02x09 - Crowd Chaos

[bunniefuu]

[gentle exciting music]

- Did you know there was a time

when whale watching could
make crowds blubber?

- Everyone there is
absolutely showered

[dynamite blasts]
in rotting whale carcass.

People are running,
everyone scared.

There's blood everywhere.

- Or when crowds
packed in ringside

to watch the Civil w*r.

- Hundreds of people
load up into carriages

so that they can see the
battle that's about to unfold.

- Suddenly bloody
frightened, screaming men

are hauling a*s straight at you,

retreating from a battle
that they are losing.

- Do you remember when
the Black Friday rush

could happen any
day of the week?

- Women are getting trampled.

Windows are getting broken out.

This is way before
Black Friday is a thing

and the stores are not prepared.

- 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?

[exciting music]

If you want to get in
with the popular crowd,

it doesn't get much better

or bigger than the
Kentucky Derby.

Up in the stands, it's all
fancy outfits, mint juleps.

But back in the day,
down in the infield,

it was less garden party
and more animal house.

[upbeat music]

- Every year since 1875, tens
of thousands of fans are drawn

to Louisville, Kentucky
and Churchill Downs

to see the Kentucky Derby.

[bell rings]

- [Commentator] At
the Triple Crown fans

witnessed a thriller
diller of a Kentucky Derby.

- If you look at the crowd
of the Kentucky Derby,

everyone is dressed elegantly.

Fedoras, women in
elegant, expensive gowns

with beautiful ornate hats.

- [Austin] But in the 1930s,

Churchill Downs realizes
"We can sell more tickets

and the venue for that
is right in front of us.

Let's sell tickets
to the infield."

- What they do is they build
a tunnel from the outside

to the interior of the park
so that fans can go down there

and come out in the
middle of the infield

and it's kind of this really
fun signature experience.

- [Austin] At first, it's a
family friendly affair.

Bring picnic baskets,
bring blankets

and lay out for the whole day,

and it culminates

with the Kentucky Derby
right in front of you.

- [Henry] But as
the derby grows,

the infield starts to
shift from polite gathering

to something a little wilder.

- [Austin] The crowds grow, and
they're not the crowds of old.

Goodbye debutantes and fancy
hats and hello partying.

The infield becomes a scene.

- [Henry] By the late 1960s,

the infield has gone from picnic
blankets to party central.

And when the track bans
outside booze in 1968,

Derby goers start a new
tradition, sneaking it in.

- You got people with
like canes that are hollow

that they fill up with whiskey

or people are hiding
flasks on 'em everywhere.

- [Austin] People begin sneaking
in alcohol in lotion bottles,

fake disguised binoculars
that are actually flasks.

There's a legendary
story of a group of men

caught attempting
to stash liquor

in the Churchill Downs infield

by burying it 11 months
before the Derby.

- [Henry] The booze
may be hidden,

but by the 1970s the loss of
inhibition is on full display.

- [Adam] Things get a little
rowdy, a little wild,

tarps become
makeshift trampolines.

People are dressed
in bizarre costumes

and it becomes a "partay".

In 1970, the famous Gonzo
Journalist Hunter S. Thompson,

that madman writes an article

that says The Kentucky Derby
is decadent and depraved.

- In 1973, secretariat
wins the Kentucky Derby

and the Triple
Crown and it's huge.

So the next year,

the infield is the
hottest ticket in sports.

- [Natalia] In 1974, it is a big
year for the Derby.

It's the hundredth race.

Princess Margaret
of Britain is there.

It's just a very special year.

- [Brian] Ooh, you got people
doing a little bit of drugs,

maybe smoking a little bit.

Before you know it, you
got Woodstock in the middle

of all these, these
horses running around.

Like after a while
people are like,

this isn't what it
was supposed to be.

- [Natalia] One guy even climbs
a flagpole

in the middle of the infield.

He manages to hold
on with one hand

and actually moon
everybody and not fall.

- [Adam] Then hundreds of
people crash the fence

that surrounds the track.

- [Brian] Man, it got dangerous.

They got within striking
distance of the horses

before the riot police came in

and had to knock some skulls
and get 'em outta there.

- [Austin] The notorious flag
pole is taken down.

Then they double the price.

And they hope this'll
attract a more upscale crowd,

but there's plenty of security

to make sure it
doesn't go 1970 style.

[upbeat music]

- [Adam] These days, Churchill
Downs and the Derby is lined

with metal detectors
and cameras,

but believe it or not, the
biggest deterrent to chaos,

everyone's cell phone.

With the ability to be caught
on camera doing no good,

people on the infield

have sort of changed
their stripes a little bit

and they're more
interested in being part

of the spectacle than
being a spectacle.

- In the 1970s, college
campuses were packed

with kids wearing
bell bottoms, I did.

Platform shoes and colors
that demanded attention.

But for some, the real way
to stand out in a crowd

was not wearing anything at all.

[exciting music]

- In 1973, the full
counterculture is in effect.

This is a generation that
is sick of the rigid rules

of their parents and
especially of the boomer

and World w*r II generation.

- The motto was Let
it all hang out.

And that's when a group of
college kids was just like,

oh, let's literally
have it all hang out.

[playful music]

- [Kavitha] The way
they do this,

especially on college campus,

is to strip down naked
and run around the grounds

and they call this streaking.

- [Brian] Streaking, it's fun

because it's transgressive, you
know.

But it's also harmless in a way.

But it does feel dangerous
and it does feel freeing.

- It's not really clear

where the origins of
streaking on campus are.

By 1974, kids are
streaking across campuses

all over the country.

- [Brian] These fraternities
and these sororities

that are letting people know

that they're gonna
streak the quad.

Word gets out and people
start coming to the quad

to watch the show.

- [Henry] What starts as
a naked fraternity prank

becomes a movement and soon
people gather by the thousands

to watch people get
their streak on.

- [Nathan] Things just get
outta hand.

In North Carolina,


At SMU, more people show up

to watch the streakers
than the basketball game.

[crowd applauding]

- [Kavitha] In the 1970s,

streaking has kind of gone
mainstream.

You have things
like Time Magazine

calling it the
"epidermis epidemic."

- That spring, a
streaker runs by it.

The Academy Awards actor
David Niven, is on stage.

- Quite likely...

[audience laughing]

Probably the only laugh

that man will ever get in
his life is by stripping off

and showing his shortcomings.

[audience laughing]

- [Henry] But the
carefree days don't last.

And believe it or not,
it's not the nakedness

that ends the party.

It's crowd control.

- [Negin] 4,000 people turn out
at the University of Delaware

as spectators to
a streaking event,

and that just
turned into mayhem.

- [Nathan] It ends with injured
police, damaged police cars,

and a dozen arrests.

- [Negin] Things get so bad that
the police start showing up

with riot gear at
these streaking events.

- [Kavitha] Streaking eventually
dies down by the end of 1974

because of this mix
of police crackdowns

and universities
trying to stop it

and just the thrill
of it kind of wanes.

- Turns out if you wanted to
be part of the cool crowd,

clothing was very much optional.

- They say there is
safety in numbers

unless you are in a crowd
drawn to something strange,

smelly, and ready to blow.

[gentle compelling music]

- If you've ever
been to a beach,

sometimes some unusual things
will wash up on the shore

and it draws a crowd.

- [Austin] In 1970,
when a dead eight ton

sperm whale washes ashore
in Florence, Oregon.

Sure enough, it's gonna
draw some attention.

- Sperm whales are among the
largest animals on earth,

but few people ever get
to see them up close.

They're way too big
for any aquarium.

A fully grown adult can reach


That's like a semi-truck.

[dramatic tense music]

- [Austin] Seeing a creature
this big up close

is an incredible experience.

But what's also incredible is

when a dead animal
begins to rot.

- [Hakeem] Word spreads fast.

Television stations and
newspapers pick up the story,

and soon the beach is packed.

People drive in from miles away.

- [Henry] After
three days, the crowd

and the stench around this
beached whale begin to grow.

- [Negin] The tough thing
about a sperm whale,

it's hard to dispose of, right?

Like you can't bury it on
shore, it'll come back up.

You can't push it
back onto the sea,

'cause then it'll disintegrate

and then its parts will
come back onto the shore.

It's a conundrum of what to do.

- [Austin] Inside the carcass,

it's creating gases like
hydrogen sulfide and methane.

And worse still, these
gases are flammable.

- [Hakeem] Crowds climb on top
of the whale

looking for a souvenir,

but if someone were to
actually puncture it,

that would cause an expl*si*n.

- [Austin] Mom or dad could
light up a cigarette

right next to the
whale and boom.

- [Rutledge] They did ask if
anybody wanted to cut it up

and haul it away and
use some of the blubber

for another project.

No takers.

- [Negin] The authorities
really are under the g*n

to do something about it,

and that's when the Oregon
State Highway Division

steps in with an idea.

- [Austin] The Highway Division
has an interesting way

of removing the whale.

It includes 20
crates of expl*sives,

nearly a half ton of dynamite

that is enough to demolish
an office building.

- [Rutledge] So they dig a big
trench, and their thought is,

if we pack this trench
full of dynamite,

when this thing goes off,

it's gonna blow the
whale back towards sea.

[dramatic music]

- [Hakeem] Today, that plan
would need

an environmental review, permits

and about a dozen
safety meetings.

But this is the 1970s. Things
were way looser back then.

- [Henry] Local papers
stoked the excitement.

And on November 12th, 1970,

a crowd gathers eager
to watch the big event.

- [Rutledge] But they'd start to
think, you know what?

With this much dynamite,

we should move people
back a little bit.

Right guys? A little bit.

- [Negin] With other
demolitions,

they know how far
back to send people.

But with whale demolition,
they're kind of making it up.

- [Kavitha] In the crowd is a
guy named Walter Umenhofer,

who is a military veteran
with demolition experience.

- [Rutledge] He's trained in
demolition

and he is trying to
warn all these guys,

"Hey, this is way
too much dynamite."

Like 20 sticks would
probably get the job done,

but 20 crates is an
insane amount of dynamite.

You can't imagine the
elation on people's faces

as they hear that countdown.

Three, two, one.

[cinematic music]

[dynamite blasts]

Well, you know what
goes up must come down.

[dramatic tense music]

- [Negin] Moments later you
notice the sound

of like pieces of
whale thumping down,

and in some cases hitting people

because the blast radius

of a sperm whale
apparently is much larger

than what they had anticipated.

[dramatic music]

- [Rutledge] Everyone there is
absolutely showered

in rotting whale carcass.

People are running,
everyone scared.

There's blood everywhere.

- [Hakeem] It's basically a meat
shower.

One slab about the size
of a coffee table lands

right on the roof of a
brand new Oldsmobile.

- [Rutledge] And this huge chunk
that crushed a new Oldsmobile,

guess who owned it?

That's right, Walter,
who told them,

"That's way too much dynamite."

- [Negin] He bought that car at
the "Whale of a Deal" sale

at the car dealership.

I mean, it's poetry, it's
whale expl*si*n poetry.

- [Rutledge] So how does Oregon
deal

with this whale carcass
problem moving forward?

Well, the next time
it happens, in 1979,

they did not use any expl*sives.

They just burned it and
buried it and carried on.

- So an exploding sea creature
wasn't a whale of a time.

But some crowds can't resist
a risky front row seat,

even if it's in the middle
of an active combat zone.

- [Martin] At the outset
of the Civil w*r,

the federal government
is confident

that this conflict will be
settled in a matter of weeks.

- By July of 1861, President
Lincoln is under pressure

to produce a quick victory.

He knows those
Confederate troops

are right there in Virginia,

so he orders the Union
troops to go engage them.

- [Henry] The residents of
Washington DC are pumped up

on patriotism, eager to
watch their boys win the w*r,

literally with their own eyes.

- Ordinary civilians are
following these troop movements

and a large group
of them decides

that they're gonna
go watch a w*r.

- [Adam] It's crazy to think now
that anybody would want

to be a spectator to an
armed military conflict

where people will die,
but people are excited.

Civilians follow
the Union troops

because they wanna see the
battle like it's Lollapalooza.

[lively music]

- [Martin] Hundreds of people
load up into carriages

and complete the 30
mile seven hour journey

so that they can see the
battle that's about to unfold

along the banks of a
creek called Bull Run.

- [Don] Most are perched on a
hill about five miles away

from the action.

They can hear in the
distance cannons and g*nf*re.

For all intents and purposes,
they seem perfectly safe.

[gentle lively music]

- [Bryant] Someone later
commented,

it felt like being at a county
fair and it has that vibe.

- [Adam] Men are dressed to the
nines.

Women are wearing their Sunday
best, children are playing.

Local entrepreneurs are
out there selling pies

like a vendor selling
hot dogs at a ball game.

- [Don] This is like tailgating
at a football game,

but it's the Civil w*r.

- [Henry] But when the
Union starts losing,

this picnic on the sidelines

suddenly feels a
lot more like w*r.

[tense music]

- [Martin] 28,000 poorly trained
US Army soldiers

are being outdone by their
Confederate adversaries.

- [Henry] The Union lines buckle

and the soldiers flee

straight through the
stunned crowd of spectators.

- [Adam] Suddenly bloody,
frightened, screaming men

are hauling a*s straight at you,

retreating from a battle
that they are losing.

[soldiers screaming]

- [Natalia] You can imagine the
mayhem.

Picnic baskets flying, people
running in every direction,

whether they are
civilians or combatants.

- [Adam] People immediately
get to their wagons

and they're trying to get out,

just trying to get away from
danger that had been miles away

and is now on top of them.

Suddenly the spectacle
has become terrifying.

[tense dramatic music]

- [Martin] There is a retreating
armed force that Southerners

will eventually nickname
the "Great Skedaddle."

- [Henry] The battle
goes badly for the Union

and all those spectators who
came for a front row seat,

they learned to keep a little
distance from the conflict.

- [Bryant] Crowds would watch
Civil w*r fights,

but mostly naval
battles from afar

and they're much further away

and less likely to get run
over by a retreating army.

[soldiers screaming]

- In the 20th century,

increased firepower made
watching battles far too risky

and crowds stop treating
w*r like dinner theater.

- Sports fans today are
used to a certain standard

when they pay good
money for a ticket.

And if the action doesn't
deliver, they may boo

or maybe head for the exit.

But there was a time when
standards were non-existent,

and disappointed crowds had
a very different response.

[gentle lively music]

- [Martin] During the summer of


World's Fair in St. Louis

with the hope of
experiencing modern things

like an ice cream cone, a
Ferris wheel or electricity.

- [Don] A promoter named
Richard Norris

sees these curious fair
crowds as a major opportunity.

Near the fairground he's built

a brand new 18,000 seat arena.

He plans a one of a kind
event to draw a huge crowd,

a Spanish bull fight.

[dramatic music]

- [Kavitha] In 1904, Americans
don't really know very much

about bull fighting.

They might have
seen some paintings

or read about it in a book,

but nobody's really
seen a matador up close.

- [Rutledge] So Norris sells


at a dollar a piece,

which is about 36
bucks today per head.

And at two o'clock, all
these people file in

getting ready for the show.

[exciting music]

- [Henry] But as the minutes
tick by there are no bulls,

and the crowd begins
to get restless.

- [Rutledge] By 3:00 PM people
in the crowd

are starting to chant.

"Where are the bulls?
Where are the bulls?"

- [Kavitha] A local deputy
sheriff steps in

and makes a startling
announcement.

There will be no
bull fighting today.

- [Rutledge] Today you'd see on
the big screen an announcement.

So sorry, here's how you get
a refund. Follow this link.

Everybody would just
file out single file.

That's not how it was.

No, it's just all these
people confused, angry,

and a bunch of 'em have been
overserved at this point.

- [Brian] So you have the type
of people

that want to watch a bull fight,

a lot of them
together in an arena.

And they're in the sun

and they're drinking
and they're waiting.

And then instead of a bull
fight, out comes a cop

and says, "Get outta here.

There's no bull fight today."

And they erupt.

[tense dramatic music]

- [Kavitha] The crowd storms the
box office

demanding their refunds.

Unfortunately, there's no money.

The cash has disappeared
along with Richard Norris,

and the police are
completely outnumbered

to handle these angry fans.

[crowd shouting]

- Angry spectators
storm the animal pens.

They want to see
these fearsome bulls,

but instead of raging beasts,

they find seven
completely calm bulls.

They wave red handkerchiefs
at the animals

trying to provoke them, but
the bulls just stand there.

One of them just has one horn.

I mean not exactly the
fiery one-ton monster

this audience was expecting.

- [Henry] The crowd starts
to suspect they've been duped

and they're right.

- [Kavitha] Days before the
event,

it turns out that Richard
Norris is informed

that bull fighting
is indeed ill*gal

in the state of Missouri.

- [Rutledge] So he got the
permit kind of assuming

that things would just work out.

So when the sheriff shows up,

Norris just decides,
you know what?

I'm gonna cut my losses.

I'm gonna grab the cash and get
outta here and be on my way.

[tense music]

- [Kavitha] This crowd is angry.

They've come to
watch a blood sport

and they're gonna get
it one way or another.

- [Brian] And they rip open
the pens

and the animals are
running free over town

and the people are
fighting with each other.

They're stomping
all over each other.

- [Kavitha] The crowd sets
the arena on fire.

[fire crackling]

And when the fire
department shows up,

the crowd blocks them
from putting out the fire.

[gentle exciting music]

- [Rutledge] Norris's Arena
costs $25,000.

So really he should have
just refunded the $7,000.

- [Henry] Miraculously, no
one is k*lled in the melee,

not even the bulls.

- [Brian] I hope if there's any
justice in this world

that the bulls are just
watching all these humans

beat the crap out of each other
and they had a great show.

- Today, when you
go to the ballpark

and you see your team lose,
you don't walk away happy.

But in baseball's early days,

some fans didn't
walk away at all.

- [Kavitha] Nowadays all major
league ballparks

have requirements of netting
that protect fans

who are in those first rows, not
just behind home plate,

but beyond first and third base.

But the game of baseball now
is way different than it was

back in the late 1800s.

- Baseball's invented
in the 1800s.

The fields are not
terribly standardized.

Like the foul line can be

just sort of like
where a creek is.

- [Lance] The smaller the team
and the more rustic,

the less care for the field.

And that's where the term
"Bush League" comes from.

- [Austin] In this early form of
baseball, you're in the action.

You could be just
at arm's length

from your favorite
third baseman.

It's great. You're up
close and personal.

The game is intimate
and it's yours.

- [Henry] Fans are even allowed
to stand right on the field,

but the best seats
in those early parks

are right behind home plate.

It's also the best spot
to catch a foul ball

straight in the face.

- [Don] By the late 1870s,
fans behind home plate

get hurt so often that
those front row seats

earn a nickname the
"Slaughter Pen."

- [Kavitha] You have to think
about the momentum

of a baseball off a bat.

That ball could be
coming off the bat

at 70 to 90 miles an
hour straight at you

if you're in the stands.

- [Jason] A well hit ball

can actually travel 140
feet per second.

That's not a lot of time
to get out of the way.

- [Martin] A foul ball can hit
you with the strength

of a sledgehammer blow.

It's kind of like
having a bowling ball

dropped on your head
from three stories.

- [Kavitha] It's not until 1879

that the Providence Graze
install a woven wire backstop,

but that's still 17 years

after the first dedicated
ballpark is built.

So you've got 17 years
of foul ball injuries.

- [Henry] Think you're sitting
safer in the grandstands?

Think again.

- [Jason] Grandstands first
appear the 1870s.

The expensive seats
are in the shade.

The rest of the seats where
the regular people sit are

under this sunlight.

The constant exposure of the
sun actually bleaches the wood,

and that is why they
are called bleachers.

- [Austin] These are just ad hoc
wooden structures

and they're gonna be
especially prone to fire.

- [Henry] It doesn't help that
crowds at baseball games also

partake in that other American
pastime, smoking.

- [Austin] In 1894,

four major ballparks suffer
catastrophic fires.

At one fire in Chicago,
the ballplayers themselves

have to pry open a
containment fence

to let fans flee from
the encroaching fire.

- [Kavitha] The day after
the Chicago fire,

a plumber making some repairs
at the Phillies ballpark

knocks over a stove

and ends up burning
down the whole ballpark.

- [Austin] At one point in time,

several major ballparks
will have burned down.

- [Henry] In 1895, Philadelphia
builds a new stadium

made of brick and steel
except for the cheap seats,

which are still made of wood.

But this time the
danger isn't fire.

- [Martin] In 1903 in
Philadelphia,

there is a baseball game.

A lot of people that
are packed in there,

and a fist fight breaks out.

As everyone turns their
attention toward this fight

and then move toward it, it
causes the bleachers to collapse

and 12 people are k*lled,


- [Kavitha] The cause of the
collapse is rotten timbers,

and that's why today the
only wood you'll really find

at a ballpark is in
your Louisville Slugger.

- Talk about paying
for your seats.

- With college crowds, Spring
break usually means sun

and sand and bad decisions.

In 1969, spring breakers in
North Dakota skip the sun

and the sand, but they went
all in on bad decisions.

[gentle quaint music]

- [Kavitha] In 1969 during the
brutal winters

in Fargo, North Dakota,

a student at North
Dakota State University

named Chuck Stroop, can't
afford to go to Florida

for spring break.

So he kind of jokes
to his friends,

"And why don't we go to
this tiny town called Zap

North Dakota?"

- [Brian] So good old
Chuck's like,

we're gonna do it Zap baby.

And he starts spreading
the word that like,

"Hey, we're doing an alternative
to spring break in Zap."

- [Kavitha] Zap is like the
Mayberry of North Dakota.

Main Street is an
actual dirt road.

It's got one cafe and two bars

and a total population
of 250 people.

- [Rutledge] It starts out as a
joke like,

oh, wouldn't it be
funny if we do this?

Then the more they talked
about it, they realize,

no, this might be a really
awesome spring break idea.

Let's do it.

Let's go to Zap.

- [Negin] You know, at first
these guys are like,

oh, we're gonna Zip
to Zap, you know,

and they start calling
it the Zappening.

And the chatter around
this thing builds.

It gets covered by
the campus newspaper.

- [Rutledge] People are hearing
about this huge party,

and it's talked about
all over the place.

Other colleges, even the
radio as far as Minnesota,

they're talking about this
college spring break party,

it's gonna happen
in North Dakota.

Everybody wants to go.
It's gonna be huge.

[dramatic music]

- [Brian] And at first the town
is supportive of it.

Like, oh, this, we're
bringing a few bucks,

this'll be great.

How many people could
be coming to this?

- [Don] The local Sheriff says
he hasn't given much thought

to the Zap-In, but he plans
to have his two-man force

swing by over the weekend
to check things out.

[exciting music]

- [Rutledge] So the first day,
Friday, May 9th,

the town of Zap is absolutely
slam packed with people.

- [Kavitha] 3000 college
students

have descended upon
this town.

That's more than 10 times
the actual population of Zap.

- [Rutledge] Zap thought they
were prepared for who is coming

except they were really,
really unprepared.

- [Henry] For a moment, it looks
like Zap might just survive

the attack of the
spring breakers,

but when the beer runs
out, the mood turns ugly.

- [Rutledge] They had gotten
hundreds of cases

of beer ready for this.

They were gone.

The one restaurant in town
sold completely out of food.

The crowd in the bar starts
to get a little bit unruly,

first a bottle breaks,
then a window breaks.

Things are getting
a little wild.

- [Brian] This is a party in the


Society was a little
looser back then.

People back then took
partying to an art form

that puts any party today
to complete shame, man.

- [Henry] Very quickly the
party outgrows the town

and the town has no idea
how to reign it back in.

- [Rutledge] Oh, and by the way,

where are all these
kids gonna sleep?

No one's even
thought about that,

because by the way, it is North
Dakota and it is freezing.

- [Brian] So what you gotta do?
You gotta build a fire.

Where do you get the wood?
Wherever you can get it.

The siding on people's
houses, construction sites,

chop down trees, fence posts,

everything goes into a bonfire.

Things start getting
outta control.

- [Henry] With the rowdy crowd,

burning Zap down piece by piece,

the terrified Mayor
calls for backup.

- [Brian] And eventually 500
members

of National Guard come in,

and afix, bayonets,

something that people
k*lled each other with

in the Civil w*r.

When you have 500 bayonets

going after drunk college
students, that is a scene.

- [Don] But do they give up
and stop partying? Nope.

They climb in their cars and
go to the next town over,

Beulah.

- [Rutledge] Sure enough,
those kids showed up

and they continued the party.

- [Negin] After they're done
with Beulah, they move over

to another town called Hazen
where they wreak havoc.

And this is just like
rinse and repeat,

like a terrible pub crawl
from town to town to town.

- [Brian] They herd them to
Bismarck,

which is the capital
of the state.

And it's starting to sound
like a Civil w*r movie, man.

They're just
marching on Bismarck,

and that's where they find
the solution to this problem.

- [Negin] Finally, the
authorities are like,

all right, let's like
push them into a park

and they'll just
bore themselves.

And eventually they do.

They move to this park
in Bismarck, it's boring,

nothing's going on, and
they finally disperse.

- [Henry] Once the
crowd gets corralled

inside the city park, the
excitement fizzles out.

By Sunday, it's all over
except for the hangover.

- [Brian] This sounds like
the sort of party

that doesn't happen anymore.

These kids got to party, these
kids got to blow off steam.

These kids got to have fun.

And they got to do
it in a way that will

almost never be recreated
again in modern society.

And I think that's,
that's kind of fun.

- If you've ever visited
Yosemite, you know

it's one of America's most
spectacular national parks.

But in the 1970s, the wildest
thing you might have seen

wasn't a bear or
a mountain lion,

it was a back of feral hippies.

[gentle exciting music]

- [Natalia] There's this
expl*si*n of interest

in the 1960s in the
natural environment

in kind of getting
back to the land.

- [Jason] One of the most
popular destinations

in the country is
Yosemite National Park

And so people just
head there in droves.

- [Natalia] At this time,

there's no real system
governing camping at Yosemite.

There's no reservations,
there's no kind of check-in.

There's just a campsite.
First come, first serve.

- [Lance] It's very
different today.

You control the
numbers coming in.

You've got very
specific campsites.

You gotta reserve maybe
months in advance.

If you were to show
up at Yosemite today,

you don't have a
reservation for a campsite,

they're just gonna turn
you away at the gate.

- [Hakeem] On busy weekends, you
got crowds of people

trying to set up in
one camping area.

You'll get 30, 40, 50
people in a campsite

that's intended for one family.

- [Martin] And you might go out
for a hike only to return

and find that your stuff
has all been taken down

and just dumped nearby,

and somebody else is
now in your campsite.

- [Henry] And with few
rangers and even fewer rules,

things are about to
reach a breaking point.

- [Lance] July 4th, 1970, huge
crowds show up to Yosemite,

thousands of people.

It's like a medium
sized city relocating

into the national park.

- [Jason] A crowd gathers in the
iconic Stoneman Meadow

and it's a lot of hippies, a
lot of counterculture people.

- [Henry] The park's wide
open freedom makes it a magnet

for peace loving hippies,

but it doesn't take long for
all that peace to be broken.

- [Jason] This crowd is not all
peace and love, man.

- [Crowd Member] Get on out...

- [Lance] They can be a rowdy
bunch

and sometimes an
intoxicated bunch

and they do show up
in large numbers.

- [Jason] They litter, they're
rude to other campers.

They're loud, they're messy.

- [Henry] Rangers are finally
called in to clear the meadow.

- [Lance] I was a seasonal park
ranger for several years.

Park rangers, they're
law enforcement,

but they're not really equipped

or interested in trying to
be heavy duty crowd control.

There were times when you
really felt outnumbered.

- [Hakeem] The Rangers encircled
them on horseback

and over loudspeakers
order them to leave.

- [Henry] But the crowd is
not contained.

It's ignited.

- It gets violent.

People start throwing
rocks at the Rangers.

They're injuring the
rangers and the horses.

- [Martin] And the result then
is that

it descends into a melee.

[tense music]

- [Jason] The Rangers respond by
starting to hit these guys

with their batons and then
they start using tear gas.

The campers, they
start a bonfire

in the middle of the road.

Things just keep elevating.

They end up rolling a police
car over onto its side.

Things are getting insane.

- [Hakeem] The mayhem lasts for
two days

before the Rangers
get the upper hand.

There are 174 people arrested
and a lot more injured.

- [Lance] This is just a
year after Woodstock.

What happened to peace and love?

- [Hakeem] In the aftermath, the
park changes policies

for both traffic
and crowd control.

So now it's more organized,
orderly and safer,

and they even train
the Rangers on

how to handle young people.

- [Martin] You don't have the
same feeling

that our forefathers did

by rolling into the
park, setting up camp

wherever you want to, and
then just experiencing nature.

Now it's very regulated
and orderly, which is safe,

but it sort of pulls a
little bit of the thrill

out of the process.

- Today, Yosemite is thriving.

The hippies, they've
gone pretty much extinct,

although lovely people.

- After World w*r II,

everyone wanted to
look their best again.

And the crowds of women
that showed up at stores

were all chasing the same thing,

and they were not in
the mood to share.

[dramatic music]

- [Negin] Hosiery's been around
forever,

but by the 1920s when the
hemline started to go up,

then it became like crucial

because having bare legs
was sort of unseemly,

and so you really needed
to like have not just hose,

but kind of good looking ones.

- [Henry] In 1939, a new
type of hose hits the scene

from a company known
for making expl*sives

and industrial chemicals.

- [Martin] At the 1939 World's
Fair,

DuPont wheels out this new
revolutionizing technology

in the form of nylon.

- [Hakeem] It's strong,
versatile,

and destined to be in
all sorts of things,

from toothbrushes to parachutes,

but it's nylons' use in
stockings

that makes the crowd go crazy.

- Women are coming up,

they're trying them
on, they're a hit.

- [Martin] Finally, something
has come along

that provides them with a
creature comfort

that they really needed
at an affordable price.

- [Hakeem] Before nylon

stockings were made from silk or
rayon,

which would easily
snag and get a tear,

but with nylons, they're
practically untearable.

- [Natalia] On May 15th, 1940,

nylon stockings
officially hit the market.


sold in one day.

That is unbelievable.

The day becomes
known as Nylon Day,

which is still around today.

- [Henry] But then
things hit a snag

when the US enters World w*r II.

- [Martin] Nylon is being
very effectively used

throughout the second World
w*r as parachute material.

Nylon suddenly
becomes a commodity

that has to be
controlled carefully

in the interests of
national defense.

- [Negin] And this is just 18
months

after they unveiled these hose

that become an
instant sensation.

Then they're asked to
part with them.

It hits hard for
a lot of ladies.

- [Lance] They essentially
stopped

selling nylons in the store.

They become very
rare commodities.

- [Negin] Because they can't
get the real thing,

people are trying to mimic the
look of a hose on their legs

by dying their legs with
like brown gravy and tea

and like drawing a fake seam
on the back of their leg.

- [Lance] If you can even find
them on the black market,

they're gonna be expensive.

$20 maybe for a pair of nylons,

that's the equivalent
of around $300 today,

and people are still
willing to pay that.

- [Henry] Japan surrenders
in August 1945,

and just eight days later.

DuPont declares it's back
in the hosiery business.

- [Announcer] What
nylon stockings?

You think we're
kidding? Not at all.

- [Natalia] So a store in
Pittsburgh announces

that they're gonna
have nylons in stock,

and it's this big event.

All these women come
out, they line up.

There's this sense
of anticipation.

My first pair of
nylons in five years.

- [Negin] One Pittsburgh store
says,

okay, we're gonna have


Ladies show up.

- [Hakeem] The line stretches
for 16 blocks

and police have to
form a human chain

just to keep the
crowd under control.

- Women are just having
a good time there.

So excited to have nylons back.

A storm comes, that doesn't
dampen their spirits.

There's some men that are
heckling them as they go by,

that doesn't dampen
their spirits.

They're excited.

- [Negin] And instead of 10,000,


to buy these nylons.

- [Henry] It's a math problem.


divided by 40,000 women

equals one fourth of
a nylon per person.

In other words, pandemonium.

[tense music]

- [Martin] There's law and
order in the lines

outside of stores initially,

but then eventually it descends
into disorder and chaos.

[customers arguing]

- [Natalia] By the time some
women

actually make it into the store,

the nylons are
already selling out

and these women have had enough.

So they start climbing
onto displays,

taking them off mannequins,
just getting their hands

on whatever they can.

- [Negin] People start pushing
people outta the way.

And there's some
fainting, you know,

and a sort of mob
mentality forms.

- [Hakeem] The so-called nylon
riots

break out in Washington DC,

New York City and San Francisco.

Women are getting trampled,
windows are getting broken out.

This is way before
Black Friday is a thing

and the stores are not prepared.

- [Negin] These women are
basically accusing DuPont

of under supplying their
nylons to inflate prices.

Eventually, DuPont is actually
forced to share their formula

with other companies

so that it can be made more
available to the public.

- [Natalia] Today there's
certainly chaos

and enthusiasm over whatever
viral item is selling out,

but I think there's a
little bit more management

of the kind of
in-person experience.

So I think you don't have
that same kind of rage today

as you once did.

- They say two is
company, three is a crowd,

but 40,000, I think
that's a riot.

- Did you know there was a time

when wearing the right
hat really mattered?

And if you weren't
careful, there was a crowd

that had a way of
letting you know.

- [Jason] It's hard to imagine,

but from like the
mid-1800s to the mid-1900s

most men would not leave the
house without wearing a hat.

- [Austin] The felt hat like
a fedora or a bowler

is the typical
businessman's urban hat,

but it's far too
hot for the summer.

[gentle lively music]

- [Adam] In the summer, stylish
gentlemen switch to straw hat.

And in fact, gents
are only allowed,

yes, allowed to wear straw hats

from May 15th Straw Hat Day

until September


- [Jason] You know, never wear
white to a wedding

and never wear white
after Labor Day.

It's these rules.

Everyone knows what they are.

They're not necessarily
written anywhere,

but everyone knows about them.

- [Henry] In the early 1900s,

if you get caught wearing a
straw hat in late September,

you risk more than ridicule.

[tense music]

- [Don] Stockbrokers on Wall
Street start this custom

where they smash
their straw hats

at the end of every
summer for good luck.

And if they catch another
broker wearing his straw hat

on or after September 15th,

they snatch that straw
hat and crush it.

- [Austin] Soon it spreads from
New York to other cities.

In 1910, teenage
boys take the streets

and just start tearing the
straw hats off of strangers.

- [Bryant] But soon this
pranking spreads to Pittsburgh

and to South Jersey
and around the country.

- [Henry] Every year
the hat crushing crowds

get bigger and bolder.

And on September 13th, 1922,
everything comes to a head.

[tense music]

- [Don] In New York City,

some rowdy teenagers go
looking for hats

to smash two full days
before they're supposed to.

Suddenly, what's supposed
to be so good natured

takes a whole different turn.

- [Bryant] By starting early,
nobody's spared.

Everybody's still
wearing their straw hat.

The police are
completely overwhelmed.

There's not enough of them,

and there's too many of
the boys flicking off hats.

- [Adam] The kids are
getting aggressive,

they're almost feral.

The police come out, but
what are you gonna do?

I mean, it's a load of kids
kind of losing their minds.

- [Don] Some mischievous
kids even tack nails

on the end of long
sticks using the poles

to knock hats from
targets from distance.

- [Jason] So it keeps
snowballing.

At a point, the
amount of hat smashers

grows to over a thousand.

And the police themselves,
they aren't spared.

When their hats start
getting smashed, that's it,

That's the last
straw, so to speak.

- [Henry] Despite the
efforts to calm the crowds,

straw hat madness
goes on for days.

- [Austin] Seven young teenagers
appear in front

of Magistrate Peter A. Hatting.

Yes, that's his real name.

- [Don] Seven other boys are
too young to face charges.

So the police make
a special request.

They ask the parents to come in

and publicly spank them,
which the parents happily do.

Finally, to put an end
to the madness, in 1925,

President Calvin Coolidge
goes out in public

wearing his straw hat
after September 15th.

- [Jason] It's a powerful
fashion statement

and one made by the president
of the United States

in such a way that these
hardened rules about fashion,

about what hats you
can and cannot wear,

they really just
sort of crumble away

like a smash straw hat
in the street.

- [Adam] When you are in a
crowd,

there is something
infectious there.

There's a collective energy.

You're part of something
larger than yourself.

Sometimes the energy
turns for the worse

and you get swept up in that

and it is easy to
lose who you are,

lose where you are
in the sea of people.

- Looking back at the times
we were shoulder to shoulder,

whether it was front row
seats at the Civil w*r,

watching whales explode
or rioting over pantyhose,

there is nothing like
a shared experience

with a little volatility.

And maybe that's why
our hazardous history

always draws such a big crowd.

[tense dramatic music]