Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Menkey's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
Speaker 1: full 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. Stick to acting. That's the advice many entertainers
Speaker 1: get when they discussed the current socio political climate. An
Speaker 1: actor's place is on stage or on screen, pretending to
Speaker 1: be different people for our enjoyment. But what are politicians
Speaker 1: if not actors? They put on fake smiles and shake hands,
Speaker 1: pretending to be one kind of person in front of
Speaker 1: the cameras, then turning into regular disappointing selves behind the scenes.
Speaker 1: And that's probably why certain entertainers have gravitated toward politics
Speaker 1: over the years. Sonny Bono of Sonny and Share Fame
Speaker 1: was the mayor of Palm Springs, California, before becoming a
Speaker 1: U S congressman and former President. Ronald Reagan got his
Speaker 1: start as a radio and film star prior to entering
Speaker 1: the political arena. But before all of them, there was
Speaker 1: Will Rogers. Will Rogers had gotten his start working on
Speaker 1: his family's ranch in Oklahoma in the late eighteen hundreds.
Speaker 1: He was the youngest of eight children, but only one
Speaker 1: of four to survive past childhood. Rogers set off on
Speaker 1: his own when he was twenty two, bound for Argentina
Speaker 1: in hopes of running his own ranch and taming wild horses. Instead,
Speaker 1: he lost everything and boarded a ship for South Africa
Speaker 1: to tend to someone else's ranch. Rogers was someone who
Speaker 1: commanded attention, probably as a result of growing up in
Speaker 1: a house with seven other siblings. Before long, he had
Speaker 1: left the ranch behind for a circus tent, performing writing
Speaker 1: and roping tricks for audiences in South Africa, Australia, and
Speaker 1: eventually back home in America. It was during a performance
Speaker 1: at Madison Square Garden in nineteen o five when his
Speaker 1: act got away from him literally. A wild steer made
Speaker 1: a mad dash for the crowd, and Rogers sprung into action.
Speaker 1: He roped the steer, eliciting cheers from the audience and
Speaker 1: earning himself a top spot on the vaudeville stage. As
Speaker 1: he gained in popularity, he made the jump to the screen,
Speaker 1: starring in silent films and talkies from Westerns to musicals,
Speaker 1: and playing all kinds of roles, including cowboys, bankers, and yes, politicians.
Speaker 1: But that wasn't enough for Rogers. He had other horizons
Speaker 1: to explore. Among them were lectures, newspaper columns, and his
Speaker 1: daily telegrams, which were published in over five hundred papers.
Speaker 1: He often discussed current events and answered questions from readers,
Speaker 1: espousing his homespun wisdom wrapped up in anecdotes from his
Speaker 1: own life. He was Ralph Waldo Emerson combined Mark Twain,
Speaker 1: so it's no surprise that the American people loved and
Speaker 1: trusted him. In fact, had he chosen to run for president,
Speaker 1: he probably would have won. Enter magazine editor Robert Sherwood.
Speaker 1: Sherwood and his art director Fred Cooper worked for a
Speaker 1: humor Republication and had a unique problem on their hands.
Speaker 1: It was night and President Calvin Coolidge had decided not
Speaker 1: to run for a second term, opening up the floor
Speaker 1: to new Republican candidate Herbert Hoover. Meanwhile, Democrats were busy
Speaker 1: contending with their own candidate, who had been campaigning against
Speaker 1: prohibition while the rest of the party supported it. Sherwood
Speaker 1: and Cooper thought it would be funny to come up
Speaker 1: with a new party, one that poked fun at the
Speaker 1: two sides contending for the presidency, Rogers suggested that they
Speaker 1: call it the Anti Bunk Party. Sherwood ran with it,
Speaker 1: announcing its formation on May seventeenth of that year, one
Speaker 1: month before the Republican and Democrat national conventions, and the
Speaker 1: Anti Bunk Party's candidate Will Rogers himself. Now, Rogers didn't
Speaker 1: take his candidacy too seriously, remarking whatever the other fellow
Speaker 1: don't do, we will. When asked if he would participate
Speaker 1: in debates, he responded, joint debate in any joint you name.
Speaker 1: On the topic of mud slinging and nasty rumors, Rogers
Speaker 1: pointed out that the things they whisper aren't as bad
Speaker 1: as the things they say out loud. And perhaps what
Speaker 1: endeared him most to the American public his sole campaign
Speaker 1: promise that if he was elected, he would immediately resign.
Speaker 1: The only venue for his platform was the magazine that
Speaker 1: had sponsored him For the four consecutive weeks following Memorial Day,
Speaker 1: his satirical musings about the campaign were published for all
Speaker 1: to read well. Election day finally came, and before any
Speaker 1: of the votes had mentalitied Rogers stepped up and declared
Speaker 1: himself the winner, and then fulfilled his promise. He promptly resigned.
Speaker 1: Children have a funny way of mimicking behaviors. If a
Speaker 1: parent cuts themselves while cooking and says a bad word,
Speaker 1: it won't be long before that same word as being
Speaker 1: shouted by someone much smaller in the house, And you
Speaker 1: better have a good doctor on call when they decide
Speaker 1: they want to jump off the bookshelf and fly like Superman.
Speaker 1: The thing about kids is they eventually grow out of
Speaker 1: that phase. They learn what they know and what they
Speaker 1: don't know, and for the things they don't know, they
Speaker 1: have teachers who can show them the way. Dr William
Speaker 1: Whitney Christmas never got that memo. Christmas was born in
Speaker 1: September of eighteen sixty five in North Carolina. He attended
Speaker 1: many colleges and academies, earning himself a Bachelor of Arts
Speaker 1: undergraduate degree, and a medical degree from George Washington University.
Speaker 1: One thing he was not was an engineer. Still, Christmas
Speaker 1: had high hopes, so high he forgot about his medical career.
Speaker 1: At the turn of the century, enjoined a new hotbed
Speaker 1: of innovation, flight, inspired by the right brothers flight at
Speaker 1: Kittie Hawk, Christmas launched an aircraft of his own. Well so,
Speaker 1: he said, there was no proof, as he had burned
Speaker 1: the plane and all the blueprints to secure the secret
Speaker 1: of its construction. His next attempt was an aircraft he
Speaker 1: called the Red Bird, which boasted a design generously borrowed
Speaker 1: from the Red Wing, a plane that had originally been
Speaker 1: built by telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell's company, And just
Speaker 1: as he had done with his first plane, Christmas told
Speaker 1: everybody his Red Bird had flown. One year later, in
Speaker 1: nineteen o nine, he formed his own operation, the Christmas
Speaker 1: Aeroplane Company, with the help of three investors. They focused
Speaker 1: their efforts on the military, who would be in high
Speaker 1: demand for aerial combat vehicles. Christmas struggled for eight more years,
Speaker 1: burning through funds and even losing his original investors, before
Speaker 1: finally landing an ideal client in the Continental Aircraft Company
Speaker 1: of Amityville, Long Island. The world had gone to war
Speaker 1: and the United States was in need of planes. Christmas
Speaker 1: showed three of his designs to Continental as part of
Speaker 1: a hair brained scheme to build them, then used them
Speaker 1: to kidnap the Kaiser and forced Germany to surrender. Continental
Speaker 1: jumped on board, opting to build the most unique of
Speaker 1: Christmas designs. It was a single seat biplane powered by
Speaker 1: a Liberty six prototype engine Christmas had procured from the
Speaker 1: Army that in and of itself wouldn't have been enough
Speaker 1: to raise eyebrows, but his other choices certainly did. For one,
Speaker 1: his plane was made almost entirely of wood, with a
Speaker 1: wood veneer. Second, the wings were comprised of thin pieces
Speaker 1: of metal welded together. They were brittle and weak. However,
Speaker 1: Christmas didn't believe in structural engineering or you know, physics,
Speaker 1: so he refused to attach struts for stability. He believed
Speaker 1: the wings would flap like those of a bird. They
Speaker 1: were also quite heavy. The whole plane was. In fact.
Speaker 1: Continental saw right away the kinds of problems Christmas designs
Speaker 1: would present, and they tried to get him to change it,
Speaker 1: but he refused, and they built the plane as it
Speaker 1: was planned. Once the Christmas Bullet, as it was called,
Speaker 1: was finally finished, it was time to take it for
Speaker 1: a spin. Every pilot asked to fly it responded with
Speaker 1: a resounding no, until Cuthbert Mills came along. Mills was
Speaker 1: an airmail pilot delivering letters by mail all over the country,
Speaker 1: and someone who had no problem taking the Christmas Bullet
Speaker 1: up into the clouds. He was honored and even invited
Speaker 1: his mother to come watch him fly such a unique
Speaker 1: and revolutionary aircraft. Mills brought it up to about three
Speaker 1: thousand feet on January of nineteen nineteen, an impressive accomplishment
Speaker 1: and one that would have reflected well on the plane's creator,
Speaker 1: a man who had entered the aviation field with no
Speaker 1: experience and only a dream. It's just a shame that
Speaker 1: that dream wouldn't last. The Bullet's wings started to flap
Speaker 1: at such a high altitude, and in an instant they
Speaker 1: were both gone, broken away from the rest of the plane,
Speaker 1: which was now hurtling toward the earth. Mills was killed
Speaker 1: on act. The prototype engine from the military was destroyed,
Speaker 1: and Christmas ran an ad in the newspaper touting his
Speaker 1: planes top speed of almost two hundred miles per hour.
Speaker 1: He covered up mills death and blamed the crash on
Speaker 1: user error before setting to work on a second prototype.
Speaker 1: This time he was able to secure a propeller from
Speaker 1: the Army. The second Bullet made a stop at Madison
Speaker 1: Square Garden before it's made in flight in March of
Speaker 1: nineteen There was only one problem. The propeller was too long.
Speaker 1: Unfazed and unwilling to postpone the launch, Christmas grabbed a
Speaker 1: saw and hacked the blades down to size. The plane's
Speaker 1: first flight ended much like its predecessors, with a bang.
Speaker 1: It hit the ground and killed the pilot, but it
Speaker 1: didn't deter its creator from declaring the Bullet as the
Speaker 1: safest plane in the world in Vanity Fair magazine. The
Speaker 1: government decided to take a closer look at the cantankerous craft,
Speaker 1: and that's when Christmas abandoned it. He lobbied for more
Speaker 1: money to continue his research and build more planes. He
Speaker 1: told government committees that Germany was going to pay him
Speaker 1: a million dollars to outfit their air force with his designs,
Speaker 1: and that his Bullet had in fact flown successfully, but
Speaker 1: his photographic evidence had been destroyed by the government in
Speaker 1: a plot against him. Finally, Christmas sent the United States
Speaker 1: Army a bill for one hundred thousand dollars for using
Speaker 1: his patented wing design, which they paid. In the end,
Speaker 1: William Christmas never went to jail or paid a dime
Speaker 1: ind restitution for the men who died flying his planes.
Speaker 1: He was never held accountable for his negligence, nor the
Speaker 1: various cover ups and false advertising. In fact, Christmas died
Speaker 1: very old and very rich. One might even say he
Speaker 1: was merry. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of
Speaker 1: the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by Aaron Mankey in
Speaker 1: partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning
Speaker 1: show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and
Speaker 1: television show, and you can learn all about it over
Speaker 1: at the World of Lore dot com. And until next time,
Speaker 1: stay curious. Ye