WEBVTT - How Snowmen (And Snowwomen) Work 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:04.280 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of I 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:14.040 Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. 0:00:14.240 --> 0:00:17.000 My friend Charles W. Chuck Bryan is here too, and 0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:20.160 it's just the two of us rolling and and having 0:00:20.239 --> 0:00:24.960 some fun outdoors, making snow angels and most importantly making 0:00:25.000 --> 0:00:27.840 snow people, which means this is stuff you should know, 0:00:28.120 --> 0:00:32.040 the snow people addition, that's right. Uh, And I just 0:00:32.080 --> 0:00:36.320 want to mention if you feel a presence among us 0:00:36.360 --> 0:00:40.400 because Emily, Emily's in the room with me. Oh hi, Emily. 0:00:40.840 --> 0:00:42.680 Now she can't hear you. I told her she had to. 0:00:43.320 --> 0:00:44.879 She had to sit there and be quiet. She's, you know, 0:00:44.920 --> 0:00:49.000 we got a sauna finally because of her lime and uh, 0:00:49.120 --> 0:00:51.680 well not the line part, but the sauna part. Yeah, yeah, 0:00:51.720 --> 0:00:53.840 which she's she's feeling better for now, by the way, 0:00:53.840 --> 0:00:57.160 which is great news. But if you want to learn 0:00:57.200 --> 0:00:59.560 about the health benefits of the sauna, go back and 0:00:59.600 --> 0:01:03.120 listen to episode on the auna. But she was going 0:01:03.160 --> 0:01:06.360 to this membership place and driving like, you know, forty 0:01:06.360 --> 0:01:10.119 minutes each way, like four times a week, and so we, uh, 0:01:10.160 --> 0:01:12.240 we've broke down and got one. So she is quietly 0:01:12.240 --> 0:01:15.040 sitting back there sweating. Isn't it? Like? Have you used 0:01:15.040 --> 0:01:20.080 it yet? Yeah? I love it. It's really nice. Um, 0:01:20.120 --> 0:01:22.560 I do it's and it's also the solitude and just 0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:26.440 thirty minutes of quiet time because you shouldn't take your 0:01:26.440 --> 0:01:29.320 phone in there and bake it out. No, but um, 0:01:29.440 --> 0:01:34.120 does yours have bluetooth? It does. So I downloaded like 0:01:34.200 --> 0:01:37.160 a couple of bird song albums and nature song albums 0:01:37.240 --> 0:01:39.360 and I'll just like turn that on and attach to 0:01:39.400 --> 0:01:41.400 the bluetooth and just turn it real low. But it 0:01:41.760 --> 0:01:44.360 adds a little extra something to a sauna. Do you 0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:46.480 know what I do is I put on so Far 0:01:47.560 --> 0:01:51.680 music for airports from Brian Eno and try to not 0:01:51.760 --> 0:01:54.480 fall asleep. I could. I'm gonna give that one to try. 0:01:54.520 --> 0:01:56.680 I'll trade you one of my bird song albums for 0:01:56.800 --> 0:01:59.800 that Brian Eno album. Yeah, we'll meet in the middle 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:04.240 and literally exchange records. No, we'll just swap phones for 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:06.760 a few weeks, that's right. So anyway, and I have 0:02:06.840 --> 0:02:11.160 a hot, sweaty wife behind me. Okay, gotcha. So speaking 0:02:11.160 --> 0:02:14.320 of hot and sweaty, we're obviously talking about snow people today. 0:02:14.360 --> 0:02:16.440 Snow man. But you know what you don't want to 0:02:16.440 --> 0:02:19.120 do is put a snowperson in a sauna. No you don't, 0:02:19.200 --> 0:02:22.520 but that is a recurring theme of the legends and 0:02:22.560 --> 0:02:25.440 tales of snow people chuck, which we'll get too later. 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:31.200 They all melt, they do. They're ephemeral, they're fleeting and um. 0:02:31.240 --> 0:02:34.000 There's this guy who wrote a book. He's a humorist 0:02:34.040 --> 0:02:37.200 and a cartoonist. His name is Bob Eckstein, and he 0:02:37.280 --> 0:02:40.480 wrote like the book on snowman and snow people is 0:02:40.480 --> 0:02:43.880 called the History of the Snowman, and he did the round. 0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:46.680 So there's a lot like a lot of snow research 0:02:46.800 --> 0:02:50.280 or snowman research brings up his stuff. It's kind of 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:52.680 impossible to avoid. But one of the reasons why it's 0:02:52.720 --> 0:02:55.120 impossible to avoid is because he actually did some like 0:02:55.560 --> 0:02:59.200 really good scholarship on on snow people. And one of 0:02:59.200 --> 0:03:01.640 the things that he is SERTs it's probably true, is 0:03:02.400 --> 0:03:06.120 like our early ancestors had an aptitude for art. A 0:03:06.240 --> 0:03:09.239 snowman or a snow person is a pretty basic shape, 0:03:09.240 --> 0:03:11.640 and when you put those two together, there's a really 0:03:11.639 --> 0:03:14.800 good chance that humans have been making snowman, snow people, 0:03:14.880 --> 0:03:19.480 snow whatever for tens of thousands of years, if not longer. 0:03:19.600 --> 0:03:23.120 Most likely that's right, and I think did you you 0:03:23.120 --> 0:03:25.440 didn't mention the Book of Hours just then? Did you know? 0:03:25.639 --> 0:03:29.960 Not not yet? Yeah, that's from and that is the 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:33.160 first known depiction of an actually in a manuscript of 0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:36.240 a snowman. That's a long time ago. And that was 0:03:36.280 --> 0:03:38.320 in the Oh boy, do you want to help me 0:03:38.360 --> 0:03:46.440 out with this? Yes, it's it's Dutch. It's a coney kruk. No, no, 0:03:46.680 --> 0:03:51.400 the coney kluck biblio. It still cracks me up after 0:03:51.440 --> 0:03:53.240 all these years. People say I'm happy to help you 0:03:53.280 --> 0:03:56.680 out with pronunciation, and we say never. It's a part 0:03:56.680 --> 0:04:01.880 of the show. Yeah, I liked it. Oh, very nice. 0:04:02.440 --> 0:04:04.480 So why is that jay even in there? I don't know. 0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:07.520 I don't know because the Dutch love their Ja's and 0:04:07.640 --> 0:04:11.480 Randau places. But what we're saying is the coney whatever 0:04:11.520 --> 0:04:15.080 you said bibiliotiq in the Hague, Netherlands is where that 0:04:15.160 --> 0:04:20.960 comes from? Uh? And you know there was it's a snowman. 0:04:21.080 --> 0:04:23.760 Who was I guess you would have to say it's 0:04:23.760 --> 0:04:29.960 anti Semitic, right, It's the traditional stacked ball snow person 0:04:30.640 --> 0:04:33.440 and it has on a yamakle. So how you say 0:04:33.480 --> 0:04:36.960 that it's not a yamakle? It's something else. It's like 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:40.320 a red cap with like ball on top. Yeah, but 0:04:40.440 --> 0:04:42.800 apparently it was a very Jewish cap to wear at 0:04:42.800 --> 0:04:46.719 the time. Okay, but he's sitting there, back turned to 0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:51.839 the fire, and then aside the snowman is text pronouncing 0:04:51.839 --> 0:04:55.760 the crucifixion of Jesus. So apparently what people think is 0:04:55.839 --> 0:04:58.800 that this was you know, Europe during the plague, and 0:04:58.839 --> 0:05:02.160 they needed the just they needed to take their frustrations 0:05:02.200 --> 0:05:05.840 out on something, so it fell to this little Jewish snowman. Yeah. 0:05:05.839 --> 0:05:08.200 And the Book of Ours is a really popular Christian 0:05:08.240 --> 0:05:11.919 devotional too, and it um like I guess in every 0:05:11.960 --> 0:05:14.240 copy of this it was illuminated, So in every copy 0:05:14.320 --> 0:05:16.479 that would have been the drawing next to that part 0:05:16.560 --> 0:05:20.560 about Jesus's crucifixion. So not the greatest start as far 0:05:20.640 --> 0:05:24.600 as like the history of snow people or snowman um. 0:05:24.640 --> 0:05:26.400 But it gets a little better from here on out 0:05:26.440 --> 0:05:29.719 if you ask me. Yeah, there was one built. Michel 0:05:29.720 --> 0:05:32.640 Angelo was commissioned in four ninety four by Piero the 0:05:32.720 --> 0:05:35.839 Unfortunate of Florence. Love that name. That's gonna be my 0:05:35.880 --> 0:05:40.320 new hotel, The Unfortunate. No, Piero the Unfortunate Oh, I 0:05:40.400 --> 0:05:43.040 like Josh the unfortunate. No, it's a little too on 0:05:43.080 --> 0:05:47.360 the nose. Okay, hits HiT's too close to home. Oh no, 0:05:47.560 --> 0:05:51.680 you're the fortunate. Uh yeah, michel Angelo was commissioned to 0:05:51.720 --> 0:05:55.680 build this giant snowman in the Medici courtyard. I guess 0:05:55.720 --> 0:06:00.440 he put on his monkey suit and danced did what 0:06:00.480 --> 0:06:02.680 he was told. Yeah. Yeah. But the thing is, there's 0:06:02.720 --> 0:06:06.760 two things here. One nobody bothered to draw or document 0:06:06.839 --> 0:06:09.000 what it looked like. We just know that michel Angelo 0:06:09.040 --> 0:06:12.000 built a snowman once, which is pretty cool. But it 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:17.040 also um shows like this during the era, the Renaissance, 0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:22.800 the medieval era before it um, the artists actually like 0:06:22.920 --> 0:06:27.679 kind of used snow as a medium sometimes during the winter. 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:30.800 Michel Angelo wasn't the only one, that's right, and that 0:06:30.920 --> 0:06:34.280 is on evidence actually in another big moment in fifteen eleven, 0:06:34.880 --> 0:06:38.480 when a town in Brussels got together and this was 0:06:38.560 --> 0:06:40.440 during what was called the Winter of Death, so everyone 0:06:40.480 --> 0:06:43.839 was pretty um down and despondent or dead and dying, 0:06:44.760 --> 0:06:46.520 and so they built it. They just had kind of 0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:49.280 like a snowman festival, and it was called the Miracle 0:06:49.320 --> 0:06:52.800 of fifteen eleven, and there were real deal artists in 0:06:52.839 --> 0:06:55.400 town that probably did some pretty great things along with 0:06:56.120 --> 0:07:02.599 uh cynical townspeople. Who did people going poopoo, a snowboy 0:07:02.680 --> 0:07:05.719 peeing on a passed out drunk all made of snow 0:07:05.720 --> 0:07:09.960 by the way, um you know, body parts and atomically 0:07:09.960 --> 0:07:12.400 correct body parts. Yeah, a lot of people having sex 0:07:12.760 --> 0:07:15.440 but made of snow. Yeah, so they got involved, But 0:07:15.480 --> 0:07:17.760 so did the artists of the town. Yeah, I like 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:20.160 the whole town did. It was called the Miracle of 0:07:20.200 --> 0:07:25.080 fifteen eleven because the town poet Yon Smicken wrote a 0:07:25.120 --> 0:07:29.880 poem called the Miracle of Pure Ice and Snow. So 0:07:29.960 --> 0:07:33.280 that's how it got its name. Um. And for a 0:07:33.280 --> 0:07:36.160 while historians thought like maybe Jon Smicken had just made 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:40.720 it up, but they've they've uh supported that with um 0:07:41.040 --> 0:07:43.720 journals from some people that lived in the town during 0:07:43.760 --> 0:07:46.800 the time that said, this was awesome. We totally made 0:07:46.800 --> 0:07:49.560 a snow couple do and it and everybody went ponkers 0:07:49.600 --> 0:07:53.480 for it. Here in the US. Uh, there's kind of 0:07:53.480 --> 0:07:56.200 a weird story. Well not weird, it's sad and just 0:07:56.280 --> 0:07:59.200 odd that it's tied to snowman. I guess um. One 0:07:59.200 --> 0:08:01.760 of the bloodiest events in our history early on was 0:08:01.800 --> 0:08:06.480 a mass of six uh. Sixty people ended up dying, ten, 0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:10.320 including ten women and twelve children. The deal here is uh, 0:08:10.720 --> 0:08:14.160 some Frenchmen and Native Americans launched an attack on Fort 0:08:14.640 --> 0:08:18.440 uh Schenectady, and they were about ready to give up. 0:08:18.440 --> 0:08:20.240 They had been traveling for about a week through the 0:08:20.280 --> 0:08:24.920 snow through the Mohawk Valley. They were you know, obviously, 0:08:25.040 --> 0:08:26.679 you know, going through the snow on a long trek 0:08:26.720 --> 0:08:30.120 like that. They were exhausted and ill, and it was 0:08:30.200 --> 0:08:32.559 really strenuous and they were about to surrender. But when 0:08:32.559 --> 0:08:34.280 they got to the village, they saw that they had 0:08:34.320 --> 0:08:38.400 a really easy entrance in that the gate was frozen open, 0:08:39.000 --> 0:08:42.320 and as legend has it, the two guards went to 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:46.160 go have some drinks and put snowmen as guards in 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:50.600 their stead. Yeah, and that's the first documented snowmen built 0:08:50.600 --> 0:08:54.960 in America back in sixte which is a terrible debut 0:08:55.040 --> 0:08:59.760 as far as snow snowmen go in North America. Yes. Um. Also, 0:09:00.160 --> 0:09:02.120 just as a little aside, that really ties into our 0:09:02.200 --> 0:09:06.960 Salem witchcraft trial episode because that's exactly the kind of 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:10.440 thing that put the Salem villagers on edge and they 0:09:10.440 --> 0:09:13.520 think led in part to the witch panic. And then 0:09:13.559 --> 0:09:17.120 interesting that is interesting so one other thing about the 0:09:17.120 --> 0:09:20.760 snowman and um, you're gonna love this, but Bob Extein 0:09:21.160 --> 0:09:24.920 compares the snowman to um kind of a type of 0:09:24.960 --> 0:09:27.480 Forrest Gump, like he just pops up at all of 0:09:27.480 --> 0:09:31.000 these like really important moments in history, like this just 0:09:31.080 --> 0:09:35.920 happens to be there as well. And one of them. 0:09:37.240 --> 0:09:40.480 Was it bad? I mean it was early, so yeah 0:09:40.480 --> 0:09:42.440 it was bad. I thought it was good. Still, I 0:09:42.440 --> 0:09:44.480 haven't seen it in a while. But one of the 0:09:44.840 --> 0:09:48.920 one of the early photographs UM that was ever taken 0:09:49.440 --> 0:09:52.080 is certainly not the first or even necessarily one of 0:09:52.120 --> 0:09:54.480 the first, but one of the earliest ones was taken 0:09:54.480 --> 0:09:58.120 by a woman named Mary Dilwyn who was Welsh, and 0:09:58.200 --> 0:10:01.000 she took a picture of her parents make can Um 0:10:01.040 --> 0:10:03.600 a snowman out in their yard, which is pretty pretty 0:10:03.640 --> 0:10:06.640 precious photograph, even though you can't really make out what's 0:10:06.679 --> 0:10:09.079 going on in it very well. Yeah, she was actually 0:10:09.120 --> 0:10:13.120 pretty interesting. She made need a short stuff. She just 0:10:13.120 --> 0:10:16.720 got into photography starting in eighteen forty five and took 0:10:16.720 --> 0:10:19.760 all kinds of cool pictures and uh, this was one 0:10:19.800 --> 0:10:22.080 of them about eight years in. She it's it's kind 0:10:22.080 --> 0:10:25.160 of nice. Her dad shoveling snow and Um, I just 0:10:25.200 --> 0:10:27.480 love seeing those old pictures. It's really cool. It's like 0:10:27.520 --> 0:10:33.240 a CPA fest, total cpafest. I also saw that that um, 0:10:33.559 --> 0:10:36.800 the album that she put together of photographs recently sold 0:10:36.840 --> 0:10:40.120 for a hundred grand. Oh really, maybe she should get 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:43.600 a short stuff let's do it. So. Um, here's the thing. 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:47.120 Up to this point, Chuck, snowman. Snow people have been 0:10:47.240 --> 0:10:51.360 basically like the providence of artists. Uh. They've been used 0:10:51.400 --> 0:10:56.960 for political satire, for lowbrow copulation, humor. Um. They they've 0:10:57.000 --> 0:11:01.280 just kind of existed as an almost like a similacrum 0:11:01.280 --> 0:11:06.400 to real humans doing real human things. Right. But around 0:11:06.480 --> 0:11:10.280 the time when Christmas became like a thing in the 0:11:10.440 --> 0:11:13.599 in the United States and in the UK during the 0:11:13.720 --> 0:11:17.679 Victorian era, that's when the snowman finally took the shape 0:11:18.120 --> 0:11:21.760 of the snowman as we recognize them today. Like they 0:11:21.760 --> 0:11:26.120 were the part of winter. They were happy, jolly, They 0:11:26.120 --> 0:11:28.720 didn't have any guile. They just wanted to like just 0:11:28.800 --> 0:11:31.280 be free. They almost like they had a sense that 0:11:31.360 --> 0:11:34.520 their lives were very short and limited and they were 0:11:34.600 --> 0:11:38.800 just trying to to spread joy and happiness. The idea 0:11:38.840 --> 0:11:41.240 of a snow snowman or snow person we have today 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:45.600 is based in that Victorian age. That's right, and maybe 0:11:45.600 --> 0:11:47.920 we should take a break there. Okay, we'll come back 0:11:47.960 --> 0:12:23.280 and talk about Christmas snow people right after this. Alright, 0:12:23.360 --> 0:12:27.360 So snow men are popping up all over the place 0:12:28.280 --> 0:12:30.840 and sometimes in some countries. And we've done plenty of 0:12:31.600 --> 0:12:37.600 weird Christmas like legends and Christmas uh like different weird 0:12:37.640 --> 0:12:41.560 cultural things around the world over there, Yes, and there's 0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:45.360 plenty more to come. Everybody hopefully fear one day we're 0:12:45.360 --> 0:12:47.400 going to run out of Christmas stuff. Never, we'll just 0:12:47.440 --> 0:12:50.360 start making it up and add to the Christmas legend. Okay, 0:12:50.360 --> 0:12:53.600 all right, well that's a good idea. That's some stuff 0:12:53.679 --> 0:12:58.199 right there. One of these legends is the uh the 0:12:58.200 --> 0:13:03.920 snugg snugger rock Uh Snega Rocca. I'm trying this sna 0:13:05.080 --> 0:13:07.720 oh you're gonna go with the cheat. Yeah. Well she's 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:12.200 Russian Snega Rochka, which was a snow maiden and Russian 0:13:12.280 --> 0:13:15.760 lure and these stories, uh you know, and this is 0:13:15.800 --> 0:13:18.920 where this is where the melting starts. Um that was 0:13:19.000 --> 0:13:22.120 he As the story goes that she was a snow girl. 0:13:22.520 --> 0:13:24.959 She's built by an elderly couple who didn't have kids 0:13:25.000 --> 0:13:27.200 in their own were not able to and so she 0:13:27.280 --> 0:13:30.319 comes to life just like a Disney movie and becomes 0:13:30.360 --> 0:13:33.920 their daughter essentially, and they're playing and they're having fun. 0:13:34.160 --> 0:13:37.040 And one of the things that they decided to do, 0:13:37.640 --> 0:13:42.240 and true Russian uh folk legend fashion, was hey, let's 0:13:42.400 --> 0:13:44.200 decide to play a game where we jump over a 0:13:44.240 --> 0:13:47.760 fire with our little snow daughter. And of course, you 0:13:47.760 --> 0:13:50.600 know what happens. She ends up melted and gone. And 0:13:50.640 --> 0:13:53.920 in the original stories, that was that the couple lost 0:13:53.920 --> 0:13:56.480 her forever. They knew joy for a brief time and 0:13:56.520 --> 0:13:58.800 then they lost her and and maybe we're worse off 0:13:58.840 --> 0:14:02.600 than they had ever been for and by the way, um, 0:14:02.800 --> 0:14:05.760 we're probably all going to starve this winter, yes the 0:14:06.000 --> 0:14:09.360 end right. Um. Luckily, the Russians, like the rest of 0:14:09.400 --> 0:14:11.280 the world, said, you know what, we've been a little 0:14:11.360 --> 0:14:13.920 grim for a while. Let's kind of like pep things 0:14:14.000 --> 0:14:17.640 up as we start to enter the twentieth century. Um 0:14:17.760 --> 0:14:22.960 and the snegorochka Um kind of was revived, I guess, 0:14:23.360 --> 0:14:27.200 and was associated with Dead Moros, who is known as 0:14:27.240 --> 0:14:30.760 Grandpa Frost, and that is what Santa Claus Um calls 0:14:30.840 --> 0:14:33.680 himself when he goes to Russia. Um, and he goes 0:14:33.720 --> 0:14:36.080 to Russian and he gives out presents around New Year's 0:14:36.200 --> 0:14:39.040 because he's so busy um giving out presents in other 0:14:39.120 --> 0:14:42.320 parts of the world around Christmas time. That in Russia 0:14:42.680 --> 0:14:45.280 it's traditional that he gives him out around New Year's 0:14:45.320 --> 0:14:50.040 And Snegorochka became dead. Morrows is grand granddaughter and she 0:14:50.120 --> 0:14:53.360 helps him give out presents around New year That's right. 0:14:54.160 --> 0:14:58.480 We also have a great cartoon from Nazi Germany, which 0:14:58.520 --> 0:15:00.720 we'll get into in a second, but it's called Dear 0:15:00.760 --> 0:15:04.560 sna Man the Snowman, and it's a It was a 0:15:04.600 --> 0:15:07.520 ten minute short, still is a ten minute short. Let's 0:15:07.560 --> 0:15:09.840 they added onto it. I didn't know about it. Have 0:15:09.920 --> 0:15:12.160 you seen it yet? I've watched a little bit of it, 0:15:12.200 --> 0:15:13.640 but I couldn't make it do the whole thing. It 0:15:13.800 --> 0:15:18.400 is so cute. I didn't care for it. Oh you didn't, Yeah, 0:15:18.640 --> 0:15:20.800 oh well yeah, I could see not what not watching it? 0:15:20.840 --> 0:15:22.800 Then if it doesn't click with you, I could see 0:15:23.560 --> 0:15:27.000 being really turned off by it. But it's about a snowman, 0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:30.000 and again this says there's another melting coming, but a snowman, 0:15:30.520 --> 0:15:34.560 who obviously is is doing snowman things playing outside, having 0:15:34.560 --> 0:15:39.160 a good time. And then eventually Uh goes inside of 0:15:39.160 --> 0:15:42.800 a house nearby and sees a calendar of July and 0:15:42.880 --> 0:15:48.080 these pictures of summertime and thinks, hey, this is pretty great. Yeah, 0:15:48.120 --> 0:15:50.720 I would love to see summer and so let me, 0:15:50.960 --> 0:15:53.560 let me put myself in the ice box and just 0:15:53.600 --> 0:15:57.360 wait until the right moment. And then finally July comes around, 0:15:57.520 --> 0:16:01.520 Snowman gets out, plays around, ultimately melts but has a 0:16:01.560 --> 0:16:05.000 good time and experience his summer and dies with a 0:16:05.000 --> 0:16:07.400 smile on his little face as it melts away. Yeah, 0:16:07.400 --> 0:16:11.440 he's singing as he melts to nothingness, like he's definitely fulfilled, 0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:14.480 like his dream. It was pretty great. Um. And so 0:16:14.600 --> 0:16:17.960 for a long time, people who had seen their Nieman 0:16:18.360 --> 0:16:21.960 in the US and and UM outside of Europe had 0:16:22.000 --> 0:16:24.640 no idea it was a Nazi film, but it was 0:16:24.760 --> 0:16:29.840 directly commissioned by Joseph Gebel's UM because during the war, 0:16:30.160 --> 0:16:32.800 and I think their Schneman was was made in nineteen 0:16:33.880 --> 0:16:36.200 a Nazi Germany was like cut off from the West, 0:16:36.240 --> 0:16:39.840 like you couldn't get anything, including Disney cartoons. But they 0:16:39.840 --> 0:16:43.040 had already developed a taste for Disney cartoons, so Um. 0:16:43.280 --> 0:16:46.720 He went to Hans fisher Kusten. I think I nailed 0:16:46.720 --> 0:16:50.400 his name, um, which sounds like somebody that Rose Nyland 0:16:50.440 --> 0:16:53.080 would have dated on Golden Girls back in the day. 0:16:53.120 --> 0:16:56.520 But Hans fisher Kusten became known as Germany's Walt Disney, Right, 0:16:57.760 --> 0:16:59.560 that's right. I feel like his name should have an 0:16:59.560 --> 0:17:03.440 oom out, did it not? I saw koe and I 0:17:03.480 --> 0:17:06.720 took the oe as a like a stretched out or 0:17:06.840 --> 0:17:10.399 deconstructed umlaut. That's why I said it like that. So 0:17:10.400 --> 0:17:12.960 you're just making up rules for the German language. Basically, Yeah, 0:17:13.640 --> 0:17:17.159 they listened to me, now, got you? Uh yeah, he 0:17:17.240 --> 0:17:19.959 was like the Walt Disney and uh you know they 0:17:20.000 --> 0:17:23.800 were he apparently he uh did not put any propaganda 0:17:23.840 --> 0:17:26.320 in this film, even though some people say, you know 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:29.359 what the snowman waiting for July, like that is subtext. 0:17:29.840 --> 0:17:32.720 It's basically the Germans longing to be free from the 0:17:32.800 --> 0:17:36.560 Nazi Party. But his son says, no, no, no to that. 0:17:37.119 --> 0:17:40.000 My dad was a political and did not make his 0:17:40.040 --> 0:17:42.400 films with the political bent. But at the very least 0:17:42.400 --> 0:17:45.840 it does not and clearly does not have any Nazi propaganda. 0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:48.040 And you can watch it over and over again there's nothing, 0:17:48.520 --> 0:17:52.440 um that that seems like, you know, pro Nazi or anything. 0:17:52.480 --> 0:17:56.080 It's just like this guy made a cartoon with utterly 0:17:56.119 --> 0:17:59.360 outside of the context of the Nazi Party ruling Germany 0:17:59.400 --> 0:18:01.680 and being in World War Two at the time. It's 0:18:01.680 --> 0:18:04.720 really interesting. It's definitely worth seeing. It's on all over YouTube. 0:18:04.760 --> 0:18:07.600 So I wonder how many people will take it like 0:18:07.760 --> 0:18:10.240 they didn't like it like you, or how many people 0:18:10.240 --> 0:18:12.520 would be like that, that's pretty good. Maybe you should 0:18:12.560 --> 0:18:15.080 do a poll. Let's do one of those Twitter polls 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:20.840 or something, right, Um, okay, So then Chuck, everybody knows 0:18:20.880 --> 0:18:23.280 about der Schneeman, and if they didn't, they do now. 0:18:23.480 --> 0:18:26.240 But everybody really knows here in the States, at least 0:18:26.520 --> 0:18:31.240 about Frosty the Snowman. Have you heard of Frosty? Of course, 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:34.439 I love the I love that cartoon, that original cartoon 0:18:34.480 --> 0:18:37.480 which we're gonna talk about. I love that. I love Christmas, 0:18:37.600 --> 0:18:40.240 traditional Christmas music, so I love that song. So it 0:18:40.320 --> 0:18:43.600 wasn't originally a Christmas song? Did you know that? Well? 0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:48.199 I mean, here's my deal is I associate winter songs 0:18:48.280 --> 0:18:51.160 as Christmas songs. I'm not as picky as saying like 0:18:51.359 --> 0:18:54.680 they didn't say the word Christmas Christmas song you didn't 0:18:54.680 --> 0:18:57.359 say the magic word. It could be played around spring 0:18:57.440 --> 0:18:59.920 break if you wanted to. Yeah, I mean they're printing 0:19:00.160 --> 0:19:03.160 plenty of wintertime songs that I associate as Christmas. Yeah, 0:19:03.200 --> 0:19:06.119 I guess you would never hear the original Frosty or 0:19:06.200 --> 0:19:09.680 Winter Wonderland jingle Bells. Those are usually the three sited 0:19:09.720 --> 0:19:12.680 as non Christmas Christmas songs. You would never hear them 0:19:12.720 --> 0:19:15.560 after Christmas, Like you don't play those on January first 0:19:15.680 --> 0:19:18.400 or second. So I guess they are Christmas songs for sure. 0:19:18.560 --> 0:19:21.320 But the point is that they don't mention Christmas, which 0:19:21.320 --> 0:19:25.359 is why people say that Frosty does finally mention Christmas 0:19:25.640 --> 0:19:27.960 after Rank and Basque out ahold of them and turned 0:19:28.000 --> 0:19:31.680 the song into the nineteen sixty nine made for TV movie. Though, 0:19:32.520 --> 0:19:34.280 that's right, and this song was was a pretty good 0:19:34.320 --> 0:19:36.560 big hit by the way. They were these songwriters, Steve 0:19:36.640 --> 0:19:38.720 Nelson and Jack Rowlins that realize you can make a 0:19:38.720 --> 0:19:42.679 lot of dough pretty fast by cranking out, you know, 0:19:42.720 --> 0:19:46.600 holiday theme songs. They wrote here comes Peter Cottentil for Easter. 0:19:47.200 --> 0:19:49.600 They wrote this Frosty song for Gene Autry after they 0:19:49.600 --> 0:19:51.680 saw that he had a big smash with Rudolph the 0:19:51.720 --> 0:19:55.720 Red Nose Reindeer, and uh, you know, these are no 0:19:55.760 --> 0:19:58.320 brainers about these They knock these things out in no 0:19:58.440 --> 0:20:01.200 time at all and got some atty good cash for it. Yeah. 0:20:01.200 --> 0:20:03.080 It made it to like number seven on the charts, 0:20:03.080 --> 0:20:05.280 which is not not bad at all. And I think 0:20:05.560 --> 0:20:08.840 between Rudolph and Frosty they kicked off like the idea 0:20:08.920 --> 0:20:13.400 of Christmas songs in general. So there's this big debate 0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:15.919 over where the song took place, but apparently it's been 0:20:15.920 --> 0:20:19.440 settled now that Frosty the Snowman the song takes place 0:20:19.440 --> 0:20:23.160 in the town of Armank, New York. If anybody ever 0:20:23.240 --> 0:20:28.240 asks you big debate meaning eighteen people in Armock, New York. Well, 0:20:28.359 --> 0:20:32.679 no white Plaines supposedly um laid claim to it, even tentatively, 0:20:32.800 --> 0:20:34.920 but armand is like, we're not playing that. I think 0:20:34.960 --> 0:20:37.280 one of the one of the writers lived in Armonk 0:20:37.359 --> 0:20:40.560 for a while and they're like, it's our monk for sure. Uh. 0:20:40.680 --> 0:20:43.600 So that became obviously the cartoon that we you were 0:20:43.600 --> 0:20:47.679 speaking of, which was you know that's that's still places today. Uh, 0:20:48.320 --> 0:20:52.440 one of the Rank and Bass cartoons classic. It's great. 0:20:52.600 --> 0:20:55.479 There were sequels that was Frosty's Winner Wonderland and seventy 0:20:55.560 --> 0:20:59.120 six not quite as good, but not bad. Uh. They 0:20:59.119 --> 0:21:02.080 were married for Sty and his wife Crystal were married 0:21:02.080 --> 0:21:05.760 by Parson Brown from the Winter Wonderland song. Quite a cameo, 0:21:06.520 --> 0:21:10.680 and this then led to the stop motion Rudolph and 0:21:10.720 --> 0:21:14.119 Frosty's Christmas and July. Things are kind of jumping the 0:21:14.119 --> 0:21:17.040 shark at this point, I think in seventy nine and 0:21:17.080 --> 0:21:21.240 then Frosty returns, and then, not to be outdone, they 0:21:21.280 --> 0:21:23.960 made another one in two thousand five. Legend of Frosty 0:21:24.000 --> 0:21:27.920 to Snowman. Yeah, I think Frosty as Rudolph and Frosty's 0:21:27.960 --> 0:21:31.080 Christmas and July was still very cute and sweet, um, 0:21:31.160 --> 0:21:35.080 but the Frosty Returns is definitely it jumped the shark. 0:21:35.359 --> 0:21:40.840 It's terrible than the early nineties. It's bad. So that's 0:21:40.880 --> 0:21:44.560 the US is claimed to Snowman. That's the one that 0:21:44.640 --> 0:21:48.520 we all watch around um Christmas time, the holidays. But 0:21:48.640 --> 0:21:51.720 the UK has their own. They said no, no, we're 0:21:51.720 --> 0:21:54.040 not going to follow your trend. We're gonna start our own. 0:21:54.640 --> 0:21:58.800 Um and back in a guy named Raymond Briggs wrote 0:21:58.840 --> 0:22:00.800 a book and you can't really say wrote a book 0:22:00.800 --> 0:22:03.280 because it's a wordless picture book. So I guess he 0:22:03.359 --> 0:22:07.240 drew or illustrated a book called The Snowman. And it 0:22:07.359 --> 0:22:09.440 is a very very sweet book and it was made 0:22:09.440 --> 0:22:14.399 into possibly an even sweeter TV adaptation that they show 0:22:14.680 --> 0:22:19.240 around the holidays every year over there. Uh. It is 0:22:19.280 --> 0:22:22.200 about a boy and this snowman, and of course the 0:22:22.240 --> 0:22:26.040 Snowman comes to life and you know what's coming everybody. Fun, 0:22:26.400 --> 0:22:30.520 that's right. Fun. They become buddies, they explore all around 0:22:30.520 --> 0:22:34.200 the house, they played dress up, they read a motorcycle. 0:22:34.280 --> 0:22:37.400 They take a flight out to sea into the North 0:22:37.440 --> 0:22:41.440 Pole to meet Santa, but he melts like all other 0:22:41.480 --> 0:22:45.800 snowperson stories. Ever, Yeah, it's it's um. I watched it 0:22:46.040 --> 0:22:48.119 the other day and man, it'll get you right in 0:22:48.160 --> 0:22:53.760 the bread basket. Is really sweet. Um. And apparently originally 0:22:53.880 --> 0:22:57.080 when they did the the the when they aired the 0:22:57.080 --> 0:23:01.000 TV movie starting in it was on Channel four, which 0:23:01.080 --> 0:23:04.840 had just begun broadcasting like the month before. Um, and 0:23:04.880 --> 0:23:06.360 so they had a hit on their hands right out 0:23:06.359 --> 0:23:08.480 of the gate. But originally there was like a live 0:23:08.520 --> 0:23:12.040 action intro by Raymond Briggs who's like, you know, I 0:23:12.080 --> 0:23:13.720 build a snowman when I was a kid, and it 0:23:13.840 --> 0:23:17.600 inspired me to make this, so please enjoy and um. 0:23:17.640 --> 0:23:19.280 The Brits were like, we need to get this over 0:23:19.280 --> 0:23:21.639 to America. They're going to go nuts for this. But 0:23:21.680 --> 0:23:24.879 apparently somebody at some lunch at like Spago or something 0:23:24.920 --> 0:23:26.760 like that said no, no, no, no one knows who 0:23:26.800 --> 0:23:28.479