December 29, 2020 • 10 mins
Life gives us a lot ot chew on, as today's tour through the Cabinet will show us.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
(00:27):
of Curiosities. There are places on this earth so haunted
you might think they were created that way. The Winchester
Mystery House, for example, built by Heiress Sarah Winchester, is
supposedly haunted by the ghosts of every person who has
(00:48):
ever been killed with a Winchester rifle. With the money
her husband left her after his death, Sarah renovated her
home until it was seven stories tall, comprised of staircases
to nowhere and allow brenth of hallways why to confuse
the ghosts. Meanwhile, in the North Atlantic plains and ships
traveling through the Bermuda Triangle are often lost at sea,
(01:10):
never to be found again. Some claim the Bermuda Triangle
has been the site of extraterrestrial activity, while others believe
a ghostly paranormal force is to blame. Whatever has caused
the disappearances, Though has healthy area earned its other nickname,
the Devil's Triangle. But there is another Haunted Triangle, this
one located in the unlikeliest of places, Beverly Hills, California.
(01:34):
Between the streets of North Linden Drive and North Whittier Drive,
is a tiny patch of land across its well manicured
lawn or half a dozen palm trees, as though a
desert island just sprang up one day in the middle
of the suburbs. Its history as a mainstay of Haunted Hollywood, though,
can be traced back to aviator and filmmaker Howard Hughes
in nine Hughes was no stranger to the sky. When
(01:58):
the time came to test his prototype x F eleven
aircraft on July seven of that year. He had already
been flying for over twenty five years. He took off
in the x F eleven from his airfield in Culver City, California,
and flew longer than he probably should have. After an
hour in the air, the propellers started to malfunction, causing
the plane to pull to the right. It was going
(02:19):
down fast, and Hughes needed a safe place to land,
so he headed toward Los Angeles country Club. It's big
open greens would have provided the perfect place for a
crash landing, but the XF eleven wasn't going to make it. Instead,
Hughes found himself flying over Beverly Hills Triangle, skidding across
the tops of three houses on North Whittier Drive. He
(02:41):
managed to survive, but barely. He pulled himself from the
wreckage as the fuel tanks exploded. The accident caused several
broken bones, and Hughes suffered from third degree burns. One
year later, another episode struck the area. Bugsy Siegel, the
infamous gangster and founder of the Murder inc crimes in
the Kids, was visiting his girlfriend, Virginia Hill. Hill lived
(03:03):
in Beverly Hills, just across the street from the Triangle.
On the night of June, someone fired several thirty caliber
rounds from an M one carbine rifle through the window,
killing seagull. It's been alleged that Bugsy had been stealing
from the mob, but no one knows quite for sure
why he was targeted that night. The murder is still
unsolved to this day, and the incidents only added to
(03:25):
the triangles mythos. But perhaps the strangest occurrence attributed to
the Triangle involved one half of the nineteen sixties surf
group Jan and Dean. It was April twelfth of nineteen
sixty six and Jan Barry was driving his Corvette along
Whittier Drive. He had driven past the Triangle on his
way to a business meeting when he came to the
intersection at Whittier and Sunset Boulevard, also known as dead
(03:47):
Man's Curve. Barry was speeding that day and lost control
of the car. He drove it straight into a park truck,
totaling the Corvette and nearly losing his life. In fact,
the paramedics who first arrived at the crash I thought
he was dead. Barry spent the next two months in
a coma, finally waking up on June six of nineteen
sixty six. He lost most of the use of his
(04:10):
right arm and had to learn to walk again due
to the brain damage and partial paralysis caused by the accident.
Berry eventually recovered and returned to the studio a year later.
Jan and Dean were known for several hit songs during
the sixties, including Little Old Lady from Pasadena Surf City
and a tune about a young man who races his
(04:30):
corvette against another driver. In the song, the singer and
the unknown race driver zoom down Sunset Boulevard around a
dangerous stretch of road before the singer loses control of
his vehicle. In the end, the singer tells his story
to a doctor as the listener hears the sounds of
screeching tires and a crash, giving the impression that he
does really make it out alive, but barely. The name
(04:53):
of the song dead Man's Curve. Competition always breeds innovation.
When one company hits the market with a product that's
(05:14):
new and exciting, it's only a matter of time before
someone else steps up with something even better. From smartphones
to computers to the number of blades in our shaving razors,
competition forces companies to up the ante and we the consumer,
reap the rewards. But sometimes competition doesn't just lead to
something mildly better, it spawns something entirely new. Walter Diamer
(05:38):
wasn't much for competition. He was working as an accountant
for Flear, a gum manufacturer based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its founder,
Frank Henry Flear, had come up with a new kind
of gum he called blibber Blubber, but it wasn't too popular.
It didn't hold together very well, and customers found it
too sticky to be enjoyable. When Diamer wasn't crunching the numbers, however,
(06:00):
he fancied himself a kind of gum chef. One day,
while trying out a recipe for a new gum base,
he inadvertently created something far less sticky than blibber Blubber.
He also stretched it further too. He thought he was
onto something, but there was only one problem. It was ugly.
It's dull gray color did not make it look appetizing,
(06:21):
so Diamer looked around for some food coloring to brighten
it up a bit. The only color he could find
in the factory it was red, so he poured it
into the batch, changing the gums hue from gray to pink.
Rather than bringing it to his superiors first, he wanted
to see if it would be something people even wanted.
He packaged five pounds of it on his own and
set up shop at a local candy store. Diamer's new gum,
(06:43):
which he priced at a penny apiece, sold out in
less than a day. With his test. Having been proven successful,
he gave his formula to Flear, which they turned into
a new gum called Double Bubble. They even kept Dimer's
original price of a penny per piece and packaged a
small comic strip called the Fleer Funnies inside the wrapper.
(07:04):
For twenty years, Double Bubble was one of the most
popular candy items in America. Dimer didn't really chew gum himself,
but children often wrote to him to thank him for
his invention. He and his wife also judged their fair
share of bubble blowing contests in their home. Flear ceased
production of their popular chewing gum during World War Two,
as the sugar and latex needed to make it were
(07:25):
in short supply. However, after the war ended and things
started back to normal, another competitor stepped into the ring.
A small rectangle of pink gum wrapped in red, white
and blue wax paper, also sold for a penny a piece.
It went by one explosive word, Bazooka, and people loved it.
For a long time, Bazuka and Double Bubble went head
(07:46):
to head in candy shops and convenience stores all over,
but in nineteen fifty Bazuka's parent company changed the game.
Looking to increase gum sales, they entered into a brand
new market trading cards. Instead of focusing on singlesticks of
gum for a penny each, they enticed kids to buy
cards featuring their favorite actors and later on baseball players.
(08:07):
By including a stick of gum in each pack. The
cards became instant collectible items for kids and adults alike,
but nobody really cared for the gum. Collectors didn't like
how it stained the cards if it had been inside
the pack too long, and the kids didn't like how
it tasted. They were more interested in buying new packs
to find cards missing from their growing collection. By the
(08:30):
company had phased out bubble gum from their sports card
lines entirely, and despite them still owning the Bazooka brand
to this day, they're better known for their extensive lines
of collectible baseball, football, soccer, and licensed movie cards. Walter
Diamer helped Flear reinvent chewing gum with his accidental formula,
allowing it to eventually branch off into lines of baseball
(08:51):
and basketball cards of its own. Sadly, Diamer never saw
any residuals or royalties from his efforts. He never filed
for a patent, but he did shall he become the
company's vice president. After he retired in nineteen seventy, Fleer
struggle to compete with that other major card company and
gun brand. It was bought by Marvel Entertainment Group in
(09:13):
while the company behind Bazooka Joe kept getting bigger and bigger,
dominating the markets almost entirely. And you know it continues
to live up to its name today, the card company Tops.
I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
(09:35):
more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership
with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show,
and you can learn all about it over at the
World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.
Welcome to Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
(00:27):
of Curiosities. There are places on this earth so haunted
you might think they were created that way. The Winchester
Mystery House, for example, built by Heiress Sarah Winchester, is
supposedly haunted by the ghosts of every person who has
(00:48):
ever been killed with a Winchester rifle. With the money
her husband left her after his death, Sarah renovated her
home until it was seven stories tall, comprised of staircases
to nowhere and allow brenth of hallways why to confuse
the ghosts. Meanwhile, in the North Atlantic plains and ships
traveling through the Bermuda Triangle are often lost at sea,
(01:10):
never to be found again. Some claim the Bermuda Triangle
has been the site of extraterrestrial activity, while others believe
a ghostly paranormal force is to blame. Whatever has caused
the disappearances, Though has healthy area earned its other nickname,
the Devil's Triangle. But there is another Haunted Triangle, this
one located in the unlikeliest of places, Beverly Hills, California.
(01:34):
Between the streets of North Linden Drive and North Whittier Drive,
is a tiny patch of land across its well manicured
lawn or half a dozen palm trees, as though a
desert island just sprang up one day in the middle
of the suburbs. Its history as a mainstay of Haunted Hollywood, though,
can be traced back to aviator and filmmaker Howard Hughes
in nine Hughes was no stranger to the sky. When
(01:58):
the time came to test his prototype x F eleven
aircraft on July seven of that year. He had already
been flying for over twenty five years. He took off
in the x F eleven from his airfield in Culver City, California,
and flew longer than he probably should have. After an
hour in the air, the propellers started to malfunction, causing
the plane to pull to the right. It was going
(02:19):
down fast, and Hughes needed a safe place to land,
so he headed toward Los Angeles country Club. It's big
open greens would have provided the perfect place for a
crash landing, but the XF eleven wasn't going to make it. Instead,
Hughes found himself flying over Beverly Hills Triangle, skidding across
the tops of three houses on North Whittier Drive. He
(02:41):
managed to survive, but barely. He pulled himself from the
wreckage as the fuel tanks exploded. The accident caused several
broken bones, and Hughes suffered from third degree burns. One
year later, another episode struck the area. Bugsy Siegel, the
infamous gangster and founder of the Murder inc crimes in
the Kids, was visiting his girlfriend, Virginia Hill. Hill lived
(03:03):
in Beverly Hills, just across the street from the Triangle.
On the night of June, someone fired several thirty caliber
rounds from an M one carbine rifle through the window,
killing seagull. It's been alleged that Bugsy had been stealing
from the mob, but no one knows quite for sure
why he was targeted that night. The murder is still
unsolved to this day, and the incidents only added to
(03:25):
the triangles mythos. But perhaps the strangest occurrence attributed to
the Triangle involved one half of the nineteen sixties surf
group Jan and Dean. It was April twelfth of nineteen
sixty six and Jan Barry was driving his Corvette along
Whittier Drive. He had driven past the Triangle on his
way to a business meeting when he came to the
intersection at Whittier and Sunset Boulevard, also known as dead
(03:47):
Man's Curve. Barry was speeding that day and lost control
of the car. He drove it straight into a park truck,
totaling the Corvette and nearly losing his life. In fact,
the paramedics who first arrived at the crash I thought
he was dead. Barry spent the next two months in
a coma, finally waking up on June six of nineteen
sixty six. He lost most of the use of his
(04:10):
right arm and had to learn to walk again due
to the brain damage and partial paralysis caused by the accident.
Berry eventually recovered and returned to the studio a year later.
Jan and Dean were known for several hit songs during
the sixties, including Little Old Lady from Pasadena Surf City
and a tune about a young man who races his
(04:30):
corvette against another driver. In the song, the singer and
the unknown race driver zoom down Sunset Boulevard around a
dangerous stretch of road before the singer loses control of
his vehicle. In the end, the singer tells his story
to a doctor as the listener hears the sounds of
screeching tires and a crash, giving the impression that he
does really make it out alive, but barely. The name
(04:53):
of the song dead Man's Curve. Competition always breeds innovation.
When one company hits the market with a product that's
(05:14):
new and exciting, it's only a matter of time before
someone else steps up with something even better. From smartphones
to computers to the number of blades in our shaving razors,
competition forces companies to up the ante and we the consumer,
reap the rewards. But sometimes competition doesn't just lead to
something mildly better, it spawns something entirely new. Walter Diamer
(05:38):
wasn't much for competition. He was working as an accountant
for Flear, a gum manufacturer based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its founder,
Frank Henry Flear, had come up with a new kind
of gum he called blibber Blubber, but it wasn't too popular.
It didn't hold together very well, and customers found it
too sticky to be enjoyable. When Diamer wasn't crunching the numbers, however,
(06:00):
he fancied himself a kind of gum chef. One day,
while trying out a recipe for a new gum base,
he inadvertently created something far less sticky than blibber Blubber.
He also stretched it further too. He thought he was
onto something, but there was only one problem. It was ugly.
It's dull gray color did not make it look appetizing,
(06:21):
so Diamer looked around for some food coloring to brighten
it up a bit. The only color he could find
in the factory it was red, so he poured it
into the batch, changing the gums hue from gray to pink.
Rather than bringing it to his superiors first, he wanted
to see if it would be something people even wanted.
He packaged five pounds of it on his own and
set up shop at a local candy store. Diamer's new gum,
(06:43):
which he priced at a penny apiece, sold out in
less than a day. With his test. Having been proven successful,
he gave his formula to Flear, which they turned into
a new gum called Double Bubble. They even kept Dimer's
original price of a penny per piece and packaged a
small comic strip called the Fleer Funnies inside the wrapper.
(07:04):
For twenty years, Double Bubble was one of the most
popular candy items in America. Dimer didn't really chew gum himself,
but children often wrote to him to thank him for
his invention. He and his wife also judged their fair
share of bubble blowing contests in their home. Flear ceased
production of their popular chewing gum during World War Two,
as the sugar and latex needed to make it were
(07:25):
in short supply. However, after the war ended and things
started back to normal, another competitor stepped into the ring.
A small rectangle of pink gum wrapped in red, white
and blue wax paper, also sold for a penny a piece.
It went by one explosive word, Bazooka, and people loved it.
For a long time, Bazuka and Double Bubble went head
(07:46):
to head in candy shops and convenience stores all over,
but in nineteen fifty Bazuka's parent company changed the game.
Looking to increase gum sales, they entered into a brand
new market trading cards. Instead of focusing on singlesticks of
gum for a penny each, they enticed kids to buy
cards featuring their favorite actors and later on baseball players.
(08:07):
By including a stick of gum in each pack. The
cards became instant collectible items for kids and adults alike,
but nobody really cared for the gum. Collectors didn't like
how it stained the cards if it had been inside
the pack too long, and the kids didn't like how
it tasted. They were more interested in buying new packs
to find cards missing from their growing collection. By the
(08:30):
company had phased out bubble gum from their sports card
lines entirely, and despite them still owning the Bazooka brand
to this day, they're better known for their extensive lines
of collectible baseball, football, soccer, and licensed movie cards. Walter
Diamer helped Flear reinvent chewing gum with his accidental formula,
allowing it to eventually branch off into lines of baseball
(08:51):
and basketball cards of its own. Sadly, Diamer never saw
any residuals or royalties from his efforts. He never filed
for a patent, but he did shall he become the
company's vice president. After he retired in nineteen seventy, Fleer
struggle to compete with that other major card company and
gun brand. It was bought by Marvel Entertainment Group in
(09:13):
while the company behind Bazooka Joe kept getting bigger and bigger,
dominating the markets almost entirely. And you know it continues
to live up to its name today, the card company Tops.
I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
(09:35):
more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership
with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show,
and you can learn all about it over at the
World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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