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Battle of the Ages · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
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  Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
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  Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
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  Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
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  Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: Amusement parks are meant to be fun. You eat a
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  Speaker 1: little funnel cake, you get on a roller coaster, and
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  Speaker 1: then you eject that funnel cake into the nearest garbage
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  Speaker 1: can you know fun? But in between bites of corn
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  Speaker 1: dogs and slurps of lemonade are rides that are meant
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  Speaker 1: to thrill and excite you. But several parks haven't always
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  Speaker 1: been so amusing. In fact, at one time they were
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  Speaker 1: pretty problematic because of the attractions or the food, but
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  Speaker 1: because of how they came to be. Before Six Flags,
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  Speaker 1: Dorney Park and Dollywood, there was Coney Island. Do a
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  Speaker 1: quick search online and you'll likely find early footage from
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  Speaker 1: any of Coney Island's famous parks. You'll see women in
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  Speaker 1: long dresses and men in suits, riding on a scenic
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  Speaker 1: railway or holding on for dear life. As the famous
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  Speaker 1: Cyclone roller coaster shakes its wooden frame. But long before
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  Speaker 1: Coney Island was known as a place for families to
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  Speaker 1: spend the day riding rides and playing games, it was
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  Speaker 1: known by one unfortunate name, Sodom by the Sea. Let's
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  Speaker 1: back up for a moment. Coney Island is located in
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  Speaker 1: southwestern Brooklyn and became a prime vacation spot starting in
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  Speaker 1: the eighteen thirties. It was far enough away from Manhattan
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  Speaker 1: and the other boroughs that many New Yorkers would flock
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  Speaker 1: to its beaches for a quick getaway. The next several
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  Speaker 1: decades were full of growth and development, with the installation
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  Speaker 1: of a ferry as well as several hotels and restaurants. Then,
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  Speaker 1: in eighteen ninety seven, New York businessman George till You
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  Speaker 1: built Steeplechase Park, complete with a ferris wheel, a wild
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  Speaker 1: west side show, and various slide based rides. It was
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  Speaker 1: enticing to locals who were looking for a cheap way
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  Speaker 1: to pass the afternoon, but till You's greed and desire
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  Speaker 1: for growth wound up costing him dearly. You see, he
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  Speaker 1: had secured the rights to another ride built by two
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  Speaker 1: entrepreneurs for his park, but they didn't just want to
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  Speaker 1: license their creation. They saw what till You had built
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  Speaker 1: and decided to go into business as direct competitors to Steeplechase,
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  Speaker 1: and so Fred Thompson and Skip Dundee started working on
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  Speaker 1: the now famous Luna Park. But neither amusement park was
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  Speaker 1: attracting posh elite clients. Coney Island became a haven for
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  Speaker 1: the lower and middle classes who couldn't afford the whole
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  Speaker 1: summer in Spain or winter in Paris, and because of
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  Speaker 1: its close proximity to the rest of New York, its
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  Speaker 1: sandy beaches and ample boardwalk became crammed with vacationers. During
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  Speaker 1: the busiest seasons, music from buskers and bands filled the air,
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  Speaker 1: as fortune tellers and other con artists lured unsuspecting visitors
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  Speaker 1: into their shops, promising them a glimpse of their future
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  Speaker 1: for a nominal fee. Of course, in fact, it bore
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  Speaker 1: more of a resemblance to Pleasure Island in Pinocchio than
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  Speaker 1: Las Vegas. As one writer described it in a nineteen
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  Speaker 1: oh five issue of the Cosmopolitan magazine, Coney Island exists,
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  Speaker 1: he wrote, and will go on existing because into all men,
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  Speaker 1: gentle and simple, poor and rich, including women, by some
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  Speaker 1: mysterious corybantic instinct in their blood has been born a
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  Speaker 1: tragic need of coarse excitement, a craving to be taken
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  Speaker 1: in by some illusion. However palpable, and that course excitement
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  Speaker 1: took form in a number of questionable ways. For example,
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  Speaker 1: Thompson and Dundee brought in an elephant named Topsy to
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  Speaker 1: keep visitors entertained while Luna Park was being built. But
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  Speaker 1: after a short time, Topsy's maintenance and behavior, because after all,
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  Speaker 1: she was a wild animal, had them rethinking their purchase.
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  Speaker 1: Rather than sell her off to a zoo or a circus, though,
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  Speaker 1: they decided to give the people one last show. They
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  Speaker 1: electrocuted her to death, and the whole thing was recorded
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  Speaker 1: on film. The pair also staged displays of indigenous peoples
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  Speaker 1: from the Philippines, portraying them as and I quote, uncivilized
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  Speaker 1: savages to enthrall their white patrons. Of course, as the
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  Speaker 1: years passed by, others like William Reynolds, erected their own
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  Speaker 1: competing parks with bright, flashy attractions, but in the end
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  Speaker 1: only two parks stood the test of time. Luna Park
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  Speaker 1: and Dino's Wonder Wheel amusement Park, which opened in nineteen twenty.
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  Speaker 1: Its famous Wonder Wheel ferris wheel has become as iconic
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  Speaker 1: as the Coney Island Cyclone coaster. During the nineteen seventies
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  Speaker 1: and for the next three decades after that, Coney Island
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  Speaker 1: went through a number of ups and downs, with several
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  Speaker 1: parks and rides falling into disrepair. But today the former
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  Speaker 1: Sodom by the Sea is refreshed and revitalized, and it
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  Speaker 1: welcomes more than five million visitors per year from all
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  Speaker 1: over the country. It's fun for the whole family, and
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  Speaker 1: no elephants have been harmed on the property and at
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  Speaker 1: least a century. In nineteen eighty six, Roy Duncan decided
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  Speaker 1: it was finally time to get to the bottom of
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  Speaker 1: a local rumor. Roy lived on one of the Isles
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  Speaker 1: of Silly, a tiny archipelago just off the coast of
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  Speaker 1: Cornwall in the United Kingdom. For generations, Siloians had claimed
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  Speaker 1: their tiny islands had been at war with the Netherlands.
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  Speaker 1: If there was a war, Roy thought it certainly was
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  Speaker 1: an odd one. He couldn't remember ever seeing a Dutch
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  Speaker 1: army or warship, and neither could his father or grandfather.
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  Speaker 1: There was no battle, no treaties, not even a skirmish
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  Speaker 1: as far as he could tell. So Roy wrote to
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  Speaker 1: the Dutch embassy in London to get to the bottom
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  Speaker 1: of the mystery. The embassy's answer was surprising. According to
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  Speaker 1: their records, the Netherlands had in fact declared war on
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  Speaker 1: the Isles of Silly in sixteen fifty one, and as
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  Speaker 1: far as they could tell, no peace treaty was ever signed.
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  Speaker 1: So technically, the Dutch and the Selonians had been fighting
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  Speaker 1: for three hundred and thirty five years. So how exactly
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  Speaker 1: did a tiny little archipelago full of fishermen become embroiled
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  Speaker 1: in the longest war in history. Well you can blame
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  Speaker 1: Oliver Cromwell for that. Back in sixteen fifty one, England
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  Speaker 1: was in the grip of a bloody civil war. Parliamentarians,
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  Speaker 1: led by Oliver Cromwell, wanted to limit the powers of
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  Speaker 1: the English monarchy and give most of England's legislative power
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  Speaker 1: to a constitutional parliament, thus the name Parliamentarians and their opponents,
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  Speaker 1: the Royalists, wanted the English king to have absolute power.
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  Speaker 1: Cromwell's parliamentarians had swept over the country, pushing the Royalists
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  Speaker 1: back to the furthest point south in England, the tiny
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  Speaker 1: Isles of Scilly. The entire Royalist navy was docked at
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  Speaker 1: the isles, waiting for Cromwell to launch his final attack.
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  Speaker 1: At the same time, the Dutch were fighting their own
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  Speaker 1: war to gain independence from Spain. Early in the con inflict,
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  Speaker 1: England helped the Dutch allies, so when the Netherlands were
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  Speaker 1: finally free of Spanish rule, they wanted to return the favor.
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  Speaker 1: Since England was so divided, the Dutch were forced to
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  Speaker 1: pick aside, and seeing the riding on the wall for
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  Speaker 1: the Royalists, the Dutch backed Cromwell and his parliamentarians. Now
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  Speaker 1: the Royalists, who were docked at the Isles of Silly,
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  Speaker 1: considered this a stab in the back. In retaliation, they
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  Speaker 1: raided Dutch merchants in the English Channel, seizing their ships
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  Speaker 1: and cargo for the Royalist cause. Well. On March thirtieth
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  Speaker 1: of sixteen fifty one, a Dutch lieutenant admiral named Martine
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  Speaker 1: Tromp demanded the Royalists pay the Dutch for what they
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  Speaker 1: had stolen. When the Royalists refused, Tromp declared war on
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  Speaker 1: the only Royalist held land in England, the Isles of Scilly.
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  Speaker 1: In retrospect, it's actually not certain that Trump had the
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  Speaker 1: authority to declare war for an entire country. At the
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  Speaker 1: most Dutch leadership probably expected him to establish a blockade.
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  Speaker 1: It's also pretty unclear if even if Tromp could declare war,
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  Speaker 1: could he declare it on just one small part art
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  Speaker 1: of another nation. Regardless, the declaration stood, and when the
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  Speaker 1: Royalists finally surrendered to Cromwell three months later in June
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  Speaker 1: of sixteen fifty one, the Dutch sailed home without ever
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  Speaker 1: officially ending the war. For years, it became something of
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  Speaker 1: a local legend until Roy Duncan received the Fateful Letter
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  Speaker 1: from the Dutch embassy in nineteen eighty six. Wishing to
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  Speaker 1: bury the hatchets, Roy invited the Dutch ambassador to the
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  Speaker 1: Isles of Silly to end the conflict. On April seventeenth
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  Speaker 1: of nineteen eighty six, the Dutch ambassador arrived at the
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  Speaker 1: Isles of Silly. He brought with him a signed peace
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  Speaker 1: treaty declaring that after three hundred and thirty five years,
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  Speaker 1: the war between the Netherlands and the Isles of Silly
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  Speaker 1: was officially over all without firing a single shot. I
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  Speaker 1: hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about
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  Speaker 1: the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. This show
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  Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with Howstuff Works.
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  Speaker 1: I make another award winning show called Lore, which is
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  Speaker 1: a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can
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  Speaker 1: learn all about it over at the Worldoflore dot com.
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  Speaker 1: And until next time, stay curious.