WEBVTT - Underground Giant

0:00:04.080 --> 0:00:07.400
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of

0:00:07.480 --> 0:00:09.320
<v Speaker 1>iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild.

0:00:12.840 --> 0:00:16.840
<v Speaker 2>Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history

0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:20.239
<v Speaker 2>is an open book, all of these amazing tales are

0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:23.720
<v Speaker 2>right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.

0:00:25.239 --> 0:00:37.159
<v Speaker 2>Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. The man walking the

0:00:37.200 --> 0:00:41.560
<v Speaker 2>smoky streets of nineteenth century Paris moved cautiously through the crowd,

0:00:41.800 --> 0:00:44.839
<v Speaker 2>even though nearly every citizen of the city knew him.

0:00:44.960 --> 0:00:47.080
<v Speaker 2>As a matter of fact, the whole of Europe knew

0:00:47.120 --> 0:00:50.159
<v Speaker 2>his work, although very few would recognize him if he

0:00:50.200 --> 0:00:54.360
<v Speaker 2>stood directly in their faces. This was, after all, Jean

0:00:54.400 --> 0:00:57.440
<v Speaker 2>Gaspard Debureaux, the man who many believed had changed the

0:00:57.600 --> 0:01:01.120
<v Speaker 2>very soul of theater. He was a brilliant and brazen actor,

0:01:01.520 --> 0:01:07.440
<v Speaker 2>intense and volatile, and well completely silent. Born Jan kasparb

0:01:07.520 --> 0:01:11.319
<v Speaker 2>da Vorak in a small Bohemian town, Debureaux's family was

0:01:11.400 --> 0:01:14.840
<v Speaker 2>a troop of traveling acrobats. Seeking a bigger life, he

0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:17.560
<v Speaker 2>ran away from the circus as a teenager and made

0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:19.680
<v Speaker 2>his way to Paris, where he found the troop of

0:01:19.760 --> 0:01:24.520
<v Speaker 2>funambul This troupe performed Comedia dallarte, an Italian art form

0:01:24.600 --> 0:01:28.160
<v Speaker 2>steeped in mask work and slapstick comedy, and there he

0:01:28.240 --> 0:01:32.040
<v Speaker 2>took the role of Pirot, a clumsy, clownish figure known

0:01:32.120 --> 0:01:36.520
<v Speaker 2>for his bumbling antics. But Debureau wasn't content with bumbling.

0:01:36.920 --> 0:01:39.919
<v Speaker 2>His Pirot was not some fool, but a victim of fate,

0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:43.280
<v Speaker 2>a romantic and one that was capable of expressing deep

0:01:43.280 --> 0:01:47.400
<v Speaker 2>emotion with silence and the simplest of gestures. An elevated

0:01:47.480 --> 0:01:51.720
<v Speaker 2>form of the historically lowbrow comedia, it was a hit too.

0:01:52.120 --> 0:01:55.640
<v Speaker 2>Parisian theater goers were enthralled with this sad character, so

0:01:55.800 --> 0:01:59.520
<v Speaker 2>much so that his performances regularly sold out. But this

0:01:59.600 --> 0:02:02.880
<v Speaker 2>proved to be a double edged sword. That Pierrot fandom

0:02:03.080 --> 0:02:06.280
<v Speaker 2>was intense, and many being unable to see the difference

0:02:06.320 --> 0:02:09.079
<v Speaker 2>between the character and the man who played it. Although

0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:11.520
<v Speaker 2>he had some amount of anonymity due to the mask,

0:02:11.680 --> 0:02:14.400
<v Speaker 2>the makeup and the costumes that he wore on stage,

0:02:14.560 --> 0:02:16.960
<v Speaker 2>he was still regularly called out to on the street

0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:21.040
<v Speaker 2>and accosted at cafes, and then, one fateful day in

0:02:21.080 --> 0:02:23.160
<v Speaker 2>eighteen sixty three, it all.

0:02:23.040 --> 0:02:26.280
<v Speaker 1>Became too much for him. He was walking out one

0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:29.320
<v Speaker 1>day when a young boy called to him Pirot. He

0:02:29.360 --> 0:02:32.520
<v Speaker 1>ignored the boy, but the boy persisted, finally running up

0:02:32.560 --> 0:02:36.239
<v Speaker 1>behind him and shouting again Pierrot. In a lapse of temper,

0:02:36.600 --> 0:02:39.919
<v Speaker 1>debureau turned and struck the boy with his heavy walking stick.

0:02:40.280 --> 0:02:42.840
<v Speaker 1>Although details are somewhat scant, we do know that the

0:02:42.880 --> 0:02:46.239
<v Speaker 1>blow landed hard and that the boy fell. He died

0:02:46.560 --> 0:02:50.639
<v Speaker 1>a short time later. The murder and the subsequent arrest

0:02:50.680 --> 0:02:55.160
<v Speaker 1>of Jean Gaspard Debureaux sent shockwaves through Paris. What followed

0:02:55.280 --> 0:02:58.359
<v Speaker 1>was no mere trial either. It was a cultural moment.

0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:02.160
<v Speaker 1>Parisians by the thousand gathered at the courthouse, eager to

0:03:02.200 --> 0:03:05.079
<v Speaker 1>catch a glimpse of the famous performer or to hear

0:03:05.160 --> 0:03:09.000
<v Speaker 1>his voice, which he never used on stage. The courtroom

0:03:09.040 --> 0:03:12.200
<v Speaker 1>itself came to feel like a theater, with crowds watching

0:03:12.240 --> 0:03:16.079
<v Speaker 1>breathlessly as the prosecution attempted to paint the actor as

0:03:16.120 --> 0:03:19.200
<v Speaker 1>a cold blooded murderer, the defense arguing that he was

0:03:19.280 --> 0:03:21.959
<v Speaker 1>merely a victim of his own fame and had snapped

0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:24.800
<v Speaker 1>after being overwhelmed by the boy accosting him in the

0:03:24.840 --> 0:03:28.440
<v Speaker 1>busy street. It hardly seemed fair how much Debureau's fame

0:03:28.560 --> 0:03:31.640
<v Speaker 1>tilted the scale in his favor. Many on the jury

0:03:31.680 --> 0:03:35.040
<v Speaker 1>had likely seen him perform and were reluctant to convict

0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:38.040
<v Speaker 1>a man who had brought so much joy to the masses.

0:03:38.680 --> 0:03:41.920
<v Speaker 1>In a verdict that surprised no one, Debureau was acquitted

0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:44.240
<v Speaker 1>of the murder charge, with the court ruling that it

0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:47.280
<v Speaker 1>had been an unfortunate accident that arose from a moment

0:03:47.400 --> 0:03:51.400
<v Speaker 1>of desperate confusion. Although Debureaux had committed the crime, it

0:03:51.520 --> 0:03:55.160
<v Speaker 1>was Pirot who won the case. In the years following

0:03:55.200 --> 0:03:58.960
<v Speaker 1>his trial, Debureau remained in charge of the funambul In fact,

0:03:59.000 --> 0:04:01.160
<v Speaker 1>he remained with them until till his death in eighteen

0:04:01.280 --> 0:04:04.640
<v Speaker 1>forty six. Although the murder remained a shadow on his

0:04:04.760 --> 0:04:07.440
<v Speaker 1>legacy and may have actually done the theater some good,

0:04:07.760 --> 0:04:11.080
<v Speaker 1>audience has continued to buy tickets to see Pirout, now

0:04:11.120 --> 0:04:15.000
<v Speaker 1>made more tragic by real life events. When Jean Gospard

0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:17.840
<v Speaker 1>Debureau died, he left behind a body of work. As

0:04:18.000 --> 0:04:21.800
<v Speaker 1>complex as he was. He was a genius who transformed

0:04:21.800 --> 0:04:25.159
<v Speaker 1>a stock comic character into a symbol of human suffering

0:04:25.200 --> 0:04:28.240
<v Speaker 1>and resilience, and he is considered by most to be

0:04:28.400 --> 0:04:31.880
<v Speaker 1>the archetype upon which all silent performers have been built.

0:04:31.960 --> 0:04:36.960
<v Speaker 1>Ever since. That's right. Jean Gaspard Debureaux was a mime.

0:04:50.400 --> 0:04:53.599
<v Speaker 1>On September seventh of nineteen forty, life in the city

0:04:53.600 --> 0:04:58.320
<v Speaker 1>of London changed forever. German planes darkened the horizon, carrying

0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:01.279
<v Speaker 1>with them three hundred and thirty seven tons of bombs

0:05:01.320 --> 0:05:05.080
<v Speaker 1>directed at the city itself. Air raid sirens sounded and

0:05:05.120 --> 0:05:09.279
<v Speaker 1>the city was rocked day and night by explosions. This

0:05:09.560 --> 0:05:12.440
<v Speaker 1>was the first day of the Blitz, a fifty seven

0:05:12.560 --> 0:05:16.280
<v Speaker 1>day long air raid conducted by the Lufwaffa against Great Britain.

0:05:16.640 --> 0:05:19.400
<v Speaker 1>For the people of London, it became a defining event

0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:22.760
<v Speaker 1>of the war. Londoners who couldn't flee to the countryside

0:05:22.760 --> 0:05:25.880
<v Speaker 1>were stuck with a new horrible reality. Their city had

0:05:25.920 --> 0:05:29.240
<v Speaker 1>just become an active war zone. Over four hundred civilians

0:05:29.320 --> 0:05:32.560
<v Speaker 1>died on that first day, and the bombs kept coming.

0:05:33.320 --> 0:05:37.000
<v Speaker 1>On September thirteenth, a bomb destroyed an optometrist shop in

0:05:37.000 --> 0:05:39.359
<v Speaker 1>the East End. The man who ran the business was

0:05:39.440 --> 0:05:42.840
<v Speaker 1>well known locally. His name was Michael Davies. Davies, who

0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:45.680
<v Speaker 1>went by Mickey, had been born with a spine defect

0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:48.279
<v Speaker 1>that impeded his growth. At the age of thirty, he

0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:51.200
<v Speaker 1>wasn't much taller than a ten year old child. Sources

0:05:51.279 --> 0:05:53.760
<v Speaker 1>differ on how tall he actually was. Some say a

0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:56.320
<v Speaker 1>little over three feet, some say a little over four

0:05:56.680 --> 0:05:59.440
<v Speaker 1>but he was a hard person to miss either way.

0:05:59.520 --> 0:06:02.200
<v Speaker 1>It's hard to imagine how he felt when his livelihood

0:06:02.240 --> 0:06:04.800
<v Speaker 1>went up in flames, but he didn't have much time

0:06:04.839 --> 0:06:07.440
<v Speaker 1>to think about it either way. Mickey and his wife

0:06:07.520 --> 0:06:10.480
<v Speaker 1>Doris crowded with many of their neighbors into their local

0:06:10.520 --> 0:06:14.359
<v Speaker 1>air raid shelter, the Spittlefield's Public Shelter. It was a

0:06:14.360 --> 0:06:17.440
<v Speaker 1>pitiful place to hide, a run down series of tunnels

0:06:17.440 --> 0:06:20.440
<v Speaker 1>attached to the basement of a local shop. Thousands of

0:06:20.480 --> 0:06:24.360
<v Speaker 1>panicked Londoners packed into these tunnels. The air was too close,

0:06:24.520 --> 0:06:27.919
<v Speaker 1>making it hard to breathe. There was garbage everywhere. People

0:06:28.000 --> 0:06:31.560
<v Speaker 1>slept overnight on piles of trash rather than actual bedding.

0:06:31.920 --> 0:06:35.719
<v Speaker 1>Water and food were sparse, and medical supplies were non existent.

0:06:36.320 --> 0:06:39.200
<v Speaker 1>In short, it was a problem. With thousands of people

0:06:39.240 --> 0:06:42.840
<v Speaker 1>packed underground, some of them permanently displaced from destroyed homes,

0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:46.080
<v Speaker 1>there was the real risk of disease spreading through the city.

0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:49.040
<v Speaker 1>Mickey was one of several who noticed this, and they

0:06:49.040 --> 0:06:53.400
<v Speaker 1>took their problems directly to their elected representatives. The members

0:06:53.440 --> 0:06:56.880
<v Speaker 1>of the Stepney Borough Council were sympathetic but unable to help.

0:06:57.080 --> 0:06:59.200
<v Speaker 1>They were too occupied trying to figure out how to

0:06:59.240 --> 0:07:02.480
<v Speaker 1>get the barness cities of food and heating into the tunnels.

0:07:02.680 --> 0:07:06.040
<v Speaker 1>They couldn't manage medical supplies as well. But rather than

0:07:06.080 --> 0:07:09.360
<v Speaker 1>give up, Mickey redoubled his efforts locally. He helped to

0:07:09.400 --> 0:07:12.119
<v Speaker 1>put together an organizing committee for the air raid shelter

0:07:12.240 --> 0:07:14.840
<v Speaker 1>and went out to raise money for medicine and first

0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:18.400
<v Speaker 1>aid supplies. He managed to convince doctors to commute to

0:07:18.440 --> 0:07:21.600
<v Speaker 1>his shelter to help administer medical aid to his neighbors.

0:07:22.200 --> 0:07:25.880
<v Speaker 1>The Spittlefield's public shelter provided medical aid to people for

0:07:25.920 --> 0:07:29.640
<v Speaker 1>free and gave milk to children. The organizational efforts didn't

0:07:29.640 --> 0:07:32.560
<v Speaker 1>stop with charity, though. Mickey and his committee created a

0:07:32.600 --> 0:07:35.040
<v Speaker 1>card index system so that they could keep track of

0:07:35.080 --> 0:07:37.920
<v Speaker 1>the twenty five hundred people who used the shelter. They

0:07:38.000 --> 0:07:41.520
<v Speaker 1>implemented hygiene measures that could prevent disease, and did their

0:07:41.560 --> 0:07:43.680
<v Speaker 1>best to make sure that the shelter would be a

0:07:43.760 --> 0:07:47.480
<v Speaker 1>home for those who couldn't go anywhere else. A persuasive

0:07:47.480 --> 0:07:50.520
<v Speaker 1>public speaker, Mickey soon became one of the most fondly

0:07:50.560 --> 0:07:54.320
<v Speaker 1>remembered figures in the Blitz. Eventually, the British government, seeing

0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:58.480
<v Speaker 1>that shelter's needed organization, mandated that every shelter have a

0:07:58.680 --> 0:08:02.040
<v Speaker 1>shelter marshal to be responsible for the people, and then

0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:06.520
<v Speaker 1>they appointed an official marshal for the Spittlefields Shelter, effectively

0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:10.840
<v Speaker 1>replacing Mickey. The Shelter Committee almost immediately took a vote

0:08:10.880 --> 0:08:13.920
<v Speaker 1>to reappoint him. The shelter would eventually become known as

0:08:14.120 --> 0:08:17.920
<v Speaker 1>Mickey's Shelter thanks to his efforts. People who passed through

0:08:17.960 --> 0:08:20.920
<v Speaker 1>were amazed at how well it was run in comparison

0:08:20.960 --> 0:08:24.480
<v Speaker 1>to other London air raid shelters. Mickey cut a strange

0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:27.360
<v Speaker 1>figure at the head of the small community. He was short,

0:08:27.560 --> 0:08:30.560
<v Speaker 1>but he commanded immense respect from the people around him.

0:08:31.160 --> 0:08:34.080
<v Speaker 1>His work didn't stop once the Blitz ended either. With

0:08:34.160 --> 0:08:37.319
<v Speaker 1>many people left homeless after the bombing, Mickey still had

0:08:37.360 --> 0:08:40.760
<v Speaker 1>plenty of people to look after. His community service work

0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:44.079
<v Speaker 1>led him into local government. Later in the nineteen forties,

0:08:44.120 --> 0:08:47.400
<v Speaker 1>he was appointed Deputy mayor of Stepney Borough. He passed

0:08:47.440 --> 0:08:50.760
<v Speaker 1>away in nineteen fifty four, honored by his community, but

0:08:50.880 --> 0:08:55.280
<v Speaker 1>largely unsung by the world outside of London. Sometimes when

0:08:55.400 --> 0:08:58.800
<v Speaker 1>faced with the terrors of bombing and destruction, community is

0:08:58.840 --> 0:09:01.560
<v Speaker 1>all we have to protect ourselves. So I like to

0:09:01.559 --> 0:09:05.360
<v Speaker 1>remember stories about people like Mickey Davies because they speak

0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:09.040
<v Speaker 1>to what we're capable of when ordinary people work together

0:09:09.200 --> 0:09:13.320
<v Speaker 1>to survive. When working toward the greater good, even a

0:09:13.400 --> 0:09:20.720
<v Speaker 1>little man can accomplish more than a giant. I hope

0:09:20.720 --> 0:09:24.160
<v Speaker 1>you enjoyed today's guided tour through the Cabinet of Curiosities.

0:09:24.400 --> 0:09:27.800
<v Speaker 1>This show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership

0:09:27.840 --> 0:09:30.800
<v Speaker 1>with iHeart Podcasts, researched and written by the Grim and

0:09:30.840 --> 0:09:34.320
<v Speaker 1>Mild team, and produced by Jesse Funk. Learn more about

0:09:34.320 --> 0:09:36.600
<v Speaker 1>the show and the people who make it over at

0:09:36.600 --> 0:09:40.840
<v Speaker 1>Grimandmild dot com slash Curiosities. You'll also find a link

0:09:40.880 --> 0:09:44.360
<v Speaker 1>to the official Cabinet of Curiosity's hardcover book, available in

0:09:44.400 --> 0:09:48.040
<v Speaker 1>bookstores and online, as well as ebook and audiobook. And

0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:50.720
<v Speaker 1>if you're looking for an ad free option, consider joining

0:09:50.760 --> 0:09:53.720
<v Speaker 1>our Patreon. It's all the same stories, but without the

0:09:53.800 --> 0:09:54.760
<v Speaker 1>interruption for.

0:09:54.760 --> 0:09:56.040
<v Speaker 2>A small monthly fee.

0:09:56.200 --> 0:09:59.080
<v Speaker 1>Learn more and sign up over at patreon dot com,

0:09:59.080 --> 0:10:03.720
<v Speaker 1>slash Grima and Mild, and until next time, Stay curious.

0:10:06.520 --> 0:10:06.880
<v Speaker 2>M HM