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Quite Contrary · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
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  Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
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  Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
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  Speaker 1: of these amazing tales right there on display, just waiting
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  Speaker 1: for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: Anyone who's had a bad boss or a coworker has
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  Speaker 1: probably felt the sting of having their hard work stolen.
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  Speaker 1: They spend all weekend on a report or a spreadsheets,
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  Speaker 1: only to have the credit go to someone else. Back
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  Speaker 1: in the nineteen seventies, five women did a job that
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  Speaker 1: nobody else would or could do, and their research led
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  Speaker 1: to some pretty incredible results, results that were ultimately attributed
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  Speaker 1: to the men of their field. But Alina Schmantz and Heartline,
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  Speaker 1: doctor Sylvia Earl Mead, doctor Renata True, and Peggy Lucas
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  Speaker 1: Bond did more for the United States Space program than
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  Speaker 1: we will ever know. In nineteen seventy, both NASA and
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  Speaker 1: the US Department of the Interior put out a call
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  Speaker 1: they were looking for scientists to head up the next
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  Speaker 1: initiative at a special facility called tech Tight two. Tech
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  Speaker 1: Tight two was a special kind of base comprised of
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  Speaker 1: two metal capsules measuring eighteen feet tall and conducted by
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  Speaker 1: a narrow passage. The capsules held a small kitchen with
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  Speaker 1: the refrigerator, a microwave, a small table, and a bathroom,
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  Speaker 1: as well as bunks and a laboratory. Tech Tight two
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  Speaker 1: had been used four times previously by other teams of five,
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  Speaker 1: with four scientists and one engineer on each mission. The
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  Speaker 1: goal was to study how scientific teams worked together when
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  Speaker 1: isolated in small spaces, similar to what they experienced while
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  Speaker 1: in space, and for this new experiment, NASA and the
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  Speaker 1: US government wanted five women, as the first four experiments
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  Speaker 1: had been conducted by all male teams. But tech Tite
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  Speaker 1: II wasn't located in the middle of the desert or
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  Speaker 1: even in a top secret underground facility. It was located
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  Speaker 1: forty three feet under the Atlantic Ocean in the Virgin Islands.
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  Speaker 1: Several of the women were graduate students at Scrip's Institution
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  Speaker 1: of Oceanography, while doctor True taught biological oceanography at Tulane
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  Speaker 1: University in New Orleans. Peggy Lucas Bond came from Villanueva
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  Speaker 1: as an electrical engineer The men who had done the
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  Speaker 1: previous tech type missions ate frozen dinners every night and
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  Speaker 1: had regular contact with the outside world. They weren't so
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  Speaker 1: much isolated as they were on vacation. But Schmanson, the
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  Speaker 1: other women of Missions six point fifty wouldn't be so lucky.
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  Speaker 1: They would live and work together in close quarters for
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  Speaker 1: fourteen days studying the behavior of small coral reef fish
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  Speaker 1: while NASA and the DOI studied them. The women were
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  Speaker 1: deep enough that they could not surface without getting the bends.
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  Speaker 1: NASA had built to facility that could not be escaped
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  Speaker 1: so as to better study the psychological effects of being
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  Speaker 1: down there for longer periods of time. Once they were selected,
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  Speaker 1: the media had a field day with the fact that
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  Speaker 1: five young, attractive women were going to be doing what
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  Speaker 1: was considered men's work. Articles and TV reports discussed everything
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  Speaker 1: from their heights and weights to how they had allegedly
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  Speaker 1: requested a hair dryer in the capsule, which by the way,
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  Speaker 1: they hadn't, and the men in charge of the program
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  Speaker 1: also bombarded them with sexist remarks and behaviors, an unfortunate
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  Speaker 1: but not unexpected consequence of doing their jobs in a
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  Speaker 1: man's world. For example, the higher ups didn't think the
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  Speaker 1: women would be able to lift or maneuver their breathing
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  Speaker 1: tanks without a man there to help them. Mission six
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  Speaker 1: point fifty was led by Sylvia Earl Meade, while Bond
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  Speaker 1: maintained the life support systems. The five of them often
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  Speaker 1: explored the nearby coral reefs two at a time, with
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  Speaker 1: one person staying back at the base. They also got
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  Speaker 1: to use rebreathers on their excursions, a new technology that
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  Speaker 1: let the women read their own air using special tanks,
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  Speaker 1: allowing them to stay out of the base for hours
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  Speaker 1: on end. When they weren't observing the sea life outside
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  Speaker 1: of tech Tite, too, they relaxed inside, observing the sea
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  Speaker 1: life through the station's bubble shaped windows. There was also
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  Speaker 1: a television and radio on board in case they wanted
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  Speaker 1: to entertain themselves with something other than fish. Anne Heartline
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  Speaker 1: was quoted in the New York Times article saying, there
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  Speaker 1: was no claustrophobia, and we got along unbelievably well. The
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  Speaker 1: only time we had any disagreement was when we all
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  Speaker 1: wanted to go out swimming at the same time. After
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  Speaker 1: it was over, Smonson the others published several academic papers
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  Speaker 1: on their findings and NASA got the inside kneaded into
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  Speaker 1: the aquanat's mental states Throughout the experiment, The women were
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  Speaker 1: also given a ticker tape parade in Chicago and had
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  Speaker 1: a special lunch with First Lady Pat Nixon at the
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  Speaker 1: White House. As for tech Tite, it hosted several more
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  Speaker 1: all male missions through the nineteen seventies until it was
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  Speaker 1: finally decommissioned, but NASA still uses underwater habitats to both
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  Speaker 1: train and study astronauts before they head into space above
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  Speaker 1: all else, Mission six point fifty proved that women were
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  Speaker 1: just as capable of men, if not more so, at
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  Speaker 1: being astronauts. The work of Elina sch Monts and Heartline
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  Speaker 1: Sylvia Earl Mead were not a true and Peggy Lucas
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  Speaker 1: bond led to NASA eventually training women to go into space.
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  Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy four, these five women managed to do
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  Speaker 1: the impossible. They broke the glass ceiling while living in
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  Speaker 1: an underwater metal tube. Some people believe that if you
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  Speaker 1: want something done right, you have to do it yourself.
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  Speaker 1: For a woman named Mary Jane, though, it wasn't that
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  Speaker 1: she wanted things done right, it's that if she didn't
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  Speaker 1: do them herself. They wouldn't have gotten done at all.
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  Speaker 1: Mary was born in Brooklyn, New York, in eighteen ninety three.
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  Speaker 1: Her mother was a model, and her father had been
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  Speaker 1: a boxer before becoming a private investigator. She also had
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  Speaker 1: a brother and two sisters, one of whom died as
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  Speaker 1: an infant. Mary got the acting bug early after performing
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  Speaker 1: for her local church when she was only five. By
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  Speaker 1: the time she was a teenager, she was on the
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  Speaker 1: vaudeville circuit as a member of the Hall Clarendon Stock Company.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, Mary was an early dragstar, performing under the
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  Speaker 1: name Jane Mast and playing the part of a male impersonator.
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  Speaker 1: She eventually worked her way up to Broadway in nineteen eleven,
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  Speaker 1: performing alongside big stars like ed Wynn, perhaps best remembered
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  Speaker 1: as the voice of the Mad Hatter in Disney's Alice
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  Speaker 1: in Wonderland. But being on stage wasn't enough for Mary.
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  Speaker 1: She wanted more. She wanted to do it all, write, direct,
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  Speaker 1: produce all of the jobs that men were doing, and
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  Speaker 1: she knew that if she didn't take the initiative, she
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  Speaker 1: would never get the chance. So she got to work
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  Speaker 1: writing her own plays. Her first was a nineteen twenty
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  Speaker 1: six show simply titled Sex. Mary had written the script,
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  Speaker 1: directed it, and produced it all on her own, and
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  Speaker 1: audiences loved it, but critics and the authorities did not.
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  Speaker 1: After several religious groups complained about the content of the show,
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  Speaker 1: Mary and the rest of the cast were arrested and
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  Speaker 1: brought up on morals charges. She spent ten days locked up,
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  Speaker 1: refusing to pay the fine because she knew that her
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  Speaker 1: play could get a huge boost from the notoriety Anna did.
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  Speaker 1: Mary didn't do too badly in jail either. She only
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  Speaker 1: served eight days, getting two days off for good behavior,
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  Speaker 1: and often ate her meals with the warden and his wife.
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  Speaker 1: She returned to the stage with a new show called
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  Speaker 1: The Drag, which cast gay actors that she had known
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  Speaker 1: from a club in Greenwich Village. Mary was a staunch
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  Speaker 1: supporter of gay rights and often butted heads with the
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  Speaker 1: New York City police, who persecuted gay men and brutalized
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  Speaker 1: them simply for existing. It's no surprise that after testing
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  Speaker 1: her show in New Jersey and Connecticut, she was blocked
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  Speaker 1: from bringing it to the Broadway stage. By the nineteen thirties,
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  Speaker 1: Mary had found her way to Hollywood, where she became
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  Speaker 1: the talk of the town, but not only because of
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  Speaker 1: her acting. She hadn't just broken into the business. She
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  Speaker 1: had broken the mold. Mary wrote much of her own material,
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  Speaker 1: and although she went uncredited for the work that she
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  Speaker 1: did on her first few films, she received sole or
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  Speaker 1: partial credit for almost all of the movies that she
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  Speaker 1: made between nineteen thirty three and nineteen seventy eight. Her
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  Speaker 1: success allowed her to do many things that women of
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  Speaker 1: that era were not allowed to do or even expected
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  Speaker 1: to do. For example, she had a clause in her
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  Speaker 1: contract that gave her the right to kick her co
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  Speaker 1: star W. C. Fields off the set if he ever
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  Speaker 1: showed up drunk, which was apparently not all that uncommon.
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  Speaker 1: She also allegedly opened a bank account for herself using
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  Speaker 1: a man's name. You see, until the nineteen sixties, women
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  Speaker 1: were not allowed to have their own accounts in the
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  Speaker 1: United States. But perhaps most impressive of all was her
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  Speaker 1: willingness to stand up to hate, especially where her friends
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  Speaker 1: were concerned. Mary had a chauffeur and bodyguard named William
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  Speaker 1: Landon Jones, better known to BAK fans as Gorilla Jones.
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  Speaker 1: He was also her lover, and he was black, and
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  Speaker 1: that would have been scandalous enough in the nineteen thirties,
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  Speaker 1: but Mary didn't exactly hide their relationship. One day, Jones
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  Speaker 1: arrived at the Ravenswood Apartments in Los Angeles where she lived.
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  Speaker 1: He approached the door, at which point he was told
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  Speaker 1: that he could not go up to see her. They
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  Speaker 1: had put a rule in place banning people of color
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  Speaker 1: from entering the building. Mary found out and immediately made
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  Speaker 1: two phone calls. The first was to the front desk
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  Speaker 1: telling them to allow him up to her room, and
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  Speaker 1: the other was to the owners of the apartment building.
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  Speaker 1: Rumor had it that Mary actually bought the ravens Wood
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  Speaker 1: and then changed the rules to allow Jones to come
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  Speaker 1: and go as he pleased, but the real story was
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  Speaker 1: only slightly less dramatic. You see, she found out that
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  Speaker 1: the owners were on the verge of losing the building
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  Speaker 1: due to lack of funds. They asked Mary for help,
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  Speaker 1: which she happily gave. She loaned them the money with
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  Speaker 1: the understanding that mister Jones could enter the building with
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  Speaker 1: no more problems. She then told Jones, I was so
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  Speaker 1: disgusted with what happened to to you, I bought the
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  Speaker 1: Ravenswood In other words, she spread the rumor herself. Mary
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  Speaker 1: Jane was an iconoclast. She was an ally to a
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  Speaker 1: number of minority communities, and she was someone who did
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  Speaker 1: not tolerate hatred towards her friends or family. And that's
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  Speaker 1: why she's still revered to this day, but not as
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  Speaker 1: Mary Jane, but as May her stage name May West.
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  Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
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  Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
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  Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
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  Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership
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  Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
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  Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show,
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  Speaker 1: and you can learn all about it over at the
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  Speaker 1: Worldolore dot com. And until next time, stay curious, Kay