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Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, it's Josh and for this week's select, I've

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Speaker 1: chosen our episode on sea monkeys that came out in

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Speaker 1: March of twenty eighteen. Sea monkeys are one of those

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Speaker 1: things that you just take for granted when you're a kid.

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Speaker 1: There's that one ad that was in every single issue

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Speaker 1: of every single comic book, and for those of us

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Speaker 1: lucky enough to mail off to get them, they became

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Speaker 1: an even bigger part of your childhood when you got

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Speaker 1: to watch them swim around in their cool little plastic tank.

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Speaker 1: But sea monkeys have an even more amazing backstory than this,

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Speaker 1: not just of toy fame, but also of intrigue too.

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Speaker 2: Hope you enjoy it.

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Speaker 3: Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's

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Speaker 1: Charles w Chuck Bryant, there's Jerry over there. We are

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Speaker 1: swimmingly excited about this one because it is about sea monkeys.

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Speaker 3: Jerry is mama sea monkey.

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Speaker 1: Yes, she's got her little blonde bob hairdo going on.

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Speaker 3: And I guess we're baby sea monkeys.

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Speaker 1: I guess, yeah, that's cool. We'll let's we'll let the

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Speaker 1: dad not exist. Okay, we're brothers, that's right. I think

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Speaker 1: that's a good.

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Speaker 3: Move with a non existent father, which really explains a

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Speaker 3: lot about us.

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Speaker 1: Non existent sea monkey father no less. Yeah, So, Chuck,

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Speaker 1: I realized that I don't know something about you, which

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Speaker 1: is weird because we've been doing this for almost ten years.

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Speaker 3: And we're Sea Monkey brothers.

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Speaker 2: We are. We know a lot about one another. We

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Speaker 2: know one another.

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Speaker 1: Smells, looks, scowls, all sorts of stuff, right, triumphs, victories.

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Speaker 1: One thing I don't know about you is whether you

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Speaker 1: were into comic books as a kid.

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Speaker 3: Well, glad you asked. I feel like we've talked about

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Speaker 3: this at some point, but maybe not. I yeah, we

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Speaker 3: have for sure, Okay, because remember I read Archie and

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Speaker 3: Richie Rich.

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Speaker 2: Oh yes, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.

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Speaker 3: And I wasn't Well, here's a couple of things. I

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Speaker 3: read Archie and Richie Rich growing up and didn't get

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Speaker 3: into the superhero comics much because I don't know why.

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Speaker 3: But then, also, you don't know this part. We used

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Speaker 3: to go to visit my grandmother on my father's side.

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Speaker 2: She was big time into Thor.

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Speaker 3: Granny Thor. She lived in Jackson, Tennessee, and it was.

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Speaker 3: I had sort of the modern grandparents with cable TV

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Speaker 3: who lived in a condo, and then old school granny

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Speaker 3: who lived in a house in the country. And so

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Speaker 3: granted Granny Bryant didn't have TV or anything like that,

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Speaker 3: but what she did have in the back room was

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Speaker 3: a bunch of my dad and Uncle Ed's old toys

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Speaker 3: and comic books from when they were kids. It's nice,

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Speaker 3: so I think they're mainly Uncle Eddie. So I got

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Speaker 3: I had a big stack of comics from I guess

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Speaker 3: the nineteen sixties that were like Man from Uncle. I'm

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Speaker 3: trying to read. I'm trying to think of a few more.

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Speaker 3: No superhero stuff, but just those weird sort of I

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Speaker 3: guess it wasn't weird, but Man from Uncle is the

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Speaker 3: only one I can remember.

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Speaker 2: But it's a little weird.

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Speaker 3: Long story short is because that's all the entertainment we

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Speaker 3: had to ingest. We would my brother and I would

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Speaker 3: go back there and read those every year for years.

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Speaker 2: That's pretty awesome, the same comics.

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Speaker 1: So you made your way through that stack multiple.

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Speaker 3: Times, oh many many times?

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Speaker 2: Gotcha?

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Speaker 3: Like I remember the ads, I remember, I remember everything

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Speaker 3: about them.

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Speaker 1: So then you remember, obviously, I think you probably knew

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Speaker 1: where I was going with this from the outset. You

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Speaker 1: remember the ads for the Sea Monkeys, then.

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Speaker 3: I remember Sea Monkeys, I remember for X ray specs, sure,

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Speaker 3: which we'll get into. And I remember for sure all

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Speaker 3: the ads for like can you draw this parrot? Or pirate? Oh?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? Remember that for the art school?

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Speaker 3: Yeah? What was that?

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Speaker 1: I think they just took your money and then sent

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Speaker 1: you a degree.

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Speaker 2: For your art school.

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Speaker 3: Is that what it was?

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Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure.

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Speaker 3: So disappointing.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, but the turtle was pretty cool.

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Speaker 1: He had like a Newsy camp on and a turtleneck

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Speaker 1: and he just looked like he was ready to get mellow,

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Speaker 1: you know.

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Speaker 3: Yeah? Oh you know. The other one too was the

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Speaker 3: Charles Atlas workout thing. Do you remember that?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, where the ninety eight pound weekling gets sand kicked

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Speaker 1: in his face. Totally man, Yeah, that's really playing on

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Speaker 1: some fifteen year old's insecurities and.

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Speaker 3: Worked Oh yeah, for sure. Sure, And what about you?

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Speaker 2: I remember Sea Monkeys.

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Speaker 1: There's one that always stuck out to me was a

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Speaker 1: Bonker's ad from the eighties. This would have been way

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Speaker 1: past your man from Uncle era comic books. But I

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Speaker 1: think I've asked you before if you'd ever had Bonkers,

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Speaker 1: they are like these fruit. They were like just the

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Speaker 1: superior Starburst. And there was a comic book ad in

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Speaker 1: there with like this like kind of crotchety old lady

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Speaker 1: in it, and I don't even remember the gist of it.

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Speaker 1: I think maybe she was mad that the kid was

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Speaker 1: eating bonkers and enjoying it. I don't know, but I'll

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Speaker 1: never forget that comic for some reason, because the colors

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Speaker 1: in it were just just perfect and they struck my

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Speaker 1: brain just right. So I've always got that Bonker's comic

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Speaker 1: book ad in there too, and a lot of bubble

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Speaker 1: bubbleum comic book ads are stuck in there as well.

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Speaker 1: Nothing that means anything really, and certainly nothing pertinent to

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Speaker 1: this episode except for that Sea Monkey's ad.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, but you and I were also into Mad Magazine

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Speaker 3: big Time, which I believe was ad free, wasn't it.

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Speaker 1: It was they had like those fake ads, oh yeah,

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Speaker 1: of course, which were pretty hilarious, sure, but now that

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Speaker 1: I don't think they had any like actual ads in them.

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Speaker 1: They were just strictly subscription based, that's right. So in

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Speaker 1: that Sea Monkey's ad, if you'll remember correctly, and I

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Speaker 1: think for many decades. It was very actually the same thing.

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Speaker 1: It was this kind of group, this tribe of humanoid figures.

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Speaker 1: It was a family, but exactly what kind of family

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Speaker 1: they were is really up for debate. So there they

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Speaker 1: were kind of lanky, like stringy, ropey arms and legs,

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Speaker 1: paunchy tummies, naked is the day they were born, sure,

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Speaker 1: webbed feet, webbed tails, Like the end of their tail

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Speaker 1: was like webbed, which if you look closely, I think

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Speaker 1: was probably just a device to cover dad's junk in

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Speaker 1: the in the illustration, they were like, we need something

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Speaker 1: on the end of their tail there, buddy, And it's

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Speaker 1: just like this classic illustration of the sea monkeys that

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Speaker 1: apparently was done by this guy named Joe Orlando.

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Speaker 3: Mad Magazine.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, he's from Mad magazine. Creepy Magazine is another one. Uh,

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Speaker 1: he ran some comic lines at DC Comics for allays

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Speaker 1: kind of a legend, but he's also extremely well known

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Speaker 1: outside of the comic world for having drawn that sea

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Speaker 1: monkey family.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I'll get at it right now. Look

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Speaker 3: at that. It's like unchanged.

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Speaker 2: I know.

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Speaker 1: And what's great too, is if we'll talk about later,

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Speaker 1: somebody some people went in and fiddled around with it.

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Speaker 1: And if you look now, if you go to buy

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Speaker 1: the sea monkeys now, they're basically back to the way

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Speaker 1: they were before.

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Speaker 3: Well yeah, and we'll get to that too. You also

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Speaker 3: didn't mention the castle, which is kind of key because

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Speaker 3: somehow they have these little crown like heads and I

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Speaker 3: guess we're kings of the bowl.

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Speaker 1: I guess they were. Yeah, they were a royal sea

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Speaker 1: monkey family.

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Speaker 3: Kings of the fishbowl, and only inhabitants actually.

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Speaker 1: So if you right, so you could proclaim yourself the

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Speaker 1: royal family, you mean, And I have done that at

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Speaker 1: our house. So if you look closely at some of

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Speaker 1: those ads, they say, there's like a little fine print

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Speaker 1: that says these are caricatures of sea monkeys. It's not

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Speaker 1: actually what your sea monkeys look like, or it's an

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Speaker 1: artist interpretation or something like that. And it turns out

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Speaker 1: that sea monkeys and just prepare for your childhood to

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Speaker 1: blow away like so much dust in the wind, chuck,

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Speaker 1: sea monkeys don't actually exist. There's no such thing. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: did you know that already?

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Speaker 3: Well, of course, well, sea monkeys, uh as, sea monkeys

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Speaker 3: don't exist, but they are real, little living creatures that

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Speaker 3: you buy, right, have shipped in an envelope back in

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Speaker 3: those days, in an envelope to your home.

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Speaker 2: And they are actually their own things.

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Speaker 1: So what they are ultimately is something called artemia or

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Speaker 1: Brian shrimp. Yes, but the guy who ended up calling

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Speaker 1: them sea monkeys was actually well within his right to

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Speaker 1: call them something different than just Brian shrimp, because they're

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Speaker 1: a hybrid version of Brian shrimp. The guy who invented

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Speaker 1: sea monkeys actually anchored along with a micro crustaceans expert

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Speaker 1: named Di Augustino.

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Speaker 2: I can't remember his first name.

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Speaker 3: I think when you have a name like Degastino, you

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Speaker 3: can just go buy that.

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Speaker 1: So Degastino and this guy named Harold von Broughton or

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Speaker 1: braun Hot, right, they got together and they actually took

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Speaker 1: Brian shrimp and made them into something different, a hybrid

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Speaker 1: version that we now know and love as sea monkeys.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so the literal sea monkeys that you buy don't

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Speaker 3: exist in nature, right, They are a man made creation.

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Speaker 3: I don't think we can get that through clearly enough,

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Speaker 3: because it's pretty scientifically, it's pretty amazing. And they did

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Speaker 3: that because they couldn't find any of these Brian shrimp

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Speaker 3: varieties that would live through the shipping process and be

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Speaker 3: able to be essentially rehydrated and brought to life to

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Speaker 3: the delight of children. So they made them right and there's.

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Speaker 1: No clapping and squealing with original Brian shrimp right now.

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Speaker 1: So through these cross breeding programs they made Brian shrimp.

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Speaker 1: Brian shrimp were already you could. I think you can

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Speaker 1: still go to pet stores and buy them. They're a

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Speaker 1: type of food. They're a pet food, yeah, and all

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Speaker 1: they're just like tiny little micro crustaceans and they enter

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Speaker 1: into what's called cryptobiosis and they're basically if you'll remember

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Speaker 1: our tartar Grade episode, they basically do the same thing

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Speaker 1: that tartagrades do. They enter into the state of suspended animation,

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Speaker 1: a desiccated state where they're just dried out and just

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Speaker 1: sitting there waiting for the conditions to be right to

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Speaker 1: basically come back to life. That's what sea monkeys are.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, So you get this little package they're basically their

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Speaker 3: Brian shrimp eggs is what it is, or what they are,

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Speaker 3: and then you get purified water put them in there,

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Speaker 3: and I believe there's a growth formula as well. Right.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's like their food. It's like spirrillina and yeast, I.

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Speaker 3: Believe, right, but it's no one truly knows what the

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Speaker 3: exact formulation for all this stuff is because it is

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Speaker 3: locked in a vault in Manhattan because it was it

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Speaker 3: was the only one that worked, and it was owned

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Speaker 3: owned by this Van Broughton character, Van Broughton bron Hutt.

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Speaker 2: Bron Hutt. I don't know. It's a tough word, tough

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Speaker 2: name to say.

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Speaker 3: I've seen it a hundred times in the last like

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Speaker 3: eight hours.

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Speaker 2: But still yeah.

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Speaker 1: So until he died in two thousand and three, Harold

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Speaker 1: von Bronhutt and his wife Yolanda were the only two

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Speaker 1: people on the planet who knew what the special formula

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Speaker 1: was that created those conditions. Because remember, you've got sea

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Speaker 1: monkeys little Brian shrimp that are in the state of

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Speaker 1: crypto bios. This is this dried out, descated state, and

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Speaker 1: when you put them just into regular tap water, they

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Speaker 1: don't necessarily come to life. There's something in that powder

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Speaker 1: that alters the pH and the salinity and makes it

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Speaker 1: just perfect for them to emerge from this cryptobiosis almost instantaneously.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: In fact, early on, the sea monkeys were originally just

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Speaker 1: called Instant Life, I believe, is what the name they

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Speaker 1: were originally marketed under. Yeah, not the best name.

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Speaker 3: No, and it is it's weird that that name was

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Speaker 3: chosen because it turns out that Harold von Braunhutt is

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Speaker 3: or was a marketing genius. He wrote the original thirty

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Speaker 3: two page booklet that I believe still comes with the sets.

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Speaker 3: Is that right?

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Speaker 1: I couldn't find evidence of that, and I was looking

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Speaker 1: online to find a transcription of it and was very

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Speaker 1: surprised to find no one's done that. Like you would

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Speaker 1: think there'd be entire fan sites that are that this

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Speaker 1: is like their bible, you know, the original version of

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Speaker 1: it would have later editions of it.

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Speaker 2: Couldn't find it anywhere.

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Speaker 3: Well, I don't know if it still comes with it,

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Speaker 3: but for many many many years and even after his death,

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Speaker 3: that original pros which told this fantastical story. I mean,

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Speaker 3: that's the whole point. It wasn't just like add water

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Speaker 3: and you're on set, right, I told the whole story

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Speaker 3: of sea monkeys.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: It said things like your sea monkeys can be hypnotized,

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Speaker 1: you can train them to play baseball, you can race them.

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Speaker 1: They're they're like they love to race all sorts of things.

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Speaker 1: You can basically train them into a pack of friendly seals,

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Speaker 1: I think is the way.

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Speaker 2: They put it.

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Speaker 1: It talked about like their courtship and reproduction and just

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Speaker 1: all sorts of stuff like it was, Yeah, this guy's

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Speaker 1: just basically do you remember that that treatment that George

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Speaker 1: Lucas wrote about Wookies and Chewbacca's planet that got turned

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Speaker 1: into the Star Wars Christmas special? Yeah, this is the

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Speaker 1: exact same thing. But this is the Sea Monkeys world, right.

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Speaker 3: I would like to see what I was about to say,

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Speaker 3: I'd like to see the Sea Monkeys TV show, but

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Speaker 3: I did.

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Speaker 2: What did you think?

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Speaker 3: Did you watch any of it?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? I did.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. So that was a TV show in the eighties

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Speaker 3: starring Howie Mentel. Yeah, it just really doesn't get any better. Like,

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Speaker 3: who else would have been better than Howie Mandel for that?

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Speaker 1: It was Howie Mendel. He produced it as well, along

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Speaker 1: with the Chioto brothers, who were known for making killer

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Speaker 1: clowns from outer space.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so you know what you're kind of going to

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Speaker 3: get there.

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Speaker 1: It is the definition of camp Like they watched Pee

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Speaker 1: Wee's Playhouse and they're like, this is kind of campy.

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Speaker 1: But let's increase it by thirty five percent. Yeah, and

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Speaker 1: that's what they did.

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Speaker 3: It was not long for this world though, what right?

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Speaker 2: No?

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Speaker 1: And the thing is is, I don't know if we've

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Speaker 1: gotten this across. It was live action.

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Speaker 3: Oh yeah, it wasn't a cartoon.

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Speaker 1: That's what made it so not just campy. That made

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Speaker 1: it unsettling as well, Like the actors were all done

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Speaker 1: up as like sea monkeys, and it was four kids,

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Speaker 1: but it was obviously made by adults with a wink

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Speaker 1: and a nod to other adults.

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Speaker 2: It was a weird, weird, weird show.

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Speaker 3: Yeah it was.

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Speaker 2: Uh.

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Speaker 3: I didn't see it, and I only watched like a

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Speaker 3: bit of one episode enough to judge the whole eleven

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Speaker 3: I think episode lifespan. But it was like Sid and

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Speaker 3: Marty Kroft without the LSD.

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Speaker 1: Right, it was with PCP instinct. That's how it struck me.

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Speaker 1: I was like, these people are on angel dust.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. But all this to say that it was and

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Speaker 3: continues to be a big selling item. Like kids loved

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Speaker 3: sea monkeys. They bought them, and I mean, from what

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Speaker 3: I can tell, when kids bought sea monkeys, they didn't

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Speaker 3: care that they didn't look like those things, and they

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Speaker 3: were just thought it was cool that something they got

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Speaker 3: in the mail really did come to life.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure, and you could raise them and after,

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Speaker 1: you know, after some tinkering, Von Brounhutt managed to get

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Speaker 1: them to live for a while.

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Speaker 2: So these were like pets to the kids.

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Speaker 1: Plus I also think Chuck I suspect and this is

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Speaker 1: a big reason why sea monkeys were such a success.

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Speaker 1: Von Brounhutt when he started to market these things early on,

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Speaker 1: he was following immediately in the wake of something called

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Speaker 1: instant fish that I think Whammo had tried to market

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Speaker 1: and had failed terribly at And he was going around

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00:16:09,760 --> 00:16:13,479
Speaker 1: trying to market something similar, and toy stores and retailers

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Speaker 1: were like, we don't want anything to do with those.

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Speaker 1: People almost lost their jobs over that instant fish stuff.

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Speaker 2: Get out of here.

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Speaker 1: So von Braunhaut, in a stroke of genius, said, you

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Speaker 1: know what, I'm going to go right to the source.

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Speaker 1: So he started marketing directly two kids.

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Speaker 3: He started hanging out at elementary school parking lot.

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Speaker 1: He did, and he'd be like, here, here, kid, come

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Speaker 1: look at my minivan.

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Speaker 2: I've got a bunch of stuff for you to choose from.

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Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, Well, the comic book thing was a stroke

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Speaker 3: of genius. How many like three three and a half

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Speaker 3: million ads a year? Was that it? Or pages?

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Speaker 2: Three hundred and three million pages? Oh wow a year?

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Speaker 1: And now though, so most of those were two page inserts.

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Speaker 1: So that's one hundred and fifty issues of one hundred

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Speaker 1: and fifty million issues of comic books a year.

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Speaker 3: I wonder how expensive that was.

336
00:17:00,120 --> 00:17:00,560
Speaker 2: I don't know.

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Speaker 1: I'm quite sure he got some deals over the years,

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Speaker 1: because he started that marketing push in nineteen sixty four,

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Speaker 1: and I don't know exactly when it stopped, but it

340
00:17:10,119 --> 00:17:12,520
Speaker 1: was well into the nineties that there were sea monkey

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Speaker 1: ads and comic books still that were virtually the same

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Speaker 1: as ever.

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Speaker 3: Did you ever buy any of that stuff?

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Speaker 1: I had a friend who had sea monkeys. I never

345
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Speaker 1: did myself. Oh, but that was a point that I

346
00:17:23,000 --> 00:17:25,679
Speaker 1: was getting away from that I wanted to make. I

347
00:17:25,720 --> 00:17:28,000
Speaker 1: think one of the reasons sea monkeys were successful was

348
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Speaker 1: because it wasn't just that these things were pets or whatever.

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Speaker 1: You ordered them yourself, like, you handled this transaction yourself right,

350
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Speaker 1: and you got to show your friends something that you purchased,

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Speaker 1: like your parents didn't take you to the store or

352
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Speaker 1: anything like that. You contracted with this strange man to

353
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Speaker 1: buy these Brian shrimp from him, and they arrived and

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Speaker 1: you followed the instructions and now they're floating around.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, well, you probably got mom or dad to cut

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Speaker 3: you a forty nine cent check or have them cut

357
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Speaker 3: a check, or you know, you you maybe got the

358
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Speaker 3: funds from your lemonade stand and converted that to a

359
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Speaker 3: cash bond.

360
00:18:07,800 --> 00:18:11,040
Speaker 2: Yeap, a bear bond.

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Speaker 3: I don't know what any of that stuff is, but yeah,

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00:18:14,240 --> 00:18:15,879
Speaker 3: so you probably had little assistance for mom and that,

363
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Speaker 3: or maybe you put a dollar in an envelope.

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Speaker 1: I'll bet many kids did. I wonder if brown Hut

365
00:18:21,920 --> 00:18:25,320
Speaker 1: sent the the change the change back, or was like,

366
00:18:25,359 --> 00:18:28,000
Speaker 1: I'm keeping this change, kid, just to teach you a

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00:18:28,040 --> 00:18:30,000
Speaker 1: lesson that to send a dollar bill in the mail.

368
00:18:29,840 --> 00:18:32,040
Speaker 3: Anymore, because he can't send change in the mail, right.

369
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Speaker 1: Right, So, I mean suffice to say, sea monkeys were

370
00:18:37,040 --> 00:18:40,080
Speaker 1: and are just like one of the classic toys of

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Speaker 1: all time, largely because of the way they were marketed.

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Speaker 2: Right.

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Speaker 3: Well, yeah, and von brown Hut this was not his

374
00:18:46,320 --> 00:18:50,280
Speaker 3: only jam. He had close to two hundred patents on everything.

375
00:18:50,800 --> 00:18:53,639
Speaker 3: Like you know, we mentioned the X ray specs and

376
00:18:53,680 --> 00:18:56,639
Speaker 3: that great, great ad of the guy looking at his

377
00:18:56,720 --> 00:19:01,440
Speaker 3: hand or the or the sec system misogynistic ad of

378
00:19:01,520 --> 00:19:04,720
Speaker 3: him leering at a woman in a dress, right, and

379
00:19:04,920 --> 00:19:08,520
Speaker 3: X ray spex were very disappointing him when you got those,

380
00:19:08,600 --> 00:19:12,840
Speaker 3: because they were it was two pieces of cardboard with

381
00:19:12,920 --> 00:19:16,080
Speaker 3: little pinholes that you look through, and in between the

382
00:19:16,160 --> 00:19:19,200
Speaker 3: cardboard where that pinhole is is a feather.

383
00:19:19,760 --> 00:19:22,800
Speaker 1: Right, And so what it did was it basically projected

384
00:19:23,040 --> 00:19:27,879
Speaker 1: two overlapping images of the same thing. So the edges

385
00:19:27,960 --> 00:19:30,880
Speaker 1: around the outside of it were just kind of fuzzier

386
00:19:30,880 --> 00:19:31,480
Speaker 1: than the middle.

387
00:19:31,560 --> 00:19:33,960
Speaker 3: Basically, Yeah, supposedly.

388
00:19:33,320 --> 00:19:36,119
Speaker 2: That was what an X ray of your hand looked like.

389
00:19:36,520 --> 00:19:42,840
Speaker 3: Yeah, so that that's a case of fraud, Yeah, a

390
00:19:42,920 --> 00:19:45,560
Speaker 3: good way to put it. Or what about the invisible Goldfish?

391
00:19:45,600 --> 00:19:46,240
Speaker 3: That was another one?

392
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Speaker 1: Is that is that's so fraudulent that it's just beautiful,

393
00:19:49,720 --> 00:19:51,280
Speaker 1: it's elegant, and it's fraudulent.

394
00:19:51,520 --> 00:19:54,600
Speaker 3: Well, but it's almost not fraudulent because here was the deal.

395
00:19:54,720 --> 00:20:00,080
Speaker 3: He sold what was called invisible goldfish, which basically means nothing.

396
00:20:00,720 --> 00:20:02,720
Speaker 3: He sold nothing successfully.

397
00:20:03,440 --> 00:20:03,600
Speaker 2: Right.

398
00:20:03,640 --> 00:20:06,680
Speaker 1: It was a the kit came with the fishbowl, fish

399
00:20:06,760 --> 00:20:09,440
Speaker 1: food and instructions and that was it.

400
00:20:10,600 --> 00:20:11,520
Speaker 2: And there was a.

401
00:20:11,480 --> 00:20:14,680
Speaker 1: Guarantee that you would never see your invisible fish, well,

402
00:20:14,720 --> 00:20:16,040
Speaker 1: that they would remain invisible.

403
00:20:16,119 --> 00:20:18,520
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's I think that is the distinction that

404
00:20:18,600 --> 00:20:21,400
Speaker 3: makes it not fraud. Right, is he basically said, you're

405
00:20:21,400 --> 00:20:22,600
Speaker 3: not going to see anything in this bowl.

406
00:20:22,800 --> 00:20:24,520
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that was that.

407
00:20:25,320 --> 00:20:26,080
Speaker 3: What else did he do?

408
00:20:27,600 --> 00:20:29,879
Speaker 2: He had He invented balder dash.

409
00:20:30,000 --> 00:20:30,600
Speaker 3: Oh, that's right.

410
00:20:31,080 --> 00:20:34,880
Speaker 1: He also invented those doll's eyes where you lay your

411
00:20:34,880 --> 00:20:38,000
Speaker 1: doll back and its eyes closed. He invented those.

412
00:20:38,240 --> 00:20:41,680
Speaker 3: Yeah, he invented that technology, which is was a game

413
00:20:41,760 --> 00:20:43,600
Speaker 3: changer for creepy baby dolls.

414
00:20:43,720 --> 00:20:46,639
Speaker 1: He also, even before his days of inventing, he was

415
00:20:47,520 --> 00:20:51,480
Speaker 1: an interesting guy basically his whole life. He he raced

416
00:20:51,560 --> 00:20:54,480
Speaker 1: motorcycles and cars under the name of the Green Hornet.

417
00:20:55,560 --> 00:20:59,119
Speaker 1: He was a talent manager for a couple of people.

418
00:20:59,160 --> 00:21:00,320
Speaker 1: One was a mental list.

419
00:21:01,160 --> 00:21:04,439
Speaker 3: Yeah, talent talent manager like Broadway Danny Rose was a

420
00:21:04,440 --> 00:21:05,160
Speaker 3: talent manager.

421
00:21:05,320 --> 00:21:07,880
Speaker 2: Okay, I don't know that is bumau go along with it?

422
00:21:08,880 --> 00:21:11,880
Speaker 2: What is that? Is that? What's that from the Name's familiar,

423
00:21:11,880 --> 00:21:12,320
Speaker 2: but I don't know.

424
00:21:12,520 --> 00:21:14,359
Speaker 3: It was a Woody Allen movie where he played that

425
00:21:14,480 --> 00:21:16,919
Speaker 3: was it was a talent manager that managed like you

426
00:21:16,960 --> 00:21:19,879
Speaker 3: know people like this that would the high divers, that

427
00:21:19,920 --> 00:21:23,960
Speaker 3: would dive into shallow pools and mentalists. And this guy

428
00:21:24,040 --> 00:21:26,280
Speaker 3: was even a wouldn't he a mentalist for a.

429
00:21:26,280 --> 00:21:29,000
Speaker 1: Little while, I didn't see that. I wouldn't be at

430
00:21:29,040 --> 00:21:29,840
Speaker 1: all surprised.

431
00:21:30,040 --> 00:21:31,520
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think he did a little work as the

432
00:21:31,560 --> 00:21:32,240
Speaker 3: Great something.

433
00:21:32,720 --> 00:21:34,600
Speaker 1: Did you see? Well he managed a guy named the

434
00:21:34,600 --> 00:21:37,320
Speaker 1: Great Danager. I didn't get whether that was him or not,

435
00:21:37,400 --> 00:21:38,200
Speaker 1: though it could have been.

436
00:21:38,320 --> 00:21:40,320
Speaker 3: No, no, no, that was that was That was him

437
00:21:40,440 --> 00:21:42,240
Speaker 3: and he had his own act.

438
00:21:42,240 --> 00:21:45,840
Speaker 1: Oh god, okay, did you see the guy who who

439
00:21:46,160 --> 00:21:49,760
Speaker 1: the high dive guy? Did you see his jump?

440
00:21:50,560 --> 00:21:50,720
Speaker 3: No?

441
00:21:51,160 --> 00:21:55,600
Speaker 1: Oh my, okay, there's a guy named Amrie Lemouth. I

442
00:21:55,680 --> 00:21:59,840
Speaker 1: believe Yeah he Yeah, Imri Lamouth. If you go look,

443
00:22:00,000 --> 00:22:05,000
Speaker 1: I'm up, Hi, n Ri Lamoth, You're going to be

444
00:22:05,040 --> 00:22:07,600
Speaker 1: treated to an ap video that was shot in the

445
00:22:07,760 --> 00:22:10,760
Speaker 1: early seventies from the looks of it, where he's opening

446
00:22:10,840 --> 00:22:13,400
Speaker 1: up for an evil canievil act in a parking lot

447
00:22:13,440 --> 00:22:16,640
Speaker 1: and god knows where in New Jersey, and he climbs

448
00:22:16,720 --> 00:22:21,040
Speaker 1: up this ladder, a forty foot ladder, and below beneath

449
00:22:21,400 --> 00:22:24,359
Speaker 1: is one of these tiny little kiddie pools filled with

450
00:22:24,440 --> 00:22:27,919
Speaker 1: like eighteen inches of water, and this guy, who is

451
00:22:28,040 --> 00:22:34,120
Speaker 1: clearly in his mid seventies maybe older, dives forty feet

452
00:22:34,160 --> 00:22:38,000
Speaker 1: into eighteen inches of water in a kiddie pool belly first.

453
00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:40,560
Speaker 1: He does basically a belly flop and immediately stands up

454
00:22:40,600 --> 00:22:41,240
Speaker 1: with like teta.

455
00:22:42,160 --> 00:22:44,280
Speaker 2: It's one of the most amazing things I've ever seen

456
00:22:44,320 --> 00:22:45,200
Speaker 2: in my life.

457
00:22:46,160 --> 00:22:49,920
Speaker 1: And this guy, Harold von Braunhutt, managed that guy back

458
00:22:49,960 --> 00:22:50,480
Speaker 1: in the day.

459
00:22:51,040 --> 00:22:54,159
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, he wasn't a He was a magician who

460
00:22:54,240 --> 00:22:55,919
Speaker 3: worked under the name the Great.

461
00:22:56,000 --> 00:22:58,360
Speaker 2: Tilepo that's a pretty good name.

462
00:22:58,600 --> 00:23:02,199
Speaker 3: And he also admitted something the Directomat, which was this

463
00:23:02,359 --> 00:23:06,399
Speaker 3: device where you punch in your destination, like you're in

464
00:23:06,440 --> 00:23:09,679
Speaker 3: New York City, you punch in your destination and the

465
00:23:09,680 --> 00:23:11,800
Speaker 3: machine told you the fastest subway route.

466
00:23:12,200 --> 00:23:13,040
Speaker 2: Oh that's smart.

467
00:23:13,119 --> 00:23:14,280
Speaker 3: It was Google Maps.

468
00:23:14,720 --> 00:23:17,480
Speaker 1: That's very smart, like fifty years early, but using like

469
00:23:17,600 --> 00:23:21,440
Speaker 1: punch cards instead of you know, real technology basically.

470
00:23:21,480 --> 00:23:23,720
Speaker 3: But I mean, the guy, you know, not only was

471
00:23:23,760 --> 00:23:26,360
Speaker 3: he a marketing genius, he had a real knack for

472
00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:29,360
Speaker 3: inventing some successful useful things.

473
00:23:29,640 --> 00:23:31,360
Speaker 1: So he had this other thing that you could get

474
00:23:31,359 --> 00:23:34,600
Speaker 1: for like fifty nine to ninety five, and it was

475
00:23:34,640 --> 00:23:37,600
Speaker 1: actually a weapon, so much so that he was stopped

476
00:23:37,600 --> 00:23:41,320
Speaker 1: at LaGuardia Airport in nineteen seventy nine and arrested because

477
00:23:41,359 --> 00:23:44,080
Speaker 1: he had a briefcase of samples of this stuff that

478
00:23:44,160 --> 00:23:46,760
Speaker 1: he was selling I think through mail order, and it

479
00:23:46,880 --> 00:23:51,800
Speaker 1: was called the what is Coyoga Agent M five?

480
00:23:52,359 --> 00:23:55,760
Speaker 3: Yeah, the Kyoga Agent in five. It's basically a telescoping

481
00:23:55,880 --> 00:24:00,639
Speaker 3: metal whip. You know, you've seen the telescoping batons and

482
00:24:00,720 --> 00:24:05,600
Speaker 3: things that cops can use. I guess a sure anybody

483
00:24:05,600 --> 00:24:08,120
Speaker 3: can use them. And do actually had one of those

484
00:24:08,119 --> 00:24:09,320
Speaker 3: for a little while for some reason?

485
00:24:09,480 --> 00:24:10,200
Speaker 2: Did you really?

486
00:24:10,520 --> 00:24:12,000
Speaker 3: I did? I thought, you know what, I'm not a

487
00:24:12,040 --> 00:24:13,919
Speaker 3: gun guy, but I thought, I'll put this thing in

488
00:24:13,960 --> 00:24:17,240
Speaker 3: the floorboard in my car. Sure, and if anyone ever

489
00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:20,439
Speaker 3: reaches their hand in the window, then they're gonna get

490
00:24:20,440 --> 00:24:24,800
Speaker 3: a wrapped knuckles smart that's funny. I don't know where

491
00:24:24,800 --> 00:24:26,879
Speaker 3: it went though. It didn't telescope properly, so I was like,

492
00:24:26,920 --> 00:24:27,840
Speaker 3: that's probably not good.

493
00:24:28,040 --> 00:24:30,960
Speaker 1: No, it's not because you I mean, that's not what

494
00:24:31,000 --> 00:24:32,919
Speaker 1: you want and you plus, you have to practice with

495
00:24:32,960 --> 00:24:33,879
Speaker 1: that kind of thing, that's all.

496
00:24:34,000 --> 00:24:36,439
Speaker 2: It's a big commitment. You just turning and running is

497
00:24:36,480 --> 00:24:37,040
Speaker 2: way better.

498
00:24:37,280 --> 00:24:39,240
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, just I went back to plan A, which

499
00:24:39,280 --> 00:24:43,440
Speaker 3: is poo poop my pants and cry right, hopefully that works.

500
00:24:43,560 --> 00:24:45,359
Speaker 1: No one wants to punch of guy who's just pooped

501
00:24:45,359 --> 00:24:46,200
Speaker 1: his pants, you know.

502
00:24:46,480 --> 00:24:49,320
Speaker 3: All right, so none of the butt at least, right,

503
00:24:50,520 --> 00:24:56,639
Speaker 3: So this m five telescoping want or whip. This is

504
00:24:56,640 --> 00:25:00,119
Speaker 3: where things get weird. Yeah, and we'll we'll set this

505
00:25:00,280 --> 00:25:04,480
Speaker 3: up right before the ad break, because it turns out

506
00:25:04,640 --> 00:25:10,960
Speaker 3: that mister von bro Hud, mister von brown Hut was

507
00:25:11,000 --> 00:25:19,480
Speaker 3: perhaps almost certifiably a white nationalist aryan Nazi. Sure is

508
00:25:19,480 --> 00:25:20,160
Speaker 3: that fair to say?

509
00:25:20,440 --> 00:25:21,680
Speaker 2: I think so? All right, and.

510
00:25:21,640 --> 00:25:22,919
Speaker 3: We'll get to that right after this.

511
00:25:23,200 --> 00:25:26,639
Speaker 2: If you want to know, then you're in luck. Just

512
00:25:26,840 --> 00:25:49,400
Speaker 2: listen to JH. Sh Suffus no STUFFU No, okay, Chuck.

513
00:25:49,440 --> 00:25:52,160
Speaker 1: I'm sure everybody just bit the tips of their fingers

514
00:25:52,160 --> 00:25:54,280
Speaker 1: off waiting for those ads to finish so we could

515
00:25:54,320 --> 00:25:55,400
Speaker 1: get back to it.

516
00:25:55,440 --> 00:25:56,679
Speaker 3: Is it fair to call him a Nazi?

517
00:25:57,400 --> 00:25:59,880
Speaker 2: So here's the thing. It has been.

518
00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:05,119
Speaker 1: He's so thoroughly documented by legitimate sources like the Washington Post,

519
00:26:05,640 --> 00:26:07,000
Speaker 1: the Los Angeles.

520
00:26:06,640 --> 00:26:08,240
Speaker 3: Times, his own mouth.

521
00:26:08,200 --> 00:26:12,640
Speaker 1: The Yes, his own mouth, the Jewish Anti Defamation League,

522
00:26:12,880 --> 00:26:15,400
Speaker 1: I believe. I don't know if the Southern Poverty Law

523
00:26:15,400 --> 00:26:17,600
Speaker 1: Center actually tracked him or not, but this guy has

524
00:26:17,760 --> 00:26:23,320
Speaker 1: definitely been identified as somebody who is has was a

525
00:26:23,400 --> 00:26:30,280
Speaker 1: longtime contributor to white nationalist groups, specifically the Aryan Nations

526
00:26:30,600 --> 00:26:33,560
Speaker 1: out of Idaho, which is one of the original white

527
00:26:33,640 --> 00:26:37,800
Speaker 1: hate groups in the United States. That's right, here's the

528
00:26:37,880 --> 00:26:42,000
Speaker 1: problem with that. This is the guy who invented sea monkeys.

529
00:26:43,920 --> 00:26:47,200
Speaker 1: The problem number two is that if you ever sent

530
00:26:47,480 --> 00:26:50,679
Speaker 1: your money off to buy some sea monkeys, some of

531
00:26:50,720 --> 00:26:53,040
Speaker 1: that money had a very good chance of having been

532
00:26:53,040 --> 00:26:56,600
Speaker 1: turned around and given to the Aryan nation. And here

533
00:26:56,600 --> 00:26:59,359
Speaker 1: in lies a real moral conundrum for a lot of people,

534
00:26:59,760 --> 00:27:00,600
Speaker 1: under standably.

535
00:27:00,680 --> 00:27:04,040
Speaker 3: So yeah, so well I didn't see did he just

536
00:27:04,080 --> 00:27:05,280
Speaker 3: give money? Period?

537
00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:08,719
Speaker 1: Yes, but the people are saying I gave you some

538
00:27:08,760 --> 00:27:11,880
Speaker 1: of that money for sea monkeys. Who knows what dimes

539
00:27:11,880 --> 00:27:14,080
Speaker 1: and nickels that I gave you went to Aryan nation.

540
00:27:14,400 --> 00:27:17,080
Speaker 1: I don't want any money going to Aryan nation, so

541
00:27:17,359 --> 00:27:20,200
Speaker 1: I feel horrible that my money went to you, which

542
00:27:20,240 --> 00:27:22,360
Speaker 1: you turned in turn gave to.

543
00:27:22,400 --> 00:27:23,160
Speaker 2: The Aryan nation.

544
00:27:23,800 --> 00:27:28,440
Speaker 3: Right. However, this M five was there was a man

545
00:27:28,520 --> 00:27:31,879
Speaker 3: named Richard Butler. This guy was a real piece of

546
00:27:31,920 --> 00:27:32,760
Speaker 3: human garbage.

547
00:27:32,840 --> 00:27:34,720
Speaker 2: He was a founder of the Aryan Nation.

548
00:27:35,040 --> 00:27:38,240
Speaker 3: Yeah, he was the worst. He's not with us anymore, thankfully,

549
00:27:39,119 --> 00:27:42,840
Speaker 3: but he was a very bad man and he was

550
00:27:42,840 --> 00:27:49,440
Speaker 3: brought brought upon trial. And basically this M five little

551
00:27:51,200 --> 00:27:54,919
Speaker 3: telescoping whip that was invented by von Braunhutt, that was

552
00:27:54,960 --> 00:28:01,439
Speaker 3: specifically used that that product, and proceeds from that specifically

553
00:28:01,520 --> 00:28:05,399
Speaker 3: went to a fund to help out Richard Butler. Right,

554
00:28:05,400 --> 00:28:06,600
Speaker 3: so we know that for sure.

555
00:28:06,760 --> 00:28:11,359
Speaker 1: Yeah, everything's going along for Harold von braun Hutt pretty

556
00:28:11,359 --> 00:28:15,600
Speaker 1: swimmingly until the late eighties. Right in the late eighties,

557
00:28:16,359 --> 00:28:19,120
Speaker 1: Richard Butler is brought up, along with I think fourteen

558
00:28:19,200 --> 00:28:23,080
Speaker 1: or fifteen other white nationalist leaders on sedition charges basically

559
00:28:23,160 --> 00:28:28,960
Speaker 1: trying to overthrow the government through plotting assassinations, trying to

560
00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:32,960
Speaker 1: start a race war. They had some serious charges against them.

561
00:28:33,200 --> 00:28:36,040
Speaker 1: They were eventually acquitted of these charges, but as part

562
00:28:36,080 --> 00:28:40,560
Speaker 1: of this defense fund. In the Aryan Nation newsletter, Richard

563
00:28:40,640 --> 00:28:45,520
Speaker 1: Butler talks about the Cyoga agent M five as a

564
00:28:45,560 --> 00:28:49,640
Speaker 1: great you know, a great tool for every Aryan nationalist

565
00:28:49,680 --> 00:28:53,160
Speaker 1: to have a great weapon and defense mechanism.

566
00:28:53,360 --> 00:28:54,720
Speaker 2: And if you.

567
00:28:55,000 --> 00:28:58,600
Speaker 1: Order this thing on the order form, write the letters

568
00:28:58,640 --> 00:29:02,200
Speaker 1: a n for Arian and the inventor of this project

569
00:29:02,640 --> 00:29:06,200
Speaker 1: product has pledged that twenty five of those sixty dollars

570
00:29:06,400 --> 00:29:09,120
Speaker 1: will be given to my defense fund. So now, all

571
00:29:09,120 --> 00:29:11,640
Speaker 1: of a sudden, for the first time ever, the guy

572
00:29:11,640 --> 00:29:13,959
Speaker 1: who invented sea monkeys is tied to the guy who

573
00:29:14,080 --> 00:29:16,000
Speaker 1: founded the Aryan Nation.

574
00:29:17,840 --> 00:29:18,400
Speaker 2: Hate group.

575
00:29:19,200 --> 00:29:21,400
Speaker 3: Yeah, and this was just like the beginning of the

576
00:29:21,440 --> 00:29:24,320
Speaker 3: can of worms, which he did not invent the can

577
00:29:24,320 --> 00:29:27,080
Speaker 3: of worms, but he should have. It was a beginning

578
00:29:27,080 --> 00:29:30,960
Speaker 3: of that being open because, like you said, late eighties,

579
00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:33,680
Speaker 3: what was an eighty eight I think? And the Washington

580
00:29:33,720 --> 00:29:36,520
Speaker 3: Post basically got a hold of this story, did some

581
00:29:36,600 --> 00:29:40,840
Speaker 3: investigating and found that he was involved in quote, some

582
00:29:40,880 --> 00:29:44,560
Speaker 3: of the most extreme racist and anti Semitic organizations in

583
00:29:44,720 --> 00:29:49,840
Speaker 3: the country. But here's the deal. There are quotes from

584
00:29:49,880 --> 00:29:55,160
Speaker 3: his mouth that say things about inscrutable, slanty Korean eyes

585
00:29:56,000 --> 00:29:59,920
Speaker 3: when dealing with Korean shop owners, and talking about Jews

586
00:30:00,320 --> 00:30:05,720
Speaker 3: and black people, like literal quotes. Yet when he's finally contacted,

587
00:30:05,920 --> 00:30:09,080
Speaker 3: this great article that we kind of started with was

588
00:30:09,120 --> 00:30:12,480
Speaker 3: when he was still alive, he would deny that this

589
00:30:12,720 --> 00:30:16,600
Speaker 3: was that this was him, right, and but not try

590
00:30:16,600 --> 00:30:18,640
Speaker 3: and clear it up or anything. Basically just say that's

591
00:30:18,640 --> 00:30:23,640
Speaker 3: a bunch of bunk. Where there were news letters written

592
00:30:23,680 --> 00:30:27,560
Speaker 3: for an organization called the National Anti Zionist Institute, written

593
00:30:27,560 --> 00:30:31,880
Speaker 3: by one Hendrick von Braun. But the return address was

594
00:30:31,920 --> 00:30:33,720
Speaker 3: the same PO box that you sent off to get

595
00:30:33,720 --> 00:30:34,360
Speaker 3: sea monkeys.

596
00:30:35,200 --> 00:30:38,480
Speaker 1: Yeah, sea monkey like paraphernalia still today, same address.

597
00:30:38,760 --> 00:30:41,000
Speaker 3: So it's not very Yeah it's in Maryland, which is

598
00:30:41,040 --> 00:30:44,640
Speaker 3: where he lived. So he wasn't like covering his tracks

599
00:30:44,720 --> 00:30:45,360
Speaker 3: very well at all.

600
00:30:45,920 --> 00:30:50,000
Speaker 1: So he so all that started that Washington Post expose

601
00:30:50,040 --> 00:30:54,480
Speaker 1: a specifically also came out of a property dispute. He

602
00:30:55,000 --> 00:30:57,320
Speaker 1: later claimed that all of these were lies and that

603
00:30:57,360 --> 00:31:00,000
Speaker 1: they were drummed up by somebody who's in a property

604
00:31:00,080 --> 00:31:02,600
Speaker 1: dispute with I think there was a developer who was

605
00:31:02,680 --> 00:31:04,840
Speaker 1: encroaching on his land and he was suing them, and

606
00:31:04,880 --> 00:31:07,040
Speaker 1: I think he said that the developer had brought all

607
00:31:07,080 --> 00:31:07,480
Speaker 1: this up.

608
00:31:07,760 --> 00:31:08,520
Speaker 2: The thing is.

609
00:31:08,400 --> 00:31:11,520
Speaker 1: Whether the developer exposed it or not or tip the

610
00:31:11,640 --> 00:31:14,880
Speaker 1: Washington Post after this or not. This is already like

611
00:31:15,840 --> 00:31:20,880
Speaker 1: pretty well known in the toy industry and pretty well documented.

612
00:31:20,920 --> 00:31:24,960
Speaker 1: Like it wasn't just that this Harold von Braunhutt gave

613
00:31:25,160 --> 00:31:29,840
Speaker 1: money to the Aryan nation, like he would go to

614
00:31:30,040 --> 00:31:34,480
Speaker 1: their annual rally in Idaho and light the cross himself.

615
00:31:35,080 --> 00:31:39,560
Speaker 1: He would he would speak at some of their their

616
00:31:40,040 --> 00:31:42,680
Speaker 1: conferences and apparently not very well received.

617
00:31:42,720 --> 00:31:45,479
Speaker 3: I thought, that's pretty funny speaker.

618
00:31:45,800 --> 00:31:46,920
Speaker 2: No, he would.

619
00:31:46,960 --> 00:31:48,720
Speaker 1: He would kind of go off on topics that the

620
00:31:49,000 --> 00:31:53,000
Speaker 1: Aryans weren't particularly interested in, like numerology or the pyramids,

621
00:31:53,080 --> 00:31:56,520
Speaker 1: or how it all tied together. But the thing is

622
00:31:56,960 --> 00:31:59,640
Speaker 1: he had a lot of money and he was apparently

623
00:31:59,720 --> 00:32:02,200
Speaker 1: quite willing to give it. Now, no one has we

624
00:32:02,240 --> 00:32:05,120
Speaker 1: have to say, no one has ever documented a penny

625
00:32:06,320 --> 00:32:09,959
Speaker 1: that was given to the Arian Nation. The closest thing

626
00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:12,840
Speaker 1: to a smoking gun is that newsletter from Richard Butler

627
00:32:13,080 --> 00:32:15,760
Speaker 1: saying that the inventor of this is pledged twenty five

628
00:32:15,800 --> 00:32:19,120
Speaker 1: dollars per But the very fact that he was basically

629
00:32:19,160 --> 00:32:23,720
Speaker 1: allowed into the orbit of Richard Butler himself strongly suggests

630
00:32:23,760 --> 00:32:27,360
Speaker 1: that he actually followed through on those campaign pledges and

631
00:32:27,480 --> 00:32:32,640
Speaker 1: legal defense von pledges. And apparently a former spokesman for

632
00:32:32,760 --> 00:32:36,360
Speaker 1: the Area Nation who is now a reformed racist, he says,

633
00:32:37,760 --> 00:32:41,240
Speaker 1: spoke out about Harold von Brown Hutt and said he

634
00:32:41,280 --> 00:32:43,160
Speaker 1: didn't know exactly how much he gave, but he gave

635
00:32:43,200 --> 00:32:45,840
Speaker 1: a lot, and he gave pretty frequently when he was asked.

636
00:32:46,640 --> 00:32:49,920
Speaker 3: Right. So things get a little weirder here because it

637
00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:55,360
Speaker 3: turns out that von Bronhutt was actually Jewish. He was

638
00:32:55,400 --> 00:33:00,480
Speaker 3: born to Jennette Cohen and Edward Bronhutt, not vonn Bhut.

639
00:33:01,040 --> 00:33:05,920
Speaker 3: Out of that little Vaughan to I guess germanize him,

640
00:33:06,200 --> 00:33:08,680
Speaker 3: I guess so. And he was born in New York

641
00:33:08,680 --> 00:33:11,480
Speaker 3: City on March thirty first, nineteen twenty six as Harold

642
00:33:11,560 --> 00:33:16,160
Speaker 3: Nathan brown Hut. And if you know anything about Aryan

643
00:33:16,240 --> 00:33:18,320
Speaker 3: Nations or any of those groups, they don't take kindly

644
00:33:18,440 --> 00:33:22,120
Speaker 3: to a Jewish guy, even if he's like rebukes that

645
00:33:22,240 --> 00:33:25,520
Speaker 3: to being a member. But like you said, he had

646
00:33:25,560 --> 00:33:28,480
Speaker 3: a lot of dough and that's basically why everyone thinks

647
00:33:28,520 --> 00:33:30,600
Speaker 3: they allowed him to stay on as a member.

648
00:33:30,960 --> 00:33:31,200
Speaker 2: Yeah.

649
00:33:31,320 --> 00:33:34,320
Speaker 1: So that The nineteen eighty eight Washington Post article did

650
00:33:34,360 --> 00:33:36,360
Speaker 1: a couple of things. One out of the inventor of

651
00:33:36,400 --> 00:33:41,240
Speaker 1: sea monkeys as an Aryan white supremacist, or I should

652
00:33:41,240 --> 00:33:43,960
Speaker 1: say just a white supremacist, he was an Aran. It

653
00:33:44,040 --> 00:33:46,440
Speaker 1: also outed him as a non Aryan, as a Jewish

654
00:33:46,480 --> 00:33:50,400
Speaker 1: person born Jewish to Jewish parents about as Jewish as

655
00:33:50,440 --> 00:33:54,640
Speaker 1: you can possibly get. Aside from being a practicing Jew. Right,

656
00:33:55,080 --> 00:34:00,400
Speaker 1: so he he was outed in this in this Washington

657
00:34:00,400 --> 00:34:04,600
Speaker 1: Post article like two times over, so everybody was mad

658
00:34:04,640 --> 00:34:06,440
Speaker 1: at him from either side.

659
00:34:06,520 --> 00:34:06,720
Speaker 2: Right.

660
00:34:07,640 --> 00:34:10,000
Speaker 1: The thing is like, even after, I guess, the Area

661
00:34:10,120 --> 00:34:14,560
Speaker 1: Nation released a press release about this, saying that they

662
00:34:14,560 --> 00:34:17,319
Speaker 1: were disappointed to find out this guy that they were

663
00:34:17,360 --> 00:34:20,960
Speaker 1: friends with was actually Jewish, but he was not kicked

664
00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:25,799
Speaker 1: out of their circle. He stayed apparently as intracted as

665
00:34:25,800 --> 00:34:29,359
Speaker 1: he was before and still was was a part of

666
00:34:29,400 --> 00:34:32,239
Speaker 1: the organization's conferences and stuff like that.

667
00:34:32,800 --> 00:34:35,600
Speaker 3: Yeah, and he was. It wasn't just the Aryan Nations.

668
00:34:35,640 --> 00:34:40,040
Speaker 3: He In nineteen eighty five, The Washington Post says that

669
00:34:40,239 --> 00:34:43,680
Speaker 3: US Attorney Thomas Bauer there was a weapons case in

670
00:34:43,760 --> 00:34:47,840
Speaker 3: nineteen eighty five against a member of the clan Grand

671
00:34:47,960 --> 00:34:49,719
Speaker 3: Dragon Dale Reusch.

672
00:34:50,040 --> 00:34:52,480
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was in nineteen eighty I think that the

673
00:34:52,560 --> 00:34:54,080
Speaker 1: transaction happened.

674
00:34:55,680 --> 00:34:58,920
Speaker 3: Okay, but the weapons case was in nineteen eighty five, gotcha,

675
00:34:59,120 --> 00:35:05,240
Speaker 3: and Van Brounhutt basically loan the guy twelve thousand dollars

676
00:35:05,640 --> 00:35:08,680
Speaker 3: so he could buy more than eighty firearms. Yeah, like,

677
00:35:08,760 --> 00:35:10,200
Speaker 3: here go buy a bunch of guns.

678
00:35:10,680 --> 00:35:14,000
Speaker 1: Well, okay, yes, and this is a Grand Wizard of

679
00:35:14,000 --> 00:35:17,080
Speaker 1: the Klan I believe right, yes, So the reason I

680
00:35:17,120 --> 00:35:19,960
Speaker 1: pointed out that it happened in nineteen eighty the year

681
00:35:20,000 --> 00:35:23,400
Speaker 1: before the Washington Post had drummed up in that nineteen

682
00:35:23,400 --> 00:35:26,279
Speaker 1: eighty eight article. The year before he had paid like

683
00:35:26,320 --> 00:35:29,880
Speaker 1: thirteen hundred dollars for his parents' graves in a Jewish

684
00:35:29,880 --> 00:35:33,799
Speaker 1: cemetery to be kept up in perpetuity. So this is like,

685
00:35:33,880 --> 00:35:36,920
Speaker 1: this is this weird dual life. This guy is living

686
00:35:36,960 --> 00:35:40,719
Speaker 1: like born and raised Jewish, respecting his Jewish parents funeral

687
00:35:40,760 --> 00:35:45,360
Speaker 1: wishes and burial wishes, and then months later helping a

688
00:35:45,400 --> 00:35:50,440
Speaker 1: grand Wizard of the KKK buy eighty three firearms and

689
00:35:50,480 --> 00:35:52,960
Speaker 1: then taking possession of the firearms himself until.

690
00:35:52,719 --> 00:35:53,920
Speaker 2: The loan was paid back.

691
00:35:55,120 --> 00:35:55,800
Speaker 3: It's crazy.

692
00:35:56,360 --> 00:35:59,200
Speaker 1: It is a little crazy. It's quite surprising actually too.

693
00:35:59,280 --> 00:36:01,279
Speaker 1: I mean that's like a one two punch.

694
00:36:01,000 --> 00:36:01,200
Speaker 2: You know.

695
00:36:02,120 --> 00:36:05,680
Speaker 3: Yeah, So he didn't. Actually, he would do licensing deals

696
00:36:05,760 --> 00:36:08,600
Speaker 3: over the years. That's how he ran his business. Probably

697
00:36:08,600 --> 00:36:12,399
Speaker 3: smartly to do that, if you ask me. But over

698
00:36:12,440 --> 00:36:14,840
Speaker 3: the years have been many many companies that held the

699
00:36:14,880 --> 00:36:17,520
Speaker 3: license for sea monkeys that he partnered with, and they

700
00:36:17,560 --> 00:36:21,040
Speaker 3: all kind of had different reactions. That was one called

701
00:36:21,360 --> 00:36:26,000
Speaker 3: Larmie Limited, one called Basic Fun, one called Educational Insights.

702
00:36:26,280 --> 00:36:29,399
Speaker 3: There may have been more today it resides with Big

703
00:36:29,400 --> 00:36:34,040
Speaker 3: Time Toys. But this article that we dug up from

704
00:36:34,040 --> 00:36:36,040
Speaker 3: when he was still alive, basically, this guy gets in

705
00:36:36,080 --> 00:36:38,560
Speaker 3: touch with a lot of these people, and some of

706
00:36:38,600 --> 00:36:41,960
Speaker 3: them said they believe the story that it was just

707
00:36:42,239 --> 00:36:46,520
Speaker 3: some story that this angry neighbor cooked up to slander

708
00:36:46,520 --> 00:36:50,640
Speaker 3: his name. Other ones have said, yeah, you know what,

709
00:36:52,680 --> 00:36:56,239
Speaker 3: everyone kind of knew about it, but we're not gonna

710
00:36:56,640 --> 00:36:59,040
Speaker 3: we're not gonna take that out on the Sea Monkeys, right,

711
00:37:00,800 --> 00:37:02,520
Speaker 3: And he was a nice guy to us, and what

712
00:37:02,600 --> 00:37:04,520
Speaker 3: he does in his private time is no one's business.

713
00:37:04,640 --> 00:37:04,879
Speaker 2: Yeah.

714
00:37:04,880 --> 00:37:06,759
Speaker 1: The thing is is, like some of the people that

715
00:37:06,840 --> 00:37:10,040
Speaker 1: he was doing business with were Jewish, and we're taking

716
00:37:10,200 --> 00:37:12,560
Speaker 1: some of the things he was doing in his private

717
00:37:12,640 --> 00:37:15,960
Speaker 1: life personally themselves. Like the guy who was the president

718
00:37:16,000 --> 00:37:19,600
Speaker 1: of Basic Fund, that's one of the worst names for

719
00:37:19,640 --> 00:37:23,240
Speaker 1: a toy company based It's like, don't get too excited,

720
00:37:23,280 --> 00:37:24,480
Speaker 1: this is just Basic Fund.

721
00:37:24,520 --> 00:37:26,840
Speaker 3: That they had a spinoff company called Minimal Enjoyment.

722
00:37:27,120 --> 00:37:27,279
Speaker 2: Right.

723
00:37:28,000 --> 00:37:31,880
Speaker 1: He he got the license or his company got the

724
00:37:31,960 --> 00:37:36,200
Speaker 1: license for Sea Monkeys to handle distributing and marketing sea monkeys,

725
00:37:36,560 --> 00:37:41,880
Speaker 1: and he apparently asked von Braunhutt, like, is this true,

726
00:37:42,040 --> 00:37:44,680
Speaker 1: and von Brounhutt told him no, there's this developer in

727
00:37:44,719 --> 00:37:47,320
Speaker 1: a dispute with who's like trying to drum up bad press.

728
00:37:47,440 --> 00:37:48,280
Speaker 2: They're all lies.

729
00:37:48,719 --> 00:37:51,799
Speaker 1: Well, within a year, The New York Times wrote an

730
00:37:51,880 --> 00:37:56,240
Speaker 1: article about that annual rally at the Area Nation Compound

731
00:37:56,239 --> 00:37:59,880
Speaker 1: in Idaho and said that Harold von Bronhut had been

732
00:38:00,080 --> 00:38:02,440
Speaker 1: speaker there. So the guy from Basic Fun was like,

733
00:38:02,840 --> 00:38:04,960
Speaker 1: that's it. I'm done with your contracts broken.

734
00:38:06,560 --> 00:38:09,240
Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean that did happen sometimes over the years

735
00:38:10,480 --> 00:38:14,080
Speaker 3: and other times, you know people, I guess money talks,

736
00:38:14,480 --> 00:38:18,200
Speaker 3: so they were willing to put up with it. Yeah, yep,

737
00:38:18,680 --> 00:38:22,000
Speaker 3: it's crazy. He you know, like when he was called personally,

738
00:38:22,040 --> 00:38:23,799
Speaker 3: he said, I don't have to defend myself to you

739
00:38:23,880 --> 00:38:27,640
Speaker 3: or anyone else. I'm hanging up right. So I guess

740
00:38:27,640 --> 00:38:31,960
Speaker 3: it was a time when, you know, pre Internet, pre

741
00:38:32,080 --> 00:38:34,680
Speaker 3: social media, where you could kind of get away with

742
00:38:34,719 --> 00:38:36,000
Speaker 3: stuff like this a little easier.

743
00:38:36,520 --> 00:38:39,400
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, like he was, Yeah, it was just

744
00:38:39,440 --> 00:38:41,160
Speaker 1: an open secret. And I think, like you said, I

745
00:38:41,160 --> 00:38:43,279
Speaker 1: think you hit the nail on the head man when

746
00:38:43,320 --> 00:38:46,239
Speaker 1: there's like this much money involved, and when you're talking

747
00:38:46,280 --> 00:38:52,200
Speaker 1: about a brand where it's just like an beloved American icon. Yeah,

748
00:38:52,239 --> 00:38:55,400
Speaker 1: like people just look the other way on the fact

749
00:38:55,400 --> 00:38:59,320
Speaker 1: that you're a white supremacist. You know, it's it's bizarre.

750
00:38:59,360 --> 00:39:02,600
Speaker 1: But apparently this is a story of how the world

751
00:39:02,640 --> 00:39:03,760
Speaker 1: works in that respect.

752
00:39:04,120 --> 00:39:07,000
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was interesting for this one article I think

753
00:39:07,040 --> 00:39:10,680
Speaker 3: from the early two thousands. From the all was that

754
00:39:11,080 --> 00:39:13,080
Speaker 3: oh no, no, no, that was from twenty eleven. The

755
00:39:13,120 --> 00:39:16,400
Speaker 3: other one was oh yeah, yeah, that was when he

756
00:39:16,440 --> 00:39:21,920
Speaker 3: had currently the licensee was Educational Insights, and they at

757
00:39:21,920 --> 00:39:23,799
Speaker 3: the time it was funny to go back and read

758
00:39:23,840 --> 00:39:26,520
Speaker 3: this that they were trying to update the image for

759
00:39:26,680 --> 00:39:30,720
Speaker 3: the sea monkeys. Yeah yeah, and they had like these drawers.

760
00:39:30,719 --> 00:39:33,200
Speaker 3: They hired some big advertising guy and marketing guy, and

761
00:39:33,239 --> 00:39:35,919
Speaker 3: he came in and was basically like, man like kids

762
00:39:35,920 --> 00:39:41,160
Speaker 3: these days, they don't want these little skinny, pot bellied King, Queen,

763
00:39:42,040 --> 00:39:45,400
Speaker 3: Prince and princess family. They want superheroes. So he buffed

764
00:39:45,440 --> 00:39:48,359
Speaker 3: them up and put capes on them and made a

765
00:39:48,400 --> 00:39:51,640
Speaker 3: new jingle and they never went with any of that stuff.

766
00:39:51,680 --> 00:39:53,120
Speaker 3: It kind of all went in the waste basket.

767
00:39:53,160 --> 00:39:53,440
Speaker 2: I think.

768
00:39:53,600 --> 00:39:55,600
Speaker 1: Well, one new thing did come out of it, and

769
00:39:56,040 --> 00:39:59,400
Speaker 1: von Or Harold brown Hut had a patent on it

770
00:39:59,400 --> 00:40:02,160
Speaker 1: was one of his li patents. It was a watch

771
00:40:02,480 --> 00:40:06,200
Speaker 1: that you could inject a couple of live sea monkeys

772
00:40:06,200 --> 00:40:08,879
Speaker 1: into and they would live in there for twenty four

773
00:40:08,920 --> 00:40:12,400
Speaker 1: hours before I guess either they died or if you

774
00:40:12,480 --> 00:40:14,560
Speaker 1: could suck them back out and put them back in

775
00:40:14,600 --> 00:40:17,000
Speaker 1: their aquarium. But you could walk around with your two

776
00:40:17,040 --> 00:40:19,960
Speaker 1: favorite or luckiest sea monkeys for the day and tell

777
00:40:20,080 --> 00:40:22,719
Speaker 1: time as well. So that was there was at least

778
00:40:22,719 --> 00:40:25,480
Speaker 1: one thing that came out of that updating. But if

779
00:40:25,520 --> 00:40:27,160
Speaker 1: you go back and look, if you look at those

780
00:40:27,200 --> 00:40:29,359
Speaker 1: you're like, this is pretty lame. And you go back

781
00:40:29,400 --> 00:40:31,960
Speaker 1: and look today at the sea monkey packaging, it is

782
00:40:32,000 --> 00:40:34,239
Speaker 1: basically back to how it was like in that Joe

783
00:40:34,400 --> 00:40:38,200
Speaker 1: Orlando style. But if you do want to watch some

784
00:40:38,280 --> 00:40:43,120
Speaker 1: business people do some tap dancing, it's really interesting. Read

785
00:40:43,120 --> 00:40:45,919
Speaker 1: this article. It's called the Sea Monkeys and the White Supremacist.

786
00:40:46,000 --> 00:40:48,720
Speaker 1: It was in the La Times on October first, two thousand,

787
00:40:49,040 --> 00:40:51,799
Speaker 1: written by Tamar Brought, who did a pretty good job

788
00:40:51,880 --> 00:40:57,200
Speaker 1: of like just some good old fashioned like footwork or

789
00:40:57,320 --> 00:41:03,279
Speaker 1: legwork going to pound the pound the beat with the.

790
00:41:03,680 --> 00:41:05,479
Speaker 3: Footwork, sniff him off the case.

791
00:41:05,600 --> 00:41:06,640
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying.

792
00:41:06,800 --> 00:41:08,400
Speaker 3: All Right, Well, let's take another break and we're going

793
00:41:08,440 --> 00:41:10,239
Speaker 3: to come back and we're talking about We're going to

794
00:41:10,320 --> 00:41:13,600
Speaker 3: talk about where things stand today in the fight over

795
00:41:13,640 --> 00:41:15,640
Speaker 3: the rights and the fortune of the sea monkeys.

796
00:41:15,920 --> 00:41:19,319
Speaker 2: If you want to know, then you're in luck. Just

797
00:41:19,560 --> 00:41:29,320
Speaker 2: listen to JH sh suffuse stuff.

798
00:41:29,440 --> 00:41:45,480
Speaker 3: You s No, all right, so we know what happened. Actually,

799
00:41:45,480 --> 00:41:47,360
Speaker 3: how did he die? I didn't even see that.

800
00:41:48,120 --> 00:41:52,040
Speaker 1: I didn't see that either. He died in two thousand

801
00:41:52,080 --> 00:41:54,680
Speaker 1: and three, but I'm not sure why. All right, So

802
00:41:54,760 --> 00:41:56,640
Speaker 1: he died, Yeah, that's true.

803
00:41:57,000 --> 00:42:03,040
Speaker 3: But he left behind his wife, Yolanda Signorelli von Braunhutt.

804
00:42:03,120 --> 00:42:04,080
Speaker 2: Did you look her up?

805
00:42:04,360 --> 00:42:08,440
Speaker 3: Oh? Yeah, okay, yeah she was. She was an actress.

806
00:42:10,200 --> 00:42:13,200
Speaker 3: She was sort of a sort of like a pin up,

807
00:42:13,239 --> 00:42:15,320
Speaker 3: bombshell b movie actress.

808
00:42:16,440 --> 00:42:20,279
Speaker 1: It's fairsh I had also seen her movies as described

809
00:42:20,320 --> 00:42:21,839
Speaker 1: as adult films as well.

810
00:42:22,719 --> 00:42:26,200
Speaker 2: Sure, she was in a movie. I got to see

811
00:42:26,200 --> 00:42:26,520
Speaker 2: this one.

812
00:42:26,560 --> 00:42:30,920
Speaker 1: It's called Love After Death and it's a softcore zombie

813
00:42:31,160 --> 00:42:36,360
Speaker 1: flick from the sixties. Yeah, but yes, she was a

814
00:42:36,400 --> 00:42:39,120
Speaker 1: pretty interesting person in her own right as well.

815
00:42:39,480 --> 00:42:42,000
Speaker 3: Yeah, and she says for her as far as the

816
00:42:42,880 --> 00:42:46,880
Speaker 3: Aryan Nation stuff. She says, like, I never knew and

817
00:42:47,000 --> 00:42:49,480
Speaker 3: saw this side of him. So I don't know if

818
00:42:49,520 --> 00:42:53,680
Speaker 3: she's being on the level or if she's just kind

819
00:42:53,680 --> 00:42:56,799
Speaker 3: of quashing this and covering for him. It was kind

820
00:42:56,800 --> 00:42:57,440
Speaker 3: of not clear to.

821
00:42:57,400 --> 00:42:58,160
Speaker 2: Me I saw.

822
00:42:58,320 --> 00:42:59,719
Speaker 1: I don't know if it was in that New York

823
00:42:59,760 --> 00:43:03,320
Speaker 1: Times article or in the nineteen eighty eight Washington Post article.

824
00:43:03,719 --> 00:43:06,880
Speaker 1: But his first wife was contacted and interviewed for it,

825
00:43:06,920 --> 00:43:09,800
Speaker 1: and she was like, what are you guys talking about?

826
00:43:09,960 --> 00:43:10,280
Speaker 3: Really?

827
00:43:10,520 --> 00:43:10,880
Speaker 2: Yeah?

828
00:43:10,920 --> 00:43:13,880
Speaker 1: So who knows. Maybe he did just keep the He

829
00:43:14,040 --> 00:43:17,560
Speaker 1: was clearly somebody who could compartmentalize the different parts of

830
00:43:17,560 --> 00:43:22,759
Speaker 1: his personality. So maybe he really did just leave the

831
00:43:22,800 --> 00:43:23,600
Speaker 1: wives out of it.

832
00:43:24,239 --> 00:43:26,640
Speaker 3: Man, how could you not know something? Right? That's crazy?

833
00:43:26,719 --> 00:43:28,880
Speaker 3: Just going to Idaho on my yearly trip.

834
00:43:29,120 --> 00:43:32,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's weird. He always goes to Idaho in the

835
00:43:32,320 --> 00:43:34,279
Speaker 1: Aryan Nation assembles.

836
00:43:34,600 --> 00:43:40,799
Speaker 3: All right. So, Yolanda Signora Levan bron Hut lived and

837
00:43:40,880 --> 00:43:44,040
Speaker 3: I think still lives in or at least as of

838
00:43:44,080 --> 00:43:46,799
Speaker 3: two years ago when this article came out, in the

839
00:43:46,840 --> 00:43:53,600
Speaker 3: Potomac River estate in southern Maryland. But she is she's

840
00:43:53,880 --> 00:43:58,400
Speaker 3: she's she's broke. Yeah, basically, she has no electricity, no

841
00:43:58,480 --> 00:44:02,840
Speaker 3: running water, and she is and been in illegal battle

842
00:44:03,440 --> 00:44:08,960
Speaker 3: with Big Time Toys and their chief executive Sam Harwell

843
00:44:09,640 --> 00:44:15,799
Speaker 3: for basically several years, trying to get money because Big

844
00:44:15,800 --> 00:44:18,200
Speaker 3: Time Toy says, this is our company now.

845
00:44:18,440 --> 00:44:21,439
Speaker 1: Yeah, Big Time Toys sounds like I'd be nervous about

846
00:44:21,440 --> 00:44:24,000
Speaker 1: going into business with them. I'm more of a basic

847
00:44:24,120 --> 00:44:27,960
Speaker 1: fun guy. Big Time Toys sounds like they're moving too

848
00:44:28,000 --> 00:44:30,719
Speaker 1: fast for me, you know what I mean? Yeah, so yeah, So,

849
00:44:31,880 --> 00:44:35,840
Speaker 1: Yolanda Brown Hutt has She's got kind of like a

850
00:44:35,880 --> 00:44:39,520
Speaker 1: great gardens thing going on right now against her will.

851
00:44:39,520 --> 00:44:42,640
Speaker 1: This is not something she's happy about at all. And

852
00:44:42,800 --> 00:44:46,319
Speaker 1: her position is, as far as The Times tells it

853
00:44:46,360 --> 00:44:51,160
Speaker 1: is that she engaged in a licensing deal, which is

854
00:44:51,360 --> 00:44:55,120
Speaker 1: how sea monkeys have been produced basically since the beginning,

855
00:44:56,080 --> 00:44:58,680
Speaker 1: with a company with that company, Big Time Toys, where

856
00:44:58,719 --> 00:45:04,040
Speaker 1: they would handle the packaging and the distribution, and her company,

857
00:45:04,080 --> 00:45:09,000
Speaker 1: her own little company, would handle making the actual sea

858
00:45:09,040 --> 00:45:14,040
Speaker 1: monkeys that were that were put into the packaging that

859
00:45:14,120 --> 00:45:17,240
Speaker 1: Big Time Toys sold. Right, So, Big Time Toys would

860
00:45:17,320 --> 00:45:20,399
Speaker 1: buy the sea monkeys that they would put into the

861
00:45:20,520 --> 00:45:23,520
Speaker 1: packages and then would turn around and sell to the public.

862
00:45:23,760 --> 00:45:25,880
Speaker 1: That was the arrangement initially.

863
00:45:25,760 --> 00:45:29,680
Speaker 3: Right, So we have the secret formula that no one

864
00:45:29,719 --> 00:45:31,640
Speaker 3: else has seemed to be been able to crack.

865
00:45:31,960 --> 00:45:33,120
Speaker 2: This is Yolanda talking.

866
00:45:33,239 --> 00:45:35,200
Speaker 3: Yeah, should I have done my Jolana voice?

867
00:45:35,280 --> 00:45:36,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's hear it.

868
00:45:36,719 --> 00:45:37,200
Speaker 3: I don't know what.

869
00:45:37,239 --> 00:45:39,919
Speaker 1: She sounds like, high pitched Italian stereotype.

870
00:45:40,400 --> 00:45:40,800
Speaker 2: Let's hear it.

871
00:45:41,360 --> 00:45:44,560
Speaker 3: No, no, no, she It would have been like three

872
00:45:44,600 --> 00:45:46,640
Speaker 3: different groups of people if yeah, yeah, I think you wi.

873
00:45:48,719 --> 00:45:50,919
Speaker 3: She basically said, we have the secret formula, the only

874
00:45:50,920 --> 00:45:53,280
Speaker 3: one that works that can keep these things alive. Everyone

875
00:45:53,280 --> 00:45:56,120
Speaker 3: else has tried and failed, and so we will sell

876
00:45:56,160 --> 00:45:58,520
Speaker 3: these to you and you can do everything else and

877
00:45:58,560 --> 00:46:00,960
Speaker 3: cut me a check. And there was also a side

878
00:46:01,000 --> 00:46:05,600
Speaker 3: deal that said you can buy this company, including the

879
00:46:05,640 --> 00:46:09,480
Speaker 3: secret formula, for five million bucks up front and then

880
00:46:09,520 --> 00:46:13,600
Speaker 3: another five million and installments, and so Big Time basically

881
00:46:14,200 --> 00:46:17,279
Speaker 3: called her up a few years ago, probably about five

882
00:46:17,360 --> 00:46:19,040
Speaker 3: years ago at this point, if my math is right,

883
00:46:19,520 --> 00:46:22,239
Speaker 3: and said, you know what, all these payments we've been

884
00:46:22,280 --> 00:46:26,399
Speaker 3: making to you for the licensing deal, we just kind

885
00:46:26,400 --> 00:46:29,880
Speaker 3: of consider that layaway and as far as we're concerned,

886
00:46:29,880 --> 00:46:30,880
Speaker 3: we own sea monkeys.

887
00:46:30,920 --> 00:46:31,120
Speaker 2: Now.

888
00:46:31,280 --> 00:46:35,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, we've reached that five million dollar point. So there ares.

889
00:46:35,120 --> 00:46:38,000
Speaker 3: Which ostensibly should not have been that money. It should

890
00:46:38,000 --> 00:46:41,040
Speaker 3: have been separate payments, if I understand this correctly.

891
00:46:41,760 --> 00:46:43,560
Speaker 1: But I mean, when somebody does that, what are you

892
00:46:43,600 --> 00:46:45,359
Speaker 1: going to do? You got to go see them, right,

893
00:46:45,800 --> 00:46:48,520
Speaker 1: And that's what they're doing, and they're bleeding this lady dry,

894
00:46:48,600 --> 00:46:52,320
Speaker 1: at least as far as this New York Times profile

895
00:46:52,440 --> 00:46:56,880
Speaker 1: is concerned. And I mean, if you get into a

896
00:46:56,920 --> 00:46:58,920
Speaker 1: fight like that and you don't have the money, you

897
00:46:58,960 --> 00:47:03,600
Speaker 1: can lose. So this could be a sad end to

898
00:47:03,800 --> 00:47:08,640
Speaker 1: the Sea Monkey saga. Because here's the other problem. You

899
00:47:08,719 --> 00:47:10,799
Speaker 1: might be saying to yourself, well, why doesn't she just

900
00:47:10,920 --> 00:47:12,920
Speaker 1: not sell them the sea monkeys anymore?

901
00:47:13,160 --> 00:47:13,759
Speaker 2: Well she did.

902
00:47:13,920 --> 00:47:16,160
Speaker 1: She stopped when they stopped making payments and said they

903
00:47:16,200 --> 00:47:18,759
Speaker 1: owned the Sea Monkey brand. And it turned out that

904
00:47:18,840 --> 00:47:23,560
Speaker 1: in this court case that big big, big Time Toys

905
00:47:24,680 --> 00:47:28,680
Speaker 1: have been buying knockoff sea monkeys from China, and then

906
00:47:28,719 --> 00:47:30,719
Speaker 1: that's what they were putting into the Sea Monkey thing.

907
00:47:30,800 --> 00:47:34,880
Speaker 1: So apparently if you're buying, if you buy currently a

908
00:47:35,080 --> 00:47:39,959
Speaker 1: Sea Monkey package, you're getting Big Time Toys packaging and

909
00:47:41,000 --> 00:47:44,640
Speaker 1: Chinese knockoff sea monkey packets.

910
00:47:44,520 --> 00:47:48,719
Speaker 3: Which don't work. Apparently, I went and looked at Amazon reviews,

911
00:47:49,440 --> 00:47:52,839
Speaker 3: and almost all of them for all the products said

912
00:47:54,080 --> 00:47:56,640
Speaker 3: none of them hatched, or they hatched for like a day.

913
00:47:57,239 --> 00:47:59,600
Speaker 3: These things stink. When I was a kid, they worked.

914
00:48:00,400 --> 00:48:04,279
Speaker 3: So it's weird that it's sort of ironic that they

915
00:48:04,360 --> 00:48:09,160
Speaker 3: ended up creating a special breed essentially that worked, and

916
00:48:09,239 --> 00:48:12,160
Speaker 3: that ended up being there undoing. Because in court and

917
00:48:12,200 --> 00:48:16,239
Speaker 3: the affidavit, the leader, this Harwell guy, whose wife, by

918
00:48:16,239 --> 00:48:19,239
Speaker 3: the way, is ahead. She's a speaker of the House

919
00:48:19,280 --> 00:48:22,960
Speaker 3: of the Tennessee House of Representatives. Yeah, they're a power

920
00:48:23,000 --> 00:48:25,960
Speaker 3: family all the way around and not to be trifled with.

921
00:48:26,760 --> 00:48:30,280
Speaker 3: In his affidavit, he says he outsourced the sea monkeys

922
00:48:30,280 --> 00:48:34,319
Speaker 3: of China and says there are seven recognized species of

923
00:48:34,800 --> 00:48:39,399
Speaker 3: our Timia brine shrimp and this is not one of them.

924
00:48:39,760 --> 00:48:44,640
Speaker 3: So because they had created their own species, it ended

925
00:48:44,719 --> 00:48:47,560
Speaker 3: up being there undoing at court. It looks like because

926
00:48:47,560 --> 00:48:52,040
Speaker 3: it doesn't officially exist as a real species that these

927
00:48:52,080 --> 00:48:52,760
Speaker 3: guys are getting.

928
00:48:53,120 --> 00:48:55,839
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I'm pretty sure he got a patent on

929
00:48:56,000 --> 00:48:58,759
Speaker 1: the species that they made.

930
00:48:59,000 --> 00:49:00,520
Speaker 3: Well, no, that's what I'm saying that. But he's not

931
00:49:00,560 --> 00:49:04,000
Speaker 3: getting that species. Oh, I see, he's getting these Well

932
00:49:04,000 --> 00:49:07,600
Speaker 3: they're not knockoffs their mother Nature's own. Sure, sure, China,

933
00:49:08,200 --> 00:49:09,279
Speaker 3: but they're not the ones that.

934
00:49:09,239 --> 00:49:10,880
Speaker 2: Are working, right, I got youa.

935
00:49:11,040 --> 00:49:11,920
Speaker 3: So it's just a mess.

936
00:49:12,280 --> 00:49:15,160
Speaker 1: But then still doesn't that like raise questions about how

937
00:49:15,200 --> 00:49:17,200
Speaker 1: you could use the Sea Monkey's name or.

938
00:49:17,320 --> 00:49:18,200
Speaker 3: That's what I wondered.

939
00:49:18,640 --> 00:49:21,200
Speaker 1: But I guess if they had the license to use

940
00:49:21,200 --> 00:49:23,360
Speaker 1: the Sea Monkey's name because they were in charge of

941
00:49:23,400 --> 00:49:28,120
Speaker 1: packaging and distribution, maybe then yeah, I guess they could say, well,

942
00:49:28,120 --> 00:49:30,200
Speaker 1: we're not going to use the official ones any longer,

943
00:49:30,200 --> 00:49:31,560
Speaker 1: We're going to use these natural ones.

944
00:49:31,719 --> 00:49:32,920
Speaker 2: Man, what a mess.

945
00:49:33,040 --> 00:49:35,240
Speaker 3: Well, and it's a mess too because you're like, oh,

946
00:49:35,280 --> 00:49:39,279
Speaker 3: do I root for the side of this guy who

947
00:49:39,400 --> 00:49:44,120
Speaker 3: was a white nationalist, but you know, his wife says

948
00:49:44,120 --> 00:49:46,720
Speaker 3: she didn't know anything about that, and she's going broke

949
00:49:47,160 --> 00:49:49,920
Speaker 3: and has been basically had this company stolen from her.

950
00:49:50,200 --> 00:49:52,560
Speaker 3: It seems like, yeah, it's just I don't know, I

951
00:49:52,600 --> 00:49:53,319
Speaker 3: don't know what to think.

952
00:49:53,480 --> 00:49:56,600
Speaker 1: Or do you root for the guys who are apparently

953
00:49:56,640 --> 00:50:00,200
Speaker 1: stealing the company fake waido of the white national.

954
00:50:00,320 --> 00:50:01,640
Speaker 3: Y for big time toys?

955
00:50:01,840 --> 00:50:03,879
Speaker 2: Yeah? You know what. I predict that, Chuck.

956
00:50:04,000 --> 00:50:07,560
Speaker 1: I predict that Sea Monkeys the brand will ultimately rise

957
00:50:07,600 --> 00:50:10,960
Speaker 1: about this that it will. It will survive this somehow

958
00:50:11,120 --> 00:50:14,160
Speaker 1: and still be around twenty thirty years from now.

959
00:50:14,320 --> 00:50:15,480
Speaker 3: The sea monkeys will take over.

960
00:50:16,680 --> 00:50:21,480
Speaker 1: Yeah, they will eventually overthrow the human race, like the

961
00:50:21,560 --> 00:50:25,240
Speaker 1: Arians plotted to overthrow the US government. What a story,

962
00:50:25,680 --> 00:50:28,279
Speaker 1: It's quite a story. That's a good one, man. Thanks

963
00:50:28,280 --> 00:50:31,480
Speaker 1: for digging this up. Sure, well, if you want to

964
00:50:31,520 --> 00:50:34,720
Speaker 1: know more about sea monkeys, just start digging around, pulling

965
00:50:34,760 --> 00:50:37,440
Speaker 1: at the loose threads. You're gonna find some interesting stuff.

966
00:50:37,920 --> 00:50:40,520
Speaker 1: And since I said interesting stuff, that means it's time

967
00:50:40,560 --> 00:50:41,719
Speaker 1: friends for a listener mail.

968
00:50:44,480 --> 00:50:49,520
Speaker 3: I'm gonna call this pomp Pei Pompeiian lemons. Okay, is

969
00:50:49,560 --> 00:50:50,160
Speaker 3: that how you would say it?

970
00:50:50,239 --> 00:50:53,120
Speaker 2: Pompey in Yeah? I thought that was beautiful.

971
00:50:53,160 --> 00:50:55,640
Speaker 3: All right, long time listener, first time emailer. Guys recently

972
00:50:55,640 --> 00:50:59,759
Speaker 3: listened to the Pompei show. Very informative. Uh and I

973
00:51:00,040 --> 00:51:01,520
Speaker 3: to be a tour guide in Europe and led close

974
00:51:01,520 --> 00:51:05,000
Speaker 3: to fifteen tours on the Amalfi Coast, Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius.

975
00:51:05,640 --> 00:51:08,640
Speaker 3: I listened to Josh experience with the lemons. They do,

976
00:51:08,719 --> 00:51:10,719
Speaker 3: in fact grow to be the size of your head. However,

977
00:51:11,480 --> 00:51:15,799
Speaker 3: those gigantic lemons are actually called sedri and are more

978
00:51:15,800 --> 00:51:16,800
Speaker 3: for show than anything.

979
00:51:17,080 --> 00:51:18,960
Speaker 2: They're called sedri the end of day in it.

980
00:51:20,480 --> 00:51:22,640
Speaker 3: If you ever cut one and a half, the inside

981
00:51:23,239 --> 00:51:26,160
Speaker 3: is actually about the size of a normal lemon. The

982
00:51:26,239 --> 00:51:29,200
Speaker 3: rind can be a few inches thick, and boy are

983
00:51:29,200 --> 00:51:32,560
Speaker 3: they bitter. Definitely not something you keep around for lemonade.

984
00:51:32,920 --> 00:51:34,160
Speaker 3: Just something I wanted to share.

985
00:51:34,680 --> 00:51:36,440
Speaker 2: Thanks for ruining everything for me.

986
00:51:37,640 --> 00:51:40,600
Speaker 3: And also another thought the other day in the car,

987
00:51:40,719 --> 00:51:44,480
Speaker 3: have either of you just said no when one of

988
00:51:44,520 --> 00:51:47,000
Speaker 3: you asked for a commercial break. I thought it'd be

989
00:51:47,000 --> 00:51:51,760
Speaker 3: funny if one of you just said, nah.

990
00:51:50,800 --> 00:51:54,520
Speaker 1: We've come close. We have, haven't we I don't know.

991
00:51:54,760 --> 00:51:56,400
Speaker 1: Did it not make it into an episode?

992
00:51:56,440 --> 00:51:59,080
Speaker 2: It might not? Have we have and we just edited

993
00:51:59,080 --> 00:52:01,520
Speaker 2: that part out and kept going. I think.

994
00:52:01,880 --> 00:52:04,720
Speaker 3: Well that is for Matt McDonald, who is a software

995
00:52:04,760 --> 00:52:06,440
Speaker 3: developer at Neocloud.

996
00:52:07,000 --> 00:52:07,960
Speaker 2: Thanks a lot, Matt.

997
00:52:08,440 --> 00:52:11,160
Speaker 1: I think I was kind of disappointed to read that

998
00:52:11,239 --> 00:52:15,040
Speaker 1: email originally, but whatever, I guess you got to just

999
00:52:15,080 --> 00:52:16,359
Speaker 1: live with reality, right.

1000
00:52:16,480 --> 00:52:17,720
Speaker 3: You've made an enemy today.

1001
00:52:19,600 --> 00:52:20,720
Speaker 2: If you want to get.

1002
00:52:20,560 --> 00:52:23,439
Speaker 1: In touch with us and ruin our reality like Matt did,

1003
00:52:23,680 --> 00:52:26,000
Speaker 1: you can send all of us, including Jerry, an email

1004
00:52:26,040 --> 00:52:29,040
Speaker 1: to Stuff Podcasts at Houstuffworks dot com and has always

1005
00:52:29,080 --> 00:52:31,319
Speaker 1: joined us at our home on the web. Stuffishould Know

1006
00:52:31,400 --> 00:52:35,560
Speaker 1: dot Com.

1007
00:52:35,160 --> 00:52:38,040
Speaker 3: Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For

1008
00:52:38,120 --> 00:52:42,319
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1009
00:52:42,440 --> 00:52:44,280
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