02x01 - k*ller Crazes

[bunniefuu]

[lighthearted music]

- [Henry] Did you know that
there was a time

when cramming in college

could be crushingly painful?

- Everybody was literally like,

"Kids are jamming
into a phone booth.

You guys wanna check this out?

Let's go."

- They're able to
cram in 25 students,

which seems utterly insane.

- Do you remember when
man's best friend was a skunk?

- Breeders start thinking,

could people buy them as pets?

- Or how the roller rink
was more like a combat zone?

- Good skaters, if they
collide with somebody,

it is like getting hit
with a bowling ball.

- Some of these
guys need helmets,

some of these gals need pads.

No one has them.

- These are the
things we used to do,

for fun, for money, or
maybe out of boredom,

that we'll never see again.

Were they dangerous?

Certainly.

Deadly?

Occasionally.

But, boy, wasn't it exciting?

[dramatic music]

[lighthearted music]

Of all the cultural
crazes you can imagine,

who would've thought that
one of the most hazardous

was sitting?

[lighthearted music]

- In the 1920s, there's this
thing that's called ballyhoo.

And what it is is a way to
attract people to your theater.

So you would have some sort
of act or something out front

that would draw
people to the theater.

- In the summer of 1924,

people gather around
a movie theater

for what they think is just
gonna be a regular old ballyhoo.

- [Henry] And when they look up,

what they see is
anything but regular.

- There, perched 100 feet
above the roof of the theater,

is a man, sitting on a flagpole.

No harness, no safety net,

just a man on a flagpole


- [Kavitha] The man's name is
Alvin Shipwreck Kelly.

He's a former sailor
and part-time stuntman.

And he stays up there for


- [Lance] There's a little
platform up there

and he's just
sitting on the pole.

They roll up food.

He's living his life
on top of that pole.

- [Henry] The exciting
stunt gives birth

to one of the strangest
crazes of the 1900s,

flagpole sitting.

And the public goes nuts for it.

- Somebody would be like,

"I'm gonna go sit on that
pole for as long as I can,"

and people would be like,

"Honey, you wanna go
down to the town square

and see people?"

And they went, and they
would bring picnic baskets,

and they would just
watch a guy sit up there.

- [Henry] Flagpole sitting
becomes competitive.

It's a race to the top to
see who can climb the highest

and stay up there the longest.

- [Kavitha] In 1927, Shipwreck
Kelly spent 22 days

on top of a flagpole at
Madison Square Garden.

- [Hakeem] Two years later, he
tops that by spending 49 days

on top of a 225-foot pole.

That's higher than Niagara Falls

and the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

- One Baltimore contest in 1929

pits multiple sitters
against one another,

and the crowd is taking bets.

Who's gonna last the longest?

The victor holds
out for 23 days.

- [Hakeem] Looking to top
them all is Betty Fox,

the so-called Beauty
Queen of Flagpople Sitting..

- [Announcer] Betty
quickly draws a crowd

standing on a two-foot disc

more than 200 feet
off the ground.

- [Hakeem] But she doesn't just
hang out up there.

She actually performs stunts.

- [Kavitha] Betty skips rope and
dances with her partner

as spectators watch these
two balance precariously

atop a two-foot-wide platform.

- [Henry] But Shipwreck
Kelly still leads the pack.

- [Hakeem] He attempts his most
audacious stunt ever,

attaching a flagpole
to the top of a biplane

and flying around the city.

- [Henry] If all this
sounds extremely dangerous,

that's because it is.

- [Kavitha] One sitter, a guy
named Joe Holden Powers,

sits atop the
flagpole for 16 days.

And by the time he climbs down,

he's actually got
six fewer teeth

because a storm smacked him
headfirst into his own flagpole.

- [Hakeem] People have suffered
from sunburns,

their sleeplessness, people
start hallucinating up there.

And the man himself,
Shipwreck Kelly,

he has two heart
attacks while on a pole.

- [Austin] Of course the biggest
danger is from falling.

You are spending days upon days

hundreds of feet in the air,

you start to suffer from
fatigue, sleepiness, dizziness,

all while maintaining
your balance.

Something's gonna go wrong.

- [Henry] By the 1930s,
gravity finally wins

and the draw of flagpole
sitting comes crashing down.

- [Hakeem] Eventually, people
stop flagpole sitting,

but not because it's
grueling or dangerous,

it's because it's
typically a paid stunt.

And with the Great
Depression in full swing,

nobody's getting paid.

- [Henry] A big part of growing
up is trying to fit in,

and it's not always easy.

But there was a
craze from the 1950s

where the problem was
the exact opposite,

too many people fitting in.

- [Austin] The 1950s are a
golden age

of college campus
pranks and stunts.

Think the cow in the dorm room

or the dean's office
put on the roof.

It's bored kids having fun.

It's basically like the
movie "Animal House."

- [Henry] In 1959, college
kids in South Africa

are looking for a
way to have fun.

And what they land on,
or should I say land in,

is something totally unique.

- So there's this group
of bored students,

and they start thinking,

what if we tried to jam as
many people as humanly possible

into a phone booth?

- [Hakeem] Legend has it that
they're able to cram in



And that is nuts considering
that a phone booth

is only like three feet
wide and seven feet high.

- [Jason] Next thing you know,

their feat is reported
around the world,

and students in the
US see this and like,

"Wait a second, we're
not gonna get beat out

in the area of
ridiculous stunts.

This is America."

- [Austin] Students at Saint
Mary's College in California

decide they're gonna try to
beat the record themselves.

And the school officials,
they don't shut it down.

They say, "Let's do it."

They give "Life"
magazine a call.

- [Hakeem] "Life" magazine
sends a photographer

to document the attempt.

And they don't break the
record of the South Africans,

but they do manage to pack 22
students into the phone booth.

- [Brian] Everybody from "Life"
magazine

to the college administrators

to the kids going in that booth,

everybody was down to clown.

There was no wet
blankets being like,

"I don't think you
should do that."

It was literally like, "Kids
are jamming into a phone booth.

You guys wanna check this out?

Let's go!"

- [Henry] Once the photo
hits the news stands,

college students nationwide
start chasing the record,

cramming more and more
kids into a single booth.

- [Hakeem] The technique that
people eventually find that's

the best is to start
from the bottom

and you have people sit
with their legs interlocked.

That way, you're
not wasting space.

And then you start
stacking up people

on top of those people.

- It's such a big deal now

they actually have captains

and there's a whole teamwork
thing where they'll say,

"Okay, closing the door, ready?

Everybody, exhale!"

And everybody gets
as tiny as they can,

and thinks tiny thoughts,
and they close that door.

- [Hakeem] The records just
keep getting made.

There's 32 people
that fit inside one

in Modesto, California.

There's 33 in Oklahoma City.

- [Henry] Just because
you can get 33 people

into a phone booth
doesn't mean you should.

- [Kavitha] Phone booth cramming
doesn't take into account

that these are human beings.

They can't bend every which way

and they need space for,
like, their lungs to expand

and contract when they breathe.

- [Hakeem] One of the craziest
parts of the danger of this

is the fact that the phone
booth is made of glass.

And imagine if
you're facing outward

with your face against the
glass and the glass breaks.

You can cut your
face, cut your neck.

It could be really bad.

- [Kavitha] In Pennsylvania,
high school girls

cram themselves into a
phone booth and got stuck,

and they have to call the
police to come and rescue them.

- [Brian] Ironically, you can't
even pick up the phone to call


out of the phone booth.

There is something to
stupidity as a binding agent

between you and your friends.

And I think there is something
beautiful about that.

- [Henry] By the end of


finally hits the one
limit it can't overcome,

college kids' attention span.

- Phone booth cramming turns
out to be a pretty limited fad.

After all, there's
only so many ways

you can cram people
into a phone booth.

- [Henry] For college kids these
days,

it's hard to cram
into a phone booth

when you've never seen one.

- [Henry] Now, if you were
around in the early 1970s,

you probably remember a
craze that was everywhere,

from movies and TV to
schoolyards and playgrounds.

As the song said, everybody
was kung fu fighting.

- By 1970, the US is
hit with a kung fu craze

embodied in one man, Bruce Lee.

Bruce Lee is a martial
arts master turned actor

and action star.

- [Henry] Kung fu mania
sweeps the nation.

And soon, kids everywhere
want to learn moves

like the butterfly kick
or the eagle's claw.

- You start seeing all
these ads in comic books

and magazines for
martial arts schools

that basically promise to give
kids superhuman abilities.

- [Jason] They promise that you
can take out two attackers at

once, you can turn your hands
into an expl*sive defense

mechanism, or you can take out
a 200-pound attacker

with just one finger.

- [Brian] They'd have names
like the Death Touch.

If I saw an ad today that said

we could teach you to
k*ll someone with a touch,

I'd be like, "Yeah,
I'd wanna know that."

- [Henry] After the Death Touch,

the kung fu craze
introduces America

to another Bruce Lee
staple, nunchucks.

- [Jason] Nunchucks are just
two pieces of wood

held together by
a string or chain.

They don't seem that dangerous,

and so it's very easy
to go out and get them.

- Nunchucks are used in

hand-to-hand
combat for centuries,

and then suddenly in the 1970s,

high school students are
bringing them to school,

and no one cares.

[dramatic music]

- The force and
speed of nunchucks

make them a devastating
close combat weapon.

You can fend off swords,
crack knees and skulls.

And if you're not trained,

you can crack your own
skull just as easy.

- [Jason] Nunchucks are super
dangerous.

A swinging nunchuck can reach
up to 150 miles per hour

and have the impact force

of a b*llet coming
out of a p*stol.

In some states today,
you can get arrested

just for carrying
a set of nunchucks.

[dramatic music]

- [Henry] And it doesn't
stop with nunchucks.

Any kid with an indulgent
parent and a catalog

can order up a razor
sharp wheel of death,

commonly called
the throwing star.

[rhythmic music]

- [Jason] If you don't know
what a throwing star is,

imagine like a buzz saw
blade but miniaturized,

with sharpened edge around it,

that you throw kind
of like a Frisbee.

But instead of like a Frisbee

where you would catch it

and everybody would
have a good time,

it sticks into wood
or into your neighbor.

- [Brian] It was $2.50 for
a throwing star.

I remember, like,
people's garbage cans

would have little holes in it

'cause you'd walk by
and just chuck 'em at it

and it would stick in.

And we'd bring them to school.

We would just throw the
throwing stars into trees

and teachers would be like,

"All right, time
to go back inside."

We just carried them around
and teachers were fine with it.

- The injuries that come along
with martial arts are crazy.

Emergency rooms are
now getting sprains.

There're strains, there
are things that are broken,

concussions, even things as
bad as liver lacerations.

- [Henry] But for the
true wannabe Bruce Lee,

a liver laceration
is just a warmup

for something even more extreme.

[dramatic music]

- [Natalia] In Chicago, there's
this character

who goes by Count Dante.

His name is John Keehan.

He's retired military,
he trains in Kung Fu,

he opens a dojo,

and he markets himself as
the deadliest man alive.

- [Brian] Think about "The
Karate Kid"

and the leader of
Cobra Kai, Kreese.

He was Count Dante,

that strike first, strike
hard, no mercy, k*ll.

That's Count Dante.

- Count Dante is known for
these brutal initiations.

Like, if you want to advance,
he throws you into a dark room

and you have to fight,

and then at certain point,
sticks and knives come out.

[fighter hollering]

- [Hakeem] Count Dante would
allegedly start bar fights

to train his students

by finding the biggest
guy at the bar,

knocking his drink
out of his hand,

and then blaming
his trainee for it.

And if the guy was
with the group,

his trainee would have
to fight all of them.

- [Henry] And if these
initiation rituals

sound unhinged,

wait until you
actually join the dojo.

- [Brian] One night, Count
Dante gets in his head

that a rival dojo across
town has insulted him.

And the only thing he knows
to do is to gather his troops,

get over to that rival dojo,
and call them out into a fight.

I don't know what they
thought was gonna happen.

- [Jason] As soon as the door
opens up, it's chaos.

Guys start yanking
weapons off the walls,

they're grabbing samurai
swords, battle axes, maces.

It becomes like a medieval
melee with karate.

[dramatic music]

- [Austin] A 26-year-old student
of Dante

is first stabbed with a sword,

second, impaled with a spear.

His carotid artery is punctured

and he stumbles
outside and dies.

- [Henry] Few dojos rack up
a body count like Dante's.

But the writing is on the
wall for the kung fu craze.

- [Austin] The kung fu craze
is so out of hand

that states start
passing legislation.

Nunchucks, throwing
stars, they're banned.

- [Rebecca] Nowadays, we really
have all the protective gear

that you would see in
wrestling or fighting.

You know, there's a mouth
guard, there's head protectors,

you have to wear gloves

so that you don't rip
people's faces off.

- [Brian] When I was a kid in
the '80s,

you were talking to people

who had lived through the
'40s, '50s, '60s, '70s.

They didn't care if we were
carrying throwing stars.

That is not around today.

We've gone from
helicopter parents

to a helicopter society,

and I don't see how
that's any better

than a throwing star society.

- [Henry] Now, decades before
the kung fu craze,

there was another fad
that had people fighting,

to stay on their feet, for
up to five months straight.

[dramatic music]

- [Natalia] In the 1920s,
dancing is really popular.

And this woman, Alma
Cummings, has an idea.

She wants to see
how long she can go

dancing the most popular
dances of the day.

- [Martin] Alma dances for


That attracts media coverage.

Soon, everyone wants to see
if they can outdo her record

and dance longer than she did.

- [Austin] Alma's 27-hour record

is broken nine times
in just three weeks.

- [Martin] This leads to the
birth of the craze

of the dance marathon,

and it sweeps the nation
from coast to coast.

- [Negin] Pretty soon, they go
from hours to days to weeks,

and there's even a
thousand-hour marathon,

which is actually a month and
a half of straight dancing.

- [Henry] Dance marathons soon
become a full-fledged frenzy

and participants push
their bodies to the limit.

- [Lance] This is an endurance
contest.

It is physically very grueling.

People will be dehydrated.

The idea is to dance until
you literally collapse.

- [Negin] You have to dance for


When you take a break
in those 15 minutes,

I guess you can pee.

- [Martin] They eat, they wash
their faces, they write letters,

they even shave while dancing.

- [Negin] But people have to
move their legs constantly.

Some of them even learn
how to sleep standing up.

- [Austin] You definitely don't
wanna sleep for too long,

because if you do, the contest
officials will wake you up

with smelling
salts or ice water.

- [Lance] In 1928, a dance
competition in Iowa

goes on nearly three weeks.

A young man got psychotic,
punched his partner in the face.

At least one person collapsed
from exhaustion and he died.

[dramatic music]

- [Henry] For the contestants,

victory is worth a lot
more than bragging rights.

- [Martin] If you win a dance
marathon, you might draw a purse

that is equivalent
to a year's salary.

And so people who are desperate

see this as their one and only
shot at making enough money

to change the trajectory
of their life.

- [Henry] As the
Depression takes hold,

the promise of
life-changing money

pushes contestants and promoters

to even more extreme limits.

- [Natalia] The most extreme
dance marathon is in 1933

in Somerville, Massachusetts.

A guy named Callum deVillier

and a woman named
Vonny Kuchinski,

they just keep
dancing and dancing.

It goes on week after
week, month after month,

and the organizers are actually
trying to get them to quit.

- [Martin] They begin
shortening the breaks

and providing them
less time for meals.

They're speeding up the music,

hoping that somebody's
gonna fall out

and we can finally
end this thing.

[dramatic music]

- [Negin] By the time they
call it quits,

this one couple has been
dancing for five months,

dancing for 24 hours a day.

- [Henry] No one else proves
to have their staying power

and dance marathons seem
to be on their last legs.

- [Austin] The toll is immense.

The exact number is not
known, but people are dying.

At least half a dozen
have been recorded.

- [Natalia] By the 1930s,

cities finally start
banning dance marathons.

But it is not because
of the health hazards.

It's mostly because cops
hate the huge, unruly crowds

that they attract.

- [Henry] They danced until
the music gave out,

or their bodies did,
whichever came first.

- [Henry] Today there are dozens
of dangerous animals

that are ill*gal to
keep as pets in the US.

But that's not how
things used to be.

At one time, it was fashionable

to have a certain
questionable creature as a pet

without anybody
making a big stink.

- Throughout the 1900s,
having strange pets

is definitely an
American fascination.

President Calvin Coolidge
has a pet raccoon.

Elvis Presley has a chimpanzee.

Tippi Hedren, the actress,
Melanie Griffith's mother,

has a pet lion.

I mean, this is something that's
definitely a status symbol.

- [Henry] But in the 1950s,
an unconventional animal

becomes America's
latest obsession.

- One bizarre animal that
became a pet for people to own

is the skunk.

- [Hakeem] Skunks are the
smelliest animals out there.

If you get one of these
in your neighborhood,

you can smell it from
a mile or two away.

But somehow they become pets.

- Skunks have been a
comic trope for decades.

They're in Abbott and Costello,
they're in Disney movies,

they're in The Three Stooges,

and of course one of my
favorites, Pepé Le Pew.

- [Hakeem] Because cartoon
skunks are so cute,

people are starting
to soften to them.

So some enterprising
breeders start thinking,

"Hey, skunks are
having a moment.

Could people buy them as pets?"

- [Henry] It turns
out they will.

- [Rutledge] So how do you
market a skunk as a pet?

Well, you tell people
they're easily trainable,

they're smart, cuddly, kind.

- [Natalia] People buy them
at fairs, and shops,

and even through the mail.

Sears and Spiegel, two big
mail order catalogs, sell them.

- [Rutledge] The idea for a lot
of people

is that you could get
a skunk and train it.

You could put it on a leash

and, like, take it for a
walk around the neighborhood.

Everyone's gonna love it.

They're gonna wanna
come up and pet it.

- Oh, baby, baby, what am
I going to do with you?

[lighthearted music]

- [Henry] Soon,
skunks are so coveted

pet shop owners can't
keep them in stock.

But what about the smell?

- [Jason] It might sound insane,
but these are skunks

that have had their stink
glands surgically removed.

[dramatic music]

- [Henry] But while these skunks

might lack their stink glands,
they still have their teeth.

- You would think that a
descented skunk is safe

because it's basically had
its ammunition taken away,

but the thing is that
it can still bite you

and it can still scratch you.

- [Hakeem] Skunks can become
aggressive when threatened.

And they can pack a punch.

I mean, their bite is strong
enough to break your finger.

[dramatic music]

They have nearly one-inch fangs

that can cause deep
puncture wounds,

and they also have
these long, curved claws

for ripping through
soil and roots

that can also slice you
open pretty easily too.

- [Henry] But
scratches and bites

might be the least
of your concerns.

- [Jason] Skunks are actually
the most common

carrier of rabies.

And they're actually also
the most common animal

to transmit rabies to humans,

which includes you, their owner.

- [Natalia] These bites
happened fairly often.

By the time the CDC starts
tracking them in the 1970s,

they find nearly 200 incidents.

- [Dan] If there's a chance, you
have to treat it seriously.

And so, for a
person, at that time,

that means 20 shots of the
vaccine in the stomach,

really painful, no fun at all.

- [Henry] As rabies scares
rise, the government steps in.

- [Natalia] Due to this
concern over rabies,

there are ordinances all over

that don't permit them as pets.

And right now, the
vast majority of states

still have those on the books.

- [Hakeem] Today, we got all
these no-flaky pets like cats

and dogs that are hypoallergenic
or bred not to bark.

Don't you kind of miss the days

when you could just
pick up a catalog

and order your children
a rabid, wild animal

for just 25 bucks?

- [Henry] Owning a dangerous
animal is one thing.

But in the 1930s, there was
a craze that swept the US

that involved having your
pet and eating it too.

- [Adam] It's March of 1939

and there is a freshman
at Harvard University

in Cambridge, Massachusetts

by the name of
Lothrop Withington.

He tells his friends

that he is going to
swallow a live goldfish.

- [Austin] His friends laugh.

They don't believe him.

And they plunk down a $10 bet,

that's $200 in today's money,

saying, "No way, Lothrop,
you're not gonna do this."

- [Kavitha] And so he picks up a
goldfish

and kind of wriggles it
around in front of his face.

- [Adam] He holds it over his
mouth.

It writhes back and
forth once or twice

and then he drops
it in, swallows it.

[dramatic music]

- [Henry] With that one goal,

the biggest craze since
dance marathons is born.

- [Austin] The craze spreads
to other schools.

But now it's not just,
can you swallow goldfish,

it's how many goldfish
can you swallow?

Just around the corner at MIT,

one student reportedly
swallows 29.

At rival Ivy League
Penn, they swallow 42.

The record allegedly is 89
goldfish in one sitting.

[dramatic music]

- [Henry] But as anyone
who has rolled the dice

on sketchy sushi can tell you,

raw fish sometimes bites back.

- The safety issues around
goldfish swallowing,

I think, are pretty clear.

- [Kavitha] Trying to quickly
swallow 89 of anything

is really not a good idea,

let alone a live goldfish
that's flopping around.

It could cause you to choke if
it gets stuck in your throat

or can cut off your airway if
you accidentally inhale it.

So goldfish are really not
meant for mass consumption.

[dramatic music]

- [Austin] Things get so bad the
US Public Health Service

steps in and warns everyone
goldfish have tapeworms.

Tapeworms are going
to give you anemia.

- [Henry] The only people
who don't seem concerned

are the colleges themselves.

- [Adam] What's crazier

is that some of the
goldfish swallowing events

are actually campus-sanctioned.

- [Lance] It's news.

They're in "Life" magazine.

Why wouldn't you
swallow goldfish

to get into "Life" magazine?

So no one's putting
the brakes on this.

- [Negin] In one particular case
at MIT,

a hundred kids come to watch
it and three policemen,

not to break it up,

but to actually enjoy the
spectacle of goldfish eating.

- [Henry] But once a craze
draws big crowds and the cops,

the next thing it draws
is serious scrutiny.

- [Austin] In April, 1939, a
member of the Massachusetts

legislature introduces a bill to
protect and preserve fish

from cruel and
wanton consumption.

- [Henry] But what really kills
goldfish swallowing is time.

Like all fads, it
simply runs its course.

- [Lance] Years later, they
tracked down Lothrop Withington,

and now he's a
successful businessman

who apparently is not
swallowing live animals anymore.

And he said that it was a
case of mind over matter.

He didn't mind and the
fish didn't matter.

[dramatic music]

- [Henry] Today, this kind of
stunt doesn't go over very well.

In 2019, a young man
allegedly swallowed

another student's goldfish.

He was arrested.

- [Henry] For young people
in the '70s and '80s,

the place to be on Friday
night was the roller rink.

It was part dancing, part
dating ritual, part blood sport.

- [Natalia] Roller rinks really
boom in the 1970s,

particularly in the suburbs.

There's a lot of space,
and parents want a place

where you can drop off your kids

for a semi-structured
activity to have fun.

- The thing that really
supercharges the roller rink

is disco.

[upbeat music]

Disco added just a little
sexy je ne sais quoi

to the whole movement
of roller skates.

And it made sense.

- Roller skating is definitely
a non-controlled environment.

I remember roller rink visits

that were to the
soundtrack of Xanadu.

There were just older
kids that could shred it.

It's chaotic.

It's a bit of a free for all.

- Pretty soon, over 25 million
people are on roller skates.

That's nearly 10%
of the population

- At this time, you
have the introduction

of polyurethane wheels.

And that means that now,

you can go way faster
than you could before.

- [Henry] To skate to
this new kind of music

on fast new wheels,

people start mixing flashy
moves and high speed.

- [Martin] The roller rink was
way too intimidating

with the advanced
skillset people,

and I was on the
learner skillset,

and they would skate
circles around me

and then do the thing
that I could never do,

which was to skate backwards,

and then do that thing
where you flip around.

- [Negin] There's this thing
called crack the whip.

There's like a sort of leader,

and then people hold
onto that person's waist,

and then there's a whole
line of people holding on.

And they're going in
and out and zigzagging,

and it kind of creates
this whipping motion

to literally crack the whip.

- I did crack the whip.

I almost k*lled myself
with crack the whip.

I remember that.

[upbeat music]

- [Rutledge] Some of these
guys need helmets.

Some of these gals need pads.

No one has them.

This is not an era where safety
is among people's concerns

for almost anything.

- [Hakeem] And don't forget,
these skates are rentals,

which means they're probably
not being well maintained.

They have loose
axles, worn toe pads.

So your wheels can come
off while you're skating.

- [Nicole] Good skaters can
definitely get some speed.

I mean, they can go up to
about 25 miles per hour.

- [Martin] I saw the melee for
myself,

and the person frequently
crashing and falling

was also myself.

It's not a matter
of if you're going to

collide with someone,

it's a matter of when.

- [Nicole] Advanced skaters, if
they collide with somebody

is like getting hit
with a bowling ball.

- [Rebecca] Hospitals start
seeing broken wrists,

broken or sprained elbows.

And sometimes, when people
really face-planted,

there are concussions as well.

In 1979, one hospital in Seattle

treats 35 fractures
in just a few months

only from roller
skating-related injuries.

- [Henry] Eventually,
changing music tastes

and lawsuits over
defective equipment

cause the wheels to come
off the roller disco craze.

- [Nicole] The biggest
difference of a roller rink

today and the '70s
and '80s heyday

is the long waiver you
sign when you come in,

ensuring that you
won't sue them.

- [Rutledge] I mean, they're
a lot less sketchy,

but maybe you wish for just
a hint more danger to it.

- [Henry] Back before we worried

about things like
liability insurance,

it was pretty easy to
open a roller rink.

But there was another
earlier recreational craze

that was even easier
to break into.

[upbeat music]

- [Austin] In the 1930s, a
gymnast named George Nissen

invents the modern trampoline
and people go nuts for it.

There's just one problem.

It's sort of a luxury item.

It costs $200 back then,

which is over $2,200
in today's money.

- [Jason] A few years later, a
former trampoline salesman

actually has a genius
and slightly crazy idea.

What if you could
make trampolines

cheap and accessible?

So, for just a couple
hundred dollars,

he buys this vacant lot.

He lines the vacant
lot with trampolines.

And for just a buck an hour,

you can jump as
much as you want.

- [Henry] The park
is an instant hit,

and the locations, which come
to be known as tr*mp pits,

jumpstart a national
trampoline craze.

- [Negin] These trampoline parks

start popping up
all over the place,

especially at gas stations.

And they're there to
sort of service families

that are doing long road trips,

and they need a little break,

and the kids need a way
to get their energy out.

- The kids are bored,
they need something to do.

The parents see an opportunity

to allow 'em to burn
off a little energy

so that they could have
a little bit of peace

on the road trip.

Why not?

- [Henry] Sounds like
a blast, and it was.

Just don't look too closely.

- [Hakeem] Here's the thing.

These trampoline
parks are being built

by so-called entrepreneurs

who don't know the first
thing about trampolines.

[dramatic music]

- [Adam] And so these trampoline
pits

are not constructed
by engineers.

It's a hole in the ground

with a pseudo-trampoline
stretched across it,

basically sort of a springy
tarp over a grave, over a grave.

[dramatic music]

- [Jason] These days, there are
all sorts of regulations

and licenses if you wanna
build a trampoline park.

But back then, it
was all kind of DIY.

All you really needed
was a vacant lot,

a shovel, and a dream.

- [Negin] The kids loved it.

You can jump, flip,
get competitive.

I mean, everyone wins.

- [Hakeem] But the real problem
is the trampolines of the 1950s

were much more powerful than
the trampolines you find

in people's backyards today,
which meant that the jumper

can go to some
incredibly high heights.

- [Rebecca] If you bounced
on them just right,

you could launch yourself
a good 10 feet in the air.

And if you fall down,

it would be like being
in a car accident.

[dramatic music]

- [Henry] And what these
parks lack in safety features,

they also lack in oversight.

- [Austin] With no one keeping
an eye on anything,

lots of injuries happened

and people start
getting reckless,

multiple jumpers
on a trampoline.

People are eating
food, drinking soda.

- [Jason] Just imagine jumping
on a trampoline

with a glass bottle
in your hand.

All sorts of things
could go wrong.

- [Rebecca] They were placed
usually encircled

by some sort of concrete.

And on top of that, not
only is there no padding

in between these trampolines,

but the trampoline itself
has massive springs,

and bolts, and metal pieces.

- [Adam] Famously in Chicago, a
little girl's bouncing around

and sprains her ankle.

Her dad is really
upset about this,

and tries the trampoline
out, and breaks his back.

[dramatic music]

- [Henry] By the late 1960s,

injury lawsuits against
tr*mp pits stack up,

causing insurance
rates to skyrocket.

Pretty soon, operators
start abandoning their pits.

- [Austin] Even George Nissen,
the inventor of the trampoline,

who made millions off of
these trampoline parks,

turns against them.

He thinks that their
shoddy business practices

have tarnished his invention.

- Trampolines eventually
transform with safer designs.

Now they're elevated
off the ground

and there's a safety
net around them.

And trampoline parks,
those are all indoors.

There's a ton of rules
and foam padding.

And you have to sign a waiver.

- [Henry] Now, a lot of you who
were kids back in the '60s

remember trampoline pits fondly.

And gas stations have
never been the same since.

- [Henry] When you were a kid,

did you ever accidentally
let go of a helium balloon

only to wish you could
grab hold of that string

and float away with it?

Well, if so, you would've
been daring enough

to try one high flying
fad from the 1920s.

[dramatic music]
[plane roaring]

- Aviation in the 1920s is
this really exciting space.

It's unregulated, it's
young, it's dangerous.

And in 1927, Charles Lindbergh

flies across the Atlantic Ocean.

America is completely
captivated with aviation,

but flight training and
planes are really expensive.

- Innovators start to think,
what if there was something

that would allow you to
enjoy the thrill of flight

without having to buy a plane

or take a bunch of lessons
to learn how to fly?

- [Henry] It turns
out there is a way

and is about to become
America's next craze.

They call it balloon jumping.

- Jumping balloon,
or hopper balloon,

is invented by the
lighter-than-air

division of the US Army

based at McCook Field, Ohio.

- [Natalia] Here's how it works.

First, you put on a harness

and then strap
yourself to a balloon

that's nearly 20
feet in diameter.

- Next, you fill it with helium,
but not all the way full.

You want just enough lift

that a jump becomes a
long floating bounce.

- [Dan] Originally, balloon
jumping is a practical tool

for getting work done.

If you're trying
to inspect a blimp,

it's a really easy way
to get up there quickly

and have a look.

You can even do some
maintenance with it.

- [Martin] It's a little bit
like a pogo stick bounce

except it's a lot slower
and you go a lot higher.

- [Dan] Ideally, the person
jumps up, gets to a height,

they stay up there
for a little bit,

and then they come
safely back down.

[dramatic music]

- [Jason] So suddenly
journalists start writing these

pieces and newspapers start
publishing stories

about how balloon jumping could
really change modern life.

Right now, when I go to work,
there's all this traffic.

If I'm balloon jumping,

I could just jump over
the traffic, right?

It's easy.

- [Martin] It sounds amazing
because you could jump

across a beach,

you can jump over a building,
you can jump over trees.

You can perform physical
feats that the human body

is incapable of performing.

- [Henry] As it turns
out, balloon jumping

is a little more
complicated than advertised.

- [Dan] Balloon jumping has a
lot of serious risks though.

One is just gusts of wind.

You're completely at the whim
of that to take you sideways

into whatever field that
you didn't intend to go to.

- [Natalia] There's no real
training or licensing necessary.

But there's also no steering
mechanism or brakes.

So you can hop, but
you can't really aim.

- [Martin] Another risk here is
that you're strapped

to a 20-foot helium balloon.

What if it develops a leak

and the gas inside of
it begins escaping?

We know how they behave when
you let the air out of 'em.

They kind of zip and move in
different directions quickly.

This can happen to you.

- [Henry] So how do
you get the public

to literally jump onto
this budding craze?

You need a
balloon-hopping Lindbergh.

Enter rainy Brainy Dobbs.

- [Jason] Ernest Brainy Dobbs
is one of the biggest proponents

of balloon jumping.

He's a parachutist by trade,

but he's really a
showman at heart.

And he loves nothing
more than showing off

this new fad to the public.

- [Natalia] Dobbs is practicing
jumps in north London

and this police officer
is watching him.

He realizes he's
getting really close

to some electrical wires.

- [Jason] Dobbs isn't at all
worried about this.

He tries to leap over those
wires, but his feet get tangled.

And this is where things
go south for Brainy.

- [Natalia] In order to untangle
his feet,

he reaches down and touches
the wire and gets electrocuted.

[pensive music]

- [Dan] Brainy's death really
just takes the wind

out of everybody's sails.

It's not fun anymore.

It's way too dangerous.

And so the whole sport
is basically just dead.

Later on, balloon jumping is
still used by the military

for things like repairs.

But this dream we all had

that we were gonna
all wear balloons

and bounce around town
and be able to fly,

that just never really
gets off the ground.

- [Henry] Like air rushing out
of a punctured balloon,

that craze deflated fast.

- [Henry] In the early '80s,

American teens went
wild for breakdancing.

Everybody wanted to bust
a move, including me.

But moves weren't the only
things we wound up busting.

- [Natalia] Hip hop was born in
the South Bronx in the 1970s

thanks to a bunch of
underground parties

with new types of
music and dancing.

- [Hakeem] DJs don't just
play the records.

They remix them live.

And when they extend
that part of the music

that's that raw, drum-heavy
part that we call the break,

suddenly dancers
have a spotlight

to show all their moves
and make the crowd go wild.

[upbeat music]
♪ Hey

- [Henry] These moves become
known as break dancing.

And pretty soon, kids
can't get enough.

- [Austin] Soon, breaking
goes mainstream.


features a couple of scenes

related to breaking.

And then the next year, you've
got two breakdancing movies,

"Breakin'" and "Beat Street."

[upbeat music]

- [Adam] America really embraces
it.

Madonna puts it in
her music videos.

It becomes a stamp of
youth authenticity.

I'm a kid from Brooklyn.

I had the parachute pants.

I had this black
and red nylon suit.

[upbeat music]

- [Henry] And while
the dancers on screen

are professionally trained,

the kids trying it
are definitely not.

- [Austin] You've got suburban
kids with zero practice

attempting to emulate windmills,

and one-hand stands,
and turnarounds.

This is hard stuff.

- I cannot breakdance.

The best I could do
is sit on my back,

and have one of my
friends grab my foot,

and, like, turn me
around and around,

and I can end up
doing one of these.

All laws of physics
seem to not exist.

These people are spinning
around on their heads.

I don't even know
how they do it.

It's like a magic trick.

- [Henry] Pretty soon,

breakdancing becomes breaking
everything else instead.

- [Adam] Kids are spinning,
they fall off balance,

and all of their body weight

comes down on their
cervical spine.

They end up snapping
their spine,

busting a vertebra,
tweaking their spinal cord.

I learned the word
quadriplegic from my mom

in relation to breakdancing.

- [Kavitha] Doctors even coined
the term breakdancing neck

after the New England
Journal of Medicine

publishes a report about
cervical spine injuries

caused by headpsins.

- [Henry] But spine injuries

might be the least
of your concerns.

- [Rebecca] One of the more
serious complications

is called testicular torsion.

And it is as painful and
horrible as it sounds.

- [Adam] There are certain moves
called the scramble,

the blender, or the windmill

where basically one testicle

would get twisted around itself,

in essence strangling
it and damaging it.

- [Brian] Look, they called it
breakdancing for a reason.

They'd spin and they'd spin

and they'd be doing
all these moves,

and suddenly there'd be in
an interior part of the man

that just got twisted.

- [Henry] As the gruesome
injuries pile up,

so does the negative coverage.

- [Austin] Suddenly, news
broadcasts are warning

of the breaking epidemic.

And municipalities
start passing laws

to make it difficult or
even ill*gal to breakdance.

- [Adam] Eventually, hip
hop music changes

and dances change with it.

- [Brian] I wasn't good at it, I
could get hurt doing it,

but I am so grateful
for my childhood,

with all its dangers,
and all its traps,

and bruises, and
cuts, and breaks.

These are the experiences,
these are the scars

that add up to a
life well lived.

- [Henry] Looking back on the
fads that we got swept up in,

from pet skunks to ninja stars

to cramming ourselves
into phone booths,

sometimes "Hey,
everybody's doing it"

wasn't always the best
reason to join in.

But these crazes are also what
made our hazardous history

such a sensation.

[dramatic music]