Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. When there's little to work with, we just have to make do with what we have. Ever need to charge your phone but don't have the power brick for the wall, Check the back of the TV. There's usually a USB port you can plug into. And are you tired of your headphone cable unwinding in your bag? Use a hairclip to keep it in place. Mister Cardini was also under some tough limits at his restaurant. You see, he was an entrepreneur from Italy, like his three other brothers. One brother, Niero, opened a hotel in Santa Cruz, California, while the two others, Alessandro and Gaudenzio, moved to Mexico City, where they opened up a restaurant. Mister Cardini, however, came to New York on the RMS Olympic, the sister ship of the Titanic in nineteen thirteen. He then headed north to Canada. After several years abroad, he returned home for a short time, then came back to the US in nineteen nineteen, where he ran a small restaurant in Sacramento, California with his business partner, William Brown. But Cardini knew that there was an opportunity to the south Way south. In January of nineteen twenty, the United States officially outlawed the manufacture and sale of alcohol within its borders. Knowing that Americans like to drink, Cardini opened up a new restaurant in Tijuana, Mexico that would cater to their needs. His new place was a hit, with Americans from all walks of life getting a good meal and some good booze from the watchful eyes of the US government. This wasn't a surprise. The Cardini family restaurants had all been successful. They fed everyone who was anyone, including Lncheny, Clark Gable, and Rita Hayworth, just to name a few. But mister Cardini's Tijuana Eatery was special, so special that it became the place to be On July fourth of nineteen twenty four, that day, the restaurant faced an unusual rush of customers, one that caused the kitchen to run out of almost every ingredient they had. Almost there were still a few things left, including eggs, cheese, and something called cause. Cause was a long, dark green lettuce native to the Mediterranean and Middle East, though many people probably note by its other name Romayne. Cardini, realizing that he needed something to keep his guests fed and entertained, came up with an idea. Rather than just dump all of his ingredients into a pot and hand it to them, he would turn the act of assembling the dish into an experience itself. First, heap the romain into smaller pieces and placed them in a bowl. Then he coddled the egg, meaning that he cooked it in a small dish which sat in a boiling pot of water to firm up the yolk. Cardini even wished that hardened yolk with a bit of lemon juice, salt, pepper, olive oil, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, and parmesan cheese. This creamy concoction became addressing for the romain in the bowl, but he didn't put it all together in the kitchen. Instead, he brought the ingredients to the customer's table, where he would toss the romaine leaves with the dressing right before their eyes. Once the leaves were sufficiently coated, he would drop a handful of croutons on top. Now, according to Cardini's brother Alex, that's not how the recipe came to be at all. In his version, he invented it in the late nineteen twenties and called it the Aviator Salad, named in honor of the pilots who frequented his establishment at the time. But the truth is many individuals have stepped forward as the true creators of the salad over the years, including people who worked at mister Cardini's restaurant. But in the end, and it was Caesar Cardini who had whipped together what he had on hand in order to please the hungry, drunken customers who had come to his establishment, Caesar's Palace for a nice meal. That's exactly what they got too. It was so nice that the recipe eventually made its way back north and has become a staple of thousands of restaurant menus all over the world. And to make sure they never forgot where it came from, its inventor made sure that he was a part of its name, and that's why we now know the beloved appetizer as the Caesar salad. As I'm sure anyone could tell you. Broadway musicals sometimes have more drama off stage than on the same goes for Hollywood or politics, and when the three meet, sparks fly. Musicals about the American Revolution have been a popular subject for as long as the medium has existed. Just look at the smash Hit Hamilton or the nineteen twenties with Rogers and Heart's Dearest Enemy. So Sherman wasn't exactly reinventing the wheel. Sherman Edwards was born in nineteen nineteen and was a high school history teacher before becoming a full time musician and songwriter. Musical theater might be an interesting choice for the man who wrote songs for Elvis Presley, but when he was about forty years old, he sat down to write seventeen seventy six. The premise was simple. It focused on John Adams and his attempt to get the Continental Congress to declare independence from Great Britain and support the revolution. Edwards took sections of letters and diary entries from the founding Fathers and worked that into the music and dialogue of the show, bringing life to these long dead men and showing them for what they were, not infallible gods, but human beings who quarreled and lied and made mistakes. Edwards wrote the score and Peter Stone wrote the book, although he later recalled thinking it was maybe the worst idea that had ever been proposed for a musical. The show starred William Daniels as John Adams, Ken Howard as Thomas Jefferson, and Howard da Silva as Benjamin Franklin, and it premiered in nineteen sixty nine to great acclaim. It also went on to earn several tony nominations. Head of Warner Brothers, Jack Warner, saw an opportunity, so he bought the rights and produced the film version in nineteen seventy one. Warner decided to cast the original Broadway actors to reprise their roles as well. Apparently he had learned a thing or two after refusing to cast Julie Andrews in the film adaptation of My Fair Lady. Hollywood was still recovering from the House on American Activities Committee investigations and Blacklist, and many actors were still on edge, including Howard da Silva. You see, Da Silva was a popular actor, and, like hundreds of others in the entertainment industry, he was called for a hearing before the Committee. He gave testimony in March of nineteen fifty one and repeat heatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment rights, never naming names. Afterward, he was officially blacklisted and didn't work in film again for a decade. The Tony Award winning cast were invited to give a performance at the White House, a long standing tradition. They beat out Hair for Best Musical at the nineteen sixty nine Tony Awards, and America's then president, Richard Nixon had a great deal of fondness for the show. Director Peter Hunt later remarked that he was thrilled with rehearsing in front of the former marine, but the rest of the cast wasn't so sure. They were all politically active, and many of them were involved with the Screen Actress Guild, a powerful union of which the William Daniels was president. And let's not forget the last time Howard Silva got an invitation from Richard Nixon. He ended up blacklisted by Hollywood. The House on American Activities Committee had been a pet project of Nixon's while he was still in Congress, and the cast of seventeen seventy six were understandably reluctant. Still, they went and put on a good show. But then something odd happened, well, really, something very predictable. Nixon had enjoyed the performance, but he had some notes about the upcoming film. There were three songs that offended Nixon's conservative sensibilities, and he wanted them cut. Mama Looked Sharp described a dying boy on the battlefield and his mother coming to search for him. Molasses to Rum called out the hypocrisy of the northern colonies in the question of slavery and largely condemned the whole country's attitude towards civil rights. And finally, there was cool, cool, considerate men, which Nixon hated more than the rest. During the song, the wealthy loyalists of Congress sing an ode to their status and privilege, reminding the viewer that these conservative men only moved to the right, forever to the right, never to the left, they sang. Apparently, the cast performed that number with considerable Gusto or venom, depending on how you look at it. Nixon was perturbed, then Nixon got angry, until finally Nixon began making phone calls. But when he requested that these songs be cut to better fit his version of American history, the cast and creative team outright refused to be censored. Their efforts were valiant, but unfortunately Nixon had a longer reach. He contacted Jack Warner directly and demanded the cuts. Warner, by the way, had also named names when called before the House on American Activities Committee back in nineteen forty seven, So the studio went behind the production team's backs and demanded one of the film's editors, Florence Williamson, to cut Cool, Cool, Considerate men. When director Peter Hunt discovered the excised number, he asked Warner how he could do it. Warner coolly replied with a pair of scissors. According to the story, Warner refused to be second guest by history and ordered the original negatives to be destroyed, but Williamson wouldn't go that far. He quietly hid the negatives in storage. The film was a disappointment at the box office, and many members of the cast blamed that on the number being cut. According to one account, Warner later said that he regretted the cut and felt that it ruined the structure of the film. Today you can see seventeen seventy six exactly the way Peter Hunt and the rest of the cast had intended. The original version was restored in two thousand and two thanks to Williamson's quick thinking, and you can see for yourself why a song with the lyrics most men with nothing would rather protect the possibility of becoming rich than face the reality of being poor made Richard Nixon's head spin. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with How Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can learn all about it over at the Worldoflore dot com. And until next time, stay curious. H

Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. When there's little to work with, we just have to make do with what we have. Ever need to charge your phone but don't have the power brick for the wall, Check the back of the TV. There's usually a USB port you can plug into. And are you tired of your headphone cable unwinding in your bag? Use a hairclip to keep it in place. Mister Cardini was also under some tough limits at his restaurant. You see, he was an entrepreneur from Italy, like his three other brothers. One brother, Niero, opened a hotel in Santa Cruz, California, while the two others, Alessandro and Gaudenzio, moved to Mexico City, where they opened up a restaurant. Mister Cardini, however, came to New York on the RMS Olympic, the sister ship of the Titanic in nineteen thirteen. He then headed north to Canada. After several years abroad, he returned home for a short time, then came back to the US in nineteen nineteen, where he ran a small restaurant in Sacramento, California with his business partner, William Brown. But Cardini knew that there was an opportunity to the south Way south. In January of nineteen twenty, the United States officially outlawed the manufacture and sale of alcohol within its borders. Knowing that Americans like to drink, Cardini opened up a new restaurant in Tijuana, Mexico that would cater to their needs. His new place was a hit, with Americans from all walks of life getting a good meal and some good booze from the watchful eyes of the US government. This wasn't a surprise. The Cardini family restaurants had all been successful. They fed everyone who was anyone, including Lncheny, Clark Gable, and Rita Hayworth, just to name a few. But mister Cardini's Tijuana Eatery was special, so special that it became the place to be On July fourth of nineteen twenty four, that day, the restaurant faced an unusual rush of customers, one that caused the kitchen to run out of almost every ingredient they had. Almost there were still a few things left, including eggs, cheese, and something called cause. Cause was a long, dark green lettuce native to the Mediterranean and Middle East, though many people probably note by its other name Romayne. Cardini, realizing that he needed something to keep his guests fed and entertained, came up with an idea. Rather than just dump all of his ingredients into a pot and hand it to them, he would turn the act of assembling the dish into an experience itself. First, heap the romain into smaller pieces and placed them in a bowl. Then he coddled the egg, meaning that he cooked it in a small dish which sat in a boiling pot of water to firm up the yolk. Cardini even wished that hardened yolk with a bit of lemon juice, salt, pepper, olive oil, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, and parmesan cheese. This creamy concoction became addressing for the romain in the bowl, but he didn't put it all together in the kitchen. Instead, he brought the ingredients to the customer's table, where he would toss the romaine leaves with the dressing right before their eyes. Once the leaves were sufficiently coated, he would drop a handful of croutons on top. Now, according to Cardini's brother Alex, that's not how the recipe came to be at all. In his version, he invented it in the late nineteen twenties and called it the Aviator Salad, named in honor of the pilots who frequented his establishment at the time. But the truth is many individuals have stepped forward as the true creators of the salad over the years, including people who worked at mister Cardini's restaurant. But in the end, and it was Caesar Cardini who had whipped together what he had on hand in order to please the hungry, drunken customers who had come to his establishment, Caesar's Palace for a nice meal. That's exactly what they got too. It was so nice that the recipe eventually made its way back north and has become a staple of thousands of restaurant menus all over the world. And to make sure they never forgot where it came from, its inventor made sure that he was a part of its name, and that's why we now know the beloved appetizer as the Caesar salad. As I'm sure anyone could tell you. Broadway musicals sometimes have more drama off stage than on the same goes for Hollywood or politics, and when the three meet, sparks fly. Musicals about the American Revolution have been a popular subject for as long as the medium has existed. Just look at the smash Hit Hamilton or the nineteen twenties with Rogers and Heart's Dearest Enemy. So Sherman wasn't exactly reinventing the wheel. Sherman Edwards was born in nineteen nineteen and was a high school history teacher before becoming a full time musician and songwriter. Musical theater might be an interesting choice for the man who wrote songs for Elvis Presley, but when he was about forty years old, he sat down to write seventeen seventy six. The premise was simple. It focused on John Adams and his attempt to get the Continental Congress to declare independence from Great Britain and support the revolution. Edwards took sections of letters and diary entries from the founding Fathers and worked that into the music and dialogue of the show, bringing life to these long dead men and showing them for what they were, not infallible gods, but human beings who quarreled and lied and made mistakes. Edwards wrote the score and Peter Stone wrote the book, although he later recalled thinking it was maybe the worst idea that had ever been proposed for a musical. The show starred William Daniels as John Adams, Ken Howard as Thomas Jefferson, and Howard da Silva as Benjamin Franklin, and it premiered in nineteen sixty nine to great acclaim. It also went on to earn several tony nominations. Head of Warner Brothers, Jack Warner, saw an opportunity, so he bought the rights and produced the film version in nineteen seventy one. Warner decided to cast the original Broadway actors to reprise their roles as well. Apparently he had learned a thing or two after refusing to cast Julie Andrews in the film adaptation of My Fair Lady. Hollywood was still recovering from the House on American Activities Committee investigations and Blacklist, and many actors were still on edge, including Howard da Silva. You see, Da Silva was a popular actor, and, like hundreds of others in the entertainment industry, he was called for a hearing before the Committee. He gave testimony in March of nineteen fifty one and repeat heatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment rights, never naming names. Afterward, he was officially blacklisted and didn't work in film again for a decade. The Tony Award winning cast were invited to give a performance at the White House, a long standing tradition. They beat out Hair for Best Musical at the nineteen sixty nine Tony Awards, and America's then president, Richard Nixon had a great deal of fondness for the show. Director Peter Hunt later remarked that he was thrilled with rehearsing in front of the former marine, but the rest of the cast wasn't so sure. They were all politically active, and many of them were involved with the Screen Actress Guild, a powerful union of which the William Daniels was president. And let's not forget the last time Howard Silva got an invitation from Richard Nixon. He ended up blacklisted by Hollywood. The House on American Activities Committee had been a pet project of Nixon's while he was still in Congress, and the cast of seventeen seventy six were understandably reluctant. Still, they went and put on a good show. But then something odd happened, well, really, something very predictable. Nixon had enjoyed the performance, but he had some notes about the upcoming film. There were three songs that offended Nixon's conservative sensibilities, and he wanted them cut. Mama Looked Sharp described a dying boy on the battlefield and his mother coming to search for him. Molasses to Rum called out the hypocrisy of the northern colonies in the question of slavery and largely condemned the whole country's attitude towards civil rights. And finally, there was cool, cool, considerate men, which Nixon hated more than the rest. During the song, the wealthy loyalists of Congress sing an ode to their status and privilege, reminding the viewer that these conservative men only moved to the right, forever to the right, never to the left, they sang. Apparently, the cast performed that number with considerable Gusto or venom, depending on how you look at it. Nixon was perturbed, then Nixon got angry, until finally Nixon began making phone calls. But when he requested that these songs be cut to better fit his version of American history, the cast and creative team outright refused to be censored. Their efforts were valiant, but unfortunately Nixon had a longer reach. He contacted Jack Warner directly and demanded the cuts. Warner, by the way, had also named names when called before the House on American Activities Committee back in nineteen forty seven, So the studio went behind the production team's backs and demanded one of the film's editors, Florence Williamson, to cut Cool, Cool, Considerate men. When director Peter Hunt discovered the excised number, he asked Warner how he could do it. Warner coolly replied with a pair of scissors. According to the story, Warner refused to be second guest by history and ordered the original negatives to be destroyed, but Williamson wouldn't go that far. He quietly hid the negatives in storage. The film was a disappointment at the box office, and many members of the cast blamed that on the number being cut. According to one account, Warner later said that he regretted the cut and felt that it ruined the structure of the film. Today you can see seventeen seventy six exactly the way Peter Hunt and the rest of the cast had intended. The original version was restored in two thousand and two thanks to Williamson's quick thinking, and you can see for yourself why a song with the lyrics most men with nothing would rather protect the possibility of becoming rich than face the reality of being poor made Richard Nixon's head spin. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with How Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can learn all about it over at the Worldoflore dot com. And until next time, stay curious. H