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On the Nose · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Nke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
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  Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild.
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  Speaker 2: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
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  Speaker 2: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
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  Speaker 2: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
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  Speaker 2: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: In Hollywood, they say that it's who you know. The
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  Speaker 1: right connections can give you a leg up. For instance,
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  Speaker 1: director Sophia Coppola is an immense talent, but it's easier
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  Speaker 1: to get noticed when your dad directed The Godfather right.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, scores of our favorite celebrities, people with massive
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  Speaker 1: amounts of talent come from Hollywood royalty. Nicholas Cage, George Clooney,
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  Speaker 1: Emma Roberts. The list goes on and on. But while
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  Speaker 1: these artists had a leg up, their talent is what
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  Speaker 1: earned them job after job. After all, it's not how
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  Speaker 1: you get the opportunity, it's what you do with it
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  Speaker 1: that counts. And as one Hollywood starlet has proved, sometimes
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  Speaker 1: a foot in the door is all someone needs to
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  Speaker 1: break the glass ceiling. In nineteen forty eight, an up
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  Speaker 1: and coming actress arrived for her voice session at Columbia Pictures,
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  Speaker 1: one of the leading film studios in Hollywood. She had
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  Speaker 1: a good singing voice, but was untrained, so the studio
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  Speaker 1: had her working with a composer named Fred Carger to
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  Speaker 1: get her as ready as possible for the small parts
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  Speaker 1: in an upcoming film. That afternoon, Fred handed the young
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  Speaker 1: actress a vinyl record and encouraged her to listen to it.
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  Speaker 1: The singer on the record was a moderately well known
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  Speaker 1: crooner by the name of Ella Fitzgerald, and Fred thought
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  Speaker 1: that the young actress might be able to learn a
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  Speaker 1: few things about singing by listening to Ella. And the
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  Speaker 1: actress did listen and found herself drawn in by Ella
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  Speaker 1: Fitzgerald's low, sultry voice. She became an instant fan and
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  Speaker 1: bought scool of Ella's records. As it turned out, Ella
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  Speaker 1: Fitzgerald wasn't just a hypnotic singer, she was also prolific,
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  Speaker 1: having released dozens of records since nineteen thirty five. Over
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  Speaker 1: the next six years, the young actress spent countless hours
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  Speaker 1: listening to Ella's recordings. She followed her career even as
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  Speaker 1: her own career took off and she began to land
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  Speaker 1: bigger and bigger roles in Hollywood. But much as she
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  Speaker 1: loved Ella Fitzgerald, she didn't get to see her perform
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  Speaker 1: until November of nineteen fifty four at a nightclub in
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  Speaker 1: Los Angeles. After the show, the actress met Ella and
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  Speaker 1: introduced herself as Marilyn Monroe, one of Ella's biggest fans,
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  Speaker 1: and the two struck up a fast friendship. By this time,
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  Speaker 1: Marilyn Monroe was one of the most famous celebrities on
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  Speaker 1: the planet. Ella Fitzgerald was famous in her own right,
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  Speaker 1: but had nowhere near Marylyn's star power. In fact, even
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  Speaker 1: though Ella had been recording albums for almost twenty years
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  Speaker 1: and had multiple songs topped the Billboard charts, she was
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  Speaker 1: still struggling to book a lot of upscale clubs around
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  Speaker 1: the country. She especially wanted to play the Mocambo, a
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  Speaker 1: famous La nightclub, but the owner had so far refused
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  Speaker 1: to book her. This was sadly a common problem for
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  Speaker 1: black performers in the nineteen fifties. At the time, a
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  Speaker 1: lot of clubs at Casino's practice segregation. These venues flat
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  Speaker 1: out refused to hire black talent, or if they did,
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  Speaker 1: musicians like Ella would perform and then be ushered out
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  Speaker 1: the back door without being allowed to stay in the
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  Speaker 1: venue after their set. But that was only part of
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  Speaker 1: why the Mcambo refused to book Ella. In fact, singers
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  Speaker 1: like Dorothy Dandridge and Eartha Kit had already played the Mocambo,
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  Speaker 1: so Ella wouldn't have been the first African American woman
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  Speaker 1: to perform there. No, the problem was that Ella was
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  Speaker 1: full figured. It seems that she didn't meet the traditional
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  Speaker 1: beauty standards of the time, and the club's owner worried
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  Speaker 1: that a heavy set woman like Ella would lack the
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  Speaker 1: glamour needed to draw a crowd, and so for years,
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  Speaker 1: Ella had been unable to change the club owner's mind
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  Speaker 1: about her. But that was before she became friends with
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  Speaker 1: Marilyn Monroe. So in the spring of nineteen fifty five,
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  Speaker 1: Marilyn placed a call to the owner of the Mcambo
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  Speaker 1: and made him a deal. If he booked Ella for
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  Speaker 1: a run at the club, Marilyn would be there every
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  Speaker 1: single night, and she would make sure that the paparazzis
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  Speaker 1: got plenty of pictures of her sitting at the center table.
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  Speaker 1: The club owner was a businessman first and foremost. His
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  Speaker 1: only real issue with booking Ella was her ability to
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  Speaker 1: draw a crowd, and Marilyn would certainly take care of
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  Speaker 1: that with her at the performance. The Macambo would end
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  Speaker 1: up being in the newspapers nights after night, so he
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  Speaker 1: agreed and hired Ella for a couple of weeks in
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  Speaker 1: March of nineteen fifty five. On opening night, Marilyn Monroe
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  Speaker 1: kept her word. She showed up at the Mcambo dressed
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  Speaker 1: to the nines, with the trail of reporters and photographers
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  Speaker 1: right behind her. She sat at the very front of
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  Speaker 1: the club so the whole audience could see her avidly
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  Speaker 1: supporting her friend. Plus two more celebrity guests also showed
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  Speaker 1: up to see Ella, Crune, Judy Garland, and Frank Sinatra.
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  Speaker 1: That night, Ella put on an unforgettable show to a
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  Speaker 1: packed house. The rest of her run sold out, and
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  Speaker 1: the Macambo decided to extend her contract for another week.
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  Speaker 1: After selling out that club, Ella's entire career changed. She
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  Speaker 1: was in demand at upscale clubs around the country. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: there wasn't a stage she could not book. Years later,
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  Speaker 1: she said in an interview that after the Mocambo, she
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  Speaker 1: never had to play a small jazz club again, and
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  Speaker 1: even though her talent is what brought her so much success.
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  Speaker 1: She always credited her good friend Marilyn Monroe for using
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  Speaker 1: her star power to open a door that never should
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  Speaker 1: have been closed to begin with. There's an old saying
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  Speaker 1: that no press is bad press. It doesn't matter they
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  Speaker 1: say what the conversation is, as long as it revolves
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  Speaker 1: around you. And that's why so many celebrities and big
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  Speaker 1: name brands rely on PR stunts to generate publicity. If
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  Speaker 1: you're outrageous, you can get people talking. So when nav
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  Speaker 1: took a job as director of communications for a racing team,
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  Speaker 1: he wanted his race car drivers in the papers and
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  Speaker 1: he would succeed, but only after learning how quickly a
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  Speaker 1: publicity stunt can become a PR nightmare. Now these days,
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  Speaker 1: it seems like almost everyone as a fan of Formula
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  Speaker 1: one racing or has at least heard of the hit
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  Speaker 1: TV show Drive to Survive. But back in two thousand
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  Speaker 1: and four, F one was a niche sport. It was
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  Speaker 1: hard for any team to garner attention from the wider world, which,
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  Speaker 1: for the owners of the teams was largely the point.
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  Speaker 1: Car companies like Ferrari, Toyota, and Honda bought F one
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  Speaker 1: teams to show off their auto making prowess. Only first
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  Speaker 1: place teams like Ferrari ever made the newspapers. Seventh place
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  Speaker 1: teams like Jaguar may as well have been invisible. But
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  Speaker 1: that this was a big problem for Jaguar's parent company,
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  Speaker 1: Ford Motors. Going into the two thousand and four season,
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  Speaker 1: the Ford executives were beginning to feel like investing in
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  Speaker 1: an F one team was a major waste of money.
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  Speaker 1: There was a rumor that if Jaguar didn't garner some
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  Speaker 1: major publicity, Ford would sell the team at the end
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  Speaker 1: of the season. Jaguar knew that they weren't good enough
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  Speaker 1: to win first place and make the papers, but they
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  Speaker 1: wanted to save their team regardless, so Nov Sadu, the
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  Speaker 1: director of communications, devised a different way of garnering attention.
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  Speaker 1: The Monaco Grand Prix was coming up, a race that
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  Speaker 1: always got more publicity than the rest because Monco races
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  Speaker 1: were usually crawling with celebrities, and nav wanted to make
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  Speaker 1: this year's race all about Jaguar, so he called up
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  Speaker 1: the producers of a movie about to hit the theaters,
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  Speaker 1: Oceans Twelve. He proposed that they send George Clooney, Matt
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  Speaker 1: Damon and Brad Pitt to the Monaco Grand Prix. As
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  Speaker 1: a publicity stunt, the Jaguar team would deck out their
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  Speaker 1: cars in Ocean's twelve logos and after finishing touch Sadu
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  Speaker 1: called the Steinmetz Group eight high end jeweler and he
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  Speaker 1: asked to borrow two diamonds that would be fixed to
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  Speaker 1: the front of the Jaguar race cars for the Grand Prix.
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  Speaker 1: He thought that it would play up the jewel heist
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  Speaker 1: nature of the Ocean's films. The jewelers agreed since it
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  Speaker 1: would be great publicity for them as well. So on
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  Speaker 1: the day of the race, both the drivers for Jaguar,
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  Speaker 1: Mark Weber and Christian Clean took photos with Matt Damon,
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  Speaker 1: Brad Pitt and George Clooney. The press went wild for
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  Speaker 1: their race cars, which had huge diamonds affixed to their
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  Speaker 1: nose cones the front end of the cars. Each diamond,
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  Speaker 1: by the way, was worth about a quarter of a
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  Speaker 1: million dollars. But while everything was running smooth for the
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  Speaker 1: Jaguar team, the Grand Prix got off to a rocky start.
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  Speaker 1: When it was time for the race, all of the
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  Speaker 1: cars got into their starting boxes on the track, but
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  Speaker 1: one of the Toyota drivers pulled up short of his
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  Speaker 1: grid box, lending him right next to Christian Clean, the
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  Speaker 1: Jaguar driver. A rush of mechanics poured into the track,
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  Speaker 1: swarming the Toyota to change its tires, do a mechanical
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  Speaker 1: check and position it correctly in place, and when they
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  Speaker 1: finally cleared out, the race began, and right from the
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  Speaker 1: start it was chaos. A pack of cars thundered around
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  Speaker 1: hairpin turns at breakneck speed. Clean wove through the track
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  Speaker 1: alongside the other drivers, screeching around corners and fighting to
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  Speaker 1: overtake the cars ahead of him, and at one point
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  Speaker 1: he realized that the right wing of his car was missing.
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  Speaker 1: He wasn't sure what had happened, if another car had
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  Speaker 1: knocked it off, or if he had tapped it on
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  Speaker 1: a barrier when he was zooming around a turn, but
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  Speaker 1: he didn't need it to control the car, and so
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  Speaker 1: he pushed the pedal to the floor. Then six turns
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  Speaker 1: into the race, he came up to a hairpin turn
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  Speaker 1: and lost traction and ended up smashing nose first into
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  Speaker 1: the barrier on the side of the track. Crew members
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  Speaker 1: raced to clear the car off of the track, and
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  Speaker 1: by the time they got Clean's car to safety, one
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  Speaker 1: of the crew noticed that the two hundred and fifty
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  Speaker 1: thousand dollars diamond attached to the nose cone was missing.
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  Speaker 1: The The entire Jaguar team jumped into action, canvassing the
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  Speaker 1: area for the diamond. They searched the track and watched
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  Speaker 1: the security footage, but there was no sign of the diamond,
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  Speaker 1: and suddenly it seemed like the pr stunt had turned
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  Speaker 1: into a plotline from an ocean's movie. The problem was
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  Speaker 1: that a ton of unexpected people came in contact with
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  Speaker 1: the car, the mechanics at the beginning of the race,
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  Speaker 1: the crew members who pulled the car off the track.
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  Speaker 1: If the diamond broke off during the race, a lucky
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  Speaker 1: bystander might have been able to reach through the barrier
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  Speaker 1: and grab it. There was no way of knowing who
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  Speaker 1: took the diamond, and to this day it's never been found.
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  Speaker 1: So was this an unfortunate accident or a well planned
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  Speaker 1: high stakes heist. Either way, Navsidu accomplished his mission. The
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  Speaker 1: incident got Jaguar a ton of press, but it didn't
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  Speaker 1: stop Forward from selling the team at the end of
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  Speaker 1: the season anyway. At first, the sale seemed like a
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  Speaker 1: death knell for Jaguar. After all, the new owners were
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  Speaker 1: not even automakers. They were a bever company, but they
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  Speaker 1: poured a ton of money and resources into Jaguar and
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  Speaker 1: renamed the team after the beverage company's energy drink. Today
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  Speaker 1: they still make the papers, not for missing diamonds, but
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  Speaker 1: because they're arguably the best racing team in the world.
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  Speaker 1: You'd almost certainly recognize their name and their bright red logo.
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  Speaker 1: F One fans know them today as Red Bull.
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  Speaker 2: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
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  Speaker 2: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
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  Speaker 2: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
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  Speaker 2: The show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership
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  Speaker 2: with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
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  Speaker 2: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show,
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  Speaker 2: and you can learn all about it over at the
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  Speaker 2: Worldolore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.