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Eye Witness · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Benky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
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  Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
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  Speaker 1: full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
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  Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
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  Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
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  Speaker 1: of Curiosities. When history has made the bystanders tend to
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  Speaker 1: get forgotten. We remember Abraham Zapp Router because he filmed
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  Speaker 1: the most famous twenty six seconds ever captured on camera,
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  Speaker 1: the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. But what about
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  Speaker 1: Jean Boone. The name might not ring a bell, but
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  Speaker 1: Boone was the sheriff's deputy who found Oswald's rifle in
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  Speaker 1: the book depository. And then there's Fred Capps. He wasn't
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  Speaker 1: witnessed to a presidential tragedy, just missed opportunity. Capps was
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  Speaker 1: fairly well known among professional magicians, but very few people
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  Speaker 1: today remember his appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in
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  Speaker 1: nineteen sixty four. Why because he had the unfortunate luck
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  Speaker 1: of following up America's first glimpse of a brand new
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  Speaker 1: rock band from England, the Beatles. Samuel also seemed like
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  Speaker 1: just another bystander. However, he had one heck of a
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  Speaker 1: story to tell. He was born in eastern Maryland and
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  Speaker 1: grew up in a farm there before moving to Arlington,
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  Speaker 1: Virginia with his wife Mary, where they raised their family. Eventually, though,
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  Speaker 1: Samuel moved back to his home state of Maryland. The
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  Speaker 1: most incredible thing he ever saw occurred when he was
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  Speaker 1: just five years old. His father worked for the Goldsborough's,
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  Speaker 1: a rich family in Talbot County, Maryland. One night, Mr
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  Speaker 1: Seymour and Mr Goldsboro had traveled to Washington, d C.
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  Speaker 1: On business, and young Samuel was allowed to tag along.
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  Speaker 1: While the boy's father and Mr Goldsboro were attending to
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  Speaker 1: their business, Mrs Goldsboro and Samuel it would attend to play.
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  Speaker 1: They knew it would be an event to remember too,
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  Speaker 1: because they were let in on a not so secret
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  Speaker 1: bit of information. A very special guest would be in
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  Speaker 1: the audience that night. Years later, the year old Samuel
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  Speaker 1: was invited to appear on a popular television game show,
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  Speaker 1: and he almost didn't make it. Shortly after arriving in
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  Speaker 1: New York, he fell and hurt his right eye. He
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  Speaker 1: visited a local doctor who cleared him for his TV appearance,
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  Speaker 1: although the producers urged him to postpone until he was
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  Speaker 1: fully healed. Samuel, though refused he was too old and
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  Speaker 1: he might not get another chance. He wanted to tell
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  Speaker 1: his story, so he sat next to the host who
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  Speaker 1: introduced him to the audience as well as the panel
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  Speaker 1: of celebrity guests. But the host didn't tell anyone why
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  Speaker 1: Samuel was there. You see, that was up to them
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  Speaker 1: to figure out. The show was called I've Got a Secret,
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  Speaker 1: and the goal was for the panelist to ask a
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  Speaker 1: series of yes or no questions until they could figure
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  Speaker 1: out the guests hidden identity. Radio and TV star Bill
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  Speaker 1: Cullen kicked things by trying to assess Samuel's age. After
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  Speaker 1: a while, he deduced that whatever the secret was, it
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  Speaker 1: had to do with the American Civil War. One by one,
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  Speaker 1: each panelist asked their questions, drilling down to the truth
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  Speaker 1: about Samuel Seymour. They eventually discovered that when he was
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  Speaker 1: just five years old, Samuel did more than just to
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  Speaker 1: tend a show in Washington, d C. The show Mrs
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  Speaker 1: Goldsborough had taken Samuel two was called Our American Cousin.
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  Speaker 1: They sat in the balcony directly across from the special
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  Speaker 1: guest of the evening, President Abraham Lincoln. Samuel remembered him
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  Speaker 1: being tall and serious in his demeanor, although he smiled
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  Speaker 1: and waved the crowd before the show. While watching the play,
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  Speaker 1: a shot rang out. A woman screamed, and Samuel looked
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  Speaker 1: up to see the President fall forward. Another man, who
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  Speaker 1: he had later learned was John Wilkes Booth, leapt onto
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  Speaker 1: the stage and broke his leg. Samuel, unsure about what
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  Speaker 1: had just happened, felt bad for the man with the
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  Speaker 1: injured leg. He begged Mrs Goldsboro to go down and
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  Speaker 1: help him, but shouting from the crowd drowned out his cries.
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  Speaker 1: Lincoln's shot, they said. The President's dead Booth slipped away
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  Speaker 1: in the commotion and wouldn't be found for another twelve days.
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  Speaker 1: Samuel Seymour you See, was born in eighteen sixty and
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  Speaker 1: during his appearance on that game show in nineteen fifty six,
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  Speaker 1: he revealed himself to the world as the last surviving
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  Speaker 1: witness to the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Curious you
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  Speaker 1: better believe it. Oftentimes, when lawmakers try to make a change,
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  Speaker 1: they're met with resistance. Nobody likes to be told what
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  Speaker 1: to do, especially by folks who think they know better.
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  Speaker 1: Movements have been started and systems have been ended simply
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  Speaker 1: because someone stood up and said no. Others, however, aren't
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  Speaker 1: so brazen. They rebel more quietly from deep underground, or
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  Speaker 1: sometimes from the top of bar stool. In eight nine six,
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  Speaker 1: lawmakers in New York State passed to law that affected
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  Speaker 1: both the regular public and business owners alike. New York
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  Speaker 1: City had become known as a den of sin, where
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  Speaker 1: men and women would drink all night and day. Public
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  Speaker 1: drunkenness had become a serious problem to the more conservative
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  Speaker 1: legislators up state. It didn't help that the city's mayor
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  Speaker 1: and other governing bodies weren't enforcing the strict Sabbath laws. Sunday,
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  Speaker 1: you see, was meant for the Holy Spirit, not other
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  Speaker 1: kinds of spirits. Meanwhile, an up and coming political powerhouse
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  Speaker 1: was making a name for himself in the city. His
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  Speaker 1: name was Theodore Roosevelt, and he threw his support behind
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  Speaker 1: a brand new law, the Reigns Law, which would make
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  Speaker 1: it impossible for most of the eight thousand bars and
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  Speaker 1: dives in the five boroughs to be able to stay
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  Speaker 1: in business. Among other things, the Reigns law made the
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  Speaker 1: cost of an annual liquor license prohibitively expensive, seedier saloons
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  Speaker 1: that catered to crimine knolls and ne'er do wells couldn't
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  Speaker 1: afford to stay open. The law also eliminated the free lunch,
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  Speaker 1: a common perk when drinking at Many bars offering complimentary
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  Speaker 1: boiled eggs or soda bread kept drinkers fed, which meant
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  Speaker 1: they kept ordering drinks as long as they had money.
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  Speaker 1: But the law eventually passed, and it worked exactly as
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  Speaker 1: they had planned. Bars locked their doors at midnight on Saturday's.
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  Speaker 1: Places that did remain open on Sundays had to keep
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  Speaker 1: their curtains open so passing beat cops could see inside
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  Speaker 1: to make sure no one was serving liquor. But there
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  Speaker 1: was a loophole, one so big the city's elite could
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  Speaker 1: drive a train through it if they wanted to. Any
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  Speaker 1: hotel or establishment with ten or more rooms could serve
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  Speaker 1: alcohol on Sundays as long as lunch was provided well.
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  Speaker 1: It didn't take long for the loophole to widen enough
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  Speaker 1: for everyone, regardless of social status, to walk on through.
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  Speaker 1: Dive bars Suddenly became private clubs with memberships. Rooms barely
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  Speaker 1: big enough to fit a bed were built into add
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  Speaker 1: a and basements, and a new sandwich was born, the
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  Speaker 1: rains sandwich. It was more substantial than the usual bar
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  Speaker 1: fare of peanuts and pretzels, and the authorities didn't mind it.
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  Speaker 1: Neither the comps nor the courts fought these new hotels
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  Speaker 1: or lodging houses for exploiting the law to their benefit,
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  Speaker 1: and as they sprouted up all over the city, the
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  Speaker 1: rain sandwich craze spread with it. Now, the thing about
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  Speaker 1: the sandwich was that its ingredients always changed depending on
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  Speaker 1: who was making it. Sometimes it would be made with
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  Speaker 1: cold cuts that were so old they had shriveled into
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  Speaker 1: dried jerky, or cheese covered in spots of green mold.
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  Speaker 1: The bread was often too stale and crusty to stay together.
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  Speaker 1: At the Waldorf Astoria hotel, where New York society came
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  Speaker 1: to schmooze and booze, the sandwich was made with old
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  Speaker 1: meat patties. A few bars even made the rain sandwich
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  Speaker 1: using nothing more than a brick and two slices of bread,
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  Speaker 1: and as one person finished their drink, the so called
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  Speaker 1: sandwich would be whisked off to another table with a
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  Speaker 1: fresh glass. The point of the sandwich wasn't to eat it,
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  Speaker 1: It was so patrons could order a meal to drink
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  Speaker 1: according to the law. Unfortunately, the good times didn't last forever.
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  Speaker 1: The man who had written the law, Senator John W. Raines,
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  Speaker 1: realized that he had to close the loophole. The following year,
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  Speaker 1: amendments were made that made it almost impossible for the
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  Speaker 1: poor and middle class to get a drink on Sundays,
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  Speaker 1: and so once again it became a luxury meant only
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  Speaker 1: for the rich, and the cops and lawmakers backed off.
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  Speaker 1: Part of the deal centered around the price of the
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  Speaker 1: rain sandwich, which skyrocketed by fifty to the era of
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  Speaker 1: poor men and women spending their days on a bar
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  Speaker 1: stool shooting the breeze had faded into the past, and
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  Speaker 1: as most New Yorkers came to realize, there was no
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  Speaker 1: free lunch either. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour
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  Speaker 1: of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
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  Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
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  Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky
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  Speaker 1: in partnership with how Stuff Works, I make another award
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  Speaker 1: winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series,
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  Speaker 1: and television show and you can learn all about it
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  Speaker 1: over at the world of Lore dot com. And until
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  Speaker 1: next time, stay curious. Yeah,