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Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Menkey's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of

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Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is

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Speaker 1: full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,

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Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,

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Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet

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Speaker 1: of Curiosities. When we think of people who shape music

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Speaker 1: as we know it, you might think of names like

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Speaker 1: Paul McCartney, Freddie Mercury or Bob Dylan. Every generation has

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Speaker 1: a handful of artists who move the needle and push

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Speaker 1: music forward. David Bowie, Eddie van Halen, Johnny Cash, Dave Grohl. Honestly,

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Speaker 1: whatever your style, I'm sure a few names come to mind.

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Speaker 1: And then there are the inventions, the gadgets that changed

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Speaker 1: the way we experienced music, which all started with Thomas

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Speaker 1: Edison and the phonograph and the first recorded song heard

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Speaker 1: on the device, Mary had a little lamb. But there's

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Speaker 1: another innovator, and while you've probably heard what he's written,

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Speaker 1: the chances are good you don't know his name. Meet

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Speaker 1: Guido Aretinas, a Benedictine monk born in France over a

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Speaker 1: thousand years ago, sometime in the mid nine nineties, and

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Speaker 1: like most creators and masterminds throughout history, he had a

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Speaker 1: problem to solve. The problem was chanting. You see, at

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Speaker 1: the time, composers of sacred music had never written down

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Speaker 1: their musical creations. Instead, the monks memorized music and taught

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Speaker 1: others through practice. As you might imagine, passing a song

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Speaker 1: down from generation to generation, or even from one monastery

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Speaker 1: to another, was like passing down a story in that

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Speaker 1: old telephone game. Naturally, that led to a lot of changes.

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Speaker 1: I can only imagine what that sounded like. Different monks

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Speaker 1: with various voices and pitches. Is chanting sacred music in

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Speaker 1: different ways. As the choir director, performances for holidays or

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Speaker 1: mass had to have been rather stressful. Sure, while the

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Speaker 1: words had been written down in manuscripts, how to sing

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Speaker 1: them had not, and that bothered Brother Guido so much

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Speaker 1: so that he set out to change how music was taught,

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Speaker 1: which got him kicked out of the monastery. He joined another, though,

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Speaker 1: this time at the monastery and Pomposa near Ferrara, Italy.

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Speaker 1: Their brother Guido was free to work on his new

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Speaker 1: method and teach it to the other monks and it worked.

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Speaker 1: In five short months, his students learned what had taken

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Speaker 1: years for others to comprehend before long. Word of the

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Speaker 1: monk's accomplishments and success spread across Italy, and once again,

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Speaker 1: after his brothers became jealous, he found himself kicked out

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Speaker 1: on the proverbial streets. But along with teaching, the monk

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Speaker 1: had also been writing too, and one piece on the

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Speaker 1: discipline of musical art caught in one other than the

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Speaker 1: Pope's attention, who requested a demo in straution. It clearly

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Speaker 1: went well. Guido was asked to stay in Rome and

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Speaker 1: teach his new ideas about music while he was there,

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Speaker 1: but sadly, the climate of Rome didn't agree with his health,

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Speaker 1: and the monk returned to Pomposa for a while before

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Speaker 1: moving to yet another monastery, where he eventually became the prior.

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Speaker 1: Little is known of his fate after that, though, but

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Speaker 1: what did survive were two things, the staff notations that

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Speaker 1: we use today and his clever melody teaching device. You see,

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Speaker 1: Guido's educational tool had to do with the tonal scale.

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Speaker 1: As he saw singers were more likely to learn and

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Speaker 1: remember songs if they could associate the sound with scale notations.

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Speaker 1: Each note had a corresponding tone. It's called palmization or

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Speaker 1: sulphage if you're feeling particularly Italian. The way brother Guido

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Speaker 1: built it is that each note starts higher than the

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Speaker 1: previous one. And if you've ever had piano or singing lessons,

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Speaker 1: you've probably played and sang it until you could do

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Speaker 1: it in your sleep. But rather than fade away over time,

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Speaker 1: it has only grown in popularity. Centuries later, Rogers and

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Speaker 1: Hammerstein created the stage play that went on to become

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Speaker 1: the musical film The Sound of Music, where actress Julie

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Speaker 1: Andrews teaches children to sing in the Austrian countryside, and

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Speaker 1: Guido's teaching tool is right there. Eight seemingly nonsensical words

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Speaker 1: that have become the bedrock of musical education. Don't ray

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Speaker 1: me bass so la t do. Everybody needs a little

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Speaker 1: help every now and then, someone to guide them in

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Speaker 1: the right direction, to give them a boost. Edward Joseph

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Speaker 1: was the kind of guy to do exactly that, and

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Speaker 1: even if it meant aiding unknown criminal. Edward was a

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Speaker 1: lawyer from St. Louis, Missouri, in the nineties. In his

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Speaker 1: spare time, he ran several dog racing tracks in these

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Speaker 1: around the country, and fancied himself an aviation enthusiast. He

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Speaker 1: flew as often as he could, delivering airmail and allowing

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Speaker 1: his teenage son Butch to act as his copilot from

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Speaker 1: time to time. Now Butch was a smart boy, but

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Speaker 1: he lacked ambition, so his father sent him to a

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Speaker 1: military academy in Illinois, hoping to break all the bad,

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Speaker 1: lazy habits Butch had begun to develop. Meanwhile, Edward was

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Speaker 1: getting ready to begin a new chapter in his life.

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Speaker 1: In n he divorced Butch's mother, Selma, and moved to Chicago,

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Speaker 1: and it was there that he met an up and

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Speaker 1: coming entrepreneur named al Al Capone, who took the flying

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Speaker 1: lawyer under his wing. The two men went into business together,

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Speaker 1: with Edward earning himself the nickname Easy Eddie. He was

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Speaker 1: skilled at keeping Capone out of jail, and in return

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Speaker 1: for those services, the mobster made sure Eddie was well

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Speaker 1: taken care of, setting him up in a big house

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Speaker 1: and making sure all his needs were met. And Eddie,

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Speaker 1: who had been turning a blind eye to Capone's more

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Speaker 1: violent activities, made sure his son Butch also reaped the

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Speaker 1: rewards of his labor. He tried to be a good

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Speaker 1: father to his son and kept him on a righteous

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Speaker 1: path despite his own moral failings. After all, Butch was

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Speaker 1: supposed to turn out better than his dad. Unfortunately, by

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Speaker 1: nineteen thirty, the years of extortion and murder had finally

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Speaker 1: taken their toll on easy Eddie. He couldn't stand back

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Speaker 1: and let such atrocities happen while preaching the difference between

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Speaker 1: right and wrong to his son. Knowing the I R.

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Speaker 1: S Was building a case against Capon for tax evasion,

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Speaker 1: he reached out to the agents and put them in

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Speaker 1: touch with his boss's bookkeeper. Together, they managed to put

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Speaker 1: big Al away for almost eight years, but the gangster

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Speaker 1: eventually got his revenge on the man who had betrayed him.

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Speaker 1: The week before Capone's release from prison, two men pulled

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Speaker 1: up alongside Edward at a busy Chicago intersection. They fired

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Speaker 1: shotgun blasts into his car, killing him on the spot.

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Speaker 1: As his nineteen thirty nine Lincoln Zephyr rolled off and crashed,

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Speaker 1: The gunman sped away, never to be seen again. In Butch,

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Speaker 1: mourning the death of his father, took the man's lessons

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Speaker 1: to heart. He had inherited his love of flying and

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Speaker 1: became a decorated Navy pilot. During World War Two. He

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Speaker 1: earned a Medal of Honor for his actions in Papua

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Speaker 1: New Guinea. Butch managed to shoot down three mitsubisheep bombers

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Speaker 1: otherwise known as Betty's that had targeted the U. S. S.

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Speaker 1: Lexington aircraft carrier. He had saved the Lexington from being

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Speaker 1: badly damaged and sinking into the Pacific. Upon returning home

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Speaker 1: to St. Louis, Butch was thrown a parade in which

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Speaker 1: he wore his Medal of Honor for everyone to see,

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Speaker 1: and then he continued to fight lying dangerous missions against

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Speaker 1: the Japanese until his death in nine He was killed

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Speaker 1: during a nighttime combat run. He had been behind the

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Speaker 1: controls of a hell Cat fighter plane when it was

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Speaker 1: taken out by friendly crossfire. It fell into the sea,

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Speaker 1: and neither the plane nor Butch were ever found again.

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Speaker 1: His service was recognized at the end of the war

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Speaker 1: with a Navy US posthumously awarded to him by the

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Speaker 1: President of the United States. In ninety five, a Navy

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Speaker 1: destroyer was named after him as well, but it was

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Speaker 1: Colonel Robert R. McCormick. Who ultimately solidified Butch's legacy for

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Speaker 1: decades to come. You see, McCormick was the editor of

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Speaker 1: the Chicago Tribune and believed that the late pilot should

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Speaker 1: be honored in a much larger way. Thanks to his influence,

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Speaker 1: Chicago's Orchard Depot Airport was renamed in nineteen to honor

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Speaker 1: Butch or should I say Edward Butch. O'Hare that's right.

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Speaker 1: The son of a mobster turned decorated war hero is

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Speaker 1: the name behind one of the busiest airports in the country,

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Speaker 1: O'Hare International. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of

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Speaker 1: the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast

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Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky

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Speaker 1: in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award

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Speaker 1: winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series,

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Speaker 1: and television show, and you can learn all about it

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Speaker 1: over at the World of Lore dot com. And until

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Speaker 1: next time, stay curious. Yeah,