Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
Speaker 1: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Most people today know
Speaker 1: at least the basics of the story of France's King
Speaker 1: Louis six He was the last king of France, and
Speaker 1: when he died, the monarchy died with him. And of
Speaker 1: course he was the grandson of Louis the Great, also
Speaker 1: known as the Son King. Even his wife, Marie Antoinette,
Speaker 1: was well known with one of the more recognizable names
Speaker 1: from popular history. But what most people tend to skip
Speaker 1: over is his childhood. Unlike his grandfather, the Son King,
Speaker 1: who ascended to the throne at the age of just four,
Speaker 1: Louis the sixteenth didn't become king until he was nearly twenty,
Speaker 1: which means he had a lot of time before that
Speaker 1: to experience life from his less lofty position. One moment
Speaker 1: in particular stands out. As a child, Louis was approached
Speaker 1: by an astrologer who asked if he could make a prediction.
Speaker 1: When Louis agreed, this astrologer warned the future king to
Speaker 1: be cautious of the twenty first day of each month.
Speaker 1: This morning came with no further explanation, but despite that,
Speaker 1: implanted itself firmly in the boy's mind. Later, after taking
Speaker 1: the throne in seventeen seventy four, Louis organized his responsibilities
Speaker 1: as king around that childhood fear. He avoided doing any
Speaker 1: important business on the twenty one of each month, assuming
Speaker 1: that if he never set the wheels in motion on
Speaker 1: those days, there would be nothing to return and harm him.
Speaker 1: Then again, what was coming down the pipeline was something
Speaker 1: no one could have predicted. When the American Revolution broke
Speaker 1: out in seventeen seventy six, Benjamin Franklin approached Louis for
Speaker 1: help with defeating the British rule of the American colonies.
Speaker 1: King Louis agreed and sent much support to their cause,
Speaker 1: and in the end it worked. The British were defeated
Speaker 1: and the French gained a new powerful ally, but it
Speaker 1: also showed the French citizens that a country could exist
Speaker 1: without a monarchy. In seventeen eighty nine, revolution broke out again,
Speaker 1: this time in France. Inspired in part by the Americans,
Speaker 1: the French overthrew their own king and set up a
Speaker 1: republic in its place, which meant that King Louis the
Speaker 1: sixteenth had to go. But here's where it gets weird.
Speaker 1: King Louis did his best to fight off the revolution,
Speaker 1: but on June twenty, seventeen ninety one, he and his
Speaker 1: family put on the clothing of servants and escaped into
Speaker 1: the night, while their servants remained behind dressed as nobles.
Speaker 1: The following day they were captured and arrested. That would
Speaker 1: be June one for anyone keeping track. A little over
Speaker 1: a year later, the new French government issued an official
Speaker 1: pronouncement that abolished the French monarchy forever the date September.
Speaker 1: It would take another few months before Louis met his fate.
Speaker 1: It's the part most of us know the best. Louis
Speaker 1: was led out into the Palace de la cour no Nod,
Speaker 1: where an enormous crowd had gathered to watch the execution.
Speaker 1: There in front of the people he once ruled over,
Speaker 1: Louis gave a brief speech and was then executed by guillotine.
Speaker 1: The date sevent January one. Of course, that old astronomer
Speaker 1: told Louis to avoid the twenty one of the month,
Speaker 1: and looking back it seems like that was pretty solid advice.
Speaker 1: The trouble was he couldn't control everything, no one, not
Speaker 1: even a king and stop. The March of time, Tony
Speaker 1: had arrived in London to take part in the production
Speaker 1: of a new Hollywood film. It was an adaptation of
Speaker 1: a popular novel, and because of that, Tony really wanted
Speaker 1: to get a copy of the book for himself to
Speaker 1: read and study and use as a resource for his
Speaker 1: own performance. Shortly after arriving in the city, he headed
Speaker 1: out to a local bookstore to see if they had
Speaker 1: a copy, but left empty handed. He checked a few
Speaker 1: more stores, but each visit resulted in the same outcome. Frustrated,
Speaker 1: Tony decided to call it quits and head back to
Speaker 1: his apartment. So he walked to the nearest subway station,
Speaker 1: Leicester Square, and headed inside. While he waited for the
Speaker 1: train to arrive, he took a seat on one of
Speaker 1: the nearby benches. No one was sitting there, but as
Speaker 1: he sat down, he noticed that someone had left a
Speaker 1: small pile of papers at one end. His curiosity drove
Speaker 1: him to pick up the pile and look through it,
Speaker 1: which is when he made a fantastic discovery. There Inside
Speaker 1: the papers was a copy of the very same book
Speaker 1: that he'd been trying and failing all day to buy.
Speaker 1: Tony took that book home and devoured it. It was
Speaker 1: clearly a well loved copy, with handwriting scrawled in pencil
Speaker 1: throughout the pages, but it allowed him to fully understand
Speaker 1: the author's vision for his character, and that gave him
Speaker 1: the tools he needed to deliver his best as an actor.
Speaker 1: After the filming was complete, he left London and took
Speaker 1: the book with him. Roughly two years later, Tony was
Speaker 1: in Vienna working on the film's production when he had
Speaker 1: a chance to meet the author of that elusive book.
Speaker 1: The writer George Peiffer than Tony for his performance and
Speaker 1: help in bringing his novel to life, but also lamented
Speaker 1: that he no longer owned a single copy of his
Speaker 1: own novel. Tony listened in surprise as George described loaning
Speaker 1: his last copy to a good friend. But that friend,
Speaker 1: George added, never returned my copy. In fact, she told
Speaker 1: me she lost it in the subway. Tony smiled and
Speaker 1: then reached into his bag and pulled out the copy
Speaker 1: of the book he still carried with him. The cover
Speaker 1: was still sharp and the title of the book was
Speaker 1: printed across it the girl from Petrovka. George Peiffer, took
Speaker 1: the copy in his hands with wide eyes, and then
Speaker 1: opened it up to look at the pages. They're scribbled
Speaker 1: in the margins for his own personal notes. This is it,
Speaker 1: he exclaimed, smiling wide at Tony, Tony, understanding his place
Speaker 1: in this wild coincidence, gladly past ownership of the book
Speaker 1: back to George. So that's how an author rediscovered his
Speaker 1: own missing novel, lost by random circumstances. It had returned
Speaker 1: to him through the most unusual of events, and handed
Speaker 1: over to him by one of Hollywood's most legendary leading men.
Speaker 1: Our hero, the actor you see, wasn't listed in the
Speaker 1: credits as Tony, but by the name all of us
Speaker 1: know him by today, Anthony Hopkins. I hope you've enjoyed
Speaker 1: today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for
Speaker 1: free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show
Speaker 1: by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created
Speaker 1: by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works.
Speaker 1: I make another award winning show called Lore, which is
Speaker 1: a podcast, book series, and television show. And you can
Speaker 1: learn all about it over at the world of lore
Speaker 1: dot com, and until next time, stay curious.