In the 1960s, film studios handled all their own promotion in-house — LaFontaine and producer Floyd Peterson were among the first to break that model by offering independent trailer production. They accidentally became 'disruptors' before the word existed, a fact that sends Josh into a Silicon Valley eye-roll.
Where this was said
At 9:25 · chapter starts 8:25
Josh picks up the story at 1965, the year everything changed for Don LaFontaine. A voice actor failed to show up for a session, and LaFontaine — still primarily working as an engineer — was pushed into the booth to record radio spots for MGM's western 'Gunfighters of Casa Grande.' MGM's response was immediate and overwhelming: they bought the whole production outright. [1] — Josh "In 1965, a voice actor missed a session, and LaFontaine — then still an engineer — stepped in to record radio spots for MGM's Gunfighters o…" 08:20 As Josh puts it with characteristic flair, LaFontaine 'invented the plane with the seat back trays and everything right out of the gate' — meaning the very first thing he produced was already a complete, polished version of the form. It was a proof-of-concept moment that neither LaFontaine nor the industry could walk back from.
LaFontaine's voiceover career began by accident in 1965 when a scheduled voice actor didn't show, and he stepped in to record radio spots for MGM's 'Gunfighters of Casa Grande'.
Factories that replaced coal engines with electric ones in the early 1900s got only 6% efficiency gains. Those that redesigned their entire factory around electricity got a 3x productivity improvement. Swapping AI tools into your existing structure will give you 6%. Rebuilding around AI will give you 10x.
Lebanese terrorists backed by Iran were holding American hostages throughout the Reagan presidency. Reagan had loudly campaigned against negotiating with terrorists — putting him in an impossible position that his team quietly decided to ignore.
During the Iran-Iraq War, the US openly supplied Iraq with weapons, training, and intelligence. At the same time, Oliver North was secretly funneling missiles to Iran. The US was playing both sides of a shooting war.
Oliver North traveled to Iran under the alias 'William P. Goode' with a fake passport. CIA Director William Casey allegedly gave him cyanide pills so he could kill himself rather than be tortured if captured. He returned safely and the deal moved forward.
The Pentagon sold missiles to the CIA for $3,700 each. The CIA sold them to Richard Secord at cost. Secord sold them to Iranian middleman Ghorbanifar for $10,000 each. Ghorbanifar charged Iran even more. The profit — including $3 million in interest in one Swiss account — was diverted directly to fund the Nicaraguan Contras.
America secretly transferred 2,000 missiles and missile parts to Iran in 8 shipments over more than a year. Only 3 of 7 hostages were released. Three more were taken. The net result was zero freed hostages and a full-blown constitutional scandal.
On October 5, 1986, a CIA Contra supply plane flew a weapons drop at 2,500 feet in broad daylight. A Sandinista soldier shot it down. The only survivor, Eugene Hasenfuss, had borrowed a parachute from his skydiving brother. He was captured, paraded in front of cameras, and told the Sandinistas everything he knew.
The CIA supply operation used a front company called Southern Air Transport, widely known to be a CIA cover. Crew members of the downed plane carried their Southern Air Transport employee IDs in their wallets. One also had a business card directly linking him to Oliver North's office in Washington.
When the scandal broke, Oliver North and his secretary Fawn Hall conducted what became known as a 'shredding party,' destroying a day's worth of documents. The full truth of Iran-Contra may never be known because of what was fed through that shredder.
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