WEBVTT - Mad or Wise: Emperor Norton I 0:00:00.480 --> 0:00:03.920 Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio Zarah. 0:00:04.280 --> 0:00:08.160 Yes, Hell Hello, Sorry, I was buried under some interns. 0:00:08.240 --> 0:00:08.720 Oh were you? 0:00:08.960 --> 0:00:10.760 Yeah, you're having a cuttle fight. 0:00:12.160 --> 0:00:13.600 That's I'm gonna tell each charge. 0:00:13.640 --> 0:00:16.840 Oh that sounds bad. It sounds really their four legged interns. 0:00:16.840 --> 0:00:23.040 Elisam okay, well, okay, so bad. You know what's ridiculous? 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:24.040 Yes I do. 0:00:24.239 --> 0:00:25.720 Oh spill it, sister. 0:00:25.880 --> 0:00:28.880 Okay. So I was very excited to learn that the 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:32.320 Ghanaian seti, their unit of currency, was the world's best 0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:35.000 performing currency in twenty twenty five. Oh good, Yeah, that's 0:00:35.000 --> 0:00:37.840 not ridiculous. So that's good. But it did it searts 0:00:37.880 --> 0:00:39.880 nearly fifty percent in value against the US dollars. 0:00:39.920 --> 0:00:41.159 I'm suspicious, but this is good. 0:00:41.280 --> 0:00:44.680 Yeah. No, And then this has caused some problems back home. Right, 0:00:45.120 --> 0:00:49.040 so there are people who are not super fond of this, 0:00:49.400 --> 0:00:52.800 like well, for instance, the goods have become more expensive, 0:00:52.880 --> 0:00:53.960 like inflationary proper. 0:00:54.080 --> 0:00:54.320 Yeah. 0:00:54.400 --> 0:00:57.200 So there's a group of people who've been now petitioning 0:00:57.200 --> 0:01:02.320 the government for change, right and well, I'll just read 0:01:02.360 --> 0:01:04.600 it to you. They are The group is called the 0:01:04.640 --> 0:01:08.560 Ghana Drunkards Association, and they have issued a three week 0:01:08.640 --> 0:01:12.360 ultimatum to the government to reduce the price of alcoholic beverages. 0:01:12.920 --> 0:01:16.640 They claim to have sixteen million members nationwide and they're 0:01:16.640 --> 0:01:19.520 going to stage a massive demonstration if they're demand for 0:01:19.640 --> 0:01:22.960 lower priced alcohol and other drinks. They point out not 0:01:23.040 --> 0:01:26.520 just alcohol, but all these drinks are and to date, 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:28.880 quote the price of alcoholic drinks keeps going up. If 0:01:28.920 --> 0:01:31.399 you purchase alcohol, there's an increment about fifteen percent, and 0:01:31.440 --> 0:01:33.800 this affects vendors. We've learned that the set he has 0:01:33.840 --> 0:01:36.600 gained some strength, and prices of some items have been reduced. However, 0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:39.880 the cost of alcohol remains high. And so they're upset 0:01:39.920 --> 0:01:42.640 because they're like, this is part of our culture. So 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:45.520 I mean, they literally say that we have given them, 0:01:45.640 --> 0:01:47.960 the government a three week grace period to meet us 0:01:47.960 --> 0:01:50.120 so we can deliberate on how to reduce the prices 0:01:50.160 --> 0:01:53.360 of alcohol. They're a very serious group of drunkards, Elizabeth. 0:01:52.920 --> 0:01:56.520 And they're going to do a protest, yes, notably to 0:01:56.640 --> 0:01:58.000 boycott the alcohol. 0:01:58.200 --> 0:02:02.360 Well you know, no, no, come on, be ridiculous. Yeah, 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:04.680 but they said, we're not just concerned about drinking for fun. 0:02:04.760 --> 0:02:08.320 This is our livelihood and social fabric. When alcohol becomes 0:02:08.320 --> 0:02:13.480 too expensive, it affects our community and economy and culture. Yeah, 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:16.080 so they were talking to the Guinahan government good luck, 0:02:16.880 --> 0:02:20.399 con and Druggards Association Luck ridiculous. 0:02:20.600 --> 0:02:22.920 That is one hundred percent ridiculous. Do you want to 0:02:22.919 --> 0:02:26.440 know what else is ridiculous? Yeah, getting arrested for being 0:02:26.560 --> 0:02:29.720 crazy when the truth is Saren, We're all crazy. 0:02:29.919 --> 0:02:44.359 That's true, that's so true. 0:02:51.240 --> 0:02:57.119 This is Ridiculous Crime A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, 0:02:57.160 --> 0:03:01.400 heists and cons. It's always ny nine percent murder free 0:03:01.440 --> 0:03:04.360 and one hundred percent ridiculous. Yeah. 0:03:05.240 --> 0:03:06.119 You damn. 0:03:08.960 --> 0:03:12.120 Said before, and I'll say it again. Yes, I love 0:03:12.160 --> 0:03:15.440 a good character, you do. I love a good eccentric. 0:03:15.560 --> 0:03:16.880 You will text me when you find one. 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:21.160 We we need weirdos, you need them, and I feel 0:03:21.160 --> 0:03:25.079 like our current society seriously shuns them. You think so, well, Yeah, 0:03:25.280 --> 0:03:27.560 I'm talking about like genuine weirdos. 0:03:27.280 --> 0:03:29.320 Not people who want people doing it for the ground. 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:34.360 Yeah. And it's not attention seeking behavior and it's not 0:03:34.760 --> 0:03:36.320 negatively impacting others. 0:03:36.360 --> 0:03:38.480 Ah, it's so social mavericks. 0:03:38.560 --> 0:03:39.280 Yes, people who. 0:03:39.960 --> 0:03:41.040 Are they're just out there. 0:03:41.080 --> 0:03:42.520 They're like, I got to live by my own rules. 0:03:42.600 --> 0:03:45.280 Yeah, it ain't hurting nobody here in the Bay Area. 0:03:45.400 --> 0:03:48.720 That used to be common. Yes, people living on the fringe, 0:03:48.920 --> 0:03:53.560 like being aborious, like existing way beyond the present in 0:03:53.640 --> 0:03:55.640 terms of how they saw the world and the way 0:03:55.680 --> 0:03:56.400 they expressed them. 0:03:56.480 --> 0:03:58.600 A lot of rainbow children, Star warriors. 0:03:58.680 --> 0:04:00.800 Yeah, and that died out. It was it was run 0:04:00.800 --> 0:04:01.880 off by tech money. 0:04:02.000 --> 0:04:04.760 Really could honest literally could. 0:04:06.080 --> 0:04:08.960 Like the tech folks. They all wear the same clothes. 0:04:09.000 --> 0:04:11.440 And I'm painting with a broad brush purposefully. 0:04:11.560 --> 0:04:13.200 Of course, they like to eat. 0:04:13.040 --> 0:04:15.360 And shop at chain places because it will always be 0:04:15.360 --> 0:04:18.400 the same wherever they go at upscale chains. But you know, 0:04:18.440 --> 0:04:21.960 still sure, And don't say I'm overstating it, because I've 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:24.520 seen it with my own eyes, own. 0:04:24.360 --> 0:04:31.520 Eyes, you know, I've entered that into my Yeah, it's 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:33.400 part of the bit, I. 0:04:33.440 --> 0:04:35.159 Says, says I. 0:04:35.160 --> 0:04:37.760 I love that, Ah Streeter. 0:04:38.560 --> 0:04:41.880 So, in honor of the San Francisco weirdos, in honor 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:45.760 of the crazy dreamers everywhere, in honor of those who 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:49.719 create their own reality for the benefit of humankind, I 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:51.040 have a guy for you today. 0:04:51.200 --> 0:04:51.880 Who is it? 0:04:52.120 --> 0:04:55.800 This is an ode to an outsider in praise of 0:04:55.839 --> 0:04:59.680 the eccentriccentric. I mentioned this guy a little while ago, 0:04:59.720 --> 0:05:02.160 saying I should do an episode about him. This guy, 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:10.080 Joshua Abraham Norton aka Emperor Norton aka Norton, the first 0:05:10.200 --> 0:05:13.280 Emperor the United States and Protector of Mexico. 0:05:13.440 --> 0:05:13.960 Totally. 0:05:14.240 --> 0:05:18.080 He is one of my favorite San Francisco Gold Rush characters, 0:05:18.360 --> 0:05:21.040 and he's actually one of my favorite characters full stop. 0:05:21.360 --> 0:05:21.600 Large. 0:05:22.160 --> 0:05:24.479 A year or two ago, you invited me to come 0:05:24.520 --> 0:05:27.520 with you as you went on the Emperor Norton Historical 0:05:27.640 --> 0:05:28.839 walking Tour in San francs. 0:05:28.880 --> 0:05:28.960 Yes. 0:05:29.920 --> 0:05:31.400 It was like a private It was just. 0:05:31.480 --> 0:05:35.280 Us and the three of us walking around San Francisco. Good. 0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:38.800 Amazing, I was. It was not something I would have 0:05:38.839 --> 0:05:41.240 imagined that I'd love as much as I did. It 0:05:41.320 --> 0:05:45.440 was fascinating, engaging the guy who plays Norton totally fabulous 0:05:45.480 --> 0:05:48.320 if you ever have a chance to recommend it. So good. 0:05:48.920 --> 0:05:51.840 One thing that stuck with me when was when we 0:05:51.839 --> 0:05:54.080 were walking down the street, if we passed a cop 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:58.320 on foot, they'd salute the Emperor and say Emperor yes. Yeah, 0:05:58.400 --> 0:06:00.760 And apparently that's what cops back and the day did 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:04.000 for the real Emperor tition. Yeah. But when that's back 0:06:04.000 --> 0:06:07.600 when weirdos were allowed, so to have the cops today 0:06:07.640 --> 0:06:10.239 do the same thing for the guy leading a walking 0:06:10.240 --> 0:06:13.320 tour while in costume. Felt like a little slice of 0:06:13.360 --> 0:06:16.000 old San Francisco totally because the guy who plays Norton, 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:18.479 he's an eccentric type too. I love him. He's like 0:06:18.520 --> 0:06:19.400 classic San Francisco. 0:06:19.400 --> 0:06:21.640 He's a clamper too, so he's into the whole, like 0:06:21.760 --> 0:06:22.760 keeping things weird. 0:06:22.920 --> 0:06:26.120 Yes, and so it's eccentric San Francisco in my mind, 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:30.200 real San Francisco. So let me regale you with the 0:06:30.240 --> 0:06:32.240 tale of real Emperor Norse. 0:06:32.320 --> 0:06:32.880 I love this. 0:06:32.960 --> 0:06:36.480 Please no Norton. He was born in England to Jewish parents 0:06:36.480 --> 0:06:39.520 in eighteen eighteen. Okay, his dad was a farmer and 0:06:39.560 --> 0:06:42.039 then a merchant, and when he was two years old, 0:06:42.040 --> 0:06:45.279 his parents moved the family to South Africa. They went 0:06:45.360 --> 0:06:49.160 as part of this like colonial effort. British colonists were 0:06:49.160 --> 0:06:51.400 sent by the UK government to live in the Eastern 0:06:51.480 --> 0:06:52.679 Cape of South Africa. 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:54.840 Okay, yeah, they're trying to take over for the Boers 0:06:54.960 --> 0:06:55.520 that yeah. 0:06:55.760 --> 0:06:58.640 So by eighteen thirty nine he was living in Port Elizabeth, 0:06:59.080 --> 0:07:01.680 South Africa. He and his brother in law started a 0:07:01.720 --> 0:07:04.599 business together but it flopped and then it lasted only 0:07:04.600 --> 0:07:06.479 like a year and a half. He bummed around, He 0:07:06.560 --> 0:07:08.560 worked for his dad for a little bit, and then 0:07:08.560 --> 0:07:11.040 he was like an auctioneer. But then he had this 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:13.160 urge to move, so he hopped on a ship to 0:07:13.240 --> 0:07:17.000 Liverpool and from there he headed to Boston. Shipping up 0:07:17.040 --> 0:07:20.920 to Boston. That was like eighteen forty six or so. 0:07:21.000 --> 0:07:24.600 By eighteen forty nine, the fateful year of gold discovery 0:07:24.600 --> 0:07:27.920 in the Hills, Norton was in San Francisco already. Oh yeah, 0:07:28.000 --> 0:07:32.600 he was there. So later accounts would say, quote in 0:07:32.680 --> 0:07:36.160 eighteen forty nine, on the fifth day of November, Norton 0:07:36.240 --> 0:07:38.559 arrived in San Francisco from the Cape of Good Hope 0:07:38.640 --> 0:07:42.720 via Rio de Janio and Valparaiso. So legend was that 0:07:42.760 --> 0:07:45.840 he arrived in San Francisco with forty thousand dollars on him. 0:07:46.080 --> 0:07:46.440 Damn. 0:07:46.880 --> 0:07:49.400 There is also a speculation that in between Boston and 0:07:49.400 --> 0:07:52.160 San Francisco it was like three year period that he'd 0:07:52.200 --> 0:07:54.760 stopped off in South America and done business there and 0:07:54.880 --> 0:07:58.160 made serious cash. So whether like the some thought that 0:07:58.200 --> 0:08:00.600 the forty thousand was like an inherent tints from his 0:08:00.680 --> 0:08:04.200 father either way, or if it's just like a juiced 0:08:04.240 --> 0:08:05.880 up version, we can only speculate either way. 0:08:06.040 --> 0:08:06.600 He's got stack. 0:08:06.800 --> 0:08:10.080 He's got stacks. This author, Theodore Kertschoff. He wrote a 0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:13.560 series of essays in eighteen eighty six in German called 0:08:14.360 --> 0:08:19.480 Californish Colt will be the I'm saying, so it looks 0:08:19.520 --> 0:08:25.440 like Californish culture builder. Okay, but it's like cult Bielda. Anyway, 0:08:25.720 --> 0:08:27.960 it's an amazing name. I want our friend Derek to 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:29.440 make a vehicle named after that. 0:08:32.880 --> 0:08:35.520 My German friend Derek, you are, you know, beloved. 0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:38.560 He's a major friend of the show. He's like, he's 0:08:38.600 --> 0:08:41.599 an honorary intern. Really, I'd say so, even though he 0:08:41.640 --> 0:08:42.920 has two legs and so forth. 0:08:43.200 --> 0:08:43.680 It's true. 0:08:43.760 --> 0:08:48.720 Yeah. So anyway, it translates to Californian cultural images. Oh 0:08:49.000 --> 0:08:51.520 not California culture Builder, which I think is cooler, but 0:08:51.679 --> 0:08:52.480 either way sounds good. 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:52.800 Yeah. 0:08:52.840 --> 0:08:55.599 So he said that Norton was one of seven passengers 0:08:55.640 --> 0:08:59.040 aboard the steamer Francesca out of Rio headed for the 0:08:59.080 --> 0:09:01.640 Bay San Francisco Bay on the twenty third of November 0:09:01.679 --> 0:09:04.679 eighteen forty nine, and so that that was a gold 0:09:04.720 --> 0:09:08.319 fever boat, right. Yeah, we have records that the boat arrived, 0:09:08.320 --> 0:09:10.319 but not who was on it. And that was really 0:09:10.360 --> 0:09:12.280 really common at the time. It was just a free 0:09:12.320 --> 0:09:12.600 for all. 0:09:12.679 --> 0:09:14.280 Yeah, I'm sure that the purser jumped ship. 0:09:14.360 --> 0:09:17.400 Yeah yeah, there's no immigration station there nothing. You just 0:09:17.520 --> 0:09:18.840 jump off the boat and run. 0:09:18.640 --> 0:09:20.600 Because it's not a state closed down. 0:09:20.640 --> 0:09:23.520 You're like, and there's a record of ships, but that's 0:09:23.520 --> 0:09:26.840 because they were hauling cargo and stuff like that. So 0:09:26.960 --> 0:09:29.360 let's go with this as our truth here. That's how 0:09:29.400 --> 0:09:31.800 he got there. So no matter how it happened, he 0:09:31.920 --> 0:09:34.920 wasted no time setting up shop. He set up a 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:38.080 real estate and import business called Joshua Norton and Company. 0:09:38.400 --> 0:09:42.000 That's as plexible title. And it was a success. In 0:09:42.120 --> 0:09:44.680 just three years. He turned a two to a four, 0:09:44.800 --> 0:09:48.000 turned a four to an eighth. So what was forty 0:09:48.040 --> 0:09:50.240 grand when he first got here? By eighteen fifty one 0:09:50.280 --> 0:09:52.760 he had two hundred and fifty grand. Wow, that's more 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:55.000 than eight million dollars today. Damn. 0:09:55.080 --> 0:09:58.080 He's not a businessman, he's a business man. Yeah. 0:09:58.440 --> 0:10:01.800 So Norton from just another guy showing up to the 0:10:01.800 --> 0:10:06.160 gold Rush to like a successful businessman respected by the community. 0:10:06.640 --> 0:10:09.240 He was in with the city's elites. He joined all 0:10:09.280 --> 0:10:14.040 the good social clubs. The Swells invited him to all 0:10:14.040 --> 0:10:17.400 these amazing parties, he networked with the best of them. 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:21.040 He had totally made it in this fantastic boom town. 0:10:21.640 --> 0:10:23.640 But saren, Yeah, it wouldn't last. 0:10:23.840 --> 0:10:24.560 Oh what happened? 0:10:24.600 --> 0:10:27.920 He made all the right choices until he didn't. What 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:29.880 can we explain this to you? 0:10:29.440 --> 0:10:32.240 You see, I wonder where he could go wrong. He's 0:10:32.280 --> 0:10:33.720 doing so well. 0:10:33.440 --> 0:10:37.079 It's amazing. Okay. So eighteen fifty two, there's a famine 0:10:37.120 --> 0:10:40.480 in China. Things are dire so coming out of the 0:10:40.480 --> 0:10:43.480 First Opium War in the Treaty of Nanking, the Chinese 0:10:43.480 --> 0:10:46.400 were on the losing end of that agreement with the British, 0:10:46.600 --> 0:10:51.400 and so you add in then the Taiping Rebellion, there's 0:10:51.440 --> 0:10:54.760 a drought. So between eighteen fifty one and eighteen seventy three, 0:10:55.000 --> 0:10:58.440 ten to thirty million people died of starvation. They're just 0:10:58.520 --> 0:10:59.600 not they do. Don't have it. 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:01.280 Humiliations, they call it. 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:05.160 Right. So there's a rice shortage in San Francisco. Okay, 0:11:05.920 --> 0:11:09.120 rice prices as a result of this, rice prices. 0:11:08.840 --> 0:11:10.440 Spiked because all the rice is going to China. 0:11:10.559 --> 0:11:12.680 It's coming it was coming from China. 0:11:13.200 --> 0:11:15.280 Oh, and they're just holding they're just holding onto their own. 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:17.880 Yeah, they didn't have the rice production in California, like they. 0:11:17.760 --> 0:11:21.680 Have Oh, interesting, so that's a more modern Yeah yeah. 0:11:21.920 --> 0:11:23.760 So I mean there really there was nothing going on 0:11:23.800 --> 0:11:24.680 in Central Valley. 0:11:24.840 --> 0:11:27.559 Like that's why I thought they got to feed people 0:11:27.679 --> 0:11:29.000 that rice is a cheap starch. 0:11:29.160 --> 0:11:31.959 Yeah. So the rice prices it was, they were up 0:11:32.080 --> 0:11:36.760 nine hundred percent. Yeah. An importer came to Norton and said, look, 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:41.440 I had this huge opportunity. You can corner the market 0:11:41.440 --> 0:11:44.400 on rice in San Francisco. There's a shipment of rice 0:11:44.480 --> 0:11:47.959 coming from Peru, and you can buy it at twelve 0:11:48.000 --> 0:11:50.600 and a half cents a pound as opposed to the 0:11:50.600 --> 0:11:53.400 going rate of thirty six cents a pound. Huh, and 0:11:53.440 --> 0:11:55.640 it's only Yeah, it's going to cost you twenty five 0:11:55.720 --> 0:11:59.120 grand and then you can flip it. So he's like, yeah, 0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:02.920 it gives them a two grand deposit on the contract. 0:12:03.200 --> 0:12:06.000 The boat was scheduled to arrive December twenty second, eighteen 0:12:06.080 --> 0:12:09.240 fifty two. He was stoked. He was about to make 0:12:09.360 --> 0:12:12.720 serious cash. He had the cash on delivery money ready. 0:12:12.760 --> 0:12:16.920 Twenty three thousand dollars. Ship comes into harbor, unloads, Norton 0:12:16.920 --> 0:12:20.560 pays up. He's sitting on white gold seriously. But then 0:12:20.640 --> 0:12:24.720 more ships started showing up from Peru and full of rice. 0:12:25.320 --> 0:12:30.040 Oh so that wasn't the that was the only one shift. 0:12:29.840 --> 0:12:33.000 After another with way better rice on board. 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:34.600 That's all I was thinking is that anywhere the Spanish 0:12:34.600 --> 0:12:36.480 would have been there were they would have had rice 0:12:36.520 --> 0:12:38.200 start being cultivated exactly. 0:12:38.440 --> 0:12:42.400 So he gets America like it's like the crud rice, 0:12:42.840 --> 0:12:43.480 and then like the. 0:12:43.400 --> 0:12:45.719 Goods, he doesn't even get the goods st No, so the. 0:12:45.640 --> 0:12:48.400 Good stuff starts, you know, coming in the market's flooded. 0:12:48.800 --> 0:12:51.800 Rice goes down to three cents a pounds and he 0:12:51.880 --> 0:12:54.320 is thinking he's buying it at twelve and a half cents. 0:12:54.559 --> 0:12:58.640 So Buddy's underwater on a boatload of subpar res. He'd 0:12:58.679 --> 0:13:02.240 been had bamboozled, so he tried to get the contract 0:13:02.320 --> 0:13:05.720 nullified on the grounds of fraud. The fight went to court, 0:13:05.840 --> 0:13:07.959 wound its way through there for two years, and it 0:13:08.080 --> 0:13:09.199 wasn't a cheap fight. 0:13:09.520 --> 0:13:10.760 No, he's got paid the legal. 0:13:10.920 --> 0:13:15.240 Cost him and then bankrupted him. Basically. In October of 0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:18.640 eighteen fifty four, he finally lost. The California Supreme Court 0:13:18.720 --> 0:13:22.679 ruled that the contract held What Yeah, so there he is, 0:13:22.840 --> 0:13:26.800 He's broke, dejected, He couldn't jumpstart his business because he's 0:13:26.840 --> 0:13:31.120 his cash is gone. So he ran for office as 0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:33.320 you do. Eighteen fifty five, He's like, I want to 0:13:33.320 --> 0:13:33.800 be in charge. 0:13:34.040 --> 0:13:34.600 Is that right? 0:13:34.960 --> 0:13:38.520 He ran for San Francisco tax collector in eighteen two, Sara. 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:39.280 He did not win. 0:13:39.400 --> 0:13:40.000 I'm guessing not. 0:13:40.360 --> 0:13:43.840 Filed for bankruptcy in eighteen fifty six on the August 0:13:43.840 --> 0:13:49.640 twenty fifth, eighteen fifty rice. Yeah, rice a'rony the. 0:13:49.559 --> 0:13:52.079 San Francisco tree. The irony of this, I know it 0:13:52.400 --> 0:13:52.960 runs deep. 0:13:53.240 --> 0:13:57.520 So the San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin they published a notice. 0:13:57.800 --> 0:14:01.480 In August of eighteen fifty six, Joshua Norton filed a 0:14:01.480 --> 0:14:05.400 petition for the benefit of the insolvency law. Liabilities fifty 0:14:05.400 --> 0:14:10.080 five eight eleven dollars, assets stated at fifteen thousand dollars 0:14:10.160 --> 0:14:11.400 uncertain in value. 0:14:11.880 --> 0:14:15.840 Whoa, So he lost everything, lost everything off of one 0:14:16.040 --> 0:14:18.760 attempt at corner. So he gets got too greedy in 0:14:18.760 --> 0:14:19.120 a sense. 0:14:19.320 --> 0:14:21.400 Yeah, I think he thought I'm going to get one up. 0:14:21.280 --> 0:14:24.760 On it everybody. And again it's he didn't investigate the 0:14:24.840 --> 0:14:28.200 rice market of South America. No, he didn't really recognize 0:14:28.200 --> 0:14:32.880 that how many there were rice coming before you make 0:14:32.920 --> 0:14:34.840 a purchase that big you need to know a little 0:14:34.840 --> 0:14:35.640 bit about the mark. 0:14:35.600 --> 0:14:37.160 All the right choices. Until he didn't. 0:14:37.160 --> 0:14:37.960 They got it. 0:14:38.040 --> 0:14:40.520 Wow. So this is like a tipping point for him. 0:14:40.880 --> 0:14:44.400 He lost touch with reality. And in eighteen fifty eight 0:14:44.440 --> 0:14:48.520 he made an announcement he's running for Senate, and when 0:14:48.520 --> 0:14:50.640 people headed to the polls the next year, his name 0:14:50.720 --> 0:14:53.320 wasn't on the ballot. It was like just a general announcement. 0:14:53.360 --> 0:14:53.960 He didn't file. 0:14:55.200 --> 0:14:57.960 Yeah, and then he's like, oh, get into bars, open doors. 0:14:58.840 --> 0:15:02.880 So he's this ailed businessman. He's lost everything, he lost 0:15:02.920 --> 0:15:05.520 his fancy digs. He was at this point, he's living 0:15:05.520 --> 0:15:06.280 in a boarding house. 0:15:06.320 --> 0:15:09.480 He has no family, no wife, no maub himself. 0:15:10.720 --> 0:15:13.720 Gone are the glamorous parties, the social set had like 0:15:13.800 --> 0:15:14.440 passed him up. 0:15:14.480 --> 0:15:16.120 Of course, the connections in. 0:15:16.120 --> 0:15:19.520 The power gone. And it's not that he'd lost his mind. 0:15:19.560 --> 0:15:22.680 He was still sharp and insightful. He'd lost faith in 0:15:22.720 --> 0:15:26.600 the system. He kind of broke him. He's disillusioned with everything. 0:15:27.120 --> 0:15:32.160 He felt that he had to help get everything, society, people, 0:15:32.240 --> 0:15:35.280 the city back on track. He could do it. He 0:15:35.320 --> 0:15:37.280 could get people back to where they needed to be. 0:15:37.440 --> 0:15:38.920 Yeah, the world's out off kilter. 0:15:39.360 --> 0:15:41.760 Yeah, I mean he tried sales for a little while 0:15:41.840 --> 0:15:45.320 after his bankruptcy. Ran an ad in the paper offering 0:15:45.440 --> 0:15:48.680 China sugars for sale, but it wasn't a goer. I 0:15:48.720 --> 0:15:52.320 don't even know what that is. Yeah, China sugar product. 0:15:52.760 --> 0:15:53.080 Yeah. 0:15:53.120 --> 0:15:55.280 So for a few years he scraped by. He was 0:15:55.360 --> 0:15:59.440 living in this cheap boarding house, staying under the radar. Yeah, 0:15:59.520 --> 0:16:01.880 quite a change from his earlier days. But then he 0:16:01.960 --> 0:16:04.920 made a splash. In July of eighteen fifty nine, he 0:16:04.960 --> 0:16:07.320 took out an ad in the San Francisco Daily Evening 0:16:07.320 --> 0:16:11.080 Bulletin newspaper. It wasn't so much an ad as a manifesto. 0:16:11.800 --> 0:16:18.360 It reads as follows manifesto from Joshua Norton, Citizens of 0:16:18.360 --> 0:16:22.840 the Union. The Union is threatened with dissolution. Dissensions exist 0:16:22.880 --> 0:16:26.479 between the North and South. Measures affecting the general welfare 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:30.400 cannot be got through Congress. Confidence ceases to exist with 0:16:30.520 --> 0:16:33.800 foreigners in the integrity and stability of the institutions of 0:16:33.840 --> 0:16:37.520 the country. Will you inaugurate a new state of things? 0:16:38.160 --> 0:16:41.320 Joshua Norton. So it's like, oh, what is this? 0:16:41.600 --> 0:16:43.640 Does he understand a manifesto is not supposed to be 0:16:43.680 --> 0:16:44.360 an open question. 0:16:44.520 --> 0:16:47.160 No, it's you know, he's. 0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:49.960 A manifesto, are you guys juting it so like you know, 0:16:50.080 --> 0:16:50.520 but it's. 0:16:50.400 --> 0:16:54.840 Like pretty much your basic crackpot stuff totally having worked 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:57.720 in municipal government for a period of time, like this 0:16:57.840 --> 0:16:58.240 the stuff you. 0:16:58.280 --> 0:16:59.280 Get the city council. 0:16:59.280 --> 0:17:02.360 You got three minutes, yes, but then two months later 0:17:02.400 --> 0:17:05.400 he's back with another message like this is like pre 0:17:05.640 --> 0:17:10.800 Zodiac good messages. At the peremptory request of a large 0:17:10.920 --> 0:17:15.320 majority of the citizens of these United States, I Joshua Norton, 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:18.800 formerly of al Goa Bay, Cape of Good Hope, and 0:17:18.840 --> 0:17:21.639 now for the last nine years and ten months past, 0:17:21.760 --> 0:17:27.359 of San Francisco, California, declare and proclaim myself Emperor of 0:17:27.440 --> 0:17:31.880 these United States, And, in virtue of the authority thereby 0:17:31.920 --> 0:17:35.680 and me vested, do hereby order and direct the representatives 0:17:35.680 --> 0:17:38.200 of the different States of the Union to assemble in 0:17:38.359 --> 0:17:41.280 Musical Hall in this city on the first day of 0:17:41.320 --> 0:17:44.960 February next then and there to make such alterations in 0:17:45.000 --> 0:17:48.439 the existing laws of the Union as may ameliorate the 0:17:48.480 --> 0:17:52.119 evils under which the country is laboring, and thereby cause 0:17:52.240 --> 0:17:55.280 confidence to exist both at home and abroad in our 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:59.679 stability and integrity. Norton the first Emperor of the United States. 0:18:00.040 --> 0:18:01.760 If you're going to lose your marbles, have fun with her, 0:18:01.880 --> 0:18:04.720 have a blast. If your country is in civil war, 0:18:04.880 --> 0:18:06.119 be the one I'm gonna have. 0:18:06.320 --> 0:18:09.080 I'm going to be the voice. I'll do it fine. 0:18:09.200 --> 0:18:12.639 Everyone wants me to do it. No longer. Joshua Norton, 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:15.280 He's now Norton, the first Emperor of the United States. 0:18:15.800 --> 0:18:17.960 So his message ran in the paper, not as a 0:18:18.080 --> 0:18:21.000 proclamation or called arms, but as a comic bit is 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:23.720 the way they the paper's fund it, like, oh, what 0:18:23.800 --> 0:18:26.320 an eccentric we have on our hands type thing. And 0:18:26.400 --> 0:18:29.600 from that moment until he took his last breath, Joshua 0:18:29.640 --> 0:18:32.200 Norton was now emperor in the eyes of the good 0:18:32.200 --> 0:18:35.000 people of San Francisco for real. So according to this 0:18:35.080 --> 0:18:39.600 documentary Timothy speed Levitch quote, some say he'd gone mad, 0:18:40.080 --> 0:18:42.080 others say he'd gone wise. 0:18:43.880 --> 0:18:44.280 Distinction. 0:18:44.480 --> 0:18:46.479 Yeah, let's take a break and I'll tell you more 0:18:46.520 --> 0:19:11.479 about Joshua Norton and his grand visions when we get back, Zaren, Yes, Okay, 0:19:11.560 --> 0:19:13.840 So Joshua Norton, Dude. 0:19:14.520 --> 0:19:16.800 I'm loving Norton the first because of one thing, Elizabeth 0:19:17.240 --> 0:19:19.359 that people just asked me when I was young like, 0:19:19.359 --> 0:19:20.560 what do you want to do it for a living? 0:19:20.640 --> 0:19:23.399 And I thought this was a career path. Apparently it's not. 0:19:23.680 --> 0:19:25.680 Is I wanted to be a holy fool. I saw 0:19:25.920 --> 0:19:28.000 what they got to do, and I'm like, that's the move, right, 0:19:28.320 --> 0:19:29.879 you just get to live in your own world. And 0:19:29.960 --> 0:19:31.760 everyone's like, oh, we just let him do this thing. 0:19:32.680 --> 0:19:34.480 How do you do that? He nailed it, He figured 0:19:34.480 --> 0:19:36.320 it out. You got to go bigger than I thought. 0:19:36.359 --> 0:19:37.359 He's like, I'm gonna be emperor. 0:19:37.440 --> 0:19:40.280 He hit the sweet spot right like this time and 0:19:40.359 --> 0:19:41.280 place totally. 0:19:42.359 --> 0:19:42.520 Yeah. 0:19:42.640 --> 0:19:46.240 So he was keeping himself busy with lots of decrees 0:19:46.960 --> 0:19:50.080 he got to. He'd hand them off to the local papers. 0:19:50.359 --> 0:19:52.399 They were happy to run them because like, this is 0:19:52.440 --> 0:19:55.400 great copy and it wasn't limited to San Francisco papers. 0:19:55.880 --> 0:19:58.280