1 00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:07,480 Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of 2 00:00:07,520 --> 00:00:14,480 Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of 3 00:00:14,520 --> 00:00:18,480 Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all 4 00:00:18,520 --> 00:00:22,200 Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just 5 00:00:22,239 --> 00:00:28,880 Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. 6 00:00:36,720 --> 00:00:40,040 Speaker 1: There are many different kinds of beauty. There's the internal 7 00:00:40,120 --> 00:00:43,040 Speaker 1: beauty of a person's heart and character, and the beauty 8 00:00:43,080 --> 00:00:46,120 Speaker 1: of a singer's voice. Someone might have deep blue eyes 9 00:00:46,280 --> 00:00:49,159 Speaker 1: or a pearly white smile. Beauty is not limited to 10 00:00:49,240 --> 00:00:52,640 Speaker 1: someone's look or style. As the old saying goes, it's 11 00:00:52,640 --> 00:00:55,600 Speaker 1: in the eye of the beholder. But some people might 12 00:00:55,640 --> 00:00:58,440 Speaker 1: be the total package. At least that's what two men 13 00:00:58,520 --> 00:01:00,720 Speaker 1: thought of the girl they saw on the beach one day. 14 00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:03,760 Speaker 1: Her name was Alo Pinero, and she was something of 15 00:01:03,800 --> 00:01:07,119 Speaker 1: a fixture on the sandy shores of Brazil, well one 16 00:01:07,200 --> 00:01:10,320 Speaker 1: particular shore. She was born in Rio de Janeiro in 17 00:01:10,400 --> 00:01:13,200 Speaker 1: nineteen forty three. As a teen, she would hang out 18 00:01:13,240 --> 00:01:15,720 Speaker 1: on the beach in her neighborhood, walking up and down 19 00:01:15,760 --> 00:01:18,360 Speaker 1: the sand. She kept to herself as she passed the 20 00:01:18,400 --> 00:01:21,880 Speaker 1: shops and restaurants along the way. Little did she know, however, 21 00:01:22,200 --> 00:01:25,360 Speaker 1: she would become the obsession of two men lurking nearby. 22 00:01:25,840 --> 00:01:29,520 Speaker 1: Their names were Antonio and Venicius. Alo would often stroll 23 00:01:29,560 --> 00:01:33,040 Speaker 1: past the Valso Bar cafe, where the two men often 24 00:01:33,120 --> 00:01:36,200 Speaker 1: drank and talked. At the time, Antonio was thirty five 25 00:01:36,240 --> 00:01:39,360 Speaker 1: and married, while Vensius was fifty and already had a 26 00:01:39,480 --> 00:01:42,920 Speaker 1: few marriages under his belt. So this wasn't some schoolyard 27 00:01:42,959 --> 00:01:47,080 Speaker 1: crush among teenagers. It was actually kind of creepy. To 28 00:01:47,080 --> 00:01:49,919 Speaker 1: make matters worse, Elyo had to deal with them every 29 00:01:49,960 --> 00:01:52,240 Speaker 1: time she came into the bar to buy cigarettes for 30 00:01:52,280 --> 00:01:55,800 Speaker 1: her mother. These grown men, with their bellies full of alcohol, 31 00:01:56,000 --> 00:01:58,720 Speaker 1: would cat call and whistle at her, and she just 32 00:01:58,880 --> 00:02:02,440 Speaker 1: kept going, not paying them any attention. But then something 33 00:02:02,520 --> 00:02:07,200 Speaker 1: strange happened. Alo spoke to them. Eventually the three became friends, 34 00:02:07,240 --> 00:02:10,799 Speaker 1: and Antonio wanted more. He even promised to leave his 35 00:02:10,840 --> 00:02:13,040 Speaker 1: wife for her and asked a Loo for her hand 36 00:02:13,040 --> 00:02:16,560 Speaker 1: in marriage, and she did not accept, but that didn't 37 00:02:16,639 --> 00:02:19,640 Speaker 1: quell his desire for her, so he partnered with Vnisius 38 00:02:19,680 --> 00:02:22,919 Speaker 1: to immortalize her the only way he knew how. In song, 39 00:02:23,320 --> 00:02:26,200 Speaker 1: the pair had been collaborators for several years already. In 40 00:02:26,320 --> 00:02:29,600 Speaker 1: nineteen fifty six, their musical play Orpheus of the Conception 41 00:02:29,960 --> 00:02:33,640 Speaker 1: premiered on the Brazilian stage, with songs by Antonio and 42 00:02:33,760 --> 00:02:36,960 Speaker 1: lyrics by Vnisius. In fact, Vnicius was already working on 43 00:02:37,040 --> 00:02:39,880 Speaker 1: lyrics for an upcoming musical and was in need of 44 00:02:39,919 --> 00:02:43,000 Speaker 1: a song for the show, and Antonio had been tinkering 45 00:02:43,040 --> 00:02:45,880 Speaker 1: with a new tune on his piano, which he titled 46 00:02:45,960 --> 00:02:50,040 Speaker 1: Menina Capasa. The words were different at first, until Vnsius 47 00:02:50,120 --> 00:02:53,440 Speaker 1: changed them to honor Alo's Beauty and Charm the BASSA 48 00:02:53,520 --> 00:02:55,959 Speaker 1: nova song he came up with was then released in 49 00:02:56,040 --> 00:02:59,920 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty two and was sung by Brazilian artist Perry Rebbeo. 50 00:03:00,400 --> 00:03:03,320 Speaker 1: Two years later, though, it found new life in America 51 00:03:03,400 --> 00:03:06,640 Speaker 1: when jazz saxophonist Stan Getz decided to include it on 52 00:03:06,720 --> 00:03:08,800 Speaker 1: a new album of his. He was in a New 53 00:03:08,880 --> 00:03:11,960 Speaker 1: York City recording studio working on the song with Brazilian 54 00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:15,799 Speaker 1: guitarist Jauel Gilberto. That was when someone suggested putting out 55 00:03:15,800 --> 00:03:19,760 Speaker 1: an English version. Lyricist Norman Gimble reworked the lyrics for 56 00:03:19,800 --> 00:03:22,760 Speaker 1: an English speaking audience, but they still needed a singer 57 00:03:23,360 --> 00:03:26,760 Speaker 1: Gilberto's wife, Ostrud stepped up to the mic. She spoke 58 00:03:26,800 --> 00:03:29,560 Speaker 1: English well enough and had a clean, clear voice that 59 00:03:29,600 --> 00:03:33,160 Speaker 1: seemed perfect for the song's simple melody, and their last 60 00:03:33,200 --> 00:03:36,720 Speaker 1: minute idea paid off. The song became a massive hit 61 00:03:36,800 --> 00:03:39,960 Speaker 1: in America, landing at number one on the Billboard Adult 62 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:43,000 Speaker 1: Contemporary Charts and number fifty one on the Hot one 63 00:03:43,080 --> 00:03:46,440 Speaker 1: hundred for nineteen sixty four. Since then, it has become 64 00:03:46,480 --> 00:03:49,480 Speaker 1: one of the most recorded pop songs in history, second 65 00:03:49,560 --> 00:03:53,960 Speaker 1: only to Yesterday by the Beatles. Alo Pinero, despite being 66 00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:57,440 Speaker 1: the song's inspiration, did not see any financial gain from 67 00:03:57,520 --> 00:04:00,440 Speaker 1: its success. She did, however, go on to become a 68 00:04:00,480 --> 00:04:03,600 Speaker 1: model and a businesswoman and did quite well for herself. 69 00:04:03,800 --> 00:04:05,960 Speaker 1: In fact, she had no idea that she had been 70 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:09,480 Speaker 1: the muse for the song until after its release. To 71 00:04:09,560 --> 00:04:12,160 Speaker 1: her friends and family, she was a low but to 72 00:04:12,200 --> 00:04:14,320 Speaker 1: the rest of the world she would forever be known 73 00:04:14,360 --> 00:04:32,599 Speaker 1: as the girl from Ipanema. When people reach a certain 74 00:04:32,680 --> 00:04:37,440 Speaker 1: level of celebrity, everything changes. Travel becomes more complicated. Simply 75 00:04:37,520 --> 00:04:39,960 Speaker 1: eating out or going for a walk can be difficult. 76 00:04:40,320 --> 00:04:42,880 Speaker 1: So much of day to day life is affected, So 77 00:04:42,920 --> 00:04:45,599 Speaker 1: it makes sense why many celebrities find that they relate 78 00:04:45,640 --> 00:04:50,400 Speaker 1: best to other famous people. This has spawned some unusual friendships, 79 00:04:50,440 --> 00:04:54,000 Speaker 1: like Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart or Elton John and Eminem. 80 00:04:54,360 --> 00:04:57,320 Speaker 1: But one of the most unlikely celebrity pairings in history 81 00:04:57,640 --> 00:05:00,520 Speaker 1: was between two men who couldn't have had less in common, 82 00:05:00,839 --> 00:05:04,440 Speaker 1: Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. One was a 83 00:05:04,480 --> 00:05:08,080 Speaker 1: famous illusionist who made elephants disappear, and the other was 84 00:05:08,080 --> 00:05:12,440 Speaker 1: the creator of the great literary detective Sherlock Holmes. Houdini 85 00:05:12,600 --> 00:05:15,200 Speaker 1: was a Hungarian immigrant to America who grew up living 86 00:05:15,320 --> 00:05:18,360 Speaker 1: hand to mouth and started working as a vaudeville performer 87 00:05:18,400 --> 00:05:20,919 Speaker 1: when he was just a kid. Doyle went to a 88 00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:23,919 Speaker 1: private school and had careers as a medical doctor and 89 00:05:23,960 --> 00:05:27,800 Speaker 1: a botanist before becoming an author. But for all their differences, 90 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:30,880 Speaker 1: they had at least one thing in common, a fascination 91 00:05:31,040 --> 00:05:34,640 Speaker 1: with the parent normal. Of course, they weren't the only ones. 92 00:05:34,960 --> 00:05:37,800 Speaker 1: After the mass death caused by World War One, people 93 00:05:37,880 --> 00:05:41,240 Speaker 1: all around the world were hungry for answers about the afterlife. 94 00:05:41,400 --> 00:05:44,560 Speaker 1: Many turned to spiritualism, a movement that believed that the 95 00:05:44,600 --> 00:05:47,680 Speaker 1: souls of the dead could contact the living, usually through 96 00:05:47,720 --> 00:05:51,640 Speaker 1: seances performed by psychic mediums. Houdini and Doyle were both 97 00:05:51,680 --> 00:05:55,400 Speaker 1: fascinated by spiritualism before they met at one of Houdini's 98 00:05:55,400 --> 00:05:58,240 Speaker 1: performances in nineteen twenty, they were already two of the 99 00:05:58,240 --> 00:06:01,560 Speaker 1: most notable speakers on the top, and their shared interest 100 00:06:01,600 --> 00:06:05,440 Speaker 1: sparked in immediate friendship. But it wasn't all rose colored glasses, 101 00:06:05,560 --> 00:06:08,560 Speaker 1: because while they were both fascinated by the possibility of 102 00:06:08,600 --> 00:06:12,760 Speaker 1: an afterlife, they held sharply different perspectives. Doyle was a 103 00:06:12,839 --> 00:06:15,720 Speaker 1: passionate believer. Since the death of his son, he had 104 00:06:15,720 --> 00:06:18,719 Speaker 1: made it his mission to spread spiritualism to the public. 105 00:06:19,040 --> 00:06:22,560 Speaker 1: His wife, Jean, was even a medium who performed automatic writing, 106 00:06:22,800 --> 00:06:25,640 Speaker 1: summoning spirits to guide her in writing out messages to 107 00:06:25,680 --> 00:06:28,680 Speaker 1: their loved ones. Houdini, on the other hand, grew up 108 00:06:28,720 --> 00:06:31,680 Speaker 1: working in vaudeville acts, where fake psychics were a dime 109 00:06:31,760 --> 00:06:34,640 Speaker 1: a dozen. He had peeked behind the curtain and had 110 00:06:34,680 --> 00:06:37,880 Speaker 1: come to see most mediums as Charlatan's. So his goal 111 00:06:38,160 --> 00:06:41,640 Speaker 1: wasn't to spread the message of spiritualism, but to debunk it, 112 00:06:42,560 --> 00:06:45,640 Speaker 1: and this led to some healthy, heated debates that first, 113 00:06:45,640 --> 00:06:49,240 Speaker 1: the conversations were friendly, then in nineteen twenty two, Doyle 114 00:06:49,320 --> 00:06:52,640 Speaker 1: invited the illusionists to participate in a seance at his home. 115 00:06:53,080 --> 00:06:56,400 Speaker 1: During the experience, Doyle's wife claimed to have been contacted 116 00:06:56,400 --> 00:06:59,320 Speaker 1: by the spirits of Houdini's mother, who then proceeded to 117 00:06:59,360 --> 00:07:02,480 Speaker 1: transcribe a long letter from the dead woman to her son. 118 00:07:02,880 --> 00:07:05,719 Speaker 1: Houdini seemed shaken when he left, and Doyle thought that 119 00:07:05,760 --> 00:07:09,440 Speaker 1: his friend was finally convinced, But soon after Houdini published 120 00:07:09,480 --> 00:07:11,680 Speaker 1: an account of the experience in which he claimed he 121 00:07:11,760 --> 00:07:15,160 Speaker 1: did not believe the seance had been successful. His reasoning 122 00:07:15,520 --> 00:07:18,800 Speaker 1: his mother's English had never been very good, so he 123 00:07:18,840 --> 00:07:21,720 Speaker 1: couldn't see how she would manage a fifteen page letter 124 00:07:21,800 --> 00:07:24,920 Speaker 1: in that language. Also, she had failed to mention that 125 00:07:24,960 --> 00:07:28,040 Speaker 1: it was her birthday that day. Harry Houdini and Sir 126 00:07:28,160 --> 00:07:31,280 Speaker 1: Arthur Conan Doyle's friendship was never the same after that. 127 00:07:31,760 --> 00:07:34,400 Speaker 1: In the coming years, they only became more entrenched in 128 00:07:34,440 --> 00:07:37,600 Speaker 1: their points of view. They remained rivals until Halloween of 129 00:07:37,680 --> 00:07:41,240 Speaker 1: nineteen twenty six, when Houdini died of a ruptured appendix, 130 00:07:41,720 --> 00:07:43,720 Speaker 1: and that should have put an end to their feud, 131 00:07:43,960 --> 00:07:47,200 Speaker 1: But in nineteen thirty Doyle published his belief that Houdini 132 00:07:47,240 --> 00:07:50,560 Speaker 1: had possessed psychic powers all along. If true, that would 133 00:07:50,560 --> 00:07:53,320 Speaker 1: make the illusionist a special kind of fraud, one who 134 00:07:53,440 --> 00:07:57,239 Speaker 1: denied the benefits of spiritualism in order to profit from them. 135 00:07:57,360 --> 00:08:00,200 Speaker 1: It was quite the accusation and difficult for Houdini to 136 00:08:00,280 --> 00:08:03,560 Speaker 1: deny now that he was dead right, and yet still 137 00:08:03,880 --> 00:08:06,880 Speaker 1: he managed a small rebuttal as a sort of final 138 00:08:06,920 --> 00:08:10,320 Speaker 1: test of spiritualism. Before his death, Houdini and his wife 139 00:08:10,360 --> 00:08:14,200 Speaker 1: created a secret code that only they knew. For years afterwards, 140 00:08:14,200 --> 00:08:17,360 Speaker 1: she held seances trying to contact him. If he reached 141 00:08:17,400 --> 00:08:19,760 Speaker 1: out and gave her the code, they'd have proof of 142 00:08:19,840 --> 00:08:22,800 Speaker 1: an afterlife. But he never did, and the meaning of 143 00:08:22,840 --> 00:08:25,680 Speaker 1: it all is a matter of perspective. This was either 144 00:08:25,720 --> 00:08:30,080 Speaker 1: evidence against spiritualism and psychic mediums, or that Houdini's ghost 145 00:08:30,400 --> 00:08:33,559 Speaker 1: didn't want to admit that he was wrong. Either way, 146 00:08:33,880 --> 00:08:41,280 Speaker 1: he got the last word from beyond the grave. I 147 00:08:41,320 --> 00:08:44,840 Speaker 1: hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. 148 00:08:45,160 --> 00:08:48,280 Speaker 1: Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about 149 00:08:48,280 --> 00:08:52,839 Speaker 1: the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show 150 00:08:53,080 --> 00:08:56,320 Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how 151 00:08:56,400 --> 00:09:00,200 Speaker 1: Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, 152 00:09:00,240 --> 00:09:03,840 Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show and 153 00:09:03,920 --> 00:09:08,080 Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at Theworldoflore dot com. 154 00:09:08,120 --> 00:09:10,520 Speaker 1: And until next time, stay curious.