1 00:00:15,396 --> 00:00:24,636 Speaker 1: Pushkin. There's a place in our world where the known 2 00:00:24,796 --> 00:00:30,316 Speaker 1: things go, a corridor of the mind, lined with shelves 3 00:00:30,756 --> 00:00:36,876 Speaker 1: cluttered with proof. Inside that place, behind another darker door, 4 00:00:38,196 --> 00:00:43,716 Speaker 1: is our morgue. Not that kind of morgue. Our morgue 5 00:00:43,756 --> 00:00:49,316 Speaker 1: is a collection of evidence. Detectives used to have morgues 6 00:00:49,476 --> 00:00:54,876 Speaker 1: where they keep files on old cases. Newspapers kept morgues, too, 7 00:00:55,116 --> 00:00:59,516 Speaker 1: were the mainly stored old research needs. The Last Archives 8 00:00:59,996 --> 00:01:03,076 Speaker 1: is where we put stuff we've killed. Stories we liked 9 00:01:03,076 --> 00:01:05,756 Speaker 1: a lot but couldn't use because the facts in the 10 00:01:05,836 --> 00:01:12,396 Speaker 1: check there were lies, fakes, hoaxes. We can use this 11 00:01:12,436 --> 00:01:15,836 Speaker 1: stuff in season one, which is about truth, but in 12 00:01:15,836 --> 00:01:20,636 Speaker 1: this season, season two, all bets are off because this 13 00:01:20,676 --> 00:01:26,196 Speaker 1: season is about doubt. Welcome to the Last Archive, Welcome 14 00:01:26,236 --> 00:01:31,396 Speaker 1: to our vault of fakes. I'm Jillipoor. We've got a 15 00:01:31,476 --> 00:01:37,676 Speaker 1: nifty old radio in here. Letful, Yeah, I can't see 16 00:01:37,676 --> 00:01:44,436 Speaker 1: everybody who's that high and a shadow. Nineteen thirties radio 17 00:01:44,556 --> 00:01:50,076 Speaker 1: is so good, but also so over the top. Turn 18 00:01:50,156 --> 00:01:53,796 Speaker 1: the radio dial to the nineteen thirties and be skeptical, 19 00:01:54,196 --> 00:01:58,116 Speaker 1: Be very very skeptical. Here is the Mandol. Whole life 20 00:01:58,116 --> 00:02:00,956 Speaker 1: of the Countant worldwide, huntful fact. The man who makes 21 00:02:00,956 --> 00:02:03,276 Speaker 1: his living by telling the truth, the man who knows 22 00:02:03,276 --> 00:02:06,036 Speaker 1: the place is making us today. Yes, Bob Ridley has 23 00:02:06,076 --> 00:02:09,036 Speaker 1: been there then, in more than two hundred countries, traveled 24 00:02:09,116 --> 00:02:13,396 Speaker 1: over a half million miles, always seeking, always hunting for facts, facts, 25 00:02:13,436 --> 00:02:15,236 Speaker 1: to foot you right with him on the front row 26 00:02:15,316 --> 00:02:19,356 Speaker 1: seat of world events. Believe It or Not was one 27 00:02:19,356 --> 00:02:22,756 Speaker 1: of the most popular American radio programs of the nineteen thirties. 28 00:02:23,396 --> 00:02:26,876 Speaker 1: It had two conceits. First, it claimed that no one 29 00:02:26,916 --> 00:02:29,876 Speaker 1: had traveled the world more widely than the host, Bob Ripley, 30 00:02:30,596 --> 00:02:33,796 Speaker 1: and the second conceit Believe it or not, It's true, 31 00:02:33,996 --> 00:02:41,236 Speaker 1: says Bob Ripley, and here he is. It's easy to 32 00:02:41,236 --> 00:02:43,676 Speaker 1: believe what voices tell you on the radio, just like 33 00:02:43,716 --> 00:02:45,756 Speaker 1: it's easy to believe stuff you read on the internet. 34 00:02:46,556 --> 00:02:50,916 Speaker 1: But should you believe it or not? This episode, I'm 35 00:02:50,916 --> 00:02:52,916 Speaker 1: going to play you a lot of radio because this 36 00:02:52,916 --> 00:02:55,116 Speaker 1: episode is about the role of radio in the history 37 00:02:55,116 --> 00:02:58,636 Speaker 1: of doubt. A few episodes this season are about radio. 38 00:03:00,156 --> 00:03:04,036 Speaker 1: Listen to this stuff, but carefully me. I have to 39 00:03:04,116 --> 00:03:06,916 Speaker 1: keep reminding myself because I find Ripley so fun to 40 00:03:06,956 --> 00:03:10,036 Speaker 1: listen to. Don't have too much fun. Don't let your 41 00:03:10,076 --> 00:03:14,436 Speaker 1: guard down. You're a historian, damn it. Still, even the 42 00:03:14,516 --> 00:03:18,516 Speaker 1: ads are fun. Ladies and gentlemen. Believe the evidence of 43 00:03:18,516 --> 00:03:22,876 Speaker 1: your own eyes. Pellmell gives you visible proof of its 44 00:03:22,876 --> 00:03:28,556 Speaker 1: advantage to smokers. Your eye tells why, Your eye tells why. 45 00:03:28,756 --> 00:03:32,156 Speaker 1: Good Lord. One problem was, just by being on the 46 00:03:32,276 --> 00:03:35,676 Speaker 1: radio in the nineteen thirties, things sounded like news, or 47 00:03:35,876 --> 00:03:39,156 Speaker 1: with the right copy and announcer, everything could be made 48 00:03:39,196 --> 00:03:42,396 Speaker 1: to sound like news. After all, most people at the 49 00:03:42,396 --> 00:03:46,876 Speaker 1: time got their news from the radio. Radio sounded so authoritative, 50 00:03:46,996 --> 00:03:51,076 Speaker 1: so easy to believe. That raises for me a big question, 51 00:03:51,876 --> 00:03:55,396 Speaker 1: what's the relationship between belief and doubt and democracy and 52 00:03:55,436 --> 00:03:58,196 Speaker 1: the radio If, as I tried to point out in 53 00:03:58,236 --> 00:04:01,516 Speaker 1: the last episode, there's something of a conflict between majority 54 00:04:01,596 --> 00:04:04,916 Speaker 1: rule and freedom of thought. What if the majority starts 55 00:04:04,956 --> 00:04:08,276 Speaker 1: telling you what to think, then radio is potentially pre 56 00:04:08,396 --> 00:04:11,276 Speaker 1: dangerous because radio is one way you can lose your 57 00:04:11,316 --> 00:04:14,116 Speaker 1: sense of what's true and what's not and be really 58 00:04:14,156 --> 00:04:18,596 Speaker 1: influenced by other people. Luckily, at the time commentators raise 59 00:04:18,716 --> 00:04:22,276 Speaker 1: this very same question. People are asking that question now too, 60 00:04:22,396 --> 00:04:26,316 Speaker 1: just about the internet. So this episode, whenever I say 61 00:04:26,316 --> 00:04:30,316 Speaker 1: the word radio. You can substitute in your head. The 62 00:04:30,396 --> 00:04:34,876 Speaker 1: internet got it. It's sneaky this episode. It's a metaphor. 63 00:04:39,676 --> 00:04:43,956 Speaker 1: When radio started, no technology seemed more exciting. Don't take 64 00:04:43,996 --> 00:04:46,316 Speaker 1: my word for it. Listen to the President of the 65 00:04:46,476 --> 00:04:50,116 Speaker 1: Radio Corporation of America RCA. If the future of our 66 00:04:50,196 --> 00:04:54,596 Speaker 1: democracy depends upon the intelligence and cooperation of its citizens, 67 00:04:55,556 --> 00:04:58,876 Speaker 1: radio may contribute to its success more than any other 68 00:04:59,036 --> 00:05:03,836 Speaker 1: single influence. Early radio stations were often based at universities. 69 00:05:04,196 --> 00:05:07,356 Speaker 1: Remember when the Internet was only at universities. Two. The 70 00:05:07,436 --> 00:05:13,316 Speaker 1: earliest goal with each technolog algy was to educate. Radio 71 00:05:13,516 --> 00:05:17,636 Speaker 1: educated the people, and it also promoted democracy on shows 72 00:05:17,716 --> 00:05:21,356 Speaker 1: like America's Town Meeting of the Air, The program staged 73 00:05:21,396 --> 00:05:28,796 Speaker 1: these crazy, wonderful debates. This one aired in nineteen thirty six. 74 00:05:29,676 --> 00:05:34,236 Speaker 1: Hey CHR, what's the question tonight? Where will the machine 75 00:05:34,396 --> 00:05:38,436 Speaker 1: dominate man? Will the machine dominate man? Machine does dominate man? No, 76 00:05:38,716 --> 00:05:41,596 Speaker 1: the machine has improved living standard. The machine has given 77 00:05:41,636 --> 00:05:46,236 Speaker 1: us leisure right too much, lenchine. Oh, just use it wisely, 78 00:05:46,356 --> 00:05:50,236 Speaker 1: that's the thing to do. Will the machine dominate man? 79 00:05:51,316 --> 00:05:55,316 Speaker 1: That's a great question. Every new communications technology, from the 80 00:05:55,396 --> 00:05:59,996 Speaker 1: radio to the internet, up ends both epistemology and politics. 81 00:06:01,276 --> 00:06:04,756 Speaker 1: People thought radio was powerful enough to save democracy because 82 00:06:04,756 --> 00:06:07,796 Speaker 1: it could help people know things for certain. But was 83 00:06:07,796 --> 00:06:11,196 Speaker 1: it also powerful enough to destroy democracy? Did it also 84 00:06:11,276 --> 00:06:15,636 Speaker 1: make people unknown things. One thing radio could do, with 85 00:06:15,676 --> 00:06:19,276 Speaker 1: more sophistication than could ever be done before, was to 86 00:06:19,356 --> 00:06:27,916 Speaker 1: fake stuff. Believe it or not? Believe It or Not 87 00:06:28,076 --> 00:06:30,956 Speaker 1: is the Great Temple of radio truthiness and its host, 88 00:06:31,196 --> 00:06:34,676 Speaker 1: Robert L. Ripley, the High Priest. The first time you 89 00:06:34,716 --> 00:06:36,316 Speaker 1: listen to it, you might think that it was a 90 00:06:36,356 --> 00:06:39,156 Speaker 1: show about evidence, a little like the Last Archive, as 91 00:06:39,156 --> 00:06:40,916 Speaker 1: if Believe It or Not. We're trying to draw a 92 00:06:40,956 --> 00:06:43,436 Speaker 1: line between what you can know and believe and what 93 00:06:43,596 --> 00:06:46,156 Speaker 1: you can't. But the second time you listen to it 94 00:06:46,156 --> 00:06:48,836 Speaker 1: you begin to think, no, it's just mainly a joke. 95 00:06:50,236 --> 00:06:53,076 Speaker 1: Figuring out what it really was requires learning a little 96 00:06:53,076 --> 00:06:59,356 Speaker 1: about its host. Ripley was born in California in eighteen ninety. 97 00:06:59,556 --> 00:07:02,316 Speaker 1: He had terrible teeth, so crooked that it made it 98 00:07:02,356 --> 00:07:06,516 Speaker 1: difficult to talk. Eventually got them fixed, but by then 99 00:07:06,556 --> 00:07:08,916 Speaker 1: he was so famous for his crooked teeth that he 100 00:07:09,316 --> 00:07:12,716 Speaker 1: got them made slightly less crooked. When he was eighteen, 101 00:07:12,916 --> 00:07:15,236 Speaker 1: he got a job with a newspaper in San Francisco, 102 00:07:15,316 --> 00:07:18,396 Speaker 1: drawing cartoons. A few years later he moved to New 103 00:07:18,476 --> 00:07:21,516 Speaker 1: York to work for another paper. One day, stumped for 104 00:07:21,596 --> 00:07:25,756 Speaker 1: sports news, he drew a cartoon illustrating athletic firsts, like 105 00:07:25,796 --> 00:07:29,116 Speaker 1: a guy who ran one hundred yards backwards in fourteen seconds. 106 00:07:34,996 --> 00:07:36,876 Speaker 1: This was just at the end of the Great War. 107 00:07:37,476 --> 00:07:40,676 Speaker 1: Sixteen million people died in that war, and then when 108 00:07:40,676 --> 00:07:43,916 Speaker 1: it was ending, fifty million people died in the Spanish 109 00:07:43,956 --> 00:07:49,636 Speaker 1: flu pandemic of nineteen eighteen. Wars and plagues unsettled knowledge. 110 00:07:50,196 --> 00:07:54,796 Speaker 1: They unsettled everything. In nineteen twenty two, after the war 111 00:07:54,876 --> 00:07:57,316 Speaker 1: and the plague had ended and the world had opened 112 00:07:57,356 --> 00:08:00,276 Speaker 1: up again, Ripley's newspaper decided to send him on the 113 00:08:00,356 --> 00:08:04,036 Speaker 1: road to hunt down more unbelievable facts for a series 114 00:08:04,076 --> 00:08:08,676 Speaker 1: called Ripley's Rambles around the World. He went to Hawaii, Japan, 115 00:08:09,316 --> 00:08:12,756 Speaker 1: the Philippines, and Singapore and cabled back reports about all 116 00:08:12,796 --> 00:08:16,596 Speaker 1: the things he'd seen. He got crazy famous. After all 117 00:08:16,596 --> 00:08:21,156 Speaker 1: that atrocity and devastation and suffering, Ripley showed Americans an 118 00:08:21,236 --> 00:08:25,756 Speaker 1: unthreatening world, reassuring and even a ridiculous world, a very 119 00:08:25,836 --> 00:08:29,116 Speaker 1: silly world. He published a best selling book in nineteen 120 00:08:29,156 --> 00:08:32,036 Speaker 1: twenty nine. In nineteen thirty he started his own radio show. 121 00:08:32,436 --> 00:08:34,996 Speaker 1: He started in short films, Well if he wakes them 122 00:08:35,076 --> 00:08:39,156 Speaker 1: hot news. The fact maybe interesting that icebergs are huh 123 00:08:39,316 --> 00:08:43,756 Speaker 1: not cold? How amazing? Technically this is true. There's some 124 00:08:43,836 --> 00:08:49,116 Speaker 1: thermal energy thing. Not interestingly true, but narrowly true. That's 125 00:08:49,156 --> 00:08:52,156 Speaker 1: the line Ripley most like to walk. Everything he said 126 00:08:52,236 --> 00:08:55,636 Speaker 1: was amazing, Everyone he met was incredible. Here he is 127 00:08:56,076 --> 00:09:08,236 Speaker 1: mister Clayton Bates, better known as Tegley. Ripley says, that's 128 00:09:08,236 --> 00:09:10,836 Speaker 1: a one leg a tap dancer dancing with a wooden leg. 129 00:09:11,396 --> 00:09:13,836 Speaker 1: And it's true. Clayton Bates was a real guy, and 130 00:09:13,916 --> 00:09:16,396 Speaker 1: he did have one leg, and he was a tap dancer. 131 00:09:17,116 --> 00:09:19,396 Speaker 1: But on the radio, how could you know that this 132 00:09:19,436 --> 00:09:22,916 Speaker 1: sound was really Clayton Bates. You couldn't. You just couldn't know. 133 00:09:23,596 --> 00:09:26,436 Speaker 1: Wondering was at least half the fun of it. Ripley 134 00:09:26,516 --> 00:09:32,316 Speaker 1: loved to cultivate doubt. We have thousands of sound effects 135 00:09:32,356 --> 00:09:34,996 Speaker 1: here in the last archive, many of them made by 136 00:09:35,036 --> 00:09:38,916 Speaker 1: a guy named Harry Jeannette Junior. Around the same time 137 00:09:38,916 --> 00:09:41,956 Speaker 1: that Ripley was traveling the world hunting facts, Jeannette was 138 00:09:41,996 --> 00:09:45,796 Speaker 1: traveling the country in an old black Studebaker gathering sounds 139 00:09:46,436 --> 00:09:51,916 Speaker 1: like this one a gentle rainstorm. But does this sound 140 00:09:51,916 --> 00:09:59,636 Speaker 1: like a thunderclap to you? Or could it be a 141 00:09:59,636 --> 00:10:10,316 Speaker 1: shotgun blast? Slowed way down? Radio opened up a whole 142 00:10:10,356 --> 00:10:13,556 Speaker 1: new world and a whole new world of fakery. You 143 00:10:13,596 --> 00:10:15,956 Speaker 1: could fake more than just sound effects on the radio. 144 00:10:16,236 --> 00:10:20,276 Speaker 1: You could fake people. The very first radio show ever 145 00:10:20,316 --> 00:10:24,556 Speaker 1: serialized on American radio made its debut in nineteen twenty eight. 146 00:10:24,836 --> 00:10:30,196 Speaker 1: This show is notorious. It's horrible. Campbell Soups. Bring you 147 00:10:30,556 --> 00:10:35,676 Speaker 1: Amos and Andy. Amos and Andy was a minstrel show. 148 00:10:36,836 --> 00:10:39,836 Speaker 1: Amos is Sunday again. Yeah, Sunday is right. And don't 149 00:10:39,836 --> 00:10:42,516 Speaker 1: forget he is on the radio every Sunday, and if arenso. 150 00:10:43,076 --> 00:10:46,476 Speaker 1: Two white guys pretending to be two black guys black face. 151 00:10:46,956 --> 00:10:49,996 Speaker 1: Early radio did this kind of thing all the time. 152 00:10:50,556 --> 00:10:58,476 Speaker 1: Incomparable Charlie Chan, not just black face but also yellow face. 153 00:10:58,996 --> 00:11:04,316 Speaker 1: Charlie Channel humbly gives you greeting and distends warm welcome, 154 00:11:05,836 --> 00:11:11,636 Speaker 1: say Jess said, nature sometimes reveals steepest truth in wildest joke. 155 00:11:13,076 --> 00:11:16,636 Speaker 1: Inspector Chan Charlie Chan, one of the most famous detectives 156 00:11:16,636 --> 00:11:20,116 Speaker 1: of all time, A Chinese detective created by a white guy. 157 00:11:20,196 --> 00:11:24,596 Speaker 1: A Harvard graduate from Ohio, Earl Dearer Biggers, a friend 158 00:11:24,596 --> 00:11:27,316 Speaker 1: of mine, Unto Huang, a professor of English at the 159 00:11:27,396 --> 00:11:30,836 Speaker 1: University of California, Santa Barbara, wrote an amazing book about 160 00:11:30,836 --> 00:11:34,036 Speaker 1: the Charlie Chan franchise, the novels, the films, all of it. 161 00:11:34,556 --> 00:11:38,116 Speaker 1: I called Huang up in Hong Kong, so maybe we 162 00:11:38,156 --> 00:11:40,236 Speaker 1: could begin. I just wanted to hear a little bit 163 00:11:40,236 --> 00:11:45,356 Speaker 1: about what drew you to Charlie Chan in the first place. Well, 164 00:11:45,596 --> 00:11:49,956 Speaker 1: usually too friendly and engallible Americans, I would just say, walk, 165 00:11:50,076 --> 00:11:52,956 Speaker 1: he wasn't my grandfather, and they were usually say, oh really, 166 00:11:55,596 --> 00:11:59,476 Speaker 1: speaking of galliability. And you know, as a kid, Huang 167 00:11:59,596 --> 00:12:03,876 Speaker 1: practiced is English by listening to the radio. I inherited 168 00:12:03,876 --> 00:12:08,796 Speaker 1: a sort of a batter, a transistor radio flowed my 169 00:12:08,836 --> 00:12:13,636 Speaker 1: city who had inherited from my grandfather. And because in 170 00:12:13,636 --> 00:12:16,636 Speaker 1: those years there was no TV, and every Chinese household 171 00:12:16,676 --> 00:12:19,356 Speaker 1: had a chances to radio. And I was playing with it. 172 00:12:20,396 --> 00:12:23,436 Speaker 1: And then one night, you know, I turned the knob, 173 00:12:23,556 --> 00:12:25,436 Speaker 1: you know, the dial up and down, up and down, 174 00:12:25,796 --> 00:12:31,116 Speaker 1: and I came to a frequency. Then a man's voice 175 00:12:31,116 --> 00:12:34,196 Speaker 1: came out. It's like This is a voa the Voice 176 00:12:34,196 --> 00:12:41,156 Speaker 1: of America, broadcasting in special English. Years later in the US, 177 00:12:41,236 --> 00:12:44,356 Speaker 1: while studying for his PhD, one came across Charlie Chan 178 00:12:44,516 --> 00:12:46,676 Speaker 1: the way you might in a mystery story. He picked 179 00:12:46,716 --> 00:12:49,196 Speaker 1: up a book at an estate sale. He was hooked. 180 00:12:49,716 --> 00:12:51,796 Speaker 1: He knew he wasn't supposed to love this stuff. He 181 00:12:51,836 --> 00:12:54,996 Speaker 1: was supposed to be outraged by its racism. But he 182 00:12:55,076 --> 00:12:58,396 Speaker 1: loved the playfulness, the goofiness, and also the truth to 183 00:12:58,436 --> 00:13:01,156 Speaker 1: be found within the fake. He read all the books, 184 00:13:01,196 --> 00:13:04,236 Speaker 1: he watched all the films. He listened to the radio plays. 185 00:13:04,836 --> 00:13:08,356 Speaker 1: After each episode toward the end, you know, they take 186 00:13:08,396 --> 00:13:12,916 Speaker 1: a break music, I guess commercial, and then Charlie Chan 187 00:13:13,116 --> 00:13:16,356 Speaker 1: come back and the host will as you know, mister Chan, 188 00:13:16,796 --> 00:13:19,516 Speaker 1: what do you you know? What kind of Chinese philosopher 189 00:13:19,556 --> 00:13:23,116 Speaker 1: do you have for us? Yes, when we are giving 190 00:13:23,356 --> 00:13:30,276 Speaker 1: up taking it's time to find good nice Thank you. 191 00:13:34,996 --> 00:13:38,836 Speaker 1: Chen has this fortune cookie wisdom aphorisms delivered with lots 192 00:13:38,836 --> 00:13:44,876 Speaker 1: of gongs in films, A lot of the Charlie Chan things, 193 00:13:45,476 --> 00:13:48,996 Speaker 1: most of them were really either cooked up by Earlder 194 00:13:49,036 --> 00:13:56,356 Speaker 1: Biggers himself or you know, invented by young Hollywood screenwriters 195 00:13:56,556 --> 00:13:59,716 Speaker 1: getting high and trying to imagine what Chinese will say, right, 196 00:14:01,836 --> 00:14:05,916 Speaker 1: But the radio plays they contain genuine quotes from Loud 197 00:14:06,716 --> 00:14:10,396 Speaker 1: or Confucius and all that, and that's not like wow, 198 00:14:10,436 --> 00:14:14,076 Speaker 1: that's actually you know, almost like the commercials they will play, right, 199 00:14:14,276 --> 00:14:17,636 Speaker 1: So the Chinese you know, jams, they're they're real kind 200 00:14:17,676 --> 00:14:21,316 Speaker 1: of commercials. Yeah, for of course, for the radio play, 201 00:14:21,476 --> 00:14:24,636 Speaker 1: but for I don't know, for for everything else. Like 202 00:14:24,956 --> 00:14:27,996 Speaker 1: there's sort of like Confucianism as a radio spot, like 203 00:14:28,076 --> 00:14:31,916 Speaker 1: as a series of jingles or something. Yes, yes, And 204 00:14:32,356 --> 00:14:35,596 Speaker 1: there's certainly yeah, there's certain naive a tape by the 205 00:14:35,676 --> 00:14:40,996 Speaker 1: earnestness about it, which doesn't really always exist in in 206 00:14:41,036 --> 00:14:45,076 Speaker 1: the visual medium. Of course, this attempt at authenticity only 207 00:14:45,116 --> 00:14:49,116 Speaker 1: went so far. Charlie Chan's fake Chinese accent is bad enough, 208 00:14:49,516 --> 00:14:55,836 Speaker 1: but his actual Chinese. I listened very carefully. I'll try 209 00:14:55,916 --> 00:14:58,836 Speaker 1: to figure out whether it's Cannonese or Vietnamese or whatever. 210 00:14:59,956 --> 00:15:03,516 Speaker 1: They're not. They just it's not it's not anything. It's 211 00:15:03,836 --> 00:15:14,676 Speaker 1: really made up gibberish. So on American radio in the 212 00:15:14,756 --> 00:15:18,156 Speaker 1: nineteen thirties, you've got Ripley traveling the world for wonders, 213 00:15:18,356 --> 00:15:20,916 Speaker 1: most of which are fake. You've got Amos and Andy 214 00:15:21,196 --> 00:15:24,036 Speaker 1: fake black men, and you've got Charlie Chan, a fake 215 00:15:24,156 --> 00:15:28,916 Speaker 1: Chinese guy. There's a pattern here. Radio wasn't randomly fake. 216 00:15:29,716 --> 00:15:32,036 Speaker 1: Radio was fake in a way that reflected the racial 217 00:15:32,116 --> 00:15:36,796 Speaker 1: and national contortions of the age, which included Jim Crow segregation, 218 00:15:37,116 --> 00:15:41,036 Speaker 1: the restriction of immigration from Asia, and the forest deportation 219 00:15:41,196 --> 00:15:45,436 Speaker 1: of immigrants from Mexico. In nineteen twenty four, Congress had 220 00:15:45,436 --> 00:15:48,876 Speaker 1: passed the National Origins Act, which banned all immigration from 221 00:15:48,916 --> 00:15:53,436 Speaker 1: Asia and restricted immigration from elsewhere through strict quotas. But 222 00:15:53,516 --> 00:15:56,916 Speaker 1: the act created a carve out for non quota immigrants, 223 00:15:56,956 --> 00:16:01,476 Speaker 1: which included Mexicans. Four days after the passage of the 224 00:16:01,556 --> 00:16:05,436 Speaker 1: National Origins Act, Congress established the US Border Patrol had 225 00:16:05,436 --> 00:16:08,156 Speaker 1: set up rules for crossing the southern border yet to 226 00:16:08,196 --> 00:16:11,156 Speaker 1: register and pass literacy test and have proof of work. 227 00:16:11,996 --> 00:16:15,676 Speaker 1: A few years later, new legislation would criminalize crossing the 228 00:16:15,716 --> 00:16:26,956 Speaker 1: border without those documents. Believe it or not, on the radio, 229 00:16:27,276 --> 00:16:30,956 Speaker 1: Mexico became exotic, the romantic land south of the border. 230 00:16:31,716 --> 00:16:35,076 Speaker 1: Ripley went there to excavate its history for listeners back home. 231 00:16:36,316 --> 00:16:39,436 Speaker 1: On one of my many interstinct trips I've made through Mexico, 232 00:16:40,316 --> 00:16:42,836 Speaker 1: I discovered a Believe it or not about an ancient 233 00:16:42,876 --> 00:16:49,036 Speaker 1: prophecy that led up to a great historical tragedy believe 234 00:16:49,076 --> 00:16:53,276 Speaker 1: it or not Mexico. But Mexicans didn't need Ripley to 235 00:16:53,276 --> 00:16:56,156 Speaker 1: tell their stories. In the nineteen thirties, there were a 236 00:16:56,196 --> 00:16:59,476 Speaker 1: lot of other voices on the radio and they weren't fake. 237 00:17:14,956 --> 00:17:34,036 Speaker 1: Yea when auna. That's Pedro Gonzalez, who started a radio 238 00:17:34,076 --> 00:17:38,676 Speaker 1: show called Louis Madrugadores the Early Risers in Los Angeles 239 00:17:38,876 --> 00:17:41,996 Speaker 1: in nineteen twenty nine, the year after Amos and Andy 240 00:17:42,076 --> 00:17:45,636 Speaker 1: debut and the year before Believe It or Not. Gonzalez 241 00:17:45,676 --> 00:17:47,836 Speaker 1: Is local show came on at four in the morning 242 00:17:48,196 --> 00:17:52,556 Speaker 1: when only workers were awake, farm laborers, fruit packing house workers. 243 00:17:53,076 --> 00:17:56,276 Speaker 1: They were up early getting ready for the day, listening 244 00:17:56,276 --> 00:17:59,796 Speaker 1: to the radio into the music in the warmth and 245 00:17:59,916 --> 00:18:18,116 Speaker 1: the humor in Gonzalz's voice in Sa Fernando Especialitas, Joostantovin 246 00:18:18,476 --> 00:18:22,996 Speaker 1: and Limpachi. Second, the tape I'm playing for You is Gonzalz. 247 00:18:23,076 --> 00:18:25,796 Speaker 1: His music and his voice is taken from an oral 248 00:18:25,876 --> 00:18:29,116 Speaker 1: history that he gave in Spanish. I'm playing in in 249 00:18:29,156 --> 00:18:32,516 Speaker 1: Spanish without translation. As a reminder that radio used to 250 00:18:32,596 --> 00:18:35,916 Speaker 1: be really bilingual. For listeners who don't speak Spanish, I'll 251 00:18:35,956 --> 00:18:38,156 Speaker 1: explain most of what he's saying, but hearing him in 252 00:18:38,156 --> 00:18:42,956 Speaker 1: his own voice, in his own language is important, Yes, 253 00:18:44,516 --> 00:19:10,236 Speaker 1: Bank memo. The Pedro Gonzalz was in eighteen ninety five 254 00:19:10,276 --> 00:19:14,036 Speaker 1: in Chihuahua, Mexico, during the Mexican Revolution. He'd worked as 255 00:19:14,036 --> 00:19:17,156 Speaker 1: a telegraph operator. He moved to Los Angeles when he 256 00:19:17,196 --> 00:19:19,596 Speaker 1: was in his early thirties. He found his way to 257 00:19:19,716 --> 00:19:22,516 Speaker 1: radio after we read a flyer looking for Spanish speakers 258 00:19:22,636 --> 00:19:26,396 Speaker 1: who could write and sing jingles. Gonzalez got the job 259 00:19:26,596 --> 00:19:30,316 Speaker 1: and then started his own company making Spanish language radio ads. 260 00:19:31,316 --> 00:19:35,516 Speaker 1: Dolores z Cassius, another incredible scholar, at U Sezanna Barbara, 261 00:19:35,716 --> 00:19:39,836 Speaker 1: writes about Gonzalez in her book Sounds of Belonging. When 262 00:19:39,996 --> 00:19:43,596 Speaker 1: radio came on the scene in the United States in general, 263 00:19:43,916 --> 00:19:49,396 Speaker 1: it was seen as this coveted, luxurious radio set to own. 264 00:19:49,676 --> 00:19:53,076 Speaker 1: But as it became cheaper, that's when more working class 265 00:19:53,116 --> 00:19:58,316 Speaker 1: communities of color, immigrant communities gravitated towards it. Early Spanish 266 00:19:58,396 --> 00:20:00,796 Speaker 1: language radio had to be picked up from transmitters across 267 00:20:00,836 --> 00:20:04,996 Speaker 1: the border in Mexico. Sometimes people would broadcast illegally from 268 00:20:04,996 --> 00:20:07,756 Speaker 1: the garages on the West Coast. He could hear anything, 269 00:20:07,836 --> 00:20:12,276 Speaker 1: fortune tellers preach yours, uncensored smart, fake doctors spouting quackery. 270 00:20:13,116 --> 00:20:16,836 Speaker 1: Listeners love Gonzalez is Los Mugs, which is the first 271 00:20:16,876 --> 00:20:28,876 Speaker 1: Spanish language show broadcast in the United States. Once the 272 00:20:28,916 --> 00:20:31,796 Speaker 1: depression hit, it became harder for Mexican workers in California 273 00:20:31,876 --> 00:20:35,276 Speaker 1: to find jobs. On a show, Gonzalz would find out 274 00:20:35,276 --> 00:20:38,276 Speaker 1: where there was work. He announced it on air. Everyone 275 00:20:38,276 --> 00:20:41,116 Speaker 1: would hear it. It was incredibly effective. It got so 276 00:20:41,236 --> 00:20:43,516 Speaker 1: boss is looking for workers would just go to Gonzalez 277 00:20:43,596 --> 00:20:47,676 Speaker 1: and ask him to spread the word. Then manzualis corneus. 278 00:20:48,236 --> 00:21:12,956 Speaker 1: He the vile We're going better. Unlike Ripley, who was 279 00:21:13,076 --> 00:21:16,716 Speaker 1: mostly joshing you, Gonzalez was the real deal. You could 280 00:21:16,756 --> 00:21:20,116 Speaker 1: trust him. It tied listeners together, so they felt that 281 00:21:20,436 --> 00:21:23,676 Speaker 1: they weren't alone. So it gave a sense that it 282 00:21:23,956 --> 00:21:26,956 Speaker 1: wasn't just this Mexican neighborhood or this side of a 283 00:21:27,036 --> 00:21:29,436 Speaker 1: Mexican city. It gave a sense that they were part 284 00:21:29,476 --> 00:21:33,316 Speaker 1: of this larger mass, and it gave a sense of power. 285 00:21:33,836 --> 00:21:37,596 Speaker 1: You feel powerful when you listen to that. Cassia says 286 00:21:37,796 --> 00:21:42,076 Speaker 1: that Gonzalez. His favorite songs were in Charis and Corrido's ballads. 287 00:21:42,436 --> 00:21:44,916 Speaker 1: He wrote them himself and played them on the radio, 288 00:21:45,676 --> 00:21:48,596 Speaker 1: so one of the most popular corridos during that time. 289 00:21:48,756 --> 00:21:50,676 Speaker 1: He did not write this, but it was aired a lot. 290 00:21:50,916 --> 00:21:55,436 Speaker 1: Was called a Laba Blatos, which is the dishwasher, and 291 00:21:55,596 --> 00:21:58,276 Speaker 1: it's a song about a dishwasher Mexican immigrant and how 292 00:21:58,316 --> 00:22:02,596 Speaker 1: he spends his days being a dishwasher. But it was 293 00:22:02,676 --> 00:22:05,956 Speaker 1: a number one song style in the United States. People 294 00:22:06,036 --> 00:22:09,076 Speaker 1: were requesting that, and I think a lot of people 295 00:22:09,316 --> 00:22:13,476 Speaker 1: will say, well, it's because you know, pobre Mexicanos. They 296 00:22:13,756 --> 00:22:16,596 Speaker 1: missed their patria, they missed their homeland. That's why they 297 00:22:16,636 --> 00:22:21,396 Speaker 1: wanted to remember. But there's a listener letter in his 298 00:22:21,716 --> 00:22:26,076 Speaker 1: files that says, I appreciated that song style because you 299 00:22:26,196 --> 00:22:30,196 Speaker 1: helped us forget. You helped us forget what our existence 300 00:22:30,356 --> 00:22:37,196 Speaker 1: was like here. And I really admire that that he 301 00:22:37,436 --> 00:22:41,436 Speaker 1: did that in the sense of not just romanticizing what 302 00:22:41,556 --> 00:22:47,236 Speaker 1: you left behind, but this realization of what your life 303 00:22:47,356 --> 00:22:51,836 Speaker 1: is like right now. Life right now included the US 304 00:22:51,876 --> 00:22:55,276 Speaker 1: Border Control arresting tens of thousands of people and sending 305 00:22:55,316 --> 00:22:58,876 Speaker 1: them to jail to await trial. Mexicans charged through the 306 00:22:58,876 --> 00:23:02,476 Speaker 1: immigration crimes filled prisons. Their sheer numbers led to a 307 00:23:02,556 --> 00:23:06,676 Speaker 1: massive growth of the prison industry. Then there were their deportations, 308 00:23:06,876 --> 00:23:11,156 Speaker 1: started by President Hoover. In what we're called repatriation drives. 309 00:23:11,476 --> 00:23:14,276 Speaker 1: The US government forcibly deported over a million people of 310 00:23:14,396 --> 00:23:19,436 Speaker 1: Mexican descent, most of them were US citizens. Gonzalez helped 311 00:23:19,476 --> 00:23:24,596 Speaker 1: people organize and resist. He could announce a meeting for 312 00:23:24,716 --> 00:23:28,116 Speaker 1: a union, you know, downtown, and then two hours later 313 00:23:28,356 --> 00:23:31,996 Speaker 1: all these people would show up. He started giving people 314 00:23:32,636 --> 00:23:37,596 Speaker 1: um heads up, like yesterday at this train station, people 315 00:23:37,596 --> 00:23:41,396 Speaker 1: are being deported. The more Gonzalez spoke out against the deportation, 316 00:23:41,956 --> 00:23:44,996 Speaker 1: the more the authorities hassled him. He later said, the 317 00:23:45,076 --> 00:23:48,916 Speaker 1: authorities started asking themselves, what if he insights a revolution here? 318 00:23:58,636 --> 00:24:08,636 Speaker 1: He say, will make it cool? He does which status 319 00:24:09,916 --> 00:24:16,036 Speaker 1: let The LA District Attorney ranted about Gonzalez, said he 320 00:24:16,076 --> 00:24:18,836 Speaker 1: was a madman, said he was conspiring to burn down 321 00:24:18,916 --> 00:24:27,196 Speaker 1: white people's houses, that sort of thing. He's a conflictum. 322 00:24:31,876 --> 00:24:34,996 Speaker 1: Once the DA decided to go after Gonzalez, the authorities 323 00:24:35,076 --> 00:24:38,676 Speaker 1: clearly had him under surveillance. Police arrested him for keeping 324 00:24:38,716 --> 00:24:41,116 Speaker 1: his daughter home from school. Had turned out she was 325 00:24:41,156 --> 00:24:43,876 Speaker 1: taking care of her sick mother. Then they questioned him 326 00:24:43,876 --> 00:24:47,196 Speaker 1: about picking up miners young girls, which he had done, 327 00:24:47,516 --> 00:24:49,436 Speaker 1: but they were friends of his daughter and he picked 328 00:24:49,476 --> 00:24:52,396 Speaker 1: them up to drive all of them to school. Eventually, 329 00:24:52,516 --> 00:24:55,316 Speaker 1: in nineteen thirty four, police trumped up charges of rape. 330 00:25:03,396 --> 00:25:07,116 Speaker 1: During the trial, Gonzalez calmly smoked a cigar. His fans 331 00:25:07,196 --> 00:25:11,356 Speaker 1: filled the courtroom. He was sure he'd be found innocent. Instead, 332 00:25:11,636 --> 00:25:14,196 Speaker 1: he was found guilty and sentenced to fifty years in prison. 333 00:25:14,916 --> 00:25:17,916 Speaker 1: He was sent to San Quentin. His radio listeners wrote 334 00:25:17,996 --> 00:25:27,796 Speaker 1: him letters year after year he Quentin. They raised money 335 00:25:27,836 --> 00:25:31,236 Speaker 1: for his defense. Years later, his accuser said that she lied, 336 00:25:31,476 --> 00:25:33,596 Speaker 1: that the police had convinced her to accuse him of 337 00:25:33,636 --> 00:25:36,716 Speaker 1: a crime he had never committed. In nineteen forty, after 338 00:25:36,796 --> 00:25:39,876 Speaker 1: serving six years in San Quentin, Gonzalez was released on 339 00:25:39,996 --> 00:25:56,916 Speaker 1: parole to Mexico. He was driven to Union station in 340 00:25:57,116 --> 00:26:00,156 Speaker 1: La to border train to Mexico. He was met by 341 00:26:00,156 --> 00:26:10,956 Speaker 1: a crowd. He stopped and sang one last song. So 342 00:26:11,316 --> 00:26:15,436 Speaker 1: we haven't found any archive broadcasts. Have you ever heard any? 343 00:26:15,756 --> 00:26:18,396 Speaker 1: Or I have not. I kind of liked that you 344 00:26:18,516 --> 00:26:23,436 Speaker 1: can't find it. I have to I'm almost like I mean, 345 00:26:23,516 --> 00:26:25,756 Speaker 1: of course I want to listen to it today, like 346 00:26:25,836 --> 00:26:27,676 Speaker 1: every once in a while in Spanish in which radio 347 00:26:27,796 --> 00:26:32,756 Speaker 1: will hear about an ice sighting, and it's so incredibly 348 00:26:32,796 --> 00:26:36,156 Speaker 1: hard to get that recorded. But that's part of its 349 00:26:36,236 --> 00:26:44,716 Speaker 1: mystique and power. It's that you can't capture it. For 350 00:26:44,796 --> 00:26:47,276 Speaker 1: a long time, radio had afforded that kind of freedom 351 00:26:47,676 --> 00:26:53,916 Speaker 1: and power, creative and unregulated, small local broadcasters like Gonzalez 352 00:26:53,956 --> 00:26:57,796 Speaker 1: engaged in a conversation with their communities as an as 353 00:26:57,876 --> 00:27:03,196 Speaker 1: Cassius reminded me, I mean really reminded me, this kind 354 00:27:03,236 --> 00:27:07,156 Speaker 1: of radio can sometimes save lives for a group of 355 00:27:07,396 --> 00:27:21,836 Speaker 1: people who are so legally vulnerable. Radio becomes so important. 356 00:27:22,516 --> 00:27:25,836 Speaker 1: And I actually just heard and beginning tier because I 357 00:27:25,996 --> 00:27:31,836 Speaker 1: just heard reheard a show. It's amazing, and it's bilingual 358 00:27:32,036 --> 00:27:37,396 Speaker 1: and mistech Mexican indigenous language in Spanish, and you hear 359 00:27:37,636 --> 00:27:43,836 Speaker 1: these immigrants like calling and they're so desperate and they're 360 00:27:43,956 --> 00:27:46,476 Speaker 1: using fake names and they're doing all this stuff, and 361 00:27:46,556 --> 00:27:49,316 Speaker 1: it reminds me like this is why people go to radio, 362 00:27:51,036 --> 00:27:54,876 Speaker 1: Like you are desperate for help, for information, but you 363 00:27:54,996 --> 00:28:00,996 Speaker 1: do not want to be identified. In the nineteen thirties, 364 00:28:00,996 --> 00:28:03,316 Speaker 1: a lot like today, it felt as if the world 365 00:28:03,476 --> 00:28:07,596 Speaker 1: was collapsing in on itself. Radio could be a lifeboat 366 00:28:07,676 --> 00:28:10,756 Speaker 1: in a swelling sea. But then, in that age of 367 00:28:10,836 --> 00:28:15,036 Speaker 1: immigration restriction, authorities started to puncture to the lifeboat. The 368 00:28:15,116 --> 00:28:18,356 Speaker 1: government of California tried to ban Spanish from the airwaves. 369 00:28:18,756 --> 00:28:22,396 Speaker 1: The federal government stepped in two. In nineteen thirty four, 370 00:28:22,436 --> 00:28:26,596 Speaker 1: Congress established the Federal Communications Commission. One of its purposes 371 00:28:26,756 --> 00:28:29,796 Speaker 1: was to regulate radio, to keep signals from interfering with 372 00:28:29,876 --> 00:28:32,756 Speaker 1: one another, and also to keep radio from messing with 373 00:28:32,876 --> 00:28:37,156 Speaker 1: the public's mind, not least because psychologists had begun studying 374 00:28:37,196 --> 00:28:40,956 Speaker 1: the effects of radio a little worried about its incredible power. 375 00:28:44,596 --> 00:28:46,876 Speaker 1: By then, there were twice as many radios in the 376 00:28:46,996 --> 00:28:51,276 Speaker 1: United States as telephones, reaching an audience of seventy eight 377 00:28:51,396 --> 00:28:56,036 Speaker 1: million people. Radio is an altogether novel medium of communication, 378 00:28:56,596 --> 00:28:59,436 Speaker 1: pre eminent as a means of social control, and epical 379 00:28:59,556 --> 00:29:03,396 Speaker 1: in its influence upon the mental horizons of men. Voices 380 00:29:03,436 --> 00:29:07,396 Speaker 1: have a way of provoking curiosity, arousing a train of imagination. 381 00:29:09,516 --> 00:29:12,916 Speaker 1: That's a young psychology professor named Hadley Cantrell. He ran 382 00:29:13,076 --> 00:29:17,476 Speaker 1: the Institute for Propaganda Analysis, which aimed to help the 383 00:29:17,596 --> 00:29:22,916 Speaker 1: intelligence citizen detect and anallazed propaganda. Cantrill studied all kinds 384 00:29:22,956 --> 00:29:26,316 Speaker 1: of propaganda, but radio most of all. In his laboratory, 385 00:29:26,356 --> 00:29:29,756 Speaker 1: he and his colleague Gordon Alport conducted experiments with which 386 00:29:29,796 --> 00:29:33,316 Speaker 1: they hoped to be able to determine what radio does 387 00:29:33,436 --> 00:29:37,796 Speaker 1: to your mind. In one experiment, they'd have multiple people 388 00:29:37,876 --> 00:29:40,556 Speaker 1: record a passage and then play that passage over a 389 00:29:40,636 --> 00:29:44,756 Speaker 1: speaker to simulate a radio broadcast. Then the psychologists would 390 00:29:44,756 --> 00:29:48,476 Speaker 1: ask listeners how they pictured the person speaking, how tall 391 00:29:48,596 --> 00:29:51,476 Speaker 1: was that person, how old, what color was their skin. 392 00:29:52,876 --> 00:29:57,476 Speaker 1: Here's what they found. Radio seemed to expand listeners horizons. 393 00:29:57,876 --> 00:30:00,956 Speaker 1: It could bring the whole world into your kitchen. But then, weirdly, 394 00:30:01,036 --> 00:30:07,196 Speaker 1: it also seemed to reinforce people's prejudices. I think some 395 00:30:07,436 --> 00:30:10,356 Speaker 1: version of that was a consequence of suppressing voices like 396 00:30:10,516 --> 00:30:14,796 Speaker 1: Pedro Gonzalezes. When little local broadcasters got kicked off the 397 00:30:14,836 --> 00:30:18,396 Speaker 1: airwaves and more and more programming came from big networks 398 00:30:18,436 --> 00:30:20,916 Speaker 1: in New York, the world that radio brought into your 399 00:30:20,996 --> 00:30:24,956 Speaker 1: kitchen got smaller. You want to hear from foreigners. You 400 00:30:25,036 --> 00:30:28,356 Speaker 1: could listen to Charlie Chan, But then towards the end 401 00:30:28,396 --> 00:30:30,756 Speaker 1: of the nineteen thirties, it's almost as if you can 402 00:30:30,836 --> 00:30:35,236 Speaker 1: hear this ha ha fakery start to deflate, as if 403 00:30:35,396 --> 00:30:37,676 Speaker 1: someone just punched a big hole right in the middle 404 00:30:37,716 --> 00:30:57,516 Speaker 1: of it. Once again, it's present time, and tonight we 405 00:30:57,676 --> 00:31:01,716 Speaker 1: offer the premiere of a fast moving melodrama, a breathtaking love. 406 00:31:01,876 --> 00:31:05,636 Speaker 1: In the beginning, radio theater just met theater. On the radio, 407 00:31:06,116 --> 00:31:08,196 Speaker 1: you were supposed to imagine that you were there in 408 00:31:08,316 --> 00:31:12,156 Speaker 1: the theater watching a play standing room only. Again, tonight, 409 00:31:12,516 --> 00:31:15,396 Speaker 1: the stage is at and what's more, we're ready for 410 00:31:15,476 --> 00:31:20,196 Speaker 1: that magic moment in the theater curtain time. It's sort 411 00:31:20,236 --> 00:31:23,076 Speaker 1: of like if I said listening to the last archive 412 00:31:23,196 --> 00:31:25,756 Speaker 1: is the same as attending a lecture. That would just 413 00:31:25,876 --> 00:31:28,916 Speaker 1: miss the point. This is not a lecture. Radio isn't 414 00:31:28,956 --> 00:31:31,636 Speaker 1: a play without a stage set or a movie without pictures. 415 00:31:32,156 --> 00:31:36,396 Speaker 1: It's something else. It's its own medium. Orson Welles understood 416 00:31:36,436 --> 00:31:40,716 Speaker 1: that better than anyone. We're starting off tonight with the 417 00:31:40,756 --> 00:31:45,396 Speaker 1: best story of its kind ever written. With the federal 418 00:31:45,476 --> 00:31:48,796 Speaker 1: government regulating radio, big broadcasters wanted to prove that they 419 00:31:48,836 --> 00:31:52,036 Speaker 1: were responsible and didn't need minding, so they began writing 420 00:31:52,036 --> 00:31:55,756 Speaker 1: a new kind of show, a sustaining program, edifying and 421 00:31:55,916 --> 00:32:00,236 Speaker 1: without ads, meant to display their virtuous uses of broadcast licenses. 422 00:32:01,516 --> 00:32:04,956 Speaker 1: Orson Wells started a sustaining program on CBS Who's called 423 00:32:05,396 --> 00:32:13,636 Speaker 1: Mercury Theater on the Air. Well said the point of 424 00:32:13,716 --> 00:32:16,356 Speaker 1: his show wasn't to bring theater to radio, but to 425 00:32:16,436 --> 00:32:19,436 Speaker 1: bring radio to the listener. It was a radio show, 426 00:32:19,516 --> 00:32:22,876 Speaker 1: but it was also a show about radio, especially its 427 00:32:22,956 --> 00:32:27,156 Speaker 1: most famous episode, the War of the Worlds. We know 428 00:32:27,356 --> 00:32:29,716 Speaker 1: now that in the early years of the twentieth century, 429 00:32:31,156 --> 00:32:36,196 Speaker 1: this world was being watched closely by intelligences greater than man's. 430 00:32:38,156 --> 00:32:40,236 Speaker 1: You probably know the story, but I bet it sounds 431 00:32:40,356 --> 00:32:42,556 Speaker 1: really different if you listen to it after having tuned 432 00:32:42,596 --> 00:32:45,356 Speaker 1: into all sorts of other stuff on the dial. Ripley's 433 00:32:45,356 --> 00:32:48,516 Speaker 1: Believe It or Not, Emis and Andy, Charlie Chan and 434 00:32:48,676 --> 00:32:52,876 Speaker 1: Pedro Gonzalez. On October thirtieth, nineteen thirty eight, on the 435 00:32:52,956 --> 00:32:56,116 Speaker 1: brink of war in Europe, Orson Welles broadcast an episode 436 00:32:56,116 --> 00:32:59,116 Speaker 1: about an alien invasion. It began as if it were 437 00:32:59,156 --> 00:33:04,836 Speaker 1: any other evenings, entertainment, good evening later than gentlemen from 438 00:33:04,836 --> 00:33:07,356 Speaker 1: the Meridian Room in the Park Clausa Hotel in New York. Today, 439 00:33:07,356 --> 00:33:09,316 Speaker 1: we bring you the music of Raymond Raquela in the 440 00:33:09,476 --> 00:33:12,636 Speaker 1: Chesstra with a touch of the Spanish. Raymond rickelloly Dalt 441 00:33:12,676 --> 00:33:20,076 Speaker 1: with Laura Company. Just another evening of exotic Spanish music 442 00:33:20,116 --> 00:33:23,636 Speaker 1: on the radio. When suddenly that concert gets interrupted by 443 00:33:23,756 --> 00:33:27,316 Speaker 1: news bulletins reporting that a strange object has fallen from 444 00:33:27,396 --> 00:33:31,116 Speaker 1: space at a nearby farm. Listen to what wells can 445 00:33:31,156 --> 00:33:34,996 Speaker 1: do with sound effects? Very thin, gentlemen, the car Phillips again. 446 00:33:35,076 --> 00:33:38,316 Speaker 1: How did the Wilmot's farm Gralvis nail Newchtis. But here's 447 00:33:38,356 --> 00:33:40,516 Speaker 1: mister Willmot's, owner of the farm here. Well, as I 448 00:33:40,676 --> 00:33:42,916 Speaker 1: was saying, I was listening to the radio kind of 449 00:33:42,956 --> 00:33:46,396 Speaker 1: halfway yes, mister Willet, and then you saw something I've 450 00:33:46,396 --> 00:33:49,476 Speaker 1: been a kind of greenish streak, and then zingle something 451 00:33:49,516 --> 00:33:52,276 Speaker 1: smacked the ground, knocked me clear out of my chair. Well, 452 00:33:52,676 --> 00:33:55,476 Speaker 1: where are you frightened, mister Willmott. Well, I'm quite sure 453 00:33:56,156 --> 00:33:58,716 Speaker 1: I reckon. I was kind of ryld Hell. Thank you, 454 00:33:58,836 --> 00:34:00,436 Speaker 1: mister Wellman, thank you very much. You want me to 455 00:34:00,476 --> 00:34:02,476 Speaker 1: tell that's right? All right? That's planning. Ladies and gentlemen, 456 00:34:02,676 --> 00:34:05,876 Speaker 1: you've our frustrated correspondent has given up on the hopeless 457 00:34:05,876 --> 00:34:10,036 Speaker 1: eye witness one. I don't know it's something happening. I'm 458 00:34:10,236 --> 00:34:15,076 Speaker 1: shapers rising out of the pit, the fact chad of 459 00:34:15,156 --> 00:34:17,316 Speaker 1: flame springing from the merrit at least writing the basting 460 00:34:17,396 --> 00:34:25,836 Speaker 1: men turning the planet rank for the automobiles, writing everywhere 461 00:34:26,036 --> 00:34:30,316 Speaker 1: coming be ladies and gentlemen. You are the circumstances beyond 462 00:34:30,396 --> 00:34:32,916 Speaker 1: our control. We are unable to continue the broadcast from 463 00:34:32,956 --> 00:34:38,356 Speaker 1: Grover's Mill. People fell for it, or at least that's 464 00:34:38,396 --> 00:34:42,476 Speaker 1: the legend, because this production was so genius, those layers 465 00:34:42,516 --> 00:34:48,396 Speaker 1: of voices, announcer, reporter, eyewitness, aliens. Newspapers reported that Americans 466 00:34:48,436 --> 00:34:51,916 Speaker 1: had collectively lost their minds. They are reports of jammed 467 00:34:51,956 --> 00:34:56,356 Speaker 1: switchboards and frantic emergency calls. The Los Angeles Times reported 468 00:34:56,436 --> 00:35:00,156 Speaker 1: two heart attacks and a stroke. All that panic It 469 00:35:00,316 --> 00:35:02,956 Speaker 1: might just have been newspapers trying to sell copies and 470 00:35:03,076 --> 00:35:06,156 Speaker 1: maybe undermine people's faith in radio so they'd start reading 471 00:35:06,196 --> 00:35:09,516 Speaker 1: the news again instead of listening to it. Then too, 472 00:35:09,676 --> 00:35:13,156 Speaker 1: it was a perfect story for psychologists like Hadley Cantrell, 473 00:35:13,636 --> 00:35:16,676 Speaker 1: whose grant money depended on the idea that radio really 474 00:35:16,756 --> 00:35:21,196 Speaker 1: could whip people up into a frenzy. Honestly, though, it's 475 00:35:21,236 --> 00:35:23,356 Speaker 1: impossible to know whether or not there was a panic 476 00:35:23,436 --> 00:35:25,916 Speaker 1: that day, and I think there's not all that much 477 00:35:25,956 --> 00:35:28,556 Speaker 1: difference between a panic and a story about a panic. 478 00:35:29,476 --> 00:35:35,276 Speaker 1: There was plenty of that. One senator from Iowa called 479 00:35:35,316 --> 00:35:37,436 Speaker 1: for a bill to prevent a broadcast like War of 480 00:35:37,516 --> 00:35:41,436 Speaker 1: the Worlds from ever happening again. The next day, Wells 481 00:35:41,756 --> 00:35:44,996 Speaker 1: tried to defend himself to the press. You must realize 482 00:35:45,036 --> 00:35:46,956 Speaker 1: that I when I left the broadcast last night, I 483 00:35:47,036 --> 00:35:49,676 Speaker 1: went into a dress rehearsal for play this opening in 484 00:35:49,716 --> 00:35:52,116 Speaker 1: two days, and I had almost no sleep. And I 485 00:35:52,756 --> 00:35:54,596 Speaker 1: know less about this than you do. I haven't read 486 00:35:57,396 --> 00:36:00,796 Speaker 1: He was mobbed by reporters demanding answers. You think there 487 00:36:00,836 --> 00:36:04,396 Speaker 1: ought to be a law. I guess such an accidents 488 00:36:04,516 --> 00:36:07,716 Speaker 1: we had last night, or who thought on that. I 489 00:36:07,836 --> 00:36:11,396 Speaker 1: don't know what the legislation would be. I know that 490 00:36:11,476 --> 00:36:14,676 Speaker 1: almost everybody in radio would do almost anything to avert 491 00:36:14,716 --> 00:36:17,716 Speaker 1: the kind of thing that has happened. It mightself included, 492 00:36:17,796 --> 00:36:20,556 Speaker 1: but I don't know what the legislation would be. We 493 00:36:20,636 --> 00:36:23,956 Speaker 1: simply radio was new, and we are learning about the 494 00:36:23,996 --> 00:36:28,196 Speaker 1: effect it has on people. Over in Princeton, near where 495 00:36:28,236 --> 00:36:31,756 Speaker 1: the Aliens supposedly landed, Kantro was floored by War of 496 00:36:31,836 --> 00:36:34,236 Speaker 1: the World. He couldn't have designed a better experiment if 497 00:36:34,276 --> 00:36:36,876 Speaker 1: he'd wanted to. He thought it'd make a perfect study 498 00:36:36,956 --> 00:36:40,556 Speaker 1: for the Institute for Propaganda Analysis, so he began pitching 499 00:36:40,596 --> 00:36:46,156 Speaker 1: the idea, collecting news stories and data on the supposed panic. Meanwhile, 500 00:36:46,396 --> 00:36:49,596 Speaker 1: his colleagues heard a. Hertzog and Hazel goodet. Began to 501 00:36:49,676 --> 00:36:52,636 Speaker 1: do research and interviews for which they don't receive nearly 502 00:36:52,716 --> 00:36:55,716 Speaker 1: enough credit. They measured the size and nature of the thing, 503 00:36:56,036 --> 00:36:58,396 Speaker 1: trying to figure out what made people fall for it. 504 00:36:59,076 --> 00:37:01,636 Speaker 1: Here's some of what people said. I believe the broadcast. 505 00:37:01,716 --> 00:37:03,876 Speaker 1: As soon as I heard the professor from Princeton and 506 00:37:03,956 --> 00:37:06,636 Speaker 1: the officials in Washington, I knew it was an awfully 507 00:37:06,716 --> 00:37:09,716 Speaker 1: dangerous situation. When all those military men were there and 508 00:37:09,836 --> 00:37:13,196 Speaker 1: the Secretary of State spoke. If so many of these 509 00:37:13,316 --> 00:37:17,276 Speaker 1: astronomers saw the explosions, that they must have been real, 510 00:37:17,876 --> 00:37:21,796 Speaker 1: they ought, you know. Later, Wells changed his story. He 511 00:37:21,916 --> 00:37:24,476 Speaker 1: said he'd known what he was doing all along, that 512 00:37:24,596 --> 00:37:28,436 Speaker 1: he'd been trying to prove just what Cantrell suspected. People 513 00:37:28,476 --> 00:37:33,636 Speaker 1: would believe anything they heard on the radio. That's a 514 00:37:33,836 --> 00:37:38,636 Speaker 1: pretty terrifying conclusion, especially in the nineteen thirties with totalitarianism 515 00:37:38,716 --> 00:37:41,756 Speaker 1: on the rise around the world. The trick in a 516 00:37:41,836 --> 00:37:45,556 Speaker 1: democracy in an age of mass communications is to find 517 00:37:45,596 --> 00:37:47,596 Speaker 1: a way out of doubt and into a set of 518 00:37:47,716 --> 00:37:50,236 Speaker 1: rules of evidence that allow you to figure out what's 519 00:37:50,276 --> 00:37:54,116 Speaker 1: true and what's not. So Americans got really interested in 520 00:37:54,236 --> 00:37:57,476 Speaker 1: defending themselves against the radio and the way it can 521 00:37:57,556 --> 00:38:00,836 Speaker 1: cultivate doubt, and also in using the radio to get 522 00:38:00,836 --> 00:38:04,836 Speaker 1: Americans to believe in America and in the American Experiment. 523 00:38:12,436 --> 00:38:16,476 Speaker 1: In nineteen thirty nine, on CBS Radio, one year after 524 00:38:16,676 --> 00:38:21,636 Speaker 1: Orson Wells's infamous broadcast, the celebrated concert artist Paul Robeson 525 00:38:22,116 --> 00:38:27,156 Speaker 1: sang a new song, a new American anthem about belief 526 00:38:27,556 --> 00:38:31,156 Speaker 1: and doubt and the American Creed. I think of it 527 00:38:31,516 --> 00:38:35,316 Speaker 1: as the long forgotten last act of war of the world. 528 00:38:36,636 --> 00:38:45,436 Speaker 1: Nobody who was anybody, everybody who was anybody ain't doning it. 529 00:38:46,516 --> 00:38:55,556 Speaker 1: Nobody had faith, Nobody nobody but Washington, Tom Payne, Benjamin Franklin, 530 00:38:56,316 --> 00:39:04,596 Speaker 1: I Am a Solomon, Chris mess Adison Nobody Ballad for 531 00:39:04,716 --> 00:39:09,996 Speaker 1: Americans became Merbison's signature song, an American Creed sung with 532 00:39:10,156 --> 00:39:12,836 Speaker 1: more power and resonance, maybe because it was sung by 533 00:39:12,876 --> 00:39:16,956 Speaker 1: an African American. The performance also made radio history. In 534 00:39:17,076 --> 00:39:19,956 Speaker 1: the studio, the audience applauded for two minutes while the 535 00:39:19,996 --> 00:39:22,236 Speaker 1: show was still on the air live, and then for 536 00:39:22,436 --> 00:39:27,076 Speaker 1: fifteen more minutes after the broadcast moved on. CBS's switchboards 537 00:39:27,116 --> 00:39:29,876 Speaker 1: got jammed with callers wanting to hear it again. It 538 00:39:30,076 --> 00:39:34,396 Speaker 1: was like a bizarro American corrido, all about truth and doubt, 539 00:39:34,756 --> 00:39:38,556 Speaker 1: these truths of the Declaration of Independence, about how nobody 540 00:39:38,716 --> 00:39:42,076 Speaker 1: who was anybody believed it and everybody who was anybody 541 00:39:42,196 --> 00:39:45,996 Speaker 1: doubted it. Then there's the constant questioning by members of 542 00:39:46,036 --> 00:39:50,196 Speaker 1: the chorus asking who is telling the story, the nobody 543 00:39:50,556 --> 00:39:56,636 Speaker 1: who believed in the idea of democracy? Who? Yeah, how 544 00:39:56,716 --> 00:40:00,476 Speaker 1: come all this? Are you an American? Am I an American? 545 00:40:01,196 --> 00:40:10,396 Speaker 1: I'm just Irish? He wrote Youish, Italian, French, Nis, Russian, Chinese, Ponies, Gots, Hungarian, 546 00:40:10,516 --> 00:40:13,076 Speaker 1: bit buck sween, He's finished, Canadian, Greek and Turk and 547 00:40:13,156 --> 00:40:18,436 Speaker 1: check and double check America. It's a knockout, but it's 548 00:40:18,476 --> 00:40:21,716 Speaker 1: also unsettling. How do you believe in something when it 549 00:40:21,836 --> 00:40:25,236 Speaker 1: keeps disappointing you, failing to live up to its own ideals. 550 00:40:26,156 --> 00:40:28,516 Speaker 1: The United States is an act of belief. You have 551 00:40:28,636 --> 00:40:30,916 Speaker 1: to believe in its founding ideas. For the thing to 552 00:40:30,996 --> 00:40:35,756 Speaker 1: work somehow, You're supposed to suspend doubt, But then what 553 00:40:35,916 --> 00:40:42,516 Speaker 1: about its failures. Out of the cheating, out of the shouting, 554 00:40:42,996 --> 00:40:47,996 Speaker 1: out of the murders and lynching, out of the wind bags, 555 00:40:48,036 --> 00:40:58,116 Speaker 1: the patriotic spouting, out of uncertainty and doubting. I have 556 00:40:58,276 --> 00:41:01,076 Speaker 1: to say, I'm really moved by thinking about what it 557 00:41:01,196 --> 00:41:03,316 Speaker 1: must have been like to live in the United States 558 00:41:03,436 --> 00:41:05,556 Speaker 1: during the years when the country was preparing to enter 559 00:41:05,596 --> 00:41:08,516 Speaker 1: the war in Europe. Here's one radio kept trying to 560 00:41:08,596 --> 00:41:12,236 Speaker 1: instill a belief in a renewed American creed, not the 561 00:41:12,316 --> 00:41:16,276 Speaker 1: creed of Thomas Jefferson, but a new creed inequality promised, 562 00:41:16,516 --> 00:41:22,836 Speaker 1: if not realized America in the nineteen thirties, breadlines, starving children, 563 00:41:23,516 --> 00:41:28,236 Speaker 1: vigilantes lynching people, and then the everyday humiliations of segregation. 564 00:41:29,476 --> 00:41:32,836 Speaker 1: After performing Ballad for Americans on the radio, Robeson went 565 00:41:32,876 --> 00:41:35,756 Speaker 1: out to eat with friends, but the restaurant refused to 566 00:41:35,876 --> 00:41:40,276 Speaker 1: see them. You can want to believe to believe in America, 567 00:41:40,676 --> 00:41:42,836 Speaker 1: but you can't allow that will to believe to lead 568 00:41:42,876 --> 00:41:45,516 Speaker 1: you to ignore its shortcomings. There are a lot of 569 00:41:45,596 --> 00:41:49,116 Speaker 1: lies and liars and fakers, but not everything is a 570 00:41:49,196 --> 00:41:51,916 Speaker 1: lie or a fake. The feeling that it's hard to 571 00:41:52,036 --> 00:41:55,316 Speaker 1: know anything anymore. That happens every time a new technology 572 00:41:55,356 --> 00:41:59,076 Speaker 1: of communications emerges. But the answer to a mess of 573 00:41:59,156 --> 00:42:02,276 Speaker 1: lies can never be to doubt everything, because doubting at 574 00:42:02,276 --> 00:42:05,516 Speaker 1: all means believing none of it and having nothing left 575 00:42:06,556 --> 00:42:13,036 Speaker 1: to believe in. Paul Robeson sang his American Creed just 576 00:42:13,236 --> 00:42:16,756 Speaker 1: weeks after war broke out in Europe on Germany invaded Poland. 577 00:42:17,476 --> 00:42:20,996 Speaker 1: During this all too reel war of the world, radio 578 00:42:21,076 --> 00:42:25,716 Speaker 1: began broadcasting a new kind of news, live eyewitness reporting 579 00:42:25,996 --> 00:42:29,276 Speaker 1: from the scene of battle, announced by Edward R. Morrow, 580 00:42:29,476 --> 00:42:34,756 Speaker 1: one of the greatest reporters of the twentieth century. Is 581 00:42:34,796 --> 00:42:38,556 Speaker 1: the oldest Square. The noise that you were here at 582 00:42:38,596 --> 00:42:41,436 Speaker 1: the moment is the sound of the air range siren. 583 00:42:42,756 --> 00:42:46,196 Speaker 1: I'm standing here, just on the steps of Saint Patten's 584 00:42:46,236 --> 00:42:53,196 Speaker 1: in the fields. A searchlight burst into action of from 585 00:42:53,196 --> 00:42:57,436 Speaker 1: the distance, then single being slipping the sky above me. 586 00:42:57,636 --> 00:43:03,356 Speaker 1: All that's not sound effects, that's not fake. That's the 587 00:43:03,436 --> 00:43:05,756 Speaker 1: sound of war from the other side of the world. 588 00:43:06,316 --> 00:43:10,996 Speaker 1: The bombing of London. Robert ripped. They tried, briefly, haplessly, 589 00:43:11,436 --> 00:43:14,356 Speaker 1: to talk about the war the real world. Bob this 590 00:43:14,516 --> 00:43:18,556 Speaker 1: week in Europe. They certainly have been making history, haven't they. Yes, fun, 591 00:43:19,476 --> 00:43:23,116 Speaker 1: this has been a week of astounding historical happening. The 592 00:43:23,276 --> 00:43:27,556 Speaker 1: map of Europe is being chased before our eyes. But 593 00:43:27,716 --> 00:43:31,036 Speaker 1: that was no way to talk about atrocity. Ripley's heyday 594 00:43:31,076 --> 00:43:34,236 Speaker 1: came to an end on the radio anyway. Nineteen thirty 595 00:43:34,316 --> 00:43:36,316 Speaker 1: nine marked the rise of a new style of radio, 596 00:43:36,676 --> 00:43:40,236 Speaker 1: with the immediacy and intensity of eyewitness reporting and breaking news, 597 00:43:40,716 --> 00:43:43,876 Speaker 1: a style that elevated a single voice, the voice of authority, 598 00:43:44,316 --> 00:43:47,396 Speaker 1: the on the scene reporter. One of the strangest sounds 599 00:43:47,476 --> 00:43:50,036 Speaker 1: one've been here in London these days, or rather these 600 00:43:50,156 --> 00:43:54,156 Speaker 1: dark nights, just the sound of footsteps walking along the street, 601 00:43:55,436 --> 00:44:05,676 Speaker 1: like most shod with steel shoes. Radio collapsed distances. For 602 00:44:05,796 --> 00:44:08,796 Speaker 1: the first time, voices could come from anywhere and work 603 00:44:08,876 --> 00:44:11,796 Speaker 1: their way through your ears, into your head, to the 604 00:44:11,916 --> 00:44:16,196 Speaker 1: inside of your brain. Almost a century later, much of 605 00:44:16,236 --> 00:44:19,356 Speaker 1: this seems to be happening all over again, the world 606 00:44:19,476 --> 00:44:23,756 Speaker 1: unraveling while the Internet bounces off satellites high above and 607 00:44:23,876 --> 00:44:28,916 Speaker 1: stomps along the corridors of your mind like ghosts shod 608 00:44:28,956 --> 00:44:41,916 Speaker 1: with steel shoes. The last archive is written and hosted 609 00:44:41,996 --> 00:44:45,956 Speaker 1: by me Jillapour. It's produced by Sophie Crane mckibbon and 610 00:44:46,116 --> 00:44:49,796 Speaker 1: Ben nat of Haffrey. Our editor is Julia Barton, and 611 00:44:49,916 --> 00:44:54,516 Speaker 1: our executive producer is Mio Lobell. Martin Gonzalez is our engineer. 612 00:44:55,116 --> 00:44:58,636 Speaker 1: Fact checking by Amy Gaines. Original music by Mathis Bossi 613 00:44:58,716 --> 00:45:03,876 Speaker 1: and John Evans Stillwagon Sympinet. Our research assistants are Olivia 614 00:45:03,916 --> 00:45:07,356 Speaker 1: Oldham and all of our riskin cuts. Our full proof 615 00:45:07,396 --> 00:45:11,916 Speaker 1: players are Yoshia mau, Amon Blankenhorne, Matthias Bosse, Dan Epstein, 616 00:45:12,116 --> 00:45:16,476 Speaker 1: Ethan Herschenfeld, Becca A Lewis, Andrew Parella, Robert Roccatta and 617 00:45:16,636 --> 00:45:20,676 Speaker 1: Nick Saxton. The Last Archive is a production of Pushkin Industries. 618 00:45:20,876 --> 00:45:24,716 Speaker 1: At Pushkin Thanks to Jacob Weisberg, Heather Fain, John Schnarz, 619 00:45:24,916 --> 00:45:28,916 Speaker 1: Carli Migliori, Christina Sullivan, Eric Sandler, Emily Rostick, Maggie Taylor, 620 00:45:29,156 --> 00:45:32,996 Speaker 1: Maya Kanig and Daniella Lacan. Many of our sound effects 621 00:45:32,996 --> 00:45:35,476 Speaker 1: are from Harry Janette Junior and the Star Jenette Foundation. 622 00:45:36,276 --> 00:45:39,836 Speaker 1: Special thanks to Simon Leake, Oliver Leek and Paul Espinoza. 623 00:45:40,316 --> 00:45:42,516 Speaker 1: If you like the show, please remember to rate, share 624 00:45:42,596 --> 00:45:45,916 Speaker 1: and review to find more Pushkin podcasts. Listen on the 625 00:45:45,996 --> 00:45:50,076 Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. 626 00:45:50,796 --> 00:45:51,676 Speaker 1: I'm Joe Lapour.