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Falsetto · 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: In nineteen sixty nine, the British rock band The Zombies
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  Speaker 1: scored a chart topping hit with Time of the Season.
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  Speaker 1: Hoping to capitalize on their fame, a US tour was
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  Speaker 1: quickly booked and tickets sold. The only problem the Zombies
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  Speaker 1: no longer existed, but that, of course wouldn't stop the
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  Speaker 1: managers at Delta Promotions. All they had to do with
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  Speaker 1: the cash in was raised The Zombies from the Dead.
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  Speaker 1: The band that would become The Zombies, first met as
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  Speaker 1: schoolboys at Saint Albans, a city on the outskirts of London.
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  Speaker 1: They had a few modestly successful hits in nineteen sixty four,
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  Speaker 1: but found it hard to get their songs on the
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  Speaker 1: charts in the UK and especially difficult in America. Seeing
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  Speaker 1: the writing on the wall, the band decided to call
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  Speaker 1: it quits in December of nineteen sixty seven, the band's
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  Speaker 1: American label, Date Records, released a few of the band's
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  Speaker 1: singles post breakup, hoping to recoup some of the cost
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  Speaker 1: of recording. These failed to chart as well until a
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  Speaker 1: last ditch effort, A song called Time of the Season
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  Speaker 1: was released in the US in nineteen sixty eight, and
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  Speaker 1: suddenly the song was playing on every radio station and
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  Speaker 1: the name the Zombies was on every DJ's lips. Somehow, someway,
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  Speaker 1: the Zombies finally had a hit. Unfortunately, they were already
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  Speaker 1: a ghost of a band. Most of the five members
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  Speaker 1: had moved on to other music projects, and as this
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  Speaker 1: was nineteen sixty nine, word of their American success didn't
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  Speaker 1: reach me any of them for months. Back in the US, however,
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  Speaker 1: venues and tour managers wanted to capitalize on the Zombie success,
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  Speaker 1: so one company, Delta Promotions, decided to fill the gap.
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  Speaker 1: They signed a four piece blues band from Texas, had
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  Speaker 1: them learn a handful of Zombie songs, and sent them
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  Speaker 1: on tour. You see, back in nineteen sixty nine, it
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  Speaker 1: was surprisingly easy to fake a band like this. The
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  Speaker 1: Zombies were an international band with a single hit, so
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  Speaker 1: their pictures hadn't really appeared in Rolling Stone or other
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  Speaker 1: music magazines. Not only that, but many ticket buyers had
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  Speaker 1: no idea what the real Zombies looked like. They'd only
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  Speaker 1: heard their music on the radio. But when these fans
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  Speaker 1: arrived at the show, it became apparent that something was
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  Speaker 1: very wrong with the Zombies On stage. They sounded different
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  Speaker 1: from their recordings. They sometimes played completely different songs. Heck,
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  Speaker 1: for a band that used piano on every track, they
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  Speaker 1: didn't even have a keyboard player on the band's part.
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  Speaker 1: Many of the musicians thought that this was perfectly on
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  Speaker 1: the level. Delta told them that the zo Bombies wasn't
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  Speaker 1: a real band. Their albums were created by studio musicians.
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  Speaker 1: Delta claimed that they had the touring rights for the
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  Speaker 1: Zombies in North America, so it was perfectly legal for
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  Speaker 1: them to assemble a band to play the zombies music.
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  Speaker 1: Delta Promotions ended up creating two different versions of the Zombies,
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  Speaker 1: which toured at the same time. But they weren't the
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  Speaker 1: only fake band that Delta had assembled. Delta created an
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  Speaker 1: American lineup of The Animals, a British band which had
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  Speaker 1: gone gold with their version of the folk song House
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  Speaker 1: of the Rising Sun Heck. They also created a touring
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  Speaker 1: band for the Archies. The Archies came from The Archie Show,
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  Speaker 1: an animated series based on Archie, Betty, Veronica, Juughhead, and
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  Speaker 1: the other characters from the Archie comics. The fictional band
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  Speaker 1: scored a hit with the song Sugar Sugar, but it
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  Speaker 1: was never an actual touring act, at least not until
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  Speaker 1: Delta Promotions got their hands on it. The rain of
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  Speaker 1: the Fake Bands lasted a good year before the walls
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  Speaker 1: came crashing down pretty quickly. The suits at Archie Comics
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  Speaker 1: pursued legal action. In December of nineteen sixty nine, a
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  Speaker 1: member of the Real Zombies called the fake band out
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  Speaker 1: in Rolling Stone magazine, and in May of nineteen seventy
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  Speaker 1: a member of the Real Animals showed up at the
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  Speaker 1: Copycats band's live show with a baseball bat. Delta Promotions
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  Speaker 1: folded soon after, and the fraudulent bands called it quit.
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  Speaker 1: The Zombie con was over. While they were musical impostors,
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  Speaker 1: some of the members of the False Zombies were real talents.
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  Speaker 1: Two of them decided to keep playing together as a
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  Speaker 1: Texas blues act and quickly found a singer and even
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  Speaker 1: as the Zombies were finally put to rest. Former members
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  Speaker 1: Frank Beard and Dusty Hill resurrected their careers with their
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  Speaker 1: new act, a Southern blues band called zz Top. Americans
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  Speaker 1: are taught a lot about the Revolution, but history books
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  Speaker 1: tend to move quickly past the War of eighteen twelve.
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  Speaker 1: It's the disappointing sequel. Not because there weren't some exciting
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  Speaker 1: and dramatic events, but because the Americans came across looking
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  Speaker 1: much less impressive than they had in the previous war.
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  Speaker 1: But one climatic event toward the end of the War
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  Speaker 1: of eighteen twelve completely turned in the Americans favor and
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  Speaker 1: seemed to shock them into improving their tactics. The War
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  Speaker 1: of eighteen twelve began in June of that year. The
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  Speaker 1: Americans declared war after months of British locking their trade
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  Speaker 1: ships and even kidnapping their sailors and forcing them into service.
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  Speaker 1: The Americans had almost no navy and so invading the
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  Speaker 1: British Isles was off the table. But they could march
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  Speaker 1: to Canada, which was fully under British control at this time.
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  Speaker 1: But this just wasn't a great plan. Canada is vast
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  Speaker 1: and the British had thousands of troops there, so, rather
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  Speaker 1: than attack the main British garrison at Kingston, Ontario, the
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  Speaker 1: Americans opted to attack a small fort in Toronto in
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  Speaker 1: April of eighteen thirteen. Although it was an easy fight,
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  Speaker 1: the British left a surprise for the Americans. They detonated
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  Speaker 1: the gunpowder in the fort while they were retreating. This
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  Speaker 1: killed American General Zebulon Pike and two hundred other American soldiers. Enraged,
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  Speaker 1: the American army then burned the nearby town of York
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  Speaker 1: to the ground. The invasion of Canada was already an
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  Speaker 1: unsympathetic act, and the Americans only made things worse by
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  Speaker 1: burning York. Yes, the British had played dirty with the
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  Speaker 1: gunpowder explosion, but they were on the defense. The Americans
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  Speaker 1: put them in that position, and so the British resolved
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  Speaker 1: to get their revenge. There were various skirmishes in Canada
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  Speaker 1: and the US throughout the following months, but it wasn't
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  Speaker 1: until August of eighteen fourteen that the British were truly
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  Speaker 1: ready to avenge York. On August twenty fourth, five thousand
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  Speaker 1: British troops marched on Washington, DC. The Americans could only
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  Speaker 1: muster an army of mostly volunteers, as their troops were
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  Speaker 1: all engaged elsewhere. They hadn't expected a direct assault on
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  Speaker 1: the capitol. President James Madison watched for the rear as
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  Speaker 1: more experienced British soldiers completely routed the American volunteers. Madison
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  Speaker 1: himself had to flee, nearly getting bowled over by his
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  Speaker 1: own men. And so now Washington belonged to the British,
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  Speaker 1: and they intended to treat it just as well as
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  Speaker 1: the Americans had treated York. They marched through the streets,
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  Speaker 1: setting fire to many of the buildings there. They then
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  Speaker 1: helped themselves to a meal in the White House before
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  Speaker 1: setting that building a flame as well. It would seem
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  Speaker 1: their victory was complete. They had proven that their former
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  Speaker 1: colony did not have what it takes to stand on
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  Speaker 1: its own. But then the sky turned dark. A massive
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  Speaker 1: wind kicked up throughout Washington, DC, and it only seemed
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  Speaker 1: to get worse by the second. At first, some carts
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  Speaker 1: and hay bales blew down the street. Then window shutters
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  Speaker 1: flew open, beds and pillows were sucked out into the sky,
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  Speaker 1: showering the city in down feathers. Before long shingles were
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  Speaker 1: ripped off roofs. Some of the flimsier buildings even fell down.
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  Speaker 1: It wasn't just a wind, it was a Tornados looked
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  Speaker 1: on in shock as their heavy cannons were sucked into
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  Speaker 1: the air and flung into the river. Officers who weren't
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  Speaker 1: quick enough to get off their horses found themselves and
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  Speaker 1: their mounts pushed over into the dirt. Soon every soldier
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  Speaker 1: clung to the ground, holding onto whatever they could. Some
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  Speaker 1: were sucked into the sky, some were crushed by flying debris.
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  Speaker 1: And in case you were worried that this wind might
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  Speaker 1: have caused the fires to spread, just as the tornado subsided,
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  Speaker 1: a torrential rain blanketed Washington, extinguishing all the burning buildings.
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  Speaker 1: It was hard for the Americans not to feel as
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  Speaker 1: if some divine force had sent the perfect storm to
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  Speaker 1: ravage the British army and save their city. A local
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  Speaker 1: reporter overheard a British admiral talking to an American woman saying,
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  Speaker 1: Great God, madam, is this the kind of storm to
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  Speaker 1: which you are accustomed in this infernal country, to which
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  Speaker 1: she replied, no, sir, this is a special interposition of
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  Speaker 1: providence to drive our enemies from our city. The British
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  Speaker 1: soon retreated, only to find that their ships had all
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  Speaker 1: so been ravaged they practically limped back home. Divine intervention
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  Speaker 1: or not, the American had been handed a free win.
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  Speaker 1: They took this to heart and primarily focused on defending
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  Speaker 1: their own shores. Over the next years, the British failed
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  Speaker 1: to gain any traction, and by eighteen fifteen both sides
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  Speaker 1: agreed to peace. Oh and curiously, in the two hundred
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  Speaker 1: plus years since the war, there have only ever been
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  Speaker 1: seven other tornadoes in Washington. If any foreign power tries
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  Speaker 1: to invade again, they might just experience the aid. 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. The show
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  Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how
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  Speaker 1: Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore,
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  Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and
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  Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at the World
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  Speaker 1: of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious. MHM.