"Five Minutes of Fire": Prokofiev, Rockefeller, Campanella

<v Speaker 1>This is Pat from the thirty something Movie Podcast, and
<v Speaker 1>you're listening to my most excellent friends Jason and d
<v Speaker 1>from the Surely You Can't Be Serious Podcast.
<v Speaker 2>Hello everybody, and welcome back to the Surely you Can't
<v Speaker 2>Be Serious Podcast Special Edition Five Minutes of Fire. We
<v Speaker 2>are here talking about the lyrics of We Didn't Start
<v Speaker 2>the Fire by Billy Joel. We're covering only five minutes
<v Speaker 2>at a time, which is about to link with the song,
<v Speaker 2>so it works out kind of nicely. So please join
<v Speaker 2>us as we dive into some new lyrics today.
<v Speaker 3>All right, guys, so here are the topics that we're
<v Speaker 3>going to be covering today. Pro Kaffeev, Rockefeller and Campanella.
<v Speaker 2>All right, Jason, what can you tell me about pro Kafeev.
<v Speaker 3>Sergei Prokofiev born eighteen ninety one died in nineteen fifty
<v Speaker 3>three was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. I keep
<v Speaker 3>getting stuck with the pianists. I know nothing about pianos
<v Speaker 3>or conducting. He is a creator of many acknowledged masterpieces,
<v Speaker 3>including the March from the Love of Three Oranges. I've
<v Speaker 3>not heard of that one, The Ballad of Romeo.
<v Speaker 2>And Juliette that one I've heard of, and Peter and
<v Speaker 2>the Wolf that one I love. Right.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, He's known for being very eccentric and arrogant. He
<v Speaker 3>wrote several operas, including The Gambler No not the Kenney
<v Speaker 3>Rogers version, The Fiery Angel, and The Love for Three Oranges.
<v Speaker 3>He also created an opera on War and Peace. It's
<v Speaker 3>interesting he died the same day that Joseph Stalin's death
<v Speaker 3>was announced, so his death went basically unnoticed. He died
<v Speaker 3>of a cerebral hemorrhage in nineteen fifty three, and nobody
<v Speaker 3>knew anything that was happening to him because everybody was
<v Speaker 3>focused on Joseph Stalin's death. Wow, all right, Dee, what
<v Speaker 3>can you tell us about Rockefeller?
<v Speaker 2>So this one is a little confusing because I mean,
<v Speaker 2>everybody knows John Dy Rockefeller as the richest man ever,
<v Speaker 2>right right, right, and his son was Johnny Rockefeller. But
<v Speaker 2>around this time, which Rockefeller are we talking about here? Right?
<v Speaker 2>I looked at David Now he was like head of
<v Speaker 2>the Chase Manhattan Bank and heavily involved in political committees,
<v Speaker 2>including the Council on Foreign Relations. They actually asked him
<v Speaker 2>at one point, Hey, why don't you run for president?
<v Speaker 2>And he was like, why would I take a demotion?
<v Speaker 2>But I don't think that's the guy we're talking about.
<v Speaker 2>There's Lawrence, who was a conservationist and who was really
<v Speaker 2>into UFOs. He was the guy who made them uncover
<v Speaker 2>the secret documents with Roswell, which really produced nothing. Wow.
<v Speaker 2>And then there's Nelson, who ultimately would become vice president
<v Speaker 2>of the United States and was a governor of New York.
<v Speaker 2>But I don't think it's him either. I think that
<v Speaker 2>the guy that we're talking about is Winthrop Rockefeller. He
<v Speaker 2>was a guy who was making the news because as
<v Speaker 2>far as Rockefellers go, he was rebel. He dropped out
<v Speaker 2>of Yale. He enlisted in the army as a private.
<v Speaker 2>He went and fought, got a bronze star and a
<v Speaker 2>purple heart. He was heavy drinker when he was in
<v Speaker 2>the army. He had a girlfriend named Candy Mosler. She
<v Speaker 2>ultimately got charged in a plot to murder her husband.
<v Speaker 2>The other person involved in the plot was her nephew,
<v Speaker 2>who she had an incestuous relationship with. What that's girlfriend
<v Speaker 2>number one? Girlfriend number two becomes wife number one. Her
<v Speaker 2>name was Bobo Palkiet and then ultimately what happens is
<v Speaker 2>he moves to Arkansas and becomes governor of Arkansas. He
<v Speaker 2>and Nelson are the only two brothers that are serving
<v Speaker 2>as governors of different states until the nineties when Jeb
<v Speaker 2>and George Bush do that. He is a big inspiration
<v Speaker 2>for Bill Clinton. I called my dad because my dad
<v Speaker 2>grew up in Arkansas in the fifties. Of course, huh.
<v Speaker 2>And he's like, he didn't really do a whole lot
<v Speaker 2>as governor, but he did do a cross breeding of cows,
<v Speaker 2>which became a pretty big deal in Arkansas. But he
<v Speaker 2>was the rebel Rockefeller and the one that I believe
<v Speaker 2>Billy Joel's referring to in asaw. Wow. All right, Jason,
<v Speaker 2>I know that you set this up so that you
<v Speaker 2>get the baseball guy. Finally, tell me, baseball guy, who
<v Speaker 2>is the Campanella?
<v Speaker 3>Okay. Roy Campanella, otherwise known as Campy, was a professional
<v Speaker 3>baseball player played for the Brooklyn Dodgers, known and accepted
<v Speaker 3>as one of the greatest Major League catchers of all time.
<v Speaker 3>Now here's the interesting thing. He played for nine years
<v Speaker 3>in the Mexican League and the Negro Leagues before making
<v Speaker 3>his debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers in nineteen forty eight.
<v Speaker 3>His mom was black and his dad was Italian, but
<v Speaker 3>he was still treated, of course, as a black man.
<v Speaker 3>Branch Ricky almost made him the first African American Major
<v Speaker 3>League Baseball player, but then later decided on Jackie Robinson.
<v Speaker 3>Roy Campanella was his second choice. He was a three
<v Speaker 3>time Negro League All Star, an eight time Major League
<v Speaker 3>Baseball All Star, was a three time National League MVP
<v Speaker 3>nineteen fifty one, nineteen fifty three, nineteen fifty five. Won
<v Speaker 3>the World Series in nineteen fifty five, His team, the Dodgers,
<v Speaker 3>retired his number thirty nine, and then January twenty eighth,
<v Speaker 3>nineteen fifty eight, was driving home going on approximately thirty
<v Speaker 3>miles per hour, hit a patch of ice, overturned his car,
<v Speaker 3>broke his neck, and was paralyzed for the.
<v Speaker 2>Rest of his life. Oh that's tragic.
<v Speaker 3>He was honored by the Sporting News to be one
<v Speaker 3>of the top one hundred baseball players of all time.
<v Speaker 2>Roy Campanella, Okay, guys, that does it for today's episode.
<v Speaker 2>Join us next time for five minutes of fire