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October 21, 2022 18 mins

Holly and Tracy talk about the prediction of Houdini's death, and Rose Mackenberg's abundant bravado. They also discuss the long road the movie 'Till" took to get to the screen, and the film's careful handling of Mamie and Emmett's story. 

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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class, A production
of I Heart Radio, Hello and Happy Friday and Holly
Fry and I'm Tracy B. Wilson. We talked about Rose
Mackinburgh this week. We did I'm so glad that you
picked her, because I had her on my list a

(00:24):
while ago, some years ago, and at that point I
really struggled finding information and moved on to other things.
And yet here she's back. She's back. Yeah. It's one
of those things where you do have to piece together
a lot of disparate newspaper accounts and whatnot, but it's
so fun. Um. There's an interesting side story that I did.

(00:47):
It didn't feel right to include in Rose's story about
Madame Marcia, who we mentioned during those those Senate committee hearings,
and she had been very entwined with the Harding White
House uh and said that she had predicted um Harding
selection and some other stuff. But what was very there

(01:09):
is a creepy note in here, which is that during
all of this conflict that was going on around whether
or not fortune telling and psychic consultations were going to
be outlawed in Washington, d C. Madam Marcia predicted that
Houdini would be dead by November, and he died on

(01:31):
October thirty one of that year, so it made her
definitely looked like she was at least a good guess er.
I'm not laughing that he died, obviously, but it was
a it's it's one of those good like who moments
in the midst of a lot of people yelling at
each other. Uh during a Senate committee hearing. I also

(01:56):
couldn't find verification of it, but I did like the
quote that I came across where Rose once claimed in
the press that because of her there had been a
million dollars worth of lawsuits against Tu Deanie of people
that were trying to sue them for having been exposed
and deprived of their income, which is a lot of

(02:18):
money in the nineteen twenties. UM, very very interesting. Her
description of gross men is gross. Let me just say
up front, I don't think anyone should accept that kind
of behavior. I'm not saying that in saying how much
I admire her ability to be like this is absolutely gross,

(02:39):
and I feel like I'm gonna barth, but I really
need to get evidence, so I'm going to keep going. Uh.
She had bravado in abundance is what I will say. Yeah. Yeah.
I also I like how much care she took the
point out like this is not about people's religious beliefs,
It is about people defrauding other people, which is like,

(03:04):
that's something that I've run into a bunch of my
own life, having worked as a massage therapist, which is
a field that attracts people who may have like really
sincerely held spiritual beliefs or beliefs in various alternative forms
of treatment and things like that, and like walking the

(03:27):
line between respecting people's beliefs but also seeing when people
are taking advantage of somebody who was grieving or somebody
who is very ill, and and the medical industry is
not helping them but also selling them a bunch of
fake supplements to make moneys, also not helping them. Yeah yeah,

(03:50):
I mean it really stood out to me, and we
mentioned it in the episode. You know that one of
her earliest investigations, like she was basically like presenting herself
to that particular medium as a woman whose baby had
died just weeks earlier, and his behavior was I'm going
to try to get you to undress, and I just
it's so gross to know that he would do that

(04:14):
to someone who was genuinely in an emotionally vulnerable point
in their lives. It makes me want to hiss at
the very most minor response. Um, it's so gross, And
I do like that she pointed out how to hurt.
Some of these moments were funny, but then she remember like, no,

(04:35):
this could happen to someone who's really genuinely experiencing what
I am claiming to experience, and then it becomes very
tragic and upsetting. Um, that seems to be something that um,
you know, Houdini also did, and she carried on in
their work which after he was gone, which I have
immense respect for. Right to remember, it's not just your experience.

(04:57):
You're doing this because there are people who need that
help who are not, you know, fortunate enough to necessarily
have have been exposed to all of the information that
you have, or you know. She mentions at some point,
like people who are very poor and desperate are most
at risk because they just don't they don't have the
resources to to know that these people are frauds, or

(05:19):
they are in such financial ruin that they're a little
bit blinded to what the possibilities are in terms of
people defrauding them. Um, it's very noble. But she is
also very funny, which I love. I love her thing
of like everybody seemed so happy and there afterlife that
wasn't real. But it's not very nice to me, right,
Do any of my fictional children miss me? Oh, she's

(05:43):
very funny. It's very very funny. I really like her
a bunch. I wish I wish I couldn't find any
evidence that any version of her unpublished book manuscript exists anywhere.
If it does, if it ever turns up, I'm going
to devour that thing because you know it would be
hilarious as well as very cool. Um, and probably not

(06:06):
very flattering to a lot of people love Rose Rose.
I didn't mean to, but we do have a lot
of Houdini content going off because I have some more coming.
I don't know if it'll be part of our October
stuff or not. Um, But you know, he was an
important and pivotal figure in the Spiritualist movement because of

(06:28):
his work against these sort of fraudulent folks. And I
like the fact that he liked Rose is like no,
I would love to believe I would love to find proof.
I want that comfort as much as anybody. I just
haven't found it. Um, which is nice Udini Rose Mecenburg

(06:50):
and Madam Marcia, who also would be an interesting subject
maybe in the future, Tracy. This week we got to
talk to the people that made Till Yes, Um, which
was really really a delight for me. Um. I mean

(07:12):
when I love talking to people, But two, I might
have a lady crush on ch know you. I just
think she's incredibly gifted. And and also I mean when
you hear her speak about how she makes films, she's
clearly just so smart about it. And I loved the
way she talked about she does all of her technical
planning ahead of time so that she can just be

(07:34):
present on the day. And I think that is a
brilliant way to live your life if you're doing creative projects. So, Um,
I thought it was astonishing. But you and I both
were lucky enough to get to see the film even
before it came out in limited release. Yeah, Um, and
I was legitimately completely blown away by how good it is. Yeah. Yeah,

(07:56):
I think it's extremely well done. There were I think
you and I were each at a media screening with
a handful of other people, and even though there were
I think fewer than ten people in the auditorium with me,
it was clear I think everybody was familiar with like
the basics of the story, but also there were people

(08:21):
who clearly weren't aware of a lot of the aftermath.
Uh as a lot of films of this nature do.
At the end, there are some like title cards that
say things that happened later, and there were just like
audible explanation exclamations at a few of them. We also

(08:42):
have a little fire alarm in the middle of ours,
which has nothing to do with the movie itself. Um,
something folks might not know is that this film was
in the works forever, a very long time. I mean
I talked a little bit with she know you about that,
but she came in pretty late, even in that whole game,

(09:06):
because you had mentioned that you had back to Kickstarter
for it even way before that. Yeah, I backed to
Kickstarter for it in so more than seven years ago,
because that Kickstarter funded in something like August or September,
I think, and I like the things on Kickstarter that
that takes so long, like they evolve over time, and

(09:30):
films evolve over time. So there were various things along
the way where there would be updates that would be
sort of about like announcements of people who were going
to be involved with the film, and like over time
that that has all changed. But something that was consistent
from the very beginning was that one of the people
who was involved with it heavily from the beginning was

(09:51):
one of Emmett's cousins who witnessed everything that happened in Money, Mississippi,
Um Simeon Wright, who actually passed away a couple of years. Oh,
but it was like a consultant on the film up
until his death, and UM like the way the Kickstarter
characterized things included like his extensive involvement. So I think

(10:13):
whenever there's a film like this it's about something really
traumatic for a family, there are questions that people have
that are like what, okay, well, how does the family
feel about this? And at least in terms of of
mtt's cousin, I mean, you can't speak for everybody who knows,
but like there was family involvement, like from the beginning,

(10:33):
going back for years, UM wanting this story to be
shared in this format. Yeah, I mean it's um. We
both discussed afterwards too, And it came up in my
interview like this is when that I think we were
both a little bit scared of just because it is

(10:54):
so dark, and I don't think either of us wanted
to see the violence being per portrayed. Um, because it's
just a lot. We don't need more images of that.
And like I said, it came up in my in
my chat with Tonnoyance specifically, um, and I came away
sort of in shock at how incredibly deftly this very

(11:15):
difficult material was handled in a way that is still
has incredible gravity and you still feel the pain of it.
But it isn't it would have been so easy for
this movie too shock us with the visuals of what
was going on and the violence that happened against Emmett

(11:38):
in a way that I think would have left us
a little unable to process the rest of the movie. Yeah, Um,
which is not that if you are afraid of seeing
that police know, if you didn't already figure that out
from from our our Wednesday episode, that is, that is
not what you get out of this. There are some
very difficult images in it, but the way it's handled

(12:00):
is just so careful and smart. Yeah, and I was
just like I said, I was blown away by the
skill of the filmmaking. Yeah. So the photographs that that
Mami had taken of Emmett's body after his death are
such a central part of that whole story and of
her story and of the civil rights movement as it

(12:22):
evolved after that, that, in my opinion, like leaving out
that depiction would have been weird and jarring. But also
she's talked a lot about Tonnoia has talked a lot
about making like the conscious choice not to have a
depiction of the actual lynching as it happened, which I

(12:46):
also felt like it was a really thoughtful decision about
how how to portray all this. Yeah. Um, I also
had a moment one I'm and I will I'm very
superstitious about things like this, so I I don't want
to say anything specific, but I literally came out of

(13:09):
this movie going, They're going to be a lot of
mentions of this during Awards season. I don't know how
they won't. But actually they also wanted to say on
a slightly later note, which obviously is not to make
light of the story at all, is that, um, I
have to give Hayley Bennett props for taking the role

(13:31):
of Caroline Bryant, because that is a person that it
is very easy to dislike, and her portrayal is very
good and makes it very very easy to see how
manipulative of the truth she was. Um, I mean, the

(13:53):
good news is she doesn't look like her normal self
very much in the film, so hopefully no one will
see her in the street and have a gut reaction
of um. And if you you may remember, I spoke
with Haley when we did our syran No coverage and
she was super delightful, So um yeah, I mean, she's
just a delightful person and I really love talking to her.
And I didn't know she was gonna be in this

(14:14):
role then, but yeah, like that is a brave role
to take because that's not just taking a villain role.
That is taking a really I don't know if revilable
is the word, but it is today. Um yeah, that's
not a not not someone you would really want to
be associated with. And she does a really good job. Wow.

(14:38):
Jaln Hall is charming. I'll just say that again. He's
so good in the movie and he I spoke with
him about it during our interview. But it's really beautiful
to see that that more joyous aspect of who Emmett
Till was. Obviously what happened to him is super important,
but that's not his whole life story. And so it

(14:58):
was really nice to see, you know, that relationship with
him and Mami and the joy that they shared together.
And I was very grateful to have an actor who
was able to do that so beautifully. It's hard. Historical
stuff is hard. This is one of those things, though.
I know you and I have talked about historical films
in the past, and we often walk away and go, well,

(15:19):
they sure did play around with some stuff. I did
not feel like that at all, know and having researched
our episode on it and having made some similar decisions
about like where to place the focus in the episode,
because I thought it was a really important episode for
us to do, but I also didn't want it to
be exploitive in anyway. I remembered a lot of the

(15:42):
details and things would happen in the film that I
would be like, that is exactly how we understand that
that happened. Yeah, um, anyway, uh, yeah. We don't do
a lot of of a lot a movie coverage on
the show. Like when we did See You. No, we
did that as a bonus episode. But this movie is

(16:06):
um so tied to how much you know to the
kinds of themes that we talked about in a piece
of history we have discussed on the show that I
felt pretty comfortable using it as a regular episode because
it is interesting to also just hear how other people
interpret and and visit that history and how they talk
about it and um and share it and retell it

(16:28):
in a way that is um that feels to me
very important. Like I feel like this is a film
that could be shown in history classes and I wouldn't
feel the least bit like, oh, they're not really getting
an accurate portrayal of what happened. That's not gonna happen
with this one. So that's kind of why we were
pretty comfortable slotting it in a regular Wednesday slot. Uh.

(16:50):
If you see it, I hope you are as moved
by it as I was. Um. I think I saw
it with four other people and there was one woman
in our screening. She left for a little while in
the middle. Um, I think it was just a lot understandably,
and then when she came back. There were a few
times where I thought I could hear her kind of
sniffling and possibly sobbing, And it took every part of
my will not to try to go comfort her because

(17:13):
she might not want that and that might be weird,
but I wanted to. The impulse was there, so be
ready for that. But it is so beautiful. I hope
nobody skips it. Uh, that's the scoop. If you are
headed into your weekend, that's a great time to go
see a movie or whatever it is that you need
to do, to take care of yourself and get some
rest and relaxation. If you have responsibilities cropping up this

(17:36):
weekend and it's not necessarily a time of rest and relaxation,
I hope all of those responsibilities are easily managed and
you can tick off your list and maybe squeeze in
a little time for yourself. We will be right back
here tomorrow with a classic episode, and then on Monday
you will have another brand new one. We'll see you
right back here. Stuff you missed in History Class is

(17:59):
a party suction of I heart Radio. For more podcasts
from I heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H.

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