WEBVTT - Like The Wind 0:00:02.600 --> 0:00:06.560 You're listening to American Shadows, a production of iHeartRadio and 0:00:06.640 --> 0:00:15.440 Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manky. 0:00:16.440 --> 0:00:20.040 In October of eighteen ninety three, it became clear to 0:00:20.079 --> 0:00:23.840 the readers of the National Police Gazette, a popular men's magazine, 0:00:24.040 --> 0:00:28.160 that America was facing a scourge that challenged the decency 0:00:28.320 --> 0:00:31.400 and the physical well being of Americans. It had been 0:00:31.400 --> 0:00:34.479 introduced in the country almost a decade earlier, and had 0:00:34.520 --> 0:00:37.320 been a plague on women's health and happiness ever since. 0:00:37.960 --> 0:00:42.760 The object of everyone's displeasure the bicycle. That October, the 0:00:42.840 --> 0:00:45.800 men who read the Gazette were confronted by the scandless 0:00:45.800 --> 0:00:49.519 image of aspiring model Angeline Allen riding a bike in 0:00:49.560 --> 0:00:53.960 a stylish bicycle suit. While her jaunt cap, long sleeved 0:00:54.000 --> 0:00:57.600 fitted coat and kneelength bloomers might look conservative to us, 0:00:57.960 --> 0:01:00.320 it was downright and decent in the eyes of many 0:01:00.360 --> 0:01:04.479 Gilded Age Americans. Alan wasn't the first woman to draw 0:01:04.520 --> 0:01:07.280 the ire of the press for riding a bike. The 0:01:07.319 --> 0:01:11.240 bicycle craze that swept the nation was shocking, and everyone 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:15.280 had an opinion. The bicycle was invented in eighteen seventeen 0:01:15.520 --> 0:01:18.800 and was originally called a swift walker, it had no 0:01:18.880 --> 0:01:21.840 petals and was made of wood with two large wheels 0:01:21.880 --> 0:01:25.520 trimmed with iron rims and leather tires. Though it was 0:01:25.600 --> 0:01:28.720 unwieldy to ride, the invention caught on and it didn't 0:01:28.720 --> 0:01:33.000 take long for people to make improvements. More women joined 0:01:33.040 --> 0:01:35.120 in the merriment in the eighteen eighties thanks to the 0:01:35.120 --> 0:01:38.800 development of the safety bicycle, which had equal sized wheels 0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:42.840 and tires that inflated. For women, the bicycle was a 0:01:42.920 --> 0:01:46.399 vehicle of freedom as well as fun. It allowed them 0:01:46.440 --> 0:01:49.400 a new kind of mobility that never had before, which 0:01:49.480 --> 0:01:53.840 threatened the status quo. The arguments against women bicycling fell 0:01:53.880 --> 0:01:59.360 into two main camps, the moral and the medical. Morally speaking, 0:01:59.600 --> 0:02:03.360 the needed to ride a bicycle was indecent by nineteenth 0:02:03.440 --> 0:02:08.400 century standards. The bicycle suit resembled Alan's bloomers and blouse ensemble, 0:02:08.720 --> 0:02:12.079 and the split legs were seen as sillacious and masculine. 0:02:12.760 --> 0:02:17.440 Organizations like the Women's Rescue League of Boston disparaged female bicyclists, 0:02:17.840 --> 0:02:20.720 claiming the city's sex workers used them to look for 0:02:20.800 --> 0:02:24.680 clients and show off their figures. In Chicago, one man 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:27.520 would hide in parks and whip women who were peacefully 0:02:27.560 --> 0:02:31.040 cycling in their suits. Aside from the potential for the 0:02:31.080 --> 0:02:35.320 bicycle to lead young women into moral peril, medical professionals 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:38.000 worried it was too much of a strain on women's health. 0:02:38.760 --> 0:02:41.880 They emphasized a new condition known as bicycle face as 0:02:41.960 --> 0:02:45.680 evidence for their claims. A bicycle face was as sort 0:02:45.720 --> 0:02:48.919 of grimace. Women's faces apparently took on when they were 0:02:49.040 --> 0:02:53.320 exerting themselves, with flushed cheeks, bags under their eyes, and 0:02:53.360 --> 0:02:57.919 an overall look of exhaustion. Bicycling was in short making 0:02:57.919 --> 0:03:02.720 women ugly. Also claimed that there were other potential ailments, 0:03:02.800 --> 0:03:06.960 like the bicycle hump of bicycle wrists, bicycle gums, and 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:10.600 the bicycle hand, which was a condition that formed because 0:03:10.720 --> 0:03:13.520 women's hands were so much weaker than men's and they 0:03:13.680 --> 0:03:17.840 couldn't handle the eye hand coordination. Though some women voiced 0:03:17.880 --> 0:03:20.600 their own opinions about the bicycle, many of them positive, 0:03:21.160 --> 0:03:24.680 male journalists continued to harp on the dangers of cycling 0:03:24.760 --> 0:03:28.160 for the fairer sex from their lofty newspaper columns and 0:03:28.320 --> 0:03:32.520 medical journals. It would take a spectacular feat and a 0:03:32.560 --> 0:03:35.760 courageous woman to challenge the moralists and the medical men 0:03:36.240 --> 0:03:38.760 and subvert the gender roles that the world plung to 0:03:38.920 --> 0:03:48.840 so closely. I'm lorn vogelbum Welcome to American Shadows. The 0:03:48.880 --> 0:03:53.240 Massachusetts State House sits glittering golden on Beacon Hill, at 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:55.760 the top of a slope running along the Boston Common. 0:03:56.480 --> 0:03:59.600 On June twenty fifth of eighteen ninety four, a crowd 0:03:59.640 --> 0:04:03.320 of about five hundred gathered to watch a spectacle. But 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:06.320 it wasn't a parade or a speech they were looking for. 0:04:07.000 --> 0:04:10.160 It was a small woman in long skirts standing next 0:04:10.160 --> 0:04:14.080 to a bicycle. She was known as Annie Londonderry, and 0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:17.279 she had a bet to win. A decade earlier, in 0:04:17.320 --> 0:04:21.039 eighteen eighty four, a British man named Thomas Stevens cycled 0:04:21.080 --> 0:04:24.320 around the world, and in eighteen eighty nine Nellie Bly 0:04:24.480 --> 0:04:27.000 went around the world in seventy two days via the 0:04:27.040 --> 0:04:31.680 traditional travel methods, beating the fictional record, But due to 0:04:31.800 --> 0:04:35.680 financial constraints and the general attitude toward the fair sex 0:04:35.720 --> 0:04:39.359 on bikes, no woman had tried to repeat Stephen's trip 0:04:39.839 --> 0:04:45.400 until Annie. Admittedly she was an unlikely candidate. Her real 0:04:45.480 --> 0:04:49.159 name was Annie Kopschowski, a twenty four year old Jewish immigrant. 0:04:49.600 --> 0:04:51.920 Her family had moved to Boston when she was a child, 0:04:52.080 --> 0:04:54.120 and she grew up in the West End along with 0:04:54.160 --> 0:04:56.960 immigrants from all over Europe, at least a quarter of 0:04:56.960 --> 0:05:00.320 whom were Jewish. Though many of Europe's Jewish pop relation 0:05:00.440 --> 0:05:03.240 had immigrated to America in the eighteen hundreds to escape 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:07.280 pogroms and discrimination, they didn't find a warm welcome here. 0:05:08.160 --> 0:05:11.480 Anti Semitism was on the rise across the nation, including 0:05:11.520 --> 0:05:15.640 in Boston, so Jewish families stuck together in neighborhoods like 0:05:15.720 --> 0:05:19.560 the West End. Tenement housing dominated the skyline, and the 0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:23.560 buildings were connected by thin laundry lines strung clothes flapping 0:05:23.560 --> 0:05:26.400 in the breeze if anyone could look up. That is. 0:05:27.240 --> 0:05:31.359 The streets were paphazardly paved with disjointed cobblestones, and you 0:05:31.400 --> 0:05:33.240 were more than likely to turn your ankle if you 0:05:33.240 --> 0:05:36.960 weren't paying attention. Annie's whole life was in the West End. 0:05:37.880 --> 0:05:41.800 Her husband, Max Kopchowski, was a devout Orthodox Jew who 0:05:41.839 --> 0:05:44.280 worked as a peddler to help support the family, but 0:05:44.400 --> 0:05:47.280 spent most of his time in prayer to keep from 0:05:47.360 --> 0:05:50.560 sliding further into poverty. Annie got a job going door 0:05:50.600 --> 0:05:54.640 to door selling advertisements in local newspapers, developing a charming 0:05:54.680 --> 0:05:58.320 demeanor and excellent sales skills. Annie was a go getter 0:05:58.520 --> 0:06:00.520 and willing to do whatever it took to make a 0:06:00.600 --> 0:06:03.520 name for herself and support her family, which is how 0:06:03.560 --> 0:06:05.960 she came to be a part of the convoluted wager 0:06:06.040 --> 0:06:09.320 that would send her from pillar to post. According to 0:06:09.360 --> 0:06:13.040 one story, it was a bet between two wealthy Bostonians 0:06:13.320 --> 0:06:16.960 that a woman couldn't cycle around the world. The terms 0:06:17.000 --> 0:06:20.000 were simple. Annie would cycle around the world in fifteen 0:06:20.040 --> 0:06:22.760 months or less and return with five thousand dollars that 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:26.440 she earned on the road. She wasn't allowed to accept charity. 0:06:27.040 --> 0:06:29.840 If she won, she would receive ten thousand dollars, and 0:06:30.080 --> 0:06:33.839 if she lost, she'd get nothing. That morning in June, 0:06:33.920 --> 0:06:37.640 the gathered crowd likely sized Annie up and wondered how 0:06:37.640 --> 0:06:39.880 she would pull off such a feat. None of them 0:06:39.960 --> 0:06:42.520 knew that Annie had never ridden a bicycle aside from 0:06:42.680 --> 0:06:46.320 three lessons before that day at the courthouse. Standing at 0:06:46.320 --> 0:06:49.559 five foot three inches and about one hundred pounds, Annie 0:06:49.600 --> 0:06:52.480 would have to pilot a forty two pound Columbia bicycle 0:06:52.520 --> 0:06:55.880 around the world. The bike was part of several advertisements 0:06:55.880 --> 0:06:58.320 she was using to fund her trip, she would be 0:06:58.320 --> 0:07:02.040 showcasing the name brand bike and had paper advertisements pinned 0:07:02.120 --> 0:07:05.599 to her front and back. Even her new surname, Londonderry, 0:07:05.760 --> 0:07:08.880 was part of a new Hampshire Water Company promotion, though 0:07:09.040 --> 0:07:12.360 some theorized she changed it to avoid rampant anti semitism. 0:07:13.160 --> 0:07:16.120 The twenty fifth was her official start date, but Annie 0:07:16.160 --> 0:07:18.920 didn't leave Boston until the twenty seventh, and was seen 0:07:18.960 --> 0:07:22.239 off by a small crowd that didn't include her family. 0:07:22.680 --> 0:07:25.440 Her husband and children adored her, so it must have 0:07:25.480 --> 0:07:29.680 been devastating for them to lose her for over a year. Instead, 0:07:29.840 --> 0:07:32.720 a close friend and a handful of newspapermen were there 0:07:32.760 --> 0:07:36.400 to record annie send off, armed with a pistol, a 0:07:36.560 --> 0:07:39.720 change of clothes, and the money she'd received from advertisers. 0:07:39.960 --> 0:07:42.800 Annie was off like a kite, as one paper put it, 0:07:43.280 --> 0:07:46.680 Although her brother was the reporter and might have been biased, 0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:50.800 the Boston Post's description of her wobbling down Beacon Street 0:07:50.880 --> 0:07:55.760 was probably more accurate. Bumping, jolting and peddling for her life. 0:07:55.920 --> 0:07:58.720 Annie was starting a journey that could change perceptions of 0:07:58.760 --> 0:08:10.560 women forever, and her first stop, the Big Apple. Anyone 0:08:10.600 --> 0:08:15.400 who's ridden a bicycle competitively or otherwise knows that weight matters, 0:08:16.040 --> 0:08:19.560 and so as Annie trundled along unpaved roads toward New 0:08:19.640 --> 0:08:22.760 York City by way of Providence, Rhode Island, she had 0:08:22.760 --> 0:08:25.640 to account for every extra pound of baggage on top 0:08:25.680 --> 0:08:28.360 of that forty two pound bike. In addition to her 0:08:28.440 --> 0:08:32.240 lack of experience, this meant it was slow going. She 0:08:32.360 --> 0:08:34.560 managed to make it to New York by July second, 0:08:34.760 --> 0:08:36.840 with plans to leave for Washington, d C. In a 0:08:36.840 --> 0:08:39.600 few days. All of this was put on hold for 0:08:39.720 --> 0:08:42.560 nearly a month so Annie could make more money. She 0:08:42.640 --> 0:08:46.000 was nothing if not practical, and newspaper articles showed how 0:08:46.080 --> 0:08:49.360 she had shed her original plans and her wardrobe when 0:08:49.400 --> 0:08:53.920 the need arose. Her bicycling skills had improved, and as 0:08:53.960 --> 0:08:55.920 she left New York on July twenty eighth with a 0:08:55.960 --> 0:09:01.080 new itinerary, she donned a new skirt suit with bloomers underneath. Scandalously, 0:09:01.280 --> 0:09:04.080 she didn't wear a corset and could easily lift her 0:09:04.080 --> 0:09:07.680 skirt and pitnant away from the petals. July twenty eighth 0:09:07.760 --> 0:09:09.720 was one of the hottest days on record in New York, 0:09:09.920 --> 0:09:12.440 reaching ninety eight degrees, and in the middle of the 0:09:12.440 --> 0:09:16.199 city it was likely hotter still. Despite the heat, though 0:09:16.240 --> 0:09:19.280 weight of her bike and endless hills, Annie made good 0:09:19.320 --> 0:09:23.040 time to Buffalo. There she recovered before cycling along Lake 0:09:23.040 --> 0:09:26.360 Eurie and made her way to Chicago, arriving on September 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:29.920 twenty fourth. Annie was scarcely recognizable by the time she 0:09:30.000 --> 0:09:33.960 had reached Chicago. She traded in her original Columbia bicycle 0:09:34.000 --> 0:09:36.400 for a lighter Sterling bike, which was half the weight. 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:40.560 The bike and accompanying banners were another advertising scheme to 0:09:40.679 --> 0:09:43.760 help keep her afloat. Annie was seen off from City 0:09:43.760 --> 0:09:47.079 Hall on October fourteenth of eighteen ninety four, riding out 0:09:47.080 --> 0:09:49.920 of Chicago much more smoothly than she had in Boston. 0:09:50.440 --> 0:09:53.040 She was joined along the way by packs of bicyclists, 0:09:53.200 --> 0:09:57.000 predominantly men, but some women too. In fact, the Lady 0:09:57.040 --> 0:09:59.599 Cyclist Club of Chicago escorted her for a portion of 0:09:59.600 --> 0:10:03.080 her trip. Annie's original plan was to continue west to 0:10:03.120 --> 0:10:07.360 San Francisco and from there to Asia and Europe. However, 0:10:07.520 --> 0:10:11.120 it was only growing colder. Annie was getting faster on 0:10:11.160 --> 0:10:13.520 her bike, but cycling through the winter on the Great 0:10:13.559 --> 0:10:17.120 Plains was a dismal prospect, so she turned around and 0:10:17.240 --> 0:10:20.920 headed back to New York. She sold nick knacks and 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:23.840 lectured along the way to make money and earn bed 0:10:23.840 --> 0:10:28.000 and board. Whenever she stopped, the newspapers commented on her progress, 0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:31.360 and when she returned to Buffalo, she decided she'd trade 0:10:31.360 --> 0:10:35.040 in her bloomers for a man's cycling suit. She likely 0:10:35.080 --> 0:10:38.439 cut a dashing figure, but the moralists were horrified at 0:10:38.440 --> 0:10:43.640 the shocking site. Annie didn't care. She wore that outfit 0:10:43.720 --> 0:10:46.480 for the rest of the trip, slowly chipping away at 0:10:46.520 --> 0:10:50.200 the public's perceptions of femininity. Annie made it back to 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:53.160 New York City and in November of eighteen ninety four 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:57.440 ordered a steamer set for l' of France. It's unclear 0:10:57.520 --> 0:11:00.200 whether the French had heard about her wager, but she 0:11:00.320 --> 0:11:03.760 hardly got a warm welcome. Her bike was impounded and 0:11:03.840 --> 0:11:07.040 her money was confiscated. A Luckily, a friend from the 0:11:07.040 --> 0:11:10.479 passage stepped in and Annie, the bike, and her possessions 0:11:10.480 --> 0:11:13.400 were sent to Paris, arriving on December fourth to a 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:18.560 raucous perception. The people were fascinated, but the press was vicious. 0:11:19.440 --> 0:11:23.680 The papers mercilessly picked at Annie, commenting on her sacrificing 0:11:23.720 --> 0:11:27.640 her womanhood and becoming sexless. Fate worse than death for 0:11:27.679 --> 0:11:31.079 a woman, or so they believed. They hounded her choice 0:11:31.080 --> 0:11:36.600 of dress, her masculinity, and her americanness. Still, any press 0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:39.640 seemed to be good press because the public didn't care. 0:11:40.280 --> 0:11:44.240 Annie received plenty of advertising opportunities, and, like in the States, 0:11:44.520 --> 0:11:49.880 cycling clubs joined her throughout her ride. She was never alone. Still, 0:11:49.960 --> 0:11:53.400 it was a difficult trip between the snow drifts and 0:11:53.440 --> 0:11:57.000 the mud. Annie struggled through the French countryside and injured 0:11:57.040 --> 0:12:00.600 her achilles tendon before she hit Marseilles. She had to 0:12:00.640 --> 0:12:03.600 paddle with only one foot. She stayed for five days 0:12:03.600 --> 0:12:06.280 in Marseille to recover and earn enough for a steamer 0:12:06.320 --> 0:12:09.800 passage through the Suez Canal. While on board, she made 0:12:09.880 --> 0:12:14.400 short stops in Alexandria, Jerusalem, Port Said and Yemen. To 0:12:14.440 --> 0:12:16.760 honor the terms of the bet and keep her injury 0:12:16.760 --> 0:12:19.880 from getting worse, Annie took other forms of transportation to 0:12:19.960 --> 0:12:22.880 these places and then rode her bike through the city gates. 0:12:23.600 --> 0:12:27.400 The press continued their non stop bullying, but Annie set 0:12:27.400 --> 0:12:30.920 her sights on Asia. She had no idea what lay 0:12:30.920 --> 0:12:42.520 ahead for her, not until she set foot in Singapore. Though, 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:46.559 nothing could have been worse than Annie's disastrous arrival in France. 0:12:47.120 --> 0:12:52.040 Singapore wasn't much better. A newspapers mocked her, bet, her suit, 0:12:52.240 --> 0:12:54.960 and her posture, saying she was addicted either to a 0:12:55.000 --> 0:12:58.360 sewing machine or a bicycle. To them, she was both 0:12:58.480 --> 0:13:02.520 sexless and overly sexual, which was a tough needle to thread. 0:13:03.520 --> 0:13:07.000 She wasn't in Singapore long, heading to Sri Lanka, Saigon, 0:13:07.160 --> 0:13:10.959 and Hong Kong before making her way to Shanghai. Saigon 0:13:11.080 --> 0:13:15.000 specifically seemed to find Annie fascinating, and someone even wrote 0:13:15.000 --> 0:13:19.120 a poem to celebrate her endeavor. To them, she was radiant, 0:13:19.360 --> 0:13:22.559 bold and audacious, which was a far cry from how 0:13:22.559 --> 0:13:24.720 most of the press had portrayed her during her journey. 0:13:25.559 --> 0:13:28.440 While most of the world might not have changed their opinions, 0:13:28.840 --> 0:13:33.079 Annie was making an impact. Unfortunately, much of her trip 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:37.640 through China, Korea, and Japan wouldn't be so pleasant. The 0:13:37.679 --> 0:13:41.160 First Sino Japanese War began on August first of eighteen 0:13:41.240 --> 0:13:45.000 ninety four. It would last nearly a year. The Qing 0:13:45.120 --> 0:13:48.360 Dynasty of China and the Meiji Empire of Japan were 0:13:48.480 --> 0:13:53.280 fighting over control of Korea. Japan's decisive victory sent shockwaves 0:13:53.320 --> 0:13:56.280 through the area and signaled to the international community that 0:13:56.320 --> 0:13:59.400 the Qing dynasty may be failing, but a new empire 0:13:59.559 --> 0:14:03.000 was on the world. Annie arrived in the area when 0:14:03.040 --> 0:14:05.800 the war was really getting off the ground, and later 0:14:05.920 --> 0:14:09.280 gave interviews and lectures about what she had seen. Much 0:14:09.280 --> 0:14:13.400 of it was colored by Western anti Asian sentiments. Annie 0:14:13.440 --> 0:14:15.719 claimed that when she was in Nagasaki she had met 0:14:15.720 --> 0:14:18.400 two journalists who would cover the battles happening in Port 0:14:18.520 --> 0:14:22.240 Arthur and Way Highway. She joined them still on her 0:14:22.240 --> 0:14:25.600 bicycle while they rode horses, and although they might not 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:27.960 have been allowed on the front lines, they could still 0:14:28.000 --> 0:14:31.600 see the horrors of war. In a later interview, Annie 0:14:31.640 --> 0:14:34.600 claimed that after the battle at Way Highway, she and 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:37.840 her guide fell into a frozen river and Chinese troops 0:14:37.920 --> 0:14:41.040 began shooting at them in the water. They escaped, but 0:14:41.120 --> 0:14:43.320 Annie was shot in the shoulder and had to be treated. 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:46.480 As they fled the area, the pair were captured by 0:14:46.520 --> 0:14:50.200 Japanese soldiers and held him sell for three days. Annie 0:14:50.200 --> 0:14:52.760 said that she watched her guide die because of his 0:14:52.800 --> 0:14:56.240 injuries and saw a Chinese prisoner executed right in front 0:14:56.240 --> 0:14:58.760 of her. She said she wasn't allowed out until a 0:14:58.760 --> 0:15:01.920 French consul sent troops for her. She left the war 0:15:02.040 --> 0:15:04.840 behind and boarded a ship to San Francisco on March 0:15:04.840 --> 0:15:07.800 twenty fifth of eighteen ninety five. By the time she 0:15:07.840 --> 0:15:10.640 had landed, she was already a symbol of everything a 0:15:10.680 --> 0:15:14.480 woman could accomplish and a model for female independence and liberation, 0:15:15.400 --> 0:15:19.080 and she still had half a continent across. She stayed 0:15:19.080 --> 0:15:21.400 in San Francisco for two and a half weeks before 0:15:21.400 --> 0:15:25.040 setting off across the west for Chicago. While most of 0:15:25.040 --> 0:15:27.920 what she had faced up until that point hadn't been easy, 0:15:28.520 --> 0:15:31.520 this last leg of her journey was the most excruciating. 0:15:32.400 --> 0:15:34.960 Annie said she was held up at gunpoint by two 0:15:35.040 --> 0:15:38.240 highwaymen on the California border, and while she managed to 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:42.360 get away, the experience was traumatizing and disaster struck again 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:45.680 literally when a runaway team of horses trampled her in 0:15:45.720 --> 0:15:49.400 a companion cyclist. Annie was black and blue all over, 0:15:49.760 --> 0:15:52.360 but completed twenty two miles of her journey that day 0:15:52.840 --> 0:15:57.000 she had a lecture to give. While cycling across the 0:15:57.000 --> 0:16:00.160 Great American Desert, one of Annie's wheels broke and she 0:16:00.240 --> 0:16:03.200 was forced to walk nearly sixty miles to the nearest town, 0:16:03.480 --> 0:16:04.880 dragging her bike along the way. 0:16:04.960 --> 0:16:05.920 So it could be fixed. 0:16:06.800 --> 0:16:09.400 Oh once she was off again, she received warm welcomes 0:16:09.440 --> 0:16:13.920 throughout Arizona and New Mexico, though as ever the newspapers 0:16:13.920 --> 0:16:17.960 were stand offish at best. Then a large herd of 0:16:18.000 --> 0:16:20.680 pigs in Iowa caused her to crash and forced her 0:16:20.720 --> 0:16:23.200 to cycle to the nearest doctor eighteen miles away with 0:16:23.240 --> 0:16:26.920 a broken arm, and unfortunately it was set wrong and 0:16:27.040 --> 0:16:31.160 later had to be rebroken to heal properly. Annie rolled 0:16:31.200 --> 0:16:34.680 into Chicago on Thursday, September twelfth of eighteen ninety five, 0:16:35.200 --> 0:16:38.760 just fourteen days under her deadline. Her arm was still 0:16:38.760 --> 0:16:42.120 broken and she was sore, but she had done something 0:16:42.440 --> 0:16:45.840 no one thought was possible. A lone woman had cycled 0:16:45.840 --> 0:16:48.800 around the world at a time when most Americans thought 0:16:48.920 --> 0:16:52.160 lifting a hair brush might be too strenuous. She had 0:16:52.160 --> 0:16:56.720 seen deserts, prairies, and mountains and conquered them all. Or 0:16:57.560 --> 0:17:08.160 had she around the world is such a loose turn 0:17:08.200 --> 0:17:11.399 of phrase. When we think of going all around the world, 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:15.680 we probably think of something more all encompassing than Annie's trip. 0:17:16.280 --> 0:17:19.439 Annie collected her ten thousand dollars prize in Chicago and 0:17:19.520 --> 0:17:22.320 returned home to Boston in September, where she wrote an 0:17:22.320 --> 0:17:26.080 account of her now world famous ride. Most of the 0:17:26.080 --> 0:17:29.040 accounts about Annie and her ride came from Annie herself, 0:17:29.160 --> 0:17:32.359 via her articles and lectures, which were then popularized by 0:17:32.440 --> 0:17:36.560 journalists who loved the wild story she told, and therein 0:17:36.920 --> 0:17:42.520 lies the problem. Annie's story is inconsistent at best. Her 0:17:42.520 --> 0:17:46.560 French adventure is shrouded in obscurity. She frequently stated that 0:17:46.600 --> 0:17:49.119 she had been to certain places, but there was no 0:17:49.160 --> 0:17:51.800 evidence to support her claim other than her own word. 0:17:52.720 --> 0:17:56.640 Annie's lectures, especially those surrounding the First Sino Japanese War, 0:17:56.760 --> 0:18:01.840 were rife with racism and hyperbole. Annie probably never saw 0:18:01.880 --> 0:18:06.320 anyone get tortured or executed. She likely didn't have to 0:18:06.320 --> 0:18:09.119 be rescued by a company of frenchmen because no one 0:18:09.119 --> 0:18:11.040 would have let her near the front lines to begin with. 0:18:11.840 --> 0:18:14.200 Even the wild stories of her time in the American 0:18:14.240 --> 0:18:18.720 West more closely resembled a dime novel than reality. It's 0:18:18.840 --> 0:18:22.320 difficult to know what was real and what's fiction when 0:18:22.520 --> 0:18:27.400 stories about Annie's adventures solely came from her. The Singapore 0:18:27.440 --> 0:18:30.080 Straight Times might have put it best when they remarked, 0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:33.760 we fancy she exaggerates in reference to Annie's claim that 0:18:33.840 --> 0:18:37.760 fifty thousand people saw her off from Marseilles. Even her 0:18:37.800 --> 0:18:42.520 official biographer, her great grand nephew, Peter Jutelin, admits that 0:18:42.560 --> 0:18:46.040 the information we have about Annie is elusive at best. 0:18:47.000 --> 0:18:49.199 We don't even know if there was a wager that 0:18:49.280 --> 0:18:51.919 sent Annie on this quest, where the money that she 0:18:52.000 --> 0:18:56.359 claimed came from, or anything in between. The fact is 0:18:56.680 --> 0:19:00.640 Annie's an unreliable narrator and she built her own story, 0:19:00.960 --> 0:19:05.120 using the media to spread it. Despite this deceit, it 0:19:05.160 --> 0:19:08.800 doesn't seem to be a case of wilful dishonesty. Its 0:19:08.880 --> 0:19:12.520 American myth making. At its finest. America thrives on our 0:19:12.520 --> 0:19:15.919 folk heroes, and what could be more American than a 0:19:15.960 --> 0:19:19.080 woman who had never ridden a bicycle before and challenging 0:19:19.119 --> 0:19:23.800 the standards of her day and accomplishing something incredible. Annie 0:19:23.840 --> 0:19:27.560 completely subverted gender roles in the eighteen hundreds and proved 0:19:27.600 --> 0:19:30.879 the moralists and the medical men wrong. The women weren't 0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:33.720 fragile creatures who needed to be coddled every step of 0:19:33.760 --> 0:19:37.360 their lives. They could take on harrowing journeys and come 0:19:37.359 --> 0:19:41.040 out the other side stronger for it. Annie gave women 0:19:41.119 --> 0:19:44.040 across the nation a glimpse of the changes they were 0:19:44.040 --> 0:19:49.920 clamoring for socially, politically, and athletically. She tackled the stigmas 0:19:49.960 --> 0:19:54.840 associated with being born female and flouted them publicly. Because 0:19:54.840 --> 0:19:57.600 of women like Annie, the bicycle became a means of 0:19:57.640 --> 0:20:00.680 freedom for women in a whole new way, and more 0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:04.120 women began to seize opportunities that were once considered out 0:20:04.160 --> 0:20:08.000 of reach. So the questions that were left with are simple. 0:20:08.680 --> 0:20:12.480 Does the end justify the means? Does it matter that 0:20:12.560 --> 0:20:15.119 Annie might have lied about parts of her journey and 0:20:15.359 --> 0:20:18.879 used the media to do it. Everyone will have their opinions, 0:20:19.359 --> 0:20:21.920 but it seems that the answer is right in front 0:20:21.920 --> 0:20:25.280 of us. Just look outside on a sunny day and 0:20:25.359 --> 0:20:30.600 watch the people of all kinds passing by. There's more 0:20:30.600 --> 0:20:33.520 to this story. Stick around after this brief sponsor break 0:20:33.600 --> 0:20:46.080 to hear all about it. It's hard to imagine a 0:20:46.119 --> 0:20:49.040 more apt entry to the world for the Great Sanduena 0:20:49.320 --> 0:20:52.600 than in the back of a circus wagon. That may 0:20:52.640 --> 0:20:56.399 be a tall tail, but Katie Brumback, born in eighteen 0:20:56.400 --> 0:21:00.200 eighty four in Vienna, came by her profession honestly, as 0:21:00.240 --> 0:21:03.879 both her parents were circus performers, and she happily followed 0:21:03.880 --> 0:21:07.560 them into the business. She was a strong child and 0:21:07.600 --> 0:21:11.720 began performing early, practicing handstands balanced on her father's steady 0:21:11.720 --> 0:21:15.119 hands at just two years old. By the time she 0:21:15.160 --> 0:21:17.400 was a teenager, she was part of her father's act 0:21:17.480 --> 0:21:20.680 and traveled Europe with him, astounding crowds as they took 0:21:20.720 --> 0:21:22.920 in the latest in a long line of strong men. 0:21:23.680 --> 0:21:26.400 Her father was very proud of her skills and her strength, 0:21:26.760 --> 0:21:29.720 even reworking the act to show her off. When she 0:21:29.800 --> 0:21:32.359 was sixteen, her father stepped in front of a crowd 0:21:32.440 --> 0:21:35.000 to offer one hundred marks to any man who managed 0:21:35.040 --> 0:21:37.800 to pin her to the mat. According to the stories, 0:21:38.200 --> 0:21:42.000 no one ever collected, but one challenger managed to win 0:21:42.240 --> 0:21:46.000 a very different prize. A cocky young man named Max 0:21:46.040 --> 0:21:50.800 Hayman age nineteen stepped up to wrestle Katie. He later recalled, 0:21:50.840 --> 0:21:52.959 she tossed him high in the air with no effort, 0:21:53.160 --> 0:21:55.080 and the next thing he knew, he was flat on 0:21:55.119 --> 0:21:57.360 his back with a pretty girl looking down at him. 0:21:58.080 --> 0:21:59.959 There was nothing left for him to do, but professor 0:22:00.119 --> 0:22:02.960 is love right then and there, and the two decided 0:22:02.960 --> 0:22:06.719 to marry, and Max became Katie's manager. A Max adored 0:22:06.720 --> 0:22:09.520 his wife and they happily spent time tucked in each 0:22:09.520 --> 0:22:13.760 other's arms, or maybe he and hers. Katie was six 0:22:13.800 --> 0:22:16.919 feet tall and two hundred and ten pounds, while Max 0:22:17.080 --> 0:22:20.359 was five ten and about one hundred and sixty Neither 0:22:20.440 --> 0:22:23.280 seemed to mind the size difference. Katie said it would 0:22:23.280 --> 0:22:26.560 make their children stronger. She even folded him into her 0:22:26.600 --> 0:22:30.919 act literally and figuratively a by cheerfully tossing him around 0:22:31.160 --> 0:22:33.800 like she'd done the night they first met. In the 0:22:33.840 --> 0:22:36.800 early twentieth century, the couple came to America to try 0:22:36.880 --> 0:22:40.479 new territory, and in nineteen oh two, Katie stepped up 0:22:40.520 --> 0:22:42.840 to challenge one of the greatest strong men of the day, 0:22:43.320 --> 0:22:47.160 a man named Sandow. The crowd watched in awe as 0:22:47.240 --> 0:22:50.240 Katie hefted a three hundred pound barbell over her head 0:22:50.560 --> 0:22:54.560 while Sandow struggled to bring it chest high. From then on, 0:22:54.720 --> 0:22:57.879 Katie was known as the Great Sanduena, the strongest woman 0:22:57.920 --> 0:23:01.119 in the world. She headlined on the audeville circuit, and 0:23:01.200 --> 0:23:04.240 the couple had their son, Teddy Roosevelt Sanduina while on 0:23:04.280 --> 0:23:08.400 tour in nineteen oh six, They allegedly telegrammed President Roosevelt 0:23:08.440 --> 0:23:11.840 himself for permission to name their son after him. Performing 0:23:11.840 --> 0:23:14.800 while pregnant was no problem for Katie. On the day 0:23:14.800 --> 0:23:17.240 their son was born, she had already done two shows 0:23:17.280 --> 0:23:20.560 in Sioux City, Iowa, uplifting a group of circus performers 0:23:20.600 --> 0:23:23.520 with a combined weight of three hundred and forty six pounds. 0:23:24.160 --> 0:23:27.080 By nineteen eleven, Katy was headlining for the Ringling Brothers 0:23:27.080 --> 0:23:29.880 and Bartam and Bailey combined shows, one of the most 0:23:29.880 --> 0:23:34.359 famous circuses to ever exist. Katy was the unquestionable star, 0:23:34.920 --> 0:23:38.600 but no one reaches those heights alone. The circus brought 0:23:38.600 --> 0:23:41.840 on Cake Carew, a writer and artist, to act as 0:23:41.880 --> 0:23:46.399 Katie's pr staff and cultivate her celebrity status further. Carew 0:23:46.600 --> 0:23:49.919 was tasked with drawing cartoons and writing reviews of Katie's 0:23:49.960 --> 0:23:52.880 performances that would appeal to the public and pull them 0:23:52.880 --> 0:23:56.320 to her shows. Carew could have played on perceptions of 0:23:56.359 --> 0:23:59.760 athletic women as masculine or sexless. Look at how the 0:23:59.760 --> 0:24:03.800 press treated any Londonderry, but instead she dragged them to 0:24:03.880 --> 0:24:08.119 a new point of view. Katy wasn't just strong, she 0:24:08.200 --> 0:24:12.960 was graceful, beautiful, and talented. Her measurements perfectly matched what 0:24:13.040 --> 0:24:17.800 was considered scientific perfection. She was the Samson like Venus. 0:24:18.359 --> 0:24:21.320 Katie was a goddess to any who beheld her, and 0:24:21.400 --> 0:24:25.520 the public couldn't get enough praise of everything, from Katie's looks, 0:24:25.520 --> 0:24:29.520