Skin-Tight

cross country migration to gain that enlightenment either. They can be as simple as stepping into a warm shower or going for a drive around town that unlocks our subconscience. For John Patterson, though, he did need to get out of state, far from the hustle and bustle of the city to the much quieter countryside, but he had a good reason. He thought he was dying. John was born in Orange, New Jersey, in eighteen thirty. He was one of twelve children, and his father made a living as

a hat maker. He apprenticed under his dad, who started teaching him everything that he knew until his son got some troubling news. He had been diagnosed with tuberculosis. Now, back then, tuberculosis was a death sentence for many, and John's doctor even predicted that he would die quickly from the disease. Being in his twenties and seeing the writing on the wall, he decided to leave his family behind and travel out west. Hopefully the fresh country air and

constant sunshine would help alleviate some of his symptoms. Plus, he was a young man in need of one last adventure before fate struck him down, and so John started in Missouri, where he found work at a local brickyard. It wasn't hat making, but it was honest work, and he soon climbed the latter to partial owner of the factory. Unfortunately, his luck came crumbling down when a river flood carried his dreams and his money out to see. But not to worry, a new endeavor was waiting for him out west.

People were flocking to places like California and Colorado in search of gold, and John wasn't about to miss out. He traveled to Pike's Peak, Colorado, to hopefully strike it rich and return home healthy and wealthy. But he noticed

a problem with everyone's headwar It was terrible. The de facto standard hat that people wore was a coonskin cap, much like Davy Crockett, was famous for wearing Sure it was warm, a nice feature for gold diggers in the Colorado Mountains, but that was all about it had going on for it. These hats did not hold up well in the rain, and they often smelled horrible. They also picked up fleas, and they didn't protect the wearer from

the harsh western sun. So John, having been a hatter and the son of a hatter himself, knew that there had to be a better way, and so he got to work. He fashioned his new headwear from waterproof felt and designed it with a tall, rounded crown as well as a much wider brim. One person remarked it kept the sun out of your eyes and off your neck. It was like an umbrella. And not only that, but some people decided that they could use the brim of the hat as a fan to either keep the wearer

cool or even help start fires. John called his creation the Boss of the Plains, and it became a sensation, so much so that he eventually returned back to the East Coast to start his own company. He settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a stone's throw from his home state of New Jersey. And got to work manufacturing his new popular hats. The Boss of the Planes was only the first. Next came the Carlsbad, which featured a priest down the center of

the crown. These two designs came to embody the image of the cowboy wrangling cattle in jeans and a wide brimmed hat. But John wasn't content changing the face of Western clothing. He also wanted to set his company apart from others in his industry in ways that benefited his workers, especially because people who worked in the hat trade often job hopped from one place to another, so he gave them benefit such as a building and loan program to

help them buy their own homes. He built a special hospital for workers and their families, and he ran a softball league that held games during work hours so that employees could go blow off some steam on Wednesday afternoons. And to make sure his customers knew when they were wearing his hats that they were made by his company as opposed to cheap knockoffs, he had his full name embossed in gold on every headband, John B. Stetson. The name Stetson didn't just come to describe a hat made

by one company. It came to define the style of the hat itself, because if it weren't for John Stetson and his Western adventure, the world might never have gotten the cowboy hat. According to the old adage, the clothes make the man. In other words, people are judged by what they wear. If you want to be taken seriously at a bank, for example, you might want to put on a suit or some sort of businesswar leave the shorts and the T shirt at home. But Jewles didn't

work at a bank. His occupation was a bit more unusual, and his contribution to the world left very little to the imagination. Jewles was born in to Lose, France, in eighteen thirty eight. Despite his father being a gymnastics teacher and local swimming pool owner, Jewles decided to pursue a much different line of work. As he got older, he wanted to become a lawyer. He attended university, earned his degree and even passed his legal exams, doing all the

necessary work to practice law in France. But then something changed. He started developing other interests, more acrobatic interests. He liked working out at his father's gym, where he gained a lot of skill on the rings and the parallel bars. One day he hung a bar from the gymnasium ceiling by a pair of ropes. The result was a parallel bar that could swing over his father's pool. This new invention would eventually come to be known as a trap ease.

Jewels law career was over before it had even started. There was no way that he could sit at a desk all day in an uncomfortable suit when he could instead fly through the air with the greatest of ease. If that line sounds familiar, that's because it comes from the eighteen sixty seven song The Daring young Man on the Flying Trapeze by George Laybourne, a song written about Jewels.

At the height of his popularity, you see, he became quite the celebrity after joining the SIRC Napoleon, where he debuted his flying trapeze routine on November twelfth of eighteen fifty nine. But that wasn't the only thing he showed off. He also wore a relatively unknown piece of clothing that allowed him a wide range of motion, which he called a mayo. It was a sleeveless, tight fitting one piece that covered his legs down to his mid thigh as

well as his mid section. A deep u in the front highlighted his chest while his muscular arms could move without hinderance, and it was cinched in the middle with a tight belt ring. In his first performance, Jewles jumped from one trapeze to another and executed a somersault in mid air, and most daring of all, he did it all without the aid of a safety net below him. Back then, all he had to break his fall were mattresses, which were arranged on the ground under his performance area.

Everyone from the audience to his fellow circus performers couldn't believe their eyes. Jeweles had seemingly done the impossible, and two years later he took his show on the road to London, where he performed at the Alhambra Music Hall. His death defying feats earn him a massive salary about five thousand pounds a week by today's standards, but they didn't have him performing on a stage or in a

special area of the arena. He flew from trapeze to trapeze directly over the heads of people eating their meals below. Jeweles became a rising star in London, where he ended up spending a lot of time over the next several years, but he didn't know that he was not long for this world, and sadly, he passed away of an infectious disease in eighteen seventy, when he was only twenty eight years old. Historians believe it was possibly smallpox. But don't

be too sad. What Jewels contributed to the world is still around today, and I'm not just talking about his song. The trapeze, for example, is still used in circus performances now, but so is his special performance garment. It took a number of years before his name became synonymous with it, but pretty soon many other professions adopted his skin tight outfit for their own purposes. The materials have certainly changed,

but its basic form and purpose have remained consistent. From ballet dancers to aerobics instructors, to gymnasts and everyone else, the special clothing worn by Jules Leotard is still a popular option for athletes all over the world. 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 Worldoflore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.