August 20, 2025 • 36 mins
What do you get when you mix fearless journalism, a broken nose, and an empty vault? The wild ride that is Geraldo Rivera’s career. In this episode, Jim and Lindsay revisit the unforgettable TV moment that cemented Geraldo’s place as an 80s icon.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:17):
Welcome back to Children of the Eighties. I am one
of your hosts, Jim, and I am joined as always
by the lady who isn't afraid to throw a chair
across a studio audience and break my nose. It's my
co host, Lindsey.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
That sounds kind of fun, right, So Emmy said, when
she was really little, I think pre K, or maybe
even before pre K, she had a little argument with
her best friend and she came home and she said,
sometimes you just have to be your own best friend.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
She did say that. I remember that she was like
three or four years old, which I found hilarious and enlightening.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Very profound, and I sort of feel like that's what
I need to learn from today.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
You just need to be your own best friend.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Need to be my own best friend.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Sometimes you need that. Sometimes you need other friends. Yeah,
but at this point, you need to be your own
best friend. At this point, what is like my life over? No,
I just mean like today.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
I nan need one time for a little boy and
he found a worm out in the yard and he
broke it in two so he could have a friend. No,
I don't want somebody to break me in two.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
No, he broken in too, so we could have a friend.
Things worms could probably live through that they might could.
I don't understand stuff like that. I don't know how
you doing over there, Christopher Reeves. Well, Christopher Reeve, aren't
you Superman? Why am I Superman?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Because you had an MRI today and they put you
in the Superman position?
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Oh my gosh, that was completely You had to utterly
miserable that you are not supposed to lay that way
for an hour when you have a bad back.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
What about your bad back?
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Was not fun at all. I'll never do it again,
even if they come back and they're like hey, if
they're like, hey, we didn't get it all. We need
you to come back. This thing could be cancerous. I'm
just gonna say, you know what, I'd rather die. Oh no,
I'm gonna take my chances. No, not that I'd rather die,
but I'd rather take my chances.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
I'm not how that sort of thing works.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
I'm not laying back down again like that. You're not.
I'm I'm not doing.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Not laying on a table like Superman for an hour.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
No, not unless they're gonna put uh blue tights and
a red cape on me. Not going to do it.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Not for a minute. I got some tea. You got
some tea, must kind of spill it. Yeah, okay, so
you know bo do you. John Schneider married Paul Sirevino's widow.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
We've discussed this on this podcast before.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Yes, okay, So John Schneider's first wife, Darby I think
was her name, took him to the cleaners, took everything
he had. That's who he had children with. They were
married for I don't know, twenty years or something.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
She took him to George Jefferson's he did.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Second wife came along and they were poor together, sad.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
But he had finally found the love of a lifetime
to Firehouse.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
That's all we ever heard about was how much he
loved her. Sadly, she passed away from complications from breast cancer,
and he went on social media every day for I
don't even know how long, and sobbed on like Facebook Live.
And he went and got a tattoo of her thumbprint
(03:46):
on the back of his hand as if they were
holding hands. Okay, I mean he would hold his hand
and her thumbprint close to his heart for the rest
of his life.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Well guess what, Well, now he's dB and D D
has millions from Paul Sorvino, and now he is back
in the high life again.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
He is back in the high life. And guess who
is having that tattoo removed.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Oh no, he's not having the tattoo removed. It's Jim.
You can't do that, I know, but he is.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
So what I can't tell is this something he's come
up with on his own or is d D making
him do it?
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Well, you know, money makes the world go round.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
If I was living the high life with my third
wife and she said get that tattoo removed, I'd probably
go get that tattoo removed.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
I would yeah, right, yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
So anyways, the drama continues as the world turns. So
what you got going on?
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Do my on? Did you hear me?
Speaker 2 (04:59):
I said, get off my lawn, Now, get off my lawn.
I'm not happy. I don't like this chair, and I
don't like this disk, and I don't like being here.
I'm a grumpy old man. I don't like everything the
way it is now compared to the way it used
to be.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
All I have to say about people in society is
just don't suck. Okay, you don't have to be great.
You don't have to be good. You may not even
have to be friendly, although that's nice. Being kind is
something that you should strive for, but just don't suck.
(05:40):
So I leave work early yesterday to come home to
finish my day at work. So I'm talking like lunchtime, right,
I leave it lunchtime. I tell my people, listen, I'm
having some back problems. So I'm gonna go home. I
have an office, and that way my back starts to
bother me. I can lay down and take some measure
(06:00):
off of it. Can't really do that here at work.
That would be kind of weird. Although in fairness, in
my last job, we did have a guy who was
a complete drunk who would lay down on the floor.
And I don't know if it was because the back
problems or just to get rid of the hangover. But
I get home, I get out of my car, I
go around to get my laptop. I looked down at
(06:22):
my car. Somebody has side swiped the front of the
bullet by pulling into a parking lot or pulling out
of a parking lot and done some serious danwer.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
So the bullet, the silver bullet, is what you call
your car.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Yeah, not like an actual physical bullet. I called my
car the silver bullet.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Jim is fifty two years old, not fifty two yet,
and this is only the third car he has ever owned.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
And it is the only nice car that I've ever hed.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
It is and I can vouch for that, it is
the only nice car. And I was so proud for
him when he got it, because there's just no one
deserves a nice car more than more than Jim, because
he suffered for so long with such crappy cars. And
then to get that text from you, I felt terrible.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Yeah, they've damaged the front panel. It's actually going to
take two panels worth of work to get fixed if
I if I choose to go get it fixed. Nobody
left a note, Nobody said anything. If they had left
a note and even said just something like hey, I
hit your car, I'm sorry, and didn't leave anything else,
I mean, that wouldn't have helped me financially, but at
(07:34):
least it would have been fifteen percent decent.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Okay, what if I come to your work tomorrow and
I look for a car with silver paint on the
front bumper?
Speaker 1 (07:48):
There's like three hundred cars there. You can't look through
three hundred cars.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
I mean, do you know me?
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Well, yeah, I guess technically you can. It just is
what it is. So I really wasn't even that mad
when you got home, wasn't I didn't. I didn't go
on a rant about it, but I figured I've ran
to the to the folks here who like to hear me,
pull the old Clint Eastwood here. You know what Clint
would do, right, They find that dude or a lady, Yeah,
and and choke them, you know, just really frustrating.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Just people. I'm not asking a lot of you. All
I'm asking you.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Is just don't suck.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Just don't hit my car. Just if you hit my car,
that's fine.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Just leave me your insurance stuff, right, because now I
either got to come up with a couple of grand
or more, which I don't have, or I've got to
make an insurance claim and then my insurance is gonna
go yes, right right, so I'm gonna pay for it
either way. Yes, And I did nothing wrong. All I
did was parking go into work like a productive human being.
(08:46):
Unlike the person who hit my car. Well, they parked
and went into work, or did they what else would
they have done? They may have ran after what happened.
I've decided now that whenever I park in a parking
uh huh, I'm pulling a Clark w Griswold okay, which
means which means at Wally World, I'm the first one there,
(09:07):
but I'm parking about three and a half miles away.
Get your exercises, and I'm gonna slowly jog with chariots
of fire playing as I make my way into the building.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
So, I mean, we've covered it, haven't we We've covered
I just gonna be my own friend. We're gonna tear
a worm into your life. Sucks your super Superman, you
got your car being dub What else is there? Uh?
Speaker 1 (09:33):
And people just need to not suck? Yeah, all right,
let's get started. Then.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
This is a podcast that looks back on the decade
of the nineteen eighties. We talk about things that were
important to us as children and what we look back
on with fond memories as adults. Ultimately, this is a
nostalgia podcast.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
We are talking about the nineties rapper Girardo. Oh wait, wait, no, no, no, no,
the eighties news slash talk show host Haraldoldo. I read
that wrong.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Yes, I want to back up on that Haraldo Rivera,
but not just we're not talking generally about Haraldo. We're
talking about one special or maybe I should say memorable
event that happened with Horaaldo back in the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
So I'm going to go on record as saying that
this is probably one of the five most disappointing events
of my lifetime.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
So I'm going to take lead on this one.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Yes, I'm going to provide color commentary.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
And I hope we haven't lost anybody, But listen, if
you're still hanging on now, hang on a little bit longer.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
This is going to be some good stuff here.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
You ready, Yeah, Okay, Today we're diving into the life
and career of one of the most colorful and controversial
figures from the nineteen eighties in American media, Heraldo Rivera.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
I'm also going to say, before you get into that,
I'm also going to say he's probably like top five
stash of the eighties.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
His born stash, which he still has.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
We all know selic Head number one, right, but Heraldo's
top five.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
From his groundbreaking expose at the Willow Brooks State School
that exposed horrific abuse that happened back in the in
the nineteen seventies to his infamous live TV spectacle opening
al Capone's vault. Two decades on talk shows and cable news,
Heraldo built a career that's been equal parts fearless journalism.
(12:04):
Might be a stretch, No, no, no, he is.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
He is. He has been on the front line of some.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Wars, sensational showmanship, and outright spectacle.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Now I would agree with both of those. Sensational, I
would agree with all three of those, sensational showmanship, and
outright spectacle for sure. He was trying to be like
the shock jock of the nineteen eighties with his talk show.
He's trying to be like the Howard Stern of television
talk show.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Love him or hate him, you can't deny his impact
on the nineteen eighties. So let's go ahead and let's
dig in. Heraldo was born on the fourth of July.
Of course, he was nineteen forty three in New York City.
After studying law, he broke into TV news in the
early nineteen seventies, and he made his name with bold
(12:53):
investigative reporting. So nineteen forty three, he's my dad's age, yes,
and my dad's been dead for ten years, almost like
not Heraldo, though, Roaldo, he's still out there.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
You know why your dad's been dead for nine years?
And Roaldo, is it? That's dash? Your dad should have
grown that big thick stash and he'd have been all right.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Oh, I don't think my dad could grow a big
thick stash. So his big brain came in nineteen seventy
two with his Peabody Award winning expose on the Willow
Brook State School, an institution for children with intellectual disabilities.
Heraldo snuck in with a camera crew and exposed the
(13:33):
horrific neglect interviews happening inside. That report shocked the nation
and led to reforms in how America treated people with disabilities.
To this day, it's remembered as one of his most
important pieces of journalism.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
No, that was fantastic that he did that, like he
was looking to actually expose something and not necessarily make
a name for himself or not necessarily make a spectacle.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Another moment that showed his serious side came in nineteen
eighty three, when Haraldo became one of the first mainstream
TV reporters to use the acronym AIDS on ABC's twenty.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Twenty Acquired Immune deficiency.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
So yeah, up until that point, they had not really
used that acronym for the epidemic that was going on,
so a time when fear and stigma were rampant. He
gave it real national attention, treating it as the public
health crisis that it really was. And Haraldo has said
he considers that report one of the most important things
(14:40):
he's ever done.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
So I would agree with that.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
You know, so we've talked about some serious stuff that
Heraldo has done. Now let's get to the meat of
wild why we're here tonight. Okay, But of course, what
many people remember most about Heraldo it's not Will Oberon
or it's not his AIDS coverage. It's the night he
opened al Capone's vault.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
The build up to this was almost as big as
the build up to the release of the Thriller video.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Yes, yes, so I actually remember this. It just very
hazy for me. Do you actually remember it as a child?
I do remember, Okay, So I'm going to stop and
I'm going to give you just a little bit of
background on al Capones. So. Al Capone was the most
infamous gangster of the Prohibition era. He was based in
(15:38):
Chicago and he controlled bootlegging, gambling, prostitution, and he built
a multi million dollar empire during the twenties and thirties.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Also controlled politics.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
He was ruthless, but also played up a Robin Hood
image by donating to charities and soup kitchens during the
Great Depression.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Yeah, he was a gangster with a heart, a killer
with a heart.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Capone was finally brought down not for murder or racketeering,
but for tax evasion in nineteen thirty one. Yes, he
served time in federal prison, including Alcatraz, before being released
due to his poor health. So Capone made the Lexington
Hotel in Chicago his headquarters during the nineteen twenties. He
(16:25):
lived in a lavish suite and reportedly ran much of
his criminal operation from there. The hotel became legendary for
its secret passageways, hidden staircases, and fortified rooms designed to
protect Capone and allow for quick escapes if police raided.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
By the way, if there's anybody out there listening that
makes movies, I think it's time that we do another
Al Capone movie.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Now.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Mean, I'm not saying that anything could top nineteen eighty seven,
So Untouchables, which stars Robert de Niro, as al Capone,
and Kevin Costner as Elliot Ness and Sean Connery and
that dude from American Graffiti. I'm not saying it could
top it. I'm just saying we're probably due for an update,
and I wouldn't mind seeing that movie.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
The vault that Heraldo opened in nineteen eighty six was
a sealed chamber discovered in the hotel's basement during renovations.
Rumors swirled for decades that it could hold piles of
hidden cash, weapons, bodies, jewelry, liquor. I mean, who knows, moonshine,
(17:33):
I mean, there could be anything in there.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
It could be anything in there.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
It's frengie. So I have to tell a quick story.
What I know about al Capone is the night that
he showed up at my house just in time for dinner.
This was also probably circa nineteen eighty seven ish.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
So I I let me tell a little bit of
the story and then you can go on. So or
aunt Renee, who was really more like your big sister,
she was twelve years older than me, who lived with you,
would occasionally maybe not make the best decision at who
she might want to go out on a date with.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Well, unfortunately that truer words have never been said.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
And so she comes home that night with a fella
what is he eighteen nineteen twenty?
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Well she was. She was pretty new in college, so
you know, from my mind, he might as well have
been thirty five, but I'm assuming he was probably eighteen
nineteen twenty. But he shows up at your parents' time,
at dinner time. I just sat down for.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Dinner drunk as a skunk and can't hardly stand up.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Yes, And he did not come in and address my
dad like you should have to enter another man's home.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Well, you know, first impressions mean a lot. You Typically,
you don't want to meet somebody when you're three sheets
to the wind and you can't stand up, and then
you go in and you fall across a bed perpendicular
and pass out.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
He did, That's what he did.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
And oh boy, but your dad was not happy. Yeah,
and after that, your dad what banned him from the house.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
It was banned from our house.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
But he also got the nickname al Capone.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Yes, yeah, so I don't I have no clue what
his real name was, but he was. My dad called
him al Capone. And he was not allowed back, which
probably just made him all the more attractive to her.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Oh, I'm sure it did. Yeah, yeah, Anyways, your dad
may have overplayed his hand.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
On that, probably a little bit. I think she probably
gave all the Dad figures in her life a good
run for their money. So that's that's so, that's what
I know about al Capone. But okay, so we're going
to go back to the Lexington Hotel now. So historians
believe that the vault was most likely just a storage
area or maybe a secured utility space. Capone certainly had
(19:56):
secret stashes and safe houses, but there's really no credible
evidence that he had hid any major wealth anywhere in
that hotel. By the time of his death in nineteen
forty seven, Capone's empire had crumbled, and much of his
fortune had either been seized, spent, or hidden in ways
that no one has ever really confirmed. Okay, so let's
(20:17):
set the stage. It's April twenty first, nineteen eighty six.
The Lexington Hotel in Chicago, once al Capone's headquarters. It's
being renovated. During construction, crews discover a sealed vault in
the basement, and of course all the legends swirl. Maybe
it's stuffed with cash. Who knows, but everybody wants to
(20:38):
find out. So enter Heraldo Rivera. Producers needed a host
who could sell this spectacle on national TV as they
drill it open.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
I want to say that HAROLDA was about as good
as at promoting stuff as Don King. Yes, he was.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Someone who could turn two hours of television into like
moss Watch history. HARALDA was perfect. He was famous, he
was fearless, and he was theatrical, very theatrical. Okay, listen
to this. So we're talking about nineteen eighty six. How
much money do you think he made for hosting this
two hour event.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Nineteen eighty six, I'm gonna say he made three hundred
thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Whoa, he was paid fifty thousand dollars to host, and
in today's money that would be roughly one hundred and
forty thousand. Oh well, I was way off, yeah, I
know right. I wasn't expected you to like, shoot, you're
shot there.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
I would have way over negotiated my price and probably
been fired.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Okay, So here's my question, because it's just like a
hazy dream for me, I don't remember the details. How
did they stretch this one? Simpol Let's open the door,
the vault door into a two hour spectacle.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Let me ask you this. Did you watch The Decision
in two thousand and nine with Lebron James? Yes, did
you watch? Have you ever watched the uh Kentucky Derby?
Of course they spread those things out, which is just
(22:16):
information and information information that really, for the most part,
is unnecessary. Oh yeah, and that's what Haroldo did here.
He kind of did what you're doing right now, only
overdramatized it and went way back and well, maybe it
could be this, and maybe it could be that, and
coming up, we're gonna find out, and oh my goodness,
(22:39):
Ryan Seacrest couldn't do a better job than what Haroldo did.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Okay, So the show opened with Heroldo in a TALX
setting the scene like it was a once in a
lifetime discovery. There were long segments about al Capone's life
and his criminal empire, dramatizations. Yeah, mob historians were on
talking about it, and even Heraldo took viewers on a
(23:05):
tour of the hotel secret passageways. Meanwhile, construction crews were
slowly drilling into the vault while Heraldo cut back and
forth to live interviews with IRS agents because they were on.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Scene right because they were going to confiscate whatever was.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Because he died owing lots of money to the irt.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
That purvey of the purview of the US marshalls, though
sanitary gaines.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Medical examiners in case they find bodies, which I would
think at that point would be bones and police who
were all standing by just in case, just.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
In case, how capom popped out with a Tommy gun.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
There was even a live band playing between segments to
a live studio audience.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
There was a live studio audience.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
It'sthing we're missing in the eighties now. It was part history, lesson,
part variety show. Sonny and Cher came out and did
a little bit I'm joking I was. I was like
what they sing, I got you, babe, I'm joking. Part
high stakes gamble. And then after two hours of hype,
(24:20):
the vault was finally open. Oh are you getting to
the open vaults already?
Speaker 1 (24:24):
I thought you were gonna build up some more like
old like old Jerry Rivera did how.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Much can you really say? I mean, I mean, it
is what it is, So let's go back.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
And so they had I R. S. Agents there. I
mean it would have been like the scene in Batman
where the Joker starts having dollar bills fly everywhere and
all the people come flying in. That's what that would
have looked like. And then they had medical examiners there.
Now you said that would have been nothing but bones.
Now no, No, it would have been mummified. If there was
(24:55):
no air in there. They can you imagine the dead
bodies would have been mummified. It would have been like
that stir of echoes with Kevin the Bacon.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
The children would have been horrified, yes, And then also
local police were on hand in case there were like weapons.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Now I can say, in case there were one, are
the weapons going to fire each other and we're.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Going to seize them? I don't know seize them.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
So as a thirteen year old boy, I was hoping
for the mummified bodies, and I was also hoping for
like gold the blooms, like it was one eyed Willie's
pirate ship. That's what I was hoping for.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Okay, So they popped that door open and inside was
drum roll please.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Numb. I thought there were a couple of pieces of paper, some.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Dirt debris, and a couple of empty booze bottles all
that was in al Capone's vault. Heraldo looked into the
camera and said, quote, well, ladies and gentlemen, it seems
we've struck out.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Yeah, you struck out with the bases loaded bottom of
the ninth down too. That's what you did, Roaldo. You
surely didn't pull a Francisco Cabrera and bring home sid
with his slid.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
With his slid sid at a slid sid slid in
the moment, Heraldo admitted that he was embarrassed. In his memoir,
he called it both mortifying and exhilarating, but later he
joked that he was embarrassed for only about twelve hours
until the ratings came in.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
Well, yeah, can you imagine like the excitement, like you're
getting ready to open up something. It was kind of
like they said that your grandma kept all the money
in her walls, and before we sold the house, we
went knocking holes in the walls and there was nothing there.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Yeah, we wanted to try to find the money.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
But I felt much like Geraldo Doaldo. Yes.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
An estimated thirty million people had tuned in, making it
the most watched syndicated TV special at that time. So
while the vault was empty, Heraldo's career was anything but
He later said, my career was not over I knew,
but had just begun, and all because of a silly
high concept stunt that failed to deliver.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
I mean it fell on its face, you know, oh
big time.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
The very next year, in nineteen eighty seven, Heraldo launched
his daytime talk show simply called Heroaldo. It ran for
over a decade and was famous sometimes infamous, for covering
sensational and controversial topics. It was one of the pioneers
of tabloid talk TV, paving the way for Jerry Springer
(27:50):
and Maury Povich. One of the most memorable moments came
in nineteen eighty eight. We reference to this right at
the beginning of this episode, when a fight broke out
on his show between white supremacist and activist. Haraldo was
caught in the chaos and wound up with the broken nose.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Yep, so he threw a chair and it got them.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Instead of hurting his career, The incident boosted ratings and
cemented his reputation as a fearless, sometimes outrageous host. So
sometimes after the talk show ended, Haraldo transitioned into cable news.
He joined Fox News in two thousand and one, reporting
(28:29):
from war zones in Afghanistan. And so he once got
into trouble. Do you remember this for drawing a map
in the sand on Life TV while he was in
i Raq, accidentally revealing troop positions.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Yes, and it's like, no, wonder why they want to
keep the media out of war stuff and they don't
want to give them access, and they're all like.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Oh, you can give him a t exent.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
're free, Pepa, but quit being idiots and give it
away our positions. So it's funny that you mentioned that
this was what you wanted to talk about the nineteen
eighty six It was eighty six when he gotten to
the right. So nineteen eighty six Heraldo opens the vault
for al Capone. That shows absolutely nothing, because the.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Following year.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
There was a two hour live television special hosted by
Telly Savalis. As you mentioned, Cojack Kojack. I don't know
if he had his lollipop with him or not, but
returned to the Titanic live and it featured footage of
the wreck as well as recovered artifacts, including the opening
(29:54):
of a safe from the ship. Oh really, now, how wow?
Ironic is that?
Speaker 2 (30:02):
I don't remember that? Do you remember?
Speaker 1 (30:05):
I do remember that because I was for whatever reason,
and I don't know why, but I was fascinated with
the Titanic, and I have no idea why. It would
have been because Jimmy. I didn't care about nineteen twelve
back then, but I just thought because it was so
famous and because they couldn't find it forever and then
they finally found it, I just thought it would be
really cool to see. So the show ended with Telly,
(30:28):
you know, flanked by armed guards and experts, introducing a
segment in which contents of a safe were examined live.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Is that where that jewel that Rose had?
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (30:43):
They found?
Speaker 1 (30:44):
Yes, Yeah, that's where they found it and Rose had
dropped it down there and then Telly found it.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
So I don't, I don't know. I'm having a really
hard time sitting here saying that. I feel Heraldo Rivera
was a reporter journalist.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
He was because of what he exposed with the guess
with the disabilities.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
I mean, yes, that in bringing awareness to the AIDS epidemic,
But then it's like.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
But then he went to sensationalists.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
He just jumped off the cliff and just.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Well, yeah, he had made a name for himself, and
now he knew that he could now make money, right,
guess that's it. And so I mean fifty thousand dollars
for a two hour episode. Now, granted he had to
put time into that, but I'm sure he had researchers
and stuff for him too.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Right, Currently, the researchers weren't that good because they didn't
know that vault.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Was in Well, I don't think anybody knew that vault
was empty, but I'm just saying, you know, he probably
had teleprompters and everything else that he was speaking on
about the researchers or do you think he did the
research himself.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
No, I don't think he did. So here's a thought.
They couldn't drill a little tiny hole in the side
of like the vault that you couldn't really notice on
TV and stick a little camera in there so they
would have some kind of a heads up if it
was empty or not.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
Yeah, they could have done like the Navy seals in
the Rock, you know, where they stick the little camera
up and they and they start searching for stuff and
they don't see anything, and then the marines kill them.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
They just went in blind.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Yeah they did, which was kind of stupid if you
think about it. But maybe they did, and maybe he
did it anyway, because if somebody offers you fifty thousand
dollars for two hours of work, listen, and what did
you say, like one hundred and forty thousand hours. Somebody
wants to give me one hundred and forty thousand or
(32:37):
even fifty thousand for two hours of work, I'll gladly
take it. If you want to give me either one
of those numbers for two months of work, I'll gladly
take that, Sach.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
Would you be willing to look like an idiot in
the process?
Speaker 1 (32:48):
I look like an idiot every day of my life.
How's that gonna change anything? Oh?
Speaker 2 (32:55):
You're crazy?
Speaker 1 (32:58):
So is that all you got for me?
Speaker 2 (33:00):
On HAROLDO? I was hoping you had.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
Like a I don't know, some kind of expose, some
kind of like HAROLDO expose like Haroaldo lived in a
cave of vampires growing up or something.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
I mean, we could say that if you wanted to.
We could you like a mad lib on HAROLDO right
now if you wanted to.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
You know who could sell that? Story of Haroldo growing
up in a cave with vampires.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Roldo Coroaldo. Yeah, he could, he could, and he probably
has because he wrote a memoir and you know, it's
probably very salacious.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
I know it's probably full of hyperbole.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Yes, yes, as I want to say he's had like
four wives or something. You know, you can you can imagine.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
Did he have a tattoo removed?
Speaker 2 (33:49):
And let's say I have not heard if he had
a tattoo removed or not.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
I was just trying to think if there was anything
else that I could help cover this story. But I
think I'm I think I'm out of thoughts.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
Wow, people, that never happened.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
I'm usually never speechless, but today I am.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Well, I don't know what to do with that, but
we would appreciate it if you haven't already, if you
would go ahead and leave us a review, and go
ahead hit that subscribe button.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Yeah, hit that subscribe button, so you're guaranteed to never
miss a show. You can also tell somebody. You can
reach out to us via social media's like Instagram, Facebook,
Twitter at Children of Underscore Eighties, or you can reach
us by email. Children of the nineteen Eighties at gmail
(34:46):
dot com coming up next week? What have we got
coming up next week?
Speaker 2 (34:49):
I don't know. And it's going to be a surprise.
It's like what's in al Capone's vault. It's a surprise.
We don't know.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
So I got a music episode for you. I've got
a commercial episode for you. If you want to do
some comemercials, let's do commercial. I don't really have any movies.
Uh you know what. One thing that we neglected to
mention at the beginning of the show, which you usually
try to bring the audience down, was that the uh
great Terrence Stamp passed away this week. And he played
(35:18):
General Zod in the Superman movies, and he was also
the voice of Jarrell in Smallville. Speaking of John Schneider, Wow.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
We look at us tying it all up time and
there you go.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
And so I started thinking, he's one of the top
ten villains in the nineteen eighties, General Zod, And so
maybe I'm gonna put together a uh a top ten
villains of the nineteen eighties for really for movies.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
I like the way you're thinking.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
All right, so we'll do one of those thirty next week.
I'll let you choose.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
Also, I can't wait, all.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
Right, Well then, until next time, I'm Jim.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
And I'm Lindsey and we are children of the eighties.
See you next Wednesday.
Welcome back to Children of the Eighties. I am one
of your hosts, Jim, and I am joined as always
by the lady who isn't afraid to throw a chair
across a studio audience and break my nose. It's my
co host, Lindsey.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
That sounds kind of fun, right, So Emmy said, when
she was really little, I think pre K, or maybe
even before pre K, she had a little argument with
her best friend and she came home and she said,
sometimes you just have to be your own best friend.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
She did say that. I remember that she was like
three or four years old, which I found hilarious and enlightening.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Very profound, and I sort of feel like that's what
I need to learn from today.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
You just need to be your own best friend.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Need to be my own best friend.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Sometimes you need that. Sometimes you need other friends. Yeah,
but at this point, you need to be your own
best friend. At this point, what is like my life over? No,
I just mean like today.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
I nan need one time for a little boy and
he found a worm out in the yard and he
broke it in two so he could have a friend. No,
I don't want somebody to break me in two.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
No, he broken in too, so we could have a friend.
Things worms could probably live through that they might could.
I don't understand stuff like that. I don't know how
you doing over there, Christopher Reeves. Well, Christopher Reeve, aren't
you Superman? Why am I Superman?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Because you had an MRI today and they put you
in the Superman position?
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Oh my gosh, that was completely You had to utterly
miserable that you are not supposed to lay that way
for an hour when you have a bad back.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
What about your bad back?
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Was not fun at all. I'll never do it again,
even if they come back and they're like hey, if
they're like, hey, we didn't get it all. We need
you to come back. This thing could be cancerous. I'm
just gonna say, you know what, I'd rather die. Oh no,
I'm gonna take my chances. No, not that I'd rather die,
but I'd rather take my chances.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
I'm not how that sort of thing works.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
I'm not laying back down again like that. You're not.
I'm I'm not doing.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Not laying on a table like Superman for an hour.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
No, not unless they're gonna put uh blue tights and
a red cape on me. Not going to do it.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Not for a minute. I got some tea. You got
some tea, must kind of spill it. Yeah, okay, so
you know bo do you. John Schneider married Paul Sirevino's widow.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
We've discussed this on this podcast before.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Yes, okay, So John Schneider's first wife, Darby I think
was her name, took him to the cleaners, took everything
he had. That's who he had children with. They were
married for I don't know, twenty years or something.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
She took him to George Jefferson's he did.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Second wife came along and they were poor together, sad.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
But he had finally found the love of a lifetime
to Firehouse.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
That's all we ever heard about was how much he
loved her. Sadly, she passed away from complications from breast cancer,
and he went on social media every day for I
don't even know how long, and sobbed on like Facebook Live.
And he went and got a tattoo of her thumbprint
(03:46):
on the back of his hand as if they were
holding hands. Okay, I mean he would hold his hand
and her thumbprint close to his heart for the rest
of his life.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Well guess what, Well, now he's dB and D D
has millions from Paul Sorvino, and now he is back
in the high life again.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
He is back in the high life. And guess who
is having that tattoo removed.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Oh no, he's not having the tattoo removed. It's Jim.
You can't do that, I know, but he is.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
So what I can't tell is this something he's come
up with on his own or is d D making
him do it?
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Well, you know, money makes the world go round.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
If I was living the high life with my third
wife and she said get that tattoo removed, I'd probably
go get that tattoo removed.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
I would yeah, right, yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
So anyways, the drama continues as the world turns. So
what you got going on?
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Do my on? Did you hear me?
Speaker 2 (04:59):
I said, get off my lawn, Now, get off my lawn.
I'm not happy. I don't like this chair, and I
don't like this disk, and I don't like being here.
I'm a grumpy old man. I don't like everything the
way it is now compared to the way it used
to be.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
All I have to say about people in society is
just don't suck. Okay, you don't have to be great.
You don't have to be good. You may not even
have to be friendly, although that's nice. Being kind is
something that you should strive for, but just don't suck.
(05:40):
So I leave work early yesterday to come home to
finish my day at work. So I'm talking like lunchtime, right,
I leave it lunchtime. I tell my people, listen, I'm
having some back problems. So I'm gonna go home. I
have an office, and that way my back starts to
bother me. I can lay down and take some measure
(06:00):
off of it. Can't really do that here at work.
That would be kind of weird. Although in fairness, in
my last job, we did have a guy who was
a complete drunk who would lay down on the floor.
And I don't know if it was because the back
problems or just to get rid of the hangover. But
I get home, I get out of my car, I
go around to get my laptop. I looked down at
(06:22):
my car. Somebody has side swiped the front of the
bullet by pulling into a parking lot or pulling out
of a parking lot and done some serious danwer.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
So the bullet, the silver bullet, is what you call
your car.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Yeah, not like an actual physical bullet. I called my
car the silver bullet.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Jim is fifty two years old, not fifty two yet,
and this is only the third car he has ever owned.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
And it is the only nice car that I've ever hed.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
It is and I can vouch for that, it is
the only nice car. And I was so proud for
him when he got it, because there's just no one
deserves a nice car more than more than Jim, because
he suffered for so long with such crappy cars. And
then to get that text from you, I felt terrible.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Yeah, they've damaged the front panel. It's actually going to
take two panels worth of work to get fixed if
I if I choose to go get it fixed. Nobody
left a note, Nobody said anything. If they had left
a note and even said just something like hey, I
hit your car, I'm sorry, and didn't leave anything else,
I mean, that wouldn't have helped me financially, but at
(07:34):
least it would have been fifteen percent decent.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Okay, what if I come to your work tomorrow and
I look for a car with silver paint on the
front bumper?
Speaker 1 (07:48):
There's like three hundred cars there. You can't look through
three hundred cars.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
I mean, do you know me?
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Well, yeah, I guess technically you can. It just is
what it is. So I really wasn't even that mad
when you got home, wasn't I didn't. I didn't go
on a rant about it, but I figured I've ran
to the to the folks here who like to hear me,
pull the old Clint Eastwood here. You know what Clint
would do, right, They find that dude or a lady, Yeah,
and and choke them, you know, just really frustrating.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Just people. I'm not asking a lot of you. All
I'm asking you.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Is just don't suck.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Just don't hit my car. Just if you hit my car,
that's fine.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Just leave me your insurance stuff, right, because now I
either got to come up with a couple of grand
or more, which I don't have, or I've got to
make an insurance claim and then my insurance is gonna
go yes, right right, so I'm gonna pay for it
either way. Yes, And I did nothing wrong. All I
did was parking go into work like a productive human being.
(08:46):
Unlike the person who hit my car. Well, they parked
and went into work, or did they what else would
they have done? They may have ran after what happened.
I've decided now that whenever I park in a parking
uh huh, I'm pulling a Clark w Griswold okay, which
means which means at Wally World, I'm the first one there,
(09:07):
but I'm parking about three and a half miles away.
Get your exercises, and I'm gonna slowly jog with chariots
of fire playing as I make my way into the building.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
So, I mean, we've covered it, haven't we We've covered
I just gonna be my own friend. We're gonna tear
a worm into your life. Sucks your super Superman, you
got your car being dub What else is there? Uh?
Speaker 1 (09:33):
And people just need to not suck? Yeah, all right,
let's get started. Then.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
This is a podcast that looks back on the decade
of the nineteen eighties. We talk about things that were
important to us as children and what we look back
on with fond memories as adults. Ultimately, this is a
nostalgia podcast.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
We are talking about the nineties rapper Girardo. Oh wait, wait, no, no, no, no,
the eighties news slash talk show host Haraldoldo. I read
that wrong.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Yes, I want to back up on that Haraldo Rivera,
but not just we're not talking generally about Haraldo. We're
talking about one special or maybe I should say memorable
event that happened with Horaaldo back in the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
So I'm going to go on record as saying that
this is probably one of the five most disappointing events
of my lifetime.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
So I'm going to take lead on this one.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Yes, I'm going to provide color commentary.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
And I hope we haven't lost anybody, But listen, if
you're still hanging on now, hang on a little bit longer.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
This is going to be some good stuff here.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
You ready, Yeah, Okay, Today we're diving into the life
and career of one of the most colorful and controversial
figures from the nineteen eighties in American media, Heraldo Rivera.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
I'm also going to say, before you get into that,
I'm also going to say he's probably like top five
stash of the eighties.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
His born stash, which he still has.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
We all know selic Head number one, right, but Heraldo's
top five.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
From his groundbreaking expose at the Willow Brooks State School
that exposed horrific abuse that happened back in the in
the nineteen seventies to his infamous live TV spectacle opening
al Capone's vault. Two decades on talk shows and cable news,
Heraldo built a career that's been equal parts fearless journalism.
(12:04):
Might be a stretch, No, no, no, he is.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
He is. He has been on the front line of some.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Wars, sensational showmanship, and outright spectacle.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Now I would agree with both of those. Sensational, I
would agree with all three of those, sensational showmanship, and
outright spectacle for sure. He was trying to be like
the shock jock of the nineteen eighties with his talk show.
He's trying to be like the Howard Stern of television
talk show.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Love him or hate him, you can't deny his impact
on the nineteen eighties. So let's go ahead and let's
dig in. Heraldo was born on the fourth of July.
Of course, he was nineteen forty three in New York City.
After studying law, he broke into TV news in the
early nineteen seventies, and he made his name with bold
(12:53):
investigative reporting. So nineteen forty three, he's my dad's age, yes,
and my dad's been dead for ten years, almost like
not Heraldo, though, Roaldo, he's still out there.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
You know why your dad's been dead for nine years?
And Roaldo, is it? That's dash? Your dad should have
grown that big thick stash and he'd have been all right.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Oh, I don't think my dad could grow a big
thick stash. So his big brain came in nineteen seventy
two with his Peabody Award winning expose on the Willow
Brook State School, an institution for children with intellectual disabilities.
Heraldo snuck in with a camera crew and exposed the
(13:33):
horrific neglect interviews happening inside. That report shocked the nation
and led to reforms in how America treated people with disabilities.
To this day, it's remembered as one of his most
important pieces of journalism.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
No, that was fantastic that he did that, like he
was looking to actually expose something and not necessarily make
a name for himself or not necessarily make a spectacle.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Another moment that showed his serious side came in nineteen
eighty three, when Haraldo became one of the first mainstream
TV reporters to use the acronym AIDS on ABC's twenty.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Twenty Acquired Immune deficiency.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
So yeah, up until that point, they had not really
used that acronym for the epidemic that was going on,
so a time when fear and stigma were rampant. He
gave it real national attention, treating it as the public
health crisis that it really was. And Haraldo has said
he considers that report one of the most important things
(14:40):
he's ever done.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
So I would agree with that.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
You know, so we've talked about some serious stuff that
Heraldo has done. Now let's get to the meat of
wild why we're here tonight. Okay, But of course, what
many people remember most about Heraldo it's not Will Oberon
or it's not his AIDS coverage. It's the night he
opened al Capone's vault.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
The build up to this was almost as big as
the build up to the release of the Thriller video.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Yes, yes, so I actually remember this. It just very
hazy for me. Do you actually remember it as a child?
I do remember, Okay, So I'm going to stop and
I'm going to give you just a little bit of
background on al Capones. So. Al Capone was the most
infamous gangster of the Prohibition era. He was based in
(15:38):
Chicago and he controlled bootlegging, gambling, prostitution, and he built
a multi million dollar empire during the twenties and thirties.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Also controlled politics.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
He was ruthless, but also played up a Robin Hood
image by donating to charities and soup kitchens during the
Great Depression.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Yeah, he was a gangster with a heart, a killer
with a heart.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Capone was finally brought down not for murder or racketeering,
but for tax evasion in nineteen thirty one. Yes, he
served time in federal prison, including Alcatraz, before being released
due to his poor health. So Capone made the Lexington
Hotel in Chicago his headquarters during the nineteen twenties. He
(16:25):
lived in a lavish suite and reportedly ran much of
his criminal operation from there. The hotel became legendary for
its secret passageways, hidden staircases, and fortified rooms designed to
protect Capone and allow for quick escapes if police raided.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
By the way, if there's anybody out there listening that
makes movies, I think it's time that we do another
Al Capone movie.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Now.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Mean, I'm not saying that anything could top nineteen eighty seven,
So Untouchables, which stars Robert de Niro, as al Capone,
and Kevin Costner as Elliot Ness and Sean Connery and
that dude from American Graffiti. I'm not saying it could
top it. I'm just saying we're probably due for an update,
and I wouldn't mind seeing that movie.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
The vault that Heraldo opened in nineteen eighty six was
a sealed chamber discovered in the hotel's basement during renovations.
Rumors swirled for decades that it could hold piles of
hidden cash, weapons, bodies, jewelry, liquor. I mean, who knows, moonshine,
(17:33):
I mean, there could be anything in there.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
It could be anything in there.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
It's frengie. So I have to tell a quick story.
What I know about al Capone is the night that
he showed up at my house just in time for dinner.
This was also probably circa nineteen eighty seven ish.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
So I I let me tell a little bit of
the story and then you can go on. So or
aunt Renee, who was really more like your big sister,
she was twelve years older than me, who lived with you,
would occasionally maybe not make the best decision at who
she might want to go out on a date with.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Well, unfortunately that truer words have never been said.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
And so she comes home that night with a fella
what is he eighteen nineteen twenty?
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Well she was. She was pretty new in college, so
you know, from my mind, he might as well have
been thirty five, but I'm assuming he was probably eighteen
nineteen twenty. But he shows up at your parents' time,
at dinner time. I just sat down for.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Dinner drunk as a skunk and can't hardly stand up.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Yes, And he did not come in and address my
dad like you should have to enter another man's home.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Well, you know, first impressions mean a lot. You Typically,
you don't want to meet somebody when you're three sheets
to the wind and you can't stand up, and then
you go in and you fall across a bed perpendicular
and pass out.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
He did, That's what he did.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
And oh boy, but your dad was not happy. Yeah,
and after that, your dad what banned him from the house.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
It was banned from our house.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
But he also got the nickname al Capone.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Yes, yeah, so I don't I have no clue what
his real name was, but he was. My dad called
him al Capone. And he was not allowed back, which
probably just made him all the more attractive to her.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Oh, I'm sure it did. Yeah, yeah, Anyways, your dad
may have overplayed his hand.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
On that, probably a little bit. I think she probably
gave all the Dad figures in her life a good
run for their money. So that's that's so, that's what
I know about al Capone. But okay, so we're going
to go back to the Lexington Hotel now. So historians
believe that the vault was most likely just a storage
area or maybe a secured utility space. Capone certainly had
(19:56):
secret stashes and safe houses, but there's really no credible
evidence that he had hid any major wealth anywhere in
that hotel. By the time of his death in nineteen
forty seven, Capone's empire had crumbled, and much of his
fortune had either been seized, spent, or hidden in ways
that no one has ever really confirmed. Okay, so let's
(20:17):
set the stage. It's April twenty first, nineteen eighty six.
The Lexington Hotel in Chicago, once al Capone's headquarters. It's
being renovated. During construction, crews discover a sealed vault in
the basement, and of course all the legends swirl. Maybe
it's stuffed with cash. Who knows, but everybody wants to
(20:38):
find out. So enter Heraldo Rivera. Producers needed a host
who could sell this spectacle on national TV as they
drill it open.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
I want to say that HAROLDA was about as good
as at promoting stuff as Don King. Yes, he was.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Someone who could turn two hours of television into like
moss Watch history. HARALDA was perfect. He was famous, he
was fearless, and he was theatrical, very theatrical. Okay, listen
to this. So we're talking about nineteen eighty six. How
much money do you think he made for hosting this
two hour event.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Nineteen eighty six, I'm gonna say he made three hundred
thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Whoa, he was paid fifty thousand dollars to host, and
in today's money that would be roughly one hundred and
forty thousand. Oh well, I was way off, yeah, I
know right. I wasn't expected you to like, shoot, you're
shot there.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
I would have way over negotiated my price and probably
been fired.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Okay, So here's my question, because it's just like a
hazy dream for me, I don't remember the details. How
did they stretch this one? Simpol Let's open the door,
the vault door into a two hour spectacle.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Let me ask you this. Did you watch The Decision
in two thousand and nine with Lebron James? Yes, did
you watch? Have you ever watched the uh Kentucky Derby?
Of course they spread those things out, which is just
(22:16):
information and information information that really, for the most part,
is unnecessary. Oh yeah, and that's what Haroldo did here.
He kind of did what you're doing right now, only
overdramatized it and went way back and well, maybe it
could be this, and maybe it could be that, and
coming up, we're gonna find out, and oh my goodness,
(22:39):
Ryan Seacrest couldn't do a better job than what Haroldo did.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Okay, So the show opened with Heroldo in a TALX
setting the scene like it was a once in a
lifetime discovery. There were long segments about al Capone's life
and his criminal empire, dramatizations. Yeah, mob historians were on
talking about it, and even Heraldo took viewers on a
(23:05):
tour of the hotel secret passageways. Meanwhile, construction crews were
slowly drilling into the vault while Heraldo cut back and
forth to live interviews with IRS agents because they were on.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Scene right because they were going to confiscate whatever was.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Because he died owing lots of money to the irt.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
That purvey of the purview of the US marshalls, though
sanitary gaines.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Medical examiners in case they find bodies, which I would
think at that point would be bones and police who
were all standing by just in case, just.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
In case, how capom popped out with a Tommy gun.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
There was even a live band playing between segments to
a live studio audience.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
There was a live studio audience.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
It'sthing we're missing in the eighties now. It was part history, lesson,
part variety show. Sonny and Cher came out and did
a little bit I'm joking I was. I was like
what they sing, I got you, babe, I'm joking. Part
high stakes gamble. And then after two hours of hype,
(24:20):
the vault was finally open. Oh are you getting to
the open vaults already?
Speaker 1 (24:24):
I thought you were gonna build up some more like
old like old Jerry Rivera did how.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Much can you really say? I mean, I mean, it
is what it is, So let's go back.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
And so they had I R. S. Agents there. I
mean it would have been like the scene in Batman
where the Joker starts having dollar bills fly everywhere and
all the people come flying in. That's what that would
have looked like. And then they had medical examiners there.
Now you said that would have been nothing but bones.
Now no, No, it would have been mummified. If there was
(24:55):
no air in there. They can you imagine the dead
bodies would have been mummified. It would have been like
that stir of echoes with Kevin the Bacon.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
The children would have been horrified, yes, And then also
local police were on hand in case there were like weapons.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Now I can say, in case there were one, are
the weapons going to fire each other and we're.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Going to seize them? I don't know seize them.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
So as a thirteen year old boy, I was hoping
for the mummified bodies, and I was also hoping for
like gold the blooms, like it was one eyed Willie's
pirate ship. That's what I was hoping for.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Okay, So they popped that door open and inside was
drum roll please.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Numb. I thought there were a couple of pieces of paper, some.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Dirt debris, and a couple of empty booze bottles all
that was in al Capone's vault. Heraldo looked into the
camera and said, quote, well, ladies and gentlemen, it seems
we've struck out.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Yeah, you struck out with the bases loaded bottom of
the ninth down too. That's what you did, Roaldo. You
surely didn't pull a Francisco Cabrera and bring home sid
with his slid.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
With his slid sid at a slid sid slid in
the moment, Heraldo admitted that he was embarrassed. In his memoir,
he called it both mortifying and exhilarating, but later he
joked that he was embarrassed for only about twelve hours
until the ratings came in.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
Well, yeah, can you imagine like the excitement, like you're
getting ready to open up something. It was kind of
like they said that your grandma kept all the money
in her walls, and before we sold the house, we
went knocking holes in the walls and there was nothing there.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Yeah, we wanted to try to find the money.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
But I felt much like Geraldo Doaldo. Yes.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
An estimated thirty million people had tuned in, making it
the most watched syndicated TV special at that time. So
while the vault was empty, Heraldo's career was anything but
He later said, my career was not over I knew,
but had just begun, and all because of a silly
high concept stunt that failed to deliver.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
I mean it fell on its face, you know, oh
big time.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
The very next year, in nineteen eighty seven, Heraldo launched
his daytime talk show simply called Heroaldo. It ran for
over a decade and was famous sometimes infamous, for covering
sensational and controversial topics. It was one of the pioneers
of tabloid talk TV, paving the way for Jerry Springer
(27:50):
and Maury Povich. One of the most memorable moments came
in nineteen eighty eight. We reference to this right at
the beginning of this episode, when a fight broke out
on his show between white supremacist and activist. Haraldo was
caught in the chaos and wound up with the broken nose.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Yep, so he threw a chair and it got them.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Instead of hurting his career, The incident boosted ratings and
cemented his reputation as a fearless, sometimes outrageous host. So
sometimes after the talk show ended, Haraldo transitioned into cable news.
He joined Fox News in two thousand and one, reporting
(28:29):
from war zones in Afghanistan. And so he once got
into trouble. Do you remember this for drawing a map
in the sand on Life TV while he was in
i Raq, accidentally revealing troop positions.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Yes, and it's like, no, wonder why they want to
keep the media out of war stuff and they don't
want to give them access, and they're all like.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Oh, you can give him a t exent.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
're free, Pepa, but quit being idiots and give it
away our positions. So it's funny that you mentioned that
this was what you wanted to talk about the nineteen
eighty six It was eighty six when he gotten to
the right. So nineteen eighty six Heraldo opens the vault
for al Capone. That shows absolutely nothing, because the.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Following year.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
There was a two hour live television special hosted by
Telly Savalis. As you mentioned, Cojack Kojack. I don't know
if he had his lollipop with him or not, but
returned to the Titanic live and it featured footage of
the wreck as well as recovered artifacts, including the opening
(29:54):
of a safe from the ship. Oh really, now, how wow?
Ironic is that?
Speaker 2 (30:02):
I don't remember that? Do you remember?
Speaker 1 (30:05):
I do remember that because I was for whatever reason,
and I don't know why, but I was fascinated with
the Titanic, and I have no idea why. It would
have been because Jimmy. I didn't care about nineteen twelve
back then, but I just thought because it was so
famous and because they couldn't find it forever and then
they finally found it, I just thought it would be
really cool to see. So the show ended with Telly,
(30:28):
you know, flanked by armed guards and experts, introducing a
segment in which contents of a safe were examined live.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Is that where that jewel that Rose had?
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (30:43):
They found?
Speaker 1 (30:44):
Yes, Yeah, that's where they found it and Rose had
dropped it down there and then Telly found it.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
So I don't, I don't know. I'm having a really
hard time sitting here saying that. I feel Heraldo Rivera
was a reporter journalist.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
He was because of what he exposed with the guess
with the disabilities.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
I mean, yes, that in bringing awareness to the AIDS epidemic,
But then it's like.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
But then he went to sensationalists.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
He just jumped off the cliff and just.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Well, yeah, he had made a name for himself, and
now he knew that he could now make money, right,
guess that's it. And so I mean fifty thousand dollars
for a two hour episode. Now, granted he had to
put time into that, but I'm sure he had researchers
and stuff for him too.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Right, Currently, the researchers weren't that good because they didn't
know that vault.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Was in Well, I don't think anybody knew that vault
was empty, but I'm just saying, you know, he probably
had teleprompters and everything else that he was speaking on
about the researchers or do you think he did the
research himself.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
No, I don't think he did. So here's a thought.
They couldn't drill a little tiny hole in the side
of like the vault that you couldn't really notice on
TV and stick a little camera in there so they
would have some kind of a heads up if it
was empty or not.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
Yeah, they could have done like the Navy seals in
the Rock, you know, where they stick the little camera
up and they and they start searching for stuff and
they don't see anything, and then the marines kill them.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
They just went in blind.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Yeah they did, which was kind of stupid if you
think about it. But maybe they did, and maybe he
did it anyway, because if somebody offers you fifty thousand
dollars for two hours of work, listen, and what did
you say, like one hundred and forty thousand hours. Somebody
wants to give me one hundred and forty thousand or
(32:37):
even fifty thousand for two hours of work, I'll gladly
take it. If you want to give me either one
of those numbers for two months of work, I'll gladly
take that, Sach.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
Would you be willing to look like an idiot in
the process?
Speaker 1 (32:48):
I look like an idiot every day of my life.
How's that gonna change anything? Oh?
Speaker 2 (32:55):
You're crazy?
Speaker 1 (32:58):
So is that all you got for me?
Speaker 2 (33:00):
On HAROLDO? I was hoping you had.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
Like a I don't know, some kind of expose, some
kind of like HAROLDO expose like Haroaldo lived in a
cave of vampires growing up or something.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
I mean, we could say that if you wanted to.
We could you like a mad lib on HAROLDO right
now if you wanted to.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
You know who could sell that? Story of Haroldo growing
up in a cave with vampires.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Roldo Coroaldo. Yeah, he could, he could, and he probably
has because he wrote a memoir and you know, it's
probably very salacious.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
I know it's probably full of hyperbole.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Yes, yes, as I want to say he's had like
four wives or something. You know, you can you can imagine.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
Did he have a tattoo removed?
Speaker 2 (33:49):
And let's say I have not heard if he had
a tattoo removed or not.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
I was just trying to think if there was anything
else that I could help cover this story. But I
think I'm I think I'm out of thoughts.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
Wow, people, that never happened.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
I'm usually never speechless, but today I am.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Well, I don't know what to do with that, but
we would appreciate it if you haven't already, if you
would go ahead and leave us a review, and go
ahead hit that subscribe button.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Yeah, hit that subscribe button, so you're guaranteed to never
miss a show. You can also tell somebody. You can
reach out to us via social media's like Instagram, Facebook,
Twitter at Children of Underscore Eighties, or you can reach
us by email. Children of the nineteen Eighties at gmail
(34:46):
dot com coming up next week? What have we got
coming up next week?
Speaker 2 (34:49):
I don't know. And it's going to be a surprise.
It's like what's in al Capone's vault. It's a surprise.
We don't know.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
So I got a music episode for you. I've got
a commercial episode for you. If you want to do
some comemercials, let's do commercial. I don't really have any movies.
Uh you know what. One thing that we neglected to
mention at the beginning of the show, which you usually
try to bring the audience down, was that the uh
great Terrence Stamp passed away this week. And he played
(35:18):
General Zod in the Superman movies, and he was also
the voice of Jarrell in Smallville. Speaking of John Schneider, Wow.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
We look at us tying it all up time and
there you go.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
And so I started thinking, he's one of the top
ten villains in the nineteen eighties, General Zod, And so
maybe I'm gonna put together a uh a top ten
villains of the nineteen eighties for really for movies.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
I like the way you're thinking.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
All right, so we'll do one of those thirty next week.
I'll let you choose.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
Also, I can't wait, all.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
Right, Well then, until next time, I'm Jim.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
And I'm Lindsey and we are children of the eighties.
See you next Wednesday.
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