The Big Flop - 1.5 Million Balloons Cause Chaos in Cleveland with Luke Burbank and Andrew Walsh | 22

Episode Date: February 19, 2024

Back in 1986, Cleveland was trying to make a new name for itself with a huge, record-breaking balloon launch. The goal was to increase the population, raise money for the community, and make Clevelanders proud. By the end, fingers would be blistered, horses traumatized, a search and rescue mission thwarted, and the good people of Cleveland would be facing an environmental disaster of their own making...yet again.Podcast hosts Luke Burbank and Andrew Walsh (Too Beautiful to Live) join Misha to string together the details of Cleveland's failed Balloonfest of '86.Follow The Big Flop on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Big Flop early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to The Big Flop early and ad-free. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. It's September of 1986, and the people of Cleveland, Ohio are sick and tired of their home being the butt of every joke. Why do ducks fly upside down in Cleveland, the haters ask? Because there's nothing for them to dump on, they snicker. But this is Cleveland's moment to turn it all around. They're about to pull a huge, colorful stunt, a glorious, simultaneous balloon launch with two million helium balloons. The city is about to break a world record

and, more importantly, show everyone that they can achieve great things. Suddenly, there's a problem. A storm is coming. Not a metaphorical storm, but a real freaking storm. Rain washes over everything. Micro-tornadoes descend and start popping. Thousands of balloons. The structure holding everything together starts breaking down. Once again, Cleveland's hopes blow up in its face.

Cleveland's hopes blow up in its face. Balloons, one and a half million of them, caused quite a stir in Cleveland yesterday. How much stress is on that net? Oh, probably equal the amount of stress that's on my shoulders right now. You ready? Ready. He did it! He did it! It's completely covering the terminal tower. Ladies and gentlemen, there is no mistake on the lake anymore. Cleveland!

We are on a sinking ship. From Wondery and At Will Media, this is The Big Flop, where we chronicle the greatest flubs, fails, and blunders of all time. I'm your host, Misha Brown, social media superstar and currently only wearing latex at Don't Cross a Gay Man. And today, we're talking about Balloon Fest 86, Cleveland's misguided attempt to gas up their reputation that completely unravels before their eyes. Hello, I'm Emily, and I'm one of the hosts of Terribly Famous, the show that takes you inside the lives of our biggest celebrities. And they don't get much bigger than the man who made badminton sexy.

Okay, maybe that's a stretch, but if I say pop star and shuttlecocks, you know who I'm talking about. No? Short shorts? Free cocktails? Careless whispers? Okay, last one.

It's not Andrew Ridgely. Yep, that's right. It's stone-cold icon George Michael. From teen pop sensation to one of the biggest solo artists on the planet, join us for our new series, George Michael's Fight for Freedom. From the outside, it looks like he has it all. But behind the trademark dark sunglasses is a man in turmoil. George is trapped in a lie of his own making,

with a secret he feels would ruin him if the truth ever came out. Follow Terribly Famous wherever you listen to your podcasts, or listen early and ad-free on Wondery Plus on Apple Podcasts or the Wondery app. On our show today, we have Luke Burbank and Andrew Walsh, co-host of the podcast Too Beautiful to Live. Welcome to the show. Hey, Misha. Thanks for having us. I've been part of so many flops professionally.

I've been preparing for a lifetime to do this, so I'm ready. Okay. Do you want to share one? Well, I was supposed to be the voice of the cool version of Morning Edition on NPR, which lasted two episodes. How are you today, Andrew? I'm great. I've never made a mistake in my life, so this is going to be an interesting journey for me. I love that. So I guess before we jump into the story of Balloon Fest, what's your favorite thing about Cleveland?

I'm from there, so me. I wish I could give you the same answer as Andrew's colleague, but I just can't. When was the last time you were in Cleveland? I was visiting Cleveland, the suburbs thereof, where my folks still live, just a couple of months ago, I think. And so I like a good Midwestern city. And maybe it's because I grew up there. Cleveland's got good bones. It's like the reason I like Chicago so much is because Chicago is like Cleveland if they had done it right. I'm from Rochester, New York, which also has a pretty bad reputation. So I feel like I'm standing in solidarity with you. And so anyone from Cleveland, we love you. And I hope you can take it all with a grain of salt today.

And I want to say, you know, as a person didn't grow up in Cleveland, but has visited there, I think it is a great town. And it actually, you know what? I think it benefits from its somewhat questionable reputation. You know, I mean, it's been called the mistake on the lake. When you get to Cleveland and you realize that like there's indoor plumbing.

So count me as a big fan of Cleveland. So let's set the helium-filled stage for this city-sized flop. In the 1970s, Cleveland, Ohio was notorious for being one of the worst American cities. Pollution was off the charts. Cleveland's two rivers were declared dead or dying. With the steel industry's descent, jobs were scarce. The remaining steel mills on the Cuyahoga River were manned by people terrified of falling in. Touch the water and you'd have to go to the hospital. And to find out why, let's read from an interview in Smithsonian Magazine. So, why, let's read from an interview in Smithsonian Magazine. So, Luke, would you mind reading this quote? The water was nearly always covered in oil slicks, and it bubbled like a deadly stew. Sometimes rats floated by, their corpses so bloated they were practically the size of dogs.

It was disturbing, but it was also just one of the realities of the city. You know, there's a lot of talk about how dirty the water is in Cleveland, or certainly was in the 1970s and into the 1980s. I have a little twist on that, which I think is historically accurate, and I don't care if it's not. Instead of thinking of Cleveland as the city that set its river on fire, how about we think of it as the city that inspired the EPA? Ah, like that's such a good twist to that same narrative. Yeah, I thought the same thing. So all of this makes for quite the tough sell for Cleveland tourism. So let's play a game. Here are the rules to this game. You've just landed a gig on the Cleveland Tourism Board,

and potential tourists have some questions for you before they visit. Be honest with them. All right. Okay. How many times did the Cuyahoga River catch fire from the end of the Civil War all the way up to 1970? from the end of the Civil War all the way up to 1970? Was it A, once, B, twice, C, thrice, or D, over 10 times? I feel like this is a trick question.

I only knew about the one, I think. That's all they teach us in the Cleveland education system. What do you think, Luke? Should we? Gosh, I think, I don't know if humor really enters this, but I do think the funniest answer would be more than 10. Not funny for the people living in Cleveland at the time, but just for the sake of, you know, being entertaining. I'm going to say more than 10.

I'll ride along. Ding, ding, ding. It was actually at least a dozen times that we know of. Whoa. When you have oil slicks and sparks flying around, you get fire. It was actually at least a dozen times that we know of. Whoa. When you have oil slicks and sparks flying around, you get fire. But to be fair, post-industrial revolution cities from Baltimore all the way to Buffalo had flaming rivers of their own. So you guys already knew about Cleveland's nickname of the mistake on the lake.

So let's skip to our last question. Before you ask this question, can I just point out here, and I don't know if this is really relevant to your listeners, but I just realized I'm literally drinking out of a mug that says, visit Cleveland, you're going to love it. I didn't even do this on purpose, Misha. The thing is the other coffee mug he likes to use says, Cleveland, the river caught on fire over 10 times, which would have been really a more appropriate cup for this particular episode of the show. I got a mug that said, so we lit the river on fire once. What's the big deal? Now I need a new mug. Get off my back. Well, this next question actually would become a great mug. So 70s Cleveland had another more sordid nickname.

What was it? Was it A, the big Sleazy, B, Bodymore Murderland, C, Bomb City USA, or D, Hollywood for Ugly People? Or E, Skeeveland, which I feel like was a real missed opportunity. I have not heard of any of those. And I'd also like to point out that if I'm understanding this correctly, only one of those is right, which means you made up three of those, Misha. No, no, no. And that's rude. I lived in one of those.

We can eliminate one, Andrew. Oh, really? I lived in Washington, D.C., a.k.a. Hollywood for Ugly People. So let's eliminate that from the list. Okay. And now we're down to, I think, three possibilities, right? Yeah. And I believe the other one might be from The Wire.

Can we take Baltimore Murderland off the list? Okay. So we're left with The Big Sleazy or Bomb City, USA. I would move to Bomb City, USA. I mean, that sounds like a very fun place, honestly. I'm going to say Sleazy, Luke. I'm going to say sleazy, Luke. I'm going to go with you, Andrew. Yeah.

No. It was Hollywood for ugly people. What the hell? No, the big sleazy was actually the nickname for New Orleans. Oh, sure. Oh, right. Of course. Bodymore Murderland was for Baltimore.

Hollywood for ugly people, Washington, D.C. The answer is Bomb City, USA. And that's because mob-related assassinations were frequent. Between 1976 and 1977, there were 37 bombings in Cuyahoga County. Whoa. Whoa. I had no idea. I love how all those other nicknames for cities indicate a real

sense of danger. And then one of them is just like, you might be looking at an ugly person at brunch. I think the stakes are much lower in one of those places. Well, to their credit, the people of Cleveland approved a 1968 law to clean up the river and raised $100 million in bonds to do it. Whoa. Yeah, pretty good. However, since the turn of the 20th century, Cleveland has found itself in an unfair competition with other major cities. Bad weather, bad sports team, and corruption all stacked the deck against it. But one point of pride for Cleveland is its terminal tower.

It was once the tallest building in the world, outside of New York City. Fairly large asterisk, Misha. I didn't know they had tall buildings there. It eventually was downgraded to the tallest building in North America America outside of New York City, but who cares about that place? Not to worry, it could still claim to be the tallest between New York City and Chicago, until it ended up as the second tallest building in Ohio. Look, it's not like Cleveland has a Napoleon building complex or anything. The important thing is, it was tall. But also, let's not sleep on the fact that it's called the terminal tower. Like there's like Cleveland just has this sort of like,

like foot in mouth disease on everything they do. Which you can get from drinking from the river. So it's 1986 and Cleveland is trying very hard to put on a brave face and rebrand. The city's becoming cleaner and safer. The downtown public square has been revitalized and gussied up. Cleveland also successfully bid to be the home of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. So, has the old harsh marsh won you over yet? Are we moving back there, Andrew?

The harsh marsh won you over yet? Are we moving back there, Andrew? The harsh marsh. You know, I've never even been to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and it was built while I was there. I just have never been able to kind of get excited about talking in hushed tones about John Lennon's report cards. Like, no offense to John Lennon or his educational experience, but the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum has never seemed like a great draw for me. Well, what Cleveland needs now

is to wrap these improvements up with a fancy big bow, a big flashy gimmick. Enter George Frazier. He's a well-meaning philanthropist who grew up in foster care, a real bootstrap sort of guy on a mission to help underserved communities. He runs marketing and communications for Cleveland's United Way, and he's been looking to make a grand gesture to celebrate the new and improved Cleveland. The hope is to raise money, encourage students to become future contributors, and attract more people to the city. He just needs a good idea. So just a few months prior, Disneyland in California pulled off an impressive celebration for their 30th anniversary. The park set a Guinness World Record by releasing 1.2 million balloons into the sky.

So to put Cleveland on the map, George decides to outdo Disney to break their record. George proposes the city release two million balloons. He very originally calls the stunt Balloon Fest. How do you blow up two million balloons? Like, what are just the logistics of that? Well, we'll get into that. Okay. Because I mean, that's when you would lose me. Because what I feel like would happen is they would be trying to make me help with that, and I would not be interested. I've blown up for my daughter's birthday, like eight balloons. And I told her the maximum number we're celebrating of your years on earth are eight, because I don't want to deal with any more balloons than that. Two million, it sounds like a lot.

Well, everyone who's anyone is on board with this plan. All of the powerful people of Cleveland think this will rock. George and the team envision this thing being a magical event that inspires young people to go into philanthropy. Nothing wrong with that. Kids will have to raise money and volunteer to make this happen, learning how to be good citizens and create something beautiful. Now, believe it or not, extravagant balloon show person is a job. And they find the best one. That's not what they told me at the amusement park.

I believe the words they used were cease and desist. Well, in 1986, America's go-to balloon guy is Treb Heining, who's responsible for all of Disneyland's air-filled latex magic. He makes gorgeous balloon sculptures for all of Disney's park openings and special occasions. Can I ask you both a question? And I need you guys to answer this honestly, no matter how it makes me feel. Are either one of you a tiny bit afraid of balloons? No. No. No, I'm going to be honest. No, me neither. No, me neither, guys. No. You mean just regular ass balloons, Andrew? Or do you mean like a balloon that's in some kind

of a particular shape? Because if you've been in the floral department of a grocery store lately, they have really gotten into some funky shapes with the balloons. Yeah, no, I'm talking about regular ass balloons. I just, the potential for them to pop on me, and I want to be clear, like balloons have popped around me before and nothing bad has happened to me. But to me, they always pose this threat of popping on me. I'm also very afraid of filling up the air in my tires in my car. That's a true story as well. That one, I'm with you on that one.

You're describing globophobia, an extreme overwhelming and irrational fear of balloons. Well, I didn't say it was irrational. They could pop on me. So in 1986, George Frazier gets a huge win. Treb agrees to make Cleveland look like a magical kingdom. So the logistics team get into place. The city gets pumped up. But as is the case with all things Cleveland, Balloon Fest organization is popping off.

Oh my goodness. Really? Did that run through the editorial process, Misha? And it made it onto the program? So many people said yes. I feel like we could get an entire episode of your show dedicated to that wordplay.

So the team has six months to turn an entire city block into one giant balloon bin. Tarps are wrapped around heavy-duty scaffolding and a massive net sits on top to catch floating balloons. And when it's time

for the big spectacle, the net will be released and the balloons will all simultaneously and majestically soar away. Two million helium-filled balloons. As you like to say on this program, what could possibly go wrong? So let's say you're in Cleveland in 86. Are you into this? Like how many balloons would you have sponsored? Because it's $2 per balloon.

Listen, I know where this story goes and I don't want to be on the wrong side of history, but if I'm being honest with you, it's 1986 and I'm, what, 10 years old and I'm in downtown Cleveland. I'm begging my parents to let me buy a handful of these balloons. Sure. I agree with you. But 2 million balloons need a lot of helium. So Cleveland orders three tractor trailers full of helium from Amarillo, Texas. How do the tractor trailers even drive up the highway without floating away? Just floating away. I feel like that is a serious hazard of that job. Well, I'm not sure if everyone knows this, but helium leaks through latex. That's how I got my first kid.

Thanks a lot, Trojan. Thanks a lot, Trojan. So the shelf life of an inflated balloon is only a few hours. If you want to release millions of balloons, you have to have thousands of people blowing them up. Not only that, they need to be quick enough so that the balloons they've already inflated don't have time to lose their lift. So, gentlemen, put on your event manager hats and guess how many people need to blow up these balloons. How much did they project they needed in an ideal world? Balloon filler uppers.

I mean, two million balloons divide by, carry the one, let me see. I think you need a thousand people at a minimum, and that's probably low. I was going to go with 500. Wow. Okay. All right. Well, Balloon Fest needed more than 2,500 volunteers.

Okay. This is why my Balloon Fest has gone so poorly. I think I did the math, and it was like 800 balloons per person if they got 2,500. And that's a lot. That's a hundred times more than your daughter's birthday party. Well, exactly. Well, thousands of kids

from schools across Cleveland are recruited. Oh, good. Let's have children do it. Yeah. Children that are promised that they'll be part of a historic event, which is true, just not in the way that they meant.

So the night before the big day, the teenagers are tirelessly filling up balloons. But as you can imagine, tying off a bunch of balloons has painful consequences. Right? The balloon fillers have to wear tape wrapped around their fingers to prevent blisters. And I saw a video of this. They had tape on like all 10 digits. Everything was going well, but there was one problem. What do you think that problem could be?

They ran out of balloons. They only ordered like 80 balloons. It was the weather. So Cleveland is known for some nasty weather because they're across from Canada on Lake Erie where moisture from the water and dry, cold air mix together. Their storms can be unforgiving. I feel like we're low-key trying to blame Canada for this already, just in the way that sentence was constructed. You're on to me. So we're talking freezing temps, tornadoes, rain, blizzards, anything's possible.

And the event manager gets a warning from Cleveland's airport, which has Doppler radar, that a really bad storm is about to roar through the city. The volunteers and organizers stop working and they shelter inside. The incoming storm is so bad, there's going to be a squall. inside. The incoming storm is so bad, there's going to be a squall. There are tree-snapping winds of 40 to 60 miles per hour and downpours that flood streets. The squall creates a microburst tornado and tears up the big floating balloon bin, putting holes in the tarps and the net. And the balloons escape through holes and the structure starts to break down. If you were working on Balloon Fest and we were losing balloons and the balloons escape through holes and the structure starts to break down. If you were working on Balloon Fest

and we were losing balloons and the structure is breaking down, what would you do? Lie. As far as the local Cleveland News knows, we've retained every single balloon. We're fine. Ask the guy from Disney.

We're good. Well, the United Way organizers meet up and they decide to call off the event. Treb, the balloon whiz, he agrees. It's the first event he's ever had to cancel, so all those months of planning are lost. But did the checks clear, though? I mean, he's already got his money. But wait, to the surprise of the other organizers, the tarp guy says he actually brought extra tarps. You know, for emergencies,

we are in Cleveland after all. So the event manager climbs up and starts weaving the netting by hand to repair the holes, and the structural engineer thinks the balloon bin will hold. The organizers decide it's okay to keep the event going. We're back on.

He's climbing on like an undulating caterpillar of two million balloons to like lash the net down and like repair the holes. Yeah, would you risk your life so that a balloon stunt could go forward? Yes, I would. If it involved climbing on an undulating caterpillar of balloons, that seems like a really fun thing. If I was a kid, I would have signed up for that gig. You guys, this was Cleveland in the mid-1980s. I'm sure every safety precaution was considered. And then ignored, but initially considered. Yeah. Well, the next morning, teenagers roll out of bed and are bussed back downtown to finish the balloons. But thousands of balloons have popped or escaped during the storm. The United Way wanted to nearly double Disney's record of 1.2 million balloons and do around 2 million balloons.

But after the storm, they can only get up to 1.5 million balloons. But that's okay. They can still beat Disney. They can still win. So the Balloon Fest crew, they keep at it. And just when it seems like everything is going to work out, a call comes in from the Cleveland Airport's Doppler guy. Another storm's approaching. Ooh.

So despite the blustery weather, Clevelanders, they show up. The public square hasn't seen this many people in four decades. That's 100,000 balloon enthusiasts and proud locals. The news coverage captures the excited Clevelanders, and let's play a clip of that. The crowd is in a very festive mood. There's a lot of things going on. They are so excited. So am I. I'm so excited. In fact, I forgot to bring my camera. Hopefully someone's got some good pictures. I'm so excited. I just fell off the stage here.

I'm so excited. I'm bleeding out through my hands. Are we going to talk about who those voices are? Because I recognize them immediately. What? Enlighten us. Oh, that, my friends, was Big Chuck and Little John. The famous Big Chuck and Little John?

Yes. They were like the Saturday afternoon, like kind of creature feature guys. They would introduce monster movies and have like the worst skits and sketches to introduce the movies that all made fun of Polish people. It was great. Andrew's Polish. He can say that. That's right. Big Chuck great. Andrew's Polish. He can say that. That's right. Big Chuck and Little John were institutions.

I mean, it looks like Cleveland's finally getting that good kind of attention that it's been looking for. And I want to show you a picture of this thing, all of these balloons. So if you can describe for the listeners, what are we looking at here? Wow, I've never seen that shot before. It's gorgeous, actually.

It looks like some kind of ice cream confection with like two million sprinkles on it. So this is like an aerial shot. While all the balloons are still captured in these nets above this huge, it looks like, I don't know, several block section of the city or maybe a single block section of the city. And it sort of does like the net sort of undulates.

So it looks like kind of four big bulging. Kind of rainbows. Yeah, kind of rainbows over this block. I was trying to cut you off before whatever gross thing you were about to say. Every adjective I said got worse. Why did you say veiny? That was unnecessary. Thank you for saving me.

So, behind the scenes, the organizers deal with the prospect of another imminent squall. It's supposed to show up exactly when the balloons go up, 2 p.m. So they decide they better get things moving, and they just beat the storm's arrival by a few minutes. and they just beat the storm's arrival by a few minutes. The ripcords are cut, the net is detached, and let's watch a clip of that moment. Five, four, three, two, one. Here they go.

Okay, they're cutting the nets. So far, so good. It looks like billowing smoke to me. It does. It looks like a volcanic eruption, but in a good way. But I'm already seeing that it looks like what goes up is coming down way too soon. Like, it was this kind of beautiful eruption of balloons, which clearly some of them are already returning to Earth. Well, it starts off looking beautiful, and you can sort of still see some of the color of the balloons,

but the problem is as you see these images of this just massive cloud of balloons going up, it starts to look a bit like a terrorist situation because, I mean... Some sort of locust plague. Yes, because it turns it into a big brown mass of smoke curling up around the terminal tower. Blocking the sun. Blocking the sun.

Exactly. Well, actually, everything worked out perfectly and nothing went wrong. So thanks for joining me on this episode of The Big Flop. All right. Oh, it's been a pleasure. Why don't we get invited to the one where everything worked out? That's Cleveland for you. Yeah.

The success on the lake. Yes. That's Cleveland for you. The success on the lake. So the 100,000 people gathered in the square are in awe of this massive cloud of colorful spheres. The expectation is that the helium-filled balloons will stay in the air for a bit, first as a group, and then they'll elegantly disperse. After they separate, they'll deflate and disintegrate in their own time. But something goes horribly wrong.

I believe the term you're looking for is horribly wronger. Yeah. Out of curiosity, have either of you ever brought a balloon to a winter party? I've never been invited to a winter party. This is the first I'm hearing of this. I'm retroactively sad. And honestly, Misha, it's hurtful that you've been holding out on us. Well, helium contracts in cold weather.

It becomes denser, so it's just not as good at making things flow. That nasty storm that everybody was trying to avoid, it turns out the wind wasn't the thing they needed to be worried about. It was the cold. The drop in temperature pushes the balloons

back down to the ground. While the massive amoeba-looking thing made up of one and a half million balloons descends upon Cleveland. Now, once again, poor Cleveland, they can't catch a break. The Balloon Fest celebration falls flat. While the cold air keeps the balloons low to the ground,

the high wind pushes them across the downtown area in one big clump. So what kind of balloon-related havoc followed? A string of Arabian horses on a woman's property get spooked by the balloons, and they hurt themselves in the chaos. First of all, there was an Arabian horse farm like at 4th and Euclid. This seems very close. How did I do on guessing a location in Cleveland, Andrew? That's pretty good.

Is Euclid a street? Euclid Ave is a street. I don't know if it crosses 4th, but yeah, I was impressed. Please leave that in, editors of the program. I could really use a win here. But that does seem, I'm surprised that the balloons, which were being released in downtown, intersected with the Arabian horse farm,

which seems like it'd be kind of a ways away. Yeah. So, the airport has to shut down temporarily, and there are at least 10 car collisions. It's unclear whether they're caused by the balloons or just people staring at the balloons instead of the road. That's another safety concern that I'll bet you did not end up on anybody's clipboard

as they were planning this. Like, what about just the distraction of all of these balloons for everybody who's on the highway? Yeah. The balloons, once on the ground, deflated and sat there. Back in 1986, people generally thought that natural latex was biodegradable and therefore okay to throw around everywhere. People are still coughing up pieces of the balloon fest in 2024. They said the same thing about styrofoam at the time as well. Now we did get an answer. Euclid and 4th is where the Cleveland

Visitor Center is. Wow. So I think Luke is being paid by Cleveland to make this plug. I'm in the pocket of Big Cleve. I'm here to try to head off any and all conversations that reflect poorly on the city of Cleveland, Ohio. And so far

so good. I mean, even if it was only one and a half million balloons, it's so much balloon kind of like, you know, leftovers and waste to have just like hanging around in a city. You're right on the money because environmentalists were extremely upset about how many balloons ended up in the water, especially on the Canadian side. Take that.

Yeah, the balloons, they disappear from Cleveland's waters a few days after the spectacle, but Canadians later have to clean up a mysterious balloon debris washing up on their beaches. Well, then maybe somebody should have had better weather to send down to Cleveland on balloon day. On balloon day. Now, tragically, two fishermen have gone missing

in the storm the night before Balloon Fest. The next day, while the Coast Guard is still looking for them, balloons start to fall into and around the lake. The Coast Guard says it's like trying to navigate through an asteroid field. You know, normally they'd look for life vests, inflated, brightly colored, bobbing up and down, but now it's impossible. Experts have said that the fishermen likely passed away before Balloon Fest started,

but since their bodies had not yet been found, the balloons complicated the search. You know, I'd heard of this story. I don't remember it from my youth, but I'd heard people tell it before. And I maybe as a proud Clevelander would try to like kind of defend Cleveland and say, I don't know, man, like that, that seems like a lot to put on balloon day. But then I saw footage that was shot from boat level on Lake Erie in the days after this. And I understood because if you think about the size of a balloon, it's not that different than the size of a human head. And as you were looking out across at eye level at the water, it just looked like you had a million swimmers bobbing around in the water. It would be impossible

to find anybody out there. And why they drew hair on so many of those balloons. And mustaches. I mean, in retrospect, that made it worse. Now, there were a few consequences. Two big lawsuits came out of Balloon Fest. The family of the two men who drowned sued United Way

for $3.2 million. They settled without admitting any wrongdoing. Another $100,000 lawsuit came from the owner of those prized Arabian horses that were spooked by the balloons. That suit was also settled for an undisclosed amount. And both George Frazier and Treb Heining were never held responsible for any negligence or wrongdoing. any negligence or wrongdoing. In the end, the student volunteers somehow only raised $220,000

while the event cost $500,000. Oh, no. So, in addition to everything else, it actually lost money. Lost money. Asked whether they had plans for another stunt to top this one, a representative from United Way said,

quote, we would not do a balloon launch ever again. I want to take that reporter aside who was at that press conference and I assume they had a fedora that said press, like had a little piece of paper. Say, got any other big plans? Like, give it a couple days, dude.

You guys are going to love Knife Fest 1987. We figured if we throw enough knives in the air, it'll pop the balloons. Well, cheer up, Cleveland. The city did break the record for the world's largest balloon release, and they were listed in the 1988 Guinness Book of World Records. But Guinness abolished the category after that year. That's great. That means no one else can ever set the record. Cleveland is technically the permanent record holder. Wow, all right.

Way to go, Cleveland. Yeah. Mr. Frazier had hoped Balloon Fest would entice people to move to Cleveland, but the city population kept on sliding down for the following two decades. Andrew, because you're from there, do you have any ideas of why Cleveland can't catch a break? This. This whole story. They are always—

Have you been listening, Misha? They are always the architect of their own misfortune. And there was like a campaign of anti-smoking billboards that were erected in Cleveland in the late 1990s that said, welcome to Loserville, population U. And they put them around the airport, Misha. And people were landing in Cleveland and they were seeing these signs that said, welcome to Loserville, population U. And it was supposed to be an anti-smoking thing, but it just like this. This is the story of Cleveland. They can't get out of their own way. Yeah.

Well, let's do a little where are they now? Treb is very successful. Yeah. He continued to work as a decorator for Disney and fancy clients around the world. He invented those Mickey Mouse balloons that are inside of clear balloons. No way. That's his work? Yeah.

Those things are pretty cool, actually, honestly. When I see a kid with one, I'm like, if they look away, I'm stealing that thing. They did not have that kind of stuff in the 80s when I was a kid. But he's not just into balloons. Dude loves to party, period. In the 90s, he became known as the Confetti King. He created confetti blizzards for the 1991 New Year's Eve ball drop in Times Square, and now it's a decades-long tradition. I mean, this guy loves litter. George Frazier, the director of marketing for United Way of Cleveland,

did not return to his position after the event, but he's still in philanthropy. His long list of achievements include three honorary doctorates, at least six books, a President's Lifetime Achievement Award via Barack Obama, and hundreds of other honors. Whoa. Congrats. He said Balloon Fest was his greatest success and his biggest failure. My dad once said that about me. Yeah. and his biggest failure.

My dad once said that about me. Now, here on The Big Flop, we do want to be positive people, so we like to always end on some silver linings. So are there any silver linings you can think of that came from Balloon Fest? I mean, well, look, they have the record. That's true. A record that will never be broken.

Can't take that away. It brought a ton of people down to the kind of downtown core or whatever the town square of Cleveland, something that hadn't happened previously for a while. And we prevented other cities from making such a huge mistake. That's right. Other people have learned from Cleveland's

mistakes. I mean, it didn't elevate Cleveland's profile, but it didn't hurt it either. Nobody's calling Cleveland Bomb City USA anymore. That's true. They call it Balloon City USA, which is, they call it Bad Idea Town. Well, now that you both know about Balloon Fest 86, would you consider this a baby flop,

a big flop, or a mega flop? Compared to like Chernobyl? Exactly. I'm putting it in the category of a baby flop, believe it or not. Other than, unfortunately, the loss of life, which may or may not be attributable to it. I would say baby flop because it did get the record

and it did bring Clevelanders together. And that's my ruling on this. What do you think, Andrew? What was it? Was it toddler flop? What's the middle one? No, toddler flop is a new show on Bravo. I'm going to say it's a medium flop because it's not even Cleveland's biggest mistake. So, you know, like there are definitely bigger mistakes out there.

It's like the terminal tower. It used to be Cleveland's biggest mistake. And now it's, not even the biggest mistake in Cleveland. Yeah. Well, we did also get some updates on Cleveland's current status. In 2023, WalletHub ranked Cleveland as the worst place to raise a family. No. I know. And based on factors like income, divorce rates, and emotional well-being, it ranked Cleveland as one of the least happy cities in the country. So I think Cleveland needs more balloons.

That's what I was going to say. I mean, Balloon Fest 2? Balloon Fest 2. We can make it happen. This is actually an idea that's time has come. Kind of like, you know, let's try to rehabilitate both the city's image and the image of forcing children to tie balloons until their hands are bloodied. I'm teaching some work ethic. Yeah, exactly.

Well, thank you so much to our guests, Luke Burbank and Andrew Walsh, for joining us here on The Big Flop. And thanks to all of you for listening. We'll be back next week with a flop big enough for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Milli Vanilli. Bye. Big enough for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Milli Vanilli. Bye. If you like The Big Flop, you can listen early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app

or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. The Big Flop is a production of Wondery and At Will Media, hosted by me, Misha Brown. Produced by Sequoia Thomas, Harry Huggins, and Tina Turner. Written by Anna Rubinova.

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