August 29, 2024 • 9 mins
Pivotal moments can sometimes alter the future forever. Here are two such "historical hinges".
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Menke'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):
It was the race of a lifetime, and the stakes
had never been higher. The course was treacherous, a winding,
single lane dirt road through swamps and forests, then across
a winding mountain path. And to make matters worse, the
drivers would attempt this route entirely at night and without headlights.
A wrong turn in the dark could be deadly, but
the payoff was worth the risk. The winner would walk
(00:58):
away with a massive purse and the loser could leave
in handcuffs. Because this wasn't the INND five hundred, and
the racers weren't professional drivers, they were bootleggers. During America's
prohibition era, illegal whiskey and moonshine runners became some of
the best getaway drivers in the country. There was a
lot of money to be made by transporting liquor from
world distilleries to speakeasies in the city, provided they didn't
(01:21):
get caught. The roads were heavily patrolled by the FEDS,
so runners did everything they could to give themselves an edge.
They bought the best cars on the market, like Ford's
powerful V eight, then modified them to the perfect getaway vehicles.
They souped up the engines and ripped out the back seats.
They added suspension springs so the car's frames wouldn't sag
under the weight of contraband and alert the cops. Some
(01:45):
bootleggers even rig their vehicles with gadgets straight out of
a Bond film. Cars were capable of emitting smoke screens
and oil slicks, or dumping nails into the path of
their pursuers, but no gadget or upgrade could match experience
behind the wheel. The bootleggers weren't moving liquor or retooling
their rides. They kept up their skills by racing one
(02:05):
another at local fairgrounds. Now, these races weren't supposed to
be serious, at least at first. There were no cash
prizes and no tickets sold, so a lot of drivers
were surprised when people started to show up and watch
At this point, the American auto racing scene was pretty
much limited to triple A races like the Indy five hundred.
These were expensive, high class events attended by wealthy businessmen
(02:27):
and their families. The amateur bootlegger races were the exact opposite.
The cars were stock, the drivers were amateur, and the
audiences were working class. The courses were so dusty that
everyone went home the color of rust. But what these
races lacked in frills, they made up for in spectacle.
Reckless Roy Hall, for example, who had multiple convictions to
(02:48):
his name, could be seen tearing around turns so fast
his vehicle briefly lifted onto two wheels. Meanwhile, Bill Blair Senior,
a bootlegger from North Carolina, demonstrated the one hundred and
eighty degree hair pin turns that he had perfected while
evading atf agents. The combination of the talents and the
guts on display caused the races to surge in popularity,
(03:09):
with audiences showing up in droves. The drivers started earning
real money, maybe not bootleg level money, but enough that
when national prohibition ended in nineteen thirty three, they kept
on racing. And while that was happening an entire industry
of mechanics and garages. The folks that serviced those booze
runner vehicles transitioned to meet the needs of stock car racers.
(03:30):
Even the promoters and team managers had roots in the
illegal liquor trade. By nineteen forty seven, it was time
to make things official. A group of former bootleggers met
in Daytona Beach, Florida to standardize the rules for their
fledgling sport. By the time they left the meeting, they
had formed a brand new racing association, which would see
a rapid and meteoric expansion in the coming years. Among
(03:54):
those early rules was an agreement that drivers couldn't be
sponsored by liquor companies. Ironic perhaps, but also clever. The
league thought that if they were ever going to become mainstream,
they would need to distance themselves from their criminal past.
The rebranding was a success. The sport took off and
eventually became the biggest auto racing league in the US,
(04:14):
and today a few people remember that NASCAR was created
by a bunch of professional bootleggers. Let's do a thought
(04:34):
experiment right now. Think about your local movie theater. What's
the first thing that you can picture in your mind.
Is it the smell of the popcorn, or maybe the
feeling of the seat cushion under you as you settle
in and watch the latest blockbuster. Whatever it is, Going
to a movie theater and watching a film is something
almost everyone has experienced at least once in their lives.
(04:55):
Well back in nineteen sixty one, film changed the movie
going experience forever, and we're still feeling the effects of
this today. British director Alfred Hitchcock was looking for his
next big project. He had just finished North By Northwest
starring Carrie Grant, the exciting spy thriller that had stars
fighting for their lives atop Mount Rushmore. But rather than
(05:15):
go bigger for his next film, he took a page
literally from his assistant Peggy Robertson. Robertson had read a
review of a new novel by the author Robert Block.
Inspired by the story of a Wisconsin farmer turned gravedigger
and murderer, the book told the story of a lonely
motel caretaker with a strange fascination with his mother. Robertson
(05:36):
gave Hitchcock a copy of Block's novel Psycho and the
rest was history. Except that's not where the story ends.
In fact, it's just the beginning, because Hitchcock new Psycho's
success was going to hinge on one thing, the element
of surprise. So to avoid any potential audience members from
reading the novel ahead of time and ruining the twistwear
(05:57):
spoiler alert the main character is killed halfway through the story,
he had Peggy buy up every copy of the book
she could find. Hitchcock then bought the rights to the
film for Block's novel for nine five hundred dollars and
went to Paramount with his pitch. But they weren't too receptive.
For one, the studio had already turned down the book
based on its unsavory plot. The executives didn't want to
(06:18):
spend a lot of money. North By Northwest By the
Way had cost them about five million dollars, so Hitchcock
eased their fears by promising to film the movie in
black and white, and to avoid undue cost to the studio,
he used his crew from the Alfred Hitchcock Presents television series.
When that didn't work, he said that he would pay
for it himself. All Paramount had to do was distribute it,
(06:40):
and finally they agreed. It took almost three months to film,
but by the end Hitchcock had a tightly wound horror
thriller featuring killer performances from the likes of Anthony Perkins
as Norman Bates and Janetly as Marion Crane. But he
also had a big problem on his hands. You see,
Marion's death happens almost an hour into the film. Now today,
(07:02):
if someone is five or ten minutes late to a movie,
the most they miss are the trailers or maybe the
opening scene. But before nineteen sixty, theaters showed their films
on a loop. They would open the doors and start
their projectors. Customers who bought tickets might catch the film
at the beginning, or maybe even just the last few scenes,
and then when it was over, they would sit and
wait for the picture to start again and watch it
(07:23):
until it reached the point where they had walked in.
Hitchcock couldn't have that. He didn't want audiences coming in
late and missing the crucial scene where Marian dies. Even
more so, he didn't want people learning the truth about
Norman Bates before they'd even seen what comes before, so
he and the studio ink to deal with the theaters,
he forced them to adopt specific showtimes for Psycho. Now
(07:45):
at first the theaters objected, but then they realized that
they would make a lot more money by turning Hitchcock's
film into an exclusive You had to be there event,
oh and anyone who came late was not allowed into
the theater. The director even had a bunch of cardboard
cutouts of himself made up with an explanation of this
new rule, which read, we won't allow you to cheat yourself.
(08:05):
You must see Psycho from beginning to end to enjoy
it fully, and these were placed in theater lobbies for
patrons to see as they walked in. Well, Hitchcock's gamble worked.
Audiences lined up in droves to see Psycho as intended,
and the theaters loved how designated showtimes gave them a
clear view of their busiest times of the day, as
well as the ideal times to clean the theaters. Pretty soon,
(08:28):
Psycho wasn't the only appointment only film being shown. Other
movies followed suit, and the whole concept of showing films
on a loop went the way of the Betamax. So
the next time you make plans to see a new
horror film, or a Victorian drama or a buddy cop
comedy in the theaters, you can thank Alfred Hitchcock. And
the next time you freak out about taking a shower alone,
(08:49):
well you can thank him for that as well. 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. This show
was created by me, Aaron Mankey in partnership with how
(09:11):
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 Menke'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):
It was the race of a lifetime, and the stakes
had never been higher. The course was treacherous, a winding,
single lane dirt road through swamps and forests, then across
a winding mountain path. And to make matters worse, the
drivers would attempt this route entirely at night and without headlights.
A wrong turn in the dark could be deadly, but
the payoff was worth the risk. The winner would walk
(00:58):
away with a massive purse and the loser could leave
in handcuffs. Because this wasn't the INND five hundred, and
the racers weren't professional drivers, they were bootleggers. During America's
prohibition era, illegal whiskey and moonshine runners became some of
the best getaway drivers in the country. There was a
lot of money to be made by transporting liquor from
world distilleries to speakeasies in the city, provided they didn't
(01:21):
get caught. The roads were heavily patrolled by the FEDS,
so runners did everything they could to give themselves an edge.
They bought the best cars on the market, like Ford's
powerful V eight, then modified them to the perfect getaway vehicles.
They souped up the engines and ripped out the back seats.
They added suspension springs so the car's frames wouldn't sag
under the weight of contraband and alert the cops. Some
(01:45):
bootleggers even rig their vehicles with gadgets straight out of
a Bond film. Cars were capable of emitting smoke screens
and oil slicks, or dumping nails into the path of
their pursuers, but no gadget or upgrade could match experience
behind the wheel. The bootleggers weren't moving liquor or retooling
their rides. They kept up their skills by racing one
(02:05):
another at local fairgrounds. Now, these races weren't supposed to
be serious, at least at first. There were no cash
prizes and no tickets sold, so a lot of drivers
were surprised when people started to show up and watch
At this point, the American auto racing scene was pretty
much limited to triple A races like the Indy five hundred.
These were expensive, high class events attended by wealthy businessmen
(02:27):
and their families. The amateur bootlegger races were the exact opposite.
The cars were stock, the drivers were amateur, and the
audiences were working class. The courses were so dusty that
everyone went home the color of rust. But what these
races lacked in frills, they made up for in spectacle.
Reckless Roy Hall, for example, who had multiple convictions to
(02:48):
his name, could be seen tearing around turns so fast
his vehicle briefly lifted onto two wheels. Meanwhile, Bill Blair Senior,
a bootlegger from North Carolina, demonstrated the one hundred and
eighty degree hair pin turns that he had perfected while
evading atf agents. The combination of the talents and the
guts on display caused the races to surge in popularity,
(03:09):
with audiences showing up in droves. The drivers started earning
real money, maybe not bootleg level money, but enough that
when national prohibition ended in nineteen thirty three, they kept
on racing. And while that was happening an entire industry
of mechanics and garages. The folks that serviced those booze
runner vehicles transitioned to meet the needs of stock car racers.
(03:30):
Even the promoters and team managers had roots in the
illegal liquor trade. By nineteen forty seven, it was time
to make things official. A group of former bootleggers met
in Daytona Beach, Florida to standardize the rules for their
fledgling sport. By the time they left the meeting, they
had formed a brand new racing association, which would see
a rapid and meteoric expansion in the coming years. Among
(03:54):
those early rules was an agreement that drivers couldn't be
sponsored by liquor companies. Ironic perhaps, but also clever. The
league thought that if they were ever going to become mainstream,
they would need to distance themselves from their criminal past.
The rebranding was a success. The sport took off and
eventually became the biggest auto racing league in the US,
(04:14):
and today a few people remember that NASCAR was created
by a bunch of professional bootleggers. Let's do a thought
(04:34):
experiment right now. Think about your local movie theater. What's
the first thing that you can picture in your mind.
Is it the smell of the popcorn, or maybe the
feeling of the seat cushion under you as you settle
in and watch the latest blockbuster. Whatever it is, Going
to a movie theater and watching a film is something
almost everyone has experienced at least once in their lives.
(04:55):
Well back in nineteen sixty one, film changed the movie
going experience forever, and we're still feeling the effects of
this today. British director Alfred Hitchcock was looking for his
next big project. He had just finished North By Northwest
starring Carrie Grant, the exciting spy thriller that had stars
fighting for their lives atop Mount Rushmore. But rather than
(05:15):
go bigger for his next film, he took a page
literally from his assistant Peggy Robertson. Robertson had read a
review of a new novel by the author Robert Block.
Inspired by the story of a Wisconsin farmer turned gravedigger
and murderer, the book told the story of a lonely
motel caretaker with a strange fascination with his mother. Robertson
(05:36):
gave Hitchcock a copy of Block's novel Psycho and the
rest was history. Except that's not where the story ends.
In fact, it's just the beginning, because Hitchcock new Psycho's
success was going to hinge on one thing, the element
of surprise. So to avoid any potential audience members from
reading the novel ahead of time and ruining the twistwear
(05:57):
spoiler alert the main character is killed halfway through the story,
he had Peggy buy up every copy of the book
she could find. Hitchcock then bought the rights to the
film for Block's novel for nine five hundred dollars and
went to Paramount with his pitch. But they weren't too receptive.
For one, the studio had already turned down the book
based on its unsavory plot. The executives didn't want to
(06:18):
spend a lot of money. North By Northwest By the
Way had cost them about five million dollars, so Hitchcock
eased their fears by promising to film the movie in
black and white, and to avoid undue cost to the studio,
he used his crew from the Alfred Hitchcock Presents television series.
When that didn't work, he said that he would pay
for it himself. All Paramount had to do was distribute it,
(06:40):
and finally they agreed. It took almost three months to film,
but by the end Hitchcock had a tightly wound horror
thriller featuring killer performances from the likes of Anthony Perkins
as Norman Bates and Janetly as Marion Crane. But he
also had a big problem on his hands. You see,
Marion's death happens almost an hour into the film. Now today,
(07:02):
if someone is five or ten minutes late to a movie,
the most they miss are the trailers or maybe the
opening scene. But before nineteen sixty, theaters showed their films
on a loop. They would open the doors and start
their projectors. Customers who bought tickets might catch the film
at the beginning, or maybe even just the last few scenes,
and then when it was over, they would sit and
wait for the picture to start again and watch it
(07:23):
until it reached the point where they had walked in.
Hitchcock couldn't have that. He didn't want audiences coming in
late and missing the crucial scene where Marian dies. Even
more so, he didn't want people learning the truth about
Norman Bates before they'd even seen what comes before, so
he and the studio ink to deal with the theaters,
he forced them to adopt specific showtimes for Psycho. Now
(07:45):
at first the theaters objected, but then they realized that
they would make a lot more money by turning Hitchcock's
film into an exclusive You had to be there event,
oh and anyone who came late was not allowed into
the theater. The director even had a bunch of cardboard
cutouts of himself made up with an explanation of this
new rule, which read, we won't allow you to cheat yourself.
(08:05):
You must see Psycho from beginning to end to enjoy
it fully, and these were placed in theater lobbies for
patrons to see as they walked in. Well, Hitchcock's gamble worked.
Audiences lined up in droves to see Psycho as intended,
and the theaters loved how designated showtimes gave them a
clear view of their busiest times of the day, as
well as the ideal times to clean the theaters. Pretty soon,
(08:28):
Psycho wasn't the only appointment only film being shown. Other
movies followed suit, and the whole concept of showing films
on a loop went the way of the Betamax. So
the next time you make plans to see a new
horror film, or a Victorian drama or a buddy cop
comedy in the theaters, you can thank Alfred Hitchcock. And
the next time you freak out about taking a shower alone,
(08:49):
well you can thank him for that as well. 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. This show
was created by me, Aaron Mankey in partnership with how
(09:11):
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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