The Toast of New York 1937 (4-minute clip). "The story starts just before the Civil War, showing Fisk, Boyd, and Luke conning Southern townsfolk into buying bars of soap that, might, have a $10 gold piece inside. Found out, they're chased out of town and escape across the Mason-Dixon Line just as the war starts. Fisk hatches a plan for him and Boyd to return to the South and buy cotton then smuggle it to the North where Luke is to sell it to the Northern textile mills. By the end of the war they have made millions, only to find out that Luke had been re-investing their money into Confederate Bonds. This fact-based movie shows Jim Fisk as one of the greatest con-men and entrepreneur's in history. It concludes with his involvement in "Black Friday", the Financial Panic of 1869, with fellow financier Jay Gould (who's not represented in the movie) and their attempt to corner the U.S. gold market. There's a love triangle between Fisk, Boyd and Mansfield, which is also based on historical accounts. [The relationship between Fisk and Mansfield will remind some of Citizen Kane's one.]"

Armstrong began his studies into market behavior when first becoming fascinated by the events during the Crash of 1966. Working through this period exposed him to the real world compared to the theories offered in school. When his history teacher showed an old black and white film, The Toast of New York, starring Edward Arnold and Cary Grant, which portrayed the gold manipulation of Jim Fisk that resulted in the Panic of 1869, his perception of the world was changed forever. This was the Panic when the term “Black Friday” was coined because the mob stormed Wall Street and was dragging the bankers from their offices and hanging them. The riot prompted troops to be sent in to restore peace. A scene in this movie showed Cary Grant reading the prices of gold from the tickertape as it hit $162 in 1869. Since gold was $35 in the 1960s, there was clearly something wrong with the whole linear thought process of economic history. Armstrong became captivated by this shocking revelation that there were not just booms and busts, but also peaks and valleys that would last centuries.

armstrongeconomics.com/about/1113-2/

"Western culture is prejudiced for we think everything is a straight line. My introduction to cycles was actually in high school. The teacher brought in a movie we were to watch in class the Toast of New York. This was about the Jim Fisk manipulation of gold in 1869. In the movie they said gold reached $162. I thought that was just Hollywood. It bothered me so I was compelled to go to the library and look it up in the newspapers on film back then. Low and behold, there it was the quote of $162. I knew gold was $35. Suddenly the world was not a straight line (I highly recommend watching this movie). This was the movie that changed my life."

armstrongeconomics.com/armstrongeconomics101/understanding-cycles/armstrong-on-why-cycles-exist/

From and including: Friday, September 24, 1869 (Gold 162.50)
To, but not including Monday, January 21, 1980 (Gold 875.00)

Result: 40,295 days