And during one of the tests, it rolled off the track
down the hill across the highway
and into the swamp before it stopped.
Was there someone inside?
Yes, there's just this kid,
just like rolling across the highway.
Oh no, that's the funny, I mean, that is terrifying.
Thankfully, you know, they made it out alive.
They made it out alive, but if I saw that,
I don't know what I would do.
And this is true, and this is Olivia.
And we are oddly curious.
In action.
And ta-da, ta-da.
And Pedro Pascal.
How are you, Olivia?
I'm pretty good, how are you?
I'm really good because I am on my second cup of coffee
at your house.
Yay, I've only had one cup of coffee.
I need to catch up with you,
because I am sleep deprived.
Oh yeah, I mean, is there any time when we're not?
I think that's like a level of survival.
I'm like, I don't remember the last time
I wasn't sleep deprived.
My favorite thing actually right now,
and I'm not, this is not being funny,
and it can be funny, but it's not,
is waking up to get ready for work
and you have sent me something at one in the morning.
It's either something on Pinterest, a TikTok,
or you're like, hey, this person said this.
And I'm like, oh, how sweet.
She's living her best life when I wanna be living my best life.
Is it my best life?
I don't know.
Yeah, the thing is, the nights that I do work,
I work late, and so then I get home,
and I wanna relax, and then I relax for a while,
and then I also just waste my time on social media,
and then I finally go to bed.
And then, lately, when I stay up too late,
I've been getting heart palpitations, so.
Oh.
Yeah, I need to fix, oh my gosh,
I can't talk, fix my sleep schedule, so I don't die.
Wait, you're getting heart palpitations
because you're staying up late,
so you're not getting enough sleep.
Yes.
Ah, ooh.
Yeah, it's literally like, if I stay up past a certain time,
my body's like, ah.
Yeah.
I'm so sorry.
I mean, I've done it to myself,
but I'm trying to fix it slowly.
Yeah, usually that is what happens to me
when my anxiety's pretty bad.
Yeah.
My anxiety hasn't been any different than normal,
just bad sleep.
I mean, schedule.
Yeah.
Well, I applaud your efforts.
Thank you.
Hopefully, there will be less messages from me
at one in the morning, I'll still send you messages.
Good.
But it's always, I'm like, when you wake up
and no one has texted you, and you're like,
well that's probably good, cause people are sleeping,
but you're also like, oh.
And I'm like, I'm here.
Yeah.
Like a night angel.
So.
I'm trying to think if there's anything I wanted to say
before we jump right into what we're doing.
I know.
I feel like I thought of something earlier,
but of course I didn't write it down.
Right.
Cause why would I do that?
Not me.
I did go on a road trip this past weekend,
and I did post some things on our Instagram,
which were just like either past episode related,
which was really fun, cause it was just like,
well, we're there.
And it made me excited for our hopeful future
podcast road trip.
I know.
I'm very happy that you got to go,
and I was living vicariously through your pictures,
but I'm like, oh, I want to be there.
Yeah.
Next time, let's do it.
And we'll actually eat at Billy's.
Yes.
Let's do it.
And it'll feel a little anticlimactic,
cause you're like, oh, it's just like a regular place.
There's nothing special.
Yeah.
I mean, bar food is fun.
It is fun.
Yeah.
Even if it's just run of the mill.
Run of the mill.
Yeah.
I don't know if you'll have something
to add to the road trip today, but I have something
to add to the road trip.
Oh yeah.
No, my road trip is in outer space.
That's the ultimate road trip.
Yeah, I know.
Let's make it happen.
Elon Musk is like, I'm listening.
I'm like, don't listen.
Can we go with someone else?
Like please don't hurt us.
Yeah.
So I might as well just jump right into it.
OK.
So today, Olivia, I am going to tell you about Haley's Comet
or Halley's Comet or Holly's Comet.
Oh, I've never heard Holly's.
Yeah.
So I looked it up, there is not like a correct pronunciation
because this guy, Edmund Holly, he named the Comet in 1758.
No.
1705.
Oh no.
1705.
Hold on.
Let me 1700.
1700.
Hold on.
I think Roman can actually fix this because I was like,
wait, that's the one he predicted that it would be coming around.
But I don't know if they actually named it the same time.
And I should have written that down.
I'm like, I'm so glad that this can be edited out.
I know.
OK.
Anyway, it was in the 1700s.
I'm going to say it was 1705.
Just OK.
So let me go from there.
So Edmund, Haley, Holly, or Halley, in 1705,
he was the one who basically discovered
that this comet would be seen and come back to Earth.
Nobody really knows the correct pronunciation of his name
because it was so long ago.
But the article I read, it was like, it could be either rhymes
with valley, daily, or crawly.
So it's like, you kind of pick your Halley, Holly.
Choose your own adventure.
Choose your own Halley.
I like to say Haley because it's like Haley Mills or something.
I'm a Halley girl.
Yeah.
But I think it was just because I didn't know how
to pronounce things when I first learned about it.
I'm like, Halley?
Haley?
We could just call it Halley to be different.
No, I won't do that.
That's weird.
So this, why am I already so like,
already got off the rails?
What just happened?
OK, Haley's Comet.
Yes.
And sometimes I will say Comet.
I mean Comet.
OK.
It's like some people might say addict instead of attic.
Just auto correct in your mind that Jermaine's Comet.
Comet.
I don't know why sometimes it just wants to be Comet.
Words are hard.
Words are so hard.
It's like three in the afternoon on a beautiful spring day.
And I'm like, why can't I talk?
Life is not hard right now.
Yeah.
Isn't it always?
It is always.
So the reason why I'm telling you this today, it's, well,
Comets are interesting.
Yes.
But did you know that Haley's Comet came around Earth?
I mean, it didn't really come to Earth.
It just goes around Earth.
In 1910, and it's nearly uprooted civilization
as we know it.
I did not know that.
No.
It is actually really interesting.
So we're going to start on May 6, 1910.
Haley's Comet is approaching Earth,
and it has just killed England's King Edward VII,
according to some people.
This poor Comet is living its life the best it can,
and it has already had a murder accusation just thrown on it.
I'm like, I don't remember this on noble blood.
No, no.
Except when you're thinking about it, you're like, OK,
so the Comet's on Earth, he put on a really big trench coat.
He went to England, knocked on the door of wherever he was staying,
and he was like, may I see my friend Edward?
He assassinated him.
Like, no, that is not what happened.
So of course, no one could definitively say how a Comet
could kill a king, but that's not the only offense
of this poor Comet.
Brits also figured it was an omen of a coming invasion
by the Germans, naturally.
Not the aliens?
No, the Germans.
They're like, this is from Germany.
They're like, we're thinking small here.
It's Germany.
They're always looking at us with their Comet eyes.
And then the French felt the Comet
was responsible for the flooding of the Seine in Paris.
A lot of accusations.
But really, this is just a cute little comet.
So like we said, Edmund Halle, Haley Halle,
he discovered this comet.
He was an astronomer.
He was a very intelligent man.
He actually has a really interesting story,
like he was the son of a soap maker.
He was really interested in outer space,
because why wouldn't you?
But this was a time where it was like less people were really
focusing on that as like a career.
But his dad bought him a telescope.
It was just like from there, he was like, here we go.
Which I can't even imagine how much that would cost
to buy a telescope in the late 1600s.
They're probably so fancy, too.
Very fancy.
Yeah, very pretty.
So Haley applied Isaac Newton's love motion to the comet,
picking the exact week it would appear in the sky.
And so when the comet arrived on schedule,
it became known as his comet, which is like, how cute is that?
Although the comet is much older than him.
And it's like, well, we're in the Western world.
It's going to get the Western name.
But he did not live long enough to see this prediction come
true, which is like, oh, that's sweet and sad.
So this comet arrives to Earth, or the atmosphere,
to be seen every 75 years.
So it appeared in 1758.
It reappeared in 1835.
It is now here in 1910, just killing off kings.
Bringing omens.
But before we even go into this crazy, crazy omen-filled
comet, let's actually talk about what is a comet.
OK, yeah.
So it's just a little cute, icy solar system body.
It warms up as it passes by the sun, or stars.
And it is outgassing itself.
It's what it's called.
It's outgassing.
It's releasing gas.
It produces an extended, gravitationally unbound
atmosphere, or coma, surrounding the nucleus.
And it sometimes has a tail.
Oh, tea.
Yeah.
And this tail is just a little trail of gas and dust
being blown out from the coma.
Why did they write it like that?
It just sounds.
Both of your stories have had nature gas.
I was like, is this a theme?
I'm like, this is interesting.
Look at this gas.
So comets are very, very common, turns out.
Also, I think there's a tea called constant comet.
But that is in there.
There is.
But it's the old people at the place I used to work loved it.
But is it comet or comet?
I think it's constant comet.
Comet.
OK.
Well, turns out, comets are also constant comets.
And so as of November 2021, we have a new
one.
There are over 4,500 known comets to Earth,
even though there are trillions in the galaxy, of course.
Haley's comet became the first comet
to be observed in detail by a spacecraft,
providing the first observational data
in the structure of a comet nucleus,
like we were talking about, of that coma and that tail
formation.
The word comet is an old English word
that has come from the Latin word cometa, which
is also the Greek word cometes.
And it means wearing long hair.
So it literally translates into a long-haired star,
which is so cute.
That is really cute.
Which I'm like, I guess in the celestial body world
comets are like 80s hair bands.
It's like Neil Gaiman's depiction of a star.
I like your avenue.
I was like, this is if Pantera was in the sky.
And I'm like, this is Claire Danes.
Oh, this is Metallica's star.
Oh, yeah.
I like that's better.
No, Metallica is a star.
This star is a master of puppets.
And it's not even a star.
It's just a little cute little ice thing,
just minding its own business.
And this comet has, I mean, it's been around for a long time.
They can't really predict how long it'll be around,
because they said that there's a chance it could eventually
run into something.
I mean, it's predicted to come again in 2061,
because it was the last time it was seen on Earth was 1986.
But it could not show up, because it actually,
I mean, it's literally living in space.
Something could ruin its path.
But they said it could take up to 10,000 years for it
to even burn out of all of its gas.
Wow, that's a lot of gas.
That's a lot of gas.
But some scholars have proposed that first century
Mesopotamian astronomers had already recognized this comet,
especially because it's so periodic.
And this theory notes a passage in the Babylonian Talmud
that it refers to a star which appears once in 70 years that
makes the captains of the ships air.
What does that mean?
I think it's just because the captains are like,
that star is freaking us out.
Or maybe they're like trying to.
They're like, what is that?
Yeah.
Like they will chart by the stars.
And they're like, that star is moving.
It's making us mess up.
I don't know.
Yeah, that's interesting, because they
used to travel by the stars.
But I wonder if it's also a really nice way
of saying this moving thing in the sky is freaking us out.
Yeah.
It's causing us to air.
I don't know.
So now we know.
Haley's Comet, it means well.
It's just doing its own thing.
It's living in space with a cute little tail.
And it has not killed anyone as far as we know.
But it sure freaks them out.
It sure freaks them out.
So 1910, Haley's Comet, it's back.
And because it's showing up at a time where news travels faster,
it is getting a little more widespread with smaller areas,
like places where the last time it was there,
you would not have a paper circulating,
or you wouldn't have necessarily news getting to everyone.
Now everyone's like, this is happening, this is going down.
The Royal Observatory warned that this comet would, quote,
cause the Pacific to change basins with the Atlantic
and the primeval force of North and South America
to be swept into a briny avalanche over the sandy plains
of the Great Sahara, tumbling over and over with houses,
ships, sharks, whales, and all sorts of living things
and one heterogeneous mass of chaotic confusion.
Are they saying that Haley's Comet would cause a sharknado?
Yes, actually, yes.
The first documentation of a sharknado is in 1910.
OK, so clearly, the Royal Observatory,
this is a well-known circulated source of news.
So this is right off the bat, they're like,
this is going to happen.
This panic is not really like, what's the word, like,
this has happened before with comets,
especially things in the sky.
But this 1910 panic is unlike anything
we have ever seen since.
And what's funny is, if a comet is the only thing that's
going to ruin your life, I wish that was our problem.
Right?
Because since then, things have gone worse.
Oh, to a comet be our worst problem.
Right.
So people were getting really creative with their anxiety.
And it didn't help.
I really didn't.
Yeah.
So in addition to the Royal Observatory,
the New York Times, which is still today
a very well-known news source, they
announced that this comet went unceremoniously
and life as we know it.
And the reason is because of a very famous French astronomer
named Camille Flamérian, or Camille Flamérian, I guess.
Probably.
Very nice.
He said there was a chance that cyanogen gas
would impregnate the atmosphere and possibly
snuff out all life on the planet.
And everyone kind of glommed onto that and just ran with it.
Oh, I forgot to give my resources.
So my resources for this, I'm so sorry,
are a wired article by Matt Simon and an all
that's interesting article by Genevieve Carleton,
and then of course Wikipedia.
So the all that's interesting article,
they said something that I am, I did not write this,
but they said, in typical French despair,
I did not say that.
Camille Flamérian reckoned that as we pass through the comet's
tail, Earth, this gas would basically
be detected either in your mouth or your nose,
and then it would be sufficient enough to cause instant death.
And I don't know why this time, again,
this comet has been coming around since the Babylonian era.
Every 75 years, he's like, but now's the time.
Now it's the time.
It's going to kill us.
OK.
But even though The New York Times quoted him saying this,
not all American astronomers agreed with him.
I also put a little note here that there is the,
have you heard of the venerable bead?
Yeah, some guy.
He was kind of like a philosopher.
Back in 700 AD, he warned that comets
would portent a change of royal power or plague or wars
or winds or heat.
So people are quoting this in the news articles,
and they're like, well, if this guy said it, it means something.
Well, that was 700 AD.
They're like, well, obviously then he killed the king.
He killed the king.
And so The New York Times went on to say, for example,
in England in 1066, it became known as the year of three kings,
because three kings all claimed their right to the throne.
However, Haley's comet appeared the same year.
And so people were convinced, well,
this venerable bead is correct because he said that a comet would
bring a change to royal power.
And they're like, oh, great.
The comet then came in the end of 1764, leading up to 1765.
Guess what happened?
London had a plague outbreak and then a great fire.
And then so already, the world is panicking.
Oh my gosh, Haley's comet, every time it comes,
it's messing stuff up.
Spoiler alert, no, that's not true.
What?
Um, The New York Times went on to add that, for example,
in 1680, a Boston preacher named Increase Mather,
his first name was Increase.
Wow.
Yeah, he basically used revelation as a way
to explain the comet is going to be a sign from God,
that if we ignored heaven's alarm,
then God's anger will strike us down.
Again, a comet is just a little ball of gas.
But you know, you know, we do this in business in the sky.
Do you have any clue?
I know.
Oh, to be a comet, just living its best life,
not knowing you're being thrown literally every terrible thing
that's happened on Earth, right at your face.
So back to 1910.
One of the skeptics to Flammarian, he
noted that the gas, quote, was so rarefied as to be thinner
than any vacuum, and therefore posed no threat.
Robert Ball, who is a director of Cambridge Observatory,
noted that another famed astronomer, John Herschel,
reckoned the whole comet could be squeezed
into a portmanteau, which is basically a suitcase.
But what was funny is they didn't realize
that the comet is actually nine miles long.
It could not fit into a suitcase.
And so they were like laughing.
They're like, this thing is so small.
We could just put it in a little bag,
and it's not going to kill us.
They're like, well, from here it looks like it.
Right.
So the New York Times clapped back,
back when it wasn't, didn't know it was clapping back.
And they gave a little vocabulary lesson
in the funniest way.
And I don't want to read all of this.
It's quite a bit.
But they are basically talking about, OK, a portmanteau
is a word for a suitcase.
And if John Herschel really said that it could be packed
in a suitcase, he was talking nonsense.
This proposition suggests three factors.
The comet, the suitcase, and the packer.
The comet will be visible.
There are plenty of suitcases on Earth, OK?
But who's doing the packing?
We do not believe that a comet could be put in a suitcase.
Experience teaches us that very little
can be packed in a suitcase by any man.
It should take a woman to pack one properly.
There are plenty of women on Earth, of course.
But John Herschel's lighthearted assertion, now gaily,
stepfathered by Sir Robert's assertion,
will not tempt any woman to do unnecessary packing of a comet.
A comet, once packed into a suitcase, or even a trunk,
because you know what, that's bigger,
would be must beyond recognition and no further use
to anybody.
Better leave the comet where it is.
We will all feel safer.
And quote, that is what they say.
Oh, yeah, a comet and your carry-on luggage,
you won't be able to recognize it.
But this did not make anyone feel safer because they're like,
OK, New York Times, we get it, but we're still scared.
For example, just three years prior, a Kentucky newspaper
basically said, will the comet collide with Earth?
So it's like, OK, is it coming to collide with Earth?
Is it going to kill us with its gas?
Or is it just being cute in space?
Everyone is freaking out.
No, it did not smash the Earth.
It won't smash the Earth.
Another adaption of this jovial outlook,
like the New York Times, there was a band called
the Toon Smiths at the time.
And they made a song about the comet, which was cute.
It's called the comet called Halley, or Haley.
There were companies that would use the comet
in their advertising, such as Pear's soap.
They would use a slogan called Pear's soap is visible day
and night all over the world, much like the comet.
Well, OK, soap has nothing to do with that.
But some people went as far as creating anti-comet pills.
OK.
They, one brand, actually promised, quote,
an elixir for escaping the wrath of the heavens, end quote.
There was a voodoo doctor in Haiti
who was said to be selling pills as fast as he could make them.
I bet he was.
Like, what was in those pills?
And then two Texans were arrested for marketing sugar pills
as a cure-all for all things comet.
But police released them shortly because customers
were so upset and demanded their freedom
because they wanted the pills, even though they were told
they were fake.
Acalcebo, maybe.
Oh, man, it is strong.
And then, of course, gas masks were flying off the shelves.
There was a further, if you go even further into this,
it was said that the country of Korea,
because I believe South and North Korea were still
this one by this point, they had stopped
going to work because they were so scared.
They're like, why work when you are just
going to be killed by a comet?
There was some articles that were written that said,
a shepherd in Washington state had gone insane with worry
about the comet.
Well, a Californian prospector nailed his feet
and one hand to a cross.
And despite his agony, pleaded with rescuers
to let him remain there so that he could survive the comet.
I'm not really sure how that would make you survive.
I don't know.
No.
Like, it was going to sweep him away?
I don't know.
I don't know what the reasoning there.
No.
Churches found themselves packed to the brim
with worried followers.
And then some people at home were going as far as plugging up
their keyholes to keep out the vapors from the comet.
But despite this insanity, most people
were actually excited about it because it's like, I mean,
it's pretty to look at.
And you know, to this guy and people
felt like it was a once in the lifetime experience, which
it is for a lot of us because most people don't
get to see it twice in their life.
You can see it once.
So as Earth passed through the comet's tail on May 19,
many curious onlookers packed rooftops,
while the French, other than Camille Flamérian,
enjoyed special comet dinners and nights out,
watching the comet from restaurants and homes.
However, Camille Flamérian stuck with his theory.
And even though the comet was gone after a few days,
he said four people, just four people on Earth,
had certain olfactory experiences,
which are described variously as smelling of burning vegetables
or burning marsh.
So it didn't really kill him.
He just, there was smelling something bad.
It might have just not been the comet at all.
Were they having a stroke?
Maybe.
It's your first sign of smelling a burning marsh.
Yikes.
So realizing that Earth had survived a near apocalypse,
the people of France danced and embraced in the streets.
However, in Atlanta, Georgia, they
missed out on all the fun because of cloud cover,
although the Atlanta Constitution seemed relieved
because they said the clouds saved the city.
And I like, whoever wrote this, I think this was Matt Simon.
He wrote, Atlanta and the rest of the Earth
were saved by reality.
Because for thousands of years, for literally thousands
of years, Earth have seen, Earth have seen,
Earth has seen so many comets come and go.
We're all still here.
It's going to take much more than that.
So two years after this event, an even more fanciful theory
from, I mean, I can sort of read this Chinese name.
I don't know about that part.
But Chongqin Liang of Imperial Polytechnic College in Shanghai,
he said, quote, it is obvious the comet has no tail at all,
but the so-called tail must be the sun rays,
which, while passing through the body of the comet,
look like a tail, which is true because it doesn't really
have a tail.
But should the comet itself be transparent,
it should form a convex lens that everything on the Earth
will be burnt to provide the sunlight passes
through the body of the comet and the focus
falls on the surface of the Earth.
End quote, so while procrastinating warriors only
got around to proposing that the Earth had survived
this deadly thing, as anyone's guess, it's just really like,
no, we don't need to have protection from a little thing
following a ball of gas and ice.
But there were a few things that they
talked about that, in addition to Haley's comet, which
is the most, I guess, well-known comet.
There's also the Hale-Bopp comet, which also
led to some deaths.
So in 1997, members of the Heaven's Gate Colt
committed mass suicide to ascend to the alien spacecraft
they believed was hidden in the comet.
I know it sounded familiar.
Yeah.
And guess what?
That is also not true.
I mean, I'm sorry to them.
That will be a few trips.
Yeah, exactly.
And then last but not least, so I
don't know if you remember, in 2020,
you could see the Neo-Wise comet?
I don't.
That was the only highlight of that year,
because obviously, we could not do anything.
I remember my roommate and I would sneak out at night,
find a place that was really dark,
and just lay in the grass and stare at this guy
to look at Neo-Wise, because we're like,
this is a terrible year, please, can I just do something fun?
And it was looking at Neo-Wise.
That's happy.
Yeah.
However, many conspiracy theorists blamed COVID-19
on Neo-Wise.
Of course.
Yeah.
Because, I mean, why wouldn't you?
But so last but not least, so the people that
survived the comet in 1910 that were alive to see it,
some people were fortunate enough to see it again in 1986,
which I'm like, how special is that?
That is really cool.
And they didn't die.
But my favorite thing about this is this picture.
And there's really cute old people just looking up
into the sky in 1986.
And the caption at the bottom of the picture says,
these old folks did not die while watching the 1910
appearance of Haley's Comet.
And they didn't even die before its reappearance in 1986.
Here they are being honored for not dying.
Oh, man.
So at the end of the day, if you're
alive for Haley's Comet in 2061, you really
don't need anything unless you're going
to look at it during the day.
So get sunglasses.
But other than that, you're going to be fine.
You won't kill you.
And that is the story of the unhinged reaction to 1910 Haley
Comet visiting Earth.
Well, I guess humanity hasn't changed that much
with their disproportionate reactions.
Yeah.
What I think is funny is, I mean, we say this a lot.
It's been coined more recently.
But fake news has the power to append so much.
Yeah.
And I love that they're like, you know what?
They're not like, hey, let's not panic the public.
They're like, this will literally end life as we know it.
There's going to be animals flying all over.
The oceans will sweat.
They're just like, we're going to panic these people as much
as we possibly can.
And while you feel dumb when it doesn't happen,
and how come I guess the logic here is,
if you're an astronomer, don't you
have the ability to logic out the fact
that this comet visits Earth every 75 years
and it hasn't happened before?
What makes 1910 different?
I mean, I guess there's crazy people in every profession.
Yeah.
What I really think is that he just wanted to be famous.
Yeah.
You're famous for looking like an idiot.
Yeah.
You're famous for being a boy named Camille.
Actually, the French are like, that's actually
very common French boys name.
I like all the French are like, we're just
going to have nice dinners and watch it.
The French don't fear.
They're like, we start revolutions all the time.
What, a comet's going to take us down?
No.
And I guess the loudest person about it was French.
But they're like, we don't even listen to that guy.
They're like, we don't like him.
No.
I don't know him.
I don't even know him.
Well, that was a very interesting story.
Yeah.
I just thought it was really funny because I was,
I just randomly came across it the other day
and I was laughing so hard because 1910 was not that long ago.
No.
And I did not realize that so many people actually
thought Earth was going to just either be burned up
or that everyone was going to die.
And I mean, talk about a slow news day.
But I like that most people have the right idea of just
enjoy it for what it is.
It's a cool thing that you may not ever get to see.
Yeah.
It's pretty and I don't know.
I just, I think it's cute.
I think comets are actually kind of cute.
They are cute.
They're kind of like a little Pikachu in the sky.
Oh, that's happy.
Well, let's take a quick break before my story.
Yeah.
Let's get some more coffee because I have a feeling
this is going to be in.
It's going to be a wild ride.
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All right.
And on to my story.
So your story was out of this world and literally.
The tagline for my story is there's
no place in the world like Action Park.
Ooh.
Oh, no.
I will be talking about Action Park
or as it was dubbed Class Action Park.
A water park in New Jersey in the 80s and 90s.
So already sounds like a red flag.
There's so 80s New Jersey.
Or like, I'm so sorry.
Yeah, I'm sorry.
But I feel like you know.
The sources for my story are the Class Action Park
documentary, Wikipedia, of course.
And then Class Action Park article by Amy Kuprinsky
on New Jersey.com.
If New Jersey.com knows about it, then New Jersey knows.
Yeah.
If they're still writing about it all these years later.
Oh, yeah.
OK, so we are going to start with the creator, Jean Mulvihill.
So before Action Park, Jean Mulvihill
ran a brokerage firm on Wall Street called Mayflower Securities.
And Jean was basically Gordon Gekko
before there was a Gordon Gekko.
Oh.
For those of you who don't know, that
is from the movie Wall Street.
Yes, which I've never seen.
I've never seen it.
But when I think of what Wall Street people look like,
I do think of Michael Douglas in them.
Yeah.
And I'm always like, Gekko, is that a real last name?
Or is it just for fun because he's a lizard?
Oh, I didn't think about that.
That is kind of a weird last name.
Yeah, or is he because he became the Gekko mascot?
Well-known fact.
And him and his friend, Robert Brennan,
would make money selling worthless penny stocks.
Now, I'm not going to get into what penny stocks are
because I barely understand it myself.
Just a stock that's very cheap.
It's useless.
It's like a stock that they know is not going to do well.
And so then they sell it to people that don't know any better.
Oh, that's sad.
Yeah, it is really sad.
I don't know anything about the stock market,
but don't let me buy a penny stock.
No.
And again, I have not seen this movie,
but in the documentary, they show a clip of the movie
Wolf of Wall Street, where Jordan Belfort, who's also
a real person, made his money selling penny stocks as well.
Oh, OK.
One of the many things.
It's got an order to cap your order.
Yes.
I'm here to cap your order.
I always thought he was also Gordon Gekko.
This shows what I know.
No, he's not.
I only know that from another podcast
that talked about the movie.
So they were making tons of money before the SEC got onto them
and shut them down, mostly due to Robert Brennan's shady
dealings.
So it looks like Gene Mulvihill was kind of getting away
with it before Robert Brennan came along,
and then he kind of blew the operation for them.
So Gene went on to buy two ski resorts in Vernon, New Jersey.
And at this time in the 80s, people like Hugh Hefner
were viewing Vernon like a possible new Atlantic City
or Orlando.
That was the hope is that it was going
to be a place where there would be a lot of tourism
and a lot of nightlife.
And at this time, there was a point.
Oh my gosh, I can't talk.
Playboy Lounge that Hugh Hefner started there.
And then people like Tony Bennett and Wayne Newton
were also performing at nightlife spots there.
It feels very Atlantic City.
It does feel very Atlantic City.
So there was some potential.
And Gene, being a businessman, saw the potential there.
During the winter, people would come and ski in Vernon
at the ski resorts.
But Gene, being a businessman, needed a new scheme
to bring people in during the summer.
So he came up with the idea of a water park, Action Park.
And his friend Brennan was helping
to bankroll this project.
So in 1978, the park opened.
And Action Park was one of the first modern water parks.
And it utilized the natural landscape of the mountains
and the ski resort.
So a lot of the attractions were kind of built into the landscape
of it.
And all of the water came from the mountain springs.
So it was freezing.
Oh, wow.
And there were four.
I don't know why it says four main parts.
There were three main parts.
Ha ha ha.
Clearly have three portions of the park.
So there was the Alpine Center, Waterworld, and Motorworld.
And Waterworld and Motorworld were divided by a highway going
through.
Like an actual highway.
An actual highway.
Oh, no.
Yeah, so it already sounds a little sketchy.
And then you have a highway going right through the park.
So if you want to get to the other side of the park,
you have to get across the highway.
One of the things that people loved about Action Park
was that it was so different and innovative.
And partly it was because Gene Mulvihill wanted
a really fun and different place.
But it's also partly because absolutely no one
with an engineering background was consulted during the building
of this park.
No one?
No one.
Like there were people that would come up with ride designs.
And it was people that would pitch things
to Disney World and other theme parks and water parks.
And they would be like, absolutely not.
That's way too crazy.
And then they would go to Gene Mulvihill.
And he'd be like, that's great.
Let's just put that in the water park.
And then I'll also tinker with it for some good measure.
And not only that, but the theme park
was essentially run by teens.
All the employees there were teenagers
because they were getting their summer jobs.
But when it comes to safety, that
poses a huge problem when it's just teens that
are in charge of every department, basically.
Because nothing says, I care about people around me
like a teenager.
They're like the least interested in what
anyone's doing.
And also, even if they are trying to enforce rules,
who's going to listen to some teenager?
Either it's other teenagers or adults
who are like, what's this kid going to do to me
if I don't listen to them?
And hazing was also very common among the teen staff.
Oh my gosh.
And they would even try and drown each other
as part of the hazing at the water park.
What?
Yeah.
No one died from that, but definitely some unsafe practices
were going on.
And no one in management cared about labor laws.
So they would be working insane hours during the summer.
One of the most infamous rides is Cannonball Loop.
Now, this wasn't even really designed by a park ride
designer.
Jean took a cocktail napkin, drew a loop delu,
and said, I want this to be a ride.
And then someone expanded upon that.
So it's always great when a cocktail napkin is involved,
because then you know drinking is probably involved too.
Yeah.
Engineers everywhere are like, oh, you
use the cocktail napkin theory.
So Cannonball Loop was an enclosed water slide
that was pitch black.
And also, I just want to stress that everything in this park
was made of cement, concrete, asphalt, whatever.
I just got a concussion here.
I know.
So the slide gets built.
And they send test dummies down.
And according to legend, all the test dummies come out
dismembered.
No.
Oh my gosh.
So thankfully, they made a few changes to things
before they had actual humans tested out.
And then Jean started offering $100
to any of the teen employees who would test the slide.
So the first few kids come out, and their faces are all bloody,
and they can't figure out why.
But then they're like, well, we should probably
put some padding in to make it softer for everyone.
And then more kids went down the slide,
and they were coming out covered in lacerations.
So they opened up the slide, and there were teeth embedded
in the slide from the first group of kids
that when the second group of kids were going down,
the teeth would cut them up.
That's the scariest thing I've ever heard.
I just can't imagine the trauma of being like,
oh, what was that that cut me?
Oh, a human tooth.
Some dentist is like, chitchat.
And then if you were too big for the slide,
then you would get stuck, like, lodged in it.
They were just teeth biting you.
Right.
Oh, god.
I didn't even think about that.
And if you were too small, then you wouldn't have enough momentum
to get over the loop.
So there was a hatch built into the side of the slide
so people could get rescued when they got stuck.
Not a good sign when you have to put in a rescue hatch.
No.
My personal favorite, right, is man in the ball in the ball.
Man?
Man in the ball in the ball.
In the ball.
Yeah.
Why that name?
So park goers would get inside what kind of looks like a hamster
ball that is rolling around on ball bearings down a track made
of PVC pipes.
But of course, the ball is not fixed to the track.
And it's round so it wouldn't stay on the track.
And during one of the tests, it rolled off the track down
the hill across the highway and into the swamp before it stopped.
What's our son and son?
They're just this kid just like rolling across the highway.
Oh, no.
That's the funny.
I mean, that is terrifying.
Thankfully, they made it out alive.
They made it out alive, but if I saw that,
I don't know what I would do.
Crying when I was watching the documentary
because there's like an animation of it
going across the highway.
Oh, gosh.
Oh, no.
Another slide was inspired by zero gravity.
Nothing should be inspired by zero gravity, especially when
it's made of concrete.
So it was designed in such a way that people would come down
the slide and then they would become airborne
and then come back down onto the slide made of concrete.
Oh, my gosh.
As you can imagine, there were some injuries.
Most notably, one kid came back down so hard
that he had to be carried away on a backboard.
Oh.
Yeah.
I just, oh.
It makes it, having been on a backboard before,
right, that's already.
I have a firsthand experience.
An icky feeling, but then just imagining
that you're just going down a water slide
and then you get carried out of the park on a backboard.
Or the whole time you're like, I am having fun.
This is fun.
I'm having fun right until you get slammed back down.
Oh, yeah.
Moving on.
The Tarzan swing was just like a rope swing
that you would swing across into the water.
But there was an observation deck where everyone that
was in line for the swing could watch
when you were going across.
And all these New Jersey teens are yelling at you
about how terrible your swing is and what a wuss you are,
and just yelling obscenities at each other,
which sounds more traumatic than honestly anything
in the park to me.
Because I'm imagining just like a group of teenagers
watch you and making fun of you.
That is actually most people's nightmares.
It's true.
I don't want an observation deck on anything.
No.
Never watch me do anything, please.
Please.
And then most people couldn't hold their body weight,
and they would end up just flopping into the freezing
cold mountain spring water.
And the combination of slamming down into the water
and it being so cold, they would be stunned and forget
how to swim.
Oh, no.
And sometimes would have to be rescued.
Yeah.
I have no words.
Now, back to Jean Mulvihill for a bit.
OK.
So Jean didn't believe in insurance,
but of course he needed insurance to run a water park.
So instead of getting insurance, he set up
his own fake insurance company that he called London
and World Assurance, which sounds super fake.
It sounds like the London and world.
And it was in the Cayman Islands,
and he would also use it to launder money.
I'm like, Cayman Islands has the unfortunate reputation
for being the place that people run to when they're running
from the law.
Yeah.
They're like, hey, we don't want that reputation.
No.
Because I guess it's like beautiful.
And I know they have really strict laws there.
So why are they going there?
I guess.
I don't know.
This eventually led to an 110-count indictment,
and Jean pled guilty to fraud.
But that didn't stop action park success.
Oh, no.
Now back to more of the park insanity.
Another feature in the park was the cliff dive.
There was a slide that you could go down
from the top of the cliff.
Or you could just jump 20 feet off the cliff.
Into what?
Into freezing cold spring water.
At least just the ground.
Now, I don't know about you, but I've jumped off some cliffs
before.
Probably most kids have in their childhood as well.
But usually, there's not a whole lot of people around.
Just you and a couple friends.
At the park, there was tons of people jumping in.
They weren't really regulating how quickly people would
jump in one after the other.
Are people landing on each other?
There was some risk of that.
And then if you were having any trouble swimming
or you weren't coming back up, they couldn't really see you.
Because it was like a murky spring water.
And so they eventually had to paint the bottom white,
so they could actually see people.
And several people, due to not jumping,
how the lifeguards instructed, because why would they?
Because they're teenagers.
On impact would dislocate their shoulders.
Oh.
OK, once I jumped off a bridge.
OK.
And looking back, I should not have done that.
But a lot of people do.
This is an area near my hometown that it's like a 30 foot bridge.
I think I'm afraid of jumping off things because of that one
time I did that.
I don't understand how I would do it around so many people,
seeing people get injured and then being like, well, I can do it.
You were like, I'm not going to get injured.
No.
Oh, that's scary.
Yeah.
But don't worry, though.
If you had any issues, the lifeguards
would give you a wristband that said CFS, which stands for Can't
Effing Swim.
Seriously?
And if you had the wristband, that
meant you probably had already been rescued earlier in the day.
So they're like, here's your wristband, you idiot.
You don't know how to swim.
Yeah.
These jerk teenagers are just like, this guy can't effing swim.
Wait, why are they in charge of making wristbands?
I don't know.
Why?
It should say, please help this person.
Yeah.
Instead, they're just like.
Or from New Jersey and were me.
Negging you.
Yeah.
Of course, a park like this is a huge draw
for adrenaline junkies, latchkey kids, and people
who are day drinking.
So people who have no parental support?
No parental support, no parental guidance.
Drunk.
Drunk, probably doing other things at the park.
Oh, my gosh.
And there was one ride, in particular, a river raft ride
that people, due to the current, would often bump into each other.
It's just like the way the current was,
people would get piled up and bump into the tube.
And people would get out of the tube
and start fist fighting each other.
Oh, my gosh.
And it was really funny.
Someone in the documentary compared the park
to being like the purge.
People are just doing whatever they want.
Yeah, because who's going to stop?
No one.
No.
The teens are probably going to egg them on.
And another thing that adults would do is go to the park
and get drunk during the day.
And then go.
Wait, why is their alcohol at the park?
Or are they bringing it with them?
Oh, there's lots of alcohol at the park.
Oh, my gosh.
There's like a full-on beer garden.
There was like an area where there
would be lots of festivals.
Like they would have Oktoberfest and pretty much
any festival that involves drinking.
Oh, OK, good.
And then they would do that during the day.
And then they would go to motor world at night
so they could drive drunk around the Speedway.
And get into a giant Amsterdam ball.
And some people would even drive the go-karts off the Speedway
and take it onto the highway.
No, but you know what?
Why wouldn't they?
I would want to eminify was in that situation.
Maybe like, let's see if I can do it.
I'm like, don't put it next to a highway.
Why is it even accessible?
I almost, it doesn't feel real.
The fact that this is real is terrifying.
But I really would love to just be a fly out in the wall
in the 80s.
Literally watching this documentary
felt like a fever dream.
Yes.
It's like, what is this?
It's like someone just made up the worst possible things
that you could give children access to.
Yeah.
OK, so the Alpine slide was a ski lift up to the top of the slide.
And then you would go down these concrete slides on sleds.
And the sleds had brakes so that you
could pull onto slow down at certain points that
were marked slow down.
But a lot of times they wouldn't work,
or the brakes would be broken.
And people would go either flying off the slide or their sled
and would get broken bones, concussions,
or because they're in their swimming suits,
get burns from the concrete tearing up their skin.
But fear not, they had an infirmary.
Oh, good.
When part full of teen nurses.
Probably.
When park goers would come in with burns,
they would spray a solution on to your burns.
And apparently it burns so badly that there
was a circle drawn on the floor.
And if you managed to stay in the circle,
when they were spraying it on you, you got a prize.
And apparently only two people ever got a prize.
And they just got a stupid pin.
What is the price?
Is it a wristband that says, you're an idiot?
It's like a pin from the park or something.
It's a token to the beer garden.
And they're 12.
And the solution that was sprayed on the burns
was supposedly a mixture of alcohol and iodine.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah.
And they wouldn't even make the people feel better.
They'd be like, this is going to hurt.
Spray you down.
Is there chain smoking?
Yeah.
And employees remember seeing people taken away
on backboards, on the back of golf carts,
and later learning that they had spinal fractures or concussions
and all sorts of horrible injuries.
Sadly, on July, I think at the exact day,
I think it was around July 4th weekend, though.
July 1980, Action Park had its first death.
George Lawson, Jr. was 19 years old.
And he had taken the day off from work
to enjoy a day at Action Park with his friends.
He went down the alpine slide and was thrown off,
landing and hitting his head on nearby rocks.
He was rushed to the hospital and was in critical condition.
And by the time his family got to the hospital,
he had already been moved to another hospital
because he was in such critical condition.
And his mother recalls seeing his bed soaked in his own blood.
George was in a coma for a week before he sadly passed away.
And his mother was so grief-stricken
that she said she stepped into traffic in front of a truck
before her husband pulled her out of harm.
And she said she just didn't want to live with the pain.
Oh, that's awful.
I know.
George was also supposed to be the best man
at his brother's wedding, but he passed away just the week
before his brother got married.
Oh, no.
That's so sad.
I know.
And his family wanted a settlement or some sort
of acknowledgement from the park that their son's life had
been taken.
And their lawyer, I can't believe someone
would say this to a family, even if it's true in the eyes
of the law, he said that teens weren't worth that much
because they're considered a liability.
And they settled for $100,000.
But $100,000 in 1980 was probably a lot of money,
which, I mean, that's not anything compared to a life.
But it's like, well, shouldn't this
make them obviously think this could keep happening?
Let's make safety measures?
You would think.
But I mean, Jean had the money to pay people,
although it was said in the documentary
that he often did not pay people on time,
and US Marshals would regularly show up
to get the payments from him.
His money was coming from the Cayman Islands.
He's like, it'll come in four to six business days.
And to add insults, Jean Mulvihill
lied to the newspaper and said that George had been an employee,
that he was there after hours and that it was raining,
none of which was true.
And he said this because he didn't
want to have to report his death to the state.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah.
But I mean, I feel like he would get in trouble for lying.
I mean, shouldn't he get in trouble for something?
He should, yeah.
But it's 1980.
Yeah.
We'll go into more of that.
OK.
Unfortunately, George was not the only fatality at Action Park.
One park goer was electrocuted on a ride called
the Kayak Experience due to underwater fans that
were used to enhance the current speed.
Yes.
They had electric fans underwater.
And several other people died in a wave pool,
a particular area in the wave pool
that was known as the death zone.
Oh, well.
Because the wave pool, it was so full of people.
There was way too many people in at the same time.
And there was only a few lifeguards on duty, again,
teenagers.
And so if someone is struggling and needing help,
it would be really hard for people to spot them.
And so several people, they just didn't get there in time
to save them.
Oh, that's so sad.
Yeah.
And all told, there were six deaths at Action Park.
The many injuries, deaths, and lawsuits
caused the park to be dubbed class action park.
But still, it took a while for the park to close.
City council members looked the other way,
either due to family members working on the park, gifts
from Jean, or being friends with him.
And not only that, but it brought in a considerable amount
of revenue for Vernon.
And they didn't want the cash flow to be cut off.
And eventually, the park filed for bankruptcy.
And Jean's partner was finally held accountable by the SEC.
And at the end of 1996, Action Park finally closed its doors.
A whole 16 years after the first fatality.
I know.
I even can't even imagine being the family of that boy.
No.
So terrible that it took that long.
And then a little follow-up on the park in 1998,
InterWest bought the property and did a massive overall
on the park, removing most of the attractions,
and turning it just into a typical water park
named Mountain Creek.
In 2010, it was bought by a group led by Jean Mulvihill.
Oh, no.
Get him out of there.
And they tried to revive Action Park,
but he passed away two years later.
And then his son, Andrew, tried to continue on the legacy,
even attempting to rework the loop slide.
It didn't work.
Oh, my gosh.
And finally, in 2016, it was restored to Mountain Creek Park
and is owned by a former Action Park employee.
But he was like a kid when he worked at the park,
and he seems like he's a nice guy.
He's like trying to get it out of the wrong hands.
Yeah, it's just like a normal water park now.
And it looks like it's pretty nice.
Oh, good.
Still around the beautiful nature, but safe.
Yeah.
Oh, my gosh.
Yeah.
And that is the story of Class Action Park.
Class Action Park.
Oh, that's, I kind of knew a little bit about this,
but this is like eye-opening.
I know.
I had to cut out several other rides
that they talked about just because there
were so many unhinged rides.
It's almost like they were in competition to be like,
what could be worse?
What's the worst way to throw a kid around?
I know.
And some of the people in the documentary
they were talking about, that was kind of the excitement of it,
was like, oh, it's so crazy and so dangerous.
And people would come back with bruises and scrapes
and wear them as a badge of honor.
No.
But then on the flip side, there's
people who either had loved ones who passed away at the park
or had traumatic injuries.
So yeah, it's very interesting to see
the difference of people who look fondly on the park
and those who don't.
They're like, it's just a rite of passage
to go to a place that might kill you.
I know.
That's the fun thing about being a teenager.
I guess.
There was one person in the documentary that was like,
hey, if you can't handle it, get out of Jersey.
And I'm like, what is Jersey have to be part of this?
I'm like, let's not be like that.
The family even brought up of George that he was super
in shape, very active kid, super strong,
just had a lot going for him.
And when they heard that he was injured, initially they were
like, oh, he's going to be fine.
Like, he's so tough.
He's such a strong kid.
But at the end of the day, if you get a traumatic head injury,
it doesn't matter how tough you are.
You can't survive that.
You can't out strong your brain.
Right.
If that even made sense.
It made sense to me.
Yeah.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah, I can't even imagine because I've
had a concussion before.
That's right.
And it's like, that's minuscule compared to somebody
having a traumatic brain injury.
And that really can mess you up for a few days or weeks.
Like, I think mine was dumb.
I fell down the stairs holding a bag of knives.
That's another story from another day.
But it's just, I can't even imagine just laying there
in a pool of your own blood.
And it's because you were having what you thought
was going to be a fun time.
It's just, Disney Imagineers are like,
this is why you actually go to school
to learn how to build things.
I know.
I mean, thankfully, it seems like at least the one guy,
George, I imagined that he probably didn't feel anything.
Yeah, I was hoping that too.
Because I mean, he was like immediately in a coma.
So hopefully he didn't have any pain.
Yeah.
I mean, that's like the only, what's the word?
Nice thing.
No.
That's not the word.
The only consolation.
Consolation, yeah.
I know, because like 19 years old.
Oh, that's devastating.
I know.
Well, that was very well done.
Thank you.
And poor New Jersey.
New Jersey does not want to be thought of as the teenage
killer.
It doesn't.
I would like to go to Vernon, New Jersey,
though, as part of our road trip,
because it does look very beautiful.
Yes, we are going to add it to the list.
And we can go to the normal sane water park.
That actually would be fun.
I think I've been to a water park once.
And it was during a time when I was wearing a swimsuit
and feeling very insecure about myself.
And I did not have a good time.
So I feel like now I can do it just because it's like, who cares?
Yeah.
Let's just go have fun.
So I was thinking about, I don't know if I
would have been different if I was born in the 80s or whatever.
But just as a child at regular water parks,
I was terrified of the big slide.
Oh, same.
Yeah.
There's absolutely no way I would have gotten any of those rides.
I would have loved to watch people,
because I think some people are really good at summer salting,
or they exit gracefully.
I just know I would have somehow messed it up
and wrenched my neck or something.
But I'll watch people.
I've seen people share their Atlantis pictures.
You know, the big water park in Bermuda.
Is it in Bermuda?
We were just in Bermuda last week.
Is it in Bermuda?
But there's an Atlantis water park
that's insanely huge where you're in a tube and they drop you.
Oh, yes.
I used to watch the Travel Channel
when they would go to the most extreme theme parks.
And me and one of our friends, Ashley,
her and I would always talk about doing a tour of all
of those crazy water parks.
I'm like, she needs to watch the action park documentary
and see what she thinks of it.
I mean, I have actually talked to Ashley about a water park.
We talked about Typhoon Lagoon when she went to Disney World,
which I've never been to Disney World, so she was like.
And then we went here and here.
I think Ashley is a water park girl.
I went to Typhoon Lagoon when I was really little.
I was like, five when I went to Disney World.
And Typhoon Lagoon was really fun.
That's like the safest you could be,
because it's literally Disney does not want anyone to die.
They're like, this is not the place to die.
And I was like five.
I just hung out in the shallow end of the wave pool.
I mean, that's what I would do now.
I'm like, get my drinky drink and hang out by the pool.
I would just like to sit in the shallow end
and watch people splash around.
Yeah, that sounds nice.
That does sound nice.
We should go to a water park this summer.
Where?
I don't know.
I don't know where there is one.
There's that one in Washington, Great Wolf Lodge.
Yeah, we just drove past that one.
And I was with a car of four people.
Three people.
I was one of four.
And I went, Great Wolf Lodge.
And everyone was like, what?
I thought it was exciting.
It's not exciting to them.
Maybe they're not water park people.
Yeah, probably not.
But we could be water park people.
Let's try it out.
Let's set it to our road trip.
OK, sounds good to me.
Yeah.
Do you have anything to add before we close?
Um, stay away from any theme parks that
has you going down concrete.
Stay away from concrete and going, I mean,
just don't go down concrete if you can.
Yeah, and just be careful when you're around concrete
and large rocks.
Please don't hit your head.
Take care of your brain in more ways than one.
Yeah.
And don't listen to deranged astronomers,
because it turns out they don't know what they're talking about.
And comets are bold and beautiful,
and they're living their best life.
They just are vibing.
They're in the water park of space.
They're just having fun.
They're like, whee.
Yeah.
That actually, I mean, literally when you see a comet,
it literally looks like it's going whee.
Anyway.
And if anyone says, I have a great idea for a new invention
and they draw it on a cocktail napkin, don't trust me.
Burn that napkin.
Or laugh at it later when you're like, this will never work.
Yeah.
That's at least my two cents.
Yeah, that's a good one.
I like it.
Thank you.
Well, until next time, I hope you enjoy your coffee
and your kitty.
And I will also enjoy my kitty at home.
Say hi to Greg.
Hi to Greg, because Henry is here.
Yeah, somewhere.
Somewhere.
And I guess that's it.
Yeah.
OK.
Well, goodbye.
Goodbye.
Good night.
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.