April 24, 2025 • 9 mins
Today's tour through the Cabinet features a pair of moments when story breaks into real life and changes things. Well, maybe.
Order the official Cabinet of Curiosities book by clicking here today, and get ready to enjoy some curious reading!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
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 are right there on display, just
waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
(00:36):
Most of us have heard the term devil's advocate used
to describe someone who takes the wrong side of an argument,
knowingly essentially picking the side the devil would take. Longtime
listeners of the show would know that this term originates
in the legal code of the Catholic Church as a reminder.
In order for a saint to be canonized, an expert
needed to take the stand to give their best arguments
(00:57):
for why the person shouldn't become a saint, and the
Latin title for that role was advocatus diabali, the Devil's advocate.
The connection between the devil and legal minutia goes even
deeper than that, though. In fact, the first appearance of
the term satan in the Bible is referring not to
a proper name, but a role being performed by another
(01:18):
heavenly deity. The term satan means accuser or adversary. In
the Book of Job, for example, it is one of
these satans who encourages God to punish the devout Job
to test his faith. According to some scholars, the role
of this satan is not as the cause of all evil,
but as someone who provokes the advocates of good to
prove themselves. And this connection between the concept of the
(01:40):
biblical devil and legal procedure often gets overlooked, likely because
legal scholars and biblical scholars work in quite distinct fields.
Then again, it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone
that Satan has appeared in legal court documents in the
United States, not as a religious reference, but as a defendant.
In NI teen seventy one, for example, a prisoner in
(02:02):
Pittsburgh's Western Penitentiary decided that the only way out of
this maximum security facility was to take his grievances to
the top. The twenty two year old man filed a
lawsuit not against the state of Pennsylvania or the judges
who had put him in prison, but against the devil himself.
The resulting court case was labeled Gerald Mayo Versus Satan.
(02:23):
And his staff. Mayo alleged that the Devil and his
agents had placed roadblocks in his way that guaranteed that
he would live a miserable life. His life, he claimed,
was a series of misfortunes that could only mean that
he was being set up to fail. Ultimately, the judge
decided to throw the case out, although not for the
reason that you might expect. Instead of flatly labeling the
(02:44):
case ludicrous and not worth hearing at all, the judge
bothered to write up a procedural reason for dismissing the case.
In his ruling, he determined that Gerald Mayo had filed
a lawsuit that would be impossible to execute. How had
he expected the court of legal notice to the devil himself. Moreover,
the judge wrote, Mayo would have to prove that similar
(03:06):
cases like his were universal, that others who had been
targeted by the Devil wound up with a similar fate.
Without such examples, he could not prove to the judges
that he was not responsible for the actions and decisions
that had landed him in prison in the first place.
So there you go, with the case dismissed, Mayo returned
to prison. Now his goal for this case would never
(03:27):
be fully clear to us for over fifty years. Perhaps
he intended to get media attention that would help him
get a more lenient sentence. Perhaps he wanted to serve
a case so ludicrous that the court would have to
hear him out. Or maybe he was just so desperate
that even this action was better than none at all,
and wasting the court's time was a fair way to
spend his days behind bars. As any other idle hands
(03:50):
are the devil's workshop, as they say, Well, whatever the
real reason, this lawsuit would have a unique legacy, you
see to this day it's used by law professors to
tea which the necessary elements of building a case. Even
in a society where lawsuits are an easy way to
address your problems, suing someone isn't just about the grievance.
It also requires a target who is subject to the
(04:12):
same laws you're using to sue Satan, it would seem
is literally above the law. So I guess it turns
out that he won't be needing that Devil's advocate. Albert
(04:36):
didn't start out making movies. In fact, had everything gone differently,
he might have spent his life in the family business.
In long Island, But in the nineteen thirties, with his
head full of dreams and his feet itching for adventure,
he struck out west to make a family business of
his own. Albert had tried his hand at farming like
his father. He even worked for a time in the
(04:57):
family coffin business, but when he went to visit a
cousin who'd become a talent agent, he fell in love
with Hollywood. It didn't hurt that his cousin introduced him
to the superstar Carry Grant, so in nineteen thirty three,
Albert packed up his hoe and his handsaw and headed
to Los Angeles. Now Albert tooled around Hollywood for the
next fifteen years, making friends and making strides. He worked
(05:21):
in the mail room at twentieth Century Fox. He befriended
director Howard Hughes, who made him an assistant director on
the nineteen forty three film The Outlaw, but he quickly
found being assistant director mostly meant driving star Jane Russell
to set. When World War Two started, he recruited stars
to perform for the troops with the USO, and after
(05:41):
the war he worked as a talent agent. But Albert's
big break came in the nineteen fifties, when he realized
there was real money to be made as a producer.
At the time, the British government announced that it would
give money to films that hired eighty percent of their
crew from England. Alberts and his producing partner were the
first to set up shop there, making Anglo American co
(06:01):
productions that netted them an extra few million dollars. After
a few modest successes with high flying action films, Albert
was looking for his next project when fates intervened in
the form of a paperback. Albert quickly became a fan
of books by a former British intelligence agent named Ian Fleming.
In them, a spy named James Bond number double seven
(06:23):
with a license to kill, charmed his way past deadly
traps and over the top villains. It was the perfect
character to bring to the big screen. However, Hollywood didn't
quite see it that way. In meeting after meeting, Albert
kept getting turned down. James Bond was too suave, too sexual,
and let's face it, to British they didn't think American
(06:44):
audiences would buy tickets. Finally, a friend at United Artists
set up Albert with a meeting. He came in ready
to be rejected once again. To his surprise, forty five
minutes later, he had a six picture deal in place.
They had one million dollars to make the first film,
Doctor No. Now all they needed was their bond. While
(07:04):
one million dollars was a lot in those days, it
wasn't enough to get big stars. Albert's first choice, Carrie Grant,
was off the table, so they needed an unknown to
bring Bond to the big screen. After spending days sorting
through head shots and movie reels, it was Albert's wife,
Dana who actually made the choice. When a young Scottish
actor named Sean Connery appeared on screen, she shouted cast
(07:27):
that one he's gorgeous, and so movie history was made,
and the chances are good that you're probably familiar with
what came next. James Bond has been the subject of
dozens of movies and has now been played by six
actors Sean Connery, George Lazenbye, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce
Brosnan and Daniel Craig. The impact that Albert's Bond movies
(07:49):
have had on her collective pop culture consciousness is immense.
Think of James Bond, and the same things come to mind,
death defying stunts, ingenius gadgets, beautiful Bond girls, and Martini's
shaken not stirred. In bringing James Bond to life, Albert
created a new family business. In recent years, his daughter
Barbara and son Michael have co produced every Bond film
(08:12):
from Albert's death in nineteen ninety six until they sold
the rights to Amazon in twenty twenty five. Albert carved
out a pretty good legacy for himself and his family,
But you might be surprised that bringing James Bond to
the big screen isn't his only claim to fame. For that,
we have to rewind a bit to whin. Albert's family
lived in Carrera, Calabria. According to his wife Dana's research,
(08:34):
Albert's ancestors claimed to be the first people to cross
two vegetables, cauliflower and rob This created a dark green,
treelike vegetable with thick stalks. Albert's father and his uncle
brought those seeds of this crossbreed from Calabria to Long
Island on the same farm where Albert worked as a child.
His family introduced America to their very own family heirloom,
(08:56):
and the name of that vegetable, well, they gave it
the family name. Let me tell you OL's full name
and I'll let you figure out the rest. The James
Bond movie Pioneer is Albert Broccoli. 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
(09:19):
by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. This 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.
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 are right there on display, just
waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
(00:36):
Most of us have heard the term devil's advocate used
to describe someone who takes the wrong side of an argument,
knowingly essentially picking the side the devil would take. Longtime
listeners of the show would know that this term originates
in the legal code of the Catholic Church as a reminder.
In order for a saint to be canonized, an expert
needed to take the stand to give their best arguments
(00:57):
for why the person shouldn't become a saint, and the
Latin title for that role was advocatus diabali, the Devil's advocate.
The connection between the devil and legal minutia goes even
deeper than that, though. In fact, the first appearance of
the term satan in the Bible is referring not to
a proper name, but a role being performed by another
(01:18):
heavenly deity. The term satan means accuser or adversary. In
the Book of Job, for example, it is one of
these satans who encourages God to punish the devout Job
to test his faith. According to some scholars, the role
of this satan is not as the cause of all evil,
but as someone who provokes the advocates of good to
prove themselves. And this connection between the concept of the
(01:40):
biblical devil and legal procedure often gets overlooked, likely because
legal scholars and biblical scholars work in quite distinct fields.
Then again, it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone
that Satan has appeared in legal court documents in the
United States, not as a religious reference, but as a defendant.
In NI teen seventy one, for example, a prisoner in
(02:02):
Pittsburgh's Western Penitentiary decided that the only way out of
this maximum security facility was to take his grievances to
the top. The twenty two year old man filed a
lawsuit not against the state of Pennsylvania or the judges
who had put him in prison, but against the devil himself.
The resulting court case was labeled Gerald Mayo Versus Satan.
(02:23):
And his staff. Mayo alleged that the Devil and his
agents had placed roadblocks in his way that guaranteed that
he would live a miserable life. His life, he claimed,
was a series of misfortunes that could only mean that
he was being set up to fail. Ultimately, the judge
decided to throw the case out, although not for the
reason that you might expect. Instead of flatly labeling the
(02:44):
case ludicrous and not worth hearing at all, the judge
bothered to write up a procedural reason for dismissing the case.
In his ruling, he determined that Gerald Mayo had filed
a lawsuit that would be impossible to execute. How had
he expected the court of legal notice to the devil himself. Moreover,
the judge wrote, Mayo would have to prove that similar
(03:06):
cases like his were universal, that others who had been
targeted by the Devil wound up with a similar fate.
Without such examples, he could not prove to the judges
that he was not responsible for the actions and decisions
that had landed him in prison in the first place.
So there you go, with the case dismissed, Mayo returned
to prison. Now his goal for this case would never
(03:27):
be fully clear to us for over fifty years. Perhaps
he intended to get media attention that would help him
get a more lenient sentence. Perhaps he wanted to serve
a case so ludicrous that the court would have to
hear him out. Or maybe he was just so desperate
that even this action was better than none at all,
and wasting the court's time was a fair way to
spend his days behind bars. As any other idle hands
(03:50):
are the devil's workshop, as they say, Well, whatever the
real reason, this lawsuit would have a unique legacy, you
see to this day it's used by law professors to
tea which the necessary elements of building a case. Even
in a society where lawsuits are an easy way to
address your problems, suing someone isn't just about the grievance.
It also requires a target who is subject to the
(04:12):
same laws you're using to sue Satan, it would seem
is literally above the law. So I guess it turns
out that he won't be needing that Devil's advocate. Albert
(04:36):
didn't start out making movies. In fact, had everything gone differently,
he might have spent his life in the family business.
In long Island, But in the nineteen thirties, with his
head full of dreams and his feet itching for adventure,
he struck out west to make a family business of
his own. Albert had tried his hand at farming like
his father. He even worked for a time in the
(04:57):
family coffin business, but when he went to visit a
cousin who'd become a talent agent, he fell in love
with Hollywood. It didn't hurt that his cousin introduced him
to the superstar Carry Grant, so in nineteen thirty three,
Albert packed up his hoe and his handsaw and headed
to Los Angeles. Now Albert tooled around Hollywood for the
next fifteen years, making friends and making strides. He worked
(05:21):
in the mail room at twentieth Century Fox. He befriended
director Howard Hughes, who made him an assistant director on
the nineteen forty three film The Outlaw, but he quickly
found being assistant director mostly meant driving star Jane Russell
to set. When World War Two started, he recruited stars
to perform for the troops with the USO, and after
(05:41):
the war he worked as a talent agent. But Albert's
big break came in the nineteen fifties, when he realized
there was real money to be made as a producer.
At the time, the British government announced that it would
give money to films that hired eighty percent of their
crew from England. Alberts and his producing partner were the
first to set up shop there, making Anglo American co
(06:01):
productions that netted them an extra few million dollars. After
a few modest successes with high flying action films, Albert
was looking for his next project when fates intervened in
the form of a paperback. Albert quickly became a fan
of books by a former British intelligence agent named Ian Fleming.
In them, a spy named James Bond number double seven
(06:23):
with a license to kill, charmed his way past deadly
traps and over the top villains. It was the perfect
character to bring to the big screen. However, Hollywood didn't
quite see it that way. In meeting after meeting, Albert
kept getting turned down. James Bond was too suave, too sexual,
and let's face it, to British they didn't think American
(06:44):
audiences would buy tickets. Finally, a friend at United Artists
set up Albert with a meeting. He came in ready
to be rejected once again. To his surprise, forty five
minutes later, he had a six picture deal in place.
They had one million dollars to make the first film,
Doctor No. Now all they needed was their bond. While
(07:04):
one million dollars was a lot in those days, it
wasn't enough to get big stars. Albert's first choice, Carrie Grant,
was off the table, so they needed an unknown to
bring Bond to the big screen. After spending days sorting
through head shots and movie reels, it was Albert's wife,
Dana who actually made the choice. When a young Scottish
actor named Sean Connery appeared on screen, she shouted cast
(07:27):
that one he's gorgeous, and so movie history was made,
and the chances are good that you're probably familiar with
what came next. James Bond has been the subject of
dozens of movies and has now been played by six
actors Sean Connery, George Lazenbye, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce
Brosnan and Daniel Craig. The impact that Albert's Bond movies
(07:49):
have had on her collective pop culture consciousness is immense.
Think of James Bond, and the same things come to mind,
death defying stunts, ingenius gadgets, beautiful Bond girls, and Martini's
shaken not stirred. In bringing James Bond to life, Albert
created a new family business. In recent years, his daughter
Barbara and son Michael have co produced every Bond film
(08:12):
from Albert's death in nineteen ninety six until they sold
the rights to Amazon in twenty twenty five. Albert carved
out a pretty good legacy for himself and his family,
But you might be surprised that bringing James Bond to
the big screen isn't his only claim to fame. For that,
we have to rewind a bit to whin. Albert's family
lived in Carrera, Calabria. According to his wife Dana's research,
(08:34):
Albert's ancestors claimed to be the first people to cross
two vegetables, cauliflower and rob This created a dark green,
treelike vegetable with thick stalks. Albert's father and his uncle
brought those seeds of this crossbreed from Calabria to Long
Island on the same farm where Albert worked as a child.
His family introduced America to their very own family heirloom,
(08:56):
and the name of that vegetable, well, they gave it
the family name. Let me tell you OL's full name
and I'll let you figure out the rest. The James
Bond movie Pioneer is Albert Broccoli. 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
(09:19):
by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. This 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.
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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