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If he were here, he wouldn't just tell you about no fees or minimums, he'd also talk about how most Capital One cafes are open seven days a week to assist with your banking needs.

Yep, even on weekends. It's pretty much all he talks about, in a good way.
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Welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim 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.

If you've ever been to a Halloween party or a pumpkin patch, you've probably seen someone dressed as a fortune teller with dangly earrings and wrapped in shawls.

She might have looked into a crystal ball and told you your future. Of course, the fortune teller was probably an actor, and you understood that her predictions weren't real.

But the character she's playing is inspired by a real woman who traveled the globe conducting seances. She was an adventurer, an occultist, and the mother of an entire New Age movement.

But much like fortune tellers at the party, it was hard to tell which parts of her story were real and what was invented to entice her audience.

She was a clear fraud, but she also was a brilliant mind who left her mark on history, which might be why we're still captivated by the unconventional life of a very mysterious individual.

Helena was born in 1831 in Russia, but they soon moved to Odessa in present-day Ukraine. And according to family members, this is where Helena first began to see ghosts.

She would spend hours in the unused passageways under her house, playing with the ghosts who lingered there. She also developed a supernatural gift that she called Solomon's wisdom.

It's unclear what it meant exactly, but the neighborhood kids said that she could use the gift to lull street pigeons to sleep. For the next decade, life moved quickly for Helena.

Her family moved around and then married her off to an older man when she was just 16. After running away and traveling the world, she dove deep into the study of multiple world religions.

And then in 1856, she snuck into Tibet. Shortly after her arrival there, Helena was in a horse riding accident that landed her in a coma.

When she woke up, she said that her spiritual powers had been been fully realized and she was ready to step into her role as a spiritual leader. Soon after, she hosted her first seance.

At the time, seances were hugely popular in the U.S.

and Western Europe, but unlike most mediums who claimed to contact the dead, Helena, or Madame Blavatsky as she began to call herself, contacted living people in alternate realms.

She adopted dangly earrings and flowing skirts, the stereotypical look that we now associate with fortune tellers. She moved to New York City and began performing seances to growing crowds.

And soon, she earned herself an unlikely super fan, a lawyer and retired Civil War veteran named Henry Steele Alcott.

At the time, traveling mediums were a dime a dozen, and Alcott was working as a journalist trying to expose them all as charlatans. But something about Helena fascinated him.

She was interesting and eccentric, and he believed that she was the real deal. He soon moved in with her and began financially supporting her.

They hosted seances and philosophical discussions in their New York City home. Eventually, Alcott formalized their gathering as the Theosophical Society.

In 1877, Helena published a book called Isis Unveiled, which introduced theosophy as, and I quote, the synthesis of science, religion, and philosophy.

The book became enormously popular, launching Madame Blavatsky into widespread fame in the U.S.

The notoriety gave Helena and Alcott the confidence they needed to sell their belongings and move to India to boost Helena's profile as a spiritual guru and medium.

They built their headquarters outside Bombay and for years hosted acclaimed seances. Notable guests would travel from all over just to witness the talented Madame Blavatsky manifest spirits.

Fame looked good on Helena, and she especially enjoyed the profits that accompanied her spiritual work. But then, disaster struck.

A series of letters surfaced, written by Helena to one of her employees. The letters detailed all the intricate tricks and mechanisms they used during seances to fake otherworldly visitors.

It soon became clear that the entire staff was in on the ruse and that Madame Blavatsky was a fraud. She and Alcott fled India, and Helena returned to London in disgrace.

But as was typical with Helena, she didn't stay down for long.

A few years later, she created the Blavatsky Lodge in London, an association that shifted away from paranormal seances and instead focused on theosophy, the blend of science and religion.

And her philosophies resonated with a new crowd. She wrote more books, many of which are still popular today.
In fact, the Theosophical Society and its London headquarters are still around.

As it turns out, Helena never needed smoke and mirrors to make a mark on history. Her curious mind was more than enough.

This episode is sponsored by Capital One. With no fees or minimums on checking accounts, it's no wonder the Capital One bank guy is so passionate about banking with Capital One.

If he were here, he wouldn't just tell you about no fees or minimums, he'd also talk about how most Capital One cafes are open seven days a week to assist with your banking needs.

Yep, even on on weekends. It's pretty much all he talks about, in a good way.
What's in your wallet? Terms apply, see capital1.com/slash bank. Capital One NA member FDIC.

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You can learn a lot about a city based on their public transportation. In a dense urban metropolis, how do you get from one place to another?

Some cities require you to have a car so you aren't limited to bus routes and metro stops. And some cities, like Boston, Massachusetts, are probably safer to explore via train.

The Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority, or MBTA, maintains one of the oldest public transportation systems in America. And sure, it's not without its problems.

Residents of Boston will regularly complain about how it shuts down during intense weather and seems constantly to be in repair.

But it is an icon of that city, as true to the spirit of Boston as the Red Sox or Irish-American pubs. So, say what you will about the T, but it is the people's train for better or worse.

But this wasn't always the case. Back in the 1940s, the ticketing system for the subway in Boston seemed designed to confuse people.

There was, at one point, a nine-page pamphlet breaking down the various ticket prices to travel across the city.

And when the local government wanted to increase fares, they implemented exit fees, meaning that you paid to take the train, and then once you reached where you were going, you had to pay again to disembark.

Nobody liked that system, especially the overworked ticket booth employees who had to enforce the exit fees. Remember, these were the days before automated turnstiles.

Which brings us to a man named Walter A. O'Brien.
In 1949, O'Brien launched a campaign to become mayor of Boston, running as the candidate for the Progressive Party.

And among his proposed policies was an overhaul of the MTA ticketing system.

Unfortunately for O'Brien's campaign, the Progressive Party did not have enough money to pay for radio ads, so his campaign staff came up with an alternative strategy.

During the lead-up to the election, the O'Brien campaign drove a truck around the streets of Boston with a loudspeaker on the back.

From this speaker, they broadcast seven folk songs commissioned from local musicians. Each of these songs emphasized a point of O'Brien's policy platform.

The song about his plans for public transit was a ballad, written by Jacqueline Steiner and Bess Lomax Hawes.

It tells the story of a man named Charlie who goes to take the train to work only to be told he's one nickel short when he has to get off at his stop. As the chorus goes, but did he ever return?

No, he never returned, and his fate is still unlearned. He may ride forever near the streets of Boston.
He's the man who never returned.

O'Brien was fined $10 from the city of Boston for the stunt for disturbing the peace. Ultimately, he came in last place in the election, and his political career never really recovered.

And then, during the Red Scare of the 1950s, anyone with a remotely left-wing political affiliation was accused of being communists, forcing O'Brien and the rest of the Progressive Party to fully fade away.

O'Brien, who had never been a member of the Communist Party, retired to Maine, where he found unassuming work as a librarian.

And sure, as far as political careers go, it's something of an anticlimax, but Walter A. O'Brien's legacy doesn't end there, thanks to the ballad he commissioned to help his campaign.

Charlie on the MTA was a catchy tune, and over the years, a number of folk artists recorded cover versions completely unrelated to the now-defunct O'Brien campaigns.

In the 1950s, the Kingston Trio's version of Charlie on the MTA became a breakout hit.

To minimize pushback from their audience, though, they wound up changing one of the lyrics from Vote for Walter A.

O'Brien to Vote for George O'Brien, you know, just in case they got accused of supporting a communist politician. The song was so iconic that it became deeply ingrained in Boston culture.

Now, 76 years after Walter A. O'Brien tried to become mayor of Boston, the MBTA has a standardized fare system, much like the one that he promoted with the folk song.

And today, if you're ever in Boston and you need to take the tea, you'll be prompted to buy a Metro card for the journey. And since 2004, that Metro card has been known as the Charlie card.

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 CuriositiesPodcast.com.

The show was created by me, Aaron Mankey, in partnership with How Stuff Works. I make another award-winning show show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show.

And you can learn all about it over at theworldoflore.com. And until next time, stay curious.

This episode is sponsored by Capital One. With no fees or minimums on checking accounts, it's no wonder the Capital One bank guy is so passionate about banking with Capital One.

If he were here, he wouldn't just tell you about no fees or minimums, he'd also talk about how most Capital One cafes are open seven days a week to assist with your banking needs.

Yep, even on weekends. It's pretty much all he talks about, in a good way.
What's in your wallet? Terms apply, see capital1.com/slash bank, capital One NA member FDIC. This is an iHeart podcast.

Guaranteed human.