Speaker 1: Welcomed Aaron Menk's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of iHeartRadio
Speaker 1: and Grim and Mild. Our world is full of the unexplainable,
Speaker 1: and if history is an open book, all of these
Speaker 1: amazing tales right there on display, just waiting for us
Speaker 1: to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Fans and
Speaker 1: critics were surprised at the two nineteen Grammy Awards. No
Speaker 1: not because the winner was some unknown. In fact, everyone
Speaker 1: knew him, and it wasn't because he was new to
Speaker 1: his craft either. The winner had nine previous nominations. The
Speaker 1: award was his third. He received his first in two
Speaker 1: thousand and seven and his second in two sixteen. He
Speaker 1: called some of music's most prominent stars friends, then performed
Speaker 1: with Willie Nelson and Dizzy Gillespie. Decades before, he spent
Speaker 1: time on the road with the Allman Brothers, Paul Simon,
Speaker 1: Aretha Franklin's Share, and bands like Fleetwood Mac adored him.
Speaker 1: He counted stars like Bob Dylan as a close personal friend.
Speaker 1: He had musical roots in various genres, from classical and
Speaker 1: southern rock to jazz and blues. As a child, he
Speaker 1: loved hymns, country music, jazz, and of course rock. Part
Speaker 1: of the surprise might have been his age. In twenty nineteen,
Speaker 1: he was ninety four, making him the third oldest Grammy winner.
Speaker 1: In twenty eleven, ninety seven year old Pinetop Perkins won
Speaker 1: for Traditional Blues. In nineteen ninety one, comedian George Burns
Speaker 1: won the spoken Word category for his album An Evening
Speaker 1: with George Burns. Oddly, this new winner never played a
Speaker 1: single instrument, and while he did sing, he never recorded
Speaker 1: a single song. But even this wasn't the biggest shocker.
Speaker 1: The twenty nineteen Grammys had a lot of talented artists
Speaker 1: vying for an award, Lady Beck, Kelly Clarkson, Justin Timberlake,
Speaker 1: and Tony Bennett, among so many others. Honestly, that nice
Speaker 1: list of talent and nominees is too long to fit
Speaker 1: into any episode. Among the tuxes and designer gowns, the
Speaker 1: audience looked like a red carpet extravaganza. Jennifer Lopez, Weird
Speaker 1: al Billy, Ray, cyrus Well, you get the picture. The
Speaker 1: Grammys az a who's who of the music industry, much
Speaker 1: like the Oscars are to film. The host Alicia Keys
Speaker 1: brought on several artists and even former First Lady Michelle
Speaker 1: Obama to talk about the influence that music had on
Speaker 1: their life. Dolly Parton was even named Person of the
Speaker 1: Year for her musical contributions and her philanthropy. And like
Speaker 1: Dolly Parton, this unique winner had also dedicated much of
Speaker 1: his life to others. He formed his own organization devoted
Speaker 1: to advancing human rights, advocating for democracy, disease prevention, conflict resolution,
Speaker 1: and champion mental help for over eighty countries. Since the
Speaker 1: nineteen eighties, he and his wife dedicated themselves to fundraising
Speaker 1: for Habitat for Humanity, an organization helping to build affordable
Speaker 1: homes for the underprivileged. But he and his wife didn't
Speaker 1: stop at raising money. No, they pitched in too, and
Speaker 1: during their thirty five year affiliation, the couple helped to build, repair,
Speaker 1: or renovate over four thousand homes. He wrote books when
Speaker 1: he wasn't helping with his organization or Habitat for Humanity.
Speaker 1: In fact, it's the reason he had won two previous
Speaker 1: Grammys and now a third. You see, there's an award
Speaker 1: for the spoken word. Faith A Journey for All joined
Speaker 1: his two previous audio books, Our Endangered Values, America's Moral Crisis,
Speaker 1: and A Full Life Reflections at ninety, all of which
Speaker 1: were Grammy winners. And our winning artist, if you haven't
Speaker 1: guessed his name already, was none other than America's thirty
Speaker 1: ninth President, Jimmy Carter. It was the perfect place to
Speaker 1: build a prison. Sprawling over the water on the border
Speaker 1: of Maine and New Hampshire, The castle, as it was dubbed,
Speaker 1: has been active since it was commissioned in the early
Speaker 1: nineteen hundreds. It really does look like something out of
Speaker 1: a fairy tale too, but the real story is something
Speaker 1: much darker. If you look closer, you'll see the concrete,
Speaker 1: the bars, and the foreboding structure of Portsmouth Naval Prison.
Speaker 1: The prison site is CV's Island, which has been essential
Speaker 1: to various military engagements over the years. Initially, it was
Speaker 1: the site of Fort Sullivan, a Revolutionary era structure constructed
Speaker 1: by General John Sullivan and the New Hampshire Militia. It
Speaker 1: sat across the Pascatawa River from Fort Washington and was
Speaker 1: necessary for the defense of Portsmouth, New Hampshire during the war.
Speaker 1: After years of hostilities, the military decided something new was
Speaker 1: necessary since the fort was literally made out of nothing
Speaker 1: but compacted dirt and a prayer. They tore down the
Speaker 1: original structure in eighteen sixty one. The island was perfect
Speaker 1: for training naval personnel, so when the Spanish American War
Speaker 1: broke out in eighteen ninety eight, Camp Long was built,
Speaker 1: along with a stockade to house captured Spanish prisoners until
Speaker 1: they could be traded, or at least until hostilities ceased.
Speaker 1: This was the first prison on the island. Really, it
Speaker 1: was the perfect place to have a prison. The island
Speaker 1: was close enough to shore but surrounded by frigid waters,
Speaker 1: so it would be very difficult to escape without a boat.
Speaker 1: When they tore down Camp Long in nineteen o one,
Speaker 1: naval authorities decided that they needed a new and better
Speaker 1: reinforced prison and had it constructed. Portsmouth Naval Prison was
Speaker 1: completed in nineteen oh eight using some of the best
Speaker 1: materials money could buy. The new prison was based on
Speaker 1: a more infamous model, the Alcatraz. The Inescapable Island prison
Speaker 1: on the west coast seemed to be the perfect structure
Speaker 1: to take inspiration from, and hopefully their track record would
Speaker 1: be just as good. The prison was a nasty place
Speaker 1: to be. We don't know much about the eighty thousand
Speaker 1: some prisoners that passed through the gates, but we do
Speaker 1: know that it was cold and cramped, and contraband and
Speaker 1: criminal activity inside the prison were left unchecked by the guards.
Speaker 1: There have been plenty of stories about the prison itself.
Speaker 1: The mystique alone would ensure that a far few urban
Speaker 1: legends would crop up. According to one story, Walt Disney
Speaker 1: himself spent time inside the prison. Whether he was a
Speaker 1: visitor or prisoner was unclear. I can't imagine someone would
Speaker 1: want to spend much time inside there, no matter who
Speaker 1: they were, though, But in any case, according to the story,
Speaker 1: Disney was so struck by the castle and the fairytale
Speaker 1: like design that he based a palace in one of
Speaker 1: his movies on it. Now, I personally don't think Cinderella's
Speaker 1: Castle looks much like the Portsmouth Naval Prison, but you've
Speaker 1: got to admit it's a pretty good story. Unfortunately not true.
Speaker 1: Another story, though, from World War One, seems to have
Speaker 1: basis in reality. On May eighteenth of nineteen seventeen, President
Speaker 1: Woodrow Wilson signed these Selective Services Act to draft men
Speaker 1: for the military. It was the first time since the
Speaker 1: Civil War that that had been done. Very few were exempt,
Speaker 1: no matter their wealth, race, or in some cases their health.
Speaker 1: By the end of the war in nineteen eighteen, two
Speaker 1: point eight million men had been drafted into the armed forces. Now,
Speaker 1: of course, some jobs were more attractive than others. For example,
Speaker 1: if it was a choice between being a prison guard
Speaker 1: in New Hampshire or serving in the trenches of France,
Speaker 1: I know what I would choose. Part of a guard's
Speaker 1: job was prisoner transport, and at that point the main
Speaker 1: method of transport was trains. When the guard and his
Speaker 1: prisoner arrived in Boston's South station, they had to change
Speaker 1: trains to complete the journey to Portsmith. The prisoner was
Speaker 1: handcuffed then was secure enough, or so they thought. Unfortunately
Speaker 1: for one guard, the prisoner decided the castle was the
Speaker 1: last place he wanted to be. As they moved from
Speaker 1: one train to another, the prisoner asked the guard if
Speaker 1: he could bomb a smoke. The guard was a habitual
Speaker 1: smoker and was perfectly willing to share as he rooted
Speaker 1: around in his pockets for his matchbook and cigarettes. Though
Speaker 1: the prisoner swung his arms wide and smashed his manacled
Speaker 1: hands into the guard's face. Bruised, bloody, and more than
Speaker 1: a little dazed, the guard knew that he was in trouble.
Speaker 1: According to some versions of the story, if a guard
Speaker 1: lost their charge, they would have to serve the prisoner's sentence.
Speaker 1: Whether or not that's true, I don't know, but it's
Speaker 1: certainly a good incentive to never let a prisoner escape.
Speaker 1: The guard went after the man and laid him out
Speaker 1: flat with his forty five automatic. The guard was treated
Speaker 1: by the Navy, then had to undergo surgery to repair
Speaker 1: his badly split lip. It didn't go well. The operation
Speaker 1: was botched, and later attempts to fix it with plastic
Speaker 1: surgery didn't improve matters either. Still in later pictures in films,
Speaker 1: it's hardly noticeable. However, no matter how well the scar healed,
Speaker 1: there would always be one thing that reminded Humphrey Bogart
Speaker 1: of his time as a guard at the castle, his
Speaker 1: famous lisp that would set him apart from so many
Speaker 1: Golden Age actors. Bogart may have gone on to become
Speaker 1: one of the most recognizable actors in the world, but
Speaker 1: one thing was certain. He would always have Portsmith. 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 Manke 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 Lure dot com. And until next time, stay curious.