MARCH 9

MARCH 9 — 1995 Ed Barneys, convinced Amcerica bacon and eggs are healthy, dies at 103; 1820 Missouri Compromise passed; 1970 Happy Birthday Barbie Doll; 1995 Jazz trumpeter Don Cherry dies

MARCH 9

1995 Bernays, The Father of Public Relations, dies at age 103.

One of his biggest contributions to society, and he’s had several, is the belief that bacon and eggs are good for you. He lived to be a hundred and three.

Born in Austria 1891, Edward Bernays, the nephew of Sigmund Freud, moved to the U.S. as a young lad.  Why do I feel this sudden impulse to talk about my dreams? Anyway, I don’t really want to get into his whole entire life because it’s not that interesting, but rather I want to talk about bacon and eggs. Of course I would prefer to eat bacon and eggs instead, but I already did that this morning so I’ll talk about it and the other campaigns he used to influence America’s buying habits.

He convinced women that by smoking Lucky Strike cigarettes they would be thinner and more attractive to men. He had a big hand in the American Dental Association and the Aluminum Company of America that fluoride in drinking water is good for us. He convinced Americans that eggs were needed in cake mix, and even to this day most people don’t realize that apple cider vinegar can make a healthier substitute.

In 1954 the American Central Intelligence Agency conducted Operation Success, which assisted a Guatemalan uprising that led to a coup d’état. Bernays convinced Americans that Guatemalans democratically elected leader Colonel Jacobo Arbenz was a communist. I  go into more detail on my Feb 26 ep, but the term Banana Republic was actually coined by the United Fruit Company, now known as Chiquita, who with Bernays knowledge and knowhow. A banana republic is basically a poor country run by a few wealthy elites.

He worked with Proctor and Gamble to convince Americans that the Ivory soap bar was medically better than its competitors because it floats better in water and you can snap it in two easily. Yes, the list goes on and on. Getting back to breakfast.

Most important meal of the day, right?

President Calvin Coolidge wanted big pancakes, not little ones. He once barged into the office of the White House cook, held up his little pancake that was served to him, and asked why he can’t get a bigger pancake. Not only did Calvin Coolidge want a bigger pancake, but comic strip Calvin and Hobbs writer Bill Watterson once made a joke in his comic about the incident. President Coolidge had a bit of a frosty personality at times, but one morning, Bernays led a group of popular vaudevillians of that time, and entertained the president while he at his pancakes. Legend has it, during the 5 years he was president that was the only incident that made him happy.

But Bernays breakfast influxes didn’t stop there. Pork bellies weren’t selling very well in the early 1900s, but Bernays changed all that by convincing Americans that bacon and eggs were the All-American breakfast. As you can imagine, the pork belly market went drastically up. Amazingly enough, Edward Bernays lived up to the ripe old age of 103.

How did he die? He was skydiving and his parachute wouldn’t open. I’m just kidding. He died because he was 103 years old. More of his legacy is featured in Adam Curtis 2002 BBC documentary A century of Self. The Father of Public Relations.

After all, what did you expect from the nephew of Sigmund Freud?

1847 – Siege of Veracruz begins.
General Winfield Scott, David Conner and Matthew Perry v Juan Morales. The result: American victory. During the Mexican American war, Zach Taylor had victories in Monterrey and Buena Vista, but President James Polk was concerned about Taylor’s political intentions in regards to Mexico. So Polk appointed General Scott to lead a command of 10,000 amphibious troops to Veracruz, which was considered one of the heaviest fortified strongholds in the Western Hemisphere. Not a single life was lost during the siege, which in of itself was amsazing, and easily made their way to Mexico City, where Scott’s men raised the American flag on the Hall of Motezuma. Upon that, the US and Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the war and gave Texas as well as terriroty all the way to the Pacific Ocean to the United States.

INVENTIONS/PATENTS:
1858 – Albert Potts patents the mailbox. Basically all it was, was a letter box attached to a lamppost. Awesome.

1822 – Charles Graham of New York granted first US patent for dentures. Now artificial teeth had been around much longer before this, of course. We all know George Washington had false teeth, and so did Paul Revere who by the way was a dentist as well as a midnight rider. Before mouthwash and floss and dental fillings were commonplace, if a tooth had a cavity there wasn’t much you could do about it. The whole tooth would eventually become rotten and had to be yanked out before it caused othe problems in the body, such as illness or even death. So Graham came up this magnificent invention.

1974 – Hiroo Onoda surrenders to the Allied Powers from a war that had ended 29 years prior. Evidently he refused to believe Japan had surrendered in WWII. Finally his commanding officer made a special trip to the Philipinese to relieve him of duty. Party’s over, dude. Been over.

1820 – Missouri Compromise is passed.

Just a couple years prior in 1817, the Missouri territory was looking to join the Union and begin drafting a state constitution.

But New York Representative James Tallmadge decided to throw in an anti-slavery amendment the debate got heated. There were already 22 states in America, 11 slave states and 11 non slave states. Admitting Missouri would uneven the slavery balance and Tallmadge wanted this to be an opportunity to begin the ending of slavery in America. New York Senator Rufus King also championed that Congress had every right to prohibit slavery in new states.

Naturally, southerners disagreed; in fact Maryland senator William Pinkney argued that new states had every right to allow slavery under the Constitution. Back and forth this went, the Federalist Party in the north was falling apart, but Speaker of the House the Great Pacificator from Kentucky Henry Clay worked on getting a resolution. In December 1819 Congress reconvened.

Massachusetts was redrawing their boundary lines to allow the new state of Maine to apply for entrance into the Union.  By making Maine a Free State, and Missouri a slave state, all states north of Missouri in the western territories would be free; all parties would cool their engines. Notice I didn’t say they were satisfied, because no one was happy with this compromise. The north felt it set a bad precedence for states entering the union to be allowed slave states, and the south didn’t want Congress to have that much control over abolishing slavery anywhere in the United States.

The resolution was passed on this day in 1820, and President James Monroe would sign it into law on May 6^th. The Missouri Compromise was successful in scotch-taping the weak United States together for the time being, but would be overturned decades later by the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

That, along with the Dred Scott decision, would be enough to inflame the country into civil war.

1959 – Happy Birthday Barbie. The Barbie Doll, created by Ruth Handler in 1959 was modeled after a Ger,man toy named Bild Lilli. She created the doll after noticing that when her daughter Barbara played with dolls, she would often give them adult rolls. Ruth marketed this idea and found a perfect niche. Barbie of course doesn’t come without controversy. If her figure was actual adult size her measurements would be 36-18-38. It’s kind of hard for some women to pull that off in real life without surgery.
Barbie also does not come without pardies, such as Tom Forsythe’s pictures of Food Chain Barbie which shows her in a blender. And let’s not forget the classic Saturday Night Live’s parody called Gangsta Bitch Barbie and Tupac Ken. Nonetheless Barbie related merchandise exceeded the yearly 1 billion dollar by 1993. Since 1959, over 800 million dolls in the Barbie family have been sold internationally and is regarded a true American classic.

1995, African-American jazz trumpeter Don Cherry died of liver failure aged 58. Developed the genre of world fusion music, incorporating influences of Middle Eastern, traditional African, and Indian music into his playing. Is the stepfather to singer’s musicians Neneh Cherry and Eagle-Eye Cherry.