December 18, 2025 • 9 mins
The curious origins of the very familiar are on display today.
Order the official Cabinet of Curiosities book by clicking here today, and get ready to enjoy some curious reading!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
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 are right there on display, just
waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
(00:36):
Frank Sinatra was one of the most iconic musical artists
of all time. His voice was synonymous with the idea
of a crooner or a dreamy singer who sings love songs.
You may know that he was also a successful dramatic actor,
but what most people don't realize is that he was
one role away from becoming an action star. Sinatra's acting
(00:57):
career began all the way back in the nineteen forties,
but in nineteen sixty eight he was looking to challenge
himself to see if he could get outside of his wheelhouse.
Up to this point, Sinatra tended to play characters that
were kind of already in his DNA. He was a singer,
so he played singers. He had a lot of friends
in the mob, so he played mobsters. He played a
(01:17):
lot of criminals, But could he play a character on
the other side of the law. His new film, The
Detective would give him that chance. The Detective was based
on a novel by author Roderick Thorpe. It follows Detective
Joe Leland, a tired working class man exposed to heinous
crime after heinous crime. He doesn't like to listen to
orders from his incompetent superiors, and his marriage is disintegrating
(01:41):
as he gets pulled in deeper and deeper by his work.
It was the perfect role for Sinatra. It allowed him
to showcase his signature grumpy persona while in a mature,
nuanced package. The film portrayed police work in a much
more realistic way than most films, and even discussed some
at the time taboo subjects homosexuality and sexual violence. The
(02:02):
Detective was a critical and commercial hit. Seeing the wild
success of his novel being adapted for film, Thorpe was
eager to write a sequel so that it, too could
be turned into a movie. His second Joe Leland's story,
Nothing Last Forever, turned the drama up to eleven. It
took Joe across the country from New York to visit
his estranged daughter at her office in downtown La While there,
(02:26):
criminals attacked the office and Joe is forced to use
his skills as a detective to stop them. He manages
to succeed, but not before his daughter is killed. It
was a well received sequel and producers were excited to
turn it into a film. The only problem was that
by the time they were ready to make the movie
in nineteen eighty seven, Sinatra was seventy two years old.
(02:47):
No way could he reprise the role in such an
action heavy sequel. And the part that really stunk for
the producers was that Sinatra's contract from the Detective stipulated
that they had to offer him the role for any sequels.
So they approached him, hands likely shaking as they gave
him the script, secretly hoping that he would turn it down.
And Sinatra read the script with his usual grim expression,
(03:10):
not giving any indication if he liked it or not,
And then once he was finished, he looked back over
to the waiting producers and told them that this was
probably a little more than he could handle at this
point in his life, so he declined the role. I
can imagine the producers jumping for joy as soon as
Sinatra left their office, and what followed was an intense
casting call to find just the right successor to Sinatra.
(03:33):
All the great action stars of the time were called
up too, Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Gibson, Burt Reynolds, but in the
end all of them turned down the role as well. Ultimately,
the producers had to go with a newer, younger actor
who was more popular on television than film. They rewrote
the script to be a little less dark and a
little more funny too. For example, the detective was now
(03:54):
trying to save his wife instead of his daughter, and
he was successful in the end. Also, the criminals weren't
out for revenge, they just wanted money. And finally, the
character of Joe Leland had his name changed to reflect
that this was not really the same guy from the
movie from twenty years before. And I'm happy to say
that it worked. When it was released in nineteen eighty eight,
(04:15):
the film became an instant hit and is considered today
to be one of the greatest action movies of all time,
a film that should have starred Frank Sinatra but instead
starred Bruce Willis die Hard. As Winter rolls in, I've
(04:43):
found myself thinking of the emotions and feelings we associate
with the season. The winter months are a time of joy,
of celebration, Christmas, New Year's, winter revels, yule Tide carols,
and warm fires. You get the idea, breaks from the
drudgery of work to spend time with family, friends, and
our communities. These things are universally beloved, even if you
(05:03):
don't describe to any particular holiday. But that's not all
the winter is made of. After all, we only light
a cozy fire in order to stave off the biting,
bitter cold, and many cultural traditions associate the cold with
ghost stories just as much as jolly El's. And you've
probably heard of Crampus, the goat like creature that follows
(05:24):
Saint Nicholas around in German Christmas stories. But he's merely
the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Christmas Boogeyman.
You see. German folklore is full of so called childhood
nightmare figures. These are the monsters that you tell your
children about in order to scare them into doing their
chores or going to bed on time, but some of
them come for adults too. In Central Europe, one of
(05:46):
the most well known of these beans is Frauperkta an
old crone who cares very much about the cleanliness of
your house and whether you've done all your weaving for
the season. It's said that if your house isn't clean,
she will come in with a pair of scissors, slit
your belly open and fill it with rocks. She also
disembowls lazy children upon occasion as well. Those who observe
(06:07):
her traditions make sure to leave out an offering dumplings
in some regions, or porridge and herring. Other regions say
that you must leave an egg on your roof as
a tribute. Why on the roof, while some say that
frau Perkta flies through the air on the darkest night
of the year, the winter solstice, and behind her is
a caravan of spirits. In some traditions these are the
(06:28):
spirits of unbaptized children, and others they are a parade
of monstrous crompus like creatures called perktin. And she flies
by writing on a distaff, a wool spinning tool that
looks very much like a broom enough so that her
image might call to mind that classical image of a
witch on a broomstick. But Frau. Perkta is not a witch.
(06:49):
She's a result of something that we would call syncretism
and assimilation. Perkta was originally something more resembling a goddess
or a folk deity. Her tradition can actually be traced
all the way back to the Norse goddess Friga, and
she was the goddess of in between spaces who guided
the spirits of the dead to the afterlife. In these
older stories, it said that she taught people how to
(07:10):
weave flax into linen. But when Christianity started taking over
the region, it went to work relegating the creatures of
folklore to secondary roles that fit into Christian worship. Crampus,
for instance, became Santa's helper, and Perkta became a figure
who haunted people not on the Winter solstice, but on
January sixth, the twelfth day of Christmas. But that day
(07:32):
still holds its own special name for those who prefer
to celebrate it the old way. Perkdinag. Like many classic
pre Christian gods or goddesses, Perkta has a sort of
duality to her. She is a creepy old woman who
may punish you for disobedience, but she is also wise
and elderly. She leads a train of ghosts through the
sky in the dark of night, but she also guides
(07:54):
those spirits that are lost to a final resting place.
And as the nights grow longer and the days grow shorter,
she makes you focus on the hearth and home, ensuring
all is ready not just for her, but for your
family as well. This duality makes her perfectly suited for
the winter months. It also makes her resistant to the
ways that Christian influence tried to demonize her, and to
(08:16):
this day, many Alpine communities still dress as Frauperkta in
holiday festivals and pay tribute to her just as enthusiastically
as they do to Saint Nicholas. Some figures from folklore
stand the test of time, and some survive by adapting
to a strange new world. So as the nights get
colder this month, keep an eye on the dark sky above,
(08:38):
and maybe keep an egg on your roof. 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 Mankey in partnership with Houstuff Works.
(09:00):
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 Theworldoflore 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 are right there on display, just
waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
(00:36):
Frank Sinatra was one of the most iconic musical artists
of all time. His voice was synonymous with the idea
of a crooner or a dreamy singer who sings love songs.
You may know that he was also a successful dramatic actor,
but what most people don't realize is that he was
one role away from becoming an action star. Sinatra's acting
(00:57):
career began all the way back in the nineteen forties,
but in nineteen sixty eight he was looking to challenge
himself to see if he could get outside of his wheelhouse.
Up to this point, Sinatra tended to play characters that
were kind of already in his DNA. He was a singer,
so he played singers. He had a lot of friends
in the mob, so he played mobsters. He played a
(01:17):
lot of criminals, But could he play a character on
the other side of the law. His new film, The
Detective would give him that chance. The Detective was based
on a novel by author Roderick Thorpe. It follows Detective
Joe Leland, a tired working class man exposed to heinous
crime after heinous crime. He doesn't like to listen to
orders from his incompetent superiors, and his marriage is disintegrating
(01:41):
as he gets pulled in deeper and deeper by his work.
It was the perfect role for Sinatra. It allowed him
to showcase his signature grumpy persona while in a mature,
nuanced package. The film portrayed police work in a much
more realistic way than most films, and even discussed some
at the time taboo subjects homosexuality and sexual violence. The
(02:02):
Detective was a critical and commercial hit. Seeing the wild
success of his novel being adapted for film, Thorpe was
eager to write a sequel so that it, too could
be turned into a movie. His second Joe Leland's story,
Nothing Last Forever, turned the drama up to eleven. It
took Joe across the country from New York to visit
his estranged daughter at her office in downtown La While there,
(02:26):
criminals attacked the office and Joe is forced to use
his skills as a detective to stop them. He manages
to succeed, but not before his daughter is killed. It
was a well received sequel and producers were excited to
turn it into a film. The only problem was that
by the time they were ready to make the movie
in nineteen eighty seven, Sinatra was seventy two years old.
(02:47):
No way could he reprise the role in such an
action heavy sequel. And the part that really stunk for
the producers was that Sinatra's contract from the Detective stipulated
that they had to offer him the role for any sequels.
So they approached him, hands likely shaking as they gave
him the script, secretly hoping that he would turn it down.
And Sinatra read the script with his usual grim expression,
(03:10):
not giving any indication if he liked it or not,
And then once he was finished, he looked back over
to the waiting producers and told them that this was
probably a little more than he could handle at this
point in his life, so he declined the role. I
can imagine the producers jumping for joy as soon as
Sinatra left their office, and what followed was an intense
casting call to find just the right successor to Sinatra.
(03:33):
All the great action stars of the time were called
up too, Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Gibson, Burt Reynolds, but in the
end all of them turned down the role as well. Ultimately,
the producers had to go with a newer, younger actor
who was more popular on television than film. They rewrote
the script to be a little less dark and a
little more funny too. For example, the detective was now
(03:54):
trying to save his wife instead of his daughter, and
he was successful in the end. Also, the criminals weren't
out for revenge, they just wanted money. And finally, the
character of Joe Leland had his name changed to reflect
that this was not really the same guy from the
movie from twenty years before. And I'm happy to say
that it worked. When it was released in nineteen eighty eight,
(04:15):
the film became an instant hit and is considered today
to be one of the greatest action movies of all time,
a film that should have starred Frank Sinatra but instead
starred Bruce Willis die Hard. As Winter rolls in, I've
(04:43):
found myself thinking of the emotions and feelings we associate
with the season. The winter months are a time of joy,
of celebration, Christmas, New Year's, winter revels, yule Tide carols,
and warm fires. You get the idea, breaks from the
drudgery of work to spend time with family, friends, and
our communities. These things are universally beloved, even if you
(05:03):
don't describe to any particular holiday. But that's not all
the winter is made of. After all, we only light
a cozy fire in order to stave off the biting,
bitter cold, and many cultural traditions associate the cold with
ghost stories just as much as jolly El's. And you've
probably heard of Crampus, the goat like creature that follows
(05:24):
Saint Nicholas around in German Christmas stories. But he's merely
the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Christmas Boogeyman.
You see. German folklore is full of so called childhood
nightmare figures. These are the monsters that you tell your
children about in order to scare them into doing their
chores or going to bed on time, but some of
them come for adults too. In Central Europe, one of
(05:46):
the most well known of these beans is Frauperkta an
old crone who cares very much about the cleanliness of
your house and whether you've done all your weaving for
the season. It's said that if your house isn't clean,
she will come in with a pair of scissors, slit
your belly open and fill it with rocks. She also
disembowls lazy children upon occasion as well. Those who observe
(06:07):
her traditions make sure to leave out an offering dumplings
in some regions, or porridge and herring. Other regions say
that you must leave an egg on your roof as
a tribute. Why on the roof, while some say that
frau Perkta flies through the air on the darkest night
of the year, the winter solstice, and behind her is
a caravan of spirits. In some traditions these are the
(06:28):
spirits of unbaptized children, and others they are a parade
of monstrous crompus like creatures called perktin. And she flies
by writing on a distaff, a wool spinning tool that
looks very much like a broom enough so that her
image might call to mind that classical image of a
witch on a broomstick. But Frau. Perkta is not a witch.
(06:49):
She's a result of something that we would call syncretism
and assimilation. Perkta was originally something more resembling a goddess
or a folk deity. Her tradition can actually be traced
all the way back to the Norse goddess Friga, and
she was the goddess of in between spaces who guided
the spirits of the dead to the afterlife. In these
older stories, it said that she taught people how to
(07:10):
weave flax into linen. But when Christianity started taking over
the region, it went to work relegating the creatures of
folklore to secondary roles that fit into Christian worship. Crampus,
for instance, became Santa's helper, and Perkta became a figure
who haunted people not on the Winter solstice, but on
January sixth, the twelfth day of Christmas. But that day
(07:32):
still holds its own special name for those who prefer
to celebrate it the old way. Perkdinag. Like many classic
pre Christian gods or goddesses, Perkta has a sort of
duality to her. She is a creepy old woman who
may punish you for disobedience, but she is also wise
and elderly. She leads a train of ghosts through the
sky in the dark of night, but she also guides
(07:54):
those spirits that are lost to a final resting place.
And as the nights grow longer and the days grow shorter,
she makes you focus on the hearth and home, ensuring
all is ready not just for her, but for your
family as well. This duality makes her perfectly suited for
the winter months. It also makes her resistant to the
ways that Christian influence tried to demonize her, and to
(08:16):
this day, many Alpine communities still dress as Frauperkta in
holiday festivals and pay tribute to her just as enthusiastically
as they do to Saint Nicholas. Some figures from folklore
stand the test of time, and some survive by adapting
to a strange new world. So as the nights get
colder this month, keep an eye on the dark sky above,
(08:38):
and maybe keep an egg on your roof. 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 Mankey in partnership with Houstuff Works.
(09:00):
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 Theworldoflore dot com. And
until next time, stay curious.
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Betrayal: Weekly
Betrayal Weekly is back for a brand new season. Every Thursday, Betrayal Weekly shares first-hand accounts of broken trust, shocking deceptions, and the trail of destruction they leave behind. Hosted by Andrea Gunning, this weekly ongoing series digs into real-life stories of betrayal and the aftermath. From stories of double lives to dark discoveries, these are cautionary tales and accounts of resilience against all odds. From the producers of the critically acclaimed Betrayal series, Betrayal Weekly drops new episodes every Thursday. Please join our Substack for additional exclusive content, curated book recommendations and community discussions. Sign up FREE by clicking this link Beyond Betrayal Substack. Join our community dedicated to truth, resilience and healing. Your voice matters! Be a part of our Betrayal journey on Substack. And make sure to check out Seasons 1-4 of Betrayal, along with Betrayal Weekly Season 1.