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The Director · 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.
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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.
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  Speaker 1: China is a massive country with a recorded history stretching
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  Speaker 1: back thousands of years, but it wasn't always one big,
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  Speaker 1: united nation. In ancient times, it was made up of
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  Speaker 1: many smaller kingdoms, and it took one man, the First Emperor,
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  Speaker 1: to unite them all. But the First Emperor, despite his accomplishments,
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  Speaker 1: was not a beloved figure. He was as cruel as
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  Speaker 1: he was visionary. When most leaders die, they are treated
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  Speaker 1: to a state funeral, But when the First Emperor died,
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  Speaker 1: his people did something very curious with the body. She
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  Speaker 1: Wan d became king of the province of Chin when
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  Speaker 1: he was only thirteen years old in two forty seven BC.
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  Speaker 1: That name actually means First Emperor, and so obviously it
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  Speaker 1: wasn't his real name, but we'll keep using it since
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  Speaker 1: it's the name that he's best known by in history.
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  Speaker 1: When he was about twenty one, his chief adviser and
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  Speaker 1: his mother both tried to overthrow his rule. There's some
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  Speaker 1: historical evidence that his adviser was actually his real father
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  Speaker 1: rather than the previous king rough parents right, But amazingly,
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  Speaker 1: Shei wan D stopped the coup. His advisor's slash father
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  Speaker 1: killed himself, and his mother was imprisoned. This whole experience
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  Speaker 1: obviously traumatized she wan D. He became inspired by a
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  Speaker 1: philosophy known today as legalism, the idea that humans are
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  Speaker 1: inherently selfish and require a strong central government to rule
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  Speaker 1: over and punish them. Having experienced to childhood where his
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  Speaker 1: own parents were so greedy that they turned on him,
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  Speaker 1: she wand was ready to believe in the inherent evilness
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  Speaker 1: of human beings. The only way that he could ever
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  Speaker 1: feel safe was if he ruled over all people. Now,
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  Speaker 1: there were seven states in China at the time, and
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  Speaker 1: they were all constantly fighting with each other. Part of
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  Speaker 1: this was because they all followed a strict code of
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  Speaker 1: honor that meant battles had to be fought in a
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  Speaker 1: certain way. They would all line up in a field,
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  Speaker 1: giving each other a chance to get into formation, and
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  Speaker 1: then they would attack, and so battles were almost more
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  Speaker 1: like chess games played between two knights than a true
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  Speaker 1: attempt to completely defeat one another. But Shiwandi's legalism beliefs
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  Speaker 1: meant that he would not be able to abide by
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  Speaker 1: these rules. He would fight as ruthlessly as possible to
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  Speaker 1: ensure that everyone fell under his own thumb. Why spend
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  Speaker 1: his life trusting greedy kings to follow codes of honor
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  Speaker 1: when he could just eliminate those kings entirely. By two
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  Speaker 1: twenty one BC, he had conquered all seven kingdoms and
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  Speaker 1: declared himself emperor over it all, and at first China
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  Speaker 1: prospered under his rule in what became known as the
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  Speaker 1: Qin Dynasty. His strong centralized system of governments efficiently administered
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  Speaker 1: the entire country, growing the provinces and undertaking several large
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  Speaker 1: building projects. He even built what would become the Great
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  Speaker 1: Wall of China, protecting the kingdoms from foreign invaders. But
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  Speaker 1: even with all this power and a giant wall to
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  Speaker 1: protect him, Shiwandi still didn't feel safe. It bothered him
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  Speaker 1: that there were still those in the kingdom who would
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  Speaker 1: speak out against his rule and his legalism philosophy, and
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  Speaker 1: so He instigated a brutal crackdown on any human expression
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  Speaker 1: that contradicted him or his beliefs. He had many people
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  Speaker 1: killed and burned historical texts. He wanted to make it
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  Speaker 1: as if there had only ever been one China, his China.
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  Speaker 1: As the years went on, Shiwandi fended off multiple assassination attempts.
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  Speaker 1: His own mortality weighed on him. He constructed a massive
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  Speaker 1: palace for himself, which was to serve as his tomb
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  Speaker 1: if his enemies ever defeated him. He had eight thousand
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  Speaker 1: terracotta warriors constructed around that tomb, so that even in death,
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  Speaker 1: he would have an army to protect him. But he
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  Speaker 1: wasn't dead yet. Shiwandi next traveled throughout China looking for
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  Speaker 1: a way to make himself immortal. He drank a variety
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  Speaker 1: of strange concoctions, some of them containing substances that we
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  Speaker 1: now know to be harmful, including toxins like mercury. The
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  Speaker 1: irony is that in his quest for immortality, he may
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  Speaker 1: have cut his life short while on this tour through China.
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  Speaker 1: He died suddenly in two eleven BC, leaving no will
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  Speaker 1: for instructions as to who should take his place. Now
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  Speaker 1: none of shi Wangdi's servants mourned his passing. They didn't
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  Speaker 1: like the guy, but they worried what would happen if
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  Speaker 1: the Seven Kingdoms found out that he was dead with
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  Speaker 1: no designated air and so as they continued to travel,
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  Speaker 1: they hid his body inside his carriage, changing his clothes
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  Speaker 1: for weeks and pretending to feed him. They kept baskets
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  Speaker 1: of smelly fish near the carriage to cover up the
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  Speaker 1: smell of the rotting body, and once they finally got
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  Speaker 1: back to the capitol, they wrote up a fake will
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  Speaker 1: that declared one of the emperor's more impressionable sons to
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  Speaker 1: t take his place. Unfortunately, the new young emperor had
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  Speaker 1: all of his father's temperament and none of his father's vision,
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  Speaker 1: and was soon deposed. Despite all of Shiwandi's machinations, the
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  Speaker 1: Qin dynasty only lasted fifteen years. It was replaced by
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  Speaker 1: the Han dynasty, which came to power in twoo two BC.
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  Speaker 1: The Han dynasty was known for being much more open minded,
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  Speaker 1: incorporating a variety of philosophies from across China. As such,
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  Speaker 1: it lasted for over two centuries. It's curious that even
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  Speaker 1: though it was the Qin dynasty that united China. It
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  Speaker 1: was the Han dynasty that actually made its people see
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  Speaker 1: themselves as one. Allan was a nobody when he arrived
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  Speaker 1: in Hollywood hoping to see his name in lights. He
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  Speaker 1: wasn't one of the millions of kids with dreams of
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  Speaker 1: becoming an actor. Alan was going to be a director,
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  Speaker 1: the kind who made movies that were personal and bold,
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  Speaker 1: that audiences lined up to see on opening weekends. This
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  Speaker 1: was the late nineteen sixties when directors were becoming stars
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  Speaker 1: in their own right. It was the era of the tour.
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  Speaker 1: The French word meaning author used in film to describe
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  Speaker 1: directors whose style and vision are so strong the movie
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  Speaker 1: feels like their personal creation. Think Steven Spielberg or Wes Anderson.
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  Speaker 1: And in this era, the director's vision often outranked the producer,
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  Speaker 1: the screenwriter, and even the studio. And these tours weren't
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  Speaker 1: just making art house films. They were directing mega hits
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  Speaker 1: with massive budgets. Stanley Kubrick had just released two thousand
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  Speaker 1: and one, A Space Odyssey, and Francis Ford Coppola would
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  Speaker 1: soon make The Godfather. These were the kinds of directors
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  Speaker 1: shaping Hollywood's future, and every young filmmaker wanted to be
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  Speaker 1: one of them, so Alan got his chance with The
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  Speaker 1: nineteen sixty nine Death of a Gunfighter, a gritty, character
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  Speaker 1: driven western that blended old school shootouts with modern themes.
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  Speaker 1: The film's original director had had a falling out with
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  Speaker 1: a star and was fired mid production. Alan was brought
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  Speaker 1: on to finish the film, and while it was his
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  Speaker 1: first time behind the camera, he pulled it off amazingly.
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  Speaker 1: The film was a modest success and earned strong reviews
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  Speaker 1: with critics. Roger Ebert praised the direction while admitting that
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  Speaker 1: he had never heard of the filmmaker before, and he
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  Speaker 1: wasn't alone. Before this film, almost no one in Hollywood
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  Speaker 1: knew the name Alan Smithy, but now the whole town
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  Speaker 1: would be watching his career, and what a career it was.
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  Speaker 1: Over the next few decades, Alan worked in almost every
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  Speaker 1: genre imaginable, directing splashy action flicks, expensive sci fi thrillers,
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  Speaker 1: quiet dramas, and dark comedies. A few of his movies
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  Speaker 1: belonged to massive franchises, too, like the Twilight Zone movie
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  Speaker 1: and Bird's Two Lands End, a sequel to the Alfred
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  Speaker 1: Hitchcock classic. He dabbled in television and animation, as well,
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  Speaker 1: directing episodes of mcgiver and even Tiny Toons Adventures. But
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  Speaker 1: despite the growing credits, Alan remained something of a miss.
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  Speaker 1: He never gave interviews, never appeared in behind the scenes footage,
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  Speaker 1: and avoided the spotlight entirely. While other directors built public personas,
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  Speaker 1: Alan stayed firmly behind the camera. As for the work itself,
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  Speaker 1: while the results were mixed, There were a few modest successes,
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  Speaker 1: but most of his films failed to impress audiences. One
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  Speaker 1: of his lowest points came with the nineteen ninety seven
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  Speaker 1: Burn Hollywood Burn, a satire about a director losing control
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  Speaker 1: of his own movie. It was panned by critics and
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  Speaker 1: swept at the Razzies, winning five awards there, including Worst
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  Speaker 1: Picture and Worst Director, but somehow Alan kept getting hired.
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  Speaker 1: The strangest thing about his career wasn't just the number
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  Speaker 1: of duds. It was how wildly inconsistent his movies were.
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  Speaker 1: One film would be loud and over the top, and
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  Speaker 1: the next would be quiet and serious. Some were cheap,
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  Speaker 1: made for TV soap operas, while others had big stars
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  Speaker 1: and even bigger budgets. While he was born out of
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  Speaker 1: the autur era, Alan had no signature's style of his own.
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  Speaker 1: His films didn't even feel like they were made by
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  Speaker 1: the same person, which made sense because in reality they weren't.
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  Speaker 1: I said, Alan Smithee came to Hollywood a nobody, and
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  Speaker 1: that was true. He was always a nobody because he
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  Speaker 1: literally did not exist. Alan Smithe was a pseudonym created
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  Speaker 1: by the Director's Guild of America in nineteen sixty eight
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  Speaker 1: and used whenever a director wanted to disown a film
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  Speaker 1: they were making. If a movie had been re edited, rewritten,
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  Speaker 1: or altered so much that it no longer reflected the
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  Speaker 1: director's vision, they could simply ask to have their name removed,
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  Speaker 1: but the Guild required a name to appear in the credits,
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  Speaker 1: and so they invented one. And that's why Alan's filmography
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  Speaker 1: is so inconsistent and why so many of his movies
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  Speaker 1: turned out to be disasters. The fact that he's credited
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  Speaker 1: on over one hundred projects is a testament to just
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  Speaker 1: how often movies spiral out of control. His IMDb page
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  Speaker 1: is a graveyard of Hollywood fi. But at least the
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  Speaker 1: films got finished, and maybe there's a lesson in that,
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  Speaker 1: because for a guy who never existed, Alan Smithey has
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  Speaker 1: had one of the longest and most prolific careers in Hollywood.
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  Speaker 1: No ego, no drama, no vision, and always available. Maybe
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  Speaker 1: that's the real secret to surviving in the film industry.
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  Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
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  Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
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  Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
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  Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership
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  Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
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  Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show,
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  Speaker 1: and you can learn all about it over at the
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  Speaker 1: Worldoflore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.