Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hey, let's do this.
Speaker 3: There, I'm here.
Speaker 2: Are you ready?
Speaker 3: I am so ready. It is so hot in this.
Speaker 2: Room right now.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, it is.
Speaker 2: It's getting hot in her you know, it's ridiculous.
Speaker 3: Elizabeth, I'm so glad you asked me this question because
Speaker 3: I do.
Speaker 2: Oh good.
Speaker 3: Yes. In fact, one of our listeners, Monica del Vallier,
Speaker 3: she sent this to me and she was like, get
Speaker 3: Elizabeth with this. Oh she didn't say that at all.
Speaker 3: She was very nice anyway. Apparently over in Germany there
Speaker 3: is this really odd legal fight going on, like very odd.
Speaker 3: There's this landlord who liked a sunbathe in the courtyard
Speaker 3: of his building. The only one problem is the landlord
Speaker 3: but sun bathed nude. So the building had tenants, right,
Speaker 3: and they're like, oh, we don't want to see all that,
Speaker 3: like all that and uh, but didn't just have resident tenants.
Speaker 3: It also had business occupant tenants as well, right, and
Speaker 3: so yeah, exactly, And one floor was rented out by
Speaker 3: a human resources company. So that company apparently got tired
Speaker 3: of explaining the nude landlord to the people who came
Speaker 3: to the HR company because they're like, what's your policy
Speaker 3: on this? Anyway, the company decides to withhold rent, so
Speaker 3: the landlord takes him to court and get this, the
Speaker 3: court sides with the naked landlord. They're like, the German
Speaker 3: court ruled that the usability of the rented property was
Speaker 3: not impathed by the plaintiffs stunning himself naked in seclatat.
Speaker 3: So the court did side with the renters, though on
Speaker 3: one thing, Elizabeth, they decided that the rental could be
Speaker 3: lowered for three months due to their being noisy construction.
Speaker 3: So in Germany, nudity is deemed acceptable for doing business,
Speaker 3: but the noisiness is comp.
Speaker 2: Wow. I just can't, okay, I would think that that
Speaker 2: definitely interferes with your with your ability to conduct work.
Speaker 2: One would they make a guy with his ding ding Yeah,
Speaker 2: and just a lot.
Speaker 3: Of him showing off and he's like, really like taking
Speaker 3: up all the sun?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: No, thank you, no sun for the rest of us.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you what else is ridiculous?
Speaker 3: Okay, please do.
Speaker 2: Conning your way into a life as a celebrity restaurant tour.
Speaker 4: How do I do this?
Speaker 2: This is ridiculous Crime A podcast about absurd and outrageous
Speaker 2: caper's heiss and cons. It's always ninety nine percent murder
Speaker 2: freezerin and one hundred percent ridiculous Elizabeth, I got us
Speaker 2: another ridiculous criminal.
Speaker 3: All right, an impostor, Oh I love them, impostor?
Speaker 2: Before I begin, what do you know about the Romanov family, like.
Speaker 3: The Russians, Like they're like the Peter Yeah, sure, yeah,
Speaker 3: So it was the Russian royal family before the revolution,
Speaker 3: and the last Romanovs was Peter Yeah, Nicholas, Nicholas two
Speaker 3: second and his daughter Anastasia becomes supposedly the last of.
Speaker 2: The Romanov Nicholas or Nikolay second Alexandrovitch Romanov was the last,
Speaker 2: like you said, last emperor of Russia. He was booted
Speaker 2: during the Russian Revolution in nineteen seventeen.
Speaker 3: Bolsheviks were out putty.
Speaker 2: He abdicated for himself and his son, and then he
Speaker 2: and his family were imprisoned in the Russian Provisional Government
Speaker 2: by the Russian Provisional Government excuse me not in it
Speaker 2: and exile to Siberian right. The Bolsheviks took power in
Speaker 2: the October Revolution and then the family was murdered seventeenth
Speaker 2: of July nineteen eighteen.
Speaker 3: We want to step outside the captain for a second.
Speaker 2: I have a quiet moment. What about resputant, Yes, the
Speaker 2: unkillable one, an illiterate Siberian dude.
Speaker 3: That guy was like when I was a kid, I
Speaker 3: read all sorts of weird stuff, and I read a
Speaker 3: lot about resputing and all the stuff about him not
Speaker 3: being able to be killed. That's impressive, right, But the
Speaker 3: stuff about what he was doing before he got killed
Speaker 3: is way more impressive. The guys insane. He comes out
Speaker 3: of nowhere. He gets up to the being with the
Speaker 3: czar arena and he's like, I can fix your hemophiliac boy.
Speaker 3: They're like, I gotta have him. I don't care.
Speaker 2: Then he got better everybody.
Speaker 3: He did, and then he starts to like sleeping his
Speaker 3: way through the court. He's like, I don't care, my boy.
Speaker 2: So he's a as you're talking about. He's an advisor
Speaker 2: to the Romanovs's.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: When the n was near for the Romanovs, people panicked
Speaker 2: and a group of nobles were led by Prince Felix
Speaker 2: Yusupov and Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovitch and then as well
Speaker 2: as right wing politician Vladimir Pershkevich.
Speaker 3: Okay, I'll just take your word for that.
Speaker 2: Sure, ar me too. They decided that Rasputen's influence over
Speaker 2: this Zarmina was threatening the empire. Yeah, so they came
Speaker 2: up with a plan to kill him December nineteen sixteen,
Speaker 2: and he was murdered. That's not our one percent, that's
Speaker 2: like this as a historical.
Speaker 3: And they did it so many times it would be
Speaker 3: like two percent.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And that was the thirtieth of December nineteen sixteen,
Speaker 2: at the home of Felix Yusupov. I just wanted to
Speaker 2: get those established because they'll come up later. So let
Speaker 2: me take you back now to eighteen ninety.
Speaker 3: Oh please, I thought i'd have to ask.
Speaker 2: Let's go. It was in that year that Herschel Gaguzen
Speaker 2: was born in Russian territory. The location would later become
Speaker 2: Poland and then after that Lithuania. But that's not important here.
Speaker 3: Who cares.
Speaker 2: I just want to lay some groundwork.
Speaker 3: I want to be through like you, I appreciate that
Speaker 3: Lithuania was a huge force and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 3: now with just a.
Speaker 2: Little nublins huge little Herschel. His dad died when Herschel
Speaker 2: was very young. His father died trying to make peace
Speaker 2: between street fighters during a visit to Warsaw.
Speaker 3: Wow, that's tough stuff. A peacekeeper who died.
Speaker 2: From It's I get the end of stand by Me,
Speaker 2: where I'm going to spoil it for everyone. Where the
Speaker 2: kid grows up to get stabbed in a restaurant.
Speaker 3: Wait a minute, I haven't seen that. I should have
Speaker 3: stopped you, I know.
Speaker 2: So anyway, his mom, Herschel's mom's like, I can't handle
Speaker 2: this kid. He's a whole message trouble. So he's ten
Speaker 2: years old. She's like, tells her cousin, Joseph Bloomberg, take
Speaker 2: Herschel with you to New York City. I heard that's
Speaker 2: where you're going. Joseph's like, all right, take some with him.
Speaker 2: They get to the US and Herschel he changed his name, Well,
Speaker 2: it was changed for.
Speaker 3: Him, as was the habit Island style.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they couldn't pronounce names out at Ellis Islands, so
Speaker 2: they gave people monikers that were anglicized close enough for
Speaker 2: government work as I liked.
Speaker 3: Yeah, what was his new names? Erin Oh, I don't
Speaker 3: know if it was Herschel Harry.
Speaker 2: Yes, he went from Herschel Gaguz into Harry Gurgison.
Speaker 3: They added, Okay, Harry.
Speaker 2: Gurgison sounds like a grim diagnosing totally.
Speaker 3: I hate to tell you this, Elizabeth. You have Harry Gurguson, Gurguson.
Speaker 2: I don't think it's a real name. I mean there's Gerguson, yeah,
Speaker 2: and there's there's Gurgic like Gary slash Jerry from Parks and Reck,
Speaker 2: a show I've only heard about and have not watched
Speaker 2: twice in its.
Speaker 3: Entire No, no, of course not.
Speaker 2: I don't know if it's true that I'm half Leslie
Speaker 2: and Nope and half April Ludgate. I don't know who
Speaker 2: those people are. Who am I? Where am I? What
Speaker 2: is this?
Speaker 3: Can you be more than half anyway?
Speaker 2: Gurguson?
Speaker 3: So also, I like Gurgison is a name, because then
Speaker 3: it's like, oh, I am the son of gurger Well,
Speaker 3: no Gurgu, Sorry you found it, son of Grogu.
Speaker 2: Okay, so Gurgson. I don't. I'm sure that it's an
Speaker 2: actual surname that exists, but I don't. I don't care
Speaker 2: to know more. Who knows Harry hated his last name
Speaker 2: like we do. One time he punched a New York
Speaker 2: Times cinema critic for addressing him as mister.
Speaker 4: So he hit him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so he came up with better names, a bunch
Speaker 2: of them. He had aliases like Arthur Wellesley, Willoughby, d Burke,
Speaker 2: Williby I don't know, and Count Gladstone.
Speaker 3: These are all better names. He should be naming people should.
Speaker 2: They should That's the job he should have had. While
Speaker 2: he was faking it on the name front. He also
Speaker 2: decided to play fast and loose with his history as well.
Speaker 2: Good for him, So he told people he went to
Speaker 2: Eton and when he also went to Harvard, and he
Speaker 2: went to Heidelberg. He went to Oxford and Princeton.
Speaker 3: He's very smart and Yale. He must be very educated,
Speaker 3: so many degrees.
Speaker 2: He liked Oxford the best, and that's what he used
Speaker 2: most of the time when he was telling his stories.
Speaker 3: Oh so he didn't say all of them, which.
Speaker 2: Felt I kind of like to imply that he used
Speaker 2: them all that back to his childhood. So the Bloombergs,
Speaker 2: they said, do New York, and they got really sick
Speaker 2: of hairy I bet they did, Like get your hairy Gurgison.
Speaker 2: That gurgu is like an invitation star wars, like you
Speaker 2: go to like a dollar store and there's a coloring
Speaker 2: book with like a little monster and his name is Gurgu.
Speaker 3: And your aunt who doesn't know anything about star Ya
Speaker 3: And just like the thing you like with the girl.
Speaker 2: Gona didn't nice you, gurg No. It's like it's like
Speaker 2: you go into party city and you get a costume
Speaker 2: that looks like baby Yoda, but it's a gurg copy,
Speaker 2: right exactly. You don't want to tangle with the mouse house.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 3: Anyway, they get.
Speaker 2: Sick of hairy Gurgu, and he's over them too.
Speaker 3: I bet he is.
Speaker 2: He just stands in the doorway and goes whatever. They
Speaker 2: sent him away to a Hebrew orphanage, and then he
Speaker 2: ran away, and then they sent him off to five
Speaker 2: other places that he ran away from. He's just a troublemaker.
Speaker 2: And you know, I like that they put it in
Speaker 2: his permanent.
Speaker 3: Record, something you're always worried about.
Speaker 2: But here's the thing he's gotten in his permanent record
Speaker 2: that he's a big pilot trouble the gurgoos. But he's
Speaker 2: also super likable, really engaging and charming, except for family.
Speaker 2: If he liked someone, that's the thing he doesn't like
Speaker 2: because exactly if you liked someone, he could ingratiate himself
Speaker 2: to that person immediately you put it on for him. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and he was like a really good mimic and also
Speaker 2: a good storyteller. So you combine all those things, that's
Speaker 2: a con man. That's a con man. Society ladies would
Speaker 2: be doing charity work at orphanages, and they loved him
Speaker 2: so much, like, come with us, We're going to take
Speaker 2: a weekend to our country home.
Speaker 3: You're not quick to adopt you, but what we're going
Speaker 3: to come with you a little. We're going to tease
Speaker 3: you with fun and good talks.
Speaker 2: It'll make me feel good for the weekend.
Speaker 3: I'm going to use you, Okay, I'm going to rent
Speaker 3: you out so I feel good to come with me.
Speaker 3: A boy boy of gurgoy.
Speaker 2: One early benefactor said he was one of the most
Speaker 2: convincing liars you ever met.
Speaker 3: Like they're just loving this.
Speaker 2: So Gergason, he spends years living as a runaway, a stowaway,
Speaker 2: a deportee. He got deported ten times.
Speaker 3: Teenager.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he was a straight up jailbird. And he also
Speaker 2: escaped from Ellis Island. Escape from Ellis Island. That's the
Speaker 2: knockoff escape from New York, New York. So he's a
Speaker 2: confidence man, he's a fraud, a check bouncer, a thief.
Speaker 2: He would sleep rough in like barns, doorways, park benches.
Speaker 2: You know, he's just it's him versus the world, versus
Speaker 2: the world. So he gets arrested and jailed four times
Speaker 2: on charges of fraud because he would buy like stuff
Speaker 2: at jewelers or tobacconists, boot makers, British tailors. He gets
Speaker 2: goods and services there. When the bill comes, he's like,
Speaker 2: I forgot to tell you. Russian nobles settle their accounts
Speaker 2: with trades people only once a year, So get back
Speaker 2: to me. Then, I'm only going to pay once once
Speaker 2: a year.
Speaker 3: So is he hoping that they've never met another Russian nobles.
Speaker 2: I'm a fancy one.
Speaker 3: Couldn't you ask any Russian hazes. Probably I'm just.
Speaker 2: Saying they don't buy into it. They're like, no, that, no,
Speaker 2: I don't care. Okay, this is the Saint Russia pal
Speaker 2: pay up. So he referred to all his bad check
Speaker 2: charges and stints in correctional facilities in various cities and
Speaker 2: counties and countries as being quote in residence.
Speaker 3: Well and then I was in Juliet.
Speaker 2: When he was in prison, he carried a walking stick
Speaker 2: during the exercise time, not as a means of defense
Speaker 2: because but he wanted to look distinguished in prison. I
Speaker 2: guess he couldn't get his hands on a monocle.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you want to the top half.
Speaker 2: Hello, I am offensive.
Speaker 3: Affecting a limp and an accent. So when he was
Speaker 3: in his prisoners love his fancy man. They just love that.
Speaker 3: They that all the time. Like if I go to prison,
Speaker 3: first thing I'm looking for and I'm going to be
Speaker 3: power the fancy I'm going to beat him up so
Speaker 3: people know I am the new fancy guy.
Speaker 2: King of the fancy hill. So when he's in his
Speaker 2: early thirties, Zeren, he got a job as a pants presser.
Speaker 2: And just like you, that's weird. It's a job a
Speaker 2: pants presser in Brooklyn. He's Gurgu the mimic, right, son
Speaker 2: of Gurgu. He listened carefully to like the fancy sorts
Speaker 2: that he encountered in this high flying Brooklyn pants pressing scene,
Speaker 2: and he developed like a British upper class manner. So
Speaker 2: not only the accent, but just the you know, the
Speaker 2: wealthy and the apectations of aristocracy carry themselves a certain thing,
Speaker 2: a continental notion. So March twentieth, nineteen twenty three, he
Speaker 2: turns up in Hillsboro, Illinois, with an Oxford accent, a
Speaker 2: sophisticated malacca walking stick, and at last a monocle.
Speaker 3: Finally got'll play in Illinois.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, so he'd stolen a man's military papers, and
Speaker 2: he used them claim that he was a British lieutenant
Speaker 2: or as they say, lieutenant. Yes, yes, the Saint Louis papers.
Speaker 2: They announced a few days later, but the city was
Speaker 2: entertaining royalty and ran photos of son of Gurgu.
Speaker 3: We got guys photos.
Speaker 2: There's a caption on the photo, Prince Michael Romanov.
Speaker 3: Oh okay.
Speaker 2: The some problem though the locals recognized him because he
Speaker 2: wasn't new in town. He'd actually lived there before as
Speaker 2: Harry Gurgson. The Gurgs exposed as a fraud.
Speaker 3: He's like dark.
Speaker 2: So at one point during his struggles, American artist Rockwell
Speaker 2: Kent befriended him, and Rockwell provided Gurgison with both lodging
Speaker 2: and employment, and Gurgison returned the favor by passing himself
Speaker 2: off as Rockwell Kent.
Speaker 3: That's the deal. You let me stay with you, I'll
Speaker 3: go be you you.
Speaker 2: On another occasion, he stole military brushes from Paul Mellon
Speaker 2: of the Pittsburgh Melons.
Speaker 3: Wow, like me, Sally, wealthy family.
Speaker 2: They get their riches from banking and oil and brushes.
Speaker 2: Sure well the brushes. They were gold backs and monogrammed
Speaker 2: with the initials PM.
Speaker 3: And made out of elephant eyelashes.
Speaker 2: Gergison said the initials stood for Prince Michael. They're not
Speaker 2: cyrillic Prince Michael. In nineteen Prince Mike, it's Mesian name Mike.
Speaker 2: In nineteen twenty seven, he turned up in Hollywood for.
Speaker 3: A little bit good cause.
Speaker 2: Of course, that's where all the good bs artists go.
Speaker 3: There's a magnet there that draws him.
Speaker 2: He worked as a technical advisor for a film about
Speaker 2: pre revolution Russia somewhere he'd only been from the ages
Speaker 2: of zero to ten. So the truth always comes out though,
Speaker 2: And he was exposed as a fraud by a former
Speaker 2: Russian general.
Speaker 3: And he doesn't have a Russian accent. He's affecting. He's
Speaker 3: British now.
Speaker 2: He's British now because he says he went to Oxford.
Speaker 2: But here's the thing he wouldn't speak Russian while they're
Speaker 2: on the set, because you know, he was raised speaking Polish,
Speaker 2: not Russian.
Speaker 3: He was lithuaniann't speak Russian, I bet not.
Speaker 2: I mean, what is that? So he's there there, the
Speaker 2: Russian you know, general or whatever. He's like, you know,
Speaker 2: chatting him up, and he's just deer in the headlights.
Speaker 2: So Gergison would also try and pass.
Speaker 3: On stoic Russian word exactly.
Speaker 2: He tried to pass himself off as the son of
Speaker 2: Prince Felix Yusupov, the man who killed Resputant. So he's
Speaker 2: like playing both sides of the fence. That's the cat
Speaker 2: I mentioned earlier. He was to be deported a number
Speaker 2: of times, as I told you. The first time was
Speaker 2: on grounds of moral turpitude when it came out that
Speaker 2: he told this story about having spent eight years in
Speaker 2: a German prison for killing a German baron in a
Speaker 2: duel at Heidelberg. Not true, but obviously, so he escaped
Speaker 2: and he disappeared from Ellis Island.
Speaker 3: And he's telling people I killed this German baron because
Speaker 3: you know, I rolled tough like.
Speaker 2: That, and they're like, well that that that lie that's wrong.
Speaker 2: If you had actually killed and we'd be fine with that,
Speaker 2: but you lied about it. Now we must support you.
Speaker 2: So he escapes and he disappears. He claimed that he
Speaker 2: swam to New Jersey from Ellis Island, and then the
Speaker 2: legend was that he swam to New Jersey in a
Speaker 2: silk top hat. Wow right, I mean this made everyone
Speaker 2: believe he was an accomplished swimmer if you're going to
Speaker 2: do that swim.
Speaker 3: And a snazzy dresser.
Speaker 2: He was not. He was a snazzy dresser, not a swimmer.
Speaker 2: So that lie was uncovered later in his life when
Speaker 2: he fell into a swimming pool and just sank. So
Speaker 2: the immigration men who were supposed to be watching Gergison
Speaker 2: said that he actually stowed away on a ferry boat.
Speaker 2: After his escape from Ellis Island, he began going by
Speaker 2: Prince Obolenski.
Speaker 3: Like Prince Albert and the can.
Speaker 2: Well Maybe newspapers ran interviews with him about the trials
Speaker 2: of a nobleman attempting to find employment so hard. Luxurious
Speaker 2: weekend getaways came from the stories, but no jobs. However,
Speaker 2: at one point a wealthy friend sent him to the
Speaker 2: Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Harvard, where he
Speaker 2: enjoyed life is a representative of the university's chess team.
Speaker 2: Put the monocle back on. I'm serious, fancy striped trousers
Speaker 2: and a silk hat. He's like the monopoly man one
Speaker 2: around have it Yard. He ended up being expelled because
Speaker 2: they found out he was not an exchange student from Oxford.
Speaker 3: When did he start selling peanuts?
Speaker 2: Exactly?
Speaker 3: That's right.
Speaker 2: The monopoly man does not wear a monocle. Yeah, anyho, So, yeah,
Speaker 2: they're not You're not on exchange from Oxford, You're just
Speaker 2: old Harry Gergerson. April nineteen thirty two. He takes off
Speaker 2: for England on the White Star Liner Olympic. He gets
Speaker 2: to Southampton and he declares himself a superstow away. Well,
Speaker 2: I don't know, I guess super sen.
Speaker 3: He gets money for doing that.
Speaker 2: I'm glad he said it after he arrived. But you
Speaker 2: know who heard it and wasn't glad? Scotland Yard. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: they knew right away that he was trouble. He got
Speaker 2: wind of them, you know, yeah, them getting wind of
Speaker 2: him exactly, and so he ran off to Paris. Scotland Yard.
Speaker 2: They know how to get in touch with people. They're willing,
Speaker 2: so they called the Parisian police. Gergison figured he'd head
Speaker 2: back to the States, where municipalities are less likely to
Speaker 2: communicate with each other, so he stows away again, this
Speaker 2: time on the liner Ill Difference. He changed cabin Snightley
Speaker 2: to avoid getting caught. Obviously, during that time he reads
Speaker 2: up on Russian history because he's like, if I'm going
Speaker 2: to be a roll enough, I kind.
Speaker 3: Of need to know what happened sometimes I should probably
Speaker 3: know that.
Speaker 2: Let me do some focus on the Russian royal family.
Speaker 2: Following the Revolution, the Russian aristocracy fell into chaos and disrepair,
Speaker 2: and so for him that's an opportunity.
Speaker 3: Whoever, seven thousand other country he can't get.
Speaker 2: Caught because they can't talk to any royal families. They're dispersed,
Speaker 2: they don't have official time.
Speaker 3: Russian Revolution created more Russian nobility than I think we
Speaker 3: could ever understand.
Speaker 2: So while he's crossing the Atlantic, he decides to become
Speaker 2: someone new, someone exciting. He says, he's the nephew of
Speaker 2: the late Czar Nicholas.
Speaker 3: Of Good Call. Go to the top.
Speaker 2: Let's take a break. When we come back, you're gonna
Speaker 2: find out just how that claim went for old gurgu.
Speaker 5: Hello, Harry Gurguson, Prince Obolenski, and now Prince Michael Romanov
Speaker 5: Prince Mike.
Speaker 2: Yes, my dude, Yeah, No matter the name, the guy's
Speaker 2: an incredible character, ridiculous criminal. The first class passengers ate
Speaker 2: up his story at being Prince Michael Romanov nephew Tizar Nicholas.
Speaker 2: The second he got a little loose with his bragging
Speaker 2: though he was in the smoking room smoking it up.
Speaker 2: I like to imagine it either like a nineties sleazy
Speaker 2: hookah bar, like a vape shop, for the inside of
Speaker 2: a van in the parking lot of a fish concer.
Speaker 3: Now we're talking.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So anyway, he's in the smoking room, he tells
Speaker 2: all the swells and fat cats that he's friends with
Speaker 2: the captain. Someone, of course, later mentions this to the captain.
Speaker 3: On that boat, not a captain, that captain.
Speaker 2: Hey, cap'n ron, it's so coolier pals with a missing Romanov.
Speaker 2: The captain then sends a stewart to investigate, like, who's
Speaker 2: this quote.
Speaker 3: Unquote friend, who's my friend?
Speaker 2: Gregson gets caught and revealed as a stowaway. Here's an aside,
Speaker 2: though later in his life. He had this influential friend,
Speaker 2: and that guy drafted a to whom it may concern
Speaker 2: letter for him to carry around anytime he got on
Speaker 2: an overseas voyage, and the letter bagged officials of all
Speaker 2: nations not to harass the quote prince as he had.
Speaker 2: He was not a stowaway, but rather a researcher of stowaways.
Speaker 2: Wait what the old the old Pete townshend.
Speaker 3: Say just wait, tell met somebody to give him a
Speaker 3: letter that says, basically, oh please don't interrupt him. He
Speaker 3: is studying this stuff. Yeah, he's research And who was
Speaker 3: the person who gave him his letters?
Speaker 2: Doesn't matter, It doesn't matter.
Speaker 3: How do I get one of these letters?
Speaker 2: I gave it to him. I'll write you one. So
Speaker 2: Gergison was taken back to an old haunt by the police.
Speaker 2: When the ship talked in NYC, the Big Apple, the
Speaker 2: city never sleeps Ellis Island.
Speaker 3: So yes for a name.
Speaker 2: An order was passed to deport him back to France. Okay,
Speaker 2: we don't want him here, will detained?
Speaker 3: Wait to port him back to France. He's not a
Speaker 3: French whatever'll.
Speaker 2: Kick him out. Whatever where was the last place you were?
Speaker 2: You go back there. So he asked to be to
Speaker 2: have this monitored escort take him into New York to
Speaker 2: collect his effects. And on the way he and his guard,
Speaker 2: James Drury, they stopped at a speakeasy.
Speaker 3: You know, yeah, I get it.
Speaker 2: So while the guard is distracted at the speakeasy, he
Speaker 2: makes his escape. The escape was highly publicized. Four people
Speaker 2: ended up being suspended over at Ellis Island, probably unquote
Speaker 2: paid leave you know whatever. This, though, was the start
Speaker 2: of Gurgison's notoriety. A dozen agents were sent to search
Speaker 2: for him. They hit up every speakeasy in the Upper
Speaker 2: east Side. They had to check them all, some more
Speaker 2: than once to be sure.
Speaker 3: I'd see the floor show, the floor show.
Speaker 2: One day, Gurgison was in Jim Moriarty's speakeasy off Fifth Avenue,
Speaker 2: and Moriarty got a tip that immigration police had arrived
Speaker 2: looking for Gergison. So he tells Gurgu slip out through
Speaker 2: the kitchen. This is what Gurgison said back to him,
Speaker 2: A romanov kent' escape through the kitchen. Moriarty, clever irishman responds,
Speaker 2: your uncle Tazaar.
Speaker 3: Did ohaykay leave it to an irishman.
Speaker 2: So out to the kitchen he went Gurgu. He roamed
Speaker 2: free in New York for days, but was eventually caught.
Speaker 2: He'd been hanging out at a speakeasy on East fifty
Speaker 2: eighth Street. He was made there, but agents watched him
Speaker 2: as he went to an apartment building on East sixty eighth.
Speaker 2: So he goes ten blocks home. That's where they nab him.
Speaker 2: He was carrying a lot of money, and this made
Speaker 2: investigators pretty sure that he had accomplices assisting him in
Speaker 2: his life as a fugitive. They wanted to find these friends,
Speaker 2: so those people could be charged with conspiracy to aid
Speaker 2: a fell in an escape. No luck couldn't find him.
Speaker 3: Ah, they got greedy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So Gurgison he goes free on bail twenty five
Speaker 2: hundred dollars, and he appeared before vaudeville audiences while awaiting trial.
Speaker 3: He's like, let me do a quick set, let me
Speaker 3: get to a quick five. I got the time. Guys
Speaker 3: want to work some stuff to go back to court
Speaker 3: till four.
Speaker 2: So the headlines of the day Gergison indicted on perjury
Speaker 2: charge and he will halt vaudeville career to face accusation
Speaker 2: of false swearing at Ellis.
Speaker 3: Island, wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah. He pleads guilty to perjury and violation of the
Speaker 2: immigration law in January of nineteen thirty three. At the time,
Speaker 2: Federal Judge John C. Knox was informed that the Department
Speaker 2: of Labor decided to forgive, though not forget Gergison's transgressions.
Speaker 3: The Department of Labor can do.
Speaker 2: This, Apparently I had no idea Gergison. He gets sentenced
Speaker 2: in April of the same year to ninety days in
Speaker 2: the Federal House of Detention. And he also had Tomis
Speaker 2: Pinky swear to stop using the name Prince Michael Romanov.
Speaker 3: Okay, so like, okay.
Speaker 2: This guy is not I don't wouldn't hold any any
Speaker 2: of his words exactly.
Speaker 3: He doesn't have whatever.
Speaker 2: So the sentence gets suspended. He doesn't even do the
Speaker 2: ninety days. He's given three years probation. His attorney said
Speaker 2: of him, he has violated the law, he admits that,
Speaker 2: but there's nothing vicious about him. And he has an
Speaker 2: amazing number of friends.
Speaker 3: He's well liked, he's part he's a good dancer.
Speaker 2: He dresses well, so he could have been sentenced to
Speaker 2: fifty five years.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but no. Luckily he cooks well. So people are
Speaker 3: like look, he has the best inner parties. What can
Speaker 3: we do?
Speaker 2: Here's what the judge says. I did not see any
Speaker 2: reason for treating this case in a matter altogether different
Speaker 2: from others. I admit it is peculiar in many respects,
Speaker 2: but he had little cause if indeed, there can be
Speaker 2: a cause or justification for perjuring himself.
Speaker 3: So the judge's writing excuses from two.
Speaker 2: Yes, he's likable, what can you do?
Speaker 3: I just can't help it. I just love this kid,
Speaker 3: you know, he's.
Speaker 2: So magnetic knocks. The judge said that if Gergison violated
Speaker 2: his probation at any point over the next three years
Speaker 2: in any way, quote, sentence will be imposed to such
Speaker 2: an extent that it hurts.
Speaker 3: I'll make you come back here and smile more at me.
Speaker 2: No, he's gonna put the hurt on.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't believe it.
Speaker 2: February thirteenth, nineteen thirty four. Where were you, zaren.
Speaker 3: Okay, nineteen thirty four. I was in Zurich. That doesn't matter.
Speaker 4: Go on.
Speaker 2: United Artists. They're premiering their latest film, Catherine the Great
Speaker 2: in Manhattan, The.
Speaker 3: Great Manhattan Movie.
Speaker 2: He's gonna say, Katherine Orgate takes man so Monroe Greenthal,
Speaker 2: the United Artist chief of publicity. He wanted to have
Speaker 2: a famous Romanov why not? So he figured, I'll get
Speaker 2: the famous Romanov impost At the premiere, he reaches out
Speaker 2: to Gurgison and invites him as an honored guest.
Speaker 3: Like, I just need publicity, I don't need truth.
Speaker 2: Yeah, baby, Gurgu though, He's like, I got conditions. I'll
Speaker 2: do it, but.
Speaker 3: Hold on, I'm gonna need a white furt coat.
Speaker 2: I'm going to give you a list of what I'm
Speaker 2: going to need for this one. A stunning blonde that's
Speaker 2: a literal, a stunning line. Two one hundred and fifty
Speaker 2: dollars spending money, wow, his little cash. Three a Rolls
Speaker 2: Royce complete with a liveried footman and chauffeur. Four. The
Speaker 2: footman has to be dressed in a tan stovepipe hat,
Speaker 2: tan coat with gold buttons, a scarlet vest, and knee
Speaker 2: high tan boots with bufftops.
Speaker 3: That's what we do it in fake Us.
Speaker 2: They gave him everything. They let him have it at
Speaker 2: their premiere. He and his stunning blonde. They went to
Speaker 2: the Stork Club afterwards. Sorry and El Morocco. They did
Speaker 2: it up. He toasted double health to his great great
Speaker 2: great aunt Catherine. He spent all his money except thirty dollars,
Speaker 2: and that's what he used to tip. The footman and
Speaker 2: the chauffeur took care of everybody good for him. When
Speaker 2: he was dropped off at home, he found the key
Speaker 2: hole plugged up and his apartment was inaccessible. Baby gurgu
Speaker 2: hadn't paid his rent, oh yea, so he spent the
Speaker 2: night at what our researcher Andrea called his old winter palace.
Speaker 2: The safe the subway get it so. For a short time,
Speaker 2: Gurgason assisted antiques dealer h michel Ayan with selling hand
Speaker 2: painted gold masters. However, he ended up spending several months
Speaker 2: in jail after he was caught pocketing the money. So
Speaker 2: he's making the sales and it doesn't make it to
Speaker 2: the register. The guy said later that nothing hurt him
Speaker 2: more in life than having to prosecute Gurgison. Why because
Speaker 2: this is what he says, quote, he is one of
Speaker 2: the most remarkable men alive. I believe his name will
Speaker 2: go down in history. Maybe mine will go down in
Speaker 2: history with him. What this guy's magic zaren? Apparently Gurgason.
Speaker 2: He gets a job as an assistant gardener at an
Speaker 2: estate on the Hudson River. He has elegant manners Oxford accent.
Speaker 2: People are wondering, who is this gardener?
Speaker 3: I'm wondering, what's your backstory?
Speaker 2: So the laundry made she sees something on his silk
Speaker 2: undershirts and she brings it to the mistress of the house.
Speaker 2: The women look at the embroidery and knew right away
Speaker 2: what it was, the Romanov coat of arms. This man
Speaker 2: had his undershirts embroidered with the Romanov coat of arms.
Speaker 3: And people recognize the roman of me.
Speaker 2: So the women see it, They're like, wait, he's Russian
Speaker 2: Royalty right under our roof, mulching our roses. Are you
Speaker 2: kidding me? So Gergison. He is confronted by the lady
Speaker 2: of the house and he admits, yes, I am actually
Speaker 2: a prince. Okay, you got me. You know, he's all
Speaker 2: humble about it. They can't have him working outside like
Speaker 2: a peasant. He's moved into the guest chambers and he
Speaker 2: stays there for months. Later, he gets exposed as a fake,
Speaker 2: but everyone was so charmed by him that no one cared.
Speaker 3: Absolutely want the story. He makes me feel some kind
Speaker 3: of way, I'm good enough.
Speaker 2: That he starts to leave, and they beg him to stay,
Speaker 2: please stay. When he did leave, you know they're they're
Speaker 2: absolutely just crushed. This is what it said in an
Speaker 2: article in Time. Quote, Mike Romanov was the real tinsel,
Speaker 2: a phony who wore his phoniness with such transparent innocence
Speaker 2: that it turned away wrath.
Speaker 3: I'm about it was he and I forget me for
Speaker 3: asking this, But was he like charming looking too? Did
Speaker 3: you see a picture of him? Was to say, because
Speaker 3: I'm wondering if he looks like, you know.
Speaker 2: Like not really, I don't I don't want to say it,
Speaker 2: but yeah, not really, because like you know.
Speaker 3: Like Peter O'Toole could get away with stuff that I
Speaker 3: think Robert Mitcham could not. Just based on Robert Mitchum
Speaker 3: looks like a mug and you're like.
Speaker 2: Oh, this guy, I could see it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I want to do you think that helped?
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's not like intimidating handsome fellow.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and probably not excessively like Harry and low brow.
Speaker 2: So he's like oh yeah, no no, So nineteen thirty six,
Speaker 2: he knew where he had to go, where he belonged.
Speaker 3: Nineteen thirty six, the Olympics.
Speaker 2: Right, Hollywood, Oh god, he should tried. Yeah, represent Russia.
Speaker 2: So he passed through Hillsboro, Illinois on his way to Hollywood.
Speaker 3: Remember that place.
Speaker 2: That's where he tried to float the whole Prince Mike
Speaker 2: thing for the first time.
Speaker 3: He was like catching like route sixty six, baby, yeah.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 3: Is that to Chicago?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Sure? Okay, So yeah, so he's there. They're they're seeing
Speaker 2: him as a minor celebrity. They don't care he had
Speaker 2: done this. He was given the honor of standing on
Speaker 2: a platform in front of the courthouse to give out
Speaker 2: cash prizes on their trade day. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So they had like a special like this is our
Speaker 3: field day and everybody gets out and has fun. We
Speaker 3: have this local celebrity stand on a box and give
Speaker 3: people checks and pretty much. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So, while making his way west on this.
Speaker 3: Whirlwindow people did before there was TV in the internet.
Speaker 2: Okay, he stopped to dine at Antoine's, a restaurant known
Speaker 2: as the best in New Orleans. He thought the meal
Speaker 2: was a disappointment, but he still had a great time.
Speaker 2: He loved sharing stories over you know, wine and food,
Speaker 2: living it up. He wanted to make this his living.
Speaker 2: He decided he was going to open a restaurant Romanovs.
Speaker 2: He envisioned his place would be the place to see
Speaker 2: and be seen in Hollywood.
Speaker 3: Wait a minute, he did it.
Speaker 2: He did it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Oh my god, this is the time. This is amazing.
Speaker 2: He rented a room for two dollars and fifty cents
Speaker 2: a week, and he shared that room with Prince Yuka Trubetskoy.
Speaker 3: You say that three times.
Speaker 2: No, I can't even say it the right way. For
Speaker 2: one time, this guy was actual Russian aristocracy.
Speaker 3: Okay, so he got himself a real Russian Yes.
Speaker 2: And that guy would go on to marry Marcia Stranahan,
Speaker 2: the heiress to the Champion's spark Plug's Fortune.
Speaker 3: Not the Champion spark Plug Fortune.
Speaker 2: And Prince Yuka. His brother. Prince Igor was a race
Speaker 2: car driver and would later become one of the many
Speaker 2: husbands of the Woolworth five and dime heiress Barbara Hutton. Wow,
Speaker 2: he's in like the heiress aristocracy.
Speaker 3: So he's good at tennis that kind of stuff, I guess.
Speaker 2: He would later be roommates with the agent Pat DeCicco,
Speaker 2: who would become the first husband of the then seventeen
Speaker 2: year old heiress Gloria Vanderbilt. Wow, future mother of Anderson Cooper.
Speaker 3: See, I think I'm hanging on all the wrong. I
Speaker 3: don't know any heiresses anymore.
Speaker 2: Gerguson then lived with Decicco's cousin, Cubby Broccli.
Speaker 4: What.
Speaker 2: Yes, Cubby would become famous and very very rich by
Speaker 2: producing the James Bond movies.
Speaker 3: This is crazy. Yes, Barbara BROCCOLI's connected to.
Speaker 2: The h Gergison. He referred to himself as a social barometer.
Speaker 2: He said only the phonies and upstarts couldn't afford to
Speaker 2: be seen with him.
Speaker 3: I'm a test for reel.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: He was able to cement his place among Hollywood celebrities.
Speaker 2: John MacLean, whose mother, Evelyn Walsh MacLean, who owned the
Speaker 2: Hope Diamond and showed up in our episode about Gaston me.
Speaker 2: He decided to host a ball as a means of
Speaker 2: repaying past hospitalities. The grand affair was orchestrated by Gergison
Speaker 2: and took place at the Clover Club. A little about
Speaker 2: the Clover Club located at eighty four to seventy seven
Speaker 2: Sunset Boulevard. It was originally a palatial private home and
Speaker 2: it was raided in February nineteen thirty for illegal gambling,
Speaker 2: and it was called the Sphinx Club. Then in March
Speaker 2: nineteen thirty three it was operating as Club Sokolef and
Speaker 2: it was rated again, this time for liquor violations. In
Speaker 2: August of nineteen thirty three, it was the Han Club.
Speaker 2: Nola Hahn was another game ambler associated with that address.
Speaker 2: Soon after it was you know, got the name the
Speaker 2: Clover Club. The place was raided all the time her
Speaker 2: thirties and forties. It was like other upscale Hollywood night clubs,
Speaker 2: you know, dining, dancing, paparazzi, occasional fisticuffs. The illegal gambling
Speaker 2: rooms were hidden. Only those in the know, including a
Speaker 2: lot of Hollywood elites, got access. There wasn't any stigma
Speaker 2: attached to the club, though, so society and Hollywood gossip
Speaker 2: columns at the time reported breathlessly on the events being
Speaker 2: held there. But it was repeatedly closed down for violations
Speaker 2: and then reopened until, you know, usually by a new
Speaker 2: mafia owner.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they didn't have like a Mickey Cohen paying everything off.
Speaker 2: Now, they'd just passed it around, like Detroit mafia would
Speaker 2: open it and then they'd pass it to another. This
Speaker 2: was the perfect place for such a party, Carrie Grant,
Speaker 2: Jimmy Stewart. They had two bands. Hogy Carmichael played the piano.
Speaker 2: The party lasted until dawn. Both dinner and breakfast were served.
Speaker 3: That's a party, yeah, that's a baller club and they
Speaker 3: got a good breakfast.
Speaker 2: Vanity Fair did this interview where Dominic Dunn was reminiscing
Speaker 2: with people.
Speaker 3: Are oh wow. Quote.
Speaker 2: Jimmy Stewart brought Rita Hayworth, said, Janet de Cordova, Jane Greer,
Speaker 2: mRNA Dell. And I saw Annabella break up with Ty
Speaker 2: Power that night, said Audrey Wilder. Lyla Lee came in
Speaker 2: with Howard Hughes. Janet de Cordova said, and Lyla and
Speaker 2: I were both wearing red, and Howard Hughes said, you
Speaker 2: can't both wear red dresses. And he called Howard Greer,
Speaker 2: the designer, and Howard opened up his shop and sent
Speaker 2: over a blue dress for Lila. As my conversations with
Speaker 2: them ended, each woman said, I loved Mike Wow.
Speaker 3: So he's just he just fits in well.
Speaker 2: His life in the glamorous, you know, Hollywood entertaining scene
Speaker 2: is just beginning. Nineteen thirty four, Gergison starred alongside Bob
Speaker 2: Hope in the Broadway musical Say When Wait What?
Speaker 3: He's with Bob Hope in a Broadway musical.
Speaker 2: Also in thirty four, the New York Times ran a
Speaker 2: story that he was being charged with conspiracy regarding a
Speaker 2: divorce case.
Speaker 3: Okay, so Edward B.
Speaker 2: Gould hired Gergison to drug and seduce his wife? What
Speaker 2: which would allow Gould to divorce her having to pay alimony?
Speaker 3: Why did he think he was the one to drug
Speaker 3: instid Why not?
Speaker 2: You know, to Mike Mike's you know, baby Gurgu is
Speaker 2: like your man in.
Speaker 3: The pocket, exactly home you need him. Mike can't do it,
Speaker 3: missus Gould.
Speaker 2: She had been receiving four hundred and fifty dollars a
Speaker 2: month under a separation agreement, which is an incredible amount
Speaker 2: of This is what the New York Times said. Quote.
Speaker 2: Missus Gould charged that the defendants confederated, with one calling
Speaker 2: himself Prince Michael Romanoff, to place the plaintiff in a
Speaker 2: compromising position which would create the impression that she had
Speaker 2: been guilty of misconduct so that her husband could divorce
Speaker 2: her and the four hundred and fifty dollars would be forfeited.
Speaker 2: The Prince was hired, administered a drug or narcotic to
Speaker 2: the plaintiff, and then took her to an apartment where
Speaker 2: the alleged misconduct was simulated.
Speaker 3: So he's now a professional honey track.
Speaker 2: Yes, okay, Well, the divorce action gets dropped.
Speaker 3: Edward B.
Speaker 2: Gould gets sent to a sanitarium. Thank god, Prince Mike,
Speaker 2: he's ready to move on. When we come back from
Speaker 2: this break filled with very important ads that keep this
Speaker 2: show running free and fun. I'll tell you what Gerg's
Speaker 2: next chapter held. Zarin Elizabeth nineteen thirty nine.
Speaker 3: I remember it well.
Speaker 2: Harry Gurgus, Yes, opened a restaurant right on. Actually, Prince Michael, Dimitri,
Speaker 2: Alexandrovitch Obelenski Romanov opened a restaurant.
Speaker 3: That's not enough names.
Speaker 2: I know whose money did he is?
Speaker 3: I don't know people, I'm tired and I'm high. Lana
Speaker 3: Turner and her husband Johnny stopped close.
Speaker 2: This is who did he get? Lawrence Rockefeller, Alfred Vanderbilt,
Speaker 2: Charlie Chaplin, Carrie Grant, Daryl Zannik, what, Jack Warner.
Speaker 3: I'm surprised by.
Speaker 2: Caesar Romero and Jock Whitney manymore, a lot of them.
Speaker 3: I'm not surprised because they're rich and they liked it,
Speaker 3: like just be fooled, I think ultimately. But Xanik, that guy,
Speaker 3: he was like Cagy, you know, like he don't get
Speaker 3: past Darryl Zannik.
Speaker 2: No, and he had but you know, they had big
Speaker 2: money names from both coasts doing big, big money. Baby
Speaker 2: Gurgu opened Romanovs in nineteen thirty nine at three twenty
Speaker 2: six North Rodeo Drive.
Speaker 3: It is insane. It is the story of Romanovs.
Speaker 2: This is nothing today. Roman You'll find out. Okay, so
Speaker 2: today the location is the Salarentz Store.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: At the time, though, it was a luxurious palace dedicated
Speaker 2: to fine dining, conitial conversation, and celebrities. Ah, the celebrities,
Speaker 2: they'ren So many celebrities.
Speaker 3: I gotta collect them all.
Speaker 2: I gotta I gotta say it again, so many celebrities.
Speaker 2: I can't. I can't emphasize that enough. Mister Confucius was
Speaker 2: the name of Gergison's bulldog, Mister Confucius.
Speaker 3: Mister Confucius not like Senior Confusions. But I know what
Speaker 3: I'm naming my next up. Seriously, I love that.
Speaker 2: Mister Confucius was listed and the telephone book is the
Speaker 2: owner of Romanoce. He sold shares in the restaurant for
Speaker 2: fifty dollars apiece. Okay, and so a lot of people
Speaker 2: figured the restaurant would tank. And those same people said
Speaker 2: that the framed business certificate presented as return for stock
Speaker 2: was a quote landmark in the art of dignified mooching.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So Whitney backed the restaurant because he had to
Speaker 2: move some cash around to versify as well. He found
Speaker 2: out that part of his seed money was being used
Speaker 2: to pay dividends to the stockholders, so he sold his
Speaker 2: stake back to Gergison. Yes, opening night, the place was
Speaker 2: a buzz zaren closure. Ayes, I want you to picture it. Yes,
Speaker 2: you're Humphrey Bogart. You're attending the opening night of Romanov's,
Speaker 2: a new restaurant you've invested in.
Speaker 3: Yes, I love this.
Speaker 2: You walk past the lines of people waiting outside and
Speaker 2: head into the impressive dining room. The walls are mirrored
Speaker 2: and they're enormous. Candelabras smack dab in the middle of
Speaker 2: each table. Diners laugh and chatter as they sip champagne
Speaker 2: down cocktails, nibblon, imported sardines, green turtle soup, sweetbread, a
Speaker 2: La King and frog legs, a real continental menu. All
Speaker 2: of this you're You're seated at table number one, Yes,
Speaker 2: which would become your standing reservation, and every day in
Speaker 2: the future you would go there for lunch and order
Speaker 2: two scotch and sodas, an omelet, French toast, milk coffee,
Speaker 2: and a brandy.
Speaker 3: I'm so hungry now just hearing my order.
Speaker 2: Here at the opening. One table over is Carry Grant.
Speaker 2: You glance at the menu and you see chicken soufle
Speaker 2: for two dollars and fifty cents. There's no way that
Speaker 2: that tightwad Carry Grant would pay two dollars and fifty
Speaker 2: cents for dinner.
Speaker 3: You chuckle to yourself, that's right, straight on.
Speaker 2: Your big break hasn't come yet, but you know it will.
Speaker 2: You've done thirty films so far playing villains as a
Speaker 2: character actor. You made waves with angels with thirty faces
Speaker 2: last year, and you know your stars on the rise.
Speaker 2: You look around the dining room, so many actors, actresses, musicians,
Speaker 2: various swells just living it up.
Speaker 3: You look over at.
Speaker 2: The small swing band playing in the corner. Those guys
Speaker 2: haven't made you think they get to make something everyone
Speaker 2: enjoys and stay anonymous.
Speaker 3: Play it again, shwinging band.
Speaker 2: Your wife is tossing back French seventy five's and chatting
Speaker 2: with the woman next to her. The two of them
Speaker 2: break into cackling laughter. You see movement out of the
Speaker 2: corner of your eye, and you notice Prince Mike dart
Speaker 2: in your way the Mayor d in tow. They rush
Speaker 2: by you and stop next to Cary Grant. In his loud,
Speaker 2: whispered English accent, the Prince hisses at Grant, we don't
Speaker 2: have a cash register. You then hear Grant and the
Speaker 2: Prince go back and forth about the matter. You said
Speaker 2: everything was completely taken care of. Yes, but this is
Speaker 2: just one little thing. Why did I invest in this?
Speaker 2: If you don't know what you're doing, Please you have
Speaker 2: to help. We can't make change for the guests. Okay, fine,
Speaker 2: I'll send my butler to my house. And what help
Speaker 2: would that do. I'm gonna have him bring back a
Speaker 2: big box of cash, and for some reason, I keep
Speaker 2: it at my house a war chest, so to speak. Okay,
Speaker 2: that's great, I can get you anything else as I'm there. No,
Speaker 2: no't run really go to the place.
Speaker 3: Like you're supposed to do.
Speaker 2: About a half an hour later, Butler screeched up and
Speaker 2: Grant's chauffeur driven car and came running in with boxes
Speaker 2: of cash.
Speaker 3: All was well at Romance.
Speaker 2: The restaurant was known for its signature dessert or it's
Speaker 2: like I like to say yes, strawberries Romanov.
Speaker 3: Oh, it said that.
Speaker 2: He said he invented it. Prince Mike said, I invented
Speaker 2: strawberries Romanov.
Speaker 3: He invents a lot of things.
Speaker 2: I believe him, and you know a lot of people
Speaker 2: believe him too. The real story was that it was
Speaker 2: originally created in London by August Escufier, you know, a ghost.
Speaker 2: Call him on Instagram.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, we're old school from all the same.
Speaker 2: The American version was popularized by Gergison in the US
Speaker 2: of A via his restaurant is that where you.
Speaker 3: Put like you you core a strawberry and you get
Speaker 3: some whip cream. You put that in the cord strawberry
Speaker 3: and then you put them on your finger and you go,
Speaker 3: look at my fingers? Is that what that is?
Speaker 2: Just shove it in, Just shove it right, shove.
Speaker 3: Its strawberry's rose.
Speaker 2: And then you cut into a little jagged Yeah, that's
Speaker 2: exactly what that is. You must have been to Romano.
Speaker 2: It involved cream and then you whip in some ice
Speaker 2: cream because that's not enough cream, and then you serve
Speaker 2: it to someone with blactose and tolerance the Gurgison what
Speaker 2: did he say? Quote everyone has the idea that it's
Speaker 2: a good chef that makes a restaurant. I know of
Speaker 2: no greater fallacy. A restaurant is only as good as
Speaker 2: its owner's personality.
Speaker 3: He's talking about a Kahn con and restaurant. I get it. Whatever.
Speaker 2: Carol Marcus Siroyan Mathow was a debutante who arrived in Hollywood.
Speaker 2: That's an expensive name, uh huh, with fellow debutante pals
Speaker 2: Una O'Neill and Gloria Vanderbilt.
Speaker 3: O'Neil, the one who would marry Charlie Chaplin.
Speaker 2: So this is what Carol Marcus Siroyan Mathow said. Quote,
Speaker 2: Mike was the sweetest, nicest man who ever lived. Una
Speaker 2: and I were out here alone when we were about
Speaker 2: six teen or seventeen. We wanted to go to Ronoff's
Speaker 2: to see all the stars. We often went there for lunch.
Speaker 2: We never got a bill. Mike would say, you're too little, Bibis,
Speaker 2: you can have anything you want here. He'd sit down
Speaker 2: with us and ask us where we were going. When
Speaker 2: we told him, he'd sometimes say, oh, no, don't go there,
Speaker 2: or you mustn't see so and so he really cared.
Speaker 3: Yeah, sounds like it totally guys who want to hang
Speaker 3: out with sixteen and seventeen year old girls and tell
Speaker 3: them what to do. That's called exactly.
Speaker 2: You know that famous photo of Sophila Ren and Jans
Speaker 2: Mansfield where Loren is like half spelling at Mansfield's overflowing bosom.
Speaker 3: Yeah, aage on full display taking it.
Speaker 2: Romanovs no, yes, believe me. In nineteen thirty two, MGM
Speaker 2: purchased the movie rights to Gergison's life and it never
Speaker 2: got made.
Speaker 3: I bet not when they realized, like, we cannot fact
Speaker 3: check this.
Speaker 2: Well, it's due in part to the fact that his
Speaker 2: life violated the three unities of drama. Unity of action,
Speaker 2: unity of place, unity of time.
Speaker 3: There's no unit, there is no there's no it's not
Speaker 3: a unity of opposites. You can't even because it's a
Speaker 3: push and he just moves.
Speaker 2: He's all over the place. They also couldn't make a
Speaker 2: decent comedic finish to the film because the Hayes Code,
Speaker 2: which prohibited profanity, suggestive nudity, violence, also deemed it necessary
Speaker 2: that transgressors are punished in the final reel.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, oh definitely, yeah, you can come up.
Speaker 2: In That doesn't happening for old Prince Mike Nope. Later,
Speaker 2: one of Gurgison's oldest friends, French screenwriter and director Harry
Speaker 2: de Rost, He actually wrote an ending for the film
Speaker 2: about Prince Mike. He had it where the Prince turns
Speaker 2: up in Russia and is captured by Soviet soldiers. As
Speaker 2: he has led to the firing squad, he's told, if
Speaker 2: only you will say I'm Harry Gergison, you will go
Speaker 2: free and be welcomed as a comrade. The Prince refuses
Speaker 2: with a scornful shake of his head and is executed coblamo.
Speaker 3: Seven times, just like respute.
Speaker 2: There it is. He actually appeared in eighteen movies between
Speaker 2: nineteen thirty seven and nineteen sixty seven, sometimes credited, sometimes not,
Speaker 2: sometimes this as himself, sometimes not. He officially became a
Speaker 2: US citizen by order of Congress in nineteen fifty eight with.
Speaker 3: President Order of Congress.
Speaker 2: Uh huh, with President Dwight D. Eisenhower signing the bill
Speaker 2: for citizenship.
Speaker 3: Get out of town.
Speaker 2: I will not.
Speaker 3: Ike went for this. Yes, he's like I like this guy.
Speaker 3: Everyone likes I like this guy. I like Mike.
Speaker 2: Well. By the late fifties, though, Romanov's started to lose
Speaker 2: its cluster.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the new generation of Hollywood celebrities were just over it.
Speaker 3: Branda did not want to go there.
Speaker 2: No, A lot of them weren't comfortable with Gergison's friendship
Speaker 2: with Jay Edgar Hoover.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, that's it a tough one in the fifties.
Speaker 2: They didn't like his sort of ultra conservative stance that
Speaker 2: he had. He was handing out right wing literature with
Speaker 2: his menus, so they're just like open it up and
Speaker 2: it whoa, hey, there's some hate speech.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: More importantly to celebrities, though, forget the ethics of it.
Speaker 2: The front and back room were like became a competition
Speaker 2: regarding seating. So a lot of times if a patron
Speaker 2: was given the table in the back room, they would
Speaker 2: just leave. Everyone wanted to be in the front.
Speaker 3: To be they could be seen.
Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, Gergison, he looks around. My restaurant's not doing well.
Speaker 2: I'm going to open a second location.
Speaker 3: That's probably the answer. Yes, So he had one failing one,
Speaker 3: why not go for something?
Speaker 2: He needed to get money to open Romanofs too, because
Speaker 2: he's not making it in Romanovs one. So he sent
Speaker 2: a telegram to Alfred Vanderbilt.
Speaker 3: I figure it's gonna be Albert Einstein. I don't know,
Speaker 3: Alfred vander all right, need money.
Speaker 2: He's Vanderbilt's on vacation in Hawaii asking if he could
Speaker 2: borrow money. Hey, Alfred on the beach.
Speaker 3: Put down the pineoff for a second.
Speaker 2: Yeah, coking up? And so this is what happens.
Speaker 3: Though.
Speaker 2: Twenty five thousand dollars was delivered the next morning with
Speaker 2: a note, I'm always pleased to serve my king, Vanderbilt.
Speaker 3: Did you hear that sound? That was my brain bending
Speaker 3: being bruised? And wait the moon?
Speaker 2: What my king?
Speaker 3: Okay, I've hesitated to say it before, but can this
Speaker 3: guy do some trick with his hung I mean, like,
Speaker 3: what is the deal here?
Speaker 2: No, he's just fantastic. Everyone wants to be around someone
Speaker 2: fantastic and interesting.
Speaker 3: Guess, but I mean, I don't even think Rihannica pulled
Speaker 3: this off. May maybe maybe she is. Maybe that's how
Speaker 3: she got Fandy. I don't know the.
Speaker 2: Move, though. The new restaurant did not improve things. In
Speaker 2: nineteen fifty seven, when you Humphrey Bogart pass, things started
Speaker 2: to decline in the new Romanov Empire see Never Fear
Speaker 2: Frank Sinatra's here. After Bogart died. After you die, Old
Speaker 2: Blue Eyes started inviting Prince Mike to movie shoots and like,
Speaker 2: jaunts are all over the world.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, because he the original rat pack was Humphrey
Speaker 3: Bogart's poker game. And then Frank Sinatra gets in as
Speaker 3: a young stars and then.
Speaker 2: This takes Mike with him.
Speaker 3: He's like, I'm taking it all. I want you back
Speaker 3: of it. The Russian guy.
Speaker 2: Now that Gerson wasn't at the restaurant, neither were his
Speaker 2: famous friends, so people stopped going. Of course, just Lookie
Speaker 2: lose up in there, Gergrison. He starts spending more time
Speaker 2: in Palm Springs, thanks Frank, and he decided to open
Speaker 2: a third location, Romanovs on the Rocks. The Desert Sun
Speaker 2: ran a piece in nineteen fifty nine, saying, quote the
Speaker 2: little guy with a big smile and the Big Menu
Speaker 2: opened his rock rimmed restaurant last night, with the usual
Speaker 2: run of who's who on hand to make things festive.
Speaker 2: One time film extra Mike Romanov unveiled his Romanovs on
Speaker 2: the Rocks with no fanfare, no frills, just the unimpeachable
Speaker 2: decorum that has marked his restaurants here and in Beverly Hills.
Speaker 2: The Little Prince made a point of explaining that he
Speaker 2: had no immediate plans for entertainment in the huge and
Speaker 2: severe dining room and bar that overlooks the Palm Springs region.
Speaker 2: The words were scarcely out of his mouth before diners
Speaker 2: Sammy Kahan and Jimmy van Housen were seated at the
Speaker 2: Romanovs piano.
Speaker 3: Are you kidding?
Speaker 2: I Am not kidding him?
Speaker 3: What the hell these are? Like? Oh my god, I know.
Speaker 2: It's like a veritable who's Who. Yes, The Desert Sun
Speaker 2: said he opened another place in San Francis, but none
Speaker 2: of his restaurants were doing well. All of them closed
Speaker 2: in nineteen sixty two. The original closed New Year's Eve
Speaker 2: nineteen six.
Speaker 3: I didn't know other one in San Francisco.
Speaker 2: Yeah, briefly, probably like five minutes. The restaurant did provide
Speaker 2: him with an opportunity to meet an actual Romanov. Get
Speaker 2: out Prince Alexander Romanov said of the occasion, quote, I
Speaker 2: was taken to the restaurant and all the stars were there.
Speaker 2: I thought he was exceedingly ugly. We just said a
Speaker 2: few words to each other. My host has said about
Speaker 2: me to him. Alexander is a real Romanov, he replied,
Speaker 2: but I'm the only Mike Romanov. Gergison passed away at
Speaker 2: good Smaritan Hospital September second, nineteen seventy one.
Speaker 3: I'm the look on poor Alexander's face when that guy
Speaker 3: said that to him. He's a Russian road in Hollywood
Speaker 3: and he's got this guy going.
Speaker 2: I Am just like rolled his eyes and sniffed.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 2: Gergison left no memoir, no based on a true story, film,
Speaker 2: no documentary. He did, however, become immortalized on page by
Speaker 2: a biography published in nineteen ninety seven called Romanov Prince
Speaker 2: of Rogues, The Life and Time of a Hollywood Icon.
Speaker 3: What's your takeaway, Oh man, I'm surprised that, like, like okay,
Speaker 3: I'm not surprised that Humphy Boerger was taken. He came
Speaker 3: from money. So he's just like all the other Vanderbilt
Speaker 3: you know. No, he wasn't as wealthy as but he
Speaker 3: was like, you know, mainline Philadelphia money, I think you Yeah,
Speaker 3: So he could be conned like all of them. But
Speaker 3: carry Grant was in the circus because he was basically
Speaker 3: like an orphan on the streets.
Speaker 2: Of London and notoriously stingy and.
Speaker 3: Notoriously stingy and cunning and all of that that comes
Speaker 3: with the life of childhood poverty where he's not going
Speaker 3: to like take something for granted, he's not He will
Speaker 3: be generous, but he's not going to be a fool, right,
Speaker 3: So it surprises me that he got so in bed
Speaker 3: with him and did not sense that something was hinky.
Speaker 3: I mean that really surprised.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm guessing he made money while he did, no.
Speaker 3: But just that even would want to spend so much
Speaker 3: time around somebody's such an obvious faker when yeah, he
Speaker 3: you know, he's looked the guy who's known for like
Speaker 3: wanting to do acid early with this therapist because he
Speaker 3: was always after that truth. You know, he was somebody
Speaker 3: who was a seeker. So I'm surprised at a seeker.
Speaker 3: I'm not surprised. Hoy Boger, I love Boger. You know this,
Speaker 3: but you know whatever. But like Carrie Grant, I'm like,
Speaker 3: you got Archibald Leitch. That's ridiculous. Yep, what's yours? Elizabeth?
Speaker 3: You see how I did that? That's how that's done to.
Speaker 2: No, I'll tell you what my takeaway is, though, I
Speaker 2: would give anything to have that kind of quality where
Speaker 2: people just like you, no matter what I can.
Speaker 3: Tell you, it's a burden. It's just you would hate it.
Speaker 2: I want to interview more. I interview you more about that.
Speaker 2: I am so hot and tired in here, I can't speak.
Speaker 2: It is. It is like ninety degrees in this.
Speaker 3: Story, like just a puddle of guru.
Speaker 2: I'm total. I'm big gurguru right now.
Speaker 3: That's it, Okay, I'm done whatever.
Speaker 2: You can find us online at Ridiculous Crime dot com
Speaker 2: and we have t shirts if you're into that sort
Speaker 2: of thing, but I don't know if they're still on there.
Speaker 2: They're limited time only. Our merchan is a limited time only.
Speaker 2: We're also at Ridiculous Crime on both Twitter and Instagram.
Speaker 2: Email us at Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com. Leave
Speaker 2: us a talkback on the iHeart app, reach Out Baby,
Speaker 2: Tune In Next Time. Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth
Speaker 2: Duttan and Zarren Burnett, produced and edited by Czar Dave Kusten,
Speaker 2: Emperor of the Holy Flavortown Empire. Research is by Duchess
Speaker 2: Marissa Brown and Baroness Andrea Song Sharpen Tear. The theme
Speaker 2: song is by Romanov's house band Thomas Lee and Travis Dutton.
Speaker 2: Executive producers are Sophia Loren and Jane Mansfield. Cosplayers Ben
Speaker 2: Bollen and Noel Brown.
Speaker 1: Disquime Say It One More Time Crime. Ridiculous Crime is
Speaker 1: a production of iHeartRadio four More Podcasts my Heart Radio,
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