Three Hour Tour

Entertainment has always provided us with curious stories. But the wonder and fun goes beyond the actual plot. Learn why today.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet

(00:27):
of Curiosities. Films can be magical. Think of the movies
that influenced aspiring filmmakers. From great white sharks off the
coast of New England to dinosaurs rampaging across to Costa
Rican Island. Two hours in a dark in theater can

(00:48):
be life changing. The films with this kind of power
tend to be the ones with the best of lists. Casablanca, Jaws,
Citizen Kane, Taxi Driver, movies with one heck of a
story to tell. And then there's nineteen thirty nine Code
of the Secret Service. It certainly was a movie, just
not a great one, at least according to the film star,

(01:10):
an actor named Ronald Reagan. Before he became the forty
president of the United States, Ronald Reagan was an entertainer,
starring in dozens of films, including western's and dramas. One
series had Reagan, playing a character named Lieutenant Brass Bancoft,
a former military pilot who joined the Secret Service to
take down criminals. The first installment in the franchise, the

(01:31):
nineteen thirty nine Secret Service of the Air, was a
modest hit. Its success pushed the studio to green light
three more sequels over the next year. That's right, three
Secret Service movies starring Ronald Reagan were released in nineteen
thirty nine. The final film, Murder in the Air, came
out in nineteen forty. Quantity over quality, I guess it

(01:53):
was the second installment, though Code of the Secret Service,
that was particularly special, not because it was Eddie good.
Though Reagan hated it. He called it the worst picture
he had ever made, and was quoted as saying, never
has an egg of such dimensions been laid. He wasn't
yoking either. The film was almost universally panned by theatergoers

(02:13):
and critics alike. Still, it made enough money to keep
the series afloat for two more installments. In the film,
Lieutenant Bancroft is sent after a ring of counterfeiters who
have stolen engraving plates from the U. S. Treasury. Exciting
on paper, but not so much in execution unless you
were Jerry. Jerry was born in nineteen thirty in Montgomery, Alabama,

(02:35):
but grew up in Florida. When he was thirty two
years old, a recruiter from the United States Secret Service
paid him a visit and asked if he wanted to join.
Jerry didn't think the job was any more dangerous than
the one that he had been doing in Florida, Power
and Light, so he said yeah. Jerry was no spring chicken.
He entered the academy alongside much younger cadets, but that

(02:55):
didn't stop him from persevering as a new agent. In
the early sixty Jerry was first assigned to protect John F.
Kennedy and then Lyndon B. Johnson as they attended Eleanor
Roosevelt's funeral. From there, he was almost always beside a
president or vice president, though, Jerry faced the challenge of
his life. He was working as part of President Reagan's

(03:17):
Secret Service detail the afternoon of March. The president had
just given a speech at a major union organization at
the Washington Hilton Hotel in d C. He was being
led out of the hotel around two pm, where a
sea of reporters were waiting to greet him. President Reagan
had stepped up to the crowd to answer questions when
a man named John Hinckley Jr. Pulled a revolver out

(03:38):
and fired six shots rang out. Jerry jumped into action,
shoving Reagan into a waiting limousine. He looked back to
see three people bleeding on the sidewalk. Hinkley had severely
wounded several of the president's staff. Jerry assumed that the
President had gone unharmed, but he looked back and saw
blood spurting out of Reagan's mouth. Out of the six

(04:00):
bullets that were fired, one had managed to lodge itself
in Reagan's lung, which had collapsed. Jerry told the driver
to head to George Washington University Medical Center, where doctors
spent two hours removing the bullet and stitching the president's
back up. Reagan was fine, thanks in no small part
to Jerry's quick thinking. What very few people knew at

(04:20):
the time was that Jerry Parr almost didn't become a
Secret Service agent, but he'd been inspired by a film
he'd seen many times when he was younger. It was
a movie about a former military pilot who joined the
Secret Service to take down criminals. A movie starring Ronald Reagan,
called Code of the Secret Service, the worst movie Ronald

(04:40):
Reagan ever made, inadvertently saved his life. Sometimes truth really
is stranger than fiction. Today's television landscape comprises a vast

(05:03):
rate of programming, much of it is good or even
better than what we might find at the cinema. From
star studded series two movies of the week. The TV
of today is a far cry from the sitcoms and
camp of yesteryear. But that doesn't mean the television shows
of the old days weren't special in their own right.
They entertained families every week with tales of genies and bottles,

(05:24):
bumbling spies, and witchy wives. But one man didn't quite
care for the quality of programming in the nineteen sixties.
He thought it could be better. What he got instead
was his name on a piece of television history, though
not in the way he probably wanted. Newton Norman was
a lawyer from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Born in nineteen six. Norman

(05:44):
fought during World War Two before getting his law degree
from Northwestern He worked his way up in the private sector,
getting a job at a major law firm until he
joined ad LEA. Stevenson on his two presidential campaigns in
the nineteen fifties. In nineteen sixty one, President John F.
Kennedy appointed Norman into the Federal Communications Commission. As a commissioner,
Norman took his job very seriously, lamenting the states of

(06:06):
television at the time. It was a topic he spoke
of frequently with Kennedy's brother, Roberts, who agreed that modern
TV programming of the time needed a lot of help.
More importantly, though, he felt that the children would suffer
if television continued its commercial decline. Norman furthered his agenda
with a speech which he gave at a convention in
nineteen sixty one held by a powerful lobbying group, the

(06:29):
National Association of Broadcasters, were responsible for setting guidelines for
television networks and radio stations. Want to know why the
hour from eight to nine pm is considered primetime? What
we have the n A B To thank for that?
Norman had just become chair of the FCC two months earlier,
and he was determined to make a splash. He launched

(06:50):
into a tirade about undesirable programming such as game shows,
Westerns and sitcoms. He believed that if there was more variety,
people would naturally choose to watch better shows. Among the
ones he actually liked were The Twilight Zone and certain
news programs, where there was plenty that he despised. He
referred to television as a whole, as a vast wasteland

(07:12):
populated by what he called formula comedies about totally unbelievable families.
Many at the n A B agreed, though by the
time the speech was given, the networks had already lined
up their schedules for the next season. Programming changes wouldn't
happen until at least nineteen sixty three. But one person
had heard the speech who didn't agree with any of it,
and he was going to have the last word. Sherwood

(07:34):
Schwartz had gotten his start in radio, writing for programs
like the Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet's and The Bob
Hope Show. When he made the jump to television, he
got a job writing for the popular comedy program The
Red Skeleton Show. But Schwartz wasn't going to stay in
the writer's room forever. He had an idea for a
show of his own, one which he started production on

(07:54):
in November of nineteen sixty three. It started an ensemble
cast who found themselves strand it on a deserted island
after their tour boat was damaged in a storm. What
was supposed to have been a three hour tour ended
up becoming one of the most popular series on television,
spanning three seasons, almost one episodes, and several film sequels
plus one catchy theme song. Gilligan's Island was a hit,

(08:19):
and in some ways it was a hit piece on
the former FCC chair himself. You see, Sherwood Schwartz didn't
take too kindly to the ways in which he'd been insulted.
Here he was with a formula comedy about totally unbelievable
characters getting into one hairbrain scheme after another, and he
knew that people were going to love it. So as

(08:39):
any great artist would, Schwartz fired back at his critic, Norman,
in the only way he knew how he named something
in the show after him, Newton. Norman Minnow would live
on in the hearts and minds of viewers everywhere as
the inspiration behind the name of the skipper's ill fated ship,
The S. S. Minnow I hope you've enjoyed today's guided

(09:02):
tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on
Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting
Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me
Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make
another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
book series, and television show, and you can learn all

(09:24):
about it over at the World of Lore dot com.
And until next time, stay curious.