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CLASSIC: The Time a Soviet Premier Was Banned From Disneyland · Ridiculous History

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: You guys like Disneyland, right, You know I'm into Disneyland
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: since I was a little little kid.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: But I do love disney World.
• 0:08
  Speaker 3: It's a land all its own, and you would never
• 0:11
  Speaker 3: want to be banned.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Oh neverland.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: No, that's rhymes too, but I'll tell you. During the
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: height of the Cold War, a series of debates held
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: in a weirdly like model kitchen in Moscow led the
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: premiere of Russia, Nikita Khrushchev, to come to the US
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: on a whirlwind, you know, public tour, publicity tour, and
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: ended up at Disneyland, where things did not go particularly well.
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: Yes, Ridiculous Historians, please join us in today's classic episode,
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: where we explore Khrushev's doomed quest to meet Mickey Mouse.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: Indeed, let's roll it.
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeart Welcome to the show,
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: Ridiculous Historians. Thank you for tuning in. We hope that
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: you brought a fluffy coat or a nice heavy blanket
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: because this episode is going to be cold Cold War esque. Look,
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: not all the intros are going to be winners.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: Hi, I'm Ben. You've never seen the space blankets that
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: they give the refugee children. I have one in my car.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry, I really took a dark turn there, but
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: they look like the things you'd put in your window
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: to keep the sun from heating up your tight leather seats. Yeah.
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: Those emergency blankets are incredible, and if you are someone
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: who routinely drives long distances, I highly recommend putting one
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: in your go bag.
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: And also one of those things you can use to
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: break the glass from the inside in case you ever
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: go off a cliff or into the ocean or a
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: lake somebody of water.
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: And make sure you get the kind that will let
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: you cut the seatbelt.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: It's like an extra attachment, a little.
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: Razor almost right behind the hammer. But why are we
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: talking about being prepared? Why are we talking about cold
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: war stuff?
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: Hey? Your nol?
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: Right?
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, still me?
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: And who is that handsome devil just outside the booth
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: on the ones and twos?
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: Are that good boy out there? Our boy Casey Pegram, Yes,
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: super producer Casey Pegram m hm. Hey remember that song
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: by Da Da called I'm Going to Disneyland? Yeah? Actually yeah,
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: it's like this is a part where it says, hitched
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: a rat on a monkey's back, headed west didn't the
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: black I'm going to Disneyland. Bandang dang to dang dang dang.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: You know he's not going to Disneyland. Nikitakrushev. Yep.
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: We were going to tease it out a little bit
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: with the history of Disneyland, but let's let's just get
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: right to the heart.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: Of the matter.
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: Disneyland is an iconic American thing, right, It's one of
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: the world's most famous amusement parks, and people from across
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: the planet associated with the American dream, the iconic image
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: of what Americans do for fun.
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: You've You've probably met some people from abroad who just
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: assume you've been to Disneyland.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: What do you do at Disneyland, Ben.
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: Well, let's see you can watch the fireworks for free that.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: You I've seen that. I've been to Anaheim and I
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: did not go to Disneyland. But those fireworks they probably
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: get real dull to the people that live there, and
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: they're just like, oh.
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: Look, now you recall I saw them. I saw them too,
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: because I was in the same car driving us back.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: From the beach. You're right, Ben, I have a short
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: memory when it comes to beach related things. So with
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: this in mind.
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: We also have to look at the context of the
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: Cold War, and when we talk about the Cold War,
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: we must mention and explore the life and times of
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, or as he's called in
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: one of those press releases of the time.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, they give this a newsreel. Well, let's just
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: hear it, Sylvia. At Premier Khrushchov meets the masters of
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: movie them at a studio luncheon on the twentieth century
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: Fox lot in Hollywood, a meeting at which mister k
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: gives himself quite a build up. Yeah. I don't know
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: if this guy is like smarter than us and all
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: the rest of the people I've ever heard pronounce his name,
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: But he says it a little funny.
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And I wonder Truv. Yeah, and I wonder too,
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: if this is a matter of the the vestiges of
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: Transatlantic accent that was used commonly back in the day
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: for broadcast and radio.
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: Maybe it's secretly like a dig they're mispronouncing his name
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: on purpose.
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, maybe it's some nefariest attempted propagandistic demeaning.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: Because here's the thing, this clip that we just heard,
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: obviously was from Khrushchev's tour of the United States in
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: nineteen fifty nine, and you know, he does the kind
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: of touristy things you think you might do. He went
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: to New York City, You went to Los Angeles and
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: Des Moines. What he went to Des Moines. It's a
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: weird choice. It's a very popular, very popular city. What's
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: in des Moines? Americans? Man, it's very okay. So he
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: was touring the American dream, so he had to see
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: what it's like in the big cities, and then he
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: had to see what it's like in Des Moines, which
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: I'm sure is lovely. By the way.
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, it's the capital and most populous city in Iowa.
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: It's the it's the big tent of Iowa.
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: I think that's where Slipknot the band is from. I
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: believe you're right, it's definitely Iowa.
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: Right and off air, while we were prepping for this episode,
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: Casey brought up a fantastic parallel that nicely compliments our
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: Khrushchev Khrushev question, Casey, maybe could you explain it for us?
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: Is just Casey on the case? Yeah?
• 6:21
  Speaker 5: I was thinking if maybe when they first started reporting
• 6:24
  Speaker 5: on this guy, they didn't have the pronunciation quite down yet,
• 6:27
  Speaker 5: which is kind of seems to have happened much more
• 6:29
  Speaker 5: recently in the news with Robert Muller, or as he
• 6:33
  Speaker 5: was initially known, Robert Mueller. And it's kind of strange,
• 6:36
  Speaker 5: how like all the news coverage sort of shifted to
• 6:39
  Speaker 5: that updated pronunciation. Just something I kind of picked up on.
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: And that's been Casey on the case. I love that segment.
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: I love that guy, Yes, unreservedly. Someone who was a
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: little bit tougher to love, of course, was Kita Khrushchev.
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: What do you say, No, we want to talk a
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: little bit about his life and times to power pre
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: us tour.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: Have you seen The Death of Stalin? The movie watched
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: on a place. It's great, so good. If anyone hasn't
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: seen it, I highly recommend it to get a little
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: info on what led to Khrushchev gaining power. He was
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: born in April fifteenth of eighteen ninety four in a
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: Russian village called Kilinovka, and he ended up joining the Bolsheviks,
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: the Communist Bolsheviks, and rising in the ranks quite quickly
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: found his way into the inner circle of our man
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: Joseph Stalin, who ruled Soviet Russia with an iron fist.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: I was a platinum.
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: This was a neutron star of a fist massive pressure.
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: In fact, the death of Stalin the historical occurrence, not
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: just the film, could be its own episode because it
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: is tragically ridiculous.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: Oh tragically, and the movie really leans on that. It's
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: this incredible director, satirist, Armando Yanucci, who was responsible for
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: the show Veep, and he also did another show that
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: was similarly satirical and political called The Thick of It
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: that aired on British television. But this film Death of Stalin,
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: it uses the absurdity that you might see in something
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: like Curb Your Enthusiasm. This kind of like slapstick, almost
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: just cartoonish buffoonery of the jockeyings of these various members
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: of Stalin's inner circle to one up each other and
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: get the upper hand after the leader dies, and in
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: the end Khrushchev who's played by Steve Bushemi, who doesn't
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: put on a Russian accent. That's part of the joy
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: of the movie too, as they all use their own voices.
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: And your first question whenever you're contemplating scene a film
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: is is Steve it is this has the Seal of
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: a and.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: He plays Krushchev and it's he plays it. So I
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: don't know what the word is. It's like he's he's
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: got that. He's got that Steve bushmi skittering nervous energy,
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: just like you'd think he's not Peter very much. So yeah, yeah, yeah,
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: Peter Lauri like who does well he did all those
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: months movies right, like yeah, anyways, got that look with
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: those those chemi eyes. Yeah yeah, dreamy, slash, sunken and large.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: You know what else has that look? Is the protagonist
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: in oh what's that? Uh mister Robot. Yeah yeah yeah,
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: Romey Mallick, Yeah, playing plane. Freddy Mercury and the New
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: Queen biopic it looks okay.
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was supposed to be Sasha Baron Cohen, but
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: they left over creative differences, which is a shame.
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: I'd love to see that film. Well, I wouldn't be
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: surprised that those creative differences remain, and they wash over
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: some of the more controversial parts of Freddy mrcury store.
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: But we're not talking about Freddy Mercury.
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: So before before we get to Khrushchev. Let's let's step
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: back to the death of Stalin and right before his life,
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: because we say that he ruled with a with a
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: massive heavy hand, and we hear that often about different
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: political leaders, but in Stalin's case, this, uh, this is
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: not an exaggeration, and that is a very unfortunate truth.
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: He was legendary for not just killing people, but removing
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: them from history, having them scrubbed out of photographs. He
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: was brutal, ruthless, relentless, had no friends, only interest, and
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: was also known to regularly replace members of his inner circle,
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: not because they had done anything or even tried to
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: do anything, but because he did not want someone consistently
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: being there, because he saw that as just a longer
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: length of time for them to undermine him, yes, or
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: try to grab powers.
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: He's that kind of paranoid that everyone will eventually betray me.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: And that's why the way that it's depicted in this
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: movie is so cool, because it's just this, no one
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: trusts anybody, because that's the precedent that's been set, and
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: that's the attitude that kind of purveyed throughout the whole thing.
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: We're going to talk a little bit about his death.
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: He died, as I said, March in nineteen fifty three,
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: on the first of March. A few days beforehand, his
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: staff found him semi conscious on the bedroom floor. He
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage. And even now after this
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: very terrible, difficult death, people still suspect that he may
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: have been murdered. So keep this in mind when we
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: talk about Khrushev, who, as we established, does win this
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: power struggle, Khrushev remains a possible murder suspect.
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: Everyone was a suspect, right, like that was. I mean,
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: there's this as soon as someone realizes that he is dead,
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: there's this immediate rush to point fingers anywhere else but
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: at oneself in his inner circle. Right.
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: And one of the things that I think inspires or
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: informs the film The Death of Stalin is just how
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: terrified people were to disturb him while he's dead. They
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: thought that he might still be alive and that they
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: would encounter the death penalty for waking him from his
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: slumber that you know, turned out to be an eternal slumber.
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: And Khrushchev Ushchev, who did succeed and become the ruler
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: in this chaotic.
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: What'd you call it? Charad?
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: Sure, this chaotic charad. And Khrushev becomes the first Secretary
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: of the Communist Party there in the USSR on the
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: fourteenth of September in nineteen fifty three, and then by
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: nineteen fifty eight March he moves up to become the
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: chairman of the Council of Ministers.
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: And I believe he was already the head of the
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: Communist Party, the highest ranking official, only six months after
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: the death of Stalin, and then it was governed. The
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: USSR was governed by a collective many for several years,
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: and then he became premier after George Malankov. That's right.
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: Malankov was a guy that was played by Jeffrey Tambor
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: in the movie, and he's sort of a patsy, right.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: The way he's portrayed in the movie is like he
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: gets the top job, but no one likes him, and
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: he's kind of everyone thinks he's sort of a buffoon.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: He likes to be the one that's sort of the
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: smiling face of the party, but behind the scenes he's
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: portrayed as kind of an idiot.
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: Right, And there's a huge geopolitical context to this as well,
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: because you'll notice we mentioned different dates. In the fifties,
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: the Cold War is in full swing between the USSR
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: and the United States, or I mean most particularly through them.
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: But then that also factors in some forces they're friendly
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: with the USSR, some forces that are historically friendly with
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: the US. In this time, both leaders of these countries
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: are attempting to minimize the possibility of a catastrophic atomic
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: war ultimately, right, And that's when we see things like
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: the concept of mutually assured destruction, of the idea that
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: the only way to prevent nuclear weapons being deployed is
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: if your enemies can also retaliate, you know, and they.
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: Know you can.
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: So there's a lot of propaganda that goes on. Khrushev
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: is to this day the recipient of some misquotes. You
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: know that history is kind of exaggerated.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: What was the bigie you mentioned earlier, Ben.
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: What's called the shoe banging incident? You remember this one, right, Yeah.
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: It's like when Bush got the shoe thrown at him,
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: but kind of in reverse.
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: Oh, here's an episode idea, Pitch, tell us what you
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: think of this, Folks, History's most important shoes there you go,
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: it could be like a new version of weird people
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: who built weird things.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: Yeay, I like the shoes that built a nation or
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: crushed one tore it down. Yeah.
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: So in nineteen this is just an outside of chronology example.
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: And in nineteen sixty at the United Nations General Assembly
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: in October, Khrushchev pounded his shoe in public protesting a
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: speech by a delegate from the Philippines, and then the
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: story spread in a propagandistic way and multiple versions proliferated.
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: But this all goes to show these were intense times.
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: And regardless of how you feel about Khrushev and Nixon,
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: when we go back to the fifties, the fact of
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: the matter is that they were trying to, at least
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: on some levels, they were trying to prevent a civilization
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: leveling war, and they engaged in something that ended up
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: being called the kitchen debate. They sat down with them
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: and their interpreters and had what corporate America today would
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: call a healthy conversation about their differing viewpoints.
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: It wasn't about like interior design.
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: It was not about it was not about the advantages
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: of an island kitchen layout, nor was it about whether
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: or not to have a trash compactor in the World House. Instead,
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: it was it was about their vastly different views of
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: which economic system was superior, capitalism and this representative democracy idea,
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: or communism and a more centralized economy. Khrushev, like Nixon,
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: being a man with a temper, had impassioned arguments, and
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: it was Actually it did take place in a kitchen.
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: It was in a model kitchen at the American National
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: Exhibition in Moscow.
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: So it's like you and me getting in a fight
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: at an Ikea. That's not too much of a stretch man.
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: Every time I go into an Ikea, I feel like
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: I go a little bit insane, the way they trap
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: you in those hedge mazes of tiny furniture and accessories.
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: You gotta know the short cut. I know the shortcuts, man,
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: but it still doesn't just it's so it did. It
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: hurts my brain and I always find myself like this
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: close to flying off the handle. I love it, man,
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: I love Ikia flying off the time any Swedish ergonomic handle.
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: There we go, There we go.
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: There was a guy I can't remember where it was,
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: it was definitely in the States who while his apartment
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: was being fixed, cracked a deal with his local Ikea
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: to live there.
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: Did you hear about that?
• 17:13
  Speaker 4: Yeah?
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: I wonder if you could pull that kind of scenario
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: off in an ikea. I feel like you could hide
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: under one of those little hideaway beds and yeah, you know,
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: kind of stow away in the ikea.
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: They have a lot of cameras though in surprising places.
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: But I guess all that has to do with today's
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: episode is mass surveillance. Right, So what's the outcome of
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: this debate? They were just verbally abusing each other. It
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: did not come to fisticuffs, and it appeared to have
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: a good result.
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: Oh thank god. What kind of result was that they
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: agreed that.
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: Khrushchev, the leader of the Soviet Union, would visit the US.
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: Mister Khrushchev comes to Washington.
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: Right, And this comes about so to be clear, Richard
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: Nixon vice president at this time, when he was visiting Moscow.
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: It's not as if the president of the time visited Russia.
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: That would be Dwight Eisenhower. So President Eisenhower decided to
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: invite Khrushchev kind of inspired by this kitchen debate talk
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: and also buy some concerns about Berlin.
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure, because it was also Khrushev. I believe that, okayed,
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: the building of the Berlin won't.
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah, tensions are high, big time.
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: So what do you do with a diplomatic tour like this, Benjamin.
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: Well, Nolgamen, you are immediately confronted by a ton of considerations. Yeah,
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: first what we call today the optics, right, and then
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: both sides probably have competing opinions about what should be depicted.
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: Because it's go for show. I mean, let's be real,
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: what else is there to accomplish?
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: You know?
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: I even read like he came back at the end
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: for some very unproductive which I'm sure ultimately, these kitchen
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: debates didn't exactly set the world on fire in terms
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: of like, oh communism is good or oh capitalism is good.
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: It's like maybe we just should hang out and not
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: shoot missiles at each other.
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, which is an excellent starting point.
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: You know, Ben, when you put it like that, that
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: add is a pretty good outcome. I don't know what
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: I was saying, but Ben considerations.
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: Well, first off, wouldn't it have been amazing? Wouldn't the
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: world be such a different place if either of them
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: have persuaded the other one. I just I'm interested in
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: your idea because can you imagine Nixon coming back to
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: the US and saying, guys, I gotten an argument in
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: this model kitchen, and I'm convinced we should be Communists.
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: That would be amazing. He probably wouldn't have been president.
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: No, something that would have gone over too well with
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: these small business owners of America.
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: So we found this great article on the Smithsonian Nikita
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: Krushev goes to Hollywood that examines some of the timeline
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: and some of the factors playing into this famous visit.
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: And we mentioned optics. But another huge, huge concern is security,
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: right hmm.
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean they had like parades in Washington, and
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: I think it was some of the biggest attendants of
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: any foreign dignitary centric parade, right, because people wanted to
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: get a load of this guy, right, I mean, this
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: was like he loomed large in the consciousness of the
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: American public being you know, this big, bad kind of
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: you know that was like pointing missiles at us. Yeah,
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: and he fucking covering all that, right, Yeah.
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: And he was such a ham when he initially showed
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: up there. Eisenhower read a welcoming speech when Khrushev landed
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: in September fifteenth, nineteen fifty nine, and during the whole
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: time Khrushev was mugging, was like doing it.
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: You mean, he was like he like was perse snatching.
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's what he was doing from the stage, which
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: was really weird.
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: People just kept walking up. That's tough, man.
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: He was doing a Luckily he's doing a much friendlier
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: version of that. He was like, picture him.
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: Oh he's a goofy looking dude. Yeah, oh yeah, he's
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: got a big old gap tooth and this like kind
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: of funny double chin and just like a odd shaped
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: face and shad shaved head, just very clownish kind of look.
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: And I'm not that's not passing judgment. Look at the guy.
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: He's got an odd vibe.
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: And he uh, he embraced it, at least at this
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: part because while wild Eyes now I was talking, he
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: was like waving his hat at people.
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: He winked at a little girl. Uh.
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: He clearly wasn't paying too much attention because remember he
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: was he hears English through interpreters, right, So he saw
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: a butterfly go by and just had to turn and
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: like see yes, yes, crucive in America, one reporter. One
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: reporter said he stole the show with the studied nonchalance
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: of an old vaudeville trooper.
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: That you know, that's funny. I'm looking at this picture too,
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: from that news clip we played earlier, and it's it's
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: him posing next to Ike and I believe Eisenhower's wife,
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: and Eisenhower is just stony faced with his arms crossed
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: in front of him, and Krushchev is just goofully grinning
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: from ear to ear. Because he got to think, man,
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: he was probably being cocky about it, right. It's like,
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: I mean, we welcome him with open arms, you know,
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: gave him a parade. He sort of probably felt like
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: he had he got one over on old Ike. Yeah.
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: And then he also he felt like this was an opportunity.
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: We're speculating here, but he also had to feel like,
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: this is an opportunity to show the people of the
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: US that I'm not this scary, monstrous entity. But he's
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: You can find these great anecdotes of different parts of
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: his visit, but we also have to miss it. A
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: lot of this was calculated, right, It had to be
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: oh yeah, and there's this story where he went to
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: a farm in Maryland and he quote petted a pig
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: and complained that it was too fat, then grabbed a
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: turkey and griped that it was too small. So he's
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: just like doing live comedy book.
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: Oh I saw a thing about the turkey. He said, Oh,
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: in Russia, we only like fat turkeys. Just like, what
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: kind of thing you say is that? And you know,
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: all seems to be going to plan. I still want
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: to know what he did in des Moines, probably visited.
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: I get he was doing like the Heartland kind of situation, right, yeah, Yeah.
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: The Soviet embassy in the days leading up to the
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: visit and the week's leading up to the visit, they
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: received hundreds of letters from small and large towns in
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: the US that were inviting Khrushev and the Soviet delegation.
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: They were saying, like, come to our county fair. It's
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: happening while you're in the country. You can you know,
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: you can enter afloat, said the chairman of the Minnesota
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: Apple Festival.
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: If you have an idea, let us know. I gotta go.
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: And I found a picture of him on his visit
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: to Des Moines, where there's quite a rotund fellow in
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: front of him. We're wearing some overalls, and you see
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: Khrutschev patting his belly and the quote next to the
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: picture is, now that is it a real American? Is
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: that okay? You're gonna do the Russian accent? I think so.
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: I think it's in good fun. It's in good fun
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: and in good faith, good faith.
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, sure so so he uh, he had all these
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: these strange, amazing dog.
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: And pony show moments.
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah, hilarious encounters, I would say. And what I always
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: think is missing from this story and what I would
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: love to learn more about is what that interpreter went through,
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: because you know, he had to basically be Khrushchev's shadow, yeah,
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: and translate whatever wild kakammy stuff this guy was spouting
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: off with into something that sounded reasonable.
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: Yes, that's true. I always wondered about that, dude. Do
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: uh interpreters ever editorialized? Do you think they're ever given
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: like special instructions from like higher ups where it's like, look,
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: don't translate exactly what this crazy dude says. Try to
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: soften the blow a little bit, you know.
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: You know, there are some pretty hard and fast rules
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: about that. Yeah, depending on what type of interpretation or
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: what kind of sphere it occurs in. But one of
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: the weird things about these different languages is that in
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: some languages you can say things in a way that
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: you cannot in other languages. Right, Yeah, So you might
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: say tell them I want to make the deal, but
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: it's no walk in the park. And if they say
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: that in the other language, that doesn't make any sense.
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: That's so they have to say something else.
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: It might be something like that's no butter on the blanket, right,
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: I don't know. And you know what it makes me
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: think of, too, is there's people that do some language
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: and rap concerts. Surely they're taking some liberties as well.
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: That's just you know, a lot of information going by.
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: I'm interested. I'm very interested in that. You know, it
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: may surprise some people to learn that signing the signing
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: languages also differ by language. There's like we know asl
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: here in the US, we know of it rather but
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: if someone who is who can sign travels to China
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: or more appropriately Russia for this.
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: Episode, they might be entirely adrift. Yeah. See, we haven't
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: lost the plot. We're still talking about Russia. Yeah, we
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: got there. So let's let's get to the heart of
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: the matter.
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: Everything's everything at least umpt Yeah, he's having a great time.
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: He goes to Hollywood and people are super excited to
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: see him. I believe that the he made a deal
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: with twentieth century Fox to watch the filming of a
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: Broadway musical.
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think he did a studio tour, right, and
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: the president of twentieth century Fox at the time, a
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: man named Spiro Scuras, introduced him at a special luncheon
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: at Los Angeles' town Hall. And this is actually where
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: a little static got into the mix. That's kind of
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: when things started going south. Scorus made a bit of
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: a joke about referencing this line that Khrushev had said
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: in the past that the Soviet Union would bury capitalism,
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: and he said something to the effect of, in la
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: we were not interested in burying anyone, but we would
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: meet any challenge. And then Khrushev, very mythed responds, if
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: you want to go on with the arms race, very well,
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: we accept that challenge. As for the output of rockets,
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: well they are on the assembly line. This is a
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: most serious question. It is one of life or death.
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: Leaders and gentlemen, one of war and peace. Oh yeah,
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: that little Dog and Pony show took a took a turn.
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, those dogs started Biden, but this and those ponies
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: started kicking.
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: I feel like as they do, just to complete that reference.
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: But this is just the beginning. As Billy Mays was
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: wont to say, wait, there's more. Khrushev, who again I
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: think we said earlier, had a notorious temper. His anger
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: went through the roof when he learned that not only
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: was Spiroscorross part of what he saw as a campaign
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: to heckle him. Did you see that part? He thought
• 28:28
  Speaker 3: there was a campaign to heckle.
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: Him throughout the US, trying to make a fool of me.
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: I know, I am the one who makes a fool
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: of me.
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: Oh is that a butterfly? And right?
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: And he became even more incensed when he learned that
• 28:43
  Speaker 3: of all the places he was going, of all the
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: places he had planned to visit, one was off limits
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: to him now, and that was Disneyland.
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: It's only the happiest place on Earth.
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: Fireworks every night, guys, I'm telling you. So we could
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: reasonably assume that maybe he was being punished by not
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: being led in to Disneyland, like, hey, if you start
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: threatening people, including everyone in our country, with this idea
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: of rockets bombarding citizens, then you can't go to our
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: funnest place.
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: Well, now, you know, That's that's what I thought. I
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: figured it was like someone saying, na, man, we don't
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: want you here. Disney himself even right, who, who, as
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: we know, was no fan of communism. He's a you know,
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: tried and true capitalist all the way. But it turns
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: out it was as much more likely that the security
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: you were talking about. Ben those considerations. It was just
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: too much to handle for a guy like that to
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: be able to go and have a nice fun day
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: at Disneyland without like shutting the whole park down and
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: devoting devoting the whole thing to him. And you know, man,
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: it's not gonna happen. Yeah, who you are? You know,
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: no one gets Disneyland for a day, right, not even Walt,
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: Not even Walt.
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: And we have a we have a short clip here
• 30:01
  Speaker 3: of Walt Disney actually speaking about Khrushev.
• 30:04
  Speaker 4: Kruschev was a guest of the government, So, I mean,
• 30:07
  Speaker 4: we were ready to receive Khrushchev, but it so happened
• 30:10
  Speaker 4: that the security problem here in Los Angeles because actually
• 30:14
  Speaker 4: Disneyland is in another county, and the chief of police.
• 30:18
  Speaker 4: We can't blame him. He had quite a chore there
• 30:21
  Speaker 4: to carry out.
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: He just was a little worried.
• 30:24
  Speaker 4: About somebody maybe walking in Disneyland with a shopping bag
• 30:28
  Speaker 4: and what they might have in it. You'd never know,
• 30:31
  Speaker 4: you know exactly. We were ready for him, The press
• 30:34
  Speaker 4: was ready. Both the State Department security and the Soviet
• 30:38
  Speaker 4: security had come in case Disneyland and they were all set.
• 30:41
  Speaker 4: I was already. In fact, we've had a lot of
• 30:44
  Speaker 4: dignitaries down there, and he was one that Missus Disney
• 30:48
  Speaker 4: wanted to go down and meet with Krushev.
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: She was disappointed he didn't come.
• 30:54
  Speaker 4: Well, it's certainly not ever an empty place, so I
• 30:58
  Speaker 4: can understand the security manner I had. We had different
• 31:01
  Speaker 4: shops places where we take pictures with khruse Chef, and
• 31:04
  Speaker 4: I had one of my favorite where I lined up
• 31:07
  Speaker 4: in front of my eight submarines and I'll it'll be nice.
• 31:11
  Speaker 4: I've been pointing to mister Khrushchev, say well, mister kruse Chef,
• 31:14
  Speaker 4: here's my Disneyland submarine fleet. It's the eighth larger submarine
• 31:20
  Speaker 4: fleet in the world.
• 31:21
  Speaker 5: Is it right?
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: So, despite the fact that you know there's clearly a
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: lot of tension here, the stated official concern is that
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: it would be, as we said, so difficult to protect
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: him in these crowds.
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: Right. They said they could not guarantee his safety. It's
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: even the wording of that, taking the wrong way through
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: a translator, perhaps by a particularly cantankerous man who's used
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: to getting his way, almost sounds like a bit of
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: a threat. Yeah, and we can't guarantee your safety.
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: And he exploded when he found out we have the quote,
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: And I say, I would very much like to go
• 31:58
  Speaker 3: and see Disneyland, but then we cannot guarantee your security.
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: They say, then, what must I do? Commit suicide?
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: What is it?
• 32:06
  Speaker 3: Is there an epidemic of cholera there or something, or
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: if Gangster's taken hold of the place, that can destroy me.
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: He left Los Angeles the next morning.
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: In a huff, no doubt. Oh sure, did you read
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: who we can kind of blame for planting this idea
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: in his head? Who wasn't Bob Hope? Apparently at that
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: luncheon at town Hall where the comment was made by
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: the twenty century Fox President Bob Hope said that it
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: was a lovely place and then he really should check
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: it out. Come on, Bob Hope, causing diplomatic incidents with
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: your congeniality. And then when Khrushchev erup did this was
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: he was surrounded by these celebrities and Frank Sinatra apparently
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: this sounds comical, apparently leaned over to David Niven, and
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: a lot of us was centered around to Khrushev's wife
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: wanted to r more the thing and his child. Sinatra
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: leans over to David Niven and says, tell the old broad,
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: you and I will take him down there this afternoon.
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: And so you know, this is also one of those
• 33:16
  Speaker 3: things where the guy feels like his social reputations on
• 33:19
  Speaker 3: the line. If you're married, don't you want your spouse
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: and your kid to be happy?
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: Well, But the thing is, the State Department did give
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: the thumbs up for his wife and daughter to go
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: to Disneyland, but he couldn't do it. And the way
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: he's portrayed in these stories, he sounds like a big
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: man baby where it's like I want to go to Disneyland,
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: and if I can't go, you can't go, you know,
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: like he would deny his wife and child the joys
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: of the happiest place on earth. What a monster?
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: Right, is what we call, in today's common parlance, not
• 33:54
  Speaker 3: a good look. That's an early two thousands turner phrase.
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: I guess.
• 33:58
  Speaker 3: So when they say they can not guarantee his safety
• 34:01
  Speaker 3: and therefore he cannot go, even though other members of
• 34:04
  Speaker 3: his entourage, including his family can, we have to understand there's,
• 34:10
  Speaker 3: if not a credible threat to security, the consequences of
• 34:14
  Speaker 3: the Soviet.
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: Premiere dying in the US are huge. Well, nobody dies
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: at Disneyland, ben.
• 34:22
  Speaker 3: Right, I think let's get into an episode on that
• 34:25
  Speaker 3: a while back.
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: Maybe we could do it on this show. Sure, but uh,
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: you know what I'm talking about. It was like that
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: early It's like a myth. I guess it's.
• 34:32
  Speaker 3: A common US it's a common Internet rumor.
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: Yes, that's right.
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: But the thing is, if Khrushev did somehow die, even
• 34:40
  Speaker 3: if it was a complete accident, even if he was
• 34:42
  Speaker 3: just walking down the street and had a heart attack.
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: Even if he got decapitated on Space Mountain, we.
• 34:48
  Speaker 3: Would, as a country, dare I say, as a species,
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: be much much closer to some sort of international arms exchange.
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a very tenuous situation. And that's why it's
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: like it's weird because with politics like this, on the
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: one hand, you're like, it's all for show, but on
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: the other hand, it's life and death, whining and dining
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: these leaders and you know, having successful meetings in a
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: sense that they are being respected and you know, given
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: the five star treatment or whatever. And so even this
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: idea of him being denied entry into Disneyland and him
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: having a hissy fit that could have set off an
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: international incident.
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: Right, yeah, right, And they were already playing fast and
• 35:31
  Speaker 3: loose because that musical they mentioned. Apparently Khrushev was not
• 35:34
  Speaker 3: a fan of that. Later he denounced it as pornographic exploitation.
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: Didn't you meet Shirley McLain, wasn't she in it?
• 35:42
  Speaker 4: Yeah?
• 35:42
  Speaker 3: Because in the in the musical, he saw Shirley McClain
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: playing a dancer and Sinatra plays a French lawyer who
• 35:50
  Speaker 3: falls in love with McClain's character. But the the crazy
• 35:55
  Speaker 3: thing is just to give you the way the US
• 35:57
  Speaker 3: later saw this. Wiley Team bu can in the State
• 36:01
  Speaker 3: Department's Chief of Protocol later described the choice of showing
• 36:06
  Speaker 3: him this musical as quote, the worst choice imaginable. Ah, yes,
• 36:12
  Speaker 3: the least good thing we could have done. First of all,
• 36:15
  Speaker 3: I cannot even begin to imagine Sinatra playing a French person.
• 36:20
  Speaker 3: It's like a did you ever see that John Wayne
• 36:23
  Speaker 3: film where he tries to play Genghis Khan?
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah, Oh that's real. It's a real oof moment.
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: Oh goodness, gracious.
• 36:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was in The Conqueror and yeah, they did
• 36:41
  Speaker 3: that thing and it it didn't seem that great when
• 36:46
  Speaker 3: it came out, even in nineteen fifty.
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: Six, and spoiler alert, it did not age. Well. Well,
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: let's see what the musical with Shirley maclain and Sinatra
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: was called, right can Can? Ah? Yes? Can Can. I
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: have not seen it, but I mean I'm interested now
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: that I know that I get to see Frank Sinatra
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: playing a Frenchman. It's also got Maurice Chevalier in.
• 37:07
  Speaker 3: It, but no Steve Buscemi Alas, So, what happens after
• 37:18
  Speaker 3: he has denied entry into this American paradise on Earth?
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: He kind of goes, he kind of gets over it.
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: He eventually does get over it, and in the same
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: trip he makes his way continues the rest of his
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: itinerary and ends up back in Washington, whereas I said,
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: they had some very unproductive talks. They had some unproductive talks.
• 37:38
  Speaker 3: The US and the Soviet relationship would continue to be
• 37:42
  Speaker 3: very tense, chili fraught, Yeah, Chili.
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: Bring your space blanket, a bit frigid.
• 37:46
  Speaker 3: And fraught with problems, especially in the nineteen sixty and
• 37:52
  Speaker 3: sixty one U two planes, the spy aircraft, not planes
• 37:57
  Speaker 3: flown by Bono in the edge. They become the subject
• 38:00
  Speaker 3: of an international healthy conversation, and the Cold War would continue.
• 38:07
  Speaker 3: In October of nineteen sixty four, Khrushev retired from his
• 38:13
  Speaker 3: office due officially to advanced age and ill health. Notice here,
• 38:19
  Speaker 3: friends and neighbors, that I say officially, because you see
• 38:24
  Speaker 3: his request to retire was not voluntary, not entirely voluntary
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: on his part.
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Apparently he was on vacation in Georgia, not in
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: our Georgia, the other Georgia, Sovietunda, the Jeda Sovia Publico Georgia.
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: And he was called back and they made him resign
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: as not only as the premier but also that illustrious
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: post as the head of the of the Communist Party.
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: And he lived out the remainder of his life working
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: on a memoir, and he ultimately died of a heart.
• 38:59
  Speaker 3: Attack in a deep depression. He had a pension of
• 39:02
  Speaker 3: five hundred roubles. A month later they cut it the
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: four hundred.
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: Oh Man insults injury. Yeah, and it is a dogg
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: eat dog world over there in Soviet Russia at the
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: Heights of Power, right.
• 39:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he was a victim of a conspiracy and he
• 39:19
  Speaker 3: never got to Disneyland.
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: Sad, but you can. You can, yeah, if you got
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: about five hundred dollars.
• 39:27
  Speaker 3: To blow and the free time in the travel. But again,
• 39:31
  Speaker 3: one of my favorite things about it is you just
• 39:33
  Speaker 3: have to be in town to see those beautiful fireworks.
• 39:37
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: I haveted not to go because I was looking at
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: the rides and stuff and I'm like, these are all
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: like kid rides. But then I guess it's all about
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: the design and the experience. And I'm also not a
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: fan of waiting in lines if I can avoided all.
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: I don't think anyone's a fan of waiting in line,
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: It's true, but there's a there's a cost versus reward
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: suasion for me where it's like, all right, what's the
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: line for how much do I want it? How along
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: the line am I willing to wait? In Disneyland, it
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: seems like a series of lines.
• 40:04
  Speaker 3: For me, roller coasters are a tough cell. There's also
• 40:06
  Speaker 3: a lot of corruption in Disney World and Disneyland. There
• 40:10
  Speaker 3: was recently with the use of different sorts of passes.
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: Oh, you mean like bootlegging fast passes or just like like.
• 40:17
  Speaker 3: Legging fast passes, traveling with someone who has a physical disability, right,
• 40:23
  Speaker 3: so that you can jump in the line.
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: For me, there's line mule.
• 40:27
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 40:27
  Speaker 3: For me, there's a huge cost benefit analysis that makes
• 40:32
  Speaker 3: roller coasters a tough sell, especially on crowded day, because
• 40:35
  Speaker 3: it's not just that you're waiting for forty five minutes
• 40:37
  Speaker 3: or an hour, it's that you're waiting for something that
• 40:40
  Speaker 3: takes three minutes.
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: Oh, totally a really good point. I have season passes
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: to six flags here in Georgia, and I will only
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: go during the down season because I went, like on
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: the first day of summer with my kid. We waited
• 40:54
  Speaker 2: in line for an hour and a half, got to
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: the front of the line, and the ride broke and
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: we broke us. Mentally, we're like going home. But thankfully
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: we have season basses. It wasn't like we traveled, you know,
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: across the country here right this roller question speaking.
• 41:06
  Speaker 3: Of things across the country and even across the world.
• 41:10
  Speaker 3: It's a shame that Krushev never got to go to Disneyland.
• 41:13
  Speaker 3: But I think it leads us to an inspiring question.
• 41:17
  Speaker 3: What's your favorite amusement park in your part of the world,
• 41:21
  Speaker 3: one that a lot of people might not know? Up
• 41:23
  Speaker 3: for us here in Atlanta, it's Six Flags over Georgia.
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And what's the next step for us diplomatically as
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: far as amusement parks are concerned? Is it going to
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: be Kim Jong Lunn goes to Magic Mountain? Yeah? Can
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: you tell me?
• 41:35
  Speaker 3: Is Vladimir Putin gonna make it to Universal Studios?
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: Finally see that Harry Potter Land I keep hearing so
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: much about.
• 41:43
  Speaker 3: Let us know on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, where you
• 41:47
  Speaker 3: can find us as Ridiculous History. Also, as we always
• 41:50
  Speaker 3: like to say, check out our community page, Ridiculous Historians.
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we got some fun conversations there and little extra
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: bits and bobs that, you know, help give you a
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: richer Ridiculous history experience. And oh my goodness, last episode
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: we totally neglected to do credits, So we're gonna do
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: credits for two episodes because last episode it's very important,
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: very important, because last episode the one about election rigging
• 42:17
  Speaker 2: and drunken debauchery at the polls.
• 42:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it came to us courtesy of our researcher, Eve's
• 42:25
  Speaker 3: Jeff Code.
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: Eves Jeff Code. It was her first submission helping us
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: along on that one, and we wanted to. We were
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: remiss in not thinking her during the actual episodes, so
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: we're trying to make up for that now.
• 42:36
  Speaker 3: I'd also like to point out that Eves is a
• 42:39
  Speaker 3: co host on two other fantastic house stuff work shows,
• 42:43
  Speaker 3: Stuff Mom Never Told You and Afro Punk Solution Sessions,
• 42:47
  Speaker 3: which Casey I actually worked on in the very early days.
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: Oh and you too were that I did. Yeah, that
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: was a fun one. So check both of those out
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts, and
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: be sure to drop us a nice review if you
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: don't mind, just to you know. It makes us feel
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: good in our hearts, and it also supposedly helps the
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: iTunes algorithm shove our show into people's ears.
• 43:08
  Speaker 3: And thanks to super producer Casey Pegrin, thanks to Alex
• 43:12
  Speaker 3: Williams for composing the track. Thanks to our research assistant
• 43:15
  Speaker 3: Christopher Hasiotis, who tipped us through this strange story of
• 43:20
  Speaker 3: the Cold War, and Walt Disney, and.
• 43:22
  Speaker 2: Please join us next time when we go into the
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: interesting and potentially sordid past of the song Louie Louie
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: by the Kingsman. It's going to be a rollicking good
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: time full of music, and might just have a special
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: guest up with. We'll do our best to have intelligible
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: lyrics that's true. See then. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: to your favorite shows.