WEBVTT - Whatever happened to Ambrose Small? 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:04.680 From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is 0:00:04.760 --> 0:00:09.080 riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or 0:00:09.160 --> 0:00:12.119 learn this stuff they don't want you to know. A 0:00:12.200 --> 0:00:19.520 production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:25.040 --> 0:00:27.120 Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt, 0:00:27.400 --> 0:00:28.240 my name is Noel. 0:00:28.720 --> 0:00:31.440 They called me Ben. We're joined as always with our 0:00:31.480 --> 0:00:35.479 super producer Dylan the Tennessee pal Fagan. Most importantly, you 0:00:35.560 --> 0:00:38.640 are you. You are here. That makes this the stuff 0:00:38.680 --> 0:00:42.199 they don't want you to know. Twenty twenty five. As 0:00:42.240 --> 0:00:45.800 the humans reckon a calendar Tonight, folks, we're exploring a mystery, 0:00:46.040 --> 0:00:49.240 one that may be unfamiliar to many of us here 0:00:49.360 --> 0:00:54.920 in these still somewhat United States, but doubtlessly ringing a 0:00:54.920 --> 0:00:59.440 bell or our Canadian conspiracy realist. Oh my gosh, had 0:00:59.480 --> 0:01:02.280 you guys heard of this one before we pitched it internally? 0:01:03.160 --> 0:01:07.160 Yeah? I was Roman somewhere around the Gulf of America. Gosh, 0:01:07.240 --> 0:01:07.800 years ago. 0:01:08.160 --> 0:01:09.760 Is that like the Gulf of Tonkin. 0:01:11.160 --> 0:01:12.280 In that it's made up? 0:01:12.360 --> 0:01:12.600 Yeah? 0:01:12.640 --> 0:01:13.080 I got it. 0:01:13.200 --> 0:01:18.320 Yeah, yeah, no, I remember. We somebody wrote us about 0:01:18.360 --> 0:01:21.120 this years ago, and I think it's something that's been 0:01:21.120 --> 0:01:23.800 flying under our radar, just as it had for years 0:01:23.800 --> 0:01:24.240 before that. 0:01:24.959 --> 0:01:29.880 Yeah, it's a twisted tale of intrigue, big business, bad deals, 0:01:30.080 --> 0:01:35.880 a disappearance that remains unsolved today, and full disclosure, folks, 0:01:35.920 --> 0:01:40.360 it's about a very pillish, uncool guy. The question is 0:01:40.640 --> 0:01:45.080 what happened to Ambrose Small. And thank you to our 0:01:45.480 --> 0:01:49.120 Canadian conspiracy realist up north and abroad who had written 0:01:49.160 --> 0:01:53.880 to us about this before. But we talked often about 0:01:54.400 --> 0:02:00.000 strange disappearances. It was much easier for someone to disappear 0:02:00.200 --> 0:02:03.280 back in the day, with or without their consent. But 0:02:03.560 --> 0:02:08.480 some of these cases, amid all the innumerable disappearances throughout history, 0:02:08.520 --> 0:02:13.240 some of them still resonate and haunt people today. This 0:02:13.320 --> 0:02:19.240 is a question that has been that has been thoroughly analyzed, 0:02:19.240 --> 0:02:23.000 and as we'll see, no one as of yet has 0:02:23.120 --> 0:02:27.000 proven what happened. No one has cracked the case. So 0:02:27.040 --> 0:02:31.040 we're hoping that tonight, with your help, maybe we can 0:02:31.080 --> 0:02:33.519 get a little closer to an answer. 0:02:34.360 --> 0:02:38.240 Yeah, only one hundred and four years ago. We're gonna 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:39.720 find these answers. 0:02:40.080 --> 0:02:41.720 Right after a quick word from my sponsor. 0:02:46.600 --> 0:02:52.560 You are the facts, all right, Ambrose Joseph Small eighteen 0:02:52.560 --> 0:02:55.359 eighty six. That's when he's born. No one knows what's 0:02:55.400 --> 0:02:58.200 going to happen to him? It's he's born in Bradford 0:02:58.639 --> 0:03:02.280 in modern day on Ontario. Side note, didn't know this one, 0:03:02.600 --> 0:03:05.960 you guys. Ontario used to just be called Canada West. 0:03:06.480 --> 0:03:09.400 Oh wow, that's so funny. Man in the town I 0:03:09.440 --> 0:03:12.760 grew up, Augusta, right across the bridge in South Carolina, 0:03:12.800 --> 0:03:15.160 it's just called North Augusta, which I always found very 0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:16.720 dismissive to South Carolina. 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:23.600 Yeah. It also calls to mind things like West Virginia 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:27.120 and things like North and South Dakota. There could have 0:03:27.120 --> 0:03:27.800 been other names. 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:30.240 I like to refer to them collectively as the Dakotas. 0:03:30.639 --> 0:03:32.679 I call them the Carolinas if I don't know where 0:03:32.680 --> 0:03:35.560 the town is, and I'm in a conversation, and I 0:03:35.600 --> 0:03:36.720 know it's somewhere over there. 0:03:37.080 --> 0:03:40.640 So by eighteen seventy six, the Small family had moved 0:03:40.680 --> 0:03:44.440 to modern day Toronto, and by eighteen eighty Small's father 0:03:44.640 --> 0:03:48.880 became the manager of a hotel called the Grand Hotel. 0:03:48.920 --> 0:03:50.720 It must have been a fine place. 0:03:51.240 --> 0:03:53.720 You know, burst of humility, a little bit of a 0:03:53.760 --> 0:03:58.800 street level knowledge. Here the hotel is next to a 0:03:58.800 --> 0:04:02.280 place called the Grand and Opera House, equally humble name. 0:04:02.280 --> 0:04:04.360 There you go with the other. 0:04:05.000 --> 0:04:08.040 Well, and it's actually very very cool, guys, because this 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:12.960 is a place where culture moved from the US into 0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:17.000 uh into Canada, in parts of Canada where there really 0:04:17.120 --> 0:04:18.719 was that thing that we talk about all the time, 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:22.040 the great export of the United States culture, and it's 0:04:22.080 --> 0:04:26.240 moving north because as plays and other it's mostly plays 0:04:26.279 --> 0:04:27.400 like stage plays. 0:04:27.279 --> 0:04:31.800 Musicals maybe as well touring circuit stuff, some Vaudeville stuff. 0:04:31.640 --> 0:04:33.960 Yeah, it was more of Vaudeville air in the golden 0:04:34.000 --> 0:04:37.360 age of Broadway musicals. Yeah, mostly plays in Vaudeville's and 0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:39.440 probably maybe some variety. 0:04:39.040 --> 0:04:42.960 Shows all run out of New York to your point, Matt, 0:04:43.200 --> 0:04:47.719 So now it's eighteen eighty four, Ambrose Small is still 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:51.920 a teen and he starts working at the bar of 0:04:51.960 --> 0:04:54.760 this grand hotel. And while he's working at the bar, 0:04:54.920 --> 0:04:57.479 he runs into, of course, a lot of locals. One 0:04:57.480 --> 0:05:00.360 of those locals is a guy named Oliver B. Epperd 0:05:00.640 --> 0:05:03.960 who is the manager of the nearby Grand Opera House, 0:05:04.080 --> 0:05:07.960 and Oliver B. Shepherd, for one reason or another, really 0:05:08.080 --> 0:05:10.640 digs and bro Small as a team. 0:05:11.120 --> 0:05:14.760 So eventually he migrated just around the way to the 0:05:14.839 --> 0:05:17.440 Grand Opera House, where he became an usher you know, 0:05:17.480 --> 0:05:20.520 one of those folks that kindly shows you to your seat, 0:05:20.600 --> 0:05:22.960 and quickly he kind of worked his way up the 0:05:23.080 --> 0:05:26.440 ranks at the Grand Opera House and became the treasurer. 0:05:26.440 --> 0:05:28.440 That's kind of a success story right there. That's a 0:05:28.440 --> 0:05:31.400 pretty high position. He was generally thought of as a 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:35.359 pretty solid worker. Small was also from early on someone 0:05:35.360 --> 0:05:39.200 who really made no secret about their ambitions. He was 0:05:39.240 --> 0:05:41.240 always looking for a little bit of a side hustle. 0:05:43.160 --> 0:05:47.240 Yeah, always in search of some extra cheddar. The kind 0:05:47.279 --> 0:05:50.599 of guy who likes money so much that he gets 0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:53.360 upset when other people have it. If we're going to 0:05:53.520 --> 0:05:56.600 editorialize and profile a bit, we know that at this 0:05:56.720 --> 0:06:01.839 point he was already participating in bookie activities, illegal book 0:06:01.920 --> 0:06:06.000 making operations. A guy I love taking bets on horse races, 0:06:06.200 --> 0:06:08.720 you know, business in the front, bookie. 0:06:08.440 --> 0:06:09.760 In the back, betting on the ponies. 0:06:10.480 --> 0:06:14.040 Yes, yeah, let those ponies run. Got to you got to. 0:06:15.080 --> 0:06:18.119 But he experienced tragedy as well as mother passed away 0:06:18.240 --> 0:06:22.919 in eighteen eighty seven, and then in eighteen eighty nine, 0:06:23.440 --> 0:06:27.240 you know, he had a falling out with Shepherd and 0:06:27.400 --> 0:06:33.400 he left. Perhaps this was due to small sometimes prickly 0:06:33.560 --> 0:06:38.440 personality perhaps it was due to his constant pursuit of power. 0:06:38.720 --> 0:06:43.440 Like you'll see biographers who speculate that Small stab Shepherd 0:06:43.440 --> 0:06:46.640 the man who had helped him in the back metaphorically, 0:06:46.680 --> 0:06:50.240 not literally, one way or the other. Small ends up 0:06:50.279 --> 0:06:53.960 going to work at the Toronto Opera House. So same 0:06:54.040 --> 0:06:56.280 kind of thing, different brand name. 0:06:56.560 --> 0:06:59.880 Yeah, I went from Grand to Toronto because of whatever 0:07:00.240 --> 0:07:02.080 was going on with this Shepherd character. 0:07:03.600 --> 0:07:06.320 And he gets promoted there as well, at the Toronto 0:07:06.440 --> 0:07:09.800 Opera House. And during this time this will be important later. 0:07:10.120 --> 0:07:15.720 His father, Small's father, a guy named Daniel, marries Josephine Corman. 0:07:16.400 --> 0:07:20.040 Josephine Corman comes from money. She's an heiress. She's the 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:23.960 daughter of a wealthy beer baron named Ignacious, which is 0:07:24.000 --> 0:07:25.880 such a wealthy guy named. 0:07:25.960 --> 0:07:28.680 And shout out to the Canadian Encyclopedia. How often do 0:07:28.720 --> 0:07:33.080 we get to shout out those guys, that's for sure. Yeah, 0:07:33.200 --> 0:07:35.640 I just have some of the most I don't know 0:07:36.240 --> 0:07:38.240 the best collected information about this case. 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:40.880 I would say they're one of the I would say 0:07:40.880 --> 0:07:46.520 they're one of the best least biased sources online. So 0:07:46.560 --> 0:07:49.720 you can read a lot of print books about this 0:07:50.040 --> 0:07:53.800 investigating the mystery and about the life of Ambrose Small. 0:07:54.880 --> 0:07:58.679 But often, and we say this with great respect, often 0:07:58.960 --> 0:08:03.120 the authors are drawing toward their own conclusion what they 0:08:03.160 --> 0:08:08.400 think happened, and the Canadian Encyclopedia newspapers at the time 0:08:08.680 --> 0:08:12.200 they're taking wild swings, especially the newspapers in the era 0:08:12.360 --> 0:08:14.120 of cutthroat muckraking press. 0:08:14.760 --> 0:08:17.800 So Small kind of fought his way to the forefront 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:22.160 of the super competitive theater business there in Ontario, and 0:08:22.240 --> 0:08:27.880 he eventually found a partnership with Detroit theater mogul Clark J. Whitney, 0:08:28.120 --> 0:08:31.360 who was a major player in the Ontario theater circuit. 0:08:31.680 --> 0:08:34.440 So when Whitney died in nineteen oh two, Small bought 0:08:34.520 --> 0:08:38.840 up tons of theaters and communities across Ontario and least 0:08:39.000 --> 0:08:41.560 others to kind of create a network of theaters. And 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:45.120 they all depended on him by his own design for 0:08:45.280 --> 0:08:50.040 booking these shows, because he was the sole controller of 0:08:50.400 --> 0:08:53.720 the kind of pathway that you mentioned, Matt, from New 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:57.719 York to Canada, the New York kind of theater syndicates. 0:08:57.720 --> 0:08:58.840 I guess you could call them. 0:08:58.960 --> 0:09:01.920 Well, and you may yourself. How does the manager at 0:09:01.920 --> 0:09:05.280 the Toronto Opera House have enough scratch to buy all 0:09:05.320 --> 0:09:09.440 of these properties, right, these are established businesses that cost 0:09:09.600 --> 0:09:12.959 lots and lots of money, and he is doing that 0:09:13.000 --> 0:09:15.319 because we mentioned he's a bookie. But you can only 0:09:15.400 --> 0:09:17.839 imagine that there's other stuff going on in the background too, 0:09:17.880 --> 0:09:23.560 where he's able to get enough capital to buy major establishments. 0:09:23.480 --> 0:09:29.080 Excellent setup. Yeah. In nineteen o two, he marries the 0:09:29.160 --> 0:09:33.600 younger sister of his stepmother, So technically he marries his 0:09:33.679 --> 0:09:37.880 step aunt. And her name is Teresa Corman, And just 0:09:38.040 --> 0:09:41.560 like Josephine Corman, this is the heiress of that beer 0:09:41.640 --> 0:09:43.040 baron Ignacious. 0:09:43.679 --> 0:09:47.000 Isn't sheilin younger step daughter or something? 0:09:47.480 --> 0:09:51.800 Yeah? Yeah, yeah, so still technically step aunt. So yeah, 0:09:51.880 --> 0:09:54.960 that's what I'm saying. Like it's his stepmother's younger sister, 0:09:55.280 --> 0:09:59.319 so technically, right, wouldn't that be his step aunt? Yeah, 0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:06.160 So they're combined financial assets. Ambrose Small's growing control of 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:10.040 the theater community there and maybe maybe he bet on 0:10:10.080 --> 0:10:15.839 the right ponies. Combined with Teresa Corman's inheritance or her 0:10:15.920 --> 0:10:19.600 assets from her family, they make the couple super wealthy. 0:10:19.679 --> 0:10:23.719 But money is not always going to equate to happiness, 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:27.079 not every time. They're very different people, like she is 0:10:27.120 --> 0:10:32.000 a polyglot, she is super into world travel. She's a philanthropist, 0:10:32.040 --> 0:10:33.640 she volunteers everywhere. 0:10:34.200 --> 0:10:37.600 And Small, on the other hand, is a philanderer. 0:10:38.280 --> 0:10:43.160 And a gambler, like you said, a womanizer. He even 0:10:43.440 --> 0:10:45.760 I don't know, he's a real pill. Which is interesting 0:10:45.760 --> 0:10:50.840 about this case. He had a semi secret chamber built 0:10:50.880 --> 0:10:53.800 in the Grand Opera House and it was for his 0:10:54.000 --> 0:10:58.199 tryst with chorus girls. This is the kind of guy 0:10:58.240 --> 0:11:01.280 that we're talking about in our early days of Hollywood episode. 0:11:01.800 --> 0:11:07.000 This guy would literally have young women who wanted to 0:11:07.040 --> 0:11:10.480 work with him and he would invite them to that 0:11:10.559 --> 0:11:12.960 secret room for an interview. 0:11:13.080 --> 0:11:14.280 Casting couch types stuff. 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:14.720 Yeah. 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:17.480 Cool. It's interesting because his wife was such a you know, 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:21.839 lover of culture and you know, the finer things in life, 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:24.120 and like you said, very well traveled, and he seemed 0:11:24.120 --> 0:11:27.600 to be very much a part of culture and importing 0:11:27.640 --> 0:11:29.080 it to Canada. And it would seem like, I mean, 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:30.800 I didn't know the guy, but that he was more 0:11:30.800 --> 0:11:33.240 concerned about the financial side of it than he was 0:11:33.360 --> 0:11:36.080 you know, the beauty of the arts. 0:11:36.760 --> 0:11:40.160 Yeah, it is weird. According to some of the sources, 0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:44.080 we found that secret room there in the Opera House 0:11:44.320 --> 0:11:47.679 for the tryst chamber or whatever we want to call it. 0:11:47.679 --> 0:11:48.040 It is. 0:11:48.280 --> 0:11:50.880 It isn't found at least according to some sources until 0:11:50.960 --> 0:11:53.240 the investigation begins that we're going to explain to you 0:11:53.320 --> 0:11:56.719 or we're going to talk about. But others it's like rumors, right, 0:11:56.800 --> 0:12:00.679 that are just circulating around the office basically, and the 0:12:00.800 --> 0:12:04.080 various offices of all of these opera houses and places 0:12:04.080 --> 0:12:09.240 of performance. But the guy is definitely viewed. It would 0:12:09.280 --> 0:12:12.280 seem ken according to some of the information that comes 0:12:12.320 --> 0:12:15.480 out during the era of yellow journalism, that this guy 0:12:15.640 --> 0:12:16.760 is a bit of a scoundrel. 0:12:18.200 --> 0:12:23.319 Yeah again, a pill. It is an open secret, right, 0:12:23.840 --> 0:12:26.880 It's something that his wife seems to be very much 0:12:26.920 --> 0:12:31.240 aware of. Now. The small family, Teresa and Ambrosewiming, they 0:12:31.480 --> 0:12:34.920 live in opulence. They have a very nice est state, 0:12:35.040 --> 0:12:37.520 but they sleep in separate rooms and they appear to 0:12:37.600 --> 0:12:42.520 only grow further apart as small pursues, you know, this gambling, 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:49.080 this philandering and success as an entertainment mogul. Eventually he 0:12:49.200 --> 0:12:52.440 runs what we could rightly call an empire of thirty 0:12:52.440 --> 0:12:55.760 four theaters half or outside of Ontario. So he's expanding. 0:12:56.880 --> 0:13:01.800 Any star performer who wants to wants to stroll the 0:13:01.880 --> 0:13:05.720 boards at his stage. No matter how popular they are. 0:13:06.080 --> 0:13:09.080 This control of the market means they have to in 0:13:09.160 --> 0:13:12.959 some way deal with Ambrose small and Small has a reputation, 0:13:13.280 --> 0:13:16.280 he does it. He's not just ruthless and unscrupulous, which 0:13:16.320 --> 0:13:20.560 happens a lot with moguls. He seems to take sadistic 0:13:20.720 --> 0:13:25.240 joy in screwing people over. We got to talk about 0:13:25.320 --> 0:13:26.600 the business contract thing. 0:13:26.880 --> 0:13:28.720 Yeah, I mean it's funny you mentioned the whole Golden 0:13:28.760 --> 0:13:30.560 Age of Hollywood episode that we did in terms of 0:13:30.559 --> 0:13:32.880 the casting couch. But his iron fisted grasp over this 0:13:32.960 --> 0:13:36.839 market and also perhaps sadistic bent also has a lot 0:13:36.840 --> 0:13:38.959 in common with the studio system of those days that 0:13:39.000 --> 0:13:41.400 we talk about in the episode. So everyone thought the 0:13:41.440 --> 0:13:45.320 Small wasn't just a scoundrel, as you mentioned, Ben, they 0:13:45.360 --> 0:13:49.720 also knew that he took great pleasure and pride in 0:13:49.800 --> 0:13:53.520 putting one over on just about anybody. He planted business 0:13:53.520 --> 0:13:58.960 contracts with little kind of hidden clauses that he called jokers, 0:14:00.120 --> 0:14:03.720 that essentially were ways of kind of hiding in plain 0:14:03.880 --> 0:14:08.000 sight things that would benefit him and not benefit the 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:11.320 person signing the contract. He was also suspected of using 0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:15.800 his influence to actually fix some of these horse races, yeah, 0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:18.559 which was totally possible, just to be clear. 0:14:18.640 --> 0:14:21.600 And also yeah, people called him at chiseler, which was 0:14:21.640 --> 0:14:24.520 a big insult at the time. They called him at cheapskate. 0:14:24.640 --> 0:14:28.040 They they did not like him. It reminds me of 0:14:28.080 --> 0:14:31.960 that movie. It is an interesting comparison. It reminds me 0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:34.520 of that film based on the real life event I 0:14:34.560 --> 0:14:36.400 want to see. It was a small town somewhere in 0:14:36.440 --> 0:14:41.000 Texas where there was a known bully who eventually got 0:14:41.080 --> 0:14:44.320 killed and everybody knew who killed him but refused to 0:14:44.760 --> 0:14:45.520 go to the police. 0:14:45.640 --> 0:14:46.720 Yep, movie is called Bully. 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:49.160 Oh it's a bully, ok. Larry Clark. 0:14:49.240 --> 0:14:52.680 Yeah, it's a gnarly film, not for the faint of heart. 0:14:52.680 --> 0:14:53.840 It's it's pretty mean spirited. 0:14:54.040 --> 0:14:57.560 Stumbled it to the answer. Yeah, this guy was unpopular. 0:14:57.880 --> 0:15:01.960 A lot of people hated him. There's something mentioned. I 0:15:02.000 --> 0:15:05.160 believe this isn't the Canadian encyclopedia. It's repeated in several 0:15:05.200 --> 0:15:09.480 different places about a quote from a journalist in Toronto 0:15:09.520 --> 0:15:13.880 at the time named Hector charles Worth. Hector Charlesworth knows 0:15:14.000 --> 0:15:18.760 small personally, and in nineteen twenty eight, after the events 0:15:18.800 --> 0:15:20.840 that we're about to really explore, here the stuff they 0:15:20.840 --> 0:15:23.760 don't want, you know. Hector comes out with a book 0:15:23.760 --> 0:15:27.200 called More Candid Chronicles and he says, if I heard once, 0:15:27.280 --> 0:15:31.040 I heard a score of times the ominous words. Somebody 0:15:31.240 --> 0:15:33.240 will get to Amby someday. 0:15:33.880 --> 0:15:34.080 Right. 0:15:34.800 --> 0:15:38.440 They called him Amby as a nickname for Ambrose. I 0:15:38.480 --> 0:15:41.080 don't know if he liked the nickname Amby. Even his 0:15:41.160 --> 0:15:44.600 longtime assistants did not care for him. Guy named John 0:15:44.680 --> 0:15:49.120 Dody Jack to his friends, worked for this guy for years, 0:15:49.480 --> 0:15:51.600 and he also seemed to hate the dude, which will 0:15:51.600 --> 0:15:52.400 be important later. 0:15:52.840 --> 0:15:57.800 So let's talk about movie theaters. These are performance arts theaters, 0:15:58.080 --> 0:16:00.480 many of the ones that Small has taken over and 0:16:00.840 --> 0:16:04.640 is now running, and he has such control over them. 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:07.880 As we stated before, it's about the players, the actual 0:16:07.960 --> 0:16:10.760 human beings that are going to get on stage. I 0:16:10.840 --> 0:16:12.720 assume also it's the players who are going to be 0:16:12.800 --> 0:16:16.080 underneath the stage, maybe the musicians. Right, He probably is 0:16:16.120 --> 0:16:19.840 exerting control over everybody that is going to take part 0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:22.520 in any kind of performance in these venues. And we're 0:16:22.520 --> 0:16:26.040 talking thirty four or more of them as well, all 0:16:26.080 --> 0:16:30.360 across Toronto in different parts of Canada. In eighteen ninety six, 0:16:30.680 --> 0:16:33.880 the First movie theater shows up in Toronto. Now that 0:16:34.040 --> 0:16:37.120 is a while ago, right, If if we're following through 0:16:37.120 --> 0:16:40.880 the timeline here, which we're in, I guess we're in 0:16:41.040 --> 0:16:44.600 what the nineteen teens at this point something like that. 0:16:45.120 --> 0:16:51.520 Around this time, the concept of movie theaters is a 0:16:51.560 --> 0:16:54.800 threat to his business and his way of life, and 0:16:54.840 --> 0:16:57.920 it's kind of been looming in the background. But it's 0:16:57.960 --> 0:17:02.480 been this technology that has been advancing pretty quickly and 0:17:02.560 --> 0:17:05.600 growing a lot, especially to the south. Right in the 0:17:05.680 --> 0:17:09.480 United States, movie theaters are becoming the thing, and as 0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:14.600 they are now proliferating across Canada. Small things. Maybe there's 0:17:14.640 --> 0:17:17.280 something else I need to do here, Maybe there's a 0:17:17.359 --> 0:17:22.360 pivot I can make to either cash out or change 0:17:22.359 --> 0:17:24.399 my wealth, change the way I make my wealth. 0:17:25.359 --> 0:17:28.199 Yeah. Yeah. To be clear, we don't have a sense 0:17:28.280 --> 0:17:32.840 that this guy was necessarily a creative participant in the 0:17:32.960 --> 0:17:37.160 entertainment industry. Like he was not writing his own plays, right, 0:17:37.359 --> 0:17:40.120 he was not doing a Kevin Costner thing where he 0:17:40.160 --> 0:17:43.919 directs and stars and stuff. He is about the money. 0:17:44.240 --> 0:17:48.359 So whatever can accelerate his personal wealth is what he 0:17:48.400 --> 0:17:51.639 will look into. The rise of motion pictures sends live 0:17:51.760 --> 0:17:55.040 theater into decline, and so it comes to pass. In 0:17:55.119 --> 0:17:59.719 nineteen nineteen, Small decides to exit the business. He's going 0:17:59.800 --> 0:18:02.240 to sell out. You know, this is like if you 0:18:02.320 --> 0:18:06.080 run AMC and you decide to sell AMC. And so 0:18:06.400 --> 0:18:10.919 he says, I'm going to sell my theater Empire to 0:18:12.040 --> 0:18:17.159 a competing force, trans Canada Theaters Limited over in Montreal. 0:18:17.560 --> 0:18:19.920 And he says, I got to get the right price, though, 0:18:19.960 --> 0:18:22.359 I got to get my big So he sells. In 0:18:22.480 --> 0:18:26.080 nineteen nineteen, he strikes a deal to sell off his 0:18:26.280 --> 0:18:30.120 entire business for one point the US equivalent of one 0:18:30.119 --> 0:18:34.720 point seven million dollars one million dollars up front, the 0:18:34.880 --> 0:18:39.040 other seven hundred thousand in installments over time. If we 0:18:39.160 --> 0:18:41.760 want to pull a ridiculous history card and do a 0:18:41.800 --> 0:18:48.399 little inflation calculator, that is thirty million, eight hundred and 0:18:48.480 --> 0:18:52.600 twenty four thousand, nine hundred and thirty dollars and sixty 0:18:52.640 --> 0:18:54.680 four cents in twenty twenty four money. 0:18:54.800 --> 0:18:57.200 Oof, my goodness, that is a lot of cash. Then 0:18:57.359 --> 0:19:00.399 on the first of December nineteen nineteen, at the law 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:04.720 offices of Osler, Hoskin and Harcourt in the Dominion Bank 0:19:04.720 --> 0:19:10.159 building on King Street, Small, Theresa and their attorney E. W. M. 0:19:10.359 --> 0:19:14.879 Flock met Trans Canada Theaters representative William Shaughnessy. It's a 0:19:14.920 --> 0:19:18.880 great theater man name to sign over those theaters. They 0:19:18.960 --> 0:19:21.879 got a check for a million dollars. The check was 0:19:21.920 --> 0:19:26.000 deposited at that bank Dominion the next morning, perhaps by 0:19:26.000 --> 0:19:30.840 Small but also possibly by Teresa. Then on December twod 0:19:31.800 --> 0:19:32.400 he vanished. 0:19:33.440 --> 0:19:37.760 So what happened? We'll dive into it after a word 0:19:37.800 --> 0:19:48.480 from our sponsor, here's river did's increase to this day? 0:19:49.040 --> 0:19:51.920 No one knows, at least by which we mean, no 0:19:51.960 --> 0:19:55.320 one has an official solution to the case. Again, as 0:19:55.320 --> 0:19:58.000 I stated earlier, there are a lot of opinions right. 0:19:58.160 --> 0:20:03.640 There are things that initial investigators were convinced would solve 0:20:03.680 --> 0:20:07.240 the case. There are things that later authors and researchers 0:20:07.480 --> 0:20:10.040 are convinced they have discovered. We want to be fair 0:20:10.119 --> 0:20:12.400 to all of them. But you'll see what we mean 0:20:12.440 --> 0:20:15.720 when we delve into the theories. So maybe maybe we 0:20:15.800 --> 0:20:20.200 step it back forensically into the day of the disappearance 0:20:20.280 --> 0:20:24.919 December second, nineteen nineteen. Now no one is one hundred 0:20:24.960 --> 0:20:28.200 percent sure of the exact timeline here, and honestly that's 0:20:28.240 --> 0:20:31.840 typical for cases of this nature. We know that after 0:20:32.160 --> 0:20:35.800 making this sale after getting the initial million dollars just 0:20:35.880 --> 0:20:40.080 crazy money. Ambrose small, however distant he and his spouse 0:20:40.119 --> 0:20:44.320 may have been. He made some purchases, ostensibly for her, 0:20:44.440 --> 0:20:47.960 some kind of celebratory gifts. He bought her jewelry, a 0:20:48.080 --> 0:20:52.480 fur coat, a Cadillac that's pretty nuts. And then he 0:20:52.520 --> 0:20:54.919 had lunch with the guy who mentioned earlier in Noel Flock, 0:20:55.280 --> 0:20:58.960 and with his wife Teresa, and he walked Esa to 0:20:59.040 --> 0:21:03.600 a nearby orphan because she regularly volunteered at this orphanage. 0:21:03.960 --> 0:21:06.399 And then he went back to his office with his 0:21:06.400 --> 0:21:10.679 buddy Flock. They were having a meeting and they planned 0:21:10.720 --> 0:21:13.880 to get out around five point thirty, at which point 0:21:14.520 --> 0:21:19.320 they would maybe go and meet up for dinner. Flock 0:21:19.520 --> 0:21:22.560 had a train to catch to London. Side note for 0:21:22.640 --> 0:21:29.040 US Yankees in the crowd, that's London, Ontario. If anybody's wondering, WHOA, 0:21:29.040 --> 0:21:31.960 that's amazing a train from Canada to London. We thought 0:21:32.000 --> 0:21:37.119 so too, but it's not. So we know then that 0:21:37.600 --> 0:21:42.040 Flock is gone. He's off to London, Ontario, and his 0:21:42.119 --> 0:21:44.560 train leaves at six pm, so he leaves at five 0:21:44.560 --> 0:21:48.119 point thirty, which makes him the last person that we 0:21:48.200 --> 0:21:53.280 can confirm on record saw Ambrose small. After that, the 0:21:53.359 --> 0:21:59.639 trail runs cold, or the trail is actually cold, but 0:21:59.720 --> 0:22:03.640 no one knows about it for two weeks. His own 0:22:03.760 --> 0:22:07.479 family does not report him missing until two weeks have passed. 0:22:07.680 --> 0:22:11.119 It's not till December sixteenth, And I got to ask you, guys, 0:22:11.520 --> 0:22:14.359 what's the implication there? Does his wife think he's just 0:22:14.440 --> 0:22:17.960 off with a mistress. Maybe do a lot of associates 0:22:18.080 --> 0:22:21.240 just say, hey, he made it, you know, he got 0:22:21.240 --> 0:22:24.399 the golden goose. He's kicking back as a newly minted millionaire. 0:22:25.680 --> 0:22:28.520 Or did the people who not like him, were they 0:22:28.560 --> 0:22:30.240 just happy not to hear from him. 0:22:30.440 --> 0:22:33.160 It's one of two things. Either his wife was aware 0:22:33.280 --> 0:22:35.800 that he does this kind of thing, especially when he's 0:22:35.840 --> 0:22:38.840 got a windfall, goes and spends some of it and 0:22:38.880 --> 0:22:42.800 spends his time with other women, if not his mistress, 0:22:42.840 --> 0:22:46.919 because he did have one longtime mistress that his wife 0:22:46.960 --> 0:22:50.439 was aware of, unfortunately, because she had found some letters 0:22:50.480 --> 0:22:54.159 and some other things from that specific person. But she 0:22:54.240 --> 0:22:56.119 knew he spent his time with other women, and she 0:22:56.200 --> 0:22:57.760 knew that he liked to gamble and he liked to 0:22:57.760 --> 0:23:01.040 be away, So maybe she just thought he was out 0:23:01.040 --> 0:23:03.960 of town doing his thing, and she was either embarrassed 0:23:03.960 --> 0:23:06.320 about that or has just gotten so used to that 0:23:06.320 --> 0:23:08.680 that that's just what she deals with, right right. 0:23:08.880 --> 0:23:12.520 I think she was even aware of his casting couch situation. Yes, 0:23:12.800 --> 0:23:16.520 whether it was completely against her will or whether they 0:23:16.560 --> 0:23:19.119 had some sort of understanding or whatever, I think is 0:23:19.160 --> 0:23:22.760 maybe not fully clear. But she was aware of his 0:23:22.920 --> 0:23:26.760 patterns and didn't report him missing to the police because 0:23:26.800 --> 0:23:28.880 just figured he was out catting around. 0:23:29.119 --> 0:23:35.000 Or or she specifically didn't talk about him and his 0:23:35.040 --> 0:23:41.160 disappearance for two weeks because stuff had to get done, okay. 0:23:40.400 --> 0:23:43.479 Which is yeah, like as always saying earlier, there are 0:23:43.520 --> 0:23:46.240 a lot of places there, there are a lot of 0:23:46.280 --> 0:23:50.080 possibilities that might not involve her as a culprit, right, 0:23:50.160 --> 0:23:52.600 we have to remember this, Ley's been through a pretty 0:23:52.640 --> 0:23:57.080 tough marriage. I do think it's worth noting that when 0:23:57.200 --> 0:24:00.119 investigators do ask her when the family goes public on 0:24:00.240 --> 0:24:05.600 sixteenth of December nineteen nineteen, investigators do ask Teresa Small 0:24:05.640 --> 0:24:08.840 about this, and she says she had not reported his 0:24:08.960 --> 0:24:12.240