Sir Christopher Lee

Christopher Lee wasn't just a film star - he was, by any account, an amazing man. He spoke multiple languages, was an incredible singer and had fantastic fencing skills. He also had ties to many important historical events and people.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class fun stuff
Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Holly Fry and I'm Tracy. And it has become a
little bit of a tradition since Tracy and I have
been hosting the show that UH as we head into

(00:21):
the Halloween season, we usually do an episode or two
about the life of a famous horror actor. And this
year we lost a man of incredible stature and fame,
Christopher Lee, And we don't usually cover someone that reaches
into the very recent past, but he was quite amazing
in a number of ways. Uh. He wasn't just a
famous star of the silver screen. He was, by any account,

(00:41):
a really amazing man. He spoke multiple languages, he was
an incredible singer, he was a skilled fencer, he was
great at golf. It's one of those things that when
he died, a lot of people asked us, oh, please
do an episode, and it didn't seem quite right to
jump on the dogpile of coverage of his life that
was going on. Then we didn't kind of do one
where it natchal more actually fit into our usual schedule

(01:02):
anyway of doing a horror actor. But He's so much
more than a horror actor. And what really makes him
interesting to me in context of this podcast is that
he was also at many intersections of sort of famous
historical events, and he was tied through family to numerous
famous historical figures. So today we're going to talk about
the life of Christopher Lee. Christopher Frank karendin E Lee

(01:25):
was born on May seven, nineteen twenty two, in London's
Bell Gravy neighborhood, and she would decidedly upscale household. His
mother was Italian and she was the Contessa Estelle Marie.
Through his mother's noble line in Italy, we had a
lot of connections that were basically as we just referred to,
went back to very important historical figures. Estella was a

(01:48):
distant relative through marriage of the Borges and Prince Alexander
of Battenberg. Queen Victoria's grandson was Christopher's godfather, and his father,
Jeffrey Lee, was a soldier that had served in the
Boer War and World War One, and Jeffrey and Estell
had two children together to Christopher and his older sister Xandra.
But Jeffrey had some gambling problems and because of those,

(02:10):
the marriage turned sour and the couple separated in nineteen
twenty six, so Christopher would have only been a small
boy of four at that point. Estelle moved to Sweden
with the children, and two years later the divorce was finalized.
The contessa and her children moved back to London and
leave mother remarried, taking Harcourt George sank Qui Rose as
her second husband. He was a banker, and when Christopher

(02:33):
was seventeen, his stepfather went bankrupt and his mother's second
marriage fell apart, kind of all presumably related, and he
ended his school at Wellington College, and he had actually
attended Wellington because the family was already having trouble before
this and couldn't afford to enroll him at Eton, even
though he had passed the entrance exams and had been
admitted there, And so once he stopped his schooling, he

(02:55):
got a job working as a city clerk to help
make ends meet. That's same year, which was nineteen thirty nine.
Lee was also present at a unique historical event which
was the last public execution by guillotine, and that took
place in France on June seventeenth of that year. Eugene
Wideman was put to death for multiple murders and kidnappings,
and Lee was there in the crowd. He apparently was

(03:18):
something of an execution buff and he allegedly memorized the
names of all public executioners employed by England going back
for centuries. Yeah, that's a whole interesting story in and
of itself, and I would kind of love to cover
that particular execution because it is unique and that we
have pictures of it, which is not normally the case.

(03:40):
Because the crowd was so unruly that it took longer
than expected and the sun came up so people could
actually get good photographs. Uh. So it's that's a whole
fascinating event and he was there for that. Uh And
in nineteen thirty nine, Christopher also volunteered with Finnish forces
that were fighting in World War Two. Many British soldiers did.

(04:00):
He didn't see any actual fighting. He was stationed in
said instead with the rest of the British volunteers at
a safely removed from the action guard duty assignment, and
he later worked in the military as an office clerk
and switchboard operator. In two Lee enlisted with the Royal
Air Force. He couldn't fly because he had vision problems.
Though consequently he worked as an intelligence officer for the

(04:22):
Long Range Desert Control during World War Two. Primarily this
was in North Africa and Italy and during his time
and intelligence, after a while he was selected for Churchill's
Elite Special Operations Group, and this is known by the
best nickname of all time, the Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. Uh.
And while the work of this unit is still classified,

(04:45):
Lee did speak on several occasions throughout his life about
having witnessed some very terrible things during this time and
having had to harden himself to it. And he was
so sort of self aware that you could tell he
really trying to kind of reconcile this, you know, having
to to both be someone who was hardened to things
like that and also be very compassionate person. And it's

(05:07):
one of those things that, uh, it's easy to think
of sort of this kind of activity, this uh, you know,
Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare in terms of the Christopher Lee
that we've seen playing villains in films. But keep in
mind that he was really barely out of you know,
boyhood at this point. He was in his very early
twenties during the war. After the war ended, he was

(05:30):
part of a unit that was tasked with investigating war crimes.
In part because his flew of his fluency and multiple languages,
his group was tasked with tracking war criminals, and in
nineteen forty six, his military career concluded. And coming up,
we're going to talk about the career that made Lee
a household name. But first let's have a word from
one of the great sponsors that keeps the show going.

(05:53):
In ninety seven, Christopher Lee switched fields completely when he
opted to pursue an acting career. And he had been
offered a desk job with his pre war employer when
World War Two had ended and he had finalized his
military career, but he actually turned that job down. And
this move into acting was against the wishes of his mother.
She really felt that acting was for people of questionable morals.

(06:16):
In part, this turn into acting was influenced by Christopher
Lee's relative, Nicolo Carandini. He used his business and political
influence as an Italian ambassador to Great Britain to convince
his friend Felippo del Gudach, who ran a film studio,
to get Christopher a seven year contract with the Rank
Entertainment Group. But even though Rank made the deal, the

(06:38):
prevailion of the prevailing opinion was that Christopher Lee was
too tall to be an actor. Later in his life
he would say like he would say that that's like
saying you're too short to play the piano. Indeed, and
he was certainly handsome, and he was an English gentleman
to the core, but he really struggled to find leading
man roles. He was told, as we just mentioned, that

(06:59):
his high which was six five almost two meters and
his dark skin would not make him a believable English
gentleman in film. So he was cast constantly as outsiders
and villains. If there was a non Caucasian character in
a film. This was remember at a time when films
often did not seek out actors that were actually from

(07:21):
the um background that they were the character was, he
would always get cast in those. So if there was
an Arab, if there was a uh a Latino character,
basically anything that was not a white English gentleman, they
would just give it to Christopher Lee. To get an
acting education. Lee first performed in repertory theater productions with Rank,

(07:41):
but these stage pays, we're really not to his liking.
He floundered in front of a live audience and in
one instance got laughter when he wasn't supposed to, when
he accidentally put his hand through a part of the
set that was supposed to be a window with glass
in it. Yeah, it was just one of those moments
of absurdity and kind of confusion, and he really, as
you can, I can't imagine how how Christopher Lee would

(08:03):
react to being laughed at, particularly when he was a
younger man. Um And this next story I will explain
why I tell it because it's a little, uh, not
really off color, but it's it's body humor. As part
of the Rank Organization's youth company, which was also colloquial
called colloquially called the Charm School, he also appeared on
the BBC magazine program Kaleidoscope a couple of times, and

(08:27):
in these cases, these young actors would act out charades
that were designed to represent a word that viewers were
supposed to guess. It was kind of like an at
home play along part of the show. And apparently, uh
he only did this couple of times, but one of
the most famous and unintentionally funny appearances that he made
on the show happened because when Lee, who was playing
a police commissioner, stormed into the scene to chastise an

(08:49):
actor who was playing an inspector, the other actor, Richard Molinas,
had a terrible case of gas, possibly because he was nervous,
and he began farting audibly for several minutes while they
played the rest of the scene. And I don't usually
like like gassy bodily function humor, but the thought of
Taul Elegance or Christopher Lee, as a young man trying
to keep a straight face through such an ordeal kind

(09:10):
of cracks me up. It just seems so incongruous with
who he is in my mind. Lee also got swordplay
training as a member of Ranks Charm School, and he
was really good at it, so that would go on
to serve him for the rest of his theatrical career.
And The Many Faces of Christopher Lee, which is a
biographical documentary that was released in he said that he

(09:31):
believed he had been in more sword fights on screen
than any other actor. He was also extremely frank that
in many instances he got carved up a bit. His
primary advice was that you always have to make things
feel like you'd truly like to harm the other person. Yeah,
in terms of physical acting, he really went for it,
and he you know, that's dangerous, so sometimes he got hurt. Uh.

(09:56):
He got his first film work the year after he
had made the decision to become an act or. He
played a very small part in a film about sort
of this Gothic romance that crossed multiple reincarnations called Corridor
of Mirrors, and that same year he also had a
small uncredited role in the Lawrence Olivier adaptation of Hamlet.
He got his big break when he was cast in

(10:17):
his first Hammer film, which was the Curse of Frankenstein.
This was a nineteen fifty seven He acted alongside Peter Cushing,
who played Victor Frankenstein. The best of friends. The two
of them was star in numerous Hammer films together throughout
their careers. You know, the first ten years of his
career really he was just taking every party could, kind

(10:38):
of paying his dues, working in the trenches, doing all
the work. And then this opportunity came up and it
really made him instantly famous. Um later, when Christopher Lee
described the experience of getting into makeup for this part
to a journalist. He said, quote when I was in
full makeup as the creature, which was pretty unattractive. Somebody
said I looked like a road accident for a character

(11:00):
who's put together from bits and pieces of other people,
that's a very good description. In ninety eight, Least starred
in Horror of Dracula, which was released in Great Britain
simply as Dracula. This was the first of nine films
in which he would play the famous vampire, ten if
you count his uncredited appearance in the comedy One More Time,
which came out in nineteen seventy. But after the first

(11:23):
two of his Dracula films, he told his agent that
he just didn't want to do it anymore. He felt
like the writing was clumsy and it was just kind
of shoving the character into various scenarios without any real creativity.
And when he told the studio he didn't want to
play the famous vampire anymore, there was a huge uproar.
The head of the studio called the actor completely frantic.

(11:44):
So the person he's talking about here is is a
hammer big wig named Jimmy Carreras. And so he says,
I got a frantic telephone call from Jimmy Carreras, saying
I already sold it to the American distributor with you
playing the part, and he said something I've never for
gotten because it was sheer blackmail. Think of the people
you're putting out of work. That's the only reason I

(12:05):
did the last few draculas. I didn't want to be
the reason for a hundred people not working. Yeah, that's
such a weasily way to pressure somebody. Um In Lee
started another Hammer film as the lead in the Mummy
and his nineteen sixty six performances Resputing in Resputing the
Mad Monk is also another one that is almost always

(12:26):
mentioned anytime you see like an abbreviated list of his
incredibly long career, and that's one that has a really
interesting and surreal historical connection because Lee had actually met
Prince Yusupov and Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovitch, the two men
who assassinated Resputing in real life when he was just
a child. While Lee initially made his name in horror,

(12:47):
he was not enthusiastic about how that genre developed over
the years, and a two thousand one interview with The
Guardians Will Hodgkinson, he said there have been some absolutely
ghastly films recently physically repellent. What we did was fantasy,
fairy tales. No real person can copy what we did,
but they can do what Hannibal Lecter does if they're

(13:09):
so inclined, So people like Jeffrey Dahmer and Dennis Nilson,
and for that reason, I think such films are dangerous.
Christopher Lee often played villains. I don't think that's any
big secrets. But what really made him special is that
he had this uncanny ability to make viewers kind of
root for the bad guy. His his personas were always

(13:30):
so incredibly compelling. So he famously, of course played Scaramanga
in The Man with the Golden Gun, and he did
this in a way that was just this cool, unflappable
and refined uh characterization. And even as he's, you know,
in that movie, constructing a gun right in front of
a man he's planning to shoot, he's just completely chill
and relaxed, and he was so charming, and he is

(13:53):
often cited in that film is sort of playing a
dark counter to Roger Moore's Bond, So he's like the
anti James Bond. He has all the same attributes, but
he is on the dark side of it. Incidentally, Lee
was a cousin of James Bond author Ian Fleming through marriage,
and he was the author's first choice to play Doctor No,
although the studio had already made their choice before Fleming

(14:14):
made this desire known to them. Yeah, he's just connected
to everything. Uh. In one Lee married twenty six year
old Danish model and actress Brigie Cranky, and unlike many
showed his couples, they stayed together until the end of
Lee's life. They also had one daughter together, Christina, and
by all accounts, Christopher Lee was a completely devoted husband

(14:35):
and father, and he was very protective of his private life.
He definitely did not believe in voyeuristic celebrity culture, and
his wife and daughters survive him. So we are not
out of respect for him. We're not going to go
into their story too much. While filming Dracula Has Risen
from the Grave. In the nineteen sixties, Lee was deeply
dismayed when British government officials came to Pinewood Studios to

(14:56):
bestow an honor on the Hammer Pictures Company. As the
officials arrived, he was in full Dracula mode and he
was mounted on a giant cross, and that was what
they saw when they walked in. So he didn't feel
like that was really the ideal introduction for a gentleman. Yeah,
he was very dismay ad how that timing played out. Uh.

(15:17):
He did eventually use his standing and influence at Hammer
to bring in a cult thriller author Dennis Wheatley to
work on adaptations of his novels for the studio, and
this proved to be both a feather in his cap
and eventually something of a disaster. So the studio first
produced The Devil Rides Out with Wheatly. That is often
regarded as the best film the studio ever produced. It's
a tale based on satan worship among high society types

(15:40):
and men of diplomatic power, and it was intended, according
to Lee, to warn of the dangers of Satanism. But
in ninety six Hammer worked with Wheatly on a film
called to the Devil a Daughter, and that project was
not a success. It made money, but Wheatley was unhappy
with it and distanced himself from the production. It was
also the last horror film and the glorious mid mid

(16:03):
century run that Hammer Studios had, and It's a common joke,
of course, that actors get a new script and the
first thing they do is count their lines before they
do anything else, Like they run through and see how
many lines your character has. But Lee really broke the
mold in this regard. He was known, in fact, for
cutting many of his lines in his horror roles. He
said that he would rather cut his own dialogue than

(16:25):
speak a line that he felt was poorly written, and
as a consequence, in the nineteen sixty six film Dracula
Prince of Darkness, he didn't speak a word, although he
did his from time to time. He just thought the
writing was so abysmal. He refused to say any of
those lines. But just the same he is still incredibly mesmerizing.
Writer Mark Kermode wrote in a Guardian piece after Lee

(16:46):
died that when they had worked on a project called
Fear in the Dark Together, for which Lee provided narration,
the actor wasn't the least bit shy about giving notes
about the writing. Hermode described the corrections as polite but strong,
which is the way many people seemed to characterize him
in a variety of different scenarios. Yeah, I think Lee

(17:07):
was a gentleman, but he really. Uh was willing to
to voice his opinion, especially when it was important to him.
In nineteen seventy three, he started a film called The
wicker Man, and this film became a cult classic. Uh
Lee considered it to be some of his best work,
and in it he played a man named Lord summer
Isle who ran an island of pagans where ritual practices

(17:27):
were part of the normal routine. And the setup is
that a policeman goes to investigate some of what's going
on in the island and things go very poorly from there.
But even though the movie gained a following, British Lion,
which is the production company behind it, had no love
for that particular child. Studio executives thought it was so
bad that they heavily edited it into a shorter version

(17:49):
and released it basically as a B film on a
double on a double bill with Don't Look Now. But
Lee really defended the film and he crusaded for it
to get the attention that he felt deserved. He felt
really strongly that they had made a great film and
what came out was not it. Years later, the film
was partially restored thanks to his efforts, and it was
hailed as one of the most important and impressive horror

(18:11):
films of all time. But even so, Lee always felt
that there was a more complete cut of that film
that existed somewhere and was even greater than the one
that critics and audiences eventually loved. In nineteen seventy seven,
Lee moved to Los Angeles to sort of change things
up and look for new opportunities. One of these opportunities

(18:31):
came in the form of hosting Saturday Night Live. This
was during the Belushi, Murray, and Ackroid era, and the
Englishman held his own with all of basically the people
who were regarded as the best comedians of the day.
It was calculated in a way because he wanted the
American entertainment industry to know that he could play funny.
It really paid off in part due to the Saturday

(18:52):
Night Live appearance. He landed a role in Steven Spielberg's
forty one. He was also offered the role that eventually
went to Leslie Nielsen and Airplane. He wound up turning
that down, which he later regretted. Yeah, it was kind
of a nice change of pace. I think, you know,
everyone had seen him in these horror roles, and they
took him very seriously and he was just frightening, villainous figure.

(19:14):
But he was very funny and if you can go
to YouTube and search for his SNL appearances, there are
a lot of small clips of it. And he's incredibly witty.
He has great timing, uh and he worked pretty consistently
on TV and film projects after his move to the US,
So he worked in comedies and dramas alike, in everything
from Return to Witch Mountain to Sherlock Holmes in The

(19:34):
Leading Lady. And we're going to talk about his incredibly
prolific next stage of his career in just a moment,
but first let's have a word from one of our
fabulous sponsors. So one of the pivotal, although unseen by many,
roles in Lee's career, came in when he started as
the father of Pakistan. That's Mohammed al Ali Jenna and

(19:55):
the film Jenna. When he was speaking at the College
of dubl It in eleven, he said that this was
the most important thing he'd ever done. Although it wasn't
theatrically released outside of Pakistan, Lee believed that the limited
release was due to the fact that his character's speeches
told the people of Pakistan that they were free to
follow and practice whatever religions they wished, and some person

(20:18):
or group didn't want that information seen by the rest
of the world. For context in an inordinately simplified way.
It's not interminently for context, in an extremely simplified way.
Mohammed Ali Jenna separated Pakistan from India after religious conflict
between Hendy's and Muslims. Yeah, and there are copies of

(20:38):
that film floating about like you can't find it if
you really go looking, but it is difficult, uh. And
it's interesting because one of the other things he said
in interviews throughout the years about what was very difficult
about that was that it was a person who had
lived and lived recently, so he felt like there was
additional pressure to be really spot on and it really
raised his game and he is amazing in it. Uh.

(21:02):
In a nod tid Lee's Hammer career, director Tim Burton
cast a very tall actor in Sleepy Hollow, which came out.
And what's really great is that if you listen to
the director's commentary on that film, there is a large
chunk where Burton spends just all of this time sort
of being awed at the fact that the Christopher Lee's
in his movie, he's such a fanboy, and it's very charming,

(21:25):
and since Burton already at this point has had a
hugely successful career, it's a nice reminder of just how
big a star Lee was too many kids who grew
up watching Hammer Horror. In two thousand one, Lee famously
began his role as Saramon in the Lord of the
Rings trilogy. He had wanted for quite some time to
play Gandolf, and he had even approached Talking at one

(21:46):
point to make his case that he should have that role,
and he got the author's blessing that should there be
a film, he should be the choice to play Gandolf.
By the time Peter Jackson's project got off the ground, though,
Lee was believed to be too old to play Gandalf.
I think he actually thought this about himself their interviews
where he talked about realizing that all of the things
that Gandalf physically needed to do would have been particularly

(22:10):
risky by this point in his age. Yeah, I mean
I have heard him tell it to that way, as
well as saying like, oh, they kind of suggested that
I might be too old and then yes, they were right,
And in a way it worked out because I get
to be the only villain since Suron is just an eye,
I'm really the only heavy and it's kind of a big,

(22:30):
juicy role in that regard. And Lee was really an
expert on J. R. R. Tolkien's work. He was more
than happy to advise the production department on designs and
logistics as well as playing his role of Saromon, and
the actor had made this habit of reading the Lord
of the Rings trilogy once a year for decades, so
he really did know his stuff. Saramon's death scene was

(22:52):
edited out of the third film and the trilogy and
the theatrical release, which really displeased Lead because he felt
like it took away from the story. He also said publicly, though,
that he had no ill will towards Peter Jackson for
the decision. Seen his back in there for the extent
edition and also a much repeated story about that whole
death scene, and Peter Jackson was sort of describing, uh,

(23:14):
the sound that would happen when someone was stabbed at
the back, and Christopher Lee explained that is not in
fact the sound that a person makes when they are
stabbed in the back and he knew this from experience, Yeah,
presumably from his classified work in the war. There's another
uh kind of sidebar, because I couldn't find this particular interview.

(23:38):
I know I saw it, and it's so charmed me
regarding Christopher Lee a moment where he was talking about
playing Sargamon and how he was having this morning where
he was just out of sorts and he was it
was an afternoon and he was just out of sorts
and he was getting frustrated, and he had this sort
of mini tantrum where he was saying, Oh, it's this
damn costume. I can't walk without tripping on it. And
how Peter Jackson just said from behind the camera, you

(24:01):
did it this morning. Christopher Lee was like, that really
put me in my place. And I was always so
charmed that this man of you know, such incredible iconic stature,
Like what he was telling people in press junkets was
that he had been a diva and Peter Jackson had
fixed it. Like I just found that the most charming
story ever. I also like how while the films were

(24:24):
in production, like principal photography was done, but but all
of the editing was not done. He would say in
interviews that his goal was to live to see all
three films. Yes, and then he kind of did a
similar thing with Star Wars. So in two thousand two
he began his two film role of Count Dooku in
Star Wars Attack of the Clones. What's interesting about this
is the duel between Douku and Yoda featured Lee actually

(24:47):
making use of his skill at swordplay. If you've watched it,
you've seen that there's some doubling going on there, and
he was doubled from the waist down and for the
longer shots that included full body movement, but any of
the shots that are just upper body are still Lee.
He was still pretty angile despite his advancing age, and
he really wanted to do as much of the sword
play as he possibly could. Shortly before he turned to

(25:07):
eight e, Lee told a journalist that he wanted to
live long enough to see Star Wars Revenge of the
Fifth Open that was in two thousand and five, and
in fact he would live another entire decade. Lee was
actually knighted on October two thousand nine in recognition of
his contributions to the arts and to charity. Early the
next year, he released a symphonic metal concept album entitled

(25:31):
Charlemaine by the Sword and the Cross, and then later
that same year he received a Spirit of Metal Award
for it. Yeah, he was a fan of metal, which
is I think to some people so incongruous because he
is such a British gentleman. But he really was a
genuine fan of it. That wasn't just like a thing
he did for a lark. He loved. He loved metal.

(25:53):
Go figure And in uhleven he received another big award,
and that was an Academy Fellowship by the British Academy
of Film and Television Arts, which is basically one of
the biggest act awards a British actor could receive, and
that was presented to him by his longtime fan and
at that point collaborator, Tim Burton. In he released A

(26:15):
Heavy Metal Christmas and then a follow up called A
Heavy Metal Christmas Too, which came out the following year.
Uh and then things slowed down a little bit. He
was still working when he could, but not at the
same pace. Uh and Lee passed away on June seven,
at the age of ninety three. He had been struggling
with some heart failure and some respiratory issues, and his

(26:37):
career actually spanned seven decades, and at that point it
was still going. He was scheduled to appear in a
movie about nine eleven with Uma Thurman when he passed,
so he never retired. He outlived his friends and colleagues,
Peter Cushing, Vincent Price, and Boris Carloff. They were all
sort of a famous group of friends. And in his
sixty five year career, the longest break that he ever

(26:58):
took from acting was only four weeks, Like, that's the
longest vacation he had. I have a few bits of
trivia about him that didn't quite fit in any in
the chronological story of his life and work. And the
first is that because of his height, which one he
was once told would prevent him from having an acting career,
he holds the Guinness record for the tallest leading actor. Uh.

(27:19):
He also has the record for most screen credits for
a living actor, the Guinness Tract, which was two forty
four films. And he actually had many Guinness records to
his name, but those are just two. So many yes.
In two thousand two, Uh, in an interview with journalist
David Edelstein, Lie said, my whole life has been about

(27:40):
proving people wrong. And in his nineties three years Lee
was so incredibly prolific, and he was so fascinating that
we could never ever cover everything. It would have to
be like a dedicated month of shows, which would be
super fun, but uh, not really realistic in terms of
what we do. But in terms of his legacy, particularly
in horror, I thought it was best described in the

(28:01):
words of the actor himself, and this is from an
interview that he did. He says, quote, Hammer was an
important part of my life, and generally speaking, we had
a lot of fun. Fun seems to be a three
letter word these days, although it directors like Tim Burton
and George Lucas. It's fun, fun, fun, while also working
yourself to death. But if you compare those Hammer movies
to what's been made in the last twenty years, Brian

(28:23):
to Palma, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, West Craven,
Tim Burton, and Peter Jackson have all said the same
thing to me. We were brought up on your movies
and it certainly shows in theirs. I love that, I
love that he was, so he was aware of his
own influence. At the same time, he seemed very um,

(28:44):
sort of down to earth, but also very proper. There
will never be another Christopher Lee. I don't think he's amazing,
and I highly recommend hunting down any and all pieces
of his work you can. It's there's no end of
fun to it. Do you also have some listener mail
for us? I do. It's listener mail that we get

(29:07):
to say a big, fat thank you for because this
comes from our listener, Jennifer, and she sent us an
amazing package. She says, Tracy and Honley, I have been
enjoying the stuff you missed in History Class podcast for years,
and I've gotten so many hours of enjoyment out of
it that I wanted to send you a thank you
gift package. It's been a great podcast right from the beginning,
and it's only improved over time. I especially love some

(29:27):
of the newer episodes that YouTube ladies have done. You've
unearned some hidden nuggets history and tied them into popular
culture and daily life in different eras. Earlier this year,
I started a new company called Adventure Since making scented
products to match common Adventure locations in games, books, movies,
and other stories. We even have a line of Sense
inspired by historical locations. The funky fragrances range from the pleasant,

(29:49):
like the exotic exotic copal and spicy coco notes in
our Mayan Temple scent, to the odiferous, like the stench
of their indicaate in our multi crypt scent. At various times,
my house has read of every smell imaginable. I once
accidentally woke my daughter up at two am on a
school night with the odor of a vampire's layer. I'm
sure she's traumatized for life. Creating the Sense is tons

(30:09):
of fun, but making and packaging large quantities of them
can be time consuming and tedious. And the thing that
really makes the time fly by as I work is
listening to your podcast. So I have enclosed a selection
of Adventure Sense products that made me think of the
two of you, the past episodes you've done, and the
hobbies and interested interests that you've revealed along the way.
She sent us this incredible parcel, which it came to

(30:31):
the Atlanta office. So and Tracy is here next we
have to divvy everything up, but like it has these
cool scent jars. It has sent throws. They're sent lockets
that are beautiful. There are these two great little mini
fascinator hats that you can actually they have a little
receptacle that you can put these scent crystals in so
you can just smell fabulous and fashionable. Uh. They're amazing. Jennifer,

(30:53):
thank you so much. It's such a like, incredibly generous gift.
And I love it, love it, love it, and I
love the history inspires things like descent products. It's so cool.
So you can also check out her stuff for yourself
at adventure scents dot com and I hope you do
because they smell amazing. I love them. I love a
little non standard perfumery. So thank you, thank you, thank

(31:16):
you a million times over again. Our listeners are often
so generous, and I feel like we never get enough
time to publicly thank them for it. So thank you
to everyone who has sent us stuff, and today just
happens to be Jennifer's stuff that shuffled up. Uh. If
you would like to email us, you can do so
at History podcast at how stuff Works dot com, or
at Facebook dot com, slash misst in history on Twitter

(31:37):
at misston History at pinterest dot com, slash misst in
history at misston history dot tumbler dot com, and we
are on Instagram at misst in history. So if you
would like to uh do a little research on things
related to this, you can go to our parents site,
how stuff Works, typing Christopher Lee's name in the search
bar and one of the things that comes up is
a quiz about Frankenstein actors. So super fun, great for

(32:01):
the Halloween season. You can also visit us at mt
in history dot com for show notes and an archive
of every episode going way back to the original host
up to the modern era with me and Tracy and uh,
you should absolutely do that. Come and visit us at
mton history dot com and visit our parent site, how
stuff works dot com for more on this and thousands

(32:25):
of other topics. Because it hous toff works dot com