WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.240 Okay, let's start this deep dive with a little 00:00:02.240 --> 00:00:04.599 mental exercise. I want you to clear your mind. 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:08.019 If I say the word bazooka, what's the absolute 00:00:08.019 --> 00:00:10.720 first image that flashes into your head? Don't 00:00:10.720 --> 00:00:13.400 overthink it. Just the first thing. I think I 00:00:13.400 --> 00:00:15.759 can guess what 99 % of people are picturing. 00:00:15.779 --> 00:00:18.920 It's World War II. You know, a grainy black and 00:00:18.920 --> 00:00:21.960 white newsreel. You're seeing a soldier kneeling 00:00:21.960 --> 00:00:24.760 in the mud, maybe in France or the Pacific, holding 00:00:24.760 --> 00:00:27.660 that massive steel tube on his shoulder. Yeah, 00:00:27.679 --> 00:00:29.839 and there's a huge back blast, smoke everywhere. 00:00:30.019 --> 00:00:32.780 And a tank exploding in the distance. Exactly. 00:00:32.820 --> 00:00:34.899 It's heavy artillery. It's destruction. It's 00:00:34.899 --> 00:00:38.820 serious military hardware. Or if you grew up 00:00:38.820 --> 00:00:41.100 in, like, the 80s or 90s, maybe you're picturing 00:00:41.100 --> 00:00:44.119 a small square of very hard pink bubble gum. 00:00:44.259 --> 00:00:46.340 Ah, that's true. With the comic strip inside. 00:00:46.460 --> 00:00:48.500 Though even the gum was named after the weapon, 00:00:48.560 --> 00:00:50.820 so the military association is still the root 00:00:50.820 --> 00:00:52.920 of it all. Right. But here's the hook for today, 00:00:53.119 --> 00:00:55.640 and it is a weird one. What if I told you that 00:00:55.640 --> 00:00:58.179 one of the most terrifying, effective anti -tank 00:00:58.179 --> 00:01:01.100 weapons in history, a weapon that changed the 00:01:01.100 --> 00:01:03.899 course of the war, was actually named after a 00:01:03.899 --> 00:01:07.000 piece of literal junk. I mean, a musical instrument 00:01:07.000 --> 00:01:09.579 made out of two gas pipes and a whiskey funnel 00:01:09.579 --> 00:01:13.400 by a comedian in Arkansas. It sounds like an 00:01:13.400 --> 00:01:14.920 urban legend, doesn't it? Like something you'd 00:01:14.920 --> 00:01:17.329 read on some clickbait listicle. But when you 00:01:17.329 --> 00:01:19.709 dig into the biographical records and the military 00:01:19.709 --> 00:01:24.310 history, it's 100 % fact. It is. The word bazooka 00:01:24.310 --> 00:01:27.290 didn't come from a general or a scientist. It 00:01:27.290 --> 00:01:30.170 came from a vaudeville stage. That is what we 00:01:30.170 --> 00:01:32.769 are unpacking today. We're going on a deep dive 00:01:32.769 --> 00:01:35.769 into the life of Robin Bob Burns. We're going 00:01:35.769 --> 00:01:38.629 to trace how a bored kid in a plumbing shop around 00:01:38.629 --> 00:01:42.049 1905 inadvertently named a weapon of war, hoed 00:01:42.049 --> 00:01:45.010 to the Academy Awards, and became a massive multimedia 00:01:45.010 --> 00:01:47.659 superstar. And the mission here isn't just to 00:01:47.659 --> 00:01:49.540 look at a biography of a guy most people have 00:01:49.540 --> 00:01:51.260 forgotten. We want to understand the cultural 00:01:51.260 --> 00:01:54.879 transmission. How does a specific localized brand 00:01:54.879 --> 00:01:58.260 of humor, you know, 1930s hillbilly vaudeville, 00:01:58.340 --> 00:02:01.079 bleed into the lexicon of the United States Army? 00:02:01.340 --> 00:02:03.760 It's a really fascinating case study, how pop 00:02:03.760 --> 00:02:06.540 culture influences the serious stuff, often without 00:02:06.540 --> 00:02:08.819 us even realizing it. So let's get our bearings. 00:02:09.240 --> 00:02:11.800 We need to go back to the turn of the 20th century. 00:02:12.060 --> 00:02:15.580 We are in Van Buren, Arkansas. That's roughly... 00:02:16.080 --> 00:02:19.639 what, 1903 to 1905. Bob Burns is a teenager, 00:02:19.939 --> 00:02:23.419 about 13 years old. What's the context for a 00:02:23.419 --> 00:02:26.539 kid like this in that time and place? The context 00:02:26.539 --> 00:02:30.219 is essentially boredom meets ingenuity. You have 00:02:30.219 --> 00:02:32.659 to remember there's no TV, no Internet. Burns 00:02:32.659 --> 00:02:35.439 was musically inclined from the start. The records 00:02:35.439 --> 00:02:38.039 show he was playing the trombone and the cornet 00:02:38.039 --> 00:02:40.840 in the town's Queen City Silver Cornet Band. 00:02:41.060 --> 00:02:43.580 So he knew music. He wasn't just making noise. 00:02:43.680 --> 00:02:46.219 Exactly. He understood the actual mechanics of 00:02:46.219 --> 00:02:48.479 brass instruments. He understood embouchure, 00:02:48.599 --> 00:02:51.300 how you vibrate your lips to create a tone. But 00:02:51.300 --> 00:02:53.599 clearly the traditional brass instruments weren't 00:02:53.599 --> 00:02:55.500 enough for him. Or maybe he just wanted to mess 00:02:55.500 --> 00:02:57.580 around. The story goes he was hanging around 00:02:57.580 --> 00:02:59.300 the back of Heyman's Plowing Shop one night. 00:02:59.539 --> 00:03:01.280 Which, let's be honest, sounds like the start 00:03:01.280 --> 00:03:03.319 of a lot of trouble for a teenager. But in this 00:03:03.319 --> 00:03:05.520 case, it was the start of an invention. He picks 00:03:05.520 --> 00:03:07.819 up a stray length of gas pipe. Literally garbage 00:03:07.819 --> 00:03:09.860 lying on the floor. Just garbage. And he blows 00:03:09.860 --> 00:03:12.819 into it. Now, explain the mechanics here. Because 00:03:12.819 --> 00:03:15.900 if I blow into a pipe, it just sounds like, well, 00:03:15.979 --> 00:03:19.120 wind. It sounds like a hollow tube. How did he 00:03:19.120 --> 00:03:21.509 turn this into an instrument? This is where the 00:03:21.509 --> 00:03:23.990 engineering comes in. He didn't just blow through 00:03:23.990 --> 00:03:26.650 it. He realized that if he slid a smaller tube 00:03:26.650 --> 00:03:29.629 inside a larger one, he could change the pitch 00:03:29.629 --> 00:03:31.710 by lengthening or shortening the air column. 00:03:31.969 --> 00:03:35.669 He essentially built a crude slide trombone without 00:03:35.669 --> 00:03:38.469 the bell. Later on, to get some amplification 00:03:38.469 --> 00:03:41.090 and change the tone, he soldered on a whiskey 00:03:41.090 --> 00:03:43.469 funnel at the end. A whiskey funnel. That is 00:03:43.469 --> 00:03:45.710 so on brand for the character he eventually became. 00:03:45.909 --> 00:03:48.509 It is. A whiskey funnel and some stovepipes. 00:03:49.039 --> 00:03:52.259 It created this very distinct sound. It wasn't 00:03:52.259 --> 00:03:55.620 pretty. It was described as... buzzing, resonant, 00:03:55.639 --> 00:03:58.319 and intentionally comical. It had a very narrow 00:03:58.319 --> 00:04:00.819 range, unlike a trumpet. It was deep, almost, 00:04:01.039 --> 00:04:03.759 well, farty, if you will. It was a sound designed 00:04:03.759 --> 00:04:05.819 to make people laugh. Not to move their souls. 00:04:05.919 --> 00:04:08.099 Not at all. And he needed a name for this contraption. 00:04:08.199 --> 00:04:09.900 And this is where we get the word that eventually 00:04:09.900 --> 00:04:12.259 ends up on the battlefield. He calls it the bazooka. 00:04:12.300 --> 00:04:14.479 The etymology here is really interesting, right? 00:04:14.620 --> 00:04:16.579 He didn't just pull the word out of thin air. 00:04:16.800 --> 00:04:19.180 No, he was tapping into the slang of the time. 00:04:19.600 --> 00:04:23.199 In the early 1900s, the word bazoo referred to 00:04:23.199 --> 00:04:27.100 a mouth. If you told someone to shut their bazoo, 00:04:27.180 --> 00:04:29.399 you were telling them to shut their trap. Okay, 00:04:29.500 --> 00:04:32.439 shut your bazoo. I like that. But bazoo also 00:04:32.439 --> 00:04:36.500 meant a windy fellow, a braggart, someone who 00:04:36.500 --> 00:04:39.220 blows a lot of hot air. Which is perfect for 00:04:39.220 --> 00:04:41.959 a wind instrument that sounds ridiculous. Exactly. 00:04:42.360 --> 00:04:44.720 And if you want to go even deeper, linguists 00:04:44.720 --> 00:04:46.879 believe that slang connects back to the Dutch 00:04:46.879 --> 00:04:50.740 word bezuin, which means trumpet. Wow. So you 00:04:50.740 --> 00:04:53.759 have this fascinating linguistic chain, a Dutch 00:04:53.759 --> 00:04:56.579 trumpet. to American slang for a loud mouth, 00:04:56.720 --> 00:05:00.500 to a gas pipe instrument, and eventually to a 00:05:00.500 --> 00:05:02.779 rocket launcher. It's an amazing journey for 00:05:02.779 --> 00:05:04.560 a word, and he didn't just keep this thing in 00:05:04.560 --> 00:05:07.180 the garage. A photo actually exists of him playing 00:05:07.180 --> 00:05:09.660 this gas pipe bazooka while standing in the legitimate 00:05:09.660 --> 00:05:12.220 silver cornet band. He took the absurdity seriously. 00:05:12.579 --> 00:05:15.079 He did. He played it with a straight face. But 00:05:15.079 --> 00:05:16.839 before he could take this to the stage professionally, 00:05:17.220 --> 00:05:20.600 history got in the way. World War I begins. And 00:05:20.600 --> 00:05:22.800 Burns enlists. He joins the United States Marine 00:05:22.800 --> 00:05:27.490 Corps. Now, usually when we discuss WWI, we're 00:05:27.490 --> 00:05:30.470 talking about trench warfare, mustard gas. We 00:05:30.470 --> 00:05:32.449 don't usually talk about jazz bands. No, but 00:05:32.449 --> 00:05:34.490 you have to remember that morale is a huge part 00:05:34.490 --> 00:05:37.550 of military logistics. If the soldiers are miserable, 00:05:37.910 --> 00:05:41.269 they don't fight well. Burns sails to France 00:05:41.269 --> 00:05:43.790 with the 11th Marine Regiment. He actually rises 00:05:43.790 --> 00:05:46.389 to the rank of sergeant. But his value to the 00:05:46.389 --> 00:05:48.370 Corps wasn't just as a rifleman, it was as an 00:05:48.370 --> 00:05:51.000 entertainer. He led the Marine Corps' jazz band 00:05:51.000 --> 00:05:53.379 in Europe. With the bazooka. With the bazooka. 00:05:53.379 --> 00:05:55.660 In fact, the original was too big to haul overseas, 00:05:55.759 --> 00:05:58.560 so he built a new one in France using, again, 00:05:58.720 --> 00:06:01.160 spare stovepipes and a funnel he found over there. 00:06:01.379 --> 00:06:03.319 I'm just picturing the visual. You have these 00:06:03.319 --> 00:06:06.220 hardened Marines, mud everywhere, exhausted from 00:06:06.220 --> 00:06:09.040 the front lines, and their sergeant is playing 00:06:09.040 --> 00:06:11.500 a stovepipe contraption. It made him a legend 00:06:11.500 --> 00:06:13.759 within the ranks, and that's a crucial detail 00:06:13.759 --> 00:06:16.500 for later. The military knew who he was. When 00:06:16.500 --> 00:06:19.069 he came back to the States in 1919, He didn't 00:06:19.069 --> 00:06:21.250 stop. He was attached to a recruiting station 00:06:21.250 --> 00:06:23.209 in Manhattan, playing with a group called the 00:06:23.209 --> 00:06:25.930 Marine Corps Melody Six. So the bazooka was the 00:06:25.930 --> 00:06:29.189 hook. Join the Marines. We have weird instruments. 00:06:29.490 --> 00:06:31.750 It was the novelty draw. It got people's attention. 00:06:32.129 --> 00:06:34.689 But I want to pause here because there is a massive 00:06:34.689 --> 00:06:37.370 misconception about Bob Burns. Because of the 00:06:37.370 --> 00:06:39.149 instrument and the character he later played, 00:06:39.370 --> 00:06:42.910 people assume he was a simpleton. You know, uneducated, 00:06:42.949 --> 00:06:45.370 backwoods. Right, the hillbilly trope. Exactly. 00:06:46.170 --> 00:06:48.290 But the man studied civil engineering at the 00:06:48.290 --> 00:06:50.810 University of Arkansas. He was a peanut farmer 00:06:50.810 --> 00:06:53.730 for a while, sure, but he was articulate, educated, 00:06:53.990 --> 00:06:56.750 and business savvy. The Bob Burns the public 00:06:56.750 --> 00:07:00.110 knew was a carefully constructed persona. So 00:07:00.110 --> 00:07:02.189 let's talk about that construction, because after 00:07:02.189 --> 00:07:05.230 the war, he heads to Hollywood. But it doesn't 00:07:05.230 --> 00:07:07.410 happen overnight. We're moving into the 1930s 00:07:07.410 --> 00:07:10.149 now. It was a slow burn. He was doing vaudeville, 00:07:10.269 --> 00:07:13.009 small bits. But the turning point, the big break, 00:07:13.230 --> 00:07:16.379 is a classic case of failing upwards. It's 1930. 00:07:16.639 --> 00:07:19.120 He lands an audition for a major radio station 00:07:19.120 --> 00:07:21.079 in Los Angeles. And this is the story where he 00:07:21.079 --> 00:07:23.759 has the script, right? He has a tight 10 -minute 00:07:23.759 --> 00:07:26.040 script. That's all he prepared. He walks in, 00:07:26.120 --> 00:07:28.319 and the station manager says, OK, we have a scheduling 00:07:28.319 --> 00:07:31.360 gap. We need you to fill 30 minutes. Oh, wow. 00:07:31.639 --> 00:07:34.540 In live radio, that is an eternity if you don't 00:07:34.540 --> 00:07:36.740 have the material. That's a nightmare scenario. 00:07:37.199 --> 00:07:39.980 It's a death sentence for most performers. But 00:07:39.980 --> 00:07:43.350 Burns. He throws the script away. He picks up 00:07:43.350 --> 00:07:45.670 the bazooka, plays a few tunes, and then just 00:07:45.670 --> 00:07:48.149 starts talking. He starts improvising stories 00:07:48.149 --> 00:07:50.810 about his family back in Van Buren. This is where 00:07:50.810 --> 00:07:53.110 we get the Arkansas Traveler character. Yes. 00:07:53.329 --> 00:07:55.990 The station managers listen to the playback. 00:07:56.269 --> 00:07:58.769 They hated the prepared script. They thought 00:07:58.769 --> 00:08:01.689 it was stiff and boring, but they loved the improvised 00:08:01.689 --> 00:08:04.449 filler. They realized that that was the goldmine. 00:08:04.490 --> 00:08:06.370 It's interesting how often that happens in media 00:08:06.370 --> 00:08:09.680 history. The mistake becomes the brand. Completely. 00:08:09.779 --> 00:08:12.720 He leaned into it. He developed this persona 00:08:12.720 --> 00:08:15.959 of the Arkansas philosopher. He invented fictional 00:08:15.959 --> 00:08:18.959 relatives, Uncle Fudd, Aunt Duty. He patterned 00:08:18.959 --> 00:08:20.939 the character after Sanford C. Faulkner, the 00:08:20.939 --> 00:08:23.019 guy who wrote the famous fiddle tune. And this 00:08:23.019 --> 00:08:25.259 resonated with people. Well, you have to remember 00:08:25.259 --> 00:08:29.180 the era, the 1930s, the Great Depression. People 00:08:29.180 --> 00:08:31.620 were hurting. They didn't necessarily want slick, 00:08:31.759 --> 00:08:34.039 fast -talking city comedy. They wanted something 00:08:34.039 --> 00:08:36.460 comforting, something rural and relatable. So 00:08:36.460 --> 00:08:39.710 he takes this act to New York in 1930. auditions 00:08:39.710 --> 00:08:42.110 for Paul Whiteman, the King of Jazz, and ends 00:08:42.110 --> 00:08:44.399 up on the Kraft Music Hall. This was the Super 00:08:44.399 --> 00:08:46.580 Bowl of radio at the time, and the pairing was 00:08:46.580 --> 00:08:49.840 genius. They put Bob Burns, the rustic bazooka 00:08:49.840 --> 00:08:52.419 player, next to Bing Crosby, the ultimate smooth, 00:08:52.580 --> 00:08:55.720 cool crooner. The contrast must have been incredible. 00:08:55.899 --> 00:08:58.179 It was the perfect odd couple. Crosby was the 00:08:58.179 --> 00:09:01.080 street man. Burns was the chaotic, funny foil. 00:09:01.240 --> 00:09:03.179 It launched him into the stratosphere. He was 00:09:03.179 --> 00:09:05.679 a household name. And naturally, Hollywood comes 00:09:05.679 --> 00:09:08.019 calling. And looking at his filmography, he was 00:09:08.019 --> 00:09:11.440 busy. Rhythm on the Range, Waikiki Wedding. He 00:09:11.440 --> 00:09:13.789 was a contract player for... He was a genuine 00:09:13.789 --> 00:09:16.629 movie star. And while he mostly played the comedic 00:09:16.629 --> 00:09:19.710 relief, he had range. There's a film from 1939 00:09:19.710 --> 00:09:22.230 called Our Leading Citizen. He plays a lawyer. 00:09:22.289 --> 00:09:24.289 It's a drama. That's a heavy pivot from playing 00:09:24.289 --> 00:09:26.370 a gas pipe. And the records show it was his favorite 00:09:26.370 --> 00:09:29.169 role. He wanted to prove he could act, not just 00:09:29.169 --> 00:09:31.909 caricature himself. And speaking of his status, 00:09:32.029 --> 00:09:35.350 consider this. In 1938, Bob Burns hosted the 00:09:35.350 --> 00:09:37.730 Academy Awards. I actually did not know that. 00:09:37.789 --> 00:09:40.080 That is a huge deal. It was the 10th Academy 00:09:40.080 --> 00:09:42.740 Awards and there's a great piece of trivia attached 00:09:42.740 --> 00:09:45.779 to it. The ceremony was actually postponed for 00:09:45.779 --> 00:09:48.740 a week because of massive flooding in Los Angeles. 00:09:49.159 --> 00:09:51.860 So when it finally happened, everyone was a bit 00:09:51.860 --> 00:09:54.139 on edge and Bob Burns was the man holding the 00:09:54.139 --> 00:09:56.539 microphone. It really cements just how ubiquitous 00:09:56.539 --> 00:09:59.940 he was. But there's a moment in 1941 that I think 00:09:59.940 --> 00:10:02.700 defines his character more than the Oscars. He 00:10:02.700 --> 00:10:05.190 broke his contract with Paramount. He did and 00:10:05.190 --> 00:10:07.690 this goes back to that idea of the dumb hillbilly 00:10:07.690 --> 00:10:10.610 versus the intelligent man. Paramount handed 00:10:10.610 --> 00:10:14.169 him a script that Burns felt was, quote, excessively 00:10:14.169 --> 00:10:16.370 demeaning to the people of his native hills. 00:10:16.610 --> 00:10:19.149 But hadn't he made a career out of poking fun 00:10:19.149 --> 00:10:22.169 at them? with Uncle Fudd and Aunt Doody. There's 00:10:22.169 --> 00:10:24.750 a nuance there. Burns believed in laughing with 00:10:24.750 --> 00:10:26.909 his culture. He told Tall Tales, sure, but there 00:10:26.909 --> 00:10:29.070 was an affection there. He was an insider. This 00:10:29.070 --> 00:10:31.710 script, in his view, was laughing at them. It 00:10:31.710 --> 00:10:33.809 was mean -spirited. So he walked. He refused 00:10:33.809 --> 00:10:35.629 to do it. It cost him his relationship with the 00:10:35.629 --> 00:10:38.509 studio, but he kept his integrity. He knew the 00:10:38.509 --> 00:10:40.529 difference between a character and an insult. 00:10:40.850 --> 00:10:42.509 That's a distinction a lot of performers struggle 00:10:42.509 --> 00:10:46.009 with. So we have the man, the fame, the integrity. 00:10:46.779 --> 00:10:48.820 Now we have to make the jump to the weapon. It's 00:10:48.820 --> 00:10:51.299 World War II. Right. The U .S. Army is developing 00:10:51.299 --> 00:10:54.659 this new anti -tank weapon. Up until this point, 00:10:54.720 --> 00:10:56.960 infantry didn't have a great way to stop a tank. 00:10:57.259 --> 00:11:00.460 They developed this tube -launched rocket, the 00:11:00.460 --> 00:11:03.440 M1 rocket launcher. But essentially, it was a 00:11:03.440 --> 00:11:06.559 metal tube open at both ends that a soldier rested 00:11:06.559 --> 00:11:08.639 on his shoulder. Visually, it's just a pipe. 00:11:08.919 --> 00:11:11.639 It's a pipe with a sight and a trigger. And when 00:11:11.639 --> 00:11:13.259 they brought these out to the proving grounds, 00:11:13.419 --> 00:11:15.700 legend has it, it was either a general or maybe 00:11:15.700 --> 00:11:18.340 the soldiers testing it. Someone took one look 00:11:18.340 --> 00:11:21.600 and said, that looks just like Bob Burns' bazooka. 00:11:21.600 --> 00:11:23.639 So it wasn't an official name given by a committee? 00:11:23.820 --> 00:11:26.679 Not at all. The official name was Launcher Rocket 00:11:26.679 --> 00:11:30.120 2 .36 -inch M1. That doesn't exactly roll off 00:11:30.120 --> 00:11:33.970 the tongue. But bazooka was catchy. And the resemblance 00:11:33.970 --> 00:11:36.970 really was uncanny. And the name stuck. It stuck 00:11:36.970 --> 00:11:39.309 instantly. It moved from the soldiers to the 00:11:39.309 --> 00:11:41.669 press and then to the public. Within months, 00:11:41.769 --> 00:11:43.629 nobody called it a rocket launcher. It was a 00:11:43.629 --> 00:11:45.970 bazooka. I'm trying to imagine being Bob Burns 00:11:45.970 --> 00:11:49.750 in, say, 1943. You turn on the news and hear 00:11:49.750 --> 00:11:51.830 that American troops are using bazookas to blow 00:11:51.830 --> 00:11:53.889 up German panzers. It must have been surreal. 00:11:54.669 --> 00:11:56.889 But there's a deeper psychological layer here 00:11:56.889 --> 00:12:00.649 that I find fascinating. War is terrifying. New 00:12:00.649 --> 00:12:03.909 technology is intimidating. By naming this deadly 00:12:03.909 --> 00:12:06.450 weapon after a comedian's prop, the soldiers 00:12:06.450 --> 00:12:08.950 were essentially disarming the fear. Disarming 00:12:08.950 --> 00:12:11.409 the fear? Yes. They were associating a tool of 00:12:11.409 --> 00:12:13.070 destruction with something that made them laugh 00:12:13.070 --> 00:12:15.269 on the radio. It domesticated the weapon. It 00:12:15.269 --> 00:12:17.610 made it familiar. Oh, hand me the bazooka. It 00:12:17.610 --> 00:12:20.070 takes the edge off the grim reality of what that 00:12:20.070 --> 00:12:22.429 machine actually does. That is a really profound 00:12:22.429 --> 00:12:24.710 point. It's not just a funny coincidence. It's 00:12:24.710 --> 00:12:27.830 about how soldiers process trauma and fear through 00:12:27.830 --> 00:12:30.629 humor. Absolutely. It's a coping mechanism. And 00:12:30.629 --> 00:12:32.830 that association ensured Burns' legacy would 00:12:32.830 --> 00:12:35.389 last far longer than his film career. The word 00:12:35.389 --> 00:12:37.710 bazooka entered the dictionary. So what happened 00:12:37.710 --> 00:12:41.570 to the man himself? The war ends. The weapon 00:12:41.570 --> 00:12:44.710 is famous. Does Burns keep performing? He does 00:12:44.710 --> 00:12:47.610 for a bit. After the Paramount split, he produced 00:12:47.610 --> 00:12:51.190 his own radio shows. The Bob Burns Show ran until 00:12:51.190 --> 00:12:54.970 1947. But he was smart. He saw the writing on 00:12:54.970 --> 00:12:57.559 the wall as television started to emerge. And 00:12:57.559 --> 00:13:00.240 financially. Was he the poor Arkansas traveler? 00:13:00.539 --> 00:13:03.220 Far from it. This is the final irony. The hillbilly 00:13:03.220 --> 00:13:05.720 was a real estate tycoon. He took his Hollywood 00:13:05.720 --> 00:13:08.440 money and invested heavily in land. He bought 00:13:08.440 --> 00:13:10.940 200 acres in Canoga Park in the San Fernando 00:13:10.940 --> 00:13:14.360 Valley. 200 acres in the valley. Today, that 00:13:14.360 --> 00:13:16.860 would be worth, I can't even calculate it, billions 00:13:16.860 --> 00:13:19.860 probably. A fortune. He developed it into a model 00:13:19.860 --> 00:13:22.549 farm. He lived a very comfortable, quiet life 00:13:22.549 --> 00:13:25.090 there. He retired on his own terms. He passed 00:13:25.090 --> 00:13:27.090 away fairly young, though, right? Yes, in 1956. 00:13:27.169 --> 00:13:30.610 He was 65. He died of kidney cancer. But by then, 00:13:30.610 --> 00:13:33.190 he had lived about five different lives. Musician, 00:13:33.190 --> 00:13:35.789 marine sergeant, vaudeville star, movie actor, 00:13:35.970 --> 00:13:39.149 and accidental military godfather. He was posthumously 00:13:39.149 --> 00:13:41.730 inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960, 00:13:41.990 --> 00:13:45.350 which feels appropriate. It is. But I think his 00:13:45.350 --> 00:13:47.509 real monument isn't the star on the sidewalk. 00:13:48.139 --> 00:13:50.879 It's the entry in the dictionary. It's the fact 00:13:50.879 --> 00:13:53.720 that 80 years later, kids playing video games 00:13:53.720 --> 00:13:57.379 call their rocket launchers bazookas. It really 00:13:57.379 --> 00:13:59.460 is a story that forces you to look at language 00:13:59.460 --> 00:14:02.620 differently. We use these words, bazooka, shrapnel, 00:14:02.720 --> 00:14:05.200 silhouette, and we rarely think about the human 00:14:05.200 --> 00:14:08.059 origins. That's the big takeaway for me. We think 00:14:08.059 --> 00:14:10.740 of military history and pop culture as two separate 00:14:10.740 --> 00:14:13.419 silos, but they are constantly crashing into 00:14:13.419 --> 00:14:16.600 each other. A joke from a 1930s radio show can 00:14:16.600 --> 00:14:19.200 name a weapon that changes the outcome of a war. 00:14:19.360 --> 00:14:20.919 It makes you wonder what's happening right now. 00:14:21.019 --> 00:14:22.919 What do you mean? Well, think about it. We have 00:14:22.919 --> 00:14:26.259 memes, viral trends, TikTok dances, somewhere 00:14:26.259 --> 00:14:29.639 in a lab right now. DARPA or NASA is inventing 00:14:29.639 --> 00:14:31.919 a robot or a laser that's going to change the 00:14:31.919 --> 00:14:34.659 world in 2050. And the soldiers or scientists 00:14:34.659 --> 00:14:37.960 using it are going to name it after what? A meme 00:14:37.960 --> 00:14:40.379 from today. That is a terrifying and hilarious 00:14:40.379 --> 00:14:43.019 thought. Captain, fire the scabidi cannon or 00:14:43.019 --> 00:14:46.379 deploy the yeet drive. Exactly. It sounds ridiculous 00:14:46.379 --> 00:14:49.379 to us, but bazooka sounded ridiculous to a general 00:14:49.379 --> 00:14:52.639 in 1942. You're absolutely right. The absurdity 00:14:52.639 --> 00:14:54.860 of today becomes the terminology of tomorrow. 00:14:55.389 --> 00:14:57.809 On that note, we'll wrap up this deep dive. Next 00:14:57.809 --> 00:15:00.250 time you see a WWII movie and someone shouts, 00:15:00.309 --> 00:15:04.269 Bazooka! Not. Tip your hat to Bob Burns and his 00:15:04.269 --> 00:15:07.429 whiskey funnel. Indeed. It's a legacy worth remembering. 00:15:07.789 --> 00:15:09.809 Thanks for listening, everyone. We'll catch you 00:15:09.809 --> 00:15:10.629 on the next deep dive.