Old Haunts

you might think they were created that way. The Winchester Mystery House, for example, built by Heiress Sarah Winchester, is supposedly haunted by the ghosts of every person who has ever been killed with a Winchester rifle. With the money her husband left her after his death, Sarah renovated her home until it was seven stories tall, comprised of staircases to nowhere and allow brenth of hallways why to confuse

the ghosts. Meanwhile, in the North Atlantic plains and ships traveling through the Bermuda Triangle are often lost at sea, never to be found again. Some claim the Bermuda Triangle has been the site of extraterrestrial activity, while others believe a ghostly paranormal force is to blame. Whatever has caused the disappearances, Though has healthy area earned its other nickname,

the Devil's Triangle. But there is another Haunted Triangle, this one located in the unlikeliest of places, Beverly Hills, California. Between the streets of North Linden Drive and North Whittier Drive, is a tiny patch of land across its well manicured lawn or half a dozen palm trees, as though a desert island just sprang up one day in the middle of the suburbs. Its history as a mainstay of Haunted Hollywood, though, can be traced back to aviator and filmmaker Howard Hughes

in nine Hughes was no stranger to the sky. When the time came to test his prototype x F eleven aircraft on July seven of that year. He had already been flying for over twenty five years. He took off in the x F eleven from his airfield in Culver City, California, and flew longer than he probably should have. After an hour in the air, the propellers started to malfunction, causing the plane to pull to the right. It was going down fast, and Hughes needed a safe place to land,

so he headed toward Los Angeles country Club. It's big open greens would have provided the perfect place for a crash landing, but the XF eleven wasn't going to make it. Instead, Hughes found himself flying over Beverly Hills Triangle, skidding across the tops of three houses on North Whittier Drive. He managed to survive, but barely. He pulled himself from the wreckage as the fuel tanks exploded. The accident caused several broken bones, and Hughes suffered from third degree burns. One

year later, another episode struck the area. Bugsy Siegel, the infamous gangster and founder of the Murder inc crimes in the Kids, was visiting his girlfriend, Virginia Hill. Hill lived in Beverly Hills, just across the street from the Triangle. On the night of June, someone fired several thirty caliber rounds from an M one carbine rifle through the window, killing seagull. It's been alleged that Bugsy had been stealing from the mob, but no one knows quite for sure

why he was targeted that night. The murder is still unsolved to this day, and the incidents only added to the triangles mythos. But perhaps the strangest occurrence attributed to the Triangle involved one half of the nineteen sixties surf group Jan and Dean. It was April twelfth of nineteen sixty six and Jan Barry was driving his Corvette along

Whittier Drive. He had driven past the Triangle on his way to a business meeting when he came to the intersection at Whittier and Sunset Boulevard, also known as dead Man's Curve. Barry was speeding that day and lost control of the car. He drove it straight into a park truck, totaling the Corvette and nearly losing his life. In fact, the paramedics who first arrived at the crash I thought he was dead. Barry spent the next two months in a coma, finally waking up on June six of nineteen

sixty six. He lost most of the use of his right arm and had to learn to walk again due to the brain damage and partial paralysis caused by the accident. Berry eventually recovered and returned to the studio a year later. Jan and Dean were known for several hit songs during the sixties, including Little Old Lady from Pasadena Surf City and a tune about a young man who races his

corvette against another driver. In the song, the singer and the unknown race driver zoom down Sunset Boulevard around a dangerous stretch of road before the singer loses control of his vehicle. In the end, the singer tells his story to a doctor as the listener hears the sounds of screeching tires and a crash, giving the impression that he does really make it out alive, but barely. The name of the song dead Man's Curve. Competition always breeds innovation.

When one company hits the market with a product that's new and exciting, it's only a matter of time before someone else steps up with something even better. From smartphones to computers to the number of blades in our shaving razors, competition forces companies to up the ante and we the consumer, reap the rewards. But sometimes competition doesn't just lead to something mildly better, it spawns something entirely new. Walter Diamer wasn't much for competition. He was working as an accountant

for Flear, a gum manufacturer based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its founder, Frank Henry Flear, had come up with a new kind of gum he called blibber Blubber, but it wasn't too popular. It didn't hold together very well, and customers found it too sticky to be enjoyable. When Diamer wasn't crunching the numbers, however, he fancied himself a kind of gum chef. One day, while trying out a recipe for a new gum base, he inadvertently created something far less sticky than blibber Blubber.

He also stretched it further too. He thought he was onto something, but there was only one problem. It was ugly. It's dull gray color did not make it look appetizing, so Diamer looked around for some food coloring to brighten it up a bit. The only color he could find in the factory it was red, so he poured it into the batch, changing the gums hue from gray to pink. Rather than bringing it to his superiors first, he wanted to see if it would be something people even wanted.

He packaged five pounds of it on his own and set up shop at a local candy store. Diamer's new gum, which he priced at a penny apiece, sold out in less than a day. With his test. Having been proven successful, he gave his formula to Flear, which they turned into a new gum called Double Bubble. They even kept Dimer's original price of a penny per piece and packaged a small comic strip called the Fleer Funnies inside the wrapper. For twenty years, Double Bubble was one of the most

popular candy items in America. Dimer didn't really chew gum himself, but children often wrote to him to thank him for his invention. He and his wife also judged their fair share of bubble blowing contests in their home. Flear ceased production of their popular chewing gum during World War Two, as the sugar and latex needed to make it were in short supply. However, after the war ended and things started back to normal, another competitor stepped into the ring.

A small rectangle of pink gum wrapped in red, white and blue wax paper, also sold for a penny a piece. It went by one explosive word, Bazooka, and people loved it. For a long time, Bazuka and Double Bubble went head to head in candy shops and convenience stores all over, but in nineteen fifty Bazuka's parent company changed the game. Looking to increase gum sales, they entered into a brand

new market trading cards. Instead of focusing on singlesticks of gum for a penny each, they enticed kids to buy cards featuring their favorite actors and later on baseball players. By including a stick of gum in each pack. The cards became instant collectible items for kids and adults alike, but nobody really cared for the gum. Collectors didn't like how it stained the cards if it had been inside the pack too long, and the kids didn't like how

it tasted. They were more interested in buying new packs to find cards missing from their growing collection. By the company had phased out bubble gum from their sports card lines entirely, and despite them still owning the Bazooka brand to this day, they're better known for their extensive lines

of collectible baseball, football, soccer, and licensed movie cards. Walter Diamer helped Flear reinvent chewing gum with his accidental formula, allowing it to eventually branch off into lines of baseball and basketball cards of its own. Sadly, Diamer never saw any residuals or royalties from his efforts. He never filed for a patent, but he did shall he become the company's vice president. After he retired in nineteen seventy, Fleer struggle to compete with that other major card company and

gun brand. It was bought by Marvel Entertainment Group in while the company behind Bazooka Joe kept getting bigger and bigger, dominating the markets almost entirely. And you know it continues to live up to its name today, the card company Tops. 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.