1 00:00:04,080 --> 00:00:07,440 Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of 2 00:00:07,480 --> 00:00:09,320 Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. 3 00:00:12,840 --> 00:00:16,840 Speaker 2: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history 4 00:00:17,040 --> 00:00:20,280 Speaker 2: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are 5 00:00:20,320 --> 00:00:23,720 Speaker 2: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. 6 00:00:25,239 --> 00:00:38,120 Speaker 2: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Everyone loves their pets. 7 00:00:38,479 --> 00:00:41,880 Speaker 2: Human domestication of animals goes back over ten thousand years. 8 00:00:42,159 --> 00:00:45,240 Speaker 2: In ancient times, we learn that dogs, cats, and even 9 00:00:45,280 --> 00:00:48,640 Speaker 2: bores could be fed and taught to follow orders. Most 10 00:00:48,640 --> 00:00:50,559 Speaker 2: of the time, all we ask is that the animals 11 00:00:50,560 --> 00:00:53,559 Speaker 2: be our cute little companions and pose for videos and 12 00:00:53,560 --> 00:00:57,840 Speaker 2: photos for social media. As history has progressed, domestication has 13 00:00:57,840 --> 00:01:00,760 Speaker 2: grown more and more sophisticated. In the modern age, this 14 00:01:00,840 --> 00:01:04,800 Speaker 2: process often goes too far, becoming horrific rather than cute. 15 00:01:05,080 --> 00:01:07,160 Speaker 2: Many of us can hardly stomach the thought of the 16 00:01:07,200 --> 00:01:10,120 Speaker 2: slaughter houses that mass produce meat. But if you go 17 00:01:10,200 --> 00:01:12,600 Speaker 2: back just a few decades, you can find one example 18 00:01:12,600 --> 00:01:16,320 Speaker 2: of domestication gone wrong that's more horrific than any other. 19 00:01:17,280 --> 00:01:21,200 Speaker 2: The CIA's Cold War experiments are now infamous. What was 20 00:01:21,240 --> 00:01:24,000 Speaker 2: once thought to be a conspiracy theory has now through 21 00:01:24,120 --> 00:01:29,120 Speaker 2: declassified documents proved to be actual conspiracy. One such document 22 00:01:29,160 --> 00:01:33,560 Speaker 2: reveals the existence of Operation Acoustic Kitty, an experiment meant 23 00:01:33,560 --> 00:01:37,360 Speaker 2: to assess the use of cats in spy operations. The 24 00:01:37,440 --> 00:01:40,320 Speaker 2: documents are still heavily redacted, so we don't know the 25 00:01:40,440 --> 00:01:43,959 Speaker 2: names of many of the people involved, but that's perhaps appropriate, 26 00:01:44,040 --> 00:01:47,200 Speaker 2: as from the cat's point of view, the CIA agents 27 00:01:47,440 --> 00:01:51,280 Speaker 2: were all strangers doing strange things. In order to make 28 00:01:51,320 --> 00:01:54,960 Speaker 2: the cat ready for the operation, several surgeries were performed. 29 00:01:55,240 --> 00:01:57,760 Speaker 2: The cat was cut open and batteries and a receiver 30 00:01:57,880 --> 00:02:01,280 Speaker 2: were sewn into its stomach lining. After this, the agents 31 00:02:01,360 --> 00:02:04,000 Speaker 2: ran a microphone from the receiver in the cat's stomach, 32 00:02:04,360 --> 00:02:07,360 Speaker 2: up its digestive tract and into its head out its 33 00:02:07,400 --> 00:02:10,320 Speaker 2: ear canal. And that's right, the cat had a microphone 34 00:02:10,560 --> 00:02:13,920 Speaker 2: and a speaker in its ear. And finally, the agents 35 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:16,399 Speaker 2: ran a wire from the microphone in the cat's ear 36 00:02:16,800 --> 00:02:19,760 Speaker 2: down the cat's spine, this time weaving the wire into 37 00:02:19,800 --> 00:02:22,840 Speaker 2: its fur. This led to an antenna in its tail 38 00:02:22,880 --> 00:02:26,280 Speaker 2: that could both receive messages and broadcast whatever was being 39 00:02:26,320 --> 00:02:30,760 Speaker 2: picked up on the microphone. With their Acoustic Kitty now complete, 40 00:02:30,919 --> 00:02:33,280 Speaker 2: the agents sewed the cat back up and let it 41 00:02:33,320 --> 00:02:36,280 Speaker 2: recover from its surgery, and we can only imagine how 42 00:02:36,280 --> 00:02:39,120 Speaker 2: the cat felt. But once it was recovered, it was 43 00:02:39,160 --> 00:02:42,520 Speaker 2: time for its training. The agents played different tones in 44 00:02:42,560 --> 00:02:45,520 Speaker 2: the cat's ear, using obstacle courses to train it to 45 00:02:45,800 --> 00:02:49,720 Speaker 2: associate certain tones with certain directions. One tone told it 46 00:02:49,760 --> 00:02:52,160 Speaker 2: to go left, another told it to go right, and 47 00:02:52,240 --> 00:02:54,880 Speaker 2: so on. Now, if you own a cat, or you've 48 00:02:54,880 --> 00:02:58,240 Speaker 2: heard the phrase trying to herd cats, you're probably surprised 49 00:02:58,280 --> 00:02:59,239 Speaker 2: to hear that this worked. 50 00:02:59,520 --> 00:03:02,080 Speaker 1: But the truth it is that it didn't. Always, not 51 00:03:02,200 --> 00:03:04,560 Speaker 1: for more than ten minutes at a time, the cat's 52 00:03:04,639 --> 00:03:07,080 Speaker 1: various instincts often took over and led it to do 53 00:03:07,400 --> 00:03:10,720 Speaker 1: whatever it wanted. Some reports suggest that the agents did 54 00:03:10,760 --> 00:03:14,240 Speaker 1: more surgeries to suppress those urges, but exactly how that 55 00:03:14,360 --> 00:03:18,760 Speaker 1: worked is unclear. Regardless, the agents were eventually satisfied enough 56 00:03:18,800 --> 00:03:21,040 Speaker 1: where they felt that the cat was ready for a 57 00:03:21,040 --> 00:03:23,639 Speaker 1: field test. They packed it up in a van with 58 00:03:23,680 --> 00:03:26,720 Speaker 1: a variety of other surveillance equipment and drove to a 59 00:03:26,760 --> 00:03:30,520 Speaker 1: park outside the Russian embassy in Washington, DC. Their goal 60 00:03:30,600 --> 00:03:32,920 Speaker 1: was to have the cat spy on some civilians On 61 00:03:32,960 --> 00:03:35,480 Speaker 1: a park bench, they unloaded the cat onto the street 62 00:03:35,800 --> 00:03:39,720 Speaker 1: and began to issue commands. Now, what happened next varies 63 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:43,240 Speaker 1: depending on the source. If you want the happy ending, 64 00:03:43,360 --> 00:03:47,000 Speaker 1: the cat performed its job but was still hard to control. Afterward, 65 00:03:47,160 --> 00:03:50,400 Speaker 1: surgery was done to remove all the electronic components, and 66 00:03:50,440 --> 00:03:53,119 Speaker 1: the cat lived on after that. But if you want 67 00:03:53,120 --> 00:03:56,360 Speaker 1: the sad and to be honest, darker ending, one report 68 00:03:56,400 --> 00:03:58,840 Speaker 1: says that the cat began to cross the street and 69 00:03:58,920 --> 00:04:02,160 Speaker 1: was immediately hit by a taxi, destroying years of hard 70 00:04:02,160 --> 00:04:05,960 Speaker 1: work and millions of dollars in taxpayer money. Whatever the 71 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:09,280 Speaker 1: true story, the CIA came to the conclusion that cats 72 00:04:09,280 --> 00:04:12,040 Speaker 1: would never be an ideal ally in the spy trade. 73 00:04:12,280 --> 00:04:15,720 Speaker 1: This is one example of domestication that went way too 74 00:04:15,760 --> 00:04:19,800 Speaker 1: far and yielded no results in the process. They say 75 00:04:19,839 --> 00:04:23,080 Speaker 1: that curiosity killed the cat, but in this case, the 76 00:04:23,120 --> 00:04:43,600 Speaker 1: curiosity was the CIA's lights, camera action. Those three magical 77 00:04:43,640 --> 00:04:46,240 Speaker 1: words are the first thing we learn about the process 78 00:04:46,320 --> 00:04:49,359 Speaker 1: of making films, a cliche that by now is a 79 00:04:49,360 --> 00:04:51,680 Speaker 1: little out of date. These days, if a director has 80 00:04:51,760 --> 00:04:53,720 Speaker 1: to call for the lighting to be turned on right 81 00:04:53,760 --> 00:04:56,960 Speaker 1: before a shot, something else has gone very very wrong. 82 00:04:57,480 --> 00:05:00,240 Speaker 1: Since the dawn of the twentieth century, though, motion xture. 83 00:05:00,279 --> 00:05:03,279 Speaker 1: Producers have been striving to create something worth seeing on 84 00:05:03,360 --> 00:05:06,719 Speaker 1: the silver screen, imagery that's so transporting that you just 85 00:05:06,880 --> 00:05:09,480 Speaker 1: have to go out and see it for yourself. Today, 86 00:05:09,600 --> 00:05:12,880 Speaker 1: thousands of artists work over computer screens to make such 87 00:05:12,880 --> 00:05:15,760 Speaker 1: spectacles happen. In the nineteen twenties, though, if you wanted 88 00:05:15,760 --> 00:05:19,520 Speaker 1: something spectacular, you had to invent it in physical reality, 89 00:05:20,279 --> 00:05:23,479 Speaker 1: which brings us to the story of Noah's Ark, not 90 00:05:23,600 --> 00:05:26,920 Speaker 1: the Bible tale, but the nineteen twenty eight film adaptation 91 00:05:27,080 --> 00:05:30,360 Speaker 1: of it, produced by the Warner Brothers. Adapting works from 92 00:05:30,360 --> 00:05:34,039 Speaker 1: the Bible was a popular strategy for Blockbuster's success. Just 93 00:05:34,120 --> 00:05:37,159 Speaker 1: four years earlier, Cecil B. De Mill had directed a 94 00:05:37,200 --> 00:05:40,440 Speaker 1: silent film version of The Ten Commandments, which made Paramount 95 00:05:40,480 --> 00:05:45,320 Speaker 1: Pictures almost four times its budget. So producer Darryl F. 96 00:05:45,520 --> 00:05:48,280 Speaker 1: Zanik saw the opportunity. He gave the story to a 97 00:05:48,320 --> 00:05:51,320 Speaker 1: hand picked screenwriter and hired an up and coming director 98 00:05:51,360 --> 00:05:54,279 Speaker 1: for the job, a thirty eight year old Hungarian American 99 00:05:54,360 --> 00:05:57,360 Speaker 1: named Michael Curtiz. Now, in case you've never seen it, 100 00:05:57,400 --> 00:05:59,920 Speaker 1: the climax of this film would involve a truly tear 101 00:06:00,200 --> 00:06:03,640 Speaker 1: fine amount of manpower. The Great flood in the Bible 102 00:06:03,720 --> 00:06:06,479 Speaker 1: this flood destroys every living thing on earth save for 103 00:06:06,600 --> 00:06:09,520 Speaker 1: Noah and his family and the animals that they managed 104 00:06:09,520 --> 00:06:11,960 Speaker 1: to save in the ark. So in order for this 105 00:06:12,080 --> 00:06:15,080 Speaker 1: divine apocalypse to play out on screen, it had to 106 00:06:15,120 --> 00:06:18,800 Speaker 1: be a showstopper. As many as seven thousand extras were 107 00:06:18,800 --> 00:06:21,760 Speaker 1: brought on for this scene along with livestock. The plan 108 00:06:21,880 --> 00:06:24,640 Speaker 1: was to actually flood the set with all of these 109 00:06:24,680 --> 00:06:27,919 Speaker 1: people there. The biblical city was built to break away 110 00:06:27,920 --> 00:06:32,200 Speaker 1: in the water, dramatically collapsing as Man's hubris was squashed 111 00:06:32,200 --> 00:06:35,920 Speaker 1: by the wrath of God. Cinematographer how Moore was an 112 00:06:35,920 --> 00:06:39,640 Speaker 1: early voice speaking up against the plan. He confronted the 113 00:06:39,680 --> 00:06:43,440 Speaker 1: director and producer Daryl Zanak. Allegedly he asked what would 114 00:06:43,480 --> 00:06:46,839 Speaker 1: be done about the extra people, and Curtis replied, they'll 115 00:06:46,839 --> 00:06:49,280 Speaker 1: have to take their chances, and it was then that 116 00:06:49,360 --> 00:06:52,000 Speaker 1: Moore walked off the set to be replaced by a 117 00:06:52,040 --> 00:06:55,400 Speaker 1: different cameraman. On the final day when the flood sequence 118 00:06:55,560 --> 00:06:58,440 Speaker 1: was to be filmed, there were fourteen cameras rolling and 119 00:06:58,560 --> 00:07:02,560 Speaker 1: on q torrential waves of water were released onto the set. Now, 120 00:07:02,600 --> 00:07:05,479 Speaker 1: accounts differ on how much water the flood required, some 121 00:07:05,520 --> 00:07:08,919 Speaker 1: say four million gallons others point the estimate closer to 122 00:07:08,960 --> 00:07:13,000 Speaker 1: one million. Whatever the case, the effect was intense. The 123 00:07:13,080 --> 00:07:16,200 Speaker 1: set broke and shattered, not just at the key points 124 00:07:16,240 --> 00:07:19,680 Speaker 1: designed to give way. One of the leading actors, George O'Brien, 125 00:07:19,960 --> 00:07:23,120 Speaker 1: had two of his toenails ripped off by the water pressure, 126 00:07:23,520 --> 00:07:26,000 Speaker 1: but that was the least of the damage. Extras and 127 00:07:26,160 --> 00:07:29,920 Speaker 1: cattle went from performing to fighting for their lives. Many 128 00:07:29,960 --> 00:07:33,480 Speaker 1: accounts afterward claimed that the water ran red with blood. 129 00:07:34,200 --> 00:07:37,600 Speaker 1: After the scene, thirty five ambulances rushed to the rescue. 130 00:07:37,760 --> 00:07:40,560 Speaker 1: It is frequently claimed that in the chaos three people 131 00:07:40,600 --> 00:07:43,200 Speaker 1: lost their lives, and hell more has even said that 132 00:07:43,240 --> 00:07:45,760 Speaker 1: at least one man lost a leg. Many of the 133 00:07:45,800 --> 00:07:48,840 Speaker 1: stars involved spoke openly in their later years about how 134 00:07:48,920 --> 00:07:52,520 Speaker 1: harrowing the sequence was, how the producers were not just reckless, 135 00:07:52,760 --> 00:07:56,920 Speaker 1: but ruthless. Alfred Hitchcock would infamously say that actors should 136 00:07:56,920 --> 00:08:00,400 Speaker 1: be treated like cattle, and in circumstances like these, it's 137 00:08:00,440 --> 00:08:03,080 Speaker 1: hard to argue that they were treated much better, but 138 00:08:03,120 --> 00:08:05,520 Speaker 1: there was only so much they could do. In an 139 00:08:05,600 --> 00:08:09,240 Speaker 1: era before robust safety regulations and labor unions had entered, 140 00:08:09,280 --> 00:08:13,080 Speaker 1: Hollywood performers were only safe if a studio wanted them 141 00:08:13,080 --> 00:08:16,760 Speaker 1: to be protected. Production records from Noah's Ark have either 142 00:08:16,800 --> 00:08:19,400 Speaker 1: been lost or destroyed, and all we have to go 143 00:08:19,440 --> 00:08:21,640 Speaker 1: on are the accounts of those who were there, like 144 00:08:21,680 --> 00:08:25,080 Speaker 1: the actors and the crew. Their description of a flood 145 00:08:25,120 --> 00:08:28,080 Speaker 1: flecked with blood and a set crashing down around them 146 00:08:28,240 --> 00:08:31,760 Speaker 1: paint a terrifying picture, even if the tangible details remained 147 00:08:31,800 --> 00:08:34,600 Speaker 1: something of a mystery. But what we do have are 148 00:08:34,640 --> 00:08:37,640 Speaker 1: the names of some of the survivors. One of the 149 00:08:37,679 --> 00:08:40,240 Speaker 1: men involved in the flood who very nearly lost his 150 00:08:40,280 --> 00:08:43,120 Speaker 1: life was an over six foot tall prop man named 151 00:08:43,120 --> 00:08:46,320 Speaker 1: Maryan Morrison. If he hadn't survived that shoot, today, the 152 00:08:46,440 --> 00:08:49,360 Speaker 1: history of film would have turned out quite differently. Later 153 00:08:49,400 --> 00:08:51,800 Speaker 1: in his career, he'd be known by a different name 154 00:08:52,120 --> 00:08:56,320 Speaker 1: as the Western hero John Wayne. While making films is 155 00:08:56,400 --> 00:08:58,959 Speaker 1: a lot safer now than it was in the nineteen twenties, 156 00:08:59,240 --> 00:09:01,200 Speaker 1: there is a less to take from all of this. 157 00:09:01,400 --> 00:09:04,760 Speaker 1: Whether you're a movie producer, a business owner, or anyone 158 00:09:04,800 --> 00:09:07,960 Speaker 1: people trust with their safety, be careful of who you 159 00:09:08,040 --> 00:09:11,920 Speaker 1: think is expendable, because you never know which extra is 160 00:09:11,960 --> 00:09:19,000 Speaker 1: a future star. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour 161 00:09:19,120 --> 00:09:23,199 Speaker 1: of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, 162 00:09:23,280 --> 00:09:26,800 Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast 163 00:09:27,040 --> 00:09:30,840 Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Mankey 164 00:09:31,120 --> 00:09:34,559 Speaker 1: in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award 165 00:09:34,640 --> 00:09:38,160 Speaker 1: winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, 166 00:09:38,240 --> 00:09:40,840 Speaker 1: and television show, and you can learn all about it 167 00:09:40,920 --> 00:09:45,319 Speaker 1: over at the Worldoflore dot com. And until next time, 168 00:09:45,559 --> 00:09:48,240 Speaker 1: stay curious.