WEBVTT - Believe It 0:00:15.396 --> 0:00:24.636 Pushkin. There's a place in our world where the known 0:00:24.796 --> 0:00:30.316 things go, a corridor of the mind, lined with shelves 0:00:30.756 --> 0:00:36.876 cluttered with proof. Inside that place, behind another darker door, 0:00:38.196 --> 0:00:43.716 is our morgue. Not that kind of morgue. Our morgue 0:00:43.756 --> 0:00:49.316 is a collection of evidence. Detectives used to have morgues 0:00:49.476 --> 0:00:54.876 where they keep files on old cases. Newspapers kept morgues, too, 0:00:55.116 --> 0:00:59.516 were the mainly stored old research needs. The Last Archives 0:00:59.996 --> 0:01:03.076 is where we put stuff we've killed. Stories we liked 0:01:03.076 --> 0:01:05.756 a lot but couldn't use because the facts in the 0:01:05.836 --> 0:01:12.396 check there were lies, fakes, hoaxes. We can use this 0:01:12.436 --> 0:01:15.836 stuff in season one, which is about truth, but in 0:01:15.836 --> 0:01:20.636 this season, season two, all bets are off because this 0:01:20.676 --> 0:01:26.196 season is about doubt. Welcome to the Last Archive, Welcome 0:01:26.236 --> 0:01:31.396 to our vault of fakes. I'm Jillipoor. We've got a 0:01:31.476 --> 0:01:37.676 nifty old radio in here. Letful, Yeah, I can't see 0:01:37.676 --> 0:01:44.436 everybody who's that high and a shadow. Nineteen thirties radio 0:01:44.556 --> 0:01:50.076 is so good, but also so over the top. Turn 0:01:50.156 --> 0:01:53.796 the radio dial to the nineteen thirties and be skeptical, 0:01:54.196 --> 0:01:58.116 Be very very skeptical. Here is the Mandol. Whole life 0:01:58.116 --> 0:02:00.956 of the Countant worldwide, huntful fact. The man who makes 0:02:00.956 --> 0:02:03.276 his living by telling the truth, the man who knows 0:02:03.276 --> 0:02:06.036 the place is making us today. Yes, Bob Ridley has 0:02:06.076 --> 0:02:09.036 been there then, in more than two hundred countries, traveled 0:02:09.116 --> 0:02:13.396 over a half million miles, always seeking, always hunting for facts, facts, 0:02:13.436 --> 0:02:15.236 to foot you right with him on the front row 0:02:15.316 --> 0:02:19.356 seat of world events. Believe It or Not was one 0:02:19.356 --> 0:02:22.756 of the most popular American radio programs of the nineteen thirties. 0:02:23.396 --> 0:02:26.876 It had two conceits. First, it claimed that no one 0:02:26.916 --> 0:02:29.876 had traveled the world more widely than the host, Bob Ripley, 0:02:30.596 --> 0:02:33.796 and the second conceit Believe it or not, It's true, 0:02:33.996 --> 0:02:41.236 says Bob Ripley, and here he is. It's easy to 0:02:41.236 --> 0:02:43.676 believe what voices tell you on the radio, just like 0:02:43.716 --> 0:02:45.756 it's easy to believe stuff you read on the internet. 0:02:46.556 --> 0:02:50.916 But should you believe it or not? This episode, I'm 0:02:50.916 --> 0:02:52.916 going to play you a lot of radio because this 0:02:52.916 --> 0:02:55.116 episode is about the role of radio in the history 0:02:55.116 --> 0:02:58.636 of doubt. A few episodes this season are about radio. 0:03:00.156 --> 0:03:04.036 Listen to this stuff, but carefully me. I have to 0:03:04.116 --> 0:03:06.916 keep reminding myself because I find Ripley so fun to 0:03:06.956 --> 0:03:10.036 listen to. Don't have too much fun. Don't let your 0:03:10.076 --> 0:03:14.436 guard down. You're a historian, damn it. Still, even the 0:03:14.516 --> 0:03:18.516 ads are fun. Ladies and gentlemen. Believe the evidence of 0:03:18.516 --> 0:03:22.876 your own eyes. Pellmell gives you visible proof of its 0:03:22.876 --> 0:03:28.556 advantage to smokers. Your eye tells why, Your eye tells why. 0:03:28.756 --> 0:03:32.156 Good Lord. One problem was, just by being on the 0:03:32.276 --> 0:03:35.676 radio in the nineteen thirties, things sounded like news, or 0:03:35.876 --> 0:03:39.156 with the right copy and announcer, everything could be made 0:03:39.196 --> 0:03:42.396 to sound like news. After all, most people at the 0:03:42.396 --> 0:03:46.876 time got their news from the radio. Radio sounded so authoritative, 0:03:46.996 --> 0:03:51.076 so easy to believe. That raises for me a big question, 0:03:51.876 --> 0:03:55.396 what's the relationship between belief and doubt and democracy and 0:03:55.436 --> 0:03:58.196 the radio If, as I tried to point out in 0:03:58.236 --> 0:04:01.516 the last episode, there's something of a conflict between majority 0:04:01.596 --> 0:04:04.916 rule and freedom of thought. What if the majority starts 0:04:04.956 --> 0:04:08.276 telling you what to think, then radio is potentially pre 0:04:08.396 --> 0:04:11.276 dangerous because radio is one way you can lose your 0:04:11.316 --> 0:04:14.116 sense of what's true and what's not and be really 0:04:14.156 --> 0:04:18.596 influenced by other people. Luckily, at the time commentators raise 0:04:18.716 --> 0:04:22.276 this very same question. People are asking that question now too, 0:04:22.396 --> 0:04:26.316 just about the internet. So this episode, whenever I say 0:04:26.316 --> 0:04:30.316 the word radio. You can substitute in your head. The 0:04:30.396 --> 0:04:34.876 internet got it. It's sneaky this episode. It's a metaphor. 0:04:39.676 --> 0:04:43.956 When radio started, no technology seemed more exciting. Don't take 0:04:43.996 --> 0:04:46.316 my word for it. Listen to the President of the 0:04:46.476 --> 0:04:50.116 Radio Corporation of America RCA. If the future of our 0:04:50.196 --> 0:04:54.596 democracy depends upon the intelligence and cooperation of its citizens, 0:04:55.556 --> 0:04:58.876 radio may contribute to its success more than any other 0:04:59.036 --> 0:05:03.836 single influence. Early radio stations were often based at universities. 0:05:04.196 --> 0:05:07.356 Remember when the Internet was only at universities. Two. The 0:05:07.436 --> 0:05:13.316 earliest goal with each technolog algy was to educate. Radio 0:05:13.516 --> 0:05:17.636 educated the people, and it also promoted democracy on shows 0:05:17.716 --> 0:05:21.356 like America's Town Meeting of the Air, The program staged 0:05:21.396 --> 0:05:28.796 these crazy, wonderful debates. This one aired in nineteen thirty six. 0:05:29.676 --> 0:05:34.236 Hey CHR, what's the question tonight? Where will the machine 0:05:34.396 --> 0:05:38.436 dominate man? Will the machine dominate man? Machine does dominate man? No, 0:05:38.716 --> 0:05:41.596 the machine has improved living standard. The machine has given 0:05:41.636 --> 0:05:46.236 us leisure right too much, lenchine. Oh, just use it wisely, 0:05:46.356 --> 0:05:50.236 that's the thing to do. Will the machine dominate man? 0:05:51.316 --> 0:05:55.316 That's a great question. Every new communications technology, from the 0:05:55.396 --> 0:05:59.996 radio to the internet, up ends both epistemology and politics. 0:06:01.276 --> 0:06:04.756 People thought radio was powerful enough to save democracy because 0:06:04.756 --> 0:06:07.796 it could help people know things for certain. But was 0:06:07.796 --> 0:06:11.196 it also powerful enough to destroy democracy? Did it also 0:06:11.276 --> 0:06:15.636 make people unknown things. One thing radio could do, with 0:06:15.676 --> 0:06:19.276 more sophistication than could ever be done before, was to 0:06:19.356 --> 0:06:27.916 fake stuff. Believe it or not? Believe It or Not 0:06:28.076 --> 0:06:30.956 is the Great Temple of radio truthiness and its host, 0:06:31.196 --> 0:06:34.676 Robert L. Ripley, the High Priest. The first time you 0:06:34.716 --> 0:06:36.316 listen to it, you might think that it was a 0:06:36.356 --> 0:06:39.156 show about evidence, a little like the Last Archive, as 0:06:39.156 --> 0:06:40.916 if Believe It or Not. We're trying to draw a 0:06:40.956 --> 0:06:43.436 line between what you can know and believe and what 0:06:43.596 --> 0:06:46.156 you can't. But the second time you listen to it 0:06:46.156 --> 0:06:48.836 you begin to think, no, it's just mainly a joke. 0:06:50.236 --> 0:06:53.076 Figuring out what it really was requires learning a little 0:06:53.076 --> 0:06:59.356 about its host. Ripley was born in California in eighteen ninety. 0:06:59.556 --> 0:07:02.316 He had terrible teeth, so crooked that it made it 0:07:02.356 --> 0:07:06.516 difficult to talk. Eventually got them fixed, but by then 0:07:06.556 --> 0:07:08.916 he was so famous for his crooked teeth that he 0:07:09.316 --> 0:07:12.716 got them made slightly less crooked. When he was eighteen, 0:07:12.916 --> 0:07:15.236 he got a job with a newspaper in San Francisco, 0:07:15.316 --> 0:07:18.396 drawing cartoons. A few years later he moved to New 0:07:18.476 --> 0:07:21.516 York to work for another paper. One day, stumped for 0:07:21.596 --> 0:07:25.756 sports news, he drew a cartoon illustrating athletic firsts, like 0:07:25.796 --> 0:07:29.116 a guy who ran one hundred yards backwards in fourteen seconds. 0:07:34.996 --> 0:07:36.876 This was just at the end of the Great War. 0:07:37.476 --> 0:07:40.676 Sixteen million people died in that war, and then when 0:07:40.676 --> 0:07:43.916 it was ending, fifty million people died in the Spanish 0:07:43.956 --> 0:07:49.636 flu pandemic of nineteen eighteen. Wars and plagues unsettled knowledge. 0:07:50.196 --> 0:07:54.796 They unsettled everything. In nineteen twenty two, after the war 0:07:54.876 --> 0:07:57.316 and the plague had ended and the world had opened 0:07:57.356 --> 0:08:00.276 up again, Ripley's newspaper decided to send him on the 0:08:00.356 --> 0:08:04.036 road to hunt down more unbelievable facts for a series 0:08:04.076 --> 0:08:08.676 called Ripley's Rambles around the World. He went to Hawaii, Japan, 0:08:09.316 --> 0:08:12.756 the Philippines, and Singapore and cabled back reports about all 0:08:12.796 --> 0:08:16.596 the things he'd seen. He got crazy famous. After all 0:08:16.596 --> 0:08:21.156 that atrocity and devastation and suffering, Ripley showed Americans an 0:08:21.236 --> 0:08:25.756 unthreatening world, reassuring and even a ridiculous world, a very 0:08:25.836 --> 0:08:29.116 silly world. He published a best selling book in nineteen 0:08:29.156 --> 0:08:32.036 twenty nine. In nineteen thirty he started his own radio show. 0:08:32.436 --> 0:08:34.996 He started in short films, Well if he wakes them 0:08:35.076 --> 0:08:39.156 hot news. The fact maybe interesting that icebergs are huh 0:08:39.316 --> 0:08:43.756 not cold? How amazing? Technically this is true. There's some 0:08:43.836 --> 0:08:49.116 thermal energy thing. Not interestingly true, but narrowly true. That's 0:08:49.156 --> 0:08:52.156 the line Ripley most like to walk. Everything he said 0:08:52.236 --> 0:08:55.636 was amazing, Everyone he met was incredible. Here he is 0:08:56.076 --> 0:09:08.236 mister Clayton Bates, better known as Tegley. Ripley says, that's 0:09:08.236 --> 0:09:10.836 a one leg a tap dancer dancing with a wooden leg. 0:09:11.396 --> 0:09:13.836 And it's true. Clayton Bates was a real guy, and 0:09:13.916 --> 0:09:16.396 he did have one leg, and he was a tap dancer. 0:09:17.116 --> 0:09:19.396 But on the radio, how could you know that this 0:09:19.436 --> 0:09:22.916 sound was really Clayton Bates. You couldn't. You just couldn't know. 0:09:23.596 --> 0:09:26.436 Wondering was at least half the fun of it. Ripley 0:09:26.516 --> 0:09:32.316 loved to cultivate doubt. We have thousands of sound effects 0:09:32.356 --> 0:09:34.996 here in the last archive, many of them made by 0:09:35.036 --> 0:09:38.916 a guy named Harry Jeannette Junior. Around the same time 0:09:38.916 --> 0:09:41.956 that Ripley was traveling the world hunting facts, Jeannette was 0:09:41.996 --> 0:09:45.796 traveling the country in an old black Studebaker gathering sounds 0:09:46.436 --> 0:09:51.916 like this one a gentle rainstorm. But does this sound 0:09:51.916 --> 0:09:59.636 like a thunderclap to you? Or could it be a 0:09:59.636 --> 0:10:10.316 shotgun blast? Slowed way down? Radio opened up a whole 0:10:10.356 --> 0:10:13.556 new world and a whole new world of fakery. You 0:10:13.596 --> 0:10:15.956 could fake more than just sound effects on the radio. 0:10:16.236 --> 0:10:20.276 You could fake people. The very first radio show ever 0:10:20.316 --> 0:10:24.556 serialized on American radio made its debut in nineteen twenty eight. 0:10:24.836 --> 0:10:30.196 This show is notorious. It's horrible. Campbell Soups. Bring you 0:10:30.556 --> 0:10:35.676 Amos and Andy. Amos and Andy was a minstrel show. 0:10:36.836 --> 0:10:39.836 Amos is Sunday again. Yeah, Sunday is right. And don't 0:10:39.836 --> 0:10:42.516 forget he is on the radio every Sunday, and if arenso. 0:10:43.076 --> 0:10:46.476 Two white guys pretending to be two black guys black face. 0:10:46.956 --> 0:10:49.996 Early radio did this kind of thing all the time. 0:10:50.556 --> 0:10:58.476 Incomparable Charlie Chan, not just black face but also yellow face. 0:10:58.996 --> 0:11:04.316 Charlie Channel humbly gives you greeting and distends warm welcome, 0:11:05.836 --> 0:11:11.636 say Jess said, nature sometimes reveals steepest truth in wildest joke. 0:11:13.076 --> 0:11:16.636 Inspector Chan Charlie Chan, one of the most famous detectives 0:11:16.636 --> 0:11:20.116 of all time, A Chinese detective created by a white guy. 0:11:20.196 --> 0:11:24.596 A Harvard graduate from Ohio, Earl Dearer Biggers, a friend 0:11:24.596 --> 0:11:27.316 of mine, Unto Huang, a professor of English at the 0:11:27.396 --> 0:11:30.836 University of California, Santa Barbara, wrote an amazing book about 0:11:30.836 --> 0:11:34.036 the Charlie Chan franchise, the novels, the films, all of it. 0:11:34.556 --> 0:11:38.116 I called Huang up in Hong Kong, so maybe we 0:11:38.156 --> 0:11:40.236 could begin. I just wanted to hear a little bit 0:11:40.236 --> 0:11:45.356 about what drew you to Charlie Chan in the first place. Well, 0:11:45.596 --> 0:11:49.956 usually too friendly and engallible Americans, I would just say, walk, 0:11:50.076 --> 0:11:52.956 he wasn't my grandfather, and they were usually say, oh really, 0:11:55.596 --> 0:11:59.476 speaking of galliability. And you know, as a kid, Huang 0:11:59.596 --> 0:12:03.876 practiced is English by listening to the radio. I inherited 0:12:03.876 --> 0:12:08.796 a sort of a batter, a transistor radio flowed my 0:12:08.836 --> 0:12:13.636 city who had inherited from my grandfather. And because in 0:12:13.636 --> 0:12:16.636 those years there was no TV, and every Chinese household 0:12:16.676 --> 0:12:19.356 had a chances to radio. And I was playing with it. 0:12:20.396 --> 0:12:23.436 And then one night, you know, I turned the knob, 0:12:23.556 --> 0:12:25.436 you know, the dial up and down, up and down, 0:12:25.796 --> 0:12:31.116 and I came to a frequency. Then a man's voice 0:12:31.116 --> 0:12:34.196 came out. It's like This is a voa the Voice 0:12:34.196 --> 0:12:41.156 of America, broadcasting in special English. Years later in the US, 0:12:41.236 --> 0:12:44.356 while studying for his PhD, one came across Charlie Chan 0:12:44.516 --> 0:12:46.676 the way you might in a mystery story. He picked 0:12:46.716 --> 0:12:49.196 up a book at an estate sale. He was hooked. 0:12:49.716 --> 0:12:51.796 He knew he wasn't supposed to love this stuff. He 0:12:51.836 --> 0:12:54.996 was supposed to be outraged by its racism. But he 0:12:55.076 --> 0:12:58.396 loved the playfulness, the goofiness, and also the truth to 0:12:58.436 --> 0:13:01.156 be found within the fake. He read all the books, 0:13:01.196 --> 0:13:04.236 he watched all the films. He listened to the radio plays. 0:13:04.836 --> 0:13:08.356 After each episode toward the end, you know, they take 0:13:08.396 --> 0:13:12.916 a break music, I guess commercial, and then Charlie Chan 0:13:13.116 --> 0:13:16.356 come back and the host will as you know, mister Chan, 0:13:16.796 --> 0:13:19.516 what do you you know? What kind of Chinese philosopher 0:13:19.556 --> 0:13:23.116 do you have for us? Yes, when we are giving 0:13:23.356 --> 0:13:30.276 up taking it's time to find good nice Thank you. 0:13:34.996 --> 0:13:38.836 Chen has this fortune cookie wisdom aphorisms delivered with lots 0:13:38.836 --> 0:13:44.876 of gongs in films, A lot of the Charlie Chan things, 0:13:45.476 --> 0:13:48.996 most of them were really either cooked up by Earlder 0:13:49.036 --> 0:13:56.356 Biggers himself or you know, invented by young Hollywood screenwriters 0:13:56.556 --> 0:13:59.716 getting high and trying to imagine what Chinese will say, right, 0:14:01.836 --> 0:14:05.916 But the radio plays they contain genuine quotes from Loud 0:14:06.716 --> 0:14:10.396 or Confucius and all that, and that's not like wow, 0:14:10.436 --> 0:14:14.076 that's actually you know, almost like the commercials they will play, right, 0:14:14.276 --> 0:14:17.636 So the Chinese you know, jams, they're they're real kind 0:14:17.676 --> 0:14:21.316 of commercials. Yeah, for of course, for the radio play, 0:14:21.476 --> 0:14:24.636 but for I don't know, for for everything else. Like 0:14:24.956 --> 0:14:27.996 there's sort of like Confucianism as a radio spot, like 0:14:28.076 --> 0:14:31.916 as a series of jingles or something. Yes, yes, And 0:14:32.356 --> 0:14:35.596 there's certainly yeah, there's certain naive a tape by the 0:14:35.676 --> 0:14:40.996 earnestness about it, which doesn't really always exist in in 0:14:41.036 --> 0:14:45.076 the visual medium. Of course, this attempt at authenticity only 0:14:45.116 --> 0:14:49.116 went so far. Charlie Chan's fake Chinese accent is bad enough, 0:14:49.516 --> 0:14:55.836 but his actual Chinese. I listened very carefully. I'll try 0:14:55.916 --> 0:14:58.836 to figure out whether it's Cannonese or Vietnamese or whatever. 0:14:59.956 --> 0:15:03.516 They're not. They just it's not it's not anything. It's 0:15:03.836 --> 0:15:14.676 really made up gibberish. So on American radio in the 0:15:14.756 --> 0:15:18.156 nineteen thirties, you've got Ripley traveling the world for wonders, 0:15:18.356 --> 0:15:20.916 most of which are fake. You've got Amos and Andy 0:15:21.196 --> 0:15:24.036 fake black men, and you've got Charlie Chan, a fake 0:15:24.156 --> 0:15:28.916 Chinese guy. There's a pattern here. Radio wasn't randomly fake. 0:15:29.716 --> 0:15:32.036 Radio was fake in a way that reflected the racial 0:15:32.116 --> 0:15:36.796 and national contortions of the age, which included Jim Crow segregation, 0:15:37.116 --> 0:15:41.036 the restriction of immigration from Asia, and the forest deportation 0:15:41.196 --> 0:15:45.436 of immigrants from Mexico. In nineteen twenty four, Congress had 0:15:45.436 --> 0:15:48.876 passed the National Origins Act, which banned all immigration from 0:15:48.916 --> 0:15:53.436 Asia and restricted immigration from elsewhere through strict quotas. But 0:15:53.516 --> 0:15:56.916 the act created a carve out for non quota immigrants, 0:15:56.956 --> 0:16:01.476 which included Mexicans. Four days after the passage of the 0:16:01.556 --> 0:16:05.436 National Origins Act, Congress established the US Border Patrol had 0:16:05.436 --> 0:16:08.156 set up rules for crossing the southern border yet to 0:16:08.196 --> 0:16:11.156 register and pass literacy test and have proof of work. 0:16:11.996 --> 0:16:15.676 A few years later, new legislation would criminalize crossing the 0:16:15.716 --> 0:16:26.956 border without those documents. Believe it or not, on the radio, 0:16:27.276 --> 0:16:30.956 Mexico became exotic, the romantic land south of the border. 0:16:31.716 --> 0:16:35.076 Ripley went there to excavate its history for listeners back home. 0:16:36.316 --> 0:16:39.436 On one of my many interstinct trips I've made through Mexico, 0:16:40.316 --> 0:16:42.836 I discovered a Believe it or not about an ancient 0:16:42.876 --> 0:16:49.036 prophecy that led up to a great historical tragedy believe 0:16:49.076 --> 0:16:53.276 it or not Mexico. But Mexicans didn't need Ripley to 0:16:53.276 --> 0:16:56.156 tell their stories. In the nineteen thirties, there were a 0:16:56.196 --> 0:16:59.476 lot of other voices on the radio and they weren't fake. 0:17:14.956 --> 0:17:34.036 Yea when auna. That's Pedro Gonzalez, who started a radio 0:17:34.076 --> 0:17:38.676 show called Louis Madrugadores the Early Risers in Los Angeles 0:17:38.876 --> 0:17:41.996 in nineteen twenty nine, the year after Amos and Andy 0:17:42.076 --> 0:17:45.636 debut and the year before Believe It or Not. Gonzalez 0:17:45.676 --> 0:17:47.836 Is local show came on at four in the morning 0:17:48.196 --> 0:17:52.556 when only workers were awake, farm laborers, fruit packing house workers. 0:17:53.076 --> 0:17:56.276 They were up early getting ready for the day, listening 0:17:56.276 --> 0:17:59.796 to the radio into the music in the warmth and 0:17:59.916 --> 0:18:18.116 the humor in Gonzalz's voice in Sa Fernando Especialitas, Joostantovin 0:18:18.476 --> 0:18:22.996 and Limpachi. Second, the tape I'm playing for You is Gonzalz. 0:18:23.076 --> 0:18:25.796 His music and his voice is taken from an oral 0:18:25.876 --> 0:18:29.116 history that he gave in Spanish. I'm playing in in 0:18:29.156 --> 0:18:32.516 Spanish without translation. As a reminder that radio used to 0:18:32.596 --> 0:18:35.916 be really bilingual. For listeners who don't speak Spanish, I'll 0:18:35.956 --> 0:18:38.156 explain most of what he's saying, but hearing him in 0:18:38.156 --> 0:18:42.956 his own voice, in his own language is important, Yes, 0:18:44.516 --> 0:19:10.236 Bank memo. The Pedro Gonzalz was in eighteen ninety five 0:19:10.276 --> 0:19:14.036 in Chihuahua, Mexico, during the Mexican Revolution. He'd worked as 0:19:14.036 --> 0:19:17.156 a telegraph operator. He moved to Los Angeles when he 0:19:17.196 --> 0:19:19.596 was in his early thirties. He found his way to 0:19:19.716 --> 0:19:22.516 radio after we read a flyer looking for Spanish speakers 0:19:22.636 --> 0:19:26.396 who could write and sing jingles. Gonzalez got the job 0:19:26.596 --> 0:19:30.316 and then started his own company making Spanish language radio ads. 0:19:31.316 --> 0:19:35.516 Dolores z Cassius, another incredible scholar, at U Sezanna Barbara, 0:19:35.716 --> 0:19:39.836 writes about Gonzalez in her book Sounds of Belonging. When 0:19:39.996 --> 0:19:43.596 radio came on the scene in the United States in general, 0:19:43.916 --> 0:19:49.396 it was seen as this coveted, luxurious radio set to own. 0:19:49.676 --> 0:19:53.076 But as it became cheaper, that's when more working class 0:19:53.116 --> 0:19:58.316 communities of color, immigrant communities gravitated towards it. Early Spanish 0:19:58.396 --> 0:20:00.796 language radio had to be picked up from transmitters across 0:20:00.836 --> 0:20:04.996 the border in Mexico. Sometimes people would broadcast illegally from 0:20:04.996 --> 0:20:07.756 the garages on the West Coast. He could hear anything, 0:20:07.836 --> 0:20:12.276 fortune tellers preach yours, uncensored smart, fake doctors spouting quackery. 0:20:13.116 --> 0:20:16.836 Listeners love Gonzalez is Los Mugs, which is the first 0:20:16.876 --> 0:20:28.876 Spanish language show broadcast in the United States. Once the 0:20:28.916 --> 0:20:31.796 depression hit, it became harder for Mexican workers in California 0:20:31.876 --> 0:20:35.276 to find jobs. On a show, Gonzalz would find out 0:20:35.276 --> 0:20:38.276 where there was work. He announced it on air. Everyone 0:20:38.276 --> 0:20:41.116 would hear it. It was incredibly effective. It got so 0:20:41.236 --> 0:20:43.516 boss is looking for workers would just go to Gonzalez 0:20:43.596 --> 0:20:47.676 and ask him to spread the word. Then manzualis corneus. 0:20:48.236 --> 0:21:12.956 He the vile We're going better. Unlike Ripley, who was 0:21:13.076 --> 0:21:16.716 mostly joshing you, Gonzalez was the real deal. You could 0:21:16.756 --> 0:21:20.116 trust him. It tied listeners together, so they felt that 0:21:20.436 --> 0:21:23.676 they weren't alone. So it gave a sense that it 0:21:23.956 --> 0:21:26.956 wasn't just this Mexican neighborhood or this side of a 0:21:27.036 --> 0:21:29.436 Mexican city. It gave a sense that they were part 0:21:29.476 --> 0:21:33.316 of this larger mass, and it gave a sense of power. 0:21:33.836 --> 0:21:37.596 You feel powerful when you listen to that. Cassia says 0:21:37.796 --> 0:21:42.076 that Gonzalez. His favorite songs were in Charis and Corrido's ballads. 0:21:42.436 --> 0:21:44.916 He wrote them himself and played them on the radio, 0:21:45.676 --> 0:21:48.596 so one of the most popular corridos during that time. 0:21:48.756 --> 0:21:50.676 He did not write this, but it was aired a lot. 0:21:50.916 --> 0:21:55.436 Was called a Laba Blatos, which is the dishwasher, and 0:21:55.596 --> 0:21:58.276 it's a song about a dishwasher Mexican immigrant and how 0:21:58.316 --> 0:22:02.596 he spends his days being a dishwasher. But it was 0:22:02.676 --> 0:22:05.956 a number one song style in the United States. People 0:22:06.036 --> 0:22:09.076 were requesting that, and I think a lot of people 0:22:09.316 --> 0:22:13.476 will say, well, it's because you know, pobre Mexicanos. They 0:22:13.756 --> 0:22:16.596 missed their patria, they missed their homeland. That's why they 0:22:16.636 --> 0:22:21.396 wanted to remember. But there's a listener letter in his 0:22:21.716 --> 0:22:26.076 files that says, I appreciated that song style because you 0:22:26.196 --> 0:22:30.196 helped us forget. You helped us forget what our existence 0:22:30.356 --> 0:22:37.196 was like here. And I really admire that that he 0:22:37.436 --> 0:22:41.436 did that in the sense of not just romanticizing what 0:22:41.556 --> 0:22:47.236 you left behind, but this realization of what your life 0:22:47.356 --> 0:22:51.836 is like right now. Life right now included the US 0:22:51.876 --> 0:22:55.276 Border Control arresting tens of thousands of people and sending 0:22:55.316 --> 0:22:58.876 them to jail to await trial. Mexicans charged through the 0:22:58.876 --> 0:23:02.476 immigration crimes filled prisons. Their sheer numbers led to a 0:23:02.556 --> 0:23:06.676 massive growth of the prison industry. Then there were their deportations, 0:23:06.876 --> 0:23:11.156 started by President Hoover. In what we're called repatriation drives. 0:23:11.476 --> 0:23:14.276 The US government forcibly deported over a million people of 0:23:14.396 --> 0:23:19.436 Mexican descent, most of them were US citizens. Gonzalez helped 0:23:19.476 --> 0:23:24.596 people organize and resist. He could announce a meeting for 0:23:24.716 --> 0:23:28.116 a union, you know, downtown, and then two hours later 0:23:28.356 --> 0:23:31.996 all these people would show up. He started giving people 0:23:32.636 --> 0:23:37.596 um heads up, like yesterday at this train station, people 0:23:37.596 --> 0:23:41.396 are being deported. The more Gonzalez spoke out against the deportation, 0:23:41.956 --> 0:23:44.996 the more the authorities hassled him. He later said, the 0:23:45.076 --> 0:23:48.916 authorities started asking themselves, what if he insights a revolution here? 0:23:58.636 --> 0:24:08.636 He say, will make it cool? He does which status 0:24:09.916 --> 0:24:16.036 let The LA District Attorney ranted about Gonzalez, said he 0:24:16.076 --> 0:24:18.836 was a madman, said he was conspiring to burn down 0:24:18.916 --> 0:24:27.196 white people's houses, that sort of thing. He's a conflictum. 0:24:31.876 --> 0:24:34.996 Once the DA decided to go after Gonzalez, the authorities 0:24:35.076 --> 0:24:38.676 clearly had him under surveillance. Police arrested him for keeping 0:24:38.716 --> 0:24:41.116 his daughter home from school. Had turned out she was 0:24:41.156 --> 0:24:43.876 taking care of her sick mother. Then they questioned him 0:24:43.876 --> 0:24:47.196 about picking up miners young girls, which he had done, 0:24:47.516 --> 0:24:49.436 but they were friends of his daughter and he picked 0:24:49.476 --> 0:24:52.396 them up to drive all of them to school. Eventually, 0:24:52.516 --> 0:24:55.316 in nineteen thirty four, police trumped up charges of rape. 0:25:03.396 --> 0:25:07.116 During the trial, Gonzalez calmly smoked a cigar. His fans 0:25:07.196 --> 0:25:11.356 filled the courtroom. He was sure he'd be found innocent. Instead, 0:25:11.636 --> 0:25:14.196 he was found guilty and sentenced to fifty years in prison. 0:25:14.916 --> 0:25:17.916 He was sent to San Quentin. His radio listeners wrote 0:25:17.996 --> 0:25:27.796 him letters year after year he Quentin. They raised money 0:25:27.836 --> 0:25:31.236 for his defense. Years later, his accuser said that she lied, 0:25:31.476 --> 0:25:33.596 that the police had convinced her to accuse him of 0:25:33.636 --> 0:25:36.716 a crime he had never committed. In nineteen forty, after 0:25:36.796 --> 0:25:39.876 serving six years in San Quentin, Gonzalez was released on 0:25:39.996 --> 0:25:56.916 parole to Mexico. He was driven to Union station in 0:25:57.116 --> 0:26:00.156 La to border train to Mexico. He was met by 0:26:00.156 --> 0:26:10.956 a crowd. He stopped and sang one last song. So 0:26:11.316 --> 0:26:15.436 we haven't found any archive broadcasts. Have you ever heard any? 0:26:15.756 --> 0:26:18.396 Or I have not. I kind of liked that you 0:26:18.516 --> 0:26:23.436 can't find it. I have to I'm almost like I mean, 0:26:23.516 --> 0:26:25.756 of course I want to listen to it today, like 0:26:25.836 --> 0:26:27.676 every once in a while in Spanish in which radio 0:26:27.796 --> 0:26:32.756 will hear about an ice sighting, and it's so incredibly 0:26:32.796 --> 0:26:36.156 hard to get that recorded. But that's part of its 0:26:36.236 --> 0:26:44.716 mystique and power. It's that you can't capture it. For 0:26:44.796 --> 0:26:47.276 a long time, radio had afforded that kind of freedom 0:26:47.676 --> 0:26:53.916 and power, creative and unregulated, small local broadcasters like Gonzalez 0:26:53.956 --> 0:26:57.796 engaged in a conversation with their communities as an as 0:26:57.876 --> 0:27:03.196 Cassius reminded me, I mean really reminded me, this kind 0:27:03.236 --> 0:27:07.156 of radio can sometimes save lives for a group of 0:27:07.396 --> 0:27:21.836 people who are so legally vulnerable. Radio becomes so important. 0:27:22.516 --> 0:27:25.836 And I actually just heard and beginning tier because I 0:27:25.996 --> 0:27:31.836 just heard reheard a show. It's amazing, and it's bilingual 0:27:32.036 --> 0:27:37.396 and mistech Mexican indigenous language in Spanish, and you hear 0:27:37.636 --> 0:27:43.836 these immigrants like calling and they're so desperate and they're 0:27:43.956 --> 0:27:46.476 using fake names and they're doing all this stuff, and 0:27:46.556 --> 0:27:49.316 it reminds me like this is why people go to radio, 0:27:51.036 --> 0:27:54.876 Like you are desperate for help, for information, but you 0:27:54.996 --> 0:28:00.996 do not want to be identified. In the nineteen thirties, 0:28:00.996 --> 0:28:03.316 a lot like today, it felt as if the world 0:28:03.476 --> 0:28:07.596 was collapsing in on itself. Radio could be a lifeboat 0:28:07.676 --> 0:28:10.756 in a swelling sea. But then, in that age of 0:28:10.836 --> 0:28:15.036 immigration restriction, authorities started to puncture to the lifeboat. The 0:28:15.116 --> 0:28:18.356 government of California tried to ban Spanish from the airwaves. 0:28:18.756 --> 0:28:22.396 The federal government stepped in two. In nineteen thirty four, 0:28:22.436 --> 0:28:26.596 Congress established the Federal Communications Commission. One of its purposes 0:28:26.756 --> 0:28:29.796 was to regulate radio, to keep signals from interfering with 0:28:29.876 --> 0:28:32.756 one another, and also to keep radio from messing with 0:28:32.876 --> 0:28:37.156 the public's mind, not least because psychologists had begun studying 0:28:37.196 --> 0:28:40.956 the effects of radio a little worried about its incredible power. 0:28:44.596 --> 0:28:46.876 By then, there were twice as many radios in the 0:28:46.996 --> 0:28:51.276 United States as telephones, reaching an audience of seventy eight 0:28:51.396 --> 0:28:56.036 million people. Radio is an altogether novel medium of communication, 0:28:56.596 --> 0:28:59.436 pre eminent as a means of social control, and epical 0:28:59.556 --> 0:29:03.396 in its influence upon the mental horizons of men. Voices 0:29:03.436 --> 0:29:07.396 have a way of provoking curiosity, arousing a train of imagination. 0:29:09.516 --> 0:29:12.916 That's a young psychology professor named Hadley Cantrell. He ran 0:29:13.076 --> 0:29:17.476 the Institute for Propaganda Analysis, which aimed to help the 0:29:17.596 --> 0:29:22.916 intelligence citizen detect and anallazed propaganda. Cantrill studied all kinds 0:29:22.956 --> 0:29:26.316 of propaganda, but radio most of all. In his laboratory, 0:29:26.356 --> 0:29:29.756 he and his colleague Gordon Alport conducted experiments with which 0:29:29.796 --> 0:29:33.316 they hoped to be able to determine what radio does 0:29:33.436 --> 0:29:37.796 to your mind. In one experiment, they'd have multiple people 0:29:37.876 --> 0:29:40.556 record a passage and then play that passage over a 0:29:40.636 --> 0:29:44.756 speaker to simulate a radio broadcast. Then the psychologists would 0:29:44.756 --> 0:29:48.476 ask listeners how they pictured the person speaking, how tall 0:29:48.596 --> 0:29:51.476 was that person, how old, what color was their skin. 0:29:52.876 --> 0:29:57.476 Here's what they found. Radio seemed to expand listeners horizons. 0:29:57.876 --> 0:30:00.956 It could bring the whole world into your kitchen. But then, weirdly, 0:30:01.036 --> 0:30:07.196 it also seemed to reinforce people's prejudices. I think some 0:30:07.436 --> 0:30:10.356 version of that was a consequence of suppressing voices like 0:30:10.516 --> 0:30:14.796 Pedro Gonzalezes. When little local broadcasters got kicked off the 0:30:14.836 --> 0:30:18.396 airwaves and more and more programming came from big networks 0:30:18.436 --> 0:30:20.916 in New York, the world that radio brought into your 0:30:20.996 --> 0:30:24.956 kitchen got smaller. You want to hear from foreigners. You 0:30:25.036 --> 0:30:28.356 could listen to Charlie Chan, But then towards the end 0:30:28.396 --> 0:30:30.756