Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
Speaker 1: of these amazing tales right there on display, just waiting
Speaker 1: for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: When there's little to work with, we just have to
Speaker 1: make do with what we have. Ever need to charge
Speaker 1: your phone but don't have the power brick for the wall,
Speaker 1: Check the back of the TV. There's usually a USB
Speaker 1: port you can plug into. And are you tired of
Speaker 1: your headphone cable unwinding in your bag? Use a hairclip
Speaker 1: to keep it in place. Mister Cardini was also under
Speaker 1: some tough limits at his restaurant. You see, he was
Speaker 1: an entrepreneur from Italy, like his three other brothers. One brother, Niero,
Speaker 1: opened a hotel in Santa Cruz, California, while the two others,
Speaker 1: Alessandro and Gaudenzio, moved to Mexico City, where they opened
Speaker 1: up a restaurant. Mister Cardini, however, came to New York
Speaker 1: on the RMS Olympic, the sister ship of the Titanic
Speaker 1: in nineteen thirteen. He then headed north to Canada. After
Speaker 1: several years abroad, he returned home for a short time,
Speaker 1: then came back to the US in nineteen nineteen, where
Speaker 1: he ran a small restaurant in Sacramento, California with his
Speaker 1: business partner, William Brown. But Cardini knew that there was
Speaker 1: an opportunity to the south Way south. In January of
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty, the United States officially outlawed the manufacture and
Speaker 1: sale of alcohol within its borders. Knowing that Americans like
Speaker 1: to drink, Cardini opened up a new restaurant in Tijuana,
Speaker 1: Mexico that would cater to their needs. His new place
Speaker 1: was a hit, with Americans from all walks of life
Speaker 1: getting a good meal and some good booze from the
Speaker 1: watchful eyes of the US government. This wasn't a surprise.
Speaker 1: The Cardini family restaurants had all been successful. They fed
Speaker 1: everyone who was anyone, including Lncheny, Clark Gable, and Rita Hayworth,
Speaker 1: just to name a few. But mister Cardini's Tijuana Eatery
Speaker 1: was special, so special that it became the place to
Speaker 1: be On July fourth of nineteen twenty four, that day,
Speaker 1: the restaurant faced an unusual rush of customers, one that
Speaker 1: caused the kitchen to run out of almost every ingredient
Speaker 1: they had. Almost there were still a few things left,
Speaker 1: including eggs, cheese, and something called cause. Cause was a long,
Speaker 1: dark green lettuce native to the Mediterranean and Middle East,
Speaker 1: though many people probably note by its other name Romayne. Cardini,
Speaker 1: realizing that he needed something to keep his guests fed
Speaker 1: and entertained, came up with an idea. Rather than just
Speaker 1: dump all of his ingredients into a pot and hand
Speaker 1: it to them, he would turn the act of assembling
Speaker 1: the dish into an experience itself. First, heap the romain
Speaker 1: into smaller pieces and placed them in a bowl. Then
Speaker 1: he coddled the egg, meaning that he cooked it in
Speaker 1: a small dish which sat in a boiling pot of
Speaker 1: water to firm up the yolk. Cardini even wished that
Speaker 1: hardened yolk with a bit of lemon juice, salt, pepper,
Speaker 1: olive oil, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, and parmesan cheese. This creamy
Speaker 1: concoction became addressing for the romain in the bowl, but
Speaker 1: he didn't put it all together in the kitchen. Instead,
Speaker 1: he brought the ingredients to the customer's table, where he
Speaker 1: would toss the romaine leaves with the dressing right before
Speaker 1: their eyes. Once the leaves were sufficiently coated, he would
Speaker 1: drop a handful of croutons on top. Now, according to
Speaker 1: Cardini's brother Alex, that's not how the recipe came to
Speaker 1: be at all. In his version, he invented it in
Speaker 1: the late nineteen twenties and called it the Aviator Salad,
Speaker 1: named in honor of the pilots who frequented his establishment
Speaker 1: at the time. But the truth is many individuals have
Speaker 1: stepped forward as the true creators of the salad over
Speaker 1: the years, including people who worked at mister Cardini's restaurant.
Speaker 1: But in the end, and it was Caesar Cardini who
Speaker 1: had whipped together what he had on hand in order
Speaker 1: to please the hungry, drunken customers who had come to
Speaker 1: his establishment, Caesar's Palace for a nice meal. That's exactly
Speaker 1: what they got too. It was so nice that the
Speaker 1: recipe eventually made its way back north and has become
Speaker 1: a staple of thousands of restaurant menus all over the world.
Speaker 1: And to make sure they never forgot where it came from,
Speaker 1: its inventor made sure that he was a part of
Speaker 1: its name, and that's why we now know the beloved
Speaker 1: appetizer as the Caesar salad. As I'm sure anyone could
Speaker 1: tell you. Broadway musicals sometimes have more drama off stage
Speaker 1: than on the same goes for Hollywood or politics, and
Speaker 1: when the three meet, sparks fly. Musicals about the American
Speaker 1: Revolution have been a popular subject for as long as
Speaker 1: the medium has existed. Just look at the smash Hit
Speaker 1: Hamilton or the nineteen twenties with Rogers and Heart's Dearest Enemy.
Speaker 1: So Sherman wasn't exactly reinventing the wheel. Sherman Edwards was
Speaker 1: born in nineteen nineteen and was a high school history
Speaker 1: teacher before becoming a full time musician and songwriter. Musical
Speaker 1: theater might be an interesting choice for the man who
Speaker 1: wrote songs for Elvis Presley, but when he was about
Speaker 1: forty years old, he sat down to write seventeen seventy six.
Speaker 1: The premise was simple. It focused on John Adams and
Speaker 1: his attempt to get the Continental Congress to declare independence
Speaker 1: from Great Britain and support the revolution. Edwards took sections
Speaker 1: of letters and diary entries from the founding Fathers and
Speaker 1: worked that into the music and dialogue of the show,
Speaker 1: bringing life to these long dead men and showing them
Speaker 1: for what they were, not infallible gods, but human beings
Speaker 1: who quarreled and lied and made mistakes. Edwards wrote the
Speaker 1: score and Peter Stone wrote the book, although he later
Speaker 1: recalled thinking it was maybe the worst idea that had
Speaker 1: ever been proposed for a musical. The show starred William
Speaker 1: Daniels as John Adams, Ken Howard as Thomas Jefferson, and
Speaker 1: Howard da Silva as Benjamin Franklin, and it premiered in
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty nine to great acclaim. It also went on
Speaker 1: to earn several tony nominations. Head of Warner Brothers, Jack Warner,
Speaker 1: saw an opportunity, so he bought the rights and produced
Speaker 1: the film version in nineteen seventy one. Warner decided to
Speaker 1: cast the original Broadway actors to reprise their roles as well.
Speaker 1: Apparently he had learned a thing or two after refusing
Speaker 1: to cast Julie Andrews in the film adaptation of My
Speaker 1: Fair Lady. Hollywood was still recovering from the House on
Speaker 1: American Activities Committee investigations and Blacklist, and many actors were
Speaker 1: still on edge, including Howard da Silva. You see, Da
Speaker 1: Silva was a popular actor, and, like hundreds of others
Speaker 1: in the entertainment industry, he was called for a hearing
Speaker 1: before the Committee. He gave testimony in March of nineteen
Speaker 1: fifty one and repeat heatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment rights,
Speaker 1: never naming names. Afterward, he was officially blacklisted and didn't
Speaker 1: work in film again for a decade. The Tony Award
Speaker 1: winning cast were invited to give a performance at the
Speaker 1: White House, a long standing tradition. They beat out Hair
Speaker 1: for Best Musical at the nineteen sixty nine Tony Awards,
Speaker 1: and America's then president, Richard Nixon had a great deal
Speaker 1: of fondness for the show. Director Peter Hunt later remarked
Speaker 1: that he was thrilled with rehearsing in front of the
Speaker 1: former marine, but the rest of the cast wasn't so sure.
Speaker 1: They were all politically active, and many of them were
Speaker 1: involved with the Screen Actress Guild, a powerful union of
Speaker 1: which the William Daniels was president. And let's not forget
Speaker 1: the last time Howard Silva got an invitation from Richard Nixon.
Speaker 1: He ended up blacklisted by Hollywood. The House on American
Speaker 1: Activities Committee had been a pet project of Nixon's while
Speaker 1: he was still in Congress, and the cast of seventeen
Speaker 1: seventy six were understandably reluctant. Still, they went and put
Speaker 1: on a good show. But then something odd happened, well, really,
Speaker 1: something very predictable. Nixon had enjoyed the performance, but he
Speaker 1: had some notes about the upcoming film. There were three
Speaker 1: songs that offended Nixon's conservative sensibilities, and he wanted them cut.
Speaker 1: Mama Looked Sharp described a dying boy on the battlefield
Speaker 1: and his mother coming to search for him. Molasses to
Speaker 1: Rum called out the hypocrisy of the northern colonies in
Speaker 1: the question of slavery and largely condemned the whole country's
Speaker 1: attitude towards civil rights. And finally, there was cool, cool,
Speaker 1: considerate men, which Nixon hated more than the rest. During
Speaker 1: the song, the wealthy loyalists of Congress sing an ode
Speaker 1: to their status and privilege, reminding the viewer that these
Speaker 1: conservative men only moved to the right, forever to the right,
Speaker 1: never to the left, they sang. Apparently, the cast performed
Speaker 1: that number with considerable Gusto or venom, depending on how
Speaker 1: you look at it. Nixon was perturbed, then Nixon got angry,
Speaker 1: until finally Nixon began making phone calls. But when he
Speaker 1: requested that these songs be cut to better fit his
Speaker 1: version of American history, the cast and creative team outright
Speaker 1: refused to be censored. Their efforts were valiant, but unfortunately
Speaker 1: Nixon had a longer reach. He contacted Jack Warner directly
Speaker 1: and demanded the cuts. Warner, by the way, had also
Speaker 1: named names when called before the House on American Activities
Speaker 1: Committee back in nineteen forty seven, So the studio went
Speaker 1: behind the production team's backs and demanded one of the
Speaker 1: film's editors, Florence Williamson, to cut Cool, Cool, Considerate men.
Speaker 1: When director Peter Hunt discovered the excised number, he asked
Speaker 1: Warner how he could do it. Warner coolly replied with
Speaker 1: a pair of scissors. According to the story, Warner refused
Speaker 1: to be second guest by history and ordered the original
Speaker 1: negatives to be destroyed, but Williamson wouldn't go that far.
Speaker 1: He quietly hid the negatives in storage. The film was
Speaker 1: a disappointment at the box office, and many members of
Speaker 1: the cast blamed that on the number being cut. According
Speaker 1: to one account, Warner later said that he regretted the
Speaker 1: cut and felt that it ruined the structure of the film.
Speaker 1: Today you can see seventeen seventy six exactly the way
Speaker 1: Peter Hunt and the rest of the cast had intended.
Speaker 1: The original version was restored in two thousand and two
Speaker 1: thanks to Williamson's quick thinking, and you can see for
Speaker 1: yourself why a song with the lyrics most men with
Speaker 1: nothing would rather protect the possibility of becoming rich than
Speaker 1: face the reality of being poor made Richard Nixon's head spin.
Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership
Speaker 1: with How Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show,
Speaker 1: and you can learn all about it over at the
Speaker 1: Worldoflore dot com. And until next time, stay curious. H