March 12, 2019 • 32 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 Liberty Island. Join the guys as they explore the strange story of Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and his quest to build this iconic monument.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:23):
Casey, could we get a little, 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 sea washed sunset gates
shall stand a mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
(00:46):
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
at lands your story, pomp Christ, She with silent lips,
Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning
(01:08):
to breathe, free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless tempest tossed to me. I lifted
my lamp beside the golden door man. That was beautiful.
Did you write that? No? No, I wish. Emma Lazarus
is not my pen name, But that is the that
(01:28):
is the poem that adorns the Statue of Liberty. I
thought it sounded familiar. Ben uh nol. Have you visited
the Statue of Liberty? Um? You know? 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. We
had to Casey super producer, Casey Pegram was there as well.
(01:53):
We had to get to get the shot so that
it matched as close to those legit Liberty Mutual ads
that that you'd see on on t BE. That was
deeply absurd that, Yeah, it was the whole deal. It was.
Was that the same Was that the same trip where
we hunted down fake buildings? Yes, indeed it was the
same to very same. That's right. That was a whole
the whole whole thing. What an adventure. No, but I
(02:15):
actually did go up you know, you can go up
inside and even go up to the torch. I 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. Yeah, yeah,
I 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
(02:36):
do touristy stuff here. I go to the world of
Coke just on a weekend. It's been a while. It's
been a while. I wonder if it's still has that magic,
propagandistic appeal. I'm pretty sure it does. And I'm pretty
sure it still has the tasting room where you can
taste bad soda drinks across the world, the Italian app
d gif. Yeah, Deveritely, It's funny that you mentioned that
(02:56):
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 Mallards and
it is a bitter, bitter, grapefruit LaCourse. So I love
the idea of, you know, gross things associating with the place. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
I can't wait to go somewhere in Scandinavian try serm strong,
(03:19):
you know. And the 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 your listeners,
do you have an Ellis Island story and your family's past,
(03:42):
like in my family's admittedly murky history. Uh. The best
guess I can make is that we were here before
Ellis Island, before the Statue of Liberty became a thing.
But what about you guys. 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. I don't really
(04:04):
know anything about any kind of immigration um stories about
my family, but I know when I did my ancestry
dot com report, I was like Scandinavian. Oh yeah, yeah,
it's surprising this thing, the Statue of Liberty. It's one
of the most famous monuments in the United States. People
(04:24):
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 um, it's on the level of
the Eiffel Tower, you know what I mean in terms
of it's iconicism. Yeah, and also in terms of its creation.
In fact, yes, yes, Alexander, Oh gosh, we're gonna needt
(04:45):
some casey on the case help with this one. Let
me give it a shot, though. Um. Alexander Gustav iPhone
Gusta he Fell, He designed the interior like the part
of the 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
(05:05):
liberty Um, the sculptor who designed the actual exterior, the
sculpture part is Frederic August. 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.
(05:26):
In eighteen sixty nine, this French sculptor Bartoldi tries to
convince the Egyptian government to let him build a sculpture.
And he says, he walks into the room, he's 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 gonna be huge,
literally and metaphorically. We're gonna call it Egypt bringing Light
(05:48):
to Asia. Huge because it's inspired by another huge statue,
huge even in the name itself, the Colossus of Rhodes,
a colossal statue um which was also the inspiration are
quite famous television sculpture, similarly the Titan of Bravos. And
that's true, that's absolutely right. It's this massive stone creation
(06:11):
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.
And when we say the Statue of Liberty as we
know it today was inspired by the Colossus of Rhodes,
(06:34):
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. It was about a hundred and eight
feet high, and that's around the height of the modern
Statue of Liberty today from feet to crown. But you see,
(06:56):
what you may not know about the Statue of Liberty
was that it was never a rich only meant to
be in the US. He pitched it to Egypt. First,
wait a minute, he say, we just got the scraps
Egypt scraps, sculptre sculpture scraps, we got the we got
the tweak, we got the reboots. 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.
(07:20):
This torch will also serve as a lighthouse to help
guide ships into the canal, so a little function when
there with the form I mean, I'm on board. Unfortunately,
although everybody agrees this is a good idea, negotiations breakdown
over the price and the leadership involved. They say, this
is this is way too expensive, we can't do this.
(07:41):
So instead they just built a lighthouse, the ports Lighthouse,
and then any other large project gets delayed by the
Franco Prussian War because Bartolian, in addition to being a sculptor,
serves as a major of the militia. So was this
lighthouse bespoken anyway, ben or was it just a real
old run of the mill lighthouse. It's bespoke. Yeah, it's
(08:02):
one of the most important landmarks in the city of
port Side. A cool looking I mean beauty is in
the eye of the beholders, 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. Absolutely, they build that in eighteen sixty nine.
(08:26):
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 more liberal republic is installed in France. And
for a while Bartoli has been planning a trip to
(08:49):
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, or told, he
crosses the Atlantic with some letters of bona fides, some
letters of introduction, and he starts looking for a place
(09:10):
to stick this statue. Yeah, and and here's the thing, um,
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
(09:32):
has been quite some time. Um, 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 it was kind of good timing that
this particular statue was proposed. Yeah, And he also, for
(09:55):
the record, tweaked his pitch a little bit. He wasn't
building exact lee 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 to pivot. He decided
(10:17):
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 Park Service ranger
(10:39):
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 everybody seems on
(10:59):
the same page. And he starts wondering where they would
construct this statue. He zeroes in on a place called
bed Lowe's Island now spoiler alert named Liberty Island, and
he does this because he has gobsmacked by the fact
that ships arriving in New York all have to sail
(11:19):
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 was
owned by Uncle Sam. It had been seated by the
(11:42):
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 v I p s. You know, and he even
meets the President Ulysses S Grant, and Ulysses S Grant says, hey, man,
(12:02):
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,
(12:26):
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,
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's very Good's interesting because
(12:50):
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 Labollier right, Edward de
la Bolier Um. He was a French political thinker um
and a fan and an expert of the U s
Constitution and also himself an abolitionist, and he ultimately proposed
(13:14):
that the monument be gifted to the United States from
France to commemorate um the preservation of freedom and democracy,
and um too memorialize the work of Abraham Lincoln and
his freeing of the slaves, which goes in line with
some of the original intent of the statue, and it
(13:35):
having been an Arab slave woman, right, which is 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 something
to base the statue upon. It's it's sort of like, um,
have you guys seeing those talk shows. This used to
(13:57):
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
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 of them
when she gives everyone in the audience killer bees as
(14:19):
I was thinking of that same gift. Yeah, good one.
And here's the thing. Laboulay was who was a huge
fan of the Constitution and the United States and the
efforts of Abraham Lincoln in freeing the slaves. Um, because
you know, the French are all about revolution as we know,
and liberty. That's the notion of individual freedom and uh
you know, self determination. So this guy who was a
(14:41):
political thinker um was already known to BERTHOLDI, or vice versa. Rather,
he knew BERTHOLDI because he had commissioned him to do
a sculpture or like a bust of him, or it
had he had been commissioned. So they kind of joined
forces and we're able to get the ball rolling on
the statue as a joint share between French and the
(15:02):
United States. Like you said, Ben, they already had the
side picked out. They had to raise some money to
build that platform, right, and then they were off to
the races. Yes, yes, let's talk a little bit about
the construction and the erection of the statue. So Bartoli
(15:23):
goes back to France in eighteen seventy seven and he's
concentrating on completing the head of the statue. He makes
of progress to exhibit it at the Paris World's Fair.
Models of the statue are put on sale to help
with fundraising in France, and they even sold tickets to
(15:46):
view the construction activity at the workshop where this was
being built. The French government even green lit a lottery.
Some 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 d and fifty thousand frocs. So, Noel, you had
(16:07):
mentioned earlier that the same guy who built the Eiffel
Tower helped create Gustave I failed right, helped create this statue.
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
(16:28):
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
and instead it's supported by this internal framework a skeletonists
which is also why it matters. You need a you
need an architect and a sculptor. This thing is literally
a inhabitable structure. I mean, you wouldn't live there, but
(16:50):
you can certainly has to sup its massive and it
has to have the same care taken that you would
in building a skyscraper for example. Right. Yet, 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 sculpture
(17:14):
to change his plans for the assembly of the statue. Originally,
he thought they would assemble this skin on site on
the island, but once the materials changed, 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
(17:37):
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. Yeah, this is complicated.
This is one way beyond IKEA for sure. And also,
I mean there's got to be something of a of
a language barrier that would have to be some interpreters involved.
(17:58):
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 France to actually do
the work. Yeah, excellent, excellent questions. So in France they're
using artisans and craftsmen under Bartoldi's direction, and they're they're
(18:20):
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 in New York helping construct and
reassemble the statue, we find a little bit of what
would you call it synchronicity big time. Yeah. They were
(18:41):
already uh, newly arrived immigrants because again New York was
known for that. It was this sports city, um, 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 a symbol
(19:03):
of what they represented in the first place, which I
think is really interesting. M m. There's another employee that
maybe doesn't get mentioned as often as they should in
the story of the Statue of Liberties construction. It's the
model for the statue. It was a real person. It's
a real person. Not only is it a real person,
but it is one of the best Mother's Day gifts ever.
(19:26):
Frederick Bartoldi uses his mother Charlotte, as the model for
the statue. What a good son, what a sweet boy.
You know, that is an enduring image. You know that
is going to be around for a long long time.
Uh man, his mother must have really loved him or
who knows. Maybe they had a really horrible, cantankerous relationship
and he was just trying to make nice. Well, either way,
(19:50):
she is now. She is now the inspiration for the
most recognized statue in the world. Yeah, immortalized perfect word.
And this was first discovered in eighteen seventy six. Bartoldi
invited a French senator named Jules Bozzarian to watch the
(20:10):
opera with him. He had a box at the opera house.
And when 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. It's Charlotte. Oh yeah, right, that's right,
that is wild Ben. But here's the thing, Um, this
(20:32):
is interesting. I didn't know this at all until we
started looking into this. Bertoldie held onto like the rights
to the image of the Statue of Liberty for quite
some time. Um. And then eventually that copyright that he
held ran out, like they tend to do, and there
opened the doors to duplicate statues of Liberty. Here we go. Yeah,
(20:54):
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 when we're describing
the statue, it's it's quote a statue representing liberty enlightening
(21:18):
the world, the same consisting essentially of the draped female
figure with one arm upbraidsed, bearing 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 tr right, It's like a crown. H yeah. Um,
so that's right. It did. Uh, it did run out.
(21:40):
And now we have copycat statues of liberty all around
the world. We have them in Tokyo, Norway, Brazil, Vegas, baby,
you know yeah, um, and uh, of course replicas of
them that you can get and little models that you
can glue together. I have a cutout cardboard one that's
sort of like a secon. Assemble a little unch the
(22:00):
holes and connect the pieces together. Um. So it's you know,
it's it's everywhere. Do you have a secret treasure trove
of statue of liberty memorabilia? The two though I know
maybe that could be maybe that could be a new hobby.
Oh you know what we should mention the Statue of
(22:21):
Liberty is not the official name. That's just the nickname.
That's 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. That would Everybody's Galgy, America's Freedom,
(22:44):
America's Great Lady, onto Liberty, Lady Liberty, Lady Liberty, Yeah,
grand damn 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 exiles, which is again
very Game of Thrones. And the list of names goes
(23:05):
on St. Liberty Giant Goddess, which I think is a
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 six. President
Grover Cleveland, who was also the former governor of New
(23:26):
York presided over the dedication ceremony. The good old fashioned
New York take a tape parade, Yes, yes, the very same.
It's a huge parade. Estimates. 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.
(23:46):
And President Cleveland's 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 just the arm and
then it proceeds to the Battery at the southern tip
of Manhattan via Fifth Avenue and Broadway, with a slight
(24:08):
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 tape parade. This is
the first one. That's fantastic. Um, yeah, it's true. And
(24:32):
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 in It's considered an invention because I
guess it's functional because it has the lighthouse qualities to it. Um.
That is when BERTOLDI stood aloft himself up on the
statue's face and released this giant French flag um into
(24:56):
the cheering crowd of like a million New Yorkers who
we're looking on. And here's 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. Evarts. And at this point he's
(25:20):
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 Evarts has a pause in
his speech, and Bartoldi's like, oh, it's go time, and
so he lets the flag drop in the middle of
(25:42):
this guy's speech, and the crowd goes wild, and the Senator,
we can only imagine, has to, 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 light shall pierce
(26:03):
the darkness of ignorance a man's oppression until liberty enlightens
the world. They asked Bartoldie to speak, like, hey, speech, speech, speech,
and he 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? There's someone
out there there may be a Grover listening with us today. Well, hey,
(26:23):
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? And 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
(26:44):
Statue of Liberty, but for purposes the day, I think
the thing that surprised both of us was that this
became pretty close to not being an American thing at all.
That's true. That was the hook of today's episode, which
we alway got rid of in the front. Yeah, that's
how we do. We gotta have a ridiculous hook. And
(27:04):
then this is an excuse to talk about some cool histories.
We go there, we go a reason, maybe exactly, always
always a reason. Um, but I enjoyed this very much.
Do you wanna should we do a little listener mail
we haven't done in a minute. 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.
(27:27):
Kimberly M says, Hi, guys, I'm a big fan and
came across the topic recently that I'm dying to hear
you discuss get this little trial by or deal. You've
heard of this, right, Yeah, it's like feats of strength
during festivals, so uh so, kimberly says. This is the
practice of proving one's innocence of an accused crime by
participating in a dangerous or painful task and either avoiding
(27:49):
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 boil into drowning to poisoning.
The list goes on. It 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. I think
(28:11):
it's possible that we should just do one as an episode.
Were just do a trial by word, Yeah, we just
expose ourselves to some sort of horrific task um individually
and see who comes out on top, Like put put
our fist in boiling oil, or volunteer Casey to do
that on our behalf. He could be our champion, Casey.
Are you cool with that? Absolutely not? No, Okay, that
(28:33):
sounded like a yes. Whatever. We have to rewind the
tape on that. Whatever it was, it was definitely Casey
on the case. He's a problem solver, he's solution oriented.
Thanks so much for writing in with that fantastic idea, Kimberly. I.
I think we put it on the queue. We'll see
about actually doing a trial. That's fair. I have one
(28:54):
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 sixteen
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 mommified alive basically by honey,
and then after a century that mixture was used as
a cure all type of medicine. The reason I was
(29:16):
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 a
hundred years later using it as a product to sell
to housewives with headaches. I always loved the song because
it was such a strange and unique concept. I often
(29:37):
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. Uh, my jaw hit
the floor. It's more of a coincidence 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 and
any conspiracy of the like ends up being true. And
(29:59):
then she gives a Spotify lank and it turns out
the guy responsible for the Lemon Demon is Neil Syria Syriaga.
You see reggas when I say in my head, okay,
got it? Casey on the case. He has an amazing
uh series of albums that Casey turned us onto called
mouth Sounds that's sort of like a ridiculous, hilarious kind
(30:22):
of girl talk mash up thing. A lot of it
uses all Star by Shrek uh and mashes up different
kind of like nineties songs like Ants Marching by Dave
Matthews Band with like you know, all kinds of difference
of 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
(30:44):
a song about this concept that you found Ben, that
we talked about in the Casual Cannibalism. The Melified Man
that's the ones. Yes, no proven case of one has
been found yet, but is there somewhere in the world
in a dusty sepulchler a person who has been mollified.
I don't know if it would be a world changing
(31:04):
event to find one, but it would be so very,
very cool. And you have to ask yourself, without getting
too far into the 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? Uh?
If so, let us know, or if you've actually run
(31:26):
into this in real life, if you've seen a mellified man,
I will get on the plane tomorrow. I really want
to see one in real life. You can write to
us at ridiculous at how stuff works dot com, or
you can check out our Facebook group Ridiculous Historians, where
all kinds of memory is afoot pretty much around the clock. Yes,
and you can also see our personal adventures and misadventures
(31:48):
on our own Instagram accounts. I'm at Ben Bolan, i
am at Embryonic Insider. As always massive thanks to our
superproducer Casey pegram Um, our research associate Gabe and Alex Williams,
who composed our theme, and hey, no, thanks to you
for coming by today because a lot of people I
don't want to put you on the spot. A lot
(32:08):
of people don't know it, but this guy woke up
at four thirty in the morning and flew in from
a different state to do this show boy or my
arms tired, but it's 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.
Casey, could we get a little, 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 sea washed sunset gates
shall stand a mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
(00:46):
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
at lands your story, pomp Christ, She with silent lips,
Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning
(01:08):
to breathe, free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless tempest tossed to me. I lifted
my lamp beside the golden door man. That was beautiful.
Did you write that? No? No, I wish. Emma Lazarus
is not my pen name, But that is the that
(01:28):
is the poem that adorns the Statue of Liberty. I
thought it sounded familiar. Ben uh nol. Have you visited
the Statue of Liberty? Um? You know? 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. We
had to Casey super producer, Casey Pegram was there as well.
(01:53):
We had to get to get the shot so that
it matched as close to those legit Liberty Mutual ads
that that you'd see on on t BE. That was
deeply absurd that, Yeah, it was the whole deal. It was.
Was that the same Was that the same trip where
we hunted down fake buildings? Yes, indeed it was the
same to very same. That's right. That was a whole
the whole whole thing. What an adventure. No, but I
(02:15):
actually did go up you know, you can go up
inside and even go up to the torch. I 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. Yeah, yeah,
I 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
(02:36):
do touristy stuff here. I go to the world of
Coke just on a weekend. It's been a while. It's
been a while. I wonder if it's still has that magic,
propagandistic appeal. I'm pretty sure it does. And I'm pretty
sure it still has the tasting room where you can
taste bad soda drinks across the world, the Italian app
d gif. Yeah, Deveritely, It's funny that you mentioned that
(02:56):
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 Mallards and
it is a bitter, bitter, grapefruit LaCourse. So I love
the idea of, you know, gross things associating with the place. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
I can't wait to go somewhere in Scandinavian try serm strong,
(03:19):
you know. And the 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 your listeners,
do you have an Ellis Island story and your family's past,
(03:42):
like in my family's admittedly murky history. Uh. The best
guess I can make is that we were here before
Ellis Island, before the Statue of Liberty became a thing.
But what about you guys. 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. I don't really
(04:04):
know anything about any kind of immigration um stories about
my family, but I know when I did my ancestry
dot com report, I was like Scandinavian. Oh yeah, yeah,
it's surprising this thing, the Statue of Liberty. It's one
of the most famous monuments in the United States. People
(04:24):
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 um, it's on the level of
the Eiffel Tower, you know what I mean in terms
of it's iconicism. Yeah, and also in terms of its creation.
In fact, yes, yes, Alexander, Oh gosh, we're gonna needt
(04:45):
some casey on the case help with this one. Let
me give it a shot, though. Um. Alexander Gustav iPhone
Gusta he Fell, He designed the interior like the part
of the 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
(05:05):
liberty Um, the sculptor who designed the actual exterior, the
sculpture part is Frederic August. 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.
(05:26):
In eighteen sixty nine, this French sculptor Bartoldi tries to
convince the Egyptian government to let him build a sculpture.
And he says, he walks into the room, he's 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 gonna be huge,
literally and metaphorically. We're gonna call it Egypt bringing Light
(05:48):
to Asia. Huge because it's inspired by another huge statue,
huge even in the name itself, the Colossus of Rhodes,
a colossal statue um which was also the inspiration are
quite famous television sculpture, similarly the Titan of Bravos. And
that's true, that's absolutely right. It's this massive stone creation
(06:11):
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.
And when we say the Statue of Liberty as we
know it today was inspired by the Colossus of Rhodes,
(06:34):
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. It was about a hundred and eight
feet high, and that's around the height of the modern
Statue of Liberty today from feet to crown. But you see,
(06:56):
what you may not know about the Statue of Liberty
was that it was never a rich only meant to
be in the US. He pitched it to Egypt. First,
wait a minute, he say, we just got the scraps
Egypt scraps, sculptre sculpture scraps, we got the we got
the tweak, we got the reboots. 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.
(07:20):
This torch will also serve as a lighthouse to help
guide ships into the canal, so a little function when
there with the form I mean, I'm on board. Unfortunately,
although everybody agrees this is a good idea, negotiations breakdown
over the price and the leadership involved. They say, this
is this is way too expensive, we can't do this.
(07:41):
So instead they just built a lighthouse, the ports Lighthouse,
and then any other large project gets delayed by the
Franco Prussian War because Bartolian, in addition to being a sculptor,
serves as a major of the militia. So was this
lighthouse bespoken anyway, ben or was it just a real
old run of the mill lighthouse. It's bespoke. Yeah, it's
(08:02):
one of the most important landmarks in the city of
port Side. A cool looking I mean beauty is in
the eye of the beholders, 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. Absolutely, they build that in eighteen sixty nine.
(08:26):
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 more liberal republic is installed in France. And
for a while Bartoli has been planning a trip to
(08:49):
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, or told, he
crosses the Atlantic with some letters of bona fides, some
letters of introduction, and he starts looking for a place
(09:10):
to stick this statue. Yeah, and and here's the thing, um,
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
(09:32):
has been quite some time. Um, 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 it was kind of good timing that
this particular statue was proposed. Yeah, And he also, for
(09:55):
the record, tweaked his pitch a little bit. He wasn't
building exact lee 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 to pivot. He decided
(10:17):
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 Park Service ranger
(10:39):
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 everybody seems on
(10:59):
the same page. And he starts wondering where they would
construct this statue. He zeroes in on a place called
bed Lowe's Island now spoiler alert named Liberty Island, and
he does this because he has gobsmacked by the fact
that ships arriving in New York all have to sail
(11:19):
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 was
owned by Uncle Sam. It had been seated by the
(11:42):
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 v I p s. You know, and he even
meets the President Ulysses S Grant, and Ulysses S Grant says, hey, man,
(12:02):
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,
(12:26):
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,
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's very Good's interesting because
(12:50):
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 Labollier right, Edward de
la Bolier Um. He was a French political thinker um
and a fan and an expert of the U s
Constitution and also himself an abolitionist, and he ultimately proposed
(13:14):
that the monument be gifted to the United States from
France to commemorate um the preservation of freedom and democracy,
and um too memorialize the work of Abraham Lincoln and
his freeing of the slaves, which goes in line with
some of the original intent of the statue, and it
(13:35):
having been an Arab slave woman, right, which is 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 something
to base the statue upon. It's it's sort of like, um,
have you guys seeing those talk shows. This used to
(13:57):
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
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 of them
when she gives everyone in the audience killer bees as
(14:19):
I was thinking of that same gift. Yeah, good one.
And here's the thing. Laboulay was who was a huge
fan of the Constitution and the United States and the
efforts of Abraham Lincoln in freeing the slaves. Um, because
you know, the French are all about revolution as we know,
and liberty. That's the notion of individual freedom and uh
you know, self determination. So this guy who was a
(14:41):
political thinker um was already known to BERTHOLDI, or vice versa. Rather,
he knew BERTHOLDI because he had commissioned him to do
a sculpture or like a bust of him, or it
had he had been commissioned. So they kind of joined
forces and we're able to get the ball rolling on
the statue as a joint share between French and the
(15:02):
United States. Like you said, Ben, they already had the
side picked out. They had to raise some money to
build that platform, right, and then they were off to
the races. Yes, yes, let's talk a little bit about
the construction and the erection of the statue. So Bartoli
(15:23):
goes back to France in eighteen seventy seven and he's
concentrating on completing the head of the statue. He makes
of progress to exhibit it at the Paris World's Fair.
Models of the statue are put on sale to help
with fundraising in France, and they even sold tickets to
(15:46):
view the construction activity at the workshop where this was
being built. The French government even green lit a lottery.
Some 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 d and fifty thousand frocs. So, Noel, you had
(16:07):
mentioned earlier that the same guy who built the Eiffel
Tower helped create Gustave I failed right, helped create this statue.
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
(16:28):
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
and instead it's supported by this internal framework a skeletonists
which is also why it matters. You need a you
need an architect and a sculptor. This thing is literally
a inhabitable structure. I mean, you wouldn't live there, but
(16:50):
you can certainly has to sup its massive and it
has to have the same care taken that you would
in building a skyscraper for example. Right. Yet, 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 sculpture
(17:14):
to change his plans for the assembly of the statue. Originally,
he thought they would assemble this skin on site on
the island, but once the materials changed, 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
(17:37):
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. Yeah, this is complicated.
This is one way beyond IKEA for sure. And also,
I mean there's got to be something of a of
a language barrier that would have to be some interpreters involved.
(17:58):
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 France to actually do
the work. Yeah, excellent, excellent questions. So in France they're
using artisans and craftsmen under Bartoldi's direction, and they're they're
(18:20):
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 in New York helping construct and
reassemble the statue, we find a little bit of what
would you call it synchronicity big time. Yeah. They were
(18:41):
already uh, newly arrived immigrants because again New York was
known for that. It was this sports city, um, 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 a symbol
(19:03):
of what they represented in the first place, which I
think is really interesting. M m. There's another employee that
maybe doesn't get mentioned as often as they should in
the story of the Statue of Liberties construction. It's the
model for the statue. It was a real person. It's
a real person. Not only is it a real person,
but it is one of the best Mother's Day gifts ever.
(19:26):
Frederick Bartoldi uses his mother Charlotte, as the model for
the statue. What a good son, what a sweet boy.
You know, that is an enduring image. You know that
is going to be around for a long long time.
Uh man, his mother must have really loved him or
who knows. Maybe they had a really horrible, cantankerous relationship
and he was just trying to make nice. Well, either way,
(19:50):
she is now. She is now the inspiration for the
most recognized statue in the world. Yeah, immortalized perfect word.
And this was first discovered in eighteen seventy six. Bartoldi
invited a French senator named Jules Bozzarian to watch the
(20:10):
opera with him. He had a box at the opera house.
And when 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. It's Charlotte. Oh yeah, right, that's right,
that is wild Ben. But here's the thing, Um, this
(20:32):
is interesting. I didn't know this at all until we
started looking into this. Bertoldie held onto like the rights
to the image of the Statue of Liberty for quite
some time. Um. And then eventually that copyright that he
held ran out, like they tend to do, and there
opened the doors to duplicate statues of Liberty. Here we go. Yeah,
(20:54):
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 when we're describing
the statue, it's it's quote a statue representing liberty enlightening
(21:18):
the world, the same consisting essentially of the draped female
figure with one arm upbraidsed, bearing 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 tr right, It's like a crown. H yeah. Um,
so that's right. It did. Uh, it did run out.
(21:40):
And now we have copycat statues of liberty all around
the world. We have them in Tokyo, Norway, Brazil, Vegas, baby,
you know yeah, um, and uh, of course replicas of
them that you can get and little models that you
can glue together. I have a cutout cardboard one that's
sort of like a secon. Assemble a little unch the
(22:00):
holes and connect the pieces together. Um. So it's you know,
it's it's everywhere. Do you have a secret treasure trove
of statue of liberty memorabilia? The two though I know
maybe that could be maybe that could be a new hobby.
Oh you know what we should mention the Statue of
(22:21):
Liberty is not the official name. That's just the nickname.
That's 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. That would Everybody's Galgy, America's Freedom,
(22:44):
America's Great Lady, onto Liberty, Lady Liberty, Lady Liberty, Yeah,
grand damn 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 exiles, which is again
very Game of Thrones. And the list of names goes
(23:05):
on St. Liberty Giant Goddess, which I think is a
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 six. President
Grover Cleveland, who was also the former governor of New
(23:26):
York presided over the dedication ceremony. The good old fashioned
New York take a tape parade, Yes, yes, the very same.
It's a huge parade. Estimates. 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.
(23:46):
And President Cleveland's 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 just the arm and
then it proceeds to the Battery at the southern tip
of Manhattan via Fifth Avenue and Broadway, with a slight
(24:08):
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 tape parade. This is
the first one. That's fantastic. Um, yeah, it's true. And
(24:32):
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 in It's considered an invention because I
guess it's functional because it has the lighthouse qualities to it. Um.
That is when BERTOLDI stood aloft himself up on the
statue's face and released this giant French flag um into
(24:56):
the cheering crowd of like a million New Yorkers who
we're looking on. And here's 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. Evarts. And at this point he's
(25:20):
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 Evarts has a pause in
his speech, and Bartoldi's like, oh, it's go time, and
so he lets the flag drop in the middle of
(25:42):
this guy's speech, and the crowd goes wild, and the Senator,
we can only imagine, has to, 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 light shall pierce
(26:03):
the darkness of ignorance a man's oppression until liberty enlightens
the world. They asked Bartoldie to speak, like, hey, speech, speech, speech,
and he 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? There's someone
out there there may be a Grover listening with us today. Well, hey,
(26:23):
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? And 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
(26:44):
Statue of Liberty, but for purposes the day, I think
the thing that surprised both of us was that this
became pretty close to not being an American thing at all.
That's true. That was the hook of today's episode, which
we alway got rid of in the front. Yeah, that's
how we do. We gotta have a ridiculous hook. And
(27:04):
then this is an excuse to talk about some cool histories.
We go there, we go a reason, maybe exactly, always
always a reason. Um, but I enjoyed this very much.
Do you wanna should we do a little listener mail
we haven't done in a minute. 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.
(27:27):
Kimberly M says, Hi, guys, I'm a big fan and
came across the topic recently that I'm dying to hear
you discuss get this little trial by or deal. You've
heard of this, right, Yeah, it's like feats of strength
during festivals, so uh so, kimberly says. This is the
practice of proving one's innocence of an accused crime by
participating in a dangerous or painful task and either avoiding
(27:49):
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 boil into drowning to poisoning.
The list goes on. It 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. I think
(28:11):
it's possible that we should just do one as an episode.
Were just do a trial by word, Yeah, we just
expose ourselves to some sort of horrific task um individually
and see who comes out on top, Like put put
our fist in boiling oil, or volunteer Casey to do
that on our behalf. He could be our champion, Casey.
Are you cool with that? Absolutely not? No, Okay, that
(28:33):
sounded like a yes. Whatever. We have to rewind the
tape on that. Whatever it was, it was definitely Casey
on the case. He's a problem solver, he's solution oriented.
Thanks so much for writing in with that fantastic idea, Kimberly. I.
I think we put it on the queue. We'll see
about actually doing a trial. That's fair. I have one
(28:54):
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 sixteen
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 mommified alive basically by honey,
and then after a century that mixture was used as
a cure all type of medicine. The reason I was
(29:16):
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 a
hundred years later using it as a product to sell
to housewives with headaches. I always loved the song because
it was such a strange and unique concept. I often
(29:37):
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. Uh, my jaw hit
the floor. It's more of a coincidence 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 and
any conspiracy of the like ends up being true. And
(29:59):
then she gives a Spotify lank and it turns out
the guy responsible for the Lemon Demon is Neil Syria Syriaga.
You see reggas when I say in my head, okay,
got it? Casey on the case. He has an amazing
uh series of albums that Casey turned us onto called
mouth Sounds that's sort of like a ridiculous, hilarious kind
(30:22):
of girl talk mash up thing. A lot of it
uses all Star by Shrek uh and mashes up different
kind of like nineties songs like Ants Marching by Dave
Matthews Band with like you know, all kinds of difference
of 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
(30:44):
a song about this concept that you found Ben, that
we talked about in the Casual Cannibalism. The Melified Man
that's the ones. Yes, no proven case of one has
been found yet, but is there somewhere in the world
in a dusty sepulchler a person who has been mollified.
I don't know if it would be a world changing
(31:04):
event to find one, but it would be so very,
very cool. And you have to ask yourself, without getting
too far into the 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? Uh?
If so, let us know, or if you've actually run
(31:26):
into this in real life, if you've seen a mellified man,
I will get on the plane tomorrow. I really want
to see one in real life. You can write to
us at ridiculous at how stuff works dot com, or
you can check out our Facebook group Ridiculous Historians, where
all kinds of memory is afoot pretty much around the clock. Yes,
and you can also see our personal adventures and misadventures
(31:48):
on our own Instagram accounts. I'm at Ben Bolan, i
am at Embryonic Insider. As always massive thanks to our
superproducer Casey pegram Um, our research associate Gabe and Alex Williams,
who composed our theme, and hey, no, thanks to you
for coming by today because a lot of people I
don't want to put you on the spot. A lot
(32:08):
of people don't know it, but this guy woke up
at four thirty in the morning and flew in from
a different state to do this show boy or my
arms tired, but it's 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.
Ridiculous History News
Hosts And Creators
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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