March 24, 2026 • 10 mins
We often take things for granted. But if we peek inside, it's possible to find curious stories.
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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):
When you think about the American frontier, what images spring
to mind? Odds are if given that prompt, one of
the things you might imagine is a wagon train, a
line of covered carts meandering over the hills and valleys
far off into the distance, carrying whole families to their
new homes. It's obviously an image with some baggage too.
It's impossible to separate the pioneer trails from the historic
(00:59):
souning that paved their way. But just as crucial to
the iconography of the American West is the cattle train.
Waves and waves of livestock flanked by cowboys on horseback
keeping their herd together. Even as railroads criss crossed the countryside,
cattle could not be easily transported along the rails, so
cattlemen would have to drive their herds for countless miles
(01:22):
from one ranch or fourt to another. During one of
these cattle drives out of Texas, a rancher named Charles
Goodnight had an idea. It was eighteen sixty six, one
year after the end of the Civil War. Goodnight, a
former Texas ranger who had fought for the Confederacy, got
hold of an old army wagon and began to refit
it for the cattle drive. He added shelving, cabinets, drawers,
(01:46):
fire starters, and a Dutch oven, along with plenty of
storage for pots, pans and other supplies, and he added
a water barrel to the back. The idea was that
this wagon could be a mobile kitchen for his cowboys
as they drove the cattle, and his idea was a hit.
The newly assembled vehicle, nicknamed a chuck wagon, became an
essential part of cattle drives throughout the American West. The
(02:10):
food they served wasn't gourmet food, but it was an
efficient way to keep cattlemen supplied in the wilderness, rather
than relying on each cook to carry his own supply
of beans, salted meat, and biscuits. The chuck wagon became
the de facto town square for cattle drivers. Cooks carried
medical supplies, petty cash, and even performed the services of
a dentist or a barber if needed. One of these
(02:32):
cooks could be paid forty five bucks a month, more
than twice what the cowboys were making, due to their
specialized skills required for this job. While the chuck wagon
was a crucial part of cowboy life, its utility was specialized,
and although you can see chuck wagon races today at rodeos,
they're no longer a common part of the American West,
although their DNA does seem to have persisted. You see.
(02:56):
The invention of the chuck wagon was followed by a
similar but distinct to rival in city streets, push carts.
Although not nearly as self sufficient as the larger chuck wagon,
these small carts would roam all over the streets of
cities like Chicago and New York, selling cheap food to
working people who couldn't afford to make themselves a lunch
mid day or go to a restaurant. The next evolution
(03:19):
in mobile food service was the ice cream truck in
the mid twentieth century, but almost at the same time,
independent entrepreneurs were already thinking of creating a chuck Wagon
for the cities a way of serving hot food out
of an ice cream truck, and this idea really took
off in the mid nineteen sixties, but the result was
a controversial one. You see, mobile food service stations earned
(03:41):
the derogatory name roach coaches due to their lower health
standards compared to restaurants. They were relegated, at least in
the eyes of critics, to a place below fast food restaurants,
and am I have stayed that way if not for
the Great Recession of two thousand and eight. The mood
in America was grim. Countless people were out of work,
the economy was in utter freefall. People were desperate to
(04:03):
feed their families, and so some turned to making roach
coaches of their own. The result was a boom in
street food which persists to this day. And of course,
nowadays nobody calls them roach coaches. They're submitted for proper
health inspections, and in medi cities, they're the source of
the best food you can find for an affordable price,
and a test ground for new cuisine that might not
(04:26):
work well in a traditional sit down restaurant. Although there
are now countless examples of these food carts, worldwide. In
the United States, the frontier roots run deep for this
style of restaurant. The grandchild of the Chuck Wagon, the
All American food truck, Willis O'Brien was only twenty nine,
(04:57):
but he had already lived an interesting life. He'd been
a cowboy, a boxer, a marble cutter, and more an
Irish and American known as Obi to his friends. By
nineteen thirteen, he was working sculpting figures for the World's Fair.
He created a small boxer figuring, and it was so
lifelike he almost wished that it would come to life.
(05:18):
That's when he got the idea to put it on film.
If he could figure out how to move the figure
frame by frame and then splice the film frames together,
he could make it look like the boxing figuring was
actually moving. His early attempts at this led to movements
that were jerky and not too convincing, but it was
such a neat effect that Obi decided to develop it further.
Although he was a tough man who worked a lot
(05:40):
of physically demanding jobs, he had this inner artist that
he nurtured by studying images of people and animals and
seeing how well he could replicate them, both on paper
and with clay. Most of all, he'd always loved dinosaurs.
For his next film, he created a battle between a
caveman and a prehistoric creature. This one was impress enough
(06:00):
to capture the attention of Thomas Edison, who hired Obi
to make several more shorts for his company. By nineteen
twenty five, Obie had become in demand throughout Hollywood for
his special effects. He came to the attention of an
even more famous individual than Thomas Edison, none other than
Sherlock Holmes creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Sir Arthur reached
(06:21):
out to Obi, wanting him to do the special effects
for an adaptation of his book The Lost World. This
was a very popular book at the time that featured
a crew of explorers traveling to South America and encountering
living dinosaurs. It's a classic novel that's been adapted many
times and was famously the inspiration for the Jurassic Park franchise.
(06:41):
But it was on Obie to bring the very first
adaptation to life. He had never worked on a feature
film before, nor had any of his shorts been released
to such a wide audience. He wanted his models to
be the most impressive he had done so far, and
on top of that, there would be more of them
than in any of his shorts before. The book has
everything from an iguanodon and a stegosaurus to pterodactyls and more.
(07:05):
Obi set about creating his monsters, beginning with metal frames
with movable ball and socket joints. He then added rubber
and foam to create detailed, realistic skins for the dinosaurs.
They had eyes, teeth, wrinkles, everything they needed to be believable.
Once it was time to put them on film, Obi
refined his filming techniques. He had gotten a lot better
(07:28):
at subtly moving the figures frame by frame so that
their movement was fluid. But now for the Lost World,
he wanted to pioneer a new technique. Up to this point,
he had never had his monsters and the actors of
the films share the same frame. Now he knew how.
He cleverly exposed one half of the frame with an
image of the actor, and then he exposed the second
(07:48):
half with an image of his model. Using the same
backdrop for both, he could create the illusion that the
models were towering over the actors preparing to eat them.
Beyond that, he also created intricate fighting scenes between the dinosaurs.
He even added subtle facial expressions to the monsters so
that you could follow the emotions of a fight. I
mean they looked angry, annoyed, and frustrated. Sir Arthur was
(08:12):
so impressed with the final result he had a screening
for his best friend, the most famous magician of all time,
Harry Houdini. Clearly, Obi ran in some interesting circles. Harry
and his magician friends found the effects so convincing many
thought that it was real magic. The film was just
as well received when it was released. Audiences of the
(08:33):
time didn't have the discerning eye of today's viewers. They
had never seen special effects of any kind. To them,
these were real dinosaurs. They couldn't imagine how they could
be any better. Obi's career grew and grew from there,
until in nineteen thirty three, he was hired to work
on the film that would become his masterpiece. If you
haven't heard of The Lost World, you've definitely heard of
(08:56):
King Kong. King Kong was even more successful multiple Academy Awards.
Obi actually refused his saying that it should go to
the entire team that helped him bring the world of
King Kong to life. It was, he said, their collective
attention to detail that made Kong such a classic film character.
He was just an ape made out of rubber and fur,
(09:17):
but there was never any doubt about what he was feeling.
Obi's curiosity when it came to drawing and sculpting people
and dinosaurs led to one of the greatest films of
all time. It's also led to the creation of an
entire medium, stop motion animation. I hope you enjoyed today's
(09:38):
guided tour through the Cabinet of Curiosities. This show was
created by me Aaron Manke in partnership with iHeart Podcasts,
researched and written by the Grim and Mild team, and
produced by Jesse Funk. Learn more about the show and
the people who make it over at Grimandmild dot com
slash Curiosities. You'll also find a link to the official
Cabinet of Curiosity's hardc cover book, available in bookstores and online,
(10:02):
as well as ebook and audiobook. And if you're looking
for an ad free option, consider joining our Patreon. It's
all the same stories, but without the interruption. For a
small monthly fee, Learn more and sign up over at
patreon dot com. Slash Grimandmild, 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):
When you think about the American frontier, what images spring
to mind? Odds are if given that prompt, one of
the things you might imagine is a wagon train, a
line of covered carts meandering over the hills and valleys
far off into the distance, carrying whole families to their
new homes. It's obviously an image with some baggage too.
It's impossible to separate the pioneer trails from the historic
(00:59):
souning that paved their way. But just as crucial to
the iconography of the American West is the cattle train.
Waves and waves of livestock flanked by cowboys on horseback
keeping their herd together. Even as railroads criss crossed the countryside,
cattle could not be easily transported along the rails, so
cattlemen would have to drive their herds for countless miles
(01:22):
from one ranch or fourt to another. During one of
these cattle drives out of Texas, a rancher named Charles
Goodnight had an idea. It was eighteen sixty six, one
year after the end of the Civil War. Goodnight, a
former Texas ranger who had fought for the Confederacy, got
hold of an old army wagon and began to refit
it for the cattle drive. He added shelving, cabinets, drawers,
(01:46):
fire starters, and a Dutch oven, along with plenty of
storage for pots, pans and other supplies, and he added
a water barrel to the back. The idea was that
this wagon could be a mobile kitchen for his cowboys
as they drove the cattle, and his idea was a hit.
The newly assembled vehicle, nicknamed a chuck wagon, became an
essential part of cattle drives throughout the American West. The
(02:10):
food they served wasn't gourmet food, but it was an
efficient way to keep cattlemen supplied in the wilderness, rather
than relying on each cook to carry his own supply
of beans, salted meat, and biscuits. The chuck wagon became
the de facto town square for cattle drivers. Cooks carried
medical supplies, petty cash, and even performed the services of
a dentist or a barber if needed. One of these
(02:32):
cooks could be paid forty five bucks a month, more
than twice what the cowboys were making, due to their
specialized skills required for this job. While the chuck wagon
was a crucial part of cowboy life, its utility was specialized,
and although you can see chuck wagon races today at rodeos,
they're no longer a common part of the American West,
although their DNA does seem to have persisted. You see.
(02:56):
The invention of the chuck wagon was followed by a
similar but distinct to rival in city streets, push carts.
Although not nearly as self sufficient as the larger chuck wagon,
these small carts would roam all over the streets of
cities like Chicago and New York, selling cheap food to
working people who couldn't afford to make themselves a lunch
mid day or go to a restaurant. The next evolution
(03:19):
in mobile food service was the ice cream truck in
the mid twentieth century, but almost at the same time,
independent entrepreneurs were already thinking of creating a chuck Wagon
for the cities a way of serving hot food out
of an ice cream truck, and this idea really took
off in the mid nineteen sixties, but the result was
a controversial one. You see, mobile food service stations earned
(03:41):
the derogatory name roach coaches due to their lower health
standards compared to restaurants. They were relegated, at least in
the eyes of critics, to a place below fast food restaurants,
and am I have stayed that way if not for
the Great Recession of two thousand and eight. The mood
in America was grim. Countless people were out of work,
the economy was in utter freefall. People were desperate to
(04:03):
feed their families, and so some turned to making roach
coaches of their own. The result was a boom in
street food which persists to this day. And of course,
nowadays nobody calls them roach coaches. They're submitted for proper
health inspections, and in medi cities, they're the source of
the best food you can find for an affordable price,
and a test ground for new cuisine that might not
(04:26):
work well in a traditional sit down restaurant. Although there
are now countless examples of these food carts, worldwide. In
the United States, the frontier roots run deep for this
style of restaurant. The grandchild of the Chuck Wagon, the
All American food truck, Willis O'Brien was only twenty nine,
(04:57):
but he had already lived an interesting life. He'd been
a cowboy, a boxer, a marble cutter, and more an
Irish and American known as Obi to his friends. By
nineteen thirteen, he was working sculpting figures for the World's Fair.
He created a small boxer figuring, and it was so
lifelike he almost wished that it would come to life.
(05:18):
That's when he got the idea to put it on film.
If he could figure out how to move the figure
frame by frame and then splice the film frames together,
he could make it look like the boxing figuring was
actually moving. His early attempts at this led to movements
that were jerky and not too convincing, but it was
such a neat effect that Obi decided to develop it further.
Although he was a tough man who worked a lot
(05:40):
of physically demanding jobs, he had this inner artist that
he nurtured by studying images of people and animals and
seeing how well he could replicate them, both on paper
and with clay. Most of all, he'd always loved dinosaurs.
For his next film, he created a battle between a
caveman and a prehistoric creature. This one was impress enough
(06:00):
to capture the attention of Thomas Edison, who hired Obi
to make several more shorts for his company. By nineteen
twenty five, Obie had become in demand throughout Hollywood for
his special effects. He came to the attention of an
even more famous individual than Thomas Edison, none other than
Sherlock Holmes creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Sir Arthur reached
(06:21):
out to Obi, wanting him to do the special effects
for an adaptation of his book The Lost World. This
was a very popular book at the time that featured
a crew of explorers traveling to South America and encountering
living dinosaurs. It's a classic novel that's been adapted many
times and was famously the inspiration for the Jurassic Park franchise.
(06:41):
But it was on Obie to bring the very first
adaptation to life. He had never worked on a feature
film before, nor had any of his shorts been released
to such a wide audience. He wanted his models to
be the most impressive he had done so far, and
on top of that, there would be more of them
than in any of his shorts before. The book has
everything from an iguanodon and a stegosaurus to pterodactyls and more.
(07:05):
Obi set about creating his monsters, beginning with metal frames
with movable ball and socket joints. He then added rubber
and foam to create detailed, realistic skins for the dinosaurs.
They had eyes, teeth, wrinkles, everything they needed to be believable.
Once it was time to put them on film, Obi
refined his filming techniques. He had gotten a lot better
(07:28):
at subtly moving the figures frame by frame so that
their movement was fluid. But now for the Lost World,
he wanted to pioneer a new technique. Up to this point,
he had never had his monsters and the actors of
the films share the same frame. Now he knew how.
He cleverly exposed one half of the frame with an
image of the actor, and then he exposed the second
(07:48):
half with an image of his model. Using the same
backdrop for both, he could create the illusion that the
models were towering over the actors preparing to eat them.
Beyond that, he also created intricate fighting scenes between the dinosaurs.
He even added subtle facial expressions to the monsters so
that you could follow the emotions of a fight. I
mean they looked angry, annoyed, and frustrated. Sir Arthur was
(08:12):
so impressed with the final result he had a screening
for his best friend, the most famous magician of all time,
Harry Houdini. Clearly, Obi ran in some interesting circles. Harry
and his magician friends found the effects so convincing many
thought that it was real magic. The film was just
as well received when it was released. Audiences of the
(08:33):
time didn't have the discerning eye of today's viewers. They
had never seen special effects of any kind. To them,
these were real dinosaurs. They couldn't imagine how they could
be any better. Obi's career grew and grew from there,
until in nineteen thirty three, he was hired to work
on the film that would become his masterpiece. If you
haven't heard of The Lost World, you've definitely heard of
(08:56):
King Kong. King Kong was even more successful multiple Academy Awards.
Obi actually refused his saying that it should go to
the entire team that helped him bring the world of
King Kong to life. It was, he said, their collective
attention to detail that made Kong such a classic film character.
He was just an ape made out of rubber and fur,
(09:17):
but there was never any doubt about what he was feeling.
Obi's curiosity when it came to drawing and sculpting people
and dinosaurs led to one of the greatest films of
all time. It's also led to the creation of an
entire medium, stop motion animation. I hope you enjoyed today's
(09:38):
guided tour through the Cabinet of Curiosities. This show was
created by me Aaron Manke in partnership with iHeart Podcasts,
researched and written by the Grim and Mild team, and
produced by Jesse Funk. Learn more about the show and
the people who make it over at Grimandmild dot com
slash Curiosities. You'll also find a link to the official
Cabinet of Curiosity's hardc cover book, available in bookstores and online,
(10:02):
as well as ebook and audiobook. And if you're looking
for an ad free option, consider joining our Patreon. It's
all the same stories, but without the interruption. For a
small monthly fee, Learn more and sign up over at
patreon dot com. Slash Grimandmild, and until next time, stay curious,
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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