Hey folks, this is Max Young Rice from the StoryCorps podcast. Just want to remind you that you can tell us your personal stories by calling our voicemail at 702-706 Talk. This week, tell us about your first love. That's 702-706, T-A-L-K.

Hey, listeners, Jasmine Morris here.

The team behind the podcast is hard at work on brand new episodes for 2026.

But in the meantime, we have a radio documentary from Sound Portraits Productions.

That was Dave Isay's nonprofit before he created StoryCorps.

And because Valentine's Day is right around the corner, we're going to take you to the only pawn shop slash wedding chapel on the planet, according to its owner. It was called Kipperman's

pawn shop in Houston, Texas. And in 1993, Dave wanted to figure out how a place like this came to be.

Kipperman's pawn shop stands out on East Belford Street in Houston, a decidedly grungy

strip of fast food joints, beauty parlors, and liquor stores.

The building located across the street from an abandoned bowling alley is an oasis of color.

Huge signs beckin, we marry you, $49, no appointment necessary, and hock it to me.

One of my slogans out here this place is, when you're in the mood to say I do and you really care think of

kipperman's wedding chapel where love is always in the air as you may have guessed that is

Ted kipperman the mastermind of this operation an enormous painted portrait of the man takes up an

entire side of the building he looks distinctly poop-like in his chaplain's outfit,

a long white robe, a red stole draped around his neck.

The inside of Kipperman's pawn shop is packed with the usual assortment of hawkables,

TVs, VCRs, toasters, and tools, glass display cases of jewelry and racks of guns.

This is a 25 caliber pistol, 7995. People always kid me and say, this is the only place in town you can get married by a gun all the same time.

This is a 38 right here.

Boy, that'll stop them.

The genesis of this odd combination of businesses dates back to the early 1980s.

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