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Like a Queen · 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: The advent of cinema in the late nineteenth century changed
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  Speaker 1: the world. Even though motion pictures started as a sideshow oddity,
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  Speaker 1: their popularity grew fast as the years went by. Single
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  Speaker 1: shot films slowly started to evolve in complexity, and audience's
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  Speaker 1: tastes evolved along with them. Within a few decades, people
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  Speaker 1: were no longer diving out of the way of trains
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  Speaker 1: coming toward the movie screen, and the first proper era
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  Speaker 1: of filmmaking took off, the Silent Era. Talking about it
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  Speaker 1: now a century later, there are many misconceptions about the
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  Speaker 1: Silent era. For instance, most of the films were not
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  Speaker 1: presented in black and white, but hand tinted in vivid
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  Speaker 1: monochrome hues. It was primitive technology, sure, but audiences of
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  Speaker 1: the time were just as used to color films as
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  Speaker 1: we are today. Another misconception is how the world at
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  Speaker 1: large took to cinema. Every country had a different entertainment landscape,
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  Speaker 1: and for many countries outside of Europe and America, moviegoers
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  Speaker 1: wanted different things out of their entertainment. So follow me
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  Speaker 1: to early twentieth century Japan to see what I mean.
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  Speaker 1: Japan was in the process of modernizing following the Meiji Restoration.
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  Speaker 1: Industry and commerce was booming, but for entertainment, people largely
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  Speaker 1: still looked to the classics. Kabuki theater was in the
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  Speaker 1: middle of a resurgence in popularity and remained the dominant
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  Speaker 1: entertainment for a night out on the town. So when
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  Speaker 1: movies were first deriving from Europe, they seemed like an oddity. However,
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  Speaker 1: this oddity sparked an entirely new class of entertainer which
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  Speaker 1: eventually allowed movies to take over Japanese pop culture. Early
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  Speaker 1: imported movies were simple scenes of daily life without much
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  Speaker 1: narrative to speak of, so in order to increase the
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  Speaker 1: value of the knight's entertainment, theatrical venues hired a performer
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  Speaker 1: to interpret the silent action on screen for the audience.
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  Speaker 1: This role became known as the benshi or orader, and
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  Speaker 1: they weren't just necessary for interpreting Western movies to a
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  Speaker 1: Japanese audience. They became an integral part of all movie
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  Speaker 1: going experiences, even films produced in Japan. A benshi became
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  Speaker 1: just as much of a draw for a film as
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  Speaker 1: the content of the movie itself. Many picture houses promoted
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  Speaker 1: their live performers on the posters with the movie stars,
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  Speaker 1: and this emphasis was an important one. Their job was
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  Speaker 1: not just to blankly recite what's happening on the screen
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  Speaker 1: and read the title cards. They guide viewers through jarring
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  Speaker 1: cuts or seeing transitions, provided voices for all the different characters,
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  Speaker 1: and would sometimes even recite poetry to describe the emotions
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  Speaker 1: of an evocative visual. A great benchi projecting his or
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  Speaker 1: her voice over the musicians in a thousand person theater
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  Speaker 1: would become a celebrity in their own right. In the
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  Speaker 1: nineteen tens, benhi training schools opened throughout Japan. Their classes
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  Speaker 1: included extensive voice training and education in various performance styles
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  Speaker 1: that suits different sorts of films. The wannabe benchis were
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  Speaker 1: also educated in history, geography, and world cultures to better
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  Speaker 1: prepare them for interpreting foreign films. And as benshi became
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  Speaker 1: more legitimate throughout the country, the government stepped in to
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  Speaker 1: make sure that they were properly licensed and abiding by
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  Speaker 1: public morals and standards. Sensa benhi could interpret a piece
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  Speaker 1: of art for the Japanese public, their performances would be
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  Speaker 1: monitored by public officials. If they didn't abide by censorship laws,
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  Speaker 1: their licenses would be revoked immediately. Now, the narration of
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  Speaker 1: benhi provided was known as setsume, and it was ultimately
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  Speaker 1: their skill at setsume that would make a benhi's career.
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  Speaker 1: At the peak of the profession around nineteen twenty seven,
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  Speaker 1: there were over sixty eight hundred benchi throughout Japan, and
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  Speaker 1: there were also benhi equivalents in nearby countries including Korea
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  Speaker 1: and Taiwan. It also lasted a little longer than it
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  Speaker 1: did in the West. When sound films started to overtake
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  Speaker 1: silence in the late nineteen twenties, it took many years
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  Speaker 1: to catch on across the Pacific, but inevitably the popularity
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  Speaker 1: of benhi began to fade. By the nineteen thirties, the
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  Speaker 1: profession was almost gone. However, it never truly went extinct.
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  Speaker 1: Small groups of dedicated performers kept the practice alive and
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  Speaker 1: became famous faces in the world of film preservation and exhibition.
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  Speaker 1: The most famous of these might just be Midori Suwato,
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  Speaker 1: a woman whose narration of silent films remains popular to
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  Speaker 1: this day. She's still alive and still performing the art
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  Speaker 1: of setsume, lending her voice to movie stars who would
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  Speaker 1: otherwise be mute. It turns out that the silent era
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  Speaker 1: in Japan was never very silent at all. Is it
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  Speaker 1: possible to elect a queen? Usually the answer to that
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  Speaker 1: question is no. Elective monarchies have existed throughout human history,
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  Speaker 1: but the kings and queens we remember are often parts
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  Speaker 1: of dynasties, chosen by bloodline or a conquest, which is
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  Speaker 1: perhaps why among ordinary people there are often little competitions
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  Speaker 1: to choose queens of our own. A queen, after all,
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  Speaker 1: is a great title for a figurehead, even if she
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  Speaker 1: has no real power. Perhaps you're familiar with the concept
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  Speaker 1: of a may queen, a woman who was appointed in
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  Speaker 1: a midsummer festival to be dressed in flat hours and
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  Speaker 1: celebrate nature. It's an old and extremely popular tradition, but
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  Speaker 1: at some point this practice spread from folklore to that
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  Speaker 1: of the Industrial Society of Great Britain. It began as
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  Speaker 1: a publicity stunt. In nineteen twenty five, to celebrate their
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  Speaker 1: one hundred year anniversary, the Stockton and Darlington Railroad held
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  Speaker 1: a beauty pageant where they crowned Helena Wotton as their
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  Speaker 1: first railway Queen. For a year, this symbolic figure would
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  Speaker 1: represent the great progress and the shining future of the
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  Speaker 1: industrial age. Even though it was commemorating an anniversary, the
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  Speaker 1: railway queen was not a one time appointment. Every year
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  Speaker 1: afterward the railway would appoint a new queen with all
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  Speaker 1: the fanfare and publicity of the first. Although the early
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  Speaker 1: queens were all daughters of railroad company employees, soon the
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  Speaker 1: candidates expanded to their greater British public and other industries
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  Speaker 1: caught on as well, leading to an explosion of industrial queens.
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  Speaker 1: In the nineteen thirties. There was a cotton Queen, a
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  Speaker 1: wool queen, a coal queen, queens of silk, salt, fish,
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  Speaker 1: and radio. It became the go to method for celebrating
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  Speaker 1: each given quarter of British industry. The United States also
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  Speaker 1: got in on the action, crowning their own queens of industry,
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  Speaker 1: but what did a Queen of industry actually do well?
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  Speaker 1: Their role was ceremonial, to be sure, the early critics
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  Speaker 1: who labeled it as a publicity stunt couldn't have been
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  Speaker 1: more correct, But there was more to being a queen
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  Speaker 1: of industry than being a pretty face. They were expected
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  Speaker 1: to give speeches, make public appearances, advocating for their industry. Essentially,
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  Speaker 1: they were the face of their field for the entire year.
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  Speaker 1: As a result, this appointment catapulted a number of young
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  Speaker 1: women and girls into something resembling celebrity in the most
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  Speaker 1: dramatic cases. This even led to opportunities to go abroad
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  Speaker 1: and observe how other countries handle their industries. For example,
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  Speaker 1: in nineteen thirty five, the fifteen year old Audrey Mossum
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  Speaker 1: was crown Britain's Railway Queen. The following year saw her
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  Speaker 1: experience a whirlwind of public appearances and ceremonies, culminating in
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  Speaker 1: a controversial trip to the East. The Railway Queen, you see,
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  Speaker 1: had been invited to go to the Soviet Union. She
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  Speaker 1: would undertake this trip in the summer of nineteen thirty six,
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  Speaker 1: traveling by rail from Mince to Moscow, where she met
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  Speaker 1: Joseph Stalin himself, the head of Soviet Russia, greeted her
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  Speaker 1: before a crowd of railway workers, and the widow of
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  Speaker 1: Vladimir Lenin presented her with a special Russian nestingdal to
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  Speaker 1: commemorate her visit. Since the nineteen thirties, competition to be
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  Speaker 1: crowned a Queen of Industry became more and more stiff.
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  Speaker 1: Rather than simply be chosen by a small group of companies,
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  Speaker 1: these became full competitions, with finalists and a panel of
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  Speaker 1: carefully selected judges. After the Second World War, the role
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  Speaker 1: of the Queens of Industry even expanded to one of recruitment.
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  Speaker 1: You see, women were not just the faces of industry,
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  Speaker 1: they were increasingly part of it. Companies produced recruitment films
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  Speaker 1: starring the Queens of Industry in order to encourage women
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  Speaker 1: to join the workforce. Like actual royalty, though these Queens
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  Speaker 1: of Industry would have a tense relationship with the workers themselves.
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  Speaker 1: From the beginning, the title was roundly criticized as a
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  Speaker 1: distraction from the growing power of trade unions. Union members
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  Speaker 1: would eventually allow their families to participate in these sorts
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  Speaker 1: of pageants, but they would abstain from participating if a
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  Speaker 1: strike was called. The final Queens of Industry were appointed
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  Speaker 1: in the nineteen eighties, showing how the practice had faded
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  Speaker 1: as times and tastes changed. Beauty competitions in general have
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  Speaker 1: become less in vogue, and labor disputes between workers and
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  Speaker 1: government backed management have made the whole thing seem much
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  Speaker 1: less quaint. Communities, though, have always been good at finding
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  Speaker 1: fresh ways to overcome the problems they face. The Queens
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  Speaker 1: of Industry might be a thing of the past, but
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  Speaker 1: they definitely seemed to serve a purpose at the time,
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  Speaker 1: and looking back, they left us with something incredibly valuable,
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  Speaker 1: a curious chapter in history. I hope you've enjoyed today's
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  Speaker 1: guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free
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  Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by
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  Speaker 1: visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by
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  Speaker 1: me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I
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  Speaker 1: make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
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  Speaker 1: book series, and television show, and you can learn all
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  Speaker 1: about it over at the Worldoflore dot com. And until
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  Speaker 1: next time, stay curious.