1 00:00:03,760 --> 00:00:07,840 Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history 2 00:00:08,039 --> 00:00:11,200 Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are 3 00:00:11,320 --> 00:00:14,680 Speaker 1: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. 4 00:00:16,200 --> 00:00:29,520 Speaker 1: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. We all have regrets 5 00:00:29,560 --> 00:00:32,320 Speaker 1: something we said or did that we wish we could 6 00:00:32,320 --> 00:00:34,840 Speaker 1: go back and change. If only there was a way 7 00:00:34,880 --> 00:00:37,640 Speaker 1: to travel back to that point in time and fix 8 00:00:37,720 --> 00:00:41,920 Speaker 1: what we messed up. Unfortunately, there's no trash powered DeLorean 9 00:00:42,240 --> 00:00:44,960 Speaker 1: or flying phone booth that can help us with our mistakes. 10 00:00:45,479 --> 00:00:48,320 Speaker 1: Time traveling is one of those concepts relegated to summer 11 00:00:48,360 --> 00:00:53,040 Speaker 1: blockbusters and classic novels. But what if there was something else, 12 00:00:53,640 --> 00:00:56,240 Speaker 1: Not a way to travel through time, but to see 13 00:00:56,280 --> 00:00:59,600 Speaker 1: it like a television one could tune in any period 14 00:00:59,720 --> 00:01:02,880 Speaker 1: and get a glimpse of the way things were. In short, 15 00:01:03,360 --> 00:01:07,319 Speaker 1: what if someone built a window into the past. A 16 00:01:07,400 --> 00:01:10,160 Speaker 1: fictional version of such a device was written about by 17 00:01:10,240 --> 00:01:14,399 Speaker 1: sci fi author T. L Shared in his seven story 18 00:01:14,680 --> 00:01:18,679 Speaker 1: E for Effort. In it, the main character Ed sees 19 00:01:18,720 --> 00:01:22,080 Speaker 1: a silent film depicting the conquest of the Aztec Empire 20 00:01:22,160 --> 00:01:26,360 Speaker 1: by Hernan Cortez. It's incredible, with acting and sets that 21 00:01:26,400 --> 00:01:29,520 Speaker 1: looked just like the real thing, except for one thing. 22 00:01:30,120 --> 00:01:33,679 Speaker 1: That event took place in fifteen nineteen, almost four hundred 23 00:01:33,800 --> 00:01:37,000 Speaker 1: years before the birth of the movie camera. Ed learns 24 00:01:37,040 --> 00:01:39,160 Speaker 1: that the person who made the film he was watching 25 00:01:39,520 --> 00:01:43,360 Speaker 1: has invented a special time viewer capable of recording the past. 26 00:01:45,720 --> 00:01:48,040 Speaker 1: Ed and the inventor's greed gets the better of them, 27 00:01:48,160 --> 00:01:51,400 Speaker 1: and they are eventually taken into custody by the U. S. Government. 28 00:01:51,840 --> 00:01:54,680 Speaker 1: I won't spoil the end, but the heroes don't fare 29 00:01:54,680 --> 00:01:58,320 Speaker 1: too well. That said, the device was not always the 30 00:01:58,320 --> 00:02:02,960 Speaker 1: fictional maguffin of a creative author. Back in the nineteen fifties, 31 00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:05,880 Speaker 1: a device called the Chronovisor was being developed by a 32 00:02:05,920 --> 00:02:10,200 Speaker 1: team of scientists backed by an unlikely organization, the Vatican. 33 00:02:11,080 --> 00:02:15,000 Speaker 1: Like the novel's literary device, the Chronovisor would allow viewers 34 00:02:15,040 --> 00:02:18,880 Speaker 1: to see historical events on a television screen and even 35 00:02:18,919 --> 00:02:23,280 Speaker 1: captured them in photographs. Allegedly, the screen was so powerful 36 00:02:23,400 --> 00:02:25,600 Speaker 1: it had the ability to see the future as well. 37 00:02:27,320 --> 00:02:29,840 Speaker 1: The team was led by an Italian priest named Father 38 00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:34,200 Speaker 1: Pellegrino Maria Ornetti. Assisting him in the endeavor were two others, 39 00:02:34,360 --> 00:02:39,160 Speaker 1: Nobel laureate Enrico Fermi and an actual rocket scientist. This 40 00:02:39,280 --> 00:02:42,520 Speaker 1: project was no joke, at least not according to the Vatican. 41 00:02:43,480 --> 00:02:46,520 Speaker 1: Ernetti had gotten the idea for his time TV not 42 00:02:46,680 --> 00:02:50,040 Speaker 1: from a science fiction novel, but from listening to Gregorian 43 00:02:50,160 --> 00:02:53,960 Speaker 1: Chance at a university in Milan. He and another priest, 44 00:02:54,160 --> 00:02:58,840 Speaker 1: father Augustino Gamelli, were engrossed in the performance when a single, 45 00:02:59,040 --> 00:03:01,960 Speaker 1: clear voice ing out above all the others. It was 46 00:03:02,040 --> 00:03:05,080 Speaker 1: that of father Gamelli's own father, who had long since 47 00:03:05,120 --> 00:03:08,760 Speaker 1: passed away. Ernetti believed that the voice was not a ghost, 48 00:03:09,000 --> 00:03:11,440 Speaker 1: but a moment from the past that had been preserved 49 00:03:11,480 --> 00:03:14,160 Speaker 1: in time and was waiting for the right frequency to 50 00:03:14,200 --> 00:03:18,960 Speaker 1: be discovered again. He and the other scientists working on 51 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:22,480 Speaker 1: the chronovisor allegedly managed to build a working model, but 52 00:03:22,520 --> 00:03:26,240 Speaker 1: the whole project went underground for twenty years until Italian 53 00:03:26,280 --> 00:03:29,720 Speaker 1: newspapers got wind of it again. They printed articles poking 54 00:03:29,800 --> 00:03:33,000 Speaker 1: fun at Hernetti's silly little machine, which he not only 55 00:03:33,040 --> 00:03:38,080 Speaker 1: claimed existed but worked as advertised. He told the papers 56 00:03:38,120 --> 00:03:42,840 Speaker 1: he'd seen Napoleon Bonaparte, performances of lost plays by Roman poets, 57 00:03:43,120 --> 00:03:46,000 Speaker 1: the Fall of Sodom and Go Mora, and perhaps the 58 00:03:46,040 --> 00:03:50,440 Speaker 1: most historical event of all time, Christ's Crucifixion. When asked 59 00:03:50,440 --> 00:03:54,440 Speaker 1: to provide a demonstration as proof, Ornettie objected. He said 60 00:03:54,480 --> 00:03:57,560 Speaker 1: he couldn't since he had destroyed the Chronovisor out of 61 00:03:57,600 --> 00:04:02,119 Speaker 1: fear it would be used for evil. The Vatican never 62 00:04:02,160 --> 00:04:04,840 Speaker 1: admitted to having funded the creation of the device, but 63 00:04:04,960 --> 00:04:07,760 Speaker 1: they did state that anyone caught using anything like that 64 00:04:07,880 --> 00:04:11,080 Speaker 1: would be excommunicated. But don't let that fool you into 65 00:04:11,080 --> 00:04:13,960 Speaker 1: thinking Ernettie was some sort of fraud ster. He was 66 00:04:14,000 --> 00:04:17,280 Speaker 1: respected within the church as a scholar and a clergyman, 67 00:04:17,440 --> 00:04:20,599 Speaker 1: a man who was able to combine his scientific curiosity 68 00:04:20,640 --> 00:04:23,599 Speaker 1: with his faith to a great success. He had already 69 00:04:23,640 --> 00:04:27,359 Speaker 1: performed comprehensive research on religious music and the acoustics of 70 00:04:27,440 --> 00:04:30,760 Speaker 1: churches and cathedrals before he ever started working on a 71 00:04:30,839 --> 00:04:36,159 Speaker 1: time viewer. Ernettie passed away in swearing with his dying 72 00:04:36,200 --> 00:04:39,400 Speaker 1: breath that the Chronovisor was real and it did work, 73 00:04:39,800 --> 00:04:43,240 Speaker 1: and he might have been right. One theoretical physicist from 74 00:04:43,279 --> 00:04:46,039 Speaker 1: the University of Connecticut has spent his life trying to 75 00:04:46,080 --> 00:04:48,240 Speaker 1: build a time machine in order to reunite with his 76 00:04:48,360 --> 00:04:51,960 Speaker 1: late father. He claims it's possible, and though he hasn't 77 00:04:51,960 --> 00:04:57,120 Speaker 1: been successful yet, he's certain someone somewhere will eventually build one, 78 00:04:58,560 --> 00:05:01,359 Speaker 1: or maybe they already have of far off in the 79 00:05:01,440 --> 00:05:05,320 Speaker 1: distant future. If so, we'll never know it, but to 80 00:05:05,400 --> 00:05:09,560 Speaker 1: those watching, it will most likely be an instant classic. 81 00:05:22,920 --> 00:05:26,960 Speaker 1: Some athletes become legends for a reason. Olympic gold medalist 82 00:05:27,080 --> 00:05:30,400 Speaker 1: Usain Bolt is widely considered to be the fastest man alive. 83 00:05:30,720 --> 00:05:33,880 Speaker 1: Tennis icon Serena Williams is the winner of twenty three 84 00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:37,880 Speaker 1: major singles titles, an Open Era record, and Jim Thorpe 85 00:05:38,120 --> 00:05:41,440 Speaker 1: born in eight seven, was the first Native American to 86 00:05:41,480 --> 00:05:43,520 Speaker 1: win a gold medal for the United States when he 87 00:05:43,560 --> 00:05:47,200 Speaker 1: competed in the nineteen twelve Olympics. He's also considered the 88 00:05:47,200 --> 00:05:50,320 Speaker 1: greatest athletes of the first half of the twentieth century. 89 00:05:52,120 --> 00:05:55,440 Speaker 1: They poured their lives into their passions. Their hard work 90 00:05:55,480 --> 00:06:00,000 Speaker 1: and determination earned them worldwide fame. Children look up to them, 91 00:06:00,040 --> 00:06:04,799 Speaker 1: aspiring Olympians idolize them. However, not all legends are born 92 00:06:04,880 --> 00:06:07,840 Speaker 1: out of sweat and gold. Some don't work as hard 93 00:06:07,880 --> 00:06:11,440 Speaker 1: as the others. Some stumble onto the pages of history 94 00:06:11,480 --> 00:06:16,240 Speaker 1: without doing anything at all. Frank Hayes was born in 95 00:06:16,240 --> 00:06:20,479 Speaker 1: Brooklyn in one year after Jim Thorpe, and he got 96 00:06:20,480 --> 00:06:23,920 Speaker 1: his start working around horses. He tried his hand at 97 00:06:24,000 --> 00:06:27,520 Speaker 1: jockey to no success, so eventually became a stable hand 98 00:06:27,560 --> 00:06:30,680 Speaker 1: for a local horse breeder. Work was work, after all, 99 00:06:31,040 --> 00:06:32,960 Speaker 1: and he wasn't about to look a gift horse in 100 00:06:33,000 --> 00:06:37,039 Speaker 1: the mouth. Frank's boss saw potential in him, though, but 101 00:06:37,200 --> 00:06:39,920 Speaker 1: not as a jockey. Instead, he wanted Frank to train 102 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:44,039 Speaker 1: his thoroughbreds to race, and Frank was a natural. Despite 103 00:06:44,080 --> 00:06:45,839 Speaker 1: never winning a race of his own, he went on 104 00:06:45,920 --> 00:06:49,760 Speaker 1: to train several champion steeds, earning him respect from all 105 00:06:49,800 --> 00:06:54,400 Speaker 1: over the sport of horse racing. Still, Frank never forgot 106 00:06:54,440 --> 00:06:57,680 Speaker 1: about his first passion. He was a jockey at heart, 107 00:06:57,760 --> 00:06:59,640 Speaker 1: and he dreamed of the day when he would once 108 00:06:59,680 --> 00:07:02,800 Speaker 1: again mount up and ride one of his trained horses 109 00:07:02,839 --> 00:07:07,320 Speaker 1: to victory, and that day eventually arrived. In June of nineteen, 110 00:07:09,800 --> 00:07:12,720 Speaker 1: he had been training a particular horse named sweet Kiss 111 00:07:12,880 --> 00:07:16,120 Speaker 1: for a steeple chase at New York's Belmont Park. A 112 00:07:16,160 --> 00:07:18,960 Speaker 1: steeple chase is different from a regular horse race in 113 00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:24,040 Speaker 1: that it involves jumping over obstacles such as fences and ditches. Unfortunately, 114 00:07:24,320 --> 00:07:27,400 Speaker 1: with the event only days away, Frank found that riders 115 00:07:27,440 --> 00:07:31,400 Speaker 1: were in short supply, of course, he was only too 116 00:07:31,440 --> 00:07:34,880 Speaker 1: happy to volunteer his services for the event and hopefully 117 00:07:34,920 --> 00:07:38,160 Speaker 1: the horse's owner would agree. The owner, however, didn't want 118 00:07:38,240 --> 00:07:41,520 Speaker 1: him to compete, claiming his weight would slow the horse down. 119 00:07:42,600 --> 00:07:45,560 Speaker 1: But time was running out and there were no other jockeys. 120 00:07:45,920 --> 00:07:48,800 Speaker 1: If sweet Kiss was going to compete at Belmont, they 121 00:07:48,800 --> 00:07:51,040 Speaker 1: had to rely on Frank to do the job. He 122 00:07:51,120 --> 00:07:53,679 Speaker 1: went on a severe diet to lose the weight needed 123 00:07:53,680 --> 00:07:56,680 Speaker 1: to qualify, and on the day of the race, Frank 124 00:07:56,760 --> 00:08:01,320 Speaker 1: Hayes got his wish. He was thrilled, of course, finally 125 00:08:01,360 --> 00:08:03,760 Speaker 1: someone had taken a chance on the thirty five year 126 00:08:03,760 --> 00:08:06,480 Speaker 1: old stableman and he wasn't going to throw it away. 127 00:08:06,920 --> 00:08:09,640 Speaker 1: Even the other jockeys could see how excited he was 128 00:08:09,680 --> 00:08:13,040 Speaker 1: to compete. It didn't matter that the odds were stacked 129 00:08:13,040 --> 00:08:16,880 Speaker 1: against him literally too. At twenty to one, Frank climbed 130 00:08:16,880 --> 00:08:19,360 Speaker 1: a top Sweet Kiss at the starting line and waited 131 00:08:19,400 --> 00:08:22,400 Speaker 1: for the signal. The starter waved the flag and the 132 00:08:22,480 --> 00:08:25,440 Speaker 1: race was begun. Frank and Sweet Kiss took off like 133 00:08:25,480 --> 00:08:28,679 Speaker 1: a rocket, jumping over hurdles around two miles of track, 134 00:08:28,800 --> 00:08:32,400 Speaker 1: leaving the other horses in the dust. As they pulled 135 00:08:32,400 --> 00:08:34,440 Speaker 1: into the final turn. It was just the two of 136 00:08:34,480 --> 00:08:38,520 Speaker 1: them galloping toward the finished line. Frank hunkered down, leaning 137 00:08:38,600 --> 00:08:42,920 Speaker 1: into Sweet Kiss, the wind whipping overhead. The audience roared. 138 00:08:43,200 --> 00:08:46,840 Speaker 1: They stood to watch the underdogs, this horse and it's jockey, 139 00:08:46,880 --> 00:08:50,160 Speaker 1: who hadn't a chance of winning minutes before, about to 140 00:08:50,200 --> 00:08:54,600 Speaker 1: win the competition. They crossed the finished line to deafening cheers, 141 00:08:55,000 --> 00:08:58,120 Speaker 1: and Sweet Kiss gradually slowed to a stop. Over another 142 00:08:58,200 --> 00:09:02,280 Speaker 1: hundred yards, Frank Hayes had won his first race after 143 00:09:02,440 --> 00:09:05,600 Speaker 1: years of staying off the track. The horse's owners and 144 00:09:05,679 --> 00:09:08,160 Speaker 1: the people in the stands all ran down to meet 145 00:09:08,240 --> 00:09:11,400 Speaker 1: him to congratulate him for what he had accomplished. The 146 00:09:11,440 --> 00:09:14,600 Speaker 1: place was a buzz with the joyful chaos of celebration, 147 00:09:15,800 --> 00:09:18,320 Speaker 1: but as they got closer, it was clear something had 148 00:09:18,360 --> 00:09:22,240 Speaker 1: gone wrong. Frank fell off the horse and landed face 149 00:09:22,320 --> 00:09:26,040 Speaker 1: down in the dirt. Almost immediately, Doctor John Vorhees, the 150 00:09:26,160 --> 00:09:29,400 Speaker 1: track physician, hurried over to see what had happened, and 151 00:09:29,440 --> 00:09:33,760 Speaker 1: the news he delivered to the others was bad. Apparently 152 00:09:33,800 --> 00:09:37,120 Speaker 1: Frank's excitement got the better of him during the race. 153 00:09:37,200 --> 00:09:40,240 Speaker 1: He had suffered a heart attack, but somehow managed to 154 00:09:40,280 --> 00:09:43,040 Speaker 1: hold on. By the time the horse finally crossed the 155 00:09:43,080 --> 00:09:47,000 Speaker 1: finish line. Frank was nothing more than cargo hitchen a 156 00:09:47,120 --> 00:09:51,760 Speaker 1: ride on its back. It's ironic. I know Frank Hays 157 00:09:51,840 --> 00:09:55,120 Speaker 1: had wanted to be a jockey his entire life, but 158 00:09:55,200 --> 00:09:57,640 Speaker 1: in the end he turned out to be nothing more 159 00:09:58,600 --> 00:10:04,600 Speaker 1: then dead weight. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour 160 00:10:04,720 --> 00:10:08,800 Speaker 1: of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, 161 00:10:08,880 --> 00:10:12,440 Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast 162 00:10:12,640 --> 00:10:16,720 Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Mankey 163 00:10:16,760 --> 00:10:20,240 Speaker 1: in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award 164 00:10:20,240 --> 00:10:23,840 Speaker 1: winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, 165 00:10:23,880 --> 00:10:26,480 Speaker 1: and television show, and you can learn all about it 166 00:10:26,520 --> 00:10:30,120 Speaker 1: over at the World of Lore dot com. And until 167 00:10:30,160 --> 00:10:32,040 Speaker 1: next time, stay curious.