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Awfully Convenient · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
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  Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
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  Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
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  Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
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  Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: One twelve Ocean Avenue in Long Island, New York. Five
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  Speaker 1: twenty five South Winchester Boulevard in San Jose, California. Two
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  Speaker 1: thirty Second Street in Fall River, Massachusetts. What do these
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  Speaker 1: addresses have in common? There are some of the most
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  Speaker 1: famous haunted houses in America. You probably know them better
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  Speaker 1: by different names. They're the locations of the Amityville Horror,
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  Speaker 1: the Winchester Mystery House, and the home of Lizzie Borden.
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  Speaker 1: These days, all three are popular tourist destinations, and the
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  Speaker 1: last two are fully functional museums. But there's another locale
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  Speaker 1: you might not know about which has a similarly spooky background.
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  Speaker 1: It sits at five twenty nine North Charles Street in Baltimore, Maryland,
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  Speaker 1: and it flies under the radar because well, it's a
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  Speaker 1: seven to eleven. Now I know what you're thinking fluorescent lights,
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  Speaker 1: slurpy machines and cheap lighters are not spooky. But I
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  Speaker 1: beg to differ. There's simply a facade over the building's
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  Speaker 1: dark history. You see five twenty nine North Charles Street.
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  Speaker 1: Wasn't always a convenience store. It used to be a
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  Speaker 1: boarding house, and way back in eighteen ninety, the owner
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  Speaker 1: welcomed in three guests, Charles Kinnard, Elijah Bond, and Helen Peters.
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  Speaker 1: Now Charles was a businessman and he had a new
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  Speaker 1: product in the works. He invited Elijah, a local investor,
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  Speaker 1: to check out the prototype, mostly because he wanted Elijah's
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  Speaker 1: sister in law, Helen, to come along too. She had
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  Speaker 1: a special Helen that Charles could make use of. When
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  Speaker 1: Elijah and Helen arrived at the boarding house, Charles led
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  Speaker 1: them into his room. Inside, the curtains were drawn, the
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  Speaker 1: space was dimly lit by candles. There was a table
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  Speaker 1: in the center of the room, surrounded by three chairs,
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  Speaker 1: and on the table sat aboard which was inscribed with
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  Speaker 1: the letters of the alphabet and numbers zero through nine
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  Speaker 1: and the words yes and no. Besides that was a
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  Speaker 1: heart shaped plank called a planchette. The trio sat down.
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  Speaker 1: They each lightly rested two fingers on the planchet, and
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  Speaker 1: Helen closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She
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  Speaker 1: said she could feel power emanating from the board. The
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  Speaker 1: men believed her, after all, she was a self proclaimed
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  Speaker 1: psychic medium. That's why Charles wanted her to begin with.
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  Speaker 1: And then Helen opened her eyes and looked at the
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  Speaker 1: business man. She wanted to know if there were any
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  Speaker 1: particular questions that they should ask the board, and Charles
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  Speaker 1: said yes, he needed to know what the product wanted
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  Speaker 1: to be called. That way he could brand it and
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  Speaker 1: advertise it. Helen spoke this request out loud, and as
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  Speaker 1: if by magic, the planchet slowly began to move across
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  Speaker 1: the board. It paused on five different letters, spelling out
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  Speaker 1: a word that none of them had ever heard before,
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  Speaker 1: o U I JA. Baffled, the group asked what the
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  Speaker 1: word meant. The planchet began to move again, this time
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  Speaker 1: spelling a more familiar phrase, goodbye. It seemed that the
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  Speaker 1: board was done talking. Charles stood up, flipped on the lights,
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  Speaker 1: and blew out the candles. He had gotten exactly what
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  Speaker 1: he wanted, another worldly name for his spooky product. But
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  Speaker 1: before this board could hit the shelves, he needed to
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  Speaker 1: get a patent. Luckily, Elijah and Helen agreed to help.
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  Speaker 1: All three of them brought the invention the Ouija or
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  Speaker 1: Ouiji Board, depending on who you ask, to the US
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  Speaker 1: Patent Office in Washington, d C. The following year. Government
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  Speaker 1: officials were not entirely convinced of the board's power until
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  Speaker 1: they placed their fingers on the planchet. That is, as
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  Speaker 1: the legend goes, Helen also rested her hand on the
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  Speaker 1: wooden plank and encouraged the patent officers to ask the
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  Speaker 1: board questions. Somehow, be it ghostly intervention or Helen's own hand,
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  Speaker 1: the Ouiji Board answered every question correctly. Charles left that
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  Speaker 1: day with his patent. The Ouiji board was an instant hit.
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  Speaker 1: First marketed as a legitimate tool for contact the the dead,
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  Speaker 1: it soon became a favorite children's toy too. Towing the
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  Speaker 1: line between being a harmless game and a demonic portal,
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  Speaker 1: the Ouiji board has provided generations of players with both
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  Speaker 1: fun and fright, and it all began inside a modern
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  Speaker 1: day convenience store. So if you ever happen to stop
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  Speaker 1: by that Baltimore seven to eleven look for a silver
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  Speaker 1: plaque on the wall that details the building's history. Unlike
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  Speaker 1: most gas stations, this one's a one stop shop for
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  Speaker 1: fountain drinks, candy bars, and scary stories. Do me a
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  Speaker 1: favor and imagine that you're twelve years old, your parents
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  Speaker 1: are asleep, and you creep into the living room, switch
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  Speaker 1: on the TV, and are confronted by the most unsettling
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  Speaker 1: thing you have ever seen. There's a floating head on
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  Speaker 1: the television screen. It shrouded in shadows, but you can
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  Speaker 1: tell its expression is contorted into a scream. The head
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  Speaker 1: shakes left to right, as if saying no, over and
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  Speaker 1: over again. Meanwhile, a high pitched ringing sound plays in
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  Speaker 1: the background. Suddenly, the head multiplies and a grid of
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  Speaker 1: terrified expressions fill the screen. It's soon replaced by a
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  Speaker 1: close up of a fly which seems to be biting
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  Speaker 1: someone's hand. The head appears again, and the hand rips
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  Speaker 1: the screaming face right off, leaving behind an open mouthed skull.
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  Speaker 1: The image slowly fades, making room for the name of
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  Speaker 1: the TV show written in neon yellow block letters, Late
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  Speaker 1: Night Horror. On April eleventh of nineteen sixty eight, this
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  Speaker 1: opening sequence was viewed by about one point eight million
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  Speaker 1: million people in the United Kingdom. Late Night Horror was
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  Speaker 1: a new BBC anthology series. Episodes featured everything from haunted houses,
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  Speaker 1: to vampires to a brain kept alive in a jar.
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  Speaker 1: It was the first horror show to ever be shot
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  Speaker 1: in color, and it marked the first time that blood
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  Speaker 1: ran red on television. Perhaps because of this, it was
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  Speaker 1: also highly controversial. Naturally, the BBC received letters from viewers
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  Speaker 1: complaining that the show had traumatized their children. They said
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  Speaker 1: it was too terrifying to be shown on television. Now
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  Speaker 1: to mention that the BBC is and was publicly funded,
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  Speaker 1: British morality advocates were furious that their tax dollars were
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  Speaker 1: being spent on such depraved entertainment. After just six episodes,
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  Speaker 1: Late Night Horror came to an end, and the show
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  Speaker 1: wasn't just canceled, the very tapes got destroyed. Late Night
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  Speaker 1: Horror became one of the most well known examples of
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  Speaker 1: lost media. Now. Rumor had it that the program was
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  Speaker 1: wiped because it was too scary, But the truth is
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  Speaker 1: more complicated than that. You see, it's estimated that as
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  Speaker 1: much as seventy percent of television made between the nineteen
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  Speaker 1: fifties and seventies is now lost. Over two hundred and
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  Speaker 1: fifty episodes of Doctor Who are Gone, as are some
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  Speaker 1: of the earliest appearances of The Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
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  Speaker 1: And I know what you're wondering, Why on earth would
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  Speaker 1: this stuff get destroyed? Well, it comes down to how
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  Speaker 1: people used to view television. In the mid twentieth century.
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  Speaker 1: TV was considered low brow. Broadcasts were meant to be
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  Speaker 1: watched once and then forgotten. Maybe more importantly, though, the
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  Speaker 1: tapes that TV programs were recorded on were really expensive.
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  Speaker 1: The BBC couldn't afford an unlimited amount of tapes, so
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  Speaker 1: when they wanted to make something new, they often had
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  Speaker 1: to record over something else. That's likely what happened to
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  Speaker 1: Late Night Horror. It was sacrificed to make space for
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  Speaker 1: a different program. But to paraphrase HP. Lovecraft, there's nothing
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  Speaker 1: humans fear more than the unknown. The fact that Late
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  Speaker 1: Night Horror is impossible to watch only made it scarier.
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  Speaker 1: But then something changed. In the nineteen eighties, a media
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  Speaker 1: collector named Chris Perry was combing through catalogs for rare
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  Speaker 1: tapes and a listing caught his eye. Someone claimed to
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  Speaker 1: have a reel of a single episode of Late Night
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  Speaker 1: Horror titled The Corpse Can't Play. It's believe the copy
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  Speaker 1: was sent abroad for foreign viewing before the BBC's own
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  Speaker 1: tapes were destroyed, and Chris, as you might imagine, was
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  Speaker 1: a static. He called the seller, only to discover that
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  Speaker 1: the tape had been purchased five minutes earlier. The worst
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  Speaker 1: part the buyer was anonymous. The episode had slipped right
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  Speaker 1: through his fingers. He didn't hear a word about it
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  Speaker 1: for the next thirty years, and then in twenty sixteen
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  Speaker 1: he found the exact same copy of The Corpse Can't
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  Speaker 1: Play listed on eBay. It seemed like the current owner
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  Speaker 1: didn't understand its weight because they were selling it for
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  Speaker 1: a mere eighty five pounds. Chris immediately bought the reel
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  Speaker 1: and handed it over to the British Film Institute. After that,
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  Speaker 1: experts restored the tape, and in twenty seventeen, The Corpse
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  Speaker 1: Can't Play was screened for a live audience. For the
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  Speaker 1: first time in nearly fifty years, people watched a television
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  Speaker 1: program that was once believed to be lost, and you
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  Speaker 1: can even check it out for yourself now. Too. DVD
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  Speaker 1: copies can be ordered online, and there are still five
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  Speaker 1: other episodes of Late Night Horror that have never been recovered,
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  Speaker 1: but the fact that one has been found gives me hope.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe history scariest TV show is still out there somewhere,
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  Speaker 1: just waiting to terrify a new generation of viewers. 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
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  Speaker 1: the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show
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  Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how
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  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 Worldolore
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  Speaker 1: dot com. And until next time, stay curious.