Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Menke'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: Our world is full of mysteries, but few fields of
Speaker 1: study remain as baffling as the human mind. One oddity
Speaker 1: that has puzzled brain researchers for years is the fact
Speaker 1: that some psychiatric illnesses seem to be tied to specific
Speaker 1: periods of history, like the condition known as glass delusion.
Speaker 1: While rare today, this condition was strangely common in medieval Europe.
Speaker 1: Those who suffered from it harbored the all consuming belief
Speaker 1: that they were literally made of glass. Some people believed
Speaker 1: it was their whole body that was affected. One man
Speaker 1: was certain that it was just his head, while another
Speaker 1: thought the same about his heart. In most cases, though,
Speaker 1: the delusion was accompanied by a heightened fear that made
Speaker 1: day to day life almost impossible. Take for example, the
Speaker 1: man who refused to ever sit down out of fear
Speaker 1: that his buttocks would shatter. It's difficult to say why
Speaker 1: this particular delusion was so widespread in the past, although
Speaker 1: it could be connected to the way that glass was
Speaker 1: viewed during the Middle Ages. Clear glass was a relatively
Speaker 1: recent invention and was sometimes associated with magic and alchemy.
Speaker 1: But while this helps explain why it was on people's minds,
Speaker 1: it doesn't give us much insight into what it was
Speaker 1: like to suffer from the illness. For that, we can
Speaker 1: turn to the few documentary instances. The most famous one
Speaker 1: comes from medieval France, toward the end of the One
Speaker 1: Hundred Years' War in thirteen ninety two, physicians were summoned
Speaker 1: to the estate of a twenty three year old man
Speaker 1: named Charles. They found him moaning and tossing in bed,
Speaker 1: in the throes of an intense fear. Whenever he regained consciousness,
Speaker 1: he would shout at his servants, ordering them to keep
Speaker 1: their distance. He seemed convinced that if anyone touched him,
Speaker 1: he would explode into shards of glass. These physicians diagnosed
Speaker 1: Charles with melancholia, a medieval catch all term associated with
Speaker 1: everything from depression to hallucinations. The idea is linked to humorism,
Speaker 1: an outdated medical theory which held that a person's temperament
Speaker 1: is affected by an imbalance of internal fluids, and according
Speaker 1: to his doctors, the best way to reset the balance
Speaker 1: was for Charles to rest and wait. At least initially,
Speaker 1: it seemed to work. His fever broke and the delusions faded.
Speaker 1: He might have made a full recovery if things had
Speaker 1: gone differently. Despite his young age, Charles was an important
Speaker 1: military commander, the head of a large force of French soldiers.
Speaker 1: Just as he was starting to get better, he was
Speaker 1: summoned to the battlefield. Ignoring the advice of his physicians,
Speaker 1: he donned his heavy armor and headed out with a
Speaker 1: company of knights. On the long, hot road to the battle,
Speaker 1: Charles grew irritable and exhausted when a nearby page accidentally
Speaker 1: dropped his spear against a helmet. The sound triggered something
Speaker 1: in Charles. He drew his sword and lunged at his
Speaker 1: own men, hacking away with abandon and screaming that they
Speaker 1: were enemies. By the time they managed to subdue him,
Speaker 1: four knights lay dead. Charles was dragged back to his
Speaker 1: estate and locked up in his bedchamber. The delusions eventually
Speaker 1: passed again, but The incident left him traumatized forever. Afterwards,
Speaker 1: he drifted between periods of lucidity and mania. In his
Speaker 1: worst moments, he didn't recognize his wife or even know
Speaker 1: his own name. At one point, he destroyed his family
Speaker 1: crest while insisting that everyone call him George. Meanwhile, Charles
Speaker 1: continued to be convinced that he had been born with
Speaker 1: a glass body that could eat easily be fractured. To
Speaker 1: cope with his fear, he wore specially made clothing fitted
Speaker 1: with iron rods. He spent most of his time at home,
Speaker 1: rarely appearing in public where he might accidentally bump into someone.
Speaker 1: As the years passed by, those calm stretches between Charles's
Speaker 1: episodes grew shorter. His physicians tried everything to help him,
Speaker 1: but with poor results. He received at least two exorcisms,
Speaker 1: and at one point a hole was drilled into his skull.
Speaker 1: He survived the operation, but continued to suffer from glass
Speaker 1: delusion for the rest of his life. In fourteen ninety two,
Speaker 1: Charles contracted malaria and died at the age of sixty two.
Speaker 1: His harrowing illness left a long shadow on his family,
Speaker 1: as well as his country, because Charles, you see, wasn't
Speaker 1: just any French nobleman. He was Charles the Fourth, the
Speaker 1: King of France. If you were a performer during the
Speaker 1: Vaudeville era, you had to stand out. Everybody had a
Speaker 1: gimmick or a special skill to set them apart from
Speaker 1: everyone else, and for many to succeed, they had to
Speaker 1: do a lot. Some performers became known for one thing,
Speaker 1: like singer Lillian Russell. Others diversified their offerings. They tap danced, sang,
Speaker 1: did skits or puppet routines and any combination thereof. For example,
Speaker 1: the Marx Brothers weren't just brilliant comedians, but also talented
Speaker 1: writers and musicians. Marx Brothers contemporary and fan Archibald Leitch
Speaker 1: came up as a pantomimist and physical comedian before fashioning
Speaker 1: himself into the legendary actor Carrie Grant. Of course, many
Speaker 1: Vaudeville acts died on stage and were never heard from again,
Speaker 1: and a few gained some popularity in their day, but
Speaker 1: their legacies were lost to time. And then there was Esther.
Speaker 1: Esther's time in the spotlight was showing art, but the
Speaker 1: legacy she left behind can still be seen today. She
Speaker 1: was born Esterlee Jones in Chicago in nineteen eighteen, but
Speaker 1: she was better known by her stage name Baby Esther
Speaker 1: or Little Esther. Jones had learned to sing and dance
Speaker 1: from a very young age, and her parents, who also
Speaker 1: happened to be her managers, got her in front of
Speaker 1: audiences when she was just four years old, and like
Speaker 1: a lot of young children, she started off by making
Speaker 1: silly faces and noises on stage. She often imitated a
Speaker 1: performer named Florence Mills, also known as the Queen of Happiness.
Speaker 1: Mills had a high pitched voice and would utter silly
Speaker 1: words and phrases to charm the audience, and this is
Speaker 1: where Jones picked up one of the trademarks of her
Speaker 1: at The nonsense words and sounds that she would make
Speaker 1: during her performances. Phrases like boo boo boo and wa
Speaker 1: da da would earn her coups and applause from theatergoers
Speaker 1: in Chicago and New York. Eventually, Jones needed the guidance
Speaker 1: of a manager with intimate knowledge of the entertainment businesses,
Speaker 1: so around nineteen twenty four, she signed with a man
Speaker 1: named Lou Bolton, and as her fame continued, to grow,
Speaker 1: so did her admirers. One woman, in particular, Helen Kin,
Speaker 1: was paying close attention to Jones's act. Cain was a
Speaker 1: white jazz performer who had created a vamp character for herself,
Speaker 1: a young woman with curls in her hair who spoke
Speaker 1: with a high pitched baby voice and said wordless phrases
Speaker 1: like boot boot bee doop. And While Cain was gaining
Speaker 1: notoriety for her eerily similar act, Jones was touring Europe,
Speaker 1: performing for the kings and queens of Spain and Sweden.
Speaker 1: She also made an appearance at the famous Moulin Rouge
Speaker 1: in Paris. Her travels soon took her to South America,
Speaker 1: followed by a stint performing with Cab Calloway and his
Speaker 1: orchestra back in the States. But during that time, Cain's
Speaker 1: and Jones's contributions to entertainment would converge in the creation
Speaker 1: of a brand new cartoon character. This persona emerged from
Speaker 1: Fleischer Studios, an animation company founded by a pair of
Speaker 1: brothers from New York. It was an anthropomorphized French poodle
Speaker 1: with curls in her hair, who spoke with a baby
Speaker 1: voice and also said nonsense phrases like boot boot by Dooo.
Speaker 1: Sound familiar? Well, helen Kin thought so too. She took
Speaker 1: such offense to not being paid for her likeness that
Speaker 1: she sued Fleischer's Studios in nineteen thirty two for two
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty thousand dollars. But the Fleischers weren't about
Speaker 1: to take this lawsuit lying down. Lou Bolton, Esther Jones manager,
Speaker 1: testified in a New York courtroom in nineteen thirty four
Speaker 1: that Kin had watched Jones perform years earlier. According to him,
Speaker 1: Cain had appropriated several of Jones's mannerisms and her style
Speaker 1: to fit her own character. Bolton even presented an early
Speaker 1: sound test of Jones doing the act as evidence. Basically,
Speaker 1: in an effort to claim that the cartoon had stolen
Speaker 1: her likeness. Helen Kin had exposed herself to the accusation
Speaker 1: that she herself had stolen that likeness from Little Esther Jones,
Speaker 1: and the court ruled that Cain had not made her
Speaker 1: case of infringement. There was no evidence that she was
Speaker 1: the true inspiration for the now iconic cartoon character, and
Speaker 1: looking back, it's clear that that character was an amalgamation
Speaker 1: of different performers and fashion styles of the era, from
Speaker 1: Jones and Cain to flapper girls of the nineteen twenties.
Speaker 1: But regardless of who the Fleischers saw as the basis
Speaker 1: for the character, two things are certain. Without Helen Kine,
Speaker 1: there would be no Betty Boop, and there'd be no
Speaker 1: Helen Kine without Little Esther Jones. 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 Mankey 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 Lawy
Speaker 1: or dot com. And until next time, stay curious. H