History Buffs: The Wolf of Wall Street

[Music] this episode sponsored by the Dollar Shave Club hello and welcome history buffs my name is Nick Hodges and frankly just for the fun of it I'll be covering the wolf of Wall Street as one of the greatest Martin Scorsese movies ever made this is based on the real-life story of Jordan Belfort a crooked stockbroker who made his career by embezzling his investors out of millions of dollars and then spending it at all in an excess of debauchery to privacy an outright douchebaggery in 1989 he co-founded a brokerage firm called Stratton Oakmont and it was hugely successful its employed hundreds of aspiring young brokers who are all instructed to carry out a pump and dump scheme what this basically means that they would buy worthless stock the cost next to nothing then they would inflate the price by lying to their naive investors and then sold everything before the inflation bubble popped for years this scam went on and by the end of its Jordan Belfort had swindled his investors and of hundreds of millions it didn't take long for the FBI to find out and lock everyone up for audiences find so fascinating about Jordan Belfort is less to do this crime and more with his decadent lifestyle of drugs booze and women what we see in the film is so ludicrous so bizarre so insane that it has to be the work of Hollywood fiction right well grab yourself a drink and let's find out how accurate was this movie and oh yeah for anyone in the comment section asking seriously Nick is this even related to history absolutely [ __ ] not this is the wolf of Wall Street [Music] now normally when I do a history buffs episode I start off by exploring the historical background of the movie to provide some context but honestly how much do you need to understand what these Wall Street wankers were like you want to know what money sounds like go to a trading floor onwards [ __ ] this [ __ ] that [ __ ] [ __ ] [ __ ] I couldn't believe how these guys talk to each other I was hooked in seconds the life of Jordan Belfort was not exactly that complex he started off as a young broker who had just passed a series 7 exam and got himself a great first job at LF Rothschild an investment firm that have been around since 1899 but he would enjoyed for very long because on his first day of the job was Black Monday that was when the stock market fell by 500 points on October 19th 1987 up until then it was the worst crash that happened since the Great Depression and given how many stock brokers viewed their trade it's not hard to imagine why I gotta say I'm incredibly excited to be a part of I mean the clients you have absolutely [ __ ] the clients your only responsibility is to put meat on the table name of the game move the money from your clients pocket into your pocket right but if you can make a client's money at the same time it's advantageous everyone whom correct know so after being laid off from LF Rothschild Jordan Belfort found himself a job at the investors Center which was a penny stock house that sold worthless stock too gullible working-class investors normally this would be considered major step backwards for any self-respecting broker until Belford realized that he would gain a 50% commission out of anything he sold so using the skills he picked up on Wall Street he robbed these people of their livelihoods and the money he was able to make from that allowed him to open up his own brokerage firm in 1989 where he planned to do the same thing except to rich people at another band a daughter body shop in Long Island Stratton Oakmont was born and it was there that Belfer provider's team of stockbrokers with a carefully written script that he called the straight line the way it worked was that they would learn new investors in with chip stocks successful brands and companies that the general public were familiar with once those investors have made a little bit of money on those safe bets then the Stratton ice will take advantage of that newfound trust and push them to buy the high-risk penny stocks which of course they did this tactic allowed the company to grow from its quote unquote humble origins into one of the largest OTC firms in the entire country and just like we see in the wolf of Wall Street's Jordan Belfort would spend every morning giving epic speeches over a microphone to his brokers and appeal to their inner greed but enough of that exposition you want to know about Jordan Belfort's misadventures and all the other crazy stuff we see in the movie most of them concerning drugs I take quaaludes 10 to 15 times a day for my back pain adderall to stay focused xanax to take the edge off pot to mellow me out cocaine to wayton back up again and morphing well because it's awesome admittedly it's difficult to hundred percent verify which of these stories are true but base when I was able to find here the ones that do seem to be white for example the scene where Jordan Belfort almost crashed his private helicopter on his mansions lawn not just because he was wasted on quaaludes annex and morphine but he also didn't have a pilot's license and there was also the time he tried to drive his car on such a high dose of quaaludes that they almost turned in paralytic only difference was that the car he drove was a Mercedes and not a Lamborghini seriously the amount of drugs that Belfer consumed on a daily basis is no exaggeration in his book he wrote that his dealer todd garrett who in the movies renamed brad sold him ten thousand quaaludes during his career as a stockbroker which were more than enough to fuel the wild parties Belfort threw at Stratton Oakmont it looks less like a brokerage firm and more of a frat house where they did such crazy things like shagging prostitutes in the office or shave a female employees head for $10,000 so she could pipe breast implants but admittedly the movie does make a few fictional changes for example Belfort and his team never brought a chimpanzee into their office or any exotic animals for that matter nor did they organized a dwarf-tossing competition to throw against a dartboard apparently the firm did hire some little peep to attend a party and the idea of the competition was just suggested one of their meetings but never came to be probably because the idea was so stupid that anyone with half a brain would point out there was a lawsuit waiting to happen the important thing you guys got to keep in mind is is that these things gossip they get together and they gossip at this point and the last thing that we need is them getting together and saying oh yes and they made fun of us like it's gonna make strata look that's what I love me you think of [ __ ] like that another thing I thought I should mention is that despite the title of the movie and Jordan Belfort book he was never actually called the wharf of Wall Street the original 1991 Forbes article makes no mention of the name and according to Danny porush no one has Stratton Oakmont called him that either it was just simply an invention of the book that was also adopted by the film speaking of Danny porush let's have a look at Jonah Hill's character in the movie he's renamed Donnie Azoff but his real name was Danny porush and he helped co-found Stratton Oakmont with Jordan Belfort one big change made in the wolf of Wall Street is how the two met it wasn't at a restaurant where Danny asked to see Jordan Belfort $72,000 pay stub before quitting his job in real life Danny's wife Nancy Parrish was the one who introduced them so that's not accurate but funny enough the bit about Nancy being Danny's cousin is true and they definitely one second cousins so you'd think that'd be gross enough but another absurd thing about Danny they turned out to be true is when he swallowed a broca's goldfish for slacking on the job so moving on from Danny let's take a look at another important character the Duchess of Bay Ridge you know the one I'm talking about she was the one with my [ __ ] in her mouth in the Ferrari renames Naomi in the movie Belle fits real wife was Nadine Belfort and that background is pretty much the same as what we are told she was indeed a model but to be called a miller lite girl is a little too generous in my opinion to show you what I mean let's have a look an eighteen smilla light commercial [Music] because there's nothing better than spending a little time man's two best friends his dog and his beer another light the less filling beer that really tastes great that's right blankety missus that was the extent of an exciting career as a miller lite girl a role that got less screen time than the dog not suggesting that this was an inaccuracy of course I just couldn't help myself showing that commercial once I found it anyway just like in the movie the real Nadine was given every luxury she could ever want but given Jordan Belfort's dangerous lifestyle it all came at a price like for example the scene where Belford court Nadine 167 foot yacht as a wedding present they used to belong to Coco Chanel that's all true and at that moment in her life she probably thought that things couldn't get better than this only to have it taken away years later when Jordan and the captain decided a sail through a freak storm in the Mediterranean with fifty foot waves smashing against the yacht it eventually capsized and they had to be rescued by the Italian Coast Guard only slight difference words that they were sailing off the coast of Sardinia and they weren't heading for Monaco but the parts about Jordan only wanted to save his stash of quaaludes is true even on a sinking ship he had his priorities and the part about his private plane crashing because a seagull got caught in the engine Jordan didn't actually see that but it did happen some days later another cool thing I found out June my research involves jordan belfort private investigator Bo Dietl who tries his best to protect Belfort from himself but unlike the other characters in the movie Bo Dietl is actually playing himself and he really did work for Jordan Belfort I just thought there was such a cool addition by Martin Scorsese and Bo does pull off a great performance even if it is playing himself you didn't try to bribe this [ __ ] FBI I see despite all the other bad decisions Jordan Belfort made in real life it wasn't stupid enough to try and bribe the FBI agent investigating him the guy's real name was Gregory Coleman and the whole scene where Jordan invited him to meet him on his yacht never happened in fact the two wouldn't meet face-to-face until Coleman arrested him at his home in 1998 and not during an infomercial like we see in the movie balford was eventually charged for money laundering and illegal trading practices and the reason he popped in the FBI's radar was because the numerous complaints made against Stratton Oakmont and Jordan suspiciously excessive lifestyle but also through what happened with Steve Madden if you recall in the movie Steve Madden was a designer for women's shoes and he just happened to be childhood friends with Danny porush in 1993 Stratton Oakmont took Steve Madden shoe company public the only problem was was that Steve Madden Danny porush and Jordan Belfort owned the majority of its shares which of course is really illegal so in Jordan's minions drove the value of the stock up they got stinking rich in the process in order to hide his ill-gotten gains Jordan Belfort began smuggling cash to a Swiss bank he was able to disguise them in his wife's aunt's name by explaining to her that he just wished to avoid paying taxes the way he was able to smuggle the money was through his quaalude dealer todd garrett whose wife just happened to be a Swiss citizen and they're able to convince her and her family to hide the money in their luggage by the end of it they had smuggled three million dollars for Jordan Belfort to get a lighter sentence Jordan agreed to wear a wire and rat had his friends and colleagues in 2004 Belfort was finally convicted for his crimes but despite having stolen millions of dollars he would be sentenced to four years in a minimum-security prison but would only serve 22 months and if you think that takes the piss the prison Lee served at the Taft Correctional Institution was less like a prison and more like a university campus like they had a Sports Complex with tennis basketball volleyball football baseball they had a music department with concerts playing and they had a rack we could play pool foosball and ping pong and to top it all off guess who his cellmate was Tommy Chong one of the coolest and most chilled out people you could ever want to be your bunkmate lucky bastard when most people go to prison they're praying then they don't end up with a violent convict in the end I guess we should be happy that Jordan välfärd ended up in this prison because it was actually Tommy Chong who convinced him to write his life story into the book the wolf of Wall Street and despite his cushy prison sentence he didn't completely get away scot-free additionally he was ordered to return the 110 million dollars that he stole from his former clients and to this very day he is struggling to pay everything back Jordan Belfort now makes a living by giving seminars around the world to teach sales techniques and there's a scene at the end of the movie we could see the real Jordan Belfort make a brief cameo where he introduces his film counterparts onto the stage overall I'm happy to say the Martin Scorsese has made yet another authentic film it only slightly deviates from the truth at times for the plot purposes or to creatively raise the bar but any change though his mate doesn't betray what the film was ultimately going for to tell a cautionary tale about the absurdity and dangers of excess I just like to say a quick thank you to Dollar Shave Club for sponsoring this video and supporting history buffs Dollar Shave Club is an online service that delivers an array of bathroom goodies right to your door they've got everything from toothpaste to body wash and to hairstyling products all the essentials you need to start your day no matter how you wake up to break it all down all new members are given a starter set for just five dollars so imagine all that money you'll be saving and it comes with three trial size versions of some of their best stuff such as the shave butter body wash one wipe Charlie butt wipes as well as their executive razor this premium weighted razor gives you the feeling of a close shave without paying those pesky Wall Street prices to get your exclusive $5 offer just enter dollarshaveclub.com forward slash history buffs or click on the link in the description box below [Music] well that about wraps it up my name is Nick Hodges and thanks for watching history buffs and remember if you like the show help the channel grow if you wish to support history buffs then he can now do so at patreon and as always let me know in the comments section what you thought about the wolf of Wall Street and of course what historical movie should I review next in the meantime check out the history buffs Twitter and Facebook pages for new updates until then I'll see you next time [Music] you

Channel: History Buffs

Views: 6,067,998

Rating: 4.9133391 out of 5

Keywords: the wolf of wall street (film), jordan belfort, based on a true story, wolf of wall street, historical accuracy, historically innacurate, historical film review, history (tv genre), historically accurate, wall street, history buffs, historically inaccurate, the wolf of wall street (award-winning work), leonardo dicaprio, martin scorsese, accurate, Stock brokers, finance, new york city, stock exhange

Id: PCenHEOm2m0

Length: 16min 14sec (974 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 17 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/YaBrotherJesus]

This movie was an instant classic with a fantastic cast

[u/TravelDude14]

Wow I hadn't heard of that YT channel before. Now I'm binge watching

[u/bobdebicker]

Well, Belfort was the epitome of everything wrong with Wall Street culture that partly led to the recession. I think it's historically important.

[u/ProxyReaper]

I like how this video neglects how Belfort is actually making a ton of money and suing to not pay back the people he scammed. Other than that it was pretty enjoyable.

[u/cerberaspeedtwelve]

For the interested, I highly recommend the overlooked movie Boiler Room (2000) starring Giovanni Ribisi and featuring a young Ben Affleck and Vin Diesel, among others.

Boiler Room was originally supposed to be specifically about Jordan Belfort as well, but they couldn't get him to agree to using his name and rights in such an unsympathetic portrayal of himself. It's the same story as Wolf of Wall Street, but told from the perspective of one of the rank-and-file employees, who is making more money every week than he used to in a year, and yet can't stop his conscience getting in the way of ripping people off. (Belfort likes to pretend that he only stole from rich people. Not true. Boiler Room goes out its way to point out that he ripped off the retirement savings of thousands of blue-collar Joe Schmos who he conned into investing in stocks they didn't understand.)

[u/yaqster]

A movie about an embezzler, funded by crooks using embezzled money

[u/kingofstormandfire]

Honestly I think the Wolf of Wall Street is gonna be remembered as a classic. Not only is it a great film, some moments of this film have been engrained in pop culture. I know plenty of people around me who aren't even big movie fans who quote that movie or do the Matthew McConaughey chest bearing thing.

[u/Sin2Win_Got_Me_In]

FYI: Alabama SEC commissioner Joe Borg started this investigation.

[u/themanwiththexrayeye]

What happens on screen is always fantasy. It´s a mirror.