Episode 24: Cholera, Margherita Pizza and The Godfather

French Lick, Indiana was once the top resort town in the U.S. Famous people like Bing Crosby, Al Capone and Ronald Reagan all went there. But it's known for much more than that and what starts in there, changes the world. This week's episode features Tod Sloan, FDR, West Baden Springs Hotel, Sun Rayed Tomato Juice, Smirnoff Vodka, Cock & Bull and the Russian Revolution. 

Everyone knows they changed it in 1985 to New Coke. But how many know of the other four times? And one of those might be considered a public duping. To get the answer today's story covers Thomas Edison, Cocaine, Kola Nut, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Robert Gozuieta, Fanta, Tab, Diet Rite, Robert Woodruff, Atlanta's Jewish Community, Royal Crown Cola and just maybe the show The Walking Dead.

The 20th Century presented the perfect moment for the rise is Trivia, and the games that go with it. Maybe that window is beginning to close. In today's episode we explore the Han Dynasty, WW2, Merv Griffin, Charles Van Doren, NBC, College Bowl, Trivial Pursuit, Jeopardy, Alex Trebek, Radio Quiz Bowls, Information Please, the $64K Question, Columbia University and Dr. Joyce Brothers. 

Did you know "It's A Wonderful Life" started out as a dream? And then as a Christmas card?  How did it beat the odds to become an American classic? The story starts back in 1876 and involves Amadeo Giannini, Philip Van Doren Stern, Frank Capra, Jimmy Stewart, World War II, the Council on Books in Wartime, Jimmy the Raven, Cary Grant, Republic Pictures, Columbia Pictures, The Greatest Gift and the 1906 San Francisco Earth Quake. 

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, an influencer is someone who made it big online. We disagree. Could there have been an influencer before the internet? Charles Dickens did have millions of fans, he did influence people, companies, governments and society. He was much more than an author and perhaps the world's first influencer. 

Winston Churchill said it best "whomever controls the oil will win the war". Luckily, the United States had Wilcatters with true tenacity who would find oil no matter where it hid. In today's episode we explore the Big Inch and Little Big Inch piplines, Columbus Joiner, Spindletop, Cushing Oklahoma, Tom Slick, Texaco, the Rule of Capture, origin of kerosene, street lights, German U-Boats, H.L. Hunt, Lamar Hunt, the Superbowl and the NFL.

The Chinese Exclusion Act is one of our most undiscussed tragedies. Despite the bad, Chinese immigrants pushed through to help shapes these United States. Today's episode crosses paths with Bruce Lee, Teddy Roosevelt, Chester A. Arthur, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the Bing Cherry, the Valencia Orange, the Citizenship Clause and Equal Protection Clauses of the 14th Amendment, Oldsmobile, the TaiPing Revolution, the Gold Rush, the Transcontinental Railroad, Wong Kim Ark, Grover Cleveland, the NY Sun and the Statue of Liberty.

To get a button on the microwave for popcorn, it first had to touch the hands of Winston Churchill, Cracker Jacks, the 1893 World's Fair, Major League Baseball, a #1 hit song, Superman, Betty Boop, Raytheon, McCann Erickson, and popcorn balls at the North Pole. Sit back and hear a tale you've not heard before. 

Today we honor Paul Harvey's "The Rest of the Story" with this unbelievable tale. You'll never guess who it is about, but along the way the story touches Martin Luther King, Jr, Mbutu Sese Seko, Pearl Harbor, Goucher College, Rudolf Hess, Erwin Rommel, Apollo 13, the Israeli Air Force, Isaroku Yamamoto, and the Ebola Epidemic. All connected with one amazing revelation. 

The path to creating the world's most important dictionary involved J.R.R. Tolkien, the constructed language of Esperanto, the Oxford English Dictionary, a murderer in an insane asylum, Alice in Wonderland and the Civil War in the United States. Today's story also featured Alfred Lord Tennyson, Bialystok Poland, L.L. Zamenhoff, W.C. Minor, James Murray, Winston Churchill, Jonathan Swift, and St. Elizabeth's Hospital.