Latest / Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities / Monkeying Around

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Monkeying Around · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
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  Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales right
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  Speaker 1: there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome
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  Speaker 1: to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Oliver wasn't like everybody else.
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  Speaker 1: From the time he was born in nineteen fifty seven,
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  Speaker 1: he stood up from the pack. Literally. It was his
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  Speaker 1: unique mannerisms that caught the eyes of Frank and Janet
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  Speaker 1: Burger in nineteen seventy. They took Oliver from his home
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  Speaker 1: when he was about thirteen years old and raised him
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  Speaker 1: as one of their own. But some things about Oliver
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  Speaker 1: made them question whether he really was what everyone said
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  Speaker 1: he was. For one, his face was quite flat, and
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  Speaker 1: he had a tendency to walk on two legs rather
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  Speaker 1: than with the aid of his arms. Oliver wasn't human,
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  Speaker 1: but then again, he wasn't supposed to be. Oliver was
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  Speaker 1: a chimpanzee taken from the Congo by a couple of
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  Speaker 1: trainers who had hoped to work with him and study him.
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  Speaker 1: They soon realized that Oliver had been born different from
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  Speaker 1: his fellow apes in the Congo. He didn't use knuckles
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  Speaker 1: when he walked, instead opting to walk by petally. He
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  Speaker 1: stood tall with the shoulders back, just like people. He
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  Speaker 1: also seemed like being with human females more than female chimpanzees,
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  Speaker 1: even attempting to mate with Janet when he was sixteen
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  Speaker 1: years old. It was then the Janet realized Oliver could
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  Speaker 1: no longer stay with them. A couple decided to sell
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  Speaker 1: him to a New York attorney, Michael Miller, who took
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  Speaker 1: the unusual chimpanzee on television all over the world. Oliver
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  Speaker 1: even appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, sipping sherry and
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  Speaker 1: smoking a cigar. He was called things like the Missing
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  Speaker 1: Link and the Human z a human chimp hybrid who
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  Speaker 1: bridged the gap between species. When the television show stopped calling,
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  Speaker 1: Miller gave Oliver to Ralph Helfer, the owner of a
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  Speaker 1: California theme park. Helpher knew his way around training animals.
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  Speaker 1: He had been responsible for training Zamba the Lion, the
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  Speaker 1: roaring mascots of the MGM logo. The theme park didn't
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  Speaker 1: do too well, though, closing up for good only a
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  Speaker 1: year later, but Oliver's career continued to rise. Helpher started
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  Speaker 1: a new attraction called Gentle Jungle, which lasted for a
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  Speaker 1: few years and then closed, just like his last park.
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  Speaker 1: Oliver's popularity, however, never diminished. The Los Angeles Times ran
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  Speaker 1: an investigative piece about the possibility that Oliver could be
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  Speaker 1: an entirely new species of chimpanzee. From there, he was
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  Speaker 1: sold and transferred up and down the West Coast of
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  Speaker 1: various training and research facilities, each one treating Oliver as
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  Speaker 1: nothing more than a side show exhibits. His had become
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  Speaker 1: a life spent either in a cage or in front
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  Speaker 1: of an audience, and things only got worse in nine
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  Speaker 1: when the Bucksher Corporation of Pennsylvania purchased Oliver for their
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  Speaker 1: own nefarious purposes. While he didn't have cosmetics tested on
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  Speaker 1: him like other animals owned by the company, Oliver was
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  Speaker 1: kept in a small cage for almost a decade. He
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  Speaker 1: couldn't move or exercise, which caused his muscles to atrophy.
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  Speaker 1: His freedom finally came in nineteen when the Texas Animal
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  Speaker 1: Sanctuary Primarily Primates petition to have him released. Upon being
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  Speaker 1: transferred from Bucksher to Primarily Primates, Oliver walked out of
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  Speaker 1: his old cage on his two legs and right into
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  Speaker 1: his new open air enclosure, but the troubled chimp's freedom
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  Speaker 1: was only visible to the public, who didn't know what
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  Speaker 1: was going on at his new Texan home. The founder
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  Speaker 1: of Primarily Primates, it seems, Wallace Sweat, was accused of
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  Speaker 1: animal cruelty and mismanagement of funds. The cages where Oliver
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  Speaker 1: and the other apes were being kept had been deemed unsafe.
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  Speaker 1: The facility also lacked a vet on premises, an oversight
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  Speaker 1: that caused in part, the death of another research chimp
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  Speaker 1: by the name of Betty. Sweat was eventually removed from
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  Speaker 1: Primarily Primates. The state of Texas brought in wildlife expert
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  Speaker 1: Lee Feasts and Want to help rehabilitate the facility and
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  Speaker 1: Oliver himself. Her work was instrumental in giving the arthritic
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  Speaker 1: and partially blind Oliver a happy, peaceful rest of his life.
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  Speaker 1: Part of that happiness came in the form of a Raisin,
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  Speaker 1: a female chimpanzee at the primate sanctuary. She helped him
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  Speaker 1: in his final years, as did his caretakers, who allowed
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  Speaker 1: him to participate in numerous chim safe activities around the facility.
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  Speaker 1: He particularly enjoyed painting. Oliver sadly passed away in his
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  Speaker 1: sleep in two thousand twelve, with Raisin by his side.
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  Speaker 1: He was fifty five years old. He had led an
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  Speaker 1: extraordinary life with countless ups and downs. But was he
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  Speaker 1: the missing link everyone thought he was? Could this chimpanzee
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  Speaker 1: with a human like face who walked upright on two
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  Speaker 1: legs and fancied human women really fill in the gap
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  Speaker 1: in our evolutionary history? The Bucksheer Company had asked the
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  Speaker 1: same question back in back when Oliver was still being
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  Speaker 1: housed in their facility. They ran a DNA test to
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  Speaker 1: find the answer, and Oliver turned out to be normal.
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  Speaker 1: He had the standard forty chromosomes that all chimpanzees possessed.
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  Speaker 1: Even though his face looked more human than that of
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  Speaker 1: other chimps, it was not out of the ordinary. Oliver
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  Speaker 1: just wanted to be more like his human counterparts, despite
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  Speaker 1: experiencing the exact opposite of humanity from them. He wasn't
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  Speaker 1: the human z or even the missing link. Oliver was
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  Speaker 1: just a living creature, and he never understood that the
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  Speaker 1: greatest threat to his well being it was us. When
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  Speaker 1: we think of the lasting devastation of World War Two,
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  Speaker 1: we tend to think of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the two
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  Speaker 1: Japanese cities were leveled when American forces dropped two nuclear bombs,
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  Speaker 1: killing hundreds of thousands of jet and these citizens. After
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  Speaker 1: the Japanese surrendered on August fifteenth of nineteen forty five
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  Speaker 1: and World War Two ended less than a month later,
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  Speaker 1: the use of atomic bombs was studied by military experts
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  Speaker 1: and scholars alike. There had been numerous ethical questions about
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  Speaker 1: unleashing such weapons upon the public. Even J. Robert Oppenheimer,
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  Speaker 1: long regarded as the father of the atomic bomb, baviously
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  Speaker 1: quoted the Bagavadgita when he remarked, now I am become death,
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  Speaker 1: the destroyer of worlds. He understood that as long as
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  Speaker 1: these weapons existed, no one on the planet would be safe.
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  Speaker 1: But the A bomb wasn't the only unethical incendiary device
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  Speaker 1: being developed during the war. There was another smaller bomb
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  Speaker 1: being considered, and just like with the atomic one, Japan
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  Speaker 1: was the primary target. It all started after the attack
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  Speaker 1: on Pearl Harbor on December seventh of ninety one. US
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  Speaker 1: forces were looking for a way to retaliate against Japan,
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  Speaker 1: and they turned to an unlikely source for a solution.
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  Speaker 1: A dentist, Dr. Little S. Adams was more than a dentist,
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  Speaker 1: though he was also an inventor, and he had a
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  Speaker 1: wild idea about how to drop a bomb on almost
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  Speaker 1: every house in Japan without anyone knowing. The key was
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  Speaker 1: their size. Each bomb was tiny, but could do quite
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  Speaker 1: a lot of damage to Japanese homes, which were constructed
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  Speaker 1: mainly of paper and wood. When deployed from a plane.
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  Speaker 1: Parachutes attached to the bombs would allow them to float
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  Speaker 1: safely to the ground and nest in various structures, where
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  Speaker 1: they would wait until the appropriate time, then kaboom. It
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  Speaker 1: was dubbed Project X ray. Adam's plan seemed crazy at
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  Speaker 1: the time, but his friendship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt
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  Speaker 1: gave him the clearance to build a team to test
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  Speaker 1: it out. Louis Freezer, an organic chemist and inventor of napalm,
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  Speaker 1: came on board and was instrumental in designing the bombs themselves.
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  Speaker 1: He started by filling the gun cotton case with kerosene.
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  Speaker 1: Then he attached a small timed fuse and a trigger
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  Speaker 1: that could fire when the timer ran out. Initial tests
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  Speaker 1: were a surprising sect says, in some cases too successful.
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  Speaker 1: Several bombs were launched accidentally which destroyed a hangar, a
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  Speaker 1: fuel tank, and a general's car. The method of deployment
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  Speaker 1: required further adjustments to make sure each bomb made it
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  Speaker 1: to its destination without going off too early. The Marine
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  Speaker 1: Corps pushed Freezer, Adams and their team back to hard work.
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  Speaker 1: One million bombs were commissioned to be dropped on Japan
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  Speaker 1: as soon as they were ready. However, despite working around
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  Speaker 1: the clock to get everything perfect, there was a competition
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  Speaker 1: heating up with the folks at Los Alamos. Oppenheimer and
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  Speaker 1: the other scientists behind the A Bomb a k a.
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  Speaker 1: The Manhattan Project were on the verge of a breakthrough.
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  Speaker 1: Since both projects were scheduled to be completed around the
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  Speaker 1: same time, and the small bombs had already cost the
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  Speaker 1: military upwards of two million dollars, project x ray was scrapped.
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  Speaker 1: The costs weren't the only factor hindering x rays development.
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  Speaker 1: In order for the bombs to find their way into
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  Speaker 1: Japanese homes and buildings, they needed to be placed there.
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  Speaker 1: Remember this was long before the age of computer guy
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  Speaker 1: in systems and heat seeking missiles, so more organic methods
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  Speaker 1: were considered. Dr Adam's original plan hinged on one important factor,
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  Speaker 1: a factor that could fly into buildings and carry double
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  Speaker 1: its own weight. Project X Ray, the U s military's
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  Speaker 1: cutting edge weapon, depended on a secret tool bats, thousands
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  Speaker 1: and thousands of bats. The bombs you see were tied
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  Speaker 1: to the bats with wire. When lifted, the weight of
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  Speaker 1: each bat would trigger the fuse as it flew into
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  Speaker 1: a home and nested in its attic or roof. Prior
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  Speaker 1: to deployment in Japan, the tiny flyers would be tucked
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  Speaker 1: into ice cube trays and cooled into a deep sleep
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  Speaker 1: so that they could be transported safely from the United States.
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  Speaker 1: Once over Japan, B twenty fours would drop thousands of
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  Speaker 1: bats at a time, all of which had been placed
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  Speaker 1: into bomb shaped capsules. Parachutes would then float them safely
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  Speaker 1: to the ground, where the containers would open, releasing the
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  Speaker 1: creatures into Japanese cities to hide and wait. But the
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  Speaker 1: project was both financially and ethically a failure. But they
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  Speaker 1: weren't the only ones to consider such a method. Coincidentally,
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  Speaker 1: British forces were also experimenting with animal based explosives around
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  Speaker 1: the same time. Instead of bats, though they chose to
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  Speaker 1: shove explosives into another type of creature and leave them
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  Speaker 1: near German boiler rooms. A belief was that the Germans
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  Speaker 1: would get rid of the animals by tossing them into
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  Speaker 1: the boilers, which would set off the explosion and cause destruction.
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  Speaker 1: And what was their choice of animal dead? Rats? 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
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show
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  Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how
• 10:51
  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, Yeah,