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00:09I'm Mike Wolf and I've spent my life traveling the world chasing forgotten objects and the
00:15histories behind them. People everywhere are turning up artifacts every day often by chance
00:23and if you're lucky some of these finds can be worth serious money.
00:31Tonight on history's greatest picks. From the circus ring to the sports arena and even the silver screen.
00:41Items connected to history's greatest performers that steal the show like Barnum and Bailey's parade
00:48wagon. Nobody loves the circus as much as Bartlett. This is the fine of a lifetime. The
00:55Salton of Swat's legendary jersey. This could be the jersey he wore when he called his shot. And the
01:01sharpest shooter in the west. Her specialty was shooting a dime held by her husband between his
01:06finger and his thumb. So sit back and let me entertain you with the stories behind some of
01:13history's greatest picks.
01:25When it comes to America's greatest pastime there's one great showman who staked his claim to be the
01:32Sultan of Swat. We're talking the one and only Babe Ruth. A guy so iconic he can sign a ball
01:38and turn it
01:39into 400 grand. And when he raised two fingers suddenly we're talking eight figures.
01:49It's 1990 and a sports memorabilia dealer is on his way to meet an elderly lady in the Tampa St.
01:56Petersburg area of Florida.
01:58You know how this goes. 99 times out of 100 there's nothing there but every once in a while there's
02:05something special and we don't tell you the stories of the ones that went bad.
02:10She ends up showing him this gray flannel baseball shirt. And across it the two most important words in baseball
02:18history
02:18New York. And this dealer immediately recognizes it as a New York Yankees road jersey from around the 1920s or
02:271930s.
02:30Now the New York Yankees very famously don't have names on the backs of their jerseys but it did have
02:36a number.
02:37To anyone who knows anything about baseball, you don't even need the name on the back of the jersey to
02:43know who number three is.
02:47For a home run!
02:49This is Babe Ruth's road jersey.
02:53Babe Ruth at the time is the most famous baseball player on earth. He was the first home run star
03:00in baseball.
03:02So the obvious question is, how did this lady get a Babe Ruth jersey from the 1920s or 30s?
03:09She says, when Babe retired, he gave dad this jersey as a present. But is it true?
03:17So the dealer knows what this woman has. He buys the jersey off of this lady and then flips it
03:22to a private collector for $150,000.
03:25Which seems like a great deal. But it's absolutely not the end of this story.
03:30In 2005, the jersey appears at auction and something extraordinary happens.
03:36With the rise of the internet, sports collectibles have reached a global market.
03:41And the news of this jersey has spread like wildfire.
03:46This might not be a Babe Ruth jersey.
03:49Collectors start speculating.
03:51Is this Babe Ruth's called shot jersey?
04:01It's game three of the 1932 World Series between the Yankees and the Cubs.
04:06It's the top of the fifth inning and the score is tied at four.
04:10There's nobody on base.
04:13Babe Ruth steps to the plate.
04:15Babe Ruth, someone who can change the game with one swing.
04:21There's a lot of trash talking going on from the players, from the fans.
04:31On an 0-2 count, he takes two fingers.
04:34And this is something that is highly disputed.
04:36The pitcher says one thing.
04:38Babe Ruth said another.
04:39The fans said yet another thing.
04:41Now it's possible he could have been signaling the count, 0-2, two strikes.
04:46It's possible he could have been pointing to the pitcher who was throwing at him.
04:49He could have also been pointing to a fan that was jeering him from the stands.
04:53But the legend that has come out of this story is that he was pointing to center field, saying he
05:01was about to hit a home run before he did.
05:06He cracked it out of Wrigley Field, thus the myth of the called shot.
05:12The Yankees go on to sweep that World Series.
05:16The myths were eagerly amplified by the babe himself.
05:21I looked out at center field and I said, I'm going to hit the next pitch ball right past the
05:26flagpole.
05:28So this is the story that he told until the day he died.
05:34So in 2005, rumors are circulating that this could be the jersey he wore when he called his shot.
05:42Which means that when it's sold in 2005, its price tag is an astronomical 940 grand.
05:51But don't get too excited because this is only the beginning.
05:56After the jersey sells, state-of-the-art photo analysis allows people to compare photos of Babe Ruth in 1932
06:04in the World Series in that jersey with the jersey that has been sold.
06:10Jerseys at this point in time are, in essence, handmade.
06:15Someone has to sew on the letters that say New York.
06:19So there's going to be irregularities, and that is a boon to anyone looking to authenticate a piece of 20th
06:26century history.
06:28In both the photo and the jersey on hand, the Y is in perfect alignment with the buttons.
06:35There's a notch on the N in New York.
06:39There's a slight bend in the bottom of the E in New.
06:42And there's a slight tilt in the middle peak of the W.
06:47There's even a stain below the E that some people think could have been from spilt tobacco juice.
06:54Babe Ruth was famously a tobacco chewer.
06:57When you start matching this jersey with a multitude of photos and newsreel footages from the 1932 World Series, it
07:08starts to build a consensus.
07:11Picture this.
07:12It's August 25th, 2024, and the jersey comes up for auction once more.
07:18This time, the opening bid is a staggering $14 million.
07:23After six hours of intense bidding, the hammer drops, and the jersey sold for an astonishing $24,120,000 to
07:35an anonymous buyer.
07:36Here, what starts out as a gift to a golf buddy, becomes the most expensive piece of sports memorabilia ever.
07:50Everyone's got a soft spot for the circus.
07:53The color, the chaos, the showmanship.
07:55But one guy, he loved it so much, he paid out a world record $28,800 for a banner.
08:03The cavalcade of wonders, freaks past and present, more than 20 feet wide and painted by none other than Fred
08:10Johnson, the Picasso of circus art.
08:12It advertises the full cast of sideshow performers you'd expect to see in the heyday of the circus.
08:19But back in the day, when the circus came to town, there was one thing way bigger than this that
08:25was sure to grab your attention.
08:29It's the 1940s, and this character, Bartlett Palmer, is poking around a scrapyard in Connecticut.
08:38What Bartlett discovers is a large wagon.
08:41It hasn't been used in a very long time.
08:44It's in rough condition.
08:45It doesn't even have wheels on it.
08:47Bartlett knows what this is.
08:48I mean, in his mind's eye, he can picture it.
08:50It's big, it's got these carvings, but it's also got color, and it just gives off this overwhelming sense of
08:58fun.
09:00What he's actually discovered is the Barnum & Bailey's Circus Wagon.
09:08Nobody loves the circus as much as Bartlett.
09:11This is the fun of a lifetime.
09:15So let's dial it back to 1903, a time when the three-ring circus was in its prime.
09:22The Barnum & Bailey Circus has just returned from a triumph of a world tour.
09:27To celebrate, they have this enormous parade, and they commission a wagon, a huge, beautiful, ornate centerpiece for the whole
09:37thing that they call the two hemispheres.
09:39This thing is massive. It's 28 feet long. It weighs 13,600 pounds.
09:47It's pulled by a team of 40 horses, four abreast.
09:50And it's driven by the circus big guy at over seven feet tall, the gentle giant Jack Posey.
09:59So just imagine the carving and the paintwork on this thing. It is exquisite. No expense is spared to create
10:06this.
10:07It's thought that this thing cost upwards of about four and a half thousand dollars, which at the time was
10:12enough money to buy you a good house.
10:14So picture this. You live in a little town in the Midwest, and you have been anticipating the arrival of
10:21the circus for months.
10:23And now, finally, that day has arrived.
10:28There's this grand parade down the main street. They've got bands playing. They've got acrobats.
10:35There are jugglers. There are lions and tigers. There are things the likes of which people have never seen in
10:42their lives.
10:45For more than 20 years, the circus wagon leads the way as an icon of American pop culture.
10:52But by the 1930s, times have changed, and the parade wagon is just too grand for our modern streets with
11:00all of our power lines and street lamps.
11:03So it actually becomes a little bit of a redundant, obsolete dinosaur, and he's no longer used.
11:10Most of these wagons have been, by this point, dismantled or broken up.
11:15But not this one. Not if Bartlett has anything to do with it.
11:19He gets his hands on that wagon, and he decides that he is going to restore it.
11:25Seventy years later, in 2016, the Barnum & Bailey parade wagon comes up for auction for the first time.
11:32Rescued from the graveyard and fully restored, it sells for an astonishing $250,000.
11:39The buyer? Just another guy who simply thinks the circus is the greatest show on earth.
11:50If a circus wagon is out of your price range, no problem.
11:54Grab some clown shoes instead.
11:56A real pair of Ringling Brothers Originals will only set you back about a grand.
12:01Not all legendary footwear belongs in the big top.
12:05Next, we're leaving the circus for the court.
12:08I'm talking Michael Jordan.
12:17Michael Jordan enters the NBA as a rookie for the Chicago Bulls, and he is a phenomena.
12:26Everyone is trying to get a piece of Jordan.
12:29They know he's going to be big, but they don't have an idea of how big this becomes.
12:36He is coming out of college as one of the most touted players ever to join the NBA draft.
12:43Nike gets an exclusive contract to be Michael Jordan's shoe provider.
12:49And they invent basically a whole new category, the personalized sneaker.
12:56So the Air Jordan 1 goes on the market with the goal of selling $3 million.
13:01By the end of the year, the brand has sold $126 million.
13:06It ends up becoming an iconic part of streetwear culture and hip-hop culture.
13:11The kids all go crazy for it.
13:14They're waiting in lines in order to buy the next shoe drop.
13:18Sneakerheads begin with Air Jordan 1.
13:21This is a runaway success.
13:23So much so that Nike endeavors to release a new model Jordan shoe every year since.
13:32So by 1991, the Air Jordan 6 comes out.
13:35But the Bulls and Michael Jordan have not won an NBA championship yet.
13:40The Bulls have been trying for 25 years.
13:44So when they finally reach the finals against Magic Johnson's Lakers,
13:49a PR executive for the Bulls, Tim Hallam, makes an unusual request.
13:55Hey, Mike, if you win the championship, can I get one of your shoes?
14:01The Bulls win and Jordan obliges.
14:04So he hands over to Tim Hallam a signed sneaker, his left shoe, a size 13, Air Jordan 6.
14:1492.
14:15The Bulls are in the finals again and they win again.
14:18And Michael Jordan is a superstitious sort.
14:21So what's he do?
14:22He presents Tim Hallam with his right shoe, an Air Jordan 7.
14:27When Michael Jordan leaves the stadium after winning that second title,
14:32he's walking a little unevenly because he's walking with just one shoe.
14:36It's 1993.
14:37It's the year of the Air Jordan 8.
14:39And the Bulls pull off the unbelievable.
14:42They nail down three straight NBA championships.
14:46And at this point, Jordan has already made the monumental announcement
14:49that he plans to retire from the game of basketball at his peak.
14:56It sends ripples across the world of sports.
15:00Tim Hallam gets another right shoe.
15:02And this time, Jordan inscribes it.
15:05One last game.
15:09Turns out it isn't his last time.
15:12Because only two years later, Michael Jordan will issue a two-word press release.
15:18I'm back.
15:20Jordan's coming back to the NBA.
15:23And he starts playing with the Bulls the very next day.
15:27In 1996, the Bulls win another championship with Michael Jordan back.
15:32And they also, in the regular season, won 72 games.
15:35At the time, it was a record.
15:37And Tim Hallam's going to get another shoe.
15:40This time, the Mark 11.
15:43Next year, 1997, the Bulls win again.
15:46And Hallam gets a Jordan 12.
15:49In 1998, the Bulls bring home another championship.
15:54Michael Jordan made an incredible steal and sunk a game-winning jumper in the final seconds
16:00to clinch the championship for Chicago.
16:03This moment is one of the most iconic in NBA history.
16:08Any basketball fan remembers this moment and remembers where they were when this shot was made.
16:13It's the sixth for Jordan, the sixth for head coach, Phil Jackson.
16:16It's this dynasty run.
16:19And Tim Hallam ended up with the Jordan 14.
16:30It's not until 2022 that the existence of Tim Hallam's collection of six singular sneakers
16:37is known to the world.
16:39And sneakerheads go crazy for it.
16:42It's called the Dynasty Collection, and it goes on a world tour.
16:46Tokyo, Dubai, New York, Singapore.
16:50Sneaker culture, obviously, has taken on a life of its own in the decades since Michael
16:55Jordan signed that historic Nike deal.
16:58Not just the Jordan brand, but every player now has their own signature shoe.
17:02It's become a marker of their popularity.
17:05So now, not only is this a piece of fashion, but sneakers have become a really valuable investment
17:11asset.
17:12And it all began with Michael Jordan.
17:15Six Air Jordans, six championship wins, one global icon.
17:22When Sotheby's puts the Dynasty Collection on the block in 2024, it sells for eight million bucks.
17:30Hard to believe when the original Air Jordans first went for $65.
17:42Some guns have a tremendous value because of the story attached to them, like Butch Cassidy's
17:48Colt revolver, which he turned over to a sheriff in exchange for amnesty.
17:53It's sold at auction in 2012 for $175,000.
17:58Other guns sell because they once belonged to a legendary lawman, like Wyatt Earp's .45 caliber
18:03Colt, the gun he carried in Tombstone and used at the shootout at the OK Corral.
18:09It was sold at auction in 2014 for $225,000.
18:14And then there's a gun that sells because it belonged to one of the greatest entertainers
18:18of the Wild West.
18:20This one's not a showman.
18:21It's a showwoman.
18:33It's November 10th, and there are newspaper reports of a car crash that just took place
18:39just north of Daytona, Florida.
18:43A Cadillac traveling at speed is struggling to overtake another car when the driver loses
18:49control and flips the Cadillac.
18:56A 62-year-old woman is trapped inside the car.
18:59Her hip and her right leg are crushed inside.
19:02Eventually, she was freed.
19:03A passing motorist helped get her out of the car, and she was taken to the nearest hospital
19:09in Daytona Beach.
19:10A local couple, Albert Mershin and his wife, read about the accident in a local paper.
19:14They pick some flowers from their garden and decide to pay her a visit.
19:18The lady spends the next couple of months recuperating, and during that time, she becomes
19:22friends with the Mershans.
19:24She eventually leaves the hospital, and they maintain their friendship.
19:28The guy then asks her to maybe allow them to purchase something or have something as sort
19:34of a memento.
19:35So she decides to sell them her gun for $150, which is sort of strange until you find
19:44out who she is.
19:48The gun has a silver shield on the stock comb with the letters A-O engraved on it.
19:55And stamped in the wood of the stock is the name Oakley.
20:05At the end of the 19th century, Annie Oakley was probably the most famous woman in America,
20:10maybe even the world.
20:12Queen Victoria is celebrating her golden jubilee, 50 years on the throne.
20:17And as part of the celebrations, Buffalo Bill's Wild West show is performing in England for
20:22the very first time.
20:23The show is huge.
20:25It's pure spectacle from the Old West.
20:28The Brits absolutely eat this up.
20:30The show plays for nearly two years in London.
20:33People all over the world love Buffalo Bill's Wild West show.
20:39It's got 500 performers, 180 horses, 18 buffalo.
20:46It's pure theater.
20:47So it's stagecoach robberies.
20:49It's bison hunts.
20:51It's capturing the spirit of the Wild West.
20:53It's capturing the spirit of the Wild West that kind of didn't really exist, but it's
20:58selling a product.
20:59And the product is theater.
21:00But the one star everybody comes to see is a sharpshooter named Annie Oakley.
21:08She's such an accomplished marksman that Buffalo Bill's Wild West show builds a lot of its popularity
21:14on her alone, even though she's small in stature.
21:18She's five feet tall.
21:19She's a hundred pounder.
21:20And that's why eventually Sitting Bull will give her the nickname Little Sure Shot.
21:25Her specialty was shooting a dime held by her husband between his finger and his thumb.
21:30She has the ability to shoot with pinpoint accuracy while riding the horse.
21:36She can even shoot over her shoulder.
21:39And she would do this by laying the rifle on her right shoulder, holding up a mirror
21:44that allowed her to achieve a sight picture and then delivering the shot with accuracy.
21:50She's better than any man.
21:52In fact, she's so trusted as a sharpshooter that Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany agrees to let
21:57her shoot a cigarette as he holds it in his mouth.
22:04She does 300 shows in England at this time.
22:08And it was then that she was given this shotgun.
22:13This particular shotgun is Oakley's favorite, and she's depicted in photo after photo holding it.
22:20It's a 12-gauge double-barrel ejection shotgun made by William Cashmore, a very well-known and
22:28respected British gunmaker in Birmingham.
22:30The Oakley that's embossed in the wood of the stock, it comes from the relief die of the coins that
22:36she would use during her shooting demonstrations, which really adds a level of authenticity.
22:42This is not your average, ordinary 12-gauge double-barrel shotgun.
22:47This is something that's made for someone with a lot of money.
22:51She keeps her favorite gun for 35 years until she decides to sell it to the kind friends who helped
22:57recover from the car accident.
22:59They keep it and then they pass it on to their daughter.
23:03In 2016, the gun that was originally bought for 150 bucks sells for 207 grand, all because of a few
23:12flowers and a new friend.
23:21If we're talking showmanship, picture this, five of the greatest entertainers ever, and all of them
23:27in one room, each one slick, stylish, turning swagger into an art form.
23:39In the back lot of the MGM studio in Hollywood, the most significant moment in Hollywood memorabilia
23:45is taking place.
23:46They're basically selling four decades of props, costumes, sets, you name it.
23:52Anything and everything from MGM on sale from The Wizard of Oz to Ben-Hur.
23:58There are 350,000 of them in total.
24:01I mean, the entire contents of seven different soundstages over 32 sessions of auction.
24:08This is what we're talking about.
24:10Unimaginable treasure trove of artifacts.
24:12There's been nothing like it before.
24:14There's nothing ever since.
24:15I mean, if you love Hollywood, you got to be there.
24:18It's literally the sale of the century.
24:23One of the thousands of people in attendance hoping to buy some memorabilia,
24:28is Debbie Reynolds.
24:29She's already a Hollywood icon.
24:31She's a star of movies like Singing in the Rain and How the West Was Won.
24:35But she's not just a movie star.
24:37She's also a fan.
24:39She loves the movies and everything about them.
24:41So when she goes to this auction and sees what MGM has put up for sale,
24:46she's genuinely horrified.
24:49For Debbie Reynolds, this shouldn't be a Hollywood garage sale.
24:53You know, these are precious items to her.
24:54She believes these things should be in a museum.
24:58So Debbie spends the enormous amount of $600,000,
25:02that is literally all of her savings,
25:05just to rescue these precious items.
25:08One of the things she grabs is this black tuxedo.
25:13And inside, there's an MGM label in there, and it reads P. Lawford.
25:18This tuxedo is the beginning of a decades-long quest for Debbie,
25:22which will last her the rest of her life.
25:25And to discover the origin of this quest,
25:28we got to go back 15 years to the 1950s.
25:36In the 1950s, Las Vegas is undergoing this post-war boom.
25:40Nevada has legalized gambling.
25:43Bugsy Siegel has opened the doors of the Pink Flamingo.
25:46That's in 1946.
25:47So you've got money pouring into the region from organized crime.
25:51And the Las Vegas Strip is born.
25:55The real spark of Vegas, what makes it magical, is the glamour.
26:00And that glamour comes in the form of five guys in tuxedos.
26:04The Rat Pack.
26:06Frank Sinatra.
26:07We've got Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr.,
26:10English movie star Peter Lawford,
26:12and a comedian named Joey Bishop.
26:15So these guys, they kind of create the headliner idea in Vegas.
26:20But it's not just a song and dance routine.
26:22These guys have a special chemistry.
26:24They are the epitome of cool sophistication,
26:27this sort of offhanded wit between them.
26:29They just banter, they sing.
26:31And they do all of it wearing their trademark tuxedos.
26:34Those Rat Pack performers become huge stars.
26:37In fact, they even have a movie called Ocean's Eleven.
26:40And I don't mean the remake.
26:41I mean the original Ocean's Eleven.
26:44I mean, talk about a draw.
26:46I mean, marquee talent.
26:54Tourists flock in.
26:55People who never even heard of Vegas,
26:56they're showing up to see the Rat Pack.
26:59Everybody wants to be where it's happening,
27:01which turns out to be in the middle of the desert in Las Vegas.
27:04And it's not just tourists.
27:06The Rat Pack's legendary parties become a magnet for other celebrities.
27:11You've got Marilyn Monroe showing up,
27:13a young senator named John F. Kennedy,
27:15and Debbie Reynolds.
27:18Remember, we're talking a young Debbie Reynolds.
27:20She's part of this crowd.
27:22She's part of the Hollywood glamour.
27:24So she's hanging out with him.
27:25She's backstage with him.
27:27She's partying with him.
27:28She's part of this scene.
27:29So when Debbie Reynolds buys that single tux at the MGM auction in 1970,
27:35she's not just buying a piece of celebrity memorabilia.
27:38For Debbie, it's a piece of history,
27:41something that needs to be preserved.
27:43Debbie is a woman on a mission.
27:46She's got P. Lawford's tuxedo, Peter Lawford,
27:49but she wants the whole shebang.
27:50She wants the whole set.
27:52She's friends with the Rat Pack.
27:54So one by one, over time,
27:57she manages to convince each one of them to hand over a tuxedo.
28:01These weren't just off the rack.
28:03These were the real tuxes that were actually worn by these guys.
28:07Sammy Davis Jr.'s has moth holes.
28:10Sinatra's and Martin's have stains on them.
28:13There's makeup on Bishop's collar,
28:16and there are loose threads on Lawford's pants.
28:21By the 2000s,
28:23Debbie Reynolds' movie memorabilia collection has exploded.
28:27She has more than 4,000 items in this collection.
28:29She has everything from Audrey Hepburn's dress in My Fair Lady
28:33to the ruby slippers in Wizard of Oz.
28:37What she really wants to do
28:39is house all of these amazing artifacts
28:41in a collection, in a museum,
28:43that everyone can see.
28:45At one point, she even offers it to the Oscars Academy,
28:48and for whatever reason, they decline her offer.
28:57It's ironic that this collection that came about
28:59when Debbie Reynolds bought Peter Lawford's tux
29:02at the MGM auction in 1970
29:05ends up going up for auction 40 years later.
29:12When the five iconic tuxedos come up for sale,
29:16they cash out for 120 grand.
29:19Stains, moth holes, cigarette burns, poker chips,
29:23and the occasional lucky strike included.
29:33It's not every day that a haircut makes front page news.
29:37But on a March morning in 1958,
29:40a barber's floor was about to be covered in gold.
29:47So it's March 25th, 1958,
29:49and one of the inductees at Fort Chafee, Arkansas,
29:54is getting his mandatory haircut.
29:57Now, the barber clips off these big, beautiful,
30:00bushy chunks of black hair,
30:02and normally that would just all go in the trash,
30:04but not today.
30:05As clumps of jet black hair are cut off
30:08and fall to the floor,
30:09they're swept up and put into plastic bags.
30:12It's been styled with hairspray, gel,
30:14and three kinds of hair wax.
30:18The barber shop is buzzing.
30:20All the press is here.
30:21You got cameras, you got TV.
30:23They all want to see the most famous haircut since Samson
30:27because this beautiful black hair
30:31belongs to Elvis Presley.
30:37Elvis Presley's hair is as much a part of his brand
30:40as his swiveling hips and curled lip.
30:44Presley had blonde hair back when he started,
30:47but then he dyed it jet black
30:49and styled it into what was called the pompadour.
30:52Before that, it's called a quiff,
30:55a ducktail, a jelly roll, or a duck's ass.
30:58But now, it would simply be called the Elvis cut.
31:02In decades past, men would have, you know, combed their hair,
31:05maybe used a little bit of product
31:07to keep it close to their head.
31:09But now, young men want to look like Elvis,
31:12and this haircut is revolutionary.
31:14Elvis' haircut was copied by millions.
31:18The whole world around, Japan, Europe, you name it.
31:23This became the signature style of greasers, hoodlums, and rockers.
31:29And it's not just young men.
31:31When word gets out that Elvis' hair
31:33has a date with an army barber's clippers,
31:36young women write letters to President Eisenhower
31:38asking him to pardon Elvis
31:40so he doesn't have to get his hair cut.
31:42But the draft is the draft,
31:44and there's no fighting the barber's clippers.
31:48But what Elvis loses in terms of hair,
31:51the guy gains a thousand times in publicity.
31:54His manager, Colonel Tom Parker,
31:57knows that this is an opportunity,
31:59so he has invited 55 different members of the press
32:02to come witness this moment.
32:05His haircut becomes symbolic of his patriotism
32:09and his willingness to sacrifice for his country.
32:12This is a public relations triumph.
32:16Now, all that hair that's fallen on the ground
32:19in that barbershop has value.
32:21And so Colonel Tom Parker says,
32:22I'm going to give this to somebody,
32:24and he gives it to a guy named Gary Pepper.
32:26Gary Pepper is local to Memphis,
32:28and he runs a news clipping service.
32:30Basically what that means is every morning
32:32he scans the local papers
32:33and cuts out news articles that mention local businesses.
32:37And these companies pay Gary for his services.
32:40After a while, Gary starts noticing articles
32:42about this singer with an unusual name, Presley.
32:45Who is this?
32:46And so he finds out that Presley's mom, Mrs. Presley,
32:51collects newspaper clippings about her son.
32:53He starts collecting them and giving them to Elvis' mom.
32:55And there's one thing about Elvis,
32:56if you're nice to his mom, he'll be nice to you.
32:59And this forms the basis of a lifelong friendship
33:01between the two men.
33:05It's Pepper who becomes the president
33:08of one of the first Elvis Presley fan clubs,
33:10the Elvis Tankers.
33:12When Elvis Presley is drafted,
33:14he goes into U.S. Army Armored Forces.
33:16And because of that,
33:18Gary Pepper's fan club is called the Tankers.
33:21Gary realizes that members of the Tankers
33:24would love to own a little piece of Elvis Presley.
33:27And so, from time to time,
33:29he mails off a little clipping of Elvis' hair.
33:34But he keeps a clump of that hair for himself.
33:39Elvis buys him a house, buys him a car,
33:41and even employs his dad, Sterling Pepper,
33:44as a gate attendant at Graceland.
33:46And because Gary is disabled and has cerebral palsy,
33:50Elvis gets him a nurse, Nancy Pease Whitehead.
33:53By 1978, Gary's health is declining.
33:56And before he dies,
33:57he gives his entire collection of Elvis memorabilia,
33:59including a jumpsuit and a 1957 Chevy,
34:03and the hair to the nurse.
34:06Gary's nurse keeps the collection of Elvis memorabilia
34:09for the next three decades.
34:12In 2009, she puts her collection up for auction,
34:15and the hair sells for $18,300,
34:20which isn't a bad return on a haircut,
34:23which originally cost Elvis 65 cents.
34:36Every entertainer has got that one thing.
34:39Sometimes it's their voice,
34:41sometimes it's their presence,
34:43but every once in a while,
34:45it's the outfit that does the talking.
34:54Bob Mackey is fresh out of school.
34:56He's a rookie sketch artist and fashion designer,
34:59and he has got his first assignment in Hollywood.
35:02His boss is the Oscar-winning Hollywood designer,
35:07Jean-Louis,
35:07and he's been asked to make a dress for a special occasion.
35:11So he asks Bob to come up with the initial sketches.
35:14Now, Jean-Louis is French,
35:16and even though he's been in Hollywood since the 1940s,
35:19he still has this super thick accent.
35:21So Bob struggles to understand what he's saying to him,
35:25but he gets enough to finish the job.
35:27His brief is to create a dress
35:29that gives the impression
35:31that the woman's not wearing a dress,
35:33that she's totally naked.
35:35I mean, he's got to walk this very, very thin line.
35:38Tricky task, but they come up with a solution.
35:42The gown is a sleeveless column dress
35:45with a scoop neck and an open back with a small train.
35:49It's skin-colored with no underlining,
35:52so it gives the impression of being see-through,
35:55but it's covered in swirls of rhinestones and crystals
35:58sewn into it to protect modesty.
36:01Lots and lots of shiny rhinestones
36:03to sort of distract the eye.
36:05They'll sort of wrap around the dress,
36:07covering up the naughty bits.
36:09The result is a dress that takes center stage
36:12at perhaps the most famous
36:14and maybe even notorious birthday party ever held.
36:23So 15,000 people are packing in
36:26to Madison Square Garden.
36:28It's billed as a Democratic fundraiser,
36:31but everybody knows it's also JFK's 45th birthday.
36:36JFK is a star.
36:38I mean, he's on par with the biggest Hollywood celebrities,
36:40and the guest list proves it.
36:42You got Henry Fonda, Shirley MacLean, Ella Fitzgerald,
36:46anybody who's anybody in New York at that time
36:48is showing up for this party.
36:49Plus, the one star who upstages all of them,
36:53including the birthday boy.
36:55Marilyn Monroe.
36:58The host of the evening, emceeing everything,
37:00is John F. Kennedy's brother-in-law,
37:03who is Peter Laufer, the English movie star.
37:05All night, he has a running gag
37:07about Marilyn Monroe being late.
37:10Mr. President, Marilyn Monroe.
37:13He keeps pretending to introduce her.
37:15Then he looks around confused when she's not around,
37:18and the audiences lap it up.
37:21Finally, she makes her entrance.
37:24She slinks up to the podium,
37:27and then she drops that white fur wrap
37:31to reveal the dress.
37:35And a gasp comes from the crowd.
37:41The chiffon dress matches her skin tone perfectly,
37:44and even though there's a zipper at the back,
37:46it's so form-fitting that Jean-Louis
37:48had to sew her into it.
37:50There's a story that Marilyn Monroe
37:52had actually told the event planners
37:53that she would dress discreetly,
37:55and when viewed under normal light,
37:58the dress did actually appear to be modest.
38:02But under the stage lights,
38:04that fabric of that dress just sort of melts away.
38:07I mean, the only hint that there's something there
38:10is this explosion of crystal.
38:13It actually makes her look like she's sparkling and naked.
38:18And then she sings it, this sexy, happy birthday,
38:21yet somehow breathless and innocent.
38:24Happy birthday to you.
38:30That moment absolutely encapsulates the character
38:34that is Marilyn Monroe.
38:36Happy birthday, Mr. President.
38:42That moment of Marilyn Monroe in that dress,
38:45in that setting, singing to that man,
38:47it was a moment frozen in time.
38:50The performance only lasts a minute,
38:52but between the breathy and sexy singing
38:55and that dress,
38:56it quickly becomes an iconic moment
38:58in both political and pop culture history.
39:01It also seems to confirm
39:03what everyone there is already thinking,
39:06that the president and Marilyn Monroe
39:08are having a secret affair.
39:12No one present that night knows for sure that they are,
39:16but there is one noticeable absence in the audience,
39:19and that is Kennedy's wife, Jackie.
39:23Rumors about Kennedy's roving eye
39:25have been swirling for years,
39:27and lately, all the gossip has been focused
39:31on the exact nature of Marilyn Monroe's relationship
39:34with the president.
39:36A birthday cake gets wheeled out,
39:39and JFK, cool as ever,
39:41makes a crack about how he can now retire from politics
39:45now that he's been sung
39:46happy birthday to in such a wholesome manner.
39:51And this is the last time
39:52that Marilyn Monroe and John F. Kennedy
39:55will ever see each other in person again.
39:59Just three months later,
40:01Marilyn Monroe dies of an overdose.
40:03And about a year later,
40:05John F. Kennedy is assassinated.
40:08As for the dress, it survives,
40:11and it is passed down through Marilyn's estate.
40:14Marilyn originally paid 12 grand for this dress
40:17in 1962, which would be the equivalent
40:20to around $128,000 in today's money.
40:25When it comes on the market in 2016,
40:27because of its iconic show-stopping status,
40:31it sells for a staggering $4.8 million.
40:35That's a world record for a dress.
40:38Crazy money.
40:42Which just goes to show
40:44whether it's a dress,
40:46a gun,
40:48or a parade wagon,
40:51there's money to be made
40:52from the greatest entertainers of all time.
41:09We'll see you next time.
41:09We'll see you next time.
41:09We'll see you next time.
41:09We'll see you next time.
41:10We'll see you next time.
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