All language subtitles for The.Booze.Bets.and.Sex.That.Built.America.S01E01.Secrets.and.Sins.1080p.HULU.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-MaBa

Since the
founding of the country,

there’s been a battle
for America’s soul,

between giving people
the freedom to indulge.

I’ll make it worth your while.

Whether it’s legal or
illegal, people want to drink,

people want to bet,
people want screw.

And
protecting them from

the chaos of debauchery.

People see cities as
Sodom’s and Gomorrah’s.

They’re filled with
alcohol and prostitution

and all manner of vice.

Before the
turn of the 20th century,

over 70% of Americans
use some form of tobacco.

Men, women, girls, boys,
all ages use tobacco.

And there’s
no minimum drinking age.

In New York, each
adult person drank

as much as 16 pints
of beer in a week.

And it’s not just

the frontier west that’s wild.

The cities grow, so does
the shadowy underworld

of gambling and sex.

In the 1890s, one
in six adult men

went to a prostitute every day.

Now over the
course of nearly a century,

politicians and reformers
will try and forge

a nation free from vice.

This is about
cracking down on vice

and a whole host of other sins.

This is about
cleaning up the city.

It’s a
battle that’ll break laws.

Keep it quiet.

Sometimes change them.

Are you threatening us?

Don’t tempt me.

It’ll give rise

to some of the most iconic
products in history,

We call him the Marlboro Man.

Generate some of
thelargest fortunes ever known

and change the fabric
of the country,

from bar rooms to bedrooms.

To the building of
America’s capital of sin.

You’re Out.

Damn it!

We’re gonna shut them down.

You can’t do this.

Get out!

♪ ’Ey,’ey, I did
it and ’ey, ’ey ♪

♪ I proved it and ’ey, ’ey ♪

♪ I finished, I came and
I saw, I gave it my all ♪

♪ I changed the game ♪

♪ I made it a boss, yeah ♪

The United
States is changing fast.

Five new states have
joined in the last decade.

And for the first time,

one in four Americans
now live in cities.

During this period of
intense urbanization,

cities are changing
as they grow.

So, people see this kind of
need for order in society

and they see that we should
better organize what is becoming

a really chaotic moment
in American history.

We had a lot less regulation
because we simply had a lot

less government because
we had no income tax.

There was no federal
income tax until 1913.

So the government just
could not get big enough to,

to impose itself in our lives
the way it eventually would.

On the frontier
and in cities alike,

there are saloons on every
corner and at the time

there’s no minimum
legal drinking age,

little to no government
regulation and people guzzle

nearly four times more
liquor than we drink today.

Some studies say the average
American drank eight gallons

of hard to alcohol
per person per year.

And people see cities as
Sodom’s and Gomorrah’s,

they’re filled with
alcohol and prostitution

and all manner of vice.

Booze is one
of the most heavily taxed

products in the country.

The result of a policy enacted
to pay for the civil war.

In 1862, Abraham
Lincoln passed

an emergency
wartime revenue act.

All of a sudden the price
went from 25 cents a gallon,

before the civil war,
to $2.25 a gallon,

after the civil war and a
lot of people just said no

and it was just kind of a
recipe for people to cheat.

Rather
than paying the tax,

many distillers turn
to the black market,

making moonshine in secret,

then bootleggers
sell it illegally

to saloons and in the streets.

There are some advantages,

let’s face it, of running
an illegal business.

There are no taxes and
there’s no regulation.

And typically there’s
a lot higher profit.

In rural Alabama,

one bootlegger will turn
himself into an American legend.

Whoa!

If he
could stay out of jail

long enough to do it.

I can explain.

Just, give a minute.

What’s this?

That’s water from Eden Creek.

Supposed to be the
clearest in the county.

That water packs
a hell of a punch.

What’s your name, boy?

His signature
whiskey will one day sell

over 10 million liters a year.

My name’s Jack Daniel.

And do over
three billion dollars

in annual sales.

Tell you what, this one here,

it’s all yours, my gift.

You gonna have to
do better than that.

In the 1860s,
moon shining can be deadly,

both for Outlaws
like Jack Daniel,

and for the people
who buy cut rate booze

with no idea what’s in it.

Moonshine is a
very dangerous product

when it gets right down to it
because there are no controls.

You can just add anything you
want to, to give it to kick.

This is before the
FDA, there were no rules.

You had folks who
would put tobacco chew,

or like tobacco spit,

they’d put turpentine
in it for coloring.

They’d put all sorts of
junk in their whiskey

to make it taste and
look a certain way.

People were getting sick.

People were dying because
the way these Moonshiners

were manufacturing their goods.

This is where the
term "rotgut" comes from

because people would be buying
this whiskey from whomever

and it would literally
rot their stomachs

from the inside out.

Even without
dangerous additives,

distilling is risky.

If alcohol vapor ignites,

stills can explode

and distillation
produces both ethanol,

which is safe to drink and
a nearly identical byproduct

called methanol,
which is poisonous.

There’s a term, it’s
called "blind drunk."

And that term, unfortunately,
goes back to some truth

where people were getting
some of the distillate

that came off the stills

and it actually
could make you blind.

They would actually,
literally go, go blind.

Jack Daniel
works in a modest farmhouse

distillery owned by a Lutheran
minister named Dan Call.

Jack was orphaned, so he
went to go look for work

as a farmhand, cuz he
needed to live somewhere.

And he was taken in by Dan Call.

Jack was a small kid, so,
you know, as a farmhand,

he probably wasn’t that useful.

I think Jack Daniel
discovered distilling

as a way to prove
his worthiness.

Jack Daniel
begged Reverend Call

to learn distilling
and Call partnered him

with his master distiller,

a formerly enslaved person
named Nathan "Nearest" Greene.

Nearest Greene was
considered one of the best

master distillers in the area,

but I don’t think there’s
any factual documentation

on where Nearest Greene
actually came from.

There’s not even an image
of Nearest Greene on record.

Dan Call specifically
assigned Nearest Greene

to help teach whiskey
making, to Jack Daniel.

And from there they
worked hand in hand,

they really did bond and
have a great friendship.

By day, Jack
Daniel and Nearest Greene

distill corn into liquor,

it’s sold at a small general
store for a tiny profit

and it’s used to cure
everything from shock

to fainting to snakebites.

Distilleries were allowed

to be used for
medicinal purposes.

People would
prescribe an ounce of,

of this whiskey every few
hours, which you know,

the process involved in fermentation

is the same with penicillin as
it is with whiskey..

As a farmer, it was your
right to distill your crops

and to sell it as whiskey,
as much as you know,

making your fruit into jelly.

Whiskey was just a part
of, of running a farm.

Corn yield is up.

I trust you’ll document
and catalog every gallon.

By night,

Jack Daniel and Nearest
Greene run a secret operation.

Come back in one piece.

No promises.

Selling
moonshine to saloons

in the nearby Alabama.

Absolutely.

Jack Daniel
is walking a tight rope,

legally distilling for
Dan Call

while bootlegging on the side.

Jack Daniel
made good whiskey.

That’s all he ever wanted
to do, it’s very clear.

Hoping to
scratch together enough money

to open a distillery of his own.

He was trying to expand,
to get into more markets.

Remember, this is
all Jack knows.

So if he can’t make whiskey,
what is he gonna do?

Far from
the ramshackle stills

and seedy saloons
of the Southeast,

across the country,
there’s an alcoholic drink

more popular than water.

Beer.

People didn’t
really trust water

unless you knew the source.

Everybody knew water
could kill you.

Rivers where everybody
dumped everything.

I mean, sure you got a river,

but suppose a dead person is
a half a mile up, you know,

you’re not gonna see that and
you’re gonna drink that water.

No.

At the time,
drinking water was untreated

and wells often draw
from the same water

where people dispose
of their excrement,

leading to outbreaks
of deadly diseases

like cholera, typhoid
and dysentery.

But beer is fermented and
boiled, making it safe to drink.

One of the reasons

that the pilgrims
stopped at Plymouth

was because their
beer was running low

and they were looking to
try to somehow restock

those beer supplies.

It was much safer to drink.

So it wasn’t a luxury for them

as much as it was a necessity.

In the late
1860s, beer is made locally

and decades before
widespread refrigeration.

It’s only served
within a few miles

of the breweries that make it.

And the idea of a national
brand is completely unheard of.

At one point,

there were 1300 breweries
in the United States,

they were all local,

they delivered the beer
in horse-drawn wagons.

People had an expression
called "rushing the growler."

You sent your kid to the
saloon to fill up a pitcher.

There’s some estimates that
in New York, each adult person

drank as much as 16
pints of beer in a week.

One of the
biggest brewing cities

in the country is
St. Louis, Missouri.

An influx of German immigrants
have brought beer making

traditions that date
back hundreds of years.

By the late 19th
century, nearly one third

of local residents are German

and there’s a brewery for
every 600 people in the county.

It was an important
transportation stop

at the convergence
of two rivers.

There were always people
just passing through.

So there was a solid market
for many, many breweries.

When the German
brewers started,

they had a built in audience.

They knew that this was
gonna be the flavor of home.

In a sea
of local competition,

a successful soap manufacturer
named Eberhard Anheuser

is looking to unload his
struggling side hustle.

- Mr. Anheuser.
- Come in, come in.

By putting
his failing brewery

in the hands of his son-in-law.

Eberhard Anheuser was very
wealthy and the brewery was,

you know, just a
sideline for him.

It’s not even clear he
would’ve hung on to it

had the son-in-law
not showed up.

You’re not going to
be our supplier anymore.

- Sir-
- Because you are going to be

the new head of this brewery.

But,

I don’t know the first thing
about running a brewery.

I don’t even like beer.

Anheuser’s son-in-law
is Adolphus Busch.

He himself was not a trained
brewer, but he was literate.

He was very educated, multilingual.

Just make sure the
operation is running smoothly

and the shipments go out
on time, can you do that?

Yes, sir.

Good.

Congratulations.

Now the
new head of the brewery

is left to sink or swim.

The brewery was struggling
because there were other

better beers in St.
Louis at the time.

He just wasn’t moving
the beer that he needed

to keep that business going.

He’s overmatched for now,

but Busch’s innovation
will eventually spawn

the first national beer
brand and his signature beer

will go on to sell over
eleven billion dollars a year.

And he’s not the only
one who changed the game.

Drinking is rampant
in the United States,

but tobacco is the most popular

agricultural product in
human history.

One that’s been
used for everything

from religious
ceremonies to medicine.

Over the centuries,

it’s considered an
appetite suppressant.

It was used as a
toothpaste in the 1600s.

It was perceived in the
beginning to be quite helpful.

You hung it in the house
to ward off diseases.

You took it as a medicine.

Native Americans
used it in rituals

and we have the whole
famous story of Pocahontas.

She was actually an
ambassador for tobacco.

She went to England
to help describe

how wonderful tobacco was.

In the 1870s
more than 70% of Americans

over 12 years old used
some form of tobacco.

The tax dollars from
tobacco counted for 30%

of all the US tax
dollars at the time.

It’s a big number, I mean,
think about that.

Until the mid 20th century,

tobacco was not
assumed to be harmful.

Everybody smoked
or chewed tobacco.

Today we’re so knowledgeable

about the ill
effects of tobacco.

In that period, tobacco was seen

as an item for mass consumption,
which brought people joy.

It was something
that the elite used.

It was something that
everyday ordinary people used.

Tobacco use was
quite widespread,

but not in the ways
that people think.

We picture people
smoking cigarettes.

Well, not at all.

For the most part,
you filled the pipe,

you took a little snuff, you
did some chewing tobacco.

Today, cigarettes
are the dominant form

of tobacco with nearly 5
1/2 trillion sold each year.

But in the 1870s, they’re
considered an obscure oddity,

often made with leftover tobacco
clippings and hand rolled

and they account for less
than 1% of tobacco sold

in the United States.

Most public spaces were

covered in sawdust to absorb
the spit from tobacco spittle.

The floors must have been
sludgy with the tobacco mess

and the sawdust
that collected it.

And the highest paid
contractor in the state

of North Carolina was the
man who was paid to clean up

the tobacco mess from the
floor of the courthouse.

Cigars,
pipe tobacco,

chewing plugs and twists

are available in every city
and town in the country.

But each store packages its
own products with no oversight,

no quality control and
the idea of consistent

national brands doesn’t exist.

At the time, essentially
farmers sold their tobacco

to tobacco brokers at auctions.

And in turn, those
tobacco brokers

sold the leaf to grocers,

druggists, at a markup.

A person buying tobacco in
1870 would typically buy it

at a general store
in their community.

You have a lot of local
brands for local markets.

It was a product that was
not nationally distributed.

In Chicago, a
traveling tobacco leaf salesman

named James Buchanan "Buck" Duke

is looking for new customers.

Buck Duke is very much the
competitive go getter salesman.

He’s happy to go out on the
road and drum up business.

Couple ales, please.

Essentially, Duke
was committed to growth.

His father and
older brother run a tobacco shop

in North Carolina
called Pro Bono Publico.

Pro Bono Publico means
"for the greater good,"

well, that’s rather ironic
when we think about tobacco.

So how are sales,
any new accounts?

I’m close, dad, very close.

Saloons,

steakhouses,

hotels.

Ever, uh, do any actual work?

Just cash me out.

Washington Duke was a small
scale farmer, a storekeeper,

someone who might sell locally.

He had two sons and Buck
was actually his second son.

Ben Duke, he stays
home in North Carolina,

while Buck was focusing on
selling into new regions.

I’m not trying to
land one account.

I’m trying to turn this
company into a real competitor.

Kinda thing you can’t do
sitting behind a desk.

Cash your brother out.

But you better be
right about this.

Ben Duke is content

with their little storefront,
but Buck’s got ambitions

to expand into new markets

and he’s lined up a meeting
with a potential buyer.

Mr. Gilworth.

Thanks for coming, uh, you know,
I was hoping that we could-

Save it.

Buck Duke, he was
a very good salesman.

He traveled to the big cities

peddling their family’s product.

I obviously don’t
need a new supplier.

And he was running into
more successful competitors.

I just came for the
free drink, appreciate it.

Don’t mention it.

Someday

Buck Duke will transform the
industry from an antiquated

patchwork of small
farms of shops

into a $760 billion
global powerhouse.

Making him the third richest
man on the face of the planet.

The problem is, in 1871,
he hasn’t even found

a signature product that’ll
make it all possible

While Duke searches
for a way to change the game,

Adolphus Busch needs a way
to pull his father-in-law’s

struggling brewing
company out of the red,

but rather than competing with
more than 50 local breweries,

he sees a way to make
beer in St. Louis

and sell it where there’s
no competition at.

In the 1870s, you do have
the emergence of, kind of,

the second industrial revolution.

Through the transcontinental railroad,

you have the integration
of America, you know,

north and south and and west

are coming together
around commerce.

Just three
years ago, the Eads Bridge

was finished linking the
two sides of St. Louis

across the Mississippi river,

turning the city into a
railroad hub that connects

the east and west coast.

In the coming years,
nearly a dozen new states

will join the union.

All of the west of
the Mississippi.

These states have
not necessarily

set up enough breweries

to supply their own people.

St. Louis was centrally
located and able to ship

by both rail and by steamboat.

Okay, so if we look at the
schematic for the train car,

we have six barrels.

Right.

Busch realizes
that if he can ship his beer

to the Western frontier, he’ll
be the only game in town.

There were a number of
obstacles to growing beyond

your local community
for a brewer.

We’re talking about before
the refrigeration technology

and beer was a fresh product,
which eventually spoiled.

Things were like super hyper
localized at that time.

So could you get it
there, first of all.

Why is this second
drainage point necessary?

We wanna keep
the outflow even,

otherwise it will
stress the system.

To try and ship their
beer to warmer locations,

whether it be New Orleans,
Texas or California,

the beer is going to be
exposed to much more heat

while it’s in transit.

And a saloon owner that ends
up with a batch of spoiled beer

from Busch is not going
to be a repeat customer.

Today we
use refrigerated freight

to ship everything
from ice cream,

frozen dinners and live
seafood to medical supplies

and human organs all
across the country.

But in the 1870s,
there’s no such thing

until Adolphus Busch
pioneers it.

So how long does one load
of ice keep things cold?

Will it be long enough
to keep the beer fresh.

Sir, nothing like this exists.

We’re not gonna know
exactly how it works

until after we build it.

Busch kind of hit the
ground with this idea

of making their own
refrigerated cars.

And what they would do
is they would pack in ice

and they would have to
stop every 250 miles or so,

change out the ice
and then keep going

and they would ship
it all over the west

and all of the developing
areas of the United States,

this idea really took
people by surprise.

Okay.

Walk me through it again.

I think it’s incredibly
important to try to find

a technology that’s going to
give you a competitive edge.

And on the flip side of
that, if you don’t do it,

you can be really left
behind in the dust.

Even though
the company is already

bleeding money, nearly a
decade before refrigeration

will transform the
meat packing industry,

Adolphus Busch takes out
the modern equivalent

of more than a million
dollars in loans

to pioneer a totally new
refrigerated rail system.

And he has no idea
if it’ll pay off.

In all 37 states
across the country,

the population is surging.

Over the 1870s, it’ll increase
by nearly 12 million people,

almost double the
previous decade

and demand for booze is soaring.

The growth of the city’s
definitely went hand in hand

with the growth of vice
because you have a congregation

of people and there’s money
and there’s accessibility.

So, you could have a
brothel district,

saloons that refuse
to close at night.

If you’re living 40 miles
from everybody on the farm,

you know, it’s a,
it’s a long haul to,

to do something naughty.

Cities become associated with
what some people would call

iniquity or evil, right?

Cities will corrupt you.

It’ll corrupt you through sex.

It’ll corrupt you
through alcohol.

It’ll corrupt you through lust.

It’ll corrupt you through
like all kinds of things.

In this
era, Americans drink

almost 800,000 gallons
of liquor a year

and guzzle more than 4
million gallons of beer.

And there’s a rising
tide of people

determined to put a stop to it.

The excess of alcohol
use begins to worry people,

particularly as America
begins to industrialize.

If people can’t get
up and go to work

and take care of their families,

then of course alcohol
is seen as a problem

because it’s undermining the
very fabric of the economy,

but also the fabric of the home.

Alcohol, of course,
in that time frame

is still kind of unregulated.

People were going out of
their minds with it, drunk,

it was causing abusive
relationships, violence,

all these things.

A group with
anti-vice sentiments,

called the temperance movement,

dates all the way
back to the late 1700s

when Americans began drinking
less low proof beer and cider

and more hard liquor.

Now moonshine is rampant
and the movement is back

with a vengeance.

There was a very strong

temperance movement
in the United States,

connecting drinking alcohol
to the downfall of the family

because men would get their
paycheck and they would go out

to bars and they would
spend at the saloon,

all of their paycheck.

They would then, you know,
run off with a loose woman.

People in America
value individual choice.

They don’t want people to
temper with their choice

to have a drink or to smoke.

But the reality is that
we live in a society

and other people have a choice
not to be in a smokey room

or to have a drink.

There’s a tension and
constant conversation

about who should be
allowed to indulge in this.

Jack Daniel
and Nearest Greene

have been distilling
for Reverend Dan Call

and scraping out money
bootlegging on the side.

Now the temperance
movement is taking root

in the reverend’s congregation.

There you are.

I need to talk to you about
things down at the still house.

I, I already know
what you’re gonna say.

Jasper just, just hold on.

I’m shutting down
the still for awhile.

What?

Temperance accelerated
in places like Tennessee,

which were much more Christian,

and people were already
sort of predisposed

through their particular
form of Christianity

to be anti-alcohol.

I know you’re disappointed.

- Yeah.
- But I’ve made up my mind.

No, you can’t do that.

Look, if you just
listen to me...

I’m shutting it down!

Dan Call, who’s a Reverend
for the church that was nearby,

and so it was a little
bit of a conflict for him

because his wife was also
very much a temperance woman.

That’s final.

Yes, sir.

Losing a business partner
is always deeply disturbing.

And Jack had always looked
to Dan as a father figure

and as a mentor,
to now lose him,

and to lose him over
something like temperance,

it would’ve been a
particular insult.

Without
Call’s still,

Jack Daniel is
suddenly out a job

and his bootlegging side
hustle is dead in the water.

For now.

Jack Daniel and
Nearest Greene

spent years distilling

and secretly bootlegging
on Dan Call’s farm.

But now the temperance movement

is gripping the religious south.

I think in every generation
there are politicians

and religious figures
who sincerely believe

they’re a moment in time as
like part of this great decline

in morality in
the United States.

I mean, you had
politicians at that time

railing against what
they said were vices.

What they were trying to
do is restore normalcy.

They were trying
to kind of restore

a Protestant Christian
moral America.

Under mounting
pressure from his congregation,

Dan Call shut his still down,

leaving Jack and
Nearest unemployed.

To start over
scratch someplace else.

You make it sound
so simple, but it ain’t.

Jack really did want
to become his own person

and his own distiller.

Distilling was where
he could see himself

making a mark in the world.

You know, whiskey was his
way to kind of get beyond

small town life and to really
do something I think special.

I’m doing this.

I want you to come with me.

Now, now that’s complicated.

I think he developed a
pretty meaningful relationship

with uncle Nearest at a time
when a lot of his neighbors

didn’t want to
acknowledge his existence

and Jack was not
shy about, you know,

telling people that that’s
who taught him how to distill.

It’s up to you.

You wanna come work with me?

It’s a critical importance

to choose the right
business partner.

Businesses are not about ideas.

They’re about the
execution of those ideas.

So it’s more than just what
you’re doing in business,

but also it’s who
you’re doing it with.

I think Nearest Greene
ultimately had respect for Jack

and wanted to help
him fulfill his dream.

But then also he was
looking for an opportunity

to become something for himself.

You damn right I do.

You’re killing me,
you know that right?

An orphan
and former enslaved person

are risking everything to
start their own distillery,

even as the tide of
temperance is rising.

While performers
are targeting hard liquor,

in the mid 1870s, beer
isn’t on their radar.

In the 19th century, when
anti alcohol fervor began,

the great enemy,
then, was spirits,

especially whiskey and rum.

Many people started
latching onto beer

as kind of an
antidote to alcohol.

It wasn’t as alcoholic and
you could drink that and you,

it could still be respectable.

Adolphus
Busch wants to sell beer

outside St. Louis and he’s
designed groundbreaking

refrigerated rail cars to do it.

Now he’s working on a beer

that’ll appeal to
American tastes.

Some of them are close.

For months
he’s been working

with his brewmasters
to crack the code.

What would you suggest?

More hops, less hops,
more body, less body.

Just bring me options.

I’ll know it when I taste it.

Now he’s brought in

an industry friend
named Carl Conrad.

I’m on the verge
of being pleased.

Who has
a version of a recipe

for a popular European
beer called lager.

The two main types
of beer: ale and lager.

Ale’s are warm fermenting
beers that might ferment,

say at room temperature.

The German word lagern
means "to store."

These are beers that have a
long and cold fermentation.

They would actually ferment
these beers down in caves

underneath the ground.

The lagering
process kills more bacteria

than making ale and results
in a more refreshing beer.

Adolphus Busch
believes Americans

will love crisp lagger.

If he can get the recipe right.

The hops are imported
from Czechoslovakia.

The yeast is the best
you can find in Germany.

But you disagree.

Maybe that’s the problem.

I don’t wanna recreate
a European recipe,

this is America.

We need an American beer.

Good luck with that.

German lager brewers
had been trained

under the "Reinheitsgebot,"
which was the German purity law

regulating the ingredients
that could be used in beer.

However, Adolphus Busch
himself was not a brewer

and America was a land
where the old restrictions

and European traditions
didn’t necessarily apply.

Busch and his brew
masters begin experimenting

with American ingredients
using four and six row barley.

But after investing
in a refrigerated rail system

to deliver a signature beer,

so far, he has nothing
to show for it.

Meanwhile, Buck Duke has
traveled all over the country

trying to find new buyers
for his family’s tobacco.

It’s a no.

But he
hasn’t made a single sale.

The 1800s, cigarettes
weren’t really that popular.

You know, cigarettes at the time

were really primarily for women.

And most men did not engage
in cigarette smoking.

They would chew the tobacco,
were smoking the pipe,

or having a cigar.

A cigarette.

You mean people
actually buy these.

Early cigarettes were not
manufactured cigarettes.

This is just tobacco leaf
that’s a, a, a consumer

will later roll themselves
into a cigarette.

I get 10 minutes for
my break, no exceptions.

If I take too long
to smoke I don’t eat.

Hmm.

And it’s like that for
everyone that works here?

How many people would
you say that that is?

Couple hundred, give or take.

If you go back and look
at the late 19th century

American economy and look
at all the factory workers

and mechanics and others
skilled tradesmen.

And, uh, a lot of them smoke?

That portability of
the cigarette helped make

the cigarette
particularly suited

to more modern urban
industrial life.

Thank you.

I’ll be damned.

Is that a cigarette?

You see that?

See what?

I just had a nice easy smoke

in the time it took you
to get that pipe lit.

Filling a pipe and lighting
it and tamping it down

and keeping it going, it
was a complicated operation.

And, uh, why should we care?

Because new factories
are being built every day,

textile mills, oil
refineries, steel plants.

And you know what they
all have in common?

Hundreds of men working long
hours with short breaks.

Roughly the duration
of one cigarette.

The cigarette, it’s
really a convenience factor

that then fits into the notion
of that good, short, sweet

smoke, which fits also then

into the pattern of industrialization

that is getting going
rapidly in the north.

You think you’re gonna
sell, all them workers,

a novelty made for women.

That’s a terrible idea.

I’m telling you,

it’ll catch on.

Buck Duke’s
father has a choice to make,

maintain the status quo or
risk the future of his company

on an obscure tobacco product
that’s ridiculed as a novelty.

The cigarette.

Buck Duke
has convinced his father

that despite their
terrible reputation,

cigarettes could be the future
of the tobacco industry.

Most Americans did
not consume cigarettes

at the turn of the century.

Cigarettes were seen as
making men more effeminate

and making women more masculine.

To transform the
family’s small tobacco shop

into a hand-rolling factory,

he spends the modern
equivalent of 75 grand

to steal the specialized
workforce he needs

to bring them to North Carolina.

Most cigarette rollers
in the late 19th century

are Jewish immigrants.

Cigarettes are actually
more popular in Russia,

so there’s a kind of expertise.

Buck Duke hires 125
cigarette rollers

from a New York based firm,

hires them down to Durham

and they set up shop
at W. Duke and Sons.

Back then, a professional
cigarette roller

could roll about four good
cigarettes at a minute.

Duke introduces
pre-rolled cigarettes

in his family shop

and needs a way to get people
to try them, especially men.

What’s all this?

Look, this one is
Jack Nego, right?

But next time,

next time it could just
as easily be Art Benedict.

Now customers can
collect the whole set.

Seems silly. How
does this help us?

Ben, the customers
want the cards.

So they buy our products.

Now the stores sell out,

they order more from us.

Buck Duke needed something
unique to cut through.

So they came out
with trading cards

they were literally making
baseball trading cards

to sell tobacco.

Now the best part,

watch this.

We’re Texas Cigarettes
during shipping.

To
build recognition

years before national
brands exist,

Duke launches his
hand-rolled cigarettes

under a brand, W. Duke and Sons,

one of the first branded
cigarettes in the country.

And to drive demand,

he pours $800,000,
23 million today,

into a marketing campaign,

powered by ads and
collectable cards,

betting that this new
product would become

the future of the
tobacco industry.

Adolphus Busch has
already waged the lager

as the future of beer,

and that he could ship it
in refrigerated rail cars

to the US frontier.

But after months of
working on a recipe

that caters to American tastes,

his brew masters have
yet to get it right.

We try to achieve
the perfect balance

between Christmas and body
without too much bite.

I think I like this.

An American twist on a
beer I found in Budweis.

Budweis.

Budweis the town
in Czechoslovakia.

Get this into
production right away.

In 1876,
Budweiser Beer is born.

When you think
of American beer,

you only think of
one thing, Budweiser.

With Budweiser,

it’s a brand that’s up there
with Coca-Cola, McDonald’s,

you’re never gonna pick
one up in another country

or in another part of the world

and say,

"This is a completely different
Budweiser than I’m used to."

Busch
begins shipping Budweiser

to saloons across the Southwest,

gambling, hundreds of
thousands of dollars

that people will drink a
beer they’ve never heard of.

By the late 19th century,

New York is the industrial
capital in the nation.

The lure of factory jobs
brings a flood of immigrants

from all across the globe,

and the city’s population
doubles every decade

between 1800 and 1880.

The late 19th
century is a key moment

in the urbanization
of the United States.

We see an incredible rise
in the density of housing

with the erection of
tenements in New York city,

cramped conditions,

shared living quarters,

dirty streets.

The nine square blocks of
the Jewish Lower East Side

was the most crowded
mile in the world.

More crowded than anywhere
in India or China,

because it had five
storeys of people

crowded upon each other.

Not all buildings were
connected to the sewer system,

so you had outhouses
at these places,

the smells coming up,

there was no ventilation.

And then nobody had hot water,

so nobody washed that often.

Many people
lived in filth squalor.

But there’s one district
infamous for its poverty

and crime.

It’s called the Tenderloin.

The Tenderloin District
was a vice district

in New York city during
the late 19th century,

early 20th century.

And this is an area where
you had tenement houses,

you had brothels, you
had gambling dens.

The term, the Tenderloin,

supposedly came from a
New York Police Captain.

He was being transferred
to a vice district

where he was gonna
make a lot more graft.

Police officers could take
so many bribes back then

he would make so much money,

he could now eat tenderloin,

instead of rump steak.

One resident
of the Tenderloin

is a German immigrant who
was born partially paralyzed.

He’s, Julia Schmidt,

and after having to sell some
of his clothing just to eat,

he now works long hours
at a local factory.

Hey, this is my bench.

Just resting, I’m
already at work.

Julia Schmidt came
to America at a time

when there was tremendous
prejudice against immigrants,

and for Schmidt,

it was compounded by the fact

that he was also
physically handicapped.

Julia Schmidt
already had a trade

which was making
casings for sausages

out of animal membranes.

Julia
Schmidt barely scrapes by

working at a sausage factory.

Julia Schmidt, I
mean, here he is,

he’s on a crutch bum leg,

and he lives in the seediest
section of Manhattan

where there’s prostitution

and just all kinds of illegal
activities that’s going on.

People can be born into the
opportunity to create success,

or they could create
success out of necessity.

Despite
his humble beginnings,

the product Schmidt
innovates will one day

prevents all manner
of deadly disease,

rewrite US law,

ignite a sexual revolution

and fuel a $9 billion industry.

New York City is
growing fast,

and greed and crime
and corruption,

lurk in every dark alley.

New York City was a very
rough, crowded, dangerous place.

Prostitution was
way more common,

and even though it was illegal,

it was basically
sanctioned by the police.

They took bribes to allow
the brothels to continue.

There was an estimate
that one in six adult men

went to a prostitute every day.

In the heart of
New York’s seedy under alley,

Julia Schmidt can’t
make ends meet

working at a local
sausage factory,

but he scratches out living
with his side hustle,

making products out of scraps
from the factory floor.

Julia Schmidt actually sold
and marketed sausage casings,

creating a condom.

It’s hard for us to imagine
today in the 21st century.

The idea of using an
intestine for a condom

is actually genius.

It’s really durable,

and it’s gonna give
you a skin like feel.

Now the downside is that
it will get funky, right?

And for some thinking
about a pig intestine

around their genitals,

that might not be as romantic.

Talk about a sausage fest.

Some version of condoms

date all the way back to 1000
years before the common era,

where people used oiled
linen, silk, leather,

and even thin horn
as prophylactics.

Animal intestines were
used in parts of Europe

as early as the 16th century.

But in the late 1800s,

it’s still a foreign concept
in the United States.

In fact, thanks to
an anti vice crusader

named Anthony Comstock,

all forms of prophylactic
are against the law.

Anthony Comstock was
a chubby baldheaded,

mutton-chopped reformer,

a federal public official in
the Post Office Department

who thought he knew
everything about

what was obscene and what
needed to be prevented.

And he took the
definition of obscene

all the way to birth
control devices and condoms.

If you allow men to have
sex with no fear of VD

and no fear of
impregnating anyone,

they will have more sex.

That was his logic.

Working in the
vice-filled Tenderloin District,

Schmidt should have no
shortage of customers

for his condoms,

if he could sell them
without getting caught.

The budding temperance
movement forced Jack Daniel

out of a job,

but instead of giving up,

he’s going legit,

investing every penny
he’s ever made bootlegging

to open a legal
licensed distillery,

with Nearest Green is
a master distiller,

and Nearest’s son, George,
to help run the place.

It’s absolutely important

to recognize Nathan
Green’s story

in the Jack Daniel’s story.

It acknowledges the
African American role

and our participation
in building up

the whiskey industry
here in America.

We know that we were a part of
the story from the beginning.

Unlike Moonshiners

who make their booze
in makeshift stills

sell it cheap and untaxed,

Jack Daniel’s new whiskey will
be subject to heavy taxation.

So he and Green need a product

they can charge more money for.

To make it,

they use a technique
called sour mash,

which creates lactic acid
that kills unwanted bacteria

during fermentation.

Then they use charcoal
to filter their liquor,

to remove any impurities.

It’s a system now known as
the Lincoln County Process.

These blends are single malt.

These are blends made from
the samples you already have.

In West Africa in
order to get clean water,

they filter it through charcoal,

Nathan Green, mastered and
included that principle

of running Moonshine
through charcoal,

maple to strip
some of that bite,

to strip some of that harsh
flavors and mellow it out.

The last
step in Jack and Nearest’s

whiskey making process

is mellowing it by aging
it in charred oak barrels.

It’s not bad, but
it ain’t perfect.

More time in the barrel it is.

Buck Duke has
spent the last few years

slowly building his
hand-rolled cigarette business,

marketed with baseball
cards under a brand name.

Their popularity grows
month after month.

And by 1884, he’s selling
90 million cigarettes a year

from the South to the
industrial Northeast.

Oh ah, we need to talk.

All right.

We’re three weeks
behind on our deliveries.

Of course, cigarettes
are in hot demand

from the factory workers.

Our salesmen are
suddenly drowning,

and at this pace is
only gonna be worse.

The hand-rollers
at Duke’s firm

rolled cigarettes
slowly and gently,

which meant wastefulness
and inefficiency.

We’re running
at full capacity.

Mmm-hmm.

Can we add more workers?

We don’t have the room.

I need a minute to think.

Just
a few years before,

21 year old engineer,

James Bonsack patented

an automatic cigarette
rolling machine,

entering it in a competition
to win a $75,000 prize,

the modern equivalent
of over a million.

Bonsack won,

but the company that sponsored
it rejected the machine

to avoid paying up.

That leaves the revolutionary
technology up the grabs.

Oh, that’s beautiful.

We’ll open a new
factory in New York,

filling it with these beauties

and we are going
fully automated.

We’re never gonna fall
behind that man again.

Um,

did you just say New York?

The late 19th century
sees New York City

assume a dominance in the
economic system of America,

emerges in this period

as the financial capital
of the United States.

But the cost of what
you’re talking about,

I can’t even think of
a number high enough.

I’ve already secured
a loan and a location.

No, no, no, no, Buck...

That kind of debt is
going to cripple us.

Just trust me.

Believing he can
expand his cigarette kingdom

into an empire,

Buck Duke leverages the company

to make a bold move to New York,

Damn it, Buck.

and bet its future
on automation.

Adolphus Busch has
made Budweiser

the first American beer

to be shipped by
refrigerated rail,

investing millions of dollars

to sell it in New Mexico,
Texas and Colorado.

But after a brief surge,

sales are suddenly plummeting.

This one is from
here in St. Louis.

This is from a barrel we
confiscated in New Mexico.

In the 19th century, most
beer was sold out of a barrel.

You go to a saloon, someone taps
a beer and hands it to you.

This is watered down.

Mmm hmm.

How common is this?

It’s everywhere.

Adolphus soon discovered

that he would sell barrels
of beer to a saloon keeper,

and saloon keepers
would take his barrels,

fill them with cheap beer,

which no surprise
was infuriating.

It’s hurting our sales

and there’s not much
we can do about it.

Get this outta my sight.

Busch needs a way

to ensure the
quality of Budweiser

or his beer will
never pave the way

for alcohol brands
to go national.

Julia Schmidt sells
illegal condoms.

Also called safes or skins

in the sleazy back alleys

of New York City’s
Tenderloin District.

Three skins.

Just sold the last one, but
I’ll be back tomorrow night.

Oh, I’ll make it,
worth your while.

Sorry. But I
really I’m sold out.

So Julia Schmidt
was incredibly savvy

because he really found a
product that people needed.

It’s not to knock sausages,

but they don’t have quite
the same appeal that a condom

which can protect
you against disease,

but also prevent
unwanted pregnancies.

Okay.

Tomorrow night,
but bring me six.

Julia
Schmidt illegal condoms

are selling so well,

he can’t keep them in stock.

But anything he does to expand

runs the risk of drawing
unwanted attention

from the authorities.

In Tennessee,

Jack Daniel and Nearest
Green’s new distillery

won’t be able to make a sale

until they perfect their
more expensive legal whiskey

by aging it.

Okay boys, to
your good health.

Although whiskey was a
theme back in those times,

it had not been perfected
over the generations yet.

So I think it would’ve
been a little bit harsher,

a little bit higher proof.

Dry spice, vanilla, hint
of smoke, sweet finish.

Well it’s strong as hell.

Yup.

As a final touch,

Jack Daniel’s high proof whiskey

is cut with water sourced
from a natural spring

in a nearby cave.

All right.

This is the best
whiskey I’ve ever tasted,

and it ain’t close.

I agree.

Nearest?

I think this is it.

All right.

Jack
Daniel’s Whiskey

is finally ready
to hit the market.

All he needs is for local
customer to give it a chance.

Budweiser is shipped by rail
to states in the Southwest,

but it’s only sold in barrels.

So Adolphus Busch is up
against countless saloon keepers

who are watering it down.

He’s trying to figure
out what can I possibly do

to avoid this cheating
on the part of people

who are selling my beer

Bottle would have a label on it,

with a trademark on it,

clearly indicating
where that come from

and a saloon keeper

isn’t gonna go to the trouble
of refilling the bottle

and trying to recap it.

Today,

over 65 billion individually
packaged 12 ounce beers

are consumed in the
United States every year.

But at the time,

the idea of mass producing and
selling any bottled beverage

is practically unthinkable.

To change that,

Adolphus Busch needs
another infusion of cash,

but he’s already too deep
in debt to get a loan.

And his father-in-law Eberhard
Anheuser is his last hope.

When it’s fully operational,

we are talking about
thousands of bottles a day.

Maybe that many every hour.

We have barely recovered

from building your
refrigerator rail cars.

I know.

This guarantees the
beer taste the same way,

every time, everywhere.

Each one’s sealed and sterilized

using the same techniques as
the finest wineries in France.

Busch was shrewd,
he was smart.

He was fluent in French,

and he read Louis
Pasteur in the original,

when it first came out.

He’s probably one of the first
people in the United States

who knew about pasteurization
and its possibilities.

Nearly half a
century before pasteurization

will revolutionize
the dairy industry,

Busch wants to adopt the
process for his beer.

It kills bacteria,

and will make every bottle
of Budweiser shelf stable.

I know it’s expensive,

but I bet we can get it
all the way to the coasts.

Just imagine our
products in every state.

Where technology comes
from is usually beer.

Refrigeration was
invented for beer.

Things like pasteurization,

people were like,
"Oh, great for milk."

No, pasteurization
was invented for beer.

I’ll consider it.

Buck
Duke taken out loans

to move his tobacco company

from small town
in North Carolina,

to New York City.

Buck Duke was a Republican,

which meant he was not
necessarily comfortable

in the politics of
North Carolina

in the late 19th century.

He was a money man,
oriented toward the bankers.

I like to imagine
that his accent

was a little bit off
putting in New York

where he did most
of his business.

He’s
opening a factory

to industrialize cigarettes,

and betting everything
on the Bonsack machine.

Let’s get it opened up.

And he’s
hired an engineer

to oversee quality control.

Bring me another batch

and they better
show improvement.

I can’t.

The machine is uh,

indisposed.

Indisposed?

My wife is indisposed
when she has a cold,

machines, don’t get indisposed.

When Buck Duke
first established

and began using the Bonsack
cigarette rolling machine,

it didn’t work at all.

It should be up and running
by the end of the day.

Don’t come back until
the machine works.

The Bonsack
machine’s been sidelined

for months and Buck’s
brother, Ben,

is watching the bottom line.

We’ve um, barely been able
to stay ahead of expenses

for months.

We’ve got a $200
payment coming in,

should be in the next week.

But after that,

that’s it, it’s all we have.

At least it’s something.

We owe $12,000, due this week.

You know what 200 minus
12,000 looks like?

Beg, lie if you
have to, all right?

Buy me a few weeks, Ben,
until I can fix this.

Now it is by no means
a foregone conclusion

that mechanically
made cigarettes

would come to dominate
cigarette production.

In the 1880s,

it is commonly held wisdom

that the machine is
simply too glitchy.

I’ll do what I can, but
you can’t pull this off,

we’re done.

I know.

Buck and Ben
Duke have risked their company

on an automated
cigarette rolling machine

and waited months
for it to work.

Now they’re waiting for results
from the latest test run.

And I thought you said
by noon. Its past noon.

It’s 12:02, relax.

The machine’s
running smoothly,

clocking in at about
190 cigarettes an hour,

and they all look like this.

Start shipping
these immediately.

Each
Bonsack machine

produces over 200
cigarettes per minute,

doing the work of 40
to 60 hand workers,

and Duke invests in
two dozen of them.

Buck Duke’s 24 Bonsack
cigarette rolling machines

in 1889 replaced 1,080 workers
in hand-rolling jobs,

and produced 834
million cigarettes.

Every single one of those
cigarettes was the same.

Duke’s
machine rolled cigarettes

are a sensation.

Within a single year,

his company controls nearly 90%

of the American
cigarette market.

Cigars and chewing tobacco

were still the industry’s
biggest sellers,

but it’s enough to vault Duke

into the top five tobacco
companies in the country,

and he’s still rising

In New York city’s
Tenderloin district,

The Comstock Act has made
selling condoms illegal,

but working secretly
out of his apartment,

Julia Schmidt’s selling
more sausage casing condoms

than he could keep up with.

I can’t imagine
being in the shoes

of someone who’s running
an illegal business.

Short.

That layer of risk

that authorities are
going to discover you

or that someone is going
to break your knee caps,

or something like that.

You’ve got vices, smoking,
drinking, sex and prostitution.

The reformers are there
on the other side.

Both sides are
working in a sense

for what they define as a
soul of those communities.

Schmidt is
making a name for himself

in the New York underground,

and he won’t be able
to stay hidden forever.

Adolphus Bush has taken a
loan from his father-in-law

and invested the
modern equivalent

of millions of dollars

in the state-of-the-art
bottling facility,

and he’s using it
to make Budweiser

not only the first mass
produced bottled beer

in American history,

but the first industrial
bottled drink of any kind.

Most entrepreneurs
take blind risks.

They have an idea,

they have a passion and
they just want to go for it.

Adolphus Busch started pasteurization,

and refrigeration and bottling,

so he could distribute his beer

all across the United States.

And most people
could only afford

to drink beer in the pub.

And so when you got
the bottled one,

it was seen as somewhat swanky,

you know, the king of
beer, the beer of Kings.

If this beer was
seen in your home,

it would mean that you
were a higher class person.

Busch
ships his Budweiser

to states across the Southwest,

introducing it with
an unprecedented

marketing campaign.

Can I get the
logo on both sides?

You can.

He offers saloon’s
free perks like coasters,

calendars, and signs,

and advertises through
the most powerful

form of mass media at the time.

Newspaper advertising was
one of the most important ways

to get to customers
during the late 1800

and the early 1900s,

in the days before
radio and television.

People would see these ads,

they would demand that
their local saloon keeper

or restaurant bring
in Budweiser beer.

Budweiser, to me, its success

is more of a result
of brilliant branding

than brilliant brewing.

They mastered the marketing
and branding of their product

and they are dominant
because of it.

Soon,

Budweiser is selling
millions of bottles a year,

and with the temperance
movement focused on liquor

and not beer,

Adolphus Busch has his site
set on national expansion.

The Busch’s had a dream

that the world of beer would
belong entirely to them.

You know,

if you are able to capture
the entirety of the market,

you could make all the money,

not your fair
share of the money,

not like some
slice of the money,

all the money.

Jack
Daniel and Nearest Green

have finally introduced their
premium signature whiskey

to the local market.

But they’re charging a premium
price and nobody’s buying it.

As a distiller,

you aren’t responsible
for the cost

that the federal government
will get from the excise tax

on that whiskey.

And there are a
lot of people who,

if they’re given the option

between Moonshine and
Tennessee whiskey,

they’re gonna choose Moonshine.

And I think Jack Daniel bet
his career on making good stuff

as opposed to cheap stuff.

Reverend.

Then he gets
an even more devastating

piece of news.

What!

No. No.

Get out!

1890, before the
whiskey they created together

even gets off the ground.

The righteous perish,

and no one takes it to heart.

Jack Daniel
loses his friend and mentor,

Nearest Green.

The devout are taken from us

and no one understands,

the righteous are taken
away to be spared.

I think Nearest Green’s death

would’ve impacted
Jack Daniel greatly,

not even from a
business standpoint,

but from a personal standpoint,

he lost his friend,
he lost his teacher,

and he lost his
partner in business.

And so I’m quite
sure that Jack Daniel

was devastated when
Nearest Green died.

Jack Daniel learned
to distill from Nearest,

and that’s what made
his whiskey good,

and I think Jack Daniel knew

that’s what made
his whiskey good

and would not have wanted
to work with anybody else.

If Jack Daniel
was going to find a way

to revolutionize the
whiskey industry,

he’s going to have
to do it on his own.

Julia Schmidt is
now the biggest condom dealer

in the Tenderloin District,

selling them in secret
out of his apartment,

careful to stay one step
ahead of anti-vice crusader,

Anthony Comstock.

Can I help you?

Yeah, I’m here for skins.

No idea. What
you’re talking about.

Have a nice night.

You could always find condoms

despite the fact that
they were not legal.

A part of it is still that
idea of secret knowledge.

So you would ask around
where can I find condoms,

it just was not always
discussed openly.

Hey, hey, hey, I just
need one box. Come on.

I don’t know you, friends.

Like I said, I have no
idea what you’re talking.

You might find someone
who sells the condoms

and you can buy them directly
from them on the street.

Jimmy sent me,

he ran out and he said
I could find some here.

Jimmy?

Yeah. From Ward
Saloon Downtown.

Give me a second.

I would think people
thought anti-vice crusaders

were definitely against freedom.

They were in a way busy bodies

who thought they knew better
about how you should live,

and there was a lot of pushback.

It was not freedom.

Officers.

What is this?

You know what it is.

In 1890,
despite every precaution,

Julia Schmidt’s apartment is
raided by Anthony Comstock

He’s areested and all his
merchandise is confiscated.

Just a few miles away,

Buck Duke’s industrial
rolling machines

have put him at the forefront
of the cigarette business,

with output surging from 9
million cigarettes a year

to a staggering 2 million a day.

When Buck Duke discontinued
hand-rolling operations

of cigarettes,

he was operating

24 different Bonsack
cigarette rolling machines.

Buck Duke was just taking
advantage of the moment.

I think he saw
economies of scale,

and as a result, he leaped.

By 1890, cigarettes
account for less than 10%

of the tobacco
industry as a whole,

but it’s growing.

And Duke’s visionary
leadership has propelled him

into the so-called big
five tobacco companies.

People keep congratulating me

on making it into
the "Big Five".

What number are we nowadays?

Five.

The Duke family at this time,

they are by no means the
biggest player in town.

Well, I’m sure that’s still
quite an accomplishment.

That title is held by the
William Blackwell Company,

which has, for a while,

the largest smoking tobacco
factory in the world.

What’s that supposed to mean?

When I go down to the track,

I don’t bet a horse to show,

I bet it to win.

And in fact, it’s Blackwell’s
dominance of smoking tobacco

that pushes the ever
competitive Buck Duke.

Buck Duke
has clawed his way

to the top tier of
the tobacco industry,

but he’s not finished yet.

Armed with his
shelf-stable Budweiser

and a growing fleet of
refrigerated rail cars,

Adolphus Busch is expanding
beyond the Southwest

into new markets,

and he dominates every
new territory he enters.

Beer in those days,

this was the day of
the robber barons.

So this was a
cutthroat of business.

You’re gonna roll your
army up to the gates

and you’re gonna sack the
other guy’s castle, right?

And you’re gonna burn it.

You’re gonna take
over all of his forts,

once you have secured that town,

you then roll onto
the next town.

Thanks to
Busch’s relentless innovation,

Budweiser becomes not just
the first national beer brand,

but one of the earliest
national brands in the country.

National brands were
not all that prevalent.

Busch really was a
pioneer in branding beer.

They also pioneered
pasteurization of beer

and refrigerated rail cars.

To success.

So here you went from
everybody being local

to this national brand,

you know, spreading
across the country

and that was new.

To your promotion,

I’m making you a partner.

I told you to maintain the
status quo and you ignored me.

You were right.

I don’t know how to thank you.

To become a partner in
the Anheuser company is...

Anheuser Busch.

Anheuser Busch.

Congratulations.

By 1890,

thanks to his
machine-rolled cigarettes,

Buck Duke is head of the
fifth largest tobacco company

in the nation,

but he’ll stop at
nothing to be number one.

I need you to
contact our sales team

and let them know
we’re slashing prices.

Good afternoon to you too.

I want to be the cheapest
brand on the market

by the end of the week.

Buck, why the hell
would we want to do this

when sales are an all time high?

Buck Duke was an
aggressive businessman

who had no qualms about
using predatory pricing.

Our competition will lower
their prices to compete,

and when they do,

we’ll under cut that again.

Duke’s method was cut prices

to either drive a
competitor out of business,

or to compel that competitor
to sell out to him.

Ben, we’re either
first, or we’re losing.

Buck Duke intended
to use cigarettes

in order to finance
his price wars

against other branches
of the industry.

And he poured millions of
dollars into this process.

Duke lowers
the price of his cigarettes

to 5 cents for a pack of 10,

half the cost of
his competitors.

The move sends
profits plummeting.

But that’s a strategy
to bleed his own company

to hurt competitors more

and see who blinks first.

Jack Daniel
is on his own

and he needs to convince
people to try his expensive

premium whiskey.

So he’s starting with the
bottle that’s sold in.

None of these
are good enough.

Back in those days,

the bottles, they were jugs,

they were any sort of, you know,

container that folks could
just go and get a refill,

essentially, of
their own whiskey,

and then take it home.

There wouldn’t be, you know,
this iconic labeling involved.

I want more options
on my desk on Monday.

You got it.

Jack Daniel is totally
reimagining his whiskey’s image,

not just with new packaging,

but a legend he could
sell along with it.

We perceive that distillers
have been these guys

in seer sucker suits,

sitting on a porch
somewhere in Kentucky,

sipping on a mint julip,

when in fact distillers have
always been the marginalized

people of society.

First, it was slaves.

Then it was who for whatever
reason mainstream society

had said, we don’t want
to do business with you.

Jack Daniel is the
picture of this.

Jack Daniel
transforms himself

from a rough tumble orphan

into the Quinter Central
Southern gentleman.

And in 1895,

he debuts a new signature
bottle to evoke a square deal.

A square bottle in
a sea of round bottles

or oval bottles,

or circular bottles
is easy to pick out.

The Jack Daniel’s
label is iconic,

black label, white lettering
with a number 7 on it.

That Number 7 has
its own meaning,

some say it was a distillery,

some say it was the amount
of girlfriends he had,

or it was his seventh recipe.

Now armed
with his signature look

and the iconic bottle
that still bears his name,

Jack Daniel sets his sights,

not just on
dominating Tennessee,

but the entire nation.

Jack Daniel was not
only ahead of his time,

he was one of the founders
of American branding

as we understand it.

He was making a commodity,

which was not branded whiskey.

It was like corn or like milk.

But Jack took that

and turned it into what
we now recognize as brand,

and was one of the
first to really do that

in a dramatic way,

and one that is
remarkably persisted

and continues even now.

700 Miles away.

Have a seat, please.

Buck
Duke’s price war

has brought the entire
tobacco industry to its knees.

And he’s called a meeting
of the big five companies

to bully them into a cease fire.

Look,

I know I’m not the most popular
man in this room right now,

but that’s why I’ve
brought you all out here

was to make amends.

Why would we make amends
with someone who spent the last

year trying to put us
all out of business?

Buck Duke,

he’s an incredible entrepreneur.

He’s a man with
tremendous vision.

He’s also a man that a
lot of people don’t like

for various reasons.

He tends to be a
little arrogant.

Because I’m gonna
spend the next year

making all of us a
hell of a lot of money.

I don’t wanna fight you anymore,

I want us to work together.

If we do that,

we’ll become the
biggest tobacco concern

in the history of
the planet overnight,

under my leadership, of course.

And if we’re not interested?

And we’ll keep
right on fighting

and see how many of you survive,

I’m prepared to lower my
prices another 5% on Monday,

are you?

Buck Duke goes
out and makes a deal

with four of his
major competitors.

And they all fall
under the umbrella

with the formation
of American Tobacco.

A decade
before U.S. Steel is formed,

and eight years before
Nabisco is founded,

Buck Duke merges with his
four largest competitors,

forming a conglomerate
called American Tobacco,

with an initial
estimated valuation

of over seven and a half
billion dollars in modern money.

The American Tobacco
Company were part

of the great merger movement
in American business.

We see this with
Andrew Carnegie,

we see it with the other great
industrialists of the age.

Buck Duke is part of this trend.

By the 1890s into 1900,

they are controlling 90, 95
for the sale of all cigarettes

in the United States.

The irony of all of this is

Buck Duke personally
hated cigarettes.

American Tobacco
is now the most powerful

tobacco company on earth,

and nothing can threaten
their dominance for now.

Let’s go.

Prohibition sends
the booze racket underground-

Keep it quiet

and puts the makers

of Jack Daniel’s and Budweiser

on the wrong side of the law.

You are under arrest
for violating Section 37,

Article 2 of the penal code

We’ve been indicted.

The First World
War becomes an unlikely front

in the battle for
legal condoms.

Yes, condoms. Rubber condoms.

And the
numbers game in Harlem-

Be discrete.

touches off a turf
war with the New York mafia

over a gambling ring-

Just make sure you pay up.

that’ll
become the state lotto.

You think you can come
in here and intimidate me?