May 6, 2025 • 10 mins
Today's tour features a pair of curious performances, although for very different reasons and with wildly different legacies.
Order the official Cabinet of Curiosities book by clicking here today, and get ready to enjoy some curious reading!
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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):
Every form of arts has to earn its legitimacy, whether
it's theater, film, comic books, or video games. For some reason,
it's a very human trait to look down upon emerging
forms of entertainment as lesser to what came before. Theater
seems like the most prestigious medium in modern entertainment, but
there was a time when the theater was seen as
a disreputable place where actors were seen as little better
(00:59):
than the uggs. In fifteen ninety seven, theaters throughout London
closed due to an outbreak of the plague. For those
of us who can remember the year twenty twenty, this
sounds familiar. An actor named Richard Burbage ran his own
theater company, The Lord Chamberlain's Men, and when theaters reopened
later that year, the company was anxious to get back
to work but there was a problem. Although Richard owned
(01:22):
the theater they performed at literally just called the theater,
he did not own the land that belonged to one
Giles Allen, a Puritan that Richard had a history of
fighting with. Giles decided that he didn't want to contribute
to the sinful world of the theater any longer, and
so he refused to allow the Lord Chamberlain's men to
resume their performances. Not only that, but he claimed that
(01:44):
since the theater was on his land, it belonged to him.
And obviously this stung Richard, as the theater had been
in his family for decades. Now all his company could
do was moved to a different theater his family owned
and resume their performances. But he couldn't just let go
of what happened with Giles. It was an injustice, an
insult to his family's name. So he reached out to
(02:07):
the members of his company, offering them a business deal.
If they could each cover ten percent of the costs
of constructing a new theater, then they could receive ten
percent of all the profits going forward. Not only that,
but Richard knew a way that they could cut down
on their construction costs if they were willing to do
some of the legwork themselves. Late at night on December
(02:27):
twenty eighth of fifteen eighteen, Richard and his troop of
actors armed themselves with various construction tools and with swords.
They set out in the night, arriving at the site
of their old theater. Then they proceeded to dismantle it
piece by piece. When surrounding onlookers began to notice what
they were doing, they chased them off. They didn't worry
(02:48):
about someone alerting Giles Allen, as Richard had made sure
that he was away in the country celebrating Christmas. Now.
History differs here on just how quickly the men were
able to take down the theater. It was rather large,
with a stage and a three sided triple decker proscenium.
Some accounts say that despite its size, they deconstructed the
whole thing in one night. Some historians are more conservative, though,
(03:12):
and say that it took them a few days. Regardless,
when Giles Allen returned to London, he was furious to
find that his land was empty. He sued Richard, claiming
that he had caused a huge stir in the neighborhood
violently threatened the locals and trespassed on his land, but
the courts wouldn't hear it. They found that the original
contract between Richard's family and Giles stated that they definitely
(03:34):
owned the theater and could do with it as they pleased.
With Giles defeated, Richard and his men could finally construct
their new theater on new land that they leased from
a much more reasonable landlord. In the coming months, one
of Richard's young playwrights produced several plays that were big
hits with audiences. Richard pioneered many of the leading roles,
including characters such as Julius Caesar, Romeo, Hamlet, and King Lear.
(03:58):
The young playwright was William Shakespeare, and the new theater
was the Globe. Now not everything was sunshine and roses
from there on out. Although the theater became immensely profitable,
it did have its ups and downs. In sixteen thirteen,
for example, a cannon misfired during a production of Henry
the Eighth, igniting the theater and burning it to the ground.
(04:20):
The theater was rebuilt, but by this point Shakespeare had retired.
He died just a few years later in sixteen sixteen.
Richard Burbage followed in sixteen nineteen. Both men were in
their early fifties when they passed away, and although they
experienced great success later in life, they spent many years
struggling to be respected in a thickle culture that wasn't
sure how they felt about the theater. In fact, just
(04:42):
a few decades after their deaths in sixteen forty two,
the new right wing ultra conservative Puritan government in England
shut down all theater for nearly two decades before the
monarchy was restored and ended this oppressive policy. If Giles
Allen had still been alive, he might have seen this
as a bit of revenge, But of course Richard and
Shakespeare won out in the end, with their work going
(05:04):
on to become some of the most impactful art in
Western civilization. It's curious to think that this would never
have been possible if they didn't set out one night
in fifteen eighteen to steal back what was rightfully theirs.
(05:30):
In the American court system, truth is supposed to be sacrisanct,
but there's something even more important. The jury. In a
criminal case, you either win over twelve people or you
lose them all. And because the stakes are so high,
lawyers will go to extreme lengths to make their arguments
as clear and persuasive as possible. They'll bring in diagrams, models, charts, videos, posters,
(05:53):
and even put on live reenactments, anything that will help
communicate their version of the events. When the legal world,
these are known as demonstrative evidence, and while they may
not be as indisputable as physical evidence, they can be
powerful tools in swaying a jury's opinion. In eighteen seventy one,
for example, a particularly ambitious lawyer put together an unconventional
(06:16):
courtroom demonstration, one that he thought was sure to help
him win the case, but it wound up backfiring spectacularly.
It all started one fateful night in July of eighteen
seventy one in a crowded saloon in the town of Lebanon, Ohio.
The scene was straight out of an old Western, with
a piano player pounding out a ragtime tune, the bartender
(06:36):
slinging drinks, and a group of regulars huddled around a
poker game. The tension rose with every wager, and when
the last hand was revealed, accusations of cheating erupted, voices rose,
fists flew and chairs were tossed aside as the saloon
devolved into an outright brawl. At the center of the
melee were two men, Tom mcgeean and Tom Myers. They
(06:58):
wrestled and clawed at one another until their companions finally
managed to pull them apart. As the men scrambled back
to their feet, a gunshot rang out. The saloon fell
silent as Myers crumpled to the ground, clutching his bloody stomach.
He was dead within minutes, and his opponent was arrested
and charged with murder. The next day, mcgean reached out
(07:19):
to a well known lawyer named Clement Velandingham. He was
a seasoned attorney with a reputation for bold ideas and
a big mouth, and he'd even spent a short stint
in Congress. After hearing mcgehan's version of the events, he
agreed to take the case on, and then he headed
straight to the saloon to investigate. He interviewed the bartender
and the patrons who had witnessed the brawl. Then he
(07:41):
studied the blood stains still marking the spot where Myers fell.
The more he examined the scene, the more convinced he became.
His client was innocent. Both mcgean and Myers had been
armed that night, and in the heat of the brawl,
both men had reached for their pistols. With Meyers dead,
everyone assumed that mcgean had drawn and fired first, but
(08:02):
after studying the evidence, the Landingham had a different theory.
He believed that Myers had accidentally shot himself while drawing
his pistol as he scrambled to his feet. Now, convincing
a jury of this would not be easy, but Valandingham
put together a bold plan to do just that. He
would re enact the shooting right there in the courtroom
and demonstrate exactly how Myers might have accidentally fired his
(08:25):
own weapon. The demonstration was carefully planned and rehearsed. Valandingham
knew that a convincing performance would mean the difference between
life and death. In the end, it was, but not
the person he expected. In a cruel twist of fate,
the lawyer made a terrible oversight. He forgot to check
whether the gun he was using was loaded. You can
(08:46):
probably guess what happened next. In the midst of demonstrating
how someone might accidentally shoot themselves, the Landingham did just that.
When he pulled the trigger. The demonstration pistol went off
and shot him in the gut. He was rightush to
the doctor, but the flow of blood could not be stemmed.
The Langdingham died the next day, but perhaps he would
have been heartened to know that his sacrifice was not
(09:09):
in vain. The jury was convinced. Tom mcgeean was acquitted
of the murder charges, thanks in no small part to
his attorney's unconventional demonstration. Looking back, it was anything but
a flawless execution, but in the end the lawyer got
his smoking gun. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour
(09:32):
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 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
(09:54):
over at the Worldolore dot com. And until next time,
stay curious. Two
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):
Every form of arts has to earn its legitimacy, whether
it's theater, film, comic books, or video games. For some reason,
it's a very human trait to look down upon emerging
forms of entertainment as lesser to what came before. Theater
seems like the most prestigious medium in modern entertainment, but
there was a time when the theater was seen as
a disreputable place where actors were seen as little better
(00:59):
than the uggs. In fifteen ninety seven, theaters throughout London
closed due to an outbreak of the plague. For those
of us who can remember the year twenty twenty, this
sounds familiar. An actor named Richard Burbage ran his own
theater company, The Lord Chamberlain's Men, and when theaters reopened
later that year, the company was anxious to get back
to work but there was a problem. Although Richard owned
(01:22):
the theater they performed at literally just called the theater,
he did not own the land that belonged to one
Giles Allen, a Puritan that Richard had a history of
fighting with. Giles decided that he didn't want to contribute
to the sinful world of the theater any longer, and
so he refused to allow the Lord Chamberlain's men to
resume their performances. Not only that, but he claimed that
(01:44):
since the theater was on his land, it belonged to him.
And obviously this stung Richard, as the theater had been
in his family for decades. Now all his company could
do was moved to a different theater his family owned
and resume their performances. But he couldn't just let go
of what happened with Giles. It was an injustice, an
insult to his family's name. So he reached out to
(02:07):
the members of his company, offering them a business deal.
If they could each cover ten percent of the costs
of constructing a new theater, then they could receive ten
percent of all the profits going forward. Not only that,
but Richard knew a way that they could cut down
on their construction costs if they were willing to do
some of the legwork themselves. Late at night on December
(02:27):
twenty eighth of fifteen eighteen, Richard and his troop of
actors armed themselves with various construction tools and with swords.
They set out in the night, arriving at the site
of their old theater. Then they proceeded to dismantle it
piece by piece. When surrounding onlookers began to notice what
they were doing, they chased them off. They didn't worry
(02:48):
about someone alerting Giles Allen, as Richard had made sure
that he was away in the country celebrating Christmas. Now.
History differs here on just how quickly the men were
able to take down the theater. It was rather large,
with a stage and a three sided triple decker proscenium.
Some accounts say that despite its size, they deconstructed the
whole thing in one night. Some historians are more conservative, though,
(03:12):
and say that it took them a few days. Regardless,
when Giles Allen returned to London, he was furious to
find that his land was empty. He sued Richard, claiming
that he had caused a huge stir in the neighborhood
violently threatened the locals and trespassed on his land, but
the courts wouldn't hear it. They found that the original
contract between Richard's family and Giles stated that they definitely
(03:34):
owned the theater and could do with it as they pleased.
With Giles defeated, Richard and his men could finally construct
their new theater on new land that they leased from
a much more reasonable landlord. In the coming months, one
of Richard's young playwrights produced several plays that were big
hits with audiences. Richard pioneered many of the leading roles,
including characters such as Julius Caesar, Romeo, Hamlet, and King Lear.
(03:58):
The young playwright was William Shakespeare, and the new theater
was the Globe. Now not everything was sunshine and roses
from there on out. Although the theater became immensely profitable,
it did have its ups and downs. In sixteen thirteen,
for example, a cannon misfired during a production of Henry
the Eighth, igniting the theater and burning it to the ground.
(04:20):
The theater was rebuilt, but by this point Shakespeare had retired.
He died just a few years later in sixteen sixteen.
Richard Burbage followed in sixteen nineteen. Both men were in
their early fifties when they passed away, and although they
experienced great success later in life, they spent many years
struggling to be respected in a thickle culture that wasn't
sure how they felt about the theater. In fact, just
(04:42):
a few decades after their deaths in sixteen forty two,
the new right wing ultra conservative Puritan government in England
shut down all theater for nearly two decades before the
monarchy was restored and ended this oppressive policy. If Giles
Allen had still been alive, he might have seen this
as a bit of revenge, But of course Richard and
Shakespeare won out in the end, with their work going
(05:04):
on to become some of the most impactful art in
Western civilization. It's curious to think that this would never
have been possible if they didn't set out one night
in fifteen eighteen to steal back what was rightfully theirs.
(05:30):
In the American court system, truth is supposed to be sacrisanct,
but there's something even more important. The jury. In a
criminal case, you either win over twelve people or you
lose them all. And because the stakes are so high,
lawyers will go to extreme lengths to make their arguments
as clear and persuasive as possible. They'll bring in diagrams, models, charts, videos, posters,
(05:53):
and even put on live reenactments, anything that will help
communicate their version of the events. When the legal world,
these are known as demonstrative evidence, and while they may
not be as indisputable as physical evidence, they can be
powerful tools in swaying a jury's opinion. In eighteen seventy one,
for example, a particularly ambitious lawyer put together an unconventional
(06:16):
courtroom demonstration, one that he thought was sure to help
him win the case, but it wound up backfiring spectacularly.
It all started one fateful night in July of eighteen
seventy one in a crowded saloon in the town of Lebanon, Ohio.
The scene was straight out of an old Western, with
a piano player pounding out a ragtime tune, the bartender
(06:36):
slinging drinks, and a group of regulars huddled around a
poker game. The tension rose with every wager, and when
the last hand was revealed, accusations of cheating erupted, voices rose,
fists flew and chairs were tossed aside as the saloon
devolved into an outright brawl. At the center of the
melee were two men, Tom mcgeean and Tom Myers. They
(06:58):
wrestled and clawed at one another until their companions finally
managed to pull them apart. As the men scrambled back
to their feet, a gunshot rang out. The saloon fell
silent as Myers crumpled to the ground, clutching his bloody stomach.
He was dead within minutes, and his opponent was arrested
and charged with murder. The next day, mcgean reached out
(07:19):
to a well known lawyer named Clement Velandingham. He was
a seasoned attorney with a reputation for bold ideas and
a big mouth, and he'd even spent a short stint
in Congress. After hearing mcgehan's version of the events, he
agreed to take the case on, and then he headed
straight to the saloon to investigate. He interviewed the bartender
and the patrons who had witnessed the brawl. Then he
(07:41):
studied the blood stains still marking the spot where Myers fell.
The more he examined the scene, the more convinced he became.
His client was innocent. Both mcgean and Myers had been
armed that night, and in the heat of the brawl,
both men had reached for their pistols. With Meyers dead,
everyone assumed that mcgean had drawn and fired first, but
(08:02):
after studying the evidence, the Landingham had a different theory.
He believed that Myers had accidentally shot himself while drawing
his pistol as he scrambled to his feet. Now, convincing
a jury of this would not be easy, but Valandingham
put together a bold plan to do just that. He
would re enact the shooting right there in the courtroom
and demonstrate exactly how Myers might have accidentally fired his
(08:25):
own weapon. The demonstration was carefully planned and rehearsed. Valandingham
knew that a convincing performance would mean the difference between
life and death. In the end, it was, but not
the person he expected. In a cruel twist of fate,
the lawyer made a terrible oversight. He forgot to check
whether the gun he was using was loaded. You can
(08:46):
probably guess what happened next. In the midst of demonstrating
how someone might accidentally shoot themselves, the Landingham did just that.
When he pulled the trigger. The demonstration pistol went off
and shot him in the gut. He was rightush to
the doctor, but the flow of blood could not be stemmed.
The Langdingham died the next day, but perhaps he would
have been heartened to know that his sacrifice was not
(09:09):
in vain. The jury was convinced. Tom mcgeean was acquitted
of the murder charges, thanks in no small part to
his attorney's unconventional demonstration. Looking back, it was anything but
a flawless execution, but in the end the lawyer got
his smoking gun. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour
(09:32):
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 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
(09:54):
over at the Worldolore dot com. And until next time,
stay curious. Two
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Host
Aaron Mahnke
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