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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class, a

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Speaker 1: show that proves there's more than one way to make history.

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Speaker 1: I'm Gabe Lucier, and in this episode we're talking about

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Speaker 1: the short lived and likely imaginary reign of Otto White,

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Speaker 1: aka the impostor King of Albania. The day was August thirteenth,

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Speaker 1: nineteen thirteen. According to German legend, a circus performer named

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Speaker 1: Otto White conned his way onto the Albanian throne. The

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Speaker 1: traveling acrobat had noticed a strong resemblance between himself and

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Speaker 1: Albania's king, to be a Turkish prince whom most people

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Speaker 1: had only seen in pictures. Sensing an opportunity, White decided

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Speaker 1: to show up in our, Albania's capital and impersonate the

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Speaker 1: prince ahead of his arrival. His performance fooled officials so

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Speaker 1: completely that he wound up spending five glorious days as

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Speaker 1: the country's new leader, or at least that's what he claimed.

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Speaker 1: Although clearly far fetched, the story first circulated by White himself,

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Speaker 1: had an air of plausibility due to the recent political

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Speaker 1: upheaval in Albania in the early twentieth century, the Balkan

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Speaker 1: country had just declared its independence from the Ottoman Empire

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Speaker 1: and was known to be looking for a new protector

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Speaker 1: to help keep the peace during the transition. Most of

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Speaker 1: the independence leaders favored appointing of foreign born ruler to

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Speaker 1: prevent accusations of sectarian bias, and one of the top

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Speaker 1: names in contention was Halim Edan, a Turkish prince whose

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Speaker 1: religious beliefs were thought to be in line with Albanian Muslims.

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Speaker 1: News of that potential pick spread throughout the Balkan Peninsula

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Speaker 1: and eventually reached the ears of Otto White, who was

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Speaker 1: in the midst of a tour in Budapest. A professional

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Speaker 1: performer by the age of eight, White had traveled several

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Speaker 1: continents as a magician, lion tamer, and acrobat, but he

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Speaker 1: was perhaps most renowned as a teller of tall tales.

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Speaker 1: For example, he often boasted that his talents as a

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Speaker 1: magician had earned him the title of honorary chief among

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Speaker 1: a Pygmy tribe in Africa. He also claimed that he

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Speaker 1: had once tried and nearly succeeded in eloping with the

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Speaker 1: Emperor of Ethiopia's daughter. White found the makings of his

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Speaker 1: next story when he came across haleim Medean's picture in

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Speaker 1: a newspaper and realized they were each other's spitting image.

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Speaker 1: That wasn't all, though, Because White had learned to speak

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Speaker 1: fluent Turkish in his travels, he didn't just look like

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Speaker 1: the Prince, he could sound like him too. This coincidence

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Speaker 1: got White to think, thinking, what if he were to

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Speaker 1: present himself as Albania's prospective king. Could his skills as

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Speaker 1: a performer, along with his looks and his speech, be

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Speaker 1: enough to actually get him seated on the throne. It

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Speaker 1: was too tantalizing a prospect for the showman to pass up,

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Speaker 1: especially since even if the whole thing fell apart, he'd

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Speaker 1: still walk away with a new story to tell. White

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Speaker 1: set his bold scheme and motion by sending a series

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Speaker 1: of telegrams in which he pretending to be Prince Aidan,

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Speaker 1: announced that he was on his way to the Albanian

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Speaker 1: capital to accept the throne. He borrowed a luxurious costume

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Speaker 1: fit for a king, and convinced one of his colleagues,

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Speaker 1: a sword swallower named Max Schlepzig, to accompany him as

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Speaker 1: his bodyguard. After arriving in the capital city, of Duris,

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Speaker 1: White and his accomplice managed to pull off the greatest

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Speaker 1: stunt of their careers. They convinced local officials and the

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Speaker 1: public that White was not a German circus performer, but

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Speaker 1: in fact a Turkish prince, and so on August thirteenth,

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Speaker 1: nineteen thirteen, Otto White was supposedly crowned the King of Albania.

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Speaker 1: He's said to have gotten quite a lot done in

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Speaker 1: his five brief days on the throne. He held military parades,

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Speaker 1: appointed a cabinet, declared amnesty for prisoners, and even started

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Speaker 1: a war with Montenegro just for the heck of it.

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Speaker 1: Mostly though, King Otto lounged around in a royal tent

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Speaker 1: enjoying the company of a twenty five woman harem or again,

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Speaker 1: so he claimed. White's reign came to an abrupt end

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Speaker 1: on August eighteenth, when rumors began to circulate that the

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Speaker 1: nephew of the Turkish Sultan, the real Edan, had been

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Speaker 1: seen on holiday in Vienna. White knew the jig was

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Speaker 1: almost up, so before his real identity could be revealed,

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Speaker 1: he and Schlepzig high tailed it back to Germany. After

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Speaker 1: a brief stop at the Albanian Treasury. Today, Auto White

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Speaker 1: is generally thought to have made up the entire escapade,

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Speaker 1: or at least to have greatly exaggerated it. Still, that

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Speaker 1: didn't stop him from telling the story every chance he got,

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Speaker 1: including through reenactments of his alleged coronation. White's dedication to

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Speaker 1: his story made him a living legend in his home country.

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Speaker 1: He insisted on being addressed as the former King of Albania,

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Speaker 1: and German authorities even allowed him to include the title

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Speaker 1: on his official ID card. He also had the claim

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Speaker 1: engraved on his tombstone when he died, which incidentally was

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Speaker 1: on August thirteenth, nineteen fifty eight, the forty fifth anniversary

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Speaker 1: of his coronation. It's debated to this day whether Otto

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Speaker 1: White was a chronic liar, a con man, a committed

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Speaker 1: practical joker, or something in between. The one thing that

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Speaker 1: pretty much everyone agrees on is that he was not

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Speaker 1: the King of Albania. For one thing, there's no record

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Speaker 1: of any Turkish prince named Halem Medean, though Prince Burhan

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Speaker 1: Medean was offered the Albanian throne in nineteen fourteen. You

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Speaker 1: could argue that White mixed up the name and the date,

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Speaker 1: but there's also no local record of Adean's coronation or

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Speaker 1: of White's ruse being discovered. Then again, as White and

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Speaker 1: his supporters pointed out, if your country had been duped

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Speaker 1: into putting a circus clown on the throne, you probably

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Speaker 1: wouldn't go around advertising it either. I'm gay, Blues gay,

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Speaker 1: and hopefully you now know a little more about history

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Speaker 1: today than you did yesterday. If you'd like to keep

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Speaker 1: up with the show, you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook,

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Speaker 1: and Instagram at TDI HC Show, and if you have

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Speaker 1: any comments or suggestions, feel free to send them my

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Speaker 1: way by writing to This Day at iHeartMedia dot com.

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Speaker 1: Thanks to kas B. Bias for producing the show, and

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Speaker 1: thanks to you for listening. I'll see you back here

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Speaker 1: again tomorrow for another Day in History class