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 are right there on display, just
Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: True genius should be rewarded. People who invent things to
Speaker 1: save lives, or explore the stars, or find new cures
Speaker 1: for fatal diseases should be honored for their contributions. And
Speaker 1: don't get me wrong, many are. But every once in
Speaker 1: a while someone slips through the cracks. They fall into
Speaker 1: obscurity and are not remembered by history for what they
Speaker 1: gave to the world. Someone like ha Large Lamba was
Speaker 1: a writer from Scotland. Born on March third of eighteen
Speaker 1: forty seven. He had one older brother and one younger brother,
Speaker 1: but they apparently died young from tuberculosis. He developed a
Speaker 1: keen interest in science and nature from a very young age,
Speaker 1: often collecting plant specimens and conducting experiments on them. He
Speaker 1: went on to invent a machine that used rotating paddles
Speaker 1: and nail brushes to de husk wheat for a flour
Speaker 1: mill owned by his best friend's family. The friend's father
Speaker 1: gave the boys room for their own to invent other
Speaker 1: contraptions that might come in handy someday as a thanks.
Speaker 1: But Large Lamb had other talents. For example, he was
Speaker 1: also an accomplished pianist, and he dabbled in throwing his voice,
Speaker 1: both of which played to one of his many passions sound.
Speaker 1: His mother, Eliza, had been a phonetician, someone who studied speech,
Speaker 1: and her interest in words and language found its way
Speaker 1: into her son. But as he got older, Large Lamb
Speaker 1: realized something was happening to his mother, she was going death.
Speaker 1: To help her function in a world built for those
Speaker 1: who could hear, he developed new methods of communication for her.
Speaker 1: One involved speaking directly into her forehead so that she
Speaker 1: could hear the words more clearly. He also came up
Speaker 1: with a silent language using a series of taps, which
Speaker 1: would allow her to participate in conversations going on around her.
Speaker 1: But despite his keen mind and ingenuity, Large Lamb wasn't
Speaker 1: much of a student. His grades were mediocre and he
Speaker 1: spent a lot of time outside the classroom. He got
Speaker 1: more of an education, traveling with his grandfather, who helped
Speaker 1: him to find his love of learning. Large Lamb eventually
Speaker 1: moved to London in eighteen sixty five with his family,
Speaker 1: where he continued to experiment with sound and electricity. After
Speaker 1: he moved to Canada five years later, he worked his
Speaker 1: way down to Boston, where he helped teach a new
Speaker 1: system of communication that his father had developed the deaf community.
Speaker 1: Over the next several years, Largelamb developed a relationship with
Speaker 1: one of his students, Mabel Hubbard, and the two were
Speaker 1: eventually married. They built a life together, including a summer
Speaker 1: home in Bideck, Canada, where they explored their shared love
Speaker 1: of gardening. Because here's the deal, no matter how deep
Speaker 1: in the woods, so to speak, Large Lamb became while
Speaker 1: working with the Death and the Heart of hearing, he
Speaker 1: never forgot his first passion, plants. He often wrote about
Speaker 1: botanical and animal life that he encountered, and he helped
Speaker 1: found a new academic journal called Science that led to
Speaker 1: his role as president of the National Geographic Society from
Speaker 1: eighteen ninety eight until nineteen oh three. Large Lamb continued
Speaker 1: to write and publish essays about nature, such as a
Speaker 1: piece in National Geographic Magazine on the remarkable habits of
Speaker 1: certain turtles and lizards. Because of his work, the publication
Speaker 1: incorporated more and more photographs and illustrations to not only
Speaker 1: provide additional entertainment to the reader, but greater value as well. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: Mabel would often walk around their neighborhood and inquire about
Speaker 1: the various flowers and foliage growing in her neighbour's yards.
Speaker 1: She also donated many of her own plants to help
Speaker 1: their gardens look lush and beautiful. It's believed by Canadian
Speaker 1: scientists today that an invasive species known as giant hogweed
Speaker 1: may have come to the area due to Large Lamb
Speaker 1: having planted it in his own garden. Its sap can
Speaker 1: cause sensitivity to sunlight in a person's eyes. But that's
Speaker 1: not what the inventor and writer is known for, nor
Speaker 1: is he best known for his work with the Heart
Speaker 1: of Hearing. His legacy is actually an invention he built
Speaker 1: in the eighteen seventies. It had started as a type
Speaker 1: of telegraph I'll tell his assistant Thomas Watson, accidentally demonstrated
Speaker 1: that the lines between the transmitter and receiver could carry
Speaker 1: sound thanks to ha large lamb were able to talk
Speaker 1: to people all over the world on modern versions of
Speaker 1: his original creation, the telephone, because Ha large Lamb the
Speaker 1: Man with the Green Thumb was actually a pseudonym and
Speaker 1: an anagram for the name of the one and only
Speaker 1: Alexander Graham Bell. An icon doesn't become an icon overnight.
Speaker 1: It takes time and effort to rise out of anonymity
Speaker 1: and into a household name. People like Thomas Edison, Alexander Grahambelle,
Speaker 1: and Marie Curie devoted their entire lives to their work,
Speaker 1: and their legacies have ensured that the world will not
Speaker 1: allow them to be forgotten. But some people aren't so lucky.
Speaker 1: They struggle for years without any recognition. It isn't until
Speaker 1: they do something drastic that people notice who they are.
Speaker 1: Like Lucille Lsour, most people don't know her name, but
Speaker 1: maybe they should. She was born in San Antonio, Texas,
Speaker 1: to Thomas Larsour and Annabel Johnson in nineteen oh six.
Speaker 1: Her father disappeared less than a year after she was born,
Speaker 1: and her mother went on to marry a vaudeville theater
Speaker 1: manager named Henry Cassen. Soon after, the whole family left
Speaker 1: Texas to make a new home for themselves in Lawton, Oklahoma. Now,
Speaker 1: Lucille had known Henry for much of her life and
Speaker 1: even took to calling him Daddy, even though he wasn't
Speaker 1: her biological father. Still, that didn't stop him from teaching
Speaker 1: her like one of his own. He would let her
Speaker 1: hang around the theater and watch the various vaudeville acts perform.
Speaker 1: Lucille enjoyed the idea of being on stage as well.
Speaker 1: She had dreams of becoming a famous dancer, but her
Speaker 1: parents had enrolled her in piano lessons, which she hated.
Speaker 1: She once took a flying leap off her front porch
Speaker 1: to avoid one of her lessons and landed on a
Speaker 1: broken milk bottle. The injury to her foot was so
Speaker 1: severe she required three surgeries over eighteen months and had
Speaker 1: to stop dance classes for some time, But as she
Speaker 1: got older, she got back on the stage and eventually
Speaker 1: worked up to performing as a chorus girl in a
Speaker 1: traveling review show. Producer Jacob Schubert of the famous Schubert
Speaker 1: family of theater owners saw Lucille dancing in Detroit and
Speaker 1: hired her immediately. They moved to New York in nineteen
Speaker 1: twenty four, where she joined the production of a show
Speaker 1: called Innocent Eyes at the Winter Garden Theater on Broadway,
Speaker 1: and it was around this time that she met her
Speaker 1: first husband, a saxophone player named James Welton. But their relationship,
Speaker 1: much like her career, left Lucille wanting more, so she
Speaker 1: reached out to publicist Nils Granland for some help in
Speaker 1: getting her more work. He made a few calls and
Speaker 1: got her a screen test, which was quickly sent off
Speaker 1: to Metro Goldwyn Meyer in California, you know MGM. The
Speaker 1: studio liked what it saw and she was hired at
Speaker 1: a rate of seventy five dollars a week. Her first
Speaker 1: film was a nineteen twenty five silent drama called Lady
Speaker 1: of the Night, where Lucille played the body double of
Speaker 1: a film star named Norma Shearer in an uncredited role.
Speaker 1: Many of her early performances were uncredited, which left Lucille
Speaker 1: feeling unfulfilled. She knew that she had what it took
Speaker 1: to be a movie star, and so did MGM publicity
Speaker 1: manager Pete Smith. Smith saw her raw talents, but there
Speaker 1: was one thing getting in her way. Her name, Lucille
Speaker 1: Lassour was just an unflattering name for an actress. For one,
Speaker 1: it sounded like a stage name, and Smith even once
Speaker 1: told his boss that it reminded him of the word sewer.
Speaker 1: So Lucille did what a lot of other actors did
Speaker 1: in Hollywood. She adopted a stage name. In fact, many
Speaker 1: of our favorite stars took on pseudonyms to sound more
Speaker 1: appealing to American audiences. Archibald Leitch became Carrie grant Isser,
Speaker 1: Danielovich Demsky became Kirk Douglas, and Judy Garland was born
Speaker 1: Francis Gumm. But rather than come up with a name
Speaker 1: on her own, or except one from the studio, a
Speaker 1: different plan was hatched. Lucille's new stage name would be
Speaker 1: chosen by the readers of a popular film magazine as
Speaker 1: part of a name the star contest. Entries poured in
Speaker 1: from all over, and the winning moniker chosen was Joan Arden. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: that name was already in use by someone else, so
Speaker 1: the second most popular name was selected instead. Lucille Lsour
Speaker 1: was gone. The world would only know this San Antonio
Speaker 1: born dancer and actor by her new name, one that
Speaker 1: would grace marquis and billboards for decades to come. So
Speaker 1: who was she Hollywood legend Joan Crawford. I hope you've
Speaker 1: enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe
Speaker 1: for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the
Speaker 1: show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was
Speaker 1: created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works.
Speaker 1: I make another award winning show called Lore, which is
Speaker 1: a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can
Speaker 1: learn all about it over at the Worldoflore dot com.
Speaker 1: And until next time, stay curious.