November 15, 2018 • 11 mins
Two items are on display in the Cabinet today. The first is something none of us would want, while the second is a dream come true. We hope you enjoy discovering which one is which.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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. TV painter and pop
(00:29):
culture icon Bob Ross used to say, we don't make mistakes,
just happy little accidents. Artists do it all the time.
They start making one thing, and the next thing they
know it's become something else entirely. But not every work
of art is a happy accident. Sometimes the artist's original
idea can take a sinister, not so happy turn. One
(00:53):
such artist was Bill Stoneham, a painter from Boston who
in nineteen two had taken on a contract to create
two paintings per month for two dollars a piece. After
he had completed some paintings for sale and display, he
came up with a new one. He called The Hands
Resist Him. It was an autobiographical painting of sorts. In it,
(01:14):
a young boy in a blue shirt stands before a
window where the disembodied hands of other children reached toward
him out of the darkness. Beside the boy is a
frowning girl doll with empty black eyes. According to Stoneham.
The boy in the photo is him, based on a
photograph of himself when he was about five years old.
The glass separating him from the children's hands is meant
(01:37):
to be a barrier between two worlds and his guide,
the doll. The painting is deeply moving, and many people
who have seen it in person have come away feeling uneasy,
even haunted. That's to say nothing of the people who
actually interacted directly with it. In The Hands Resist Him
went on display at the Fine Garden Gallery in Beverly Hills, California.
(02:01):
Henry Seldi's and art critic for The l A Times
reviewed the piece shortly after it went up. Not long
after that, character actor John Marley purchased the painting for
his home collection. Marley had performed in TV shows and
feature films like Hawaii Five Oh and Love Story, but
he was best known for waking up next to the
severed horse's head in The Godfather. Poor Marley had no
(02:24):
idea just how deep he'd gotten himself in this time. Usually,
the items behind strange occurrences are cursed in some way.
They tend to depict figures who were particularly cruel or
died in a horrible fashion, they might be made of
a substance not meant to be used in creative endeavors,
such as blood or bone. If you search online, you'll
(02:45):
even find stories about books bound in human skin. This
painting didn't have any of that. The artist is still alive.
None of his other paintings were known to have caused
pain or even death, but for some reason, the hand
resist him had become a cursed object. A few years
(03:05):
after Marley purchased the painting, Henry Seldis died of an
apparent suicide in his apartment. Not long after that, Fine Garten,
the owner of the art gallery where the painting had hung,
died as well, and Marley he passed away a few
years later from complications due to open heart surgery. The
painting was eventually lost, It's whereabouts unknown for almost thirty years. Then,
(03:30):
in the year two thousand, it was listed for sale
in the most unlikely place, eBay. The family who had
found it behind a California brewery decided to make a
few dollars off their luck on an up and coming
auction website. Their luck, however, hadn't been as fortunate as
they'd thought. According to the original listing, the family's four
(03:51):
year old daughter had complained of fighting during the night.
Now between anyone in the house they were all asleep,
she meant between the boy and the doll and the painting.
She also said they were coming into her room at
night while she was sleeping. The girl's story was so
convincing that her father set up a motion sensor in
her room to prove to her that it was just
(04:12):
her imagination playing tricks on her. Instead, the centers caught
the unexplainable the doll and the painting had shoved the
boy out and onto the floor. Thankfully, their eBay experiment worked.
Someone purchased the painting for a fraction of what many
collectors would have paid to have it in their own collections.
(04:34):
After that, the painting even found its way into a
novel published in two thousand sixteen. While the story itself
is fiction, it's author, Darren O'Neill, did have his own
run in with the painting. He first came across it
online while living in Dubai, where he printed out a
copy of it along with some other unrelated documents, before
(04:54):
leaving for a month long trip to Italy. While he
was away, the air condition in his home malfunctioned, and
the heat, combined with the moisture, allowed green mold to
grow over all the walls and furniture, The clothes in
his closet, his daughter's belongings, and the documents he had
printed out had all been ruined by the infestation, but
(05:16):
not everything had been destroyed. One item survived without a
speck of mold on it is print out of the
Hands Resist Him. World War One, also known as the
(05:42):
Great War, claimed the lives of forty million civilians and
military personnel from all over the world. It lasted for
four years and was commonly referred to as the War
to end all wars. Obviously, that name didn't stick for
too long, but it was a particularly brutal and devastate
being event in world history. The United States stayed out
(06:04):
of the fray for most of the war until nineteen seventeen,
when it joined Britain, France, and Russia. Together. These allies
combated the Central Powers from Germany, the Austrian Hungarian Empire,
the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria all across Europe. World War
One saw the rise and fall of some pretty prominent individuals.
(06:24):
Woodrow Wilson, Winston Churchill, Czar Nicholas the Second and Vladimir
Lenin all made headlines throughout those tumultuous four years, but
there was one name that kind of slipped under the radar,
which was actually invented during World War Two. But let's
not get technical, okay. He was known as Sergeant Stubby,
and he was from Connecticut. He liked to hang around
(06:47):
the Yale University campus, which was where members of the
Second Infantry trained for their eventual deployment. He and another soldier,
Corporal Robert Conroy, had struck up a friendship, and, not
wanting to wish his best friend goodbye for possibly the
last time, Stubby snuck on board conroy ship before it
set off for France. He was soon discovered, but charmed
(07:10):
the infantry's commanding officer and was allowed to stay. Much
to everyone's surprise, Stubby found himself in the trenches for
eight months alongside his new family, including Conroy. He began
his military career in early February of nineteen eighteen and
never shied away from battle, quickly getting used to the
constant barrage of gunfire exploding overhead day and night. Three
(07:34):
months later, Stubby was wounded in the leg by a
German hand grenade and spent weeks at the rear recovering.
With two new wound stripes on his uniform, he was
back at the front lines helping his regiment. He learned
how to detect mustard gas to warn his unit, and
he was the only soldier capable of finding wounded troops
in no man's Land without getting shot. No man's land
(07:56):
was an uncrossable stretch of terrain between two enemy trenches.
Anyone who tried to cross it was almost instantly killed,
but not Stubby. During another battle in Our Gone, Stubby
had come across a German spy and held him captive
until reinforcements arrived to take the enemy away. By the
end of the war, Sergeant Stubby had fought in four
(08:17):
major offenses and seventeen battles, and became a bit of
a celebrity back home. The military and numerous other organizations
awarded him three service stripes, a Yankee Division Y Depatch,
a Purple Heart, a New Haven World War One Veteran's Medal,
and seven other honors. He marched in a number of
victory parades and even went on to meet President Woodrow
(08:40):
Wilson Stubby had demonstrated his abilities as a new breed
of soldier. I don't mean he was more ruthless or
cunning than the others. He was literally a new breed
of soldier, a mixture of Boston and American bull Terrier
to be specific. Sergeant Stubby was Corporate Conroy's dog. In
(09:02):
ninety one, Conroy swapped the front lines for Georgetown University,
where he received his law degree, with Stubby by his side.
The mutt soon became the university's mascot and made appearances
at football games, running around the field at halftime to
entertain the fans. Stubby had lived a full and rewarding life,
more so than any other dog, and he'd been rewarded
(09:24):
handsomely for his service. After his death in nineteen twenty six,
the New York Times ran a half page obituary for him,
longer than any that most of his human contemporaries had received.
And if you visit Washington, d c. Stopped by the
National Museum at the Smithsonian, where you'll find Stubby on
display in his military uniform adorned with his many medals.
(09:49):
Corporal Conroy donated Stubbies taxidermied remains to the facility in
nineteen fifty six. Dogs are loyal, faithful companions. They had
a keen intuition and know when we're sick or sad,
or even in danger. They will protect us, as Sergeant
Stubby did for the Second Infantry, and as many dogs
(10:11):
do for today's soldiers. Stubby never asked to be a hero,
but he certainly became one simply by being Conroy's friend.
You might even say that he was that man's best friend.
I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
(10:35):
more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
The show was created by me Aaron Mankey 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.
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. TV painter and pop
(00:29):
culture icon Bob Ross used to say, we don't make mistakes,
just happy little accidents. Artists do it all the time.
They start making one thing, and the next thing they
know it's become something else entirely. But not every work
of art is a happy accident. Sometimes the artist's original
idea can take a sinister, not so happy turn. One
(00:53):
such artist was Bill Stoneham, a painter from Boston who
in nineteen two had taken on a contract to create
two paintings per month for two dollars a piece. After
he had completed some paintings for sale and display, he
came up with a new one. He called The Hands
Resist Him. It was an autobiographical painting of sorts. In it,
(01:14):
a young boy in a blue shirt stands before a
window where the disembodied hands of other children reached toward
him out of the darkness. Beside the boy is a
frowning girl doll with empty black eyes. According to Stoneham.
The boy in the photo is him, based on a
photograph of himself when he was about five years old.
The glass separating him from the children's hands is meant
(01:37):
to be a barrier between two worlds and his guide,
the doll. The painting is deeply moving, and many people
who have seen it in person have come away feeling uneasy,
even haunted. That's to say nothing of the people who
actually interacted directly with it. In The Hands Resist Him
went on display at the Fine Garden Gallery in Beverly Hills, California.
(02:01):
Henry Seldi's and art critic for The l A Times
reviewed the piece shortly after it went up. Not long
after that, character actor John Marley purchased the painting for
his home collection. Marley had performed in TV shows and
feature films like Hawaii Five Oh and Love Story, but
he was best known for waking up next to the
severed horse's head in The Godfather. Poor Marley had no
(02:24):
idea just how deep he'd gotten himself in this time. Usually,
the items behind strange occurrences are cursed in some way.
They tend to depict figures who were particularly cruel or
died in a horrible fashion, they might be made of
a substance not meant to be used in creative endeavors,
such as blood or bone. If you search online, you'll
(02:45):
even find stories about books bound in human skin. This
painting didn't have any of that. The artist is still alive.
None of his other paintings were known to have caused
pain or even death, but for some reason, the hand
resist him had become a cursed object. A few years
(03:05):
after Marley purchased the painting, Henry Seldis died of an
apparent suicide in his apartment. Not long after that, Fine Garten,
the owner of the art gallery where the painting had hung,
died as well, and Marley he passed away a few
years later from complications due to open heart surgery. The
painting was eventually lost, It's whereabouts unknown for almost thirty years. Then,
(03:30):
in the year two thousand, it was listed for sale
in the most unlikely place, eBay. The family who had
found it behind a California brewery decided to make a
few dollars off their luck on an up and coming
auction website. Their luck, however, hadn't been as fortunate as
they'd thought. According to the original listing, the family's four
(03:51):
year old daughter had complained of fighting during the night.
Now between anyone in the house they were all asleep,
she meant between the boy and the doll and the painting.
She also said they were coming into her room at
night while she was sleeping. The girl's story was so
convincing that her father set up a motion sensor in
her room to prove to her that it was just
(04:12):
her imagination playing tricks on her. Instead, the centers caught
the unexplainable the doll and the painting had shoved the
boy out and onto the floor. Thankfully, their eBay experiment worked.
Someone purchased the painting for a fraction of what many
collectors would have paid to have it in their own collections.
(04:34):
After that, the painting even found its way into a
novel published in two thousand sixteen. While the story itself
is fiction, it's author, Darren O'Neill, did have his own
run in with the painting. He first came across it
online while living in Dubai, where he printed out a
copy of it along with some other unrelated documents, before
(04:54):
leaving for a month long trip to Italy. While he
was away, the air condition in his home malfunctioned, and
the heat, combined with the moisture, allowed green mold to
grow over all the walls and furniture, The clothes in
his closet, his daughter's belongings, and the documents he had
printed out had all been ruined by the infestation, but
(05:16):
not everything had been destroyed. One item survived without a
speck of mold on it is print out of the
Hands Resist Him. World War One, also known as the
(05:42):
Great War, claimed the lives of forty million civilians and
military personnel from all over the world. It lasted for
four years and was commonly referred to as the War
to end all wars. Obviously, that name didn't stick for
too long, but it was a particularly brutal and devastate
being event in world history. The United States stayed out
(06:04):
of the fray for most of the war until nineteen seventeen,
when it joined Britain, France, and Russia. Together. These allies
combated the Central Powers from Germany, the Austrian Hungarian Empire,
the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria all across Europe. World War
One saw the rise and fall of some pretty prominent individuals.
(06:24):
Woodrow Wilson, Winston Churchill, Czar Nicholas the Second and Vladimir
Lenin all made headlines throughout those tumultuous four years, but
there was one name that kind of slipped under the radar,
which was actually invented during World War Two. But let's
not get technical, okay. He was known as Sergeant Stubby,
and he was from Connecticut. He liked to hang around
(06:47):
the Yale University campus, which was where members of the
Second Infantry trained for their eventual deployment. He and another soldier,
Corporal Robert Conroy, had struck up a friendship, and, not
wanting to wish his best friend goodbye for possibly the
last time, Stubby snuck on board conroy ship before it
set off for France. He was soon discovered, but charmed
(07:10):
the infantry's commanding officer and was allowed to stay. Much
to everyone's surprise, Stubby found himself in the trenches for
eight months alongside his new family, including Conroy. He began
his military career in early February of nineteen eighteen and
never shied away from battle, quickly getting used to the
constant barrage of gunfire exploding overhead day and night. Three
(07:34):
months later, Stubby was wounded in the leg by a
German hand grenade and spent weeks at the rear recovering.
With two new wound stripes on his uniform, he was
back at the front lines helping his regiment. He learned
how to detect mustard gas to warn his unit, and
he was the only soldier capable of finding wounded troops
in no man's Land without getting shot. No man's land
(07:56):
was an uncrossable stretch of terrain between two enemy trenches.
Anyone who tried to cross it was almost instantly killed,
but not Stubby. During another battle in Our Gone, Stubby
had come across a German spy and held him captive
until reinforcements arrived to take the enemy away. By the
end of the war, Sergeant Stubby had fought in four
(08:17):
major offenses and seventeen battles, and became a bit of
a celebrity back home. The military and numerous other organizations
awarded him three service stripes, a Yankee Division Y Depatch,
a Purple Heart, a New Haven World War One Veteran's Medal,
and seven other honors. He marched in a number of
victory parades and even went on to meet President Woodrow
(08:40):
Wilson Stubby had demonstrated his abilities as a new breed
of soldier. I don't mean he was more ruthless or
cunning than the others. He was literally a new breed
of soldier, a mixture of Boston and American bull Terrier
to be specific. Sergeant Stubby was Corporate Conroy's dog. In
(09:02):
ninety one, Conroy swapped the front lines for Georgetown University,
where he received his law degree, with Stubby by his side.
The mutt soon became the university's mascot and made appearances
at football games, running around the field at halftime to
entertain the fans. Stubby had lived a full and rewarding life,
more so than any other dog, and he'd been rewarded
(09:24):
handsomely for his service. After his death in nineteen twenty six,
the New York Times ran a half page obituary for him,
longer than any that most of his human contemporaries had received.
And if you visit Washington, d c. Stopped by the
National Museum at the Smithsonian, where you'll find Stubby on
display in his military uniform adorned with his many medals.
(09:49):
Corporal Conroy donated Stubbies taxidermied remains to the facility in
nineteen fifty six. Dogs are loyal, faithful companions. They had
a keen intuition and know when we're sick or sad,
or even in danger. They will protect us, as Sergeant
Stubby did for the Second Infantry, and as many dogs
(10:11):
do for today's soldiers. Stubby never asked to be a hero,
but he certainly became one simply by being Conroy's friend.
You might even say that he was that man's best friend.
I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
(10:35):
more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
The show was created by me Aaron Mankey 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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