It's the Sweet 16 episode of the podcast. Raise a glass to one of Cape Cod's Prohibition-era speakeasies. The Casa Madrid sat among the trees in a quiet village of South Yarmouth, Massachusetts however inside the unique building was a raucous party atmosphere. The only thing bigger than the party was the raid that exposed the illegal activities going on inside.
Before streaming apps like Pandora and Spotify, even before satellite radio like Sirius and XM, there was Digital Music Express. The bridge between traditional radio and what we have today DMX was ahead of its time. What was it and what happened to it? We go Back In the Day to find out.
I pull the curtain back a little as I share the reasons behind my decision to give up alcohol. I hope it inspires or motivates those looking to quit themselves, or that many of you can relate with dealing with your own vices.
There is a loaded This Week In History here. Not only was this the week that President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, but it was also the week of the sinking of the unsinkable Titanic. There's more too including a Time Capsule featuring the first McDonald's opening.
Also be sure to check out my livestreams called Without A Map Friday's at 8pm on Instagram which serve as a sort of postgame show for the podcast. Find them on IGTV and YouTube after they've finished.
Helpful Links from this Episode
Listen to Episode 15 here.
It's the Sweet 16 episode of the podcast. Raise a glass to one of Cape Cod's Prohibition-era speakeasies. The Casa Madrid sat among the trees in a quiet village of South Yarmouth, Massachusetts however inside the unique building was a raucous party atmosphere. The only thing bigger than the party was the raid that exposed the illegal activities going on inside.
Before streaming apps like Pandora and Spotify, even before satellite radio like Sirius and XM, there was Digital Music Express. The bridge between traditional radio and what we have today DMX was ahead of its time. What was it and what happened to it? We go Back In the Day to find out.
I pull the curtain back a little as I share the reasons behind my decision to give up alcohol. I hope it inspires or motivates those looking to quit themselves, or that many of you can relate with dealing with your own vices.
There is a loaded This Week In History here. Not only was this the week that President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, but it was also the week of the sinking of the unsinkable Titanic. There's more too including a Time Capsule featuring the first McDonald's opening.
Also be sure to check out my livestreams called Without A Map Friday's at 8pm on Instagram which serve as a sort of postgame show for the podcast. Find them on IGTV and YouTube after they've finished.
Helpful Links from this Episode
Listen to Episode 15 here.
00:00 Intro
Hello world. Welcome to episode sweet 16 of the in my footsteps podcast. I am your host, Christopher. Setterlund coming to you from the vacation destination known as Cape Cod, Massachusetts, but representing all six of the new England states from Maine's Rocky coast, down to New York City's backyard of Connecticut.
Thank you all for joining. This is a great episode coming up. I hope you will enjoy it, but first how's everyone doing out there. How is spring in your area? Cape Cod, this area along the coast, we get several weeks of mid 40’s with fog and drizzle, and that's what we've got basically going on right now.
It's like suddenly spring comes at the end of may, just in time to go right into. Thank you to everyone. Who's been tuning into the podcast. Who's been coming over and checking out the live streams that I do on Instagram Friday nights at eight. If this is your first episode, checking out the podcast.
Welcome. I talk about new England travel history, lifestyle topics, a nice chunk of 80’s, retro. Well, this week it's 90’s retro, but if you like nostalgia, I'm a big fan. So you'll get your fill of A fun thing. I did this week before recording the podcast. Well, I'm recording it now, but I went over the first 15 episodes of the podcast.
Just looking at downloads as far as where people are listening from as far as platforms and locations. No surprise that the vast majority of downloads come from people in America and on apple podcasts. So I've been sharing a lot more of the links to the podcast from apple, because I think there's a little more cache that comes with it.
When you put a link up that says apple podcasts, remember if you've enjoyed this podcast or the live streams or any of my YouTube videos, definitely spread the word to people that you think might enjoy the same stuff. The whole idea of growing the audience comes down to you. The people that are listening, I can promote it a lot, but it definitely looks self-serving.
When I have others that give positive reviews and share the podcast, that's how we grow it and get more eyes on it. And I got a ton of great content coming up through this year and beyond with all my research I've done. I probably have, if I didn't do any more research, which I still am do. I would have enough material to do this podcast for four more years, but I've already been doing more research.
So I have a ton of stuff to share. And obviously if anyone has recommendations questions, I want to do a Q and A with this podcast at some point. But that'll all come in time until then I'll just keep pumping out the content and hope that you enjoy it and spread the word. So this is sweet 16 episode 16 of the podcast.
It's going to be a good one. We're going to look back at Cape Cod's famous speakeasy, the Casa Madrid. I'm going to share a little bit of my own story of why I stopped drinking and hope that it might give some inspiration to anyone out there Who's feeling the same. I'll explain it. We're going to dive retro into something that I don't know if you'll remember, but it was the precursor to satellite radio, digital music express, also known as DMX.
It's an interesting and fun little story because I had that well my family had that, when it came out and we've got a loaded this week in history, it might be the best week thus far, as far as big events go. So it's time to get the podcast rolling. So let's go and take a walk.
04:14 Casa Madrid
Prohibition was a fascinating time in this country. It was the 18th amendment, which lasted from January, 1920 to December, 1933. And basically during this time, the sale and production of alcohol was illegal in America, but not surprisingly, despite it being illegal that didn't stop it. People were making alcohol in their homes, bathtub, gin.
That's where that comes from in their basement with moonshine stills. Some people say it gave rise to the mob and organized crime because of rum running, where they would deliver illegal alcohol via remote beaches and such, but it also gave rise to something called a speakeasy, which was a business like a front for a bar.
Basically it would be like a pet store, but in reality, it was a bar. You go in, it looks like a pet store. And then at night there's other stuff going on and. One of the most well-known speakeasies that existed down on Cape Cod. Back in the prohibition days, the building is actually still standing and this was a place called Casa Madrid and Casa Madrid had a legendary short run at the beginning.
So its origins start in early 1934. When a local realtor, Alex Finn, and his partner, Oscar Skinner had a building constructed on present day run pond road in south Yarmouth. It's right near all the beaches. This building was Spanish, stucco, yellow stucco and red tiles, which really made it stand out among all of the traditional Cape Cod shingled homes.
The building itself cost $125,000 in early 1930. Which is about 2 ½ million dollars present day, the Casa Madrid was promoted as a dinner and dancing establishment because of course it would be, it was associated with the Yarmouth beach club and this Spanish style building was entirely new for the Cape.
It was a way to bring people in because in prohibition, if you were to run any sort of nightclub business where you couldn't sell alcohol, you needed something unique to bring people. Alex fin promised indoor and outdoor dancing with an enclosed courtyard. Early estimates of the Casa Madrid building itself were, it was able to accommodate about 3,000 people and it was heavily promoted in the late spring and early summer, 1933, the time leading up to the grand opening of June 30th and the grand opening was a high class.
Ticket only event for members, mainly members of the beach club and other high ranking locals. If you are a member of the Yarmouth beach club, you had some perks besides going to Casa Madrid for the grand opening, you had access to the lockers in the bath house, hammocks swings, use of the handball and squash courts and access to canoes, rowboats, speedboats.
And with all the promotion and members only, and all of this, the Casa Madrid, the initial opening was a huge success. And it appeared as though Cape Cod had its new place to be. But as with all speakeasies, that opening and what it was doing as dinner and dancing, that was all a front, but the front got exposed really quick with Casa Madrid.
It was only six weeks. August 13th, 1933, that a group of 35 law enforcement officers under the direction of Lieutenant James Hughes and assistant attorney general, George B Laurie, all these folks arrived at Casa Madrid. They had been tipped off that there were some potential laws being broken and when they got there and they knocked on the door, some of the patrons, because they were all dressed in police uniforms, they thought they were actual performers.
So even though some of the 300 guests, there were actually only doing dinner and dancing, no suspicion was raised, so nothing was done. And these officers were able to raid this place because they found alcohol and illegal gambling going on at Casa Madrid. They seized a truckload of gambling equipment and furnishings, including a roulette wheel.
And they seized over $7,300 in cash, which would be $150,000 today. And it resulted in the arrest of 34 people, including Finn and Skinner the owners, the big rumor and urban legend of that raid that night is that a lot of prominent citizens were there and escaped including Boston mayor, James Curley. With the legend saying that he escaped through a bathroom window before he was caught.
So mayor Curley, rumored to have gotten away. The others did not fit in Skinner plead, not guilty, which allowed the club to remain open while the investigation was going on a few weeks later on August 29th, assistant attorney general Laurie again, raided Casa Madrid, but this one wasn't as successful. They use a sledgehammer To break down the door to the room they had said previously housed the gambling equipment. This time, there was nothing there. And basically to wag their fingers at the law enforcement for not finding anything, Alex Finn the owner, he offered the troopers dinner and of course they declined. The remainder of the season was uneventful for Casa Madrid.
They stayed open until labor day. Then they closed for the season. And right after that's, when the cases were heard about those arrested at Casa Madrid, most of the charges were dropped or continued, but both Finn and Skinner were fined $50 or roughly $1,000 today for maintaining a gaming house and selling alcohol, Massachusetts attorney general, Joseph Warner pressured the Yarmouth selectmen to shut down Casa Madrid.
And the charter of the Yarmouth beach club was actually revoked due to its connection with Casa Madrid. And as luck would have it, prohibition was repealed before the start of the 1934 season for Casa Madrid. So it all seemed good, but because of the problems that had been caused the year before the application for a liquor license was initially refused.
The only reason that Casa Madrid got a liquor license was in May, 1934, Alex Finn sold his property. So basically it was like, we'll give you a liquor license if you sell it. Your club can have it, but you can't. Finn basically liquidated all of his assets on Cape Cod after that and left the Cape. But the man who bought Casa Madrid, he didn't have much more success.
People were still pushing to have the liquor license revoked as Casa Madrid is in a residential neighborhood. Now back then, it was mostly surrounded by trees. It's not in what you would think a business zone, but before the license could be revoked, there was a fire in April, 1935 destroyed two cottages and damaged two others that were on the Casa Madrid.
And again, the club was sold to Peter Panesis for the 1935 season. Again, opening night was a huge success, a crowd of more than 500 were there, NBC recording artists, Betty Bryant was there to sing, but the first night's success did not carry. And after 1935, Panesis sold the property again. And it continued that way where it was a steady, but unspectacular presence in south Yarmouth.
So Casa Madrid never reached the Heights that people thought it would, would that grand opening in 1933, yet a lot of people think that it just vanished, but no, it was there and it was open until 1962. Then it stayed closed for three years, but reopened as a restaurant. However, this restaurant had no live entertainment and a 9:00 PM closing time, almost like its reputation proceeded itself from when it was Casa Madrid, but after only four seasons as a restaurant, the no live entertainment and the closing time put the kibosh on the restaurant in the mid 1970s.
Another new ownership group tried and ultimately failed to convert Casa Madrid into a musical music. That didn't work in 1989. It saw new life as a teen crisis center, which is basically what it is. Now. If you drive down there, the building is still there. You can see the stucco, but on either side of the building, it's like they've added shingles to it, to kind of mask what used to be there, but it's still there and you wouldn't think of it as a Relic of the prohibition days, but it is.
And if you weren't sure of the connection with prohibition in south Yarmouth in that area, all you have to do is look a few hundred yards from the building that used to be Casa Madrid. There's Smuggler's beach. Yeah, it's called bass river beach, but all of the locals on the Cape call it smugglers' beach because that was a spot where they used to smuggle illegal alcohol back in prohibition.
But for a very short time in 1933, during the waning days of prohibition, there was a hot speakeasy in what is now a residential neighborhood in south Yarmouth. Casa Madrid was like a bolt of lightning with a fiery first act and then a long drawn out tenure of just failure after failure. You can go back and look at it and kind of reminisce about what it must've been like in the prohibition days when Casa Madrid was the place to be.
Sponsor: Wear Your Wish 13:25
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Don't just take my word for it. Go back and listen to episode 11, listen to the interview. Go watch the interview on YouTube. That's the more uncut one I have to try to condense these for the podcast. Wear your wishes.com is where you go get started. There's so much more to come, but I wanted to give a little reminder for everyone to just go check it out. It's going to be big 2021 is going to be big Wear your wish at Wear Your Wishes.com.
Back In the Day DMX 15:11
Today, we've got music streaming platforms like Pandora and Spotify, where you can basically hear any type of music you want, and if you pay a little, you get commercial free. I mean, Pandora, I don't have commercial free. So I'll get ads every couple of songs. And before we had these streaming platforms, there was, well, there still is satellite radio, which were two big companies, Sirius and XM, which are now one in the same. Before that, for about a century now, there's been regular. I don't know what you would call it, terrestrial radio, where you've got stations, local stations with DJ’s and variety shows backed way back in the day before television. They had variety shows and talk shows and commercials all over the place. However, in between terrestrial radio and satellite radio, there was this little period of time something else that came along that kind of shook terrestrial radio. It was basically a precursor to the Pandora and Spotify preset stations. No commercials, no DJ’s. But you did pay a price for it, and that service was called Digital Music Express or DMX. And what better way to explain what DMX is for those it might not know it than by listening to a little ad from when it was out? This is from 1992.
Ad: DMX is a cable CD library with over 50,000 titles connected to your personal stereo system. It's available right now 24 hours a day without interruption. DMX has 30 channels of CD quality audio, 30 channels, 30 distinct musical formats, enough variety to suit any mood, any musical taste without buying expensive CDs, or even a CD player.
So DMX was a lot like what satellite radio is. It was based in Los Angeles and first started operations in September 1991. Essentially, it was hooked through your cable system, but you got your own box like a DJ box and you also got your own remote that looked like a brick that was called the DMX DJ with the DMX logo on it, which looked like a little man with a head and arms with the M kind of crossing into each other, DMX offered 30 commercial free channels. So you're looking at anything you could think of rock top 40, R&B, hip hop, even, jazz, reggae, all that stuff they had. And it actually took off to where there were articles about whether DMX could challenge terrestrial radio and kind of make them, I guess, changed their ways. I don't know what it would have meant fewer commercials because you got a lot of the stations today do commercial free hours or mornings, so it obviously changed how they operate. But when it first came out, DMX was $10.95 a month, so Spotify Premium is $9.99 a month, as is Pandora Premium. So those are definitely better deals than what DMX was. And with those, you can create your own stations so you could have hundreds and hundreds of custom made stations. But 30 years ago, this was a huge deal that you didn't have to wait for DJs to play what you wanted. By May of 1993, DMX had 120,000 customers nationwide. One of those customers was my family.
I don't remember how we ended up getting it. The why is obvious. If you have 30 commercial free stations with five kids? Naturally, they'll be something that they want to listen to and will kind of shut them up for a little while. And I'll always remember we got the DMX box and remote, and we couldn't figure out how to get it started and the rest of the family. I don't know where they went. No one else was home and I was home alone, and I was probably 15 years old and I was messing around trying to get it to work, and I finally got it started. And the first thing is, it always sticks with me. DMX started up and I believe it was the top 40 station, and the first song that ever played on our DMX at home was a song P.A.S.S.I.O.N. the passion song by Rhythm Syndicate. I mean, talk about a one hit wonder, and I wish it had been something more contemporary, something more exciting that played first. But it did peak at number two on the Billboard charts. So it was a big hit. If you don't know it, go look it up and listen to about five seconds of it and then just you can shut it off.
The neat thing with DMX is it would show you on the screen what was playing and on the remote. There was a competitor to DMX that started around the same time called Digital Cable Radio DCR. If you wanted to find out what songs were playing on DCR. There was an 800 number you had to call. Talk about a scam right there. If you didn't know the song, you had to call a phone number and pay money to find out. Needless to say, DCR was not a success. DMX, though they got up to 300,000 customers by March of 1994, and they still they weren't seen as challenging terrestrial radio by that time. When they first came out, they were wondering about it. It was seen more as a novelty, and I guess that's kind of true. By April 95, DMX said that they were available and 17 million homes worldwide. Now, I don't know if that means that 17 million people had it and paid for it, or that's just how many could have gotten it. But I do know that our experience, my family's experience with the DMX. I don't think it lasted that long. I mean, maybe a few months because I can't remember us having it even through 1995. I mean, we definitely didn't have it when I was graduating high school in 1996.
So DMX was successful through the 90s, it stuck around. But the thing is that satellite radio then came around. XM was the first that came around in 2001, and Sirius Satellite Radio came around in 2002, and this you can have in your car. So it didn't make DMX obsolete, but it definitely swung the tide. But the thing is, DMX was already facing residential commercial free radio out. They were shifting towards businesses, gyms, retail stores. So that's the irony is that DMX, I didn't know until I researched this topic for the podcast, but DMX is still around today. The thing is, it's not under the same name.
So in 2012, DMX the company was bought by Mood Media for $86.1 million in March 2012, and it became a part of this mood media conglomerate. And the neat thing is mood media. They have some big clients. We're talking McDonald's Gold's Gym, Whole Foods and others. So that means there's a chance that if you're in a McDonald's and you hear music playing that, it could be the DMX system, even though it's not called that anymore.
So it's still around that blew my mind. I thought honestly that when satellite radio came out in the early 2000s, I thought that that was kind of it. The DMX faded away. But little did I know it was like that muzak that you hear in Macy's and Kmart and such that it's kind of a branch off of that. But 30 years ago, DMX Digital Music Express was the precursor to satellite radio and to premium streaming like Pandora and Spotify.
Had any of you heard of DMX, did you have it? I remember having it. I don't know how long. It probably wasn't that long. If I don't remember it. But if you had it, do you have any positive memories of it? Did you have fun sitting and checking out the stations? What about that ad? Did you remember that ad? Would that whistling keyboard music? I don't remember it. They actually have merchandise on eBay. I've seen hats with the DMX logo on it, which was funny. I don't know who would have bought that. But there's a little nostalgia for you. Digital music express something pretty obscure that I remembered, and I hope you research it. Check it out. See if you remember it. And I'll find another fun topic for some retro fun next week.
Why I Quit Drinking 23:21
Those of you that have been listening or tuning into my live streams weekly have noticed that I've been sharing what I've been drinking at the time. I think I did CBD seltzer. I've done kombucha tea, and I've talked about giving up drinking. And I thought, I'd take this part of the podcast to explain why, and maybe, you know, it can help someone who's dealt with what I've dealt with.
So that alcoholism gene, it runs in my family and it was always something I was aware of. But in my 20’s and 30’s, I never had a problem with it. And it took until I was 40 when something actually kind of triggered it. And I have to laugh because I think when you're in your 40’s and you do develop a drinking problem, it's worse than when you're in. You know, if you're 25 or 30, it's something like, well, you're young. You experiment. You enjoy, you go to bars, you drink. But when you're in your early 40’s and you drink and it's usually alone and it's to kind of wash away the taste of the day, that's not good.
Basically what happened was once my grandfather, who I've mentioned him several times, who's my role model, my hero. Once he started going downhill with Alzheimer's, this was the way that I dealt with it. You have a couple of drinks and I didn't like beer. So my drink of choice, it was vodka. My mindset was, it took less of it to get you to where you needed to be. And the thing with his Alzheimer's is it didn't get better. So it wasn't like, oh, I needed a drink one day to wash away a bad experience. Seeing my grandfather like that. No, it kept getting worse. And eventually he passed and then my grandmother, she started going downhill and then COVID happened. And so this is all it's, I'm even, I'm using it almost like justifications, but it's not. My thing is you don't have to get a DUI or get in an accident or lose your job to realize that you've got an issue with alcohol drugs, something, it took me a long time in the back of my mind. It would be after I finished my drinking and I was sitting there buzzed in a stupor on my couch. I would say, God, I gotta stop this because I'm not, it's not doing anything for me. It makes me feel worse. But then when everything wore off and by the end of the next day, I was right back like a robot. Like my car would drive me to the liquor store. And you know, it's bad when you're going to a liquor store so much that when you, what you normally get, they recognize it. And you get the people behind the counter saying, wow, that's different from what you normally get. And that would be kind of a wake up call, but rather than cutting down my drinking, I just decided to spread it around and go to six or eight different liquor stores. So they didn't realize I was doing it every day. And I will say, although I never had the hangover, really, I never had the throw up, you know, drinking that much. I noticed things that drinking alcohol every day for months and months and months on end was doing to me besides packing on weight in the stomach, which is what happens cause of the sugar and alcohol as a personal trainer. I knew that, but it was sort of dealing with my grandfather's death, dealing with my grandmother's decline in health and taking a new job that was very toxic and then having COVID hit right after I switched jobs, it was sort of like you survive by any means necessary. Gaining weight was collateral damage to deal with what I was dealing with. And anyone out there that's dealt with this death of a loved one, bad job, and all of us with COVID. I think you kind of understand because it may not be alcohol, but it could be something else that became your or vice Netflix. Isn't a vice but fast food. It could be anything like that.
Believe me, when I say this, I am not anti alcohol, just because it's been by the time this podcast drops, it will be 215 days. So we're talking just over seven months and believe me, I am not anti alcohol. I wish I could go out on a Friday or a Saturday with some friends to a bar and have a few drinks and have that be my night out. The problem is that I've tried that and the night out leads to, I liked how I felt when I was drinking and had friends around. I may not have the friends, but I'll still have the alcohol. And that should probably get me close to where I was and it gets to okay, two days in a row, that's nothing. Well, I can do it again. It's three days and four days. And before you know it it's months and you wonder how the hell you got to where you are.
Besides the gaining weight. The thing that I noticed was that the constant flow of alcohol slowed my brain down. I don't know if anyone else who has stopped drinking or, if you can relate to this, working in a kitchen and doing food prep for me is easy. I can do it blindfolded and you start to do things. It doesn't have to be a job, but it's something, you know, you do at a certain speed or with a certain quality and you can't do it. And in your mind, you know it, you know, oh, I could peel these potatoes in a certain amount of time and you can't do it because your motor skills are slowed because your brain has a constant flow of either alcohol coming in or it's having to burn it off. And another thing that comes from it is you kind of get acclimated to your surroundings in a bad way where this constant state of whatever you want to call it with the alcohol gets its so that you're just floating to the next day. You don't have any ambitions of changing because it's easier to stay in the rut that you're in. And believe me, this is not something that I ever thought would happen. I mean, there are people far worse off than me. And I think I'm blessed that I can share this, that I've come through this without doing any damage, anyone else or to myself so that I can be a cautionary tale. But also it's not like I had some sort of horrible accident where I killed someone with a DUI. I'm sharing this for anyone who may think they have any like a drinking problem or any sort of vice the way that I stopped drinking.
There was no big revelation. It was just one day. I said, you know, I've gotta try to stop. It's been too long. I tried it several months after my grandfather died, I was mad at myself saying this isn't the way you should honor him by drinking and feeling sorry for yourself. And it worked for a little while. Then I tried to reintroduce alcohol. Like I said, going out to a bar with friends and that led to a whole other going down the rabbit hole. It just ended up being, let me see if I can do it. I know I'm better than this because I got into my 40’s without succumbing to that gene, the first 24 hours, the first week, they're very hard. I had to basically like handcuff myself to the couch, to not have that urge, to go to the liquor store because it becomes second nature like breathing. But after a while the cravings go away, you start to feel your brain clear up. I will tell you that the idea for this podcast, the little seed came to me no more than a week or 10 days after I stopped drinking. I suddenly had an idea like, Hey, I wanna do a podcast where I talk about things that I like that pertain to me and hopefully other people will enjoy it and listen, and it's happened. That comes directly from stopping drinking. The other thing was, I began to see my surroundings for what they were, where I knew I had to leave the job I was at because it was a very, very toxic environment. And I said to someone else I worked with there. I said, by the springtime, I've gotta be out of here. It was like the clouds parting in the sky. And suddenly you see everything.
If this inspires someone or motivates someone that's great. I didn't have to be here telling you about my failings with drinking and not being able to control it. It's an addictive personality. There's a reason why I don't live in Las Vegas anymore. If you heard that podcast where I talked about loving to gamble, if you can go gamble with a certain amount of money or go out to the bar and have a drink or two and have it be it, God bless you. I wish I could do that. But believe me, I've tried and failed.
I guess if I could sum this all up for anyone out there who this is speaking to it's that if you try to stop drinking and fail, don't give up. I tried and failed three times and I'll probably fail again. I mean, I'm seven months in, but who knows, but just don't give up. And a lot of people dealing with drinking and drugs and eating to mask feelings, it's a feeling of worthlessness and self-loathing, and I just wanna say, you know, all of you out there listening, you've got something special in you. It's just a matter of finding what it is. This podcast. Anyone can do this just, and anyone can stop drinking. It's just, it's hard. Sometimes it's harder for others than it was for me. I'm not trying to say that I'm anything special, but my main thing is just sharing this and hoping that it speaks to someone because I sure didn't want to be a cautionary tale for my nieces and nephews.
And I did not want to be a, what if story, if I went further down the rabbit hole where I'm 60 years old and I've been working in a toxic job for 20 years and drinking my life away and wondering what the hell happened to me, I didn't want that. But thank you all for listening to my little story and being so supportive of the podcast because this came from stopping drinking. So God knows. If you didn't listen to it, maybe I'd go back now. I'm kidding. But thank you so much for listening to this part of the podcast.
This Week In History 32:56
It's now time for the latest installment of This Week in History. I'm not going to lie, this is the one I've been most excited about, I guess thus far through all of the times of doing this week in history. I always try to make it interesting. Thinking of those that don't like history, that's kind of what I look at like. I'm trying to make it so that even those that don't like history will be interested in this segment. This one's a really good segment. So let's just jump right into it.
This week in history 87 years ago, April 12, 1934 the fastest wind gust ever recorded at the time was recorded on Mount Washington in New Hampshire. The record gust was 231mph. Just imagine that for those that may not have ever been to Mount Washington. It's 6,288 feet above sea level and is the tallest mountain east of the Mississippi River. So it was only natural that the wind gusts up there will be crazy 231mph is a bit excessive. But how's this for some facts about Mount Washington? The calmest month of the year, weather wise, is August, and even then the wind's average 24mph daily. Just imagine, you know, 25 mile an hour wind gusts outside. That's pretty stiff. That's the calmest it gets ever there in the winter. Hurricane force winds are felt basically once every three days. And hurricane force are 74 mph or above, and the peak gets 100 plus mph winds about once a week. So the 231mph wind gust was April 12, 1934. That record stood for nearly 62 years. It was topped at Barrow Island Australia during Typhoon Olivia in 1996. That record was 253mph. And for any weather buffs out there, the strongest hurricane wind gusts ever upon landing were Hurricane Camille in 1969 that was 190mph. So think about that, Mount Washington. I don't know what the weather was like that day, but 231mph made it 40 miles an hour stronger than the strongest hurricane ever in this country. And that was 87 years ago this week in history.
This week in history, 156 years ago, April 15th, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln dies from his gunshot wounds suffered the night before at Ford's theater. The attack was from John Wilkes Booth, who was a famous actor and Confederate sympathizer who was not happy about the fact that only five days earlier, Confederate General Robert E. Lee had surrendered his army at the Appomattox courthouse in Virginia, which for all intents and purposes, ended the Civil War. Lincoln was at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C., on April 14th to see Laura King's acclaimed performance of Our American cousin. Booth had an idea not only to kill Lincoln, but to also assassinate Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William Seward, figuring that this mass of assassinations at the top of the government would throw the union into disarray and give the Confederates perhaps one last gasp. Unfortunately for them, Andrew Johnson and William Seward both were left on while Seward got attacked in his bed and he was saved by a metal splint around his neck to protect his jaw. So when the guy that went in there tried to stab him, he basically he did stab him a few times, but he got mostly the metal splint. John Wilkes Booth slipped into the president's box and fired his 44 caliber single shot derringer pistol into the back of Lincoln's head. It took Lincoln all night as he clung to life, but he passed away at 7:22 a.m. on April 15th, 1865. Both fled, and there was the largest manhunt in history. On April 26, the union troops caught up with him inside a Virginia barn and set fire to it. Both were shot in the neck by Boston Corbett. He thought that Booth was raising his gun as if he was going to shoot at the troops outside, so Booth died. His co-conspirators were all found guilty and all sentenced to death by hanging. That's a very abbreviated version of this whole series of events. But this week in history 156 years ago, President Abraham Lincoln was the first president ever to be assassinated.
This week in history 109 years ago, April 15th, 1912. The RMS Titanic, the unsinkable ship slipped below the waves in the North Atlantic. The Titanic sank during its maiden voyage from Southampton, England in route to New York City. And obviously, it's one of the most famous shipwrecks in the history of the world. Everyone knows about it. It struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic. They made the movie about it. It was run by the White Star Line and was 883 feet in length. Less than two weeks before the ship set sail on its maiden voyage. It underwent its sea trials, after which the Titanic was declared seaworthy and declared unsinkable. The ship left Southampton, England, on April 10th, 1912, captained by Edward J. Smith, who was known as the millionaire's captain because of his popularity with wealthy passengers. And there were there are a lot of prominent rich people aboard the Titanic's maiden voyage. It was like a status symbol to say that you were aboard the maiden voyage, but you became famous for being on it for a different reason. Unfortunately, the maiden voyage had 2200 people aboard and approximately 1500 of whom were passengers, and the ship had been receiving iceberg warnings in the hours leading up to when they struck one. And there were warnings, so Captain Smith slightly altered the ship's course to head farther south. But he maintained the ship's speed of 22 knots at approximately 9:40 p.m. on April 14th. A ship called the Masada sent a warning of an ice field, but that was never relayed to the Bridge of the Titanic. At approximately 11:40 p.m., about 400 nautical miles south of Newfoundland, Canada. An iceberg was sighted and the bridge was notified, but by this point, it was too late. And even though the ship began to turn, it struck the iceberg and it struck in such a way that the ship kept going. It was like you didn't feel it because the ship was so big, but it was trouble and there was no fixing the hole that was punched into the Titanic. The distress signal sent out the closest one reached a ship called the Carpathia at 12:20 a.m. But that ship was 58 nautical miles away, which would mean three hours it would need to reach the Titanic. And unfortunately, there weren't enough lifeboats for everyone. It had 20 lifeboats, which would carry almost 200 people. But that meant that there were almost a thousand that were kind of out of luck. And anyone who's seen the movie, you know, they launched some of the boats that were way below capacity. So even the 1200 that could have been saved were not. In the end, only seven hundred and five people would be rescued by lifeboat. In total, it took two hours and 40 minutes for the Titanic to sink, and in the end, more than 1400 people died on the unsinkable ship 109 years ago this week.
On a lighter note, this week in history 88 years ago, April 14th, 1933, the first modern sighting of the Loch Ness Monster is recorded. The sighting wouldn't be reported to local news until May 2nd, 1933. It was a local couple in Scotland that said they had seen an enormous animal rolling and plunging on the surface of Loch Ness, and it immediately became a phenomenon. In London, newspapers sent correspondence to Scotland and there was a circus that offered a £20000 reward for the capture of the Loch Ness Monster. After the report went public on May 2nd, another couple claimed to have seen the animal on land, but unfortunately there have been no substantiated images or proof of the Loch Ness monster. There was a famous photo in 1934, but that has been revealed to be a hoax. They've done sonar expeditions in the 80s and 90s with inconclusive readings. The Loch Ness Monster itself in law is supposed to be a plesiosaur, like a water dinosaur with the big long neck, a long tail and flippers. So for almost a century, the Loch Ness Monster has been right up there with Bigfoot in the Yeti is the most famous mythical animals in the world. But this week in history 88 years ago, the first modern sighting of the Loch Ness Monster occurred in Scotland.
And now it's time for another time capsule. I chose April 15th, 1955, because that was the first year that the Tax Day was April 15th, so I figured why not bring some light to a situation that's never fun paying taxes? The number one song in America was The Ballad of Davy Crockett by Bill Hayes. It was number one for five weeks and part of this Davy Crockett craze of 1955. In fact, at one point, there were three versions of the same song on the charts. The craze is even mentioned in Back to the Future, which took place in 1955. The number one movie was A Man Called Peter starring Richard Todd and was a film based on the life of preacher Peter Marshall, who served as chaplain of the United States Senate and pastor of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC. It grossed $4.5 million on a budget of one point seventy five and has an 85 percent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, so I guess you should go see it. The number one TV show was the game show the $64000 question, which narrowly beat out I Love Lucy. It was hosted by Hal March and was on from 1955-58. And as one of the shows that is embroiled in that famous 1950s. Quiz show Scandal, where some contestants said they got answers ahead of time and such. That's a whole other can of worms to open up for this week in history. And if you were looking to eat in 1955, the first McDonald's opened by Ray Kroc opened up in Des Plaines, Illinois. This McDonald's had 15 cent hamburgers. 19 cent cheeseburgers. And 10 cent fries and sodas on the first day of opening. Ray Kroc. McDonald's made $366.12, which is just under $3,600 in today's money. So there's the foray into fast food with McDonald's that'll put a bow on this week in history with another time capsule. Tune in for the next episode of This Week in History, where we'll find another interesting set of stories, even for those of you that don't like history. I hope you found this one interesting.
Closing 44:02
And that's going to do it for Sweet 16 episode of the In My Footsteps podcast. Thank you so much to everyone who has tuned in to any of the previous episodes, shared them giving me positive reviews. That does so much to get others to listen to the podcast. Thank you so much to everyone who reached out and sent some kind thoughts to me, my family after the passing of my Nina Rosemary Sullivan. I really appreciate everyone that checked out either of the blogs that I wrote about her on my In My Footsteps blog is that blog or dot com or the video that I put up on YouTube. The clip from episode 15, my Nina celebration of life that meant a lot to me, and I hope you enjoyed it, and it brought back memories for you of your own family, loved ones that you may have lost. That was kind of the overriding theme of it.
Remember to tune in Fridays at 8p.m. on Instagram. I do a live stream over there on my Christopher Setterlund account. I don't do it on the In My Footsteps podcast account because my regular account has way more followers, so it's more apt to have more people viewing it. But it's a lot of fun. I talk about the podcasts in a little more depth. Share some behind the scenes stuff, talk just about things in general. Tell some embarrassing stories. And like I said, you can go subscribe on YouTube. I have a ton of videos up there. I've been adding some subscribers. I'm very happy about that. I really appreciate anyone that's gone and subscribed. I've got four New England videos. I'm going to have another one going up very soon about the Wachusett Dam out in Clinton, Massachusetts, out kind of near Worcester. That's going to be a good one. I had never been there before, so I got some good video there and there's clips from the podcast you can go back. I've got videos up there from 2007. Now those aren't anything special, but I've been a member of YouTube for that long that I've got videos that are almost 14 years old.
Keep your eyes peeled. Book Six iconic hotels and motels of Cape Cod is coming out the week of May 24th. I'm going to try to share the book cover soon. I just wanted to make sure everything was kind of in place before I shared stuff. My publisher, they kind of want things to be kept under wraps until everything's certain, but I'll be talking more about that in the weeks leading up to it. I don't know about any sort of launch event because of COVID. It's still tough, like maybe later at the end of the summer, but that's months away. Remember to visit where your wishes dot com to check out Katie Marx's clothing and apparel company? She's got a lot of new stuff coming out, a lot of stuff that's sold out, so be patient. If something that you see that you like isn't there, just wait, it'll be back. Go to my website, ChristopherSetterlund.com, that's got links to all the podcasts. Links to all of my books. Even the e-books that I did self-published way, way long ago on Amazon. And it's got the video of me on Chronicle from WCVB Channel 5. That's right. On the front. I like people to see that. I mean, it's a big deal. Millions of people saw that. And who knows, maybe I'll be on again for my next book.
Come back next week. Episode 17 of the podcast. It's going to be a good one. We're going to go over the history of the Friendly's restaurants. Anyone who's a child of the 80s and 90s, they grew up in New England, you know, all about them. We're going to take the first of what will probably be three road trips to Nantucket Island. Not all in a row, but there's way too much to see there to cram into one. We're going to go way, way back in the day, and I'm going to talk about some fun slash embarrassing sleepover stories. These these are good. Get ready for that. And there'll be another great this week in history, including the very first Boston Marathon. All of that and more on the next episode of the In My Footsteps podcast. Remember, as we go along, take some time for yourself. Go easy on yourself. After my Nina's funeral, it was a weird, surreal situation that felt kind of rushed and anticlimactic. And I think part of it is that me, my family, were all just burned out, and I am sure a lot of you are just burned out from COVID and all of this just horribleness of the last year and a half almost. So just take some time for yourself. Go easy on yourself. Find solace in what you enjoy. If it's being outside in the Sun, that's great. If it's Netflix, that's great. Anything that it takes to get you closer to feeling like yourself hopefully will be there by the summer. But remember, in this life, don't walk in anyone else's footsteps, create your own path and enjoy every moment you can because you never know what day may be the last day. Thank you so much for tuning in. I really appreciate it. And I will talk to you all again soon.