[contemplative music]
- Did you know that
there was once a time
when kids ate chocolate
right out of the gutter?
- Can you imagine being a
kid six, seven years old,
and suddenly the street
is covered in chocolate?
Who's not gonna eat that?
- Yes, they choked down
a little horse poop,
but man, the stories.
- Or when martinis
came with a twist.
Of toxins.
- Man, I know what
you're thinking.
"Canned black olives?
What could be so bad?"
- In World w*r II, governments
were looking into using this
as a chemical weapon.
- Do you remember when cereal
was nearly a serial k*ller?
- Kids no longer see the cereal
as something they
eat at breakfast.
It's the thing that contains
this prize that they want.
- There's just this one issue.
The material inside the
ring, it's polonium,
the radioactive element used
in the Manhattan Project.
[expl*si*n booming]
- These are the things we
used to do for fun, for money,
or maybe out of boredom
that we'll never see again.
Were they dangerous?
Certainly.
Deadly?
Occasionally.
But, boy, wasn't it exciting?
[contemplative music]
Remember when breakfast was
the best part of waking up?
A giant bowl of sugary
cereal, cartoons on the TV,
not a care in the world.
But sometimes even the most
innocent looking treats
came with a surprise
nobody saw coming.
- In the 1960s, in the
heat of the cereal wars,
a clear winner emerges
with the first marshmallow-laden
cereal, Lucky Charms.
♪ Grab the Lucky Charms
♪ They're magically delicious
- This was probably
the single biggest
technological advancement
in breakfast cereal ever.
And from then on, everybody
was trying to innovate
in giving you new marshmallow
shapes and colors.
- [Adam] In 1971, supermarkets
around the United States
begin stocking a now iconic
cereal called Franken Berry.
- Oh, what a beautiful
day for Franken Berry,
the world's super
sweet new cereal.
- [Adam] It's part of the
family of cereals
that include the equally
iconic Count Chocula
and a blueberry-flavored
cereal called Boo Berry.
- [Jason] Franken Berry was
filled with intensely pink
strawberry-flavored
marshmallow bits.
It's all brightly-colored,
it's so fun to look at.
And at the end, when you've
eaten all the cereal,
you've got like a
bowl of pink milk now
that's like a delicious
strawberry milkshake.
- I love this stuff as a kid.
This was it.
This was, like, monster
and cereal mashed together,
and it tastes so good.
- [Henry] Franken Berry
quickly becomes a top seller,
but soon something
spooky starts happening.
- Kids start complaining
about severe stomach pains,
and it gets worse.
Part of them start to
turn this light red color
and it's not their
skin, it's their poop.
- Parents freak right out
because everybody knows
red-colored stool means blood.
And there are a lot of things
that can cause you to
have blood in your stool,
none of them are good.
- [Jason] In one case, a
he's rushed to the emergency
room after two days
of stomach pains
and reddish poop.
Doctors ask if he started
any new medications.
He says no.
Has he been eating any
cranberries or beets?
Uh-uh.
But in the days leading up
to the bright pinkish stool,
he actually had a couple of
bowls of Franken Berry cereal.
- Franken Berry.
- Count Chocula.
- Meow.
- Ah!
- Aha!
Doctors suspect they
have the culprit,
but just to be sure,
they run an experiment.
They feed him four bowls of
Franken Berry and send him home.
And sure enough, the
parents call back
and he does indeed
have very pink poop.
- [Henry] Turns out, back
then, there's something lurking
in those bright
pink marshmallows.
- [Dan] The cereal's intense
color comes from a synthetic
food dye called Red Dye No. 2.
And at the time, Red
Dye No. 2 is used
in a ton of different foods
and drugs and cosmetics
because it's cheap,
it's easy to produce,
and it looks great.
There's just this
one small catch,
and that is that the body
can't fully break it down.
- [Adam] So if you have
Red No. 2 coming in,
you'll have a pink
No. 2 coming out.
- [Brian] It becomes so
common for doctors
to be dealing with this issue
that they come up with
their own name for it,
Franken Berry Stool.
- [Henry] But pink cereal
is just the beginning.
- [Jason] People start to
wonder,
"Look, if this dye can
turn your poop pink,
what else can it do to you?"
And studies start
being performed,
and they realize
that in certain cases
it can raise the risk of cancer.
- [Kavitha] Time Magazine
declares Red Dye No. 2
one of the 50 worst
inventions of all time.
The Mars Company even pulls
red M&Ms from the shelves,
even though they don't
actually contain Red Dye No. 2.
There's just that much
of a panic around it.
- [Jason] In 1976, the FDA
bans Red Dye No. 2.
Franken Berry, they
changed their formulation
to the safer Red Dye No. 40.
And the pink poop panic passes.
- Some dangers came for
what was in your bowl.
But at one San Francisco
restaurant, it was on the walls,
on the ceiling, and headed
straight for your dinner.
- In the mid-1800s, San
Francisco is booming.
Gold rush money is flowing in
and industries like
shipping, banking,
and manufacturing
are taking off.
- There are dock workers
and miners and excavators
and people from all
points of the compass,
and they all have to eat.
And they all love going to
one place in particular.
The Cobweb Palace.
- The Cobweb Palace has
fancy wines from Europe.
They serve good food, the
chowder was very popular.
It seems like
maybe Cobweb Palace
is just sort of an ironic
name for an upscale place.
- [Henry] But the
name is no joke.
- When you walk
into the restaurant,
the walls and the
ceilings are draped
with thick, dusty cobwebs.
And they're not
like fake cobwebs.
They are real cobwebs.
- In some spots, there's
like six foot wide webs.
And you would think,
"Well, this clearly
can't be on purpose."
Oh no, the owner, Abe Warner,
actually loved spiders,
so he thought, "Well,
this is perfect.
This is exactly what I want
this place to look like."
- [Don] A bowl full of
cobwebs is bad enough,
but they also trap dirt,
dust, and other insects.
So, as you enjoy a
c*ck or a bowl of soup,
who knows what might
descend from the ceiling
and fall right into your food?
- [Martin] Normally, a fly in
your soup is an exception
in a restaurant experience,
but at The Cobweb Palace,
you might just get a rat
turd swaddled in cobwebs
that falls into your soup.
It's an everyday part of
the dining experience.
- [Don] This place
would definitely fail
a modern health inspection.
But at the time,
Abe had the right
to run his business
as he wished.
- [Lance] That's only the
beginning of the ambience
because he's collecting
stuff from all over
that sailors are carrying
and that he'll trade
them for drinks.
So there's strange
weapons, whale teeth,
bones, totem poles.
- The restaurant never
violates health codes
because there are
no health codes.
And it worked for
The Cobweb Palace's,
let's say, unique clientele.
- [Lance] You got sailors coming
in from all over the Pacific.
Some of them are bringing
in exotic animals.
And Abe will not just
let them bring them
into the restaurant,
but he will trade liquor
to get the animals
so that they can hang
around the restaurant.
- [Rutledge] What that means is
you could pull up to the bar
and be next to a c*ck,
or kangaroos, or monkeys.
There's also a bear that
lives in a shed out back.
Like, that's pretty wild.
- [Don] Despite how potentially
dangerous this place might be,
there's really no authority
that exists to shut it down.
- [Martin] I love it, the era
when there were no health codes.
And if you didn't like
it, you can just leave.
- [Henry] Even more shocking
than the fact that this place
exists is that it lasts.
- [Rutledge] The place really
takes off,
but it becomes more of
like a tourist attraction
than just a restaurant.
And it's open for
the next 40 years.
It's also like a
roadside attraction
that you just can't miss.
- [Martin] The Cobweb Palace
eventually closes,
and it's not because there's
some salmonella outbreak
and it's not because somebody
gets mauled by the bears
or one of the
other wild animals.
It's because time marches on.
The neighborhood
fundamentally changes.
By 1893, Warner can't
pay the rent anymore.
And so he closes his doors,
and soon thereafter, the
building is demolished.
- [Don] You just have to love
that people back then
accepted this restaurant for
what it was, warts and all.
Nobody was writing a negative
Yelp review or complaining.
They were just
experiencing life.
- I've eaten at some exotic
restaurants in my time,
but when the decor starts
moving, I say, "Check please."
- Believe it or not, there
was a time when ice cream
would only cost you a penny,
but it turns out the real
cost was a lot higher
than anyone realized.
- [Don] In the 1800s,
industrialization brings
the price of candy way down,
allowing for small sweets
to be sold individually
for just one cent.
These treats become
known as penny candy.
And they're hugely popular,
especially with kids.
- Penny candy opens
up a huge new market
for candy manufacturers
because kids don't
have a lot of money,
but if they have two,
three, four cents,
they can run to the candy
store and get some penny candy.
- [Rutledge] Ice cream vendors
want in on the action,
so they start talking,
trying to figure out,
"What's our penny candy
version of ice cream?"
That's where they come
up with a penny lick.
It's a tiny scoop of ice cream.
It costs one cent.
- Part of what's clever about
the penny licks is the glass.
It's got this tall base.
So it looks like you're about
to get this big serving.
But then the ice
cream is smooshed into
this teensy little
depression at the top.
- [Rutledge] When a vendor's
going down the street,
saying, "Penny
licks, penny licks,"
for kids, this is amazing.
For a penny, they can
get some ice cream.
You don't have to spend five
cents to get a whole one.
No, no, just a little.
- [Henry] While penny lick
vendors have plenty of business,
what they don't have is
plenty of glassware or spoons.
- Ice cream cones
aren't a thing yet,
and without utensils, you
just dive in with your mouth,
swirling it around this
little piece of glass,
making sure that not a drop
of that ice cream
goodness is missed.
- The process is that
you get your penny lick,
lick your ice
cream out of there,
hand it back to the vendor,
who puts more ice cream in
there and serves it again.
Obviously, they're
gonna wash it, right?
No!
No, that would be crazy.
- [Lance] When you hand it
back, if you're lucky,
it might get a quick
rinse in the same water
that all the other ones
have been rinsed in,
or it might get a
quick wipe with a rag
that has been used to wipe
out all the other ones,
and then it goes right back
out to another consumer.
It's not exactly sanitary.
- [Rutledge] I mean, as a kid,
we've all licked the
bowl of ice cream before,
but 100 kids didn't lick
that bowl before us.
That'd be gross.
- [Henry] With 100 tongues
in a never washed bowl,
you got a recipe for something
way worse than a sticky mess.
- [Edward] This is a time period
where there are big outbreaks
of epidemic diseases and
medical experts start to believe
that somehow germs
are being transferred
by items that people
share, whether it's a cup
or, in this case,
a penny lick glass.
- [Don] Those barely wiped down
glasses pass along bacteria
and viruses that lead to
fevers, stomach cramps,
intestinal problems, even death.
- [Lance] The United States
is not the only place
that's having this problem.
Penny licks are also used
commonly in the United Kingdom,
where they are tied to
things like tuberculosis
and cholera outbreaks.
- It's only a matter of time
before local governments
step in and shut it all down.
- [Henry] But for one vendor,
the answer is simple
and completely edible.
- [Rutledge] In the late 1890s,
a Manhattan ice cream vendor
is over the penny licks.
It's not the health
risk for him.
It's that A,
people keep dropping the
glass and they break,
or B, they run off with them,,
then suddenly he can't
sell penny licks.
His name is Italo Marchiony.
- [Austin] His solution is a
small, molded wafer cup.
Something sturdy enough
to hold a single scoop
and edible when done.
Marchiony invents
the ice cream cone.
- [Rutledge] It's crazy because
this one guy and this idea
takes us from this communal
shot glass of ice
cream and filth
to the sort of
coolness of summer
right there, held in your hand.
- If ice cream for a
penny was tempting,
free chocolate sounds
like a dream come true.
And in Brooklyn a
century ago, it was.
There was only one small catch.
- In the early 1900s, Brooklyn
was ground zero for candy.
There were factories
lining the waterfront.
The smell of chocolate and
sweets were in the air.
At the center of it all
is Rockwood & Company.
They were the second biggest
chocolate manufacturer
in the country after Hershey.
- [Austin] On May 12th, 1919,
just after 1:00 AM,
a watchman notices smoke
rising from the facility.
This is in the
shipping department,
which is just full
of highly flammable
burlap sacks and cocoa beans.
- [Hakeem] The fire spreads
fast.
Those burlap bags
are like kindling.
And by the time the
firefighters get there,
it's already spread
to the third floor.
- [Henry] And that's
where things get sticky.
- This is a recipe,
literally, for a disaster.
You got cocoa, you
got melting butter.
What do you need next?
Firefighter water.
- [Brian] The fireman sprayed
all sorts of water on the fire.
All of the ingredients
for making chocolate
mixed with the only
missing ingredient, water,
it all blended into
a chocolatey ooze
that spread out into
the streets of Brooklyn.
- [Austin] Tens of thousands of
gallons of chocolatey sludge
are literally flowing
down Flushing Avenue.
- [Edward] And as it starts to
cool, this thick, gooey mass
starts to cover storm
drains and congeal,
so that there's no
place for it to go
and more and more
of it begins to fill
the area around the factory.
- [Hakeem] A reporter describes
it as an ocean of fudge so deep,
you could actually float
a rowboat for two blocks.
- [Henry] If you
think a fire and flood
would have people running
for cover, you'd be wrong.
- Kids hear about
it, they smell it,
and they come running out.
And they're using cup,
spoons, their hands
to just scoop this chocolate
mixture off the street.
- [Hakeem]Can you imagine being
a kid six, seven years old,
and suddenly the street
is covered in chocolate?
Six-year-old me would've
definitely dived in face first,
just cleaning the streets.
- [Edward] Remarkably, nobody
seems to stop these children.
Not the parents, not the
police, not the firefighters.
- [Hakeem] They just look
at them and grin.
They're like, "Hey, look
at those kids being kids,
enjoying the chocolate."
- [Brian] I love chocolate.
There is a list of places
that I won't eat it from.
A gutter in Brooklyn in 1919
is very near to the
top of the list.
The horse manure, the dead
rat, the chemicals, the poison.
People just spitting
in the street.
These kids were
just eating it up.
- After about an hour, an
adult does tell them to stop,
and it's a truant officer.
He's not stopping them
because of the health hazard
of eating this dirty candy,
he's telling them it's
time to get cleaned up
and get to school.
- [Natalia] Somehow there are no
major illnesses that we know of
that came from this,
and the chocolate factory
stays in business until 1967.
- [Brian] The Rockwood candy
fire is a once-in-a-lifetime,
unique experience
that these kids got.
Yes, they choked down
a little horse poop,
but man, the stories.
- These days, you can
get chocolate covered
just about anything,
but not a sidewalk.
- Back during Prohibition,
Americans found all
kinds of creative ways
to keep the liquor flowing.
And the challenge
wasn't finding a drink.
It was hoping it
didn't k*ll you.
- [Martin] When Prohibition
begins in 1920,
people do not stop drinking.
Despite the nation's
best efforts,
we cannot stamp out
the tendency of people
to consume intoxicating liquors.
- [Brian] During Prohibition,
opened up in New
York City alone.
What a town.
- [Henry] But what's
keeping these speakeasies
flush with booze?
- [Martin] Prohibition bans
alcohol
that is fit for
human consumption.
It doesn't ban
industrial alcohol,
and there are lots of industrial
applications for alcohol.
It could be used in perfume.
It could be used in paint.
It can be used in cleaners.
And they don't ban it because
they think it's so toxic,
no one's going to drink it.
Ah, but then the people
prove them wrong.
- [Brian] So that left
barrels and barrels
of all this industrial-grade
alcohol just sitting there
for a person to come
along with the bright idea
to turn it into
drinkable alcohol.
And boy, did they ever.
- [Henry] Bootleggers want to
keep the party going,
and they turn to an
unlikely partner in crime.
Professional chemists.
- [Dan] Together, the
bootleggers and the
professional scientists
figure out that they can make
industrial alcohol drinkable.
They dilute it, they filter
it, they re-distill it,
and then they add flavoring.
And suddenly, bathtub
gin is on the menu.
And the taste, it's not too
bad once you get used to it.
- [Natalia] It's also a really
easy process to scale up.
At one point, there
are 60 million gallons
of industrial alcohol per year
being converted
into bathtub gin.
It's America's number
one source of liquor.
- [Henry] The government
sees what's going on
and decides to get tough.
- [Dan] Industrial booze,
the stuff they're
starting with is so toxic.
So what do the feds do?
Well, they tell
the manufacturers
to make industrial
alcohol more dangerous
because surely that
will stop people
from drinking it, right?
- [Edward] In 1926, the
manufacturers of industrial
alcohol are now required to put
more poisonous chemicals
into their alcohol.
Things like gasoline, kerosene,
formaldehyde, and chloroform.
And all manufacturers
are now required
to add at least 10% methanol.
- [Dan] Methanol looks and
smells like regular alcohol,
but a few ounces of methanol
can cause blindness,
and a little more can k*ll you.
You're basically drinking
windshield wiper fluid.
- [Brian] Scientists and
bootleggers
started taking this
industrial alcohol,
working it further,
distilling it further,
and selling it to people anyway.
Now, did they get all of
those dangerous chemicals out?
No, they did not.
Did that stop people
from drinking?
No, it did not.
- It's the 1920s.
It'll take a lot to get
people to stop drinking.
- [Dan] During the 1926
Christmas season,
hospitals are filling
up with patients
who are suffering from
alcohol poisoning.
One man insists that Santa
is chasing him with a bat.
And shortly after that, he dies.
Not because of Santa, it's
because of the alcohol.
- [Natalia] In 1927, 700 New
Yorkers die this way
of alcohol poisoning.
By the end of
Prohibition in 1933,
from consuming tainted alcohol.
This stuff was
incredibly dangerous.
- [Henry] Eventually, even
the government has to admit
its last call for Prohibition.
- [Edward] In December of 1933,
the 21st Amendment
repeals Prohibition.
- [Martin] Gone are the days
when you have to build a still
out in the middle of the woods
so that you can have
something to get you drunk.
You can just go back
to the good old days
of getting that from
a restaurant or a bar.
- Dangerous drinks were
not just an adult problem.
In the 1960s, kids
discovered a drink
with a unique side effect.
- [Kavitha] After World w*r II,
powdered drink mixes
really take off.
♪ For the very best
drink you ever made ♪
♪ Be sure that the envelope
says [whistles] Kool-Aid. ♪
- [Kavitha] They're cheap and
they're easy to store,
and you can instantly
turn a pitcher
of water into a colorful
and tasty drink.
- [Adam] By the 1960s, drink
mixes are everywhere.
Kids love them because
they're super sweet.
- [Henry] And in 1964, a
new one arrives on the scene
called Funny Face.
- Hey, it's time for Funny Face.
- Who said that?
- [All] Us, the
Funny Face drinks.
- [Jason] Funny Face is kind
of like Kool-Aid.
It comes in the same
small little packets,
but instead of
having one mascot,
each flavor has its
own unique mascot.
So imagine, Rootin'-Tootin'
Raspberry, Goofy Grape,
Freckle Face Strawberry,
and they were a lot of fun.
- The big selling point
for Funny Face though
is that they have no sugar.
Which is amazing
because parents don't want
to feed their kids sugar
because sugar causes cavities,
and this is not gonna
cause cavities, so win-win.
- [Adam] And, in fact, the
commercials say to parents,
"Hey, you could feel good
about giving this to your kids.
'Cause there's no sugar.
They can drink all they want."
- With a Funny Face drink,
all you add is water.
Don't add sugar.
- No sugar?
- Nope.
- 'Cause we're
pre-sweetened without sugar.
- Brilliant marketing.
And, obviously, there's going
to be a hoard of children
asking, "Mom, get
me that drink."
And it works.
- [Henry] And it's
not just marketing.
The drink is actually sweeter
than most on the market,
thanks to chemistry.
- The sweetener
used in Funny Faces
is a substance called cyclamate.
It is 30 times sweeter
than normal sugar
and it has almost zero calories.
- [Dan] 30 times sweeter than
sugar.
And this is at a time
when they're pouring
heaps of sugar into everything.
And now with cyclamates,
you can drink all you want.
- [Kavitha] By the mid-1960s,
nearly 20 million pounds of
cyclamates are being
produced every year.
And they're in everything.
All kinds of sugar-free
drinks and foods and products.
People are consuming
them without a care
because sugar is the bad guy.
- [Henry] But then a
closer look reveals
that it might be
too good to be true.
- Lab tests show lots of
potential consequences
with this substance,
including diarrhea, migraines,
and an increased risk
of bladder cancer.
- [Dan] But then they find
another more bizarre symptom,
testicular atrophy.
In other words, shrinkage.
And not from a cold pool,
it's from your drink mix.
- [Adam] Now, if you're a
teenager in the '60s,
especially a male
teenager in the '60s,
this is not the
news you wanna see.
"Oh, you want to shrink my
[bleep] if I drink Goofy Grape?
You have my attention."
- [Negin] This gets the
attention of not just teenage
boys, but the government,
and they finally banned
cyclamates in 1969.
- Funny Face changes
formula in response to this,
but the damage,
it's already done.
And eventually, Funny Face
winds down production.
Despite the cancer-causing
ingredients,
Funny Face is still
fondly remembered.
♪ Funny Face is fun to drink.
- Of course, drink mixes
are still around today,
but now it's just the kind
that won't shrink
your you know what.
- In the 1800s, putting food
in cans was something new.
It promised to keep
food fresh for years.
It just didn't always keep
you around to enjoy it.
- [Dan] In August 1919, a
group of World w*r I vets
and their families are
having dinner together
at a Lakeside Country
Club in Canton, Ohio
to honor a local w*r hero
named Charles Weybrecht.
- [Don] The dinner goes great,
but a few days later, some of
the people start coming down
with these mysterious symptoms.
Their eyelids droop, their
vision blurs, speech slurs.
And a few days later,
seven of them actually die
of respiratory failure.
- [Rutledge] Ohio Department of
Health investigators look into
it, but they don't
really see anything.
They're trying to figure out,
could it have been
food poisoning?
Nobody remembers any of
the dishes tasting funny
or the food smelling funny.
Nothing was off.
- [Dan] The health inspectors
investigate the turkey,
the mayonnaise, the alcohol
in the martinis, everything.
And finally, they
find the culprit.
Olives.
Canned black olives.
- [Rutledge] Man, I know what
you're thinking.
"Canned black olives?
Like, what's the big deal?"
Those are the little ones
you put on your finger
and you dance them around.
What could be so bad?
- The Ohio dinner
party ends up being
one of several cases of deaths
from canned olive exposure
across the country.
It's not just olives.
People are getting deathly
ill, eating canned beans
and canned corn, and all
of these things look,
smell and taste totally fine.
- [Henry] Despite canned
food's dominance in 1919,
the industry is
barely regulated.
- [Dan] Canned food is easy
and convenient to eat,
but that's only if the
canning is done properly.
If you don't boil them
at the right temperature
for the right amount of time,
you create the perfect
environment for a bacteria
that causes a disease
called botulism.
- [Austin] Botulism attacks the
nervous system, starting at the
face and paralyzing
you downwards,
eventually seizing
up your lungs.
The toxin that causes botulism
is the deadliest natural
substance known to man.
- [J Mack] Without modern
medical treatment,
botulism kills 70% of the people
that are infected by this.
In fact, in World w*r II,
governments were
looking into using this
as a chemical weapon.
- [Rutledge] The olive deaths
are all over the news.
They call it the Great
Olive Poisoning of 1919.
Olive sales plummet,
and 95% of the industry
is just wiped out.
- [Kavitha] The canning industry
goes into overdrive
and they actually create
the botulism commission,
where scientists and
experts figure out safe ways
to regulate the industry and
prevent future outbreaks.
And they also educate the public
on how to spot this
invisible menace,
either bulging or dented cans.
- [Rutledge] I remember as a
kid,
people were always really
sensitive at the grocery store
about dented cans,
and I didn't really understand
like what the significance was.
Now it all makes sense.
- But canned goods
weren't the only place
hidden dangers lurked.
Sometimes they came
free with breakfast.
- [Adam] By the 1930s, the
cereal market is a b*ttlefield,
with each company trying to
get the upper hand on the other
to become the top dog
on your breakfast table.
- [Austin] General Mills comes
up with a revolutionary idea.
They figure out if they've
got a cool prize within,
kids will harass
parents to buy it.
So they start putting
Skippy comic trading cards
inside boxes of Wheaties.
- [Adam] Kids no longer see the
cereal
as something they
eat at breakfast.
It's the thing that contains
this prize that they want.
It's kind of brilliant.
- [Jason] Pretty soon, every
competitor starts doing
the same thing.
This was a magical
moment in cereal history.
It was entertainment,
it was a rush.
Breakfast now is
a treasure hunt.
Every box is its own
little treasure chest.
- We used to get the cereal
boxes, rip them open,
put our gross hands in,
just deform everything
by digging for these prizes.
- [Henry] But back in the day,
the germs from dirty hands
might be the least
of your problems.
- [Austin] In 1947, Kix Cereal
is cashing in on the atomic
craze that's
sweeping the nation.
For just 15 cents and a box top,
you can mail away for
your own coveted piece
of the atomic era,
an atomic b*mb ring.
- [Adam] The ring itself is
actually pretty badass,
but the top, you could
look through this lens
and you could see a shower
of sparks going through
in what they call
the atom chamber.
- [Dan] There's just this one
issue,
and that is that the material
inside the ring, you know,
the stuff that's creating
this little cloud of sparks,
it's polonium, the
radioactive element used
in the Manhattan Project.
[expl*si*n booming]
- "Hey, kids, do you
want atomic b*mb ring?"
"Yes, I do, yes, I do!"
"Oh, it's got an actual
atomic b*mb in it.
Here you go."
- [Austin] Not only is polonium
highly radioactive,
it's one of the deadliest
substances on Earth,
far more deadly than cyanide.
- [Dan] If you ingest just a
tiny bit, it'll k*ll you.
It's been used to
assassinate spies.
Fortunately, there are no
reports of any kids getting sick
or injured from these rings.
But it only lasted a year.
And it's not because of a recall
or any kind of safety warning
or anything like that.
It's just because
the promotion ended.
- [Henry] And the atomic
ring isn't alone.
Cereal boxes are
full of surprises.
- [Adam] In 1987, one cereal
company decides to offer
one of these hard, super
bouncy rubber powerballs
as a prize in their cereal.
And it was the most fun ever.
But unfortunately, that same
year, a kid chokes on it,
and it causes the
company to pull
five million boxes of
cereal off the shelves.
- [Austin] In 1993, one cereal
introduces
the toy popper as its giveaway.
Think half of a rubber ball
that when you press it in,
it springs back to life again.
Seems like harmless fun.
- [Brian] The problem was that
it looked like an eyeball.
So what did every
kid in the world do?
They stuck it on their eyeball.
- [Dan] And this thing has such
a powerful suction force
that when one 12-year-old boy
tries to take it off his eye,
he breaks a whole bunch of
blood vessels in the eye,
he tears part of his cornea,
and he suffers double vision.
At least 36 kids suffer eye
injuries from the popper,
and that forces the
company to recall
boxes and boxes of
perfectly good cereal.
- [Jason] Over time, the
lawsuits pile up,
industry standards tighten,
and it really leads
to the reigning in
of shoving toys into
boxes of cereal.
- [Adam] Today, the thrill of
digging your hands into cereal
to get that little tiny
plastic toy is gone.
- [Brian] I remember cereal
prizes with such fondness
in my heart.
I,unfortunately, was
around for the decline
of the cereal prize.
That simple thing
was lost of like,
"There's an action
figure in there.
Let's get it and
go play with it."
- For generations of kids,
breakfast wasn't just a meal,
it was a treasure hunt.
And every good treasure hunt
comes with a little risk.
- Appliances that
can cook food faster
have always been popular,
but the rise of
one-time saving marvel
was positively expl*sive.
- [Lance] Pressure cookers
start becoming available
in America in the 1930s.
It's really after World w*r II
that they become
sort of all the rage.
For busy post-w*r families,
the pressure cooker becomes
the sort of symbol
of efficiency.
And you've got lots
of people having kids.
Mom now is able to save time
on the stews, on the roast.
- [Henry] From the outside,
it looks like a pot.
Inside, it's basically a
steam-powered speed run.
- A pressure cooker
functions by heating up
and heating steam.
The trapped steam in the pot
actually forces the
water to boil hotter
at about 250 degrees.
- [Adam] So a very tough cut
of meat can cook faster
and become softer cooked
in a pressure cooker
simply because that
force and that moisture
will penetrate more deeply.
Beans which normally have
to be soaked to soften them,
cooked in a fraction
of the time.
- [Jason] This is just a
huge time saver.
The pressure cooker is
able to prepare a meal
in 70% less time.
I mean, that is huge.
- [Hakeem] By the 1950s,
the demand for pressure
cookers is really high,
so companies work overtime
to just pump them out
and get them to consumers.
- [Henry] But the popularity
of these early pressure cookers
isn't the only thing
about to blow up.
- [Natalia] Temperatures in a
pressure cooker climb
really quickly.
And if heat isn't reduced
at exactly the right time,
excess steam and
pressure builds up.
- [Hakeem] The steam is
supposed to be released
by an automatic
pressure regulator,
but those don't
always work properly.
- [Natalia] Many of the early
pressure cookers
have this really
simple release valve.
It's like a little chimney.
And if that chimney gets
blocked by like, I don't know,
some lentils or some chicken,
then you have a major problem.
It's like a ticking time b*mb.
- [Henry] Soon wild stories
of pressure cooker mishaps
start popping up all
over the country.
- [Adam] In 1956 in Cleveland,
Ohio,
a pressure cooker full of
chili quite literally explodes
and covers everything.
And I do mean everything.
Drapes, windows,
cabinets, knobs,
appliances, floor, ceiling,
the whole shebang was
dripping with molten chili.
- One blows up in California.
It is such a loud expl*si*n,
the neighbors called
the police, saying,
"I think there's
a b*mb gone off."
The police come,
and what they find
out is what blew up?
Beans blew up, a
whole pot of beans.
- [Jason] In a Missouri kitchen
in 1964,
a spaghetti and
meatball blast erupts,
sending a saucy shockwave
that takes out three
windows in this house.
- [Adam] In Tampa, Florida,
a 10-pound ham
being cooked in
a pressure cooker
shoots straight through the
ceiling and through the roof
like it was shot out
of a submarine
like a Polaris m*ssile.
I guess that day
pigs truly did fly.
- [Natalia] Newspapers run
stories about pressure
cooker survivors.
They don't look like they've
come from making dinner.
They look like they
came from a b*ttlefield.
- [Henry] Over time,
manufacturers tweak designs
to make them safer, but
it's an uphill battle.
- These pressure cookers end
up with an image problem,
and people now are
afraid to use them.
So, of course, that
means that sales drop.
- [Adam] Ultimately though,
they fall out of favor
with people mostly going
towards microwaveable meals
and TV dinners and other
things for quick eating
rather than, you know, risking
death and dismemberment
for a pot of beans.
- It was the quickest
way to cook a meal
and the fastest way to
redecorate your kitchen.
- Back in the 1980s,
movie nights at home
became a big thing,
but the real drama wasn't
always on the screen.
Sometimes it was
in the microwave.
- [Jason] In the mid-1980s,
VCRs are everywhere.
Families start to have more
organized movie nights.
Well, if you're gonna
have a movie night,
what do you need?
You need popcorn.
- [Henry] Luckily,
another invention steps up
that is sweeping American
homes in the 1980s.
The microwave.
- [Jason] In 1984, you get the
invention
of the very first shelf
stable microwave popcorn.
And this is a game changer.
- [Dan] What used to be cooked
in a pan over spitting oil
now gets made in this magic bag.
You put it flat
into the microwave,
and then it comes out like
an inflated party balloon.
We all know this technology now,
but back then, it was amazing.
- [Henry] By the mid '80s,
microwave popcorn
is a sensation.
Those early bags, however,
are hiding more
than just popcorn.
- In order to get the popcorn
to pop in such a quick time,
the oil has to heat up to
something like 400 degrees.
- 400 degrees is like
medieval times boiled oil
going out of the
castle temperatures.
That is really, really hot.
- [Hakeem] Unlike today's
popcorn bags, which have vent
holes so that the
hot air can escape,
those early first popcorn
bags were air tight.
- [Ricky] As with any
great breakthrough,
people don't entirely understand
how the new thing works.
- This is a new product,
and people have no idea
just how hot it is in there.
So they rip open the
bags at eye level
and immediately get
blasted in the face.
Doctors report eye
injuries and face burns.
- So if you've ever noticed
a microwave popcorn bag
with that warning label that
says open away from face,
this is why.
- [Henry] But steam
isn't the only issue
when it comes to these
old popcorn bags.
- [Martin] In the early 2000s,
doctors began observing
that there are people
who have lung scarring,
they have respiratory failure,
and they notice that
they're working in factories
that make microwavable popcorn.
And so they call the condition
initially popcorn lung.
- [Dan] Eventually, researchers
identify the cause
of this popcorn
lung as diacetyl,
one of the ingredients used
to make artificial butter
taste like butter.
- [Martin] Diacetyl's
totally safe to eat.
It's just that when people
inhale it on a constant basis,
like the workers at the factory,
overexposure produces
this awful disease.
- Soon, manufacturers remove
diacetyl from their products
and replace it with
safer alternatives.
- [Ricky] Microwave popcorn,
it's like a mini
science experiment
occurring in your microwave.
I still don't fully
understand how it happens.
It's a miracle.
- Now, after all that
movie night snacking,
you might want to go
healthy with a salad.
But in the early days
of the salad bar,
healthy isn't exactly the
word that comes to mind.
- [Don] In the 1950s, a new
healthy innovation is introduced
at American steakhouses.
The self-serve salad bar.
- Within a few decades,
salad bars are everywhere.
They're in supermarkets
and cafeterias
and even fast food restaurants.
- [Henry] Fresh
vegetables are great.
Keeping them fresh
is the hard part.
- [Rutledge] When you start,
you've got this beautiful salad
bar, but a few hours later,
some of this stuff
is starting to brown.
It kind of looks
like it's going bad
right in front of your eyes.
Now you've got a not
so great salad bar.
- [Henry] So restaurants look to
science for a way to
to cheat nature.
It's called sulfites.
- [Don] Sulfites are
chemical compounds made
from burning sulfuric rock.
They slow oxidation and
keep bacteria at bay.
They'll preserve that
bright, just cut look.
- [Austin] By the 1950s, the FDA
classifies sulfites as quote,
"generally recognized as safe."
- [Rutledge] Pretty soon,
restaurants start just spraying
all their vegetables
down with sulfites.
- [Don] I was a professional
prep cook in a bar restaurant,
and we'd make the salad
like on a Wednesday
and you'd pour in
this preservative,
and that salad would
stay fresh for days.
- [Henry] But generally
safe is not the same
as entirely safe.
- So every time you're
eating sulfites,
it can create a little
bit of this sulfuric gas.
This gas formation is
harmless for most people,
but in people with asthma,
it triggers severe
asthmatic reactions,
respiratory distress,
potentially death.
- [Rutledge] The irony of this
happening in a salad bar
is so many people are like
choosing the vegetables
to try to have a
healthier alternative,
and then sometimes it
turned incredibly harmful.
- [J Mack] In the mid-'80s,
authorities report 850 serious
reactions to these sulfites and
about a dozen deaths.
It turns out about 80% of these
are tied back to salad bars
and restaurant produce.
- [Henry] Soon, health
officials intervene.
- [Austin] In 1986, the FDA
finally bans these sulfites
on fruits and vegetables
that will be eaten raw.
- Can you imagine if
a salad k*lled you?
Oh, it'd be so sad.
What a way to go.
Should have ordered the steak.
- Looking back at the foods
that went down the hatch
from chocolate in the gutter
to cereal that
made our poop pink,
to a single cup of ice cream
shared by the
entire neighborhood,
the line between delicious
and dangerous was pretty thin.
But a little risk wasn't
enough to spoil our appetite,
and that's why our
hazardous history
had us coming back for seconds.
Welcome to our World! Where we serve you cookies to ensure you get the best viewing experience on our site.
Did you know that you can remove censorship board-wide, use our advanced search functions, be notified when new content is posted, join our memberships, set episodes to show in any order you want & more if you are logged into your account?
Register or sign in here: ucp.php?mode=register
Did you know that you can remove censorship board-wide, use our advanced search functions, be notified when new content is posted, join our memberships, set episodes to show in any order you want & more if you are logged into your account?
Register or sign in here: ucp.php?mode=register
02x14 - Dangerous Dining
Watch/Buy Amazon
A nostalgic journey through America's past reveals shocking everyday activities and products - from hazardous toys to dangerous household items - that were once normal but are now unthinkable in modern society.
A nostalgic journey through America's past reveals shocking everyday activities and products - from hazardous toys to dangerous household items - that were once normal but are now unthinkable in modern society.