On this podcast, we explore fantastical thinking, moral panics, urban legends, conspiracy theories, hoaxes, and crazes, examine the forces that shape our culture, and tell the stories that create the realities we share, and sometimes the realities we don't.

I'm your host, Chelsea Weber Smith, and this is American hysteria.

The object of this new sport is to streak from one end of campus to another wearing nothing more than a smile.

I think it's fantastic. I see nothing wrong with it whatsoever.

Oh, I guess it's all right for the young folks.

For people to get naked and run around campus and groups of hundreds and thousands, it doesn't serve any purpose.

I think this is the best thing this happened to college campuses.

It really brings everybody together, as you can see right here, and I'll bring everybody together

tonight when I'm sure everybody will take off their clothes and do it again. Tonight, live, the 46th annual Academy Award presentation.

It was the evening of April 2, 1974, and actor David Niven was in the middle of introducing Elizabeth Taylor so that

she could reveal the Academy Award for Best Picture, the crescendo of the opulent annual event.

David, in his neat tuxedo and bow tie, heard the crowd react before he could see

what they were reacting to. A shaggy-haired and shaggy-mustached, 33-year-old man, jogging naked across the legendary stage, flashing a confident peace sign out to millions of American viewers.

It's a very important contributor to world entertainment and someone quite likely.

The streaker's name was Robert Opel, and he was a man who seemed to have pulled off the impossible, claiming he snuck backstage

at the most prestigious awards show in the world,

while disguised as a press photographer,

able to pass through several rounds

of some of the toughest security in history.

When he ran across the camera's shot, the bottom half of his body was cut off at just the right spot, so is not to reveal his, well, let's let David Niven tell his legendary joke that even my granny remembered word for word when I asked her about it 50 years later.

Well, ladies gentlemen, that was almost bound to happen.

But isn't it fascinating that,

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