Don't Look Now

Were you aware that the Nutcracker Ballet was not much of a hit when first performed in 1892 in St. Petersburg, Russia?  While the music was well received, the ballet itself was not an instant fan favorite.  It didn't grow to high popularity until the 1940s when it began to take off in the United States.  Over the years it has become a quintessential part of the Christmas season in America.  Come take a listen and see how and why it took off.

On June 18th, 1875 a warehouse full of thousands of casks of whiskey caught fire in the Liberties area of Dublin causing a river of flaming whiskey to pour down the streets, often up to six inches deep.  While the fire did a great deal of damage, it most regrettably caused the deaths of 13 people.  However, none died from the effects of the fire itself.  They instead died of acute alcohol poisoning from drinking too much from the flood of whiskey they found.

Today's podcast is about a divorce case in New York that took place 100 years ago. Kip Rhinelander, the heir to a prominent New York Family, secretly married Alice Jones, a working class girl.  While this would normally draw the ire of his family the situation became national news when rumors began to spread that the new bride was "colored" and not "white".  This kicked off a media firestorm that led to a trial with the Rhinelander family attempting to annul the marriage on the grounds of Alice having fraudulently misrepresented herself as "white" to Kip.  The trail came at the height of the eugenics movement and the creation of anti-miscegenation laws like Virginia's Racial Integrity Act that prevented interracial marriages, making the trial national news across the country. 

This week we discuss the holiday season's most famous bright spot: Christmas Lights.  Decorating trees, houses, shopping malls, and making up vast displays; Christmas lights are a staple of the holiday season.  When did electric lights on objects become a thing?  Take a listen and learn about the origin of the light and when they became a mainstay of the US holiday season. 

This week's podcast in on Cesare Lombroso, an Italian anthropologist and criminologist that had the unfortunate assertation that criminality was inherited and could be directly identified through physical traits.  While we now know that some congenital abnormalities can affect brain function and lead to psychological issues, most of Lombroso's assertations have been proven wrong.  The most unfortunate aspect of Lombroso's ideas was the inherent racism at the root of many of the ideas of what made someone physically, and thus mentally primitive. This led to a lot of the ideas later being adopted by the fascists and their thoughts of racial supremacy.  While the ideas were incorrect and often hurtful, ironically a lot was learned over the years in proving them wrong.

While the Candyman movies involve a mysterious paranormal murderer that can be summoned thought the bathroom mirror stalking the projects of Chicago, they are based on a true story.  Today's podcast discusses the bizarre details surrounding the murder of Ruthie Mae McCoy who was killed in her apartment in the ABLA housing project of Chicago's Near-West Side. McCoy's killer/killers entered her apartment though her bathroom medicine cabinet, crawling through from the vacant apartment next door by taking advantage of a hole created to access piping between apartments. 

This week's episode tells the story of Elmer McCurdy, a not too successful bandit of the old west who was eventually killed in Oklahoma in 1911.  However, McCurdy's story didn't end then.  After being embalmed, no one wanted to pay for his burial, and he went on display at the funeral home.  Elmer's desiccated eventually toured the United States in various ways until it was forgotten that he was actually a real person and not a wax figure.  The truth of his identity wasn't discovered until the 1970's when he was discovered while filming a TV episode in an amusement park dark ride.  Take a listen and find out all about Elmer, who's like only got more interesting after he was dead.

We're back after a one week hiatus with stories of the bizarre area where the law and ghosts overlap.  We have two stories this week: the first where the testimony of a ghost is officially admitted as evidence in a trial, and the second where a house is declared legally haunted.  Take a listen and see just how ghosts and our legal system have intermingled.

Have you ever wondered where the tradition of the pumpkin patch came from?  Today, every Halloween season, we have active pumpkin patches on farms that have not just the obligatory pumpkins for sale, but giant slides, corn mazes, hay rack rides, and hundreds of other random activities to attract families to spend their time and money.  On today's podcast we look at the history of the pumpkin patch and how it changed from small patches grown by the native peoples of North America into the large industry it is today.

Today's episode is dedicated to the debate about who the childhood scare game "Blood Mary" takes its inspiration from.  Is it Queen Mary of England, a legendary witch, or a Balkan Countess.  Since we are talking about Bloody Marys it's only fitting we spend some time talking about the origin of the drink as well, which is also shrouded in mystery.  

This week we have multiple stories of cryptids from around the US.  There's always a fun story of the local creepy monster or legend to make kids out camping rethink their decisions when they wake up in the middle of the night.  This week we have everything from Sink Hold Sam to the Pope Lick Monster. Take a listen and learn about some of the more strange local legends both whimsical and sinister.

My apologies for the late podcast this week... the blue screen of death reared its ugly head, but the computer issues are now fixed and the podcast is finally posted.Our topic this week is Amelia Elizabeth Hobley-Dyer, the Ogress of Reading.  A woman who made money "caring" for children of unwed mothers in Victorian England.  Unfortunately, this often meant her killing the children and pocketing the money from the poor women who paid her to take them in. 

Where did the people of Scotland come from?  The Picts were living in Scotland when the Romans arrived but where did they come from and who did they descend from?  Theorys abound: from home grown stories of them descending from an Egyptian queen to more conventional crossings of the Irish Sea by Gaelic peoples.  Take a listen and see what you think.

The ornate eggs that Faberge made for the imperial family of Russia are famous around the world. 52 eggs were made for the imperial family, and the majority of these are still around today, on display around the world in various collections.  However, some of the eggs are still missing and have from time to time been found in the strangest of places.  Take a listen, maybe you'll be the next to come across a long lost egg.

Daniel Dunglas Home (pronounced Hume) was a medium of the mid 19th century that gained fame in both Europe and the US for his ability to levitate and move objects during seances.  He became one of the most famous mediums of the spiritualist movement and had many high profile believers and doubters including Arthur Conan Doyle as a prominent believer and the poet Robert Browning as a prominent detractor. 

The concept of a Wendigo, a malevolent spirt that can cause someone to become an insatiable cannibal is a part of Algonquin Folklore that is both part cryptid and part culture-bound syndrome.  While the concept has entered the vernacular of the western world with horror movies and stories depicting it, it stems from the Algonquin culture where the threat of starvation in the winter woods was a very real thing.  The tales help to steer society away from greed and account for the potentially very real possibility of resorting to cannibalism in times of extreme need.  Take a listen as we discuss the legend of the Wendigo.

This week's topic is the life of Margaret Brown, better known as The Unsinkable Molly Brown in mostly fictionalized accounts after her death.  Margaret was born in Hannibal, Missouri about 30 years after Mark Twain.  She is famed for her activism in social causes and for surviving the sinking of the titanic.  Take a listen and find out more about her facinating life.

Today's podcast is about one of the more light-hearted cryptids out there.  The mysterious jackalope, seen mounted on many walls but not often in the wild.  Take a listen and find out about this icon of the great plains.

Today's podcast has two topics: the miraculous staircase of the Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe, New Mexico and the vampires of New Orleans.  Both of which are linked, oddly enough, by their relationship to nuns.  

Andrew Cunanan was a serial murderer that killed five people during a crazed spree in 1997.  His most famous and final victim, other than himself, was Gianni Versace, the famed clothing designer.  What drove him to do what he did?  Listen in and see what you think.