1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:03,640 Speaker 1: Hey, y'all, Eve's here. Today's episode contains not just one, 2 00:00:03,880 --> 00:00:06,840 Speaker 1: but two nuggets of history. These are coming from the 3 00:00:06,880 --> 00:00:09,280 Speaker 1: T D I h C Vault, so you'll also here 4 00:00:09,360 --> 00:00:12,479 Speaker 1: two hosts. Consider it a double feature. Enjoy the show. 5 00:00:13,920 --> 00:00:16,400 Speaker 1: Welcome to This Day in History Class from how Stuff 6 00:00:16,400 --> 00:00:18,599 Speaker 1: Works dot com and from the desk of Stuff you 7 00:00:18,600 --> 00:00:21,040 Speaker 1: Missed in History Class. It's the show where we explore 8 00:00:21,079 --> 00:00:23,239 Speaker 1: the past one day at a time with a quick 9 00:00:23,280 --> 00:00:30,360 Speaker 1: look at what happened today in history. Hello, and welcome 10 00:00:30,400 --> 00:00:34,160 Speaker 1: to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson, and it's September. 11 00:00:35,840 --> 00:00:39,400 Speaker 1: Johnny Appleseed was born on this day in seventeen seventy 12 00:00:39,400 --> 00:00:43,760 Speaker 1: four and Lemonster, Massachusetts. He was the second oldest child 13 00:00:43,800 --> 00:00:48,440 Speaker 1: of Elizabeth Simmons Chapman and Nathaniel Chapman. Basically from birth 14 00:00:48,520 --> 00:00:51,600 Speaker 1: he was John Chapman. His mother died when he was 15 00:00:51,720 --> 00:00:54,840 Speaker 1: very young, not long after the birth of John's younger brother, 16 00:00:54,920 --> 00:00:59,040 Speaker 1: who died a few more weeks after that. Nathaniel Chapman remarried. 17 00:00:59,280 --> 00:01:02,440 Speaker 1: He and his second wife, Lisa, had ten children together. 18 00:01:02,840 --> 00:01:05,399 Speaker 1: They all lived together in a four hundred square foot house. 19 00:01:05,880 --> 00:01:07,840 Speaker 1: There's a story that John was kicked in the head 20 00:01:07,840 --> 00:01:10,440 Speaker 1: by a horse when he was about twenty one, and 21 00:01:10,520 --> 00:01:12,400 Speaker 1: that he had to have part of his skull removed. 22 00:01:12,840 --> 00:01:15,240 Speaker 1: It's not entirely clear whether that really happened, but it 23 00:01:15,280 --> 00:01:18,840 Speaker 1: has been used to explain some of his eccentricities, like 24 00:01:19,319 --> 00:01:22,880 Speaker 1: the apples and the wandering. John and his half brother 25 00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:26,080 Speaker 1: Nathaniel left Massachusetts in the late eighteen nineties and started 26 00:01:26,080 --> 00:01:28,600 Speaker 1: making their way west on the other side of the 27 00:01:28,640 --> 00:01:31,960 Speaker 1: Ohio River. A huge land grab was going on in 28 00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:35,920 Speaker 1: the Northwest Territory, as homesteaders lay claim to lands that 29 00:01:35,959 --> 00:01:39,840 Speaker 1: had previously been home to North America's indigenous peoples. This 30 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:45,319 Speaker 1: forced the native population into increasingly smaller territory, including onto reservations. 31 00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:48,680 Speaker 1: The people who set up homesteads out on this land 32 00:01:48,840 --> 00:01:51,680 Speaker 1: had to improve the land and live on it in 33 00:01:51,760 --> 00:01:56,560 Speaker 1: order to keep it so. Chapman moved just ahead of 34 00:01:56,560 --> 00:01:59,800 Speaker 1: the land grab. He would clear land and set up 35 00:01:59,800 --> 00:02:03,000 Speaker 1: a rush fence to keep out the animals and plants apples. 36 00:02:03,480 --> 00:02:06,520 Speaker 1: He planted other things too, but apples are really what 37 00:02:06,560 --> 00:02:10,640 Speaker 1: he's known for. If he had been interested in money, 38 00:02:10,960 --> 00:02:13,880 Speaker 1: he could have become really rich doing this. He had 39 00:02:13,880 --> 00:02:16,560 Speaker 1: a real knack for figuring out where people were going 40 00:02:16,600 --> 00:02:19,399 Speaker 1: to go and getting there ahead of them and planting 41 00:02:19,400 --> 00:02:22,000 Speaker 1: the apple orchards that they had to plant to keep 42 00:02:22,040 --> 00:02:26,440 Speaker 1: their land already planted before they got there. But it 43 00:02:26,480 --> 00:02:30,079 Speaker 1: seems like he really wasn't interested in money. He gave 44 00:02:30,160 --> 00:02:33,240 Speaker 1: away a lot of his apple plantings, and he spent 45 00:02:33,320 --> 00:02:35,120 Speaker 1: a lot of the money that he did earn on 46 00:02:35,160 --> 00:02:38,200 Speaker 1: things like buying horses that were being mistreated and then 47 00:02:38,200 --> 00:02:40,920 Speaker 1: putting them out to pasture. It seems like he was 48 00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:43,480 Speaker 1: really soft hearted. There are a lot of stories about 49 00:02:43,560 --> 00:02:46,360 Speaker 1: him coming to the rescue of animals, and he was 50 00:02:46,400 --> 00:02:49,920 Speaker 1: also a vegetarian. From time to time, Chapman tried to 51 00:02:49,919 --> 00:02:51,720 Speaker 1: buy land of his own, but he could never really 52 00:02:51,720 --> 00:02:55,200 Speaker 1: manage to keep it. He didn't stay on the land 53 00:02:55,240 --> 00:02:58,000 Speaker 1: which was required for him to keep it, or sometimes 54 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:02,040 Speaker 1: he just lost to claim jumpers. Most of these apples 55 00:03:02,040 --> 00:03:04,639 Speaker 1: that he was planting also we're not for eating. He 56 00:03:04,760 --> 00:03:07,400 Speaker 1: tended to plan these varieties that were very hard and 57 00:03:07,520 --> 00:03:10,560 Speaker 1: very bitter. They were for turning into vinegar or apple 58 00:03:10,600 --> 00:03:13,760 Speaker 1: cider or apple jack. Chapman also joined the Church of 59 00:03:13,800 --> 00:03:17,760 Speaker 1: the New Jerusalem, established by Emmanuel Swedenborg and also called 60 00:03:17,760 --> 00:03:21,080 Speaker 1: the New Church. He started preaching the New Church teaching 61 00:03:21,120 --> 00:03:24,760 Speaker 1: says he traveled around planting apples. There's also a really 62 00:03:24,840 --> 00:03:27,560 Speaker 1: dramatic story about him running all night to raise the 63 00:03:27,560 --> 00:03:30,560 Speaker 1: alarm about an incoming attack during the War of eighteen twelve, 64 00:03:30,680 --> 00:03:34,400 Speaker 1: but that might be apocryphal if nothing else. If it 65 00:03:34,440 --> 00:03:38,240 Speaker 1: did happen, he was probably on a horse, not running 66 00:03:38,240 --> 00:03:41,520 Speaker 1: barefoot the entire way overnight, the way the story goes. 67 00:03:42,280 --> 00:03:44,200 Speaker 1: So if the image that comes to your mind when 68 00:03:44,240 --> 00:03:46,840 Speaker 1: somebody says Johnny apple Seed is a thin man and 69 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:50,040 Speaker 1: very ragged clothes and bare feet, wandering from blace to 70 00:03:50,080 --> 00:03:53,000 Speaker 1: place with a bendle full of apple seeds, that is 71 00:03:53,040 --> 00:03:56,480 Speaker 1: mostly right. There are even real life stories about him 72 00:03:56,520 --> 00:03:59,520 Speaker 1: wearing multiple hats at once, one of them a cooking pot. 73 00:04:00,240 --> 00:04:02,520 Speaker 1: But if your mind's eye, he's singing a song that 74 00:04:02,640 --> 00:04:05,640 Speaker 1: starts the Lord is Good to Me. That really came 75 00:04:05,680 --> 00:04:09,360 Speaker 1: from an animated Disney short. You can learn more about 76 00:04:09,440 --> 00:04:12,760 Speaker 1: Johnny apple Seed in the March episode of Stuff You 77 00:04:12,800 --> 00:04:15,240 Speaker 1: Missed in History Class, and you can subscribe to This 78 00:04:15,320 --> 00:04:18,200 Speaker 1: Day in History Class on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and 79 00:04:18,200 --> 00:04:21,200 Speaker 1: whereverls you get your podcasts. Tomorrow, we will have a 80 00:04:21,320 --> 00:04:34,360 Speaker 1: sixteenth century siege. Hi um Eve's welcome to this day 81 00:04:34,360 --> 00:04:37,280 Speaker 1: in History Class, a show that reveals a little bit 82 00:04:37,279 --> 00:04:48,080 Speaker 1: more about history day by day. The day was September 83 00:04:48,960 --> 00:04:53,400 Speaker 1: sometime in the mid eighteen hundreds. Windsor McKay was born. 84 00:04:54,440 --> 00:04:58,359 Speaker 1: McKay was an influential cartoonist and animator, well known for 85 00:04:58,400 --> 00:05:01,279 Speaker 1: the comic Little Nemo in Slow ber Land and his 86 00:05:01,360 --> 00:05:06,560 Speaker 1: pioneering advances in animation. McKay was born Zenus Windsor McKay, 87 00:05:07,040 --> 00:05:11,400 Speaker 1: though his birthplace and year is unclear. He began drawing 88 00:05:11,480 --> 00:05:14,400 Speaker 1: during his childhood, and he later said that he drew 89 00:05:14,480 --> 00:05:19,640 Speaker 1: for himself, not anyone else. He drew incessantly anywhere he 90 00:05:19,720 --> 00:05:23,320 Speaker 1: wanted to, and he said he never saved his drawings. 91 00:05:24,480 --> 00:05:28,320 Speaker 1: McKay's parents sent him to business college, but he continued 92 00:05:28,360 --> 00:05:32,000 Speaker 1: to be drawn to art. He skipped classes to draw 93 00:05:32,080 --> 00:05:35,320 Speaker 1: portraits of visitors at a dime museum. He would sell 94 00:05:35,360 --> 00:05:38,720 Speaker 1: those drawings and share a cut with a museum. He 95 00:05:38,760 --> 00:05:41,440 Speaker 1: did not finish business school, but all the time he 96 00:05:41,480 --> 00:05:44,279 Speaker 1: spent drawing and selling his work helped him hone his 97 00:05:44,320 --> 00:05:48,080 Speaker 1: skills as a professional artist, and it instilled in him 98 00:05:48,080 --> 00:05:52,600 Speaker 1: a desire to perform. John Goodison, an art professor at 99 00:05:52,640 --> 00:05:56,440 Speaker 1: Michigan State Normal took notice of McKay and began giving 100 00:05:56,520 --> 00:06:02,160 Speaker 1: him private lessons that helped McKay develops hills in his technique, composition, 101 00:06:02,360 --> 00:06:07,120 Speaker 1: and perspective. Goodison encouraged him to attend the Art Institute 102 00:06:07,120 --> 00:06:11,240 Speaker 1: of Chicago. He did go to Chicago, but he did 103 00:06:11,279 --> 00:06:14,240 Speaker 1: not go to school there. He worked at a printing 104 00:06:14,240 --> 00:06:17,640 Speaker 1: company in the city, but two years after he arrived there, 105 00:06:17,680 --> 00:06:22,160 Speaker 1: he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. There he began working at 106 00:06:22,200 --> 00:06:25,880 Speaker 1: another Dime museum, but this time he was making promotional 107 00:06:25,920 --> 00:06:29,960 Speaker 1: posters in art as an employee. Outside of his work 108 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:33,719 Speaker 1: at the museum, he painted billboards and created drawings in 109 00:06:33,760 --> 00:06:38,159 Speaker 1: a continuous line. Not long after he moved to Cincinnati, 110 00:06:38,440 --> 00:06:42,080 Speaker 1: he met maud leonor dufour, with whom he later had 111 00:06:42,160 --> 00:06:47,360 Speaker 1: two children. McKay's ability to do those continuous line drawings 112 00:06:47,400 --> 00:06:50,960 Speaker 1: and his talent for drawing things from memory proved useful. 113 00:06:51,560 --> 00:06:54,520 Speaker 1: After eight years at the Dime Museum, he began working 114 00:06:54,560 --> 00:06:57,599 Speaker 1: for a newspaper called The Tribune as an artist reporter, 115 00:06:58,080 --> 00:07:02,159 Speaker 1: illustrating stories and drawing card too uns. He also created 116 00:07:02,279 --> 00:07:05,160 Speaker 1: art as a freelancer for the magazine Life, a lot 117 00:07:05,240 --> 00:07:08,919 Speaker 1: of which portrayed racist humor as did other work included 118 00:07:08,920 --> 00:07:12,880 Speaker 1: in the Humor magazine. When the Cincinnati Enquirer offered him 119 00:07:12,880 --> 00:07:16,280 Speaker 1: a larger salary, he began working there and soon rose 120 00:07:16,320 --> 00:07:19,920 Speaker 1: to head of its art department. Some of his most 121 00:07:20,000 --> 00:07:23,880 Speaker 1: popular and notable illustrations were done for a series called 122 00:07:23,960 --> 00:07:27,200 Speaker 1: The Tales of the Jungle Imps, and they accompanied poems 123 00:07:27,200 --> 00:07:30,400 Speaker 1: created by the Sunday editor. He was only at the 124 00:07:30,440 --> 00:07:33,080 Speaker 1: Inquirer for a few years before he moved to New 125 00:07:33,160 --> 00:07:36,680 Speaker 1: York and began doing illustrations for the New York Herald 126 00:07:36,960 --> 00:07:40,880 Speaker 1: and The Evening Telegram. There he began using the comic 127 00:07:41,000 --> 00:07:44,960 Speaker 1: strip format, which was new but growing more popular. He 128 00:07:45,040 --> 00:07:47,600 Speaker 1: wanted to have the money and fame that came along 129 00:07:47,640 --> 00:07:50,600 Speaker 1: with having a popular comic strip that could be syndicated. 130 00:07:51,600 --> 00:07:54,720 Speaker 1: He found success with his comic strips Little Sammy Sneeze 131 00:07:55,080 --> 00:07:58,080 Speaker 1: and Dream of the Rare Bit theme, but he was 132 00:07:58,120 --> 00:08:01,800 Speaker 1: working a lot and did not he was being compensated fairly. 133 00:08:02,360 --> 00:08:05,000 Speaker 1: He ended up getting a raised and in nineteen oh 134 00:08:05,000 --> 00:08:09,239 Speaker 1: five his comic Little Nemo in Slumberland made its debut 135 00:08:09,320 --> 00:08:13,360 Speaker 1: in the Sunday Comics section of the Herald. Little Nemo 136 00:08:13,480 --> 00:08:17,480 Speaker 1: was immediately popular, being picked up for translations in Operetta, 137 00:08:17,840 --> 00:08:22,720 Speaker 1: Clothing and Games. It ran in The Herald until nineteen eleven, 138 00:08:23,200 --> 00:08:25,880 Speaker 1: then in The New York American under a different title 139 00:08:26,000 --> 00:08:31,160 Speaker 1: until nineteen fourteen. McKay also began performing in theatrical reviews 140 00:08:31,200 --> 00:08:35,080 Speaker 1: as a fast sketcher, and in nineteen eleven he finished 141 00:08:35,080 --> 00:08:38,920 Speaker 1: his first animated film, which featured characters from Little Nemo. 142 00:08:40,280 --> 00:08:43,440 Speaker 1: McKay went on to create more films, including the Story 143 00:08:43,520 --> 00:08:47,920 Speaker 1: of a Mosquito and Gertie the Dinosaur. With the latter film, 144 00:08:48,080 --> 00:08:51,520 Speaker 1: he used a technique he called the McKay split system, 145 00:08:51,559 --> 00:08:54,720 Speaker 1: breaking the dinosaurs movements into small parts and filling in 146 00:08:54,760 --> 00:08:59,400 Speaker 1: the drawings between the poses. In nineteen fifteen, he created 147 00:08:59,440 --> 00:09:02,960 Speaker 1: his long film, The Sinking of the Lusitania, which he 148 00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:08,199 Speaker 1: created using transparent celluloid sheets. He found the success and 149 00:09:08,400 --> 00:09:12,120 Speaker 1: passion in his work on animation, but hearst publishing. His 150 00:09:12,200 --> 00:09:15,480 Speaker 1: employer was not happy about how much time he was 151 00:09:15,520 --> 00:09:19,760 Speaker 1: spending on his outside work. Between his relationship with Hurst 152 00:09:19,840 --> 00:09:23,959 Speaker 1: and feelings about the commercialism of animation, he lost some 153 00:09:24,080 --> 00:09:28,920 Speaker 1: inspiration around cartoons. In July of nineteen thirty four, he 154 00:09:29,000 --> 00:09:31,760 Speaker 1: went into a coma and died at his home in Brooklyn, 155 00:09:31,800 --> 00:09:36,319 Speaker 1: after having a stroke. McKay's work in cartooning and animation 156 00:09:36,520 --> 00:09:41,319 Speaker 1: greatly influenced the advancement of the animation industry. I'm each 157 00:09:41,360 --> 00:09:43,600 Speaker 1: Jeff Coote and hopefully you know a little more about 158 00:09:43,640 --> 00:09:47,080 Speaker 1: history today than you did yesterday. And if you like 159 00:09:47,160 --> 00:09:49,480 Speaker 1: to learn more about McKay, you can listen to the 160 00:09:49,480 --> 00:09:52,320 Speaker 1: two part episode of Stuffy Miss in history class called 161 00:09:52,360 --> 00:09:57,560 Speaker 1: windsor McKay. Get more notes from history on Twitter, Instagram, 162 00:09:57,559 --> 00:10:03,600 Speaker 1: and Facebook at t d h C podcast. Thanks again 163 00:10:03,640 --> 00:10:13,160 Speaker 1: for listening and we'll see you tomorrow. For more podcasts 164 00:10:13,160 --> 00:10:15,240 Speaker 1: from I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, 165 00:10:15,280 --> 00:10:17,880 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.