WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.980 Picture the scene. It's the late 1920s. OK, I'm 00:00:02.980 --> 00:00:06.419 picturing it. And we are sitting in this stuffy 00:00:06.419 --> 00:00:09.779 wood paneled lecture hall at Eastern Illinois 00:00:09.779 --> 00:00:12.320 State Teachers College. It's in Charleston, Illinois. 00:00:12.400 --> 00:00:14.599 You can probably smell the chalk dust. Oh, absolutely. 00:00:14.740 --> 00:00:17.440 The chalk dust, the floor wax. And there's this 00:00:17.440 --> 00:00:19.640 college junior sitting there. He's a genuinely 00:00:19.640 --> 00:00:22.640 massive guy. He actually plays on the varsity 00:00:22.640 --> 00:00:25.329 football team. Right. And he's squeezed into 00:00:25.329 --> 00:00:27.850 a desk that is just entirely too small for him. 00:00:28.329 --> 00:00:30.190 At the front of the room, you've got this professor 00:00:30.190 --> 00:00:32.409 groaning on and on, like just reading straight 00:00:32.409 --> 00:00:35.390 from the old English epic poem, Beowulf. Oh, 00:00:35.509 --> 00:00:38.689 man. The quintessential mind -numbing collegiate 00:00:38.689 --> 00:00:40.649 experience right there. Seriously. It's the kind 00:00:40.649 --> 00:00:43.030 of lecture where you can literally feel yourself 00:00:43.030 --> 00:00:45.950 aging in real time. Exactly. It's that kind of 00:00:45.950 --> 00:00:48.350 boredom that almost borders on physical pain. 00:00:48.590 --> 00:00:51.429 But suddenly, this college junior, he has an 00:00:51.429 --> 00:00:54.659 epiphany. OK. He realizes with just absolute 00:00:54.659 --> 00:00:57.880 terrifying clarity that he is completely wasting 00:00:57.880 --> 00:01:00.420 his life sitting in that chair. Wow. Just right 00:01:00.420 --> 00:01:02.439 then and there. Right then and there. So right 00:01:02.439 --> 00:01:04.659 in the middle of the lecture, while the professor 00:01:04.659 --> 00:01:08.739 is mid -sentence, this giant of a student simply 00:01:08.739 --> 00:01:11.489 stands up. He doesn't say anything? Nope. He 00:01:11.489 --> 00:01:13.810 doesn't pack his bag. He doesn't say, excuse 00:01:13.810 --> 00:01:16.189 me. He just walks straight down the aisle toward 00:01:16.189 --> 00:01:19.049 the exit. I love it. And the professor, who is 00:01:19.049 --> 00:01:22.069 clearly offended by this, makes some snide remark 00:01:22.069 --> 00:01:25.250 to his back. And in response, and this is the 00:01:25.250 --> 00:01:27.930 best part, this student grabs the heavy classroom 00:01:27.930 --> 00:01:31.469 door, walks out, and slams it behind him with 00:01:31.519 --> 00:01:34.079 every single ounce of his football player strength. 00:01:34.079 --> 00:01:37.640 Oh my gosh. He slams it so hard that the thick 00:01:37.640 --> 00:01:40.200 glass window in the center of the door completely 00:01:40.200 --> 00:01:43.239 shatters, just bursts into hundreds of pieces 00:01:43.239 --> 00:01:46.099 raining down all over the hallway floor. That 00:01:46.099 --> 00:01:48.799 is, I mean, that is the ultimate literal mic 00:01:48.799 --> 00:01:50.780 drop. Decades before microphones were even a 00:01:50.780 --> 00:01:52.939 thing, people dropped, you know? Right. He didn't 00:01:52.939 --> 00:01:55.299 just leave a room. He violently severed his tie 00:01:55.299 --> 00:01:57.640 to a conventional life path. And the guy who 00:01:57.640 --> 00:01:59.900 shattered that glass, that college dropout who 00:01:59.900 --> 00:02:02.480 just walked away from the expected path to go 00:02:02.480 --> 00:02:05.000 wander the earth, that was Burl Ives. Such a 00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:08.639 perfect origin story. It really is. That literal 00:02:08.639 --> 00:02:12.020 mic drop kicked off an 85 year journey. One that 00:02:12.020 --> 00:02:15.520 took him from a jail cell in Utah for singing 00:02:15.520 --> 00:02:19.099 a dirty folk song all the way to the stage of 00:02:19.099 --> 00:02:21.259 the Academy Awards. And eventually into the living 00:02:21.259 --> 00:02:23.639 rooms of basically every single person listening 00:02:23.639 --> 00:02:26.340 right now. Exactly. Welcome to the deep dive, 00:02:26.539 --> 00:02:28.759 everyone. Today, we're tracking that journey. 00:02:28.879 --> 00:02:31.379 And what is deeply poetic about that opening 00:02:31.379 --> 00:02:34.219 moment, the Beowulf incident, is the aftermath. 00:02:34.490 --> 00:02:38.250 Because, get this, 60 years after he shattered 00:02:38.250 --> 00:02:41.289 that glass and walked out, that very same teacher's 00:02:41.289 --> 00:02:43.770 college, which is now Eastern Illinois University, 00:02:44.229 --> 00:02:46.289 they actually named a building after him. Shut 00:02:46.289 --> 00:02:49.229 up! Really? Yeah. The school's most famous, most 00:02:49.229 --> 00:02:52.030 destructive dropout eventually became its namesake. 00:02:52.189 --> 00:02:54.930 That is so good. It perfectly captures the whiplash 00:02:54.930 --> 00:02:57.409 of his entire existence. And I think for anyone 00:02:57.409 --> 00:02:59.349 listening who feels stuck in a career right now 00:02:59.349 --> 00:03:01.009 or, you know, feels like they've backed themselves 00:03:01.009 --> 00:03:04.110 into a corner, Burlives is the absolute blueprint 00:03:04.110 --> 00:03:06.699 for relentless reinvention. Our mission today 00:03:06.699 --> 00:03:10.099 is to trace exactly how he navigated these massive 00:03:10.099 --> 00:03:13.099 transitions in his life, how he took the raw, 00:03:13.479 --> 00:03:16.020 unpolished tools of his youth and just carried 00:03:16.020 --> 00:03:18.120 them across all these different mediums. From 00:03:18.120 --> 00:03:20.919 live folk singing to the radio. Right, from the 00:03:20.919 --> 00:03:23.439 intimate glow of radio to the golden age of Hollywood 00:03:23.439 --> 00:03:26.379 and finally into immortal pop culture. And you 00:03:26.379 --> 00:03:28.639 really can't understand those pivots without 00:03:28.639 --> 00:03:31.120 looking at where he started. I mean, his ability 00:03:31.120 --> 00:03:34.000 to shape shift later in life comes directly from 00:03:34.000 --> 00:03:36.300 the dirt under the fingernails reality of his 00:03:36.300 --> 00:03:38.340 childhood. So let's paint that picture. June 00:03:38.340 --> 00:03:40.919 14th, 1909, he's born in a place called Hunt 00:03:40.919 --> 00:03:43.099 City, Illinois. And when we say city, we are 00:03:43.099 --> 00:03:45.340 being very generous here. Right, it's kind. It's 00:03:45.340 --> 00:03:47.460 an unincorporated community in Jasper County. 00:03:47.840 --> 00:03:50.080 His parents are Levi, who goes by Frank, and 00:03:50.080 --> 00:03:52.599 Cordelia, who goes by Deli. Frank is a farmer. 00:03:53.080 --> 00:03:55.340 Later on, he pivots into contracting work for 00:03:55.340 --> 00:03:57.680 the county. So this is a very rural, working 00:03:57.680 --> 00:04:00.740 class, deeply terrestrial beginning. And Burl 00:04:00.740 --> 00:04:05.090 is one of seven kids. Wow, seven. Yeah. Artie, 00:04:05.330 --> 00:04:07.430 Clarence, Argola, Lilburn, Norma, and Little 00:04:07.430 --> 00:04:10.490 Burl. In a household of seven children in rural 00:04:10.490 --> 00:04:14.030 1910s America, you have to find a way to stand 00:04:14.030 --> 00:04:16.569 out. Or at the very least, entertain yourself, 00:04:16.670 --> 00:04:18.449 right? Because the entertainment wasn't coming 00:04:18.449 --> 00:04:20.750 from a screen. No, not at all. It was entirely 00:04:20.750 --> 00:04:22.930 self -generated. And that self -generated entertainment 00:04:22.930 --> 00:04:26.050 actually sparks his first real performance, completely 00:04:26.050 --> 00:04:28.569 by accident. How so? Well, he's just a little 00:04:28.569 --> 00:04:31.459 boy. out in the garden with his mother, Deli, 00:04:31.459 --> 00:04:34.279 and they are singing together. Not for an audience, 00:04:34.439 --> 00:04:36.480 just, you know, to pass the time while working 00:04:36.480 --> 00:04:39.800 the soil. But his uncle happens to be walking 00:04:39.800 --> 00:04:42.300 by and overhears them. Oh, wow. Yeah. And the 00:04:42.300 --> 00:04:45.819 uncle stops in his tracks. He is so floored by 00:04:45.819 --> 00:04:48.660 the natural resonance of this little kid's voice 00:04:48.660 --> 00:04:51.480 that he immediately invites his nephew to sing 00:04:51.480 --> 00:04:54.199 at the local old soldiers reunion in Hunt City, 00:04:54.279 --> 00:04:56.439 which is a massive cultural event in the town 00:04:56.439 --> 00:04:58.829 like that. I mean, an old soldiers reunion. in 00:04:58.829 --> 00:05:02.170 the late 1910s or early 1920s meant you had veterans 00:05:02.170 --> 00:05:04.550 of the Civil War sitting in the audience. Really? 00:05:05.029 --> 00:05:07.370 Civil War veterans? Yeah, it was the absolute 00:05:07.370 --> 00:05:09.730 social peak of the county. That's incredible. 00:05:10.269 --> 00:05:12.709 So he gets up on that makeshift stage, and he 00:05:12.709 --> 00:05:15.050 belts out a rendition of the traditional folk 00:05:15.050 --> 00:05:17.629 ballad, Barbara Allen. Oh, classic. Right, it's 00:05:17.629 --> 00:05:21.509 this old, tragic Scottish ballad about unrequited 00:05:21.509 --> 00:05:24.589 love and death. So to have a young kid singing 00:05:24.589 --> 00:05:27.290 a song with that much emotional weight and doing 00:05:27.290 --> 00:05:29.949 it beautifully, it completely wowed the crowd. 00:05:30.009 --> 00:05:33.209 I bet. But looking at these early years, I want 00:05:33.209 --> 00:05:36.430 to talk about a paradox. Because I really struggled 00:05:36.430 --> 00:05:38.189 to wrap my head around this when I was looking 00:05:38.089 --> 00:05:40.310 at the source material. What's the paradox? We 00:05:40.310 --> 00:05:43.250 have this image of him slamming doors and rebelling 00:05:43.250 --> 00:05:45.629 against the rigid structure of college, right? 00:05:45.990 --> 00:05:49.769 The ultimate hobo free spirit. But simultaneously, 00:05:49.810 --> 00:05:52.310 as a young man, he is aggressively seeking out 00:05:52.310 --> 00:05:54.689 some of the most rigidly structured organizations 00:05:54.689 --> 00:05:57.230 in the world. Ah, you're talking about his fraternal 00:05:57.230 --> 00:06:00.110 affiliations. Yes. It is a brilliant contradiction. 00:06:00.230 --> 00:06:03.629 It makes no sense to me. Even before 1924, when 00:06:03.629 --> 00:06:06.310 he's just a young teenager. He becomes a lone 00:06:06.310 --> 00:06:09.089 scout, which was this rural program that eventually 00:06:09.089 --> 00:06:11.490 folded into the Boy Scouts of America. Right. 00:06:11.670 --> 00:06:13.529 Then when he gets to high school and college 00:06:13.529 --> 00:06:16.110 in Charleston, he joins the Order of Demille, 00:06:16.250 --> 00:06:19.470 which is a Masonic youth organization. And then 00:06:19.470 --> 00:06:22.509 in 1927, the very same year he graduates from 00:06:22.509 --> 00:06:25.769 Newton High School, he is initiated into Scottish 00:06:25.769 --> 00:06:28.949 Rite Freemasonry. Yeah, to a modern listener, 00:06:29.110 --> 00:06:32.029 joining the Freemasons at 18 might sound like 00:06:32.029 --> 00:06:35.389 a bizarre esoteric hobby. for a teenage rebel. 00:06:35.649 --> 00:06:37.709 That's exactly what I thought. But we have to 00:06:37.709 --> 00:06:42.290 place this in the context of 1920s rural America. 00:06:42.870 --> 00:06:44.870 Fraternal organizations were not just secret 00:06:44.870 --> 00:06:47.290 handshakes and aprons. They were the ultimate 00:06:47.290 --> 00:06:50.379 social safety net. Interesting. In an era before 00:06:50.379 --> 00:06:52.899 robust government welfare, before widespread 00:06:52.899 --> 00:06:55.839 national insurance, these lodges were the fabric 00:06:55.839 --> 00:06:58.399 that held men together. They provided networking, 00:06:58.899 --> 00:07:01.060 moral instruction, and this profound sense of 00:07:01.060 --> 00:07:02.720 ancient community. So it wasn't about him wanting 00:07:02.720 --> 00:07:05.660 to wear a cool ring. It was about seeking a foundation. 00:07:05.980 --> 00:07:08.220 Precisely. Burr Lives wasn't a pure anarchist. 00:07:08.300 --> 00:07:10.459 The guy who broke the glass in the Beowulf Lecture 00:07:10.459 --> 00:07:12.920 didn't hate community. He just hated hollow, 00:07:13.079 --> 00:07:15.699 irrelevant academic posturing. Ah, that makes 00:07:15.699 --> 00:07:18.980 sense. Freemasonry, the Scouts, the Demolay, 00:07:19.220 --> 00:07:21.839 these organizations offered rituals that actually 00:07:21.839 --> 00:07:24.319 meant something. They offered a lineage. And 00:07:24.319 --> 00:07:26.699 if you think about it, folk music operates on 00:07:26.699 --> 00:07:29.379 the exact same psychological level. Wait, really? 00:07:29.519 --> 00:07:32.379 How so? Folk music is a system of belonging. 00:07:32.670 --> 00:07:35.310 It's a centuries -old ritual passed down from 00:07:35.310 --> 00:07:38.050 voice to voice, creating this invisible fraternity 00:07:38.050 --> 00:07:41.370 of the working class. He was drawn to ancient 00:07:41.370 --> 00:07:43.790 systems of belonging, whether that was a Masonic 00:07:43.790 --> 00:07:46.209 Lodge or a ballad from the Scottish Highlands. 00:07:46.449 --> 00:07:49.050 Wow. That totally reframes him for me. He's building 00:07:49.050 --> 00:07:51.310 his safety net before he jumps, because he does 00:07:51.310 --> 00:07:53.290 try to play the conventional game first, right? 00:07:53.529 --> 00:07:57.050 On July 23, 1929, he actually attempts to enter 00:07:57.050 --> 00:07:59.029 the formal music industry. Right, the recording 00:07:59.029 --> 00:08:01.670 session. Yeah. He travels to Richmond, Indiana, 00:08:01.829 --> 00:08:04.610 to a studio run by the Star Piano Company. He's 00:08:04.610 --> 00:08:06.350 there to make a trial recording for their Genet 00:08:06.350 --> 00:08:09.189 label. In Richmond, Indiana, the 1920s was a 00:08:09.189 --> 00:08:11.490 bizarrely important hub for early jazz and folk 00:08:11.490 --> 00:08:14.129 recordings. I mean, Gino Records recorded early 00:08:14.129 --> 00:08:16.509 legends like Louis Armstrong and Big Spiderback. 00:08:16.709 --> 00:08:18.610 So it's a big deal. He goes into the booth. He's 00:08:18.610 --> 00:08:21.069 20 years old. He records a song called Behind 00:08:21.069 --> 00:08:24.949 the Clouds. But... The recording is rejected. 00:08:25.730 --> 00:08:27.990 And the studio doesn't just shelve it. A few 00:08:27.990 --> 00:08:30.870 weeks later, they literally destroy the master. 00:08:31.329 --> 00:08:34.169 The physical recording is obliterated. Later 00:08:34.169 --> 00:08:36.690 in his life, Ives didn't even remember the session 00:08:36.690 --> 00:08:39.769 happening. The fragility of early media is just 00:08:39.769 --> 00:08:42.289 heartbreaking. Recording in 1929 was an arduous 00:08:42.289 --> 00:08:45.110 mechanical process. You are often singing into 00:08:45.110 --> 00:08:48.649 this massive acoustic horn that physically vibrated 00:08:48.649 --> 00:08:51.549 a stylist to cut grooves into a wax master. That 00:08:51.549 --> 00:08:55.080 sounds intense. And if the label executives didn't 00:08:55.080 --> 00:08:57.279 think it was commercially viable instantly, they 00:08:57.279 --> 00:08:59.759 would just melt the wax down to reuse it. The 00:08:59.759 --> 00:09:02.059 raw material was too expensive to preserve failures. 00:09:02.200 --> 00:09:04.679 That's brutal. So the door was slammed in his 00:09:04.679 --> 00:09:06.919 face. The physical evidence of his dream was 00:09:06.919 --> 00:09:09.100 literally melted down. And I think that rejection, 00:09:09.460 --> 00:09:11.200 combined with the onset of the Great Depression, 00:09:11.620 --> 00:09:13.399 pushes him fully into the lifestyle that would 00:09:13.399 --> 00:09:16.299 define his early mythos. The Hobo years. The 00:09:16.299 --> 00:09:19.860 1930s arrive and Burl Ives hits the open road. 00:09:20.120 --> 00:09:22.639 He travels across the United States as an itinerant 00:09:22.639 --> 00:09:25.120 singer. He's hopping freight trains, earning 00:09:25.120 --> 00:09:27.580 his meals by doing odd jobs and just playing 00:09:27.580 --> 00:09:31.000 his banjo. He becomes the living, breathing archetype 00:09:31.000 --> 00:09:33.500 of the American hobo. He is walking into the 00:09:33.500 --> 00:09:36.120 crucible of the American folk experience. I mean, 00:09:36.179 --> 00:09:38.240 the 1930s during the Dust Bowl and the Depression 00:09:38.240 --> 00:09:42.139 was an era of mass, desperate migration. Millions 00:09:42.139 --> 00:09:44.340 of people were displaced. Yeah. So when Ives 00:09:44.340 --> 00:09:47.379 is riding in a box car, He is absorbing the visceral 00:09:47.379 --> 00:09:50.139 reality of that pain. He's smelling the coal 00:09:50.139 --> 00:09:52.279 dust. He is feeling the hunger. It wasn't an 00:09:52.279 --> 00:09:55.059 act. Exactly. He isn't sitting in a library reading 00:09:55.059 --> 00:09:57.340 sheet music about the working man. He is standing 00:09:57.340 --> 00:09:59.379 in the soup kitchen line next to him, trading 00:09:59.379 --> 00:10:01.679 songs for a piece of bread. And sometimes the 00:10:01.679 --> 00:10:04.419 authorities didn't appreciate a massive bearded 00:10:04.419 --> 00:10:07.139 man with a banjo rolling into town. Which brings 00:10:07.139 --> 00:10:09.620 us to a defining incident in Mona, Utah. Oh, 00:10:09.620 --> 00:10:11.779 this is a great story. He gets arrested. The 00:10:11.779 --> 00:10:14.740 local police throw him in a jail cell for vagrancy. 00:10:15.039 --> 00:10:17.840 But the arrest report is what makes this legendary. 00:10:18.460 --> 00:10:21.039 The authorities were specifically offended because 00:10:21.039 --> 00:10:23.799 he was singing an English folk song called Foggy 00:10:23.799 --> 00:10:27.279 Do, which they deemed a body song. Which is hilarious 00:10:27.279 --> 00:10:30.279 from a modern perspective, but very serious in 00:10:30.279 --> 00:10:33.700 1930s conservative Utah. Right. I looked into 00:10:33.700 --> 00:10:36.720 Foggy Do. There are a few variations, but the 00:10:36.720 --> 00:10:39.620 English version he likely sang is essentially 00:10:39.620 --> 00:10:42.840 a subtle, slightly cheeky ballad about a weaver 00:10:42.840 --> 00:10:44.970 who ends up in bed with a frightened young woman 00:10:44.970 --> 00:10:47.690 he's courting, allegedly to protect her from 00:10:47.690 --> 00:10:50.409 the bugaboo or the foggy dew. Why the foggy dew? 00:10:50.509 --> 00:10:53.129 By today's standards, it's incredibly tame. By 00:10:53.129 --> 00:10:55.590 Mona, Utah standards, it was a threat to public 00:10:55.590 --> 00:10:58.009 morality. The fact that he was jailed for the 00:10:58.009 --> 00:11:00.110 content of his song is the ultimate badge of 00:11:00.110 --> 00:11:02.210 honor for a folk singer. I mean, it proved that 00:11:02.210 --> 00:11:04.409 his music had teeth. It wasn't just background 00:11:04.409 --> 00:11:06.789 noise. It had the power to disrupt the social 00:11:06.789 --> 00:11:09.389 order of a town. Totally. But I want to push 00:11:09.389 --> 00:11:11.710 back on this romantic image of the wandering 00:11:11.710 --> 00:11:14.029 authentic hobo for a second. OK, let's hear it. 00:11:14.080 --> 00:11:16.960 Because there is a massive detail from this era 00:11:16.960 --> 00:11:20.039 that seems to contradict the whole simple vagabond 00:11:20.039 --> 00:11:23.419 and narrative. Around 1931, he starts performing 00:11:23.419 --> 00:11:26.779 on WBOW radio in Terre Haute, Indiana. Right. 00:11:26.899 --> 00:11:29.240 He goes back to school, attending classes at 00:11:29.240 --> 00:11:32.279 Indiana State Teachers College. And then in 1933, 00:11:32.799 --> 00:11:35.279 the absolute kicker, he attends the Juilliard 00:11:35.279 --> 00:11:38.360 School in New York. Ah, yes. the Juilliard School, 00:11:38.799 --> 00:11:41.460 the single most prestigious performing arts conservatory 00:11:41.460 --> 00:11:43.960 in the United States. So help me reconcile this. 00:11:44.120 --> 00:11:46.440 I struggle to put the guy sleeping in a Utah 00:11:46.440 --> 00:11:48.960 jail cell in the same body as the guy doing vocal 00:11:48.960 --> 00:11:51.139 warmups in a pristine Manhattan conservatory. 00:11:51.840 --> 00:11:55.059 Was the Vagrant Hobo Act just a calculated brand? 00:11:55.379 --> 00:11:58.399 Was he faking it? That is the most crucial question 00:11:58.399 --> 00:12:01.100 of his early career. And the answer is neither 00:12:01.100 --> 00:12:03.809 was fake. Both were entirely necessary for what 00:12:03.809 --> 00:12:05.929 he was about to become. OK, unpack that for me. 00:12:06.049 --> 00:12:08.129 The vagrant lifestyle gave him his unassailable 00:12:08.129 --> 00:12:11.070 authenticity. When he sang a hobo song, the audience 00:12:11.070 --> 00:12:13.070 implicitly trusted him because they knew he had 00:12:13.070 --> 00:12:15.210 the dirt under his fingernails. He possessed 00:12:15.210 --> 00:12:17.690 the raw material. But raw material isn't enough 00:12:17.690 --> 00:12:21.129 to sustain a multi -decade career across different 00:12:21.129 --> 00:12:24.950 media. Jillyard gave him the mechanics to broadcast 00:12:24.950 --> 00:12:27.129 that raw material perfectly. What do you mean 00:12:27.129 --> 00:12:29.350 by the mechanics? At Jillyard, he was studying 00:12:29.350 --> 00:12:31.759 the physical science of his own body. breath 00:12:31.759 --> 00:12:34.740 control, diaphragmatic support, pitch -perfect 00:12:34.740 --> 00:12:37.559 resonance. He was learning how to take the raw 00:12:37.559 --> 00:12:40.399 emotional pain of a Dust Bowl ballad and project 00:12:40.399 --> 00:12:43.059 it to the back row of a theater without destroying 00:12:43.059 --> 00:12:46.159 his vocal cords. Oh, wow. Yeah. He learned how 00:12:46.159 --> 00:12:48.659 to manipulate his tone so that a whisper could 00:12:48.659 --> 00:12:51.100 be heard perfectly. He wasn't abandoning his 00:12:51.100 --> 00:12:53.279 folk roots at Jilliard. He was sharpening the 00:12:53.279 --> 00:12:55.700 nights. He was turning his voice into a precision 00:12:55.700 --> 00:12:58.809 instrument. So he took the soul of the boxcar 00:12:58.809 --> 00:13:01.009 and wrapped it in the technique of the opera 00:13:01.009 --> 00:13:03.309 house. Beautifully put, yes. And all of that 00:13:03.309 --> 00:13:05.269 training, combined with his life experience, 00:13:05.570 --> 00:13:08.190 converges perfectly in 1940. He launches his 00:13:08.190 --> 00:13:11.110 own radio show. He titles it The Wayfaring Stranger, 00:13:11.429 --> 00:13:13.370 taking the name from one of the haunting traditional 00:13:13.370 --> 00:13:15.509 ballads he loved to sing. This is the moment 00:13:15.509 --> 00:13:18.509 the trajectory shifts. Radio in the 1940s was 00:13:18.509 --> 00:13:21.250 the ultimate cultural catalyst. It really was. 00:13:21.639 --> 00:13:24.080 We think of mass media today as so fragmented, 00:13:24.259 --> 00:13:26.960 but radio back then was a shared national campfire. 00:13:27.519 --> 00:13:30.379 Over the next decade, through this show, Burl 00:13:30.379 --> 00:13:33.519 Ives almost single -handedly popularizes traditional 00:13:33.519 --> 00:13:36.659 folk songs for an enormous mass audience. We 00:13:36.659 --> 00:13:38.639 are talking about songs that had been localized 00:13:38.639 --> 00:13:42.679 in specific valleys or regions for decades. Suddenly, 00:13:42.940 --> 00:13:45.860 he is broadcasting Foggy Doo, the very song that 00:13:45.860 --> 00:13:48.519 got him arrested in Utah, to millions of people 00:13:48.519 --> 00:13:50.720 without a single cop being able to stop him. 00:13:51.819 --> 00:13:55.039 He popularizes the Blue Tail Fly, an old minstrel 00:13:55.039 --> 00:13:56.960 tune that most people know as Jimmy Crack Corn. 00:13:57.340 --> 00:13:59.740 He brings Big Rock, Candy Mountain, the ultimate 00:13:59.740 --> 00:14:02.799 fantasy song of a starving hobo, straight into 00:14:02.799 --> 00:14:04.899 middle -class living rooms. Think about the mechanics 00:14:04.899 --> 00:14:07.580 of early radio, though. It is a blind medium. 00:14:07.879 --> 00:14:10.080 It completely strips away the visual. The listener 00:14:10.080 --> 00:14:12.220 cannot see the performer's facial expressions, 00:14:12.720 --> 00:14:15.850 their physical size, or their costume. The entire 00:14:15.850 --> 00:14:18.250 emotional weight of the performance has to travel 00:14:18.250 --> 00:14:20.909 invisibly through the airwaves and reassemble 00:14:20.909 --> 00:14:23.590 itself in the listener's mind. It relies purely 00:14:23.590 --> 00:14:26.429 on the warmth, the storytelling capability, and 00:14:26.429 --> 00:14:29.750 the subtle emotional finesse of the voice. And 00:14:29.750 --> 00:14:33.330 by December 1943, his mastery of this medium 00:14:33.330 --> 00:14:35.980 is undeniable. He moved to New York City to work 00:14:35.980 --> 00:14:39.220 for CBS radio, earning $100 a week, which was 00:14:39.220 --> 00:14:41.360 a very solid living at the time. Oh yeah, great 00:14:41.360 --> 00:14:44.179 money. To understand his specific vocal magic, 00:14:44.679 --> 00:14:47.120 there is a quote from the music critic John Rockwell 00:14:47.120 --> 00:14:48.639 in our sources that I want to dissect. Let's 00:14:48.639 --> 00:14:51.370 do it. Rockwell described Ives' voice as having, 00:14:51.649 --> 00:14:54.029 quote, the sheen and finesse of opera without 00:14:54.029 --> 00:14:56.889 its latter -day Puccinean vulgarities and without 00:14:56.889 --> 00:15:00.289 the pretensions of operatic ritual. It was genteel 00:15:00.289 --> 00:15:02.990 and expressive impact without being genteel and 00:15:02.990 --> 00:15:05.230 social conformity. It is a dense piece of criticism 00:15:05.230 --> 00:15:08.409 for sure, but it unlocks exactly why Ives was 00:15:08.409 --> 00:15:11.169 so successful. So let's break it down. The sheen 00:15:11.169 --> 00:15:14.710 and finesse of opera. That is obviously the Jilliard 00:15:14.710 --> 00:15:17.210 training doing its job, the breath control, the 00:15:17.210 --> 00:15:20.370 perfect vibrato. But Rockwell adds, without its 00:15:20.370 --> 00:15:24.070 latter -day Procinian vulgarities, what is Rockwell 00:15:24.070 --> 00:15:26.769 getting at there? He means that eyes wasn't showing 00:15:26.769 --> 00:15:30.019 off. In late opera, particularly around Puccini's 00:15:30.019 --> 00:15:34.019 era, there can be a tendency toward vocal acrobatics. 00:15:35.000 --> 00:15:37.240 Singers proving how loud they can get or how 00:15:37.240 --> 00:15:39.559 long they can hold a high note simply for the 00:15:39.559 --> 00:15:41.100 sake of the spectacle. Right, it becomes about 00:15:41.100 --> 00:15:43.720 the singer, not the song. Exactly. I've stripped 00:15:43.720 --> 00:15:47.120 all that ego away. He used operatic -level technique 00:15:47.120 --> 00:15:49.720 purely to serve the simple emotional core of 00:15:49.720 --> 00:15:52.559 a folk song. He made world -class vocal control 00:15:52.559 --> 00:15:55.200 sound entirely effortless. And then there's the 00:15:55.200 --> 00:15:57.899 second half of the quote, genteel and expressive 00:15:57.899 --> 00:16:00.500 impact without being genteel and social conformity. 00:16:00.639 --> 00:16:03.259 He sounded incredibly polite, warm, and inviting. 00:16:03.639 --> 00:16:05.379 He sounded like a favorite grandfather sitting 00:16:05.379 --> 00:16:08.159 in your living room. But the lyrics he was delivering, 00:16:08.600 --> 00:16:11.240 songs about hobos, rebellious workers, vagrants, 00:16:11.320 --> 00:16:13.419 these were inherently anti -establishment. He 00:16:13.419 --> 00:16:15.179 was essentially Trojan horse. He really was. 00:16:15.360 --> 00:16:17.899 He sneaked counterculture sentiments into the 00:16:17.899 --> 00:16:20.240 mainstream American living room by rapping them 00:16:20.240 --> 00:16:23.360 in this velvet, perfectly controlled voice. And 00:16:23.360 --> 00:16:26.100 radio was serving as an incubator for his next 00:16:26.100 --> 00:16:28.919 phase. Yeah. When you perform only on a microphone, 00:16:29.460 --> 00:16:31.779 you develop a profound sense of dramatic timing. 00:16:32.279 --> 00:16:34.659 You learn exactly how long a pause needs to be 00:16:34.659 --> 00:16:37.440 to make the listener lean in. You learn how to 00:16:37.440 --> 00:16:40.980 modulate your volume to create suspense. He was 00:16:40.980 --> 00:16:43.629 getting a nightly master class in acting. solely 00:16:43.629 --> 00:16:45.990 through audio. And that audio mastery was about 00:16:45.990 --> 00:16:48.269 to become physical. The momentum of his radio 00:16:48.269 --> 00:16:50.370 success was pulling him out of the sound booth 00:16:50.370 --> 00:16:53.009 and onto the physical stage. This leads us into 00:16:53.009 --> 00:16:55.830 his early Hollywood and theatrical crossovers. 00:16:56.669 --> 00:16:58.470 But as with everything in his life, history had 00:16:58.470 --> 00:17:00.710 a way of interrupting. Before he could fully 00:17:00.710 --> 00:17:03.549 conquer Hollywood, the world went to war. Yeah, 00:17:03.649 --> 00:17:06.970 in early 1942, like millions of other young men, 00:17:07.250 --> 00:17:09.130 Ives is drafted into the United States Army. 00:17:09.240 --> 00:17:11.799 He spends time at Camp Dex in New Jersey and 00:17:11.799 --> 00:17:15.000 Camp Upton in New York, but the military recognizes 00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:17.259 that his true value isn't necessarily holding 00:17:17.259 --> 00:17:20.460 a rifle in a trench. His artistic skills intersect 00:17:20.460 --> 00:17:23.319 with his service. He joins the cast of Irving 00:17:23.319 --> 00:17:26.140 Berlin's legendary production. This is the Army, 00:17:26.240 --> 00:17:29.359 which was a massive touring morale boosting military 00:17:29.359 --> 00:17:32.319 musical. It featured a cast composed entirely 00:17:32.319 --> 00:17:35.019 of soldiers. He attains the rank of corporal. 00:17:35.019 --> 00:17:37.279 And when the production eventually moves to Hollywood 00:17:37.279 --> 00:17:40.089 to be adapted into a film, he is transferred 00:17:40.089 --> 00:17:43.430 to the Army Air Forces. Ultimately, he is honorably 00:17:43.430 --> 00:17:46.349 discharged in September 1943, reportedly for 00:17:46.349 --> 00:17:49.630 medical reasons. But that military theater experience 00:17:49.630 --> 00:17:52.349 seems pretty vital. It was. It kept him performing 00:17:52.349 --> 00:17:55.029 under incredibly rigorous, disciplined conditions. 00:17:55.450 --> 00:17:57.750 It kept him the public eye during a global conflict. 00:17:58.130 --> 00:18:00.190 He was serving his country by doing exactly what 00:18:00.190 --> 00:18:02.490 he did best. So after his discharge, he moves 00:18:02.490 --> 00:18:05.049 to California. briefly sharing an apartment with 00:18:05.049 --> 00:18:07.130 the actor Harry Morgan, actually. Well, that's 00:18:07.130 --> 00:18:10.190 a fun fact. And he begins to make his first real 00:18:10.190 --> 00:18:12.490 incursions into Hollywood, but he does it in 00:18:12.490 --> 00:18:16.049 a highly calculated way. In 1946, he's cast in 00:18:16.049 --> 00:18:20.529 the film Smokey and his role, a singing cowboy. 00:18:20.890 --> 00:18:24.109 The singing cowboy was a wildly popular archetype 00:18:24.109 --> 00:18:27.869 in the 1930s and 40s. Think Gene Autry or Roy 00:18:27.869 --> 00:18:30.960 Rogers. It was a staple of Western cinema. To 00:18:30.960 --> 00:18:33.220 me, this is a brilliant transition strategy. 00:18:33.460 --> 00:18:35.960 Playing a singing cowboy isn't a massive stretch 00:18:35.960 --> 00:18:38.759 from his wayfaring stranger radio persona. It's 00:18:38.759 --> 00:18:41.619 like a modern day pop star getting a cameo, playing 00:18:41.619 --> 00:18:43.779 a musician in a feature film. Yeah, that's a 00:18:43.779 --> 00:18:46.140 great comparison. It's the safest way to dip 00:18:46.140 --> 00:18:48.240 a toe into Hollywood acting. It's a transitional 00:18:48.240 --> 00:18:50.880 mechanism because film acting is a deeply technical 00:18:50.880 --> 00:18:52.940 medium. You have to hit specific tape marks on 00:18:52.940 --> 00:18:54.599 the floor. You have to understand where your 00:18:54.599 --> 00:18:56.440 key light is. You have to match your actions 00:18:56.440 --> 00:18:58.410 from take to take for continuity. It's a lot 00:18:58.410 --> 00:19:01.210 to juggle. If he had jumped straight into a heavy 00:19:01.210 --> 00:19:04.109 Shakespearean dramatic role, the technical demands 00:19:04.109 --> 00:19:05.950 of the camera might have completely overwhelmed 00:19:05.950 --> 00:19:08.970 him. But by playing a singing cowboy, he could 00:19:08.970 --> 00:19:11.410 rely on his world class singing ability to carry 00:19:11.410 --> 00:19:13.849 him while he learned the quiet mechanics of film 00:19:13.849 --> 00:19:15.950 set. He was getting paid to practice. And the 00:19:15.950 --> 00:19:19.329 musical crossovers keep elevating him. In 1949, 00:19:19.490 --> 00:19:22.269 he introduces the song Lavender Blue in the Disney 00:19:22.269 --> 00:19:24.950 film So Dear to My Heart. His version becomes 00:19:24.950 --> 00:19:27.769 a massive hit, and the song itself is nominated 00:19:27.769 --> 00:19:30.190 for an Academy Award for Best Original Song. 00:19:30.730 --> 00:19:33.369 Wow. Concurrently, his recording career is hitting 00:19:33.369 --> 00:19:37.789 new peaks. In 1947, he records a new energetic 00:19:37.789 --> 00:19:40.740 version of The Blue Tail Fly. But he doesn't 00:19:40.740 --> 00:19:43.799 do it alone. He is paired with the absolute titans 00:19:43.799 --> 00:19:46.640 of 1940s pop music, the Andrews sisters. Oh, 00:19:46.779 --> 00:19:48.839 smart move. Very smart. He correctly figured 00:19:48.839 --> 00:19:51.059 their massive mainstream success would help the 00:19:51.059 --> 00:19:53.559 record sell, and it became a huge billboard hit. 00:19:53.720 --> 00:19:56.660 He is solidifying his mythos on all fronts. In 00:19:56.660 --> 00:19:59.599 1948, he publishes his autobiography. And of 00:19:59.599 --> 00:20:01.460 course, he titles it The Wayfaring Stranger. 00:20:01.839 --> 00:20:04.539 Naturally. So let's pause and look at where Burl 00:20:04.539 --> 00:20:07.680 Ives is at the dawn of the 1950s. He is sitting 00:20:07.680 --> 00:20:10.240 on top of the world. He is a beloved folk singer, 00:20:10.539 --> 00:20:13.359 a national radio star, a rising Hollywood presence, 00:20:13.559 --> 00:20:16.079 and a best -selling author. He has successfully 00:20:16.079 --> 00:20:18.460 woven all the disparate threads of his life into 00:20:18.460 --> 00:20:21.420 this golden parachute. It looks like an unbroken 00:20:21.420 --> 00:20:25.160 upward trajectory, but the foundation of that 00:20:25.160 --> 00:20:28.400 success, his deep ties to the folk music community, 00:20:28.819 --> 00:20:31.380 was about to become a massive political liability. 00:20:31.440 --> 00:20:33.960 Yeah. The Cold War was freezing over Hollywood, 00:20:34.299 --> 00:20:36.740 and Ives was walking right into the crosshairs. 00:20:36.910 --> 00:20:39.829 This brings us to the crucible of his life, the 00:20:39.829 --> 00:20:42.210 blacklist, the bitter betrayals, and the forced 00:20:42.210 --> 00:20:45.029 pivot to serious acting. To truly understand 00:20:45.029 --> 00:20:47.549 the stakes of what happens next, we have to rewind 00:20:47.549 --> 00:20:49.569 slightly and look at the associations he formed 00:20:49.569 --> 00:20:51.569 during his early folk music days in New York. 00:20:52.309 --> 00:20:54.430 Ives was closely associated with a folk singing 00:20:54.430 --> 00:20:56.609 group called the Almanacs. The Almanacs were 00:20:56.609 --> 00:20:58.490 essentially the architects of the mid -century 00:20:58.490 --> 00:21:01.289 American folk revival. We're talking about legendary 00:21:01.289 --> 00:21:04.210 figures here, Woody Guthrie, Will Gere, Marilyn 00:21:04.210 --> 00:21:07.099 Lampelle, and Pete Seeger. These were the heavyweights. 00:21:07.720 --> 00:21:09.539 But they weren't just musicians. They were deeply 00:21:09.539 --> 00:21:12.700 political. The Almanacs were active in a group 00:21:12.700 --> 00:21:15.279 called the American Peace Mobilization, or the 00:21:15.279 --> 00:21:18.819 APM. Now, we need to carefully explain the political 00:21:18.819 --> 00:21:21.200 climate here, focusing strictly on the source 00:21:21.200 --> 00:21:24.900 material. The APM was a far -left group. Initially, 00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:27.920 in the late 1930s and early 1940s, they were 00:21:27.920 --> 00:21:30.359 staunchly isolationist. Meaning they wanted no 00:21:30.359 --> 00:21:32.619 part of the war. Exactly. They were strongly 00:21:32.619 --> 00:21:35.539 opposed to American entry into World War II and 00:21:35.539 --> 00:21:38.059 fiercely criticized President Franklin Roosevelt's 00:21:38.059 --> 00:21:41.059 pro -allied policies. They recorded aggressive 00:21:41.059 --> 00:21:43.619 pacifist songs with titles like, Get Out and 00:21:43.619 --> 00:21:46.019 Stay Out of War, and Franklin Over Franklin. 00:21:46.339 --> 00:21:48.759 But global politics shifted abruptly, and the 00:21:48.759 --> 00:21:52.329 APM shifted right along with them. In June 1941, 00:21:52.529 --> 00:21:55.309 the Axis powers invaded the Soviet Union. The 00:21:55.309 --> 00:21:58.410 moment that happened, the APM abandoned its pacifist 00:21:58.410 --> 00:22:01.470 stance entirely. They reorganized into the pro 00:22:01.470 --> 00:22:04.309 -war American people's mobilization. Because 00:22:04.309 --> 00:22:06.450 defending the Soviet Union was now a priority 00:22:06.450 --> 00:22:09.690 for the far left, and Ives and the Almanacs pivoted 00:22:09.690 --> 00:22:12.410 right alongside them. They re -recorded several 00:22:12.410 --> 00:22:14.990 of their songs to reflect this new pro -war stance, 00:22:15.329 --> 00:22:17.829 suddenly favoring U .S. entry into the conflict. 00:22:18.269 --> 00:22:20.589 They recorded songs like Dear Mr. President and 00:22:20.589 --> 00:22:23.009 Reuben James, which was a famous track about 00:22:23.009 --> 00:22:25.589 a U .S. destroyer sunk by German U -boats before 00:22:25.589 --> 00:22:28.390 America officially entered the war. At the time, 00:22:28.529 --> 00:22:30.569 performing these songs just seemed like topical 00:22:30.569 --> 00:22:34.259 folk music. But these associations, singing with 00:22:34.259 --> 00:22:37.380 the Almanacs, working with the APM, and visibly 00:22:37.380 --> 00:22:39.740 mirroring political stances that aligned with 00:22:39.740 --> 00:22:42.660 Soviet interests, it created a paper trail. Yeah. 00:22:43.019 --> 00:22:44.960 And that paper trail was a ticking time bomb. 00:22:45.480 --> 00:22:47.680 Fast forward to the post -war era, the dawn of 00:22:47.680 --> 00:22:50.359 the 1950s. The Red Scare is sweeping through 00:22:50.359 --> 00:22:53.099 the United States. Senator Joseph McCarthy and 00:22:53.099 --> 00:22:54.980 the House Un -American Activities Committee, 00:22:55.220 --> 00:22:58.279 or HUAC, are aggressively hunting for communist 00:22:58.279 --> 00:23:01.039 sympathizers in American society, particularly 00:23:01.039 --> 00:23:03.619 in the media and entertainment industries. In 00:23:03.619 --> 00:23:06.299 1950, a pamphlet called Red Channels is published. 00:23:06.480 --> 00:23:09.859 Red Channels was essentially a conservative watchdog 00:23:09.859 --> 00:23:14.859 report. It listed the names of 151 actors, writers, 00:23:15.240 --> 00:23:17.880 musicians, and broadcast journalists who allegedly 00:23:17.880 --> 00:23:20.799 had communist ties or sympathies. And Burl Ives' 00:23:20.960 --> 00:23:23.400 name was in that pamphlet because his name was 00:23:23.400 --> 00:23:26.160 printed? He was blacklisted. We really have to 00:23:26.160 --> 00:23:29.460 make you, the listener, feel the claustrophobia 00:23:29.460 --> 00:23:32.619 of the Hollywood blacklist. It wasn't just a 00:23:32.619 --> 00:23:34.839 bad review or a temporary cancellation. It was 00:23:34.839 --> 00:23:37.660 a total absolute quarantine. Yeah, it was devastating. 00:23:37.779 --> 00:23:40.299 If you were blacklisted, studios legally and 00:23:40.299 --> 00:23:42.900 socially could not hire you. Radio networks wouldn't 00:23:42.900 --> 00:23:45.059 let you near a microphone. Record labels dropped 00:23:45.059 --> 00:23:47.359 you. You were economically radioactive. Your 00:23:47.359 --> 00:23:50.230 entire livelihood just vanished overnight. Faced 00:23:50.230 --> 00:23:52.150 with the absolute destruction of everything he 00:23:52.150 --> 00:23:54.069 had built since he shattered that glass window 00:23:54.069 --> 00:23:56.650 in college, Ives is backed into a corner. Two 00:23:56.650 --> 00:24:00.549 years pass. The pressure is immense. And in 1952, 00:24:00.690 --> 00:24:02.349 he makes a decision that would haunt him for 00:24:02.349 --> 00:24:04.609 the rest of his life. He agrees to cooperate. 00:24:04.730 --> 00:24:07.410 He agrees to cooperate with HUAC. He sits before 00:24:07.410 --> 00:24:09.710 the government committee and he testifies. And 00:24:09.710 --> 00:24:12.269 our sources state explicitly that he did this 00:24:12.269 --> 00:24:15.220 out of fear of losing his source of income. He 00:24:15.220 --> 00:24:17.259 was terrified of losing the career he had fought 00:24:17.259 --> 00:24:20.059 so incredibly hard to build. And his testimony 00:24:20.059 --> 00:24:22.440 did exactly what he needed it to do. It acted 00:24:22.440 --> 00:24:25.920 like a controlled burn in a forest fire. By naming 00:24:25.920 --> 00:24:28.660 names, by identifying fellow artists who had 00:24:28.660 --> 00:24:31.319 been involved in those left -wing circles, he 00:24:31.319 --> 00:24:33.660 proved his loyalty to the committee. Wow. The 00:24:33.660 --> 00:24:35.839 committee cleared him, the blacklist was lifted, 00:24:35.900 --> 00:24:38.000 and he was allowed to return to acting and singing. 00:24:38.200 --> 00:24:41.700 But the cost was catastrophic. He saved his career 00:24:41.700 --> 00:24:54.220 by feeding his friends to the fire. for decades. 00:24:54.440 --> 00:24:56.799 Pete Seeger, who was essentially the moral center 00:24:56.799 --> 00:25:00.059 of the folk revival, was furious. Seeger accused 00:25:00.059 --> 00:25:02.619 Ives of the ultimate betrayal, naming names and 00:25:02.619 --> 00:25:04.680 sacrificing cultural freedom just to save his 00:25:04.680 --> 00:25:07.460 Hollywood paycheck. Seeger publicly and fiercely 00:25:07.460 --> 00:25:09.720 ridiculed audience for trying to distance himself 00:25:09.720 --> 00:25:11.759 from the very organizations and working class 00:25:11.759 --> 00:25:14.220 ideals he had built his entire wayfaring stranger 00:25:14.220 --> 00:25:17.480 persona upon. It is the ultimate moral crucible. 00:25:18.220 --> 00:25:20.559 You have to hold two opposing truths in your 00:25:20.559 --> 00:25:23.519 head when looking at this. On one hand, You have 00:25:23.519 --> 00:25:25.759 a man desperately protecting his art and his 00:25:25.759 --> 00:25:28.640 survival against an oppressive, tyrannical government 00:25:28.640 --> 00:25:31.299 committee. Right. On the other hand, his survival 00:25:31.299 --> 00:25:33.619 directly contributed to the ruin of his peers. 00:25:34.559 --> 00:25:36.720 Seeger and many others spent years in the wilderness 00:25:36.720 --> 00:25:39.940 unable to work because men like Ives gave the 00:25:39.940 --> 00:25:42.119 committee what it wanted. It's just devastating. 00:25:42.440 --> 00:25:44.579 Imagine the psychological friction. Here is the 00:25:44.579 --> 00:25:46.920 man who built his fame singing the songs of the 00:25:46.920 --> 00:25:49.859 marginalized, the poor, the rebels. And now he's 00:25:49.859 --> 00:25:51.960 sitting in a suit whispering names to government 00:25:51.960 --> 00:25:55.119 investigators to protect a studio contract. The 00:25:55.119 --> 00:25:57.180 folk clubs in Greenwich Village were permanently 00:25:57.180 --> 00:26:00.180 closed to him. His musical home was gone. Gone 00:26:00.180 --> 00:26:03.400 overnight. So how does an artist process that 00:26:03.400 --> 00:26:05.700 level of isolation? How does this massive loss 00:26:05.700 --> 00:26:08.380 alter his output? It fundamentally forced a pivot. 00:26:08.539 --> 00:26:11.440 it changed his creative DNA. Because his testimony 00:26:11.440 --> 00:26:13.779 alienated him so thoroughly from the folk revival 00:26:13.779 --> 00:26:16.119 movement, he could no longer rely on his identity 00:26:16.119 --> 00:26:18.839 as the smiling, benevolent folk hero. The bridge 00:26:18.839 --> 00:26:21.819 back to his past was burned to ash. There was 00:26:21.819 --> 00:26:25.000 no going back. Exactly. This isolation, this 00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:28.200 absolute severing of his roots, pushed him to 00:26:28.200 --> 00:26:30.779 fully commit to the one avenue he had just sacrificed 00:26:30.779 --> 00:26:34.299 his friends to keep open. dramatic acting. He 00:26:34.299 --> 00:26:36.900 had to prove it was worth it. He had become undeniable 00:26:36.900 --> 00:26:39.380 on screen. If he was going to survive the fallout, 00:26:39.700 --> 00:26:41.460 he couldn't just be the guy strumming a banjo 00:26:41.460 --> 00:26:43.519 and a cowboy hat anymore. He had to become a 00:26:43.519 --> 00:26:45.529 heavyweight. And interestingly, while he was 00:26:45.529 --> 00:26:48.049 dealing with the immediate toxic fallout in America, 00:26:48.430 --> 00:26:51.210 he was finding safe harbor internationally. During 00:26:51.210 --> 00:26:53.509 the worst of the blacklist pressure, he frequently 00:26:53.509 --> 00:26:56.569 traveled to the UK. He played on BBC Radio's 00:26:56.569 --> 00:26:59.309 Children's Hour, singing favorites like Big Rock 00:26:59.309 --> 00:27:01.950 Candy Mountain and Lavender Blue. The contrast 00:27:01.950 --> 00:27:04.670 is mind boggling. In America, he's at the center 00:27:04.670 --> 00:27:07.029 of a vicious, life -destroying political witch 00:27:07.029 --> 00:27:09.809 hunt. In the UK, he is gently singing whimsical 00:27:09.809 --> 00:27:12.609 folk songs to British toddlers over the radio. 00:27:12.759 --> 00:27:15.940 It's absurd. He also performs at the Royal Coronation 00:27:15.940 --> 00:27:19.039 Festival in 1952 in London, and there's this 00:27:19.039 --> 00:27:21.960 incredible historical footnote about that. Purportedly, 00:27:22.480 --> 00:27:24.480 sitting in the audience at that coronation festival 00:27:24.480 --> 00:27:27.259 watching burlives perform were two young boys 00:27:27.259 --> 00:27:30.000 named John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Wait, seriously, 00:27:30.380 --> 00:27:33.140 that is amazing. The cultural cross -pollination 00:27:33.140 --> 00:27:35.779 of the 20th century never fails to amaze. I know. 00:27:36.079 --> 00:27:38.630 But eventually he returns to America. He has 00:27:38.630 --> 00:27:40.869 to face the music, or rather, the lack of it. 00:27:41.130 --> 00:27:43.450 Cut off from his musical roots, Ives attacks 00:27:43.450 --> 00:27:45.890 his acting career with a new, dark intensity. 00:27:46.450 --> 00:27:48.869 And against all odds, fueled by the complex trauma 00:27:48.869 --> 00:27:52.269 of the previous few years, he succeeds spectacularly. 00:27:52.369 --> 00:27:55.170 This is the era where the entertainer truly transforms 00:27:55.170 --> 00:27:58.109 into an artist. We move into the mid -1950s. 00:27:58.170 --> 00:28:01.329 The singing cowboy is dead. Ives starts taking 00:28:01.329 --> 00:28:04.170 on massive, serious, dramatically heavy roles. 00:28:04.630 --> 00:28:07.509 In 1955, he plays Sam, the sheriff of Salinas. 00:28:07.339 --> 00:28:09.920 in the classic James Dean film, East of Eden. 00:28:10.299 --> 00:28:13.220 He takes on dense, challenging roles in Desire, 00:28:13.299 --> 00:28:15.799 Under the Elms, Wind Across the Everglades, and 00:28:15.799 --> 00:28:18.000 the adaptation of Graham Greene's Our Man in 00:28:18.000 --> 00:28:21.680 Havana. These are complicated, morally gray characters. 00:28:21.799 --> 00:28:24.920 These are not light, fluffy musicals. But his 00:28:24.920 --> 00:28:27.019 defining role, the one that etches his name into 00:28:27.019 --> 00:28:29.480 the history of American theater, starts on Broadway 00:28:29.480 --> 00:28:34.369 in 1955. He is cast as Big Daddy Paulet in Tennessee 00:28:34.369 --> 00:28:36.950 Williams' masterpiece, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. 00:28:37.009 --> 00:28:39.829 Yes, iconic. He dominates the Broadway stage 00:28:39.829 --> 00:28:43.670 in that role from 1955 to 1956, and his performance 00:28:43.670 --> 00:28:46.329 is so monumental that he is brought to Hollywood 00:28:46.329 --> 00:28:49.529 to reprise the role for the legendary 1958 film 00:28:49.529 --> 00:28:52.210 adaptation starring opposite Paul Newman and 00:28:52.210 --> 00:28:54.849 Elizabeth Taylor. Big Daddy Paulet is a towering 00:28:54.849 --> 00:28:56.730 achievement. He is one of the most imposing, 00:28:57.230 --> 00:29:00.940 terrifying, vulgar, and emotionally complex tree 00:29:00.940 --> 00:29:03.759 arcs in all of modern theater. He is a dying, 00:29:04.019 --> 00:29:06.339 wealthy southern plantation owner trying to control 00:29:06.339 --> 00:29:08.140 his fractured family. And this is where I need 00:29:08.140 --> 00:29:10.140 you to explain the mechanics of this transformation 00:29:10.140 --> 00:29:12.619 because the contrast is unbelievable. How does 00:29:12.619 --> 00:29:14.900 the gentle radio singer, the guy who made a living 00:29:14.900 --> 00:29:17.579 sockily crooning about the blue tail fly, physically 00:29:17.579 --> 00:29:20.400 and emotionally pull off the domineering, menacing 00:29:20.400 --> 00:29:22.940 gravity required to play Big Daddy? If you look 00:29:22.940 --> 00:29:25.400 closely in his history, the raw materials were 00:29:25.400 --> 00:29:27.910 always there. He just had to recalibrate them. 00:29:28.170 --> 00:29:30.750 First, physically, he was an enormous man. He 00:29:30.750 --> 00:29:32.890 was a former college football lineman. Right 00:29:32.890 --> 00:29:35.549 from the Beowulf Lecture. Exactly. When he stood 00:29:35.549 --> 00:29:38.170 up and commanded a room, he cast a massive shadow. 00:29:39.009 --> 00:29:41.329 But more importantly, let's go back to Julliard. 00:29:41.650 --> 00:29:45.029 He had immense, rigorously trained vocal control. 00:29:45.529 --> 00:29:48.049 He knew exactly how to support his diaphragm 00:29:48.049 --> 00:29:51.049 to project a booming, terrifying roar that could 00:29:51.049 --> 00:29:53.750 shake the back walls of a theater just as easily 00:29:53.750 --> 00:29:56.849 as he could whisper a lullaby. He used his breath 00:29:56.849 --> 00:30:00.009 control not to sing, but to weaponize Tennessee 00:30:00.009 --> 00:30:02.269 Williams' dialogue. Wow. And you have to wonder 00:30:02.269 --> 00:30:04.390 how much the blacklist played into that performance. 00:30:04.490 --> 00:30:06.970 Oh, it is impossible to separate the two. Think 00:30:06.970 --> 00:30:09.049 about the well of emotion he was drawing from, 00:30:09.390 --> 00:30:11.750 the itinerant struggles of the 1930s, the brutal 00:30:11.750 --> 00:30:14.549 trauma of the HUAC testimony, the loss of his 00:30:14.549 --> 00:30:16.890 closest friends, the public vilification from 00:30:16.890 --> 00:30:19.339 Pete Seeger. That's a lot of baggage. All of 00:30:19.339 --> 00:30:22.359 that pain, guilt, and survival instinct lent 00:30:22.359 --> 00:30:25.220 a gravelly, hard -earned, terrifying authenticity 00:30:25.220 --> 00:30:27.500 to Big Daddy. He wasn't a singer pretending to 00:30:27.500 --> 00:30:30.079 be an angry patriarch. He was an actor tapping 00:30:30.079 --> 00:30:33.279 into a deep, very real well of psychological 00:30:33.279 --> 00:30:35.779 survival. He commanded the screen because he 00:30:35.779 --> 00:30:37.680 had sacrificed a piece of his soul just to be 00:30:37.680 --> 00:30:40.680 allowed on it. Man. And that command reached 00:30:40.680 --> 00:30:43.279 its absolute cinematic peak the very same year, 00:30:43.400 --> 00:30:47.579 in 1958. He stars as Rufus Hanasi in the sweeping 00:30:47.579 --> 00:30:50.940 Western epic, The Big Country. Rufus Hanasi is 00:30:50.940 --> 00:30:53.940 another imposing, unforgettable, violently stubborn 00:30:53.940 --> 00:30:56.339 patriarch locked in a feud over water rights. 00:30:56.579 --> 00:30:59.579 And for that performance, Burl Ives, the college 00:30:59.579 --> 00:31:02.500 dropout, the former hobo thrown in a Utah jail 00:31:02.500 --> 00:31:05.000 for a body song, the man who nearly lost his 00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:07.099 career to the Red Scare, wins the Academy Award 00:31:07.099 --> 00:31:08.859 for Best Supporting Actor. It is the ultimate 00:31:08.859 --> 00:31:11.220 validation. He proved that his pivot wasn't just 00:31:11.220 --> 00:31:13.579 a desperate escape, it was a transition into 00:31:13.579 --> 00:31:16.109 mastery. He follows up the Oscar win the next 00:31:16.109 --> 00:31:19.450 year by starring in a bleak, claustrophobic film 00:31:19.450 --> 00:31:22.569 noir called Day of the Outlaw in 1959. He had 00:31:22.569 --> 00:31:25.049 completely rewritten his narrative. He had conquered 00:31:25.049 --> 00:31:27.769 the folk world, mastered the intimacy of radio, 00:31:28.410 --> 00:31:30.690 survived the political blacklist, and reached 00:31:30.690 --> 00:31:33.349 the absolute undeniable pinnacle of Hollywood 00:31:33.349 --> 00:31:35.890 acting. You would think, at this point, entering 00:31:35.890 --> 00:31:38.390 his 50s with an Oscar on his mantle, he would 00:31:38.390 --> 00:31:40.829 just coast. Most people would. The legacy was 00:31:40.829 --> 00:31:43.160 completely secure. But Burr lives wasn't done 00:31:43.160 --> 00:31:46.099 shape shifting, not even close. In the 1960s, 00:31:46.180 --> 00:31:49.180 he would initiate one final massive transition. 00:31:49.519 --> 00:31:52.220 He would synthesize all of his past lives, the 00:31:52.220 --> 00:31:54.660 gentle singer, the booming actor, the intimate 00:31:54.660 --> 00:31:57.859 storyteller into an enduring pop culture legacy 00:31:57.859 --> 00:32:00.099 that would outlast almost everything else he 00:32:00.099 --> 00:32:02.539 ever did. This is the era where he ascends from 00:32:02.539 --> 00:32:05.259 being a famous actor to becoming a ubiquitous, 00:32:05.539 --> 00:32:07.480 immortal cultural fixture. Let's look at how 00:32:07.480 --> 00:32:09.539 he did it, starting with his return to music. 00:32:09.720 --> 00:32:13.000 In the early 1960s, he pivots genres. He leaves 00:32:13.000 --> 00:32:15.119 the pure folk behind and transitions into country 00:32:15.119 --> 00:32:17.460 music. He moves to recording in Nashville for 00:32:17.460 --> 00:32:19.599 Decker Records, and he starts working with a 00:32:19.599 --> 00:32:22.319 producer named Owen Bradley. Owen Bradley is 00:32:22.319 --> 00:32:25.240 a titan of the music industry. Along with Chet 00:32:25.240 --> 00:32:28.200 Atkins, Bradley essentially invented what became 00:32:28.200 --> 00:32:31.309 known as the Nashville sound. What exactly made 00:32:31.309 --> 00:32:33.529 the Nashville sound different from what Ives 00:32:33.529 --> 00:32:36.130 was doing before? Traditional folk and early 00:32:36.130 --> 00:32:39.049 country music were raw. It was fiddles, acoustic 00:32:39.049 --> 00:32:42.049 guitars, and twang. It was porch music. Right. 00:32:42.289 --> 00:32:44.450 Owen Bradley realized that to sell country music 00:32:44.450 --> 00:32:47.369 to a massive, urban mainstream pop audience, 00:32:47.750 --> 00:32:50.549 you had to smooth out those rough edges. The 00:32:50.549 --> 00:32:53.089 Nashville sound replaced the fiddles with lush, 00:32:53.369 --> 00:32:56.170 sweeping string sections. They added smooth, 00:32:56.309 --> 00:32:59.369 background vocal choirs. It was polished, sophisticated, 00:32:59.589 --> 00:33:01.829 and highly produced. And that sophisticated sound 00:33:01.829 --> 00:33:04.670 was the perfect vehicle for Ives' Julliard -trained 00:33:04.670 --> 00:33:07.630 voice. Bradley used the famous Nashville A -Team 00:33:07.630 --> 00:33:10.130 of session musicians, including the pristine 00:33:10.130 --> 00:33:12.250 harmonies of the Anita Kerr singers, to back 00:33:12.250 --> 00:33:14.970 Ives up. The results were immediate. Oh, huge 00:33:14.970 --> 00:33:18.150 hits. Massive. In 1962, he releases a string 00:33:18.150 --> 00:33:20.809 of crossover hits. Little Bitty Tear, Call Me 00:33:20.809 --> 00:33:23.349 Mr. In -Between, and Funny Way of Laughing. These 00:33:23.349 --> 00:33:25.490 songs didn't just top the country charts. They 00:33:25.490 --> 00:33:27.529 crossed over and conquered the mainstream pop 00:33:27.529 --> 00:33:30.089 charts. He had taken his operatic folk voice 00:33:30.089 --> 00:33:32.990 and successfully mapped it onto the most commercial 00:33:32.990 --> 00:33:35.950 sound of the decade. But the most enduring collaboration 00:33:35.950 --> 00:33:38.369 between Burl Ives and the Nashville recording 00:33:38.369 --> 00:33:41.069 apparatus wasn't for a standard album. It was 00:33:41.069 --> 00:33:43.289 a recording session for a television special. 00:33:43.710 --> 00:33:46.009 And this is where the legend is truly cemented. 00:33:46.210 --> 00:33:48.869 The creation of a holiday immortal. In 1964, 00:33:49.210 --> 00:33:51.230 the Rankin -Bass production company is putting 00:33:51.230 --> 00:33:54.049 together a family special for NBC called Rudolph 00:33:54.049 --> 00:33:56.930 the Red -Nosed Reindeer. Rankin -Bass utilized 00:33:56.930 --> 00:33:59.509 a specific type of stop motion animation called 00:33:59.509 --> 00:34:03.220 animagic. It was a painstaking frame by frame 00:34:03.220 --> 00:34:06.200 mechanical process using small dolls with wire 00:34:06.200 --> 00:34:09.460 armatures. It has a very distinct, slightly jerky, 00:34:09.719 --> 00:34:12.139 but incredibly warm and charming visual style. 00:34:12.360 --> 00:34:14.460 But the visual style needed a voice to ground 00:34:14.460 --> 00:34:17.000 it. They hire Burl Ives to voice a character 00:34:17.000 --> 00:34:20.130 specifically designed for him. Sam the Snowman. 00:34:20.309 --> 00:34:22.829 I love Sam the Snowman. Everyone does. Sam is 00:34:22.829 --> 00:34:24.889 a banjo playing snowman wearing a plaid vest 00:34:24.889 --> 00:34:27.150 who serves as the on -screen host and the narrator 00:34:27.150 --> 00:34:29.809 of the entire story. He's the absolute perfect 00:34:29.809 --> 00:34:32.570 synthesis of his entire career. Think about it. 00:34:32.829 --> 00:34:35.369 Sam the Snowman directly addresses the camera, 00:34:35.869 --> 00:34:38.349 explaining how Rudolph uses his nonconformity 00:34:38.349 --> 00:34:41.590 to save Christmas from a blizzard. Ives uses 00:34:41.590 --> 00:34:44.670 the intimate, fireside storytelling timing he 00:34:44.670 --> 00:34:47.010 perfected on the Wayfaring Stranger radio show. 00:34:47.170 --> 00:34:51.130 He uses the warm, avuncular folk persona he built 00:34:51.130 --> 00:34:54.050 in the 30s. He uses the theatrical enunciation 00:34:54.050 --> 00:34:56.110 he perfected on Broadway so that every child 00:34:56.110 --> 00:34:59.530 can understand every word. He sings the soundtrack, 00:34:59.750 --> 00:35:02.010 composed by Johnny Marks. He sings the title 00:35:02.010 --> 00:35:04.050 track. He sings Silver and Gold. And of course 00:35:04.050 --> 00:35:07.070 he sings A Holly Jolly Christmas. And those specific 00:35:07.070 --> 00:35:10.340 recordings? Transcended television. they became 00:35:10.340 --> 00:35:12.820 structural pillars of the American holiday season. 00:35:13.159 --> 00:35:14.840 To understand the sheer permanence of what he 00:35:14.840 --> 00:35:16.539 recorded in that booth, look at the billboard 00:35:16.539 --> 00:35:19.420 data. A Holly Jelly Christmas made the billboard 00:35:19.420 --> 00:35:22.559 year -end chart in 2022. That is insane. That 00:35:22.559 --> 00:35:25.639 is 27 years after Burl Ives died. That is almost 00:35:25.639 --> 00:35:27.860 60 years after he recorded it. It still charts 00:35:27.860 --> 00:35:30.219 annually on the billboard holiday top 100 into 00:35:30.219 --> 00:35:32.840 the 2020s. Every December, his voice returns 00:35:32.840 --> 00:35:35.739 to every mall, every radio station, and every 00:35:35.739 --> 00:35:38.059 living room in the country. It is a level of 00:35:38.059 --> 00:35:40.840 cultural immortality that Oscar winners and chart 00:35:40.840 --> 00:35:43.880 -popping pop stars dream of, but very few ever 00:35:43.880 --> 00:35:46.780 actually achieve. He became the voice of December. 00:35:47.199 --> 00:35:49.880 But his ubiquitous presence in the 60s and 70s 00:35:49.880 --> 00:35:52.300 wasn't limited to Christmas. He was everywhere 00:35:52.300 --> 00:35:55.599 on television and his resume is wildly, wonderfully 00:35:55.599 --> 00:35:58.579 eclectic. He stars in Disney's live -action film 00:35:58.579 --> 00:36:01.739 Summer Magic with Hayley Mills. He plays a literal 00:36:01.739 --> 00:36:04.719 genie in a bottle in the 1964 movie The Brass 00:36:04.719 --> 00:36:07.219 Bottle alongside Tony Randall. Which is so funny. 00:36:07.389 --> 00:36:09.750 Why would an Academy Award -winning dramatic 00:36:09.750 --> 00:36:12.369 actor take a role as a genie? Because he had 00:36:12.369 --> 00:36:14.329 completely liberated himself from being boxed 00:36:14.329 --> 00:36:17.210 into a single genre. He realized that his presence, 00:36:17.789 --> 00:36:20.469 his physical size, and his boony voice was a 00:36:20.469 --> 00:36:22.550 tool that could be applied to any tone, from 00:36:22.550 --> 00:36:25.269 high drama to slapstick comedy. He stars in a 00:36:25.269 --> 00:36:28.630 short -lived 1965 comedy series called OK, Crackerby, 00:36:28.929 --> 00:36:30.710 playing the presumed richest man in the world. 00:36:30.889 --> 00:36:33.329 He pivots back to drama, playing Walter Nichols, 00:36:33.650 --> 00:36:35.610 a senior attorney in the hit series The Bold 00:36:35.610 --> 00:36:39.269 Ones, The Lawyers from 1969 to 1972. But then 00:36:39.269 --> 00:36:41.650 he takes these incredibly bizarre dark turns. 00:36:42.269 --> 00:36:46.809 Yes. He does macabre, spooky television. In 1970, 00:36:47.070 --> 00:36:49.389 he stars in a TV movie called The Man Who Wanted 00:36:49.389 --> 00:36:52.340 to Live Forever. And his character is a man who 00:36:52.340 --> 00:36:54.300 operates an isolated mountain facility where 00:36:54.300 --> 00:36:56.699 he tries to harvest human organs from unwilling 00:36:56.699 --> 00:36:59.000 donors to extend his own life. Which is deeply 00:36:59.000 --> 00:37:01.380 unsettling. Sam the snowman is harvesting organs. 00:37:01.659 --> 00:37:04.920 Exactly. He uses that warm, grandfatherly voice 00:37:04.920 --> 00:37:08.679 to be absolutely terrifying. In 1972, he guest 00:37:08.679 --> 00:37:11.039 stars in an episode of Rod Serling's Night Gallery 00:37:11.039 --> 00:37:13.780 called The Other Way Out, playing a man seeking 00:37:13.780 --> 00:37:16.539 a highly gruesome psychological revenge for a 00:37:16.539 --> 00:37:19.059 murder. Wow. And let's not forget his legendary 00:37:19.059 --> 00:37:21.699 1970s guest appearance on Little House on the 00:37:21.699 --> 00:37:24.260 Prairie. In season three, episode 10, he plays 00:37:24.260 --> 00:37:27.320 an old, blind fur trapper who is terrified to 00:37:27.320 --> 00:37:29.340 leave his cabin but ends up using his knowledge 00:37:29.340 --> 00:37:31.440 of the woods to help Laura Ingalls rescue her 00:37:31.440 --> 00:37:33.639 severely injured father. He took the massive 00:37:33.639 --> 00:37:36.500 theatrical gravity he used on Broadway and learned 00:37:36.500 --> 00:37:38.719 how to compress it for the small, intimate box 00:37:38.719 --> 00:37:41.840 of a 1970s television set. He was completely 00:37:41.840 --> 00:37:44.420 fearless in his later career. He was also everywhere 00:37:44.420 --> 00:37:47.360 in commercial and civic life. He spent the 70s 00:37:47.360 --> 00:37:49.820 and 80s as the commercial spokesman for Louisiana 00:37:49.820 --> 00:37:52.820 Tea. He became the face of the U .S. Bureau of 00:37:52.820 --> 00:37:55.639 Land Management's This Land Is Your Land Keep 00:37:55.639 --> 00:37:58.380 It Clean campaign, appearing alongside the fictional 00:37:58.380 --> 00:38:00.940 spokesman Johnny Horizon. Which is a beautiful 00:38:00.940 --> 00:38:03.860 callback to his vagabond days. The hobo who used 00:38:03.860 --> 00:38:06.059 to sleep in the dirt was now the national spokesman 00:38:06.059 --> 00:38:08.179 for keeping the American landscape pristine. 00:38:08.349 --> 00:38:11.809 He even narrated the 1971 NFL season highlight 00:38:11.809 --> 00:38:14.550 film for the Washington Redstones. His voice 00:38:14.550 --> 00:38:17.210 was so iconic that Disney hired him to be the 00:38:17.210 --> 00:38:19.570 main voice host playing an audio animatronic 00:38:19.570 --> 00:38:22.309 named Sam Eagle for the America Sings attraction 00:38:22.309 --> 00:38:25.269 that opened at Disneyland in 1974. When you look 00:38:25.269 --> 00:38:27.829 at this entire sprawling synthesis, it all clicks 00:38:27.829 --> 00:38:30.269 together perfectly. Every skill he picked up, 00:38:30.409 --> 00:38:32.789 every persona he inhabited, he kept in his toolbox. 00:38:33.190 --> 00:38:36.250 And his later life brought a wave of major honors 00:38:36.250 --> 00:38:38.929 that reflected all these different facets. In 00:38:38.929 --> 00:38:42.489 1966, the Boy Scouts of America, the organization 00:38:42.489 --> 00:38:45.110 he joined as a young lone scout, inducted him 00:38:45.110 --> 00:38:47.210 and awarded him their highest honor, the Silver 00:38:47.210 --> 00:38:49.789 Buffalo Award. His home state of Illinois awarded 00:38:49.789 --> 00:38:52.570 him the Order of Lincoln in 1976, their absolute 00:38:52.570 --> 00:38:55.010 highest honor in the performing arts. And he 00:38:55.010 --> 00:38:57.289 remained deeply dedicated to the organizations 00:38:57.289 --> 00:39:00.989 that gave him a foundation early on. In 1987, 00:39:01.260 --> 00:39:03.639 Sixty years after he was first initiated into 00:39:03.639 --> 00:39:06.019 Freemasonry as an 18 -year -old, he was elevated 00:39:06.019 --> 00:39:08.219 to the 33rd and highest degree of the Scottish 00:39:08.219 --> 00:39:11.460 Rite and later elected the Grand Cross. He was 00:39:11.460 --> 00:39:13.420 also inducted into the Demille International 00:39:13.420 --> 00:39:16.340 Hall of Fame in 1994. Looking briefly at his 00:39:16.340 --> 00:39:19.280 personal life, he was married twice. First, in 00:39:19.280 --> 00:39:21.900 1945, to a scriptwriter named Helen Peck -Ehrlich. 00:39:22.559 --> 00:39:25.480 They had a son, Alexander, in 1949. They eventually 00:39:25.480 --> 00:39:28.480 divorced in 1971, and shortly after, he married 00:39:28.480 --> 00:39:31.030 Dorothy Coaster -Paul. Over his later years, 00:39:31.050 --> 00:39:32.809 they lived a wonderfully varied life. They had 00:39:32.809 --> 00:39:35.289 a waterfront home in Anacortes, Washington, a 00:39:35.289 --> 00:39:37.929 place in Galistio, New Mexico, and in the 60s, 00:39:37.949 --> 00:39:39.989 he even had a home on a remote barrier island 00:39:39.989 --> 00:39:42.889 in the Bahamas. Right. He remained a wayfaring 00:39:42.889 --> 00:39:45.030 stranger to the very end, just traveling a bit 00:39:45.030 --> 00:39:48.250 more comfortably. But there is one final vital 00:39:48.250 --> 00:39:51.309 moment in his later life that brings his entire 00:39:51.309 --> 00:39:54.030 journey full circle. The reconciliation. Yes. 00:39:54.630 --> 00:39:57.429 For decades, the wound from the HUAC testimony 00:39:57.429 --> 00:40:00.500 remained open. The folk community had moved on, 00:40:00.840 --> 00:40:04.260 but the betrayal was a historical scar. However, 00:40:04.900 --> 00:40:07.780 time and age have a way of softening rigid lines. 00:40:08.380 --> 00:40:11.380 In 1993, there was a benefit concert in New York 00:40:11.380 --> 00:40:14.400 City. Burl Ives, who was 84 years old and using 00:40:14.400 --> 00:40:16.829 a wheelchair, came out on stage. And joining 00:40:16.829 --> 00:40:19.269 him on that stage was Pete Seeger. That must 00:40:19.269 --> 00:40:20.690 have been something to see. They had actually 00:40:20.690 --> 00:40:22.909 managed to reconcile privately years earlier, 00:40:23.010 --> 00:40:25.489 but this was their public moment. Together, the 00:40:25.489 --> 00:40:27.710 two men who had been violently torn apart by 00:40:27.710 --> 00:40:30.530 the geopolitical paranoia of the 1950s, the man 00:40:30.530 --> 00:40:32.730 who named names and the man who was blacklisted, 00:40:33.190 --> 00:40:35.889 sat together and sang The Blue Tail Fly. It is 00:40:35.889 --> 00:40:38.710 a profoundly moving resolution. It brought closure 00:40:38.710 --> 00:40:41.250 to the deepest, most agonizing crucible of his 00:40:41.250 --> 00:40:44.210 life. After all the reinventions, the Oscar win, 00:40:44.349 --> 00:40:46.809 the Nashville hits, the Christmas immortality, 00:40:47.349 --> 00:40:49.909 his story was allowed to end on a note of genuine 00:40:49.909 --> 00:40:52.769 harmony with his original community. The wayfaring 00:40:52.769 --> 00:40:55.250 stranger was finally welcomed back home. Burroughs 00:40:55.250 --> 00:40:57.170 had officially retired from show business on 00:40:57.170 --> 00:41:01.130 his 80th birthday in 1989. In the summer of 1994, 00:41:01.349 --> 00:41:04.050 the longtime pipe and cigar smoker was diagnosed 00:41:04.050 --> 00:41:07.230 with oral cancer. After undergoing several operations, 00:41:07.389 --> 00:41:09.469 he made the decision to refuse further surgery. 00:41:10.170 --> 00:41:13.050 He passed away on April 14th, 1995 at his home 00:41:13.050 --> 00:41:15.670 in Washington at the age of 85. He was brought 00:41:15.670 --> 00:41:17.989 back to where his journey began, buried at Mound 00:41:17.989 --> 00:41:20.670 Cemetery in Hunt City Township, Illinois. From 00:41:20.670 --> 00:41:23.090 singing in a Jasper County garden to broadcasting 00:41:23.090 --> 00:41:25.530 to millions to shaping the golden age of cinema 00:41:25.530 --> 00:41:28.079 and back to the soil of Illinois. Which brings 00:41:28.079 --> 00:41:30.579 us to the ultimate takeaway for you, the listener. 00:41:30.760 --> 00:41:33.199 We've spent this time charting one of the most 00:41:33.199 --> 00:41:35.940 chaotic, multi -faceted careers in entertainment 00:41:35.940 --> 00:41:38.920 history. When you are facing a massive pivot 00:41:38.920 --> 00:41:41.000 in your own life, whether that pivot is forced 00:41:41.000 --> 00:41:43.840 upon you by an economic shift, a personal crisis, 00:41:44.139 --> 00:41:46.260 or a choice you make to walk out of a situation 00:41:46.260 --> 00:41:49.019 that is draining your soul, remember the mechanics 00:41:49.019 --> 00:41:51.559 of Burr Lives. Absolutely. He didn't just change 00:41:51.559 --> 00:41:54.619 jobs. He didn't erase his past. He took the tools 00:41:54.619 --> 00:41:57.980 he gathered, his unmatched Juilliard vocal control, 00:41:58.059 --> 00:42:01.320 his deep hobo knack for storytelling, his ruthless 00:42:01.320 --> 00:42:03.980 resilience, and he adapted them to the medium 00:42:03.980 --> 00:42:06.619 of the moment. He survived by refusing to be 00:42:06.619 --> 00:42:09.219 defined by a single title. He proved that a life 00:42:09.219 --> 00:42:11.800 isn't a single straight rail line. It is a series 00:42:11.800 --> 00:42:14.360 of interconnected jumps. We are so often conditioned 00:42:14.360 --> 00:42:16.519 to think we must pick a path and stubbornly stay 00:42:16.519 --> 00:42:18.960 on it, but consider the alternative history. 00:42:19.239 --> 00:42:21.840 If Burl Ives had never stormed out of that Beowulf 00:42:21.840 --> 00:42:24.360 lecture, if he had just sat there, been a good 00:42:24.360 --> 00:42:27.059 student, and finished his teaching degree, or 00:42:27.059 --> 00:42:29.699 if the brutal claustrophobic pressures of the 00:42:29.699 --> 00:42:32.199 Cold War hadn't forced him to completely abandon 00:42:32.199 --> 00:42:35.239 his folk persona and reinvent himself as a serious 00:42:35.239 --> 00:42:38.000 dramatic actor, would he have ever held that 00:42:38.000 --> 00:42:40.639 Oscar? Would he have ever become the voice of 00:42:40.639 --> 00:42:43.579 our holidays? The friction, the rejection, and 00:42:43.579 --> 00:42:45.599 the forced transitions are what created the art. 00:42:45.929 --> 00:42:47.929 So we want to leave you with a final thought 00:42:47.929 --> 00:42:50.510 to mull over. What shattered window in your own 00:42:50.510 --> 00:42:52.929 life, what bridge you had to burn, what door 00:42:52.929 --> 00:42:55.730 you angrily slammed, what sudden chaotic break 00:42:55.730 --> 00:42:58.570 from your expected path might actually be the 00:42:58.570 --> 00:43:00.929 exact starting point of your greatest reinvention. 00:43:01.269 --> 00:43:03.369 Sometimes the broken pieces of glass on the floor 00:43:03.369 --> 00:43:05.530 are just pointing the way to a new open road. 00:43:05.929 --> 00:43:08.369 A perfect thought to end on. Thank you for joining 00:43:08.369 --> 00:43:11.170 us on this deep dive into the legacy of the ultimate 00:43:11.170 --> 00:43:14.250 wayfaring stranger, Burl Ives. Keep looking for 00:43:14.250 --> 00:43:15.130 those open roads.