Speaker 1: Welcomed Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of iHeartRadio
Speaker 1: and Grim and Mild. Our world is full of the unexplainable,
Speaker 1: and if history is an open book, all of these
Speaker 1: amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for
Speaker 1: us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. It's
Speaker 1: always interesting to see what inanimate objects people become attached to.
Speaker 1: Throughout childhood. Most of us had a favorite blankets or
Speaker 1: toy we simply couldn't live without, which usually made things
Speaker 1: interesting for parents and babysitters when they were accidentally left behind.
Speaker 1: Most parents would love a how too manual to explain
Speaker 1: what to do in certain situations, but unfortunately no magical
Speaker 1: book exists. Instead, most parenting forums family and friends to
Speaker 1: get to the bottom of the wise and house of
Speaker 1: child rearing. Many have anecdotes about their child's favorite toy
Speaker 1: toy being a loose description of whatever they manage to
Speaker 1: haul into bed every night with them. Some kids bring
Speaker 1: teddy bears and blankies to bed, while others bring toothbrushes,
Speaker 1: bandaid tins, thermometers, plastic lizards, and, in one memorable case,
Speaker 1: a plastic training potty. Several studies have been done to
Speaker 1: try and explain why kids form such close bonds with
Speaker 1: these items, but it really seems to come down to
Speaker 1: a sense of safety. Most children will feel attached to
Speaker 1: some kind of comfort object and often choose it on
Speaker 1: their own, no matter how many stuffed animals are presented
Speaker 1: to them. These items bring comfort and a sense of familiarity,
Speaker 1: and even if the subject doesn't look particularly cuddly, the
Speaker 1: memories link to its likely soothe and reassure them. Most
Speaker 1: people would argue that trees are not cuddly. They're excellent
Speaker 1: for climbing, tree houses, shade, and apples, but rarely for hugs. Luckily,
Speaker 1: for most parents, their child can't drag a tree into bed,
Speaker 1: but some children will go to great lengths to ensure
Speaker 1: the longevity of an old friend. This story starts with
Speaker 1: an oak tree, a white oak to be precise, which
Speaker 1: was estimated to be almost four hundred years old in
Speaker 1: the eighteen hundreds. The oak tree lived in Athens, Georgia,
Speaker 1: on property that belonged to the Jackson family. The Jacksons
Speaker 1: were an institution in Georgia. One of the most well
Speaker 1: known members of this clan was James Jackson, who immigrated
Speaker 1: from Devonshire, England, to Savannah, Georgia, and grew up under
Speaker 1: the care of a local lawyer. He was a trained
Speaker 1: duellist and served in the Revolutionary War, personally participating in
Speaker 1: the recapture of Augusta and Savannah for the Americans. He
Speaker 1: built up a law practice in Savannah and was elected
Speaker 1: to the first Georgia State Legislature, where he served for
Speaker 1: two non consecutive terms. In between, he was the Governor
Speaker 1: of Georgia and a member of the US House of Representatives.
Speaker 1: James married Mary Charlotte Young, and the couple had five sons,
Speaker 1: four of which followed him into public service. Two served
Speaker 1: in Congress, and one went on to become a Chief
Speaker 1: Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia. One son, Colonel
Speaker 1: William Henry Jackson, was a professor at the University of Georgia.
Speaker 1: Now not much is known about William Henry Jackson, but
Speaker 1: plenty has been speculated. For example, no one knows where
Speaker 1: the title colonel came from, as he didn't have any
Speaker 1: record of military service. With no family tree publicly available,
Speaker 1: no one actually knows where he fell in the pecking
Speaker 1: order of the jackson brothers, or if he held government
Speaker 1: office like many other members of his family. Most frustratingly, though,
Speaker 1: no one knows how he came to be so sentimental
Speaker 1: about a tree. Some guests that he grew up on
Speaker 1: the same property that the oak tree had been growing
Speaker 1: on since at least the fifteen hundreds, that he had
Speaker 1: fond memories from a childhood spent climbing its branches and
Speaker 1: laying out under the shade provided. Or maybe Bason bought
Speaker 1: the property as an adult and enjoyed walking underneath the
Speaker 1: oak tree when he could get away from the university.
Speaker 1: His reasons are entirely unknown, but thanks to a fascinating
Speaker 1: story in the Athens Weekly Banner from August of eighteen ninety,
Speaker 1: we do know that Jackson was extremely fond of his
Speaker 1: oak tree, so fond, in fact, he wanted to be
Speaker 1: sure it would be protected even after he was gone.
Speaker 1: So William Jackson dated the tree to itself. Jackson was
Speaker 1: very clear in his wishes, and the original deed reads
Speaker 1: as this, for and in consideration of the great love
Speaker 1: I bear this tree, and the great desire I have
Speaker 1: for its protection for all time, I convey entire possession
Speaker 1: of itself and all land within eight feet of the
Speaker 1: tree on all sides. William H. Jackson, The Tree that
Speaker 1: owns Itself became something of a local marvel, and people
Speaker 1: came from all over to see it. It flourished throughout
Speaker 1: the eighteen hundreds, but by the early nineteen hundreds doing
Speaker 1: too well. It was struggling with erosion and was damaged
Speaker 1: in an ice storm in nineteen oh seven, but the
Speaker 1: town refused to let it go. A man named George
Speaker 1: Foster Peabody paid for restoration work, including new soil and
Speaker 1: even a tablet placed at the site to tell visitors
Speaker 1: about it. Unfortunately, despite best efforts, the killing blow came
Speaker 1: on October ninth of nineteen forty two, when the tree
Speaker 1: was blown over in a windstorm. The plot the tree
Speaker 1: once sat on stood empty for four years because honestly,
Speaker 1: no one knew quite what to do until the Junior
Speaker 1: Ladies Guarding Club of Athens stepped in and proposed planting
Speaker 1: acorns from the original tree on the site. On December
Speaker 1: fourth of nineteen forty six, the sun of the Tree
Speaker 1: that owns Itself was planted and is growing strong to
Speaker 1: this day. And hey, I recommend stopping by if you're
Speaker 1: ever in Georgia, it's really something that you have to
Speaker 1: see to belief. We've all met someone and gotten a
Speaker 1: strange feeling that something was off. Maybe it was in
Speaker 1: a story they told or the way they dressed. We're
Speaker 1: often instructed to trust our gut. Clearly, if we sensed
Speaker 1: that something is a miss, that means we must be
Speaker 1: right right. During the nineteen thirties, the Catholic Church had
Speaker 1: the same feeling about someone quite popular, and so they
Speaker 1: launched an investigation into a person who had never given
Speaker 1: them any reason to be suspicious before. It was just
Speaker 1: that when the rumors got to be big enough, they
Speaker 1: had no choice but to see if they were true.
Speaker 1: Her name was Jane and she was born in Santa Monica, California,
Speaker 1: in nineteen twenty eight. She was the youngest of three,
Speaker 1: with two older brothers named John and George Junior. Jane
Speaker 1: was pushed towards entertainment by her mother, who enrolled her
Speaker 1: in dance classes when she was only three years old.
Speaker 1: It wasn't long before young Jane noticed by casting director
Speaker 1: by the name of Charles Lamont, who had directed a
Speaker 1: number of shorts starring Buster Keaton. Lamont worked for Educational Pictures,
Speaker 1: a production company that made popular short films of the day.
Speaker 1: In nineteen thirty two, he brought Jane to an audition
Speaker 1: for him and immediately signed her for a contract. She
Speaker 1: would star in a series of comedy shorts called baby
Speaker 1: Burlesques that's burlesque with a ks at the end. But
Speaker 1: these weren't risque performances meant for adults. They were short
Speaker 1: parodies of popular films and current events starring small children.
Speaker 1: For example, Jane played a saloon singer in a send
Speaker 1: up of the Maywest film She'd Done Him Wrong, titled
Speaker 1: Glad Rags to Riches. But pretty soon it was clear
Speaker 1: that there was more to Jane than bit parts in
Speaker 1: short films. She broke out of the background into more
Speaker 1: starring roles. Educational Pictures even bumped her up into longer
Speaker 1: films where she could really shine and shine. She did
Speaker 1: so much so that a songwriter working at Fox noticed
Speaker 1: her dan seen in the lobby of a theater after
Speaker 1: he had just seen her in one of her pictures.
Speaker 1: He invited her to screen test for a new movie
Speaker 1: being made at Fox, and she nailed the audition and
Speaker 1: not only won the role, but also a contract with
Speaker 1: the studio. She went on to make a number of
Speaker 1: films at Fox, which had her singing and dancing and
Speaker 1: wholesome pictures the whole family could enjoy. Over the next
Speaker 1: several years, Jane became a certified star, appearing alongside the
Speaker 1: likes of Gary Cooper and Carol Lombard. And that's when
Speaker 1: the rumors started to appear. Magazines and tabloid rags printed
Speaker 1: all sorts of stories about Jane, like how she had
Speaker 1: her teeth filed to make them look like baby teeth,
Speaker 1: or that they were actually dentures. Outlets also suggested that
Speaker 1: she wore a wig or dyed her hair. Fans used
Speaker 1: to yank on it in public to see if the
Speaker 1: rumor was true, and the worst rumor of all, that
Speaker 1: she wasn't actually a child. According to some media outlets,
Speaker 1: Jane was really a thirty year old little person and
Speaker 1: she was fooling everyone. Clearly, no one could have achieved
Speaker 1: such celebrities so young. It must have been a trick.
Speaker 1: So eventually the Vatican got word of these allegations, as
Speaker 1: they had become prevalent across Italy and Europe. The Church
Speaker 1: decided to get to the bottom of them and sent
Speaker 1: father Silvio Massante to visit Jane and her family. He
Speaker 1: interviewed the starlets, asking all sorts of questions about her
Speaker 1: upbringing and who she was. He also confirmed for them
Speaker 1: the rumors back home in Italy that Jane was really
Speaker 1: a thirty year old person. Well, Jane didn't know what
Speaker 1: to say. She was shocked. After the interview was over,
Speaker 1: father Massante determined that she was not, in fact a
Speaker 1: person of short stature, and that was the end of
Speaker 1: the investigation and for the most part, the rumors as well.
Speaker 1: Shirley Jane Temple went on to have a film career
Speaker 1: until nineteen forty nine, when she left the movies behind
Speaker 1: for a stint on television until the nineteen sixties. After
Speaker 1: the cameras stopped rolling, Shirley got into politics. She became
Speaker 1: a US ambassador to Anna, an ambassador to Czechoslovakia, and
Speaker 1: served on various boards of directors for companies like Disney
Speaker 1: and Bank of America. Shirley Temple was much more than
Speaker 1: a child star. She just wasn't thirty years old at
Speaker 1: the height of her career. 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
Speaker 1: me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I
Speaker 1: make 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.