00:00:04
Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Cities often seen cramped and crowded, don't they People work and live in skyscrapers that soar over streets clogged with taxis and pedestrians. After all, in a city you can't build out, you build up. When you think of narrow alleyways and densely packed streets, we often think of places like New York City and Chicago. But one location that isn't often talked about lies roughly four thousand miles away the ocean, and that place is Paris, France, and back in nineteen nineteen, one man did the impossible. He landed a plane in the middle of the city of Lights. His name was Jules Vdrine born in France in eighteen eighty one. Vadrine was a hoodlum who spent much of his youth getting in fights on the streets of Paris. But despite his heart in nature, he also grew up to become a skilled mechanic. Vadrine eventually found his way to London when he was twenty nine to work under actor and aviator Robert Lorraine. After six months, the former street urchin earned his own pilot's license and started making a name for himself all over Paris. He won or placed in a number of air races, which eventually helped him launch a political career as a Socialist candidate in local elections. Although he was in adept pilots with numerous trophies on his wall, he had less luck in politics, but that didn't stop him from trying. He even used his skills as a pilot to drop propaganda over the Chamber of Deputies in Paris in eighteen twelve, the year that he ran. These skills carried him through World War One, where he ran secret service missions delivering troops over enemy lines or getting them out of harm's way. Thedrine had gone from fighting in the streets of Paris to saving the lives of his comrades and arms. Quite the journey for a young man, but the achievement for which he is best known was yet to come. Before the war had started, a contest had been announced, with the grand prize of twenty five thousand francs to be given to the pilot who could land his plane on the roof of Paris's Galery Lafayette department store. To do so was quite dangerous, after all, the rooftop rows only thirty meters above the Paris streets, with no room for a runway. Even the police had to step in. They saw how risky it was and issued in order forbidding anyone to try it. But Jules Vdrine wasn't exactly someone to listen to authority. He knew he could do it. After all, he'd been a World War One hero, clocking in over one thousand hours running airborne reconnaissance missions for the French Army. Landing a place lane on the roof of a department store would be a piece of cake. So on January nineteenth of nineteen nineteen, Vdrine hopped into the cockpit of his Quadron G point three, a single engine French plane. This would have been the same plane that he'd flown during the war. Very little about the event is known today, save for a few photographs that remain. But what is clear is that Vadrine successfully landed his plane on the roof of the Gallery Lafayette, and in order to make sure that he didn't overshoot the landing, he had a team of men waiting to catch the Quadron by its wings as it touched down, and his wild plan worked. Although he won the twenty five thousand francs, six francs were deducted for landing in a restricted area of the roof and for any damage caused by the stunt. He and the plane also suffered injuries as a result. But he done it. Jules Vdrine had become the first person to land an airplane on top of a building. His victory was short lived, though, a few months later, while piloting a Quadron C twenty three to Rome, his engine failed and the aviator died trying to land his aircraft. Today, all that remains of the event is an engraved stone plaque on the roof of the Gallery Lafayette, burying the face of Jules Vadrine and a description of what happened that day. And as someone who has struggled to find parking spots while going shopping myself, you have to admire how Vdrine found such a curious solution. Alvin loved getting high, but not in the way you might think. He was born Alouisious Anthony Kelly in Hell's Kitchen, New York, on May eleventh of eighteen ninety three. He didn't know his parents. His mother died during childbirth and his father passed away before he was born. He was adopted by a family friend, but it was clear from a young age that Kelly had his eyes on a life outside of Hell's Kitchen. When he was thirteen years old, Alvin ran away from home and signed up for work on a cargo ship. As he grew older, he took on a number of professions including steel worker, high diver, chimney and roof repairman, boxer, and as a stunt pilot for movies. And it was his work on films that helps him make a name for himself outside of his old neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen. In January of nineteen twenty four, a local movie theater hired Kelly for a publicity stunt to help sell tickets for an upcoming picture. His job climbed to the top of a tall pole and sit on it. It was apparently something that he'd been good at since he was a boy. Kelly had climbed to the top of a pole when he was only seven years old, at least according to one witness. Then when he was nine, he climbed up the side of a building all by himself. But in the winter of nineteen twenty four, he sat on top of a pole for over thirteen hours, all to spread word about a new movie being released. Except it wasn't the movie that he wound up advertising. It was Alvin Kelly himself. He started traveling all over the country just sitting on poles for money and attention, and the people loved him for it. Local businesses sponsored him and even hired him to advertise for them. He gained fans who would wait for him to climb down from his perch so that they would meet him afterward. But spending hours on top of a flagpole could be taxing for the average stuntman. So how did Kelly pull it off? Well, For one, he didn't eat much. He subsisted mainly on coffee and broth, which he had delivered to him using a bucket hooked to a rope and pulley. He also taught himself to nap. Sitting up, he would stick his thumbs into holes at the top of the pole, and when his sleeping body would list in one direction, the pain in his hands would snap him awake. Of course, staying up there for tens of hours meant that all those liquids had to go somewhere, and it wasn't like he had a porta potty on a pole next to him. Allegedly, Kelly had rigged up a tube system that ran the length of the pole to a container on the ground with which he would relieve himself into. This was better than an alternative solution that would have required spectators to carry umbrellas with them, and when he wasn't evacuating his bladder, Kelly could be seen shaving or reading the newspaper as though he were simply going about his normal day and not sitting one hundred feet in the air on a narrow metal pole. Kelly quickly outdid his record of thirteen hours and thirteen minutes. In nineteen twenty seven, he sat on a pole for one hundred and forty seven hours in the middle of February in Kansas City, Missouri. Having spent my youth in the Midwest, I can only imagine how horrible that was. He battled wind and rain and cold, only to go even longer in Atlantic City in nineteen thirty On that occasion, he sat on top of a pole for nearly twelve hundred hours, that's forty nine days. He never let the weather or discomfort sway him, either whether it was ten degrees out or blistering hot. He would give the people what they wanted, and apparently what they wanted to see was a man sitting on a pole. Sadly, his days of flagpole sitting came to an end in nineteen thirty five, at least profession. He was one day into an attempt to break his Atlantic City record when the police forced him to get down. After that moment, he went in got a regular job to make ends meet. A New York Dunkin Donuts hired him in nineteen thirty nine to do headstands on the fifty fourth floor of the Channon Building in Manhattan for National Donut Week. He performed while eating donuts and drinking coffee upside down, but soon after the Sea called him back for duty. He served during World War II as a merchant marine before returning to his old life without a penny to his name. He tried flagpole sitting again in nineteen fifty two, but a stunt in Orange, Texas proved to be too much for him. He was sixty five feet in the air when he suffered a series of heart attacks. They did not kill him, though, but they did force him to retire from flagpole sitting forever. Kelly went back to Hell's Kitchen to live out the rest of his days, and I do mean days. While walking down the street in his old neighborhood. Soon after his return, he collapsed on the sidewalk and died. He had no more and no family to claim him from the morgue. He was eventually laid to rest at Long Island National Cemetery Alvin Shipwreck. Kelly accomplished a lot during his relatively short life. He may not have been blind or been given superpowers in a freak accident, but he'll always be remembered as the original Daredevil of Hell's Kitchen. 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.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Cities often seen cramped and crowded, don't they People work and live in skyscrapers that soar over streets clogged with taxis and pedestrians. After all, in a city you can't build out, you build up. When you think of narrow alleyways and densely packed streets, we often think of places like New York City and Chicago. But one location that isn't often talked about lies roughly four thousand miles away the ocean, and that place is Paris, France, and back in nineteen nineteen, one man did the impossible. He landed a plane in the middle of the city of Lights. His name was Jules Vdrine born in France in eighteen eighty one. Vadrine was a hoodlum who spent much of his youth getting in fights on the streets of Paris. But despite his heart in nature, he also grew up to become a skilled mechanic. Vadrine eventually found his way to London when he was twenty nine to work under actor and aviator Robert Lorraine. After six months, the former street urchin earned his own pilot's license and started making a name for himself all over Paris. He won or placed in a number of air races, which eventually helped him launch a political career as a Socialist candidate in local elections. Although he was in adept pilots with numerous trophies on his wall, he had less luck in politics, but that didn't stop him from trying. He even used his skills as a pilot to drop propaganda over the Chamber of Deputies in Paris in eighteen twelve, the year that he ran. These skills carried him through World War One, where he ran secret service missions delivering troops over enemy lines or getting them out of harm's way. Thedrine had gone from fighting in the streets of Paris to saving the lives of his comrades and arms. Quite the journey for a young man, but the achievement for which he is best known was yet to come. Before the war had started, a contest had been announced, with the grand prize of twenty five thousand francs to be given to the pilot who could land his plane on the roof of Paris's Galery Lafayette department store. To do so was quite dangerous, after all, the rooftop rows only thirty meters above the Paris streets, with no room for a runway. Even the police had to step in. They saw how risky it was and issued in order forbidding anyone to try it. But Jules Vdrine wasn't exactly someone to listen to authority. He knew he could do it. After all, he'd been a World War One hero, clocking in over one thousand hours running airborne reconnaissance missions for the French Army. Landing a place lane on the roof of a department store would be a piece of cake. So on January nineteenth of nineteen nineteen, Vdrine hopped into the cockpit of his Quadron G point three, a single engine French plane. This would have been the same plane that he'd flown during the war. Very little about the event is known today, save for a few photographs that remain. But what is clear is that Vadrine successfully landed his plane on the roof of the Gallery Lafayette, and in order to make sure that he didn't overshoot the landing, he had a team of men waiting to catch the Quadron by its wings as it touched down, and his wild plan worked. Although he won the twenty five thousand francs, six francs were deducted for landing in a restricted area of the roof and for any damage caused by the stunt. He and the plane also suffered injuries as a result. But he done it. Jules Vdrine had become the first person to land an airplane on top of a building. His victory was short lived, though, a few months later, while piloting a Quadron C twenty three to Rome, his engine failed and the aviator died trying to land his aircraft. Today, all that remains of the event is an engraved stone plaque on the roof of the Gallery Lafayette, burying the face of Jules Vadrine and a description of what happened that day. And as someone who has struggled to find parking spots while going shopping myself, you have to admire how Vdrine found such a curious solution. Alvin loved getting high, but not in the way you might think. He was born Alouisious Anthony Kelly in Hell's Kitchen, New York, on May eleventh of eighteen ninety three. He didn't know his parents. His mother died during childbirth and his father passed away before he was born. He was adopted by a family friend, but it was clear from a young age that Kelly had his eyes on a life outside of Hell's Kitchen. When he was thirteen years old, Alvin ran away from home and signed up for work on a cargo ship. As he grew older, he took on a number of professions including steel worker, high diver, chimney and roof repairman, boxer, and as a stunt pilot for movies. And it was his work on films that helps him make a name for himself outside of his old neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen. In January of nineteen twenty four, a local movie theater hired Kelly for a publicity stunt to help sell tickets for an upcoming picture. His job climbed to the top of a tall pole and sit on it. It was apparently something that he'd been good at since he was a boy. Kelly had climbed to the top of a pole when he was only seven years old, at least according to one witness. Then when he was nine, he climbed up the side of a building all by himself. But in the winter of nineteen twenty four, he sat on top of a pole for over thirteen hours, all to spread word about a new movie being released. Except it wasn't the movie that he wound up advertising. It was Alvin Kelly himself. He started traveling all over the country just sitting on poles for money and attention, and the people loved him for it. Local businesses sponsored him and even hired him to advertise for them. He gained fans who would wait for him to climb down from his perch so that they would meet him afterward. But spending hours on top of a flagpole could be taxing for the average stuntman. So how did Kelly pull it off? Well, For one, he didn't eat much. He subsisted mainly on coffee and broth, which he had delivered to him using a bucket hooked to a rope and pulley. He also taught himself to nap. Sitting up, he would stick his thumbs into holes at the top of the pole, and when his sleeping body would list in one direction, the pain in his hands would snap him awake. Of course, staying up there for tens of hours meant that all those liquids had to go somewhere, and it wasn't like he had a porta potty on a pole next to him. Allegedly, Kelly had rigged up a tube system that ran the length of the pole to a container on the ground with which he would relieve himself into. This was better than an alternative solution that would have required spectators to carry umbrellas with them, and when he wasn't evacuating his bladder, Kelly could be seen shaving or reading the newspaper as though he were simply going about his normal day and not sitting one hundred feet in the air on a narrow metal pole. Kelly quickly outdid his record of thirteen hours and thirteen minutes. In nineteen twenty seven, he sat on a pole for one hundred and forty seven hours in the middle of February in Kansas City, Missouri. Having spent my youth in the Midwest, I can only imagine how horrible that was. He battled wind and rain and cold, only to go even longer in Atlantic City in nineteen thirty On that occasion, he sat on top of a pole for nearly twelve hundred hours, that's forty nine days. He never let the weather or discomfort sway him, either whether it was ten degrees out or blistering hot. He would give the people what they wanted, and apparently what they wanted to see was a man sitting on a pole. Sadly, his days of flagpole sitting came to an end in nineteen thirty five, at least profession. He was one day into an attempt to break his Atlantic City record when the police forced him to get down. After that moment, he went in got a regular job to make ends meet. A New York Dunkin Donuts hired him in nineteen thirty nine to do headstands on the fifty fourth floor of the Channon Building in Manhattan for National Donut Week. He performed while eating donuts and drinking coffee upside down, but soon after the Sea called him back for duty. He served during World War II as a merchant marine before returning to his old life without a penny to his name. He tried flagpole sitting again in nineteen fifty two, but a stunt in Orange, Texas proved to be too much for him. He was sixty five feet in the air when he suffered a series of heart attacks. They did not kill him, though, but they did force him to retire from flagpole sitting forever. Kelly went back to Hell's Kitchen to live out the rest of his days, and I do mean days. While walking down the street in his old neighborhood. Soon after his return, he collapsed on the sidewalk and died. He had no more and no family to claim him from the morgue. He was eventually laid to rest at Long Island National Cemetery Alvin Shipwreck. Kelly accomplished a lot during his relatively short life. He may not have been blind or been given superpowers in a freak accident, but he'll always be remembered as the original Daredevil of Hell's Kitchen. 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.
