Latest / Crime and Horror / His final words made them BILLIONS
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Today, we're going to look at three stories about real
- 0:02Speaker 1: people who, at some point in their lives made choices. Now,
- 0:06Speaker 1: at the time, these choices were fairly innocuous, but eventually
- 0:11Speaker 1: those choices would completely change not only their lives, but millions.
- 0:16Speaker 2: Of other people's lives as well.
- 0:18Speaker 1: But before we get into those stories, if you're a
- 0:20Speaker 1: fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious delivered in story format,
- 0:23Speaker 1: then you've come to the right place, because that's all
- 0:25Speaker 1: we do, and we upload once a week. So if
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- 0:45Speaker 2: Okay, let's get into today's stories.
- 1:03Speaker 1: On January seventeenth, nineteen seventy seven, a thirty six year
- 1:07Speaker 1: old man named Gary Gilmore walked towards an abandoned canned
- 1:10Speaker 1: food factory and draper Utah. Gary was surrounded on all
- 1:14Speaker 1: sides by guards because they were afraid that Gary might
- 1:16Speaker 1: try to run and not go inside of this factory,
- 1:19Speaker 1: but Gary was not about to run. He'd been waiting
- 1:22Speaker 1: for months for this and he was ready. So Gary,
- 1:25Speaker 1: along with the guards at his sides, made their way
- 1:27Speaker 1: towards the factory, and then without any hesitation, Gary stepped
- 1:31Speaker 1: inside and what he saw was this big, cavernous.
- 1:34Speaker 2: Open space with no equipment in it. Nothing.
- 1:36Speaker 1: It was just basically this massive empty space and one
- 1:40Speaker 1: chair pushed up against the far back wall. Gary knew
- 1:43Speaker 1: he was supposed to sit in that chair, so without
- 1:45Speaker 1: even being told, he just began walking across the floor
- 1:48Speaker 1: towards it, and then when he reached the chair, he
- 1:50Speaker 1: sat down. And once Gary was sitting, the guards that
- 1:53Speaker 1: had walked him in began strapping his wrists and his
- 1:55Speaker 1: ankles to this chair.
- 1:56Speaker 2: So he couldn't move.
- 1:57Speaker 1: And as they did this, Gary didn't put up a fight.
- 2:00Speaker 1: He just sat there, staring straight across to the other
- 2:03Speaker 1: side of this factory. And on the far side of
- 2:06Speaker 1: this factory was one other thing inside of the space.
- 2:09Speaker 2: It was like this.
- 2:09Speaker 1: Big curtain like somebody had wheeled out, like this massive
- 2:13Speaker 1: curtain that was protecting something on the other side. And
- 2:16Speaker 1: as he was staring at this curtain that was sort
- 2:18Speaker 1: of perpendicular to him.
- 2:20Speaker 2: He saw there were.
- 2:20Speaker 1: Five evenly spaced cutouts across the curtain, And even though
- 2:24Speaker 1: Gary couldn't actually see anything in any of these cutouts,
- 2:28Speaker 1: he knew what was behind them. He knew that at
- 2:30Speaker 1: each station there was a police officer armed with a rifle.
- 2:34Speaker 1: They were the firing squad that Gary himself had requested.
- 2:38Speaker 1: So Gary was a convicted murderer and he had been
- 2:41Speaker 1: sentenced to death just a few months earlier.
- 2:43Speaker 2: His death sentence had gotten a lot of.
- 2:44Speaker 1: Media coverage, and immediately after the sentencing, his mother, along
- 2:48Speaker 1: with the American Civil Liberties Union, had lobbied to try
- 2:51Speaker 1: to change the sentence and make it a life sentence instead.
- 2:54Speaker 1: But while Gary appreciated their efforts, he actually did not
- 2:57Speaker 1: want that. He did not want, you know, to spend
- 3:00Speaker 1: the rest of his life in prison.
- 3:01Speaker 2: That was the only alternative to the.
- 3:03Speaker 1: Death sentence is life without parole, and that sounded horrible,
- 3:07Speaker 1: and so instead he had basically pushed to go forward
- 3:10Speaker 1: with his execution, and he was very specific about how
- 3:13Speaker 1: he wanted to die. He wanted to die by firing squad,
- 3:17Speaker 1: and that had been granted to him. And so after
- 3:18Speaker 1: the guards had finished strapping Gary into the chair, they
- 3:21Speaker 1: backed off, and then the chaplain came over and read
- 3:24Speaker 1: Gary his last rites, and then after that he asked
- 3:27Speaker 1: Gary if he had anything else he wanted to say,
- 3:29Speaker 1: and Gary looked up at the chaplain and just said,
- 3:32Speaker 1: let's do it.
- 3:33Speaker 2: And so the chaplain backed.
- 3:34Speaker 1: Off, signaled to the firing squad that Gary was ready,
- 3:37Speaker 1: and then once everything was in place, rifles poked through
- 3:40Speaker 1: the five holes in the curtain and they fired.
- 3:43Speaker 2: Shortly after Gary was dead.
- 3:46Speaker 1: Ten years after Gary's execution, in nineteen eighty seven, a
- 3:50Speaker 1: young marketing executive named Dan Widen was having a meeting
- 3:53Speaker 1: with his colleagues at his company's headquarters in Portland, Oregon.
- 3:56Speaker 1: So Dan actually owned this marketing agency and his company
- 4:00Speaker 1: had recently signed this new client. It was a small
- 4:03Speaker 1: business with a lot of promise who's hopefully looking to expand,
- 4:06Speaker 1: and they were leaning on Dan and his team to
- 4:08Speaker 1: help them do that. And while Dan certainly believed that
- 4:10Speaker 1: this company had the chance to be huge, he just
- 4:13Speaker 1: felt like they lack something. They needed a strong marketing
- 4:16Speaker 1: campaign to really get them off the ground and sort
- 4:18Speaker 1: of begin to make them a household name. And so
- 4:20Speaker 1: this meeting that Dan was having right now with his
- 4:23Speaker 1: colleagues was their attempts at coming up with, you know,
- 4:25Speaker 1: what can we do? What kind of campaign can we
- 4:27Speaker 1: run for this company? And so for hours they sat
- 4:30Speaker 1: there pitching different ideas, you know, different concepts of how
- 4:33Speaker 1: we can elevate this brand. But it was like, even
- 4:36Speaker 1: though a lot of ideas seemed promising, nothing really felt right.
- 4:40Speaker 1: Everything just sort of felt like, you know, maybe maybe
- 4:42Speaker 1: that would help. There was no slam dunk idea, at
- 4:44Speaker 1: least not yet. And so as Dan is beginning to
- 4:46Speaker 1: get frustrated, you know, realizing he really doesn't have any great.
- 4:49Speaker 2: Ideas yet, he suddenly has this epiphany.
- 4:52Speaker 1: Now Dan does not understand why he had this epiphany.
- 4:55Speaker 1: He had not been thinking about this information until it
- 4:58Speaker 1: just popped into his head.
- 4:59Speaker 2: Instead, this idea really just kind of suddenly came to him.
- 5:02Speaker 1: As he's sitting there with his colleagues, feeling frustrated, not
- 5:05Speaker 1: knowing what to do, he just randomly found himself thinking
- 5:09Speaker 1: about the execution of Gary Gilmour ten years earlier, death
- 5:12Speaker 1: by firing squad. It was all over the news, and Dan,
- 5:15Speaker 1: like his colleagues, had certainly kept up with that story.
- 5:17Speaker 1: It was a big deal at the time, and as
- 5:20Speaker 1: Dan is sitting there just thinking about that execution, he
- 5:23Speaker 1: remembered a very particular detail about the execution that, for
- 5:27Speaker 1: whatever reason, just felt like, oh, my goodness, we can
- 5:30Speaker 1: use that to market this brand. Dan would take a
- 5:33Speaker 1: well known detail from the execution of Gary Gilmore, he
- 5:37Speaker 1: would tweak it slightly, and he would use it to
- 5:39Speaker 1: fuel this advertising campaign for the small business and it
- 5:43Speaker 1: would work amazingly. In fact, this campaign was so successful
- 5:48Speaker 1: it literally doubled this company's business practically overnight. And this campaign,
- 5:52Speaker 1: it featured a slogan that has since become arguably one of,
- 5:56Speaker 1: if not the most famous slogans for any business in
- 5:59Speaker 1: the entire world. The slogan that Dan created as part
- 6:02Speaker 1: of this very famous campaign was based directly on Gary
- 6:07Speaker 1: Gilmore's final words, just do it.
- 6:10Speaker 2: Dan's client that small business was Nike.
- 6:20Speaker 1: Last year, we launched a brand new podcast here at
- 6:22Speaker 1: Ballin Studios called Redacted Declassified Mysteries with Luke Lamana and
- 6:27Speaker 1: so far you guys have loved it.
- 6:29Speaker 2: And in case you haven't.
- 6:30Speaker 1: Heard, we also launched a YouTube channel for Redacted where
- 6:33Speaker 1: you can not only listen to these episodes, but also
- 6:36Speaker 1: watch the beautiful animations we've done.
- 6:38Speaker 2: For each of these episodes.
- 6:40Speaker 1: That channel already has one hundred and fifty thousand subscribers
- 6:43Speaker 1: and it's growing really quickly, and there are hours of
- 6:46Speaker 1: content available right now for you to bench. New uploads
- 6:49Speaker 1: to this YouTube channel will be every single Tuesday. All
- 6:52Speaker 1: you have to do is look up at Redacted Mysteries
- 6:54Speaker 1: on YouTube and I'll also be putting a link in
- 6:57Speaker 1: the description below. Wonder Plus subscribers can also watch Acted
- 7:00Speaker 1: on the Wondery app.
- 7:01Speaker 2: Okay, back to the stories.
- 7:12Speaker 1: One night in two thousand and nine, a twenty three
- 7:14Speaker 1: year old man named Chris, along with his date, walked
- 7:17Speaker 1: into a McDonald's in London, England. The following day, Chris
- 7:20Speaker 1: had a very important job interview in the morning, and
- 7:22Speaker 1: so this dinner in McDonald's was going to be the
- 7:25Speaker 1: last part.
- 7:25Speaker 2: Of the date. There were no plans beyond this.
- 7:27Speaker 1: This McDonald's was dirty, it was loud, it was packed
- 7:31Speaker 1: with people, so not exactly a romantic location for a date,
- 7:34Speaker 1: but this was all Chris could afford. In fact, he
- 7:36Speaker 1: really needed that job the next day because he just
- 7:38Speaker 1: didn't have much money.
- 7:40Speaker 2: But for now, this was the best he could do.
- 7:41Speaker 1: And so he put on, you know, his best smile
- 7:43Speaker 1: and looked at his date like is this okay? And
- 7:46Speaker 1: she kind of looked back and smiled like, I get it.
- 7:47Speaker 1: It's fine, we can eat here. So they hopped in
- 7:49Speaker 1: line and they waited, finally got to the counter. They
- 7:52Speaker 1: ordered their food and their drinks, and then after receiving them,
- 7:55Speaker 1: they turned around and looked for a place to sit down.
- 7:58Speaker 1: But as they looked around, they saw every table was taken,
- 8:01Speaker 1: literally everyone, and so Chris and his date began looking
- 8:04Speaker 1: for tables where, you know, there were at least a
- 8:06Speaker 1: couple of empty seats. You know, maybe somebody was sitting there,
- 8:09Speaker 1: but they might allow Chris and his date to sit
- 8:11Speaker 1: with them. And so they began walking around and eventually
- 8:13Speaker 1: they would find a table where there was just this
- 8:16Speaker 1: one guy sitting there. He was sort of minding his
- 8:18Speaker 1: own business, you know, just eating his meal. He was
- 8:20Speaker 1: not taking up the whole table. And critically, there were
- 8:23Speaker 1: two seats at this table that were unused, and so
- 8:25Speaker 1: Chris kind of tapped his date and pointed to the table,
- 8:28Speaker 1: and then the two of them walked over and Chris
- 8:30Speaker 1: very politely asked this guy, you know, hey would you
- 8:32Speaker 1: mind if we sat here too, you know, we won't
- 8:33Speaker 1: bother you.
- 8:34Speaker 2: We're just gonna eat and we're gonna get out of here.
- 8:36Speaker 1: And the guy just kind of looked at them and
- 8:37Speaker 1: he was like, sure, go ahead, and so Chris and
- 8:39Speaker 1: his date they sat down and they began eating and chatting,
- 8:42Speaker 1: and it was all fine. But as they were eating
- 8:44Speaker 1: and chatting, chris Is mind kept going to the next day.
- 8:48Speaker 1: You know, he had that big job interview the next morning,
- 8:50Speaker 1: and it was just really the only thing he could
- 8:52Speaker 1: think about. In fact, he tried hard to focus on
- 8:55Speaker 1: his date, but he was just so anxious about this
- 8:57Speaker 1: interview that he just couldn't.
- 8:58Speaker 2: And so he found himself now really eating.
- 9:00Speaker 1: And just kind of waiting for the date to be
- 9:02Speaker 1: over so he could just go home, go to bed,
- 9:04Speaker 1: and you know, focus on tomorrow.
- 9:06Speaker 2: But as he's sort.
- 9:07Speaker 1: Of distracted and his date's chatting about whatever she's chatting about,
- 9:10Speaker 1: he realizes the guy they're sitting with is no longer
- 9:13Speaker 1: just looking at his food.
- 9:15Speaker 2: He stopped looking at his food, and he's just staring.
- 9:17Speaker 1: Across the table at Chris's date, and like, the way
- 9:20Speaker 1: he's looking at the date does not seem friendly. And
- 9:22Speaker 1: so Chris realizes, Okay, what's going on here?
- 9:24Speaker 2: Did she say something? Did he say something?
- 9:26Speaker 1: And so Chris kind of snaps out of his anxiety
- 9:28Speaker 1: about the interview, and he looks at this guy and
- 9:31Speaker 1: he's like, what's going on because again, this guy's just
- 9:34Speaker 1: staring at his date, and this guy, sort of unprompted,
- 9:38Speaker 1: without even looking at Chris, just begins insulting Chris's date,
- 9:42Speaker 1: insulting the way she looked, insulting the way she talked,
- 9:45Speaker 1: and Chris is like, what's.
- 9:46Speaker 2: Going on here?
- 9:47Speaker 1: He's looking at his date like did I miss something?
- 9:49Speaker 1: You know, remember he was sort of distracted a minute ago.
- 9:52Speaker 1: But then eventually this guy he says to Chris's date,
- 9:55Speaker 1: you're an ugly pig. And at this Chris is like,
- 9:59Speaker 1: I can't just sit here. And so Chris, who had
- 10:01Speaker 1: actually never been in a fight in his whole life,
- 10:03Speaker 1: just sort of reflexively stood up and he was like, hey, man,
- 10:06Speaker 1: get up, like he's gonna fight him here. But as
- 10:08Speaker 1: soon as he did that, Chris realized he had made
- 10:10Speaker 1: a horrible mistake because Chris, he was only about five
- 10:13Speaker 1: foot eight inches tall, and this guy just the way
- 10:15Speaker 1: he'd been sitting at the table. Chris hadn't really seen
- 10:18Speaker 1: his full stature, and this guy when he stood up,
- 10:21Speaker 1: towered over Chris. But Chris, you know, he was not
- 10:24Speaker 1: a scared guy. You know, he hadn't fought before, but
- 10:26Speaker 1: he was defending his dates honor here and he kind
- 10:29Speaker 1: of looks up at this guy and he just kind
- 10:31Speaker 1: of winds up and hits him once.
- 10:33Speaker 2: But then this.
- 10:34Speaker 1: Huge guy just proceeds to beat the living crap out
- 10:37Speaker 1: of Chris right there in the McDonald's. The next morning,
- 10:40Speaker 1: Chris walked up to this big, fancy building in London
- 10:43Speaker 1: for his job interview, and Chris was doing his best
- 10:45Speaker 1: to be confident, but it was really hard given the circumstances.
- 10:49Speaker 1: So the previous night, after Chris had been battered by
- 10:52Speaker 1: this total jerk, you know, eventually the guy had stopped
- 10:55Speaker 1: and stepped off of Chris, and Chris had gotten back
- 10:57Speaker 1: up again, and the guy kind of wandered off and
- 11:00Speaker 1: was not held to account in any way.
- 11:01Speaker 2: He just kind of left the restaurant and vanished.
- 11:04Speaker 1: But Chris, you know, he got to his feet and
- 11:06Speaker 1: he looked at his date and she was totally rattled
- 11:08Speaker 1: by it. And Chris was super embarrassed at this point,
- 11:10Speaker 1: and he kept apologizing to his date and she's like, no,
- 11:13Speaker 1: it's fine, and they just wanted to get out of there,
- 11:15Speaker 1: and so they left the McDonald's and they both went
- 11:17Speaker 1: to their respective homes and Chris just went to bed.
- 11:21Speaker 1: And then the next morning, when Chris got up early
- 11:23Speaker 1: because he has this big job interview, he went into
- 11:25Speaker 1: the bathroom and he looked in the mirror and he
- 11:28Speaker 1: saw he had this enormous black eye. But even though
- 11:31Speaker 1: Chris understood that this very well could affect his chances
- 11:34Speaker 1: of getting this job. I mean, they're gonna ask about
- 11:37Speaker 1: his black eye, and what's he gonna say, Oh, yeah,
- 11:39Speaker 1: I got in a big fight at the McDonald's last night.
- 11:41Speaker 1: You know, there wasn't really a good excuse for it.
- 11:43Speaker 1: And he wondered what they would think of him if
- 11:45Speaker 1: he showed up looking like this ruffian, you know.
- 11:47Speaker 2: But he was like, you know what, this is.
- 11:49Speaker 1: The biggest opportunity I've ever had. I just got to
- 11:51Speaker 1: go in there, try to be confident, and don't let
- 11:54Speaker 1: the black eye define the outcome. And so fast forward
- 11:57Speaker 1: too later that morning, Chris goes into the building, he
- 12:00Speaker 1: arrives for the interview, and before long he's having his
- 12:03Speaker 1: interview and he can tell they're all staring at his
- 12:06Speaker 1: black eye, but nobody brought it up, which was sort
- 12:09Speaker 1: of like worse in some ways. He almost wanted to
- 12:11Speaker 1: be able to describe what happened, even though it didn't
- 12:14Speaker 1: make him look good, but it was like the fact
- 12:15Speaker 1: that they're staring at it and not acknowledging it.
- 12:19Speaker 2: It really made him feel awkward. But you know, Chris
- 12:21Speaker 2: did his best.
- 12:22Speaker 1: He got through the interview, and by the end of it,
- 12:25Speaker 1: he had no idea what the interviewers thought of him
- 12:28Speaker 1: or what they thought of his ridiculous black eye, but
- 12:31Speaker 1: he thanked them for the opportunity and he left thinking
- 12:33Speaker 1: I'm not going to get the job. However, not long
- 12:36Speaker 1: after this interview, Chris got some shocking news he had
- 12:39Speaker 1: gotten the job, and it actually might have been because
- 12:43Speaker 1: of his black eye, because this job interview was actually
- 12:46Speaker 1: an audition for a starring role in an upcoming TV show,
- 12:50Speaker 1: and the character that Chris was auditioning for was this
- 12:53Speaker 1: guy who sort of got into fights. And so Chris
- 12:56Speaker 1: rolls in here looking like a guy who gets into fights,
- 12:59Speaker 1: and there, oh my goodness, he can hit his lines.
- 13:02Speaker 1: He's got the charisma and look at him, he's even
- 13:04Speaker 1: a Ruffian himself.
- 13:06Speaker 2: He fits the character perfectly. He's our guy.
- 13:08Speaker 1: So Chris got cast, and this TV show that he
- 13:11Speaker 1: starred in became one of the most popular TV.
- 13:14Speaker 2: Shows in the entire world.
- 13:16Speaker 1: And so Chris went from being this guy who could
- 13:18Speaker 1: barely afford a dinner at McDonald's to being this amazing
- 13:22Speaker 1: actor who was getting nominated for Golden Globe Awards and
- 13:25Speaker 1: Emmy Awards.
- 13:26Speaker 2: I mean, he truly was an a less star.
- 13:29Speaker 1: Today, Chris is better known by his stage name Kit Harrington,
- 13:33Speaker 1: and the starring role that he landed that changed his
- 13:35Speaker 1: life was the role of Jon Snow in Game of Thrones.
- 13:50Speaker 1: One night in nineteen twenty five, a twenty one year
- 13:53Speaker 1: old college student named Ted was inside of his dorm
- 13:56Speaker 1: room at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, surrounded by his friends.
- 13:59Speaker 1: Ted and his friend had gotten their hands on a
- 14:01Speaker 1: bottle of gin, and so tonight they were just sitting
- 14:03Speaker 1: around drinking this gin and having a great time. Now
- 14:06Speaker 1: Ted and his friends knew this was not allowed. I
- 14:09Speaker 1: mean literally, they knew this was illegal. It didn't matter
- 14:11Speaker 1: that they were twenty one years old.
- 14:13Speaker 2: At the time.
- 14:14Speaker 1: In the United States in nineteen twenty five, the country
- 14:17Speaker 1: was in the middle of prohibition, which meant no one
- 14:19Speaker 1: was allowed to possess or consume alcohol. It was actually illegal,
- 14:23Speaker 1: but Ted specifically was willing to take that risk because
- 14:26Speaker 1: tonight he wanted to celebrate. Ted was a senior in
- 14:29Speaker 1: college and was getting ready to graduate with honors, and
- 14:32Speaker 1: also he had recently been named the editor in chief
- 14:35Speaker 1: of Dartmouth's humor magazine called Jack a Lantern.
- 14:38Speaker 2: This was a big deal for Ted.
- 14:39Speaker 1: I mean, he had aspirations of graduating and becoming a
- 14:42Speaker 1: professional writer and publisher, and it just felt like everything
- 14:45Speaker 1: was falling into place, you know, getting this job as
- 14:47Speaker 1: editor in chief, it was a huge accomplishment.
- 14:50Speaker 2: So Ted took a swig from the bottle and passed
- 14:52Speaker 2: it around.
- 14:52Speaker 1: The circle, and before long he and his friends were
- 14:55Speaker 1: all pretty drunk and having a great time, laughing and
- 14:57Speaker 1: joking and telling stories.
- 15:00Speaker 2: Lot of fun. But at some.
- 15:01Speaker 1: Point they heard a knock on their door, and right
- 15:03Speaker 1: away Ted and his friends went silent, you know, remembering that,
- 15:05Speaker 1: Oh my god, are we in trouble now, you know?
- 15:08Speaker 1: Ted said, no, it's fine, I'm sure it's just you know,
- 15:10Speaker 1: more friends coming to stop by and hang out with us.
- 15:12Speaker 1: And so Ted he gets up, he goes to the door,
- 15:14Speaker 1: and you know, his heart's racing a little bit because
- 15:16Speaker 1: he doesn't know who's there. He opens the door and
- 15:19Speaker 1: it's not friends, it's two police officers. And so Ted
- 15:22Speaker 1: and his friends all got busted for drinking alcohol. However,
- 15:26Speaker 1: fortunately for them, the police did not press charges and
- 15:29Speaker 1: so nobody went to jail. And also the school Dartmouth
- 15:32Speaker 1: decided not to expel Ted or any of his friends. However,
- 15:36Speaker 1: they were dealt some pretty severe punishments. Specifically, Dartmouth stripped
- 15:40Speaker 1: Ted of all of his academic honors and extracurriculars, which
- 15:44Speaker 1: meant he was no longer the editor in chief.
- 15:47Speaker 2: Of the Jack o' Lanford magazine.
- 15:48Speaker 1: In fact, he was told by the school that not
- 15:50Speaker 1: only was he no longer the editor in chief, but
- 15:53Speaker 1: he couldn't even submit to put anything in writing into
- 15:55Speaker 1: that magazine.
- 15:56Speaker 2: He was totally banned.
- 15:57Speaker 1: Ted was heartbroken, less so about the academic honors and
- 16:01Speaker 1: much more so about being cut off from the Jack
- 16:04Speaker 1: Lantern magazine. He really had attached a lot of value
- 16:07Speaker 1: to being the editor in chief. He felt like things
- 16:09Speaker 1: were going in the direction of him graduating and becoming
- 16:12Speaker 1: this professional writer, and so this was sort of a
- 16:14Speaker 1: devastating blow. Ted considered fighting with Dartmouth to try to
- 16:18Speaker 1: reinstate himself with the magazine, but the more he thought
- 16:21Speaker 1: about it, the more he knew that was going nowhere.
- 16:23Speaker 2: They were not going to change their mind.
- 16:25Speaker 1: However, Ted was not quite ready to just totally give
- 16:28Speaker 1: up on this magazine. He knew this magazine did accept
- 16:31Speaker 1: submissions from the public, and so he thought, Okay, well,
- 16:35Speaker 1: you know, I'm not allowed to submit anything to this magazine,
- 16:38Speaker 1: but maybe if I come up with a different name,
- 16:40Speaker 1: a pen name, then I can submit my work. They
- 16:43Speaker 1: won't know it's me, and maybe I can get something published.
- 16:45Speaker 1: And so that's exactly what Ted began doing. And the
- 16:48Speaker 1: new editor in chief of this magazine had no idea
- 16:51Speaker 1: this pen name was actually Ted, and so when they
- 16:54Speaker 1: received the work from the pseudonym, they thought it was
- 16:57Speaker 1: some new person they had never heard of, and they
- 16:59Speaker 1: were so wowed by the work. They're like, this is great,
- 17:02Speaker 1: and they began publishing all of Ted's work, not realizing
- 17:05Speaker 1: it was his. And for Ted, oddly enough, this became
- 17:08Speaker 1: in some ways more satisfying than when he was writing
- 17:11Speaker 1: under his own name. He kind of liked this pen name,
- 17:13Speaker 1: kind of, you know, fit the vibe of his writing,
- 17:16Speaker 1: and so he just continued up with this ruse for
- 17:18Speaker 1: the rest of the time he was at Dartmouth, and
- 17:19Speaker 1: then after he graduated, he just continued to write under
- 17:23Speaker 1: this pen name throughout the rest of his life. Ted
- 17:25Speaker 1: would write and illustrate over sixty books, all under this
- 17:29Speaker 1: pen name, a name he came up with basically just
- 17:32Speaker 1: because he got caught drinking in the dorm in college.
- 17:35Speaker 1: These books would entertain and inspire generations of people, and
- 17:39Speaker 1: in fact, he would even win a Pulitzer Prize for
- 17:41Speaker 1: his contribution to American literature and education. Ted's full name
- 17:45Speaker 1: was Theodore Geisel, but I'm sure you know him much
- 17:47Speaker 1: better by his pen name, which is doctor Seuss. In
- 17:59Speaker 1: case you haven't heard yet, our newest graphic novel, Mister
- 18:02Speaker 1: Ballin Presents Where Nightmares Live, is available for pre order
- 18:06Speaker 1: right now. It contains another nine heart stopping, strange, dark
- 18:09Speaker 1: and mysterious stories, all based on real events.
- 18:13Speaker 2: This was a passion project.
- 18:14Speaker 1: It took a lot of time, a lot of people involved,
- 18:17Speaker 1: from the artwork to the storytelling. I mean, this is
- 18:19Speaker 1: a beautiful piece to add to your collection, so you
- 18:22Speaker 1: got to check it out.
- 18:22Speaker 2: The book comes out on.
- 18:23Speaker 1: September thirtieth, but again, you can pre order your copy
- 18:27Speaker 1: at book dot ballinstudios dot com or you can click
- 18:30Speaker 1: the link in the description below. There are a limited
- 18:32Speaker 1: number of hand signed copies available, but those are going
- 18:35Speaker 1: to sell out very quickly, so please pre.
- 18:37Speaker 2: Order today because remember, your nightmares are waiting. Thank you
- 18:42Speaker 2: so much for watching.
- 18:43Speaker 1: Let me know what you thought of today's episode in
- 18:45Speaker 1: the comments. And remember, we have hundreds of videos for.
- 18:49Speaker 2: You to binge right now.
- 18:50Speaker 1: But if you're looking for a recommendation for me of
- 18:53Speaker 1: that one video that's worth your time, well it's this
- 18:56Speaker 1: one right here, So give it a watch, all right.
- 18:59Speaker 2: Until next time, see you