October 21, 2025 • 10 mins
Every industry finds their star, as these two stories will demonstrate for us today.
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Episode Transcript
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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):
The advent of cinema in the late nineteenth century changed
the world. Even though motion pictures started as a sideshow oddity,
their popularity grew fast as the years went by. Single
shot films slowly started to evolve in complexity, and audience's
tastes evolved along with them. Within a few decades, people
were no longer diving out of the way of trains
(00:57):
coming toward the movie screen, and the first proper era
of filmmaking took off, the Silent Era. Talking about it
now a century later, there are many misconceptions about the
Silent era. For instance, most of the films were not
presented in black and white, but hand tinted in vivid
monochrome hues. It was primitive technology, sure, but audiences of
(01:18):
the time were just as used to color films as
we are today. Another misconception is how the world at
large took to cinema. Every country had a different entertainment landscape,
and for many countries outside of Europe and America, moviegoers
wanted different things out of their entertainment. So follow me
to early twentieth century Japan to see what I mean.
(01:40):
Japan was in the process of modernizing following the Meiji Restoration.
Industry and commerce was booming, but for entertainment, people largely
still looked to the classics. Kabuki theater was in the
middle of a resurgence in popularity and remained the dominant
entertainment for a night out on the town. So when
movies were first deriving from Europe, they seemed like an oddity. However,
(02:03):
this oddity sparked an entirely new class of entertainer which
eventually allowed movies to take over Japanese pop culture. Early
imported movies were simple scenes of daily life without much
narrative to speak of, so in order to increase the
value of the knight's entertainment, theatrical venues hired a performer
to interpret the silent action on screen for the audience.
(02:27):
This role became known as the benshi or orader, and
they weren't just necessary for interpreting Western movies to a
Japanese audience. They became an integral part of all movie
going experiences, even films produced in Japan. A benshi became
just as much of a draw for a film as
the content of the movie itself. Many picture houses promoted
(02:47):
their live performers on the posters with the movie stars,
and this emphasis was an important one. Their job was
not just to blankly recite what's happening on the screen
and read the title cards. They guide viewers through jarring
cuts or seeing transitions, provided voices for all the different characters,
and would sometimes even recite poetry to describe the emotions
(03:09):
of an evocative visual. A great benchi projecting his or
her voice over the musicians in a thousand person theater
would become a celebrity in their own right. In the
nineteen tens, benhi training schools opened throughout Japan. Their classes
included extensive voice training and education in various performance styles
(03:30):
that suits different sorts of films. The wannabe benchis were
also educated in history, geography, and world cultures to better
prepare them for interpreting foreign films. And as benshi became
more legitimate throughout the country, the government stepped in to
make sure that they were properly licensed and abiding by
public morals and standards. Sensa benhi could interpret a piece
(03:52):
of art for the Japanese public, their performances would be
monitored by public officials. If they didn't abide by censorship laws,
their licenses would be revoked immediately. Now, the narration of
benhi provided was known as setsume, and it was ultimately
their skill at setsume that would make a benhi's career.
At the peak of the profession around nineteen twenty seven,
(04:14):
there were over sixty eight hundred benchi throughout Japan, and
there were also benhi equivalents in nearby countries including Korea
and Taiwan. It also lasted a little longer than it
did in the West. When sound films started to overtake
silence in the late nineteen twenties, it took many years
to catch on across the Pacific, but inevitably the popularity
(04:35):
of benhi began to fade. By the nineteen thirties, the
profession was almost gone. However, it never truly went extinct.
Small groups of dedicated performers kept the practice alive and
became famous faces in the world of film preservation and exhibition.
The most famous of these might just be Midori Suwato,
a woman whose narration of silent films remains popular to
(04:58):
this day. She's still alive and still performing the art
of setsume, lending her voice to movie stars who would
otherwise be mute. It turns out that the silent era
in Japan was never very silent at all. Is it
(05:26):
possible to elect a queen? Usually the answer to that
question is no. Elective monarchies have existed throughout human history,
but the kings and queens we remember are often parts
of dynasties, chosen by bloodline or a conquest, which is
perhaps why among ordinary people there are often little competitions
to choose queens of our own. A queen, after all,
(05:48):
is a great title for a figurehead, even if she
has no real power. Perhaps you're familiar with the concept
of a may queen, a woman who was appointed in
a midsummer festival to be dressed in flat hours and
celebrate nature. It's an old and extremely popular tradition, but
at some point this practice spread from folklore to that
of the Industrial Society of Great Britain. It began as
(06:11):
a publicity stunt. In nineteen twenty five, to celebrate their
one hundred year anniversary, the Stockton and Darlington Railroad held
a beauty pageant where they crowned Helena Wotton as their
first railway Queen. For a year, this symbolic figure would
represent the great progress and the shining future of the
industrial age. Even though it was commemorating an anniversary, the
(06:34):
railway queen was not a one time appointment. Every year
afterward the railway would appoint a new queen with all
the fanfare and publicity of the first. Although the early
queens were all daughters of railroad company employees, soon the
candidates expanded to their greater British public and other industries
caught on as well, leading to an explosion of industrial queens.
(06:57):
In the nineteen thirties. There was a cotton Queen, a
wool queen, a coal queen, queens of silk, salt, fish,
and radio. It became the go to method for celebrating
each given quarter of British industry. The United States also
got in on the action, crowning their own queens of industry,
but what did a Queen of industry actually do well?
(07:20):
Their role was ceremonial, to be sure, the early critics
who labeled it as a publicity stunt couldn't have been
more correct, But there was more to being a queen
of industry than being a pretty face. They were expected
to give speeches, make public appearances, advocating for their industry. Essentially,
they were the face of their field for the entire year.
(07:40):
As a result, this appointment catapulted a number of young
women and girls into something resembling celebrity in the most
dramatic cases. This even led to opportunities to go abroad
and observe how other countries handle their industries. For example,
in nineteen thirty five, the fifteen year old Audrey Mossum
was crown Britain's Railway Queen. The following year saw her
(08:01):
experience a whirlwind of public appearances and ceremonies, culminating in
a controversial trip to the East. The Railway Queen, you see,
had been invited to go to the Soviet Union. She
would undertake this trip in the summer of nineteen thirty six,
traveling by rail from Mince to Moscow, where she met
Joseph Stalin himself, the head of Soviet Russia, greeted her
(08:23):
before a crowd of railway workers, and the widow of
Vladimir Lenin presented her with a special Russian nestingdal to
commemorate her visit. Since the nineteen thirties, competition to be
crowned a Queen of Industry became more and more stiff.
Rather than simply be chosen by a small group of companies,
these became full competitions, with finalists and a panel of
(08:43):
carefully selected judges. After the Second World War, the role
of the Queens of Industry even expanded to one of recruitment.
You see, women were not just the faces of industry,
they were increasingly part of it. Companies produced recruitment films
starring the Queens of Industry in order to encourage women
to join the workforce. Like actual royalty, though these Queens
(09:05):
of Industry would have a tense relationship with the workers themselves.
From the beginning, the title was roundly criticized as a
distraction from the growing power of trade unions. Union members
would eventually allow their families to participate in these sorts
of pageants, but they would abstain from participating if a
strike was called. The final Queens of Industry were appointed
(09:26):
in the nineteen eighties, showing how the practice had faded
as times and tastes changed. Beauty competitions in general have
become less in vogue, and labor disputes between workers and
government backed management have made the whole thing seem much
less quaint. Communities, though, have always been good at finding
fresh ways to overcome the problems they face. The Queens
(09:47):
of Industry might be a thing of the past, but
they definitely seemed to serve a purpose at the time,
and looking back, they left us with something incredibly valuable,
a curious chapter in history. I hope you've enjoyed today's
guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free
(10:08):
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 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
(10:30):
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):
The advent of cinema in the late nineteenth century changed
the world. Even though motion pictures started as a sideshow oddity,
their popularity grew fast as the years went by. Single
shot films slowly started to evolve in complexity, and audience's
tastes evolved along with them. Within a few decades, people
were no longer diving out of the way of trains
(00:57):
coming toward the movie screen, and the first proper era
of filmmaking took off, the Silent Era. Talking about it
now a century later, there are many misconceptions about the
Silent era. For instance, most of the films were not
presented in black and white, but hand tinted in vivid
monochrome hues. It was primitive technology, sure, but audiences of
(01:18):
the time were just as used to color films as
we are today. Another misconception is how the world at
large took to cinema. Every country had a different entertainment landscape,
and for many countries outside of Europe and America, moviegoers
wanted different things out of their entertainment. So follow me
to early twentieth century Japan to see what I mean.
(01:40):
Japan was in the process of modernizing following the Meiji Restoration.
Industry and commerce was booming, but for entertainment, people largely
still looked to the classics. Kabuki theater was in the
middle of a resurgence in popularity and remained the dominant
entertainment for a night out on the town. So when
movies were first deriving from Europe, they seemed like an oddity. However,
(02:03):
this oddity sparked an entirely new class of entertainer which
eventually allowed movies to take over Japanese pop culture. Early
imported movies were simple scenes of daily life without much
narrative to speak of, so in order to increase the
value of the knight's entertainment, theatrical venues hired a performer
to interpret the silent action on screen for the audience.
(02:27):
This role became known as the benshi or orader, and
they weren't just necessary for interpreting Western movies to a
Japanese audience. They became an integral part of all movie
going experiences, even films produced in Japan. A benshi became
just as much of a draw for a film as
the content of the movie itself. Many picture houses promoted
(02:47):
their live performers on the posters with the movie stars,
and this emphasis was an important one. Their job was
not just to blankly recite what's happening on the screen
and read the title cards. They guide viewers through jarring
cuts or seeing transitions, provided voices for all the different characters,
and would sometimes even recite poetry to describe the emotions
(03:09):
of an evocative visual. A great benchi projecting his or
her voice over the musicians in a thousand person theater
would become a celebrity in their own right. In the
nineteen tens, benhi training schools opened throughout Japan. Their classes
included extensive voice training and education in various performance styles
(03:30):
that suits different sorts of films. The wannabe benchis were
also educated in history, geography, and world cultures to better
prepare them for interpreting foreign films. And as benshi became
more legitimate throughout the country, the government stepped in to
make sure that they were properly licensed and abiding by
public morals and standards. Sensa benhi could interpret a piece
(03:52):
of art for the Japanese public, their performances would be
monitored by public officials. If they didn't abide by censorship laws,
their licenses would be revoked immediately. Now, the narration of
benhi provided was known as setsume, and it was ultimately
their skill at setsume that would make a benhi's career.
At the peak of the profession around nineteen twenty seven,
(04:14):
there were over sixty eight hundred benchi throughout Japan, and
there were also benhi equivalents in nearby countries including Korea
and Taiwan. It also lasted a little longer than it
did in the West. When sound films started to overtake
silence in the late nineteen twenties, it took many years
to catch on across the Pacific, but inevitably the popularity
(04:35):
of benhi began to fade. By the nineteen thirties, the
profession was almost gone. However, it never truly went extinct.
Small groups of dedicated performers kept the practice alive and
became famous faces in the world of film preservation and exhibition.
The most famous of these might just be Midori Suwato,
a woman whose narration of silent films remains popular to
(04:58):
this day. She's still alive and still performing the art
of setsume, lending her voice to movie stars who would
otherwise be mute. It turns out that the silent era
in Japan was never very silent at all. Is it
(05:26):
possible to elect a queen? Usually the answer to that
question is no. Elective monarchies have existed throughout human history,
but the kings and queens we remember are often parts
of dynasties, chosen by bloodline or a conquest, which is
perhaps why among ordinary people there are often little competitions
to choose queens of our own. A queen, after all,
(05:48):
is a great title for a figurehead, even if she
has no real power. Perhaps you're familiar with the concept
of a may queen, a woman who was appointed in
a midsummer festival to be dressed in flat hours and
celebrate nature. It's an old and extremely popular tradition, but
at some point this practice spread from folklore to that
of the Industrial Society of Great Britain. It began as
(06:11):
a publicity stunt. In nineteen twenty five, to celebrate their
one hundred year anniversary, the Stockton and Darlington Railroad held
a beauty pageant where they crowned Helena Wotton as their
first railway Queen. For a year, this symbolic figure would
represent the great progress and the shining future of the
industrial age. Even though it was commemorating an anniversary, the
(06:34):
railway queen was not a one time appointment. Every year
afterward the railway would appoint a new queen with all
the fanfare and publicity of the first. Although the early
queens were all daughters of railroad company employees, soon the
candidates expanded to their greater British public and other industries
caught on as well, leading to an explosion of industrial queens.
(06:57):
In the nineteen thirties. There was a cotton Queen, a
wool queen, a coal queen, queens of silk, salt, fish,
and radio. It became the go to method for celebrating
each given quarter of British industry. The United States also
got in on the action, crowning their own queens of industry,
but what did a Queen of industry actually do well?
(07:20):
Their role was ceremonial, to be sure, the early critics
who labeled it as a publicity stunt couldn't have been
more correct, But there was more to being a queen
of industry than being a pretty face. They were expected
to give speeches, make public appearances, advocating for their industry. Essentially,
they were the face of their field for the entire year.
(07:40):
As a result, this appointment catapulted a number of young
women and girls into something resembling celebrity in the most
dramatic cases. This even led to opportunities to go abroad
and observe how other countries handle their industries. For example,
in nineteen thirty five, the fifteen year old Audrey Mossum
was crown Britain's Railway Queen. The following year saw her
(08:01):
experience a whirlwind of public appearances and ceremonies, culminating in
a controversial trip to the East. The Railway Queen, you see,
had been invited to go to the Soviet Union. She
would undertake this trip in the summer of nineteen thirty six,
traveling by rail from Mince to Moscow, where she met
Joseph Stalin himself, the head of Soviet Russia, greeted her
(08:23):
before a crowd of railway workers, and the widow of
Vladimir Lenin presented her with a special Russian nestingdal to
commemorate her visit. Since the nineteen thirties, competition to be
crowned a Queen of Industry became more and more stiff.
Rather than simply be chosen by a small group of companies,
these became full competitions, with finalists and a panel of
(08:43):
carefully selected judges. After the Second World War, the role
of the Queens of Industry even expanded to one of recruitment.
You see, women were not just the faces of industry,
they were increasingly part of it. Companies produced recruitment films
starring the Queens of Industry in order to encourage women
to join the workforce. Like actual royalty, though these Queens
(09:05):
of Industry would have a tense relationship with the workers themselves.
From the beginning, the title was roundly criticized as a
distraction from the growing power of trade unions. Union members
would eventually allow their families to participate in these sorts
of pageants, but they would abstain from participating if a
strike was called. The final Queens of Industry were appointed
(09:26):
in the nineteen eighties, showing how the practice had faded
as times and tastes changed. Beauty competitions in general have
become less in vogue, and labor disputes between workers and
government backed management have made the whole thing seem much
less quaint. Communities, though, have always been good at finding
fresh ways to overcome the problems they face. The Queens
(09:47):
of Industry might be a thing of the past, but
they definitely seemed to serve a purpose at the time,
and looking back, they left us with something incredibly valuable,
a curious chapter in history. I hope you've enjoyed today's
guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free
(10:08):
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 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
(10:30):
next time, stay curious.
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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