https://www.bnd.com/living/magazine/article230133169.html
O’Fallon man known as ‘The History Guy’ becomes a YouTube sensation
By Teri Maddox
May 17, 2019 05:00 AM
Video: https://www.bnd.com/living/magazine/article230414634.html
Lance Geiger’s idea of a good time is doing research on something that happened 50 or 100 years ago and sharing what he’s learned with thousands of complete strangers.
The crazy part is, he’s making a living at it.
Geiger, 54, of O’Fallon, has a YouTube channel called “The History Guy.” Several days a week, he posts 10- to 15-minute videos of himself telling stories about people, places or events that have been largely forgotten in modern society but that he finds fascinating.
Take, for example, Douglas Corrigan. The Texas aviator wasn’t as famous as Charles Lindbergh or Amelia Earhart, but he was one of a handful of people who made non-stop, solo flights across the Atlantic Ocean in the 1920s and ‘30s. He traveled from Brooklyn, New York, to Dublin, Ireland, in 1938. “He had a unique claim to fame because he was supposed to land in California,” Geiger says with a grin in his April 5 video. “‘Wrong Way’ Corrigan deserves to be remembered.”
Geiger’s philosophy in a nutshell is that history doesn’t have to be boring. Apparently, plenty of folks agree with him.
“The History Guy” has accumulated 36 million views on about 350 videos in the past two years. More than 350,000 people from all over the world subscribe to the YouTube channel, meaning they’ve signed up to receive notifications when something new gets posted.
Geiger wore his trademark bow tie, suit coat and black glasses, which give him a professorial look. But he tries not to take himself too seriously.
Geiger worked alone until September, when he invited his wife to take a risk, quit her job and join the business. She helps him do research and write scripts and occasionally plays guest host under the name “Mrs. History Guy.”
…. “It is the perfect example of entrepreneurship in this country,” she said. “They built a business out of absolutely nothing, and it’s truly loved by the people who watch him.”…
… [an accountant in Austin, Texas] was doing internet research on North American animal extinctions when he stumbled onto Geiger’s video about “The Mystery of Washington’s Eagle.”
…Geiger [flew] to Austin to speak at a banquet for a local hunting club. The topic was “The Great Royal Buffalo Hunt of 1872,” which Geiger holds up as an early example of Russian-American diplomacy.
“He’s able to find these small, almost-forgotten events and show how many of them affected the entire world’s development,” …
Geiger … was laid off in 2015. He expected to be called back before his severance money ran out, but that didn’t happen, so he started looking for other jobs. In January of 2017, he announced to his wife that he was going to create a YouTube channel.
Geiger originally named the YouTube channel “The History Guy: Five Minutes of History” with plans to limit videos to about five minutes each. But he found most topics needed more time, so he changed it to “The History Guy: History Deserves to be Remembered.”
“I consider myself a hobby historian and a storyteller,” Geiger said. “I don’t suggest people cite me as a resource for research papers. We’re not providing footnotes. We’re mostly trying to be entertaining.”
…Another blockbuster on “The History Guy” channel tells the story of the “Los Angeles Chinese Massacre of 1871.” It has accumulated more than 340,000 views since being posted in September, giving Wiechert her first big success as a scriptwriter.
“The History Guy” has a comment section on its YouTube site, as well as a Facebook page with nearly 5,000 followers. Geiger and Wiechert try to interact with viewers as much as possible. Most are nice and friendly. A few are brutally honest or just plain mean.
“What I’ve learned being on this extraordinary ride with Lance is, if you have something that interests you, and you have more knowledge about it than most other people, YouTube is a platform where you can share it with the world,” Wiechert said. “You don’t have to have a fancy studio or a fancy camera or fancy clothes. … Anyone can do this.”
Teri Maddox tmaddox@bnd.com