Origins Vol. III

changed the lives of not only the people in these stories, but also the lives of millions

“of other people around the world as well. The audio from all four of these stories has been”

pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode. The links

to the original YouTube videos are in the description. The first story you'll hear is called

the four-dollar crown and it's about a shy kid who leaves a very lasting impression on a studio owner. The second story you'll hear is called Money on the Line and it's about a man who takes a gamble to save his business. The third story you'll hear is called One Drink Two Drink and it's about a young man who gets kicked out of his prestigious position at a school's newspaper and the fourth and final story you'll hear is called The Stripper's Advice and it's about an aspiring actor who takes a

leap of faith in Hollywood. But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the strange dark and mysterious delivered in story format then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do when we upload four times a week, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. So if that's

“of interest to you, please sneak into the fall of button's house and dump out all their mountain”

dew and replace it with pickle juice. Okay, let's get into our first story called the four-dollar crown. 30-year-old man named Sam Phillips was cleaning up his recording studio, which was located in a fast growing city known for their vibrant music scene. Sam had just finished recording in church choir and now he was getting ready for his next client and so he was resetting all the equipment and cleaning up. But Sam didn't actually know who his next client would be or when they'd show up.

Because Sam's recording studio was pretty unique. Because he was always on the hunt for new talent

to sign, he had opened up a studio to anybody who wanted to come in at any time. All they had to do was show up, give him four dollars and they could be recorded professionally. This did mean that a lot of times his clients were not very talented, but he felt like it gave him the biggest opportunity to cast the widest net to potentially find his next big star. So that day Sam finished cleaning up the studio and resetting everything and then Sam just sat down and waited hoping that you know

another client would come through the door. And eventually another client did. This young kid, he was 18 years old, he came strolling inside, he had a guitar slung over his shoulder, Sam had never seen him before and right away he could tell the kid was pretty shy and the guy came up to him and he just said, "Hey, you know, I work as a truck driver, but I love to sing, I love to play the guitar as a hobby, and I just wanted to come in here and you know record a

couple of ballads for my mom." And so Sam again, he took all kinds, he's like absolutely "Give me four dollars and we can record these ballads." And so the kid handed over four dollars and he went into the booth and Sam's like, "All right, you're on." And Sam basically expected this kid to do what most other clients of his did, which was, you know, they began playing and be sort of like not that good at their instrument and they'd sing off key and, you know, Sam just

kind of sitting there listening to this terrible music, just waiting for it to end, but with this kid it was different. Once he began strumming his guitar and singing, it was like he totally broke out of his shell. I mean he was, you know, at first glance, a very shy sort of reserve guy,

but in the booth he was electric, he was amazing. And so Sam sat there listening to this

kid record his ballads and was just so blown away by how talented he was. And then when it was all done, you know, the kid said, "Thank you, he took his recordings with him and he left." And then once he was gone, Sam just made a point to make a note about this kid that just said,

“"Good ballad singer, safe." Basically remember this guy because I think he's going to be something special.”

About a year later, in 1954, Sam was back in his recording studio and he was working with another client. It was this band and they were trying to record some songs. But as they were playing, they decided that they were really lacking another vocalist to round out the sound. And so they asked Sam, like, "Hey, do you know anybody?" Sam's studio manager, who was in the room and overheard the request immediately chimed in and said, "Hey Sam, what about that 18-year-old ballad singer

from last year? He was great. Maybe he could be the vocalist." And so Sam was like, "Yeah, give him a call." So he called this young man and he was like, "Yeah, I'll jump in there and record some vocals. That'd be great." So the young kid, you know, the truck driving, beautiful ballad singing kid, came back to the studio, he hopped in the booth with this band and they began playing together and they sounded terrible. Now, the young man was still very much

a great singer, like Sam could clearly hear his voice cutting through all the noise, but it was like the kid and the band had no chemistry. I mean, they just met each other, so it's not that surprising. And the music that the band was trying to play just didn't really line up well with this kid's

up the band or this kid could see that and so he said, "Hey guys, for right now, just just take

“a quick break." And so Sam ended the recording and the band and the kid, they left to go get a”

drink and Sam left the booth and went into the control room, which is basically right next door,

but does not have a line of sight into the booth. And he was just in there to sort of collect his thoughts and just kind of reset for a second. Then at some point, he hears the sound of music being played back in the booth where he just come from. Except the music was different. It was really upbeat, it was fast, it was loud and Sam could clearly hear the sound of that kid, the truck driver, the amazing ballad singer. He was just going a town like he was singing at the

top of his lungs and it just really sounded like something was going on in there. And so Sam left the control room, ran into the booth and he goes in there and when he got in there, he saw the band and this kid just totally rockin' out. It was like they suddenly had amazing chemistry. The kid, the truck driver, the amazing ballad singer, is jumping all over the booth. I mean,

“he's totally into the song and the band very clearly was sort of following the kids lead.”

They were basically playing music to match the kid's energy and Sam is watching this and listening

to this and he's thinking I have never heard music sound like this before. Like this is a new type

of music that I'm witnessing. I mean it gave him goosebumps, he couldn't believe it. Like this is a brand new thing. The sound was sort of a cross between blues and rockin' roll. It was a little bit too fast for blues and too slow for rockin' roll but it was just something really unique. And all Sam could think as he's watching this happen and as he's listening to this is the kid, the truck driver, the ballad singer, he's the star. It's so obvious. Like this is coming into being

because of him. That's the person I've been looking for. That's the star that I've been trying to sign ever since I started this recording studio. And so that very night, Sam and this band helped the kid record his first ever single, which was called "That's All Right." And once that

“song hit the airwaves, that kid did become a star practically overnight. He catapulted into music”

fame that few ever achieved. He literally would become one of the most famous musicians to have ever lived. Sam's studio was called "Son Records" and it was located in Memphis, Tennessee.

And the young kid, the truck driver who sang amazing ballads, was none other than Elvis Presley.

Our next story is called "Money on the Line." One late night in the summer of 1974, a 30-year-old man named Fred stood inside of a loud casino in Las Vegas feeling incredibly nervous. He knew what he was about to do was a horrible idea. In fact, he didn't even know if he had the guts to try it. Fred grabbed a huge watercash out of his pocket. And as he looked at it, he thought about the reason he was here.

So Fred had actually flown to Las Vegas on a whim after a bad meeting with a group of investors. So Fred had founded the small company three years earlier and he really needed a loan from these investors, but they had said no. Fred had actually already lost over $13 million to this point, and so the investor said, "Look, like your track record is not good enough, we're not giving you any more money." And this was a huge problem for Fred, because right now, in all of his company

accounts, he had a total of $5,000, and at a minimum, he needed to pay his fuel bill for his company, which was $24,000, and that bill was due soon, so he didn't have enough money to cover it. And besides the fuel bill, he also didn't have any money to make payroll. So basically, Fred did not have any more money. And if he didn't find a way to find more money, he would have to file for bankruptcy, shut his business down, and lay off all of his employees.

And so Fred really couldn't think of a worse fate here. He totally believed in this company. I mean, this was his baby. He'd invested all of his inheritance into it. But now, it was about to collapse, unless he got really, really lucky. All around him in the casino, Fred could see gamblers hunched over slot machines, and over poker tables, and blackjack tables, and some people looked elated, like they were having the time of their lives. And many other people

looked like they were maybe having the worst time of their lives and were on the brink of tears. Fred didn't know if he'd be celebrating or sobbing by the end of this night. All he knew is he was out of options here. He could either do nothing and just kind of accept his fate that his business was doomed and would have to be shut down, or he could do what he was doing tonight, which was to basically take what little cash he had and put it on a game of chance,

basically gamble the money he had, then hopes of winning enough money to keep his business going a little bit longer. And so after taking a calming breath, Fred began walking over to a blackjack table, because someone had told him that of all the games he could play in the Las Vegas casino, the game with the best odds was blackjack. Fred chose a table with an open seat,

Then Fred began to play. For the first few hands, Fred was pretty cautious,

“only placing small bets, but he won all those small bets, and it kind of emboldened him,”

and so he began placing larger bets, and he began winning those bets too. And in fact, it got to the point where he was winning so consistently that a crowd of strangers had formed behind the table just to watch Fred. But Fred wasn't even aware of the crowd behind him. He was so focused on every single hand. I mean, for him, this was like his life he was gambling with. And eventually, he got to a place where he had like a mountain of chips in front of him,

and he was gambling huge sums of it all at once. And then eventually, when he had this big mountain of chips in front of him, Fred decided, this was it, he was going to double down and go all in. And so he puts all these chips out, he waits, and eventually the dealer flips over their cards, and as soon as they did, the crowd around Fred, who he hadn't even noticed to this point, erupted in cheers, because Fred had just won. And when the dealer pushed all the chips back over to him,

“and he got to count how much money he had, he realized he had started with $5,000, but now”

had $27,000. He gambled and won. $27,000 was just enough to pay that fuel bill and keep his company running a little bit longer. So basically, exactly what Fred had hoped for had happened. And then

during this extra time that Fred had basically won himself, he was able to secure $11 million in

investor funding, which was enough money to finally scale up the small business into the behemoth that we know it as today. Fred went from being a guy bedding his last chips at a casino to now, being a multi-billionaire. Fred's full name is Fred Smith, and that little company that he scaled up on a gamble was FedEx. One night in 1925, a 21-year-old college student named Ted was inside of his dorm room at Dartmouth

College in New Hampshire, surrounded by his friends. Ted and his friends have gotten their hands on a bottle of gin, and so tonight they were just sitting around, drinking this gin,

“and having a great time. Now Ted and his friends knew this was not allowed. I mean,”

literally they knew this was illegal. It didn't matter if they were 21 years old.

At the time, in the United States, in 1925, the country was in the middle of prohibition, which meant no one was allowed to possess or consume alcohol. It was actually illegal. But, Ted specifically was willing to take that risk, because tonight he wanted to celebrate. Ted was a senior in college and was getting ready to graduate with honors, and also he had recently been named the editor-in-chief of Dartmouth's humor magazine called Jackal Intern.

This was a big deal for Ted. I mean, he had aspirations of graduating and becoming a professional writer and publisher, and it just felt like everything was falling into place. You know, getting this job is editor-in-chief. It was a huge accomplishment. So, Ted took a swing from the bottle and passed it around the circle, and before long, he and his friends were all pretty drunk, and having a great time laughing and joking and telling

stories, it was a lot of fun. But at some point, they heard a knock on their door. Right away, Ted and his friends went silent, you know, remembering that "Oh my god, are we in trouble now?" Ted said, "No, it's fine. I'm sure it's just more friends coming to stop by and hang out with us." So, Ted, he gets up, he goes to the door and, you know, his heart's racing a little bit because he doesn't know who's there. He opens the door, and it's not friends,

it's two police officers. And so, Ted and his friends all got busted for drinking alcohol. However, fortunately for them, the police did not press charges, and so nobody went to jail, and also the school, Dartmouth decided not to expel Ted or any of his friends. However, they were dealt some pretty severe punishments. Specifically, Dartmouth stripped Ted of all of his academic honors and extracurriculars, which meant he was

no longer the editor-in-chief of the Jacqueline Tornmagazine. In fact, he was told by the school that not only was he no longer the editor-in-chief, but he couldn't even submit to put anything and writing into that magazine, he was totally banned. Ted was heartbroken. Less so about the academic honors and much more so about being, you know, cut off from the Jacqueline Tornmagazine. He really had attached a lot of value to being the editor-in-chief. He felt like things were

going in the direction of him graduating and becoming this professional writer, and so this was sort of a devastating blow. Ted considered fighting with Dartmouth to try to reinstate himself with the magazine, but the more he thought about it, the more he knew that was going nowhere. He were not going to change their mind. However, Ted was not quite ready to just totally give up on this magazine. He knew this magazine did accept submissions from the public, and so he thought,

"Okay, well, I'm not allowed to submit anything to this magazine, but maybe if I come up with a different name, a pen name, then I can submit my work, they won't know it's me, and maybe I can get something published." And so that's exactly what Ted began doing, and the new editor-in-chief

from the pseudonym, they thought it was some new person they never heard of, and they were so

“wowed by the work. They're like, "This is great, and they began publishing all of Ted's work,”

not realizing it was his." And for Ted, oddly enough, this became in some ways more satisfying than when he was writing under his own name. He kind of liked this pen name, kind of, you know, fit the vibe of his writing, and so he just continued up with this ruse for the rest of the time he was at Dartmouth, and then after he graduated, he just continued to write under this pen name. Throughout the rest of his life, Ted would write and illustrate over 60 books all under this pen name.

A name he came up with basically just because he got caught drinking in the dorm in college. These books would entertain and inspire generations of people, and in fact he would even win a pull its surprise for his contribution to American literature and education. Ted's full name was Theodore Geisel, but I'm sure you know him much better by his pen name, which is Dr. Seuss. Next and final story of today's episode is called The Stripper's Advice.

“In the spring of 1986, a 22 year old man named Will walked across the campus of the University”

of Missouri. Will was just a few months away from graduating from that university, but the bachelor's degree in journalism. But recently, he was starting to feel like he actually didn't want to be a journalist after all. He didn't have any real passion for journalism. However, he did have passion for Hollywood movies. Will had lived in Missouri as whole life, and now he was going to college in Missouri as well, so he was pretty sheltered,

hadn't really gone anywhere. So for him, movies had sort of been like this magical portal into

a different world. You know, Hollywood would show him all these amazing places and people,

and so that was his escape. He loved Hollywood movies. And so with Will's senior year coming to a close in just a few months with, you know, real life right there on the horizon, Will sort of had this big revelation that he simply didn't want to be a journalist.

“And in fact, what he was going to do is just drop out of college literally weeks away from his”

degree and move to California to Hollywood to actually pursue being an actor in Hollywood movies. But despite Will's incredible enthusiasm and naivete, when he got to Los Angeles, you know, to Hollywood, he realized that he was not the only young person with this big dream. There were loads of aspiring actors and actresses who loved Hollywood and wanted to break in

that were here, basically competing for all the same roles in all the same films.

Now, this didn't deter Will. I mean, he wasn't totally shocked. Of course, people wanted to be big movie stars and come out here and try their hand. And so he went out and auditioned constantly. He didn't care what movie it was. He wanted to be in one, but he just was not getting the work. Nobody was picking him up. He was auditioning and being rejected over and over and over again. And Will was okay with that. He figured, okay, I'll get better and eventually get

cast for something. But the problem was his finances. It was expensive to live in Los Angeles and there really weren't all that many jobs available. I mean, during the day, Will really wanted to focus on just auditioning constantly. And so the only work he could reasonably take was sort of side gigs that he could work late at night or early in the morning. Except again, there's so many people trying to do what Will is doing, you know, aspiring actors and actresses that basically

all the side gigs in LA were sort of already taken. And so the only ones that were available to Will were like the bottom of the barrel side gigs. The ones nobody wanted. But, you know, Will was determined and he was okay taking whatever was available. And so he ultimately got two jobs. He worked as a mascot for a fast food chicken restaurant where he basically would stand outside in a chicken suit and try to encourage people to go into the restaurant. And then at night,

he would work as a limo driver, but for a very specific group of people. He was a limo driver for strippers who would go mostly to bachelor parties. And it was Will's job to drive them to and from these parties. And then also to go in with them. And, you know, sort of be the DJ, play some music for them. And then at the end of the night, he was in charge of picking up all the money and clothes that were kind of strewn about from the event, packaging it all up,

putting everybody in everything back in the limo and driving him back home again. Now, at first, Will just sort of accepted that this was his life. Because eventually, it was not going to be his life. He was going to break into Hollywood and he wouldn't have to wear the chicken suit or drive the strippers around anymore. He could just be an actor and he could do the thing he really wanted to do. But pretty quickly, Will realized that the opportunity to break in just wasn't really happening.

But what was really happening is he was spending a lot of his time being the chicken suit guy

pay very much. And so he had to kind of encroach on the daytime hours and work more hours

“during that time that he would like to be auditioning just to pay his bills. And then when he would audition,”

he just continued not to get cast. And so before long, it just sort of felt like he was working these two kind of awful jobs all the time, barely sleeping, so that he could what just get rejected

over and over and over again and not break into Hollywood. It was depressing. And ultimately,

what he decided to do was, you know what, I'm going to quit one of my jobs. He decided he would quit the limo stripper job and just do the chicken suit job to buy a little bit more time during the day. So he could audition a little bit more and for a little while, he would just put all of his effort into that and hopefully land a big spot. And if he didn't, well, then his big dream likely was not going to pan out and he'd have to move back home. But on Will's final shift

as a stripper driver, one of the strippers actually said something to him that totally changed his life. He was driving him around on their way to bachelor parties doing this in that and at some point, Will struck up a conversation with this woman. You know, she was a stripper. But during the day, she too was trying to become an actress. Stripping was her side gig to make enough money to live in LA to try to break into the industry. You know, it wasn't going great for her, but you know,

she was enthusiastic and committed the same way Will was. And over the course of this conversation, she told Will that, you know, in addition to auditioning and, you know, working when you had to,

“you should also take this particular acting class. There's this one great class that all the biggest”

and best aspiring actors and actresses are taking and lots of very successful actors and actresses have taken. Like, this is the one to get into. You really ought to divert some of your time during the day to going to this class. And for Will, you know, he appreciated the input. But he's thinking like, that's not really going to help me. Right now, I don't need to learn how to act. That's going to take way too long. Like, I don't need that. I need any action. I need to audition.

I need to just be given a role and then my training will be on the job. A learn by acting, not by training to act. However, he's also thinking to himself as he's driving around all night and she's talking about how great this class is that he's like, you know what, at the same time, though, my auditions have not gone well. Nothing's really going well. And so maybe I'll just go to this class once. I mean, she's going to be there. She wants me to go. I'll go with her. I'll go one time.

“Maybe it'll be good for me. And so he agrees to go. And so not long after this final shift”

where he has this sort of pivotal interaction with the stripper, he goes to the acting class. And, you know, the stripper is there and she's so excited to see him and, you know, he makes his way in and he sits down and at some point during the class, the instructor says, okay, we're going to pair you up with other people in the class and you're going to act out a scene in front of everybody else. And so will he randomly gets paired up with this other actor who, in fact,

had a real audition that night. The scene they were going to act out was actually going to be done in front of actual agency reps who had come to this class. They were there.

Literally to see this other actor do this particular scene. Will was just being asked to basically

play support and allow this other actor to do their scene and hopefully get the part. And Will knows this. He's like, going into this with, okay, I'm going to read these lines and and you're going to kind of be the one really auditioning here. And it'll be in front of the whole class. It'll be, you know, both cool to see a real audition and good exposure to the folks that are in the class. And so they do this scene and Will who really is just trying to play a good supporting

person here is so unbelievably talented. He's so into the scene. His emotions come through so beautifully that he completely overshadows the other actor, like he completely destroys them and comes out looking like the star that really he thought he was. And the agency reps were so blown away by it. They actually didn't cast the other actor who was supposed to be auditioning for

this role. They basically said, no, we're not interested in you. We're going to cast Will in this role.

Will basically stole the role from this other actor. And this moment would end up being so talked about and so iconic that this virtual nobody stole the show and landed this role that people began talking about Will in Hollywood and when she knew it, it led to his big break. Will began getting cast left and right as the lead actor, the starring role in Hollywood hit after Hollywood hit. Today Will is one of the most famous and celebrated movie stars to have ever lived. He's

won everything from Academy Awards and Golden Globes to People Magazine's Sexiest Man alive. Will is his first name, but he's better known by his middle name, Brad. Brad Pitt. A quick note about our stories, they are all based on true events. But we sometimes use pseudonyms to

The Mr. Ballon podcast, Strange Dark and Mysterious Stories, is hosted and executive

“produced by me, Mr. Ballon. Our head of writing is Evan Allen, produced by Jeremy Bone and Cole”

Lacasio, research and fact-checking by Shelley Xu, Samantha Van Hoos, Evan Beamer, Abigail Shumway,

Camille Callahan, Alex Paul, Ben Fassiano, research and fact-checking supervision by Steven Ear.

“Audio editing and post-produced by Whitley Casio and Jordan Stittam.”

Production support by Antonio Minata and Delana Corley,

artwork by Jessica Klogston-Kiner, theme song, something wicked by Ross plugged in. Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballon podcast. And just a reminder, every new and exclusive episode we put out on the Mr. Ballon podcast, you can also now watch on the Mr. Ballon YouTube channel that very same day. And trust me, some of these stories you truly have to see to

“believe. Again, my YouTube channel is just called Mr. Ballon. If you want to listen to episodes,”

one week early and add free, you can subscribe to SiriusXM Podcast Plus on Apple Podcasts or visit SiriusXM.com/podcastplus to listen with Spotify or another app of your choice. So, that's going to do it. I really appreciate your support. Until next time, see ya! [Music]