02x37 - Man of the Streets

[bunniefuu]

♪ Jim Bowie, Jim Bowie

♪ He was a bold, adventuring man ♪

♪ Jim Bowie, Jim Bowie

♪ Battled for right with a powerful hand ♪

♪ His blade was tempered and so was he ♪

♪ Indestructible steel was he

♪ Jim Bowie, Jim Bowie

♪ He was a fighter and fearless ♪

♪ And mighty adventuring man

[orchestral music]

- [Narrator] In 1830, the newly-imported game of craps

was all the rage in New Orleans

and it was in a crap game that Jim Bowie first met

the excentric, Creole aristocrat Bernard de Marigny

who is known in history as The Great Creole.

- 500 will come for their papa.

You will cover my bet?

- 500?

You're covered, monsieur.

[dice clattering]

- Oh, come on roll it!

[speaks in foreign language]

- Crap!

[sighs] The eyes of the snake.

- Well, it looks like your children

don't recognize their papa.

What's your choice monsieur?

You still have the dice?

- What about it, Creole?

- $5,000.

- It's an IOU.

This is a cash game, Creole!

- Don't you trust the man

who introduced this game in New Orleans?

Have you no sporting blood?

- Your $5,000 is covered, monsieur.

- Thank you.

[dice clattering]

- [Man] Four!

- One of my good little children.

Little Joe.

[dice clattering]

- Seven! - You sevened out, monsieur.

- The dice have passed away.



You want it, Creole?

- No, thank you.

I'm suddenly bored with both the company and the game.

And you, monsieur,

posses Bernard de Marigny's promissory note for $5,000.

If you can read it Mister America, collect it.

[orchestral music]

Did my man inform me correctly?

Your name is Bowie?

- I usually introduce myself loud and clear.

- Typically American.

- Oh, I don't think this country

is old enough to be typically anything yet.

Good morning, Monsieur Marigny.

Oh yes, magnificent.

The quality of that plate.

This Rembrandt sure etches strong and clear, doesn't he?

- May I inquire how a backwoods man

is familiar with the great Dutch artist?

- Oh, you meet very interesting people in the backwoods.

Take Audubon for example.

- Ah yes!

Paint birds.

Before you acquaint me with your business here,

could I offer you a refreshment?

Wine, cognac?

- No thanks!

A little early in the day for me to indulge.

- And a bit late for me to be in a robe and sleepers, eh?

- Monsieur, as long as I get my $5,000,

you can be dressed in cap and bells as far as I'm concerned.

- 5,000?

For what?

- Well monsieur, I don't have to remind you

that I extended you a little credit last night?

That I have your IOU for that amount.

- Would you extend credit into sheer invention?

- You don't remember the dice game last night?

- [scoffs] I remember many dice game

but to have written a note for $5,000!

[speaks in foreign language]

I had $25,000 last night.

Empty!

- Is that a fact?

- Good morning, Bernard.

Forgive me.

I see you have company.

- Good morning, my dear.

Mister Bowie, my wife.

- Madam. [speaks in foreign language]

- The great speculator.

- The great speculator?

That's a new title.

- Mister Bowie. - Madam.

- Tell me.

Last night, was I so intoxicated?

- Monsieur you've put me in a very difficult position.

- I do?

How?

- Well, I can hardly tell The Great Creole

that he can't hold his liquor.

- Monsieur, certainly not!

- Well then, I guess we'll just have

to call it lapse of memory.

A lapse which this should refresh.

- Oh.

- Now that is your signature, isn't it?

Bold and clear?

- A debt of honor, yes,

but for me to spend that much cash

at this crucial time would be most embarrassing.

- Most embarrassing?

Well mister, this is your IOU!

Maybe you Creoles and we Americans

don't have the same definition of honor.

- I do not think I like your tone.

- My tone?

Well you're not giving me a music lesson, monsieur.

Maybe you're giving me a lesson in deceit.

- Have a care, Bowie.

- You have a care!

You tell me why you signed this IOU

when you knew you wouldn't be able to pay?

- You will not put me through a cataclysm in my own home.

You may leave.

- I'm not going yet, monsieur.

You know something?

Maybe you're the one

who should be called The Great Speculator.

- You offend me to the depth of my family history.

It is enough that you insult the Creole

by setting foot in his city.

Get out!

- You should have thought of your family history

before you lifted $5,000. - Lifted?

- That's right, lifted loud and clear!

Why a man, you'd have taken my 5,000 fast enough

if you would've won.

- Where do you live?

- Where do I live?

The Hotel Trianole, why?

[slaps loudly]

- Do you understand?

- Oh sure, I understand, Creole.

- My seconds will call on you within the hour.

- Oh, I might have known his seconds

would be here in time to spoil my dessert.

- Monsieur Bowie, may I inquire

who is representing you on the field?

- Gentlemen, I have that honor, Adolf Fontano.

- Get it settled will you Adolf?

Pistols?

- The place will be the Evergreens,

the weapons pistols, the distance 20 paces,

the time dawn tomorrow.

[drum rolling]

- Adolf, I just wanna have a word with him

just for a moment.

[triumphant music]

- Probably he wishes to make private apology.

[playful orchestral music]

- You have one minute.

[playful orchestral music]

- Fine morning, isn't it?

- I feel you will have to imagine

the rest of the day, Mister Bowie.

- Looks like it's gonna be kind of a hot one.

- [chuckles] I might have known you'd be terrified.

- Oh, we can start sh**ting any minute, monsieur.

I'd just like to ask a couple of questions first.

- Perhaps you realize that if you die,

my debt to you will be canceled.

- Oh, I wouldn't be too sure about that.

I mean, I don't have and heirs that I know of

but you never can tell.

Somebody may turn up to collect the debt from you.

[laughs]

- If you had only chosen foils, Bowie,

but it seems you are most irregular

and that might make you my match.

Ask your questions.

- Do you wish to honor the debt, Monsieur?

- Yes.

- Aren't you one of the largest land owners in New Orleans?

- Too large.

- Well then you repay me in property

and I'll make you a full apology.

- Americans in my suburb?

[speaks in foreign language]

Come, we've wasted enough time.

- I could form An american syndicate

to develop the whole Faubourg.

- Destroy the leisurely Creole way of life?

Poison the Faubourg Marigny with riffraff and adventurers?

[scoffs]

- Tell me, monsieur.

Weren't you something of an adventurer yourself

when you dueled with 10 men in one day?

- [chuckles] That was in my youth, monsieur.

- Why, Creole habits aren't so petrified they can't change!

Man I'm telling you, New Orleans will leave you behind.

If Americans can't build in your district,

they'll build uptown.

- You have given me a good idea, monsieur.

I will discuss it with my wife.

- Well, I don't like to do business with women.

- Did I say you would, monsieur?

No, I will discuss it with her

while you're trying to buy your way into heaven.

Come, I will teach you marksmanship.

- You mean you're turning down my offer?

- And that's a miracle leaves us both untouched.

- Nine, 10!

Are you ready?

- Ready!

- As ready as I'll ever be.

- [Moderator] Present.

[g*n fires]

[triumphant music]

[g*n fires]

- You understand, monsieur,

that I have asked madam to be present

because she shares ownership in the property.

Should there be any transfer,

her signature would be necessary.

- In that case, I'll make my offer right away.

My two American partners and I have formed a syndicate

and we wish to purchase the Faubourg Marigny from you

for half a million dollars.

- Half a million! [chuckles]

Obviously, my madame's very silent.

She does not feel the sum sufficient.

- I simply feel that money can be squandered.

The land endures.

- That's true madame, that's true,

but sometimes one can have too much land.

- No, monsieur.

Bernard just sold the railway passage rides

through his Lake Pontchartrain property for $25,000.

So you see, there is no necessity

to give ourselves over to the Americans.

- Well, your husband helped Andy Jackson's Americans

fight the battle of New Orleans.

- Only because I dislike the British more. [chuckles]

You're Americans.

Who but they have made us feel guilty

about spending money as one pleases, huh?

On a whim, they get praise, they talk to the moon!

I myself have never cared

to be concerned about money as an entity taxed.

- Neither have I.

But mothers have to think of their daughters.

- Make no mistake, I hate Americans!

- You hate our pioneering, you hate our enterprise,

you hate our ability to give more people

a better stake in life, is that it?

Look monsieur, aren't those the very things

that Louis XIV envisioned

when he first sent your countrymen to the new world?

- Ah, those qualities.

Once indeed they were Spanish and French, eh?

- Those qualities can be again

when Creole and American join in the Faubourg Marigny.

- You are most persuasive, monsieur.

I can see that and Matilde.

Can you not see what he means, Matilde?

Can not you see?

- You must excuse me, monsieur.

It is the time of the day I spend with my children.

I am sure Mister De Marigny

can make the decision without me.

It has always been his right and responsibility to do so.

Is that not so, Bernard?

- Of course, Madame Matilde.

- Good day, gentlemen.

- Good day, madame.

Well monsieur, you see why I don't like

to talk business with the ladies?

My two partners, Seth Morton and Henry Squires

can have the papers drawn up tomorrow

and have the papers here tomorrow night for your signature.

Yes, monsieur?

- Yes, monsieur.

I will accept your offer.

[orchestral music]

Matilde, sign these papers.

The gentlemen are waiting.

- Very well, Bernard.

But why such haste?

Only last week, you disposed of your lake rights.

You have the $25,000.

Or have you?

I should have known.

You lost it doing that evil game of craps.

[speaks in foreign language]

- What is such a sum when we have half a million to gain?

- No!

Half a million more for you to lose!

- But I've given these gentlemen my word.

Would you rob me of my honor, my dignity?

- And what of my dignity and that of our children?

And what of their security?

I love you Bernard, I trusted you.

Now I myself will assume

the responsibility of my children's inheritance.

- Matilda, you might as well know the whole truth.

I owe the citizen's bank a quarter of a million dollars.

We must make this sale.

- I'm sorry, Ben.

I'm not going to sign the paper.

- But what shall I tell Bowie and his Americans, huh?

What will I say?

- Say I have an appointment with my veil maker.

- Oh, what's keeping him?

I want to get this settled.

Where is he?

- Gentlemen, I will have to ask you

to return tomorrow evening.

Madame cannot be present tonight.

- Can't be present?

Why not?

- Why not?

- She's conferring with her veil maker.

- Madame's veil is something that I can see right through.

You're trying to jack up the price.

- That's right.

- It is rather low.

- It's double what you owe the citizen's bank!

- Doubled!

- [scoffs] A bagatelle!

- Why don't you face facts, Marigny?

You're broke, your land bore, your day is over.

You'll end as a clerk on a stool

with grass chocking the gutters of your Faubourg.

- That's right.

- Come on, Henry.

- Now wait a minute, Seth.

If you don't come off that high horse of yours

and listen to reason--

- Don't talk to me about horses, Jim.

You're in the saddle with Marigny as far as I'm concerned.

Me and Henry will build uptown without the Creole.

Come on, Henry.

- A clerk on a stool.

Grass choking my gutters! [laughs hysterically]

[Bernard sobs]

You're right!

I'm ruined, Bowie.

She was right too.

- Who? Who was right, monsieur?

- My wife.

She won't sign these papers now or ever.

Why should she?

Oh, that cursed game of crap.

It has obsessed me.

I thought to win my way out of debt

and instead I have sunk deeper.

What shall I do, Bowie?

- Monsieur, do you have a map of the Faubourg Marigny?

- Yes, why?

- Because you're gonna develop the Faubourg yourself.

- But monsieur, without capitol how?

- Your legion of Creole friends.

Wouldn't they lend money

to the man they call The Great Creole?

- To them I may be the Great Creole but not to my wife

who hardly would not allow me to handle such funds.

- Well, what would she have you do?

- To sell the property, I suppose, one lot at a time.

- All right then, sell it!

I'll help you!

- With the map, with some of the streets already named!

Now where is it?

Where is it?

Ah!

Here it is.

Now you see?

That is the first street that I named.

[speaks in foreign language]

And before long, I should call one De Marigny.

- Bravo!

And here's one I see you called.

[speaks in foreign language]

Street of the Good Children, Right?

- [chuckles] Very, very good!

- Hey, look at all of these streets you haven't named yet.

Monsieur, why don't you and I name all these streets now?

- We will drink to the completion of the christening, huh?

- Good idea!

- Viola, monsieur.

- To the christening.

Let's start with the big street

running right through the middle here.

- We will name it for ourselves, for you and for me.

- [Jim] How is that?

- [Bernard] We will call it Great Men Bridge, huh?

- Very good.

Now, this one here running across it,

we'll name in honor of the fortunes

that you've won and lost.

We will call it Roux Bagatelle.

- I will drink to that.

- Roux Bagatelle.

- This street is named after the French

who did so much for our country.

I call it the Street of the Frenchmen.

- [Jim] Oh yes.

Well in that case, this one running parallel to it

we'll call Union Street.

- [Bernard] Ah!

- To Union Street.

- And I insist Monsieur Jim on one for you personally, huh?

The Roux Bowie.

- Hold on monsieur, just a minute.

I don't think your wife would like that.

Roux Bowie!

No, no let's call it Roux Craps.

- [Bernard] I believe, monsieur, that I am indebted to you

in more ways than one.

- That's right, to the tune of $5,000.

Monsieur how would you like

to play a little game of craps with me

for the money you owe me?

- Until dawn if necessary.

- Just a minute.

On one condition.

That you promise, you swear

that this will be your last game of craps.

- My last one, Bowie.

- Come on then.

[orchestral music]

All right.

Now then, how much of your 5,000,

I mean how much of my 5,000

would you like to bet on the first roll?

- 500.

- 500, huh?

All right.

- Ah, the eyes of the snake!

- Craps!

That's 4,500 you owe me.

How much do you wanna bet?

- 1,000.

- 1,000 huh?

[lively orchestral music]

[transitions to somber orchestral music]

- Good morning, Mister Bowie.

- Good morning, Madame.

Your husband is asleep.

- You have had a lengthy business conference.

- Why yes we have as a matter of fact.

I'm sure it's nothing as worldly

as business that gets you up this early.

- There are worlds and worlds, monsieur.

- Huh?

- I go to mass.

- Oh.

- May I take you to your destination?

- No, thank you.

I'm going in the opposite direction.

- I hope your conference was satisfactory.

- Well yes it was.

Your husband has decided

to develop the Faubourg Marigny himself

and I provided him with the initial capital.

And madame, I think you'll be glad to hear

that your husband has sworn to give up the game of craps.

I kinda think he'll need your help to keep that vow.

- I will pray for him, and for you, monsieur.

- Well thank you, Madame.

- No, thank you.

Thank you.

The cathedral.

[pleasant orchestral music]

- [Jim] Yes, the initial capital

because Bernard De Marigny won back his 5,000

and Bowie dropped five more

but what was really memorable that night

was the naming of the streets

and to this day, some of those street names are retained.

Daisy Ray became Desire

which we know from the street car of the same name.

Roux Craps however was erased by a city ordinance in 1850.

The city fathers may have felt

that The Great Creole's memory

should not be risked on a throw of the dice.

♪ Jim Bowie, Jim Bowie

♪ He was a fighter a fearless and mighty adventuring man ♪