{"version":"1.0","type":"rich","provider_name":"Acast","provider_url":"https://acast.com","height":250,"width":700,"html":"<iframe src=\"https://embed.acast.com/$/6a7ddd93049c692a6bedfcfd/6ac2bfa81b614c9be081328e?\" frameBorder=\"0\" width=\"700\" height=\"250\"></iframe>","title":"The First Ponzi Schemes: From Gaslit Parlors to Charles Ponzi","description":"<p>Tonight on Old Money After Dark, explore the gaslit parlors and vast paper empires that flourished long before Charles Ponzi.</p><p>Long before the 1920 Boston postal frenzy attached a universal name to speculative faith, the identical illusion unfolded in quiet drawing rooms, beer gardens, and tenement parlors across Europe and America. From out-of-work Munich actress Adele Spitzeder stacking 38 million Bavarian silver gulden into wicker laundry baskets beside a warm ceramic stove, to Sarah Howe barring men from her Franklin Square townhouse while promising working women an imaginary Quaker endowment; and from young Brooklyn bookkeeper William Miller using telegraph wires to harvest millions on his Floyd Street stoop, to Charles Ponzi arriving in his royal blue Locomobile to back $7 million in debt with barely $61 in postal reply coupons. Settle in for a slow, detailed historical chronicle of lost ledgers, clicking silver, and unbacked promises, designed to ease tension and guide you into deep rest.</p><p><br></p><p>Tonight&#39;s Bedtime Chapters:</p><ul><li><strong>The Bavarian Cash Vaults:</strong> Adele Spitzeder, 38 million silver gulden in wicker baskets, and the Catholic press alliance.</li><li><strong>The November Run on Munich:</strong> Staring down merchant cartels with mountains of coin and the fatal drain of liquid reserves.</li><li><strong>The Parlors of Franklin Square:</strong> Sarah Howe’s female-only sanctuary, 8% monthly dividends, and the mythical Quaker trust.</li><li><strong>The Daily Advertiser &amp; Empty Strongroom:</strong> A Boston newspaper investigation, overturned cash boxes, and the state receivership.</li><li><strong>The Brooklyn Stoop &amp; 10% Wire:</strong> William Miller’s Franklin Syndicate, mail-order cascades, and laundry crates stuffed with cash.</li><li><strong>The Midnight Flight to Canada:</strong> Four pigskin valises on the Montreal Express and the limestone cells of Sing Sing.</li><li><strong>The International Reply Coupons:</strong> Post-war currency collapses, 50-day promissory notes, and the School Street crowds.</li><li><strong>The Forensic Audit of Edwin Pride:</strong> <em>The Boston Post</em> exposé and uncovering $61.25 in physical coupons behind millions in liabilities.</li><li><strong>What Remains of the Paper:</strong> Faded purple ink, closed municipal registers, and quieted rooms across Munich, Boston, and Brooklyn.</li></ul>","author_name":"Old Money After Dark"}