Moving Moments

to mind? Odds are if given that prompt, one of the things you might imagine is a wagon train, a line of covered carts meandering over the hills and valleys far off into the distance, carrying whole families to their new homes. It's obviously an image with some baggage too. It's impossible to separate the pioneer trails from the historic souning that paved their way. But just as crucial to the iconography of the American West is the cattle train.

Waves and waves of livestock flanked by cowboys on horseback keeping their herd together. Even as railroads criss crossed the countryside, cattle could not be easily transported along the rails, so cattlemen would have to drive their herds for countless miles from one ranch or fourt to another. During one of these cattle drives out of Texas, a rancher named Charles Goodnight had an idea. It was eighteen sixty six, one

year after the end of the Civil War. Goodnight, a former Texas ranger who had fought for the Confederacy, got hold of an old army wagon and began to refit it for the cattle drive. He added shelving, cabinets, drawers, fire starters, and a Dutch oven, along with plenty of storage for pots, pans and other supplies, and he added a water barrel to the back. The idea was that this wagon could be a mobile kitchen for his cowboys as they drove the cattle, and his idea was a hit.

The newly assembled vehicle, nicknamed a chuck wagon, became an essential part of cattle drives throughout the American West. The food they served wasn't gourmet food, but it was an efficient way to keep cattlemen supplied in the wilderness, rather than relying on each cook to carry his own supply of beans, salted meat, and biscuits. The chuck wagon became the de facto town square for cattle drivers. Cooks carried medical supplies, petty cash, and even performed the services of

a dentist or a barber if needed. One of these cooks could be paid forty five bucks a month, more than twice what the cowboys were making, due to their specialized skills required for this job. While the chuck wagon was a crucial part of cowboy life, its utility was specialized, and although you can see chuck wagon races today at rodeos, they're no longer a common part of the American West, although their DNA does seem to have persisted. You see.

The invention of the chuck wagon was followed by a similar but distinct to rival in city streets, push carts. Although not nearly as self sufficient as the larger chuck wagon, these small carts would roam all over the streets of cities like Chicago and New York, selling cheap food to working people who couldn't afford to make themselves a lunch

mid day or go to a restaurant. The next evolution in mobile food service was the ice cream truck in the mid twentieth century, but almost at the same time, independent entrepreneurs were already thinking of creating a chuck Wagon for the cities a way of serving hot food out of an ice cream truck, and this idea really took off in the mid nineteen sixties, but the result was

a controversial one. You see, mobile food service stations earned the derogatory name roach coaches due to their lower health standards compared to restaurants. They were relegated, at least in the eyes of critics, to a place below fast food restaurants, and am I have stayed that way if not for the Great Recession of two thousand and eight. The mood in America was grim. Countless people were out of work,

the economy was in utter freefall. People were desperate to feed their families, and so some turned to making roach coaches of their own. The result was a boom in street food which persists to this day. And of course, nowadays nobody calls them roach coaches. They're submitted for proper health inspections, and in medi cities, they're the source of the best food you can find for an affordable price, and a test ground for new cuisine that might not

work well in a traditional sit down restaurant. Although there are now countless examples of these food carts, worldwide. In the United States, the frontier roots run deep for this style of restaurant. The grandchild of the Chuck Wagon, the All American food truck, Willis O'Brien was only twenty nine, but he had already lived an interesting life. He'd been a cowboy, a boxer, a marble cutter, and more an

Irish and American known as Obi to his friends. By nineteen thirteen, he was working sculpting figures for the World's Fair. He created a small boxer figuring, and it was so lifelike he almost wished that it would come to life. That's when he got the idea to put it on film. If he could figure out how to move the figure frame by frame and then splice the film frames together, he could make it look like the boxing figuring was

actually moving. His early attempts at this led to movements that were jerky and not too convincing, but it was such a neat effect that Obi decided to develop it further. Although he was a tough man who worked a lot of physically demanding jobs, he had this inner artist that he nurtured by studying images of people and animals and seeing how well he could replicate them, both on paper and with clay. Most of all, he'd always loved dinosaurs. For his next film, he created a battle between a

caveman and a prehistoric creature. This one was impress enough to capture the attention of Thomas Edison, who hired Obi to make several more shorts for his company. By nineteen twenty five, Obie had become in demand throughout Hollywood for his special effects. He came to the attention of an even more famous individual than Thomas Edison, none other than Sherlock Holmes creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Sir Arthur reached out to Obi, wanting him to do the special effects

for an adaptation of his book The Lost World. This was a very popular book at the time that featured a crew of explorers traveling to South America and encountering living dinosaurs. It's a classic novel that's been adapted many times and was famously the inspiration for the Jurassic Park franchise. But it was on Obie to bring the very first adaptation to life. He had never worked on a feature film before, nor had any of his shorts been released

to such a wide audience. He wanted his models to be the most impressive he had done so far, and on top of that, there would be more of them than in any of his shorts before. The book has everything from an iguanodon and a stegosaurus to pterodactyls and more. Obi set about creating his monsters, beginning with metal frames with movable ball and socket joints. He then added rubber and foam to create detailed, realistic skins for the dinosaurs.

They had eyes, teeth, wrinkles, everything they needed to be believable. Once it was time to put them on film, Obi refined his filming techniques. He had gotten a lot better at subtly moving the figures frame by frame so that their movement was fluid. But now for the Lost World, he wanted to pioneer a new technique. Up to this point, he had never had his monsters and the actors of the films share the same frame. Now he knew how.

He cleverly exposed one half of the frame with an image of the actor, and then he exposed the second half with an image of his model. Using the same backdrop for both, he could create the illusion that the models were towering over the actors preparing to eat them. Beyond that, he also created intricate fighting scenes between the dinosaurs. He even added subtle facial expressions to the monsters so that you could follow the emotions of a fight. I

mean they looked angry, annoyed, and frustrated. Sir Arthur was so impressed with the final result he had a screening for his best friend, the most famous magician of all time, Harry Houdini. Clearly, Obi ran in some interesting circles. Harry and his magician friends found the effects so convincing many thought that it was real magic. The film was just as well received when it was released. Audiences of the time didn't have the discerning eye of today's viewers. They

had never seen special effects of any kind. To them, these were real dinosaurs. They couldn't imagine how they could be any better. Obi's career grew and grew from there, until in nineteen thirty three, he was hired to work on the film that would become his masterpiece. If you haven't heard of The Lost World, you've definitely heard of King Kong. King Kong was even more successful multiple Academy Awards.

Obi actually refused his saying that it should go to the entire team that helped him bring the world of King Kong to life. It was, he said, their collective attention to detail that made Kong such a classic film character. He was just an ape made out of rubber and fur, but there was never any doubt about what he was feeling. Obi's curiosity when it came to drawing and sculpting people and dinosaurs led to one of the greatest films of all time. It's also led to the creation of an

entire medium, stop motion animation. I hope you enjoyed today's guided tour through the Cabinet of Curiosities. This show was created by me Aaron Manke in partnership with iHeart Podcasts, researched and written by the Grim and Mild team, and produced by Jesse Funk. Learn more about the show and the people who make it over at Grimandmild dot com slash Curiosities. You'll also find a link to the official Cabinet of Curiosity's hardc cover book, available in bookstores and online,

as well as ebook and audiobook. And if you're looking for an ad free option, consider joining our Patreon. It's all the same stories, but without the interruption. For a small monthly fee, Learn more and sign up over at patreon dot com. Slash Grimandmild, and until next time, stay curious,