1 00:00:01,800 --> 00:00:11,760 Speaker 1: Oh, welcome back to Behind the Bastards, a podcast about 2 00:00:11,800 --> 00:00:17,639 Speaker 1: Coco Chanel this week. How are you feeling? How are 3 00:00:17,640 --> 00:00:19,919 Speaker 1: you feeling? How are we feeling about Coco so far? Yeah? 4 00:00:19,960 --> 00:00:23,680 Speaker 1: Are we still down for that nickname? Court? I loved 5 00:00:23,680 --> 00:00:28,080 Speaker 1: her for part one minus a few anti Semitic rants, yeah, 6 00:00:28,120 --> 00:00:32,120 Speaker 1: the anti semitism, the fast fashion, but otherwise pretty good. Yeah. 7 00:00:32,800 --> 00:00:36,640 Speaker 1: So now you're about to ruin my Coco Chanel fantasy 8 00:00:36,800 --> 00:00:41,599 Speaker 1: and I'm not excited. But yeah, look, we can just 9 00:00:41,720 --> 00:00:44,880 Speaker 1: make a whitewashed version of her life story for like again, 10 00:00:45,040 --> 00:00:47,960 Speaker 1: Netflix or Hulu or somebody, and we can just cut 11 00:00:47,960 --> 00:00:50,839 Speaker 1: out the whole, you know, ixnay on the atsien a 12 00:00:51,040 --> 00:00:52,960 Speaker 1: part of it, and then we'll be good. Yeah. I 13 00:00:53,000 --> 00:00:58,480 Speaker 1: know that's a good People do that all the time. Yeah, yeah, yeah, 14 00:00:58,680 --> 00:01:01,040 Speaker 1: make a lot of money. Let's just make a lot 15 00:01:01,040 --> 00:01:04,120 Speaker 1: of money. Look when you when you've got Netflix money, 16 00:01:04,200 --> 00:01:06,480 Speaker 1: which at this point is what like forty dollars, you 17 00:01:06,480 --> 00:01:13,479 Speaker 1: don't have to apologize for anything. Um. So, Coco Chanel 18 00:01:14,160 --> 00:01:17,720 Speaker 1: is riding high in the in the early nineteen twenties. 19 00:01:17,840 --> 00:01:21,200 Speaker 1: She is rich as shit, She is the talk of 20 00:01:21,240 --> 00:01:24,480 Speaker 1: the town. She is pretty racist, and the guy she 21 00:01:24,560 --> 00:01:27,319 Speaker 1: loves is dead, but hey, she's friends with Picasso, and 22 00:01:27,400 --> 00:01:30,720 Speaker 1: can you put a price on being friends with Picasso? Probably? 23 00:01:31,160 --> 00:01:34,280 Speaker 1: She's also friends with the Grand Duke Dmitri, who is 24 00:01:34,319 --> 00:01:38,320 Speaker 1: a former Russian noble exiled after the Bolshevik Revolution U 25 00:01:38,720 --> 00:01:42,080 Speaker 1: Grand Duke Dmitri like the TLDR of his background as 26 00:01:42,160 --> 00:01:44,560 Speaker 1: he was one of the guys who killed Rasputant. So 27 00:01:44,640 --> 00:01:47,960 Speaker 1: this is like a dude that she parties with. Um, 28 00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:50,680 Speaker 1: maybe has a thing with. Is the Grand Duke Dmitri 29 00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:53,400 Speaker 1: pretty cool? Um? Is he a good guy or a 30 00:01:53,400 --> 00:01:57,960 Speaker 1: bad guy? I mean he's a he's a czarist noble, 31 00:01:58,040 --> 00:02:02,800 Speaker 1: so he's a bad guy, but he's not the particularly bad. Yeah, 32 00:02:02,840 --> 00:02:05,320 Speaker 1: she will hang out with worse people. And he does 33 00:02:05,400 --> 00:02:08,160 Speaker 1: not have a baleful influence on her. Mainly the thing 34 00:02:08,200 --> 00:02:10,400 Speaker 1: that like, they spend a lot of time drinking and 35 00:02:10,400 --> 00:02:14,320 Speaker 1: talking and whatever, and from his like stories of the homeland, 36 00:02:14,520 --> 00:02:18,240 Speaker 1: she decides to launch a line of Chanelle clothing patterned 37 00:02:18,240 --> 00:02:22,880 Speaker 1: off of Russian peasant clothes, which is again very successful. 38 00:02:23,240 --> 00:02:25,600 Speaker 1: And it's also from her conversations with the Grand Duke 39 00:02:25,680 --> 00:02:29,160 Speaker 1: that Coco gets the inspiration to create her own scent. 40 00:02:30,840 --> 00:02:34,440 Speaker 1: And yeah, this is what becomes Chanelle number five, Right, 41 00:02:34,520 --> 00:02:39,120 Speaker 1: everybody knows that CNN Fashion describes the process of concocting 42 00:02:39,160 --> 00:02:42,440 Speaker 1: the soon to be infamous scent. Chanelle launched her eponymous 43 00:02:42,480 --> 00:02:45,080 Speaker 1: number five perfume in nineteen twenty one. A year before, 44 00:02:45,160 --> 00:02:48,119 Speaker 1: so the legend goes, she had challenged French Russian perfumer 45 00:02:48,240 --> 00:02:50,840 Speaker 1: Ernest Bow to create a scent that would make its 46 00:02:50,840 --> 00:02:53,639 Speaker 1: wear smell like a woman and not like a rose. 47 00:02:54,120 --> 00:02:57,519 Speaker 1: The result was a mixture of eighty natural and synthetic ingredients, 48 00:02:57,520 --> 00:03:00,280 Speaker 1: which Bow presented her with a numbered series of fume 49 00:03:00,360 --> 00:03:03,440 Speaker 1: samples to choose from. She picked the fifth. The blend 50 00:03:03,520 --> 00:03:06,080 Speaker 1: subverted the notion of fragrances as a symbol of high 51 00:03:06,120 --> 00:03:09,000 Speaker 1: social class, instead pushing the idea that women could be 52 00:03:09,080 --> 00:03:13,440 Speaker 1: multiple things, natural and artificial, provocative and pure. It was 53 00:03:13,480 --> 00:03:15,960 Speaker 1: what I was waiting for, Chanel later said, a perfume 54 00:03:16,040 --> 00:03:18,560 Speaker 1: like nothing else, a woman's perfume with the scent of 55 00:03:18,600 --> 00:03:22,800 Speaker 1: a woman. I did hear one time that she picked 56 00:03:22,840 --> 00:03:28,000 Speaker 1: something else first? I think did yeah, yeah, yeah, I 57 00:03:28,040 --> 00:03:31,639 Speaker 1: think she picks like another one twenty two, like yeah, 58 00:03:31,720 --> 00:03:34,840 Speaker 1: she eventually lands on five. But that's why it's Chanelle 59 00:03:34,880 --> 00:03:37,080 Speaker 1: number five, because she's given a bunch of options, and 60 00:03:37,160 --> 00:03:42,480 Speaker 1: five is the one she picks, and she's not only like, obviously, 61 00:03:42,680 --> 00:03:45,320 Speaker 1: I guess it smells good. I can't think of off 62 00:03:45,360 --> 00:03:47,640 Speaker 1: the top of my head what Chanelle number five smells like, Like, 63 00:03:47,680 --> 00:03:50,280 Speaker 1: I couldn't tell you, but you know, everyone knows that 64 00:03:50,320 --> 00:03:52,640 Speaker 1: it's a thing, right, you say Chanelle number five, and 65 00:03:52,680 --> 00:03:55,520 Speaker 1: everyone has heard of it, which is it's like Coca Cola, Right, 66 00:03:55,680 --> 00:03:57,760 Speaker 1: it's the Coca Cola of perfumes. At this point, I 67 00:03:57,800 --> 00:04:02,000 Speaker 1: think it smells like department store kind of fright. Yeah, yeah, 68 00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:05,560 Speaker 1: probably that's probably fair to say at this point. And 69 00:04:05,640 --> 00:04:08,400 Speaker 1: so the most interesting thing about it is how it 70 00:04:08,480 --> 00:04:11,920 Speaker 1: became that ubiquitous, And this passage from how Vaughan's book 71 00:04:11,920 --> 00:04:14,840 Speaker 1: describes the innovative way in which Coco is going to 72 00:04:14,960 --> 00:04:19,279 Speaker 1: market her new perfume. To promote her new invention, Chanelle, 73 00:04:19,320 --> 00:04:22,760 Speaker 1: like the shrewd peasant she was believed in word of mouth. 74 00:04:23,080 --> 00:04:25,760 Speaker 1: She tested Chanelle number five by inviting friends to dine 75 00:04:25,760 --> 00:04:28,440 Speaker 1: with her at a posh restaurant near Grass. Then she 76 00:04:28,560 --> 00:04:31,839 Speaker 1: furtively sprayed guests passing by her table, and they reacted 77 00:04:31,839 --> 00:04:35,040 Speaker 1: with surprise and pleasure. Pleased with the results, Chanelle returned 78 00:04:35,040 --> 00:04:37,600 Speaker 1: to Paris and quietly launched her new venture. She didn't 79 00:04:37,600 --> 00:04:40,119 Speaker 1: announce its arrival in the press. She wore it herself 80 00:04:40,200 --> 00:04:42,880 Speaker 1: and sprayed the shop's dressing rooms with it, giving bottles 81 00:04:42,880 --> 00:04:45,320 Speaker 1: to a few of her high society friends. Her perfume 82 00:04:45,440 --> 00:04:48,880 Speaker 1: soon became the talk of Paris. She does kind of 83 00:04:49,839 --> 00:04:54,920 Speaker 1: the department store. Yeah, no, no, non consensual perfume spraying. 84 00:04:55,200 --> 00:04:58,080 Speaker 1: I do feel like the fact that they're marketing it 85 00:04:58,200 --> 00:05:01,760 Speaker 1: a woman's perfume. They that's how it's marketed. Now, it's 86 00:05:01,760 --> 00:05:06,840 Speaker 1: the same exact marketing. I mess with success, Sophie, you know. 87 00:05:06,920 --> 00:05:09,920 Speaker 1: And then and then I think that the non consensual 88 00:05:09,920 --> 00:05:14,240 Speaker 1: spraying is basically department that it is funny, Courtly, you 89 00:05:14,279 --> 00:05:19,479 Speaker 1: brought up department store. She does kind of invent that too. Yes, yeah, 90 00:05:19,760 --> 00:05:22,840 Speaker 1: some braun's just got to spray you. We would never 91 00:05:22,920 --> 00:05:29,120 Speaker 1: have that episode of Friends with Joey. Sorry. If you 92 00:05:29,200 --> 00:05:30,599 Speaker 1: got it, you got it. If you didn't get it, 93 00:05:30,960 --> 00:05:33,760 Speaker 1: watch it. I feel like guns stores should do the 94 00:05:33,800 --> 00:05:37,599 Speaker 1: same thing with mace, like you want, honey, where are 95 00:05:37,640 --> 00:05:41,240 Speaker 1: you going with it? Yeah? No, it was a mace joke. 96 00:05:41,760 --> 00:05:45,840 Speaker 1: It's fine. So the demand for Chanelle number five almost 97 00:05:45,839 --> 00:05:49,960 Speaker 1: immediately exceeded. This blows up like basically nothing ever had before. 98 00:05:50,240 --> 00:05:53,839 Speaker 1: It immediately exceeds Coco's ability to produce or distribute it. 99 00:05:53,880 --> 00:05:57,640 Speaker 1: You know, she is a boutique fashion maker. She's very successful, 100 00:05:57,640 --> 00:06:00,680 Speaker 1: but she does not have the kind of production capacity 101 00:06:00,720 --> 00:06:05,400 Speaker 1: to mass manufacturer perfume. And so she starts looking for 102 00:06:05,520 --> 00:06:09,520 Speaker 1: somebody to help her expand and an entrepreneur named Pierre 103 00:06:09,600 --> 00:06:13,760 Speaker 1: Wertheimer makes her an offer. Pierre is the patriarch of 104 00:06:13,800 --> 00:06:18,000 Speaker 1: a wealthy Jewish family, and he probably also is kind 105 00:06:18,000 --> 00:06:22,120 Speaker 1: of in love with Coco Chanelle. Coco has kind of 106 00:06:22,160 --> 00:06:25,520 Speaker 1: a love hate relationship with him because there's I think 107 00:06:25,520 --> 00:06:27,840 Speaker 1: a degree to which she finds him a little charming, 108 00:06:27,839 --> 00:06:31,960 Speaker 1: but also she's very racist. And more to the point, 109 00:06:32,160 --> 00:06:34,440 Speaker 1: this deal that he's going to make with her to 110 00:06:34,680 --> 00:06:37,880 Speaker 1: produce Coco's perfume, to produce Shanelle number five, it's going 111 00:06:37,920 --> 00:06:39,960 Speaker 1: to make her incredibly wealthy, right, and it's going to 112 00:06:39,960 --> 00:06:43,320 Speaker 1: make Shanelle number five an iconic product, but he gets 113 00:06:43,440 --> 00:06:46,280 Speaker 1: most of the money from it. Now, wait, is this 114 00:06:46,440 --> 00:06:50,000 Speaker 1: you said she'sist. Is this a Jewish man? Oh? Yeah, 115 00:06:50,040 --> 00:06:53,440 Speaker 1: so that's going to be a problem because the deal 116 00:06:53,520 --> 00:06:57,440 Speaker 1: and you know whatever, these are all wealthy capitalists, So 117 00:06:57,800 --> 00:06:59,359 Speaker 1: I'm not going to try to come down on like 118 00:06:59,480 --> 00:07:02,039 Speaker 1: this person and is the right or the wrong. But 119 00:07:02,720 --> 00:07:06,960 Speaker 1: he is taking on the primary financial risk by putting 120 00:07:06,960 --> 00:07:09,880 Speaker 1: in a shitload of money upfront to create a production 121 00:07:09,920 --> 00:07:13,200 Speaker 1: line to mass produce Chanel number five, right, And so 122 00:07:13,280 --> 00:07:16,960 Speaker 1: he gets most of the money. Right. Coco makes a 123 00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:19,600 Speaker 1: shitload of money. She makes more money than anyone could 124 00:07:19,640 --> 00:07:21,680 Speaker 1: ever spend in a lifetime, and more money, in fact, 125 00:07:21,760 --> 00:07:24,000 Speaker 1: than she is able to ever spend in her lifetime. 126 00:07:24,400 --> 00:07:27,040 Speaker 1: But she will spend the rest of her life kind 127 00:07:27,040 --> 00:07:29,840 Speaker 1: of obsessed with the fact that he's cheating her out 128 00:07:29,840 --> 00:07:31,480 Speaker 1: of her fair share of the profits. And this is 129 00:07:31,600 --> 00:07:34,000 Speaker 1: very related to the fact that he is Jewish and 130 00:07:34,080 --> 00:07:37,120 Speaker 1: she is racist. Right, Yeah, it like that validates all 131 00:07:37,160 --> 00:07:39,840 Speaker 1: of her I mean not really, but in her mind 132 00:07:40,000 --> 00:07:44,360 Speaker 1: validates all of her. Like yes, And from where I'm 133 00:07:44,400 --> 00:07:47,400 Speaker 1: sitting again, I'm not gonna like whitewashed Wortheimer because there's 134 00:07:47,400 --> 00:07:50,120 Speaker 1: some critiques to make of him because he's a wealthy businessman. 135 00:07:50,400 --> 00:07:53,800 Speaker 1: But she makes more money than she could ever have 136 00:07:53,880 --> 00:07:56,000 Speaker 1: spent on this ship. So the fact that she's obsessing 137 00:07:56,000 --> 00:07:57,600 Speaker 1: over the fact that this is not as fair a 138 00:07:57,640 --> 00:08:00,560 Speaker 1: contract as she thinks it should be is. I don't know. 139 00:08:00,680 --> 00:08:03,880 Speaker 1: It says a lot about her, obviously. I think that 140 00:08:03,960 --> 00:08:06,680 Speaker 1: is more understandable because she grows up super poor. So 141 00:08:06,720 --> 00:08:09,200 Speaker 1: maybe she has this kind of fixation because money was 142 00:08:09,200 --> 00:08:11,160 Speaker 1: always so tight for her as a younger person. I 143 00:08:11,200 --> 00:08:15,520 Speaker 1: don't know, but like her anger at the fact that 144 00:08:15,560 --> 00:08:18,200 Speaker 1: she's not getting more money as academic because she is 145 00:08:18,320 --> 00:08:20,840 Speaker 1: never able to spend close to as much money as 146 00:08:20,880 --> 00:08:23,239 Speaker 1: she has. By the mid nineteen twenties, Coco had reached 147 00:08:23,240 --> 00:08:25,880 Speaker 1: the absolute height of success in her business life, and 148 00:08:26,000 --> 00:08:28,160 Speaker 1: she was about to reach a similar height in her 149 00:08:28,160 --> 00:08:31,280 Speaker 1: personal life. In nearly twenty she made the acquaintance of 150 00:08:31,280 --> 00:08:35,880 Speaker 1: a British socialite and aristocrat named Vera Bate Lombardi. Vera 151 00:08:36,000 --> 00:08:38,800 Speaker 1: was famed for her beauty and had many influential suitors 152 00:08:38,800 --> 00:08:42,040 Speaker 1: in the British nobility. She was one of these like, look, 153 00:08:42,080 --> 00:08:43,439 Speaker 1: you're not going to marry me, but we're gonna have 154 00:08:43,480 --> 00:08:46,720 Speaker 1: a good time, right And Vera is a big advocate 155 00:08:46,760 --> 00:08:48,880 Speaker 1: of what was called at the time the sporting life, 156 00:08:49,400 --> 00:08:52,079 Speaker 1: and this is kind of how British aristocrats spent their 157 00:08:52,120 --> 00:08:55,160 Speaker 1: free time. They're going on a hunts, they're shooting pheasants, 158 00:08:55,160 --> 00:08:59,600 Speaker 1: there shooting foxes, they're playing tennis, They're going on sailing 159 00:08:59,600 --> 00:09:03,160 Speaker 1: advent is around the Cape of Good Hope or whatever. 160 00:09:03,440 --> 00:09:05,880 Speaker 1: You know, this is what the elite spends their time doing, right, 161 00:09:05,920 --> 00:09:09,120 Speaker 1: and that Vera is a big advocate of the sporting life. 162 00:09:09,200 --> 00:09:11,800 Speaker 1: And because she is so beautiful and fucking a lot 163 00:09:11,800 --> 00:09:15,840 Speaker 1: of these influential British aristocrats, she knows all of the 164 00:09:15,840 --> 00:09:19,839 Speaker 1: people that are worth knowing in British high society. Now 165 00:09:20,280 --> 00:09:23,439 Speaker 1: she falls in love with Chanelle because the sporting life 166 00:09:23,720 --> 00:09:26,000 Speaker 1: is kind of difficult when you're wearing like a sixty 167 00:09:26,040 --> 00:09:29,760 Speaker 1: five pound whalebone dress that's got like a ten foot 168 00:09:29,800 --> 00:09:33,240 Speaker 1: wide like hoop skirt or whatever. So Coco's clothing, like 169 00:09:33,280 --> 00:09:36,360 Speaker 1: the sporting life is kind of increasingly becoming a fashionable 170 00:09:36,400 --> 00:09:38,880 Speaker 1: thing in late eighteen hundreds, early nineteen hundreds, and the 171 00:09:38,920 --> 00:09:41,920 Speaker 1: fact that Coco starts coming out with these really comfortable, thin, 172 00:09:42,080 --> 00:09:45,600 Speaker 1: like easy to wear clothing is huge for abroad. Like Vera, 173 00:09:45,760 --> 00:09:48,439 Speaker 1: She's like, oh man, this fucking this lady makes the 174 00:09:48,840 --> 00:09:53,040 Speaker 1: best clothing ever. And so Vera befriends Coco Chanelle and 175 00:09:53,160 --> 00:09:56,640 Speaker 1: introduces her to English high society, which is the most 176 00:09:56,800 --> 00:10:01,280 Speaker 1: closed and hardest to enter aristocratic set in European society 177 00:10:01,320 --> 00:10:04,120 Speaker 1: at this point. And it's through Vera that in nineteen 178 00:10:04,200 --> 00:10:07,720 Speaker 1: twenty three, Coco gets invited to a dinner at Monte Carlo, 179 00:10:07,880 --> 00:10:13,720 Speaker 1: where she meets the Duke of Westminster, Hugh Richard Aartha Grosvena, 180 00:10:13,840 --> 00:10:18,640 Speaker 1: known as Ben Door to his friends, and Coco quickly 181 00:10:18,640 --> 00:10:22,840 Speaker 1: becomes a friend of Bendor. He is entranced by her. 182 00:10:23,600 --> 00:10:25,960 Speaker 1: And you know, Ben Door is one of the only men, 183 00:10:26,320 --> 00:10:28,440 Speaker 1: maybe the only man really she was likely to meet 184 00:10:28,559 --> 00:10:30,960 Speaker 1: who has more money than her, because he is probably 185 00:10:30,960 --> 00:10:34,080 Speaker 1: the richest man in Europe. He is the largest landowner 186 00:10:34,160 --> 00:10:38,440 Speaker 1: in Europe at like near the height of the colonial period. 187 00:10:38,760 --> 00:10:42,040 Speaker 1: This guy he has so this guy's got a lot 188 00:10:42,080 --> 00:10:48,320 Speaker 1: of slaves. There's a couple of levels, basically essentially, but like, so, 189 00:10:48,360 --> 00:10:50,800 Speaker 1: there's a couple of levels to having money. Right, There's 190 00:10:50,840 --> 00:10:53,880 Speaker 1: like being middle class, which is when you can afford 191 00:10:54,040 --> 00:10:57,400 Speaker 1: the stuff that you need, but you're not free of procarity. Right. 192 00:10:57,679 --> 00:11:00,240 Speaker 1: There's upper middle class, where you can afford this off 193 00:11:00,240 --> 00:11:02,480 Speaker 1: you need and most of the things you want, but 194 00:11:02,520 --> 00:11:06,079 Speaker 1: you're not entirely free of precarity. And then there's rich, right, 195 00:11:06,160 --> 00:11:08,240 Speaker 1: which is where you have all you have a lot 196 00:11:08,320 --> 00:11:10,640 Speaker 1: of money, right, But there's a level and most people 197 00:11:10,679 --> 00:11:12,440 Speaker 1: just think that, like, yeah, rich is kind of like 198 00:11:12,480 --> 00:11:15,280 Speaker 1: the top of having money. There's a level above rich 199 00:11:15,400 --> 00:11:19,439 Speaker 1: because rich people have money, the mega rich like Bendor, 200 00:11:20,000 --> 00:11:23,160 Speaker 1: they don't have money. They just don't have They can 201 00:11:23,200 --> 00:11:25,439 Speaker 1: never run out of money. That's a different thing, right, 202 00:11:25,800 --> 00:11:29,320 Speaker 1: Having money is different than you Like Bendor does not 203 00:11:29,520 --> 00:11:33,079 Speaker 1: spend money. Ben Door demands things and they are made 204 00:11:33,120 --> 00:11:35,400 Speaker 1: for him or they come to him, right, Like his 205 00:11:35,960 --> 00:11:39,720 Speaker 1: wealth is so vast that he effectively does not have money. 206 00:11:39,760 --> 00:11:42,560 Speaker 1: He has a superpower, he has magic. That is the 207 00:11:42,640 --> 00:11:45,760 Speaker 1: kind of rich this guy is, right, like this is 208 00:11:45,800 --> 00:11:48,640 Speaker 1: this is like this is um, this is Jeff Bezos 209 00:11:48,720 --> 00:11:51,280 Speaker 1: level right of wealth, except for more of it is 210 00:11:51,280 --> 00:11:55,480 Speaker 1: actually in physical things for a guy like Bendorum it is. 211 00:11:55,679 --> 00:11:58,560 Speaker 1: You cannot exaggerate how much fucking money this guy has. 212 00:11:58,800 --> 00:12:02,880 Speaker 1: So like British, I mean usually it's old money, right, 213 00:12:03,240 --> 00:12:07,360 Speaker 1: but you're year old. No, he is old money. He 214 00:12:07,480 --> 00:12:10,120 Speaker 1: is inherited a lot of it. Um, this is old 215 00:12:10,240 --> 00:12:12,920 Speaker 1: colonial money. He owns land all over the fucking place 216 00:12:13,320 --> 00:12:17,560 Speaker 1: like that, he owns palaces, um, he owns a massive 217 00:12:17,679 --> 00:12:22,000 Speaker 1: yacht that is like a gigantic floating English mansion, Like 218 00:12:22,040 --> 00:12:24,360 Speaker 1: it's a country mansion that he had turned into a 219 00:12:24,440 --> 00:12:27,000 Speaker 1: yacht so he could sail around but still live in 220 00:12:27,000 --> 00:12:31,800 Speaker 1: an English country mansion like this, Like yeah, beyond rich, 221 00:12:32,160 --> 00:12:34,680 Speaker 1: you know, like that's that is the kind of money 222 00:12:34,720 --> 00:12:37,720 Speaker 1: this guy possesses. Like this boat sounds like a great 223 00:12:37,760 --> 00:12:40,880 Speaker 1: way to die. Yeah, and again, nobody told him how 224 00:12:40,960 --> 00:12:43,280 Speaker 1: much the boat cost. He just said, I would like 225 00:12:43,400 --> 00:12:47,160 Speaker 1: a boat that feels like my country mansion and it 226 00:12:47,240 --> 00:12:50,120 Speaker 1: was made, you know, like that's the that's the degree 227 00:12:50,400 --> 00:12:52,560 Speaker 1: the kind of guy. This is. One of the women 228 00:12:52,559 --> 00:12:55,360 Speaker 1: who spent time around Bendor later described him this way, 229 00:12:55,640 --> 00:12:58,959 Speaker 1: a pure Victorian who had eyes for his shotgun, his hunters, 230 00:12:59,240 --> 00:13:02,640 Speaker 1: jumpers and race horses, his dogs, while English women of 231 00:13:02,679 --> 00:13:04,800 Speaker 1: his day had only to give birth to children and 232 00:13:04,800 --> 00:13:07,520 Speaker 1: please their masters. A man who played it dropping a 233 00:13:07,520 --> 00:13:10,000 Speaker 1: bit of sugar in its paper wrapper into hot coffee 234 00:13:10,080 --> 00:13:12,280 Speaker 1: and with a chronometer in hand, timing how long it 235 00:13:12,320 --> 00:13:15,200 Speaker 1: took to melt. A man who enjoyed hiding diamonds under 236 00:13:15,200 --> 00:13:21,520 Speaker 1: the pillow of his mistresses. A man who could brutalize women. Okay, 237 00:13:21,520 --> 00:13:27,800 Speaker 1: that has been door sexy. Yeah, that's what Coco thinks, 238 00:13:28,400 --> 00:13:30,760 Speaker 1: and he is drawn to her in part because, like, 239 00:13:31,320 --> 00:13:33,880 Speaker 1: as rich as he is, she is probably the only 240 00:13:33,920 --> 00:13:36,280 Speaker 1: woman on planet Earth who he would number one be 241 00:13:36,320 --> 00:13:38,640 Speaker 1: interested in, but who has no interest in his money. 242 00:13:39,000 --> 00:13:41,040 Speaker 1: Yeah right, she doesn't need his money because she hasn't 243 00:13:41,040 --> 00:13:43,280 Speaker 1: She like, again, he's rich as fuck, but like she 244 00:13:43,360 --> 00:13:46,360 Speaker 1: has more money than she can ever spend. At one point, 245 00:13:46,440 --> 00:13:48,280 Speaker 1: they have a spat over the fact that he's like 246 00:13:48,320 --> 00:13:52,080 Speaker 1: constantly cheating on her, right, and she tells him all 247 00:13:52,120 --> 00:13:54,080 Speaker 1: I want from you? He's like, basically, what can I 248 00:13:54,080 --> 00:13:56,200 Speaker 1: do to make this right? And she says, all I 249 00:13:56,240 --> 00:13:58,559 Speaker 1: want from you are the wild flowers picked by your 250 00:13:58,559 --> 00:14:01,480 Speaker 1: own hands, right, Basically, I want you to actually go 251 00:14:01,640 --> 00:14:04,120 Speaker 1: do a thing for me. And instead he has his 252 00:14:04,200 --> 00:14:06,680 Speaker 1: servants get a bunch of wildflowers and lace them with 253 00:14:06,800 --> 00:14:09,439 Speaker 1: jewels and give them to her because he just can't 254 00:14:09,480 --> 00:14:11,920 Speaker 1: comprehend doing a thing. You know, he's not that kind 255 00:14:11,920 --> 00:14:16,560 Speaker 1: of man. No, So what she is interested in? Addition, 256 00:14:16,600 --> 00:14:20,040 Speaker 1: I think she does legitimately like this guy. She stays 257 00:14:20,040 --> 00:14:21,920 Speaker 1: with him for ten years, right, she does. I think 258 00:14:21,920 --> 00:14:25,240 Speaker 1: there is like an emotional connection that they have, and 259 00:14:25,280 --> 00:14:27,920 Speaker 1: he seems to legitimately care about her to the extent 260 00:14:27,960 --> 00:14:30,680 Speaker 1: that a man like this is capable of caring about 261 00:14:30,720 --> 00:14:35,720 Speaker 1: other people. Um. She is also interested in his connections. 262 00:14:35,720 --> 00:14:37,920 Speaker 1: And it's through ben door that Coco meets with the 263 00:14:38,000 --> 00:14:41,760 Speaker 1: Duke of Windsor later Edward King Edward the Eighth, who 264 00:14:41,840 --> 00:14:45,880 Speaker 1: then abdicates because he marries a common woman. Even don't 265 00:14:46,240 --> 00:14:48,600 Speaker 1: yeh he is he is he is he is a 266 00:14:48,960 --> 00:14:52,720 Speaker 1: hung out with Hitler. Not he is a he is 267 00:14:52,760 --> 00:14:57,480 Speaker 1: a first name basis with Hitler Nazi. Um. She also 268 00:14:57,560 --> 00:15:01,040 Speaker 1: meets with Winston Churchill, who, despite being pretty anti Nazi, 269 00:15:01,280 --> 00:15:03,320 Speaker 1: is friends with all of these guys and hanging out 270 00:15:03,360 --> 00:15:06,480 Speaker 1: with them. Churchill writes a lot at Churchill actually writes 271 00:15:06,480 --> 00:15:09,480 Speaker 1: a good amount about Coco Chanelle. She is a good hunter. 272 00:15:09,640 --> 00:15:13,240 Speaker 1: She's really good at like riding horses and hunting from horseback. 273 00:15:13,280 --> 00:15:15,480 Speaker 1: And he's like impressed with how good she is at 274 00:15:15,480 --> 00:15:17,720 Speaker 1: this stuff. He writes, I think he might have had 275 00:15:17,720 --> 00:15:19,720 Speaker 1: a crush on her. He writes a decent amount about 276 00:15:19,720 --> 00:15:23,160 Speaker 1: like her shooting animals and riding her horse and stuff. Um, 277 00:15:23,160 --> 00:15:26,560 Speaker 1: he's very he finds her very impressive though. Um, And 278 00:15:26,720 --> 00:15:30,200 Speaker 1: you know, all of these men, including Churchill, are incredibly 279 00:15:30,320 --> 00:15:33,240 Speaker 1: right wing and all of these men, aside from Churchill, 280 00:15:33,400 --> 00:15:37,240 Speaker 1: are huge fans of Hitler. So even Churchill, though, wasn't 281 00:15:37,280 --> 00:15:41,960 Speaker 1: he a little anti Semitic? Oh yeah, I mean for sure, yes, yes, yeah, yeah, 282 00:15:42,040 --> 00:15:44,040 Speaker 1: yeah yeah, but he is he does like he is. 283 00:15:44,120 --> 00:15:45,680 Speaker 1: One of the things you have to give Churchill is 284 00:15:45,720 --> 00:15:50,720 Speaker 1: like he's not a not a Hitler stand right? Yeah? Um, 285 00:15:50,840 --> 00:15:53,000 Speaker 1: but no, I mean they're all they're all biggots, they're 286 00:15:53,000 --> 00:16:00,240 Speaker 1: all right leg homies with Hitler. Hitler. Yeah, I mean 287 00:16:00,320 --> 00:16:04,080 Speaker 1: I like it. But all these guys are shitty. Don't 288 00:16:04,080 --> 00:16:06,480 Speaker 1: get me wrong, It's just that Churchill is not that 289 00:16:06,760 --> 00:16:11,440 Speaker 1: specifically fuck all of these motherfuckers. But there are tears, absolutely, 290 00:16:11,920 --> 00:16:15,240 Speaker 1: there are tears of fucker rate. And the guy that 291 00:16:15,280 --> 00:16:19,680 Speaker 1: she's like bumping with is that one is almost the shittiest. 292 00:16:19,680 --> 00:16:21,400 Speaker 1: I would say, King Edward the Eighth is a little 293 00:16:21,440 --> 00:16:25,840 Speaker 1: shittier than Ben Door. But yeah, it's it's good stuff. 294 00:16:25,920 --> 00:16:28,600 Speaker 1: So in the late nineteen twenties and early thirties, which 295 00:16:28,640 --> 00:16:30,480 Speaker 1: is when it's like kind of the mid twenties to 296 00:16:30,520 --> 00:16:32,880 Speaker 1: the early thirties, like twenty three to thirty three, I 297 00:16:32,920 --> 00:16:35,280 Speaker 1: think more or less, that's when Coco is kind of 298 00:16:35,280 --> 00:16:38,000 Speaker 1: a really intimate part of this circle. So that's quite 299 00:16:38,040 --> 00:16:39,920 Speaker 1: a lot of time, you know. They spend a lot 300 00:16:40,000 --> 00:16:43,640 Speaker 1: of time together. The Duke of Westminster and his friends 301 00:16:43,680 --> 00:16:47,440 Speaker 1: admired the Nazi movement, most particularly for its strong stance 302 00:16:47,480 --> 00:16:51,800 Speaker 1: against the Jews. Lawrence James, author of a book called Aristocrats, 303 00:16:51,880 --> 00:16:55,040 Speaker 1: claims what lay behind their support of appeasement was a 304 00:16:55,080 --> 00:16:58,080 Speaker 1: fear of communism. What emerges is a picture of a 305 00:16:58,160 --> 00:17:02,560 Speaker 1: knot of peers adrifted, an unconcus genial world united by paranoia, pessimism, 306 00:17:02,560 --> 00:17:06,840 Speaker 1: and panic. So basically, the Bolshevik revolutions just happened. All 307 00:17:06,880 --> 00:17:09,439 Speaker 1: of the nobility in Russia has been either murdered or 308 00:17:09,440 --> 00:17:11,240 Speaker 1: forced to flee, and a lot of their wealth has 309 00:17:11,240 --> 00:17:14,120 Speaker 1: been taken. Ben door. This is one of the few 310 00:17:14,160 --> 00:17:16,760 Speaker 1: things he's got a fear is like with the socialism 311 00:17:16,760 --> 00:17:21,200 Speaker 1: thing spreads over to England. Yeah, like I gotta shipload 312 00:17:21,240 --> 00:17:24,680 Speaker 1: to louse um. So they support Nazison because of that, 313 00:17:24,840 --> 00:17:27,959 Speaker 1: and because they're all anti Semitic, they see Bolshevism as 314 00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:33,160 Speaker 1: a Jewish movement, right yeah, And these are the people 315 00:17:33,200 --> 00:17:36,800 Speaker 1: that Coco's hanging out with. So this kind of this 316 00:17:36,880 --> 00:17:40,199 Speaker 1: is when she I think probably moves from the normal 317 00:17:40,320 --> 00:17:43,280 Speaker 1: level of anti Semitic in French society more or less 318 00:17:43,560 --> 00:17:46,879 Speaker 1: too super racist because she spends ten years with the 319 00:17:46,960 --> 00:17:50,600 Speaker 1: most racist in these guys. All they have is money 320 00:17:50,640 --> 00:17:54,520 Speaker 1: and time to spin conspiracy theories, often about the Jews, 321 00:17:54,520 --> 00:17:56,320 Speaker 1: and so like she's just kind of hanging out with 322 00:17:56,359 --> 00:17:58,880 Speaker 1: them when they're like drinking and talking about this Judeo 323 00:17:59,280 --> 00:18:02,159 Speaker 1: Bolshevism shit and how fascism is the only thing that 324 00:18:02,240 --> 00:18:04,120 Speaker 1: can stop it. She's like, you got to meet these 325 00:18:04,119 --> 00:18:10,080 Speaker 1: guys have really great YouTube channels. Oh man, these guys 326 00:18:10,119 --> 00:18:15,560 Speaker 1: would have all been Tate stands absolutely. Lawrence James goes 327 00:18:15,600 --> 00:18:19,800 Speaker 1: on to explain visceral anti Semitism permeated the upper classes 328 00:18:19,800 --> 00:18:22,920 Speaker 1: between the wars. Jews were vilified as flashy and pushy 329 00:18:22,920 --> 00:18:26,480 Speaker 1: arivests with a knack for enriching themselves when the aristocracy 330 00:18:26,560 --> 00:18:29,920 Speaker 1: was grumbling about an often exaggerated downturn in their fortunes. 331 00:18:31,119 --> 00:18:34,639 Speaker 1: And Coco, obviously, she's well prepared to embrace this bigotry. 332 00:18:34,880 --> 00:18:37,199 Speaker 1: But Ben Door is going to not only kind of 333 00:18:37,280 --> 00:18:39,840 Speaker 1: encourage this bigotry, but he's going to lend a sheen 334 00:18:40,040 --> 00:18:43,400 Speaker 1: of class and education to the way in which she's racist. 335 00:18:43,440 --> 00:18:47,800 Speaker 1: As how Vaughan describes here whatever channel's views on Bolshevism. 336 00:18:47,880 --> 00:18:50,399 Speaker 1: Before nineteen twenty five, Ben Door tutored her on the 337 00:18:50,440 --> 00:18:54,240 Speaker 1: evils of communism and confirmed her antipathy toward Jews. He 338 00:18:54,320 --> 00:18:58,280 Speaker 1: shuddered at the word Marxism. He was notoriously homophobic. When 339 00:18:58,280 --> 00:19:01,280 Speaker 1: his homosexual brother in law advocate free trade unions. As 340 00:19:01,359 --> 00:19:04,040 Speaker 1: leader of the Liberal Party, Bendor revealed him to be 341 00:19:04,119 --> 00:19:07,480 Speaker 1: gay to the King George the Fifth, ruining his sister's marriage. 342 00:19:07,480 --> 00:19:11,399 Speaker 1: In the man's political career, Chanelle could match Bendor's homophobia. 343 00:19:11,480 --> 00:19:13,879 Speaker 1: She is quoted as telling Paul Morand while in exile 344 00:19:13,920 --> 00:19:16,320 Speaker 1: in Switzerland in the winter of nineteen forty six, at 345 00:19:16,320 --> 00:19:20,080 Speaker 1: Saint Maurice's homosexuals, Are they not always hanging around women 346 00:19:20,280 --> 00:19:23,479 Speaker 1: my beauty, my little one, my angel, continually strangling them 347 00:19:23,520 --> 00:19:25,960 Speaker 1: with flattery. I have seen young women ruined by these 348 00:19:25,960 --> 00:19:29,400 Speaker 1: awful queers, drugs, divorce and scandal that will use any 349 00:19:29,440 --> 00:19:32,200 Speaker 1: means to destroy a competitor in Reek vengeance on a woman. 350 00:19:32,240 --> 00:19:34,520 Speaker 1: The queers want to be women, but they are lousy women. 351 00:19:35,040 --> 00:19:39,920 Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, she's a real piece of shit. This 352 00:19:40,040 --> 00:19:44,280 Speaker 1: is the end of the sympathetic Coco. Oh yeah, yeah, 353 00:19:44,400 --> 00:19:48,440 Speaker 1: I p is she going back and forth from Britain, 354 00:19:49,240 --> 00:19:52,280 Speaker 1: Great Britain to Paris, Like London and Paris at this time, 355 00:19:52,600 --> 00:19:55,919 Speaker 1: she travels constantly, okay, and she's often like hopping a 356 00:19:56,000 --> 00:19:58,240 Speaker 1: ride across the Channel or whatever on like a yacht 357 00:19:58,400 --> 00:20:00,320 Speaker 1: or you know, she's got she has all of the 358 00:20:00,320 --> 00:20:04,159 Speaker 1: money in the world. She has all these connections. And 359 00:20:04,280 --> 00:20:06,320 Speaker 1: you know who else has all the money in the world. 360 00:20:06,960 --> 00:20:11,600 Speaker 1: Our sponsors, not yet, not until you pay them some 361 00:20:11,680 --> 00:20:25,520 Speaker 1: of your Ah, we are b a q that's how 362 00:20:25,560 --> 00:20:29,520 Speaker 1: you spell back. So Chanel spends the worst years of 363 00:20:29,520 --> 00:20:33,679 Speaker 1: the Great Depression with Bendor, and you know this is 364 00:20:33,680 --> 00:20:36,479 Speaker 1: she is kind of completely divorced from regular life at 365 00:20:36,520 --> 00:20:39,000 Speaker 1: this point. She's a very grounded upbringing, you might say, 366 00:20:39,400 --> 00:20:43,360 Speaker 1: not anymore. As his mistress, she finds herself regularly at 367 00:20:43,400 --> 00:20:47,480 Speaker 1: exclusive gatherings, these royal cotillions, where she'll be like drinking 368 00:20:47,520 --> 00:20:50,720 Speaker 1: and partying with like literally the fifty or sixty most 369 00:20:50,760 --> 00:20:55,960 Speaker 1: powerful people in the world. Pretty much. Bindor's palace, Eaton Hall, 370 00:20:56,080 --> 00:20:59,119 Speaker 1: had fifty four suites and a staff who were changed 371 00:20:59,480 --> 00:21:02,720 Speaker 1: trained to keep completely silent and just ensure that the 372 00:21:02,760 --> 00:21:06,040 Speaker 1: guests never had to lift a finger. So while millions 373 00:21:06,080 --> 00:21:08,280 Speaker 1: of people are starving all around the world while like 374 00:21:08,320 --> 00:21:10,680 Speaker 1: the depression is at its worst. This is what Coco's 375 00:21:10,760 --> 00:21:16,200 Speaker 1: up to, Yeah, would have been, could have used Amalata 376 00:21:16,200 --> 00:21:20,000 Speaker 1: of her too. So she and the Duke of Westminster 377 00:21:20,040 --> 00:21:22,080 Speaker 1: finally break up in the early thirties I believe it's 378 00:21:22,119 --> 00:21:25,240 Speaker 1: thirty three, primarily due to the fact that Westminster wants 379 00:21:25,280 --> 00:21:28,639 Speaker 1: an air and Chanelle is unable to get pregnant. She 380 00:21:28,720 --> 00:21:31,439 Speaker 1: was also frustrated constantly by the fact that he cheated 381 00:21:31,480 --> 00:21:34,600 Speaker 1: on her with clock like regularity. The two fought more 382 00:21:34,640 --> 00:21:37,560 Speaker 1: and more as time went on, having a particularly rivaled 383 00:21:37,680 --> 00:21:41,919 Speaker 1: argument after Bin Door brought a beautiful socialite onto his yacht, 384 00:21:41,920 --> 00:21:45,840 Speaker 1: the Flying Cloud. His usual tactic was to calm Cocoa 385 00:21:45,840 --> 00:21:47,919 Speaker 1: with a gift, and on this occasion he gave her 386 00:21:47,960 --> 00:21:50,760 Speaker 1: a priceless emerald that had been carved out of one 387 00:21:50,760 --> 00:21:54,240 Speaker 1: of the Empire's overseas colonies, something that's probably worth an 388 00:21:54,240 --> 00:21:57,760 Speaker 1: incalculable fortune to day. And because they're fighting, she takes 389 00:21:57,760 --> 00:22:00,520 Speaker 1: this massive emerald and she drops it into the ocean 390 00:22:01,560 --> 00:22:05,119 Speaker 1: like a real life Titanic thing. Yeah, but instead of 391 00:22:05,160 --> 00:22:07,439 Speaker 1: it being for whatever reason that lady did it, she 392 00:22:07,560 --> 00:22:11,040 Speaker 1: just does it because like, fuck you were fighting. I 393 00:22:11,040 --> 00:22:14,879 Speaker 1: don't even need this Emerald. I think she is like 394 00:22:14,960 --> 00:22:17,160 Speaker 1: you can't buy me. That's like one of her vibes. 395 00:22:17,800 --> 00:22:20,960 Speaker 1: It's just like, fuck off, rich guy, and I think 396 00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:22,440 Speaker 1: that is That's one of the things that is really 397 00:22:22,440 --> 00:22:24,919 Speaker 1: interesting and kind of as bad as she is endearing 398 00:22:24,960 --> 00:22:27,040 Speaker 1: about her is that from the beginning she's got this 399 00:22:27,160 --> 00:22:30,000 Speaker 1: like number one, I ain't going to actually stay with 400 00:22:30,040 --> 00:22:32,200 Speaker 1: a dude unless I really am in love with him. 401 00:22:32,400 --> 00:22:35,479 Speaker 1: And part of how I will make that, like, the 402 00:22:35,520 --> 00:22:37,800 Speaker 1: only way to really prove that is to make sure 403 00:22:37,840 --> 00:22:40,480 Speaker 1: that I am rich as shit, like so that this 404 00:22:40,760 --> 00:22:44,200 Speaker 1: whatever I'm doing is totally my call, you know, which 405 00:22:44,280 --> 00:22:46,199 Speaker 1: is interesting about her. It's one of the things that 406 00:22:46,240 --> 00:22:50,840 Speaker 1: makes her a compelling person to read about. Now they 407 00:22:50,880 --> 00:22:53,840 Speaker 1: break up, but there again, she's pretty good with her exes. 408 00:22:53,880 --> 00:22:56,879 Speaker 1: They're friends for the rest of Bendor's life, which fortunately 409 00:22:56,960 --> 00:23:00,600 Speaker 1: ends in fifty three, but Chanelle drifts away from him 410 00:23:00,640 --> 00:23:03,399 Speaker 1: after kind of the early thirties. She spends a chunk 411 00:23:03,400 --> 00:23:06,040 Speaker 1: of those years in Hollywood, where she designs clothing for 412 00:23:06,119 --> 00:23:08,840 Speaker 1: actor just like a like less than a year in Hollywood, 413 00:23:08,880 --> 00:23:11,040 Speaker 1: she makes clothing for actors and actresses in a bunch 414 00:23:11,080 --> 00:23:13,720 Speaker 1: of films, but most of those movies flop, which is 415 00:23:13,800 --> 00:23:16,280 Speaker 1: kind of one of her few brushes with failure. But 416 00:23:16,400 --> 00:23:18,640 Speaker 1: her time there puts her into the acquaintance of the 417 00:23:18,680 --> 00:23:21,760 Speaker 1: next great love of her life, a guy named Paul 418 00:23:21,800 --> 00:23:25,160 Speaker 1: Era barn Garay, known to most as Paul Iribe, thank God, 419 00:23:25,240 --> 00:23:30,840 Speaker 1: because I can't really say that last time. So Paul 420 00:23:30,880 --> 00:23:34,159 Speaker 1: Iribe is a Basque man. He was, he's in the 421 00:23:34,160 --> 00:23:37,560 Speaker 1: film industry. He had succeeded in the movie business as 422 00:23:37,600 --> 00:23:40,200 Speaker 1: an art director for Cecil b de Mille. He was 423 00:23:40,240 --> 00:23:42,879 Speaker 1: also a director in his own right in France. He 424 00:23:42,960 --> 00:23:45,400 Speaker 1: was famous for being the illustrator of an erotic art 425 00:23:45,400 --> 00:23:47,840 Speaker 1: book and also for being one of the first writers 426 00:23:47,840 --> 00:23:52,760 Speaker 1: and illustrators for Vogue. So he's an artist. You know, Yeah, 427 00:23:52,760 --> 00:23:57,720 Speaker 1: she's very drunk, well flaws. I'm sure you're gonna lay on. 428 00:23:58,680 --> 00:24:01,399 Speaker 1: So in addition to being a very talented artist with 429 00:24:01,440 --> 00:24:06,720 Speaker 1: a provocative wit, he is so racist. This guy, this 430 00:24:06,760 --> 00:24:10,879 Speaker 1: guy is like Hitler level of racist, right um, and 431 00:24:10,960 --> 00:24:13,840 Speaker 1: that has an impact on Paul aid because like Hitler's 432 00:24:13,880 --> 00:24:15,800 Speaker 1: coming into power in this period, the far rights in 433 00:24:15,840 --> 00:24:19,520 Speaker 1: a sent globally. You know, YadA, YadA, YadA, anti Semitism 434 00:24:19,600 --> 00:24:22,600 Speaker 1: is in, you might say, Vogue and a Reb convinces 435 00:24:22,720 --> 00:24:25,200 Speaker 1: Chanel that she could be a part of this big 436 00:24:25,240 --> 00:24:29,120 Speaker 1: ground swell in racism. With a small investment and using 437 00:24:29,160 --> 00:24:32,679 Speaker 1: her money, he relaunched a failed newspaper, Le Timoyne as 438 00:24:32,720 --> 00:24:37,080 Speaker 1: a nationalist anti Semitic propaganda paper. And I'm gonna quote again, Yeah, 439 00:24:37,440 --> 00:24:42,120 Speaker 1: Koko Chanelle founds a racism newspaper. Oh my gosh, cool, 440 00:24:42,240 --> 00:24:46,400 Speaker 1: it's awesome. I can't believe you, like, learn what racism 441 00:24:46,840 --> 00:24:50,760 Speaker 1: is and you're like, you know what, I'm gonna gotta 442 00:24:50,760 --> 00:24:53,480 Speaker 1: be a newspaper about this shit. I want to pay 443 00:24:53,520 --> 00:24:56,639 Speaker 1: for the town with how racist I am. Yeah, I 444 00:24:56,640 --> 00:24:59,000 Speaker 1: gotta make a newspaper about how much I hate people. 445 00:24:59,600 --> 00:25:04,679 Speaker 1: I can just only imagine her in modern times, Like 446 00:25:05,240 --> 00:25:07,680 Speaker 1: I think she would have been just as successful. I'll 447 00:25:07,680 --> 00:25:10,320 Speaker 1: tell you that much. Yeah. No, I don't disagree. I 448 00:25:10,440 --> 00:25:16,399 Speaker 1: don't disagree. I just it's fascinating the parallels. Yeah, yeah, 449 00:25:16,440 --> 00:25:20,080 Speaker 1: and she really like she is this kind of timeless 450 00:25:21,640 --> 00:25:25,679 Speaker 1: capitalist ghoul because you can just imagine, Yeah, you just 451 00:25:25,680 --> 00:25:29,000 Speaker 1: transfer today the internet. She wouldn't have been any less successful. 452 00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:31,240 Speaker 1: She would have made most of the same calls and 453 00:25:31,280 --> 00:25:33,560 Speaker 1: they would have worked about as well. She's like in 454 00:25:33,560 --> 00:25:38,040 Speaker 1: this oddly fraught relationship with Bill Maher or something. Yeah, 455 00:25:38,040 --> 00:25:40,440 Speaker 1: I would have been Bill mare today. So I'm gonna 456 00:25:40,440 --> 00:25:43,920 Speaker 1: I'm gonna quote from how Vaughan. According to one biographer, 457 00:25:43,920 --> 00:25:47,800 Speaker 1: Aribe was an elitist bourgeoisie supercharged with a with an 458 00:25:47,840 --> 00:25:51,320 Speaker 1: irrational fear of foreigners. Reading his issues of Letemoine, one 459 00:25:51,320 --> 00:25:53,760 Speaker 1: would think France was the eternal victim of some vast 460 00:25:53,800 --> 00:25:57,560 Speaker 1: international conspiracy. The magazine was a timid echo of France's 461 00:25:57,600 --> 00:26:01,600 Speaker 1: fascist and anti Semitic press, publications that supported French stormtroopers 462 00:26:01,640 --> 00:26:04,680 Speaker 1: named the Hooded Ones, and groups promoting law and order 463 00:26:04,680 --> 00:26:08,480 Speaker 1: in Italy and Germany. Biographer Charles Rue believed Chanelle's launching 464 00:26:08,480 --> 00:26:11,320 Speaker 1: of Le Timoine with Ariba as editor and art director 465 00:26:11,359 --> 00:26:13,960 Speaker 1: marked her transition from political indifference to a view of 466 00:26:13,960 --> 00:26:16,800 Speaker 1: the future modeled on the opinions of Aribe, mixed with 467 00:26:16,880 --> 00:26:20,480 Speaker 1: ideas and prejudices absorbed during her peasant and Catholic upbringing. 468 00:26:20,840 --> 00:26:23,440 Speaker 1: In the February twenty fourth, nineteen thirty three edition of 469 00:26:23,480 --> 00:26:26,000 Speaker 1: the magazine, Aribe had the brass to draw Chanelle as 470 00:26:26,040 --> 00:26:29,280 Speaker 1: a martyred Mary Anne in her Ferrgian Bonnet, her naked 471 00:26:29,320 --> 00:26:31,960 Speaker 1: body held by a collection of evil looking men with 472 00:26:32,040 --> 00:26:35,280 Speaker 1: obvious Jewish features. France, according to a Ribe and Let, 473 00:26:35,320 --> 00:26:38,640 Speaker 1: Timoyne was suffering from a conspiracy managed by enemies within 474 00:26:39,040 --> 00:26:43,119 Speaker 1: called Samuel or Levy, the alien like Leon Bloom and 475 00:26:43,200 --> 00:26:47,400 Speaker 1: the Judeo Masonic mafia, the USSR and read rabbles. Leon 476 00:26:47,480 --> 00:26:50,840 Speaker 1: Bloom is like the leader of the Popular Front, which 477 00:26:50,920 --> 00:26:53,800 Speaker 1: is kind of this like left wing progressive political movement 478 00:26:53,840 --> 00:26:58,240 Speaker 1: that defeats the fascists and France during this period. So yeah, 479 00:26:59,000 --> 00:27:02,680 Speaker 1: that's the bigot. This is all the shit that's in 480 00:27:02,800 --> 00:27:09,320 Speaker 1: her paper. Yeah, oh my god, it's pretty bad. Yeah, 481 00:27:10,280 --> 00:27:12,720 Speaker 1: now there's a good there's some good news coming Courtney, 482 00:27:12,960 --> 00:27:15,480 Speaker 1: because Paula Reebe, like after a couple of years of 483 00:27:15,560 --> 00:27:18,600 Speaker 1: this in late nineteen thirty five, he's he's paying, he's 484 00:27:18,600 --> 00:27:22,120 Speaker 1: playing tennis, Coco's out sunning herself. They're having a great day. 485 00:27:22,320 --> 00:27:24,919 Speaker 1: And this motherfucker drops the fuck dead of a heart attack, 486 00:27:25,200 --> 00:27:29,920 Speaker 1: which is awesome, that's great, dead Nazi fuck him. But 487 00:27:30,240 --> 00:27:34,119 Speaker 1: second time her boyfriends died, right, Yeah, she loses a 488 00:27:34,160 --> 00:27:36,440 Speaker 1: lot of boyfriends. Yep. I'm just saying, you could really 489 00:27:36,560 --> 00:27:42,560 Speaker 1: sell this fucking Netflix show. I know. I look, you're 490 00:27:42,600 --> 00:27:44,840 Speaker 1: gonna have to cut a lot of the anti semitism. 491 00:27:45,119 --> 00:27:47,359 Speaker 1: You're gonna have to You're gonna have to cast for 492 00:27:47,480 --> 00:27:50,080 Speaker 1: Paula Rebe Who do we cast? Oh? Who's that guy? 493 00:27:50,240 --> 00:27:52,479 Speaker 1: He's in? Um, he's in the new Star Wars movies. 494 00:27:52,880 --> 00:27:59,960 Speaker 1: Everybody thinks he's handsome. Oh uh, you could probably do Padre, 495 00:28:00,240 --> 00:28:04,080 Speaker 1: you could do Pedro. You could whitewash Paula Rebus, Pedro, Pascal. Sure, 496 00:28:04,400 --> 00:28:10,879 Speaker 1: let's do that. You know what Courtney green Litt the 497 00:28:11,040 --> 00:28:17,159 Speaker 1: Coco story asterisk? My question? Yeah, what's that fucker's name? Um? Okay, 498 00:28:17,240 --> 00:28:20,320 Speaker 1: one sec? I want to know who you think is handsome? 499 00:28:22,200 --> 00:28:25,160 Speaker 1: I don't. I'm so bad at like movie star names. Wow, 500 00:28:25,800 --> 00:28:31,440 Speaker 1: I'm going I gotta say one thing. I appreciate. I 501 00:28:31,600 --> 00:28:35,760 Speaker 1: just typed into being Star Wars handsome guy. There's a 502 00:28:35,840 --> 00:28:39,840 Speaker 1: lot of potential options for that. You get Warwick Davis Um, 503 00:28:40,120 --> 00:28:42,800 Speaker 1: which I think is awesome. I don't even know who 504 00:28:42,880 --> 00:28:47,000 Speaker 1: that is. Warwick is the guy who plays the LEPrecon 505 00:28:47,080 --> 00:28:53,360 Speaker 1: and the LEPrecon films. He plays a number of Adam Driver. No, 506 00:28:53,600 --> 00:28:55,840 Speaker 1: not Adam Driver. I don't think Adam Driver's very good looking. 507 00:28:56,000 --> 00:28:59,720 Speaker 1: He's the guy who's kind of like Latin. Oh I'm sure, 508 00:28:59,840 --> 00:29:02,920 Speaker 1: I'm sure. Literally the entire audience is screaming at us. 509 00:29:03,320 --> 00:29:06,920 Speaker 1: Yeah he was in Willow too, Yes, yeah, God, who's 510 00:29:06,920 --> 00:29:12,680 Speaker 1: the fucking the guy who plays Anakin because everybody likes no, no, no, no, 511 00:29:14,400 --> 00:29:17,120 Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm so bad at names. He's he's 512 00:29:17,320 --> 00:29:21,360 Speaker 1: a little person that was in Willow and actually it 513 00:29:21,480 --> 00:29:24,240 Speaker 1: worked with a relative of mine and Willow. We're getting 514 00:29:24,280 --> 00:29:28,080 Speaker 1: totally derailed. Sorry, you know, he's grab I just appreciate 515 00:29:28,240 --> 00:29:30,680 Speaker 1: for his sake that he is the first pick and 516 00:29:30,840 --> 00:29:33,920 Speaker 1: bing for Star Wars. Handsome guy. Good for you, Warwick, Yes, 517 00:29:35,040 --> 00:29:38,960 Speaker 1: love you appreciate you. Oscar Isaac, God that was driving 518 00:29:39,000 --> 00:29:43,040 Speaker 1: me crazy. Oh yes, okay, yeah yeah. Oscar Isaac is 519 00:29:43,040 --> 00:29:46,240 Speaker 1: who I would cast as Paula Reeb in the whitewashed 520 00:29:46,400 --> 00:29:49,000 Speaker 1: version of Coco's life where we pretend she didn't run 521 00:29:49,040 --> 00:29:54,440 Speaker 1: a Nazi newspaper. But dope, yeah, isn't he? Ye? Look, 522 00:29:54,480 --> 00:29:58,640 Speaker 1: he's a handsome man, Oscar Isaac. Yeah, you're once. He's 523 00:29:58,760 --> 00:30:03,480 Speaker 1: he's he's Guadama, he's his Guatemalan and and I think 524 00:30:03,560 --> 00:30:08,320 Speaker 1: he's going to be honest. That ship I mean, yeah, 525 00:30:08,360 --> 00:30:10,000 Speaker 1: but who are I mean, we're who are we casting 526 00:30:10,080 --> 00:30:12,520 Speaker 1: for Coco? Right? We're going with somebody like in this period? 527 00:30:12,520 --> 00:30:14,880 Speaker 1: Actually kind of maybe Aubrey Plaza is who I cast 528 00:30:14,960 --> 00:30:18,480 Speaker 1: for Coco. She's kind of like her her late thirties, 529 00:30:18,560 --> 00:30:20,640 Speaker 1: early forties around this time. I think, so, yeah, I 530 00:30:20,680 --> 00:30:22,200 Speaker 1: think she could I think she could do and she 531 00:30:24,200 --> 00:30:27,400 Speaker 1: really well yeah, honestly, I don't know who else you 532 00:30:27,520 --> 00:30:32,600 Speaker 1: cast cast now, now that we've mentioned it, now, um, yeah, Aubrey, 533 00:30:32,680 --> 00:30:35,160 Speaker 1: do it, do it, and do it racist. Let's just 534 00:30:35,400 --> 00:30:37,640 Speaker 1: let's just go for it. You're going if you're if 535 00:30:37,680 --> 00:30:40,360 Speaker 1: you're sticking with a French actress, you could do. Um 536 00:30:40,760 --> 00:30:44,800 Speaker 1: Marian Courtier. I don't know who that is now, you don't. 537 00:30:45,680 --> 00:30:47,840 Speaker 1: I barely I couldn't. It took me like ten minutes 538 00:30:47,880 --> 00:30:52,680 Speaker 1: to figure out who Oscar Isaac was. Cool. Um, so 539 00:30:53,240 --> 00:30:56,000 Speaker 1: you know, this piece of shit dies and good riddence. 540 00:30:56,240 --> 00:30:59,000 Speaker 1: Very funny that he dies playing tennis. Fuck this asshole. 541 00:30:59,440 --> 00:31:01,800 Speaker 1: This makes Oko very sad, though, because she loves the 542 00:31:01,840 --> 00:31:05,400 Speaker 1: piece of shit, and she is made only the sadder 543 00:31:05,560 --> 00:31:07,920 Speaker 1: because of the political currents that are going around in 544 00:31:08,040 --> 00:31:11,440 Speaker 1: France at the time, as had happened in Italy, Spain, 545 00:31:11,560 --> 00:31:13,880 Speaker 1: in Germany. The far right is on the rise in 546 00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:16,840 Speaker 1: France and the mid to late thirties, but unlike in 547 00:31:16,920 --> 00:31:20,360 Speaker 1: those countries, a united left wing popular front was able 548 00:31:20,440 --> 00:31:23,160 Speaker 1: to rise up and block the fascists from power. We 549 00:31:23,280 --> 00:31:26,800 Speaker 1: cover this somewhat in our Behind the Insurrection series. Nineteen 550 00:31:26,960 --> 00:31:30,000 Speaker 1: thirty six is the year of the popular fronts electoral success, 551 00:31:30,280 --> 00:31:32,640 Speaker 1: and it brings with it, as part of this big, 552 00:31:33,200 --> 00:31:35,840 Speaker 1: you know, kind of left wing counterwave to the fascists, 553 00:31:36,200 --> 00:31:39,920 Speaker 1: a wave of strikes by organized labor. There's a general 554 00:31:40,040 --> 00:31:42,960 Speaker 1: strike on May twenty sixth, and by June the boutiques 555 00:31:42,960 --> 00:31:46,520 Speaker 1: in the Ritz Hotel where Coco lived full time had closed. 556 00:31:47,800 --> 00:31:51,200 Speaker 1: You know. Within a few weeks, Chanelle's salesgirls and seamstresses 557 00:31:51,240 --> 00:31:54,000 Speaker 1: had joined the strike. Some four thousand of her workers 558 00:31:54,040 --> 00:31:57,440 Speaker 1: in total start striking, and when Chanelle is informed of this, 559 00:31:57,920 --> 00:32:00,520 Speaker 1: she so she learns her workers are on strike because 560 00:32:00,560 --> 00:32:03,760 Speaker 1: her personal assistant has to sneak into the hotel from 561 00:32:03,800 --> 00:32:06,600 Speaker 1: the back because the employees have a picket line out front. 562 00:32:07,120 --> 00:32:10,840 Speaker 1: And Coco is horrified and shocked that her workers have 563 00:32:10,960 --> 00:32:14,160 Speaker 1: decided to join this strike. She expresses the thought that 564 00:32:14,200 --> 00:32:16,680 Speaker 1: they must have lost their minds. She calls them her 565 00:32:16,720 --> 00:32:20,040 Speaker 1: little hands. That's what she calls her workers. I know 566 00:32:20,640 --> 00:32:24,800 Speaker 1: she is a goal at this point, and she accuses 567 00:32:24,840 --> 00:32:28,080 Speaker 1: them of having been infected by an American mind virus. 568 00:32:28,320 --> 00:32:31,720 Speaker 1: List sit down, which is interesting to me that like today, 569 00:32:31,800 --> 00:32:33,640 Speaker 1: when you talk about strikes, the French are like the 570 00:32:33,680 --> 00:32:35,560 Speaker 1: first people you think about. But back in this day, 571 00:32:35,760 --> 00:32:37,960 Speaker 1: when her workers go on strikes, she's like, this damn 572 00:32:37,960 --> 00:32:42,520 Speaker 1: American striking virus. That could be us again, folks. So 573 00:32:42,720 --> 00:32:47,000 Speaker 1: her workers meanwhile SAPs like all held signs. That's so 574 00:32:47,280 --> 00:32:49,600 Speaker 1: like they would basically, you know, the workers at these 575 00:32:49,600 --> 00:32:52,480 Speaker 1: shops would cover the windows with signs that said occupied 576 00:32:52,920 --> 00:32:55,080 Speaker 1: because they were not. They weren't just like not working. 577 00:32:55,400 --> 00:32:58,080 Speaker 1: They were sitting in her factories and her stores and 578 00:32:58,240 --> 00:33:01,120 Speaker 1: refusing to either work or leaves so that nothing could 579 00:33:01,160 --> 00:33:05,120 Speaker 1: be done, which is fucking rad. It's very cool. Chanel 580 00:33:05,240 --> 00:33:08,520 Speaker 1: calls this a betrayal. She felt that she paid them fairly. 581 00:33:08,640 --> 00:33:13,000 Speaker 1: She's particularly angry because she offered them unpaid vacation days 582 00:33:13,440 --> 00:33:17,960 Speaker 1: and they weren't grateful. Can you believe that court now? 583 00:33:18,440 --> 00:33:21,880 Speaker 1: They weren't happy with their unpaid vacation day day? Was 584 00:33:21,960 --> 00:33:25,360 Speaker 1: she paying them fairly for the time. I don't think 585 00:33:25,400 --> 00:33:27,560 Speaker 1: it's bad pay for the time. Obviously they're not happy 586 00:33:27,600 --> 00:33:30,000 Speaker 1: with it, so I'm gonna trust them that it could 587 00:33:30,040 --> 00:33:35,480 Speaker 1: be better. Yeah, that's clearly a their attitude. So she 588 00:33:35,680 --> 00:33:38,120 Speaker 1: became convinced, I don't think like from what I've read, 589 00:33:38,160 --> 00:33:40,880 Speaker 1: I don't think it was particularly bad, but clearly it 590 00:33:40,920 --> 00:33:43,000 Speaker 1: could have been better, and it's about to get better 591 00:33:43,040 --> 00:33:47,000 Speaker 1: because they go on strike. She becomes convinced that a 592 00:33:47,080 --> 00:33:50,760 Speaker 1: civil war is imminent. Such insolence from the working class, 593 00:33:50,800 --> 00:33:53,160 Speaker 1: that's the only thing it could mean, right bolshevisms around 594 00:33:53,200 --> 00:33:54,880 Speaker 1: the corner. They're going to be hunting us down in 595 00:33:54,920 --> 00:33:58,240 Speaker 1: the streets. This is the only logical conclusion to what 596 00:33:58,360 --> 00:34:02,560 Speaker 1: if we had paid vacation days. You you live in 597 00:34:02,680 --> 00:34:05,239 Speaker 1: a hotel and will never be able to spend all 598 00:34:05,280 --> 00:34:08,879 Speaker 1: the money you have. Maybe we could have paid vacation days. 599 00:34:10,080 --> 00:34:15,360 Speaker 1: She's like, no revolution or nothing, this is war again. 600 00:34:15,480 --> 00:34:18,760 Speaker 1: Very little ever changes. So gold prices during this period 601 00:34:18,840 --> 00:34:21,520 Speaker 1: skyrocket in France because Coco and all of our friends 602 00:34:21,840 --> 00:34:23,560 Speaker 1: buy all of the gold that they can get their 603 00:34:23,600 --> 00:34:26,240 Speaker 1: hands on because they're worried the cash is going to collapse, 604 00:34:26,520 --> 00:34:29,520 Speaker 1: which is actually that's not unfair considering this is around 605 00:34:29,640 --> 00:34:32,400 Speaker 1: like right after the Great Depression, right, like not unreasonable 606 00:34:32,440 --> 00:34:36,400 Speaker 1: to be worried about that. Coco raged and roared as 607 00:34:36,440 --> 00:34:38,840 Speaker 1: she sought to bring her laborers to heal, without success. 608 00:34:39,360 --> 00:34:42,719 Speaker 1: They would not move on their demands, though ironically, her 609 00:34:42,800 --> 00:34:46,200 Speaker 1: designs became even more iconic during this period because one 610 00:34:46,239 --> 00:34:48,719 Speaker 1: of the big symbols of the strike is all of 611 00:34:48,800 --> 00:34:52,080 Speaker 1: these Chanelle workers and their Chanelle suits strutting around in 612 00:34:52,160 --> 00:34:55,359 Speaker 1: front of Chanelle's shops, refusing to work without a fucking raise. 613 00:34:57,239 --> 00:35:00,759 Speaker 1: Pretty cool, So like they're advertising for her kind of well, 614 00:35:00,760 --> 00:35:04,439 Speaker 1: I mean, it's the nicest clothing they have, right, yeah, yeah, 615 00:35:04,600 --> 00:35:07,280 Speaker 1: you know, I don't know, it's what they do. Eventually, 616 00:35:07,400 --> 00:35:09,840 Speaker 1: Coco is forced to concede after the leader of the 617 00:35:09,920 --> 00:35:12,480 Speaker 1: Popular Front and the French labor movement sign a pact 618 00:35:12,560 --> 00:35:16,239 Speaker 1: granting French workers a forty hour work week, paid vacations, 619 00:35:16,520 --> 00:35:19,799 Speaker 1: collective bargaining rights, and compulsory schooling up to the age 620 00:35:19,840 --> 00:35:23,400 Speaker 1: of fourteen. Coco fought to the last moment possible, but 621 00:35:23,760 --> 00:35:30,520 Speaker 1: enraged eventually conceded. So fuck yeah, way to go workers again. 622 00:35:30,800 --> 00:35:33,080 Speaker 1: Like every story that has a good thing in it, 623 00:35:33,239 --> 00:35:35,759 Speaker 1: in this part of the twentieth century. It's like, yeah, 624 00:35:36,040 --> 00:35:39,560 Speaker 1: that all ends well. And then on June fourteenth, nineteen forty, 625 00:35:39,600 --> 00:35:44,799 Speaker 1: Germany invades Friends and things take a turn, shall we say. 626 00:35:45,360 --> 00:35:48,399 Speaker 1: Within weeks, the Germans break the back of the French army. 627 00:35:48,800 --> 00:35:51,200 Speaker 1: Paris has declared an open city to spare it from 628 00:35:51,239 --> 00:35:53,239 Speaker 1: getting the fuck blown out of it, and as soon 629 00:35:53,320 --> 00:35:55,880 Speaker 1: as the fighting starts, Coco is like, well, I'm not 630 00:35:55,920 --> 00:35:58,719 Speaker 1: going to stay in fucking Paris. So she bounces to 631 00:35:58,840 --> 00:36:01,880 Speaker 1: her nephew Andre. He's like an adult now, he's in 632 00:36:01,960 --> 00:36:04,279 Speaker 1: the French army, he's got a family, he has a 633 00:36:04,440 --> 00:36:07,080 Speaker 1: nice home in the countryside. He's done reasonably well for himself. 634 00:36:07,080 --> 00:36:09,440 Speaker 1: I'm sure she helped. And she winds up just kind 635 00:36:09,480 --> 00:36:11,839 Speaker 1: of crashing with his family in the countryside in their 636 00:36:11,960 --> 00:36:16,080 Speaker 1: nice manner. For a while. Andre is on the imagine 637 00:36:16,120 --> 00:36:18,239 Speaker 1: O line. I probably don't need to explain to you 638 00:36:18,360 --> 00:36:21,920 Speaker 1: that he gets captured. That's not a I mean, it 639 00:36:22,000 --> 00:36:24,000 Speaker 1: doesn't work all that badly for him. Sorry, I'm so, 640 00:36:24,360 --> 00:36:27,840 Speaker 1: what's that line you just said? Oh, the imagine O line. 641 00:36:27,880 --> 00:36:30,040 Speaker 1: So I shouldn't make assumptions like that. The imagine O 642 00:36:30,160 --> 00:36:32,480 Speaker 1: line is so, you know, World War One goes pretty 643 00:36:32,480 --> 00:36:34,920 Speaker 1: badly for everybody involved, a lot of a lot of murdering. 644 00:36:35,239 --> 00:36:37,919 Speaker 1: So in order to like not have that happen again, 645 00:36:38,040 --> 00:36:41,799 Speaker 1: the French build this big wall of fortifications across most 646 00:36:41,880 --> 00:36:44,560 Speaker 1: of their border with Germany and the hope that, like, well, 647 00:36:44,600 --> 00:36:46,319 Speaker 1: the next time they attack, will just kill them all 648 00:36:46,440 --> 00:36:50,479 Speaker 1: with these gigantic like bunkers and forts. But they don't, 649 00:36:50,880 --> 00:36:52,839 Speaker 1: you know, the imagine O line actually does its job 650 00:36:52,920 --> 00:36:55,600 Speaker 1: reasonably well. The French. The Germans just move around it 651 00:36:55,920 --> 00:36:58,600 Speaker 1: and then enter from that area anyway, it's a whole thing. 652 00:36:59,200 --> 00:37:01,280 Speaker 1: But he's stationed in the imagine a line, the Germans 653 00:37:01,320 --> 00:37:03,520 Speaker 1: get around them, he gets captured, he becomes a prisoner 654 00:37:03,560 --> 00:37:07,360 Speaker 1: of war. Right, So, Coco and her family living in 655 00:37:07,440 --> 00:37:11,200 Speaker 1: the countryside are mostly insulated from the opening stages of 656 00:37:11,239 --> 00:37:14,040 Speaker 1: World War Two, but they are worried for Andre. You know, 657 00:37:14,400 --> 00:37:17,080 Speaker 1: it becomes clear something has gonna ry when he stops 658 00:37:17,080 --> 00:37:21,959 Speaker 1: sending letters. The mystery only lingered after the fighting ended 659 00:37:22,040 --> 00:37:25,680 Speaker 1: and Germans occupied the French heartland. Coco found this as 660 00:37:25,760 --> 00:37:28,759 Speaker 1: intolerable as she was separated from her businesses. That's the 661 00:37:28,800 --> 00:37:33,240 Speaker 1: main reason she is frustrated about the German conquest of Paris. 662 00:37:33,960 --> 00:37:37,240 Speaker 1: And so shortly after Adolf Hitler's triumphant visit to Paris, 663 00:37:37,560 --> 00:37:41,480 Speaker 1: she returns home telling her family the Germans aren't all gangsters. 664 00:37:43,239 --> 00:37:47,600 Speaker 1: Oh Coco, Oh Cocoa. One fun anecdote is that on 665 00:37:47,719 --> 00:37:51,279 Speaker 1: the drive back gases and shuts such short supply and 666 00:37:51,360 --> 00:37:54,680 Speaker 1: it's about to be rationed into extinction for regular people. 667 00:37:54,920 --> 00:37:57,040 Speaker 1: Her chau fur has to fill the trunk with tin 668 00:37:57,160 --> 00:37:59,360 Speaker 1: cans of gasoline in order to get her to Paris. 669 00:38:00,120 --> 00:38:03,320 Speaker 1: Un't know, interesting context. Another thing I learned during this 670 00:38:03,440 --> 00:38:06,160 Speaker 1: that I hadn't known is because the Germans when they 671 00:38:06,239 --> 00:38:09,959 Speaker 1: take over, you know, most of France, because they rash 672 00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:12,480 Speaker 1: and gas and people can't get it. A lot of 673 00:38:12,560 --> 00:38:15,279 Speaker 1: French people convert their cars to beat to run off 674 00:38:15,360 --> 00:38:18,120 Speaker 1: of like like like literally to run off of like 675 00:38:18,480 --> 00:38:21,520 Speaker 1: charcoal and wood. So you just like stoke a burner 676 00:38:21,600 --> 00:38:24,120 Speaker 1: and it makes your cargo. I didn't realize you could 677 00:38:24,160 --> 00:38:28,040 Speaker 1: do that. That's kind of a cool idea. That is interesting. Hey, 678 00:38:28,200 --> 00:38:31,239 Speaker 1: did she feel safe because the Nazis are in charge 679 00:38:31,280 --> 00:38:35,439 Speaker 1: of Paris? Right, so it's like she had friends? Yeah, 680 00:38:35,520 --> 00:38:37,960 Speaker 1: she's Coco, you know, I think she she has this 681 00:38:38,120 --> 00:38:42,040 Speaker 1: kind of confidence that it'll be fine and there's a 682 00:38:42,120 --> 00:38:45,080 Speaker 1: reason for this confidence, because this is the point at 683 00:38:45,080 --> 00:38:48,360 Speaker 1: which Channell's life comes to intersect with a Prussian military 684 00:38:48,480 --> 00:38:53,759 Speaker 1: officer named Hans Gunther von Dinklage. Now Dinklage had been 685 00:38:53,840 --> 00:38:56,319 Speaker 1: born the son of a Prussian major and the daughter 686 00:38:56,400 --> 00:38:59,600 Speaker 1: of a German merchant family. He'd been educated in England, though, 687 00:38:59,640 --> 00:39:03,760 Speaker 1: which from this kind of worldly charm that German spies 688 00:39:03,960 --> 00:39:07,080 Speaker 1: generally aren't good. In World War Two, the British basically 689 00:39:07,200 --> 00:39:10,160 Speaker 1: catch all of them. Dinklage is about to become a spy. 690 00:39:10,440 --> 00:39:12,520 Speaker 1: He's a very good spy because he has this kind 691 00:39:12,520 --> 00:39:15,840 Speaker 1: of worldly background. So after World War One, where he 692 00:39:15,920 --> 00:39:18,759 Speaker 1: serves in the cavalry, he joins the ab VI or 693 00:39:19,160 --> 00:39:22,920 Speaker 1: ab there, which is like German military intelligence, and he 694 00:39:23,040 --> 00:39:25,759 Speaker 1: gets sent to France in nineteen twenty eight, so he's 695 00:39:25,800 --> 00:39:29,400 Speaker 1: there before the Nazis rise to power, and he's working 696 00:39:29,480 --> 00:39:32,480 Speaker 1: as a secret agent for the German government disguised as 697 00:39:32,520 --> 00:39:35,279 Speaker 1: a diplomat for the entire period from twenty eight up 698 00:39:35,320 --> 00:39:38,200 Speaker 1: to the start of World War Two. And his job 699 00:39:38,320 --> 00:39:41,439 Speaker 1: is basically to earn trust and sympathy with French high 700 00:39:41,520 --> 00:39:45,880 Speaker 1: society people, with politicians, with the wealthy and He develops 701 00:39:45,920 --> 00:39:49,120 Speaker 1: a perfect cover to do this because his wife is Jewish. 702 00:39:49,680 --> 00:39:52,400 Speaker 1: So he's like, yeah, you know, we're here in France 703 00:39:52,440 --> 00:39:54,719 Speaker 1: because of all the anti Semitism in Germany. We had 704 00:39:54,760 --> 00:39:57,440 Speaker 1: to flee those Nazis, you know, we had to. Like, 705 00:39:57,719 --> 00:40:03,320 Speaker 1: he's perfect double agent while he's fucking spying for the Nazis. 706 00:40:03,560 --> 00:40:05,840 Speaker 1: And to make it more fucked up, he actually divorced 707 00:40:05,920 --> 00:40:09,040 Speaker 1: his wife in nineteen thirty five before the Nuremberg Laws, 708 00:40:09,120 --> 00:40:11,640 Speaker 1: which made it illegal for them to be married, but 709 00:40:11,719 --> 00:40:14,200 Speaker 1: they continue to live together in France in order to 710 00:40:14,280 --> 00:40:19,840 Speaker 1: provide for his cover. Oh, it's fucked up. It's totally 711 00:40:19,920 --> 00:40:23,000 Speaker 1: fucked up. I guess she would stay because she needed 712 00:40:23,040 --> 00:40:25,080 Speaker 1: to be safe. I don't think she had a lot 713 00:40:25,120 --> 00:40:28,800 Speaker 1: of options. Yeah, I don't know. I'm not an expert 714 00:40:28,840 --> 00:40:30,759 Speaker 1: on the her specific story or why she did it. 715 00:40:30,880 --> 00:40:34,879 Speaker 1: It's messy, that's for sure. Yeah, when the Germans won, 716 00:40:35,080 --> 00:40:38,360 Speaker 1: Dinklage returned to like because he leaves right before the invasion, 717 00:40:38,440 --> 00:40:41,280 Speaker 1: he comes back after it succeeds because he knows France 718 00:40:41,320 --> 00:40:43,400 Speaker 1: and the Germans need people in country who can help 719 00:40:43,480 --> 00:40:46,560 Speaker 1: them run it. He and Chanel had known each other 720 00:40:46,719 --> 00:40:49,520 Speaker 1: again before the war. He's kind of playing as this 721 00:40:49,680 --> 00:40:54,200 Speaker 1: like exile in high society. He's a noble, so they're friendly, 722 00:40:54,440 --> 00:40:57,080 Speaker 1: you know, they know each other, and then when the 723 00:40:57,239 --> 00:41:00,920 Speaker 1: Nazis take over Paris, she runs into him and is like, 724 00:41:01,360 --> 00:41:04,000 Speaker 1: oh shit, I know this guy, and he's kind of 725 00:41:04,040 --> 00:41:05,799 Speaker 1: a good guy to know right now, so they start 726 00:41:05,880 --> 00:41:09,040 Speaker 1: hooking up right the fuck away. It doesn't hurt that 727 00:41:09,120 --> 00:41:11,800 Speaker 1: Dinklage is a dashing man in his own right, but 728 00:41:11,920 --> 00:41:15,040 Speaker 1: he also provides her a pathway to respect and luxury 729 00:41:15,160 --> 00:41:18,640 Speaker 1: in the tenuous reality of the war years. Gotta get 730 00:41:18,680 --> 00:41:23,440 Speaker 1: that good Nazi dick. Yeah yeah. Von Dinklage, whose nickname 731 00:41:23,520 --> 00:41:26,400 Speaker 1: is Spitz, is able to get Coco permission from the 732 00:41:26,520 --> 00:41:29,160 Speaker 1: Reich to live in the Ritz Hotel in Paris, which 733 00:41:29,280 --> 00:41:32,760 Speaker 1: during the occupation is only for Nazis and their approved guests, 734 00:41:33,040 --> 00:41:34,960 Speaker 1: so she gets to keep living in her fancy hotel 735 00:41:35,000 --> 00:41:38,080 Speaker 1: because she's kind of boinking this guy. She also gets 736 00:41:38,160 --> 00:41:42,880 Speaker 1: high quality French cuisine, which is mostly restricted. Like actual 737 00:41:42,960 --> 00:41:46,240 Speaker 1: French people are living on a starvation diet. The average 738 00:41:46,280 --> 00:41:49,359 Speaker 1: French working person diet is like twelve hundred calories a day. 739 00:41:49,600 --> 00:41:51,960 Speaker 1: During the war in the areas that the Germans are 740 00:41:52,000 --> 00:41:54,759 Speaker 1: running at least, but you can get all of the 741 00:41:54,840 --> 00:41:57,120 Speaker 1: good food in the Ritz, right because it's being served 742 00:41:57,160 --> 00:42:00,320 Speaker 1: to Nazis and to Coco, who at this point is 743 00:42:00,360 --> 00:42:03,200 Speaker 1: basically a Nazi. For an idea of like how bad 744 00:42:03,280 --> 00:42:07,480 Speaker 1: shit is for regular French people, hospitals are bartering their 745 00:42:07,719 --> 00:42:10,280 Speaker 1: wine rations for their patients because some of their patients 746 00:42:10,360 --> 00:42:13,279 Speaker 1: are too sick to drink wine in order to get potatoes, 747 00:42:13,320 --> 00:42:15,440 Speaker 1: which is the only food dense enough in calories to 748 00:42:15,560 --> 00:42:18,279 Speaker 1: keep their patients from starving to death. Like, that's again 749 00:42:18,360 --> 00:42:20,560 Speaker 1: how bad it is for regular people? While Coco is 750 00:42:20,600 --> 00:42:27,440 Speaker 1: living in the Ritz, So yeah, that's good, awesome. You 751 00:42:27,520 --> 00:42:30,200 Speaker 1: know who else lives in the Ritz, Courtney, Probably some 752 00:42:30,480 --> 00:42:34,880 Speaker 1: more Nazis. I'm guessing more Nazis. Yeah, probably still Nazis, 753 00:42:35,239 --> 00:42:43,719 Speaker 1: but also our sponsors. No, oh god, we'll fix this 754 00:42:43,840 --> 00:42:53,120 Speaker 1: in post. Ah, we're back. I don't think we fixed 755 00:42:53,160 --> 00:42:56,160 Speaker 1: it in post. Oh well, what are you gonna do? 756 00:42:56,600 --> 00:42:59,279 Speaker 1: You know that it was really good? How can you 757 00:42:59,360 --> 00:43:05,480 Speaker 1: blame them? I'm sure it fucking was. So we're back 758 00:43:06,000 --> 00:43:09,320 Speaker 1: a good times. Um. So, while this is going on, 759 00:43:09,560 --> 00:43:12,560 Speaker 1: Coco and her new Nazi friends they're holding feasts. They're 760 00:43:12,600 --> 00:43:15,359 Speaker 1: having these like fancy parties in some of which you're 761 00:43:15,360 --> 00:43:17,759 Speaker 1: pretty cheeky. One of the parties she has at the 762 00:43:17,880 --> 00:43:21,480 Speaker 1: Ritz is one where like all it's like these these 763 00:43:21,560 --> 00:43:25,480 Speaker 1: French collaborators and all these Nazi officials, and the Nazi 764 00:43:25,520 --> 00:43:28,160 Speaker 1: officials aren't allowed to speak German, so they have to 765 00:43:28,239 --> 00:43:31,360 Speaker 1: attempt to speak French. That's like the fun theme of 766 00:43:31,440 --> 00:43:35,680 Speaker 1: this party, while everyone else in Paris is starving. German 767 00:43:35,760 --> 00:43:39,000 Speaker 1: officers consciously wielded starvation as a weapon, which made it 768 00:43:39,120 --> 00:43:43,319 Speaker 1: easier to compel behavior by awarding collaborators with rations. As 769 00:43:43,400 --> 00:43:46,439 Speaker 1: one German officer in the Ritz stated, in times like these, 770 00:43:46,640 --> 00:43:48,960 Speaker 1: to eat well and eat a lot gives a feeling 771 00:43:49,000 --> 00:43:56,480 Speaker 1: of power. Yeah, yep, good guys. The Nazis sympathizers will 772 00:43:56,520 --> 00:43:59,400 Speaker 1: often justify Chanelle's choice to collaborate by saying that she 773 00:43:59,520 --> 00:44:02,799 Speaker 1: was simply looking out for her nephew. This is true, 774 00:44:02,880 --> 00:44:04,920 Speaker 1: but it's also true that she saw to her own 775 00:44:05,040 --> 00:44:08,440 Speaker 1: comfort first, although it was to protect Andre that she 776 00:44:08,600 --> 00:44:12,200 Speaker 1: finally became an agent for the Nazis intelligence service. So 777 00:44:12,760 --> 00:44:15,799 Speaker 1: she wants to get this guy, her nephew maybe son, 778 00:44:16,000 --> 00:44:18,480 Speaker 1: out of jail, and that's why she agrees to start 779 00:44:18,560 --> 00:44:20,359 Speaker 1: working with the Nazis and I'm gonna I'm gonna read 780 00:44:20,400 --> 00:44:24,239 Speaker 1: a quote by Tim Ott Here Dinklage introduced his lover 781 00:44:24,360 --> 00:44:28,279 Speaker 1: to another prominent obver agent, Baron Louis de Vaufreland, who 782 00:44:28,360 --> 00:44:31,400 Speaker 1: allegedly promised to help Chanelle free her nephew in exchange 783 00:44:31,440 --> 00:44:34,239 Speaker 1: for her service to Berlin. Sometime in nineteen forty one, 784 00:44:34,360 --> 00:44:37,319 Speaker 1: Chanelle was registered as agent F seven one two four 785 00:44:37,640 --> 00:44:41,040 Speaker 1: with a code name of Westminster, after her former flame 786 00:44:41,280 --> 00:44:44,680 Speaker 1: You know She's Her Nazi nickname is her fascist boyfriend 787 00:44:45,640 --> 00:44:50,160 Speaker 1: That's cool. Tasked with obtaining political information from colleagues in Madrid, 788 00:44:50,320 --> 00:44:52,640 Speaker 1: Chanelle traveled to the Spanish city for a few months 789 00:44:52,760 --> 00:44:56,680 Speaker 1: midnine forty one with Vafferland under the guise of business dealings. 790 00:44:56,920 --> 00:44:59,120 Speaker 1: There is a record of her dinner with British diplomat 791 00:44:59,160 --> 00:45:02,560 Speaker 1: Brian Wallace, which she casually discussed life and occupied Paris 792 00:45:02,840 --> 00:45:05,400 Speaker 1: and the animosity the French and Germans held toward each other. 793 00:45:05,880 --> 00:45:08,680 Speaker 1: It is unclear whether Channelle's interactions in Madrid moved the 794 00:45:08,760 --> 00:45:10,840 Speaker 1: needle in any way, but there were apparently enough to 795 00:45:10,920 --> 00:45:14,520 Speaker 1: impress ab their supervisors and earn the release of her nephew. 796 00:45:15,160 --> 00:45:18,399 Speaker 1: So she goes on the spying mission in Madrid. Maybe 797 00:45:18,400 --> 00:45:20,680 Speaker 1: it's to prep for a potential the Nazis are kind 798 00:45:20,719 --> 00:45:23,800 Speaker 1: of considering occupying the city. There's there's a number of 799 00:45:23,880 --> 00:45:26,200 Speaker 1: theories about what she's doing. This is the first little 800 00:45:26,280 --> 00:45:29,120 Speaker 1: thing she does, and as spying for the Nazis go, 801 00:45:29,880 --> 00:45:33,719 Speaker 1: it's not that sketchy, but it's about to get sketchier 802 00:45:33,719 --> 00:45:35,759 Speaker 1: because once she's done the solid for them, they have 803 00:45:35,840 --> 00:45:39,920 Speaker 1: a relationship. She's like, Hey, you know, there's this I 804 00:45:40,080 --> 00:45:45,920 Speaker 1: kind of like spying. She's also like, so there's this 805 00:45:46,080 --> 00:45:49,799 Speaker 1: Jewish family I got beef with. Oh the people who 806 00:45:49,840 --> 00:45:53,799 Speaker 1: are making her perfume, the Wertheimer's. And she uses her 807 00:45:53,840 --> 00:45:56,640 Speaker 1: position as an arian, which is a legal position in 808 00:45:57,040 --> 00:46:00,520 Speaker 1: Nazi law, to petition German officials to lead goalies her 809 00:46:00,600 --> 00:46:05,239 Speaker 1: claim as sole owner of the perfume. On May fifth, 810 00:46:05,400 --> 00:46:07,920 Speaker 1: nineteen forty one, she writes to the Nazi official in 811 00:46:08,000 --> 00:46:12,280 Speaker 1: her area who's responsible for confiscating Jewish assets. She lists 812 00:46:12,320 --> 00:46:15,200 Speaker 1: her grounds for ownership of the perfume as based on 813 00:46:15,280 --> 00:46:19,320 Speaker 1: the claim that perfumes Chanel is quote still the property 814 00:46:19,400 --> 00:46:22,359 Speaker 1: of the Jews and has thus been legally abandoned by 815 00:46:22,400 --> 00:46:24,920 Speaker 1: its owners when they fled the country. She wrote, I 816 00:46:25,000 --> 00:46:27,400 Speaker 1: have an indisputable right of priority. The profits that I 817 00:46:27,440 --> 00:46:29,640 Speaker 1: have received from my creation since the foundation of this 818 00:46:29,760 --> 00:46:32,320 Speaker 1: business are disproportionate, and you could help to repair in 819 00:46:32,400 --> 00:46:34,400 Speaker 1: part the prejudices I have suffered in the course of 820 00:46:34,480 --> 00:46:39,959 Speaker 1: these seventeen years. But Coco has been out foxed because 821 00:46:40,000 --> 00:46:43,240 Speaker 1: the Vertheimer's set shit up before they fled the country. 822 00:46:43,520 --> 00:46:46,960 Speaker 1: They transferred ownership of the perfume firm to an Arian 823 00:46:47,080 --> 00:46:49,799 Speaker 1: friend before they fled the continent, and during the war 824 00:46:49,960 --> 00:46:52,040 Speaker 1: years they sent one of their allies. This is kind 825 00:46:52,040 --> 00:46:53,920 Speaker 1: of a cool story. They send this guy who becomes 826 00:46:54,000 --> 00:46:57,360 Speaker 1: the president of their company into Paris where he like 827 00:46:57,520 --> 00:47:00,160 Speaker 1: sneaks in and pretends to be somebody else, and he 828 00:47:00,320 --> 00:47:03,040 Speaker 1: steals the formula for Chanel number five so it can 829 00:47:03,080 --> 00:47:07,120 Speaker 1: be produced in the United States. It's like this skullduggery action, 830 00:47:07,239 --> 00:47:11,560 Speaker 1: but it's all about making perfew amazing. I love that 831 00:47:11,640 --> 00:47:14,799 Speaker 1: they looked out for themselves. Oh yeah, they're smart. They 832 00:47:14,880 --> 00:47:17,600 Speaker 1: knew what they were doing. They took care of their shit. 833 00:47:18,160 --> 00:47:21,120 Speaker 1: So there are rumors that during the war years, while 834 00:47:21,200 --> 00:47:24,160 Speaker 1: she is working for the Nazis, she is also working 835 00:47:24,239 --> 00:47:28,360 Speaker 1: for the British royal family, possibly via Winston Churchill because 836 00:47:28,960 --> 00:47:32,160 Speaker 1: her ex flame Ben Door and the former King all 837 00:47:32,320 --> 00:47:36,200 Speaker 1: own property in Nazi occupied Europe, and the Nazis are 838 00:47:36,239 --> 00:47:39,279 Speaker 1: fighting the British right. So the Nazis could take all 839 00:47:39,360 --> 00:47:41,520 Speaker 1: that shit, they could destroy it, they could do give 840 00:47:41,560 --> 00:47:46,640 Speaker 1: it to other people, and Chanel allegedly helps them protect 841 00:47:46,680 --> 00:47:50,320 Speaker 1: their properties on the continent during the war. Right, we 842 00:47:50,400 --> 00:47:52,239 Speaker 1: don't know if this happened. We do know though, that 843 00:47:52,320 --> 00:47:54,680 Speaker 1: she stays in one of these properties after a visit 844 00:47:54,760 --> 00:47:58,520 Speaker 1: to Berlin to meet with SS General authors Schellenberg about 845 00:47:58,560 --> 00:48:04,120 Speaker 1: another operation. So by nineteen forty three, most of the 846 00:48:04,239 --> 00:48:08,000 Speaker 1: smart Nazis around Hitler, including Himmler and Schellenberg, knew that 847 00:48:08,120 --> 00:48:10,879 Speaker 1: the war was lost. The sheer scale of the tide 848 00:48:10,920 --> 00:48:13,200 Speaker 1: that had turned against them in Russia made any hope 849 00:48:13,200 --> 00:48:16,720 Speaker 1: of German victory nothing but a fantasy, and these Nazis 850 00:48:16,800 --> 00:48:19,520 Speaker 1: went behind Hitler's back to try and make a separate 851 00:48:19,600 --> 00:48:22,680 Speaker 1: peace through some of their sympathetic friends in the British government, 852 00:48:22,760 --> 00:48:25,840 Speaker 1: including the former King and the Duke of Westminster. And 853 00:48:26,000 --> 00:48:29,160 Speaker 1: this brings us back to our friend Vera Bate Lombardi. 854 00:48:29,520 --> 00:48:35,480 Speaker 1: Remember Vera, She's that Italian British socialite who introduces Coco 855 00:48:35,600 --> 00:48:39,560 Speaker 1: to the Duke of Westminster. You know, she had remarried 856 00:48:39,600 --> 00:48:43,480 Speaker 1: an Italian fascist military officer near the end of the twenties, 857 00:48:43,840 --> 00:48:48,040 Speaker 1: so she's not anti fascist, right, But Mussolini's government also 858 00:48:48,160 --> 00:48:51,000 Speaker 1: didn't trust her because she was English. So even though 859 00:48:51,080 --> 00:48:54,520 Speaker 1: she's married to this fascist, she's watched carefully by Italian 860 00:48:54,600 --> 00:48:57,680 Speaker 1: intelligence services. During the outbreak of World War Two in 861 00:48:57,880 --> 00:49:02,640 Speaker 1: nineteen forty three, horrendous reversals forced Mussolini briefly from power, 862 00:49:02,960 --> 00:49:06,600 Speaker 1: and there's kind of this fascist crackdown to retake power 863 00:49:06,680 --> 00:49:09,719 Speaker 1: in parts of the country, and the authorities arrest Vera 864 00:49:09,880 --> 00:49:12,520 Speaker 1: during this crackdown. She spends about a week in an 865 00:49:12,600 --> 00:49:15,680 Speaker 1: Italian fascist prison camp before the Germans intervene and get 866 00:49:15,719 --> 00:49:18,080 Speaker 1: her out. And they get her out, so that Coco, 867 00:49:18,719 --> 00:49:21,400 Speaker 1: because Coco's like, hey, if you get me and Vera together, 868 00:49:22,360 --> 00:49:24,719 Speaker 1: we can go, you know, meet with our contacts in 869 00:49:24,800 --> 00:49:28,040 Speaker 1: the British government and negotiate a separate piece, right, That's 870 00:49:28,080 --> 00:49:30,760 Speaker 1: what Coco tries to set up. That's why the Germans 871 00:49:30,840 --> 00:49:34,080 Speaker 1: get Vera out of prison. But Vera is kind of 872 00:49:34,200 --> 00:49:36,920 Speaker 1: pissed off that she's been arrested by the fascists and 873 00:49:37,000 --> 00:49:39,680 Speaker 1: put in a prison camp. She does not like this, 874 00:49:40,200 --> 00:49:43,280 Speaker 1: so she's actually not gonna be a very good partner 875 00:49:43,360 --> 00:49:47,080 Speaker 1: to Coco in this Nazi scheme of cocos. Yeah, and 876 00:49:47,160 --> 00:49:51,560 Speaker 1: I'm gonna yeah, it's pretty funny. I'm gonna rote quote 877 00:49:51,600 --> 00:49:55,120 Speaker 1: next from a write up by PBS. Nazi leaders contacted 878 00:49:55,200 --> 00:49:57,120 Speaker 1: Dinklage and told him it was time to leave Paris 879 00:49:57,200 --> 00:49:59,920 Speaker 1: and Chanel behind. Unwilling to be left alone in Parish 880 00:50:00,040 --> 00:50:02,600 Speaker 1: Channelle decided to devise a new plan with Dnklage, attempting 881 00:50:02,640 --> 00:50:05,959 Speaker 1: to leverage Vera Bate's connection with Winston Churchill. Citing French 882 00:50:06,080 --> 00:50:10,160 Speaker 1: historian Hendry Goodell, Vaughn writes, Mademoiselle Chanelle thought she could 883 00:50:10,160 --> 00:50:13,160 Speaker 1: barter her friendship with Winston Churchill to persuade the Nazis 884 00:50:13,200 --> 00:50:15,319 Speaker 1: that she and Dnklage had the contacts to broke her 885 00:50:15,320 --> 00:50:18,520 Speaker 1: a separate piece with Britain. Goodell believed the Duke of Westminster, 886 00:50:18,640 --> 00:50:20,799 Speaker 1: well known for being pro German, along with many other 887 00:50:20,920 --> 00:50:24,160 Speaker 1: senior British politicians and royals, feared that the Soviet Union 888 00:50:24,200 --> 00:50:26,719 Speaker 1: would grab all of Europe. The Duke encouraged Channell to 889 00:50:26,800 --> 00:50:30,080 Speaker 1: act as an emissary between Berlin and London. However, the 890 00:50:30,200 --> 00:50:33,439 Speaker 1: plan went horribly awry when Chanelle's friend Vera Bate, upon 891 00:50:33,560 --> 00:50:36,520 Speaker 1: arriving in Madrid, confessed to the authorities her part as 892 00:50:36,560 --> 00:50:39,440 Speaker 1: a German agent in the final hour, naming Chanelle as 893 00:50:39,440 --> 00:50:42,480 Speaker 1: an informer. And so they get to Madrid and Vera's like, 894 00:50:42,560 --> 00:50:44,719 Speaker 1: this bitious a Nazi. We're working for the Nazis. I 895 00:50:44,760 --> 00:50:47,799 Speaker 1: don't want any part of the ship. Fuck these fascists, right, 896 00:50:48,600 --> 00:50:51,560 Speaker 1: I respect. That blows it all up. I mean she 897 00:50:51,719 --> 00:50:54,480 Speaker 1: did kind of come late to not liking the Fascists, 898 00:50:54,600 --> 00:50:57,719 Speaker 1: to be fair, but where you know, however you get there, right. 899 00:50:59,640 --> 00:51:01,920 Speaker 1: I was just watching this thing and it's crazy how 900 00:51:02,000 --> 00:51:06,279 Speaker 1: many people are traders and double agents are ours. It 901 00:51:06,400 --> 00:51:11,120 Speaker 1: happens all the time, constantly. So the fact that she 902 00:51:11,320 --> 00:51:14,680 Speaker 1: has been exposed as a Nazi agent causes difficulty for 903 00:51:14,800 --> 00:51:18,279 Speaker 1: Coco Chanelle. After Paris is liberated in nineteen forty four, 904 00:51:18,760 --> 00:51:21,880 Speaker 1: she is quickly arrested by the Free French Purge Committee 905 00:51:21,880 --> 00:51:25,359 Speaker 1: and accused of being what's called a horizontal collaborator. Now 906 00:51:25,440 --> 00:51:27,640 Speaker 1: this is a serious allegation, and we know it's a 907 00:51:27,680 --> 00:51:30,560 Speaker 1: true one. People were imprisoned and in some cases beaten 908 00:51:30,719 --> 00:51:33,960 Speaker 1: or killed for less than what Coco did. Yet, after 909 00:51:34,120 --> 00:51:37,560 Speaker 1: several hours of questioning, Coco is released, and nobody really 910 00:51:37,719 --> 00:51:42,480 Speaker 1: knows why. There is suspicion that Winston Churchill negotiated her release, 911 00:51:42,600 --> 00:51:45,719 Speaker 1: possibly is payment or to hush up the underground work 912 00:51:45,800 --> 00:51:49,200 Speaker 1: she'd done with the Nazis protecting the assets of wealthy 913 00:51:49,280 --> 00:51:54,000 Speaker 1: British people on the European continent may have happened. If 914 00:51:54,080 --> 00:51:56,640 Speaker 1: it did, it means that Churchill himself was guilty of 915 00:51:56,760 --> 00:51:59,200 Speaker 1: violations of his own Trading with the Enemy Act. But 916 00:51:59,680 --> 00:52:02,160 Speaker 1: you know, we'll never verify this one way or the other. 917 00:52:02,360 --> 00:52:09,399 Speaker 1: But pretty cool. Interesting, Yeah, yeah, some Churchill tea there, 918 00:52:10,400 --> 00:52:12,480 Speaker 1: which I guess is just normal tea because he's English, 919 00:52:12,560 --> 00:52:17,120 Speaker 1: but probably tea with gin, probably just gin with a 920 00:52:17,200 --> 00:52:20,840 Speaker 1: tea bag in it actually. So at any rate, Chanelle 921 00:52:20,880 --> 00:52:23,640 Speaker 1: gets out of this first thing with this French committee 922 00:52:23,760 --> 00:52:26,400 Speaker 1: and she bounces. She goes to fucking Switzerland. She's like, 923 00:52:27,400 --> 00:52:30,440 Speaker 1: and I staying around to see if this winds up 924 00:52:30,480 --> 00:52:34,160 Speaker 1: being cool in the long term. Tim OTTs summarizes what 925 00:52:34,320 --> 00:52:37,360 Speaker 1: comes next. After the war's conclusion, Chanelle appeared in a 926 00:52:37,400 --> 00:52:41,040 Speaker 1: French court to account for sworn testimony from arrested German officers. 927 00:52:41,080 --> 00:52:43,200 Speaker 1: That tied her to the ab There she managed to 928 00:52:43,239 --> 00:52:46,080 Speaker 1: wriggle her way out of trouble, confirming that Raferland had 929 00:52:46,360 --> 00:52:48,680 Speaker 1: promised to get her nephew out of prison, but otherwise 930 00:52:48,760 --> 00:52:51,880 Speaker 1: denying the extent of their interactions. According to Sleeping with 931 00:52:51,960 --> 00:52:54,520 Speaker 1: the Enemy, Chanelle also took care to erase evidence of 932 00:52:54,600 --> 00:52:58,080 Speaker 1: her actions where possible. Upon learning that an ailing Schellenberg 933 00:52:58,200 --> 00:53:01,040 Speaker 1: was planning to publish his memoir, ll paid his medical 934 00:53:01,080 --> 00:53:04,240 Speaker 1: bills and and ensured his family was on sound financial footing. 935 00:53:04,480 --> 00:53:07,040 Speaker 1: The subsequent memoir had no mention of her involvement as 936 00:53:07,040 --> 00:53:10,040 Speaker 1: an agent. So when this old Nazi general is dying, 937 00:53:10,200 --> 00:53:13,160 Speaker 1: she makes sets his family up. She gives them a 938 00:53:13,239 --> 00:53:15,719 Speaker 1: fortune so that he doesn't write about her in his 939 00:53:15,800 --> 00:53:21,600 Speaker 1: autobiography as a fucking Nazi spy shrimp shripe, very rude. 940 00:53:22,360 --> 00:53:26,400 Speaker 1: So the fight over control of the Channel Perfume brand continues. 941 00:53:26,640 --> 00:53:29,000 Speaker 1: You might think that Coco's involvement with the Nazis would 942 00:53:29,000 --> 00:53:32,640 Speaker 1: have benefited the Wertheimer's case. This is not really the case. 943 00:53:32,840 --> 00:53:36,560 Speaker 1: So so the Perfume is in their control legally, and 944 00:53:36,680 --> 00:53:40,000 Speaker 1: they also have the recipe. But this is kind of 945 00:53:40,040 --> 00:53:42,320 Speaker 1: their weakness in this court case. With her because probably 946 00:53:42,360 --> 00:53:45,200 Speaker 1: if they were to fight this, they could like point out, 947 00:53:45,320 --> 00:53:47,440 Speaker 1: you were working for the Nazis, we should get all 948 00:53:47,480 --> 00:53:50,240 Speaker 1: of the money from their perfume. But this is Chanel 949 00:53:50,400 --> 00:53:53,640 Speaker 1: number five. If Coco gets sort of dragged through the 950 00:53:53,719 --> 00:53:56,399 Speaker 1: mud as a Nazi, people aren't gonna want to wear 951 00:53:56,640 --> 00:54:00,120 Speaker 1: Nazi number five perfume, right, So the word him is 952 00:54:00,120 --> 00:54:03,239 Speaker 1: there kind of an a vulnerable position here too, So 953 00:54:03,400 --> 00:54:05,719 Speaker 1: they reach in Rather than like taking her to the 954 00:54:05,800 --> 00:54:08,719 Speaker 1: fucking matt, they reach an arrangement with her, and a 955 00:54:08,840 --> 00:54:12,000 Speaker 1: pretty weird one. Not only do they give her millions 956 00:54:12,040 --> 00:54:14,360 Speaker 1: in back pay from the war years when she hadn't 957 00:54:14,360 --> 00:54:18,040 Speaker 1: been making channel money, but Pierre Wertheimer agrees to pay 958 00:54:18,200 --> 00:54:20,600 Speaker 1: all of her personal living expenses for the rest of 959 00:54:20,680 --> 00:54:28,280 Speaker 1: her life. Weird us, Yeah, I mean weird. It's weird, 960 00:54:29,040 --> 00:54:33,040 Speaker 1: but it's a complicated situation. She always winds up on top. 961 00:54:33,120 --> 00:54:35,759 Speaker 1: You got to say that for fucking Coco, even after 962 00:54:35,880 --> 00:54:38,040 Speaker 1: she's been caught. Is that, even even when she is 963 00:54:38,120 --> 00:54:41,440 Speaker 1: fighting in court with the Jewish family she tried to 964 00:54:41,640 --> 00:54:45,520 Speaker 1: like rob during the Holocaust, she wipes up on top. 965 00:54:45,840 --> 00:54:48,920 Speaker 1: They're doing the same deal with her though kind of 966 00:54:49,000 --> 00:54:50,920 Speaker 1: They're like we'll pay for all your shit if you 967 00:54:51,040 --> 00:54:53,560 Speaker 1: just give us what we want. We'll pay for your 968 00:54:53,600 --> 00:54:56,600 Speaker 1: shit if you'd stop fighting us in court, and if 969 00:54:56,680 --> 00:54:59,360 Speaker 1: we don't have to actually fight you in court and 970 00:54:59,440 --> 00:55:02,040 Speaker 1: thus distre roy your good name, right right, because no 971 00:55:02,160 --> 00:55:05,759 Speaker 1: one else knows. The French society does not know. It 972 00:55:05,920 --> 00:55:09,600 Speaker 1: is not public knowledge that she was working for the Nazis, right. 973 00:55:09,880 --> 00:55:12,120 Speaker 1: The Vertheimer's know because they've got the people to do 974 00:55:12,239 --> 00:55:14,920 Speaker 1: the digging. There's some folks in government and in the 975 00:55:14,960 --> 00:55:19,200 Speaker 1: spy agencies that are aware, but publicly it is not known. 976 00:55:19,680 --> 00:55:23,319 Speaker 1: And so the Vertheimer's just kind of decide, let's keep 977 00:55:23,440 --> 00:55:26,400 Speaker 1: working with Coco because there's a lot of money in Coco. 978 00:55:26,840 --> 00:55:29,480 Speaker 1: And in fact, the Verteimer family plays a major role 979 00:55:29,560 --> 00:55:32,200 Speaker 1: in helping her return to the fashion industry in nineteen 980 00:55:32,320 --> 00:55:34,759 Speaker 1: fifty four. They basically like put a bunch of money 981 00:55:34,840 --> 00:55:37,920 Speaker 1: into her rebranding and like putting out new lines of stuff. 982 00:55:38,360 --> 00:55:41,040 Speaker 1: She continues to be a massive success in an influential 983 00:55:41,080 --> 00:55:44,239 Speaker 1: part of the industry until her death in nineteen seventy one. 984 00:55:44,920 --> 00:55:47,480 Speaker 1: No public acknowledgement of her work for the Abvare was 985 00:55:47,560 --> 00:55:51,200 Speaker 1: made until two eleven, when Sleeping with the Enemy was published. 986 00:55:51,520 --> 00:55:53,920 Speaker 1: The pr campaign around that book and the well deserved 987 00:55:53,960 --> 00:55:57,239 Speaker 1: buzz that generated created problems for the Chanelle brand. As 988 00:55:57,320 --> 00:56:01,239 Speaker 1: Forbes summarizes, the brand described in the book a speculation 989 00:56:01,320 --> 00:56:04,640 Speaker 1: and said it will, no doubt always remain a mystery. Today, 990 00:56:04,719 --> 00:56:07,520 Speaker 1: the brand seems more open to acknowledging the standpoint while 991 00:56:07,560 --> 00:56:10,640 Speaker 1: distancing the current brand from it. A spokesperson told me, 992 00:56:11,000 --> 00:56:13,880 Speaker 1: Gabrielle Chanelle was a daring pioneer, and the House of 993 00:56:14,000 --> 00:56:17,640 Speaker 1: Chanelle upholds and extends her extraordinary legacy. Her influence on 994 00:56:17,719 --> 00:56:20,480 Speaker 1: many designers has been significant, and she continues to inspire 995 00:56:20,560 --> 00:56:23,560 Speaker 1: new generations. However, her actions during World War Two are 996 00:56:23,600 --> 00:56:27,640 Speaker 1: the subject of discussion in many publications and biographies. The 997 00:56:27,719 --> 00:56:30,120 Speaker 1: actions that some have reported in no way represent the 998 00:56:30,239 --> 00:56:33,440 Speaker 1: values of Chanelle today. Since that time in history, the 999 00:56:33,520 --> 00:56:36,360 Speaker 1: House of Chanelle has moved forward, well passed well beyond 1000 00:56:36,400 --> 00:56:39,799 Speaker 1: the past of its founder, not quite saying yeah, man, 1001 00:56:39,920 --> 00:56:42,920 Speaker 1: she was a Nazi. That's fucked up, Like, can we 1002 00:56:43,040 --> 00:56:47,080 Speaker 1: still keep the stock high? Though? Please? We grew from 1003 00:56:47,120 --> 00:56:50,360 Speaker 1: her being a Nazi. We moved on from the founder 1004 00:56:50,440 --> 00:56:55,480 Speaker 1: being a Nazi. Now, the Chanel Corporation's attitude is not 1005 00:56:55,600 --> 00:56:59,520 Speaker 1: a universal belief, particularly among people inclined to analyze the 1006 00:56:59,560 --> 00:57:03,480 Speaker 1: fashion industry through a more skeptical eye. Tansy Hoskins, author 1007 00:57:03,520 --> 00:57:07,160 Speaker 1: of Stitched Up, the Anti Capitalist Book of Fashion, disagrees 1008 00:57:07,239 --> 00:57:11,160 Speaker 1: that we can separate Coco from her clothing. Quote. It's 1009 00:57:11,200 --> 00:57:14,640 Speaker 1: clear that Chanelle's far right ideologies influenced her designs. She 1010 00:57:14,840 --> 00:57:19,280 Speaker 1: championed minimalism and the austere. It's very white European and 1011 00:57:19,440 --> 00:57:23,160 Speaker 1: that's the note we're gonna end on. Okay, well, listen, 1012 00:57:23,280 --> 00:57:25,800 Speaker 1: I don't know if her style. That last thing on 1013 00:57:25,880 --> 00:57:28,480 Speaker 1: her style. I don't know much about style at all. 1014 00:57:28,560 --> 00:57:34,439 Speaker 1: This is just what someone said. Yeah, yeah, yikes, Well 1015 00:57:34,600 --> 00:57:38,800 Speaker 1: that's a life. That's a life. Yeah, you're gonna go 1016 00:57:38,880 --> 00:57:41,240 Speaker 1: pick up some channelle number five Courtney. Yeah, I can't 1017 00:57:41,280 --> 00:57:45,840 Speaker 1: wait to smell like that bitch. Yeah right, that's actually 1018 00:57:45,920 --> 00:57:48,880 Speaker 1: not a bad ad, just like a lady walking and 1019 00:57:48,960 --> 00:57:52,360 Speaker 1: like a perfume bottle. Can't wait to smell like that bitch. 1020 00:57:55,640 --> 00:57:58,320 Speaker 1: She's got a fucking red arm band with a swastika 1021 00:57:58,400 --> 00:58:00,800 Speaker 1: on it. Hell yeah, that's how you do still smell 1022 00:58:00,920 --> 00:58:06,959 Speaker 1: good after all that hell of her perfume. M hm, Well, 1023 00:58:07,200 --> 00:58:12,200 Speaker 1: coordinate how you feeling you know, I feel just so 1024 00:58:12,400 --> 00:58:17,480 Speaker 1: much internal conflicted feelings about this feminist icon who was 1025 00:58:17,600 --> 00:58:20,800 Speaker 1: a horrible person. But yeah, you know, that's what this 1026 00:58:20,920 --> 00:58:26,280 Speaker 1: show does. Was there was there anything uh to do 1027 00:58:26,400 --> 00:58:32,880 Speaker 1: with her, like the logo of Chanel? Yeah, Nazism. No, no, 1028 00:58:33,000 --> 00:58:35,560 Speaker 1: it's not a Nazi thing, it's her, it's Coco Chanel 1029 00:58:35,680 --> 00:58:38,480 Speaker 1: CC Well, I got a lot, yes, but I was 1030 00:58:38,520 --> 00:58:40,840 Speaker 1: just wondering if there was anything anything more to it 1031 00:58:40,960 --> 00:58:43,680 Speaker 1: than just that I don't know this shit in it. 1032 00:58:43,720 --> 00:58:45,760 Speaker 1: In both of the books about her her logo, I 1033 00:58:45,840 --> 00:58:48,720 Speaker 1: didn't find it interesting, so I didn't. I didn't include it, Sophie, 1034 00:58:48,720 --> 00:58:50,600 Speaker 1: because I'm a hack in a fraud. Now I don't. 1035 00:58:50,640 --> 00:58:52,280 Speaker 1: You're If you didn't find it interesting, then I no 1036 00:58:52,360 --> 00:58:57,640 Speaker 1: longer care. I was all about the Nazism stuff, all 1037 00:58:57,720 --> 00:59:01,400 Speaker 1: about all about that. Well, probably shouldn't say that. Don't 1038 00:59:01,440 --> 00:59:06,560 Speaker 1: be all about Nazism, she don't. Don't. Don't be about 1039 00:59:06,720 --> 00:59:09,960 Speaker 1: Courtney co Sacks plugables right now? Yeah, Courtney, what do 1040 00:59:09,960 --> 00:59:13,680 Speaker 1: you got a plug? Oh? You guys, if you like podcasts, 1041 00:59:13,880 --> 00:59:17,640 Speaker 1: I make a ton of podcasts. I make a new 1042 00:59:17,720 --> 00:59:23,000 Speaker 1: podcast for podcasters called podcast Bestie, and for writers, I 1043 00:59:23,320 --> 00:59:27,960 Speaker 1: make a podcast called The bleeders and for horn dogs. 1044 00:59:28,360 --> 00:59:32,560 Speaker 1: I make a podcast called Private Parts Unknown, and I 1045 00:59:32,840 --> 00:59:37,240 Speaker 1: am winding down my only fans, so you can go 1046 00:59:37,360 --> 00:59:40,480 Speaker 1: get some last pick sneak a peek at me naked 1047 00:59:40,760 --> 00:59:45,919 Speaker 1: at Coco peep Show. M hm, check it out. Check 1048 00:59:46,000 --> 00:59:50,800 Speaker 1: out Coco peep Show. Not to be confused with Yeah. 1049 00:59:51,000 --> 00:59:54,840 Speaker 1: I mean Courtney very famously during World War Two, you 1050 00:59:54,960 --> 01:00:01,040 Speaker 1: fought for the French underground. Um. I like that, Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, um, yep, 1051 01:00:01,320 --> 01:00:05,120 Speaker 1: that's that's so support this Coco. Don't support the other 1052 01:00:05,240 --> 01:00:08,880 Speaker 1: Coco who was dead. Um, so I guess it doesn't matter. 1053 01:00:09,080 --> 01:00:11,120 Speaker 1: I guess at this point there's nothing you can do 1054 01:00:11,240 --> 01:00:13,960 Speaker 1: to harm her either way. So I mean that is 1055 01:00:14,080 --> 01:00:16,720 Speaker 1: kind of the thing, right, She won, like she she won. 1056 01:00:16,960 --> 01:00:19,200 Speaker 1: She played a hell of a hand, Yeah she did. 1057 01:00:19,440 --> 01:00:22,160 Speaker 1: She got she got a dog shit hand and like 1058 01:00:22,880 --> 01:00:26,960 Speaker 1: a terrible person, but god, you have to like admire 1059 01:00:27,080 --> 01:00:30,400 Speaker 1: the skill with which she played a zero hand, not 1060 01:00:30,560 --> 01:00:33,880 Speaker 1: a single fucking asset, but whatever was inside her head 1061 01:00:34,040 --> 01:00:38,360 Speaker 1: and made it work. Yep, yeah, yep. All right, Well, 1062 01:00:39,520 --> 01:00:42,760 Speaker 1: this has been a series of episodes about a fascist 1063 01:00:42,960 --> 01:00:46,560 Speaker 1: who was kind of impressive while being a fascist. Yay, 1064 01:00:48,760 --> 01:00:51,480 Speaker 1: behind the bastards is a production of cool Zone Media. 1065 01:00:51,880 --> 01:00:54,479 Speaker 1: For more from cool Zone Media, visit her website cool 1066 01:00:54,520 --> 01:00:58,480 Speaker 1: zonemedia dot com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, 1067 01:00:58,560 --> 01:01:00,920 Speaker 1: Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.