WEBVTT - Flagpole Sitting: A Real Fad 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:02.640 Hey, everybody. You may not know this yet, and if 0:00:02.720 --> 0:00:06.279 you don't, prepare to be blown away. We are creating 0:00:06.400 --> 0:00:09.479 right now the first ever Stuff you Should Know book. 0:00:09.560 --> 0:00:13.280 It's called Stuff you Should Know Colon, an incomplete compendium 0:00:13.280 --> 0:00:16.520 of mostly interesting things. And you can preorder it now, 0:00:16.880 --> 0:00:19.560 that's right. And if you pre order, everyone, there's an 0:00:19.560 --> 0:00:22.400 incentive because you get a free gift. And don't worry 0:00:22.440 --> 0:00:24.800 if you've already pre ordered, because you can just head 0:00:24.800 --> 0:00:28.680 on over to stuff you Should Read books dot com. 0:00:28.760 --> 0:00:31.400 It's a very beautiful little web page and it's got 0:00:31.600 --> 0:00:34.400 all the information. And if you already pre ordered, can't 0:00:34.400 --> 0:00:36.519 you just like upload your receipt and get that pre 0:00:36.680 --> 0:00:39.159 order gift. Yep, you can, and they will mail it 0:00:39.159 --> 0:00:40.680 off to you and you will get in the mail 0:00:40.680 --> 0:00:42.760 and say, oh, thank you. Don't mind if I do. 0:00:42.880 --> 0:00:45.080 And it's a poster that you will love and cherish 0:00:45.080 --> 0:00:48.320 and possibly pass on down to your children as an heirloom. 0:00:48.479 --> 0:00:50.920 That's right, everyone, We couldn't be more excited about this book. 0:00:50.920 --> 0:00:54.120 It's really coming together. Well, it's us through and through 0:00:54.280 --> 0:00:57.200 and you can go check out some excerpts at stuff 0:00:57.280 --> 0:01:01.040 you Should Read books dot com. Welcome to Stuff you 0:01:01.080 --> 0:01:10.240 Should know, a production of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, 0:01:10.360 --> 0:01:12.839 and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and there's 0:01:12.920 --> 0:01:17.080 Charles W. Chuck Bryant right over there. Jerry's out there somewhere, 0:01:17.120 --> 0:01:21.400 and this is stuff you should know. You know, Chuck, 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:23.480 I have to say yes. Every once in a while, 0:01:24.000 --> 0:01:27.759 the amazing theme song from our short lived television show 0:01:27.840 --> 0:01:31.160 comes into my head and it'll just it's just a 0:01:31.280 --> 0:01:34.560 complete earworm because I just hear the end of it 0:01:34.800 --> 0:01:37.240 over and over and over again, and it's actually pretty 0:01:37.240 --> 0:01:39.480 pleasant night. It doesn't bother me. I love it. I 0:01:39.520 --> 0:01:41.600 haven't heard that song in a while. Well, you need 0:01:41.640 --> 0:01:44.840 to go listen. That was the Henry Clay people, right, Yeah. 0:01:44.880 --> 0:01:50.920 Our buddies, Joey and Andy Sierra California boys, Southern California 0:01:51.000 --> 0:01:53.520 boys men. Didn't didn't they go to like Harvard or 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:56.360 something crazy like that. Joey ended up going to Harvard 0:01:56.480 --> 0:01:58.400 and then I think Andy went to a f I 0:01:58.800 --> 0:02:02.200 and then Joey I think went back to film school 0:02:03.160 --> 0:02:07.960 and they're both writing, uh you know, screenwriting. Man. That's great, 0:02:08.160 --> 0:02:10.880 and he's got a he wrote it the this uh 0:02:10.960 --> 0:02:14.640 Andy Sandberg movie that's that's coming out soon. Really what 0:02:14.639 --> 0:02:18.639 which what what's it called? Uh? It is called Palm Springs? 0:02:18.680 --> 0:02:23.480 I think why? And he wrote it? Yeah, dude, that's fantastic. 0:02:23.520 --> 0:02:28.119 Congratulations And he wrote on the TV show Lodge forty nine. Yeah, 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:32.400 I haven't seen the Springs, but that, um, that guy 0:02:33.000 --> 0:02:37.440 Kurt Rustling Goldie hans Son. I love that guy. I 0:02:37.480 --> 0:02:39.760 think he's one of the coolest people walking around on 0:02:39.800 --> 0:02:42.720 the planet today. Yeah, I haven't seen Lodge forty Nine's 0:02:42.720 --> 0:02:45.800 supposed to be awesome. And um, Andy was a writer's 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:47.919 assistant and then ended up on the staff and they're 0:02:47.960 --> 0:02:51.959 they're both doing great. Man, that's great. A little baby 0:02:51.960 --> 0:02:54.840 now they're both married. Nice man, that's nice. And that's 0:02:54.880 --> 0:03:00.600 an update on the cra Club as um, let's see 0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:03.240 what else? How was it? How did did that come 0:03:03.240 --> 0:03:05.400 into your head? Though? The song? Like? What made you 0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:08.240 think of that? Nothing? I was just out back, like 0:03:08.360 --> 0:03:11.440 mowing the lawn with my big old lawnmower. Uh, and 0:03:11.480 --> 0:03:14.840 it just popped in my head. I was probably thinking 0:03:14.880 --> 0:03:16.520 of something I had to do that had to do 0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:19.160 with stuff you should know, and I thought stuff you 0:03:19.160 --> 0:03:21.040 should know? And when I thought it, I thought it 0:03:21.080 --> 0:03:24.800 as stuff you should know. Duing it. This is the 0:03:24.800 --> 0:03:26.880 then it just played on a loop. This is the 0:03:26.919 --> 0:03:31.200 second time you mentioned the size of your lawnmower. Yeah, 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:33.040 and now you just gotta send me a picture. Is 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:35.800 this one of these things that you stand it and 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:38.240 it and it wheels you around like some weird land 0:03:38.240 --> 0:03:41.680 speeder you mean, like a skag or something. Now, this 0:03:41.760 --> 0:03:45.480 is just a good old fashioned toro. That is because 0:03:45.520 --> 0:03:49.520 it's gas powered. I got it like on super discount. Um, 0:03:49.600 --> 0:03:54.760 because everybody's making like really good electric lawnmowers, um, but 0:03:54.920 --> 0:03:57.280 this one was you know, it was on discount, and 0:03:57.320 --> 0:03:59.120 I like the look of it. Yeah, it's a good 0:03:59.120 --> 0:04:02.080 looking more huh. Yeah. I was like, I like your style. 0:04:03.200 --> 0:04:07.320 Is it red? Yep? Yeah, it was red toros. Yeah, 0:04:07.360 --> 0:04:09.720 it's nice. It takes you back to days of paper 0:04:09.800 --> 0:04:12.000 routes and stuff like that, don't I thought you were 0:04:12.080 --> 0:04:14.520 mentioning the song because you were thinking of the song 0:04:14.640 --> 0:04:23.520 Flagpole Sita by Harvey Danger. No, I wasn't at all. Okay, 0:04:24.040 --> 0:04:27.160 but that's a great segue, Chuck, because it just so happens. 0:04:27.920 --> 0:04:30.279 And you may be aware of this for talking about 0:04:30.320 --> 0:04:33.840 Flagpole sitting to day in this episode, right, and I've 0:04:33.839 --> 0:04:36.360 been singing that song in my head all day now, 0:04:36.440 --> 0:04:38.719 I don't. I don't know that song? You know it? 0:04:38.720 --> 0:04:40.839 It was a well maybe not, it was a It 0:04:40.880 --> 0:04:44.120 was a top forty hit in the nineties, kind of 0:04:44.279 --> 0:04:46.520 during the grunge era. It was. It was a power 0:04:46.560 --> 0:04:53.000 pop hit that kind of Oh, don't, don't, don't, don't, 0:04:53.120 --> 0:05:00.920 don't do do wait, don't said it at it? No, 0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:04.799 my band actually covers a flagpoles. It it's a fun song. Okay, 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:07.440 that's great. I'm gonna have to go listen to it 0:05:08.240 --> 0:05:10.400 because I feel like I'm missing out. But what that 0:05:10.520 --> 0:05:13.240 song is? That song about flagpole sitting is about shipwreck 0:05:13.320 --> 0:05:16.039 Kelly in particular. No, it's not. But it does have 0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:19.680 one line that says, run it up the flagpole and 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:23.920 see And that's the only time it references flagpoles at all? 0:05:24.640 --> 0:05:29.080 Sees what who salutes? But no one ever does? I think? 0:05:29.200 --> 0:05:32.679 Is the next line? Mm hmm that rings a bill 0:05:33.160 --> 0:05:34.760 I have, but the again end then and then I 0:05:34.880 --> 0:05:40.159 was again to the mirror a little bit clearer. Run 0:05:40.160 --> 0:05:43.000 it up the flagpole and see who salutes? But no 0:05:43.000 --> 0:05:47.359 one ever does? Yeah, I'm not sick, but not well? 0:05:47.600 --> 0:05:50.200 Who is that Harvey danger? Danger? Okay? Yeah, that's a 0:05:50.200 --> 0:05:53.920 great song. I love it. Yeah. Who fellow podcasting friend 0:05:54.000 --> 0:05:57.320 John Roderick. Actually, uh, Sean Nelson was a friend of 0:05:57.320 --> 0:05:59.560 his in Seattle and Nate he played bass for a 0:05:59.600 --> 0:06:02.960 little all in Harvey Danger. Oh very wow, man, this 0:06:03.040 --> 0:06:05.440 is all coming first. So I got one more for you. 0:06:05.560 --> 0:06:09.240 I used to have that song and I don't know 0:06:09.279 --> 0:06:11.360 where I downloaded it from. This would have been probably 0:06:11.400 --> 0:06:15.080 back in the napster days or something, um, and it 0:06:15.200 --> 0:06:18.600 was mislabeled as Brian Jones how massacre. And I was 0:06:18.640 --> 0:06:21.840 always like, this is not sound like Brian Jones how massacre. 0:06:22.680 --> 0:06:28.080 Now I know it most definitely wasn't Brian Jones hown massacre. Wow. Alright, 0:06:28.240 --> 0:06:31.320 we haven't even talked about flag pole sitting yet. No, 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:34.800 we haven't, um, which is a crime because it's actually 0:06:34.800 --> 0:06:38.080 one of the more interesting, weird old fads that's ever 0:06:38.160 --> 0:06:41.720 come this way in America, and it was in the 0:06:41.720 --> 0:06:45.640 twenties started. We actually we know who patient zero was 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:49.120 a flagpole sitting and it's easy to tell because it 0:06:49.279 --> 0:06:53.760 is such a bizarre thing to do that if you 0:06:53.839 --> 0:06:56.799 can find the person who who who did it first, 0:06:56.800 --> 0:06:59.640 who claims to have done it first, they're probably correct, 0:06:59.680 --> 0:07:02.159 And in this case, you can trace it back to 0:07:02.400 --> 0:07:09.520 sometime around January, supposedly potentially in Hollywood, California, part of 0:07:09.520 --> 0:07:13.560 Los Angeles, and there was a man named Alvin Shipwreck 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:17.480 Kelly who supposedly climbed up on a flagpole as part 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:20.000 of a promotion for a movie and sat there for 0:07:20.240 --> 0:07:24.320 full thirteen hours and thirteen minutes to help draw a crowd. 0:07:24.640 --> 0:07:28.400 And boyditty ever, yeah, which you know, Uh, that sounds 0:07:28.400 --> 0:07:30.240 like a long time to sit on a flagpole, but 0:07:30.320 --> 0:07:35.360 that is kids stuff, yeah, compared to where this is. Yeah, 0:07:35.400 --> 0:07:38.960 for sure, that's an appertif. But it's a good first attempt, 0:07:39.040 --> 0:07:43.280 you know. Yeah. And so you know, it sounds strange 0:07:43.360 --> 0:07:44.920 because when you think of a flagpole, you're like, what 0:07:44.960 --> 0:07:47.520 are they sitting on? It's a it's a modified flagpole 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:51.280 that basically there are different kinds, but um usually it's 0:07:51.360 --> 0:07:52.880 sort of like a bar stool at the top of 0:07:52.880 --> 0:07:56.640 a flagpole and it's that low fi and you climb 0:07:56.840 --> 0:07:59.880 up there and you sit and that's all you do. 0:08:01.000 --> 0:08:04.160 That's that's it. I mean, whatever else you want to do, well, 0:08:04.200 --> 0:08:07.320 sure you do use yourself or whatever that's up to you. 0:08:07.520 --> 0:08:10.520 But as far as being considered a flagpole sitter. That's it. 0:08:11.000 --> 0:08:13.000 You sit on top of a flagpole for as long 0:08:13.040 --> 0:08:15.400 as you can. All right, So let's talk about this guy, 0:08:15.440 --> 0:08:20.200 because Shipwreck Kelly was a pretty interesting character. Uh. And 0:08:20.240 --> 0:08:22.440 I have to say there's a Memory Palace episode about 0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:25.040 him that I specifically didn't listen to you beforehand because 0:08:25.040 --> 0:08:27.960 I didn't want to unconsciously rip it off. Go listen 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:30.120 to that, yeah, or Buddy Nate, I'm gonna check that 0:08:30.120 --> 0:08:34.160 out for sure. So Alvin Kelly, Uh, he was born 0:08:34.200 --> 0:08:38.200 Aloysius Anthony Kelly in New York City, in Hell's Kitchen 0:08:38.280 --> 0:08:42.400 in a tenement in eight and had a very sad 0:08:42.440 --> 0:08:46.200 start to his life and that his father was had 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:50.080 already passed before he was born. His mother passed in childbirth, 0:08:50.800 --> 0:08:55.160 and that basically meant he was shuttled around two relatives 0:08:55.160 --> 0:08:58.600 and orphanages from you know, the minute he took his 0:08:58.679 --> 0:09:03.080 first breath. Yeah. Um, And apparently from a pretty pretty 0:09:03.080 --> 0:09:06.280 early age he would do things like climb flagpoles and 0:09:06.360 --> 0:09:10.960 other tall stuff and like working at heights became a 0:09:11.040 --> 0:09:14.000 kind of a recurring theme in his life. Um. Was 0:09:14.040 --> 0:09:17.240 supposedly by age seven, he was climbing flagpoles. Within a 0:09:17.240 --> 0:09:20.040 few years after that, he was starting to scale the 0:09:20.040 --> 0:09:22.720 facades of some of the buildings in his neighborhood. And 0:09:22.760 --> 0:09:25.920 by the time he was thirteen. And bear in mind, 0:09:25.960 --> 0:09:29.120 if this guy's biography seems a little thin, he just 0:09:29.240 --> 0:09:33.520 came out of nowhere in n for sitting on a flagpole. 0:09:33.760 --> 0:09:36.160 So all of the info about him came from him 0:09:36.400 --> 0:09:39.400 to reporters who were reporting in the nineteen twenties. So 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:43.319 just fabrications are flying around left and right. But um, 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:46.960 supposedly he ran away at age thirteen and ran off 0:09:46.960 --> 0:09:50.120 to join uh the crew of a cargo ship and 0:09:50.200 --> 0:09:53.280 start his life sailing the seas. Yeah, and he did 0:09:53.280 --> 0:09:55.800 a lot of kind of odd jobs, or maybe not 0:09:55.880 --> 0:09:58.000 odd jobs, but just jobs that didn't have anything to 0:09:58.040 --> 0:10:01.559 do with one another. Uh. Over the next couple of decades, 0:10:01.840 --> 0:10:04.600 he was in the movies as a a stand in 0:10:04.679 --> 0:10:07.920 and a double He was a stunt person, a stunt pilot, 0:10:08.600 --> 0:10:12.560 high diver, a boxer. Uh, this part I love. There's 0:10:12.600 --> 0:10:15.640 actually a name for people that repair church steeples, and 0:10:15.679 --> 0:10:19.640 what is that steeple jack. He was a steeplejack. That 0:10:19.840 --> 0:10:23.320 is definitely a band name for sure. Steeple Jack oh yeah, 0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:27.280 it sounds like maybe an industrial band, but like on 0:10:27.400 --> 0:10:30.480 the light side, like they like they're technically too melodic 0:10:30.559 --> 0:10:34.400 to actually be considered industrial, but they still call themselves industrial. 0:10:34.720 --> 0:10:37.000 That's become my favorite part of this whole band name thing, 0:10:38.559 --> 0:10:41.679 is you describing what kind of band it is? Okay, 0:10:42.200 --> 0:10:44.560 well thanks man. That that that makes me feel warm 0:10:44.559 --> 0:10:48.720 and funny. So, um, World War One comes along, and 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:52.560 he was in the Naval Auxiliary Reserve as an ensign 0:10:53.360 --> 0:10:59.560 and served on the USS Edgar f Lukenbach during that war. Yep, 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:02.880 so he did have some sort of well I should say, 0:11:03.160 --> 0:11:06.960 I don't know if anybody's corroborated that, um, but we'll 0:11:07.000 --> 0:11:08.959 just take all that at face value because it doesn't 0:11:08.960 --> 0:11:13.640 really matter at this point. But what he eventually picked 0:11:13.679 --> 0:11:16.720 up the nickname shipwreck. And there's a lot of different 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:20.600 um explanations for this, and he's given or he gave 0:11:20.720 --> 0:11:24.440 multiple different explanations depending on what reporter he was talking to. 0:11:24.880 --> 0:11:28.000 But one of the numbers that gets bandied about pretty 0:11:28.040 --> 0:11:33.000 frequently is that shipwreck Kelly was so named because he 0:11:33.080 --> 0:11:36.280 survived thirty two different shipwrecks at sea. And where this 0:11:36.320 --> 0:11:39.920 is where shipwrecks tend to happen with the good old days. Third, yeah, 0:11:40.559 --> 0:11:44.040 up stories about yourself. Do you remember when we talked 0:11:44.080 --> 0:11:48.560 about um, we did an episode on the World's Either 0:11:48.640 --> 0:11:52.400 Luckiest or Unluckiest People? And do you remember that one 0:11:52.400 --> 0:11:55.280 guy He was like, I I survived a car that 0:11:55.320 --> 0:11:57.400 fell off a cliff, and I survived a train wreck 0:11:57.440 --> 0:11:59.480 and all that. He was doing his jam in like 0:11:59.480 --> 0:12:03.640 two thousand five, remember, was he? Yeah, he was pretty 0:12:03.679 --> 0:12:06.240 pretty recent if I remember correctly. Remember his son came 0:12:06.280 --> 0:12:09.120 out was like, everybody, this is not true, right, Like, 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:11.880 none of what you're talking about is true. Well, we 0:12:11.920 --> 0:12:13.760 did had just fooled you all. We don't know if 0:12:13.760 --> 0:12:17.000 a shipwreck Kelly actually survived the Titanic like he claimed, 0:12:17.880 --> 0:12:19.880 but we do know that he was not on the 0:12:20.000 --> 0:12:23.600 roster on the Titanic, So I am going to venture 0:12:23.640 --> 0:12:25.600 to say that he made that one up. And there 0:12:25.600 --> 0:12:29.280 were three Kelly's on board, but who were survivors? But 0:12:29.360 --> 0:12:31.480 all three of them were women, So yeah, he probably 0:12:31.559 --> 0:12:34.559 wasn't on the Titanic. Maybe he did survive from shipwrecks. 0:12:34.600 --> 0:12:37.360 He was at sea most likely, But the point is 0:12:37.360 --> 0:12:40.320 that they call him shipwreck Kelly, and I guess somebody 0:12:40.800 --> 0:12:44.200 went to the trouble of digging up that. Uh. Some 0:12:44.520 --> 0:12:49.440 reporters who covered his boxing career are probably the likeliest 0:12:49.440 --> 0:12:52.680 source for where he got his nickname shipwreck, right, which 0:12:52.679 --> 0:12:55.680 I love because I guess he wasn't a great boxer, 0:12:55.720 --> 0:12:59.200 because they said that he was often adrift and ready 0:12:59.200 --> 0:13:04.440 to sink that great shipwreck Kelly. It's a great nickname 0:13:04.440 --> 0:13:07.160 and an even better origin story than surviving thirty two 0:13:07.200 --> 0:13:09.520 shipwrecks if you asked me. Yeah. And the other thing 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:11.960 we don't know for sure is even if that Hollywood 0:13:12.000 --> 0:13:17.080 movie premiere story is correct in his first major outing 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:20.680 as a flagpolesitter, because uh, yet another story says no, 0:13:21.200 --> 0:13:24.080 this is actually in Philadelphia at a department store and 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:26.640 he just did it on a dare and the department 0:13:26.720 --> 0:13:28.920 store got a lot of business because people are standing 0:13:28.920 --> 0:13:32.439 around looking and then doing some shopping. So they were like, Hey, 0:13:32.640 --> 0:13:36.240 stay up there and I'll give you some extra dough. Yeah. So, 0:13:36.320 --> 0:13:40.400 either way, it's pretty widely held that Shipwreck Kelly was 0:13:40.480 --> 0:13:44.760 the guy who started the flagpole sitting craze. And it 0:13:44.880 --> 0:13:48.080 was a craze because this is a time where you 0:13:48.120 --> 0:13:50.640 could go sit on a flagpole for thirteen hours and 0:13:50.800 --> 0:13:56.040 thirteen minutes, and newspapers around the country would pick up 0:13:56.080 --> 0:13:59.920 the story and write about it. Um, and you would say, 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:03.760 become famous overnight. And that's exactly what happened to Shipwreck Kelly. 0:14:03.840 --> 0:14:06.959 So that's prong one towards this becoming a fad in 0:14:07.000 --> 0:14:12.440 the nineties. The other criteria is that um, people have 0:14:12.559 --> 0:14:15.480 to want to topple that record, and that was very 0:14:15.520 --> 0:14:18.600 widespread at the time too, because the nineteen twenties were 0:14:18.600 --> 0:14:21.760 actually really big into fads, like people would take up 0:14:21.760 --> 0:14:25.360 weird fads and just go nuts over for basically the 0:14:25.400 --> 0:14:29.400 whole decade. Yeah, you know, people had time, and they 0:14:29.400 --> 0:14:35.320 had fewer distractions. Yeah, no TV. So like someone doing 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:39.240 a dance a thon for twenty eight hours or sitting 0:14:39.280 --> 0:14:42.440 on a flagpole for a day. You know, it's a 0:14:42.520 --> 0:14:45.880 it's an interesting story. Back then it's sad, but that 0:14:45.880 --> 0:14:51.720 that was interesting, but it was so uh well, we'll 0:14:51.720 --> 0:15:23.080 talk about dance marathons and then we'll take a break. Okay, okay, okay, 0:15:26.560 --> 0:15:29.480 Oh wait, I got that backwards, Chuck. I just realized 0:15:29.520 --> 0:15:31.800 hopefully Jerry figured it out and there was an ad 0:15:31.800 --> 0:15:34.160 in there somewhere. I think we should just leave it 0:15:34.200 --> 0:15:38.240 just like that though. That'll be fun. Okay, So um, 0:15:38.320 --> 0:15:41.920 we're gonna talk about marathon's. Dance marathon's now after the 0:15:42.000 --> 0:15:45.960 ad break, despite what I said before, and dance marathons 0:15:46.040 --> 0:15:51.280 are a super twenties example of a crazy fad that 0:15:51.360 --> 0:15:54.560 kind of came along and got everybody by the hackles, 0:15:54.880 --> 0:15:58.920 and people across the country started entering basically dance marathon 0:15:59.000 --> 0:16:02.800 competitions because of one person, one woman, a dance instructor 0:16:02.960 --> 0:16:06.480 named Alma Cummings, that's right, thirty two years old. She 0:16:06.640 --> 0:16:10.040 danced for twenty seven hours at the Audubon Ballroom in 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:13.840 New York in nine three with six different dance partners. 0:16:14.480 --> 0:16:19.080 And uh, it was a weird time because it wasn't 0:16:19.120 --> 0:16:23.680 just dancing, it was endurance challenges as a whole. We're 0:16:23.720 --> 0:16:27.720 just all the rage and punishing your bodies and all 0:16:27.760 --> 0:16:32.040 these weird random ways from yo yoing too hula hooping 0:16:32.120 --> 0:16:37.200 to rocking in a rocking chair or skipping rope uh 0:16:37.240 --> 0:16:39.400 to dancing dancing was the big one. That's where you 0:16:39.400 --> 0:16:43.480 You know, if you see these videos of these marathon 0:16:43.840 --> 0:16:47.360 dance competitions, it's just it looks like hell on Earth. 0:16:47.400 --> 0:16:50.480 It looks awful. Yeah, oh yeah, they didn't seem very 0:16:50.520 --> 0:16:53.880 fun at all, but um, Alma Cummings just kicked the 0:16:53.880 --> 0:16:56.120 whole thing off. And again, just like Shipwreck Kelly, who 0:16:56.160 --> 0:16:59.280 would follow I guess a year later, um or even yeah, 0:16:59.320 --> 0:17:03.160 about a year later. Uh, she got a lot of publicity. 0:17:03.200 --> 0:17:05.960 There's like a famous photo of her with her feet 0:17:05.960 --> 0:17:08.720 in a tub of water soaking at home and she's 0:17:08.720 --> 0:17:10.679 holding up her shoes and they have holes in the 0:17:10.760 --> 0:17:13.159 souls where you know, she wore holes from dancing for 0:17:13.280 --> 0:17:16.720 twenty seven hours. And I guess, like you're saying people 0:17:16.760 --> 0:17:19.119 were bored or there wasn't as much to do, but 0:17:19.240 --> 0:17:23.200 also there really seems to just be a profound hunger 0:17:23.800 --> 0:17:27.399 for celebrity however you can get it, and that seemed 0:17:27.440 --> 0:17:30.440 to be like really drive people who wanted to be like, well, 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:33.679 if this lady got this much attention for dancing twenty 0:17:33.720 --> 0:17:36.880 seven straight hours, maybe I can get even more attention 0:17:36.920 --> 0:17:39.800 for dancing thirty straight hours. And so within just like 0:17:40.040 --> 0:17:43.479 I think three weeks of Alma Cummings setting this record 0:17:44.119 --> 0:17:47.360 for dancing, um, it had been broken nine times at 0:17:47.440 --> 0:17:50.879 least from people trying to seek the same kind of 0:17:50.920 --> 0:17:53.760 publicity she got. Yeah, and you know, it's funny. It 0:17:53.840 --> 0:17:56.120 really like we talked about these days, how everyone wants 0:17:56.119 --> 0:17:58.320 their ten minutes or they want to be reality show 0:17:58.320 --> 0:18:02.360 famous or whatever, and I been whittled down to ten Now. 0:18:02.480 --> 0:18:05.440 I thought it was like fifteen. Well, like that's something new, 0:18:05.480 --> 0:18:07.679 and it's really not like this is sort of this 0:18:08.000 --> 0:18:11.560 The version of that back then was I want to 0:18:11.600 --> 0:18:13.879 be famous, I want my names in the papers, but 0:18:14.000 --> 0:18:17.520 I'm not particularly skilled enough to do anything to do that. 0:18:18.200 --> 0:18:22.320 So I'll rock in a rocking chair for three days. Yeah, 0:18:22.440 --> 0:18:25.600 you know, and hopefully they will come. Um rock, they 0:18:25.600 --> 0:18:30.800 will come. And it's that was a pity laugh at best, 0:18:30.840 --> 0:18:35.920 but I appreciate. Well it's a bad joke admittedly, Um, 0:18:35.960 --> 0:18:38.639 but it would. And we we should shout out a 0:18:38.720 --> 0:18:41.120 bunch of great websites here because um this next bit 0:18:41.240 --> 0:18:45.159 came from Atlas Obscura, one of our favorite sites and 0:18:45.200 --> 0:18:48.480 also our dearest of old sites that we always have 0:18:48.560 --> 0:18:53.359 loved Mental Floss, Ripley's History Daily, j Mark Powell, and 0:18:53.480 --> 0:18:58.040 Historic Pellem, which is great, but um, Atlas Obscura talks 0:18:58.040 --> 0:19:01.679 about the in the thirties and this is really kind 0:19:01.720 --> 0:19:08.959 of depressing. Um during the depression. It's very appropriate is 0:19:09.000 --> 0:19:13.199 that sometimes people would enter these dance marathons because it 0:19:13.280 --> 0:19:16.800 would be somewhere they could sleep and eat for a 0:19:16.840 --> 0:19:19.639 week at a time when they didn't necessarily have a 0:19:19.680 --> 0:19:24.360 home or food. Yeah, it's extremely depressing, or just the 0:19:24.760 --> 0:19:28.159 prize money that was offered in the depression might be 0:19:28.240 --> 0:19:31.760 enough to keep your house from being foreclosed on. So yeah, 0:19:31.920 --> 0:19:34.719 the thing is is, you know, you can blame promoters 0:19:34.800 --> 0:19:38.480 for continuing this long beyond the fad, but the promoters 0:19:38.480 --> 0:19:40.440 wouldn't have been putting these on and offering these price 0:19:40.480 --> 0:19:43.080 this prize money where it not for all the crowds 0:19:43.119 --> 0:19:45.680 that would show up every day to watch these people 0:19:45.680 --> 0:19:51.560 get increasingly closer to you know, catastrophic exhaustion from from 0:19:51.720 --> 0:19:55.200 dance marathons. Because like there were there were rules where 0:19:55.240 --> 0:19:59.240 you know, probably early on in the dance marathon, um, 0:19:59.760 --> 0:20:02.840 you could sleep or rest for fifteen minutes of every hour, 0:20:03.560 --> 0:20:07.520 and then after like a week a week of this 0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:10.639 dance marathon going on, the promoter might be like, okay, well, 0:20:10.800 --> 0:20:13.200 you know, we need to step things up a little 0:20:13.200 --> 0:20:16.600 bit and you will now have three minutes per hour 0:20:17.560 --> 0:20:20.520 every twenty four hour period in a day to where 0:20:20.640 --> 0:20:23.879 you can rest and then towards the end, they'd be like, 0:20:24.080 --> 0:20:26.639 no rest. I think I read about one where the 0:20:26.720 --> 0:20:30.960 last fifty seven hours of a multi week um dance 0:20:31.040 --> 0:20:35.200 marathon was like I had no rest. So these people 0:20:35.280 --> 0:20:37.439 dance for more than two straight days constantly. You had 0:20:37.480 --> 0:20:40.320 to constantly be in motion and your knees couldn't touch 0:20:40.359 --> 0:20:43.159 the ground or else you'd be disqualified. Yeah, and if 0:20:43.160 --> 0:20:45.240 you look at footage of this stuff, I mean it's charitable, 0:20:45.280 --> 0:20:47.359 we'll call what they're doing is dancing. Toward the end, 0:20:47.359 --> 0:20:51.320 it's just hanging. It looks like two corpses hanging on 0:20:51.320 --> 0:20:55.240 each other, sort of swaying back and forth. Yeah, I 0:20:55.280 --> 0:20:58.159 don't get I mean any of these things, even the 0:20:58.200 --> 0:21:01.560 modern day versions of like these contest where you have 0:21:01.680 --> 0:21:06.600 to keep your hand on a car or whatever, oh man, 0:21:07.040 --> 0:21:09.720 or sit in the car. I knew a guy that 0:21:09.760 --> 0:21:11.440 did one of those where you try to win a 0:21:11.480 --> 0:21:13.720 Volkswagen Beetle by sitting in it with four other people 0:21:13.960 --> 0:21:17.200 in a mall. I'm just like, oh, yeah, you told 0:21:17.280 --> 0:21:19.680 us that story before. Did he win or not? I 0:21:19.720 --> 0:21:25.200 think he did, But there's just no way kill me. Yeah, 0:21:25.320 --> 0:21:28.480 it would be really awful for sure, because let's say, 0:21:28.520 --> 0:21:33.240 for one of those contests. Let's say don't win, then 0:21:33.320 --> 0:21:35.439 you've just sat in a car with three strangers for 0:21:35.480 --> 0:21:38.880 a week and he didn't even get the car. But 0:21:39.000 --> 0:21:41.680 even if you did get the car, imagine yourself five 0:21:41.760 --> 0:21:45.040 years on and that car is like like curst, there's 0:21:45.240 --> 0:21:47.679 tears in the seats or something like that, you know, 0:21:47.760 --> 0:21:52.199 and like the glove compartment won't close. It's you know, 0:21:52.840 --> 0:21:54.840 I mean, I guess you've got a story to tell 0:21:54.840 --> 0:21:57.080 a cocktail parties, but even that would wear thin after 0:21:57.119 --> 0:22:00.480 a while. But but Chuck, we need people to do 0:22:00.640 --> 0:22:05.159 stuff like that because there's something about contests like this. 0:22:05.200 --> 0:22:10.840 There's something about fads like flagpole sitting that keep humanity 0:22:11.080 --> 0:22:15.520 from becoming too cerebral, you know what I mean, from 0:22:15.560 --> 0:22:20.920 just becoming like computers. Basically, we need people to do 0:22:20.960 --> 0:22:25.400 stuff like this because it brings out some juvenile something 0:22:25.440 --> 0:22:27.640 in us that makes us want to find out about 0:22:27.640 --> 0:22:30.040 it or learn about it or talk about it. And 0:22:30.160 --> 0:22:32.600 I think that's good. I think that's healthy for our species. 0:22:33.560 --> 0:22:37.920 All right, it's my it's my take. It's genuinely off 0:22:37.920 --> 0:22:40.359 the cuff. I'm actually just surprised at myself that I 0:22:40.400 --> 0:22:44.160 just said that out loud. You're just riffing. Yeah, so 0:22:44.280 --> 0:22:49.399 shipwreck Kelly back to flagpole sitting. Uh, that initial thirteen 0:22:49.440 --> 0:22:52.920 minutes sit, like you said, inspired so many others to 0:22:53.520 --> 0:22:57.840 break it, and it was getting broken in pretty short order. Um, 0:22:57.920 --> 0:23:00.679 kind of like the dance a Thons. That was a 0:23:00.680 --> 0:23:02.720 woman named Bobby Mack from l A who did it. 0:23:02.800 --> 0:23:06.840 A guy named Joe hold Him Powers who did this 0:23:06.880 --> 0:23:11.639 in Chicago for sixteen days, um, another guy for fifty 0:23:11.680 --> 0:23:16.040 one days named Bill Bill Penfield. Yeah, so so let's 0:23:16.520 --> 0:23:18.920 point this out. Take a second here, ship Breck Kelly 0:23:18.960 --> 0:23:21.520 did thirteen hours and kicked off a national fad. These 0:23:21.520 --> 0:23:24.639 people are now in two weeks at a time. Fifty 0:23:24.640 --> 0:23:28.240 one days is more than seven weeks up there. It's 0:23:28.280 --> 0:23:32.800 pretty impressive. I'm impressed at least. Yeah, are you bucking 0:23:32.800 --> 0:23:37.520 the cerebral yes? Right now? Can you tell uh? Let 0:23:37.600 --> 0:23:39.159 me see here. In the twenties, it was a fifteen 0:23:39.240 --> 0:23:43.320 year old boy, um who set the kid record for 0:23:43.720 --> 0:23:46.080 ten days, ten hours, ten minutes, and ten seconds. I 0:23:46.160 --> 0:23:50.520 think that was planned. I yeah, if not, then but 0:23:50.680 --> 0:23:53.720