Something Borrowed

Whether everything in life is spelled out for us, or left entirely to chance, there's never a dull moment inside the Cabinet of Curiosities.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
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 of Curiosities. Most people today know

(00:29):
at least the basics of the story of France's King
Louis six He was the last king of France, and
when he died, the monarchy died with him. And of
course he was the grandson of Louis the Great, also
known as the Son King. Even his wife, Marie Antoinette,
was well known with one of the more recognizable names
from popular history. But what most people tend to skip

(00:52):
over is his childhood. Unlike his grandfather, the Son King,
who ascended to the throne at the age of just four,
Louis the sixteenth didn't become king until he was nearly twenty,
which means he had a lot of time before that
to experience life from his less lofty position. One moment
in particular stands out. As a child, Louis was approached

(01:14):
by an astrologer who asked if he could make a prediction.
When Louis agreed, this astrologer warned the future king to
be cautious of the twenty first day of each month.
This morning came with no further explanation, but despite that,
implanted itself firmly in the boy's mind. Later, after taking
the throne in seventeen seventy four, Louis organized his responsibilities

(01:38):
as king around that childhood fear. He avoided doing any
important business on the twenty one of each month, assuming
that if he never set the wheels in motion on
those days, there would be nothing to return and harm him.
Then again, what was coming down the pipeline was something
no one could have predicted. When the American Revolution broke
out in seventeen seventy six, Benjamin Franklin approached Louis for

(02:02):
help with defeating the British rule of the American colonies.
King Louis agreed and sent much support to their cause,
and in the end it worked. The British were defeated
and the French gained a new powerful ally, but it
also showed the French citizens that a country could exist
without a monarchy. In seventeen eighty nine, revolution broke out again,

(02:25):
this time in France. Inspired in part by the Americans,
the French overthrew their own king and set up a
republic in its place, which meant that King Louis the
sixteenth had to go. But here's where it gets weird.
King Louis did his best to fight off the revolution,
but on June twenty, seventeen ninety one, he and his

(02:46):
family put on the clothing of servants and escaped into
the night, while their servants remained behind dressed as nobles.
The following day they were captured and arrested. That would
be June one for anyone keeping track. A little over
a year later, the new French government issued an official
pronouncement that abolished the French monarchy forever the date September.

(03:15):
It would take another few months before Louis met his fate.
It's the part most of us know the best. Louis
was led out into the Palace de la cour no Nod,
where an enormous crowd had gathered to watch the execution.
There in front of the people he once ruled over,
Louis gave a brief speech and was then executed by guillotine.

(03:36):
The date sevent January one. Of course, that old astronomer
told Louis to avoid the twenty one of the month,
and looking back it seems like that was pretty solid advice.
The trouble was he couldn't control everything, no one, not

(03:57):
even a king and stop. The March of time, Tony
had arrived in London to take part in the production

(04:17):
of a new Hollywood film. It was an adaptation of
a popular novel, and because of that, Tony really wanted
to get a copy of the book for himself to
read and study and use as a resource for his
own performance. Shortly after arriving in the city, he headed
out to a local bookstore to see if they had

(04:38):
a copy, but left empty handed. He checked a few
more stores, but each visit resulted in the same outcome. Frustrated,
Tony decided to call it quits and head back to
his apartment. So he walked to the nearest subway station,
Leicester Square, and headed inside. While he waited for the
train to arrive, he took a seat on one of

(04:59):
the nearby benches. No one was sitting there, but as
he sat down, he noticed that someone had left a
small pile of papers at one end. His curiosity drove
him to pick up the pile and look through it,
which is when he made a fantastic discovery. There Inside
the papers was a copy of the very same book

(05:20):
that he'd been trying and failing all day to buy.
Tony took that book home and devoured it. It was
clearly a well loved copy, with handwriting scrawled in pencil
throughout the pages, but it allowed him to fully understand
the author's vision for his character, and that gave him
the tools he needed to deliver his best as an actor.

(05:43):
After the filming was complete, he left London and took
the book with him. Roughly two years later, Tony was
in Vienna working on the film's production when he had
a chance to meet the author of that elusive book.
The writer George Peiffer than Tony for his performance and
help in bringing his novel to life, but also lamented

(06:05):
that he no longer owned a single copy of his
own novel. Tony listened in surprise as George described loaning
his last copy to a good friend. But that friend,
George added, never returned my copy. In fact, she told
me she lost it in the subway. Tony smiled and
then reached into his bag and pulled out the copy

(06:27):
of the book he still carried with him. The cover
was still sharp and the title of the book was
printed across it the girl from Petrovka. George Peiffer, took
the copy in his hands with wide eyes, and then
opened it up to look at the pages. They're scribbled
in the margins for his own personal notes. This is it,

(06:49):
he exclaimed, smiling wide at Tony, Tony, understanding his place
in this wild coincidence, gladly past ownership of the book
back to George. So that's how an author rediscovered his
own missing novel, lost by random circumstances. It had returned
to him through the most unusual of events, and handed

(07:09):
over to him by one of Hollywood's most legendary leading men.
Our hero, the actor you see, wasn't listed in the
credits as Tony, but by the name all of us
know him by today, Anthony Hopkins. I hope you've enjoyed

(07:29):
today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for
free on Apple Podcasts, or learn 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

(07:52):
learn all about it over at the world of lore
dot com, and until next time, stay curious.