Latest / Ridiculous History / London's Tiger King, Part Two: Charles Jamrach Becomes a Problematic Hero

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London's Tiger King, Part Two: Charles Jamrach Becomes a Problematic Hero · Ridiculous History

0:00
Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
0:27
Speaker 1: back to the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always
0:30
Speaker 1: so much for tuning in. Tigers, Tigers, Tigers, Man, I
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Speaker 1: am excited about this. I hope are super producer. The
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Speaker 1: one and only Mr Max Williams is excited as well.
0:42
Speaker 1: Who am I? I'm Ben Noel. Tigers Tigers, Tigers burning
0:47
Speaker 1: bright or at least one burning pretty bright? Not in
0:50
Speaker 1: the was it forest of the night? Been in the
0:52
Speaker 1: streets of London town And what better introduction is there
0:57
Speaker 1: for part two of our show on Charles jam Rock
1:02
Speaker 1: in eighteen fifty seven, at the high point of his success,
1:06
Speaker 1: he gets his crown jewel, a fully grown Bengal tiger
1:12
Speaker 1: that came to England from the East Indies. This takes
1:17
Speaker 1: us to that morning we talked about the very top,
1:20
Speaker 1: the morning of October when the tiger and several other
1:24
Speaker 1: large feelines by the way arrives at the Belt Street Nagerie.
1:30
Speaker 1: It arrives in London and it immediately escapes because it's
1:34
Speaker 1: in this large crate that has um. If you picture,
1:38
Speaker 1: it's got three solid wood sides and then it's got
1:42
Speaker 1: one side with thick iron vertical bars across the front,
1:46
Speaker 1: and jam Rock has gone to this place in person
1:51
Speaker 1: because he wants to supervise the logistics of moving this
1:55
Speaker 1: tiger from its transport crate to its permanent enclosure. And
2:00
Speaker 1: so he says, Okay, let's position the crate so the
2:03
Speaker 1: bars are placed against the wall of the yard while
2:06
Speaker 1: we're getting its permanent home ready. And that sounded pretty safe, right,
2:13
Speaker 1: You got iron bars, you got it against the wall.
2:16
Speaker 1: But the thing is, jam Rock didn't have a lot
2:20
Speaker 1: of experience with the power of a fully grown tiger.
2:23
Speaker 1: And they're absolute beast and they're brilliant. I love tigers,
2:26
Speaker 1: by the way, and they were gonna, as he says
2:29
Speaker 1: later in an issue of a magazine called The Boy's
2:33
Speaker 1: Own Papers, yes seventy nine, I love these titles, uh,
2:39
Speaker 1: he says, he talks about this. He says, they mean
2:43
Speaker 1: the workers were proceeding to take down a dead with
2:46
Speaker 1: leopards when all of a sudden I heard a crash,
2:49
Speaker 1: and to my horror, found the big tiger and pushed
2:52
Speaker 1: out the back part of his dead with his hind quarters.
2:55
Speaker 1: He kind of donkey kicked it, you know, and was
2:57
Speaker 1: walking down the odd into the street. Which was then
3:00
Speaker 1: full of people watching the arrival of this curious merchandise. Dude,
3:05
Speaker 1: this reminds me of the opening scene of Jurassic Park,
3:07
Speaker 1: you know, and they're like transporting the velociraptor paddock or whatever.
3:11
Speaker 1: Maybe that was another up with the paddock of the
3:13
Speaker 1: thing they're actually living. Um, this was like a grate,
3:16
Speaker 1: you know, and then you sort of see all this
3:18
Speaker 1: crawfuffle and then the thing gets out. You just hear
3:20
Speaker 1: the sounds and then people are like, you know, murdered
3:22
Speaker 1: or whatever. This is like a little bit less sci
3:24
Speaker 1: fi version of that, but yeah, can you imagine seeing
3:27
Speaker 1: this fully grown, absolutely monstrous tiger just kind of sauntering
3:33
Speaker 1: down the high street? Yeah, yeah, that is a breathtaking image.
3:38
Speaker 1: I think the closest I've seen to that is a
3:41
Speaker 1: few years ago when a zebra got loose from the
3:43
Speaker 1: Atlanta Zoo and was out in the city. Um, but
3:47
Speaker 1: this this stuff does happen, uh, And a zebra is
3:50
Speaker 1: still a wild animal, don't mess with them, but it's
3:52
Speaker 1: not as likely to malu as a tiger. So this
3:57
Speaker 1: is like, uh, increasingly escalating situation and just gets worse
4:02
Speaker 1: and worse because the tiger who as you noticed, kind
4:04
Speaker 1: of sauntering around like oh this is there's a different environment,
4:09
Speaker 1: sees a nine year old boy. Because the boy, who
4:13
Speaker 1: has also had no experience with the tiger to to
4:16
Speaker 1: this kid, it's just a big cat. So he tries
4:19
Speaker 1: to reach out and just give the cat a little pet.
4:22
Speaker 1: As it's walking past, the tiger notices it. The tiger
4:26
Speaker 1: turns and then uh, the the tiger slaps the kid
4:33
Speaker 1: across the face, knocking him down, picks him up by
4:37
Speaker 1: his jacket, and it just like starts dragging him down
4:40
Speaker 1: the street. It's the shoulder of his jacket, I think.
4:43
Speaker 1: And the kid is is freaking out. Uh. And then
4:47
Speaker 1: jam Rock and again there might be some bias here
4:50
Speaker 1: because jam Rock is telling his own story to the boy,
4:53
Speaker 1: his own paper. Uh, he says, he springs into immediate action, Yeah,
4:58
Speaker 1: he says. When I saw the boy being carried off
5:00
Speaker 1: in this manner and witnessed the panic that had seized
5:03
Speaker 1: hold of the people, without further thought, I dashed after
5:06
Speaker 1: the brute. I was then of a more vigorous frame
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Speaker 1: than now, uh, and had plenty of pluck and dash
5:13
Speaker 1: in me. So just again into like kind of like
5:16
Speaker 1: sum up what was happening. We we say the tiger
5:19
Speaker 1: had the boy in his mouth, but it's almost like cartoonist, right,
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Speaker 1: Like the tigers like holding the boy by like the
5:25
Speaker 1: scruff of his jacket, right, and that's what's in his mouth,
5:28
Speaker 1: and it's holding the boy up, but he has not
5:30
Speaker 1: actually sunk his teeth into the actual you know kid,
5:34
Speaker 1: in the kid's body. Um. So at this point it's
5:37
Speaker 1: absolute pandemonium. The crowds dispersing, people are running for their lives.
5:41
Speaker 1: Jam Rock, you know, sprinting in his more uh youthful
5:44
Speaker 1: limber form as he put it, or vigorous rather sprinting
5:48
Speaker 1: after the tiger. Um. He throws himself onto the tiger's back.
5:53
Speaker 1: I mean, this is some pretty heavy type stuff if
5:55
Speaker 1: it wasn't like, you know, his fault in the first place. Um.
5:59
Speaker 1: And he grabs the tiger and by the scruff of
6:01
Speaker 1: his neck, like I mean, that seems like a little
6:03
Speaker 1: bit of a wasted effort. Uh. And and understandably it
6:05
Speaker 1: doesn't do much. The tiger is incredibly strong and it's
6:09
Speaker 1: like you know, mechanical bull style tosses jam Rock off
6:13
Speaker 1: his back uh and into the streets and retains hold
6:17
Speaker 1: of the boy in his teeth. Yeah, yeah, And so
6:20
Speaker 1: this is a panic moment, uh Max, I know you've
6:24
Speaker 1: got some action music here. This is a panic moment.
6:28
Speaker 1: Jam Rock tries a second time to stop the tiger,
6:31
Speaker 1: and this is when he gets creative. He tries to
6:33
Speaker 1: trip it and it works, and you know, it's lost
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Speaker 1: to history about how he manages to trip it, but
6:41
Speaker 1: I like to picture him just sticking his foot out.
6:43
Speaker 1: But as the tiger falls to the ground, jam Rock
6:46
Speaker 1: then jumps back on its back and he puts his
6:49
Speaker 1: hands around its neck and he's trying to strangle it.
6:52
Speaker 1: And as he's trying to put it to sleep, one
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Speaker 1: of the workers from his menagerie yard runs over and
6:59
Speaker 1: hits it three times over the head with a crow
7:03
Speaker 1: bar right between the eyes, and then this causes the
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Speaker 1: tiger to release the kid his jaws opened, and then
7:09
Speaker 1: at this point jam Rock says, you know, I thought
7:12
Speaker 1: the tiger was dead or it was dying, so I
7:15
Speaker 1: let go of it. And as soon as I did,
7:17
Speaker 1: it jumped back up again. And then he's like, oh no.
7:20
Speaker 1: When he grabbed the crowbar, and he says, I gave
7:23
Speaker 1: him with all the strength I had left a blow
7:25
Speaker 1: over the head. He seemed quite cowed. He turned tail.
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Speaker 1: He went back towards the stables. I drove him into
7:31
Speaker 1: the yard, closed the doors at once. Looking around for
7:34
Speaker 1: my tiger, I found he snuck into a large empty den. Uh.
7:37
Speaker 1: Two of my men had jumped into an elephant's box.
7:40
Speaker 1: They descended. They pushed down the the iron, sighting for
7:44
Speaker 1: the door, and so now the tiger was safely under
7:46
Speaker 1: lock and key. The boy is uninjured. They say the
7:49
Speaker 1: tiger is uninjured, but that tiger took three massive blows
7:54
Speaker 1: to the head with a crow bar, just to give
7:56
Speaker 1: you a sense of how rough these dudes are. Now, Listen,
7:58
Speaker 1: I'm not like some kind of like with the top
8:00
Speaker 1: Peter person. I believe in animal rights. Like obviously it's
8:03
Speaker 1: a very very important thing. These are living creatures that
8:06
Speaker 1: need to be treated with respect. I think sometimes the
8:08
Speaker 1: Peter folks go a little far. But in this case,
8:11
Speaker 1: this is literally a situation that was caused by jam
8:13
Speaker 1: Rock himself and his capitalization and essentially victimization of these
8:18
Speaker 1: creatures that would never have had to be dealt with
8:22
Speaker 1: in this way if he hadn't to put them in
8:23
Speaker 1: that situation in the first place. So essentially he was
8:27
Speaker 1: Like I I used the word heroic earlier. That was
8:29
Speaker 1: absolutely incorrect. I mean, the guy is essentially trying to
8:33
Speaker 1: keep himself and having to deal with a pr nightmare
8:35
Speaker 1: and in doing so, you know, absolutely bludgeoning to death
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Speaker 1: this uh, this incredible creature that he put in harm's
8:42
Speaker 1: way and everyone else in harm's way because he took
8:46
Speaker 1: this thing out of its normal context and it's not
8:48
Speaker 1: meant to be roaming the streets of London or like
8:51
Speaker 1: you know, traveling around him crates. Yeah, in my opinion,
8:55
Speaker 1: the tiger here is just as much uh, the victim
9:00
Speaker 1: as the boy. It's not the first time a tiger
9:03
Speaker 1: had been loose on that same street. One escaped from
9:07
Speaker 1: one of those traveling menagerie as we mentioned back in
9:10
Speaker 1: eighteen thirty nine. George George Well womb Well that's his
9:14
Speaker 1: real name, folks, George well womb Wells traveling Menagerie. Their
9:18
Speaker 1: tiger got loose. Uh. Yeah, the kid just had some
9:21
Speaker 1: scratches and probably a headache and a heck of a
9:24
Speaker 1: story for his schoolmates. There is one interesting wrinkle. The
9:35
Speaker 1: BBC points this out in uh When Wild Beast Roam
9:39
Speaker 1: The UK BBC News piece. They note that, you know,
9:44
Speaker 1: there was a lot of racism involved in the British
9:47
Speaker 1: Empire at the time, and England in eighteen fifty seven
9:52
Speaker 1: was in the grid of a panic because of the
9:55
Speaker 1: Indian Mutiny, and a tiger was a symbol of India,
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Speaker 1: so it was an especially symbolic frightening thing to see
10:03
Speaker 1: this tiger and loot loose in London, and one newspaper
10:07
Speaker 1: account from the time even explicitly drew this connection. But
10:12
Speaker 1: at this point, the tiger survived, jam Rocks survived, He
10:17
Speaker 1: had a little bit of a Liam Nisson esque story
10:19
Speaker 1: to tell his friends, and the child survived. But what
10:23
Speaker 1: happens after Well, the boy's father sues jam Rock, and
10:29
Speaker 1: jam Rock has to pay a grand total of three
10:33
Speaker 1: hundred pounds sixty pounds compensation, two forty pounds legal costs.
10:38
Speaker 1: We've got an inflation calculator on this, I think good. Yeah,
10:47
Speaker 1: so about sixty pounds by today's standard would be about
10:51
Speaker 1: seven grand, and two hundred and forty pounds would be
10:54
Speaker 1: around twenty eight thousand, five hundred dollars. So at this way, Ben,
11:00
Speaker 1: wouldn't you say that jam Rock himself because of his success? Uh?
11:04
Speaker 1: And um relationships with all of these like super super
11:07
Speaker 1: upper crest folks. He would have been pretty upper crest
11:09
Speaker 1: at this point, right. Oh yeah, he was making money, yeah,
11:12
Speaker 1: and was essentially protected from any real um ramifications for
11:17
Speaker 1: this incident. This was an utter slap on the wrist
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Speaker 1: of that. Yeah, it's not breaking the bank for him
11:22
Speaker 1: at all. Also, it's kind of it's darkly hilarious to
11:25
Speaker 1: me that they're like, Okay, seven thousand dollars is are
11:29
Speaker 1: sorry about the tiger money and uh, the almost thirty
11:32
Speaker 1: thou dollars just administrative fees. You know, it's like buying
11:36
Speaker 1: from ticketmaster. Uh, I said it. But the the judge, Uh,
11:41
Speaker 1: it's interesting the point you made, because the judge himself
11:44
Speaker 1: was conflicted because yeah, this is a dangerous incident. It
11:49
Speaker 1: is jam Rock's fault. But he also said, you know,
11:53
Speaker 1: this guy, on the other hand, should have been rewarded
11:56
Speaker 1: for saving not just the life of this nine year old,
11:58
Speaker 1: but maybe that of a lot other people. Because look,
12:02
Speaker 1: I I don't know how in shape you are, but unarmed,
12:05
Speaker 1: I guarantee you you cannot you cannot win a one
12:09
Speaker 1: on one against the Tiger. Um A. Nope, not not
12:14
Speaker 1: not in a foot race, not an arm wrestling, certainly
12:17
Speaker 1: not in hand to paw combat. Uh, you are going
12:20
Speaker 1: to lose. I just looked it up. Like according to Google,
12:23
Speaker 1: like a Bengal tiger is like three ten to four pounds. Yeah,
12:27
Speaker 1: this is a massive Like there are like of like
12:30
Speaker 1: you know cats. This is about as big of a
12:33
Speaker 1: cat as that comes. Yeah. Just uh yeah, just for perspective,
12:37
Speaker 1: if you if you want to think of it this way.
12:40
Speaker 1: A tiger is incredibly strong animal. It can carry something
12:45
Speaker 1: like five hundred and fifty ms ten ft up a
12:48
Speaker 1: tree for all of us in the US is one thousand,
12:53
Speaker 1: two hundred and twelve pounds. That's what do you even lift? Cat? Bro?
12:58
Speaker 1: You know what I mean, That's what the tiger would
13:00
Speaker 1: ask you. So this is not the end of jam
13:04
Speaker 1: rocks financial standing nor of his career. Like you said,
13:08
Speaker 1: it doesn't break his bank. The tiger later gets sold
13:12
Speaker 1: to that George Wombwell guy. And I've seen his name
13:15
Speaker 1: as George Well Wombwell and George Wombwell, but I love
13:19
Speaker 1: George Well womb Well, so I hope that's his real name. Uh.
13:22
Speaker 1: This guy made money off of that incident. Just like
13:27
Speaker 1: we said with the the earlier folks who said, oh
13:30
Speaker 1: look this lie and actually killed someone. This is the
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Speaker 1: tiger that escaped and roamed the streets, menacing the good
13:36
Speaker 1: people of London town. He even swallowed a bar whole.
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Speaker 1: Just ain't the whole boy? Yeah, I mean, let's let's
13:44
Speaker 1: let's not that the facts stand on the way of
13:45
Speaker 1: a good story, right exactly. And then jam Rock even
13:49
Speaker 1: partners so he expands his collection. His business is still growing,
13:54
Speaker 1: his client list is still growing. He eventually gets P. T.
13:58
Speaker 1: Barnum as a client and helps Barnum restock his circus
14:01
Speaker 1: after a fire. But while he is succeeding, his business
14:06
Speaker 1: is succeeding in specific, in general, the exotic animal trade
14:12
Speaker 1: is starting to die down. People are less and less
14:15
Speaker 1: interested in exotic animals, or not as much as they
14:18
Speaker 1: have been in the past. Jam Rock passes away of eight,
14:23
Speaker 1: and just like what happened with his father, his son
14:26
Speaker 1: Albert takes over after his death. But then we see
14:31
Speaker 1: the outbreak of World War one. World War one absolutely
14:36
Speaker 1: demolishes the international trade networks that made this animal trade possible.
14:41
Speaker 1: So the company closes down and this ends the chapter. Well,
14:46
Speaker 1: this ends the main chapter on the life of London's
14:50
Speaker 1: Tiger King. He's gone, but he's very much not forgotten.
14:54
Speaker 1: I'm so sorry to be the bearer of bad news,
14:57
Speaker 1: but I do believe it was a type of the
14:59
Speaker 1: gentleman's name is George Wombwell, not George Well walm Well,
15:03
Speaker 1: but Well walm Well. Oh. I mean it needs to
15:07
Speaker 1: be kept because it's incredible. I just wanted to make
15:09
Speaker 1: sure people weren't googling it and beating their head against
15:12
Speaker 1: the wall because you're not gonna find it. But uh,
15:14
Speaker 1: it's a it's a fantastic type of that shell live
15:16
Speaker 1: on in our hearts. Okay, listen, Well, I think we've
15:19
Speaker 1: been at some logger heads in this episode. First I'm
15:22
Speaker 1: gonna say those restaurants are named after Charles jam Rock,
15:25
Speaker 1: and secondly, i'm gonna say his name was George Well Walmwell.
15:27
Speaker 1: Because I want to live in a world with some magic,
15:30
Speaker 1: and I want to live there with you, buddy, I
15:31
Speaker 1: want to live there with you. Uh far be it
15:34
Speaker 1: for me to suck any magic out of the world.
15:36
Speaker 1: We need every little ounce that we can. But jam
15:39
Speaker 1: rocks memory does remain today. You can find a statue
15:43
Speaker 1: commemorating his contribution to the culture of Victoria, England. Uh.
15:48
Speaker 1: And well, I guess I don't know if I would
15:51
Speaker 1: can entirely call it selfless, but his rescue of that boy,
15:55
Speaker 1: you know that he himself was responsible putting in harm's way.
15:58
Speaker 1: There is a set even foots tall bronze tiger that
16:02
Speaker 1: stands in the entrance to Tobacco Dock. Uh. And that's
16:05
Speaker 1: very close to where the incident took place, and it's
16:07
Speaker 1: memorialized also with like a little plaque. But this was
16:10
Speaker 1: not the only time that jam Rocks business potentially threatened
16:15
Speaker 1: the safety and well being of others, right, Oh yeah,
16:20
Speaker 1: lions and tigers and bears, oh my, also raccoons so
16:26
Speaker 1: so uh in eighteen seventies seven July of eighteen seventy seven,
16:30
Speaker 1: there's his report in the East London Observer And you
16:33
Speaker 1: can read this reference in a great article by london
16:36
Speaker 1: This dot com that talks about how one of jam
16:39
Speaker 1: Rocks other tigers escaped from a train on the London
16:43
Speaker 1: and Northwestern Railway in a village called Whedon near Northampton. Uh.
16:47
Speaker 1: And then three lions escaped from his shop and found
16:53
Speaker 1: his wife Mary in a nearby parlor. Uh. He managed
16:58
Speaker 1: to he managed to yell like marry lions in enough
17:02
Speaker 1: time for her to close the door. Thanks hone, Thanks
17:07
Speaker 1: good looking out that door there. Okay, okay, back to
17:12
Speaker 1: back to what I was doing. Yeah, he he did.
17:16
Speaker 1: He did manage to to lock all the lions back
17:18
Speaker 1: up in a second bedroom, um where they stayed until
17:21
Speaker 1: he was able to get a handler to come and
17:23
Speaker 1: get them. Um, because he you know, well he was
17:26
Speaker 1: I guess he he had a certain set of skills, right,
17:29
Speaker 1: He was not necessarily a lion tamer or a handler.
17:32
Speaker 1: He employed you know, folks that were much more hands
17:35
Speaker 1: on with the with the animals. Um. But he did
17:37
Speaker 1: seem to have to kind of jump to attention a
17:39
Speaker 1: couple of times. And we also know that he had
17:42
Speaker 1: a raccoon that was known to have escaped from his care.
17:46
Speaker 1: Probably not didn't make quite as good a story. Um.
17:49
Speaker 1: We know the raccoons are pretty pretty tricksy though, right.
17:51
Speaker 1: They can like they get their little hands were crafty.
17:54
Speaker 1: They can like unlatched doors and stuff I would imagine,
17:57
Speaker 1: and they can walk, uh, they can walk bipedally. Briefly,
18:02
Speaker 1: you've probably seen that video of a raccoon stealing cat
18:06
Speaker 1: food in front of some cats. But when they do,
18:08
Speaker 1: they always look like they're scheming. That's the thing about raccoons.
18:11
Speaker 1: They look like the scheming. They look like they got
18:13
Speaker 1: you know, they're always doing this kind of Monty Burns thing,
18:16
Speaker 1: rubbing their hands together. Uh. I say that out of love,
18:19
Speaker 1: but uh there there is something else interesting we found too,
18:24
Speaker 1: which is an economic look at this. And I just
18:28
Speaker 1: picked one example that I thought would be a fun
18:30
Speaker 1: walk through. So we said he had a lot of stock.
18:33
Speaker 1: He he had more than just tigers, he had zebras, leopards, ostriches, bears,
18:39
Speaker 1: polar bears, et cetera. You name it. If the if
18:41
Speaker 1: you had the scratch, he could probably get it for you.
18:44
Speaker 1: So we found a article from the time that is
18:49
Speaker 1: available at the East End dot code dot UK which
18:53
Speaker 1: shows the prices of animals on offers, so you can
18:57
Speaker 1: find those prices. And I just thought we could do
19:00
Speaker 1: a quick example of this. So Nola Max Ny are
19:04
Speaker 1: looking at this list and the prices seem kind of odd,
19:10
Speaker 1: so I wanted to do a couple of steps. I
19:12
Speaker 1: just took one example. So a polar bear, if you
19:15
Speaker 1: wanted to buy one from jam Rock, was twenty five
19:18
Speaker 1: pounds twenty five pounds nowadays is thirty three dollars and
19:24
Speaker 1: five cents. So I thought, how much is thirty three
19:27
Speaker 1: dollars and five cents in eighteen fifty seven? If we
19:31
Speaker 1: can hit me with the book perfect, that is a
19:39
Speaker 1: grand total of Now this is weird, guys. Get this.
19:42
Speaker 1: That's a grand total of one thousand, fifty five dollars
19:45
Speaker 1: and eight cents, which is less than like a high
19:49
Speaker 1: end Mac laptop. So that's a crazy low price for
19:53
Speaker 1: a polar Bear, right doesn't that seem Yeah, it does
19:57
Speaker 1: seem low band, But it's sort of like owning a
19:59
Speaker 1: Bugatti or something, right, Like, you buy the car, but
20:02
Speaker 1: then there's this built in cost of ownership where you
20:05
Speaker 1: have to take it to a certain you know, Bugatti
20:06
Speaker 1: expert who does a certain type of you know regiment.
20:11
Speaker 1: They can't be done just by any auto technician, um
20:14
Speaker 1: such as the case. Can you imagine about how much
20:16
Speaker 1: like meat you would have to buy all the time.
20:18
Speaker 1: You don't just get polar bear food and feed it
20:20
Speaker 1: once a day. I mean, it would be a whole thing.
20:22
Speaker 1: So people that aren't considering that are going to have
20:24
Speaker 1: a weird, emaciated and very angry and ravenous polar bear
20:27
Speaker 1: on their hands. The most expensive of the things that
20:30
Speaker 1: we have on menu here was, in fact the tiger,
20:32
Speaker 1: which would have gone for around three hundred pounds at
20:35
Speaker 1: the time, which today um would be in the what
20:40
Speaker 1: tens of thousands? Yeah, so pound to a dollar And
20:43
Speaker 1: this is not perfect because I'm doing the conversions for
20:46
Speaker 1: the present pound of dollar difference, But three pounds today
20:50
Speaker 1: would be three hundred ninety six dollars and sixty six
20:53
Speaker 1: cents u s. Which means that in eighteen fifty seven
20:57
Speaker 1: a tiger would cost you the elevalent of twelve thousand,
21:01
Speaker 1: six hundred and seventy two dollars and fifty one cents,
21:04
Speaker 1: which is still less than a lot of cars. It's
21:07
Speaker 1: just like I was thinking of that maintenance point to
21:10
Speaker 1: It's something a lot of people forget. It's like one
21:12
Speaker 1: of the main reasons I don't own a dirigible um
21:16
Speaker 1: or a tiger. Well, you gotta have somewhere to tie
21:18
Speaker 1: it down first of all. Been and then like you know,
21:21
Speaker 1: how do you how do you abort it? Yeah? Go, So,
21:26
Speaker 1: how much was a porpoise from him? Because we established
21:28
Speaker 1: you get a porpoise, right, We did not establish that
21:30
Speaker 1: backs we we conjectured that it was entirely about he
21:33
Speaker 1: didn't seem to deal in the sea creatures. I haven't
21:35
Speaker 1: seen many of those. Have all these all seemed to
21:37
Speaker 1: be land dwelling. And that's why he's because, oh wow,
21:41
Speaker 1: well poor people can go see uh, can go observe
21:47
Speaker 1: maritime creatures. So maybe that was maybe that was part
21:51
Speaker 1: of his calculus there. Maybe he was like, I didn't
21:53
Speaker 1: want to buy anything that the average peasant could just
21:58
Speaker 1: observe from rocky shore somewhere, you know. I mean, I
22:03
Speaker 1: bet he would have gotten into our walls. That's a
22:05
Speaker 1: good point. It's a good I think the I think
22:07
Speaker 1: they were believed to be mystical creatures for a very
22:09
Speaker 1: long time. I personally thought they were mythical until literally
22:12
Speaker 1: a year or so ago, didn't. I mean the unicorns, So,
22:16
Speaker 1: I mean, it makes it makes sense for them to
22:18
Speaker 1: be mythical, but they're not. Also, that's a tooth that's
22:22
Speaker 1: not really a horn. That's one of their teeth. Yeah,
22:25
Speaker 1: not very functional though. It's I mean, it's a definite.
22:29
Speaker 1: It's a choice, I think is what we call. It's
22:32
Speaker 1: a choice. It's weird. I mean, I I love I
22:37
Speaker 1: love the ideas of UH. I love the ideas of
22:39
Speaker 1: an intelligent design that just eventually gets into this freestyle
22:43
Speaker 1: what do we have left over phase? You know with
22:46
Speaker 1: the flat words? Yeah, how about a how about like
22:49
Speaker 1: a sea cow that has one weird, giant, useless tooth.
22:54
Speaker 1: We gotta make one more thing. What do we have? Well,
22:57
Speaker 1: we got these uh, we got these like snake like insects,
23:01
Speaker 1: and then we got like hundreds of feet Alright, find centipedes.
23:06
Speaker 1: I'll just be a thing. So the fact that we
23:09
Speaker 1: keep on finding out more stuff about the platypus blows that.
23:12
Speaker 1: Like their bioluminescent now I know that that's what what?
23:17
Speaker 1: Why do they have like everything weird about them? Yeah,
23:22
Speaker 1: it's Australia. They're also poisonous. The very first menagerie that
23:35
Speaker 1: was recorded, it goes way back, like you were saying earlier,
23:38
Speaker 1: in old to the thirteenth century. The Tower of London
23:40
Speaker 1: Menagerie UH was first entered in the historical record way
23:44
Speaker 1: back in twelve ten CE, and it was known to
23:50
Speaker 1: house these elephants, these lions, hippos. Probably one of their
23:54
Speaker 1: most famous folks, like the Kobe of their team, was
23:58
Speaker 1: a polar bear. Which would swim in the tims, which
24:01
Speaker 1: I think is a cool sort of I think that's
24:05
Speaker 1: a cool idea. But also I think we're about to
24:09
Speaker 1: learn about one of the coolest jobs in London at
24:11
Speaker 1: the time. Yeah. One. I'm wondering though at this time
24:13
Speaker 1: where the were the famous Swans that some of the
24:16
Speaker 1: Thames that are also notoriously ill tempered. Where they coexisting
24:20
Speaker 1: with this polar bear at the time. I don't know.
24:22
Speaker 1: I have to find out looking a little deeper, but yeah,
24:24
Speaker 1: Alfred Copps was the keeper of the Tower Menagerie in
24:29
Speaker 1: eighteen twenty two, and on his watch, one of his underlings,
24:34
Speaker 1: a junior keeper, accidentally raised a door like an iron
24:38
Speaker 1: door that separated a lion and a tiger and a tigress,
24:42
Speaker 1: allowing them to you know, kind of com mingle into
24:45
Speaker 1: each other's habitats and get into a massive brawl like
24:49
Speaker 1: think like cartoon, you know, like dust brawl where you
24:54
Speaker 1: see the one poor beaten down creature crawling out and
24:57
Speaker 1: then h Paul reaches out and pulls back in by
25:00
Speaker 1: its dale. That's totally how this went down, no question
25:03
Speaker 1: about it. Um. They were separated using what is called
25:06
Speaker 1: here in this article in the London isst hot rods,
25:10
Speaker 1: but I assume that probably just means iron rods that
25:13
Speaker 1: were heated to you know, the glowing heat, uh and
25:17
Speaker 1: a fire. So again, very very brutal. But the lion
25:21
Speaker 1: died a few days later from the injuries that staying
25:24
Speaker 1: in the fight and also presumably maybe from being poked
25:27
Speaker 1: with hot rods. It would be kind of interesting, if
25:31
Speaker 1: highly anachronistic, if the hot rods were like race cars. Yeah,
25:37
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, we can, we can, Michael bay
25:39
Speaker 1: that one. Uh. We Also, I do want to take
25:42
Speaker 1: one second that would tell tell you guys about a book.
25:45
Speaker 1: We used to always be recommending um comic books and
25:48
Speaker 1: and other books. But I was thinking about interesting jobs
25:52
Speaker 1: in the Tower of London, and I've I've finished this
25:56
Speaker 1: book earlier this year called The Raven Master, which is
26:00
Speaker 1: all about the guy named Christopher Scaife whose entire job
26:04
Speaker 1: is to be in charge of the famous ravens at
26:07
Speaker 1: the Tower of London. It's a really cool read, and
26:10
Speaker 1: I wonder if he would be an interesting person to interview.
26:13
Speaker 1: Look at his fit man, Can guys see this on
26:15
Speaker 1: the camera? Look at that? That's a flex? Oh obviously?
26:19
Speaker 1: Oh yes, exactly. Those are the famous tower guards that
26:24
Speaker 1: you can't get him to crack a smile. He uh he,
26:27
Speaker 1: he writes like he is probably a lot of fun
26:29
Speaker 1: to hang out with. But but yes, the Tower of
26:33
Speaker 1: London is amazing. It has this history of interactions with animals,
26:39
Speaker 1: and we know that there were more more problems with
26:43
Speaker 1: the menagerie at the Tower of London. Uh what was
26:47
Speaker 1: it like? The Leads Times that reported aid at large
26:51
Speaker 1: and furious wolf had managed to escape the menagerie and
26:55
Speaker 1: it was on its way to the drawbridge and they
26:58
Speaker 1: had to like shut the gate down to stop it
27:01
Speaker 1: from getting into the city. And then apparently it was
27:05
Speaker 1: in such a bad mood that when people forced it
27:08
Speaker 1: back into the tower, it found a nearby terrier dog
27:12
Speaker 1: and picked it up and then just shook it around
27:14
Speaker 1: and then let it go, Like Okay, but I know
27:16
Speaker 1: it's not your fault. I was just I'm just not
27:19
Speaker 1: having the best day. Yikes. Why is this series full
27:24
Speaker 1: of like animals grabbing things and shaking them and letting
27:27
Speaker 1: them go. A it's a it's a thing that animals are.
27:30
Speaker 1: They're very into doing. Like you said, Ben, we are
27:33
Speaker 1: both fond of our cats. Fond maybe being a strong word.
27:36
Speaker 1: We definitely love them at there are times where they
27:38
Speaker 1: might grab one of our prize possessions in their jaws
27:40
Speaker 1: and shake them back and forth until exactly it's just
27:44
Speaker 1: it's just part of who they are as creatures, and
27:47
Speaker 1: we have to to learn to to live with it. Um,
27:50
Speaker 1: but I am excited. I adopted a kitten earlier this
27:53
Speaker 1: year and it is pretty much crossed over into no
27:56
Speaker 1: longer a kitten territory. And while kittens are real cute,
27:59
Speaker 1: they're also a resolutely feral and psychotic. And I'm super
28:02
Speaker 1: happy that she's gotten a little bit more chill over
28:05
Speaker 1: the last couple of months. So can congratulations to you
28:08
Speaker 1: ven s A. You've you finally become a woman? Yeah,
28:11
Speaker 1: my cat's kind of getting that way too. Um, she's
28:13
Speaker 1: finally starting to get a little way from kidd into
28:16
Speaker 1: a little more like adults. But she's also six and
28:18
Speaker 1: a half, so late bloomer. Yeah, and I don't know
28:22
Speaker 1: how much she's still Yeah. As always, folks, feel free
28:27
Speaker 1: to go by ridiculous historians on Facebook and post pictures
28:32
Speaker 1: of your pets bonus points if they look like they're
28:34
Speaker 1: in some weird historical context. Uh, photoshop allowed. I'll say
28:38
Speaker 1: photoshop allowed. It'll be like The Boy's Own Paper, which
28:42
Speaker 1: was a mix of factual and fictional stories. I don't
28:47
Speaker 1: know why I'm gonna be wondering about the title of
28:49
Speaker 1: that magazine for the rest of the day. And we
28:52
Speaker 1: have other stuff to do today, you know, like a
28:55
Speaker 1: lot of people, we're we're working to close out the
28:58
Speaker 1: books before the end to the year. But we have
29:01
Speaker 1: had such a wonderful wild ride this year, despite a
29:07
Speaker 1: global pandemic, despite you know, um, despite personal things that
29:13
Speaker 1: have happened to us, and all of us listening along
29:16
Speaker 1: at home, We're really glad you're here. UM. No offense
29:20
Speaker 1: to uh myself, Noel or Max, but we agree you
29:24
Speaker 1: are the best part of this show, uh, and we
29:27
Speaker 1: cannot wait to hear from you. So thanks as always
29:30
Speaker 1: to our superproducer, Mr Max Williams, Thanks of course to
29:34
Speaker 1: Casey Pegram and Noel. Thanks to you. You know, one
29:38
Speaker 1: thing you could you one thing we can say about
29:40
Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is that, at no point in the history
29:45
Speaker 1: of our show have we ever been responsible for a
29:48
Speaker 1: tiger getting let loose into a city, unless unless I
29:53
Speaker 1: missed an email. No, I think we can definitely say
29:56
Speaker 1: that with confidence. Um uh and nothing even remote we
30:00
Speaker 1: approaching that level of irresponsibility. So good on us, Ben,
30:04
Speaker 1: good on us, and good on you Ridiculous Historians for
30:08
Speaker 1: making it through this two part episode. Uh, it was
30:10
Speaker 1: a journey for sure, and we're glad to have taken
30:12
Speaker 1: it together. You can, in fact find us on the internet. Well,
30:16
Speaker 1: you have a Facebook group, it's called Ridiculous Historians. Check
30:19
Speaker 1: that out. And while you're on the internet, why not
30:21
Speaker 1: pop on over to Apple Podcasts and leave us a
30:23
Speaker 1: five star glowing review. Name us by name, tell tell
30:26
Speaker 1: us how much you you you you enjoy our company
30:28
Speaker 1: as much as we enjoy yours, hopefully, And if you don't, then,
30:30
Speaker 1: you know, just take the rabbits advice from Bambi. And
30:34
Speaker 1: if you don't have anything nice to say, just you know,
30:37
Speaker 1: don't say say anything. Leave us to our review and
30:39
Speaker 1: move on. And of course, uh, big, big thanks to
30:43
Speaker 1: one of our our favorite tigers loose on the streets
30:46
Speaker 1: of Atlanta as we speak, the quister, Mr Jonathan Strickland.
30:51
Speaker 1: Also shout out to our good pals at Ridiculous Romance,
30:54
Speaker 1: Eli and Diana. Give them a listen. Max, you listen
30:58
Speaker 1: to this show recently. You were telling me about that
31:00
Speaker 1: at uh you were telling me about that while we
31:02
Speaker 1: were at a hot dice game. I think, yes, yes, yes,
31:05
Speaker 1: a hot dice game at our company Christmas party. That
31:08
Speaker 1: took ay Uber down and I was like, I was
31:11
Speaker 1: listening to the podcast and you guys always say like, oh, yeah,
31:13
Speaker 1: they're a lot funnier than us, and I was listening
31:15
Speaker 1: to and I'm like, wow, they're way better producing a
31:17
Speaker 1: podcast than me too, So this is all around a
31:21
Speaker 1: better podcast. But you know, we're glad you guys keep
31:25
Speaker 1: coming back here for us for some reason. Damn Max,
31:29
Speaker 1: damn wait, No, we're you know what, We're okay too.
31:35
Speaker 1: That's how we're gonna end it. We are okay too.
31:40
Speaker 1: We'll see you next time, folks. For more podcasts for
31:50
Speaker 1: my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
31:52
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,