October 28, 2025 • 9 mins
Whether falling down or rising to great heights, the journey can often provide us with some curious tales.
Order the official Cabinet of Curiosities book by clicking here today, and get ready to enjoy some curious reading!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. 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.
(00:36):
It was nine forty am on July twentieth of nineteen
forty five. Betty Lou Oliver, a twenty year old elevator operator,
sat anxiously in her elevator car within the Empire State Building.
The day had only just started, but it couldn't go
fast enough. As far as she was concerned, she wanted
this whole summer to disappear behind her. The war in
(00:56):
Europe was finally over, and her fiance, Oscar, had called
earlier that month to let her know that he was
coming home soon. Betty could leave the stuffy elevator behind
and she and Oscar could move back to their hometown
in Arkansas to enjoy their life together. But everything was
about to change. Betty delivered some passengers to the eightieth
(01:17):
floor and then sat and waited. As the door closed,
She hummed a song to herself, thinking about Oscar, when
she suddenly heard a massive crashing sound above her. The
whole elevator shook. Before Betty had time to think, the
top part of the cab burst open, the metal splitting
like paper. Flames erupted all around her, flash burning her
(01:37):
skin before extinguishing, and then she was falling. She cried
out as the damaged elevator began hurtling toward the ground,
quickly clearing floor after floor. Her mind raised, She didn't
understand what was happening. Why had the elevator broken, Where
did the flames come from? Was it some accident? Had
the Germans or Japanese decided to restart the war. Her
(02:00):
eyes went wide and she screamed in terror as her
body began to float up off the floor. The cab
was moving that fast all she could think to do
was grab the railing on the side of the elevator
and pull herself in close to the wall. She kept falling, falling,
and falling, until the moment of impact finally happened. The
elevator smacked against the bottom of the shaft, cracking the
(02:22):
floor everywhere. The force of the impact sent Betty flying
to the opposite side of the cab. She felt a
terrible cracking sensation all up and down her back and neck.
She slumped to the floor, limp unable to move, pain
enveloped her minutes passed, all seemed silent, and then voices
panic sounds pierced the cab, followed by the intense groaning
(02:45):
of the metal doors as they were pulled apart with
heavy equipment. When the firefighters entered, they were astonished to
see Betty's broken body. They called for medics, who quickly
came to her side. They checked her pulse and discovered
that she was alive. Betty was taken to a nearby hospital,
where doctors discovered that she had broken her neck, back, pelvis,
and both legs. They used multiple innovative, risky surgeries to
(03:09):
repair the damage and bring her back from the brink
of death. But what had caused this incredible accident? That morning,
Decorated Air Force pilot William Franklin Smith Junior had been
flying a B twenty five D bomber on a mission
with two passengers to Newark, New Jersey, but the sky
was full of heavy fog and he got lost taking
a wrong turn. His altitude was half of what it
(03:30):
should have been, which soon brought him smack dab into
the seventy ninth and eightieth floors of the Empire State Building.
The plane exploded on impact, setting both floors ablaze. William,
his two passengers, and the eleven people inside the building
were killed. One of the plane's engines flew off, falling
several feet away and crashing into a penthouse art studio,
(03:52):
but the other engine flew across the seventy eighth floor,
where it entered the elevator shaft, severing the cables of
Betty's elevator and exploating the top of her cab. As
a result, she fell eighty stories or one thousand feet,
giving her the Guinness World Record for longest fall survived
in an elevator. This also remains the highest story fire
(04:13):
that New York City firefighters have ever successfully contained. Experts,
including members of the TV science show MythBusters, agree that
Betty survived the fall because of two factors. The broken
elevator cables coiling at the bottom of the shaft cushioned
her fall, and the narrow nature of the shaft creating
air pressure that would have also slowed the cab. Still,
(04:35):
it was barely enough. Betty's injuries were horrific. Congress responded
by passing a law that actually allowed victims of the
crash to sue the government for damages. Betty spent months
in the hospital, but miraculously made a full recovery. She
was able to return to Arkansas with Oscar, where they
enjoyed a long life with many children and grandchildren. The
(04:57):
accident was ultimately just a curing chapter in her life,
but it's a good reminder that every day could be
your last, and that if danger ever comes your way,
hold on tight, then you might just survive. If there's
(05:24):
any universal truth about school life, it's that students love
sorting themselves into clubs and clicks. As young people navigate
the annoyances and frustrations of schoolwork, finding friends with the
same interests can make things significantly more endurable, whether these
clubs were official or not. In nineteen eleven Birmingham, a
group of nine British schoolboys found a club of their own.
(05:46):
The four core members of this group were named Robert, Jeffrey,
Christopher and John. They were all ambitious young men who
wanted to become poets, writers, and artists, and frequently found themselves,
drinking tea together at Barrows Store near the school, where
they would discuss the plans for their lives. And these
were the usual things that schoolboy dreams are made of,
(06:07):
grand hopes for the future, dreams of artistic success and
changing the world. There was a Maverick streak to this group.
Sometimes they would smuggle tea into their school library in
order to drink while studying. In homage to this behavior,
the group would be named the Tea Club and Borrovian Society.
Every member would put the letters TCBs at the end
(06:28):
of their signature, a way of signifying how important this
bond was to them. Even when they split off to
go to college, reunions between Robert, Jeffrey, Christopher, and John
would continue. By the time they met in nineteen fourteen,
John was even beginning work on a piece of fiction
that he had hopes for until the larger world derailed
everyone's ambitions. World War One broke out in Europe, and
(06:51):
soon all four boys were training to fight. Christopher joined
the navy, Jeffrey and Robert enlisted in the army. The
final one to join was John. Although he continued to
send his poems to friends as he went through basic training.
They deployed in nineteen fifteen, and during the war the
TCBs would become a coping mechanism for the boys. Jeffrey wrote,
(07:12):
while fearing the worst for his unit, that the death
of one member would not destroy the TCBs. His friends
were the Immortal four. Of the so called Immortal four,
only two would return home at the end of the war.
Jeffrey and Robert both died during the Battle of the Somme,
while Christopher and John survived. John worked hard to ensure
(07:32):
that Jeffrey's poems would be published posthumously, collecting them and
writing a preface for them himself. Christopher would go on
to become a naval instructor, but John remained dedicated to
the craft of prose and poetry. When he became a
professor at Oxford, he founded another literary club among the professors,
which would come to be known by its own name.
But he never forgot his companions from the TCBs, and
(07:56):
named his children after them. John's prominence in literary circles
grew over the following years. An expert on mythology and
ancient languages, he contributed to new translations of Beowulf and
Sir Gawayne in The Green Knight, exploring the ins and
outs of British literature with a keen eye of an
academic and the passion of an amateur. Not long after,
(08:18):
inspired by his love of fairy stories, he wrote a
book for children which would be published in the nineteen thirties,
and perhaps you've heard of it. It was called The Hobbit,
And after The Hobbit, he worked for almost twenty years
to produce his masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings, a
work of epic literature that redefined fantasy for all time,
(08:38):
all because of a dream that he first conceived while
illicitly smuggling tea into the library with his school friends.
These days, it's a lot harder to stay in touch
with our classmates. Life gets busy, work takes us hundreds
or thousands of miles from home, and the careers we
build or the lives we live often feel like we're
moving on more than building up. But that doesn't mean
(09:00):
we stop thinking about those early days and foundational friends.
After all, you'll never forget your first fellowship. 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
(09:24):
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 Worldoflore
dot com. And until next time, stay curious.
Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. 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.
(00:36):
It was nine forty am on July twentieth of nineteen
forty five. Betty Lou Oliver, a twenty year old elevator operator,
sat anxiously in her elevator car within the Empire State Building.
The day had only just started, but it couldn't go
fast enough. As far as she was concerned, she wanted
this whole summer to disappear behind her. The war in
(00:56):
Europe was finally over, and her fiance, Oscar, had called
earlier that month to let her know that he was
coming home soon. Betty could leave the stuffy elevator behind
and she and Oscar could move back to their hometown
in Arkansas to enjoy their life together. But everything was
about to change. Betty delivered some passengers to the eightieth
(01:17):
floor and then sat and waited. As the door closed,
She hummed a song to herself, thinking about Oscar, when
she suddenly heard a massive crashing sound above her. The
whole elevator shook. Before Betty had time to think, the
top part of the cab burst open, the metal splitting
like paper. Flames erupted all around her, flash burning her
(01:37):
skin before extinguishing, and then she was falling. She cried
out as the damaged elevator began hurtling toward the ground,
quickly clearing floor after floor. Her mind raised, She didn't
understand what was happening. Why had the elevator broken, Where
did the flames come from? Was it some accident? Had
the Germans or Japanese decided to restart the war. Her
(02:00):
eyes went wide and she screamed in terror as her
body began to float up off the floor. The cab
was moving that fast all she could think to do
was grab the railing on the side of the elevator
and pull herself in close to the wall. She kept falling, falling,
and falling, until the moment of impact finally happened. The
elevator smacked against the bottom of the shaft, cracking the
(02:22):
floor everywhere. The force of the impact sent Betty flying
to the opposite side of the cab. She felt a
terrible cracking sensation all up and down her back and neck.
She slumped to the floor, limp unable to move, pain
enveloped her minutes passed, all seemed silent, and then voices
panic sounds pierced the cab, followed by the intense groaning
(02:45):
of the metal doors as they were pulled apart with
heavy equipment. When the firefighters entered, they were astonished to
see Betty's broken body. They called for medics, who quickly
came to her side. They checked her pulse and discovered
that she was alive. Betty was taken to a nearby hospital,
where doctors discovered that she had broken her neck, back, pelvis,
and both legs. They used multiple innovative, risky surgeries to
(03:09):
repair the damage and bring her back from the brink
of death. But what had caused this incredible accident? That morning,
Decorated Air Force pilot William Franklin Smith Junior had been
flying a B twenty five D bomber on a mission
with two passengers to Newark, New Jersey, but the sky
was full of heavy fog and he got lost taking
a wrong turn. His altitude was half of what it
(03:30):
should have been, which soon brought him smack dab into
the seventy ninth and eightieth floors of the Empire State Building.
The plane exploded on impact, setting both floors ablaze. William,
his two passengers, and the eleven people inside the building
were killed. One of the plane's engines flew off, falling
several feet away and crashing into a penthouse art studio,
(03:52):
but the other engine flew across the seventy eighth floor,
where it entered the elevator shaft, severing the cables of
Betty's elevator and exploating the top of her cab. As
a result, she fell eighty stories or one thousand feet,
giving her the Guinness World Record for longest fall survived
in an elevator. This also remains the highest story fire
(04:13):
that New York City firefighters have ever successfully contained. Experts,
including members of the TV science show MythBusters, agree that
Betty survived the fall because of two factors. The broken
elevator cables coiling at the bottom of the shaft cushioned
her fall, and the narrow nature of the shaft creating
air pressure that would have also slowed the cab. Still,
(04:35):
it was barely enough. Betty's injuries were horrific. Congress responded
by passing a law that actually allowed victims of the
crash to sue the government for damages. Betty spent months
in the hospital, but miraculously made a full recovery. She
was able to return to Arkansas with Oscar, where they
enjoyed a long life with many children and grandchildren. The
(04:57):
accident was ultimately just a curing chapter in her life,
but it's a good reminder that every day could be
your last, and that if danger ever comes your way,
hold on tight, then you might just survive. If there's
(05:24):
any universal truth about school life, it's that students love
sorting themselves into clubs and clicks. As young people navigate
the annoyances and frustrations of schoolwork, finding friends with the
same interests can make things significantly more endurable, whether these
clubs were official or not. In nineteen eleven Birmingham, a
group of nine British schoolboys found a club of their own.
(05:46):
The four core members of this group were named Robert, Jeffrey,
Christopher and John. They were all ambitious young men who
wanted to become poets, writers, and artists, and frequently found themselves,
drinking tea together at Barrows Store near the school, where
they would discuss the plans for their lives. And these
were the usual things that schoolboy dreams are made of,
(06:07):
grand hopes for the future, dreams of artistic success and
changing the world. There was a Maverick streak to this group.
Sometimes they would smuggle tea into their school library in
order to drink while studying. In homage to this behavior,
the group would be named the Tea Club and Borrovian Society.
Every member would put the letters TCBs at the end
(06:28):
of their signature, a way of signifying how important this
bond was to them. Even when they split off to
go to college, reunions between Robert, Jeffrey, Christopher, and John
would continue. By the time they met in nineteen fourteen,
John was even beginning work on a piece of fiction
that he had hopes for until the larger world derailed
everyone's ambitions. World War One broke out in Europe, and
(06:51):
soon all four boys were training to fight. Christopher joined
the navy, Jeffrey and Robert enlisted in the army. The
final one to join was John. Although he continued to
send his poems to friends as he went through basic training.
They deployed in nineteen fifteen, and during the war the
TCBs would become a coping mechanism for the boys. Jeffrey wrote,
(07:12):
while fearing the worst for his unit, that the death
of one member would not destroy the TCBs. His friends
were the Immortal four. Of the so called Immortal four,
only two would return home at the end of the war.
Jeffrey and Robert both died during the Battle of the Somme,
while Christopher and John survived. John worked hard to ensure
(07:32):
that Jeffrey's poems would be published posthumously, collecting them and
writing a preface for them himself. Christopher would go on
to become a naval instructor, but John remained dedicated to
the craft of prose and poetry. When he became a
professor at Oxford, he founded another literary club among the professors,
which would come to be known by its own name.
But he never forgot his companions from the TCBs, and
(07:56):
named his children after them. John's prominence in literary circles
grew over the following years. An expert on mythology and
ancient languages, he contributed to new translations of Beowulf and
Sir Gawayne in The Green Knight, exploring the ins and
outs of British literature with a keen eye of an
academic and the passion of an amateur. Not long after,
(08:18):
inspired by his love of fairy stories, he wrote a
book for children which would be published in the nineteen thirties,
and perhaps you've heard of it. It was called The Hobbit,
And after The Hobbit, he worked for almost twenty years
to produce his masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings, a
work of epic literature that redefined fantasy for all time,
(08:38):
all because of a dream that he first conceived while
illicitly smuggling tea into the library with his school friends.
These days, it's a lot harder to stay in touch
with our classmates. Life gets busy, work takes us hundreds
or thousands of miles from home, and the careers we
build or the lives we live often feel like we're
moving on more than building up. But that doesn't mean
(09:00):
we stop thinking about those early days and foundational friends.
After all, you'll never forget your first fellowship. 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
(09:24):
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 Worldoflore
dot com. And until next time, stay curious.
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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