Speaker 1: Welcomed Aaron Mankey's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full
Speaker 1: of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. As we get older, our bodies start to
Speaker 1: change in new and interesting ways. But we might get taller,
Speaker 1: or our hair Michael Gray, our voices might deepen, and
Speaker 1: we'll probably need to wear deodoranto every day. Me. I've
Speaker 1: got this eyebrow hair, just one. It's like ten times
Speaker 1: thicker than all the rest. And it's you know what,
Speaker 1: never mind. All you need to know is that growing
Speaker 1: up is all about change. But for one man, change
Speaker 1: wasn't so normal. His body morphed in a way that
Speaker 1: set him apart from everyone else, No bones about it.
Speaker 1: Claude Ambrose Surat was born in Tis, France in sevente
Speaker 1: Although his exact birth date remains unknown, he was believed
Speaker 1: to have been born in early April. At the time
Speaker 1: of his birth, Sarah didn't display any evidence of problems, deformities,
Speaker 1: or disorders. He was a happy, healthy, bouncing baby boy. However,
Speaker 1: as he got older, things changed. His chest started to
Speaker 1: cave in and his heart could be seen beating within.
Speaker 1: His arms and legs lost their mass, and although he
Speaker 1: was technically healthy, he was weaker than his fellow children.
Speaker 1: His family had no record of inherited diseases, and there
Speaker 1: was no explanation of why his body was seemingly wasting
Speaker 1: away before everyone's eyes. By fourteen, he had lost most
Speaker 1: of his body weight, His skin hung on spindly bones,
Speaker 1: and his ribs protruded from his middle. Trust me, he
Speaker 1: did not look well. By eighty five, Saratt was twenty
Speaker 1: eight years old. He stood at five ft seven inches
Speaker 1: tall and weighed only seventy eight pounds. Today, male children
Speaker 1: who are eleven years old should weigh an average of
Speaker 1: seventy eight point five pounds and be four point seven
Speaker 1: feet tall. Sarat Rather was woefully underweight for his age.
Speaker 1: It was that same time when he traveled to England
Speaker 1: for an exhibition at pall Mall. Pal Mall was a
Speaker 1: street in central London that was home to numerous shops
Speaker 1: and gentleman's clubs, and was also a major hub for
Speaker 1: art During the nineteenth century, he was put on display
Speaker 1: at a Chinese gallery where visitors could gawk at his
Speaker 1: emaciated frame. One attendee, a man named William Hone, wrote
Speaker 1: about Surat's extraordinary depression of the chest and his waist
Speaker 1: like a wasps. Hone also described how the man eight,
Speaker 1: which involved breaking his food into small pieces and chewing
Speaker 1: them heavily to avoid choking. Sarat became a sensation known
Speaker 1: as the living Skeleton. Upon his return to France, he
Speaker 1: joined up with a traveling circus passing through Bordeaux in
Speaker 1: eighteen twenty six, he was employed as a sideshow entertainer,
Speaker 1: although in those days he was unfortunately referred to as
Speaker 1: a freak. He performed for several more years with a
Speaker 1: circus before disappearing around eighteen thirty three. He was never
Speaker 1: seen again. Rumor had it that he had gone back
Speaker 1: to London and spent his remaining time there before he died.
Speaker 1: An art historian named Gilbert Richard Redgrave wrote in eighteen
Speaker 1: sixty eight, I have not been able to ascertain the
Speaker 1: date of his death. Who knows whether the poor fellow
Speaker 1: may not still be going the round of the French fairs. Sadly,
Speaker 1: Surat most likely died without ever knowing what ailed him.
Speaker 1: Although he had never been formally diagnosed, at least to
Speaker 1: our knowledge, his condition was analyzed and theorized after his disappearance.
Speaker 1: He was believed to have suffered from, among other things,
Speaker 1: sprangled deformity, a rare congenital disorder for identified in eighteen.
Speaker 1: People with sprangled deformity often have one shoulder blade that
Speaker 1: has misaligned on one side of the body. Sat also
Speaker 1: probably had a condition that reduced his ability to take
Speaker 1: in food, requiring him to eat small pieces in small amounts.
Speaker 1: This contributed towards his malnourished figure. William Hone also recorded
Speaker 1: further analyzes of Surat's body during his eighteen twenty five
Speaker 1: visit to the London Gallery. It was likely that he
Speaker 1: included findings provided by British surgeon Sir Astley Cooper. According
Speaker 1: to those findings, Sarat had a flattened sternham as though
Speaker 1: it had been driven inwards towards the dorsal vertebrae or backbone,
Speaker 1: with his malformed sternum, which had also displaced his heart.
Speaker 1: Surat had no idea that his body was actively working
Speaker 1: against him, and we may never know for sure either,
Speaker 1: since his body has never been recovered. For a time,
Speaker 1: it was thought that Sir Astley Cooper had performed a
Speaker 1: necropsy on the corpse following Sarat's death, although no records exist,
Speaker 1: nor was his skeleton given to London's Royal College of
Speaker 1: Surgeons for display in this museum. Another theory as to
Speaker 1: his body's potential whereabouts. The museum doesn't have him either.
Speaker 1: Claude Ambrose Surat was a man wasting away. Medical knowledge
Speaker 1: and technology had not advanced enough to give him a
Speaker 1: diagnosis that could have helped him, and because he slipped
Speaker 1: into reclusiveness later in life, the truth about his condition
Speaker 1: remains a mystery to this day. We know he didn't
Speaker 1: eat much, but we still don't know what was eating him.
Speaker 1: Bobby Brazer lived with his family in Silverton, Oregon, about
Speaker 1: forty miles south of Portland. His parents, Frank and Elizabeth,
Speaker 1: along with her daughters Nova and Leona, were planning a
Speaker 1: road trip to visit family in August of ninete. They're
Speaker 1: destination Walcott, Indiana. It was over two thousand, two hundred
Speaker 1: miles away, more than halfway across the country, and a
Speaker 1: one twenty trip A drivelag debt Today wouldn't be all bad,
Speaker 1: considering we have roomy, air conditioned SUVs, smartphones, and fascinating
Speaker 1: historical podcast to listen to along the way UEM. But
Speaker 1: back in there was none of that. The Braziers piled
Speaker 1: into their metal chariot, which had little to no suspension
Speaker 1: and hardly any amenities, not even cup holders, and they drove.
Speaker 1: They drove for thousands of miles, only stopping to eat
Speaker 1: or put gas in the tank. During the last leg
Speaker 1: of their trip, disaster struck. The family had made it
Speaker 1: to Walcott, but decided to stop one last time to
Speaker 1: fuel their car before heading over to their relative's house.
Speaker 1: It was during this pit stop when young Bobby jumped
Speaker 1: out of the car to stretch his legs. A pack
Speaker 1: of wild dogs appeared out of nowhere and chase the
Speaker 1: young Brazier boy away from his family. Distraught, they gave
Speaker 1: up their trip and spent their time looking for him,
Speaker 1: but he was nowhere to be found. After weeks of
Speaker 1: searching and putting up posters, they were forced to abandon
Speaker 1: their efforts and return home to Oregon. They feared the worst,
Speaker 1: but it turns out that Bobby was a fighter he
Speaker 1: had to be if he ever wanted to see his
Speaker 1: parents and siblings again. Over the next six months, he
Speaker 1: walked in average of fourteen miles each day, swimming across
Speaker 1: rivers and even traversing a desert to get back home.
Speaker 1: His journey took him over two mountains and through the
Speaker 1: Continental Divide during a particularly nasty winter, but he didn't
Speaker 1: survive on his own. He had helped from kind strangers
Speaker 1: along the way, who kept him fed and gave him
Speaker 1: a place to sleep during his trek. Finally, in February
Speaker 1: of Bobby showed up in Silverton. His sister Nova had
Speaker 1: been out with a friend when she spotted him. He
Speaker 1: was dirty and had lost a lot of weight. He
Speaker 1: had cuts all over his body, and his nails had
Speaker 1: been ground down to almost nothing. Upon seeing him, she
Speaker 1: ran over to him and then walked him over to
Speaker 1: the Rio Cafe, a restaurant in town owned by the family.
Speaker 1: The Braziers were shocked by the sight of their little
Speaker 1: boys standing before them. They whisked him inside and fed
Speaker 1: him a surloin steak with whipping cream, after which he
Speaker 1: slept for three whole days. When the papers and radio
Speaker 1: stations picked up the story, they turned Bobby into a
Speaker 1: national sensation. People who had provided him with food and
Speaker 1: shelter on his journey wrote in to tell their own
Speaker 1: stories about meeting him. The mayor of Silverton gifted him
Speaker 1: the key to the town for surviving his harrowing ordeal,
Speaker 1: and people from all over sent him gifts like toys
Speaker 1: and bones, yes bones. Bobby was only two years old
Speaker 1: when he was nearly killed by a group of wild dogs,
Speaker 1: but he knew exactly what to do. After all, he
Speaker 1: was half Scotch Kylie, half English shepherd, and if any
Speaker 1: dog was going to travel miles across the country to
Speaker 1: find his family, it was going to be Bobby. And
Speaker 1: thanks to the stories told by the people who had
Speaker 1: helped him, the Humane Society of Portland's was a able
Speaker 1: to map the route he had taken. It looked like
Speaker 1: Bobby had made it back to the rest stop, but
Speaker 1: his family had already left to go looking for him.
Speaker 1: He couldn't find them, so he set back out on
Speaker 1: his own, searching for a familiar scent to latch onto
Speaker 1: every gas station they stopped at. Bobby was right behind them,
Speaker 1: tracking them back to Oregon. After getting his paws cut
Speaker 1: up and recuperating with an Irish woman in Portland, he
Speaker 1: finally made it back home once and for all. His
Speaker 1: story was so inspiring even Hollywood came calling. The prized
Speaker 1: pooch was cast to play himself in a film called
Speaker 1: The Call of the West, which hit theaters in nine. Sadly,
Speaker 1: that same year was particularly hard for the Braziers, as
Speaker 1: it was the same year that Bobby died. He was
Speaker 1: only seven, but his doctors believed that his trip home
Speaker 1: had affected him physically more than his family had known.
Speaker 1: He was buried in Portland in the Humane Society's Pet Cemetery.
Speaker 1: Following his burial, one of his fellow actors, the famous
Speaker 1: dog Rin Tin Tin, paid him a visit. He deposited
Speaker 1: a wreath at Bobby's grave, one last gift to the
Speaker 1: dog who had nearly given his life to see his
Speaker 1: family one more time. As for Bobby the Wonder Dog,
Speaker 1: he was finally at peace, able to give his weary
Speaker 1: pause a much needed rest. I hope you've enjoyed today's
Speaker 1: guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free
Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by
Speaker 1: visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me,
Speaker 1: Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make
Speaker 1: another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
Speaker 1: book series, and television show and you can learn all
Speaker 1: about it over at the World of Lore dot com.
Speaker 1: And until next time, stay curious.