1 00:00:03,760 --> 00:00:07,840 Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history 2 00:00:08,039 --> 00:00:11,239 Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are 3 00:00:11,320 --> 00:00:14,680 Speaker 1: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. 4 00:00:16,200 --> 00:00:28,600 Speaker 1: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. When a doctor is 5 00:00:28,680 --> 00:00:31,960 Speaker 1: referred to as a quack, it usually means that person 6 00:00:32,159 --> 00:00:34,960 Speaker 1: is a fraud or doesn't know what they're talking about. 7 00:00:35,520 --> 00:00:38,919 Speaker 1: The term derives from the word quack silver, which itself 8 00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:43,760 Speaker 1: is an archaic Dutch word meaning hawker of self. Today 9 00:00:43,840 --> 00:00:46,680 Speaker 1: we might call them a snake oil salesman. But back 10 00:00:46,680 --> 00:00:49,560 Speaker 1: then men would stand on street corners and shout about 11 00:00:49,560 --> 00:00:53,199 Speaker 1: the curative properties of whatever ointment or tincture they were 12 00:00:53,200 --> 00:00:58,080 Speaker 1: trying to sell, almost all of it false. Not all 13 00:00:58,120 --> 00:01:01,480 Speaker 1: of their sales tactics were stationary, though, a dentist in 14 00:01:01,560 --> 00:01:04,679 Speaker 1: seventeen seventies London had the bright idea to take his 15 00:01:04,760 --> 00:01:07,640 Speaker 1: show on the road. His name was Martin Van Butchell, 16 00:01:07,840 --> 00:01:11,039 Speaker 1: and he wrote upon a white pony with purple spots. 17 00:01:11,680 --> 00:01:15,800 Speaker 1: He painted those on himself. Though Butchell advertised his practice 18 00:01:15,840 --> 00:01:20,200 Speaker 1: in local papers, often boasting about his talents at dental reconstruction, 19 00:01:21,600 --> 00:01:25,600 Speaker 1: real or artificial teeth. His ad read from one to 20 00:01:25,760 --> 00:01:29,240 Speaker 1: an entire set. He promised top of the line hardware 21 00:01:29,280 --> 00:01:32,800 Speaker 1: fitted to the individual with no pain. Suffice it to 22 00:01:32,840 --> 00:01:35,679 Speaker 1: say he didn't quite live up to those promises, but 23 00:01:35,760 --> 00:01:38,920 Speaker 1: that didn't stop people from flocking to his door. It 24 00:01:38,959 --> 00:01:42,560 Speaker 1: was London in the seventeen seventies and dentists were a 25 00:01:42,600 --> 00:01:46,280 Speaker 1: hot commodity, especially among the elite. And even though sugar 26 00:01:46,400 --> 00:01:49,280 Speaker 1: was a luxury for the middle and upper classes, its 27 00:01:49,400 --> 00:01:54,160 Speaker 1: use increased fourfold in Britain during the eighteenth century. That 28 00:01:54,200 --> 00:01:57,600 Speaker 1: meant that making a good living, even for quacks like Butchell, 29 00:01:57,840 --> 00:02:01,400 Speaker 1: wasn't like pulling teeth. Even that was exactly what they did, 30 00:02:01,560 --> 00:02:04,880 Speaker 1: I know. But as business grew, so did the competition, 31 00:02:05,080 --> 00:02:07,880 Speaker 1: and soon Butchell had to come up with interesting ways 32 00:02:07,960 --> 00:02:11,480 Speaker 1: to drum up new customers. Some dentists might have created 33 00:02:11,520 --> 00:02:14,360 Speaker 1: advertisements or hired someone to walk up and down the 34 00:02:14,400 --> 00:02:17,440 Speaker 1: block with the sandwich board sign hung on their shoulders, 35 00:02:18,120 --> 00:02:21,440 Speaker 1: but not Butchell. He took his advertising game to a 36 00:02:21,520 --> 00:02:25,640 Speaker 1: whole new level. He had his wife Mary sit in 37 00:02:25,680 --> 00:02:28,200 Speaker 1: the front window of his practice as a way of 38 00:02:28,360 --> 00:02:32,440 Speaker 1: enticing ailing passers by. She simply sat there, in full 39 00:02:32,520 --> 00:02:36,400 Speaker 1: view for all Londoners to see. She didn't mind, She 40 00:02:36,560 --> 00:02:40,040 Speaker 1: didn't complain about it, and that's because she was dead. 41 00:02:41,960 --> 00:02:45,840 Speaker 1: Butchell had tasked his former surgery and anatomy professors with 42 00:02:45,919 --> 00:02:49,320 Speaker 1: embalming his late wife. Then they replaced her eyes with 43 00:02:49,360 --> 00:02:52,720 Speaker 1: glass ones, colored her cheeks and lips, and dressed her 44 00:02:52,760 --> 00:02:55,600 Speaker 1: in a fancy gown before placing her in a glass 45 00:02:55,639 --> 00:03:01,040 Speaker 1: topped coffin The display worked. Londoners came in by record 46 00:03:01,160 --> 00:03:04,400 Speaker 1: numbers to see the deceased woman in the window, though 47 00:03:04,639 --> 00:03:07,720 Speaker 1: not all of them were happy about it. Many scolded 48 00:03:07,800 --> 00:03:10,639 Speaker 1: him for such a grotesque display or for not giving 49 00:03:10,639 --> 00:03:14,160 Speaker 1: her a proper burial. She deserved better, they said. But 50 00:03:14,280 --> 00:03:17,040 Speaker 1: none of that bothered Butchell, although it did bother his 51 00:03:17,120 --> 00:03:20,880 Speaker 1: new bride, Elizabeth. After he remarried, she told him to 52 00:03:20,919 --> 00:03:23,760 Speaker 1: get his dead wife's body out of the window. There 53 00:03:23,840 --> 00:03:25,600 Speaker 1: was no way that she was going to share her 54 00:03:25,639 --> 00:03:29,720 Speaker 1: man with another woman, even a dead one. Not wanting 55 00:03:29,760 --> 00:03:32,680 Speaker 1: to risk losing two wives, he gave Mary's corpse to 56 00:03:32,760 --> 00:03:35,440 Speaker 1: the brother of one of his former teachers. She was 57 00:03:35,440 --> 00:03:38,720 Speaker 1: passed down over the years until she was eventually donated 58 00:03:38,760 --> 00:03:41,880 Speaker 1: to the Royal College of Surgeon's Museum, where she was 59 00:03:41,920 --> 00:03:46,760 Speaker 1: once again put on display. Now, if only Butchell's professors 60 00:03:46,800 --> 00:03:49,480 Speaker 1: had taken a bit more care with his late wife's embalming. 61 00:03:49,880 --> 00:03:52,680 Speaker 1: They hadn't done a very thorough job, and Mary's body 62 00:03:52,760 --> 00:03:56,160 Speaker 1: began to slowly deteriorate. What was left of her was 63 00:03:56,240 --> 00:04:01,400 Speaker 1: destroyed in nineteen forty one during a German bombing raid. However, 64 00:04:01,600 --> 00:04:04,280 Speaker 1: Mary van Butchell's story left all those who heard it, 65 00:04:04,720 --> 00:04:10,680 Speaker 1: especially her husband's patients, with one simple question. Why why 66 00:04:10,760 --> 00:04:14,080 Speaker 1: did Martin van Butchell have his wife embalmed and stuck 67 00:04:14,120 --> 00:04:17,600 Speaker 1: in his window? Well, it wasn't just about luring new 68 00:04:17,640 --> 00:04:22,839 Speaker 1: patients into his practice. No, he had another reason. According 69 00:04:22,880 --> 00:04:25,839 Speaker 1: to Butchell himself, there had been a clause in his 70 00:04:25,920 --> 00:04:29,919 Speaker 1: marriage contract that stated he would continue to receive income 71 00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:33,840 Speaker 1: from Mary's family as long as she remained above ground, 72 00:04:34,880 --> 00:04:51,680 Speaker 1: and that's precisely where he kept her. Everyone knows that 73 00:04:51,800 --> 00:04:56,599 Speaker 1: athletes are no stranger to superstition. Wade Boggs famously ate 74 00:04:56,640 --> 00:05:00,080 Speaker 1: a whole chicken before every Yankees game. Michael jor In 75 00:05:00,200 --> 00:05:03,800 Speaker 1: war his unc shorts under his Bulls uniform for all 76 00:05:03,839 --> 00:05:08,320 Speaker 1: of his NBA games. There have been stories of unwashed socks, 77 00:05:08,360 --> 00:05:11,440 Speaker 1: of lucky gloves, and all sorts of rituals that anyone 78 00:05:11,520 --> 00:05:15,760 Speaker 1: outside the locker room might find strange. These sports stars 79 00:05:15,800 --> 00:05:18,520 Speaker 1: believe their traditions were what helped them play their best 80 00:05:18,560 --> 00:05:23,599 Speaker 1: and win. However, superstitions were not limited only to professional sports. 81 00:05:25,080 --> 00:05:28,200 Speaker 1: The world of professional music is home to many bizarre 82 00:05:28,279 --> 00:05:33,039 Speaker 1: customs and superstitions. For example, since the nineteen sixties, several 83 00:05:33,120 --> 00:05:36,479 Speaker 1: famous rockers have joined what's known as the twenty seven Club, 84 00:05:36,960 --> 00:05:40,800 Speaker 1: named for those who died at the age of Jimmy Hendrix, 85 00:05:41,200 --> 00:05:45,279 Speaker 1: Janice Joplin, and Jim Morrison are all members, as is 86 00:05:45,440 --> 00:05:50,680 Speaker 1: Kurt Cobain. Even weirder is the white lighter curse. Legend 87 00:05:50,720 --> 00:05:53,480 Speaker 1: has it that any musician who uses a white lighter 88 00:05:53,560 --> 00:05:56,960 Speaker 1: is doomed to an unpleasant fate. And wouldn't you know it, 89 00:05:57,360 --> 00:05:59,960 Speaker 1: for people who were carrying white lighters when they die, 90 00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:05,960 Speaker 1: i'd were Jimmy Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, and Kurt Cobain. 91 00:06:07,400 --> 00:06:11,520 Speaker 1: Superstition has struck singers in the Philippines as well. Karaoke 92 00:06:11,640 --> 00:06:14,839 Speaker 1: bars all over that country have pulled Frank Sinatra's My 93 00:06:15,000 --> 00:06:18,120 Speaker 1: Way from their song collections due to the high number 94 00:06:18,160 --> 00:06:21,599 Speaker 1: of deaths of people who have sung the song. But 95 00:06:21,720 --> 00:06:25,400 Speaker 1: perhaps the worst case of superstition affecting a musician can 96 00:06:25,480 --> 00:06:29,080 Speaker 1: be found in the case of Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg. 97 00:06:29,760 --> 00:06:34,480 Speaker 1: Born on September eighteen seventy four, Schoenberg changed the face 98 00:06:34,520 --> 00:06:38,359 Speaker 1: of music through two World wars. He also developed a 99 00:06:38,400 --> 00:06:42,920 Speaker 1: severe case of triske decaphobia, the fear of the number thirteen. 100 00:06:43,560 --> 00:06:47,640 Speaker 1: Schoenberg was known to avoid rooms, floors, and entire buildings 101 00:06:47,760 --> 00:06:51,720 Speaker 1: numbered thirteen. In his compositions, he would number the measures 102 00:06:51,720 --> 00:06:55,880 Speaker 1: between twelve and fourteen as twelve A. He even titled 103 00:06:55,920 --> 00:06:59,680 Speaker 1: his last opera, Moses and Aaron, the latter name spelled 104 00:06:59,720 --> 00:07:02,880 Speaker 1: with one a, much to my chagrin, instead of two, 105 00:07:03,200 --> 00:07:06,039 Speaker 1: because otherwise the title would have had thirteen letters in 106 00:07:06,120 --> 00:07:10,400 Speaker 1: it instead of twelve. And if his age or birthday 107 00:07:10,480 --> 00:07:13,480 Speaker 1: year happened to be a multiple of thirteen, it set 108 00:07:13,560 --> 00:07:17,960 Speaker 1: him on edge like nothing else. Here's an example. As 109 00:07:18,000 --> 00:07:21,920 Speaker 1: his fifty six birthday approached in nineteen thirty nine, Schoenberg 110 00:07:21,920 --> 00:07:25,680 Speaker 1: consulted an astrologer regarding his horoscope for that year, and 111 00:07:25,680 --> 00:07:28,800 Speaker 1: even though nineteen thirty nine was not a multiple of thirteen, 112 00:07:29,280 --> 00:07:33,160 Speaker 1: sixty five, certainly was. The astrologer told him it would 113 00:07:33,160 --> 00:07:36,720 Speaker 1: be a dangerous year, but he would survive. That assurance 114 00:07:36,760 --> 00:07:40,360 Speaker 1: calmed him. However, in all his worry about multiples of thirteen, 115 00:07:40,400 --> 00:07:43,320 Speaker 1: there were other parts of his life that he hadn't considered. 116 00:07:43,880 --> 00:07:46,800 Speaker 1: One such area was in the digits of his age. 117 00:07:47,560 --> 00:07:51,400 Speaker 1: For example, on his seventy sixth birthday in nineteen fifty, 118 00:07:51,440 --> 00:07:54,960 Speaker 1: another astrologer warned him to be careful. Not only was 119 00:07:55,040 --> 00:07:58,360 Speaker 1: nineteen fifty a multiple of thirteen, but when the numbers 120 00:07:58,520 --> 00:08:01,960 Speaker 1: seven and six from his age were added together, they 121 00:08:02,000 --> 00:08:06,360 Speaker 1: totaled you guessed it, thirteen. It seemed as though Schoenberg 122 00:08:06,360 --> 00:08:09,040 Speaker 1: couldn't escape the cursed number no matter where he went. 123 00:08:10,720 --> 00:08:13,520 Speaker 1: On the day of his seventy six birthday, un nervous 124 00:08:13,600 --> 00:08:16,840 Speaker 1: and depressed, Schoenberg decided to spend it in his bed. 125 00:08:17,320 --> 00:08:20,000 Speaker 1: There was no party, no one paid him a visit 126 00:08:20,160 --> 00:08:24,640 Speaker 1: or called to wish him well. At that night, he 127 00:08:24,800 --> 00:08:27,160 Speaker 1: and his wife lay in bed, and she looked at 128 00:08:27,160 --> 00:08:30,280 Speaker 1: the clock and said to herself, another quarter of an 129 00:08:30,280 --> 00:08:34,760 Speaker 1: hour and then the worst is over. Soon after the 130 00:08:34,760 --> 00:08:38,760 Speaker 1: words left her mouth, the phone rang. It was the doctor. 131 00:08:39,440 --> 00:08:42,480 Speaker 1: Her husband made a sound in his throat, and then 132 00:08:42,520 --> 00:08:46,800 Speaker 1: his heart stopped. Arnold Schoenberg's worst fear had come true. 133 00:08:47,760 --> 00:08:51,360 Speaker 1: He died at thirteen minutes to midnight on his seventy 134 00:08:51,400 --> 00:09:01,800 Speaker 1: six birthday in nineteen fifty on Friday, m I hope 135 00:09:01,800 --> 00:09:05,120 Speaker 1: you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. 136 00:09:05,480 --> 00:09:08,560 Speaker 1: Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about 137 00:09:08,600 --> 00:09:13,120 Speaker 1: the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show 138 00:09:13,360 --> 00:09:16,640 Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how 139 00:09:16,679 --> 00:09:20,280 Speaker 1: Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, 140 00:09:20,520 --> 00:09:24,160 Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and 141 00:09:24,200 --> 00:09:26,400 Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at the World 142 00:09:26,440 --> 00:09:30,800 Speaker 1: of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.