In My Footsteps: A Gen-X Nostalgia Podcast

Episode 168: America's First Serial Killer, 1970s Board Games, Halloween Songs Playlist, the Death of Houdini(10-30-2024)

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The story of America's first serial killer. Some of the best songs for your Halloween playlist. A few beloved 1970s board games.
Episode 168 of the podcast is several different shades of spooky.
It begins with the story of H.H. Holmes. He is the man widely considered to be America's first serial killer. His 'murder castle' is the stuff of nightmares and his actions sadly likely inspired countless murderous imitators.
Family fun nights in the 1970s could be as terrifying as any scary movie. We go way Back In the Day to look at some of the beloved board games that tried to make those Fridays around the dining room table a little less awful.
Throwing a Halloween party? Well this week's Top 5 is going to set up the playlist for you. We will look at creepy songs that are perfect for Spooky Season. Haunting lyrics, hidden meanings, odd backstories, they're all here.
There will be a brand new This Week In History and Time Capsule centered around the mysterious death of magic legend Harry Houdini.
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Speaker 05:

Hello world, and welcome to the In My Footsteps podcast. I am Christopher Setterlund, coming to you from the vacation destination known as Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and this is episode 168. Spooky season is coming to an end. Don't be sad though, we've still got one more show. We're going to kick it off with the story of America's first serial killer, H.H. Holmes, and his connection to New England. We're going to go way, way back in the day to every kid's nightmare in the 1970s, Family Night, and we'll look at some popular 1970s board games that made those nights at least bearable. There'll be a brand new top five. This is going to be your new Spotify list. The top five Halloween or Halloween-centric songs, spooky songs. And there'll be a brand new This Week in History and Time Capsule centered around the mysterious death of magic legend Harry Houdini. All of that is coming up right now on episode 168 of the In My Footsteps podcast. Yes, don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened. Spooky season is wrapping up this week. Because of the way the days fell, you got five spooky season episodes for the month of October. We've had loads of fun from the story of my pet bat, serial killer Haddon Clark, notorious New England mental institutions, horror movies that were made into video games, the terrifying Hoosack Tunnel. All of that was covered this month on the podcast. So if you haven't caught up, go and listen to all that spooky stuff. Next week's episode is going to be the four-year anniversary of the podcast, along with my birthday episode, which falls a few days from now. I've got a little bit in the way of change coming to the podcast, nothing major. It's mostly a brand new logo that those of you on Patreon have already seen. Let's just say it's more befitting of the content that I've been sharing on the podcast this year. Speaking of Patreon, $5 a month gets you access to bonus podcast episodes, early access to the main podcast, early access to YouTube videos, early access to new logos I might be doing. Thank you to my Patreon subscribers, Laurie, Mary Lou, Ashley, Kevin, Marguerite, Leo, Neglectoid, thank you all so much for believing in my content enough that you part with your hard-earned money to help support me. And you all can do it too. In fact, in a couple of days from when this podcast goes live, there'll be a brand new bonus episode of the podcast going up just for Patreon subscribers. If you want to know what they're all about, but you're not sure if you want to commit The October bonus episode was made free to celebrate my one year on Patreon. So you can go and check that out there for no cost at all. When this podcast goes live, Halloween is tomorrow. I hope all of you that are going out trick-or-treating, whether on your own or with kids, I hope you've got the candy you need, the costume you need. Most of all, have fun and be safe when you're out there. Let's kick off episode 168 on Halloween Eve and look back at a man that is considered to be America's first serial killer, H.H. Holmes, and we'll talk about his connection to New England as well. Sadly, in the 21st century, the term serial killer is far too well known. It's any human that has taken multiple human lives. And that casts a very wide sweeping net. There have been dozens of infamous serial killers over the decades. Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy. These people and their ilk strike fear into the hearts of all normal people. And it's not made any easier by knowing what a serial killer is. But imagine the terror of the first. That's what we're going to talk about now. America's first serial killer, H.H. Holmes. H.H. Holmes was born Herman Webster Mudgett, May 16th, 1861, in the town of Gilmanton, New Hampshire. That's right, America's first serial killer was born in New England. Holmes grew up in a relatively typical family for the time. His father was a strict disciplinarian, his mother was devoutly religious. From an early age, Holmes exhibited an intense intelligence, a morbid curiosity. Some reports suggest that he was bullied as a child, particularly over his fascination with anatomy, which escalated when classmates forced him into a doctor's office... where he was confronted with a human skeleton. Rather than being terrified, young H.H. Holmes became fascinated with death and dissection. For the most part, serial killers, their origin stories have some sort of wrinkle that are similar to a lot of other killers. It's hard to diagnose a killer's motives. The combination of an abusive home, environment, isolation, and obsession with anatomy, these might have contributed to the formation of Holmes' dangerous psyche. But the thing is, the things that would link a lot of serial killers in the decades that followed, Holmes didn't suffer from any of those. There were no traumatic head injuries or living in extreme poverty that would force him to lash out. However... H.H. Holmes was manipulative from an early age, lying and deceiving to get what he wanted, traits that would become central to his crimes later on. His fascination with anatomy had Holmes leaving New Hampshire to attend medical school at the University of Michigan. This is where he reportedly began his life of crime by stealing corpses from the school's laboratory. He would use these bodies to commit insurance fraud, making false claims, and collecting money for fake deaths. His ability to deceive was extraordinary. He was known for his charm, his persuasiveness. H.H. Holmes could convince almost anyone of his sincerity, which allowed him to move through life without raising much suspicion and garnering the trust of people that would end up becoming his victims. Like with many serial killers that would follow, Holmes started his crime spree small and gained confidence when he wasn't caught. He began traveling around the country after medical school, committing petty thefts, frauds, and eventually graduating to more severe criminal acts. In 1886, he arrived in Chicago. This is where Herman Webster Mudgett ceased to exist and H.H. Holmes was born. After becoming H.H. Holmes, he set up a pharmacy in Chicago, and it was here that he began to construct the building that would later become infamously known as his murder castle. This is something that sets H.H. Holmes apart from so many other serial killers. In 1887, he purchased a vacant lot and began constructing a three-story hotel he was building his own hotels. This building was later dubbed the Murder Castle because of its bizarre, sinister design. The ground floor was normal. It contained shops, while the upper floors were a maze of windowless rooms, soundproof walls, secret passages, and trap doors. Some of these rooms had doors that opened to brick walls, staircases that led to nowhere, and chutes that dropped straight into the basement where Holmes had installed a crematorium and vats of acid. It really was like a streamlined operation for killing people. Could you imagine trying to escape from him on this second or third floor, and some of the rooms had brick walls instead of when you opened the door? And the idea with the chutes was that he would kill them and just slide them down into the basements. Holmes' victims were often his employees, or guests at the hotel, or women he lured with the promise of work or marriage. Remember, he was super charming, so he could fool pretty much anyone into believing he was sincere. In the end, Holmes would either asphyxiate them in sealed rooms, subject them to poisonous gases, or simply murder them outright. He then disposed of their bodies in the basement either by dissecting them, or selling their skeletons to medical schools. With this morbid setup that he had in this murder castle, it's unclear exactly how many people Holmes killed. Estimates range anywhere from nine confirmed victims to possibly as many as 200, with the true number probably never being known due to the sheer complexity of his operations and lack of concrete records during the time. For as complex and seemingly ingenious as Holmes' serial killing machine was, his downfall did not come from his murders. It actually came from a financial scheme. In 1894, he was arrested for insurance fraud after one of his accomplices in a fake life insurance plot turned on him. It was while in custody that authorities began to uncover the scope of his other crimes, leading them to his murder castle. And what they found shocked the nation. Rooms outfitted with torture devices, secret hallways, evidence of human remains. Remember, 1894, there's no such thing as a serial killer. It's an unknown entity. So to find out that this man killed possibly as many as 200 people in this murder hotel that he built, it would be shocking now in 2024. But could you imagine in 1894, 130 years ago, In 1895, Holmes was put on trial for the murder of his business partner, Benjamin Pitzel, whom Holmes had killed as part of another insurance fraud scheme. This trial revealed the depths of Holmes' depravity, and he eventually confessed to 27 murders, though many of these confessions were later proven false or exaggerated. Holmes was found guilty and sentenced to death. On May 7, 1896, he was hanged at Moyamensing Prison in Philadelphia. Even in his final moments, Holmes remained a manipulative figure. He requested that his body be buried in concrete to prevent grave robbing. H.H. Holmes and his crimes had a huge impact on the American psyche. His trial was a media sensation, and the details of his horrifying deeds shocked the country that had never encountered such a prolific and organized killer. The legend of Holmes and his murder castle fed into the growing fascination with crime and mystery during the late 19th century. His story would go on to become part of pop culture, inspire numerous books, films, television shows. Sadly, it may have also influenced serial killers that came generations later. Because when you think about it, it wasn't his murders that got him caught, it was insurance fraud. So I'm sure there was some serial killer that came after that said, if I don't do insurance fraud and do everything else, maybe I could be more successful. H.H. Holmes' crime spree also highlighted significant shortcomings in law enforcement at the time. The fact that he was able to move from city to city, changing his name and committing crimes without being caught for so long, exposed the lack of national cooperation between police departments. His case eventually contributed to the development of more advanced investigative techniques, including the creation of national criminal databases and better communication between law enforcement agencies, if there was any good that came out of H.H. Holmes and his murder castle. When I did my road trip to northern New England, New Hampshire, Vermont, back in August, I made it a point to visit the childhood home of H.H. Holmes in Gilmanton, New Hampshire. It's a private home. It's a very simple white house. It's every bit as unassuming as H.H. Holmes was. The house is at 500 Province Road. Across the street, there's a church. You could park and take a few pictures, but remember, it's a private home, so don't get too close. I'm sure the people that live there know that the house they bought is the childhood home of America's first serial killer. As for his murder castle, it was torn down in 1938. It was located at 601-603 West 63rd Street in Chicago. There's nothing there to see to remind you of then, but if you wanted to be in that area. H.H. Holmes' life and crimes stand as a haunting reminder of the dark side of human nature. His charm and intelligence masked a deep malevolence. This allowed him to operate undetected for years, and though he may have met his end on the gallows, the legacy of his gruesome acts remain a chilling chapter in American history. The moniker of being America's first serial killer surely would have been something that Holmes wore as a badge of honor, as would Holmes' influence on the way the country viewed crime, justice, and the sinister potential that can lurk behind a friendly smile. This week in history, we're going back 98 years ago to October 31st, 1926, and the mysterious death of magic legend Harry Houdini. Houdini was born Eric Weiss on March 24th, 1874 in Budapest, Hungary. To this day, he remains one of the most iconic figures in the world of magic and entertainment. Houdini was known for his daring escapes, masterful showmanship, and larger-than-life persona. He was one of the biggest stars of the Roaring Twenties. When Houdini was four years old, his parents emigrated to the United States, settling in Appleton, Wisconsin. At the age of nine, Houdini began performing as a trapeze artist, calling himself Eric the Prince of the Air. His fascination with magic came soon after. By the time he was a teenager, he had changed his name to Harry Houdini, inspired by the famous French magician Jean-Eugène Robert Houdin. He started with simple card tricks, billing himself as king of cards, but he soon realized that his true talent lay in escape acts. It was in 1899 when he was doing death-defying escape routines at small-time dime museums and sideshows. that Houdini was noticed by manager Martin Beck, who helped him secure higher-profile vaudeville engagements. Houdini began by breaking free of handcuffs and leg irons, or even prison cells baffling law enforcement. But some of his most famous tricks include the Chinese water torture cell, which involved being suspended upside down in a locked glass and steel tank filled with water, with his feet shackled and the tank covered. There was the milk can escape where he was locked inside an oversized milk can filled with water and he had to escape before drowning. There was the metamorphosis where he and his wife and stage partner Bess Houdini would be tied up and locked in a trunk while Bess stood outside and then in a flash the two would appear to change places instantly. There was the straitjacket escapes where he would be suspended upside down from a tall building or a crane and and he would wiggle himself free out of a straitjacket. In the 1920s, Houdini shifted his focus to debunking fraudulent spiritualists who claimed to communicate with the dead. After his own mother's death, he sought comfort from the mediums, but soon realized that many of their tricks were simple illusions, and this outraged him, the exploitation of grieving families. Houdini made it his mission to expose them as frauds, touring the country, attending seances, and publicly revealing how the so-called mediums perform their tricks. This campaign against spiritualism caused a rift between him and some of his peers, most notably Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. While performing in Montreal in October 1926, a student named J. Gordon Whitehead asked if it was true that Houdini could withstand any punch to his stomach, a claim that Houdini had made in the past. Before Houdini could properly prepare, Whitehead delivered several unexpected blows to his abdomen. Houdini, who was already suffering from appendicitis, chose to perform that night despite severe pain. A few days later, after collapsing during a performance in Detroit on October 31st, 1926, Houdini was rushed to the hospital. Doctors diagnosed him with a ruptured appendix, which had led to peritonitis, a life-threatening infection. And despite undergoing surgery, Houdini passed away, fittingly on Halloween, at the age of 52. His sudden death sparked numerous theories. Some believed the punch had caused his appendicitis. Others suspected foul play. There were even rumors that spiritualists that were angry at Houdini debunking their efforts had conspired to have him killed. Today, Houdini is synonymous with magic. He's not only remembered for his death-defying stunts, but also for his role as a pioneer in entertainment. And that original king of magic, Harry Houdini, died 98 years ago this week in history. But now we've got a brand new time capsule starting up here. For all of you that grew up in the 60s, maybe early 70s, we're going back 50 years ago to Halloween 1974. Let's see what was going on in the world of pop culture while all those little kids were out trick-or-treating. The number one song was You Haven't Done Nothing by Stevie Wonder. This was off of his album Fulfilling This First Finale. And this song featured backing vocals from the Jackson 5. The song was Stevie Wonder's fourth number one hit and was a highly political song aimed at disgraced President Richard Nixon, who would resign from the office two days after this song came out. The number one movie was Airport 1975, and you could get into the theater with a ticket costing $1.87. This is an air disaster film, a sequel to the 1970 movie Airport, about a 747 that collides with a smaller plane, leaving it pilotless and the control tower having to get aboard the plane to help land it. It's 30% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, but was a major hit, making $103 million on a budget of $3 million. The number one TV show was Rhoda. This was a spinoff of the Mary Tyler Moore show starring Valerie Harper. The show was on for five seasons and 110 episodes from 1974 to 79. And the show was a hit, finishing in the top 10 in the ratings for the first two seasons before slowly declining and getting canceled. And if you were around back then, Halloween Night 1974... If you were last minute shopping for a costume for yourself or your child, well, I've got the solution. The most popular Halloween costume from 1974 was the character of Daisy Buchanan from The Great Gatsby. I'm sure you could go down to your local Kmart or Sears and get yourself stuff to make this costume. But that'll wrap up a brand new time capsule, a new This Week in History. So you've got the candy, you've got the costume, now you need the soundtrack. Well, I've got that solution for you now with a brand new top five that are creepy songs that you can play for Halloween coming up right now. So the funny thing about this top five is that I had so much fun putting together this list with the honorable mentions, listening to a lot of these songs, and then I realized I can't really share clips from these. I take a risk when I share clips on the podcast that I don't get flagged for copyright. I haven't yet. Because as some of you know, these podcasts go up on YouTube the same day that they're released. It's just my audio with a still image of the podcast cover art. But as much as I love sharing old commercial clips, or even movie clips and such, I think if I share clips of all these songs, especially when you see some of the artists, I am going to get nabbed for copyright. So this will be one where you'll have to pause and go listen on Spotify. I'll make a Spotify playlist so then you can go check it out. I'll share it on social media. There are 10 songs. Some of them are classics. Some of them are creepy. Some of them are creepier in the context of the story behind the song. I'll get into that. There's one in particular. As with most of these top five lists, there are some honorable mentions. The top five is in no particular order. So let's get into this list, starting with the honorable mentions. And I'll do my best to give you as much info in as short a time with the honorable mentions. Honorable mentions to put on your Halloween song playlist include Monster Mash by Bobby Pickett. This is the ultimate classic Halloween song. It came out in 1962, and yes, I know I said it's the original classic, and it's on my honorable mentions. Another honorable mention is The Theme from Ghostbusters by Ray Parker Jr. This is from 1984. It's more of fun, creepy, and it's better if you've seen the movie, or the music video with clips from the movie. Another honorable mention is Hell's Bells by ACDC. This is from their 1980 Back in Black album, and it's creepier knowing the circumstances behind it as it's about their deceased lead singer Bon Scott, and the song also eerily starts off with a 10-bell salute. The next honorable mention is I Put a Spell on You by Screamin' Jay Hawkins. The original is from 1956. and has been covered by tons of people, running the gamut from Annie Lennox and Queen Latifah to Marilyn Manson. The final honorable mention I had to put on here, I compromised by not putting it in the top five, but it's the theme from Friday the 13th Part 3. I just needed an excuse to talk about it. It's from 1982, and it's The Dying Days of Disco. If you've seen Friday the 13th Part 3 in 3D, you can picture it, you can hear it. Harry Manfredini, who did a lot of the music for the first several Friday the 13th films, he made a group called Hot Ice that they're the ones that are credited with this song. But the best part of this was that this song was a hit in the dance club scene in 1982-83. So just imagine young people disco dancing to the theme from Friday the 13th Part 3. I had to put this in there just so I could share that fact with you. All right, so we got through the honorable mentions. It is now time for the actual top five. And like I said, these are in no particular order. And when I say I feared copyright strikes for sharing clips of songs, it would start with A number one. Number one. Thriller by Michael Jackson. I think his estate would hear my podcast and strike it down. This song is from 1982's Thriller album, one of, if not the best-selling albums of all time. The video was legendary, with Michael Jackson being a werewolf and a zombie. This video was so big that I can remember as a kid renting the Making of Thriller video from the video store to watch how the video was made. It's got all kinds of spooky imagery. It's got a rap at the end by Vincent Price, so it's perfect for your Halloween playlist. Number two is Me and the Devil Blues by Robert Johnson. This song was recorded in 1937. and becomes more infamous and creepy when you know the story of Robert Johnson. If you've ever heard of the 27 Club, Robert Johnson is the original member. The story was that, in short, Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil to be able to play guitar. He met the devil at the crossroads. So this song and the story behind it became more creepy after his death. which came the following year, 1938, at the age of 27. Some of you might not find it interesting to go back and listen to a song that's 90 years old, but read a little on Robert Johnson's life story and then go listen to the song. It'll make it mean a lot more. Number three is Don't Fear the Reaper by Blue Oyster Cult. This was off of their 1976 album Agents of Fortune. but I knew it first as being in the background of the original Halloween. It's got infectious music to it, creepy lyrics about being stalked by the Reaper, Grim Reaper. The song becomes less creepy if you only know it through the Saturday Night Live sketch with Will Ferrell, Christopher Walken, Jimmy Fallon, the cowbell sketch. That's this song. Although I'm sure Blue Oyster Cult sold a lot more albums after that sketch went viral, or at least viral for the time period, which that sketch was first performed on SNL in 2000. Number four is Somebody's Watching Me by Rockwell. This song came out in 1983. It was Rockwell's only hit song. It was a coup because Rockwell was the son of Barry Gordy, the founder of Motown, so he was able to get Michael Jackson at the peak of Thriller fame to sing backup on the song. And the lyrics deal with someone who's got paranoia of people stalking him wherever he is. The video's kind of a slice of 80s cheese, but the lyrics definitely can affect you if you're worried about being stalked by someone. And I guess Rockwell had a theme in mind with his songs because he followed up Somebody's Watching Me with his next single called Obscene Phone Caller. So I guess he was going for the creepy vibe with everything that he recorded. And finally, number five on the list of spooky, creepy Halloween songs for your playlist is Enter Sandman by Metallica. This is from their 1991 Black album called Very overt, creepy lyrics to this song. A lot of monsters, beasts under the bed, saying your prayers before you go to sleep to avoid these monsters. This came out when I was 13. The video definitely creeped me out. Nothing like Metallica's video for the song One that gave me some legit nightmares. I would say don't watch that if you don't like scary stuff. This was the song that really crossed Metallica over to mainstream. They were always successful in the years leading up to it, but it was more the hardcore metal audience. Metallica's Black album has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, and it's considered one of, if not the, most successful heavy metal albums ever. But there you have it. Top five creepy Halloween playlist songs with some honorable mentions. Have you heard all of these? I'm going to say you've probably heard of most of them. The ones that I would think you wouldn't be familiar with, and I'm not speaking for you, but I would think that Robert Johnson, maybe the Screamin' Jay Hawkins, I Put a Spell on You. Like I said, I'll try to remember to put together a Spotify playlist with these 10 songs so then you can listen to them, see if you get spooked out or not. But now we'll get into something really spooky for teenagers that grew up in the 1970s. That was Family Fun Night. And we're going to dive into that with a look at some of the most popular board games of the 1970s. The 70s had a lot of fun and popular board games. All right, that's the end of the segment. No, I'm kidding. a lot of which are still popular to this day. In episode 141, I did a segment on classic 1980s board games, a lot of which I remembered playing. Now we're going to go back a decade to 1970s board games. I've made the joke several times about Family Fun Night and it being the bane of the existence of teenagers. I don't know if they do it as much now. A night where you just hang out as a family all together. I think it was a bigger thing in the 60s, 70s, and 80s because we kids that grew up then, we were out on our own a lot. So I think having the family get together was a rare occasion, even though you lived under the same roof. And in the summer, maybe you'd play outside some kind of game, catch or tag. I don't know if parents ever played tag with their kids. But when the weather gets cold, you've got to have something to do for family fun nights. So that's where board games come in. When doing my research for this segment, I tried my best to make sure that these games were reflective of the decade because there were a lot, like I said, that were popular in the 60s, 70s, 80s that are still around today. I've got seven of them ranging from ones that I've never heard of but looked like they would have been fun to play to ones that are still around to this day. Back then, the biggest board game companies were Milton Bradley, Parker Brothers. Today it's Hasbro, I think mainly because Hasbro bought all the other ones out. The first game I want to talk about is one called Creature Castle that came out in 1975. Any of you 60s, 70s kids remember Creature Castle? It was through Western Publishing Company. It says for ages 8 and up, but it's basically a little kid's game about trying to get through a castle. Movement around the board was done by matching your cards to spaces on the board. And the first one out of the castle wins. My research, a lot of people say this game was basically a ripoff of the game Dark Shadows that came out in 1968. I can't speak to that, I've never played either. It doesn't look like the game is still made to this day. but you can find it on eBay and it costs a pretty penny if you want to relive your childhood. One game that was similar to Creature Castle but just slightly different was a game called Witch Witch.

Speaker 04:

Now, Milton Bradley has cooked up a ghostly game. Witch, witch. You try to move through the spooky house that's full of surprises, but one of the wicked may turn you into a mouse. Or the whammy ball may drop and the witch's broom sends you back.

Speaker 05:

And it's two different words. Witch, W-H-I-C-H, and then witch that you're thinking. This game's from 1970. It's a race to get through a haunted house. It's a little different because the board, it's more 3D with the haunted house having walls, windows. Each space looks like a footprint. This game was made by Milton Bradley. It definitely seems fun. You draw cards that can turn you into a mouse or back into a kid. Or have you dropped the whammy ball down the chimney? And if the whammy ball hits your pawn, you've got to go back to a safe space. This is another game just like Creature Castle. It's for young kids as well. Six and up is what it says on the box. Before I go any further, there's an excellent website that I got a lot of my research from called BoardGameGeek.com. I was researching best 70s board games. I would get my list and I would go to BoardGameGeek.com. This is where I find things like the pictures of the boxes, but it also tells you how long you could expect to play the game, either before you win or before you get bored and throw it away. And this sort of haunted house premise, there's been a lot of board games that have been similar, including the real Ghostbusters board game. The next one I want to talk about has a kind of roundabout connection to me, and that's Stratego.

Speaker 01:

The original

Speaker 05:

Stratego is from 1946, but it had huge popularity in the 70s. It was created by Jumbo, and it's a military strategy game. It came out right after World War II, so there was a lot of imitators of this game afterward. There's red pawns and blue pawns, and the game is a map. There's a couple of pawns there, and you've got to plan your strategy. And red versus blue battle it out in an attempt to capture the opponent's flag. The game looks a bit complicated for it saying that it's for ages 8 and up. I couldn't imagine being 8 years old and playing Stratego. To this day, you can still play Stratego. They update it over the years, over the decades. The funny thing with Stratego is I know that its catchphrase was the fascinating two-hand strategy game. And the reason I know this is going back to freshman year of high school and recording foolish audio shows with my friend John. At one point, we were making some kind of a skit, and he and I were talking as characters. And during this, he just starts reading off the board games that were on the shelf behind me. And it took me a few minutes to realize that our conversation was me asking questions, but him responding with something from a board game. Only when he got to Stratego and said a fascinating two-hand strategy game and started laughing did I realize what he was doing. That's my connection to Stratego. I've never played it, but it's a part of my childhood because of that. Manhunt was a title that just spoke to me when doing research. This game came out in 1972 and was made by Milton Bradley. Sadly, it's not about hide-and-seek in the dark like Manhunt was for me. If you want to hear my story about playing Manhunt growing up, go way back to episode 11 and I do a segment about it. This game was revolutionary for having a crime computer. It's got three dials and it's used for movement of characters and other things. You or you and a partner are detectives and you're trying to solve either a robbery or a murder. And in the game, you visit crime scenes, interview people, go on stakeouts. The end result is whoever figures out the culprit first wins. It seems like it would be fun, innovative with the crime computer, you get a detective handbook. But just like Witch Witch and Creature Castle, I'd never heard of this game until I did research. But the fifth one we want to talk about, this is one of the most famous and fun games ever, and that's the Game of Life.

Speaker 02:

Oh, why not buy insurance? Decisions, decisions. Oh, pay me.

Speaker 00:

There's a game called Life that's really worth living. You and your family have got to play it. The Game of Life from Milton Bradley.

Speaker 05:

The original Game of Life is from 1960. And you've got the different cars. Your guy is basically a stick figure with no arms and legs. You put him in the little hole. You spin the wheel and you move around the board and you're trying to go through college, raise a family, retire, gain assets. You can fill your car up with as many as six people. And interestingly, much like real life can be sometimes, succeeding at the game of life is a lot of luck. What's fascinating is the Game of Life was the first game ever made by Milton Bradley the Man in 1860, and it was called the Checkered Game of Life. In the original 1960 board game version of Life, if you make wrong choices, the consequences can be disastrous and a little dark. So in recent decades, they have made the Game of Life way more kid-friendly. Since its release, the Game of Life has sold more than 50 million copies and is the 11th highest selling board game of all time. We go from a legend of board games to another one that I'd never heard of, but man, it looked like it would have been fun to play, and that's Fat Chance. Fat Chance is not on the list of best-selling board games ever. This game was also from Milton Bradley. It came out in 1978, and it's kind of similar when you see it to Hungry Hungry Hippos. The goal is you've got your fat man pawn and you're moving him around the board trying to accumulate as few junk food pounds as possible. So it's kind of like a nutrition game in a sort of way. There's a pink and a blue fat man with a big wide open mouth and the More junk food that you accumulate, your opponent can challenge you to a weigh-in because you've got to drop these pellets inside your pawn and then weigh it and see who weighs least. It's definitely fun and for kids with funny names of the foods that you can eat, mozzarella mess, pie a la mound. But we'll go from fat chance to wrapping up this segment with another all-time classic, and that is Sorry.

Speaker 03:

The original

Speaker 05:

version of Sorry came out in 1929, and it's still popular to this day. I would say go to a toy store and check the board game aisle, but good luck finding a toy store. The premise is simple. It's based on the Indian game Pachisi, and you've got three or four color-coded pieces for each player, and the goal is to get all of them home before your opponents do. Sorry becomes much more of an adult-oriented strategy game when you start to think of, with your cards, how you can impede the progress of your opponent. And then as you impede their progress, you can just shout sorry at them, which is where the name comes from. That's what I remember. Tons of commercials in the 80s for this game. I know I played it at least a few times. I just can't remember where I would have played it because I don't think my family had it. So maybe I got suckered into someone else's family fun night and played sorry there. Surprisingly, Sorry is not in the top 20 best-selling board games of all time. I actually thought it would be. That might be a future top five I do best-selling board games ever. Although I bet if I gave you a few minutes, you could get probably all the top five on your own. But because I want to use it for content, I'm not going to give it all away. So those of you that grew up in the 60s, 70s, do you remember playing any of those games? More specifically, the ones that aren't really out now. Creature Castle, Witch Witch, Manhunt, Fat Chance. But if you want to relive those days, you can definitely go on eBay and find yourself a used copy. It'll set you back probably four or five times what you would have paid for it in the toy store back then. But hey, it's the price of entertainment. But until next time, folks, that wraps up episode 168 of the podcast. It wraps up spooky season for 2024. I hope that you've enjoyed my dalliance into the darker side. Granted, I do stuff like this sometimes on the podcast, but I collected a lot more for October. As I said, next week's podcast, episode 169, is the four-year anniversary of the podcast. It's my birthday episode. I'm going to try to feel young with extra nostalgia, including a new installment of Blink and You'll Miss It Retro featuring some toys that were here and gone before you could even go and buy them. So there'll be a lot of fun nostalgia, a lot of celebrating, and a brand new logo for the podcast. I'm hoping you'll like it. I've had it designed for a few months and I said I want to coincide it with the anniversary of the show. As for the rest of my content, I'm still working on the InMyFootstepsPodcast.com website. It's a lot of uploading my catalog of episodes. And then I'm going to try to have a page of links to a lot of stuff I've talked about during these episodes. Links to probably a merch store. I'm going to try maybe in a few months to open a different e-commerce store. It'll have podcast merch, but I also want to start trying to sell my photos more, especially after getting some really killer photos of the Northern Lights and then the comet that passed by a few weeks ago. I don't push as much as I should with my photography. I mean, I bought a nice camera and I get some good shots and people enjoy photos of Cape Cod. But with my content, a lot of times it feels like I have gone up to the buffet line And I have filled up several plates worth of food. And then I get back to the table and realize, man, I just can't eat all this. So what do I throw away? But I'm not full yet. So go subscribe on YouTube. Typically, I have two videos a week go up. I mean, the podcast audio goes up. But then I have the webcam weekly wrap-up podcast, which I film video right after I record this. So you should listen to one of the podcast episodes, then go watch the webcam weekly wrap up and see if you can see my fatigue setting in. The webcam weekly wrap up is the video version of my initial impressions 2.0 blog that catalogs the wackiness of my life. It's a lot of fun. It takes a lot of work to edit them. I have learned that, but they're a lot of fun to put together. If you enjoy my content, you can support me by becoming a member on Patreon for $5 a month. If you're not looking to do monthly stuff, you can buy me a coffee. Links are in the description of the podcast. But the best thing you can do is tell others. Share the podcast. Share YouTube videos. Because I market my stuff all the time. And you should. If you're a creator, you need to be promoting yourself a ton. That includes reopening my TikTok page, which I hadn't posted on in two years. But having you who listen, you who watch YouTube videos, tell others, oh, you need to check this guy out, that does more for me than my own promotion can. Because me telling people, listen to my podcast, it's great, is the equivalent of Milhouse on The Simpsons saying, but my mom thinks I'm cool. I always end off by saying that even if the weather is not warm, to get outside and enjoy nature, enjoy your surroundings as best you can. I know it gets harder now as we're entering November. Stupid daylight savings time is coming back. You can always take the podcast with you outside, but stay in your car with the heat on. Although even if you go for a walk listening to this, I try to keep them manageable under an hour. So that's a perfect time for walk. Get your steps in. Listen to me wax nostalgic about life in the 70s, 80s, 90s. And I'll keep pumping out more of that content. So thank you all so much again for tuning in. Remember, in this life, don't walk in anyone else's footsteps. Create your own path. And enjoy every moment you can on this journey we call life, because you never know what tomorrow brings. This has been the In My Footsteps podcast. I am Christopher Setterlund. You already knew that. And I'll talk to you all again soon.

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Christopher Setterlund

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