Mayday

be different people for our enjoyment. But what are politicians if not actors? They put on fake smiles and shake hands, pretending to be one kind of person in front of the cameras, then turning into regular disappointing selves behind the scenes. And that's probably why certain entertainers have gravitated toward politics over the years. Sonny Bono of Sonny and Share Fame was the mayor of Palm Springs, California, before becoming a

U S congressman and former President. Ronald Reagan got his start as a radio and film star prior to entering the political arena. But before all of them, there was Will Rogers. Will Rogers had gotten his start working on his family's ranch in Oklahoma in the late eighteen hundreds. He was the youngest of eight children, but only one of four to survive past childhood. Rogers set off on his own when he was twenty two, bound for Argentina

in hopes of running his own ranch and taming wild horses. Instead, he lost everything and boarded a ship for South Africa to tend to someone else's ranch. Rogers was someone who commanded attention, probably as a result of growing up in a house with seven other siblings. Before long, he had left the ranch behind for a circus tent, performing writing and roping tricks for audiences in South Africa, Australia, and

eventually back home in America. It was during a performance at Madison Square Garden in nineteen o five when his act got away from him literally. A wild steer made a mad dash for the crowd, and Rogers sprung into action. He roped the steer, eliciting cheers from the audience and

earning himself a top spot on the vaudeville stage. As he gained in popularity, he made the jump to the screen, starring in silent films and talkies from Westerns to musicals, and playing all kinds of roles, including cowboys, bankers, and yes, politicians. But that wasn't enough for Rogers. He had other horizons to explore. Among them were lectures, newspaper columns, and his daily telegrams, which were published in over five hundred papers.

He often discussed current events and answered questions from readers, espousing his homespun wisdom wrapped up in anecdotes from his own life. He was Ralph Waldo Emerson combined Mark Twain, so it's no surprise that the American people loved and trusted him. In fact, had he chosen to run for president, he probably would have won. Enter magazine editor Robert Sherwood. Sherwood and his art director Fred Cooper worked for a humor Republication and had a unique problem on their hands.

It was night and President Calvin Coolidge had decided not to run for a second term, opening up the floor to new Republican candidate Herbert Hoover. Meanwhile, Democrats were busy contending with their own candidate, who had been campaigning against prohibition while the rest of the party supported it. Sherwood and Cooper thought it would be funny to come up with a new party, one that poked fun at the two sides contending for the presidency, Rogers suggested that they

call it the Anti Bunk Party. Sherwood ran with it, announcing its formation on May seventeenth of that year, one month before the Republican and Democrat national conventions, and the Anti Bunk Party's candidate Will Rogers himself. Now, Rogers didn't take his candidacy too seriously, remarking whatever the other fellow don't do, we will. When asked if he would participate in debates, he responded, joint debate in any joint you name.

On the topic of mud slinging and nasty rumors, Rogers pointed out that the things they whisper aren't as bad as the things they say out loud. And perhaps what endeared him most to the American public his sole campaign promise that if he was elected, he would immediately resign. The only venue for his platform was the magazine that had sponsored him For the four consecutive weeks following Memorial Day, his satirical musings about the campaign were published for all

to read well. Election day finally came, and before any of the votes had mentalitied Rogers stepped up and declared himself the winner, and then fulfilled his promise. He promptly resigned.

Children have a funny way of mimicking behaviors. If a parent cuts themselves while cooking and says a bad word, it won't be long before that same word as being shouted by someone much smaller in the house, And you better have a good doctor on call when they decide they want to jump off the bookshelf and fly like Superman. The thing about kids is they eventually grow out of that phase. They learn what they know and what they don't know, and for the things they don't know, they

have teachers who can show them the way. Dr William Whitney Christmas never got that memo. Christmas was born in September of eighteen sixty five in North Carolina. He attended many colleges and academies, earning himself a Bachelor of Arts undergraduate degree, and a medical degree from George Washington University. One thing he was not was an engineer. Still, Christmas had high hopes, so high he forgot about his medical career.

At the turn of the century, enjoined a new hotbed of innovation, flight, inspired by the right brothers flight at Kittie Hawk, Christmas launched an aircraft of his own. Well so, he said, there was no proof, as he had burned the plane and all the blueprints to secure the secret

of its construction. His next attempt was an aircraft he called the Red Bird, which boasted a design generously borrowed from the Red Wing, a plane that had originally been built by telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell's company, And just as he had done with his first plane, Christmas told everybody his Red Bird had flown. One year later, in nineteen o nine, he formed his own operation, the Christmas

Aeroplane Company, with the help of three investors. They focused their efforts on the military, who would be in high demand for aerial combat vehicles. Christmas struggled for eight more years, burning through funds and even losing his original investors, before finally landing an ideal client in the Continental Aircraft Company of Amityville, Long Island. The world had gone to war

and the United States was in need of planes. Christmas showed three of his designs to Continental as part of a hair brained scheme to build them, then used them to kidnap the Kaiser and forced Germany to surrender. Continental jumped on board, opting to build the most unique of Christmas designs. It was a single seat biplane powered by a Liberty six prototype engine Christmas had procured from the Army that in and of itself wouldn't have been enough

to raise eyebrows, but his other choices certainly did. For one, his plane was made almost entirely of wood, with a wood veneer. Second, the wings were comprised of thin pieces of metal welded together. They were brittle and weak. However, Christmas didn't believe in structural engineering or you know, physics, so he refused to attach struts for stability. He believed the wings would flap like those of a bird. They were also quite heavy. The whole plane was. In fact.

Continental saw right away the kinds of problems Christmas designs would present, and they tried to get him to change it, but he refused, and they built the plane as it was planned. Once the Christmas Bullet, as it was called, was finally finished, it was time to take it for a spin. Every pilot asked to fly it responded with

a resounding no, until Cuthbert Mills came along. Mills was an airmail pilot delivering letters by mail all over the country, and someone who had no problem taking the Christmas Bullet up into the clouds. He was honored and even invited his mother to come watch him fly such a unique

and revolutionary aircraft. Mills brought it up to about three thousand feet on January of nineteen nineteen, an impressive accomplishment and one that would have reflected well on the plane's creator, a man who had entered the aviation field with no experience and only a dream. It's just a shame that that dream wouldn't last. The Bullet's wings started to flap at such a high altitude, and in an instant they were both gone, broken away from the rest of the plane,

which was now hurtling toward the earth. Mills was killed on act. The prototype engine from the military was destroyed, and Christmas ran an ad in the newspaper touting his planes top speed of almost two hundred miles per hour. He covered up mills death and blamed the crash on user error before setting to work on a second prototype. This time he was able to secure a propeller from the Army. The second Bullet made a stop at Madison Square Garden before it's made in flight in March of

nineteen There was only one problem. The propeller was too long. Unfazed and unwilling to postpone the launch, Christmas grabbed a saw and hacked the blades down to size. The plane's first flight ended much like its predecessors, with a bang. It hit the ground and killed the pilot, but it didn't deter its creator from declaring the Bullet as the safest plane in the world in Vanity Fair magazine. The government decided to take a closer look at the cantankerous craft,

and that's when Christmas abandoned it. He lobbied for more money to continue his research and build more planes. He told government committees that Germany was going to pay him a million dollars to outfit their air force with his designs, and that his Bullet had in fact flown successfully, but his photographic evidence had been destroyed by the government in a plot against him. Finally, Christmas sent the United States Army a bill for one hundred thousand dollars for using

his patented wing design, which they paid. In the end, William Christmas never went to jail or paid a dime ind restitution for the men who died flying his planes. He was never held accountable for his negligence, nor the various cover ups and false advertising. In fact, Christmas died very old and very rich. One might even say he was merry. 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 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. Ye