Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Menkey's Cabinet of Curiosity is a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world
Speaker 1: is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an
Speaker 1: open book, all of these amazing tales are right there
Speaker 1: on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to
Speaker 1: the Cabinet of Curiosities. Professional athletes are known for performing
Speaker 1: incredible feats. Basketball legend Wilt Chamberlain holds a whopping seventy
Speaker 1: two records, sixty eight of which belonged to him alone.
Speaker 1: Serena Williams has won twenty three major singles titles over
Speaker 1: the course of her career, coming just one win shy
Speaker 1: of Margaret Court, who has twenty four. And then there's
Speaker 1: Alice Roth. Alice holds an important record too, but not
Speaker 1: one she ever wanted. Alice's husband was Earl Roth, the
Speaker 1: sports editor for the Philadelphia Bulletin newspaper in the nineteen fifties.
Speaker 1: On August sevent nineteen fifty seven, Earl brought Alice and
Speaker 1: their grandsons to a Phillies game against the New York Giants.
Speaker 1: The family got settled into the press box behind third
Speaker 1: base while seven thousand nine hundred fans cheered on the teams.
Speaker 1: One big highlight of Phillies games at that time was
Speaker 1: center fielder Richie Ashburn. Anytime he stepped up to the plate,
Speaker 1: people took notice. Ashburn hailed from Tilden, Nebraska, which had
Speaker 1: earned him the nickname the Tilden Flash. He wasn't much
Speaker 1: for home runs or Grand slams. He was a singles hitter,
Speaker 1: amassing over hits over his nearly fifteen year career. He
Speaker 1: was also notoriously picky about what he swung at. You see,
Speaker 1: Ashburn liked to take his time. Sometimes he'd foul ball
Speaker 1: after ball until the perfect pitch came his way. This
Speaker 1: drove pictures up the wall, and his reputation as a
Speaker 1: spray hitter didn't help things either. Ashburn never hit the
Speaker 1: ball to the same place twice, so players all over
Speaker 1: the field were on high alert whenever he stepped up
Speaker 1: to the plate. On this day, though they would have
Speaker 1: been safe taking a breather. It was Ashburn's turn a bat.
Speaker 1: He gripped it tightly and waited for the pitch. Earl
Speaker 1: Roth and the other fans watched with anticipation. The ball
Speaker 1: flew from the pitcher's finger tips towards home plate. Ashburn
Speaker 1: swung and the ball went foul. Spectators followed its trajectory
Speaker 1: as it flew outside third base into the stands. They lunched,
Speaker 1: but it was all for nothing. One person was going
Speaker 1: to catch that foul ball that day, and her name
Speaker 1: was Alice Roth. There was just one problem. She caught
Speaker 1: it with her face. It's hard to say whether her
Speaker 1: attention was on one of her grandsons or she just
Speaker 1: didn't get out of the way fast enough, but the
Speaker 1: impact of the ball broke the woman's nose, forcing the
Speaker 1: game to come to a stop. She collapsed, bleeding from
Speaker 1: her nostrils. As stadium medical staff rushed to her side,
Speaker 1: they loaded her onto a stretcher as people looked on, Well,
Speaker 1: I'll except her eight year old grandson, Preston. He was
Speaker 1: busy trying to get the ball back that had hit her.
Speaker 1: He asked the man who had taken it if he
Speaker 1: could have it, to which the man replied, go to hell, kid,
Speaker 1: So much for the City of Brotherly Love. As Mrs
Speaker 1: Roth was being wheeled away, the game continued. Richie Ashburn
Speaker 1: still had to finish his turn at bat. The next
Speaker 1: pitch came fast, but it wasn't right. Ashburn hit it
Speaker 1: to his left along a similar path behind third base
Speaker 1: like his last one, except this time the ball did
Speaker 1: it land in the same spot as before. Sadly, this
Speaker 1: foul ball also found its way to Mrs Roth, whacking
Speaker 1: her on the knee. Ashburn had now fouled two balls
Speaker 1: and broken two of poor Mrs Roth's bones. They rushed
Speaker 1: her out of the stands before he could do any
Speaker 1: further damage. It all worked out in the end, though
Speaker 1: the Phillies beat the Giants that day three to one.
Speaker 1: The following day, and embarrassed, Ashburn paid a visit to
Speaker 1: the hospital where Mrs Roth was being treated. She assured
Speaker 1: him there were no hard feelings. It probably helped that
Speaker 1: she and her family were treated to free tickets, assigned
Speaker 1: ball by the players, and a trip to the team's clubhouse.
Speaker 1: Of course, once the grandkids got used to the start treatment,
Speaker 1: they couldn't go back to watching the game like everyone else.
Speaker 1: One of Mrs Roth's grandsons asked her if they could
Speaker 1: go to an Eagles game next. I suppose he just
Speaker 1: wanted to see what would happen if she got hit
Speaker 1: in the face with a football. It's probably safe to
Speaker 1: say that most people care about how they will be
Speaker 1: remembered after they're gone. Will they be missed? Did they
Speaker 1: help the less fortunate and set a good example for
Speaker 1: the next generation. Did they put others needs before their own?
Speaker 1: Ambrose Small never asked those questions of himself. By all accounts,
Speaker 1: he didn't care much for the opinions of others. Born
Speaker 1: in Newmarkets, Ontario, Canada, in eighteen sixties, six, Small head
Speaker 1: well small beginnings. His father, Daniel, had been an innkeeper
Speaker 1: for many years before taking a job managing a luxury
Speaker 1: hotel in Toronto. Daniel moved the family south for his
Speaker 1: new job. That was where Ambrose found his calling at
Speaker 1: the Grand Opera House next door. When Ambrose was around
Speaker 1: twenty years old, he took a position at the Opera
Speaker 1: House as an usher, a position that he held for
Speaker 1: several years. Unfortunately, Ambrose and his manager had a falling out,
Speaker 1: which prompted the young Mr. Small to seek employment at
Speaker 1: a rival venue, the Toronto Opera House. He became a
Speaker 1: fixture there, earning promotion after promotion until he eventually became
Speaker 1: the manager. By this time, Ambrose was earning a considerable
Speaker 1: amount of money so much, in fact, that he stepped
Speaker 1: in to help the Grand Opera House after it fell
Speaker 1: on hard times. He started to pay its mortgage, which
Speaker 1: gave him the authority of fire his old boss. The
Speaker 1: icing on a deliciously vengeful cake. For the budding businessman,
Speaker 1: Ambrose parlayed his ownership of one theater and management of
Speaker 1: another into a small empire. He partnered with Clark Whitney,
Speaker 1: the owner of several theaters in Detroit, to bring in
Speaker 1: more money. Then he invested those earnings into theaters in
Speaker 1: both Canada and America. Ambrose small was living large, with
Speaker 1: more than thirty theaters to his name. It probably helped
Speaker 1: that his wife, Teresa, had helped fund his rise up
Speaker 1: the ladder of success with family money of her own.
Speaker 1: Of course, as always, success brought its own complications. For one,
Speaker 1: Ambrose was a notorious gambler and philanderer. He'd often leave
Speaker 1: his wife at home for weeks while away on business.
Speaker 1: Much of that business consisted of betting on horse races
Speaker 1: and enjoying the company of other women. He also treated
Speaker 1: Teresa horribly, ignoring her needs in favor of his own.
Speaker 1: Despite how much she had helped him, Ambrose didn't give
Speaker 1: money to the poor either. Though he had come from
Speaker 1: a humble, hard working family, he treated those with less
Speaker 1: than him as if they didn't exist. He was not
Speaker 1: a man with many friends to say the least. Still,
Speaker 1: things were going great for him until nineteen nineteen, when
Speaker 1: he did the unthinkable. He gave it all up well
Speaker 1: for a price. See, Ambrose had made a deal to
Speaker 1: sell his theatrical holdings to Trans Canada Theaters Limited for
Speaker 1: a whopping one point seven million dollars. He signed everything
Speaker 1: over to them on December one. The following day, he
Speaker 1: met with his wife and lawyer at the place where
Speaker 1: his story had begun, a grand opera house, to finish
Speaker 1: their deal. That afternoon, Ambrose dropped his wife off at
Speaker 1: a local orphanage where she had been volunteering, and then
Speaker 1: he went back to wrap up the last of the
Speaker 1: paperwork with his lawyer. By five thirty that afternoon, the
Speaker 1: deal was done and Ambrows Small was one point seven
Speaker 1: million dollars richer. No one saw him after that. Now,
Speaker 1: given his history of impre onto business trips, he wasn't
Speaker 1: officially considered missing for two weeks. Mrs Small announced a
Speaker 1: reward of fifty dollars for anyone with information leading to
Speaker 1: the discovery of her husband. People came forward, hoping to
Speaker 1: claim the money, but none of their leads ever panned out.
Speaker 1: His disappearance was only part of the mystery, though. He
Speaker 1: had just come into possession of almost two million dollars,
Speaker 1: yet he hadn't taken any of it with him. There
Speaker 1: had been no sign of a struggle, no note left
Speaker 1: behind by kidnappers or even Ambrose himself. Still, given his
Speaker 1: history as a gambler and overall awful person, the idea
Speaker 1: that someone might have taken him or harmed him wasn't
Speaker 1: out of the question. One New York store owner received
Speaker 1: a note from an anonymous person named s H which read,
Speaker 1: holds Small until tomorrow morning. Don't let him go under
Speaker 1: any circumstances. Police searched high and low. They tore apart
Speaker 1: Small's home and dredge the Toronto Bay for clues, but
Speaker 1: came up empty. They even looked for leads in the
Speaker 1: plays being staged at his theaters, but didn't find anything.
Speaker 1: The authorities started building a list of suspects. At the
Speaker 1: top of that list was Teresa, who knew all about
Speaker 1: her husband's infidelity. She had a motive for sure, but
Speaker 1: the evidence wasn't there. There was also Ambrose's old boss
Speaker 1: from the Grand Opera House, plus all the people he'd
Speaker 1: stepped on to get where he was, and finally, his
Speaker 1: personal secretary, John Dowdy. Joudy had been known to bad
Speaker 1: mouth Mr Small for not paying him enough. Coincidentally, he
Speaker 1: had also gone missing around the same time. In Dowdy's
Speaker 1: possession was over one hundred thousand dollars in bonds stolen
Speaker 1: from Ambrose is Safe. Months later, he was found in
Speaker 1: the United States and sent back to Canada to answer
Speaker 1: for his crimes. Dowdy was not convicted for the disappearance
Speaker 1: of Ambrose Small, only for stealing the bonds. He claimed
Speaker 1: he was doing what his boss had asked him to
Speaker 1: do and only ran after Ambrose had disappeared. He served
Speaker 1: six years for his theft. Oka pas of the missing
Speaker 1: tycoon became well known all over the world, with police
Speaker 1: departments in Canada and the United States all taking part
Speaker 1: in their own investigations. Even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was consulted,
Speaker 1: but the Sherlock Holmes creator chose to abstain from conducting
Speaker 1: his own search for the missing man. Although Ambrose Small
Speaker 1: was officially declared dead in nineteen four, people never really
Speaker 1: stopped looking for him. Almost two decades since his first appearance,
Speaker 1: Police and amateur detectives kept their eyes open for any
Speaker 1: sign of the elusive millionaire. Theresa Small passed away in
Speaker 1: October of ninety. One year later, Ambrose's sister, Florence, came
Speaker 1: forward with a letter written by someone named Reuter. It
Speaker 1: was a confession to the murder of Ambrose Small, detailing
Speaker 1: how his body had been disposed of. Reuter himself never
Speaker 1: came forward and was never found either. Ambrose Small was successful, powerful,
Speaker 1: and hated by almost everyone who knew him, a man
Speaker 1: who thrived on drama, both personally and professionally, and who
Speaker 1: understood the true meaning of the phrase you can't take
Speaker 1: it with you. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour
Speaker 1: of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky
Speaker 1: in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award
Speaker 1: winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series,
Speaker 1: and television show, and you can learn all about it
Speaker 1: over at the World of lore dot com, and until
Speaker 1: next time, stay curious. Yeah,