1 00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:07,480 Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of 2 00:00:07,520 --> 00:00:14,480 Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of 3 00:00:14,520 --> 00:00:18,480 Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all 4 00:00:18,520 --> 00:00:22,639 Speaker 1: of these amazing tales right there on display, just waiting 5 00:00:22,680 --> 00:00:28,920 Speaker 1: for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. 6 00:00:36,720 --> 00:00:39,559 Speaker 1: Sometimes all it takes for a fresh perspective is a 7 00:00:39,680 --> 00:00:41,920 Speaker 1: change in scenery, and it doesn't have to be a 8 00:00:41,920 --> 00:00:45,199 Speaker 1: cross country migration to gain that enlightenment either. They can 9 00:00:45,240 --> 00:00:47,720 Speaker 1: be as simple as stepping into a warm shower or 10 00:00:47,800 --> 00:00:51,400 Speaker 1: going for a drive around town that unlocks our subconscience. 11 00:00:51,880 --> 00:00:54,080 Speaker 1: For John Patterson, though, he did need to get out 12 00:00:54,120 --> 00:00:56,640 Speaker 1: of state, far from the hustle and bustle of the 13 00:00:56,680 --> 00:00:59,760 Speaker 1: city to the much quieter countryside, but he had a 14 00:00:59,800 --> 00:01:03,400 Speaker 1: good reason. He thought he was dying. John was born 15 00:01:03,440 --> 00:01:06,319 Speaker 1: in Orange, New Jersey, in eighteen thirty. He was one 16 00:01:06,360 --> 00:01:08,640 Speaker 1: of twelve children, and his father made a living as 17 00:01:08,680 --> 00:01:11,639 Speaker 1: a hat maker. He apprenticed under his dad, who started 18 00:01:11,680 --> 00:01:14,560 Speaker 1: teaching him everything that he knew until his son got 19 00:01:14,560 --> 00:01:18,800 Speaker 1: some troubling news. He had been diagnosed with tuberculosis. Now, 20 00:01:18,840 --> 00:01:21,800 Speaker 1: back then, tuberculosis was a death sentence for many, and 21 00:01:21,880 --> 00:01:24,640 Speaker 1: John's doctor even predicted that he would die quickly from 22 00:01:24,680 --> 00:01:28,040 Speaker 1: the disease. Being in his twenties and seeing the writing 23 00:01:28,120 --> 00:01:30,720 Speaker 1: on the wall, he decided to leave his family behind 24 00:01:30,920 --> 00:01:34,319 Speaker 1: and travel out west. Hopefully the fresh country air and 25 00:01:34,440 --> 00:01:38,840 Speaker 1: constant sunshine would help alleviate some of his symptoms. Plus, 26 00:01:38,880 --> 00:01:41,120 Speaker 1: he was a young man in need of one last 27 00:01:41,160 --> 00:01:44,880 Speaker 1: adventure before fate struck him down, and so John started 28 00:01:44,920 --> 00:01:47,720 Speaker 1: in Missouri, where he found work at a local brickyard. 29 00:01:48,200 --> 00:01:50,400 Speaker 1: It wasn't hat making, but it was honest work, and 30 00:01:50,440 --> 00:01:54,480 Speaker 1: he soon climbed the latter to partial owner of the factory. Unfortunately, 31 00:01:54,560 --> 00:01:57,640 Speaker 1: his luck came crumbling down when a river flood carried 32 00:01:57,680 --> 00:02:01,400 Speaker 1: his dreams and his money out to see. But not 33 00:02:01,440 --> 00:02:04,400 Speaker 1: to worry, a new endeavor was waiting for him out west. 34 00:02:04,800 --> 00:02:08,160 Speaker 1: People were flocking to places like California and Colorado in 35 00:02:08,200 --> 00:02:11,000 Speaker 1: search of gold, and John wasn't about to miss out. 36 00:02:11,400 --> 00:02:14,440 Speaker 1: He traveled to Pike's Peak, Colorado, to hopefully strike it 37 00:02:14,520 --> 00:02:18,560 Speaker 1: rich and return home healthy and wealthy. But he noticed 38 00:02:18,560 --> 00:02:22,320 Speaker 1: a problem with everyone's headwar It was terrible. The de 39 00:02:22,440 --> 00:02:25,640 Speaker 1: facto standard hat that people wore was a coonskin cap, 40 00:02:25,840 --> 00:02:28,920 Speaker 1: much like Davy Crockett, was famous for wearing Sure it 41 00:02:29,040 --> 00:02:31,480 Speaker 1: was warm, a nice feature for gold diggers in the 42 00:02:31,520 --> 00:02:34,160 Speaker 1: Colorado Mountains, but that was all about it had going 43 00:02:34,200 --> 00:02:36,639 Speaker 1: on for it. These hats did not hold up well 44 00:02:36,680 --> 00:02:39,600 Speaker 1: in the rain, and they often smelled horrible. They also 45 00:02:39,680 --> 00:02:42,359 Speaker 1: picked up fleas, and they didn't protect the wearer from 46 00:02:42,400 --> 00:02:45,800 Speaker 1: the harsh western sun. So John, having been a hatter 47 00:02:45,880 --> 00:02:47,920 Speaker 1: and the son of a hatter himself, knew that there 48 00:02:47,960 --> 00:02:49,880 Speaker 1: had to be a better way, and so he got 49 00:02:49,880 --> 00:02:53,359 Speaker 1: to work. He fashioned his new headwear from waterproof felt 50 00:02:53,639 --> 00:02:56,799 Speaker 1: and designed it with a tall, rounded crown as well 51 00:02:56,800 --> 00:03:00,560 Speaker 1: as a much wider brim. One person remarked it kept 52 00:03:00,600 --> 00:03:02,519 Speaker 1: the sun out of your eyes and off your neck. 53 00:03:02,720 --> 00:03:05,120 Speaker 1: It was like an umbrella. And not only that, but 54 00:03:05,240 --> 00:03:07,200 Speaker 1: some people decided that they could use the brim of 55 00:03:07,240 --> 00:03:09,280 Speaker 1: the hat as a fan to either keep the wearer 56 00:03:09,320 --> 00:03:12,960 Speaker 1: cool or even help start fires. John called his creation 57 00:03:13,080 --> 00:03:16,320 Speaker 1: the Boss of the Plains, and it became a sensation, 58 00:03:16,800 --> 00:03:18,800 Speaker 1: so much so that he eventually returned back to the 59 00:03:18,840 --> 00:03:23,160 Speaker 1: East Coast to start his own company. He settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 60 00:03:23,320 --> 00:03:25,680 Speaker 1: a stone's throw from his home state of New Jersey. 61 00:03:25,919 --> 00:03:29,600 Speaker 1: And got to work manufacturing his new popular hats. The 62 00:03:29,919 --> 00:03:32,839 Speaker 1: Boss of the Planes was only the first. Next came 63 00:03:32,880 --> 00:03:35,560 Speaker 1: the Carlsbad, which featured a priest down the center of 64 00:03:35,600 --> 00:03:39,040 Speaker 1: the crown. These two designs came to embody the image 65 00:03:39,080 --> 00:03:42,720 Speaker 1: of the cowboy wrangling cattle in jeans and a wide 66 00:03:42,720 --> 00:03:45,920 Speaker 1: brimmed hat. But John wasn't content changing the face of 67 00:03:45,960 --> 00:03:49,080 Speaker 1: Western clothing. He also wanted to set his company apart 68 00:03:49,120 --> 00:03:52,600 Speaker 1: from others in his industry in ways that benefited his workers, 69 00:03:53,040 --> 00:03:56,040 Speaker 1: especially because people who worked in the hat trade often 70 00:03:56,160 --> 00:03:59,400 Speaker 1: job hopped from one place to another, so he gave 71 00:03:59,440 --> 00:04:02,480 Speaker 1: them benefit such as a building and loan program to 72 00:04:02,520 --> 00:04:05,120 Speaker 1: help them buy their own homes. He built a special 73 00:04:05,160 --> 00:04:08,000 Speaker 1: hospital for workers and their families, and he ran a 74 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:10,800 Speaker 1: softball league that held games during work hours so that 75 00:04:10,880 --> 00:04:14,440 Speaker 1: employees could go blow off some steam on Wednesday afternoons. 76 00:04:14,920 --> 00:04:16,920 Speaker 1: And to make sure his customers knew when they were 77 00:04:16,920 --> 00:04:19,080 Speaker 1: wearing his hats that they were made by his company 78 00:04:19,240 --> 00:04:21,960 Speaker 1: as opposed to cheap knockoffs, he had his full name 79 00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:27,080 Speaker 1: embossed in gold on every headband, John B. Stetson. The 80 00:04:27,200 --> 00:04:29,800 Speaker 1: name Stetson didn't just come to describe a hat made 81 00:04:29,839 --> 00:04:32,520 Speaker 1: by one company. It came to define the style of 82 00:04:32,560 --> 00:04:35,560 Speaker 1: the hat itself, because if it weren't for John Stetson 83 00:04:35,640 --> 00:04:39,480 Speaker 1: and his Western adventure, the world might never have gotten 84 00:04:40,160 --> 00:04:56,839 Speaker 1: the cowboy hat. According to the old adage, the clothes 85 00:04:56,960 --> 00:04:59,400 Speaker 1: make the man. In other words, people are judged by 86 00:04:59,400 --> 00:05:01,680 Speaker 1: what they wear. If you want to be taken seriously 87 00:05:01,680 --> 00:05:03,440 Speaker 1: at a bank, for example, you might want to put 88 00:05:03,480 --> 00:05:06,080 Speaker 1: on a suit or some sort of businesswar leave the 89 00:05:06,240 --> 00:05:09,200 Speaker 1: shorts and the T shirt at home. But Jewles didn't 90 00:05:09,240 --> 00:05:12,600 Speaker 1: work at a bank. His occupation was a bit more unusual, 91 00:05:12,839 --> 00:05:15,640 Speaker 1: and his contribution to the world left very little to 92 00:05:15,680 --> 00:05:19,039 Speaker 1: the imagination. Jewles was born in to Lose, France, in 93 00:05:19,080 --> 00:05:22,839 Speaker 1: eighteen thirty eight. Despite his father being a gymnastics teacher 94 00:05:22,880 --> 00:05:25,960 Speaker 1: and local swimming pool owner, Jewles decided to pursue a 95 00:05:26,040 --> 00:05:28,479 Speaker 1: much different line of work. As he got older, he 96 00:05:28,560 --> 00:05:31,800 Speaker 1: wanted to become a lawyer. He attended university, earned his 97 00:05:31,839 --> 00:05:34,919 Speaker 1: degree and even passed his legal exams, doing all the 98 00:05:35,000 --> 00:05:39,120 Speaker 1: necessary work to practice law in France. But then something changed. 99 00:05:39,560 --> 00:05:44,360 Speaker 1: He started developing other interests, more acrobatic interests. He liked 100 00:05:44,400 --> 00:05:46,800 Speaker 1: working out at his father's gym, where he gained a 101 00:05:46,800 --> 00:05:49,240 Speaker 1: lot of skill on the rings and the parallel bars. 102 00:05:49,560 --> 00:05:52,360 Speaker 1: One day he hung a bar from the gymnasium ceiling 103 00:05:52,400 --> 00:05:55,200 Speaker 1: by a pair of ropes. The result was a parallel 104 00:05:55,200 --> 00:05:58,400 Speaker 1: bar that could swing over his father's pool. This new 105 00:05:58,440 --> 00:06:01,880 Speaker 1: invention would eventually come to be known as a trap ease. 106 00:06:02,880 --> 00:06:05,640 Speaker 1: Jewels law career was over before it had even started. 107 00:06:05,800 --> 00:06:07,320 Speaker 1: There was no way that he could sit at a 108 00:06:07,360 --> 00:06:09,960 Speaker 1: desk all day in an uncomfortable suit when he could 109 00:06:10,000 --> 00:06:12,799 Speaker 1: instead fly through the air with the greatest of ease. 110 00:06:13,320 --> 00:06:15,599 Speaker 1: If that line sounds familiar, that's because it comes from 111 00:06:15,600 --> 00:06:18,760 Speaker 1: the eighteen sixty seven song The Daring young Man on 112 00:06:18,800 --> 00:06:23,320 Speaker 1: the Flying Trapeze by George Laybourne, a song written about Jewels. 113 00:06:23,400 --> 00:06:26,080 Speaker 1: At the height of his popularity, you see, he became 114 00:06:26,200 --> 00:06:29,680 Speaker 1: quite the celebrity after joining the SIRC Napoleon, where he 115 00:06:29,800 --> 00:06:33,080 Speaker 1: debuted his flying trapeze routine on November twelfth of eighteen 116 00:06:33,200 --> 00:06:36,000 Speaker 1: fifty nine. But that wasn't the only thing he showed off. 117 00:06:36,320 --> 00:06:39,159 Speaker 1: He also wore a relatively unknown piece of clothing that 118 00:06:39,240 --> 00:06:42,040 Speaker 1: allowed him a wide range of motion, which he called 119 00:06:42,080 --> 00:06:46,039 Speaker 1: a mayo. It was a sleeveless, tight fitting one piece 120 00:06:46,080 --> 00:06:49,080 Speaker 1: that covered his legs down to his mid thigh as 121 00:06:49,080 --> 00:06:51,680 Speaker 1: well as his mid section. A deep u in the 122 00:06:51,720 --> 00:06:55,279 Speaker 1: front highlighted his chest while his muscular arms could move 123 00:06:55,360 --> 00:06:58,640 Speaker 1: without hinderance, and it was cinched in the middle with 124 00:06:58,680 --> 00:07:02,000 Speaker 1: a tight belt ring. In his first performance, Jewles jumped 125 00:07:02,000 --> 00:07:05,320 Speaker 1: from one trapeze to another and executed a somersault in 126 00:07:05,400 --> 00:07:08,159 Speaker 1: mid air, and most daring of all, he did it 127 00:07:08,200 --> 00:07:10,640 Speaker 1: all without the aid of a safety net below him. 128 00:07:11,160 --> 00:07:14,360 Speaker 1: Back then, all he had to break his fall were mattresses, 129 00:07:14,680 --> 00:07:18,000 Speaker 1: which were arranged on the ground under his performance area. 130 00:07:18,840 --> 00:07:22,880 Speaker 1: Everyone from the audience to his fellow circus performers couldn't 131 00:07:22,880 --> 00:07:26,480 Speaker 1: believe their eyes. Jeweles had seemingly done the impossible, and 132 00:07:26,600 --> 00:07:28,800 Speaker 1: two years later he took his show on the road 133 00:07:28,840 --> 00:07:31,800 Speaker 1: to London, where he performed at the Alhambra Music Hall. 134 00:07:32,320 --> 00:07:35,559 Speaker 1: His death defying feats earn him a massive salary about 135 00:07:35,640 --> 00:07:38,720 Speaker 1: five thousand pounds a week by today's standards, but they 136 00:07:38,760 --> 00:07:40,840 Speaker 1: didn't have him performing on a stage or in a 137 00:07:40,880 --> 00:07:43,960 Speaker 1: special area of the arena. He flew from trapeze to 138 00:07:44,040 --> 00:07:47,800 Speaker 1: trapeze directly over the heads of people eating their meals below. 139 00:07:48,440 --> 00:07:51,280 Speaker 1: Jeweles became a rising star in London, where he ended 140 00:07:51,360 --> 00:07:53,760 Speaker 1: up spending a lot of time over the next several years, 141 00:07:54,160 --> 00:07:56,120 Speaker 1: but he didn't know that he was not long for 142 00:07:56,200 --> 00:07:59,200 Speaker 1: this world, and sadly, he passed away of an infectious 143 00:07:59,240 --> 00:08:02,080 Speaker 1: disease in eighteen seventy, when he was only twenty eight 144 00:08:02,160 --> 00:08:06,920 Speaker 1: years old. Historians believe it was possibly smallpox. But don't 145 00:08:06,960 --> 00:08:09,720 Speaker 1: be too sad. What Jewels contributed to the world is 146 00:08:09,760 --> 00:08:12,720 Speaker 1: still around today, and I'm not just talking about his song. 147 00:08:13,040 --> 00:08:16,960 Speaker 1: The trapeze, for example, is still used in circus performances now, 148 00:08:17,400 --> 00:08:20,320 Speaker 1: but so is his special performance garment. It took a 149 00:08:20,360 --> 00:08:23,080 Speaker 1: number of years before his name became synonymous with it, 150 00:08:23,560 --> 00:08:27,240 Speaker 1: but pretty soon many other professions adopted his skin tight 151 00:08:27,280 --> 00:08:31,160 Speaker 1: outfit for their own purposes. The materials have certainly changed, 152 00:08:31,400 --> 00:08:35,320 Speaker 1: but its basic form and purpose have remained consistent. From 153 00:08:35,360 --> 00:08:39,240 Speaker 1: ballet dancers to aerobics instructors, to gymnasts and everyone else, 154 00:08:39,520 --> 00:08:43,240 Speaker 1: the special clothing worn by Jules Leotard is still a 155 00:08:43,280 --> 00:08:51,880 Speaker 1: popular option for athletes all over the world. I hope 156 00:08:51,880 --> 00:08:55,199 Speaker 1: you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. 157 00:08:55,559 --> 00:08:58,640 Speaker 1: Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about 158 00:08:58,640 --> 00:09:03,200 Speaker 1: the show by visiting Curiosities Podcast dot com. The show 159 00:09:03,440 --> 00:09:06,679 Speaker 1: was created by me, Aaron Mankey in partnership with how 160 00:09:06,760 --> 00:09:10,360 Speaker 1: Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, 161 00:09:10,600 --> 00:09:14,200 Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show and 162 00:09:14,280 --> 00:09:16,880 Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at the Worldoflore 163 00:09:17,160 --> 00:09:21,400 Speaker 1: dot com. And until next time, stay curious.