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Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to

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Speaker 1: the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much

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Speaker 1: for tuning in. That's our super producer, mister Max Williams.

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Speaker 2: With arms wide open, Yeah, arms wide open under the sunlight,

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Speaker 2: sunshine and exposed nor right.

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Speaker 1: So, and I think we have all off air pledge

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Speaker 1: to stop lip syncing this podcast based on some of

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Speaker 1: the stuff we've learned in our special Thanksgiving series. Welcome

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Speaker 1: to our two part episode on the history of the

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Speaker 1: Halftime Show.

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Speaker 2: Indeed, and you know, it's funny this being a podcast,

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Speaker 2: y'all would never know sitting at home that we have

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Speaker 2: wardrobe malfunctions almost every single week.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, are they malfunctions or are they artistic expression?

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Speaker 2: Knows a lot about well that is, you know, Oh

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Speaker 2: my gosh, Ben, I'm glad you brought that out. Let's

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Speaker 2: save it from when we get into the particular event

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Speaker 2: in question. But I think that is a lingering conspiratorial

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Speaker 2: question about that whole debacle, right, Was it intentional or

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Speaker 2: was it a malfunction?

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Speaker 1: I've been bullying your nol brows. We've have been going

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Speaker 1: through a bit of a sports phase, often on this

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Speaker 1: episode about halftime shows is something that you don't have

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Speaker 1: to be a football head to enjoy. Oh football head,

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Speaker 1: I forgot. That's an insult.

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Speaker 2: Okay, Oh yeah, that's what they called Arnold on Hey Arnold,

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Speaker 2: the Nickelodeon children's cartoon.

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Speaker 1: Well, ridiculous historians, fell boys if that's another reference Ronald

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Speaker 1: or girl ohs alike. Anyway, kiddos, we're talking about We

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Speaker 1: are talking about that sport called football. It's confusing to

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Speaker 1: the rest of the world because, as Nate Bargetzi said

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Speaker 1: on Saturday Night Live, it's the sport where you rarely

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Speaker 1: use your feet. There's sometimes there's a little kicking.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, but it's in the name, which kind of makes

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Speaker 2: it extra confusing. Not to mention that I think the

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Speaker 2: more globally popular use of that name is in fact

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Speaker 2: a sport where you use your feet exclusively, maybe a

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Speaker 2: little knee, maybe a little head. But we do typically

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Speaker 2: refer to this as American football.

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Speaker 3: Yes, it's also the most popular sport in the world,

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Speaker 3: already being called football soccer. Yeah, nah, get out of

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Speaker 3: the way, Get out of the way. We're calling our sport football, right,

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Speaker 3: it's the Imperial system of sports.

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Speaker 1: Right, It's like if you were getting into acting today

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Speaker 1: and your name was Bill Murray, somebody would have to

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Speaker 1: change their name and it's not going to be Bill Prime.

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Speaker 2: It's true, that's true. I mean, it's one of those

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Speaker 2: things like that. We're all big fans of that show

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Speaker 2: Slow Horses, which was created and often written by a

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Speaker 2: guy named Will Smith who just decided he was going

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Speaker 2: to rock with Will Smith. No man in black was

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Speaker 2: going to force him to change his name.

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Speaker 1: It's the wild wild West out there in Hollywood. Technically

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Speaker 1: it's in the western part of the country. Moving on,

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Speaker 1: whether you love or hate football in the United States,

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Speaker 1: especially when it comes to revenue, American football is keen.

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Speaker 1: Maybe we popped the top on this bad Boy with

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Speaker 1: a quote from our pal Kurt Baidenhausen over at Sportico.

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Speaker 2: I love the name of Sportico, and I also love

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Speaker 2: the name Kurt Baidenhausen. The NFL posted an annual revenue

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Speaker 2: of twenty point five billion dollars this year in this

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty three twenty twenty four season, and that is

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Speaker 2: not including college football. And you know, we talked a

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Speaker 2: little bit in recent episodes just about how football, American football,

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Speaker 2: we will just be calling it football in this episode

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Speaker 2: is uniquely designed to serve ads on the right now

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Speaker 2: because of the kind of herky jerky, stardy stopping nature

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Speaker 2: of the game.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, especially in its modern iteration. Arguably, the most American

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Speaker 1: part of American football is not the game itself. It's

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Speaker 1: something that occurs during the biggest stop and start period

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Speaker 1: of your typical game, which is halftime. During halftime in

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Speaker 1: any other less American sport, people would walk and get snacks.

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Speaker 1: There would be it would be an intermission, like in

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Speaker 1: your favorite play or in the film my Dad tricked

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Speaker 1: me into scene as a child Gettysburg, which is super

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Speaker 1: duper long for a child and has intermission. They don't

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Speaker 1: do any of that in football. In American football, they

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Speaker 1: have a big show, especially during the biggest game in

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Speaker 1: all of football, them the Super Bowl. There's a halftime show,

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Speaker 1: and a lot of people who don't even care about

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Speaker 1: football the sport still tune in just for this particular

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Speaker 1: moment to see their favorite celebrity and possibly the newest

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Speaker 1: pop culture scandal occur between the first and second part

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Speaker 1: of the game.

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Speaker 2: In real time. And that's not to say that you know,

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Speaker 2: you couldn't use this if you were more of the

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Speaker 2: sporto variety, use this as an opportunity to go grab

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Speaker 2: yourself a beer or snack, but your eyeballs would be

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Speaker 2: missing out on some serious displays of opulence.

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Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, again, thoroughly American and the most hyperbolic of ways.

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Speaker 1: You'll see some of the greatest musicians of all times

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Speaker 1: singing or pretending to sing. As we'll get to you'll

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Speaker 1: also see elaborate stagecraft and choreography, and of course, once

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Speaker 1: in a while, a boob.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, once in a while. Bet he'll have her neked

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Speaker 2: by the end of this song. And he did do

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Speaker 2: that thing. Our dog, you dog JT justin Timberley.

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Speaker 1: Oh, he's been going through and I hope things are

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Speaker 1: all right for him. But our question in this week series,

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Speaker 1: as you celebrate the holidays with your family, you may

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Speaker 1: be about to watch this massive celebration. Where did it

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Speaker 1: come from? Let's talk about the founding of the Super

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Speaker 1: Bowl or superb Owl. Let's talk about the very first

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Speaker 1: halftime show and how we got from there to the

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Speaker 1: mad cap insanity of Fiata that the halftime show has

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Speaker 1: become today. Maybe, you know, maybe before we to really

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Speaker 1: understand the Super Bowl. Maybe we talk a little bit

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Speaker 1: about what American football is because we've said it's different from,

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Speaker 1: you know, the more popular football.

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Speaker 2: I could sure use the refresher. It's one of the

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Speaker 2: ones that's still continue used to confound me, and it

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Speaker 2: confounds many others who are unfamiliar with the sport who

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Speaker 2: might be watching it for the first time. What is

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Speaker 2: the deal with this whole display of Napoleonic trench warfare

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Speaker 2: that Max very helpfully pointed out to me is a

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Speaker 2: very very good analog for the nature of the game

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Speaker 2: of American football. How come sometimes you kick the ball

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Speaker 2: but usually just throw it around or run with it.

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Speaker 1: It's a great series of questions, and the sport itself

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Speaker 1: has these what appeared to be eccentricities or irregularities because

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Speaker 1: of its blended family origins. It evolves from rugby, and

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Speaker 1: it evolves from actual soccer aka football prime. But it

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Speaker 1: differs from soccer chiefly in that, like rugby, it allows

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Speaker 1: the players to touch through carry the ball with their hands,

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Speaker 1: so it's different from soccer in that way. But it's

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Speaker 1: also different from rugby because it allows each side to

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Speaker 1: control the ball in alternating possessions. That's where you that's

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Speaker 1: where you try to get your points before you run

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Speaker 1: out of downs.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. I think of all the American kind of past times,

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Speaker 2: it is the most full on physical and you know,

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Speaker 2: full contact of the sports. You know, in baseball you

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Speaker 2: might get in some dust ups, you might bump into

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Speaker 2: somebody running, but you're not going to tackle them to

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Speaker 2: the ground, you know, and hold them there, dog pile

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Speaker 2: on them. It is a much kinder, gentler sport than

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Speaker 2: American football. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Now, this dog pile tackling stuff that can happen in

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Speaker 1: other sports, but usually if it does, it's a fracas

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Speaker 1: on the field, something has gone wrong. Yes, the sport

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Speaker 1: of American football is played with two teams, eleven people

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Speaker 1: on each side. And this sport is thoroughly North American.

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Speaker 1: It's practiced primarily in the United States. It has become

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Speaker 1: the country's leading spectator sport as we record today. It also,

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Speaker 1: to be fair, gained a bit of a fun folloween

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Speaker 1: in Canada, and it evolved over time to a twelve

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Speaker 1: man game, but it never quite knocked the zeitgeist the

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Speaker 1: way that ice hockey does in Canada or the way

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Speaker 1: that American football does here in the States.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right, even here in the States. I mean,

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Speaker 2: you know, soccer football prime is quite has gained popularity

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Speaker 2: in the last decade or so. But the opposite isn't

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Speaker 2: really true of American football. It doesn't really port particularly

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Speaker 2: well to other countries, though the culture of it does

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Speaker 2: seem to do so, like because the Super Bowl and

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Speaker 2: the Super Bowl halftime showing all of the ads are

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Speaker 2: a genuine pop cultural phenomenon that do make waves in

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Speaker 2: other parts of the world. Yeah, and even.

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Speaker 1: Before the rise of this advertising boom associated with football,

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Speaker 1: even before then, it kind of made sense that the

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Speaker 1: United States version of football may not catch on across

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Speaker 1: the world just because of some logistical stuff. You need

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Speaker 1: a lot of people to play it, you need a

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Speaker 1: lot of equipment to play it. It can be expensive.

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Speaker 1: As we mentioned in the past. If you look at soccer,

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Speaker 1: you just need a dream, a ball, and some kind

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Speaker 1: of piece of land that has two sides.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's right. And I mean football stadiums in and

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Speaker 2: of themselves are massive displays of opulence. Here in Atlanta,

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Speaker 2: we have the very brutal kind of looming structure that

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Speaker 2: is the Mercedes Benz Stadium.

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Speaker 1: I like it. It looks like a tied you that got

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Speaker 1: turned to stone by some kind of experimental When I

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Speaker 1: say it looms.

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Speaker 2: It does when you're driving around and you start to

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Speaker 2: see the edge of it creeping over the horizon. It's

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Speaker 2: a little bit sinister. I'm not gonna lie.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's gonna look really cool when they implode it

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Speaker 3: in a Marti buskets in the way.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, this is my first experience there was amazing and

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Speaker 1: perhaps not normal because it was one of the vaccination

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Speaker 1: centers during the pandemic, and so when I went in

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Speaker 1: there for the first time, it was empty except for

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Speaker 1: me and like twelve people who had to sit around

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Speaker 1: and make sure they didn't die after getting shot up.

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Speaker 1: It was the scale of it really hits when you

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Speaker 1: see it empty. It's like a cathedral.

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Speaker 2: I have only been in there once in my entire life,

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Speaker 2: and it was for a similarly kind of odd reason.

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Speaker 2: It was odd, but it was to vote. They had

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Speaker 2: voting set up in there for like a local election,

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Speaker 2: and I went when it was pretty dead, and it

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Speaker 2: was very, very weird to be in there with it

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Speaker 2: just a handful of your closest friends. You guys, remember

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Speaker 2: when Kanye kind of haunted the Mercedes Benz like the opera.

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Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, he had a military bunk. I did not.

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Speaker 1: I did not see mister West during the vaccination stuff

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Speaker 1: that maybe due to his stance on vaccines unclear. Maybe

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Speaker 1: he was making a track, but they have.

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Speaker 2: Been lurking just in the wings, you know, wearing some

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Speaker 2: sort of fantai.

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Speaker 1: Yes, luckily he wasn't making people participate in a listening party,

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Speaker 1: which is not to be confused with the concert.

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Speaker 2: Sorry, they did have one. They do it.

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Speaker 1: But I lucked out, is what I'm saying.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well yeah, and then to be there. Typically people

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Speaker 2: that show up to those things are there of their

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Speaker 2: own free purpose. A huge though, where you have a

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Speaker 2: guy who's kind of hyping up their own tracks, it's

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Speaker 2: a little it's a little try hard.

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Speaker 1: I'm not going I mean, it's a whole stadium too.

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Speaker 1: You know, there might be a different venue you could

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Speaker 1: use for that. I'm just saying I lucked out again

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Speaker 1: because he didn't jump out in ambush has I haven't

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Speaker 1: read much news about Kanye recently. Loved his first albums.

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Speaker 1: I hope he's hope he's making it through as we

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Speaker 1: all are trying.

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Speaker 2: To do same and we know that.

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Speaker 1: Look, like we said at the top, you might not

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Speaker 1: be a fan of sports at all. You might not

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Speaker 1: be a fan of football in particular, but odds are

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Speaker 1: you are probably a fan of at least a handful

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Speaker 1: of celebrities and notable figures who have made an appearance

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Speaker 1: at the halftime shows. So you've at least it's crazy.

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Speaker 1: It doesn't happen with other sports. You've at least seen

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Speaker 1: the halftime show once or some clip of it if

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Speaker 1: you live in the States.

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Speaker 2: Sure, and all halftime shows are not created equally. Some

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Speaker 2: of them fizzle a bit and they're kind of like

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Speaker 2: womp womp, and some of them live on in either

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Speaker 2: infamy or you know, like in the annals of pop

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Speaker 2: cultural fame, like Prince for example, in his two thousand

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Speaker 2: and seven halftime performance where it rained while he was

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Speaker 2: playing Purple Rain and the dude just ripped it, and

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Speaker 2: it really is looked at as one because they're you know,

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Speaker 2: you can find it on YouTube now. And as Prince

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Speaker 2: you know, has left this mortal coil rip to one

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Speaker 2: of the greats. It is a fantastic example of his

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Speaker 2: musicality and just performing genius.

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Speaker 1: Or the King of pop pause, which we'll get to,

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Speaker 1: or the there's also the lampooning of the pop in

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Speaker 1: circumstances like Red Hot Chili Peppers famously did when they

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Speaker 1: refuse to plug in their guitars because they want to

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Speaker 1: participate in a farce. There's all this sort of stuff

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Speaker 1: that goes into the halftime show of what is sometimes

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Speaker 1: called gridiron football. That's another differentiation because as the vertical

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Speaker 1: lines on the rectangular field. So if we want to

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Speaker 1: understand halftime celebration, we talk about the game itself. The

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Speaker 1: super Bowl game. It is pretty much national holiday, especially

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Speaker 1: when you get into states that have tons of football

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Speaker 1: fans like Wisconsin. Super Bowl cheeseheads. Yet you're not going

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Speaker 1: to get anything done that day, not really.

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Speaker 2: Especially if your city's team or a particularly viament football

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Speaker 2: craze cities team is in the game and either wins

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Speaker 2: or loses. Sometimes either of those results can lead to,

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Speaker 2: you know, people setting cars on fire and stuff.

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Speaker 1: And if the game is happening in your city, not

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Speaker 1: only are you not getting anything done that day, you

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Speaker 1: probably should stay home because you're definitely gonna have a

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Speaker 1: tough time driving places.

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Speaker 2: It's true, So why don't we talk a little bit

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Speaker 2: about the evolution of the super Bowl, or as you

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Speaker 2: put it, Ben, the superb Owl, which I can only

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Speaker 2: imagine is a reference to the giant owl structure in

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Speaker 2: Bohemian Grove where all the weird rich cultists gather. Because

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Speaker 2: you know, things like the super Bowl and like, you know,

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Speaker 2: the displays of that level of wealth and commerce and

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Speaker 2: all of the famous people that get to go and

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Speaker 2: are sitting in those boxes. I mean, there gotta be

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Speaker 2: some illuminatis hanging out or involved in the super Bowl.

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Speaker 1: And I just like superb Owl because it's a great

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Speaker 1: TYPEO word joke. But I'm with you there. Even just

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Speaker 1: the cost of super Bowl tickets are a pretty big

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Speaker 1: differentiator between the casual fan, the diehard fan who saves

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Speaker 1: up for years, and of course members of the illuminati

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Speaker 1: who probably pay the blood price.

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Speaker 2: They probably pay the blood price in the and I

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Speaker 2: mean even you know, for us mere mortals to get

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Speaker 2: just a basic super Bowl ticket can be incredibly.

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Speaker 1: Difficult, right, Oh yeah, yeah, it can get past money.

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Speaker 1: We're talking lottery, We're talking hustling all kinds of stuff.

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Speaker 1: And look, if you made it to the very first

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Speaker 1: super Bowl, it would have been way easier for you

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Speaker 1: to get in. This is nineteen sixty seven, and it

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Speaker 1: happens because previous to sixty seven there were two competing

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Speaker 1: football leagues, the NFL which we know today and the

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Speaker 1: AFL National Football League American Football League. They negotiated this

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Speaker 1: team up and they said, look, we're going to join together.

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Speaker 1: We're going to make our forces one and at the

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Speaker 1: end of every season, we're going to play a championship

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Speaker 1: game to see who is the best. And there were

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Speaker 1: a lot of stakeholders in this. There were a lot

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Speaker 1: of team owners who were part of the negotiation, and

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Speaker 1: they all had the same two goals. Better competition, yes, sure,

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Speaker 1: but also more money. Could do way more money, so

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Speaker 1: much more money.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Lamar Hunt was the owner at the time of

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Speaker 2: the AFL's Kansas City Chiefs. He may have heard of

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Speaker 2: because of their proximity to Taylor Swift. He was a

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Speaker 2: big part of these negotiations. He kind of as a gag,

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Speaker 2: as a little silly goof suggested calling it the Super

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Speaker 2: Bowl because his kids liked to play with a toy

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Speaker 2: that was very popular at the time, at a time

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Speaker 2: when maybe there wasn't quite as much saturation in the

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Speaker 2: shoulder of the toy market. It has had a thing

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Speaker 2: called a super Bowl. There's literally a bouncy ball that

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Speaker 2: bounced quite quite efficiently.

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Speaker 1: And there was super stick at the time, there was

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Speaker 1: super handful of dirt. It was just a different super rock,

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Speaker 1: just a different era of toys.

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Speaker 2: Yeh, superspring. I'm sorry.

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Speaker 1: That was the slinking that was advanced for the time. Okay,

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Speaker 1: I think the slinking was out by the sixties. But

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Speaker 1: the super Bowl, yes, as a throwaway, kitting not kidding phrase. Originally,

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Speaker 1: it didn't catch on. We know that he was kidding

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Speaker 1: around about this because Hunt wrote to the NFL commissioner

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Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty six and literally said, I have kiddingly

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Speaker 1: called it the super Bowl, which obviously can be approved upon.

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Speaker 1: He thought the name was too corny to ever be

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Speaker 1: used in public, And then Rizzelle said, why don't we

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Speaker 1: call it the Big One the Pro Bowl?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I sure, it's funny. It's one of those things though,

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Speaker 2: where it's like sometimes the stand in name for a

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Speaker 2: thing just sticks around for so long and nobody comes

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Speaker 2: up with a better idea that just becomes the thing.

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Speaker 2: But now this far removed from the original Super Bowl

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Speaker 2: of nineteen sixty seven. Can you imagine it be called

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Speaker 2: anything else? I mean, it's like, maybe the Mega Bowl

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Speaker 2: would be kind of cool, but super Bowl it just

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Speaker 2: kind of makes sense, you know, for what a massive

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Speaker 2: thing it would become. Maybe it didn't earn the name

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Speaker 2: right away, though, and that maybe is what led to

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Speaker 2: the little bit of a tongue in cheek kind of

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Speaker 2: feeling around that name.

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Speaker 1: My spiritual friends would say it manifested itself. We know

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Speaker 1: that the first matchups proceeded even as they were trying

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Speaker 1: to figure out this name stuff. And originally they called

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Speaker 1: it the very buttoned up AFLFL World Championship Game, which

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Speaker 1: is just a mouthful.

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Speaker 2: It's too much.

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Speaker 1: So sports writers and fans, like already in the court

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Speaker 1: of public opinion, started searching for something else to call it.

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Speaker 1: Everybody just started calling it the Super Bowl. By sixty

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Speaker 1: nine they said, look, we're going to make that the

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Speaker 1: official title. And then the next year the two leagues merge. Boom,

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Speaker 1: Now we have the Super Bowl as an official name.

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Speaker 1: The name isn't on the first big game again, but

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Speaker 1: the halftime show, the actual halftime celebration is older than

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Speaker 1: the name super Bowl.

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Speaker 2: Well sure, I mean we you know, it's something that

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Speaker 2: I think we've all experienced, even at high school football games,

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Speaker 2: where you have like the part of the game where

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Speaker 2: the marching band comes out and like the nerds get

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Speaker 2: a chance to shine. This is very, very common. There's

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Speaker 2: always like a need for some sort of in game

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Speaker 2: entertainment while things were being shuffled around or the players

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Speaker 2: were taking a break.

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Speaker 1: And if you ever want a mainline that experience, and

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Speaker 1: you happen to be in our lovely metropolis of Atlanta, Georgia,

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Speaker 1: if you have not been yet, you've got to go

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Speaker 1: to the all star Battle of the Bands where all

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Speaker 1: the HBCU bands get together and they do like a

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Speaker 1: compilation of their halftime show.

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Speaker 2: I go almost every year. It's just a blast. I

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Speaker 2: haven't been, ben, and you are giving me another thing

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Speaker 2: to add to my Atlanta bucket list.

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Speaker 1: Oh it's a it's a fun adventure, you know. I

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Speaker 1: don't know about you guys. We had to the stage.

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Speaker 1: Now where going, uh like happy hours? Fine or whatever.

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Speaker 1: But if I have free time, I want to go

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Speaker 1: have weird adventures. I don't want to go to you know,

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Speaker 1: the usual places and far and around so so Battle

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Speaker 1: of the band's great. Uh Knoxville, Tennessee got to me.

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Speaker 1: They programmed me over the weekend. We get so many

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Speaker 1: great day trip kind of things around here.

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Speaker 2: No, oh for sure. Yeah. You mentioned also on a

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Speaker 2: recent episode the uh there's like a a Tibetan temple

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Speaker 2: or like a Buddhist temple, I believe.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, there there are a couple. There's Baps,

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Speaker 1: which is the Hindi temple or Hindu temple, our Lady

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Speaker 1: of the Holy Spirit, which is the Catholic place. There

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Speaker 1: is a there are a couple of Watts we could visit,

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Speaker 1: which are you know, the Buddhist temples. Oh man, you

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Speaker 1: know you find your own super Bowl halftimes.

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Speaker 2: I guess it's what we say. It's true. And we're

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Speaker 2: going to get into some ways that super Bowl halftime

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Speaker 2: shows in and of themselves are and football honestly are

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Speaker 2: a kind of religion. Are a kind of spiritual experience

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Speaker 2: for a lot of people. Right, Oh, yeah, absolutely.

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Speaker 1: And this may not have been apparent in the very

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Speaker 1: first Super Bowl halftime show. It was, you know, to

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Speaker 1: your point, it was by twenty twenty four standards, pretty modest.

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Speaker 1: It's just a way to entertain folks. It is very

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Speaker 1: much a live intermission. And I think the assumption was

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Speaker 1: this is where people visit the restroom. This is where

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Speaker 1: people go get snacks and you know, I guess re

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Speaker 1: up on their sodas or whatever. So they had marching bands,

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Speaker 1: but they said this is a big deal game. So

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Speaker 1: they had two marching bands.

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Speaker 2: That's right, the marching bands of the University of Arizona

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Speaker 2: and Grambling State University. I don't know Gramble State, but

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Speaker 2: I guess they were big at the time. And you know,

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Speaker 2: the idea of combining these bands much like that Battle

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Speaker 2: of the Band situation. Or maybe they weren't combined, but

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Speaker 2: they were certainly playing in tandem and kind of switching off.

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Speaker 2: And I also love this quote from the piece the

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Speaker 2: evolution of the Super Bowl Halftime Show then versus now

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Speaker 2: at andevent dot com. They intended this event to help

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Speaker 2: celebrate collegiate spirit and musicality over commercial spectacle. Oh how

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Speaker 2: far we have fallen since those simpler days.

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Speaker 1: Well, the turns of tables four downs on that one

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Speaker 1: we go to. Also Steven Wood, writing for History in

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Speaker 1: Steven Woods points out a very human individual aspect to

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Speaker 1: the story. He introduces us to a guy named Duke Fields.

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Speaker 1: Duke Fields, domin of Determinism, perhaps is only nineteen years old.

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Speaker 1: During the first halftime show and he plays at the

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Speaker 1: Super Bowl. The super is occurring between the Kansas City

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Speaker 1: Chiefs and the Green Bay Packers. He is a veteran

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Speaker 1: at this point. He's played for Grambling State University for

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Speaker 1: a while now. This is old beans to him. Grambling,

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Speaker 1: by the way, is in Louisiana, and he looks into

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Speaker 1: the stands at the LA Coliseum and he says, I

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Speaker 1: wonder how this gig is going to compare to all

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Speaker 1: the other all the other performances I've done during my

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Speaker 1: time with this band. And he says this, we got

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Speaker 1: to give the direct quote. Then I saw the rocket men.

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Speaker 1: Two guys with jet packs. My god, those things were loud.

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Speaker 1: I know they had jet packs back in ninety six.

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Speaker 1: We were still working on that. We were working on

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Speaker 1: good ones. These are not the good ones.

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Speaker 2: Fair enough, Yeah, two guys with jet packs. He had

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Speaker 2: no idea at the time that he was participating in

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Speaker 2: history and that this meager event, though seemingly a little

435
00:25:00,320 --> 00:25:03,760
Speaker 2: different with the jet pack men, was going to lay

436
00:25:03,800 --> 00:25:06,440
Speaker 2: the groundwork for what would become one of the hugest,

437
00:25:06,600 --> 00:25:12,240
Speaker 2: most ostentatious displays of wealth and pop culture and commerce

438
00:25:12,320 --> 00:25:15,600
Speaker 2: and advertising in the history of the world. The world,

439
00:25:15,800 --> 00:25:16,360
Speaker 2: the world.

440
00:25:16,680 --> 00:25:20,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's go to Bonnie Berkowitz, whom we've mentioned in

441
00:25:20,359 --> 00:25:23,919
Speaker 1: previous episodes, as well as lazarro Gamio writing for The

442
00:25:24,080 --> 00:25:28,959
Speaker 1: Washington Post. They say this first show was indeed free

443
00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:32,600
Speaker 1: of commercialization, what they call bloat. They said, quote two

444
00:25:32,680 --> 00:25:36,679
Speaker 1: college bands formed shapes of classic Americana such as a

445
00:25:36,720 --> 00:25:38,760
Speaker 1: paddle boat and the Liberty Belt.

446
00:25:38,920 --> 00:25:45,680
Speaker 2: Charmy. Yes, but however, despite its wholesome beginnings, there were

447
00:25:45,840 --> 00:25:49,560
Speaker 2: still some controversies. They go on. All this played out

448
00:25:49,600 --> 00:25:52,399
Speaker 2: in Los Angeles, which was recovering from the nineteen sixty

449
00:25:52,440 --> 00:25:55,520
Speaker 2: five Watts riots, which were horrific at the time. The

450
00:25:55,560 --> 00:25:58,320
Speaker 2: band from Grambling was criticized by some in the African

451
00:25:58,400 --> 00:26:02,640
Speaker 2: American community for playing amid the climate of racial tension.

452
00:26:02,840 --> 00:26:06,480
Speaker 2: And this comes from Larry Pannell, who was at the

453
00:26:06,520 --> 00:26:09,280
Speaker 2: time of this article the director of the band.

454
00:26:09,720 --> 00:26:14,879
Speaker 1: And we know everything occurs within its own context, and

455
00:26:14,960 --> 00:26:18,600
Speaker 1: people are pretty talented at figuring out when a show

456
00:26:18,680 --> 00:26:21,560
Speaker 1: is going to be a hit. So other historically black

457
00:26:21,600 --> 00:26:25,080
Speaker 1: schools look at the super Bowl look at Grambling State,

458
00:26:25,119 --> 00:26:28,840
Speaker 1: and they say, this is a huge opportunity for us.

459
00:26:28,920 --> 00:26:33,560
Speaker 1: This is a huge showcase. This really promotes the visibility

460
00:26:33,640 --> 00:26:36,680
Speaker 1: of not just our band, but of our own school.

461
00:26:36,960 --> 00:26:41,320
Speaker 1: So now Grambling is considered a huge trailblazer in this regard.

462
00:26:41,800 --> 00:26:46,280
Speaker 1: You can actually find footage of the original Super Bowl

463
00:26:46,640 --> 00:26:49,960
Speaker 1: halftime show on YouTube, but we want to warn you

464
00:26:50,040 --> 00:26:53,320
Speaker 1: in advance, folks, it is not the best quality. It

465
00:26:53,400 --> 00:26:55,159
Speaker 1: might as a matter of fact, the quality is so

466
00:26:55,280 --> 00:26:57,480
Speaker 1: bad that it might be fun just to have a

467
00:26:57,520 --> 00:26:59,760
Speaker 1: cinema of the mind, you know. I mean look at

468
00:26:59,760 --> 00:27:01,639
Speaker 1: some still photos.

469
00:27:01,200 --> 00:27:04,040
Speaker 2: One hundred, I gotta know that. I mean, like, were

470
00:27:04,080 --> 00:27:09,280
Speaker 2: the jet packs like functional they were flying around, zooming around.

471
00:27:09,680 --> 00:27:12,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, functional, I would say, functional, but not practical.

472
00:27:12,720 --> 00:27:14,600
Speaker 2: Okay, it was just for the show.

473
00:27:14,680 --> 00:27:17,000
Speaker 3: Like they kind of like went up and like they

474
00:27:17,000 --> 00:27:19,320
Speaker 3: weren't flying into the stands and like a high five people.

475
00:27:19,359 --> 00:27:22,760
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, they weren't doing you know, bluege these guys

476
00:27:22,760 --> 00:27:23,040
Speaker 1: were not.

477
00:27:23,280 --> 00:27:26,680
Speaker 2: Yeah, I understand. Funny thing too, is something as the

478
00:27:26,800 --> 00:27:29,399
Speaker 2: looms as large as the super Bowl is going to

479
00:27:29,480 --> 00:27:32,760
Speaker 2: end up having some kind of historical game of tele

480
00:27:33,119 --> 00:27:37,480
Speaker 2: telephone kind of conspiracy theories surrounding it, or maybe even

481
00:27:37,560 --> 00:27:39,919
Speaker 2: Mandela effect kind of stuff where it's like, oh, I

482
00:27:39,960 --> 00:27:42,760
Speaker 2: remember this thing that definitely happened at the super Bowl,

483
00:27:42,840 --> 00:27:45,440
Speaker 2: but in fact the record would show that it either

484
00:27:45,520 --> 00:27:47,360
Speaker 2: did not happen or it did not happen the way

485
00:27:47,400 --> 00:27:48,960
Speaker 2: one might think. Yes.

486
00:27:49,280 --> 00:27:54,320
Speaker 1: Yeah, So the first halftime show, you've got what counts

487
00:27:54,400 --> 00:27:57,240
Speaker 1: as a panopoly of variety acts. You got the two

488
00:27:57,280 --> 00:27:59,960
Speaker 1: marching bands, you got the jet pack stunt, you got

489
00:28:00,160 --> 00:28:03,640
Speaker 1: pigeons being released, and then for some reason there's a

490
00:28:03,640 --> 00:28:08,199
Speaker 1: Civil War reenactment, because that goes over well. After that,

491
00:28:08,640 --> 00:28:11,440
Speaker 1: after the Watts riots, that goes overwell. But one thing

492
00:28:11,480 --> 00:28:15,359
Speaker 1: it did not have, to the point about myths, it

493
00:28:15,440 --> 00:28:20,360
Speaker 1: did not have the Three Stooges. But it appears this

494
00:28:20,960 --> 00:28:25,280
Speaker 1: is actually what we would call a factoid. A factoid

495
00:28:25,560 --> 00:28:28,320
Speaker 1: is something that sounds true and it is the and

496
00:28:28,680 --> 00:28:32,680
Speaker 1: is not true. So it is a factoid or a

497
00:28:32,720 --> 00:28:35,920
Speaker 1: piece of mis info to say the Three Stooges performed

498
00:28:35,920 --> 00:28:39,840
Speaker 1: at halftime. You can see people even authoritatively listing the

499
00:28:40,360 --> 00:28:44,600
Speaker 1: bits that the Stooges did. But Snopes are good friends

500
00:28:44,600 --> 00:28:48,680
Speaker 1: at Snopes, they have found this is in fact false,

501
00:28:48,800 --> 00:28:53,560
Speaker 1: and it comes from one of the Three Stooges Larry Fine,

502
00:28:53,880 --> 00:28:56,880
Speaker 1: you know Larry from the Three Stooges from earlier. He

503
00:28:57,080 --> 00:29:00,480
Speaker 1: says that they performed at the halftime show. But the

504
00:29:00,560 --> 00:29:05,200
Speaker 1: only record of that being the case comes from this

505
00:29:05,240 --> 00:29:07,680
Speaker 1: one guy in his one book. We haven't heard from

506
00:29:07,680 --> 00:29:09,320
Speaker 1: two thirds of the Stooges on this.

507
00:29:09,800 --> 00:29:13,440
Speaker 2: And what about Shemp? I want to hear from Shemp? Yeah,

508
00:29:13,560 --> 00:29:16,160
Speaker 2: I want to hear from Jaw Yeah. Wait, what does

509
00:29:16,240 --> 00:29:17,040
Speaker 2: John say about it?

510
00:29:17,040 --> 00:29:17,080
Speaker 1: No?

511
00:29:17,160 --> 00:29:19,760
Speaker 2: That is interesting, how like one little thing like that said,

512
00:29:19,800 --> 00:29:23,440
Speaker 2: with enough authority can convince enough people that they themselves

513
00:29:23,480 --> 00:29:26,400
Speaker 2: believe that they saw this thing take place. But no,

514
00:29:26,400 --> 00:29:31,200
Speaker 2: no proof, no video, evidence, audio, photographic, or otherwise evidence

515
00:29:31,400 --> 00:29:35,360
Speaker 2: exists of this supposed incident taking place. It sounds to

516
00:29:35,440 --> 00:29:38,400
Speaker 2: me like fine, maybe with trolling a little bit.

517
00:29:38,800 --> 00:29:41,360
Speaker 1: Uh huh, I don't know, yeah, one hundred percent. Yeah.

518
00:29:41,400 --> 00:29:46,080
Speaker 1: In fines defense, let's remember he's a legendary comedian. So

519
00:29:46,480 --> 00:29:51,960
Speaker 1: when a legendary comedian is writing an autobiography, I think

520
00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:55,160
Speaker 1: he's writing a humorous book. So I don't think he

521
00:29:55,320 --> 00:29:58,680
Speaker 1: was intentionally trying to mislead people. This happens all the time.

522
00:29:58,720 --> 00:30:01,880
Speaker 1: In the Great Game of Telephone, somebody says something as

523
00:30:01,920 --> 00:30:04,800
Speaker 1: a joke, you fast forward long enough and people are

524
00:30:04,880 --> 00:30:07,160
Speaker 1: quoting it chapter and verse as though it was the

525
00:30:07,480 --> 00:30:09,880
Speaker 1: stone cold Steve Austin truth.

526
00:30:10,160 --> 00:30:13,400
Speaker 2: Well nowadays nowadays too, with like TikTok videos and stuff

527
00:30:13,400 --> 00:30:15,720
Speaker 2: where people will do things under the guist of satire,

528
00:30:15,880 --> 00:30:18,520
Speaker 2: but they're really just kind of telling lies with a

529
00:30:18,520 --> 00:30:22,640
Speaker 2: straight face. That is a really easy way for misinformation

530
00:30:22,800 --> 00:30:25,680
Speaker 2: to spread if you're not kind of doing your own homework.

531
00:30:25,760 --> 00:30:31,120
Speaker 2: So be careful out there, guys.

532
00:30:34,080 --> 00:30:37,960
Speaker 1: Early on our nascent NFL, which hasn't yet formed, it's

533
00:30:37,960 --> 00:30:42,680
Speaker 1: not quite nineteen seventy, they kept this halftime show idea interesting.

534
00:30:43,960 --> 00:30:46,600
Speaker 1: The Marching band's a hit. People love the Marching band.

535
00:30:46,440 --> 00:30:49,240
Speaker 2: You know, the Marching band. I love a parade, and.

536
00:30:49,320 --> 00:30:52,840
Speaker 1: They also love the songs that are being played, you know,

537
00:30:52,960 --> 00:30:58,240
Speaker 1: school fight songs, patriotic songs, all the hits, right, So

538
00:30:58,400 --> 00:31:01,680
Speaker 1: that is a guaranteed winner on the ticket. And then

539
00:31:02,240 --> 00:31:07,240
Speaker 1: they mainly kept it to for the first couple of years.

540
00:31:07,240 --> 00:31:10,880
Speaker 1: They mainly kept it to area high school bands.

541
00:31:11,400 --> 00:31:14,920
Speaker 2: If I'm not mistaken, our dear friend and colleague and

542
00:31:14,920 --> 00:31:17,360
Speaker 2: stuff that I want you to know. Matt Frederick, Yeah,

543
00:31:17,560 --> 00:31:21,280
Speaker 2: participated in a Super Bowl as a member of a

544
00:31:21,400 --> 00:31:23,680
Speaker 2: marching band here in Atlanta.

545
00:31:23,800 --> 00:31:25,920
Speaker 1: That's correct, and you can hear him tell stories about

546
00:31:25,920 --> 00:31:29,480
Speaker 1: that on that show over the years.

547
00:31:29,480 --> 00:31:30,280
Speaker 2: It's a great story.

548
00:31:30,440 --> 00:31:32,920
Speaker 1: It's an awesome storyteller, and he's got an inside look

549
00:31:32,960 --> 00:31:36,120
Speaker 1: that I think we all appreciate. You can hear, I

550
00:31:36,160 --> 00:31:39,720
Speaker 1: believe it's on our episodes about whether or not all

551
00:31:39,760 --> 00:31:40,760
Speaker 1: sports are rigged.

552
00:31:40,840 --> 00:31:43,560
Speaker 2: That's right, and that's stuff they don't want you to

553
00:31:43,680 --> 00:31:46,280
Speaker 2: know the podcast, But yeah, it's true. The NFL really

554
00:31:46,280 --> 00:31:47,880
Speaker 2: did try to stick to this kind of tried and

555
00:31:47,920 --> 00:31:50,640
Speaker 2: true formula. And it's kind of interesting too considering where

556
00:31:50,720 --> 00:31:53,440
Speaker 2: they went in terms of like these bands and all

557
00:31:53,440 --> 00:31:56,200
Speaker 2: of these medleys and stuff. It kind of started that way.

558
00:31:56,280 --> 00:31:58,240
Speaker 2: You know. When I say bands, I mean like rock

559
00:31:58,280 --> 00:32:02,080
Speaker 2: bands and like big pop artists. The initial days of

560
00:32:02,120 --> 00:32:05,600
Speaker 2: the Super Bowl were still kind of this weird jukebox musical.

561
00:32:05,880 --> 00:32:09,960
Speaker 2: They just weren't performed by the actual artists themselves.

562
00:32:10,320 --> 00:32:13,600
Speaker 1: Yeah, and if we go to nineteen seventy, when the

563
00:32:13,720 --> 00:32:19,800
Speaker 1: NFL officially reaches its final form, we see that the

564
00:32:19,840 --> 00:32:23,320
Speaker 1: city of New Orleans tried to spice it up a little,

565
00:32:23,480 --> 00:32:27,280
Speaker 1: you know, add their own jug to it. Is that

566
00:32:27,320 --> 00:32:34,360
Speaker 1: what rights and it went terribly was it was an

567
00:32:34,440 --> 00:32:39,280
Speaker 1: utter disaster. An hour before the fourth Super Bowl in

568
00:32:39,600 --> 00:32:43,720
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy, it's Kansas City and Minnesota playing in New Orleans.

569
00:32:44,480 --> 00:32:48,600
Speaker 1: The weather Bureau says, hey, there might be some tornadoes

570
00:32:48,640 --> 00:32:52,600
Speaker 1: on the way, and they say, oh, that's a pickle

571
00:32:52,920 --> 00:32:55,800
Speaker 1: because we were hoping to land the mascot of the

572
00:32:55,880 --> 00:32:59,520
Speaker 1: Vikings in a hot air balloon. They did land, just

573
00:32:59,600 --> 00:33:01,960
Speaker 1: not where they wanted and not how they wanted. The

574
00:33:02,040 --> 00:33:05,760
Speaker 1: balloon crashes into the stands. No injuries.

575
00:33:05,920 --> 00:33:07,719
Speaker 2: I was hoping it made it to the Land of Oz.

576
00:33:08,680 --> 00:33:09,400
Speaker 1: Unfortunately.

577
00:33:09,640 --> 00:33:12,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a twista. And then all of a sudden,

578
00:33:12,080 --> 00:33:13,880
Speaker 2: the Wizard of Oz is now like a dude in

579
00:33:13,960 --> 00:33:17,400
Speaker 2: like a Viking costume. That would be a fun alternate

580
00:33:17,480 --> 00:33:19,080
Speaker 2: reality version of that story.

581
00:33:19,360 --> 00:33:23,080
Speaker 1: You got to take the ruby jockstrap.

582
00:33:22,720 --> 00:33:25,960
Speaker 2: There you go. Oh man, poor Mike Tyson. By the way,

583
00:33:26,000 --> 00:33:28,880
Speaker 2: can we just talk really quickly? They're talking. Yes, they

584
00:33:28,920 --> 00:33:32,480
Speaker 2: did him dirty man with that jockstrap interview with his

585
00:33:32,560 --> 00:33:33,240
Speaker 2: butt hanging out.

586
00:33:33,240 --> 00:33:36,680
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, where he told that kid everybody dies.

587
00:33:36,800 --> 00:33:39,240
Speaker 2: Well, that's a different story. If he had been doing

588
00:33:39,240 --> 00:33:41,520
Speaker 2: that one in a jockstrap, that would have been doubly weird.

589
00:33:41,680 --> 00:33:43,880
Speaker 2: I call that one like a reverse Wonder Shows, and

590
00:33:43,920 --> 00:33:46,760
Speaker 2: instead of the kids saying weird existential dread stuff to

591
00:33:46,800 --> 00:33:48,760
Speaker 2: an adult, it's the other way around, y'all. If you

592
00:33:48,760 --> 00:33:50,760
Speaker 2: haven't seen this, looking up, its Mike Tyson talking to

593
00:33:50,800 --> 00:33:53,000
Speaker 2: a little kid who's just excited to be there and

594
00:33:53,160 --> 00:33:55,480
Speaker 2: is like, what do you want to leave behind for

595
00:33:55,560 --> 00:33:57,880
Speaker 2: your legacy? It's like we all are just dead. It's

596
00:33:57,920 --> 00:34:01,160
Speaker 2: a big black nothing sounded like Tony Prano's mom to

597
00:34:01,240 --> 00:34:04,440
Speaker 2: this little She's like, thank you so much for that perspective.

598
00:34:04,960 --> 00:34:08,520
Speaker 2: He wasn't being rude to this. He was looking dead

599
00:34:08,600 --> 00:34:11,000
Speaker 2: in her eyes though, I mean it was intense.

600
00:34:11,320 --> 00:34:13,560
Speaker 1: He wasn't talking down to her. I think he was

601
00:34:13,560 --> 00:34:16,359
Speaker 1: trying to give her some hard Tyson truth.

602
00:34:16,520 --> 00:34:19,560
Speaker 2: I know, man, like, yeah, thanks for crushing my dreams,

603
00:34:19,640 --> 00:34:20,360
Speaker 2: Mike Tyson.

604
00:34:20,719 --> 00:34:23,800
Speaker 1: You could have gone different directions. But he got his check.

605
00:34:24,520 --> 00:34:29,440
Speaker 1: They all got paid. He's fifty eight and will hopefully

606
00:34:29,480 --> 00:34:36,240
Speaker 1: retire comfortably. But also Netflix fix your streaming. Yeah, point

607
00:34:36,280 --> 00:34:36,560
Speaker 1: that out.

608
00:34:36,640 --> 00:34:38,560
Speaker 2: Oh you know, I was. I was actually at a

609
00:34:38,600 --> 00:34:40,080
Speaker 2: concert when it was happening. It was just kind of

610
00:34:40,080 --> 00:34:43,239
Speaker 2: getting the live tweet updates or whatever. But it does

611
00:34:43,280 --> 00:34:46,280
Speaker 2: seem if we're talking about conspiracies. A lot of people

612
00:34:46,360 --> 00:34:49,600
Speaker 2: do feel like he went a little easy and took

613
00:34:49,640 --> 00:34:52,480
Speaker 2: some punches, and there's some video of him kind of

614
00:34:53,080 --> 00:34:56,279
Speaker 2: you know, popping around, popping around. Yeah, but again he

615
00:34:56,320 --> 00:34:58,480
Speaker 2: also did seem to lack the mobility.

616
00:34:58,840 --> 00:35:01,640
Speaker 1: Yeah, and having a career that's very punishing to your

617
00:35:01,640 --> 00:35:07,640
Speaker 1: body for decades. Anyway, they don't We could do a

618
00:35:07,760 --> 00:35:10,600
Speaker 1: history of boxing too, that'd be I'm starting out. I

619
00:35:10,600 --> 00:35:11,800
Speaker 1: think I'm a sport too. Now, I think I'm a

620
00:35:11,800 --> 00:35:14,560
Speaker 1: sport to now put on the list. All right, Yes,

621
00:35:15,239 --> 00:35:17,480
Speaker 1: I'm glad. Well, I welcome you on your journey. I

622
00:35:17,800 --> 00:35:20,360
Speaker 1: can't wait to learn about more obscure sports with you.

623
00:35:20,400 --> 00:35:22,880
Speaker 1: I like the obscure ones. I kind of want to

624
00:35:22,920 --> 00:35:26,000
Speaker 1: see a Buskashi game. I don't know, we'll see if

625
00:35:26,040 --> 00:35:31,560
Speaker 1: they tour the US. Good luck getting in and getting out.

626
00:35:31,719 --> 00:35:37,480
Speaker 1: So the halftime show, the halftime show where the Viking

627
00:35:37,600 --> 00:35:40,520
Speaker 1: mascot invades the stands. No one's injured.

628
00:35:40,760 --> 00:35:44,280
Speaker 2: Everybody panics O because he plops down in the stands

629
00:35:44,360 --> 00:35:48,240
Speaker 2: in thet air balloon. Yes, yeah, the balloon is dangerous.

630
00:35:48,280 --> 00:35:49,080
Speaker 2: Those things are big.

631
00:35:49,400 --> 00:35:51,960
Speaker 1: Yeah, it doesn't land where're supposed to landd and even

632
00:35:52,040 --> 00:35:55,760
Speaker 1: before then, we know from our pal Stephen would a history.

633
00:35:55,800 --> 00:35:58,799
Speaker 1: Even before then, there was a bad vibe on the game.

634
00:35:59,200 --> 00:36:02,680
Speaker 1: The national anthem that has performed during all of these

635
00:36:02,719 --> 00:36:07,120
Speaker 1: games is a flop. They have like a spoken word

636
00:36:07,560 --> 00:36:11,600
Speaker 1: kind of Shatner version of the national anthem.

637
00:36:11,840 --> 00:36:17,000
Speaker 2: Oh say can you see yes by the dogs? Yes,

638
00:36:18,239 --> 00:36:20,840
Speaker 2: Brian though he must have been big at the time.

639
00:36:21,239 --> 00:36:25,160
Speaker 2: Let's see Pat O'Brien film actor, one hundred screen credits

640
00:36:25,200 --> 00:36:29,640
Speaker 2: to his name, Irish American actors in though he was

641
00:36:29,760 --> 00:36:30,799
Speaker 2: Angels with dirty face.

642
00:36:30,840 --> 00:36:32,120
Speaker 1: Oh, some like a hot he was.

643
00:36:32,200 --> 00:36:34,560
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, yeah, yah, some like it hot. He was

644
00:36:35,160 --> 00:36:37,680
Speaker 2: paired with James Cagney a lot. It would seem so

645
00:36:37,760 --> 00:36:41,640
Speaker 2: kind of a Golden era Hollywood actor past his prime.

646
00:36:41,680 --> 00:36:43,480
Speaker 2: He would have been kind of trotted out as sort

647
00:36:43,520 --> 00:36:48,560
Speaker 2: of like a legacy type, you know, piece of Americana. Yeah. Yeah.

648
00:36:48,600 --> 00:36:51,200
Speaker 1: He was born in eighteen ninety nine, so he's a

649
00:36:51,200 --> 00:36:53,160
Speaker 1: little up there in years by the time we get

650
00:36:53,200 --> 00:36:56,759
Speaker 1: to nineteen seventy, which might explain why he was doing

651
00:36:56,800 --> 00:36:59,480
Speaker 1: spoken word and not singing. He was also called Hollywood's

652
00:36:59,480 --> 00:37:01,080
Speaker 1: Irishman in residence.

653
00:37:01,160 --> 00:37:03,400
Speaker 2: Okay, can we also just say really quickly, since we

654
00:37:03,400 --> 00:37:05,680
Speaker 2: were briefly talking about the Mandela effect, which is this

655
00:37:05,760 --> 00:37:09,439
Speaker 2: idea that of people remember false memories of a thing

656
00:37:09,480 --> 00:37:12,640
Speaker 2: that did not actually occur, like the three Stooges performing

657
00:37:12,719 --> 00:37:16,480
Speaker 2: at the first Super Bowl halftime show. Kazam, Shazam and

658
00:37:16,560 --> 00:37:20,960
Speaker 2: Kazam any number, of course, named after the famous activist

659
00:37:21,000 --> 00:37:25,279
Speaker 2: politician freedom fighter Nelson Mandela, who many people believed had

660
00:37:25,320 --> 00:37:28,399
Speaker 2: died in prison, which was not in fact the case.

661
00:37:28,440 --> 00:37:29,479
Speaker 2: So that's where that comes from.

662
00:37:29,760 --> 00:37:31,960
Speaker 1: Check out our episode on this I'll give you, We'll

663
00:37:31,960 --> 00:37:34,640
Speaker 1: give you this spoiler. Some people also got confused to

664
00:37:34,719 --> 00:37:37,200
Speaker 1: call it the Mandala effect. And the whole reason the

665
00:37:37,239 --> 00:37:40,319
Speaker 1: Mandela effect got its name is because these people were

666
00:37:40,440 --> 00:37:43,440
Speaker 1: arguing about what really happened to Nelson Mandela, and they

667
00:37:43,440 --> 00:37:45,800
Speaker 1: were so set in their way about it that instead

668
00:37:45,840 --> 00:37:49,600
Speaker 1: of saying, Oops, maybe we were incorrect, they said, oh,

669
00:37:49,719 --> 00:37:53,239
Speaker 1: the past has changed and the multiverse is real, because

670
00:37:53,280 --> 00:37:55,759
Speaker 1: otherwise that would mean we were mistaken.

671
00:37:56,160 --> 00:37:59,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, that would be way too inconvenient. So for me,

672
00:37:59,440 --> 00:38:01,279
Speaker 2: I think I don't know if anybody else's experienced this.

673
00:38:01,880 --> 00:38:05,320
Speaker 2: Pat O'Brien was actually in a kind of noirresh gangster

674
00:38:05,440 --> 00:38:10,120
Speaker 2: movie with Jimmy Cagney called Angels with Dirty Faces that

675
00:38:10,480 --> 00:38:15,920
Speaker 2: I always got flipped with Angels with Filthy Souls, the

676
00:38:16,160 --> 00:38:21,000
Speaker 2: fake gangster movie from the Home Alone movies I believed

677
00:38:21,520 --> 00:38:25,080
Speaker 2: was real, and I was confirming that by the existence

678
00:38:25,120 --> 00:38:27,839
Speaker 2: of Angels with Dirty Faces, because I looked it up

679
00:38:27,840 --> 00:38:29,440
Speaker 2: and I thought that was the movie. But it was

680
00:38:29,480 --> 00:38:32,160
Speaker 2: actually Angel with Filthy Souls, which they shoot to look

681
00:38:32,360 --> 00:38:35,160
Speaker 2: very authentic, and the name is obviously a reference to this,

682
00:38:35,239 --> 00:38:38,680
Speaker 2: but no, that movie, in fact was created for the films.

683
00:38:38,560 --> 00:38:42,000
Speaker 1: And Angels with Dirty Faces starring Pad O'Brien, comes out

684
00:38:42,000 --> 00:38:44,799
Speaker 1: in nineteen thirty eight. He's probably more notable for some

685
00:38:44,960 --> 00:38:48,719
Speaker 1: like a Hot in nineteen fifty nine, but in this,

686
00:38:49,960 --> 00:38:52,480
Speaker 1: in this milieu, what we're telling you is there was

687
00:38:52,520 --> 00:38:55,480
Speaker 1: a celebrity at the top of this super Bowl, the

688
00:38:55,480 --> 00:38:59,560
Speaker 1: fourth Super Bowl, doing the spoken word, like a rendition

689
00:39:00,080 --> 00:39:03,880
Speaker 1: of the national anthem, and there's a trumpet player and

690
00:39:03,960 --> 00:39:06,879
Speaker 1: a marching band that are accompanying him. So he needs

691
00:39:06,880 --> 00:39:09,920
Speaker 1: a mic to be heard because there's a big crowd

692
00:39:09,960 --> 00:39:12,200
Speaker 1: as well, there are a lot of instruments around. His

693
00:39:12,360 --> 00:39:17,839
Speaker 1: mic cuts off as he's reading the national anthem? What

694
00:39:17,880 --> 00:39:20,800
Speaker 1: does the band do? It's just it's an awkward vibe,

695
00:39:20,840 --> 00:39:24,319
Speaker 1: which sometimes is worse than a scary vibe. And then

696
00:39:24,719 --> 00:39:27,600
Speaker 1: let's see we go through the game, first two quarters,

697
00:39:27,920 --> 00:39:33,799
Speaker 1: Kansas City is just running it. And then came the

698
00:39:33,920 --> 00:39:38,400
Speaker 1: halftime show, which one sports writer called a Roman circus.

699
00:39:38,440 --> 00:39:40,480
Speaker 1: You know why because they did a battle reenactment.

700
00:39:40,880 --> 00:39:44,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, but they kind of took some creative that's being

701
00:39:44,080 --> 00:39:48,040
Speaker 2: generous liberties. Let's just call them liberties. The Battle of

702
00:39:48,200 --> 00:39:53,719
Speaker 2: New Orleans history buffs may remember from history. This was

703
00:39:53,960 --> 00:40:00,680
Speaker 2: a reenactment of this historic battle, involving hundreds of re tours,

704
00:40:01,160 --> 00:40:05,920
Speaker 2: a recreation of the white stallion of Andrew Jackson. Not

705
00:40:06,000 --> 00:40:09,920
Speaker 2: a good guy by the way, Andrew Jackson, very very racist,

706
00:40:10,120 --> 00:40:13,279
Speaker 2: horrible figure, but at the time I think maybe he

707
00:40:13,360 --> 00:40:15,839
Speaker 2: still had some sheen to him because this was kind

708
00:40:15,880 --> 00:40:17,719
Speaker 2: of meant this is there was not really a partisan

709
00:40:17,800 --> 00:40:20,239
Speaker 2: aspects to this game. I think they were doing this

710
00:40:20,320 --> 00:40:23,600
Speaker 2: or intending this to appeal to everyone, which is interesting

711
00:40:23,600 --> 00:40:27,359
Speaker 2: because nowadays it seems like it's to be way off base. Right.

712
00:40:27,480 --> 00:40:31,840
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would agree that saying taking creative liberties is

713
00:40:31,920 --> 00:40:37,640
Speaker 1: perhaps a bit too diplomatic. Their quote unquote reenactment that

714
00:40:37,760 --> 00:40:41,000
Speaker 1: had hundreds and hundreds of participants, it was a lot

715
00:40:41,080 --> 00:40:44,520
Speaker 1: more like someone with too much money had once had

716
00:40:44,520 --> 00:40:49,719
Speaker 1: a conversation about the Battle of New Orleans and then said, okay, yeah,

717
00:40:49,800 --> 00:40:52,239
Speaker 1: let's do So there were definitely cannons.

718
00:40:52,320 --> 00:40:55,400
Speaker 2: I had to be it was making really loud. That'll

719
00:40:55,440 --> 00:40:57,640
Speaker 2: be a nice spectacle. It's interesting though, too, because that

720
00:40:57,719 --> 00:41:01,280
Speaker 2: Roman circus comment that you mentioned, you know, they would

721
00:41:01,400 --> 00:41:04,279
Speaker 2: in Roman colisseums, they would flood them at times, and

722
00:41:04,360 --> 00:41:07,399
Speaker 2: like reenact sea battles and things like that. And I've

723
00:41:07,440 --> 00:41:09,520
Speaker 2: always I'm sure this isn't like a unique take, but

724
00:41:09,880 --> 00:41:13,879
Speaker 2: kind of likened football and the spectacle of it all

725
00:41:14,040 --> 00:41:16,640
Speaker 2: to like gladiator battles, and like, you know, you are

726
00:41:16,680 --> 00:41:20,319
Speaker 2: literally doing it in a Roman style colosseum. So this

727
00:41:20,719 --> 00:41:23,520
Speaker 2: I guess maybe there was somebody involved that thought this

728
00:41:23,640 --> 00:41:26,680
Speaker 2: made sense, let's bring it back to our history but

729
00:41:26,800 --> 00:41:29,600
Speaker 2: also nod to the history that kind of you know,

730
00:41:29,880 --> 00:41:32,640
Speaker 2: led to this type of spectacle. But they did a

731
00:41:32,640 --> 00:41:33,600
Speaker 2: pretty bad job.

732
00:41:34,280 --> 00:41:37,840
Speaker 1: Yeah, because you know, whenever you're about to get high fallutin,

733
00:41:38,040 --> 00:41:40,200
Speaker 1: you have to ask yourself, should I just stick with

734
00:41:40,320 --> 00:41:41,240
Speaker 1: regular fllutin?

735
00:41:41,400 --> 00:41:44,759
Speaker 2: I love getting high fallutin. It's this so we know.

736
00:41:44,920 --> 00:41:51,360
Speaker 1: That the the reenactment was uh not really great because

737
00:41:51,960 --> 00:41:55,880
Speaker 1: the Andrew Jackson, the horse that Andrew Jackson was riding,

738
00:41:57,200 --> 00:42:00,840
Speaker 1: just bolted and freaked out when they exploded these cannons.

739
00:42:00,880 --> 00:42:07,560
Speaker 1: Imagine that right, And there was a weird twist. I

740
00:42:07,640 --> 00:42:11,359
Speaker 1: guess they're trying to invoke their own Mandela effect the

741
00:42:11,520 --> 00:42:15,720
Speaker 1: Yanks and the Frenchmen in the Battle of New Orleans.

742
00:42:15,760 --> 00:42:18,879
Speaker 1: The re enactors are sprawled on the ground, fake dead,

743
00:42:19,200 --> 00:42:21,640
Speaker 1: but the red coated British are still just fire and

744
00:42:21,680 --> 00:42:27,360
Speaker 1: away zippity doo dah falutin high and an opera singer

745
00:42:27,880 --> 00:42:32,920
Speaker 1: is singing Basin Street blues during this halftime circus in

746
00:42:33,040 --> 00:42:36,760
Speaker 1: the Sugar Bowl. But even though she's an opera singer,

747
00:42:36,920 --> 00:42:40,920
Speaker 1: trumpets are loud and another trumpet player drowns her out.

748
00:42:41,960 --> 00:42:47,239
Speaker 1: A newspaper column list and sports fans alike don't love this.

749
00:42:47,680 --> 00:42:50,400
Speaker 1: It feels like the pendulum has swung too far in

750
00:42:50,480 --> 00:42:54,320
Speaker 1: the direction of the halftime show instead of the actual show,

751
00:42:54,640 --> 00:42:58,960
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl. One sports writer damned it with faint praise, saying,

752
00:42:59,360 --> 00:43:02,960
Speaker 1: fortunately they sneaked a football game in between. Well that

753
00:43:03,120 --> 00:43:09,280
Speaker 1: jazz they sneaked, wouldn't it be snuck? Well, yeah, maybe

754
00:43:09,320 --> 00:43:11,279
Speaker 1: this is an old timy way of saying I get it. No,

755
00:43:11,360 --> 00:43:13,479
Speaker 1: but that's funny though, because like it really that does

756
00:43:13,600 --> 00:43:17,319
Speaker 1: kind of to some seem like what it's become, like

757
00:43:17,440 --> 00:43:22,040
Speaker 1: the game is almost an afterthought compared to the advertisements

758
00:43:22,080 --> 00:43:26,520
Speaker 1: and the halftime show. And we know the next series

759
00:43:26,560 --> 00:43:30,880
Speaker 1: of Super Bowl performances tried to course correct, to swing

760
00:43:30,920 --> 00:43:34,680
Speaker 1: the pendulum back to the stuff that you worked, local

761
00:43:34,719 --> 00:43:39,040
Speaker 1: marching bands. There were exceptions where they had folks dance

762
00:43:39,120 --> 00:43:43,479
Speaker 1: on a giant birthday cake, like the nineteen seventy six

763
00:43:43,560 --> 00:43:46,279
Speaker 1: celebration of America's founding with.

764
00:43:46,280 --> 00:43:50,040
Speaker 2: Like a showgirl popping out wearing feathers and diamonds. I

765
00:43:50,040 --> 00:43:52,200
Speaker 2: think they were dancing on the cames on it, Okay,

766
00:43:52,239 --> 00:43:54,880
Speaker 2: I just love I love someone emerging from a giant

767
00:43:54,880 --> 00:43:57,800
Speaker 2: fake birthday cake. Oh yeah, we have an episode about

768
00:43:57,800 --> 00:44:00,759
Speaker 2: how messed up that past is, don't Oh we do.

769
00:44:00,880 --> 00:44:04,680
Speaker 2: There was an unfortunate event, I believe where a woman

770
00:44:04,760 --> 00:44:07,640
Speaker 2: did not in fact make it out of the birthday cake.

771
00:44:08,080 --> 00:44:10,080
Speaker 1: But when it works is normal. It's a fun time.

772
00:44:10,120 --> 00:44:11,880
Speaker 2: It's a lot of fun, and you know, they've come

773
00:44:11,920 --> 00:44:16,280
Speaker 2: a long way in birthday cake emerging safety those days.

774
00:44:16,680 --> 00:44:19,840
Speaker 1: And there were other you know, funny one offs in

775
00:44:19,960 --> 00:44:25,759
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy nine, they were trying to parade around a

776
00:44:25,840 --> 00:44:29,440
Speaker 1: float called Salute to the Caribbean, but they snagged a

777
00:44:29,480 --> 00:44:31,840
Speaker 1: goalpost and they couldn't get it off the field. That

778
00:44:32,040 --> 00:44:35,640
Speaker 1: was more of a funny thing. And then of course

779
00:44:35,719 --> 00:44:40,400
Speaker 1: fans storming the stage in nineteen eighty two, it looked

780
00:44:40,480 --> 00:44:43,200
Speaker 1: like they were just invading. Looked like a riot was

781
00:44:43,239 --> 00:44:46,600
Speaker 1: on the way. And then just like that improv Everywhere group,

782
00:44:46,920 --> 00:44:48,959
Speaker 1: they broke out into a choreograph dance.

783
00:44:49,040 --> 00:44:52,520
Speaker 2: It's just like the original flash Mob. Yeah, like flash Mob, Okay,

784
00:44:53,040 --> 00:44:55,400
Speaker 2: And then you start getting a little bit more corporate

785
00:44:55,480 --> 00:44:58,480
Speaker 2: where you start having some crossovers or let's call them

786
00:44:58,560 --> 00:45:04,320
Speaker 2: collabse with other massive entertainment leviathans like the Walt Disney

787
00:45:04,320 --> 00:45:09,640
Speaker 2: Company in nineteen eighty four participated in staging a massive

788
00:45:09,680 --> 00:45:14,440
Speaker 2: performance that included Mickey Mouse himself. Than in nineteen eighty five,

789
00:45:15,960 --> 00:45:19,680
Speaker 2: we saw a show that had just about everything. They

790
00:45:19,719 --> 00:45:22,879
Speaker 2: really just threw everything at the wall and to see

791
00:45:22,880 --> 00:45:23,400
Speaker 2: what's stuck.

792
00:45:24,200 --> 00:45:27,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they learned that there is a law of

793
00:45:27,080 --> 00:45:32,160
Speaker 1: diminishing returns for variety shows that kicks in, especially when

794
00:45:32,239 --> 00:45:35,800
Speaker 1: you're a Matroshka dol format You're a show within a show,

795
00:45:36,080 --> 00:45:37,879
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, And it's important for them

796
00:45:37,920 --> 00:45:41,479
Speaker 1: to remember that. As the eighties wrap up and as

797
00:45:41,520 --> 00:45:45,120
Speaker 1: the super Bowl is getting its stadium sea legs, it

798
00:45:45,200 --> 00:45:49,320
Speaker 1: becomes more and more popular, and the traditional halftime show

799
00:45:49,520 --> 00:45:53,480
Speaker 1: becomes less and less popular because it's the same old thing.

800
00:45:53,800 --> 00:45:54,000
Speaker 2: Right.

801
00:45:54,320 --> 00:45:57,960
Speaker 1: I've heard somebody play this song, I know that marching

802
00:45:58,000 --> 00:45:58,920
Speaker 1: band this.

803
00:45:59,040 --> 00:46:02,759
Speaker 2: I've seen people dressed up in furry type costumes, you know,

804
00:46:03,080 --> 00:46:04,400
Speaker 2: prancing around the fields.

805
00:46:05,000 --> 00:46:08,759
Speaker 1: Yeah, a hot air balloon hitting the stands whatever. We

806
00:46:08,760 --> 00:46:10,040
Speaker 1: weirdly have that at home.

807
00:46:10,239 --> 00:46:13,160
Speaker 2: Been there, done that? No, it's true. And at this

808
00:46:13,200 --> 00:46:16,440
Speaker 2: point too, the game itself is really starting to hit

809
00:46:16,480 --> 00:46:20,120
Speaker 2: it stride and becoming massively popular, starting to approach that

810
00:46:20,320 --> 00:46:23,640
Speaker 2: level of sensation that we know it today. But the

811
00:46:24,000 --> 00:46:26,520
Speaker 2: halftime show just wasn't keeping up with that. So we

812
00:46:26,560 --> 00:46:29,440
Speaker 2: can probably pause right now, just before we get to

813
00:46:30,320 --> 00:46:32,520
Speaker 2: the modern super Bowl halftime show.

814
00:46:33,000 --> 00:46:37,319
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, and the madness that will ensue you. So

815
00:46:37,680 --> 00:46:40,400
Speaker 1: join us later this week for part two of the

816
00:46:40,480 --> 00:46:43,960
Speaker 1: history of the super Bowl halftime show. We want we

817
00:46:44,000 --> 00:46:46,200
Speaker 1: can't wait for your explorer with us, folks, We've got

818
00:46:46,200 --> 00:46:48,960
Speaker 1: you right to the right to the cusp as Nola's

819
00:46:48,960 --> 00:46:52,400
Speaker 1: saying of the more modern celebrations, Big big thanks to

820
00:46:53,320 --> 00:46:57,400
Speaker 1: Max Williams, our super producer, Big big thanks of course

821
00:46:57,440 --> 00:47:02,560
Speaker 1: to aj Bahamas. Jacob's big thanks to who's the football

822
00:47:02,600 --> 00:47:06,719
Speaker 1: team that needs the most like empathy? And you'll get

823
00:47:06,760 --> 00:47:07,399
Speaker 1: them next time?

824
00:47:07,480 --> 00:47:09,879
Speaker 2: Kind of the angel buffle built.

825
00:47:10,000 --> 00:47:11,760
Speaker 3: They lost four Super Bowls in the eighties.

826
00:47:11,920 --> 00:47:14,160
Speaker 2: All right, Well the Angels are a baseball seven and

827
00:47:14,200 --> 00:47:16,520
Speaker 2: I was thinking of angels in the outfield. Surely there's

828
00:47:16,520 --> 00:47:17,560
Speaker 2: a football equivalent.

829
00:47:18,160 --> 00:47:23,600
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, yeah, Bud Golden receiver, and and thank you

830
00:47:23,640 --> 00:47:25,839
Speaker 1: and good luck to the Buffalo Williams out there.

831
00:47:26,040 --> 00:47:29,400
Speaker 2: Can you also give huge thanks to Jonathan Strickland, the quiztor,

832
00:47:29,440 --> 00:47:32,560
Speaker 2: who quite often back in the day on his podcast

833
00:47:32,560 --> 00:47:37,319
Speaker 2: Tex Stuff would would talk about the hyper Bowl meaning hyperbole,

834
00:47:37,520 --> 00:47:40,920
Speaker 2: but as the hyper Bowl hyper Bowl would have been

835
00:47:40,920 --> 00:47:44,920
Speaker 2: a pretty cool futuristic name for a game like this.

836
00:47:45,400 --> 00:47:46,839
Speaker 2: Also stand by Mega Bowl.

837
00:47:47,239 --> 00:47:51,120
Speaker 1: Yeah it's still gonna happen. He's a big, big taste

838
00:47:51,160 --> 00:47:53,680
Speaker 1: to the quiztor, Big big taste to Alex Williams who

839
00:47:53,680 --> 00:47:56,319
Speaker 1: composed this slap and Bob who else know who else?

840
00:47:56,560 --> 00:47:58,600
Speaker 2: Christopher House you know us and he's Jeff Coats here

841
00:47:58,640 --> 00:48:03,920
Speaker 2: in spirit. Ben, thank you, thank you for co authoring

842
00:48:04,080 --> 00:48:07,240
Speaker 2: this amazing two part brief with our buddy and super

843
00:48:07,239 --> 00:48:09,560
Speaker 2: producer Max Williams. This has been a romp and I

844
00:48:09,600 --> 00:48:12,759
Speaker 2: look forward to getting into part two next.

845
00:48:12,920 --> 00:48:14,760
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is the cool part, folks.

846
00:48:14,800 --> 00:48:16,360
Speaker 2: So as we call it, as.

847
00:48:16,200 --> 00:48:18,120
Speaker 1: We call it a day, we like to take a

848
00:48:18,160 --> 00:48:21,600
Speaker 1: little break in between these What do you think our

849
00:48:21,760 --> 00:48:25,239
Speaker 1: halftime show is just just for the three of us

850
00:48:25,239 --> 00:48:25,920
Speaker 1: at our pets.

851
00:48:26,239 --> 00:48:28,880
Speaker 2: Well, I'm gonna go have a nice coffee and I

852
00:48:29,120 --> 00:48:33,920
Speaker 2: am going to do some strange statue reconstruction. Love that.

853
00:48:34,360 --> 00:48:43,920
Speaker 2: We'll see you next time, folks. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,

854
00:48:44,040 --> 00:48:47,280
Speaker 2: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen

855
00:48:47,320 --> 00:48:48,360
Speaker 2: to your favorite shows.