WEBVTT - The SYSK Holiday Spectacular 0:00:01.160 --> 0:00:03.520 Welcome to Stuff You should Know, a production of I 0:00:03.640 --> 0:00:12.720 Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. 0:00:12.880 --> 0:00:18.520 I'm Josh Clark, and there's Charles w. Spirit of Christmas Bryant, 0:00:19.000 --> 0:00:24.560 Josh Kringle, and there's Jerry Crampus rolling over there. And 0:00:24.640 --> 0:00:27.680 this is uh, this is stuff you should know. That's right, 0:00:27.840 --> 0:00:34.960 the geez, we should know how many this is? Seven? No? Yes, 0:00:35.640 --> 0:00:42.760 our Christmas Special Edition second try, Holiday Spectacular, Spectacular, Spooktacular. No, 0:00:43.040 --> 0:00:46.320 that's Halloween all right? All right, yeah, I don't know 0:00:46.360 --> 0:00:50.160 how many of this is, but we've been podcasting for 0:00:50.320 --> 0:00:56.560 almost twelve years now. It'll be twelve this next year, right, yes, 0:00:56.760 --> 0:01:00.520 like summer Rich, did we release a Christmas this episode 0:01:00.520 --> 0:01:03.200 the first year? I don't know. I'll have to go 0:01:03.240 --> 0:01:06.240 back and do our homework ourselves. I'm sure someone knows 0:01:06.280 --> 0:01:10.400 this stuff, but as usual, not that we're tooting our 0:01:10.400 --> 0:01:14.600 own horn, but we just want to remind everyone that 0:01:14.920 --> 0:01:19.840 we release this ad free every year. So our Christmas 0:01:19.840 --> 0:01:29.560 episode is without taint. That's pretty great. Uh, it's untainted too, well, 0:01:29.600 --> 0:01:32.240 you know, it always just felt weird to slap an 0:01:32.280 --> 0:01:35.520 at in the middle of the Christmas themed show. Who 0:01:35.520 --> 0:01:40.000 advertises around Christmas. Yeah, exactly, so anyway, this is uh, 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:42.560 we're all pleased with that. We are pra Please just 0:01:42.640 --> 0:01:47.360 punch Jerry's especially please look at her. So, Jerry, do 0:01:47.440 --> 0:01:53.440 you know it's Christmas? Yeah? Jerry so grumpy, So Chuck, Yes, 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:55.920 I feel like we should start this one off in 0:01:55.960 --> 0:02:00.000 our usual tradition, um by a little bit of music 0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:03.640 to play us into the next The first segment fantastic. 0:02:17.600 --> 0:02:19.880 That's nice, it really is. Jerry is good at this 0:02:20.160 --> 0:02:23.600 sets the mood. Um. I think that was true Siberian Orchestra. 0:02:23.680 --> 0:02:28.440 If I'm not mistaken, wasn't We'll find out before we 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:30.760 get started with this episode, Chuck. We should we have 0:02:30.960 --> 0:02:34.239 in the future concluded that here in the past we 0:02:34.240 --> 0:02:36.680 should issue a c o A. I know who would 0:02:36.680 --> 0:02:39.919 have thought our Christmas episode might not be appropriate for kids, 0:02:40.400 --> 0:02:44.280 but we're us. So this first story has to deal 0:02:44.320 --> 0:02:47.560 with magic mushrooms in Santa Claus and it's all legit. 0:02:47.639 --> 0:02:49.840 But if you don't want your kids listen to that, 0:02:49.840 --> 0:02:52.960 then don't listen to it. Okay, well, let's get on 0:02:53.040 --> 0:02:56.400 with it. Let's do so. Um. I dug something up 0:02:56.480 --> 0:02:58.720 years back, and we've talked about it before. At least 0:02:58.760 --> 0:03:01.600 in passing. But the more I jumped into it, the 0:03:01.639 --> 0:03:04.240 more I was like, this is nuts. I don't even 0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:06.000 know which order we're going in. You see, I have 0:03:06.080 --> 0:03:09.280 my papers all over, So I'm excited. I'm gonna I'm 0:03:09.320 --> 0:03:12.000 along for the ride, just like the listener. I'm gonna 0:03:12.040 --> 0:03:14.839 direct to hear the first Yeah you're directing, Okay, I'm 0:03:14.880 --> 0:03:18.080 I'm this is This is really a lot of pressure 0:03:18.080 --> 0:03:20.000 all of a sudden places everyone that's what you gotta 0:03:20.080 --> 0:03:22.560 doesn't expect this. Let me put my shoulder or back 0:03:22.639 --> 0:03:24.840 the one. Let me put my sweater over my shoulders 0:03:24.880 --> 0:03:28.640 and get out your old school megaphone. Uh okay, Chuck, 0:03:28.680 --> 0:03:31.959 please stand right there. Ry keep doing what you're doing, Chuck. 0:03:32.000 --> 0:03:37.960 We're gonna talk about Santa Claus as a possible psychedelic mushroom. Alright. 0:03:38.000 --> 0:03:40.960 I was hoping we'd start with that one. Okay. So, 0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:43.440 like I said, we've talked about this before. I don't 0:03:43.440 --> 0:03:47.800 remember what episode. I know we have, Yeah, we have, 0:03:48.120 --> 0:03:51.800 but never this in depth. No, And I also want 0:03:51.800 --> 0:03:57.360 to point out that the uh i'm annita Muscaria is 0:03:57.360 --> 0:04:01.040 that the full name this mushroom? The very famous red 0:04:01.080 --> 0:04:04.400 and White Christmas see looking mushroom, the one that anytime 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:06.680 you think of a gnome that's like the toadstool they 0:04:06.720 --> 0:04:09.440 live around. That's right. I saw some of these just 0:04:09.480 --> 0:04:13.160 a few weeks ago in the woods. Wow. Yeah, and 0:04:13.240 --> 0:04:15.680 you come down yet. Well, the person I was with said, 0:04:15.680 --> 0:04:17.960 I think those are magic mushrooms. I said, no, those 0:04:18.000 --> 0:04:19.600 only grow and cow poop. And they were nick, No, 0:04:19.680 --> 0:04:21.920 I think those are two. There's different kinds. Yeah, and 0:04:22.120 --> 0:04:24.200 uh we went back to little research and it turns 0:04:24.240 --> 0:04:25.960 out they are. We did not touch them or pick them. 0:04:26.360 --> 0:04:29.360 We left them to grow. Well. Yeah, they apparently they're 0:04:29.360 --> 0:04:32.919 also very toxic. Sure, I imagine, um, but there's ways, 0:04:33.000 --> 0:04:36.159 there's things you can do to them to remove the toxicity, 0:04:36.279 --> 0:04:38.880 especially if you live around rain deer. That's right. But 0:04:39.200 --> 0:04:42.320 that plays a part in this story because this great 0:04:42.400 --> 0:04:45.359 article you sent Santa Claus and the Santa Claus, the 0:04:45.400 --> 0:04:51.120 Magic Mushroom and the Psychedelic Origins of Christmas by Melanie Zulu. 0:04:51.240 --> 0:04:53.880 That's what I'm going with. X x U l U. 0:04:54.400 --> 0:04:57.800 That's a great name. Uh. And what publication was this move? 0:04:58.960 --> 0:05:04.239 What a great rag. Yeah, So Melanie Zulu basically UM 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:09.920 did some research on this idea. UM that Santa Claus 0:05:10.200 --> 0:05:15.279 was inspired by those psychedelic mushrooms, the fly a Garrick mushroom. Yeah, 0:05:15.279 --> 0:05:18.200 And I gotta say, when all of this stuff is 0:05:18.279 --> 0:05:22.560 read together, there's a lot of pretty heavy coincidence. It 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:25.080 really is. You know else, whenever you whenever you read 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:27.640 about something like this where something might have been based 0:05:27.640 --> 0:05:31.320 on their speculation or whatever, you're like, that's a couple 0:05:31.360 --> 0:05:34.240 of those are kind of convincing from start to finish. 0:05:34.440 --> 0:05:37.680 This is so absolutely convincing them, Like this is this 0:05:37.760 --> 0:05:43.040 is the answer everybody. That's right. Magic mushrooms maybe so. Um. 0:05:43.279 --> 0:05:46.000 On the very far end of the spectrum of the 0:05:46.040 --> 0:05:49.200 speculation that Santa Claus is based on a psychedelic mushroom, 0:05:49.520 --> 0:05:53.880 you'll find Jack Harror, who's a very famous pot activists, 0:05:54.640 --> 0:05:57.000 um so so famous in fact, I believe he has 0:05:57.040 --> 0:06:00.200 his own strain of pot, if not like brand like 0:06:00.240 --> 0:06:05.200 Willie We'd basically or whatever Snoop Doggs brands are right. Um, 0:06:05.240 --> 0:06:08.040 And Jack Harris said, not only was Santa Claus based 0:06:08.040 --> 0:06:11.520 on a mushroom, Santa Claus was the mushroom. That's where 0:06:11.560 --> 0:06:13.560 they got it from. It was like this is they 0:06:13.640 --> 0:06:17.120 used to basically eat these mushrooms and call them Santa Claus. Okay, 0:06:17.480 --> 0:06:21.479 most people, most people don't don't agree with that. Instead 0:06:21.560 --> 0:06:23.880 they say, no, we think that there is something to 0:06:24.080 --> 0:06:27.839 the idea that Santa Claus was inspired by the rituals 0:06:27.880 --> 0:06:32.120 around this, this mushroom in particular, though. That's right. Uh. Notably, 0:06:32.120 --> 0:06:38.480 there's a professor, professor named John Rush at Sierra College 0:06:38.640 --> 0:06:42.680 in California, and it's pretty neat. There are like legit 0:06:42.760 --> 0:06:46.880 Christmas scholars out there that you can get expert, you know, 0:06:47.000 --> 0:06:50.360 takes on and he's one of those guys. And he said, 0:06:50.400 --> 0:06:53.080 his quota is up until a few hundred years ago. Uh, 0:06:53.120 --> 0:06:58.360 these practicing shaman and we're talking about shaman in uh 0:06:58.480 --> 0:07:03.000 the lapland, yeah, in northern Finland, Northern Finland. He said, 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:06.599 are these priests they connected to older traditions. They would 0:07:06.640 --> 0:07:10.000 collect these mushrooms, dry them up and give them as 0:07:10.120 --> 0:07:13.360 as gifts and the winter solstice, so the stage is set. 0:07:13.840 --> 0:07:16.520 We know this for sure. They would collect these mushrooms 0:07:16.520 --> 0:07:18.320 and they would give them out for people to eat 0:07:18.360 --> 0:07:21.360 and get high. Right, But exactly what they were doing 0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:26.320 when they did that really kind of drives the Santa 0:07:26.680 --> 0:07:30.000 idea home a lot. Yeah, notably what they wore. Okay, well, 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:33.240 let's first start with that fly, a garrick mushroom. When 0:07:33.280 --> 0:07:35.600 you saw it, you were out in the woods. I'll 0:07:35.680 --> 0:07:38.000 bet you they were growing at the foot of a 0:07:38.000 --> 0:07:40.600 fir tree. They were a pine tree, some sort of 0:07:40.640 --> 0:07:44.480 evergreen right, correct. Okay, that's almost exclusively where they grow. 0:07:44.560 --> 0:07:47.520 I feel like I'm on the witness stand, right, would 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:51.760 you recall um? And then the other thing about it is, um, 0:07:51.840 --> 0:07:55.320 they grow at least up in the northern climbs around 0:07:55.400 --> 0:07:59.200 the winter solstice. So you've got the winter solstice, which 0:07:59.360 --> 0:08:03.600 happens to inside pretty nicely with Christmas, and you have 0:08:03.720 --> 0:08:07.600 the emergence of these mushrooms around fur trees, evergreen trees 0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:11.880 around that time. Right. Then you have the Siberian shaman 0:08:12.680 --> 0:08:16.320 or shaman's seems like it should be shaman plural even, 0:08:16.760 --> 0:08:20.320 but it's not. Uh. They would dress up to look 0:08:20.400 --> 0:08:23.280 like those mushrooms. So you think, all right, those red 0:08:23.280 --> 0:08:26.400 and white mushrooms. Interesting. Um, So all of a sudden, 0:08:26.400 --> 0:08:30.080 you've got a shaman with black boots, a red felt hat, 0:08:30.520 --> 0:08:34.800 white fur red coat. Does that sound like anyone? Yeah, 0:08:34.840 --> 0:08:37.720 it's pretty surprising. And if that were the long and 0:08:37.760 --> 0:08:39.240 short of it, I'd be like, that's a bit of 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:42.640 a stretch, but let's continue, shall we. Yes, Okay, those 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:47.600 same shaman they would give these flying garrick toadstools out 0:08:47.640 --> 0:08:51.840 as gifts around Christmas. But they would because by the 0:08:51.880 --> 0:08:56.160 time we winter Solstice rolled around, there would be snow everywhere. Um, 0:08:56.200 --> 0:08:58.880 they couldn't get through the door of their friends and 0:08:59.000 --> 0:09:03.360 loved ones, you're so they would enter through the smoke hole, 0:09:03.600 --> 0:09:06.800 the chimney you might call it, to deliver these gifts, 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:10.520 like smoke hole better. Yeah, I'm gonna start calling my chimney. Actually, 0:09:10.520 --> 0:09:13.439 I don't have a chimney anymore. No, you could, though, 0:09:13.440 --> 0:09:16.600 if you wanted to have a chimney. Now we got 0:09:16.720 --> 0:09:18.400 rid of our Chimney's punch a hole in the roof, 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:21.640 a smoke hole. Yeah. So they would climb down wearing 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:25.240 the red coat, the white fur, the black boots, climb 0:09:25.320 --> 0:09:30.440 down a chimney and deliver uh, these magic mushrooms as gifts, 0:09:30.480 --> 0:09:33.160 as gifts, and then they would hang them in front 0:09:33.160 --> 0:09:36.440 of the fire the people who received the gifts. Yes, 0:09:36.520 --> 0:09:38.880 they would hang them to dry in front of a fire, 0:09:39.040 --> 0:09:42.480 sometimes in hanging them in a stocking, perhaps in front 0:09:42.480 --> 0:09:45.160 of a fire. This is all true stuff. Yeah, this 0:09:45.200 --> 0:09:47.440 is this really went on and it just up until 0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:49.760 a couple of hundred years ago in Siberia among the 0:09:49.760 --> 0:09:54.080 Sami people in northern Finland, and just as an aside 0:09:54.400 --> 0:09:58.960 northern Finland, the Lapland happens to be where the geographical 0:09:59.240 --> 0:10:03.960 location where Santa lives is. Yes, and we should add 0:10:04.000 --> 0:10:07.120 one final little note to this. They would when they're 0:10:07.120 --> 0:10:10.079 picking these mushrooms, they want to dry them out, so 0:10:10.240 --> 0:10:14.520 they would put them on the tree boughs, these fur trees, 0:10:15.400 --> 0:10:17.920 hang them to dry in the sun. So now they're 0:10:17.960 --> 0:10:22.640 hanging I don't know, ornaments, yeah maybe yeah, on trees 0:10:22.880 --> 0:10:26.840 that's right, under which presents tend to grow. These presents 0:10:26.880 --> 0:10:29.040 that are these mushrooms that are given as presents. So 0:10:29.559 --> 0:10:31.240 if you step back and take all this stuff and 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:34.760 put it together, you have based on this, these rituals 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:39.359 among the shaman of the Sami and in Siberia um 0:10:39.440 --> 0:10:43.760 the idea of harvesting mushrooms that grow under fir trees. 0:10:44.240 --> 0:10:46.600 Fur trees that people bring into their homes and put 0:10:46.640 --> 0:10:50.319 gifts under and hang ornaments on in order to celebrate 0:10:50.360 --> 0:10:53.600 Santa Claus coming down the chimney wearing Santa suit with 0:10:53.640 --> 0:10:59.400 a bag of gifts, sometimes filling up stockings with those gifts. 0:10:59.440 --> 0:11:01.680 That's right. When you add all this stuff up, it's 0:11:01.880 --> 0:11:05.240 really really convincing. Yeah, and then there's a little cherry 0:11:05.240 --> 0:11:09.199 on top, which is apparently reindeer really love to eat 0:11:09.240 --> 0:11:11.880 these mushrooms. Yeah. Remember how I said that they're toxic, 0:11:11.880 --> 0:11:14.920 but there's things you can do to detoxify them. Well, yeah, 0:11:15.000 --> 0:11:17.880 you can drink the urine of a reindeer who has 0:11:17.960 --> 0:11:21.400 eaten this, and that is a way to detoxify it. 0:11:21.400 --> 0:11:25.200 It is the reindeer metabolized the the toxic parts, but 0:11:25.280 --> 0:11:29.560 they they don't metabolize all of the hallucinogenic parts, so 0:11:29.640 --> 0:11:32.839 you can boil their urine and drink the urine and 0:11:32.920 --> 0:11:41.000 not be um uh sick. Yes, but still, twig, Should 0:11:41.000 --> 0:11:42.400 we have had a c o A at the top 0:11:42.440 --> 0:11:46.160 of this Maybe, probably, so we'll have to go back 0:11:46.160 --> 0:11:50.120 and record it one. Okay, Well that's it for that one. Huh. Yeah. 0:11:50.280 --> 0:11:53.400 So should we throw our bag of magic mushrooms in 0:11:53.440 --> 0:11:57.199 the sleigh? Yeah, and take off for the next house. 0:11:57.440 --> 0:12:11.840 Quite a gift, okay, Chuck. So uh, behind the scenes, 0:12:11.880 --> 0:12:15.040 I've done a little directing. That's right, and we have 0:12:15.200 --> 0:12:18.200 determined I should say I've determined that we're going to 0:12:18.240 --> 0:12:21.959 do uh this one about It's a Wonderful Life a 0:12:22.040 --> 0:12:26.400 movie I still have not seen? What for real? Yeah, 0:12:26.440 --> 0:12:29.120 there's a lot of the old Christmas classics I haven't seen. 0:12:29.160 --> 0:12:31.760 I haven't seen Santa Claus is coming to Town, Miracle 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:36.440 into Street. I haven't seen this. Wow, you haven't seen 0:12:36.480 --> 0:12:40.640 the the stop motion Santa Claus Is coming to town. No, 0:12:40.760 --> 0:12:42.720 I've seen that. What are you talking about? Man? And 0:12:42.760 --> 0:12:44.560 I think I just made up a movie that doesn't exist. 0:12:45.000 --> 0:12:49.199 That's a song and it's a stop motion movie. Yeah. Yeah, 0:12:49.240 --> 0:12:51.280 I've heard and seen both those things. You could have 0:12:51.360 --> 0:12:54.559 just stopped with, um, it's a wonderful life. Yeah, you 0:12:54.600 --> 0:12:57.640 should see a Miracle on thirty four three. That's just wonderful. 0:12:57.760 --> 0:12:59.679 I don't know. To me, there are three Christmas movies 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:01.960 and that's all I see. Oh, there's a lot more 0:13:02.000 --> 0:13:06.280 than that. There's Elf, there's wait a minute, there's Christmas 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:10.520 Vacation and there's a Christmas story. Okay, you're putting Elf 0:13:10.760 --> 0:13:13.760 above Miracle on thirty four Street. Your brain is broke. 0:13:14.240 --> 0:13:16.160 I am putting it light years ahead of it. And 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:19.680 I haven't even seen it. Everyone I know to see 0:13:19.679 --> 0:13:25.160 it says It's a Wonderful Life is boring. No, no, 0:13:25.320 --> 0:13:27.360 I haven't seen that, but it sounds boring. It's great. 0:13:27.400 --> 0:13:31.280 It's a wonderful movie, and it beats elf just terribly. 0:13:32.600 --> 0:13:34.360 I will watch that just so I can come back 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:38.480 and argue, please do I'll wait. I would argue that 0:13:38.480 --> 0:13:41.600 they're so different, like why compare them? Well, you can 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:44.280 compare them because Miracle on thirty four Stree is so better? 0:13:45.280 --> 0:13:49.080 Do you laugh? Four times? Probably four and fifty? Oh 0:13:49.120 --> 0:13:50.560 I didn't know it was a comedy. Well I'm just 0:13:50.640 --> 0:13:55.959 lying right now. But you don't know that. Let's talk 0:13:56.000 --> 0:14:01.120 about this Mental Floss writer J. Saraphine, great name who 0:14:01.120 --> 0:14:03.839 put out and we still love Mental Flaws as much 0:14:03.840 --> 0:14:06.360 as we always did. Yeah, it's one of our favorite 0:14:06.400 --> 0:14:09.240 favorite publications. We even know the guys who founded it. 0:14:09.280 --> 0:14:12.480 I know their colleagues, so we can do this right. 0:14:13.160 --> 0:14:15.880 But you don't know if he wrote a great article 0:14:15.920 --> 0:14:18.400 called how It's a Wonderful Life went from box office 0:14:18.400 --> 0:14:22.160 to accidental Christmas tradition. Yeah, I should say this kicks 0:14:22.200 --> 0:14:26.400 off what really? This is the Intellectual Property Um Law 0:14:26.680 --> 0:14:30.840 edition of our Christmas episodes. Yeah, good point. It's a 0:14:30.880 --> 0:14:34.880 weird thread. It just keeps popping up. So this movie 0:14:35.240 --> 0:14:39.880 from directed by Frank Capra, tells the story of George Bailey. 0:14:40.200 --> 0:14:42.240 I can't believe you haven't seen this movie. And it's 0:14:42.400 --> 0:14:44.640 I've just heard it so boring. It's not no desire, 0:14:44.720 --> 0:14:48.760 it's not It's a classic wonderful movie. Like it's not 0:14:48.800 --> 0:14:50.600 one of those things where it's like, oh, you have 0:14:50.640 --> 0:14:52.560 to see it's just like life changing movie. It's just 0:14:52.680 --> 0:14:56.040 it's a good, sweet movie with great themes, well acted, 0:14:56.080 --> 0:14:59.440 well directed. Everything about it is It's just a good movie. 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:03.359 You should really see it. You have to see it. 0:15:03.440 --> 0:15:06.440 I demand that you see it. I'll watch Elf again. 0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:10.680 Do you not like Elf? Or is fine? It's a 0:15:10.720 --> 0:15:13.000 good movie. I'll watch it just a couple of times 0:15:13.000 --> 0:15:15.840 over the Christmas season. I got problems with Elf. But 0:15:16.800 --> 0:15:22.080 don't not see It's a Wonderful Life because you like Elf? Okay, okay, okay, 0:15:22.360 --> 0:15:27.360 So I'm not going to see it despite you. So 0:15:27.520 --> 0:15:31.200 in when it was released, the critics and the audiences 0:15:31.240 --> 0:15:34.440 didn't like it. Imagine that, uh, And it was a 0:15:34.440 --> 0:15:38.720 big box office flop for Frank Capra's brand new production 0:15:38.720 --> 0:15:42.280 company Liberty Films. Yeah, it was so. Um Capra was 0:15:42.320 --> 0:15:44.960 a pretty famous director in the thirties and he went 0:15:44.960 --> 0:15:49.080 off to um head up the propaganda film division for 0:15:49.120 --> 0:15:51.480 the US government during World War Two, and then after 0:15:51.560 --> 0:15:54.720 that he and some other director friends of his got 0:15:54.760 --> 0:15:57.440 together and said, let's start our own production company, and 0:15:57.440 --> 0:16:00.880 they did. They started Liberty Films, and the first project 0:16:01.080 --> 0:16:04.160 from Liberty Films was It's a Wonderful Life, and it 0:16:04.240 --> 0:16:07.400 was a mess. It was a mess. It actually as 0:16:07.480 --> 0:16:11.520 much as It's a just a holiday classic for every 0:16:11.600 --> 0:16:15.640 single person on earth except for you. Um. It was 0:16:15.680 --> 0:16:19.320 a huge dud, like you were saying, uh, early on 0:16:19.360 --> 0:16:21.240 in its life, so much so that it actually it 0:16:21.320 --> 0:16:23.640 wiped their company out because it turned out to be 0:16:23.720 --> 0:16:25.920 a really big bet. It had a two million dollar 0:16:26.000 --> 0:16:30.120 budget initially, which is something like twenty six million dollars today, 0:16:30.320 --> 0:16:32.840 still pretty modest, but back then, if you were a 0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:35.760 new fledgling production company, that was a big first feature, 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:38.480 and it actually ended up being like a three point 0:16:38.560 --> 0:16:41.600 seven million dollar film. It went that far over. Yeah, 0:16:41.600 --> 0:16:45.360 it almost doubled its budget because it had a what 0:16:45.480 --> 0:16:48.880 the they referred to as a bloated shooting schedule. Uh. 0:16:48.920 --> 0:16:51.360 They were rewriting the script over and over and over. 0:16:51.480 --> 0:16:54.360 It was it sounded like just a nightmare production, which 0:16:54.440 --> 0:16:56.240 is pretty funny when you think about it. Yeah, and 0:16:56.280 --> 0:16:58.200 they kept rewriting the script despite the fact that it 0:16:58.280 --> 0:17:00.520 was based on a short story. It wasn't just an 0:17:00.560 --> 0:17:03.680 original story. That might have been the problem. But maybe 0:17:03.720 --> 0:17:06.800 sometimes a short story is difficult. Yeah, I can see that. 0:17:07.200 --> 0:17:13.400 So regardless, this over budgeted. Uh, I think they turned 0:17:13.400 --> 0:17:17.679 it in late. Even um movie was released, the public 0:17:17.720 --> 0:17:20.840 didn't like it, the critics didn't like it. Uh, and 0:17:21.000 --> 0:17:25.640 it was basically headed for the dustbin of history if 0:17:25.680 --> 0:17:29.160 not for the fact that in ninety four the movie 0:17:29.320 --> 0:17:33.320 entered the public domain because the copyright holder forgot to 0:17:33.440 --> 0:17:37.880 file for renewal. I saw forgot to. I also saw 0:17:37.960 --> 0:17:42.879 that they just didn't bother. Okay, they imagine that that, 0:17:43.000 --> 0:17:45.560 like they knew the copyright was it was coming up, 0:17:45.600 --> 0:17:48.200 and they just said, forget it. It's this literally isn't 0:17:48.200 --> 0:17:51.320 worth our time and effort. But yes, either way, In 0:17:51.400 --> 0:17:54.840 nine entered the public domain, and it went from this 0:17:55.200 --> 0:17:58.240 schlocky flop because that was one of the other things too, 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:02.960 this is an audience. In ninth, they thought that this 0:18:03.040 --> 0:18:07.520 was just too corny um, and they rejected it the wholesale. 0:18:07.560 --> 0:18:10.040 But by the time the seventies came around, people were 0:18:10.560 --> 0:18:15.840 a lot more jaded um, and they kind of wanted 0:18:16.000 --> 0:18:22.640 that that corny home spun kind of nostalgia from the forties. 0:18:22.680 --> 0:18:27.080 That wasn't George Bailey, you haven't even seen the movie, 0:18:27.080 --> 0:18:30.840 and that was you know who Jimmy Stewart is. So um. 0:18:31.040 --> 0:18:35.200 They they like every TV station that wanted it, got 0:18:35.240 --> 0:18:38.920 its hands on its free for the free. They could 0:18:39.000 --> 0:18:41.320 show this movie over and over and over again, and 0:18:41.320 --> 0:18:44.720 they did the idea of running a Christmas movie marathon 0:18:44.800 --> 0:18:48.440 the same movie, like they do with a Christmas Story today. 0:18:48.520 --> 0:18:52.640 That was apparently founded in the mid seventies by It's 0:18:52.640 --> 0:18:56.040 a Wonderful Life entering the public domain, and that was 0:18:56.119 --> 0:19:00.399 a tradition up until when the Supreme Court of the 0:19:00.480 --> 0:19:04.600 United States ruled and Stuart v. Abend And that's Jimmy Stewart, 0:19:04.600 --> 0:19:08.080 by the way. But it's another movie, Rear Window, right, 0:19:08.280 --> 0:19:12.960 which is a certified great movie and a classic, and 0:19:13.080 --> 0:19:15.119 critics love that one and so did the public. That 0:19:15.200 --> 0:19:18.280 was a movie, uh that established a precedent that allowed 0:19:18.440 --> 0:19:23.440 republic pictures. Republic pictures who originally owned the film's copyright, 0:19:23.800 --> 0:19:27.080 to regain ownership because they own the copyright on that 0:19:27.119 --> 0:19:30.600 short story that you mentioned and the score of the movie. 0:19:30.800 --> 0:19:32.639 So there, like you on the score, you on that 0:19:32.640 --> 0:19:35.160 short story, you basically on the movie. Yeah. Their argument 0:19:35.200 --> 0:19:38.639 was you cannot show this movie without the story or 0:19:38.680 --> 0:19:42.480 without the score, so like, that's this is our movie. 0:19:42.560 --> 0:19:45.440 And and the Supreme Court or the the whatever court 0:19:45.520 --> 0:19:48.240 ruled on it said, yeah, you're right, that's right. So 0:19:49.800 --> 0:19:51.880 NBC stepped in and said, well, we've got a bunch 0:19:51.920 --> 0:19:55.639 of cash here, we're flushed from friends making us a 0:19:55.760 --> 0:19:58.439 trillion dollars. We're going to spend some of this on 0:19:58.480 --> 0:20:01.600 the rights to U A Wonderful Life. And they locked 0:20:01.600 --> 0:20:04.439 it down. And that's why you don't see twenty four 0:20:04.440 --> 0:20:06.960 hour marathon. So it's a wonderful life anymore. And that's 0:20:06.960 --> 0:20:11.680 why you don't see it on f x X anymore. Right, 0:20:12.280 --> 0:20:14.679 But if you happen to be listening to this in 0:20:14.720 --> 0:20:18.760 the United States on Christmas Eve, the day that this 0:20:18.840 --> 0:20:22.520 comes out, it's on tonight on NBC, I will not 0:20:22.560 --> 0:20:38.600 be watching Do Do Do Okay, Chuck. So we're going 0:20:38.640 --> 0:20:40.880 to spend the rest of the episode with me convincing 0:20:40.880 --> 0:20:43.880 you to watch It's a wonderful life. I can't. I'm 0:20:43.880 --> 0:20:46.960 so agitated right now, I can barely sit. It's my 0:20:47.040 --> 0:20:50.640 gift to you. Um, where do you want to go next? Mr? Director? Well, 0:20:50.720 --> 0:20:55.480 let's keep the intellectual property law thread going, okay, And 0:20:55.480 --> 0:20:59.560 we're gonna talk about a song, a little ditty and 0:20:59.640 --> 0:21:02.880 it is called Santa Claus Is Coming to Town. That's 0:21:03.280 --> 0:21:05.880 it's a fake movie that you made up that you've 0:21:05.920 --> 0:21:08.200 never seen, that no one's ever seen. But it's also 0:21:08.320 --> 0:21:11.560 that classic animated film Santa Claus Is Coming to Town. 0:21:11.800 --> 0:21:14.600 I think it's ranking bass, isn't it. Yeah, And it's 0:21:14.600 --> 0:21:16.800 also a song that goes a little something like this 0:21:17.160 --> 0:21:22.359 one handed to song redacted. That was good, Chuck, You 0:21:22.480 --> 0:21:24.480 like that? Oh? That was better than Bruce Springsteen and 0:21:24.520 --> 0:21:26.639 the Jackson Five put together. Because we can't afford to 0:21:26.680 --> 0:21:30.439 pay for that. No, they say that it's one of 0:21:30.480 --> 0:21:37.639 the richest songs ever written because seven number seven, richest 0:21:37.680 --> 0:21:41.040 song of all time written by a man. And I 0:21:41.080 --> 0:21:45.359 got this original article in k y Man wrote Santa 0:21:45.359 --> 0:21:47.440 Claus Is Coming to Town by Jeff Seuss. I think 0:21:47.440 --> 0:21:52.040 they mean northern Kentucky. Yeah, sure, for those of you 0:21:52.080 --> 0:21:54.960 who live outside the n K Y region. Well, it's 0:21:55.080 --> 0:21:56.879 interesting when you see it. Do you think, is that 0:21:56.920 --> 0:21:59.880 say New York City. Nope, that does not Northern Kentucky. 0:22:00.040 --> 0:22:02.000 That's what they wanted to think. A couple of years 0:22:02.000 --> 0:22:05.920 ago from Cincinnata dot Com and Jeff Suice, and they 0:22:05.920 --> 0:22:11.680 were championing one of their own lyricist. Haven Gillespie is 0:22:11.720 --> 0:22:15.160 a Kentuckian and he actually worked for one day at 0:22:15.160 --> 0:22:18.719 the Cincinnati Enchoirer, which is the paper that owns Cincinnati 0:22:18.760 --> 0:22:21.199 dot Com. That's right, so he was really one of 0:22:21.200 --> 0:22:25.440 their own. He was born in born in February. Uh, 0:22:25.680 --> 0:22:29.879 worked as a type setter in Cincinnata and Chicago and 0:22:29.960 --> 0:22:33.119 became a really famous lyricist. But this is kind of 0:22:33.119 --> 0:22:35.160 a neat little side note. Even though he got very 0:22:35.200 --> 0:22:39.560 famous as a songwriter, whenever he was in Cincinnati, apparently 0:22:40.040 --> 0:22:43.560 he would do some shifts at a newspaper print shop 0:22:43.600 --> 0:22:49.359 just to keep up his union status. Healthcare pretty interesting. Yeah, so, um, 0:22:49.440 --> 0:22:51.600 he wrote a few songs. Actually, he wrote one of 0:22:51.840 --> 0:22:54.119 what I think is one of the best songs ever written. 0:22:54.160 --> 0:22:56.960 You go to My Head. Do you know that song? Uh? 0:22:56.960 --> 0:22:59.439 I don't know. You'll have to listen to because like 0:22:59.480 --> 0:23:04.960 this song redacted, but there's a Marlene Dietrich version of it. 0:23:04.960 --> 0:23:08.399 It's amazing. It's a great song as it is, but 0:23:08.560 --> 0:23:11.320 Marlene Dietrich singing it just does something to it that's 0:23:11.320 --> 0:23:13.800 really something. I think it's Marlena, right or is this 0:23:13.880 --> 0:23:17.639 her sister Marlene? Is it Marlena? I think so, didn't it? 0:23:17.720 --> 0:23:21.640 I don't care anyway? Um Ms Dietrich does a really 0:23:21.640 --> 0:23:24.280 great rendition of it. Did I say her last name correctly? 0:23:24.359 --> 0:23:28.600 I think it's Frau Dietrich yet so um. Haven Gillespie 0:23:28.600 --> 0:23:31.160 wrote this song, and he had a couple of like songs, 0:23:31.480 --> 0:23:32.960 and then he finally wrote a hit, and this is 0:23:32.960 --> 0:23:36.320 in the Tim pan Alley era, right, Um. He finally 0:23:36.320 --> 0:23:38.960 wrote a hit called Breezing along with the Breeze, which 0:23:39.000 --> 0:23:41.480 is the dumbest name anyone's ever given to a song. 0:23:41.960 --> 0:23:44.160 But people liked it, and he moved to New York 0:23:44.200 --> 0:23:46.840 and he really started writing for Tim pan Alley and Earnest. 0:23:47.320 --> 0:23:49.600 But it wasn't until Santa claus Is coming to town 0:23:49.600 --> 0:23:52.240 that he was on a easy street. That's right. A 0:23:52.280 --> 0:23:56.640 publisher at Leo Piss named Edgar Bittner came forward and said, 0:23:56.720 --> 0:23:59.520 here's a composer, Mr J. Fred Coots, don't you get 0:23:59.520 --> 0:24:03.280 together and right a children's Christmas song? Coots and Gillespie. 0:24:03.400 --> 0:24:05.240 That's right and heat. This was I don't know whether 0:24:05.280 --> 0:24:08.960 he took this as an insult or not, but he 0:24:09.000 --> 0:24:10.840 said he wrote it as a favor for a friendly 0:24:10.840 --> 0:24:15.040 publisher who said, I had a vocabulary children could understand. 0:24:17.280 --> 0:24:20.800