Speaker 1: Welcomed Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full
Speaker 1: of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Life is a one way trip depending on
Speaker 1: what your beliefs are. Buddhism, most Hinduism, and even most
Speaker 1: Paganism believe in the concept of reincarnation, that when we die,
Speaker 1: our spiritual essence is reborn in a new body. But
Speaker 1: for those who don't believe in second chances, our lives
Speaker 1: go on for a set amount of time until they're over.
Speaker 1: We may get eighty years or a hundred, while the
Speaker 1: truly unfortunate pass on much lier than that. What I'm
Speaker 1: saying is this life is short, no matter how long
Speaker 1: we're here for, so it's best to make the most
Speaker 1: of what time we do have, just like the vin
Speaker 1: Back before Austria was a landlocked country in the middle
Speaker 1: of Central Europe, its footprint was much larger and stretched
Speaker 1: all the way to the sea. Austria Hungary was a
Speaker 1: force to be reckoned with and even had its own navy.
Speaker 1: In March of nineteen eighteen, a massive passenger steamship named
Speaker 1: the Vine was launched by Austrian Lloyd Shipping Company. It
Speaker 1: entered the water from Trieste, a city in northern Italy
Speaker 1: that was still under the thumb of Austro Hungary. Ven
Speaker 1: weighed over seven thousand tons and measured a hundred and
Speaker 1: thirty five meters long. It was considered the largest Austrian
Speaker 1: ship of its time. Along with its sister ship, the
Speaker 1: hell Yuan. The Vian's primary route was from Trieste to Egypt.
Speaker 1: With one five first class cabins, sixty one second class cabins,
Speaker 1: and fifty four third class cabins on board, It also
Speaker 1: came equipped with two engines powered by boilers, capable of
Speaker 1: producing ten thousand horsepower At the start of World War One. However,
Speaker 1: just a handful of years after its launch, the Ven
Speaker 1: shed her luxurious nature and was recommissioned as a hospital
Speaker 1: ship by the Austro Hungarian Navy. She only lasted about
Speaker 1: four months in this capacity before damaging her propellers after
Speaker 1: running aground. She was repaired over the next several months
Speaker 1: before she returned to active duty, but no longer as
Speaker 1: a hospital ship. Instead, the Vian became a barracks for
Speaker 1: the German sub cruise stationed in the waters near the
Speaker 1: Croatian city of Pula. Then, on Halloween nights of nineteen
Speaker 1: two frogmen from the Italian Royal Navy broke through the
Speaker 1: barricade into the port. They were gliding beneath the surface
Speaker 1: of the water on a vehicle known as a mignata,
Speaker 1: which resembled a large torpedo. The men attached limpet minds
Speaker 1: to one of Austro Hungary's battleships, the very Bus Unitas,
Speaker 1: but were caught almost immediately. They quietly got rid of
Speaker 1: the Big Nada before they were taken into custody. Now,
Speaker 1: one of those men, Raphael Rossetti, didn't tell anyone about
Speaker 1: the mines. He merely informed them that the battleship was
Speaker 1: about to sink in the harbor. His captors didn't believe
Speaker 1: him until the mines went off and the Viribus Untas
Speaker 1: went down. Meanwhile, the Magnata, which had been tucked beside
Speaker 1: the vine, began its self destruct sequence. It exploded a
Speaker 1: short time later and tore a hole into the side
Speaker 1: of the ship. Sending her into a watery grave. After
Speaker 1: the war had ended, the Vine was raised and brought
Speaker 1: back to her manufacturer in Trieste, which was now part
Speaker 1: of Italy and no longer under Austro Hungarian control. The
Speaker 1: vessel was repaired once more and renamed the Vienna, before
Speaker 1: resuming her original function as a passenger ship in The
Speaker 1: Vienna continued on that way for fourteen years until a
Speaker 1: war broke out in Ethiopia. She was then requisitioned by
Speaker 1: the Italian Navy as an infirmary ship and transport vessel
Speaker 1: for soldiers and ammunition. The war eventually ended, though, and
Speaker 1: Vienna was back to cruising the high seas as a
Speaker 1: liner with a brand new name po It carried on
Speaker 1: for several years, hauling passengers from Italy to Egypt and
Speaker 1: back again, until Italy entered World War Two in ninety
Speaker 1: pose days as a civilian ship were over again, she
Speaker 1: was called back to active duty once more as a
Speaker 1: hospital ship. They gave the ship a fresh coat of
Speaker 1: white paint and a belt of green around her middle,
Speaker 1: so other ships, specifically those on the other side, knew
Speaker 1: that she meant no harm. However, on the night of
Speaker 1: March fourteenth, ninety one British aircraft fired a torpedo at
Speaker 1: the vessel, which was coasting along incomplete darkness. They couldn't
Speaker 1: tell Poe from any other ship in the sea. She
Speaker 1: sunk off the coast of Albania, killing twenty crew members
Speaker 1: and four Red Cross nurses. The ship, formerly known as
Speaker 1: Vienna and Vien, was a versatile one, but doomed to
Speaker 1: a bitter sweet legacy. Not only did it sink twice
Speaker 1: in its lifetime, but it also served in two World Wars. Curious,
Speaker 1: you better believe it. It's hard to ask for help.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we don't want to burden others with our problems,
Speaker 1: choosing instead defend for ourselves rather than involve someone else.
Speaker 1: Maybe we'd like the satisfaction of fixing our own issues
Speaker 1: on our own, or maybe we're just scared of being
Speaker 1: told no. But there are problems that, no matter how
Speaker 1: hard we try, we cannot surmount them on our own,
Speaker 1: and every once in a while, the people who are
Speaker 1: able to help us are the ones we never expected
Speaker 1: to in the first place. It all started with an
Speaker 1: actress and a producer by the name of Lucille Ball
Speaker 1: born in Jamestown, New York. In nineteen eleven. Ball got
Speaker 1: an early starts in the entertainment industry when she was
Speaker 1: just twelve years old, performing for her father's Shriner's Guild.
Speaker 1: From there, she works her way through show business as
Speaker 1: a model and film actor. Ball appeared in small roles
Speaker 1: during the nineteen thirties in three Stooges shorts and a
Speaker 1: Marx Brothers film. She also played bit parts in several musicals,
Speaker 1: hoping she would eventually reach her ultimate goal the Broadway stage.
Speaker 1: You see, that was where she truly wanted to be,
Speaker 1: and she got close in ninety seven when she started
Speaker 1: in a production of a play by playwright Bartlett Cormick.
Speaker 1: But the show didn't make it to Broadway, and Ball
Speaker 1: got as far as a theater in Princeton, New Jersey.
Speaker 1: Her co star got sick and could no longer perform,
Speaker 1: so the show was shut down. It had only been
Speaker 1: up for a week. Saw Lucy back in Hollywood, starring
Speaker 1: in the musical Too Many Girls. This was where she
Speaker 1: met her future husband, Cuban actor and bandleader Desi Arnez,
Speaker 1: who performed in the film alongside her. It wasn't until
Speaker 1: eight years later when she finally got her big break
Speaker 1: Ball was cast as the character Liz Cooper, the Zaney housewife,
Speaker 1: in a comedy show for CBS Radio called My Favorite Husband.
Speaker 1: Her husband was played by Creature from the Black Lagoons
Speaker 1: star Richard Denning. The radio program was a hit, airing
Speaker 1: for three years in a total of one d and
Speaker 1: twenty four episodes. It was so successful that CBS insisted
Speaker 1: Ball adapted for the screen as a television show. There
Speaker 1: was just one caveat. She had to bring over her
Speaker 1: co star Richard Denning to play her husband in the
Speaker 1: TV version of the show as well, and Ball refused.
Speaker 1: She wanted her on screen husband to be played by
Speaker 1: her actual husband, Desi Arnez. The network and sponsors were
Speaker 1: hesitant at first. They didn't think American television viewers would
Speaker 1: accept an interracial couple, but they were very wrong. I
Speaker 1: Love Lucy premiered in nineteen fifty one and ran for
Speaker 1: six seasons. It was a monster hit and proof that
Speaker 1: Lucille Ball wasn't just a comedic genius. She also knew
Speaker 1: a good idea when she saw one, which is why
Speaker 1: she didn't immediately pass on a script that came across
Speaker 1: her desk in nineteen sixty four, It had been penned
Speaker 1: by a television writer who had worked on several shows
Speaker 1: during the nineteen fifties and sixties, including Have Gun, Will
Speaker 1: Travel and The Lieutenant. However, in the mid sixties, this
Speaker 1: teleplay writer wanted to dip his toe into the realm
Speaker 1: of science fiction. He'd come up with a stellar plot
Speaker 1: get It about a spaceship called the s S Yorktown
Speaker 1: and it's captain Robert April, who searched the Milky Way
Speaker 1: for new life and new civilizations. Lucy didn't quite get
Speaker 1: the show. She initially thought it was about a troop
Speaker 1: of celebrities on a World War two U s O tour,
Speaker 1: but she bought it anyway and funded the production of
Speaker 1: a pilot through Daisilu Studios. Her production company, now CBS,
Speaker 1: passed on the idea since they already had a science
Speaker 1: fiction show on the air called Lost in Space You've
Speaker 1: probably heard of that. Instead, NBC agreed to take it on. However,
Speaker 1: the network called the finished pilot to cerebral and chose
Speaker 1: not to pick it up for a full series, but
Speaker 1: they did like the concept, so rather than dump it entirely,
Speaker 1: they commissioned a new pilot with a reworked script, Captain
Speaker 1: Robert April was changed to Captain Christopher Pike, and the U. S. S.
Speaker 1: Yorktown became the iconic starfleet vessel, the U. S. S. Enterprise.
Speaker 1: The second pilot also introduced new characters who had not
Speaker 1: been part of the original, including Captain James T. Kirk
Speaker 1: and Lieutenant Sulu Leonard Nimoi's Spock had been a part
Speaker 1: of the show since the very beginning. Desilu funded the
Speaker 1: new pilot as well, and thanks to Lucy Gene Roddenberry,
Speaker 1: Star Trek became a major hit and a cultural touchstone
Speaker 1: for decades to come. But the story doesn't end there.
Speaker 1: Star Trek, you see, wasn't the only show that Lucy
Speaker 1: helped bring to the airwaves. Several years earlier, in nineteen
Speaker 1: fifty eight, Desilu Studios was in the process of launching
Speaker 1: a brand new television program called Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse. The
Speaker 1: show was designed as an anthology series where each week
Speaker 1: a new story would be told with roles played by
Speaker 1: different A list actors, and in the process of hunting
Speaker 1: for new scripts to adapt, producer Burt Granite happened upon
Speaker 1: one that had been bought and shelved several years earlier.
Speaker 1: It was about a man who was plagued with a
Speaker 1: recurring nightmare in which he constantly appeared at Pearl Harbor
Speaker 1: just before the attack on December seven of ninety one.
Speaker 1: He told his psychiatrist about the dreams and believed that
Speaker 1: they weren't dreams at all, that he was actually going
Speaker 1: back in time to the real event. The psychiatrist assured
Speaker 1: him that he was fine and that they were just
Speaker 1: dreams that at the end of the story, the psychiatrist
Speaker 1: learned that this patient had really died at Pearl Harbor.
Speaker 1: The episode was hosted by Desis Arnez and acted as
Speaker 1: kind of a backdoor pilot for a brand new series,
Speaker 1: one that would be hosted by the stories writer, a
Speaker 1: guy named Rod Serling. It was a show that welcomed
Speaker 1: viewers into a fifth dimension, the middle ground between light
Speaker 1: and shadow, but the mention of imagination. Because of the
Speaker 1: efforts of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez, the world was
Speaker 1: able to step inside the Twilight Zone. 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 World of Lore
Speaker 1: dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,