1
00:00:04,080 --> 00:00:07,800
Speaker 1: Welcomed Aaron Manky's cabinet of curiosities, a production of IHEART

2
00:00:07,880 --> 00:00:14,440
Speaker 1: radio and grim and mild. Our world is full of

3
00:00:14,520 --> 00:00:18,479
Speaker 1: the unexplainable and if history is an open book, all

4
00:00:18,520 --> 00:00:22,079
Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just

5
00:00:22,200 --> 00:00:28,840
Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the cabinet of curiosities.

6
00:00:36,680 --> 00:00:39,760
Speaker 1: While Steven Spielberg was filming jaws, he met with composer

7
00:00:39,840 --> 00:00:43,040
Speaker 1: John Williams to discuss the score. Williams offered to play

8
00:00:43,040 --> 00:00:44,800
Speaker 1: for him the theme he had come up with, and

9
00:00:44,920 --> 00:00:48,000
Speaker 1: Spielberg couldn't wait to hear it. The director had expected

10
00:00:48,040 --> 00:00:50,680
Speaker 1: to hear something melodic and other worldly, the kind of

11
00:00:50,760 --> 00:00:53,680
Speaker 1: Song meant to symbolize the majestic terror of a great

12
00:00:53,680 --> 00:00:57,800
Speaker 1: white shark. Instead, Spielberg heard only two notes played on

13
00:00:57,800 --> 00:01:01,640
Speaker 1: the piano, two notes that started out slow before increasing

14
00:01:01,720 --> 00:01:04,640
Speaker 1: in tempo, and you can probably hear those notes now.

15
00:01:04,640 --> 00:01:07,520
Speaker 1: In your mind. You can picture a dorsal fin breaking

16
00:01:07,560 --> 00:01:09,840
Speaker 1: the surface of the water as it glides toward its

17
00:01:09,880 --> 00:01:12,440
Speaker 1: next victim, and if you're listening to this near a

18
00:01:12,480 --> 00:01:15,560
Speaker 1: large body of water, your heart rate probably just spiked.

19
00:01:15,920 --> 00:01:19,480
Speaker 1: John Williams described it as that combination of sound and

20
00:01:19,600 --> 00:01:23,560
Speaker 1: image forming a memory. Music has that effect on us.

21
00:01:23,840 --> 00:01:26,120
Speaker 1: We can remember where we were when we first heard

22
00:01:26,120 --> 00:01:28,720
Speaker 1: a life changing song or how we felt during the

23
00:01:28,760 --> 00:01:31,600
Speaker 1: first dance at our wedding. Even hearing the theme song

24
00:01:31,680 --> 00:01:34,480
Speaker 1: to a beloved childhood cartoon can instill a sense of

25
00:01:34,520 --> 00:01:37,440
Speaker 1: longing and nostalgia in us, taking us right back to

26
00:01:37,480 --> 00:01:39,679
Speaker 1: our living rooms as we scarfed down a bowl of

27
00:01:39,680 --> 00:01:42,720
Speaker 1: sugary cereal in front of the TV on a Saturday morning.

28
00:01:43,480 --> 00:01:45,720
Speaker 1: But monty didn't know that his music would have the

29
00:01:45,720 --> 00:01:50,440
Speaker 1: same effect decades later, especially given its unorthodox origins. He

30
00:01:50,480 --> 00:01:53,600
Speaker 1: was born in London in April of Nineteen to Jewish

31
00:01:53,640 --> 00:01:56,520
Speaker 1: immigrant parents. His father had been born in Latvia and

32
00:01:56,680 --> 00:01:59,240
Speaker 1: moved to England to work as a cabinet maker, while

33
00:01:59,320 --> 00:02:02,360
Speaker 1: his mother was a seamstress. As he got older, Monty

34
00:02:02,360 --> 00:02:04,960
Speaker 1: took an interest in music, encouraged by his mother, who

35
00:02:04,960 --> 00:02:07,720
Speaker 1: presented him with his first guitar when he was just sixteen.

36
00:02:08,280 --> 00:02:11,040
Speaker 1: When he got older, Monty enlisted in the Royal Air Force,

37
00:02:11,080 --> 00:02:14,440
Speaker 1: where he deepened his musical interests and explored singing as

38
00:02:14,480 --> 00:02:16,560
Speaker 1: a career. He worked for a time as a big

39
00:02:16,600 --> 00:02:19,160
Speaker 1: band singer in the nineteen fifties, and sixties for band

40
00:02:19,240 --> 00:02:22,880
Speaker 1: leaders such as Cyril Stapleton and Nat Temple, before showcasing

41
00:02:22,960 --> 00:02:26,680
Speaker 1: his talents in variety shows. He even appeared alongside entertainment

42
00:02:26,760 --> 00:02:29,920
Speaker 1: legends like Benny Hill and Peter Sellers. And while he

43
00:02:29,960 --> 00:02:32,720
Speaker 1: was making a name for himself on stage, Monty also

44
00:02:32,800 --> 00:02:36,200
Speaker 1: worked behind the scenes as a composer and lyricist. He

45
00:02:36,240 --> 00:02:40,320
Speaker 1: was particularly skilled at adapting novels into stage musicals. In

46
00:02:40,400 --> 00:02:43,200
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty nine he turned the nineteen fifty two book

47
00:02:43,320 --> 00:02:46,200
Speaker 1: make me an offer by Wolf Mankowitz into a song

48
00:02:46,280 --> 00:02:49,560
Speaker 1: and dance production, and in the early sixties he adapted

49
00:02:49,560 --> 00:02:53,000
Speaker 1: the novel a House for Mr Bisus by vs Night Paul.

50
00:02:53,720 --> 00:02:56,600
Speaker 1: He told the story of a man named Mohan Bisus

51
00:02:56,639 --> 00:02:59,840
Speaker 1: from Trinidad and Tobago who was born with an extra finger.

52
00:03:00,240 --> 00:03:02,520
Speaker 1: The young boy was prophesied to be a liar and

53
00:03:02,560 --> 00:03:05,400
Speaker 1: a spendthrift, as well as a danger to his parents.

54
00:03:05,840 --> 00:03:08,760
Speaker 1: His father accidentally died trying to save him from drowning.

55
00:03:09,120 --> 00:03:11,760
Speaker 1: This was was moved around from family member to family

56
00:03:11,800 --> 00:03:14,720
Speaker 1: member until he grew up and got married. Following the

57
00:03:14,760 --> 00:03:17,880
Speaker 1: expectations of others, however, it was his dream to build

58
00:03:17,960 --> 00:03:20,120
Speaker 1: himself a house and a life of his own in

59
00:03:20,160 --> 00:03:23,240
Speaker 1: which he could lay down roots and be happy. Monty

60
00:03:23,480 --> 00:03:26,280
Speaker 1: finished the show, but it never saw the light of day.

61
00:03:26,400 --> 00:03:30,280
Speaker 1: It was shelved indefinitely. Sometime later, though, he was contacted

62
00:03:30,280 --> 00:03:32,720
Speaker 1: by a pair of movie producers looking to work with him.

63
00:03:33,040 --> 00:03:35,600
Speaker 1: They didn't want to film a house for Mr Bisuss,

64
00:03:35,600 --> 00:03:38,160
Speaker 1: mind you. They were launching a brand new film franchise

65
00:03:38,240 --> 00:03:41,000
Speaker 1: and wanted Monty to write the score for the first installment.

66
00:03:41,800 --> 00:03:44,440
Speaker 1: He refused at first, but one of the producers offered

67
00:03:44,520 --> 00:03:47,160
Speaker 1: him and his family a free trip to Jamaica, where

68
00:03:47,160 --> 00:03:50,280
Speaker 1: the movie was being shot. He relented, happy to get

69
00:03:50,280 --> 00:03:53,080
Speaker 1: a vacation out of the deal. One of the key

70
00:03:53,080 --> 00:03:55,720
Speaker 1: pieces of music needed for the film was a theme song.

71
00:03:56,040 --> 00:03:58,560
Speaker 1: It would be the Lynch pin that held together everything,

72
00:03:58,840 --> 00:04:02,240
Speaker 1: influencing the numera, motifs and variations that would be heard

73
00:04:02,240 --> 00:04:06,240
Speaker 1: throughout the picture. Unfortunately, monty couldn't come up with anything.

74
00:04:06,680 --> 00:04:10,800
Speaker 1: After several false starts, he delved into his archives, rediscovering

75
00:04:10,840 --> 00:04:13,720
Speaker 1: one of his favorite compositions. It was a playful song

76
00:04:13,800 --> 00:04:17,359
Speaker 1: from his unproduced musical house for Mr Biswas that he

77
00:04:17,400 --> 00:04:21,880
Speaker 1: titled Good Sign, bad sign. It's opening lyric. I was

78
00:04:21,960 --> 00:04:25,479
Speaker 1: born with this unlucky sneeze was intended to be Sung

79
00:04:25,560 --> 00:04:29,679
Speaker 1: over the plux of a Sitar, but the lyrics wouldn't do. Instead,

80
00:04:29,720 --> 00:04:32,440
Speaker 1: he took the opening melody and rearranged it as an

81
00:04:32,440 --> 00:04:37,039
Speaker 1: instrumental with less whimsical, more mysterious sounds to it. It

82
00:04:37,120 --> 00:04:39,480
Speaker 1: was a vast improvement and should have worked well as

83
00:04:39,480 --> 00:04:42,880
Speaker 1: a theme song. Sadly, even though the producers saw its potential,

84
00:04:43,200 --> 00:04:46,080
Speaker 1: they hated the arrangement. They gave it to another composer

85
00:04:46,160 --> 00:04:49,680
Speaker 1: named John Barry, who reworked it to include strings, brassy

86
00:04:49,720 --> 00:04:52,680
Speaker 1: trumpets and a Driving Electric Guitar riff that tied it

87
00:04:52,720 --> 00:04:57,120
Speaker 1: all together. The producers, Harry Saltzman and Albert Cubby Broccoli,

88
00:04:57,560 --> 00:05:00,599
Speaker 1: loved the new version. It was the perfect blend sexy

89
00:05:00,680 --> 00:05:04,440
Speaker 1: and enigmatic, the ideal theme to embody their hot new hero,

90
00:05:05,040 --> 00:05:08,719
Speaker 1: a British spy ripped from the pages of a popular novel.

91
00:05:09,320 --> 00:05:13,039
Speaker 1: Monty Nosurovich, otherwise known as Monty Norman, had taken his

92
00:05:13,200 --> 00:05:15,719
Speaker 1: unused musical number and spun it into one of the

93
00:05:15,760 --> 00:05:19,200
Speaker 1: most recognized movie theme songs in the world. It's usually

94
00:05:19,240 --> 00:05:21,280
Speaker 1: heard over the image of a black and white gun

95
00:05:21,320 --> 00:05:24,360
Speaker 1: barrel as a pans across the screen before a single

96
00:05:24,440 --> 00:05:27,159
Speaker 1: gunshot causes a shock of red to cover the scene

97
00:05:27,200 --> 00:05:30,839
Speaker 1: like a curtain. As John Williams said. It that combination

98
00:05:30,880 --> 00:05:34,000
Speaker 1: of sound and image forming a memory, and you can hear.

99
00:05:34,040 --> 00:05:36,720
Speaker 1: It's in your mind, can't you, the theme song written

100
00:05:37,040 --> 00:05:42,680
Speaker 1: for a legendary fictional character, a man named bond, James Bond.

101
00:05:56,640 --> 00:05:59,520
Speaker 1: Excitement used to flood a town when a traveling circus

102
00:05:59,560 --> 00:06:01,919
Speaker 1: came to that people would gather from all over to

103
00:06:01,960 --> 00:06:05,360
Speaker 1: watch lion tamers and clowns and enormous elephants all put

104
00:06:05,400 --> 00:06:08,440
Speaker 1: on a show under a big tent. Whenever the circus arrived,

105
00:06:08,720 --> 00:06:11,720
Speaker 1: everyone knew they were in for a good time. Traveling

106
00:06:11,720 --> 00:06:14,960
Speaker 1: acts were quite popular during the nineteenth in early twentieth centuries,

107
00:06:15,200 --> 00:06:18,839
Speaker 1: especially the unorthodox kinds. Spectators flocked to see all manner

108
00:06:18,920 --> 00:06:21,760
Speaker 1: of exhibitions, such as side shows, hoping to catch a

109
00:06:21,839 --> 00:06:25,120
Speaker 1: glimpse of something strange or even shocking. But for those

110
00:06:25,120 --> 00:06:27,800
Speaker 1: who wanted to witness the face of true horror, they

111
00:06:27,839 --> 00:06:31,839
Speaker 1: save their money to see painless Parker. Painless Parker was

112
00:06:31,880 --> 00:06:35,280
Speaker 1: born Edgar R R Parker in Brunswick, Canada, in eighteen

113
00:06:35,320 --> 00:06:38,599
Speaker 1: seventy two. As a child, he found opportunities to practice

114
00:06:38,640 --> 00:06:42,400
Speaker 1: one of his natural talents, salesmanship. He developed the skill

115
00:06:42,480 --> 00:06:44,960
Speaker 1: through his life and got his start by convincing a

116
00:06:45,000 --> 00:06:47,600
Speaker 1: neighbor to accept some fresh fish from him in exchange

117
00:06:47,640 --> 00:06:50,719
Speaker 1: for their hand and some eggs. But Parker would go

118
00:06:50,720 --> 00:06:53,080
Speaker 1: on to enroll at the New York College of dentistry

119
00:06:53,120 --> 00:06:55,760
Speaker 1: when he was seventeen. Today it's part of N Y

120
00:06:55,880 --> 00:06:59,560
Speaker 1: U as The New York University College of Dentistry. Unlike today,

121
00:06:59,600 --> 00:07:01,800
Speaker 1: we're dent history as its own discipline, with its own

122
00:07:01,920 --> 00:07:05,719
Speaker 1: education and licensing standards. Dentistry in the late eighteen hundreds

123
00:07:05,800 --> 00:07:10,160
Speaker 1: was much less regulated. Often dentists were either general physicians

124
00:07:10,160 --> 00:07:13,040
Speaker 1: who did it on the side or apprentices who struck

125
00:07:13,040 --> 00:07:14,560
Speaker 1: out on their own when they felt that they were

126
00:07:14,560 --> 00:07:17,120
Speaker 1: good enough. So Parker, in need of money to put

127
00:07:17,200 --> 00:07:20,280
Speaker 1: himself through school, started traveling door to door throughout New

128
00:07:20,320 --> 00:07:23,640
Speaker 1: York City offering teeth cleanings for only a dollar or two.

129
00:07:24,360 --> 00:07:27,640
Speaker 1: Eventually the Dean heard about Parker's little side hustle and

130
00:07:27,760 --> 00:07:30,840
Speaker 1: kicked him out for violating the school's policies. So the

131
00:07:31,040 --> 00:07:34,240
Speaker 1: intrepid would be dentists went back to his hometown and

132
00:07:34,400 --> 00:07:36,720
Speaker 1: did the same thing up there. Earning money to put

133
00:07:36,800 --> 00:07:41,240
Speaker 1: himself through another dental school, this one in Pennsylvania. He

134
00:07:41,280 --> 00:07:44,720
Speaker 1: attended Philadelphia Dental College years before it was absorbed into

135
00:07:44,800 --> 00:07:49,840
Speaker 1: Temple University, and earned his degree. Barely diploma in hand,

136
00:07:49,880 --> 00:07:52,600
Speaker 1: Parker struck out on his own and opened his own practice.

137
00:07:53,040 --> 00:07:56,520
Speaker 1: If only he could attract some new patients. Six weeks

138
00:07:56,560 --> 00:07:58,880
Speaker 1: went by and only a few patients had walked through

139
00:07:58,920 --> 00:08:01,880
Speaker 1: his door. So Park decided to think outside the box.

140
00:08:02,240 --> 00:08:04,560
Speaker 1: He closed down his office and put it on wheels,

141
00:08:04,880 --> 00:08:09,200
Speaker 1: kick starting a traveling operation. In he mounted his dental

142
00:08:09,280 --> 00:08:12,160
Speaker 1: chair onto a horse drawn wagon, hired a cornet player

143
00:08:12,240 --> 00:08:15,040
Speaker 1: and traveled from city to city performing feats of dental

144
00:08:15,160 --> 00:08:19,240
Speaker 1: deftness for the public. And did it work? Surprisingly yes,

145
00:08:19,680 --> 00:08:21,880
Speaker 1: but it wasn't only because he made the science of

146
00:08:21,960 --> 00:08:25,000
Speaker 1: dentistry a spectacle, nor was it the Cornet player who

147
00:08:25,000 --> 00:08:27,160
Speaker 1: blared from the back of the wagon to coax people

148
00:08:27,200 --> 00:08:30,600
Speaker 1: into the chair. Now, it was because Parker had advertised

149
00:08:30,600 --> 00:08:34,280
Speaker 1: his services as painless. People didn't go to the dentists

150
00:08:34,280 --> 00:08:36,720
Speaker 1: regularly back then because they thought it would hurt too much.

151
00:08:37,080 --> 00:08:40,480
Speaker 1: But painless Parker, as he called himself, wanted to change that.

152
00:08:40,880 --> 00:08:43,440
Speaker 1: Of course, his methods would be frowned upon today, but

153
00:08:43,520 --> 00:08:46,840
Speaker 1: back then they certainly did. The trick. Parker like to

154
00:08:46,920 --> 00:08:49,840
Speaker 1: use a special solution he called Hydro Kane to numb

155
00:08:49,880 --> 00:08:53,199
Speaker 1: the person's mouth before the procedure, and it's secret ingredient

156
00:08:53,360 --> 00:08:57,240
Speaker 1: is hidden right there in the name cocaine. His shows

157
00:08:57,280 --> 00:09:00,440
Speaker 1: often followed the same routine to Parker would roll into

158
00:09:00,480 --> 00:09:02,760
Speaker 1: town and lure a big crowd around him. He would

159
00:09:02,840 --> 00:09:05,640
Speaker 1: lecture them on proper oral hygiene and then make them

160
00:09:05,640 --> 00:09:08,480
Speaker 1: an offer. He would remove any of their offending teeth

161
00:09:08,520 --> 00:09:12,679
Speaker 1: for fifty cents apiece painlessly. If they felt any discomfort,

162
00:09:12,679 --> 00:09:15,720
Speaker 1: he would give them a five dollar refund. The patients

163
00:09:15,720 --> 00:09:18,120
Speaker 1: then lined up to sit in his chair, at which

164
00:09:18,160 --> 00:09:21,360
Speaker 1: time he would apply his special hydrocane solution and go

165
00:09:21,440 --> 00:09:24,240
Speaker 1: to town on their rotting teeth. The live band played

166
00:09:24,240 --> 00:09:27,120
Speaker 1: as Parker and his players got to work. The music

167
00:09:27,240 --> 00:09:29,839
Speaker 1: wasn't just to announce his arrival in town either. It

168
00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:33,320
Speaker 1: distracted the person sitting in the chair and covered the

169
00:09:33,360 --> 00:09:37,000
Speaker 1: sounds of their screams. He once made a necklace out

170
00:09:37,000 --> 00:09:39,080
Speaker 1: of three hundred and fifty seven teeth that he had

171
00:09:39,120 --> 00:09:42,200
Speaker 1: pulled after one day's work. It's currently on display at

172
00:09:42,200 --> 00:09:46,160
Speaker 1: Temple University's Cornburg School of Dentistry and is exactly as

173
00:09:46,240 --> 00:09:50,560
Speaker 1: terrifying and creepy as you think it is. After a while, though,

174
00:09:50,600 --> 00:09:54,600
Speaker 1: parker ran into problems. For one, advertising dental services at

175
00:09:54,600 --> 00:09:57,160
Speaker 1: that time was frowned upon and several times he found

176
00:09:57,240 --> 00:09:59,880
Speaker 1: himself on the receiving end of a lawsuit. He also

177
00:10:00,120 --> 00:10:02,839
Speaker 1: came persona non grata back in New Brunswick and was

178
00:10:02,960 --> 00:10:05,760
Speaker 1: run out of town. Parker eventually moved to New York

179
00:10:05,800 --> 00:10:08,040
Speaker 1: with his family to try and build back his business.

180
00:10:08,559 --> 00:10:11,640
Speaker 1: Low on money and rich in desperation, he reached out

181
00:10:11,679 --> 00:10:13,840
Speaker 1: to someone who knew a thing or two about advertising,

182
00:10:14,360 --> 00:10:18,000
Speaker 1: William Beebe an ex employee of P T barnum. With

183
00:10:18,080 --> 00:10:21,040
Speaker 1: BEAB's guidance, Parker added a six piece band and a

184
00:10:21,120 --> 00:10:24,520
Speaker 1: circus tumbler to his show. He also advertised a lot more,

185
00:10:24,600 --> 00:10:27,200
Speaker 1: putting up signs on the sides of buildings with catchy

186
00:10:27,240 --> 00:10:32,120
Speaker 1: taglines like pains and pangs. Positively prevented, and it seems

187
00:10:32,120 --> 00:10:35,360
Speaker 1: to have worked painless. Parker became quite successful in his

188
00:10:35,440 --> 00:10:38,040
Speaker 1: dental career. By the time he hung up his pliers,

189
00:10:38,080 --> 00:10:40,120
Speaker 1: he had launched his own product line and owned a

190
00:10:40,200 --> 00:10:43,280
Speaker 1: chain of twenty eight offices with more than seventy dentists

191
00:10:43,280 --> 00:10:47,160
Speaker 1: in his employee his income topped three million dollars per year,

192
00:10:47,840 --> 00:10:50,680
Speaker 1: but that hadn't been his ultimate goal. Sure, the money

193
00:10:50,720 --> 00:10:53,679
Speaker 1: was welcome, but painless. Parker was more interested in preaching

194
00:10:53,720 --> 00:10:56,880
Speaker 1: proper oral hygiene techniques. He wanted people to take care

195
00:10:56,920 --> 00:11:00,000
Speaker 1: of their teeth, especially in rural and poorer areas where

196
00:11:00,080 --> 00:11:03,680
Speaker 1: such a thing wasn't often practiced. was He unconventional in

197
00:11:03,760 --> 00:11:07,240
Speaker 1: his methods? For sure. But you try getting someone to

198
00:11:07,280 --> 00:11:09,880
Speaker 1: go to the dentist when they don't want to. It's

199
00:11:09,880 --> 00:11:18,040
Speaker 1: almost like pulling teeth. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided

200
00:11:18,080 --> 00:11:21,480
Speaker 1: tour of the cabinet of curiosities. Subscribe for free on

201
00:11:21,559 --> 00:11:24,559
Speaker 1: Apple podcasts or learn more about the show by visiting

202
00:11:24,679 --> 00:11:29,280
Speaker 1: curiosities PODCAST DOT COM. The show was created by me,

203
00:11:29,440 --> 00:11:33,120
Speaker 1: Aaron Manky, in partnership with how stuff works. I make

204
00:11:33,160 --> 00:11:36,720
Speaker 1: another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,

205
00:11:36,800 --> 00:11:39,760
Speaker 1: book series and Television Show, and you can learn all

206
00:11:39,800 --> 00:11:43,320
Speaker 1: about it over at the world of Lore Dot Com.

207
00:11:43,360 --> 00:11:46,679
Speaker 1: And until next time, stay curious. Ye