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: When you think about the American frontier, what images spring
Speaker 1: to mind? Odds are if given that prompt, one of
Speaker 1: the things you might imagine is a wagon train, a
Speaker 1: line of covered carts meandering over the hills and valleys
Speaker 1: far off into the distance, carrying whole families to their
Speaker 1: new homes. It's obviously an image with some baggage too.
Speaker 1: It's impossible to separate the pioneer trails from the historic
Speaker 1: souning that paved their way. But just as crucial to
Speaker 1: the iconography of the American West is the cattle train.
Speaker 1: Waves and waves of livestock flanked by cowboys on horseback
Speaker 1: keeping their herd together. Even as railroads criss crossed the countryside,
Speaker 1: cattle could not be easily transported along the rails, so
Speaker 1: cattlemen would have to drive their herds for countless miles
Speaker 1: from one ranch or fourt to another. During one of
Speaker 1: these cattle drives out of Texas, a rancher named Charles
Speaker 1: Goodnight had an idea. It was eighteen sixty six, one
Speaker 1: year after the end of the Civil War. Goodnight, a
Speaker 1: former Texas ranger who had fought for the Confederacy, got
Speaker 1: hold of an old army wagon and began to refit
Speaker 1: it for the cattle drive. He added shelving, cabinets, drawers,
Speaker 1: fire starters, and a Dutch oven, along with plenty of
Speaker 1: storage for pots, pans and other supplies, and he added
Speaker 1: a water barrel to the back. The idea was that
Speaker 1: this wagon could be a mobile kitchen for his cowboys
Speaker 1: as they drove the cattle, and his idea was a hit.
Speaker 1: The newly assembled vehicle, nicknamed a chuck wagon, became an
Speaker 1: essential part of cattle drives throughout the American West. The
Speaker 1: food they served wasn't gourmet food, but it was an
Speaker 1: efficient way to keep cattlemen supplied in the wilderness, rather
Speaker 1: than relying on each cook to carry his own supply
Speaker 1: of beans, salted meat, and biscuits. The chuck wagon became
Speaker 1: the de facto town square for cattle drivers. Cooks carried
Speaker 1: medical supplies, petty cash, and even performed the services of
Speaker 1: a dentist or a barber if needed. One of these
Speaker 1: cooks could be paid forty five bucks a month, more
Speaker 1: than twice what the cowboys were making, due to their
Speaker 1: specialized skills required for this job. While the chuck wagon
Speaker 1: was a crucial part of cowboy life, its utility was specialized,
Speaker 1: and although you can see chuck wagon races today at rodeos,
Speaker 1: they're no longer a common part of the American West,
Speaker 1: although their DNA does seem to have persisted. You see.
Speaker 1: The invention of the chuck wagon was followed by a
Speaker 1: similar but distinct to rival in city streets, push carts.
Speaker 1: Although not nearly as self sufficient as the larger chuck wagon,
Speaker 1: these small carts would roam all over the streets of
Speaker 1: cities like Chicago and New York, selling cheap food to
Speaker 1: working people who couldn't afford to make themselves a lunch
Speaker 1: mid day or go to a restaurant. The next evolution
Speaker 1: in mobile food service was the ice cream truck in
Speaker 1: the mid twentieth century, but almost at the same time,
Speaker 1: independent entrepreneurs were already thinking of creating a chuck Wagon
Speaker 1: for the cities a way of serving hot food out
Speaker 1: of an ice cream truck, and this idea really took
Speaker 1: off in the mid nineteen sixties, but the result was
Speaker 1: a controversial one. You see, mobile food service stations earned
Speaker 1: the derogatory name roach coaches due to their lower health
Speaker 1: standards compared to restaurants. They were relegated, at least in
Speaker 1: the eyes of critics, to a place below fast food restaurants,
Speaker 1: and am I have stayed that way if not for
Speaker 1: the Great Recession of two thousand and eight. The mood
Speaker 1: in America was grim. Countless people were out of work,
Speaker 1: the economy was in utter freefall. People were desperate to
Speaker 1: feed their families, and so some turned to making roach
Speaker 1: coaches of their own. The result was a boom in
Speaker 1: street food which persists to this day. And of course,
Speaker 1: nowadays nobody calls them roach coaches. They're submitted for proper
Speaker 1: health inspections, and in medi cities, they're the source of
Speaker 1: the best food you can find for an affordable price,
Speaker 1: and a test ground for new cuisine that might not
Speaker 1: work well in a traditional sit down restaurant. Although there
Speaker 1: are now countless examples of these food carts, worldwide. In
Speaker 1: the United States, the frontier roots run deep for this
Speaker 1: style of restaurant. The grandchild of the Chuck Wagon, the
Speaker 1: All American food truck, Willis O'Brien was only twenty nine,
Speaker 1: but he had already lived an interesting life. He'd been
Speaker 1: a cowboy, a boxer, a marble cutter, and more an
Speaker 1: Irish and American known as Obi to his friends. By
Speaker 1: nineteen thirteen, he was working sculpting figures for the World's Fair.
Speaker 1: He created a small boxer figuring, and it was so
Speaker 1: lifelike he almost wished that it would come to life.
Speaker 1: That's when he got the idea to put it on film.
Speaker 1: If he could figure out how to move the figure
Speaker 1: frame by frame and then splice the film frames together,
Speaker 1: he could make it look like the boxing figuring was
Speaker 1: actually moving. His early attempts at this led to movements
Speaker 1: that were jerky and not too convincing, but it was
Speaker 1: such a neat effect that Obi decided to develop it further.
Speaker 1: Although he was a tough man who worked a lot
Speaker 1: of physically demanding jobs, he had this inner artist that
Speaker 1: he nurtured by studying images of people and animals and
Speaker 1: seeing how well he could replicate them, both on paper
Speaker 1: and with clay. Most of all, he'd always loved dinosaurs.
Speaker 1: For his next film, he created a battle between a
Speaker 1: caveman and a prehistoric creature. This one was impress enough
Speaker 1: to capture the attention of Thomas Edison, who hired Obi
Speaker 1: to make several more shorts for his company. By nineteen
Speaker 1: twenty five, Obie had become in demand throughout Hollywood for
Speaker 1: his special effects. He came to the attention of an
Speaker 1: even more famous individual than Thomas Edison, none other than
Speaker 1: Sherlock Holmes creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Sir Arthur reached
Speaker 1: out to Obi, wanting him to do the special effects
Speaker 1: for an adaptation of his book The Lost World. This
Speaker 1: was a very popular book at the time that featured
Speaker 1: a crew of explorers traveling to South America and encountering
Speaker 1: living dinosaurs. It's a classic novel that's been adapted many
Speaker 1: times and was famously the inspiration for the Jurassic Park franchise.
Speaker 1: But it was on Obie to bring the very first
Speaker 1: adaptation to life. He had never worked on a feature
Speaker 1: film before, nor had any of his shorts been released
Speaker 1: to such a wide audience. He wanted his models to
Speaker 1: be the most impressive he had done so far, and
Speaker 1: on top of that, there would be more of them
Speaker 1: than in any of his shorts before. The book has
Speaker 1: everything from an iguanodon and a stegosaurus to pterodactyls and more.
Speaker 1: Obi set about creating his monsters, beginning with metal frames
Speaker 1: with movable ball and socket joints. He then added rubber
Speaker 1: and foam to create detailed, realistic skins for the dinosaurs.
Speaker 1: They had eyes, teeth, wrinkles, everything they needed to be believable.
Speaker 1: Once it was time to put them on film, Obi
Speaker 1: refined his filming techniques. He had gotten a lot better
Speaker 1: at subtly moving the figures frame by frame so that
Speaker 1: their movement was fluid. But now for the Lost World,
Speaker 1: he wanted to pioneer a new technique. Up to this point,
Speaker 1: he had never had his monsters and the actors of
Speaker 1: the films share the same frame. Now he knew how.
Speaker 1: He cleverly exposed one half of the frame with an
Speaker 1: image of the actor, and then he exposed the second
Speaker 1: half with an image of his model. Using the same
Speaker 1: backdrop for both, he could create the illusion that the
Speaker 1: models were towering over the actors preparing to eat them.
Speaker 1: Beyond that, he also created intricate fighting scenes between the dinosaurs.
Speaker 1: He even added subtle facial expressions to the monsters so
Speaker 1: that you could follow the emotions of a fight. I
Speaker 1: mean they looked angry, annoyed, and frustrated. Sir Arthur was
Speaker 1: so impressed with the final result he had a screening
Speaker 1: for his best friend, the most famous magician of all time,
Speaker 1: Harry Houdini. Clearly, Obi ran in some interesting circles. Harry
Speaker 1: and his magician friends found the effects so convincing many
Speaker 1: thought that it was real magic. The film was just
Speaker 1: as well received when it was released. Audiences of the
Speaker 1: time didn't have the discerning eye of today's viewers. They
Speaker 1: had never seen special effects of any kind. To them,
Speaker 1: these were real dinosaurs. They couldn't imagine how they could
Speaker 1: be any better. Obi's career grew and grew from there,
Speaker 1: until in nineteen thirty three, he was hired to work
Speaker 1: on the film that would become his masterpiece. If you
Speaker 1: haven't heard of The Lost World, you've definitely heard of
Speaker 1: King Kong. King Kong was even more successful multiple Academy Awards.
Speaker 1: Obi actually refused his saying that it should go to
Speaker 1: the entire team that helped him bring the world of
Speaker 1: King Kong to life. It was, he said, their collective
Speaker 1: attention to detail that made Kong such a classic film character.
Speaker 1: He was just an ape made out of rubber and fur,
Speaker 1: but there was never any doubt about what he was feeling.
Speaker 1: Obi's curiosity when it came to drawing and sculpting people
Speaker 1: and dinosaurs led to one of the greatest films of
Speaker 1: all time. It's also led to the creation of an
Speaker 1: entire medium, stop motion animation. I hope you enjoyed today's
Speaker 1: guided tour through the Cabinet of Curiosities. This show was
Speaker 1: created by me Aaron Manke in partnership with iHeart Podcasts,
Speaker 1: researched and written by the Grim and Mild team, and
Speaker 1: produced by Jesse Funk. Learn more about the show and
Speaker 1: the people who make it over at Grimandmild dot com
Speaker 1: slash Curiosities. You'll also find a link to the official
Speaker 1: Cabinet of Curiosity's hardc cover book, available in bookstores and online,
Speaker 1: as well as ebook and audiobook. And if you're looking
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