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Still Life · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
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  Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
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  Speaker 1: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
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  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. TV painter and pop
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  Speaker 1: culture icon Bob Ross used to say, we don't make mistakes,
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  Speaker 1: just happy little accidents. Artists do it all the time.
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  Speaker 1: They start making one thing, and the next thing they
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  Speaker 1: know it's become something else entirely. But not every work
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  Speaker 1: of art is a happy accident. Sometimes the artist's original
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  Speaker 1: idea can take a sinister, not so happy turn. One
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  Speaker 1: such artist was Bill Stoneham, a painter from Boston who
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  Speaker 1: in nineteen two had taken on a contract to create
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  Speaker 1: two paintings per month for two dollars a piece. After
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  Speaker 1: he had completed some paintings for sale and display, he
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  Speaker 1: came up with a new one. He called The Hands
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  Speaker 1: Resist Him. It was an autobiographical painting of sorts. In it,
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  Speaker 1: a young boy in a blue shirt stands before a
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  Speaker 1: window where the disembodied hands of other children reached toward
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  Speaker 1: him out of the darkness. Beside the boy is a
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  Speaker 1: frowning girl doll with empty black eyes. According to Stoneham.
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  Speaker 1: The boy in the photo is him, based on a
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  Speaker 1: photograph of himself when he was about five years old.
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  Speaker 1: The glass separating him from the children's hands is meant
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  Speaker 1: to be a barrier between two worlds and his guide,
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  Speaker 1: the doll. The painting is deeply moving, and many people
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  Speaker 1: who have seen it in person have come away feeling uneasy,
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  Speaker 1: even haunted. That's to say nothing of the people who
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  Speaker 1: actually interacted directly with it. In The Hands Resist Him
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  Speaker 1: went on display at the Fine Garden Gallery in Beverly Hills, California.
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  Speaker 1: Henry Seldi's and art critic for The l A Times
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  Speaker 1: reviewed the piece shortly after it went up. Not long
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  Speaker 1: after that, character actor John Marley purchased the painting for
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  Speaker 1: his home collection. Marley had performed in TV shows and
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  Speaker 1: feature films like Hawaii Five Oh and Love Story, but
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  Speaker 1: he was best known for waking up next to the
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  Speaker 1: severed horse's head in The Godfather. Poor Marley had no
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  Speaker 1: idea just how deep he'd gotten himself in this time. Usually,
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  Speaker 1: the items behind strange occurrences are cursed in some way.
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  Speaker 1: They tend to depict figures who were particularly cruel or
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  Speaker 1: died in a horrible fashion, they might be made of
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  Speaker 1: a substance not meant to be used in creative endeavors,
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  Speaker 1: such as blood or bone. If you search online, you'll
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  Speaker 1: even find stories about books bound in human skin. This
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  Speaker 1: painting didn't have any of that. The artist is still alive.
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  Speaker 1: None of his other paintings were known to have caused
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  Speaker 1: pain or even death, but for some reason, the hand
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  Speaker 1: resist him had become a cursed object. A few years
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  Speaker 1: after Marley purchased the painting, Henry Seldis died of an
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  Speaker 1: apparent suicide in his apartment. Not long after that, Fine Garten,
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  Speaker 1: the owner of the art gallery where the painting had hung,
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  Speaker 1: died as well, and Marley he passed away a few
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  Speaker 1: years later from complications due to open heart surgery. The
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  Speaker 1: painting was eventually lost, It's whereabouts unknown for almost thirty years. Then,
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  Speaker 1: in the year two thousand, it was listed for sale
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  Speaker 1: in the most unlikely place, eBay. The family who had
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  Speaker 1: found it behind a California brewery decided to make a
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  Speaker 1: few dollars off their luck on an up and coming
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  Speaker 1: auction website. Their luck, however, hadn't been as fortunate as
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  Speaker 1: they'd thought. According to the original listing, the family's four
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  Speaker 1: year old daughter had complained of fighting during the night.
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  Speaker 1: Now between anyone in the house they were all asleep,
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  Speaker 1: she meant between the boy and the doll and the painting.
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  Speaker 1: She also said they were coming into her room at
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  Speaker 1: night while she was sleeping. The girl's story was so
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  Speaker 1: convincing that her father set up a motion sensor in
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  Speaker 1: her room to prove to her that it was just
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  Speaker 1: her imagination playing tricks on her. Instead, the centers caught
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  Speaker 1: the unexplainable the doll and the painting had shoved the
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  Speaker 1: boy out and onto the floor. Thankfully, their eBay experiment worked.
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  Speaker 1: Someone purchased the painting for a fraction of what many
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  Speaker 1: collectors would have paid to have it in their own collections.
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  Speaker 1: After that, the painting even found its way into a
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  Speaker 1: novel published in two thousand sixteen. While the story itself
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  Speaker 1: is fiction, it's author, Darren O'Neill, did have his own
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  Speaker 1: run in with the painting. He first came across it
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  Speaker 1: online while living in Dubai, where he printed out a
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  Speaker 1: copy of it along with some other unrelated documents, before
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  Speaker 1: leaving for a month long trip to Italy. While he
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  Speaker 1: was away, the air condition in his home malfunctioned, and
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  Speaker 1: the heat, combined with the moisture, allowed green mold to
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  Speaker 1: grow over all the walls and furniture, The clothes in
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  Speaker 1: his closet, his daughter's belongings, and the documents he had
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  Speaker 1: printed out had all been ruined by the infestation, but
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  Speaker 1: not everything had been destroyed. One item survived without a
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  Speaker 1: speck of mold on it is print out of the
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  Speaker 1: Hands Resist Him. World War One, also known as the
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  Speaker 1: Great War, claimed the lives of forty million civilians and
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  Speaker 1: military personnel from all over the world. It lasted for
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  Speaker 1: four years and was commonly referred to as the War
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  Speaker 1: to end all wars. Obviously, that name didn't stick for
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  Speaker 1: too long, but it was a particularly brutal and devastate
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  Speaker 1: being event in world history. The United States stayed out
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  Speaker 1: of the fray for most of the war until nineteen seventeen,
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  Speaker 1: when it joined Britain, France, and Russia. Together. These allies
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  Speaker 1: combated the Central Powers from Germany, the Austrian Hungarian Empire,
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  Speaker 1: the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria all across Europe. World War
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  Speaker 1: One saw the rise and fall of some pretty prominent individuals.
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  Speaker 1: Woodrow Wilson, Winston Churchill, Czar Nicholas the Second and Vladimir
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  Speaker 1: Lenin all made headlines throughout those tumultuous four years, but
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  Speaker 1: there was one name that kind of slipped under the radar,
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  Speaker 1: which was actually invented during World War Two. But let's
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  Speaker 1: not get technical, okay. He was known as Sergeant Stubby,
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  Speaker 1: and he was from Connecticut. He liked to hang around
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  Speaker 1: the Yale University campus, which was where members of the
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  Speaker 1: Second Infantry trained for their eventual deployment. He and another soldier,
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  Speaker 1: Corporal Robert Conroy, had struck up a friendship, and, not
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  Speaker 1: wanting to wish his best friend goodbye for possibly the
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  Speaker 1: last time, Stubby snuck on board conroy ship before it
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  Speaker 1: set off for France. He was soon discovered, but charmed
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  Speaker 1: the infantry's commanding officer and was allowed to stay. Much
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  Speaker 1: to everyone's surprise, Stubby found himself in the trenches for
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  Speaker 1: eight months alongside his new family, including Conroy. He began
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  Speaker 1: his military career in early February of nineteen eighteen and
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  Speaker 1: never shied away from battle, quickly getting used to the
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  Speaker 1: constant barrage of gunfire exploding overhead day and night. Three
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  Speaker 1: months later, Stubby was wounded in the leg by a
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  Speaker 1: German hand grenade and spent weeks at the rear recovering.
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  Speaker 1: With two new wound stripes on his uniform, he was
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  Speaker 1: back at the front lines helping his regiment. He learned
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  Speaker 1: how to detect mustard gas to warn his unit, and
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  Speaker 1: he was the only soldier capable of finding wounded troops
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  Speaker 1: in no man's Land without getting shot. No man's land
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  Speaker 1: was an uncrossable stretch of terrain between two enemy trenches.
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  Speaker 1: Anyone who tried to cross it was almost instantly killed,
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  Speaker 1: but not Stubby. During another battle in Our Gone, Stubby
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  Speaker 1: had come across a German spy and held him captive
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  Speaker 1: until reinforcements arrived to take the enemy away. By the
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  Speaker 1: end of the war, Sergeant Stubby had fought in four
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  Speaker 1: major offenses and seventeen battles, and became a bit of
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  Speaker 1: a celebrity back home. The military and numerous other organizations
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  Speaker 1: awarded him three service stripes, a Yankee Division Y Depatch,
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  Speaker 1: a Purple Heart, a New Haven World War One Veteran's Medal,
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  Speaker 1: and seven other honors. He marched in a number of
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  Speaker 1: victory parades and even went on to meet President Woodrow
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  Speaker 1: Wilson Stubby had demonstrated his abilities as a new breed
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  Speaker 1: of soldier. I don't mean he was more ruthless or
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  Speaker 1: cunning than the others. He was literally a new breed
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  Speaker 1: of soldier, a mixture of Boston and American bull Terrier
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  Speaker 1: to be specific. Sergeant Stubby was Corporate Conroy's dog. In
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  Speaker 1: ninety one, Conroy swapped the front lines for Georgetown University,
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  Speaker 1: where he received his law degree, with Stubby by his side.
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  Speaker 1: The mutt soon became the university's mascot and made appearances
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  Speaker 1: at football games, running around the field at halftime to
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  Speaker 1: entertain the fans. Stubby had lived a full and rewarding life,
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  Speaker 1: more so than any other dog, and he'd been rewarded
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  Speaker 1: handsomely for his service. After his death in nineteen twenty six,
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  Speaker 1: the New York Times ran a half page obituary for him,
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  Speaker 1: longer than any that most of his human contemporaries had received.
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  Speaker 1: And if you visit Washington, d c. Stopped by the
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  Speaker 1: National Museum at the Smithsonian, where you'll find Stubby on
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  Speaker 1: display in his military uniform adorned with his many medals.
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  Speaker 1: Corporal Conroy donated Stubbies taxidermied remains to the facility in
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  Speaker 1: nineteen fifty six. Dogs are loyal, faithful companions. They had
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  Speaker 1: a keen intuition and know when we're sick or sad,
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  Speaker 1: or even in danger. They will protect us, as Sergeant
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  Speaker 1: Stubby did for the Second Infantry, and as many dogs
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  Speaker 1: do for today's soldiers. Stubby never asked to be a hero,
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  Speaker 1: but he certainly became one simply by being Conroy's friend.
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  Speaker 1: You might even say that he was that man's best friend.
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  Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
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  Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
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  Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
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  Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership
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  Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
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  Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show,
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  Speaker 1: and you can learn all about it over at the
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  Speaker 1: World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.