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Short Stuff: Toronto Clown Riot · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh. There's Chuck.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Jerry's here too. She's just sound mute and she's sitting
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: in for Dave, who's not here. And this is short stuff.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: That's right about the Toronto clown riot.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: That was dead on Toronto, that was.
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: Supposed to be a clown horn. It sounded like a
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: sick mule in my head. It was kind of come
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: out better and I thought about doing a second take,
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: but who cares, Let's leave it in there.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: It's fun.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: It was a sick mule doing the disco call wow.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: And we also called a lot of information from the
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Toronto Star, Spacing magazine, specifically Adam Bunch on Spacing magazine,
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: and the Circus Diaries.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: That's right, the sexiest mini series.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: The Red Shoe Circus Diaries.
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: But we are talking about one of our towns that
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: we love a lot, Toronto, and we are coming back
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: there to Massey Hall, by the way, as part of
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: our Nadian tour. We always love Massy Holl in particular
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: and playing to our friends there. I think that I
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: think our very first live show ever was in Toronto, right.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: I think it was actually, yeah, our Bars episode good
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: Call Chuck, that was our first one.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: That's right. That's what gave us the taste.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Everybody h the taste of Toronto.
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: And also i've spoken to Chuck everybody. He's promised to
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: do like ninety percent less. Gordon Lightfoot chokes this time.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: But we need to hop in the way back machine
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: for this one, because we're going back to eighteen fifty
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: five when Toronto was a different place. It's not the
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: it wasn't the metropolitan kind of refined big city that
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: it is now.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: It was. It was tough.
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: It had like three hundred and fifty two drinking establishments
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: for the forty thousand people. There had a lot of brothels,
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: and they were people that liked to to mix it up.
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: It seems like back in the day.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: For sure, not just the people at Tronto, but the
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: people who were in circuses too like to mix it up.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: And specifically, in July eighteen fifty five, when our event
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: takes place, the SB House Star Troop in Menagerie and
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: circus was in town, and that circus was from New
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: York State and they showed up in Toronto. They set
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: up their tents and said, hey, everybody come see. And
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: of course since there's a circus, even in eighteen fifty
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: five circus, there were a bunch of clowns there. Chuck
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: and these clowns. They had a long day of performing
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: and they said, let's go to a local brothel. And
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: they did as a group.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: They said, let's go get drunk and doing other things
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: you can do with brothels. And they went to Mariann
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: Armstrong's brothel. It's a corner of King and John Streets,
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: and this happened to be a brothel where that was
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: kind of the main hangout of the Hook and Ladder
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: fire brigade. So we need to explain a couple of
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: things about these two groups. The clowns at the time
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: are not the lovable psychopaths that we have now in
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: our circuses. They were, you know, they were kind of
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: the road crew as well as clowns. So they had
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: to put up these big tents, break everything down, get
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: all the gear in place. So they were they were brawny,
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: like big dudes and the firefighters of the day in
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: Toronto at least, and I bet they were like this
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: in a.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: Lot of places.
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: It was before the city government had, you know, was
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: in charge of that kind of thing. So you had
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: private fire departments and private companies that you know, build
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: for their services, like we'll put out your fire for
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: this amount of money. So you have fire private fire
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: companies like racing to fires to get there first. And
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: there were several instances of them arriving at the same
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: time and like fighting one another to put out the
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: fire while the fire's burning.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, several instances. One as recent as just a couple
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: of weeks before that Hook and Land Company who called
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: Marianne Armstrong's house they'll repute their hangout. They showed up
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: to one and there was already another company there and
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: they got into a fight and a riot broke out, right,
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: So there was a firefighter riot at a burning house.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: The firefighters all decided instead of putting the house out,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: they let it burn and looted the houses around it.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: It was that kind of riot. These are the firefighters
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: in Toronto at the time, right, So by the time
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: this Toronto clown riot happens, the Hook and Ladder Company
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: has already been in one riot within the last few weeks,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: and I guess they were itching for another one or something.
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So they were there and they were hanging out
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: and they were drinking, and the clowns show up and
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: they're ready to do their thing. And pretty much everyone's
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: account is the same is that the clown started it.
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: I didn't see anything that said that the firefighters did.
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: So it was either like clowns cutting in line or
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: there was a clown that knocked. This all sounds very funny,
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: by the way, even as it's coming out of my mouth,
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: or a clown knocked the firefighters had off and are
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: and all of a sudden, a big brawl breaks out,
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: and maybe we should take a break there and tell
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: everybody who won right after.
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: This, okay, and things.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: Like jumping job, I'll tell you who won, Chuck. The
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: clowns won, you know it. I don't think anybody disputes that.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: Because one firefighter was seriously injured and so he was
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: kind of removed from the brothel, and as his fellow
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: firefighters were dragging him off, they all retreated as well.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: So the clowns were like, okay, great, well we're here now,
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: so they just joy the rest of the night there, right,
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: that's right. The problem was is that the city of
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: Toronto at the time was run and was for like
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: one hundred plus years by an Irish Protestant group called
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: the Orange Order. It was kind of like a fraternal order,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: and if you wanted to be an elected official, a cop,
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: a firefighter, if you wanted a government job, you basically
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: had to be an Orange Man a member of the Order.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: And the Hook and latter Company were all Orangemen, which
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: meant they were deeply connected to a lot of other
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: people they called brothers in town. And the clowns had
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: just stepped in a big time.
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, this has got to be from Syracuse University's Orangemen.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: It's got to be related, right.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: I meant to look that up, but as soon as
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: I saw Orangemen, I was like, wait a minute, Syracuse,
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: So I imagine that came from the same Irish Protestant order.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: That would be a weird coincidence. How many Orangemen are there?
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: After all?
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: Well, they grow a lot of oranges in Syracuse, so
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: maybe that's.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: Okay, that's probably it.
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: Gentle Winter's there, good for the fruit. So word spreads
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: about what happens at this fight, and the next day
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: a bunch of mad Orange Men show up and they're like,
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: we're gonna we're gonna kick the fun out of these clowns.
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: They started attacking the circus basically, and it got really
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: out of hand.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it did get out of hand. They were throwing rocks,
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: they were beating up the clowns, and the crowd just
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: kept growing and growing. And so this not just the clowns,
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: but the entire circus was overwhelmed. Then the Hook and
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: Ladder Company, who had been in the fight the day
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: before with the clowns, they showed up and rather than
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: put out any fires, they actually started fires. They started
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: burning down the tents. They had fire axes which they
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: used to break up the property of the circus. They
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: like everybody kind of dragged the circus performers wagons down
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: to this lakeside and tipped them over. Yeah, it was
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: a bad jam for sure.
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so the circus is in big trouble at this point.
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: So they're like, you know, thank god, the police. The
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: police show up, but they were also corrupt because they
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: were also orange men, orange people, or at least the
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: chief was, and I bet a lot of the cops were.
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: Mayor Quimby finally steps in and calms everything down. He
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: arrives on the scene, and this is I love this
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: because this is totally made up lore, but I've got
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: to read it anyway. He said to have grabbed the
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: axe out of the hand of a rioter midswing as
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: he was about to bring.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: It down upon a clown.
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: The mayor's office put that out the next day.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: For sure. He was shirtless too when he did it.
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: The police chief, who, like you said, was an orangeman
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: and was very corrupt. He is supposedly credited with saving
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: the animals, or keeping the rioters from harming the animals,
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: which yeah, really the elephants. It's a big mark in favor. Frankly, no,
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: for sure. Aside from that though, the police just sat
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: on their hands. They purposefully did not intervene. Right. Eventually
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: this riot what became known as the Toronto clown Riot
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: or the Toronto circus Riot. I prefer clown riot, what
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: about you.
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that sounds that's the better band name, so that's
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: what I'll go with.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: Sure, it eventually settled down. The mob dispersed and the
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: circus people came back and grabbed their things and they
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: high tailed it out of town. They were like, we're
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: going to Ottawa. This place is way too hot for us.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: You know what.
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: Now, I'm thinking, though, you can't use Toronto Clown Riot
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: as a band name because once insane clown Posse did
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: that that. You just can't even come close to touching
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: that word. Could you get a band name, I don't think.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: Could you use it as like an album date?
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: Maybe, but I don't know who wants to be associated
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: with the Juggalos.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: You know, I know some Jugglos or former Juggalos. They're
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: good people. Oh yeah, all right, I'm going to stand
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: up for him. Sure, look at.
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: You going to beat for the Juggalos.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: Sure.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: I feel like Aaron Cooper has done.
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: We talked about Juggles before, and I believe there are
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: pictures of us as Juggalos if I'm not mistaken.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure, I think from our Magnets episode. Maybe.
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that sounds right, So Chuck.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: Okay, Obviously the whole thing settles down, everybody gets level
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: headed again, and justice prevails.
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, we'll see, We'll let the audience decide. Seventeen
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: people were charged with rioting. It was basically because of
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: the corruption that there wasn't a big widespread dragnet over
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: this whole thing, but the one you know, it took
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: a while, but the one good thing that came out
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: of this was it was kind of the last straw
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: for the people of Toronto with like these corrupt Orangemen
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: kind of running everything. It was kind of like the
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: you know New York City's Tammany, right, Yeah, And they
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: were like, we're we're not going to handle this anymore.
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: We can't be like New York.
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: And so the Reform Party comes into power and the
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: idea of reform is top of mind. It took about
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: one hundred and years to kind of get the Orange
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: men completely out of the picture.
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: That's kind of the weird part.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Adam Bunch In that Spacing magazine article, he says,
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: though the he points to the clown riot as like
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: the turning point that eventually became the foundation for the
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: modern less corrupt and less orange I guess police force
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: and turn I'm going.
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: To look and see when I'm there, when I'm walking around,
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: which is I'd love to do that one in there.
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: I'm going to see if I see any like orangeman
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: stuff anywhere.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: Well, you want, you know, how you find out somebody's
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: an orangeman? You should walk up to a cop and
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: what you do is you hold out your hand like
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: you're gonna shake it. And then the orange man handshake
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: is when the cop goes to grab your hand to
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: shake it, you take it away and smooth the side
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: of your hair, and he or she will do the
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: same thing. Just watch.
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: Oh okay, I thought you would go up to them
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: and squeeze their skin like you were popping a zet
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: to see if any orange essential oil comes out.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: That works too, Yeah, all right, okay, I think short
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: stuff is.
• 12:03
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• 12:09
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