Business History

The stock market was once a Wild West free-for-all. There were few rules or regulations. Investors were more or less gambling, or manipulating stocks to make a profit. This is the world Jesse Livermore came to dominate. He would often bet against the market, making money when businesses failed. 

By 1929, Livermore was rich and famous. And then the Wall Street stock bubble burst. Share prices went through the floor, fortunes disappeared, and lives were ruined. Many blamed Livermore, some even sent him death threats. But what of Livermore's fortune? Did he make the right calls during the Wall Street Crash?     

Curt Flood was the best center fielder in baseball and one of the game's highest payed players. He helped the St Louis Cardinals reach the 1968 World Series... but then got traded. The rules said he had no say in the decision. He either could go to Philly, or quit the sport. So Curt decided to sue.       

Curt argued that Major League Baseball should act like any other business and let workers sell their labor to whichever team they liked. But for decades, courts had ruled in favor of the team owners. Curt’s fight would destroy his career; anger many parts of American society; and change sports forever.

The man who invented the movie camera got on a train in France in 1890 and was never seen again. The wife of Louis Le Prince thought she knew who’d ordered her husband’s disappearance and presumed murder - Thomas Alva Edison.

Many people were simultaneously racing to develop moving pictures - so had Edison decided to bump off his closest rival so he could win? The story of who deserves the credit for the movies is a murky one - involving bitter betrayal, courtroom drama and soft-core porn.

Thomas Edison didn’t invent the lightbulb, but he created something more important: the grid. Edison's system of power plants and wires brought lightbulbs to homes and offices and revolutionized modern life.

Edison was adamant that direct current (DC) should power America, and attacked competitors who said that alternating current (AC) was better. This sparked a bitter war between Edison and his rivals - and prompted Edison to become involved in the first case of a murderer being sent to the electric chair.   

Thomas Alva Edison helped transform America and the world. He registered over one thousand patents before he died in 1931 - and we can thank him for advances in electric power, communications technology, music recording and even the movies. But his biggest breakthrough doesn't get nearly enough attention. 

In many ways, Edison invented modern inventing. Join Business History hosts Jacob Goldstein and Robert Smith as they trace the life story of a scrappy young boy with bad hearing who almost singlehandedly invented R&D.