The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds - 158 - The Jumper - Robert Emmet Odium

Episode Date: March 9, 2016

Comedians Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds examine swimmer and jumper Robert Emmet Odlum. SOURCESTOUR DATES REDBUBBLE MERCH

When you're staying at an Airbnb you might be like me wondering could my place be an Airbnb and if it could what could it earn? You could be sitting on an Airbnb and not even know it. That in-law sweet guest house where your parents stay only part-time Airbnb it and make some money the rest of the year whether you could use a little extra money to cover some bills or for something a little more fun. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.ca slash host. Hello you're listening to the dollop. This is a bi-weekly American History

podcast. Each week I read a story from American history to my friend. Gareth Reynolds who has no idea what the topic is going to be about. Nailed it. Man we're good. That was close. Particularly me. Well it's really stumbled on podcast. Bit of a train wreck on podcast honestly. I liked it. God do you want to look who to do? I'll do one bottle. People say this is funny. Not Gary Gareth. Dave okay. Someone or something is tickling people. Is it for fun? And this is not gonna come to tickling clodcast. Okay. You are queen fakie of made-up town. All hail queen shit of Liesville. A bunch of

religious virgins go to mingle and do what? Fray. Hi Gary. No. Is he done my friend? No. August 31st. Sorry. 1851. Sorry. You said something. I just, it's mine. Okay. Robert Emmett Odom was born in Ogdensburg, New York. He was named after Irish nationalist Robert Emmett, a rebel leader who led a rebellion against the British, got captured and executed for treason. That'll show him. And then name your boy after that guy. That'll teach him. Name our boy after that dead guy. Yep. Robert had six siblings, two of them died during childhood. God it must have been so weird for most of like you know half of your siblings that just died. That's how

it was. You brought me, I mean no matter look at the pictures when you're ten like I'll remember Grace and Charles. They were fun toddlers. They should have named kids until they were 12. Yeah. That's what I would have done. I'd be like one, two, three, age your 12th birthday. You're gonna be named Larry. This year my parents gave me the name Larry for my birthday because I made it to 12 without polio. St. Lawrence County native, Robert learned to swim in the St. Lawrence River at a very young age and he was a very, very good swimmer. But then his father died in the mid-1850s so the family moved. They moved around looking

for places to settle. First they went to New Orleans, then New York City, then Boston, then Detroit, then Cleveland, and then Montreal. Then on to St. Louis where they stayed for a little bit and then they went to Cuba and then back to New Orleans. What? Cuba's a weird call. Cuba's a really weird call. That's the weird one. But all of those places are weird at this time because there's no fucking cars or planes. Yeah. They must have just taken forever. Oh my god with all the all the alive kids and then you're probably dragging the dead kids behind you. Yeah and more and more. I mean you're really putting a lot more in

peril. It's a total nightmare. Maybe they were just trying to kill kids. I hope so. And then they ended up back in New Orleans where they arrived on the same day the state of Louisiana ratified the Confederate Constitution. Finally. So shit's on. Finally. So shit's on. Good call. Robert's older brother had joined the Union Army. That's the good one. Well. His jury's still out. So the family went in search of his older brother. David. To congratulate him? I don't know. They've already been all over the fucking world. They're not gonna find the guy. You can't find anybody in that time and especially when they're in an army they're

always fucking moving around. Imagine finding someone. In that time when someone left. Imagine finding someone. Impossible. Not then. If they're gone they're gone. I mean especially in the middle of a fucking war. Hey have you seen Bob? You have to go everywhere and put up signs. It's crazy. So they went to. Missing son. They went to Illinois and Kentucky and then ended up just moving to Memphis, Tennessee. They would never see David again. Okay. I told them that's what would happen. You warned them. David served under. This is the best part. He served in the army under an alias. So he picked a different name

when he joined the army. That made it harder. Complacates matters. And he vanished after the after the battle of Shiloh. They did not know if he had died been captured or deserted. So we never get closure on our David. You know David's a mystery. It's one of the great mysteries of America. What happened to David? I like to think he opened up a little B&B. Right? Yeah. Yeah right on the river. Retired. Fuck yeah. Sort of lived like Johnny Cakes and the Sopranos. Mm-hmm. There it is. Log cabin. You got great ideas. Boyfriend. On April 4th 1864 the family's Memphis home was destroyed by Union forces to

make a firing path for artillery. Now that's a that's a total disregard of someone's house. Well and also that's why you got it. You got to check your insurance policies to see if you're covered for fire linings. For but that's when they you could while they turned on your house you could go what about to the left. Could you guys maybe just. No there's a big space over there. Use our living room. Use our living room. So they moved to Mobile, Alabama. They got deeper in it. They were like let's go farther down. Let's find crazier areas. Robert left and he left the family and got a job as a T-merchant in

Philadelphia in 1870. Sure. So he's like at this point he's like I just like I'm super into tea. The tea is my thing. And I'm gonna just dedicate my life to it. Then he moved to St. Louis and then he moved to Chicago and then in 1878 he moved to Washington DC. Well can I ask were they compulsive movers? There's an issue. Are they sharks? That I couldn't figure out. If they stopped moving do they die? They would not stop moving. I mean it must have just been insane. You'd get unpacked and they'd be like we're going to Cuba. Wouldn't that be great if this one this dollop ended up being about a moving company? That would be great. But it's not.

Okay. Union movers. So in Washington DC that's where he opened up a swimming school. I was gonna actually guess that. Robert was very interested in teaching not just swimming but safety. Water safety. Well that feels like a part of swimming in a way but okay. And to bring attention to his cause he started doing stunts. Oh well here we go. What do you mean? Here we go. He'd hold his breath underwater. Here we go. Four minutes at a time. Oh boy. He would challenge anyone to swim races. Okay. Anyone. He had like a standing like bet for like 500 bucks or whatever. Anybody he'll take on anybody

but no one would take him on because he's the fastest fucking guy. Right. And then there were the jumps. He liked to jump from bridges. No. Here we go. Are we already there? We already started. And obviously we're developing. He used the just jumping off of bridges. Well he used the jumps to spotlight two main safety issues. First he thought everyone should know how to swim and that people who were in and also that people who were in high rises when fires broke out should be able to jump to the safety of nets of firemen. So those are the two points he was trying to make by jumping off bridges. That you should know how to

swim and secondly you shouldn't be afraid to jump out of a building into a fireman's net. I'm not sure if either one need the bridge. I'm okay well we'll get there. Couldn't you just put I mean were other was he training people to jump off the bridge? Hold on now. Oh god. I mean we're about to hear about a lemming squad. The fire problem was a legitimate problem. Fires were common and Americans were building taller and taller buildings and it was very hard for the firemen to get up there and save people because ladders only went so far. Right. This is before they knew about building bigger ladders. Right. So right.

They were like well the ladders only go so far. That's right. He's actually right. Look it does stop. You're the one building buildings taller than the ladders. All right. That's why people are dying. Shorter buildings more of them. So if you jumped high up so if you were trapped high up in a building right your only option is to jump. There's no ladder option. Right. Now this led to other issues. First people were scared to jump out of a building. Why. Because it's a building. Oh. And second people at that time thought that if you jump from a building and we're plummeting down you would die because you wouldn't be able

to breathe. Right. Because you. The commonly held thought. Because the air is underwater. It's a commonly held belief. Had anyone ever jumped. Because you're because you're moving so fast now that you've jumped that you're going past the air. So literally nobody could be like no I was breathing. Look. It's a. If you are trained to think based on cartoons. Oh right. I forgot. Two things can happen. Right. You can't breathe when you're falling and secondly you can step out of a house that's been shot out of a can. Sure. Sure. Okay. You can't breathe when you're falling through the air. Okay. Makes total sense. They actually thought

falling would stop breathing. The theory had not yet been tested. Oh that may. That's what I understand. Which was obviously a problem because to test it you might die. So you can see the catch 22. Sure. So you really had to be. You really had to have some strong beliefs that. But he's jumping off bridges. So here we get ready. Robert was the man. He started jumping from higher and higher places. In 1880 he jumped from 100 feet up into the Potomac. It was not injured. But did he breathe? Well so far he's fucking he's fucking shattering people's minds. Yeah. And he kept at it gaining fame and jumping from higher

distances hitting the water feet first and never getting injured. So he's the fucking man. He's fucking blowing everyone's minds like look this shit's real. This jumping and breathing shit is real. I'm breathing. I'm swimming. I'm swimming. I'm breathing. I'm jumping. Then I'm breathing again. His swimming school became more and more popular and he became known as Professor Oedlem. Sure. In this in the census he listed himself as the Professor of Swimming. They're like well there's one of you. That's our official count. There's one swimming professor. The Professor of Swimming. His jumping and swimming school

attracted the city's elite and the fancy people. I love the fancy people. Abinah Corsett did. He taught the kids of presidents and senators and higher up military men. Come on bring the kids down. I'll teach them about the government and throw them off a bridge. The first lady Mrs. Garfield came in 1881. He added a gymnasium to the swim school and even though the swim school was very successful Robert kept jumping and doing stunts. I feel like that's maybe something you hang up. Yeah I think you wrap it up. You're the athlete who's open to car dealership. You get a successful swim school. You're good.

You don't need to keep playing football Johnny. You did your time at the University of Iowa. You're good. You're good to go. In 1881 he quote challenged any man in the United States to swim him for anywhere from 250 to 500 a side. No one took the bet. That same year he held his breath under water for three minutes and ten seconds and of course everyone thought that was amazing. Yeah that is amazing. In 1882 Robert jumped from 110 feet up on a ladder that was placed on the deck of a steamer. He splashed into the water unharmed even though he went in at an angle. Okay. All right. Eventually people

moved on. You know his time. That's so great that people are eventually like well he's jumped off of all the things we can see. Let's move on. He held his breath a number of times. He's jumped in gravity. We now know you can jump and breathe. I assume other people open up swim schools because the swim school fell in hard times. He closed it. That's it. End of the swim school. I heard the doctor of swimming put him under. Well everyone knew. And the president of swimming. He then got a job. Governor swims. He then got a job as a professor of swimming at the Hygia Hotel in Hampton, Virginia. Now this. It's getting a little sad. Before hand

was known as a lifeguard. Yeah. But he made sure the title was professor of swimming. Yeah. So he's hanging on to some shit. That's gonna be great though when they're like we have to make a professor of swimming is on duty sign. I'm sorry. What? We need we have we've we no longer we fired the lifeguard. Right. And now we don't have a lifeguard. So we just we have a professor of swimming. So we're gonna need a sign that says professor of swimming is on duty. I'm not understanding. So there's so we found a guy who jumps off of bridges. Okay. And he's the professor of swimming. Well that doesn't sound like and now he's gonna

sit in that elevated chair. Did he go to Harvard? He jumps into is swimming is swimming. Something you can get a doctor it in. No. But don't ask him any of these questions when you see him. Okay. Just make a fucking sign. Why don't we hire somebody else because what about a lifeguard that matches the sign. There birds kid down the street. He can do it. He said I want to be the next lifeguard. I'm he he is as much as a lifeguard and he is a professor. Again just make a sign. Okay. Professor of swimming is on duty. Okay. Professor of swimming must be on guard at all times. Okay. But look you're you're talking to me like I'm not the

professor of signage. Right. Sorry. A professor of signage. Yes. So and I'm off you show me a little more respect and I'm the professor of managing this hotel and that's the sign we need you to make. Also will you talk to the professors of towels and see if they can turn over some of the rooms. Yeah. You guys can tell some of the professors of sleeping here are running out of their towels. There Robert really showed off his swimming skills by swimming an 18 mile trip from old point comfort to ocean view and back. How long 18 miles fucking in the fucking water. So he's not kidding around. He is you know he's

fucking serious. He has a PhD in water. He's a good swimmer. He has a PhD in the water. He also saved the life of a 16 year old kid at the hotel who happened to be the son of former VP Schuller Colfax. Oh I really loved the Colfax administration. Right. Very good. Well yeah and then and then right after that Robert got in a malaria. On May 24th 1883 the Brooklyn Bridge opened. Finally. It was a suspension bridge that stood over 200 feet above the water. That's pretty high. Oh God. The country was very impressed with the new bridge as was Robert. Oh God. In 1885. For different reasons. Word got out that Robert was

going to try to jump off the bridge at an area that would be 130 feet above the water. His previous highest jump was 110 feet. He wouldn't be the first to want to Ronald Donaldson whose parents were assholes. Ronald Donaldson had tried while the bridge was being built in 1882 to jump off of it. He tried it three times. Once he was stopped by the wind. I assume. Okay. I mean he wasn't stopped by the wind. He pushed it out because of wind. But maybe he went up there and he tried to jump and the wind kept blowing him back. That would be so great if he jumped and was just suspended and just like blew back up onto the bridge. Oh three

times. It's just too windy. The wind won't have me today. Look I'll do it again. You guys see this right? I'm back. Sorry. The other two times the construction workers stopped him. Right. Robert was next. He went to New York and there he was interviewed by the New York Herald. Quote. If I should die I don't want the public to think that I had no good object in view. I want the Herald to explain that I have for years illustrated the fact that men do not die while falling through the air. Oh my god. And that no matter if men or women were 100 feet high on the roof of a burning building they would not hesitate

to jump into a net if they read that I had jumped 140 feet from the Brooklyn Bridge. I'm saving lives. He's already proven that you're saving lives. I think I think that run might come to an end soon. I'm just picturing five people standing on the burning building that's about 150 feet high and one guy is saying don't jump you'll die. Well the truth is though they burned it. The truth is though if it's windy there's no point in jumping you'll just blow right back into the burning fire. That is true. Which is very tough. So this is clearly for science. Yes. Also he didn't have a lot of money and was hoping

the fame would help him financially. There we go. But the New York City authorities got wind of his plan mostly because he didn't interview for the New York Herald and were set not to allow him to pull off his feet. On the morning of May 19th, 1885 Robert went to confession at the Church of the Redemptionist Fathers. Then he got together with a few buddies. They included boxer Patty Ryan, wrestler William Muldoon and actor Henry Dixie. That's quite a table. Yeah he's got a fucking he's like he's like a young Leo. Yeah this is like the Brat Pack. Robert then sent two of his friends James

Haggart and a Mr. Cluss up to the bridge to scope it out. Were they drinking? No I don't think. I didn't see any indications that they were drinking. Because if you're drunk and you go through there you can't breathe. That is true. Yeah. Beneath the bridge a tugboat full of people hung out a hundred yards away from the bridge and on board they had a rescue swimmer to help them out in case there was a problem. There were thousands of spectators in the area and a lot of cops. Every horse-drawn carriage that came to cross the bridge was accompanied by a cop on foot. So here I didn't I don't really understand so if you're

looking for a guy you know what the guy looks like would stop the carriage and question the people in the carriage but what they did was is they just walked along the side of it. Yeah see that'll stop police work. Yeah that's good detectiveing. Let the criminal emerge to you. Thank you. Don't find him. After two hours the cops thought they had Robert. They stopped a suspect and questioned him. The man said he wanted to jump and didn't think it was anyone's business to stop him. A few other officers then surrounded the carriage as it slowly moved forward. They were not going to let this man out of the carriage. They thought

they had the situation under control. Problem was that guy in the carriage was a decoy. I knew it. That was James Haggard. That fucker. Two out of yards back Robert was riding in a wagon which slowly made its way across the bridge. When it got to the desired location Robert hopped out dressed in a bright red swimsuit. Well it's good though keep the people can see it. Yeah I assume all it's amazing that his plan worked so well. Yeah like a guy in a carriage said I'm going to jump you can't stop me and then kept moving forward and again all the cops went we've got this guy says he's gonna jump and then they all clamored

around that and then a guy in a big red bathing suit jumps out. See I just don't think the guy who wants to jump off the bridge is gonna tell you. That's what I thought. Yeah but it was a very honest time. Yeah so this was the first lie. So the guy in the bright red I love that he's wearing a bright red swimsuit. Gorgeous. I'm picturing what Rodney Dangerfield wore at the end of Back to School. Yes. He walked over to the railing climbed up and got himself into the proper jumping position. The cops suddenly realized they'd stopped the wrong guy and started rushing over to Robert. The crowd went completely

silent. Robert Emmett Ullam raised a hand high above his head which he would use as a rudder to steer himself into the proper position as he hit the water. What? So he's gonna use his hand. He held up his hand like a shark fin. He's gonna use his hand like a rudder to keep himself from tilting or going in a weird way. Is he diving or jumping feet first? He's jumping feet first. Right. So his arm his arm up helps him to steer his body. All right. All right. Okay. And it's a good normal look too. It's a normal look. And then he jumped. It took him three seconds to hit the water. Oh god. The first hundred feet of the jump went great. Dave. What? That's great. And the next hundred went

greater. No. That's not right. Oh no. It's easy for the first hundred to go great. It's the last one that counts. Then he started to slant a little bit. Wait. I thought he was ruddering with his hand though. He wasn't ruddering right. It could have been the wind or he may not have been able to jump the way he wanted because of the rushing police either way. Slanting is bad. He tried to correct it with his hand up but it was too late. He did not hit the water first feet. He landed on his right side in his hip area. Water splashed 20 feet high. Oh god. Which is not a good sign. No. He went underwater and when he came up he was floating face down which is the. Which is the signal that you're

okay to survive the emergency crew. That's the signal. That's the international signal for him. He's fine. He's face down. He's face down. He's gone you guys. He's gone. He did it. His rescue guy jumped off the tugboat and swam as quickly as possible to Robert. When he reached him he put his shoulder under Robert's head and lifted it out of the water. Thousands watched while they pulled Robert's limp body out of the river. They brought him to the tugboat's galley where they started resuscitation. He stayed unconscious for a long time. Then he started to stir. He opened his eyes and asked is it all over? Did I make a good jump? So when he hit the water he became a five-year-old.

I wish that they had told him the truth that it was shit. There was a shit jump and a shit landing but they didn't. They all told him it was great. Oh great. Really terrific. Were you running with that hand? He like a boat up there. Robert then tried to sit up which turns out was a very bad idea. Blood came out of his mouth which it's not supposed to do if you know anything about the human body and then he asked am I spitting blood as more blood poured out of his mouth? Really good jump Robert. Really nailed the jump. Just can't say enough about it. His friend Robertson told him it was not blood it was just brandy.

Yeah you hit the water so hard you got a bottle of booze in your belly. It's right here in this book called science. You popped your brandy sack. Yeah you know what they say. That happens. You get hit hard enough you become booze. You're like a bourbon tap. Get some glasses. Let's celebrate the perfect jump with a glass of the brandy from his body. He's doing it. He's drink the fucking blood. Here we go a toast to our best friend and hero. Look at him go. Cheers. That's so good. The boat made its way to shore. It was a total of 35 minutes after the jump.

Oh so not a lot of time for him to sit there just puking blood. When he was taking off the boat on shore. It took another 20 minutes for an ambulance to get there. Well. They probably weren't ruddering right. By the time the ambulance arrived. Robert Emmett Odom was dead. Time of death 6 from the jump right. Yeah okay. Time of death 618 it's hard it could have been a lot of people thought it was a flu. I thought it was old age maybe. Or brandy.

Yeah it was brandying. Time of death 618 p.m. The undertaker's wagon took him to the corner. His spleen, liver and kidneys had ruptured from the impact. He had three broken ribs and many severe bruises. He also had tuberculosis. But probably not from the jump. He hit it so hard that he got T.V. Yeah he went so hard in the water he got T.V. His death was listed as due to concussion. So his brain was fucking rattled as well. I mean imagine what is.

It was a multiple rattle. If they said you died from concussion imagine what his fucking noggin looked like. If only the Will Smith doctor was around back then. Thank you. His sister Charlotte came to collect his body four days later on May 28th. She had a discussion with the corner about why his heart and liver were missing. The corner denied he had anything to do with it. That's not my I don't why would I be. There's just two IOUs sitting in his body.

I'm just the corner. I just I just did the thing I took. I'll be honest. I think they fell out in the water. They did. He hit it so hard. Parts of him popped out. He hit the water so hard that his liver and kidney fell out of his body. Thank you. So. Anyway you're a woman go away. Also do you want to buy a kidney?

People then look for someone to blame for his death. Yep. Who is our scapegoat? Mrs. Garfield that cunt. Robert's mother blamed his friend Paul Boyton who had captain the ship the tugboat ship and been the rescue diver. He he wrote her a letter denying responsibility and had it published in the New York Times. She then went to see Paul Boyton in New York but was met instead by a lawyer and a judge who told her she should avoid slandering Boyton. Robert's mother then claimed Boyton had letters that had been that had he had destroyed

in which he pushed Robert to come and make the jump. She eventually wrote a biography about Robert titled The Life and Adventures of Professor Robert Emmett Odlem containing an account of his splendid natatorium in the national capital. So the whole front was just words. They didn't know how to. Well the the front of the book is a chapter of the book. They didn't know how to make titles.

It's a really kind of catchy title. It's one of the worst things about this time period is the extensive titles of books. I mean I guess you had time to sit around and look at the books of titles. Yeah there was like 90 books. Yeah you profess you like it's not like you were you were you know the back then you fucking hung around your town. You often didn't go anywhere. So they were like two stores and a right a donkey like that's

his cops his friends fingers pointed everywhere except of course at the guy who had left to his death. Everyone said he was brave kind caring man and that his jump was for science or whatever. Now people knew that if you jump from a high bridge you wouldn't die from falling through the air but instead when you hit the bottom. But does it doesn't isn't that in this time think about how crazy everybody is. How there has to be people who are like I told you you can't breathe. Yes of course they were. I mean even if he was like blood you could easily blame that on not breathing on the way down.

Of course of course there were those people and they were fucking tons of them. See so you can't breathe when going through the air. He is the first man who jumped from the Brooklyn bridge but he's not the first man who jumped and lived that guy happened later. There was a guy next to said he did it but it is apparently a lie. But that's a stunt and it's another guy actually did it. That's a risky move anyway. What you know saying you did it saying you did it.

That's a dangerous start. I agree anyway that's that's the story of Professor Robert Emmett Olam. Well swimmer the Professor of the Water. Swimmer pretty pretty bold move. Right. Yeah so yeah anyway. You can please if you enjoy our podcast please leave a review on iTunes that helps us out.

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