Chapter 1: What is the premise of the podcast episode 'Origins'?
today's podcast will feature three stories about how a single decision changed the lives of people in these stories as well as millions of other lives around the world the audio from all three of these stories has been pulled from our main youtube channel and has been remastered for today's episode the links to the original youtube videos are in the description
The first story you'll hear is called One Man's Trash, and it's about a woman who finds something incredible in her husband's office trash can that would change their lives forever. The second story you'll hear is called Accidental Superstar, and it's about a man who has a completely normal career, but then something totally random happens that changes everything.
And the third and final story you'll hear is called The Shiner, and it's about a man who gets into a fight at a McDonald's restaurant the night before his big job interview.
But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload four times a week, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Fridays.
So if that's of interest to you, please sneak into the Like Button's house and replace all of their very expensive and nice knives in their butcher's block with plastic cutlery. Okay, let's get into our first story called One Man's Trash.
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Chapter 2: How did a woman's discovery change her husband's writing career?
One evening in the late winter of 1973, a 23-year-old mother named Tabby put her eight-month-old son and two-year-old daughter down for their naps inside of their double-wide trailer, which was parked in a small town in New England. Once her kids fell asleep, Tabby looked over at the clock.
She was waiting for her husband to get home from his job as a high school teacher, and he was running late. Tabby wondered what could be holding up her husband, and she certainly hoped he was okay, but she couldn't just call the high school to ask how he was doing because they didn't own a landline phone. They literally didn't have enough money to afford a landline phone in their trailer.
In fact, they basically only had enough money to barely make ends meet. So Tabby and her husband actually had dreams of becoming professional writers, but they had found over the past few years that breaking into writing at this time in America was nearly impossible.
You know, they had gotten a few stories published here and there, but, you know, for the most part, the only thing their writing had gotten them was a whole bunch of rejection. And so as a result of this, both of them had taken day jobs to basically supplement the income that was not being generated from writing.
Tabby was home with the kids and then in the evening would work some shifts at a Dunkin Donuts. And then her husband, in addition to being a teacher, also worked at a laundromat. But even with their three jobs combined, they barely made any money. Now, Tabby still held on to hope that, you know, maybe one day she could break in and be a professional writer and have that be her primary income.
But her husband, who also, you know, had the same dream, was over time becoming increasingly more pessimistic about his opportunity to, you know, one day just be a writer. He sort of felt like this truly was impossible, that they'd struggle forever and he wouldn't become a writer.
Tabby walked to the tiny laundry room in the back of their trailer to switch their clothes from the washer to the dryer. So this room, the laundry room, actually doubled as her husband's office. And as soon as she walked back there, she saw his desk was a total mess.
All around his typewriter, which sat right in the middle of the table, were all these empty beer cans and food wrappers and rejection letters from various magazines and publications. And the trash can next to the table on the ground was overflowing with crumpled up pieces of paper. Feeling very annoyed by this mess, Tabby reached down to tie up the trash bag to take it outside.
But as she went to do that, she happened to glance at one of these crumpled up pieces of paper in the trash, and she skimmed a couple of sentences that were written on it, that were typed on this paper. And as soon as she did, she stopped because there was something really interesting about this writing.
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Chapter 3: What unexpected event turned a normal man into a superstar?
Tabby could see her husband was completely serious. And so she just held up this piece of paper and she said, no, this, this is the one. This is the one that's going to help you break through. I know it. And you know what? Even if you don't know the subject matter, I do. I can help you with that. And together, we can make this a full-length novel. You've got to see it through.
It's too good not to. And so at Tabby's insistence, that's what her husband did. He would spend several months working with Tabby to finish this novel, and by the spring of 1974, it was done. And so that same spring, they began shopping the manuscript around to different publishers, really having no idea how anybody was going to react.
But they were both totally blown away when one of the major publishers they sent this thing to came back and said, not only will we absolutely print this book, but we'll also give you a $400,000 advance, which in today's money is $2.5 million. A massive, massive book deal by any standard. And so the young couple was totally thrilled.
They took the book deal, the book got published, and with the money they got, they were able to move out of their double-wide trailer and they were able to purchase a landline telephone. But that was only the beginning. Tabby's decision to pull that crumpled up piece of paper out of the trash can and force her husband to turn it into a novel would prove to be a good one.
Because her husband would go on to become arguably one of the most famous writers in the world. That story that Tabby saved from the trash can would go on to become the iconic horror novel Carrie. Tabby's husband was none other than Stephen King.
Our next story is called Accidental Superstar.
In 1964, during his final semester of college in Wisconsin, a 21-year-old man named Harry decided to take an acting class. He believed it would be an easy A and he'd always been pretty shy, and so he figured this class might be able to help him get over that. But this class wound up having a much larger impact on Harry's life than he ever could have imagined.
Not only did he meet his future wife in this class, but he also realized he loved acting, something he never thought he would like, and he decided after college that that was the thing he was going to pursue.
And so after he graduates later that year, he and his girlfriend get married, and then they fly out to Hollywood, California, where Harry auditions for Columbia Pictures' New Talent Program, which is basically this program that's designed to help new actors and actresses get parts in Hollywood, because it's so hard to do that. And so he's accepted into this program.
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Chapter 4: How did a chance encounter lead to a life-changing opportunity?
It was a 60 second bit where Harry basically walked on screen in this hotel and he started calling out for a particular guest. And when he finds this guest, he walks up and gives him a piece of paper and then he leaves. So it's a forgettable scene, but it's a real scene in a real movie. And so this was a big deal for Harry.
And so after Harry goes over to the studio and he films this whole scene and it's all done, he goes back over to the headquarters of the New Talent Program at Columbia Pictures.
And as soon as he goes inside, one of the producers that was in charge of this New Talent Program, who had apparently had a chance already to see this 60-second scene in this movie that Harry was in, he calls Harry over and asks him to go up to his office for a second.
So the pair go up to his office, they both sit down, and the guy looks at him and says, look, I just got to shoot you straight here. You're not going to make it in Hollywood. You're not going to be a movie star.
When Tony Curtis was told to carry groceries across this room in one of his first movies, everybody knew right away as he's carrying those groceries that that guy, he's going to be a movie star. You could see it. in the scene, even though all he was doing was carrying groceries. And when you did your scene as the bellhop walking around the hotel, I just didn't see it. You don't have the X factor.
You're not gonna be a movie star. For reference, Tony Curtis, the guy this producer was referencing, was a huge movie star in the 1950s and 1960s.
And so Harry, after getting this horrible comment made about him, he pauses for a second and then he leans across the table and looks at this producer and squints his eyes and says, you know, if Tony was such a good actor, shouldn't we have believed he was just a grocery delivery boy, not a movie star? And at this totally smart aleck remark, the producer fired Harry on the spot.
Harry would go on to sign a similar new talent program deal with Universal Studios, but again, he could not get a real part to save his life. And the feedback he finally got was, Harry, you're just not pretty enough and you're not really that talented.
By the mid-1970s, Harry was in his mid-30s, and while he still aspired to be an actor and wanted to be an actor, he was making almost no money from acting. And so he decided instead of acting, he was going to become a carpenter. That was going to be his full-time job. Despite the fact, he knew nothing about carpentry.
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Chapter 5: What led to Chris's unexpected fight at McDonald's?
In 1976, Harry was a full-fledged carpenter and had been for about a year when one of his very close friends named Fred Roos, who was a casting director and film producer, gave him a call and told him he had a very unique opportunity for him. Now, at this point, Harry was not looking for any more acting roles.
He kind of figured that that ship has sailed, even though he wishes he could be an actor. At this point, he had a wife, he had two sons, and so he's thinking, I got to just keep doing this carpentry thing because I got to pay the bills. So he says to Fred, you know, I appreciate the offer of whatever this is, but if it has to do with acting, you know, I'm just not interested.
And Fred, who was one of the very few people in Hollywood who fundamentally believed Harry was destined to be a star, told Harry, no, no, no, this is different. This is not a pure go out and try out for the part and hope for the best. This is like, put yourself in a good position and maybe somebody will discover you're as talented as you really are.
And so Harry's like, OK, tell me about this opportunity. You know, I'm interested. And so Fred explained there was this really talented and eccentric film director who was trying to cast an upcoming movie. And the way he went about casting for movies was a little bit strange.
Instead of having each of the actors and actresses show up and individually audition for their parts, he would group batches of actors and actresses and he would have them audition as a group because that way he could tell if there was chemistry amongst some of the actors and actresses and he could gauge their individual talent.
And so he had all these groups already planned out, but one of the groups was missing one male actor. Somebody had dropped out at the last minute and was not going to be there on the day of the audition. And so when Fred Roos heard through the grapevine that this director was going to be short this one person, he immediately reached out to the director and said, hey, I got your guy.
There's this guy, Harry. He's done a little bit of acting. He's incredibly talented. You've got to give him a chance. You know, at the minimum, he can come in there and he can at least just read the lines and help you do this audition. But I know he's available that day and I know he would love to help. And so this director tells Fred, OK, thank you. I'd love to have him come down.
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Chapter 6: How did Chris's black eye impact his job interview?
But stress to him, he is not auditioning for any part in this movie. I'm not bringing in some person and just throwing them in. It takes me a long time to find people that I want to audition. And he is not one of them. He is just there to facilitate the audition. He's just going to read the lines so the other people in his group can do their audition.
And so after Fred stopped explaining the situation, Harry was actually kind of annoyed. He was annoyed that Fred had basically already volunteered him. And so he couldn't really even say no without making Fred look bad. And he didn't like the idea that this was basically a waste of his time.
Chapter 7: What surprising outcome resulted from Chris's interview?
He was being asked to go read lines, but not even try out. So how was this even an opportunity? But Fred told him, look, worst case scenario, you meet some pretty powerful people in Hollywood. This director's a big deal. The people there are going to be big deals in Hollywood. So you'll meet them and maybe they will recognize your talent.
Chapter 8: What lessons can we learn from the stories shared in this episode?
Or maybe you get some new clients for your carpentry business. So no matter what, you get something out of it. So finally, Harry says, OK, fine, I'll go do this thing. And so Harry goes to this audition, he's handed the script, and he's reminded repeatedly to not attempt to audition. Don't try to act, just read the lines.
I don't care if you're monotone, you just read these lines because you're not auditioning. Everybody else is, you're not. Is that clear? And Harry's like, yes, I get it. I'm just reading the lines. And so Harry sits down and he starts reading the lines and he's trying to do what they told him to do, but the way he was actually feeling and his actual personality began seeping through.
He started coming off as this really grumpy and sarcastic guy that just didn't care about anybody there. He was just totally bitter that he was in the situation he was in. And apparently this is exactly what the director was looking for in one of the characters he was trying to cast. That kind of nonchalant, bravado, macho, alpha type guy who just didn't care about anybody.
And so over the course of the day, as he's reading the script over and over again, not caring at all about how he's performing. He's just simply reading these lines and just being himself. He was actually doing this amazing job portraying one of the characters. And so they let Harry go the whole day. No one told him they were looking at him as a potential character.
And then at the end of the day, when Harry was about to just throw the script in the trash and leave without talking to anyone, the film director, better known as George Lucas, walks up to Harry, better known as Harrison Ford, and says, wait a minute, I was wrong. You are perfect for this movie, Star Wars. You need to play Han Solo. And so Harrison Ford said, all right, I'll play Han Solo.
And that role as Han Solo propelled Harrison Ford into the megastar that we know him as today. A few years after Harrison had starred in Star Wars and he was this total A-list celebrity, he was at a Hollywood studio in one of their restaurants when one of the waiters walked over to him with the silver tray and on this silver tray was a single business card.
So Harrison reaches over, he grabs the business card, the waiter walks away, and he looks at the card and handwritten on it is the phrase, I missed my bet. And he flipped the card over and it was the name of that producer from the New Talent program that had called Harry into his office and said, you're never going to make it in Hollywood and you're fired. It was that guy.
And he had apparently sent the waiter over to make amends because he was eating lunch in the same restaurant. And so Harrison would later say in interviews that at the time he got this card and to this day that he was doing this interview, he said it gave him immense pleasure that when he looked up from this business card and he understood the situation, he knows this guy's in the room somewhere.
As he looked around the room, he couldn't recognize the guy because he didn't know what he looked like. He was a nobody. And so instead of wasting any more time looking for this producer, he just looked at the card, chucked it, and went back to eating his lunch.
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