Unbelievable things do happen, testing our limits. The stories that feature today will help you see how little stories can grow into big legends.
Welcomed Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of iHeartRadio 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's always interesting to see what inanimate objects people become attached to. Throughout childhood. Most of us had a favorite blankets or toy we simply couldn't live without, which usually made things interesting for parents and babysitters when they were accidentally left behind. Most parents would love a how too manual to explain what to do in certain situations, but unfortunately no magical book exists. Instead, most parenting forums family and friends to get to the bottom of the wise and house of child rearing. Many have anecdotes about their child's favorite toy toy being a loose description of whatever they manage to haul into bed every night with them. Some kids bring teddy bears and blankies to bed, while others bring toothbrushes, bandaid tins, thermometers, plastic lizards, and, in one memorable case, a plastic training potty. Several studies have been done to try and explain why kids form such close bonds with these items, but it really seems to come down to a sense of safety. Most children will feel attached to some kind of comfort object and often choose it on their own, no matter how many stuffed animals are presented to them. These items bring comfort and a sense of familiarity, and even if the subject doesn't look particularly cuddly, the memories link to its likely soothe and reassure them. Most people would argue that trees are not cuddly. They're excellent for climbing, tree houses, shade, and apples, but rarely for hugs. Luckily, for most parents, their child can't drag a tree into bed, but some children will go to great lengths to ensure the longevity of an old friend. This story starts with an oak tree, a white oak to be precise, which was estimated to be almost four hundred years old in the eighteen hundreds. The oak tree lived in Athens, Georgia, on property that belonged to the Jackson family. The Jacksons were an institution in Georgia. One of the most well known members of this clan was James Jackson, who immigrated from Devonshire, England, to Savannah, Georgia, and grew up under the care of a local lawyer. He was a trained duellist and served in the Revolutionary War, personally participating in the recapture of Augusta and Savannah for the Americans. He built up a law practice in Savannah and was elected to the first Georgia State Legislature, where he served for two non consecutive terms. In between, he was the Governor of Georgia and a member of the US House of Representatives. James married Mary Charlotte Young, and the couple had five sons, four of which followed him into public service. Two served in Congress, and one went on to become a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia. One son, Colonel William Henry Jackson, was a professor at the University of Georgia. Now not much is known about William Henry Jackson, but plenty has been speculated. For example, no one knows where the title colonel came from, as he didn't have any record of military service. With no family tree publicly available, no one actually knows where he fell in the pecking order of the jackson brothers, or if he held government office like many other members of his family. Most frustratingly, though, no one knows how he came to be so sentimental about a tree. Some guests that he grew up on the same property that the oak tree had been growing on since at least the fifteen hundreds, that he had fond memories from a childhood spent climbing its branches and laying out under the shade provided. Or maybe Bason bought the property as an adult and enjoyed walking underneath the oak tree when he could get away from the university. His reasons are entirely unknown, but thanks to a fascinating story in the Athens Weekly Banner from August of eighteen ninety, we do know that Jackson was extremely fond of his oak tree, so fond, in fact, he wanted to be sure it would be protected even after he was gone. So William Jackson dated the tree to itself. Jackson was very clear in his wishes, and the original deed reads as this, for and in consideration of the great love I bear this tree, and the great desire I have for its protection for all time, I convey entire possession of itself and all land within eight feet of the tree on all sides. William H. Jackson, The Tree that owns Itself became something of a local marvel, and people came from all over to see it. It flourished throughout the eighteen hundreds, but by the early nineteen hundreds doing too well. It was struggling with erosion and was damaged in an ice storm in nineteen oh seven, but the town refused to let it go. A man named George Foster Peabody paid for restoration work, including new soil and even a tablet placed at the site to tell visitors about it. Unfortunately, despite best efforts, the killing blow came on October ninth of nineteen forty two, when the tree was blown over in a windstorm. The plot the tree once sat on stood empty for four years because honestly, no one knew quite what to do until the Junior Ladies Guarding Club of Athens stepped in and proposed planting acorns from the original tree on the site. On December fourth of nineteen forty six, the sun of the Tree that owns Itself was planted and is growing strong to this day. And hey, I recommend stopping by if you're ever in Georgia, it's really something that you have to see to belief. We've all met someone and gotten a strange feeling that something was off. Maybe it was in a story they told or the way they dressed. We're often instructed to trust our gut. Clearly, if we sensed that something is a miss, that means we must be right right. During the nineteen thirties, the Catholic Church had the same feeling about someone quite popular, and so they launched an investigation into a person who had never given them any reason to be suspicious before. It was just that when the rumors got to be big enough, they had no choice but to see if they were true. Her name was Jane and she was born in Santa Monica, California, in nineteen twenty eight. She was the youngest of three, with two older brothers named John and George Junior. Jane was pushed towards entertainment by her mother, who enrolled her in dance classes when she was only three years old. It wasn't long before young Jane noticed by casting director by the name of Charles Lamont, who had directed a number of shorts starring Buster Keaton. Lamont worked for Educational Pictures, a production company that made popular short films of the day. In nineteen thirty two, he brought Jane to an audition for him and immediately signed her for a contract. She would star in a series of comedy shorts called baby Burlesques that's burlesque with a ks at the end. But these weren't risque performances meant for adults. They were short parodies of popular films and current events starring small children. For example, Jane played a saloon singer in a send up of the Maywest film She'd Done Him Wrong, titled Glad Rags to Riches. But pretty soon it was clear that there was more to Jane than bit parts in short films. She broke out of the background into more starring roles. Educational Pictures even bumped her up into longer films where she could really shine and shine. She did so much so that a songwriter working at Fox noticed her dan seen in the lobby of a theater after he had just seen her in one of her pictures. He invited her to screen test for a new movie being made at Fox, and she nailed the audition and not only won the role, but also a contract with the studio. She went on to make a number of films at Fox, which had her singing and dancing and wholesome pictures the whole family could enjoy. Over the next several years, Jane became a certified star, appearing alongside the likes of Gary Cooper and Carol Lombard. And that's when the rumors started to appear. Magazines and tabloid rags printed all sorts of stories about Jane, like how she had her teeth filed to make them look like baby teeth, or that they were actually dentures. Outlets also suggested that she wore a wig or dyed her hair. Fans used to yank on it in public to see if the rumor was true, and the worst rumor of all, that she wasn't actually a child. According to some media outlets, Jane was really a thirty year old little person and she was fooling everyone. Clearly, no one could have achieved such celebrities so young. It must have been a trick. So eventually the Vatican got word of these allegations, as they had become prevalent across Italy and Europe. The Church decided to get to the bottom of them and sent father Silvio Massante to visit Jane and her family. He interviewed the starlets, asking all sorts of questions about her upbringing and who she was. He also confirmed for them the rumors back home in Italy that Jane was really a thirty year old person. Well, Jane didn't know what to say. She was shocked. After the interview was over, father Massante determined that she was not, in fact a person of short stature, and that was the end of the investigation and for the most part, the rumors as well. Shirley Jane Temple went on to have a film career until nineteen forty nine, when she left the movies behind for a stint on television until the nineteen sixties. After the cameras stopped rolling, Shirley got into politics. She became a US ambassador to Anna, an ambassador to Czechoslovakia, and served on various boards of directors for companies like Disney and Bank of America. Shirley Temple was much more than a child star. She just wasn't thirty years old at the height of her career. 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.