In 1966, an English teacher and his students at Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School in Georgia created a magazine that they filled with stories, traditions, recipes, and more, all gathered from their families in southern Appalachia. They named the magazine Foxfire, a common name for the bioluminescent fungus found in the local woodlands. The magazine continued to publish after that first class. After several years, the collected works of Foxfire were published in book form, and in 1974 the royalties from that book were used to purchase a plot of land that is now the Foxfire Museum.
The museum, like the magazine, celebrates Appalachian history and culture. Visitors to this museum can learn about traditional Appalachian folklore, recipes, stories, and daily routines. The museum hosts events, showcases, and is integral to the history of Appalachia.
Most people think superhero movies when it comes to blockbuster films that rake in the big bucks. It’s not uncommon for them to regularly cross the $1 billion line. Although the same can’t be said for horror flicks, that doesn’t mean they should be overlooked regarding revenue generation. Horror movies remain serious Hollywood profit makers. And since they don’t cost nearly as much to produce as flicks inspired by Marvel and DC, they often enjoy better profit margins.
Of course, horror movies would be nothing without the monsters that drive the fear factor. Whether we’re talking classic antagonists like Frankenstein’s Monster, terrifying animals like Jaws, or modern nightmares like Freddy Krueger, villains rule horror. But what you may not know is that these monsters share one thing in common: real-life origins.
Keep reading for the spinetingling reality behind some of Hollywood’s most famous (and frightening) monsters.
1. Dracula
It’s hard to find a monster more famous than Dracula, and there have been plenty of reboots of the character over the years. Notable versions include 1931’s eponymous flick starring Bela Lugosi and 1992’s remake powered by Gary Oldman as the ancient Transylvanian villain. The figure of Count Dracula is based on the historical ruler of Transylvania, Prince Vlad III Dracula (literally “son of the Dragon”). Some historians claim Vlad (a.k.a. “the Impaler”) ordered the deaths of more than 80,000 people while serving as voivode (a royal military leader), the vast majority by impalement.
Prince Vlad III. Credit: Banekondic1996 Via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
2. Godzilla
World War II came to an end with the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, by the United States. In the wake of these disasters, locals faced new horrors daily, from the initial devastation of the bombings to the birth defects and long-term impacts of radiation. Anxiety associated with the aftermath of atomic bombs inspired Godzilla, a preternaturally massive monster who plagues Japan. As a physical representation of national trauma and anxiety, Godzilla even sports roughly textured skin, echoing the keloid scars of survivors of the nuclear blasts.
3. Zombies
Thankfully, reanimation of the dead isn’t really a thing. But that doesn’t mean zombies don’t have real-life roots. Haitian voodoo priests have long had a reputation for administering drugs to hapless victims to slow their bodily functions until they appear dead. After the near-dead cadavers endure funerals and burial, they get dug up and forced into drug-induced slavery.
4. Jaws
During the summer of 1916, New Jersey beaches became the sight of a bloodbath. During two weeks, a shark killed four individuals and severely wounded a fifth. The attacks rocked the idyllic Eastern Seaboard, but even more shockingly some of the attacks took place far up the freshwaters of the Matawan Creek. After dissecting an eight-foot-long shark with human remains in its stomach, locals had their man-eating culprit.
5. Werewolves
A string of serial killers inspired the legend of werewolves. These included individuals such as Pierre Bourgot, Michel Verdung, Giles Garnier, Peter Stubbe, and Jean Grenier. In some cases, the murderers confessed to being werewolves further exacerbating the hysteria surrounding their brutal acts.
6. Annie Wilkes
Stephen King is known for crafting horror stories that get under your skin. One of his most famous and disturbing tales is 1990’s Misery, the story of a famed author held hostage by an obsessed fan, Annie Wilkes. King took inspiration for Wilkes from the true crime story of Genene Jones, a nurse convicted of murdering approximately 60 children from 1977 to 1982 during hospital stays.
7. The Mummy
Whether you prefer to call him The Mummy or Imhotep, the idea of Egyptian mummies coming back from the dead has chilled people’s blood since the turn of the 20th century. That’s when King Tut’s tomb was uncovered along with a curse to those who opened it. After members of the archaeological team that excavated Tutankhamen’s tomb started dropping like flies (nine total), many came to believe the hype about the curse of the mummies, providing fodder for the story of The Mummy.
Tutankhamen’s Coffin
8. Freddy Krueger
Where did Wes Craven turn when dreaming up the disturbing character of Freddy Krueger? Craven’s inspiration included somniphobia (fear of sleep) and Sudden Unexplained Nocturnal Death Syndrome(SUNDS). In the 1980s, SUNDS became a serious problem among members of the Hmong community with 130 casualties.
9. Frankenstein’s Monster
In the 19th century, the upper crust frequented gruesome yet fascinating science shows. During these spectacles, some scientists used electricity to temporarily reanimate animal remains. One attendee of these shows was Mary Shelley, the author of 1818’s Frankenstein; Or, the Modern Prometheus.
10. Pennywise
Another iconic Stephen King villain is the killer clown Pennywise. The concept of the murderous clown came from the real-life story of serial killer John Wayne Gacy. Gacy regularly dressed up as Pogo the Clown (when he wasn’t luring young men to violent deaths). Between 1972 and 1978, Gacy killed at least 33 victims before interring them in his backyard. That said, law enforcement officials continue to link new victims to him thanks to DNA technology.
Booking photo of John Wayne Gacy taken by the Des Plaines Police Department – 1978.
11. Leatherface, Norman Bates, and Buffalo Bill
The notorious serial killer and grave robber, Ed Gein, has inspired many silver screen monsters, including Leatherface, Norman Bates, and Buffalo Bill. Like these characters, Gein (a.k.a. the Butcher of Plainfield) enjoyed sporting his victims’ skin, and he also made trinkets out of their bones and various body parts. Besides all of this, he fostered a weird obsession with his mother. After her death, he began donning his female victims’ skin so that he could become his mother, taking the whole Oedipus complex next-level.
12. Tremors
Who can forget the gigantic earthworm creatures that terrorize the deserts of rural Nevada in 1990’s Tremors? But you might not realize the sandworms’ mouths were inspired by the powerful jaws of snapping turtles.
Alligator Snapping Turtle.
13. The Blob
In 1950, two police officers, Joe Keenan and John Collins, reported witnessing a “strange object” fall from the sky in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Where the mysterious object landed, Keenan and Collins found a pile of purple goo. When they touched it, the goo vanished. Sure, the account ruined the police officers’ reputations. But it also inspired a true B-rated blockbuster, 1958’s The Blob.
14. Annabelle
If you’ve seen 2014’s Annabelle, then you understand vintage dolls can be no bueno. Although the Hollywood version of the story relies on a much creepier vintage doll, the original inspiration for this story came from a Raggedy Anne doll circa the 1970s. Implicated in paranormal activity, the doll has even been fingered as the cause of a motorcyclist’s death. Fortunately, infamous paranormal couple Ed and Lorraine Warren neutralized it, and the “toy” remains housed behind priest-blessed glass so that the evil entity within can’t harm visitors to the Warren’s Occult Museum.
15. The Creature From the Black Lagoon
Our list of Hollywood monsters wouldn’t be complete without a bonafide missing link. It comes in the form of a prehistoric fish-like beast, the titular character of 1954’s The Creature From the Black Lagoon. This humanoid figure with marine adaptations symbolizes the original missing link that eschewed the waters of the deep for a terrestrial life.
By Engrid Barnett, contributor for Ripleys.com
EXPLORE THE ODD IN PERSON!
Discover hundreds of strange and unusual artifacts and get hands-on with unbelievable interactives when you visit a Ripley’s Odditorium!
Now that the old Evo Sportster is well and truly almost completely dead, it’s probably time for us to show it a little respect. Really I suppose we always respected America’s best-selling motorcycle, it’s just that we usually didn’t like riding most of the gruff old things all that much. We’re contrarian that way. This Seventy-Two, though, in Hard Candy Big Red Flake and whitewalls, was pretty hep ten years ago – maybe even more now. Admit it.
Harley grooves back in time with the Sportster Seventy-Two
By Pete Brissette Feb. 29, 2012
Photos by Alfonse Palaima, Troy Siahaan, Harley
Afros were worn loud and proud, as were polyester bellbottom pants and wide-collar shirts; America’s Team, the Dallas Cowboys, was a force to fear, ABC had itself a genuine hit with The Love Boat, and President Carter signed airline deregulation into law. Music from the likes of Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath provided a hard-edged option to disco, while Star Wars, Jaws, Close Encounters of The Third Kind and The Godfather were packin’ ‘em in at the theater.Hello? It’s the ‘70s calling.
The cultural hallmarks (some of them more forgettable than others) above paint a broad picture of the post-Vietnam social era in America. Part of that era was an expanding sense of individualism, perhaps no better realized and materialized than in the chopper motorcycle. A counterculture of fully customized rides with crazy-long raked front-ends, sissy bars, no front brakes and thundering exhausts burgeoned in California, from the Bay Area to SoCal, during the ‘70s.
Reelin’ in the years. The new Seventy-Two from Harley is infused with chopper themes prevalent in the 1970s.
And so this is partially where, or rather when, Harley-Davidson reached for inspiration and styling direction for its recently unveiled Sportster 1200-based Seventy-Two.
Along with its styling, the Harley-Davidson Seventy-Two pays tribute to the cruising and customizing scene in Southern California by taking its namesake from California State Route 72, aka Whittier Boulevard, a street long known as a cruising hangout in Greater Los Angeles.
The Seventy-Two has a skinny 21-inch front wheel, but the whole bike is darn skinny.
As a modern representative of the early chopper scene, the Seventy-Two bears some signature chopper cues, like its 2.1-gallon peanut tank (on loan from another retro ride, the Forty-Eight), solo saddle, side-mounted license plate, mini-ape hanger handlebar, staggered dual exhaust, wire wheels rolling on white-wall tires, chopped rear fender and of course, metal-flake paint. Bow-chicka-wow-wow bow-chicka-wow-wow…
If you’re into the minimalist thing, and admire a bike with only the basics in view, then the Seventy-Two is a looker. Harley has done well in keeping this retro-fied ride looking classy and classic. Numerous components wear liquid-like chrome with a high-luster, quality finish, and are nicely balanced by the muted tones of the tank, fender and oil bag paint.
Your gaze is drawn to the gleaming engine and exhaust, yet the Seventy-Two avoids looking gaudy, like H-D went over-the-top with the shiny stuff. The skinny spoke front wheel and tiny tank create an airy, unencumbered presence. About the only item I’d ditch ASAP is the bulky, industrial-looking horn mount that’s bolted to the upper left-hand side of each cylinder. I realize the horn is a necessity; its chrome cover looks good on its own, and H-D blacked out the bracket as best as possible. However, visualizing the horn’s absence from that spot I could see how much cleaner and better highlighted the Harley Twin would look.
Brilliant chrome, spoke wheels with whitewalls, peanut tank, ape-hangers and metal-flake paint are some of the well-combined elements that make up the Seventy-Two’s retro chopper theme.
Pleased with the Seventy-Two’s appearance, I feared the Spartan rider accommodations dictated by the bike’s stripped-down ethos would offset my good first impression of this latest Sportster. Caught off guard is how I’d describe my reaction after slinging a leg over the first time.
Cruising urban settings is where the Seventy-Two is most at home. With a comparatively tall seat height and roomy lean angle, this Sportster doesn’t drag footpegs as soon as many of Harley’s other cruisers.
Although the dual coil-over-spring shocks only provide 2.1 inches of travel (pretty typical of many late-model Harleys), a seat height of 28.0 inches towers over most other Harley cruisers and is a stark contrast to the way-low seat height theme of many other steeds in the H-D stable. Continuing the shock and awe, the forward controls (footpegs) felt unusually high. With right and left lean angle clearance at 28.6 and 29.8 degrees respectively, the Seventy-Two provides, at a minimum, 1 to 2 degrees more clearance than the Forty-Eight, Custom 1200 and SuperLow Sportster models (the sportbike-like XR1200X of course has lots more room to lean, and the Nightster and Iron 883 have a little more than 1.0 degree than the Seventy-Two).
Riding high, the 10-inch tall mini-apes on 2.0-inch risers round out the rest of the rider triangle and complement the high seat and pegs. Overall, the ergo layout felt well proportioned and natural to my 5-foot 8-inch and 30-inch inseam build. However, with 60-plus miles of freeway at the head of my initial ride it wasn’t long before I discovered that riding the Harley-Davidson Seventy-Two is ultimately always fun, but it’s less pleasurable to ride in certain settings than in others.
The Seventy-Two’s mechanicals (engine, brakes, etc.) are standard-issue Sportster stuff, and by that I mean familiar, like an ol’ buddy. But do heed the caveat that the peanutty 2.1-gallon tank empties quickly – you’ll get roughly 100 miles from full up if you’re judicious with throttle application, but expect the low fuel warning to illuminate as early as 60 miles in.
The Hard Candy Big Red Flake paint color with added pinstriping and prominent 72 front and center on the peanut tank is easily the coolest color scheme offered, and adds only $700 to the $10,499 base price. Vivid Black or Big Blue Pearl are the other available colors.
Trying to keep pace with L.A. traffic running upwards of 80 mph on the freeway proved too much of a chore as the fists-high-in-the-wind riding position means plenty of Popeye forearm strength is necessary to combat the windblast. Although 5.7 inches of front suspension travel from the spindly 39mm fork seems sufficient for most bumps, the stingy meat on the narrow 21-inch front wheel doesn’t provide much bump absorption, so expansion joints and cracks transmit quickly to the rider. After 50-ish freeway miles I bailed out for the relative comfort of surface street riding.
The Seventy-Two is much more at home profiling down the boulevard, or even on curvy roads, than long stints on the highway. With a comparatively modest 555-pound running order weight, the Seventy-Two changes direction without much effort; the single dual-piston front brake caliper isn’t overwhelmed, and the 1200cc (73.3 c.i.) 5-speed Sportster V-Twin feels especially spirited – I could even squeeze out a tiny wheelie at times when pulling away from stop.
Ready for your personal touch, man
If I owned a Seventy-Two I wouldn’t do a lot of customization to this Harley, especially to the beautifully painted Hard Candy Big Red Flake scheme – at risk of chafing some, I think the bike’s aura begs for a set of naughty exhaust pipes.
What’s old is new again. The Sportster Seventy-Two turns back the hands of time, coolly bringing a 40-year-old era of motorcycling into the present day.
But since Harley’s done a lot of the heavy lifting by keeping styling tight and simple, the Seventy-Two also strikes me as a blank sheet waiting for a rider to personalize it into a one-off modern-day chopper. And a base price of just $10,499 leaves lots of room to get yo’ groove on. But even if you didn’t so much as change a screw to alter the Harley-Davidson Seventy-Two you’d have yourself a special ride. No other major OEM has anything quite like it.
We know that regular MO readers are fans of the Isle of Man TT. Friend of MO, Andrew Capone, gives us annual posts from the event, and the analytics tell us that they are very popular. So, the release of the feature-length documentary film Tourist Trophy should spark more than a little interest among the fans. Over the course of 90+ minutes, viewers get the opportunity to get to know some of the variety of riders taking part in the 2022 Isle of Man TT.
John McGuinness MBE is no stranger to anyone who has followed the TT, and on the cusp of his 100th TT race start, the 50-year-old legend opens up to the camera concerning his life on the Isle. At the other end of the TT experience continuum, TT rookie but known-quantity short course racer, Glenn Irwin, brings viewers into the world of what preparation is involved when riding a first TT, amid high expectations from his British Superbike Championship career (runner-up in 2022 BSB). Throughout the film, we learn of the experiences of Mike Russell in his attempt at completing every race of the event – including sidecars. And speaking of sidecars, the film spends some time with the dominant brother duo, Tom and Ben Birchall, who continue to be the class of the field. Finally, perhaps the most interesting of the racers covered, Peter Hickman, the fastest rider ever around the TT Mountain Course, spends a good deal of time on camera discussing what the TT means to him.
Peter Hickman is one of only four riders to ever win four races in a single TT meet.
While the action sequences are jaw-dropping, coming to life on the big screen in my living room in surround sound, perhaps where documentary filmmaker Adam Kaleta provides the greatest service to the viewers is in how the film humanizes the participants. They don’t sugarcoat the risks, nor do they play them up, either. While I have watched all of the major documentaries about motorcycle racing in all its forms, none have made me feel I have gotten as close to understanding what drives the riders to put it all on the line on the 37-mile Mountain Course.
Mike Russell shows the strain of attempting to complete all eight TT races.
Where the riders in other films feel more rehearsed, the comments in Tourist Trophy feel genuine and natural. Perhaps it is because the event itself places less of a wall between the racers and the fans. Case-in-point, Peter Hickman spends lots of time meeting the fans, taking photos with them, and signing autographs. Hickman seems to genuinely enjoy the interaction with the public and spends more time with them than the typical signing of a hat on the way from the team enclave to the pit box you often see in MotoGP, for example.
Multi-time sidecar winners, Ben and Tom Birchall, describe the TT as an addiction.
Hopefully, you’re interested in watching this film, and if you are, I’ve got good news for you. Starting at 7:30pm (GMT) on Wednesday 23rd November, you can stream Tourist Trophy for free. TT+ is using this to kick off the subscription drive for the 2023 TT+ Live Pass. Next year’s event has been expanded to ten races, and TT+ subscribers can watch all of the excitement on their TVs or favorite devices. In fact, for a limited time, TT+ subscribers can experience the 2023 event for the 2022 price of £14.99 ($17.81).
If you call yourself a motorcycle racing fan, you owe it to yourself to watch Tourist Trophy as soon as you can.
In a word, no. Per the rule book, the minimum requirement for UK residents is a National Licence issued by the ACU or the SACU for at least twelve months prior to the closing date for entries, while other participants must have an FIM International Non – Championship Licence for a minimum of twelve months prior to the closing date for entries.
What date is the 2023 Isle of Man TT?
The 2023 Isle of Man races will take place from Monday May 29th through Saturday June 10th.
How long does a lap of the Isle of Man TT take?
The 37.73 mile course takes place on public roads with speeds averaging around 130mph, depending on the class, and top speeds of about 200 mph. The current lap record is held by Peter Hickman at 16:42.778.
Cranberry sauce, the way it's meant to be prepared and enjoyed, is a sweet and tangy wonder. It adds delicious interest to otherwise tame and mild flavors like turkey.
Whiskey pairs perfectly with many traditional Thanksgiving foods with its complex, well rounded flavors. Rye and single-malt whiskeys will be perfect on your table this year.
Perfecting the art of Thanksgiving gravy can be a tricky task. The road is full of many potential pitfalls. Let's learn how to avoid the danger, and create an absolutely delicious gravy.
Bacon, eggs, hash browns, and toast—diner food is pretty iconic here in the United States. Apart from major fast-casual chains, the classic “greasy spoon” is among the most ubiquitous types of sit-down restaurant in the nation. But just because something is widespread doesn’t mean it’s good.
The Aboriginal fish traps at Brewarrina are among the oldest human constructions in the world. Also known as Baiame's Ngunnhu, Nonah, or the Nyemba Fish Traps, these traps on the Barwon river have been around for thousands of years—though their exact age is not known.
Long before European colonizers came to the Australian continent, the Ngemba people of Brewarrina used their advanced knowledge of the behavior of both water and fish to build these river traps. Intricately-designed stone structures allowed the Aboriginal people to herd and then catch large numbers of fish.
The traps can be found next to the Brewarrina Aboriginal Cultural Museum.
If you are a fan of authentic Philly cheesesteak sandwiches, there is no reason to travel to the city of brotherly love thanks to this delicious recipe.
Try to picture the top-selling real estate agent in the world.
Are you thinking of a New Yorker in a skyscraper who has befriended a bunch of investment bankers? Perhaps a shady Londoner steering oligarchs to multimillion-dollar mansions?
Whoever you’re imagining, it’s probably not someone like Ben Caballero.
Little about Caballero’s aesthetic screams world-class: The slight 83-year-old works out of a nondescript building in suburban Dallas. His office isoutfitted with gray carpeting and drop ceiling tiles. He shares the building with a waste management company.
But the agent’s numbers don’t lie:
In 2020, he set a world record of 6.4k home sales, presiding as the listing agent over ~$2.46B of salesvolume.
This year, he’s on pace to sell ~6k homes in Texas — a rate of ~16 sales every day.
In an industry teeming with whales, Caballero has become a near-mythical force — a real estate megalodon. And he’s done it without relying on mega-mansion sales and high-rolling clientele.
All he did was come up with an idea that made homebuilders’ lives slightly easier.
Slow beginnings
Caballero’s real estate career seemed destined to fail before it really got started.
In 1960, he moved to Dallas on a whim: His car had broken down on a trip from Oklahoma City to Houston, and he liked the friendly people who helped him on the road so much that he decided to stay forever.
Caballero was 21, fresh out of the Air Force, recently married, and had ~$500 to his name.
Dallas was booming. New arrivals flocked to mid-rise apartments that sprouted in city neighborhoods and suburbs like elm trees, and Caballero realized after an unpleasant experience with an apartment-hunting company he could build his own business.
Just after Thanksgiving of that year, he started The Apartment Finders, a service that helped prospective tenants find rentals in Dallas. The company made money by taking a commission from the property owners and charging nothing to the apartment seeker.
Caballero’s (pictured in the photo) got some press in 1962 (The Dallas Morning News via America’s Newspapers)
By Christmas, Caballero felt immense pressure. The ads he placed in the local paper didn’t bring any customers. He and his wife had to carpool with friends to visit relatives in Oklahoma City because they couldn’t afford gas.
“The day after Christmas I say, ‘Well, I gotta get back to Dallas,’” Caballero recalled in an interview with The Hustle. “They said, ‘What for? You don’t have any business.’”
But shortly after New Year’s Day, the calls started coming. Real estate is a seasonal pursuit, and apartment seekers were again on the hunt. It was a small lesson but taught Caballero to pay attention to the quirks of the industry and use them to his advantage.
Soon, Caballero became a local real estate heavyweight.
He used funds from his business to finance the construction of an apartment building, partnered with another builder, and eventually started his own building company, producing custom homes while holding a real estate license.
In the late 1980s, during a depressed home sales market in Texas, he started a guaranteed buyout business in which he contracted to purchase the old homes of prospective homebuyers if they didn’t sell them by the time they closed on a new house. Caballero sat on the houses until he could sell them for a decent return.
For years, he ran his businesses with great success. Then, at an age when he should’ve been retired, Caballero got his best idea yet.
Inventing a new sales system
Caballero exploited an odd quirk in the way new houses get marketed and sold.
Homebuilders generally just want to build houses and don’t care as much for the work of selling them. They’re rarely tech savvy, and they don’t often see eye to eye with agents, who find that builders are desperate in cold markets but avoid their calls in hot markets.
Real estate agents generally don’t understand nuances of new homes, like how delays alter closing dates or that new homes have more complex contracts than existing homes. They also like to work with their own lenders, another turnoff for builders.
“It’s just a complicated relationship,” Caballero said.
Tract housing in Houston, Texas (Getty Images)
Sometimes the reticence to engage with real estate agents leads builders to make surprising choices. As Caballero discovered, many builders would not even use the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), the primary mechanism through which buyers’ agents discover homes.
So his first foray into becoming an agent for builders involved a simple accomplishment: convincing an executive at the homebuilding firm Lennar to let him list part of their inventory on the MLS.
Caballero’s work with builders grew from there. In 2007, he launched a platform, HomesUSA.com, that streamlined the builder-agent relationship.
It works like so:
The program allows builders to easily enter data about homes they want to list. After a quick review by Caballero, the information gets uploaded onto the MLS.
Caballero uses the software to monitor data and trends and provides feedback to his clients. He works much faster than average real estate agents, uploading new homes or updating information to the MLS in less than 30 minutes.
An automated lead capturing service helps connect builders directly with potential buyers, reducing the need for a buyers’ agent commission.
Simple as the program may sound, it proved to be a significant innovation for builder clients who develop hundreds, even thousands, of homes annually in Texas, which has outpaced the nation in new housing, per capita, for years.
“No one (else) is doing it,” real estate agent Nav Singh told The Hustle.
He added: “I could go to 10 to 15 builders and say, ‘I’ll get your homes on MLS.’ (But) there’s more to it. The feedback he gives them and the timeliness is big.”
Zachary Crockett / The Hustle
Caballero counts ~60 builders among his clients, including giants like Toll Brothers.
Kelly Hoodwin, VP of sales and marketing for the builder Altura, says the streamlined process aids Altura’s sales team and saves them money in the long run. Caballero estimates the savings for his clients at ~$1k-$1.5k/home.
His Rolodex of big builders and the rapid growth of Texas, the tract home capital of the US, has resulted in an unprecedented hot streak:
From 2004 to 2021, Caballero sold ~48k homes worth ~$17B.
The Guinness Book of World Records honored him for the first time in 2016 (3.6k sales), again in 2018 (5.8k sales), and once more in 2020, for his sale of 6.4k homes.
Other prolific agents in the US might sell a few hundred homes in a year, and none have surpassed $2B in annual volume, like Caballero, who outsells many of the nation’s top brokerages.
Even Zillow, in the first full year of its failed iBuyer experiment, couldn’t keep up, selling ~$1.7B in homes in 2020, compared to Caballero’s $2.46B.
Zachary Crockett / The Hustle
Similar to his sales totals, Caballero’s methods differ greatly from most agents:
There are no open houses or Saturday morning home visits. Caballero works from the office — along with 32 mostly remote employees — updating listings, tinkering with improvements for the software, and honing relationships with builders.
Caballero charges builder clients a flat fee per home, rather than taking a 3% cut of the sales price, as most seller’s agents do. He gets paid when a house is listed rather than when it sells. (Caballero declined to discuss his rates or his annual revenues.)
Every afternoon around 5:30pm, Caballero’s software updates him on new homes listed under his name.
At a pace of 6k sales per year, he’s averaged ~16 listings per day. The median residential agent, according to the National Association of Realtors, closes on 10 homes in an entire year.
The next big idea
Caballero is aware he likely won’t break his 2020 world record anytime soon, given reduced buyer demand in the face of rising interest rates and a decline in housing starts, which had ticked up to their highest level in more than a decade at the heights of the pandemic.
But his business still has appeal in sluggish real estate markets.
According to Hoodwin, the Caballero client with Altura, builders might be more likely to use him when demand is lower. The market was so hot last year that many builders, including Altura, didn’t use real estate agents. (Caballero’s sales in 2021 fell to a pedestrian 4.7k.)
Caballero poses in his office with his Guinness World Record (Mark Dent)
Caballero has also been working on taking his service national.
His plan is to create a version of his program that can be licensed to homebuilders anywhere. The resulting product could mean many more sales for Caballero and a greater impact in the real estate industry.
No matter how big his business gets, he has no plans for upgrading his plain suburban office for a skyscraper in New York or London.
The image depicts a toddler smugly clenching his fist on a beach. In meme form, it’s typically overlaid with a caption describing an unexpected triumph like not getting spaghetti sauce on a white shirt, or finding a $20 bill in an old jacket.
It’s been shared tens of millions of times, and in endless variations, bringing collective joy to the internet.
But this past week, Success Kid was at the epicenter of a thoroughly humorless legal battle in an Iowa courtroom.
The drama began back in 2020, when a staff member for the far-right Iowa politician Steve King decided to use the Success Kid meme in a fundraising drive for his reelection campaign.
What King’s team failed to realize is that Success Kid is a copyrighted asset. They hadn’t secured permission to use it, or responded to a cease-and-desist letter.
This landed King in court, where he faced thousands of dollars in damages and a mountain of legal fees.
Memes like Success Kid are so ubiquitous that we often think of them as a public utility.
According to one survey, the average millennial looks at 20-30 memes every day. On Instagram alone, some 365m of them are shared each year, often without credit.
Some internet users have assumed that a meme’s widespread virality entitles them to unrestricted use — including for personal gaiin.
But many of the internet’s favorite memes are lucrative commercial entities. And their owners occasionally take action to protect them.
The meme paradox
Success Kid and most other famous memes generally meet the three requirements to qualify for copyright protection in the US:
An original work of authorship
A minimal level of creativity
Fixed in a tangible form of expression
Despite this, scholars have pointed out that the legal doctrine and meme culture are often at odds with one another:
Copyright law is designed to prevent copying at all costs.
Memes, conversely, depend on copying to achieve success.
A meme can only become a meme through untethered virality, which usually entails widespread copyright infringement.
“Memes are like organisms: They’re born, then proliferate across the internet with extreme speed,” says Don Caldwell, the editor-in-chief of Know Your Meme, a database of internet phenomena. “They need to replicate at scale to survive.”
The Distracted Boyfriend meme (Underlying image via Antonio Guillem / Shutterstock)
As a result, memes exist in a legal gray area.
Though the originators of popular memes have the exclusive, monopolistic right to reproduce and distribute their work, they rarely choose to take action against random posters of memes on Reddit or Twitter who might technically be violating their copyright.
Antonio Guillem, a Spanish stock photographer, snapped the shot in 2015 and licensed it through Shutterstock.
It was meme-ified by the internet around 2017 and has since been shared millions of times — sans credit. Despite the image’s immense popularity, Guillem says the image is only legally purchased and downloaded ~700 times per year.
“Each one of the people that use the [image] without the license are doing it illegally,” Guillem told PetaPixel. “This is not the thing that really worries us, as they are just a group of people doing it in good faith, and we are not going to take any action.”
Many legal scholars say that posting a dank meme on social media is protected under fair use. Most of these interactions have no financial motive and do more to help the meme thrive than hinder its market possibilities.
When someone shares or uses a meme with commercial intentions, it’s a different ballgame.
When meme creators sue
On a cloudy day in 2007, Laney Griner took her 11-month-old son, Sam, to a Florida beach and snapped a photo of him trying to eat a handful of sand. She uploaded the shot to Flickr and forgot about it.
But the internet found it — and Success Kid was born.
Over time, the photo spread widely, and not always in ways that Griner approved of. So, she registered a copyright and set out to protect her son’s image.
In 2015, Griner filed suit against Jake’s Fireworks, a company that was using the Success Kid image on the box of one of its products. The case was settled for unspecified financial damages, and Jake’s was forced to destroy its unsold inventory.
“[W]e’re not questioning the right of Internet users to use this,” said Griner’s attorney at the time. “This is more about a company making our client a de facto endorser of an age-inappropriate product.”
A pirated box of Back Off fireworks, featuring Success Kid’s likeness (Chinese fireworks website)
In recent years, a handful of similar meme-related lawsuits and infringement settlements have played out:
The creators of Nyan Cat (a flying pixelated cat with the body of a Pop-Tart) and Keyboard Cat (a video of a ginger cat playing the keys) sued Warner Bros. and 5th Cell Media for using the images in a video game. The case was settled in their favor.
The owner of Grumpy Cat (the famous scowling feline) sued the makers of Grumpy Cat Grumppuccino iced coffee drinks and won a settlement of $710k.
The artist behind Pepe the Frog sued Infowars and Alex Jones for selling posters bearing the cartoon character. The case was settled for $15k in damages.
Kia Kamran, a copyright attorney in Los Angeles, has represented the creators of many of the most popular memes, including Grumpy Cat.
For him, the demarcation point between fair use and lawsuit is simple.
“When the general public is using a meme and it’s flourishing as a mode of expression, that’s OK. That’s the zeitgeist,” he says. “When a commercial entity is doing it to shill some service, we’re going after them — and we don’t lose sleep over it.”
A 2013 lawsuit found that Warner Bros. and 5th Cell Media infringed the copyrights of the popular memes Nyan Cat and Keyboard Cat (court records)
Every now and then, there’s a case that skirts the line between free expression and commercial use.
In 2012, a tiny German blog named Get Digital published a short post celebrating its favorite meme: Socially Awkward Penguin, a photo of a penguin overlaid with captions about uncomfortable situations.
The post generated no likes or shares, and received minimal views. But three years later, Get Digital received a letter from Getty Images — the licensee of the penguin image in the meme — demanding ~$900.
The blog paid up, but not before releasing its own cartoon version of the penguin for anyone to use. “Enjoy sharing without paying any fees,” they wrote.
Kamran argues that copyright lawyers are often unfairly cast as “ambulance chasers,” and says that being punitive isn’t typically very lucrative for meme creators.
Even in extreme cases, damages rarely exceed $150k. That’s typically not even enough to cover legal expenses: The American Intellectual Property Law Association places the average cost of litigating a copyright infringement case in federal court at $278k.
But luckily, meme creators have a much more promising stream of revenue.
“The money’s not in suing people,” says Kamran. “It’s in licensing.”
The economics of a hit meme
Success Kid is managed by Ben Lashes (real name: Ben Clark), the world’s preeminent “meme talent agent.”
The 44-year-old ex-musician helps creators of viral content “protect, brand, monetize, and stay cool forever.” His roster of clients includes a large chunk of the internet’s most famous memes:
Lashes has been credited with turning Grumpy into a “rock star” with dozens of licensing deals, including a 6-year stint as the face of Friskies cat food (Suzanne Cordeiro/Corbis via Getty Images)
Lashes got his start in 2009, when a family friend named Charles Schmidt sought his advice. Schmidt’s “Keyboard Cat” video — first recorded in 1984, and uploaded to YouTube in 2007 — was going viral, and he had no idea what to do about it.
“I said, ‘Wow, you must be rolling in the dough,’” recalls Lashes. “And he said, ‘What dough?’”
At the time, nobody was monetizing memes. But with Lashes’ help, Keyboard Cat became a copyrighted asset and established licensing deals with brands like Delta, Starburst, and Wonderful Pistachios, which paid $150k+ to use the cat in a series of advertisements.
Lashes quit his day job, launched the meme management firm A Weird Movie, and signed on other creators of famous memes.
With the legal help of Kamran (“the world’s first meme lawyer”), he’s secured tens of millions of dollars in licensing deals for his clients:
He turned Grumpy Cat into a household name, ushering the feline into lucrative partnerships with publishers, movie producers, and major brands (Cheerios, McDonald’s, Friskies). The cat’s owner, a former Red Lobster waiter, has reportedly made$100m from these deals — though she has claimed that number is high.
He got Nyan Cat onto T-shirts at major retail stores, plush toys at Toys R Us, and art galleries.
He’s facilitated ~$10m in meme NFT sales.
Over the past year, some meme creators have seen huge windfalls from the once-bustling NFT market. Among the notable sales:
Zachary Crockett / The Hustle
Success Kid has seen its own share of action.
Since snapping that impromptu photo of her son in 2007, Laney Griner has inked deals with Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Vitamin Water, General Mills, Marriott Hotels, Bell Canada, and Medicare.
This past Thursday, she added one more paying ‘client’ to that list: Steve King, the politician from Iowa.
Though the jury determined that King was not personally liable in the case, it found that his campaign team, King for Congress, had engaged in unwillful copyright infringement.
Celebrate the holiday properly with this cheers-worthy mix of cognac, vermouth, and club soda.
Reelin’ in the years. The new Seventy-Two from Harley is infused with chopper themes prevalent in the 1970s.
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