Some of the best curiosities are created by imaginative people, and today's tour should make that unbearably clear.
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Welcome to Aaron Benky's Cabinet of Curiosity is 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. Everyone needs to get away now and then when the daily grind gets tough. It's nice to relax on a quiet beach, or fly off to a foreign place and immerse yourself in a rich culture other than your own. And for some travelers all they need is the open sea and and all you can eat buffet. Today's cruise ships offer guests all the luxury of a major hotel with the added benefit of a fun destination. But to understand true luxury, one must go back almost ninety years to the most decadent ship of them all, the Queen Mary. Built from nineteen thirty to nineteen thirty four by White Star Line, the RMS Queen Mary was a transatlantic ocean liner named after Mary of Tech, who was the Queen of England at the time. The ship boasted a traditional design with a prominent bow and three orange and black smokestacks along its top. Inside, the liner was filled with all manner of first class amenities, including a pair of indoor swimming pools, a lecture hall, and beauty salons. Parents of all classes even had access to nurseries for their children, you know, for when mom and dad wanted to hit the dance floor or get some much needed alone time. The Queen Mary's telephone system could also make calls all over the world. There was no question this was a white star ship, as she was clearly cut from the same cloth as her long lost sister, the Titanic. She was converted into a troop ship during World War Two carried Allied soldiers overseas for several years. It took about ten months to change her back into a passenger ship after the war, and then she continued to sail for another twenty years. She underwent a number of modifications during that time, both inside and out, before she was retired in nineteen sixty seven. Permanently moored in Long Beach, California, she was converted once again, this time from a working ship into a floating hotel. Her lower levels were transformed into an aquarium and museum, while her boiler rooms were removed completely. Over the years, the Queen Mary went through several owners, all of whom had different ideas about what the Liner should have been. Hotelier Jack Rather happened to be one of those owners. He and his wife used to sail on the Queen Mary back when it was still in service, so when the opportunity to lease the property arose in the nineteen eighties, Rather jumped at the chance. He was no stranger to running a hotel either. He'd built one back in ninety five, which had proven quite successful. It was so successful, in fact, that a prominent California business owner tried to buy it a number of times, but never quite had the money to do so. It wasn't until decades after this entrepreneur's death when his company was finally able to afford Rather's hotel and the property on which it sat, which happened to also include the Queen Mary. This company had big plans for the Liner and hoped to take advantage of its dark history. You see, the Queen Mary was home to countless ghost stories in tales of paranormal activity, which led to it becoming known as the most haunted hotel in America during World War Two, for example, an accidental collision with another military vehicle led to the deaths of three personnel on the other ship. As a passenger ship, you know, a temporary home for living, breathing human beings, The Queen Mary was believed to have been the site of almost fifty deaths, including drownings, murders, and even other strange departures. Her new owners wanted to turn a night's stay into a fully immersive paranormal experience, and the piece to resistance room B three forty. Those who entered the notorious room reported strange happenings, such as the floors creaking at odd times or distant voices calling from beyond the grave. Faucets in the bathroom would turn on by themselves, and on more than one occasion, ghostly images showed up in the mirrors, frightening the guests. The thing was Room B three forty wasn't really haunted. The company just wanted people to think it was. They had installed all sorts of effects to give anyone staying in the room the sense that they weren't alone. Unfortunately, the idea of actually sleeping in a haunted hotel didn't really sit well with tourists, and the concept was abandoned. It was kind of surprising, though, since it had been formulated by a company adept at building ghost infested structures before they'd even tried to use the techniques from their other attraction on the Queen Mary. But Disneyland visitors didn't mind visiting the haunted mansion for a few minutes at a time, They just didn't want to spend several nights in its floating equivalent. After Disney gave up its idea of a haunted ocean liner in the early nineteen nineties, it ripped out all of the imagineering technology from Room B three forty and locked it up for good, which only adds to the mystery why was the door locked? What had happened in there? Why couldn't anyone go inside? Over time, knowledge of Disney's involvement melted away, and the rumors of the Queen Mary's hauntings led to the idea that Room B three forty was one of the scariest places on the ship. It was also believed to have contributed to ghost sighting claims from guests decades later. Whether you believe the Queen Mary really is plagued by ghosts depends on whether you believe in the paranormal at all. If you're brave enough and you have the money, you can stay in Room B three forty overnight and judge for yourself. Just don't expect it to be the happiest place on earth. College is a time for finding yourself, trying new things, experiencing true freedom for the first time, and of course breaking the rules. After all, what is the point of experiencing anything without a little rule breaking to make the experience better. Sure, you should be learning things as well, but let's not kid ourselves. It's the freedom and the rabble rousing Students past and present remember most as such. If you drop someone like George Gordon Byron, known to most as Lord Byron, into such an environment, you're bound to see some fireworks. Byron spent his life breaking rules, bucking norms, and otherwise stirring the pot, both in his poetry and in life itself. That's what happens when you become a literary icon by the ripe age of twenty, having been born into a troubled childhood to a schizophrenic mother and a father nicknamed mad Jack, as well as being cared for by an abusive nurse. Byron's tumultuous life makes sense. He was also born with a club foot, a condition he blamed on his mother's tight corsets, which earned him constant mockery from his classmates. As such, he did not find much comfort throughout his early days, though he did find one particular avenue that helped him, Grin and Barrett, the companionship of animals. Byron had numerous dogs and cats throughout his upbringing, but he also dabbled in exotic pets as well, monkeys, foxes, peacocks, and even crocodiles, although the exotic pets didn't make as lasting of an impression as his favorite pet of all time, a dog named Boson, who died of rabies in eighteen o eight. All in all, it's clear the Byron loved dogs, and when it came time for him to leave home and attend Trinity College in Cambridge in eighteen o five, he was desperate to bring one of his pups along with him, and not Boston, curiously enough, but his bulldog named Smut. He certainly had a knack for naming his pets. However, Trinity College had a strict rule against having dogs on campus. And given what we talked about with college being a time for rule breaking and Byron being a champion rule breaker, well then you can guess what's coming. Byron swapped out the forbidden dog by another animal, an animal not traditionally kept as a pet. But seeing as how Trinity College did not have an explicit rule preventing being accompanied by such a pet, Byron fought for his right to have it and won the argument, and just like that, he was clear to come to campus with an animal that was far and away more dangerous and troublesome than a dog. Regardless, Byron kept the animal on a leash, walking it around campus, surely taking it out in the morning to do its bi this and conversing with the student body. Bear in mind that there would not have been any other pet owners on campus, no dog owners socializing over two dogs becoming friends, just one rather large pet on a leash of Byron doating over his newfound friend. It didn't take long for Byron to fall in love with this animal. He wrote to his friend Elizabeth in eighteen oh seven, saying, I have got a new friend, the finest in the world. When I brought him here. They asked me what to do with him, and my reply was he should sit for a fellowship. And let's take a moment to appreciate that last line. Rumor has it that he really did try to apply the animal to join the student body, since there were no rules explicitly stating that this wasn't allowed. Nothing ever came of this, though. The animal never earned itself a degree, at least not that we know of. As far as where Byron acquired this animal, well, it's all rumor and hearsay. Really, they say he acquired the creature from the Sturbridge Fair or from a traveling menager. But the matter it was never solved. It's not like the guy who acquired crocodiles and peacocks would have that much trouble finding anything else. Sadly, we don't know what happened to this pet when Byron parted ways with it. We don't even know what its name was. But whatever the case, this companion helped make Byron's time at university that much more well bearable. Oh and Byron's pet, if you haven't caught on, it was a bear. 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 Manky 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 one