WEBVTT - Short Stuff: Poe Toaster 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:06.840 Hey, and welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh and 0:00:06.880 --> 0:00:09.040 there's Chuck, and it's just the two of us, just 0:00:09.160 --> 0:00:13.160 a couple of a couple of hanchos, a couple of ombres, 0:00:13.280 --> 0:00:17.880 just doing our thing, rattling off facts in a superspeedy 0:00:17.920 --> 0:00:21.520 manner with a limited amount of time. So this is 0:00:21.560 --> 0:00:24.880 short stuff, so we don't want to waste time with 0:00:24.960 --> 0:00:32.159 long intros saying unnecessary thing right exactly? Uh so the 0:00:32.159 --> 0:00:36.080 po toaster. Huh is this the beginning of our spooky content? Yes, 0:00:36.159 --> 0:00:39.599 it is, if that's okay with you. Yeah, it's our 0:00:39.640 --> 0:00:43.639 favorite month. I love October, I love Halloween. I've been 0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:46.559 sitting on this one since last year. Actually, have you 0:00:46.600 --> 0:00:50.680 heard of this guy before? Now? And and obviously I 0:00:50.720 --> 0:00:52.680 didn't just ask Chuck everybody if he's sort of ed 0:00:52.760 --> 0:00:56.640 Growl and Poe. We're talking about a corollary to the 0:00:56.680 --> 0:01:01.560 po legend. Everybody knows about Poe, the master author, the 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:05.000 creator of the short story um, believed to be the 0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:08.160 first person to ever write a genuine detective story, Ed 0:01:08.160 --> 0:01:11.040 Gralan Poe. Everybody knows about him. We're not talking about 0:01:11.080 --> 0:01:16.840 just him, no, but we are talking about his dead body, Yeah, 0:01:16.959 --> 0:01:19.280 which Pope would love. Oh, he would totally love it 0:01:19.360 --> 0:01:22.080 he died, and he probably would even love dying under 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:25.320 mysterious circumstance. There's no way he didn't. He was probably like, 0:01:25.360 --> 0:01:27.360 as they were dragging him out of the street, he 0:01:27.440 --> 0:01:30.880 was probably like, this so great. Well, he was forty 0:01:30.920 --> 0:01:35.080 years old. This was an eighty nine and he was 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:40.640 buried in Westminster Burying Ground in Baltimore, where he made 0:01:40.720 --> 0:01:44.080 his home. And it was kind of not a big 0:01:44.120 --> 0:01:48.120 deal at the time as far as you know, paying tribute. 0:01:48.320 --> 0:01:52.000 He had an unmarked gray for a while. Finally a 0:01:52.040 --> 0:01:54.040 relative stepped up and said, can we at least get 0:01:54.120 --> 0:01:58.120 you know, his name carved into something. He just showed 0:01:58.160 --> 0:01:59.880 up with a stick and carved it in the dirt. 0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:03.560 It he may have, yeah, but yeah, it was. He 0:02:03.600 --> 0:02:07.200 was still fairly obscure enough that he yeah, he was 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:10.000 able to first be buried in the on Mark grave. 0:02:10.080 --> 0:02:13.520 But some local academics started to recognize the man's genius 0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:16.480 and they actually held like an early go fund me 0:02:16.639 --> 0:02:21.000 to to create a monument for pose Um grave actually, 0:02:21.040 --> 0:02:25.160 and they were successful finally in eighteen seventy five, that's right, 0:02:25.240 --> 0:02:28.919 So they had a monument carved it was Um. He 0:02:28.960 --> 0:02:31.520 was actually moved. It was dedicated on a on a 0:02:31.560 --> 0:02:33.880 space a little more befitting one of the great authors 0:02:33.919 --> 0:02:37.120 of his time. And they, you know, they exhumed him, 0:02:37.160 --> 0:02:41.919 moved the body, and about ten years after that his 0:02:42.120 --> 0:02:46.079 wife and his mother in law were buried along with him, 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:49.120 which is sort of key in this story. And hopefully 0:02:49.120 --> 0:02:51.440 he wasn't like a Fred Flintstone type where that would 0:02:51.440 --> 0:02:53.160 have really bothered him to have his mother in law 0:02:53.240 --> 0:02:57.120 so close by for eternity. Instead, I have the feeling 0:02:57.120 --> 0:03:01.600 that it was a very sweet gesture, sure so that 0:03:01.680 --> 0:03:03.880 you would think, well, that's it there there, That's the 0:03:03.880 --> 0:03:07.920 most you could possibly say about pose remains laying in 0:03:08.000 --> 0:03:11.320 the ground at a grave. Not true. That was the 0:03:11.360 --> 0:03:14.920 case from about eight to eighteen forty or nineteen forty nine, 0:03:15.000 --> 0:03:18.640 i should say. And then allegedly on that year, the 0:03:18.720 --> 0:03:25.440 centennial of his death, UM, he was visited by somebody 0:03:25.480 --> 0:03:27.960 who came to be known as the Poe Toaster, a 0:03:28.000 --> 0:03:32.200 mysterious stranger who showed up at his grave on his 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:37.840 birthday January nine every year, dressed in an all black suit, 0:03:38.320 --> 0:03:41.600 a white scarf, and a big black, wide brimmed hat 0:03:41.680 --> 0:03:46.560 to cover his face. And created this ritual out of 0:03:46.600 --> 0:03:52.640 whole cloth that eventually attracted the notice of people in Baltimore. Yeah, 0:03:52.680 --> 0:03:57.280 so what would happen is this man presumably would show 0:03:57.360 --> 0:04:01.080 up with a bottle of cognac and literally toast po 0:04:01.400 --> 0:04:05.280 and leave three red roses along with that bottle. Uh, 0:04:05.320 --> 0:04:08.080 they are not. And this would happen sometime between usually 0:04:08.120 --> 0:04:11.000 midnight and six am. So it was even led more 0:04:11.080 --> 0:04:14.080 to the creepiness of the whole thing. Yea, and no 0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:16.719 one did anything about it. No one said, hey, grab 0:04:16.800 --> 0:04:18.880 that guy and let's see who it is, get his 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:22.880 rip off that hat and expose him. Right, it's Roy Kane. 0:04:25.160 --> 0:04:28.080 But um, so what happened was, well, first of all, 0:04:28.080 --> 0:04:30.880 we should address the cognac. No one was exactly sure 0:04:30.960 --> 0:04:34.640 why he toasted with kognac, even though I read very 0:04:34.680 --> 0:04:38.440 quickly on the Internet that Poe loved kognac. Wasn't in 0:04:38.480 --> 0:04:41.159 his stories. Yeah, he supposedly loved it, but couldn't afford 0:04:41.160 --> 0:04:43.560 it unless someone else was buying, because you know, he 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:46.760 didn't he didn't get rich, right, So yeah, a lot 0:04:46.800 --> 0:04:48.360 of people are like, well, he should be using a 0:04:48.480 --> 0:04:52.039 mantiato because obviously the cask of Amontiado is one of 0:04:52.080 --> 0:04:54.719 his great stories. I don't know why he would be 0:04:54.800 --> 0:04:57.599 using cognac. Apparently now we do know why. You just 0:04:57.640 --> 0:05:00.360 solve that mystery for me, Chuck, Thank you. What about 0:05:00.400 --> 0:05:03.159 those roses? So he would leave three roses on the grave, 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:05.719 like you said, and they've people have come to believe 0:05:05.760 --> 0:05:08.560 that that's a gesture to to Um to give a 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:11.360 rose to each of the people who are buried beneath 0:05:11.360 --> 0:05:15.000 that monument, Poe, his wife, Virginia, and his mother in 0:05:15.040 --> 0:05:21.000 law Maria. UM. So that one's probably the likeliest explanation 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:25.120 of that. Should we take a break? I think we should, Um, 0:05:25.160 --> 0:05:29.800 but first will reveal the identity of the po Toaster 0:05:30.240 --> 0:06:01.640 after this. How's that for a cliffhanger? Pretty great? So 0:06:01.720 --> 0:06:04.360 I totally lied on the cliffhanger. Um. No one knows 0:06:04.360 --> 0:06:06.760 who the Poe Toaster is as far as we can tell, 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:09.200 and we certainly don't, so there will be no revealing. 0:06:09.200 --> 0:06:12.240 We just wanted to keep you tuned in. Well, I mean, 0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:15.000 there is one guy who claims he was the Poe Toaster, 0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:18.640 and two thousand seven, a ninety two year old man 0:06:18.720 --> 0:06:22.160 named Sam Porpora claimed it was him. He was a 0:06:22.160 --> 0:06:26.400 former ad executive and he in nineteen sixty was made 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:31.080 history in Westminster Presbyterian Church, which was apparently in disrepair 0:06:31.120 --> 0:06:34.080 at the time and kind of just full of people 0:06:34.400 --> 0:06:38.200 getting drunk and you know, uh, not treating the graves 0:06:38.240 --> 0:06:41.240 with respect. So he claims he did it as a 0:06:41.240 --> 0:06:45.440 promotional thing to sort of raise money in publicity, and 0:06:45.480 --> 0:06:49.160 it was he and his tour guides. Uh, this gentleman 0:06:49.279 --> 0:06:53.159 Jeff Jerome, who was the curator of the Poe Museum. 0:06:53.200 --> 0:06:56.839 I think his quote was there are holes big enough 0:06:56.839 --> 0:06:58.920 in his story you could drive a mack truck through. 0:07:00.160 --> 0:07:02.159 So I couldn't find those holes. I couldn't, Like, I 0:07:02.200 --> 0:07:05.320 looked everywhere and I couldn't find him specifically saying why 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:07.719 he did not think it was him. Well, so Jeff 0:07:07.800 --> 0:07:11.560 Jerome has kind of become like the de facto historian 0:07:11.640 --> 0:07:14.840 of the Poe Toaster because he ran the po Historical 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:18.640 Society for a while or the Poem Museum. I'm sorry, um, 0:07:18.760 --> 0:07:21.120 and a lot of people put a lot of weight 0:07:21.120 --> 0:07:24.040 into what he says. He claims that he had worked 0:07:24.040 --> 0:07:28.000 out a um signal with the po Toaster so that 0:07:28.040 --> 0:07:30.640 the po Toaster would signal him and let him know 0:07:30.680 --> 0:07:32.840 that he was the real deal, because over the years, 0:07:33.720 --> 0:07:37.000 there were right, there were, um, there were what are 0:07:37.200 --> 0:07:40.440 known as photoasters who people who pretended to be the 0:07:40.440 --> 0:07:42.960 Poe Toaster after the thing be kind kind of became 0:07:43.000 --> 0:07:47.040 a big deal, um starting in the seventies. Um, so 0:07:47.080 --> 0:07:49.000 that Jeff Jerome at least would know it was the 0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:52.520 real article. Um. But he swears up and down and 0:07:52.560 --> 0:07:55.120 most people believe him that he has no idea the 0:07:55.160 --> 0:07:58.600 actual identity of the Poe Toaster. The only interaction he'd 0:07:58.600 --> 0:08:00.880 had with the po Toasters at was grave on these 0:08:00.880 --> 0:08:04.400 specific nights over the years. Yeah. And I wonder why 0:08:04.440 --> 0:08:07.400 Sam Porpora would come forward and claim to be such 0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:10.000 so late in life. And they even asked him that 0:08:10.040 --> 0:08:13.120 in this article, and he said, like why he came 0:08:13.160 --> 0:08:16.920 forward and he went, I don't know. Uh, yeah, that's 0:08:16.920 --> 0:08:19.320 not a very good Yeah that that's a big hole 0:08:19.400 --> 0:08:23.440 in your story right there. To not have a motivation. Yeah, 0:08:23.560 --> 0:08:27.680 if you're somebody who who starts out and here's the 0:08:27.720 --> 0:08:31.080 thing like this, This whole Poe Toaster thing became a 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:35.520 kind of a cause celeb in in Baltimore and places 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:37.480 outside of Baltimore. People would show up and there'd be 0:08:37.520 --> 0:08:41.440 little groups of onlookers who would watched this thing every year. Um, 0:08:41.520 --> 0:08:43.880 and like you said, very coolly, never tried to find 0:08:43.880 --> 0:08:46.160 out who it was. They just respected it from and 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:49.520 watched from a distance. Um. So it kind of became 0:08:49.600 --> 0:08:52.600 like this this cool thing. But this guy was doing 0:08:52.640 --> 0:08:56.560 this for decades before it became a cool thing. So 0:08:56.640 --> 0:08:59.160 of course there's some sort of motivation behind all this, 0:08:59.280 --> 0:09:01.560 And people who do stuff like they have a motivation 0:09:01.600 --> 0:09:05.400 behind everything they're doing. There's some larger meaning or some 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:07.880 something to what they're doing. So, yeah, he would I 0:09:07.920 --> 0:09:10.080 don't believe the poet Toaster would have come forward just 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:13.400 for I don't know. Well, I mean, he said he 0:09:13.440 --> 0:09:15.200 said why he did it. He didn't say why he 0:09:15.280 --> 0:09:18.040 came forward and invited that he was the Poe Toaster. Yeah, 0:09:18.080 --> 0:09:20.920 I don't buy that kind story. Who knows I buy it. 0:09:21.840 --> 0:09:23.680 I think it makes sense as a former ad guy. 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:27.000 But at any rate, the and he was on the 0:09:27.040 --> 0:09:30.400 scene as well as the historian of the church, so anyway, 0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:32.240 I think it's Uh. I think there's a lot of 0:09:32.240 --> 0:09:36.720 credence there. But at any rate, the the gentleman, whoever 0:09:36.720 --> 0:09:40.319 it was, would leave these notes occasionally, and one note 0:09:40.360 --> 0:09:47.680 in said the torch will be passed it to be 0:09:47.760 --> 0:09:51.959 read in creepy Vincent Price voice when read out loud. Uh. 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:55.920 And then there was one that said the toaster had died, 0:09:57.120 --> 0:09:59.880 and there was a theory, and I think Jeff Jerome 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:04.000 buys the theory that, um, the torch was passed to 0:10:04.240 --> 0:10:09.319 his sons because they kind of did a uh they 0:10:09.320 --> 0:10:12.360 were sort of lackadaisical about how spirited they were with 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:14.800 their efforts. Let's just say that was that was a 0:10:14.840 --> 0:10:17.520 really diplomatic way to put it. Yeah. Sometimes they would 0:10:17.520 --> 0:10:20.600 show up in street clothes, and from what I've gathered, 0:10:20.640 --> 0:10:23.880 like the the minimum criteria for being the Poe toaster 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:28.080 is that all black suit, white scarf and a huge hat. 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:31.440 That's yeah, there's a certain amount of dapperness that needs 0:10:31.480 --> 0:10:33.560 to be brought to this. And showing up in like 0:10:33.679 --> 0:10:37.040 jeans and vans and like a you know, Counting Crow's 0:10:37.080 --> 0:10:41.000 T shirt, that doesn't cut it, buddy, Although the Crows, 0:10:41.440 --> 0:10:46.680 Counting Ravens maybe Baltimore maybe maybe. Uh So. One of 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:49.640 these notes though that supposedly was left by one of 0:10:49.679 --> 0:10:53.000 the sons, if you buy that theory, was a prediction 0:10:53.200 --> 0:10:58.040 of the Super Bowl in two thousand one, that the 0:10:58.120 --> 0:11:01.360 giants would beat the ravens. So if if it was 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:04.280 his sons, then I totally see how Jeff to Rome 0:11:04.320 --> 0:11:07.640 would be like, they're not doing a great job exactly. So. Um. 0:11:07.679 --> 0:11:12.280 So finally, in two thousand nine, I guess that's twenty years. 0:11:12.320 --> 0:11:16.240 Ten years, yes, ten um, ten years after the torch 0:11:16.360 --> 0:11:21.280 was passed, After the original Poe Toaster died allegedly, Um, 0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:24.520 they just stopped showing up all together. And they didn't 0:11:24.520 --> 0:11:26.559 show up in two thousand and ten eleven, and then 0:11:26.559 --> 0:11:28.640 finally in two thousand twelve, when they didn't show one 0:11:28.640 --> 0:11:33.240 more time. Um, Jeff Jerome said, well, I guess I 0:11:33.320 --> 0:11:35.600 have as much cloud as anybody. Being the curator of 0:11:35.600 --> 0:11:42.040 the Poem Museum, I'm gonna officially declare this tradition ended forever. Yeah, 0:11:42.120 --> 0:11:45.719 but not so, because he turned on his heels four 0:11:45.760 --> 0:11:49.120 years later and in said, you know what, let's just 0:11:49.160 --> 0:11:53.280 throw a big party. Uh, we're gonna audition Poe Toasters. 0:11:53.920 --> 0:11:56.119 And this is where the story really like. It's disappointing 0:11:56.160 --> 0:11:58.439 to me. I wish they would have just let it die. 0:11:58.480 --> 0:12:02.080 It's this mysterious weird thing, is it the raffle. Yeah, 0:12:02.160 --> 0:12:05.480 they have a raffle. They have a po themed cake 0:12:06.400 --> 0:12:09.319 that you can win, um, you know, hundreds of people. 0:12:09.320 --> 0:12:12.680 They toast apple cider, and I don't mind them honoring Poe, 0:12:12.800 --> 0:12:15.800 but it just I think they could have just divided 0:12:15.840 --> 0:12:17.760 it and not made it part of the Poe toasting 0:12:17.960 --> 0:12:23.760 thing that came and went yeah, yeah, I have to 0:12:24.120 --> 0:12:26.959 I have to agree. I like that it's a I 0:12:27.320 --> 0:12:29.520 like the idea of what they're doing. I like the 0:12:29.520 --> 0:12:33.960 toast with apple cider like, but I think, yeah, maybe 0:12:34.000 --> 0:12:36.480 hold it at the local library or something, because it 0:12:36.559 --> 0:12:38.680 really smacks of like the kind of event you would 0:12:38.679 --> 0:12:41.920 hold at a local library. Yeah, and it's during the daytime. 0:12:41.920 --> 0:12:44.839 I don't think we mentioned which I mean, if it's 0:12:44.840 --> 0:12:47.199 not between midnight and six am, then just get out 0:12:47.200 --> 0:12:49.680 of here with that. True, But it does give the 0:12:49.720 --> 0:12:52.200 Poe Toaster an excuse to do some day drinking of 0:12:52.280 --> 0:12:56.640 cognac once a year at least or apple cider. Yeah, 0:12:57.040 --> 0:13:01.680 supposedly the po Toaster does does drink yex still a tradition. Yeah, 0:13:01.840 --> 0:13:04.079 so I don't. Did you say that they held auditions 0:13:04.120 --> 0:13:07.480 for the new pot toaster. I did, And the new 0:13:07.520 --> 0:13:11.679 pot Toaster plays the violin, though added a little extra flare. Yeah, 0:13:11.760 --> 0:13:14.319 maybe you know what's gonna happen is they're going to 0:13:14.400 --> 0:13:17.160 hear about this and then make us honorary po toasters, 0:13:17.200 --> 0:13:19.679 and we're gonna be way into it. Yeah right exactly. 0:13:19.720 --> 0:13:22.520 I'm gonna wear a Counting Crow's T shirt and I 0:13:22.640 --> 0:13:25.000 learned to play the violin, all right, So that's it, 0:13:25.080 --> 0:13:27.440 everybody the pot toaster. This is one of those legends 0:13:27.440 --> 0:13:29.920 where I hope we never ever find out who it was, 0:13:29.960 --> 0:13:33.840 because I think that's wildly appropriate in this case. Okay, 0:13:34.559 --> 0:13:38.640 ad executive, Well, since Chuck said ad executive, that's the 0:13:38.679 --> 0:13:45.280 secret word for short stuff to be out. Stuff you 0:13:45.280 --> 0:13:47.640 Should Know is a production of iHeart Radio's How Stuff 0:13:47.640 --> 0:13:50.360 Works for more podcasts My heart Radio is that the 0:13:50.360 --> 0:13:53.240 iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to 0:13:53.280 --> 0:13:54.080 your favorite shows.