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The Beacon · 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 Grim & Mild.
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  Speaker 2: Our world is full of the unexplainable. And if history
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  Speaker 2: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
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  Speaker 2: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
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  Speaker 2: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: The paintings are instantly recognizable, even for those with only
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  Speaker 1: a cursory knowledge of art. The eyes of the children
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  Speaker 1: stare into yours, disproportionately large, inviting comparisons to that most
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  Speaker 1: famous of images, the windows to the soul. Some people
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  Speaker 1: found them kitschy or saccharine, but their success was immeasurable.
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  Speaker 1: Few artists experienced the same titanic success as Walter Keene,
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  Speaker 1: who in the early 1960s became known as the artist
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  Speaker 1: behind Big Eyes Paintings, pictures of mostly children with large,
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  Speaker 1: expressive eyes. They sold by the thousands as postcards, prints,
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  Speaker 1: and murals. When asked what drew him to paint children,
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  Speaker 1: he always spoke of his own experiences in the aftermath
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  Speaker 1: of the Second World War, seeing the orphans stumbling through
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  Speaker 1: the rubble in Berlin, their eyes entreating him for help.
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  Speaker 1: In his own words, as if goaded by a kind
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  Speaker 1: of frantic despair, I sketched these dirty, ragged little victims
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  Speaker 1: of the war with their bruised, lacerated minds and bodies,
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  Speaker 1: their matted hair and runny noses. Here my life as
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  Speaker 1: a painter began in earnest. The man himself was not
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  Speaker 1: as melancholy as the children he painted. He was a charmer,
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  Speaker 1: a born salesman. He spoke soulfully about his work, but
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  Speaker 1: if he carried any ghosts from the war, they would
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  Speaker 1: only come out through his paintbrush. He and his wife
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  Speaker 1: Margaret lived an idyllic life. They had a spacious house
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  Speaker 1: with a pool and servants, two young daughters, everything a
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  Speaker 1: successful artist could want. Walter even published his memoirs in 1963,
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  Speaker 1: basking in praise from Natalie Wood and Andy Warhol. In
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  Speaker 1: spite of his success, though, his personal life was not perfect.
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  Speaker 1: In 1965, he and his wife Margaret divorced, and she
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  Speaker 1: moved to Hawaii. She didn't go out much and had
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  Speaker 1: few friends. Until finally, in October of 1970, she gave
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  Speaker 1: an interview with a reporter where she made a startling allegation.
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  Speaker 1: She had done all of the paintings that Walter had
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  Speaker 1: made his fortune from. While he was living the life
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  Speaker 1: of a nouveau riche superstar, she was shut away in
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  Speaker 1: a back room, curtains drawn, painting 16 hours a day. Originally,
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  Speaker 1: he hadn't even told her that he'd been taking credit
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  Speaker 1: for the paintings. only copying to it when she accompanied
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  Speaker 1: him to one of the art shows. She claimed that
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  Speaker 1: she tried to teach Walter how to paint, and he
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  Speaker 1: had never been able to manage it. He'd been much
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  Speaker 1: more comfortable selling than creating. Once Margaret Keene's allegations were
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  Speaker 1: made public, Walter went on the offensive, claiming that his
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  Speaker 1: ex-wife was trying to ruin him. They battled back and
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  Speaker 1: forth in the press, with the public watching eagerly to
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  Speaker 1: see who was telling the truth. At the request of
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  Speaker 1: a reporter, Margaret challenged Walter to a paint-off in San
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  Speaker 1: Francisco's Union Square in November of 1970. She showed up
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  Speaker 1: with the canvas and her paints, and Walter was nowhere
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  Speaker 1: to be seen. In front of a crowd of onlookers,
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  Speaker 1: Margaret deftly completed one of the big-eyed child's drawings, and
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  Speaker 1: it looked just like any of the others. For many,
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  Speaker 1: this settled the issue of who was the real artist
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  Speaker 1: of the two. But Walter wasn't done. He spent most
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  Speaker 1: of the following decade drinking, but when he wasn't doing that,
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  Speaker 1: he was complaining about his ex-wife trying to ruin him.
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  Speaker 1: A reporter from USA Today wrote up his side of
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  Speaker 1: the story in the early 1980s. And Margaret sued for defamation.
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  Speaker 1: And in 1986, the two finally reunited face-to-face in a
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  Speaker 1: Hawaiian courtroom. The judge ordered both of them to paint
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  Speaker 1: a picture of a big-eyed child right there in the
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  Speaker 1: courtroom to prove once and for all who was telling
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  Speaker 1: the truth. Margaret completed hers in 53 minutes. Walter didn't
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  Speaker 1: even pick up his brush. He claimed he was suffering
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  Speaker 1: from a shoulder injury and was unable to paint. This
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  Speaker 1: excuse did not hold water with the court, though, and
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  Speaker 1: Margaret was deemed the victor in the case. She was
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  Speaker 1: awarded $ 4 million in damages, but received none of it.
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  Speaker 1: Walter had spent all his fortune in the 16 years
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  Speaker 1: since 1970. If that bothered the fully vindicated Margaret Keene,
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  Speaker 1: She didn't give any sign. The waifs that she painted
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  Speaker 1: after her separation from Walter were a stark contrast with
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  Speaker 1: the melancholy of the war orphans that he was so
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  Speaker 1: fond of making up stories about. They were sunny, cheerful figures,
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  Speaker 1: speaking to the artist's relief at being finally free from
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  Speaker 1: her own prison. Even though it was a defamation lawsuit,
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  Speaker 1: the ultimate result was an artist regaining ownership of her work,
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  Speaker 1: like a custody battle, for an army of painted children.
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  Speaker 1: In 1499, Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci and his fleet sailed
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  Speaker 1: into a large gulf just off of the South Caribbean Sea.
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  Speaker 1: It was a strange, mysterious body of water that seemed
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  Speaker 1: to cut wide and deep into the very heart of
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  Speaker 1: the dark green rainforests of South America. This was practically
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  Speaker 1: a new planet to Amerigo. He had seen rainbow-colored birds,
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  Speaker 1: spotted giant cats, and tiny neon frogs that could kill
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  Speaker 1: you with their spit. but he wasn't prepared for what
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  Speaker 1: he saw next. The gulf, you see, widened into a
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  Speaker 1: massive lake hidden in the jungle. Wooden houses on stilts
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  Speaker 1: dotted the banks. Native peoples looked up in shock at
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  Speaker 1: the massive caravels that were gliding toward their home. But
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  Speaker 1: despite that, it would be the Europeans who were in
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  Speaker 1: for the greatest shock of all. As the sun fell
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  Speaker 1: and the sky above the lake turned to night, a
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  Speaker 1: massive jagged lightning bolt struck down at the mouth of
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  Speaker 1: the lake. Amerigo and his men jumped in surprise. The
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  Speaker 1: sky flickered bright purple as several more lightning bolts struck down.
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  Speaker 1: The sky bloomed with electricity like veins in human flesh.
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  Speaker 1: The sailors couldn't turn their eyes away from this supernatural phenomenon.
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  Speaker 1: They got no sleep as the sky remained illuminated by
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  Speaker 1: lightning all night. They wondered if Jupiter himself was putting
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  Speaker 1: on a display. But Amerigo was more fascinated by something else.
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  Speaker 1: As he looked at the small shacks where the indigenous
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  Speaker 1: people lived, he realized that they were sleeping soundly. To them,
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  Speaker 1: the lightning was nothing special, and that meant that it
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  Speaker 1: wasn't a unique phenomenon. It wasn't some special display from
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  Speaker 1: Jupiter to welcome the Italians to this strange land. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: Amerigo soon realized the lightning happened most nights of the week.
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  Speaker 1: He would never forget this strange place and its strange
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  Speaker 1: people who lived in houses on the water. It reminded
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  Speaker 1: him of a city in his home country, a city
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  Speaker 1: called Venice. So he named this new country Venezuela, which
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  Speaker 1: means Little Venice. Today we know it as Venezuela. The
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  Speaker 1: local people, the Bari, had a name for the river
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  Speaker 1: that fed into the lake where the lightning strikes, and
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  Speaker 1: they called it Catatumbo, or House of Thunder. A few
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  Speaker 1: decades later, in 1529, the lake was considerably less peaceful.
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  Speaker 1: The Spanish had arrived and were warring with various indigenous tribes.
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  Speaker 1: One of these tribal leaders, Chief Mara, was beloved by
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  Speaker 1: his people. They clashed with the conquistadors, clubs and arrows
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  Speaker 1: facing swords and muskets. Chief Mara inevitably fell, and his
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  Speaker 1: people despaired, calling out the words Maracayo, which means Mara fell.
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  Speaker 1: Maracayo eventually became Maracaibo in Spanish, and now the lake
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  Speaker 1: had a new name, Maracaibo, with Catatumbo lightning at its mouth.
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  Speaker 1: in the wildland of Venezuela. The lightning would continue to
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  Speaker 1: fascinate explorers for centuries. In 1823, during the Venezuelan War
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  Speaker 1: for Independence, ships clashed on the lake as lightning struck
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  Speaker 1: all around them. These storms bore witness to the nation
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  Speaker 1: gaining its freedom from years of European colonization. Throughout the
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  Speaker 1: 1910s and 1920s, the Venezuelan government discovered oil deposits in
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  Speaker 1: and around Lake Maracaibo. inviting European companies to actually come
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  Speaker 1: in and develop the deposits and export the oil. And soon,
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  Speaker 1: oil pipelines crisscrossed the bottom of the lake, with glistening
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  Speaker 1: black leaks sometimes rising to the previously pristine surface. In
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  Speaker 1: the 1960s, researchers arrived to study the lightning. They wondered
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  Speaker 1: if it would be connected to the methane gas released
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  Speaker 1: by the oil. There was also a fair amount of
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  Speaker 1: uranium found in the surrounding mountains, and perhaps that was
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  Speaker 1: attracting the lightning. But some mysteries take a very long
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  Speaker 1: time to solve. And it wasn't until 2015, just a
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  Speaker 1: little over a decade ago, that local researcher Angel Gui-Munoz
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  Speaker 1: released weather balloons over the lake that allowed for a
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  Speaker 1: closer study. And he soon found that all of the
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  Speaker 1: previous theories had been wrong. The sun heats the Caribbean
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  Speaker 1: and Lake Maracaibo during the day, pulling water into the
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  Speaker 1: atmosphere and and making the air above the water hot
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  Speaker 1: and moist. When the sun goes down, that air rises,
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  Speaker 1: creating strong winds that blow across the lake. They hit
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  Speaker 1: the surrounding mountains and rise, where the moist droplets collide
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  Speaker 1: with ice crystals in the cold mountain air. And that
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  Speaker 1: friction between the moisture droplets and the ice crystals is
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  Speaker 1: what creates the lightning, which is visible at least half
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  Speaker 1: of the year. So it's not Jupiter or And it's
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  Speaker 1: not some ancient god stoking battles between Europeans or indigenous peoples.
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  Speaker 1: But it is the most electrically active place in the world.
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  Speaker 1: So much so that it's become known by one final name.
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  Speaker 1: The Maracaibo Beacon. Curious sailors lost in the Caribbean can
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  Speaker 1: see it from miles away and can be drawn to
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  Speaker 1: safety by its flashing. Just don't get too curious. Most
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  Speaker 1: people who live around the lake are safe because lightning
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  Speaker 1: mostly lands in the swamps to the south. but it's
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  Speaker 1: an extreme amount of lightning, and it kills about three
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  Speaker 1: unlucky people each year. I know that most people say
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  Speaker 1: that lightning never strikes twice in the same place, but
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  Speaker 1: Lake Maracaibo is a curious exception. I hope you enjoyed
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  Speaker 1: today's guided tour through the Cabinet of Curiosities. This show
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  Speaker 1: was created by me, Aaron Manke, in partnership with iHeart Podcasts,
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  Speaker 1: researched and written by the Grim & Mild team, and
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  Speaker 1: produced by Jesse Funk. Learn more about the show and
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  Speaker 1: the people who make it over at grimandmild.com slash curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: You'll also find a link to the official Cabinet of
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  Speaker 1: Curiosity's hardcover book, available in bookstores and online, as well
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  Speaker 1: as e-book and audiobook. And if you're looking for an
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  Speaker 1: ad-free option, consider joining our Patreon. It's all the same stories,
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: but without the interruption for a small monthly fee. Learn
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  Speaker 1: more and sign up over at patreon.com slash grimandmild. And
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  Speaker 1: until next time.
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  Speaker 2: Stay curious.