The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds - 241 - The Two Indigenous Actors (Live w/ Bert Kreischer)

Episode Date: February 9, 2017

Comedians Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds examine indigenous actors Jay Silverheels and Iron Eyes Cody. (Hat tip:  Sivert Glarum) SOURCES TOUR 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. We keep doing this and I keep being very clear it's Gareth I don't know

what what's the fucking problem. Hi I'm Dave. My name's pretty standard so no one messes with it. It's not some crazy Welsh country weirdo. I am named after an alternate night of the round table. There was a second table where a bunch of dimmer nights kicked it made the beds while the big-boy nights were out fighting. Sir Gareth known for fluffing the pillows. You're listening to the dollop this is a it's okay. Bi-weekly American History podcast each week I Dave Anthony. Hi how are you? Read a story to my friend. Oh read a story from American History to my friend. Gareth Reynolds who has no idea

what the topic is going to be about. And this week we have a phenomenal guest. Please give it up for Bert Kreischer. He's coming. The machine Bert Kreischer is on his way. Don't you worry there he is. Give it up for Bert. I was getting a soda. He saw me fucking panic. I saw everything it was amazing. I was like no scrap it no I need it I need the caffeine. Scrap it give me it. Oh there we go hit that hit that shit. Dude I can't wait. There we go. Holy shit. I just got an email. That's big. Is it from Hollywood? I was gonna say the same thing. This is gonna work great. Are we famous yet? A video of Tim Anderson. Remember Boxer Tim Anderson? Yeah. A video

of Tim Anderson's second fight against Mark Gastonel. The one which he was poisoned has been kept secret for 25 years but I have it. It's on YouTube now. That's an email to you? Yeah. There's some of us that are trying to help get him out of prison. Yeah and for those of you who aren't doing your part, step it up. Because Dave and I work him with Timmy. We send him like we got him a subscription in the New York Times like we're doing shit for him. Mark Gastonel looks rough these days. Yeah things are not good. It's weird. You'd think that would have come together. Yeah. It's a shocking. Gastonel's French for disaster. It'll pick up. 1912. I'm gonna say this. We've been having a lot

of problems with terms of how to describe indigenous peoples. I think that's a good start. I got yelled at for calling him Inuit. Thinking Eskimo was offensive and then he hears Eskimo is not offensive and then we look it up online. It's like no Eskimo is fucking offensive. The other day we were doing a podcast and I said Native Americans and some guy sent me like 20 fucking DMs. Native Americans fucking bullshit man. Just come here and fucking name it. I'm just like I just want to wake up. His name was direct messages frequently. By the way I'm not going to add to this sensitivity training. No I know. I was in a fraternity for seven years. You're here so we can blame anything that goes wrong on you. So in Canada

they are called aboriginal people. They don't like to be called First Nation in America. That's all. And this guy's from Canada. So the whole thing is fucked up. He comes to America. It's gonna be a shit show. Aboriginal. So there is context. And not the real original. An aboriginal. Aboriginal Harold Smith was born on the six nations of the Grand River First Nation. Right there. That's easy to find. Oh no this is the first of the six. They're way off base. This isn't two. No no this is the two and the seven. You want to go past the five and the three. Past the one and the six. Then you'll find the six and the one. What are you a dumb ass. It's near Hagersville, Ontario. Canada. Smith was

a full-blooded mohawk. To say that at a casino these days. Record scratched. His father George Smith had been one of the most decorated native soldiers in the Canadian Regiment in World War One. When the reason he did that is because that's the only way you could get citizenship if you were a native Canadian which isn't super cool. If you didn't fight for us you're not a person. Right yeah. Well you really cared. Yeah. Yeah. Fuck you guys. Yeah. I am like ready to get out of here. Yeah. So Harry Smith as a young man started playing lacrosse and he was so good that he eventually became a member of the National Lacrosse team of Canada and they traveled all over and eventually he played in Los Angeles. Oh.

With the team. The LA lacrosseers. Oh. No. He just. The Canadians came through to show up their fucking skills. Wait. What? What did they do? They swung through Los Angeles. People are like this is great. Look at a pass. Yeah. Well. It's a terrible sport to watch. LA lacrosse. Now. Now. Why'd you guys get rid of the seats over here? What? Oh. How come there's no seats over here anymore? They weren't requested. Well is it too late to put in an order? No. They weren't requested. I didn't know we had to request specific chairs. Well next time. And we want the love seat. The whole family room set up up front again. So now at the time in Hollywood racism was used to justify having white people play Native

Americans in films. An awkward era. Oh. As opposed to the movie with Matt Damon playing an Asian person. Or. Is that what he's playing? Emma Stone. Emma Stone played like a yeah. It's over. I'm talking about the past. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Well as we learn on this podcast we've always learned from our mistakes. From the 1915 book making the movies by Ernest Dench the red Indians who have been fortunate enough to secure permanent engagements with several Western film companies are paid salary that keeps them well provided with tobacco and their worshiped firewater. No. No. No. No. God. No. I want to work for that fucking guy. How much fun would he be as a boss? Have you seen the dailies? Are you kidding me?

I don't know where that bit goes. Yeah. He's got a cigar for sure. Oh yeah. Wow. So the editor was like well my only notice that comma should be a semi colon. Other than that we're good to go. This book is as hot as that engines firewater. Oh he's not done yet. Oh good. It might be thought that this would civilize them completely but it has had quite the reverse effect for the work affords them an opportunity to live their savage days again and they are not slow to take advantage of it. They put their heart and soul in the work especially in battles with the whites and it is necessary to have it is necessary to have armed guards watch over their movements for at least a side of treachery on on the sets just in case

you don't know that's on the set. So you're the medic and you watch the Native Americans because they are shifty. They'll leave with more feathers than they come in with. Keep your eyes peeled. They are five feather discounts we call it. Even today a few white players specialize in Indian parts. They take leading parts for which Indians are seldom adaptable. To act as an Indian is the easiest thing possible for the red skin is practically motionless. So this is so fucking good. So to sum up they didn't have a great opinion in Hollywood of Native Americans. Oh I wonder what they say about blacks. No you don't. Fuck. No sir. No you don't. No no. Oh please tell me they got this. No. Fuck doesn't sound so bad now

does it ladies. No. So so while he's in Los Angeles playing lacrosse Harry Smith was noticed by comedian Joe Brown and Browse saw something in Harry and encouraged him to give acting a try. Wait from lacrosse. Yeah he's like look at that. The way you passed it and when you looked like you weren't that believability is what the screen needs nowadays. My god I thought you were going right. You went left. You're a goddamn chameleon. All we need to do is get a guard to watch you don't drink too much fire water and tobacco. Oh you're going to be so good as a Native American they're going to get a guard near you. Trust me. But his their idea of acting was like get on that horse and go get shot by a guy like that. So

when he sees him playing lacrosse he sees a guy running around he's like that's acting for Native Americans. And by the way acting is not too far from that now. No. So so Harry at that point is Kenneth's highest paid lacrosse player so he could afford to take some time off because he clearly stashed some cash from that sweet Canadian lacrosse money. I have a lot of questions but we can move on. So so Joe Brown helps Harry find his first job in Hollywood as a stuntman in a 1937 musical called Make a Wish. So I don't know what usually there's not a lot of stunts and musicals but apparently at that time. Well it was about a lacrosse player on Suicide Watch. He was perfect. After a couple of years Harry had

worked on a handful of uncredited stunt jobs. He then got an acting gig as an anonymous Indian in the movie The Seahawk starring Errol Flynn. So he's just like a guy in the. Yeah like that. Next he played Indian. Okay. In too many girls. That's what he would. He would just be his name. Harry Smith plays in that's all he would be. Harry Smith plays Indian in all his movies. Harry Smith plays in all his movies for a long time. Well we're about to go on a run then run. Right. So he plays Indian in too many girls starring Desi Arnaz. Arnaz is understudy was a guy named Van Johnson on that on that movie. In Vans biography the author wrote quote during the show's preparation then was surrounded by homosexuals. Shut up. It was

it was it was a musical. I don't know. Well I don't know what the guy's saying. You don't have to read between the lines with these people. They wouldn't say what they mean. They're really blunt. They're super blunt back then. That was auto correct. I wrote dancers. Surrounded by a bunch of homosexuals. Wait. So now so wait somebody so he stands there as an expressionless as as the expressionless Indian as the part is called that someone else is like you were unbelievable. Amazing. We need you back. Do nothing again. Will you. So he continues act playing Aboriginal natives in movies about French Canadian fur traders. There were many parts for anonymous Aboriginals throughout the film but most of the native actors who did this had very short careers in

Hollywood because they either couldn't find decent work or just couldn't deal with the blatant racism. You mean actual native Native American actual people who are who tried to do it. So when he does this they are putting makeup on him. No he doesn't have to have makeup on him. So he wears you know he wears a suit. No of course he's dressed as a fucking we think they dressed him half way as a Native American. But I mean he's got a feather on. Yeah. But there's no there's no makeup up. He's a white guy with. He's not white. He's. Oh he is. Okay. Sorry. Right. Sorry. I forgot that part. Forgot. Yeah. Well right. We started out of stuff for me. Okay. So we'll get to the end. So. Fair. That's fair. Keep up. It was hard. It was hard to catch that point when I talked

about it for ten minutes at the start. Sorry. So on films white extras there's also white extras would arrive first because they had to get their red makeup put on. Boley Armenia is a red type of clay. I thought it was an eating disorder. You would mix the clay with water and then apply it to actors faces. Before it was used as a makeup it had been prescribed by doctors as a cure for diarrhea. Talk about being discreet with your diarrhea your face is covered in clay. Okay. Hey Bert. Do you have diarrhea? No. How engine. Wait. Who was the guy. Well I'll tell you the diarrhea is gone. Can't leave the house but the diarrhea is gone. A Native American named iron eyes Cody landed his first job in Hollywood as a

supervisor in the makeup department. He would oversee to make sure that the red clay on the faces made the actors look authentic. Oh my god. No he looks like one of us for sure. I can because he's got just red face. Yeah that's okay with us. Yeah that'll do that'll play. Iron Eyes said he was part Cherokee part Cree. He had been raised in Oklahoma. Paramount pictured had used his family's Oklahoma farm for a shooting location in 1919 and his dad had long been in show business as he had toured with Buffalo Bill's Wild West show. Sure. Within a year of the film being shot on the farm the Cody's had moved to Hollywood and iron eyes father worked as a technical advisor on many early westerns and in 1925 iron eyes began working in makeup on sets. He could recite the

Great Spirit Prayer do rope tricks new sign language and could speak five of the uh speak parts of the five Indian languages uh not the Indian languages. Because of that he soon started getting work as anonymous natives himself and slowly got steady work on camera so he's he's an actor too. Is that an upgrade though? He was just putting clay on face and now he's like fuck now I gotta be one of the ones I've been making up. Well now he's just got to stand there and be like hey. Too much. Get shot. Kind of five different fucking Native American languages and they're just don't say anything. You know all we need is two good house and then you're all set. We got to keep it under three otherwise you get a bump. So he ad-libbed another how. He's ad-libbing house. Could you

how it down a little bit? How how how how would I? So uh so the way it would work is there'd be a white guy in the lead with a red covered face and then a bunch of Native Americans behind him who were getting annoyed. But not shitting. Too. He did not need to worry about toilets on that set. Oh that's great. To make matters worse some Native Americans were then employed on Western films to teach whites how to speak and act authentically quote like an Indian. Wait. This meant slow talking low voices and stilted words. Yeah yeah right. Me me like horse. That's exactly what they're gonna do. It's like Frankenstein. Could you slow it down a little bit? No I'm auditioning right now. By the way I would have murdered it in the 30s. Me like horse. No no no slow it down.

You're doing it too fast. Me. Sculpt it. Me. Like a horse. Yeah yeah could you you said like uh could you just do me like horse? Do the best I can man. Give me a little fire water I'll slow it down more. By the way I'm obsessed with the fact that I still call it crisscross applesauce and we're tearing apart their fucking culture. It's something to think about that. Hey kids call it crisscross applesauce while we destroy their water in North Dakota. That is so fucking true though. It's like we are focused on like that's offensive to say. Now nobody changed anything to help them. Okay under math under math. One plus one equals goddamn money. Fuck them let's go kids. Crisscross applesauce. No it's a snake bite. It's not an Indian burn that's offensive.

We will get oil from these motherfuckers. Give me my present back. Come on. No that's called re-gifting or something. No. No. Not in my class. Not in my class. We will just rape their lands for centuries. Slowly taking away their rights but we will not use terminology offensive to them. The Washington football team. The Washington football team. Do we have to have another pow wow about this? Oh my god. By the way by the way I was shooting on Crow Nation territory for my show and my director goes quick guys a little pow wow. And I was like maybe not the best choice of words. I'll be in my teepee. Me smoke em have got em. So so so Harry Harry was in the same film as iron eyes Cody in 1942 in the Lucille ball movie

Valley of the Sun. By this time Harry become a little suspicious of iron eyes background questioning his native roots as that a few other Native Americans while they could rarely do this in public they would say it to each other. Other Native Americans would get upset by this talk however because they believed iron eyes was being truthful. When actor and stuntman running deer heard fellow actor Jim White cloud questioning iron eyes background he punched him in the face and knocked out two teeth. Another time running deer through an actor named little buffalo through a glass door at a bar. Well that's just nature. That's just nature. So clearly there are questions about iron eyes but people are falling on both sides of the aisle. Yes. Some movies like I said

were shot in Canada they were known as Canadian Mount T. Westerns which managed to be even more racist than American Westerns. Can we take this up a notch that's out American the Americans. My one note is they're not offensive enough. We could really milk this. We find but we finally found something Canada's worse at. Yeah well they've shaken that. Mount T. Westerns had an overwhelming use of quote half breed characters. What is that. Fuck I did not think this could get worse. Please say you mean centaurs. Well the man affect the pony and here we are.

It's a Montreal Minotaur. This is my friend Jimmy runs with hoops. Hello I even find that offensive. So half breed besides being a great share song was a racial slur that referred to the Mati people of Canada who were of mixed native and European descent. For half a century they were depicted as villains quote sneaky untrustworthy degenerates who desired defenseless white women sold whiskey to the Indians and let others take rap for their crimes. In the silent Mount T film God's Country they were described as quote strange heritage of degenerate blood. Jesus Christ. Yeah Canadians are awful. I mean wow what what what are the

what are the two halves of the breeds. Just just aboriginal people from Canada and then anybody from Europe who came over and fuck them. Oh yeah. By the way I'm getting into character I can see why we can't trust them though because they've got the customs of the white man but they've got that blood in them. Yeah it's true. They're not fully corrupted yet. More white. More white. More delicious white. More devil white. The term half breed was actually mostly spread by Hollywood movies more than any other part of society. Well you know it's cool. Yeah before Meryl gave her speech obviously. Transcendent. What were notes like back then if they just throwing half breeds into scripts. Yeah we're good on the half breed stuff good on the half breed stuff good on the

half breed stuff fine on the half breed. Firewood. Firewater. That dam's got to be a darn. That's going to uh swabs are super turned up by cussing half breed half breed half breed half breed half breed. I don't think we can say fucking half breed right. Oh sorry I was cruising absolutely not no no just change that fucking half breed to a half breed. Everything's good but the couple can't kiss at the end. Thanks. So next Harry worked on an Abbott and Costello film that was so offensive to Arabs it was banned in Morocco and Syria. Just just knocking them all out of the park just wherever we can do it. We will be making those films in ten years. Two. Yeah by the way ten means two. In 1945 was the year Harry Smith picked a new Hollywood stage name. First he called

himself Silver Heels Smith. Whoa. This was his lacrosse nickname the team had given him. Okay I like it. And then he turned it. Also by the way very weird name even if you're playing lacrosse. I agree. What were you wearing? I tap at the half. Do a whole thing. Guys can we put some wood in the middle of the field. Oh come on. I play on grass for you guys all the time. Was it all Silver Heels? No it was just Silver Heels Smith. Okay. And then by then he changed it to Jay Silver Heels. So Silver Heels wasn't the issue. That was a lot. There were two Silver Heels on the team. Yeah no Silver Heels he nailed. Johnny Silver Heels and then he was just Silver Heels. Hey which Silver Heels you're talking about coach. Not either are you two. The Water Boy Silver

Heels. Hydrate the men. I'd call that because it's a handicap though. Oh boy. To Hollywood with the A son. Now Jay was becoming a known face in films. He's still like Indian in the cast but people are starting to go oh that guy. Which is as close as you can get to being recognized. But he's still doing the uncredited parts. He was in another movie with Iron Eyes. Iron Eyes Cody called Unconquered. There was now an obvious tension between Iron Eyes and Jay Silver Heels. Jay and Iron Eyes continued to work in many films together and separately for years both in the exact same sort of roles. But in 1949 Jay Silver Heels had a big breakthrough and became the first native born person to play a Native American on television. The popular radio show

The Lone Ranger was being brought to television. Finally. Tood. By the way it is crazy to think of it as just a radio show. I don't know. He's on the horse. The one time. The one. Really moving now. The one time they get a real Native American and you don't even see him. Like you've been looking out of the hole for when they go to TV. Oh no when they're on radio they didn't have that. Oh well let's cover the radio part. You're going to love this. Oh no. Oh during the 30s and 40s Radio Tonto had been voiced by white actor John Todd. But when the 50s came around John Todd was he was in his early 70s and the radio executive overseeing the show fired him replacing him with a young Native American voice actor. But the Native American voice actor refused to speak the

sub-level English in the script wanting Tonto to speak in an educated tone. He was then immediately fired. Fire watered. And they and they rehired elderly John Todd. So wait there's there's no middle ground. No. They can't work with these people. They want to act like they're normal. There's actual Native Americans being. And you're 70. And that's it. So we'll go with you. We have no other option. There's literally no other human on earth. So it's just some old guy. Lord Ranger get on hard. I'm trying. The stroke has made it hard. It's also it's also for TV. So he this is just for radio. This is just a radio. This still goes on in Hollywood. Like like black actors are always like going for the sprite commercial and the guy's like hey can

you kind of hood it up a little bit. Oh yeah. Oh this still goes on. I fucking love it. Well and that and then then that's what happens is where you create like this weirdly competitive it's competitive market where like you know some people are like all right I will ethnic it up for my for this audition. Other people like that's too much. And then you're like what the fuck is happening. Can we not just be actual human beings. I get told to white it up all the time. Can you put on New Balance please. Can you. You know what he works for me but I need New Balance and all that milk you're like Dave Anthony for sure white and I have croissants if you guys need to see them you don't I have them

if you need to see them I have them so I got it you got to love the fucking backbone of this guy going I think the Native American could sound like the way I sound right now but I'm Native American yeah and I I mean I do talk like this like I know yeah it's wordy still have you met yourself you're not like that yeah I you most of you guys don't use verbs we do too use verbs there you go again I use isn't a verb the Lone Ranger premiered on television on September 15th 1949 and it made Jay Silverheels a household name he would get more work than ever before but still all in these stereotypical monosyllabic tones right so he's still like he's now he's famous but he's still talking and getting the same by the way by the way this character

defines my childhood this tanto is the reason when I holstered a gun I'd put it on my back because he only had one gun on his back and this is the first Native American I ever met was tanto I'm sorry yeah I mean I meet him but like this is my introduction to their culture right right okay oh and it's a great introduction yeah but if you had met him weird time to bring it up six minutes in keep going but I met him keep going I met this guy keep going but wait also it's the only time that a director comes over is like that was a little flat we love it uh don't change it that was very flat and perfect uh so even though the Lone Ranger was a huge success it was still a low budget production one day Jay held a one-man protest

refusing to refusing to get into his wardrobe because the stars of the show weren't given their own dressing rooms Jay and Clayton Moore were forced to change in a men's room at a gas station down the road shut up oh can you imagine being the person that accidentally walked into that and you're like whoa man these two gay guys are really taking this far talk about role playing cowboy is fucking the Indian and he doesn't want anyone knows so he's wearing a mask shut up no it's not what you with tv stars fellas have your fun fellas have your fun guys have your fun it's not what you think yeah that's what you think we're working actors uh yeah all right sure

that's why you're yeah we'll see you later in the gas station bathroom yeah yeah sure sure yeah you there's not a white guy playing a Native American sure yeah yeah yeah yeah no is he uh the other guy was too uh fucking so they were uh so they got it worked the next day uh both leads had uh brand new dressing rooms so Jay was getting a little bit of power okay now uh John Hart who briefly played the Lone Ranger said Jay was not pleased playing a mentally deficient character and the uh the main Lone Ranger Lone Ranger for years Clayton Moore said Jay would never remember his lines quote this was because he never read the script that that is awesome but why would you read the script if your line's like down by horse like fucking off exactly yeah

exactly I'll figure it out I'm not going to read the racism I'll just do it look at Lord quote we would be empty course um perfect yeah better honestly better better we had him make court but that's better that's far better quote we would be in the middle of a scene and they would come a pause and Jay would ad lib something like um that right or me wait here you go town oh my god that is honestly like the hardest kind of ad lipping oh but that was the reason that tonneau had so many throwaway lines was because Jay was just making them up yeah yeah wow yeah maybe I'll cut got this first but Jay was now a star and that led to bigger parts in movies he was now playing dronimo in 1952 is the battle of apache pass but that same year he was uh

he still also starred in a movie called half breed I mean I got the script and I read it and I could not turn it down uh I realized the title's a little off but man is there an emotional arc for that half breed I only half read it and uh it's great the movie had uh what did it the movie I'm gonna call it's an off-color tagline really what no half breed when white man and half brain turn all savage red blooded adventure they've got my money I I think literally every word makes it worse white man and it gets worse every word hurts more meanwhile iron eyes Cody had steady work in films he had a very striking look and was quite recognizable like Jay he moved up and had some starring roles but was not well known as much as Jay was he also uh was huge when it came to working

with Native American causes he would write tons of checks to Native American charities and schools he married a Native American woman named Bertha Palin she was the first female Native American archaeologist from a rather prestigious Seneca Indian family the couple adopted two Native American sons well so iron eyes Cody's is fucking living the business in 1953 Jay was in the last but it's crazy that that sounds normal yeah that sounds just totally normal and it's highlighted in this because of how abnormal everything is yes a regular regular life it's like what a miracle how did he pull it off archaeologist and adopted children that's so white behavior right there in uh 1953 Jay was in the last of the Comanche's with Native American actor John War Eagle who

was already heavily involved in Native American politics perhaps this affected Jay because on the set of his next film he became very vocal with co-stars crew and media about the idea of red face Jay made it clear that it was time for white people to stop putting on red makeup and let Indian actors have an equal opportunity in Hollywood one Native American who did not agree with the sentiment at all was iron eyes Cody wow that is crazy iron eyes was still working in makeup departments to advise there we go there it is I think it's fine I don't see any problem with it nobody has diarrhea everybody's working everybody's happy everybody's fine come on man I put my kids to school whatever we adopted two fucking kids man come on a little red face laxative anti whatever

oh god I used the wrong one uh Jay had been pushing for better roles for Native actors for a while but he did not believe in formal protest he didn't think it would be effective quote a boy cut by Indians would not mean the loss of money that a negro boycott could bring meaning there's more black guys working in Hollywood than right Native Americans and nothing changed the next year Jay was working alongside white men who were covered in red makeup in 1954 Jay who was a heavy smoker finished a fight scene with a stuntman on the Lone Ranger went back to his dressing room and had a massive heart attack tanto had to be written around they brought in the Lone Rangers nephew Daniel or some shit they said they said that tanto had to go to the the big city dc to see the great white

man wait i'm confused now the great white father is what they said they were like they told the people on the show they're like tando go to see great white father and then he was off the show but the Lone Rangers nephew is here and he speaks perfect English hi there hello my friends are my friend it's like when they brought in scrappy do it's not it's it's very scrappy do reminiscent so Jay returned to acting after a few months recuperating but the Lone Ranger was canceled the 1956 oh wait he did not die he didn't die okay okay in my head i thought he was dead no no there's still story going on okay i was like is this story over that's a weird way to end it and he's dead all right and that's it uh there was a feature film made and it seemed the tide

was turning on racism a little bit in one line the Lone Ranger confronted a bunch of rabid racist white people quote in all the fights between the whites and the indians it's the whites who've always started the trouble so you know how was that on tv then i know you can't even say that shit well now that was on a movie though now that did well how was that allowed to be in the public like now if you say that oh if you said this now people in all the fights between if you let's do it let's do the modern version in all the fights between the whites and the blacks it's the whites he's always started the trouble fuck you bullshit bullshit yeah you're right that doesn't work today it's a good thing we've gone backwards also in 1956 Jay was in walk the proud land in which

the hero scolded his fellow white people for their treatment of native american neighbors the hero defends native americans against white lynch mobs arming them with firearms and earning their trust so you know shit's starting to happen right right turning a little bit from the horrific beginning we started it makes you still so disappointed with now oh no yeah it's all i mean everything's bad but but the frustration for me it'll be the tag of this podcast not episode but the frustration of the parts of native americans was still bubbling up in the 1958 show what's my line there was a guest rod redwing on one time and he was a native actor and towards the end of a segment comedian jonathan winters asked redwing why don't the indians win

more of the pictures redwing then went off script and responded hollywood doesn't think that indians are the type so they always have someone else to play the indian then the host laughed awkwardly and changed the subject so what anything dogs are amazing we'll be right back what the fuck wow jake working behind the scenes to help the the people that is amazing to get to that point though when you're like my ad-libs are actual commentary so yeah he's still hoping the cause was people he started training native american actors for hollywood who he hoped would get parts and influence a change of opinion within the studios he also started a letter writing campaign in 1960 to president eisenhower vice president nixon the heads of the three major television networks

addressing the portrayal of natives in film and television so he's doing his part yeah but things were changing a bit a second lone ranger movie had the two fighting a gang of hooded bandits similar to the ku klux klan who randomly murdered three native americans wow yeah so yeah i saw all of them dude this show to find my sexuality i'm sorry right i talked about this with my therapist what yeah she's like your penis is the lone ranger bird your penis was the lone ranger no any anyone being like any like anyone wearing gloves or getting tied up or getting in quicksand was the thing that was like quicksand yeah let's change that explain no but but that explains that quicksand pit near the barbecue area very erotic hey honey so i uh i i i fixed up a little something in the tub

for tonight it's uh but it's just mud quick see oh get the gloves quick you turning me on dave do you want to switch seats guys if you guys if you google quicksand porn you'll see what i'm talking about oh no i'm being dead serious i'm not even fucking around quicksand porn quicksand porn yeah who knew i did not a few people it feels like but the idea okay sorry dave so uh the idea there is that you got to like have sex before they go no no no no no it's it is what it sounds like it's just a girl well that's what it's walking through the woods and then uh oh oh and then you can fuck her because she's stuck no no it's yeah man let's it doesn't get creepy it's just just are you googling quicksand porn it's fucking awesome isn't it can we see what do you have

oh wait wait so it's just oh this one's really good so wait it's just kind of solo struggling and it's erotic and yeah well yeah woman's trash oh my god okay well you learn something new every day that's uh uh that's i gotta say my favorite part was after we both asked questions that were right he goes no it's what you think that's i gotta say that's the least erotic thing i've ever seen in my life but there's just a lady in mud i mean there's there's one where there's two of them they're like our bikinis are gonna go first who will fuck us it's amazing it's amazing that you know the potlarns without having watched them so do you like do you come when they go under no that's

no you wait wait before that it's uh the hottest part is when their boobs hit the mud that's when you're like whoa it's called a sand job so no so jay jay and back on subject here enough about the bone danger get into the lone ranger so jay and clayton more toward the u.s uh the whole time they were doing the show and after as tonto in the lone ranger more was very protective of his lone ranger persona and would scream at paparazzi who tried to take a picture of him without his mask on that's so crazy too though that he was like no no no years later when he was no longer the lone ranger the producers would have to take him to court to force him to stop wearing the mask in public

oh shut up so life's hard when you wear a bandit mask always no just a regular deposit i was the lone ranger i'm not robbing you god he's such an interesting way of talking to clayton more like he did oh yeah and before they had to legally get him to stop where they had to legally sue him that happens at the mba though a doodle break his nose he'll wear a mask for a season that'll be like it's good luck and for the rest of his life he wears like a glass phantom of the opera mask and you're like can we see you what do you but wouldn't you paint it like i would paint crazy just like like it's a banksy yeah or a banksy so just like a masquerade mask with a feather shoot the three ass i'll shoot it feather's gonna block you man it's a masquerade basketball

so iron eyes kody iron eyes kody continued to work in both tv and film even starring in films he also worked in commercials but always had the companies donate his salary to native american schools or orphanages one time he got a shoe company to send hundreds of shoes to native children all over america so he's just fucking just waste the time yep surrounded by quicksand they'll go right under now the more iron eyes profile rose the more other native american actors became upset asterisk actress lois red elk said quote his clothing and the way he wore his feather were all wrong it's a little picky uh i mean we don't know but it does sound picky so sometimes you're in a rush yeah yeah you can't have time to put the whole headdress on you just

throw one feather in the back when another actor questioned him about his early life iron eyes didn't have a real native american history there was no experiences that he could offer up hey iron eyes where'd you grow up uh what's your favorite car did you ever answer that stutter baker oh let's get sodas i love moving on from subjects do you i love it yeah yeah yeah your father's all fucked up oh come on i'm going to the store we're fine i'm going out feather i'm gonna put the whole thing on lord one woman who ran a native american registry for the performing arts found out he wasn't verified as Cherokee she continually asked him to get himself verified but he always made excuses it's like twitter yeah but way more

culturally sensitive in 1963 jay silverhills was the first native inducted into the screen actors hall of fame he was now doing tonto as a broad comedy he played tonto in a bob hope western he continued to work in the same roles he had always but society was now changing pressure grew throughout the 60s from social activist groups and roles he was used to started to disappear here the american indian movement was lobbying harder for television show stations to halt reruns of the lone ranger and other shows they felt had blatant racist imagery but okay wait so well first of all he like broadened out into like he turned that into a career almost one man show it yeah well now he's playing the tonto character is like a

broad comedy right in other things but it's like frasier yeah it's like frasier now no but no be like michael richards i think wait that got weird uh no it'd be like a guy from a drama then going into comedy like it's a talk right he's like a break right okay all right so it's becoming a little slap sticky right he's going on stage and then they dressed as tonto yes and he's like he's like you know what really made me tick oh boy no nobody's doing like crowd running like where are you from he is yeah he's doing stand up and he's doing comedy right he's just doing like like broad slapstick bob hope movie type comedy i had to fly in my eagles arms are tired much like that yeah that's probably what it was though yeah for sure it had to be

me i couldn't be headier than that well there's no way the audience like no way that's not real uh me that's not very grounded tonto me could use a shot how about a tuberculosis shot you know i i like i like his newer stuff it's edgy edgy it's edgy it's risky it's like being a quick sandwich oh even the thought of that i just now you get out but your top would be in peril in the late 60s mg hurting what mg hurting is this a dj wrote a book called the unjust society in it he called chiefs and other native leaders who appeased the government at the expense of natives uncle tomahawks should start to get real for many native americans the parts j silverheels heels had played made him the epitome of an uncle tomahawk this time was also the strongest

period for the native american movement that fought for equal rights and land claims they attacked you almost said equal whites which is what it really is but i i meant equal whites oh sorry they attacked many portrayals in the media and the number one target of the campaign was the most well-known native american wow silver heels this is kind of now pissing me off yeah wait i hate fucking liberals like we've only gotten started it was to be guys in redface like fucking ten years that is so true though right right isn't that i mean that is the liberal shit right you're like we're fine with everything oh screw you he's like i was saying i think you i think you don't condemn the person who first got the role and can't can't change because of it you condemn

the system but you know but it doesn't like how dare you so his parts dried up uh due to activism westerns fading away in popularity scholar ralph fryer called tonto an indian steppin fetch it activist and leader of the american indian movement rustle means use the name tonto the way black activists use the phrase uncle tom so jay resented the idea that he was responsible for the negative image of natives in show business he looked at himself as a role model having been the first native to ever serve on the screen actors guild board of directors he spent thousands of hours establishing the indian actors workshop which now established which was now established at the los angeles indian center in echo park the workshop also helped native actors enter sag and

actors equity and it turned uh the los angeles headquarters into a place of political action for native americans in the late 60s with money drying up jay and clayton more brought back their roles as the lone ranger in tonto in a successful commercial for geno's pizza now i'm gonna say now i'm just gonna say bad timing yeah the look wait cbs executives were concerned about the advertisement worried it might offend the now very vocal american indian movement so the ad executive asked jay to talk to the studio executive and convince her there was nothing to be worried about wait okay it didn't go well jay ended up just screaming into the phone stop screwing with my residuals is that hollywood in a fucking pill right i mean oh right there it's like yeah cbs

never aired it but abc and bc did and sure enough native organizations were very upset jay jay put out a public response saying the criticism quote promotes the strength promotes and strengthens the image that projects the indians as being stoic incapable of showing emotion and entirely lacking a sense of humor so he really dug the knife in there he's not helping his cause my by the way i'm i mean what battle is he fighting wait i don't think yeah i don't think he knows yeah i i'm so attached to tonto as a character of my childhood that i'm getting like fucking angry right what part did they want him to play the wacky neighbor next door well he didn't have any options to play he didn't have any fucking options but you know what they had to play a cuban guy but so but so

so if you if you look at what the the naacp did the same thing and what happened to two guys like amos and enny and the guys who played those parts was they just stopped working and died poor and shitty lot like they just stopped and then they all just perished in poor so so he was seeing that and saying well don't do that but on the other hand you want the roles to stop it's a it's a fucked up situation it is a catch 22 but still yeah it is i mean it just yeah it under it underlines like how you know people will be racist forever and they'll be like oh nothing no not okay and you're like but this guy i'm tried hard to fight well i'm counting on racism forever to just keep keep the dollop going right Dave i think we have good news we're gonna hit a thousand

on september night 1969 jay had a famous appearance on the tonight show with johnny Carson they did a sketch together then Carson and jay talked about his career jay explained that he had no choice but to take the roles he was offered if he wanted work at all and that almost all of the work was lousy in 1971 jay had his name legally changed from harry smith to jay silverheels and that same year his worst nightmare came true oh let us guess let us guess iron eyes choose your own tonight disaster iron eyes cody was cast in a commercial for the nonprofit organization keep america beautiful i fucking wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait mother you guys are too young to know what the fuck's gonna happen wait wait wait wait say say that again

oh shit iron eyes cody was cast in a commercial for the nonprofit organization keep america beautiful okay it first aired on earth day in 1971 in it shut the fuck up yep no way in it iron eye cody paddled a canoe past a belching smokestack and along a polluted stream before arriving at a busy highway as he looked at the city landscape garbage thrown from a passing car landed at his feet who the fuck was that asshole uh same guy that mr microphone it was jay silverheels fuck no they were like if we wait long enough one white guy will throw a can shoot for 30 minutes you know the honest truth is we're overwhelmed with white guys throwing cans slowed out traffic so as he sat there a single tear rolled down his face and the camera

stayed on iron eyes face while the announcer said people start pollution people can stop it it was one of the most moving commercials ever made and an overwhelming success the commercial quickly made iron eyes the most familiar native american face in the united states as jay's career died a slow death iron eyes career exploded oh man and this is especially brutal because jay knew that iron eyes was not a native american at all when jay had started out acting iron eyes brother joe had also tried acting and when jay and joe were alone jay would constantly talk about he how he was an italian guy from louisiana shut the fuck up but a boom but a bing oh this is fucking killing me now jay silverheels who is the posterboy for uncle tomahawk watched as

not native american iron eyes cody became the face of native americans he was honored with a star on the hollywood walk of fame he was named he was named to nearly every important indian affairs committee in the united states he went on to meet walt disney president's jimmy carter in the oval office and jerald ford on a golf course meanwhile in 1975 jay had a crippling stroke in 1979 he did get a star on the hollywood walk of fame uh due to his friend jonathan winters and then jay silver hills died on march 5th 1980 luckily luckily he didn't get to see luckily is such a rare term in this podcast luckily he didn't get to see iron eyes cody meet president regan or pope john paul the second iron eyes met the pope in 1980 because he was nominated for sainthood

are you shitting me oh no now i know what it felt like when we took the native americans land from them this i feel like i'm getting fucking crushed right now oh that is insane nor did jay nor did jay live to see like the pr person's like oh you're gonna love him he is 100 the real deal and he is authentic the pub the pub's like gonna meet him he should get into the immobile because he is just nor nor did jay get to see iron eyes cody have a stamp issued by the us post op in 1982 and thankfully jay did not live long enough to read iron eye cody's autobiography

in which he took a few shots at jay silver hills quote jay was a champion the cross player in a very good boxer till he got one of his eyes bopped out had himself fitted with a glass eye and some vague notion of becoming a professional gambler he packed up his lacrosse stick and headed west he began hanging around gaur gulch which is where my brother and i spotted him as potential movie material i mentioned he got his start in unconquered because that's the first time anybody singled him out for any close camera shots actually he had been playing bit part since we took him to utah years earlier for some writing sequences in western union he distinct distinguished himself by not being able to write at all without knowing what the hell he was doing

he managed to keep up with the rest of us writers of the purple sage falling off his horse both on cue and off none of which was true jay did not have a glass eye and he clearly had been acting in movies for quite some time before iron eyes came along he also knew how to ride horses quite well as he began his career as a stunt man iron eyes had nothing to do with jay's career but iron eyes clearly had held a grudge for the rumors j help feed which turned out to be 100 percent true iron eyes was the now the go-to native for years and even provided ancestral chanting on johnny mitchell's 1988 album chalkmark and a rainstorm i want to i'm going to go piss on this guy's grave

let's take a lift fucking yeah just take a lift this is the shittiest it gets when major motion picture houses needed to verify the authenticity of tribal dances and attire iron eyes was brought in as a consultant so what is like oh my god butt oh big butt in 1990 a postdoctoral scholar at UCLA named angela alise read iron eyes autobiography and realized many many many facts did not fit what she knew about the history of hollywood so she began investigating through frank's her his brother's name was frank through frank's brother's record she was able to trace iron eyes who his parents called oscar hey the brother was frank frank yeah okay all right just make it sure and iron eyes is oscar

yeah yeah this is so he went into auditions like this is my brother frankie and uh yeah and i'm iron eyes hey are you yeah oh frankie say hi hey what you're doing guys hey you got a book fucking iron eyes this guy's gonna nail this part we've been brothers all lives we grew up on the reservation and whatnot yeah we're a spaghetti tribe yeah yeah yeah yeah i'm brooklyn boy hey book game book and we'll make it interesting for you you want to make you some unnative american meatballs hey hey he's gonna give you a performance you're never gonna forget okay he's gonna be unbelievable he's gonna be so unbelievable you're not even gonna believe it uh yes so iron eyes was italian his mom was from a winemaking family in sicily and his

father also italian had first met her uh when their marriage was arranged she uh uh learned of the louisiana town the the scholar learned of the louisiana town oscar had been born in and found out that everyone there had known for years but didn't want to blow his secret so she wrote an article with the proof but many still didn't believe it of course iron eyes denied it and said his story of being raised in oklahoma was true of course iron eyes kody died peacefully in 1999 at the age of 94 what year 94 1999 wow 1999 yeah in the eyes always feel weird when it's that class in the eyes of many in the eyes of many native americans throughout the us the roles portrayed by jay silverheels remain a terrible example of uncle tomahawk while iron

eyes kody is seen as an honorary native american he lit the native american lifestyle and did much to help those in need they say though this is not a unanimous opinion at a ceremony honoring his death mary feather said quote this is a time of great sorrow for we have lost a dear one of our people at iron eyes appreciation days in desert hot springs lee thunderbear was asked about iron wait wait i'm saying it i'm saying hello the fuck down what happened at iron eyes appreciation days in desert hot springs which i'm not i couldn't find if it was still going on but it went on for quite a while i'm talking to go down let's go down there and just go no no no it's a page one rewrite uh so at at the appreciation days when the when he first died lee thunderbear was asked

about iron eyes background and he said quote when i hear people say that it makes me angry i don't pay credence to that stuff that fucking reality shit how uh advertisers he said that reality shit no i i added oh it was it was still very in character advertisers estimate that iron eyes face on billboards posters and magazine ads has been viewed 14 billion times making him the most recognizable native american figure of the century more who is italian more than johnny dep in 2013 the lone ranger starring johnny dep his tonto bombed fucking yeah me now now how do you feel about johnny dep being uh how much worse is it after this so much worse it's but well he's still pretty talented so there's like a tea party inside the movement of well like i think i think a lot

of them feel that even though it's hard it's hard to like the barometer for that is like you think that uh there there's a little bit of cosby happening where where everybody knew what cosby was doing but no one wanted to say it because he was the face right he was he was the black guy so no black person wanted to go we can't tell him what he's doing right because then it fucks up everything it's the same thing with iron eyes cody now he's out there he's the front and everyone's like we can't fucking tell him that he's not a fucking so everyone just kind of went along with it because he was doing charity he was doing all this great work he's on glance a lot of them said well yeah yeah but a lot of them said like well he's living the life of of a

native american yeah but he's not and if you look at pictures of me you're like oh yeah he's a fucking Italian guy like it doesn't even well because of the marinara all over him it's classic cosplay it's passive yeah no but yeah but but there it i mean that is that is what such a fucker is like the idea that you are like hey great thank you stop also stop knock it off not okay well i think it was innocuous when he was just in bit parts but once the commercial happened they were like stuck right well the second you say that commercial like i i remember that commercial as like i remember like parodies of that commercial but then i remember seeing that commercial i mean that is a quintessential what was that like a super oh my god wasn't it i think

it might have been do you know what the you know what the saving grace is i think it might have been a super boy i think i think i'm 100 right yeah no argument this this the saving grace is that that commercial blew up and there's an italian guy with a ponytail and a feather in his hair laying in his bed going fuck man this is bigger than i thought it was gonna be he is ray leon at the end of good fellas italian yeah he's like he's like he's like he's this christ man i'm fucking gotta be a native american forever now god damn it i can't take it off like i'm in yeah like i like because you know when here before he'd be like native american all set and then when he got out it's like hey you guys hey come on

okay what are we doing over there here's the crazy thing so everybody all the other native americans thought it was weird that even when he was not on set he would just totally dress in the outfit whereas they'd be walking around in jeans and shirts he'd be in the fucking leather what like what option like iron eyes take it take a fucking break bro like you doth dress too much uh what are you supposed to do though you're like i'm nervous i don't want to look normal well but this is like this is like there's an analogy for comedians who turn on this character and then can't shut it down like there was a guy named uh j medecine hat who's recently passed i'm sorry j medecine hat j medecine hat he was a hypnotist that we'd see at funny bones he did

him every quarter he did him all but he wasn't native american and he wasn't even a hypnotist he just no i mean he he was we're gonna need to find out what he was pretty soon no i mean so far he he bought his act from another hypnotist like he was doing he hypnotized him it's like it's like it's like larry the cable guy like he's got to do that oh yeah hey you're still on mic even if you whisper yeah no lame larry that i knew larry the cable guy before he was larry the cable guy he's a fucking dave like a super nice guy all of a sudden he went up at the punchline one i'm like what the fuck is dave doing he was dressed in a full cable guy outfit and then it turned into whatever it is now but like when he goes to like a an oka an oma on a football game

like oh yeah he can't he can't be himself he can't just be like hey guys i'm just gonna have a soda no yeah he's gonna go hell yeah i want a budweiser taste boy give me a head full of prilosex and some sort of crazy beer i'm gonna ride a jet ski through that bull's asshole fuck and some day somewhere there's a guy in the south just looking at him on her mother fucker took my goddamn career i'm an actual motherfucking cable guy my name's larry hey what do you do when a dish drops larry i'm on no tell a punchline no you get on the roof you dig in you test the lines oh that ain't funny but that's why we don't do it

i like that you think it's acting me more authentic if you talk if you if you trouble shot cable problems y'all ever order something when you're on demand freezes y'all let me give you an actual reason why the media is overloading and the best thing to do is remove a couple chords from the power strip go to a direct connection okay that's gonna help a lot it's not funny but it's helpful i'm larry the cable guy thank you goodnight thank you guys thank you thank you to bern krasher thank you