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Speaker 1: Let's begin today's show with a contextual fact. According to

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Speaker 1: what we know from historical records, the very first Olympic

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Speaker 1: Games in antiquity can be traced back to seven seventy

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Speaker 1: six b C. E. BENNL. You've blown my mind. It's

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Speaker 1: weird when we think about just how ancient that practice was. Now,

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Speaker 1: the games did not occur every year continually from that point. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: there was a lull about a fifteen hundred year lull,

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Speaker 1: as it turns out, um, and then it was kind

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Speaker 1: of reci a citated by a guy by the name

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Speaker 1: of Pierre Baron de Coubertin Yes, and Casey Pegram joins us, hello,

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Speaker 1: is that correct? Yeah, Pierre de coup And that's been

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Speaker 1: Casey on the case from our super producer, Casey Pegram.

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Speaker 1: Whoa you cool with those double sound flipped the script there,

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Speaker 1: my man, I love it. But no, Pierre who was

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Speaker 1: originally known by Pierre de Freder Casey Pierre de Fla.

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Speaker 1: That's what that's why he's here. He's here for a

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Speaker 1: lot of reason. He's here for amazing reasons. So tell

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Speaker 1: us about this guy. Now that we've jacked up the

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Speaker 1: flow entirely with valuable pronunciation information from Mr Casey Pegram. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: this guy was an educator from France, um who totally

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Speaker 1: revived the Olympic Games in eighteen nineties six in Greece. Indeed,

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Speaker 1: ben m as it would be appropriate to do, I

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Speaker 1: guess to carry on that torch. Yeah, it was in

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Speaker 1: Athens in eighteen nineties six, and by by US accounts,

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Speaker 1: I've read that one went okay. Um. And then they

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Speaker 1: had one in Paris which was apparently a ship show. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And then they had one that is the subject of

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Speaker 1: today's episode in old St. Louis, Missouri. Yes, Missouri, Missouri,

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Speaker 1: you got right in or chime in on ridiculous historians

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Speaker 1: local Missouri residents to let us know how you prefer

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Speaker 1: to pronounce it. Shred us. We welcome it. I'm having

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Speaker 1: so much fun with that. So it's true. Noel America's

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Speaker 1: first Olympic Games, the first Olympic Games in the US

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Speaker 1: were held in nineteen o four in St. Louis or St. Louis,

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Speaker 1: and they were tied to that year's World Fair, which

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Speaker 1: happened in the same city. And there was even okay,

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Speaker 1: So before we get too deep into this, folks, things

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Speaker 1: were already starting off on a bizarre, awkward, and terrible

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Speaker 1: foot when the nineteen o four Olympics moved to Missouri

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Speaker 1: because they were originally supposed to be in the US,

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Speaker 1: but supposed to be in a different city. Yeah, in

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Speaker 1: the city of Chicago, which I'm very much looking forward

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Speaker 1: to traveling to next weekend to see the band My

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Speaker 1: Bloody Valentine's. Yeah, I'm looking forward to. Chicago is a

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Speaker 1: beautiful city. But unfortunately St. Louis made some problems for

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Speaker 1: Chicago because St. Louis was already set to host this

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Speaker 1: World's Fair which had a really interesting name that was

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Speaker 1: not the World's Fair. It was called the Louisiana Purchase

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Speaker 1: Centennial Exhibition, and they were none too happy. The organizers

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Speaker 1: of that little shin dig none too happy that the

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Speaker 1: Olympics were going to give them a run for their

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Speaker 1: money during the same period um in the summer in Chicago,

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Speaker 1: so they threatened. According to this article by Nate DeMeo

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Speaker 1: of Memory Palace Fame on Slate, um too out Olympics.

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Speaker 1: The Olympics, in other words, making it such a big

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Speaker 1: dog and pony show that the Olympics, which was not

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Speaker 1: as widely known at the time, at being only the

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Speaker 1: third year, um would probably suffer significantly. So Kubertan was like, Okay,

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Speaker 1: I guess we better play ball with St. Louis. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: They said specifically that they were going to make the

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Speaker 1: official Olympic events in Chicago look terrible, look pitiful in comparison.

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Speaker 1: And at this time the Baron was still trying ardently,

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Speaker 1: because remember this isn't too far past, still trying ardently

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Speaker 1: to resurrect the modern Olympics and give it the credibility

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Speaker 1: it deserved. He wanted to avoid any controversy, and he

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Speaker 1: said he would, you know, for the greater good of

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Speaker 1: the Olympics, back down and award the location to St. Louis.

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Speaker 1: But the problem was, first off, most people in Europe

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Speaker 1: at that time probably had not heard of St. Louis

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Speaker 1: at all. He was described as a second tier city,

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Speaker 1: which I think is insulting. St. Louis is beautiful, but

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Speaker 1: New York it is not. I mean, I went to St.

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Speaker 1: Louis recently on some unrelated adventures, and I gotta say

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Speaker 1: it's amazing city, amazing music, amazing barbecue if you like barbecue.

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Speaker 1: But at this time that arch right. But at this time, uh,

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Speaker 1: the location there in what they did describe as a

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Speaker 1: second tier city was an incredible barrier to athletes, especially

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Speaker 1: European athletes. We have to remember this was before an

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Speaker 1: interstate system, so travel to the American Midwest was a

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Speaker 1: daunting task, and almost all of the top European athletes

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Speaker 1: didn't make it, and ultimately fewer than half of the

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Speaker 1: Olympic events that year had even a single entrant who

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Speaker 1: was not from America. And I want to say I

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Speaker 1: read somewhere I'm sorry for being vague about this, folks,

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Speaker 1: but that America actually scooped up some European athletes and

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Speaker 1: made them part of the American team, or or folks

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Speaker 1: that had recently immigrated to America but had not received

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Speaker 1: citizenship yet, and they were the ones who won many

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Speaker 1: of the medals and and and there are countries that

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Speaker 1: are to this day disputing, uh those wins because they

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Speaker 1: basically kind of sniped some of their people and they

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Speaker 1: weren't officially citizens of the United States. So very wild

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Speaker 1: West kind of Olympics here, and for for more reasons

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Speaker 1: than one. Yeah, sort of shooting of shooting from the

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Speaker 1: hip right, going winging it a little bit more than

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Speaker 1: is appropriate. Uh, did we mention the mastermind behind this

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Speaker 1: nold James Edwards Sullivan. No, we have not, but he's

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Speaker 1: a huge part of the story. Okay. So, James Edwards

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Speaker 1: Sullivan American sports official. He was born in eighteen sixty two.

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Speaker 1: I lived until September nineteen fourteen. He was the chief

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Speaker 1: organizer of these nineteen o four Summer Olympics, and a

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Speaker 1: lot of the terrible, terrible mistakes that occurred fall upon

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Speaker 1: his shoulders in this situation. He's the one who is

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Speaker 1: putting out the threats. He's the one who was pushing

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Speaker 1: the baron to move this, and he is one of

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Speaker 1: the reasons that so many disastrous things occurred with the

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Speaker 1: actual events. He was the organizer of the World's fair. Correct.

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Speaker 1: Great question, and it's important that we clarify that point. So,

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Speaker 1: James Edwards Sullivan is the primary organizer of the nineteen

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Speaker 1: o four Summer Olympics, but the organizer of the Louisiana

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Speaker 1: Purchase Exposition, which we've also seen both ways as either

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Speaker 1: Louisiana Purchase Exhibition or Louisiana Purchase Exposition. The organizer of

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Speaker 1: that stuff, whatever you want to call it, was a

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Speaker 1: guy named David R. Francis. And the problem with this

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Speaker 1: was that the St. Louis organizers treated the Olympic Games, uh,

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Speaker 1: sort of as a side show to the World's Fair.

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Speaker 1: Because the World's Fair was a big deal and very

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Speaker 1: well established at this point, and there were other more popular,

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Speaker 1: let's call them cultural exhibits. We're gonna be remiss if

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Speaker 1: we don't mention some of the stuff that happened in

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Speaker 1: those exhibits. Yeah, yeah, those were overshadowing the actual Olympic

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Speaker 1: Games and events. And I believe in the nineteen o

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Speaker 1: four Games the total number of athletes was only six

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Speaker 1: hundred and fifty one, sixty five men and six women,

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Speaker 1: and yet for some reason it went on for like

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Speaker 1: a hundred and seventy five days, which I thought was bizarre. Um,

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Speaker 1: let's backtrack just a little bit, two back to the

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Speaker 1: World's Fair. So we're talking about let's just let's talk

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Speaker 1: about some of the things that made the World's Fair

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Speaker 1: kind of cool. Um. You had, you know, the kind

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Speaker 1: of things you'd think about being at a fair. Um.

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Speaker 1: On this particular one, they had a Lincoln's log cabin

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Speaker 1: from when he was a boy. Okay, I guess that

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Speaker 1: you wouldn't see that it's most fairs, but they also

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Speaker 1: had waffle cones and you know, new fangled contraptions inventions,

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Speaker 1: and I think this is where like peanut butter was debuted.

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Speaker 1: I'm so glad you mentioned that. Okay, yes, quick interjection.

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Speaker 1: There's a fantastic article but from serious seats by a

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Speaker 1: guy named Robert Moss. The nineteen o four World's Fair

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Speaker 1: a turning point for American food. There were a lot

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Speaker 1: of amazing food things that happened here. Allegedly, the first

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Speaker 1: hot dog ever was made in the nineteen or sold

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Speaker 1: in the nineteen o four World's Fair. Uh, when a

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Speaker 1: vendor named Anton fu Twanger was giving out sausages to people,

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Speaker 1: but they were too hot for people to hold, and

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Speaker 1: so he had his brother in law baked buns to

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Speaker 1: hold the meat, creating the world's first hot dog. It's

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Speaker 1: important to us through this episode, fellow ridiculous historians, to

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Speaker 1: try to find some pluses. Yeah, but but so please

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Speaker 1: go out about the World's Fair. I have this list

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Speaker 1: of amazing food stuff too. We can keep going with

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Speaker 1: that if you like. I'm just trying to, you know,

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Speaker 1: put a silver lining on this story. I don't know. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: peanut butter is not enough a silver line where we're going.

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Speaker 1: We might have told us go ahead and get there.

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Speaker 1: Um one one last little thing about kuber Tan, who,

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Speaker 1: by the way, was the guy who re established the

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Speaker 1: established the International Olympic Committee. That was his deal. So

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Speaker 1: the Baron the Baron. So we're a third year of

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Speaker 1: this event after year lull um, the stakes are high.

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Speaker 1: He's kind of strong armed in going to St. Louis

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Speaker 1: and was so peeved at the whole thing that he

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Speaker 1: actually didn't even show up. He is quoted in saying

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Speaker 1: that he had sort of a predisposition to assuming that

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Speaker 1: the quality of the Olympiad would match the quality of

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Speaker 1: the city. Yeah, kind of turning his nose up at

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Speaker 1: at at St. Louis. Here. Let's give him another quote

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Speaker 1: too that will get us to I think the meat

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Speaker 1: of this episode. Also, these are the early days of

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Speaker 1: the Hamburger and just gonna whenever we get too into

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Speaker 1: too much disturbing stuff, how about we throw in a

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Speaker 1: fun food festure that sounds good, Okay. So, in addition

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Speaker 1: to his objections to the overall mediocrity potential four posed

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Speaker 1: by the four Olympics, Uh, the Baron also took disapproving

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Speaker 1: note of a spectacle, very problematic spectacle called Anthropology Days.

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Speaker 1: Before we tell you what those are, before we explore that,

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Speaker 1: let's just go with this quote, he says, referencing these

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Speaker 1: as for that outrageous charade. It will of course lose

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Speaker 1: its appeal when black men, red men, and yellow men

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Speaker 1: learned to run, jump, and throw and leave the white

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Speaker 1: men behind them. Think of all the problems with that. Yes,

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Speaker 1: but at the same time, oddly forward thinking compared to

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Speaker 1: the story we're about to tell you, So why don't

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Speaker 1: we just launch right in? It's sort of twofold. It's

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Speaker 1: interesting because even Ben and I off air were a

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Speaker 1: little confused about who was actually hosting these Anthropology Days.

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Speaker 1: As it turns out, it was kind of a partnership

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Speaker 1: between the Olympics and the World's Fair. So I'm a

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Speaker 1: little confused about how this guy, James Sullivan, who kind

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Speaker 1: of was the chief organizer of the Zumberlympics, wasn't like

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Speaker 1: given the thumbs up from the baron himself. But that

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Speaker 1: we we haven't quite run across that particular minutia yet. Um,

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Speaker 1: But here's the story. James Sullivan, he believed in the

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Speaker 1: utter superiority of white men and wanted very much to

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Speaker 1: put on a display or a charade, as the baron

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Speaker 1: referred to it, to demonstrate this fact. So, um, there

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Speaker 1: was this thing that was a very strange phenomenon at

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Speaker 1: the beginning of the twentieth century, uh called human zoos,

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Speaker 1: which were sort of like traveling carnivals or it would

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Speaker 1: be like the equivalent of a freak show or a

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Speaker 1: side show where indigenous people from places like philip Philippines

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Speaker 1: or Africa, um, would be displayed in kind of mocked

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Speaker 1: up versions of their traditional homes. Yeah, and but they

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Speaker 1: would be you know, there's images uh in this really

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Speaker 1: great article from Timeline called scientists staged a racist Olympics

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Speaker 1: in nineteen o four to prove white superiority. That shows

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Speaker 1: people just gathered around these picket fences and and looking

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Speaker 1: at children, men, women, all kind of doing what they

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Speaker 1: would be doing in their villages for example. Right. So

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Speaker 1: Sullivan wanted to take this a step further, and the

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Speaker 1: World's Fair itself had a mocked up Filipino village because

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Speaker 1: at the time, the Philippines was a newly established territory

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Speaker 1: of the United States. So it was they wanted to

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Speaker 1: show their dominance. Well, yeah, he wanted to legitimize it,

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Speaker 1: to legitimize this belief, which was already at that time

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Speaker 1: not considered controversial. That's when he contacted a doctor W. J. McGhee,

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Speaker 1: who was president of the American Anthropological Association and head

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Speaker 1: of the Department of Anthropology at the St. Louis World's Fair.

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Speaker 1: McGee thought, because indigenous people lived in harmony with nature,

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Speaker 1: they were endowed with special strength and abilities that quote

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Speaker 1: white people simply didn't have. And so he was compelled

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Speaker 1: perhaps there's some different motivations by Sullivan's concept, and they

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Speaker 1: began organizing these anthropology days, which they sometimes referred to,

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Speaker 1: apparently informally as special Olympics. Yeah, yeah, not the way

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Speaker 1: we think of that term today. And you know, McGee

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Speaker 1: did have a scientific background and thought that he was

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Speaker 1: conducting research, but he had this preconceived notion that we

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Speaker 1: mentioned earlier that um indigenous people had certain um advantages

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Speaker 1: typically had to do with strength or or endurance or

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Speaker 1: things like that, and he wanted to build this hierarchical

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Speaker 1: diagram of genealogy of the human species, of which he

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Speaker 1: thought these indigenous people were at the bottom because his

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Speaker 1: main concern was in intellect and he clearly subscribed to

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Speaker 1: the concept of eugenics and selective breeding, which was alarmingly

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Speaker 1: popular in or accepted in the US at that time.

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Speaker 1: So they stacked the odds against these these people. They

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Speaker 1: took several people from these exhibitions like what you mentioned earlier,

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Speaker 1: in all the exhibition featuring people from the Philippines, and

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Speaker 1: they said, well, you'll compete in a special version of

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Speaker 1: Olympic events on August twelfth and thirteenth of that year

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Speaker 1: of nineteen o four. And all their competitions that they

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Speaker 1: put these people in were European style competitions shot put,

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Speaker 1: high jump, long jump, running the mile, other stuff. But

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Speaker 1: they didn't teach the participants. They didn't tell them a

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Speaker 1: damn thing about what they were supposed to be doing. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and I mean, even I, uh, a lifelong citizen of

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Speaker 1: these United States, I don't know the rules of the

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Speaker 1: high jump or or the right form or how to

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Speaker 1: do it properly, or you know, I don't. I really don't.

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Speaker 1: And then that sounds, you know, like it would be

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Speaker 1: so apparent or intuitive, and it's just not. They're very

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Speaker 1: specific regulations for any professional sporting event. So from what

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Speaker 1: I understand, correct me if this is if this is off.

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Speaker 1: For what I understand, they didn't tell them, and there's

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Speaker 1: obviously a language bearer. They didn't tell them anything at most,

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Speaker 1: for instance, in the one yard dash or whatever, the

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Speaker 1: participants just sort of got the idea that they were

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Speaker 1: supposed to run. But in many cases they just saw

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Speaker 1: gun fired and we're like, what next, or or they

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Speaker 1: were just more fascinated with the weapon itself and the

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Speaker 1: loud noise than it made than what it signified, which

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Speaker 1: just seems just so ridiculous and shortsighted to me that

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Speaker 1: they would just assume that these folks would would have

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Speaker 1: the cultural knowledge of how these games work. That's just

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Speaker 1: bonkers to me. They also had tednis, would she is

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Speaker 1: weird because tennis is something like, look, even if you're

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Speaker 1: skeptical with our explanation here and you think, well, sure,

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Speaker 1: you can just relatively easily explained to someone the basics

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Speaker 1: of something like a high jump or one yard dash, Tennis,

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Speaker 1: I think we can all agree, has very specific equipment,

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Speaker 1: rules and strategies. This Anthropology Days exhibition and this event,

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Speaker 1: whatever you wanna call it, was a huge failure. There's

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Speaker 1: very little notice, so there were not many people even

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Speaker 1: in the crowd to watch. Uh. And Sullivan thought at

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Speaker 1: least that the games were somewhat successful for his ulterior motive,

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Speaker 1: because he said, ah, this proves that these and this

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Speaker 1: is a terrible word, but to him, this proves that

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Speaker 1: these quote unquote savages can't play tennis. Oh cool, good,

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Speaker 1: good jobs, super helpful data there. All of these presuppositions

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Speaker 1: that these guys made were based on the kind of

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Speaker 1: inherent just thoughtless racism that we kind of take for

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Speaker 1: grant today that most learning people would hopefully not be

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Speaker 1: party too. For example, Uh, they assumed that anyone from

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Speaker 1: a nation in Africa, for example, where spears were thrown

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Speaker 1: as a means of hunting and protection and what have you,

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Speaker 1: would automatically be good at throwing a javelin. You know,

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Speaker 1: you know what makes me think of It makes me

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Speaker 1: think of. Um. There's an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm

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Speaker 1: where one of Larry's friends has adopted a Chinese baby,

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Speaker 1: and Larry immediately asked them, so, is he like automatically

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Speaker 1: good at using chopsticks? Yeah? I mean those are horrific

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Speaker 1: things to think and of course, Larry David, we can

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Speaker 1: safely say is lampooning net and it and does not

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Speaker 1: himself believe it. But there is another angle here because

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Speaker 1: of the thing you mentioned earlier, where it's like, because

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Speaker 1: these folks were closer to nature and did these things

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Speaker 1: as part of their everyday life, it's not just a

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Speaker 1: nurture thing. There's also a nature thing here where they

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Speaker 1: assumed that because they had done these things in their

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Speaker 1: day to day they'd be able to immediately one to

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Speaker 1: one translate themto some kind of silly game. Um, and

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Speaker 1: that didn't happen. For example, the folks who tried the

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Speaker 1: javelin that were from these nations that you spears were

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Speaker 1: terrible at it. Yeah, And I think also there's an

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Speaker 1: important point we have to make about these people. So

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Speaker 1: according to that timeline article that we cited earlier by

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Speaker 1: show shoot Parks, these people were already put in horrific conditions.

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Speaker 1: So more than twenty million people attended the nineteen o

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Speaker 1: four World's Fair. Right, they saw electricity, they heard the

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Speaker 1: first telephone. They also went to see three thousand people

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Speaker 1: who were placed in these exhibitions, people from the African continent,

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Speaker 1: the Asian continent and parts of the America's But the

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Speaker 1: way these people were forced to live was incredibly was

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Speaker 1: like incredibly dangerous. Regardless of the weather. They would be

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Speaker 1: forced to wear traditional clothing I'm doing air quotes here,

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Speaker 1: even if it didn't suit the client. And and then,

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Speaker 1: like people were supposed to who are forced to live

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Speaker 1: in that Filipino village, would be made to perform traditional

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Speaker 1: rituals that were only supposed to happen seasonally, over and

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Speaker 1: over again to shock or entertain an audience. They were

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Speaker 1: appalling sanitary conditions and a lot of these people felt

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Speaker 1: that they had nowhere else to go. They were stuck

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Speaker 1: in this alien environment. And imagine being pulled out of that.

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Speaker 1: So your life is already not at its best. And

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Speaker 1: then the Sullivan guy comes with some other people, grabs you,

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Speaker 1: gibbers at you in English, hands you a javelin, and

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Speaker 1: clearly thinks that he is going to prove that not

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Speaker 1: only he, but anyone who looks like him is inherently

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Speaker 1: better than you. I'm also confused that because he talks

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Speaker 1: about how he had these ideas that they would be

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Speaker 1: superior physically, So what was he what was he trying

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Speaker 1: to what was he getting out confused? I think it

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Speaker 1: was McGhee who thought he could prove specific physical advantages,

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Speaker 1: and it was soul that who thought he could prove

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Speaker 1: that what he saw as white people was inherently superior.

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Speaker 1: So I guess the reason and so confusing to me

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Speaker 1: is because the logic behind literally all of this is

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Speaker 1: utterly convoluted and bizarre. Yeah, and uh, a lot of

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Speaker 1: that convolution and bizarre nature comes from the fact that

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Speaker 1: it's based on things that are completely wrong. It's true,

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Speaker 1: And here's an interesting fact to um. To Mayo's article

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Speaker 1: in Slate, he points out that, uh, these folks, though

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Speaker 1: living in what he refers to as quasi captivity, um,

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Speaker 1: were paid probably not much, and obviously they were living

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Speaker 1: in horrible circumstances. But some of them even had like

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Speaker 1: managers or agents. You know. It was almost like being

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Speaker 1: a I don't know, Santa Claus impersonator or something. But um,

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Speaker 1: the problem is a lot of these folks that were

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Speaker 1: in these human zoos were never fully able to assimilate

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Speaker 1: into American culture, right, and they were kind of held

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Speaker 1: back by here, we're giving you an opportunity to not

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Speaker 1: really live but but just barely right. Yeah, and uh

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Speaker 1: for McGhee, the body of data that he wanted to

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Speaker 1: collect from this to prove his whack of do notion

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Speaker 1: of racial hierarchies and certain inherent advantages or disadvantages. Uh,

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Speaker 1: he didn't get it. We don't know if that body

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Speaker 1: of data ever existed. They did give it another go, though.

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Speaker 1: There was a second attempt at this unconnected to the

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Speaker 1: Olympic Games um where they did try to teach them

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Speaker 1: the sports. You think that would have been front of

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Speaker 1: mine the first time, but they just seemed to have

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Speaker 1: missed that entirely. Yeah, how that one go? Did that

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Speaker 1: any any any better results? No? No? No? Yeah. It

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Speaker 1: turns out if something if you base something on a

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Speaker 1: terrible idea and nonsense, the first time you try it,

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Speaker 1: it'll still be a terrible idea. Non since the second time.

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Speaker 1: While we're at this point, Uh, just one of mention

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Speaker 1: another another fun food factor, right, Okay, So apparently at

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Speaker 1: the Dentio four World's Fair when it was hot, there

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Speaker 1: were very few people interested in this hot tea offered

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Speaker 1: by a guy named Richard Blackton who was the tea

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Speaker 1: commissioner in the India Pavilion. And this guy got so

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Speaker 1: desperate that he decided to pour his tea over ice,

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Speaker 1: and supposedly, according to legend, he invented iced tea. Well

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Speaker 1: then the drink, yeah, not the rapper, not noted tea,

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Speaker 1: invented iced tea. Um? Yeah, Where do we go from here? Ben?

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Speaker 1: I guess well we should also say that, you know,

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Speaker 1: I think we did mention. I hope we established that

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Speaker 1: the concept of human zoos was not unique at all, Right,

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Speaker 1: you mentioned earlier, it wasn't unique at all to the

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Speaker 1: World's fair. It existed in other parts of the world,

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Speaker 1: in Europe as well. It is better for history, of course,

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Speaker 1: that this proved to be a failure. There were some

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Speaker 1: other first that occurred during the Olympics, so in some

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Speaker 1: ways it wasn't a complete disaster. It was the first

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Speaker 1: time boxing, freestyle wrestling, that decathlon and dumbbells made their

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Speaker 1: debut in the modern Olympics, right, and luckily James Sullivan

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Speaker 1: would go down in history as the fool he was,

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Speaker 1: which I consider a positive aspect absolutely how so, because

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Speaker 1: he was clearly and categorically proven wrong, espousing a belief

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Speaker 1: that was both offensive and incredibly common at the time.

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Speaker 1: So I consider that a win for our species overall.

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Speaker 1: Al Right, well, in the spirit of staying ridiculous, because

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Speaker 1: while this, uh, this racial shenanigans is absolutely ridiculous, it's

395
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Speaker 1: also pretty depressing and quite dark when you think about it,

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Speaker 1: the idea of human zoos. It reminds me of that

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Speaker 1: the episode we did about the real human skull that

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Speaker 1: was down in the diorama at a museum, and the

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Speaker 1: idea of um Grave robbing these indigenous people and taking

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Speaker 1: them back to Europe and taxidermizing them. Sistuh. We haven't

401
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Speaker 1: even mentioned the fact that a lot of this attitude

402
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Speaker 1: was entirely based on the idea of imperialism of the

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Speaker 1: United States. It was a stat you know, we had

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Speaker 1: we had gotten this territory of the Philippines, we had

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Speaker 1: this Filipino reservation, right, and it was this idea of

406
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Speaker 1: showing our cultural dominance. I would say it's I would

407
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Speaker 1: say it's ultimately descended from the European ideals that the

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00:25:33,200 --> 00:25:35,720
Speaker 1: Americans just they didn't invent it. No, no, no, for sure,

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Speaker 1: but this is a really clear example of you know,

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Speaker 1: trying to put that on full display. Um. So let's

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Speaker 1: let's let's end with one uh funny story, I advanced

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Speaker 1: to end with food facts. Okay, that's fine, so well

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Speaker 1: the next to last thing to folks, don't leave completely depressed,

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Speaker 1: because it was kind of depressing to but in a

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Speaker 1: much more funny, lighthearted, funny way. So the marathon at

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Speaker 1: the Olympics themselves, um was just utterly astros Uh. The

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Speaker 1: winner a guy named Thomas Hicks. He finished in an

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00:26:05,119 --> 00:26:07,840
Speaker 1: absurdly long three hours and twenty eight minutes, and that

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Speaker 1: is because the conditions were just abhorrent. It was ninety

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Speaker 1: degrees they were was on a road that was covered

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Speaker 1: with dust. Um, and I think according to history dot com,

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Speaker 1: eighteen of the thirty two folks that were racing had

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Speaker 1: to pull out because of sheer exhaustion. Uh. Somebody got

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Speaker 1: a stomach hemorrhage and nearly died. William Garcia of California

425
00:26:31,040 --> 00:26:34,600
Speaker 1: collapsed and had to be hospitalized because dust had coated

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Speaker 1: his esophagus and ripped his stomach. Lighting. Oh my god,

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Speaker 1: I'm glad we're ending with the food facts. Um. So yeah,

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00:26:40,359 --> 00:26:45,200
Speaker 1: Thomas Hicks. Uh he won with that ridiculously slow time,

429
00:26:45,520 --> 00:26:49,199
Speaker 1: but only because his assistance kept feeding him doses of

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00:26:49,320 --> 00:26:53,880
Speaker 1: eggs and strychnine. Egg Whites and Stryck nine and Brandy

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00:26:53,960 --> 00:26:57,040
Speaker 1: to keep him on his feet. Yeah, for the at

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00:26:57,080 --> 00:26:59,640
Speaker 1: the ten mile mark, they had to start taking care

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00:26:59,680 --> 00:27:01,679
Speaker 1: of him. He had begged them for a drink and

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00:27:01,680 --> 00:27:05,720
Speaker 1: they refused they gave they sponged his mouth out instead. Uh.

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00:27:05,800 --> 00:27:09,359
Speaker 1: Strychnine and small doses was common as a stimulant at

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00:27:09,400 --> 00:27:12,440
Speaker 1: the time. And I know weird it sounds, but there

437
00:27:12,440 --> 00:27:15,879
Speaker 1: were no rules about performance enhancing drugs. But he was.

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00:27:16,080 --> 00:27:18,399
Speaker 1: He was the ultimate winner. But did you hear about

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00:27:18,400 --> 00:27:22,680
Speaker 1: Fred Laure's. He's my favorite guy of Fred Laure's. Okay,

440
00:27:23,480 --> 00:27:26,920
Speaker 1: So this guy Fred lawres l O r Z. He

441
00:27:27,160 --> 00:27:30,040
Speaker 1: leads the starters from the time they fired the gun,

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00:27:30,160 --> 00:27:33,880
Speaker 1: but by the first mile Thomas Hicks hedges ahead and

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00:27:34,400 --> 00:27:38,919
Speaker 1: Lures at the nine mile mark started getting these crazy

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00:27:39,119 --> 00:27:42,479
Speaker 1: stomach cramps, and so he decided to hitch a ride

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00:27:42,680 --> 00:27:47,000
Speaker 1: in an accompanying car, and he waved at his fellow

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00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:50,600
Speaker 1: competitors as he ran, and then he rode in the

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00:27:50,640 --> 00:27:54,760
Speaker 1: car for eleven miles and then one of Hicks's handlers,

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00:27:55,000 --> 00:27:57,720
Speaker 1: one of the strict nine egg White guys, saw Laws

449
00:27:57,760 --> 00:28:00,040
Speaker 1: and ordered him off the course, but Laura said it

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00:28:00,760 --> 00:28:03,480
Speaker 1: and kept running. And finished with a time of just

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00:28:03,680 --> 00:28:06,280
Speaker 1: under three hours, and the crowd went nuts and they

452
00:28:06,280 --> 00:28:10,080
Speaker 1: were like, yeah, an American one. And then when I

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00:28:10,119 --> 00:28:14,240
Speaker 1: think President Theodore Roosevelt's daughter placed a wreath on loris

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00:28:14,240 --> 00:28:17,720
Speaker 1: head and was about to uh put the actual metal

455
00:28:17,800 --> 00:28:21,399
Speaker 1: around his neck when somebody finally busted him. The cheers

456
00:28:21,440 --> 00:28:23,960
Speaker 1: turned to booze. And we don't know if Lors was

457
00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:26,800
Speaker 1: as sincere when he said this, but he smiled and said,

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00:28:27,200 --> 00:28:30,120
Speaker 1: I never attended to accept the honor. I finished only

459
00:28:30,160 --> 00:28:32,480
Speaker 1: for the sake of a joke. And it's like, really,

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00:28:32,800 --> 00:28:34,560
Speaker 1: that's how you let it get that close to a

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00:28:34,600 --> 00:28:37,320
Speaker 1: gold medal. I don't know, man, I don't really buy

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00:28:37,320 --> 00:28:39,840
Speaker 1: It's a good story though, But Hicks Hicks does become

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00:28:39,880 --> 00:28:42,760
Speaker 1: the winner, right because he didn't hop in a car

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00:28:43,040 --> 00:28:48,080
Speaker 1: for eleven miles. He hopped on his feet. Well, I'm

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00:28:48,120 --> 00:28:53,640
Speaker 1: picturing him vomiting, constantly, clutching his guts, screaming water, screaming

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00:28:53,640 --> 00:28:57,280
Speaker 1: for water, having his his little toady's pouring some disgusting

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00:28:57,320 --> 00:29:01,080
Speaker 1: mixture down his throat. You know, That's that's how you

468
00:29:01,120 --> 00:29:04,000
Speaker 1: typically picture a marathon runner right now, right, that's that's

469
00:29:04,040 --> 00:29:08,320
Speaker 1: the glory Day's picture. So as we said, um, there

470
00:29:08,320 --> 00:29:10,680
Speaker 1: were a lot of food facts that we're pointing to

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00:29:11,280 --> 00:29:15,040
Speaker 1: when we entered more difficult parts of this story. I

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00:29:15,040 --> 00:29:16,840
Speaker 1: want to give a little bit of a gray lining

473
00:29:16,920 --> 00:29:22,520
Speaker 1: here because some of those stories, while inspiring, pretty easy

474
00:29:22,560 --> 00:29:25,920
Speaker 1: to debunk. If you were writing an email now about

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00:29:26,160 --> 00:29:30,600
Speaker 1: iced tea again, the drink, uh, the truth is that

476
00:29:30,680 --> 00:29:34,120
Speaker 1: it had been around for decades beforehand. Yeah. I guess

477
00:29:34,160 --> 00:29:35,720
Speaker 1: if you're the one that got the booth at the

478
00:29:35,720 --> 00:29:38,680
Speaker 1: World's Fair, you might get the credit in history. But

479
00:29:38,760 --> 00:29:41,080
Speaker 1: thankfully we've got sites like serious Eats that do a

480
00:29:41,080 --> 00:29:43,080
Speaker 1: great job of debunking that stuff. What what do they

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00:29:43,120 --> 00:29:46,320
Speaker 1: say about the actual origins of iced tea? Man? Oh yeah,

482
00:29:46,360 --> 00:29:50,000
Speaker 1: the actual origins of iced tea, which are very interesting

483
00:29:50,080 --> 00:29:53,720
Speaker 1: on their own, occur at least by eighteen sixty eight,

484
00:29:53,720 --> 00:29:58,160
Speaker 1: probably way before sixty's, like three decades before the World Fair.

485
00:29:58,680 --> 00:30:03,720
Speaker 1: Uh A i'dely circulated newspaper piece notes that iced tea

486
00:30:03,760 --> 00:30:05,640
Speaker 1: with lemon juice is said to be a popular and

487
00:30:05,680 --> 00:30:09,160
Speaker 1: healthy drink and has instructions for making it, and it's

488
00:30:09,200 --> 00:30:12,560
Speaker 1: also numerous cookbooks. So I think a lot of the

489
00:30:12,640 --> 00:30:18,160
Speaker 1: marketing of World's Fair stuff is just that marketing, and

490
00:30:18,200 --> 00:30:21,160
Speaker 1: we have to be careful because marketing, you know, is

491
00:30:21,160 --> 00:30:22,920
Speaker 1: a glitzy version of the truth. Do you think it

492
00:30:22,960 --> 00:30:25,640
Speaker 1: wasn't really a Lincoln's boyhood cabin that was there? Just

493
00:30:25,720 --> 00:30:28,760
Speaker 1: some sort of replica? I don't know. It also reminds me,

494
00:30:28,840 --> 00:30:33,320
Speaker 1: you know, all those old medieval counterfeiters, like a Canterbury

495
00:30:33,400 --> 00:30:37,080
Speaker 1: tale who would run around with fake reliquaries. Yeah, like

496
00:30:37,160 --> 00:30:42,200
Speaker 1: the partner. But we do believe it is important for

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00:30:42,320 --> 00:30:45,720
Speaker 1: us to acknowledge these things and and realize that in

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00:30:45,840 --> 00:30:49,560
Speaker 1: nineteen o four at the World's Fair, people believe they

499
00:30:49,560 --> 00:30:52,840
Speaker 1: were on the cusp of scientific innovation, you know, that

500
00:30:52,880 --> 00:30:58,080
Speaker 1: they were on the bleeding edge of technology, and in

501
00:30:58,240 --> 00:31:04,160
Speaker 1: some ways they were, but their own preconceptions, their own prejudices,

502
00:31:04,400 --> 00:31:08,440
Speaker 1: their own pre existing notions, limited the scope of their vision.

503
00:31:08,480 --> 00:31:11,200
Speaker 1: And hopefully that's something that we can learn from in

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00:31:11,200 --> 00:31:13,600
Speaker 1: the modern day. Like I'm stretching to make it a

505
00:31:13,600 --> 00:31:15,720
Speaker 1: little bit of a parable. Now, you're doing a good job, Ben,

506
00:31:16,040 --> 00:31:17,680
Speaker 1: You like it, think it works a good way to

507
00:31:17,680 --> 00:31:19,960
Speaker 1: frame it. Um yeah, but there you there, you have it.

508
00:31:20,200 --> 00:31:22,120
Speaker 1: To quote Robert Lamb of stuff to blow your mind,

509
00:31:22,760 --> 00:31:26,000
Speaker 1: um our sister podcast. Um so yeah, I think we

510
00:31:26,080 --> 00:31:29,200
Speaker 1: leave it there, right, Ben, I agreed or we hope

511
00:31:29,240 --> 00:31:31,960
Speaker 1: that you have enjoyed this episode. We would like to

512
00:31:32,080 --> 00:31:34,560
Speaker 1: thank you for listening. We've been doing more and more

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00:31:34,600 --> 00:31:37,120
Speaker 1: sports related stuff recently. Have you noticed that, which is

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00:31:37,120 --> 00:31:38,520
Speaker 1: weird because I don't think either one of us are

515
00:31:38,520 --> 00:31:41,040
Speaker 1: into sports, and it's possible that that shows in the episode.

516
00:31:41,160 --> 00:31:43,920
Speaker 1: Or we come to it with honest hearts, honest hearts,

517
00:31:43,960 --> 00:31:47,480
Speaker 1: honest hearts and as fans of history if nothing else.

518
00:31:48,120 --> 00:31:50,560
Speaker 1: So thank you for checking out the show and taking

519
00:31:50,600 --> 00:31:53,040
Speaker 1: the strange journey with us. Thank you to our super producer,

520
00:31:53,120 --> 00:31:56,560
Speaker 1: Casey Pegrham, and thank you to Eve's Jeff Code, who

521
00:31:56,680 --> 00:31:59,560
Speaker 1: was our research assistant for this episode. If you want

522
00:31:59,600 --> 00:32:01,240
Speaker 1: to reach us online, you can check us out on

523
00:32:01,280 --> 00:32:05,760
Speaker 1: social media at Ridiculous History at Instagram and Twitter and Facebook,

524
00:32:05,880 --> 00:32:08,520
Speaker 1: or you can join our Facebook community, the Ridiculous Historians.

525
00:32:08,680 --> 00:32:11,480
Speaker 1: There's always all kinds of fun conversation and memory going

526
00:32:11,560 --> 00:32:13,560
Speaker 1: on there. Um. If you don't want to do any

527
00:32:13,560 --> 00:32:15,640
Speaker 1: of that, you can write us an email at Ridiculous

528
00:32:15,640 --> 00:32:17,920
Speaker 1: at how stuff works dot com. And I think we

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00:32:17,960 --> 00:32:20,400
Speaker 1: did not yet think are pal Alex Williams, who composed

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00:32:20,440 --> 00:32:22,200
Speaker 1: this to Thanks Alex