In this LIVE episode of This Week in Business History, Scott Luton and Allison Krache Giddens connected the dots of history while taking a journey down memory lane, shining a light on some of the most significant leaders, companies, innovations – and even lessons learned – from the week of July 4-8th.

They shared stories about:

• The delicious history of Graham crackers

• The success of Donkey Kong and its many spin-off brands

• Use of the world’s first active communications satellite

Scott Luton (00:12):

Good morning, Scott Luton here with you on this edition of this week in business history. Welcome to today’s show on this program, which is part of the supply chain. Now family of programming. We take a look back at the upcoming week, and then we share some of the most relevant events and milestones from years past, of course, mostly business focused with a little dab global supply chain. And occasionally we might just throw in a good story outside of our primary realm. So I invite you to join me on this. Look back in history to identify some of the most significant leaders, companies, innovations, and perhaps lessons learned in our collective business journey. Now let’s dive in to this week in business history. Hey, good afternoon, Scott Luton and Allison Giddens here with you on the second edition of this week in business history. LA Allison, how you doing?

Allison Giddens (01:23):

Hey good. How are you?

Scott Luton (01:25):

Did you see that amateur theatric effect? I put on that live side.

Allison Giddens (01:30):

I like it. I was impressed.

Scott Luton (01:32):

Hey, well, so this Alison, this a lot of folks may know that you’re one of our beloved guests hosts here at supply chain. Now I love some of the episodes more focused on supply chain and, and really global business that you and I have tackled our most recent one was, am I not get her name down in Texas? Sheika Uhhuh Sheika Sanders. PhD. How much fun was that? Allison?

Allison Giddens (01:56):

She is a rockstar. She’s so much fun,

Scott Luton (01:58):

Man. She is. And you’re talking about purpose, purpose to anyone’s journey. Y’all check it out at eight today. It’s very something different. So some folks may know that we’ve been producing our this weekend business history podcast for a couple years. Now it’s one of about a dozen programs that make up this supply chain. Now portfolio business history focuses on lesser known stories of leaders and innovation at the intersection of guest at business in history. We’ve recently published our a hundred and fourth episode. Allison. I don’t think episode numbers mean boo to anyone other than hosts. What do you think?

Allison Giddens (02:34):

But yeah, that’s pretty good. That’s pretty hundred for you. No, it’s hard for more than I have

Scott Luton (02:39):

Tell you. We feel everyone. Maybe that’s why, but Hey, a new episode, a new episode drops every Tuesday, including these replays of our live sessions. We may have some listeners right now, list tuned into the audio replay podcast replay of today’s live show. So Alison, does that make sense on your end?

Allison Giddens (02:57):

Sure. Does.

Scott Luton (02:58):

Are you a big history nerd like me?

Allison Giddens (03:01):

I, I like the history where it intersects with other things. So I like the fact that this there’s purpose to business overlapping the history. I, I was never one to, to love history class, but the moment you were able to overlap it into another subject, that was fascinating to me. So I’m with you, you to trick me into liking it.

Scott Luton (03:19):

<laugh> I’m with you. Hey, we got lots and lots of tricks up our sleeves here today, including as we walk through five stories, five interesting historical moments that I don’t know about you. Alison, I know I learned something as we knocked out the research. So if we’re learning some new things that that usually bodes well for our audience, speaking of our audience, Allison got a big, big shout out to Catherine part of our production team, helping to make things happen. But we were just talking about changing out. What was that? Allison changing out Cadillac batteries in appreciate we’re

Allison Giddens (03:54):

Fair and fan motors and yeah,

Scott Luton (03:57):

<laugh> right. Took eight, eight whiteboards. I map it out. How to change a Cadillac battery. It sounds D

Allison Giddens (04:03):

Dunno how to do it right.

Scott Luton (04:04):

Makes three of us. But Katherine appreciate all that. Your good work here. And of course Amanda’s with us here today, doing big things, excited, excited to hear their input along all of our listeners. And, and that really brings up the next point. Give us your spin. You know, we’re gonna be walking through these five stories from, from food to space and all points in between. Let us know what you have found out. Maybe from a business history standpoint here in, in recent days, or give us your take on the stories we’re gonna be sharing with you. So Allison, are we ready to dive in on our first story? First of five here today,

Allison Giddens (04:43):

Let’s do it.

Scott Luton (04:45):

All right. So lemme bring up this graphic here right away. When I see this, the stack of Graham crackers, it takes me back to my childhood. I’ll I’ll, I’ll offer up a free recipe to everybody, a very free, simple snack, but your kids will love it. But before we do that, let’s talk about the surprising history of Graham crackers. So Allison Sylvester Graham was born July 5th, 1794 in Southfield, Connecticut. And there’s a tie in this week, right? July 5th, he would go on to become a Presbyterian minister as well as a leader of the 19th century temperance movement here in the states, right? He preached regularly on many things, including the need for his followers to eat a natural, all natural, wholesome diet. So in his view that included whole grain, bread and flour. Now not only Allison that his preaching catch on with his flock, but businesses across the Eastern us began to make products that met his requirements. Now, although pastor Graham never endorsed or profited from any of these products, the businesses would use his name. So Graham flour, Graham bread, and wait for it. Graham crackers, right? The national biscuit company later named Nabisco that everybody’s heard of. Right? And that’s not an acronym. I forgot the word that maybe a port Manto does that sound right? Alice,

Allison Giddens (06:16):

You, you had to ask, you didn’t even, you didn’t give me the heads up where I could have Googled that researched it pretended like I knew exactly what you were talking about.

Scott Luton (06:22):

Well, you know, my timing is off today then, but national biscuit company, there’s a word for when you take a syllable of each and then build new word, but that’s the, the NA Nabisco brand that everyone is familiar with here today, they would become the first company to mass market Graham crackers in 1898. And Nabisco’s honey made brand. Let me show you these here, Allison. I could not find I went. So this, this is the modern day version branding of the honey made Graham cracker by the Bisco I searched and I searched for a 1980s version of this box, cuz I’m a telly Allison. We went through these things like by the pallet load now because I’m a man of my word. Let me give you all this free recipe. Cause what we would do is we would take these big old planks here and we wouldn’t break ’em apart. We’d wipe ’em down with peanut butter and then put another one on top and then we’d break it apart. And if you dunk those things in a big glass of milk, Allison, man, if you close your <laugh>, if you close your eyes and dreamed hard enough, they almost tasted like Oreos, but they weren’t quite as good. Yeah. But they were really good.

Allison Giddens (07:33):

Do you think, I, I love how you, you mentioned he was into like wholesome, you know, healthy, natural. Do you think he’s rolling over his grave knowing that it’s a staple of s’mores like all we’re doing is we’re we’re throwing, we’re throwing some chocolate marshals on that bad boy putting over a fire called a

Scott Luton (07:53):

Right. It’s a vehicle for marshmallows and chocolate, everything but tempera. Right? I don’t know. Pastor Graham seemed to be a very interesting type and we’re probably not doing him justice by focusing on Graham crackers, but you know what? That’s a big, um, what I also found an interesting Alison is that he was okay with his name. Yeah. Being used everywhere and didn’t insist on profiting or, or brand, you know, that’s that would not happen these days. Right? No.

Allison Giddens (08:20):

And if nothing else that his family is kicking him for it, you know? Right,

Scott Luton (08:24):

Right. It’s his family today. Yeah. You know, cuz if there’s a Lutin there’s a fig Lutin or a gins cracker, Hey, we’re getting our attorneys to contract everything up. Right.

Allison Giddens (08:34):

Thank you.

Scott Luton (08:35):

All right. So really quick. So that’s the first of five stories, Chantel. Great to see you here today. Of course. Big member of the production team member. Can’t wait to learn something new today. Chantel, this is gonna be the show. It’s gonna be the gift that keeps on giving here today. Appreciate all of your good things. Amanda. She’s got my back. I love peanut butter and Graham crackers even now, but give you all them s’mores she says,

Allison Giddens (08:59):

Okay. But speaking of s’mores yes. Did you? I saw that fig Luin that’s good. Have you heard about these marshmallows? Of course. I’m I’m stray from the grams. Yes. But the marshmallows with chocolate inside of them helping you manage the messiness of a s’mores

Scott Luton (09:15):

Oh no, I haven’t seen this.

Allison Giddens (09:16):

A friend of mine tested it. So they were fantastic. I, I am kind of doubtful because I worry that it limits the amount of chocolate, which I am very liberal on. <laugh> on a s’mores so right. I kind of, I, I wonder, you know what I mean? Like I don’t like somebody telling me just this how much shock you’re gonna have on that. I wanna be free to, to pick that. So I don’t know.

Scott Luton (09:38):

Don’t mess with anything that’s not broken is one of, one of the things that comes to my mind here.

Allison Giddens (09:42):

I want s’mores

Scott Luton (09:43):

That’s right. <laugh> Allison says she’s seen these marshmallows at Walmart and, and she definitely add more chocolate. See? And she called in. So fig Lutons has a real thing in our family. We all my Nan, right? My, my Nan and pop on one side and grandma and granddad. And on the other side, my Nan had a, had a cookie Tupperware in the same place in the kitchen. And when we were lucky, she had her homemade chocolate chip cookies in there. But, but most of the time it was fig Newton’s, which the whole family embraced fig Newton’s and uh, thousands and thousands of dad jokes later that prayer that probably only we think are funny that, that big part of a Nan’s legacy. So Mr. Every day, okay. So Allison, as we’re gonna be moving from Graham crackers to the origin of the phrase, the best thing sense what

Allison Giddens (10:36):

Sliced bread. So hopefully I won’t be milk toast here. I won’t, I won’t be as boring as white bread, but we’re gonna go, I’m gonna give you some snapshot here on. So in this week in 1928 in how I believe you pronounced that is Chico, Missouri. And of course, hopefully our listeners will either correct me or bla, but my maiden name is crate cheese. So you can’t offend me. I’ve been MIS pronounced every day, since the day I was born anyway. So pre sliced bread first went on sale this week, 1928. And it was baked by a local company out Missouri that were used that they used a machine designed by auto row wetter. Hmm. And row wetter was a jeweler. And I guess he was also a multi potential light coming up with some sort of machine like this, but he had created this machine on paper and then on a, a fire in 1917 destroyed his prototype and his blueprints.

Allison Giddens (11:30):

And you know, you wanna talk about not backing up your data, which wow. You know, we’ll talk about that later up. Sure. That’s right. So people thought the invention would fail because the bread was gonna get stale too quickly. But his buddy Frank bench put the machine to use at Chico’s baking company and the rest is history. So of course there were reports that Housewives were ecstatic that they could now expect a quote, thrill of pleasure when she sees each slice the exact counterpart of its fellows. And to that sexism, I would like to point out that my husband would find that far more thrilling than I would, but it’s just phase it. But the fun fact that I founded while researching this was that considerable research went into determining the right thickness for a slice, which was slightly less than half an inch. So if you ever need to pull out some, some of your bread and measure that you can do so.

Allison Giddens (12:22):

Okay. But the timing of the machine was perfect because by the thirties factory produced bread loaves were designed to be softer than those produced at a typical bakery. Yeah. Because the public equated the softness with freshness and because of that factory loaves had to be pre sliced. Interesting. It was tougher to, to slice it once you got it home, you know, have you ever, it’s easy to slice like crunchy French bread, right? It’s not so easy to slice super soft. Yeah. But basically after seven years of, of all of this wonder bread took off and that’s when it was sold in sliced form in 2012 wonder bread disappeared from the shelves since its owner hostess declared bankruptcy. If we all remember that, remember when the twin

Scott Luton (13:06):

And everybody, yes.

Allison Giddens (13:08):

Removed panic and riots in the streets and all that the next year after they went, they declared bankruptcy. Another company stepped in and bought it and then the brands returned. And so I guess you could almost say it’s a, a second coming of something being better than sliced with

Scott Luton (13:26):

Nicely done Allison, so many follow up comments and dad jokes and makes a little time so many, you know, it’s interesting because during the pandemic, like many, the, uh, a lot of folks resorted to making their own bread. Right. In fact, I think they were, I mean, uh, so many folks were doing it there, there were some empty shelves and for different things you needed. So Amanda is a wonderful bread maker, but when I came across this story and now you’re refreshing my memory cutting, you know, especially like a, I think PSHA Brent is what she got, you know, really good at, but cutting it and having, you know, making sure that the bottom slice wasn’t like this thick and the top ones like wafer thin. I mean, that was really tricky so I can see why oh yeah. Homemakers. And really the whole population, uh, would be thrilled about nice even half inch slices.

Allison Giddens (14:23):

And I think this is now a good time for me to make a confession. Sometimes when I open up the bread, I will skip the first slice. Yes. And go on because it’s a little stale.

Scott Luton (14:34):

Yep. I’m with you. What? So one final question. We can talk about bread a lot. I’ll tell ya. I love good bread. I love a good sandwich. What is in your household, Allison? You and Matt, what’s your go-to bread that y’all use?

Allison Giddens (14:49):

Well, I like like a, any kind of wheat. My husband likes really exciting white bread.

Scott Luton (14:55):

Oh. You know who, you know, who’s happy to hear that is, uh, pastor Graham. Yeah. He might be rolling still a little bit, but he is a little, little grin on his face with you saying that.

Allison Giddens (15:02):

Yeah. Oh yeah, for sure. But, uh, when it comes to sandwiches, my mom has always made a really mean grilled cheese sandwich. And sometimes you just want mom’s grilled cheese sandwich. I don’t think there’s anything fancy to it. It’s just, mom’s grilled cheese sandwich, you know, cutting triangles.

Scott Luton (15:19):

That’s right. Well big. And I love you marry that with a, a nice bowl of homemade tomato soup or even stuff outta the, can we eat it day long? And by the way, Amanda says nothing, thrills her more than sliced bread.

Allison Giddens (15:35):

Wow. That,

Scott Luton (15:36):

How about

Allison Giddens (15:36):

That? That is setting the bar right there. That’s

Scott Luton (15:39):

Thanks, Amanda. Thanks so much. All right. So Alison from slice bread, before we get into our third story here today to my son bends to his pleasure, he loves video games. Third story is gonna, he is gonna talk about video games, but you are part of an organization that’s helping ensure that kids from families that that are in need, don’t get left behind, across the athletic games across Metro Atlanta. So I wanted you, I got a little graphic here. Tell us about the Dave crate foundation and what y’all doing.

Allison Giddens (16:16):

Sure. Thanks for, thanks for highlighting us. So we are a nonprofit that focuses on helping kids play sports when their families can’t afford it. And we are set up right here in Metro Atlanta area. So I know there are a handful of other organizations out there throughout the country that do something very similar, but we are just focused on making sure that if a kid wants to play a sport and the, the fees are what limits that, that we kind of help come in and plug in where they need us.

Scott Luton (16:43):

That is awesome. And, and you know, if you’re really big on outcomes, like we are right. Deeds, not words, check this out. If you’re listening to us, I’ve got this graphic on here over a thousand local kids across Metro Atlanta have played sports with the foundations assistance, right? And that’s, you’re changing the trajectory of these kids with all of this great work. So how can folks help out, you know, how can they get involved? How can, how can they support you? Or, you know, what, if there’s someone listening in Cincinnati or Salem, Oregon, I don’t know why I went to Salem, Oregon, or who knows if it would you be open to benchmarking?

Allison Giddens (17:24):

So the best thing I can tell someone only cuz I know that time is of the essence for everybody is if you’re interested in this, getting something set up very similar in, in your area, I would first encourage you to see if something like it is not already being done. So check out a lot of the police athletic leagues in your area are always looking for support. And I’m finding that a lot of the folks I’m talking to their, their pals as they call their police, athletic leagues are open to them, fundraising on their behalf and helping because those dollars they go, they go to such good use and help and impact communities right there.

Scott Luton (18:00):

Wow. That that’s an excellent tip. Y’all check that out. And if they wanna jump into and support the Dave crche foundation, how can it do

Allison Giddens (18:09):

Definitely check us out. Dave creche.com. We’re on social media as well. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, we’ve, we’re always raising money to, to help kids play. And we have specifically started reaching out to a lot of the organizations to help them amplify what they are already doing. So that’s been, that’s been really great and that’s helped us push over that thousand mark because more kids can get helped that

Scott Luton (18:30):

Way, man. What an incredible impact over a thousand kids, Dave crate, you.com. And that last name is K R a C H e.com. Y’all check it out and support it if you can. Okay. Uh, I can see that all we had to do is start the ball rolling around anything delicious and food related. Katherine says chocolate is the best part of the smore. So clearly she’s a big part of the, the liberal chocolate party, right? You could never have enough chocolate I’m with you, Katherine. So Katherine also says I’m wishing my smoothie was a grilled cheese right now. And Amanda’s like, I was just thinking how good a grilled cheese sandwich sounded I’m with you, man.

Allison Giddens (19:14):

Just the right amount of butter, all crust.

Scott Luton (19:18):

Oh gosh. With good bread. Oh man. You’re killing me. Okay.

Allison Giddens (19:21):

Sorry. Focus,

Scott Luton (19:23):

Focus. I know we’re having for dinner tonight. So, but before we get there story number three, I want to bring this up here. So Allison donkey Kong donkey Kong. So on July 9th, 1981 donkey Kong was released by at the time, a little known little known company, at least outside of Japan, of course, Nintendo released donkey Kong. Some folks may not know that now Nintendo was started back in 1889 in Japan and initially focused. This core product was playing cards. Company began to diversify in the 1960s and would get into electronics in the 1970s, almost a hundred years old. Talk about a big, big pivot in the late 1970s, Nintendo would really fulfill their destiny cause most folks recognize them now as part of the video game industry, but in the late seventies, that was a time of like pong and Allison. You know, what if slice bread makes people go crazy?

Scott Luton (20:28):

I guess that simple game of pong, that was like a, that was, that was a phenomenon across the country, but that was where the fledgling video game industry was. Now. It Nintendo truly struck gold with donkey Kong in 1981, not only did the original game sell tens of millions of copies become one of the most popular games of its era. You’d add Pacman to that and Galaga, but it also has essentially created a universe of donkey Kong related products. Alison, do you remember the donkey Kong country games that began back in, in the mid nineties?

Allison Giddens (21:04):

Vaguely. Yeah. I’m hung up on Gallagher right now. I pizza hut. You say Galaga? I think pizza hut.

Scott Luton (21:12):

Yes. And the good old pizza hut with the big red glasses and the antique lighting fixtures and always two or three good video games in one corner, right? Yep. Good old days. All right. But donkey con so Allison, do you at least remember? Well, Mario Cartt where donkey Kong would be. Dr. You could, you could select me donkey con he was a little bit slower, but you didn’t wanna mess with him, run you off the road. So here’s a little known fact about the original donkey con because it didn’t just give rise to one video game legend. The iconic Mario Mario character would first be rolled out in the 1981 version of donkey Kong. And if there’s anything we don’t have to talk about today, it’s what Mario went on to do. Right. Including becoming basically the, the icon, the, the assemble for all things Nintendo.

Scott Luton (22:07):

Right. I think there’s only about 37 different versions of a Mario game. <laugh> and that is great plumber. That’s <laugh> I doubt Ben’s listing. Cause I think he’s out pulling weeds in my garden right now, but Mario is one of Ben’s favorite all time characters to the point that sometimes he tells us when folks look like Mario and we, he wants to go pull on their mustache to see if they’re they’re messing with it. So who would’ve th the donkey Kong 1981 made the splash as much. So now you, you said you were fixated Alison on Gallica, was it Gallagher one of your, you know, go-tos as a kid?

Allison Giddens (22:48):

I think so. At least out at, because we didn’t initially have, like, I didn’t have Atari, but I did have an original NES. I did have one of the, I don’t think I had donkey Kong. I, I am pretty sure I had the original Mario. Yeah. And I had duck hunt because I would regularly cheat at that. I mean, I would regularly play that game.

Scott Luton (23:09):

Yeah.

Allison Giddens (23:09):

<laugh> go right up to the, you know, right. Since I, since I had a younger sister, I was allowed to be up closer to do duck hunt and she had to stay further back. So,

Scott Luton (23:18):

So I had donkey Kong on an old system called the in television. I cannot remember who made in television. It might have been named a company, but donkey Kong was my, one of my least favorite games for me. It was just very repetitive. And also there wasn’t a great, like two player version. You know, some of those, I don’t know if it’s Gallaga for some of those others, you know, it was a, it was a cool two player version. We all could both be against, you know, the evil asteroids or whomever. It is at the same time, even though, even that early in the video game industry. But donkey Kong was not one of my favorites, but nevertheless, July 9th, 1981 donkey Kong released by Nintendo. All right. So clearly we don’t have any video game officiant. IDOs, that’s

Allison Giddens (24:04):

Crazy though, to think of how far it’s come in 40 years.

Scott Luton (24:08):

It is ISN.

Allison Giddens (24:09):

When you think about, you know, some of the AI or augmented reality, the AR stuff and the, the VR and the, just how like Ben, your son will never know the, was it the blowing into the video cartridge? Yeah. You’ll never know that you’ll never know <laugh> he kids, so, okay. Here’s a good question. What are kids games now? Kids are, are games now, can you cheat on them? Like we did remember like the up, up, down, down AB whatever. Yes.

Scott Luton (24:40):

Can

Allison Giddens (24:40):

You do that? It’s a contract. Can you do that on these games today?

Scott Luton (24:44):

You know, that’s such a great question because

Allison Giddens (24:46):

Not that I’m encouraging it, but

Scott Luton (24:48):

No, but still that, that kind of, you, you, you could almost say that the cheating back in the eighties was kind of like program. The earliest hackathons were call. There you go. How about that?

Allison Giddens (24:59):

It was a coming of age.

Scott Luton (25:00):

Yeah. Coming of age, for sure. Now watching Ben play, if Ben’s a big fortnight fan and he, he plays, of course some, the Mario and Lego games. I am not sure if you can cheat with those things with any kind of codes. It’s not quite a, it was almost like a urban legend with some of those things. Like the Contra code up, up, down, down left, right. Left. Right. Select start. If you had a two player, you get 30 lives. Each

Allison Giddens (25:25):

I, the scary that you know, that still you have breakfast two days ago.

Scott Luton (25:30):

<laugh> right. You don’t. I remember that code. They get 30 lives on contract. All right. Well, well, speaking of nice little segue here, speaking of early trailblazers and kind of how far we have come from a technology and some of the things that powered even the earliest days of I’ll call it modern technology. Tell us about tell star one, Allison.

Allison Giddens (25:52):

Sure. So tell star one. I looked up and this week in business history, 1962 developed by at and T became the world’s first active communications satellite. They used the satellite to test basic features of communications via space was launched by NASA off a Delta rocket from Cape Canaveral. And right after the launch tell star enabled the first transatlantic television transmission linking the us to France. So when they did this, the first non-public television pictures was a flag outside of satellite station in Maine. And then that went all the way to a satellite station in Northwest France on July 11th, 1962. And

Scott Luton (26:32):

There had to be some Jerry Lewis TV shows in those Earlie transmissions.

Allison Giddens (26:35):

Well, you know, funny you say, because almost two weeks later, it did relay the first publicly available live transatlantic television signal. And here’s what it was, was shown in Europe, by Eurovision, and then in north America, by NBC, CBS, ABC, and CBC, and the first public broadcast featured CBS’s Walter Cronkite and NBC’s chat Huley in New York. And BBC’s Richard dimly. I’m gonna mispronounce his name in Brussels <laugh>. And the first pictures were the statue of Liberty in New York and the Eiffel tower in Paris. And this is what cracks me up the first broadcast. It was supposed to be just remarks by president JFK, John F. Kennedy, but the signal was acquired before the president was ready. Uh oh. So they immediately had to cut to something. So what do you think in July the engineers cut to,

Scott Luton (27:26):

Uh, NASA? No,

Allison Giddens (27:28):

No, what’s what’s happening in July,

Scott Luton (27:31):

July of 1963,

Allison Giddens (27:33):

Uh, 62

Scott Luton (27:35):

Baseball.

Allison Giddens (27:35):

Very good, very good engineers. They filled the time with a short segment of a televis televised game between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley field. And in case you’re wondering who was up the batter, Tony Taylor was seen hitting a ball, pitched by Cal Coots to the right fielder, George Altman. And from there, the video immediately switched first Washington DC, and then to Cape Canaveral and then to the Seattle’s world’s fair. And then to Quebec, and then finally Stratford Ontario, because apparently we all really needed lots of back and forth. The Washington segment included remarks by JFK. And then he was talking about the price of the American dollar, which was causing concern in Europe at the time when Kennedy denied that the us would devalue the dollar, it immediately strengthened on the world markets. And then Cronkite later observed quote, we all glimpsed something of the true power of the instrument we had brought.

Scott Luton (28:34):

How about that?

Allison Giddens (28:35):

And ain’t that the truth? So the, the electronics themselves on tell star were exposed to radiation, which meant it had to be deactivated in early in 63, but all of it raised a lot of good questions like communications satellites, you know, should they be operated in controlled by private corporations or by government control? So, yeah, of course the rest is history, but I thought it was a rather interesting, I think it was prophetic for, for Cronkite to say that because all JFK had to say was, it’s just, you know, everything’s gonna be fine, right. We’re not gonna devalue the dollar. And then all of a sudden things were better.

Scott Luton (29:08):

Things were better. You know, I am so glad as I grab this image again, that this came out before star wars. Otherwise there’d be a lot of nervous. People would tell star one up in orbit. Cause it’s got like a, that’s a good point sneaking. It looks a little like the death star does it not have. Right. So, but you know, what’s also interesting and I’m assuming that baseball scene maybe was the first international, albeit short international broadcast of baseball. I would assume

Allison Giddens (29:41):

That’s a good question through, through communications, satellite in space. I don’t know. Yeah. I guess cuz I, I can’t think of U unless something else was transmitted to Europe or anywhere else.

Scott Luton (29:54):

Right?

Allison Giddens (29:55):

Yeah.

Scott Luton (29:56):

Well, and then also the, the, the assumption I am drawing here is that we were really is not, it’s not our fault that we’re all about channel surfing because in the earliest days

Allison Giddens (30:07):

Exactly.

Scott Luton (30:08):

Right.

Allison Giddens (30:09):

They were just the all yeah. So whoever the engineer was in the control room, somebody should have calmed the, or maybe switched to decaf before the transmission went launch

Scott Luton (30:20):

<laugh> that’s right. Well, what a fascinating story and a early triumph for, and gosh, I think we’re starting there to all the satellites that we have in place now, both currently operational and those defunct, right. That are, that make up the kind of belt of junk around the world to get to the point where now I can’t remember the system that Elon Musk, uh, what is his Starlink? Yeah. Starlink. Yeah. Right. It was really cool to see him provide Starlink to Ukraine and really help empower their, their communication in the good fight against the Russian forces. So it’s, it’s really fascinating

Allison Giddens (30:58):

Fascinat. Yeah. It really is.

Scott Luton (31:00):

All right. So that is a wonderful segue for, gosh, we’ve already gone through we’re we’re shooting through these and we’re barely at the is, is, is the half is a 30 minute. Mark is, are we at the top of the hour or the, or the bottom of the hour?

Allison Giddens (31:14):

We’re just what you call efficient.

Scott Luton (31:17):

Okay. And okay. We’re

Allison Giddens (31:18):

Keep, we’re basically the engineers in the control room swap. Yes. We’re just hitting the butt. Like here, watch some baseball. Oh, wait, listens to the president. Oh wait, hold

Scott Luton (31:26):

On. Let’s

Allison Giddens (31:27):

Slice bread. Make sure the Eiffel tower

Scott Luton (31:28):

Docu Kong. Uh, alright

Allison Giddens (31:31):

Sandwich. Does anyone want a sandwich?

Scott Luton (31:32):

<laugh> so we’re gonna stick with the space theme because Allison, I am unapologetically a big old space nerd and that’s a highly scientific term, big old space nerd. And we’re about we’re entering really humanity. Civilization is entering a whole new chapter where we’re we’re our uni, our foundational understanding of the universe is poised to change because we got the James web telescope, which is just a week or two weeks away from the time we published this today’s July 5th, we’re just a week or two weeks away from getting the first images and it’s gonna change our understanding. Right. It really is. Yeah. Yeah. But before we were able to get there, I wanna talk about Skylab because Allison did, you know a whole bunch about Skylab before we, we jumped on the livestream here today.

Allison Giddens (32:26):

No, I did not. We only talked a little bit in the green room and right. Yeah, no, I, I know very little about Skylab.

Scott Luton (32:32):

Well, that makes two of us that makes two of us, you know, I’ve I’ve of course heard of it. I’ve seen the patches. I’ve even seen some pictures like this one here, this image, Allison that we’re showing and to our listeners, if you’re checking out the podcast replay via RSS feed, you can find this livestream video across this week in business histories, social footprint. But this image here is this Skylab four crew as they’re departing, right? So it’s basically one of the final shots of Skylab. Now on July 11th, 1979, the United States first space station ever Skylab would fall out of orbit, reentering the Earth’s atmosphere where it largely burn up remnants of sky lab would mostly land around Perth Australia in that general vicinity. The only casualty that was reported was a cow that died after being struck by a piece of sky lab, man, bad luck.

Allison Giddens (33:31):

I shouldn’t laugh, but the visual you, this thing flying from the sky, and then it’s just eager a Mo and then no

Scott Luton (33:38):

Kidding cows, enjoying life and fresh air and chewing cut one second and then getting struck by Skylab the next, but for several years. So, so that came to a crash right before it came, before it crashed out its orbit and came back into the earth for several years, NASA was hoping to use new the new space shuttle program at the time to really send a full blown repair mission. Right? There was lots of mechanical problems that really were part of Skylab from its initial launch, where I think a few things got bumped and whatnot to the orbiting, you know, orbital altitude, all that good stuff. But the problem was initially the space shuttle program was set to launch, you know, pun intended 1979, right? However, it was pushed back at least two years to 1981. So that became a nonviable solution. Now, after, after Skylab, the us began planning for a permanent space station, but that project was halted and the efforts and funding were redirected to the us participation in the international space station. And we know where that is here today, which unfortunately has also become an instrument of war and foreign policy, as we’ve heard a variety of threats and what should be the, you know, human’s ultimate symbol of collaboration and peace and, and working together. But unfortunately that’s not where we are. So Allison, all of that said, are you also a space nerd? Did you any of this Skylab story new to you?

Allison Giddens (35:15):

The Skylab stuff definitely was. And I loved, if you wanna pull that picture back up, I loved the story you were talking about that, that piece, that wasn’t, wasn’t part of the original installation, I guess it was kind of, do you know, what is that foil?

Scott Luton (35:31):

So that is some kind of, of, uh, not foil, but I can’t remember the type of material it was, but to your point, cause I, I love, I love what you called it. The duct tape fix, cuz astronauts had to get really creative as part of the launch. I think they had a shield get knocked off and the shield was not only supposed to protect from solar pressures, but also other, other, other types of energy you’ll find in orbit. So the astronauts, they basically saved it from the get go. It got creative with whatever this covering is. If you’re, if you’re viewing this live stream, you’ll see that there is, it looks like the side of a tenfold shed. So what it looks like, but Allison also love the duct tape reference, but anyway, I guess you gotta do whatever it takes. Isn’t in a, you know, a space when you have limited resources and fixes, right?

Allison Giddens (36:20):

Yeah. So if you, if you had the chance to go to space yes. Would you, would you do it?

Scott Luton (36:24):

You know, I admire William Shatner. I couldn’t remember what, what William Shatner’s age is, but you see when he got launched with SpaceX and I wanna say he’s like 80, I can only imagine the impact of, of even brief space travel. But I think regardless of my age and regardless, whenever the invite would come, I think you gotta jump on it because to see, just to be able to see earth. And, and if we remember Apollo’s astronauts, as they were capturing earth rise, I think they called it right. And that context and that perspective you see on the, your, what is all of life to you, what’s all of everything, you know, right there. And to be able to see that from that different type of view and also to kind of see what else is, you know, in the vast vastness of space, I think it would have to be life changing.

Allison Giddens (37:18):

Yeah. Yeah. It would be, it would be something else. My husband and I always have conversations about this. Like, would you go if you had the option and I don’t know if I would, and really, I don’t know if I’m just not as much of a, of a space nerd as maybe he is, or maybe it’s because I’m terrified of accidentally being set out into the unknown and then dying a slow, painful existence where no one can hear you scream <laugh> so I don’t really know what, what the concern there is, but, but yeah, that would be kinda where I’m at.

Scott Luton (37:51):

Do you remember space camp, the movie from 1986?

Allison Giddens (37:56):

Yes.

Scott Luton (37:57):

I thought that was the coolest movie, you know, to be prepping at, at a kid’s camp and all of a sudden you get launched in a space and you’ve got to, you know, kind of take controls of real space shuttle that, you know, that move was really cool, but, but space shuttle program in general of how powerful that, um, that the impact was on, not just kids in, in the us, but, but globally, you know, and to have that, you know, in our rooms on, you know, third grade and second grade rolled in and, and see the launch and that those things are gonna be irreplaceable in terms of impact. I think it had on so many folks. Now Amanda says that would be a big, no, for her I’m with you. Alison I’d rather, I’d be afraid of the void as well. So Hey, that’s okay. Different strokes, right? Different

Allison Giddens (38:46):

Folks. Somebody else can have my ticket, but I am fascinated with a lot of these shows out there now that are focused on space and kind of the unknown. I’ve never really been one for the traditional sci-fi like star Trek. I could take it or leave it. I don’t really whatever, but I mean, some of these shows that are crossed between what do they call it? Like alternate history. Yes. I think apple TV has a, for all mankind has a, a space show out. That’s basically what would’ve happened. Had the, the, what the Russians beat us to the moon or the Chinese beat us. And it’s, it’s a fascinating kind of look at what might have happened, but shows like that. I’m really curious about, I like those, those kind of space inter see again, space intersecting business. Yeah. Intersecting politics.

Scott Luton (39:31):

Yes. Little long and prosper. Allison live long and prosper. All right. So, so let’s as a fortune start

Allison Giddens (39:37):

That’s right, right. Wrong one, sorry.

Scott Luton (39:39):

Wrong one wrong verse. Wrong. Metaverse sorry. Okay. Well folks, as we start to wrap, I wanna share one more thing and I’ve really enjoyed cohosting this business history live with the one only Allison Giddens, but folks, if you, um, yeah, I’ll tell you, Kelly Barner is a master storyteller. We partner with Kelly about, I don’t know, about a year or so ago on this specific series. And not only is she real passionate about history, but she’s a great, great storyteller. So check out our episode we dropped today was a classic one of Kelly’s classics, frankly, where she dives into the wall street journal, the Genesis of the wall street journal. You’ll be surprised. You’ll be surprised about the intertwining of the Dow Jones, industrial average and the wall street journal. Y’all checked it out on our biz history this week in business history, RSS feed and let us know what you think. Okay. Allison, beyond the Dave crche foundation, the folks, you can check that out@davecrche.com, right? Yeah. Right. Okay. How else can folks connect with Allison? Gittens

Allison Giddens (40:44):

Find me on LinkedIn. I’m pretty active there. Allison Giddens. I think if you type me in, I wanna say that is that’s my name and I stole it as one of the LinkedIn. You know, when they let you pick the name initially, you know, so

Scott Luton (40:57):

Love it. Well, check it out. You’re not gonna wanna, you don’t wanna miss everything we’ve talked about related to Allison, but from book reviews to her, take on business and manufacturing, supply chain. She’s doing great work when it comes to educating our youth and what we call the now generation, cuz they’re already having an impact. I don’t let the next generation, it’s the now generation, let’s leave the next generation with star Trek in terms of where it fits. It’s all about the now generation. Now let appreciate your work there as well. Okay. So that is gonna wrap here today. Big, thanks to Allison big, thanks to everyone that showed up in the comments. Of course, the production team, Amanda, Catherine, Chantel, and more and big thanks to all of our listeners, appreciate all the feedback we get across social and email and the website and the like, let us know, let us know. What was your favorite story here today? Or, you know, if you’ve got an idea for a show, we’ll take that too on behalf, our entire team here at this week in business history, Allison GIS and Scott Luton signing off for today, challenging you as we always do to do good to give forward and to be the change on that note. We’ll see. Next time. Right back here on this week in business history. Thanks everybody.