Part Two: Frank Fay, The Fascist Who invented Stand Up Comedy

who invented stand up comedy. And before I get into that, I want to plug a fundraiser that we are we are doing here at behind the Bastards to help out the Portland Defense Fund. This is a bail fund. It started out, I mean it's earlier iterations, started out to help people who had been arrested in the twenty twenty protests. They still do help protesters, but their primary job is

people get arrested. They're usually homeless and indigent. They are usually people with no resources, and the Defense Fund doesn't just help them get bailed out. And often this is people like literally like one hundred bucks that they just don't have. Number One, when people are accused of crimes, if they're out of jail while they are fighting the charges, their odds of not going to prison are vastly higher.

The Defense Fund helps basically everybody. They do not provide bail funds to people who are accused of domestic violence for you know, some reasons that should we are probably obvious to people. But they help a lot of people who like literally no one else is looking out for. That's what the Portland Defense Fund is, and we're trying to raise money for them because they are out of it. If you go to if you just type in a donor box Defense Fund PDX into Google, it will take

you to the Defense Fund fundraiser. That's donor box Defense Fund PDX. And another way you can help is you can mow them at at Defense Fund PDX. So you know, please send some money, help them out. I donate every year. They're a five oh one c so it's like attacks. You can, you know, write it off too, like it's an actual charitable organization.

one of the worst childhoods I have ever read about. Right, Ruby had been born in nineteen oh seven, so she's quite a bit younger than Frank Fay, and she was the fifth child of Catherine Anne and Byron Stevens. Both families seem to have come from some degree of like privilege. It's uncle to me how if they were like rich or it's just because they've been in a Marria from

like almost Mayflower days or right around then. Right, so they're like old America and they know their pedigree, but I don't think I don't know how much money they actually have. It's a little that part's a little unclear to me. It may have been that like they used to be more blue bloody and they just they just kind of ran out of money. That happens a lot.

But it seemed like she was on track for a more normal life until in nineteen eleven, when she is four, a drunk passenger falls off the street car she's on with her pregnant mother, and he like pulls her mother down basically, and she goes into early labor after falling off the street car and dies from sepsis. Right, so, just a horrible freak street car accident, like really pretty fucked up. So that's traumatic, right, you know, watching this happen as a four year old and then being without

your mom and her dad. This is nineteen oh seven or eleven. Her dad had been a drinker, and having your wife an unborn kid die in a street car accident does not make you slow down the drinking in nineteen eleven. So he takes what I think we can all agree is an understandable, healthy reaction and becomes a destructive alcoholic and abandons his family to dig the Panama Canal. Right,

tale as old as time. We've all been there once or twice, right, you know, Yeah, that's where you and I met Andrew digging the Panama Canal, and they kept yelling at us, there's already a canal. Stop digging holes. But we said, fuck you. You know, I won't do what you tell me.

an orphan and little kids are fucking psychopaths. To quote another great stand up comedian, Donald Glover, they're little hitlers, right, They're like, oh, look a little girly lost her whole family. Let's kick her.

fourteen and starts working. And again, you're basically an adult at fourteen at this socioeconomic level, right, This is not just the US. You're legally an adult in a lot of Europe at this point in time. And by age sixteen she is a chorus girl in a nightclub. So there's you have to assume some like people taking physical advantage of her. We would we call this pedophilia to day. I think that's fair to call it then, but also that's not what people would have seen it as, right.

They would see her as an adult right, not to say that that's not still fucked up. That's just the way things were back then. This is nineteen twenty three when she starts working as a chorus girl in a nightclub, So she is getting started in her showbiz career, while Frank Fay is kind of like he is like near the peak of his fame and prestige right, like he is selling out that This is right before he has his ten week run at the Palace, so he hasn't like he hasn't quite hit his peak yet, but he's

rising to his peak, right. And so at the time she is starting as a chorus girl, she would see him as like one of the big this is one of the major stars right in her feet, the guy. This is the guy. He's got a lot of power. He's you know, she doesn't want to be exactly doing what he's doing, right, but like she would see him as someone to look up to because of the level of success that he's had. He can do something for

he can make her career right obviously. So you know, there's a number of things that are potentially we can see unhealthy about the dynamic that's going to form. Although it's not going to go where you'd expect it to. For a while, Ruby was stuck at the middle rung of her field. She makes she's a good dancer, She's constantly working right, and in order to make extra cash, she moonlights as a dance instructor for gay and lesbian speakeasies, which is pretty cool. Like what this is. By the way,

Ruby becomes Barbara Stanwick. This is her initial name.

late twenties, she starts doing better and better. Right, she gets recognized, she starts getting acting gigs, and by kind of like the mid twenties, she is performing in Broadway shows. And because she is now becoming a star in her own right, she's kind of a small star now while Frank's a big one. But you need a better name than Ruby whatever the fuck her last name was, because

it's forgettable, right, So she picks the stage name Barbara Stanwick. Now, she falls in love first with one of her co stars, a man with the incredible name Rex Cherryman. The two break up in early nineteen twenty eight, and there's kind of a will they won't they thing going on for a while, maybe they'll get back together, but then he dies of sepsis during a sea trip to Europe to perform, because that's just how people died back there.

to quote from Victoria Williams's book here. After Fay's show at the Palladium, Levant brought Barbara and Walda, which is one of her friends and colleagues, backstage. They entered phase dressing room. As he was removing his makeup, he was charming and beguiling. He announced he was hungry and that as soon as he finished taking off his makeup he was going to arrest Drut, where he said they serve the best food in town. They really know how to

serve food in this place. Fay went on a little table in a quiet corner, soft music, and it's like he's kind of setting her up. Barbara was ready to accept the invitation. When the dressing room door opened and in walked a beautiful woman who said, are you ready for dinner? Frank be with you right away, Fay said. As he put on his coat, he turned to his guests and said, you must try this place. The food

is really delicious. And he like sets this up. He's like really making her think that they're going to go out together. He's talking about it like that. And he has set it up with this other lady ahead of time, knowing he was going to meet her, and knowing that levant is trying to hook them up. He'd probably he'd seen her on stage, so he knew that he was into her. He sets this up specifically to pull the rug out from onto her because he's an asshole, right, Yeah,

he's such a dick. And in fact, as he leaves with this other lady, he stops and turns back to Barbara and says, you should come back and see me again sometime, and then goes off on a date with this other woman. Now this is a transparent ployee. He's trying to make her like desperate. He's trying to, like, you know, it's obvious what he's trying to do, right, And Barbara doesn't bite, right. In fact, she doesn't do anything.

She doesn't call him, she doesn't like approach him again, although she doesn't do anything to avoid future contact with him either, right, Like, she doesn't do either of those things. So you know she's she's not like falling for it, but she's also not being like fuck this guy entirely, right.

you don't need to tell him that. So Frank asks his friend who else is going to be there, and Lavatte doesn't lie, and he's like, well, Barbara, Stanwick's going to be there, And so as soon as Frank here's that, he hatches places, yeah, I'll be there. We'll all have a dinner together. And then he no shows again. So at this point Barbara might have been it seems to

be like kind of veering towards fuck this guy. But then for the next two weeks, wherever she shows up for dinner or lunch or at like a bar or whatever, whenever she shows up to like watch a performance, he's there. He's always there, everywhere she winds up going, and he's always there with a different beautiful woman. Right no matter where she goes, there's Frank Fay and he's always on a date. And she doesn't learn this until later but Frank, he's got a lot of connections, and he's a lot

of money. He's been both I think probably paying people to stalk her and also just like using talking to other people he knows to like figure out where she's going and scheduling dates with random women for the sole purpose of like making her watch him make out with other people. So they're not in a relationship, and this is already one of the most toxic relationships I've ever heard of.

start insulting each other. Right, they just start going to town at each other, you know, like letting out all of this like frustration over this last couple of weeks of fucking around, and eventually their friend Levant, who has judged the vibe properly stops them. It's like, you too obviously want to fuck. Will you just do it already and stop with this bullshit, Like I know you both, like you're clearly into each other and you're just both toxic psychos. Stop it. Just get laid, you know, and

it works. Levant's like he called it. They're like, yeah, you know what, fuck it. And so they start dating, right, they start going out. They start you know, uh, banging the nasties, you know, bumping uglies, twiddling the what Sophie, Sophie, you can't say sex or fucked on a podcast, We'll get arrested.

seems to fall in love as well. They are both obsessed with each other, and in Barbara's case, she's obsessed with him enough to the point that, like she is willing to give up her career and she at this point is fairly big, right, like she is now a major name on a marquee. She's getting some pretty juicy she's not quite a leading lady yet, but she's getting

some really juicy like Broadway roles, right. And she's tells openly like, I'm willing to kind of give up my career in order to be like a full time wife, right, And that made out because she's obviously very good, she's very dedicated to her career. You have to think in terms of making sense of this, this is a girl who lost her entire family very young and has never had one, has never had that kind of emotional stability. Yes, so she I think, and that's what That's what her

biographer rights. It's basically she is desperate for that kind of stability At this point. It matters more to her than this career.

like too sick from getting fucked up. So during one of their initial dates, like no one at the table is allowed to drink whenever they show up with a group because Frank isn't drinking, right, And that's the kind of you know guy he is, is like, no one else at the table can be drinking if I'm not drinking, And you know, this is one of those things. Also, he's got an entourage, so whenever they're like hanging out or traveling around, it's never just Frank or Frank and Barbara.

It's Frank and Barbara and his personal barber and his manicurist, and his songwriter and his pianist and his composer and his tailor and his secretary. Like he literally travels with these people most of the places that he goes. Now he's sober initially, but he periodically will fall off the wagon, and when he does, he will go on days long binges hours or days and hours long is a short one. Sometimes he'll be drinking for days, but all of his binges in the same way with him staggering to Saint

Patrick's Cathedral to confess his sins. For an idea of how committed a drunk this guy was when he was drinking, I want to read you the text of a poem that he kept on him at all times while traveling. The wonderful love of a beautiful maid, and the staunch true love of a man, the love of a baby unafraid, which hath exist since life began. But the greatest love, the love of love, transcending even that of a mother, is the tender, the passionate, the infinite love of one drunken bum for another.

him after two months. That's a bad marriage due to again rampant infidelity. Within three months of their divorce being made official, Frank is jailed for refusing to pay alimony. So his third marriage is his first wife, who he marries again, and he makes her quit her because she's also like a performer he makes her quit her career in entertainment after they get married for the second time, and then the two up again immediately because again he

cheats on air constantly, so not a good husband. And it's not just the cheating. He also has a tendency to get crazy, drunk, fly off the handle, and beat the shit out of his partners. He is very physically abusive.

He is again noted as being a wife beater in the twenties when like, as long as you're just like slapping ry, that's not even considered spousal abuse back then, right, Like he is abusive for the era, Like guys who are putting their wives in the hospital are sitting him down and being like, man, you gotta cooling, you know, Like that's the level of bad husband.

of the first drunk drivers. He's gonna it's not even illegal to have a drink. You can have a cocktail in your hand drinking in the twenties, and he's getting arrested for drunk driving. It's nuts. How drunk a driver this guy is. He had also already again at the height of right, at this period of time, there's weeks where he's making three hundred grand in a week in modern money. He's already declared bankruptcy several times. You know, some of that alimony, right, Some of that's because he

refuses to buy a home or live anywhere but luxury hotels. Right, Barbara knows all of this. That is important to note. Right, I'm not again the abuse that he is going to do over the course of the relationship. I'm not saying that that's I'm not mitigating that at all. But she is aware of all of this when she starts the relationship, right, Like, she does go into this with her eyes open. Obviously

she's very young. You know, there's a power and balance here, but she's heard of him, right, none of this is a mystery. She also knows that he gambles uncontrollably when he's on a bender, which is another reason for all of the bankruptcies. For whatever reason, in spite of all of this, Barbara Stanwick really does fall for this guy. And I think again a lot of it is that he does give her this sense of emotional stability, that she's got a center to her world.

and then they almost immediately get unengaged. And I'm going to quote from an article on Standwith published by Meredith Grau here when the duo argued they are argued tooth and nail and hammer. It was during one of their many pointless but explosive arguments that they temporarily broke up. Faye took a trip to Saint Louis on a two month engagement and Barbara devoted herself to burlesque, evaded friends,

and became a near ghost. Burlesquwood in end that burlesque is a show, right, Like it's not burles day, that's like an actual play. Burlestwood end its Broadway run as a local triumph on July fourteenth, but not before Faye would fake a breakdown just to drag Barbara to his feigned bedside and pop the question. So that's a summary of what happened. It actually makes things sound up less fucked up than they were. So here's the whole story. So they break up, right, she goes off and is

a huge success. This is like it's a book of Mormon level hit. This is the biggest thing on Broadway. She's on Broadway for months, then she's touring around the country. She's the leading lady in this show. This is a huge fucking deal. Right, And Fay has continued to perform, but like he is there separated, and he just starts calling her almost every night talking about how he's filled with grief, he can't stand it. He thinks he's going to kill himself, and he always is drunk. He's fallen

off the wagon. He's telling her like I can't stop drinking. I'm destroying myself because you're not here anymore, right, Like I can't stand to be without you. And one night, one of Frank's, one of their mutual friends, calls Barbara and he's like, hey, man, Frank is I've never even seen him like this? Like he is so drunk right and in such a bad way. He can't work, he can't even sleep anymore, right, Like we got to do something. He's going to die, you know, like like this guy friends,

it is like this is deathly serious. You got to help me do something to say Frank. So she's like, is he on the phone? Like can he come to the phone now? And their friend puts Frank on the phone, and Frank gets on the phone and he just sounds ruined right, just absolutely like barely can talk drunk. He tells her his heart's broken, that like he's just ready to die because he can't live without her, And Barbara's resolve crumbles and she tells him, if you can sober up,

I'll get engaged to you again. The next moment, as soon as she says this, his voice changes. He sounds sober because he hasn't been drunk at all this whole time, all been fake, every one of these calls. He's been faking it, right, He never fell off the wagon, at

least as far as we know. And he's immediately just sobers his voice up and says, all right, well, in that case, why don't you get on a train tomorrow and we'll get engaged, you know, take a train to meet and we'll get engaged and we'll get married right away.

just needed this in her life, right. I think that's probably what's going on here, you know.

like he is. She's getting something out of this. And I'm not saying that to like blame her on it or something, but like you have to assume this is not We're not like, it's not just bad stuff, right, It never is. Otherwise why why would she be so committed to this? Right? Yeah, that's the way abusive relation and just toxic. Even when it's not abusive, and it's just like codependent or stuff, there is, there's always something there that keeps one or both people coming back.

lot of money doing this. She is independently getting paid, and she is getting paid very well, the equivalent of probably probably a million or more a year, right or somewhere in that, like at least high six figures. She's she's making very good money, right, But what she's also doing is she is clearly I think I don't know if it's that he asked her to play second fiddle to his ambition or she was just immediately willing to.

It's probably a little bit of both, right, that he wanted her, but also I don't think it's entirely that, because he is actually really supportive of her having a career. I do think her attempting to quit is largely just her really wanting to commit to the relationship. I think that's a big part of it because of some of

the stuff that's going to happen next. So this is a little more complicated, right, I don't want to It's not just him being like I can't stand to have her be a big star or I can't stand to have her have a life outside of me. She is really motivated by the idea of dedicating herself for to this relationship. That is part of what's happening here. As the twenties are kind of starting to come to an end, Frank is looking out at the entertainment landscape, and he's

a smart guy, and he's an innovative guy. He understands he's got good instincts, right, and he sees that Vaudeville's days are numbered, right, this is not going to be is already starting to fade. He can kind of see there's not as much money coming in, there's not as much audience. There's more entertainment out there, right, Like Vaudeville's

days are kind of over. And he can see that the traveling variety acts and these big stage productions that you know, cost a lot of money and involve a lot of people that have dominated entertainment all his life are not going to be around forever. You know, the radio is a bigger thing, moving pictures are increasingly significant, and you know, we're coming to the end of the

Roaring twenties, so the bottom is about to fall. Out of the economy, which is going to make those big productions, those big, huge touring shows and these big elaborate stage shows a lot harder to afford, both of the people putting them on and for people to buy tickets to. Right, So he makes a bold decision right before the depression hits to break up with his production company. He like breaks a contract to leave them. And this is the

number one vaudeville production company. They have the ability to blacklist him from like the industry almost right, they don't do this, but that's the thing he's risking. He takes a major risk to leave them because he sees that like the bottom's about to fall out, and he wants to get into something that he can make work in this new era. So he starts performing totally independently with a skeleton crew of you know, some stage hands and a couple other you know, entertainers and his wife, and

they're doing longer and longer sets. And now he is being up there for something that is like a Netflix, you know, especially like a full hour type deal. Like he's doing full stand up routines effectively, you know, in something that's very close to a modern sense and he's again he's a major pioneer. He starts doing something that's kind of weird owl adjacent or like Tom Larrr adjacent. Tom lair who just died, the greatest musical comedian of all time, one of also one of the greatest men

mathematicians of all time, also invented the jello shot. Incredible man, Tom Lairr. Yes, inventor of the jello shot so that he could smuggle alcohol into like army gatherings. Amazing man, just sense.

the only two I've heard of. And what it is kind of like wet ass pussy because it's smutty, right, like it is about it's smutty for the day, right, because it's like about a date.

I'd assume lots of it's in the delivery. But you see what he's doing. He's going through the lyrics of this song and then he's like riffing on it, right, he's like making fun of bits about it. And I think that's interesting because it's the type of bitthesiss is so modern. You brought up cinema sins because like initially it was like, oh, he's like kind of a proto Tom Lair or weird al but honestly, because they're actually

doing full pair of these songs. A better comparison is like modern YouTube videos where like not just songs, but like like the Red Letter stuff red Letter Media got fans, you're like break down a movie. You're like going through like a whole movie or old and you're like breaking it down piece by piece and talking in granular to tale about like what of this movie or video game

or whatever doesn't make sense? Like is like the analog version of like most of YouTube's big creators are doing now, right, I think that's such so interesting to me, right, Like, yeah, he is just like reflexively a very innovative entertainer.

Like idi, like you want to hear this guy make fun of a song slowly Like that's a that's a weird ask in this period of time, but it works. This is like one of his most popular bits. And again, like he's just he's just moving from success to success at this point up to kind of like the start of the Great Depression, and right really right before the Great where I think we're like in twenty nine here,

like right before things really fall off a cliff. Hollywood starts calling his wife right because Barbara, she's made a big name for herself, even though she's technically quote unquote retired. Everyone knows who Barbara Stanwick is, and these you know, we're now in the talkie era. Hollywood is looking for new leading ladies and people. You know, there's talent scouts that go out to Broadway. They've seen her a lot of studios are calling and she turns them all down.

Like she's getting like we will make you a movie star, like we want to give you like picture deals, like like there's money for you here, and she's like, nah, my husband likes it over here. He doesn't want to live in California, and my marriage comes first. And she just says no, over and over again to all of these major studio agents, Like fucking studio heads are trying to beat down her door and she won't do it. She's not at all tempted because that's not what her

husband wants to do right now. Eventually, the head of a major studio or an agent for a major studio figures out how to wear her down, which is they go to Frank and they're like, hey, we want to sign you and your wife. You know, you each get a one picture deal basically, right, we want to try you both out, and to be fair, it's kind of a no brainer. I'm sure they're not not interested in Frank because he's the one of the biggest performers of

the day. It's it's pretty obvious from like a student a position, Well, these are two of the most famous popular people on the stage. Let's see if they could be movie stars. Right, invite them both, and they agree, Right, I think it's just a matter of the money is so good, and you know, Vaudeville's kind of falling apart, and yeah, they both decide, all right, let's give it a try. And it's when they moved to Hollywood that the problems really start. And they start with Barbara because

she is a horrible auditioner. She's terrible at auditioning. She doesn't know how to really like do it, and so she is supposed to be in this Frank Capra film and she goes in for the audition and she bombs it, and Capra's like, Frank Capra calls her a porcupine, which I is some weird ass twenty sexism. I don't fully understand what that's supposed to earn. But it's like an insult for a woman. I don't understand why, but he

calls her a porcupine. And this is actually one of Frank's very few good moments and very few, like really actually surprisingly supportive partner moments. So the student video that Caepra was working with, that that she has this deal with and she's bombed this audition. He calls Frank Capra, like he gets him on the phone personally because he's a star and he can do that, and he's like, look, I know you saw my wife. I know you didn't

like the live performance. I need to show you a test screening of her, and I think it was her doing some lines from burlesque or something like that, because like, if you didn't think she'd she must have just bombed the audition because she's great, Like, trust me, she's great. And Frank is such a big name that Capra's like, okay, I'll do it, and he watches this test. Frank Faye brings over this test screening and as soon as Capra actually sees her performing on stage, he's like, oh my god,

I'm a fucking idiot. This woman is one of the most talented actors of her generation, of any generation, and he casts her immediately, and that's actually like a really good like Frank, That's why I'm saying, like he's not anti her having a career. Weirdly enough, this is going to cause problems for them later, but like he is really supportive at the start she gets her movie career started because he goes to the mat after she bombs

an audition and make sure she gets the job. So that's one good thing that Frank Faye ever did in his fucking life.

in pre war Hollywood. She is just massive. She's fucking great. She's really good at this. It becomes clear to everybody, and she is just like on a rocket ship to success from here on out right. That's that's the Barbara Stanwick story. Things go less well for Frank Fay after this point in time, his first movie, because they get this one picture dealer each get a picture. His first movie does pretty well, it's a modest success, but afterwards he just doesn't catch on as an actor. He's just

not for whatever reason. I don't know why. Maybe he's picking bad scripts or whatever. It just doesn't work out for him right and the start, it doesn't help. At the start of his career, trying to be an actor coincides with the Great Depression really hitting, which wipes out a lot of the money that had made his old career possible. So there's not as much money in touring

or doing the kind of shows he'd been doing. And movies, you know, are more economical, they make more because you pay to put him on once and then you keep making money from him, right, So, like you know, it's it's better a business to be in. But he's just not doing well in it, and eventually the offer is kind of slow to a trickle and stop coming in. While Barbara Stanwick becomes a fucking household name. I'm gonna quote from an article by in the New York Times.

As her star began to shine, fase dimmed, he drank, was relentlessly abusive towards her and the child Dion they'd adopted. However, not only did she stick by Faye, but she also put his faltering career first. She insisted on introducing herself as Missus Frank Fay. We have to wonder what in her needed to stick by Faye way past the obvious

expiration date of the marriage. A determination to rebut the Hollywood gossip's prophesying divorce, a stick to your man philosophy, her fear of going out in society, an inability to have sustained friendships with other women. Yes, yes, yes, yes, and also gratitude to Frank for having supported her career at a crucial time. But still, her life was actually in danger because of his violent nature, as was that of little Dion, about whom it must be said she

didn't seem much concerned. So he's getting increasingly. He had kind of kept himself on a leash. He is off the chain. He's drinking more, he is beating the shit out, he's beating their kid too, to the extent that, like again, her life is in danger being with this man. That's how out of control he is. Kind of at his worst, this isn't consistent, but when he hits rock bottom, that's how bad this is. Right now, Again, as the New York Times this is her obituary noted, she's not a

great mom. She's not like she's not necessarily putting the kid first. So she's not a hero here. But Frank is definitely the villain. And his physical abuse of Barbara did escalate to the point where again she could have could have killed her, and she does eventually dump his ass in nineteen thirty five, and at this point when she leaves him, it seems like he's probably heading towards an early grave, right. He is increasingly you know, he's

not making money, he's not getting work. He's able to tour some he can do, but it's like not the way he had been living, and he can't, Like he hasn't been raining in his expenses. So he is broke, Like he's constantly going broke. He's gambling what he makes. And yeah, it looks like this is kind of the end, right And again, if this had been the end, we

wouldn't do it. Behind the bastards on this guy, because like he's a dick, he's an abusive husband, but like that's just not not really the bastard story yet, like's not me yea if we did an episode on every famous person who was like abusive to their spouse, Yeah, like that's just a different show. Not to minimize that, but it's a different show. We're getting to like the wild act of bastardury here, Like that's what's coming next. So it gets worse than this, folks, it gets a

lot worse. So a big part of why Frank had failed in Hollywood. You know, I said, it's not entirely clear to me why I forgot I had written this part because there is one really clear reason, which is that he's super anti Semitic. And the heads of most of the major Hollywood studios this point are Jewish guys, right, And it's the kind of thing if his movies had been runaway hits, they probably would have ignored that because

they do for other guys, right, because that's Hollywood. All do we all know about mel Gibson, right, But again, the fact that he's a famous anti semi and that his movies aren't doing great like is a big part of what destroys him in Hollywood. And it's very funny to be that there's a quote from one of his peers, Milt Joseph Berg, who is you know, a Jewish comedian, who said of him quote in a business known for its lack of bigotry, he was a bigot. This was

no secret, but widely known and well substantiated. Right, So he is just like that's a big part of like why he can't get shit working for him in Hollywood. And then the FDR years kickoff, right, and Frank starts getting increasingly political. He hates FDR. He calls him a communist. He starts going on these loud rants about the Jewish bankers that he believes are behind all of the country's problems and behind It's weird, like, so the Jewish bankers

caused the depression and also are behind FDR. Who's yeah, got pulled us out of it? What's going on? Anyway? He's losing his mind on alcohol here too, as his old famous friends increasingly step away from him because he is just he's made himself into a pariah. It's bad for your career to be associated with Frank. At this point, he finds a new friend with someone who understands him, father Charles Kaughlin. Now We've talked about this guy before

on the podcast. Coughlin is a Catholic priest with a far right radio show. Who is he is a fascist. He is a proto Nazi. He is one of the guys who's trying to get the US to go fascist, right. He's probably the most He is the fucking He's like Bill O'Reilly mixed with Tucker Carlson, you know, like he is super influential as a fascist media figure. Coughlin also believed that Jewish bankers were behind every evil in the country. He referred to the New Deal as the jew Deal,

and as a result, he and Frank get along famously. Yeah, like, oh yeah, it's a match made in heaven right here.

cared to help him out. Maurice Zolotow wrote that the self destructive pattern has hampered his career at various times. He has been a vaudeville MC nightclub, comic, radio star, in motion picture hero. Fay has been successful in all of these. He has also been a failure in all of these. Fay has been washed up more times than any other big time star, you know, And that's that's

kind of like the state of his career at this point. Yeah, for an idea of like what a famous dick this guy is at this point, I probably should have put this up earlier, but it's very funny people at a Hollywood start telling a joke. This is kind of like while he's still married to Barbara Stanwick, which Hollywood actor has the biggest prick and the answer is Barbara Stanwick, right, like that, that's how people are talking about him. Right,

his career is over. So by the start of the World War Two he is in particularly bad odor because you know, he's basically a Nazi and we're going to war with those people.

for a new play, Harvey. Have you ever seen the movie Harvey with Jimmy Stewart.

with it. It follows him around. They're always at the bar drinking together. Elwood, by the way, Elwood, Ellwood, You're right, Elwood. El would doubt I think something like that. And his high society family and friends are trying trying to have him institutionalized, right, because he's clearly crazy, right, so they're trying to like get him in a mental asylum basically

for being crazy and seeing this rabbit. And weirdly enough, it still holds up as a good depiction of mental illness because like the message of it ultimately is that like, actually Elwood's fine, and like everyone just needs to understand that he's just different from other people.

I'm surprised you didn't know that. I don't think I did, George Bailey, Jimmy Stewart during World War Two was a bomber pilot, flew missions over Western Europe, did the most dangerous job that existed in the American Army. Like he flew way more missions than he needed to.

He's going to be Elwood. Right, And this is a huge deal. I had said, Antoinette Perry is like the most famous director in Broadway history. Antoinette. The shortened version of Antoinette is Tony. The Tony Awards are named for this woman. That's that's who this is. Right. So if she decides this washed up anti Semite is who I want as my leading man, that's who's going to be her leading man, right. And she's very good at what

she does. You know, he's a piece of shit. I'm not happy that he gets this job that reinvigorates his career, but he's really good. Like he headlines eighteen hundred performances. That's like for years this show is on Broadway and then touring. It's a massive fucking hit and it makes him rich again, and it turns him into a star again.

And so by the very end of World War Two he has gotten a second chance stardom, like the kind of second chance that nobody gets when you are as down and out as he is, to wind up being the biggest name on Broadway again after a fall like that, it's nuts. Yeah, Now, what would you do if you were disgraced for being a massive bigot and an abusive spouse and went broke and had your career destroyed and

then suddenly become rich and famous again. You know, you'd think probably just kind of try to enjoy it, you know, rebuild your career, keep quiet, chill.

only he can really, you know, defend and protect. And obviously this is in nineteen forty five, yeah, forty six, there's no one who needs protecting more than Francisco Franco, the fascist dictator of Spain. Now Franco isn't in any real danger as World War two ends. Obviously he's fine. Anti communism immediately is how the US pivots. So he's

not no, no, it's common for Franco. But what makes Faye angry, what makes him want to speak out in defense of Francisco Franco, is that So the Union for Theater Workers for actors, and I think basically everybody who's working in the theater at this point is called Actors Equity. I don't think it's just actors. Maybe I'm wrong about that, but anyway, the SAG for theater workers, it may still be.

I don't know a lot about the theater. Whatever it is to actors Equity is the Union for Theater actors, right, And so a number of members of Actors Equity. This isn't an official Actors Equity thing, but a lot of people with Actors Equity. In late nineteen forty five held a rally to raise money for a group called Spanish Refugee Appeal. Now, the Spanish Civil War had ended long ago, right, Franco is well in charge, and what the refuge Appeal is?

Number one, they're raising money to support leftists and political dissidents who have had to flee Spain, and they are also begging publicly and trying to get other governments to pressure FRANCO to stop arresting, torturing and murdering leftists. Right, They're specifically a big part of it is they are attacking the Catholic Church and trying to shame them because the Catholic Church is actively hunting down and helping to murder leftists, right anarchists and the like, So they're unhappy

about that and trying to stop it. Nesterhoff writes, quote Fay was furious. He said their criticism was an attack on Catholicism as a whole. Fay demanded Actors Equity investigate each anti FRANCO member for Unamerican activity. The House Committee on American Activities acted on face suggestion, and the Actors were vetted. The New York Times reported that Fay held no brief against any member of Actors Equity for political beliefs. He resented, however, that EQUITY members should be party to

rallies that condemn religious groups. Equity president Bert Lyttel objected to the political investigation. Equity members have a wide latitude of interests and beliefs that they may practice and advocate as private citizens. Actors Equities stood by Brooks, Darling, Molina and Osato. Those are the people organizing this rally. Rather than expel them from his union, lytel cinsured Frank Fay

for conduct prejudicial to the association or its membership. So he gets Congress to investigate these people for trying to raise money for fucking refugees and beg Franco in the church to stop having people murdered. And it gets them fucking investigated, and to the credit of Actors Equity in the Union head they go after Frank and they're like, no, no, no, you're the one being it. They're allowed to do this

privately on their own. You are trying to destroy their Fuck you man, so this, you know, he gets in trouble over this, and it's a bad look, especially in nineteen forty five. But the fact that the Union refuses to back Frank's play doesn't mean no one supported him. There's a lot of right wing and fat just outright fascist Americans who have been kind of biting their tongues all of World War two and are really they're frustrated that we're allied with the USS are. They're frustrated that

we're fighting the fascists. You know, they're real bummed about all of this stuff. And by the end of the war, they've been having to keep quiet for so long that they just are filled to the brim with anger at

what side the US picked in this. There's also a lot of American francoists who love, you know, what Frank is saying about their favorite dictator who's still alive, and these guys start, fascists being the same in every era, immediately mass mailing death threats to Actors Equity and to the guys at Actors Equity, like to the people who had done this rally that Frank had called out right,

it's a very modern thing. This right wing celebrity starts complaining about a thing he doesn't like, and his fans start threatening to murder people on his behalf right, same as it ever was. Yeah, pretty standard standard stuff, right. One journalist at the time wrote, under the guys of being deeply pained over the comments about the Catholic Church. These organs of native fascism have been blowing the familiar

tunes in all their repulsive cacophony. They say, that the issue is religion, but they are no more concerned with religion than were their political masters. The cutthroats of Berlin consider Frank Fay himself the main attraction in the current whoopie do. His anti Semitism is well known, and his numerous brawls on that account are common gossip. Yeah, pretty good, Yeah, well written.

the world secretly agreed with him. So, drunk on his newfound fame and enraged with frustration at how World War Two it ended, he decided to hold a rally in January of nineteen forty six, celebrating fascism in all of its guises. Now that's a bold move in January nineteen forty six, But Frank had that special kind of brain damage that God only gives to men who get too famous for standing in front of a crowd and telling jokes. So he figured, there's no way this is going to

backfire on me. Right, my career collapsed once because I'm an abusive, bigoted asshole, But it won't happen again.

is like some ship. This is like from that fucking Wolfenstein games. Yes, it's fucking crazy like the KKK and the American Nazi Party are like your stage hands and I handling like advertising and ship.

I'm not talking about Laura Ingles. Wild different person, but she's also very right wing, but she's not speaking at this event. They just have very similar names. Laura Ingles was an award winning female pilot. She's like one of the first like great female pilots. She is very groundbreaking

in that. And then she winds up serving two years in prison because she worked as an unpaid agent of the Nazi government while speaking at America First Gatherings and didn't disclose that she was a paid agent of a foreign power. That's what happens to her prior to this. So anyway, I should also know it as a fun fact because I was like, I just saw Laura Ingles because I'm reading like old contemporary news artiles like Laura Ingless,

is this the little aus on the Prairie? And so I like, I type into Google as I do sometimes, was Laura Ingles a Nazi? And obviously now when you Google, the first thing you get is their fucking AI summary. This is what the AI summary says. No, Laura Ingles, the aviator, not the author, was not a Nazi. However, she was a Nazi sympathizer. Was convicted of acting as a paid agent for Nazi Germany, And like, yeah, so why you're saying she's not she was paid for acting.

Like literally, this Walt Disney looking motherfucker. This pencil mustache like legit wild all Walt Disney looking motherfuckers and the caption from this I think this is from the Post article another friend of Faye John Geist, notorious anti Semite and distributor of Wrathskellar pamphlets back in the Yorktown Day. I like that friend quotes friendly. Yeah. Now, here's quite a lot of reporting wrath Skeller, you know what. I should have looked that up. Let's look that up right now.

Let's do it right now.

and try to disrupt the event too. The Daily News was happy to carry water for Fay and included a segment in their review titled deny rac Bias. Doctor Emmanuel Josephson, who said he was of Jewish extraction, brought down the house with his attack on communism, labor unions, Karl Marx, Harold Lasky, the New Deal, the State Department, the OPA, and the more deadly of the Roosevelt species. So it's not anti semitic. They've got a Jewish guy. Great now.

The New York Post not my favorite publication today, but was a much better publication back then. Right, And their reporting on this is actually pretty good.

We didn't have that when we were kids, but we've got it now. A Post reporter later asked Faye what plays he was referring to, and he didn't and he had made the statement quoted. Later, coming upon the Post reporter again, he warned him to be careful about the quotation because his address had been recorded. It's very much much modered, like I didn't say that.

in their chairs. Mcnabo too, who's one of the other hosts, too, constantly reminded the audience that every word uttered at the meeting was being recorded, and that woewen libel suits so waited those newspapers that printed stories written with smear dripping pins. They don't see anybody, right like, because again all of the racism is there. This is just a horrible it's a Nazi rally. He holds a Nazi rally in nineteen

forty six, and this backfires in every way possible. Right, this does finally destroy his.

alcoholic it's not doing bad now. I read a lot of George Burns, who's a famous comedian, like talking about the Fay for this column, and Burns is a guy who talks a lot about like Fay's talents and what he was good at. But Burns also talks about like all the things that sucked about him, right, And so here's here in this episode, here's a quote from George Burns on Faye at late in life. Fay hated Jews,

but he was very religious. He used to eat at the Brown Derby and I used to watch just before his food came, I would sit down and start to mention people that are dead. I'd say Tom Fitzpatrick isn't with us anymore. He'd bless him and say a prayer. I'd mentioned five or six more people, and when his food got cold, I'd leave. And so that's that's how Burns gets some revenge on him, is he'll just like hang out whatever he's eating and like sit down and

talk about all the people who have died recently. So that because he knows he's got to like do a little just to ruin his meal. It's a kind of petty we should all seek to embody. But it's also like such a bizarre interaction because it's like, you hate this guy because he is an unreformed anti semi.

left left our doorstep. Yeah, made stand Up seem to the extent that it was political, did not seem like like I guess what I mean is like to me from my perception, stand Up has taken a big right wing like turn in my lifetime. Yeah, and it is interesting to learn that this may simply be reverting to the mean.

But this has always been there, and it's always been like significant, Yeah, I think, yeah, right, I think what it is is that there has always been a sign an audience that craves this type of guy, and we see it now, this is this is the you know, well, there's honestly probably all of the top podcasts besides you have that audience. Not direly true, but it's not like

as far off as it would be. Nice if it were, right. Yeah, it's just like like there was a massive audience for I mean even just like speaking comedic terms, as we've talked a couple of times for punching down, Like there is a huge idea, but there's an appetite for it.