WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.780 You know, when we think about pop stars today, 00:00:02.060 --> 00:00:05.360 it's basically an arms race for volume. Oh, totally. 00:00:05.519 --> 00:00:07.780 Right. Like, we picture the pyrotechnics, the 00:00:07.780 --> 00:00:11.099 stadium tours, those massive subwoofers. It really 00:00:11.099 --> 00:00:13.679 feels like you just have to scream to be heard 00:00:13.679 --> 00:00:16.839 over the baseline noise of the industry. It is 00:00:16.839 --> 00:00:19.460 a cultural competition of who can be the loudest. 00:00:19.480 --> 00:00:21.699 I mean, without a doubt. And if you look at the 00:00:21.699 --> 00:00:24.519 history of entertainment, it has almost always 00:00:24.519 --> 00:00:27.500 operated on that exact logic. Bigger, brighter, 00:00:27.899 --> 00:00:31.000 louder. But today, we are diving into a forgotten 00:00:31.000 --> 00:00:34.439 1920s superstar who completely, I mean, just 00:00:34.439 --> 00:00:36.100 totally flipped that logic on its head. Yeah, 00:00:36.100 --> 00:00:38.140 he really did. We're going to look at a guy who 00:00:38.140 --> 00:00:40.280 conquered the absolute loudest decade in modern 00:00:40.280 --> 00:00:42.359 history, not with a scream, but with a whisper. 00:00:42.500 --> 00:00:44.880 It's such a great contrast. It really is. So 00:00:44.880 --> 00:00:47.079 for you listening, we are doing a deep dive into 00:00:47.079 --> 00:00:49.340 the life of a man named Whispering Jack Smith. 00:00:49.619 --> 00:00:53.179 And we're using his journey to look at how a, 00:00:53.179 --> 00:00:56.960 well, a devastating personal trauma can actually 00:00:56.960 --> 00:00:59.899 accidentally birth a revolutionary pop culture 00:00:59.899 --> 00:01:02.979 aspect. Right. And honestly, what his story reveals 00:01:02.979 --> 00:01:05.439 about the completely brutal economy of fame, 00:01:05.959 --> 00:01:08.920 it's an incredible narrative to dig into, especially 00:01:08.920 --> 00:01:11.719 when you realize the sheer scale of his success. 00:01:11.760 --> 00:01:13.819 Yeah, contrasted with how quickly the industry 00:01:13.819 --> 00:01:16.540 just moved past him. Okay, let's unpack this, 00:01:17.040 --> 00:01:19.120 because before he was whispering Jack Smith, 00:01:19.400 --> 00:01:22.280 this international sensation, he was just a kid 00:01:22.280 --> 00:01:25.019 from the Bronx. Exactly, Jacob Schmidt. Right, 00:01:25.060 --> 00:01:29.019 Jacob Schmidt, born May 30th, 1896. And to really 00:01:29.019 --> 00:01:31.920 grasp what he accomplished and what he ultimately 00:01:31.920 --> 00:01:34.379 lost, we have to look at his starting point. 00:01:34.489 --> 00:01:36.670 And we get a wonderfully grounded look at who 00:01:36.670 --> 00:01:39.329 this young man was right before the world fundamentally 00:01:39.329 --> 00:01:41.989 changed for him. There's this World War I draft 00:01:41.989 --> 00:01:44.090 registration card. Oh yeah, the draft card. Yeah, 00:01:44.109 --> 00:01:47.310 dated June 5th, 1917. He fills it out at a precinct 00:01:47.310 --> 00:01:49.510 in the Bronx. He's 21 years old and he signs 00:01:49.510 --> 00:01:51.650 it Jack Schmidt. And the physical description 00:01:51.650 --> 00:01:54.170 on that card is just so vivid. The registrar 00:01:54.170 --> 00:01:56.730 marks him down as tall with a medium build, blue 00:01:56.730 --> 00:01:59.150 eyes and brown hair. It paints a picture of a 00:01:59.150 --> 00:02:01.930 young, healthy guy, right? Exactly. Ready to 00:02:01.930 --> 00:02:05.090 take on the world. And under occupational details, 00:02:05.390 --> 00:02:07.730 he lists theatrical singer, is working for the 00:02:07.730 --> 00:02:10.069 McLaughlin Agency out of Pittsburgh, and for 00:02:10.069 --> 00:02:12.289 his location of employment, he literally just 00:02:12.289 --> 00:02:14.889 writes, traveling in theaters. Which is a fascinating 00:02:14.889 --> 00:02:17.289 detail. It tells us exactly the kind of grind 00:02:17.289 --> 00:02:20.669 he was on. I mean, at 21, he is a working, traveling 00:02:20.669 --> 00:02:23.969 vaudeville baritone. Right, and this is pre -microphone. 00:02:24.210 --> 00:02:27.430 Yes, pre -amplification entirely. He is standing 00:02:27.430 --> 00:02:30.490 on these wooden stages in packed... Noisy theaters 00:02:30.490 --> 00:02:33.289 projecting his voice to the very back row. That 00:02:33.289 --> 00:02:35.770 requires immense physical stamina. And immense 00:02:35.770 --> 00:02:39.090 lung capacity. Exactly. It's pure physical exertion. 00:02:39.229 --> 00:02:40.990 And here is the detail in that draft card that 00:02:40.990 --> 00:02:43.490 just honestly it stopped me in my tracks. Under 00:02:43.490 --> 00:02:46.270 dependence, he lists exactly one person. His 00:02:46.270 --> 00:02:49.189 mother, Anna. Wow. So you have a 21 -year -old 00:02:49.189 --> 00:02:51.509 guy, single, traveling the country, singing in 00:02:51.509 --> 00:02:54.289 these vaudeville houses, and he is the sole financial 00:02:54.289 --> 00:02:56.449 support for his mom back in New York. That is 00:02:56.449 --> 00:02:58.669 a lot of pressure. Right. Oh, and the registrar 00:02:58.669 --> 00:03:01.590 also explicitly checks no to the question of 00:03:01.590 --> 00:03:04.030 visible scars and notes that he has absolutely 00:03:04.030 --> 00:03:07.189 no physical disabilities. It is a haunting document 00:03:07.189 --> 00:03:09.370 to read when you know the timeline. It really 00:03:09.370 --> 00:03:13.139 is. It's a snapshot. of a healthy, ambitious 00:03:13.139 --> 00:03:17.159 kid whose entire livelihood is tied to his physical 00:03:17.159 --> 00:03:20.259 ability to project sound. Because the turning 00:03:20.259 --> 00:03:22.620 point of Jacob Schmidt's entire existence happens 00:03:22.620 --> 00:03:25.199 shortly after he signs that card. He gets drafted. 00:03:25.520 --> 00:03:28.419 He is sent overseas to fight in World War I, 00:03:28.800 --> 00:03:31.960 and during his service, a gas shell explodes 00:03:31.960 --> 00:03:35.060 right near him. And the immediate physical result 00:03:35.060 --> 00:03:37.659 of that explosion is permanent catastrophic damage 00:03:37.659 --> 00:03:39.919 to his lungs. Which fundamentally alters his 00:03:39.919 --> 00:03:42.080 trajectory. I mean, a gas attack in those trenches 00:03:42.080 --> 00:03:44.979 didn't just cause superficial burns. It scorched 00:03:44.979 --> 00:03:47.319 the respiratory system. It literally destroyed 00:03:47.319 --> 00:03:49.280 the lung tissue. I really want to sit with the 00:03:49.280 --> 00:03:51.360 mechanics of that injury for a second, because 00:03:51.360 --> 00:03:54.020 we often hear damaged lungs and just think of 00:03:54.020 --> 00:03:56.939 like a cough. Right, a bad cough. But for a theatrical 00:03:56.939 --> 00:03:59.300 singer, your diaphragm and your lung capacity, 00:03:59.379 --> 00:04:01.400 I mean, they're your engine. To hit the back 00:04:01.400 --> 00:04:03.780 of a vaudeville theater, you are pushing massive 00:04:03.780 --> 00:04:06.740 amounts of air across your vocal cords to create 00:04:06.740 --> 00:04:09.259 resonance in your chest and head. And when that 00:04:09.259 --> 00:04:11.740 gas shell went off, his engine was permanently 00:04:11.740 --> 00:04:14.620 destroyed. It's like a visual artist losing their 00:04:14.620 --> 00:04:17.300 eyesight, you know, and forcing them to paint 00:04:17.300 --> 00:04:20.199 entirely in shadows, like a heavyweight boxer 00:04:20.199 --> 00:04:22.620 losing their punching power and having to completely 00:04:22.620 --> 00:04:25.019 reinvent themselves just to stay in the ring. 00:04:25.699 --> 00:04:29.180 How does a stage singer even survive when the 00:04:29.180 --> 00:04:31.160 physical instrument of their trade is broken? 00:04:31.560 --> 00:04:33.519 Well, what's fascinating here is that the human 00:04:33.519 --> 00:04:36.759 instinct for survival often bypasses our limitations. 00:04:37.220 --> 00:04:40.279 It forces us to create something completely unprecedented. 00:04:40.540 --> 00:04:43.000 He didn't quit. No, he didn't. He was forced 00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:45.509 to develop a new style. which the historical 00:04:45.509 --> 00:04:48.709 record describes as a half singing, half talking 00:04:48.709 --> 00:04:51.829 delivery. Wow. And I think it is crucial for 00:04:51.829 --> 00:04:54.649 you listening to this deep dive to realize that 00:04:54.649 --> 00:04:57.230 this wasn't some clever marketing gimmick concocted 00:04:57.230 --> 00:04:59.790 in a boardroom. It was a strict physical necessity. 00:04:59.810 --> 00:05:01.829 Because he literally couldn't belt it out anymore. 00:05:01.949 --> 00:05:04.149 He simply did not have the breath support to 00:05:04.149 --> 00:05:06.310 belt out a song. He had to figure out how to 00:05:06.310 --> 00:05:09.230 be compelling without volume. Right. If you can't 00:05:09.230 --> 00:05:11.170 push the sound out to the audience, you have 00:05:11.170 --> 00:05:13.089 to figure out a way to draw the audience into 00:05:13.089 --> 00:05:15.670 you. He had to compensate for the total lack 00:05:15.670 --> 00:05:18.389 of power with an absolute abundance of intimacy. 00:05:18.790 --> 00:05:22.269 And in doing so, he essentially created the mechanical 00:05:22.269 --> 00:05:25.250 blueprint for what we now recognize as modern 00:05:25.250 --> 00:05:27.310 microphone crooning. Oh, that makes so much sense. 00:05:27.410 --> 00:05:29.790 He was using the texture of his vocal cords rather 00:05:29.790 --> 00:05:31.970 than the sheer air pressure from his lungs. So 00:05:31.970 --> 00:05:34.410 he comes back from the war and the vaudeville 00:05:34.410 --> 00:05:37.399 world. which still absolutely demands volume 00:05:37.399 --> 00:05:40.540 is now a completely hostile environment for him. 00:05:40.879 --> 00:05:43.399 Like, he can't physically do the job he left 00:05:43.399 --> 00:05:45.959 behind. No, he can't. He has to find a back door 00:05:45.959 --> 00:05:48.600 to stay in the industry, which perfectly explains 00:05:48.600 --> 00:05:53.180 why he ends up taking a job in 1918 as a song 00:05:53.180 --> 00:05:56.220 plugger for the Irving Berlin Music Publishing 00:05:56.220 --> 00:05:58.970 Company. It is the ultimate hustle. Instead of 00:05:58.970 --> 00:06:00.610 standing on a stage trying to reach a thousand 00:06:00.610 --> 00:06:03.350 people, he is sitting at a piano in a publisher's 00:06:03.350 --> 00:06:06.170 office hammering out the newest sheet music all 00:06:06.170 --> 00:06:08.449 day long for passing performers. It's grueling. 00:06:08.569 --> 00:06:11.569 Grueling, unglamorous work, but it kept his hands 00:06:11.569 --> 00:06:13.949 on the keys and his ear in the industry. And 00:06:13.949 --> 00:06:15.670 more importantly, it allowed him to sit down 00:06:15.670 --> 00:06:18.209 and play in a smaller room where his damaged 00:06:18.209 --> 00:06:20.709 voice could actually be heard without him having 00:06:20.709 --> 00:06:24.089 to shout. He is substituting volume with musicality 00:06:24.089 --> 00:06:26.920 and sheer charm. And that basically sets the 00:06:26.920 --> 00:06:29.420 stage for a massive stroke of luck. He eventually 00:06:29.420 --> 00:06:31.500 transitions to working as a pianist at a radio 00:06:31.500 --> 00:06:34.860 station. And one day, the scheduled singer for 00:06:34.860 --> 00:06:37.660 a live broadcast just fails to show up. It's 00:06:37.660 --> 00:06:39.899 the quintessential show biz break, right? Right. 00:06:40.399 --> 00:06:42.519 The star is missing, the airwaves are dead, and 00:06:42.519 --> 00:06:44.399 the piano player has to step up to the microphone. 00:06:44.600 --> 00:06:48.060 He steps up. And this is the moment where his 00:06:48.319 --> 00:06:51.699 trauma -induced survival mechanism collides with 00:06:51.699 --> 00:06:54.620 the exact technological innovation required to 00:06:54.620 --> 00:06:56.779 make it shine. The microphone. The microphone. 00:06:57.379 --> 00:07:00.800 By 1925, he's making records, and by 1926 and 00:07:00.800 --> 00:07:03.720 1927, he is at the absolute zenith of the industry. 00:07:04.160 --> 00:07:06.459 He has these massive chart -topping hits with 00:07:06.459 --> 00:07:09.180 songs like, Give Me a Little Kiss, Will Ya, and 00:07:09.180 --> 00:07:11.819 his defining signature tune, Me and My Shadow. 00:07:12.060 --> 00:07:14.879 And the critical reception was phenomenal. I 00:07:14.879 --> 00:07:16.399 mean, contemporary reviewers were completely 00:07:16.399 --> 00:07:18.680 captivated by him. They described his style as 00:07:18.680 --> 00:07:20.819 the epitome of understatement. The epitome of 00:07:20.819 --> 00:07:22.779 understatement. I love that. Yeah. They praised 00:07:22.779 --> 00:07:25.279 his disarmingly intimate, polite, and velvety 00:07:25.279 --> 00:07:27.980 smooth delivery. And they explicitly noted that 00:07:27.980 --> 00:07:29.899 this quietness distinguished him from literally 00:07:29.899 --> 00:07:32.720 everyone else in the business. Wow. Another reviewer 00:07:32.720 --> 00:07:35.639 pointed out his pleasing stage presence and a 00:07:35.639 --> 00:07:38.199 genial manner, noting how quickly he established 00:07:38.199 --> 00:07:41.540 contact with his audience. The epitome of understatement. 00:07:41.610 --> 00:07:43.689 That phrase really strikes me, especially when 00:07:43.689 --> 00:07:46.029 you contextualize it, because we are talking 00:07:46.029 --> 00:07:49.029 about the mid to late 1920s. The roaring 20s. 00:07:49.089 --> 00:07:51.949 The roaring 20s. This is a cultural moment defined 00:07:51.949 --> 00:07:55.050 by frantic energy. You have massive brass bands, 00:07:55.370 --> 00:07:58.009 the explosion of jazz, the Charleston, loud, 00:07:58.410 --> 00:08:01.730 unamplified vaudeville. It is an era of pure, 00:08:02.029 --> 00:08:04.790 unfiltered noise. Very true. So to have a guy 00:08:04.790 --> 00:08:07.430 who's defining characteristic as understatement 00:08:07.430 --> 00:08:10.129 come in and dominate the charts, it almost feels 00:08:10.129 --> 00:08:12.189 like a paradox. How does a whisper cut through 00:08:12.189 --> 00:08:14.649 the loudest decade in modern history? Well, that 00:08:14.649 --> 00:08:17.529 paradox is exactly why his story is so important 00:08:17.529 --> 00:08:19.850 to the evolution of media. You have to look at 00:08:19.850 --> 00:08:21.889 what early radio was doing to the architecture 00:08:21.889 --> 00:08:25.350 of society at that exact moment. OK. Before radio, 00:08:25.769 --> 00:08:27.589 entertainment was almost exclusively a communal, 00:08:27.850 --> 00:08:30.389 public, and loud experience. You sat in a room 00:08:30.389 --> 00:08:32.710 with hundreds of strangers and the performer 00:08:32.710 --> 00:08:34.950 had to project sound across a physical distance. 00:08:35.330 --> 00:08:38.289 The performer was talking to a crowd. Not to 00:08:38.289 --> 00:08:41.570 an individual. Exactly. But radio brought the 00:08:41.570 --> 00:08:43.629 performer directly into the private sanctuary 00:08:43.629 --> 00:08:45.610 of the home. It was happening right in your living 00:08:45.610 --> 00:08:47.590 room. Oh, wow. Right. If someone is standing 00:08:47.590 --> 00:08:49.649 in your living room, you don't want them belting 00:08:49.649 --> 00:08:51.289 at the top of their lungs like they're trying 00:08:51.289 --> 00:08:53.750 to reach the balcony. You want them speaking 00:08:53.750 --> 00:08:57.149 directly to you. The technology of the microphone 00:08:57.149 --> 00:08:59.889 and the radio receiver allowed Jack Smith to 00:08:59.889 --> 00:09:02.710 completely bypass the crowd and whisper right 00:09:02.710 --> 00:09:05.820 into the listener's ear. So he weaponized the 00:09:05.820 --> 00:09:08.700 microphone before most of the industry even understood 00:09:08.700 --> 00:09:11.860 what it was actually for. He really did. Because 00:09:11.860 --> 00:09:14.320 most singers at that time treated the microphone 00:09:14.320 --> 00:09:16.559 like it was just a mechanical megaphone. They 00:09:16.559 --> 00:09:19.659 still yelled into it. Jack Smith realized it 00:09:19.659 --> 00:09:22.480 was a tool for closeness. And his damaged lungs 00:09:22.480 --> 00:09:25.039 meant he literally had to lean in close to the 00:09:25.039 --> 00:09:28.200 mic just to register a signal. Right. And the 00:09:28.200 --> 00:09:31.539 result was this velvety conversational tone that 00:09:31.539 --> 00:09:33.480 made millions of people feel like he was sitting 00:09:33.480 --> 00:09:35.860 right next to them. He proved that intimacy was 00:09:35.860 --> 00:09:38.899 just as marketable as spectacle. The very injury 00:09:38.899 --> 00:09:41.179 that ruined his theatrical career made him the 00:09:41.179 --> 00:09:44.049 absolute perfect pioneer for the radio age. He 00:09:44.049 --> 00:09:46.809 essentially invents a new paradigm. But as we 00:09:46.809 --> 00:09:48.590 establish the beginning of this deep dive, we 00:09:48.590 --> 00:09:50.669 have to look at the brutal nature of showbiz 00:09:50.669 --> 00:09:53.590 fame. We do. And this is where the story shifts 00:09:53.590 --> 00:09:56.590 from a triumphant underdog narrative to a very 00:09:56.590 --> 00:09:58.649 dark commentary on how the entertainment machine 00:09:58.649 --> 00:10:02.049 operates. So Jack Smith proves this intimate 00:10:02.049 --> 00:10:04.950 formula works. He is an international name. Huge 00:10:04.950 --> 00:10:09.149 name. In 1927, he takes this uniquely American 00:10:09.149 --> 00:10:11.990 intimate style across the Atlantic. He tours 00:10:11.990 --> 00:10:14.070 England with the Blue Skies Theatre Company, 00:10:14.389 --> 00:10:16.169 performing the great American songbook, you know, 00:10:16.269 --> 00:10:18.990 tunes by Gershwin and Rogers in Hearts Manhattan. 00:10:19.409 --> 00:10:21.909 He is the toast of London. He's at the absolute 00:10:21.909 --> 00:10:24.409 peak of his global reach. And then the floor 00:10:24.409 --> 00:10:26.110 just falls out. Yeah. Right in the middle of 00:10:26.110 --> 00:10:28.610 this massive success in the UK, he is abruptly 00:10:28.610 --> 00:10:30.809 replaced. Just like... He's swapped out on the 00:10:30.809 --> 00:10:34.529 tour for a new all -girls -singing trio called 00:10:34.529 --> 00:10:37.120 the Hamilton Sisters and Fordyce. The machinery 00:10:37.120 --> 00:10:38.899 of the industry decides they've squeezed enough 00:10:38.899 --> 00:10:41.100 juice out of them for that tour, and they just 00:10:41.100 --> 00:10:44.240 plug in a shiny new act. It is a harsh reality 00:10:44.240 --> 00:10:47.120 check. The moment you prove a new aesthetic is 00:10:47.120 --> 00:10:50.500 viable, the industry no longer needs you specifically. 00:10:50.860 --> 00:10:53.019 They just need the aesthetic. And that leads 00:10:53.019 --> 00:10:55.840 to the cruelest part of this entire story. Here's 00:10:55.840 --> 00:10:58.720 where it gets really interesting and honestly 00:10:58.720 --> 00:11:00.700 a bit infuriating. Yeah, this part is tough. 00:11:00.919 --> 00:11:02.860 The replacement on the tour was bad enough, but 00:11:02.860 --> 00:11:04.740 then we have the emergence of a man named Chester 00:11:04.740 --> 00:11:09.279 Gaylord. Ah, yes. Billed as the Whispering Serenader. 00:11:09.419 --> 00:11:11.480 The Whispering Serenader. I mean, just listen 00:11:11.480 --> 00:11:14.840 to this. There is a 1929 review from the Western 00:11:14.840 --> 00:11:17.080 Mail in Australia that lays the whole situation 00:11:17.080 --> 00:11:19.419 out with terrifying clarity. What did they say? 00:11:19.679 --> 00:11:21.720 The reviewer states that Chester Gaylord began 00:11:21.720 --> 00:11:24.679 entirely as an imitator of Jack Smith, rivaled 00:11:24.679 --> 00:11:26.700 him for public favor in just a few months, and 00:11:26.700 --> 00:11:29.580 finally dethroned him. The reviewer even twists 00:11:29.580 --> 00:11:32.320 the knife by praising Gaylord's records as being 00:11:32.320 --> 00:11:34.580 more attractive in melody and treatment than 00:11:34.580 --> 00:11:37.960 Smith's original work. It is the ultimate commodification 00:11:37.960 --> 00:11:41.379 of a human being's trauma. It is. If you look 00:11:41.379 --> 00:11:44.620 at the irony here, it is absolutely staggering. 00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:47.659 Jack Smith did not invent this whispering style 00:11:47.659 --> 00:11:50.399 as a clever branding exercise. He didn't sit 00:11:50.399 --> 00:11:52.259 in a room and say, you know, would be a cool 00:11:52.259 --> 00:11:55.299 vibe. Right. He created it because his body was 00:11:55.299 --> 00:11:57.970 physically destroyed in a war zone. He survived 00:11:57.970 --> 00:12:00.669 a gas shell explosion, rebuilt his entire life 00:12:00.669 --> 00:12:03.070 and technique around his broken lungs, and clawed 00:12:03.070 --> 00:12:05.009 his way to the top. And the industry just looks 00:12:05.009 --> 00:12:08.210 at his literal survival mechanism, realizes it 00:12:08.210 --> 00:12:10.070 moves units, and says, great aesthetic, we'll 00:12:10.070 --> 00:12:12.450 take it. Exactly. Which highlights a very uncomfortable 00:12:12.450 --> 00:12:14.750 truth about the economy of fame, and really the 00:12:14.750 --> 00:12:17.309 economy of innovation. The market doesn't reward 00:12:17.309 --> 00:12:20.029 the person who bleeds for the innovation. It 00:12:20.029 --> 00:12:22.570 rewards the person who can scale it without the 00:12:22.570 --> 00:12:25.509 baggage. That is so true. Once Smith proved that 00:12:25.509 --> 00:12:27.350 intimacy could be mass -produced and sold via 00:12:27.350 --> 00:12:30.169 radio, the style ceased to be his personal survival 00:12:30.169 --> 00:12:33.029 mechanism. It became a genre. And in a genre 00:12:33.029 --> 00:12:36.970 anyone can play. Gaylord came in, adopted the 00:12:36.970 --> 00:12:39.090 style without the physical limitations that forced 00:12:39.090 --> 00:12:42.090 its creation, and the audience, fickle as ever, 00:12:42.230 --> 00:12:44.830 just moved on to the newer version. They stole 00:12:44.830 --> 00:12:48.360 his shadow. which is tragically poetic given 00:12:48.360 --> 00:12:51.019 his biggest hit was literally Me and My Shadow. 00:12:52.080 --> 00:12:53.700 He paved the road with his own broken health 00:12:53.700 --> 00:12:55.539 and someone else drove the parade right over 00:12:55.539 --> 00:12:59.139 it. So where does that leave Jacob Schmidt? Once 00:12:59.139 --> 00:13:02.000 the industry decides they prefer the imitation 00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:04.460 to the authentic trauma, what does the rest of 00:13:04.460 --> 00:13:06.679 his life look like? Well, he relies on the one 00:13:06.679 --> 00:13:09.139 trait that never left him, his hustle. He returns 00:13:09.139 --> 00:13:11.720 to New York and goes to work for NBC radio. He 00:13:11.720 --> 00:13:14.120 stays in the game. He's no longer the king of 00:13:14.120 --> 00:13:16.620 the industry, but he doesn't just fade into complete 00:13:16.620 --> 00:13:19.360 obscurity either. He made occasional film appearances 00:13:19.360 --> 00:13:21.860 and even managed to mount a brief comeback in 00:13:21.860 --> 00:13:24.480 the late 1940s. And he just kept grinding. But 00:13:24.480 --> 00:13:26.340 that second act didn't last long, did it? No, 00:13:26.840 --> 00:13:28.759 unfortunately. Jack Smith died in New York City 00:13:28.759 --> 00:13:31.799 of a heart attack on May 13th, 1950. He was only 00:13:31.799 --> 00:13:34.940 53 years old. He was survived by his wife Marie. 00:13:35.460 --> 00:13:38.960 53 is incredibly young. But when you consider 00:13:38.960 --> 00:13:42.220 the profound stress his cardiovascular and respiratory 00:13:42.220 --> 00:13:44.360 systems had been under since that gas attack 00:13:44.360 --> 00:13:47.620 in 1917, it's perhaps not entirely surprising 00:13:47.620 --> 00:13:50.000 that his heart gave out early. And this brings 00:13:50.000 --> 00:13:53.059 us to what might be the most heartbreaking full 00:13:53.059 --> 00:13:56.029 circle detail of his life. The final resting 00:13:56.029 --> 00:13:59.110 place of the man who topped the charts, who pioneered 00:13:59.110 --> 00:14:01.870 the intimacy of modern radio, who toured the 00:14:01.870 --> 00:14:04.029 world and changed the way we interact with microphones. 00:14:04.649 --> 00:14:06.970 Yeah. He is buried in St. Raymond Cemetery in 00:14:06.970 --> 00:14:09.610 the Bronx, and he is buried right next to his 00:14:09.610 --> 00:14:12.570 mother, Anna Schmidt. The very same woman he 00:14:12.570 --> 00:14:15.169 listed as his soul dependent on that draft car 00:14:15.169 --> 00:14:17.750 when he was 21 years old. Exactly. Before the 00:14:17.750 --> 00:14:19.789 war, before the gas shell, before the fame and 00:14:19.789 --> 00:14:21.669 the betrayal, he ends up right back where he 00:14:21.669 --> 00:14:23.870 started, taking care of his mom. But here's the 00:14:23.870 --> 00:14:26.639 kicker. Despite his legacy, despite the records 00:14:26.639 --> 00:14:30.179 and the tours, his grave is completely unmarked. 00:14:30.179 --> 00:14:32.840 It's unbelievable. He's just in the dirt unacknowledged. 00:14:33.139 --> 00:14:36.539 An unmarked grave for a man whose voice was intimately 00:14:36.539 --> 00:14:39.279 broadcast into millions of homes across the globe. 00:14:39.919 --> 00:14:42.580 The contrast is incredibly jarring and it really 00:14:42.580 --> 00:14:45.899 speaks to how ruthlessly efficient the pop culture 00:14:45.899 --> 00:14:48.960 machine is at discarding its pioneers. It feels 00:14:48.960 --> 00:14:51.259 like the ultimate erasure. They took his voice, 00:14:51.480 --> 00:14:53.440 they took his aesthetic, and then they didn't 00:14:53.440 --> 00:14:56.039 even leave him a stone. It does feel that way. 00:14:56.200 --> 00:14:58.500 However, if we connect this to the bigger picture, 00:14:58.960 --> 00:15:01.740 we see that history, eventually, has a way of 00:15:01.740 --> 00:15:04.000 trying to correct these profound oversights. 00:15:04.039 --> 00:15:06.480 Okay, how so? Well, the immediate industry, you 00:15:06.480 --> 00:15:08.279 know, the record labels, the touring companies, 00:15:08.580 --> 00:15:10.059 they might have forgotten him the second the 00:15:10.059 --> 00:15:13.419 money dried up. But human curiosity is far more 00:15:13.419 --> 00:15:16.259 enduring than corporate memory. Archivists and 00:15:16.259 --> 00:15:18.340 historians eventually went looking for the origins 00:15:18.340 --> 00:15:20.779 of this style. Right, the actual music and the 00:15:20.779 --> 00:15:23.240 impact didn't just evaporate. Exactly, the historical 00:15:23.240 --> 00:15:26.320 record fought back. In 1995, Pavilion Records 00:15:26.320 --> 00:15:28.879 went back into the archives and released a retrospective 00:15:28.879 --> 00:15:32.360 CD, simply titled Whispering Jack Smith. Oh, 00:15:32.360 --> 00:15:36.000 nice. And then five years later, in 2000, ASV 00:15:36.000 --> 00:15:38.480 released another compilation of his later acoustic 00:15:38.480 --> 00:15:41.080 and early electric songs, fittingly titled Me 00:15:41.080 --> 00:15:43.799 and My Shadow. And it didn't stop at just preserving 00:15:43.799 --> 00:15:46.100 the audio either. I was looking at the publication 00:15:46.100 --> 00:15:49.480 history, and perhaps most significantly, in February 00:15:49.480 --> 00:15:54.200 2014, Tate Publishing released a massive exhaustive 00:15:54.200 --> 00:15:57.259 biography entitled Whispering Jack and Peggy 00:15:57.259 --> 00:15:59.659 O. And that is not a casual pamphlet. No. It 00:15:59.659 --> 00:16:03.320 is a 488 page book. It meticulously covers the 00:16:03.320 --> 00:16:05.460 timeline from just before the end of World War 00:16:05.460 --> 00:16:08.159 I all the way to his death. and it even includes 00:16:08.159 --> 00:16:10.299 historical pictures pulled from Smith's own home 00:16:10.299 --> 00:16:13.019 movies. It is a monumental act of historical 00:16:13.019 --> 00:16:15.559 reclamation. Which proves that an unmarked grave 00:16:15.559 --> 00:16:18.919 in 1950 is not the final word. The pop culture 00:16:18.919 --> 00:16:21.259 machine is designed to consume and discard, but 00:16:21.259 --> 00:16:23.259 the desire to find the truth behind the art, 00:16:23.440 --> 00:16:25.860 to understand the actual human cost of innovation, 00:16:26.220 --> 00:16:28.539 it eventually brings the true pioneers back into 00:16:28.539 --> 00:16:30.320 the light. So what does this all mean for you? 00:16:30.590 --> 00:16:33.029 Listening to us right now. Why should we care 00:16:33.029 --> 00:16:35.990 about the turbulent often unfair life of a 1920s 00:16:35.990 --> 00:16:38.250 baritone who lost his voice? Good question. I 00:16:38.250 --> 00:16:41.000 think Jack Smith's journey is the ultimate testament 00:16:41.000 --> 00:16:43.460 to the unexpected power of our own limitations. 00:16:44.240 --> 00:16:46.919 We spend so much of our lives trying to hide 00:16:46.919 --> 00:16:49.740 our injuries, our traumas, the things that we 00:16:49.740 --> 00:16:52.620 feel break us because society tells us those 00:16:52.620 --> 00:16:55.000 things disqualify us from success. Right. We're 00:16:55.000 --> 00:16:57.320 supposed to hide the flaws. But Jacob Schmidt 00:16:57.320 --> 00:16:59.659 couldn't hide his broken lungs. He literally 00:16:59.659 --> 00:17:01.679 couldn't breathe the same way anymore. He had 00:17:01.679 --> 00:17:04.500 to use his limitation. And by forcing himself 00:17:04.500 --> 00:17:07.160 to work within those severe, unfair boundaries, 00:17:07.500 --> 00:17:10.039 he accidentally invented a completely unique 00:17:10.039 --> 00:17:12.500 strength that changed the entire architecture 00:17:12.500 --> 00:17:15.480 of his industry. Your greatest limitation might 00:17:15.480 --> 00:17:18.359 just be the exact boundary that forces your most 00:17:18.359 --> 00:17:20.460 brilliant innovation. I couldn't agree more, 00:17:20.599 --> 00:17:22.940 and that brings up a really vital lens through 00:17:22.940 --> 00:17:25.319 which to view the world. It leaves me with one 00:17:25.319 --> 00:17:27.619 final thought I want you to mull over after you 00:17:27.619 --> 00:17:29.400 finish listening to this deep dive. Yeah, let's 00:17:29.400 --> 00:17:31.839 hear it. Think about the media you consume today. 00:17:32.079 --> 00:17:34.759 The music, the films, the apps on your phone, 00:17:34.880 --> 00:17:37.779 the technology you rely on. How many of the dominant 00:17:37.779 --> 00:17:40.359 artistic styles or technological innovations 00:17:40.359 --> 00:17:43.019 that we currently take for granted, things we 00:17:43.019 --> 00:17:45.779 assume were born out of pure unadulterated genius, 00:17:46.119 --> 00:17:48.259 were actually born out of someone desperately 00:17:48.259 --> 00:17:51.559 trying to work around a profound physical limitation 00:17:51.559 --> 00:17:54.799 or a catastrophic failure? Wow. He really makes 00:17:54.799 --> 00:17:56.900 you look at every piece of polished entertainment 00:17:56.900 --> 00:17:59.000 differently, wondering where the hidden scars 00:17:59.000 --> 00:18:01.789 are. Thank you so much for joining us on this 00:18:01.789 --> 00:18:04.029 deep dive. Keep questioning the stories behind 00:18:04.029 --> 00:18:06.230 the history you think you know, because sometimes 00:18:06.230 --> 00:18:09.150 the most revolutionary thing you can do isn't 00:18:09.150 --> 00:18:11.250 to turn the volume knob all the way up and scream 00:18:11.250 --> 00:18:13.930 louder than everyone else. Sometimes it's to 00:18:13.930 --> 00:18:16.170 force the world to lean in and listen to your 00:18:16.170 --> 00:18:16.450 whisper.