Coffee With Jeff

Coffee With Jeff

By Jeff KelleyEducationHistory
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Coffee With Jeff episodes

  • Coffee With Jeff #166: Hollywood Miscellany

    Jeff is on Christmas break, so it’s time for another benign takeover. This week, Gordon and Nancy take a walk down movie-making memory lane, theirs and other peoples’. It’s mostly Gordon’s mishaps with horses and weapons of limited destruction, but then that’s just typical.

    Show notes and links:

    • Hollywood – Ep 11 : Trick of the Light (youtu.be)
    • Way Down East (1920) (imdb.com)
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      34 min
    • Coffee With Jeff #165: Dangerous Toys

      Toys! Almost everyone loves toys. Toys can be fun, exciting, and even educational. Sometimes, however, manufacturers create toys that pose a risk to the kids they are intended for. Some of these toys can cause injury, others can result in death.

      With the holiday season upon us, I present six toys that had issues when it comes to child safety on the 165th episode of Sunday Morning Coffee with Jeff.

      Show notes and links:

      • Cabbage Patch Kids – Wikipedia (wikipedia.org)
      • CNN – Safety experts alarmed by chomping Cabbage Patch Kids (cnn.com)
      • Cabbage Patch doll `eats’ girls’ hair (independent.co.uk)
      • Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Laboratory (wikipedia.org)
      • Alfred Carlton Gilbert – Wikipedia (wikipedia.org)
      • The 1950s Science Kit That Had Real Uranium (youtube.com)
      • Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Lab (tripod.com)
      • Austin Magic Pistol – Vintage Space Toy (youtube.com)
      • The Original Creepy Crawlers Machines Will Make You Wonder How Kids Survived The 60s (throwbacks.com)
      • Creepy Crawlers – Wikipedia (wikipedia.org)
      • United States v. Article Consisting of 50,000 Cardboard Boxes More or Less, Each Containing One Pair of Clacker Balls (wikipedia.org)
      • Gilbert · Glass Blowing · Cover (glassian.org)
      • CNN – Safety experts alarmed by chomping Cabbage Patch Kids (cnn.com)
      • Most Dangerous Kid Toys – When And How (whenandhow.com)
      • Clackers – Wikipedia (wikipedia.org)
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        31 min
      • Coffee With Jeff #164: Horace de Vere Cole

        Imagine being born rich enough to spend your life fulfilling your passions … Now imagine your passion was practical jokes. There was a man in the early 20th century who only seemed to want to make people – including himself – laugh. He was a jester who delighted in poking fun of people who are full of themselves.

        Today, I have the story of Horace de Vere Cole and the Dreadnought hoax on the 164th episode of Sunday Morning Coffee with Jeff.

        Show notes and links:

        • A Fool There Was – The New York Times (nytimes.com)
        • Horace de Vere Cole, The Sultan of Pranks (youtube.com)
        • Dreadnought hoax – the master piece of pranking (thevintagenews.com)
        • Horace de Vere Cole – Wikipedia (wikipedia.org)
        • Explained: The Zanzibar Hoax – YouTube (youtube.com)
        • Explained: The Dreadnought Hoax – YouTube (youtube.com)
        • The Bloomsbury Group: A Collection of Memoirs and Commentary (google.com)
        • The Time Virginia Woolf Wore Blackface (newyorker.com)
        • Tales of English Eccentrics – Tony Grumley-Grennan (google.com)
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          28 min
        • Coffee With Jeff #163: Joseph “Yellow Kid” Weil

          In Chicago of the early 20th century, there were all kinds of new wealth. Many people had large amounts of money; sometimes people who never had money before. Naturally, there were many ready to take advantage of them as well.

          One such man is rumored to have made over eight million dollars in, well, … not-so-legitimate means. His most famous crime was made famous in a very successful film from the 1970s.

          His name was Joseph “Yellow Kid” Weil and I have his story on the 163 episode of Sunday Morning Coffee with Jeff.

          Show notes and links:

          • 10 Wacky Vintage Cures Con Artists Sold To The Masses (listverse.com)
          • Modern Television Conmen and The Yellow Kid (geekpittsburgh.com)
          • “Yellow Kid” Weil; the autobiography of America’s master swindler : Weil, Joseph R : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive (archive.org)
          • Hoaxers and Hustlers – Thomas Streissguth (google.com)
          • King of the con men (chicagotribune.com)
          • This link has no title (livinghistoryofillinois.com)
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            28 min
          • Coffee With Jeff #162: Ghost Stories

            Do you believe in ghosts? In this episode; I will tell you the story of a specter that roams the Hollywood Hills, a hotel that many flee in terror, and a mysterious woman who dances and disappears. It is three ghost stories that many say are real! All this, and more, on the 163rd episode of Sunday Morning Coffee with Jeff.

            Show notes and links:

            • The Story Of Peg Entwistle, The Most Infamous Hollywood Haunting (ranker.com)
            • Is the Hollywood Sign Haunted? (vanityfair.com)
            • Peg Entwistle – Wikipedia (wikipedia.org)
            • The truth about Peg Entwistle, the young actress who committed suicide by jumping off the Hollywood Sign (thevintagenews.com)
            • The Mysterious Legend of Resurrection Mary (unsolved.com)
            • Resurrection Mary (hauntdetective.com)
            • Resurrection Cemetery (ghostresearch.org)
            • The Stanley Hotel – Historic Stanley Estes Park Hotel (stanleyhotel.com)
            • The Stanley Hotel – Wikipedia (wikipedia.org)
            • StephenKing.com – The Shining Inspiration (stephenking.com)
            • Colorado Experience: The Stanley Hotel (youtube.com)
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              31 min
            • Coffee With Jeff #161: The Papin Sisters

              Welcome to Jeff’s house of horror and coffee! This show contains a description of a murder that might not be suitable for young and more sensitive listeners. You have been warned! This is the tale of a couple of maids in 1833 that, well, went a little off the handle. It is one most famous cases of homicide in France for its bizarre and ghastly nature.

              So prepare yourself for the take of the Papin Sisters on the 161st episode of Sunday Morning with Jeff.

              Show notes and links:

              • When Sisters Kill (Part 1) (typepad.com)
              • Insanity Or Class Warfare? The Gruesome Case Of The Papin Sisters (allthatsinteresting.com)
              • The Crimes of the Papin Sisters (Full Documentary) Real Stories (youtube.com)
              • THE CRIME OF (tripod.com)
              • Christine and Léa Papin – Wikipedia (wikipedia.org)
              • The Papin Sisters and the murder case that still haunts France after more than 80 years (thevintagenews.com)
              • Papin Sisters Facts (murderpedia.org)
              • ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★
                28 min
              • Coffee With Jeff #160: The Pimlico Mystery

                Chloroform is a colorless, sweet-smelling, dense liquid that is a powerful anesthetic, euphoriant, anxiolytic and sedative when inhaled or ingested. It can also be used to kill.

                40-year-old Thomas Edwin Bartlett found that out in 1886, when he never woke to enjoy New Years Day! A lethal dose of Chloroform was found in his stomach and it was believed his young wife was responsible.

                Today I tell the take of the Pimlico Mystery on the 160th episode of Sunday Morning Coffee with Jeff.

                Show notes and links:

                • Pimlico Mystery – Wikipedia (wikipedia.org)
                • The Mammoth Book of Women Who Kill by Richard Glyn Jones (goodreads.com)
                • The Trial of Adelaide Bartlett for Murder, Held at the Central Criminal … – Adelaide Blanche de la Tremoille Bartlett (google.com)
                • Criminal Molecules and Classic Cases by John Emsley (goodreads.com)
                • Victorian murderesses: a true history of thirteen respectable French and … – Mary S. Hartman (google.com)
                • The Language of Newspapers: Socio-Historical Perspectives – Martin Conboy (google.com)
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                  30 min
                • Coffee With Jeff #159: Veronica Lake

                  She was barely an adult, had a unique hairstyle, waz a heavy drinker, diagnosed with a mental illness and – for a few years in the early 1940s – was a huge star in Hollywood. Within less than 10 years, even while starring in a few huge films, she disappeared from Hollywood. Years later, she would be discovered working as a waitress in a hotel in New York City.

                  Today, I tell the story of the actress Veronica Lake on the 159 episode of Sunday Morning Coffee with Jeff.

                  Show notes and links:

                  • Veronica Lake – Wikipedia (wikipedia.org)
                  • The Story of Veronica Lake by Jeff Lenburg (goodreads.com)
                  • Flesh Feast (1970) – Full Cast & Crew (imdb.com)
                  • Veronica Lake, former ’40s Hollywood star, appeared ‘very damaged’ in her later years (foxnews.com)
                  • Veronica Lake–Rare 1971 TV Interview, William Saroyan (youtube.com)
                  • Veronica Lake interview 1952 – Eloise Salutes The Stars (youtube.com)
                  • “FLESH FEAST”, (1970) BIZARRE HORROR FILM! PART 1 (youtube.com)
                  • Veronica Lake, Peek-a-Boo Star of the ’40s, Dies at 51 (latimes.com)
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                    32 min
                  • Coffee With Jeff #158: Story Time with Chooch

                    Jeff is on vacation this week and made the brave decision to hand over his show to Gordon and Nancy from The History Files and Gordon’s Gun Closet. The result is a collection of stories from a character named “Chooch”, who actually has some pretty interesting tales to tell of days gone by.

                    ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★
                    24 min
                  • Coffee With Jeff #157: Charles Ponzi & His Scheme

                    Ever since the invention of money, there have always been people looking for ways to make it both quickly and easily. Promises of quick profits are often very temping to anyone dreaming of a better life – so imagine a chance to double your money in as little as three months?

                    That is what one man pledged in the early 20th century, getting thousands of people to give him his hard earned cash. Today I have the tale of Charles Ponzi and his Scheme.

                    Show notes and links:

                    • Charles Ponzi – Wikipedia (wikipedia.org)
                    • In Search Of History – Charles Ponzi & His Scheme (History Channel Documentary) (youtube.com)
                    • The Ultimate Get-Rich-Quick Scheme: Charles Ponzi & the True Story of a Financial Legend (2005) (youtube.com)
                    • Charles Ponzi – Criminal – Biography (biography.com)
                    • Carlo Bianchi and the Nurse (infogumshoe.com)
                    • Handbook of frauds, scams, and swindles : failures of ethics in leadership / edited by Serge Matulich, David M. Currie. (princeton.edu)
                    • History’s Greatest Deceptions and Confidence Scams by Steven Lazaroff Mark Rodger (goodreads.com)
                    • ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★
                      31 min

                    About Coffee With Jeff

                    From the publisher's feed

                    A short true tale told every Sunday morning as told by Jeff! Each story is told as accurately as possible with, hopefully, a bit of humor. This is the place in which you hear things you probably never…