I'm back this week with yet another inspiring underdog story... but make it Christmas! This week, I'll trace the origins of one of the most beloved Christmas characters, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, all the way back to his roots on the desk of a department story copywriter in 1939 Chicago. Robert L. May was down on his luck when his boss at Montgomery Ward asked him to write a children's book that the store could hand out to customers at Christmas time. He was in debt, his wife was dying of cancer, he was struggling to support his 4 year old daughter, and he was far from achieving his dream of becoming a great American writer. But, just like his underrated title character, Robert rose to the occasion and gave the world something it needed, something that mattered.

Read May's original Rudolph manuscript and listen to his daughter Barbara May Lewis read it here!

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• Join the Patreon (patreon.com/historyfixpodcast)
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Sources: 

• Time Magazine "The Surprisingly Sad True Story Behind 'Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer'"
• NPR "The History of 'Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer'"
• Chicago Tribune "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer..."
• Wikipedia "Robert L. May"
• American Business History Center "Gimbel Brothers Department Stores: Dust to Dust"
• On Location Tours "'Elf' Filming Locations"
• Wikipedia "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer"
• The Hollywood Reporter "'Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer' Most Beloved Holiday Movie, Poll Finds"
• Wikipedia "Johnny Marks"

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Just in time for the 121st anniversary on Tuesday, I bring to you the story of two brothers from Ohio, Wilbur and Orville Wright, who changed the world forever with their groundbreaking first flight on December 17th, 1903. Though it lasted just 12 seconds, it marks the first powered, sustained, and controlled airplane flight, something humans had tried and failed to do for centuries. Join special guest Adonis A. Osekre and me as we delve into the story of the Wright brothers to uncover just how remarkable their achievement really was.

Purchase "Windswept Dreams: The Wright Brothers' Legacy from Kitty Hawk's Dunes and Beyond" by Adonis A. Osekre

Check out askadonis.com

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• Join the Patreon (patreon.com/historyfixpodcast)
• Buy some merch
• Buy Me a Coffee
• Venmo @Shea-LaFountaine

Sources: 

• "Remarkable Women of the Outer Banks" by Hannah Bunn West
• "Windswept Dreams: The Wright Brothers' Legacy from Kitty Hawk's Dunes and Beyond" by Adonis A. Osekre
• Encyclopedia Britannica "Wright Brothers"
• National Air and Space Museum "Meet the Wright Family"
• National Air and Space Museum "Who Were the Wright Brothers?"
• National Air and Space Museum "Before the Wrights Were Aviators"
• National Air and Space Museum "Researching the Wright Way"
• National Air and Space Museum "You Just Invented the Airplane, Now What?"
• National Air and Space Museum "Katherine Wright: the Wright Sister"

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I'll pick up where I left off last week, with the storming of the Bastille and the fall of the "ancien regime." We'll explore how, over the next few years, this new France will become more of a hellscape than a paradise. As a radical group, the Jacobins, seizes control, distopia ensues with the September Massacres of 1792, the "Reign of Terror" spanning 1793 to 1794, and the executions of the monarchy. We'll explore how this chaos paves the way for France's next ruler, Napoleon Bonaparte, to seize power for better or for worse. And, we'll look at 4 takeaway lessons from the French Revolution that we can still learn something from today.

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• Join the Patreon (patreon.com/historyfixpodcast)
• Buy some merch
• Buy Me a Coffee
• Venmo @Shea-LaFountaine

Sources: 

• Age of Revolutions "4 Cautionary Tales from the French Revolution for Today" by Christine Adams
• biography.com "Louis XVI"
• history.com "French Revolution"
• history.com "Marie Antoinette"
• Encyclopedia Britannica "French Revolution"
• US Office of the Historian "The United States and the French Revolution"
• Chateau de Versailles "Death of Louis XIV"
• UTEP "What the French Revolution Can Teach Us About Inflation"
• Napoleon.org "The Republican Calendar"
• Encyclopedia Britannica "Charlotte Corday"
• The Collector "Marie Antoinette's Death: How Did She Die and Why?"
• Five Minute History "Napoleon: Hero or Tyrant?"

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This week I discuss the events leading up to the outbreak of the French Revolution during the summer of 1789. You'll learn how Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette came to find themselves on the French throne at a time when the system, that had worked for centuries, was beginning to fail. Shifting social classes, failing harvests, population booms, and economic busts will begin to fuel a runaway sensational media. As the newspapers and pamphlets hit the streets, stirring up fear and panic, pandemonium breaks out amongst the people who arm themselves with weapons and sheer determination to end the toxic "ancien régime."

Support the show! 

• Join the Patreon (patreon.com/historyfixpodcast)
• Buy some merch
• Buy Me a Coffee
• Venmo @Shea-LaFountaine

Sources: 

• biography.com "Louis XVI"
• history.com "French Revolution"
• history.com "Marie Antoinette"
• Encyclopedia Britannica "French Revolution"
• US Office of the Historian "The United States and the French Revolution"
• Chateau de Versailles

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On November 11, 1620, forty-one men aboard the ship the Mayflower signed a document of great importance. With their signatures they vowed to create fair and just laws and to work together for the good of the Plymouth colony. This document, the Mayflower Compact, was the first to outline self-governance in the so called “New World” and it would go on to serve as a foundation for both the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution. Our government was practically built upon the Mayflower Compact signed by those men. But not all of them would uphold the vows they made that day. One in particular, John Billington, would go so far against them as to become the first convicted murderer in American history. In the words of Governor William Bradford “He is a knave, and so will live and die.” But it wasn’t just John Sr., his whole family wreaked havoc on the colony, prompting Bradford to call them “one of the profanest families amongst them.” Join me this week to learn more about John Billington, the murderer on the Mayflower.

Support the show! 

• Join the Patreon (patreon.com/historyfixpodcast)
• Buy some merch
• Buy Me a Coffee
• Venmo @Shea-LaFountaine

Sources: 

• "History of Plimoth Plantation" by William Bradford (1630)
• "Mourt's Relation: A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth" by Edward Winslow (1622)
• Mayflower 400 "The Mayflower Story"
• New England Historical Society "John Billington Gets Lost"
• History.com "Who Was the First Convicted Murderer in America"
• The Mayflower Society "The Billington Family"
• Mayflower 400 "America's first murderer was executed for killing fellow Plymouth settler"
• Wikipedia "John Billington"

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It’s the greatest adventure story ever told, Lewis and Clark’s daring pursuit to cross thousands of miles of rugged terrain, to explore the rest of the continent, to finally reach the Pacific Ocean, gaze out over its vast expanse, with their faithful guide by their side of course, Sacagawea. You know Sacagawea, she’s the most famous American woman of all time. I’m not kidding. She’s the only one with her face on a coin, with more statues than any other woman in American history. It’s safe to say her story absolutely captivated Americans. I mean, truly, what is not to love about a young mother fearlessly guiding white men through the wilderness with a baby strapped to her back? But did you know, she didn’t actually serve as a guide for most of the expedition? That’s not even why they brought her along. And did you know that, despite having her face on a coin and all of those statues, we know very little at all about the real Sacagawea? We’re not even sure how to properly say her name. Let’s fix that.

Support the show! 

• Join the Patreon (patreon.com/historyfixpodcast)
• Buy some merch
• Buy Me a Coffee
• Venmo @Shea-LaFountaine

Sources: 

• National Women's History Museum "Sacagawea"
• Encyclopedia Britannica "Lewis and Clark Expedition"
• National Park Service "Sacagawea"
• National Geographic "Sex, Dog Meat, and the Lash: Odd Facts About Lewis and Clark"
• Grunge "The Messed Up Truth About the Lewis and Clark Expedition"
• State Historical Society of North Dakota "Was Meriwether Lewis Murdered or Did He Commit Suicide?"
• The Lewis and Clark Rediscovery Project "Agaidika Perspective on Sacagawea"
• The New York Times "After 500 Years, Cortes's Girlfriend Is Not Forgiven"

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Starting in the 1800s, the US government forcibly removed hundreds of thousands of indigenous children from their homes and sent them to boarding schools hundreds of miles away where they ruthlessly tried to destroy all traces of their culture, to assimilate them into white society. Upon arrival, their hair was cut off, their names were changed, and they were regularly beaten for speaking their native languages. At these schools, children faced hard labor, starvation, physical and sexual abuse, and even death. In recent years, hundreds of bodies have been discovered in unmarked graves at the sites of these old schools across the country but estimates of the dead reach into the thousands if not tens of thousands. The US government did this, and then it conveniently forgot about it until very recently, like a couple weeks ago recent. Let’s fix that.

Support the show! 

• Join the Patreon (patreon.com/historyfixpodcast)
• Buy some merch
• Buy Me a Coffee
• Venmo @Shea-LaFountaine

Sources: 

• The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition
• Administration for Children and Families "Healing from the Trauma of Federal Residential Indian Boarding Schools"
• US Department of the Interior "Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative"
• National Museum of the American Indian "Struggling with Cultural Repression"
• New York Times "The Native American Boarding School System"
• Associated Press "President Biden to apologize for 150 year Indian boarding school policy"
• NPR "Federal Indian boarding schools still exist, but what's inside may be surprising"
• PBS "Boarding school history 'a sin on our soul,' Biden says in historic apology to Native communities"
• Time Magazine "The History of Native American Boarding Schools Is Even More Complicated than a New Report Reveals"

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In the Black Hills region of South Dakota stands a massive American monument, the faces of four US presidents blasted into the side of a mountain. George Washington represents the birth of the nation. Thomas Jefferson represents its growth. Theodore Roosevelt development and Abraham Lincoln preservation. Mount Rushmore National Memorial hosts more than 2 million visitors each year who gaze upon the stoic stone faces of our forefathers and feel… proud. Proud of what we’ve accomplished as a country. Proud of our freedom, our liberty which these four men fought hard to help us achieve. But not everyone looks upon those faces with pride and patriotism. For some Americans, it’s more like a deeply seeded festering resentment, anger, outrage, and sadness. Because what most of those 2 million visitors do not know, what they do not learn during their visit to the park, is that the mountain upon which those faces were carved is sacred land, stolen from native people during the Black Hills gold rush of the 1870s. But not only was it stolen, it was desecrated, destroyed, defaced. Because, you see, the mountain was already a memorial, the Six Grandfathers, who stood side by side, stoically watching over Lakota lands until they were erased by the faces of their enemies. Let’s fix that.

Support the show! 

• Join the Patreon
• Buy some merch
• Buy Me a Coffee
• Venmo @Shea-LaFountaine

Sources: 

• National Park Service "Mount Rushmore National Memorial"
• Native Hope "The Six Grandfathers Before It Was Known As Mount Rushmore"
• Ted Ed "The dark history of Mount Rushmore"
• Readers Digest "The Racist History of Mount Rushmore"
• National Geographic "The Strange and Controversial History of Mount Rushmore"
• PBS American Experience "Native Americans and Mount Rushmore"
• Iowa State University "Report seeks to recognize meaning of Mount Rushmore for Native people"
• National Park Service "Charles E. Rushmore"

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This week, I'll explore the peculiar true story that inspired William Peter Blatty to write the  book and screenplay for the 1973 hit film "The Exorcist."  This is the story of a boy around 14 years old who experienced something truly bizarre back in 1949. And unlike Regan in the exorcist, whose story is completely fabricated, this one is well documented, with lots of credible witnesses. And while we’ve known his story for quite some time, we only just learned his identity a few years ago. And he’s not at all what you’d expect. Let’s fix that.

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• Join the Patreon
• Buy some merch
• Buy Me a Coffee
• Venmo @Shea-LaFountaine

Sources: 

• Father Raymond Bishop's Case Files 
• The Washington Post "Priest Frees Mount Rainier Boy Reported Held in Devil's Grip"
• Skeptical Inquirer "Who is Roland Doe, the Boy Who Inspired the Exorcist?"
• Saint Louis University "SLU Legends and Lore: the 1949 St. Louis Exorcism"
• The Guardian "Boy whose case inspired The Exorcist is named by US magazine"
• Wikipedia "The Exorcist"
• Collider "What is the Highest Grossing Horror Movie of All Time?"
• The American Society of Cinematographers "Owen Roizman on Filming The Exorcist"
• The New York Post "Deaths, injuries, and a fire: How the original "Exorcist" set was its own horror movie"
• The New York Post "What really happened to Ronald Hunkeler, who inspired 'The Exorcist?'"

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It’s January of 1692 and there’s something very wrong with 9 year old Betty Parris. Her father, the minister Samuel Parris, rushes to her bedside. Betty screams. Her body writhes under the blankets, twisting and contorting into grotesque shapes. She grunts, she moans, she snorts, and shrieks. She grabs a candle from the bedside table and hurls it across the room uttering a shrill scream as if defending herself from some invisible apparition. Soon, Betty’s 11 year old cousin Abigail Williams is similarly afflicted. The girls are tormented, tortured, terrified, but by what? Parris calls in a doctor who takes one look at their bizarre behavior and quickly makes up his mind. This is the devil’s work. When accusations and confessions of witchcraft follow soon after, the snowball begins its descent, growing and growing as it rolls into one of the most haunting events in American history. But what caused the madness of the Salem Witch Trials? There were no witches in Salem. How did the peculiar outbursts of a 9 year old girl lead to the deaths of 25 innocent people and 2 dogs? Was it conspiracy? Insanity? Unchecked patriarchy? Religion gone wrong? Was it food poisoning? And most importantly, could it happen again? Let’s fix that.

Support the show! 

• Join the Patreon
• Buy some merch
• Buy Me a Coffee
• Venmo @Shea-LaFountaine

Sources: 

• Smithsonian Magazine "A Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials"
• History.com "Salem Witch Trials"
• Peabody Essex Museum "The Salem Witch Trials of 1692"
• Penn Today "Possessed: the Salem witch trials"
• History.com "Salem Witch Trials: Who Were the Main Accusers?"
• Wikipedia "Salem witch trials"

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