Latest / Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities / Blame It on the Boogie

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Blame It on the Boogie · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
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  Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild.
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  Speaker 2: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
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  Speaker 2: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
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  Speaker 2: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
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  Speaker 2: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Traditions are more than
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  Speaker 2: just things we do because we've always done them. For example,
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  Speaker 2: Native American traditions are rich with lessons on how to
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  Speaker 2: respect and connect with the natural world. In doing so,
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  Speaker 2: many Native people gain an understanding of how their own
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  Speaker 2: lives intertwine with the world around them. As an example,
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  Speaker 2: members of the Ajibwe tribe of North America passed down
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  Speaker 2: a legend related to one of the biggest parts of
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  Speaker 2: everyday life life sleep. Most people don't think asleep is
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  Speaker 2: something strongly connected to the natural world around us, but
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  Speaker 2: this legend urges us to look at things differently, and
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  Speaker 2: it even gives rise to a mystical item that you
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  Speaker 2: might have in your home today. The legend goes something
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  Speaker 2: like this, There once was a woman named Asi Bikashi
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  Speaker 2: who watched over every creature on earth while they slept.
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  Speaker 2: She was known to protect infants and children especially, but
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  Speaker 2: she wasn't protecting them from wild animals, ghosts, or even monsters.
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  Speaker 2: She was protecting them from bad dreams. Native peoples believed
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  Speaker 2: that dreams were a force of energy that surrounded a
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  Speaker 2: person while they slept. That energy then caused the person
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  Speaker 2: to see visions in their unconscious state, and so Asi
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  Speaker 2: Bagashi wove delicate silken nets over children's cribs. These nets
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  Speaker 2: trap negative energy so that it couldn't give the children
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  Speaker 2: scary visions. She used her hands to make sure the
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  Speaker 2: nets were strong enough to catch bad energy, but also
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  Speaker 2: soft and soothing enough to sleep under. Because of the
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  Speaker 2: net's elegant, weblike design, Asi Bagashi earned the nickname the
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  Speaker 2: Spider Woman. After a long RESTful night, it was Asi
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  Speaker 2: Bagashi's job to put the sun back into the sky,
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  Speaker 2: another way that she controlled the good energy over the people.
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  Speaker 1: That she cared for. This was Asi Bagashi's job for
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  Speaker 1: a long time, but at a certain point, the Ajibwe
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  Speaker 1: people began to migrate further and further throughout the land,
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  Speaker 1: and this made it harder for her to spread sunlight
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  Speaker 1: to all of her people. She couldn't do it on
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  Speaker 1: her own, so she asked tribal mothers and grandmothers to help.
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  Speaker 1: Asi Bagashi knew that mothers and grandmothers were strong yet
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  Speaker 1: gentle enough to protect children and babies just like she did,
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  Speaker 1: but they didn't possess the same power of web making.
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  Speaker 1: So Asi Bagashi got creative. She came up with a
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  Speaker 1: way for the people to make webs like hers that
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  Speaker 1: they could take with them anywhere now. At first, she
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  Speaker 1: told the mothers and grandmothers to find a thin piece
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  Speaker 1: of willow and bend it into a circle, and then
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  Speaker 1: she showed them how to use the sinew, likely from
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  Speaker 1: a buffalo, to weave a web within that circle. To
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  Speaker 1: make the webb extra special for children, some women decorated
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  Speaker 1: theirs with feathers, beads, and charms. Willow and sinyw weren't
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  Speaker 1: strong enough to last forever, though the willow would dry out,
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  Speaker 1: and that when that happened, the strands of sinu would collapse.
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  Speaker 1: But that was the point. Asi Bagashi knew that youth
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  Speaker 1: was temporary, so these webs were designed to fall apart
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  Speaker 1: as children grew up and became strong enough to confront
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  Speaker 1: their own bad dreams themselves but even grown ups needed
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  Speaker 1: to help dealing with scary things from time to time,
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  Speaker 1: so many a Jibwa people began to weave webs entirely
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  Speaker 1: from fiber so that they would last longer. These kind
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  Speaker 1: of webs are still used today. You've probably seen them
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  Speaker 1: and may have even had one of your own. Today,
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  Speaker 1: they're called dreamcatchers. Whether or not you believe that different
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  Speaker 1: forms of energy exist, dream catchers can still provide comfort.
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  Speaker 1: They're a symbol of love and protection that mothers provide
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  Speaker 1: for their children, and they're a reminder of Indigenous people's
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  Speaker 1: sense of community and their knowledge of natural resources, a
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  Speaker 1: lesson to be sure that all of us could take
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  Speaker 1: comfort in. Fans will do anything for the artist they love,
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  Speaker 1: sneaking into concerts, buying bootleg merchandise, anything to get closer
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  Speaker 1: to their favorite artist. For some music lovers, however, that's
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  Speaker 1: not far enough. They don't want to just listen to
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  Speaker 1: an artist music or buy their T shirts. They want
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  Speaker 1: to get to know the artists themselves. After all. Fan
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  Speaker 1: is short for fanatic, and a real fanatic wouldn't let
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  Speaker 1: anything come between them and their idol. The year was
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  Speaker 1: nineteen twenty six and twenty one year old Thomas Fatz
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  Speaker 1: Waller was on top of the world. His jazz career
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  Speaker 1: was taking off. He'd been asked to headline the College In,
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  Speaker 1: one of Chicago's most famous jazz clubs, and word was
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  Speaker 1: getting around about the talented pianist with the rapid fire jokes.
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  Speaker 1: Every night, more and more well healed Chicagoans were packing
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  Speaker 1: in to see them. What Fats didn't know was that
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  Speaker 1: one particular jazz enthusiast had become intrigued by his talents.
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  Speaker 1: Instead of going out to see Fats at the College In,
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  Speaker 1: this man was going to bring Fats to him, whether
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  Speaker 1: Fats liked it or not. One night, after a particularly
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  Speaker 1: rock as set, Fats was leaving the stage door for
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  Speaker 1: the College In when he felt something hard and cold
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  Speaker 1: poking into his abdomen. He realized, with mounting horror that
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  Speaker 1: he was surrounded by four suited men, and one of
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  Speaker 1: them was pressing a revolver right into his stomach. The
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  Speaker 1: four men forced Fats into a waiting limousine and told
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  Speaker 1: the driver to head for East Cicero, a suburb of Chicago. Now,
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  Speaker 1: as you might imagine, Fats didn't know what to think.
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  Speaker 1: He had heard of the fearsome Chicago bob who ran
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  Speaker 1: with guns, liquor, and any other smuggled goods that could
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  Speaker 1: get their hands on in the prohibition city. Yet he
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  Speaker 1: couldn't think of what that had to do with him.
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  Speaker 1: He was a jazz pianist, not a gun slingers. As
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  Speaker 1: the limousine drove deeper into the night, Fats worried that
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  Speaker 1: this would be the last ride he would ever take. Finally,
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  Speaker 1: the car pulled up to a nondescript venue in Cicero,
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  Speaker 1: and Fats was forced out once more at gunpoint and
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  Speaker 1: ushered through the door. Inside, he was surprised to find
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  Speaker 1: a party in full swing. The four black suited men
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  Speaker 1: shoved him towards the piano and told him to play,
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  Speaker 1: so Fats Waller played as if his life depended on it.
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  Speaker 1: After the first few songs, he finally dared to look
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  Speaker 1: at the crowd, who were dancing, singing, and cheering with enthusiasm,
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  Speaker 1: And when he did, he was surprised to see a
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  Speaker 1: familiar face at the back of the room, one that
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  Speaker 1: he had seen plastered on wanted posters and newspapers. There
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  Speaker 1: clapping and cheering. The loudest of all was Chicago mob
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  Speaker 1: boss al Capone. It turned out that Fats wasn't in
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  Speaker 1: danger at all. Al Capone was famously a huge fan
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  Speaker 1: of jazz, often booking the biggest acts of the day
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  Speaker 1: to play in his underground Speakeasies Louis Armstrong, Count Bassie,
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  Speaker 1: and Billie Holliday all performed in al Capone's clubs. Al
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  Speaker 1: had heard about Fat's residency at the college in and
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  Speaker 1: so as a surprise for his birthday, four of his
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  Speaker 1: henchmen had decided to bring him a private performance by
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  Speaker 1: Fats Waller as a present. Too bad, they forgot to
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  Speaker 1: ask Fats about it first. Understanding that his life was
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  Speaker 1: no longer at risk, Fats was able to relax and
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  Speaker 1: enjoy the party. The gangsters plied him with mountains of
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  Speaker 1: food and glass after glass of expensive vintage champagne. Although
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  Speaker 1: he tried to leave several times, Capone and his boys
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  Speaker 1: kept convincing him to stay, offering him a tip of
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  Speaker 1: one hundred dollars per song. He reportedly stayed for three days,
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  Speaker 1: taking breaks from playing only to nap on the piano bench. Finally,
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  Speaker 1: the gangsters set Fats Waller free, allowing him to take
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  Speaker 1: the limousine back to the College in they deposited him
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  Speaker 1: back where they found him exhausted, drunk on champagne and
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  Speaker 1: several thousand dollars richer. Fats went on after his kidnapping
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  Speaker 1: by Capone to have a storied career and a huge
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  Speaker 1: impact on jazz piano. He wrote several Broadway musicals and
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  Speaker 1: hundreds of songs, including the jazz standards Honeysuckle Rose, and
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  Speaker 1: Ain't Misbehaving. Things could have gone very differently for Fats Waller. Thankfully,
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  Speaker 1: when al Capone ordered him to blow them away, he
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  Speaker 1: was just talking about the music. I hope you've enjoyed
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  Speaker 1: today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show
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  Speaker 1: by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created
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  Speaker 1: by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works.
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  Speaker 1: I make another award winning show called Lore, which is
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  Speaker 1: a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can
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  Speaker 1: learn all about it over at the Worldoflore dot com.
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  Speaker 1: And until next time, stay curious.