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March is officially Women's History months, when we honor women by remembering their accomplishments and misattributing quotes to them on Instagram. Some of the most fascinating stories in women's history aren't that well known, so this month, Daisi Lightek and Dulce Sloan are taking a look at the lives of real women who left their mark. In our new Daily Show segment shafted.
Good Evening, I'm Dulce Sloane and I'm Daisi Lightek.
Tonight's episode is a familiar story, big dreams crushed by the reality of reality.
The victim Mary and Donovan, the crime being a woman. In nineteen forty six, Marion was a housewife in the small town of Westport, Connecticut.
Being home and.
Raising children, Marian got fed up with all the shit in her life.
Ugh, why is there so much shit everywhere?
Why?
At the time, people were using cloth diapers and the only solution for leaks were uncomfortable rubber pants. They gave babies diper wresh, so no one wanted to wear rubbers, even though they were the most effective method.
Babies were like, do I have to? It feels so much better pooping against bare skin.
But one day Marian looked at her shower curtain and got an idea.
I've got an idea. This can keep water from leaking out. Surely it could do the same for shit.
So she got to work designing a new, better diaper cover, which she called the Boater.
I did it.
I'm going to liberate women from needless domestic work right after I buy a new shower curtain and clean up this mess before my husband leaves me.
It was a hit.
The diaper covers were flying off the shelves faster than black market birth control pills.
And then came Marian's best idea yet, a fully disposable diaper with super absorbent material. Marian pitched her idea for fully disposable diapers to every large manufacturer in the country, but she soon found herself knee deep in something much worse than baby poop sexism.
What do you think it's unnecessary?
There's no market for this, you dumb lady.
My wife loves washing diapers, okay. Face with rejection.
Marian went on inventing various dohikis and what you call it. But a decade later, she had the shock of her life when Pampers launched a line of fully disposable diapers.
Mother, that's right, a man had.
Been rewarded for coming up with the same thing she was rejected for.
And when you're done, you just throw it away.
This genius. Why has no one thought of this before? Good job, mail inventory, who welcome mail executives?
Amen, men are great.
Marian was desperate and at the end of her rope, so she did the unthinkable.
Actually that part didn't really happen.
Yeah, but it should have.
Disposable diapers in our six billion dollar industry.
Marian should have been the Beyonce of baby care, but fate made her the fair of Franklin.
The who exactly exactly.
But while she may have been overlooked in her own time, Marian's contributions live on in homes, in daycares, in target bathrooms where the diaper changing station is always broken and the baby's screening and you're like, what do you want from me?
Marian was shafted, but not defeated. That's all for this week.
Tune in next time for the story of another woman so powerful, so determined, her Vagina Almost didn't get in the.
Way, Almost.
Good evening. I'm Dulce Sloane and.
I'm dasi lydek Tonight.
The story of Willie May Big Mama Thornton, a trailblazer whose trail was left brutally unblazed. What it's the story of a forgotten woman, never given her due?
Why didn't you just say that the first time?
I don't know.
Growing up near Montgomery, Alabama, Willie May always had a passion for singing.
Allah to say, Ala to say.
At the young age of fifteen, she won a singing contest and eventually signed a record deal.
But one day her life changed forever when she was approached by the writers.
What the little song you may know call hound Dog?
I need for it to be raunchier, you know, like something in that if you could chimmy your breast, maybe one or the other, preferably both at the same time.
But she had her own style in mind. Or what if I did it this way?
Just you ain't nothing matter, hound off? Just no barahma do goddamn that so beautiful?
Thank you, white Man, Thank you.
Willie May's soulful rendition of hound.
Dog told the story of a good for nothing man who wants to be taken care of.
It was like the great grandmother of no scrubs.
See, a scrub is a guy who thinks he's fly.
If I know, I think everyone knows.
In nineteen fifty three, Big Mama Thornton's Houndog reached number one in the arm Beach chart, but it never crossed over to the pop chart because it was seen as a race record, which is a nuts so not racist way of saying black music.
Willie May was shafted, but what she didn't know was that there was an even bigger shaft headed her way, and.
Not the good time.
See. Even though mainstream society wasn't quite ready to embrace this sound in this package, A.
Few years later, her precious soulful hound Dog found a new owner, a rising talent who was introduced to the song by a Vegas loungejack and decided to put his own spin on it.
You know, the house crime and all the time, What a cool song about dogs?
Huh, By the way, that really happened.
Look at that dog, He's like, man, why'd you bring me into this shit?
Elvis's version of hound Dog was a huge smash and completely eclipsed Willie May's version.
While Elvis didn't steal the.
Song, he did benefit from a system that ensured his music reached a wider audience.
You see, Elvis was a white man.
Elvis went on to become one of the greatst icons of all time.
But despite it all, Willie.
May never lost her gifts for expressing emotion and song.
This is some bullshit, some real, real bullshit. Y'all want him to sing that to a job due Oh John sup Wear and Hips of the Mother.
Willie May Thornton was a talented artist who launched an iconic song, only to have her legacy washed away. But we remember her and you can't wash this away. Go ahead, Dulce, show him yours.
I told you I wasn't doing that. You know, she had too many names. That's all for this week.
Tune in next time so hear about a woman so talented, so promising, her vagina almost didn't give in the way.
Almost Good evening. I'm Daisy Lightik and I'm.
Bull Say Sloan.
This month, we've been uncovering the true stories of women who were shafted.
Because throughout history, women have been constrained by things like gender roles, cultural biases, and spanks.
So M constricting, m M.
But tonight we tell a different story. Sarah Howe was a nineteenth century entrepreneur who did reach her full potential through ingenuity and perseverance. Warning the following content might.
Inspire you.
One.
In the early eighteen.
Hundreds, Sarah grew up hustling as a fortune teller and horoscope reader.
What is it? What is it?
You were going to give me five dollars and then something good will happen to you?
Oh?
Okay, okay, okay.
Here She even worked as a doctor despite having no medical training. And what we want to do is we want to pour the tonic right over.
The abdomen and it looks like milk.
Yes, no, of course it's milk.
It'll make a stomach bone stronger.
She was shadier than R.
Kelly running a girl scout troop, But in eighteen seventy nine, Sarah left all that petty swindling behind.
And turned to her true calling.
Stacking that shudder, she started The Lady's Deposit, a woman only investments book.
When Sarah doubled her client's investments within a year, women started handing over their money like they were at a Ryan Gosslin kissing booth.
This sounds great.
Here's all my bunny.
You do know what they say, Cash rules everything around.
Us, doesn't it? It does, doesn't it? Okay, give it up?
And the most amazing part was it.
Was all bullshit.
Well bad. You deserve every single dollar and your assets make me want to come and do the honest foot.
Cast says you want to have some money raining on you with a chance it's gonna last.
On a wait.
Since Damrow, Sarah was running one of the first and most successful investment fraud schemes in history.
She was basically Bernie made off in a bustle.
Sarah made over half a million dollars, which would equal around eleven million today, and she prayed on over twelve hundred women, which today is still equals a lot of bitches.
Madam, I'm sorry to tell you, but Sarah Howe has stolen all of your money.
My money was stolen by a woman.
Oh, I'm so prone.
But eventually the lady's deposit was exposed and the police deposited Sarah into jail.
Sarah spent three years in jail for her crimes, but the true prison was her gender because.
Half a century later, her legacy was stolen by a man named Charles Ponzi, who became the namesake of the very scheme. Sarah perfected the Ponzi scheme, and she.
Was dead by then, looking down from having watching ponds to get all the glory.
Well, she was probably looking up for hell. But I'm still messed up, mother.
But tonight we salute Sarah Howe, who shattered the glass ceiling of financial crime. Thanks to her, women everywhere can aspire to lie, cheat and steal just like men.
That's off of Shafting. Tune in next time to hear about a woman so brilliant so I'm relenting Her vagina almost didn't get in the way.
Almost.
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