Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Ye
Speaker 1: welcome back to the show, Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as
Speaker 1: always so much for tuning in. Let's give it up
Speaker 1: for the man, the myth, the legend, the one and only.
Speaker 1: Mr Max Williams. Uh. Folks, they call me Bed as
Speaker 1: always with my ride or die. Mr Noel Brown, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not used to get this. And so we were
Speaker 1: coming to you a quite an auspicious time this week
Speaker 1: because we are welcoming on air finely one of our
Speaker 1: newest research associates, Mr Jeff Bartlett. All Right, y'all, you
Speaker 1: know what time it is. It's here for Jeff. Jeff Yeah,
Speaker 1: Jeff is here. Oh yeah, show showy show Jeff Yeah,
Speaker 1: actor performer, writer here in the Atlanta area and a
Speaker 1: dear friend of ours. Jeff, welcome to the show. Thank you.
Speaker 1: I'm happy to be here. I can tell your enthusiasm
Speaker 1: is infectious. No, I really am. I'm very happy to
Speaker 1: be here. We're happy to have your So this is
Speaker 1: no This one was kind of a long time in
Speaker 1: the make for us. We were peeking behind the ridiculous curtain.
Speaker 1: We were going to record this a couple of different times,
Speaker 1: curtain is so absurd. It's just the color scheme is
Speaker 1: all out of whack. Our priorities when we were doing
Speaker 1: the original budget for this show kind of came back
Speaker 1: to haunt us. This is like, I don't know if
Speaker 1: you guys know this, but podcast curtains are kind of pricey.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I gotta have sound absorbed, you know, properties,
Speaker 1: and then of course you want them to look nice.
Speaker 1: But somewhere along the way everything got all ridiculous to five,
Speaker 1: which I guess is on brand. It's ridiculous to fight
Speaker 1: a word. I'm gonna make it a word. It is now.
Speaker 1: It's it's American English. Bro. The world is yours. And
Speaker 1: that's something. Uh, that's something that we thought you would
Speaker 1: enjoy to Jeff. Now, Jeff, when you're working on research
Speaker 1: for Ridiculous History, you you started off listening to the show, which,
Speaker 1: thank you surprise, surprised us. But we asked you if
Speaker 1: there was something that was close close to your mind,
Speaker 1: something you really wanted to come on air and explore
Speaker 1: with us on Ridiculous History, and you had it locked
Speaker 1: and loaded. Man. We were on a call and you
Speaker 1: told us michelin Man, how much do you guys know
Speaker 1: about the michelin Man because it's it's such a strange thing,
Speaker 1: like this character who has become, you know, a strange
Speaker 1: version of a mascot. Like he's not a very likable mascot.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's the way to put up,
Speaker 1: but well, he's got a smile on his face. He's
Speaker 1: got a smile on his face, modern version. He doesn't
Speaker 1: make much sense. Yeah, it's like presumably he's meant to
Speaker 1: be stacked up tires because also whites and tires are black,
Speaker 1: and I guess they are those whitewall tires that come on,
Speaker 1: what are those ben those uh fancy cars that Butler's
Speaker 1: drive or I guess first excuse me, Yeah, Duisenberg's Packard's
Speaker 1: kind of that era of fancy fancy motor coaches. Uh. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're gonna find out how the michelin Man started. And
Speaker 1: you know, for a lot of people who have nostalgic
Speaker 1: feelings about this mascot, you might be surprised by Jeff's
Speaker 1: statement that the michelin Man is maybe not a ten
Speaker 1: ten dude, which, okay, so long story store is our introduction.
Speaker 1: Michelin Man is the mascot of the Michelin company, which
Speaker 1: is now maybe equally known for their opinions on restaurants,
Speaker 1: but originally was just known for making tires for automobiles,
Speaker 1: right absolutely, which is very strange because it's, uh, it's
Speaker 1: sort of like Guinness, they make the beer, they also
Speaker 1: make the world records, and you think it was two
Speaker 1: different companies. But Mitchellin, Yeah, they do the restaurant rating
Speaker 1: from their travel guide, which was probably like a exactly
Speaker 1: you know, marketing stunt that then kind of took on
Speaker 1: a life of its own and then began to become
Speaker 1: this very sought after status, you know, the Michelin Stars
Speaker 1: and all of that. But it all came from I
Speaker 1: guess it's being kind of first to market with that
Speaker 1: kind of publication, right Yeah. Definitely their whole thing. They
Speaker 1: were making tires. That was the only thing they did.
Speaker 1: But hey, if you're gonna have tires on cars and
Speaker 1: people are motorists wandering around for restaurants hotels, why not
Speaker 1: rate them. So they did it at the same time
Speaker 1: and and now it just seems like two completely different companies,
Speaker 1: but they're not same guys. Yeah, it would be kind
Speaker 1: of like I was trying to find analogy. This isn't
Speaker 1: a perfect comparison, but it would be kind of like
Speaker 1: your favorite podcast also doing a separate show us rating microphones,
Speaker 1: you know, and then becoming known for that. Right they've
Speaker 1: got They've got four out of five ridiculousness is uh
Speaker 1: the sure microphones? Then don't don't pitch as been off
Speaker 1: for me to do. I mean, no one, I'll take
Speaker 1: care of that one right there. It's gonna be more
Speaker 1: successful in this show has ever been. Well, maybe it'll
Speaker 1: just be an episode strong words, Yeah, Ben, for all
Speaker 1: you know, maybe ridiculous history in the timeline will just
Speaker 1: be the episode. Maybe maybe in the great Timeline of
Speaker 1: all things Max, our lives are but one episode. Uh So,
Speaker 1: as you can tell, it's been a weird Monday morning
Speaker 1: for us. I like the idea of timeline though, what
Speaker 1: a great segue, because we got to get to the
Speaker 1: bottom of this origin story. So we've laid this out.
Speaker 1: The michelinman used to look really weird. But where did
Speaker 1: he come from? And how how old is he? Oh?
Speaker 1: Very old? So he's just seen the world change, just
Speaker 1: as his fellow tire men have died around him. He's
Speaker 1: he's wandered the earth alone low these many years, claiming
Speaker 1: victims to stay alive. That's how claiming victims. Yes, so,
Speaker 1: so the way that we know this story, it goes
Speaker 1: back to a guy named ed Ord and a guy
Speaker 1: named Andre and their brothers. They're the Michelin Brothers. Spoiler alert,
Speaker 1: Uh this, I don't know how solid this story is,
Speaker 1: but from what we understand, they're at an auto industry
Speaker 1: show in the home, France in like you said, Jeff,
Speaker 1: and one of the brothers says to the other one, Hey,
Speaker 1: look at that pile of tires. Looks sort of like
Speaker 1: a dude, right, Andre, Right? You see it? Right, Bro,
Speaker 1: it's like a It's like a dude without arms and legs,
Speaker 1: but still but still like a dude. I don't know
Speaker 1: something we could do with this, right, Let's make him
Speaker 1: into something. They're they're frenchmen, correct, yes, so I don't
Speaker 1: know why I'm giving them a like a New England
Speaker 1: Jersey accident, yea or New Jersey. So these guys, it's
Speaker 1: important to note these guys were already in the tire business.
Speaker 1: They weren't just two random dudes who wanted to go
Speaker 1: to an auto show. Can you tell us a little
Speaker 1: bit about Michelin the company, well, the company itself, they
Speaker 1: definitely started out just making tires. That was their entire thing,
Speaker 1: um entire ah, no pun left behind. Yeah, they created
Speaker 1: the company just to supply tires for the earliest cars,
Speaker 1: which were all white, which is why land Man every
Speaker 1: time you see him he looks like the State Puff
Speaker 1: marshmallow Man or the Pills very dou boy, like a
Speaker 1: cousin of maybe one of them, because that's how tires
Speaker 1: were still about a nineteen fift They're all white because
Speaker 1: I mean rubber, you know, untreated or un you know, uh,
Speaker 1: filled with some additive or other is white. Yes, indeed,
Speaker 1: the latex from rubber specifically harvested mostly from the Congo region.
Speaker 1: Just as an aside lots of rubber trees. There lots
Speaker 1: of stories there too, but that's for another time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: let's think about this right now. If you own a car,
Speaker 1: or you walk by a car at some point during
Speaker 1: the day, you will see that tires themselves are pretty
Speaker 1: complex and aside from some novelties or specific indias treets,
Speaker 1: it's easy for us to look at tires and say, hey,
Speaker 1: these all kind of look the same. I've seen one tire.
Speaker 1: I've seen the mall, But we have to realize that
Speaker 1: back in the day before Michelin got in the game,
Speaker 1: tires were made of different materials. Would metal or this
Speaker 1: is a really surprising when leather, especially when you think
Speaker 1: about how heavy a car can be. Uh that's that's
Speaker 1: gonna be some pretty pretty strong cow hide. Huh gotta
Speaker 1: be even would surprise me because uh sure there's horse
Speaker 1: drawn carriages, you know, in so many different uh historic horrificenses,
Speaker 1: but would just doesn't seem like it fits with engines
Speaker 1: to me, Like it doesn't uh seem like a great
Speaker 1: tire when you're goinging over you know, twenty miles an
Speaker 1: hour or so. And ultimately we'll find the reason that
Speaker 1: tires today are black. But as you said, noll rubber
Speaker 1: in its natural form is white, and you can see
Speaker 1: this still on some old cars, but they're very fancy,
Speaker 1: like period accurate cars that you you know, you wouldn't
Speaker 1: see these parking at your neighborhood quick trip. So it
Speaker 1: seems like the Michelin man evolves in step with the
Speaker 1: technology of tires. So what we're scientists doing that turn
Speaker 1: tires from white to black? Carbon black was a material
Speaker 1: that um around um or so folks were like, hey,
Speaker 1: these white tires are kind of degrading way faster than
Speaker 1: if we add carbon black to them. So even though
Speaker 1: tires by the nineteen twenties were all black, the michelin
Speaker 1: Man stayed white. They just never changed him. Even though
Speaker 1: those were that you only, I don't know, twenty years
Speaker 1: of tires were white. Traditions are good, you know, I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: was it a brand recognition thing? I'm wondering. Well, the
Speaker 1: carbon black made tires way more resistant to like temperature changes,
Speaker 1: The rubber wore down more slowly, It made the tires stronger,
Speaker 1: probably increased traction too, I imagine. Oh, I'm sure. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And and they even according to Goodyear, the chemical engineers
Speaker 1: had found that a tire made without carbon black would
Speaker 1: likely last five thousand miles or less, but the carbon
Speaker 1: additive gave them ten times more life, and it also
Speaker 1: made them black. So Jeff, Noel, Max and I a
Speaker 1: while back we did an episode on McDonald's which was
Speaker 1: super trippy because we learned a lot about the depth
Speaker 1: of McDonald land lore. And it was surprising, Uh, I
Speaker 1: don't know about you know, but surprising to me that
Speaker 1: michelin Man has its own deep lore, not all of
Speaker 1: which has aged very well. Absolutely, his name is uh.
Speaker 1: He's widely known as michelin Man, of course, but um,
Speaker 1: he literally has the first name, which is be Bendham,
Speaker 1: which is uh Latin because he was Bendy for to drink,
Speaker 1: which you know, we don't usually associate drinking and driving
Speaker 1: as a good thing these days, but it's he was
Speaker 1: a He was an alcoholic mascot basically for tired business. Okay,
Speaker 1: this is back in like kind of Madmen rules where
Speaker 1: it was okay to have a martini, you know, for
Speaker 1: your morning meeting, saying, I imagine for a nice drive
Speaker 1: in the country. You know, the early cars probably came
Speaker 1: with you know, built in bars, I imagine is that true? Now?
Speaker 1: I'm just but yeah, there were there were so many
Speaker 1: um adverts that were included his first name, the Bendam,
Speaker 1: which again is basically translates uh, now is the time
Speaker 1: to drink to your health. The Mitchell entire drinks down
Speaker 1: the obstacles probably wouldn't go over well these days. To
Speaker 1: drink to drive, Let's do it together, yes, yeah, and
Speaker 1: please drink and drive responsibly. There it is perfect exactly.
Speaker 1: It's weird too, because for most of us listening to
Speaker 1: the show today, you were probably not alive in the
Speaker 1: late eighteen hundreds. I don't want to profile, but I'm
Speaker 1: just saying statistically, that's my guess. If you are a
Speaker 1: person who knows the Michelin man from the modern day,
Speaker 1: you might be surprised learn over time the dude, our
Speaker 1: boy bib has really mellowed out. Uh, Jeff, you found
Speaker 1: that back in back in the days of old. In
Speaker 1: his earlier Hellen years, the Bendam was known for being
Speaker 1: made of tires, drinking a lot, and smoking like a chimney. Right.
Speaker 1: He was also a cigar aficionado, loved cigars. Was just
Speaker 1: every single ad he had martini and a cigar. And
Speaker 1: even for a while, um he was led as a
Speaker 1: care They're being known as the road drunkard, which you know,
Speaker 1: it doesn't really work out so well these days. But
Speaker 1: can I say, no, no shade on Europeans, But this
Speaker 1: all sounds intensely European, It does, doesn't it to Drinking
Speaker 1: and driving was pretty much almost their slogan for a while.
Speaker 1: Let the michel entire drink down the obstacles and we been.
Speaker 1: Do you know when it became illegal to drink and drive?
Speaker 1: It's a great question. As far as we can tell,
Speaker 1: I'm kind of spitball in here. Uh drunk driving or
Speaker 1: drink driving as they were called in Europe, has only
Speaker 1: been illegal for a little over a hundred years in
Speaker 1: a lot of states in the US, and it actually
Speaker 1: went state by state. And that's why you can see
Speaker 1: that some uh d Y or d w I or
Speaker 1: whatever they're called. Some of those law as me very
Speaker 1: even today. But as always, don't do it. Don't trust
Speaker 1: the old Michelin man. He's reformed. The Bendam does not
Speaker 1: want you to drink and drive. I think he quit
Speaker 1: smoking too, after a while he did. Yes, he's a
Speaker 1: lot more happy looking now. Again, as we were saying earlier,
Speaker 1: you know, he looks like very innocent. He looks like
Speaker 1: the state buff marshmallow man. He looks like the Pills
Speaker 1: very dough boy. But back in the day he kind
Speaker 1: of looked scary. And a lot of those ads you
Speaker 1: had pince nez is that what they're called. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: he had pince nez umla and the French glasses that
Speaker 1: are just perched on your nose. They don't really have
Speaker 1: the backing the stems. Yeah, and I think you would
Speaker 1: wear a monocle time to time. So also he needs
Speaker 1: a vision correction apparently. And it was also very they
Speaker 1: wanted to portray him as a rich man about town
Speaker 1: because those are the only people who could afford cars.
Speaker 1: I mean, we can argue that that's true still sometimes,
Speaker 1: but uh, yeah, he was advertised to the rich, which
Speaker 1: is one of the reasons that they were like, hey,
Speaker 1: let's let's make him look fancy, let's give him a drink,
Speaker 1: and then over time, of course we see him now
Speaker 1: and he's just he's just a lovable, lovable chubby boy.
Speaker 1: It reminds me of a really great sketch on Mr.
Speaker 1: Show Um where some kind of marketing guys come into
Speaker 1: this company and they invent a what is it, non
Speaker 1: threatening pan sexual spokes thing named pit Pat pit Pat,
Speaker 1: and at the end he goes, take it from me,
Speaker 1: I love you. And I think they probably took some
Speaker 1: inspiration from the Michelin man because he is genderless and
Speaker 1: that he's just kind of got This is just a
Speaker 1: flat area down there. He is presumably nude, and yeah,
Speaker 1: non threatening pan sexual spokes thing. I like this and this,
Speaker 1: this takes us to an interesting place because there is
Speaker 1: this cartoonish quality to the Michelin man who was who
Speaker 1: was sort of you know what it was. He's the
Speaker 1: dose eckies guy made out at Tires. That's what they're
Speaker 1: going for, like the most interesting man. And what I
Speaker 1: didn't know about this before we launched into prepping for
Speaker 1: this episode is that there is another creator who deserves,
Speaker 1: who deserves their flowers, their shout out as ridiculous News
Speaker 1: would say, a cartoonist named Marius R. Celion. Could you
Speaker 1: tell us a little bit about this guy? Well, I
Speaker 1: mean he created b Bentam basically in he created this
Speaker 1: strange character, he wanted to use it for a brewery,
Speaker 1: which again comes back around to the alcoholism of our
Speaker 1: Michelin van. And he depicted this man of Tires drinking
Speaker 1: from a goblet filled with nails and broken glass, which
Speaker 1: seems so strange, but the whole point was to be
Speaker 1: indicative of how tough and hardy mitchelland Tires were and
Speaker 1: that they would not puncture that easily. Okay, so he's
Speaker 1: coming from a really weird place as an origin story already,
Speaker 1: you know, I can see why maybe the Michelin Restaurant
Speaker 1: Guide doesn't have this guy on the cover, you know,
Speaker 1: shotgutting a glass of nails and uh and chain smoking
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, black and milds or whatever,
Speaker 1: which I guess, or technically cigarillos. But if we look
Speaker 1: at the old Michelin Man and the new Michelin Man,
Speaker 1: we see uh, we see those apparent changes. Also ditched,
Speaker 1: the ditched the glasses and now has the big sort
Speaker 1: of cartoonies. Right. Are they more expressive or was it
Speaker 1: just to make him look less creepy? Yeah, the earli
Speaker 1: iterations again, Like we we've said he's smoking cigar wearing
Speaker 1: glasses looked kind of I would say, like whipped cream,
Speaker 1: a little bit of a dippity due on the top
Speaker 1: of his m Yeah, but not like as soft as
Speaker 1: he looks now. Like it was a it was a
Speaker 1: a mess. Like he almost looked like a little mess
Speaker 1: of tires, whereas now he's more stacked. Okay, So from
Speaker 1: from U tire tire pile to like tire model this guy. So,
Speaker 1: after hearing all of this in two are fellow ridiculous historians,
Speaker 1: especially concerned parents with kids about to drive, might be
Speaker 1: thinking this is literally the worst person to be a
Speaker 1: mascot for driving. You know, you were telling us earlier, Jeff,
Speaker 1: that he was actually pretty popular when he came out. Oh,
Speaker 1: he was very popular. He was beloved. He was Mitchelland
Speaker 1: again they became almost two separate companies because he the
Speaker 1: mitchelland man would recommend place to stop, you know, places
Speaker 1: you know you're driving. You're driving, you're rich, you want
Speaker 1: to stop at a nice restaurant. Let's give him three
Speaker 1: Mitcheln st ours. I I actually, you know now, I
Speaker 1: want to look that up. Is it five? Is five
Speaker 1: the highest Michelin Star rating or is it I believe
Speaker 1: it is five, But that's incredibly high, or that's incredibly
Speaker 1: different there, Getting one is a big deal. I'm wrong
Speaker 1: three because is such a big deal. Five almost seems
Speaker 1: like a bridge too far, because even a one Michelin
Speaker 1: Star restaurant is a pretty pretty big to do, pretty
Speaker 1: big hubbles out the restaurant instantly. So three Michelin Stars.
Speaker 1: We don't know yet why they landed on three instead
Speaker 1: of five, but again we've established they're pretty into traditions.
Speaker 1: I was surprised to learn that you know this, you
Speaker 1: know what this reminds me of guys. This reminds me. This,
Speaker 1: the part we're about to get to, reminds me of
Speaker 1: how corporate entities have started going on Twitter on social
Speaker 1: media as their own accounts, you know, and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, Burger King and McDonald's are fighting. Wendy's drops
Speaker 1: a mixtape and if you have not heard it yet,
Speaker 1: I have to reluctantly give the props that mixtape slaps.
Speaker 1: It's undeservedly good. It has no right to be as good.
Speaker 1: It's so good that this isn't even the first time
Speaker 1: it's been brought up on this show. We've brought this
Speaker 1: up beforehand. Well, just the fast food social media wars
Speaker 1: has really become a thing to behold. Uh. And sometimes
Speaker 1: they'll hire some rogue, you know, gen z social media
Speaker 1: buff that takes it a little too far. There's one
Speaker 1: I can think of, and I'm gonna have to beat
Speaker 1: myself here. It's a Wendy's posted It's like an army
Speaker 1: sign that says we have a fred Chicken sandwich too,
Speaker 1: and they'll caption it from Wendy's Days. No one gives
Speaker 1: a sh wow wow, no holds bart Okay, So yeah,
Speaker 1: maybe one day, maybe one day far into the future,
Speaker 1: will be on ridiculous history as very old people saying,
Speaker 1: you know, back in the day that crazy meme account.
Speaker 1: Wendy's was a fast food restaurant, and so a meme
Speaker 1: was a photo something posted online. Also, yeah, exactly. Also,
Speaker 1: this is back when everybody ate food with their mouths.
Speaker 1: It will literally be that that image of the young
Speaker 1: lady pushing her grandma on the wheelchair. It'll be very
Speaker 1: meta because it'll be, you know, a meme describing what
Speaker 1: a meme was back in my day. Only now we're
Speaker 1: the old lady in the wheelchair, which we're already approaching
Speaker 1: that we've nailed it. Okay, well, at least we know
Speaker 1: what's coming. Uh. No one could have predicted, however, the
Speaker 1: uh startling global success of the Bendam as a mascot.
Speaker 1: I was surprised to learn that Michelin. When they launched
Speaker 1: this travel magazine in UH nineteen o seven, an Italian
Speaker 1: travel magazine, I believe they had a regular column from
Speaker 1: the Bendam just sort of sort of like fast food
Speaker 1: places have a regular Twitter account now and maybe I
Speaker 1: don't know. Let's let's chew on this. Do you do
Speaker 1: you do you think that the the public in general
Speaker 1: was a little less jaded back then as in comparison
Speaker 1: to the public today when they hear from corporate mascots.
Speaker 1: I don't know, certainly was more novel because there's weren't
Speaker 1: as many, you know, and like now, we're just it's
Speaker 1: so old hat that I think everyone's just kind of
Speaker 1: almost bored by it, and that's why advertisers are having
Speaker 1: to go increasingly weirder and weirder, like the Burger King,
Speaker 1: you know, serial killer looking King. That's true, they really have.
Speaker 1: You know, we're recently talking about McDonald's on the series,
Speaker 1: and it's strange what happened with Ronald. You know, he
Speaker 1: was such a such a wonderful, cartoonish, wonderful dude, and
Speaker 1: he's terrifying. So it's weird that Burger King was able
Speaker 1: to turn their mascot into something terrifying and lovable, and
Speaker 1: yet McDonald's sort of lost their mascot for being too creepy.
Speaker 1: Just a bit strange. Well, so the tide has sort
Speaker 1: of turned against clowns because of obviously things like it
Speaker 1: and John Wayne Gaycy and stuff like that. So you know,
Speaker 1: I mean clowns as a profession. Professional clowns have come
Speaker 1: out against movies like It, saying that it it aligns
Speaker 1: their profession. And I'm sure to a lesser degree, Ronald
Speaker 1: McDonald probably didn't help either, because he was just so ubiquitous.
Speaker 1: And you know, you still will see that creepy Ronald
Speaker 1: McDonald life size kind of statue with his arm out
Speaker 1: on a bench for you to like sit with him
Speaker 1: putting his arm around you. And it's usually at the
Speaker 1: Ronald McDonald house, which is like a charity for you
Speaker 1: know kids essentially, So having a creepy clown with his
Speaker 1: arm around a kid, while you know, used to be
Speaker 1: the clown was just the you know, the bread and
Speaker 1: butter of birthday parties, and now because of these associations,
Speaker 1: has all these connotations that I think we're uh, certainly
Speaker 1: not intended. Yeah, I like I don't have cool phobia
Speaker 1: fear of clowns, but it was startling. When I used
Speaker 1: to live in Central America, there's not the same level
Speaker 1: of disdain, and it was kind of shocky, you know.
Speaker 1: It was just I wasn't expecting random clowns and I
Speaker 1: was trying to be cool with them. But if you're
Speaker 1: not expecting him. You know, there's some deep, primal psychological
Speaker 1: triggers for some of this stuff. Uh michelin Man I
Speaker 1: I would pose it then is definitely a corporate spokes
Speaker 1: tire pile and is also u fulfilling this kind of
Speaker 1: jovial clown role. But might be surprised felt ridiculous historians
Speaker 1: to learn that our boy, but Bendam was in his
Speaker 1: column not doing basic advertising. There was. It's not like
Speaker 1: he had a column in every issue where he said,
Speaker 1: let me give you the latest updates on tires. He
Speaker 1: in one case talked about attending a grand ball and uh, yeah,
Speaker 1: he's a bit of a lothario, right, a bit of
Speaker 1: a bit of a lover's lover. And here's one thing
Speaker 1: he did that might not age well. He was kind
Speaker 1: of praising and rating women he saw at this ball.
Speaker 1: Could you tell us a little more about his columns? Ah,
Speaker 1: he had several columns um love letters almost to look
Speaker 1: a a house letters almost. He had a particular fondness
Speaker 1: for Italy. A quote of his about Italy, Oh you
Speaker 1: sublime Madonna Rome's destiny, except my homage you whose eyes
Speaker 1: shine with the splendors of the renaissance. This is a
Speaker 1: tire man talking. Did he write in character? Did he
Speaker 1: refer to things that an anthropomorphic pile of tires might
Speaker 1: be concerned with? And he also he had he had,
Speaker 1: he had enemies as well. He had a pretty fiery
Speaker 1: excerpt trumpeting the crushing impact that his social conquests were
Speaker 1: having on his rivals, calling them ashen faced suitors with
Speaker 1: fixed smiles, living symbols of a shattered illusion. Again from
Speaker 1: a man made of tires. He's like a Carl Mark's
Speaker 1: kind of figure there, you know, he's like leading the revolution.
Speaker 1: He's coming for the fakers and the haters. Uh so,
Speaker 1: so I can see how this would be really fun read.
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously it's satire. Uh satire Cheez Max thrown
Speaker 1: a boo but or a wamp wamp thank you? No, yeah,
Speaker 1: go with the drums, Max Williams. Ladies and gentlemen. So this, uh,
Speaker 1: this is strange, Like everyone knows this is satire, they
Speaker 1: know it's a corporate brand. They're laughing at it. And
Speaker 1: now they're also on the Michelin side starting to realize
Speaker 1: this is an excellent way to communicate with future tire
Speaker 1: buyers right now, Like that's how that's how you get them.
Speaker 1: It's fun to read, it's fun to hang out in
Speaker 1: your mind with the Bendam. Maybe, uh, I don't know,
Speaker 1: Maybe he'll recommend a brand of cigar to us in
Speaker 1: the next column. Maybe he'll tell us what beer is
Speaker 1: most in fashion in Milan. You know, But how do
Speaker 1: we get to how do we get to this idea
Speaker 1: of restaurants from here? Oh, it's strangely straightforward. For such
Speaker 1: a long time, I was like, well, seriously, mitchellin the
Speaker 1: tire brand can't be associated with Michelin the folks who
Speaker 1: rate restaurants. But yeah, at the beginning of the the
Speaker 1: tire boom, uh, you know, they had rich people who
Speaker 1: could afford cars, and they wanted to, uh say, hey,
Speaker 1: maybe we can do something a little more here and say, um,
Speaker 1: these are the restaurants you should go to in your
Speaker 1: fancy cars that we're providing your tires for. And it
Speaker 1: seems like a lot of sense at the beginning, but
Speaker 1: you know, at this point it doesn't seem connected at all.
Speaker 1: But yeah, he's the guy. He's the guy. The Bendam
Speaker 1: is the guy recommending these restaurants two uh quote the
Speaker 1: actual Mitchell and guide to help motorists develop their trips,
Speaker 1: there by boosting car and tire sales. So of course, hey,
Speaker 1: let's do something to boost our tire sales. They started
Speaker 1: producing a small red guide filled with handy information for travelers,
Speaker 1: such as maps, information on how to change a tire,
Speaker 1: where to fill up with fuel, and for the traveler
Speaker 1: in search of respite from the adventures of the day.
Speaker 1: So they started rating restaurants. I can vibe with that,
Speaker 1: because I mean and one reason the Guinness comparison is
Speaker 1: so astute is that the Guinness Beer Company recognized early
Speaker 1: on that a lot of people like to debate and
Speaker 1: argue when there are a couple of a couple of
Speaker 1: a couple of cans, or in their case, a couple
Speaker 1: of points in So they got to the game early,
Speaker 1: and they associated themselves with the idea of proving or
Speaker 1: resolving all sorts of arguments, and then they started to
Speaker 1: focus on world records. So it's pretty cool that Michelin
Speaker 1: caught onto this. But from what you're describing here, Jeff,
Speaker 1: I don't know about you know, it sounds like this
Speaker 1: was a situation in the beginning where people would buy
Speaker 1: tires and then they would be given the guide. Is
Speaker 1: it something like that or was it just sort of
Speaker 1: all around a city? At first? It just started in Paris.
Speaker 1: They started giving the guides out with the tires Uh
Speaker 1: in the nine twenties, including lists of like hotels, restaurants,
Speaker 1: specific categories like that. And it was a good way
Speaker 1: to get out of having paid for advertisements and the guide.
Speaker 1: Restaurants wouldn't have to pay for anything. They could just
Speaker 1: be listed in the Michelin Guide, and both the restaurants
Speaker 1: and Michelin would prosper without any of them really having
Speaker 1: to spend money. Yeah, it does make sense. This is
Speaker 1: like an advertising coup. It's a win win, as they
Speaker 1: would say in corporate American parlance. But now we have
Speaker 1: to talk. I think about a dream job. Can we
Speaker 1: get like a dream job? Q Max? There it is, there,
Speaker 1: it is. I don't know about you know, but I
Speaker 1: I enjoy it. I'm grateful to hang out with our
Speaker 1: crew on this show. But every so often, I too,
Speaker 1: have dreamed to beat a mystery Dieter. Do you ever
Speaker 1: want to do that? It's like a secret shopper kind
Speaker 1: of right, where you go in and pretend like you're
Speaker 1: a civilian. But in fact, you're they're infiltrating the restaurants
Speaker 1: um in order to write a potentially game changing review
Speaker 1: that could you know, up the profile of this place
Speaker 1: or absolutely crushed their dreams of restaurants success. And nowadays
Speaker 1: the sad thing is that everyone is their own mystery
Speaker 1: diner just by virtue of having a Yelp accounts. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it is true. But but like michelin got involved
Speaker 1: with this, right they they they weren't sending people dressed
Speaker 1: as the Michelin Man to restaurants where they how would
Speaker 1: you do the soup? Right? He's got no fingies? Does
Speaker 1: he have fingies? He's more of like a glove, like
Speaker 1: a mitten. Right? Does he? I feel like I can't
Speaker 1: really picture his digits he's got Yeah, that's actually a
Speaker 1: good question. He has he has digits. He does have digits. Okay,
Speaker 1: excuse me, please forgive me from aligning the michelin Man's appendages.
Speaker 1: My pal has been a lot. I've been through a lot.
Speaker 1: So the At this point, the reformed alcoholic michelin Man
Speaker 1: gets a gets a team of human diners who I
Speaker 1: didn't know the proper term for them until you introduced
Speaker 1: it to us Jeff Restaurants inspectors. I feel like you
Speaker 1: should get a badge, you know that you can flash
Speaker 1: at people at the end of the middle licensed. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I like that. Yeah. Uh. There should be some qualifications.
Speaker 1: You can't just have an Instagram accounts. Maybe, but this
Speaker 1: so also peak again behind the curtain. We paid for
Speaker 1: this curtain. We're going to use the curtain more. We
Speaker 1: have a good friend of the show, Christopher Hasiotis, who
Speaker 1: is a food critic of Note. You knew that, right, no,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, yeah, very good taste that Christopher Aciots have
Speaker 1: had the pleasure of dining with them a few times
Speaker 1: and having him recommend some fabulous restaurants. Yeah. Anytime Christopher
Speaker 1: Christopher gives you a restaurant recommendation, you listen and if
Speaker 1: you can get in, and that's where you go. Uh.
Speaker 1: And we've gotta we've gotta have Chris Christopher on the
Speaker 1: show again. But what he's doing, what a food critic
Speaker 1: is doing, is different from what these mystery diners or
Speaker 1: restaurant inspectors are doing. They're not supposed to be idea divide,
Speaker 1: They're supposed to be anonymous, right, so they're like gutty
Speaker 1: a food inspectors or their spy uh spy restaurants people.
Speaker 1: Uh Are they the ones who give the stars? I
Speaker 1: believe they are. That's that's the strange thing about it,
Speaker 1: and I sort of wish it was more like that.
Speaker 1: It reminds me of um Ratatui, where they're expecting a
Speaker 1: restaurant review and so they do everything in their power
Speaker 1: to help make everything perfect. And that's sort of why
Speaker 1: I I'm not a I'm not a huge fan of
Speaker 1: the of yelp and such. You know it, it exists,
Speaker 1: It's great, it can be. I like the idea of
Speaker 1: these secret reviewers and the Michelin reviewers our secret they today.
Speaker 1: I believe so. Yes, so it could be any one
Speaker 1: of us. We could Maybe we're all mitchelndber yours. I
Speaker 1: am actually the Michelin man. No, I had my suspicions.
Speaker 1: This is just like John Carpenter's the thing which I
Speaker 1: was not expecting in this show. All right, we need
Speaker 1: we need a blood test, max if if you're bleeding,
Speaker 1: rubber Man, We're still going to have to do the
Speaker 1: show for contractual reasons. But poke, poke with a poke
Speaker 1: with any implementency. If there's air leaking out, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: this is not the turn I was expecting old, but
Speaker 1: I like where we're going with the one we got though,
Speaker 1: you know, it's the one we got so uh. So
Speaker 1: these guides are these mystery diners, these restaurants inspectors. Uh,
Speaker 1: they're working with the Michelin Guide, and by nineteen twenty six,
Speaker 1: the guide starts to give its points two restaurants. Uh.
Speaker 1: Initially they're all fine dining establishments. I mean it's still
Speaker 1: like always pretty fine dining or very special places. And
Speaker 1: I was it was fascinating to find that. In the beginning,
Speaker 1: it was just like they were giving people stars, just
Speaker 1: like in sing spool you get a gold star. Yeah,
Speaker 1: single stars. So when did they start adding more stars?
Speaker 1: In about ninety six they decided on the three star system,
Speaker 1: which is again something we were talking about before because
Speaker 1: most places rank things by five stars, but Michelin has
Speaker 1: always been just one to three. That means that the
Speaker 1: the individual stars are just way more valuable then in
Speaker 1: a five star system, you know. And uh, and so
Speaker 1: one star again, one star, one star review and a
Speaker 1: five star ranking system is a bad review, but a
Speaker 1: one Michelin star, you know, is very special. Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: I think also with the one Michelin star, the implication
Speaker 1: is keep your eye on this restaurant or keep your
Speaker 1: eye on the chef they're going. And they don't give
Speaker 1: stars out willie nilly. It's only they review every restaurant.
Speaker 1: Every restaurant gets on that spectrum at all. It's like
Speaker 1: you've really got to be in the top notch, in
Speaker 1: the top echelon of restaurants to even rank. And that's
Speaker 1: where it really does differ a lot from things like
Speaker 1: crowdsourced Yelp or whatever, you know, where anyone can give
Speaker 1: any star to anything for any reason. Mitchellan will only
Speaker 1: give you a star or two stars or three stars.
Speaker 1: And it's also it's a it's a legacy thing. Like
Speaker 1: I said at the top of the show, it's the
Speaker 1: fact that they were first to market with this type
Speaker 1: of you know, guide, that they became the authority um
Speaker 1: despite its seeming like it doesn't make a whole lot
Speaker 1: of sense, the fact they were the first one to
Speaker 1: do it, and then they realized that people were paying
Speaker 1: a lot of attention to it because they were really
Speaker 1: kind of the only game in town. UM. And then
Speaker 1: over time it's just continued to have that impact and
Speaker 1: to have that kind of cashe um and they've really
Speaker 1: been good stewards of that because you know, you can
Speaker 1: pretty reliably know that if a restaurant has a Michelin
Speaker 1: Star that it's something to be you know, taken seriously.
Speaker 1: And chefs, you know, the top chefs in the world, uh,
Speaker 1: feel the same way. And really and you can lose
Speaker 1: a Michelin star too, by the way they can take
Speaker 1: it away. M hmm. I have a feel like it's
Speaker 1: just like the Michelin manager shows up and it's like,
Speaker 1: I am taking this from me. Just peels it off
Speaker 1: your restaurant. Yeah, like like in like bugs Buddy cartoons
Speaker 1: or they like, you know, they're literally dressing down like
Speaker 1: a millet. Like it generally rips off all the epaulets
Speaker 1: and the you know, the general the kind of badges
Speaker 1: and merit badges or whatever. Yeah. This is uh and
Speaker 1: this is interesting too. This isn't just brilliant advertising for
Speaker 1: the restaurants. It's also aimed at least it its origin,
Speaker 1: it's aimed squarely at people who were on the fence
Speaker 1: about the expense of buying a motor vehicle, right you, Jeff,
Speaker 1: you told us that nineteen there were fewer than three
Speaker 1: thousand cars on the roads of France, the country, the
Speaker 1: entire thing, not Paris. Imagine Paris alone with just three
Speaker 1: thousand cars. Today people would be dancing in the streets.
Speaker 1: But they did this to increase demand for tires, to
Speaker 1: get people on on board with the idea. Right like
Speaker 1: in Madmen, you're selling an idea. You're selling a dream,
Speaker 1: the dream of driving on the open road. Uh. And
Speaker 1: there's no arguing. They met with great success. I was
Speaker 1: surprised to find that the Michelin guides have become best
Speaker 1: sellers multiple times. Spoiler you I think you do have
Speaker 1: to buy them? Now? You do? You do? They were
Speaker 1: free at first. It was kind of almost sad with
Speaker 1: Andre Michelin. For two decades, all that information came at
Speaker 1: no cost until a faithful encounter that that remains a
Speaker 1: favorite anecdote repeated today when Andre himself arrived at one
Speaker 1: of his tire shops to see his beloved guides being
Speaker 1: used to prop up a work bench. Oh no, sort
Speaker 1: of like those A O. L discs we always just get.
Speaker 1: Eventually they start to lose their their their value, and
Speaker 1: you just get them in the mail every week and
Speaker 1: people started using those for like doorstops. So yeah, after
Speaker 1: that he started selling them for I think seven francs,
Speaker 1: and so that became its own business. And that's sort
Speaker 1: of why again we tend to separate the tires from
Speaker 1: the restaurant guide because it doesn't seem like they fit together.
Speaker 1: But um, that's why he started selling them at his
Speaker 1: tire shops nuts and and there we have it, folks,
Speaker 1: the relatively little known story of the Bendam, the crazy, smoking,
Speaker 1: drinking and driving tire mascot who later learned his lesson
Speaker 1: and reformed UH and became a bit of a food critic,
Speaker 1: a bit of a gourmand, if you will. Uh, Jeff,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for coming on the show with
Speaker 1: us today. We love, love love introducing UH, introducing the
Speaker 1: team at large to all our fellow ridiculous historians and
Speaker 1: uh nol. I guess you know. At this point, we've
Speaker 1: we've both learned a lot. Um. We've both been to
Speaker 1: Michelin restaurants in the past, I know, UM, and we
Speaker 1: have some of our favorites. But uh, I got to
Speaker 1: tell you, even knowing all we had just learned today,
Speaker 1: I still think the original Michelin man is super creepy,
Speaker 1: super duper creepy. Well, you know, we didn't even we
Speaker 1: describe him a bit, but I just I didn't want
Speaker 1: to point out that as I was looking through some
Speaker 1: vintage photos which you can find yourself with a quick
Speaker 1: cursory goog um, he looks more like a mummy than anything.
Speaker 1: It's like, it's almost like a weird, square headed mummy
Speaker 1: where the tire things look more like bandage wraps than
Speaker 1: they do what they're intended. And back to my question
Speaker 1: about the fingies in the original costume, they just didn't
Speaker 1: have a gloved part and so just the human it
Speaker 1: had human hands, which made it even more strange and creepy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: sexy and feeling it. And also, as we're ending today's show,
Speaker 1: since from McDonald came up, I wanted to give a
Speaker 1: big thanks to everybody. Went to our Facebook page Ridiculous
Speaker 1: a story ins and posted pictures of the Ronald McDonald
Speaker 1: vestiges in their own neck of the Global Woods. Just
Speaker 1: like the early michelin Man. Those things are kind of creepy. Uh.
Speaker 1: And we are creeping up on Halloween, one of my
Speaker 1: most favorite times of the year. Uh, So hopefully we
Speaker 1: can get some some spooky stories of ages past on
Speaker 1: vintage michelin Man. No, take some regular hands, Yeah, regular hands.
Speaker 1: I bet we could get one car and speaking a cigar. Ye. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're gonna get the cops called if you're walking around
Speaker 1: that thing, and you probably deserve it as well. You
Speaker 1: should as well, you should. Nobody wants that. Nobody wants
Speaker 1: that thing walking around. But we do want to hear
Speaker 1: from you. We want to hear your stories of mascots
Speaker 1: of yesteryear. Uh, the ones that you love, the ones
Speaker 1: that really freak you out, the ones that you think
Speaker 1: most people may have forgotten. You can find us on Facebook,
Speaker 1: as we said, ridiculous historians. We're still working on our MySpace,
Speaker 1: but more news to come. We're probably not gonna get
Speaker 1: a TikTok. I don't I don't think we I don't
Speaker 1: think we need TikTok. We're already talking about how old
Speaker 1: we are in person, about the meetings and TikTok at
Speaker 1: this point, I mean, it just it would just seems
Speaker 1: like a like a real like cry for attention. Honestly,
Speaker 1: carry a pigeon telegraph. Thank you, Samuel with Moss, please
Speaker 1: please do contact us. I mean, we just basically barely
Speaker 1: figured out Instagram. I'm not ready for another platform. You know,
Speaker 1: we've been We've been toying with this Pinterest page for
Speaker 1: years now, and pictures isn't even hardly a thing anymore.
Speaker 1: Maybe in another five years time or year old. We're
Speaker 1: thinking long term. You know, that's our Event Horizon. I'm
Speaker 1: just saying that because I recently rewatched Event Horizon. It's amazing,
Speaker 1: dude movie. Because you may remember Ben, when that came out,
Speaker 1: it was really advertised just speaking of truth and advertising
Speaker 1: as a sci fi romp, you know, through the reach
Speaker 1: of the far reaches of space, turns out not really
Speaker 1: a spoiler alert, more of a cautionary alert. Uh. It
Speaker 1: is a gore fest existential, dread filled horror nightmare of
Speaker 1: lovecrafty in proportions, Lovecraft is where we're going. You won't
Speaker 1: heal Razor in space basically well yeah, uh oh, and
Speaker 1: we just uh shout out to our pal Dave Bruckner,
Speaker 1: who uh just directed the newest hull Razor. Good on
Speaker 1: you man, UM check it out. Let's know what you think, uh,
Speaker 1: and let us know about these mascots. UM can't wait
Speaker 1: to hear from you. Thanks as always, to our super producer,
Speaker 1: Mr Max Williams, thanks to our UH one half of
Speaker 1: our new research associate team, thanks to Jeff Bartlett, and
Speaker 1: thanks to Zach Williams no relation. We call him Doctors
Speaker 1: act now he earned it UH and and thanks of
Speaker 1: course through our special guest today, Mr Jeff Bartlett NOL.
Speaker 1: Thanks to you, man. I feel like a road trip.
Speaker 1: I'm feeling a road trip to a restaurant, like your
Speaker 1: road trip. You're welcome. And by the way, shot speaking
Speaker 1: at a restaurants, I don't think they have a Michelin
Speaker 1: star you. But I checked out a new Atlanta restaurant
Speaker 1: called De Boca and Boca or in Bocca de Bok
Speaker 1: I forget. It's like a really nice, upscale kind of
Speaker 1: Mexican restaurant that does incredible tacos. And they had like
Speaker 1: Beeria tacos and they do like, you know, tomahawk steak.
Speaker 1: You know what is it? Carne ASADA's really really amazing.
Speaker 1: Check it out and do check out those early pictures
Speaker 1: of the initialivan Nightmare Fuel. We'll see you next time, folks.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from My Heart Radio, visit the I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows,