November 7, 2019 • 10 mins
There's a difference between a trick and a hoax, but both of them can have powerful consequences. Let's take a little tour to see just how that might work.
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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 right
there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome
to the Cabinet of Curiosities. In any endeavor, communication is
(00:29):
the key. Relaying a clear, concise message will help educate
and inform all the interested parties. Nowhere was communication more
important than during the first two World Wars. World War
One saw the earliest use of mass media and propaganda
for both sides. For example, Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points outlined
(00:49):
what America and its allies were fighting for in the
first place. They boosted morale and helped the American people
understand why the country had entered the war. They also
so formed the foundation of a committee designed to infiltrate
the newspapers, publishing industry, and higher education in order to
change public opinion in support of the war from the
(01:10):
ground up. The Fourteen Points gave way to what was
known as atrocity propaganda, which depicted the horrible actions perpetrated
by the German and Austro Hungarian armies against American and
European soldiers. Similar tactics were used during the Second World
War which now included newsreels, comic books, and music. Everywhere
(01:31):
they looked, young men were being encouraged to enlist, while
their family members back home bought war bonds to help
support their efforts. And it wasn't just the good guys
using propaganda to further their agendas. Nazi Germany hired directors
like Lenni Riefenstahl and Karl Ritter to film propaganda films
meant to inspire the public into supporting the war and
(01:51):
Nazi policies. But perhaps one of the most unique methods
of German propaganda during World War Two was Charlie and
his Orchestra, also known as the Templin Band and Bruno
and his Swing Tigers. Charlie and his Orchestra was a
Nazi swing band. German leadership had noticed how swing music
had captivated the American and European public on both the
(02:14):
radio and in dance halls. Propaganda Minister Joseph Gebels saw
an opportunity to use music as art designed to affect
human emotion as a way to influence the people who
heard it. He developed radio broadcast that aired every Wednesday
and Saturday night. Record albums of the band were printed
and sent to pow camps as well. From one to
(02:37):
nineteen forty three, Charlie and his orchestra made over ninety recordings.
They reworked popular tunes of the time with pro Germany
lyrics that predicted the eventual defeat of the Allied forces.
During performances, Charlie, the band leader would stop singing and
begin a monologue about the plight of the German people
(02:58):
and how important it was that the Master Race succeeded,
all while the band continued playing behind him. When their
original studio came under attack from Allied bombing raids, they
moved their operations self. The band kept up its broadcasts
as long as it could, but eventually the war spread
to all facets of Germany. There was nowhere else to hide.
(03:18):
Charlie and his orchestra performed right up until the very end.
When we think back to the influential German parties of
World War Two, Charlie and his orchestra don't get much
of a mention. Ninety recordings doesn't mean much when the
target audience doesn't want anything to do with the group.
And I'm not talking about the German people. They loved
(03:38):
Charlie but the band wasn't put together to appeal to
German ears. It was meant to sway Americans and Europeans
to the other side. Gebel's believed that by co opting
jazz music, which he called degenerate, for use by the Nazis,
he could hypnotize American and European audiences into supporting his cause,
(03:59):
and the perform moments as were broadcast Canada, England, and
the United States, where they fell on more discerning ears
than he'd expected. Nobody was hypnotized. In fact, many laughed
at the man yelling in German through their speakers. However,
people did enjoy the music. Those German players were very talented,
after all. When the war ended, the musicians from the band,
(04:22):
still wanting to play together, even formed a new group
under a different band leader. Unfortunately, everyone still recognized them
as Gebel's band, which made finding a venue pretty tricky.
Some of the musicians went on to success in other bands,
but the Nazi musical experiment had all but disappeared by
the end of World War two, deemed a complete failure.
(04:45):
The old adage says that the show must go on,
but thankfully that's not always true, and in the case
of Charlie and his Nazi swing band that turned out
to be a good thing. In a young girl named
(05:12):
Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of The
New York Sun. It was only a few lines, but
it was a question heard around the world. Is there
a Santa Claus? But it was what she wrote in
the preceding letter that made the editor's answer even more powerful.
She wrote that her father often told her, if you
see it in the Sun, it's so. The Sun is
(05:35):
no longer in circulation, but in it's heyday it was
considered as honest and serious as the New York Times.
It was the first paper to report on such things
as homicides, suicides, and divorces of everyday people, rather than
news only about politicians and celebrities, just like every other
paper at the time, which is why people took notice.
(05:56):
In eighteen thirty five, two years after its debut, when
The Sun printed a series of articles about a far
away land, a land where creatures like bison, goats, and
even unicorns roamed freely. Two legged beavers had been spotted
as well. The dominant beings who lived there were humanoid
in shape and covered in fur with wings on their backs.
(06:18):
They built temples among the many hills and rivers that
made up the area's geography. There were six articles in total,
all written by a man named Dr Andrew Grant and
reprinted from the Edinburgh Journal of Science. Grant wanted to
make sure the whole world saw what he had dedicated
months of his life to studying. He had worked alongside
(06:39):
Sir John Herschel, an astronomer who had built an observatory
in Cape Town, South Africa, one year earlier. Within this
observatory was a telescope more powerful than any on Earth,
through which Grant and Herschel made their discovery there was
life on the Moon. They commented on the geography of
the Moon's surface, noting giant craters and cliffs of amethysts
(07:02):
jutting out of the ground as ocean waves crashed against
them from below. Sales of the Sun skyrocketed once the
public had started talking about the articles. They were reprinted
in other papers along the East Coast, going as far
west as Ohio in only two weeks. After a month,
they were all over Europe as well. Moon fever had
(07:23):
captivated the world. An Italian newspaper printed lithographs of what
the men had been describing in their report. Plays were
written about them. Artists painted what they imagined the creatures
and colonies to look like. Yale University even sent a
team of scientists to New York to get copies of
the original journal articles for their records. When they arrived
(07:44):
at the Sun, employees they're kept bouncing them from printing
office to editorial office. It seemed no one had the
original articles on hand, perhaps lost or misplaced, and visiting
the observatory in Cape Town was a non starter as well.
It and down after the telescope got the Sun in
its sights, the light from which traveled down through its
(08:05):
many lenses and started a massive fire inside the building.
None of that matter did the end. All of that
obsession about the colony on the Moon had been for nothing.
Not long after their publication, the Sun came clean. The
whole thing had been a hoax. Sir John Herschel really
was an astronomer, But Andrew Grant was no doctor. He
(08:26):
wasn't even a real person. It was a pen name
for a reporter for the New York Sun. The story
about the Moon had been a satire of recent astronomical
discoveries of the time, such as that of a professor
of astronomy at Munich University in Germany who had observed
colors in lines on the lunar surface, which he theorized
were part of a large city with roads and farms.
(08:48):
Readers of the Sun didn't seem to mind being duped,
though in fact, sales of the Sun didn't suffer at
all after the newspapers in mission. One person, however, wasn't
so pleased with Richard Locke Little ruse. Two months before
The Sun published their Moon Hoax, a well known author
had published a short story in the Southern Literary Messenger
that told the tale of a man who voyaged to
(09:11):
the Moon in a hot air balloon. Once there, he
observed strange creatures of flourishing landscape and formed a bond
with the lunarians who lived there. The Sun's articles had
relegated this author's short story to obscurity, all because his editor,
Richard Locke of the New York Sun, had stolen his
work and his thunder and the author's name. Edgar Allan Poe.
(09:40):
I hope you've enjoyed 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
(10:02):
show and you can learn all about it over at
the World of Lore dot com. And until next time,
stay curious. Yeah,
Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
is an open book, all of these amazing tales right
there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome
to the Cabinet of Curiosities. In any endeavor, communication is
(00:29):
the key. Relaying a clear, concise message will help educate
and inform all the interested parties. Nowhere was communication more
important than during the first two World Wars. World War
One saw the earliest use of mass media and propaganda
for both sides. For example, Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points outlined
(00:49):
what America and its allies were fighting for in the
first place. They boosted morale and helped the American people
understand why the country had entered the war. They also
so formed the foundation of a committee designed to infiltrate
the newspapers, publishing industry, and higher education in order to
change public opinion in support of the war from the
(01:10):
ground up. The Fourteen Points gave way to what was
known as atrocity propaganda, which depicted the horrible actions perpetrated
by the German and Austro Hungarian armies against American and
European soldiers. Similar tactics were used during the Second World
War which now included newsreels, comic books, and music. Everywhere
(01:31):
they looked, young men were being encouraged to enlist, while
their family members back home bought war bonds to help
support their efforts. And it wasn't just the good guys
using propaganda to further their agendas. Nazi Germany hired directors
like Lenni Riefenstahl and Karl Ritter to film propaganda films
meant to inspire the public into supporting the war and
(01:51):
Nazi policies. But perhaps one of the most unique methods
of German propaganda during World War Two was Charlie and
his Orchestra, also known as the Templin Band and Bruno
and his Swing Tigers. Charlie and his Orchestra was a
Nazi swing band. German leadership had noticed how swing music
had captivated the American and European public on both the
(02:14):
radio and in dance halls. Propaganda Minister Joseph Gebels saw
an opportunity to use music as art designed to affect
human emotion as a way to influence the people who
heard it. He developed radio broadcast that aired every Wednesday
and Saturday night. Record albums of the band were printed
and sent to pow camps as well. From one to
(02:37):
nineteen forty three, Charlie and his orchestra made over ninety recordings.
They reworked popular tunes of the time with pro Germany
lyrics that predicted the eventual defeat of the Allied forces.
During performances, Charlie, the band leader would stop singing and
begin a monologue about the plight of the German people
(02:58):
and how important it was that the Master Race succeeded,
all while the band continued playing behind him. When their
original studio came under attack from Allied bombing raids, they
moved their operations self. The band kept up its broadcasts
as long as it could, but eventually the war spread
to all facets of Germany. There was nowhere else to hide.
(03:18):
Charlie and his orchestra performed right up until the very end.
When we think back to the influential German parties of
World War Two, Charlie and his orchestra don't get much
of a mention. Ninety recordings doesn't mean much when the
target audience doesn't want anything to do with the group.
And I'm not talking about the German people. They loved
(03:38):
Charlie but the band wasn't put together to appeal to
German ears. It was meant to sway Americans and Europeans
to the other side. Gebel's believed that by co opting
jazz music, which he called degenerate, for use by the Nazis,
he could hypnotize American and European audiences into supporting his cause,
(03:59):
and the perform moments as were broadcast Canada, England, and
the United States, where they fell on more discerning ears
than he'd expected. Nobody was hypnotized. In fact, many laughed
at the man yelling in German through their speakers. However,
people did enjoy the music. Those German players were very talented,
after all. When the war ended, the musicians from the band,
(04:22):
still wanting to play together, even formed a new group
under a different band leader. Unfortunately, everyone still recognized them
as Gebel's band, which made finding a venue pretty tricky.
Some of the musicians went on to success in other bands,
but the Nazi musical experiment had all but disappeared by
the end of World War two, deemed a complete failure.
(04:45):
The old adage says that the show must go on,
but thankfully that's not always true, and in the case
of Charlie and his Nazi swing band that turned out
to be a good thing. In a young girl named
(05:12):
Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of The
New York Sun. It was only a few lines, but
it was a question heard around the world. Is there
a Santa Claus? But it was what she wrote in
the preceding letter that made the editor's answer even more powerful.
She wrote that her father often told her, if you
see it in the Sun, it's so. The Sun is
(05:35):
no longer in circulation, but in it's heyday it was
considered as honest and serious as the New York Times.
It was the first paper to report on such things
as homicides, suicides, and divorces of everyday people, rather than
news only about politicians and celebrities, just like every other
paper at the time, which is why people took notice.
(05:56):
In eighteen thirty five, two years after its debut, when
The Sun printed a series of articles about a far
away land, a land where creatures like bison, goats, and
even unicorns roamed freely. Two legged beavers had been spotted
as well. The dominant beings who lived there were humanoid
in shape and covered in fur with wings on their backs.
(06:18):
They built temples among the many hills and rivers that
made up the area's geography. There were six articles in total,
all written by a man named Dr Andrew Grant and
reprinted from the Edinburgh Journal of Science. Grant wanted to
make sure the whole world saw what he had dedicated
months of his life to studying. He had worked alongside
(06:39):
Sir John Herschel, an astronomer who had built an observatory
in Cape Town, South Africa, one year earlier. Within this
observatory was a telescope more powerful than any on Earth,
through which Grant and Herschel made their discovery there was
life on the Moon. They commented on the geography of
the Moon's surface, noting giant craters and cliffs of amethysts
(07:02):
jutting out of the ground as ocean waves crashed against
them from below. Sales of the Sun skyrocketed once the
public had started talking about the articles. They were reprinted
in other papers along the East Coast, going as far
west as Ohio in only two weeks. After a month,
they were all over Europe as well. Moon fever had
(07:23):
captivated the world. An Italian newspaper printed lithographs of what
the men had been describing in their report. Plays were
written about them. Artists painted what they imagined the creatures
and colonies to look like. Yale University even sent a
team of scientists to New York to get copies of
the original journal articles for their records. When they arrived
(07:44):
at the Sun, employees they're kept bouncing them from printing
office to editorial office. It seemed no one had the
original articles on hand, perhaps lost or misplaced, and visiting
the observatory in Cape Town was a non starter as well.
It and down after the telescope got the Sun in
its sights, the light from which traveled down through its
(08:05):
many lenses and started a massive fire inside the building.
None of that matter did the end. All of that
obsession about the colony on the Moon had been for nothing.
Not long after their publication, the Sun came clean. The
whole thing had been a hoax. Sir John Herschel really
was an astronomer, But Andrew Grant was no doctor. He
(08:26):
wasn't even a real person. It was a pen name
for a reporter for the New York Sun. The story
about the Moon had been a satire of recent astronomical
discoveries of the time, such as that of a professor
of astronomy at Munich University in Germany who had observed
colors in lines on the lunar surface, which he theorized
were part of a large city with roads and farms.
(08:48):
Readers of the Sun didn't seem to mind being duped,
though in fact, sales of the Sun didn't suffer at
all after the newspapers in mission. One person, however, wasn't
so pleased with Richard Locke Little ruse. Two months before
The Sun published their Moon Hoax, a well known author
had published a short story in the Southern Literary Messenger
that told the tale of a man who voyaged to
(09:11):
the Moon in a hot air balloon. Once there, he
observed strange creatures of flourishing landscape and formed a bond
with the lunarians who lived there. The Sun's articles had
relegated this author's short story to obscurity, all because his editor,
Richard Locke of the New York Sun, had stolen his
work and his thunder and the author's name. Edgar Allan Poe.
(09:40):
I hope you've enjoyed 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
(10:02):
show and you can learn all about it over at
the World of Lore dot com. And until next time,
stay curious. Yeah,
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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