Latest / Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities / Old Haunts

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Old Haunts · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
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  Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
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  Speaker 1: full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
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  Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
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  Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
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  Speaker 1: of Curiosities. There are places on this earth so haunted
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  Speaker 1: you might think they were created that way. The Winchester
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  Speaker 1: Mystery House, for example, built by Heiress Sarah Winchester, is
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  Speaker 1: supposedly haunted by the ghosts of every person who has
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  Speaker 1: ever been killed with a Winchester rifle. With the money
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  Speaker 1: her husband left her after his death, Sarah renovated her
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  Speaker 1: home until it was seven stories tall, comprised of staircases
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  Speaker 1: to nowhere and allow brenth of hallways why to confuse
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  Speaker 1: the ghosts. Meanwhile, in the North Atlantic plains and ships
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  Speaker 1: traveling through the Bermuda Triangle are often lost at sea,
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  Speaker 1: never to be found again. Some claim the Bermuda Triangle
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  Speaker 1: has been the site of extraterrestrial activity, while others believe
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  Speaker 1: a ghostly paranormal force is to blame. Whatever has caused
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  Speaker 1: the disappearances, Though has healthy area earned its other nickname,
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  Speaker 1: the Devil's Triangle. But there is another Haunted Triangle, this
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  Speaker 1: one located in the unlikeliest of places, Beverly Hills, California.
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  Speaker 1: Between the streets of North Linden Drive and North Whittier Drive,
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  Speaker 1: is a tiny patch of land across its well manicured
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  Speaker 1: lawn or half a dozen palm trees, as though a
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  Speaker 1: desert island just sprang up one day in the middle
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  Speaker 1: of the suburbs. Its history as a mainstay of Haunted Hollywood, though,
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  Speaker 1: can be traced back to aviator and filmmaker Howard Hughes
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  Speaker 1: in nine Hughes was no stranger to the sky. When
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  Speaker 1: the time came to test his prototype x F eleven
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  Speaker 1: aircraft on July seven of that year. He had already
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  Speaker 1: been flying for over twenty five years. He took off
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  Speaker 1: in the x F eleven from his airfield in Culver City, California,
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  Speaker 1: and flew longer than he probably should have. After an
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  Speaker 1: hour in the air, the propellers started to malfunction, causing
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  Speaker 1: the plane to pull to the right. It was going
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  Speaker 1: down fast, and Hughes needed a safe place to land,
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  Speaker 1: so he headed toward Los Angeles country Club. It's big
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  Speaker 1: open greens would have provided the perfect place for a
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  Speaker 1: crash landing, but the XF eleven wasn't going to make it. Instead,
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  Speaker 1: Hughes found himself flying over Beverly Hills Triangle, skidding across
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  Speaker 1: the tops of three houses on North Whittier Drive. He
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  Speaker 1: managed to survive, but barely. He pulled himself from the
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  Speaker 1: wreckage as the fuel tanks exploded. The accident caused several
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  Speaker 1: broken bones, and Hughes suffered from third degree burns. One
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  Speaker 1: year later, another episode struck the area. Bugsy Siegel, the
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  Speaker 1: infamous gangster and founder of the Murder inc crimes in
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  Speaker 1: the Kids, was visiting his girlfriend, Virginia Hill. Hill lived
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  Speaker 1: in Beverly Hills, just across the street from the Triangle.
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  Speaker 1: On the night of June, someone fired several thirty caliber
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  Speaker 1: rounds from an M one carbine rifle through the window,
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  Speaker 1: killing seagull. It's been alleged that Bugsy had been stealing
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  Speaker 1: from the mob, but no one knows quite for sure
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  Speaker 1: why he was targeted that night. The murder is still
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  Speaker 1: unsolved to this day, and the incidents only added to
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  Speaker 1: the triangles mythos. But perhaps the strangest occurrence attributed to
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  Speaker 1: the Triangle involved one half of the nineteen sixties surf
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  Speaker 1: group Jan and Dean. It was April twelfth of nineteen
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  Speaker 1: sixty six and Jan Barry was driving his Corvette along
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  Speaker 1: Whittier Drive. He had driven past the Triangle on his
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  Speaker 1: way to a business meeting when he came to the
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  Speaker 1: intersection at Whittier and Sunset Boulevard, also known as dead
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  Speaker 1: Man's Curve. Barry was speeding that day and lost control
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  Speaker 1: of the car. He drove it straight into a park truck,
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  Speaker 1: totaling the Corvette and nearly losing his life. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: the paramedics who first arrived at the crash I thought
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  Speaker 1: he was dead. Barry spent the next two months in
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  Speaker 1: a coma, finally waking up on June six of nineteen
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  Speaker 1: sixty six. He lost most of the use of his
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  Speaker 1: right arm and had to learn to walk again due
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  Speaker 1: to the brain damage and partial paralysis caused by the accident.
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  Speaker 1: Berry eventually recovered and returned to the studio a year later.
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  Speaker 1: Jan and Dean were known for several hit songs during
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  Speaker 1: the sixties, including Little Old Lady from Pasadena Surf City
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  Speaker 1: and a tune about a young man who races his
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  Speaker 1: corvette against another driver. In the song, the singer and
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  Speaker 1: the unknown race driver zoom down Sunset Boulevard around a
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  Speaker 1: dangerous stretch of road before the singer loses control of
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  Speaker 1: his vehicle. In the end, the singer tells his story
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  Speaker 1: to a doctor as the listener hears the sounds of
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  Speaker 1: screeching tires and a crash, giving the impression that he
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  Speaker 1: does really make it out alive, but barely. The name
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  Speaker 1: of the song dead Man's Curve. Competition always breeds innovation.
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  Speaker 1: When one company hits the market with a product that's
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  Speaker 1: new and exciting, it's only a matter of time before
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  Speaker 1: someone else steps up with something even better. From smartphones
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  Speaker 1: to computers to the number of blades in our shaving razors,
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  Speaker 1: competition forces companies to up the ante and we the consumer,
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  Speaker 1: reap the rewards. But sometimes competition doesn't just lead to
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  Speaker 1: something mildly better, it spawns something entirely new. Walter Diamer
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  Speaker 1: wasn't much for competition. He was working as an accountant
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  Speaker 1: for Flear, a gum manufacturer based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its founder,
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  Speaker 1: Frank Henry Flear, had come up with a new kind
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  Speaker 1: of gum he called blibber Blubber, but it wasn't too popular.
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  Speaker 1: It didn't hold together very well, and customers found it
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  Speaker 1: too sticky to be enjoyable. When Diamer wasn't crunching the numbers, however,
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  Speaker 1: he fancied himself a kind of gum chef. One day,
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  Speaker 1: while trying out a recipe for a new gum base,
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  Speaker 1: he inadvertently created something far less sticky than blibber Blubber.
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  Speaker 1: He also stretched it further too. He thought he was
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  Speaker 1: onto something, but there was only one problem. It was ugly.
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  Speaker 1: It's dull gray color did not make it look appetizing,
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  Speaker 1: so Diamer looked around for some food coloring to brighten
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  Speaker 1: it up a bit. The only color he could find
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  Speaker 1: in the factory it was red, so he poured it
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  Speaker 1: into the batch, changing the gums hue from gray to pink.
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  Speaker 1: Rather than bringing it to his superiors first, he wanted
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  Speaker 1: to see if it would be something people even wanted.
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  Speaker 1: He packaged five pounds of it on his own and
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  Speaker 1: set up shop at a local candy store. Diamer's new gum,
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  Speaker 1: which he priced at a penny apiece, sold out in
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  Speaker 1: less than a day. With his test. Having been proven successful,
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  Speaker 1: he gave his formula to Flear, which they turned into
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  Speaker 1: a new gum called Double Bubble. They even kept Dimer's
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  Speaker 1: original price of a penny per piece and packaged a
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  Speaker 1: small comic strip called the Fleer Funnies inside the wrapper.
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  Speaker 1: For twenty years, Double Bubble was one of the most
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  Speaker 1: popular candy items in America. Dimer didn't really chew gum himself,
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  Speaker 1: but children often wrote to him to thank him for
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  Speaker 1: his invention. He and his wife also judged their fair
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  Speaker 1: share of bubble blowing contests in their home. Flear ceased
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  Speaker 1: production of their popular chewing gum during World War Two,
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  Speaker 1: as the sugar and latex needed to make it were
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  Speaker 1: in short supply. However, after the war ended and things
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  Speaker 1: started back to normal, another competitor stepped into the ring.
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  Speaker 1: A small rectangle of pink gum wrapped in red, white
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  Speaker 1: and blue wax paper, also sold for a penny a piece.
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  Speaker 1: It went by one explosive word, Bazooka, and people loved it.
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  Speaker 1: For a long time, Bazuka and Double Bubble went head
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  Speaker 1: to head in candy shops and convenience stores all over,
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  Speaker 1: but in nineteen fifty Bazuka's parent company changed the game.
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  Speaker 1: Looking to increase gum sales, they entered into a brand
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  Speaker 1: new market trading cards. Instead of focusing on singlesticks of
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  Speaker 1: gum for a penny each, they enticed kids to buy
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  Speaker 1: cards featuring their favorite actors and later on baseball players.
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  Speaker 1: By including a stick of gum in each pack. The
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  Speaker 1: cards became instant collectible items for kids and adults alike,
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  Speaker 1: but nobody really cared for the gum. Collectors didn't like
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  Speaker 1: how it stained the cards if it had been inside
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  Speaker 1: the pack too long, and the kids didn't like how
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  Speaker 1: it tasted. They were more interested in buying new packs
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  Speaker 1: to find cards missing from their growing collection. By the
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  Speaker 1: company had phased out bubble gum from their sports card
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  Speaker 1: lines entirely, and despite them still owning the Bazooka brand
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  Speaker 1: to this day, they're better known for their extensive lines
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  Speaker 1: of collectible baseball, football, soccer, and licensed movie cards. Walter
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  Speaker 1: Diamer helped Flear reinvent chewing gum with his accidental formula,
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  Speaker 1: allowing it to eventually branch off into lines of baseball
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  Speaker 1: and basketball cards of its own. Sadly, Diamer never saw
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  Speaker 1: any residuals or royalties from his efforts. He never filed
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  Speaker 1: for a patent, but he did shall he become the
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  Speaker 1: company's vice president. After he retired in nineteen seventy, Fleer
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  Speaker 1: struggle to compete with that other major card company and
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  Speaker 1: gun brand. It was bought by Marvel Entertainment Group in
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  Speaker 1: while the company behind Bazooka Joe kept getting bigger and bigger,
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  Speaker 1: dominating the markets almost entirely. And you know it continues
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  Speaker 1: to live up to its name today, the card company Tops.
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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 Manky 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: World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.