Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: It was the race of a lifetime, and the stakes
Speaker 1: had never been higher. The course was treacherous, a winding,
Speaker 1: single lane dirt road through swamps and forests, then across
Speaker 1: a winding mountain path. And to make matters worse, the
Speaker 1: drivers would attempt this route entirely at night and without headlights.
Speaker 1: A wrong turn in the dark could be deadly, but
Speaker 1: the payoff was worth the risk. The winner would walk
Speaker 1: away with a massive purse and the loser could leave
Speaker 1: in handcuffs. Because this wasn't the INND five hundred, and
Speaker 1: the racers weren't professional drivers, they were bootleggers. During America's
Speaker 1: prohibition era, illegal whiskey and moonshine runners became some of
Speaker 1: the best getaway drivers in the country. There was a
Speaker 1: lot of money to be made by transporting liquor from
Speaker 1: world distilleries to speakeasies in the city, provided they didn't
Speaker 1: get caught. The roads were heavily patrolled by the FEDS,
Speaker 1: so runners did everything they could to give themselves an edge.
Speaker 1: They bought the best cars on the market, like Ford's
Speaker 1: powerful V eight, then modified them to the perfect getaway vehicles.
Speaker 1: They souped up the engines and ripped out the back seats.
Speaker 1: They added suspension springs so the car's frames wouldn't sag
Speaker 1: under the weight of contraband and alert the cops. Some
Speaker 1: bootleggers even rig their vehicles with gadgets straight out of
Speaker 1: a Bond film. Cars were capable of emitting smoke screens
Speaker 1: and oil slicks, or dumping nails into the path of
Speaker 1: their pursuers, but no gadget or upgrade could match experience
Speaker 1: behind the wheel. The bootleggers weren't moving liquor or retooling
Speaker 1: their rides. They kept up their skills by racing one
Speaker 1: another at local fairgrounds. Now, these races weren't supposed to
Speaker 1: be serious, at least at first. There were no cash
Speaker 1: prizes and no tickets sold, so a lot of drivers
Speaker 1: were surprised when people started to show up and watch
Speaker 1: At this point, the American auto racing scene was pretty
Speaker 1: much limited to triple A races like the Indy five hundred.
Speaker 1: These were expensive, high class events attended by wealthy businessmen
Speaker 1: and their families. The amateur bootlegger races were the exact opposite.
Speaker 1: The cars were stock, the drivers were amateur, and the
Speaker 1: audiences were working class. The courses were so dusty that
Speaker 1: everyone went home the color of rust. But what these
Speaker 1: races lacked in frills, they made up for in spectacle.
Speaker 1: Reckless Roy Hall, for example, who had multiple convictions to
Speaker 1: his name, could be seen tearing around turns so fast
Speaker 1: his vehicle briefly lifted onto two wheels. Meanwhile, Bill Blair Senior,
Speaker 1: a bootlegger from North Carolina, demonstrated the one hundred and
Speaker 1: eighty degree hair pin turns that he had perfected while
Speaker 1: evading atf agents. The combination of the talents and the
Speaker 1: guts on display caused the races to surge in popularity,
Speaker 1: with audiences showing up in droves. The drivers started earning
Speaker 1: real money, maybe not bootleg level money, but enough that
Speaker 1: when national prohibition ended in nineteen thirty three, they kept
Speaker 1: on racing. And while that was happening an entire industry
Speaker 1: of mechanics and garages. The folks that serviced those booze
Speaker 1: runner vehicles transitioned to meet the needs of stock car racers.
Speaker 1: Even the promoters and team managers had roots in the
Speaker 1: illegal liquor trade. By nineteen forty seven, it was time
Speaker 1: to make things official. A group of former bootleggers met
Speaker 1: in Daytona Beach, Florida to standardize the rules for their
Speaker 1: fledgling sport. By the time they left the meeting, they
Speaker 1: had formed a brand new racing association, which would see
Speaker 1: a rapid and meteoric expansion in the coming years. Among
Speaker 1: those early rules was an agreement that drivers couldn't be
Speaker 1: sponsored by liquor companies. Ironic perhaps, but also clever. The
Speaker 1: league thought that if they were ever going to become mainstream,
Speaker 1: they would need to distance themselves from their criminal past.
Speaker 1: The rebranding was a success. The sport took off and
Speaker 1: eventually became the biggest auto racing league in the US,
Speaker 1: and today a few people remember that NASCAR was created
Speaker 1: by a bunch of professional bootleggers. Let's do a thought
Speaker 1: experiment right now. Think about your local movie theater. What's
Speaker 1: the first thing that you can picture in your mind.
Speaker 1: Is it the smell of the popcorn, or maybe the
Speaker 1: feeling of the seat cushion under you as you settle
Speaker 1: in and watch the latest blockbuster. Whatever it is, Going
Speaker 1: to a movie theater and watching a film is something
Speaker 1: almost everyone has experienced at least once in their lives.
Speaker 1: Well back in nineteen sixty one, film changed the movie
Speaker 1: going experience forever, and we're still feeling the effects of
Speaker 1: this today. British director Alfred Hitchcock was looking for his
Speaker 1: next big project. He had just finished North By Northwest
Speaker 1: starring Carrie Grant, the exciting spy thriller that had stars
Speaker 1: fighting for their lives atop Mount Rushmore. But rather than
Speaker 1: go bigger for his next film, he took a page
Speaker 1: literally from his assistant Peggy Robertson. Robertson had read a
Speaker 1: review of a new novel by the author Robert Block.
Speaker 1: Inspired by the story of a Wisconsin farmer turned gravedigger
Speaker 1: and murderer, the book told the story of a lonely
Speaker 1: motel caretaker with a strange fascination with his mother. Robertson
Speaker 1: gave Hitchcock a copy of Block's novel Psycho and the
Speaker 1: rest was history. Except that's not where the story ends.
Speaker 1: In fact, it's just the beginning, because Hitchcock new Psycho's
Speaker 1: success was going to hinge on one thing, the element
Speaker 1: of surprise. So to avoid any potential audience members from
Speaker 1: reading the novel ahead of time and ruining the twistwear
Speaker 1: spoiler alert the main character is killed halfway through the story,
Speaker 1: he had Peggy buy up every copy of the book
Speaker 1: she could find. Hitchcock then bought the rights to the
Speaker 1: film for Block's novel for nine five hundred dollars and
Speaker 1: went to Paramount with his pitch. But they weren't too receptive.
Speaker 1: For one, the studio had already turned down the book
Speaker 1: based on its unsavory plot. The executives didn't want to
Speaker 1: spend a lot of money. North By Northwest By the
Speaker 1: Way had cost them about five million dollars, so Hitchcock
Speaker 1: eased their fears by promising to film the movie in
Speaker 1: black and white, and to avoid undue cost to the studio,
Speaker 1: he used his crew from the Alfred Hitchcock Presents television series.
Speaker 1: When that didn't work, he said that he would pay
Speaker 1: for it himself. All Paramount had to do was distribute it,
Speaker 1: and finally they agreed. It took almost three months to film,
Speaker 1: but by the end Hitchcock had a tightly wound horror
Speaker 1: thriller featuring killer performances from the likes of Anthony Perkins
Speaker 1: as Norman Bates and Janetly as Marion Crane. But he
Speaker 1: also had a big problem on his hands. You see,
Speaker 1: Marion's death happens almost an hour into the film. Now today,
Speaker 1: if someone is five or ten minutes late to a movie,
Speaker 1: the most they miss are the trailers or maybe the
Speaker 1: opening scene. But before nineteen sixty, theaters showed their films
Speaker 1: on a loop. They would open the doors and start
Speaker 1: their projectors. Customers who bought tickets might catch the film
Speaker 1: at the beginning, or maybe even just the last few scenes,
Speaker 1: and then when it was over, they would sit and
Speaker 1: wait for the picture to start again and watch it
Speaker 1: until it reached the point where they had walked in.
Speaker 1: Hitchcock couldn't have that. He didn't want audiences coming in
Speaker 1: late and missing the crucial scene where Marian dies. Even
Speaker 1: more so, he didn't want people learning the truth about
Speaker 1: Norman Bates before they'd even seen what comes before, so
Speaker 1: he and the studio ink to deal with the theaters,
Speaker 1: he forced them to adopt specific showtimes for Psycho. Now
Speaker 1: at first the theaters objected, but then they realized that
Speaker 1: they would make a lot more money by turning Hitchcock's
Speaker 1: film into an exclusive You had to be there event,
Speaker 1: oh and anyone who came late was not allowed into
Speaker 1: the theater. The director even had a bunch of cardboard
Speaker 1: cutouts of himself made up with an explanation of this
Speaker 1: new rule, which read, we won't allow you to cheat yourself.
Speaker 1: You must see Psycho from beginning to end to enjoy
Speaker 1: it fully, and these were placed in theater lobbies for
Speaker 1: patrons to see as they walked in. Well, Hitchcock's gamble worked.
Speaker 1: Audiences lined up in droves to see Psycho as intended,
Speaker 1: and the theaters loved how designated showtimes gave them a
Speaker 1: clear view of their busiest times of the day, as
Speaker 1: well as the ideal times to clean the theaters. Pretty soon,
Speaker 1: Psycho wasn't the only appointment only film being shown. Other
Speaker 1: movies followed suit, and the whole concept of showing films
Speaker 1: on a loop went the way of the Betamax. So
Speaker 1: the next time you make plans to see a new
Speaker 1: horror film, or a Victorian drama or a buddy cop
Speaker 1: comedy in the theaters, you can thank Alfred Hitchcock. And
Speaker 1: the next time you freak out about taking a shower alone,
Speaker 1: well you can thank him for that as well. I
Speaker 1: hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about
Speaker 1: the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. This show
Speaker 1: was created by me, Aaron Mankey in partnership with how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore,
Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and
Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at the Worldoflore
Speaker 1: dot com. And until next time, stay curious.