WEBVTT - Badge of Honor 0:00:04.080 --> 0:00:07.440 Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of 0:00:07.480 --> 0:00:14.440 iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of 0:00:14.480 --> 0:00:18.400 the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all 0:00:18.480 --> 0:00:22.159 of these amazing tales are right there on display, just 0:00:22.200 --> 0:00:28.840 waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. 0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:39.720 I talked to Vice President Agnew in Palm Springs three 0:00:39.760 --> 0:00:43.400 weeks ago and expressed my concern for our country. The 0:00:43.520 --> 0:00:47.800 drug culture, the hippie elements, the SDS, black Panthers, etc. 0:00:48.479 --> 0:00:51.360 Do not consider me as their enemy, or as they 0:00:51.400 --> 0:00:55.120 call it, the establishment. I call it America, and I 0:00:55.160 --> 0:00:58.200 love it, Sir. I can and will be of any 0:00:58.280 --> 0:01:01.680 service that I can to help the cunt out. These 0:01:01.760 --> 0:01:06.120 words were scrawled in messy cursive on American Airlines stationery, 0:01:06.400 --> 0:01:08.720 as if they'd been written in haste while a plane 0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:11.959 was touching down, and this strange letter set into motion 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:16.040 a surreal encounter between two giants of the era. It 0:01:16.080 --> 0:01:19.520 was nineteen seventy and the establishment and the counter culture 0:01:19.560 --> 0:01:23.000 couldn't be further apart. The Vietnam War raged and the 0:01:23.040 --> 0:01:26.000 young were taken to the streets to protest but Elvis 0:01:26.040 --> 0:01:29.440 Presley wasn't thinking in those terms. He was more concerned 0:01:29.440 --> 0:01:33.039 with the drug epidemic that he believed was destroying a generation. 0:01:33.640 --> 0:01:36.120 He believed that with the aid of a powerful man, 0:01:36.520 --> 0:01:39.039 he could help put an end to it, and so 0:01:39.200 --> 0:01:42.559 one evening in a Los Angeles hotel, Elvis sat down 0:01:42.600 --> 0:01:45.720 and wrote a desperate plea to Richard Nixon, the President 0:01:45.800 --> 0:01:48.840 of the United States. He framed himself to the President 0:01:48.880 --> 0:01:53.080 as a particularly unique bridge between youth culture and the establishment, 0:01:53.400 --> 0:01:55.920 one who could travel into drug rings and communes that 0:01:56.000 --> 0:02:00.280 perhaps more square federal agents wouldn't have access to. He 0:02:00.360 --> 0:02:03.240 sketched it out. He'd carry a gun and wear a badge, 0:02:03.400 --> 0:02:07.520 using his fame to access and expose the counterculture. He'd 0:02:07.560 --> 0:02:10.120 even get rid of his own drug paraphernalia as proof 0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:13.640 of his dedication to the cause. Strangely enough, the White 0:02:13.639 --> 0:02:16.919 House agreed to a meeting, and so on December twenty 0:02:16.919 --> 0:02:20.200 one of nineteen seventy, Elvis arrived at the White House 0:02:20.480 --> 0:02:23.000 using a side door so that the press corps would 0:02:23.040 --> 0:02:26.760 not notice his arrival. He wore his signature white jumpsuit, 0:02:26.960 --> 0:02:30.720 his cape, and an oversized crucifix, and he came bearing 0:02:30.800 --> 0:02:34.360 a particular gift, a custom cult forty five pistol with 0:02:34.440 --> 0:02:38.920 ivory grips, which was engraved for the President. The atmosphere was, 0:02:39.120 --> 0:02:42.520 needless to say, tense. The Secret Service was wary of 0:02:42.560 --> 0:02:44.679 the rock star, and the rest of the White House 0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:48.320 staff was baffled by the situation. It didn't grow less 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:51.679 strange once the King walked into the Oval Office. Here 0:02:51.720 --> 0:02:55.920 were symbols of two very different Americas. Nixon, a calculating 0:02:55.960 --> 0:02:59.400 politician whose days were rigidly scheduled and who kept a 0:02:59.480 --> 0:03:02.560 firm ground of control, and then there was Elvis, who 0:03:02.639 --> 0:03:05.240 helped to spark the very counter culture that the President 0:03:05.600 --> 0:03:08.600 was now fighting against. We know the details of the 0:03:08.639 --> 0:03:11.520 meeting through the notes taken by Nixon's chief of staff. 0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:14.960 During the half hour meeting, Elvis spoke on addiction, the 0:03:15.040 --> 0:03:18.680 dangers opposed to the upcoming generation, and his deep desire 0:03:18.760 --> 0:03:21.320 to lend a hand in the war on drugs. He 0:03:21.480 --> 0:03:25.119 also showed the president his collection of guns and various badges. 0:03:25.520 --> 0:03:29.519 Nixon gamely played along, Recognizing a rare opportunity to use 0:03:29.560 --> 0:03:33.680 one of counterculture's icons toward his own ends, he agreed 0:03:33.720 --> 0:03:36.920 to appoint Elvis as a marshal not of course, in 0:03:37.000 --> 0:03:39.960 a serious role in law enforcement, but as a more 0:03:40.120 --> 0:03:43.200 symbolic gesture. The photo they took at the end of 0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:45.400 the half hour meeting would become one of the most 0:03:45.440 --> 0:03:49.119 requested images in the National Archives. In it, the President 0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:52.360 and the King stand next to each other, stiff smiles 0:03:52.440 --> 0:03:56.720 on their faces. A strange moment frozen in time. Elvis 0:03:56.760 --> 0:03:58.880 got the badge that he came for, a sort of 0:03:59.040 --> 0:04:01.840 costume of authority that he would treasure until his death, 0:04:02.160 --> 0:04:05.680 and Nixon got his photo op proving his credentials to 0:04:05.840 --> 0:04:08.840 America's youth. It was a moment where the lines between 0:04:08.880 --> 0:04:13.080 rebellion and conformity were blurred. Elvis Presley walked out of 0:04:13.080 --> 0:04:15.080 the White House with a badge and a gun, but 0:04:15.160 --> 0:04:18.479 his victory was hollow. The cultural divide widened, and the 0:04:18.520 --> 0:04:20.960 man who wanted to save America did very little in 0:04:21.000 --> 0:04:23.880 the drug war he so desperately wanted to fight. In 0:04:23.920 --> 0:04:26.400 the end, all that came of it was a strange 0:04:26.400 --> 0:04:29.200 photo of the time that a rock star walked into 0:04:29.240 --> 0:04:33.000 the Oval Office to ask the President to make him 0:04:33.160 --> 0:04:49.679 a hero. The cultural memory of the First World War 0:04:49.960 --> 0:04:52.200 is a singular one. When we tend to think of 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:55.000 that war, It's easy to immediately jump to one very 0:04:55.040 --> 0:04:59.560 specific corner of it, the hopeless, grueling trench warfare in 0:04:59.600 --> 0:05:03.240 Western in Europe, even the exceptions such as the Arab 0:05:03.320 --> 0:05:06.520 Revolt and the Adventures of T. E. Lawrence, occupy a 0:05:06.560 --> 0:05:10.000 different place in the popular imagination. A general picture of 0:05:10.040 --> 0:05:12.719 World War I in history books is one of mud 0:05:12.880 --> 0:05:17.839 and desolate landscapes and barbed wire. Almost as common, though, 0:05:17.880 --> 0:05:20.680 are tales of German U boat attacks in the Atlantic. 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:24.680 You see, in early nineteen seventeen, Germany was directing unrestricted 0:05:24.720 --> 0:05:28.680 warfare against enemy ships in the ocean, attacking from beneath 0:05:28.720 --> 0:05:32.279 with U boats and torpedoes. Neutral ships as well were 0:05:32.320 --> 0:05:35.719 considered a target. When fighting the British Empire, the greatest 0:05:35.800 --> 0:05:39.360 navy in history, Germany was prepared to show no quarter. 0:05:39.960 --> 0:05:42.960 But strangely, the most interesting naval encounter of the era 0:05:43.360 --> 0:05:46.479 didn't come from under the waves, but from far far 0:05:46.600 --> 0:05:49.400 above them. It happened on the twenty third of April 0:05:49.440 --> 0:05:53.240 in nineteen seventeen, eighty five miles off the coast of Denmark. 0:05:53.480 --> 0:05:56.200 A Norwegian ship called the Royal was sailing for the 0:05:56.279 --> 0:06:00.240 United Kingdom when they saw something unexpected overhead. It was 0:06:00.279 --> 0:06:04.040 a zeppelin flying Imperial German colors, and it was heading 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:07.320 right for them. The zeppelin proceeded to drop a bomb 0:06:07.360 --> 0:06:10.760 across the bow, and the Norwegian crew panicked. This was, 0:06:10.800 --> 0:06:14.040 after all a cargo ship. It had no weapons or defenses. 0:06:14.360 --> 0:06:17.440 The sailors hurried for the lifeboats just as the zeppelin 0:06:17.480 --> 0:06:21.240 hovered near them, likely preparing for her next attack. They 0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:24.839 didn't drop another bomb, however. Instead it drifted down to 0:06:24.920 --> 0:06:28.080 sea level and launched a dinghy carrying a handful of 0:06:28.080 --> 0:06:32.320 German sailors and an officer, and these sailors boarded the Royal. 0:06:32.680 --> 0:06:35.000 The officer in charge of them demanded to know if 0:06:35.000 --> 0:06:38.200 there was any contraband on board the Royal. They searched 0:06:38.200 --> 0:06:40.640 the hold and it was long before they found timber 0:06:40.680 --> 0:06:44.600 that was destined for England to aid in army engineering projects. 0:06:44.920 --> 0:06:47.920 Norway was neutral at the time, so transporting the cargo 0:06:47.960 --> 0:06:52.480 to England was considered illegal. In response, the zeppelin's commander, 0:06:52.600 --> 0:06:56.760 Ludwig Bachholt, took possession of the Royal, leaving behind three 0:06:56.839 --> 0:06:59.880 sailors to conduct her to Germany as a prize of war. 0:07:00.360 --> 0:07:04.080 The action was an uncharacteristically daring one. Zeppelins were used 0:07:04.080 --> 0:07:07.600 for bombing and reconnaissance runs, but the boarding and capturing 0:07:07.640 --> 0:07:10.880 of an enemy ship wasn't in their playbook. It was 0:07:10.960 --> 0:07:14.960 a sensation back home as well. Paper after paper published 0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:18.680 glowing accounts of the action. German morale needed the boost. 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:21.760 Although the United States had officially entered the war earlier 0:07:21.800 --> 0:07:25.160 that month, their troops had yet to reach Europe. Germany 0:07:25.200 --> 0:07:29.080 was gaining ground against the French but suffering dangerous losses 0:07:29.120 --> 0:07:32.240 on other fronts. So a freshly captured ship that was 0:07:32.280 --> 0:07:35.040 taken without a drop of blood spilt was just the 0:07:35.080 --> 0:07:37.920 sort of thing the people of Germany needed, even if 0:07:38.080 --> 0:07:42.400 ultimately the ship was of little military value. Oddly enough, 0:07:42.440 --> 0:07:47.400 though Captain Bachholdt was reprimanded harshly for needlessly endangering Zeppelin 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:50.720 L twenty three, he had been on a reconnaissance mission 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:53.520 after all, not an air raid, and eventually that June 0:07:53.520 --> 0:07:55.720 he would be relieved as captain of the vessel and 0:07:55.760 --> 0:07:58.880 given a different Zeppelin to command. This wound up being 0:07:58.880 --> 0:08:01.920 a blessing in disguise too, because Zeppelin L twenty three 0:08:02.280 --> 0:08:04.640 was shot down in August of that year. Not a 0:08:04.680 --> 0:08:08.520 single member of its crew survived. In the grand scope 0:08:08.560 --> 0:08:11.280 of the Great War, the career of Zeppelin L twenty 0:08:11.320 --> 0:08:14.720 three was barely a blip fifty one missions from April 0:08:14.760 --> 0:08:17.480 to August, but for an airship that only flew for 0:08:17.560 --> 0:08:21.720 five months, it gained a unique legacy. Many paintings have 0:08:21.800 --> 0:08:24.440 been made of the Zeppelin capturing the ship, and it 0:08:24.480 --> 0:08:27.560 looks like something out of a Jules Verne science fiction novel, 0:08:27.880 --> 0:08:31.320 an old world sailing vessel next to the enormous body 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:33.960 of a dirigible, the sort of site that would never 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:38.400 be seen in military history before or since. By capturing 0:08:38.440 --> 0:08:42.800 a ship, this Zeppelin captured our imaginations as well. Not 0:08:42.920 --> 0:08:51.160 bad for a single curious act of piracy. I hope 0:08:51.160 --> 0:08:54.600 you enjoyed today's guided tour through the Cabinet of Curiosities. 0:08:54.840 --> 0:08:58.240 This show was created by me Aaron Manke in partnership 0:08:58.280 --> 0:09:01.280 with iHeart Podcasts, searched and written by the Grim and 0:09:01.280 --> 0:09:04.760 Mild team, and produced by Jesse Funk. Learn more about 0:09:04.800 --> 0:09:07.040 the show and the people who make it over at 0:09:07.080 --> 0:09:11.320 Grimandmild dot com slash Curiosities. You'll also find a link 0:09:11.360 --> 0:09:14.800 to the official Cabinet of Curiosity's hardcover book, available in 0:09:14.840 --> 0:09:18.520 bookstores and online, as well as ebook and audiobook, and 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:21.160 if you're looking for an ad free option, consider joining 0:09:21.200 --> 0:09:24.800 our Patreon. It's all the same stories, but without the interruption, 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:27.840 for a small monthly fee. Learn more and sign up 0:09:27.880 --> 0:09:32.600 over at patreon dot com. Slash Grimandmild, and until next time, 0:09:33.360 --> 0:09:34.200 stay curious.