10 Things You Don't Know About

David eisenbach: When we think of Benjamin Franklin,

we think founding father, inventor, scientist;

but he was also america's first tabloid king.

Really?

David eisenbach: He owned slaves.

I wouldn't even believe that.

David eisenbach: And his sex drive

helped win the American revolution.

Shut up!

David eisenbach: Didn't know all that?

Well, neither did a majority of the people

in our national poll.

And that's just a few of the 10 things

you don't know about Benjamin Franklin.

I'm David eisenbach.

I'm a historian and author.

We're all familiar with history's famous figures

and events.

But how much do we really know about them?

National poll results show that we don't have the full picture.

I believe the things people don't know often

have a surprising and big impact on history.

Welcome to Philadelphia.

I'm here to explore "10 things you don't know about: Benjamin

Franklin", the founding father who

is america's first weatherman, its first tabloid journalist

and, some suspect, a serial killer.

Well, what do you know about Ben Franklin?

A lot.

What would you say if I told you that Ben Franklin was

a fugitive of the law?

I didn't know that.

If you were to tell me he was a fugitive of the law,

I probably wouldn't believe it right off.

Really?

Coming off as smearing the name of Ben Franklin to me.

It's important to note that the man so closely

associated with Philadelphia, actually, grew up in Boston.

He doesn't come here until he's 17 when

he breaks an apprenticeship contract

and becomes a fugitive of the law.

In 1706, Benjamin Franklin was born

in Boston, one of 17 children of Josiah Franklin.

Well, Josiah didn't have enough money for Ben's education,

so he signs him over to be an apprentice to Ben's older

brother, James.

In the 18th century, an apprenticeship

was a legally binding contract, in which the apprentice agreed

to sign over his labor to a master craftsman for a set

period of years.

It was a sort of indentured servitude.

The master in turn would teach the apprentice

marketable skills.

In Ben's case, he was going to learn the printing business

from his older brother, James.

Well, James' newspaper was subversive.

He constantly was criticizing the government authorities

and the religious leaders in Boston

at the time, the puritans.

Ben picked up on his older brother's subversive politics

and even wanted to write for the newspaper.

But James wouldn't let his little gopher publish anything,

and he even beat his brother mercilessly.

Corporal punishment was expected.

It was common.

It was also from our 21st century perspective, quite

foul and disgusting.

Benjamin had reached an age and a level of intelligence

that he didn't want to put up with it.

David eisenbach: By 17, Ben had enough.

So he decides to break the contract

and sneak away from Boston.

Now this was serious business because it meant

that if the government caught Ben,

he could be publicly beaten and even imprisoned.

If you didn't know Franklin was once a fugitive,

you're not alone.

In a recent national poll, 86% had no idea about Ben's

early fugitive status.

When I say Ben Franklin, what pops to mind?

He probably liked cheesesteaks because he had

a nice little belly down there.

Would you believe that this guy with a pot belly

was a notorious ladies' man?

I would.

No!

I would not believe that.

You know, he even frequented a sex club?

Shut up.

Wait, they had sex clubs in that age?

And was known to pay for prostitutes.

Who would have thunk it?

How would have thunk it?

In his autobiography, Franklin admitted

to engaging in quote, "many intrigues with low women".

One of these intrigues with low women,

however, resulted in the birth of his illegitimate son,

William, when Franklin was 25.

So here he is, 25-years-old, he's got this newborn son,

he paid for the mother to just go away.

And now he decides, I guess, I need a wife.

So he finds an ex-girlfriend and they

decide to enter into a common-law marriage.

Marriage did not slow Ben down, nor did age.

When he was in his 50s, during a diplomatic mission in London,

a friend named Charles willson peale stopped by.

Charles was an artist.

And when he walked in the room, he

saw a 58-year-old Ben Franklin making out with an 18-year-old

named Polly Stevenson.

Well, peale then sketches this out

when he returns to his home.

And we still have this sketch today, the two of them

in a lip-lock, groping each other.

I always joke that peale's sketch is showing Franklin

as a man of science.

He's very, obviously, taking her pulse by resting his hand

on her left breast.

He's gazing deeply into her eyes to measure dilation.

He's monitoring her breathing by keeping his lips very close

to hers.

I don't really know how I would describe what she seems

to be doing with her hand.

Although, one of my students put it as, obviously,

she's taking his pulse.

But that's another thing.

On that same diplomatic mission,

Ben Franklin attended the infamous hellfire sex club.

These guys would bring in prostitutes dressed

as nuns for their orgies.

Now if you didn't quite picture Ben Franklin this way,

neither did 77% of the people in our national poll.

Franklin, not only engaged in some hellfire high jinks,

but he also ingratiated himself with its members who

were parliamentarians and government officials.

And with this, he was able to get secret information

about what the British government was doing in terms

of the colonies.

We've seen how Franklin was a teenage runaway,

fathered an illegitimate child and even hung out

in a sex club.

It sounds like stories straight out of today's tabloids.

Well, it was Ben Franklin who pioneered tabloid journalism

in america, and he did it right here.

Franklin understood that when it comes to publishing, sex sells.

And so he printed in his newspaper

the first gossip column and the first sex advice column.

Well, he got enough readers to buy his newspaper that he

actually became the first printer

to turn a profit on newspapers.

He in turn took those profits, invested in printers

in other colonies and was able to create america's first news

network.

He had a great deal of experience as a young man,

in London, working the printing houses there.

And he, obviously, learned a great deal

about a lot of what they were doing to what we would call

market the media.

He took a very bland newspaper, in the form of the Pennsylvania

gazette, and introduced, what I think a lot of us

would consider, real modern news approach

with some actual reporting and editorializing and also

infusing a little bit of gossip.

The result was a free flow of information and ideas

between the colonies, leading up to the revolution

when the colonial public was the best read people on earth.

"10 things you don't know about: Benjamin Franklin".

Most people have heard that Benjamin Franklin was

famous for handing out advise and his poor Richard's

almanack.

But in his own life, he was less than honest about something

that made him world famous.

Do you guys know any good stories about Ben Franklin?

Off the top of my head just comes the story

with the kite and the king.

Do you know what the fact is?

Ben Franklin did not fly the kite.

Oh wow.

What?

No way!

I didn't know that either.

We've all heard this story of how Franklin proved

that lightning was just electricity and not

some mysterious force from the gods.

You have an image of Franklin bravely holding his kite string

in the middle of a lightning storm.

Well, that didn't happen.

It was his illegitimate son, William,

who ran around the cow pasture trying to get that kite up

into the lightning storm, while Franklin supervised

from a safe distance.

That's child endangerment.

I'm a social worker and that's not ok.

William got the kite, actually, into the heavens.

Franklin stayed dry within the confines of some shed or hut,

and he also stood in a block of wax

to make sure that he was insulated from grounding

the lightning strike.

And it's a moment that made him the most famous scientist

in the world.