A man compiles the dictionary of chimpanzee language.
Cinderella did not wear a glass slipper.
A cross of gold brings disaster to many men.
Can you imagine that?
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is Lindsay McCurry speaking.
I'm back with my charts and another collection of odd and sensational facts with which to
regale you for a while.
In just one minute and a half, we'll all be back with the proof of the statements made
a moment ago.
So wait for us, will you please?
I'm back with the proof of the statements made a moment ago.
Well, that's a strange noise, isn't it?
But don't be alarmed.
No one here has suddenly gone to chasing imaginary dinosaurs around the studio.
What you heard was Charles Fuller saying he's glad to see us.
And who is Charles Fuller?
Well, according to a newspaper of March 6, 1915, Charles Fuller was a chimpanzee who
could talk so that his owner, E.W.
Nolton of Pasadena, California, could understand him.
Can you imagine that?
Said Mr. Nolton when interviewed.
I have lately been making a dictionary of the words I found for uses.
So far, I have found six distinct words.
No doubt there are others, but these six I have identified positively.
Each one is said on precisely the same sort of occasion.
I think this proves that monkeys of the higher orders can converse among themselves.
That they can think is already proved.
But listen for yourself.
Fuller, Fuller.
That means he's hungry.
He wants something to eat.
And that wasn't all Charles Fuller would say.
Here are a couple more of the phrases in his vocabulary.
That according to Mr. Nolton meant I am afraid.
And then.
In chimpanzees, that is go away and don't bother me.
We have Mr. Nolton's word that Charles Fuller could sew, untie knots, and untwist a swing
when the rope got tangled up.
But other chimps have done that before.
What made Charles Fuller unique was the fact that his vocabulary could be understood by
his owner.
Can you imagine that?
Well now comes the time for our fairy tale class.
Today's story is that of Cinderella and the fur slipper.
Pardon teacher, glass slipper.
Fur slipper.
Glass.
It's still fur and I'll prove it for you.
Glass.
All right, sit in the corner and I'll explain.
You see, the story of Cinderella is of French origin.
When the translator took the story and began his work of translation, he made a very odd
but still a natural mistake for anyone not working in his native language.
In the original French version, the slipper is referred to as pantoufle en verre, meaning
a slipper made of fur.
V-A-I-R is the French word for fur.
The translator was more familiar with the actual sound of the word verre than he was
with its meaning.
He wrote the word down as V-E-R-R-E, meaning glass.
So we today, because of a translator's odd mistake, know the pretty little fairy tale
as Cinderella and the glass slipper instead of Cinderella and the fur slipper.
Can you imagine that?
Well there are countless stories about the evil that follows famous jewels, about the
bad luck they bring to each successive owner.
The Hope Diamond, for instance, has a history crowded with deaths of tragic episodes in
the lives of its owners.
Along that line, I dug up a story that has all the character of melodramatic fiction
with the added punch of being true.
From a newspaper dated July 8, 1929, comes an item saying that the curse of the cross
has been set at rest.
The cross is really the mount of the Holy Cross that nestles in the heart of the Rocky
Mountains of Colorado, and the curse?
Well, listen to this.
In 1873, members of the Hayden Geological Survey Party were exploring in that particular
region of the Rockies.
As they went on, they became more and more awed by the grim grandeur of the scene before
them, and then suddenly...
Wait!
Wait down there!
Well, what's the matter?
Look!
What?
Look at that.
Just look at it.
Why, a mountain must be over 10,000 feet!
Oh, easily.
But that isn't what I mean.
Look at the side of it.
That cross.
Yes, I see it.
Why, it runs the entire length of the mountain.
The stem must be a crevice.
And the cross piece up near the top is another crevice.
Just imagine.
A gigantic cross over 10,000 feet high.
Why it's...
But wait.
Look.
Here is the foot of the cross.
What does this look like?
Look like?
Why, it's gold.
This is... this is literally a cross of gold.
The geologists stood at the foot of the great cross, awed by its mighty size.
Perhaps they felt something of the intangible majesty of the unknown as they gazed at this
masterpiece of nature.
They reported the discovery of the mountain and also of the gold to be found there.
Then in 1879, two prospectors named Farley and Smith staked out a claim at the foot of
the cross.
Hey, Smith!
Smith!
Come here!
Yes?
What's the matter, Farley?
Say, this place has got enough gold in it to set us up for life and then some.
Look at it!
Yeah.
Say, I've been wondering about the stories we hear about this place.
Some folks say it's sacred or something like that.
Sure, I hear them too, but gold ain't sacred.
And there's plenty of it here for the taking.
Oh, come on, now pitch in, give me a hand.
We'll clear the rubble away and then start digging in earnest.
Why, this whole cross is filled with gold.
Come on!
But did they get a chance to get the gold out?
Suddenly, Smith and Farley fell ill of a mysterious malady which the doctor could not diagnose.
Unable to work their claim, the prospectors hired two men, Johnson and Olsen, to dig the
claim for them.
Then one day the two hired men were out on a little lake rowing.
Hey, we better get back to land.
Looks like this storm is coming up faster than we thought.
Look out, Olsen!
The boat!
It's there!
Oh!
Both men were drowned in the sudden squall that overturned their tiny boat.
Farley and Smith went back to working their claim, back to the business of taking the
precious ore from the cross of gold on the mountainside.
Then one day, while they were at their cabin...
How much we get out today, Farley?
Hey, what are you watching out the window?
I don't know.
I thought I saw something moving in the brush over there.
Smith!
Indians!
Oh!
Farley!
Oh!
Farley was killed.
Smith escaped and went to Australia.
Even going to another country didn't save him from the weird curse of doom that hung
over him, for he was killed in a mine explosion.
In succeeding years, the cross brought tragedy, disaster, or death to every man who scarred
his sides in search of gold.
Then on July 8, 1929, the Mount of the Holy Cross in Colorado was made a national monument
of the United States.
The glittering yellow metal lies in the cross protected from men.
Or perhaps men are protected from it.
Who knows?
And now for the musical portion of this Can You Imagine That?
I wonder how many of you remember that famous old song Under the Bamboo Tree?
Of course you do.
It's an exceedingly hard song to forget once you hear its catchy tune, the lively sparkling
lyrics and the toe-tingling swing of its rhythm.
But if you remember the song, I wonder if you remember the story of how it was written.
Just in case you don't, here it is.
It was written, you may recall, by two gifted Negroes, Bob Cole and Rosamund Johnson.
But how?
Well, it seems that Cole and Johnson were walking uptown one evening in New York.
Johnson was humming as Bob Cole turned to him and spoke.
Hey, Rosamund, you know, that's the song we need for our new act.
Nobody knows the trouble I see?
Oh, no, you don't, Bob.
We're not going to desecrate a sacred song that way.
We simply can't use it in our act.
It's more than just a song to me, Bob.
Now it typifies our whole race.
Oh, I know that.
But listen to me.
You went to the Boston Conservatory, didn't you?
Well, what's that got to do with a new song for our act?
Oh, a whole lot.
Well, you should be able to take that song and change the melody a little and set the
rhythm up a little and have a new song.
Well, I...
Mm-hmm.
I'll try it.
Yep.
I'll try it.
Good.
Inspired by the grand old spiritual, Rosamund Johnson set to work on the melody for a new
song.
Finally, he finished it.
Its first title was If You Lack a Me, but when Cole and Johnson presented it to a music
publisher, it was suggested that the title be changed to Under the Bamboo Tree.
Then the two sang it for Miss Marie Cahill, who liked it instantly.
But when she insisted that it be incorporated into the show Nancy Brown, another snag was
hit, or said the composer of Nancy Brown.
What?
That in my show?
Never.
I might have my score ruined by that...
Well, I refuse to call it a song.
But the lively Miss Cahill, who knew a hit when she heard it, calmly put her dainty foot
down and said the song went in or she went out.
The song went in.
And so out of the past, out of a race in whom music and love of it is born came Under the
Bamboo Tree.
Down in the jungles lived a maid Of royal blood or dusky shade,
A mark impression once she made Upon a Zulu from Matamulu.
And every morning he would be Down underneath the bamboo tree,
Awaiting there his love to see, And then to her he'd sing.
If you like me like I like you, And we like both the same,
I like to say this very day I like to change your name,
Because I love you and love you too, And if you love me,
One lives true, two lives one, Under the bamboo tree.
And in this simple jungle way He would the maiden every day,
By singing what he had to say, One day he seized her and gently squeezed her,
And then beneath the bamboo green He begged her to become his queen,
The dusky maiden blushed unseen And joined him in his song.
If you like me like I like you, And we like both the same,
I like to say this very day I like to change your name,
Because I love you and love you too, And if you love me,
One lives true, two lives one, Under the bamboo tree.
Well now it's time to turn you back to your own announcer, and until we get together again
for another session of Can You Imagine That?
This is Lindsay McCarrie saying goodbye now.