Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
Speaker 1: full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Films can be magical. Think of the movies
Speaker 1: that influenced aspiring filmmakers. From great white sharks off the
Speaker 1: coast of New England to dinosaurs rampaging across to Costa
Speaker 1: Rican Island. Two hours in a dark in theater can
Speaker 1: be life changing. The films with this kind of power
Speaker 1: tend to be the ones with the best of lists. Casablanca, Jaws,
Speaker 1: Citizen Kane, Taxi Driver, movies with one heck of a
Speaker 1: story to tell. And then there's nineteen thirty nine Code
Speaker 1: of the Secret Service. It certainly was a movie, just
Speaker 1: not a great one, at least according to the film star,
Speaker 1: an actor named Ronald Reagan. Before he became the forty
Speaker 1: president of the United States, Ronald Reagan was an entertainer,
Speaker 1: starring in dozens of films, including western's and dramas. One
Speaker 1: series had Reagan, playing a character named Lieutenant Brass Bancoft,
Speaker 1: a former military pilot who joined the Secret Service to
Speaker 1: take down criminals. The first installment in the franchise, the
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty nine Secret Service of the Air, was a
Speaker 1: modest hit. Its success pushed the studio to green light
Speaker 1: three more sequels over the next year. That's right, three
Speaker 1: Secret Service movies starring Ronald Reagan were released in nineteen
Speaker 1: thirty nine. The final film, Murder in the Air, came
Speaker 1: out in nineteen forty. Quantity over quality, I guess it
Speaker 1: was the second installment, though Code of the Secret Service,
Speaker 1: that was particularly special, not because it was Eddie good.
Speaker 1: Though Reagan hated it. He called it the worst picture
Speaker 1: he had ever made, and was quoted as saying, never
Speaker 1: has an egg of such dimensions been laid. He wasn't
Speaker 1: yoking either. The film was almost universally panned by theatergoers
Speaker 1: and critics alike. Still, it made enough money to keep
Speaker 1: the series afloat for two more installments. In the film,
Speaker 1: Lieutenant Bancroft is sent after a ring of counterfeiters who
Speaker 1: have stolen engraving plates from the U. S. Treasury. Exciting
Speaker 1: on paper, but not so much in execution unless you
Speaker 1: were Jerry. Jerry was born in nineteen thirty in Montgomery, Alabama,
Speaker 1: but grew up in Florida. When he was thirty two
Speaker 1: years old, a recruiter from the United States Secret Service
Speaker 1: paid him a visit and asked if he wanted to join.
Speaker 1: Jerry didn't think the job was any more dangerous than
Speaker 1: the one that he had been doing in Florida, Power
Speaker 1: and Light, so he said yeah. Jerry was no spring chicken.
Speaker 1: He entered the academy alongside much younger cadets, but that
Speaker 1: didn't stop him from persevering as a new agent. In
Speaker 1: the early sixty Jerry was first assigned to protect John F.
Speaker 1: Kennedy and then Lyndon B. Johnson as they attended Eleanor
Speaker 1: Roosevelt's funeral. From there, he was almost always beside a
Speaker 1: president or vice president, though, Jerry faced the challenge of
Speaker 1: his life. He was working as part of President Reagan's
Speaker 1: Secret Service detail the afternoon of March. The president had
Speaker 1: just given a speech at a major union organization at
Speaker 1: the Washington Hilton Hotel in d C. He was being
Speaker 1: led out of the hotel around two pm, where a
Speaker 1: sea of reporters were waiting to greet him. President Reagan
Speaker 1: had stepped up to the crowd to answer questions when
Speaker 1: a man named John Hinckley Jr. Pulled a revolver out
Speaker 1: and fired six shots rang out. Jerry jumped into action,
Speaker 1: shoving Reagan into a waiting limousine. He looked back to
Speaker 1: see three people bleeding on the sidewalk. Hinkley had severely
Speaker 1: wounded several of the president's staff. Jerry assumed that the
Speaker 1: President had gone unharmed, but he looked back and saw
Speaker 1: blood spurting out of Reagan's mouth. Out of the six
Speaker 1: bullets that were fired, one had managed to lodge itself
Speaker 1: in Reagan's lung, which had collapsed. Jerry told the driver
Speaker 1: to head to George Washington University Medical Center, where doctors
Speaker 1: spent two hours removing the bullet and stitching the president's
Speaker 1: back up. Reagan was fine, thanks in no small part
Speaker 1: to Jerry's quick thinking. What very few people knew at
Speaker 1: the time was that Jerry Parr almost didn't become a
Speaker 1: Secret Service agent, but he'd been inspired by a film
Speaker 1: he'd seen many times when he was younger. It was
Speaker 1: a movie about a former military pilot who joined the
Speaker 1: Secret Service to take down criminals. A movie starring Ronald Reagan,
Speaker 1: called Code of the Secret Service, the worst movie Ronald
Speaker 1: Reagan ever made, inadvertently saved his life. Sometimes truth really
Speaker 1: is stranger than fiction. Today's television landscape comprises a vast
Speaker 1: rate of programming, much of it is good or even
Speaker 1: better than what we might find at the cinema. From
Speaker 1: star studded series two movies of the week. The TV
Speaker 1: of today is a far cry from the sitcoms and
Speaker 1: camp of yesteryear. But that doesn't mean the television shows
Speaker 1: of the old days weren't special in their own right.
Speaker 1: They entertained families every week with tales of genies and bottles,
Speaker 1: bumbling spies, and witchy wives. But one man didn't quite
Speaker 1: care for the quality of programming in the nineteen sixties.
Speaker 1: He thought it could be better. What he got instead
Speaker 1: was his name on a piece of television history, though
Speaker 1: not in the way he probably wanted. Newton Norman was
Speaker 1: a lawyer from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Born in nineteen six. Norman
Speaker 1: fought during World War Two before getting his law degree
Speaker 1: from Northwestern He worked his way up in the private sector,
Speaker 1: getting a job at a major law firm until he
Speaker 1: joined ad LEA. Stevenson on his two presidential campaigns in
Speaker 1: the nineteen fifties. In nineteen sixty one, President John F.
Speaker 1: Kennedy appointed Norman into the Federal Communications Commission. As a commissioner,
Speaker 1: Norman took his job very seriously, lamenting the states of
Speaker 1: television at the time. It was a topic he spoke
Speaker 1: of frequently with Kennedy's brother, Roberts, who agreed that modern
Speaker 1: TV programming of the time needed a lot of help.
Speaker 1: More importantly, though, he felt that the children would suffer
Speaker 1: if television continued its commercial decline. Norman furthered his agenda
Speaker 1: with a speech which he gave at a convention in
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty one held by a powerful lobbying group, the
Speaker 1: National Association of Broadcasters, were responsible for setting guidelines for
Speaker 1: television networks and radio stations. Want to know why the
Speaker 1: hour from eight to nine pm is considered primetime? What
Speaker 1: we have the n A B To thank for that?
Speaker 1: Norman had just become chair of the FCC two months earlier,
Speaker 1: and he was determined to make a splash. He launched
Speaker 1: into a tirade about undesirable programming such as game shows,
Speaker 1: Westerns and sitcoms. He believed that if there was more variety,
Speaker 1: people would naturally choose to watch better shows. Among the
Speaker 1: ones he actually liked were The Twilight Zone and certain
Speaker 1: news programs, where there was plenty that he despised. He
Speaker 1: referred to television as a whole, as a vast wasteland
Speaker 1: populated by what he called formula comedies about totally unbelievable families.
Speaker 1: Many at the n A B agreed, though by the
Speaker 1: time the speech was given, the networks had already lined
Speaker 1: up their schedules for the next season. Programming changes wouldn't
Speaker 1: happen until at least nineteen sixty three. But one person
Speaker 1: had heard the speech who didn't agree with any of it,
Speaker 1: and he was going to have the last word. Sherwood
Speaker 1: Schwartz had gotten his start in radio, writing for programs
Speaker 1: like the Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet's and The Bob
Speaker 1: Hope Show. When he made the jump to television, he
Speaker 1: got a job writing for the popular comedy program The
Speaker 1: Red Skeleton Show. But Schwartz wasn't going to stay in
Speaker 1: the writer's room forever. He had an idea for a
Speaker 1: show of his own, one which he started production on
Speaker 1: in November of nineteen sixty three. It started an ensemble
Speaker 1: cast who found themselves strand it on a deserted island
Speaker 1: after their tour boat was damaged in a storm. What
Speaker 1: was supposed to have been a three hour tour ended
Speaker 1: up becoming one of the most popular series on television,
Speaker 1: spanning three seasons, almost one episodes, and several film sequels
Speaker 1: plus one catchy theme song. Gilligan's Island was a hit,
Speaker 1: and in some ways it was a hit piece on
Speaker 1: the former FCC chair himself. You see, Sherwood Schwartz didn't
Speaker 1: take too kindly to the ways in which he'd been insulted.
Speaker 1: Here he was with a formula comedy about totally unbelievable
Speaker 1: characters getting into one hairbrain scheme after another, and he
Speaker 1: knew that people were going to love it. So as
Speaker 1: any great artist would, Schwartz fired back at his critic, Norman,
Speaker 1: in the only way he knew how he named something
Speaker 1: in the show after him, Newton. Norman Minnow would live
Speaker 1: on in the hearts and minds of viewers everywhere as
Speaker 1: the inspiration behind the name of the skipper's ill fated ship,
Speaker 1: The S. S. Minnow I hope you've enjoyed today's guided
Speaker 1: tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting
Speaker 1: Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me
Speaker 1: Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make
Speaker 1: another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
Speaker 1: book series, and television show, and you can learn all
Speaker 1: about it over at the World of Lore dot com.
Speaker 1: And until next time, stay curious.