WEBVTT - How Did Annie Londonderry Rock the World on a Bicycle?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey brain Stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren vohlabamb here. It's hard to imagine now, but there

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<v Speaker 1>was a time when riding a bicycle was deemed unsafe

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<v Speaker 1>and unladylike. The safety issue had some merit. Early versions

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<v Speaker 1>in the eighteen hundreds had features like no pedals and

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<v Speaker 1>leather tires, but in the eighteen eighties the Safety Bike

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<v Speaker 1>rolled onto the scene and changed everything. Unlike previous iterations,

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<v Speaker 1>the Safety featured two similar sized wheels, a chain and gears,

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<v Speaker 1>and as the name implied, the Safety provided a safer,

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<v Speaker 1>more stable ride, and at that point women began riding

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<v Speaker 1>more often, despite doctor's warnings that they'd strained themselves in

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<v Speaker 1>moral panic that they might down indecent for the time

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<v Speaker 1>kneelink bloomers instead of full length skirts. One such woman

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<v Speaker 1>was Annie Cohen Kopchowski, also known as Annie Londonderry, who

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<v Speaker 1>at age twenty three, displayed a remarkable amount of kutzpa, moxie,

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<v Speaker 1>and good old perseverance when she set out on an

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<v Speaker 1>around the world cycling adventure. Annie Cohen was born in

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<v Speaker 1>Lafia in eighteen seventy, before her family emigrated to the

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<v Speaker 1>United States and settled in the West End of Boston

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<v Speaker 1>in eighteen seventy five. She married one Max Koupschowski in

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<v Speaker 1>eighteen eighty eight, who, funnily enough made his business as

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<v Speaker 1>a peddler get it a peddler anyway. They had three

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<v Speaker 1>children by eighteen ninety two, all under the age of six.

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<v Speaker 1>At this point, millions of men and women both had

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<v Speaker 1>taken up cycling, but not Annie. For the article of

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<v Speaker 1>this episode is based on How Stuffworks. Spoke by email

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<v Speaker 1>with Peter Zeitlin, her great grand nephew and the author

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<v Speaker 1>of a historical fiction novel and a nonfiction book about

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<v Speaker 1>his famous ancestor. He explained she was a working mother

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<v Speaker 1>of three small children, which left little time for a

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<v Speaker 1>hobby such as cycling. The family lived in a tenement flat,

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<v Speaker 1>and in addition to running a busy household, Kopschowsky sold

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<v Speaker 1>advertising for several Boston newspapers. She was, by all accounts

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<v Speaker 1>good at her job, but out of necessity she had

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<v Speaker 1>developed the art of the hustle. She had no doubt

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<v Speaker 1>heard of Thomas Stevens, the British Man who was the

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<v Speaker 1>first person to cycle across the US and the world

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<v Speaker 1>in eighteen eighty four, and she certainly would have read

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<v Speaker 1>the eighteen eighty nine chronicle of intrepid journalist Nelly Bly,

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<v Speaker 1>who set out to beat the world record of Jules

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<v Speaker 1>Verne's fictional character Phileas Fogg, circumnavigating the globe in eighty days,

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<v Speaker 1>which Bli did, finishing in just seventy two. But back

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<v Speaker 1>to Kopchowski. She decided in February of eighteen ninety four

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<v Speaker 1>that she would make an attempt to become the first

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<v Speaker 1>woman to bicycle around the world, despite being a complete

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<v Speaker 1>novice with only two or maybe three riding lessons under

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<v Speaker 1>her belt at the time. Zeuitlin wrote in his nonfiction

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<v Speaker 1>book the bicycle represented to Annie a literal vehicle to

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<v Speaker 1>the fame, freedom, and material wealth she so craved. Her

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<v Speaker 1>proposed journey could provide the opportunity to refashion her identity

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<v Speaker 1>and create a new life for herself. So on June

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<v Speaker 1>twenty fifth of eighteen ninety four, she announced to a

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<v Speaker 1>crowd of supporters that she was leaving, telling them she

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<v Speaker 1>was making the trip to settle a bet between two

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<v Speaker 1>wealthy Boston merchants that no woman could travel around the

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<v Speaker 1>world by bicycle. She would cycle around the world in

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<v Speaker 1>fifteen months without any money, with only the clothes on

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<v Speaker 1>her back, She would not only have to earn her way,

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<v Speaker 1>but also return with five thousand dollars in her pocket

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<v Speaker 1>in order to win the bet, and ten thousand dollars

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<v Speaker 1>to boot Zeitlin said there remains a lot of mystery

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<v Speaker 1>surrounding the origins of her trip, including whether it might

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<v Speaker 1>have been part of a marketing scheme for Columbia Bicycles,

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<v Speaker 1>but she earned money as she went in several ways.

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<v Speaker 1>She sold space on her clothing and her bike to advertisers.

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<v Speaker 1>She pioneered sports related marketing for women, including her namesake sponsor,

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<v Speaker 1>the London Dairy Lithia Springs Water Company of New Hampshire.

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<v Speaker 1>The company paid one hundred dollars to finance the journey.

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<v Speaker 1>As her fame grew, she was able to sell souvenir

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<v Speaker 1>photos of herself and her autograph, and gave lectures about

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<v Speaker 1>her travels, at which an admission view was charged. She

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<v Speaker 1>also sometimes made guest appearances with her bike in stores

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<v Speaker 1>along the way to attract customers, for which she was

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<v Speaker 1>also paid. Early in her travels, Kopchowski was dubbed Annie

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<v Speaker 1>Londonderry after her sponsor, which was probably as much a

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<v Speaker 1>public relations move as anything else. But the journey was

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<v Speaker 1>not without trouble. She wasted time early in the trip,

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<v Speaker 1>spending a full month in New York City, ostensibly in

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<v Speaker 1>the name of publicity. The bicycle itself slowed her down,

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<v Speaker 1>weighing forty two pounds that's nineteen kilos, the bike was

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<v Speaker 1>not built for speed. Once in Chicago, she switched to

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<v Speaker 1>a men's sterling model, weighinged as twenty one pounds or

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<v Speaker 1>nine and a half kilos. Even with this improvement, her

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<v Speaker 1>road conditions were often rugged. Frustrated by her original riding

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<v Speaker 1>costume of a split skirt suit with bloomers underneath, at

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<v Speaker 1>the time she reached Chicago, she shed the skirt for

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<v Speaker 1>riding bloomers only, and eventually donned men's suits for the

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<v Speaker 1>remainder of her trip. Scandalous Interestingly, Kopchowsky only made it

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<v Speaker 1>as far west as Chicago because she realized that at

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<v Speaker 1>the pace she was riding, should never make her goal. Instead,

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<v Speaker 1>she hopped on her new lighter bike and rode back

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<v Speaker 1>to New York, where she caught a boat to France

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<v Speaker 1>and continued via bicycle, train and boat to finish the journey,

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<v Speaker 1>She logged thousands of miles on her bicycle, riding through France,

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<v Speaker 1>North Africa, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Sigone, and Hong Kong before

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<v Speaker 1>hopping another steamer for San Francisco and riding from there

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<v Speaker 1>back to Chicago. She didn't always divulge that information, however,

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<v Speaker 1>She told more than a few tall tales, often embellishing

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<v Speaker 1>her speeches and interviews with adventures of hunting tigers, dodging bullets,

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<v Speaker 1>or being waylaid by robbers. Zeitlin said Annie was a

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<v Speaker 1>showwoman at heart and a gifted racin tour. She set

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<v Speaker 1>out to make a sensation of herself and had a

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<v Speaker 1>keen sense of how to build her fame. If that

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<v Speaker 1>meant stretching the truth to make herself more quotable to

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<v Speaker 1>a reporter or more entertaining to an audience, she had

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<v Speaker 1>no qualms about doing that. Fame was her fuel, and

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<v Speaker 1>the more famous she became, the easier it was to

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<v Speaker 1>earn the money she needed to keep going. The press

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<v Speaker 1>was sometimes merciless about her choice of dress and her

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<v Speaker 1>gall and choice to leave her family in the first place,

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<v Speaker 1>but the public loved her, and cycling clubs around the

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<v Speaker 1>world joined her at various points during her ride. Koptchowski

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<v Speaker 1>finished the journey on Thursday, September twelfth of eighteen ninety

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<v Speaker 1>five in Chicago, fourteen days ahead of schedule, as she

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<v Speaker 1>claimed to have received the ten thousand dollars, but in

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<v Speaker 1>a more recent New York Times obituary, it appears she

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<v Speaker 1>never received the money from the wager, and in his reporting,

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<v Speaker 1>Zuitln determined that the wager never existed. She returned to

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<v Speaker 1>her family and had another child in eighteen ninety seven.

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<v Speaker 1>Cycling was never an important part of her life again.

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<v Speaker 1>She briefly left her family and lived in northern California,

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<v Speaker 1>then returned again. She and her husband lived in the Bronx,

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<v Speaker 1>New York, operating a small clothing business. In the nineteen twenties,

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<v Speaker 1>their business was destroyed by a fire, and she used

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<v Speaker 1>the insurance money to start another business in Manhattan. She

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<v Speaker 1>would die of a stroke on November eleventh of nineteen

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<v Speaker 1>forty seven, at the age of seventy seven. Kopchowski's adventure

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<v Speaker 1>was covered by the global media at a time when

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<v Speaker 1>women's suffrage was a prominent issue. Zeitlin said countless women

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<v Speaker 1>would have been aware of her journey and that she

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<v Speaker 1>was making it to prove that a woman could do

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<v Speaker 1>what only a man had done before, circle the world

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<v Speaker 1>by bicycle. What is widely underappreciated is how the humble

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<v Speaker 1>bicycle transformed the lives of women around the turn of

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<v Speaker 1>the twentieth century. A few months after Kopchowski's journey, Susan B.

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<v Speaker 1>Anthony told an interviewer that quote, bicycling has done more

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<v Speaker 1>to emancipaid women than anything in the world. Today's episode

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<v Speaker 1>is based on the article Annie Londonderry Bicycle Around the

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<v Speaker 1>World and into the record books on HowStuffWorks dot Com,

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<v Speaker 1>written by Patti Rasmusen Breen. Stuff is production of by

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<v Speaker 1>Heart Radio in partnership with HowStuffWorks dot Com, and it

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<v Speaker 1>is produced by Tyler Quaang. Four more podcasts my Heart Radio,

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<v Speaker 1>visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen

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