Today In History with The Retrospectors

Towards the end of 1983, frenzied parents battled with one another in stores across the US in a desperate bid to buy their children the toy of the moment, the Cabbage Patch Kid.The so-called Cabbage Patch Riots culminated on 28th November 1983 at a Zayre department store in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, when a melee broke out that was so intense a store manager grabbed a baseball bat to protect himself, police dispersed the crowds and four people ended up in hospital.In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly discuss why Cabbage Patch Kids were in such short supply; look into why the toys had their inventor’s name emblazoned on their bottoms; and reveal the true story of how Cabbage Patch dolls came into being…  Further Reading:• ‘The Not-So-Sweet Truth About Cabbage Patch Kids’ (Good Housekeeping, 2015): https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/a32201/cabbage-patch-dolls-history/ • ‘The strange story of the Cabbage Patch Kid Riots of 1983’ (ABC, 2022): https://abc7ny.com/cabbage-patch-dolls-crazy-riot-the-vault/5713681/ • ‘Tales from the Cabbage Patch Riots of 1983’ (Pixel Dan, 2020): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hpa5IZiAfC0 #US #80s #Strange #ToysPicture: Flickr/Benjamin GrayLove the show? Join 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS 🌴 to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode every SUNDAY!Plus, get weekly bonus bits, unlock over 70 bits of extra content and support our independent podcast.Join now via Apple Podcasts or Patreon. Thanks!We'll be back tomorrow! Follow us wherever you get your podcasts: podfollow.com/RetrospectorsThe Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Sophie King.Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2022. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Elián González was just five years old when he was found clinging to an inner tube off the coast of Florida on 25th November, 1999. His mother, step-father, and all the other Cuban migrants who had been attempting to cross to the United States with him were lost at sea.Elián’s future then became a matter of high-stakes diplomacy between the two Cold War countries: should he be granted residency with his extended family in Little Havana, or returned back to actual Havana to the arms of his father?In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly revisit the intense 24-hour news cycle that took hold over this seemingly small story; explain why even Gloria Estefan got caught up in the furore; and reveal how Alan Diaz went about taking his Pulitzer prize-winning photo of the FBI raid on Elián’s uncle’s home…  Further Reading:• ‘Elián González: How Cuba and the U.S. fought over a child in an international tug-of-war’ (The Washington Post, 2019): https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/11/25/federal-agents-seized-year-old-elin-gonzlez-gunpoint-custody-battle-raged-months/• ‘Opinion | The Future of Elián González’ (The New York Times, 1999): https://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/30/opinion/the-future-of-elian-gonzalez.html?searchResultPosition=4• ‘Elián González Believes He Would Have Been Used To Make Cuba Look Bad’ (CBS, 2015): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEgjpOK9t64#US #90s #CubaWe'll be back on Monday - unless you join 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴, where we give you ad-free listening AND a full-length Sunday episode every week!Plus, weekly bonus content, unlock over 70 bonus bits, and support our independent podcast.Join now via Apple Podcasts or Patreon. Thanks!The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Sophie King.Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2022.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rerun. It took over three million years to find her. But palaeontologists Donald Johanson and Tom Gray uncovered the remains of ‘the Lucy Fossil’ - a previously undiscovered species of pre-human - in Hadar, Ethiopia on 24th November, 1974.Despite the find’s massive significance, the event was not greeted with untrammelled joy by all their rival fossil hunters. Some - who had wanted to claim such a discovery for themselves - began publicly disputing that Lucy was indeed a missing link in the evolution of humankind.In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly reveal how Lucy received her rock n’ roll name; explain how her tiny brain but upright walking turned previous scientific thinking on its head; and consider whether, actually, “Captain Caveman was quite accurate”...Further Reading:• ‘Nov. 24, 1974: Humanity, Meet Lucy. She's Your Mom’ (WIRED, 2009): https://www.wired.com/2009/11/1124lucy-discovered/• ‘Lucy and the Leakeys’ (Khan Academy): https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/big-history-project/early-humans/how-ancestors-evolved/a/lucy-and-the-leakeys• ‘Donald Johanson: Discovering the Fossil “Lucy”’ (Freedom From Religion Foundation, 2014): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AX4eqqBcIM‘Why am I hearing a rerun?’ Every Thursday is 'Throwback Thursday' on Today in History with the Retrospectors: running one repeat per week means we can keep up the quality of our independent podcast. Daily shows like this require a lot of work! But as ever we'll have something new for you tomorrow, so follow us wherever you get your podcasts: podfollow.com/RetrospectorsLove the show? Join  🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴 to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode every SUNDAY!Plus, get weekly bonus bits, unlock over 70 bits of extra content and support our independent podcast.Join now via Apple Podcasts or Patreon. Thanks!The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Emma Corsham.Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2022. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The ‘Nickel In The Slot Player’ - the world’s first jukebox - made its debut at the Palais Royale Saloon bar in San Francisco on 23rd November, 1889.Created by Louis Glass and William S. Arnold, the contraption was an Edison Class M wax cylinder phonograph fitted with a coin mechanism and four stethoscope-like listening tubes, each operated individually and activated when a patron put a nickel in the slot.In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain why the pianola still had the upper hand for decades to come; reveal how this new-fangled gadget paved the way for 1970s game arcades; and consider how, for African-American musicians in particular, the evolution of the jukebox was a game-changer… Further Reading:• ‘Nov. 23, 1889: S.F. Gin Joint Hears World's First Jukebox’ (WIRED, 2010): https://www.wired.com/2010/11/1123first-jukebox/• ‘Jukeboxes: An American Social History - By Kerry Segrave’ (McFarland, 2015):https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Jukeboxes/SC21CgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=jukebox+%2B+palais&pg=PA5&printsec=frontcover• ‘Automation Hits The Orchestra’ (British Pathé, 1958): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9i9IyJ3n0cs&t=2s#Inventions #MusicLove the show? Join 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS 🌴 to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode every SUNDAY!Plus, get weekly bonus bits, unlock over 70 bits of extra content and support our independent podcast.Join now via Apple Podcasts or Patreon. Thanks!We'll be back tomorrow! Follow us wherever you get your podcasts: podfollow.com/RetrospectorsThe Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Sophie King.Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2022. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

History’s most notorious pirate, Edward ‘Blackbeard’ Teach, was killed and decapitated by lieutenant Robert Maynard, who besieged Blackbeard’s boats in Ocracoke on 22nd November, 1718. Now recalled as a fearsome and gratuitous murderer, Blackbeard’s demonic character is not documented in contemporary sources. In fact, very little is truly known about Teach (even, indeed, whether that was his real name), apart from the fact he a) had a beard, b) was from Bristol, and c) was very good at pirating. But his formidable reputation of setting his beard on fire and rampaging his way round the high seas was sealed by the swashbuckling tales published after his death.In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly reveal how Daniel Defoe may be linked with the Blackbeard cult; rate the pirate’s expertise at cultivating psychological warfare; and unearth the story of Stede Bonnet, ‘the worst pirate of all time’...  Further Reading:• ‘Here's How Blackbeard the Pirate Really Died 300 Years Ago’ (Time, 2018): https://time.com/5457008/blackbeard-death/• ‘Blackbeard | Edward Teach's Life, Death & Legend’ (HistoryExtra, 2022): https://www.historyextra.com/period/stuart/blackbeard-edward-teach-real-name-death-burning-beard/• ‘Horrible Histories: The Blackbeard Song’ (CBBC, 2020): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2IaNvAmBzU#1700s #Pirates #PersonLove the show? Join 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS 🌴 to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode every SUNDAY!Plus, get weekly bonus bits, unlock over 70 bits of extra content and support our independent podcast.Join now via Apple Podcasts or Patreon. Thanks!We'll be back tomorrow! Follow us wherever you get your podcasts: podfollow.com/RetrospectorsThe Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Sophie King.Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2022. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

La Ronde, the USA’s first revolving restaurant, opened on 21st November, 1961, at the Ala Moana Center in Honolulu. On the menu in the 298ft-tall tower was shrimp cocktail, mahi-mahi, and ‘the Queen of beefdom’.It had a predecessor, though, in perhaps an unlikely city: post-war Dortmund, Germany. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly trace the origins of rotating restaurants back to Ancient Rome (of course); recall Elvis Presley’s role in furthering the popularity of high-rise revolving dining at the Space Needle; and consider the particular appeal of ‘high attractions in low rise cities’... But wait! There’s more! To unlock another FIVE MINUTES of this episode, join 🌴 CLUB RETROSPECTORS 🌴- and get bonus bits each week, plus full-length ad-free Sunday episodes! This week, the Retrospectors discuss who invented the revolving restaurant, and reveal the best place in the world to get a Dirty Martini.Further Reading:• ‘A Moveable Feast: A Brief History of the Revolving Restaurant’ (Duck Pie, 2014): https://duckpie.com/2014/05/02/a-moveable-feast-a-brief-history-of-the-revolving-restaurant/• ‘Revolving Architecture: A History of Buildings That Rotate, Swivel, and Pivot - By Chad Randl’ (Princeton Architectural Press, 2008):https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Revolving_Architecture/H8gAaZj2e-AC?q=sky+view&gbpv=1#f=false• ‘Top of Waikiki Revolving Restaurant View’ (Life Is Amazing, 2017): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYOUofNjFU4#1960s #Germany #Strange #Food #WorldsFairLove the show? Join 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS 🌴 to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode every SUNDAY!Plus, get weekly bonus bits, unlock over 70 bits of extra content and support our independent podcast.Join now via Apple Podcasts or Patreon. Thanks!We'll be back tomorrow! Follow us wherever you get your podcasts: podfollow.com/RetrospectorsThe Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Sophie King.Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2022. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The official trailer for ‘The Phantom Menace’ was uploaded to the Star Wars website on 18th November, 1998 - a reaction to the franchise’s rabid fans leaking their own camcorder footage to the web. It was the first time that an online preview of a movie trailer became a significant event in its own right.The trailer had been released into North American cinemas the day before, ahead of select screenings of ‘Meet Joe Black’, ‘The Heist’ and ‘The Waterboy’. Variety reported a lunch-time showing in L.A. for which as many as two-thirds of the audience attending had bought their ticket purely to view the highly-anticipated Star Wars trailer.In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly revisit the glitchy, scratchy, pre-YouTube world of online trailer distribution; reveal how LucasFilm partnered with Apple to sprinkle some of their fairy-dust over a QuickTime product launch; and explain why the fan reaction to this iconic trailer remains more enthusiastic than for the actual film concerned…  Further Reading:• ‘Anticipation: The Real Life Story of Star Wars: Episode I-The Phantom Menace, By Jonathan L. Bowen’ (iUniverse, 2005):https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Anticipation/S7HqPbh3uI4C?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=phantom+menace+trailer+%22november+18%22+%22lucasfilm%22+%22bandwidth%22&pg=PA23&printsec=frontcover• ‘How Star Wars and the internet changed movie trailers’ (The Verge, 2015): https://www.theverge.com/2015/12/10/9882404/star-wars-trailers-movie-marketing-youtube-disney• ‘Trailer: Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace’ (Lucasfilm, 1998): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bD7bpG-zDJQ&t=105s#Film #90s #InternetWe'll be back on Monday - unless you join 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴, where we give you ad-free listening AND a full-length Sunday episode every week!Plus, weekly bonus content, unlock over 70 bonus bits, and support our independent podcast.Join now via Apple Podcasts or Patreon. Thanks!The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Sophie King.Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2022.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rerun. Mehmet VI stepped on to a British warship to seek refuge in Malta on 17th November, 1922 - thereby becoming the last Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, a dynasty stretching back to the 14th Century. He was accompanied by his first Chamberlain, his doctor, two secretaries, a velt, a barber, two eunuchs, and a bandmaster. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly dig into the archives to see how the event was portrayed in the triumphant West; consider the fate of the Royals left behind in modern-day Turkey; and ponder what ‘cautiously optimistic exile music’ might sound like... Further Reading:• ‘Great Ottoman Empire in Turkey’ (Go Turkey Tourism):https://www.goturkeytourism.com/about-turkey/great-ottoman-empire-in-turkey.html• ‘CONSTANTINOPLE 1922-1923, WHERE NOTHING HAPPENS AS ONE EXPECTS’, (Major P A J Wright OBE, The Guards Magazine, 2016): http://guardsmagazine.com/features/Autumn2016/16autumn_04Constantinople.html• ‘Ten Minute History - The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Birth of the Balkans’ (History Matters, 2018): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96n33WWgE9g‘Why am I hearing a rerun?’ Every Thursday is 'Throwback Thursday' on Today in History with the Retrospectors: running one repeat per week means we can keep up the quality of our independent podcast. Daily shows like this require a lot of work! But as ever we'll have something new for you tomorrow, so follow us wherever you get your podcasts: podfollow.com/RetrospectorsLove the show? Join  🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴 to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode every SUNDAY!Plus, get weekly bonus bits, unlock over 70 bits of extra content and support our independent podcast.Join now via Apple Podcasts or Patreon. Thanks!The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Emma Corsham.Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2022. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why did Ivan The Terrible kill his son, Ivan? Ever since the day he supposedly brought a sceptre crashing down upon his head - 16th November, 1581 - this question has divided people. Did he suspect his son of a plot to overthrow him? Was he sexually assaulting his daughter-in-law? Was the whole tale dreamt up as a Catholic plot?It’s a controversy that remains a live issue in Russia, resulting in Ilya Repin's iconic painting ‘Ivan the Terrible and his Son Ivan’ being vandalized not once, but twice; and a campaign, supported by no less than Vladimir Putin, to restore Ivan’s reputation as, um… ‘Ivan the Not-So Terrible’?In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly consider the various theories surrounding this much-debated event; question if an arthritic quinquagenarian was capable of such physical brutality; and expose Ivan’s lesser-known poetic qualities… CONTENT WARNING: graphic descriptions of murderFurther Reading:• ‘What Was So Terrible About Ivan the Terrible?’ (HowStuffWorks, 2020): https://history.howstuffworks.com/history-vs-myth/ivan-terrible.htm#:~:text=The%20boyars%20were%20clannish%20landowners%2C%20upper-crust%20types%20who,It%20was%20a%20sign%20of%20things%20to%20come.• ‘Russia's first monument to Ivan the Terrible inaugurated’ (The Guardian, 2016): https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/14/russias-first-monument-to-ivan-the-terrible-inaugurated• ‘Ivan the Terrible and his Son Ivan’ (The Canvas, 2019): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwbWwvHDeb4#Russia #1500s Love the show? Join 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS 🌴 to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode every SUNDAY!Plus, get weekly bonus bits, unlock over 70 bits of extra content and support our independent podcast.Join now via Apple Podcasts or Patreon. Thanks!We'll be back tomorrow! Follow us wherever you get your podcasts: podfollow.com/RetrospectorsThe Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Sophie King.Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2022. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

King C. Gillette was granted a US patent for a “safety razor” on November 15th, 1904 - kickstarting both the disposable grooming industry, and the notorious ‘razor and blades’ business model.Prior to his invention, men who shaved at home would have to strop their blades on a big leather strap, and occasionally take their razors to a cutler to have them returned to their original sharpness.In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how Gillette savvily used Army contracts to establish his brand across America; reveal how scientists at MIT told him his product design was simply impossible; and recall how he exploited TV advertising to reframe the conversation around male grooming… Further Reading:• ‘The History of Gillette and Schick Razors’ (ThoughtCo, 2019): https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-razors-and-shaving-4070036• ‘Gillette’s Strange History with the Razor and Blade Strategy’ (HBR, 2010): https://hbr.org/2010/09/gillettes-strange-history-with• ‘Gillette: The Best A Man Can Get’ (Gillette, 1989): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThDBf14qPsc… want even more?In this week’s bonus bit, exclusively for 🌴 CLUB RETROSPECTORS 🌴members, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how Gillette’s disposable razors came to be stacked within the very walls of houses across America; consider King Gillette’s unexpected flirtation with Communism; and reveal how corporate competition from Wilkinson Sword demeaned Gillette’s green credentials yet further… get this and exclusive Sunday episodes by joining 🌴 CLUB RETROSPECTORS 🌴 now!#Inventions #1900s We'll be back tomorrow! Follow us wherever you get your podcasts: podfollow.com/RetrospectorsThe Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Sophie King.Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2022. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices