Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Menkey's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
Speaker 1: full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. When we think of people who shape music
Speaker 1: as we know it, you might think of names like
Speaker 1: Paul McCartney, Freddie Mercury or Bob Dylan. Every generation has
Speaker 1: a handful of artists who move the needle and push
Speaker 1: music forward. David Bowie, Eddie van Halen, Johnny Cash, Dave Grohl. Honestly,
Speaker 1: whatever your style, I'm sure a few names come to mind.
Speaker 1: And then there are the inventions, the gadgets that changed
Speaker 1: the way we experienced music, which all started with Thomas
Speaker 1: Edison and the phonograph and the first recorded song heard
Speaker 1: on the device, Mary had a little lamb. But there's
Speaker 1: another innovator, and while you've probably heard what he's written,
Speaker 1: the chances are good you don't know his name. Meet
Speaker 1: Guido Aretinas, a Benedictine monk born in France over a
Speaker 1: thousand years ago, sometime in the mid nine nineties, and
Speaker 1: like most creators and masterminds throughout history, he had a
Speaker 1: problem to solve. The problem was chanting. You see, at
Speaker 1: the time, composers of sacred music had never written down
Speaker 1: their musical creations. Instead, the monks memorized music and taught
Speaker 1: others through practice. As you might imagine, passing a song
Speaker 1: down from generation to generation, or even from one monastery
Speaker 1: to another, was like passing down a story in that
Speaker 1: old telephone game. Naturally, that led to a lot of changes.
Speaker 1: I can only imagine what that sounded like. Different monks
Speaker 1: with various voices and pitches. Is chanting sacred music in
Speaker 1: different ways. As the choir director, performances for holidays or
Speaker 1: mass had to have been rather stressful. Sure, while the
Speaker 1: words had been written down in manuscripts, how to sing
Speaker 1: them had not, and that bothered Brother Guido so much
Speaker 1: so that he set out to change how music was taught,
Speaker 1: which got him kicked out of the monastery. He joined another, though,
Speaker 1: this time at the monastery and Pomposa near Ferrara, Italy.
Speaker 1: Their brother Guido was free to work on his new
Speaker 1: method and teach it to the other monks and it worked.
Speaker 1: In five short months, his students learned what had taken
Speaker 1: years for others to comprehend before long. Word of the
Speaker 1: monk's accomplishments and success spread across Italy, and once again,
Speaker 1: after his brothers became jealous, he found himself kicked out
Speaker 1: on the proverbial streets. But along with teaching, the monk
Speaker 1: had also been writing too, and one piece on the
Speaker 1: discipline of musical art caught in one other than the
Speaker 1: Pope's attention, who requested a demo in straution. It clearly
Speaker 1: went well. Guido was asked to stay in Rome and
Speaker 1: teach his new ideas about music while he was there,
Speaker 1: but sadly, the climate of Rome didn't agree with his health,
Speaker 1: and the monk returned to Pomposa for a while before
Speaker 1: moving to yet another monastery, where he eventually became the prior.
Speaker 1: Little is known of his fate after that, though, but
Speaker 1: what did survive were two things, the staff notations that
Speaker 1: we use today and his clever melody teaching device. You see,
Speaker 1: Guido's educational tool had to do with the tonal scale.
Speaker 1: As he saw singers were more likely to learn and
Speaker 1: remember songs if they could associate the sound with scale notations.
Speaker 1: Each note had a corresponding tone. It's called palmization or
Speaker 1: sulphage if you're feeling particularly Italian. The way brother Guido
Speaker 1: built it is that each note starts higher than the
Speaker 1: previous one. And if you've ever had piano or singing lessons,
Speaker 1: you've probably played and sang it until you could do
Speaker 1: it in your sleep. But rather than fade away over time,
Speaker 1: it has only grown in popularity. Centuries later, Rogers and
Speaker 1: Hammerstein created the stage play that went on to become
Speaker 1: the musical film The Sound of Music, where actress Julie
Speaker 1: Andrews teaches children to sing in the Austrian countryside, and
Speaker 1: Guido's teaching tool is right there. Eight seemingly nonsensical words
Speaker 1: that have become the bedrock of musical education. Don't ray
Speaker 1: me bass so la t do. Everybody needs a little
Speaker 1: help every now and then, someone to guide them in
Speaker 1: the right direction, to give them a boost. Edward Joseph
Speaker 1: was the kind of guy to do exactly that, and
Speaker 1: even if it meant aiding unknown criminal. Edward was a
Speaker 1: lawyer from St. Louis, Missouri, in the nineties. In his
Speaker 1: spare time, he ran several dog racing tracks in these
Speaker 1: around the country, and fancied himself an aviation enthusiast. He
Speaker 1: flew as often as he could, delivering airmail and allowing
Speaker 1: his teenage son Butch to act as his copilot from
Speaker 1: time to time. Now Butch was a smart boy, but
Speaker 1: he lacked ambition, so his father sent him to a
Speaker 1: military academy in Illinois, hoping to break all the bad,
Speaker 1: lazy habits Butch had begun to develop. Meanwhile, Edward was
Speaker 1: getting ready to begin a new chapter in his life.
Speaker 1: In n he divorced Butch's mother, Selma, and moved to Chicago,
Speaker 1: and it was there that he met an up and
Speaker 1: coming entrepreneur named al Al Capone, who took the flying
Speaker 1: lawyer under his wing. The two men went into business together,
Speaker 1: with Edward earning himself the nickname Easy Eddie. He was
Speaker 1: skilled at keeping Capone out of jail, and in return
Speaker 1: for those services, the mobster made sure Eddie was well
Speaker 1: taken care of, setting him up in a big house
Speaker 1: and making sure all his needs were met. And Eddie,
Speaker 1: who had been turning a blind eye to Capone's more
Speaker 1: violent activities, made sure his son Butch also reaped the
Speaker 1: rewards of his labor. He tried to be a good
Speaker 1: father to his son and kept him on a righteous
Speaker 1: path despite his own moral failings. After all, Butch was
Speaker 1: supposed to turn out better than his dad. Unfortunately, by
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty, the years of extortion and murder had finally
Speaker 1: taken their toll on easy Eddie. He couldn't stand back
Speaker 1: and let such atrocities happen while preaching the difference between
Speaker 1: right and wrong to his son. Knowing the I R.
Speaker 1: S Was building a case against Capon for tax evasion,
Speaker 1: he reached out to the agents and put them in
Speaker 1: touch with his boss's bookkeeper. Together, they managed to put
Speaker 1: big Al away for almost eight years, but the gangster
Speaker 1: eventually got his revenge on the man who had betrayed him.
Speaker 1: The week before Capone's release from prison, two men pulled
Speaker 1: up alongside Edward at a busy Chicago intersection. They fired
Speaker 1: shotgun blasts into his car, killing him on the spot.
Speaker 1: As his nineteen thirty nine Lincoln Zephyr rolled off and crashed,
Speaker 1: The gunman sped away, never to be seen again. In Butch,
Speaker 1: mourning the death of his father, took the man's lessons
Speaker 1: to heart. He had inherited his love of flying and
Speaker 1: became a decorated Navy pilot. During World War Two. He
Speaker 1: earned a Medal of Honor for his actions in Papua
Speaker 1: New Guinea. Butch managed to shoot down three mitsubisheep bombers
Speaker 1: otherwise known as Betty's that had targeted the U. S. S.
Speaker 1: Lexington aircraft carrier. He had saved the Lexington from being
Speaker 1: badly damaged and sinking into the Pacific. Upon returning home
Speaker 1: to St. Louis, Butch was thrown a parade in which
Speaker 1: he wore his Medal of Honor for everyone to see,
Speaker 1: and then he continued to fight lying dangerous missions against
Speaker 1: the Japanese until his death in nine He was killed
Speaker 1: during a nighttime combat run. He had been behind the
Speaker 1: controls of a hell Cat fighter plane when it was
Speaker 1: taken out by friendly crossfire. It fell into the sea,
Speaker 1: and neither the plane nor Butch were ever found again.
Speaker 1: His service was recognized at the end of the war
Speaker 1: with a Navy US posthumously awarded to him by the
Speaker 1: President of the United States. In ninety five, a Navy
Speaker 1: destroyer was named after him as well, but it was
Speaker 1: Colonel Robert R. McCormick. Who ultimately solidified Butch's legacy for
Speaker 1: decades to come. You see, McCormick was the editor of
Speaker 1: the Chicago Tribune and believed that the late pilot should
Speaker 1: be honored in a much larger way. Thanks to his influence,
Speaker 1: Chicago's Orchard Depot Airport was renamed in nineteen to honor
Speaker 1: Butch or should I say Edward Butch. O'Hare that's right.
Speaker 1: The son of a mobster turned decorated war hero is
Speaker 1: the name behind one of the busiest airports in the country,
Speaker 1: O'Hare International. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of
Speaker 1: the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky
Speaker 1: in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award
Speaker 1: winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series,
Speaker 1: and television show, and you can learn all about it
Speaker 1: over at the World of Lore dot com. And until
Speaker 1: next time, stay curious. Yeah,