WEBVTT - The Original 0:00:04.080 --> 0:00:07.440 Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of 0:00:07.480 --> 0:00:09.320 iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. 0:00:12.840 --> 0:00:16.840 Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history 0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:20.280 is an open book, all of these amazing tales are 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:23.720 right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. 0:00:25.239 --> 0:00:37.360 Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. For the past two years, 0:00:37.479 --> 0:00:40.600 on the second Wednesday of every month, a plate of 0:00:40.640 --> 0:00:44.239 fifteen to twenty half peeled bananas has appeared on the 0:00:44.280 --> 0:00:47.720 corner of Abbey Road and Wendsor Avenue in Beeston, a 0:00:47.760 --> 0:00:51.279 small town in the Midlands of England. Residents have been 0:00:51.360 --> 0:00:54.160 baffled as to the reason they keep appearing, and to 0:00:54.240 --> 0:00:56.760 many the mystery is less important than the mess the 0:00:56.800 --> 0:01:00.000 bananas leave in the street. One such resident, clear Short, 0:01:00.360 --> 0:01:03.520 decided to try to reason with the mysterious gifter in 0:01:03.680 --> 0:01:08.120 a note left in the banana's usual location, reading please respectfully, 0:01:08.360 --> 0:01:11.880 no more bananas. The notes had no effect. The next month, 0:01:12.120 --> 0:01:15.360 the bananas were there again, and it brings to mind 0:01:15.440 --> 0:01:18.959 another such mystery concerning the final resting place of one 0:01:19.000 --> 0:01:23.040 of America's most beloved authors. On October third of eighteen 0:01:23.160 --> 0:01:26.960 forty nine, A man in crisis appeared outside of Gunner's Hall, 0:01:27.080 --> 0:01:30.080 a busy tavern in Baltimore, Maryland. It was a dreary 0:01:30.160 --> 0:01:32.920 day and the place was packed to the gills. At 0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:35.960 first glance, the patrons took the man as another drunkard 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:39.120 due to his rumpled appearance and his day's demeanor. He 0:01:39.240 --> 0:01:42.200 was clearly unwell and was brought to the hospital, where 0:01:42.200 --> 0:01:45.160 he died four days later. He was buried in an 0:01:45.200 --> 0:01:49.360 unmarked grave at Westminster Presbyterian Church. After a modest funeral. 0:01:49.680 --> 0:01:52.440 In eighteen seventy five, his grave was moved and the 0:01:52.440 --> 0:01:56.000 citizens of Baltimore gathered funds for a headstone. After all, 0:01:56.040 --> 0:02:00.000 he was one of Baltimore's favorite sons, One Edgar Allen Poe. 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:04.280 One hundred years later, in nineteen forty nine, a shadowy 0:02:04.320 --> 0:02:07.480 figure was noticed entering the graveyard. He was dressed in 0:02:07.520 --> 0:02:10.600 black with a white scarf, his visage hidden by a 0:02:10.680 --> 0:02:13.800 wide brimmed black hat. It was late on the nineteenth 0:02:13.840 --> 0:02:17.160 of January, which happened to be Poe's birthday. The figure 0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:20.480 was seen to kneel and place three roses on the grave, 0:02:20.800 --> 0:02:23.560 after which he poured himself a glass of cognac to 0:02:23.560 --> 0:02:26.560 toast the dead author. Once he had drained it, he 0:02:26.639 --> 0:02:30.000 left the open bottle beside the flowers and disappeared into 0:02:30.040 --> 0:02:33.440 the night. When a balto Our Sun reporter came inquiring, 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:36.400 the Reverend, Bruce McDonald suggested that the visits had been 0:02:36.400 --> 0:02:40.160 occurring for years. The reporter noted, the anonymous citizen who 0:02:40.200 --> 0:02:43.600 creeps in annually to place an empty bottle of excellent 0:02:43.680 --> 0:02:46.960 label against the tomb of Poe on the anniversary of 0:02:47.000 --> 0:02:51.000 his death is a jokester, mister McDonald figures, and so 0:02:51.360 --> 0:02:54.960 the Poe toaster made his way into the public consciousness. 0:02:55.360 --> 0:02:58.919 He returned each year, and each year performed the same ritual, 0:02:59.200 --> 0:03:02.720 three roses the grave, a kgnak toast the remainder of 0:03:02.760 --> 0:03:06.400 the bottle left for Poe. As the tradition continued, small 0:03:06.440 --> 0:03:09.919 crowds began to gather to catch sight of the mysterious toaster. 0:03:10.400 --> 0:03:12.880 The man never gave up his identity, and though there 0:03:12.960 --> 0:03:16.200 has been much speculation, there has never been an explanation 0:03:16.320 --> 0:03:19.600 for the yearly pilgrimage. But he remained faithful to Edgar 0:03:19.840 --> 0:03:23.880 for decades, and then in nineteen ninety three he left 0:03:23.919 --> 0:03:27.160 a note, perhaps as much for onlookers as for the author. 0:03:27.560 --> 0:03:30.799 It read, the torch will be passed. A few short 0:03:30.880 --> 0:03:33.720 years later, in nineteen ninety nine, another note was left 0:03:33.760 --> 0:03:37.400 to confirm this. The original toaster had died the previous year, 0:03:37.720 --> 0:03:40.760 but his successor continued the tradition for many years in 0:03:40.840 --> 0:03:44.640 his stead, with modest crowds standing by to bear witness, 0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:49.680 and then as inexplicably as it began, it ended Onlookers 0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:52.640 in twenty ten found themselves quite disappointed when, for the 0:03:52.680 --> 0:03:56.520 first time in over sixty years, the mysterious man failed 0:03:56.560 --> 0:03:59.240 to appear. When he didn't show up the following year, 0:03:59.600 --> 0:04:02.240 it became clear that the toaster would visit the grave 0:04:02.320 --> 0:04:06.480 side nevermore. Although there has been a lot of speculation 0:04:06.640 --> 0:04:10.440 around the identity of the original toaster, it remains uncertain 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:13.840 to this day who really was visiting Poe's grave, and 0:04:13.880 --> 0:04:16.440 while there were other visitors who left tokens on the 0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:19.839 grave as well, these were not seen as serious successors. 0:04:20.320 --> 0:04:23.760 In twenty fifteen, the Maryland Historical Society declared that it 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:27.440 was searching for a new toaster. The following January, a 0:04:27.560 --> 0:04:31.080 large crowd once again gathered outside the Westminster Graveyard for 0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:35.400 a ceremony with food insider provided the audience was treated 0:04:35.400 --> 0:04:38.479 to a reading of pose the cask of Amontiado. And then, 0:04:38.760 --> 0:04:41.400 for the first time in half a decade, it happened 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:45.520 Poe's toaster entered the burial ground. He placed the three 0:04:45.640 --> 0:04:48.640 roses on the grave and poured himself a glass of cognac. 0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:51.480 And when he'd finished the tipple, he placed the bottle 0:04:51.520 --> 0:04:55.039 beside the flowers, and then, to the delight of everyone there, 0:04:55.400 --> 0:04:59.479 pulled out a violin and played Camille Sainssan's dance macab 0:05:00.120 --> 0:05:03.799 And then he took his leave, identity still a secret, 0:05:04.440 --> 0:05:08.799 and thus the tradition continues onward, bolstered by the passion 0:05:08.880 --> 0:05:11.600 of its fans, who are bound together by the shared 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:28.520 love of a good old fashioned mystery. The abbey was 0:05:28.680 --> 0:05:32.640 a peaceful place, nestled in the remote French countryside, many 0:05:32.720 --> 0:05:35.280 miles from the east of Paris. There was a small 0:05:35.360 --> 0:05:38.599 village nearby, but the monks largely kept to themselves. But 0:05:38.920 --> 0:05:41.680 on this day they had a visitor. He was one 0:05:41.680 --> 0:05:44.760 of the most famous philosophers of the Enlightenment, come to 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:48.039 stay in their village. He was eager to peruse the 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:51.479 extensive library kept within their walls. The priest came out 0:05:51.480 --> 0:05:55.200 to greet him and welcome him. The visitor's name was Voltaire, 0:05:55.320 --> 0:05:58.200 but this story isn't about him. It's about the priest 0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:01.600 who welcomed him to Sunna be in seventeen fifty four. 0:06:02.720 --> 0:06:06.120 His name was dom Augustine Calmet, and for someone who 0:06:06.160 --> 0:06:08.719 lived a life as a monk, he left an indelible 0:06:08.760 --> 0:06:12.000 mark on history. He was born in sixteen seventy two, 0:06:12.240 --> 0:06:15.040 the son of a blacksmith. Without much in the way 0:06:15.120 --> 0:06:17.880 of prospects for life, he began studying to become a 0:06:17.920 --> 0:06:22.480 Benedictine monk at the age of fifteen. A student of rhetoric, philosophy, 0:06:22.560 --> 0:06:26.479 and theology, he was an intelligent and capable learner. Even 0:06:26.520 --> 0:06:29.720 as a priest, he was frequently engaged in scholarly work. 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:33.719 Dom Calmet's first published work was printed in seventeen oh seven, 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:36.640 and it was called a Literal Commentary on All the 0:06:36.680 --> 0:06:40.040 Books of the Old and New Testaments. An extremely popular 0:06:40.120 --> 0:06:43.520 work among Catholic thinkers, it would be printed and reprinted 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:47.200 several times over the following decades, during which Calmet also 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:50.520 worked on several other works of Christian and popular histories. 0:06:50.839 --> 0:06:54.359 He wrote one called a Dissertation on the Highways of Lorraine, 0:06:54.520 --> 0:06:57.760 and another called History of the Famous Men of Lorraine, 0:06:57.839 --> 0:07:01.000 as well as a Tome of Universal History published beginning 0:07:01.040 --> 0:07:04.800 in seventeen thirty five. As varied and specific as these 0:07:04.839 --> 0:07:07.200 topics are, they would not be the topic that would 0:07:07.200 --> 0:07:10.000 make him famous. That would be a little niche topic 0:07:10.040 --> 0:07:14.000 that he turned his attention to. In the seventeen thirties, Europe, 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:16.480 you see, was in the middle of a strange period. 0:07:16.680 --> 0:07:20.160 An epidemic of weird, superstitious stories had started popping up 0:07:20.200 --> 0:07:24.240 throughout the countryside. They were mostly focused on Eastern Europe, 0:07:24.360 --> 0:07:27.600 but some occurred in various other countries as well as 0:07:27.640 --> 0:07:30.240 far south as the coast of Italy. And the stories 0:07:30.240 --> 0:07:35.240 were about vampires. No two vampire stories were identical, but 0:07:35.360 --> 0:07:39.040 all included elements of resurrection after death. And we know 0:07:39.120 --> 0:07:42.040 that these were caused by a collision between the folk 0:07:42.080 --> 0:07:45.920 beliefs of the people and Christianity as a religion. Peasants 0:07:45.960 --> 0:07:48.480 who were used to burning their dead had to adopt 0:07:48.520 --> 0:07:51.000 a religion that said that the body was necessary for 0:07:51.080 --> 0:07:54.800 resurrection during the end times. It's a paradox that helped 0:07:54.800 --> 0:07:58.720 create a monster. Meanwhile, dom Calmet knew none of this. 0:07:59.240 --> 0:08:01.720 What he knew was that the people across Europe claimed 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:04.440 to have encountered men who came back from the dead, 0:08:04.760 --> 0:08:07.680 a belief that was as heretical as it was impossible. 0:08:08.040 --> 0:08:11.320 With the eye of both a historian and a Christian theologian, 0:08:11.600 --> 0:08:13.600 he set out to write a study of these various 0:08:13.600 --> 0:08:16.960 accounts and see what he could find. The majority of 0:08:17.000 --> 0:08:20.000 vampire accounts at the time were written by Hungarian army 0:08:20.040 --> 0:08:24.400 doctors sent to study the vampire panics by Empress Maria Theresa. 0:08:24.920 --> 0:08:28.960 Calmet's Studies of Vampires gathered these altogether, as well as 0:08:29.000 --> 0:08:32.120 several other stories from across the continent, to create a 0:08:32.160 --> 0:08:35.320 study of what he saw as a modern phenomenon. His 0:08:35.440 --> 0:08:39.880 resulting study was published in seventeen forty six as Dissertations 0:08:39.920 --> 0:08:43.720 on the Apparitions of Angels, Demons and Spirits and on 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:48.720 the Revenants and Vampires of Hungary, Bohemia, Moravia and Cilicia. 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:51.240 And I'm sure that you won't be surprised to hear 0:08:51.280 --> 0:08:54.080 that it was a best seller. It seems that everyone 0:08:54.160 --> 0:08:57.000 had an opinion on the monk who wrote about the occult, 0:08:57.200 --> 0:09:00.360 but much of the popular opinion was not a positive one. 0:09:00.480 --> 0:09:04.320 Calmet's peers thought that he had succumbed to superstition writing 0:09:04.320 --> 0:09:08.040 about the ravings of peasants far Afield. Even Voltaire, who 0:09:08.040 --> 0:09:13.000 had greatly admired Calmet's theological writings, publicly decried this work. 0:09:13.520 --> 0:09:15.480 But of course the book was also not without its 0:09:15.520 --> 0:09:19.200 many admirers, and the subsequent attention was enough for Calmet 0:09:19.280 --> 0:09:22.439 to expand it in seventeen forty eight, and the result 0:09:22.520 --> 0:09:26.160 of his genuine curiosity was a much stronger foundation for 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:30.120 what this creature would become. Before his writing, vampire stories 0:09:30.200 --> 0:09:33.880 vary greatly from region to region, but Calmet's efforts ensured 0:09:33.880 --> 0:09:36.840 that the monster would become a specific thing in the 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:40.360 minds of the public. It's a curious story the few 0:09:40.400 --> 0:09:44.080 people today remember. While bram Stoker gets all the credit 0:09:44.120 --> 0:09:46.800 for the modern vampire, none of what he did would 0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:49.320 have been possible at all without the efforts of a 0:09:49.320 --> 0:09:53.840 Benedictine monk who lived a century earlier. Augustine Calmets would 0:09:53.840 --> 0:09:56.880 never know it, but through his religious writings he left 0:09:56.920 --> 0:10:01.480 a faint fingerprint on an entire genre of popular which 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:04.600 in a way has helped him live on long after 0:10:04.679 --> 0:10:11.080 his death. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of 0:10:11.120 --> 0:10:15.080 the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, 0:10:15.160 --> 0:10:18.640 or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast 0:10:18.920 --> 0:10:22.680 dot com. This show was created by me Aaron Mankey 0:10:23.000 --> 0:10:26.480 in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award 0:10:26.480 --> 0:10:30.080 winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:32.720 and television show, and you can learn all about it 0:10:32.760 --> 0:10:37.160 over at the Worldoflore dot com. And until next time, 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:38.760 stay curious.