WEBVTT - Did Lucille Ball Use Her Fillings to Spy?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey brain Stuff.

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren Vogelbaum here. Lucille Ball is a true Hollywood legend.

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<v Speaker 1>Emmy winning comedic actress, creator and star of a groundbreaking

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<v Speaker 1>TV comedy, first female head of a major TV studio,

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<v Speaker 1>The list goes on. She was also known for her

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<v Speaker 1>shrewd business sense and straight shooting honesty. But there's one

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<v Speaker 1>weird blip in Ball's life story, and it's morphed into

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<v Speaker 1>another sort of legend, the urban kind. If it's true,

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<v Speaker 1>it's just a strange but charming story about an actress

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<v Speaker 1>who made an inadvertent discovery. And if it isn't, we

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<v Speaker 1>might have to rethink our assumptions about Lucille Ball, at

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<v Speaker 1>least the straight shooting honesty part. Here's the story. One

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<v Speaker 1>evening in two in the thick of the Second World War,

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<v Speaker 1>Ball was driving home from a day of movie filming

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<v Speaker 1>when she suddenly heard music and then realized the sounds

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<v Speaker 1>weren't emanating from the car video but from her mouth.

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<v Speaker 1>The next day, Buster Keaton told her that her new

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<v Speaker 1>lad dental Fillings had probably been broadcasting a radio station.

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<v Speaker 1>A week later, also on the commute home, her mouth

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<v Speaker 1>started admitting morse code, and this time she alerted the authorities,

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<v Speaker 1>and the FBI eventually busted a Japanese gardener who was

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<v Speaker 1>operating a spy ring out of a tool shed. It

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<v Speaker 1>sounds like the ultimate urban legend, right, But this isn't

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<v Speaker 1>a baseless rumor started by some anonymous gossip monger. The

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<v Speaker 1>source is Ball herself. She told the story on the

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<v Speaker 1>Dick Cabit Show in nineteen four into at least two biographers,

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<v Speaker 1>The tale has morphed over the years that no time,

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<v Speaker 1>for example, did Ball ever claim she actually used her

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<v Speaker 1>fillings to spy. But the basics remain the same, and

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<v Speaker 1>Ball always stood by them. The problem is the entire

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<v Speaker 1>tale is pretty much unverifiable. Other than Ball's accounts, there

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<v Speaker 1>seems to be no record of the case. The generally

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<v Speaker 1>reliable snopes dot Com pronounced its status undetermined. The TV

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<v Speaker 1>show MythBusters used several angles to investigate the story in

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<v Speaker 1>two thousand three and couldn't confirm any of Ball's claims.

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<v Speaker 1>The hosts had no luck with their experiments involving vintage

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<v Speaker 1>radio equipment and human skulls fitted with fillings. They concluded

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<v Speaker 1>that the combination of the metals and balls saliva caused

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<v Speaker 1>a galvanic reaction, which created a current in her mouth

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<v Speaker 1>that could have resembled Morse code. The real kicker, though,

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<v Speaker 1>was the revelation that Ball's FBI file doesn't mention the case.

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<v Speaker 1>So why would Ball have invented such a story. No

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<v Speaker 1>one has the answer to that either. At the height

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<v Speaker 1>of the communist scare in the nineteen fifties, she was

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<v Speaker 1>briefly investigated by the House on American Activities Committee, so

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<v Speaker 1>some think she might have created the filling story to

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<v Speaker 1>see more patriotic, but that's a pretty big stretch. There

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<v Speaker 1>are so many easier ways to broadcast that message. In

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<v Speaker 1>the end, only Lucy knows, and maybe that's just how

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<v Speaker 1>it's supposed to be. Today's episode is based on the

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<v Speaker 1>article did Lucille Ball use her fillings to spy? On

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<v Speaker 1>how stuff Works dot com, written by Alison Cooper. Brain

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<v Speaker 1>Stuff is production of iHeart Radio in partnership with how

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<v Speaker 1>stuff Works dot Com and is produced by Tyler Clang.

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