Speaker 1: Welcome to steph you missed in history class from house
Speaker 1: stuff Works dot com. Hello and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Holly Fromman I'm Tracy we Wilson. So Leonard Ottier
Speaker 1: became so much a part of French court in the
Speaker 1: eighteenth century that many people actually believe that he was
Speaker 1: a member of the nobility. He was not, but as
Speaker 1: coiffure to Marie Antoinette, he was afforded access to her
Speaker 1: that even most nobles would not have had, and after
Speaker 1: her ladies in waiting, for example, would complete the long
Speaker 1: codified ritual of dressing the Queen, Leonard went in to
Speaker 1: Marie Antoinette's apartment and create the hairstyle masterpieces that have
Speaker 1: really become a hallmark of the young ruler's iconic image.
Speaker 1: I think most of us when we think of Marie Antoinette,
Speaker 1: we think of her giant stacked hair with the ship
Speaker 1: in it. Yeah, but we're gonna talk about a little
Speaker 1: bit um and that is all because of this one person,
Speaker 1: and that iconic hare is very, very tied as well
Speaker 1: to the image of debauchery and corruption that Marie Antoinette
Speaker 1: was a oociated with. As the French monarchy came under
Speaker 1: attack her hairstyles too. Many not only looked ridiculous, but
Speaker 1: they were also very expensive and they were dangerous. Uh.
Speaker 1: Their sheer size made them difficult to manage. There is
Speaker 1: story after story of them just having to take things
Speaker 1: out and change hair to get in and out of carriages. Uh.
Speaker 1: And in a time when candles provided all illumination, they
Speaker 1: were huge fire hazards. There are also many stories of
Speaker 1: people getting their hair ignited or catching on chandeliers as
Speaker 1: they walked around. Like basically they were just a problem. Uh.
Speaker 1: And not only was Louis the sixteenth Queen spending massive
Speaker 1: sums of money to keep her hairstyled this way, we're
Speaker 1: going to talk a little bit about how much Leonard
Speaker 1: was able to charge for some of these. But other
Speaker 1: women of France were, of course following her lead to
Speaker 1: try to keep up with trends. So Marie Antoinette was
Speaker 1: skewered in the press not only for her own loose
Speaker 1: purse strings when it came to pursuing fashion and style,
Speaker 1: but also for the financial irresponsibility that her style choices
Speaker 1: inspired in other women of the country. And the man
Speaker 1: with the comb who created all of that Fereor is
Speaker 1: the topic of today's episode and the next it is
Speaker 1: a two parter. Before we get into this, we have
Speaker 1: to talk about the term hairdresser or because it's one
Speaker 1: of those things that in the modern parlance, I think
Speaker 1: most people that do hair would like to be called stylists.
Speaker 1: Um hairdresser has in some salons, not all, hairdresser has
Speaker 1: become more like the person who does It's almost like
Speaker 1: the assistant who handles rinsing prep, you know that kind
Speaker 1: of stuff, whereas stylist is the person that actually decides
Speaker 1: what your hair is gonna look like, you know, color,
Speaker 1: There's it's varied, there's a whole different hierarchy of words.
Speaker 1: It's not consistent. Even Salona Salon. Some stylists don't even care.
Speaker 1: Just let me do my let me do hair, and
Speaker 1: I'm good. But just in case anyone is wondering about that,
Speaker 1: because you may go to someone who says, I'm not
Speaker 1: a hair dress room a stylist. In this context, hairdresser
Speaker 1: was pretty much the term, and we're going to use that.
Speaker 1: So don't think that we're in any way demeaning anyone
Speaker 1: who designs colors, etcetera hair but Leonard called himself a
Speaker 1: hair dresser, and as well learn his call to hair
Speaker 1: dressing was not because he thought he was, you know,
Speaker 1: an artiste that needed to do it. He thought, stupid
Speaker 1: people can do this and make a ton of money,
Speaker 1: so I'm gonna do it. Uh, So we're gonna talk
Speaker 1: about Leonard Autier. Leonard Alexis Attier was born somewhere in
Speaker 1: the five year span between seventeen forty six and seventeen
Speaker 1: fifty one in the southwest of France, in a town
Speaker 1: called Pomier. His parents made their living as domestic servants,
Speaker 1: but even from a very young age, Leonard longed for
Speaker 1: more than life in a rural town could really offer him,
Speaker 1: and he learned his trade in styling hair as an
Speaker 1: apprentice in Marseilles and Toulouse, and then he spent time
Speaker 1: in Bordeaux crafting the latest hairstyles. But his work never
Speaker 1: really caught on with the upper class there, and he
Speaker 1: was unwilling to style the hair of women farther down
Speaker 1: this social hierarchy, so he decided that he was going
Speaker 1: to leave Bordeaux and he set his eyes on Paris.
Speaker 1: He moved to Paris in seventeen sixty nine when Louis
Speaker 1: the fifteenth was still king and when the popular hairstyle
Speaker 1: for women consisted of curls arranged close to the head
Speaker 1: called a tete de mouton or sheep's head. Autier settled
Speaker 1: into lodgings in a less than stellar part of town
Speaker 1: at number fifteen Rue Denier. He paid for two weeks
Speaker 1: worth of lodging and then set out the next morning
Speaker 1: to try to make his way as a gentleman of Paris.
Speaker 1: I sort of love this because in the beginning this
Speaker 1: was definitely a fake it till you make it situation. Uh.
Speaker 1: He had walked into Paris with basically nothing but was
Speaker 1: in his pockets and a comb. He couldn't afford wig powder,
Speaker 1: so he used some baking flowers, some leftover baking flower
Speaker 1: to whiten his hair, and he carefully prepared these garments
Speaker 1: that were second hand, uh, so that they would look
Speaker 1: really clean and tidy and artfully assembled. There's even discussion
Speaker 1: of how he very carefully tied his cravats so that
Speaker 1: all of the platz are perfect and that he looked
Speaker 1: completely assembled. And he put on a sword, which was
Speaker 1: common for French noblemen at the time, and he went
Speaker 1: out to seek his fortune, and according to his account,
Speaker 1: and we're going to talk about his his memoirs a
Speaker 1: little bit later, people in the street just stopped and
Speaker 1: commented on what an attractive and fine looking gentleman he was.
Speaker 1: He made his way to the business of a monsieur Legroux,
Speaker 1: was a well known hairdresser in Paris at the time,
Speaker 1: looking for a job. Legrox had written a book on
Speaker 1: hairstyling called The Art of Hair Dressing, which Leonard had read,
Speaker 1: and in fact it was one of the things that
Speaker 1: inspired the young man from the country to start pursuing
Speaker 1: a career in coiffure. But this was not a case
Speaker 1: of admiration. This arkens back to what I said earlier.
Speaker 1: Autier felt that if someone such as Legroux, who was
Speaker 1: obviously in his mind of buffoon, could cultivate a successful
Speaker 1: career for himself based on dressing hair and complimenting rich women,
Speaker 1: then certainly he could do the same thing. And he
Speaker 1: managed to establish an industry contact in Lgaro. They talked
Speaker 1: about him possibly working there, and that was thanks in
Speaker 1: part to a friend of Otier's named Fremont, who was
Speaker 1: already working for the established hairdresser Leonard felt that he
Speaker 1: would quickly surpass Legro and he told Fremont that he
Speaker 1: believed he would be quote the foremost hairdresser in the
Speaker 1: universe within three years. This was the bold most for anyone,
Speaker 1: but particularly someone who had arrived in the city the
Speaker 1: day before with almost nothing, but it evidenced the boastful
Speaker 1: and often overconfident personality that he would really become famous for. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this was a man that did not lack for confidence,
Speaker 1: like to the point that as I read his memoirs
Speaker 1: and the biography that I read of him, I was
Speaker 1: really quite envious. As a man, it must be like
Speaker 1: a delight to walk through the world with like absolutely
Speaker 1: no self doubtte and with the help of Fremon, Leonard
Speaker 1: quickly made additional friends and he started doing the hair
Speaker 1: of one of the actresses at Nicolette's Theater for a
Speaker 1: role as a fairy. And this was initially sort of
Speaker 1: a fun thing where he was like, oh, let me
Speaker 1: do your hair, it'll be fun. But his concoction, which
Speaker 1: made use of jewelry and flowers and stars as accent
Speaker 1: pieces in this really lavish hair do that also involved
Speaker 1: a little bit of architecture to defy gravity won the actress,
Speaker 1: who had been doing okay but not exactly having a
Speaker 1: breakout star moment won her a great deal of attention
Speaker 1: quite quickly, and in turn, Leonard also was given a
Speaker 1: lot of attention. The young hairdresser moved immediately out of
Speaker 1: his lodgings and the more dodgy part down so he
Speaker 1: could live nearer to the theater's performers, and within just
Speaker 1: a few days he had become such a sensation that
Speaker 1: he gained the attention of Etienne Francois nukesois Oi. While
Speaker 1: Leonard was glad to make a connection so closely tied
Speaker 1: to the king, he also knew that court politics could
Speaker 1: easily shift and any given connection could just fall out
Speaker 1: of favor, so he also sought to expand his connections
Speaker 1: to the nobility, and his posthumously published memoirs he wrote
Speaker 1: her this time quote, greedy for gold and fame, I
Speaker 1: may very well decide the destiny of my whole life
Speaker 1: within just a single stroke of my home. Yeah. He
Speaker 1: was very astute in realizing that he needed to. He
Speaker 1: couldn't count on any one stroke of luck to propel
Speaker 1: him into the life that he wanted, so he really
Speaker 1: sort of cast his net net very wide. He was
Speaker 1: really quite trud as a businessman. And we're going to
Speaker 1: talk about his incredibly speedy rise to success. I mean,
Speaker 1: already he's been in France for days and he's getting
Speaker 1: attention from very very high up people. But first we're
Speaker 1: gonna pause and have a word from one of our sponsors.
Speaker 1: Leonard had a rapidly growing clientele in the theater. Numerous
Speaker 1: actresses and dancers demanded to have him perform the same
Speaker 1: magic on them that he had done on the actress
Speaker 1: who played the ferry at Nicolett's. And incidentally, he seems
Speaker 1: to have also had a romantic involvement with that actress
Speaker 1: as well. Uh. And he was well aware that part
Speaker 1: of his appeal was that he was handsome and charming,
Speaker 1: and that some of the women who were seeking his
Speaker 1: services were also interested in him as a potential romantic interest.
Speaker 1: But even as he shot to fame inside just a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks in Paris, there was also a bit
Speaker 1: of jealous sabotage. A foot Legro, the established hairdresser who
Speaker 1: Leonard had visited his first full day in the city,
Speaker 1: was jealous of all the attention that this new upstart
Speaker 1: was getting the grow attempted to launch a smear campaign
Speaker 1: against Leonard's morals, suggesting it seems a tendency to engage
Speaker 1: in impropriety with his patrons. But it seems like, at
Speaker 1: least to some, this rumor only made the handsome Leonard
Speaker 1: more appealing. They're like, oh, really, I could get my
Speaker 1: hair to n and maybe have a little action. I
Speaker 1: would like to book an appointment please, So he really,
Speaker 1: I mean, it was insane how quickly he became super
Speaker 1: toy popular and one of his new patrons during this
Speaker 1: time was the Marquise de lan Jacques, who was to
Speaker 1: be a part of Marie antoine arranged social circle. When
Speaker 1: the new Dauffhine arrived from Vienna. Non Jacques made clear
Speaker 1: to Leonard that she was interested in introducing him to
Speaker 1: the French court and promoting him as a hairdresser there,
Speaker 1: but on the condition that he really couldn't be dallying
Speaker 1: with dancers and actresses if he wished to move into
Speaker 1: higher society. But there's really a pretty strong suggestion that
Speaker 1: what she was really indicating was that she would like
Speaker 1: to sort of be his his patron and have a
Speaker 1: romantic relationship with him, but if that were going to
Speaker 1: be the case, he could not be involved with other people.
Speaker 1: Autis memoirs indicate that the two of them began a
Speaker 1: sexual relationship almost immediately. He did not, however, severed ties
Speaker 1: with his actress Paramore. The Marquise seems to need constant
Speaker 1: appointments with Leonard, but as described in Wilbashore's biography of Leonard, quote,
Speaker 1: according to one on liquor, her hair never seemed so
Speaker 1: badly arranged. Yeah, she was having some. I was two
Speaker 1: appointments today, one in the morning and one in the evening,
Speaker 1: and yet her hair did never look very good. La
Speaker 1: Jacques introduced Leonard to Madame Duberry, the King's favorite, and
Speaker 1: it was actually an invitation from Duberry that first granted
Speaker 1: Leonard an opportunity to visit Versailles, and at their meeting,
Speaker 1: she made an appointment with him to visit her at
Speaker 1: her home the next day. During that appointment, Duberry, who
Speaker 1: had just exited her bath, explained to Leonard what a
Speaker 1: massage was and asked that he give her one request
Speaker 1: that he obliged when he later told the Marquise de
Speaker 1: lan Jacque about it, though she became quite jealous and
Speaker 1: told him never to go to Duberry again. Yeah, apparently
Speaker 1: this is a time when massage was not like a
Speaker 1: thing yet. It was like, oh, this is a new
Speaker 1: thing from the Orient I've heard about you. Would you
Speaker 1: like to try giving me a massage. It's unclear whether
Speaker 1: there was sexual activity or not. It's entirely possible, but
Speaker 1: we just don't know sure. Leonard, however, had already made
Speaker 1: his Versailles contact, and with the imminent arrival of the
Speaker 1: new Dauphine Marie Antoinette, he was not about to let
Speaker 1: that go. So when he first saw the young Austrian
Speaker 1: not long after she had arrived in France, It's funny
Speaker 1: because he was not exactly bowled over by her. Uh.
Speaker 1: He didn't find her especially attractive, although he thought that
Speaker 1: she had potential. Her hair, which had been styled by
Speaker 1: arrival to Monsieur Ottier named Larsigneur, was especially disappointing, and
Speaker 1: according to accounts of other royals who had been involved
Speaker 1: in negotiating the marriage of the Austrian princess to the
Speaker 1: future King of France, there was definitely going to be
Speaker 1: a need for a good hairdresser. Ry Antoinette had a
Speaker 1: very high forehead and her hair grew quote badly, which
Speaker 1: probably means it was then I'm glad you clarified that,
Speaker 1: Holly in the outline that you wrote, because in my
Speaker 1: head I just imagined it being full of calx. Regardless,
Speaker 1: this was considered a defect. Yeah, she she definitely had
Speaker 1: a high forehead and and yeah, it's unclear what badly means,
Speaker 1: but it seems like probably she just didn't have like
Speaker 1: a really lush head of hair, and there will be
Speaker 1: some hair loss later in the story, so that to
Speaker 1: me links up a little bit. And as the new
Speaker 1: Dauphine became integrated into life at Versailles, Leonard's friend and paramour,
Speaker 1: the Marquise de lan Jacques, became one of the Princess's favorites.
Speaker 1: As Lady in waiting, lan Jacques had much closer access
Speaker 1: to the future Queen than most people, and lan Jacques
Speaker 1: and others, including Madame Duberry, had mentioned Leonard's skills at
Speaker 1: Coaffure to Marie Antoinette, but initially she retained Larsigneur as
Speaker 1: her hair dresser for a time. Eventually, the Princess decided
Speaker 1: that she would indeed retire La Signeur with a lovely
Speaker 1: pension and instead take on Leonard as her hairdresser. She
Speaker 1: received him for their first appointment in her bed chamber,
Speaker 1: which was outside of palace etiquette. Only ladies were supposed
Speaker 1: to attend the princess in a place of such privacy.
Speaker 1: The Dauphine insisted, however, but also ensured that a number
Speaker 1: of her lady attendants remained with them to appease members
Speaker 1: of the household who were concerned with scandal. Yeah, as
Speaker 1: as most people that have read much on Marie into
Speaker 1: anet no, she was really put out by all of
Speaker 1: the really codified rules of existence, particularly for a high
Speaker 1: ranking royal at Versailles, which she can thank Louis FOURT
Speaker 1: four he kind of put all those in place. But
Speaker 1: she would just just like, I just want to talk
Speaker 1: to a person in my room. Can we just do that?
Speaker 1: But Leonard won the heart of the future Queen almost
Speaker 1: immediately by addressing one of her concerns. So she did
Speaker 1: not like wearing bonnets. She thought she looked better without
Speaker 1: something covering her face, and that it was important because
Speaker 1: of her status too, for people to be able to
Speaker 1: see her face when she went walking around. But as
Speaker 1: this was late autumn. If she wanted to go for
Speaker 1: a walk in the gardens, which is one of her
Speaker 1: favorite activities, she would mean to wear a hat to
Speaker 1: ward off chill, and at this point the hairdresser came
Speaker 1: up with a novel approach to solving this problem. So
Speaker 1: he decided he would incorporate bits of sheer, lightweight fabric
Speaker 1: into the hairstyle itself to give her hair a little
Speaker 1: bit of covering and war without hiding her face. The
Speaker 1: style delighted Marie Antoinette, and it became a common request
Speaker 1: for her to make of Leonard. Incidentally, it was actually
Speaker 1: this use of fabric and trim interwoven with the hair
Speaker 1: that put previous podcast subject Rose Burton in front of
Speaker 1: the Princess. Leonard suggested her as a supplier of such adornments,
Speaker 1: so the Dauphine style stayed fresh and new, and having
Speaker 1: pleased the future Queen so greatly, really cemented Autier's position
Speaker 1: at Versailles. The Daufine assured him his position was secure,
Speaker 1: and she soon came to rely on him for his opinion,
Speaker 1: not just on her hair, but on anything involving style.
Speaker 1: He was named Valet du Chambre for the princess, which
Speaker 1: expanded his already impressive reputation. Finding himself in constant demand,
Speaker 1: Leonard decided to extend his good fortune to his friend Framon.
Speaker 1: We took on as an assistant, but he called him
Speaker 1: his lieutenant. The two men knew that the favor of
Speaker 1: the royal could have an abrupt end, but together they
Speaker 1: thought that one of them could bolster the other one.
Speaker 1: And it was shortly after this partnership was struck that
Speaker 1: Leonard called suddenly to style the Dauphine's hair for a
Speaker 1: trip to Paris, found himself needing to sober up for
Speaker 1: the job. He and Framon apparently had concocted this plan
Speaker 1: where Fraymon was going to be his assistant, and they
Speaker 1: had this long dinner where they talked about the future,
Speaker 1: and they had a lot of drinks, which apparently lean
Speaker 1: Arm was not normally a big drinker, so he was
Speaker 1: suddenly like, I gotta go do some hair. Uh, So
Speaker 1: he rapidly drank several cups of coffee. And it was
Speaker 1: at that appointment that he went to that he allegedly
Speaker 1: created one of the fashion trends that is now commonly
Speaker 1: associated with late eighteenth century style and that is the
Speaker 1: use of ostrich plumes to accent very very tall hairstyles.
Speaker 1: Leonard claimed that the coiffier he gave Mariantoinette that evening
Speaker 1: was more than a yard high from her chin to
Speaker 1: the top of the hair. And while this was a
Speaker 1: gamble uh, in fact, when he told Fraymon about it,
Speaker 1: he was like, what did you do? We're going to
Speaker 1: get fired already. The Dauphine I actually loved it, and
Speaker 1: soon sky high hair covered in feathers was all the rage,
Speaker 1: which had an effect on ostriches. We are going to
Speaker 1: talk about Monsieur Leonard's decision to open a school for
Speaker 1: aspiring hairdressers, but before we do, we're going to pause
Speaker 1: for a quick sponsor break. While Leonard was happy to
Speaker 1: have found himself in the unique circumstance of having achieved
Speaker 1: success so rapidly, he wanted more and he remained ever
Speaker 1: aware that fortunes linked to Versailles could, as we've said
Speaker 1: a couple of times now, change in an instant. So
Speaker 1: his next step in becoming the dominant name in hair
Speaker 1: in Paris was actually to open a school for hair
Speaker 1: dressing with his friend Framon, and not only would taking
Speaker 1: students or an additional income, but becoming the teacher of
Speaker 1: the latest hairstyles in Paris and Versailles added yet another
Speaker 1: new level to his fame and status. The school enabled
Speaker 1: Land to help himself out, along with two of his brothers,
Speaker 1: Pierre and Jean Francois, as well as a cousin named Villeneus.
Speaker 1: He sent for his siblings and cousin to move from
Speaker 1: the country to Paris to assist him, and, through the
Speaker 1: Academy de Coiffure, to become hairdressers themselves. He was also
Speaker 1: able to use his connections to get them regular jobs
Speaker 1: in the households of Versailles. And while this habit of
Speaker 1: using his success to help others in his circle, and
Speaker 1: particularly his brothers and bring them along is admirable, it
Speaker 1: also causes problems in the historical record. And here's why
Speaker 1: all of the Autier brothers began to use the name
Speaker 1: Leonard at various times, presumably to capitalize on the popularity
Speaker 1: of the name and to manage multiple bookings. So Leonard
Speaker 1: could just send one of his brothers when they would
Speaker 1: show up and say hello, I'm Leonard. I'm here to
Speaker 1: do your hair, uh, which is great business sense. It's
Speaker 1: like franchising your siblings. But of course this makes the
Speaker 1: movements of the true Leonard Autier a little bit tricky
Speaker 1: to pin down, and that's actually going to come up
Speaker 1: in the second episode in terms of a death notice.
Speaker 1: So it is well documented that the Dauphine Marie Antoinette
Speaker 1: loved defertissement. One of the activities she became interested in
Speaker 1: attending was a masked ball. She first learned of them
Speaker 1: through her brother in law, Charles Philippe, the Count of Artois,
Speaker 1: and she got the idea that the Count and Leonard
Speaker 1: should plan such an event secret from her husband and
Speaker 1: the rest of the court, so that she could attend
Speaker 1: one in disguise and experience anonymity. And Leonard, of course
Speaker 1: he anticipated this, did the lion's share of the planning.
Speaker 1: But the ball came together and the Count of Artois,
Speaker 1: the Marquise de lan Jacques, and the Dauphine all attended together,
Speaker 1: and this actually ended up being an occasion where Leonard,
Speaker 1: further ingratiated himself to the future Queen Assigned from simply
Speaker 1: having thrown the party in the first place, and having
Speaker 1: become really one of her trusted friends, one of the
Speaker 1: other men that was in attendance at the masked ball
Speaker 1: had figured out who Marie Antoinette was. Many people did not,
Speaker 1: but this one man did, and he was being a
Speaker 1: little bit aggressive in his attempts to woo her. He,
Speaker 1: you know, Leslie, was taking liberties in terms of putting
Speaker 1: his arm around her waist and pulling her very close
Speaker 1: to him. But Leonard witnessed this and stepped in, and
Speaker 1: this actually got him into a brief fisticuffs with the
Speaker 1: man's friends. So these two men came at the hairdresser
Speaker 1: with clubs, and according to Leonard's account, which we will
Speaker 1: mention again, he was very confident, and his memoirs really
Speaker 1: talk up what a great dude he was um. But
Speaker 1: according to his account, he disarmed one of these men
Speaker 1: and he used the club that he took from them
Speaker 1: to fend off the attack, and the original offender, who
Speaker 1: turned out to be the Duke of Schatle, fled after
Speaker 1: jumping from a window. It might come as a surprise that,
Speaker 1: in the midst of all of his appointments and romantic dalliances,
Speaker 1: Leonard actually married one of the kitchen assistants of Versailles
Speaker 1: named Marie Louise Jacqualbie. The couple had a daughter together,
Speaker 1: but it seems that the marriage itself was more of
Speaker 1: a convenience and security situation for both of them. Leonard
Speaker 1: established one more tie to Versailles, even if it was
Speaker 1: on the lower end of the social hierarchy there, and
Speaker 1: Marie Louise got the financial security of having a rich husband,
Speaker 1: and even if they lived very separate lives for the
Speaker 1: most part. Yeah, they would go on to have more children,
Speaker 1: but initially they had one very quickly. And Leonard really
Speaker 1: continued to be incredibly shrewd about bolstering his position in
Speaker 1: a variety of ways. So, for example, uh comment talk
Speaker 1: was all the rage in seventeen seventy three. There had
Speaker 1: been a warning that a comment was going to hit France,
Speaker 1: and it was a big discussion. There was fear and excitement,
Speaker 1: and while no comment hit France, there was a comment
Speaker 1: observed in October of that year. But all of that
Speaker 1: sort of comment fur inspired Leonard to create a commet
Speaker 1: hairstyle for the Dauphine, and she loved it so much
Speaker 1: she wore it to the opera that night, and it
Speaker 1: was a huge hit. It garnered just a plethora of compliments,
Speaker 1: and it launched an obsession with commet themed murch of
Speaker 1: nice in Paris. And it turned out that in something
Speaker 1: akin to a pre internet social network marketing scheme, though
Speaker 1: Leonard had masterminded this whole thing, he had paid people
Speaker 1: at the opera to talk up Marie Antoinette's outlandish hairstyle
Speaker 1: and create good buzz around it. I cannot stress what
Speaker 1: a shrewd businessman he wants. Um So, yeah, he just
Speaker 1: he found a new way. It seems like almost every
Speaker 1: day to be like, I need to solidify my position
Speaker 1: even more. I know I'm getting super rich and I'm
Speaker 1: very busy, but I want to be super richer and
Speaker 1: even busier. So on that note, we are going to
Speaker 1: pause here with Leonard truly at the top of his game. Obviously,
Speaker 1: he did not stay overside forever. So in the next
Speaker 1: episode we're going to talk about how his career as
Speaker 1: the Queen's hairdresser wound down and his other business ventures
Speaker 1: and the ways in which his life changed in the
Speaker 1: face of the French Revolution. And now I have listener
Speaker 1: mail listener gifts what And we got an email from
Speaker 1: this person before we got the gift in the mail
Speaker 1: saying that that he was trying to arrange something. But
Speaker 1: it is from our listener Roland and his wife Galina.
Speaker 1: It says, dear Tracy and Holly, thank you for the
Speaker 1: entertaining and educational show. I love it and I share
Speaker 1: it with so many friends. My wife Galina is from Bulgaria,
Speaker 1: from an area called the Rose Valley, and after listening
Speaker 1: to your recent show on Rose's, I asked her to
Speaker 1: bring something special back from her latest trip. Enclosed our
Speaker 1: two vials of pure distilled rose oil from her hometown
Speaker 1: ish area of Kasi Lack. I don't know if I'm
Speaker 1: pronouncing that correctly. Galina had to be sure it wasn't
Speaker 1: fake rose oil. So one is already opened and resealed
Speaker 1: and it has her Bulgarian seal of approval. So thank
Speaker 1: you so much, they said us. There these beautiful little
Speaker 1: tiny um wooden sort of vile cases, and then within
Speaker 1: them is a little Within each of them is a
Speaker 1: little vial of rose oil. And they're absolutely beautiful and
Speaker 1: they're super cool. So this is we're in a rare situation.
Speaker 1: Tracy is actually in the studio. She's in Atlanta this week,
Speaker 1: so she gets the gift right here as we're sitting here.
Speaker 1: It's really cool. Thank you so much. So yes, thank
Speaker 1: you so much, Roland and Galina. That's absolutely beautiful. And
Speaker 1: I just I'm like debating, do I keep this at
Speaker 1: my desk for when I need a whiff of something
Speaker 1: to lift delicious or should I take it home? I
Speaker 1: might stay at my desk for a little while I
Speaker 1: get to do both. Yes, yes, so thank you so much.
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