The Billy Possum Craze (1909)
This Day in Esoteric Political History
Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia
4.6 • 982 Ratings
🗓️ 24 January 2023
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It’s January 24th. This day in 1909, the administration of William Howard Taft has gone completely possum crazy — and is desperately trying to make “Billy Possum” a mascot along the lines of the Teddy Bear.
Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss why Taft was so infatuated with the possum, and the key differences between the origin stories of the Teddy Bear and Billy Possum marketing campaigns.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history. |
| 0:07.0 | My name is Jody Avergan. |
| 0:10.4 | This day, 1909, President William Taft attends a formal dinner, as Presidents do, men sitting at rows of tables, white linen, everyone's wearing fancy gear, tuxes, and so forth, waiting to be served to be served and well what is on the menu? |
| 0:25.2 | According to reports the centerpiece of the meal is quote a possum crisp and brown. |
| 0:31.5 | Yes this was a presidential feat of possum and this incident sets off a very strange period in American history in which |
| 0:40.0 | President Taft kind of goes possum crazy. |
| 0:43.0 | We will get into it, but apparently as a result of this dinner, the president is infatuated with possums. |
| 0:47.5 | He and his team come up with an idea to make the possum the kind of de facto mascot of the Taft administration. So let's talk about the very misguided |
| 0:56.2 | story of Billy Possum and the also deep history of presidents and possums and more. |
| 1:03.0 | Here, as always, |
| 1:04.0 | Nicole Hammer of Vanderbilt and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley. |
| 1:07.5 | Hello there. |
| 1:08.0 | Also, very possum crazy over here. |
| 1:10.5 | Hello, Jeremy. |
| 1:11.5 | Yeah. |
| 1:12.0 | Hello. hey there. Now before we get into this episode proper I just want to give a |
| 1:19.0 | shout out to listener Eric who wrote us a nice email suggesting this, but also the great writer, friend of the show |
| 1:25.5 | John Muallum, has written about this a bunch. |
| 1:28.0 | He wrote about this story in his really great book, |
| 1:31.7 | Wild Ones, and then he did it at a pop-up magazine |
| 1:34.0 | and he did it on 99% invisible. |
| 1:35.0 | I think he even did a TED Talk about the thing, |
... |
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