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Thirst Trap · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke'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: On Christmas Eve of two thousand and nine, Gurgile Barkie
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  Speaker 1: was looking desperately for a way to keep his three
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  Speaker 1: year old daughter entertained. There was lots of work to
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  Speaker 1: do to ensure a magical Christmas morning, and Barkie was
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  Speaker 1: eager to get his daughter to settle down. Like many families,
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  Speaker 1: Barkie's household had run through all the usual Christmas movies.
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  Speaker 1: Barkie flipped across dozens of television channels, all playing this
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  Speaker 1: same three holiday films, until he finally came across one
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  Speaker 1: plane something different. One channel had just begun playing the
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  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety nine movie Stuart Little. Not very festive, but
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  Speaker 1: at least it was something Barkie's daughter hadn't seen, and
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  Speaker 1: just as he was about to return to his Christmas
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  Speaker 1: morning preparations, his daughter asked him to sit and watch
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  Speaker 1: it with her. Barkie fought off a groan fine he
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  Speaker 1: would watch this ten year old movie featuring a talking
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  Speaker 1: mouse instead of attending to his growing to do list.
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  Speaker 2: It was Christmas, after all.
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  Speaker 1: When Barkiy agreed to spend this time with his daughter,
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  Speaker 1: he had no way of knowing that he would be
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  Speaker 1: rewarded with the best Christmas gift he could have ever
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  Speaker 1: asked for, not quality family time, though we can assume
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  Speaker 1: he was grateful for that as well. No, Barkie's reward
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  Speaker 1: came in the form of Stuart Little's living room, specifically
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  Speaker 1: one painting on the living room's far wall. Barkie leapt
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  Speaker 1: from his seat. He dove for the remote before remembering
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  Speaker 1: that the movie was playing on cable and he had
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  Speaker 1: no way to pause or rewind it. For a moment,
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  Speaker 1: he was rush and then the painting appeared again on screen,
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  Speaker 1: and again and again. You see, gurgilely, Barkie wasn't just
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  Speaker 1: an exhausted dad trying to make Christmas magical for his family.
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  Speaker 1: He was also a researcher for the Hungarian National Gallery
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  Speaker 1: and an expert in the paintings of Robert Barney, a
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  Speaker 1: Hungarian expressionist painter from the early twentieth century who was
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  Speaker 1: famous for several works, but most notably for Sleeping Lady
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  Speaker 1: with Black Vaz, and that particular work, Sleeping Lady with
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  Speaker 1: Black Vaz, depicted Baroney's second wife in repose.
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  Speaker 2: He had completed the.
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  Speaker 1: Painting around nineteen twenty five, and records show that it
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  Speaker 1: was sold in nineteen twenty eight. Since then, the painting
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  Speaker 1: had been lost to time. Researchers, including Barkie, suspected that
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  Speaker 1: this was due to the political upheaval in Hungary during
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  Speaker 1: the period. The buyer and their family may have purchased
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  Speaker 1: the painting and then left Europe shortly afterwards.
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  Speaker 2: The question then.
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  Speaker 1: Became, how did a painting last see in nineteen twenty
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  Speaker 1: eight wind up on the set of Stuart Little Before
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  Speaker 1: the movie had ended, Barkie got right to work. He
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  Speaker 1: bombarded the production staff of the movie with emails and
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  Speaker 1: voicemails asking how and where they had found the painting.
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  Speaker 1: It was the best Christmas present for an art historian,
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  Speaker 1: Barkie said, and then nothing. For two long years, his
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  Speaker 1: requests for information went unanswered. Doubt crept in. Could the
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  Speaker 1: painting that he saw in Stuart Little have been just
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  Speaker 1: a replica. Barkie watched the film over and over to
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  Speaker 1: be sure, and came to the conclusion that it must
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  Speaker 1: be the real thing. After all, barony was no worldwide phenomenon,
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  Speaker 1: and the painting was not well known outside of Hungary. Finally,
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  Speaker 1: he received an email from the assistant set director of
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  Speaker 1: the movie. She had purchased the painting at an antique
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  Speaker 1: shop in Pasadena. She told him the set team felt
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  Speaker 1: that it fit the elegant esthetic of Stuart Little's house,
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  Speaker 1: and when the movie wrapped, she had asked to take
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  Speaker 1: it home, and the painting had hung in her Washington,
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  Speaker 1: d c. Bedroom ever since. She invited Barkie to come
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  Speaker 1: in person and confers firm the identity of the painting.
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  Speaker 1: Within a few months, he flew from Hungary to Washington
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  Speaker 1: and met up with this assistant set director near the
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  Speaker 1: National Mall. As soon as he laid eyes on the painting,
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  Speaker 1: he was sure it was the real thing. There's only
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  Speaker 1: one thing left to check, he told the woman. Barkie
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  Speaker 1: strode to a nearby hot dog vendor and asked to
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  Speaker 1: borrow a screwdriver.
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  Speaker 2: The vendor was happy to oblige.
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  Speaker 1: Barkie then unscrewed the protective backing from the antique frame
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  Speaker 1: and ran his eyes over the underside of the canvas,
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  Speaker 1: and there it was. In the lower corner was the
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  Speaker 1: stamped date nineteen twenty eight, the last time it was exhibited.
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  Speaker 1: Before the painting was purchased, the lost painting had been found.
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  Speaker 1: The assistant set director sold the painting about a year
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  Speaker 1: later to a private collector for two hundred and eighty
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  Speaker 1: five thousand dollars. For his part, Barkie gained fame and
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  Speaker 1: notoriety in the art historian community, and even published a
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  Speaker 1: book about Barony's works, including the.
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  Speaker 2: Story of his discovery.
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  Speaker 1: Barkie says getting to help solve the mystery is reward
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  Speaker 1: enough for him, but he added, with a twinkle in
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  Speaker 1: his eye, I do watch movies very differently now. In
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  Speaker 1: the early morning hours of May twenty first of nineteen
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  Speaker 1: twenty four, just outside the small town of Lone Pine, California,
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  Speaker 1: a sudden explosion lit up the desert night. When police arrived,
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  Speaker 1: they found that the blast had blown a massive hole
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  Speaker 1: in the Los Angeles Aqueduct, which carried water from the
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  Speaker 1: farmland of Owens Valley all the way to the city
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  Speaker 1: of Los Angeles, two hundred miles away. Southern California was
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  Speaker 1: in the middle of a long drought, and thanks to
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  Speaker 1: this act of vandalism, millions of gallons of precious water
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  Speaker 1: had already spilled out onto the sand. The police reckoned
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  Speaker 1: that it would have taken at least five hundred pounds
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  Speaker 1: of dynamite to cut through the iron and conquer creed
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  Speaker 1: of the aqueduct, which meant that they had a major
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  Speaker 1: criminal plots on their hands. Immediately, the LA Mayor put
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  Speaker 1: up a ten thousand dollars reward for information leading to
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  Speaker 1: the suspects in the bombing, and detectives were sent into
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  Speaker 1: nearby towns to investigate. But even though it seemed like
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  Speaker 1: everyone in Owens Valley knew exactly who was responsible for
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  Speaker 1: the blast, nobody would say a peep to them. The
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  Speaker 1: bombers were heroes. The residents of Owens Valley had been
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  Speaker 1: unhappy about the aqueduct from the beginning. It had been
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  Speaker 1: built more than a decade prior to help the booming
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  Speaker 1: city of Los Angeles keep up with its growing water demand.
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  Speaker 1: By so much of their local water supply being siphoned
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  Speaker 1: off and sent to the city, the farmers and ranchers
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  Speaker 1: in Owens Valley were struggling. Land dried up crops, wilted
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  Speaker 1: farmers lost their profits, and the local economy began to fail. Finally,
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  Speaker 1: the people of Owens Valley had decided that enough was
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  Speaker 1: enough and it was time to fight back, and amazingly,
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  Speaker 1: that bombing outside Loan Pine was just the beginning of
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  Speaker 1: what became known as the Kel Water Wars. A few
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  Speaker 1: months later, dozens of Owens Valley residents drove out to
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  Speaker 1: that same area and commandeered the aqueduct by force. They
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  Speaker 1: opened the spillway gates and let the water flow out,
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  Speaker 1: threatening to let it keep spilling until the City of
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  Speaker 1: Los Angeles came out to settle their grievances, and they
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  Speaker 1: stayed there for days, resisting the sheriff's orders to leave,
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  Speaker 1: until the city of La agreed to negotiate with them.
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  Speaker 1: Over the next few years, there were more and more
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  Speaker 1: bombings and acts of sabotage. The Los Angeles Water Department
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  Speaker 1: had to hire armed guards with machine guns to protect
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  Speaker 1: the aqueduct twenty four to seven. The battles continued until
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  Speaker 1: nineteen twenty seven, when the main bank in Owens Valley
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  Speaker 1: suddenly went belly up. The bank's co owners, Wilfred and
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  Speaker 1: Mark Watterson, and I know the last names. Ironed is
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  Speaker 1: not lost on me, had been helping to organize and
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  Speaker 1: fund the rebellion, and without them, the resistance collapsed. The
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  Speaker 1: Waterson brothers were charged with thirty six counts of embezzlement
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  Speaker 1: and grand theft, and during their trial they admitted that
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  Speaker 1: they had stolen money from the bank to fund the
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  Speaker 1: water wars against Los Angeles.
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  Speaker 2: The brothers were both.
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  Speaker 1: Sentenced to ten years in prison, making them the only
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  Speaker 1: people who ever faced criminal charges.
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  Speaker 2: For the water Wars.
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  Speaker 1: It was a hard fought battle, but in the end,
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  Speaker 1: Owens Valley was no match for the bustling city of
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  Speaker 1: Los Angeles. The city kept buying up land and water,
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  Speaker 1: and by the next year, the once green landscape of
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  Speaker 1: Owens Valley had completely turned to sand. The farmers and
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  Speaker 1: ranchers who lived in the area were forced to sell
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  Speaker 1: their land and move away, and meanwhile, Los Angeles kept
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  Speaker 1: growing and city officials kept doing whatever it took to
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  Speaker 1: survive and thrive in the barren deserts of southern California.
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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 Theworldoflore
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  Speaker 1: dot com. And until next time, stay curious.