Quite Contrary

only to have the credit go to someone else. Back in the nineteen seventies, five women did a job that nobody else would or could do, and their research led to some pretty incredible results, results that were ultimately attributed to the men of their field. But Alina Schmantz and Heartline, doctor Sylvia Earl Mead, doctor Renata True, and Peggy Lucas Bond did more for the United States Space program than

we will ever know. In nineteen seventy, both NASA and the US Department of the Interior put out a call they were looking for scientists to head up the next initiative at a special facility called tech Tight two. Tech Tight two was a special kind of base comprised of two metal capsules measuring eighteen feet tall and conducted by a narrow passage. The capsules held a small kitchen with the refrigerator, a microwave, a small table, and a bathroom,

as well as bunks and a laboratory. Tech Tight two had been used four times previously by other teams of five, with four scientists and one engineer on each mission. The goal was to study how scientific teams worked together when isolated in small spaces, similar to what they experienced while in space, and for this new experiment, NASA and the US government wanted five women, as the first four experiments

had been conducted by all male teams. But tech Tite II wasn't located in the middle of the desert or even in a top secret underground facility. It was located forty three feet under the Atlantic Ocean in the Virgin Islands. Several of the women were graduate students at Scrip's Institution of Oceanography, while doctor True taught biological oceanography at Tulane

University in New Orleans. Peggy Lucas Bond came from Villanueva as an electrical engineer The men who had done the previous tech type missions ate frozen dinners every night and had regular contact with the outside world. They weren't so much isolated as they were on vacation. But Schmanson, the other women of Missions six point fifty wouldn't be so lucky. They would live and work together in close quarters for fourteen days studying the behavior of small coral reef fish

while NASA and the DOI studied them. The women were deep enough that they could not surface without getting the bends. NASA had built to facility that could not be escaped so as to better study the psychological effects of being down there for longer periods of time. Once they were selected, the media had a field day with the fact that five young, attractive women were going to be doing what

was considered men's work. Articles and TV reports discussed everything from their heights and weights to how they had allegedly requested a hair dryer in the capsule, which by the way, they hadn't, and the men in charge of the program also bombarded them with sexist remarks and behaviors, an unfortunate but not unexpected consequence of doing their jobs in a man's world. For example, the higher ups didn't think the women would be able to lift or maneuver their breathing

tanks without a man there to help them. Mission six point fifty was led by Sylvia Earl Meade, while Bond maintained the life support systems. The five of them often explored the nearby coral reefs two at a time, with one person staying back at the base. They also got to use rebreathers on their excursions, a new technology that let the women read their own air using special tanks, allowing them to stay out of the base for hours

on end. When they weren't observing the sea life outside of tech Tite, too, they relaxed inside, observing the sea life through the station's bubble shaped windows. There was also a television and radio on board in case they wanted to entertain themselves with something other than fish. Anne Heartline was quoted in the New York Times article saying, there was no claustrophobia, and we got along unbelievably well. The only time we had any disagreement was when we all

wanted to go out swimming at the same time. After it was over, Smonson the others published several academic papers on their findings and NASA got the inside kneaded into the aquanat's mental states Throughout the experiment, The women were also given a ticker tape parade in Chicago and had a special lunch with First Lady Pat Nixon at the

White House. As for tech Tite, it hosted several more all male missions through the nineteen seventies until it was finally decommissioned, but NASA still uses underwater habitats to both train and study astronauts before they head into space above all else, Mission six point fifty proved that women were just as capable of men, if not more so, at

being astronauts. The work of Elina sch Monts and Heartline Sylvia Earl Mead were not a true and Peggy Lucas bond led to NASA eventually training women to go into space. In nineteen seventy four, these five women managed to do the impossible. They broke the glass ceiling while living in an underwater metal tube. Some people believe that if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.

For a woman named Mary Jane, though, it wasn't that she wanted things done right, it's that if she didn't do them herself. They wouldn't have gotten done at all. Mary was born in Brooklyn, New York, in eighteen ninety three. Her mother was a model, and her father had been a boxer before becoming a private investigator. She also had a brother and two sisters, one of whom died as an infant. Mary got the acting bug early after performing

for her local church when she was only five. By the time she was a teenager, she was on the vaudeville circuit as a member of the Hall Clarendon Stock Company. In fact, Mary was an early dragstar, performing under the name Jane Mast and playing the part of a male impersonator. She eventually worked her way up to Broadway in nineteen eleven, performing alongside big stars like ed Wynn, perhaps best remembered as the voice of the Mad Hatter in Disney's Alice

in Wonderland. But being on stage wasn't enough for Mary. She wanted more. She wanted to do it all, write, direct, produce all of the jobs that men were doing, and she knew that if she didn't take the initiative, she would never get the chance. So she got to work writing her own plays. Her first was a nineteen twenty six show simply titled Sex. Mary had written the script, directed it, and produced it all on her own, and audiences loved it, but critics and the authorities did not.

After several religious groups complained about the content of the show, Mary and the rest of the cast were arrested and brought up on morals charges. She spent ten days locked up, refusing to pay the fine because she knew that her play could get a huge boost from the notoriety Anna did. Mary didn't do too badly in jail either. She only served eight days, getting two days off for good behavior, and often ate her meals with the warden and his wife.

She returned to the stage with a new show called The Drag, which cast gay actors that she had known from a club in Greenwich Village. Mary was a staunch supporter of gay rights and often butted heads with the New York City police, who persecuted gay men and brutalized them simply for existing. It's no surprise that after testing her show in New Jersey and Connecticut, she was blocked

from bringing it to the Broadway stage. By the nineteen thirties, Mary had found her way to Hollywood, where she became the talk of the town, but not only because of her acting. She hadn't just broken into the business. She had broken the mold. Mary wrote much of her own material, and although she went uncredited for the work that she did on her first few films, she received sole or partial credit for almost all of the movies that she

made between nineteen thirty three and nineteen seventy eight. Her success allowed her to do many things that women of that era were not allowed to do or even expected to do. For example, she had a clause in her contract that gave her the right to kick her co star W. C. Fields off the set if he ever showed up drunk, which was apparently not all that uncommon. She also allegedly opened a bank account for herself using

a man's name. You see, until the nineteen sixties, women were not allowed to have their own accounts in the United States. But perhaps most impressive of all was her willingness to stand up to hate, especially where her friends were concerned. Mary had a chauffeur and bodyguard named William Landon Jones, better known to BAK fans as Gorilla Jones. He was also her lover, and he was black, and that would have been scandalous enough in the nineteen thirties,

but Mary didn't exactly hide their relationship. One day, Jones arrived at the Ravenswood Apartments in Los Angeles where she lived. He approached the door, at which point he was told that he could not go up to see her. They had put a rule in place banning people of color from entering the building. Mary found out and immediately made two phone calls. The first was to the front desk telling them to allow him up to her room, and the other was to the owners of the apartment building.

Rumor had it that Mary actually bought the ravens Wood and then changed the rules to allow Jones to come and go as he pleased, but the real story was only slightly less dramatic. You see, she found out that the owners were on the verge of losing the building due to lack of funds. They asked Mary for help, which she happily gave. She loaned them the money with the understanding that mister Jones could enter the building with

no more problems. She then told Jones, I was so disgusted with what happened to to you, I bought the Ravenswood In other words, she spread the rumor herself. Mary Jane was an iconoclast. She was an ally to a number of minority communities, and she was someone who did not tolerate hatred towards her friends or family. And that's why she's still revered to this day, but not as Mary Jane, but as May her stage name May West. 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 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 Worldolore dot com. And until next time, stay curious, Kay