December 25, 2025 • 37 mins
Hey there, Merry Christmas to all who celebrate. Ben, Noel and Max here: as we travel to hang with our friends and family, we like to do a little thing at the end of the year where we explore various tangents and trivia we didn't get to in our first run of a show. So, as you're hugging or dodging your own family -- and just maybe having some adventures with your cousins -- join us for a wild ride through the history of hair spray, inventors who accidentally died due to their own inventions, a load of holiday banter, and so much more. (Ben here: by "so much more," I mean, like, two other things.)
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
(00:27):
the show, fellow Ridiculous Historians. This is publishing on Christmas Day,
so Happy Christmas to all who celebrates Ollie Jolly. All right, Well,
the hoe, the mistletoe, the boor and the peanut gallery
over here is a huge what.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
A scrunch You said brooge, You said woo in a
boo way? Did say woo in a boo way? Max?
Woo and a boo way?
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Our super producer, mister Max Williams. Kid, he's got claws. Yeah,
that's Noel Copenhagen Brown. They call me Ben Bullen in
this part of the world.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Hello, Hello, and uh.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
By us the biggest goose in all of London. This
is traditionous. This is a We're big fans of odd traditions.
We consider them straight seahorse teeth. So we're recording this
so I love.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
That you're trying to make seahorse teeth come back. I'm
here for it. Ben. It's so funny because it's like,
I don't even thin we acknowledged maybe we did at
one point that that is from a very early episode
of the show about wooden teeth. Or about various material teeth, right,
and they called them seahorses because not because they were
the little tiny guys, but because the horse of the
(01:49):
sea the hippopotamus. Yeah straight. Can you imagine making teeth
out of actual seahorses. They'd be all kit and like crunchy,
and it'd be a lot of article. It'd be a
lot of work for little return.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
One of my favorite hippopotamus facts that we haven't mentioned
on air is that the world's most dangerous large land
animal is a vegetarian. The hippopotamus is not attacking you
to eat you. It simply does not like other things.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Right.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
And my favorite fake hip hop line involving a hippopotamus
is from Fight of the Concourse or they say I'm
the hip hopopotamus. My rhymes are bottless and then.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Yeah, like eminem in the first act of eight Mile,
we're recording this for you, folks. It's December eighteenth, as
we're coming in with Big into the year energy. If
you're hearing this when it publishes, it is Christmas Day,
Tiny Tim lives and it's a bad day for the
biggest goose in all of London. We are again, We're big, big,
(02:52):
fans of traditions, especially made up ones. I guess old
tradition is made up. At some point, we think it's
Ann's bar, we think it's Falcon Around this time of year,
we'd like to take a moment and explore some of
the stuff we did not get to in previous episodes,
because we're starting a tradition.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
We are, we are it was so we've done it.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
We We've done some leftover episodes before, some things we didn't.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Get to, but we did pull it at the end
of the year, like yes, now we're making it a
holiday thing. This is nole. We make no promises.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
We'll try to keep track of it. Crack the web, Max,
Oh good luck, Max, you got some You got some raucous.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
Almost done with the States.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Almost take that so if John and yeah, Max, we
got some, you got some serious cats to hurt.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
We're gonna do this in sort of three acts, the
first of which comes from a series when You're in
Deear to Max's Heart, the series not of the States,
but of the Wonders of the ancient world.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Ah. Yes, And then we'll touch on tupperware. We might
have some stuff to say about hair and inventors who
died by their own hand. Okay, so we're very excited
about our Wonders of the World series. Please do check
out our upcoming episode in twenty twenty six where we
finally ask what doth a wonder make?
Speaker 2 (04:31):
In this you'll s here it many times over with
varying degrees of success and Noel.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
In advance of that episode on what makes a Wonder Wondrous,
we wanted to share some of the things we didn't
get to in our previous episodes on the Wonders of
the Ancient World. How about we go to the Hanging
Gardens conversation.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Yeah, for sure. These are some deep cuts. And as
they say, the first cut is the deepest. That's because
it's made of glass, which can quite literally cut you.
We're talking about the Glass Beach in northern California.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Right, the Glass Beach in Northern California. It's quite literal
when when you see the name that says glass because
once upon a time this was a city dump.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
I'm not cool with it now I'm not either, Glass Beach.
This makes me think of the horror stories my parents
told me about going to certain beaches where there'd be
like hypodermic needles washed up on the shore. This doesn't
sound cool. It's true, though. It was once a city
dumb site and now it has transformed into quite a
glittering coastline. However, it's not glittering with you know, sand
(05:44):
and polished stones. It is glittering with literal, actual facts glass.
From the early nineteen hundreds to the mid nineteen sixties,
bottles and cans just clap your hands and appliances were
pushed over cliffs in a sickening display of buggery into
the ocean. And what emerged over time is this material
(06:05):
kind of I guess coalesced were polished pieces of sea glass.
And now it's a super popular tourist site along the
northern coast of California.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Yeah, there's even a sea glass museum.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
Now.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
I want to throw it a Max here. Max, you
have seen the glass Beach. Could you describe your experience?
Speaker 4 (06:24):
Yeah, it was a number about ten years ago when
I was going up on the whole West coast. I
was on California one, the very famous highway, and it's
like outside of Fort Bragg, and I knew nothing about this,
but I went to this thing and I'm like, wow,
this place is really cool. I had no idea though
at the time that it was actual glass that hadd
(06:45):
like like the way, like the way it been created,
because it just looks like it's like some beautiful like
volcanic rock beetus, you know up there in the Port
of California, all the stands like black and.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Like volcanic and stuff. Super cool.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
It looks so beautiful and like natural. And then when
I was doing this research, literally when I found out
how it happened, when when I was researching hanging gardens,
and I was like, Okay, this is really cool, but
let's not do this again.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Right, Yeah, some mistakes are to be acknowledged and not replicated.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
So life finds a way situation, you know, where it's
like sort of over time, the environment sort of adapts
to the things that people do to it.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
I think it's a humanity finds art in error. It
is probably way to play it like art based on error.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
And yeah, and this.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Brings us to another thing from hanging gardens we didn't
originally get to. You ever look at a lake and
thought what if this was peak full disclosure. I have
thought stuff like that often because I am partially color blind,
and it's just sort of.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Great, genuine question. Yeah, I'm like, what, I don't know.
Maybe it is perhaps some clown tights got dunked in there.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Rise of the clown Pants another classic episode. This brings
us to Lake Hillier.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Easily mistaken for Lake Hitler. If you're looking at it
on the page, that's not what it is. Just be careful. Yeah. Yeah,
and it has a dot com with lots.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Of good information about Yeah, so apparently NOL. This one
is actually a actual fact. Shout out to Lauren Vogelbaum, friend.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Of the show, Oh we saw last night at holiday. Yes,
this is a.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Pink colored lake because it lies just next to the
Pacific Ocean, and if you regard it from above, the
color of the lake really pops with the blue of
the ocean. As long as you're able to see all
the colors. Before we move on, we do have to
(08:55):
we do have to explain the mystery. Once upon a
time place was pink?
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Why was that? For sure? And as he said, nothing
to do with clown pants. It was to do with
micro organisms. If anyone is from or has visited the
Atlanta area, there is an incredible wonder of our area anyway,
called Arabia Mountain where there are these incredible little red,
(09:22):
bright red pools in certain areas, and it is because
they are habitats to these micro organisms. Specifically, in the
case of Lake Hillier, we're talking about hallow bacteria. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Yeah, And as we know, fortunately or unfortunately, the pink
color has started to dissipate.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
And that's the thing too. If you go to Arabia Mountain,
they don't want you to trod in those pools because
you do. They do want to preserve these ecosystems and
they are quite striking. If you ever visit that place,
it feels kind of like being on the moon or
like another yeah or something.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Yeah. Pet Cemetery too was filmed there. I spent parts
of it. I spent a lot of formative years in
Arabia Mountain.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
I know it well.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Funny story about that, by which I mean sinister. There
were a series of ritualized murders there in the nineteen
seventies that got covered up. But don't let that ruin
your time. I love Arabia Mountain. I think everybody should
go check it out. And while you are in the area,
do please do please take an extra few hours to
(10:32):
visit our Lady of the Holy Spirit, the Trappist monastery
just right up the road. You can hang out the
entire time. They've got a sick bonze garden, they've got
a good cafe, they've got a great museum. The cathedral
is stunning. I would just say, watch out for the geese.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
They're the only bad for that's words to live by,
ben I'll always live your life watching out for the geese,
because they'll sneak up on you when you least expect it.
I don't.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
I just don't know how you could live at a
place that serene and holy and still be a curmudgeon.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
But the geese do it. They really do. Yeah, they're
really cranky. Not to mention the level leveled up Pokemon
form of the goose the swan, which literally dragged our
friend Scott Benjamin as a small child to his watery grave.
Yeh almost. I think it was going for his ice cream. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
I've had some run ins with those creatures as well.
It look not to be anti swan. But anytime you
think you can trust those creatures because they are picturesque,
just pull up your Internet browser choice and look at
the inside of.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
The beak for sure. They're just like looking into the
maw of hell and just really quickly. I'm glad we
talked about Arabia Mountain because it does have some really
cool striking these little pools. They are apparently a very
specific type of small fragile flower, and not exactly the
same phenomenon we're talking about with Lake Hillier, but a
worthy tangent less.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
The fourth largest basaltic extrusion. Actually, if you want to
be fun at parties, you might be. You might be
having a holiday shin dig and someone brings up a
pink lake and you think, well, I see you, pink lake.
I raise you Rainbow Mountain. This is This is from
(12:22):
our mausoleum at Halakarnassis episode that's.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Got Oh my god, there has to be a psychedelic
rock band called Rainbow Mountains. Two of those mountains too good. Yeah,
you've got Rainbow is also a band. Let's put them
together and we get Rainbow Mountain. Yeah, steal that. Yeah,
what what is the deal with Rainbow Mountain? I can
already picture it in my mind. It just seems so painterly.
Ah yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
These are the mountains in China. The Joanie Danjia National Park.
We're going to Carly Hoak in her article twenty two
Strangest Natural Wonders of the World, they these mountains in
Danja have a range of colors. They have this vast
(13:07):
spectrum that again I probably I probably can't see, but
I hope everybody else can.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
They coat the mountains throughout the year. It's all due
to layers of sediment that have settled over millions, millions
of years, millennia upon millennia, and ancient people probably thought
this was painted on purpose. It looks purposeful if you pull.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Up a picture. Yeah, very painterly. Indeed, in fact, as
they put it in the piece that we were referencing,
or in Carly's piece, rather painted by the gods. And
there are more wonders to get to. Such wonder we've
(13:53):
showed you another.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Let's move on to some Yeah, well this is another wonder.
Yeah tupperware Uh switch so no, it's true, did it
at the time?
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Remarkable? An absolute game changer.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Resealable as well, remarkable and resealable. Before Tupperware, people often
would preserve their leftovers by putting a shower cap over
a bowl or a dish.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Because pretty industrious. So I'm not gonna let it. I
respect the I respect the life hack of that right.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
And Tupperware, as we learned, was displayed at the New
York Museum of Modern Art in nineteen fifty six in.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Total Wonder it became art deck. They got it. Yeah,
they know what modern art. Yeah, thank you both. This
is the MoMA. I love the MoMA, so I think
it's one of your favorites. To Ben, I love it too.
H this this idea of Tupperware.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Uh, there's a lot of stuff we didn't get to
in that episode, but we did want to have a
couple of mentions. Are pal the inventor Tupper also invented
something called sure State hairpins, and they were supposed to
be a better way to hold the modern hair. Problem
(15:16):
is the product was unsuccessful. The slogan was so bad.
Here's the slogan. Many women wear more or less false
hair wigs cost good money, and romance or social prestige
often hangs by the has on one's head. A good
(15:36):
sure stay hairpin is needed. Creepy voice like Bond villain voice,
aggressive side, a little, a little insulting, Yeah, especially like
you're attacking people by trying to as a way to
try to sell stuff to them.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
You know, I just googled sure Stay hairpins and nearly
nothing comes up. Be you know why, because it was
like the hairpin that time for good. Because all the
ultimately needed in a design that hasn't changed in many, many, many,
many many years is the humble bobby pin, which you
can use to do all those things advertised and also
to pick a lock during I Sure Stay was such
a wampwomp as far as hair products go, because you don't.
(16:17):
It's kind of like this and beat me here for
this part, Max, because we're at the end of the year.
Imagine you have your try to sell a car. Thank
you Wait for it though, imagine you tried to sell
a car right your forward and you're trying to sell
cars and you.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Say, hey, buddy, fuck you, you don't have a car.
You're bad at hitch hiking. You need a Ford, And
then later and then late thank you backs, and then
later the top brass at Ford is like.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Why does no one like our cars? Is it because
we were rude to them? Mean to them? I'm surprised
anybody still likes cars considering the scheme of it. All
with the salespeople, and no shade on anybody that's a
car salesman, but they do quite frequently have a certain
aggressive demeanor.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
It's unnecessary rent sinky middle man system. It's very doesn't
have to it doesn't have to happen that way, just
like privatized insurance.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
We don't have to be that way. Yeah, exactly got
to be a better way, and there is, but it's
one of those things that's just been that way, and
these industries have a stranglehold on the way things are.
But you know what is pleasant? Ben? What are pleasant?
What are plus? Cartoons? Ah? Yes, we really like cartoons.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Yeah, we're going to stick with the hair for a
second because in an earlier episode, courtesy of our research
associate red on hair dye, we learned some surprising things.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
About Egypt and cartoons. Great. We did learn that the
Rameses the Great's hair likely was red. There was a
certain prestige that went along with that. I think it
was a difficult hue to obtain and he wore it
as a bit of a flex and then everyone else
started wearing it too. It's it's escaping me a little
bit bit. Could you maybe help us fill in the
(18:10):
details about what was so special about red was that
a material that was more precious. Uh, the idea is okay.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
So for a long time people were going back and
forth about this, because a mummified corpse of a human
sometimes when exposed to air, the the hair or whatever
fibers are left over, will react to the atmosphere and
turn red.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
However, ramses our boy.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Was uh, he was rocking this as sort of an
aspect of his regal persda right, because it was.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Alex It was a standown. I did remember that detail.
And I can't remember what the stuff was that they
used to make it, but they mashed up all kinds
of things like like what like powdered insect shells and
various segments and all kinds of stuff. They were also
so great at cosmetics and other remedies, you know, poultices
and things. The Egyptians were onto something. But we did
(19:07):
promise cartoon talk and if anyone remembers the early aughts,
the earliest of aughts cartoon now our original series Courage
the Cowardly Dog. You'll remember it's sort of a monster
of the Week show wherein Courage the Cowardly Dog and
his family, the kindly farmers are menaced by some sort
of creature apparition. It's got Scooby Doo vibes, and despite
(19:29):
his cowardliness, Courage usually saves the day. Yes, and in
an episode from two thousand, actually this may when the
episode is from. I seem to remember Courage me and
have started a lot of those shows started in like
ninety nine, King Ramsey's Curse. The name of the episode,
the monster of that particular week was King Ramses. Ah.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Yeah, and the red hair. I just looked back at
our previous research. The red hair was associated with royalty
and with the deity set. Okay, Yeah, So people are
still wondering whether this was a genetic familial trait. Was
this a natural redhead or day walker or was there
(20:08):
a dye job. We know that Ramses is redheaded. When
he plays his villainous role in encourage the cowardly dog.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
To be fair, he just wants back what is his.
But then Courage and his family sort of gets swept
up in the madness and there really had nothing to
do with it. His sacred slab is toldn by Robbers
and his apparition appears outside of Courage's you know, family's
farmhouse to get it back, and our researchers associate Ran
(20:42):
delightfully put the quote return the slab king ramses from.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
This, and there's another thing we wanted to mention about
hair Dye. Fast forward through Diamond Space to the story
of Howard Hughes. We have an episode coming up on
how he laid, but he has a little bit of
an historical footnote in the story of hair Dye. He's
a guy born in Texas. He becomes a millionaire at
(21:11):
the young age of eighteen. He inherits his father's estate
and he's a really chiseled looking guy.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
You know, he's a Tony Stark character, right hire percent. Yeah,
a real smoke show, a real playboy. He got into Hollywood.
You know, he was a producer and maybe even director
of some very popular Hollywood properties at the time, one
of which won him an oscar. Yeah, something about PWPW
fighter planes. Some of the shots are like for the time,
(21:42):
were revolutionary in terms of like showing air combat and
people almost thought it was like news footage. It was
so well done.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
And in our episode on hair Dye, we talked about
Gene Harlowe, one of the original blonde Bombshells another smoke
show right right, because of the hair dye, which was
one of the decisions made by Howard Hughes. He signed
her up to act and then he directed her first
(22:12):
major role, Hell's Angels nineteen thirty. So Howard here to
get away with that swear in the title be right, Yeah,
Howard Hughes, we're saying is partially responsible for the concept
of the blonde bombshell And we cannot wait for you
to hear the rest of our the rest of our exploration.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
We really leave this story out. I mean that I
did because he was a real pill about it, like yeah,
really very toxically masculine in his wanting to shape miss
Harlow in this image that he had in mind, and
to get your hair that shade of blonde back then
required all sorts of very damaging damaging not only to
(22:57):
the hair but to like the skin. And I think
even some of the chemicals that could have caused I
don't want to go so far to get into your
system is cons Yeah. Can we go into a little
more detail about that?
Speaker 1 (23:09):
I do.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
I do want to huses his own thing. There's a
million things we could talk about I love how did
it go? Like, what what ended up happening with with
Gene Harlowe? Is she okay? She died at the age
of twenty six. Dude, it's not necessarily hair related, but
it couldn't have been good all those fumes and stuff too.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
And I think a lot of how he's behavior, even
at that point is indicative of his precipitous mental decline.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
If you've seen the film, which I only just saw
it for the first time very recently. Of course it
was good Scorsese, but it was pretty good. He yeah,
died alone of his own choice. He was surrounded by whomever,
you know, would he wanted to have in his company,
having that level of power, but he excluded himself.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
And I believe he was like peeing in the jars
and like wearing tissue.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Boxes for shoes, not trimming his toenails, his fingernails.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Yeah, he was.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Look, all the money in the world doesn't solve every problem.
In fact, I was very interested in some research from
a few years ago that says we'd have to adjust
for inflation, but statistics show us that making your country
or your community's equivalent of seventy thousand dollars a year.
(24:29):
Up to that point, money does provide happiness. After that,
you run the risk of getting into Howard Hughes situation.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
More money, more problems. I think p did he once
said no, that wasn't him.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
I think he wrote, yes, I had to watch very
good I mean, you know good quote unquote.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
But it's like that guy was apparently just an utter fraud. Yeah. Yeah,
not not a good neude, not an ideal person nor musician.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Going back to Howard Hughes, we do have a bit
of a through li like we've been doing for a
while now, a series of mutual unanimous fascination for us
inventors who.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Died by their own hands, but not in the way
you might typically think of that phrase. They didn't unlive
themselves on purpose? Right, oh great?
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Is like what's it called, ben the Ignoble Prize Awards.
That's right, there's the Ignoble Prize, and the Darwin Awards
is the one for people that have like The Ignoble
Prize I think is like the Razzies of of the
science and innovation, and the Darwin Awards is awarded posthumously
to people who unlive themselves in bizarre and accidental ways.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
And the Ignoble Awards are a raucous good time. They
actually this year the Ignoble Awards are mpr aired part
of the Ignoble Awards, and the people who show up
are great like these are these are scientists, These are
(26:16):
actual academics. They love sharing their work. It's in all
around good time. It's kind of like a nicer version,
a nicer, more nerdy version of a Friars Club roast.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
I'll tell you who knows how to party? Been scientists?
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Oh yeah, no, I can't even You know, back when
I used to party even, I couldn't hang with mathematicians.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
Those guys are nuts, absolutely nuts, always jotting formulas on
the back of our cocktail napkins, making you feel dumb.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Yeah yeah, I'd always tried to talk into huffin ether It.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
I'm like, what century is this? What's on that rag? Delightful?
Speaker 1 (26:52):
So some inventors we wanted to mention we have more
of this coming up in future iterations of our series.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Because it's not anarly exhaustible subject.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
Yeah, it's a well that keeps giving terrible of frightening water.
But here are a few we didn't get to previously.
We want to introduce you to a guy named William Bullock.
He before we beat will Though Noel Max, we got
to meet a guy named Richard Hoe Hoe. That's right,
(27:27):
and eighteen thirty two. Printing was revolutionized by mister Hoe
with an e Hoe who converted the process from one
that used flat surface as a transferring to paper into
one that used these cylinders. Think of like a classic
newspaper printing them tage, you know, rolling across the paper.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
This is apparently a lot more efficient, took up a
LSS space all of that stuff. Earlier presses could only
print around four hundred sheets an hour, whereas the cylinder
press could turn out between one thousand and four thousand
pages and that same amount of time.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Yeah, yeah, so that's real. That's eighteen thirty two. Our
buddy Willie is coming on to stage in eighteen sixty five.
He has a breakthrough with something he calls the Bullock
Press in a burst of humility because his last name
is Bullock. This is a rotary press that gets fed
by a continuous sheet of paper. Right, so again we're
(28:22):
thinking back to the newspaper printing press montage scenes. This
continuous roll of paper like a roll of toilet paper.
It's stored on one side of the machine and just
goes through. You can cut it later. This saves so
much time because also the way l.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Ron Hubbard wrote his short story, like I believe he
actually typed onto rolls of paper because they were just
like throw away. He wrote so many of these schlucky
sci fi story before he found it a religion.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
There is a true story about one of the Beat
poets or Beat writers, Jack Kerouac, who took a bunch
of stimulants, became somehow intoxicated on uppers, and then just
wrote on a typewriter on a continuous sheet of paper
and just kept going.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
So we have mister Hoe who invented the cylinder rolling process,
and then mister Bullock who introduced the continuous roll of
paper that just doubled up on the efficiency of what
Hoe had previously done. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Absolutely, so the pre Hoe printing press, which is not
going to sound weird out of context ever, Yeah, Yeah,
four hundred sheets per hour if it's at its top
redline speed. The Hoe printing press, because of the cylinder
we mentioned, could go one thousand to four thousand pages
in an hour. The Bullock press can go twelve thousand
(29:47):
sheets per hour. And but wait there's more. It can
print on both sides and the rolls are like five
miles long.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Even today, I'm impressed that a printer can print on
both sides. Yeah, yeah, wow. The future we're living in
is wild.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
That sense of anticipation with the page goes out and
you see the first pasion and it's like not yet,
not yet, and then it goes back in.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
But then you can imagine that to achieve that level
of productivity, these roles had to be going that a
hefty clip, that's the thing.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Yeah. No, so our buddy Willie does not have a
long time to rest on his laurels. He does successfully
get this out into the world, and he makes a
big splash. He makes some headlines on multiple levels. But
he is at the Philadelphia Public Ledger in eighteen sixty
(30:46):
seven supervising a bullet press and he tries to kick
a driving belt onto a pulley.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Yeah, and very similar to the plot of The Stephen Kings,
the mangler dude gets me hard on the leg. Yeah, crushed.
He doesn't die right then and there, though, as is
often the case with some of these inventor deaths. It
gets infected and goes gangrenous, and he eventually does succumb
to the infection just a couple of days later. The
(31:15):
Mangler is such a great short story, pretty good. Do
you remember what led to the Mangler being a ghost
machine that could they accidentally put like gelatin in it,
or like a variety of things that got spilled into
this laundry press were just the right things to curse
it and have it be sncient demonic entities they accidentally
(31:36):
summoned to demon right with just a little bit of
the wrong herbs. Because I believe the gelatin it was
literally like horse hooves that they used to put in.
The material that's in horse hooves, I guess was part
of whatever the spiritual was. But you know, people give
Stephen King a hard time because it's like what if
I made a spooky newspaper machine. Okay, it's the hell
(31:59):
of a drug man, that's true. I love that guy.
Oh he's the best, and I'm glad that he got right,
you know, in terms of his struggles with addiction, and
I think he's you know, continued to do some really
impressive output over the It's like.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
Blood of a virgin bat's blood, horses hoof because there's
a container of jello.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
That's right or something. Yeah. I don't remember how the
bat gets in there, but it happens over the span
of time. But yeah, okay, so our guy.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
Willie Bullock is no more unfortunately. Yeah, and he had also,
by the way, credit we're due, he had created several
other pretty impressive mechanical devices, a grain drill away, a
proto automation for seed planting, a hay press.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
And why don't we end this? What do you guys ever?
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Do you guys ever think about riding motorcycles?
Speaker 2 (32:54):
I think about it and then I immediately recoil and
think that's a terrible idea. It seems fine, but I
just it's so dangerous. I do like to ride bikes,
but I'm very cautious.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
Good friend of the show, Andrew Howard has a bike.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
It's a moto boy. He's a moto he's a moto man.
We say, he has a bike.
Speaker 4 (33:13):
You can ride it if you like. It's got a basket,
pedals and things to make it look good.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Yeah, he'd give it to us if he could, but
somebody borrowed it.
Speaker 4 (33:22):
So really kind of girl that fits into my Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
So this is the story not of our pal Andrew,
but of our pal Sylvester H.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Roper.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
In eighteen ninety six, before the dawn of the modern
crotch rockets. Our buddy is perfecting his roper steam velocipede.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
I love the word. It's velociped You know what's funny.
William Bullock, who you're talking about, is the name also
of the sheriff in the show Deadwood, and there is
a plot line in that show that involves a velocipede.
It is what you might call a bone shaker, the
one with the wheel in front. See like the muscleman
with the curly must a penny farthing, but this was
(34:06):
called the character who's a believe runs the tavern, one
of the taverns, one of the lesser taverns. He brings
a velocipede and shows it to everybody. So what is
the twist in this version of the thing.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
Yeah, this is basically a primitive or proto version of
the modern motorcycle. Story goes that one day Sly is
out or still I like Sly. Yeah, all right, So
buddy Sylvester is working on the roper steam powered velocipede.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
He goes out, I don't right.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
He goes to drive this thing, and he wants to
prove to the population, prove to the public in the
world at large, that his invention is a good idea. Basically,
look how fast it goes. Steam is the future. Yeah,
we can go long distances. Yeah, we can go on
(35:07):
public roads.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Off road even Wow, I don't know about that. But
it wasn't like you know, of course, maybe you're picturing
some sort of horrific Hindenburg explosion, you know, but that's
not what happened at all. It was just it was
the guy's time, and it happens to be the time
that he was demonstrating the velocipied. His heart went too quickly.
Yeah he's too stoked.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Yeah, he got so excited, he got overrevved, He suffered
a heart attack, He was incapacitated while on the vehicle,
and he lost control of the velociped He crashed and died.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
At least he died doing what he loved.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
Yes, at least, yes, that is true. Man, I was
going to make a joke, but you're absolutely right. It
also makes us wonder about the way's history could have gone.
You know if this guy popularized this steam velociped we
have steam powered motorbikes today.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
I don't know, man, I would say probably not the steam.
There was steam powered lots of stuff, and then eventually
it just you know, gas power just was like, yeah,
we can do better, right.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
And we are powered by neither gas nor steam. We
are powered by a fascination of all things ridiculous. Raffeine
Hey caffe Oh yes, and shout out to no offense Max,
Big thank you to our other super producer all of
the caffe.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Oh we're sus.
Speaker 4 (36:29):
What power is your it's what steam power is you're
super producer.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
Yeah we uh we.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
By the way, folks were an audio podcast at present.
We all three organically like good improv. We just held
up our caffeinated drinks and cheers.
Speaker 4 (36:44):
Yeah, colbrew and hot coffee at the same time.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
That's maniac you cold brew for cold brew for us,
hot brew for the rest. Big thanks to our super producer,
mister Max Williams. Big thanks to our composer Alex Williams.
Big big thanks to the Rude Dude's a ridiculous crime.
If you dig us, you'll love them, Noel. Merry Christmas,
Many Christmas.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
See you man. What a good time, what a good year.
We'll see you next time, folks. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
(00:27):
the show, fellow Ridiculous Historians. This is publishing on Christmas Day,
so Happy Christmas to all who celebrates Ollie Jolly. All right, Well,
the hoe, the mistletoe, the boor and the peanut gallery
over here is a huge what.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
A scrunch You said brooge, You said woo in a
boo way? Did say woo in a boo way? Max?
Woo and a boo way?
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Our super producer, mister Max Williams. Kid, he's got claws. Yeah,
that's Noel Copenhagen Brown. They call me Ben Bullen in
this part of the world.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Hello, Hello, and uh.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
By us the biggest goose in all of London. This
is traditionous. This is a We're big fans of odd traditions.
We consider them straight seahorse teeth. So we're recording this
so I love.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
That you're trying to make seahorse teeth come back. I'm
here for it. Ben. It's so funny because it's like,
I don't even thin we acknowledged maybe we did at
one point that that is from a very early episode
of the show about wooden teeth. Or about various material teeth, right,
and they called them seahorses because not because they were
the little tiny guys, but because the horse of the
(01:49):
sea the hippopotamus. Yeah straight. Can you imagine making teeth
out of actual seahorses. They'd be all kit and like crunchy,
and it'd be a lot of article. It'd be a
lot of work for little return.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
One of my favorite hippopotamus facts that we haven't mentioned
on air is that the world's most dangerous large land
animal is a vegetarian. The hippopotamus is not attacking you
to eat you. It simply does not like other things.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Right.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
And my favorite fake hip hop line involving a hippopotamus
is from Fight of the Concourse or they say I'm
the hip hopopotamus. My rhymes are bottless and then.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Yeah, like eminem in the first act of eight Mile,
we're recording this for you, folks. It's December eighteenth, as
we're coming in with Big into the year energy. If
you're hearing this when it publishes, it is Christmas Day,
Tiny Tim lives and it's a bad day for the
biggest goose in all of London. We are again, We're big, big,
(02:52):
fans of traditions, especially made up ones. I guess old
tradition is made up. At some point, we think it's
Ann's bar, we think it's Falcon Around this time of year,
we'd like to take a moment and explore some of
the stuff we did not get to in previous episodes,
because we're starting a tradition.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
We are, we are it was so we've done it.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
We We've done some leftover episodes before, some things we didn't.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Get to, but we did pull it at the end
of the year, like yes, now we're making it a
holiday thing. This is nole. We make no promises.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
We'll try to keep track of it. Crack the web, Max,
Oh good luck, Max, you got some You got some raucous.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
Almost done with the States.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Almost take that so if John and yeah, Max, we
got some, you got some serious cats to hurt.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
We're gonna do this in sort of three acts, the
first of which comes from a series when You're in
Deear to Max's Heart, the series not of the States,
but of the Wonders of the ancient world.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Ah. Yes, And then we'll touch on tupperware. We might
have some stuff to say about hair and inventors who
died by their own hand. Okay, so we're very excited
about our Wonders of the World series. Please do check
out our upcoming episode in twenty twenty six where we
finally ask what doth a wonder make?
Speaker 2 (04:31):
In this you'll s here it many times over with
varying degrees of success and Noel.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
In advance of that episode on what makes a Wonder Wondrous,
we wanted to share some of the things we didn't
get to in our previous episodes on the Wonders of
the Ancient World. How about we go to the Hanging
Gardens conversation.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Yeah, for sure. These are some deep cuts. And as
they say, the first cut is the deepest. That's because
it's made of glass, which can quite literally cut you.
We're talking about the Glass Beach in northern California.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Right, the Glass Beach in Northern California. It's quite literal
when when you see the name that says glass because
once upon a time this was a city dump.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
I'm not cool with it now I'm not either, Glass Beach.
This makes me think of the horror stories my parents
told me about going to certain beaches where there'd be
like hypodermic needles washed up on the shore. This doesn't
sound cool. It's true, though. It was once a city
dumb site and now it has transformed into quite a
glittering coastline. However, it's not glittering with you know, sand
(05:44):
and polished stones. It is glittering with literal, actual facts glass.
From the early nineteen hundreds to the mid nineteen sixties,
bottles and cans just clap your hands and appliances were
pushed over cliffs in a sickening display of buggery into
the ocean. And what emerged over time is this material
(06:05):
kind of I guess coalesced were polished pieces of sea glass.
And now it's a super popular tourist site along the
northern coast of California.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Yeah, there's even a sea glass museum.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
Now.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
I want to throw it a Max here. Max, you
have seen the glass Beach. Could you describe your experience?
Speaker 4 (06:24):
Yeah, it was a number about ten years ago when
I was going up on the whole West coast. I
was on California one, the very famous highway, and it's
like outside of Fort Bragg, and I knew nothing about this,
but I went to this thing and I'm like, wow,
this place is really cool. I had no idea though
at the time that it was actual glass that hadd
(06:45):
like like the way, like the way it been created,
because it just looks like it's like some beautiful like
volcanic rock beetus, you know up there in the Port
of California, all the stands like black and.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Like volcanic and stuff. Super cool.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
It looks so beautiful and like natural. And then when
I was doing this research, literally when I found out
how it happened, when when I was researching hanging gardens,
and I was like, Okay, this is really cool, but
let's not do this again.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Right, Yeah, some mistakes are to be acknowledged and not replicated.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
So life finds a way situation, you know, where it's
like sort of over time, the environment sort of adapts
to the things that people do to it.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
I think it's a humanity finds art in error. It
is probably way to play it like art based on error.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
And yeah, and this.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Brings us to another thing from hanging gardens we didn't
originally get to. You ever look at a lake and
thought what if this was peak full disclosure. I have
thought stuff like that often because I am partially color blind,
and it's just sort of.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Great, genuine question. Yeah, I'm like, what, I don't know.
Maybe it is perhaps some clown tights got dunked in there.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Rise of the clown Pants another classic episode. This brings
us to Lake Hillier.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Easily mistaken for Lake Hitler. If you're looking at it
on the page, that's not what it is. Just be careful. Yeah. Yeah,
and it has a dot com with lots.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Of good information about Yeah, so apparently NOL. This one
is actually a actual fact. Shout out to Lauren Vogelbaum, friend.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Of the show, Oh we saw last night at holiday. Yes,
this is a.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Pink colored lake because it lies just next to the
Pacific Ocean, and if you regard it from above, the
color of the lake really pops with the blue of
the ocean. As long as you're able to see all
the colors. Before we move on, we do have to
(08:55):
we do have to explain the mystery. Once upon a
time place was pink?
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Why was that? For sure? And as he said, nothing
to do with clown pants. It was to do with
micro organisms. If anyone is from or has visited the
Atlanta area, there is an incredible wonder of our area anyway,
called Arabia Mountain where there are these incredible little red,
(09:22):
bright red pools in certain areas, and it is because
they are habitats to these micro organisms. Specifically, in the
case of Lake Hillier, we're talking about hallow bacteria. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Yeah, And as we know, fortunately or unfortunately, the pink
color has started to dissipate.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
And that's the thing too. If you go to Arabia Mountain,
they don't want you to trod in those pools because
you do. They do want to preserve these ecosystems and
they are quite striking. If you ever visit that place,
it feels kind of like being on the moon or
like another yeah or something.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Yeah. Pet Cemetery too was filmed there. I spent parts
of it. I spent a lot of formative years in
Arabia Mountain.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
I know it well.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Funny story about that, by which I mean sinister. There
were a series of ritualized murders there in the nineteen
seventies that got covered up. But don't let that ruin
your time. I love Arabia Mountain. I think everybody should
go check it out. And while you are in the area,
do please do please take an extra few hours to
(10:32):
visit our Lady of the Holy Spirit, the Trappist monastery
just right up the road. You can hang out the
entire time. They've got a sick bonze garden, they've got
a good cafe, they've got a great museum. The cathedral
is stunning. I would just say, watch out for the geese.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
They're the only bad for that's words to live by,
ben I'll always live your life watching out for the geese,
because they'll sneak up on you when you least expect it.
I don't.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
I just don't know how you could live at a
place that serene and holy and still be a curmudgeon.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
But the geese do it. They really do. Yeah, they're
really cranky. Not to mention the level leveled up Pokemon
form of the goose the swan, which literally dragged our
friend Scott Benjamin as a small child to his watery grave.
Yeh almost. I think it was going for his ice cream. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
I've had some run ins with those creatures as well.
It look not to be anti swan. But anytime you
think you can trust those creatures because they are picturesque,
just pull up your Internet browser choice and look at
the inside of.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
The beak for sure. They're just like looking into the
maw of hell and just really quickly. I'm glad we
talked about Arabia Mountain because it does have some really
cool striking these little pools. They are apparently a very
specific type of small fragile flower, and not exactly the
same phenomenon we're talking about with Lake Hillier, but a
worthy tangent less.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
The fourth largest basaltic extrusion. Actually, if you want to
be fun at parties, you might be. You might be
having a holiday shin dig and someone brings up a
pink lake and you think, well, I see you, pink lake.
I raise you Rainbow Mountain. This is This is from
(12:22):
our mausoleum at Halakarnassis episode that's.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Got Oh my god, there has to be a psychedelic
rock band called Rainbow Mountains. Two of those mountains too good. Yeah,
you've got Rainbow is also a band. Let's put them
together and we get Rainbow Mountain. Yeah, steal that. Yeah,
what what is the deal with Rainbow Mountain? I can
already picture it in my mind. It just seems so painterly.
Ah yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
These are the mountains in China. The Joanie Danjia National Park.
We're going to Carly Hoak in her article twenty two
Strangest Natural Wonders of the World, they these mountains in
Danja have a range of colors. They have this vast
(13:07):
spectrum that again I probably I probably can't see, but
I hope everybody else can.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
They coat the mountains throughout the year. It's all due
to layers of sediment that have settled over millions, millions
of years, millennia upon millennia, and ancient people probably thought
this was painted on purpose. It looks purposeful if you pull.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Up a picture. Yeah, very painterly. Indeed, in fact, as
they put it in the piece that we were referencing,
or in Carly's piece, rather painted by the gods. And
there are more wonders to get to. Such wonder we've
(13:53):
showed you another.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Let's move on to some Yeah, well this is another wonder.
Yeah tupperware Uh switch so no, it's true, did it
at the time?
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Remarkable? An absolute game changer.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Resealable as well, remarkable and resealable. Before Tupperware, people often
would preserve their leftovers by putting a shower cap over
a bowl or a dish.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Because pretty industrious. So I'm not gonna let it. I
respect the I respect the life hack of that right.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
And Tupperware, as we learned, was displayed at the New
York Museum of Modern Art in nineteen fifty six in.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Total Wonder it became art deck. They got it. Yeah,
they know what modern art. Yeah, thank you both. This
is the MoMA. I love the MoMA, so I think
it's one of your favorites. To Ben, I love it too.
H this this idea of Tupperware.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Uh, there's a lot of stuff we didn't get to
in that episode, but we did want to have a
couple of mentions. Are pal the inventor Tupper also invented
something called sure State hairpins, and they were supposed to
be a better way to hold the modern hair. Problem
(15:16):
is the product was unsuccessful. The slogan was so bad.
Here's the slogan. Many women wear more or less false
hair wigs cost good money, and romance or social prestige
often hangs by the has on one's head. A good
(15:36):
sure stay hairpin is needed. Creepy voice like Bond villain voice,
aggressive side, a little, a little insulting, Yeah, especially like
you're attacking people by trying to as a way to
try to sell stuff to them.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
You know, I just googled sure Stay hairpins and nearly
nothing comes up. Be you know why, because it was
like the hairpin that time for good. Because all the
ultimately needed in a design that hasn't changed in many, many, many,
many many years is the humble bobby pin, which you
can use to do all those things advertised and also
to pick a lock during I Sure Stay was such
a wampwomp as far as hair products go, because you don't.
(16:17):
It's kind of like this and beat me here for
this part, Max, because we're at the end of the year.
Imagine you have your try to sell a car. Thank
you Wait for it though, imagine you tried to sell
a car right your forward and you're trying to sell
cars and you.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Say, hey, buddy, fuck you, you don't have a car.
You're bad at hitch hiking. You need a Ford, And
then later and then late thank you backs, and then
later the top brass at Ford is like.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Why does no one like our cars? Is it because
we were rude to them? Mean to them? I'm surprised
anybody still likes cars considering the scheme of it. All
with the salespeople, and no shade on anybody that's a
car salesman, but they do quite frequently have a certain
aggressive demeanor.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
It's unnecessary rent sinky middle man system. It's very doesn't
have to it doesn't have to happen that way, just
like privatized insurance.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
We don't have to be that way. Yeah, exactly got
to be a better way, and there is, but it's
one of those things that's just been that way, and
these industries have a stranglehold on the way things are.
But you know what is pleasant? Ben? What are pleasant?
What are plus? Cartoons? Ah? Yes, we really like cartoons.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Yeah, we're going to stick with the hair for a
second because in an earlier episode, courtesy of our research
associate red on hair dye, we learned some surprising things.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
About Egypt and cartoons. Great. We did learn that the
Rameses the Great's hair likely was red. There was a
certain prestige that went along with that. I think it
was a difficult hue to obtain and he wore it
as a bit of a flex and then everyone else
started wearing it too. It's it's escaping me a little
bit bit. Could you maybe help us fill in the
(18:10):
details about what was so special about red was that
a material that was more precious. Uh, the idea is okay.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
So for a long time people were going back and
forth about this, because a mummified corpse of a human
sometimes when exposed to air, the the hair or whatever
fibers are left over, will react to the atmosphere and
turn red.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
However, ramses our boy.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Was uh, he was rocking this as sort of an
aspect of his regal persda right, because it was.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Alex It was a standown. I did remember that detail.
And I can't remember what the stuff was that they
used to make it, but they mashed up all kinds
of things like like what like powdered insect shells and
various segments and all kinds of stuff. They were also
so great at cosmetics and other remedies, you know, poultices
and things. The Egyptians were onto something. But we did
(19:07):
promise cartoon talk and if anyone remembers the early aughts,
the earliest of aughts cartoon now our original series Courage
the Cowardly Dog. You'll remember it's sort of a monster
of the Week show wherein Courage the Cowardly Dog and
his family, the kindly farmers are menaced by some sort
of creature apparition. It's got Scooby Doo vibes, and despite
(19:29):
his cowardliness, Courage usually saves the day. Yes, and in
an episode from two thousand, actually this may when the
episode is from. I seem to remember Courage me and
have started a lot of those shows started in like
ninety nine, King Ramsey's Curse. The name of the episode,
the monster of that particular week was King Ramses. Ah.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Yeah, and the red hair. I just looked back at
our previous research. The red hair was associated with royalty
and with the deity set. Okay, Yeah, So people are
still wondering whether this was a genetic familial trait. Was
this a natural redhead or day walker or was there
(20:08):
a dye job. We know that Ramses is redheaded. When
he plays his villainous role in encourage the cowardly dog.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
To be fair, he just wants back what is his.
But then Courage and his family sort of gets swept
up in the madness and there really had nothing to
do with it. His sacred slab is toldn by Robbers
and his apparition appears outside of Courage's you know, family's
farmhouse to get it back, and our researchers associate Ran
(20:42):
delightfully put the quote return the slab king ramses from.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
This, and there's another thing we wanted to mention about
hair Dye. Fast forward through Diamond Space to the story
of Howard Hughes. We have an episode coming up on
how he laid, but he has a little bit of
an historical footnote in the story of hair Dye. He's
a guy born in Texas. He becomes a millionaire at
(21:11):
the young age of eighteen. He inherits his father's estate
and he's a really chiseled looking guy.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
You know, he's a Tony Stark character, right hire percent. Yeah,
a real smoke show, a real playboy. He got into Hollywood.
You know, he was a producer and maybe even director
of some very popular Hollywood properties at the time, one
of which won him an oscar. Yeah, something about PWPW
fighter planes. Some of the shots are like for the time,
(21:42):
were revolutionary in terms of like showing air combat and
people almost thought it was like news footage. It was
so well done.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
And in our episode on hair Dye, we talked about
Gene Harlowe, one of the original blonde Bombshells another smoke
show right right, because of the hair dye, which was
one of the decisions made by Howard Hughes. He signed
her up to act and then he directed her first
(22:12):
major role, Hell's Angels nineteen thirty. So Howard here to
get away with that swear in the title be right, Yeah,
Howard Hughes, we're saying is partially responsible for the concept
of the blonde bombshell And we cannot wait for you
to hear the rest of our the rest of our exploration.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
We really leave this story out. I mean that I
did because he was a real pill about it, like yeah,
really very toxically masculine in his wanting to shape miss
Harlow in this image that he had in mind, and
to get your hair that shade of blonde back then
required all sorts of very damaging damaging not only to
(22:57):
the hair but to like the skin. And I think
even some of the chemicals that could have caused I
don't want to go so far to get into your
system is cons Yeah. Can we go into a little
more detail about that?
Speaker 1 (23:09):
I do.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
I do want to huses his own thing. There's a
million things we could talk about I love how did
it go? Like, what what ended up happening with with
Gene Harlowe? Is she okay? She died at the age
of twenty six. Dude, it's not necessarily hair related, but
it couldn't have been good all those fumes and stuff too.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
And I think a lot of how he's behavior, even
at that point is indicative of his precipitous mental decline.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
If you've seen the film, which I only just saw
it for the first time very recently. Of course it
was good Scorsese, but it was pretty good. He yeah,
died alone of his own choice. He was surrounded by whomever,
you know, would he wanted to have in his company,
having that level of power, but he excluded himself.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
And I believe he was like peeing in the jars
and like wearing tissue.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Boxes for shoes, not trimming his toenails, his fingernails.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Yeah, he was.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Look, all the money in the world doesn't solve every problem.
In fact, I was very interested in some research from
a few years ago that says we'd have to adjust
for inflation, but statistics show us that making your country
or your community's equivalent of seventy thousand dollars a year.
(24:29):
Up to that point, money does provide happiness. After that,
you run the risk of getting into Howard Hughes situation.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
More money, more problems. I think p did he once
said no, that wasn't him.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
I think he wrote, yes, I had to watch very
good I mean, you know good quote unquote.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
But it's like that guy was apparently just an utter fraud. Yeah. Yeah,
not not a good neude, not an ideal person nor musician.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Going back to Howard Hughes, we do have a bit
of a through li like we've been doing for a
while now, a series of mutual unanimous fascination for us
inventors who.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Died by their own hands, but not in the way
you might typically think of that phrase. They didn't unlive
themselves on purpose? Right, oh great?
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Is like what's it called, ben the Ignoble Prize Awards.
That's right, there's the Ignoble Prize, and the Darwin Awards
is the one for people that have like The Ignoble
Prize I think is like the Razzies of of the
science and innovation, and the Darwin Awards is awarded posthumously
to people who unlive themselves in bizarre and accidental ways.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
And the Ignoble Awards are a raucous good time. They
actually this year the Ignoble Awards are mpr aired part
of the Ignoble Awards, and the people who show up
are great like these are these are scientists, These are
(26:16):
actual academics. They love sharing their work. It's in all
around good time. It's kind of like a nicer version,
a nicer, more nerdy version of a Friars Club roast.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
I'll tell you who knows how to party? Been scientists?
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Oh yeah, no, I can't even You know, back when
I used to party even, I couldn't hang with mathematicians.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
Those guys are nuts, absolutely nuts, always jotting formulas on
the back of our cocktail napkins, making you feel dumb.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Yeah yeah, I'd always tried to talk into huffin ether It.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
I'm like, what century is this? What's on that rag? Delightful?
Speaker 1 (26:52):
So some inventors we wanted to mention we have more
of this coming up in future iterations of our series.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Because it's not anarly exhaustible subject.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
Yeah, it's a well that keeps giving terrible of frightening water.
But here are a few we didn't get to previously.
We want to introduce you to a guy named William Bullock.
He before we beat will Though Noel Max, we got
to meet a guy named Richard Hoe Hoe. That's right,
(27:27):
and eighteen thirty two. Printing was revolutionized by mister Hoe
with an e Hoe who converted the process from one
that used flat surface as a transferring to paper into
one that used these cylinders. Think of like a classic
newspaper printing them tage, you know, rolling across the paper.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
This is apparently a lot more efficient, took up a
LSS space all of that stuff. Earlier presses could only
print around four hundred sheets an hour, whereas the cylinder
press could turn out between one thousand and four thousand
pages and that same amount of time.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Yeah, yeah, so that's real. That's eighteen thirty two. Our
buddy Willie is coming on to stage in eighteen sixty five.
He has a breakthrough with something he calls the Bullock
Press in a burst of humility because his last name
is Bullock. This is a rotary press that gets fed
by a continuous sheet of paper. Right, so again we're
(28:22):
thinking back to the newspaper printing press montage scenes. This
continuous roll of paper like a roll of toilet paper.
It's stored on one side of the machine and just
goes through. You can cut it later. This saves so
much time because also the way l.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Ron Hubbard wrote his short story, like I believe he
actually typed onto rolls of paper because they were just
like throw away. He wrote so many of these schlucky
sci fi story before he found it a religion.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
There is a true story about one of the Beat
poets or Beat writers, Jack Kerouac, who took a bunch
of stimulants, became somehow intoxicated on uppers, and then just
wrote on a typewriter on a continuous sheet of paper
and just kept going.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
So we have mister Hoe who invented the cylinder rolling process,
and then mister Bullock who introduced the continuous roll of
paper that just doubled up on the efficiency of what
Hoe had previously done. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Absolutely, so the pre Hoe printing press, which is not
going to sound weird out of context ever, Yeah, Yeah,
four hundred sheets per hour if it's at its top
redline speed. The Hoe printing press, because of the cylinder
we mentioned, could go one thousand to four thousand pages
in an hour. The Bullock press can go twelve thousand
(29:47):
sheets per hour. And but wait there's more. It can
print on both sides and the rolls are like five
miles long.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Even today, I'm impressed that a printer can print on
both sides. Yeah, yeah, wow. The future we're living in
is wild.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
That sense of anticipation with the page goes out and
you see the first pasion and it's like not yet,
not yet, and then it goes back in.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
But then you can imagine that to achieve that level
of productivity, these roles had to be going that a
hefty clip, that's the thing.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Yeah. No, so our buddy Willie does not have a
long time to rest on his laurels. He does successfully
get this out into the world, and he makes a
big splash. He makes some headlines on multiple levels. But
he is at the Philadelphia Public Ledger in eighteen sixty
(30:46):
seven supervising a bullet press and he tries to kick
a driving belt onto a pulley.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Yeah, and very similar to the plot of The Stephen Kings,
the mangler dude gets me hard on the leg. Yeah, crushed.
He doesn't die right then and there, though, as is
often the case with some of these inventor deaths. It
gets infected and goes gangrenous, and he eventually does succumb
to the infection just a couple of days later. The
(31:15):
Mangler is such a great short story, pretty good. Do
you remember what led to the Mangler being a ghost
machine that could they accidentally put like gelatin in it,
or like a variety of things that got spilled into
this laundry press were just the right things to curse
it and have it be sncient demonic entities they accidentally
(31:36):
summoned to demon right with just a little bit of
the wrong herbs. Because I believe the gelatin it was
literally like horse hooves that they used to put in.
The material that's in horse hooves, I guess was part
of whatever the spiritual was. But you know, people give
Stephen King a hard time because it's like what if
I made a spooky newspaper machine. Okay, it's the hell
(31:59):
of a drug man, that's true. I love that guy.
Oh he's the best, and I'm glad that he got right,
you know, in terms of his struggles with addiction, and
I think he's you know, continued to do some really
impressive output over the It's like.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
Blood of a virgin bat's blood, horses hoof because there's
a container of jello.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
That's right or something. Yeah. I don't remember how the
bat gets in there, but it happens over the span
of time. But yeah, okay, so our guy.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
Willie Bullock is no more unfortunately. Yeah, and he had also,
by the way, credit we're due, he had created several
other pretty impressive mechanical devices, a grain drill away, a
proto automation for seed planting, a hay press.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
And why don't we end this? What do you guys ever?
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Do you guys ever think about riding motorcycles?
Speaker 2 (32:54):
I think about it and then I immediately recoil and
think that's a terrible idea. It seems fine, but I
just it's so dangerous. I do like to ride bikes,
but I'm very cautious.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
Good friend of the show, Andrew Howard has a bike.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
It's a moto boy. He's a moto he's a moto man.
We say, he has a bike.
Speaker 4 (33:13):
You can ride it if you like. It's got a basket,
pedals and things to make it look good.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Yeah, he'd give it to us if he could, but
somebody borrowed it.
Speaker 4 (33:22):
So really kind of girl that fits into my Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
So this is the story not of our pal Andrew,
but of our pal Sylvester H.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Roper.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
In eighteen ninety six, before the dawn of the modern
crotch rockets. Our buddy is perfecting his roper steam velocipede.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
I love the word. It's velociped You know what's funny.
William Bullock, who you're talking about, is the name also
of the sheriff in the show Deadwood, and there is
a plot line in that show that involves a velocipede.
It is what you might call a bone shaker, the
one with the wheel in front. See like the muscleman
with the curly must a penny farthing, but this was
(34:06):
called the character who's a believe runs the tavern, one
of the taverns, one of the lesser taverns. He brings
a velocipede and shows it to everybody. So what is
the twist in this version of the thing.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
Yeah, this is basically a primitive or proto version of
the modern motorcycle. Story goes that one day Sly is
out or still I like Sly. Yeah, all right, So
buddy Sylvester is working on the roper steam powered velocipede.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
He goes out, I don't right.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
He goes to drive this thing, and he wants to
prove to the population, prove to the public in the
world at large, that his invention is a good idea. Basically,
look how fast it goes. Steam is the future. Yeah,
we can go long distances. Yeah, we can go on
(35:07):
public roads.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Off road even Wow, I don't know about that. But
it wasn't like you know, of course, maybe you're picturing
some sort of horrific Hindenburg explosion, you know, but that's
not what happened at all. It was just it was
the guy's time, and it happens to be the time
that he was demonstrating the velocipied. His heart went too quickly.
Yeah he's too stoked.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Yeah, he got so excited, he got overrevved, He suffered
a heart attack, He was incapacitated while on the vehicle,
and he lost control of the velociped He crashed and died.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
At least he died doing what he loved.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
Yes, at least, yes, that is true. Man, I was
going to make a joke, but you're absolutely right. It
also makes us wonder about the way's history could have gone.
You know if this guy popularized this steam velociped we
have steam powered motorbikes today.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
I don't know, man, I would say probably not the steam.
There was steam powered lots of stuff, and then eventually
it just you know, gas power just was like, yeah,
we can do better, right.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
And we are powered by neither gas nor steam. We
are powered by a fascination of all things ridiculous. Raffeine
Hey caffe Oh yes, and shout out to no offense Max,
Big thank you to our other super producer all of
the caffe.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Oh we're sus.
Speaker 4 (36:29):
What power is your it's what steam power is you're
super producer.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
Yeah we uh we.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
By the way, folks were an audio podcast at present.
We all three organically like good improv. We just held
up our caffeinated drinks and cheers.
Speaker 4 (36:44):
Yeah, colbrew and hot coffee at the same time.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
That's maniac you cold brew for cold brew for us,
hot brew for the rest. Big thanks to our super producer,
mister Max Williams. Big thanks to our composer Alex Williams.
Big big thanks to the Rude Dude's a ridiculous crime.
If you dig us, you'll love them, Noel. Merry Christmas,
Many Christmas.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
See you man. What a good time, what a good year.
We'll see you next time, folks. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History News
Hosts And Creators
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Burden
The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. Season 5 - The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Conviction, Suave) launched a “live” investigation into David's conviction alongside Jason Baldwin (himself wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three). Maggie had come to believe that the entire investigation of David was botched by the tiny local police department, or worse, covered up the real killer. Was Maggie correct? Was David’s claim of innocence credible? In Death and Deceit in Alliance, Maggie recounts the case that launched her career, and ultimately, “broke” her.” The results will shock the listener and reduce Maggie to tears and self-doubt. This is not your typical wrongful conviction story. In fact, it turns the genre on its head. It asks the question: What if our champions are foolish? Season 4 - The Burden: Get the Money and Run “Trying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. In season 4 of The Burden: Get the Money and Run, we hear from Joe who was once the most prolific bank robber in Southern California, and beyond. He used disguises, body doubles, proxies. He leaped over counters, grabbed the money and ran. Even as the FBI was closing in. It was a showdown between a daring bank robber, and a patient FBI agent. Joe was no ordinary bank robber. He was bright, articulate, charismatic, and driven by a dark rage that he summoned up at will. In seven episodes, Joe tells all: the what, the how… and the why. Including why he tried to murder his father. Season 3 - The Burden: Avenger Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country. Season 2 - The Burden: Empire on Blood Empire on Blood is set in the Bronx, NY, in the early 90s, when two young drug dealers ruled an intersection known as “The Corner on Blood.” The boss, Calvin Buari, lived large. He and a protege swore they would build an empire on blood. Then the relationship frayed and the protege accused Calvin of a double homicide which he claimed he didn’t do. But did he? Award-winning journalist Steve Fishman spent seven years to answer that question. This is the story of one man’s last chance to overturn his life sentence. He may prevail, but someone’s gotta pay. The Burden: Empire on Blood is the director’s cut of the true crime classic which reached #1 on the charts when it was first released half a dozen years ago. Season 1 - The Burden In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. “The Hulk” was his nickname. Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers who all say they are innocent. They turned themselves into jailhouse-lawyers and in prison founded a lway firm. When they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away, they set their sights on taking him down. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they have a chance. For years, Scarcella insisted he did nothing wrong. But that’s all he’d say. Until we tracked Scarcella to a sauna in a Russian bathhouse, where he started to talk..and talk and talk. “The guilty have gone free,” he whispered. And then agreed to take us into the belly of the beast. Welcome to The Burden.