The World According to Jeff Goldblum

Hi. Well, here I am.

I don't know if you know my face by this point.

Hmm, no, I'm not the guy from the old Ghostbusters.

Hello little doggy, hey!

My name is Jeff Goldblum.

In any case, based on what you're seeing...

Oh drippy, drippy.

What do you suppose we're going to be talking about today?

What do you think?

Here's a... here's a quiz.

Uh, at any point in any given day, what percentage would you suppose

of the world's population is wearing denim?

Hmm?

Fifty percent.

Half.

Half of the world's population is wearing denim.

Now, how did that happen?

We are going to find out that and a whole lot more.

Oh, yes, denim, denim.

Come on, Jeff, let's continue forward.

Wild horses couldn't stop me from pursuing my investigation.

I've been a fan of denim for as long as I can remember.

Yep.

I may not have always picked the best jeans. Oh, boy.

These jeans, long gone, long gone.

But this is where it all began for me.

Hopalong Cassidy.

It was my very first exposure to the allure of, uh, the jean.

- Hoppy, my clothes sure look purty. - Yeah.

And it was in the Old West

where denim's meteoric rise first had its humble beginnings.

Today, if you know where to look...

treasure lurks around every corner.

Where are you taking me?

I'm taking you on a denim quest, uh, a denim hunt,

a denim safari, if you will.

Wait a minute, denim quest, denim hunt, denim safari?

- Okay. - Yes...

My passion is finding old clothing,

I feel like I'm the best person in the world at doing that.

Don't break your arm patting yourself on the back.

Look at this... this evocative, what do I want to say,

this unusual Western...

mining environment.

Yeah, that's... that's well put.

- Thank you. - The real irony here, Jeff,

that I want you to understand is that...

imagine you're a miner, that you are trying to get rich, right,

and you're looking for gold and it never really works out.

But you're wearing jeans, you're wearing Levi's,

which everybody wore back then.

- Wow. - That the... the gold

that I'm looking for were the pants

that these guys were throwing away and discarding.

- And I'm really fired up to go see. - I can't wait,

- you are infecting me with your... - My enthusiasm?

- Yes! - It's infectious enthusiasm?

- Yes. - That's what I like to have.

You have infectious enthusiasm too, I think.

- I do. - We're feeding off each other...

- The two of us. - ...with this infectious enthusiasm.

We're like a couple of sticks, we may...

this may be combustible in a second.

- Uh, okay. - Let's go.

Is it true that you're known as Indiana Jeans?

Let's go find out.

If I find some jeans in here, I guess I will be today.

Do you believe in ghosts? I opened this and then it closed all by itself.

- Did you see that? - That's the wind.

- Really? - It's windy, be careful.

That's what they always say about ghosts,

"That must have been the wind."

- Wow. - Hold on to your hats, people.

Let's get in there, come on.

He's trippy, this guy.

Brit Eaton is a true denim obsessive.

Oh, this is cool, I don't know if it goes anywhere.

For over 20 years now, he's been risking his life

unearthing denim in the most dangerous of locations,

but he's not doing it just for fun.

Brit sells his wares to avid collectors around the world

for a serious profit.

Jeans that once cost a dollar twenty-five,

can now sell for almost 100,000 dollars.

Wait a minute, what the heck is this?

This is an old hoist house, it's a mining building.

The amazing thing is, there could be old clothing anywhere.

The... the denim was an adaptation to the environment

- that they encountered, right? - Yeah.

So the miners would get wet sometimes.

I mean, they used candles back in the old days,

so it's possible that they would, you know, uh,

burn some of their pants, they'd have to get another pair of pants.

That's why we might find clothing in the mine or in the mine buildings.

- Here's your... here's your lights. - Yeah.

- You figure that out, your helmet. - What's this?

- It's a mask. - What do I need that for?

We're going to start hunting for stuff, man,

we're gonna do some real denim hunting here.

How would I put it on? It's... uh, oh.

- Yep, there you go. - Really? Ready?

- Don't forget, it does say unsafe mine. - Okay. Let's get jeans.

Yeah. Well, let's look around, man. Let's see who can find something first.

Oh, it's a piece of material.

Hey, I could make a pair of short shorts out of that.

Look at that, that's a collar.

Put it in the pack, that's our first thing.

Oh, okay, but what... but, uh...

See anything else next to the blackboard?

Oh, I see some material.

Oh. Is that a tar... Yeah, it's a tarp.

Let's go over this way.

- Can you see this? - Holy cats!

- Wait a minute. - Let's try to figure out how deep this is.

Okay. There ready...

- It's still going. - That's not possible.

- What's this behind you? - That is fascinating.

Anyhow, I'm gonna climb up here and see what's back this way.

You are? Ease up already.

Let's go take a little bit of a look outside.

Yeah.

Oh man, the weather changed completely. Look at this place.

- Look at all this trash. - Oh, wait a minute.

And this looks like a building that just came down or something.

Wait a minute.

Okay, I see...

Watch out for nails.

For nails, yeah.

What's up behind you there?

There's some... something there, what's that white stuff?

- Wow. - Well look how sun faded it is,

it's been here for like, 50 years, look at it.

Those are jeans or overalls or something there.

Uh-huh. A whole other level... Whoa, whoa!

Jeez, I think this is the motherlode.

This is great, I mean this is a legitimately really cool piece.

- That's a... that's a... - I mean this is like a framable piece.

I've got a guy in France right now with a store.

- Yeah? - That's been looking for something,

he wants to put it in a frame that's all screwed up.

It's not the big dollar stuff,

you know, maybe in the thousand-dollar range.

I think that's what we found here.

- Holy crap! - Wait a minute.

- There's an old shirt, Jeff. - It's a whole outfit.

- It's a whole outfit. - God, look at this, man.

- I knew I needed something... - Oh, it's got the tag.

- It's an Uncle Sam! - Wait a minute.

- It's a freaking Uncle Sam shirt. - Indiana Jeans strikes again.

This is freaking great, seriously. I'm excited.

- One, two, three, yabba-dabba-doo! - Yabba-dabba-doo!

This is the most fun I ever had in my whole life.

So, why is it that a pair of jeans can survive so long up a mountain?

And, from whence did this rugged material spring? Hmm?

Any answers, Professor Goldblum? Well, as a matter of fact, I do. If I may.

Five to ten million years ago,

an African plant evolved light and strong fibers

in order to help carry its seeds in the wind.

Cheeky, cheeky.

The cotton plant spread across the planet.

At some point, homo sapiens got a hold of it,

did some tinkering, resulting in those fibers

getting longer and stronger.

Now, we go to France and a city called Nîmes

where cotton is woven into a unique pattern,

de Nîmes, or as we say, denim.

And then, we come to America.

There was a tailor named, uh, Jacob Davis...

and he had one particular customer who was...

Uh, gee, I don't wanna be... he was quite, uh...

he was... he was a mountain of a man

and he needed a pair of trousers that wouldn't bust at the seams.

Anyway, what was the solution? Copper rivets.

Copper rivets, eureka!

Mr. Davis went in business with a guy named Levi Strauss

and there we go, we have these super-duper tough pants

that became a smash hit on the workwear scene.

So I brought a few pieces from my own collection.

- I thought you might want to look at. - I'd love that.

All right.

Wait a minute. Levi Strauss & Company copper riveted clothing.

These are the holy grail of the vintage denim world.

This is the one pocket Levi’s, okay?

So in 1901, Levi’s added a second pocket

and the one pocket Levi is the crème de la crème.

I mean, I've met Japanese collectors who've been doing this 30, 40 years

that never have had one of these.

These are like super rare, like maybe 25 in the world.

Denim is a canvas that paints itself over time,

or is painted by its experiences and its exposures.

Look at the candle wax all over the front.

- Look at these original repairs on it. - Let me see, let me see.

- Okay, 'cause what... - It's a work of art, man.

That's amazing. And where'd you get those, by the way?

Can you say? You can't say? Never mind, I shouldn't pry.

It's okay, you can ask questions, I don't have to answer.

- That's correct, that's correct... - I always say,

it's nice to be asked to the dance, but I don't have to dance.

- Do you dance? - I'm ready to dance any time.

How about the forbidden dance, do you know what that was?