Short Stuff: Milk Wars | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[Music]. hey and welcome to the podcast I'm Josh. and there's Chuck and Jerry's here and. Dave is hovering over us like a hologram. of Obi-Wan Kenobi which makes this short. stuff and makes us his only. hope that's right boy that's tough for. Dave where is only. hope sorry Dave yeah you know we haven't. talked too much we talked a little bit. about the mafia and stuff like that mhm. but I feel like we have a gap in our.

sort of Al Capone Chicago mob sort of. time frame like uh who are the uh what. was the movie The Untouchables that sort. of era such a good movie we don't have a. lot of that stuff so this is maybe the. beginning of a little bit more of that. okay this is the beginning of a. beautiful friendship as Al Capone said. once that's right then you got a knife. in your back so um our story actually. takes place in 1933 that's when it began.

although it lasted the almost the entire. decade of the 30s but by this time and. this is so funny because this whole. thing is associated with Al Capone but. if we're going to jump to the end and. put it at the beginning yeah he probably. had almost nothing to do with this yeah. the reason this Chicago milk War as it's. called is associated with Al Capone is. because his direct descendants his. proteges that took over when he was put. into federal prison um they were the. ones who were involved in this so so he.

had some sort of kind of like Phantom. supernumerary hand involved but no. direct involvement yeah like if he. wouldn't have been in prison it would. have been Al Capone running this uh milk. war and it would have been 10 times. bloodier probably yeah you're probably. right uh but like we all know he was in. prison uh for tax evasion uh initially. right here in Atlanta uh and then. eventually in Alcatraz very famously um. but we're talking about the milk War. like you were saying and this gets a. little.

convoluted because there's just a lot of. milk unions and uh delivery driver. unions for milk and uh they all have. similar names and they most of them are. pretty good band names so it it gets a. little bit confusing but we're going to. do the best we can to tell you how the. mob in Chicago got involved in the milk. business and one of the main reasons is. that FDR came along and the writing was.

on the wall that prohibition was going. to be repealed and that was really bad. for the mob because they were making a. ton of money with uh bootlegging and. with the speak easys so they're like we. need to divver we need to uh diversify. right right so they said how about milk. it's pretty unregulated and under the. radar and uh we already in the food. business a little bit we run the we run. the artichoke racket which was true that. crazy that's the fact of the short stuff. right there well that and the Wisconsin.

cheese racket so they already had the uh. foot in the uh Pro Dairy and produce. business right um so yeah it kind I. guess milk is a logical extension of. those I mean the cheese that makes sense. too but it is surprising to go from. booze to to milk yeah but it it almost. didn't matter what what the product was. sure the mob could figure out a way to. completely upend the industry they were. early disruptors I guess you'd call them. in 2010 speak yeah um but.

the way that they did that was through. like violence and intimidation and. that's the first the first tactic they. tried when they showed up at a guy named. Steve Summer's door and Steve summers's. door was the front door of the office of. the milk Wagon driers Union Local. 753 and the reason why is because Steve. Sumer ran that he was the union leader. right and you had said this whole. thing's kind of convoluted it is uh the. reason why is because from what I can. tell there was an un.

uh working relationship between the. different unions and the different. associations that all came together to. to produce buy bottle sell and. distribute milk yeah and each one had. their own competing interests and they. were all trying to work together there. was some price fixing involved there. were some alliances that were all uneasy. but then when the mob came in they came. in kicking down the door and shooting.

down shooting tommy guns into this whole. Alliance and it just created this total. chaos that had just been waiting to. happen that the mob coming in really. triggered and then some yeah absolutely. uh because at the time uh milk prices. were um I guess you would say fixed. right is that the term yeah yeah milk. prices were set or capped rather and. they had to use Union um representatives. to you know to drive and deliver this. milk and distribute this milk um the mob.

of of Chicago basically said all right. we're going to get in on the ground. floor we're going to buy an actual Dairy. and they bought Meadow more dairies and. that's how we're going to get into the. the milk industry and what we can do is. then not have to use Union employees uh. we can bypass that that fixed pricing. and we can. undercut uh by a penny or two what. everyone else is selling it for and get. all the milk money ourselves yeah and.

don't forget this is during the. Depression right so a couple of pennies. off of a bottle of milk that was selling. for 11 cents oh yeah that meant a lot. like you yeah you could make a pretty. big deal so there was price fixing which. is illegal and the mob came in and. undermined it by introducing good old. American competition to it which is. really weird that's why this whole thing. is so hard to kind of wrap your head. around because it all is totally. nonsensical yeah yeah you're right right.

I mean I I feel better because I. couldn't figure out why I couldn't. really make the most sense of this. because it's not the most complicated. story no um but yeah they came to Steve. suar eventually uh this guy Nam uh. Murray the camel humph who is one of. Capone's fixers uh if you have a fixer. you're you're not a good person let's. just say that yeah that means you're. breaking things if you need someone to. fix things that's a great great slogan. uh oh yeah I should get that on a. t-shirt huh. hurry uh so they went to suar and said.

hey if you and your union can just lay. low for a little while let us hire these. non-union workers uh we can sell our. stuff cheaper and then you can make a. big deal about that and you can protest. that then we can raise these prices. again and in exchange for this uh we're. not going to we're going to offer you. protection which everyone knows for the. mob means we're not going to destroy. your milk trucks and fire bombs your. delivery wagons right and what's funny.

is like I can't remember the spoof movie. that this is in I want to say top secret. but I might be wrong where somebody. comes in some like traditional like. maybe gangster criminal comes in and. starts shooting up the place and then. all of these like normal people like. pull guns out of nowhere and start. shooting back. unexpectedly that's exactly what. happened with this because the mob came. in and said that they were going to. start breaking heads if everybody didn't. fall in line and so all these people in.

the dairy industry who were allegedly. legitimate went and bombed the mob's. Dairy the moment they the moment they. said that they were going to do this. they went and bombed their. Dairy all right I say we should take a. break because that's a pretty remarkable. thing uh I'm gonna I'm going to go with. Johnny dangerously I'm not sure if. that's true or not is that it okay but. it seems like a likely candidate and. we'll come back right after this.

[Music]. [Music]. Johnny dangerously top secret it's. virtually the same movie I mean that's. just a guess boy I saw Johnny. Dangerously in the theater when I was a. kid I thought it oh yeah funniest thing.

I'd ever seen it it some parts of it are. still pretty funny I haven't seen it in. a long time but I think it was yeah Joe. Piscopo Michael Keaton you kidding me. yeah the the dream team is what they. call that Griffin. dunnart Master charer did you know uh. he's Joan dian's nephew of course he's. got a new book out called I'm Joan. dian's nephew by Joan dian's nephew you. dummy uh Emily just got it it's supposed.

to be a good read so she's she's all. into that have you ever seen after hours. oh yeah of course good movie it's scor. ay baby yeah it was but it's also like a. kind of a screw ball comedy yeah yeah. the only one he did really yeah uh all. right that's been movie Crush uh a I. missed that show no not enough to do it. again. though so um we're back and like you. said when we left I believe uh right. before I said Johnny dangerously you. said these regular Schmo started bombing.

the mob's uh Dairy and that that's what. happened and it's just crazy and all of. a sudden you know this milk War has. kicked off yes so I said that there was. like a bunch of different competing. groups there were the people who made. the milk those are the farm producers. those are the farmers who are like. milking the cows putting into huge like. canisters and then selling it to the. milk dealers the milk dealers have. formed an association and they're the. ones who were fixing the price they were.

saying hey Farmers this is how much. you're going to get for milk don't ask. for anything more because everyone who's. going to buy it from you is in cahoots. against you right so the farmers said. well this is this is all crazy we're. just going to go on strike you're not. going to get any milk unless you guys. start giving us a better price so uh in. addition to this group these people were. arguing there's also another group that. were involved and they were the stores. that sold milk okay they had milk for.

one set price and they could typically. sell it lower lower than other companies. who used delivery drivers Milkmen to. deliver their milk directly to people's. homes because there's that added cost. and then on top of the added cost the. the milk drivers were unionized that's. what Steve Sumer represented and so they. had uh like a contract with those. companies saying like you're going to. pay our drivers like a a good wage and. so there was competition between the the. companies that used Union drivers and.

the companies that just sold it directly. from stores and all of them hated each. other because they were all beating one. another up to get as much of a margin of. profit out of the others as they. possibly could because the American. public were the ones who are like we're. not going to pay that much for milk you. guys are going to have to figure this. out yourself yeah do you think the mob. ever went up to people and went you're. going to be eating your granula with. water or did they have cereal by then or. they still call you remember Kellogg's.

episode that was the 19th century that's. what I'm saying that was like the early. 1910s they were calling it granula but. they called it cereal pretty soon after. right oh I see what you mean sure sure. probably yeah I wonder what the first. one was because I think they called. their cornflakes cornflakes pretty early. on so they at least had cornflakes all. right let me do another take okay you. you're going to beat your Corn Flakes. with with with cereal godam it uh you. want to take a third take yeah let's do.

take three okay uh I'm going to add a. line too I'm going to improv a line. you're going to be eating your cereal. with water like in the movie. Fridays that's awesome remember ice CU. had to drink it or you had to eat it. with water y oh boy uh where were we we. talking about. cornflakes yeah in the story I know. there was a band name on to mention the. pure milk Association yeah they were one. of the I's great band name post milk.

dealers what about that one that's not. too bad milk wagon drivers Union nah. it's you know we haven't taken a a break. yet have oh we did we did okay good yeah. add in an item now we're supposed to be. done by now so here's what happened uh. in 1939 there was an Anti-Trust case. yeah uh that was going on basically with. with this you know Monopoly that was. happening and the court threw it out was. a district court judge. uh that threw it out I believe it was.

reinstated by the Supreme Court later. but they avoided trial uh the doj said. you know what if everyone signs and. agrees to this uh then we can get this. milk War over uh the farmers um and the. unions you got to say um that you won't. stop Independent Producers from. marketing milk there can be Independent. Producers uh Distributors you can't fix. your prices anymore and drivers your. union there's a lot of moving part Parts. here um you can't hamper the the store.

sales of milk like I know you like. delivering to people's houses but. distribution is the thing now and you. got to let that happen right um and so. essentially what the justice department. said was um you basically need to go the. way that the mob was trying to take this. and in like go your separate ways and. compete with one another like be. capitalists rather than price fixers. exactly what's funny is there's a quote. from Steve Sumer who's just befuddled by. this antitrust case that was slapped.

against him and some of the others he's. like we're trying to get the milk. flowing again like we're just making. deals here and they're like you're price. fixing that was the problem in the first. place so stop doing that and I got the. milk flowing again I think in 1940 the. whole thing ended that's right pretty. great stuff the Chicago milk Wars. featuring Al Capone in name. only that's right Chuck said that's. right twice everybody and of course that. mean short stuff is out that's.

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