Speaker 1: Welcomed Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full
Speaker 1: of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Bare knuckle boxing was a rather peculiar sport.
Speaker 1: Two men, usually with high trousers and thick mustaches, would
Speaker 1: step into a ring with no protective equipment whatsoever, and,
Speaker 1: as the name suggests, use their bare knuckles to subdue
Speaker 1: the other. It is, as they say, a sport of gentlemen,
Speaker 1: the origin of modern day boxing, and a romanticized image
Speaker 1: of nineteen in early one yeth century manliness. After all,
Speaker 1: historical figures like Teddy Roosevelt actively participated in it, and
Speaker 1: he certainly had the mustache to make the grade. The
Speaker 1: fact that bare knuckle boxing originated in prison fighting shouldn't
Speaker 1: be that surprising by most estimations. The sport arrived in
Speaker 1: Australia in sev with convicts from the British first Fleet
Speaker 1: of Prisoners sent there. Within a few years, the first
Speaker 1: recorded fight took place in New South Wales. After a
Speaker 1: few more decades, the sport had finally become a more
Speaker 1: gentlemanly affair, just two fellas, knuckles primed, ready to beat
Speaker 1: on each other until the other gives up. The sport
Speaker 1: found such a footing in Australia that by the mid
Speaker 1: nineteenth century, boxers the world over were flocking to the
Speaker 1: Rings of Victoria, and that's where one of the most
Speaker 1: peculiar matches of all time was staged. In one corner,
Speaker 1: a guy named James Kelly, an Irish immigrant of some
Speaker 1: boxing acclaim, fresh off of victory over a local Australian
Speaker 1: fighter known simply as Hammy. In the other corner, Jonathan
Speaker 1: Smith of British origins, who had built a decent reputation
Speaker 1: in Britain and the US before trying his luck in Australia.
Speaker 1: Two well respected boxers, two veterans of the ring, and
Speaker 1: all the anticipation in the world. Neither Smith nor Kelly,
Speaker 1: nor even the crowd spending their morning around the ring
Speaker 1: could have known what sort of match was in store
Speaker 1: for them that day. But despite heavy rains the night before,
Speaker 1: thousands of spectators turned out to watch these two mustachioed
Speaker 1: titans duke it out, and as the match began, bright
Speaker 1: and early at nine am, the crowd was in full swing,
Speaker 1: and those two boxers did as two boxers often do.
Speaker 1: They jabbed and fainted, landing more than a few blows
Speaker 1: on each other, and by the end of the first round,
Speaker 1: the crowd was buzzing with energy. Two hours later, though,
Speaker 1: things began to take on a different look. The crowd
Speaker 1: was restless, closing in around the fighters in an attempt
Speaker 1: to push the match along. By round eight, James Kelly
Speaker 1: had suffered his worst blow of the match, earning himself
Speaker 1: a bloody nose. By round twelve, the biggest highlight was
Speaker 1: well still the bloody knows, and by round fourteen, now
Speaker 1: more than five hours into the match, the highlight was
Speaker 1: well still that nose and people talking about how it
Speaker 1: had caused James Kelly a great deal of annoyance. By
Speaker 1: around fifteen, the booze and hisses began to float in
Speaker 1: from the crowd, no doubt encouraged by the beer that
Speaker 1: had been flowing for hours. With neither boxer willing to
Speaker 1: take a risk, the fight looked like it would continue
Speaker 1: on for eternity. Finally, in round seventeen, James Kelly, his
Speaker 1: bloody nose apparently no longer a problem, taunted Smith into
Speaker 1: finally fighting, at which point Smith threw a wayward punch
Speaker 1: that was quickly countered by Kelly, causing Smith to call
Speaker 1: it quits. They shook hands and the fight finally concluded
Speaker 1: after six hours and fifteen minutes. It was the longest
Speaker 1: bare knuckle boxing fights of all time. In the papers
Speaker 1: the next day, the match was reported in detail, the
Speaker 1: writer having to exercise a bit of creative to write
Speaker 1: more than a sentence about each round. To be honest,
Speaker 1: the morning reader might have found more entertainment in the
Speaker 1: ads next to the article, including one that offered a
Speaker 1: cure for gingervitus and truth be told. After over six
Speaker 1: hours of waiting, very little drama, and no satisfying knockout
Speaker 1: at the end, I'm guessing anyone who stayed for the
Speaker 1: full match would have preferred a little dental work. Talent
Speaker 1: is kind of a nebulous concept. Some people believe that
Speaker 1: talent is innate, that we are born with it and
Speaker 1: don't really improve upon it as we grow. Others see
Speaker 1: talent as something to be taught that with enough training
Speaker 1: and experience, anyone can become an expert musician or painter.
Speaker 1: But when it came to acting, James Cagney once said,
Speaker 1: learn your lines, find your mark, look him in the eye,
Speaker 1: and tell him the truth. To him, talent wasn't really
Speaker 1: part of the equation, and maybe he was right. Perhaps
Speaker 1: a skill like acting could be taught to just about
Speaker 1: anyone off the street. In fact, actors Nadine and Katherine
Speaker 1: Dennis discovered Hollywood's next big star just by taking a walk.
Speaker 1: The pair had found him when he was young, abandoned
Speaker 1: by his parents and fending for himself on the streets
Speaker 1: of her sins. They took him home and cleaned him up.
Speaker 1: Soon after, his hidden talents started to show. For one,
Speaker 1: he could do anything on command, cross his eyes, laugh,
Speaker 1: drink from a bottle. The little guy could handle whatever
Speaker 1: the pair threw at him, and since they already lived
Speaker 1: in Tinseltown, it wasn't hard to imagine how they could
Speaker 1: capitalize on this new addition to their family. They just
Speaker 1: needed a name, something with pizzazz and star power. Legend
Speaker 1: has it that they took his name from a comic
Speaker 1: strip published in the papers at the time, which featured
Speaker 1: a character name Puzzums, so that's what they called him.
Speaker 1: Puzzums got his big break after appearing in a Los
Speaker 1: Angeles pageant in The Times had printed photos of him
Speaker 1: doing tricks for the audience at only a few years old.
Speaker 1: From then on he was a star. He was signed
Speaker 1: to his studio by producer Max Sennett, who had made
Speaker 1: a name for himself producing slapstick films featuring the Keystone Cops.
Speaker 1: Possums contract was for three years, at fifty bucks a week,
Speaker 1: more than Katherine and Nadine had been making combined on
Speaker 1: their own, not too shabby. He started showing up in
Speaker 1: silent comedies like The Chicken about a family dinner gone ray,
Speaker 1: or Run Girl Run, in which Carol Lombard played a
Speaker 1: track star trying to sneak away to see her boyfriend
Speaker 1: without the coach finding out. Before the big meat. Possums
Speaker 1: even acted for Cecil b DeMille and performed alongside heavyweights
Speaker 1: like Will Rogers, often poised as the comic relief in
Speaker 1: a scene. The actor once had to play Checkers while
Speaker 1: sitting in a high chair and dressed in silly hats
Speaker 1: and glasses for publicity shoots and drink from a baby
Speaker 1: bottle from time to time, and at his peak his
Speaker 1: pay increased from that healthy fifty dollars to two fifty
Speaker 1: dollars per week, and pretty soon he was working for
Speaker 1: any studio in need of a ringer. Sadly, his life
Speaker 1: was cut short after one of his teeth became infected.
Speaker 1: Possums died in nineteen thirty four, but don't worry. Fans
Speaker 1: can still pay their respects by visiting his grave at
Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Pet Memorial Park and Creamatory. That's right,
Speaker 1: Possums was a cat, and one with more talent than
Speaker 1: most dogs and humans in Hollywood at the time. His
Speaker 1: career jump started a tradition that has carried on right
Speaker 1: up to today of pets performing in films. There was Orangey,
Speaker 1: the orange tabby scene in films like nineteen sixty Ones,
Speaker 1: Breakfast at Tiffany's, and Mr Bigglesworth, the hairless sphinx belonging
Speaker 1: to Dr Evil in the Austin Powers films, whose real
Speaker 1: name was I Kid You not Ted knud Gent. Even today,
Speaker 1: whenever a film calls for an animal to react to
Speaker 1: something in the scene, it's often not special effects or
Speaker 1: a puppet being operated from behind the scenes, it's a
Speaker 1: trained animal working like any other performer. Cats often get
Speaker 1: a bad rap for being distant or hard to control,
Speaker 1: but possums and those who followed in his little footsteps
Speaker 1: prove those naysayers wrong. Sometimes being a good actor doesn't
Speaker 1: involve decades of studying or method training. Sometimes all you
Speaker 1: need is the ability to nail the perfect take. 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. The show
Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Manky 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 World
Speaker 1: of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.