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Speaker 1: Ye, Welcome to the show, Friends, Neighbors, Ridiculous Historians. My

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Speaker 1: name is Ben, My name is Nolan ben Can. I

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Speaker 1: first start today by saying to you, thank you for

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Speaker 1: being a friend, travel down the road and back. You

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Speaker 1: know this? You know this is yeah, I can actually

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Speaker 1: play it on ukulele. You're a friend and a convent. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: When I sing that to you, Ben, I sing that

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Speaker 1: to the entire ridiculous history community at large, whether or

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Speaker 1: not you remember of the Ridiculous Historians Facebook community, right,

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Speaker 1: Ridiculous Historians Facebook community, which we started along with super

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Speaker 1: producer Casey Pegram, to whom we dedicate my personal favorite

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Speaker 1: sitcom theme song from that's from The Golden Girls, and uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, also shout out to the Perfect Stranger's theme song,

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Speaker 1: which is great. Oh yeah yeah, so Wings of My

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Speaker 1: Dreams and so no. I have a suspicion that some

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Speaker 1: of the ridiculous Historians who said they appreciate your voice

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Speaker 1: have inspired you to sing in every successive episode. Would

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Speaker 1: you say that's gonna happen now? Now, now, now, that's

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Speaker 1: not fair. I do. I do like to sing when moved,

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Speaker 1: and I was moved to sings. I think that Golden

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Speaker 1: Girls theme really sums up the theme of today's episode,

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Speaker 1: which is appreciating our amazing ridiculous historians on the page

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Speaker 1: who have some pretty cracker jack ideas that maybe don't

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Speaker 1: warrn an entire episode into themselves, but are a lot

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Speaker 1: of fun to talk about and kind of a clip show,

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Speaker 1: a little cut up nugget format like we're gonna do too,

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Speaker 1: right because as we've said on this show before us,

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Speaker 1: some of our best ideas have come from you, specifically you,

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Speaker 1: so enough about us, what are your ideas for some

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Speaker 1: fantastic episodes or instances of ridiculous people, places, or things

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Speaker 1: throughout history? With our cutoff being as you and I

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Speaker 1: had discussed off air noal uh the nineties about ninety

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Speaker 1: three because of Max the Grilla. So you and I

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Speaker 1: went went through this amazing agglomeration of post and we

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Speaker 1: found us some stories that really called out to us

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Speaker 1: for one reason or another. And to you know, I

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Speaker 1: would like to, if if you're okay with it, I

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Speaker 1: want to put you on the spot, give you the

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Speaker 1: the honor of the first story. Well man, that is

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Speaker 1: very kind of you, and I'm going to start uh

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Speaker 1: today's show with a topic suggestion from Lori B. Should

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Speaker 1: how do we actually we do this? Ben? Should we

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Speaker 1: get full names? Let's do let's do the initial Yeah

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Speaker 1: that's good, Um Lori B. She says, Hi, guys, just

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Speaker 1: listen to the podcast about Lincoln's dog Fido. Poor Fido man.

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Speaker 1: He had a storied, storied life, ended up stabbed like

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Speaker 1: a dog in the streets, and he was in fact

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Speaker 1: a dog in the streets. Um, but I digress, she goes.

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Speaker 1: I'm amazed you aren't space geeks enough to know the

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Speaker 1: first dog in space was like a l A I

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Speaker 1: K A l A I K. I can only imagine

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Speaker 1: how terrified she would have been sitting alone on that

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Speaker 1: rocket being blasted into the unknown. And then she sent

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Speaker 1: this really beautiful song um by a group called Trent Mueller.

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Speaker 1: It's like an electronic kind of I think they're Swedish.

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Speaker 1: Actually saw them perform live once. But the video has

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Speaker 1: like of the dog going through all the preparations of

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Speaker 1: being shot up into space and like mouthing the words

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Speaker 1: to the song. It's it's really quite a beautiful and

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Speaker 1: heartbreaking video, and it's heartbreaking for a lot of reasons,

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Speaker 1: first and foremost being it was understood by all concerned,

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Speaker 1: at least that were close to this actual project, that

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Speaker 1: like of the dog who would rocket into Earth's orbit

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Speaker 1: two thousand miles into space was not It was a

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Speaker 1: suicide mission. Like I was not going to come back.

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Speaker 1: Everybody knew this was acknowledged, the various medics, and even

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Speaker 1: the trainer of Likeca, who who taught her the techniques,

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Speaker 1: I don't want to call them tricks, but taught her

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Speaker 1: the behaviors that she would need for this trip. Even

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Speaker 1: he knew that this goodbye was going to be goodbye forever.

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Speaker 1: I think she she did reach orbit alive, right, she

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Speaker 1: did reach orbit alive, and I believe she made it

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Speaker 1: a couple of orbits before um issues with the heat

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Speaker 1: shield caused the compartment that Likeca was was in to

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Speaker 1: begin to reach temperatures upwards of nine degrees, which, as

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Speaker 1: we know, dogs don't do well in those conditions. And

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Speaker 1: because the Sputnik two spacecraft was kind of tossed together

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Speaker 1: pretty quickly, because our buddy Nikita Khrushchev insisted on a

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Speaker 1: space flight to commemorate the fort anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution.

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Speaker 1: As you do, as you do, yeah, and when when

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Speaker 1: Krushchev says, jump or make a spacecraft for a dog.

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Speaker 1: You do those things. And we have some of the

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Speaker 1: details from from this story. So like has launched in

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Speaker 1: the space on November three, five in the morning in uh,

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Speaker 1: what do we say, fifty seven next, just a couple

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Speaker 1: of years before the infamous Disney snubbing, right right? Are

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Speaker 1: they related? Uh? She circled the Earth for a little

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Speaker 1: more in a hundred minutes and a hundred and three exactly.

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Speaker 1: And what's strange about this is that, according to of

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Speaker 1: the story, after the flight, the official records were falsified.

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Speaker 1: There was a cover up. Absolutely, there was a cover up.

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Speaker 1: And also like the public story was not the same

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Speaker 1: as the story that the people involved in the project were.

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Speaker 1: We're being told they knew people involved in the project

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Speaker 1: from the from the doctors, the veterinarians that implanted um

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Speaker 1: like go with equipment that they could use to monitor

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Speaker 1: the dog's heart rate, because there was a functional reason

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Speaker 1: for doing this. It wasn't just a you know, space

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Speaker 1: dog and pony show. It was literally to see how

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Speaker 1: can how will a living creature react in these conditions.

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Speaker 1: So there were these like devices installed in the dog

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Speaker 1: surgically as they could monitor the dog's heart rate and

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Speaker 1: vitals and all this stuff. But everyone involved in every

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Speaker 1: step of this knew that dog was a goner. But

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Speaker 1: the public maybe not. Maybe there was this like kind

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Speaker 1: of hope in the hearts of the public that maybe

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Speaker 1: old Leika might return unscathed from the Great Beyond, a

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Speaker 1: Pixar sort of story or romanticization and propaganda piece. Really,

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Speaker 1: and to be fair, Mico was the first, But they

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Speaker 1: had other dogs, right, they were training them through a

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Speaker 1: process of elimination. That's right. We're getting a lot of

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Speaker 1: this info from a fantastic Smithsonian article by Alice George

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Speaker 1: called the Sad Sad Story of Likeca, the Space Dog

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Speaker 1: and her one way trip into orbit. But Ben tell

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Speaker 1: us more about this cavalcade of of canines that was

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Speaker 1: assembled here. Yeaheah. They started with a herd of female

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Speaker 1: stray dogs, the understanding being that the female dogs would

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Speaker 1: tend to be smaller and allegedly more docile. And then

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Speaker 1: as they were experimenting with these dogs, they were seeing

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Speaker 1: which ones could best adapt to the conditions they could

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Speaker 1: mimic on Earth that would be similar to the conditions

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Speaker 1: the dog would encounter in space. Assuming of course, that

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Speaker 1: the heat shield was not lost. Yeah, and I mean

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Speaker 1: to me, I don't know if I'm reading too much

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Speaker 1: into this, but it feels like the hasty nature of

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Speaker 1: the assembling of this spacecraft may have led to some

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Speaker 1: conditions that were not optimal in terms of function. Absolutely, right, yeah, absolutely,

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Speaker 1: it's first off, it's still even in an insanely ambitious

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Speaker 1: and complicated thing to put anything into space. I'm ready

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Speaker 1: for Space Force. I don't know about you, you know,

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Speaker 1: I initially thought Space Force was some cartoon from the

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Speaker 1: nineties that ibviously is. But yeah, I would sign up.

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Speaker 1: We've talked about this for I am one million percent

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Speaker 1: in I did the math. It's one million percent for

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Speaker 1: a one way trip to deep space. I think it's

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Speaker 1: worth it. I don't know if I would make the

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Speaker 1: like a decision. But also when we go to the

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Speaker 1: issue of morality here, what they're doing is saving, in

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Speaker 1: their opinion, a human pilot, you know, and it just

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Speaker 1: it stinks for us to look back on it now

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Speaker 1: because who doesn't love dogs, bad people, monster monsters. And

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Speaker 1: then I do want to say, though, I will miss

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Speaker 1: you when you when you take your one way trip

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Speaker 1: to space, because I'll have a live stream. I will

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Speaker 1: not be joining you. You know you're gonna do some

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Speaker 1: vines from space. Ah, you know it's gonna It's gonna

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Speaker 1: depend on how far I can get and where the

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Speaker 1: technology is at. Maybe I'll land on a planet and

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Speaker 1: start a thing, a commune of space colune. Yea space culture. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: why not? Why not? You can come visit. Um, I

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Speaker 1: just have one that one last thing. You're just to

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Speaker 1: kind of point to the public perception of this whole thing.

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Speaker 1: There's an article from nineteen fifty seven November. The New

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Speaker 1: York Times headline says recovery of dog called possible, right.

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Speaker 1: Several US experts agree, but Willie Ley says it can't

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Speaker 1: be brought down alive. Several experts in the United States

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Speaker 1: said yesterday that recovery of the dog from the Soviet

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Speaker 1: satellite was within the realm of possibility. I don't say alive,

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Speaker 1: But so what's the deal? Band didn't that didn't didn't

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Speaker 1: it orbited, continue to orbit for some time, right, and

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Speaker 1: then crashed. Right. So the initial public story is that

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Speaker 1: like it could be recovered, and that she died painlessly

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Speaker 1: in orbit about a week after blast off. As we've

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Speaker 1: established that was not true. The capsule that she was

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Speaker 1: in stayed in orbit, encircled the Earth two thousand, five

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Speaker 1: hundred and seventy times before it burned up in the

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Speaker 1: Earth's atmosphere on the fourth of April in nineteen fifty eight.

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Speaker 1: That comes from great BBC article by David white House

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Speaker 1: called first dog in space died within hours. Yeah, that's

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Speaker 1: the thing, um, And that's the part they falsified. I

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Speaker 1: believe ben was how quickly the dog died under what conditions?

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Speaker 1: Because in the Smithsonian article it said their hope was

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Speaker 1: that he would die peacefully from oxygen deprivation pretty quickly. Um,

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Speaker 1: but what actually ended up happening was probably a lot

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Speaker 1: more unpleasant for it for like, Yes, but gave her

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Speaker 1: a tram in this lead vital place in the story

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Speaker 1: of space exploration. Absolutely, she has a legacy that's even

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Speaker 1: larger than Lassie's. If I'm being paid by the illiterate

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Speaker 1: of l Holy Cows. That was literally delightful. Um. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: she got a postage stamp. There's a statue, a memorial

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Speaker 1: statue of like um on top of a rocket at

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Speaker 1: a research facility in Moscow. And yeah, and that was

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Speaker 1: unveiled in tw in Moscow, according to the Smithsonian article,

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Speaker 1: So let's all collectively thank like the space dog for

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Speaker 1: helping us learn a little bit more about the universe

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Speaker 1: that surrounds us. Let's also travel. I've got a got

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Speaker 1: a different story here. That's that's wild. I think we

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Speaker 1: could use a fun one. Are you in? Yeah? Okay?

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Speaker 1: After that one was a bit of a yeah, there's

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Speaker 1: some hope, there's it's better sweet. It's like a Nina

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Speaker 1: Simon song. So we'd like to extend a big thanks

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Speaker 1: to brand in him. Brandon m sent us something that

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Speaker 1: he had found via Reddit, and it is this story

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Speaker 1: of how the famous actor uh and the guy who

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Speaker 1: plays the mayor on Family Guy, Adam West, was kicked

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Speaker 1: out of an orgy while pretending to be Batman. First off,

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Speaker 1: I have to I've got to semantically argue here he

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Speaker 1: was Batman. He wasn't pretending he was a Batman. He

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Speaker 1: is the original Batman. He's the original Batman for you,

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Speaker 1: He's definitely the swingingist Batman. He is. He's always at

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Speaker 1: a square. He's seen that clip where he's like sixties

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Speaker 1: dancing and cutting a rug. And as we learned after

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Speaker 1: that show ended. The behind the scenes adventures and misadventures

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Speaker 1: were even more outrageous than the stuff they put to film.

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Speaker 1: You know, there's there's some quotes from his biography that

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Speaker 1: are honestly probably not fit for this show. And we're

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Speaker 1: pretty fast and loose with this stuff. So according to

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Speaker 1: an interview that Adam West had with Blaster In, he

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Speaker 1: and his pal Frank Gorsten, the guy who played the Riddler,

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Speaker 1: decided to go to a Hollywood party, but they didn't

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Speaker 1: know anything about what was happening at the party, and

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Speaker 1: when they walked in, they saw a ton of people

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Speaker 1: getting incredibly and cooperatively intimate, very caligular. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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Speaker 1: And from his we have a quote from him where

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Speaker 1: he says, so I immediately went into the Batman character

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Speaker 1: and Frank went into the Riddler character because we were

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Speaker 1: getting the big giggles with the big gigs. It was

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Speaker 1: so funny to us what we walked into, and we

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Speaker 1: were kicked out. We were expelled from the orgy. So

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Speaker 1: let's point out here that the first thing Adam West

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Speaker 1: and this Frank Gorsten guy do when they walk in

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Speaker 1: on this cavalcade of fleshly pursuits, they say you know what,

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Speaker 1: we gotta get in costume, and they try to get

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Speaker 1: in on this, and they were not They were not

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Speaker 1: treated with perhaps the respect that they felt they were do.

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Speaker 1: The story would have disappeared if it wasn't for Gilbert Godfried,

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Speaker 1: who mentioned it when he was talking about his own podcast.

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Speaker 1: Do you know that he has a podcast? Was just

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Speaker 1: you know, I was the first I've heard of it,

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Speaker 1: But I could I take a whole podcast in that voice?

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Speaker 1: I don't know. The Godfrey shoon a colossal podcast show,

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Speaker 1: so hard to put on your shoes the Aristocrats, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's it. Yeah, he had one of the filthiest versions

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Speaker 1: of that joke in the movie, didn't he that? I

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Speaker 1: am I making that up? He had one of the

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Speaker 1: filthiest versions. Who you know who had the filthiest though?

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Speaker 1: Who was? It was a matter of opinion, Well I think,

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Speaker 1: I know, I think it's pretty objectively the case and

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Speaker 1: the filthiest version of the joke, which the long would

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Speaker 1: you call it a shaggy dog story and that kind

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Speaker 1: of what that is where it's like a big old

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Speaker 1: set up, a big old set up, and then a

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Speaker 1: sort of very let down punchline and we're talking about.

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Speaker 1: We're talking about a film called The Heuristic Costs, which

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Speaker 1: traces the evolution. This is a comics joke for other

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Speaker 1: comics exactly. But the guy, the guy that played the

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Speaker 1: dad on um full House, he was notoriously lechery and

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Speaker 1: weird and pervy in his comedy. I saw a standup

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Speaker 1: set of his that blew my mind. His first like

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Speaker 1: four minutes or something. We're about cocaine, and I had

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Speaker 1: only known him as the kind of square but affable

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Speaker 1: dad House. So I looked into some more behind the

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Speaker 1: scenes stuff. Oh first off, first off, thank you Brandon,

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Speaker 1: and thanks for sending this article from The Decider by Kaylaka.

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Speaker 1: Adam West was once kicked out in Origin while pretending

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Speaker 1: to be Batman. True story. But I when I was

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Speaker 1: looking behind the scenes, he wasn't the only weird guy.

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Speaker 1: Now Batman or Adam West rather has sort of this

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Speaker 1: this Austin Powers vibe almost you know, of that time.

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Speaker 1: So it's like, yeah, it's weird, it's a little sleezy,

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Speaker 1: but he's fun. He's being campy. Burt Ward, the guy

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Speaker 1: who played Robin Batman, was absolutely uh at least just

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Speaker 1: as strange because he wrote an autobiography called Boy Wonder,

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Speaker 1: My Life in Tights, and he spent a lot of

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Speaker 1: time talking about his uh sexual adventures because he was Robin,

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Speaker 1: and he described himself as a sexual vampire who had

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Speaker 1: superhero sex with young fans. So it's likely he kept

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Speaker 1: the costume on too. I think so. And it's weird

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Speaker 1: because this iteration of Batman, despite being so iconic, only

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Speaker 1: ran for three seasons. I'm just saying, look, if you

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Speaker 1: see someone dressed as Robin from Batman or heck, Batman.

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Speaker 1: If you see someone dressed that way and they're coming

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Speaker 1: towards you and it's not Halloween or Dragon Con or

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Speaker 1: a convention of some sort, word to the wise, watch out.

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Speaker 1: Did I ever tell you? By the time, I was

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Speaker 1: in a New York subway station and I heard this ruckus,

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Speaker 1: this fracas in the distance, and it was clearly a

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Speaker 1: man and a woman, young man woman having a big

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Speaker 1: argument because the woman had just broken up with the man,

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Speaker 1: and it's just this whole just chaotic, you know, shouting

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Speaker 1: each other. He's walking after her, and I'm kind of

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Speaker 1: trying to mind my own business, and then I look

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Speaker 1: and notice that he is wearing a full spider Man

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Speaker 1: costume and just like reading her the Riot Act and

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Speaker 1: like to the point where people in the subway station

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Speaker 1: are like, are you okay? But the whole Spider Man

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Speaker 1: cost but just sort of added a layer of absurdity

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Speaker 1: to the whole thing. I love it a picture and

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Speaker 1: the guy going you never believed in my art, Karen Never.

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Speaker 1: I have a feeling based on where we were, he

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Speaker 1: may have been one of those Times Square we could do.

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Speaker 1: I would love to do something and just that culture

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Speaker 1: of people were mascots in Times Square. But that's a

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Speaker 1: story for another day. Can I say one thing about

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Speaker 1: Adam West thing, just that there's a couple of comments

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Speaker 1: here that I think are appropriate. One is from Jerry

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Speaker 1: M says, this is hilarious. I love that his reaction

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Speaker 1: to an awkward situation was to one up the awkwardness

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Speaker 1: to the point that he was actually made to leave.

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Speaker 1: And that's what I think is the funny part of

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Speaker 1: the story too. It's like they happened upon this scenario.

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Speaker 1: I don't know that they were expecting it or that

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Speaker 1: they were there for that right, Like as I had said,

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Speaker 1: they just knew there was a party, no idea what

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Speaker 1: was going on? Yeah, and then Chad M says good

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Speaker 1: luck making a family friendly show about this one. To that,

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Speaker 1: we say, there you go, Chad, yea, here there it is.

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Speaker 1: We have more on the way, Noel, I mean a

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Speaker 1: ping palling this back to you. What really moved you?

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Speaker 1: Next from ridiculous Historians? Yeah, this one comes from Rick W.

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Speaker 1: A new member UM, and he says this. He says,

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Speaker 1: back in grad school in Kansas, we encountered many very

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Speaker 1: bizarre stories about how cities became county seats. This often

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Speaker 1: involved a raid to a neighboring town to steal the

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Speaker 1: records and or burn the town or the courthouse. UM

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Speaker 1: of particular interest is Finney County, which combined with Gray

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Speaker 1: County to raid, subsume and eliminate Garfield County completely. And

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Speaker 1: yes I did graduate edit. If you look at the

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Speaker 1: Kansas County is on a map, Finny originally called Buffalo County,

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Speaker 1: has an L shape where it's pretty obvious something happened. Um.

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Speaker 1: And then there's a really great conversation thread, one of

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Speaker 1: which had an article posted by Steve M called the

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Speaker 1: Legend of Joe Rolette the most interesting and in Minnesota history.

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Speaker 1: And this involves a similar dispute about moving the capital

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Speaker 1: of the state from St. Paul to a little about

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Speaker 1: seventy five miles southwest along the Minnesota River, a town

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Speaker 1: called St. Peter. Yes, And a big reason for this

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Speaker 1: was that one of the judges I believe that was

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Speaker 1: involved in like ratifying this or really pushing this forward,

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Speaker 1: owned a lot of land in St. Peter. And the

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Speaker 1: idea was that people that lived in St. Peter, farmers

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Speaker 1: and such wanted to be more centrally located to the

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Speaker 1: county seat or the right, right right. There's a lot

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Speaker 1: of land speculation. So this guy Willis Gorman is the governor,

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Speaker 1: not a judge, excuse me, he's he's he's into the

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Speaker 1: idea of moving the capital to St. Peter because he

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Speaker 1: just happened to own a fair chunk of land there,

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Speaker 1: apostle apostle of land. Accurate Minnesota excess. I know, I've

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Speaker 1: been there. That's how they all talk um. But yeah,

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Speaker 1: he had skin in the game, literally land in the game,

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Speaker 1: and he was part of the faction that was supportive

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Speaker 1: of moving this county seat to St. Peter. There was

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Speaker 1: also it equally, what's the word I'm looking for, Ben

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Speaker 1: riled up faction that that was totally against it. Wanted

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Speaker 1: to keep things right as they were. So a bill

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Speaker 1: was drafted and it was handed to an organization or

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Speaker 1: an official body called the Enrolled Bill's Committee, of which

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Speaker 1: there was a chairman, a chairman named Joe Roulette. This

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Speaker 1: was an eighteen fifty seven. Now he wasn't technically from

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Speaker 1: Minnesota as we know it today, right, He was about

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Speaker 1: a sixteen day dog sled ride from St. Paul, which

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Speaker 1: was basically Canada pretty much. They called it pem Pembina

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Speaker 1: Pembina at the time. Um No, it's not not quite Canada.

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Speaker 1: It's it's the last orderline Canada. It's almost Canada. Can

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Speaker 1: you describe this fellow forest Ben? He has something to behold? Oh? Sure,

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Speaker 1: sure he Um let's let's let's double team this one,

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Speaker 1: because this guy is a fantastic portrait that we see

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Speaker 1: in this article by Steve Newman. He is dressed partially

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Speaker 1: in the fashion of Native Americans, yeah, but also partially

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Speaker 1: in the fashion of like the Founding Fathers. It looks

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Speaker 1: like he's got like a velvet kind of velveteen coat

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Speaker 1: with fur rimmed sleeves. And then the Native American asked

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Speaker 1: and he also has a cravat kind of thing around

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Speaker 1: his neck, right, and he appears to be wearing moccasin's

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Speaker 1: uh to be wearing paches deer skin breaches with some

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Speaker 1: decorative stuff on his belt. He grew up pretty wealthy. Actually,

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Speaker 1: his dad was a higher up in the American fur company,

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Speaker 1: so he was educated out in private schools back east.

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Speaker 1: He married a woman who was partially Native American, started

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Speaker 1: a family, and then started building commerce from the far

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Speaker 1: northwestern part of what become the state into St. Paul it'sself.

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Speaker 1: And he very much loved dressing like the stereotypical image

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Speaker 1: of a fur trader, buckskin pants, frock coat. He would

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Speaker 1: go over super well at Coachella, you know with these uh,

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Speaker 1: these these Native American pants. Boy don't so so what

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Speaker 1: about what we know we have? His back story has backstory,

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Speaker 1: um basically, so he's the chair, he gets the bill physically,

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Speaker 1: the document in hand, and then he he ghosts ghosts.

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Speaker 1: Then this is like an early example of ghosting. He

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Speaker 1: they referred to it as his one hundred and twenty

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Speaker 1: three hours um on the lamb uh. And it's kind

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Speaker 1: of become part of Minnesota history, right because he just

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Speaker 1: totally disappeared. Everyone's searching for him. He has document and

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Speaker 1: in my mind, I'm like, why do they need him?

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Speaker 1: Why can't they just push it through without him? Um,

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Speaker 1: But apparently it held up the electoral process so much

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Speaker 1: that it kind of died. Wait, what was your interpretation

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Speaker 1: of this then? So he was gone for about a

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Speaker 1: hundred and twenty three hours. Nol. He was, he was

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Speaker 1: on the lamb, he was on the buckskin, and he

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Speaker 1: I think, as we may have established earlier, he was

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Speaker 1: part of the team that absolutely wanted the capital to

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Speaker 1: stay in St. Paul. And legend has it that this

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Speaker 1: vanishing act actually did prevent the capital being moved because

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Speaker 1: the bill never got there. But the problem is there's

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Speaker 1: no there's no definitive account of what he actually did,

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Speaker 1: and the processes that occur legislatively to keep the capital

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Speaker 1: in St. Paul are much drier. It's romanticizing it for

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Speaker 1: us to say all the guy had to do was

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Speaker 1: steal the bill, and Tennessee was almost coming out steal

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Speaker 1: the bill and uh run away to grind the actions

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Speaker 1: of governance to a halt. It's much more interesting to

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Speaker 1: try to figure out what he did during those twenty

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Speaker 1: three hours. We don't, we don't really know. We have

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Speaker 1: some guests and what do you you want to break

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Speaker 1: it down for us week a tag team and um, yeah,

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Speaker 1: so there's alleged things that he may have used to

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Speaker 1: occupy his time during this twenty three hours. Um was

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Speaker 1: that he was hiding out in a brothel. Um or

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Speaker 1: that he went on kind of like a John Lennon

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Speaker 1: Lost Weekend kind of bender. Right, Yeah, And people were

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Speaker 1: will tell you that the bill itself was sitting in

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Speaker 1: a bank while he was on this crazy carousing adventure. Also,

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Speaker 1: the people of St. Paul, especially people who should have

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Speaker 1: been looking for him, did a great job not finding him.

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Speaker 1: So it's quite possible that maybe the authorities saw him

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Speaker 1: unofficially and then just decided it never happens, but we

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Speaker 1: don't know, it's lost to history. Well, there's even a

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Speaker 1: story here that they're that a sergeant at arms who

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Speaker 1: was tasked with like tracking down this runaway lawmaker actually

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Speaker 1: knew exactly where he was and went and hung out

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Speaker 1: with him and played cards. So yeah, there's this sense

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Speaker 1: that like, obviously this the St. Paul lights did not

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Speaker 1: want this to go down, But why would you exactly

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Speaker 1: move it. Yeah, no, it well, because exactly it's kind

426
00:26:32,400 --> 00:26:34,879
Speaker 1: of a crooked situation here about this governor. But it

427
00:26:34,960 --> 00:26:37,760
Speaker 1: turns out to that, while it's a really good story,

428
00:26:39,280 --> 00:26:43,520
Speaker 1: this guy's move didn't necessarily all in and of itself,

429
00:26:43,960 --> 00:26:47,520
Speaker 1: keep this from happening. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it's it's kind

430
00:26:47,560 --> 00:26:51,600
Speaker 1: of a publicity stunt. It feels like it. It definitely

431
00:26:51,760 --> 00:26:54,520
Speaker 1: hampered the process, but that alone could not, as it

432
00:26:54,600 --> 00:26:59,320
Speaker 1: said earlier, could not have prevented the actual legislative action.

433
00:26:59,440 --> 00:27:01,600
Speaker 1: Someone could just write down another bill. Yeah. And in

434
00:27:01,720 --> 00:27:03,959
Speaker 1: this article in The Growler, which is a great name

435
00:27:04,000 --> 00:27:07,720
Speaker 1: for a magazine, Um, they say that, like the way

436
00:27:07,880 --> 00:27:10,800
Speaker 1: history goes is that the sexier story is a lot

437
00:27:10,880 --> 00:27:15,520
Speaker 1: more fun and the real story of what legislative machinations

438
00:27:15,720 --> 00:27:19,479
Speaker 1: kept this county seat from being moved are a lot

439
00:27:19,600 --> 00:27:23,080
Speaker 1: less interesting. So we go with the quirkier story. Yes,

440
00:27:23,680 --> 00:27:27,119
Speaker 1: always we will. We will be honest. We do here

441
00:27:27,119 --> 00:27:29,560
Speaker 1: on ridiculous. We will be honest when it is an

442
00:27:29,600 --> 00:27:33,400
Speaker 1: alleged story or or a legend itself. But we want

443
00:27:33,440 --> 00:27:36,920
Speaker 1: to get to the fun stuff. Speaking of disappearances, I

444
00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:42,200
Speaker 1: found one that was it was fascinating. Lori J. You

445
00:27:42,480 --> 00:27:46,720
Speaker 1: sent us a post that opens with this great line.

446
00:27:46,920 --> 00:27:50,359
Speaker 1: I feel like Florida could probably have fifty episodes of

447
00:27:50,520 --> 00:27:52,680
Speaker 1: Ridiculous History devoted to it and there would still be

448
00:27:52,800 --> 00:27:56,920
Speaker 1: content left over for the show. I think Gibson Town

449
00:27:57,240 --> 00:28:00,800
Speaker 1: might make a good episode Gibson tow. You see, we're

450
00:28:00,840 --> 00:28:06,080
Speaker 1: speaking disappearances. Gibsontown has a very special place in a

451
00:28:06,200 --> 00:28:10,879
Speaker 1: specific community or culture here in the United States. So

452
00:28:11,720 --> 00:28:18,120
Speaker 1: carnies circus workers spend most of their career traveling extensively

453
00:28:18,240 --> 00:28:22,840
Speaker 1: around the US, and one part of a lot of

454
00:28:22,920 --> 00:28:27,320
Speaker 1: circuses for a long time had been people who performed,

455
00:28:27,760 --> 00:28:30,119
Speaker 1: you know, strange acts like biting the heads off chickens.

456
00:28:30,160 --> 00:28:34,160
Speaker 1: Were people who had some sort of perceivable physical difference,

457
00:28:34,280 --> 00:28:37,760
Speaker 1: right It wasn't that a geek, didn't the geek? Yeah, yeah,

458
00:28:37,920 --> 00:28:40,560
Speaker 1: that's they would be called the geeks, sometimes billed as

459
00:28:40,640 --> 00:28:43,440
Speaker 1: like a wild man of so and so, and then

460
00:28:43,480 --> 00:28:46,120
Speaker 1: you would have the world's strongest man, people who maybe

461
00:28:46,200 --> 00:28:50,160
Speaker 1: were very short or very skinny, uh, someone who was

462
00:28:50,280 --> 00:28:52,400
Speaker 1: a woman but had a beard, those sorts of things.

463
00:28:53,360 --> 00:28:57,960
Speaker 1: And these people probably don't want to have you know,

464
00:28:58,040 --> 00:29:00,640
Speaker 1: if you if your job is to be stared at,

465
00:29:01,240 --> 00:29:04,520
Speaker 1: and in some cases reviled by publics and small towns

466
00:29:04,560 --> 00:29:07,160
Speaker 1: across the states. Where do you go when you need

467
00:29:07,240 --> 00:29:12,480
Speaker 1: to break other than you know? Of course cheers. So

468
00:29:13,000 --> 00:29:16,960
Speaker 1: they would go to Gibsontown, Florida, just south of Tampa,

469
00:29:17,240 --> 00:29:20,600
Speaker 1: and that is where they would spend the winter. They

470
00:29:20,640 --> 00:29:23,160
Speaker 1: would be in a place where they could live a

471
00:29:23,320 --> 00:29:25,880
Speaker 1: normal life. They could go to the post office, they

472
00:29:25,920 --> 00:29:29,800
Speaker 1: could check out the theater. There was a special counter

473
00:29:30,280 --> 00:29:34,680
Speaker 1: at the post office just for people who have were

474
00:29:35,360 --> 00:29:38,200
Speaker 1: height challenged, you know what I mean, And for people

475
00:29:38,240 --> 00:29:42,320
Speaker 1: who didn't quite fit in elsewhere. This place, sometimes called

476
00:29:42,360 --> 00:29:45,920
Speaker 1: GiB Town for short, was utopia. There's a great article

477
00:29:45,960 --> 00:29:49,640
Speaker 1: on The Guardian by Kim Wall and Katerina Clarissi that

478
00:29:50,200 --> 00:29:54,320
Speaker 1: examines how life was here. There was a campsite, a

479
00:29:54,400 --> 00:29:58,280
Speaker 1: bake shop, a fire department, the beer hall had custom

480
00:29:58,320 --> 00:30:00,720
Speaker 1: built chairs for the fat lady, ease in the world,

481
00:30:01,240 --> 00:30:04,320
Speaker 1: the various versions of the world's tallest Man, which there

482
00:30:04,360 --> 00:30:08,680
Speaker 1: were several. Uh. They were allowed to keep their exotic animals,

483
00:30:08,760 --> 00:30:12,280
Speaker 1: their lions and tigers and bears in the neighborhood with them,

484
00:30:13,000 --> 00:30:19,800
Speaker 1: and the town had at its peak almost fifteen thousand residents,

485
00:30:20,200 --> 00:30:24,520
Speaker 1: and it became known as the industry capital of the

486
00:30:24,600 --> 00:30:27,560
Speaker 1: circus world. They called it Carneytown. It was a place

487
00:30:28,320 --> 00:30:33,040
Speaker 1: for everyone to escape being stared at. You know, so

488
00:30:33,400 --> 00:30:39,440
Speaker 1: this place existed as almost a a a society on

489
00:30:39,680 --> 00:30:43,640
Speaker 1: its own, you know, like Carnival. The show Carnival, Oh yeah,

490
00:30:43,720 --> 00:30:47,080
Speaker 1: multiple times. I know the spoilers for the season they

491
00:30:47,160 --> 00:30:49,440
Speaker 1: never made what I'll send them to you off air?

492
00:30:49,640 --> 00:30:54,240
Speaker 1: How could you know this? I go down Rabbiles. Interesting,

493
00:30:54,680 --> 00:30:57,400
Speaker 1: but yeah, Carnival is an excellent example because of course

494
00:30:57,520 --> 00:31:01,800
Speaker 1: you become kind of insular when you're in such an

495
00:31:01,920 --> 00:31:08,120
Speaker 1: US versus them environment. Right, and now the population has

496
00:31:08,640 --> 00:31:12,400
Speaker 1: entered a resurgence. It's around fourteen thousand, two hundred and

497
00:31:12,640 --> 00:31:15,880
Speaker 1: thirty four people after a previously dropped below nine thousand.

498
00:31:16,400 --> 00:31:20,720
Speaker 1: It was hit weirdly by the you know, the decline

499
00:31:20,760 --> 00:31:23,600
Speaker 1: of the American circus because think about it, right before

500
00:31:23,680 --> 00:31:28,680
Speaker 1: we had internet and endless entertainment at our fingertips, these

501
00:31:28,800 --> 00:31:31,959
Speaker 1: traveling shows were the biggest events in town. One thing

502
00:31:32,040 --> 00:31:35,680
Speaker 1: I love about the Carnival is um the the lingo

503
00:31:36,200 --> 00:31:38,880
Speaker 1: like you got the Rubes, you got the rows tis

504
00:31:38,960 --> 00:31:41,840
Speaker 1: the Roustas are the carnie dudes that like build the

505
00:31:42,000 --> 00:31:44,880
Speaker 1: rides and all that the Roustabouts or whatever learned a

506
00:31:44,960 --> 00:31:49,440
Speaker 1: lot of that cool vernacular stuff from from watching that show. So, man,

507
00:31:49,520 --> 00:31:51,120
Speaker 1: this is such a good one, Ben, I almost it's

508
00:31:51,120 --> 00:31:52,800
Speaker 1: almost a shame. We gotta we gotta kind of hit

509
00:31:52,840 --> 00:31:54,800
Speaker 1: it quick. Maybe we come back and do more of

510
00:31:54,920 --> 00:31:58,640
Speaker 1: a deep dive history of of the Carnie scene another episode.

511
00:31:58,760 --> 00:32:02,280
Speaker 1: We absolutely could. There so many more things we could

512
00:32:02,360 --> 00:32:06,200
Speaker 1: say about it. What is inspiring about this? And one

513
00:32:06,240 --> 00:32:08,320
Speaker 1: of the reasons I really appreciate you sending this, Lorie

514
00:32:08,800 --> 00:32:11,520
Speaker 1: is that it makes me think of how many other

515
00:32:11,720 --> 00:32:16,600
Speaker 1: towns exist within the US but almost culturally separate, you

516
00:32:16,640 --> 00:32:19,040
Speaker 1: know what I mean, Like they're they're always gonna be

517
00:32:19,160 --> 00:32:23,600
Speaker 1: some religious towns, sure, but there may be things that

518
00:32:23,680 --> 00:32:26,719
Speaker 1: are just for specific trade. What if what if somewhere

519
00:32:26,840 --> 00:32:31,160
Speaker 1: out there there is a town that is entirely populated

520
00:32:31,440 --> 00:32:34,760
Speaker 1: by bank robbers who got away. Wouldn't that be cool?

521
00:32:35,200 --> 00:32:37,520
Speaker 1: I'm gonna write it. I'll just write that's why you

522
00:32:37,560 --> 00:32:40,160
Speaker 1: hope you made this up? Wouldn't that be cool? Yeah? Well,

523
00:32:40,280 --> 00:32:41,760
Speaker 1: or sort of like you know, like a prison colony

524
00:32:41,840 --> 00:32:44,680
Speaker 1: and and then like Australia or something, right, Oh yeah,

525
00:32:44,880 --> 00:32:48,040
Speaker 1: that could happen. Hopefully in my head. These bank robbers

526
00:32:48,080 --> 00:32:52,120
Speaker 1: got away successfully. But yes, we have agreed, and we

527
00:32:52,240 --> 00:32:56,480
Speaker 1: hope you agreed to we have a visit to Gibson

528
00:32:56,560 --> 00:33:07,800
Speaker 1: Town in our future. Well, no, old friend, it looks

529
00:33:07,840 --> 00:33:10,040
Speaker 1: like we have a bit of sad news. You know that.

530
00:33:10,640 --> 00:33:13,960
Speaker 1: What that sound cute? Casey casey presumably just through in

531
00:33:14,080 --> 00:33:17,280
Speaker 1: here means right? What it was the sad trombone? That

532
00:33:17,400 --> 00:33:20,680
Speaker 1: means we are we are running up on time. And

533
00:33:21,120 --> 00:33:24,200
Speaker 1: isn't time kind of an ephemeral thing in the podcast space?

534
00:33:24,320 --> 00:33:26,800
Speaker 1: Does anybody really know what time it is? Yeah, well

535
00:33:26,880 --> 00:33:31,680
Speaker 1: it's it's anybody seven am. That's what my my laptop seven.

536
00:33:31,720 --> 00:33:34,240
Speaker 1: Don't let big clock run your life, man, It's the

537
00:33:34,640 --> 00:33:37,080
Speaker 1: what do they call it, the the atomic clock. Everything

538
00:33:37,120 --> 00:33:40,200
Speaker 1: sync up to this mystical atomic clock, which itself is

539
00:33:40,240 --> 00:33:44,200
Speaker 1: a fantastic idea for a story. The creation of that thing. Okay, yeah, No,

540
00:33:44,280 --> 00:33:46,000
Speaker 1: here's the thing about shows like this, Ben, we we

541
00:33:46,080 --> 00:33:48,240
Speaker 1: have we come in with the best intentions of like

542
00:33:48,400 --> 00:33:50,040
Speaker 1: hitting all these like we're gonna give you this this,

543
00:33:50,200 --> 00:33:54,160
Speaker 1: this like amazing clip show after the other. First, do

544
00:33:54,200 --> 00:33:55,920
Speaker 1: you really even want that? I don't know if you

545
00:33:55,960 --> 00:33:58,200
Speaker 1: want that? Do you want us to just mention headlines

546
00:33:58,400 --> 00:34:01,920
Speaker 1: and then and then move on, so we didn't get

547
00:34:02,000 --> 00:34:04,840
Speaker 1: to all the stories that we had individually picked out

548
00:34:05,280 --> 00:34:08,440
Speaker 1: off air, which I think is a great problem to have.

549
00:34:08,840 --> 00:34:11,000
Speaker 1: We'd like to do an episode like this later on

550
00:34:11,120 --> 00:34:14,000
Speaker 1: in the future, and we need your help to do so.

551
00:34:14,160 --> 00:34:17,080
Speaker 1: We really do. UM. If you are digging the whole

552
00:34:17,280 --> 00:34:19,439
Speaker 1: idea of being a part of this online community, which

553
00:34:19,520 --> 00:34:22,240
Speaker 1: we are huge fans of, you can join the Ridiculous

554
00:34:22,280 --> 00:34:24,960
Speaker 1: Historians on Facebook UM or if you just want to

555
00:34:25,000 --> 00:34:28,000
Speaker 1: send us something directly, we're totally into that too. We

556
00:34:28,080 --> 00:34:31,320
Speaker 1: didn't do any emails on today's show, UM, but we

557
00:34:31,600 --> 00:34:34,719
Speaker 1: certainly will in the future, and we have more updates

558
00:34:34,880 --> 00:34:38,080
Speaker 1: to share. There's so many great stories we didn't get to.

559
00:34:38,840 --> 00:34:42,960
Speaker 1: We actually, you know, we're we're pretty cool, hip happening guys,

560
00:34:43,480 --> 00:34:47,720
Speaker 1: uh to looud and crazy guys. But we also spend

561
00:34:47,800 --> 00:34:51,000
Speaker 1: time reading this stuff just for fun, so we really

562
00:34:51,080 --> 00:34:55,280
Speaker 1: appreciate everybody who took the time to share an interesting

563
00:34:55,320 --> 00:34:59,160
Speaker 1: story with us and with your fellow Ridiculous Historians. You

564
00:34:59,239 --> 00:35:01,680
Speaker 1: can also find us on Instagram, you can find us

565
00:35:01,719 --> 00:35:06,040
Speaker 1: on Twitter. You can email us directly. We are Ridiculous

566
00:35:06,239 --> 00:35:09,120
Speaker 1: at how Stuff Works dot com. That's the one good

567
00:35:09,320 --> 00:35:12,880
Speaker 1: good and uh for people who had written to us

568
00:35:12,920 --> 00:35:15,680
Speaker 1: to ask about the quister, I don't know. We checked

569
00:35:15,719 --> 00:35:18,080
Speaker 1: the studio earlier today, I haven't seen him. He might

570
00:35:18,120 --> 00:35:20,360
Speaker 1: be under a table. Yeah. He also you know, I

571
00:35:20,400 --> 00:35:21,759
Speaker 1: don't know if you know this about him then, but

572
00:35:21,840 --> 00:35:24,080
Speaker 1: he has what I like to refer to as the

573
00:35:24,160 --> 00:35:28,120
Speaker 1: quiz lair um, where he has a closet with about

574
00:35:28,200 --> 00:35:31,680
Speaker 1: ten of the same outfit just laid out like with

575
00:35:32,040 --> 00:35:34,880
Speaker 1: let let labeled you know, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.

576
00:35:34,880 --> 00:35:38,200
Speaker 1: Because you know, every day he's quizzing. It's not just us.

577
00:35:38,960 --> 00:35:42,160
Speaker 1: He's got other podcast hosts that he torments as well.

578
00:35:42,320 --> 00:35:44,920
Speaker 1: I've seen him on the street just pulling people for

579
00:35:45,000 --> 00:35:47,520
Speaker 1: a quiz fix. Holy count many quiz fix. I think

580
00:35:47,560 --> 00:35:50,120
Speaker 1: he's good quiz think. I think I smell a spinoff.

581
00:35:51,120 --> 00:35:53,920
Speaker 1: Let's let's hear from you, let us do what you think.

582
00:35:54,040 --> 00:35:57,280
Speaker 1: Oh and thank you as well, of course, two super

583
00:35:57,320 --> 00:36:00,080
Speaker 1: producer Casey Pegroom, friends and neighbors. Where would we be

584
00:36:00,239 --> 00:36:03,520
Speaker 1: without him? Thanks to Alex Williams who composed our intro track,

585
00:36:03,800 --> 00:36:06,600
Speaker 1: and most importantly, thanks to you. Thank you for being

586
00:36:06,680 --> 00:36:10,080
Speaker 1: a friend, all of you traveling down that ridiculous road

587
00:36:10,200 --> 00:36:13,319
Speaker 1: with us, you know, and back again um and being

588
00:36:13,360 --> 00:36:15,680
Speaker 1: our friend and confidante. Uh. And we'll see you next

589
00:36:15,719 --> 00:36:17,520
Speaker 1: time for another episode of ridiculous history. Goodbye,