Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke'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 right there on display, just waiting
Speaker 1: for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: Anyone who's had a bad boss or a coworker has
Speaker 1: probably felt the sting of having their hard work stolen.
Speaker 1: They spend all weekend on a report or a spreadsheets,
Speaker 1: only to have the credit go to someone else. Back
Speaker 1: in the nineteen seventies, five women did a job that
Speaker 1: nobody else would or could do, and their research led
Speaker 1: to some pretty incredible results, results that were ultimately attributed
Speaker 1: to the men of their field. But Alina Schmantz and Heartline,
Speaker 1: doctor Sylvia Earl Mead, doctor Renata True, and Peggy Lucas
Speaker 1: Bond did more for the United States Space program than
Speaker 1: we will ever know. In nineteen seventy, both NASA and
Speaker 1: the US Department of the Interior put out a call
Speaker 1: they were looking for scientists to head up the next
Speaker 1: initiative at a special facility called tech Tight two. Tech
Speaker 1: Tight two was a special kind of base comprised of
Speaker 1: two metal capsules measuring eighteen feet tall and conducted by
Speaker 1: a narrow passage. The capsules held a small kitchen with
Speaker 1: the refrigerator, a microwave, a small table, and a bathroom,
Speaker 1: as well as bunks and a laboratory. Tech Tight two
Speaker 1: had been used four times previously by other teams of five,
Speaker 1: with four scientists and one engineer on each mission. The
Speaker 1: goal was to study how scientific teams worked together when
Speaker 1: isolated in small spaces, similar to what they experienced while
Speaker 1: in space, and for this new experiment, NASA and the
Speaker 1: US government wanted five women, as the first four experiments
Speaker 1: had been conducted by all male teams. But tech Tite
Speaker 1: II wasn't located in the middle of the desert or
Speaker 1: even in a top secret underground facility. It was located
Speaker 1: forty three feet under the Atlantic Ocean in the Virgin Islands.
Speaker 1: Several of the women were graduate students at Scrip's Institution
Speaker 1: of Oceanography, while doctor True taught biological oceanography at Tulane
Speaker 1: University in New Orleans. Peggy Lucas Bond came from Villanueva
Speaker 1: as an electrical engineer The men who had done the
Speaker 1: previous tech type missions ate frozen dinners every night and
Speaker 1: had regular contact with the outside world. They weren't so
Speaker 1: much isolated as they were on vacation. But Schmanson, the
Speaker 1: other women of Missions six point fifty wouldn't be so lucky.
Speaker 1: They would live and work together in close quarters for
Speaker 1: fourteen days studying the behavior of small coral reef fish
Speaker 1: while NASA and the DOI studied them. The women were
Speaker 1: deep enough that they could not surface without getting the bends.
Speaker 1: NASA had built to facility that could not be escaped
Speaker 1: so as to better study the psychological effects of being
Speaker 1: down there for longer periods of time. Once they were selected,
Speaker 1: the media had a field day with the fact that
Speaker 1: five young, attractive women were going to be doing what
Speaker 1: was considered men's work. Articles and TV reports discussed everything
Speaker 1: from their heights and weights to how they had allegedly
Speaker 1: requested a hair dryer in the capsule, which by the way,
Speaker 1: they hadn't, and the men in charge of the program
Speaker 1: also bombarded them with sexist remarks and behaviors, an unfortunate
Speaker 1: but not unexpected consequence of doing their jobs in a
Speaker 1: man's world. For example, the higher ups didn't think the
Speaker 1: women would be able to lift or maneuver their breathing
Speaker 1: tanks without a man there to help them. Mission six
Speaker 1: point fifty was led by Sylvia Earl Meade, while Bond
Speaker 1: maintained the life support systems. The five of them often
Speaker 1: explored the nearby coral reefs two at a time, with
Speaker 1: one person staying back at the base. They also got
Speaker 1: to use rebreathers on their excursions, a new technology that
Speaker 1: let the women read their own air using special tanks,
Speaker 1: allowing them to stay out of the base for hours
Speaker 1: on end. When they weren't observing the sea life outside
Speaker 1: of tech Tite, too, they relaxed inside, observing the sea
Speaker 1: life through the station's bubble shaped windows. There was also
Speaker 1: a television and radio on board in case they wanted
Speaker 1: to entertain themselves with something other than fish. Anne Heartline
Speaker 1: was quoted in the New York Times article saying, there
Speaker 1: was no claustrophobia, and we got along unbelievably well. The
Speaker 1: only time we had any disagreement was when we all
Speaker 1: wanted to go out swimming at the same time. After
Speaker 1: it was over, Smonson the others published several academic papers
Speaker 1: on their findings and NASA got the inside kneaded into
Speaker 1: the aquanat's mental states Throughout the experiment, The women were
Speaker 1: also given a ticker tape parade in Chicago and had
Speaker 1: a special lunch with First Lady Pat Nixon at the
Speaker 1: White House. As for tech Tite, it hosted several more
Speaker 1: all male missions through the nineteen seventies until it was
Speaker 1: finally decommissioned, but NASA still uses underwater habitats to both
Speaker 1: train and study astronauts before they head into space above
Speaker 1: all else, Mission six point fifty proved that women were
Speaker 1: just as capable of men, if not more so, at
Speaker 1: being astronauts. The work of Elina sch Monts and Heartline
Speaker 1: Sylvia Earl Mead were not a true and Peggy Lucas
Speaker 1: bond led to NASA eventually training women to go into space.
Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy four, these five women managed to do
Speaker 1: the impossible. They broke the glass ceiling while living in
Speaker 1: an underwater metal tube. Some people believe that if you
Speaker 1: want something done right, you have to do it yourself.
Speaker 1: For a woman named Mary Jane, though, it wasn't that
Speaker 1: she wanted things done right, it's that if she didn't
Speaker 1: do them herself. They wouldn't have gotten done at all.
Speaker 1: Mary was born in Brooklyn, New York, in eighteen ninety three.
Speaker 1: Her mother was a model, and her father had been
Speaker 1: a boxer before becoming a private investigator. She also had
Speaker 1: a brother and two sisters, one of whom died as
Speaker 1: an infant. Mary got the acting bug early after performing
Speaker 1: for her local church when she was only five. By
Speaker 1: the time she was a teenager, she was on the
Speaker 1: vaudeville circuit as a member of the Hall Clarendon Stock Company.
Speaker 1: In fact, Mary was an early dragstar, performing under the
Speaker 1: name Jane Mast and playing the part of a male impersonator.
Speaker 1: She eventually worked her way up to Broadway in nineteen eleven,
Speaker 1: performing alongside big stars like ed Wynn, perhaps best remembered
Speaker 1: as the voice of the Mad Hatter in Disney's Alice
Speaker 1: in Wonderland. But being on stage wasn't enough for Mary.
Speaker 1: She wanted more. She wanted to do it all, write, direct,
Speaker 1: produce all of the jobs that men were doing, and
Speaker 1: she knew that if she didn't take the initiative, she
Speaker 1: would never get the chance. So she got to work
Speaker 1: writing her own plays. Her first was a nineteen twenty
Speaker 1: six show simply titled Sex. Mary had written the script,
Speaker 1: directed it, and produced it all on her own, and
Speaker 1: audiences loved it, but critics and the authorities did not.
Speaker 1: After several religious groups complained about the content of the show,
Speaker 1: Mary and the rest of the cast were arrested and
Speaker 1: brought up on morals charges. She spent ten days locked up,
Speaker 1: refusing to pay the fine because she knew that her
Speaker 1: play could get a huge boost from the notoriety Anna did.
Speaker 1: Mary didn't do too badly in jail either. She only
Speaker 1: served eight days, getting two days off for good behavior,
Speaker 1: and often ate her meals with the warden and his wife.
Speaker 1: She returned to the stage with a new show called
Speaker 1: The Drag, which cast gay actors that she had known
Speaker 1: from a club in Greenwich Village. Mary was a staunch
Speaker 1: supporter of gay rights and often butted heads with the
Speaker 1: New York City police, who persecuted gay men and brutalized
Speaker 1: them simply for existing. It's no surprise that after testing
Speaker 1: her show in New Jersey and Connecticut, she was blocked
Speaker 1: from bringing it to the Broadway stage. By the nineteen thirties,
Speaker 1: Mary had found her way to Hollywood, where she became
Speaker 1: the talk of the town, but not only because of
Speaker 1: her acting. She hadn't just broken into the business. She
Speaker 1: had broken the mold. Mary wrote much of her own material,
Speaker 1: and although she went uncredited for the work that she
Speaker 1: did on her first few films, she received sole or
Speaker 1: partial credit for almost all of the movies that she
Speaker 1: made between nineteen thirty three and nineteen seventy eight. Her
Speaker 1: success allowed her to do many things that women of
Speaker 1: that era were not allowed to do or even expected
Speaker 1: to do. For example, she had a clause in her
Speaker 1: contract that gave her the right to kick her co
Speaker 1: star W. C. Fields off the set if he ever
Speaker 1: showed up drunk, which was apparently not all that uncommon.
Speaker 1: She also allegedly opened a bank account for herself using
Speaker 1: a man's name. You see, until the nineteen sixties, women
Speaker 1: were not allowed to have their own accounts in the
Speaker 1: United States. But perhaps most impressive of all was her
Speaker 1: willingness to stand up to hate, especially where her friends
Speaker 1: were concerned. Mary had a chauffeur and bodyguard named William
Speaker 1: Landon Jones, better known to BAK fans as Gorilla Jones.
Speaker 1: He was also her lover, and he was black, and
Speaker 1: that would have been scandalous enough in the nineteen thirties,
Speaker 1: but Mary didn't exactly hide their relationship. One day, Jones
Speaker 1: arrived at the Ravenswood Apartments in Los Angeles where she lived.
Speaker 1: He approached the door, at which point he was told
Speaker 1: that he could not go up to see her. They
Speaker 1: had put a rule in place banning people of color
Speaker 1: from entering the building. Mary found out and immediately made
Speaker 1: two phone calls. The first was to the front desk
Speaker 1: telling them to allow him up to her room, and
Speaker 1: the other was to the owners of the apartment building.
Speaker 1: Rumor had it that Mary actually bought the ravens Wood
Speaker 1: and then changed the rules to allow Jones to come
Speaker 1: and go as he pleased, but the real story was
Speaker 1: only slightly less dramatic. You see, she found out that
Speaker 1: the owners were on the verge of losing the building
Speaker 1: due to lack of funds. They asked Mary for help,
Speaker 1: which she happily gave. She loaned them the money with
Speaker 1: the understanding that mister Jones could enter the building with
Speaker 1: no more problems. She then told Jones, I was so
Speaker 1: disgusted with what happened to to you, I bought the
Speaker 1: Ravenswood In other words, she spread the rumor herself. Mary
Speaker 1: Jane was an iconoclast. She was an ally to a
Speaker 1: number of minority communities, and she was someone who did
Speaker 1: not tolerate hatred towards her friends or family. And that's
Speaker 1: why she's still revered to this day, but not as
Speaker 1: Mary Jane, but as May her stage name May West.
Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership
Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show,
Speaker 1: and you can learn all about it over at the
Speaker 1: Worldolore dot com. And until next time, stay curious, Kay