Hello...
- [laughs]
- Hello. My name is Paget Brewster
and today we're talking about Mary Phelps Jacob,
the inventor of the bra.
In 1910 women were cinched in
to tiny corsets all the time,
but then there is a 19-year-old girl--
Mary Phelps Jacob,
setting up to go to a debutante ball,
and she is like,
Uh, I got this beautiful silk dress
and I have to put this dumb piece of [bleep] on.
Stupid corset with whale bone inserts.
Ugh, it's so goddamn dumb.
All right, I'm--I'm-- I'm--I'm out. I'm out.
I can't take this. Marie!
Her maid.
Get me two handkerchiefs, some silk cording,
ribbons, and a sewing kit.
She sews together
two handkerchiefs onto herself
and goes to a ball.
[epic music]
All the girls are like,
What is going on with you, girl?
You look better than you have ever looked.
And she says,
out of some handkerchiefs.
The girls go crazy!
And she's like
And they all say
- I want one. - I want one.
- All right, whatever, I'll make you some.
I'll make you my new thing, whatever,
with some handkerchiefs.
Then she gets a letter in the mail
from someone she's never met saying,
"Hey, I'll give you a dollar to make me a bra."
And then she realizes,
So she goes to the Patent Office
and she said, Hey, I've made this thing.
It's a brassiere.
The Patent Office guy was like,
Everyone's had boobs for goddamn forever.
I understand that you think you made something,
but you [bleep]ing didn't.
And she said
The last piece of [bleep] patent flattens your tits
into nothing but one boob. Do you want one boob?
And he's like,
I don't even know if I can answer this.
No, you want two [bleep]ing boobs.
They separate and lift.
Give me the patent for the backless brassiere.
And he says,
I've never seen that. I will give you a patent.
Slam. He gives her a patent.
Oh, God. I'm--
I'm not gonna throw up, but I am--
I'm pretty--
Gonzo bonzo. - [laughs]
- So she opens the Fashion Form Brassiere Company.
Meanwhile, she marries this guy Harry Crosby
and Harry says,
because you're gonna be my wife Crosby,
I feel like you should have a "C" name.
And so it's like C. Crosby.
I would really like it if you change your name
to Clitoris. - [laughs]
- It's [bleep]ing true. - [laughs]
- And she says
I'm not gonna change my name to Clitoris.
And he's like
Still, I'm sorry. I love you, man,
honey, but... not even with a "Y"
will I name myself Clitoris.
What about Caresse?
That's better than Clitoris.
Certainly.
He says to her
Car--she's now Caresse.
You're kinda bored with the bra business
and it's not taking off.
I'm kinda rich. Why don't you just let it go?
She says
She sells her patent
to the Warner Brothers Corset Company
for $1,500.
She's like
Had fun.
So, wait. I have to fast-forward.
I also have to pee.
- Which one you done do first?
- No, I have to pee. - Okay, well, then pee.
- I'm gonna. - [snickers]
- In 1929 the bra took hold.
Everyone bought bras.
The corset was dead.
The Warner Brothers Corset Company
makes $15 million
off of her patent alone.
- That's a lot of titties. - I-- [laughs]
- [laughs] - Here's the thing about
Mary Phelps Jacob. She never give a [bleep].
She was like
I sold the patent.
Not gonna dwell on it.
I'm gonna open a publishing company
that publishes every modern writer known to man.
Hemingway, James Joyce,
Henry Miller, Edgar Allen Poe,
uh--uh-- there's so many more.
Someone look it up on an iPhone.
You'll see. - [laughs]
- Then was writing pornography
for money!
And she was great at it.
And at the end of her life,
someone asked her about, like,
Hey, uh, you invented something.
And she said
My invention-- it wouldn't take the place
in history of something like the steamboat,
but, yeah... I invented the bra.
The bra is kind of a big [bleep]ing deal.
No one gives a [bleep] about a steamboat.
Do you know anyone who doesn't have a bra?