0:00

Let's see. My week has been full

0:02

of working on this stuff

0:05

and trying to

0:07

get ahead of the curve here and get a

0:09

little bit of an understanding for what the hell's going

0:11

on with all this AI thing that's coming

0:13

in and taking away all our lives.

0:16

So that's been fun tinkering with the stable

0:18

diffusion. It's scary. It's harder

0:21

than I thought it was going to be.

0:22

I mean, I'm kind of glad to hear that there's some skill

0:24

required.

0:25

I was too, and I mean like it's far

0:27

and away not the skill that an artist

0:30

needs to create an amazing work

0:32

of art. And the limitations are still

0:34

very present. But we should

0:36

all be very scared because it's

0:39

it's coming. We should all be very scared.

0:41

That's what I'm here to tell. Everybody, run screaming

0:44

into the streets. The sky

0:46

is falling.

0:48

Wow, you really full of.

0:52

Full of something something? Yeah?

0:55

Yeah, but it is

0:57

like exponential, isn't it. So it's gonna

1:00

proofs so much more quickly. Yeah, then

1:02

we're going to be ready to handle the improvements

1:05

anyway.

1:07

Anybody ever had uvulitis.

1:11

Sounds gross?

1:13

Yeah, it's awful. Uvula swells

1:15

up from uh

1:17

from snoring, that was my problem.

1:20

It seems well, I literally

1:22

injured myself snoring. That's

1:25

that's the age I'm at now. Had

1:28

I had a day long injury. That what

1:30

inhibited my ability to do things

1:33

because a snort too hard. Ah.

1:36

Yeah, getting old is fun. It's

1:39

so fun, so much fun.

1:40

Speaking of getting old, let's talk about

1:43

something old. How's that?

1:45

Okay? I think it works a way

1:47

of.

1:49

We're old, but this is way older.

1:52

Yeah, you know what's going to make you feel young thinking

1:54

about eighteen sixty.

1:59

So yeah, I e about today's story.

2:01

I got real into this one. We had a listener named

2:03

Seth Batts, who is at Seth's

2:05

Sculptures on Instagram, suggests

2:08

Winnaretta Singer as an episode,

2:10

so started diaming into her life.

2:13

She had like two chasted marriages and a

2:15

bunch of lesbian love affairs and like

2:17

sounds like a really exciting person. But

2:21

as usual, we got a little sidetracked

2:23

when we learned that Winneretta was

2:25

the twentieth of her father, Isaac

2:28

Singer's twenty six children.

2:30

Oh yeah, so I'm over here, like,

2:32

well, what in the world is going on with Isaac Singer

2:34

and his presumably exhausted wife

2:37

because my god. Well, a

2:39

quick click on his Wikipedia page

2:42

and we were down a rabbit hole about

2:44

a womanizing actor turned inventor

2:46

whose sewing machine changed everything,

2:49

not just in the home but also in the business world.

2:52

So before we get into Winneretta Singer,

2:54

let's tell you all about her father, Isaac

2:57

Merritt Singer, the inventor of the

2:59

sewing machine and inexhaustible

3:01

ladies man.

3:02

Yeah, let's go.

3:03

Hey, their friends come listen.

3:05

Well, Eli and Diana got

3:07

some story to tell. There's no matchmaking

3:10

oromantic tips. It's just about

3:12

ridiculous relationship.

3:14

I loove.

3:14

There might be any type of person at all, an

3:17

abstract concept or.

3:18

A concrete wall.

3:19

But if there's a story where the second plans

3:23

ridiculous romance.

3:24

A production of iHeartRadio. So.

3:28

Isaac Merritt Singer was born in

3:30

eighteen eleven in upstate New York. He was the

3:32

youngest of eight kids, and he was

3:34

like, I can do better. And

3:36

when he was ten, his mother divorced his father

3:39

and left for good. So Singer

3:41

Senior remarried, but Isaac didn't get along

3:43

with his new stepmother, so at twelve years old, he

3:45

ran away to Rochester. Ah

3:47

boy, firstplace of Eli Banks. Yeah, and

3:50

also the garbage plate.

3:51

Oh, the garbage plate. Well.

3:54

At first he joined the Rochester

3:56

Players, traveling theater troupe.

3:58

American Business History or describes

4:01

him as quote a fine

4:03

looking youth, tall, handsome,

4:05

blonde, and cheery. He's

4:08

also said to have like red hair and other sources

4:10

so picturing kind of a strawberry blonde.

4:12

Oh sure. Yeah.

4:13

So he's a pretty good looking, charming,

4:15

tall, attractive man. Okay, cool

4:17

personality, kind of a big personality.

4:19

Sure.

4:19

Apparently his biggest ambition was to

4:21

become a great Shakespearean actor. Oh,

4:24

his favorite role was King Richard.

4:26

Oh.

4:26

Isaac also apprenticed at a mechanics

4:29

shop when he was eighteen, and he took to that very

4:31

quickly, so he clearly had some kind of like

4:34

innate talent with machines.

4:36

In eighteen thirty, at just nineteen years

4:39

old, Isaac married the fifteen

4:41

year old Catherine Hailey. They

4:44

had two kids together, William and Lillian,

4:47

and of course they were super broke at this

4:49

time. Actors back then not much

4:51

different than now. The kids

4:53

dressed in rags they played in the streets,

4:56

while Isaac mostly just worked odd jobs

4:58

trying to make ends me. In

5:00

eighteen thirty six, they packed

5:02

up and they moved to New York City.

5:05

They're all actors go to make their fortunes.

5:07

He was like, Hey, if I'm going to be an acting man,

5:09

I got to go to the big app.

5:11

Book, the actions. When

5:14

they got to New York City, almost immediately

5:16

Isaac joined another traveling theater

5:19

troupe called the Baltimore Strolling

5:21

Players, and he was almost

5:23

always out on the road with these guys. He effectively

5:26

abandoned Catherine and he would go

5:28

out and amuse himself with a ton

5:30

of other women in their many stops on

5:32

tour. One newspaper wrote, according

5:34

to American Businesshistory dot org quote,

5:37

his intimacy with the female

5:39

part of the population was severely

5:41

commented upon, and much sympathy

5:44

was expressed for his wife. Damn,

5:47

damn, they had it in the papers. They were calling

5:49

him out.

5:50

The journalist got wyndodayse yeah,

5:52

buddy, well, and apparently I guess everybody

5:55

who ever came across him, because

5:57

they were always being like, damn, sucks for Catherine

6:00

because he's going home like three ladies on his arm

6:02

every night. So when Isaac

6:04

was in Baltimore, he met a beautiful

6:07

woman, and that brings us to this

6:09

episode side p

6:14

Who was that woman? So mary

6:16

Anne Sponsler and her family

6:18

had no idea that Isaac Singer was

6:20

already married, but she was super

6:23

into him. They got together, they started seeing each

6:25

other, they even got engaged. He

6:27

asked her to marry him, but of course

6:29

he can't do.

6:30

That, right he's already

6:32

married.

6:32

Uh huh. So eventually she must have learned

6:35

the truth. Some kind of agreement was made

6:37

because Isaac and Catherine

6:39

stayed separated, and Catherine moved

6:41

back home to her parents' house with their

6:43

two kids, still in New York,

6:45

but just not with him anymore, okay,

6:48

and Isaac and mary Anne moved

6:50

to New York City and were like living together.

6:53

Wow.

6:54

In eighteen thirty seven, mary Anne gave

6:56

birth to the first of their ten

6:59

children together.

7:00

Oh my goodness.

7:02

And apparently Marianne was always introduced

7:04

and referred to as Missus

7:07

Singer or in some sources, Missus

7:09

Merit, So everybody already thought

7:11

that they were actually married.

7:13

Yeah, who wouldn't that makes They've

7:15

got ten children together and they must.

7:17

Be I mean, seems pretty committed, I guess

7:19

and where's Catherine, right, She's not around anymore.

7:22

But yeah, the doubtful honor of being Isaac's

7:24

wife was still just Katherine Haley's.

7:26

So Catherine packs up and moves takes the original

7:29

kids with him, and he's just like, well, I already

7:31

got another one. Yeah, I don't worry about I got

7:33

the spare ready to go. Ten

7:35

kids here. Well, so far in Isaac

7:38

Singer's life, he proved to only be

7:40

good at one thing, getting women pregnant.

7:42

He wasn't really good at making money, which

7:46

is a challenge when you've got ten plus.

7:48

Children, million kids to take care of.

7:51

He would be out there working odd jobs, doing

7:53

some acting gigs. So you know, I

7:55

got a commercial down at the local medicine show.

8:00

He's going to walk down the streets like, hey, what

8:02

are you doing right now? Are you to come to see a medicine

8:04

show?

8:04

Have you tried Frederick's hair tonic?

8:07

Frederick's hair tonic the only tonic

8:09

that's made with real hair. Well,

8:13

one day, while he was on one of these odd

8:15

jobs, inspiration struck

8:18

and he invented a drill

8:20

that would bore through rock. And this

8:22

is going to be really useful for canal

8:25

building, which, of course, at the

8:27

time the mid eighteen hundred's super

8:29

on vogue. Everybody's digging canals,

8:32

right.

8:32

What's funny about this story is that apparently

8:34

Isaac was on Yeah, He's working at

8:36

one of his jobs, which was some kind of

8:38

digging job, and he was just bored.

8:41

So he was like, I don't want to do this. I'm

8:45

just gonna make a drill that'll do it faster so I

8:47

don't have to do He said.

8:48

I'm bored, But who should be bored is

8:51

these rocks.

8:52

But I just love that because it's like, see how useful

8:55

laziness can really be, such

8:57

an inspiration.

8:58

To that work and boredom.

9:00

You know, he did some work so he could not work.

9:07

Well. He ended up selling the patent for

9:09

this invention for two thousand

9:12

dollars, and like

9:14

any smart business man, he took

9:16

that cash and he decided to use

9:19

it to start a traveling

9:21

theater.

9:22

Troop and they were in business

9:24

decision.

9:25

And they were called the Merit Players.

9:28

Well, with all her kids in tow, mary

9:31

Ann was selling tickets for the Merit

9:33

Players and she would sew their costumes while

9:35

Isaac handled all the production duties.

9:37

But guess what turned out to not be

9:40

a profitable business model, and soon

9:42

the two thousand dollars was all dried up

9:44

and they were broke yet again, kids,

9:48

don't use your life savings to start

9:50

a theater trip. Please, please

9:52

don't do that, even

9:55

if your life savings, as they were for us

9:57

when we started ours were zero dollars.

10:00

Yeah, exactly.

10:03

Well, of course Isaac had to start thinking of some

10:05

ways to make some money, and he looked

10:07

back and was like, well, jeez, I invented

10:09

a really useful drill for digging

10:11

canals and that got me two thousand dollars,

10:14

So maybe I'll just invent something

10:16

right quick and sell that too. So

10:18

he drafted up plans for a machine

10:21

that would carve the little wooden letter

10:23

blocks that were used for type setting at

10:25

the time.

10:26

Okay, see another need. Yeah we

10:28

can make this type a little faster.

10:29

You see a need, you fill it, you make money.

10:32

Boom. Well, now, of course Asik needed

10:34

money to build a prototype right so he could sell

10:36

it, and fortunately he met George

10:38

Zeebert, a Philadelphia publisher

10:40

and bookseller, who agreed to go into business

10:43

with him, and he gave him seventeen hundred

10:45

bucks.

10:46

Hi that young man. Aren't you the one who invented the rock

10:48

boring drill. Well

10:50

you seem good with money, after all, you started

10:53

a theater troop with that two thousand dollars.

10:55

So here's some more.

10:57

So they set up at a workshop in

10:59

Box and this workshop is owned by

11:01

Orson Phelps, and Isaac got

11:04

to work making this machine. Okay, but

11:06

it just wasn't working out. Unfortunately,

11:08

it missed their shot on this one. The machine itself

11:10

was fine, but at the time most of

11:12

the wooden type blocks were being replaced

11:15

with metal. Oh, so there was no

11:17

market for this machine.

11:18

Oh jeez.

11:19

So Isaac's out of money again and he's like

11:21

got nothing to do. But for some reason, George

11:23

Zebra continued to finance his life.

11:26

Not entirely sure what was going on here

11:28

with Zebra? Oh, because this is not cheap.

11:31

By this point, Isaac Singer had two quote

11:33

unquote wives and eight children

11:35

to take care of.

11:36

Oh my god.

11:37

So I mean he's kind of an expensive guy to

11:39

keep on your on your apron

11:41

strings like that.

11:42

N zeb Did Zebra have a little crush

11:44

on Isaac or something?

11:46

I mean, that's an interesting we speculation.

11:50

Mister Zebra was madly in

11:52

love with Isaac Singer, a tall, handsome actor.

11:55

Time he's like, oh in a smart and inventive

11:57

Oh, I can just put money into this hands.

12:00

Man but not good with his money. I could

12:02

fix him.

12:03

I can fix him. Oh

12:05

okay, I love this. I think I can't Jorge

12:07

Bieber in love with Isaac Singer.

12:09

Let us carry that through the rest of the episode.

12:12

Speculations

12:15

Historically, the train is going to be riding

12:17

alongside us this one. Well.

12:22

Fortunately for George Zebra's dwindling

12:24

bank, account orson

12:26

Phelps needed some help. Remember this is the guy

12:29

who owned the workshop that they were working

12:31

out of in Boston that he was manufacturing

12:34

sewing machines. There were practical sewing

12:36

machines at this point, but they weren't really reliable

12:38

enough to be commercially successful. So

12:41

orson Phelps is like, well, hang on, there's

12:44

this inventor farting around my factory

12:46

with nothing useful to do. Maybe

12:49

he'll take a look at these bunk ass sewing

12:51

machines and see if he can do something useful with them.

12:53

Yeah, not a bad idea.

12:55

But at first Isaac Singer

12:58

shown a sewing machine and

13:00

called it a quote paltry business

13:03

and according to American business history. He went

13:05

on to say, quote, what a devilish

13:08

machine you want to do away with

13:10

the only thing that keeps women

13:12

quiet, they're sewing. Well,

13:18

have we take away the dutiful

13:21

sewing duties, They'll just be yapping

13:24

all the time. I don't want to hear that.

13:26

Meanwhile, I'm thinking about sewing, which

13:29

admittedly I don't do a lot of sewing. Sure,

13:31

in fact, I do know sewing.

13:32

I would say, I've never seen you, Sow.

13:35

I would say I have some sewing,

13:38

like a accoutrement, but it

13:41

stays in a box in a drawer

13:43

that's never open.

13:44

That for that emergency one day, that.

13:46

One day when I decide, you know what, now

13:48

I'm going to learn how to do a button or something.

13:51

But it seems to me to be the kind of

13:53

boring, like hands busy

13:55

work that would allow you to talk quite a

13:57

lot. Actually, And don't women have sewing

13:59

circle. The whole thing is they're all getting together

14:01

to chat and so they can and Sow.

14:03

Maybe that's what he means. He's like, they all go sit

14:05

together and don't talk to me, that's the main thing.

14:08

Or maybe Mary didn't like

14:11

talking to him. So when he came in the room, she was

14:13

like, not now, I'm sewing, and

14:15

he was like, oh, they can't talk when

14:17

they sew. I get it. I understand

14:20

women.

14:20

Now He's like, it's like pat and your

14:22

stomach in your head and rubbing your stomach at

14:24

the same time. That's

14:27

the stupid. Well,

14:29

of course we know that Isaac overcame

14:31

his fear of women talking and

14:34

he did look at the sewing machine.

14:37

So in eighteen fifty these three men put

14:39

a commercial enterprise together. It was George

14:41

Deeber providing all the funding, Isaac

14:43

Singer doing all the inventing, and forsuen

14:46

Felt doing the manufacturing, and

14:48

they had an equal three way share of

14:51

everything they would potentially make. And

14:53

Isaac Singer did figure out the trouble

14:56

with the sewing machine. So at the time

14:58

it used a curved and

15:00

the shuttle moved in a circle. But

15:03

I guess that led to a lot of like threads

15:05

maybe snapping or bunching up

15:08

badly. The thread would sometimes be pulled too

15:10

tight, so it just required a lot more hands

15:12

on that you had to fix it a lot. Okay,

15:15

Isaac replaced it with a straight needle,

15:17

and then he had the shuttle move in a straight line.

15:20

And after these innovations, they were able to

15:22

create a practical, reliable, and easy

15:24

to use sewing machine. And

15:26

I think he also was the guy who put

15:28

the pedal that was operated by your foot. So

15:31

it was quite a few little innovations

15:34

that fixed existing problems

15:36

with what was already built.

15:38

Okay, if that makes sense, I gotta I gotta

15:40

say, there's no way Marianne

15:42

didn't have a hand in this. I'm she's back

15:44

swing all his costumes. I guarantee

15:46

he went to her and was like, what what would

15:49

make this easier for you? M Maybe

15:51

you know, I don't know, speculation station, I guess,

15:53

but I just feel pretty confident that Mary

15:55

had some input into this machine.

15:58

It seems to me that you're

16:00

probably not wrong, but I think it goes back

16:02

further because I think they knew

16:05

they knew what they wanted the machine to do,

16:07

or they just didn't know how to do it. And Isaac

16:09

is like looked at it and was like, I figured out

16:11

how to do it.

16:12

Yeah, yeah, but you're probably but he you

16:15

know, yeah, it would just take one look at it

16:17

and go I got the fix. You probably spent a couple of weeks,

16:19

right, It probably went home was like, honey,

16:22

what the hell's wrong with the sewing machine? Why

16:25

do people hate it so much? I want you to do

16:27

it with shit? Well, I don't know, dear.

16:29

I guess it's just I don't know if there's some kind

16:31

of little pedal or something. I mean, my feet

16:34

aren't doing anything. Maybe they could get involved.

16:38

I don't know. I'm inventing all history here, but I

16:40

like it.

16:41

Well, as long as you like it, that's what matters. Well,

16:43

anyway, they just did an amazing job because

16:45

their new machine was so super

16:47

efficient that making a man's

16:50

shirt went from taking nearly

16:52

fifteen hours for one shirt to

16:54

taking one hour in sixteen minutes.

16:57

Wow, now that's amazing savings.

16:59

Okay, fourteen hours, I ask,

17:01

hell, Yes.

17:03

Yeah, that's incredible. I also just

17:05

don't know why. It really makes me assume that there

17:07

were shirt making races.

17:10

They had a time, Yeah.

17:12

I mean if they got an hour, sixteen is a

17:14

very specific time someone had to stop watch.

17:16

True, So like they probably had a line

17:18

of people at sewing machines go.

17:21

I think they did, because they probably priced

17:23

how much you made on how many shirts you made,

17:25

rather than how long it took you to make a shirt. So they

17:27

were like, this is the average amount of time to make a shirt.

17:30

So if you take longer, that's your problem.

17:32

Oh yeah. And then you know if a woman, if

17:34

someone was sewing a shirt and a factory and they were

17:36

like, we'll give you thirty two cents per

17:38

shirt, and it takes them fifteen hours,

17:41

and then they make, you know, thirteen

17:43

shirts in that time. They're like, wow, fifteen

17:45

hours of work. We'll continue to give you thirty

17:47

two cents. Huh for that amount

17:50

of time. Well,

17:53

now they just had to sell this machine,

17:55

and they expected to rake it in.

17:58

Isaac Singer's theatrical training was going

18:00

to come in handy here. He'd put

18:02

a cute girl in the shop window demonstrating

18:05

the machine for people, and he would go around

18:07

singing something called the

18:09

Song of the.

18:10

Shirt, which, of course,

18:12

how does that go?

18:13

We don't, oh, the song of the shirt? Yeah?

18:15

I think you were seeing Yes.

18:17

No, I remember this. I remember this from history

18:19

class. It was ladies

18:23

and gentlemen, come on down. We

18:25

got shirts all over town. They got

18:27

cuffs and sleeves and buttons too.

18:30

A shirt for me and a shirt for you. Yeah,

18:38

but you never got the shirt you need

18:40

unless you got a sewing machines. Come

18:42

on down and buy a sing I saw and

18:45

and and everyone in town say,

18:48

wow, I owe her for this shirt.

18:50

Thirty two cents about

18:53

it now? Now I'm

18:55

not naked. Damn

18:58

my lad, I forgot. You know, there

19:01

was some of the on the original sheet music.

19:03

Some of the words are blurred out, so I couldn't.

19:04

Either, you know, regional

19:07

two kind of varies.

19:08

Oh sure, yeah, do you remember

19:10

the second verse?

19:13

I was afraid you're gonna do that? Uh,

19:17

get a singer now and fill your drawer.

19:20

Get a singer now and make some mar

19:22

shirts for me and shirts for you. And

19:25

everybody looks like, now, how's

19:28

that?

19:29

That's pretty good? Lovely? The

19:31

song of the shirt, I'll take toe please. Well,

19:36

the song of the shirt certainly got everyone's

19:38

attention, as I'm sure it got yours, But

19:41

the sewing machine patent wars,

19:44

as well as Isaac Singer's womanizing

19:46

ways would nearly tank

19:48

the whole business. So we're

19:50

gonna take a quick break and hear all about that

19:53

right after this. Welcome

19:57

back, everybody.

19:57

Okay, so we already know that is Singer

20:00

technically did not invent the sewing

20:02

machine, right. Rather, he invented

20:05

solutions for existing problems and improved

20:07

the design of what was already available. Although

20:09

I will throw out here that American Heritage

20:11

says even so without

20:14

Isaac Singer it never would have worked, so we

20:16

can still say he was the inventor

20:19

of the sewing machine as we know it today.

20:21

What this means though, is that, of course a lot

20:23

of other people were involved in inventing parts

20:26

of the sewing machine that you had to have,

20:29

you know, for the whole thing to work. So there was a lot

20:31

of different patents that were involved

20:33

in making a sewing machine, and that meant

20:35

there was a whole patent war

20:38

going on at this time.

20:40

Jesus, somebody's like, well, I invented the

20:42

gears, and someone's like, oh, the

20:44

noodles exactly. The guy's like, well.

20:48

Pretty much, yeah, well I

20:51

like that. Yeah there Apparently they're like

20:54

I think American Heritage said, there were

20:56

ten major features that had to

20:58

be present for a sewing machine to be

21:00

a useful sewing machine, and

21:03

Isaac only invented two of

21:05

them, so

21:08

that there's eight other patents in there,

21:10

right, that's going to be an issue. So

21:12

the two other big sewing machine manufacturers,

21:15

which was Grover and Baker and Wheeler

21:17

and Wilson, accused Singer

21:19

of patent infringement. And there

21:21

was also Elias Howe, and

21:24

he was the guy who invented several

21:26

essential features, including the needle

21:28

with an eye at the point. Pretty

21:30

essential and you kind of needed that. So

21:33

he kind of felt he had a claim to all sewing

21:36

machines that anybody was making, because without

21:38

his needle thing, y'all

21:40

out of luck. So they were all pursuing

21:42

lawsuits all against each other for years,

21:45

which is very expensive. They're sinking a lot of their

21:47

profits into lawyer's fees.

21:48

At this point.

21:50

And the machines themselves were kind of

21:52

too expensive as well. They cost one

21:54

hundred and twenty five dollars.

21:56

Oh, like that's the retail price.

21:58

Yes, And this was at a time and most

22:00

families were only making five hundred dollars

22:02

a year.

22:03

Oh my god, so what a purchase

22:05

for comparison, five hundred dollars a year

22:07

is what the average podcaster makes today.

22:12

That's tough.

22:14

Oh, that's a tough one. And

22:16

what's funny is they could easily have made them cheaper

22:18

because according to American Heritage, they only

22:20

cost twenty three dollars to manufacture.

22:23

Oh my god, so their profit margin

22:25

was prifty markup.

22:27

Geez.

22:28

I guess of course you have to You do have to build in

22:30

some marketing costs. And they were traveling and stuff,

22:32

so I don't know how much they were actually making profit

22:34

wise, well on this machine.

22:36

But the traveling song of the shirt

22:38

chorus, you know, they don't work for peanuts.

22:42

Well, and you gotta pay royalties. It

22:44

plays on the radio.

22:45

Oh and it's a thirty six piece band.

22:49

They probably would do social like all right, he

22:52

definitely would at anyway, all

22:54

this means is that they were doing okay, right,

22:56

They have a great product that people really

22:58

need, but business is kind of slower

23:01

than they had expected. They're just not making

23:03

the piles of money. They're not Scrooge mcduckaney

23:05

yet like they figured they would be. And

23:08

then there's some kind of ruthless logan

23:10

roy business tactics that happened at this point

23:13

that Isaac Singer employed to get rid

23:16

of orson Phelps.

23:17

Oh, he's factory on it.

23:18

That's right. He bought him out without

23:20

Deeber's permission, using money

23:22

that belonged to both him and George Zieber.

23:25

So he was like, I'll buy him out

23:27

myself and then used Zebra's money. Oh

23:29

so, now that Orson Phelps was out of the picture,

23:32

they moved the business from Boston to New

23:34

York, probably to be closer to Isaac's

23:36

two families and ten children. And

23:39

they even found a new partner, which was

23:41

helpful because you know, all the expenses.

23:43

Right, may be helpful. But this guy

23:46

also decided really quickly that he hated

23:49

Isaac Singers. Isaac

23:51

had gotten very like haughty and authoritative,

23:54

a little full of himself at this point,

23:56

not to mention he was pretty ruthless,

23:59

and his reputation was not exactly

24:02

of the most shining citizen in town, right,

24:04

not at all. Besides his estranged wife

24:06

Catherine his first wife, of course, he

24:09

lived with his fake wife, Mary Ann

24:11

Sponsler and their eight kids, and

24:13

then he also maintained two

24:16

other affairs at the same time with

24:18

two different women, both named

24:20

Ellen dam Then,

24:23

totally unbeknownst to Mary

24:25

Anne, the mother of the most

24:27

of his children, he also had

24:29

another serious mistress on the

24:32

side as well. This was an employee

24:34

of his named Mary McGonagall.

24:37

She started calling herself missus Matthews

24:40

and together she and Isaac Singer

24:42

had seven kids, five of

24:44

whom lived past birth, and

24:47

that was between eighteen fifty two and eighteen

24:49

fifty nine. So a lot

24:51

of respectable people found Isaac

24:53

pretty gross, pretty scandalous. And

24:56

when he tried to hire a lawyer to take

24:58

on these many patent in fringe lawsuits

25:00

that he was always dealing with, this

25:03

guy flat out refused to work

25:05

with them. He was like, huh uh, I heard

25:07

about you and all your ladies, and

25:09

I'm a respectable gentleman and

25:11

I'm not going to sully mice my reputation

25:14

by taking on Isaac Singer as a client. But

25:18

he did recommend to him to a junior lawyer on

25:20

his staff. So much

25:22

money due to your level, But you should

25:24

hire my friend Bill over here right.

25:30

This guy was a former Sunday school

25:32

teacher named Edward Clark.

25:35

I just find that so funny that he's like, your

25:38

personal life is just too gross

25:40

for me. How about my friend a

25:42

Sunday school teacher?

25:44

Amazing well.

25:46

Edward Clark, of course, did not find Isaac

25:48

Singer's lifestyle to be very palatable himself

25:50

or his personality. They were very different men.

25:53

But he did think that he

25:55

had the best possible sewing machine on

25:57

his hands and that he would make a

26:00

fortune if the business was

26:02

just managed right. Okay, so

26:05

he had dollar signs in his eyes and

26:07

he became the third partner in this singer

26:09

sewing machine company.

26:11

He's like, the Lord says that

26:13

your life is not righteous, and you

26:15

know you sin regularly, but

26:17

the Lord also needs a new wing on

26:19

the Sunday's School.

26:22

You know, think of all the good we could do

26:24

with this money. But

26:27

immediately some problems sprang up because

26:29

George Zeber did not like Edward Clark.

26:31

Maybe speculation station a little jealous

26:34

of this new gentleman coming in. Wow,

26:38

because the former partner was like an old guy, but

26:40

this is like their same age.

26:42

Yeah, so maybe he was a little like, oh,

26:45

you're letting this man get close to you. So

26:47

George Zieber didn't like Edward Clark. And Edward Clark's

26:50

over here, like what is Zebra even doing

26:52

here? Like he doesn't have a formal role in

26:54

this business. We don't really need him, Like we have income

26:56

now, so we don't only need a funder like, you know, like he

26:58

just kind of felt like, who what is guy doing here? So

27:01

neither of them kind of saw the point of the other. And

27:04

then one day George Zieber got

27:06

sick with a fever, so Isaac

27:09

and Edwards show up at his bedside

27:12

and they convinced him to sell his

27:14

share in the Singer sewing machine business

27:17

to them for six thousand

27:19

dollars. Oh And Zeber

27:21

initially refused to do this, but

27:24

Isaac Singer told him, I've

27:26

spoken to your doctor and he says, you don't

27:28

have long to live. Do you really want to tie

27:30

up your widow and a bunch of it to a bunch of

27:32

potential debts and all this litigation,

27:34

with these patent lawsuits and stuff. It's going

27:36

to be so terrible for her. You don't want all that. You

27:38

just want to take the money and run. It was

27:41

only after the deed was done that

27:43

George Zeber, who completely recovered

27:45

from his fever, discovered that Isaac

27:47

Singer had never even seen his doctor.

27:49

Of course, he had lied about the whole

27:52

thing just to muscle him out.

27:53

Of course he did. George, George,

27:55

come, why did you say send

27:58

my doctor in here? I'll tell you he

28:01

was too in love with Isaac Singer. He didn't think

28:03

he'd betray him like that.

28:04

I think I think you're right. I mean it does this

28:07

make it make sense? Because I was like, this guy's either

28:09

like not smart, this is

28:11

not this, or he's just like blinded by

28:13

worship of this gentleman or something.

28:15

I mean, this is not Zeber. Being in love

28:17

with Isaac Singer was not in our original

28:20

read when we were researching this. This

28:22

is I'm this is a revelation.

28:24

This changes the whole thing. I'm

28:27

loving this. You know he's lying in

28:29

bed. Oh I don't have long

28:31

to live though, Isaac.

28:34

Oh my dear Isaac. All right, well I

28:37

suppose that business is better in your hands.

28:40

No, Zebra, don't

28:42

do it.

28:43

I signed this deed with

28:45

a kiss.

28:46

With a kiss. Oh

28:49

my god, it's so funny. I

28:52

did take a little bit of exception to

28:54

American heritage, kind of made fun of

28:57

Zeber and Phelps because they were sort of

28:59

like, well, Isaac Singer had

29:01

just been honorable and like actually

29:03

upheld his agreements with us, we

29:05

would have been part of the business and everything would have been

29:08

fine. But he went behind our backs

29:10

and did all this shady shit, and American

29:12

heritage called them gentle chuckleheads.

29:15

Oh being, And I was like, well, that's.

29:17

Not really fair to like expect someone to uphold

29:20

a business agreement to say, you're just some

29:22

fool.

29:22

Wow.

29:23

But then you like learn more about George and you're

29:25

like, I don't know, he'd.

29:28

I don't know, naive right, he

29:32

really thought Isaac Singer would do the best

29:34

thing or the right

29:36

thing anyway, And.

29:38

Nope, nope he did not.

29:40

He did the money thing. Money please

29:42

many, please my many. Well,

29:45

now it was just Singer and Clark

29:47

who would equally share the financial success

29:50

of the sewing machine. But they still had all

29:52

these damn lawsuits to deal with, all

29:54

these patent wars going on. Elias

29:57

Howe, the the needle

29:59

eye guy, especially, was getting

30:01

aggressive. He's like, it's

30:03

easier. It's

30:05

easier for a camel

30:08

to go through the eye of one of my needles. I

30:11

don't know, there's a joke here somewhere.

30:12

I don't know. If you're finding it better, I'm gonna find it.

30:15

It's easier. Hang on, there's a

30:18

needle and a camel. A

30:20

needle and a camel walk into a bar and

30:22

I'll tell you what, all right, let's you

30:25

gotta cut me off? Am I cut off?

30:27

Let's get these stitches straights.

30:29

Oh, let's see we got something

30:31

out of it. Nice. Thanks

30:33

for the save. So Elias how

30:36

it's getting aggressive, and he was Hella

30:38

broke and he wanted piles of money instead

30:40

from all these sewing machine companies. He's like, I

30:43

don't like being poor. I want to be rich.

30:45

Give me my money. But he also had a really

30:48

strong case. Yeah, but all

30:50

these constant battles nearly

30:52

tanked the entire sewing machine

30:54

industry. They're spending all what little profits

30:56

they're making on fighting each other. Fifty

31:00

six, a lawyer named

31:02

Orlando Potter suggested,

31:05

hey, uh, why don't all you

31:07

different companies pull your

31:09

patents together and share

31:12

the profits. Elias

31:14

Howe, meanwhile, could get a royalty

31:16

on every single machine ever sold.

31:20

And surprisingly they're all kind of into

31:22

it. They're like, well, I'd rather unite

31:25

than fight against each other. It's it's

31:27

almost eighteen sixty and I'm gonna

31:29

say something no one's ever said before. United

31:32

we stayed, but divided,

31:34

we fall. If only

31:36

that lesson could last another ten years

31:39

or so. This

31:42

was the very first patent

31:44

pool and this would later be used

31:46

for airplanes, automobiles, even

31:49

the movie industry. So finally

31:52

business could boom, and boy

31:55

did it. By eighteen sixty,

31:57

Singer was the third best set

32:00

sewing machine and everybody's

32:02

just stacking the paper.

32:03

Yeah, oh my god. But eighteen

32:06

sixty was also the same year

32:08

that all Isaac singers

32:10

shit hit the fans. Oh

32:13

no, so, as you said, they're raking it in.

32:15

Singer and Clark are millionaires.

32:17

Isaac was living like a king.

32:20

He and Mary Anne sponsoror, along with

32:22

her eight kids. They lived in a mansion

32:24

on Fifth Avenue. And you

32:26

know, our boy Isaac, flamboyant

32:28

actor. He wants to be the center of attention.

32:31

So he had this giant carriage

32:33

built. It weighed two tons,

32:36

it was painted canary yellow, It

32:38

was drawn by nine horses. What

32:41

and it could seat thirty one

32:43

people. It's a carriage,

32:45

butts okay, it's I mean, it's

32:48

kind of It also had beds

32:50

for his kids and a toilet in the back,

32:53

and a small orchestra would

32:55

sometimes sit on the seats on the outside

32:58

and be playing him on the street.

33:00

Oh my god, it's like a horse

33:03

drawn r V. Yes, it's

33:08

an arc.

33:09

Yeah, it's like a horse drawn hummer

33:11

limo in a hot tub in it.

33:13

Yeah, I had a pool

33:16

and an orchestra.

33:17

Although I guess having a toilet back then was a little

33:19

easier because it was just the chamber pot.

33:21

I mean, right, sure, that's fair.

33:22

He just had to have a little space for it to be.

33:25

Yeah. Probably didn't smell much

33:27

worse than a greyhound today, am I right?

33:29

Folks? Wah wah.

33:32

So he's you know, he's flouting

33:35

his wealth very loud

33:38

and clear for the whole city to see.

33:41

Of course, he's also still supporting his two

33:43

kids with Catherine Haley. Okay,

33:46

but Catherine herself. He finally

33:48

divorced, ironically accusing

33:50

her of infidelity,

33:55

which is just oh my god.

33:58

It's also crazy. As soon as he got rich, he's

34:01

like, Okay, I got to get rid of this bitch because

34:03

otherwise she's going to have oh

34:05

more money that I have to get rid

34:07

of her before I get too much richer, harsh

34:09

here, she's going to get more, That's what I think.

34:11

Yeah, no, you're probably right.

34:14

So he's accuseding, he accuses her of infidelity

34:16

to get this divorce and their son William

34:19

stuck up for Catherine in court. So

34:21

Isaac Singer never forgave

34:24

him. He snubbed him for the rest of his

34:26

life, and he left him the least amount

34:28

of all of his children in his will. He only left

34:30

him five hundred dollars.

34:32

Oh my god, that's just an average american's

34:34

annual salary, the

34:38

sweet learned earlier.

34:40

Oh good job, Ube. Wait a call

34:42

back.

34:44

Still that sucks. I know, right, I

34:46

guess it was a let me let that be a lesson of the

34:48

rest of you. Thirty two hundred kids.

34:51

Okay, his oldest son. Very

34:53

funny, but anyway, poor William. But

34:56

if y'all are thinking that, oh,

34:58

how excited he is to finally

35:00

be free to marry Mary Anne's

35:02

sponsoror after twenty five years,

35:05

you clearly have not been listening, because

35:08

Isaac was not in any kind hurry at all.

35:10

No.

35:10

In fact, a few months after his divorce,

35:13

Mary Anne was out and about and

35:15

she spots Isaac driving

35:17

down the road in his carriage alongside

35:20

none other then Mary McGonagall.

35:23

Oh from before.

35:24

From before, the one who had five children

35:27

with him.

35:27

Oh my god, who he somehow has kept

35:29

these women separate?

35:31

I mean new York's a big place there.

35:33

Yes, that's fair. Yeah, I mean

35:35

Mary Anne did already have suspicions

35:37

about old Mary McGonagall, so when

35:40

she saw them together, mary

35:42

Anne screamed out loud

35:44

and caused a big old scene, drew a whole bunch

35:46

of attention, and when she saw

35:49

him back at home, they had this big fight.

35:51

According to an article called Singer and His

35:53

Wigwam, he knocked her unconscious

35:57

and also hit one of their daughters, and

36:00

Mary Anne marched straight to

36:02

the police station and had him

36:04

arrested for cruelty and

36:07

bigamy. Just kind of funny.

36:10

She was big of me and they're

36:12

not married, right. Well,

36:15

he was let out on bond because

36:17

of course he was a rich man in New York City, and

36:20

he fled to London, apparently,

36:22

according to American Heritage, taking

36:25

Mary's younger sister Kate

36:27

McGonagall with him.

36:28

Oh my god, Mary's

36:30

like, well.

36:32

Your sister and my girlfriend are all mad

36:34

at each other, so let's get out of here.

36:36

Also, look at the pattern. We have a Catherine

36:39

and a Kate, a Marianne and a Mary

36:41

and two Ellen's. Oh,

36:43

it's like he's like, I have a lot of bities

36:45

so that y'all all got to have the same.

36:48

Keep the straight.

36:49

It's not gonna get tripped up by calling

36:51

you all the wrong name.

36:52

To be fair, there were only twelve names

36:54

back then. Well,

36:57

if it weren't bad enough that he took his third

37:00

girlfriend's little sister with him.

37:04

While the police were investigating the many

37:07

infidelities that Mary Anne accused him

37:09

of, they found another

37:12

quote unquote wife of his, a

37:15

sewing machine demonstrator, one

37:17

of these cute girls hes stuck in the window, named

37:20

Mary Eastwood Walters,

37:22

and she'd had a daughter with him in eighteen fifty

37:25

two.

37:26

My god, man, So.

37:27

It turns out this guy actually had four

37:29

separate families with sixteen

37:32

children, all of them living in New

37:34

York City. I

37:37

don't even know if the two Ellen's were still around at this

37:39

point.

37:40

Who knows. I'm sure I

37:42

would not put it past him. That's just that he came out just

37:44

some casual things on the said.

37:46

In addition, definitely, I mean, you got little Kate McGonagall

37:49

here too. That's not the

37:51

first time they met. If she fled to Paris

37:53

with him, or can't fled to London with.

37:54

Him, well, and Mary, I guess Mary McGonagall

37:57

is also a shop yindow demonstrator.

37:59

I mean, they were all like demonstrators. So

38:01

he's like finding all these cute girls, making

38:04

them his employees, leaving me, telling me

38:06

multiple kids with some of them.

38:08

You're telling me that a rich businessman

38:11

deliberately hired young attractive

38:13

women so that he could attempt to

38:15

sleep with them.

38:17

Shocking.

38:18

I know, well, it never happened before

38:20

Isaac Singer, and I certainly know it never happened

38:22

after. Glad we can put

38:24

that history behind us.

38:26

We're better than that today. Also,

38:28

I have to wonder because they call her a wife

38:30

quote unquote wife.

38:31

Uh huh.

38:32

So did Mary Eastwood

38:34

Walters think she was married to him?

38:37

Did? Did they? Was that his thing? Or he was

38:39

just like, call yourself my wife when we're out in

38:41

public.

38:42

It's probably because they had a kid together. Yeah,

38:44

I bet once they got pregnant, he was like, Okay,

38:46

call yourself something, and that'll make

38:49

you respectable. You can like hold your head up

38:51

in society somehow.

38:52

Yeah, I can have a wife with multiple

38:54

children in each corner of town.

38:57

But jeez, if I had a child

38:59

with some one out of wedlock, that would be embarrassing.

39:02

Right, because she had to know he was married,

39:05

yeah, or at least think

39:07

he was married to.

39:08

Married famously married. We said

39:10

earlier that like even journalists were talking shit

39:12

about him running around with everything.

39:14

Well, at this point, Edward Clark was

39:16

furious because all this rigamarole with

39:18

his divorce and all his extra families and all

39:20

this stuff was all over the papers. And

39:23

what was really bad about it was that Clark had made

39:25

their company successful by selling sewing

39:27

machines at half price to community

39:30

leaders, including clergymen,

39:33

so that they would influence other people to buy

39:35

those like the original social media fluids.

39:38

And now they were saying, well, I'm a church

39:40

person, you know, I am a community leader. I can't be

39:42

associated with a company with a guy

39:44

like this.

39:45

Right.

39:46

All of this, in addition to the outbreak

39:48

of the Civil War, made Clark

39:50

write quote, business is pretty

39:53

much at a standstill now.

39:55

Singer did come back to New York

39:58

from England to settle things with

40:00

Mary Anne because she sued him for divorce.

40:03

She's a bit of a head scratcher because they had never gotten married,

40:05

as we said, but she argued that since

40:07

he had lived with her for seven months exclusively

40:10

after his divorce from Catherine that

40:13

they had a common law marriage. Oh,

40:15

and that meant she was entitled to some alimony

40:18

payments and some assets

40:20

and things, not to.

40:21

Mention all the multiple children we had together.

40:24

So Singer did agree to her terms, although

40:26

he says she could never get married again. Wow

40:28

or ever, I guess because she had never been married in

40:30

the first place. And then he

40:32

left again for Europe to wait for all

40:34

the accountability I mean, unpleasantness

40:37

to die down right, But of course

40:40

it's Isaac Singer. So he found someone

40:42

to comfort him in his time of sorrow

40:45

and we will meet her right after these

40:47

words

40:52

Welcome back everyone.

40:54

So Isaac Singer took himself

40:56

back to Europe, but this time he

40:58

went to Paris instead of London, and he stayed

41:00

at a boarding house owned by the English

41:02

born widow of a Frenchman. She

41:05

had a daughter named Isabella

41:07

Eujanie Boyer, who

41:10

was nineteen years old at the time.

41:12

She was intelligent, attractive,

41:14

and lively, and it wasn't long

41:16

before Isaac Singer fell

41:19

for her. American heritage

41:21

writes that her mother had no problem

41:23

with her daughter becoming the mistress of a rich

41:25

American. Some sources say Isabella

41:28

was widowed or divorced already, but

41:30

others say that she left her husband for

41:32

Isaac. This may

41:34

not be very likely because she was Catholic,

41:36

and of course the Catholic's still very much frowning

41:39

on divorce.

41:40

Yeah, and only nineteen right.

41:42

Right, although his you know, Isaac's

41:44

first wife was fifteen when they got so. Oh

41:47

man, by nineteen you could have several divorces

41:50

under your belts, a couple of kids

41:52

and a failed business or two.

41:54

Oh man, people live

41:56

life on the air, right.

41:59

But whatever the truth of their

42:01

situation was, Isabella

42:03

clearly had a pretty good idea about

42:06

how to wind Isaac around her

42:08

finger, because when they came back to New

42:10

York in eighteen sixty three, Isaac

42:13

actually married her like

42:15

a for real marriage, church priest

42:17

everything.

42:18

Wow.

42:19

Yeah. American Heritage says that this

42:21

lady was pretty savvy. She she

42:24

lost no time in building good relationships

42:26

with all of his children, right, got to know

42:28

all seventy three thousand

42:31

of them, whether

42:33

they were legitimate or not. She even convinced

42:36

Isaac to convert to Catholicism.

42:38

She really had this guy pegged. She

42:41

well, she might have him pegged.

42:42

No, I don't know what they were into speculation

42:45

station. Isabella's

42:48

pegging Isaac.

42:49

Uh huh. She's like, who's the sewing

42:51

machine?

42:51

Now, I don't know,

42:54

And you were like, I lost the threads.

42:56

Hey, hey, lost the thread. A

42:58

lot of lost threads in this well

43:02

together, Isaac and

43:05

Isabella, of course, Isaac being one of the

43:07

most fertile men in America at this point,

43:09

they had six children, one

43:12

of which is the subject of an upcoming episode,

43:15

Winnaretta Singer, the twentieth

43:17

of Isaac's twenty six kids, twenty

43:20

two of whom lived past childhood.

43:22

Oh my god. Now. Many

43:24

sources also say that Isabella was

43:26

so beautiful that she was the model

43:28

for the Statue of.

43:29

Liberty, Oh famed

43:32

Hattie, the Statue of Liberty. I

43:34

look at her and I'm like, wow, gorgeous speachers.

43:37

I mean, she's got some strong bones,

43:39

you know.

43:40

Some strong bones.

43:41

Got a cool flick. Say,

43:44

a statute of Liberty is an algamo.

43:47

I'm just saying, you

43:49

know, aout the statues, a little copper.

43:51

It's a little copper.

43:53

Oh wow, you got it.

43:55

I see, well, true coppers,

43:58

but the green copper, the

44:01

degree, the vertigree

44:03

is a little it's just not working

44:05

for me. Okay, I'm allowed to have that opinion.

44:08

Wow, well all right, look if

44:10

you look like the Statue of Liberty, stay

44:12

out of my face. Fine,

44:17

it all comes out now.

44:19

You know, you're learning a lot, You're tired.

44:22

You're hungry, you're porn here.

44:27

Well, I hate to say it, but that seems to

44:29

be probably an apocryphal story.

44:31

Not not true.

44:32

Oh that she was modeled after her, Yeah.

44:34

That she was the model for the Statue of Liberty.

44:36

According to Reuters, the Statue of Liberty was

44:38

actually originally designed to look like

44:40

an Arab woman, a peasant. The

44:44

sculptor Frederick Auguste Bartoldi

44:47

originally pitched it to Egypt to be

44:49

on the Suez Canal, but they

44:51

rejected that design. So when Bartoldi

44:53

was working on a design for Lady Liberty, he kind

44:56

of went back to it, and then other inspirations,

44:58

including the Colossus of Rhodes, kind of affected

45:00

its design and stuff. He had a bunch of different inspirations,

45:02

so over time it evolved into

45:05

a big ass Statue of libertas

45:07

the Roman goddess of liberty that we know

45:09

and love. So we'll probably have nothing

45:11

to do with this fellow point well love.

45:15

Well, you know, I just I felt bad. So I

45:17

looked up at picture the statue of Liberty's face. She's

45:19

perfectly pretty.

45:20

Okay, I was going to say, I don't think she.

45:23

Looks like you know, you know where I think it comes

45:25

from. Huh, what a killer to smile?

45:27

Oh my god, come

45:31

on, I'm coming. I'm coming out there to punch you.

45:33

Come on, give us a smile, Libertas,

45:35

I'll.

45:36

Punch you right in the dick.

45:40

That doesn't help anybody, I

45:42

don't know, make me feel bad. Well,

45:47

anyway, even

45:49

though Isaac was now respectably

45:52

married for once, for once, this

45:54

was not enough to change Edward Clark's

45:57

opinion of him his his business partner

45:59

and singer. So he was just totally

46:01

done being in business with this guy at this nasty

46:04

reputation. So in July of

46:06

eighteen sixty three, they

46:08

rancorously agreed to dissolve their

46:10

partnership. Isaac's

46:12

main stipulation said, Okay, we

46:14

can split up here, but neither

46:16

of us is allowed to be president of the corporation

46:19

while the other one is alive. And

46:22

if I'm Edward Clark, I would take that as a threat.

46:24

I know, right, Okay, so I should sleep

46:27

with one eye open then.

46:29

Just like King Richard and come killing me him my sleep.

46:33

Well, they both held considerable

46:35

stock, so they were both making a mint

46:37

anyway, especially after

46:39

a tailor named Ebenezer Butterick

46:42

started making and selling dress

46:44

patterns. So now this whole

46:47

like pinterest culture exploded, opened

46:49

up the market hugely to housewives

46:51

who could just take these patterns and make their own

46:53

clothes at home. And Edward Clark

46:56

had actually already started targeting them

46:58

to purchase sewing machines. Remember

47:00

earlier when we said that the machines were one hundred

47:02

and twenty five dollars, when most families only

47:04

made five hundred a year. Well, Edward

47:07

Clark decided, I got a

47:09

pretty good idea. Maybe you don't have one hundred

47:11

and twenty five dollars right now, but I

47:14

will accept five dollars down

47:16

up front, and then women

47:19

can take the machines home and pay

47:21

them off with monthly payments. And

47:23

thus began the first

47:26

consumer credit program.

47:28

Pretty amazing, pretty remarkable. I mean,

47:30

that's the smart idea.

47:32

Yeah, buy now, pay later,

47:34

and if you don't, I'm

47:36

sending Isaac to your house. You'll end up with

47:38

thirteen kids. You weren't planning on happy Oh

47:40

no.

47:41

And the husbands were like, don't let him in.

47:43

Yeah, I'm terrified

47:45

of for some reason, all the women go for

47:47

him.

47:48

I'm saying, I mean, at least

47:51

later you can be like, I guess the money had a lot

47:53

to do with I mean, but I mean he was definitely a

47:55

charmer. He must have been. It was like the life

47:57

of the party kind of guy and maybe pretty

48:00

magnetic.

48:01

All handsome and yeah, probably

48:03

didn't hurt that. Oh I was making five

48:05

hundred dollars a year. You make that in a day?

48:08

Yeah, okay, five minutes. They

48:10

were also doing very well because they

48:12

were selling a ton of Singer sewing machines to the

48:14

Union Army, and they advertised proudly

48:17

that quote, we clothed the Union

48:19

Armies while Grant is dressing

48:22

the rebels. Oh,

48:24

and dressing in this case means bandaging

48:26

up wounds by way, because I at first was like, why

48:28

is Grant dressings?

48:31

Confused? So, by the time

48:33

the war ended, the Singer Company was expanding

48:36

internationally. They opened a factory

48:38

in Glasgow. Eventually Russia

48:40

become one of their biggest markets and It made them

48:42

one of the first American companies to prosper

48:44

internationally. According to American business

48:47

History, Edward Clark had hit

48:49

on another business innovation too, Like the

48:51

sewing machines changed

48:53

the business game in a lot of ways. So

48:56

Edward had tried licensing sales

48:58

agents across the country to sell singer sewing

49:00

machines, but too often they would sell

49:02

a competitors model instead of a singer.

49:05

Oh wow.

49:06

So Clark's was shut up and he required

49:08

his employees to only sell singers

49:10

exclusively. They were not allowed to sell

49:13

another competitor's model. And

49:16

he opened hundreds of local offices

49:18

from which to demonstrate and sell sewing

49:20

machines and like all over the states. And

49:23

this was the very first retail chain,

49:25

No kidding, the singer sewing machine.

49:28

That's so crazy.

49:29

Imagine people at the time just looking up being

49:31

like, eh, they're opening a singer

49:34

sewing store.

49:35

There goes the neighborhood, like

49:38

the old mom and pop place is gone

49:40

because of the singer sewing.

49:42

Like there's a singer sewing office right there,

49:44

and another one right across the street. He's

49:47

the boy what mattress

49:49

firm or the Starbucks of its day.

49:52

I wonder if if every people

49:54

were like, ooh, it's the sewing machine office. Do

49:56

you know there's gonna be a cute girl in the window.

50:00

Yeah, but she's got four kids with Isaac

50:02

Singer.

50:03

I can overlook it. I can over but

50:06

you're right. They became so ubiquitous that

50:08

jokes were made about their brand,

50:11

including this one. Okay, why

50:13

is a singer sewing machine like a kiss?

50:15

I don't know why is a sing a song machine like a kiss?

50:18

Because it seems so good.

50:22

Oh seems s

50:24

E a M S. But it sounds

50:27

like s E, which.

50:29

Is also weird because it's kind of duncan on kisses,

50:32

right, because like they seem good but they're not.

50:35

Yeah, this guy's kiss.

50:38

This is George Zber being like, don't kiss Isaac

50:40

Singer. It seems so good, but

50:43

then.

50:45

Take it for all your words. Well,

50:48

Isaac at this point, shockingly,

50:50

he actually seemed to have turned over a new leaf.

50:53

American Heritage writes quote, he suddenly

50:56

became a model of docile

50:58

domesticity, a doting father

51:01

and grandfather.

51:03

Interesting, Isabella really

51:05

changed or maybe he's just

51:07

tired?

51:08

Right? Yeah,

51:11

Well, when it seemed that Isabella wanted to go

51:13

home to France, Isaac packed up

51:15

all her shit and moved there. No, she has

51:17

got him, Oh yeah, apped up. She

51:20

must have been just the

51:22

most charming, smoking,

51:24

hot, delightful person,

51:27

I guess, and funny. Maybe

51:29

she's really funny.

51:30

Maybe she's really funny.

51:31

Just thinking of the you know, the type

51:33

of woman it would take for me to pack up and

51:35

move to Paris. She must have

51:38

been really something special, as

51:41

in, she's got fewer than three legs

51:45

and a working face. What

51:48

does that mean? That means I would move to

51:50

Paris very easily?

51:51

Well, yeah I figured that out.

51:54

I don't know. The face doesn't even have to function. I'm just

51:56

look, if you asked me to move to Paris

51:59

right.

51:59

Now, especially if you're paying for everything.

52:01

Yeah. Right. So they're

52:03

living in Paris, and when the Franco Prussian

52:06

War broke out, they went to Devonshire,

52:08

England, where Isaac Singer purchased

52:10

a big estate with one hundred

52:13

and ten rooms called Old Way

52:15

Mansion. In eighteen seventy one, American

52:18

Heritage says, you know, this is the time of life

52:20

when anyone this famous will be thinking

52:22

about writing a memoir. But Isaac

52:24

Singer had no formal education, and

52:26

in fact he was actually pretty close to illiterate.

52:29

So instead of a memoir, he decided he was going

52:31

to build this huge, ridiculous

52:34

house of course that he called the

52:36

Wigwam, and this was inspired

52:39

by the Petitrinal at Versailles.

52:41

It featured one hundred and fifteen

52:43

rooms, a completely equipped

52:46

theater, a coach house big

52:48

enough for fifty carriages or

52:51

two of his carriage buses, and

52:54

a marble hall with of course

52:57

a grand staircase. This

52:59

building cost him five

53:01

hundred thousand dollars, which in

53:03

today's money is eleven million,

53:06

although I gotta imagine it would cost more than eleven

53:08

million to build it today. Probably he

53:11

entertained all of his kids and his neighbors

53:13

there. He even once let an entire

53:16

circus come through, Yeah, which

53:18

honestly I respect if you've got a house that big and you're

53:20

actually using it for something.

53:22

No. I was like, oh, he got a completely equipped

53:24

theater so he can go in and like do his monologue,

53:26

rite something. But actually it sounds

53:28

like more like he would let traveling theater companies

53:30

use it. Yeah, And he'd be like, I also have

53:33

I come with an audience because they're twenty fucking

53:35

kids, and I can go show all

53:39

my neighbors.

53:40

And he probably stepped into and is like, I'll

53:42

be playing your King Richard tonight right

53:45

away.

53:45

Real, you gotta imagine him.

53:46

And they're like he did, at least we're not doing Shakespeare, and

53:49

he's like, you are.

53:49

Now tonight, you're doing King Richard. So

53:52

finally, in eighteen seventy five, Isaac

53:55

Merritt Singer died at age

53:57

sixty three. Finally she said,

53:59

fine, well,

54:01

I guess I don't mean to like that, but as.

54:04

The final thing to happen to happen happened

54:07

all of us.

54:10

Ultimately,

54:14

Isaac merrit Singer died. He

54:16

was given a very impressive funeral. He had a

54:18

seventy five carriage procession of two

54:20

thousand mourners in Devonshire,

54:22

where.

54:23

He lived, nearly two thirds of which were his children.

54:25

I know, right, He was like, don't take much

54:29

again. Built an audience Back

54:31

in New York City, Edward Clark

54:34

was telling anyone who would listen how he

54:36

was quote sincerely deploring

54:38

the loss of this distinguished

54:41

invintor, and as

54:43

American heritage rites quote at once

54:45

got himself elected President of the company

54:48

or.

54:49

Of course, oh yes, so sorry. Oh

54:51

it's tragic that he died. Somebody sign

54:53

right here, please? Oh no, oh, I

54:55

ever go on, I'll be raising my salary.

54:58

Oh my heart at ache.

55:00

I'd like the carriage too, as a company called

55:03

right well. Isaac Singer left behind

55:05

a fortune of thirteen million

55:08

dollars, which is worth closer to three

55:10

hundred million dollars today, which

55:12

he divided unequally between

55:15

all his kids. Sure, but there

55:17

were very bitter battles about it

55:19

from all sides. A lot of people

55:21

contested this will like every kid had something

55:23

to say. William and Lillian,

55:26

his children, and Catherine were given the least

55:28

amount. William the least

55:30

of all, since he stuck up for his mom in court, as

55:32

we recall. But apparently

55:34

Mariann's sponsoror was the most combative.

55:36

She forced a whole court hearing trying

55:38

to get a million dollar settlement. But

55:41

American Heritage says that most of our kids had

55:43

turned against her by then. I don't

55:45

know what that means. If they were like this.

55:47

The dad's got a circus, so I'm gonna go hang

55:49

out with him, he said, I don't know. At any rate,

55:52

the only witness that she could get to show

55:54

up for her side was old Orson

55:56

Phelps Oh, the manufacturer

55:58

guy Wow, that he had muscled out

56:01

many years ago, and she eventually

56:03

settled for seventy five thousand dollars, but

56:05

she made a real meal of it.

56:07

Yeah. Isabella, his

56:10

last wife, went back to Paris

56:12

and she remarried to a Dutch musician

56:15

in eighteen seventy nine. And interestingly,

56:17

this musician, named Victor

56:20

Rubsat however that's pronounced

56:22

in Dutch, was the

56:24

son of a shoemaker or

56:26

schumacher. But he became

56:29

an internationally successful singer

56:31

and violinist partly

56:34

by falsely claiming to everyone

56:36

that he was an aristocrat named

56:38

Vicoltstenburg.

56:40

Crazy.

56:41

But fortunately he was gifted the

56:44

title of Duke of Campos

56:46

Deelis from the Italian king in eighteen

56:48

eighty one and he became a

56:50

real aristocrat, so he didn't have to lie about

56:52

it anymore. After he died

56:54

in eighteen eighty seven, Isabella

56:57

married a third time to an art collector

56:59

in eighteen nine. She died

57:01

in nineteen oh four at sixty two

57:03

years old.

57:04

Now we you know, I've roasted Isaac a

57:06

little bit I feel because I don't

57:08

think he was very fair to a

57:10

lot of these women. Doesn't seem like especially mary

57:12

Anne. But American Heritage does end

57:15

it's very in depth story about Isaac

57:17

Singer by pointing out that the only detailed

57:19

account of his private life comes from the

57:21

divorce proceedings that were started by mary

57:23

Ann's sponslaugh. So they're kind

57:26

of like, it's sort of an unreliable narrator

57:28

because she has, you know, a bone to pick.

57:31

And they write that most of the women in his life were

57:33

very fond of him. She was the only one who

57:35

grew to hate him, so we might have an unduly

57:38

negative view of him. Now, maybe

57:40

all these ladies were completely fine with this arrangement

57:43

because he was like willing to maintain the

57:45

kids and like give them money, and they were

57:47

like fine, I don't care. Like it's

57:49

entirely possible that they were totally, you

57:52

know, into it. Interesting and they

57:54

conclude quote a less prejudiced witness

57:56

might have concluded that Singer must have

57:58

been more often than not a charming, likable

58:01

vulgarian, bubbling over with

58:03

animal spirits, with a voracious

58:05

appetite for life, and already if

58:07

rough talent for savoring all its

58:10

delights. Okay, so

58:12

just you know, to give him

58:14

his jest desserts, right, or give him his

58:16

fair credit or whatever. Yeah, I just wanted

58:18

to include that here. And you know,

58:20

unlike many men in his position, it must be said

58:23

that he did acknowledge and support

58:25

all of his kids, whether he was married

58:27

to their mom or not. A lot of men would not

58:29

have done that.

58:30

That's true, that's true.

58:31

It sort of feels like one of those things was like, that's what

58:33

you should do. So I don't feel like I should praise you

58:35

for that, but I guess a lot of people did. Now

58:38

I have to praise you for that.

58:39

Low bar situations, yes.

58:41

But it is. It does seem like

58:43

he really enjoyed being a father. He mostly

58:46

enjoyed his kids and really wanted

58:48

them to be around him. He's clearly spent

58:50

time with them and stuff.

58:51

So that's so interesting. I'm

58:53

curious. You know, Mary Ann had such

58:56

a right, such a story to tell

58:59

if only he had in that memoir

59:02

right, right.

59:02

And when we say he's illiterate, he wasn't

59:05

like he couldn't read or write, because he did write

59:07

letters and stuff. He just had very poor spelling

59:09

and grammar and stuff. He just clearly was

59:12

book.

59:13

He should have embroidered it with

59:15

one of his machines.

59:16

He should have had somebody else embroidered.

59:18

Just stitch it into fabric,

59:21

the fabric of our lives, fabric

59:23

of my life. It could be the title

59:25

of his memoir, Fabric of my.

59:27

Life, or or threads,

59:30

the Threads.

59:30

Of my Life Losing

59:32

the Threat by Isaac Singer. A

59:37

stitch in time saves not a

59:40

stitch from my songing machine saves

59:42

you one hundred Wow.

59:45

Okay, all right, I do not know.

59:47

I found this really cool story because there

59:49

was so much interesting business history in

59:51

it too that I find interesting,

59:54

and then also his insane private life

59:56

and how funny that it bubbled

59:58

over to affect his businesiness. It

1:00:00

must have been pretty serious. That's the other

1:00:03

thing that's sort of fascinating about this in a

1:00:05

way that you can't really dive into because none of

1:00:07

these women, of course, have their own articles

1:00:09

written about them or anything like that, except

1:00:12

for Isabella Boyeers, So you

1:00:15

know, we get no perspective from Mary McGonagall,

1:00:17

for example, or Mary Eastwood Walters

1:00:19

or any of any of them. So I have no idea,

1:00:21

but you know, it sort of speaks

1:00:24

to how differently marriage was

1:00:26

viewed, I suppose, or how differently men's

1:00:28

behavior could be viewed. American

1:00:30

Heritage also was saying like, oh, he was a

1:00:32

man who just was in the wrong time. He would have done

1:00:35

super well you know, in a harem times

1:00:37

or you know, like you

1:00:39

know, yeah,

1:00:43

or maybe ethical non monogamy

1:00:45

today, but in his time

1:00:48

people are very scandalized by it. So it

1:00:51

was kind of I guess that makes it

1:00:53

maybe more special or

1:00:56

not special, but commendable

1:00:58

that he acknowledged his kids, yeah,

1:01:01

because it made it was so much more scandalous

1:01:03

to have illegitimate we sure. So

1:01:05

maybe that's part of it too, is that he was They're

1:01:07

like, well, he really could have made it a big secret

1:01:09

and tried to cover it up, but he was just like, no, this's

1:01:12

my family. Everybody knew he needed that

1:01:14

big ass carriage around,

1:01:16

so.

1:01:19

Because you never know, right, Well,

1:01:21

I love this story,

1:01:23

what a weird one. I love the shirt

1:01:26

song.

1:01:26

The song of the shirt. Well, thank

1:01:29

you Success for the Winneretta singer

1:01:31

suggestion, because it's We've got two episodes

1:01:33

out, but now I'm very excited to get into Winneretta

1:01:36

as well. I hope you all enjoyed this story as

1:01:38

much as we did. For real, please reach

1:01:40

out and let us know or give us other suggestions

1:01:42

so that we can fall into further and further

1:01:45

rabbit holes. Our email address

1:01:47

is redic Romance at gmail dot com, yep,

1:01:49

or.

1:01:49

You can find us on the Instagram. I'm at Oh great,

1:01:52

it's Eli.

1:01:53

I'm at Diana Mike Boone.

1:01:54

And the show is at redic Romance.

1:01:57

That's right, I'm sorry, I

1:02:00

completely lost the thread.

1:02:03

One more thread loss before we go.

1:02:07

Thank you so much for tuning in. Please

1:02:10

come back to the next episode.

1:02:12

We love y'all so much for listening.

1:02:14

Ye the next time, by bye bye, so

1:02:16

long friends, It's time to go. Thanks

1:02:19

for listening to our show. Tell

1:02:22

your friends, nabors, uncles, and dance

1:02:24

to listen to our show Ridiculous Well Dance