The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds - 658 - Chavez Ravine

Episode Date: November 5, 2024

Comedians Gareth Reynolds and Dave Anthony examine the making of Dodgers Stadium Tour Dates Redbubble Merch Sources   Squarespace  Litter Robot

So I travel a lot. I mean a lot perhaps too much to some of you, but that's kind of my gig, right? So I'm out there. I'm living out of suitcases or suitcase sometimes if I bring the big boy and I want all the comforts of home That's why I stay at an Airbnb whenever possible recently I had some gigs in Fort Collins, Colorado And I was with my friends and we were shooting some stuff and before we got to the gigs We were like, let's just get an Airbnb and it is just a more comforting existence you have a kitchen you have a yard you know it's communal living it's just a less stressful place more enjoyable experience so when I go on tour you know like I'll be going on tour

in a couple months I always am like well could my place be an Airbnb you know just to have someone watching your place while you're gone and make a little bit of money. And the answer to that is yes, yes, it can be an Airbnb. It's really just as simple as listing your place and letting it earn a little extra cash while you're away. So imagine someone staying at your home in Los Angeles while you're out there exploring the world. Turn your home into an Airbnb.

Give it a shot. You might be surprised at how rewarding it can be. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.ca slash host. Gareth, the dollop is brought to you by Litter Robot. You know, there's a lot of reasons you love your cat. The companionship, Gareth's cat stands on its back legs and waves. He does. He actually is a curious little creature.

He's also going to be a little bit mischievous. There's a lot of reasons that Gareth loves his cat. The thing he doesn't like about his cat is that his cat poos in the house. Well, I poo in the house. What I don't like is that he can be... It's like, where do you put the litter? And the problem with the litter is that you don't... There's no good placement for it because it is the toilet.

But that is why the... I mean, again, I just tell everybody how much the litter robot has completely changed that. It's gone from a weakness to a thing where you're like, I am actually... It just... The relief you feel when you have this thing because it really does. It contains the smell. And so it cleans itself, cleaning, it all goes down to a trap below. It has cool little lights. You can get updates on your phone. I love knowing when my cat goes to the bathroom when I'm on the road. Don't look at me like that. Stop. It just does. Instead of worrying every day about the litter, the smell of the litter,

cleaning the litter, emptying the litter, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, you just once, twice a week, you just take it out. You take out a little, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, I know that I hate so but there's a big difference. I'll explain it to you off ad As a special offer whisker is offering up to $100 off litter robot bundles And as a special offer to listeners, you can get an additional $50 off when you go to stop scooping comm slash dollop This is litter robots best offer yet up to $100 off litter robot bundles and an additional $50 off when you go to stop scooping comm slash dollop stop scooping comm Dollop it'll literally change your relationship with your cat You're listening to the dollop on the all things

Comedy Network. This is an American history podcast where each week I Dave Anthony man who owns remotes Who enjoys a high ball energy drink and likes to lotion his hands? Read the story from American history to a Just this I can't figure it out. Gareth Reynolds, who has no idea what the topic is going to be about. Terrible. What do you mean? Pick it up hot.

You came up that I mean, it came out hot. By the way, just because you have lotion all over one of your hands is not that the way to say that is one hand. I love them both. I have. I like to I like to lotion my hands. Because you have lotion all over one of your hands is not that the way to say that is Both I have like to I like to lotion my hands Why your hands get dry hands? That you're doing like my soft hands to Gary. I do not give you my massage You don't care don't care for your hands at all quite frankly you enjoy Do not missages don't get while driving. I do not I've've been very clear. It may not do those and not give me those again.

No. Who we are. It's not who we are. One person cannot define who two people are. And that's just not how it works. There's no such thing as a non consensual massage between us. There is.

I do not give you consent and I tell you to not do it. All I hear is yes. That's a problem with you. That's why you need some deep immersive therapy to to figure out why that keeps happening. I'm not sure I follow. Yeah, that's a huge part of the problem. Everyone is screaming for you to just figure out these things, these problems. Don't just shake your head and laugh.

Well, I'm getting these little massage of fingers ready. I hear you. And called it, quote, his jam-pads. Jam-pads? I'm the fucking hippo guy! Babe, okay. My name's Gary. My name's Gary. Wait.

Is it for fun? And this is not gonna become the Tickly podcast. Okay. This is like anarchy! On a five-part coefficient. My rules of play! Now hit him with a puppy. You both present sick arguments. No sleep-tell hippo! This is like anarchy! On a five-part coefficient. My rules of play! Now hit him with a puppy.

You both present sick arguments. No sleep, don't hip-hop! Not sleep, don't hip-hop! Action partner. Hi, Gaby. No. Nice sleep, dad, my friend. No, no!

Rhonda, Rhonda, in the court! So, Gareth, we're also on Patreon, where you can enjoy a bunch of exclusive content. We've got a bunch of videos up there. You got ad-free episodes, you get ad-free videos of both podcasts. And then of course we have our van life, which is like the office in a van. It's a real big series. Yep.

It's like a van office. We do quizzes, we do questions. We answer questions from people. We do small ups and reverse. We do stuff over there. That's all on Patreon. Then on Apple+, we have ad-free episodes. We have Gareth doing reverse small ups and then we have UK episodes. So you can find all those things.

We should also point out that we now have the pastimes. Video of the pastimes is starting to go up on our YouTube Which is at the dollop podcast So just go to the dollop podcast on YouTube give that a follow subscribe to it all that BS and you can watch the pastimes last guest Matt Lieb crushed Crushed great guest and if you want to get a stand stand up shows, which you hear ahead of the podcast here, you'll drop those dates.

He would enjoy if you winked at him a lot. Also you can go to, we have an Apple Plus and you just can go to Apple and join the dollop and there will be reverse small ups. Last one was about Andre the giant a little bit. So there's lots of stuff. That's the end. Now we're gonna start. January 6th, 1888. Ooh girl, March 1897. Check you out. Aren't you a spicy little thing? close up. I brought that cabral was born in a Monte Escobar, the Escobedo in Zacatecas, Mexico. So I can take this means tons of Texas.

Ah, Zacatecas. And yes. And she was raised on a ranch. A lot of I was raised on. on a ranch. A lot of I was raised on. I did. I did everything in ranch as a boy. You're me. You're really killing the mood. Come on. This is this is this is how we this is the right way to put the vegetables in the cookies. Nobody will know. In 1916, the Phelps Dodge company needed cheap labor for copper mines

in the southwest of America. And so they lured Mexican workers, Mexican workers to the area promising steady wages and safety from from violence. Right. Safety. Nice. Nice. Yeah. Nice. It's a nice case. Yeah, for sure. Just in a mine safe. You're in a safe mine. Nobody's going to. Yeah. I mean, okay.

Mine is safer than violence. Just probably going to get pretty hairy. Yeah. I mean, right. You're not going to get shot or stabbed. Right. As much. There's going to be pretty hairy. Yeah, I mean. Right, you're not going to get shot or stabbed. Right. As much as a problem. So so, you know, what happened was entire towns would all go together and and immigrate to the US and set up camp where they all knew each other and they'd all work together.

I like that move. That's like when you see like a house on a truck when they're just like, we. We're just going to move the whole house. Yeah, I like that move. I like my whole town going. I like that. So door to door. Hey, can you we were thinking we're all going to move to Cincinnati. Are you good with that?

We just would miss you too much. Well, OK, we're all going. Well, so far, so far I got nine nos and you're a yes. So you and me so far. What about Kevin? Kevin, I haven't talked to you yet. I want to get a few people on board before I go to Kev. If Kevin goes, I'm not going.

Kevin Kevin, first of all, Cincinnati is going to get all the attitude out of Kevin. So don't worry about that. If Kevin goes, I'm not going. Kevin's in. It's Kevin. I'm out. All right. You're supposed to say, Kevin. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Kevin. I didn't hear the rest of what I was supposed to say.

What's happened here today is hurt. A lot of hurt has been thrown around and so I'm staying alone in the village as everybody expected was going to happen in studio city so Abraha and her entire village they go to Morenzi Arizona and she's pregnant while traveling and when she gets there she has her child in Arizona and then pretty soon after that her husband dies of syphilis it was a good run so does she she doesn dies of syphilis. It was a good run. So does she she don't have syphilis? I guess not. Maybe don't have to know.

Doesn't seem like it because she lives. She keeps living. So she doesn't die of syphilis. So he picked it up somewhere else. Oh, yeah, but he was looking for elements in other minds. If you catch my drift. No, I don't. for elements in other minds. If you catch my drift. No, I don't. He went in another hole. I don't follow.

He got syphilis from another lady's who. Oh, she then gets married to Manuel Adichiga, who is. I got all the hours. Adichiga, who is on. He got all the hours. Adichiga. But you didn't really. All right. That's all I got. I'm very white.

She got the whitest of the white. I'm the northern most areas. How are you going to do one of those? Yeah, but you're from Wisconsin. So I'm from the Mexican part of Wisconsin. I'm a chica. Manuel is also from her village, so she knows him. from the Mexican part of Wisconsin, Orchiga. Manuel is also from her village, so she knows him. In 1922, they moved to Los Angeles.

L.A. at this point, growing, segregated, as you can imagine. In many places, Mexicans are not allowed to buy just a house. So they find land in Palo Verde in the Stone Quarry Hills, which is right between downtown and the LA River. It's very cheap. Nobody really wants to live there, not great land. Sure. The hills are very steep. A lot of ravines. I previously been a Jewish cemetery there and a smallpox hospital.

Now there's an active brickyard where they can work. So two other neighborhoods are right next to it, La Loma and Bishop. And Palavere was mostly owned by this lawyer. He's a super progressive activist guy named Marshall Stimson, and he sells tracks to poor Mexican families like, yeah, great. Get some land. He considered himself to be a benevolent type Santa Claus guy, right? Helping the poor. That's a Robin Hood. Santa Claus just gives people toys. Same thing. No Robin Hood and Santa Claus. Very different.

Santa Claus is everybody toys. No, they had a war in. In Sherwood Forest for years. I wouldn't make it Kelly said watch. It's crazy what's happening. What are you doing? I don't want to talk about it. I'm watching a man fight a microphone.

This is I will win watch this. What do you yeah? Why do you just undo the little two knobs at the top and take it off? I'm sorry We're not taking notes right now. Remember when Megan Kelly said Santa was not black That was a wrong thing to say. Well, it's in the history books. The first thing it says about Santa is why just the craziest thing to ever say. But they believe it. I'm sorry, Santa is not black. One of the best WKRP in Cincinnati's black Santa.

OK, so. One of the best WKRP in Cincinnati is the Black Santa. Okay, so he throws them parties. He does all kinds of stuff for them. Now, Abrahm and Manuel buy a small plot and they live in a tent while he builds the house. Okay. So he's working in the brick yard. This goes on for 10 years, building the house. They have five more kids.

Four of them are alive. Four of them are alive. So Palo Verde is growing. More people are moving in. There's a convent. There's a cleaner's pawn shop, grocery store, elementary school. There's a Catholic church. 85% Mexican-American.

And after the school opens, the whites petition to have their kids put in all white schools. They're like, this can't how can we do this? Oh, he's close experience has shown it's almost impossible to Americanize these people. It's crazy. That's also crazy. That's happening now.

But it's just as time has gone on. Should we not be a little resistant to Americanizing anything? I mean, look at how it's gone. It's great. To be bragging about where we're at and like, come on, they just won't figure out how to be us. But also, can we just like I'm from Southern, I'm from California, but Southern California now. Mexico is just, we're intertwined. It's just there's. Yeah, right.

Right. It's part of the fabric. Yeah. Of fucking America. In a good way. Yeah. Yeah. Super good. So over the 1920s and 1930s, the Adichiega spots two adjacent lots on either side, and Manuel built a second house, and then his kids, as they got older, would live there in succession, you know? Sure.

And then the other lot has animals, pigs, turkeys, and goats and chickens. That's where I'd like to sleep. He also had a still where he made moonshine. I'll go to the still, and then I'll go to the animal one. I'm just telling you how I would play it. No, I get it. She built a big like oven, like a stone oven thing in the backyard.

Sure. And she's at about Catholic. She's very abroad is very tough and outspoken. She doesn't take a lot of shit. Once she gets into a feud with a neighbor and she shot her gun into the air to make a point. OK, close. OK. Yeah. Pointing there. Yeah. Yeah. Their neighbor kids started calling her to gun Brooks.

What? What's the I don't know why? I don't know. I don't know. She do it in a brook. So far, I've only had one gun and no Brooks. To go books. OK. She must add to she must add to where they want to call it that. They have family all around. The neighborhood is full of cousins and grandparents and siblings.

And it's a great move their entire town. Yeah, basically. Yeah. And in 1935, the L.A. Police Department opens its training academy down at the end of Malvina Avenue, which has swimming pools and basketball courts and landscaped waterfalls to beautiful place. All the things you need to in the field training. If you're a cop, you got to have if you're training to be a cop,

you got to have waterfalls swimming. Swimming is a big part of being a cop. Huge part of it. A lot of aquatic copying. Some cops, of course, openly racist. They just cruised around the area looking looking to beat people who are not whites. Other cops formed youth clubs and became parts of the community, so it wasn't all bad. Other cops formed youth clubs and became parts of the community, so it wasn't all bad. But the city neglects neighborhoods like Palo Verde, La Loma, and Bishop.

Roads aren't paved. The residents have to campaign for years to get street lights, to get street signs, to get electricity and gas and bus service. So anything that you would want. You know, of all those street signs, seems super important to me. Yeah, that's really. Hey, I don't know what it is. Where is it? I don't know what anything is. Go make a left at the.

I want to see. That's why I keep getting caught up. I left where? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? There's a there's some dirt. It's only dirt. And then there's I think it's only dirt, some bushes. Yeah, no, that's so mega.

So mega left at the dirt place. OK. And then you'll see it. It's up the hill. There's I can't see it. There's no lights. It's a simple with your directions. It's gone. Handles on and windows and stuff. And then you just. Right. Yeah, I get. I mean, sir, you got a lot of people who just roll up and start yelling.

It's one way. OK. We do. You mean one way like it's a one way or that's the only way. I don't know. It could be nobody's hasn't been established. Okay Could be three ways. I think I'll live here Mm-hmm So it's a five minute it's actually just a five minute drive from City Hall So this is all kind of weird, but everyone just sees it as a slum. They're just like well, that's a slum

Who gives a shit? So Frank Wilkinson grew up in Arizona. And when he was sick, new character alert, new character alert. Okay. Frank Wilson, when he's six, he sees this big dog walking on the street with a rope around its neck. He's like, so he immediately thinks, that's that must be a police dog. He's six. It's not.

So he starts chasing it. It's not a police dog. It's not matter. It's a it's what's called a coyote. Oh, shit. And it's what's called the rabid coyote. And so it attacks him and he lives, but he has to get six weeks of very painful rabies treatments, which is shots in the tum tums.

It's like you ever seen that flyer where it's just like someone just like found cat, not very nice. And it's just a possum. He's like, look at this dog. Yeah. So, um, so his dad is a doctor. He's a serious Methodist. He's a big temperance guy. He just was drinking and dancing and card play.

So he's fun. Dancing is just on all that list. Dancing is just the one. I guess I think my feeling is, is that those religious types there were they're always worried that a penis is going to go in. No, I just think it's because they they they're just shitty dancers, so they just didn't maybe. So they allotted. I also think that they're just like, you know, get careful.

You're going to be rubbing jannies out there. Everybody jenny's are going to be so close to each other. You know how it is. Two people are dancing, then they get close to dancing. The penis gets, you know what I mean? It's just a matter of. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Can you say that again, but just really slow it down? Yes, of course. So the concern here is that when they're out there dancing,

they're going to be, you know, the the cock is going to be near the Vajar and the. I know it's allowed to take in so that they're gonna be close and then with the friction with the fabric friction. Yeah. I know. Yeah. It makes me sick.

It makes me sick. I'm done. I'm good. Yeah. I'm done too. I'm spent on this whole thing, but we have to keep fighting, buddy. We have to keep fighting. Oh, man.

Come back tomorrow and we'll talk more about the dance. Great. I'll come back here every day and do this until we resolve this because we have got to stop it. Girl, that smell. So why? Frank and his dad are also partially deaf. It's an inherited thing that is that as a hearing aid, but Frank is insecure and tries to hide that he's deaf, partially deaf. So he learns to read lips.

Now, when he's 10, his mom gets into a severe car crash and has a complete concrete cast over her body from her shoulders. Has a concrete. Sorry. It says concrete. That cannot be right. That is that is like the doctors like we're going to give her the man in the iron mask treatment, but it's got to be. I must. I had to have miswritten that it has to be. It cannot be concrete.

It could not be. Will she ever walk again? No, on account of the cast. It weighs about 450 pounds. Your mother. I mean, maybe it's. So we put your mother in the sidewalk. Your mother is going to be in the sidewalk now.

Being a doctor is super hard and complicated. Uh, let me let me let me let me let me. I really am hoping they Michelin manned her, but I really doubt. I cannot imagine concreting a woman. Yes, concrete cast. They put her in concrete. Gary Gareth. Sorry. First of all, I have to get excited.

Yeah. Don't know for four. She's in a concrete cast for four years. No, she's for body. For body cast for surely. Well, yes, I mean, it's a real bad accident. I mean, but still, oh, Mike, so we need to imagine like getting out of that. Like I remember when I broke my wrist and they took the cast off. My arm was a noodle, like four knickers fell out in a pencil

and it smelled like someone wore every day for a year. What? I mean, what did she look like when she came out? She must look like, I mean, they must have, they must have taken her out and put her back in. I would imagine like, what's the point? I mean, just what every now and then you're like, Well, it's your birthday. So we're going to take you out for an hour. And I want to play catch. My arms don't work. All right. Get her back in there. Oh, so bad.

Just putting her in a cell cast. Awful. There you go. Am I close to being better? About two years out. But halfway there. So they moved for some reason, it was better for her to for her recovery to be out in L.A. So they moved to L.A. around the same time as the cheese.

But different parts of town. They moved to Hollywood and then they moved to Beverly Hills. Wow. OK. So now growing up, Frank is a bit of a fancy boy. He wore textitos to the Bel Air Coutin. Hmm. He's like Carlton dance. So, yeah, he would always keep the family family cars polished. Sure. He grows up to become a Republican and a Methodist like his dad. Sure. Doesn't drink smokes where he went to UCLA.

And on Saturday night, when he was at this whole time, I'm just picturing his mother in concrete in a room. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And you know, you got to start it. You keep it up. I'll put the lights on. Do you want to go in the pool? Do you want? No, no, I'm sorry. I just there will be no lights. OK.

It's just so hard. Frank, roll your mom in the pool. All right, dad. No. Oh, no. Splat. Mom in the pool. All right, Dad. No. Oh, no. So when he was at UCLA on Saturday nights, he would go to the Coconut Grove nightclub and order a glass of milk at the bar. Cool guy. Totally cool. Hey, I'm looking to not get laid. Can I get another milk ever?

I want to never get sex. Can I get another milk ever? I want to never get sex. Let me get some more milk. So he graduated from UCLA and he's 22. And he and a friend, he he's got this idol, this the socialist do gooder type woman. And he, he decides to sort of follow her lead and live humbly and travel and visit churches. And so they do. They go and visit all these churches all over Europe and they go to the Christian Holy Land in North Africa and Palestine.

And he sees actual fucking poverty, like real, real poverty. I'm going to show my mom what pain is. Crowded cities, sick people, poor begging kids all over. And this causes them to really start to doubt his religious upbringing. Huh? Beliefs. Right. I just sees these opulent churches that are surrounded by just dire poverty. And he's like, well, that's right. Fucked up. So. He starts drinking wine.

He goes to a live sex show. Nice. He has an affair with a woman. There we go. Nice guy's partying. Let's go. And then he goes to the USSR. It's interesting to put on the list.

To him seems like a better place. Okay. Poor people are living more dignified lives. They've got housing, they've got medical care. It's not the filth and suffering he was seeing everywhere else. So he's like, well, this is kind of it. So he comes back to America and he's now an angry atheist and a commie. Wow. What a turn. Yeah, it's a good turn.

We have more should go through this. He refuses to celebrate Christmas now. He finally gets a hearing aid. He he, however, is moping around his parents' house in Beverly Hills, just kind of thinking about the meaning of life. OK, but let someone get me out of this. It's 20 a Casma. No. And he and then he kind of he meets somehow this month,

senior Thomas O'Dwyer, who. Tells Frank that he doesn't need to go to other places to see poverty. There's a lot of poverty right here. Oh, we've got it for you, buddy. Don't worry about that. You have the idea of traveling to other countries to be like, wow, things suck. So he takes him. The Dwyer takes him to Watson, Compton and Southgate.

And he's like, look, this is what's here. We need to clean this place up for these people. And we need to build better housing for the poor and get a sex show and get a sex show and learn what a donkey can do in certain bingo. Yeah. So poor housing, public housing at this point, pretty radical idea. And Frank goes to work for O'Dwyer at a public housing advocacy group. OK.

And they push and they get the city to put up a housing project in Watts. And then then they push and have it racially integrated. So in 1942, Frank is married now to Jean and him and his wife joined the Communist Party. Okay. Now, commies at that time meet in secret at private residences. And when the World War II draft come, Frank declares himself a conscientious objector. But the war keeps going on and he starts to see it as a necessary evil.

The fascists are not great. So he quits his job and he takes out his hearing aid and he goes to the draft board and he's hoping to lip read his way through. Oh, okay. So he is the process. The exact opposite of me in a draft. Okay. So yeah, absolutely. Okay. So, yeah, absolutely. Okay. So, then at one point he asked an officer to speak up and that's good.

So I could just be a little louder. Now, is he doing that as a cover like he can hear or he's just like, he's genuinely like, he could hear and could I thought that was a great way to just sort of sell that you can hear. Can you speak up a little bit? I hear you perfectly. I just want to hear it one more time. Well, then because of that, they test him and they reject him. It was hearing. So he goes back to work at the Housing Authority and.

And Palo Verde, everyone has signed draft cards, even Manuel, who's in his 50s. already everyone has signed draft cards, even Manuel who's in his 50s. And tons of the neighborhood boys are drafted. Five of Abraano's nephews join. One son and her son are killed in the war. Okay. Now, by the late 40s, LA is in a really bad housing crisis because it's really growing fast. Wow. And if you can imagine everyone, everyone kind of agrees, the old neighborhoods should be torn down and rebuilt.

So to house more people and to be better. But the big disagreement is should they deal with private or public? Which route do I do it? You ask my opinion private private private? The private sector solves the problems way better than any of the every time. Yeah. No, you have to let some genius will come along and just figure it out. I mean, I keep in mind, Santa is white.

I mean, I'm not trying to harp on that, but the very idea that Santa is not a white guy. Come on. Come on, people. I mean, I'm not going to. He's a white man. He's white. It's just a weird. It's a white say like he's white and they're reindeer and he's white. Yeah, that's all there is to it.

Doesn't matter. It's a white guy. It doesn't matter to me either. I think it's great. Yeah, but you keep saying it. Come on. We have proof. We have. Yeah. Yes.

We know it doesn't matter at all, though. It's a thing. It is. It doesn't matter. He's. Can I also just say he's not really white Christmas. White Christmas. Yep.

Yeah. He's a white guy. OK. He's an immortal white man who can fly with deer and fit in chimneys. And he likes to eat little snacks and he's and he has been brandy and stuff. And he was black was Jesus Christ. The dollop will be right back. Dave, you are blowing this show. Sorry. Sorry.

I just picture Jesus as a big Afro. Yeah, once we go back and start rolling again, clean it up. Yeah. OK. Christ. White Christ. So, uh, so the private guys who want to do this with private, do the private sector are super rich guys like developer Fritz Burns. And he has politicians and the LA Times and police and construction guys and banking and business. They're all on his side.

See a good team like that bodes well for the operation. It doesn't. And then on the other side, the public housing guys are like call me Frank, who works at the Housing Authority and lives in public housing to show it's good. Now, let me ask you this. Does he have any idea what public housing should be like? Exactly. of what public housing should be like. Yeah, exactly.

So Frank is trying to whip up support for public housing, and he starts what he calls slum tours. Love slum tours. So he rents a bus and he fills it with housewives from the wealthy part of town and then drives to L.A.'s worst neighborhoods so they can get a look. I'm very curious how this empathy calculation plays out. He then hires a blimp to take the mayor and his boss on an air tour of the city.

He gets two USC film students to make a short propaganda film called and 10,000 more, which in it a reporter investigates LA's housing shortage. And at the end, his editor asks, quote, Do we really need 10,000 units of public housing? And the reporter says, Brother, we need 10,000 more and 10,000 more. So yeah. Meanwhile, Fritz Burns is giving talks to apartment owners. He gives one that is called 10,000 Social Socialist Housing Units would compete with you. He starts a group called Citizens Against Socialist Housing. Do you want to tell me what the

an acronym for that would be? Can you say the cause one more time and then I'll get it to you? Citizens Against Socialist Housing. Cash. Cash money. Wow, what a bunch of pricks. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

They hire a PR firm that is working closely with the L.A. Times to shape coverage. And they take it as and billboards that say, don't pay somebody else's rent. Just the worst fucking people. Well, it's also just like how replicated it is all the time. It's like they that's always like, even with all the prop, like the prop ads that come on, it's always just so like,

okay, here's a thing for the greater good. And then it's just some person like, I mean, that's probably gonna cost me a lot more money. And then people are like, that sounds dubious. It's like that works. Yeah. So. So in 1949, President Truman signs the Housing Act, which is going to give hundreds of millions to cities to build public housing. And sorry, for anyone who's just tuning in, We covered Truman a couple of episodes ago and he died

on Mount St. Helens when it exploded. Yeah, one of our greatest presidents. Truly one. He's a bootlegger. Awesome. Yeah. And he died atop a mountain that blew up. Mm hmm. I mean, most people know that they learned it in school. Yeah. So L.A. gets funds to build 10,000 units from the government. And now Frank, so they're going to do public housing. So Frank needs.

A slum that can be razed to build this modern, cleaner, better public housing. I think I see where you're going on this. You do. Yeah, that's right. It's Stonecori Hills, the unpaved streets of Palo Verde, Loma, Loma and Bishop. So the idea is they're going to build these sleek, 13 story towers that are terraced on the hill. They overlook downtown. They'd have churches and schools and shops, 10,000 units for the poor.

Sounds great. They sure does meet with the, they meet with the, the like authority figures in the area, the, the priest and the elementary school principal, and they convinced them, this is all going to be better to be better for the school and the church for everybody. It's going to be diverse. It's It's what we want. So they get on board. And then in July, 1950, the people in the neighborhoods get a letter from the housing authority

telling them their houses were going to be bought. Quote, the housing authority will give you all possible assistance in finding another home. If you are eligible for public housing, you will have top priority to move into any of our public housing developments. OK. But here's the problem. Some homeowners and non-citizens are not eligible are ineligible for public housing.

Why? Too much money or not a citizen. So you're basically now saying to the entire community, not everyone will be able to get into the public housing. Yeah. Yeah. Most of the people are actually one or the other. Some some took the offer and went and bought in a nearby neighborhood. Others formed a resistance group association.

And they argue that their communities are not slums, but are just neglected by the city and have been neglected for decades because of racism. But is this not a genuinely asking, is this not a pitch in the direction of undoing that? Yes, it is. So but it's so there's so they're saying they're saying, why don't you just fix what we have as opposed to razzling it and make it. And Frank's like, look, yeah, for sure. Look, please, please please please

I understand but please we if this was not easy to do Please don't Please take it. It'll be a big tower. It's gonna be great. It's gonna be a good tower. Yeah, and Yeah, but they're just like The government has done a lack of upkeep for decades and now they declared a slum like it's. Yes, right. Bullshit. Yeah, the word isn't great.

So. A broad and well's property altogether, all the lots they have are valued by an independent appraiser at seventeen thousand five hundred, which is about two hundred and twenty three thousand dollars today. These days. But a judge then overrules it and declares the value to be ten thousand fifty dollars, which is one hundred and twenty thousand, which is one hundred. Yeah, it's a lot less fucking money.

And also the guy's just a judge. The whole thing is just very. Yeah. lot less fucking money. And also the guy's just a judge. The whole thing is just very, yeah, the power of judges really always so helpful. So the city offers half the property's value, right? Where they have lived for 30 years and built a fucking house, right? Paid their taxes. They they don't plan to leave. They're just like, give us the signs.

So you get to live in a high rise. Can we just have lights at a street sign? No, please. Shut the fuck up get in this tower But they're saying if they did leave at least give us the value of our house. Yes. Yes, if you're gonna bribe us bribe us So in May 1950 40 residents hold a sit-in at the mayor's office. The next month, they go to a planning commission meeting where they sat in the back and they booed anybody who speaks positively about the project. Did these ever start as stand-ins? And then someone was like, you know what?

This is exhausting. Yeah. I've got to have to, right? I mean, quick, quick tweak. I think if you're going to do a stand in, people think you're not going to be there that long. I get it. So you just say, yeah, well, I guess in a room of people standing,

sitting calls more attention to it, so it's the best of both worlds. Yeah. You're just like, I'm I would do a lay in. I've ever done a nap nap in I love a nap in I've never napped in and I've done a nap and I take I'll take a cot to some city council meetings and just go in the back Just have just they'll watch some stuff on my phone. Just treat it like a bedroom. Have you ever done a live-in? I've lived in this. I've done a live-in Yeah, I've done a number of live-ins

Very it's very effective. Well, you think if I go far, I'll die and I'll do it. I'll keep pushing. I've ever done a dying. You've got to try a dying. Oh, that's what you just go to a meeting and you go in the back and you just lay in your casket dead. It's very effective.

OK, yeah, it just seems like. Yeah. OK. Thank you. Do you kill yourself? It's well, no, you just you just die of natural causes in the back. When it's your time to go, you just take advantage of it. Or you could take a little cyanide, something like that. Can I make a good sidebar here? I kind of feel like we have it. So I don't know what we're really going to discuss.

There's a place in Italy on one of the islands, Ishka, I think it is, Ish something, and they have a little convent type place. And the nuns when they died, this is way, way back when, right? The nuns when they died, they go into this little room down in the cellar and there's like cement chairs and then there's a hole at the bottom of the chair where you sit and they would sit there and die and they put a pot under it and then you're just eventually you'd leak into the. You just become like fertilizer into the you leak into the pot.

And what do they do with the pot tossed? I don't know what they they they must keep the pot somewhere and be like, that's you just slowly. Yeah, you pot you slowly pot. I don't know how I feel about the rot pot. I don't feel good about it at all. And I think I don't hate it. I don't hate it. Really? I don't hate it. I don't hate it.

No, I would. This is what I would like. A little soil in the pot and then some seeds. And then when I go, then you're like, all right, let's grow some corn. I don't think there's any. I think there's a slow drill. That's that I'm running the speed up on the set. Yeah, no, this is going on for a long time. No, you need to watch the movie seven.

Really? You need to watch the movie seven. I have the DVD, but every no, I have the DVD. But every every time I hold it, I just go, what's in the box? OK, so so they're you know, they're protesting in the ways they can. But still, the city council approves the the project, the beginning of demolition. And Abraha and Manuel just stay in their home. And the people who stay in the neighborhood and don't leave, sue the city. But the Adichigas missed a court appeal date somehow.

And so their house is immediately condemned. Probably because the mailman was like, I don't know an address. There's no I walk around here all the time. How is this on dirt? So a judge puts the $10,000 that they would get into a holding account. And how that is now like half a ghost town. So many people left.

So now trucks start coming and just workers are taking the houses apart. Sometimes they would load an entire house onto the trailer and drive it to another neighborhood. That's my that's the move. Hills. Hills are being graded into flat ground. Now, at this point, the majority of the

of the city council is is pro public housing. Right. OK. But remember, there's this guy, Fritz Burns, and his little crew of private sector guys, and he's been working the whole time to put an end to this thing and make the whole thing private. So he still has a dream that he can turn this into a private. A private enterprise. Sure. So it's nine to six is what the city council is.

And then suddenly in November 1951. Councilman Ed Davenport just switches. Ed's a Democrat. He's also a drunk and he's, he hates communists, but he supported public housing for years and years and years. And then just all one day, just like a switch. Right. And so other councilmen are like, well, see bribed? Because that was really weird.

It's just the man with a cane and diamond glasses. I mean, can a fellow swap his I just change my thinking a little bit. No big deal. I started diamond necklace. Yeah. Hey, do you guys want to floss with money? No, no, okay. What that's weird Anyone want a piece of gold? Right after Davenport

Councilman Harold Harvey also switches sides saying public housing was quote the creeping cancer of He also switches sides, saying public housing was, quote, the creeping cancer of socialism. And both these guys have been public housing advocates for ages. OK, so what were we at before? Would you say 9-6? We were at 9-6. So now we're 7-8.

8, right. And of course, on December 26, the day after Christmas, they hold the vote, and they cancel the housing deal. I mean, especially the day after Christmas, we're all just celebrating White Santa because that's what he is. And then they do this. Are they doing that because it's like, you know, how the Senate will pass bullshit in the middle of the night and stuff like that?

Are they doing it because it's a holiday or it's just extra rude? I think it's very much like Might be like like year end stuff, but it's definitely very much like let's get this when no one's looking Let's get this shit done, right? Right. Yeah Everyone still knocked up. Hey Gareth the dollop is Brought to you by Squarespace. Oh Dave. Squarespace, as we both know, one of our best friends. Love him. It is an all-in-one website, platform.

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For your videos. Listen, like they said to us, there are no rules. No, I don't know about that. No, they said they were very clear. They said this is a law, this is a lawless space. Bananas thing to say. Anything can happen. Absolutely bananas.

They, you know, that's what, that's a quote. Just stop, I would say stop talking. Anyway, we both love, we have all of our websites with Squarespace. We get the dog Podcast calm we got our sources garris page my page. We're all in on Squarespace Why because it's great and it's and because they said there's no rules No, they never said Head to Squarespace comm for a free trial and when you're ready to launch go to Squarespace and comm slash dollop to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain So I travel a lot,

I mean a lot, perhaps too much to some of you, but that's kind of my gig, right? So I'm out there, I'm living out of suitcases or suitcase sometimes, if I bring the big boy, and I want all the comforts of home. That's why I stay at an Airbnb whenever possible. Recently I had some gigs in Fort Collins,

Colorado, and I was with my friends and we were shooting some stuff. And before we got to the gigs, we were like, let's just get an Airbnb. And it is just a more comforting existence. You have a kitchen, you have a yard, you know, it's communal living. It's just a less stressful place, more enjoyable experience. So when I go on tour, you know, like I'll be going on tour in a couple months, I always am like, well, could my place be an Airbnb?

You know, just to have someone watching your place while you're gone and make a little bit of money. And the answer to that is yes, yes, it can be an Airbnb. It's really just as simple as listing your place and letting it earn a little extra cash while you're away. So imagine someone staying at your home in Los Angeles while you're out there exploring the world. Turn your home into Los Angeles while you're out there exploring the world. Turn your home into an Airbnb.

Give it a shot. You might be surprised at how rewarding it can be. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at Airbnb dot C, a slash host. Boom, baby. So. What a bunch of fucks, right? Yeah, I'm on board. I hate. So Frank's boss takes the housing authority guy, takes them to court

because they've already entered into a housing contract with the federal government. They can't just. Yeah. Also, if you cannot having to sort of convince these people that look, this is good and then be like, no, no. So you just broke up our neighborhood. Yeah. Yeah.

So so cash keeps their whole anti public housing propaganda towards then going and they're linking public housing with communism and crime. Crime is always crime. housing with communism and crime. Crime is always crime. The endless, endless like the way that they leverage crime every time. It's pretty effective to just be like crimes crazy.

They just do it every time. They're just like they'll do a list of things and they'll be like, plus crime, come on. And it's like, well, your crime always exists. It's just it's so easy. It's so easy to find. And it's like, well, your crime always exists. Yeah, it's just it's so easy. It's so easy to find one guy and be like, like that, that, that, that immigrant who stabbed a lady in San Francisco. Look, the Mexicans are killing everybody. And they just literally as mental health problems.

Yeah. And it just works over in the crime. Yeah. So the PR firm, Boston Ross, I told you when I was I tell you when I was in Alaska, they kept there was like some guy running for whatever Senate or something like that. And he's just his whole thing was the border. Oh, yeah. And I was just like, of course, in Alaska, you're like in Alaska. Careful now. Really got to worry about it. There's a lot of Mexicans swimming across our border.

So the PR firm, it's it's called it looks like Bows and Ross, but I think we should call it Boston Ross. Boston gave cash members anti-public housing postcards and told them to send them to everyone they knew on their Christmas list. Christ. Well, we just got a Christmas list from the Jenkins and they really seem to be fucking assholes now.

Like they're just going on. It's just about public housing. Like you might see what their daughter's Christmas and don It's just about public housing. You might have seen what their daughters look like. Merry Christmas and don't let the poor live anywhere. Yeah, no, for sure. Well, you know that Scrooge spirit we're always looking to spread. Yes, that's exactly right. So that summer, Frank...

So this is the public. So Frank is now testifying in court as an expert against the families who are suing to stop the public housing process. So you see how this is problematic, right? Yes. Because he should be helping them. Yeah. I mean, yeah.

So he is testifying against the families in court. He said he asked us to do that. He said, well, these are slums. So he's essentially making the rich guy's case. So the cash lawyer in court asks Frank to list all organizations that he's belonged to since freshman year of college. So they're trying to do the red commie. Red scare, yeah. Right.

And Frank refused to answer. And then the judge stops the hearing and it's like, you need to find a lawyer. And Councilman Davenport now, because this happened, he proposes in the council that Frank and the housing authority should be investigated by the house unamerican activities Oh my god, because this is it's because this is around the time when all that shit was going on as well All right, it's right. It's right. It's the heart of it scare

McCarthy all that shit. So yeah, it's right. Right perfect and And that passes the council passes that unanimously. They're like, yes, we can't have any commies. Well, because they're probably just like, if you say no, they're going to call you a commie. And this is the whole thing was to just be not called a commie. The whole thing was to just not be called the commie the whole time. And then the second you be like, I don't know if we should be investigating everyone. They were like, sounds pretty close to what a Kamei would say. And they'd be like, no, no, no, never mind. Do whatever.

It was a good time is what you're saying is awesome. And it's so Frank is suspended from his job. And he is now investigated by the H.U.A.C. and what is called the little a the little walk, which is a California Senate version. So there's not like there's the there's the federal version and the state versions. Now he has to have knee surgery at this time, and he wakes up in the hospital after the surgery To find a subpoena pin to his hospital gown. Oh my god. He like comes home

He's like there's nothing worse than this and his mom's like actually There's a worse thing Wow, so they've subpoena him while passed out they lapel him. Mm-hmm. Yeah, they look at them the subpoena him while passed out. They lapel him. Mm hmm. Yeah, they lapel him. The subpoena lapel. So he and Jean Jean is also subpoenaed. So he and Jean go to and look, they had the LAPD had the the Red Squad and he and Jean were going to see her coming meetings.

So there's no way that the LAPD did not have a beat on them and did not know what they were up to. And, you know, tab. So they go to the little walk meeting, hearing, but they refuse to answer almost everything. And then after that, after they refused to answer anything, they're both fired from their jobs. She was working at a school. And that's not discriminatory. Housing authority. No, not at all. And after that, after they refused to answer anything, they're both fired from their jobs.

She was working at a school. And that's not discriminatory. Housing authority. No, not at all. Because how can you how can you, Gareth, how can you have a job and have a different ideology? Think about it. Yeah, no, a dangerous ideology, a dangerous ideology, too. Yeah, so dangerous.

Yeah, dangerous. Yeah. Right. Yeah. I mean, look, you want workers to have power. So we know. So. His sister and brother, who are doctors, were asked by colleagues to disown him. He has a sister in Berkeley and her women's club goes to her

and tells her to sign a document denying she's a communist. She's like, fuck off. So they kick out of the women's club. We need you to sign this document. His sons are barred from the YMCA camp. Oh, come on. But then they bargain with them and they say they can only come if Frank and Jean don't drop off and pick them up.

Oh, my God. Well, we just don't want the other kids to catch commie. So we got to be careful. So so Frank's Frank does not have a job for months, and he finally gets one as a night janitor in a department store. All right, look, we're willing to overlook the fact that you're a commie and you can go around the store at night, clean up the kid puke and the very spills that go on.

But don't you talk to one mannequin? Do you understand me? Yeah. I mean, that's not I don't talk to mannequins. And we just want our mannequins to remain American best country on earth That's why we're trying to figure out a way to Reneg on the poor contract we made with those people Okay, all right great We're not gonna hire you

All right. Great. We're not going to hire you. You had a little bit of an attitude at the end there that felt a little Ruski. Yeah, no, that's fair. So he's making $1 an hour, just about $11.35 today. No one, he cannot let anyone see him entering or leaving the store. Now that is purely firm on an optics standpoint, right? They're not genuinely just like you give them a minute.

He'll close on the commie deal. It was probably a lefty siding person who was running things and was just like, all right, I'll give you work. But you can't let anybody know or else we'll all get in trouble. Yeah. Right. You have a commie working at Walgreens like, you know, I won't walk down the aisle. A commie mopped it. Yeah. So at the end of 1952, there is a house anti commie version of walk

and they come to L.A. to investigate the housing authority. A lot of bigwigs are in town or subpoenaed. Even the mayor and the chief of police. And they're all going to testify on housing authority. A lot of bigwigs in town are subpoenaed, even the mayor and the chief of police. And they're all going to testify on live TV. Everyone's going to watch this thing because it's commies in LA. I kind of love it. As the hearings are about to begin.

A red hearing. Frank's, God damn you. It's close to something good. Let's work it. It's upsetting. It's upsetting. Let's work on it out there. Frank's at home. Good. Let's it's upsetting. It's upsetting. Let's work on it out. Frank's at home and a colleague calls him and says, you're about to be served.

So then someone knocks on the door and Frank runs out the back door, jumps the fence, run some streets over where he meets the guy who just called him. And then that guy's like, I gotta get, he's somewhere safe. So he takes Frank to a Russian bathhouse in Boyle Heights. Here to the bathhouse, it turns out, get time to get wet. The bathhouse is like a block away from a police precinct. So it's a cop bathhouse. So Frank and the guy walk into the room with just towels on. there's a cop there and he's like, Hey, isn't that Wilkinson? And then they just fucking run out and get the clothes on take off and they like flee to an Abbot and Costello movie.

The Red Bath. I've been. Oh, I I I told you that was a car. I told you there were a bunch of cops in there. They're coming up later, so don't jump again. So they they run to a friend's house in Sherman Oaks, and then that's where they sit and watch the hearings. And what they see is police chief William Parker

pulls out an enormous file. Which is the FBI's dossier on Frank. Ten years, ten years they've been surveying him. There's no evidence. It's just insinuations about intent and going to meetings. Which is what all that was back, right? Like so much of that was just like. Yeah, I mean, they just they needed very little other than paranoia and group. Think all they do is say this guy's around commies.

That's it. Suspective. Truly. Yeah. Suspective in possession of commie thoughts. Yeah. And so it's basically they're not accusing of crimes. There's no fucking crimes. But Parker at the end, Parker says Frank is an active member of the Communist Party,

and he has been for many years. And that just declaration basically ends public housing in LA. Jesus Christ. Oh, my God. God damn it. Aren't businessmen great? I think great people. And you know, it is amazing because it's like if it's in order to vilify

a group in this, it would be so easy to vilify a group. There is there is a group of villains. And yet their commie stuff works. But it's just like, yeah, but you're taking money. You're just the worst pieces of shit. Yeah. Yeah. They're just like, watch out. They're going to fill your head with red dots.

Yeah, it's. So so public housing dead. And then soon after this, Councilman Davenport dies. He choked on silver. His widow would find $300,000 in cash in a safe deposit box, which is all about three hundred twenty two thousand dollars today. Yeah. Hmm. I wonder what that's all about. So wait, how much did she find? Thirty thousand. OK, OK.

Thirty thousand. L.A. business leaders now get together and pick Republican Congressman Norris Paulson to run for mayor. I always say don't trust anyone named Norse. Oh, never Norris. Norris. OK, you can go that sure. But Norse is Norse is not good. Yeah, Norse is Norse is worse.

God damn it. The first thing he did, the first thing the new mayor does, the very first thing he does is buy back the land from the federal government. You gotta move quick. You gotta move so goddamn quick. You do. And there's a guy from California, his name is Vice President Richard Nixon, and he helps him with the deal and he gets it to be a sweet deal. And the city pays one fifth of the initial price. Oh, we're making out like bandits.

I tell you, bandits. So local government loses four point two million. Cool. Well, at least there's no commies. I mean, what a fucking it's so goddamn stupid. It's crazy. It's just corruption. So you can just you can do as much corruption as you want. As long as you know, we have this. There is a scare. There is a very easy thing to scare people about.

And we've done it. And it's called the capitalist. Yeah. The only provision that that's put in there that's problematic is that the the city has to use the land for a, quote, public purpose. Sure. I think that's how they get a good deal. So there's no attempt to return the land to the people that have been kicked off or the people that are still living there. And home construction is prohibited on the land for 20 years.

But there's still so now it's just a vacant like, I mean, is there is there still there's still 20 families, about 20 families still living there. Right. But for the most part, it's been just like, I mean, those families, this place really opened up. Yeah, it's a real it's a skeleton of what it used to be. So. The elementary school is closed. This the city council is just coming up with all kinds of idea. Should it be a zoo, a golf course, build an opera house there, have the World's Fair there,

do playgrounds, college campus, cemetery, what a... I'll be a American thing ever. Welcome to the fuck you country club. Walt Disney is looking for a location. He actually considers the location for Disneyland. But the city has no money to do any of this shit. And the public's not really backing it. And now Rosalind Wyman is elected to the city council.

She in 1953, she is the youngest. She's 22, and she's the only woman. And the mayor news headline was, quote, It's a girl. Cool. It is. It has to be so intimidating for her to walk in there. Like 22 only woman, like those fucking dudes. Can you even imagine what would be going on? Hard enough to be like a 50 year old woman, but to be 22.

22. Just yeah. And well, they just like they were just like, look, you're a threat and I will be sexually harassing you. It's going to be a hard little line for me to work, but I despise you and will also pinch your ass and make comments, okay? I'd like to propose we all get a look at the titties. Yes, let's ignore her and have a look at the heinie. The LA Times quote, an attractive brunette with clear, fine skin was dressed simply on

her victory day in a plain white blouse and royal blue skirt and plain suede pumps, answering phone calls in crisp, decisive terms as though she welcomed the hubbub and fully enjoyed it. Like what? I mean, it's so obvious it's not even worth talking about. I mean, yeah, just none of it has to do with it. Everything has to do with their clothes and how she answered a phone. They're like, and she can even talk on the phone. This beautiful bombshell with the tissue you could bounce a quarter off

also knew how to say hello and goodbye. Now her public or public campaign issues were housing unions, integration and bringing pro baseball to Los Angeles. Oh, wow. She's called Roz. She believed baseball could be a uniting civic force. L.A. is at this point the third biggest city in the United States,

but does not have a major league baseball team, while like New York and St. Louis and Boston have two and they're smaller. So, you know, the city council. Gives Abbott and Costello told you. The city council gives Abbot Costello, I told you, a, do you think that you have like some sort of ability? Like you have some sort of psychic ability? Cause you often bring up things. You know, there, there are. Cause Abbot Costello is way out of left field. It's very strange. There are times on this show and if I'm like, like talking to someone in the

crowd at the show where I'll be like, what I just guessed is crazy. I don't know. I don't know if it's a volume thing that we've done so many episodes that you hit sometimes, but it is very strange. I know, but we've never talked about Abba and Costello. I don't know. I just pictured them.

I don't know. I might. I, yeah, I certainly have a big spot in my brain that could be filled. So maybe that's where the psychic thoughts go. That spot on your brain is probably a tumor, and we need to talk about that later. But the X-rays are not good. Oh. Anyway, let's get back to the funny. So the city council gives admin

costello commendation for advocating for pro baseball in Los Angeles. They they said that baseball players are heroes to kids. And so if you have baseball, it's going to keep a lot of the kids out of trouble because they're going to wake up to these guys and try to emulate them. Walter O'Malley, who is the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, tries to condemn and clear land in New York. But he can't get it done. He tries to use the exact same laws they did in LA for Palo Verde.

But he can't get it done there. And that's because Robert Moses hates baseball. Oh, my fucking God. I cannot believe this. I cannot believe it's just there's nothing I cannot believe. I can't believe this. So L.A. is willing O'Malley for years. And he does buy a minor league stadium in L.A.

called Wrigley Field, and it's in South L.A. and he buys over three million in 1957. It's nine acres. There's not a lot of parking and it only has twenty two thousand seats. The parking sounds like that. Yeah, right. He's never even seen the field when he buys it. He has spent no time in L.A. He basically bought is like a real estate investment.

He he has no plans to move the team. But now can you just imagine buying a baseball field with no plans? Yeah, I know, right. Well, he just thought it was its property. All right. Property. I was like right next. I don't know if it was part of or right next to the farmers market right in the middle. But there is a there was a baseball park there.

It's now where the might be part of CBS lot. And then that big red air one residential building. Anyway. So he's never really gone to L.A. Now, now L.A.'s willing, I he comes out and County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn. How many fucking we still we still have County Supervisor Hahn's. It's just these rich people just keep Janice Hahn as the leaders of the fuck. No, we do. It is that we it's just we really our brains are mush when it comes to the idea that we're like, it's a political dynasty. It's like that's a problem.

It's a problem. So he gets a malli out here and gets him up in a helicopter to ride over L.A. and look at property for. And while he's riding in the copter, O'Malley has a pin on that says, keep the Dodgers in Brooklyn. And he sees Stone Quarry Hills, the neighborhoods, the few homes that are left there. But he downplays it and he says, quote, that's a wasteland of interest only to goats. That's just goat areas. Goats. of interest only to goats. That's just goat areas.

For goats. Look, that's a big space, but it looks like it'd be perfect for goats. I'm negotiating. God damn. Come on. Take something good. Live a little bit. Joy yourself. But it's like a magic thing,ians big plot of land that overlooks downtown. And it's like the perfect location on this hill.

You're like, ah, fuck that. And that's goat country. So the mayor gets to work to be there. A poor peep. That's goat. So the mayor gets to work on the land, which, again, it's set aside for public use. Quote, a few strings had to be pulled in order to reinterpret the wording of the deed. Yes, it was not about changing anything other than just unlearning some things.

That fall, the city council green lights a deal. O'Malley trades the Wrigley Field property, which is nine acres. For. The three hundred and fifteen acre plot, which is now being called Chavez Ravine. Oh, my God, I just I cannot believe it. I cannot believe it. I cannot believe this. One appraiser was used. And he said both properties of equal value. Hi. Hi.

Hello. My name is money. Gee, bribed. And I. Hello. You may call me Mr. Bribes. That's this nine acre plot is the same value as the one in South L.A. with no view. Correct. This that is the same as this 300 acre plot. The two are the one with the view of the whole city. Please stop pushing me.

Okay. Yeah, these are the exact same. No. All right. If there is anything to say, I these are the exact same. Oh. All right. If there is anything to say, I will have the deal notarized. That is crazy. So that's what they green lighted on, this just complete fucking bullshit. The city and county would part of the deal, they would build the access roads to the area and they would grade the land. They would use $4.75 million of public money to

do that. And O'Malley would then fund building Dodger Stadium and he would get all parking and concession revenues. Oh, my God. To get around the public purpose. Part of the deed. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Helping people. They need entertainment. O'Malley promised to build take a half million dollars and. To build, quote, youth recreational facilities such as rollerskating, tennis courts, basketball courts and swings on 40 acres of that land. OK. I mean, very it's the same thing.

As you know now, they're there. We go there all the time. No, no, I always actually I didn't know that the Dodgers played there. I always looked at it as a bowling area of town. Yeah. I cannot believe it. Mayor Paulson proposes Proposition B. B isn't baseball as a referendum.

Stupid. Balson Ross run the campaign PR team two days before the election, the Taxpayers Committee for Yes on B air a five hour Pro Dodger Telethon on KTTV with celebrities. Groucho Marx, Lucio Ball, Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin, Jack Betty, I'm literally naming all the biggest celebrities of the time. The biggest stars. Oh yeah, because they're all out here. Yeah, let me tell you, we've got to have a baseball stadium.

We've got to have something like that. Yeah, they want baseball because they have the Hollywood team. Yeah, let me tell you we gotta have a baseball study and we gotta have something like that Yeah, they want baseball because they have the they have the Hollywood team that plays by the farmers market, but they won't write MLB, right? O'Malley goes on and takes questions from callers and he comes across as very warm and very charming In his memoirs mayor Paulson wrote quote the referendum We led them to believe was a yes or no vote for baseball. You were a baseball-hating commie or a God-fearing baseball-loving American. It is the largest voter turnout in L.A. history for a non-presidential race, and it passes by 3%. Oh, my God.

Only 3%. Oh, my God. Only 3%. Oh my God. So close with all that shows how much. Yeah. And it shows how much of a scam everyone knew it was. Yeah. Right. It was brexit. Yeah.

It's like baseball Brexit. Private citizens now sue to freeze the land transfer. And on July 13, 1958, land commies. Private citizens now sue to freeze the land transfer. And on July 13, 1958... These land commies! On July 13, 1958, Judge Arnold Prigger rules the contract void because it illegally used public lands. He called the deal, quote, a manifest abuse of discretion. A city council has no right or power to give a private organization

carte blanche with respect to spending public money. Wow. All right. That not hold up. Somebody actually weighs in. Yeah. What are you doing? We're just going to build a big.

It's a giveaway. Joe Rich guy. No, what are you doing? Huh? We're just going to build a big. Just in time. It's a giveaway. Joe Rich. No, no, no. That's like the law. I want to watch. I want to watch the whole thing. Fuck the law. I want baseball. I'll tell you what, fellow, we would love to have you look the other direction on this one. Oh, Pricky, please.

Ron Reagan called the judges ruling... There's that name again, there's that name again. Whenever something awful happens, it's a cause array again. Quote, one of the most dishonest documents I ever read in my life. And I didn't even read it. I didn't. I was told to say this by a man.

I had it at Bonzo the Chimp and I don't take I was told to say this by a man. I had it at Bonzo, the Chimpanzee. Don't take him very seriously. By the way, you should eat and smoke cigarettes. But the state Supreme Court, of course, overrules the judge. Saying baseball brought indirect public benefits. And, you know, there's the whole recreational youth stuff that. Right, right. The roller rink. The El Sereno star called it, quote,

the biggest giveaway of public funds and public lands in the history of California. Yeah. I mean, it's insane. Yeah, yeah, it is. Fred called it the tragedy of his life. Both I was responsible for uprooting. I don't know how many hundreds of people from their own little valley and having the whole thing destroyed. We'd spent millions of dollars getting ready

for building public housing on the land, and the Dodgers picked it up for just a fraction of that unreal. Now, all this time not I cannot believe this. All this time is going to get worse. All this time, Frank is refusing to testify still in front of the HIC. Right. And and finally, his appeals come down and he is sentenced to nine months in prison for contempt of Congress. OK, cool.

Yeah, because we do need to find a villain. On May 6, 1959, the L.A. Mayor News published a letter from Manuel. Quote, if they want my land, let them pay a reasonable price for it, not take it away. Two days later, bulldozers came with tons of cops and bureaucrats who had writs from the court at Abruna and Manuel, their kids and grandkids who had fought eviction for eight years. They fought sheriff's deputies,

they'd fought moving vans and a dog catcher who once tried to round up her chihuahuas. They're there and they go inside and they nail the door shut. Sheriff's deputies break it down and they forced them outside and it takes four cops to carry out Aurora, who's a daughter, as she's screaming and struggling. Utility workers cut their phone lines. A deputy then rips out the front window so movers could pass the furniture outside more quickly. They take out the fridge, which is full of milk for the baby. They don't empty it first? All this is put into storage. No.

Ten minutes, that took ten minutes, ten minutes later, the family watches as bulldozers demolish the house that he built by hand. They've got a bunch of chickens who are crushed under the house. I brought it through rocks of the bulldozers. Aurora was arrested and fined. No, Aurora was arrested and fined 500 for slapping the cop. Fucking crazy. And then she has a nervous breakdown right after and she gets put in jail for 39 days. The. Well, I guess they wanted to look bad.

And they needed a way to do that at the end of the day. They just don't fucking care. They just don't care. Now it's also about sending a message and all this other bullshit, you know. Also, can we just fucking say. How much money O'Malley has, how much money is going into this, and they can't get them. Yeah, pay them over the fucking amount.

Yes, because there is emotional trauma. They still want to nickel and fucking dime them and give them half their value. Now it's about punishment. It's about punishing the poor. You can't stand up for yourself. That's what it's about. It's that there's no real line of defense. It's right. There's everywhere you go. You just go, oh, yeah, no, like it's all they're all just in. I mean, it is.

It's one big club and you ain't in it. But you destroy someone's life and then you're like, you are. You are really having a negative reaction to this. And newscasters there, Alisa Garcia Lopez, said, quote, we citizens feel very much ashamed because this is America. The Chigas return and lived in a tent there for a couple of weeks. Ugh. You know, because they had to know, they didn't know where to fucking go.

Yeah. Their encampment becomes a protest site. Okay. Manuel's guarding their belongings with a shotgun. And then, someone sends an anonymous postcard to Ross. And it says that she should check into the family's property records. She gives it to a reporter. And then a story comes out that the Archie's children and

extended family own 11 other properties in LA. That doesn't matter. That what's I have family around. children and extended family own 11 other properties in LA. That doesn't matter that what's I have family around. What the fuck does that do? If my house is gone and I go live with my sister, everything sucks. What are you talking about? They're they're they're kids have moved on and have their own lives. Well, unlike you're also saying, what about O'Malley? Yeah. Right. Yeah.

Jesus, it's just crazy. They have so much. So this is a huge blow to sympathy for the family by the public. Everyone's just like, well, I mean, they have somewhere else to go. I'm glad they bought Oldstead. Yeah, they're sympathetic only if they have poor nowhere else to live. So a Brana quote, sure, we own property, but Mr. O'Malley owns a lot more. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yes.

But he was really upfront about it. Ross said they didn't ask for permission when they drafted her husband, who got killed in the war, and they really just want justice in this whole situation. All right, let's all settle down enough, enough, enough. There's that little point that keeps nagging away at us. 132 days after demolishing, O'Malley and 5,000 Angelinos attend the new stadium groundbreaking ceremony. Costs $23 million to build the stadium. O'Malley borrows it from Union Oil in exchange for advertising rights and to have a gas station in the parking lot.

I just I was worried that the story wasn't horrendous enough. Let's get oil involved. Well, they also got oil rights on the property, but no, nothing. There wasn't oil there, but he. What's a real deal? Yeah. What case there was oil. All right. Now let's take a break for the seventh inning drill. Shit.

So bulldozers buried every. Thing in Chavez Ravine, the house of the churches, the malt shop, BD shop, a liquor store, convent, two grocery stores, post office, two elementary schools, a town. Yes. They buried a town. Palo Verde, La Loma, and Bishop become parking lots or access roads. The Adichigasichiega's home.

Is where overflow parking? That's just fucking overflow parking extra. Don't worry. Your sacrifice is. For a place, a emergency. The lot is full, full. Then so OK, and your daughter gets out of jail in a week isn't that great? So stadium opened in April 1962 58,000 seats 16,000 parking spaces you can look at a picture on line the parking lot is 10 times the size of the stadium. The parking lot is massive. Opening day was the fourth time

Walter O'Malley had been in L.A. And Gareth, it is the greatest traffic jam up to date in L.A. history. Christ. Thousands. I. Oh, Christ. Thousands. I mean, you don't need to tell me. Of people miss the game because they're sitting in traffic.

O'Malley refuses to refund them because he said they can hear the game on their radio. Fucking asshole. Oh, my God. And then he put out a cigar on a young Mexican boy. There you are. This is my boy scar. At least the Dodgers lost the game. So fans who drove and couldn't leave because there was so much traffic abandoned their

cars in the parking lot. And when they came back the next day, the Dodgers tried to charge them for two days of parking. I mean, what a swindle. I just... Oh, shit. Can you put in in your little contract where you give a guy 300 acres of land for nothing,

can you put in don't be evil, just pure evil? Can you not be pure evil? Well, or at least just like slow play it like get comfortable. Then evil. Don't just hit the ground. Evilly. Also in the left field, there is a portal in the ground where Satan can pop up if he desires.

A brother in Manuel moved to nearby city terrace. They keep dogs and chickens and they have a little garden. Manuel built this builds a still in the basement. Sure. Frank works for free speech causes, and he starts the National Committee to Abolish the HUAC. In the 50s, Frank's offices are broken into many times. And in 1960, his office is set on fire and then right after that, his home is fire bombed.

Jesus Christ. And then days later, someone paints a swastika on his house. I'm not by my app. So Frank eventually Leo's loses all his appeals on the contempt case. And the night before he's supposed to go into prison. MLK hosts a reception in his honor and personally host him for a farewell dinner. Frank, if you can believe this, becomes a prison abolitionist. Why? Why is it that?

Daddy, check his son, Juan, worked for the Dodgers for a bit in the 70s. That had to be tough. Cleaning up after games. Well, he was probably just like, that is nice to be near my house. Oh God. Manuel died in 1971. His wife died in 1972 and Walter O'Malley died in 1979. The Dodgers became very popular. So this was this was a bad look for Latinos in L.A.

for what had happened with the Dodgers. But that all turned in the 80s because they signed the great baseball player who was Mexican, Fernando Valenzuela. And they also had Latino announcers in it. And it brought them back into the good graces. In the 1980s, Frank filed a Freedom of Information Act request and got his FBI file. Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. It had to be. I mean, how many pages?

Guess how many? Oh my god. I have thousands, thousands of pages. What? 132,000. Oh, my tits. What? What? I mean, it's just like it is just like government paranoia. The diary.

I mean, oh, my 38 years of FBI surveillance. He was like, I'm excited to read it. And then he's like, I can't read this. Oh, I got time. J. Edgar Hoover had handwritten notes in the margins. Oh, God. Oh, my gosh. The FBI had spent years infiltrating his life, undermining him. They even recruited the American Nazi party to have members go as counter demonstrators when he was doing stuff. See, that's the whole thing. It's just like, how can you not? Like, this is so obvious, such a rhetorical question.

But why, why can't you just be like, hey, I guess we're not right? Like, why, like that's your whole thing. The whole thing is that it's like justice and like fair and yet when you're like bribing Nazis, you're like, this is Nazis, you're like, this is a we hate. I mean, it is like that meme.

Are we the baddies? Yeah. Are we the baddies? I mean, yeah, he. But this is what the FBI did, especially under Hoover. I mean, they still do it now. It's no fucking difference. Yeah, no. But but no, it really is just like. Yeah. So you had to be, you know, I mean, you had to be in there just like, hey, wait, but seems like he's innocent, though.

Yeah, 38 years of surveillance in 1964. The FBI knew that there was an assassination plot against Frank where they were that we were doing. It was going to be shot at an ACLU meeting where he was speaking. So we gave him stilts. They knew the assassination's name. They knew when it was going to happen. No mention of them interceding in the attempt or warning Frank.

They just recorded that no attempt was made. Actually, the other thing is like, why would you wouldn't you just be like, well, let's only talk about stuff that fucked up. No, no, I'm not. But this stuff is not right. It because it's great. We come off real bad. So O'Malley's kids and you know, to Dodger fans,

the O'Malley's kids and and you know to Dodger fans the O'Malley's are these great owners They own his kids on the team until they sold it to Fox in 1998 a hero And then Frank McCourt bought the team basically using loans in 2004 Frank Wilkerson died in 2006 at the age of 91 in Arizona where he was living. In 2010, Frank McCourt was investigated by the California attorney general. The Dodgers Dream Foundation, which is their nonprofit, was cited for improper expenditures. Do you know how bad you have to be doing shit

for your nonprofit to be fined for improper? You can give away so much, you can give so much money to yourself and your people in a nonprofit. You have to be so egregious. That has to be so bad. So it's cited. And one of the people they had funneled money to was his wife, Jamie.

She got over $100,000. And she is a Dodger chief executive. In 2012, the team was sold in bankruptcy court to the Guggenheim group. Great story about them being very suspicious and doing really dubious thing in annuities and life insurance and that may come back to buy them some day or maybe not.

It has led, the face of it is Hall of Famer Magic Johnson. They buy them for 2.5 billion. But Frank McCourt keeps ownership of the parking lots. Still makes money off of Jamie McCourt, punished by today being a US ambassador to France. Dodger Stadium is the third oldest baseball stadium in the US. Parking costs are $30 for general parking

and $50 per preferred lots. Season parking passes are between $5,600 and $8,000. No public youth recreational facilities were ever built. In 2002, Frank McCourt submitted plans to the city to build three apartment buildings along Stadium Way, 437 units, and parking for 218 vehicles. Baseball has created a luxury tax for teams. And it's if you're over the luxury tax, you get hit with more and more percentage of your entire salary, your team's salary, that you have to pay over that until you go back under more and more percentage of your of your entire sale of your team's salary.

They have to pay over that until you go back under and reset it. And it's a way to keep baseball competitive. It's the way they were like, well, we can't have these big markets having spending so much more than small markets. It keeps a competitive balance in the league. And in 2020, the Dodgers signed the most sought after player in decades, Shohei Otani, for 10 years for $700 million.

Oh, but they didn't end around on a luxury tax, $68 million per year in interest-free deferrals. So Otani only cost the Dodgers $2 million a year from 2024 to 2033. So they're cheating on the luxury tax by pushing all the payments to years later when it really won't cost them as much because all everything goes up, you're making more money. So they won the World Series off that basically cheating on luxury tax. Finally, after 35 years, they won it. All they had to do was massively cheat. That's around the fetish. Well, even beyond the massively cheating, I mean, it is completely built on lies and the bulldozing of the dream of immigrants.

And as someone who used to live near it, it is hell. Yeah. I also like people, people at LA don't agree. I think it's a shitty stadium. I mean, you can say everything but I just I've never thought it was a very... I have no real idea but I know when I live near it, it was the worst. They will eventually figure out a way to bulldoze that thing, build a stadium somewhere else and sell that land for so much fucking money.

Because imagine the houses and the imagine how much money you can sell houses for up there. Oh yeah. Like you can see the whole fucking city. It's right above downtown. It's it's a perfect place for for a yeah. But anyway, the happy happy World Series Dodgers. You are built on death and destruction.

That's terrible. The the research for this was done by a Serah June, although Serah, you know, you know, your last name on your emails is Sasei now. So maybe she maybe she's in a different last name. I never noticed it before. But anyway, she's great. She's done stuff. So a lot. Yeah. Yeah, she did the Iranian episode. Oh, yeah. Right. Right.

Tear to her heart. Sources stealing home by Eric Nussbaum. Zisk number 30 by Todd Taylor. And a special thanks to Tim Faust for that. Los Angeles Magazine, LA Times, LAist, New York Times, Mother Jones, not Chavez Ravine dot org, buried under the blue dot com, stadium talk dot com, the Asphalt Island blog, Los Angeles Public Library Archive and the Leo let Marymont University archives. I mean, look, there's a lot of heinous stories about stuff that's been done, but this was particularly egregious, pure corruption, racism.

Just the whole thing through and through is just fucking heinous. It's a it's it is also a horrible. It is also a story about how. We're always going to get bulldozed until we lose our collective goddamn minds and just go. Yeah, there's so many more of us than these fucking assholes. I mean, yes, try to put a stop to it at some point. But until then.

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