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Toot Toot · 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. Everybody has a hidden talent, something that they
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  Speaker 1: can do that sets them apart from everyone else. It
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  Speaker 1: might be juggling, or playing the musical instruments, or singing
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  Speaker 1: something they're not known for but can break out at
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  Speaker 1: birthday parties or road trips. But it's rare for someone
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  Speaker 1: to make a living at their hidden talent, especially if
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  Speaker 1: it's one they might be ashamed of. Roland had won
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  Speaker 1: such talent what we might all a knack for funny sounds.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, it was a skill that he parlayed into
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  Speaker 1: a gig as a court jester for King Henry the
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  Speaker 1: Second of England in the middle of the twelfth century.
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  Speaker 1: The king was so enamored with Roland's ability that he
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  Speaker 1: gave him a large home in the village of Hemmingstone
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  Speaker 1: in Suffolk, as well as thirty acres of land so
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  Speaker 1: what had Roland done to earn such a grand wage.
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  Speaker 1: He was required to perform for the King's court every
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  Speaker 1: Christmas in an act that was described as one jump,
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  Speaker 1: one whistle, and one fart. Roland, you see, was best
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  Speaker 1: known as Roland the Farter, and he was a professional
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  Speaker 1: flatte list. And he wasn't the only one. Hundreds of
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  Speaker 1: years earlier, stories had been written about people who could
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  Speaker 1: break wind at the drop of a hat. In Japan,
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  Speaker 1: between the twelfth and fourteen centuries, there were stories of
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  Speaker 1: a man named Fukutomi no Oribe who performed elaborate fart
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  Speaker 1: dances for a Japanese aristocracy, and the tradition continued well
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  Speaker 1: into the eighteen hundreds. Joseph Peugeot from France certainly made
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  Speaker 1: a good living too in his own horn. Joseph's father
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  Speaker 1: had been a sculptor, but probably didn't expect his son
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  Speaker 1: to go into such an explosive line of work. But
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  Speaker 1: Joseph did well for himself. He first discovered his unique
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  Speaker 1: talent at a young age while visiting the beach. He
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  Speaker 1: had gone for a swim and had taken a deep
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  Speaker 1: breath before ducking under the water. As he floated beneath
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  Speaker 1: the sea, he felt something cold entering him from behind.
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  Speaker 1: He immediately ran out of the water, only to find
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  Speaker 1: some of the sea leaking out of him the way
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  Speaker 1: it had come in. When he got older, he figured
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  Speaker 1: out that he could suck in air the same way.
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  Speaker 1: Joseph eventually found work as a baker, but he didn't
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  Speaker 1: let his day job get in the way of his passion.
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  Speaker 1: He often pretended to play musical instruments for the customers
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  Speaker 1: from behind the counter. Little did they know that he
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  Speaker 1: actually had turned his rear end into a special kind
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  Speaker 1: of trumpet. His daily performances led him to believe that
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  Speaker 1: he could parlay his skills from the bakery to the stage. Today,
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  Speaker 1: such an act would be seen as crass or low brow. Well,
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  Speaker 1: people thought the same thing back, and he teen seven too,
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  Speaker 1: and they loved it. His act grew so popular that
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  Speaker 1: he took it to Paris and began performing at the
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  Speaker 1: renowned Mulan Rouge. Dressed in a red coat and white gloves,
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  Speaker 1: lou Pete Dumano, as he called himself, warmed things up
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  Speaker 1: with some light flatulence. He would call out each break
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  Speaker 1: of wind with a whimsical name or description. For example,
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  Speaker 1: He introduced the sound of bride might make at her wedding,
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  Speaker 1: and then let out a tiny squeak. He also imitated
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  Speaker 1: a dressmaker ripping a long piece of fabric by ripping
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  Speaker 1: a fart that was ten seconds long. He extinguished candles
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  Speaker 1: from several feet away. He played popular songs from his rear, and,
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  Speaker 1: just as his forefathers had done hundreds of years earlier,
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  Speaker 1: performed for royalty from all over Europe. Joseph's piece to resistance,
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  Speaker 1: by the way, was his impression of a cannon blast,
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  Speaker 1: which he fired out of his behind with all his might.
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  Speaker 1: The good news was that none of his tooths smelled,
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  Speaker 1: but that didn't stop women from fainting at the sound
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  Speaker 1: of them. It got so bad nerves were hired to
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  Speaker 1: stand by and carry female guests into the hall after
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  Speaker 1: they had passed out. Despite the dramatic response, though Joseph
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  Speaker 1: packed them in at the Moulin Rouge. At his peak,
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  Speaker 1: he brought in twenty tho francs per show. Eventually, his
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  Speaker 1: act got so big he started touring on his own,
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  Speaker 1: performing for audiences until the start of World War One.
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  Speaker 1: The war efforts forced him into early retirement and back
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  Speaker 1: to his first love baking. He even opened a biscuit
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  Speaker 1: factory in Toulon before his death in nine But don't worry,
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  Speaker 1: they were real, not air biscuits. Value, like beauty, is
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  Speaker 1: in the eye of the beholder. Even though a certain
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  Speaker 1: object may not be worth a lot of money, it
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  Speaker 1: may have immeasurable sentimental value. A family photo album, baby's blankets,
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  Speaker 1: and a high school football trophy won't earn anything from Southby's,
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  Speaker 1: but not having them would devastate their owners. But what
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  Speaker 1: does a person do when the thing they are given
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  Speaker 1: isn't only worth a lot of money but priceless. Sal
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  Speaker 1: Dominic knew exactly what they would do. They'd hold onto it.
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  Speaker 1: Dominic was born in nineteen o four in Figures, Catalonia,
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  Speaker 1: in Spain, just along the French border. He took an
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  Speaker 1: interest to the arts, much to the chagrin of his father,
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  Speaker 1: who was a strict disciplinarian. His mother, however, supported her
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  Speaker 1: son's passions wholeheartedly. Dominic had also had an older brother
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  Speaker 1: who had died almost a year before he was born,
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  Speaker 1: though he never met him. The weight of that child's
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  Speaker 1: death hung heavily among the family, including and especially on
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  Speaker 1: the young Dominic, as he got older, he was given
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  Speaker 1: the opportunity to truly explore his artistic side when he
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  Speaker 1: enrolled at the municipal drawing school at Figueires in nineteen sixteen. Surprisingly,
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  Speaker 1: it was his father who turned the family home into
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  Speaker 1: a gallery the following year to support his son endeavors.
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  Speaker 1: He put up his charcoal drawings for visitors to admire.
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  Speaker 1: Not long after, Dominic had a more traditional exhibition at
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  Speaker 1: a local theater. He started to discover himself in college.
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  Speaker 1: In the early nineteen twenties, he moved to Madrid and
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  Speaker 1: developed a new look for himself, one that was not
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  Speaker 1: met kindly by his classmates. He was an odd fellow
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  Speaker 1: who grew his hair out and wore a long coat
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  Speaker 1: with stockings. In other words, he dressed like a dandy.
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  Speaker 1: But he was talented, and he surrounded himself with others
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  Speaker 1: like himself. One of his deepest friendships was with Spanish
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  Speaker 1: poet and playwright Frederico Garcia Lorca, which they maintained until
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  Speaker 1: Lorca's untimely death during the Spanish Civil War in nineteen
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  Speaker 1: thirty six. In nineteen twenty two, Dominic earned an art
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  Speaker 1: education like no other. He began spending his sundays at
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  Speaker 1: the famed Prado Museum in Madrid, studying the paintings of
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  Speaker 1: the old masters. He'd sit and sketch, learning how they
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  Speaker 1: formed their shapes and used their colors. But the museum
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  Speaker 1: wasn't the only thing that had an influence on him.
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  Speaker 1: His own work was being shaped by the ever changing
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  Speaker 1: art movements around him. Cubism had been popular in places
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  Speaker 1: like Paris, but hadn't yet made its way to Madrid.
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  Speaker 1: Dominic changed that while also experimenting with more avant garde
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  Speaker 1: movements like futurism and data. As time went on, the
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  Speaker 1: young artists continued to hone his skills, meeting many of
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  Speaker 1: his contemporaries throughout his journey. These were painters who would
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  Speaker 1: go on to become legends in their own right, like
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  Speaker 1: Pablo Picasso and John Miro, and word of his talent
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  Speaker 1: soon began to expand beyond his circle of friends. Dominic's
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  Speaker 1: reputation often preceded him wherever he went. As he moved
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  Speaker 1: away from Cubism and realism and deeper into surrealist imagery,
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  Speaker 1: the eccentric artists started creating his own personal style. He
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  Speaker 1: even moved beyond paintings into other mediums, such as film.
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  Speaker 1: Despite Dominic's success, his father resented his behavior. For one,
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  Speaker 1: the artist had entered into a relationship with a woman
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  Speaker 1: ten years younger than himself. He had also exhibited a
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  Speaker 1: drawing that depicted an outline of Jesus Christ titled sometimes
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  Speaker 1: I Spit with Pleasure on the portrait of my mother.
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  Speaker 1: The title had been a part of the persona he'd
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  Speaker 1: made for himself to fit in with his art scene friends.
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  Speaker 1: His father didn't care who he was trying to impress.
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  Speaker 1: His son had brought shame on the family. Dominic refused
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  Speaker 1: to apologize for the sketch, and turn, his father kicked
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  Speaker 1: him out of the home and removed him from his will.
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  Speaker 1: His father may have disapproved of them, but Dominic's paintings
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  Speaker 1: and drawings continued to gather a claim, turning him into
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  Speaker 1: quite the celebrity. He often dined in upscale restaurants, surrounded
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  Speaker 1: by friends and peers as other diners gaucked. Of course,
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  Speaker 1: those meals added up, and when the waiter would bring
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  Speaker 1: the check, Dominic had no compunctions about paying for the
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  Speaker 1: whole table. Now being a celebrity, it wasn't unheard of
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  Speaker 1: for him to get a free meal every now and then,
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  Speaker 1: but for the instances when he would in fact have
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  Speaker 1: to pay the full amount, he came up with a
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  Speaker 1: fool proof way to avoid spending any money. He would
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  Speaker 1: take out his checkbook, right out the amount for the bill,
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  Speaker 1: and then sketch a little doodle on the back in
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  Speaker 1: a way he was making a bet that the restaurant
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  Speaker 1: wouldn't cash a check with a piece of original art
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  Speaker 1: by sal Dominic otherwise known as Salvador Dolli, And more
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  Speaker 1: often than not it was a bet he won. 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 Manky 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 World
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  Speaker 1: of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.
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  Speaker 1: Ye