1 00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:06,600 Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. I'm Josh. There's Chuck, 2 00:00:06,680 --> 00:00:10,320 Speaker 1: Dave's here in spirit, Jerry's here in spirit. Um who 3 00:00:10,360 --> 00:00:12,960 Speaker 1: else is here in spirit? We can't say because we 4 00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:15,760 Speaker 1: can't see spirits, because we're among the living. This is 5 00:00:15,800 --> 00:00:21,200 Speaker 1: short stuff. Let's go. This is the story of Madam C. J. Walker, 6 00:00:21,880 --> 00:00:25,160 Speaker 1: who Guinness Book of World's Record says is the first 7 00:00:26,040 --> 00:00:31,120 Speaker 1: self made, the female millionaire in the world. Yeah, not 8 00:00:31,960 --> 00:00:38,640 Speaker 1: African American female or woman millionaire. Um, straight up, first 9 00:00:38,920 --> 00:00:44,400 Speaker 1: woman in America to be a millionaire. It's through through 10 00:00:44,400 --> 00:00:48,559 Speaker 1: her own work and hard, hard labor. That's right. She 11 00:00:48,600 --> 00:00:52,040 Speaker 1: has a very cool, more assistinct. Put she's a very 12 00:00:52,080 --> 00:00:55,920 Speaker 1: cool story. She was a daughter of sharecroppers and uh 13 00:00:56,040 --> 00:01:00,680 Speaker 1: ended up building this huge brand which employed and empowered 14 00:01:00,800 --> 00:01:04,480 Speaker 1: many hundreds of women. UM. Oxtavia Spencer I think played 15 00:01:04,520 --> 00:01:06,800 Speaker 1: her in Self Made. It was a mini series on 16 00:01:06,840 --> 00:01:10,920 Speaker 1: Netflix recently. And she was born Sarah Breedlove on a 17 00:01:10,959 --> 00:01:15,200 Speaker 1: cotton plantation in eighteen sixty seven, one of five kids. 18 00:01:15,240 --> 00:01:17,960 Speaker 1: It's a great name too. I love that name, breed Love. 19 00:01:18,120 --> 00:01:21,039 Speaker 1: Sarah breed Love in particular has a nice rain, doesn't it. 20 00:01:22,319 --> 00:01:24,479 Speaker 1: If you're wondering why she c. J. Walker will get 21 00:01:24,480 --> 00:01:28,160 Speaker 1: to that. But in Louisiana, she was you know, she 22 00:01:28,280 --> 00:01:31,200 Speaker 1: struggled in life. She was an orphan by the age 23 00:01:31,240 --> 00:01:35,400 Speaker 1: of seven and then went to live with her older sister, Louvinia, 24 00:01:35,480 --> 00:01:40,440 Speaker 1: another very nice name, and they settled in Mississippi and Vicksburg, Mississippi, 25 00:01:40,680 --> 00:01:44,880 Speaker 1: where she did domestic work and worked in the cotton fields. Yeah. 26 00:01:44,880 --> 00:01:47,520 Speaker 1: And I mean like, she was born so close to 27 00:01:48,160 --> 00:01:51,320 Speaker 1: slavery that she was the first child in her family, 28 00:01:51,960 --> 00:01:54,680 Speaker 1: UM who was born free. Like that's how that's how 29 00:01:54,840 --> 00:01:58,960 Speaker 1: recent slavery UM was was a thing. So her lot 30 00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:03,520 Speaker 1: in life wasn't particularly much better because it was just 31 00:02:03,600 --> 00:02:06,720 Speaker 1: so close to the slave era. UM And when she 32 00:02:06,800 --> 00:02:09,560 Speaker 1: was fourteen, as a matter of fact, she got married 33 00:02:09,600 --> 00:02:13,600 Speaker 1: to a man named Moses McWilliams um at least in 34 00:02:13,760 --> 00:02:18,680 Speaker 1: part to escape her home life. Basically, Yeah, her brother 35 00:02:18,760 --> 00:02:20,680 Speaker 1: in law apparently was not a very nice guy and 36 00:02:20,760 --> 00:02:24,679 Speaker 1: mistreated her, So she got out of there with Moses 37 00:02:24,840 --> 00:02:28,760 Speaker 1: and had a daughter name I guess Lelia or Lilia, 38 00:02:29,040 --> 00:02:33,079 Speaker 1: very pretty name, l E. L I A. I think 39 00:02:33,120 --> 00:02:36,040 Speaker 1: she later changed her name to put an A on 40 00:02:36,080 --> 00:02:38,920 Speaker 1: the front of it and was a Lilia and her 41 00:02:38,960 --> 00:02:42,200 Speaker 1: husband sadly died in seven. So she moved to St. Louis, 42 00:02:42,600 --> 00:02:46,200 Speaker 1: where her brothers lived. They were barber's there and started 43 00:02:46,480 --> 00:02:48,960 Speaker 1: earning a money doing laundry, making about a buck fifty 44 00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:52,360 Speaker 1: a day. So You're like, Okay, where where are we 45 00:02:52,400 --> 00:02:54,400 Speaker 1: going to get to the fact that she's a self 46 00:02:54,480 --> 00:02:57,920 Speaker 1: made person? Like she's you know, starting to get up 47 00:02:57,919 --> 00:03:00,040 Speaker 1: there in years she's all she's like in her and 48 00:03:00,160 --> 00:03:02,960 Speaker 1: he's now she's making a dollar fifty a day, which 49 00:03:03,040 --> 00:03:05,679 Speaker 1: is enough to put her kids through school. But I 50 00:03:06,080 --> 00:03:08,839 Speaker 1: looked and as far as the West Saga inflation calculator says, 51 00:03:08,840 --> 00:03:12,400 Speaker 1: that's still only forty three dollars a day in today's money. 52 00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:15,920 Speaker 1: And I feel like we're missing something, Chuck. I think 53 00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:21,919 Speaker 1: that that's not a full picture of of, you know, 54 00:03:22,520 --> 00:03:26,280 Speaker 1: what money was worth. I think things were just cheaper. 55 00:03:26,919 --> 00:03:31,360 Speaker 1: I think life was just less expensive at other times 56 00:03:31,400 --> 00:03:34,440 Speaker 1: in American and probably world history than it is today. 57 00:03:35,040 --> 00:03:37,680 Speaker 1: I think you're right. You want to take a break, regroup, 58 00:03:37,720 --> 00:04:08,080 Speaker 1: and then talk about the real beginning of Madam C. J. Walker. Okay, alright, Chuck. 59 00:04:08,160 --> 00:04:10,520 Speaker 1: So we said that Madam C. J. Walker was the 60 00:04:10,560 --> 00:04:14,520 Speaker 1: first self made woman millionaire in the United States, She's 61 00:04:14,560 --> 00:04:18,160 Speaker 1: an African American woman who was born almost into slavery 62 00:04:18,640 --> 00:04:21,920 Speaker 1: uh in the South Um. But she became self made 63 00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:25,800 Speaker 1: because she ran into a problem in the eight nineties. 64 00:04:26,200 --> 00:04:29,000 Speaker 1: Her hair started falling out, and I could not find 65 00:04:29,520 --> 00:04:34,120 Speaker 1: what the cause of her hair loss, um was. I 66 00:04:34,160 --> 00:04:38,440 Speaker 1: saw a scalp condition almost everywhere. That made me suspect 67 00:04:38,480 --> 00:04:41,320 Speaker 1: that as somebody said scalp condition, and everybody else found 68 00:04:41,400 --> 00:04:44,919 Speaker 1: that same source, but I couldn't find an actual like um, 69 00:04:44,960 --> 00:04:48,720 Speaker 1: you know, diagnosed medical condition. But she started losing her hair, 70 00:04:49,080 --> 00:04:52,400 Speaker 1: and she found out in pretty quick order that there 71 00:04:52,480 --> 00:04:54,560 Speaker 1: was not a lot of help out there for her 72 00:04:54,640 --> 00:04:57,760 Speaker 1: to stop her hair loss or possibly regrow hair, so 73 00:04:57,800 --> 00:05:00,640 Speaker 1: she tried to figure it out herself. Yeah, I mean, 74 00:05:00,680 --> 00:05:02,719 Speaker 1: I think the reason her hair was falling out was 75 00:05:02,760 --> 00:05:07,520 Speaker 1: because there were not products designed specifically for women's hair 76 00:05:07,800 --> 00:05:11,440 Speaker 1: or hair of anyone with from African descent. So it 77 00:05:11,520 --> 00:05:17,960 Speaker 1: was a market catered to Caucasian styled hair and so 78 00:05:18,640 --> 00:05:21,560 Speaker 1: their their hair would suffer as a result. So she 79 00:05:22,160 --> 00:05:24,000 Speaker 1: there were a few products out there. She went to 80 00:05:25,080 --> 00:05:28,920 Speaker 1: one line um POORO Hair p O r O, which 81 00:05:28,920 --> 00:05:32,520 Speaker 1: was created by Annie turnbou Malone, another Black entrepreneur and 82 00:05:32,600 --> 00:05:35,479 Speaker 1: it helped some. But and she even sold this stuff 83 00:05:35,520 --> 00:05:37,240 Speaker 1: for about a year and a half. But the whole 84 00:05:37,279 --> 00:05:38,760 Speaker 1: time she was like, I need to come up with 85 00:05:38,800 --> 00:05:44,640 Speaker 1: my own formula here to help myself and to help others. Yeah. So, Um, 86 00:05:44,680 --> 00:05:48,280 Speaker 1: about a decade or so later, she got married a 87 00:05:48,320 --> 00:05:52,200 Speaker 1: second time to a man named Charles Joseph Walker, UM, 88 00:05:52,279 --> 00:05:56,640 Speaker 1: hence the C. J. Walker, And he was in sales. 89 00:05:56,720 --> 00:06:00,200 Speaker 1: He was a kind of a marketing whiz, and two 90 00:06:00,240 --> 00:06:03,240 Speaker 1: of them together became what you would probably refer to 91 00:06:03,320 --> 00:06:06,520 Speaker 1: as an early power couple. Basically, they really complimented and 92 00:06:06,640 --> 00:06:12,560 Speaker 1: rounded out one another's um strengths, and they they formed 93 00:06:13,200 --> 00:06:17,279 Speaker 1: basically this this hair care empire. At the very beginning 94 00:06:17,320 --> 00:06:21,320 Speaker 1: of this hair care empire, um, and Sarah adopted the 95 00:06:21,400 --> 00:06:24,080 Speaker 1: name Madam C. J. Walker And that's where that the 96 00:06:24,120 --> 00:06:27,040 Speaker 1: whole thing began. Yeah, and it was called Madam C. J. 97 00:06:27,160 --> 00:06:31,840 Speaker 1: Walker's Wonderful Hair Grower. Right, I mean, talk about marketing 98 00:06:31,839 --> 00:06:33,320 Speaker 1: with let's just call it what it is and what 99 00:06:33,360 --> 00:06:35,080 Speaker 1: it does right out of the gate, it makes me 100 00:06:35,120 --> 00:06:37,920 Speaker 1: want to throw my money at her, take my money. 101 00:06:38,240 --> 00:06:41,679 Speaker 1: So she founded this company in nineteen o six, and 102 00:06:41,800 --> 00:06:45,839 Speaker 1: there was no national distribution chain, so they hit the road. 103 00:06:45,880 --> 00:06:47,680 Speaker 1: They traveled all around the South for about a year 104 00:06:47,680 --> 00:06:50,800 Speaker 1: and a half. As Mark Cuban would say, just hustling, 105 00:06:50,960 --> 00:06:54,080 Speaker 1: selling door to door, doing it the hard way, doing 106 00:06:54,120 --> 00:06:56,400 Speaker 1: demos and demons and uh, in front of people so 107 00:06:56,440 --> 00:06:58,599 Speaker 1: they knew what it did. A lot of times, We'll 108 00:06:58,600 --> 00:07:01,279 Speaker 1: go to churches to do this. And she had these 109 00:07:01,320 --> 00:07:05,039 Speaker 1: before and after photos. Again great marketing and these and 110 00:07:05,279 --> 00:07:07,360 Speaker 1: these women started buying it up. It was fifty cents 111 00:07:07,360 --> 00:07:10,840 Speaker 1: and ten, and they said, uh, we love this stuff, 112 00:07:10,840 --> 00:07:13,840 Speaker 1: We love that there's a product for us. UM And 113 00:07:13,880 --> 00:07:16,040 Speaker 1: she used to say, there would be no hair growing 114 00:07:16,040 --> 00:07:19,200 Speaker 1: industry if I hadn't invented it. Right. The thing is, though, 115 00:07:19,360 --> 00:07:24,000 Speaker 1: is like she wasn't selling, she wasn't a huckster. She 116 00:07:24,120 --> 00:07:29,640 Speaker 1: actually had um a recipe that was lost in its 117 00:07:29,680 --> 00:07:34,120 Speaker 1: exactness to time. But this stuff actually did apparently regrow 118 00:07:34,200 --> 00:07:37,720 Speaker 1: hair or at least all hair loss. So I'm not 119 00:07:37,760 --> 00:07:40,960 Speaker 1: sure where they found it, but they somebody documented that 120 00:07:41,000 --> 00:07:46,840 Speaker 1: the ingredients included UM, coconut oil, beeswax, patrol adam, which 121 00:07:46,840 --> 00:07:51,040 Speaker 1: I guess is like UM petroleum jelly today, copper sulfate, 122 00:07:51,280 --> 00:07:54,520 Speaker 1: and precipitated sulfur. And it had a nice violet scent, 123 00:07:54,640 --> 00:07:56,840 Speaker 1: which I like. I don't think it's used quite as 124 00:07:57,000 --> 00:08:00,960 Speaker 1: as often as it should be. Um. But the the 125 00:08:01,040 --> 00:08:03,960 Speaker 1: key ingredient, the active ingredient, and this thing was sulfur. 126 00:08:04,320 --> 00:08:08,080 Speaker 1: That that was probably what was working and causing women 127 00:08:08,120 --> 00:08:11,320 Speaker 1: to say, this stuff actually works, I want some more. Yeah. 128 00:08:11,360 --> 00:08:13,400 Speaker 1: And she had a whole system. She had a vegetable 129 00:08:13,400 --> 00:08:17,360 Speaker 1: based shampoo. Um. She had something called Glossy in which 130 00:08:17,680 --> 00:08:20,920 Speaker 1: smoothed out hair uh that was pressed with a hot comb. 131 00:08:21,360 --> 00:08:23,200 Speaker 1: And so she had a little you know, a hair 132 00:08:23,240 --> 00:08:26,600 Speaker 1: care beauty line basically going in the early nineteen hundreds 133 00:08:26,600 --> 00:08:29,360 Speaker 1: to the tune of about a hundred and fifty thousand 134 00:08:29,400 --> 00:08:32,480 Speaker 1: dollars a year in today dollars by nineteen o eight, 135 00:08:32,520 --> 00:08:35,800 Speaker 1: which is some pretty good money. Yeah. And we should 136 00:08:35,840 --> 00:08:37,920 Speaker 1: say there's one thing that I think this um this 137 00:08:38,000 --> 00:08:40,440 Speaker 1: house stuff works article just kind of walks right past, 138 00:08:40,520 --> 00:08:44,400 Speaker 1: and that is that when you used her Walker system, 139 00:08:44,640 --> 00:08:48,360 Speaker 1: you were you were an African American or Black woman 140 00:08:48,920 --> 00:08:52,760 Speaker 1: who was making your hair a kin to a white 141 00:08:52,760 --> 00:08:55,920 Speaker 1: woman's hair do. And there was a period in time 142 00:08:56,000 --> 00:08:59,439 Speaker 1: in black history, especially in like the nineteen sixties and seventies, 143 00:08:59,720 --> 00:09:04,120 Speaker 1: where Madam Walker was not particularly thought of that highly 144 00:09:04,800 --> 00:09:09,920 Speaker 1: because she had made an empire built on um emulating 145 00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:14,240 Speaker 1: Caucasian beauty. And it wasn't until you know, years later 146 00:09:14,800 --> 00:09:17,920 Speaker 1: that Um she finally was seen for for what what 147 00:09:17,960 --> 00:09:22,480 Speaker 1: she was, which was a downright radical feminist and civil 148 00:09:22,559 --> 00:09:25,880 Speaker 1: rights activists who who couldn't read or write from what 149 00:09:25,920 --> 00:09:29,160 Speaker 1: I saw her entire life. And yet Um made a 150 00:09:30,360 --> 00:09:34,120 Speaker 1: really amazing living for herself but also empowered other Black 151 00:09:34,120 --> 00:09:37,680 Speaker 1: women to be more than just you know, domestic help 152 00:09:38,120 --> 00:09:42,120 Speaker 1: or laborers. You know, yeah, it's a great story. Um. 153 00:09:42,200 --> 00:09:46,840 Speaker 1: She divorced Walker in nineteen twelve, moved to Indianapolis, and 154 00:09:46,880 --> 00:09:49,679 Speaker 1: then in the position she was in with that kind 155 00:09:49,720 --> 00:09:51,559 Speaker 1: of money and that kind of sort of growing fame, 156 00:09:52,200 --> 00:09:55,000 Speaker 1: started kind of buddying up with some of the more 157 00:09:55,360 --> 00:09:58,760 Speaker 1: well healed activists in the country like Mary McLoud, Betune 158 00:09:58,760 --> 00:10:02,360 Speaker 1: and book or T. Washington. Um moved to Harlem, which 159 00:10:02,440 --> 00:10:04,920 Speaker 1: was where you wanted to be if you wanted to 160 00:10:04,920 --> 00:10:07,080 Speaker 1: be at the center of black culture in the early 161 00:10:07,200 --> 00:10:11,040 Speaker 1: nineteen hundreds, and she had her daughter opened up a salon. 162 00:10:11,120 --> 00:10:15,120 Speaker 1: It was a very nice salon, parquet floors and velvet 163 00:10:15,160 --> 00:10:18,199 Speaker 1: seats and grand piano in the lobby. It was really 164 00:10:18,240 --> 00:10:22,160 Speaker 1: really kind of a fine place. Yeah. Apparently in um 165 00:10:22,240 --> 00:10:25,760 Speaker 1: the teens the nineteen she had something like twenty thousand 166 00:10:25,880 --> 00:10:31,280 Speaker 1: to forty thousand women beauty culturists working for her, tens 167 00:10:31,320 --> 00:10:35,440 Speaker 1: of thousands of women, and she held a convention um, 168 00:10:35,880 --> 00:10:39,240 Speaker 1: the first convention of her beauty culturists, her agents UM 169 00:10:39,320 --> 00:10:43,959 Speaker 1: running around selling her stuff UM in Philadelphia, I believe. 170 00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:46,080 Speaker 1: And one of the things that she was noted for 171 00:10:46,240 --> 00:10:49,120 Speaker 1: was when she gave speeches. It was a lot more 172 00:10:49,640 --> 00:10:52,560 Speaker 1: or about a lot more than just you know, pumping 173 00:10:52,600 --> 00:10:55,079 Speaker 1: them up to go seller product. It was about them 174 00:10:55,120 --> 00:10:58,880 Speaker 1: demanding you know, better treatment, to be treated like like 175 00:10:59,000 --> 00:11:02,520 Speaker 1: human beings, UM, to demand a better, more socially just 176 00:11:02,679 --> 00:11:05,559 Speaker 1: world like. Her speeches were peppered with that that kind 177 00:11:05,640 --> 00:11:10,040 Speaker 1: of empowerment, telling women, black women no less at you know, 178 00:11:10,280 --> 00:11:13,400 Speaker 1: in the early twentieth century, that that they should expect 179 00:11:13,400 --> 00:11:15,920 Speaker 1: to be treated better than they were by by men 180 00:11:15,960 --> 00:11:18,840 Speaker 1: of all races and and by the white race in particular, 181 00:11:18,880 --> 00:11:22,040 Speaker 1: which is again it's just radical, there's no other way 182 00:11:22,080 --> 00:11:24,800 Speaker 1: to put it. At the time. In nineteen eighteen, she 183 00:11:25,000 --> 00:11:29,760 Speaker 1: moved to Villa Lawairo, a mansion in Irvington on the 184 00:11:29,840 --> 00:11:32,679 Speaker 1: Hudson about forty five minutes north of Manhattan. And this 185 00:11:32,679 --> 00:11:37,160 Speaker 1: place was a legit mansion like thirty four rooms. It 186 00:11:37,240 --> 00:11:40,199 Speaker 1: was huge and an amazing place. It was designed by 187 00:11:40,520 --> 00:11:45,040 Speaker 1: an African American architect name uh Vertner Woodson Tandy, great name. 188 00:11:45,679 --> 00:11:48,840 Speaker 1: What sad is UM? You know she was able to 189 00:11:48,960 --> 00:11:51,720 Speaker 1: enjoy your wealth for a while, but she died the 190 00:11:51,800 --> 00:11:55,760 Speaker 1: next year after she moved into this incredible twenty square 191 00:11:55,760 --> 00:11:59,520 Speaker 1: foot mansion with her daughter. UM. But she left a 192 00:11:59,559 --> 00:12:02,559 Speaker 1: really great legacy. Apparently she left two thirds of her 193 00:12:02,720 --> 00:12:08,520 Speaker 1: state to UM historically black universities UM to UH the 194 00:12:08,640 --> 00:12:12,080 Speaker 1: N double a C p UM Like she she really 195 00:12:12,120 --> 00:12:14,000 Speaker 1: put her money where her mouth was. She was a 196 00:12:14,040 --> 00:12:18,400 Speaker 1: really benevolent benefactor to a lot of great civil rights 197 00:12:18,440 --> 00:12:24,440 Speaker 1: causes and UM basically laid the foundation for black women 198 00:12:24,760 --> 00:12:28,560 Speaker 1: entrepreneurs UM still to this day as a matter of fact. 199 00:12:29,080 --> 00:12:34,079 Speaker 1: Great story, wonderful story. So hats off to Madam C. J. 200 00:12:34,200 --> 00:12:37,560 Speaker 1: Walker a k A. Sarah Breed Love a k. A 201 00:12:37,760 --> 00:12:41,520 Speaker 1: genuinely admirable person. Uh And that means everybody that short 202 00:12:41,559 --> 00:12:47,280 Speaker 1: stuff is out. Stuff you should know is a production 203 00:12:47,320 --> 00:12:50,720 Speaker 1: of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts my Heart Radio, visit 204 00:12:50,760 --> 00:12:53,560 Speaker 1: the i Heart Radio app. Apple podcasts, or wherever you 205 00:12:53,600 --> 00:12:54,920 Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.