The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds - 178 - The Bunion Derby

Episode Date: June 3, 2016

Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds examine one of the last outrageous challenges of the 1920's - The Bunion Derby. SOURCESTOUR DATES REDBUBBLE MERCH

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Each week I read a story to my friend. Gareth Reynolds who has no idea what the topic is going to be about. And the stories from American history. And I forgot that part. Oh. So I put it in later. I think you said it. No. Geez. No I didn't. How did I not notice? My attention when I listen back because we're working on the book and when I'll listen back to episodes sometimes it's very I'll hear myself completely miss something. Yeah. And I'm like you're such an idiot. That happens all the time. So people that's why. We both missed I mean you missed up that's life. You're thinking about something else. And you also think

you're trying to it's you're you're thinking of jokes if you know so yeah you're the you're there are times where I'll be like oh shit with his mom and you're like no his wife and I'm like oh even more oh shit. Yeah but you're like the clowny part of the show so people don't expect you to call me. Call me George Clowney. God do you want to look who to do? I'll do one bottle. People say this is funny. Not Gary Gareth. Steve okay. Someone or something is tickling people. Is it for fun? And this is not going to become a tickly podcast. Okay. You are queen fakie of made-up town. All hell 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. So this podcast is brought to you by our subscribers on Patreon. If you'd like to subscribe to the podcast go over to Patreon. Can't get a buck or something a month. What's a buck a month for eight shows? That's 45 cents. For the price of a cup of coffee. Right. You can feed Dave and I all month long. I just want some grain. If we can irrigate our water. Graaaain. 1928. I'd rather be then. The roaring 20s had reached a fever pitch. Everything was going great. The country was riding high on an economic boom that led to a time of outrageousness. It isn't going where you think you are. Okay. This is just a

I mean I could have but. Well I was just gonna say because we're paralleling ourselves. A little bit. I stepped back from the parallels. They'll be back next week. It was a time of massive inequality and newspapers were filled with stories of the rich and famous. Prohibition had led to a rise of criminals who mingled with the wealthy in speakeasies. Communists and socialists had been on the end of harassment since the beginning of the decade. They were attempts by workers to organize but they were met with violence and death. Strikes and labor disputes led to riots. Nativism was back again and the laws

that came with it. The Ku Klux Klan was working its magic. Yeah. Race riots. They are wizards. They are wizards. Wait. Did a sporting event just start in the back of your house? Are you recording? The European World Cup? No. I'm I. No. What? It's not the World Cup. The European Championship. No. I'm not. Can we get that? I also I also don't want the score ruined. Wow. My neighbor was watching. Jose just gave a hiss. Did he? Yeah. He was totally not down with whether he's like soccer. Yeah. Yeah. He doesn't like soccer. He thinks it should be called football. I get it. The Ku Klux Klan was working its magic. Race

riots in Oklahoma and Florida resulted in the deaths of thousands and then there were the endless endurance tests and strange stunts. Of what? It was a time of strange stunts. Oh, just the time in general was mixed. Yeah. Okay. They were marathon dances. Six day bike races. Barnstorming. You know, barnstorming is when you stand on the on the wings of a plane. Oh, geez. Well, that's something different. Transatlantic flights. Yeah. Continental flights. All that stuff. But this is all about to come to an end with the stock market crash and the Great Depression. Before it came, though, there was going to be one final crazy race.

All right. And we're in. Charles C. Pyle was an Illinois theater owner and sports agent. Okay. He represented football star Red Grange, known as the Galloping Ghost. Sure, we all remember the Galloping Ghost. You couldn't get him because he was a ghost. Yeah. No one could tackle him. Yep. And he galloped. Yeah. And he also represented several of the best tennis players. And in 1927, he came up with the idea of a trans America foot race. It was to go from Los Angeles to Chicago to New York, a total of 3455 miles all by foot. Oh my God. What? That's very long. It's a very long driving. It seems insurmountable. When announced, the

media immediately nicknamed it the Bunyan Derby for all the Bunyans the runners would get. Oh my God. Is he mad? Who knows? It's a work in progress. We're not borrowing sugar. Okay. The runners then became known as the Bunyaniers. So they. All right. Before they even started running, before they even picked runners, they've got a nickname. This is before Band-Aids. Way before Band-Aids. Or people knew to wear two layers. If you ran back then, you would get a bunion. Yeah, apparently they thought. Yeah. Pile advertised it in newspapers across the United States saying he would quote feed and house

any man bold enough to take up the challenge of racing across America. Okay. The race would take place over 84 days and only men were allowed to enter. That's standard. That's standard fare. Yeah. That makes sense. A prominent medical expert named Dr. K. H. Begg said the race would take five to ten years off each runner's life. So he's just that's just. Again, like listening to like what doctors. I mean what doctor is. He's taking a stab at it. But that's a crazy. I mean, that's just a crazy thing to think. That's not. I mean, maybe it would. Five to ten years off your life. Long, long race. That's crazy. Well, I

would I would think it couldn't be good for your good for you. But five, ten years, ten years. Well, why don't you listen to how the race went? They better be dying. Oh God. They would be running an average of 40 miles a day. The shortest day was 17 miles. The longest was 74.6 miles. That's not a day. Can you run at 74.6 miles in a day? I'm pretty sure. It's just fucking hustle, bro. Yeah. If I do it right. If I have my two layers. The runner with the least cumulative elapsed time would get twenty five thousand dollars. The guy in fourth would get twenty five hundred second and third somewhere in between and the five to ten

runners would get a thousand dollars each. And then eleven would want to kill himself. Eleven got nothing. No! I just know. The average US family lived on two thousand dollars a year back then. Wow. That's crazy. Yeah. The way it would work is timers would log each runner's daily time and add it to the cumulative total and the one with the least time at the end of the race would win. Right. So each day. Yeah. Yep. You're just adding. Adding. All they had to do was pay a twenty five dollar entry fee and put down a hundred dollar deposit. Deposit. Well, they would get back at the end of the race. What is the deposit for? Well, just

in case. He needed to, you know, do stuff. Excuse me. If there was a thing that had to like the rug. If you if you messed up the rugs or the rugs on the marathon. Or if you know you need to repaint the walls or whatever of the world. So they had to put down a deposit. Did he say a hundred dollars because he's thinking people are going to die? I think he's thinking, you know, he's investing a lot of time and money into this. And if everyone drops out, then he won't have a race. Yeah. Well, sorry, bud. You came up with a bad idea. Well, then, you know, put down your deposit. I mean, look, you got to pay to play, baby. I don't think

that's the way this was. Also, what did he really do a lot? I mean, he was just like, run to Chicago. No, it's an event. He's a producer of an event. The race was to first run from LA to Chicago along Route 66, which at this point was only paved along 800 miles. The rest about 1600 miles was basically dirt with potholes and tons of washouts from storms. A radio station was going to put out daily reports on the race. Support teams, cars for the press and a mobile shoe repair shop were to be provided by Pyle. Did the KKK hate races? Well, that must be a slippery slope for them. I mean, they can't love races. Exactly. The

racers were going to sleep in tents and food was to be served buffet style at the checkpoint each day. All participants had to sleep in tents and they'd get, it would be like a, you know, two meals a day, I guess, morning and night. That's how it worked. Okay. Pyle planned to make this an event. At the end of each day, he would set up a carnival for local spectators. So he's making events within events. Right. Okay. It's like Lollapalooza. This is the second stage. It's event seption. So at the end of each day, they finish and then there'd be a carnival. He's like Billy Madison. And then local spectators from the local towns nearby

would come and hang out and to get this wonderful carnival as the town would have to pay the marathon to stop there. That is a racket. Wow. Yeah. And they think it would be the opposite. Right? Yeah. And the runners were told they would be able to make money by mingling with the locals at these carnivals and selling programs as well as their autographs. Your autograph? Oh man. I'm never going to forget the time I met one guy who tried to run across the world. Hey, Jose. He's allowed that. Oh, he's allowed that. Good work, buddy. He knows.

He's allowed to call that one. What are you looking at me for? He's a boy. He's a prairie dog. Atta girl. 199 men signed up. Okay. Wow. Most left behind upset wives and families to partake in the race. Surely. I mean, that like... Who? Who? Anywhere would be like, that's a good idea, Johnny. Oh, that's great, hun. Yeah. That's perfect. Okay. Yeah. I'll see you in a few months. All right. I'll see you in a year. With a kiss. Thanks for leaving your job. I'll see you in a year. No, you have fun on your race. Have fun.

Like you said, you can make some scratch when you're on the road selling your autograph on pamphlets at a carnival. Because last week you were a mechanic. Right? So why wouldn't people want your autograph? This is perfect. Yeah. Everyone will remember Larry the Deadbeat. Andy Payne's father, an Oklahoma farmer, called it, quote, not even good foolishness. Fair. Irish immigrant Mike Joyce left his job and wife and wife with their four kids and took his savings with him. I think he might have just been leaving his family. I think there's a lot of guys that were like, I don't want to do this. You're too fat to race. Anyway, I'm going to pack everything.

Okay. I'm taking the money and the, you know, I'm going to take these chairs. Yeah, but this, you keep the kids, I'll take the chairs and the money and then I'm going to go run this marathon. How many guys said they were running in the marathon and then just went left? Left, many. 195? Most of the guys were blue collar workers from factories or shipyards and not many of them had any marathon experience. Good. I mean, that, you know, that is, that's where you should start from. You don't need to be experienced in this to make it work. That's right. You figure it out when you're falling in a pothole near a carnival stop. It's America and in America, any man can do anything. Exactly. And anybody who says

that we can't do it, they're idiots. Thank you. And foreign. Pyle did manage to recruit a few international stars. Okay. The favorite was Arthur Newton. Oh, I'll never forget. The new the newt, a 44 year old Englishman. He held all amateur running records between 29 and 100 miles. Okay. The San Jose Mercury News reported that he quote, smoked regularly and said he had more shuffling than a running style. I've got more shuffling than a running style developed during his 200 mile weeks. The man runs slowly on his heels. So it sounds more like he's walking. Sounds like a Monty Python character. Just smoking and walking on his heels. Arthur, don't mind the shuffle. I'm in a race.

So I'm on a long race. Here I go. Here I am. Stop for a quick bag. You're just walking around the backyard. Oh, it's a race. Try to finish before I'm just gonna sit here and watch. Well, you're not going to win with that attitude. Mind if I have a fag. And there were five African American runners might be the most shocking thing you've said the whole time, which was not the norm. I'm sure that that was as we know from past dollars whites did not believe blacks should be competing against them in athletics. Yeah, it was believed blacks couldn't run as far and were not nearly as athletic as whites. It is it is so amazing. Okay, also, this was a very high time for popularity for the Ku Klux Klan.

So if we're talking about seeing an intersection up ahead, it seems that if the KKK didn't like black people and they found out about black people running, that could be problematic. Do you? Interesting. Do you see what I'm saying? Nope. On March 4, 1928, although it would be hilarious to watch a bunch of dudes in their robes have to try to catch black guys running faster than that. Really fast black guys. Yeah. Guys in robes. Yeah, that'd be the best thing. That would just be like a great just so sweaty. Just be a whole movie. We need a lighter uniform. And and like and like a skirt. Like a yeah, something short. Yeah, something revealing like like the Roman gladiators. Look, guys,

if we're going to be a bunch of guys wearing big tipped dresses, why don't we make them short and cute? Maybe some ruffles, you know what I mean? Maybe cut the sleeves up a little bit, show a little arm. Yeah, keep the people guessing. Here you go. Maybe a little lipstick revealed. When do we start using girl here in the Klan? Huh? I'm just saying we could be beautiful. Right now our outfits are just okay. Yeah, but they could be great, great, great. Man, I did not realize how blue your eyes are. Yeah. Well, hi. Hi. You ever fucked a dragon? Yes. Well, you've got to get another one. Sunday, March 4th, 1928, they took off from Legion, Ascot, Speedway, Los Angeles,

an estimated 500,000 people lying the street that it. Okay. I mean, people, you just had nothing to do before the first leg they ran TV invented. Oh, it came later. No, actually, it was later. 30s. Yeah, 40s, maybe. I don't know, we'll have to look that up. I'm excited. For the first leg, they ran in heavy traffic. Normal. And when they arrived at that night's checkpoint, they were not feeling well from all the exhaust. They were exhausted. A quote, sinewy 40 year old Finn won the first day. Okay. Okay. Sinewy. Sinewy. A Finn. Spellcheck. The noise from the carnival that night kept most of them awake in their tents. So they've just run 70 miles. They just basically ran

through a tailpipe through a tailpipe. They're exhausted. They just want to sleep and then fuck it as a carnival carnival going. Hey guys, don't rest up. Hand out those pamphlets. Sell your autographs. The next morning, they discovered the showers were not well hidden from the public. Okay. Just a piece of canvas surrounded it and there was no place to dress or undress. The show the spectators like we're still here. Watch that deck. The showers were also surrounded by mud. Okay, which is a little counterproductive. The second day was a 34 mile run in a pretty decent rain. This caused a lot of runners to get blisters. This is the second day. Yep. It's a bad start. There were not enough doctors to treat

everyone's blisters hurt feet. Right. The runners had their shoals there. So the runners had to wait in their wet beds under their leaking tents for hours. Sorry, is this the civil war? Dear Martha, the marathon's not treating me well. Seems like the North will prevail. They cut off Jimmy's leg today. I can still run. One man quit the race. I'll just hop a little like Arthur the shuffle. You're done. Sorry. Sorry. I'm done. One man quit the race. He had an interesting excuse. He said that in his state, they only allowed deer to be shot to per person and he already uses allotment earlier in the year. So he was out of shape. He ate all his deer before and he had he wasn't in deer shape.

Sorry. He quit. His excuse again is that shot is deer too early. And if he'd shot him later, he could be carrying some deer with him and he could chew on that. But now he's hungry. And he also came not in deer shape. I'm going to I'm going to in the winter time, Bobby is in good health and can go for many runs because he is full of deer. But when the spring and summer months come, Bobby is not full of deer. Bobby can't run. Bobby quit. I'm just gonna I'm just gonna suggest we move on. Okay. By the end of the third day, many of the runners were limping. They were now down to 183. How many days are we estimating this will take? 84. Halfway there, kind of. They were now down to 183 guys.

This is feels unsustainable. This was the day they ran over the mountainous Cajun Pass, Cajun, you know, up over the grapevine, King Kong, King Kong Pass, getting out of the L.A. Basin. They were given two jam sandwiches, a cup of coffee and a small orange. Can't give him a real orange. This was far enough for a man running 40 miles. Two jams. That jam will really pump you up. It's like you couldn't like you give that to a guy who might be running a two mile race. Yeah, jams and jam sandwiches. I mean, that is that it that has to be the worst. No, it's to how about some syrup? Anything. You guys want a bucket of syrup and some suds? Yeah, jam like jam is kind of like, yeah, jam's a little bit like garfunkel,

like and Simon's peanut butter. We can have Simon go off solo and rock it, but jam can't go out on the road alone. No, jam's not jam needs someone else there. And there has never been any athletic trainer who has ever said, give him some jam. All right, boys, we're on the jam diet. We'll show them. What's that? We're going to eat nothing but jam. Yeah, marmalade and jam. What's we're going to become the most elite athletes in the whole world. I don't think you put your hand in there and eat this jam like Poo Bear would eat honey with our hands. Come. Yeah, your hands. Yeah. Now don't fill up on too much jam. We don't want to win too quickly. Right. Okay, we'll make it look competitive at least. Right. They don't know about our athletic

secrets. Feel like handing. Yeah, that's the jam working. That's the jam. You got jam head. Okay, so the sandwiches and the coffee and the orange would be what they would get for the next two months. Coffee too seems weird for the next two months. What? Sorry. That would be what they would get each day for the next two months for the next two months. They're eating nothing but jam sandwiches, mini oranges and coffee to avoid starvation. The men would have to find other ways to get food. So this isn't this isn't an organized marathon anymore. I want my deposit back. So I ended up begging begging for what? That's a very weird element to this. You might get set back by your begging times. Remember those count on the cumulative times, all part of the begging. That's

on your clock. All part of the competition. So until then jam up. The dropout rate was fairly high at this point. Yeah. When they reached Victorville, so many had dropped out. They didn't have too much trouble waiting for doctors anymore. There's a good sign. They were in the desert now. Nothing like a jam sandwich in the desert. And they would be in the desert for the next few hundred miles. Oh, sweet God. Eating jam and pounding coffee. Again, the problems with the running of the race service. They did not have enough road patrols to give out water. Did he organize a race? A runner named Stone quote. The desert took a heavy toll and put the most of the remaining ones in a pitiful condition. Some were badly sunburned. Others had parched

lips that cracked open and bled. Still others had their foot problems in abundance. In abundance. I mean, I guess maybe this is the downside to your nutrients coming from jam and oranges. Right? Yeah, it doesn't seem like you're getting enough vitamins. So now your lips are just going to start to open and bleed. Must be weird to have a conversation with a guy and when he first starts talking, his just lips crack open and just blood starts coming out. And talked in a while. Ow! Oh, great race. It hurts to say ow. They were only in Barstow. Oh my God. Yeah. I'm hour and a half by car outside LA two hours maybe. Yeah.

68 men had now dropped out. Dave, I'm starting to doubt that they're going to make it. Somehow the men dragged themselves on. Besides the desert heat and wind, cars kicked up dust on the unpaved highway, making it difficult to breathe. One contestant was hit by a car, another was hit by a motorcycle. So if you're running behind a guy who gets hit by a motorcycle in your race and all you've had is jam in your lips, isn't that enough for you to be like, I'm out? No, you look at that and you go with one more guy out of my way. Can I have his jam sandwiches? Sachi's pockets. Yeah, that's what you do. They rush over and they're like, oh, they're seeing if he's okay and they're just looking for jam sandwiches or food. And the real long long distance runners, Pyle had recruited

were not the ones who made it. It was the blue collar guys, the ones with no experience who would not give up, although most of them gave up because of the inhumane conditions they were forced to live in. So rather than the race, they gave up because of the tent shit and all the other morality. The blankets and pillows were filthy. They weren't given the same ones every night. So you didn't get your same pillow and blanket, you would just be switched around. So like stinky stew and you might be swapping. Often they use one end of a blanket as a pillow to avoid the blood that was on the other end from the previous night's runner. You know what this marathon needs is for a woman's women. If women were involved, if women were involved, there would be some

like their people would be so much kinder. This is a game of thrones. When you put a bunch of men together in a situation like this, they'll just sleep on bloody pillows and just sleep on the blood Frank. Yeah, like they've they've now gotten it to the point where like, this is okay. Oh, I lucked out in the pillow department tonight. Boy, I'm pooping that carnival. Oh, anyone want to split a jam sandwich and part of an orange? You know, it's greatest tonight on my pillow just one eyeball. Nothing else. Oh, man, my pillow doesn't stink so bad. I'll probably be able to sleep. Some would stand on their pillows to dress to avoid the wet mess on the ground. And then those pillows would be given out the next night. Dave, this isn't an or this isn't

an organized event. It sounds very organized. They have pillows and blankets. This is chaos that someone said was an event quote. And two, there were the fellows in the race whose lips were just a mess of sores too horrible to mention that lay on the pillows that we all had to use. The lip guys, just the that's just terrible. They also ran into sandstorms. Now think about your lips all open and then sandstorms. Just enjoy that. Let that waft over you. One sandstorm was so bad that it was picking up pebbles and blowing them into the runner's box. Dave, that's a rock storm. That is a rock storm. That's different. Tumbleweeds would hit them and cut them because they were so thick. Okay. I mean, why, why,

why hang in there? Why hang in there? 25k. Plus, you don't want to go back to your wife and kids, right? I think I do at this point. Sally's got a lot of downside, but at least there's nice pillows. Sometimes they would arrive at the checkpoint at night with a half inch of sand on their necks and shoulders and no water to wash it off. It would be fine. I mean, do I have to even? What? What the fuck? You know what? It's an endurance test. But how do you like they all they you know how you are? Like if you're in this situation like this, you almost be poisoning each other with how horrible you think this is. How do you stay? Yeah, but they had this drive. You know, you think about the fact that these are all working class guys and they see a future

of the same. And now they're feeling they have one chance to reach up to all those rich people that they've been watching partying. And it's you're talking about massive inequality. Massive inequality drives people to do insane things. But they're not David Blaine. They're not David Blaine. But now they each think they have a possibility of getting a giant chunk of money owning a house being a thing. Okay. I mean, at what price, though, you're going to be living in your mansion without lips? Well, inequality with jam poisoning quality drives people to do crazy things. Newton, the Englishman was still in the lead as they headed into the cold, windy Northern Arizona mountains. But he quit on the 15th day because of a sprained

ankle and a strained leg. All of the favor with the newt scoot, right? Yeah, his form. All of the favored foreign racing stars were now out. And they were down to 102 men. Andy Payne was now in the lead, even though he had a fever from tonsillitis. You didn't need to tell me that Payne was running this race. He had tonsillitis. Yeah, he had tonsillitis, which would soon catch up to him. And he faded from the lead because of it. When they crossed. Spray my tonsils, mile nine. It's hauled with a fever. When they crossed into New Mexico, somehow it got worse. Oh, what? What car landed on them? They were now just 96 men. And the quality of drinking

water plummeted. It was already terrible. This led to some of the runners becoming sick with a terrible stomach sickness, which means they were shitting everywhere. While running, probably. They were also frequently used the pillow. Shit in the pillows. Fine. They were also frequently running in the snow, in sleet and in rain. When they arrived in Amarillo, Texas, there were 88 remaining. And they slogged on a dirt road that had been turned into quote, gumbo mud. Sticky and slick. Oh, God. Their shoes would fill up with mud and they would have to constantly clean them off. Is the guy a pile? Is that his name? Yeah, he's yeah.

Is he around for this? Yeah, he would. He would stay in a nearby hotel. Yeah. So that's exactly what I'm picturing. The guy who shows up is like, oh, I wasn't out there today. They're like, terrible. I got bit by an anaconda and I lost my shoes. Well, I'm getting a massage an hour. I'm going to go to float pool for a little while. The nightly carnivals included novelties like The Turtle Boy and then bombed Oklahoma Outlaw, which might be the member of the guy that ended up Leatherman. It might be the guy who ended up out here in Long Beach because he was. We got to get him on a live one. Yep. Yep. There was also the world's most powerful portable radio, a 20 piece jazz band and female

dancers who spent most of their time sexing up local farm boys. Well, I guess I understand why you pay for the carnival, right? Pilot promised the runners before the race that there would be local prizes given out to the first five runners by towns along the way. So every time, top five, whatever town you're going to for your carnival, they're gonna get something. Prize. A little bling bling. You know, it's you've probably really lowered what their version of a prize is at this point. Well, I think he probably I couldn't figure out what it was, but I think he probably promised like money or stocks. Yeah. Yeah. Something that would benefit them in the race and or in life. But the prizes never came. Cool. Cool. This caused more of the runners to

drop out of the race. Turns out Pyle had never even discussed the prizes with the towns. Well, he seems like a good guy. The route also began to make strange detours. Isn't the whole thing a strange detour? It became quite obvious that when a town didn't pay up, Pyle was making the runners go out of their way over harsh road conditions to get to a town that had paid. Fucker. One of the African American runners was named Eddie Gardner, his description from the program. I found the program of all the runners names. This can't be good. Fucking no, it's great. Eddie Gardner of Los Angeles, California, a good runner and holder of state records in Washington. He has good performances in the post intelligence marathon

at Seattle. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama, and is 28 years old. Okay. When the race headed into the Texas Panhandle, the black runners had to basically run a racist gauntlet. For six days, the black runners were harassed. They were not allowed into many businesses and made to sleep in colored only tents that were barely covered at all. So they found a way to make worse tents? Yeah. Interesting. Because they would come in the town and the people would be like, uh, uh, uh, uh. And that was in Texas? Yeah. Isn't that weird? It's shocking. When they stopped in McLean, Texas, a mob of whites surrounded Ed Gardner's tent for the entire night, threatening to burn it down. It's hard to, hard to hit REM sleep with that around you.

Burn down a tent? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But the racism was just getting started. Oh, good. Good. One day, an upset farmer who saw Ed Gardner running with the white runners. That's tough to even think about. Decided to point a shotgun at Gardner while writing a mule behind him, the whole time, daring him to pass a white runner. Uh, that's a, that's a, I think in sporting terms, that's considered a handicap. Yeah. Yeah. That's tough. Well, when you literally aren't allowed to win the race, I mean, you're not going to be able to get your invisible prize that night. No, you're not. When they entered Clinton, Oklahoma, tons of people lined the streets waiting to see the current race leader,

Andy Payne, local Oklahoma. Right. Kid. But Payne wasn't the first to come into town. Don't tell me a black. They were furious. Oh, no. When the African American Ed Gardner rolled in three miles ahead of everyone else. Three miles too. So there's like a nice awkward 15 minutes. They just sat there yelling nigger drop dead and you'll be picking cotton coon. You know, that's that Southern congratulations you're always reading about. But Garner did not stop. He raced on. He seemed to decide that the best way to handle this was to keep running his best. Oh, yes. He grew up more determined. He grew more determined and came to believe that he would sacrifice his life to win the Derby. That's great. He was now a protest runner.

All right. Yeah. But he wasn't alone. He was being widely reported on the front pages of black newspapers during the entire race. Oklahoma's black dispatch, the Chicago defender, the Pittsburgh courier, the Afro afro American all quickly made Ed Gardner famous in the black community. When they passed through a black town, it was like having a ticker tape parade. That's the that's the only way to aggravate the whites more. But doesn't that sum up America? He runs into a black town and he's a hero. And then the next time they're like straying him up. Yeah. Well, and the I mean, and the idea, too, that like a like a white man has created such a terrible environment that the like this guy is trying to sort of transcend. Yeah. That's a dog.

Sorry, there's a dog fight. On day 41, Gardner stopped and spoke to the Oklahoma City Negro Big Business League and said, quote, I am not thinking much about the money to be gotten out of this race now. My idea is that it would be a wonderful thing to win this test of endurance for black America. Which is true. Which is great. But someone set out to run a race and now he's like, oh, something something's bigger. Something bigger is happening. And how and how are white people? How are white people handling this? Well, they're not enjoying it. Not well. But we're basically talking about the Jackie Robinson shitty race. Yeah, seriously. And the other runners all supported the African American runners as best they could. The international runners

couldn't fathom the horrific racism they were seeing juxtaposed against how he would be a hero in the next town. They were like, what the fuck is happening? Oh, so when you say to Americas, you literally mean two different countries. They're running through two Americas. Yeah. And then one America, it's fucking madness. And the next one, it's like, yay. And the international people are like, uh, excuse me. It seems like from town to town, they treat you very differently. What is the N word? And you're German. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So, you know, I've actually, at this point, we don't do anything. Like all people equally. I can't imagine a society frowning upon one specific people like this. I mean, where does it get the nerve? The whole idea is that

you're melting pot. I'll tell you one thing I love about Germans. Everybody's the same. Okay. We treat everybody exactly the same. God. And we always will. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, it's what the foundation of our country in a lot of ways. Yeah. Yeah. All the other fan of Jews. Personally, yeah, never been a very, very, very shifty, not a fan. Okay. Well, but I can't believe what you have to go through from town to town. They treat you like a damn Jew. Anyway, who wants to break jam? All of the runners had formed a bond because of the terrible, terrible conditions they were suffering through together. So they did what they could to help the African American runners. So now it's one of those things like, I guess you can compare it to like, how the American

coach coached the 1980 American ice hockey team in the Olympics where he was just a monster to them so they would bond together. So essentially, these guys, these guys 10 times out of 10 times, they'd win. That's right. But not tonight. Not tonight. That's her. What's the name? Her battery? I can't remember, but the best movie. After Texas and Oklahoma, things became easier because the weather was more suitable. When they arrived in East St. Louis, a notoriously racist area, St. Louis, Ed Gardner was leading the pack. But most local newspapers refused to print his name, just calling him the Negro Schoolboy of Seattle. He's 28. That's fine. That's fine. Whatever you can think of. The Negro Schoolboy from Seattle. Not his name. When they crossed the Mississippi

into Illinois, traffic increased and more runners were hit by cars and had to drop out. How the fuck is that happening? There's no, I mean, this is a time when, I mean, have you ever seen the videos of like an Iran intersection or China? Like there's no rules. Driving in bay shit. It's fucking insane. Just go look at the videos online. Everything means go. Yeah, there's no rules at all. So I think that's more what America was back then. Okay. I mean, I could look that up, but I'm pretty sure it was fairly chaotic for a while when cars first came about. Can't see why. An Italian born Englishman named Peter Javuzi was in the lead with Andy Payne about seven hours behind in second. There was concern among the run runners

because the financial crisis had now hit. They wondered if the race would continue. Rumors said it would be stopped, but the runners went on anyway. And they were right on some level. Most of the towns were not paying for the race. And pile was leaving behind a trail of unpaid bills and creditors were after him. Then millionaire businessman Fremont Gunn stepped in and took over day to day operations. But the race was on the verge of bankruptcy. I mean, the race was basically bankruptcy to begin with. It was a terrible idea. It was in the red. So, oh boy, gun solution. Oh God, you know, guns are never the solution was to make the race as finish as fast as possible. The number of miles per day increased sometimes 50 and 60

and one over 70 miles a day. One night they didn't arrive in camp until 3 30 in the morning. Some of them didn't even make it into camp and just collapsed face down on the grass on the side of the road where they slept for three hours, then started off on a 60 mile run. Oh my God. Oh, three. Oh, God, you would just be dead. Manila death march. Yeah, you are dying. On May 11th, Javuzi quit the marathon because of infected teeth. I mean, if you're in first, you gotta drop out because your teeth are fucked up. I injured my teeth. What's he saying? He wants some cinnamon and bread. Hurry. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He take out his eyeballs. He says he's happy. He's laughing. He's yelling at something. He's excited. I think he's trying to tell us something.

What is it, boy? The New York Times quoted Javuzi quote, trouble with my teeth has kept me from eating anything but liquid for two weeks. Oh, no. It's so weak that I cannot make any progress. So there's nothing to do but drop out. Oh, how did your teeth get so. I do not know. It's horrible. Is he English? Yeah, he's English. Well, there you go. So, that's the look. Now, Andy Payne was back in the lead. Okay. Our boy. Gun then decided to greatly decrease the number of miles that they were running per day. This was because New York was just four days away and he wanted all the racers to look better when they ran into town. So his plan when he took over the race was to have them run insane amounts for 10 days

and then in the last four take the amounts way down so they would look not like they just run out of a POW camp. Jam them up. Load them up with jam the last four days. Jam them up. On May 26, 84 days after leaving Los Angeles, they left New Jersey and were ferried into Manhattan. They ran into Madison Square Garden where they were required to run 200 laps. Oh, that was about 20 miles. Oh, my God. So at the end, the race was a total financial failure. Only 55 of 199 who started the race finished it. That is a shocking number though. Yeah. That's a crazy amount to actually go through this. I would have thought it'd been like 10. None. 10 men received money. The contract they had signed gave Pyle the right to manage the top 10

for two years after the race. Oh, God. That's who you want to get in business with after this. Just a fucking monster. His career is on fire ever since he killed all those men. Andrew Payne, whose father called it not even good foolishness, won and took home the 25,000. Okay. He had gone through five pairs of shoes and won by 15 hours. Okay. He was honored by Congress in Washington, then returned to Oklahoma and paid off the family farm. Okay. Pyle, for whatever reason, maybe because he was the dumbest man alive, decided to have a race back from LA to New York, just the exact reverse. Your face. Your face. Wait, dude. Your face is amazing. Wait. I mean, I was as blown as a mind gets. I wish I had video that may have been the most,

the most baffled you've ever been on this podcast. Wait. He's just, he's having another one from New York to LA? Yeah. Right after? Yeah. Well, it's going to wait a little while. But yeah, then anybody wants to run back and run back. Do you know why I bet? Because someone forgot something? And he probably was like, I don't want to pay for all these guys. Oh, God. Hey, what do you say? We do it again, run them back, huh? One more time. The second bunion derby left New York on March 31st. And I can't believe it's actually happening. It arrived on June 16th. Who is our end? None of the same guys. The race did bankrupt Pyle. None of the top 10 finishers received any of their promised winnings after the 78 days of racing. Did did wait to pain get the

25. He got the 25 grand, though. Yeah, well, the first time, but the second race, no one. Oh, the second time nobody got the. Nobody got any money. Okay, good. That's probably pretty fulfilling. The man who had finished second in the first bunion derby won this time. Okay. But he didn't get any money. He got nothing. A year later, while on duty as a policeman at a baseball game, he was hit and head by a line drive and died. Well, you've really just, this guy's really got a great little trajectory. Ed Gardner finished eight in the bunion derby and walked away with a thousand dollars, even though he had the most first place finishes. He was clearly handicapped through the fucking racist nonsense south. Yeah. But he would finish

first, but then he went in the days he didn't. He must have been too far behind, right? Maybe being chased by a man with a gun, right, saying don't win. He went to the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama after where he was received as a hero by the state's black community. The white establishment gave him no acknowledgement at all. That's shocking. But it was different in Gardner's hometown of Seattle, where whites and blacks cheered him as a hero. The Seattle Post Intelligencer sponsored a fundraiser to get him a down payment on a house. What he had done, more importantly, was one of the earliest and most well known nonviolent protests against racism in America ever seen. A reporter asked him what the most difficult part of the race was,

and he said the desert trek, the blizzard in Texas and the 75 mile day, he did not say a word about the racial nightmare and the endless death threats he received. Smart. Fucking hero. Yeah. He's the real winner of the race. That's right. That's what I'm talking about. Racism lost the race. Thank you. You know, it's racists, race. I'm out of them. I see no reason to continue this podcast. I agree. I think it's over. I mean, we were ending on a high note and then it just got stupid. Yeah, no. And that and that's on me. Yeah, that's my bad. No, it definitely is. I don't want you to burden any of this. I take it. I'm the Ed Gardner of this podcast and you are the pile. Well, that's fucked up right there. We signed cars.