Six String

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Episode Transcript

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 right there on display, just waiting
for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.

(00:36):
Leo was not a musical child. Since he was born
in nineteen oh nine two orange farmers in Fullerton, California.
His earliest memories were less harmonies and melodies and more sun,
dirt and citrus. He did take a few piano lessons
as he grew up, and even tried to play the saxophone,
but all that was soon left behind once Leo discovered

(00:56):
his true passion electronics. When he was fourteen years old,
Leo's uncle brought him to his auto shop. While the
engines and complicated mechanics fascinated Leo, the thing that truly
caught his attention was his uncle's hobby project, a radio
made out of spare parts. The second he saw Leo
was hooked. That's why the saxophone and piano lessons had

(01:18):
never stuck. He didn't want to create sound. He wanted
to broadcast it. As Leo the kid grew into Leo
the young man, his passion for machines grew with him.
He found jobs around Orange County as a delivery man
and then as an accountant, but he always carved out
time to tinker with his radios. When the Great Depression
put him out of work as a bookkeeper, Leo decided

(01:40):
to finally follow his dreams. He borrowed six hundred dollars
and in nineteen thirty eight opened his very first radio
repair shop. Leo quickly found his calling as an inventor
and technician. Soon musicians from miles around were coming to
his fuller tin repair shop for public address systems and
electronic amphlifi. With so many musicians around, Leo began experimenting

(02:03):
with not just making tools to broadcast music, but instruments
to make music itself. In the early nineteen forties, Leo
began trading ideas with his client, Clayton or Kaufman, who
went by the name Doc. Doc was a country musician
who played an instrument called a lap steel guitar. These
originated in Hawaii, of all places, When a player laid

(02:24):
an acoustic guitar flat on his lap and used a
steel slide to smoothly shift between pitches. The pair soon
developed an electric version of the instrument, which immediately became
a favorite among country musicians. So for the next few years,
Leo made his money churning out amps and these new
electric lap steel guitars. Leo was also an introverted inventor

(02:45):
who was happiest when he was at his workbench. He
was constantly changing and improving his creations, looking for the
little additions that would make them work harder, be more efficient,
and most importantly, sound better. His coworkers joked that if
he had one hundred dollars to make something, he would
spend ninety nine dollars making it work and one dollar
for it to look pretty. By nineteen fifty, Doc had

(03:07):
left the company and Leo was looking for a new
way to expand. Lap steel guitars were great, but the
market was limited. However, there was a new instrument that
seemed to be growing in popularity. You see, around this time,
big bands, which had dominated dance halls for more than
a decade, were falling out of favor. Venues were hiring
smaller outfits which played rhythm and blues or honky tonk

(03:28):
country music. Many of these bands started using electric guitars,
which were loud enough to cut through a crowded roadhouse.
Often they were hollow acoustic guitars with electric pickups that
enabled them to be played through amplifiers, but these were uncommon,
expensive and not easy to maintain on the road. Leo
saw his inn and in nineteen fifty one he introduced

(03:51):
his new invention, a mass produced, solid bodied electric guitar.
The guitar was loud and durable, with a bright, clean sound.
It had interchangeable parts, too, which meant that if you
broke the neck on the road, you could just swap
it out. It was easy to tune and wouldn't produce
feedback when plugged into an amp, and most importantly, it

(04:11):
was cheap. The low cost of Leo's guitars fueled a
boom in electric guitar music that completely changed the face
of pop culture. Jazz, rhythm and blues, and motown fused
into a brand new sound called rock and roll, and
Leo's instruments were rights at the forefront. From Eric Clapton
and Jimmy Page to Muddy Waters and BB King. Leo's

(04:33):
guitars were the favorites of rock Royalty. They even found
their way into the hands of both the Beatles and
the Rolling Stones. Sometimes our careers take us place as
we never intended. Ongoing radio enthusiast Leo Fender never expected
to end up in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,
but he changed the face of music forever in nineteen
fifty one when his Fender Telecaster leapt onto the scene.

(04:56):
Not bad for a guy who didn't play guitar. It's
been said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

(05:16):
What we find attractive in our mate differs from person
to person. It could be the shape of their nose,
or how big their ears are, or something not physical
at all, like their sense of humor. But for hundreds
of years, Europeans grew obsessed with the looks of the
noble elite, but not because they found them attractive. Actually,
it was quite the opposite. It started back in the
sixteen hundreds when words spread of a young woman named

(05:39):
Tannakin Skinker. And I know she sounds like a Star
Wars character, but her story is one of tragedy and horror.
According to seventeenth century writings, Miss Skinker's mother had not
been kind to the less fortunate. After a beggar woman
approached her for help, the woman sent her away. Well,
as it turned out that was no ordinary beggar she
had dealt with. It was a witch disguise who took

(06:01):
her revenge out on the woman's poor unborn daughter. The
witch said, and this is a modern paraphrase, as the
mother is hoggish, so too shall be her unborn child.
And with that Miss Skinker's fate was sealed. She was
born with the face of a pig and could not speak,
only grunt. She also ate out of a silver trough Sadly,

(06:21):
her piggish demeanor was off putting two potential suitors. It
didn't matter how much money her family had or how
nice her clothes were, no man would approach her. But
before you think of it as a unique and isolated story,
the tale of Tannakin Skinker is actually similar to a
few other tales of rich young European women, such as
the story of Miss Jacob's Daughter, also from the sixteenth century.

(06:44):
The details there are much the same as in Tannikin's ordeal.
A pregnant Dutch woman rejects a beggar at the door,
only to have her unborn daughter cursed with a pig
face once she was born. There was also an occurrence
involving a London woman in eighteen fifteen. Her carriage was
overtaken by curious onlookers hoping to catch a glimpse of
the swinelike features she was reported to possess. Her story

(07:08):
found its way into various papers and publications, further spreading
the mythology of the pig faced woman far and wide.
In fact, it was the newspapers that pushed the narrative
of the London woman with a pig face over the
course of several articles. One reader even wrote into The
Times asking for a job as an assistant to a
lady who was heavily afflicted in the face. Another offered

(07:31):
to marry the pig faced woman. But had these individuals
really been cursed with faces like pigs or was there
something else going on? Well, there's no medical proof that
any of these women actually existed, but we do have stories, songs, articles,
and other works alleging that they did. London's printing industry
in the nineteenth century published everything from penny dreadfuls to

(07:53):
urban legends about people and places that may or may
not have been real anything to sell a paper have
been away to knock the wealthy down a peg or two.
After all, they had all that money and they didn't
share it with the less fortunates, making them ugly on
the inside. So maybe the poor started spreading rumors about
how they were ugly on the outside too. But there

(08:14):
was something else at play here, specifically, how people from
all walks of life were fascinated by birth defects. For
a long time, children born with physical deformities or genetic
mutations were often seen as novelties or as sideshow exhibits.
It was believed that their parents had angered God or
done something horrible for them to be born this way.

(08:34):
Of course, rarely were the targets of these stories men
Men were almost never depicted as animalistic in appearance, so
there was a healthy dose of sexism at work as well.
After all, if a woman, especially a pregnant woman, became
sick or displeased the church, or stepped out of line
in any way, then she and her unborn child would
be punished. Thankfully, London's fascination with the pig faced woman

(08:57):
died out months after the first stories had been published.
But the idea did rear its ugly head again, as
actual circus side shows advertise their own versions of the character.
In reality, they usually shaped a bear and put it
in address, hoping that that would convince attendees. One thing, however,
is true. The pig faced Woman's existence, whether real or imagined,

(09:20):
showed us all who the real monsters were. 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 how

(09:43):
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 Worldolore
dot com. And until next time, stay curious.