Latest / Ridiculous History / CLASSIC: The Statue of Liberty Almost Lived in Egypt

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CLASSIC: The Statue of Liberty Almost Lived in Egypt · Ridiculous History

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  Speaker 1: Fellow Ridiculous Historians, we're returning to you with one of
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  Speaker 1: our favorite classic episodes. We all know the Statue of Liberty.
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  Speaker 1: Have you guys ever gone inside?
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  Speaker 2: Have you visited? When I was younger, I did visit it,
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  Speaker 2: and I distinctly remember getting one of those little model
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  Speaker 2: kits glue the pieces together the statue. That's awesome. What
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  Speaker 2: about you, Max, I have not. I've only been New
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  Speaker 2: York one time and it was a pretty short trip,
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  Speaker 2: so I didn't get a chance to make it over there.
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  Speaker 2: But I will.
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  Speaker 1: Well maybe if we because you're going with us for
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  Speaker 1: some field trips in the near future, so maybe if
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  Speaker 1: we get there a little bit early, we can all
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  Speaker 1: go to the Statue of Liberty together.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely thanks to French.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, thank you the French. The Statue of This is
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  Speaker 1: a particular big thank you, because, as we'll see in
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  Speaker 1: today's classic episode, the Statue of Liberty almost didn't go
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  Speaker 1: to Ellis Island. If history went just a little bit
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  Speaker 1: of a different way, the Statue of Liberty may well
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  Speaker 1: have ended.
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  Speaker 2: Up in Egypt. Let's roll the tape.
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  Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio.
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  Speaker 2: Casey.
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  Speaker 1: Could we get a little inspiring music. Here the new
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  Speaker 1: colossus by Emma Lazarus, not like the brazen giant of
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  Speaker 1: Greek fame, with conquering limbs, astride from land to land.
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  Speaker 1: Here at our seawashed sunset gates shall stand a mighty
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  Speaker 1: woman with a torch, whose flame is the imprisoned lightning,
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  Speaker 1: and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon hand
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  Speaker 1: glows worldwide. Welcome her mild eyes, command the air bridged
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  Speaker 1: harbor that twin cities frame, keep ancient lands. Your story,
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  Speaker 1: pomp Christ, She with silent lips, Give me your tired,
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  Speaker 1: your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the
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  Speaker 1: wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless
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  Speaker 1: tempest tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the
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  Speaker 1: golden door.
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  Speaker 2: Man, that was beautiful? Did you write that? No?
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  Speaker 1: No, I wish Emma Lazarus is not my pen name, Poka.
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  Speaker 1: But that is the That is the poem that adorns
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  Speaker 1: the Statue of Liberty.
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  Speaker 2: I thought it sounded familiar. Man, Noel, Have you visited
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  Speaker 2: the Statue of Liberty? You know? The Actually the last
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  Speaker 2: time that I really saw the Statue of Liberty relatively close,
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  Speaker 2: I was with you. We were in New York and
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  Speaker 2: we were doing a thing for like Liberty Mutual. I
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  Speaker 2: had to Casey super producer, Casey Pegram was there as well.
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  Speaker 2: We had the get to get the shot so that
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  Speaker 2: it matched as close to those legit Liberty Mutual ads that.
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  Speaker 3: You'd see on TV. That was deeply absurd. Well, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: it was the whole deal. That was Yea.
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  Speaker 1: Was that the same Was that the same trip where
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  Speaker 1: we hunted down fake buildings?
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  Speaker 2: Yes, indeed it was the same time. That's right. That
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  Speaker 2: was a whole the whole thing. What an adventure. No,
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  Speaker 2: but I actually did go up you know, you can
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  Speaker 2: go up inside and even go up to the torch.
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  Speaker 2: Don't remember if I made at that far when I
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  Speaker 2: was quite young, and I ended up with a little
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  Speaker 2: model that you put together, you glue together of Lady
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  Speaker 2: Liberty yourself.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I feel you, man. I loved going into
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  Speaker 1: the Statue of Liberty. I'm a I'm a sucker for
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  Speaker 1: touristy kind of stuff. We live in Atlanta and I
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  Speaker 1: still do touristy stuff here.
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  Speaker 2: They go to the World of Coke just on a weekend.
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  Speaker 1: It's been a while, it's been a while I wonder
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  Speaker 1: if it still has that magic, propagandistic appeal.
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  Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure it does. And I'm pretty sure it's
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  Speaker 2: still has the tasting room where you can taste bad
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  Speaker 2: soda drink stuff across the world, the Italian app de justif. Yeah, Beverly,
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  Speaker 2: it's funny that you mentioned that I was just in
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  Speaker 2: Chicago visiting and I was treated to a quite disgusting
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  Speaker 2: liqueur that is very much a Chicago thing. A right
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  Speaker 2: of passage is called malort and it is a bitter, bitter,
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  Speaker 2: grapefruit liqueurse. So I love the idea of, you know,
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  Speaker 2: gross things associating with the place.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I can't wait to go somewhere in
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  Speaker 1: Scandinavian try sirm strong. You know, the reason that we're
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  Speaker 1: mentioning New York is because today's episode concerns the origin
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  Speaker 1: story of the Statue of Liberty. And while we were
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  Speaker 1: looking into this off air, I was thinking about you guys.
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  Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you Noel, and you Casey and
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  Speaker 1: you listeners, do you have an Ellis Island story in
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  Speaker 1: your family's past, like in my family's admittedly murky history.
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  Speaker 1: The best guess I can make is that we were
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  Speaker 1: here before Ellis Island, before the Statue of Liberty became
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  Speaker 1: a thing.
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  Speaker 2: But what about you guys.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's the same with my family. It
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  Speaker 3: all comes back to England, and so I think they
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  Speaker 3: probably made the trip over a little bit before Ellis
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  Speaker 3: Island got going.
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  Speaker 2: I don't really know anything about any kind of immigration
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  Speaker 2: stories about my family, but I know when I did
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  Speaker 2: my ancestry dot com report, I was like ninety percent Scandinavian.
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  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, told me surprising this thing, the Statue
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  Speaker 1: of Liberty. It's one of the most famous monuments in
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  Speaker 1: the United States. People from across the world may not
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  Speaker 1: know very much about this country of ours, but they
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  Speaker 1: will likely recognize the Statue of Liberty. It's on the
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  Speaker 1: level of the Eiffel Tower, you know what I mean,
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  Speaker 1: in terms of its iconicism.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and also in terms of its creation in fact, yes, yes, Alexander,
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  Speaker 2: Oh gosh, we're gonna need some Casey on the case
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  Speaker 2: help with this one. Let me give it a shot, though.
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  Speaker 2: Alexandre Gustave iPhone, Gustav Hefel Yeah he fell okay, Casey
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  Speaker 2: case Yeah. He designed the interior, like the part that
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  Speaker 2: you the things that hold up the outside, the sculpture part,
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  Speaker 2: and the steps and all that stuff that you can
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  Speaker 2: go up into in the Statue of Liberty. The sculptor
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  Speaker 2: who designed the actual exterior, the sculpture part is Frederic
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  Speaker 2: Auguste Bartoldi.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, that's correct. So let's travel back in time to
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  Speaker 1: the completion of the Suez Canal. As it was getting
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  Speaker 1: closer and closer to being finished. In eighteen sixty nine,
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  Speaker 1: this French sculptor Bartoldi tries to convince the Egyptian government
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  Speaker 1: to let him build a sculpture. And he says, he
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  Speaker 1: walks into the room, is you know it's a pitch meeting, right,
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  Speaker 1: those never change? And he says, you, guys, I've got
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  Speaker 1: this idea for a statue. It's going to be huge,
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  Speaker 1: literally and metaphorically. We're going to Egypt bringing light to Asia.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Huge, because it's inspired by another huge statue, huge
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  Speaker 2: even in the name itself, the Colossus of Rhodes, a
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  Speaker 2: colossal statue which was also the inspiration for a quite
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  Speaker 2: famous television sculpture, similarly, the Titan of Bravos in Game
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  Speaker 2: of Thrones. That's true, that's absolutely right. It's this massive
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  Speaker 2: stone creation that stands astride the waterways entering the city
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  Speaker 2: of Rhodes, greeting visitors or scaring them away, depending on
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  Speaker 2: how you look at it. But the French version of
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  Speaker 2: this was meant to be much more of a welcoming experience,
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  Speaker 2: right right.
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  Speaker 1: And when we say the Statue of Liberty as we
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  Speaker 1: know it today was inspired by the Colossus of Rhodes,
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  Speaker 1: we mean that the sculptor was also following some of
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  Speaker 1: the specifications of the colossus. The colossus, one of the
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  Speaker 1: seven Wonders of the ancient world, was the tallest statue
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  Speaker 1: of that time, was about one hundred and eight feet high,
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  Speaker 1: and that's around the height of the modern Statue of
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  Speaker 1: Liberty today, from feet to crown. But you see, what
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  Speaker 1: you may not know about the Statue of Liberty was
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  Speaker 1: that it was never originally meant to be in the US.
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  Speaker 1: He pitched it to Egypt.
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  Speaker 2: First, wait a minute, you say, we just got the
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  Speaker 2: scraps Egypt scraps, sculpt sculpture scraps, we got the tweak,
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  Speaker 2: we got the reboot.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, So he says, I want a ninety foot tall
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  Speaker 1: statue of a woman clothed in Egyptian peasant robes, and
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  Speaker 1: she'll be holding a torch. This torch will also serve
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  Speaker 1: as a lighthouse to help guide ships into the canal.
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  Speaker 2: Ry, I saw a little function in there with the forum.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I'm on board.
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  Speaker 1: Unfortunately, although everybody agrees this is a good idea, negotiations
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  Speaker 1: break down over the price and the leadership involved. They say,
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  Speaker 1: this is this way too expensive, we can't do this,
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  Speaker 1: So instead they just build a lighthouse, the Portsai Lighthouse,
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  Speaker 1: and then any other large prop gets delayed by the
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  Speaker 1: Franco Prussian War because Bartoli, and in addition to being
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  Speaker 1: a sculptor, serves as a major of the militia.
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  Speaker 2: So was this lighthouse bespoke in any way, ben, or
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  Speaker 2: was it just a old run of the mill lighthouse.
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  Speaker 2: It's bespoke.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's one of the most important landmarks in the
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  Speaker 1: city of port said, but is it cool looking? I mean,
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  Speaker 1: beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
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  Speaker 2: That's fair, But it's certainly not a beautiful robed woman
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  Speaker 2: extending a torch to the heavens right with a crown
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  Speaker 2: representing all that is good and pure in the world.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely, they build that in eighteen sixty nine, that lighthouse,
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  Speaker 1: and as the war. The Franco Prussian War continues, Napoleon
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  Speaker 1: three is captured and deposed. Bartoli's home province of Alsace
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  Speaker 1: is lost to the Prussian forces, and a liberal republic,
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  Speaker 1: or a more liberal republic is installed in France. And
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  Speaker 1: for a while Bartoli has been planning a trip to
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  Speaker 1: the United States, and he and his partner decide that
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  Speaker 1: now the time is right, so they go across the pond,
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  Speaker 1: and in June of eighteen seventy one, Bartold he crosses
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  Speaker 1: the Atlantic with some letters of bona fides, some letters
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  Speaker 1: of introduction, and he starts looking for a place to
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  Speaker 1: stick this statue.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and here's the thing. You know, immigration has been
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  Speaker 2: a hot button issue ever since the founding of our country.
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  Speaker 2: It's like, do we do we take whoever wants to
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  Speaker 2: come and breathe free and all that, or do we
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  Speaker 2: draw some lines and be a little more choosy. And
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  Speaker 2: obviously that's something that's very much alive today, maybe even
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  Speaker 2: more so than it has been in quite some time.
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  Speaker 2: But the argument for having some sort of symbol of
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  Speaker 2: you know, receiving immigrants with open arms was certainly one
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  Speaker 2: being made at the time, and so kind of good
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  Speaker 2: timing that this particular statue was proposed.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and he also, for the record, tweaked his pitch
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  Speaker 1: a little bit. He wasn't building exactly the same statue.
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  Speaker 1: He was making these different sketches. He was figuring out
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  Speaker 1: how he would pitch this to the Americans, and he
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  Speaker 1: decided to what would the corporate term be. He decided
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  Speaker 1: to pivot. He decided to pivot from this depiction of
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  Speaker 1: an Egyptian woman that he described as a freed Egyptian slave,
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  Speaker 1: and he changed the concept to libertas a robed woman,
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  Speaker 1: the goddess of free slaves in ancient Rome, a more
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  Speaker 1: universally understood symbol of freedom, at least according to National
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  Speaker 1: Park Service ranger Danielle Simonelli. And this happens right after
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  Speaker 1: the Civil War. It could have torn the country apart,
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  Speaker 1: but it came out of this traumatic event with more
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  Speaker 1: liberty than they had had previously. So at this point
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  Speaker 1: everybody seems on the same page. And he starts wondering
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  Speaker 1: where they would construct this statue. He zeroes in on
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  Speaker 1: a place called Bedloe's Island now spoiler alert named Liberty Island.
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  Speaker 1: And he does this because he is gobsmacked by the
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  Speaker 1: fact that ships arriving in New York all have to
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  Speaker 1: sail past this island, So any ship that's arriving is
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  Speaker 1: going to see this statue. It seems like the best
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  Speaker 1: place to put it. Who knows, maybe he was thinking
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  Speaker 1: Brooklyn instead and changed his mind. There was another fantastic
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  Speaker 1: side benefit to locating the statue on this island. It
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  Speaker 1: was owned by Uncle Sam. It had been seated by
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  Speaker 1: the New York State legislature in eighteen hundred for harbor defense.
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  Speaker 1: This makes it land, in his opinion, common to all
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  Speaker 1: the states. So he begins meeting a lot of New
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  Speaker 1: York VIPs, you know, and he even meets the President
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  Speaker 1: Ulysses s Grant, and Ulysses s Grant says, hey, man,
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  Speaker 1: good idea. It's not going to be tough for us
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  Speaker 1: to get that site for the statue. And he begins
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  Speaker 1: a tour pitching this idea and getting popular support from
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  Speaker 1: people of note and people with the financial wherewithal to
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  Speaker 1: donate to the cause. He actually crosses the US twice
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  Speaker 1: on rail, and the entire time he's on this tour,
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  Speaker 1: essentially this promo circuit, he is searching for people that
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  Speaker 1: he thinks will be down with the project. Now at
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  Speaker 1: this point in the story, some of us listening are saying, hey, guys, hey, hey,
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  Speaker 1: hang on, the Statue of Liberty. Wasn't that a gift.
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  Speaker 1: Didn't France just give it to the United States? What's
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  Speaker 1: all this about fundraising? Well, it was very It's interesting
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  Speaker 1: because the statue itself did become a gift from France
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  Speaker 1: to celebrate the Franco American Union, and that was in
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  Speaker 1: large part due to the efforts of la Bolier, right.
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  Speaker 2: Edward de Labolier. He was a French political thinker and
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  Speaker 2: a fan and an expert of the US Constitution and
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  Speaker 2: also himself an abolitionist, and he ultimately proposed that the
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  Speaker 2: monument be gifted to the United States from France to
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  Speaker 2: commemorate the preservation of freedom and democracy and to memorialize
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  Speaker 2: the work of Abraham Lincoln and his freeing of the slaves,
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  Speaker 2: which goes in line with some of the original intent
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  Speaker 2: of the statue in having been an Arab slave woman, right,
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  Speaker 2: which is amazing. But they still had to raise money
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  Speaker 2: because the statue itself is the gift, right, But the
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  Speaker 2: statue doesn't come with the pedestal. They have to build
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  Speaker 2: something to base the statue upon. It's sort of like
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  Speaker 2: have you guys seen those talk shows? This used to
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  Speaker 2: happen a lot in the nineteen nineties talk shows where
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  Speaker 2: everybody in the audience wins a big prize or someone wins.
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  Speaker 2: Oprah is probably the most famous example. On one episode
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  Speaker 2: of the Oprah Show, if I recall correctly, she gives
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  Speaker 2: everyone in the audience a car, of course, but the
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  Speaker 2: problem is when you get the car, you also have
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  Speaker 2: to pay taxes on the car. My favorite one was
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  Speaker 2: she gives everyone in the audience killer bees. I was
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  Speaker 2: thinking of that same gift. Yeah, good one. And here's
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  Speaker 2: the thing. La Boulay was who was a huge fan
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  Speaker 2: of the Constitution and the United States and the efforts
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  Speaker 2: of Abraham Lincoln in freeing the slaves, because you know,
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  Speaker 2: the friends are all about revolution, as we know, and
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  Speaker 2: libertae is the notion of individual freedom and you know,
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  Speaker 2: self determination. So this guy, who was a political thinker,
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  Speaker 2: was already known to Bertoldi or vice versa. Rather, he
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  Speaker 2: knew Bertoldi because he had commissioned him to do a
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  Speaker 2: sculpture or like a bust of him, or had he
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  Speaker 2: had been commissioned. So they kind of joined forces and
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  Speaker 2: were able to get the ball rolling on this statue
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  Speaker 2: as a joint venture between French and the United States.
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  Speaker 2: Like you said, Ben, they already had the site picked out.
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  Speaker 2: They had to raise some money to build that platform, right,
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  Speaker 2: and then they were off to the races.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, yes, let's talk a little bit about the construction
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  Speaker 1: and the erection of the statue. So Bartoli goes back
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  Speaker 1: to France in eighteen seventy seven and he's concentrating on
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  Speaker 1: completing the head of the statue. He makesu progress to
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  Speaker 1: exhibit it at the eighteen seventy eight Paris World's Fair.
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  Speaker 1: Models of the statue were put on sale to help
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  Speaker 1: with fundraising in France, and they even sold tickets to
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  Speaker 1: view the construction activity at the workshop where this was
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  Speaker 1: being built. The French government even greenlit a lottery. Some
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  Speaker 1: of the prizes were things like a silver plate or
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  Speaker 1: a terra cotta model of the statue, and by the
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  Speaker 1: end of eighteen seventy nine they have raised about two
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  Speaker 1: hundred and fifty thousand frocs. So, Noel, you had mentioned
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  Speaker 1: earlier that the same guy who built the Eiffel Tower
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  Speaker 1: helped create Gustave I Fel right, helped create this statue.
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  Speaker 1: He decided to do some pretty innovative things. He opted
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  Speaker 1: not to use a completely rigid structure because it would
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  Speaker 1: force stresses to accumulate in the skin of the statue
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  Speaker 1: and eventually lead to it cracking. He created one of
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  Speaker 1: the earliest examples of what's called curtain wall construction. That's
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  Speaker 1: where the exterior of a structure is not load bearing
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  Speaker 1: and instead it's supported by this internal framework a skeletonist.
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  Speaker 2: Which is also why it matters you need an architect
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  Speaker 2: and a sculptor. This thing is literally a habitable structure.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, you wouldn't live there, but you can certainly
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  Speaker 2: has to sup it's massive, and it has to have
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  Speaker 2: the same care taken that you would in building a
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  Speaker 2: skyscraper for example. Right.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, And they also changed their minds about the structural
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  Speaker 1: material They were originally just going to rely on masonry,
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  Speaker 1: but when they changed the construction materials to iron, this
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  Speaker 1: allowed the sculptor to change his plans for the assembly
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  Speaker 1: of the statue. Originally, he thought they would assemble the
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  Speaker 1: skin on site on the island, but once the materials changed,
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  Speaker 1: he decided to build the statue in France and then
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  Speaker 1: have it disassembled and transported to the US to be
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  Speaker 1: reassembled on the island. So we're building a thing, we're
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  Speaker 1: taking it apart, we're literally putting it in crates on ships,
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  Speaker 1: and then we're sailing back across the Atlantic. We're unpacking
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  Speaker 1: everything and we're going to start putting it back together.
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  Speaker 2: Yis. Yeah, this is complicated. This feels like way beyond
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  Speaker 2: IKEA for sure. And also, I mean there's got to
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  Speaker 2: be something of a language barrier. There'd have to be
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  Speaker 2: some interpreters involved. This really is a joint effort. I'm
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  Speaker 2: wondering who who were the builders, like, the actual folks
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  Speaker 2: doing the work. It had to have been local people
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  Speaker 2: from New York, right, They weren't bringing people over from
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  Speaker 2: France to actually do the work.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, excellent, excellent questions. So in France they're using artisans
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  Speaker 1: and craftsmen under Bartoldi's direction, and they're building a piecemeal
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  Speaker 1: you know, the head, the shoulders, the arm holding the torch.
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  Speaker 1: They don't just start at the feet and work their
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  Speaker 1: way up to your questionable about the people who were
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  Speaker 1: in New York helping construct and reassemble this statue. We
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: find a little bit of what would you call it
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: synchronicity big time.
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they were already newly arrived immigrants, because again New
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: York was known for that. It was this port city,
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: and it was this kind of gateway to the United
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: States for people that were trying to come and start
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: new lives. And they already had this opportunity to get
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: some gainful employment by building this massive thing that was
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: a symbol of what they represented in the first place,
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: which I think is really interesting.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: And there's another employee that maybe doesn't get mentioned as
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: often as they should in the story of the Statue
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: of Liberty's construction. It's the model for the statue.
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: That's right. It was a real person.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: It's a real person. Not only is it a real person,
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: but it is one of the best Mother's Day gifts ever.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: Frederick Bartoldi uses his mother Charlotte, as the model for
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: the statue.
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: What a good son, what a sweet boy. Yeah, I
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: mean that is an enduring image. You know that is
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: going to be around for a long long time. Man,
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: his mother must have really loved him, or who knows,
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: maybe they had a really horrible cantanker's relationship and he
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: was just trying to make a nice oh wow. Well,
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: either way she is now.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: She is now the inspiration for the most recognized statue
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: in the world. Immortalized. Yeah, immortalized, perfect word. And this
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: was first discovered in eighteen seventy six. Bartoldi invited a
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: French senator named Jules Bozarian to watch the opera with him.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: He had a box at the opera house and when
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: the senator pulls back the curtain to step into the box,
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: he's freaking out because it looks like the statue of
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: Liberty is a real life person sitting in that box.
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: It's Charlotte. Oh yeah, that is wild Ben. But here's
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: the thing. This is interesting. I didn't know this at
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: all until we started looking into this. Bertoldi held onto
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: the rights to the image of the Statue of Liberty
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: for quite some time, and then eventually that copyright that
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: he held ran out, like they did to do and
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: they're open the doors to duplicate statues of Liberty. Here
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: we go.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so yes, yes, this is a very important point.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: He obtained a patent on the Statue of Liberty and
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: it didn't run out for what fourteen years. The patent itself,
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: the description verges on the poetic when we're describing the statue,
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: it's quote, a statue representing liberty and lightening the world,
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: the same consisting essentially of the draped female figure with
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: one arm upraised burying a torch while the other holds
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: an inscribed tablet, and having upon the head a diadem,
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: which I love the phrase, the word diadem. We don't
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: use that very often. Now, what is It's almost like
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: a tiara, right, it's like a crown.
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: Huh yeah, so that's right, it did. It did run out,
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: and now we have copycat statues of liberty all around
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: the world. We have them in Tokyo, Norway, Brazil, Vegas,
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: baby yah yeah yeah, and of course replicas of them
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: that you can get and little models that you can
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: glue together. I have a cutout cardboard one that's sort
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: of like a you can assemble and they'll punch the
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: holes and connect the pieces together. So it's you know,
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: it's it's everywhere.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: Do you have a secret treasure trove of statue of
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: liberty memorabilia?
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: No, I just have the two. That'd be cool, though,
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: I know.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: Maybe that could be maybe that could be a new hobby.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: Oh you know what we should mention, the Statue of
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: Liberty is not the official name. That's just a nickname.
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: The real name was, at least Bartoldi's name for it
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: was Liberty Enlightening the World. But according to the Statue
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: of Liberty Encyclopedia, this statue has a ton of nicknames.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: We can go through a couple. One is Everybody's gal
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: which I had not heard. Everybody's Goal, Well, America's Freedom,
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: America's Great Lady Aunt, Liberty, Lady Liberty, Lady Liberty. Yeah,
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: grand dam green goddess, not to be confused with the
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: dressing giant goddess, the lady higher up, Lady on a pedestal,
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: lady with a torch, Mother of axiles, which is again
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: very Game of Thrones. And the list of names goes
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: on Saint Liberty, Giant Goddess, which I think is a
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: little bit heavy handed, but you know, it is an
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: an enormous statue, so I guess they've earned that. So
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: let's fast forward to the afternoon of October twenty eighth,
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: eighteen eighty six. President Grover Cleveland, who was also the
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: former Governor of New York, presided over the dedication ceremony.
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: The good old fashioned New York ticke a tape parade. Yes, yes,
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: the very same. It's a huge parade.
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: Estimates tell us that anywhere from several hundred thousand people
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: to a million people showed up to be a part
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: of history on that day. And President Cleveland headed the
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: procession and then he stood in you know, the reviewing
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: stand to watch bands and marchers from all across the country.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: The route begins at Madison Square, where they once housed
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: just the arm and then it proceeds to the Battery
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: at the southern tip of Manhattan via Fifth Avenue and Broadway,
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: with a slight detour so the parade can pass in
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: front of the World Building on Park Row. And as
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: people as as the parade was passing, particularly the New
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: York Stock Exchange traders, leaned out of the windows and
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: started throwing ticker tape, beginning the tradition of the ticker
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: tape parade.
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: Seriously, this is the first one. What that's fantastic. Yeah,
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: it's true. And around seven years this is this is
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: around seven years after he had originally patented his invention.
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: He has an invention. I love that idea. It's not
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: a work of art, it's like an it's considered an
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: invention because I guess it's functional because it has the
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: lighthouse qualities to it. That is when BARTOLDI stood aloft
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: himself up on the statue's face and release this giant
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: French flag into the cheering crowd of like a million
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: New Yorkers who are looking on.
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: And here's one of the weird parts about this. So
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: there are a bunch of speeches, right, the first speech
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: is on behalf of the French Committee. The second speech
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: is going to is supposed to be by the chairman
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: of the New York Committee, a guy named Senator William M.
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: Everts.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: And at this point he's supposed to do the speech right,
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: and then at the end of the speech, they're supposed
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: to let the flag drop. But Bartoldi, we can only
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: imagine how nervous he is. This has been years in
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: the making, right, BARTOLDI has bad timing because Everts has
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: a pause in his speech, and Bartholdi's like, oh, it's
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: go time, and so he lets the flag drop in
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: the middle of this guy's speech, and the crowd goes wild,
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: and the senator, we can only imagine, has it's like,
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: you know, throw up his hands and exit the scene
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: because you can't keep talking when people are seeing this
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: statue unveiled for the first time. So eventually President Cleveland
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: comes up and he says, quote the statue, stream of
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: light shall pierce the darkness of ignorance a man's oppression
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: until liberty enlightens the world. They ask Bartoldi to speak like, hey, speech, speech, speech,
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: and he.
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: Says, no, my work speaks for itself. There we go.
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: That's a move. By the way, Yes, how come people
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: don't name their kids Grover anymore?
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: There's someone out there there may be a Grover listening
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: with us today.
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: Oh well, hey, let us know. Is your name Grover
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: right in? Do you know a Grover? Do you know
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: a Grover? Have you hugged a Grover today?
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: And let us know if you have Ellis Island in
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: your family's past and what their experience was like. There
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: are so many different things that we could explore in
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: the story of the Statue of Liberty, but for our
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: purpose is the day. I think the thing that surprised
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: both of us was that this came pretty close to
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: not being an American thing at all.
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: That's true. That was the hook of today's episode. Which
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: we we sorta of got rid of in the front. Yeah,
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: that's how we do. We gotta have a ridiculous hook
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: and then this is an excuse talk about some cool history.
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: There we go, There we go. A reason, maybe exactly,
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: always always a reason. But I enjoyed this very much.
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: Do you want to Should we do a little listener mail?
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: We have none in a minute.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's been a while, let's give it a go.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: Cool as the return of listener mail. Our first email
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: today comes from kimberly M. Kimberly M says, Hi, guys,
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: I'm a big fan and came across a topic recently
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: that I'm dying to hear you discuss. Get this no
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: trial by ordeal. You've heard of this, right, Yeah, It's
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: like feats of strength during Festivus.
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: So uh so.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: Kimberly says. This is the practice of proving one's innocence
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: of an accused crime by participating in a danger or
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: painful task and either avoiding injury altogether via the intercession
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: of a deity, or to heal well from the injuries incurred.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: These trials occurred across the world, ranging from burning to
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: boiling to drowning to poisoning. The list goes on. It
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: really boggles the mind that one would have to submit
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: to torture to keep one's good name. I'd love to
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: hear your thoughts on this. Here's hoping, kimberly M. That's
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: a cool idea.
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: I think it's possible that we should just do one
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: as an episode, just do a trial by the word. Yeah, yeah,
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: we just expose ourselves to some sort of horrific task
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: individually and see who comes out.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: On top, like put our fist in boiling oil, or
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: volunteer Casey to do that.
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: On our behalf. Yeah, he could be our champion, Casey,
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: are you cool with that?
• 29:44
  Speaker 3: Absolutely not?
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: No, Okay, that sounded like a yes. Whatever.
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: We have to rewind the tape on that.
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: Well, whatever it was, it was definitely Casey on the case.
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: He's a problem solver.
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: Mm hm, he's a solution Oary And thanks so much
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: for writing in with that fantas plastic idea, Kimberlee. I
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: think we put it on the cue. We'll see about
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: actually doing a trial.
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: That's fair. I have one here from sawyer G. She says, hey, guys,
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: I love your show, and I was listening to one
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: from a little bit ago about the casual cannibalism during
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: the sixteenth and seventeenth century. During the episode, I was
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: hashtag shook when you started to describe the way old
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: Arabian men would allow themselves to be mummified alive basically
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: by honey, and then after a century that mixture was
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: used as a cure all type of medicine. The reason
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: I was hashtag shook wasn't because of the nature of
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: that validly weird ritual, but because of a song on
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: one of my favorite albums. The song is called Sweet
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: Bod by Lemon Demon, and the song is about taking
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: a corpse, leaving it in a tomb of honey, and
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: then one hundred years later using it as a product
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: to sell to housewives with headaches. I always loved the
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: song because it was such a strange and unique concept.
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: I often thought to myself, Huh, how did he make
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: this up? Then, as I was sitting down listening to
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: your episode and the same process came up, my jaw
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: hit the floor. It's more of a qui instance for me,
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: but I thought you guys might want to check out
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: the song because it's incredible and up your collective alley.
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: The whole album is a concept album where ancient aliens
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: and any conspiracy of the like ends up being true.
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: And then she gives a Spotify ln and it turns
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: out the guy responsible for the Lemon Demon is Neil Syria, Syria.
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: Guy you see Rega is what I say in my head?
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: Okay, got it. Case He has an amazing series of
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: albums that Casey turned us onto called Mouth Sounds. It's
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: sort of like a ridiculous, hilarious kind of girl talk
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: mashup thing. A lot of it uses all Star by
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: Shrek and mashes up different kind of like nineties songs
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: like Ants Marching by Dave Matthews Band with like you know,
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: all kinds of different stuff. It's hilarious and a lot
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: of fun to listen to. Lemon Demon is much more
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: of like a weird eighties tinged like lounge kind of
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: record with a little bit of horror theme, and it's
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: very true. He does have a song about this concept
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: that you found Ben, that we talked about, and the
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: casual cannibalism, the meleified man. That's the one.
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: Yes, yes, no proven case of one has been found yet,
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: but is there somewhere in the world in a dusty
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: sepulcher a person who has been mellified. I don't know
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: if it would be a world changing event to find one,
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: but it would be so very very cool. And you
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: have to ask yourself, without getting too far into the
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: ethics involved, you have to ask yourself, would you take
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: a nip of you know, corpse honey? Yeah, sort of
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: like tapping the admiral right, exactly exactly? If so, let
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: us know, or if you've actually run into this in
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: real life, if you've seen a meleified man, I will
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: get on the plane tomorrow. I really want to see
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: one in real life.
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: You can write to us at Ridiculous at HowStuffWorks dot com,
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: or you can check out our Facebook group Ridiculous Historians,
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: where all kinds of memory is afoot pretty much around
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: the clock.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: Yes, and you can also see our personal adventures and
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: miss adventures on our own Instagram accounts.
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: I'm at ben Bolin, i am at Embryonic Insider as
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: always massive thanks to our super producer Casey Pegrim, our
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: research associate Gabe and Alex Williams who composed our theme.
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: And Hey Noel, thanks to you for coming by today.
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: Because a lot of people I don't want to put
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: you on the spot. A lot of people don't know it,
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: but this guy woke up at four point thirty in
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: the morning and flew in from a different state to
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: do this show.
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: Boy in my arms tired, but it's great exercise. It's
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: really good for your core. It's true, and there's nowhere
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: I'd rather be than right here with all of you folks,
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: who we will see next time. Talk to you soon.
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.