Backstage at the Vinyl Cafe - Under the Influence - Setting the Table: Best Opening Stories

Episode Date: July 15, 2026

This week we bring you an episode from another Apostrophe Podcast network show: Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly. In this episode, Terry shares some of his best opening stories of all time. CBC listeners may remember that Terry begins each episode with a story - usually unrelated to marketing - that helps lay the foundation for that episode. They are always engaging, often surprising and certain to give you a story to share at your next dinner party. We hope you enjoy Setting the Table: The Best Opening Stories. Ad-free listening is here! Listen to the pod ad-free and early, PLUS a whole bunch of other goodies – like virtual parties, Q&As, listener shout-outs & more. Subscribe here: apostrophe.supercast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is an apostrophe podcast production. Welcome to the show. We're all about stories here at the Vinyl Cafe. We love telling stories. We love hearing your stories. And we love being part of a podcast network that believes in a good story, too. So today, we're bringing you another episode from our friends at Under the Influence. CBC listeners will know Terry O'Reilly well.

And you'll know that even though under the influence is a show about marketing and advertising and branding and all the strange little corners of that world, it is also always a show about stories. Terry has this wonderful way of opening an episode with a story that makes you think, wait, where's this going? And then, of course, you follow him. This episode is a collection of some of the most beloved opening stories from under the influence over the years. There's a story about a man with only one arm who won a judo competition. There's a story about a very real, very unusual job from Victorian England called The Groom of the Stool, which is exactly as dignified as it sounds. And there's a story about corporate musicals, full-on Broadway-style productions about a brand or a product performed for a company's salespeople, and how one particular corporate musical helps set the stage for one of the most beloved novels of all time.

So here it is an episode about great openings from a show that really knows how to open a door and invite you in. Here's Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly. I'm listener to this show. You know that every episode begins with a story. Well, I want to tell you a story about those opening stories. To begin with, the opening story is the last thing I write. Once the main script has been written, then I stand back and decide what opening story would be most appropriate.

The opening story is rarely about marketing, but rather it's a story that comes from other sources. It might be a story about a movie or a flower or courtroom sketch artists or how world leaders make decisions. But every opening story serves a very important purpose. It sets the table. Opening story set a tone.

Because whatever that opening story is, it is mirrored in the advertising business. It may seem unrelated at first, but by the end of the episode, you will hopefully have connected the dots. As this is our 15th season, we have created well over 300 episodes. That means we have told over 300 opening stories. Today, I want to feature a handful of those stories. The ones you're about to hear were not only some of the most fun to write,

but they generated the most response from listeners. So, grab a coffee, sit back, and let me tell you a story. If you analyze most ads and commercials, it won't come as a surprise that marketers feature the best aspects of their product. If it's a detergent, they talk about how white it can get your clothes. If it's a car, they advertise how well-appointed the interior is. So it's always interesting to me when marketers choose to advertise a negative. Like back in the 60s, when Volkswagen used to advertise how ugly and underpowered their

cars were. But that honesty endeared them to the public. We produced an episode titled Lemonade, marketing a negative back in season seven. The opening story was about how there is often a positive tucked inside a negative. A young man lost his left arm in a devastating car accident. Learning to navigate life without one of his limbs, he tried not to let that fact stop him from pursuing things he was interested in. One of those things was the martial arts. So he walked into a judo school and began taking lessons from a very experienced judo master. The young man actually did quite well despite the loss of his left arm. He made adjustments, held his own with the other students, and learned quickly. Over time, the student asked his teacher,

or sensei, as they are called in the martial arts, if he was good enough to be able to, he was good enough to enter a judo tournament. His sensei said yes, and spent a lot of time training him. In particular, he focused on teaching him one very specific move. It was an extremely difficult technique, a throw. They practiced it continuously. Finally, the student asked his sensei, shouldn't I be learning more than one move?

The sensei said, this is a very advanced judo technique, and it's the only technique you'll need to know if you're faced with a difficult opponent. So they practiced that one move over and over and over. Then came the day of the judo tournament. Much to the student's surprise and delight, he easily won the first two matches. The third match was more difficult, but at one point his opponent became so frustrated at being held off by a one-armed man that he rushed the student, made a miscalculation,

and was easily pinned. With that, the one-armed Judoka found himself in the finals. This time, his opponent was bigger, stronger, and much more experienced. For the first few rounds, the student looked like he was vastly overmatched. So much so, in fact, the referee called for a time-out and was considering stopping the fight. But the student-sensei intervened, asking the ref to let him continue. A few moments after the match resumed, the bigger opponent made a mistake and dropped his guard. And in that moment, the student finally saw a split-second opportunity to execute the difficult move he had practiced for months.

The opponent seemed to fumble in his reaction. The student grabbed him, threw him down, and pinned him for the win. With that, the one-armed judo student shocked the room by winning the tournament. On the way home, he asked his sensei this question, how did I win that tournament by relying only on one main technique? The sensei said, you won for two reasons. First, you mastered one of the most difficult throws in all of judo. Second, the only known defense for that move

is for your opponent to grab your left arm. Turning a perceived weakness into a strengthened, in the world of marketing requires a little judo too. The amount of feedback we got from that story was remarkable. It inspired a lot of people. Back in season six, we produced an episode about how the advertising industry slowly tackled subjects that were once considered taboo. For example, the marketing of toilet paper was once taboo.

And early toilet paper was not very soft, as one of the very first TP ads proclaimed it was now splinter-free. Feminine hygiene was once a taboo advertising subject, as were condoms. Season 6, episode 16, was titled, Now Splinter-Free, How Marketing Broke Taboos. To set the table in that episode, we told the story of how many things were taboo back in the Victorian era, even expressions of romance. So lovers figured out a special secret code to communicate to each other, using both. of flowers.

There were many taboos back in the Victorian era. You couldn't reference bodily functions. You couldn't show affection in public. Divorce was taboo. Looking pregnant or even using the word pregnant was off limits. An exposed female ankle was considered scandalous. It said that even the legs of pianos were covered in homes. As a result, taboos also made it difficult to express your desire for someone.

one. That's where floreography came in. Simply put, floreography was the use of encoded messages through the arrangement of flowers. This secret flower language allowed people to express feelings which otherwise could

not be spoken. So, if you were to receive a bouquet of yellow acacia, that meant someone was secretly in love with you. If you were to send that person back a bouquet of majoram, that would mean you were blushing.

If that person were to then send you a fragrant Spanish jasmine, that meant they were intoxicated with your sensuality. If you were to reply with a large bouquet, that would mean you find their advances bold. If they sent you back a bunch of linden flowers, that meant they really wanted conjugal love. If you offered a single China aster, it meant you would consider their request. If they responded with a bouquet of red columbines, that meant they were anxious and trembling.

But if you sent over a bunch of orange flowers, that meant you decided to go with celibacy. Fluorography also spawned a subgenre of flower dictionaries, allowing to be it. people to quickly thumb the pages looking for the real meanings behind bouquets. Much was forbidden in the Victorian era. With so many taboos, the secret language of flowers was one of the only ways to get messages through. Who knew the slogan, Say It with Flowers, had such an interesting history? One of the most difficult categories in the marketing world has to do with intimate

bathroom products. In particular, products that help with bodily functions like diarrhea, constipation, and acid reflux. In season 8, episode 14, we produced a show titled Disgustingly Effective, the Marketing of Bodily Functions. To set that delicate table, we went back in time to tell the story of Grooms of the Stool. During the Tudor era, one of the most sought-after positions in the king's court was groom of the stool. It was an unusual occupation. The responsibilities of the groom of the stool were to undress the king, provide water and cotton towels, then stand beside the king as his majesty did his business. While history is a little vague on this point, it appears the groom of the stool's duties also included wiping the royal posterior. If you think this job couldn't get any more

disgusting, it was also the groom's task to inspect the king's bowel movement to conduct an ongoing assessment of the king's health. Now, you may be thinking the groom of the stool was named after the king's stools. Not so. The stool part of the job title referred to the king's stool singular, which was a velvet-lined portable potty called a close stool. The groom carried the king's stool around at all times to make sure it was handy, should nature call. The first groom of the stool appeared in 1495 during King Henry the seventh time. When King Henry the 8th sat on the throne, he elevated the status of the job by confiding in the groom, and even asking for advice on particularly tricky royal problems.

That status made the groom of the stool very powerful in the king's court. He knew the king's private thoughts and many of his secrets. It wasn't long before others around the king realized the groom had a unique access to the monarch. People would pass messages to the groom hoping he would pass them along to the king. The groom of the stool not only became respected, but feared, as he could influence the king's opinion. After all, they had a lot of alone time together as the king conducted his royal business. Before long, the groom of the stool became very well paid, received many of the king's expensive clothes as hand-me-downs, and was given special lodging in all the king's castles. Over time, the position became highly sought after, as many men would fall over themselves for the chance to be in charge of the king's stool.

If you wanted to make your way up the ladder in the royal kingdom, being groom of the stool was disgustingly effective. So if you ever think your career has hit bottom, just be glad you're not a groom of the stool. And we'll be right back. If you're enjoying this episode, why not dip into our archives? Available wherever you download your pods. Go to tarryoriley.ca for a master episode list. There once was a very odd technique used in the world of marketing. It was called Industrial Musicals.

Brands would actually hire the top Broadway composers to create musicals about their companies or products. Then, top Broadway performers would be hired and the show would be extravagantly staged, not for the public, but for the company's sales force. Think of it as a big musical motivation speech. Season 5, Episode 23, was titled When Madison Avenue Met Broadway, the Industrial Musical. The opening story was about how one industrial musical led to one of the most revered novels of all time. That diddy is from an elaborate J.C. Penny Sales Conference.

The silver shining and the lights are bright. We put away the brewing mobber's time for all of that to stop. There's going to be a party here tonight. That diddy is from an elaborate J.C. Penny Sales Conference in the early 1960s. It's an important little piece of marketing history, because without that J.C. Penny tune, the iconic novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, might not exist. Composer Michael Brown met James Cash Penny in the early 50s.

James Cash Penny, also known as J.C. Penny, established the J.C. Penny chain in 1902. Penny hired Brown to write industrial musicals for his company beginning in 1952. In the post-war days, corporations like J.C. Penny would stage elaborate musicals to motivate their sales force. These were big song and dance shows penned by the top Broadway composers, performed by top Broadway talent on big stages. They were on par with the biggest Broadway musicals of the day, with one exception. Industrial musicals were written to sing the praises of companies. And that's how Michael Brown came to meet J.C. Penny. Meanwhile, Brown and his wife Joy had met a new neighbor of theirs in New York.

She was an aspiring writer from Alabama who worked the ticket counter at Eastern Airlines. Her name was Harper Lee. The Browns liked her a lot. One Christmas, Michael and Joy Brown took some of the money from one of Michael's lucrative J.C. Penny industrial musicals and gave Harper Lee a gift. It was a check worth a year's salary tucked inside a card that said, you are free to take one year off

to write whatever you like. With that incredible gift, Harper Lee wrote, To Kill a Mockingbird. The movie version of To Kill a Mockingbird is my favorite film of all time. This last opening story was, by far, the one that generated the most feedback

over the past 15 years. The subject of the episode was number one brands. We talked about which brands were number one in the car category, the cereal category, the coffee category, and more. And it's often surprising to discover which brands are, in fact, number one. To set the table for that episode,

we told the story of Secretariat, the remarkable racehorse who was number one in his field, by far. He was born on March 30th, 1970. Time magazine said he had a neck like a buffalo and a back as broad as a sofa. He generated a crackling tension and excitement

wherever he went. ESPN ranked him the 35th best athlete of the 20th century. By two years of age, he was a legend. His name was Secretariat. By all accounts, there has never been a greater racehorse. He was a specimen. Author Bill Nack, who wrote a book about Secretariat, said that, anatomically, he was almost without flaw. His glowing, reddish coat looked like it was a half-sized too small, as all his muscles protruded at every possible opportunity.

Owner Penny Chenery said Secretariat knew when he was being admired. The first click of a camera, and his ears would go up. Then he would swell up and literally pose, making the photographer's chuckle. Secretariat had a habit of starting a race dead last behind the pack. His groomer said he did that because he liked the feeling of passing all the other horses when he turned on his jets. His trainer was French-Canadian Lucian Lauren, and the jockey that wrote him to greatness was Canadian Ron Turcotte.

Secretariat had many great wins in his career, but none grander than winning the Triple Crown in 1973. He had lost the race before the Kentucky Derby, and many journalists felt he had speed, but no endurance. He started the Derby dead last, of course, but then switched into Ultraglide, winning the race by two and a half lengths in record time that still stands today. At the Preakness, Secretary at Brough last,

but made a startling last to first move on the very first turn, and maintain that lead to break another track record. But those two feats would pale to what came next. The last race of the Triple Crown was the Belmont Stakes. No horse had won the Triple Crown in 25 years. And you will see the Secretariat being led. The number is two, but he goes into the number one post. Secretary's only rival was a horse called sham.

He too was a magnificent animal and had beat Secretariat in the past. Yes, he's in him well, and Sham now going in. He's the outside horse, and we're ready to go. Everybody's in line, and they're off. The lead goes to Mike Gallant. Yes, Mike Gallant going for the lead with twice the prince on the outside.

Secretary to weigh very well, has good position on the rail, and in fact is now going up with the leader. Secretariat did something out of the gate he almost never did. He broke fast. And now it's Sham. Sham and Secretary are right together into the first turn. It was becoming a two-horse race, just as everyone has suspected.

Secretariat and sham, neck and neck. Those two together, Sham on the outside. Sham getting ahead in front as they move around the turn with Secretariat's second. Then there's a large gap. Make it eight lengths back to my Gallatin third and biceprens fourth. There was an eight-length gap

between the two horses and the rest of the pack, and that would only open up further. They're on the backstretch. It's almost a match race now. Secretariat's on the inside, by ahead. Sham is on the outside. They've opened 10 links on my gallon who is third by ad. Then, a fear swept through the crowd.

Secretariat and Sham were going too fast for too long. They couldn't keep that pace up. Their hearts would give out. It was just too dangerous. Then, Secretariat did the most extraordinary thing. He accelerated. He opened a gap between him and Sham that was simply inconceivable. You couldn't keep your eyes off the gap.

Then, Sham began to fall back. His heart couldn't sustain that pace. That's when Secretariat kicked into another gear. It was remarkable. Secretariat was a 16th of a mile ahead of the other horses coming down the stretch. Secretariat finished the Belmont stakes, not 25 lengths ahead as the race announcer guessed, but a mind-blowing 31 lengths ahead of the pack.

Sham finished dead last, hollowed out by trying to keep up with Secretariat. Secretaryate has accomplished the unbelievable task of breaking the mile and a half record by two and three-fifth seconds. That is a record that may stand forever. Secretary didn't just break the record at Belmont. He ran the fastest one and a half miles in history. Demolished that field and absolutely demolished them. No contest. Listen to the crowd.

He had broken the record at all three triple crown races. He was a super horse. Every marketing category is a horse race. A lot of money is wagered and the winnings are big. Except in marketing, the race has no finish line. Hollywood Studios didn't understand the appeal of Harper Lee's 1960 novel to Kill a Mockingbird. It had no love story, no typical showdown between a hero and a bad guy,

all the characters were quiet studies, all the action was talk in unspoken subtext. To them, it simply didn't have the essential ingredients of a motion picture. But director Robert Mulligan was a great storyteller. He used low camera angles to tell the story from the children's point of view in the first half of the film. Then, when the kids stand on each other's shoulders to peek into the courtroom, Mulligan transitions perfectly to an adult eyeline in the second half.

While I love every frame of that movie, I particularly love the opening titles. We see a child's hands opening a small box filled with crayons, an old pocket watch, a safety pin, a marble, and two small dolls carved out of wood. The child hums and begins to color with a crayons. as the title of the film appears through the scribbles. Then, Elmer Bernstein's moving theme music gently wafts in. I have watched the film dozens of times and marvel at how simple yet powerful the opening

title sequence is. It not only foreshadows an important moment in the film, but it always has the same effect on me, viewing after viewing. It quietly sets the perfect emotional tone for the story to come. That opening was created by Stephen Frankford. He was an advertising creative director in New York. To Kill a Mockingbird has given me many wonderful gifts over the years, and the importance of setting the table was one of the best.

To this day, it has kept me under the influence. I'm Terry O'Reilly. This episode was recorded in the Terstream Mobile Recording Studio, producer Debbie O'Reilly, sound engineer Keith Owen. Theme music by Ari Posner and Ian Lefevre. If you like this episode, you might also enjoy Coming Soon, The Art of the Movie Trailer, Season 2, Episode 8. You'll find it in our archives wherever you download your podcasts.

Follow me on Twitter and Instagram at Terry O. Influence. See you next week. And I once tried an antique roll of toilet paper. It made a b on my...