DETOURS

Adam Monahan:

Can you explain how our event works in terms of how many crew and volunteers are needed?

Marsha Bemko:

Well, we are really big show, Adam.

Adam Monahan:

This is my boss at GBH's Antiques Roadshow, Marsha Bemko.

Marsha Bemko:

Year-round staff, of which last time I counted I want to say we were 18. No, 21. So, all right. 21 of us. Then from Boston, we take about another 45 crew, then we hire probably about another 15-ish crew in the city. Then we get 110 volunteers to help us do all that and the most important people who everybody comes to see, about 75 appraisers.

Adam Monahan:

The one that I want to touch upon is the volunteers. You said 110 volunteers. And how do we get them?

Marsha Bemko:

Well, we get them through the local public television station in that market, who we partner with in order to do the show. And then there's the groupies.

Adam Monahan:

The groupies, repeat volunteers, friends of the show, and the partners and family of our GBH staff. Staff like Eric.

Eric Chappell:

I'm Eric Chappell. Outside of work, a lot of people know me as Bucky. I'm the help desk specialist at WGBH.

Adam Monahan:

Eric's been with GBH since the 1990s, but he didn't come out on the road with Roadshow until 2022. His first stop was Boise, Idaho. And so how did you wind up in Boise verse some of the other ones?

Eric Chappell:

To be frank, I think Boise got picked last, and I happen to be the last in line to pick. So I didn't get to choose.

Adam Monahan:

And that brings us to Jim. Jim, can I get your name and who you are in relation to Eric?

Jim Fauntleroy:

My name is Jim Fauntleroy, and I am Eric's husband.

Adam Monahan:

When Eric got his first show assignment, he went home and told Jim, "I'm going to Boise."

Jim Fauntleroy:

And I said, "Oh, really?" Because I'd done a lot of traveling, and Idaho was one of two states I had not been to yet. So I said, "Boise? Can I go?"

Adam Monahan:

At first, Jim was just going to tag along and explore the city while Eric worked, but Eric had another idea.

Jo Sagar:

Eric reached out and said, "Listen, my husband wants to come. Can he volunteer? And I said, "Absolutely, as long as he follows the rules."

Adam Monahan:

This is our event producer, Jo Sagar. What are some of the rules that you give the volunteers?

Jo Sagar:

Don't ask anybody about their items. It's like the golden rule. Don't take away from the magic of the show. As Marsha says, it's the, what is it, the secret sauce.

Marsha Bemko:

What we know as producers is that footage is precious because part of the ethics of Roadshow is that when you're watching the show, it's not a conceit that the guests are learning what they're hearing for the first time while you watch. They are learning for the first time while you watch. And so what they can do, a really enthusiastic volunteer, is say, :Wow, what an amazing lithograph you have there." And then all of a sudden, they're telling the owner something they didn't know, which is what we do.

Adam Monahan:

Talk about the weather. Talk about what a great local sports team you have here. It doesn't... Anything, but do not talk to the guests about their item.

Marsha Bemko:

Yeah. Every piece of footage matters so that if a volunteer wrecks it for us, we're perturbed.

Adam Monahan:

When Jim went to volunteer training, that's the big rule he learned, or at least that's the rule he was supposed to learn. What are the training things they taught you in volunteering?

Eric Chappell:

That's a good question. It came right in and went right out.

Adam Monahan:

Yeah, Jim broke that cardinal rule of volunteering at Roadshow, and what followed next was an incredible connection between volunteer and guest that nobody could have ever anticipated.

Jo Sagar:

You can't make that stuff up. It's unbelievable. It's unbelievable.

Adam Monahan:

I'm Adam Monahan, a producer with GBH's Antiques Roadshow, and this is DETOURS. Today, spilling the secret sauce.

While Jim was getting ready to volunteer, somewhere else in Boise, a guest was packing up items to bring to our event. Can I get your first name and where you're from?

Driek:

My first name is Hendriekje but I go by Driek, and right now I’m from Boise, Idaho.

Adam Monahan:

Drik had entered our event ticket lottery, but she didn't win a spot at first.

Driek:

On the day of the roadshow, around noon I got a phone call from our local public television station saying that they had tickets for me. Did I still want to come? I said yes and bundled the stuff up, which was war memorabilia that came from my dad and went down to the roadshow.

Adam Monahan:

So what are we talking about? What type of materials is it?

Driek:

So there were two framed things that I took. One was a collage that my dad made. He was an incredible collector of all kinds of souvenir type things. This collage has a card that Prince Bernhard sent him, and it has Marshal Zhukov's nameplate from some sort of a dinner and all these insignia, various kinds, and signatures. I think there was a...

Adam Monahan:

Drik had brought in a number of items from World War II and was sent to the militaria table, where it just so happened our volunteer Jim was stationed.

Jim Fauntleroy:

We were up in an area strangely enough called the Tranquility Garden because it was pretty chaotic up there, because we had watches. We had jewelry, which is separate from watches, so you have to make sure people are in the right line. We had collectibles, games, dolls, and then what they called militaria, which was any sort of military memorabilia or whatever. And there were people at each of those tables organizing their lines, and I was up at the entrance pointing people to what line they would want. So I see a woman coming in. She's carrying this great big picture frame and a couple other things.

Adam Monahan:

The woman, of course, is Drik.

Driek:

The entrance is just under one arbor, and then it opens up to this big semi-circular area. So it was a bit chaotic. And so there's this big dude there who's herding people for the military collectibles line. And so he's saying, "Okay, you wait here." And then they had an opening, and then there were three or four people at the actual table. So we were being held back.

Jim Fauntleroy:

I say, "What do you have there?" And she says, "Oh, it's for the military line." And I'm just making conversation, and I look at this big picture frame she has and it's kind of a collage. And up in the corner, I see the All-American Airborne logo from the 82nd Airborne.

Driek:

And he looks down and he says, "Oh, ." And I said, "Yeah, my dad jumped with the 82nd Airborne in Nijmegen, Groesbeek."

Jim Fauntleroy:

So I'm saying, "Mm, lots of people have stories about this." And she said, "Oh, really? What parachute infantry regiment was he with?" And she says, "Oh, he wasn't with an infantry regiment. He was Dutch. He saved General Gavin's life."

Driek:

And this dude, this is a big dude. He looks like he could have been a linebacker with a great big beard. And he goes pale.

Jim Fauntleroy:

Now, I'm very suspicious because there's a very well-known story about a Dutch army officer who jumped with them who saved his life. And so I said, "Really? What's your father's name?"

Driek:

And I said, "Arie Bestebreurtje." And there's another long pause and he says, "I know all about your dad. I'm Jim Gavin's grandson." I was like, "What?"

It's like all the gears of chance in the universe clicked in together at that moment, and we could not believe it. I mean, it just took a minute for both of us to realize the connection that we had.

Adam Monahan:

Jim and Driek's connection went all the way back to the 1940s, when Jim's grandfather was an important military leading figure in World War II.

Jim Fauntleroy:

My grandfather's General James Gavin, and he was one of the people who literally wrote the book about how parachute training and parachute warfare would work for the United States.

Adam Monahan:

James Gavin, who our Jim Gavin was named for, was a career military officer who enlisted in the US Army in 1924 at the tender age of 17. When World War II began, Gavin, then a captain, volunteered to the Army's new Airborne unit. The next year, he wrote the Army's first manual on airborne warfare and became the commander of the new 505 Parachute Infantry Regiment, which became part of the 82nd Airborne Division.

Jim Fauntleroy:

He traveled with them jumping into North Africa, jumping into Sicily, and then he jumped with the 505 into Normandy, into Sainte-Mère-Église.

Adam Monahan:

That was the D-Day jump in 1944. After that jump, Gavin assumed command of the 82nd Airborne Division and became the youngest division commander since the American Civil War. His unit went back to England and began planning their jump into the Netherlands.

Jim Fauntleroy:

The whole operation was to drop paratroopers at a series of bridges running from Belgium, where the Allies had a foothold, all the way up crossing the Rhine River at Arnhem and into Germany.

Adam Monahan:

The mission was called Operation Market Garden. The plan was for British and American airborne divisions to seize control of nine bridges so land forces could get across, invade Germany, liberate the Netherlands, and maybe end the war. It was the largest airborne operation in history at the time. More than 34,000 troops descended by parachute and glider.

Driek:

I've been in Groesbeek, which is where the actual drop zone was, to see a reenactment. And even though it was just a tiny proportion of the soldiers, they just come out of the plane and it was 20 parachutists on their parachutes come out. And then a few minutes later, the next plane come and spews out. It's 20. And they come in waves like that, the planes. And just to see 400 parachutists coming out in that kind of a sequence, it's just astonishing.

Adam Monahan:

It was General Gavin's first time leading his division into combat. One of the men with him was Drik's dad, Arie Bestebreurtje, who had joined the Dutch army during the war.

Driek:

And they were in the first parachute wave. And they landed in a wooded area, and my father knew this area because there's a Dutch walking competition around Nijmegen called the Vierdaagse. It's a four-day walking event, and it's a quite strenuous one. And if you're in a military unit, the whole unit has to compete carrying their full packs. And it's a long walk. It's like 40 kilometers a day for four days. And so he knew that area very well from doing the Vierdaagse as a young man, as a teenager basically.

Adam Monahan:

They landed and made their way toward their headquarters in the woods.

Jim Fauntleroy:

They were heading up a sunken road to get to that location, and they suddenly heard a machine gun firing from the woods on the side of the road, and so they all jumped down and were trying to figure out how to cover. And they were crawling up the bank and suddenly, Arie Bestebreurtje saw a German soldier peeking up and out. And the thing was, he was a crack sharpshooter. He was incredibly good. And so he just whips his gun out and from the hip shoots him once straight through the forehead.

Adam Monahan:

The enemy soldier falls dead.

Jim Fauntleroy:

Given where the machine gun was, they had no defense against it. If the machine gunner knew where they were and actually got a good shot at them, they had no chance.

Driek:

And the sniper would've been aiming for Gavin, not for my dad probably. And it would've been devastating if the commander of the operation had been killed at that point. And Gavin, in his memoirs, talks about this incident and gives my dad credit for saving his life.

Adam Monahan:

Thanks to Arie Bestebreurtje's quick reflexes, General Gavin was able to continue leading the 82nd Airborne. They managed to capture the bridges at Grave and Nijmegen, but were overwhelmed by German troops at Arnhem. They failed to capture that bridge, so that became known as the bridge too far. After the war, Gavin and Bestebreurtje stayed in touch.

Jim Fauntleroy:

They became good friends. I mean, my grandfather was very impressed with him. Arie became a minister, and his family came over with him to the States and so he and my grandfather would talk with each other from time to time. They'd just reminisce, I mean as soldiers do, about a very intense and memorable part of their lives.

Adam Monahan:

But nobody in Jim's family had ever met anyone in Drik's family until Boise.

Jim Fauntleroy:

I know other soldiers in the US Army who were with my grandfather in the Second World War. I would have a real tough time coming up with the name of anybody outside the Army who he fought with except Arie Bestebreurtje. And so to meet his daughter in Boise, Idaho was just amazing.

Adam Monahan:

When you think of all the things that have to transpire for that to happen, like Eric being chosen last and winds up getting Boise, Idaho being one of the last two places in the States you haven't been that you're like, "Hey, I would like to try that," that's amazing.

Jim Fauntleroy:

Yeah, absolutely amazing.

Adam Monahan:

In fact, Drik wasn't even supposed to be there. If she hadn't gotten a last-minute ticket, this incredible connection never would've happened. When Drik finally made it to our appraiser Jeff Shrader's table, she brought Jim with her. After the break, we find out which items Jeff selected for taping and how he pitched the story to Marsha. We'll also learn about the secret unit Arie Bestebreurtje fought with and what this incredible story means for the volunteer rules at future Roadshow events.

For reasons previously mentioned, our appraiser Jeff Shrader was none too happy to have a volunteer chatting it up with a guest about their items at his table.

Jeff Shrader:

And I will confess, my initial reaction was annoyance. I really wished this gentleman wasn't doing this. But at this point, it's an interesting pile of the same kind of World War II stuff that we see all day long.

Adam Monahan:

At first, Jeff wasn't that impressed with Drik's haul. Sure, she had a lot of items, but nothing seemed special enough for a TV appraisal. So Jim could stay.

Jeff Shrader:

And then as I'm digging through the box, I see a special force wing, and then I see another special four wing and then I see another special force wing. And I realized I should have been paying attention to what she was telling me. And I asked her and she says, "Well, yeah, my father jumped into Holland for Operation Market Garden with General Gavin." And she says, "And he's the one who saved general Gavin's life early in that operation." And I gave her the cross-eyed look and our volunteer says, "She's absolutely right. And how do I know? I'm General Gavin's grandson." And at that point, the light bulb went on that this was something pretty special. And Jim's no longer in trouble, but he needs to stop talking. In fact, everybody needs to stop talking. So at that point, I got him in a corner not talking to people and I got the other guest in another corner not talking to people.

Adam Monahan:

At this point, Marsha shows up to hear Jeff's pitch.

Marsha Bemko:

So how the show works is that the appraisers, who are volunteering their time too and working for nothing too and really want to record something, will pitch a producer for an item that comes in that they think is interesting enough to share with the nation. And so taking a pitch is just going over to listen to the story and basically politely drilling the guest with questions.

Adam Monahan:

Jeff showed Marsha the items he'd selected.

Jim Fauntleroy:

What he had picked out was a little box of insignia that Drik had, and it was all sorts of different insignia. There were German insignia, Airborne insignia, and all sorts of other things. And what he was really fascinated by was three badges from a special and, until not very long ago, completely secret military unit.

Adam Monahan:

These badges belonged to the Jedburghs, an Allied program that included 82 American, 90 British, 103, French, five Belgian, and five Dutch personnel.

Driek:

They looked for men that were dashing; athletic; good liars; jump first, think later; charming; ruthless; all those qualities. It's pretty funny. Yeah, and that was my dad.

Adam Monahan:

Drik's dad was a member of this elite unit. Their motto? Surprise, kill, and vanish.

Jim Fauntleroy:

They were being trained to do exactly what Arie Bestebreurtje did: going in with the US Army, being native speakers, knowing the landscape, knowing the people, and being able to be a liaisons.

Driek:

So these teams would include a radio operator, a native speaker, and an officer, and they would be dropped into some area in France and they would connect with the underground. And then they would radio to London for what equipment they needed, bombs or weapons or whatever was needed, and then on the ground they would carry out the sabotage. So my dad was training, training, training, and all the Jeds were like that. They were so highly trained that they could act without thinking.

Adam Monahan:

I mean, the fact that he was able to shoot a sniper immediately shows he was probably a pretty good shot.

Driek:

From the hip.

Adam Monahan:

Wow.

Driek:

He shot him from the hip.

Adam Monahan:

The very existence of the Jedburghs was a secret during and after the war. Information about this unit was classified until the 1980s. But thanks to her father, Drik had materials from the missions, which she brought to our event. Of all the items Drik brought, our appraiser Jeff Shrader picked out a handkerchief with signatures from General Gavin's command staff embroidered onto it as well as three cloth badges that would've been sewn onto the Jedburgh's uniforms. Each badge had a circle with wings coming out of the sides and the letters SF for special force embroidered in the middle. These are what Jeff pitched to Marsha. And at first, she didn't know how Jim fit into the story.

Marsha Bemko:

While I'm talking with the guest, this volunteer is standing there listening to what's happening during the pitch and everything. And he has said something to the guest and okay, he's going to do what we don't want.

Adam Monahan:

Like Jeff, Marsha's first thought is, "Oh my God, stop talking before you ruin our footage." But then she hears the rest of the story and realizes, "Wait, this is the best thing ever. We need a camera here now."

Marsha Bemko:

We need to capture this as best as we can before Jeff and the owner do a lot more talking. We want it real. We want everything captured. And I'm like, "Oh my God, this is so amazing. We have to capture the moment."

Adam Monahan:

So Marsha went to find me. You came over to me and you were like, " Blah blah blah" I couldn't even decipher what the hell you were talking about. I just know you're my boss and that I had to... I went, "All right." And I'm like, "We're filming these people basically." We set up our light and our camera, and what was revealed in front of me... I was like, "Oh my God, how'd this happen?" It blew my mind and it still blows my mind of everything in the universe that had to line up for this moment to happen in front of our cameras. And it happened.

Marsha Bemko:

It happened.

Adam Monahan:

It's spectacular. The camera crew and I watched as Drik told the story of her dad and General Gavin.

Driek:

So I brought some of my dad's World War II memorabilia. He was a Dutch Jedburgh, a special ops soldier, and he jumped with General Gavin of the 82nd Airborne. They were the first two to land. My dad was walking points and he spotted a machine gunnist in the tree and shot him before the machine gunnist had a chance to shoot General Gavin. So General Gavin has always credited my dad with saving his life.

Jeff Shrader:

So when I walked up here, you're hanging out with our volunteer.

Driek:

Yeah.

Jeff Shrader:

How do you guys know each other? Did you come together?

Jim Fauntleroy:

I'd never met you before.

Driek:

I can confirm that. Yeah, one of the things I was was...

Adam Monahan:

Then Jim and Drik told the story of how they met.

Jim Fauntleroy:

She said Arie Bestebreurtje and it was like, "Yes, he did save my grandfather's life." So it was amazing. I've never met anyone...

Adam Monahan:

And then it was time to share the items' values.

Jeff Shrader:

Have you ever had this stuff appraised? Have you had it looked at?

Driek:

Nope. I just took the box from my dad's house and brought it to Boise, and I haven't opened it for 25 years.

Jeff Shrader:

So from a value perspective, I mean this is interesting and wonderful.

Adam Monahan:

Jeff is pointing at the handkerchief.

Jeff Shrader:

But the meat of the value of what you brought today is right here in those three wings.

Driek:

Really?

Jeff Shrader:

A retail price for those three, because on their own they would be wonderful but because they're him, they're a little better than average, you have in the neighborhood of $10,000 worth of cloth insignia right there on that table.

Driek:

Oh, no way. That's amazing.

Adam Monahan:

After the appraisal was over, Jim and Drik and their husbands agreed to keep the connection going. Once again, Eric Chappell from GBH IT, husband of Jim.

Eric Chappell:

We were trying to do dinner and we were just going to be... I was going to be way too late from knockdown and he was going to be exhausted, and so we did breakfast instead of dinner.

Adam Monahan:

So what happens at breakfast?

Jim Fauntleroy:

We each brought the things that we had with us. Drik brought more things to show. We just talked for two or three hours. I think we had breakfast in there somewhere, but we just talked about everything.

Adam Monahan:

And Drik cemented their connection even further as I discovered when I was talking to Jim and Eric about what was appraised that day. And there was something that was some sort of handkerchief, I think, that had his name on it or something.

Jim Fauntleroy:

Oh, yes.

Adam Monahan:

Jim has just pulled out a handkerchief.

Jim Fauntleroy:

[Laughing].

Eric Chappell:

Shouldn't you be wearing gloves while you handle that?

Jim Fauntleroy:

Probably.

Adam Monahan:

Jim had pulled out a handkerchief covered in signatures that was very, very familiar.

Jim Fauntleroy:

So this is a handkerchief. I very strongly expect that it has been manufactured out of parachute silk, which they had a lot of. And all of the staff from that jump have signed it. And you can see they've signed it in, I think, pencil. Maybe it was pen that has faded some. And that's the one that she kept. And then they also must have done it to mine, but someone then came along and embroidered over all of the signatures in bright colors. And it's just amazing to see all of these names that I know.

I mean, you've got my grandfather. And you look at it, and that is absolutely my grandfather's signature. I'd recognize it anywhere. And it says Major General USA underneath. Next to him is John Norton, which lists Lieutenant Colonel G3, which means he's his operations officer in his immediate command staff. And my mom introduced me to General Norton at my grandfather's funeral.

Adam Monahan:

Wow.

Jim Fauntleroy:

General Norton is buried up at West Point a few graves over from my grandfather. So, I mean, all of his command staff is present on this handkerchief, and it's just astounding.

Adam Monahan:

So this was on our appraisal table.

Jim Fauntleroy:

Yes.

Adam Monahan:

Was it this one in particular, or did she have multiples of these or...

Jim Fauntleroy:

She does have two. She gave me this one, which was very kind of her. And it's precious. I love it.

Adam Monahan:

I think it's amazing the fact that... Yeah, because her father's name isn't even on it, but your grandfather's name is on it.

Jim Fauntleroy:

Mm-hmm.It's an amazing exchange.

Adam Monahan:

Given this whole story, I had one final question for Marsha. Do you think that we will be relaxing the rule that the volunteers can talk to guests about their items?

Marsha Bemko:

Are you out of your mind? No, absolutely not. They'll wreck so much stuff. This was so... This is unique. In all the years of making the show, and we're getting ready to go produce season 28? Okay, 28.

Adam Monahan:

28. Yep, 28.

Marsha Bemko:

This has never happened. And if it happens ever again, okay. But otherwise, volunteers, let me very kindly and sweetly say, keep your mouths shut.

Adam Monahan:

DETOURS is a production of GBH in Boston and distributed by PRX. This episode was written and produced by Galen Beebe, sound designed and mixed by Jack Pombriant. Our assistant producer is Sara Horatius, and our senior producer is Ian Coss. Jocelyn Gonzales is the director of PRX Productions. Devin Maverick Robins is the managing producer of podcasts for GBH, and Marsha Bemko is the executive producer of DETOURS. I'm your host and co-executive producer, Adam Monahan. Our theme music is Once in a Century Storm by Will Daily from the album, National Throat. Thank you all for listening. Have a good one.