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 are right there on display, just
Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: In October of nineteen thirty two, a twelve year old
Speaker 1: boy walked into a traveling circus near Chicago, Illinois. Little
Speaker 1: did he know how shocking the knights would be now.
Speaker 1: As he made his way around the circus, he passed
Speaker 1: all the usual sideshow acts, clowns with fake red noses,
Speaker 1: a man swallowing a shiny metal sword, a woman doing
Speaker 1: flips on a trapeze, and then something unique caught his eye,
Speaker 1: a booth with a big painted sign that read mister Electrico.
Speaker 1: The boy couldn't help it, he was curious. He scampered
Speaker 1: into the booth and took a seat near the front.
Speaker 1: A few minutes later, the lights dimmed and a man
Speaker 1: wearing a three piece suit waltzed out, taking a seat
Speaker 1: in a metal chair at the center stage. He then
Speaker 1: pulled out a sword from where the boy wasn't quite
Speaker 1: sure and held it in one hand, and suddenly a loud,
Speaker 1: buzzing sound cut through the air. The boy watched as
Speaker 1: sparks seemed to dance along the surface of the man's skin.
Speaker 1: His teeth chattered, his hair stuck straight out. He was
Speaker 1: sitting in an electric chair being bombarded with tens of
Speaker 1: thousands of volts of electricity, and then with a current
Speaker 1: still flowing through him. The man stood up and held
Speaker 1: his sword out about the audience. The boy later wrote,
Speaker 1: and I quote, mister Electrico brushed an ex caliber sword
Speaker 1: over the heads of the children, nighting them with fire.
Speaker 1: When he came to me, he tapped me on both
Speaker 1: shoulders and and the tip of my nose. The lightning
Speaker 1: jumped into me. Mister Electrico cried, live forever, but well,
Speaker 1: immortality is kind of a lot to ask of a
Speaker 1: twelve year old kid. Nonetheless, the boy left that night
Speaker 1: feeling electrified, so much so that the following day he
Speaker 1: went back to the circus. The boy tracked down mister Electrico,
Speaker 1: who seemed almost weirdly happy to see him. He led
Speaker 1: the boy all around the circus, introducing him to the
Speaker 1: other performers, and at the end of the night, just
Speaker 1: as they were about to part ways, mister Electrico told
Speaker 1: the boy and I quote, we have met before. You
Speaker 1: were my best friend in France in nineteen eighteen, and
Speaker 1: you died in my arms in the Battle of Arden
Speaker 1: Forest that year. And here you are born again in
Speaker 1: a new body with a new name. Welcome back. Which
Speaker 1: is the kind of claim that really needs some further explanation,
Speaker 1: I know, but these were apparently mister Electrico's final words.
Speaker 1: The boy went home feeling a bit dazed, a bit special,
Speaker 1: and more than a little inspired. Mister Electrico and the
Speaker 1: other circus performers were such vibrant, strange characters too. They
Speaker 1: were stories unto themselves, and meeting them inspired the boy
Speaker 1: to start writing his own stories. He started with shorter
Speaker 1: pieces and eventually moved up to writing novels. There was
Speaker 1: The Illustrated Man, inspired by a heavily tattooed circus performer.
Speaker 1: There was Something Wicked This Way Comes, which features a
Speaker 1: character named mister Electrico, and maybe most famous of all,
Speaker 1: Fahrenheit four fifty one. That little boy was Ray Bradbury,
Speaker 1: and he would go on to become one of the
Speaker 1: most important names in American literature. Bradbury later called mister
Speaker 1: Electrico his catalyst the reason he became a writer, which
Speaker 1: is a really nice story. But here's the other thing
Speaker 1: about Ray Bradbury. He wasn't above embellishing some details or
Speaker 1: making things up altogether. For example, he claimed that he
Speaker 1: could remember his own birth. If it's true, it would
Speaker 1: make him the most brilliant newborn who had ever lived. Honestly,
Speaker 1: though it's probably just a story. Experts generally believe that
Speaker 1: this isn't possible, and just like it, the circus story
Speaker 1: in Chicago might be a tall tale too. Historians and
Speaker 1: scholars have dug through the records, and while electric chair
Speaker 1: circus performances definitely existed, there isn't anything to suggest that
Speaker 1: mister Electrico did much less that united Ray Bradbury with
Speaker 1: an electrified sword and told him to live forever. Chances
Speaker 1: are it's a sort of origin story that Bradbury created
Speaker 1: for himself, a way to mythologize his own past and
Speaker 1: make it seem more magical than it actually was, But
Speaker 1: the jury is still out. At least two Bradbury scholars
Speaker 1: have gone on the record to say that despite the
Speaker 1: lack of evidence, they believe Bradbury's circus tale, and who
Speaker 1: am I to say different? After all, more curious things
Speaker 1: have happened. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is one of the
Speaker 1: most iconic children books ever written. The characters are unforgettable.
Speaker 1: We all recognize Alice in her blue dress, the Mad
Speaker 1: Hatter in his suit and top hat, and the striped
Speaker 1: cheshire Cats crawling through the trees. Since its publication in
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty five, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has never been
Speaker 1: out of print. It's been translated into one hundred and
Speaker 1: seventy four languages and sold over one hundred million copies worldwide.
Speaker 1: But when the book was originally published, no one knew
Speaker 1: it would become such a massive success. In fact, the
Speaker 1: story of its first edition printing is stranger than you
Speaker 1: might imagine. You see, way back in eighteen sixty five,
Speaker 1: Lewis Carroll signed a contract with McMillan and Company. They
Speaker 1: agreed to print two thousand copies of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, which,
Speaker 1: knowing how huge the story would get, seems like nothing right,
Speaker 1: But at the time Lewis Carroll was super happy to
Speaker 1: have the contract and the money that came along with it.
Speaker 1: A few weeks before the book's official release, though Carol
Speaker 1: received fifty author copies to give to family, friends and
Speaker 1: whoever else he wanted, he gave one to the man
Speaker 1: who illustrated the book, John Teniell. Teniell flipped open the
Speaker 1: advanced copy, and right away he told Carroll there was
Speaker 1: a problem. He was and I quote entirely dissatisfied with
Speaker 1: the printing of the pictures. Apparently the illustrations just didn't
Speaker 1: look quite right. Teniell was so upset about it that
Speaker 1: he convinced Carol to halt the production of that version
Speaker 1: of the book. The first edition print run was literally
Speaker 1: stopped in its tracks, and Carol asked everyone who had
Speaker 1: received an advanced copy to give it back. He later
Speaker 1: wrote in his diary that the original versions of Alice's
Speaker 1: Adventures in Wonderland should and I quote be sold as
Speaker 1: waste paper. Over the next month, Carol and Teniel worked
Speaker 1: with the publisher to create a new first edition that
Speaker 1: they were happy with. Carol ended up losing a pretty
Speaker 1: significant amount of money on the deal, but he hoped
Speaker 1: that if the book sold well enough, he'd be able
Speaker 1: to recuperate those losses, and of course he did just
Speaker 1: that many many times over. In fact, Alice and her
Speaker 1: Journey down the Rabbit Hole became a universally beloved story.
Speaker 1: But here's the kicker. When Lewis Carroll asked for his
Speaker 1: author copies back from those people, well, he didn't get
Speaker 1: a single one back. Exactly twenty two copies of the
Speaker 1: first first edition remained, and as the years passed, those
Speaker 1: books became incredibly valuable. Of the twenty two, sixteen of
Speaker 1: them now reside in museums around the world. They're bound
Speaker 1: in red cloth and feature a golden emblem of Alice
Speaker 1: on the front. The paper, now over one hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty years old, is too delicate to touch, although the
Speaker 1: books are often open to pages with illustrations so that
Speaker 1: curious onlookers can see the printing that John Teniel believed
Speaker 1: was disgraceful. As for the other six copies, they belong
Speaker 1: to private owners. One of them was once owned by
Speaker 1: a man named George William Kitchen. He went to church
Speaker 1: with Lewis Carroll and received an advanced copy in eighteen
Speaker 1: sixty five. When Carol asked for the book back, Kitchen
Speaker 1: didn't comply. Instead, he passed it down to his daughter,
Speaker 1: who eventually sold it at auction in nineteen twenty five.
Speaker 1: It briefly belonged to a library, then to a few
Speaker 1: more private owners, before being purchased by John Lindzyth, a
Speaker 1: scholar and bibliographer. In twenty sixteen, Lindzyth decided it was
Speaker 1: time to part with his beloved book. He put it
Speaker 1: up for auction through Christie's, one of those big name
Speaker 1: auction houses that specifically caters to people with a lot
Speaker 1: of money to blow. As you'd expect, the listing of
Speaker 1: this ultra rare book made headlines and it was expected
Speaker 1: to fetch anywhere from two to three million dollars, not
Speaker 1: bad for something that Carol himself called waste paper. Part
Speaker 1: of the reason it was worth so much was because
Speaker 1: of these six privately owned copies, this one had a
Speaker 1: particularly well documented provedance, meaning the chain of ownership was
Speaker 1: clearly recorded, and it was also in pristine condition. For
Speaker 1: wealthy bibliophiles, this was an amazing opportunity. Only, on the
Speaker 1: day the book went up for six nobody bought it.
Speaker 1: The auction house said that there was spirited interest in
Speaker 1: the bidding, but clearly it wasn't spirited enough. Perhaps this
Speaker 1: would be a good time to quote Alice herself when
Speaker 1: she said, curiouser and curiouser. I hope you've enjoyed today's
Speaker 1: guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free
Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by
Speaker 1: visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by
Speaker 1: me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I
Speaker 1: make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
Speaker 1: book series, and television show, and you can learn all
Speaker 1: about it over at the Worldolore dot com. And until
Speaker 1: next time, stay curious.