Macbeth like an insult, be sure to correct them,
Speaker 1: because they probably mean a lady Emelda Marcos. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: sure that's exactly what I mean. There's actually one more
Speaker 1: woman who gets a bad rap that I feel like
Speaker 1: we should probably cover, and that's the Wicked Witch of
Speaker 1: the West. And you know, the the the idea of
Speaker 1: her may have changed just a little bit because of
Speaker 1: the popularity of the musical Wicked, But there's a great
Speaker 1: line that emm and Evan uses that quote. History shows
Speaker 1: us that geniuses were sometimes underappreciated in their own lifetimes. Feminist,
Speaker 1: on the other hand, were always under appreciated, And of
Speaker 1: course the wicked Witch was based on a feminist. There
Speaker 1: was this woman named Matilda Gauge, and she was the
Speaker 1: founder of the National Women's Suffrage Association, and she was
Speaker 1: publicly and unfairly seen as this man hater. Now, she
Speaker 1: was a tough woman, but she also happened to be
Speaker 1: l Frank Baum's mother in law. And the story is
Speaker 1: she was not an easy mother in law, but OZ
Speaker 1: appreciated her idealism, and the theory is that she inspired
Speaker 1: both the good and the wicked witches in OZ. In fact,
Speaker 1: Gage wrote quite a bit about the persecution of witches
Speaker 1: in medieval times, and that may have actually inspired the writer.
Speaker 1: It's funny because I had actually heard that the Yellow
Speaker 1: Brick Road was from this military school that he'd attended
Speaker 1: in New York, and that, uh, that OZ was based
Speaker 1: on the World's Fair in Chicago, you know, this giant,
Speaker 1: tented city. But I'd never actually heard the mother in
Speaker 1: law thing, which which is really interesting. Yeah, I thought
Speaker 1: so too. All right, so we've covered some women who
Speaker 1: have gotten a bad rap. You know, we've got a
Speaker 1: queen who didn't deserve her wicked legacy. We had the
Speaker 1: struggling mother who ended up voicing a mob boss, and
Speaker 1: you know, a feminist who was made into a fictional
Speaker 1: witch or two. But I actually wanted to talk about
Speaker 1: a character that even if you don't like her, you've
Speaker 1: got to admire her. And you mentioned this earlier, but
Speaker 1: that is Olivia Pope from Scandal. So if you watch
Speaker 1: the show, you know that Pope is kind of ultimate
Speaker 1: in crisis management. I mean, she's basically this mercenary who
Speaker 1: fixes political scandals and situations. But one of the things
Speaker 1: I didn't realize until we started researching for the episode
Speaker 1: is that Olivia Pope is actually based on a real person.
Speaker 1: It's this DC insider named Judy Smith, who used to
Speaker 1: work for George H. W. Bush. Now, unlike Pope, she
Speaker 1: hasn't hooked up with or slapped a president, but she
Speaker 1: gives a consultant for the show in addition to running
Speaker 1: her own firm, and Neely Tucker at The Washington posted
Speaker 1: this incredible profile of her. But I'll just give you
Speaker 1: a little bit of background here. So for starters, she's
Speaker 1: really tough to find. Like her company isn't in any
Speaker 1: phone directories, it doesn't have a website. She has no
Speaker 1: business cards, her numbers unlisted, and if you want to
Speaker 1: meet with her, she comes to you. And you know,
Speaker 1: since Scandal has come out, there are more photos of her,
Speaker 1: but she's notoriously good at staying off the mic and
Speaker 1: off the camera, and when one of the producers of
Speaker 1: Scandal tried to find a photo of there was actually
Speaker 1: only one on the Internet at the time. So I
Speaker 1: feel like she's basically a ghost or almost operates like
Speaker 1: a CIA operative, I mean pretty much. But even if
Speaker 1: her fingerprints aren't on at her work is all over
Speaker 1: the place. So she was working for Bush during the
Speaker 1: Clarence Thomas trial, which kind of makes you wonder how
Speaker 1: much dirt she might have been covering up for him.
Speaker 1: And actually, the list of her other clients is unbelievable.
Speaker 1: You've got Michael Vick BP after the oil spill in run,
Speaker 1: the Attorney General's office during the first Mary and Barry trial,
Speaker 1: Larry Craig and the Men's Room, the Chandra Levy family,
Speaker 1: and even Monica Lewinsky. I mean, you feel a little
Speaker 1: ill looking at that list, but then you realize, like,
Speaker 1: if her specialty is crisis management, she has to have
Speaker 1: people with crisis is right, right, right. It does feel
Speaker 1: like she's that word you mentioned, a mercenary. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: she's really good at her job. In fact, there's only
Speaker 1: one mentioned in the news of her not being poised,
Speaker 1: and this was when she was deputy Press secretary for
Speaker 1: the White House. She was written about as being quote
Speaker 1: a little flustered and combative. But I mean, the thing is,
Speaker 1: we have to remember how stressful it is to be
Speaker 1: in that position. In fact, her boss, Marlon Fitzwater, spoke
Speaker 1: about how hard it was being in the press room,
Speaker 1: and he said that he actually installed a full length
Speaker 1: podium so that reporters couldn't see his knees shaking. So
Speaker 1: being a little combative isn't the worst thing. So I
Speaker 1: am curious. Are there any stories about how she works?
Speaker 1: I mean, it feels like she does this all behind
Speaker 1: closed doors, right. Well, the only thing I could find
Speaker 1: was during the height of the Clinton impeachment scandal, she
Speaker 1: was working to keep Lewinsky away from the tabloids and
Speaker 1: the TV cameras, but she had to keep her in town,
Speaker 1: so she decided to hide her in this church's homeless
Speaker 1: outreach program because she knew no one would think to
Speaker 1: look there. But you know, her job is not all tricks.
Speaker 1: I mean, as she told the Washington Post, sometimes the
Speaker 1: key is just the sincere apology and then returning to
Speaker 1: what you do well and of course years of living
Speaker 1: that example, and that seems to be her advice for
Speaker 1: some people you think about, like Michael Vick as an example.
Speaker 1: And as Smith puts it, quote, a wonderful quality about
Speaker 1: America is that we love redemption stories. Were quick to
Speaker 1: lash out and assign blame, but we also draw from
Speaker 1: deep reservoirs of forgiveness. And as the article puts it,
Speaker 1: she views her role as taking these extremely flawed clients
Speaker 1: and ushering them into this kinder, better second act. So
Speaker 1: I appreciate her skill, and I kind of wanted dislike her,
Speaker 1: but then what you said about forgiveness makes me like
Speaker 1: her even more. So She's obviously very good at this
Speaker 1: thin stuff. But uh, you know, I know we've got
Speaker 1: a few more stories I want to get to you.
Speaker 1: But before you do that, let's take a little break.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Part Time Genius. Okay, Mango, we've talked
Speaker 1: about muffets and scandals and Harry Potter, So where do
Speaker 1: you want to go from here? So I was thinking,
Speaker 1: why don't we each tell one of our favorite stories
Speaker 1: and then we can get to the fact off. All right,
Speaker 1: that sounds good, so I'll let you go first. Where
Speaker 1: do you want to start? How about with the little
Speaker 1: Roll Doll? And as you know, I'm a huge Roll
Speaker 1: Doll fan. I loved Boy Danny, the Champion, the World Twits, Matilda, Fantastic,
Speaker 1: Mr Fox. I could list them forever. And I thought
Speaker 1: you were going to for a second there. But you know,
Speaker 1: I always figured there was a little autobiography in like
Speaker 1: how much he disliked principles or certain adults or whatever.
Speaker 1: But one thing I didn't imagine was that the bf
Speaker 1: G or the Big Friendly Giant would be based on
Speaker 1: a real person. Oh that's interesting, And actually I just
Speaker 1: saw the movie recently. But how is that? So? I
Speaker 1: found the story in the Telegraph. But do you know
Speaker 1: how Roll Doll had this little writing cottage behind his place? No,
Speaker 1: I didn't, so he would go back there. It was
Speaker 1: this tiny little shed. He'd put a blanket on his
Speaker 1: legs and sit in a chair and right for a
Speaker 1: few hours every day and sort of this like legendary thing.
Speaker 1: And and uh, but the BFG is actually based on
Speaker 1: this guy named Wally Saunder, who was this giant of
Speaker 1: a man and this sweet natured builder who Doll had
Speaker 1: actually befriended and also commissioned him to make this hut.
Speaker 1: And uh, Wally apparently was super super nice. He had
Speaker 1: this long, brinkly face, a big nose, and ears, and
Speaker 1: as Doll put it, quote, huge hands like a bunch
Speaker 1: of bananas. He also had this thick Norfolk accent where, um,
Speaker 1: he would speak but no one could really understand him,
Speaker 1: and he jumbled his words and phrases a lot, just
Speaker 1: like the VFG. But Dal particularly noticed when his granddaughter
Speaker 1: Sophie started up this friendship with this gentleman, and uh,
Speaker 1: that's sort of what the whole book is based on.
Speaker 1: I didn't know that, and I really like that actually,
Speaker 1: So what's where are you gonna end with? I'm just
Speaker 1: going a pretty different direction. I want to talk about
Speaker 1: the real life Cramer back to the sign fell the idea.
Speaker 1: But obviously there's a ton of real stuff and Sign felt,
Speaker 1: despite what Tristan may believe, it is based on Jerry
Speaker 1: Seinfeld's life. Uh, there of course was a real soup
Speaker 1: Nazi um Elaine's character is loosely rooted and Carol Leefer,
Speaker 1: who Seinfeld dated, and then I think a lot of
Speaker 1: people know this, but but obviously George is very much
Speaker 1: based on Larry David, who really did move in with
Speaker 1: his parents. He entered a contest like the infamous Contest episode,
Speaker 1: even quit a job and realized he needed the money,
Speaker 1: so he just showed up at work the next day
Speaker 1: and pretended like he hadn't quit, which is just think
Speaker 1: is hilarious. But these are all real things. But the
Speaker 1: most interesting character to me, maybe when you think about
Speaker 1: the real life situation is probably Kramer, who is very
Speaker 1: much based on a guy named Kenny Kramer, who's Larry
Speaker 1: David's neighbor and there are so many great stories about him.
Speaker 1: Kenny Kramer is a comedian and an entrepreneur and unsuccessfully
Speaker 1: ran for office. He also apparently runs this really terrible
Speaker 1: bus tour on the real Seinfeld experience. It's called Kramer's
Speaker 1: Reality Tour and it just sounds terrible. So he's a
Speaker 1: licensed New York tour guide, but the tour often involves
Speaker 1: him pointing at a gay person on the street and
Speaker 1: then the entire bus singing together. Not that there's anything
Speaker 1: wrong with that, So it sounds like it makes me
Speaker 1: even embarrassed to just like read it. But you know
Speaker 1: they'll they'll use other catchphrases from the show on the tour.
Speaker 1: And he's always looking for these money making schemes, like
Speaker 1: when this one book company went out of business, he
Speaker 1: bought their Seinfeld Universe books for ten cents a book,
Speaker 1: signed them, and then resold them. So he's basically the
Speaker 1: character on the show with very little embellishment to it.
Speaker 1: But I think my favorite story about him is just
Speaker 1: the one where Larry David told him that he was
Speaker 1: creating a Seinfeld pilot and then he wanted to base
Speaker 1: a character on him, and so here, let me just
Speaker 1: read you this account of it. So it was very Seinfeld.
Speaker 1: I in. He came and asked, permission, Kramer, I'm writing
Speaker 1: a pilot with Seinfeld. I want to base a character
Speaker 1: on you and call him Cramer. Is that okay? I said, certainly,
Speaker 1: it's okay, as long as I get to play Kramer.
Speaker 1: He says, you can't be Kramer. I said, but I
Speaker 1: am Kramer. And he says, look, Kenny, I'm just writing
Speaker 1: a pilot. I have no say, but there's no way
Speaker 1: in hell, you're gonna be Cramer. So that's just the
Speaker 1: way it is, which honestly feels like I've seen that
Speaker 1: scene on Signful before. Yeah, that's pretty great. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: the only difference I've read is that Kramer claims Larry
Speaker 1: David used to take food from his fridge and not
Speaker 1: the other way around, which also sounds like a Kramer
Speaker 1: thing to say. All right, well, now we've gotten a
Speaker 1: little roll Doll and a little Cramer out of our systems,
Speaker 1: so I think it's time for the fact off. Mango
Speaker 1: sounds great, So here's a quick one. I love Judy
Speaker 1: Bloom and her books, especially at the Tales of Fourth
Speaker 1: Grade Nothing and super Fudge. And I've heard that the
Speaker 1: character Fudge was based on her son Larry. It's actually
Speaker 1: why she dedicated a book to him, and and she's
Speaker 1: always talked about him diplomatically, like apparently he sucked four
Speaker 1: fingers on his hands, just like the character he refused
Speaker 1: where shoes through these ridiculous tantrums. But the way he
Speaker 1: always talked about him was just to say he was
Speaker 1: quote a very interesting child. But I have to note,
Speaker 1: did he ever swallow a turtle like he did in
Speaker 1: the book. Yeah, I was curious about that too, but
Speaker 1: apparently not she She actually got that from newspaper articles
Speaker 1: that appeared at the time. She was writing about this
Speaker 1: boy who swallowed a turtle land. I guess every day
Speaker 1: for a week, the newspaper kept following up with this kid,
Speaker 1: and and it just got into a psyche. It's been
Speaker 1: a slow newsweek. Alright. Well, here's one that I like.
Speaker 1: The real inspector Clusseau from the Pink Panther movies was
Speaker 1: actually a great athlete. So in eighteen seventy, Captain Matthew
Speaker 1: Webb heroically dived off a ship and he saved this
Speaker 1: drowning passenger. So then he uses this publicity to do
Speaker 1: all these other stunts, like one of his daredevil feats
Speaker 1: was to cover himself in dolphin blubber for some reason
Speaker 1: and then swim the English Channel. But he made quite
Speaker 1: a name for himself until he finally swam under Niagara Falls, where,
Speaker 1: sad like, things didn't end well for the Daredevil. But
Speaker 1: he had all of these sponsors, and and one of
Speaker 1: them was this matchbox company, and they would put his
Speaker 1: picture on the box. And when Peter Sellers lit a
Speaker 1: cigarette with one of the matches and then saw the
Speaker 1: picture of this guy was sporting this ridiculous giant mustache
Speaker 1: and posing in a man kini and this kind of
Speaker 1: serious but also buffoonish pose. It gave him the idea
Speaker 1: for this new character. Huh, that's really interesting. So Mario
Speaker 1: from Super Mario Brothers is actually based on Nintendo's Landlord
Speaker 1: in Seattle, and apparently the staff was working on a
Speaker 1: character called Mr. Video at the time. I thought he
Speaker 1: was called jump Man, but I guess he was called
Speaker 1: Mr Video when Mario Segal came in wearing these overalls
Speaker 1: sporting his trademark mustache, and he got very, very animated,
Speaker 1: just hopping up and down about that month's rent check
Speaker 1: being late. And as a reward for that display, they
Speaker 1: renamed their character Mario. And of course Mario this day
Speaker 1: is not happy about that. He actually is a duck hunter,
Speaker 1: so he was maybe twice the inspiration for their games. Uh.
Speaker 1: He told the Seattle Times that he's still waiting on
Speaker 1: his royalty checks. I do think he got his rent
Speaker 1: checks though. So the book That Godfather Was a Girl
Speaker 1: has this great little bit on que from James Bond.
Speaker 1: Apparently the gadget Whiz was based on a real person,
Speaker 1: Charles Fraser Smith, who was this missionary and also a
Speaker 1: dairy farmer, but more interestingly also spent World War Two
Speaker 1: at the UK Ministry of Supplies, Clothing and Textile Department.
Speaker 1: Now that's just code for m I six, where he
Speaker 1: was crafting these gadgets for secret agents. But the real
Speaker 1: que was a little lower tech than his on screen counterpart,
Speaker 1: and he was mostly quote putting things in other things
Speaker 1: like and then some of these are pretty interesting, like
Speaker 1: stuffing a mini camera to a cigarette lighter, or a
Speaker 1: mini compass into a golf ball, or figuring out how
Speaker 1: to put a tiny saw in an agent shoes. I mean,
Speaker 1: they're pretty funny stuff. That's pretty cool. So did you
Speaker 1: know that there's actually a real Ferris Bueller And his
Speaker 1: name is Edward McNally. He grew up on John Hughes's block,
Speaker 1: who is the director of Ferris Bueller. And apparently this
Speaker 1: kid was a legend in in one marketing period, he
Speaker 1: supposedly skipped school twenty seven times. The fact that everyone
Speaker 1: knows this is kind of incredible. He even pulled off
Speaker 1: that same card trek from the movie where he borrowed
Speaker 1: his friends dad's car drove a hundred thirteen miles in
Speaker 1: it and then tried to run the miles off by
Speaker 1: putting it in reverse, and apparently it also ended badly.
Speaker 1: But it's funny because you know, you probably wonder like
Speaker 1: where his career went from this. He actually ended up
Speaker 1: going to law school, he became a Republican, and he
Speaker 1: ended up being senior counsel to George W. Bush. Oh way,
Speaker 1: I mean, it is actually kind of funny how many hits,
Speaker 1: shows and movies have come out of the Bush administration. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well here, unrelated to that, here's a quick one that
Speaker 1: I think you might like. Have you heard that Chaka
Speaker 1: is based on George Lucas's dog, Indiana. So his pup
Speaker 1: is this massive Alaskan malamute, and he used to ride
Speaker 1: Shotgun when Lucas drove around town, so he thought maybe
Speaker 1: Han Solo could use a similar companion. And also, that's
Speaker 1: pretty funny. I'm guessing Indiana is the name he gave
Speaker 1: to Indiana Jones as well. That's right, So his dog
Speaker 1: is like doubly important, So pretty pretty big deal here.
Speaker 1: But apparently the inspiration for the Millennium Falcon was served
Speaker 1: up to Lucas at a diner. He was brainstorming what
Speaker 1: the ship would look like, and he was then served
Speaker 1: a hamburger with an olive on the side, so there
Speaker 1: was where inspiration struck. It is funny because that ship,
Speaker 1: I guess, does look like a hamburger with an olive
Speaker 1: on the side. I feel like that's what I'm going
Speaker 1: to picture every time I see the Millennium Falcon from
Speaker 1: now on. I do think that fact plus the dog fact,
Speaker 1: wins you this week's trophy. Though. Yeah, well, thank you
Speaker 1: so much that you know there are obviously so many
Speaker 1: great characters based off of real people. I know there's
Speaker 1: a ton that we left off that we thought about
Speaker 1: talking about today, so we'd love to hear about those
Speaker 1: from You can always email us part Time Genius at
Speaker 1: how stuff Works dot com or hit us up on
Speaker 1: Facebook or Twitter. But thanks so much for listening. Thanks
Speaker 1: again for listening. Part Time Genius is a production of
Speaker 1: How Stuff Works and wouldn't be possible without several brilliant
Speaker 1: people who do the important things we couldn't even begin
Speaker 1: to understand. Tristan McNeil does the editing thing. Noel Brown
Speaker 1: made the theme song and does the mixy mixy sound thing.
Speaker 1: Jerry Rowland does the exact producer thing. Gabeluesier is our
Speaker 1: lead researcher, with support from the Research Army including Austin Thompson,
Speaker 1: Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams and Eve. Jeff Cook gets
Speaker 1: the show to your ears. Good job, Eves. If you
Speaker 1: like what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe, And if
Speaker 1: you really really like what you've heard, maybe you could
Speaker 1: leave a good review for us. Do we do? We
Speaker 1: forget Jason? Jason who constab