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The Comeback Kid · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Benky's Cabinet of Curiosity is a production
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  Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world
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  Speaker 1: is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an
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  Speaker 1: open book, all of these amazing tales are right there
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  Speaker 1: on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to
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  Speaker 1: the Cabinet of Curiosities. The toys from our childhood stay
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  Speaker 1: with us long after we stopped playing with them. As adults,
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  Speaker 1: we may lose track of a beloved stuffed animal or
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  Speaker 1: a fun action figure, but we keep the memories. We
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  Speaker 1: remember how safe they made us feel in a darkened bedroom,
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  Speaker 1: or how much fun we had zooming them around the
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  Speaker 1: house as if they were flying. And yet, no matter what,
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  Speaker 1: we all grow up and leave childish things behind. But
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  Speaker 1: thanks to one man's impulsive decision, we learned we don't
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  Speaker 1: have to let the past slip away. Not only can
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  Speaker 1: we hold onto it, but we can share it with
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  Speaker 1: the people we love and keep that joy alive for
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  Speaker 1: generations to come. Harry Colburn was born in Birmingham, England,
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  Speaker 1: in seven When he was eighteen years old, he moved
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  Speaker 1: to Ontario, Canada, where he studied to become a veterinarian surgeon.
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  Speaker 1: Upon receiving his degree, he settled in Winnipeg, in Manitoba,
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  Speaker 1: but duty would eventually call. Harry joined the military when
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  Speaker 1: World War One became too great to ignore, and he
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  Speaker 1: hopped a train to Quebec for basic training. It was
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  Speaker 1: on his way to the camp when he encountered an
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  Speaker 1: odd site. A hunter had killed a black bear and
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  Speaker 1: taken its cub to sell at a local trading post.
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  Speaker 1: Harry gave the man twenty dollars, and in exchange, he
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  Speaker 1: took possession of the bear cub, which he named Winnipeg,
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  Speaker 1: after the town where he'd been living. His plan was
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  Speaker 1: to raise Winnipeg for a little while before releasing her
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  Speaker 1: back into the forest. Unfortunately, Harry's plans changed very quickly.
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  Speaker 1: Winnipeg became a hit among the other troops. They played
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  Speaker 1: with her and let her stay in the bunks, where
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  Speaker 1: she slept under Harry's cott. As she grew, however, Winnipeg
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  Speaker 1: got too big to live indoors and was relegated to outside,
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  Speaker 1: like a kind of watch bear for the soldiers. The
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  Speaker 1: more time they spent together, the harder it became for
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  Speaker 1: Harry to let go. He in Winnipeg had grown close,
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  Speaker 1: so close that when he was ordered to go back
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  Speaker 1: to England to fight on the Western Front, he refused
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  Speaker 1: to release the bear back into the wild. He instead
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  Speaker 1: snuck her into the ship with the other troops. Together,
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  Speaker 1: they traveled to the second Canadian Infantry Brigade camp near
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  Speaker 1: Stonehenge in England. Harry let her roam free for a
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  Speaker 1: while while they were there. She enjoyed playing among the
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  Speaker 1: large stones, but he soon understood that he would have
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  Speaker 1: to give her up. There was just no way for
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  Speaker 1: Winnipeg to go all the way with him to the
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  Speaker 1: front lines, so he reached out to the London Zoo,
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  Speaker 1: who agreed to watch her while he was away. Whenever
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  Speaker 1: Harry found himself on leave, though, he made sure to
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  Speaker 1: stop by the zoo and say hello to the bear
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  Speaker 1: that had kept him company during training. At the end
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  Speaker 1: of the war, Harry Colburn returned to the zoo, only
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  Speaker 1: to see that a lot had changed while he was gone.
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  Speaker 1: For one, Winnipeg was a star attraction by then. She
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  Speaker 1: brought joy to so many guests, especially the children, and
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  Speaker 1: so instead of taking her back to Canada, he chose
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  Speaker 1: instead to leave her there at the zoo. In nineteen
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  Speaker 1: Winnipeg the bear became a permanent fixture at the London Zoo.
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  Speaker 1: A few years later, a young boy named Christopher with
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  Speaker 1: his father Alan, visited Winnipeg the bear. Allen had started
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  Speaker 1: out as a writer before enlisting to fight in World
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  Speaker 1: War One. When Christopher turned one years old, his father
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  Speaker 1: gifted him with a teddy bear that became like a
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  Speaker 1: best friend to the child, not unlike the relationship between
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  Speaker 1: Winnipeg and Harry. Ellen went on to write some detective
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  Speaker 1: stories and mystery novels over the years, but at the
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  Speaker 1: urging of his son, he eventually turned to writing children's books.
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  Speaker 1: Christopher insisted that his father write about the stuffed toys
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  Speaker 1: that he played with daily. There was a donkey, a
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  Speaker 1: mother kangaroo and her baby, a bouncing orange tiger, and
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  Speaker 1: a small pink piglet Alan squeeze them all in, along
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  Speaker 1: with the character of a young boy he named after
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  Speaker 1: his son, Christopher Robin Milne. Of course, the author couldn't
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  Speaker 1: forget about the most important character of all, the teddy bear,
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  Speaker 1: Christopher had named after the Canadian black bear at the
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  Speaker 1: London Zoo, Winnie Allen. Alexander Milne didn't know it at
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  Speaker 1: the time, but his stories about Winnie the Pooh, Tiger Piglets,
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  Speaker 1: and the other residents of the Hundred Acre Woods would
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  Speaker 1: become some of the most beloved characters in all of
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  Speaker 1: children's literature, and it was all thanks to one cunning
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  Speaker 1: soldier and his pet bear. The Olympic Games are demonstrations
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  Speaker 1: of athletic greatness. Medals are awarded to individuals who test
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  Speaker 1: their dal against some of the best athletes in the world.
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  Speaker 1: What we tend to forget, though, is that the Olympics
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  Speaker 1: are also about overcoming adversity. Track and field star Wilma
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  Speaker 1: Rudolph won three gold medals at the nineteen sixty Olympics
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  Speaker 1: in Rome, but she had to fight hard to get there.
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  Speaker 1: But she was five years old. Rudolph was diagnosed with
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  Speaker 1: polio and was forced to wear a leg brace for
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  Speaker 1: several years. Seventy year old Hiroshi Hokuetsu from Japan competed
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  Speaker 1: in individual dressage at the two thousand twelve Olympics. He
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  Speaker 1: was up against much younger competitors, but Roshi might not
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  Speaker 1: have won a medal, but he showed that age is
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  Speaker 1: just a number when it comes to being good. It's
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  Speaker 1: something you love, but Elizabeth Robinson might have them all beat. Elizabeth,
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  Speaker 1: or Betty as she was known, was born in Riverdale, Illinois,
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  Speaker 1: back in nineteen eleven, and from a young age, Betty
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  Speaker 1: had no problem proving herself as a runner. She attended
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  Speaker 1: Thornton Township High School, which was a short train ride
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  Speaker 1: away from her home. One morning, the sixteen year old
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  Speaker 1: junior left her home to catch the train, only to
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  Speaker 1: realize that she was running eight. She had to act
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  Speaker 1: quickly or risk missing it and being late for school.
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  Speaker 1: Betty bolted towards the station. Meanwhile, one of her teachers,
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  Speaker 1: a man named Charles Price, was also waiting for the train.
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  Speaker 1: He caught sight of Betty running toward him as it
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  Speaker 1: pulled into the stop. Price turned away and boarded. The
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  Speaker 1: doors closed, and assuming that she hadn't been fast enough
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  Speaker 1: to catch it, he found a seat and settled in.
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  Speaker 1: A Few seconds later, Price watched as Betty took the
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  Speaker 1: seat right next to him. The teacher also happened to
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  Speaker 1: be the coach for the boys track team at the school,
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  Speaker 1: and he suggested that Betty runs some sprints in the
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  Speaker 1: halls while he timed her. The school didn't have a
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  Speaker 1: girl's track team, and honestly, Betty didn't even know such
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  Speaker 1: a thing existed. But that didn't stop Price from training her,
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  Speaker 1: and it didn't stop Betty from pushing herself harder and harder.
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  Speaker 1: Her parents, used to seeing her with a guitar in
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  Speaker 1: her hand or on stage at a school play, began
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  Speaker 1: watching her race instead. They cheered her on as she
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  Speaker 1: competed in regional races before moving on to Olympic trials
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  Speaker 1: in Chicago and New Jersey. After four months of training
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  Speaker 1: and only a few meets under her belt, Betty earned
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  Speaker 1: a spot at the nineteen U S Olympic team. She
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  Speaker 1: traveled to Amsterdam, where she competed in the first ever
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  Speaker 1: women's hundred meter race. Betty narrowly beat out the Canadian
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  Speaker 1: challenger and took home the gold that only sixteen years old,
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  Speaker 1: she achieved two things that day. Betty had become the
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  Speaker 1: first woman to win a gold medal for the hundred
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  Speaker 1: meter race, and she set a world record by doing
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  Speaker 1: it in twelve point two seconds. After graduating from high school,
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  Speaker 1: Betty attended Northwestern and she started preparing for the next
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  Speaker 1: Olympic Games. However, in ninety one, her life took a
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  Speaker 1: literal nose dive. Her cousin, a skilled pilot, had invited
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  Speaker 1: Betty to join him for a ride in his plane.
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  Speaker 1: As they were cruising above Chicago, the engine stalled and
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  Speaker 1: the plane plummeted back toward earth. The cousin's legs were
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  Speaker 1: broken in multiple places, but he survived. Betty fared much worse.
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  Speaker 1: Her body was discovered by a passer by who assumed
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  Speaker 1: that she was too far gone to be saved. One
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  Speaker 1: of her legs and her left arm were twisted, having
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  Speaker 1: been broken in several places. She also had a massive
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  Speaker 1: wound over her right eye, and she wasn't moving. A
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  Speaker 1: good samaritan picked her up and placed her in the
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  Speaker 1: trunk of his car before taking her to the local
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  Speaker 1: undertaker that he knew. But when this undertaker got her
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  Speaker 1: on the table, he noticed something strange. She was breathing.
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  Speaker 1: Doctors worked tirelessly to save her, putting a rod and
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  Speaker 1: pin into her leg before encasing it in a cast
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  Speaker 1: running from the top of her foot all the way
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  Speaker 1: to her hip. Nobody thought that she would ever walk again,
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  Speaker 1: and running seemed to be out of the question. Six
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  Speaker 1: months after the accident, Betty was finally able to lift
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  Speaker 1: herself out of her wheelchair. With her brother in law's help,
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  Speaker 1: she went from a few steps here and there to
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  Speaker 1: walking around her neighborhood. Walking led to running, and before
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  Speaker 1: she knew it, Betty was training again. Five years passed,
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  Speaker 1: but by six Betty was finally ready to compete again. Unfortunate,
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  Speaker 1: her injuries had left her unable to bend her knee
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  Speaker 1: and assume the starting crouch for the hundred meter race. Instead,
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  Speaker 1: she entered the four by one relay with three other women.
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  Speaker 1: They were up against the Germans, who had been favored
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  Speaker 1: to win. The race got off to a rocky start,
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  Speaker 1: with the Germans coming out strong. Betty was slotted as
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  Speaker 1: the third runner of the race. As she ran toward
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  Speaker 1: her teammate to pass her the baton, the German competitor
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  Speaker 1: dropped their's, giving Betty's teammate and opening to steal the lead,
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  Speaker 1: which she did. It took five years, a broken leg,
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  Speaker 1: and a lot of rehabilitation, but Betty Robinson had earned
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  Speaker 1: her second gold medal. She had it merely overcome adversity,
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  Speaker 1: though she had cheated the very powers of death and one.
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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. Yeah,