Welcome to Aaron Benky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. It can be dangerous to stand between someone and their next meal. Anyone who's put their hand near the food bowl while their dog is eating can attest to that, and avoiding a lion while it hunts a gazelle is just plain common sense. In seventeen sixty six, though, the people of Nottingham, England, weren't hunting down a gazelle. Now, they had their sights on something else, and when it looked like they weren't going to get it, they made sure to let everyone know. It all started at the Nottingham Goose Fair, a traveling carnival dating backup thousand years maybe more that visited the area every October. Back then, instead of rides or games of chance, the Goose Fair was mainly a food festival. It began as a livestock market where animals of all kinds, including geese were traded among fair goers. Over time, it branched out into other kinds of food as well, but especially cheese. In fact, it became a primary reason people attended the fair, but never more important than in seventeen sixty six. You see, in the months leading up to the event, a poor harvest threatened Europe with a nationwide food shortage. People were scared and the markets reacted accordingly. High demand resulted in skyrocketing prices. Flour, wheat, corn, and yes, cheese all saw an uptick in prices, prices that were beyond what most people could afford. But when the Nottingham Goose Fair came around that year, the prices were the only things rising. Tempers had gotten pretty heated too. Just one week earlier, cheese had been selling for anywhere between fourteen and twenty two shillings per oneweight at Coventry markets. The following week, the Goose Ferreri saw prices double by today's standards. That put the cost of cheese at nearly two hundred pounds, too pricey for locals just trying to get by. Adding insult to injury, there was more cheese present at this fair than in previous years. All of it just out of reach from almost everyone in attendance. Things came to a head on October second, when a group of merchants from nearby Lincolnshire traveled to Nottingham. They had come to buy hundreds of pounds of cheese, which they planned to sell in their own county, but the locals didn't take too kindly to having their cheese bought by out of towners only to be sold elsewhere. They were hungry and desperate. A group of young men stopped the merchants on the road, surrounding their caravan and offering and ultimatum either share their cheese with everyone else or get the cheddar kicked out of them. A fight broke out shortly after that, with a mob of fed up fair goers taking their anger out on the local shops. They broke windows and liberated hundreds of cheese wheels, rolling them into the streets and hurling them out into open spaces. The mayor of the town attempted to regain control of the crowd, but failed. A straight cheese wheel even rolled into him and knocked him down. Things only escalated from there, with Nottingham residents taking up arms and putting up roadblocks to keep the traders from getting away with their cheese. The mob also boarded a boat to hauling cheese and seized that cargo to the owner of the boat offered to give them money or sell them his cheese at a lower price, but they were too angry to reason with. Another crowd attempted to raid a nearby warehouse, but they were chased out by armed workers. Still, those looters were able to run off with some of the cheese, which prompted the warehouse owner to form a posse to hunt them down. Unfortunately, they didn't get too far. While detaining several who they believe were rioting, the posse was attacked with stones and they were forced to retreat. The time had come to call in the reinforcements. The fifteenth Dragoons, a British cavalry regiment, arrived in Nottingham and opened fire into the crowd. One man, a farmer named William Eggleston, was killed in the skirmish. He hadn't been part of the riot, though, he'd just been standing near his own cheese protecting it from looters. It took several days before the military was able to restore the peace. Despite the violence of the Nottingham Cheese Riot of seventeen sixty six. The Goose Fair continues to visit to this day, although the livestock trading of old has given way to carnival rise in games. Hasn't been a cheese fueled mob there in over two hundred fifty years, and I'd call that news pretty gooda World War Two was a unique time in history when Americans and Europeans banded together to take down a common enemy. Not everyone took up arms, though many hosted scrap drives to collect metal and rubber that would go toward building ships and airplanes. Others, like actors and musicians, flew overseas to put on shows for the troops. Edda van heemstru put on shows too. She was born in Brussels, Belgium, in n to a Dutch baroness and a British businessman. Her early years were filled with turmoil, though, as her father left the family and joined a fascist organization back in England when she was just six. Though her life had just gone through a major upheaval, she always had one constant dance. Edda was enrolled in ballet lessons at a young age, a skill that would serve her well later in life. She returned to the UK when she was seven to attend school. As she got older, Edda was swept into the chaos that was the Second World War. Her mother took her and her siblings act to her hometown in Arnhem in the Netherlands. It had been a neutral territory during World War One, and Eda's mother hoped it would remain that way throughout this new war as well. The young Edda was soon enrolled at the Arnham Conservatory, where she focused more on her ballet lessons. Around nineteen forty, though, the war finally reached their doorstep. The Nazis invaded the Netherlands and the family suffered great losses. To stay safe, they went underground, quite literally. Eda survived in the basement of her home by eating tulip bulbs after their food supply was cut off by the Germans. But as she fought to go on a movement was stirring around her. She joined the Dutch Resistance, a group of freedom fighters comprised of local churches, the Communist Party, and other groups. The resistance had fought for days as the Germans marched into the Netherlands. They held the line at areas like the Hague, Rotterdam and elsewhere. During the various battles, many lives were lost on both sides, and entire towns were reduced to ash. Among the rubble were properties once owned by Edda's mother. Meanwhile, Edda did her part, but not as a fighter. She became a courier, taking messages to Allied airmen who had been shot down. She also helped deliver the resistances underground newspaper Now. During one of her deliveries, she ran into a group of German soldiers. She had to think quick on her feet to avoid capture or worse, so she picked flowers for them and acted as though she didn't know what was going on. They reviewed her papers and let her go. But perhaps her greatest contribution to the resistance was her dancing. Edda dance during events called Black Evenings, concerts held in people's homes to help raise funds for the resistance. To hide their actions from the Germans, windows were covered and audiences held their applause. The money was then used to shelter Jews hiding out in the Netherlands. Edda and her mother attended their first Black Evening as guests in April of nineteen After that the girl was hooked. She began performing in them herself while a friend of hers played the piano. She performed in costumes designed by her mother. Outside the homes, resistance guards kept watch for German soldiers who might have been in the area. Eda was strong, maybe even stronger than some of the people actually fighting. She was barely a teenager, running messages to Allied soldiers during the day and dancing for audiences at night. The lack of food meant that she was malnourished, and she suffered from acute anemia, among other ailments. It wasn't until her mother got the family out when things started to turn around. In n After the war, le Van Heemstra's moved to Amsterdam and Edda resumed her ballet lessons. She studied under a woman named Sonia Gaskell, a prominent Dutch dancer and choreographer. Her mother was forced to work two jobs to keep food on the table, her wealth having been destroyed during the war along with her homes. Eda meanwhile earned a scholarship to study ballet at a British dance company called Rombert. She moved to London and supported herself by doing some modeling on the side. Sadly, her time at the ballet came to an end after a review of her dancing, Rombert told her she was too tall to ever become a prima ballerina. Van Hiemstra didn't take it too hard, though, she pivoted to another passion of hers acting. But the odds are good that you've never heard of Eda. That's because Van Heemstra was her mother's maiden name, part of an identity she adopted during the war to avoid problems with the Germans. Her real name was Audrey Rustin, but when it came time to pick a stage name, she swapped out Rustin for the other name in her father's hyphenated surname, and with that the star was born Audrey that Burn. 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. This 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 World of Lore dot com and until next time, stay curious. Yeah M

Welcome to Aaron Benky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. It can be dangerous to stand between someone and their next meal. Anyone who's put their hand near the food bowl while their dog is eating can attest to that, and avoiding a lion while it hunts a gazelle is just plain common sense. In seventeen sixty six, though, the people of Nottingham, England, weren't hunting down a gazelle. Now, they had their sights on something else, and when it looked like they weren't going to get it, they made sure to let everyone know. It all started at the Nottingham Goose Fair, a traveling carnival dating backup thousand years maybe more that visited the area every October. Back then, instead of rides or games of chance, the Goose Fair was mainly a food festival. It began as a livestock market where animals of all kinds, including geese were traded among fair goers. Over time, it branched out into other kinds of food as well, but especially cheese. In fact, it became a primary reason people attended the fair, but never more important than in seventeen sixty six. You see, in the months leading up to the event, a poor harvest threatened Europe with a nationwide food shortage. People were scared and the markets reacted accordingly. High demand resulted in skyrocketing prices. Flour, wheat, corn, and yes, cheese all saw an uptick in prices, prices that were beyond what most people could afford. But when the Nottingham Goose Fair came around that year, the prices were the only things rising. Tempers had gotten pretty heated too. Just one week earlier, cheese had been selling for anywhere between fourteen and twenty two shillings per oneweight at Coventry markets. The following week, the Goose Ferreri saw prices double by today's standards. That put the cost of cheese at nearly two hundred pounds, too pricey for locals just trying to get by. Adding insult to injury, there was more cheese present at this fair than in previous years. All of it just out of reach from almost everyone in attendance. Things came to a head on October second, when a group of merchants from nearby Lincolnshire traveled to Nottingham. They had come to buy hundreds of pounds of cheese, which they planned to sell in their own county, but the locals didn't take too kindly to having their cheese bought by out of towners only to be sold elsewhere. They were hungry and desperate. A group of young men stopped the merchants on the road, surrounding their caravan and offering and ultimatum either share their cheese with everyone else or get the cheddar kicked out of them. A fight broke out shortly after that, with a mob of fed up fair goers taking their anger out on the local shops. They broke windows and liberated hundreds of cheese wheels, rolling them into the streets and hurling them out into open spaces. The mayor of the town attempted to regain control of the crowd, but failed. A straight cheese wheel even rolled into him and knocked him down. Things only escalated from there, with Nottingham residents taking up arms and putting up roadblocks to keep the traders from getting away with their cheese. The mob also boarded a boat to hauling cheese and seized that cargo to the owner of the boat offered to give them money or sell them his cheese at a lower price, but they were too angry to reason with. Another crowd attempted to raid a nearby warehouse, but they were chased out by armed workers. Still, those looters were able to run off with some of the cheese, which prompted the warehouse owner to form a posse to hunt them down. Unfortunately, they didn't get too far. While detaining several who they believe were rioting, the posse was attacked with stones and they were forced to retreat. The time had come to call in the reinforcements. The fifteenth Dragoons, a British cavalry regiment, arrived in Nottingham and opened fire into the crowd. One man, a farmer named William Eggleston, was killed in the skirmish. He hadn't been part of the riot, though, he'd just been standing near his own cheese protecting it from looters. It took several days before the military was able to restore the peace. Despite the violence of the Nottingham Cheese Riot of seventeen sixty six. The Goose Fair continues to visit to this day, although the livestock trading of old has given way to carnival rise in games. Hasn't been a cheese fueled mob there in over two hundred fifty years, and I'd call that news pretty gooda World War Two was a unique time in history when Americans and Europeans banded together to take down a common enemy. Not everyone took up arms, though many hosted scrap drives to collect metal and rubber that would go toward building ships and airplanes. Others, like actors and musicians, flew overseas to put on shows for the troops. Edda van heemstru put on shows too. She was born in Brussels, Belgium, in n to a Dutch baroness and a British businessman. Her early years were filled with turmoil, though, as her father left the family and joined a fascist organization back in England when she was just six. Though her life had just gone through a major upheaval, she always had one constant dance. Edda was enrolled in ballet lessons at a young age, a skill that would serve her well later in life. She returned to the UK when she was seven to attend school. As she got older, Edda was swept into the chaos that was the Second World War. Her mother took her and her siblings act to her hometown in Arnhem in the Netherlands. It had been a neutral territory during World War One, and Eda's mother hoped it would remain that way throughout this new war as well. The young Edda was soon enrolled at the Arnham Conservatory, where she focused more on her ballet lessons. Around nineteen forty, though, the war finally reached their doorstep. The Nazis invaded the Netherlands and the family suffered great losses. To stay safe, they went underground, quite literally. Eda survived in the basement of her home by eating tulip bulbs after their food supply was cut off by the Germans. But as she fought to go on a movement was stirring around her. She joined the Dutch Resistance, a group of freedom fighters comprised of local churches, the Communist Party, and other groups. The resistance had fought for days as the Germans marched into the Netherlands. They held the line at areas like the Hague, Rotterdam and elsewhere. During the various battles, many lives were lost on both sides, and entire towns were reduced to ash. Among the rubble were properties once owned by Edda's mother. Meanwhile, Edda did her part, but not as a fighter. She became a courier, taking messages to Allied airmen who had been shot down. She also helped deliver the resistances underground newspaper Now. During one of her deliveries, she ran into a group of German soldiers. She had to think quick on her feet to avoid capture or worse, so she picked flowers for them and acted as though she didn't know what was going on. They reviewed her papers and let her go. But perhaps her greatest contribution to the resistance was her dancing. Edda dance during events called Black Evenings, concerts held in people's homes to help raise funds for the resistance. To hide their actions from the Germans, windows were covered and audiences held their applause. The money was then used to shelter Jews hiding out in the Netherlands. Edda and her mother attended their first Black Evening as guests in April of nineteen After that the girl was hooked. She began performing in them herself while a friend of hers played the piano. She performed in costumes designed by her mother. Outside the homes, resistance guards kept watch for German soldiers who might have been in the area. Eda was strong, maybe even stronger than some of the people actually fighting. She was barely a teenager, running messages to Allied soldiers during the day and dancing for audiences at night. The lack of food meant that she was malnourished, and she suffered from acute anemia, among other ailments. It wasn't until her mother got the family out when things started to turn around. In n After the war, le Van Heemstra's moved to Amsterdam and Edda resumed her ballet lessons. She studied under a woman named Sonia Gaskell, a prominent Dutch dancer and choreographer. Her mother was forced to work two jobs to keep food on the table, her wealth having been destroyed during the war along with her homes. Eda meanwhile earned a scholarship to study ballet at a British dance company called Rombert. She moved to London and supported herself by doing some modeling on the side. Sadly, her time at the ballet came to an end after a review of her dancing, Rombert told her she was too tall to ever become a prima ballerina. Van Hiemstra didn't take it too hard, though, she pivoted to another passion of hers acting. But the odds are good that you've never heard of Eda. That's because Van Heemstra was her mother's maiden name, part of an identity she adopted during the war to avoid problems with the Germans. Her real name was Audrey Rustin, but when it came time to pick a stage name, she swapped out Rustin for the other name in her father's hyphenated surname, and with that the star was born Audrey that Burn. 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. This 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 World of Lore dot com and until next time, stay curious. Yeah M