Very Special Episodes: Night of a Thousand Weddings

Summary

Noble Blood: Very Special Episodes – Night of a Thousand Weddings

Release Date: March 30, 2025
Host/Author: Dana Schwartz, Zarin Burnett, Aaron Burnett, & Jason English
Description: Author Dana Schwartz explores the stories of some of history’s most fascinating events. In this episode, she delves into the frantic rush of young Americans to marry on August 26, 1965, to avoid the Vietnam draft.

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1. Introduction to a Pivotal Night (02:20 - 06:24)

Dana Schwartz sets the stage by recounting a tumultuous evening in Las Vegas, Nevada. On August 26, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson issued an unexpected executive order ending marriage deferments for the Vietnam draft. This announcement sent shockwaves through the nation, prompting thousands of young couples to race against the clock to marry before midnight, hoping to secure exemption from military service.

“The Vietnam era was an incredibly stressful time to be young in America. Getting shot at in a foreign country isn't on their bucket list,” Schwartz reflects (02:20).

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2. The Nevada Solution: A Haven for Quick Marriages

With most states imposing waiting periods and medical tests for marriage licenses, Nevada emerged as the sole refuge for swift weddings. Las Vegas, known for its quickie chapels, became the epicenter of this matrimonial frenzy.

“Every state, that is, except Nevada,” Dana explains, highlighting the state's unique stance on marriage formalities (02:20).

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3. Personal Stories: Love Under Pressure

Candy Rydell and George Warren (12:26 - 26:42)

Candy, an 18-year-old student, and her boyfriend George, an anthropology student, found themselves ensnared in the sudden directive. Faced with the threat of George being sent to Vietnam, they purchased plane tickets to Las Vegas with mere hours to spare.

“There wasn't any hesitation. It was just like, well, this is something we have to do,” Candy recounts her swift decision to marry (18:22).

Upon arrival, they navigated the chaotic courthouse, ultimately marrying just before midnight. While their marriage endured for five years, they eventually parted ways, but remained friends until George’s passing in 2018.

Claudia and David’s Wild Ride (15:10 - 28:56)

Claudia, a bookkeeper, received an urgent call from her boyfriend David to marry immediately to avoid the draft. Their journey to Las Vegas was fraught with delays and doubts. Initially failing to secure a marriage license by midnight, fate intervened when a compassionate courthouse employee allowed them to wed just moments before the deadline.

“We have to get married before midnight,” David implored, pushing Claudia into the whirlwind decision (15:19).

Their marriage faced societal pressures and family shame, leading to separation after six years. However, decades later, with shared children and grandchildren, Claudia and David rekindled their love, marrying again in 2011.

“There’s strength in both those options,” filmmaker Ashton Avila muses about Claudia’s ultimate decision to marry despite her reservations (47:07).

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4. The Extraordinary Telephone Wedding: Dan and Nancy Wilson (34:01 - 43:36)

Perhaps the most remarkable tale is that of Dan and Nancy Wilson. Scheduled to marry a week after graduation, their plans were jeopardized by the executive order. With only minutes before the midnight cutoff, they orchestrated a telephone wedding spanning different states.

“It was a four-way conference call,” Nancy explains, detailing their desperate attempts to find an officiant willing to perform the ceremony remotely (39:47).

After frantic coordination, they successfully married by phone, defying conventional norms. Their union, unconventional from the start, blossomed into a lasting marriage, celebrating their 60th anniversary in 2025.

“I never thought about being a bride,” Nancy reflects on the surreal nature of their phone-in ceremony (26:42).

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5. Reflections and Cinematic Potential (48:12 - 51:46)

The hosts discuss the episode’s cinematic potential, brainstorming casting ideas for a film adaptation of these compelling stories. They highlight the emotional depth and historical significance of the events, emphasizing how love and desperation intertwine during turbulent times.

“I think there's some real juicy roles for a lot,” Zarin Burnett suggests, envisioning a Hollywood portrayal of the night’s events (48:25).

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6. Conclusion: Enduring Love and Historical Impact

Dana Schwartz concludes by reflecting on the profound impact of that single night. Approximately 20,000 couples were wed in Las Vegas alone, each driven by fear, love, and the desire to secure a future free from war. The episode underscores the lengths to which love can drive individuals, even in the face of national crises.

“There’s truly no limit to the things we'll do for love,” Dana affirms, celebrating the enduring bonds formed under extraordinary circumstances (47:35).

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Notable Quotes:

• “Getting drafted in 1965 was seen as a straight shot to the front lines in Vietnam.” – Dana Schwartz (02:20)

• “If the news drops and within 24 hours you're on a plane to Las Vegas in 1960, right, that's pretty serious.” – Amy Rutenberg (17:59)

• “I never thought about being a bride.” – Nancy Wilson (26:42)

• “There’s strength in both those options.” – Ashton Avila (47:07)

• “There’s truly no limit to the things we'll do for love.” – Dana Schwartz (47:35)

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Final Thoughts:
Night of a Thousand Weddings offers a poignant glimpse into a unique historical moment where love, fear, and societal pressures converged, leading to extraordinary acts of commitment. Through personal anecdotes and expert insights, the episode captures the human spirit’s resilience and the profound choices individuals make in the face of adversity.

Transcript

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[Amy Brown]

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[Dana Schwartz]

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[Amy Brown]

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[Dana Schwartz]

The Clark County Marriage License Bureau in Las Vegas is about as far from the glitz and glamour of the Strip as you can get. But for one night in 1965, this bland government office in the county courthouse was home to one of the wildest shows in town. On Thursday, August 26, 1965, hundreds of young couples from all over the United States flocked to Las Vegas desperate to get married before the clock struck midnight. Why the rush? Just hours earlier, President Lyndon Johnson issued a surprise executive order. With the war escalating in Vietnam, the army needed more soldiers. LBJ's executive order said that as of midnight, you would no longer get special treatment for the Vietnam draft by getting married. The surprise announcement set off a panic. Getting drafted in 1965 was seen as a straight shot to the front lines in Vietnam. But there was still hope. If you could somehow get married before midnight local time, you might be in the clear. The problem was finding a place to get hitched on such short notice. Nearly every state required blood tests or a waiting period between getting a marriage license and actually getting married. Every state, that is, except Nevada. At 9:30pm on August 26, justice of the Peace James Brennan returned from conducting a late night wedding at the Dunes Hotel to find a mob scene at the Clark County Courthouse. There was a long snaking line of 50 couples waiting to get married, and the crowd was growing fast. Most of the brides and grooms to be came from California, but some couples had flown all the way from New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. Frazzled parents in towers, Judge Brennan had never seen anything like it. On a normal Thursday, his Office might issue eight or 10 marriage licenses. But over the next couple of hours, in what can only be described as an orgy of officiating, Brennan and his harried clerks issued more than 150 licenses. The judge personally presided over 67 seven weddings in one hour and 50 minutes, which must be some kind of record. With minutes to go before midnight, Brennan ordered his secretary to put her typewriter cover over the clock. He didn't want to know if the last few I do's were exchanged before or after 12. As far as the state of Nevada was concerned, everyone got married on August 26. The Vietnam era was an incredibly stressful time to be young in America. If you were 19 or 20, it didn't matter what your plans were. Getting a job, starting a family, a draft board could send you halfway around the world to fight and you might never come home. It was stressful for young women, too. Imagine you're an 18 year old girl fresh out of high school and your boyfriend calls out of the blue and says, marry me tonight or they're going to send me to Vietnam. What would you do? Would you set aside your own plans and dreams to protect someone you love? Welcome back to Very Special Episodes, an I Heart original podcast. I'm your host, Dana Schwartz and this is Night of a Thousand Weddings.

[Zarin Burnett]

We are back. She's Dana Schwartz. He's Aaron Burnett. I'm Jason English. This is the Very Special Episodes podcast. How's everybody doing?

[Aaron Burnett]

Doing well.

[Dana Schwartz]

How about y'all I'm doing good. Have we spoken since we had a new addition to the very special episodes family?

[Aaron Burnett]

No, we have not.

[Zarin Burnett]

Please introduce, introduce.

[Dana Schwartz]

There's a little baby. There's an Arthur Carmel. So if you hear any crying in the background, it's the co host who's mad that he doesn't get a chance to participate in this banter.

[Zarin Burnett]

We're gonna write some baby into some of these episodes. Put us in touch with his reps.

[Dana Schwartz]

We do live in la, so he does already have an agent manager, talent agent, modeling rep. By the way, great name.

[Aaron Burnett]

Great name for his future career.

[Dana Schwartz]

Artie Carmes.

[Aaron Burnett]

Yes. I love it.

[Zarin Burnett]

Have you gotten all the social media handles and everything that you need to reserve?

[Dana Schwartz]

I think I did. I couldn't get the Gmail, but I got something close. Isn't that crazy that that's how fast it is? I think as soon as we landed on the name, I was like, instagram Gmail. It's the best gift I'll ever give him.

[Aaron Burnett]

That's true.

[Zarin Burnett]

I got the Gmail. I'm squatting on the Gmail to be a 13th birthday present.

[Aaron Burnett]

You are a man now.

[Candy Rydell]

Perfect.

[Zarin Burnett]

Speaking of la, Zarin and I just met up for a couple days in la. We made a stop in Venice at a, I guess you call it a creator space called the Lighthouse. And Zarin and I gave a nice talk to a very cool group of people.

[Aaron Burnett]

Great crowd.

[Zarin Burnett]

Hopefully they'll have us back. Hopefully we picked up some new listeners to this podcast.

[Aaron Burnett]

Yeah, I really liked that crowd. I was going down there. I used to live in Venice. It was a nice homecoming. But that crowd was amazing. I wish they had spaces like that when I lived there.

[Zarin Burnett]

Speaking of big cross country trips, we've got a few of them in this episode.

[Dana Schwartz]

Oh, God. A frantic road trip to save someone's life. Pretty much most of us have no idea what it's like to live under the shadow of the draft, that any day a letter could show up in the mail ordering you to report for duty. For most people, getting shot at in a foreign country isn't on their bucket list. For the first few years of the conflict in Vietnam, only small numbers of American troops were needed. But that changed in 1964 following reports of North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacking an American ship in the Gulf of Tonkin. In response, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution authorizing the President to send conventional troops into Vietnam. The draft was designed to most efficiently distribute America's manpower. Every American man between the ages of 18 and 26 was eligible for the draft. Not everyone was sent overseas to fight though. There were all sorts of built in deferments available. Ways to legally get a reprieve. If you were in college, for example, you could get a student deferment. If you were a doctor or a farmer, you could get an occupational or agricultural deferment. If you had kids to raise, you could get a hardship deferment.

[Amy Rutenberg]

The whole purpose of the deferments in general, right, is to create a system of selective service. That's what selective service means. So some men are needed more in uniform and some men are needed more as civilians or at least needed less in uniform. That's true across the board in US history.

[Dana Schwartz]

That's Amy Rutenberg, a historian who researches and writes about the draft. Amy's also really interested in all of the ways that people tried to get around the draft, legal and otherwise. Oof.

[Amy Rutenberg]

Well, there are all kinds of stories that circulated about people going to Mexico to have knee surgery to ruin their knees rather than fix them. People purposefully starving themselves to get under the weight limit so that they would be 4F or not eligible physically. People refusing to shower for weeks leading up to their induction exams so that they would be found mentally unfit.

[Dana Schwartz]

According to one study, more than 60% of draft eligible men actively took some type of measure to avoid being drafted, or at least to avoid being sent to the front lines. Army infantry was the most dangerous job. So a lot of men enlisted in other branches of the military that had lower odds of being sent to Vietnam, like the National Guard or even the Navy. Others did everything they could to qualify for a deferment, which were relatively easy to get at first. But as the fighting escalated and the army needed more men, the rules started to tighten up.

[Amy Rutenberg]

There's a pattern that's established through all the wars where the United States has used a draft, and that is at the outset, when there are relatively high rates of volunteering, or when the US hasn't needed quite as many men in uniform, the deferments are pretty easy to get. And then as it becomes harder to get people to enlist, or the military simply needs more men, those deferments get closed off one by one.

[Dana Schwartz]

That's what happened in 1965. Two years earlier, John F. Kennedy had signed an executive order saying that married men would be drafted last only after all eligible single men were used up. Kennedy's announcement even triggered a miniature marriage boom.

[Amy Rutenberg]

Marriage rates were 7.5% higher for 20 year olds and 10.9% higher for 21 year olds between October 16 and June 64 than they had been during the previous two years. In other words, there's a spike in 20 and 21 year olds getting married.

[Dana Schwartz]

With the marriage deferment. If a young person really didn't want to fight in Vietnam, they didn't have to starve themselves or go to Mexico and get reverse knee surgery. They just had to find a woman. At least that was the case until August 26, 1965.

[Candy Rydell]

I was going to work one night and I worked a late afternoon shift at the phone company and I heard on the radio that Lyndon Johnson had changed the rules for getting a deferment and that you had to be married before midnight that night.

[Dana Schwartz]

That's candi Rydell. In 1965, Candy was an 18 year old student at El Camino Junior College in Southern California. Candy was dating a guy named George Warren. George was different from most of the other guys at El Camino. He was an intellectual, a free thinker. George didn't approve of Candy being in a sorority. Too conventional, too bourgeois. So they started going to anti war protests instead.

[Candy Rydell]

I remember my mother was horrified because she had long hair, which it wasn't long hair at all. You know, it was just like he could comb it and it came to his bottom of his ear. But she never liked anybody I was with.

[Dana Schwartz]

George had his whole life planned out. And central to that plan was not getting sent to Vietnam.

[Candy Rydell]

That was his life. You know, he was a student and anthropology student, so that had a big future. And he figured that he would go to school and then go to graduate school and then go on to get a doctorate. And then by the time he was 28, he would have to get married just to avoid the draft.

[Dana Schwartz]

Candy and George had only been dating for three months. They'd never talked about marriage or if they had, it was something in the way. Distant future. But when Candy heard LBJ's announcement on the radio, she felt her world turn upside down. If the marriage deferment was gone, what if the college deferment was next? What would stop George from being drafted? The second Candy got to work, she called George's house and left a message with his mom. She said that she would do whatever he wanted, whatever was necessary to keep him safe.

[Candy Rydell]

After a couple of hours, I got a phone call that said there was an emergency, that I had to go home. I remember telling the girl next to me, I think I'm getting married.

[Dana Schwartz]

As it happens, Candi wasn't the only young woman in Southern California getting an urgent phone call in the middle of the afternoon. 18 year old Claudia was working as a bookkeeper at the Jolly Roger Inn near Disneyland when her boyfriend David called out of the blue.

[Jason English]

So Claudia's at work, she gets a phone call from David saying, hey, there's this executive order that was issued. We need to get married.

[Dana Schwartz]

That's Ashton Avila, a filmmaker. Ashton made a short film called I Got yout Babe. That's a fictionalized account of Claudia and David's adventures that night in 1965. Ashton says that Claudia was in the same boat as Candy. She'd only started dating David that summer and suddenly she was faced with a huge decision. Sensing Claudia's hesitation, David pushed harder. So you don't love me? He asked Claudia. You just want me to die over in Vietnam? Of course she loved him and of course she didn't want him to die anywhere. She just needed a minute to think. But David said if they wanted to get married before midnight, they had to leave right now.

[Jason English]

After the announcement, people realized the only place in the US that you could get married without a blood test or a waiting period was the state of Nevada. So people all over the country who knew that they wanted to make it in for this draft deferment fled to Nevada.

[Dana Schwartz]

David's friend had a car and the plan was to drive to Vegas, which was at least five hours away. Completely overwhelmed, Claudia tried to explain the situation to her boss who was less than sympathetic. He was from the World War II generation and had strong feelings about so called draft dodgers.

[Jason English]

She said, I need to go because I need to go and get married. And he said, well, if you leave, don't bother coming back because you don't have a job here anymore.

[Dana Schwartz]

As if Claudia's decision wasn't hard enough, now her job was on the line, but there wasn't time to think. David needed her help and that's all she knew.

[Jason English]

She left the job, they went to get married. They got in their friend's car and they started driving towards Las Vegas.

[Dana Schwartz]

Candy and George also had their sights set on Vegas, but they bought plane tickets. Actually, George's mom bought the plane tickets. She was dead set on getting George married before midnight and keeping him out of harm's way. When Candy and George got to the airport, it was full of other young couples with the same determined and slightly dazed look in their eye.

[Candy Rydell]

It was Bonanza Airlines and they had to put on three extra airplanes because there were so many couples going to Las Vegas right then to get married. So that was a big deal.

[Dana Schwartz]

For Amy Rutenberg, the historian, hearing about these Young couples dropping everything and racing to Vegas drives home just how anxious this entire generation was about being drafted.

[Amy Rutenberg]

Well, it certainly shows how serious these couples were about avoiding this. I mean, if, if the news drops and within 24 hours you're on a plane to Las Vegas in 1960, right, that's pretty serious.

[Dana Schwartz]

When we asked Candy if she had any second thoughts as she was boarding a Bonanza Airlines flight to Vegas to marry a guy she'd only known for three months, she said no.

[Candy Rydell]

There wasn't any hesitation. It was just like, well, this is something we have to do, it's different, but let's do it, you know, So I didn't worry. I called my mother before I left and she said, are you pregnant? Because that's my mother.

[Dana Schwartz]

Claudia, on the other hand, wasn't convinced. The long car ride to Vegas gave her way too much time to think. David's friend brought his fiance and the other couple bickered and fought in the front seat the entire trip. How did Claudia know that she and David wouldn't end up like this? Was she really ready to be somebody's wife?

[Jason English]

I think she was torn between, she really, you know, loved David and she wanted to be with him and she didn't want him to go to war. Like obviously she said yes for a reason. But I think she also was battling with the idea of what does it mean to be a woman in 1965 and what does it mean to get married and have your life change it that way and the expectation, expectations of you as a wife and a mother. And then all of a sudden it's like, hey, you have, you know, six hours to decide if you are going to give all that up?

[Dana Schwartz]

As Claudia, David, Candy and George set off for Vegas, they had two burning questions racing through their minds. One, would they actually make it to Vegas on time to get married by midnight? And two, two, was all of this completely crazy? On August 26, 1965, Larry Fugate was a 20 year old cub reporter for the Las Vegas Review Journal, the city paper. It was close to 9pm on a Thursday and the Journal office was almost empty. Then the phone rang and he gets.

[Jason English]

This phone call that somebody says, hey, there's something going on at the courthouse. And Larry says to like one of the last reporters there being like, hey, there's something going on at the courthouse that maybe we should go and like look into. And they were like, I'm going home. If you want to go do that, you can.

[Dana Schwartz]

So Larry, being an eager beaver, grabbed his notebook and hightailed it for the courthouse. He couldn't, couldn't believe what he saw. There were people everywhere. Police were on duty trying to control the increasingly jittery crowd. When Larry realized that people had flown to Vegas from all over the country for a last minute draft reprieve, he knew that he'd stumbled on the best story in Vegas that night.

[Jason English]

I remember him describing, he goes, there were women with soda pop cans in their hair for the curling. And he goes, and men who look like they walked off a construction site. And it was just this kind of chaotic group of people. And he went and he interviewed a bunch of the people there.

[Dana Schwartz]

There was a tall young man who'd flown all the way from Pittsburgh with his sweetheart and his parents. He admitted that he'd only known his future wife for four weeks, but said they'd discussed marriage before. Once emotions were running high, most of the young women were either giddy or in tears or both. The young men paced around chain smoking cigarettes. One 20 year old kid told Larry, sure, I'm not ready to be married, but I'm not going to fight in some dirty jungle. The parents were on edge too. When Larry tried to interview one father, he was shouted away. The man didn't want his son's name in the papers as a draft dodger.

[Jason English]

People did have their opinions of what was right and what was wrong. And also, you know, we were closer to that World War II victory, right where America was the big hero and, you know, or one of the big heroes and, you know, the pride of being like, you know, you fought the Nazis, you like, did good for the world, all of that. And then to go into this war that was so muddy about the intention of it, and to have those veterans from World War II be like, you, fight for your country, we're proud to be American, all this stuff, and then to have this war, that's like, wait, this isn't the same situation, but how do I explain that to an older generation?

[Dana Schwartz]

One of the Clark county police officers turned to Larry and quipped, it seems romance is now spelled V I E T N A M. Inside the Marriage License Bureau, things were getting chaotic. Lydia Cartwright was on duty that night. She remembers getting frantic phone calls from all over the country. Men were calling from New York and Chicago asking Lydia to marry them right over the phone. She politely declined. Most of the couples didn't have wedding rings and none of the girls wore wedding dresses. Someone showed up with a veil and several of the brides passed it around, recycling it for their rushed ceremony. With the justice of the peace. Meanwhile, more and more couples were arriving in Vegas by plane and by car, trying to beat the midnight deadline.

[Jason English]

The feeling of Las Vegas that night was cars were driving down the boulevard and people were yelling at the cars and saying the court courthouses that way. Like people in the streets were pointing them in the direction because they knew what everyone was doing.

[Dana Schwartz]

Candy Riddell and George Warren landed in Las Vegas around 9:30. They had no idea if the courthouse was even open. They jumped in a taxi and the driver insisted on stopping at every single quickie wedding chapel along the strip.

[Candy Rydell]

They must have had a deal with him, you know, that he's got to try to sell people on the way. And we had to get out and go into some of them and we're, we're just panicky, you know, we gotta get to the, we gotta get to the courthouse. And then when you get to the courthouse, it was closed. They had to close for an hour to take lunch. This was like at 10 o'clock at night though, you know. So they were preparing for a big influx. And then so there was just a hallway jammed of people waiting for the courthouse to open again. I think it's just that we were all nervous that we were gonna get married in time.

[Dana Schwartz]

Candy and George didn't know it, but they were some of the lucky ones. All across America, thousands of other couples like them were frantically trying to get married too, but with little luck. In Elkton, Maryland for example, which at one time was the most popular marriage mill on the east coast, police and city officials fielded hundreds of phone calls. They tried to explain that Maryland outlawed quickie marriages years ago, but that didn't stop throngs of young couples from for making the late night drive. Elkton police told newspapers that out of state couples, quote, ran around like a bunch of ninnies trying to circumvent the 48 hour waiting period. They even tracked down a local judge who had the authority to waive the waiting period. But only it turned out, if one of the parties was a Maryland resident. At the night court in New York City, a rush of young couples begged the judge to marry them before midnight, but he sent them packing. In Texas, a reporter caught up to a 19 year old couple who were turned away from a county clerk's office because of the three day waiting period. The dejected young man accused the reporter of being a spy for the draft board, saying, if I give you my name, I'd be drafted in the morning. Nevada was one of the only places left in the country where a quickie wedding was legal, but the window was closing there too. Back in Vegas, Candy and George made it to the front of the line. Around 11 o'clock, they got their marriage license and then had to wait in another anxious line for the justice of the Peace. Judge Brennan performed a short ceremony in his office. But Candy says it was all a blur. She doesn't remember a word. Before she knew it, she and George were back out on the streets of Las Vegas, two newlyweds.

[Candy Rydell]

Well, it was just not my intention to have a wedding, you know, I wasn't. I never thought about being a bride, you know, if it happened one day, it would happen. So it was all still a kind of a swirling around, and it was just. I don't know, we were just in a daze, I think, for a long time.

[Dana Schwartz]

Claudia and David had an even wilder ride. They drove all the way from la, but it took longer than they thought. The whole drive, Claudia was going back and forth in her mind, should she do this? Was she crazy? She decided to let fate decide. If we don't make it by 12, that's a sign that she wasn't supposed to marry David. They pulled up to the courthouse at exactly the stroke of midnight.

[Jason English]

They were like, we're not gonna make it. We're not gonna make it. And the car pulls up, they get out of the car, they run. And as they're going to the entrance of the courthouse, people are leaving the courthouse in tears and they're crying and they're upset and they say, what's going on? And they say, we didn't make it in time. It's too late. We didn't make it in time. And Claudia's like, well, that's it. We didn't make it in time. And David says, no, if they're gonna tell me no, they're gonna tell me to my face.

[Dana Schwartz]

Ashton admits that this next part sounds like a scene from a cheesy movie, but she swears that it's true.

[Jason English]

So they get to the door and the woman is literally putting the padlock, locking the door. And he tells her, I don't want to go to Vietnam, I don't want to die. I need to get married tonight. And she just took pity on him and let the two of them in. And they were the last people to be married in Clark county that night.

[Dana Schwartz]

Judge Brennan didn't leave the Clark county courthouse until after 2am Too wired to sleep, he went for a beer at the back bar of the Horseshoe Casino. George's mom booked Candy and him a room at the Sands Hotel. But Claudia and David didn't have anywhere to go. After their midnight wedding. They wandered into an old school casino called Diamond Jim's Nevada Club. And Claudia dropped a nickel into one of the slot machines. Ding, ding went the lights and out poured $20 in change, enough to afford a low budget honeymoon at the Hacienda Hotel and Casino.

[Jason English]

They got married and they stayed in a hotel that night. But it was also kind of a very like somber feeling of what did we just do? I imagine it's like that moment in the Graduate where they're sitting in the back of the bus and they have to realize, oh shit, you know what just happened?

[Dana Schwartz]

Less than 12 hours ago, Claudia and David were just two kids living in Anaheim with no real plans for the future. Now they were two married people with no real plans for the future. All they knew was that David was safe. For now at least. We read a lot of old newspaper articles while researching the craziness of August 26, 1965. There was Larry Fugate's story for the Las Vegas Review Journal, of course. But every major newspaper in the country also ran an article about the midnight marriage madness. Of all the wedding stories we read, though, one stood out as the most improbable and perhaps the most magical of them all. The details were first reported in the St. Joseph Gazette in St. Joseph, Missouri. But to tell it, we need to take you back to that fateful night when everything changed for one young couple.

[Dan Wilson]

It's tax season, and by now, I know we're all a bit tired of numbers, but here's an important one you need to hear. $16.5 billion. That's how much money in refunds the IRS flagged for possible identity fraud last year. Here's another 20%. That's the overall increase in identity theft related to tax fraud in 2024 alone. But it's not all grim news. Here's a good number. 100 million. That's how many data points Lifelock monitors every second. If your identity is stolen, LifeLock's US based restoration specialists will fix it. Backed by another good number, the million dollar protection plan. In fact, restoration is guaranteed or your money back. Don't face identity theft and financial losses alone. There's strength in numbers with Lifelock Identity theft protection for tax season and beyond. Join now and save up to 40% your first year. Call 1-800-LIFELOCK and use promo code iheart or go to lifelock.com iheart for 40% off terms apply.

[Amy Brown]

Hey, it's Amy Brown from the Bobby Bones Show. Join me in supporting St. Jude Children's Research Hospital for a chance to win a trip to meet Megan Maroney at the 2025 I Heart Country Festival in Austin, Texas on May 3rd. Hosted by Bobby Bones. We're going to hook you up with tickets, flights, hotel, food credits and a meet and greet with Megan Maroney. Take action now to support St. Jude and help cure childhood cancer and you're going to be entered for a chance to win. Visit iheartcountrytrip.com to learn more. You know, when the world gets a little crazy and everything is moving too fast? Don't you just wish you could get away from all of it for a while? Well, that's exactly what the all new 2025 Nissan Murano can do for you. And to be clear, you don't even have to go anywhere. The Murano is the getaway. It was designed from the ground up to be a refuge from the daily grind. I mean, it has a Bose premium sound system which can play your favorite, most relaxing music and there's nothing like a world class audio system to just transport you to a better headspace. Then there's the Murano's Massaging Leather appointed seats. Yeah, Massaging seats. Talk about melting away your stress. So could getting stuck in traffic become your happy place? I don't know. It sounds like it could in the all new Murano. You should probably check one out for yourself. You gotta drive the all new 2025 Nissan Murano today. Bows and massaging Leather appointed seats are optional features.

[Dana Schwartz]

Now I'd like to introduce you to Meaningful Beauty, the famed skincare brand created by iconic supermodel Cindy Crawford. It's her secret to absolutely gorgeous skin. Meaningful Beauty makes powerful and effective skin care simple and it's loved by millions of women. It's formulated for all ages and all skin tones and types. And it's designed to work as a complete skin care system, leaving your skin feeling soft, smooth and nourished. I recommend starting with Cindy's full regimen which contains all five of her best selling products including the Amazing Youth Activating Melon Serum. This next generation serum has the power of melon leaf stem cell technology. It's melon leaf stem cells encapsulated for freshness and released onto the skin to support a visible reduction in the appearance of wrinkles. With thousands of glowing five star reviews, why not give it a try? Subscribe today and you can get the Amazing Meaningful Beauty system for just $49.95. That includes our introductory five piece system. Free gifts, free shipping, and a 60 day money back guarantee. All that [e-mail] Dan and Nancy Wilson started dating in 1962. Dan was a senior at Benton High School in St. Joseph, Missouri, and Nancy was a freshman.

[Nancy Wilson]

Well, actually, we've known each other almost all of our life. We grew up only about a block and a half away from each other. And so there was a few years of difference between us in age. So I was always ahead of her. And it wasn't until the teenage years that I finally started noticing this pretty little girl down the street and she caught my eye and things kind of took off from there.

[Candy Rydell]

Well, we had kind of been noticing each other in school and then during the summer spent a little time over at the swimming pool and happened to notice him there. And one weekend we went to a county fair and he asked me if I would like to have a ride home with him. And been together pretty much ever since then.

[Dana Schwartz]

By the time Nancy graduated, Dan already had the rest of their lives planned out. They'd own a funeral home, of course. Let me explain. After high school, Dan attended community college and got a part time job at a local funeral home.

[Nancy Wilson]

And the gentleman that owned the funeral home came to me and said, you know, I got this funeral home, but I have three daughters and none of them have any interest in the business. So for the right young man, if you want to get your license, come back and work here at the funeral home. There could be a bright future.

[Dana Schwartz]

Dan was all in. But to take over the business, he had to attend mortuary school first and get his mortuary license. Dan and Nancy were deeply committed to each other, but to realize their bright future as funeral home owners, they'd have to spend a whole year apart. Mortuary school was in Dallas, Texas, 550 miles from St. Joseph. Being apart would be hard for the young lovebirds. But during Christmas break in 1964, Dan made it official. He asked Nancy to marry him and she said yes, of course. They set a date for September 4, 1965, exactly a week after Dan would graduate. Everything was falling into place. Dan went back to Dallas. Nancy stayed in St. Joseph and they dreamed of their September wedding.

[Nancy Wilson]

The plan was to get married at our church. Whenever we got back home, invitations were out. Just immediate family, her family and mine. Just a small little get together and everything was all set out and we were looking forward to that.

[Dana Schwartz]

Dan says he didn't think much about the draft at the time. He knew kids from high school who were serving in Vietnam and He didn't have anything against the war. In fact, Dan says he would have been proud to serve his country. But all he was thinking about in 1965 was finishing school, getting that mortuary license, and marrying his sweetheart. Then came August 26th. LBJ signed the executive order saying that after midnight, the marriage deferment was going away. Dan heard the news about the rule change around 5pm but he didn't really see how it affected him. It wasn't until later that night that some of Dan's classmates from Missouri gave him something to worry about. If any of them were drafted right out of mortuary school, they were up a creek. Apparently, the licensing process in Missouri followed a strict timeline. After you got your mortuary degree, there was a one year preceptorship and then you took the state boards. If Dan and his friends were sent to Vietnam, the process could be delayed for years or they might even have to repeat mortuary school when they got back.

[Nancy Wilson]

And we thought that was a tremendous waste of time and money. And I had already borrowed the money to go to school to start with the first time. So I was on a pretty tight time frame anyway already. And we were looking to get married. So I didn't need anything that might potentially interrupt me completing my preceptorship, passing my state boards, and then getting licensed. So we're having this discussion with my classmates and I, and we decide that this may be an issue here for us in the state of Missouri if we don't follow through on a time frame.

[Dana Schwartz]

What's crazy was that Dan and Nancy were all set to get married in a little over a week. They even had their marriage license already. The fact that LBJ's announcement came when it did, during the extremely narrow window between the end of school, school and marriage to perfectly legit draft deferments was wild. Now Dan and Nancy's entire plan was in jeopardy. But what could they do about it?

[Nancy Wilson]

One of the guys suggested, well, you know, you guys have already got your license and everything. You could go ahead and get married over the phone and then we could just go from there and have your church wedding later. Well, we all laughed about that and thought it was funny, and then we pondered it a little longer.

[Dana Schwartz]

Wait a second. Could that actually work? Can two people really get married over the phone? He needed to talk to Nancy. It was now 10:30pm 90 minutes until midnight. Nancy, it turned out, was at a bridal shower, her bridal shower. When Dan called in the middle of her party yapping about a telephone wedding, she Thought he was kidding. But after Dan explained everything, Nancy had no choice. She was on board.

[Nancy Wilson]

Well, we had to find out first of all if it was legal and what could be done about it. And eventually we got to a magistrate judge in St. Joe, Missouri. Margaret Young was her name. And she said, yes, it's legal, but.

[Dana Schwartz]

There was a catch.

[Nancy Wilson]

You'll have to have the parties together. She said, I'll have to be with Nancy and you'll need to be hooked up in Dallas with some officiant in Dallas. Well, I'm thinking, okay, Margaret Young, the judge is on a phone, Nancy's on a phone, the minister in Dallas is on a phone, and I'm on a phone. Now we got a four way conference call. Let's make it happen. And so we started moving that direction and now we're talking about it's getting 10:30, 11:00 at night. So we're sneaking up on that midnight hour. And Margaret Young says, no, no, no, Dan, you have to be in the presence of the minister. You can't just be on the phone and I have to be in the presence of Nancy.

[Dana Schwartz]

So let's get this straight. If Dan and Nancy were going to pull this off, if they were really going to get married by telephone from different states, Dan had to find a minister in Dallas, like now. Dan and his friends grabbed the Yellow Pages, flipped to the churches section and started making phone calls. At 11:15pm Someone finally picked up.

[Aaron Burnett]

Hello.

[Dana Schwartz]

Dr. G.N. goldsten, Associate Pastor of the East Dallas Christian Church, was in the shower when he fielded Dan's random call.

[Nancy Wilson]

I said, here's our situation, here's what we'd like to do. And I went through the whole background. I said, we have a judge at the other end who says this will be legal, but we need an officiant here. I explained the story and he was compassionate and understanding. He said, okay, I'll help you out.

[Dana Schwartz]

Dan and his three friends jumped in a car and raced to Dr. Goldston's house.

[Nancy Wilson]

We had to scurry across Dallas to get to the minister. And by this, it's now getting late at night and, and the minister that we were talking to down there, he was in his pajamas when he answered the door.

[Dana Schwartz]

Meanwhile, back in St. Joseph, Nancy's Bridal shower was quickly being converted into a wedding. The bridesmaids snapped into action.

[Candy Rydell]

One of the girls, her parents owned a florist shop, so that's how we were able to get a bouquet at the last minute. And they grabbed my dress and it's Just kind of chaos. They're all changing my clothes and making the bouquet and somehow it all worked out though.

[Dana Schwartz]

At 11:38pm Nancy stood in her parents kitchen in St Joseph wearing her beautiful white wedding dress, bouquet in one hand, phone receiver in the other. One of Nancy's wedding bridesmaids held up a framed photo of Dan so they'd feel a little closer to each other. Magistrate Margaret Young was in an upstairs bedroom with Nancy's parents, officiating from a separate line two states away in Dallas. Dan said, I do. Witnessed as law required by an ordained stranger in pajamas, Dan and Nancy made the midnight deadline with a few minutes to spare as a wedding present. Dan's friend Jerry offered to pay Dr. Goldston for the long distance charges. It was $13. Only when Dan hung up the phone did it hit him. He was finally married to his favorite girl. But she was 550 miles away.

[Nancy Wilson]

It was not at all what I had anticipated my wedding night was going to be. I'm going home by myself. You know, that's not what it's supposed to be. But the last thing that we said to each other whenever we finished the phone call was, I'll see you in two days. Because two days later was going to be graduation and she was coming to Dallas.

[Dana Schwartz]

Two days later, the long distance newlyweds finally shared a first kiss and set off on their life together. As it turned out, the whole mortuary school thing was a bust. The older couple who owned the funeral home decided not to retire after all. Dan switched to a marketing career and never looked back. This August, Dan and Nancy Wilson will celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary.

[Candy Rydell]

Yeah, it's a long time, isn't it? I've let him live that long.

[Nancy Wilson]

We are both so blessed in that we have each other. And somehow we knew from the very beginning that we were meant for each other. It's just so. We've always been together. We don't know any different. We love each other, we cherish each other time together. So it's all good. It's all good.

[Dana Schwartz]

By one estimate, 20,000 couples got married on August 26, 1965. Not all of them ended as happily as Dan and Nancy's. Candy and George stayed together for five years. They moved to Eugene, Oregon, so George could attend graduate school within a day's drive of the Canadian border. He never did get over that draft thing. In 1970, George fell in love with a woman he met in Mexico and he and Candy divorced. No hard feelings. Candy says they remained good friends until George passed away in 2018. Does she regret marrying George so suddenly in 1965? Would she have done anything differently?

[Candy Rydell]

No, I think I did the right thing. He had definite desires to avoid being in the service at that time, you know, and I believed in him and, you know, we were in love. You know, you do stuff then, right?

[Dana Schwartz]

What about Claudia and David? Well, they almost didn't make it either. Claudia's family was so ashamed that she'd married a, quote, draft dodger that they told her not to tell anyone. Two days later, Claudia had to attend her cousin's wedding.

[Jason English]

And as she was walking her down the aisle, no one knew that Claudia was married. And she was crying and she goes, and I'm sure it was interpreted as tears of joy for this wedding, but I was crying because I was watching her have the wedding I was never gonna get to have, which was very, very heartbreaking.

[Dana Schwartz]

Claudia and David tried to make it work, though. They had two kids together. But after six years, they split up. That was 1971. Fast forward to 2011. Because they had kids together, Claudia and David never completely left each other's lives. In 2011, their first great grandson was born in San Diego. Claudia and David made the drive down from LA together and got to talking. David told Claudia that even after 40 years, he never stopped loving her. Two months later, they were remarried, but not in Vegas this time. When Ashton Avila was making her short film based on Claudia and David's story, she worried that Claudia's character would come across as weak. Clearly, she wasn't ready to marry David that day in 1965, but she did it anyway.

[Jason English]

I think there are different looks of what strength is for women. And that was a huge discussion we had when we were working on the film was at the end, would a strong woman walk away and not get married because she knows that she wants her own life? Or would a strong woman sacrifice what she wants to save the life of somebody else? And I think that there's strength in both of those options.

[Dana Schwartz]

Like thousands of other couples, their lives took an unexpected turn on August 26, 1965. Claudia decided to stand by David's side 60 years ago, and she's still there today. Happy 60th anniversary to all the gray haired couples out there who have LBJ to thank or to blame for sending them scrambling to the altar all those years ago. You've shown us that there's truly no limit to the things we'll do for love.

[Zarin Burnett]

So we often say about these episodes that this should be a movie, but I really mean it with this one. I think there's some real juicy roles for a lot. A nice ensemble in this. Zarin is our resident casting director. Did you happen to cast this one?

[Aaron Burnett]

I gotta completely agree with you that this is film ready, like Hollywood. Take note. So here's just some casting suggestions. I started with the 20 something cub reporter from the Las Vegas Review Journal who was bouncing around that night covering everybody. I thought for him you wanted somebody fun. Also somebody who feels like a journalist. So I picked Noah Santino, that guy from the Netflix spy show the Recruit. He's kind of a floppy haired kid.

[Dana Schwartz]

I know him from the Netflix series. To all the boys I loved before.

[Aaron Burnett]

Yes, there you go. Of course I should have mentioned that one. Yes, I thought he'd be good. And then so for the couples I went with, like, I wanted people who felt like the time period I wanted them to have kind of like, you know, not Internet faces. So I went for Kandy and George, the couple who flew on Bonanza Airlines. I went with Haley Stanfield for Kandy and Finn Cole for George. Finn Cole. If you don't know him, he played Michael Gray, Paulie's son from Peaky Blinders.

[Dana Schwartz]

Yeah. You know who I was kind of picturing as one of the boys, maybe just cause he had like a minor part in Oppenheimer was Jack Quaid.

[Aaron Burnett]

Oh, I like that call. I also went with some World War II era actors, or at least their most recent parts have been that I picked some guys from Masters of Air. So I had Austin Butler also AKA Elvis. I had him playing David. And then Claudia, the couple who drove to Las Vegas. I thought for Claudia, go with Florence Pugh. I thought that would be a nice couple. Florence Pugh, Austin Butler. I can imagine them in that car ride, stuck with the other couple crying and everything. So I was like, okay. Now the other one I picked was the Wilsons. Dan Wilson and Nancy Wilson. Not from Heart the Band. Now Dan Wilson. I went with Callum Turner, who played Bucky Egan from Masters of War. And then for Nancy, I went with Sydney Sweeney. I thought they can nail that as a relationship and I really loved them. And then all the details, like when she's sitting there holding up the photo of Dan so she can feel closer to him at the wedding. Oh, my heart melted at that. And then the fact at the end when they get back together. Oh my God, I lost it. I loved this whole series.

[Zarin Burnett]

I'm in the Fandango app trying to get tickets already.

[Aaron Burnett]

Yes. Oh my God, yes. Did you guys have any Very special characters you pulled from this app.

[Zarin Burnett]

So I didn't want to play favorites with any of the actual couples. So I'm trying to pick from the people who helped them along their way. So whether it's the judge in Missouri and the minister in Texas, maybe they could share the honor. The secretary who covered the clock with her typewriter cover. That's. That's great. But I'm going to give it to the fast thinking people of Bonanza Airlines who in real time were able to decide, we need more flights. Can you imagine that today? Like you're at an airport and someone just decides that, yes, we got a lot of people going to Vegas for some reason. Get the other planes out of the hangar.

[Aaron Burnett]

A different time, I'm telling you. What about you, Dana?

[Zarin Burnett]

Did you have one?

[Dana Schwartz]

I think it is the secretary for me because I can imagine that scene in the movie when she goes midnight, not on my time.

[Aaron Burnett]

Yeah, I loved that lady from the Clark county courthouse who undoes the lock so they can go in and get married. I just love the image of her undoing the lock. I was like, yeah, she's like out there padlocking the courthouse and she's like, okay, I'll let you in. Last ones to get married in the night of a thousand Weddings.

[Zarin Burnett]

A lot of civil disobedience on display here.

[Aaron Burnett]

And I love that it took place in Vegas. It felt so right that it was Vegas. I mean, this couldn't happen in like Cincinnati. I mean, I guess it could, but I mean, this is not the same.

[Dana Schwartz]

It's the prequel to Anora that we all want.

[Aaron Burnett]

Yes, totally.

[Zarin Burnett]

Very Special Episodes is made by some very special people. Today's episode was written by Dave Roos. If you like this one and you're enjoying the NCAA tournament, go check out an episode Dave wrote for us last May called the Shot. It's about the only three point shot in basketball history that saved thousands of lives. Dave's got several more in the pipeline for this stretch. Special thanks to filmmaker Ashton Avila who shared her invaluable research and contacts for making her short film, I Got yout Babe. Go check that out. This show is hosted by Dana Schwartz, Zarin Burnett and Jason English. Our super producer is Josh Fisher. Editing and sound design by Chris Childs. Mixing and mastering by Chris Childs. Additional editing by Mary Dew. Original Music by Elise McCoy. Fact Checking by Dave Roos and Austin Thompson. Show logo by Lucy Quintanilla. Our executive producer is Jason English. If you'd like to email the show, hit us [e-mail] Our plan is to have new episodes every Wednesday from now into July. So we will see you back here next week. Very Special Episodes is a production of iHeart podcasts.

[Amy Brown]

Okay, so we all need to get away from the world sometimes. Well, in the all new 2025 Nissan Murano, you don't even have to go anywhere. The Murano is the getaway. Just picture it. The Bose premium sound system plays your favorite music as the Murano's massaging leather appointed seats melt away your stress. Yeah, that's a real getaway. Drive the all new 2025 Nissan Murano today. Bose and massaging leather appointed seats are optional features.

[Dan Wilson]

You know more about the PayPal debit card than you did at the start of this podcast. You know that the PayPal debit card.

[Dana Schwartz]

Gives you the ability to pay everywhere.

[Dan Wilson]

You know that you earn 5% cash back on a category of your choosing on up to $1,000 of monthly purchases. And you know that you get to pick a new category every month. Apparel for back to school.

[Dana Schwartz]

Groceries for the holidays.

[Dan Wilson]

Start earning 5% cash back with the PayPal debit card today. Don't just pay PayPal terms apply. See PayPal app. This card is issued by the Bancorp Bank N.A. pursuant to license by MasterCard International Inc. It's tax season and by now I know we're all a bit tired of numbers. But here's an important one you need to hear. $16.5 billion. That's how much money in refunds the IRS flagged for possible identity fraud last year. Here's another 20%. That's the overall increase in identity theft related to tax fraud in 2024 alone. But it's not all grim news. Here's a good number. 100 million. That's how many data points Lifelock monitors every second. If your identity is stolen, LifeLock's US based restoration specialists will fix it, backed by another good number, the million dollar protection plan. In fact, restoration is guaranteed or your money back. Don't face identity theft and financial losses alone. There's strength in numbers with Lifelock Identity theft protection for tax season and beyond. Join now and save up to 40% your first year. Call 1-800-LIFELOCK and use promo code iheart or go to lifelock.com iheart for 40% off. Terms apply.

[Dana Schwartz]

Get this. Adults with financial literacy skills have 82% more wealth than those who don't. From swimming lessons to piano classes, Us parents invest in so many things to enrich our kids lives. But are we investing in their future financial success? With Greenlight, you can teach your kids financial literacy skills like earning, saving and investing and this investment costs less than that. After school treat start prioritizing their financial education and future today with a risk free [e-mail] iheartra greenlight.com iheartra.