WEBVTT - Short Stuff: The Berners Street Hoax 0:00:04.280 --> 0:00:06.560 Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff on Josh And 0:00:06.600 --> 0:00:09.879 there's Chuck and this is short Stuff and this is 0:00:09.920 --> 0:00:13.280 a hoax edition which we're starting to slowly assemble into 0:00:13.320 --> 0:00:18.560 a short stuffed suite. The year eighteen ten, the month November, 0:00:19.239 --> 0:00:24.440 the day possibly unknown, right, and on this particular day, 0:00:24.440 --> 0:00:26.920 if we zoom over to London and then zoom in 0:00:27.000 --> 0:00:29.600 a little more into a wealthy section of London, and 0:00:29.600 --> 0:00:35.600 then even further into a place called Berners Street, We're 0:00:35.600 --> 0:00:37.839 we're going to find a twenty two year old a 0:00:37.880 --> 0:00:39.760 guy who I would have liked to have been friends with, 0:00:40.159 --> 0:00:44.279 named Theodore Hook. He was a bomb of aunt. He 0:00:44.440 --> 0:00:48.400 was known to be mischievous, incredibly intelligent, very charming kind 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:50.880 of guy. Um, the kind of person who would just 0:00:50.920 --> 0:00:53.640 show up on a stranger's doorstep and start talking to 0:00:53.720 --> 0:00:55.680 them and in the hopes that he would be invited 0:00:55.720 --> 0:00:58.520 to dinner just to see if he could do it. Um. 0:00:58.560 --> 0:01:00.880 Just a neat guy all around. And he's walking down 0:01:00.960 --> 0:01:03.560 the street with a friend of his name, Samuel Beasley, Right, 0:01:04.640 --> 0:01:07.960 that's right, Uh, in this bon vivant which I'm not 0:01:07.959 --> 0:01:09.560 even sure what that is. What does that mean? It's 0:01:09.600 --> 0:01:11.839 somebody who likes the good life. They like the party. 0:01:11.880 --> 0:01:15.479 They don't want to work. They they just wanna have fun. 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:19.000 Oh like us kind of I think we work a 0:01:19.040 --> 0:01:23.720 little too much for that. But yes, my daughter one 0:01:23.760 --> 0:01:25.640 of her favorite songs as girls just want to have fun. 0:01:26.520 --> 0:01:29.200 And she looked at Emily one day and said, I 0:01:29.240 --> 0:01:31.880 feel sorry for boys. They just don't want to have fun. 0:01:33.400 --> 0:01:35.480 And it made me realize she had the name wrong. 0:01:35.560 --> 0:01:38.679 She I guess she thought it was just girls want 0:01:38.720 --> 0:01:43.360 to have fire. Girls, that's hilarious. It's like boys have 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:46.760 fun too. Uh. So they were walking down the street 0:01:46.840 --> 0:01:49.160 that day in November of eighteen ten, these two boys 0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:55.480 and the bon vivant cook, uh pointing to a house 0:01:55.680 --> 0:02:00.760 which was Burner Street, fifty four Burners Street, and said, hey, 0:02:00.920 --> 0:02:04.040 I'll wager within a week I can make that house 0:02:04.120 --> 0:02:08.440 that I've talked about alis in London, and Beasley said, 0:02:08.600 --> 0:02:12.600 you're on. I'm sure. So they had they had a bet. 0:02:12.639 --> 0:02:15.080 I'm sure listeners are like, well, that was dead on. 0:02:17.040 --> 0:02:20.880 That was purposely bad. Everybody, My exits are usually much better. 0:02:21.240 --> 0:02:24.280 Yet they are agreed, but we'll give you a pass 0:02:24.360 --> 0:02:28.679 because of that. Too bad. They're not German, right, m hmm. Yeah. 0:02:28.880 --> 0:02:31.600 So Beasley said, you're on. I don't know why you 0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:34.000 would even make that bet. It's such a preposterous bet 0:02:34.080 --> 0:02:36.600 that I can't possibly lose. So we took that bet. 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:40.160 And a week later, about seven and them in the 0:02:40.200 --> 0:02:43.560 morning at fifty Burnard Street. Uh, the date was November. 0:02:44.639 --> 0:02:46.400 We have the date, yeah, but we didn't know when 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:48.000 they were walking down the street. It was some time 0:02:48.040 --> 0:02:51.040 about a week earlier. I'm gonna say November three. Sure, 0:02:51.120 --> 0:02:55.080 let's go with that. So this is November ten, and um, 0:02:55.120 --> 0:02:57.440 a chimney sweep shows up at fifty four Burner Street 0:02:57.440 --> 0:03:00.080 and knocks on the door and says, I'm here to 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:04.519 clean Mrs Tottenham's um chimney and the the servant who 0:03:04.560 --> 0:03:07.880 answered the door, because Mrs Tottenham was a fabulously wealthy widow, 0:03:08.880 --> 0:03:11.960 um and the servants would be the ones answering the door, 0:03:12.360 --> 0:03:14.320 said that we don't need a chimney sweep, but your 0:03:14.480 --> 0:03:17.200 your mistaken please go away shut the door. And that 0:03:17.320 --> 0:03:22.399 was that, right, that's right. Another different chimney sweep would 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:24.840 show up, and then another, and then they kind of 0:03:24.919 --> 0:03:28.800 kept coming and it was a rush of chimney sweeps. 0:03:28.880 --> 0:03:31.840 And you might think, you know, that's probably a pretty 0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:34.480 good joke, much like the prank today where you might 0:03:34.520 --> 0:03:37.640 order a pizza to someone's house. Apparently, just calling like 0:03:37.640 --> 0:03:40.120 a chimney sweep or some other service to a house 0:03:40.720 --> 0:03:43.680 was a joke of the day, and the servants thought, oh, 0:03:43.720 --> 0:03:48.360 that's very funny. Uh, that's great. But that was not 0:03:48.480 --> 0:03:51.440 the end of it, and that is not why people 0:03:51.480 --> 0:03:54.840 still tell this story two years later. So perhaps we 0:03:54.840 --> 0:03:57.120 should take a break a little early, because that's a 0:03:57.120 --> 0:04:24.520 great cliffhanger and tell you what happened next. Okay, Chuck, 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:27.400 So it's time to unhang off of the cliff. And 0:04:27.440 --> 0:04:29.680 like you said, we would not be talking about this 0:04:29.720 --> 0:04:31.640 hoax if it had just been a handful of chimney 0:04:31.640 --> 0:04:34.479 sweeps that showed up that day. But those chimney sweeps 0:04:34.480 --> 0:04:38.280 were just a little trickle that were foreshadowing of the 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:41.440 deluge to come. And as the morning started to begin 0:04:41.520 --> 0:04:46.760 in Earnest, tons and tons and tons of people showed up, 0:04:47.120 --> 0:04:50.960 all of whom had been um summoned toft Burner Street 0:04:51.160 --> 0:04:54.039 within the last month or so on this particular day 0:04:54.200 --> 0:04:57.400 November to carry out some sort of business or another, 0:04:58.160 --> 0:05:01.440 and the sheer volume of how how many people were 0:05:01.480 --> 0:05:05.159 tricked into showing up. Is why we're still talking about 0:05:05.160 --> 0:05:08.159 this hoax two hundred years later. Yeah, it's at this 0:05:08.200 --> 0:05:10.400 point I wish we could hire that fast talking guy 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:15.080 from the TV commercials in the eighties. Just read through these, 0:05:15.120 --> 0:05:18.680 but uh, I'll do something. Why don't you just follow 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:22.960 in after? Alright, So here's who came by the house 0:05:23.040 --> 0:05:29.320 that day. Uh, male midwives, tooth pullers, miniature painters, artists, auctioneers, grocers, 0:05:29.520 --> 0:05:34.120 textile merchants, horse drawn taxis, morning coaches, poultry sellers, an 0:05:34.240 --> 0:05:37.840 undertaker with a coffin made to measure six men. It's 0:05:37.839 --> 0:05:40.560 a six men bearing an organ that could be very anything. 0:05:41.960 --> 0:05:47.640 Wine porters, barbers with wigs, and you can take over opticians, uh, 0:05:47.760 --> 0:05:56.480 coal wagons, upholsterers, pianos, linen, jewelry, people bearing furniture, doctors, attorneys. 0:05:56.880 --> 0:05:59.800 Apparently at five PM, a whole bunch of servants showed 0:05:59.880 --> 0:06:01.720 up because they were told that there was a job 0:06:01.800 --> 0:06:07.160 to fill, and fifty different bakers showed up with raspberry 0:06:07.200 --> 0:06:11.040 tarts between them. That is just the joke. Yes, that's 0:06:11.080 --> 0:06:13.599 just a sampling of who was there, so you can 0:06:13.640 --> 0:06:17.720 guess in very short order. The streets Burner Street in particular, 0:06:17.720 --> 0:06:21.760 but also streets around it became completely thronged with not 0:06:21.839 --> 0:06:25.720 just like taxis and carts of coal and like all 0:06:25.760 --> 0:06:28.440 of the trades people showing up, but also gawkers who 0:06:28.520 --> 0:06:31.000 came out to say, like what is going on? And 0:06:31.040 --> 0:06:33.360 so the police arrived pretty quickly and had to shut 0:06:33.400 --> 0:06:38.000 the whole street down. That's right. This prank even got 0:06:38.040 --> 0:06:42.279 the mayor involved. Lord Mayor London got a note that 0:06:42.440 --> 0:06:45.279 said that and again Mrs Tottenham was, you know, a 0:06:45.320 --> 0:06:48.280 woman of means, and I feel like somebody that um 0:06:48.400 --> 0:06:51.279 would have had some sort of political influence. But uh, 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:54.119 there was a note supposedly from Mrs Tottenham that said 0:06:54.600 --> 0:06:57.839 she was summoned to appear before him, but she was 0:06:57.920 --> 0:07:01.240 confined to her room by sickness and requested that the 0:07:01.279 --> 0:07:04.119 Mayor come to her house, which he did. And also 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:07.080 not just the mayor was roped into this, the Archbishop 0:07:07.080 --> 0:07:09.920 of Canterbury showed up, the Governor of the Bank of England, 0:07:10.160 --> 0:07:12.880 the chairman of the East India Company, and the Duke 0:07:13.000 --> 0:07:16.040 of York all duped along with all of those scores 0:07:16.080 --> 0:07:19.520 and scores of tradespeople showing up at fifty four Burners 0:07:19.520 --> 0:07:24.440 Street on November, so you can imagine like this was 0:07:24.520 --> 0:07:27.440 a pretty big deal. The police were finally able to 0:07:27.480 --> 0:07:31.840 disperse the crowd um by evening maybe by night, and 0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:35.360 um the next day Samuel Beasley knew for sure that 0:07:35.440 --> 0:07:40.320 he had lost that bet. That's right. Uh, newspapers were 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:44.800 reporting it all over England. Um, there were annual registers 0:07:44.840 --> 0:07:47.200 that said it was one of the notable events of 0:07:47.280 --> 0:07:50.920 London for the whole year for ten. It is still 0:07:50.960 --> 0:07:54.440 talked about today as part of British lore and pop culture. 0:07:55.280 --> 0:07:57.400 And you know, of course they wanted to find out 0:07:57.440 --> 0:08:01.880 who did this, but officially they never found out that 0:08:01.960 --> 0:08:04.640 it was Theodore Hook. Didn't that right? Yeah it was, yeah, 0:08:04.840 --> 0:08:07.400 but it was. It's widely assumed then and now that 0:08:07.480 --> 0:08:10.080 it was Theodore Hook. And he, I mean, he was 0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:11.720 the kind of person who would do this. But also 0:08:11.800 --> 0:08:15.400 he wrote a semi autobiographical novel about twenty five years 0:08:15.440 --> 0:08:18.840 after it was called Gilbert Gurney, and in it one 0:08:18.880 --> 0:08:22.120 of the characters says, I'm I'm the one I did it. 0:08:22.200 --> 0:08:25.120 I pulled off the Berner Street hoax and then rattles 0:08:25.160 --> 0:08:28.360 off some of like the greatest hits. So people are like, yes, 0:08:28.480 --> 0:08:31.000 obviously it was Theodore Hook, but he was never like 0:08:31.720 --> 0:08:34.280 prosecuted or anything like that because no one could ever 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:37.120 prove he did it. Yeah, and this is the part 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:40.600 that really impressed me was I thought, when I had 0:08:41.160 --> 0:08:44.640 read the initial review of this that, uh, you know, 0:08:44.679 --> 0:08:47.520 if he says that a week later, it's game on. 0:08:47.720 --> 0:08:49.680 Like that's a lot of work to get that many people. 0:08:50.400 --> 0:08:54.240 It was a long con. Apparently he had uh little 0:08:54.440 --> 0:08:58.520 Minians working for him, and they wrote up to four 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:04.040 thousand letters in weeks who knows, maybe even months leading 0:09:04.080 --> 0:09:06.880 up to this. So he had this thing planned out 0:09:06.880 --> 0:09:10.400 all along, and you know, purposely brought his friend by 0:09:10.440 --> 0:09:13.880 that house once everything was in place and said, hey, 0:09:14.200 --> 0:09:17.640 I bet you a guinea that I can get make 0:09:17.679 --> 0:09:19.760 this house and most talked about house. So it was 0:09:19.800 --> 0:09:22.560 all pre planned, which makes it even better, it really does. 0:09:23.040 --> 0:09:25.920 And then, um, Hook wasn't really picking on Mrs Tottenham 0:09:26.040 --> 0:09:29.280 for any particular reason. Uh. Most people say that he 0:09:29.320 --> 0:09:31.600 had no acquaintance with or whatsoever, that she was a 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:34.960 random victim. Uh. And so this prank went down in history. 0:09:35.040 --> 0:09:37.199 I mean like people are still again talking about it 0:09:37.240 --> 0:09:40.000 two d years later. We're talking about it two hundred 0:09:40.120 --> 0:09:42.920 years later. Um. But there's a there's a twist to 0:09:42.960 --> 0:09:45.840 this whole thing to Chuck, isn't there. Yeah. The twist 0:09:45.920 --> 0:09:48.360 is that, and I I'm not sure I buy this, 0:09:48.480 --> 0:09:51.199 is that it may not have actually even happened, and 0:09:51.240 --> 0:09:56.440 that the real hoax was that Theodore Hook made all 0:09:56.480 --> 0:10:00.079 this stuff up. And it's not like a newspaper b 0:10:00.320 --> 0:10:03.640 reporter from reporters from all over England descended upon this 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:07.080 to witness this with their own eyes. They heard reports 0:10:07.080 --> 0:10:09.360 of this and wrote about it. So it was a 0:10:09.400 --> 0:10:11.200 hoax on a hoax and it never really happened to 0:10:11.200 --> 0:10:13.520 begin with. Yeah, there's some historians who believe that the 0:10:13.559 --> 0:10:16.840 hoax of a hoax, which however happened, if it happened 0:10:16.840 --> 0:10:20.560 the way that it supposedly did as reported in the papers, awesome, 0:10:20.960 --> 0:10:23.400 if he managed to pull the same thing off without 0:10:23.520 --> 0:10:27.640 actually doing it, I think that might be even more awesome, Chuck, 0:10:28.280 --> 0:10:31.319 I'm fox Smoulder here. I want to believe so bad. Okay, 0:10:31.440 --> 0:10:33.560 but you just do that because there's no reason not to, 0:10:33.640 --> 0:10:37.200 all right, Okay, Chuck said, Okay, everybody that means short 0:10:37.240 --> 0:10:43.000 stuff is out. Stuff you should know is a production 0:10:43.040 --> 0:10:45.959 of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts, My Heart Radio 0:10:46.200 --> 0:10:49.200 visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever 0:10:49.200 --> 0:10:50.640 you listen to your favorite shows.