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Saint Augustine of Hippo 354 - 430

Samuel "Mark Twain" Clemens: 1835 - 1910

SOLVED! Historical Mysteries

SOLVED! Historical Mysteries

Weird History Strange Facts

 

Weird History Fun Facts

 

Bill Gaines, First Amendment Hero

In the 1950's, it wasn't easy to stand out from the crowd. McCarthyism in the United States was causing trouble for anyone who had a different point of view. One easy target was the comic book industry. While many adults read comic books, the prevailing opinion at the time was that comics were for children. This opened them up to scrutiny.

Some of the creepiest comics came from EC Publications. Published by William Gaines, the comic book series was often the most gruesomely entertaining. Since his operation was much smaller, he was a bigger target for blustering politicians eager to make a name for themselves. Unlike the big companies who rolled over, William Gaines was willing to fight.

 

Citing the first amendment, Gaines took on the challenge, testifying before a senate committee, pushing the idea that he had a right to print whatever he wanted- and his customers had a right to read them.

"What are we afraid of? Are we afraid of our own children? Do we forget that they are citizens, too, and entitled to select what to read or do? Do we think our children are so evil, so simple minded, that it takes a story of murder to set them to murder, a story of robbery to set them to robbery? Jimmy Walker once remarked that he never knew a girl to be ruined by a book. Nobody has ever been ruined by a comic."

-William Gaines

Sadly, his defense would fall on deaf ears. Eager to make the problem go away, the major publishers setup the Comic Book Authority, a self censoring group. Rules were setup to specifically target EC Publications. While he would be heralded in the future as a visionary man who stood up for freedom of speech, that wasn't enough to pay the bills in the 1950's. His last remaining profitable title was a rather strange comic named Mad.

 

With the assistance of Harvey Kurtzman, Gaines abandoned the comic book version of the title and turned it into a magazine that would not have to adhere to the rules of the Comic Book Code. History was made.

 

While the satirical magazine would still find its detractors, it became legendary in the world of humor, inspiring many comedy legends who grew up reading it. Mr. Gaines' stature would rise once people appreciated his defense of the USA's First Amendment.

 

Mr. Gaines would pass away in 1992, but his principles and humor would inspire generations of smartasses.

Doritos?

 

Weird History Facts

 

WWII Strange Facts

 

Medieval History 101

 

Weird History Strange Facts

 

Weird History Fun Facts

 

Hollywood in California

Why is the entertainment industry centered in Southern California? It wasn't always the case. In fact, the original center of filmmaking was in New Jersey. After all, that's where the inventor of the first film camera lived- Thomas Edison.

 

Despite his legendary reputation, however, Edison was a bit of a greedy jerk. He didn't want to sell his cameras outright. He wanted to lease them, collecting a royalty for each film production that used one of his cameras. This made most filmmaking unprofitable. The early film studios, faced with extinction, decided to go as far away from New Jersey (and Edison's patents) as possible while still staying in the United States. That ended up being Southern California, whose temperate weather was just icing on the cake.

 

William Wrigley's Island of Romance

Located just 22 miles away from Los Angeles, (Not 26 as the song might have you believe) Catalina Island has been an island paradise located just a boat ride away from one of the world's largest cities for 100 years. Prior to the 1900's, the island was owned by someone you've heard about before- James Lick. Mr. Lick was seemingly not too interested in developing the island. After he passed away, his estate sold the island to a succession of developers who tried to develop it as a tourist attraction with little success.

 

Eventually the island attracted the attention of chewing gum magnate William Wrigley, who ended up buying most of the island. He was hugely successful at turning the island into a tourist attraction, hosting millions of people each year.

 

Eventually, the Wrigley family chose to put most of the island's land into a conservancy and runs the public areas as an exciting vacation destination, offering day trips and overnight stays to tourists and locals alike.

 

Notorious Homes: The Holmes Murder Castle

Before the turn of the century, it was not unheard of for family members to disappear seemingly without a trace. With limited transportation and communications options, travelers who decided to go on vacation and stay in their new town might not be heard from for years.

That's why nobody suspected anything when visitors to Chicago's 1893 World's Fair disappeared. It was assumed that they just found a new home in Chicago and would eventually turn up again; newly married or established in an exciting career. That was true for most people, though not for those who wandered into HH Holmes' Murder Castle.

 

HH Holmes was a sketchy businessman who built a perplexing 'castle' an easy walk away from the fabulous World's Fair. The building featured a drug store on the ground level and a bustling hotel above. HH Holmes found many tourists who were willing to pay top dollar for his conveniently located hotel rooms. Sadly, many of those people would never check out.

 

Holmes took advantage of the transient nature of the fair to hook his victims. His total murder count is believed to be as many as 200, though only 9 were verified. The victim count is sketchy because the Murder Castle had its own crematorium. Holmes was able to skate under the radar because he designed the castle himself and brought in numerous contractors who never saw the complete plans. Holmes would limit them to just working on their one task.

After Holmes was arrested, the city descended on his Murder Castle to get a look inside. After the building was secured, the mortgagor repossessed it and sought to turn it into a macabre tourist attraction. Unfortunately for him, the castle was destroyed by a mysterious fire, its secrets forever hidden in mystery.

Notorious Homes: The Sowden House

The Sowden House is an architectural landmark. Located in the Los Feliz neighborhood, the house was designed by Lloyd Wright, son of famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Named for the man who commissioned the house- John Sowden, a famed painter. Sowden wanted to use the house to entertain his Hollywood guests, but sold it when the house's Mayan revival design was criticized.

 

In 1945 the house would be sold to its most notorious resident- Doctor George Hodel. Dr. Hodel is best known for possibly running an illegal abortion clinic and for being a suspect in the Black Dahlia murder. The Black Dahlia was Elizabeth Short, a beautiful aspiring starlet who was found horrifically murdered in a vacant lot, her body bisected and discarded. The murder set off a cat and mouse game between the killer and the police. 

Dr. George Hodel soon attracted the attention of law enforcement, who secured a warrant to place a in bug the Sowden House. Hodel was recorded talking to others about how even if he had killed the Black Dahlia, the police couldn't prove it because his secretary had mysteriously passed away. The investigation was mysteriously discontinued, possibly due to Hodel's Hollywood ties. His son would take up the case decades later, theorizing that his father might have committed the murder in the basement of the Sowden House. Interested in owning a house that could quite possibly be a gruesome, historic crime scene? If you have $5 Million it could be yours.

Eiffel's Tower

While seen as a cultural landmark today, Paris' Eiffel Tower was a controversial addition to the 1888 World's Fair. Parisians looked down upon the structure, ridiculing its design. The fact that the tower would presumably get torn down at the end of the fair relaxed all opposition against it.

The Eiffel Tower's design was inspired by the Latting Observatory built in New York City. Unlike the Latting Observatory, which was built from wood, the Eiffel Tower would be made from steel. (The Latting Tower would burn down as a result of its being made from wood.)

 

After the world's fair, the tower was given a twenty year permit to operate. However, by the end of the permit expiration, the tower had become synonymous with the city and it became a world landmark. The Tower nobody wanted had become a symbol of Paris.

 

Weird History Strange Facts

 

Weird History Fun Facts

 

The Wacky World of Margery Kempe

Margery Kempe was an Englishwoman who was born in approximately 1373. Despite her illiteracy, she is believed to have dictated the very first autobiography.

 

Ms. Kempe is now viewed as possibly being bipolar, though at the time she was seen as being extremely crazy. She had a deep love for Jesus Christ and left her life behind to preach the Bible, though she had never actually read it herself. She drew the ire of the church, not only because she was a layperson trying to preach to others, but also because her understanding of the Bible did not align with the beliefs at the time.

When Margery decided that she had to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Lands, she found a group to travel with. Her constant weeping and bizarre behavior grated on her fellow pilgrims, who abandoned her. At the time, roving bands of outlaws raped and pillaged unfortunate travelers who wandered outside city walls. That was why pilgrims traveled in groups. Abandoning Margery was seen as a possible death sentence for her. When she arrived unmolested and alive at the next city, her fellow pilgrims believed that meant that she was sainted. They quickly grew to overlook her unpleasantness and allowed her to rejoin the group.

Despite the fact that Margery dictated these stories herself, they are widely believed to be true. Many others repeated these stories and she was seen as being a Saint in her lifetime. Officially, however, only the Anglican Church of England recognizes her as a Saint.

 

Puttanesca Sauce for Putanas?!?

These days, fancy Italian restaurants in the United States all seem to have a pasta dish served with puttanesca sauce. Viewers of the U.S. cable channel Food Network have no doubts as to the current popularity of the dish; it seems that every celebrity chef on the show has a version of it. The dish, however, has a less wholesome origin.

Anyone who knows foreign curse words probably knows that 'puttana' is Italian for prostitute. Puttanesca, therefore, loosely translates to prostitute-style. So why would a simple dish get such a sullied name? It's quite simple, really.

 

Lady peddlers would make huge tubs of pasta and hangout in the red light district. The prostitutes would purchase bowls of the pasta in between customers to regain their strength. Puttanesca was cheap and energizing and eventually became tied to its less reputable customers.

In the mid-twentieth century, soldiers who occupied Italy during and after the war, took a liking to the dish. Its popularity grew, mainly because non-Italians didn't have any hang ups about the pasta's origins. Originally, puttanesca was something an Italian family might eat at home. It would never be served to guests- that would have been considered an insult. (It's like implying that the female guests were prostitutes.) Now, however, the stigma is leaving the dish, though it is interesting to note its less savory origins.

How Do You Solve a Problem Like Macrina?

Everything we think we know about nuns and monastic life today was actually created by a lesser known Saint from the 300s- Macrina the Younger. 

 

Prior to Macrina, nuns were expected to be virgins and virtuous from the very beginning. Nunneries would not accept a widowed woman or anyone who might have come into their religious awakening late in life. Macrina actually was a virgin when she joined a convent, but coming from a wealthy family, she was forbidden from taking vows by her father. He betrothed her to a similarly wealthy young man from another prosperous family who passed away before they were actually old enough to marry.

Macrina took advantage of the situation; while her father sought another young suitor for her, she declared herself a "spiritual widow," since she had been betrothed to another. Her father gave into her wishes and she eventually setup a convent of her own. In her thinking, however, a woman (or anyone for that matter) could become a virgin by taking vows and becoming chaste. As long as someone committed to it, one could join her convent.

 

Eventually, her widowed mother would join Macrina, becoming a nun in Macrina's convent after Macrina's father passed away. Oddly enough, despite her father's reluctance, Macrina's family would have three saints in it- Saint Basil, Saint Gregory of Nyssa and herself. Her brother's hagiography of her life would cement her religious achievements. While she has become a lesser known Saint these days in the western world, she is a hugely popular one in the Eastern Orthodox Church.

The Real Gold Rush

The California Gold Rush inspired countless wealth seekers to give up the lives they knew and head out to the foothills of California to seek untold wealth. Most of them would find that wealth elusive, but a few would find it in unexpected ways.

 

As it turned out, it was the people who sold things to the miners who ended up building empires. Levi Strauss sold hard wearing dungarees- denim jeans- to the miners, who found them to last longer and be more comfortable than the other pants available to them. Even after the gold rush had lost its luster, Levi's famous jeans became sought after the world over.

 

Levi Strauss, Original Gangster

You might not know the name James Lick- his name is on a freeway and an observatory- but he became quite wealthy during the Gold Rush in surprising ways. He began his journey on the east coast, taking a ship around South America to get out to California. Taking all of his earthly possessions and money with him, he stumbled upon a deal to buy a huge batch of cacao along the way. This would come in handy upon his arrival in California; he would meet up with his uncle, selling his uncle the cacao beans that would become Ghirardelli chocolate. Formed into chocolate bars, the confections were literal gold and highly prized by the gold miners.

 

James Lick would take this wealth and immediately parlay it into a real estate business. Itchy San Franciscans were eager to go east to the foothills and buy the supplies they needed to strike gold. They were eager to sell, so James paid pennies on the dollar for prime real estate. When people returned with their newly found riches, he sold it back- at inflated new prices. James Lick became filthy rich.

 

James Lick, with his magnificent beard.

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