WEBVTT - 9 Romantic Gestures That Went Horribly, Terribly Wrong 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:06.439 You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope 0:00:06.640 --> 0:00:12.800 and iHeartRadio. Guess what Will? 0:00:13.119 --> 0:00:13.840 What's that Mango? 0:00:14.120 --> 0:00:16.799 So I was commuting this week to the Midtown offices 0:00:16.840 --> 0:00:20.000 at iHeart and I read a story that kind of 0:00:20.040 --> 0:00:23.720 related to my commute. It's about a guy named Morton Plant. 0:00:24.320 --> 0:00:26.759 Morton Plant. What a great name. I feel like you 0:00:26.760 --> 0:00:28.600 could just stop right there and I'd be happy. I 0:00:28.680 --> 0:00:29.560 think we're done. 0:00:29.560 --> 0:00:34.760 That's it. Well, it is a great name, but it 0:00:34.800 --> 0:00:37.840 gets a little better. So Plant was a financier who 0:00:38.000 --> 0:00:40.920 had made a fortune from his family's railroad company. And 0:00:41.080 --> 0:00:43.960 this was in the early nineteen hundreds. He built himself 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:47.120 a limestone mansion on Fifth Avenue and fifty second Street, 0:00:47.159 --> 0:00:51.080 which is obviously a pretty smank area, and then a 0:00:51.120 --> 0:00:54.680 decade later he built another mansion on fifth and eighty 0:00:54.720 --> 0:00:58.120 sixth Street. Now, when Plant and his wife relocated, he 0:00:58.200 --> 0:01:00.840 agreed to lease the fifty second Sat property to a 0:01:00.880 --> 0:01:03.400 pair of up and coming jewelers. And they were named 0:01:03.520 --> 0:01:07.600 Lewis and Pierre Cardier, and they had been outgrowing a 0:01:07.600 --> 0:01:09.039 smaller shop up the street. 0:01:09.720 --> 0:01:13.080 So Cardier like the jewelers we know today, right, Yeah, 0:01:13.120 --> 0:01:13.560 that's right. 0:01:13.680 --> 0:01:17.199 And around the same time Plant's wife May she walks 0:01:17.240 --> 0:01:21.400 past the Cardier window and she spots this gorgeous double 0:01:21.400 --> 0:01:25.240 strand natural pearl necklace, so it is super fancy, and 0:01:25.560 --> 0:01:28.560 she tells her husband all about it, and he decides 0:01:28.720 --> 0:01:31.080 he's gonna do the romantic thing. He's gonna go out 0:01:31.120 --> 0:01:33.880 and get it for her, which is really really sweet, 0:01:33.920 --> 0:01:36.679 right it is, But I don't think you'd leave it 0:01:36.760 --> 0:01:36.960 just there. 0:01:36.959 --> 0:01:38.880 I feel like there's gonna be a twist to this story. 0:01:39.360 --> 0:01:43.319 We're gonna end this episode twice early Sinday. Right, No, 0:01:43.520 --> 0:01:45.800 there is a twist. So this isn't just any necklace. 0:01:45.840 --> 0:01:49.880 It is incredibly expensive. So Plant made a deal with 0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:52.680 the Cardiers. In exchange for the necklace and one hundred 0:01:52.720 --> 0:01:57.520 dollars in cash, he traded them his mansion, his entire mansion. 0:01:58.600 --> 0:02:03.160 So he's wait, he traded his mansion for a single necklace. Yeah, 0:02:03.200 --> 0:02:05.320 but at the time the necklace was valued at a 0:02:05.400 --> 0:02:08.720 million dollars, which is about twenty four million dollars to day, 0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:12.160 so it's not like he exactly got ripped off. In fact, 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:14.600 he was thinking quick and figuring out how to purchase 0:02:14.600 --> 0:02:17.480 a gift without like, you know, liquidating any funds or 0:02:17.520 --> 0:02:19.760 anything like that. He really wanted this for his wife. 0:02:20.040 --> 0:02:23.560 The problem was that, unbeknownst to Mordan Plant, at that 0:02:23.800 --> 0:02:27.840 very moment, a Japanese entrepreneur was developing technology to produce 0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:32.280 cultured pearls at scale, and this changed everything about the 0:02:32.280 --> 0:02:34.959 price of pearls. So basically, this new industry caused the 0:02:35.040 --> 0:02:37.760 value of natural pearls to plummet, so that by the 0:02:37.800 --> 0:02:41.240 time may Plant died in the nineteen fifties, her necklace 0:02:41.320 --> 0:02:44.880 was worth just one hundred and fifty one thousand dollars. 0:02:44.880 --> 0:02:47.359 Only worth one hundred and fifty one thousand dollars, I mean, 0:02:47.360 --> 0:02:50.120 that's not even worth wearing mango. That's almost embarrassing to 0:02:50.120 --> 0:02:51.320 have a necklace worth this time. 0:02:51.360 --> 0:02:53.480 But no, I mean like twenty four million dollars. 0:02:53.680 --> 0:02:56.000 True, No, that that is wild. And what we do 0:02:56.080 --> 0:02:58.520 know you definitely can't buy a fifth avenue mansion for 0:02:58.560 --> 0:02:59.120 that amount of. 0:02:59.040 --> 0:03:02.160 Money, definitely, But remember the Plants still had their other 0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:04.760 fifth Avenue mentioned, so you don't have to feel too 0:03:04.800 --> 0:03:07.560 bad for them. And to this day, more than plants 0:03:07.560 --> 0:03:10.679 Old Home is the Cardier's flagship store in New York, 0:03:10.800 --> 0:03:12.639 so you can think of him the next time you're 0:03:12.680 --> 0:03:15.160 making a reckless purchase to impress someone you love. 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:18.560 I will keep that in mind. Well, today we've got 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:21.840 eight more stories of romantic gestures gone a little bit 0:03:21.880 --> 0:03:25.240 wrong or sometimes a lot wrong, because that is how 0:03:25.280 --> 0:03:28.880 we celebrate Valentine's Day around here. Whether you're single, taken, 0:03:29.200 --> 0:03:53.800 or it's complicated, this one's for you. So let's dive in. Hey, 0:03:53.800 --> 0:03:57.000 their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson, 0:03:57.080 --> 0:03:59.320 and as always, I'm here with my good friend Mangesh 0:03:59.320 --> 0:04:02.560 hot ticketter and over there just sobbing into a pine 0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:04.640 of Hogan DAWs. I know he loves Hogan DAWs, but 0:04:04.680 --> 0:04:07.680 he's crying into it today. That's our pal and producer 0:04:07.800 --> 0:04:11.000 Dylan fag And now I'm no expert Mango, but this 0:04:11.160 --> 0:04:13.800 looks to me like a classic case of heartbreak. So 0:04:13.920 --> 0:04:17.320 poor Dylan and Valentine's Week, So I don't know, it 0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:18.719 just seems like a tough one for him. 0:04:19.160 --> 0:04:22.240 Yeah, but actually he's holding up a sign it says 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:25.120 I didn't get dumped. I just did my annual rewatch 0:04:25.160 --> 0:04:27.680 of A Walk to Remember, which I believe is a 0:04:27.720 --> 0:04:28.839 Mandy Moore movie. 0:04:29.320 --> 0:04:31.800 You know, I've actually never seen it. Mango, I need 0:04:31.839 --> 0:04:32.560 to confess that. 0:04:33.360 --> 0:04:36.920 He's making another sign now that says this one says, 0:04:36.960 --> 0:04:39.159 I cannot work for people who've never seen a walk 0:04:39.160 --> 0:04:42.760 to remember. So we don't want to lose Dylan. So 0:04:42.880 --> 0:04:44.400 we'll be streaming that tonight. 0:04:44.600 --> 0:04:46.240 Tonight, for sure, I'm on it. 0:04:47.279 --> 0:04:49.839 So this week we thought we'd do something on romantic 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:51.880 gesture has gone wrong. And one of the things I 0:04:51.920 --> 0:04:55.720 found in my research were cards known as vinegar Valentine's. 0:04:55.720 --> 0:04:56.320 Have you heard of these? 0:04:56.360 --> 0:04:58.600 Will? I don't think I have? What are they? 0:04:59.200 --> 0:05:02.719 So? They're like straight out of middle school mean Kids playbook, 0:05:02.920 --> 0:05:06.400 as Atlas Obscura describes them. In the Victorian era, there 0:05:06.440 --> 0:05:08.280 was no better way to let someone know they were 0:05:08.360 --> 0:05:12.760 unwanted than with the ultimate insult, the vinegar Valentine, also 0:05:12.920 --> 0:05:16.600 called comic Valentine's. These unwelcome notes were sometimes crass and 0:05:16.760 --> 0:05:21.880 always a bit emotionally damaging end quotes. So essentially they 0:05:21.880 --> 0:05:25.200 were these commercially bought postcards that you would like mail 0:05:25.440 --> 0:05:28.400 like Valentine's cards, except that they'd contain an insulting poem 0:05:28.480 --> 0:05:32.240 or illustration. And I can't imagine a crush walking up 0:05:32.279 --> 0:05:34.440 to me like smiling and then handing me one of 0:05:34.480 --> 0:05:37.599 these Like. It just feels so devastating because instead of 0:05:37.640 --> 0:05:41.080 like I choose you, choose you or whatever, here's what 0:05:41.160 --> 0:05:44.760 one reads. It reads quote, you claim you're good at everything, 0:05:44.960 --> 0:05:47.400 so come on, show me proof and let me see 0:05:47.440 --> 0:05:49.520 how good you are by jumping off a roof. 0:05:49.600 --> 0:05:52.880 Oh the horrible. That is insane. Mango. 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:55.880 Yeah, I guess nothing says I hate you like a 0:05:55.960 --> 0:06:00.799 vinegar Valentine. The Smithsonian called it an early of trolling. 0:06:00.920 --> 0:06:03.680 But it's a little different from what we're talking about today, 0:06:03.720 --> 0:06:07.119 which is mostly elaborate romantic gestures that just went wrong. 0:06:07.440 --> 0:06:09.800 So will what do you want to start with today? 0:06:10.440 --> 0:06:10.720 All right? 0:06:10.760 --> 0:06:12.480 I think we need to go way back, Mango. I 0:06:12.480 --> 0:06:14.919 think we should start with Stonehenge. Of course, you know 0:06:14.960 --> 0:06:16.840 the big pile of rocks in England. 0:06:16.880 --> 0:06:19.360 Or little pile of rocks if you're watching spinal tap. 0:06:19.440 --> 0:06:22.400 But this is true, I am familiar. 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:25.039 All right. Well, archaeologists believe it was arranged in its 0:06:25.080 --> 0:06:29.599 current semicircular shape sometime around twenty five hundred BCE, so 0:06:29.720 --> 0:06:32.040 a long time ago, and believe it or not, for 0:06:32.080 --> 0:06:35.200 a long time it was privately owned. The property was 0:06:35.240 --> 0:06:38.279 bought and sold several times finally ended up in the 0:06:38.279 --> 0:06:41.359 hands of a family called Antrobus. Now they passed it 0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:45.480 down through the generations until Sir Cosmo Antrobus inherited from 0:06:45.520 --> 0:06:49.360 his older brother Edmund, who died in early nineteen fifteen. 0:06:49.680 --> 0:06:52.760 I mean, Cosmo Antribus is another amazing name. 0:06:52.880 --> 0:06:55.320 We are racking them up today and there's more here. 0:06:55.360 --> 0:06:58.240 So enter our next character, who is a barrister by 0:06:58.240 --> 0:07:00.960 the name of Cecil chubb An another great name. It's 0:07:01.000 --> 0:07:04.080 just like one after another. Well, anyway, one day in 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:07.440 the fall of nineteen fifteen, Cecil makes plans to attend 0:07:07.440 --> 0:07:10.200 an auction in the town of Salisbury. Now, his wife 0:07:10.240 --> 0:07:13.440 Mary reportedly had sent him out with one task to 0:07:13.520 --> 0:07:15.800 buy a set of curtains for her while he was there, 0:07:16.320 --> 0:07:19.760 but instead he buys stonehenge, you know, goes out for curtains, 0:07:19.840 --> 0:07:22.400 ends up a stone hinge which their Cosmo had put 0:07:22.480 --> 0:07:26.560 up for sale. Now the price on this six thousand pounds, 0:07:26.800 --> 0:07:29.880 which is nearly six hundred and fifty thousand dollars in 0:07:29.920 --> 0:07:30.720 today's money. 0:07:31.000 --> 0:07:33.520 I feel like I can't imagine the conversation when he 0:07:33.560 --> 0:07:36.840 got home, Like, you know, he's talking to his wife 0:07:36.880 --> 0:07:39.120 and he's like, sorry, I forgot the curtains, but I 0:07:39.160 --> 0:07:41.880 did get you the most expensive pile of rocks in 0:07:41.920 --> 0:07:42.520 the world. 0:07:42.680 --> 0:07:45.920 Yeah, it's pretty much a big swish there. Well, apparently 0:07:46.000 --> 0:07:49.200 Mary Chubb wasn't thrilled with the surprise gift. Sure to 0:07:49.240 --> 0:07:51.480 be fair, Cecil's impulse by may have had a more 0:07:51.560 --> 0:07:54.680 noble motivation. So at the time there were rumors that 0:07:54.720 --> 0:07:58.440 wealthy Americans might want to buy Stonehenge, perhaps to dismantle 0:07:58.520 --> 0:08:00.400 it and ship it off to the other side of 0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:03.920 the Atlantic. Apparently buying up British antigues had become something 0:08:03.920 --> 0:08:06.880 of a sport for American millionaires at the time, and 0:08:07.000 --> 0:08:11.040 Cecil Chubb felt Stonehenge should remain in England and of 0:08:11.080 --> 0:08:14.080 course be accessible to the public, So in nineteen eighteen 0:08:14.120 --> 0:08:16.840 he gave the monument to the British government, saying it 0:08:17.000 --> 0:08:19.520 was quote a gift to be held for the nation. 0:08:20.120 --> 0:08:23.360 So today's Stonehenge remains a public property managed by the 0:08:23.400 --> 0:08:25.240 English Heritage Charitable Trust. 0:08:25.720 --> 0:08:28.200 I like that, and in a way, I guess making 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:30.280 a gift like that to your country is kind of 0:08:30.280 --> 0:08:35.000 a romantic gesture, but maybe not from his wife's perspective. Well, 0:08:35.160 --> 0:08:37.200 hopping over to another continent, I want to tell you 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:41.679 about Ishmael Pasha, the viceroy of Egypt under Ottoman rule. 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:44.640 So as a young man, he studied at Broad in Paris, 0:08:44.679 --> 0:08:48.040 where he became enamored with all things European. So when 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:50.840 he came to power in eighteen sixty three, one of 0:08:50.840 --> 0:08:54.480 his top priorities was making Egypt look more like France. 0:08:55.679 --> 0:08:58.280 I mean nothing against France, but that's kind of a shame. 0:08:58.320 --> 0:09:00.320 I feel like being Egypt is sort of one of 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:02.040 Egypt's biggest strengths, don't you. 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:06.720 Yeah, seriously, But Ishmael was obsessed with European architecture. He 0:09:06.800 --> 0:09:09.319 also loved the art music, you know, the whole nine yards. 0:09:09.320 --> 0:09:12.440 And at the time, the Suez Canal was being built 0:09:12.480 --> 0:09:15.320 by a French company and that had been granted a 0:09:15.360 --> 0:09:18.360 concession by the Egyptian government. So there were lots of 0:09:18.400 --> 0:09:22.360 connections between Egypt and France in the eighteen sixties, including 0:09:22.600 --> 0:09:25.080 a rumor that Ishmael had fallen in love with the 0:09:25.120 --> 0:09:30.160 French Empress Eugenni, the wife of Napoleon the Third. Napoleon 0:09:30.160 --> 0:09:33.520 the Third is the grandson of Napoleon Bonaparte, the first president, 0:09:33.840 --> 0:09:38.000 second Emperor, and last monarch of France anyway. So Eugenny, 0:09:38.040 --> 0:09:41.079 it turns out, came from a Spanish noble family and 0:09:41.760 --> 0:09:44.440 was known for her fine taste in fashion and art 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:47.120 in decor. It said that Ishmael met her during his 0:09:47.160 --> 0:09:50.319 time in Paris and he just became incredibly smitten with her. 0:09:50.600 --> 0:09:53.240 So when it was time for the Suez Canal's grand opening, 0:09:53.559 --> 0:09:56.960 this was in eighteen sixty nine, he invited Eugenny to 0:09:57.120 --> 0:09:58.760 attend as a guest of honor. 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:01.880 He must have been impressed by the canal, because can 0:10:01.880 --> 0:10:04.000 you imagine being one of the first people to see 0:10:04.000 --> 0:10:04.679 something like that. 0:10:05.280 --> 0:10:08.600 Yeah, it must have been incredible. But even more impressive 0:10:08.720 --> 0:10:11.400 was the palace that Ishmael had built for the occasion. 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:15.000 He called it the Palace al Jazeera, and it costs 0:10:15.040 --> 0:10:18.000 about seven hundred and fifty thousand Egyptian pounds to build, 0:10:18.400 --> 0:10:21.560 which was really a fortune at the time. He hired 0:10:21.600 --> 0:10:24.840 European architects to build it in this neoclassical style. He 0:10:24.920 --> 0:10:28.720 brought a renowned German designer to outfit the interior. Reportedly, 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:31.640 Ishmael even had one of the rooms designed as a 0:10:31.720 --> 0:10:35.160 replica of Eugenni's chambers in Paris, so that she'd feel 0:10:35.240 --> 0:10:37.880 right at home, like it was this grand, grand gesture. 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:40.600 Wow, So what ended up happening? Did that? Did that 0:10:40.640 --> 0:10:41.280 win her over? 0:10:42.040 --> 0:10:45.679 It really wasn't enough, apparently, Like the thing is, Eugennyan 0:10:45.960 --> 0:10:48.560 Napoleon didn't have a great relationship that was kind of 0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:51.600 widely known. He kept mistresses on the side, but for 0:10:51.640 --> 0:10:55.160 whatever reason, whether it was loyalty or not wanting to 0:10:55.200 --> 0:10:58.959 cause an international incident, when the Suez Canal festivities ended, 0:10:59.120 --> 0:11:02.240 Eugeni just packed bags and went home to France. And 0:11:02.559 --> 0:11:05.959 Ishmael of course was super heartbroken. But worse than that, 0:11:06.559 --> 0:11:09.120 all that spending meant that he'd racked up millions of 0:11:09.240 --> 0:11:11.960 pounds of debt, Like he borrowed so much money from 0:11:12.040 --> 0:11:15.080 France and Great Britain that eventually those countries stepped in 0:11:15.120 --> 0:11:18.320 to exert control over the Egyptian government. Like that's how 0:11:18.400 --> 0:11:22.360 much he borrowed. And Ishmael was deposed spent the rest 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:25.439 of his life in exile. And here's an interesting detail. 0:11:25.840 --> 0:11:28.760 Part of the Al Jazeera Palace building was incorporated into 0:11:28.800 --> 0:11:32.080 the Cairo Marriott, a five star luxury hotel, So you 0:11:32.080 --> 0:11:34.320 can actually book a room there today for yourself and 0:11:34.880 --> 0:11:36.240 anyone you're trying to impress. 0:11:36.400 --> 0:11:38.600 Well that's a great travel tip. All right. Well, let's 0:11:38.640 --> 0:11:41.400 stay on the topic of prominent national leaders, and I'm 0:11:41.400 --> 0:11:44.160 going to go to Winston Churchill for my next fact. 0:11:44.400 --> 0:11:47.320 I know you've heard lots about Churchill's political life, but 0:11:47.679 --> 0:11:50.280 today I want to take a peek at his personal life. 0:11:50.600 --> 0:11:53.320 So he married a woman named Clementine Josier. This was 0:11:53.360 --> 0:11:56.160 in nineteen oh eight and they remained together until his 0:11:56.240 --> 0:11:59.960 death in nineteen sixty five. But before he settled down, 0:12:00.240 --> 0:12:03.880 Churchill was a real ladies man. One biographer reported that 0:12:03.920 --> 0:12:07.040 he was known for prowling London's theater district, trying to 0:12:07.040 --> 0:12:09.960 pick up girls from various music calls. And then he 0:12:10.040 --> 0:12:13.160 fell in love with Pamela Plowden. She was the daughter 0:12:13.200 --> 0:12:15.480 of a military official he knew from his time in 0:12:15.520 --> 0:12:19.000 the service. Now, Pamela had many admirers, so Churchill knew 0:12:19.040 --> 0:12:21.160 he'd have to go above and beyond in order to 0:12:21.200 --> 0:12:21.959 win her affection. 0:12:22.360 --> 0:12:24.840 So does he buy her like an extravagant gift or 0:12:24.880 --> 0:12:25.600 what happens here? 0:12:25.920 --> 0:12:28.120 Not at all? That was actually part of the problem. 0:12:28.200 --> 0:12:32.280 So Churchill had wealthy relatives, but he himself wasn't super rich, 0:12:32.760 --> 0:12:35.080 and Pamela made it known she wanted to marry someone 0:12:35.160 --> 0:12:37.400 with money, since she didn't come from a family of 0:12:37.480 --> 0:12:41.480 means either, so Churchill relied on his greatest skill. Those were, 0:12:41.520 --> 0:12:44.840 of course words. Now he began writing her this steady 0:12:44.880 --> 0:12:47.640 stream of love letters and kept at it for up 0:12:47.679 --> 0:12:50.120 to two years. Now. In what might have been my 0:12:50.240 --> 0:12:53.400 favorite gesture of all, when he finished his first and 0:12:53.480 --> 0:12:56.920 only novel, he had the manuscript delivered to her. He 0:12:56.960 --> 0:12:59.000 even came up with a plan to make more money, 0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:01.640 and after becoming a member of Parliament, he embarked on 0:13:01.679 --> 0:13:05.200 a lecture tour across North America, giving paid speeches that 0:13:05.280 --> 0:13:07.080 earned him thousands of pounds. 0:13:07.400 --> 0:13:10.760 Wow. So at this time, I'm guessing he's pretty financially secure, 0:13:11.240 --> 0:13:14.320 he's employed, he's a good writer. So does she fall 0:13:14.360 --> 0:13:15.320 from him now? 0:13:15.360 --> 0:13:18.040 Mega? Remember this is an episode about romantic gestures that 0:13:18.160 --> 0:13:21.400 did not work, so of course not in this case. 0:13:21.440 --> 0:13:26.760 So Churchill proposed repeatedly and Pamela rejected him every single time, 0:13:27.000 --> 0:13:30.560 eventually marrying Victor Bulward Lytton, who went on to have 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:33.520 a prominent political career of his own. But he never 0:13:33.840 --> 0:13:36.559 not once gifted her a manuscript of a novel. So 0:13:36.600 --> 0:13:37.959 I think it's just just a shame. 0:13:39.000 --> 0:13:41.400 Well, at least Churchill figured it out and ended up 0:13:41.400 --> 0:13:43.560 in a long and happy marriage of his own. The 0:13:43.640 --> 0:13:47.320 same cannot be said of our next hapless Romeo, Count 0:13:47.400 --> 0:13:50.760 Gregory Orlov. He was a Russian military officer from a 0:13:50.800 --> 0:13:53.760 prominent family, and in seventeen fifty nine he met the 0:13:53.800 --> 0:13:57.720 Grand Duke Peter, who later became Emperor Peter I, and 0:13:57.840 --> 0:14:01.200 his Prussian wife, Catherine, who was later known as Catherine 0:14:01.240 --> 0:14:04.720 the Great. It said that Katherine and Orlov fell deeply 0:14:04.800 --> 0:14:08.120 for each other and began a relationship right away. Apparently 0:14:08.320 --> 0:14:11.600 she was very unhappy in her marriage. Catherine was an 0:14:11.640 --> 0:14:14.920 ambitious reader, a political thinker, and Peter, her husband, was 0:14:15.000 --> 0:14:17.640 less intellectual and more interested in drinking. 0:14:18.240 --> 0:14:19.640 I mean, it kind of sounds like they never should 0:14:19.640 --> 0:14:20.840 have gotten married in the first place. 0:14:21.320 --> 0:14:22.920 I mean, it was one of these royal things, right, 0:14:23.000 --> 0:14:25.400 Like it's an arranged marriage designed to strengthen the ties 0:14:25.480 --> 0:14:29.520 between Prussia and Russia. But Peter became an emperor in 0:14:29.560 --> 0:14:33.120 seventeen sixty two, and shortly thereafter Orlov and his brother 0:14:33.200 --> 0:14:37.440 Alexey helped plan a coup that overthrew him, making Katherine 0:14:37.480 --> 0:14:38.480 the Empress of Russia. 0:14:38.840 --> 0:14:40.840 I mean nothing, says, I love you like a coup mango. 0:14:40.920 --> 0:14:41.520 Let's be honest. 0:14:41.920 --> 0:14:44.840 Yeah, and not only that, Just a week after the coup, 0:14:45.240 --> 0:14:49.120 Alexei strangled Peter to death so Catherine would never have 0:14:49.160 --> 0:14:52.680 to deal with his poorish behavior again. There's actually no 0:14:52.760 --> 0:14:54.800 evidence that she was aware of that part of the plot, 0:14:54.880 --> 0:14:57.640 but still it paved the way for her in or Love, 0:14:57.720 --> 0:15:02.440 to become Russia's biggest power couple. Accept Catherine's advisors weren't 0:15:02.520 --> 0:15:04.880 thrilled about this, and they wouldn't let them marry. She 0:15:05.000 --> 0:15:07.920 did give Orlov the title of count and several high 0:15:07.960 --> 0:15:11.400 level appointments, and he worked alongside her to reform Russia's 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:15.240 legal code. But in seventeen seventy two the relationship ended. 0:15:15.640 --> 0:15:17.680 It turns out that Catherine had fallen in love with 0:15:17.760 --> 0:15:22.200 another man, Gregory Petempkin, who'd also been involved in carrying 0:15:22.240 --> 0:15:26.440 out the coup. So now Orlov's like shocked. He's trying 0:15:26.440 --> 0:15:28.880 to win her back, and he goes out and he 0:15:28.960 --> 0:15:31.640 buys one of the most famous diamonds in the world. 0:15:31.960 --> 0:15:35.640 This is incredible. It weighs nearly two hundred carrots. It's 0:15:35.680 --> 0:15:38.320 an egg shaped stone that was allisurely stolen from a 0:15:38.360 --> 0:15:41.680 temple in Mysore in India and smuggled to Europe and 0:15:41.880 --> 0:15:45.520 in seventeen seventy four Orlov purchased it for one point 0:15:45.560 --> 0:15:49.840 four million Dutch florins. Catherine accepted the gift because you 0:15:49.880 --> 0:15:52.440 know who wouldn't, and she had it mounted in her 0:15:52.520 --> 0:15:55.400 royal scepter. But she was still in love with Potemkin 0:15:55.520 --> 0:15:58.360 and she refused to rekindle her romance with or Love 0:15:58.920 --> 0:16:01.720 and this sent to into a tailspin. You know, he 0:16:01.840 --> 0:16:03.960 spent all this money he was trying to woo her. 0:16:04.240 --> 0:16:07.240 He ends up leaving Russia, rebounds by marrying one of 0:16:07.280 --> 0:16:09.520 his cousins, and then dies when he was in his 0:16:09.600 --> 0:16:12.040 forties after suffering a mental collapse. 0:16:12.360 --> 0:16:15.600 Oh that is a rough story. We'll have another one 0:16:15.640 --> 0:16:19.080 about a diamond as well, this one involving movie stars, 0:16:19.160 --> 0:16:22.680 a media frenzy, and of course un unhappy ending. So 0:16:22.720 --> 0:16:24.360 I'll tell you all about it after we take a 0:16:24.400 --> 0:16:25.000 quick break. 0:16:39.480 --> 0:16:41.720 Welcome back to Part time Genius. Today. We've got nine 0:16:41.840 --> 0:16:46.200 romantic gestures that turned into disasters. Okay, well, so you 0:16:46.240 --> 0:16:47.960 said you've gotten another fact about a diamond. 0:16:48.400 --> 0:16:50.880 Indeed, I do, and it's not just any diamond. So 0:16:50.920 --> 0:16:54.120 the jeweling question is a pear shaped beauty weighing almost 0:16:54.120 --> 0:16:56.840 seventy carrots. I love how we're throwing all these talk 0:16:56.840 --> 0:16:58.920 about carrots around as though we have any idea what 0:16:58.960 --> 0:17:02.000 this means. But that's a lot. So in nineteen sixty 0:17:02.080 --> 0:17:04.160 nine it was put up for sale at an auction. 0:17:04.720 --> 0:17:07.000 Back then, one of the biggest celebrity couples in the 0:17:07.040 --> 0:17:11.600 world was Welsh actor Richard Burton an American superstar Elizabeth Taylor. 0:17:11.840 --> 0:17:14.520 Now they were known for their luxurious lifestyle and Burton 0:17:14.600 --> 0:17:17.639 often bought Taylor the high end diamonds that she loved 0:17:17.760 --> 0:17:20.439 very much. Now they heard about this stone for sale 0:17:20.720 --> 0:17:23.240 and actually had the auction house fly it to them 0:17:23.240 --> 0:17:25.840 in Switzerland where they were vacationing, just so they could 0:17:25.840 --> 0:17:27.439 get a preview before the sale. 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:28.720 That is incredible. 0:17:28.920 --> 0:17:31.879 It's just just crazy and it's all very relatable at 0:17:31.880 --> 0:17:34.320 the same time. But at the auction, Burton got out 0:17:34.320 --> 0:17:36.720 bid by Cartier, you know, the jewelry we were talking 0:17:36.760 --> 0:17:40.960 about earlier. But Burton was absolutely insistent, saying, no one 0:17:41.040 --> 0:17:44.160 but Taylor could wear this diamond, and so he ended 0:17:44.240 --> 0:17:47.159 up buying it from Cardier for one point one million 0:17:47.240 --> 0:17:51.160 dollars or the equivalent of nine point four million dollars today. 0:17:51.840 --> 0:17:54.919 That's incredible, and Elizabeth Taylor must have been ecstatic about this, 0:17:55.080 --> 0:17:56.040 right she was. 0:17:56.160 --> 0:17:58.720 But you know, before the couple took ownership of the diamond, 0:17:58.760 --> 0:18:01.440 they allowed Cardia to it on display in their Fifth 0:18:01.480 --> 0:18:05.040 Avenue shop, where thousands of people lined up every single 0:18:05.160 --> 0:18:08.080 day to see it. And finally the diamond was delivered 0:18:08.119 --> 0:18:10.840 to the Burton Taylors on their yacht off the coast 0:18:10.880 --> 0:18:11.600 of Monica. 0:18:12.359 --> 0:18:14.560 I feel like it just gets more and more relative. 0:18:14.440 --> 0:18:16.840 It really does. This is wild. So they were there 0:18:16.840 --> 0:18:20.320 for Princess Grace's birthday party, and while I'm sure people 0:18:20.320 --> 0:18:22.800 were happy for her Highness, the real star of the 0:18:22.840 --> 0:18:26.760 event was Elizabeth Taylor wearing this enormous diamond around her neck. 0:18:27.240 --> 0:18:29.600 But you know this isn't going to end well. Of course, 0:18:29.840 --> 0:18:33.080 Taylor and Burton's marriage fell apart, and they divorced soon after. 0:18:33.600 --> 0:18:36.640 They remarried briefly, and then split for good in nineteen 0:18:36.760 --> 0:18:40.360 seventy six, at which point Taylor decided to sell the diamond. 0:18:40.800 --> 0:18:42.680 But some good did come of it, though she used 0:18:42.680 --> 0:18:46.119 the proceeds to help build a hospital in Botswana. You 0:18:46.119 --> 0:18:48.199 didn't see that one coming. That went from like crazy 0:18:48.280 --> 0:18:50.280 crazy to a nice gesture. 0:18:50.320 --> 0:18:54.320 There, I do like it. Well, here's a story about 0:18:54.320 --> 0:18:57.199 a different kind of beautiful ending. Are you familiar with 0:18:57.240 --> 0:18:59.040 the artist Marina Abramovich. 0:18:59.400 --> 0:19:01.760 Yeah. Actually, she's the one that did the project at 0:19:01.760 --> 0:19:04.000 MoMA where she said and stared at people right. 0:19:04.760 --> 0:19:07.399 Yeah. It was called the Artist's Present And she's had 0:19:07.440 --> 0:19:10.679 a really fascinating career kind of blurring the boundaries between 0:19:10.720 --> 0:19:14.439 conceptual art and performance art. And in the seventies and 0:19:14.560 --> 0:19:17.280 eighties she was in a relationship with a fellow artist. 0:19:17.359 --> 0:19:21.320 His name was Ulai, and they began collaborating. They created 0:19:21.359 --> 0:19:25.080 performance pieces together, like one where they plugged their nostrils 0:19:25.200 --> 0:19:28.520 and exhaled directly into each other's mouths until they became 0:19:28.640 --> 0:19:32.359 faint from lack of oxygen like it's weird but interesting stuff, 0:19:32.880 --> 0:19:38.000 and another called rest Energy. This one's crazy. Bramovich held 0:19:38.080 --> 0:19:40.640 the handle of a bow with the drawn arrow held 0:19:40.680 --> 0:19:44.280 by Ulai, and they leaned back until the bow was 0:19:44.400 --> 0:19:49.520 completely taught, with the arrow pointing at Abramovich's heart, and 0:19:49.800 --> 0:19:52.280 if Ulai's finger slipped, it would have killed her instantly, 0:19:52.320 --> 0:19:54.280 But the tension on the bow was coming from her 0:19:54.359 --> 0:19:58.440 way too, so not just his and they wore microphones 0:19:58.480 --> 0:20:02.560 to amplify their heartbeats. They stood perfectly still for four minutes. 0:20:03.200 --> 0:20:06.720 My god, that sounds terrifying, yeah, but it's also art, 0:20:07.400 --> 0:20:08.360 right of course. 0:20:08.400 --> 0:20:10.920 That's also the level of trust they had in each other. 0:20:11.000 --> 0:20:13.919 And in nineteen eighty they decided to get married with 0:20:13.960 --> 0:20:18.000 the performance slash romantic gesture that was bigger than anything 0:20:18.040 --> 0:20:20.760 they'd done before. Their plan was for each of them 0:20:20.760 --> 0:20:22.399 to start at one end of the Great Wall of 0:20:22.480 --> 0:20:25.320 China and then they just walked towards each other, a 0:20:25.400 --> 0:20:28.320 journey that would take months, and the idea was wherever 0:20:28.320 --> 0:20:31.600 they met, they'd marry on the spot. The problem was, 0:20:31.880 --> 0:20:34.800 they need a ton of permits from China, right, The 0:20:34.880 --> 0:20:37.840 Chinese government wasn't just handing out permits, and it took 0:20:38.119 --> 0:20:41.280 eight years to get all the paperwork squared away, and 0:20:41.320 --> 0:20:43.879