Transcripts


 

September 15, 2006:
History You Never Knew
Interview with Richard Shenkman, author of One- Night Stand With American History


Mike Carruthers:
History is full of intriguing, little-known stories. For example…

Richard Shenkman:

J. Edgar Hoover did not like anybody walking on his shadow. We don't know if it was a superstition, or some security precaution that he took, but it was well known in the F.B.I.; if there was a light casting a shadow on Hoover, don't step in it.

Richard Shenkman, author of the book One-Night Stands With American History, says every elementary school student is taught that the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. However...

The Pilgrims didn't land on Plymouth Rock. That's a story that was made up by the Pilgrims' descendents - all to try to draw attention to their obscure little town. Then Daniel Webster in 1820, gave a big speech in Plymouth about the Pilgrims landing on Plymouth Rock - and all of a sudden an American myth was born.

Before Grover Cleveland became president, he was the sheriff of Eerie County, New York, and was called upon to personally execute, by hanging, convicted murderers. An interesting thing about Lyndon Johnson…

Lyndon Johnson loved to hold conversations with people while he was sitting on the toilet, because the president liked to humiliate people who had better educations than he did. He referred to them as "The Harvard's," and he liked to take them down a notch. So, when they'd be at a meeting and he had to go to the bathroom, he would continue the meeting in the bathroom - much to their consternation and humiliation.

At somethingyoushouldknow.net, I'm Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know.

 
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