1 00:00:04,080 --> 00:00:07,400 Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of 2 00:00:07,480 --> 00:00:14,440 Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of 3 00:00:14,480 --> 00:00:18,440 Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all 4 00:00:18,480 --> 00:00:22,599 Speaker 1: of these amazing tales right there on display, just waiting 5 00:00:22,640 --> 00:00:28,840 Speaker 1: for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. 6 00:00:36,320 --> 00:00:39,680 Speaker 1: It was nine forty am on July twentieth of nineteen 7 00:00:39,760 --> 00:00:43,840 Speaker 1: forty five. Betty Lou Oliver, a twenty year old elevator operator, 8 00:00:43,920 --> 00:00:47,680 Speaker 1: sat anxiously in her elevator car within the Empire State Building. 9 00:00:48,200 --> 00:00:50,600 Speaker 1: The day had only just started, but it couldn't go 10 00:00:50,680 --> 00:00:53,320 Speaker 1: fast enough. As far as she was concerned, she wanted 11 00:00:53,360 --> 00:00:56,480 Speaker 1: this whole summer to disappear behind her. The war in 12 00:00:56,520 --> 00:01:00,120 Speaker 1: Europe was finally over, and her fiance, Oscar, had called 13 00:01:00,160 --> 00:01:02,160 Speaker 1: earlier that month to let her know that he was 14 00:01:02,160 --> 00:01:06,720 Speaker 1: coming home soon. Betty could leave the stuffy elevator behind 15 00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:09,160 Speaker 1: and she and Oscar could move back to their hometown 16 00:01:09,240 --> 00:01:12,960 Speaker 1: in Arkansas to enjoy their life together. But everything was 17 00:01:13,160 --> 00:01:17,000 Speaker 1: about to change. Betty delivered some passengers to the eightieth 18 00:01:17,040 --> 00:01:20,080 Speaker 1: floor and then sat and waited. As the door closed, 19 00:01:20,360 --> 00:01:23,120 Speaker 1: She hummed a song to herself, thinking about Oscar, when 20 00:01:23,120 --> 00:01:26,840 Speaker 1: she suddenly heard a massive crashing sound above her. The 21 00:01:26,920 --> 00:01:30,479 Speaker 1: whole elevator shook. Before Betty had time to think, the 22 00:01:30,480 --> 00:01:33,760 Speaker 1: top part of the cab burst open, the metal splitting 23 00:01:33,880 --> 00:01:37,759 Speaker 1: like paper. Flames erupted all around her, flash burning her 24 00:01:37,760 --> 00:01:42,360 Speaker 1: skin before extinguishing, and then she was falling. She cried 25 00:01:42,360 --> 00:01:45,600 Speaker 1: out as the damaged elevator began hurtling toward the ground, 26 00:01:45,840 --> 00:01:49,639 Speaker 1: quickly clearing floor after floor. Her mind raised, She didn't 27 00:01:49,720 --> 00:01:53,400 Speaker 1: understand what was happening. Why had the elevator broken, Where 28 00:01:53,400 --> 00:01:56,480 Speaker 1: did the flames come from? Was it some accident? Had 29 00:01:56,520 --> 00:02:00,200 Speaker 1: the Germans or Japanese decided to restart the war. Her 30 00:02:00,200 --> 00:02:02,960 Speaker 1: eyes went wide and she screamed in terror as her 31 00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:06,120 Speaker 1: body began to float up off the floor. The cab 32 00:02:06,240 --> 00:02:08,840 Speaker 1: was moving that fast all she could think to do 33 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:11,080 Speaker 1: was grab the railing on the side of the elevator 34 00:02:11,240 --> 00:02:15,280 Speaker 1: and pull herself in close to the wall. She kept falling, falling, 35 00:02:15,760 --> 00:02:19,320 Speaker 1: and falling, until the moment of impact finally happened. The 36 00:02:19,360 --> 00:02:22,520 Speaker 1: elevator smacked against the bottom of the shaft, cracking the 37 00:02:22,600 --> 00:02:26,520 Speaker 1: floor everywhere. The force of the impact sent Betty flying 38 00:02:26,520 --> 00:02:28,720 Speaker 1: to the opposite side of the cab. She felt a 39 00:02:28,840 --> 00:02:32,000 Speaker 1: terrible cracking sensation all up and down her back and neck. 40 00:02:32,280 --> 00:02:35,960 Speaker 1: She slumped to the floor, limp unable to move, pain 41 00:02:36,360 --> 00:02:41,120 Speaker 1: enveloped her minutes passed, all seemed silent, and then voices 42 00:02:41,440 --> 00:02:45,120 Speaker 1: panic sounds pierced the cab, followed by the intense groaning 43 00:02:45,160 --> 00:02:47,520 Speaker 1: of the metal doors as they were pulled apart with 44 00:02:47,560 --> 00:02:51,200 Speaker 1: heavy equipment. When the firefighters entered, they were astonished to 45 00:02:51,240 --> 00:02:54,239 Speaker 1: see Betty's broken body. They called for medics, who quickly 46 00:02:54,280 --> 00:02:57,360 Speaker 1: came to her side. They checked her pulse and discovered 47 00:02:57,680 --> 00:03:01,079 Speaker 1: that she was alive. Betty was taken to a nearby hospital, 48 00:03:01,080 --> 00:03:04,960 Speaker 1: where doctors discovered that she had broken her neck, back, pelvis, 49 00:03:04,960 --> 00:03:09,120 Speaker 1: and both legs. They used multiple innovative, risky surgeries to 50 00:03:09,240 --> 00:03:11,680 Speaker 1: repair the damage and bring her back from the brink 51 00:03:11,680 --> 00:03:16,160 Speaker 1: of death. But what had caused this incredible accident? That morning, 52 00:03:16,320 --> 00:03:19,520 Speaker 1: Decorated Air Force pilot William Franklin Smith Junior had been 53 00:03:19,560 --> 00:03:22,040 Speaker 1: flying a B twenty five D bomber on a mission 54 00:03:22,080 --> 00:03:24,880 Speaker 1: with two passengers to Newark, New Jersey, but the sky 55 00:03:25,040 --> 00:03:28,000 Speaker 1: was full of heavy fog and he got lost taking 56 00:03:28,040 --> 00:03:30,840 Speaker 1: a wrong turn. His altitude was half of what it 57 00:03:30,880 --> 00:03:33,560 Speaker 1: should have been, which soon brought him smack dab into 58 00:03:33,560 --> 00:03:37,040 Speaker 1: the seventy ninth and eightieth floors of the Empire State Building. 59 00:03:37,480 --> 00:03:41,960 Speaker 1: The plane exploded on impact, setting both floors ablaze. William, 60 00:03:42,120 --> 00:03:45,400 Speaker 1: his two passengers, and the eleven people inside the building 61 00:03:45,520 --> 00:03:48,800 Speaker 1: were killed. One of the plane's engines flew off, falling 62 00:03:48,880 --> 00:03:52,080 Speaker 1: several feet away and crashing into a penthouse art studio, 63 00:03:52,440 --> 00:03:55,040 Speaker 1: but the other engine flew across the seventy eighth floor, 64 00:03:55,280 --> 00:03:58,520 Speaker 1: where it entered the elevator shaft, severing the cables of 65 00:03:58,560 --> 00:04:02,320 Speaker 1: Betty's elevator and exploating the top of her cab. As 66 00:04:02,360 --> 00:04:05,720 Speaker 1: a result, she fell eighty stories or one thousand feet, 67 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:09,520 Speaker 1: giving her the Guinness World Record for longest fall survived 68 00:04:09,560 --> 00:04:13,120 Speaker 1: in an elevator. This also remains the highest story fire 69 00:04:13,200 --> 00:04:18,080 Speaker 1: that New York City firefighters have ever successfully contained. Experts, 70 00:04:18,160 --> 00:04:21,560 Speaker 1: including members of the TV science show MythBusters, agree that 71 00:04:21,600 --> 00:04:24,880 Speaker 1: Betty survived the fall because of two factors. The broken 72 00:04:24,920 --> 00:04:28,520 Speaker 1: elevator cables coiling at the bottom of the shaft cushioned 73 00:04:28,520 --> 00:04:31,960 Speaker 1: her fall, and the narrow nature of the shaft creating 74 00:04:32,040 --> 00:04:35,480 Speaker 1: air pressure that would have also slowed the cab. Still, 75 00:04:35,960 --> 00:04:40,880 Speaker 1: it was barely enough. Betty's injuries were horrific. Congress responded 76 00:04:40,880 --> 00:04:43,560 Speaker 1: by passing a law that actually allowed victims of the 77 00:04:43,640 --> 00:04:47,559 Speaker 1: crash to sue the government for damages. Betty spent months 78 00:04:47,600 --> 00:04:51,200 Speaker 1: in the hospital, but miraculously made a full recovery. She 79 00:04:51,320 --> 00:04:53,920 Speaker 1: was able to return to Arkansas with Oscar, where they 80 00:04:54,000 --> 00:04:57,640 Speaker 1: enjoyed a long life with many children and grandchildren. The 81 00:04:57,720 --> 00:05:01,360 Speaker 1: accident was ultimately just a curing chapter in her life, 82 00:05:01,600 --> 00:05:03,839 Speaker 1: but it's a good reminder that every day could be 83 00:05:04,080 --> 00:05:06,919 Speaker 1: your last, and that if danger ever comes your way, 84 00:05:07,320 --> 00:05:24,200 Speaker 1: hold on tight, then you might just survive. If there's 85 00:05:24,240 --> 00:05:27,680 Speaker 1: any universal truth about school life, it's that students love 86 00:05:27,760 --> 00:05:31,520 Speaker 1: sorting themselves into clubs and clicks. As young people navigate 87 00:05:31,560 --> 00:05:35,359 Speaker 1: the annoyances and frustrations of schoolwork, finding friends with the 88 00:05:35,400 --> 00:05:39,080 Speaker 1: same interests can make things significantly more endurable, whether these 89 00:05:39,120 --> 00:05:42,840 Speaker 1: clubs were official or not. In nineteen eleven Birmingham, a 90 00:05:42,880 --> 00:05:45,960 Speaker 1: group of nine British schoolboys found a club of their own. 91 00:05:46,360 --> 00:05:49,240 Speaker 1: The four core members of this group were named Robert, Jeffrey, 92 00:05:49,360 --> 00:05:53,640 Speaker 1: Christopher and John. They were all ambitious young men who 93 00:05:53,680 --> 00:05:57,839 Speaker 1: wanted to become poets, writers, and artists, and frequently found themselves, 94 00:05:57,920 --> 00:06:01,240 Speaker 1: drinking tea together at Barrows Store near the school, where 95 00:06:01,279 --> 00:06:04,200 Speaker 1: they would discuss the plans for their lives. And these 96 00:06:04,240 --> 00:06:07,160 Speaker 1: were the usual things that schoolboy dreams are made of, 97 00:06:07,440 --> 00:06:10,880 Speaker 1: grand hopes for the future, dreams of artistic success and 98 00:06:11,000 --> 00:06:14,599 Speaker 1: changing the world. There was a Maverick streak to this group. 99 00:06:14,760 --> 00:06:17,760 Speaker 1: Sometimes they would smuggle tea into their school library in 100 00:06:17,880 --> 00:06:21,240 Speaker 1: order to drink while studying. In homage to this behavior, 101 00:06:21,480 --> 00:06:24,839 Speaker 1: the group would be named the Tea Club and Borrovian Society. 102 00:06:25,240 --> 00:06:28,320 Speaker 1: Every member would put the letters TCBs at the end 103 00:06:28,360 --> 00:06:31,520 Speaker 1: of their signature, a way of signifying how important this 104 00:06:31,600 --> 00:06:34,440 Speaker 1: bond was to them. Even when they split off to 105 00:06:34,480 --> 00:06:38,200 Speaker 1: go to college, reunions between Robert, Jeffrey, Christopher, and John 106 00:06:38,240 --> 00:06:41,400 Speaker 1: would continue. By the time they met in nineteen fourteen, 107 00:06:41,760 --> 00:06:44,000 Speaker 1: John was even beginning work on a piece of fiction 108 00:06:44,080 --> 00:06:47,400 Speaker 1: that he had hopes for until the larger world derailed 109 00:06:47,480 --> 00:06:51,320 Speaker 1: everyone's ambitions. World War One broke out in Europe, and 110 00:06:51,400 --> 00:06:54,920 Speaker 1: soon all four boys were training to fight. Christopher joined 111 00:06:54,960 --> 00:06:58,120 Speaker 1: the navy, Jeffrey and Robert enlisted in the army. The 112 00:06:58,160 --> 00:07:00,800 Speaker 1: final one to join was John. Although he continued to 113 00:07:00,839 --> 00:07:04,000 Speaker 1: send his poems to friends as he went through basic training. 114 00:07:04,600 --> 00:07:07,760 Speaker 1: They deployed in nineteen fifteen, and during the war the 115 00:07:07,760 --> 00:07:12,080 Speaker 1: TCBs would become a coping mechanism for the boys. Jeffrey wrote, 116 00:07:12,200 --> 00:07:15,000 Speaker 1: while fearing the worst for his unit, that the death 117 00:07:15,000 --> 00:07:18,680 Speaker 1: of one member would not destroy the TCBs. His friends 118 00:07:18,720 --> 00:07:22,600 Speaker 1: were the Immortal four. Of the so called Immortal four, 119 00:07:23,000 --> 00:07:25,320 Speaker 1: only two would return home at the end of the war. 120 00:07:25,760 --> 00:07:28,920 Speaker 1: Jeffrey and Robert both died during the Battle of the Somme, 121 00:07:29,000 --> 00:07:32,680 Speaker 1: while Christopher and John survived. John worked hard to ensure 122 00:07:32,720 --> 00:07:36,360 Speaker 1: that Jeffrey's poems would be published posthumously, collecting them and 123 00:07:36,400 --> 00:07:39,640 Speaker 1: writing a preface for them himself. Christopher would go on 124 00:07:39,720 --> 00:07:42,840 Speaker 1: to become a naval instructor, but John remained dedicated to 125 00:07:42,840 --> 00:07:45,520 Speaker 1: the craft of prose and poetry. When he became a 126 00:07:45,560 --> 00:07:50,000 Speaker 1: professor at Oxford, he founded another literary club among the professors, 127 00:07:50,200 --> 00:07:52,200 Speaker 1: which would come to be known by its own name. 128 00:07:52,560 --> 00:07:56,080 Speaker 1: But he never forgot his companions from the TCBs, and 129 00:07:56,200 --> 00:08:00,560 Speaker 1: named his children after them. John's prominence in literary circles 130 00:08:00,600 --> 00:08:04,000 Speaker 1: grew over the following years. An expert on mythology and 131 00:08:04,080 --> 00:08:08,200 Speaker 1: ancient languages, he contributed to new translations of Beowulf and 132 00:08:08,280 --> 00:08:11,240 Speaker 1: Sir Gawayne in The Green Knight, exploring the ins and 133 00:08:11,320 --> 00:08:14,160 Speaker 1: outs of British literature with a keen eye of an 134 00:08:14,200 --> 00:08:18,280 Speaker 1: academic and the passion of an amateur. Not long after, 135 00:08:18,520 --> 00:08:21,360 Speaker 1: inspired by his love of fairy stories, he wrote a 136 00:08:21,360 --> 00:08:24,360 Speaker 1: book for children which would be published in the nineteen thirties, 137 00:08:24,680 --> 00:08:28,360 Speaker 1: and perhaps you've heard of it. It was called The Hobbit, 138 00:08:28,960 --> 00:08:31,440 Speaker 1: And after The Hobbit, he worked for almost twenty years 139 00:08:31,480 --> 00:08:34,760 Speaker 1: to produce his masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings, a 140 00:08:34,800 --> 00:08:38,439 Speaker 1: work of epic literature that redefined fantasy for all time, 141 00:08:38,840 --> 00:08:41,120 Speaker 1: all because of a dream that he first conceived while 142 00:08:41,160 --> 00:08:45,040 Speaker 1: illicitly smuggling tea into the library with his school friends. 143 00:08:45,800 --> 00:08:48,080 Speaker 1: These days, it's a lot harder to stay in touch 144 00:08:48,120 --> 00:08:51,560 Speaker 1: with our classmates. Life gets busy, work takes us hundreds 145 00:08:51,679 --> 00:08:54,240 Speaker 1: or thousands of miles from home, and the careers we 146 00:08:54,320 --> 00:08:56,960 Speaker 1: build or the lives we live often feel like we're 147 00:08:57,000 --> 00:09:00,160 Speaker 1: moving on more than building up. But that doesn't mean 148 00:09:00,240 --> 00:09:03,960 Speaker 1: we stop thinking about those early days and foundational friends. 149 00:09:04,440 --> 00:09:12,480 Speaker 1: After all, you'll never forget your first fellowship. I hope 150 00:09:12,480 --> 00:09:15,800 Speaker 1: you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. 151 00:09:16,160 --> 00:09:19,240 Speaker 1: Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about 152 00:09:19,240 --> 00:09:23,800 Speaker 1: the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show 153 00:09:24,040 --> 00:09:27,280 Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how 154 00:09:27,360 --> 00:09:30,960 Speaker 1: Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, 155 00:09:31,200 --> 00:09:34,840 Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and 156 00:09:34,880 --> 00:09:37,479 Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at the Worldoflore 157 00:09:37,760 --> 00:09:43,320 Speaker 1: dot com. And until next time, stay curious.