1 00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:07,480 Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of 2 00:00:07,520 --> 00:00:14,480 Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of 3 00:00:14,520 --> 00:00:18,480 Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all 4 00:00:18,520 --> 00:00:22,639 Speaker 1: of these amazing tales right there on display, just waiting 5 00:00:22,680 --> 00:00:28,880 Speaker 1: for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. 6 00:00:36,720 --> 00:00:40,240 Speaker 1: Those of us with hidden talents often discovered them accidentally. 7 00:00:40,600 --> 00:00:44,440 Speaker 1: For example, raj Mohan Nair of India lost his mother 8 00:00:44,479 --> 00:00:47,479 Speaker 1: when he was very young. Not wanting to live without her, 9 00:00:47,760 --> 00:00:50,400 Speaker 1: he grabbed hold of a high tension wire attached to 10 00:00:50,440 --> 00:00:54,960 Speaker 1: an electrical transformer, but he was not injured. The electricity 11 00:00:54,960 --> 00:00:57,760 Speaker 1: that would have killed another human being simply passed through 12 00:00:57,840 --> 00:01:01,480 Speaker 1: him without causing any harm. Since then, he's discovered his 13 00:01:01,560 --> 00:01:04,960 Speaker 1: body is capable of handling multiple amps of electricity with 14 00:01:05,040 --> 00:01:09,160 Speaker 1: only minor side effects. The average human can't even withstand 15 00:01:09,200 --> 00:01:12,520 Speaker 1: a tenth of an amp without serious injury or death, 16 00:01:12,840 --> 00:01:16,160 Speaker 1: which makes nare something of a modern miracle, like a 17 00:01:16,240 --> 00:01:19,120 Speaker 1: character out of a comic book who has developed a superpower. 18 00:01:19,720 --> 00:01:23,759 Speaker 1: William McKenna's superpower, though, was not so much impressive as 19 00:01:23,760 --> 00:01:28,319 Speaker 1: it was off putting. McKenna was born around eighteen sixty 20 00:01:28,360 --> 00:01:31,480 Speaker 1: eight in Long Island, New York. His childhood is something 21 00:01:31,520 --> 00:01:33,480 Speaker 1: of a mystery, but what we do know is that 22 00:01:33,520 --> 00:01:36,200 Speaker 1: he got a job at Meyer's Glass factory in Brooklyn 23 00:01:36,480 --> 00:01:39,479 Speaker 1: when he was just fourteen. McKenna was on his lunch 24 00:01:39,520 --> 00:01:42,880 Speaker 1: break one day when he noticed a strange but enjoyable 25 00:01:42,959 --> 00:01:46,000 Speaker 1: new texture in his food. With every bite, he became 26 00:01:46,080 --> 00:01:48,800 Speaker 1: more enamored with this flavor that had found its way 27 00:01:48,800 --> 00:01:51,840 Speaker 1: into his meal. Back then, you see, there weren't as 28 00:01:51,840 --> 00:01:55,320 Speaker 1: many safety precautions in factories as there are today, and 29 00:01:55,360 --> 00:01:57,760 Speaker 1: so it wasn't uncommon for debris to find its way 30 00:01:57,760 --> 00:02:01,920 Speaker 1: into a person's hair, skin, or even their food. As 31 00:02:01,960 --> 00:02:04,080 Speaker 1: it turns out, what McKenna had been eating that day 32 00:02:04,720 --> 00:02:08,600 Speaker 1: was glass, glass dust, to be exact, and it kickstarted 33 00:02:08,639 --> 00:02:11,760 Speaker 1: a new passion in him. Pretty soon, he was chomping 34 00:02:11,800 --> 00:02:14,480 Speaker 1: on glass any chance he could get, so much so 35 00:02:14,560 --> 00:02:17,519 Speaker 1: that the factory owners started to notice that their inventory 36 00:02:17,639 --> 00:02:21,280 Speaker 1: was disappearing, which is why when they found McKenna chomping 37 00:02:21,320 --> 00:02:23,480 Speaker 1: on one of their bottles, they knew they had found 38 00:02:23,520 --> 00:02:26,680 Speaker 1: their thief. He was promptly fired and forced to find 39 00:02:26,720 --> 00:02:30,280 Speaker 1: a new line of work, but McKenna realized something that 40 00:02:30,400 --> 00:02:34,240 Speaker 1: day that he had a unique talent for eating. He 41 00:02:34,320 --> 00:02:37,080 Speaker 1: started working at a die museum under the nickname the 42 00:02:37,200 --> 00:02:41,720 Speaker 1: Human Ostrich due to his indestructible stomach, although human goat 43 00:02:41,880 --> 00:02:44,720 Speaker 1: might have been more appropriate, because pretty soon William began 44 00:02:44,800 --> 00:02:48,399 Speaker 1: eating much more than just glass. To get the word 45 00:02:48,440 --> 00:02:50,639 Speaker 1: out about his act, he showed up at the offices 46 00:02:50,680 --> 00:02:53,640 Speaker 1: of a newspaper called The New York Graphic, boasting about 47 00:02:53,639 --> 00:02:57,519 Speaker 1: his newfound skills. He even performed for them by eating 48 00:02:57,560 --> 00:03:00,840 Speaker 1: carpet tax, a couple of handfuls of paper, and a 49 00:03:00,880 --> 00:03:05,240 Speaker 1: glass tumbler. Oddly, the reporters weren't too taken by his show. 50 00:03:05,520 --> 00:03:07,520 Speaker 1: The article written about him remarked that he was a 51 00:03:07,880 --> 00:03:11,839 Speaker 1: disheveled man and smelled of cigarettes and garlic. All in all, 52 00:03:11,960 --> 00:03:15,600 Speaker 1: not an impressive specimen even as a sideshow act, but 53 00:03:15,680 --> 00:03:18,400 Speaker 1: that didn't stop him from performing. He once said that 54 00:03:18,440 --> 00:03:20,640 Speaker 1: he brought in seventy five dollars a week as the 55 00:03:20,720 --> 00:03:24,680 Speaker 1: Human Ostrich, about twenty five hundred dollars today, and despite 56 00:03:24,720 --> 00:03:27,320 Speaker 1: his bizarre eating habits, McKenna also made sure to eat 57 00:03:27,360 --> 00:03:30,040 Speaker 1: three large meals every day. He could not, of course, 58 00:03:30,160 --> 00:03:33,400 Speaker 1: subsist only on glass and metal, all of this while 59 00:03:33,480 --> 00:03:36,400 Speaker 1: maintaining a fairly normal frame, weighing in at one hundred 60 00:03:36,400 --> 00:03:40,520 Speaker 1: and thirty eight pounds and five feet six inches tall. Eventually, 61 00:03:40,640 --> 00:03:43,920 Speaker 1: McKenna took his show on the road, eating random items 62 00:03:43,960 --> 00:03:47,720 Speaker 1: for audiences in places like Self Bend, Indiana. The papers 63 00:03:47,720 --> 00:03:49,839 Speaker 1: there described him as being able to eat everything from 64 00:03:50,120 --> 00:03:53,680 Speaker 1: a cambric needle to a five inch spike, a boiler 65 00:03:53,760 --> 00:03:58,760 Speaker 1: plate or a railway sandwich, and of course glass, large 66 00:03:58,840 --> 00:04:02,200 Speaker 1: hunks of it, not crump tiny slivers. He would crunch 67 00:04:02,280 --> 00:04:05,520 Speaker 1: a whole glass cup or bottle, taking big bites in 68 00:04:05,520 --> 00:04:07,920 Speaker 1: front of the audience, and to finish it all off, 69 00:04:08,120 --> 00:04:11,080 Speaker 1: he would end by eating a live bullfrog. He wouldn't 70 00:04:11,120 --> 00:04:13,640 Speaker 1: chew it, though, he would swallow it whole, and then 71 00:04:13,680 --> 00:04:15,880 Speaker 1: let people touch his belly so they could feel it 72 00:04:15,960 --> 00:04:20,400 Speaker 1: moving around inside. Sadly, William McKenna's death was as mysterious 73 00:04:20,520 --> 00:04:23,160 Speaker 1: as his childhood. He fell out of the public eye 74 00:04:23,240 --> 00:04:26,560 Speaker 1: by the early eighteen nineties, and his fate remains unknown 75 00:04:26,560 --> 00:04:28,680 Speaker 1: to this day, although I'd like to think that he 76 00:04:28,760 --> 00:04:31,560 Speaker 1: lived a long life and died of old age, not 77 00:04:31,720 --> 00:04:35,480 Speaker 1: from swallowing needles and carpet tacks. Of course, I'm a 78 00:04:35,520 --> 00:04:38,560 Speaker 1: glass half full kind of guy, the half that McKenna 79 00:04:38,839 --> 00:04:55,359 Speaker 1: didn't eat. That is Mary Ann Evans wanted to be 80 00:04:55,440 --> 00:04:57,640 Speaker 1: a writer. In fact, she was a writer, and a 81 00:04:57,680 --> 00:05:00,560 Speaker 1: talented one in that unfortunately for me. Mary She was 82 00:05:00,600 --> 00:05:04,159 Speaker 1: born in Victorian England during the eighteen hundreds, when society 83 00:05:04,200 --> 00:05:07,360 Speaker 1: believed women were incapable of writing as well as men, 84 00:05:07,720 --> 00:05:11,440 Speaker 1: especially when it came to literature of any worth. For 85 00:05:11,480 --> 00:05:13,839 Speaker 1: a while, she worked at a far left wing journal 86 00:05:13,880 --> 00:05:17,000 Speaker 1: in London. The owner of The Westminster Review took the 87 00:05:17,040 --> 00:05:19,880 Speaker 1: glory for being the editor, although it was Mary Anne 88 00:05:19,920 --> 00:05:22,640 Speaker 1: who did much of the work behind the scenes, but 89 00:05:22,800 --> 00:05:25,840 Speaker 1: she did enjoy some success at the journal. Reviewers and 90 00:05:25,880 --> 00:05:29,320 Speaker 1: readers became fans of the articles that she wrote. But 91 00:05:29,440 --> 00:05:32,359 Speaker 1: Mary Anne was determined to succeed, and she worked hard 92 00:05:32,360 --> 00:05:35,080 Speaker 1: to hone her craft. She realized that if her work 93 00:05:35,200 --> 00:05:37,599 Speaker 1: was to be taken seriously, she needed to adopt a 94 00:05:37,680 --> 00:05:40,200 Speaker 1: male pen name. So she chose a name that sounded 95 00:05:40,240 --> 00:05:44,600 Speaker 1: masculine and intellectual, and the ruse worked. Mary's pen name 96 00:05:44,680 --> 00:05:48,359 Speaker 1: quickly became a respected and well known author. Her novels 97 00:05:48,360 --> 00:05:51,799 Speaker 1: were widely read and admired. Under her pseudonym, Mary wrote 98 00:05:51,800 --> 00:05:55,279 Speaker 1: stories that explored complex themes and characters, and she became 99 00:05:55,400 --> 00:05:58,839 Speaker 1: a beloved figure in the literary world. She rarely talked 100 00:05:58,839 --> 00:06:01,719 Speaker 1: about her personal life, so it's no surprise that only 101 00:06:01,760 --> 00:06:04,640 Speaker 1: a select few friends and family knew the famous novelist 102 00:06:04,760 --> 00:06:07,640 Speaker 1: was not only a woman, but Mary Anne. Not only 103 00:06:07,680 --> 00:06:10,000 Speaker 1: did she write novels under her male pen name, but 104 00:06:10,040 --> 00:06:13,919 Speaker 1: she also wrote essays, poems, and reviews. Critics and readers 105 00:06:13,920 --> 00:06:17,640 Speaker 1: alike enjoyed her sharp wit and admired her ability to 106 00:06:17,760 --> 00:06:22,799 Speaker 1: challenge conventional wisdom, making some of her essays controversial. Little 107 00:06:22,839 --> 00:06:25,520 Speaker 1: did readers know that some of these controversies reflected the 108 00:06:25,560 --> 00:06:28,760 Speaker 1: women behind the name. Mary Anne was a feminist, and 109 00:06:28,800 --> 00:06:32,359 Speaker 1: her novels often explored women's lives and the constraints that 110 00:06:32,440 --> 00:06:35,560 Speaker 1: society placed on them. She believed that women should have 111 00:06:35,560 --> 00:06:38,480 Speaker 1: the same opportunities as men, and she used her writing 112 00:06:38,560 --> 00:06:42,480 Speaker 1: to advocate for women's rights. Oddly, although a writer herself, 113 00:06:42,800 --> 00:06:46,479 Speaker 1: Mary Anne remained a critic of other women novelists. She 114 00:06:46,640 --> 00:06:49,839 Speaker 1: was a master of characterization. Her novels are known for 115 00:06:49,880 --> 00:06:53,960 Speaker 1: their vivid, complex yet ordinary characters who often struggle with 116 00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:57,159 Speaker 1: their flaws and weaknesses. She was interested in exploring the 117 00:06:57,160 --> 00:07:00,560 Speaker 1: complexities of human nature and the way that people interact 118 00:07:00,800 --> 00:07:04,320 Speaker 1: with each other. Under her pen name, mary Anne also 119 00:07:04,400 --> 00:07:08,480 Speaker 1: translated several important works of philosophy and literature from German 120 00:07:08,800 --> 00:07:14,760 Speaker 1: into English, including Spinoza's Ethics and Fauerbach's Essence of Christianity. 121 00:07:14,960 --> 00:07:18,120 Speaker 1: While the pen name had fooled readers, one person saw 122 00:07:18,160 --> 00:07:21,760 Speaker 1: past the ruse. Charles Dickens wrote to the famed author twice. 123 00:07:22,000 --> 00:07:25,160 Speaker 1: In the first letter, he addressed the author's womanly touches. 124 00:07:25,600 --> 00:07:28,400 Speaker 1: The second letter came after Mary Anne sent Charles Dickens 125 00:07:28,440 --> 00:07:30,920 Speaker 1: a copy of one of her novels. He replied with 126 00:07:31,000 --> 00:07:33,520 Speaker 1: a thank you and alluded that he had never seen 127 00:07:33,600 --> 00:07:36,800 Speaker 1: any man present himself a woman so firmly in thought. 128 00:07:37,440 --> 00:07:40,240 Speaker 1: In eighteen fifty nine, y brilliant success of the novel 129 00:07:40,560 --> 00:07:43,720 Speaker 1: Adam Bede made the public more curious about the author, 130 00:07:43,920 --> 00:07:47,640 Speaker 1: which even Queen Victoria raved about. People around mary Anne 131 00:07:47,640 --> 00:07:51,520 Speaker 1: began to suspect problems arose when someone else complained that 132 00:07:51,640 --> 00:07:54,280 Speaker 1: he had not received money from the book. Mary Anne 133 00:07:54,280 --> 00:07:56,840 Speaker 1: thought that it was funny until people pitched in as 134 00:07:56,880 --> 00:07:59,760 Speaker 1: a fundraiser. That's when she began to worry about those 135 00:07:59,800 --> 00:08:03,480 Speaker 1: that con artist was scamming. After an article ran stating 136 00:08:03,520 --> 00:08:06,640 Speaker 1: that the famous author was a woman. Marianne's publisher told 137 00:08:06,680 --> 00:08:09,000 Speaker 1: her that it was time to come clean. In eighteen 138 00:08:09,120 --> 00:08:11,840 Speaker 1: fifty nine, she admitted that she and the renowned author 139 00:08:12,000 --> 00:08:15,760 Speaker 1: were the same. Instead of a fallout, fans and readers 140 00:08:16,120 --> 00:08:18,760 Speaker 1: accepted the news, and instead of referring to her by 141 00:08:18,760 --> 00:08:21,640 Speaker 1: her real name, the public continued to use the pen name. 142 00:08:21,960 --> 00:08:25,400 Speaker 1: In eighteen sixty, Mary Anne Evans released her next novel 143 00:08:25,440 --> 00:08:29,680 Speaker 1: as the celebrated author, George Eliot. The fact that the 144 00:08:29,720 --> 00:08:32,320 Speaker 1: novels fans had come to love had been written by 145 00:08:32,360 --> 00:08:36,160 Speaker 1: a woman never cut into her profits or her popularity. 146 00:08:36,640 --> 00:08:38,520 Speaker 1: I guess you could say that the pen name is 147 00:08:38,600 --> 00:08:46,760 Speaker 1: indeed mightier than the sword. I hope you've enjoyed today's 148 00:08:46,760 --> 00:08:50,360 Speaker 1: guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free 149 00:08:50,440 --> 00:08:53,120 Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by 150 00:08:53,200 --> 00:08:58,320 Speaker 1: visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me, 151 00:08:58,520 --> 00:09:02,160 Speaker 1: Aaron Mankey and partner with how Stuff Works. I make 152 00:09:02,200 --> 00:09:05,760 Speaker 1: another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, 153 00:09:05,840 --> 00:09:08,800 Speaker 1: book series, and television show, and you can learn all 154 00:09:08,840 --> 00:09:13,719 Speaker 1: about it over at Theworldoflore dot com. And until next time, 155 00:09:13,960 --> 00:09:14,800 Speaker 1: stay curious.