The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds - 261 - Henry Ford's Henchman (Live in Detroit)

Episode Date: April 27, 2017

Comedians Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds are joined by Matt Christman of Chapo Trap House to examine Harry Bennett, Henry Ford's muscle. SOURCES TOUR DATES REDBUBBLE MERCH

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Excuse me? I'm in this is how I perform now. I'm a towel guy, sir. Okay? I sweat. I bleed for this. I'm gonna need this. Also don't talk during the goddamn show. What is? Shut the fuck up. Fucking towel around my neck. I know that you talk during the podcast when you're at home. You're not at home. The towel has dandruff. We have a book coming out May 9th. We would like, it's called The Bible, follow up on Dave's cell. What's it called? The United States of Absurdity. You know that? Okay. Who's wearing the same pants? Me? From when? I don't think I've ever worn these pants on stage before. I can't believe you know that. As when I

walked in the building maybe. In my insane head I'm like maybe someone'll know and you're like I am wearing the same pants. What do you want? I'm on the fucking road. I'm where I'm living. We're going we're just doing one to two sets of pants. Max. I just bought these. I've never worn them on stage before. And that same here? That's not a, that's not a jeans on. So you're fucked up. You know what I mean? But that's a really focused heckle. It's very specific. Very specific. It's the first pant heckle for sure. For sure. You don't get a lot of wearing the same pants. You're listening to the dollop. This is a bi-weekly

American History podcast. Each week I, Dave Anthony, comedian, actor, father, lover, sometimes camper. What is happening? I am a doctor, sir. That's correct. Read a story from American History to my friend. Gareth Reynolds, who has no idea what the topic is going to be about. We did cover this a moment ago. Remember? It's Gareth. It's Welsh. Don't forget to take care of your organizations. And now I'd like to bring up our guest. He's a fucking hilarious. He is from one of my favorite podcasts, if not my favorite podcast. Matt Crispin from Chapo Trap House. Hi, Matt. Hi. I didn't know there'd be high chairs. What does that do?

Well, you were in the same pants. Unbelievable. Actually, I am. We did a show in New York and these are the same pants. There you go. All right. January 17th, 1892. The 90s. Yeah, good start. Strong, strong decade. Strong decade. Henry Herbert Bennett was born in... Henry? Henry Herbert Bennett. Henry was born in... He said Henry again after he said Henry in the middle. He was born in Ann Arbor, Arbor, Michigan, too. What the fuck just happened? Let's not start an interstate battle right now. It's all come together. I get it. The people in Ann Arbor are rich and they're students and you don't like them because you're poor. That's fine. But let's not start a fight here. There it is.

We're all on the same page. There it is. There it is. I knew we'd get it. That reminds me, if anybody can help me, I brought a whole bunch of cans for deposit because I know you got the 10 cents. So somebody wants to like lead me to the nearest repository. It's called cans for pants. All right. Let's all everybody calm down and stop yelling things. They love... I didn't know that they loved cans that much. Who doesn't love cans? His father was Vern Bennett and his mother Frances Bangs Bennett. Frances Bangs? All right. That was her name. She was the inspiration for the Ricky Martin song. You know her. Or she just liked to fuck a lot of guys. There's theories. His father was a house painter and his mother was a school teacher and he's known

as Harry instead of Henry. They called him Harry. He was the second son. His brother Hayes was four years older. Okay. H-A-Z-E. Sure. Hayes. Regular name for a kid. When Harry was two years old, his father died from injuries he got while in a bar fight. Sure. Yep. You know what you're getting in the 1800s. He died of what we're all gonna die from. Bar wrestling. He died doing what he loved. Stabbing a fellow with a broken bottle. Quote in a brawl with a man who struck him over the head with a chair. This is before movies. He didn't know that that was the move everyone was pulling. So you're like a chair. Yeah. I think that they needed to give him royalties for all the times that got used in films after that. Oh, this is about wrestling. This is how wrestling

started. This is how wrestling started. Yeah. The ref didn't see it. Three years later, his mother married Robert Winslow, who's an engineering professor at the University of Michigan. I calmed down. Some engineers. Yeah. Harry did not get along with his mom and step dad. And then his step dad died six years later. So that was great. Let me guess. A restaurant fight. Yeah. I just had a heart situation. A heart situation, which is what they called it back then. A wizard gave him a heart situation. At that point, Harry's mother did what was called Orphaning Him Out. That sounds totally legit. Is that an app? So does that just mean she just lets him like, what does it mean? Well, she sent him to Saginaw to live with his uncle. Just was like, I can't deal with you.

Off you go. And she was kind of dumb with them. You just let go. Bye, you fucker. Sounds like how you can leave your kid at the fire station now, kind of. Yeah. Wait, what? Yeah, you can do that in some states. No questions asked. Yeah, you can do it in Nebraska. Right. I think they're 14. Yeah, which is a weird. Yeah. And a lot of people push that bait. He's got a goatee. He's 14. Aren't you, Gus? It's got to be weird when you're 14. Your mom's like, that's it for you. You're going to the fire station. Or when you're 14, and you're like, no more fire station, but I'm the Dalmatian. I love fuck off. A couple of years later, his mom invited him back and Harry and his mom moved to Detroit. All right. All right, there we go. The people from

Detroit here tonight. She ran a boarding house while Harry went to the Detroit Fine Arts Academy. Okay. He wanted to become a painter. Good. Yeah. And die in a bar fight. And die in a bar fight. Just like daddy. And haze. Good ol' haze. That only went on for a couple of years, and then Harry ran away and went to Cleveland. Who hasn't? Honestly, who hasn't done that? Why would you run away to Cleveland? No offense. It's a great place. Ten cent beer. Ten cent beer. Right. You're talking about the Ohio Riviera right there. Why wouldn't you want to go there? When he was in Cleveland, he met a sailor named Sam Taylor. This is a nursery rhyme, right? Well, well, well, well. And he tried to convince Harry to

nail her. Go ahead. To join the Navy saying if it's all gravy. Saying he would train Harry to be a boxer if he did join up. So Harry lied about his age and joined the Navy at 17 years old. Okay. He was five, six. So that he could die in a bar fight. Like, could easily die in a bar fight. My dad died in a bar fight. I don't want that to happen to me. Well, he is a boxer too. He was probably, they were probably like, look, there's no chair. He's like, I just feel like there's a chair behind me all the time. I can't focus. It's what took my paw. Chair.

Siri, would you like to sit down? What the fuck you mean by that? I'm not an idiot. I'm not falling for the old chair and smash. Tell my daddy died. So Harry was pretty short. He had red hair and weighed about 145 pounds. Classic boxer size. Adorable. Harry and Sam were stationed together on the battleship Ohio. Yeah. Okay. I live on that battleship. Yeah. Harry trained under Kid McCoy, who was known as one of the classiest middleweights of his time. Sure. Harry would box professionally whenever he was ashore. So whenever the ship stopped,

he'd go box. Okay. Classic. Yeah. He boxed under the name Sailor Reese. How? There's no fucking reason why. There was no reason anywhere. He just called himself Sailor Reese. Sailor Reese. Awful. It's not great. He's a sailor named Sam Taylor and you're like, I'm gonna go, yeah, no, that's too catchy. Um, he, uh, he worked in naval intelligence. He got tattoos. He drew cartoons for the Navy newspaper. For the what? Navy paper for his boats paper. Well, I don't know if it's not, I mean, he's 17, but it sounds like a nine year old. I don't know if it was just for the boat, but it was maybe for the whole Navy's

supposed to just, I don't think it's boat. It's just in, uh, windy today, just like yesterday. Puddle on the deck. Kill me. So in your mind, on one of the decks of the ship, there's a printing press and there's a guy down there cranking out the paper. Yeah. What's going on today, captain? That's what the poop deck is. That's where they make the stuff. Um, he got tattoos. He played, uh, the clarinet in the service band. Okay. He's kind of living like Groundhog Day a little bit. Yeah. Acquiring skills that are pretty much useless. Uh, apparently Harry looked quote formidable. He had, uh, broken every fingle and every thing. Every one of his fingers was broken. Every finger. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. All 250

human fingers. My God. He broke every finger and knuckle boxing or as they're known in the business, Fingals. Well, you know, when you're odd to go, you don't have time to separate them into two words. I broke them go into third base. Fingals. His hands were described as gnarled fists. That's not fun. His face was scarred and he had quote, want to hear the clarinet? Oh my God. What? You like cartoons? Uh, extra, extra proposition received oddly. Sorry. What is your hand? Sorry. Yeah. It seems like he's doing all this stuff just to get somebody to sit with him at lunch. Yeah. Yeah. These are cries for help. Uh, his, his face was scarred and he had quote. How good could his cartoons be with these claws?

It's like the paintings those elephants make with their trunks. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if you've ever seen the curious George cartoons, but elephants draw pretty well. Huh? Have you ever seen curious George cartoons? The glasses are coming off for this one, huh? This is a 60 minutes moment. But answer the goddamn question. Have you ever seen the cartoon curious George and know what the elephant has to do with it? Well, I can tell you right now, they are pretty good painters. I mean, it's realistic footage. Yeah. No, it's, it's, it's documentary sort of. The man who wore the hats, the curious George yellow hat, but okay. Oh, yellow hat. I got him confused with that guy who wore all the hats. Yeah. You're thinking of the guy

who wore all the hats. Yeah. Dr. Seuss, you can't, yeah, I had all the hats on. Right. It's different. Yeah. It's different than the guy with the one hat. Let's cut this part out. Uh, he had a quote, a suspicion of a twist in his jaw that was broken in a navy ring scrap. So he had, I think his jaw was broken. It was a little off, but it was suspicious. It was suspicious. Okay. It's suspicious. So he's, I'm sure that won't get in the way of clarinetting. With his claws, banging on it, little gnarled fizz. Nobody wants. Oh, legs. Does anybody want to tell him he can't be in the band anymore? I think the key is we need to practice more and maybe feature the clarinet.

Yeah. Less clarinet. Maybe we bring, maybe we bring the gain on the clarinet down at like 50%. No way. Clarinets, everything. Tired. Harry signed on to work as a deep sea diver for a navy ship doing salvage work and charting the West African coast. What's he going to be salvaging with those mitten hands? At a port in Senegal, a below deck explosion caused the ship to burn to the waterline. That'll happen. Harry and another sailor were suspected of being at fault.

So they did what anyone would do. They ran off into Senegal and headed for the nearest port. Oh my God. I think in most courts that counts as an animation of guilt. I did it. I rubbed my stumps together until he started a fire. I couldn't touch the off button. Look at me. But I did write a song about it. Yeah. I love how in our version of him, he's just like a gnarled nub of gristle. Like he's not even a human being. He has no functioning limbs. He's just Pogo sticking around. Yeah. Trying to make human noises with his mouth, whole. Yeah. There comes Harry. The clarinet tape to his hand. How y'all doing? Oh God.

Hey, why are you running? Oh boy. Wish what y'all felt right. Hi everybody. Here's Harry. He's in the front to God. Hey. Wait, what? So the port was 160 miles away. Sure. So that's a fine jog. At what point are you like, what did we do? We're going to die. I don't know if this is worth it. So they survived mostly on peanuts and rice. Classic. The classic combo. I don't know if you've ever been to Senegal, but that's just, that's all it is. Pretty good. Yeah. Seven days later, bearded and exhausted, they crawled out of the swamps. Oh my God.

They told the story. No more nuts. They told the story about being attacked by a Senegalese man who slashed one of their faces and the ear lobe of the other before they were able to throw him into a bog. So that just happened. That's their story. The classic self-defense technique. Bog throw. And I love how that's the end of it. The guy's like, I'm dead. You got me. No moving from this. No defense against the bog. I'm in the bog. You've done one. I tip my cap to you, sir. Yes. My yellow cap. I tip all my caps. There's a stack of them. They then hopped onto a Spanish freighter and made their way back to the US. Wow. They landed in New York and Harry was then discharged from

the Navy. Okay. For what? I feel like so run away is an appropriate defense. Set the ship on fire and run away. They're like, get out of here. I got to remember that. We're very mad at you. If I ever accidentally joined the Navy, I have a get out of Navy free card. Yep. So when they were in New York, Harry and a friend got into a fight with customs officials in Battery Park, which then escalated into a fist fight with the police. A well-known journalist for the New York Times who was a boxing aficionado happened to be walking by and he saw the fist fight and convinced the police to release the two men. What? This is how things work back then. What time? What era?

Obviously, you see the way he punched you in the face? You got to let this guy go. Oh, I never thought of it like that. Well, get out of here, boys. Sorry about that. Boy, we were real assholes back there. The guy, the reporter then took Harry to meet a guy from Michigan who was in New York. His name was Henry Ford. All right. Oh boy. That's that's telling. I just wanted to say that instead of calling the region of the country we're in the Midwest, you could call it the part of the country where people clap when they hear their state named on stage. Ford asked Harry if he would like a job at his new... As a clarinet cartoonist? Boy,

you betcha, Hank. The boys at the plant need some music. Entertainment. And the last guy we had who didn't have a face or hands. He used to play the oboe, but he died on us. So we're looking for a clarinet guy with stumps. Well, I don't know any, sir. Right on that guy. So he asked Harry if he'd like a new job at his Detroit plant that was under construction. It was rumored the interview was only one question. Henry Ford asked, can you shoot? And Harry nodded. Oh, key-dokey. What was he meeting with him for? Again. This was just a general? Yeah. Yeah. Ford then offered Harry a position as a security officer, and Harry took the job

and came to Detroit, quote, to be Ford's eyes and ears. And trigger finger, apparently. Well, trigger fingers. They're kind of molded together at this point. Trigger stomp. Once I can get my paw inside of the gun, then I'll be able to fire it. But manipulating the trigger can be tough, mainly because I play the clarinet during it. But why him? He just was like, I found a guy. Because he saw how good. You're perfect. The guy saw how good of a boxer he was, how good of a fighter he was. So he's like, this guy's going to hold his own. Yeah, he's beating up the police. And he's like, you like this guy?

You love this guy, Henry. He deals with authority properly. Right. And if you ever need the factory burned to the waterline, he's right there. Absolutely. Ford brought him on to be his driver and personal bodyguard at first. All right, I'm going to have to re-picture these hands. I will always love you. Is this where it's going? And he's just singing that into the clarinet. Is that where this ends up? I don't want to jump ahead, but that's it. He carries him away from an assassination attempt. This ends up, this is going to be about the song. I thought so.

Harry always wore a smart suit, fedora and bow tie. Sure. He wore a bow tie instead of a hanging tie because hanging ties could be grabbed in a fight. Smart. Okay. Great. And he always carried a handgun. But it is funnier if you get grabbed by the bow tie and get the shit kicked out of you. Oh, man, he's really got a better grip around that knot. You're also much more likely to get the shit kicked out of you wearing a bow tie. Yeah. And if you see George Will tell him I'm fucking looking for him. Harry did everything Ford asked whether it was day or night. He did it immediately. Harry was just one year older than Ford son Edsel. Yeah, the kid named Edsel. It feels like these are the, these are names are making a comeback. I bet if you went to

like your local Montessori school, you'd find an Edsel and a Hayes with a Z. This is Hayes. This is Hedsel. Ford saw the son he wanted in Harry. Wow. I love my boy. I love my boy, but he has 10 separate fingers. He's not like you. He's not aquatic. You throw him in a bog. He doesn't know what to do with himself. He's out of his element. I want a son who will throw people in a box. As Ford's bodyguard, Harry met and wooed a dangerous man on both sides of the law. He used these men to get information to help Ford. In 1917, Ford put Harry in charge of security at the new... I'm going to read it the way it's... Oh boy. You guys are all going to say it's wrong. This rouge plant? Well, for once in the fucking world, a word is exactly as it should be.

Don't get mad at them for validating you. Rouge. Don't get mad at them for telling you you did good. The rouge. No. I'm surprised it's not rouge. I'm surprised they didn't go, it's rouge. Roggy. At the time, the plant built U-boat gunners for the U.S. Navy. And when Harry arrived at the rouge, he immediately got into fistfight with the foreman. It's practice. It's good. It's fine. It's good. It's like your first day in jail. Find the foreman and beat him up. They knocked each other to the ground and afterwards... Why aren't you wearing a regular tie? This would be over if you didn't have the boss. Son of a bitch. He's done his homework. After Harry explained why he was at the plant, quote,

I am Ford's personal man. And I will always love you. Harry was just 24 years old. Sure. According to the Ann Arbor news, quote, he used his fists to control workers who dared to complain or get out of line or who broke Ford's rules against talking to other workers or loitering. Loitering. That's the first HR department. Loitering is so hard to determine. You going somewhere? Kinda. You get there. Just be standing around here. What are you doing? I'm loitering. Don't say that, Bobby. Oh, God, no. There's no tie to grow.

So, Harry, sorry, Henry Ford hired a guy to beat up workers who complained or were moving around slowly. You can't outlaw meanders. We cannot let, like, the Uber CEO hear the show. Oh, my God. Too many ideas. You can beat him. He's going to be like, you can do that? You can have a guy in the passenger seat with brass knuckles? Can you shoot him? Harry turned out to be a very good choice. He quickly stopped a plot by pro-German sympathizers to sabotage the plant. Wow. Harry was so loyal to Henry Ford that during a newspaper interview, he said, quote, if Mr. Ford told me to black out the sun tomorrow, I might have a little trouble,

but you'd see a hundred thousand sons of bitches coming through the rouge gates in the morning with dark sunglasses on. Holy fuck. That is a hell of an intro at a job interview. And for the TV version, you'd spell it S-U-N-S of bitches. Sons of bitches. That's right. Thank you. So, he... So, he thinks a lot of himself, and then he'll get stuff done for Mr. Ford. Sure. Sure. Henry once fired a... Harry once fired a Ford aid by tricking him to get onto the fender of a car,

which he then started up, drove off the plant grounds, and turned sharply so the guy fell off. Wait, wait. Sorry. Then he drove back into the plant. He did that to fire him? That's how he fired the guy. Is that a law if you do like a high jink that counts as a firing? That should be how they did it on the apprentice. It's not like you can't... You're no longer eligible for workman's comp or like unemployment insurance or like, how did you get fired? Well, he led me out of the plant and there was a big X on the ground. Sure. And I walked over to it and a piano hit me on the head.

Interesting. Like, sorry, you don't get any money. Well, he is a cartoonist, so... Did that happen more than once? That should be the only thing that happens one time. It was in the newspaper report from the time and it just said it happened once. Okay. I guess once that happens, you sort of take the hint. When you fall off of the moving car, you're like, I should probably not even go back to work. Or if you don't, you're like, hey man, I was on that. What the hell? Oh, I am? What the fuck?

If a guy drives you out of the plant and you're like, what are you doing? Stop the car and then he turns and you fall off and then he drives away. You're like, ah, I'm fired. What's the problem? Can I get my stuff? Nope. Ow! I hear that Facebook has moved all two pies in the face for firings across the board. So no one could fire Harry except for Ford himself because he wasn't really on the books. He mostly just got perks and extra shit and access to funds and stuff like that. Sure. Sure. Not shady at all. Nope. Harry increased the size of his security detail, handpicking guys he knew he could trust.

The men included washed up football players, former boxers, wrestlers, cops, convicts, mobsters, and gang members from all over Detroit. How many people are like, how many of these bruisers is he hiring? He ends up hiring a lot. Is this like the original Suicide Squad? It's like the football team from the longest yard. Harry put them all on the service department payroll. They protected the plants and workers while at the same time acting as internal spies

and a quote employee motivation squad. That is like the term we use today for that bullshit. It totally is. So their job is to just wait around for people to loiter or to beat the shit out of people and to spy on them. Well, so they rooted out troublemakers and management and lazy workers. That was their deal. Harry was also put in charge of security for Ford's grandchildren because kidnappings were a big thing in the 20s and 30s, especially for famous and wealthy families.

Ford was very concerned that his family would be targeted, and this turned out to be true. Harry ended up thwarting a substantial plot to kidnap Edsel's two sons in broad daylight. The gang planned to ransom them for 500,000 or chop them up into pieces and throw them in the river. Not the bog. We're not sure which way we're going to go with this. We could go for money. We could put them in the water in little pieces. That's got to be a great like spitball session. I just, again, I hate to keep pitching it.

Okay. Cutting them up into pieces very graphic for sure dead. But then we don't have any money. No, I'm saying it's the threat. Oh, this isn't going well. Do you just want to cut up kids? Do we need the money that bad? Honestly, I pay half a million dollars in order to cut a kid up into pieces. When I first heard of this, I thought the whole thing was to cut them up.

We want the money. What are we going to do with that money? It'll be fun to cut up the kids. I think that'll teach you to drive me off of your car, motherfucker. No matter what, we can agree that when you're planning a kidnapping, always a good rule of thumb to just go with wing it. Yeah. So the wannabe kidnappers had diagrams detailing elaborate plans of the home. Oh, that's not incriminating.

They also had a family gardener who they planted as an inside man months before. They planted a gardener? That's a first. Hopefully in spring, we'll have a bunch of gardeners off ahead. I'm just landscaping crew. It's our landscaping company. It's a plan. They just go out one day and there's a new gardener got planted here. Hey, what's my deal? What am I? Keep working.

You know, it's funny. We didn't make any money on the kidnapping, but we have a booming landscaping business. Too many. We had to cut down the gardener bush. So Harry found out about the plot via his spy network. And on the day of the kidnapping, police were waiting and captured five of the criminals. The other four were mysteriously never seen or heard from again. Where'd they go? You just go boog. I think we can say bog pretty safely.

Sure. Bog life. We know he's got that one in the hip pocket. All else fails. Bog. No. You've been bogged, motherfucker. Ah, standing is not an option. So to keep further kidnappings from happening, Harry gave the fruit concession contracts for the plants to the mob to keep them happy.

Wait a minute. Fruit? Fruit and the plant? Yep. Sorry. Sorry. Yep. Go ahead. Run it back. Look, to keep more kidnappings from happening, he went to the mob and he said, you can sell all the fruit of the plants.

Henry forged plants and the mob was like, you betcha. So I'm assuming that it's the factory workers who are buying the fruit? Well, yeah. What's the deal with the fruit? I really, I'm hung up on the fruit. So I guess the mob had a lot of fruit. Wait, Dave, sorry. Uh-huh.

Okay, so the mob, the mob, mob that he has not employed? Right, they're not employed. No, the real mob. Well, there was time, there's, he's hired some mob members, but this is an external mob and he's bribing them with Ford fruit. He went to like the head of the mob in Detroit and he's like, they have the fruit and they're going to sell it in the plants. They're going to sell it in the plants to make money.

So they have, they have the contracts to sell the fruit. So they're going to get it from the capote fruity copy. That is correct. Okay. I get it now. I still don't fathom. The mob, the mob is an organization. The mob's deal.

We're looking to look a little nicer. But the mob is an organization. Yeah, you give us all the lemons and the cherries. Did you ever watch, did you ever watch the Sopranos? Yeah. So when they take over that guy's restaurant and then they start charging crazy fees for everything and they have to go through them to get it.

Uh-huh. It's like that. So now people are like, 10 bucks for an apple. Shut up and eat it. You know what, I'm, this is ringing a bell now because I just remembered to what I learned out recently that the Gambino family founded edible arrangements. So now I understand the mafia fruit connection better.

That's true. Right. That's right. There's a horse's head under the watermelon. We'll be in clear. In 1920, Ford made- I'm not over what you just said. But keep going.

Ford made Harry head of the Ford service department was actually security. They monitored Ford employees, intimidated union organizers, handed out punishments and guarded Ford's family. He brought men in like boxer kid McCoy. Ah, kid McCoy's back. Who he met in the Navy obviously.

McCoy was now a washed up boxer who had been married 10 times. What? So what have you been doing since the last time I saw you? I've been getting married a lot. All I've been doing is marrying. I just really like the cake. Yeah. And you can't get it anywhere else.

I tried having some just in a place that's not the same. If it's not a blessed day. Oh, you buy each wedding cake. The experience combined with the cake? Just perfect. Oh, that was a good wedding. Ah, I'm not that into it. All ready?

Yeah. Yeah. I hated the way you said I do. I mean, the wrong goddamn way. I'll get out here. Thank you, sir. McCoy was paroled into Harry's care after serving time for murdering his last wife. Well, I mean, we know he's a self-starter.

You know what they say? They say, you know, do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life. When divorce won't do. Yep, the first nine, it was just a lot of strings left over. That'll be embarrassing to get divorced again. I might just murder her. Yeah, you get really good closure if you kill somebody. Harry also hired serial kidnapper Joseph Leggs Lamont.

Leggs Lamont. Lamont. It doesn't matter about the last name. He fucking Leggs. He got his nickname either because he was able to outrun police or because he was really tall. No one, no one knows which one. It's a chicken or the egg. So, the rouge plant was a wonder of the industrial age.

It was the largest factory in the world. 100,000 workers worked on the assembly line. Thank you. Harry got divorced and married for the second time in 1928 and had a daughter. Well, kid her boy's rubbing off on him. Yeah, I gotta give it another whirl. He was also becoming a target twice in 1929. His car was shat, the shat ass. Oh, David.

Here. That's how they do it in Detroit, apparently. Damn. Just drive hard. Hard core. What the hell? That guy's got his ass out. Oh, fuck.

The new Ford Shat. Only available in brown. So, he comes home to a shat car. Ah, again, he's punk. So, he was shot at in drive-by shootings. That must have been where the shat came from. So, Ford bought 154 acres and together, the two men built Bennett Castle in Ypsilanti. What? Ypsilant?

Oh, dear. Ypsilanti. Ypsilanti, right? No. How? No. That's not what it is. Yps.

Yps. Why do I feel like a Republican in a town hall? It's a Y. Yps. Why don't you need IP? No, bullshit. No, he's 100% right. There's a Y there for a reason.

Get over to yourselves. Because we're... I'm with you guys. Look how they repay you for that. Look at that fucking kiss ass. Is that how you repay him for that? Disgraceful. Because Ford was involved in building the castle, no expense was spared.

It was 22 rooms. They're just building a castle for shits and gigs? No, it's for security reasons. Okay. They constructed secret compartments all over the house for liquor and weapons. There were horse stables and outdoor theater, a boat house on the river, and an indoor heated swimming pool. Sounds very secure.

They had a secret room which could only be accessed through a hidden fireplace door. They had that thing. That's before... Again, it's before movies. You're like, nobody'll know. Yeah. This was Frankenstein's castle. Yeah.

Now the first thing you do when you walk into a castle is you pull every fucking light... Every line. What the fuck, any of these? All the books out of all the shelves. I'm gonna find the lab. I'm gonna find your weird layer, motherfuckers. Scoop, Scoopy? I heard a Scoopy.

Scoopy-doop? There it is again. Another room had the appearance of an underworld catacomb. There was a tiled Roman bath which was hidden behind a sliding cabinet. Oh yeah. Secret bath. I mean imagine if you just were there and you opened the cabinet. Is that a fucking bath?

What the fuck? It's what a dish. All of the jobs at that factory I'm sure were grueling and terrible, but the worst person, the guy who got the real shit out of the stick and the entire Ford company who's ever had to clean that fucking Roman bath that they had back there. That clearly was not ventilated because it was behind a... This took a weird turn. There was another building a little ways away that was famous because inside it had

lion and tiger dens. What? What is happening? Is this Neverland Ranch? See that's what it's about. It's about getting that tiger money. That's how you know you've made it when you can buy an exotic animal. That's the Pablo Escobar level.

It's tigers and lions. To be safe. We're trying to be safe here. Those are lions, yep. Those weren't the only animals. He also built a house for ducks that was the replica of the U.S. Capitol. Let's get out of here. Thank you, Dave.

Thanks, bud. Been a pleasure. Thank you so much. That sounds like something I would do when I'm 80. It's my duck layer. And they live together. Weird just quite a pair. As I'm handing someone like an ace of spades like put it on my credit card.

I don't understand. Ducks are my pals. See that's the thing like modern rich people just don't have as much fun. They just want to live forever with teenagers blood. They don't want to build duck congress. Right. My favorite millionaire is going to be the next guy they go you just sold your IPO for billion dollars.

What are you doing? Duck congress. Henry, I got one last idea. All right, here. A duck congress. Huh? We've made some weird decisions, but this one's a yes from the big man. Let's do it.

It makes total sense. It's time. It is absolutely time. Got that duck you money, uh, there were two 300 foot long tunnels that ran away from the property with twisting windy turns and stairs that were purposefully cut to different heights. So what? So so a grandpa can't get us. Yes, they're different, no, bog.

That's right. So pursuers would fall and break their neck. It's just them. Okay. The whole thing is fucking nuts, obviously. But the idea that you're like, I mean, this is like, that's like a homo. You'd edit that out of home alone. The steps will be like an inch different dude.

They won't even know. Should we just get the lions in here? No, no, dude. They're there for the ducks to watch. We'll make the stairs marginally dip. Think about it. He'll be like, oh fuck. No.

Whoa. This is high. Oh shit. I got to reavail. I we can't do this. We can't get in here. How are we going to climb that? They're misfit.

By the way, have you ever seen home alone with blood? It go home, YouTube it when you get home. It's home alone, but if the people got literally hurt. There is also. It's just blood everywhere. It's so fucking great. There was an interview. They did something a few years ago where they had an actual doctor

diagnose every actual injury and literally everything. He was like, again, cranial fracture. He would be lucky to survive this. So Harry was known to take visitors on a guide of the tunnels where he would lead them to an automated lion that would growl and spring at guests. But they have a real one, right? Yeah, but this one wouldn't kill his friends.

This one was a fake one. Sometimes he would let the cats roam the catacombs to prevent sneak attacks from enemies. This is my paradise. You know, they say that a large predatory animal in the home is 10 times more likely to attack the home owner than any intruder. Well, if they get by the cats,

the automated lion ought to get them out of here. And if not, they're going to try to climb the steps and be totally fucked. Well, you've thought of everything here. Poorly. Floodlights lit up the grounds at night and armed men patrolled the roof. So there's armed men and he's also like, but the cats.

Let's stew both. Also, giant guard dogs roamed the property. Good for the cats. So the property ran along the Huron River. He had a boat here on here on whatever. He had a boat house and a boat gassed up and ready to go at any time. How many lions on the boat?

Yeah. Well, this scenario. What is honestly to get to the boat? You had to fight nine orangutan. Well, you know, that's foolish because you wouldn't get past one. Come on, very strong. That's just overkill. Ridiculous.

Or you just throw like like a tomato at it and it'd be like, what the fuck? And then you'd be like, all right, to the boat. Let's go. Ford had a private railroad spur built on the Harry's property so he could travel to Detroit quickly if he needed to. Also on the property, he had what was called Bennett's hideout. It was a concrete bunker built to look like a log cabin

and was only 3,000 feet from the castle. Naturally, it had a hidden door behind a fireplace that led to an attic with 360 degree gun ports. That's the hell of a man cave. You got the Bud Light Mirror. The gaming rig, which is a hoop and stick. Play a little foosball. Actual actual.

Let's get the ducks in here. Have a little fun. The actual Spud Mackenzie. Yeah. The original one, yeah. I can't, this scenario, what is, what is he thinking? What is he thinking is gonna, what's that gonna happen? He had another place. He doesn't need it.

Bennett's Lodge. You're out of ideas when you have a duck castle. Bennett's Lodge in Farwell, Farwell, Michigan. It was fortified and surrounded by a moat. All right. Because moats cannot be crossed in 1930s. Crossed in 1930s. I just, I don't.

He's ready for it. Whatever you're bringing, he's ready. Everything. And yet. Like, how do you get there? Oh, shit. Well, I would just. It's like painting yourself into a corner.

I don't think we can get back. I would just hop in the delivery guy's truck and then come out shooting. What? How would I get there? I would hop in the fucking, I would hop in the guy delivering the stuff, the fruit. The edible arrangements guy?

I'd come out of a pile of bananas with my guns. You ready, Bennett? Release the ducks. Knock, knock, knock. Who's there? Yeah, I got your lion feed. His story checks out. Drop it.

Oh, no. And yet, with all these precautions, somehow Harry was not safe. A mobster who was upset with Harry because Harry had foiled a plot he had hatched. So the guy. So this someone got some kids got kidnapped by a wealthy family.

And this guy was pretending like he was the kidnappers trying to get money. That's the best per that's the best like idea. It's a person who's just. Oh, yeah, I did it. Yeah, I got the kids. Yeah, they're fine. But we need the money.

However much I asked for in whatever I sent you or didn't. And I'll tell you what I want now. I didn't. Okay. Million. You pitch. What do you got? So Harry foiled the plot.

And this guy managed to sneak onto the property and forced his way into the castle. And he surprised Harry in his living room and shot him in the stomach. What? He must have just been like, how? How? How?

How? Lions, you're fired. Get out of here. We got lions and tigers and moats. I came in there. I came in the banana truck. It's the banana guy. He fires bananas.

No! And then the mobster ran away and got away. Harry somehow survived. And while he was recovering, he was sent a photograph from police. It was a picture of the dead mobster. The Ann Arbor News said he was, quote, shot in many places and very, very dead.

Clearly they had a good coroner. It's all the shots in places. And he was declared very, very dead upon arrival. Well, you know what? He was SDOA. They say in... Super dead on arrival. In journalism, there's the what?

The four W's in the H? You know, who, what, where, when and how dead. Yeah. You got to get into it. Very dead. He is very dead. Super duper dead. I have some bad news.

Your husband's not only dead, he's very dead. He died a lot earlier. So dead. And I deal with a lot of dead people. And he's really gone. Super gone from you. How dead is he? So dead.

He is... Let me sit down. I'll tell you how. He is really, he's really, really, really, really dead. He's really dead. He has died a lot. Okay? Gone.

Gone. Super gone. Caused a death. Dead. Number one killer too. Death, not a lot of people know that. I'm not a doctor or a coroner. I'm actually an actor and I'm researching a role and...

A message was written on the back of the picture. Dear Harry, this is the dude, he won't bother you no more. We caught him and he tried to get away. At least there's a beginning, middle and an ending. Yeah. After the shooting, Harry did what he needed to do and installed a pair of turrets on the roof, rising three stories above the grounds

with a clear view to the river. Wait, was he just going to stay up there all the time? What, honestly, at what point are you like, I think I'm wasting my life. I think when my dad got killed with a chair, I got a little paranoid about what's behind me. You know what, maybe I should stop beating up people for not working fast enough.

No. No. I had a weird voice there, that didn't make sense. Maybe people would stop trying to kill me if I was much of a wretched dickhead. No, no, no, no, no, no. No, I'm hearing weird voices that I shouldn't hear. Keep going, Harry, you're doing great.

Harry also used to freak out fellow Ford executives by bringing the lines and tigers to his office and doing paintings of them. Remember he wanted to be a painter? Well, now he's bringing tigers to his office and painting them. Is there a bigger power move? Like you show up with them and they're like, the fuck? And you're like, no, no, it's not what you think. I'll be painting them.

So from now on, Fridays will be no tiger Fridays? Oh, I think that's directed at me. No, no, no, no, no. That feels like a rule that specifically applies to me. No, it's for everybody. What about tigers and lions? No, no, no, no, no. Lions or tigers?

No lion Wednesday. Casual Thursdays? What is this becoming? No, I know we wear goofy shirts on Thursdays. This isn't about outfits. Casual Thursdays? Casual Thursdays. And then no, no tigers on Friday. That's just going to screw up the whole duck weekend.

I just don't even. And no, no ducks at all. What? What is it? Can you remember when we started this fucking business? Yeah. And a guy used to be able to walk into work with a lion and a tiger and go to his office and goddamn paint them. What are we becoming?

I ought to be beating the shit out of myself over this one. You don't get it here. You don't get it. They don't have any tigers at Chrysler. And look at how they're doing. How are they doing? Are they doing well? Okay.

And guess what that's going to be due to? A lack of jungle predators, a lack of alpha animals that can run eight times faster than a human being. Hey, I don't even want to paint anymore. Fuck this shit. Yeah, I'm going to the moat. I don't even give a shit. I'm going for the next week.

All right. I'm out of here. Beat the fuck out of yourselves. Fucking believable. And that's not all quote, quote, Harry Bennett used to sit with his feet up on the desk and a target at the other end of the room and fire his 45 target practice in his office. That must have startled the lion. Like what do you, I mean, there's just, you're just like, look, he'll tucker himself out.

Yeah, you go tell him. They're like, let's go get the boss. Nope. Henry Ford also liked to hang out in Harry's office and target shoot. Sometimes Ford aimed at a metal ceiling light fixture to irritate the executives upstairs. What? By attempting to murder them? Yeah, but he's shooting through.

He's shooting at the light fixture. So it would go, it wouldn't go through it because it's metal, I guess. Yeah, I guess is the right attitude for that. Maybe. Henry Ford. Oh, it did go through. Too dead. Oh man, we had a hell of a run though, huh?

What an afternoon, huh? We had a lot of fun, huh? I like to keep it pretty loose around here. All right? We're not like most of your corporations, okay? We like to keep it pretty chill. We have a lion's den here and we shoot upstairs. It's a fun, huh?

You don't have to be crazy to work here, but it helps. I would like to request an office on the first floor. Let the lion talk to you about it. Ford hated executives, which was one reason he liked Harry. By the 1930s, the Ford Service Department employed 1,000 men and was called by journalist H.L. Menken, quote, the most powerful private police force in the world. That's normal.

It's a normal thing. The service department ensured that productivity kept up and quotas were met. Service department members would beat workers on the line for going slow or running their mouth. You see? That's how it works. Like the eighth habit of highly effective people is higher hired goons. It's how you do it. It probably got results.

Yeah, you work fast if a guy is going to punch you in the back of the head. Why are you working so fast? Oh, they kick the shit out of you here if you're not good. What? I shouldn't be talking. That's what Six Sigma is about. The security men were so thorough that they would often follow employees to the bathroom. Thought you said two.

What are you doing? You doing a dose? Let's go. I actually have trouble going outside of my home if you could leave me alone for a second. Would it help if I punched you in the gut? Would the shit come out of you then? No. What if I kicked the shit out of you?

You know, I don't have to go as bad anymore. I'll probably just go back to work and stop running my mouth. Too late. You ever seen train spotting? No, it's the 30s. Look, we know it shouldn't be taken this long. We know you had the brand flakes for breakfast. You're right.

I'm being a weasel. Working at the plant was like being under armed guard. Their concerns were in part justified. The rouge plant was a rough place. There was a lot of stealing. The worker's slogan was $6 a day plus parts. Awesome. Harry stayed up on top of things with his spies.

One Saturday morning, two cars pulled up in front of the main office of the Ford company and a dozen gunmen got out. Harry came out and calmly walked up to them and he said, quote, you can't get away with this. It's too tough. Behind those doors, I got 25 of the hardest men in the country. You might get in and you might get the money, but some of you would certainly get killed.

If any of you lived to get away, these boys would hunt you down one by one until you'd all be dead. These fellows have soft jobs and easy dough with me and they won't be very nice to you for buttoning, so think it over. And then gunmen... Try and turn around. I think we should get out of here. The gunmen that huddled together and discussed the situation.

He was just... Let me... Go ahead. Well, when he... I mean, he seems serious. You know, he seems for real. No, it's weird that he came out without a gun and was just like very calm. Yeah, I'll be honest.

I'm just doing this conference to kind of save a little space. His calmness has seriously thrown me off. Yeah, no, it's not okay what he said to us. And so let's just, you know, get the fuck out of here. Yeah, let's go. Let's get out of here. This is shitty idea. It's early in the day, so we can still make a day.

You know, we can still go somewhere else. You're gonna play pool? Yeah, I'd love to play some pool. Yeah, I'd absolutely love to play some pool. Let's be pool instead. Yeah. Guys, I think we can take him. I think we can do it.

Leroy Jenkins! There's a lot of people like, I don't know what just happened. That was the greatest video. So the guys got into their cars and just drove off. Thanks to being such a straight shooter. Sorry again. We really, what were we talking about? We lost our hands.

No one ever knew if Harry had any men in the office or if he was just bluffing. So this was all... Well, when a dude shows up with lions to work and shoots lamps. Yeah, you're like, take a minute. I'll take his first word. You seem pretty straight shooter. We taught the lions how to shoot.

You know, we're gonna get going. We're actually gonna hit the road and get moving. So this was during the Great Depression, which Henry Ford blamed on the poor. It was their fault. Quote, these are really good times, but only if you know it. Oh, okay. The average man won't really do a day's work

unless he is caught and cannot get out of it. So he's cool. Jesus. He did, so he didn't have a lot of sympathy for the poor or workers. It doesn't sound like it from that quote. Nope. The auto industry suffered exceptionally during the Depression after the stock market crash in 1929.

Around 80% of the industry was no longer producing. And by 1932, a number of Detroit citizens were dying of starvation. You're opposed to that. You're okay. You don't like it. So one person is like, starving is bad. I'm on record. No. No.

I do have some bad news for you, though. The country you live in right now. I'm sorry. You won't drive. You won't starve if you drive Uber. You will. The Ford Motor Company had laid off two-thirds of its employees. The unemployed councils, United Auto Workers,

and communist union organizing groups decided to organize a march against the Ford Motor Company. Oh dear. It'll be fine. It's gonna be fine. I'm guessing he didn't lay off any of the muscle. So it just went down to like 30 workers who were like, there's four security detail people per person.

You loitering? I'm working. Shut the fuck up. Oh God. Do these unions know about the lions? I'm worried for them. Release the lions. We have to let two of the lions go.

Layoffs hurt everyone. Even the ducks lost four. One of the strongest businesses we had three years ago. A group of Ford factory workers gathered to prepare for the march the next day. The workers' demands included jobs for laid-off employees, the right to organize unions, medical aid, and an end to racially discriminant hiring and increased wages.

On the morning of the 7th of March, 1932, around 4,000 people, Ford workers, X workers, as well as other unemployed people, came together on the edge of Detroit. The marchers planned a walk to Dearborn to the Rouge... It's actually Derborn. River Rouge complex. Sorry.

I hate to be that guy. What did I say? Dearborn, way off. Derborn. I don't like anybody anymore. Everybody can go fuck themselves. A march leader gave a speech emphasizing peaceful and orderly behavior during the march.

These were desperate workers, poor and ragged. Temperatures were below freezing. Their signs read, give us work. We want bread not comes. Tax the rich, feed the poor. Sorry. Go to another country, motherfucker. We want bread not what?

Crumbs. Sorry. What did you think? I had the thought. I'm glad you asked. We heard problems, Dave. We did. Bread not comes.

What is this? What do we want? We're not sure. When do we want it? Let's talk about the first part again. Yeah, we both heard that. We both heard comes. Which is still my policy.

Bread not comes when the marchers... Sorry, it's the opposite. When the marchers entered Tearbaugh and the police told them to disperse, they did not. None of the marchers were armed, but police launched tear gas again. We're not leaving till we come. Oh, God.

Every one of us. Oh, God. Or give us bread. Fire the tear gas. Or no, wait, we don't even want the bread. No, we demand to be jerked off. Right? What is this again?

This is not what we agreed upon. We're just looking for jobs and stuff. Hand jobs. We want goddamn hand jobs. And we're not leaving till we come on bread. Is that right or am I off again? I feel like I diverted from... You're everyone's left.

It's gonna take a lot less time for you guys to finish this protest then. And just one man ready to be jacked off for a loaf of bread. Probably. I'm still not 100% on the message. We haven't actually signed off on it. So when they entered, so the police shot tear gas against them,

and the protesters then started throwing stones at the police. That'll stop it. The police temporarily retreated and the marchers continued toward the Ford factory. When they arrived... Get your rocks off! When they arrived to the factory, Dearborn Police, the Dearborn Fire Department,

Detroit Police, Michigan State Police, and the Ford Motor Company's Private Security Force blocked the marchers. The fire department then sprayed the protesters with cold water from their fire hoses, which was cool because it was blow freezing. Who's watching the 14-year-old? That's a good question.

What? If the fire department's there... If the fire department's there... Yeah, yeah. I'm having some fun. The protesters threw stones. The police and Ford security then shot their guns at the marchers who ran

because they were being shot at. Harry hopped in his car and chased after them, shooting out the window. So, he's gone rogue. They responded by throwing rocks at his car. That's one rock. Shit on it! One rock was thrown through the window

and hit Harry right on the head. You know if you did that, too. You're like, dude, I think I hit him. That was me. That was... I did, I did, I did it. There's three guys. I did it.

No, fuck off. I think it was a combo hit. It was not! Dazed, Harry opened the car door and empty his pistol into the crowd. I'll kill you, Earth. Then the police and his men rushed to save him, firing their machine guns at the marchers.

Holy shit. What's a rescue mission? As Harry was being dragged to safety by his men, he pulled one of their pistols from its holster and fired into the crowd of marchers as he was dragged away. Who is... This is John McLean?

What? If you're the cop, you're like, Harry, you don't have a badge. You gotta really relax a little bit. We kill. I know, it's too soon, guys. Too soon? Too soon.

Harry was taken to the hospital. He had a fractured skull. Four men were dead and over 60 were wounded. By bullets. 50 marchers were arrested. The Horde... The Ford Hunger March became known as the Ford Massacre. But it really was the Horde Hunger March.

It was. It was the bread versus jerk off thing. Yeah, that's right. It led to a national outcry against the police brutality of unemployed protesters. 60,000 took part in the funeral procession for the four dead marchers. Meanwhile, Henry Ford was now the richest man in the world.

Hooray for America. Total coincidence, though. I don't think that one had anything to do with the other. He was so anti-union and anti-communist that he became an enthusiastic backer of Hitler. Boy, he is really taking a dive. Just... He put out a four-volume booklet called The International Jew.

Well, it's a great series. You gotta read all four. The International... It sounds like a fashion magazine. International Jew. Yamakas. Still relevant? Oh, it's not...

It's not a fashion magazine. Well, Dave, when you mentioned Hitler... It was a bestseller in Germany. Third Reich offices were filled with copies, and Hitler kept a full-length oil portrait of Henry Ford in his office in Munich. Painted by an elephant. My God.

He's my best friend. You see him? Fucking awesome, this dude. Killing it. Stopped a jerk-off protest. Wouldn't give bread. Smart. Any who's'll be.

Henry's only child, Edsel, was sympathetic to the workers. He encouraged cooperation and negotiation with the union, but daddy would have none of it. He told Edsel he needs to toughen up and be more like Harry Bennett. Edsel was supposed to take over the company, but his dad now favored Harry. Most biographers say Ford treated his son cruelly. Ford and Harry became closer and closer.

The two would meet every day in Harry's basement office. That's a little weird, right? And... Well... Love! Love is love. Just a couple of dudes getting together. A couple of guys, one owns tigers, getting together in a basement.

That's all. It would be weird if you hadn't mentioned everything else. The basement meeting is the most normal thing I've heard. Just shoot off some rounds together. That's all. Just a couple of bros shooting rounds. Ford entrusted all important business decisions to Harry. Also, when Ford banged his servant women, Harry would cover it up.

Wait, in what way? He would bang the women that were in his house, and then Harry would fix it by probably killing the women. I don't know. Feed him to the tigers? What? Tigers, tigers, love. The best, the way you do that, you're like,

do you want to go feed the tigers? Okay. Where's the food? In your head. What? They love the softness of a servant woman. Look, that's just from Wikipedia. Everybody knows that.

In 1933, for some bizarre reason, Margaret divorced Harry and left with their daughter. What? Yeah. You're spending too much time with the ducks. It's always the ducks with you. Well, no, they were having a family picnic, and one of the tigers barfed up one of the servant girls.

Henry Ford had sex with me! Get back in there! In 1935, FDR signed the Wagner Act, guaranteeing workers the right to collective bargaining. A sit down... Yeah, well, it's gone. A sit down... A sit down strike in Flint led to the unionization of Chrysler and GM

and in 1937, after the Supreme Court upheld the Wagner Act, organizers saw their chance to unionize Ford. The UAW started its campaign by putting up billboards saying, Fordism is fascism. I have one question. Yeah. What are unions? And collective bargain.

Okay, so the unions... Is that how you say it? Collective bargain? Bargaining. Bargaining. Bargaining. What is that called? Unions are a thing that is destroying

America. Right. And they used to be around, but now they're not... Oh, thank God. There's no middle class. You're scaring me. I think I'm really relieved to know that they're not here anymore. Hey, guys, I don't want to play devil's advocate,

but I feel like that's a bad thing. Am I cray? Am I cray? Is that cray? They sound like bad news to me, and I don't want anything to do with one. No, it's good. It's better to work in a place where your hand can get cut off

and they just kick you to the fucking curb. What am I being fired for? Losing your hands. Yeah, and that provides you... I'd give you the middle finger, but... That provides you with motivation for not cutting your hand off. That's right. If you get union protection, you're like,

ah, fuck it, I'm in a union. I'm going to lose my hand. Secret union meetings were held throughout the Aruge plant to develop leaders. UAW leaders decided they had to make a bold move to show the workers that the union was as strong and as powerful as the Ford regime. How many tigers do they have?

We got a cat that we put a beard on. It's going to have to do. We have a dog named Carl Barks. The first thing the union did was fly a plane low over the plant with a loudspeaker making announcements. That's very hard. But you need to have a very concise... If you don't give us too long.

Sorry, I just... We got to punch it quicker. That was another swing in 20 minutes, another swing. That's the first... Hey, you guys better pay attention. It's the first WhatsApp. What? Yeah.

That's how it started. It really is. Fuck you! That worked. That played. I thought that played well. So the plane didn't work for... For reasons established.

Yeah. They then scheduled a massive leaflet campaign at the Rouge plant for... Camping is a good way to call it. Camping? Yeah, a complaining campaign. On May 26, 1937, the union got a license from the city of Dearborn

and made two reconnaissance trips to the Miller Road Overpass where the action took place. Is that really... Is that still there? You'll enjoy it next time you walk across it. They got 100 women from the women's auxiliary of local 174 to hand out leaflets to workers

as they left the plant. They also invited over 100 clergy press and politicians, quote, so there wouldn't be any trouble. Just before 2 p.m., union leaders... I should have looked this guy's name up because now I'm just going to boo. Walter Ruther?

Ruther? Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Richard Frankenstein and JJ Kennedy arrived. A Detroit news photographer thought the Ford sign would make a great background for a picture so the men walked up to the overpass and as the picture is being taken,

the union men had their backs turned as Ford security came up behind them. The old chair. Finally. The chair's on the other ass. And you can hear that... The cartoon noise, you know? Exactly it.

When they turned, one of Harry's men said, quote, you'll have to get off of here. And Ruther replied, quote, we're not doing anything. 400 Ford servicemen then beat the living shit out of the organizers, both men and women. The Dearborn police just sat and watched as one of the women was beaten.

Other women fought back. Catherine Gales, head of the local 174 auxiliary, traded punches with a goon. That's great. Yeah. Yeah, right on. So great. Oh, great.

She should have a fucking statue. It's great for the goon, too. Oh, shit. What the fuck? Really good at this. I think she's got a woman mask on. He. He.

Harry's servicemen pulled Frankenstein's coat over his arms. Can we call him Frankenstein? It's S-T-E-E-N, so I hope not. It's Frankenstein. Frankenstein. They pulled this coat over his arms and then they beat the crap out of him. And then his legs were held apart by two servicemen

while the third repeatedly kicked him in the nuts. Oh, man. They're all about the slapstick brutality. The three goons. Why, I oughta. Just cartoons. Clang, clang. Hey, clang, clang.

That's why I wore a cup. Canter was pushed, another guy named Canter was pushed off the bridge and fell 30 feet. Ruther described his abuse, quote, seven times they raised me off the concrete and slammed me down on it. They pinned my arms and I was punched and kicked, and dragged by my feet to the stairway, thrown down the first flight of steps, picked up, slammed down on the platform,

and kicked down the second flight. On the ground, they beat me and kicked me some more. Were the stairs even? It just creates a much more unpredictable fall. Meanwhile, the women were arriving on trolley cars, and they were yanked out and beaten. What the, who, what? Why?

It's weird. It's just because they were like, what are we got? We're mad! Well, they're, because they were union. Oh, the women on the trolley cars. They were gonna be given out the leaflets, so they punched them.

It's like on that all right guy, it's cool to see men punching women on the street. It's really fucking brave. When she had dreadlocks, you should be murdered. Seriously, fucking right wing guys on Twitter, man, argue when she was fucking involved. Okay, well, she was a woman, and you punched her in the face. So you're a Nazi, and someone should pull your dick off.

Or, better yet, someone go to Stanislaus College, where he goes to school, a bunch of women, say 20, and just kick a living dick at him. Let's get him beaten up by women. I digress. So only one police officer tried to stop the beating of the women, and all he did was just plead with this. All he did was just plead with the servicemen

to stop beating a woman. That'll work. Stay you guys. I'm begging you. I'm begging. Boy, words do not work. You see, that's the John McCain in that situation. Like, please don't know.

No, it's okay. Dearborn Police did nothing. They just stood by and watched. After Harry's men were done with the union guys and women, they went after the reporters and the photographers. It's quite an order. Yeah. The photographers are like,

we're just like buddies with the reporter. No. They ripped out notebook pages and destroyed the photographic plates, then smashed the cameras to the ground. They chased one fleeing reporter, sorry, one fleeing photographer, for five miles. That is impressive cardio for the 1930s. My God.

And you're the photographer. You're like, what the fuck? Like, the only way those guys worked out is like throwing a big, heavy ball back and forth. This might have been the era when we were against running. But they all did blow back then. Aye, they got that blow strength. We've all been there.

I could do an Iron Man, but I'd rather talk. Photographer Scotty Kilpatrick managed to keep his, by hiding his glass plate negatives in the back seat of his car, and gave up the useless ones that were sitting on the front seat. So afterwards, Harry issued a statement. Quote. The affair was deliberately provoked by union officials. I know definitely no forward servicemen or plant police

who were involved in any way in the fight. As a matter of fact, the servicemen had issued instructions the union people could come and distribute the pamphlets at the gate so long as they didn't interfere with the employees. He said it was the Ford workers who beat up the union guys. Yeah, that makes them, yep. Dearborn police then issued a statement saying the Ford men were just protecting private property.

One union man suffered a fractured skull from which he never recovered, and another's back was broken. Were they trying to rob a kid who was in a house and was 10 alone? That's them. RIP, the wet bandits. Sticky bandits to me. Always. Time magazine ran a story that contradicted Harry's claim.

So Ford. What? So Ford withdrew company advertising from Time, Life, and Fortune magazines for the next 70 weeks. You truth-telling motherfucker. I've forecought reality. I give them credit because if modern right-wingers who try to protest media do it by buying something and then dumping Kellogg's down the toilet

or French wine or something. They're like, fuck you, Starbucks. I'm going to go and buy something to write Trump on a cup. Okay. You really got us with buying our product. So Walter, Ruther, and Dick Frankenstein's bloody faces were seen around the world. The fight would become known as the Battle of the Overpass. Patrick's photo of the Battle of the Overpass inspired the Pulitzer Committee to give out

Pulitzer Prize to photographers. Wow. J.J. Kennedy died from his wounds four months later. Edsel and Henry Ford's relationship never recovered from the Battle of the Overpass because he was on the side of the workers. At what point did they have any relationship? The whole time he was like, I love Harry. You're the worst.

Go to sleep with the duchy little bitch. He was like, dad, I just am saying maybe the union has a point. Meh. Harry and I are going to go play with lions in a Roman bath. Foolish boy. Be on the other side of the moat when I get back to the castle. Father, no. Yes.

Never know the secret passageways. You're not my boy. Harry is. Thank you. And then Harry comes in. Hi, daddy. Oh, hey, Edsel. What is with you two?

We like lions. God, he's such a bitch. You know, we're big in Germany, asshole. Just say you're not. OK? So Henry's wife, Clara Ford, sided with Edsel. But Ford made it clear only Harry would rule on matters relating to labor. The battle of the overpass was a turning point.

Ford lost the war for public opinion. The National Labor Relations Board went after Ford and Harry for their actions. Two months later, 75,000 of the 87,000 workers at the Rouge were laid off. Ford put his sights on taking out FDR in the next election. Meanwhile, their anti-U.S. campaign continued, and in six weeks, in 1938, 900 union leaf letters were arrested. On April 1, 1941, Ford workers walked out to protest the firing of eight union members. The River Rouge plant was forced to close temporarily, and Ford said he would shut

down every plant he owned worldwide before he signed a union contract. But then his wife, Clara, said she would divorce him if he didn't sign. Clara said she would divorce him if he didn't sign. And the next day, Henry Ford signed the most far-reaching union contract. Cock! Fucking cock! That is awesome. There's no way we'll relent.

We'll never say die. Do it. And you know, I'll sign it. Yeah, I'll get that. Tomorrow noon, you want to say noon? Fine. Do you want to fuck again? They should have called that car the model P-wipped. In 1943, Edsel Ford died of stomach cancer.

One of the four grandchildren... Stomach cancer! That couldn't have been real. Edsel did nothing. He was just a boy who wanted his pop to play catch with him. We don't want him dead. Died of a broken heart. One of the four grandchildren was quoted as saying,

Ford, quote, killed my father. Edsel had been president of the company, but Henry was always in total control. And now Henry Ford wanted to make Harry Bennett the president. But Clara wouldn't hear of it. Instead, Bennett joined the board of directors in June 1943 and conspired with Henry Ford to draft a codicell to Ford's will. So it's something that you attach to a will that basically sort of nullifies the will. A will addendum?

It's called Baxies in legal parlance. Unfortunately, this will has Baxies stapled to it. So it's null and void. So it would give... It all goes to the lion. It would give Harry control of Ford motor after Henry died, which was supposed to go to the grandsons. One of Ford's plants was producing munitions for the war,

and the Roosevelt administration was worried about Harry having control and Ford's chaotic behavior. Ford had now had two strokes and was a bit incoherent. So Roosevelt and top military officials arranged to have Henry II, one of his grandsons, removed from the navy and sent home, and he was immediately elected a company vice president and started making allies in the company waiting for the right time to fight Harry. Henry...

Game of thrones shit. This grandson has returned from the sea to do battle in the boardroom. He'll unsheath his corporate swords. I am brother of Edsel, son of Henry. I am the lion keeper. I am the lion king. Henry II, quote, it was all an act. I played the charade the whole time, a complete charade,

until I knew my time would come. Then Henry found out about the codicelle and Harry was confronted. The result was that it was... The codicelle was burned. Then Claire and the other women in the Ford family got involved and pushed Henry to give control to his grandson before he died. Claire told Henry she would sell her stock if Henry II was not given control.

Boy, she really ran the show. Awesome. I mean, she was just like... Henry... Like, Henry's like a kid who's being bad. Henry, no, come inside. I can't fight you guys about the protest anymore because Claire's saying I got to go inside.

You know, I really wish she'd put her foot down more about the whole Hitler thing. No, well... You know what? If you... Just give Henry II the control of the company and you can make your little Jew magazines. So...

She's being the worst, you know? Like, we can still be Nazis, but... Harry... You got to go. I'm so... It's like... I don't even know what her deal is anymore. It's just so...

I'm going to go in. She's not going to fuck me. So I got to like... So sorry, dude. It's like... I was up to me. Fuck you. You know, but she's...

Yeah, she gets. She owns me, so... So pissed. All right, I'm going to swim across the moat, get out of here. Harry took one last stab at staying in power. Literally. And that is the only time when you're...

You think more that he stabbed someone over, it just being a metaphor. It's... Yeah! I retire. He called Henry II, not knowing Henry II already knew he was taking over, and said, quote,

Henry, I've got wonderful news for you. I just talked your grandfather into making you president. Awkward! Henry II knew he had to get rid of Harry. So he's still not fully in charge yet. They're just agreements made. And he went down to Harry's basement office and fired him. Not good.

Harry? Get on the fender. Please walk towards the trap door set into the office floor here. I feel like I'm being fired. Henry II later said he thought Harry would blow his head off. But Harry just told him, quote, you're taking over a billion dollar company that you haven't contributed a thing to.

Harry then spent the rest of the afternoon burning all of his records before he left. When Harry... No more music! And no happiness in here, boy. When Henry II told his grandfather that he had fired Harry, Old Man Ford sat quiet for a long time and then said, well, now Harry is back where he started from.

Only it sounded like... Sad the strokes after all. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Blah, blah, blah, blah. He says he wants to play the clarinet. Bring me my clarinet. I miss my friend Harry. We used to fuck in front of lions.

So you were fucking him. I had a feeling. Well, but only in front of lions. Because that way you're not gay. One time we drank a bunch of rum and fucked the lions. While we watched. Oh, I don't like Jews. He says he sides with the unions finally.

Clara the translator. Blah, blah, blah, blah. He's excited to help the workers, give them a steak in the company. I think that's what this is all about. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. He wants mashed potatoes. He's hungry. Harry Bennett retired to Southern California

where he took up painting landscapes. He got a $426 monthly pension from Ford. And that was it. Jeez. Owned. During a storm in 1947, the power went out in Henry Ford's mansion and he fell down the stairs and died.

So unevenly misshapen! No! Each impact marginally different than the prior. Impossible to predict the descent. My word, there's zero consistency in this death. Who crafted these shrewd, shrewd steps? Literally two inches of difference between some of them. My God!

This is genuine Greek tragedy. Ah! I am a fable! Borg! Don't build your steps of different heights. It will come back to haunt you. If there was only a rhythm I could predict, this could be the end.

If there was only a rhythm I could predict, this could be thwarted. Unfortunately, the measurements are different. Tell the ducks piece. We are the capital ducks. Harry, his last words? They're lengthy. The Duck Congress passed a law officiating that day

as Harry Bennett Day after that. That's right. Harry did not attend Henry Ford's funeral. To him, Ford had died the day he let Henry II take over the company. Harry suffered a stroke in 1973 and was put into a nursing home in 1975. And he died... Fans of nursing homes and stomach cancer in the audience tonight. Big fans.

Interesting mix. He died on January 4th, 1979 in Los Gatos, California at the age of 86. He was survived by four daughters. And a clarinet. And a clarinet. The first Pulitzer Photography was awarded to a Detroit News photographer. Unfortunately, it was in 1941, and the photo was of UAW picketers beating a Ford security man.

Your picture is fucking great. One guy's got like a little fucking bat. He's just about to hit this guy. Let's have a look. Today, local 600 at the River Rouge plant is a strong militant local of United Auto Workers Union with a fighting tradition. And shockingly, I had no idea. That's crazy.

I would just like to say May Day is coming up, and I think this is a very important one, and there are going to be a lot of marches, and I think as many people... They should hold it in March. ...who can get out and attend those would be fucking great. You can't bring any predatory wild animal that you can. Mote up, guys.

Mote the F up. Get onto the dark web. Get a tiger. Get a panther. Get something. A panther? Get a panther. What's cheapest?

Wheel an octopus around in a wheelbarrow. So we could afford a penguin. We should talk in between orderings. I just... I am not... I've never worn these pants on fucking stage before. I just bought these goddamn pants. You want us to switch pants?

I think they mean that you are wearing the same pants as each other. No, we're not. And you're wrong. I can see totally different color. Totally different color. I can't keep calling same pants, asshole. Look at the reality.

I'm going to rule this. I'm going to rule on this. Those are not... This isn't the gold and blue dress shit. Same pants. I see it. I'm calling SPs. Same pants.

These are not the same pants. Repeat. These are not the same pants. These are not the pants. Minor fucking hiking pants and his are jeans and they're brown. That's a different argument, you asshole. They're just fucking pants. That's called moving the goalpost, sir.

Sir, why are you leaving during the pants debate? How dare you? We're just finishing this. Good God. We would like to thank everybody for coming out so much. Truly. Want to thank Matt, obviously. Thank you guys for having me.

Listen to Choppo Trap House. Yep. We will be signing some shit out there. Truly, just can't thank you guys enough. Appreciate the fuck out of it. We'll be out there in like five minutes. Thank you very much, guys. Appreciate it.