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Speaker 1: Ridiculous crime. It's a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: It's a gardener. Have you been gardening? You're all freckled

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Speaker 2: in red? Yes? Oh, I know you're happy, so happy.

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Speaker 2: It explains that glow. Yeah, it's the sunburn.

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Speaker 3: I think our rainy season is over for the most part,

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Speaker 3: and so I was able to get in the cold,

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Speaker 3: cold nights where it dips into like the low forties,

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Speaker 3: really cold for us, so cold, well was giving into

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Speaker 3: the high third. Anyway, it doesn't matter. Yeah, how about you?

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Speaker 3: What are you up to?

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Speaker 2: Nothing? Yeah, listen, I got a question for you. Do

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Speaker 2: you know what I do?

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Speaker 3: Know? I wanted to get ahead of it because this

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Speaker 3: is so ridiculous.

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Speaker 2: What is it? You seemed all lamped up on this.

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Speaker 3: We got it from a number of reduced to us

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Speaker 3: and yeah, right. Have you heard of a company called

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Speaker 3: His Smile like high Smile.

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Speaker 2: I've heard of hims dot com.

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Speaker 3: Yeah right, No, they advertised during my sports this is

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Speaker 3: a toothpaste company.

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Speaker 2: Huh hissmile dot com.

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Speaker 3: Or it's high it's like high smile, not double No,

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Speaker 3: but his Smile is how I see it when I

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Speaker 3: read it. Anyway, they you know, they do all the

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Speaker 3: cool like disruptor toothpaste.

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Speaker 2: I suppose it could be his mile, his mile.

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Speaker 3: Okay, there it is his mile, and call me his mile.

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Speaker 3: And so they've teamed up with this company and anytime.

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Speaker 3: There are a couple of phrases in this press release

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Speaker 3: thing where I'm like, you know, if you say that

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Speaker 3: this is not good. So like it started as in

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Speaker 3: April Fool's joke, but we thought, why not make it real? Okay,

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Speaker 3: right there, there's a reason sounds like involved so close.

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Speaker 3: The other one is full on flavor takeover.

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Speaker 2: See the impulse is fiery.

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Speaker 3: Is just like it's like, yeah, exactly, they drenched it. No,

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Speaker 3: it's there's no fury involved. You know what it is.

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Speaker 3: It is KFC Fried Chicken flavored toothpaste, inspired by all

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Speaker 3: of KFC eleven herbs and spices. It's a full on

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Speaker 3: flavor takeover of your oral care routine. So anyway, this

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Speaker 3: is how the toothpeci quote like biting into a hot,

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Speaker 3: juicy piece of KFC original recipe chicken. This toothpaste is irresistible,

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Speaker 3: coating your teeth in flavor while leaving your mouth feeling

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Speaker 3: fresh and clean.

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Speaker 2: No, no, you're you're on.

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Speaker 3: The subway going to work and people are like, have

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Speaker 3: you been eating chicken? So it's fluoride free too, because

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Speaker 3: you know, and it's while supplies last. You can order

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Speaker 3: it from them. It's thirteen dollars a tube.

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Speaker 2: And if you want image much of this stuff going

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Speaker 2: on in the world where chemist are and labs begin

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Speaker 2: cooking up stuff that's marketing department worthwhile regardless of that,

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Speaker 2: it could just be something edible or something that you.

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Speaker 3: Know, if you can order for fifty nine dollars matching

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Speaker 3: electric toothbrush that has the kernel's disembodied head on it,

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Speaker 3: like on the body of it, not like as the

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Speaker 3: tooth like a peas container, like pretty much anyway. So yeah,

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Speaker 3: and they talk about how other brands have been doing

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Speaker 3: this type of stuff. Another thing that we've gotten from

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Speaker 3: a lot of people Crumble cookie partnered with doves so

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Speaker 3: that you can smell like they're ridiculously so oh.

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Speaker 2: I thought it was gonna be a cookie. They taste

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Speaker 2: like soap, you know those ways.

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Speaker 3: Maybe I try.

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Speaker 2: I don't know this mashup game.

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Speaker 3: I steer clear of both AnyWho. That's like probably one

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Speaker 3: of the worst mashups I've I've encountered. Fried Chicken toothpaste.

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Speaker 2: I'm probably not going to forgive you for a while.

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Speaker 3: I'm not going to forgive me. I'm putting myself on

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Speaker 3: time out for that one.

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Speaker 2: Thanks for dudes.

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Speaker 3: You're so welcome.

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Speaker 2: Rid dudes, everyone, everyone just teaming up.

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Speaker 3: Is that we found so gleeful. I get these messages

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Speaker 3: sword to me and they're just like.

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Speaker 2: I'd like to know till zir I'd like them to

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Speaker 2: know that it lasts like for some two three days.

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Speaker 2: I'm thinking about this and just like people get songs

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Speaker 2: stuck in their head, I get mash up worms.

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Speaker 3: It's I feel so devilish. Yeah, like that.

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Speaker 2: I got a question for you, devilish. Did you ever

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Speaker 2: buy anything from the back of a comic book? No? No, no, okay,

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Speaker 2: we do. You remember how in the eighties and the

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Speaker 2: back of comic books they had all these novelty toys

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Speaker 2: they're still hanging around from the heyday.

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Speaker 3: Of the fifties and sixty Yes, yes, yes, stuff that they.

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Speaker 2: Sold like maybe an ant farm or X Ray Spex

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Speaker 2: or the Classic Sea Monkeys.

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Speaker 3: I totally wanted some of that stuff, Like you try

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Speaker 3: and get that by my grandma. That's not going to happen.

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Speaker 3: Although like I wanted sea monkeys and she was like,

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Speaker 3: that's not no, that's just like you know, brin shrimp

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Speaker 3: or whatever they are, it's gross.

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Speaker 2: Well I got answers for you about what they are.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, because today I want to tell you about

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Speaker 2: the heir to the sea monkey fortune range tail of

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Speaker 2: the man himself. But I bet you won't see it coming, Elizabeth,

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Speaker 2: not even with x Ray Spex. This is Ridiculous Crime,

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Speaker 2: a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heist and cons.

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Speaker 2: It's always ninety nine percent murder free and one hundred

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Speaker 2: percent ridiculous ridiculous. Oh Elizabeth, if I got a super weird,

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Speaker 2: ridiculous one for you today.

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Speaker 3: I love this already.

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Speaker 2: No, I kept saying it up top, But what do

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Speaker 2: you remember of those ads in the comic book? When

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Speaker 2: was the last time you saw an ad like say

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Speaker 2: this one for x Ray.

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Speaker 3: Spex ages ago, right, and it's yeah, it was in

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Speaker 3: comic book, like I used to get I wasn't really

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Speaker 3: a comic book magazine. I was going to say those

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Speaker 3: kind of things. They had him in the back. My

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Speaker 3: brother it was in like a Sunday Circular though. When

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Speaker 3: he was maybe four saw an ad for like a

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Speaker 3: Rambo knife that you unscrew the base which have a

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Speaker 3: compass bottom, and it had like a garrot that you're

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Speaker 3: supposed to use to cut down trees or take.

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Speaker 2: Out your enemies, and like whatterproof matches.

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Speaker 3: Whatterproof matches and some other stuff. Right, So this four

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Speaker 3: year old Travis Dutton goes to his grandmother is like, hey, Grandma,

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Speaker 3: can I have this? She's like, yeah, sure, cuts a check,

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Speaker 3: sends it off. Meanwhile, sharp knife, it was a real

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Speaker 3: honest to goodness it was. It was it should put

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Speaker 3: you on a list somewhere. And it had like the

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Speaker 3: curved end for like digging in at stuff.

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Speaker 2: Bone.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and so she let him get it, and like,

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Speaker 3: I think, I don't think that is legal.

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Speaker 2: Now does he have all his fingers still?

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Speaker 3: Some of them? Okay? Like give a kids some matches anyway,

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Speaker 3: But he's no, no, he was no worse for wear.

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Speaker 3: So maybe that's a lesson.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, there you go. There it is the uh. Also,

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Speaker 2: by the way, we'll put all these images on the

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Speaker 2: Ridiculous Crime Instagram pace so you can see these because

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Speaker 2: they are worth.

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Speaker 3: A that's something to remember, Like, you know, you may

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Speaker 3: not be like a big Instagram person, But it's worth

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Speaker 3: going on there to see the pictures that we find

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Speaker 3: for every episode. They're nuts, they are, but they do

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Speaker 3: an incredible job getting together like that.

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Speaker 2: Well, yeah, the x ray Spex ones. I was stoked

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Speaker 2: the interns found and man, that was such a dirtbag

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Speaker 2: toy x ray Specs. Like you could see obviously that

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Speaker 2: in the In the ad it shows you looking at

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Speaker 2: your hand and seeing like the bones in your hand right.

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Speaker 2: Also you could see through clothing. Like I said, dirtbag energy.

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Speaker 2: I mean, like the ads showed a guy like he's

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Speaker 2: got this dumb grin and he's looking at a woman

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Speaker 2: while wearing his X ray specs. One plus one you

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Speaker 2: get where we're going. These things made for teenage boys completely.

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Speaker 3: It never crossed my mind seeing those ads. I think

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Speaker 3: I was like, well, I could pulsibly fee into the

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Speaker 3: next room and see if I was bothering anybody.

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Speaker 2: I could look at the bones of my dog. If

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Speaker 2: you were wondering, by the way, do these x ray

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Speaker 2: specs actually work sure or how it worked, Elizabeth, that's

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Speaker 2: I have answers for you. The lenses of the x

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Speaker 2: ray Spex they were not actually designed to filter out

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Speaker 2: X rays. Shocker, I know, but they were designed to

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Speaker 2: have grooves and feathers in them so that the light

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Speaker 2: would go prismatic and then it kind of like you'd

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Speaker 2: see something that looked like an X ray effect because

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Speaker 2: you're seeing the image, but then it's also kind of

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Speaker 2: like blurring out.

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Speaker 3: Did you have to wear a lead apron?

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Speaker 2: Apparently this tricked a lot of people. They were like, oh, look,

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Speaker 2: it was working anyway. There were a ton of these.

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Speaker 3: It was a simpler time.

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Speaker 2: I think it would have worked now. There were a

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Speaker 2: ton of these types of novelty toys that came popular

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Speaker 2: in the last mid century, right, so to think the

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Speaker 2: nineteen fifties, nineteen sixties primary Yeah, right, that's like this

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Speaker 2: is when the hula hoop was invented, the Frisbee slip

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Speaker 2: and slide. Also, you get like Barbie and the original

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Speaker 2: g I Joe action figure with kung Fu grip.

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Speaker 3: Booming economy and people having like disposable income and totally

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Speaker 3: advertising shifting over and realizing that you can get kids

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Speaker 3: to nag their parents, and you get parents who want

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Speaker 3: their kids to have more than they had totally.

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Speaker 2: And all the plastic coming out of World War two,

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Speaker 2: because before that most kids toys were wood or tin.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: So now all of a sudden, you can make plastic

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Speaker 2: mold bo you're making you're knocking out toys.

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Speaker 3: Yeah so in microplastics life forever.

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Speaker 2: Do you remember ever, Like, there's this whole era of

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Speaker 2: America and really just whatever kitsch culture it was made

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Speaker 2: fun of often. Right, but do you remember the classic

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Speaker 2: Saturday Night Live skit with Dan Akright, he plays a

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Speaker 2: novelty toy salesman Candas Bergo. She's the host of the

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Speaker 2: show that's like a nighttime talk show, and dan Ackroyd

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Speaker 2: plays an Irwin main Way.

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Speaker 3: And she's just such a good.

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Speaker 2: She's recounting the toys that his company tells and she's like,

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Speaker 2: such as pretty Peggy ear piercing set and mister skin Grafter.

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Speaker 2: There's General Tran, Secret Police Confession Kit, and Doggy Dentist.

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Speaker 2: And what about this innocent rubber doll which you market

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Speaker 2: under the name Johnny Switchblade? Press his head in two

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Speaker 2: sharp knives spring from his arms. Now, my favorite bit

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Speaker 2: of all this is the part about bag of glass.

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Speaker 2: Yes that right defends to like, yeah, I mean, you know,

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Speaker 2: it's a backup broken glass. It sells very well. As

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Speaker 2: a matter of fact, Hey, it's just a backup broken glass,

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Speaker 2: you know. So Cannis Bergen's host characters is having a

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Speaker 2: hard time with all of this, right dan Akroy's sleazy

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Speaker 2: toy salesman character. But then he drops my favorite bit

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Speaker 2: of capitalistic logic, and he says, now, look a kid,

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Speaker 2: average kid picks up broken glass anywhere the beach, that street,

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Speaker 2: garbage cans, parking lot's all over the place, any big city.

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Speaker 2: We're just packaging what the kids want. This is the

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Speaker 2: air we're talking about today. It started in the fifties

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Speaker 2: and sixties, but it lasts well into the eighties. And

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Speaker 2: a main toymaker of these fine novelty toys was of

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Speaker 2: course Whammo. Right. They gave the Ula hoop and the frisbee,

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Speaker 2: the slipping slide, also the Hackey, Oh, Silly Straight you Neede,

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Speaker 2: the super bouncy ball. Not all their toys were winters,

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Speaker 2: though they would have the occasional dud. Oh Like, for instance,

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Speaker 2: there was instant Fish that was a Whammo dud. The

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Speaker 2: toy was a package of freeze dried fish, not just

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Speaker 2: any fish, Elizabeth. The fish were called African killifish. Wait, yes,

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Speaker 2: that's kille fish. Like this fish is so aggressive it's

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Speaker 2: kind of killing kill Yeah. But now, if like me,

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Speaker 2: you had never heard of the African killifish before I

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Speaker 2: just mentioned it, then I have I got good news

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Speaker 2: for you, Elizabeth. I looked it up and I know

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Speaker 2: you like information. So the African killifish aka the turquoise

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Speaker 2: killifish is native to Africa. Just like the name. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: it calls the lakes, ponds and watering holes of Mozambique

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Speaker 2: and Zimbabwe it's home. Now, the African killyfish is special

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Speaker 2: for one particular reason. It doesn't die if there's no water.

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Speaker 3: Oh oh I see yeah.

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Speaker 2: So the African killyfish is, as I pointed out, from

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Speaker 2: these semi arid sections of Africa. So the water resources

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Speaker 2: they routinely dry up. Right, So this African killy fish

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Speaker 2: is like, oh, I see you nature, you're trying to

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Speaker 2: kill me, okay bet? And so what does it do?

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Speaker 2: It involves this crazy adaptation the Affrikan killyfish. When it

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Speaker 2: feels the water's drying up, it lays eggs that are

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Speaker 2: desiccation resistant, so that means the eggs can just sit

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Speaker 2: and dried up mud for like a year. Yeah, however,

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Speaker 2: long until the rain season comes along and the boom

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Speaker 2: conditions are right, the fish pop out amazing. So this

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Speaker 2: novelty toymaker, whamo, here's about this. They're like, wait, you

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Speaker 2: got these African fish that lays dried up eggs in

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Speaker 2: the mud. I smell a prophet. So they were like,

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Speaker 2: how do we get some of these fish? Markt them,

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Speaker 2: sell them into American kids, and so I about they'll

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Speaker 2: go crazy for a fish you can't kill. So Elizabeth, sadly,

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Speaker 2: the youth of America did not go for the African killyfish.

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Speaker 3: Was it like an invasive species?

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Speaker 2: No? No, it was perfectly fine. But even when it was

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Speaker 2: renamed and rebranded as instant fish, just to add water

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Speaker 2: and stir, it didn't really work. So it turns out

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Speaker 2: it wasn't as easy as just adding water and voila

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Speaker 2: magical undead fish. Yeah, but the one flop would go

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Speaker 2: on to inspire another novelty toy maker. And I bet

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Speaker 2: you can guess where I'm headed with this instant fish.

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Speaker 2: Was the John the Baptist for the Jesus. That was

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Speaker 2: sea monkeys. Now, before I tell you about sea monkeys

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Speaker 2: Can I tell you about another fish based novelty toy.

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Speaker 3: Those little fish fortune teller plastic things.

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Speaker 2: No, no, I do, I do remember those. That's not.

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Speaker 2: That's not the one I got for you.

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Speaker 3: Much like when you go to Catholic school, and I'm

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Speaker 3: sure they had it in public school. But there's like

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Speaker 3: a like a fairy on a Friday, and you do

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Speaker 3: all sorts of.

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Speaker 2: The give the kids waste to gamble, yeah, and.

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Speaker 3: Then you can win like one of those, and everyone's

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Speaker 3: standing there and figuring out if.

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Speaker 2: They're liars, divining their fortunes according to.

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Speaker 3: The name of the Lord.

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Speaker 2: This other fish based novelty toy that is not those,

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Speaker 2: that is, But this was a hit right for the

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Speaker 2: same toy maker they gave us sea monkeys, Elizabeth, have

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Speaker 2: you ever heard of the novelty toy invisible goldfish like

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Speaker 2: pet rock? Basically, send your money in in this novelty

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Speaker 2: toy company, we send you back a special kit. You'd

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Speaker 2: receive a glass bowl the kind you put in with goldfish. Right.

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Speaker 2: Good so far. The kit also included fish food, right,

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Speaker 2: because you got to feed your fish. That's always key.

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Speaker 2: Even a visible goldfish need to eat. So if this

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Speaker 2: is your first time raising invisible goldfish. You'd also receive

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Speaker 2: a handbook that told you how to care and feed

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Speaker 2: your invisible goldfish. And that was it. That was the

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Speaker 2: total package. A glass bowl, some sea plants, a handbooks,

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Speaker 2: some fish food, and there was also a little sign

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Speaker 2: that they included you could place next to the fish bowl.

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Speaker 2: The sign read invisible goldfish, do not feed No Elizabeth.

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Speaker 2: You maybe noted that I have not mentioned any invisible

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Speaker 2: goldfish sold in this kit. That's because the buyer wasn't

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Speaker 2: sent any fish. There was one hundred percent guarantee that

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Speaker 2: the customer would never see his or her invisible goldfish.

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Speaker 3: It would just have a bowl of cloudy water.

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Speaker 2: So the customer with this guarantee never saw invisible goldfish.

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Speaker 2: Satisfaction guarantee glass. So now you know now that we've

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Speaker 2: gone into the novelty fish toy precedence. Let's talk too, munchies.

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Speaker 3: I want to be in the meeting where they dreamed

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Speaker 3: that up invisible.

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Speaker 2: Listen.

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Speaker 3: I've got a warehouse full of gold fish bowls and

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Speaker 3: them and yeah, no one's buying the fish bowls. But

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Speaker 3: here's the concept. Half of them were going to sell

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Speaker 3: to tiki bar.

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Speaker 2: Ye for drinks.

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Speaker 3: The other half we're.

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Speaker 2: Going to sell the kids in Indiana in New Jersey.

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Speaker 2: They're just gonna put it on their little bookshelf and

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Speaker 2: then nothing in it. It was perfect. Parents won't mind because

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Speaker 2: nothing dies.

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Speaker 3: See great, that's true.

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Speaker 2: So around the year nineteen fifty seven, actually in the

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Speaker 2: year nineteen fifty seven, the novelty toy industry had just

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Speaker 2: witnessed the flame out of Whammo's latest instant fish right.

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Speaker 2: So now most reasonable people would look at that failure

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Speaker 2: and think, well, I'm definitely not gonna follow that path, right,

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Speaker 2: But not everyone, Elizabeth, because there was one man who

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Speaker 2: looked at that colossal failure and he saw potential. So

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Speaker 2: we contacted a marine biologist named Anthony di Agostino, and

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Speaker 2: he asked him about, uh, if there are any other

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Speaker 2: candidates in the marine world that could be instantly reanimated

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Speaker 2: with just the introduction of water. Now, this marine biologist,

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Speaker 2: dia Gastino, thought about it, thought about it a while,

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Speaker 2: and he's like, I did some reading, did some research.

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Speaker 2: Didn't have the Internet. So he's like going to the library,

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Speaker 2: he's looking through his books at home. He comes back

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Speaker 2: with an idea. He's like I got one Brian shrimp.

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Speaker 2: I was like, oh, okay, So Agastina's like, no, no, seriously,

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Speaker 2: turns up. I've been monkeying around. No. Pun intended with

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Speaker 2: a process called a super homeogenation, which we would call

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Speaker 2: super homogenation. Okay, they called it super homeogenation anyway. Anyway,

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Speaker 2: don't worry. I looked it up. For what I can tell,

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Speaker 2: it's a process where a robust heterogeneous reaction is matched

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Speaker 2: by a homogeneous reaction which has fewer factors because they're

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00:16:39,400 --> 00:16:41,800
Speaker 2: all the same thing. Right, So when you put your

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Speaker 2: brin shrimp in right into this new substrate, this water

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Speaker 2: or whatever you have, the marine biologist could get it

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Speaker 2: that these brin shrimp would populate at the rate of

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Speaker 2: say multiple organisms and their failure rate. So the problem

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Speaker 2: is if you sday, you have three different things and

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Speaker 2: you try to put them in and get them all

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Speaker 2: to go, you'll have the success rate cumulatively that it

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00:17:02,360 --> 00:17:05,320
Speaker 2: equals the rate he could get for just one species. Right,

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00:17:05,480 --> 00:17:06,000
Speaker 2: that makes.

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Speaker 3: Sense, I guess.

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Speaker 2: So like say you have like a three different fish

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Speaker 2: you're putting in there, and your Brian shrimp, right, so

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Speaker 2: he got four things, and then you have one this

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Speaker 2: just Brian shrimp. If you counted all the things that

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Speaker 2: survived this process, he got it where his brine shrimp

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Speaker 2: could equal the other bowl. We have all these other

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Speaker 2: populations trying to compete.

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Speaker 3: So in gardening terms, it's a higher germination rate.

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Speaker 2: There you go, Boom, it's a much higher germination rate. Okay,

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Speaker 2: that's spot on. Okay. So this was a relatively new

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Speaker 2: process at the time. So the marine biologist he creates

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Speaker 2: this hybrid brine shrimp that has a higher germination rate

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Speaker 2: and then he's like, oh, they can be suspended in

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00:17:40,680 --> 00:17:43,399
Speaker 2: dry storage and then with the introduction of water, boom,

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Speaker 2: they come back in crazy numbers. So Richard Pell, who

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Speaker 2: works at the Center for post Natural History in Pittsburgh,

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Speaker 2: he maintains a sea monkey aquarium there, he explains, is

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Speaker 2: better than I do. So we'll give it to him.

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Speaker 2: As Richard Pell puts it, the Brian shrimp were quote

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Speaker 2: selectively bred and in the early seventies so that they

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Speaker 2: would have this extra long dormant cycle in their egg state,

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Speaker 2: and they were able to increase that yield so that

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Speaker 2: you get that satisfying swarm.

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Speaker 3: Oh, it's satisfying.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. So this innovation wasn't solely due to the marine

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Speaker 2: biologist dia Agostino. He'd been prompted to consider the question

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Speaker 2: by this novelty toy maker. And now the novelty toymaker

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Speaker 2: he called this invention of his his greatest invention. His

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Speaker 2: lawyer said that it was the evidence of his client's

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Speaker 2: business genius that he could manipulate, quote the science to

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Speaker 2: get them to live for a prolonged period of time.

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Speaker 2: Everyone's just marveling at this guy who's like, yoh, what

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Speaker 2: if we had long living brinshrum. So the novelty toymaker

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Speaker 2: who I'm about to tell you about, his name was

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Speaker 2: Harold von Brownhut or Brownot. Now, now that we're gonna

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Speaker 2: go a little deeper into the world of sea monkeys

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Speaker 2: and the heiress who lived off the fortune and this

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Speaker 2: genius toymaker had a very dark, strange secret. But first, Elizabeth,

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Speaker 2: let's take a break, okay, And after these ads for

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Speaker 2: Bago Glass, we'll be back to dive into the bizarre

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Speaker 2: and ridiculous legal fight over sea monkey. We're back, Elizabeth,

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Speaker 2: Yes we are. No you ready to dive deeper into

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Speaker 2: the world of sea monkeys. I like to bring you

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Speaker 2: up to date with a historical precedent. A man by

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Speaker 2: the name of P. T. Barnum. Oh yeah, he's the

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Speaker 2: master of hokum and humbuggery. Do you know what humbuggery is?

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Speaker 2: I didn't know this term. I learned it reading up about.

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Speaker 3: Him, like ba humbug It's like, so it's kind.

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Speaker 2: Of yeah, but it's a term that he used a

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00:19:45,840 --> 00:19:48,760
Speaker 2: little bit different. It's inspired by that, and then he

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00:19:48,840 --> 00:19:52,320
Speaker 2: turns it into like a showbiz term, right, humbug humbug.

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Speaker 2: So the humbug is a thing, and humbuggery is to

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00:19:54,680 --> 00:19:57,920
Speaker 2: put over on the rubes with your humbug, right, so

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00:19:59,600 --> 00:20:02,040
Speaker 2: y well, yeah, I'll put it this way. In eighteen

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00:20:02,080 --> 00:20:04,080
Speaker 2: forty five, he wrote a letter to his manager for

402
00:20:04,320 --> 00:20:09,920
Speaker 2: Dice Hitchcock, great name f R. Dycee four Dice Hitchcock. Yeah.

403
00:20:09,920 --> 00:20:12,360
Speaker 2: In his letter, P. T. Barnum defined his trade as

404
00:20:12,600 --> 00:20:15,679
Speaker 2: being a humbugger. And he's like, that's what I do. Now,

405
00:20:16,280 --> 00:20:19,280
Speaker 2: I'll let him say it, and I quote. Genuine humbug

406
00:20:19,320 --> 00:20:21,520
Speaker 2: consists in making a man feel that he has got

407
00:20:21,520 --> 00:20:23,760
Speaker 2: the worth of his money, that he has seen wonders

408
00:20:23,760 --> 00:20:26,000
Speaker 2: such as could not be found elsewhere on the face

409
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Speaker 2: of the earth, that those wonders must have cost the

410
00:20:29,480 --> 00:20:34,200
Speaker 2: enterprising and liberal proprietor many sleepless nights and oceans of gold.

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Speaker 2: And then, in fact and in truth, the beholder of

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Speaker 2: the humbug is much indebted to the owner thereof, for

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00:20:41,160 --> 00:20:45,199
Speaker 2: having kindly permitted, by paying for it, to behold this

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00:20:45,320 --> 00:20:48,639
Speaker 2: precious sight, whatever it may be. Now, in case his

415
00:20:48,720 --> 00:20:52,639
Speaker 2: manager was unclear about this meaning, disquote P. T. Barnum added,

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Speaker 2: and again I quote humbug to be profitable must be

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00:20:55,800 --> 00:20:59,320
Speaker 2: such as one as will bear puffing. For although you

418
00:20:59,400 --> 00:21:03,399
Speaker 2: may buy puffing get persons once to visit a poppable humbug,

419
00:21:03,720 --> 00:21:07,720
Speaker 2: it will neither visit it nor its owner twice. So

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00:21:07,800 --> 00:21:12,320
Speaker 2: you gotta get them once. No, exactly this nineteenth century language,

421
00:21:12,359 --> 00:21:15,080
Speaker 2: it's like, oh, we put all the phrases and you'll

422
00:21:15,080 --> 00:21:17,240
Speaker 2: get the understanding at the very end, like it's German,

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00:21:17,920 --> 00:21:20,040
Speaker 2: so Pt. Barnum, He's like, how do you sell your

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00:21:20,119 --> 00:21:22,720
Speaker 2: humbug to the Rubes, the Yokels, the marx Well as

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00:21:22,760 --> 00:21:25,800
Speaker 2: he put it, you know, and I quote. Having secured

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00:21:25,840 --> 00:21:28,080
Speaker 2: the proper humbug, the first thing to be done is

427
00:21:28,160 --> 00:21:30,560
Speaker 2: to puff it. And in these days of universal and

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00:21:30,600 --> 00:21:34,359
Speaker 2: scientific puffing. Very much depends upon the manner of conducting

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00:21:34,400 --> 00:21:37,919
Speaker 2: this branch of the business. The puff in direct or

430
00:21:38,040 --> 00:21:41,760
Speaker 2: puff oblique. The puff served up as the French serve

431
00:21:41,840 --> 00:21:45,159
Speaker 2: up all their viands, smothered in sauce and gravy is

432
00:21:45,200 --> 00:21:47,679
Speaker 2: the best kind of a puff. If you gild it

433
00:21:47,720 --> 00:21:50,840
Speaker 2: with a covering of science, covered with an anecdote, or

434
00:21:51,160 --> 00:21:54,840
Speaker 2: half smothered in poetry, it does it all very well. Now,

435
00:21:54,880 --> 00:21:57,440
Speaker 2: the reason why one must work so diligently to trick

436
00:21:57,480 --> 00:22:00,479
Speaker 2: the public with your humbug and have them pay you

437
00:22:00,520 --> 00:22:03,359
Speaker 2: for this pleasure, even if it only works once, is that,

438
00:22:03,400 --> 00:22:05,600
Speaker 2: as any great showman like P. T. Barnum can tell

439
00:22:05,600 --> 00:22:09,320
Speaker 2: you and I quote, the public is a queer fish,

440
00:22:09,359 --> 00:22:12,240
Speaker 2: and no fish which is up to snuff will bite

441
00:22:12,240 --> 00:22:16,040
Speaker 2: at the naked hook. Much depends on procuring the proper bait.

442
00:22:16,280 --> 00:22:19,040
Speaker 2: More depends on placing the bait properly on the hook.

443
00:22:19,520 --> 00:22:21,560
Speaker 2: So the humbug, as if you can get it, is

444
00:22:21,600 --> 00:22:26,160
Speaker 2: basically something of wonder rarety marvel. It's you know, it's

445
00:22:26,240 --> 00:22:29,360
Speaker 2: the the girl, the alligator skinned woman. You know, it's

446
00:22:29,680 --> 00:22:31,560
Speaker 2: whatever you'd see like an a sideshow. But also it

447
00:22:31,560 --> 00:22:34,520
Speaker 2: can be as my man, Harold, I shouldn't say my man,

448
00:22:34,560 --> 00:22:38,280
Speaker 2: but as Harold von Braun who puts it later on,

449
00:22:38,400 --> 00:22:40,240
Speaker 2: as we'll see, it can be a toy. It can

450
00:22:40,240 --> 00:22:42,200
Speaker 2: be a thing that children marvel at, and that can

451
00:22:42,200 --> 00:22:45,399
Speaker 2: be even more profitable than the rubes, because they're all roobes.

452
00:22:45,920 --> 00:22:48,840
Speaker 2: They're all barn suckers. So I told you all this

453
00:22:48,880 --> 00:22:50,879
Speaker 2: because I want you thinking about how to fleece suckers

454
00:22:51,080 --> 00:22:54,240
Speaker 2: right before we discuss the sea monkey empire. Yes, because

455
00:22:54,240 --> 00:22:56,119
Speaker 2: in the words of P. T. Barnum, sea monkeys are

456
00:22:56,320 --> 00:23:00,480
Speaker 2: pure humbuok no, the very profitable kind anyway, as some

457
00:23:00,560 --> 00:23:03,240
Speaker 2: PT Barnam has said with the last quote, no humbug

458
00:23:03,280 --> 00:23:06,720
Speaker 2: is great without truth at the bottom. So that's why

459
00:23:06,720 --> 00:23:11,080
Speaker 2: I like the sea monkeys have to come alive. Yeah, right,

460
00:23:11,160 --> 00:23:12,840
Speaker 2: you got to see something you drop in and all

461
00:23:12,840 --> 00:23:13,960
Speaker 2: of a sudden turn a.

462
00:23:13,880 --> 00:23:15,880
Speaker 3: Lot invisible goldfish did take off.

463
00:23:16,200 --> 00:23:18,359
Speaker 2: Well, it actually did because he lived up to what

464
00:23:18,400 --> 00:23:21,720
Speaker 2: you got invisible cold fish. It was a crazy backward tombug.

465
00:23:21,800 --> 00:23:24,320
Speaker 2: But so what anyway, what's the truth at the bottom

466
00:23:24,320 --> 00:23:27,760
Speaker 2: of the sea monkey empire other than a higher germanation rate. Well,

467
00:23:27,840 --> 00:23:29,960
Speaker 2: we know they're not really monkeys, but are they from

468
00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:32,520
Speaker 2: the sea. No, well, here, here's how it goes. What

469
00:23:32,560 --> 00:23:34,399
Speaker 2: else do we know? We know the sea monkeys, created

470
00:23:34,480 --> 00:23:37,320
Speaker 2: nineteen fifty seven were by far the greatest success of

471
00:23:37,359 --> 00:23:42,240
Speaker 2: their inventor, Harold von Bronhote. And this dude was quite

472
00:23:42,240 --> 00:23:45,240
Speaker 2: the inventor. He had one hundred and ninety six different

473
00:23:45,280 --> 00:23:49,439
Speaker 2: patents for various inventions, and long before he became an inventor,

474
00:23:49,440 --> 00:23:52,000
Speaker 2: he was something of a wild man. I'll say. Uh.

475
00:23:52,160 --> 00:23:55,120
Speaker 2: For instance, he used to race motorcycles. Okay, his track

476
00:23:55,200 --> 00:23:58,040
Speaker 2: name was the Green Hornet, just like the old radio

477
00:23:58,080 --> 00:24:00,719
Speaker 2: show I listened to, by the way, the Green Hornet.

478
00:24:00,760 --> 00:24:02,960
Speaker 2: He had a car that he named the Black Beauty.

479
00:24:02,960 --> 00:24:04,920
Speaker 2: So I'm like, why not name it yourself the Black Beauty.

480
00:24:04,960 --> 00:24:06,159
Speaker 2: Then I'm like, right, Sara, and I know why I

481
00:24:06,160 --> 00:24:07,439
Speaker 2: didn't name himself the Black Beauty.

482
00:24:07,760 --> 00:24:10,760
Speaker 3: So anyway it could be you.

483
00:24:10,440 --> 00:24:13,359
Speaker 2: That'll be I'm taking that one now. After he was

484
00:24:13,359 --> 00:24:16,280
Speaker 2: a motorcycle racer, he changed tax careers whole bit, became

485
00:24:16,280 --> 00:24:18,840
Speaker 2: a TV producer because in the twentieth century, this is

486
00:24:18,920 --> 00:24:21,199
Speaker 2: what you could do. So then he switched it up.

487
00:24:21,240 --> 00:24:23,440
Speaker 2: He stayed in show business though. He became a magician,

488
00:24:23,760 --> 00:24:27,640
Speaker 2: and you know. Yeah. His stage name was the Great Telepo.

489
00:24:27,760 --> 00:24:30,679
Speaker 3: Not the Green Hornet, No, the Great Hornet, to go

490
00:24:30,680 --> 00:24:32,760
Speaker 3: to Green, the Great Tileppo.

491
00:24:32,480 --> 00:24:34,520
Speaker 2: Great Tileppo. I don't know. It's just like I guess

492
00:24:34,600 --> 00:24:37,960
Speaker 2: he wanted something vaguely Italiana. Everybody wants vaguely Italian after Houdini.

493
00:24:38,359 --> 00:24:41,000
Speaker 2: So when that fizzled, he became a booking agent, but

494
00:24:41,160 --> 00:24:43,760
Speaker 2: for strange and unexpected performers, like he had this one

495
00:24:43,760 --> 00:24:45,560
Speaker 2: guy he booked to a jump off of a high

496
00:24:45,560 --> 00:24:48,919
Speaker 2: dive and plummet into twelve inches of water. Hold up

497
00:24:48,920 --> 00:24:50,880
Speaker 2: a roller, that's what the guy dived into.

498
00:24:51,320 --> 00:24:54,879
Speaker 3: Really, yes, and it wasn't a fake, like, no, it's a.

499
00:24:55,080 --> 00:24:57,280
Speaker 2: You can pull. Well, I guess you have to like

500
00:24:57,440 --> 00:24:59,440
Speaker 2: hit and go and like you know, like real shell.

501
00:24:59,520 --> 00:25:00,480
Speaker 2: I don't know, Elizabeth.

502
00:25:00,640 --> 00:25:02,800
Speaker 3: The thing is, when you tell me, I'm imagining it's

503
00:25:02,800 --> 00:25:05,520
Speaker 3: one of those kiddie pools. So it's like a circumference

504
00:25:05,560 --> 00:25:07,000
Speaker 3: of like four feet mat.

505
00:25:07,119 --> 00:25:09,320
Speaker 2: Yeah, I honestly do not know how they pulled that

506
00:25:09,359 --> 00:25:11,920
Speaker 2: one off. Like I was like, huh, But apparently from

507
00:25:11,920 --> 00:25:14,280
Speaker 2: what I read, it was done. This is a description

508
00:25:14,400 --> 00:25:17,560
Speaker 2: of the act. Yeah. Yeah, so anyway, I'm sure there's

509
00:25:17,600 --> 00:25:20,520
Speaker 2: a trick, but While he's working on all this, he's also.

510
00:25:20,400 --> 00:25:22,240
Speaker 3: A diameter not circumference anyway.

511
00:25:22,440 --> 00:25:23,359
Speaker 2: Yeah, I knew what you imagined.

512
00:25:23,600 --> 00:25:23,800
Speaker 3: You know.

513
00:25:23,960 --> 00:25:27,040
Speaker 2: As he's working on all this, this early humbuggery, he

514
00:25:27,119 --> 00:25:29,240
Speaker 2: was also coming up with new inventions, such as the

515
00:25:29,280 --> 00:25:31,600
Speaker 2: direct to mat. This is one of his early inventions.

516
00:25:31,840 --> 00:25:33,760
Speaker 2: Now it may sound like a rug or a carpet,

517
00:25:33,800 --> 00:25:37,200
Speaker 2: but the direct a mat was actually a map app.

518
00:25:37,359 --> 00:25:39,760
Speaker 2: That was hard to say. The director mat was a

519
00:25:39,800 --> 00:25:40,280
Speaker 2: map app.

520
00:25:40,400 --> 00:25:41,680
Speaker 3: Yeah, direct like.

521
00:25:41,680 --> 00:25:43,880
Speaker 2: Long before he had smartphones. This is how it worked.

522
00:25:43,920 --> 00:25:45,880
Speaker 2: The device was it held a map of New York

523
00:25:45,920 --> 00:25:48,000
Speaker 2: City and a person could punch in the address of

524
00:25:48,040 --> 00:25:50,880
Speaker 2: their just destination and then the directive map would tell

525
00:25:50,920 --> 00:25:53,960
Speaker 2: you the fastest subway route to use. How Yeah, because

526
00:25:54,000 --> 00:25:55,919
Speaker 2: it's just like a there's the map and then you

527
00:25:55,920 --> 00:25:57,840
Speaker 2: can figure out where you are and it's like use this.

528
00:25:58,160 --> 00:26:01,080
Speaker 2: It's a computer, very basic. It's not like they don't

529
00:26:01,119 --> 00:26:02,959
Speaker 2: think of an electronic computer. Think of it like an

530
00:26:03,000 --> 00:26:05,600
Speaker 2: automated machine. You plug in something, it's like it's like

531
00:26:05,640 --> 00:26:08,840
Speaker 2: an abacus. So it's just going it slotting into positions

532
00:26:08,880 --> 00:26:10,359
Speaker 2: of like oh this that, and the other thing.

533
00:26:10,200 --> 00:26:12,520
Speaker 3: Is like how does it how do you plug in

534
00:26:12,560 --> 00:26:13,680
Speaker 3: and how does it read out?

535
00:26:13,760 --> 00:26:15,439
Speaker 2: Did I invent the director map? I don't know.

536
00:26:15,720 --> 00:26:16,240
Speaker 3: Sounds like.

537
00:26:18,119 --> 00:26:20,040
Speaker 2: I can just tell you that from what I read,

538
00:26:20,320 --> 00:26:22,159
Speaker 2: he'd found a way for people to know the fastest

539
00:26:22,200 --> 00:26:24,800
Speaker 2: subway route. I think it just highlighted the subway map,

540
00:26:25,200 --> 00:26:27,159
Speaker 2: and then it showed you when you you showed your

541
00:26:27,200 --> 00:26:29,919
Speaker 2: destination and showed where you were, it would highlight the

542
00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:32,640
Speaker 2: fastest route. So you can do that mathematically with.

543
00:26:32,600 --> 00:26:36,800
Speaker 3: The graph, like, I want to see what one looks like.

544
00:26:37,000 --> 00:26:39,840
Speaker 2: I'm sure there you we'll see if the interns can

545
00:26:39,840 --> 00:26:40,399
Speaker 2: find a picture.

546
00:26:40,480 --> 00:26:44,280
Speaker 3: Go, hey, go go see if you can find that.

547
00:26:44,440 --> 00:26:44,840
Speaker 3: Thank you.

548
00:26:45,040 --> 00:26:46,400
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, we'll see how that goes.

549
00:26:46,440 --> 00:26:46,600
Speaker 3: Now.

550
00:26:46,760 --> 00:26:49,959
Speaker 2: We also they hated other memorable early inventions, such as

551
00:26:50,000 --> 00:26:51,760
Speaker 2: the doll baby that when you laid it down on

552
00:26:51,840 --> 00:26:54,440
Speaker 2: its back, their eyes would close. That's that's Harold Wan Brown,

553
00:26:54,440 --> 00:26:56,439
Speaker 2: who oh really yeah? And then also he was going

554
00:26:56,520 --> 00:26:58,520
Speaker 2: to shake up the world obviously with his greatest invention,

555
00:26:58,680 --> 00:27:01,320
Speaker 2: sea monkey. So back to the sea monkeys? What is

556
00:27:01,359 --> 00:27:03,399
Speaker 2: the story and these little aquatic lies?

557
00:27:04,119 --> 00:27:07,280
Speaker 3: Great question, Elizabeth, I am so good at questions, is.

558
00:27:07,280 --> 00:27:08,959
Speaker 2: The best I know. That's why I love having you here.

559
00:27:09,080 --> 00:27:11,200
Speaker 2: So if you can believe it, even now, sea monkeys

560
00:27:11,240 --> 00:27:14,439
Speaker 2: remain a five million dollars a year business, even now,

561
00:27:14,480 --> 00:27:16,680
Speaker 2: even now, five million dollars. A yea, people buy sea

562
00:27:16,720 --> 00:27:20,360
Speaker 2: monkeys five million dollars today. Yes, how is that possible?

563
00:27:20,440 --> 00:27:23,399
Speaker 2: Great question, Elizabeth, thank you, Because people still love to

564
00:27:23,440 --> 00:27:27,640
Speaker 2: be fleeced. They love the humbuck. According to Harold von Brown,

565
00:27:27,680 --> 00:27:29,840
Speaker 2: who he first wanted to give the world sea monkeys

566
00:27:29,880 --> 00:27:32,200
Speaker 2: not because of profit margins, but because he loved nature.

567
00:27:32,280 --> 00:27:34,159
Speaker 2: He's wanted people to have nature in their homes. So

568
00:27:34,200 --> 00:27:36,000
Speaker 2: he's like, what if they had some Brian shrimp. I

569
00:27:36,000 --> 00:27:38,160
Speaker 2: remember how I told you about the marine biologists who

570
00:27:38,200 --> 00:27:41,520
Speaker 2: helped Harold von Brown who to develop the Brian shrimp. Right,

571
00:27:41,520 --> 00:27:45,359
Speaker 2: they could be dehydrated and then had the higher germination rate. Right. Well,

572
00:27:45,520 --> 00:27:48,080
Speaker 2: if you have that, you have this like large amount

573
00:27:48,160 --> 00:27:50,520
Speaker 2: that are able to be reanimated with water. You know,

574
00:27:50,680 --> 00:27:51,760
Speaker 2: all you have to do is put them in a

575
00:27:51,800 --> 00:27:53,600
Speaker 2: package and then you just dump them in some water.

576
00:27:53,880 --> 00:27:55,960
Speaker 2: Boom voi la. Right, you gotta put a baby little

577
00:27:55,960 --> 00:27:59,520
Speaker 2: food package in there also to like stimulated, because obviously

578
00:27:59,560 --> 00:28:02,600
Speaker 2: a living creature needs food. Sure, that's about it. They

579
00:28:02,680 --> 00:28:06,399
Speaker 2: kids have water. Yeah, yeah, we'd hope. Yeah. In the

580
00:28:06,400 --> 00:28:09,800
Speaker 2: fifties and sixties they did so. Now and then you

581
00:28:09,840 --> 00:28:12,159
Speaker 2: buy sea monkeys. This is what you receive, a packet

582
00:28:12,200 --> 00:28:15,359
Speaker 2: of white powder. The white powder is the dehydrated sea monkeys.

583
00:28:15,359 --> 00:28:17,760
Speaker 2: You sprinkle that into the water. Voila instant life. But

584
00:28:17,800 --> 00:28:21,480
Speaker 2: you also get the food packet and then the aquarium

585
00:28:21,600 --> 00:28:23,520
Speaker 2: that's like and then like little like bits of like

586
00:28:23,960 --> 00:28:26,320
Speaker 2: plastic sea life to put in your aquarium, kind of

587
00:28:26,480 --> 00:28:27,119
Speaker 2: jazz it up.

588
00:28:27,280 --> 00:28:29,280
Speaker 3: I feel like it probably smells so bad.

589
00:28:30,359 --> 00:28:34,000
Speaker 2: Right, well, you'd see it's Brian shrimp. Now for a

590
00:28:34,040 --> 00:28:37,359
Speaker 2: small child, it's like they're transformed into a tiny god

591
00:28:37,480 --> 00:28:40,880
Speaker 2: bestowing light. Sure, in a week or so, when their

592
00:28:40,920 --> 00:28:43,479
Speaker 2: sea monkeys die, they're also dispensing life. So they got

593
00:28:43,480 --> 00:28:46,360
Speaker 2: the full cycle as a god. No, a little longer that,

594
00:28:46,400 --> 00:28:48,320
Speaker 2: but they don't last long, especially if you don't feed them.

595
00:28:48,800 --> 00:28:50,640
Speaker 2: A lot of people don't think to feed them. They're like, oh, yeah,

596
00:28:50,640 --> 00:28:52,800
Speaker 2: they came to life. They gave them the first food packet.

597
00:28:52,920 --> 00:28:54,719
Speaker 2: And then they're like, they didn't sell me a lot

598
00:28:54,720 --> 00:29:00,800
Speaker 2: of food packets, and yeah, exactly. The easy magic of

599
00:29:00,800 --> 00:29:03,360
Speaker 2: white powder turning into a teeming community of Brian trimp

600
00:29:03,440 --> 00:29:06,120
Speaker 2: is the big part of the surprising success of Sea Monkeys.

601
00:29:06,280 --> 00:29:09,360
Speaker 2: But that's not all, Elizabeth, because it also required diligence, creativity,

602
00:29:09,400 --> 00:29:14,600
Speaker 2: and a marketing campaign entered. Joe Orlando. What a great name, right,

603
00:29:14,680 --> 00:29:17,080
Speaker 2: great name. It's up there with like Robert California from

604
00:29:17,080 --> 00:29:20,480
Speaker 2: your show of the Office. Yeah, Joe Orlando. Now, Joe

605
00:29:20,600 --> 00:29:23,320
Speaker 2: Orlando was an artist, and he would become an industry

606
00:29:23,360 --> 00:29:25,640
Speaker 2: standard when he drew cover art from Mad magazine and

607
00:29:25,640 --> 00:29:28,120
Speaker 2: for DC Comics. He became a highmuckety muck in both

608
00:29:28,120 --> 00:29:30,520
Speaker 2: of those places. But in the late fifties early sixties,

609
00:29:30,520 --> 00:29:32,920
Speaker 2: he's this young, starving artist is willing to take it

610
00:29:32,960 --> 00:29:34,680
Speaker 2: by just any gig, and that's how he came to

611
00:29:34,680 --> 00:29:36,720
Speaker 2: be the artist who gave us the look and the

612
00:29:36,760 --> 00:29:40,240
Speaker 2: feel of the underwater world of sea monkeys. And long

613
00:29:40,280 --> 00:29:44,080
Speaker 2: before SpongeBob SquarePants, yeah, sea monkeys were the og fun

614
00:29:44,080 --> 00:29:47,520
Speaker 2: and friendly, kind of strange underwater sea creatures. Elizabeth, Do

615
00:29:47,520 --> 00:29:49,520
Speaker 2: you remember the artwork that I'm talking about the look

616
00:29:49,560 --> 00:29:52,040
Speaker 2: and feel of the underwater world of sea monkeys? Yeah?

617
00:29:52,360 --> 00:29:55,360
Speaker 3: Yeah, because it was weirdly like space.

618
00:29:55,160 --> 00:29:57,840
Speaker 2: Like, yes, totally, like they're kind of Martian but they

619
00:29:57,840 --> 00:30:00,560
Speaker 2: also live underwater. It's like, what do we do here, And.

620
00:30:00,600 --> 00:30:02,680
Speaker 3: I was not looking at those ads in the fifties

621
00:30:02,760 --> 00:30:04,840
Speaker 3: or sixties because I was not on the planet, but

622
00:30:04,960 --> 00:30:08,240
Speaker 3: like they used the same ass. Yeah, so it felt

623
00:30:08,320 --> 00:30:09,080
Speaker 3: very like retro.

624
00:30:09,800 --> 00:30:11,520
Speaker 2: Yeah, there was like this throwback of like this was

625
00:30:11,560 --> 00:30:13,880
Speaker 2: good for grandpa or you know, for your dad and mom.

626
00:30:13,920 --> 00:30:16,040
Speaker 2: That could be good for you. Yeah, I'm the ad.

627
00:30:16,040 --> 00:30:18,000
Speaker 2: You'll see there's like a family looking in on the

628
00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:20,520
Speaker 2: the aquarium bowl watching it, and there's like a castle

629
00:30:20,520 --> 00:30:22,560
Speaker 2: that they have when you're like, whoa, there's like a

630
00:30:22,560 --> 00:30:24,440
Speaker 2: whole thing, like a kingdom. Right, So we'll post all

631
00:30:24,480 --> 00:30:26,480
Speaker 2: this once again on Instagram so you can enjoy their

632
00:30:26,600 --> 00:30:30,960
Speaker 2: three pronged like flesh crowns as well. Now, once kids

633
00:30:30,960 --> 00:30:33,320
Speaker 2: in JFK's early sixties got an eye full of that

634
00:30:33,440 --> 00:30:35,320
Speaker 2: image in the back of their comic books, they couldn't

635
00:30:35,360 --> 00:30:37,640
Speaker 2: tear it out fast enough, right, They tore out the

636
00:30:37,640 --> 00:30:40,720
Speaker 2: return slip, begged, borrowed, or earned enough scratch they could

637
00:30:40,720 --> 00:30:43,320
Speaker 2: send this cash off and buy their very own underwater

638
00:30:43,400 --> 00:30:47,680
Speaker 2: family of sea monkeys. Now we've talked about this, but like,

639
00:30:48,040 --> 00:30:49,920
Speaker 2: did you ever know anybody later on, like in a

640
00:30:49,920 --> 00:30:52,200
Speaker 2: punk house who had sea monkeys or anybody else like

641
00:30:52,200 --> 00:30:53,800
Speaker 2: because it kind of becameitchy again.

642
00:30:53,880 --> 00:30:56,120
Speaker 3: Later on punk houses, we get skaties.

643
00:30:56,480 --> 00:30:58,560
Speaker 2: We have different life forms yet.

644
00:30:58,600 --> 00:31:00,720
Speaker 3: But yeah, no, I don't think I I had a couple.

645
00:31:00,520 --> 00:31:03,200
Speaker 2: Of friends who got him like ironically, yeah, interesting, But

646
00:31:03,280 --> 00:31:06,400
Speaker 2: I think that they also wanted them like more earnestly.

647
00:31:06,560 --> 00:31:08,200
Speaker 2: I think that they thought they were kind of fun

648
00:31:08,200 --> 00:31:10,120
Speaker 2: and then they acted like, oh, I'm just being ironic.

649
00:31:10,240 --> 00:31:14,240
Speaker 2: I'm like, you want an aquarium. So once these ads

650
00:31:14,240 --> 00:31:15,720
Speaker 2: a writer are in the back of comic books and

651
00:31:15,760 --> 00:31:17,800
Speaker 2: kids are sending off their money as as soon as

652
00:31:17,800 --> 00:31:19,800
Speaker 2: they get out of their hot little hands, Harold von

653
00:31:19,880 --> 00:31:22,480
Speaker 2: Brownhood he just goes for broke, right. He starts mass

654
00:31:22,520 --> 00:31:24,840
Speaker 2: marketing his new kitchen toy because he's seeing the numbers.

655
00:31:24,880 --> 00:31:27,120
Speaker 2: The early sales numbers are amazing. So then he starts

656
00:31:27,120 --> 00:31:29,480
Speaker 2: publishing books about how to care and feed for your

657
00:31:29,520 --> 00:31:32,600
Speaker 2: sea monkey families. Then go well, for instance, like he

658
00:31:32,680 --> 00:31:34,360
Speaker 2: was like, you know, you got to feed your feed

659
00:31:34,480 --> 00:31:37,160
Speaker 2: your sea monkeys. So sea monkeys often like and this

660
00:31:37,200 --> 00:31:39,880
Speaker 2: is where he had help ready for them, sea monkey

661
00:31:39,880 --> 00:31:42,840
Speaker 2: branded banana treats. This is just basically dried up banana

662
00:31:42,880 --> 00:31:46,640
Speaker 2: slices you could chop in the ballas well. Anything. They're

663
00:31:46,720 --> 00:31:49,240
Speaker 2: Brian shrimp. They could eat a lot of like stuff.

664
00:31:49,640 --> 00:31:53,760
Speaker 2: Turns out right, So he also had Cupid's arrow, maas.

665
00:31:54,080 --> 00:31:56,760
Speaker 2: He also Cupid's arrow mating powder in case you wanted

666
00:31:56,760 --> 00:32:02,480
Speaker 2: to see, like makes them kiss totally. You want to

667
00:32:02,480 --> 00:32:05,000
Speaker 2: make get them to pro create. He's like, you think

668
00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:07,520
Speaker 2: about it this way. Remember you got the sea monkeys

669
00:32:07,640 --> 00:32:11,120
Speaker 2: because they were dropped in and magically came to life.

670
00:32:11,240 --> 00:32:13,840
Speaker 2: What good is the mating powder gonna do. It's gotta

671
00:32:13,960 --> 00:32:16,280
Speaker 2: just be more sea monkeys, you know. It's like they're

672
00:32:16,320 --> 00:32:20,400
Speaker 2: just selling you more monkeys calling a different thing. Anyway,

673
00:32:20,440 --> 00:32:24,120
Speaker 2: reanimation be damned. So, Elizabeth, this mad inventor, Harold von Brownhood,

674
00:32:24,400 --> 00:32:26,200
Speaker 2: he had way more in story. He goes bigger. He

675
00:32:26,240 --> 00:32:29,800
Speaker 2: comes up with the sea monkey speedway. Yeah, I bet

676
00:32:29,840 --> 00:32:31,960
Speaker 2: those are three words that are raising all sorts of questions. Yeah,

677
00:32:32,000 --> 00:32:35,040
Speaker 2: I just I think, Yeah, sea monkeys live in a

678
00:32:35,040 --> 00:32:38,120
Speaker 2: plastic aquarium underwater. How can they have a speedway? Well,

679
00:32:38,200 --> 00:32:41,720
Speaker 2: great question, Elizabeth. That turns out the kids. They would

680
00:32:41,720 --> 00:32:44,640
Speaker 2: sell them these enormous eye droppers or like turkey basers,

681
00:32:44,680 --> 00:32:46,400
Speaker 2: if you will, and they could suck up some of

682
00:32:46,440 --> 00:32:49,520
Speaker 2: the brine shrimp and then they would just shoot them

683
00:32:49,560 --> 00:32:51,760
Speaker 2: down like a hot wheels track back into the water.

684
00:32:52,920 --> 00:32:55,240
Speaker 2: Since they started to drop the waters like which dropper one?

685
00:32:55,280 --> 00:32:57,440
Speaker 2: I guess. I don't know. That was a hit. It

686
00:32:57,520 --> 00:32:59,960
Speaker 2: was bizarre. He came up with sea monkey ski trials.

687
00:33:00,440 --> 00:33:02,480
Speaker 3: Oh my god, what's the.

688
00:33:02,400 --> 00:33:07,240
Speaker 2: Little mountain you go down the mountains? Sea monkey fox hunt?

689
00:33:07,480 --> 00:33:11,240
Speaker 2: If you're an adventurous kid, there is a sea monkey robodiver.

690
00:33:11,480 --> 00:33:13,720
Speaker 3: Sea monkey fox Hunt? What is that?

691
00:33:14,240 --> 00:33:15,440
Speaker 2: Well, you would I don't know.

692
00:33:16,400 --> 00:33:18,680
Speaker 3: I wish I could tell you a different turkey baster.

693
00:33:18,920 --> 00:33:21,719
Speaker 2: Different is a turkey baster. Everything's turkey. You just run

694
00:33:21,800 --> 00:33:23,800
Speaker 2: these drops through different things. So it's like, oh, yes,

695
00:33:23,880 --> 00:33:26,800
Speaker 2: you're the fox, and we were on horses to the horses,

696
00:33:26,840 --> 00:33:29,760
Speaker 2: I don't know, Elizabeth to the hounds. Yeah. So then

697
00:33:29,800 --> 00:33:32,680
Speaker 2: there's also space sea monkey kit, Like you're taking your

698
00:33:32,680 --> 00:33:33,800
Speaker 2: sea monkeys and putting them.

699
00:33:33,680 --> 00:33:37,040
Speaker 3: In put them in a super soakery.

700
00:33:37,600 --> 00:33:41,720
Speaker 2: Good luck. So I'm with all these hits, right, sea

701
00:33:41,720 --> 00:33:44,520
Speaker 2: monkeys in space? And oh, by the way, did you

702
00:33:44,560 --> 00:33:46,040
Speaker 2: know that sea monkeys have been to the moon?

703
00:33:46,800 --> 00:33:47,120
Speaker 3: Really?

704
00:33:47,240 --> 00:33:49,200
Speaker 2: No, Like, I'm not even kidding, that's a true story.

705
00:33:49,240 --> 00:33:50,720
Speaker 2: This isn't part of the humbug.

706
00:33:51,600 --> 00:33:52,520
Speaker 3: We dumped some.

707
00:33:53,920 --> 00:33:56,040
Speaker 2: Sea monkeys. Well, I guess it is part of the humbug,

708
00:33:56,080 --> 00:33:58,080
Speaker 2: because anything sea monkey related is part of the humbug.

709
00:33:58,120 --> 00:34:00,280
Speaker 2: But what I mean is this in nineteen seventy two,

710
00:34:00,520 --> 00:34:02,880
Speaker 2: back when we were regularly sending astronauts to the moon

711
00:34:02,920 --> 00:34:05,200
Speaker 2: with the Apollo missions, sea monkeys were sent to the

712
00:34:05,240 --> 00:34:08,960
Speaker 2: Moon on two count them, two lunar missions, Apollo sixteen

713
00:34:09,040 --> 00:34:11,879
Speaker 2: and Apollo seventeen. The story goes, sea monkeys were sent

714
00:34:11,920 --> 00:34:13,360
Speaker 2: to the Moon as an experiment to see if they

715
00:34:13,360 --> 00:34:15,440
Speaker 2: can endure the rigors of space, right, because there's a

716
00:34:15,480 --> 00:34:18,239
Speaker 2: lot of cosmic radiation and stuff that will like denature

717
00:34:18,280 --> 00:34:20,400
Speaker 2: a human body, give them cancer, and all sorts of

718
00:34:20,440 --> 00:34:23,400
Speaker 2: problems with like bone deterioration and so forth. So they

719
00:34:23,480 --> 00:34:26,560
Speaker 2: want to see how space travel affected living organic creatures.

720
00:34:26,560 --> 00:34:30,120
Speaker 2: So like, let's send up some sea monkeys. Those things proliferate,

721
00:34:30,280 --> 00:34:31,239
Speaker 2: bring the speedway.

722
00:34:31,719 --> 00:34:32,359
Speaker 3: So this is a.

723
00:34:32,239 --> 00:34:34,799
Speaker 2: Decade and a half past like space monkeys. And this

724
00:34:34,880 --> 00:34:37,400
Speaker 2: is like in Laika, the Soviet cosmo dog dog, and

725
00:34:37,400 --> 00:34:39,880
Speaker 2: they're back two sea monkeys like Brian shrimp. Like this

726
00:34:39,920 --> 00:34:43,200
Speaker 2: is mini steps backwards. Anyway, the sea monkeys they go

727
00:34:43,320 --> 00:34:45,080
Speaker 2: up and they put them up. If you're wondering what

728
00:34:45,080 --> 00:34:47,760
Speaker 2: happened with the experiment with sea monkeys in space. About

729
00:34:47,800 --> 00:34:50,960
Speaker 2: ten percent of the space monkeys or space sea monkeys whatever,

730
00:34:51,040 --> 00:34:53,680
Speaker 2: survive their trip to the moon, and this is bad

731
00:34:53,719 --> 00:34:55,759
Speaker 2: news for Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos and the other

732
00:34:55,840 --> 00:34:58,880
Speaker 2: space wannabes. But of the ten percent of sea monkeys

733
00:34:58,880 --> 00:35:01,839
Speaker 2: who survived the trip to the Moon and back, many

734
00:35:01,920 --> 00:35:04,880
Speaker 2: of them were deformed by the high levels of cosmic radiation.

735
00:35:05,000 --> 00:35:07,920
Speaker 3: You're kidding? Did they have extra sensory perception?

736
00:35:08,600 --> 00:35:11,399
Speaker 2: Not that kind, not like mutants and ex powers. No, no,

737
00:35:11,600 --> 00:35:13,640
Speaker 2: not the good kind. We're like, oh, what's wrong with

738
00:35:13,680 --> 00:35:15,400
Speaker 2: your arm? It shouldn't go that way? And why is

739
00:35:15,440 --> 00:35:18,680
Speaker 2: your head all shaped wrong? And like you have four eyes? Yeah, exactly.

740
00:35:18,719 --> 00:35:21,360
Speaker 2: It was not good. Well, flash forward to nineteen ninety

741
00:35:21,400 --> 00:35:23,600
Speaker 2: eight when NASA decided, you know what, let's send some

742
00:35:23,640 --> 00:35:27,799
Speaker 2: sea monkeys back to space number three for a new experiment,

743
00:35:27,840 --> 00:35:29,840
Speaker 2: and this time with a former Apollo astronaut.

744
00:35:29,920 --> 00:35:31,759
Speaker 3: Just to keep it fine, Like, someone go down to

745
00:35:31,840 --> 00:35:35,799
Speaker 3: the market, get an archie comic, because we need we're

746
00:35:35,800 --> 00:35:38,240
Speaker 3: doing retro. We need to cut out the back coupon.

747
00:35:38,400 --> 00:35:40,959
Speaker 2: They want to send up an Apollo astronaut some sea

748
00:35:40,960 --> 00:35:43,480
Speaker 2: monkeys and they just have like a good old like

749
00:35:43,600 --> 00:35:46,319
Speaker 2: tang of a good time right now. The man who

750
00:35:46,360 --> 00:35:49,400
Speaker 2: they picked was John Glenn. I would send boss Aldron

751
00:35:49,440 --> 00:35:52,640
Speaker 2: personally fighting buzz Aldron like I love that guy. Call

752
00:35:52,719 --> 00:35:54,480
Speaker 2: me a coward. I'm gonna punch you like guy's like

753
00:35:54,520 --> 00:35:57,560
Speaker 2: any he's punching in twenty year olds anyway. But rather

754
00:35:57,600 --> 00:35:59,640
Speaker 2: than tell you all about that, Elizabeth, I'd like you

755
00:35:59,640 --> 00:36:03,840
Speaker 2: to close, and I'd like you to clus. It's nineteen

756
00:36:03,920 --> 00:36:06,280
Speaker 2: ninety eight. At the moment, you're feeling a little nervous,

757
00:36:06,360 --> 00:36:09,080
Speaker 2: which is perfectly understandable since you're currently wearing a diaper,

758
00:36:09,320 --> 00:36:10,840
Speaker 2: and you have a good reason for that, since you

759
00:36:10,840 --> 00:36:13,520
Speaker 2: were sitting next to Senator John Glenn and he's also

760
00:36:13,520 --> 00:36:15,520
Speaker 2: wearing a diaper, and you both have a good reason

761
00:36:15,520 --> 00:36:17,520
Speaker 2: for that. In fact, it's the same good reason why

762
00:36:17,600 --> 00:36:20,160
Speaker 2: you were seated next to John Glenn while wearing a diaper,

763
00:36:20,200 --> 00:36:22,880
Speaker 2: because both of you are wearing astronaut suits. That's right

764
00:36:22,960 --> 00:36:25,719
Speaker 2: at the moment, you are strapped into the space shovel Discovery,

765
00:36:25,840 --> 00:36:28,680
Speaker 2: just moments before the shuttlecraft is propelled skyward by a

766
00:36:28,719 --> 00:36:32,040
Speaker 2: great and tremendous explosion that rockets you into the stratosphere.

767
00:36:32,040 --> 00:36:34,840
Speaker 2: Will you will slip the bonds of gravity and pilot

768
00:36:34,920 --> 00:36:38,040
Speaker 2: your way into the cosmos. As John Glenn gives you

769
00:36:38,080 --> 00:36:41,000
Speaker 2: a reassuring smile through his space helmet, you focus and

770
00:36:41,040 --> 00:36:43,120
Speaker 2: try to calm your nervous mind. As you hear the

771
00:36:43,120 --> 00:36:48,640
Speaker 2: countdown begin T minus ten seconds nine eight. You really

772
00:36:48,680 --> 00:36:50,759
Speaker 2: hope that NASA fixed that whole issue with the O

773
00:36:50,960 --> 00:36:56,799
Speaker 2: rings seven six, five four. You remind yourself that lots

774
00:36:56,840 --> 00:36:59,560
Speaker 2: of astronauts do this all the time. Hell, John Glenn

775
00:36:59,560 --> 00:37:01,239
Speaker 2: came out of re tirement for one more ride on

776
00:37:01,280 --> 00:37:07,839
Speaker 2: this rocket three two one. Lift off the booster rocket's light,

777
00:37:07,960 --> 00:37:11,239
Speaker 2: the force generated as tremendous you John Glenn, and the

778
00:37:11,280 --> 00:37:14,160
Speaker 2: Space Shuttle Discovery indeed lift off the launch Paddy, You

779
00:37:14,360 --> 00:37:17,319
Speaker 2: rocket skyward. John Glenn gives you a thumbs up. It

780
00:37:17,360 --> 00:37:19,720
Speaker 2: seems he can tell you're a little nervous. As planned,

781
00:37:19,719 --> 00:37:23,360
Speaker 2: the booster rockets fall away, soon followed by the main thruster,

782
00:37:23,640 --> 00:37:26,400
Speaker 2: until finally all is quiet. You've broken free of the

783
00:37:26,440 --> 00:37:29,040
Speaker 2: gravity of Earth. You gaze out at the vast and

784
00:37:29,080 --> 00:37:32,399
Speaker 2: inky sea of blackness that surrounds the shuttlecraft. You are

785
00:37:32,480 --> 00:37:35,680
Speaker 2: in space, Elizabeth. Now that it's quiet enough to speak

786
00:37:35,719 --> 00:37:38,200
Speaker 2: over the comms. You hear John Glenn say, how cool

787
00:37:38,280 --> 00:37:40,560
Speaker 2: was that? Never get tired of the endless ocean of space?

788
00:37:41,000 --> 00:37:43,840
Speaker 2: You marvel at how small and insignificant the Earth is,

789
00:37:43,880 --> 00:37:47,400
Speaker 2: framed against the seeming infinity of darkness, a tiny, fragile

790
00:37:47,400 --> 00:37:49,800
Speaker 2: blue ball. And then, as if to break the tension,

791
00:37:50,040 --> 00:37:52,680
Speaker 2: or perhaps because he came here before, John Glenn asked

792
00:37:52,680 --> 00:37:54,600
Speaker 2: the shelter crew, so when can I break out my

793
00:37:54,640 --> 00:37:57,880
Speaker 2: sea monkeys? You forget it isn't just you, John Glenn,

794
00:37:57,880 --> 00:37:59,840
Speaker 2: and the rest of the astronauts who you've also aboard

795
00:37:59,840 --> 00:38:02,800
Speaker 2: the Space Shuttle a few loads of space sea monkeys,

796
00:38:03,000 --> 00:38:06,600
Speaker 2: currently in dehydrated, powdered form. John Glenn is like a

797
00:38:06,600 --> 00:38:08,880
Speaker 2: giddy school boy, eager to rip open the packet and

798
00:38:08,920 --> 00:38:11,520
Speaker 2: make some instant life. He plans to experiment on the

799
00:38:11,560 --> 00:38:14,160
Speaker 2: sea monkeys to see how they endure the radiation of space,

800
00:38:14,480 --> 00:38:17,879
Speaker 2: same for the earlier Apollo astronauts, only now with more

801
00:38:17,960 --> 00:38:22,960
Speaker 2: modern shielding technologies. Flash forward nine days later, You and

802
00:38:23,120 --> 00:38:25,520
Speaker 2: John Glenn are both giddy as school boys about the

803
00:38:25,520 --> 00:38:28,319
Speaker 2: fact his sea monkey's hatched, and this time none of

804
00:38:28,320 --> 00:38:31,760
Speaker 2: them were deformed by space. The experiment was a complete success.

805
00:38:31,800 --> 00:38:34,319
Speaker 2: But you wonder why it is that you have to

806
00:38:34,360 --> 00:38:37,880
Speaker 2: clean the plastic aquarium. That's not easy in zero gravity. Personally,

807
00:38:37,880 --> 00:38:42,320
Speaker 2: you prefer the space monkeys. Elizabeth, I took you to space.

808
00:38:42,360 --> 00:38:44,480
Speaker 2: We've never been to space. First time space.

809
00:38:44,560 --> 00:38:46,680
Speaker 3: Yeah, that is the first time in space.

810
00:38:46,719 --> 00:38:48,680
Speaker 2: Yeah. Without also turned out to be Sea Monkey's final

811
00:38:48,760 --> 00:38:51,800
Speaker 2: voyage to space. But they weren't done spending time amongst

812
00:38:51,840 --> 00:38:55,399
Speaker 2: the stars. Because after these messages, I will tell you

813
00:38:55,480 --> 00:38:59,480
Speaker 2: about well, this other character, enter another Howard, a former

814
00:38:59,560 --> 00:39:03,560
Speaker 2: prop turned to reality TV talent judge named Howie Mandel.

815
00:39:04,600 --> 00:39:06,439
Speaker 2: Let's take a break of two and two and I'll

816
00:39:06,480 --> 00:39:31,000
Speaker 2: tell you more these Okay, Elizabeth back, do you have

817
00:39:31,040 --> 00:39:33,800
Speaker 2: fun with the thinking about Sea Monkey's space Sea Monkeys

818
00:39:33,840 --> 00:39:34,200
Speaker 2: and John?

819
00:39:35,239 --> 00:39:35,359
Speaker 3: Oh?

820
00:39:35,440 --> 00:39:37,160
Speaker 2: God, glad you enjoyed that. I always feel bad that

821
00:39:37,320 --> 00:39:40,759
Speaker 2: sometimes I put you in less and desirable situations. So

822
00:39:40,800 --> 00:39:42,600
Speaker 2: this time I wanted to put you on a fun ride.

823
00:39:42,760 --> 00:39:43,280
Speaker 3: That's cool.

824
00:39:43,400 --> 00:39:46,759
Speaker 2: Yeah, So researching the story right was it was a

825
00:39:46,880 --> 00:39:49,840
Speaker 2: wild ride, and I found a bunch of fun facts.

826
00:39:49,880 --> 00:39:52,600
Speaker 2: One of them had to do with Howie Mandel. I

827
00:39:52,680 --> 00:39:58,000
Speaker 2: was like, well, Elizabeth loves Howie Mandel. About this In

828
00:39:58,520 --> 00:40:01,960
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety two, Howie Mandel start in a live action

829
00:40:02,120 --> 00:40:05,279
Speaker 2: sea monkey based TV show. Wait what Yeah, it was

830
00:40:05,280 --> 00:40:09,000
Speaker 2: a Saturday morning live action cartoon show. Howie Mandel starred

831
00:40:09,000 --> 00:40:11,719
Speaker 2: as a mad professor with this ridiculous German accent who

832
00:40:11,800 --> 00:40:13,960
Speaker 2: for some reason lived in a lighthouse. What year is this,

833
00:40:14,040 --> 00:40:17,319
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety two And one day the professor he makes

834
00:40:17,320 --> 00:40:20,799
Speaker 2: this accidental discovery in his lighthouse laboratory and he reanimates

835
00:40:20,840 --> 00:40:24,880
Speaker 2: sea monkeys who accidentally grow to human size. And naturally,

836
00:40:24,960 --> 00:40:27,839
Speaker 2: these three human sized space monkeys can walk and talk,

837
00:40:27,880 --> 00:40:30,440
Speaker 2: and they have personalities. So the professor makes them his

838
00:40:30,520 --> 00:40:33,600
Speaker 2: new lab assistants and roommates in the lighthouse. To the

839
00:40:33,960 --> 00:40:37,480
Speaker 2: TV show, So to tell the sea monkeys apart, obviously

840
00:40:37,480 --> 00:40:39,640
Speaker 2: we needed to have them to have distinct personalities. So

841
00:40:39,719 --> 00:40:42,759
Speaker 2: there was Bill, Dave, and Aquarius. You knew which one

842
00:40:42,800 --> 00:40:44,720
Speaker 2: was which because Bill was the one who was afraid

843
00:40:44,719 --> 00:40:47,920
Speaker 2: of imperial style facial hair. If you're wondering what imperial

844
00:40:47,960 --> 00:40:51,840
Speaker 2: style facial hair is, think of like the Kaiser Wilhelm German,

845
00:40:52,120 --> 00:40:54,960
Speaker 2: the big mustache and then the goatee that drops down,

846
00:40:55,239 --> 00:40:59,040
Speaker 2: and he was terrible. That's how you would note. It's

847
00:40:59,080 --> 00:41:04,360
Speaker 2: a kids show. So the one named Aquarius. He was

848
00:41:04,440 --> 00:41:08,080
Speaker 2: terrible with secrets. And lastly there was Dave Shout Out

849
00:41:08,080 --> 00:41:11,839
Speaker 2: producer d who this Dave loves poke music and would

850
00:41:11,840 --> 00:41:14,239
Speaker 2: start dancing whenever he heard, like, you know, roll out

851
00:41:14,239 --> 00:41:14,720
Speaker 2: the barrel.

852
00:41:14,880 --> 00:41:20,680
Speaker 3: So I wanted you one of those oral history of

853
00:41:20,840 --> 00:41:24,479
Speaker 3: the writer's room for the Sea Monkeys Saturday Morning.

854
00:41:24,560 --> 00:41:26,880
Speaker 2: Clearly Teenage Mutantninja tur Turtles had come out and it

855
00:41:26,920 --> 00:41:29,160
Speaker 2: was a huge hit. Howie Mandel had a daughter who

856
00:41:29,160 --> 00:41:31,200
Speaker 2: bought some sea monkeys. He's like, this could be just

857
00:41:31,239 --> 00:41:33,320
Speaker 2: like the teenage Mutant Into Turtles. So he went to

858
00:41:33,400 --> 00:41:35,520
Speaker 2: CBS pitched the show. They're like, I love it, here's

859
00:41:35,560 --> 00:41:39,120
Speaker 2: a zillion dollars, let's make it. And then it did not.

860
00:41:39,200 --> 00:41:41,920
Speaker 2: It was not a hit. So it was not bigger

861
00:41:41,960 --> 00:41:45,360
Speaker 2: than the Teenage Mutant Into Turtles, and after eleven episodes,

862
00:41:45,400 --> 00:41:48,680
Speaker 2: CBS canceled the amazing live Sea Monkey TV show. It

863
00:41:48,719 --> 00:41:51,799
Speaker 2: seems only Harold von Brown, Hoot and Joe Orlando knew

864
00:41:51,840 --> 00:41:55,360
Speaker 2: how to make sea monkeys pop. All right, So I

865
00:41:55,440 --> 00:41:58,200
Speaker 2: told you now about Howie Mandel's live action Saturday Morning

866
00:41:58,200 --> 00:42:01,320
Speaker 2: cartoon show and starring him in the to promorphize sea monkeys.

867
00:42:01,560 --> 00:42:05,200
Speaker 2: I also found that Frank Black from the Pixies. Yeah,

868
00:42:05,280 --> 00:42:07,279
Speaker 2: he loves sea monkeys, apparently because he wrote a whole

869
00:42:07,280 --> 00:42:09,759
Speaker 2: song about them called Palace of the Brine. Oh, the

870
00:42:09,840 --> 00:42:11,840
Speaker 2: lyrics are fun. I'll just read you a song in

871
00:42:11,880 --> 00:42:13,839
Speaker 2: a place they say is dead in the lake that's

872
00:42:13,880 --> 00:42:16,920
Speaker 2: like an ocean. I count a billion head all the time.

873
00:42:17,040 --> 00:42:21,040
Speaker 2: There's a motion Palace of the Prime, Palace of the Prine,

874
00:42:21,239 --> 00:42:23,879
Speaker 2: I saw the cloning of the famous family. Are here

875
00:42:23,920 --> 00:42:26,080
Speaker 2: the drone and in the Shrine of the Sea Monkey,

876
00:42:26,640 --> 00:42:30,280
Speaker 2: Palace of the Brian, Palace of the Prine. Beneath reflections

877
00:42:30,280 --> 00:42:33,080
Speaker 2: in the fountain, the starry sky and Utah Mountains, they

878
00:42:33,120 --> 00:42:37,400
Speaker 2: are swimming happily. Can't you see a life that's so sublime? Oh, Frank,

879
00:42:37,520 --> 00:42:40,680
Speaker 2: what is going on right? So you may be thinking, Zarin,

880
00:42:40,719 --> 00:42:42,480
Speaker 2: this is a fun look back into the kitchy world

881
00:42:42,520 --> 00:42:45,600
Speaker 2: of sea monkeys in mid century marketing and in the nineties.

882
00:42:46,239 --> 00:42:49,120
Speaker 2: But where are the crimes? Well, oh, you know what,

883
00:42:49,160 --> 00:42:55,400
Speaker 2: that's funny, So enter Big Time Toys. That's literally the

884
00:42:55,480 --> 00:42:58,640
Speaker 2: name Big Time Toys. So harravon Brownhood. He passed away

885
00:42:58,640 --> 00:43:00,560
Speaker 2: in two thousand and three, and he left his vast

886
00:43:00,600 --> 00:43:03,880
Speaker 2: sea monkey and other related kitchy toys to his wife, Yolanda,

887
00:43:04,320 --> 00:43:06,360
Speaker 2: and she's quite a piece of work. Now, more on

888
00:43:06,400 --> 00:43:08,200
Speaker 2: her in a moment. But what she found was when

889
00:43:08,200 --> 00:43:10,279
Speaker 2: it was her business, she didn't like running the Sea

890
00:43:10,280 --> 00:43:14,560
Speaker 2: Monkey Empire. So yeah, she knew her husband's secret formula

891
00:43:14,560 --> 00:43:16,759
Speaker 2: for sea monkeys was worth a fortune and she got

892
00:43:16,760 --> 00:43:18,560
Speaker 2: that right. So she kept that in the lock security

893
00:43:18,600 --> 00:43:20,560
Speaker 2: box in like a secret location in like a bank

894
00:43:20,560 --> 00:43:23,919
Speaker 2: in Manhattan. And then she licensed the empire to Big

895
00:43:23,960 --> 00:43:26,799
Speaker 2: Time Toys. She's like, you handle it now. The deal

896
00:43:26,920 --> 00:43:29,240
Speaker 2: was Big Time Toys would do everything. They would supply

897
00:43:29,280 --> 00:43:32,560
Speaker 2: the packaging, the marketing, the distribution, order fulfillment, all of it. Right,

898
00:43:32,600 --> 00:43:34,880
Speaker 2: All Yolanda had to do was supply the sea monkeys,

899
00:43:34,920 --> 00:43:37,200
Speaker 2: the packets of sea monkeys. Okay, But what she may

900
00:43:37,280 --> 00:43:39,160
Speaker 2: or may not have known was it in the licensing

901
00:43:39,200 --> 00:43:42,160
Speaker 2: contract that she signed was a stipulation for Big Time

902
00:43:42,200 --> 00:43:45,719
Speaker 2: Toys to buy out the Sea Monkey Empire and the

903
00:43:45,760 --> 00:43:48,440
Speaker 2: secret formula. Now, I need to tell you the backstory

904
00:43:48,440 --> 00:43:50,800
Speaker 2: of Yolanda von Brownhuts can get a sense of this woman.

905
00:43:51,200 --> 00:43:53,360
Speaker 2: She the wife of the mad inventor, heiress to the

906
00:43:53,400 --> 00:43:57,799
Speaker 2: great Sea Monkey fortune. Yolanda Signovan Brownhut was a very

907
00:43:57,800 --> 00:44:00,120
Speaker 2: attractive young woman apparently from everything I read, she in

908
00:44:00,160 --> 00:44:02,080
Speaker 2: fact she was wants an actress. She and she was

909
00:44:02,080 --> 00:44:04,360
Speaker 2: a singer. She was her father taught her she was.

910
00:44:05,360 --> 00:44:07,319
Speaker 2: People wanted to get to know her ander sisters. From

911
00:44:07,320 --> 00:44:09,439
Speaker 2: everything I read, there's just like imagine like a very rich,

912
00:44:09,640 --> 00:44:12,279
Speaker 2: like artistic family with these daughters who were like, ooh,

913
00:44:12,320 --> 00:44:14,799
Speaker 2: what have you met the signarette girls? Right right? She

914
00:44:14,880 --> 00:44:16,960
Speaker 2: goes on to become an actress, and then she stars

915
00:44:17,000 --> 00:44:20,160
Speaker 2: in a nineteen sixty seven movie called Venus in Furs, which,

916
00:44:20,200 --> 00:44:22,640
Speaker 2: if you didn't know, and I don't expect you to know,

917
00:44:22,719 --> 00:44:24,920
Speaker 2: but it sounds like you do, that movie is considered

918
00:44:24,960 --> 00:44:30,080
Speaker 2: a classic of the bondage genre. Yeah. Now, Young Yolanda

919
00:44:30,200 --> 00:44:32,960
Speaker 2: was also the Vixen and All Women Are Bad and

920
00:44:33,120 --> 00:44:36,360
Speaker 2: Death of a Nymphet Or there was also Assignment Female.

921
00:44:36,680 --> 00:44:39,760
Speaker 2: Oh my. One of my favorites file X for Sex

922
00:44:39,880 --> 00:44:43,080
Speaker 2: The Story of the Perverted. But my favorite title was

923
00:44:43,400 --> 00:44:46,400
Speaker 2: too much, too often with an exclamation.

924
00:44:45,920 --> 00:44:49,480
Speaker 3: Bob like it's really highbrows very.

925
00:44:49,560 --> 00:44:52,239
Speaker 2: Very much so. So was Yolanda a porn start, Well

926
00:44:52,239 --> 00:44:54,680
Speaker 2: not exactly. She was a bondage queen, but Yolanda told

927
00:44:54,680 --> 00:44:56,560
Speaker 2: The New York Times. In those days they might have

928
00:44:56,640 --> 00:44:59,319
Speaker 2: been racy, but today I don't think so. Now, in

929
00:44:59,360 --> 00:45:02,120
Speaker 2: the late six she met Harold von Brownhood, and she

930
00:45:02,200 --> 00:45:04,800
Speaker 2: tells it Harold was such an exciting person. Show business

931
00:45:04,840 --> 00:45:07,239
Speaker 2: was kind of a tough thing, and I'm not into

932
00:45:07,320 --> 00:45:09,680
Speaker 2: all that myself. I like being around Harold and the

933
00:45:09,680 --> 00:45:13,560
Speaker 2: sea monkeys. So she marries him. Yeah, she marries him,

934
00:45:13,600 --> 00:45:15,800
Speaker 2: and she goes to work hawking sea monkeys. Her husband

935
00:45:16,160 --> 00:45:18,640
Speaker 2: past is, though, a right, so her desire to be

936
00:45:18,680 --> 00:45:20,640
Speaker 2: the queen of the sea monkey Empire kind of fades

937
00:45:20,680 --> 00:45:23,279
Speaker 2: with his passing. So she trusts her business to Big

938
00:45:23,320 --> 00:45:28,000
Speaker 2: Time Toys. That was a mistake, sounds. Enter Sam Harwell,

939
00:45:28,120 --> 00:45:31,120
Speaker 2: CEO of Big Time Toy Company. He arranged the deal

940
00:45:31,160 --> 00:45:33,480
Speaker 2: with the proviso that for ten million dollars, Big Time

941
00:45:33,520 --> 00:45:35,839
Speaker 2: had the option to buy the company from Yolanda, which

942
00:45:35,840 --> 00:45:38,759
Speaker 2: would include the secret formula for the nutrient packet and

943
00:45:38,800 --> 00:45:42,440
Speaker 2: the dehydrated sea monkeys. So one day he sent Yolanda

944
00:45:42,440 --> 00:45:45,280
Speaker 2: a letter exercising his option and works. Yet he claimed

945
00:45:45,280 --> 00:45:47,520
Speaker 2: that he'd already paid the necessary amount over time and

946
00:45:47,560 --> 00:45:49,120
Speaker 2: thus the company was now his, So he was just

947
00:45:49,120 --> 00:45:52,160
Speaker 2: informing her, I now own your company. It belongs to

948
00:45:52,440 --> 00:45:55,840
Speaker 2: Big Time Toys. So such a great villain name for

949
00:45:55,880 --> 00:45:59,000
Speaker 2: a company, Big Time Toys. It sounds like it's from

950
00:45:59,040 --> 00:46:00,640
Speaker 2: Hutsucker Proxy. Oh my god.

951
00:46:01,120 --> 00:46:03,640
Speaker 3: Well also it's like the dan ackroid Carriac.

952
00:46:03,719 --> 00:46:05,319
Speaker 2: Yeah, totally, it's exactly what yeah.

953
00:46:05,520 --> 00:46:05,920
Speaker 3: Yeah.

954
00:46:05,960 --> 00:46:08,960
Speaker 2: So anyway, in twenty thirteen, Yolanda sued Big Time Toys.

955
00:46:09,000 --> 00:46:10,840
Speaker 2: She took them to court for breach of contract and

956
00:46:11,160 --> 00:46:14,680
Speaker 2: trademark infringement, all the usual suspects. Right in the court filings,

957
00:46:14,680 --> 00:46:17,080
Speaker 2: it's revealed that Big Time Toys had already gone ahead

958
00:46:17,080 --> 00:46:20,600
Speaker 2: and started selling sea monkeys with or without Yolanda's patented

959
00:46:20,600 --> 00:46:24,480
Speaker 2: supply and proprietary nutrient packets. Instead, Big Time Toys they

960
00:46:24,560 --> 00:46:27,160
Speaker 2: just bought Brian Trimp from China and called them sea monkeys.

961
00:46:27,280 --> 00:46:29,680
Speaker 2: That ah wow. So, by the way, at the time,

962
00:46:29,719 --> 00:46:31,600
Speaker 2: he probably thought he could get away with all this

963
00:46:31,880 --> 00:46:34,080
Speaker 2: since he had some clout in his home state of Tennessee.

964
00:46:34,480 --> 00:46:37,160
Speaker 2: He was a big man in Nashville Elizabeth. More importantly,

965
00:46:37,239 --> 00:46:40,359
Speaker 2: Sam Harwell, his wife was the Speaker of the House

966
00:46:40,400 --> 00:46:43,479
Speaker 2: of the Tennessee House of Representatives. What so he didn't

967
00:46:43,480 --> 00:46:47,640
Speaker 2: fear getting popped for selling phony sea monkeys to Walmart

968
00:46:48,160 --> 00:46:52,000
Speaker 2: now man now true to farm. Twenty fourteen, US District

969
00:46:52,080 --> 00:46:56,200
Speaker 2: Judge ed Edgardo Ramos ruled against Yolanda, and he refused

970
00:46:56,200 --> 00:46:58,640
Speaker 2: to prohibit Big Time Toys from selling its own sea

971
00:46:58,680 --> 00:47:01,080
Speaker 2: monkeys really, which they can heeded to do to this

972
00:47:01,160 --> 00:47:04,480
Speaker 2: day with their counterfeit Chinese Brian shrimp. Yah. Now, if

973
00:47:04,520 --> 00:47:06,640
Speaker 2: you buy a sea monkey set today, that's what you receive,

974
00:47:06,760 --> 00:47:08,880
Speaker 2: but with all the same old artwork and booklets on

975
00:47:08,880 --> 00:47:11,000
Speaker 2: how to care and feed your sea markets. Now, there

976
00:47:11,080 --> 00:47:14,160
Speaker 2: was an earlier legal fight background Harold von brown Hoot

977
00:47:14,160 --> 00:47:16,880
Speaker 2: was still alive, and that fight was far more serious,

978
00:47:16,920 --> 00:47:19,120
Speaker 2: far scarier for the future of the sea monkey empire.

979
00:47:19,280 --> 00:47:21,880
Speaker 2: In the nineteen seventies, the buzzword at the time in

980
00:47:21,920 --> 00:47:24,360
Speaker 2: American court rooms was consumer protection. Yeah, it was like

981
00:47:24,360 --> 00:47:26,279
Speaker 2: a big deal. That's what what the snel skit was

982
00:47:26,320 --> 00:47:29,319
Speaker 2: making fun of was consumer protection. Right, So the New

983
00:47:29,400 --> 00:47:32,719
Speaker 2: York State Attorney General, Louis Lefkowitz, he went after sea

984
00:47:32,719 --> 00:47:35,239
Speaker 2: monkeys for conning the public. He wanted to litigate the

985
00:47:35,280 --> 00:47:38,560
Speaker 2: ethical limits of humbug, so left Kowitz. He made the

986
00:47:38,560 --> 00:47:41,360
Speaker 2: case that Harold von Brown Hood sold fraudulent goods and

987
00:47:41,440 --> 00:47:44,839
Speaker 2: services such as the quote limited group sea monkey life

988
00:47:44,840 --> 00:47:46,160
Speaker 2: insurance policy.

989
00:47:48,000 --> 00:47:53,640
Speaker 3: Insurance to the agent took with.

990
00:47:53,600 --> 00:47:58,799
Speaker 2: The Brian trimp insurance you know, and he demanded it

991
00:47:58,840 --> 00:48:00,759
Speaker 2: was it was a silly legal fight, right, but he

992
00:48:00,800 --> 00:48:03,280
Speaker 2: demanded to the court prohibit the sale of life insurance

993
00:48:03,320 --> 00:48:06,640
Speaker 2: policies for sea monkeys. And this would cost brown Wood

994
00:48:06,920 --> 00:48:09,840
Speaker 2: millions of dollars. I don't think they should pain and

995
00:48:09,880 --> 00:48:11,600
Speaker 2: I'm sure they didn't because they held I don't know,

996
00:48:11,680 --> 00:48:14,319
Speaker 2: They're like, oh, act of God, once again, act of God?

997
00:48:14,480 --> 00:48:17,399
Speaker 2: How always an act of God. So the judge listened

998
00:48:17,440 --> 00:48:18,719
Speaker 2: to the merits of the case, but in the end

999
00:48:18,760 --> 00:48:21,360
Speaker 2: he sided with whimsy. To ground his reasoning in a

1000
00:48:21,400 --> 00:48:24,799
Speaker 2: real world example, he compared sea monkeys to sponge cake

1001
00:48:25,360 --> 00:48:28,160
Speaker 2: and also to butter. The judge said, and unquote sponge cake.

1002
00:48:28,239 --> 00:48:31,320
Speaker 2: It's not a sponge butterflies or not made of butter.

1003
00:48:33,040 --> 00:48:35,640
Speaker 2: Sea monkeys were deemed to be a legally permissible fiction

1004
00:48:36,080 --> 00:48:38,799
Speaker 2: since the public chose to be fleeced. But this is

1005
00:48:38,800 --> 00:48:41,040
Speaker 2: not the end of the legal and ethical issues facing

1006
00:48:41,080 --> 00:48:43,840
Speaker 2: Harold von Brownhood. Because Elizabeth I saved the best, or

1007
00:48:43,920 --> 00:48:47,719
Speaker 2: rather the weirdest, the darkest for the last In two

1008
00:48:47,719 --> 00:48:49,920
Speaker 2: thousand and two, just before he died, Harold von Brownhood

1009
00:48:49,920 --> 00:48:52,279
Speaker 2: gave an interview to Planet X magazine, which I need

1010
00:48:52,320 --> 00:48:55,760
Speaker 2: to get a subscription to. In the interview, he's this fun, funny,

1011
00:48:55,800 --> 00:48:58,880
Speaker 2: strange seller of Kitschy toys, right the harmless Grandpa, if

1012
00:48:58,920 --> 00:49:01,040
Speaker 2: you will. He's just talking about it Kitschy Toy Empire.

1013
00:49:01,160 --> 00:49:03,080
Speaker 2: But what he leaves out was that, you know, just

1014
00:49:03,200 --> 00:49:06,560
Speaker 2: earlier about in the late anteen eighties and nineteen eighty eight,

1015
00:49:06,600 --> 00:49:08,960
Speaker 2: I think the Washington Post had a story that was

1016
00:49:09,080 --> 00:49:11,480
Speaker 2: it kind of ruined his good name for a long time.

1017
00:49:11,640 --> 00:49:13,520
Speaker 2: But by two thousand and two people had forgotten about

1018
00:49:13,560 --> 00:49:15,440
Speaker 2: it because they didn't really talk about it, or they

1019
00:49:15,440 --> 00:49:16,920
Speaker 2: maybe they decided to leave it out. I don't know.

1020
00:49:16,960 --> 00:49:20,120
Speaker 2: But Elizabeth the Washing Post, they did some digging and

1021
00:49:20,160 --> 00:49:23,359
Speaker 2: they discovered that Harold von Brownhoot was not who he

1022
00:49:23,400 --> 00:49:25,640
Speaker 2: said he was or who he seemed to be. They

1023
00:49:25,719 --> 00:49:28,120
Speaker 2: revealed to the world that he was a secret Nazi.

1024
00:49:29,520 --> 00:49:30,480
Speaker 3: But then that's not all.

1025
00:49:31,360 --> 00:49:33,920
Speaker 2: What was even more shocking is that he was Jewish.

1026
00:49:34,160 --> 00:49:38,120
Speaker 2: He was a Jewish secret Nazi. How it happens, he

1027
00:49:38,160 --> 00:49:41,239
Speaker 2: was born in Manhattan. He was named Harold Nathan brownhood.

1028
00:49:41,360 --> 00:49:43,719
Speaker 2: His parents were both Jewish. His father ran a print shop,

1029
00:49:43,719 --> 00:49:45,840
Speaker 2: his mother of his family had a toy business. But

1030
00:49:45,920 --> 00:49:48,840
Speaker 2: he walked away from his Judaism, his whole Jewish identity,

1031
00:49:49,239 --> 00:49:51,319
Speaker 2: and he added a Vaughan to his name to make

1032
00:49:51,360 --> 00:49:53,719
Speaker 2: it sound more Germanic. And then he became a full

1033
00:49:53,760 --> 00:49:56,440
Speaker 2: blown neo Nazi. And not just like a quiet secret

1034
00:49:56,440 --> 00:49:58,880
Speaker 2: believer who bought like SS uniforms and danced around in

1035
00:49:58,880 --> 00:50:01,400
Speaker 2: his basement. No, no, no, he was a major backer

1036
00:50:01,440 --> 00:50:04,480
Speaker 2: and financier of the movement. What In nineteen seventy nine

1037
00:50:04,480 --> 00:50:08,000
Speaker 2: he was busted in LaGuardia Airport for carrying six unknown weapons, right,

1038
00:50:08,040 --> 00:50:09,759
Speaker 2: and he had invented them, because you know it's him.

1039
00:50:09,960 --> 00:50:13,160
Speaker 2: He called them the Kyoga Agent M five, nicknamed the

1040
00:50:13,200 --> 00:50:17,280
Speaker 2: steel Cobra. So the steel Cobra was a small wand

1041
00:50:17,320 --> 00:50:20,000
Speaker 2: with a spring loaded retractable section so you could like

1042
00:50:20,080 --> 00:50:22,319
Speaker 2: kind of hit a button and out would come like

1043
00:50:22,360 --> 00:50:25,080
Speaker 2: you know, kind of like a Russian nested dolls.

1044
00:50:25,239 --> 00:50:27,520
Speaker 3: No, it's like Jennifer Lopez and out of sight.

1045
00:50:27,680 --> 00:50:30,439
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, the telescope, that's the that's the better version

1046
00:50:30,440 --> 00:50:30,640
Speaker 2: of it.

1047
00:50:30,719 --> 00:50:32,399
Speaker 3: And then you want to toe that's the.

1048
00:50:32,360 --> 00:50:35,200
Speaker 2: One that's there that one you shake and it comes

1049
00:50:35,239 --> 00:50:37,440
Speaker 2: out and then you can't back it up. This one

1050
00:50:37,520 --> 00:50:38,840
Speaker 2: hit a button and if you hit the end, it

1051
00:50:38,880 --> 00:50:41,000
Speaker 2: could go right back in. It was it was a

1052
00:50:41,040 --> 00:50:44,080
Speaker 2: toy anyway. The steel cobra you could buy for fifty

1053
00:50:44,160 --> 00:50:47,560
Speaker 2: nine ninety five. Now, yeah, if you if you wanted

1054
00:50:47,560 --> 00:50:48,480
Speaker 2: your very own, Elizabeth.

1055
00:50:48,520 --> 00:50:50,720
Speaker 3: Now he sold this pocket size I have a truncheon.

1056
00:50:50,960 --> 00:50:53,600
Speaker 2: Oh there you go. That's right, you know, like a yeah.

1057
00:50:53,840 --> 00:50:56,879
Speaker 3: No, it's like a policeman's truncheon, is wood and it's

1058
00:50:56,920 --> 00:50:58,799
Speaker 3: got a metal rod running right through it.

1059
00:50:58,800 --> 00:50:59,520
Speaker 2: Oh that's cool.

1060
00:51:00,360 --> 00:51:02,320
Speaker 3: So if anyone breaks into my house.

1061
00:51:02,160 --> 00:51:03,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, you got a sock on it so they can't

1062
00:51:03,560 --> 00:51:05,719
Speaker 2: grab it. Uh huh, very good. I like that.

1063
00:51:06,120 --> 00:51:07,480
Speaker 3: Were you the one I hit in the middle of

1064
00:51:07,520 --> 00:51:07,799
Speaker 3: the night.

1065
00:51:07,960 --> 00:51:12,400
Speaker 2: No, no, not that time. So he sells this pocket

1066
00:51:12,440 --> 00:51:14,680
Speaker 2: sized secret weapon with a pithy phrase to let people

1067
00:51:14,760 --> 00:51:17,279
Speaker 2: know exactly what he's about. If you need a gun

1068
00:51:17,320 --> 00:51:19,720
Speaker 2: but can't get a license, get a steel cobra.

1069
00:51:20,680 --> 00:51:20,759
Speaker 4: This.

1070
00:51:20,920 --> 00:51:24,040
Speaker 2: So it's for people who've been to prison and had

1071
00:51:24,040 --> 00:51:27,120
Speaker 2: their rights to hide them. So, Elizabeth, that you should

1072
00:51:27,120 --> 00:51:29,799
Speaker 2: know that for every steel cover he sold, Harold von

1073
00:51:29,840 --> 00:51:32,640
Speaker 2: Brownhood donated almost half of the proceeds to his friends

1074
00:51:32,640 --> 00:51:35,440
Speaker 2: in the neo Nazi Party. Oh now, this all came

1075
00:51:35,440 --> 00:51:37,520
Speaker 2: out in the nineteen eighties. When Richard Butler, head of

1076
00:51:37,560 --> 00:51:40,319
Speaker 2: the Aryan Nations, was indicted in nineteen eighty seven for

1077
00:51:40,360 --> 00:51:44,520
Speaker 2: attempting to overthrow the government. He smugly cooled the concerns

1078
00:51:44,520 --> 00:51:47,480
Speaker 2: of his supporters by informing them that, via like a

1079
00:51:47,520 --> 00:51:50,840
Speaker 2: courthouse steps interview with the press, that he had powerful backers.

1080
00:51:50,880 --> 00:51:52,959
Speaker 2: Not to worry. I'm gonna fight this like the man

1081
00:51:52,960 --> 00:51:55,880
Speaker 2: behind the Sea Monkey Fortune. He's got my back. So

1082
00:51:55,920 --> 00:51:58,280
Speaker 2: the heads of the Aryan Nations boasted that he felt

1083
00:51:58,280 --> 00:52:00,719
Speaker 2: he was in good hands because von brown Hood had

1084
00:52:00,840 --> 00:52:03,080
Speaker 2: quote made a pledge of twenty five dollars to my

1085
00:52:03,160 --> 00:52:06,680
Speaker 2: defense fund for everyone sold to Aryan Nation supporters.

1086
00:52:07,200 --> 00:52:08,839
Speaker 3: This is a clown show.

1087
00:52:08,960 --> 00:52:10,960
Speaker 2: Fun fact, Elizabeth. When I was a kid, my uncle,

1088
00:52:11,000 --> 00:52:14,120
Speaker 2: the former Hell's Angel biker, former gunsmith and soldier of

1089
00:52:14,440 --> 00:52:18,280
Speaker 2: Fortune magazine subscriber, he had one of these steel cobras,

1090
00:52:18,280 --> 00:52:20,440
Speaker 2: and I had to wonder. Now, after reading about this,

1091
00:52:20,520 --> 00:52:24,239
Speaker 2: I'm like, wait, Hell's Angel Bikers, soldier, Fortune Magazine gunsmith,

1092
00:52:24,320 --> 00:52:26,960
Speaker 2: I'm turning to hear it now, and I'm wondering, did

1093
00:52:27,000 --> 00:52:29,839
Speaker 2: he know he was backing the Neo Nazi Legal Defense Fund.

1094
00:52:30,400 --> 00:52:31,880
Speaker 3: You're lucky you made it out a.

1095
00:52:31,960 --> 00:52:37,120
Speaker 2: Lot anyway, Harold von Brown hood wasn't just a supporter

1096
00:52:37,200 --> 00:52:39,560
Speaker 2: of neo Nazis. He was also partial to old timey

1097
00:52:39,680 --> 00:52:43,239
Speaker 2: racism like the KKK. In the nineteen eighty five weapons case,

1098
00:52:43,280 --> 00:52:46,560
Speaker 2: a grand Dragon was prepared to testify in federal court

1099
00:52:46,719 --> 00:52:49,120
Speaker 2: that the infamous kitchen toymaker was his backer and lent

1100
00:52:49,200 --> 00:52:51,000
Speaker 2: him money to buy eighty three guns.

1101
00:52:51,600 --> 00:52:54,760
Speaker 3: You kid this guy, yea. He was also surrounded.

1102
00:52:54,880 --> 00:52:57,160
Speaker 2: Oh my god, I'm not even close to done. He was.

1103
00:52:57,400 --> 00:52:59,480
Speaker 2: He was a frequent guest at the Hayden Lake White

1104
00:52:59,480 --> 00:53:03,759
Speaker 2: Power comp found in Idaho. The Tom Metzger's Crew are associated,

1105
00:53:04,239 --> 00:53:06,319
Speaker 2: so they, according to the LA Time, sometimes they let

1106
00:53:06,360 --> 00:53:08,560
Speaker 2: the Jewish toy maker light the crosses on fire at

1107
00:53:08,600 --> 00:53:11,360
Speaker 2: their ceremonies. Wait, yes, apparently Von Brown would like to

1108
00:53:11,360 --> 00:53:13,360
Speaker 2: play dress up when he was with his bigot buddies.

1109
00:53:13,440 --> 00:53:15,520
Speaker 2: He liked to call himself a quote priest at large,

1110
00:53:15,560 --> 00:53:17,080
Speaker 2: and he used to wear a priest collar and a

1111
00:53:17,080 --> 00:53:18,960
Speaker 2: black shirt. So there he is lighting a thing on

1112
00:53:19,000 --> 00:53:21,000
Speaker 2: fire dressed as a priest. It's a whole thing.

1113
00:53:21,080 --> 00:53:23,080
Speaker 3: I don't even know like psychology.

1114
00:53:23,280 --> 00:53:25,080
Speaker 2: Yes, right. It made me mad tho, because remember I

1115
00:53:25,080 --> 00:53:26,640
Speaker 2: told you I bought a pre shirt a collar, and

1116
00:53:26,680 --> 00:53:29,360
Speaker 2: I'm like, am I like this guy's it's like, oh.

1117
00:53:29,239 --> 00:53:30,320
Speaker 3: Man, the black Nazi.

1118
00:53:30,400 --> 00:53:33,200
Speaker 2: Well, no, it's not that part. Not like Kanye about it.

1119
00:53:33,239 --> 00:53:34,839
Speaker 2: But I mean, like, do I have the same sense

1120
00:53:34,880 --> 00:53:37,879
Speaker 2: of humor? Is this kitchy toy maker? I hope? God,

1121
00:53:37,960 --> 00:53:38,359
Speaker 2: I know.

1122
00:53:38,520 --> 00:53:40,520
Speaker 3: I don't think he was doing it to get preferential

1123
00:53:40,520 --> 00:53:43,520
Speaker 3: treatment in an airport. No, like someone I know, I

1124
00:53:43,560 --> 00:53:48,520
Speaker 3: think I think this guy has got Well.

1125
00:53:48,520 --> 00:53:53,040
Speaker 2: If you asked Landa Signorelli about her husband's racial peculiarities,

1126
00:53:53,080 --> 00:53:55,319
Speaker 2: she would tell you, Harold and I never really talked

1127
00:53:55,320 --> 00:53:57,919
Speaker 2: about things like that. We just really loved each other

1128
00:53:57,960 --> 00:54:00,879
Speaker 2: and I didn't question him already tarrogets him. I'm very

1129
00:54:00,880 --> 00:54:03,520
Speaker 2: inclusive with everybody, and that's why I live on a

1130
00:54:03,560 --> 00:54:06,240
Speaker 2: farm with all kinds of animals and try to impact

1131
00:54:06,280 --> 00:54:09,040
Speaker 2: the earth with in the least possible way and try

1132
00:54:09,080 --> 00:54:14,440
Speaker 2: to live a peaceful, happy, loving life. That this is

1133
00:54:14,480 --> 00:54:17,000
Speaker 2: paid for by selling Brian Trimp to glible children while

1134
00:54:17,000 --> 00:54:20,279
Speaker 2: her husband banks the overthrow of the US government by

1135
00:54:20,320 --> 00:54:25,560
Speaker 2: neo Nazis. I want a peaceful So why does this

1136
00:54:25,600 --> 00:54:30,279
Speaker 2: story have modern echoes anyway? Why would all the skinheads

1137
00:54:30,280 --> 00:54:32,920
Speaker 2: and neo Nazis and grand Dragons want to pal around

1138
00:54:32,920 --> 00:54:35,200
Speaker 2: with a Jewish toymaker in the first place. If you

1139
00:54:35,239 --> 00:54:38,239
Speaker 2: ask Harold von Brownhood, he said, I will not make

1140
00:54:38,280 --> 00:54:39,280
Speaker 2: any statements whatsoever.

1141
00:54:39,400 --> 00:54:41,640
Speaker 3: So that was his whole comments because he because money.

1142
00:54:41,719 --> 00:54:44,120
Speaker 2: It comes out that he's Jewish. They find out in

1143
00:54:44,160 --> 00:54:46,440
Speaker 2: the eighty eight when Washington Post comes out. They say

1144
00:54:46,560 --> 00:54:48,600
Speaker 2: he's Jewish and he's a neo Nazi.

1145
00:54:48,440 --> 00:54:50,280
Speaker 3: And the Nazis irony of it coming out.

1146
00:54:50,120 --> 00:54:53,120
Speaker 2: In and at the same time, he was still paying

1147
00:54:53,120 --> 00:54:55,320
Speaker 2: for the upkeep of his parents grave at a Jewish

1148
00:54:55,360 --> 00:54:57,200
Speaker 2: cemetery in Long.

1149
00:54:57,000 --> 00:54:59,360
Speaker 3: Island because they're just spinning in there. They have to

1150
00:54:59,440 --> 00:55:03,120
Speaker 3: keep some that's his maintenance.

1151
00:55:03,160 --> 00:55:04,840
Speaker 2: He basically he hadn't fully turned his back on his

1152
00:55:04,920 --> 00:55:06,160
Speaker 2: Jewish family or identities.

1153
00:55:06,160 --> 00:55:08,560
Speaker 3: My boys, they all found out and they just kept

1154
00:55:08,600 --> 00:55:09,759
Speaker 3: taking his money.

1155
00:55:09,880 --> 00:55:11,920
Speaker 2: Back to his new fam the Aryan Nations. So in

1156
00:55:12,000 --> 00:55:15,200
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety five, a decade after nearly after the Washington

1157
00:55:15,239 --> 00:55:18,120
Speaker 2: Post reveal, there he was dressed as a priest at large,

1158
00:55:18,200 --> 00:55:21,319
Speaker 2: presiding over the funeral of Betty Butler, wife of the

1159
00:55:21,360 --> 00:55:22,240
Speaker 2: head of the Aryan.

1160
00:55:22,120 --> 00:55:24,960
Speaker 3: Nations, the priest at large thing too. It's like like

1161
00:55:25,040 --> 00:55:25,839
Speaker 3: a so.

1162
00:55:25,880 --> 00:55:28,120
Speaker 2: Her husband member at large, like the head of the

1163
00:55:28,160 --> 00:55:30,719
Speaker 2: Arian Nations who was known to say the Jews were

1164
00:55:30,719 --> 00:55:33,480
Speaker 2: the spawn of the devil, to send us a satan himself. Yeah,

1165
00:55:33,600 --> 00:55:36,000
Speaker 2: he had one of devil's own send his wife over

1166
00:55:36,040 --> 00:55:36,719
Speaker 2: to the other side.

1167
00:55:36,840 --> 00:55:37,319
Speaker 3: Oh my god.

1168
00:55:37,560 --> 00:55:39,080
Speaker 2: I guess is that he was cheap and wanted to

1169
00:55:39,120 --> 00:55:41,880
Speaker 2: save money on his wife's funeral, or that he had

1170
00:55:41,880 --> 00:55:43,680
Speaker 2: a friend do it, or like maybe he just really

1171
00:55:43,680 --> 00:55:45,360
Speaker 2: wanted Harold von brown out to be the one to

1172
00:55:45,400 --> 00:55:48,000
Speaker 2: say words over his dearly departed wife, like Betty just

1173
00:55:48,040 --> 00:55:49,840
Speaker 2: loved Harold. I don't know. I have no idea, but

1174
00:55:49,840 --> 00:55:52,520
Speaker 2: it just goes to show the truth of this statement, Elizabeth.

1175
00:55:52,840 --> 00:55:55,719
Speaker 2: The truth is always stranger than fiction, even if the

1176
00:55:55,760 --> 00:56:00,440
Speaker 2: fiction is sea monkeys. Yes, by the way, May sixteenth

1177
00:56:00,480 --> 00:56:04,800
Speaker 2: is National Sea Monkey Day. Please celebrate responsibly, don't celebrate,

1178
00:56:05,239 --> 00:56:08,120
Speaker 2: but don't worry. The money no longer supports Neo Nazis.

1179
00:56:08,480 --> 00:56:11,360
Speaker 2: It goes to Chinese brine, shrimp farmers and the husband

1180
00:56:11,440 --> 00:56:13,359
Speaker 2: of the farmer speaker the House of the Tennessee House

1181
00:56:13,360 --> 00:56:18,080
Speaker 2: of Representatives. So there you go, what's our ridiculous takeaway here?

1182
00:56:18,600 --> 00:56:24,919
Speaker 3: You know, my ridiculous takeaway is just how disgusting it

1183
00:56:24,960 --> 00:56:31,440
Speaker 3: is that we perpetually take advantage of and fleece people's

1184
00:56:31,480 --> 00:56:33,560
Speaker 3: sense of silliness and wonder.

1185
00:56:33,800 --> 00:56:36,640
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, not trying to profit up whimsie like so cheaply.

1186
00:56:36,800 --> 00:56:39,480
Speaker 3: Yeah exactly. I mean that's that's the point of it all.

1187
00:56:39,600 --> 00:56:43,600
Speaker 3: But like, whatever, what's your ridiculous takeaway?

1188
00:56:43,840 --> 00:56:46,560
Speaker 2: That I learned so much in this episode, But the

1189
00:56:46,600 --> 00:56:48,520
Speaker 2: thing that shocked me the most is learning about the

1190
00:56:48,800 --> 00:56:50,480
Speaker 2: steel Cobra and my uncle and having to do the

1191
00:56:50,520 --> 00:56:55,360
Speaker 2: math on that is like soldier from.

1192
00:56:55,120 --> 00:56:58,200
Speaker 3: Like zany sea monkeys to neo Nazi.

1193
00:56:58,520 --> 00:57:00,960
Speaker 2: Sorry about that a lot. I've tried to squeze it

1194
00:57:01,040 --> 00:57:03,000
Speaker 2: in just at the ends. I wouldn't hang over everything.

1195
00:57:03,440 --> 00:57:04,719
Speaker 2: So there you go. You're in the mood for a

1196
00:57:04,760 --> 00:57:07,880
Speaker 2: talk pact to kind of wash this all away, pretty

1197
00:57:08,200 --> 00:57:09,319
Speaker 2: could you favor us with one?

1198
00:57:11,560 --> 00:57:11,799
Speaker 3: Oh?

1199
00:57:13,520 --> 00:57:19,160
Speaker 2: Oh my god? Ill get.

1200
00:57:22,080 --> 00:57:25,680
Speaker 4: Hi's Aaron, Hi, Elizabeth, this is kit, your favorite ridiculous

1201
00:57:25,720 --> 00:57:29,640
Speaker 4: first suitmaker. I am sending you a message from anthro

1202
00:57:29,760 --> 00:57:31,840
Speaker 4: New England and Boston to tell you that I am

1203
00:57:31,880 --> 00:57:35,240
Speaker 4: at another fury con. I have seen many people who

1204
00:57:35,240 --> 00:57:40,120
Speaker 4: are indeed quirky and unique and it's great. Love you guys,

1205
00:57:41,360 --> 00:57:41,760
Speaker 4: Thank you.

1206
00:57:42,720 --> 00:57:44,480
Speaker 3: I'm glad you're having a good time out there.

1207
00:57:44,720 --> 00:57:46,360
Speaker 2: Oh do you know I'm backing your cheering.

1208
00:57:46,480 --> 00:57:47,200
Speaker 3: They're quirky.

1209
00:57:47,280 --> 00:57:48,200
Speaker 2: Elizabeth's come around.

1210
00:57:48,240 --> 00:57:49,800
Speaker 3: I think the cool one.

1211
00:57:49,960 --> 00:57:53,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, so thank you for that knows no enjoy well,

1212
00:57:53,160 --> 00:57:55,440
Speaker 2: I've always you can find us online. Has a Ridiculous

1213
00:57:55,480 --> 00:57:58,440
Speaker 2: crime on the social media's mostly blue sky Instagram, so forth,

1214
00:57:58,480 --> 00:58:00,760
Speaker 2: I think we have we have the web Ridiculous Crime

1215
00:58:00,760 --> 00:58:03,960
Speaker 2: dot com. That one is still winning awards. We just

1216
00:58:04,240 --> 00:58:08,000
Speaker 2: won I think Car and Driver's best pickup of the

1217
00:58:08,080 --> 00:58:12,920
Speaker 2: year for towing capacity. So I'm very excited about that. Yeah, exactly,

1218
00:58:12,960 --> 00:58:15,520
Speaker 2: you know, I'm stoked. So also, we love to talk

1219
00:58:15,560 --> 00:58:17,920
Speaker 2: backs obviously, so please go to the iHeart app download it,

1220
00:58:18,240 --> 00:58:21,720
Speaker 2: record one and maybe you'll hear your voice here. Also

1221
00:58:21,760 --> 00:58:24,160
Speaker 2: your emails if you like a Ridiculous Crime at gmail

1222
00:58:24,240 --> 00:58:25,800
Speaker 2: dot com, we'd love to hear from you. We very

1223
00:58:25,880 --> 00:58:27,880
Speaker 2: much enjoy your emails. Thank you for all the suggestions.

1224
00:58:27,880 --> 00:58:30,200
Speaker 2: We've been coming up with new stories from the big

1225
00:58:30,200 --> 00:58:31,919
Speaker 2: Board from some of your suggestions, So thank you guys

1226
00:58:32,000 --> 00:58:33,640
Speaker 2: so much, and thank you also for the nice words,

1227
00:58:33,640 --> 00:58:36,120
Speaker 2: We've heard some really nice stuff about getting through the

1228
00:58:36,200 --> 00:58:39,160
Speaker 2: times right now and just know we are there with you,

1229
00:58:41,440 --> 00:58:44,160
Speaker 2: So thanks for listening. We will catch you next. Crime.

1230
00:58:49,360 --> 00:58:53,160
Speaker 2: Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaronet, produced

1231
00:58:53,160 --> 00:58:55,960
Speaker 2: and edited by President of the Buzz Aldrin Fight Club

1232
00:58:56,040 --> 00:58:59,960
Speaker 2: for Men, Dave Kustin, and starring Annals Rutger as Judith.

1233
00:59:00,400 --> 00:59:03,680
Speaker 2: Research is by CEO of Big Time Toy Company's chief rival,

1234
00:59:03,760 --> 00:59:06,920
Speaker 2: Happy fun Time Toys, Larissa Brown. Her theme song is

1235
00:59:06,960 --> 00:59:10,680
Speaker 2: by Thomas land Air and Sea Monkey Lee and Travis

1236
00:59:10,720 --> 00:59:14,680
Speaker 2: Og Space Monkey Dutton. The host wardrobe provided by Botany

1237
00:59:14,680 --> 00:59:18,400
Speaker 2: five hundred. Guest hair and makeup by Sparkleshow and mister Andre.

1238
00:59:18,760 --> 00:59:22,960
Speaker 2: Executive producers are ben Yolanda Signerelli, fan Club President Bolan

1239
00:59:23,120 --> 00:59:27,160
Speaker 2: and inventor of the Land Dolphin Noel Brown.

1240
00:59:33,800 --> 00:59:37,560
Speaker 3: Cui Say It One More Time, Geekue Crime.

1241
00:59:38,640 --> 00:59:42,000
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio four more Podcasts.

1242
00:59:42,120 --> 00:59:45,280
Speaker 1: My Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

1243
00:59:45,320 --> 00:59:47,120
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.