February 28, 2026 • 33 mins
Today the Statue of Liberty is one of the most famous landmarks in the United States -- but it almost didn't make it to Ellis Island. Join the Ben and Noel as they explore the strange story of Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and his quest to build this iconic monument in this week's classic episode.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Fellow Ridiculous Historians, we're returning to you with one of
our favorite classic episodes. We all know the Statue of Liberty.
Have you guys ever gone inside?
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Have you visited? When I was younger, I did visit it,
and I distinctly remember getting one of those little model
kits glue the pieces together the statue. That's awesome. What
about you, Max, I have not. I've only been New
York one time and it was a pretty short trip,
so I didn't get a chance to make it over there.
But I will.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Well maybe if we because you're going with us for
some field trips in the near future, so maybe if
we get there a little bit early, we can all
go to the Statue of Liberty together.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Absolutely thanks to French.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Yes, thank you the French. The Statue of This is
a particular big thank you, because, as we'll see in
today's classic episode, the Statue of Liberty almost didn't go
to Ellis Island. If history went just a little bit
of a different way, the Statue of Liberty may well
have ended.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Up in Egypt. Let's roll the tape.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Casey.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Could we get a little inspiring music. Here the new
colossus by Emma Lazarus, not like the brazen giant of
Greek fame, with conquering limbs, astride from land to land.
Here at our seawashed sunset gates shall stand a mighty
(01:57):
woman with a torch, whose flame is the imprisoned lightning,
and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon hand
glows worldwide. Welcome her mild eyes, command the air bridged
harbor that twin cities frame, keep ancient lands. Your story,
pomp Christ, She with silent lips, Give me your tired,
(02:18):
your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the
wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless
tempest tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the
golden door.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Man, that was beautiful? Did you write that? No?
Speaker 1 (02:35):
No, I wish Emma Lazarus is not my pen name, Poka.
But that is the That is the poem that adorns
the Statue of Liberty.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
I thought it sounded familiar. Man, Noel, Have you visited
the Statue of Liberty? You know? The Actually the last
time that I really saw the Statue of Liberty relatively close,
I was with you. We were in New York and
we were doing a thing for like Liberty Mutual. I
had to Casey super producer, Casey Pegram was there as well.
(03:05):
We had the get to get the shot so that
it matched as close to those legit Liberty Mutual ads that.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
You'd see on TV. That was deeply absurd. Well, yeah,
it was the whole deal. That was Yea.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Was that the same Was that the same trip where
we hunted down fake buildings?
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Yes, indeed it was the same time. That's right. That
was a whole the whole thing. What an adventure. No,
but I actually did go up you know, you can
go up inside and even go up to the torch.
Don't remember if I made at that far when I
was quite young, and I ended up with a little
model that you put together, you glue together of Lady
Liberty yourself.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Yeah, yeah, I feel you, man. I loved going into
the Statue of Liberty. I'm a I'm a sucker for
touristy kind of stuff. We live in Atlanta and I
still do touristy stuff here.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
They go to the World of Coke just on a weekend.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
It's been a while, it's been a while I wonder
if it still has that magic, propagandistic appeal.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
I'm pretty sure it does. And I'm pretty sure it's
still has the tasting room where you can taste bad
soda drink stuff across the world, the Italian app de justif. Yeah, Beverly,
it's funny that you mentioned that I was just in
Chicago visiting and I was treated to a quite disgusting
liqueur that is very much a Chicago thing. A right
of passage is called malort and it is a bitter, bitter,
(04:21):
grapefruit liqueurse. So I love the idea of, you know,
gross things associating with the place.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I can't wait to go somewhere in
Scandinavian try sirm strong. You know, the reason that we're
mentioning New York is because today's episode concerns the origin
story of the Statue of Liberty. And while we were
looking into this off air, I was thinking about you guys.
I wanted to ask you Noel, and you Casey and
(04:49):
you listeners, do you have an Ellis Island story in
your family's past, like in my family's admittedly murky history.
The best guess I can make is that we were
here before Ellis Island, before the Statue of Liberty became
a thing.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
But what about you guys.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Yeah, I think it's the same with my family. It
all comes back to England, and so I think they
probably made the trip over a little bit before Ellis
Island got going.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
I don't really know anything about any kind of immigration
stories about my family, but I know when I did
my ancestry dot com report, I was like ninety percent Scandinavian.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Oh yeah, yeah, told me surprising this thing, the Statue
of Liberty. It's one of the most famous monuments in
the United States. People from across the world may not
know very much about this country of ours, but they
will likely recognize the Statue of Liberty. It's on the
(05:47):
level of the Eiffel Tower, you know what I mean,
in terms of its iconicism.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yeah, and also in terms of its creation in fact, yes, yes, Alexander,
Oh gosh, we're gonna need some Casey on the case
help with this one. Let me give it a shot, though.
Alexandre Gustave iPhone, Gustav Hefel Yeah he fell okay, Casey
case Yeah. He designed the interior, like the part that
(06:12):
you the things that hold up the outside, the sculpture part,
and the steps and all that stuff that you can
go up into in the Statue of Liberty. The sculptor
who designed the actual exterior, the sculpture part is Frederic
Auguste Bartoldi.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Yes, that's correct. So let's travel back in time to
the completion of the Suez Canal. As it was getting
closer and closer to being finished. In eighteen sixty nine,
this French sculptor Bartoldi tries to convince the Egyptian government
to let him build a sculpture. And he says, he
(06:48):
walks into the room, is you know it's a pitch meeting, right,
those never change? And he says, you, guys, I've got
this idea for a statue. It's going to be huge,
literally and metaphorically. We're going to Egypt bringing light to Asia.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Yeah. Huge, because it's inspired by another huge statue, huge
even in the name itself, the Colossus of Rhodes, a
colossal statue which was also the inspiration for a quite
famous television sculpture, similarly, the Titan of Bravos in Game
of Thrones. That's true, that's absolutely right. It's this massive
(07:23):
stone creation that stands astride the waterways entering the city
of Rhodes, greeting visitors or scaring them away, depending on
how you look at it. But the French version of
this was meant to be much more of a welcoming experience,
right right.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
And when we say the Statue of Liberty as we
know it today was inspired by the Colossus of Rhodes,
we mean that the sculptor was also following some of
the specifications of the colossus. The colossus, one of the
seven Wonders of the ancient world, was the tallest statue
of that time, was about one hundred and eight feet high,
(08:01):
and that's around the height of the modern Statue of
Liberty today, from feet to crown. But you see, what
you may not know about the Statue of Liberty was
that it was never originally meant to be in the US.
He pitched it to Egypt.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
First, wait a minute, you say, we just got the
scraps Egypt scraps, sculpt sculpture scraps, we got the tweak,
we got the reboot.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Okay, So he says, I want a ninety foot tall
statue of a woman clothed in Egyptian peasant robes, and
she'll be holding a torch. This torch will also serve
as a lighthouse to help guide ships into the canal.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Ry, I saw a little function in there with the forum.
I mean, I'm on board.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Unfortunately, although everybody agrees this is a good idea, negotiations
break down over the price and the leadership involved. They say,
this is this way too expensive, we can't do this,
So instead they just build a lighthouse, the Portsai Lighthouse,
and then any other large prop gets delayed by the
Franco Prussian War because Bartoli, and in addition to being
(09:05):
a sculptor, serves as a major of the militia.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
So was this lighthouse bespoke in any way, ben, or
was it just a old run of the mill lighthouse.
It's bespoke.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Yeah, it's one of the most important landmarks in the
city of port said, but is it cool looking? I mean,
beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
That's fair, But it's certainly not a beautiful robed woman
extending a torch to the heavens right with a crown
representing all that is good and pure in the world.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Absolutely, they build that in eighteen sixty nine, that lighthouse,
and as the war. The Franco Prussian War continues, Napoleon
three is captured and deposed. Bartoli's home province of Alsace
is lost to the Prussian forces, and a liberal republic,
or a more liberal republic is installed in France. And
(09:58):
for a while Bartoli has been planning a trip to
the United States, and he and his partner decide that
now the time is right, so they go across the pond,
and in June of eighteen seventy one, Bartold he crosses
the Atlantic with some letters of bona fides, some letters
(10:18):
of introduction, and he starts looking for a place to
stick this statue.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Yeah, and here's the thing. You know, immigration has been
a hot button issue ever since the founding of our country.
It's like, do we do we take whoever wants to
come and breathe free and all that, or do we
draw some lines and be a little more choosy. And
obviously that's something that's very much alive today, maybe even
more so than it has been in quite some time.
(10:47):
But the argument for having some sort of symbol of
you know, receiving immigrants with open arms was certainly one
being made at the time, and so kind of good
timing that this particular statue was proposed.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Yeah, and he also, for the record, tweaked his pitch
a little bit. He wasn't building exactly the same statue.
He was making these different sketches. He was figuring out
how he would pitch this to the Americans, and he
decided to what would the corporate term be. He decided
(11:27):
to pivot. He decided to pivot from this depiction of
an Egyptian woman that he described as a freed Egyptian slave,
and he changed the concept to libertas a robed woman,
the goddess of free slaves in ancient Rome, a more
universally understood symbol of freedom, at least according to National
(11:50):
Park Service ranger Danielle Simonelli. And this happens right after
the Civil War. It could have torn the country apart,
but it came out of this traumatic event with more
liberty than they had had previously. So at this point
(12:10):
everybody seems on the same page. And he starts wondering
where they would construct this statue. He zeroes in on
a place called Bedloe's Island now spoiler alert named Liberty Island.
And he does this because he is gobsmacked by the
fact that ships arriving in New York all have to
(12:32):
sail past this island, So any ship that's arriving is
going to see this statue. It seems like the best
place to put it. Who knows, maybe he was thinking
Brooklyn instead and changed his mind. There was another fantastic
side benefit to locating the statue on this island. It
(12:52):
was owned by Uncle Sam. It had been seated by
the New York State legislature in eighteen hundred for harbor defense.
This makes it land, in his opinion, common to all
the states. So he begins meeting a lot of New
York VIPs, you know, and he even meets the President
Ulysses s Grant, and Ulysses s Grant says, hey, man,
(13:15):
good idea. It's not going to be tough for us
to get that site for the statue. And he begins
a tour pitching this idea and getting popular support from
people of note and people with the financial wherewithal to
donate to the cause. He actually crosses the US twice
on rail, and the entire time he's on this tour,
(13:39):
essentially this promo circuit, he is searching for people that
he thinks will be down with the project. Now at
this point in the story, some of us listening are saying, hey, guys, hey, hey,
hang on, the Statue of Liberty. Wasn't that a gift.
Didn't France just give it to the United States? What's
all this about fundraising? Well, it was very It's interesting
(14:01):
because the statue itself did become a gift from France
to celebrate the Franco American Union, and that was in
large part due to the efforts of la Bolier, right.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Edward de Labolier. He was a French political thinker and
a fan and an expert of the US Constitution and
also himself an abolitionist, and he ultimately proposed that the
monument be gifted to the United States from France to
commemorate the preservation of freedom and democracy and to memorialize
(14:39):
the work of Abraham Lincoln and his freeing of the slaves,
which goes in line with some of the original intent
of the statue in having been an Arab slave woman, right,
which is amazing. But they still had to raise money
because the statue itself is the gift, right, But the
statue doesn't come with the pedestal. They have to build
(15:01):
something to base the statue upon. It's sort of like
have you guys seen those talk shows? This used to
happen a lot in the nineteen nineties talk shows where
everybody in the audience wins a big prize or someone wins.
Oprah is probably the most famous example. On one episode
of the Oprah Show, if I recall correctly, she gives
(15:21):
everyone in the audience a car, of course, but the
problem is when you get the car, you also have
to pay taxes on the car. My favorite one was
she gives everyone in the audience killer bees. I was
thinking of that same gift. Yeah, good one. And here's
the thing. La Boulay was who was a huge fan
of the Constitution and the United States and the efforts
of Abraham Lincoln in freeing the slaves, because you know,
(15:43):
the friends are all about revolution, as we know, and
libertae is the notion of individual freedom and you know,
self determination. So this guy, who was a political thinker,
was already known to Bertoldi or vice versa. Rather, he
knew Bertoldi because he had commissioned him to do a
sculpture or like a bust of him, or had he
(16:04):
had been commissioned. So they kind of joined forces and
were able to get the ball rolling on this statue
as a joint venture between French and the United States.
Like you said, Ben, they already had the site picked out.
They had to raise some money to build that platform, right,
and then they were off to the races.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Yes, yes, let's talk a little bit about the construction
and the erection of the statue. So Bartoli goes back
to France in eighteen seventy seven and he's concentrating on
completing the head of the statue. He makesu progress to
(16:46):
exhibit it at the eighteen seventy eight Paris World's Fair.
Models of the statue were put on sale to help
with fundraising in France, and they even sold tickets to
view the construction activity at the workshop where this was
being built. The French government even greenlit a lottery. Some
(17:08):
of the prizes were things like a silver plate or
a terra cotta model of the statue, and by the
end of eighteen seventy nine they have raised about two
hundred and fifty thousand frocs. So, Noel, you had mentioned
earlier that the same guy who built the Eiffel Tower
helped create Gustave I Fel right, helped create this statue.
(17:31):
He decided to do some pretty innovative things. He opted
not to use a completely rigid structure because it would
force stresses to accumulate in the skin of the statue
and eventually lead to it cracking. He created one of
the earliest examples of what's called curtain wall construction. That's
where the exterior of a structure is not load bearing
(17:51):
and instead it's supported by this internal framework a skeletonist.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Which is also why it matters you need an architect
and a sculptor. This thing is literally a habitable structure.
I mean, you wouldn't live there, but you can certainly
has to sup it's massive, and it has to have
the same care taken that you would in building a
skyscraper for example. Right.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Yeah, And they also changed their minds about the structural
material They were originally just going to rely on masonry,
but when they changed the construction materials to iron, this
allowed the sculptor to change his plans for the assembly
of the statue. Originally, he thought they would assemble the
skin on site on the island, but once the materials changed,
(18:37):
he decided to build the statue in France and then
have it disassembled and transported to the US to be
reassembled on the island. So we're building a thing, we're
taking it apart, we're literally putting it in crates on ships,
and then we're sailing back across the Atlantic. We're unpacking
everything and we're going to start putting it back together.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Yis. Yeah, this is complicated. This feels like way beyond
IKEA for sure. And also, I mean there's got to
be something of a language barrier. There'd have to be
some interpreters involved. This really is a joint effort. I'm
wondering who who were the builders, like, the actual folks
doing the work. It had to have been local people
from New York, right, They weren't bringing people over from
(19:22):
France to actually do the work.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Yeah, excellent, excellent questions. So in France they're using artisans
and craftsmen under Bartoldi's direction, and they're building a piecemeal
you know, the head, the shoulders, the arm holding the torch.
They don't just start at the feet and work their
way up to your questionable about the people who were
(19:45):
in New York helping construct and reassemble this statue. We
find a little bit of what would you call it
synchronicity big time.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Yeah, they were already newly arrived immigrants, because again New
York was known for that. It was this port city,
and it was this kind of gateway to the United
States for people that were trying to come and start
new lives. And they already had this opportunity to get
some gainful employment by building this massive thing that was
(20:15):
a symbol of what they represented in the first place,
which I think is really interesting.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
And there's another employee that maybe doesn't get mentioned as
often as they should in the story of the Statue
of Liberty's construction. It's the model for the statue.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
That's right. It was a real person.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
It's a real person. Not only is it a real person,
but it is one of the best Mother's Day gifts ever.
Frederick Bartoldi uses his mother Charlotte, as the model for
the statue.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
What a good son, what a sweet boy. Yeah, I
mean that is an enduring image. You know that is
going to be around for a long long time. Man,
his mother must have really loved him, or who knows,
maybe they had a really horrible cantanker's relationship and he
was just trying to make a nice oh wow. Well,
either way she is now.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
She is now the inspiration for the most recognized statue
in the world. Immortalized. Yeah, immortalized, perfect word. And this
was first discovered in eighteen seventy six. Bartoldi invited a
French senator named Jules Bozarian to watch the opera with him.
He had a box at the opera house and when
(21:26):
the senator pulls back the curtain to step into the box,
he's freaking out because it looks like the statue of
Liberty is a real life person sitting in that box.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
It's Charlotte. Oh yeah, that is wild Ben. But here's
the thing. This is interesting. I didn't know this at
all until we started looking into this. Bertoldi held onto
the rights to the image of the Statue of Liberty
for quite some time, and then eventually that copyright that
he held ran out, like they did to do and
(22:02):
they're open the doors to duplicate statues of Liberty. Here
we go.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Yeah, so yes, yes, this is a very important point.
He obtained a patent on the Statue of Liberty and
it didn't run out for what fourteen years. The patent itself,
the description verges on the poetic when we're describing the statue,
(22:26):
it's quote, a statue representing liberty and lightening the world,
the same consisting essentially of the draped female figure with
one arm upraised burying a torch while the other holds
an inscribed tablet, and having upon the head a diadem,
which I love the phrase, the word diadem. We don't
use that very often. Now, what is It's almost like
a tiara, right, it's like a crown.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
Huh yeah, so that's right, it did. It did run out,
and now we have copycat statues of liberty all around
the world. We have them in Tokyo, Norway, Brazil, Vegas,
baby yah yeah yeah, and of course replicas of them
that you can get and little models that you can
(23:08):
glue together. I have a cutout cardboard one that's sort
of like a you can assemble and they'll punch the
holes and connect the pieces together. So it's you know,
it's it's everywhere.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Do you have a secret treasure trove of statue of
liberty memorabilia?
Speaker 2 (23:20):
No, I just have the two. That'd be cool, though,
I know.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Maybe that could be maybe that could be a new hobby.
Oh you know what we should mention, the Statue of
Liberty is not the official name. That's just a nickname.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
The real name was, at least Bartoldi's name for it
was Liberty Enlightening the World. But according to the Statue
of Liberty Encyclopedia, this statue has a ton of nicknames.
We can go through a couple. One is Everybody's gal
which I had not heard. Everybody's Goal, Well, America's Freedom,
America's Great Lady Aunt, Liberty, Lady Liberty, Lady Liberty. Yeah,
(24:01):
grand dam green goddess, not to be confused with the
dressing giant goddess, the lady higher up, Lady on a pedestal,
lady with a torch, Mother of axiles, which is again
very Game of Thrones. And the list of names goes
on Saint Liberty, Giant Goddess, which I think is a
(24:23):
little bit heavy handed, but you know, it is an
an enormous statue, so I guess they've earned that. So
let's fast forward to the afternoon of October twenty eighth,
eighteen eighty six. President Grover Cleveland, who was also the
former Governor of New York, presided over the dedication ceremony.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
The good old fashioned New York ticke a tape parade. Yes, yes,
the very same. It's a huge parade.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Estimates tell us that anywhere from several hundred thousand people
to a million people showed up to be a part
of history on that day. And President Cleveland headed the
procession and then he stood in you know, the reviewing
stand to watch bands and marchers from all across the country.
The route begins at Madison Square, where they once housed
(25:14):
just the arm and then it proceeds to the Battery
at the southern tip of Manhattan via Fifth Avenue and Broadway,
with a slight detour so the parade can pass in
front of the World Building on Park Row. And as
people as as the parade was passing, particularly the New
York Stock Exchange traders, leaned out of the windows and
started throwing ticker tape, beginning the tradition of the ticker
(25:38):
tape parade.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Seriously, this is the first one. What that's fantastic. Yeah,
it's true. And around seven years this is this is
around seven years after he had originally patented his invention.
He has an invention. I love that idea. It's not
a work of art, it's like an it's considered an
invention because I guess it's functional because it has the
lighthouse qualities to it. That is when BARTOLDI stood aloft
(26:03):
himself up on the statue's face and release this giant
French flag into the cheering crowd of like a million
New Yorkers who are looking on.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
And here's one of the weird parts about this. So
there are a bunch of speeches, right, the first speech
is on behalf of the French Committee. The second speech
is going to is supposed to be by the chairman
of the New York Committee, a guy named Senator William M.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Everts.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
And at this point he's supposed to do the speech right,
and then at the end of the speech, they're supposed
to let the flag drop. But Bartoldi, we can only
imagine how nervous he is. This has been years in
the making, right, BARTOLDI has bad timing because Everts has
a pause in his speech, and Bartholdi's like, oh, it's
(26:51):
go time, and so he lets the flag drop in
the middle of this guy's speech, and the crowd goes wild,
and the senator, we can only imagine, has it's like,
you know, throw up his hands and exit the scene
because you can't keep talking when people are seeing this
statue unveiled for the first time. So eventually President Cleveland
comes up and he says, quote the statue, stream of
(27:15):
light shall pierce the darkness of ignorance a man's oppression
until liberty enlightens the world. They ask Bartoldi to speak like, hey, speech, speech, speech,
and he.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Says, no, my work speaks for itself. There we go.
That's a move. By the way, Yes, how come people
don't name their kids Grover anymore?
Speaker 1 (27:32):
There's someone out there there may be a Grover listening
with us today.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Oh well, hey, let us know. Is your name Grover
right in? Do you know a Grover? Do you know
a Grover? Have you hugged a Grover today?
Speaker 1 (27:43):
And let us know if you have Ellis Island in
your family's past and what their experience was like. There
are so many different things that we could explore in
the story of the Statue of Liberty, but for our
purpose is the day. I think the thing that surprised
both of us was that this came pretty close to
(28:07):
not being an American thing at all.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
That's true. That was the hook of today's episode. Which
we we sorta of got rid of in the front. Yeah,
that's how we do. We gotta have a ridiculous hook
and then this is an excuse talk about some cool history.
There we go, There we go. A reason, maybe exactly,
always always a reason. But I enjoyed this very much.
Do you want to Should we do a little listener mail?
We have none in a minute.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
Yeah, it's been a while, let's give it a go.
Cool as the return of listener mail. Our first email
today comes from kimberly M. Kimberly M says, Hi, guys,
I'm a big fan and came across a topic recently
that I'm dying to hear you discuss. Get this no
trial by ordeal. You've heard of this, right, Yeah, It's
(28:50):
like feats of strength during Festivus.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
So uh so.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Kimberly says. This is the practice of proving one's innocence
of an accused crime by participating in a danger or
painful task and either avoiding injury altogether via the intercession
of a deity, or to heal well from the injuries incurred.
These trials occurred across the world, ranging from burning to
boiling to drowning to poisoning. The list goes on. It
(29:15):
really boggles the mind that one would have to submit
to torture to keep one's good name. I'd love to
hear your thoughts on this. Here's hoping, kimberly M. That's
a cool idea.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
I think it's possible that we should just do one
as an episode, just do a trial by the word. Yeah, yeah,
we just expose ourselves to some sort of horrific task
individually and see who comes out.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
On top, like put our fist in boiling oil, or
volunteer Casey to do that.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
On our behalf. Yeah, he could be our champion, Casey,
are you cool with that?
Speaker 3 (29:44):
Absolutely not?
Speaker 2 (29:45):
No, Okay, that sounded like a yes. Whatever.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
We have to rewind the tape on that.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Well, whatever it was, it was definitely Casey on the case.
He's a problem solver.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
Mm hm, he's a solution Oary And thanks so much
for writing in with that fantas plastic idea, Kimberlee. I
think we put it on the cue. We'll see about
actually doing a trial.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
That's fair. I have one here from sawyer G. She says, hey, guys,
I love your show, and I was listening to one
from a little bit ago about the casual cannibalism during
the sixteenth and seventeenth century. During the episode, I was
hashtag shook when you started to describe the way old
Arabian men would allow themselves to be mummified alive basically
by honey, and then after a century that mixture was
(30:26):
used as a cure all type of medicine. The reason
I was hashtag shook wasn't because of the nature of
that validly weird ritual, but because of a song on
one of my favorite albums. The song is called Sweet
Bod by Lemon Demon, and the song is about taking
a corpse, leaving it in a tomb of honey, and
then one hundred years later using it as a product
to sell to housewives with headaches. I always loved the
(30:46):
song because it was such a strange and unique concept.
I often thought to myself, Huh, how did he make
this up? Then, as I was sitting down listening to
your episode and the same process came up, my jaw
hit the floor. It's more of a qui instance for me,
but I thought you guys might want to check out
the song because it's incredible and up your collective alley.
The whole album is a concept album where ancient aliens
(31:08):
and any conspiracy of the like ends up being true.
And then she gives a Spotify ln and it turns
out the guy responsible for the Lemon Demon is Neil Syria, Syria.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
Guy you see Rega is what I say in my head?
Speaker 2 (31:22):
Okay, got it. Case He has an amazing series of
albums that Casey turned us onto called Mouth Sounds. It's
sort of like a ridiculous, hilarious kind of girl talk
mashup thing. A lot of it uses all Star by
Shrek and mashes up different kind of like nineties songs
like Ants Marching by Dave Matthews Band with like you know,
(31:45):
all kinds of different stuff. It's hilarious and a lot
of fun to listen to. Lemon Demon is much more
of like a weird eighties tinged like lounge kind of
record with a little bit of horror theme, and it's
very true. He does have a song about this concept
that you found Ben, that we talked about, and the
casual cannibalism, the meleified man. That's the one.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
Yes, yes, no proven case of one has been found yet,
but is there somewhere in the world in a dusty
sepulcher a person who has been mellified. I don't know
if it would be a world changing event to find one,
but it would be so very very cool. And you
have to ask yourself, without getting too far into the
(32:24):
ethics involved, you have to ask yourself, would you take
a nip of you know, corpse honey? Yeah, sort of
like tapping the admiral right, exactly exactly? If so, let
us know, or if you've actually run into this in
real life, if you've seen a meleified man, I will
get on the plane tomorrow. I really want to see
one in real life.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
You can write to us at Ridiculous at HowStuffWorks dot com,
or you can check out our Facebook group Ridiculous Historians,
where all kinds of memory is afoot pretty much around
the clock.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
Yes, and you can also see our personal adventures and
miss adventures on our own Instagram accounts.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
I'm at ben Bolin, i am at Embryonic Insider as
always massive thanks to our super producer Casey Pegrim, our
research associate Gabe and Alex Williams who composed our theme.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
And Hey Noel, thanks to you for coming by today.
Because a lot of people I don't want to put
you on the spot. A lot of people don't know it,
but this guy woke up at four point thirty in
the morning and flew in from a different state to
do this show.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
Boy in my arms tired, but it's great exercise. It's
really good for your core. It's true, and there's nowhere
I'd rather be than right here with all of you folks,
who we will see next time. Talk to you soon.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
(33:51):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Fellow Ridiculous Historians, we're returning to you with one of
our favorite classic episodes. We all know the Statue of Liberty.
Have you guys ever gone inside?
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Have you visited? When I was younger, I did visit it,
and I distinctly remember getting one of those little model
kits glue the pieces together the statue. That's awesome. What
about you, Max, I have not. I've only been New
York one time and it was a pretty short trip,
so I didn't get a chance to make it over there.
But I will.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Well maybe if we because you're going with us for
some field trips in the near future, so maybe if
we get there a little bit early, we can all
go to the Statue of Liberty together.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Absolutely thanks to French.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Yes, thank you the French. The Statue of This is
a particular big thank you, because, as we'll see in
today's classic episode, the Statue of Liberty almost didn't go
to Ellis Island. If history went just a little bit
of a different way, the Statue of Liberty may well
have ended.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Up in Egypt. Let's roll the tape.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Casey.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Could we get a little inspiring music. Here the new
colossus by Emma Lazarus, not like the brazen giant of
Greek fame, with conquering limbs, astride from land to land.
Here at our seawashed sunset gates shall stand a mighty
(01:57):
woman with a torch, whose flame is the imprisoned lightning,
and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon hand
glows worldwide. Welcome her mild eyes, command the air bridged
harbor that twin cities frame, keep ancient lands. Your story,
pomp Christ, She with silent lips, Give me your tired,
(02:18):
your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the
wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless
tempest tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the
golden door.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Man, that was beautiful? Did you write that? No?
Speaker 1 (02:35):
No, I wish Emma Lazarus is not my pen name, Poka.
But that is the That is the poem that adorns
the Statue of Liberty.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
I thought it sounded familiar. Man, Noel, Have you visited
the Statue of Liberty? You know? The Actually the last
time that I really saw the Statue of Liberty relatively close,
I was with you. We were in New York and
we were doing a thing for like Liberty Mutual. I
had to Casey super producer, Casey Pegram was there as well.
(03:05):
We had the get to get the shot so that
it matched as close to those legit Liberty Mutual ads that.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
You'd see on TV. That was deeply absurd. Well, yeah,
it was the whole deal. That was Yea.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Was that the same Was that the same trip where
we hunted down fake buildings?
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Yes, indeed it was the same time. That's right. That
was a whole the whole thing. What an adventure. No,
but I actually did go up you know, you can
go up inside and even go up to the torch.
Don't remember if I made at that far when I
was quite young, and I ended up with a little
model that you put together, you glue together of Lady
Liberty yourself.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Yeah, yeah, I feel you, man. I loved going into
the Statue of Liberty. I'm a I'm a sucker for
touristy kind of stuff. We live in Atlanta and I
still do touristy stuff here.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
They go to the World of Coke just on a weekend.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
It's been a while, it's been a while I wonder
if it still has that magic, propagandistic appeal.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
I'm pretty sure it does. And I'm pretty sure it's
still has the tasting room where you can taste bad
soda drink stuff across the world, the Italian app de justif. Yeah, Beverly,
it's funny that you mentioned that I was just in
Chicago visiting and I was treated to a quite disgusting
liqueur that is very much a Chicago thing. A right
of passage is called malort and it is a bitter, bitter,
(04:21):
grapefruit liqueurse. So I love the idea of, you know,
gross things associating with the place.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I can't wait to go somewhere in
Scandinavian try sirm strong. You know, the reason that we're
mentioning New York is because today's episode concerns the origin
story of the Statue of Liberty. And while we were
looking into this off air, I was thinking about you guys.
I wanted to ask you Noel, and you Casey and
(04:49):
you listeners, do you have an Ellis Island story in
your family's past, like in my family's admittedly murky history.
The best guess I can make is that we were
here before Ellis Island, before the Statue of Liberty became
a thing.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
But what about you guys.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Yeah, I think it's the same with my family. It
all comes back to England, and so I think they
probably made the trip over a little bit before Ellis
Island got going.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
I don't really know anything about any kind of immigration
stories about my family, but I know when I did
my ancestry dot com report, I was like ninety percent Scandinavian.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Oh yeah, yeah, told me surprising this thing, the Statue
of Liberty. It's one of the most famous monuments in
the United States. People from across the world may not
know very much about this country of ours, but they
will likely recognize the Statue of Liberty. It's on the
(05:47):
level of the Eiffel Tower, you know what I mean,
in terms of its iconicism.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yeah, and also in terms of its creation in fact, yes, yes, Alexander,
Oh gosh, we're gonna need some Casey on the case
help with this one. Let me give it a shot, though.
Alexandre Gustave iPhone, Gustav Hefel Yeah he fell okay, Casey
case Yeah. He designed the interior, like the part that
(06:12):
you the things that hold up the outside, the sculpture part,
and the steps and all that stuff that you can
go up into in the Statue of Liberty. The sculptor
who designed the actual exterior, the sculpture part is Frederic
Auguste Bartoldi.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Yes, that's correct. So let's travel back in time to
the completion of the Suez Canal. As it was getting
closer and closer to being finished. In eighteen sixty nine,
this French sculptor Bartoldi tries to convince the Egyptian government
to let him build a sculpture. And he says, he
(06:48):
walks into the room, is you know it's a pitch meeting, right,
those never change? And he says, you, guys, I've got
this idea for a statue. It's going to be huge,
literally and metaphorically. We're going to Egypt bringing light to Asia.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Yeah. Huge, because it's inspired by another huge statue, huge
even in the name itself, the Colossus of Rhodes, a
colossal statue which was also the inspiration for a quite
famous television sculpture, similarly, the Titan of Bravos in Game
of Thrones. That's true, that's absolutely right. It's this massive
(07:23):
stone creation that stands astride the waterways entering the city
of Rhodes, greeting visitors or scaring them away, depending on
how you look at it. But the French version of
this was meant to be much more of a welcoming experience,
right right.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
And when we say the Statue of Liberty as we
know it today was inspired by the Colossus of Rhodes,
we mean that the sculptor was also following some of
the specifications of the colossus. The colossus, one of the
seven Wonders of the ancient world, was the tallest statue
of that time, was about one hundred and eight feet high,
(08:01):
and that's around the height of the modern Statue of
Liberty today, from feet to crown. But you see, what
you may not know about the Statue of Liberty was
that it was never originally meant to be in the US.
He pitched it to Egypt.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
First, wait a minute, you say, we just got the
scraps Egypt scraps, sculpt sculpture scraps, we got the tweak,
we got the reboot.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Okay, So he says, I want a ninety foot tall
statue of a woman clothed in Egyptian peasant robes, and
she'll be holding a torch. This torch will also serve
as a lighthouse to help guide ships into the canal.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Ry, I saw a little function in there with the forum.
I mean, I'm on board.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Unfortunately, although everybody agrees this is a good idea, negotiations
break down over the price and the leadership involved. They say,
this is this way too expensive, we can't do this,
So instead they just build a lighthouse, the Portsai Lighthouse,
and then any other large prop gets delayed by the
Franco Prussian War because Bartoli, and in addition to being
(09:05):
a sculptor, serves as a major of the militia.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
So was this lighthouse bespoke in any way, ben, or
was it just a old run of the mill lighthouse.
It's bespoke.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Yeah, it's one of the most important landmarks in the
city of port said, but is it cool looking? I mean,
beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
That's fair, But it's certainly not a beautiful robed woman
extending a torch to the heavens right with a crown
representing all that is good and pure in the world.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Absolutely, they build that in eighteen sixty nine, that lighthouse,
and as the war. The Franco Prussian War continues, Napoleon
three is captured and deposed. Bartoli's home province of Alsace
is lost to the Prussian forces, and a liberal republic,
or a more liberal republic is installed in France. And
(09:58):
for a while Bartoli has been planning a trip to
the United States, and he and his partner decide that
now the time is right, so they go across the pond,
and in June of eighteen seventy one, Bartold he crosses
the Atlantic with some letters of bona fides, some letters
(10:18):
of introduction, and he starts looking for a place to
stick this statue.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Yeah, and here's the thing. You know, immigration has been
a hot button issue ever since the founding of our country.
It's like, do we do we take whoever wants to
come and breathe free and all that, or do we
draw some lines and be a little more choosy. And
obviously that's something that's very much alive today, maybe even
more so than it has been in quite some time.
(10:47):
But the argument for having some sort of symbol of
you know, receiving immigrants with open arms was certainly one
being made at the time, and so kind of good
timing that this particular statue was proposed.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Yeah, and he also, for the record, tweaked his pitch
a little bit. He wasn't building exactly the same statue.
He was making these different sketches. He was figuring out
how he would pitch this to the Americans, and he
decided to what would the corporate term be. He decided
(11:27):
to pivot. He decided to pivot from this depiction of
an Egyptian woman that he described as a freed Egyptian slave,
and he changed the concept to libertas a robed woman,
the goddess of free slaves in ancient Rome, a more
universally understood symbol of freedom, at least according to National
(11:50):
Park Service ranger Danielle Simonelli. And this happens right after
the Civil War. It could have torn the country apart,
but it came out of this traumatic event with more
liberty than they had had previously. So at this point
(12:10):
everybody seems on the same page. And he starts wondering
where they would construct this statue. He zeroes in on
a place called Bedloe's Island now spoiler alert named Liberty Island.
And he does this because he is gobsmacked by the
fact that ships arriving in New York all have to
(12:32):
sail past this island, So any ship that's arriving is
going to see this statue. It seems like the best
place to put it. Who knows, maybe he was thinking
Brooklyn instead and changed his mind. There was another fantastic
side benefit to locating the statue on this island. It
(12:52):
was owned by Uncle Sam. It had been seated by
the New York State legislature in eighteen hundred for harbor defense.
This makes it land, in his opinion, common to all
the states. So he begins meeting a lot of New
York VIPs, you know, and he even meets the President
Ulysses s Grant, and Ulysses s Grant says, hey, man,
(13:15):
good idea. It's not going to be tough for us
to get that site for the statue. And he begins
a tour pitching this idea and getting popular support from
people of note and people with the financial wherewithal to
donate to the cause. He actually crosses the US twice
on rail, and the entire time he's on this tour,
(13:39):
essentially this promo circuit, he is searching for people that
he thinks will be down with the project. Now at
this point in the story, some of us listening are saying, hey, guys, hey, hey,
hang on, the Statue of Liberty. Wasn't that a gift.
Didn't France just give it to the United States? What's
all this about fundraising? Well, it was very It's interesting
(14:01):
because the statue itself did become a gift from France
to celebrate the Franco American Union, and that was in
large part due to the efforts of la Bolier, right.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Edward de Labolier. He was a French political thinker and
a fan and an expert of the US Constitution and
also himself an abolitionist, and he ultimately proposed that the
monument be gifted to the United States from France to
commemorate the preservation of freedom and democracy and to memorialize
(14:39):
the work of Abraham Lincoln and his freeing of the slaves,
which goes in line with some of the original intent
of the statue in having been an Arab slave woman, right,
which is amazing. But they still had to raise money
because the statue itself is the gift, right, But the
statue doesn't come with the pedestal. They have to build
(15:01):
something to base the statue upon. It's sort of like
have you guys seen those talk shows? This used to
happen a lot in the nineteen nineties talk shows where
everybody in the audience wins a big prize or someone wins.
Oprah is probably the most famous example. On one episode
of the Oprah Show, if I recall correctly, she gives
(15:21):
everyone in the audience a car, of course, but the
problem is when you get the car, you also have
to pay taxes on the car. My favorite one was
she gives everyone in the audience killer bees. I was
thinking of that same gift. Yeah, good one. And here's
the thing. La Boulay was who was a huge fan
of the Constitution and the United States and the efforts
of Abraham Lincoln in freeing the slaves, because you know,
(15:43):
the friends are all about revolution, as we know, and
libertae is the notion of individual freedom and you know,
self determination. So this guy, who was a political thinker,
was already known to Bertoldi or vice versa. Rather, he
knew Bertoldi because he had commissioned him to do a
sculpture or like a bust of him, or had he
(16:04):
had been commissioned. So they kind of joined forces and
were able to get the ball rolling on this statue
as a joint venture between French and the United States.
Like you said, Ben, they already had the site picked out.
They had to raise some money to build that platform, right,
and then they were off to the races.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Yes, yes, let's talk a little bit about the construction
and the erection of the statue. So Bartoli goes back
to France in eighteen seventy seven and he's concentrating on
completing the head of the statue. He makesu progress to
(16:46):
exhibit it at the eighteen seventy eight Paris World's Fair.
Models of the statue were put on sale to help
with fundraising in France, and they even sold tickets to
view the construction activity at the workshop where this was
being built. The French government even greenlit a lottery. Some
(17:08):
of the prizes were things like a silver plate or
a terra cotta model of the statue, and by the
end of eighteen seventy nine they have raised about two
hundred and fifty thousand frocs. So, Noel, you had mentioned
earlier that the same guy who built the Eiffel Tower
helped create Gustave I Fel right, helped create this statue.
(17:31):
He decided to do some pretty innovative things. He opted
not to use a completely rigid structure because it would
force stresses to accumulate in the skin of the statue
and eventually lead to it cracking. He created one of
the earliest examples of what's called curtain wall construction. That's
where the exterior of a structure is not load bearing
(17:51):
and instead it's supported by this internal framework a skeletonist.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Which is also why it matters you need an architect
and a sculptor. This thing is literally a habitable structure.
I mean, you wouldn't live there, but you can certainly
has to sup it's massive, and it has to have
the same care taken that you would in building a
skyscraper for example. Right.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Yeah, And they also changed their minds about the structural
material They were originally just going to rely on masonry,
but when they changed the construction materials to iron, this
allowed the sculptor to change his plans for the assembly
of the statue. Originally, he thought they would assemble the
skin on site on the island, but once the materials changed,
(18:37):
he decided to build the statue in France and then
have it disassembled and transported to the US to be
reassembled on the island. So we're building a thing, we're
taking it apart, we're literally putting it in crates on ships,
and then we're sailing back across the Atlantic. We're unpacking
everything and we're going to start putting it back together.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Yis. Yeah, this is complicated. This feels like way beyond
IKEA for sure. And also, I mean there's got to
be something of a language barrier. There'd have to be
some interpreters involved. This really is a joint effort. I'm
wondering who who were the builders, like, the actual folks
doing the work. It had to have been local people
from New York, right, They weren't bringing people over from
(19:22):
France to actually do the work.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Yeah, excellent, excellent questions. So in France they're using artisans
and craftsmen under Bartoldi's direction, and they're building a piecemeal
you know, the head, the shoulders, the arm holding the torch.
They don't just start at the feet and work their
way up to your questionable about the people who were
(19:45):
in New York helping construct and reassemble this statue. We
find a little bit of what would you call it
synchronicity big time.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Yeah, they were already newly arrived immigrants, because again New
York was known for that. It was this port city,
and it was this kind of gateway to the United
States for people that were trying to come and start
new lives. And they already had this opportunity to get
some gainful employment by building this massive thing that was
(20:15):
a symbol of what they represented in the first place,
which I think is really interesting.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
And there's another employee that maybe doesn't get mentioned as
often as they should in the story of the Statue
of Liberty's construction. It's the model for the statue.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
That's right. It was a real person.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
It's a real person. Not only is it a real person,
but it is one of the best Mother's Day gifts ever.
Frederick Bartoldi uses his mother Charlotte, as the model for
the statue.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
What a good son, what a sweet boy. Yeah, I
mean that is an enduring image. You know that is
going to be around for a long long time. Man,
his mother must have really loved him, or who knows,
maybe they had a really horrible cantanker's relationship and he
was just trying to make a nice oh wow. Well,
either way she is now.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
She is now the inspiration for the most recognized statue
in the world. Immortalized. Yeah, immortalized, perfect word. And this
was first discovered in eighteen seventy six. Bartoldi invited a
French senator named Jules Bozarian to watch the opera with him.
He had a box at the opera house and when
(21:26):
the senator pulls back the curtain to step into the box,
he's freaking out because it looks like the statue of
Liberty is a real life person sitting in that box.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
It's Charlotte. Oh yeah, that is wild Ben. But here's
the thing. This is interesting. I didn't know this at
all until we started looking into this. Bertoldi held onto
the rights to the image of the Statue of Liberty
for quite some time, and then eventually that copyright that
he held ran out, like they did to do and
(22:02):
they're open the doors to duplicate statues of Liberty. Here
we go.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Yeah, so yes, yes, this is a very important point.
He obtained a patent on the Statue of Liberty and
it didn't run out for what fourteen years. The patent itself,
the description verges on the poetic when we're describing the statue,
(22:26):
it's quote, a statue representing liberty and lightening the world,
the same consisting essentially of the draped female figure with
one arm upraised burying a torch while the other holds
an inscribed tablet, and having upon the head a diadem,
which I love the phrase, the word diadem. We don't
use that very often. Now, what is It's almost like
a tiara, right, it's like a crown.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
Huh yeah, so that's right, it did. It did run out,
and now we have copycat statues of liberty all around
the world. We have them in Tokyo, Norway, Brazil, Vegas,
baby yah yeah yeah, and of course replicas of them
that you can get and little models that you can
(23:08):
glue together. I have a cutout cardboard one that's sort
of like a you can assemble and they'll punch the
holes and connect the pieces together. So it's you know,
it's it's everywhere.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Do you have a secret treasure trove of statue of
liberty memorabilia?
Speaker 2 (23:20):
No, I just have the two. That'd be cool, though,
I know.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Maybe that could be maybe that could be a new hobby.
Oh you know what we should mention, the Statue of
Liberty is not the official name. That's just a nickname.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
The real name was, at least Bartoldi's name for it
was Liberty Enlightening the World. But according to the Statue
of Liberty Encyclopedia, this statue has a ton of nicknames.
We can go through a couple. One is Everybody's gal
which I had not heard. Everybody's Goal, Well, America's Freedom,
America's Great Lady Aunt, Liberty, Lady Liberty, Lady Liberty. Yeah,
(24:01):
grand dam green goddess, not to be confused with the
dressing giant goddess, the lady higher up, Lady on a pedestal,
lady with a torch, Mother of axiles, which is again
very Game of Thrones. And the list of names goes
on Saint Liberty, Giant Goddess, which I think is a
(24:23):
little bit heavy handed, but you know, it is an
an enormous statue, so I guess they've earned that. So
let's fast forward to the afternoon of October twenty eighth,
eighteen eighty six. President Grover Cleveland, who was also the
former Governor of New York, presided over the dedication ceremony.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
The good old fashioned New York ticke a tape parade. Yes, yes,
the very same. It's a huge parade.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Estimates tell us that anywhere from several hundred thousand people
to a million people showed up to be a part
of history on that day. And President Cleveland headed the
procession and then he stood in you know, the reviewing
stand to watch bands and marchers from all across the country.
The route begins at Madison Square, where they once housed
(25:14):
just the arm and then it proceeds to the Battery
at the southern tip of Manhattan via Fifth Avenue and Broadway,
with a slight detour so the parade can pass in
front of the World Building on Park Row. And as
people as as the parade was passing, particularly the New
York Stock Exchange traders, leaned out of the windows and
started throwing ticker tape, beginning the tradition of the ticker
(25:38):
tape parade.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Seriously, this is the first one. What that's fantastic. Yeah,
it's true. And around seven years this is this is
around seven years after he had originally patented his invention.
He has an invention. I love that idea. It's not
a work of art, it's like an it's considered an
invention because I guess it's functional because it has the
lighthouse qualities to it. That is when BARTOLDI stood aloft
(26:03):
himself up on the statue's face and release this giant
French flag into the cheering crowd of like a million
New Yorkers who are looking on.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
And here's one of the weird parts about this. So
there are a bunch of speeches, right, the first speech
is on behalf of the French Committee. The second speech
is going to is supposed to be by the chairman
of the New York Committee, a guy named Senator William M.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Everts.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
And at this point he's supposed to do the speech right,
and then at the end of the speech, they're supposed
to let the flag drop. But Bartoldi, we can only
imagine how nervous he is. This has been years in
the making, right, BARTOLDI has bad timing because Everts has
a pause in his speech, and Bartholdi's like, oh, it's
(26:51):
go time, and so he lets the flag drop in
the middle of this guy's speech, and the crowd goes wild,
and the senator, we can only imagine, has it's like,
you know, throw up his hands and exit the scene
because you can't keep talking when people are seeing this
statue unveiled for the first time. So eventually President Cleveland
comes up and he says, quote the statue, stream of
(27:15):
light shall pierce the darkness of ignorance a man's oppression
until liberty enlightens the world. They ask Bartoldi to speak like, hey, speech, speech, speech,
and he.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Says, no, my work speaks for itself. There we go.
That's a move. By the way, Yes, how come people
don't name their kids Grover anymore?
Speaker 1 (27:32):
There's someone out there there may be a Grover listening
with us today.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Oh well, hey, let us know. Is your name Grover
right in? Do you know a Grover? Do you know
a Grover? Have you hugged a Grover today?
Speaker 1 (27:43):
And let us know if you have Ellis Island in
your family's past and what their experience was like. There
are so many different things that we could explore in
the story of the Statue of Liberty, but for our
purpose is the day. I think the thing that surprised
both of us was that this came pretty close to
(28:07):
not being an American thing at all.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
That's true. That was the hook of today's episode. Which
we we sorta of got rid of in the front. Yeah,
that's how we do. We gotta have a ridiculous hook
and then this is an excuse talk about some cool history.
There we go, There we go. A reason, maybe exactly,
always always a reason. But I enjoyed this very much.
Do you want to Should we do a little listener mail?
We have none in a minute.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
Yeah, it's been a while, let's give it a go.
Cool as the return of listener mail. Our first email
today comes from kimberly M. Kimberly M says, Hi, guys,
I'm a big fan and came across a topic recently
that I'm dying to hear you discuss. Get this no
trial by ordeal. You've heard of this, right, Yeah, It's
(28:50):
like feats of strength during Festivus.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
So uh so.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Kimberly says. This is the practice of proving one's innocence
of an accused crime by participating in a danger or
painful task and either avoiding injury altogether via the intercession
of a deity, or to heal well from the injuries incurred.
These trials occurred across the world, ranging from burning to
boiling to drowning to poisoning. The list goes on. It
(29:15):
really boggles the mind that one would have to submit
to torture to keep one's good name. I'd love to
hear your thoughts on this. Here's hoping, kimberly M. That's
a cool idea.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
I think it's possible that we should just do one
as an episode, just do a trial by the word. Yeah, yeah,
we just expose ourselves to some sort of horrific task
individually and see who comes out.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
On top, like put our fist in boiling oil, or
volunteer Casey to do that.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
On our behalf. Yeah, he could be our champion, Casey,
are you cool with that?
Speaker 3 (29:44):
Absolutely not?
Speaker 2 (29:45):
No, Okay, that sounded like a yes. Whatever.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
We have to rewind the tape on that.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Well, whatever it was, it was definitely Casey on the case.
He's a problem solver.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
Mm hm, he's a solution Oary And thanks so much
for writing in with that fantas plastic idea, Kimberlee. I
think we put it on the cue. We'll see about
actually doing a trial.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
That's fair. I have one here from sawyer G. She says, hey, guys,
I love your show, and I was listening to one
from a little bit ago about the casual cannibalism during
the sixteenth and seventeenth century. During the episode, I was
hashtag shook when you started to describe the way old
Arabian men would allow themselves to be mummified alive basically
by honey, and then after a century that mixture was
(30:26):
used as a cure all type of medicine. The reason
I was hashtag shook wasn't because of the nature of
that validly weird ritual, but because of a song on
one of my favorite albums. The song is called Sweet
Bod by Lemon Demon, and the song is about taking
a corpse, leaving it in a tomb of honey, and
then one hundred years later using it as a product
to sell to housewives with headaches. I always loved the
(30:46):
song because it was such a strange and unique concept.
I often thought to myself, Huh, how did he make
this up? Then, as I was sitting down listening to
your episode and the same process came up, my jaw
hit the floor. It's more of a qui instance for me,
but I thought you guys might want to check out
the song because it's incredible and up your collective alley.
The whole album is a concept album where ancient aliens
(31:08):
and any conspiracy of the like ends up being true.
And then she gives a Spotify ln and it turns
out the guy responsible for the Lemon Demon is Neil Syria, Syria.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
Guy you see Rega is what I say in my head?
Speaker 2 (31:22):
Okay, got it. Case He has an amazing series of
albums that Casey turned us onto called Mouth Sounds. It's
sort of like a ridiculous, hilarious kind of girl talk
mashup thing. A lot of it uses all Star by
Shrek and mashes up different kind of like nineties songs
like Ants Marching by Dave Matthews Band with like you know,
(31:45):
all kinds of different stuff. It's hilarious and a lot
of fun to listen to. Lemon Demon is much more
of like a weird eighties tinged like lounge kind of
record with a little bit of horror theme, and it's
very true. He does have a song about this concept
that you found Ben, that we talked about, and the
casual cannibalism, the meleified man. That's the one.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
Yes, yes, no proven case of one has been found yet,
but is there somewhere in the world in a dusty
sepulcher a person who has been mellified. I don't know
if it would be a world changing event to find one,
but it would be so very very cool. And you
have to ask yourself, without getting too far into the
(32:24):
ethics involved, you have to ask yourself, would you take
a nip of you know, corpse honey? Yeah, sort of
like tapping the admiral right, exactly exactly? If so, let
us know, or if you've actually run into this in
real life, if you've seen a meleified man, I will
get on the plane tomorrow. I really want to see
one in real life.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
You can write to us at Ridiculous at HowStuffWorks dot com,
or you can check out our Facebook group Ridiculous Historians,
where all kinds of memory is afoot pretty much around
the clock.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
Yes, and you can also see our personal adventures and
miss adventures on our own Instagram accounts.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
I'm at ben Bolin, i am at Embryonic Insider as
always massive thanks to our super producer Casey Pegrim, our
research associate Gabe and Alex Williams who composed our theme.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
And Hey Noel, thanks to you for coming by today.
Because a lot of people I don't want to put
you on the spot. A lot of people don't know it,
but this guy woke up at four point thirty in
the morning and flew in from a different state to
do this show.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
Boy in my arms tired, but it's great exercise. It's
really good for your core. It's true, and there's nowhere
I'd rather be than right here with all of you folks,
who we will see next time. Talk to you soon.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
(33:51):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History News
Hosts And Creators
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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