Category: Historical Weirdness

Hey parents, here’s a cheery yuletide story, or even a winter vacation, to give to your kids. Why not take them to Demre, Turkey to see the very grave of Santa Claus! Ho ho ho! Or even better yet, head on over to the Basilica di San Nicola in Bari, Italy to see some of his remaining bones (stolen from his grave in 1087 by Italian sailors to protect them from Muslim invaders) where they spontaneously leak a clear liquid once a year said to have miraculous healing powers! Presumably CHRISTMASY healing powers.

What child wouldn’t be filled with joy to be in the same room with ol’ Saint Nick? He doesn’t have much of a lap left anymore but I think you could probably fit three or four of  the tykes on top of the tomb at once. That’ll get that interminable line moving.

Ok, enough of my Grinchiness. The myth (sorry kids) of Santa Claus evolved from Saint Nicholas who was revered among many different Christian groups. He was a Bishop and a strict Orthodox Christian who was present at the First Council of Nicaea which was gathered to establish the church’s position on canonical law as relating to the Bible, including setting the date of Easter. Thus adding further fire to the great Santa Claus vs Easter Bunny rivalry. Arrgh, just kidding, I’ll settle down…

St Nicholas was a real, erm, saint of a guy according to legend. Apparently he was really into secret gift-giving and many of the stories about him center around this aspect. He also took on a serial child killing butcher and resurrected his victims, but that is given a bit less credence by historians. Regardless. his legend evolved, as legends do and from his Dutch name “Sinterklaas” and Saint Nicholas Day (Dec 5th) celebrated there, mixed with a bit of the Norse Odin, the British Father Christmas, and sizable doses of highly-motivated capitalists, we get the Santa Claus as we know him today in shopping malls across the world!

Depression is a powerful thing. Those who deny, or go with the old chestnut, ‘why can’t you just decide to be happy?’ don’t really understand. I didn’t, for a long time. But it’s crippling for many and for the city of Budapest, Hungary, which was devastated by World War I, it was an epidemic that led to huge waves of suicide. But they came up with a really weird (and kinda freaky) solution: Smile Clubs.

According to a newspaper article at the time: “A “Smile Club” has been inaugurated to counteract the suicide craze it was originally begun more as a joke by Professor Jeno and a hypnotist named Binczo, but somehow it caught on. The organisers have now a regular school and guarantee to teach the Roosevelt smile, the Mona Liza smile, the Clark Gable smile, the Dick Powell smile, the Loretta Young Smile, and various other types, the rates varying according to the difficulties encountered. Jeno says the methods employed at his school, aided by better business conditions in Budapest are making smiling popular and before long it is hoped that the name of Budapest will be changed to the City of Smiles.

There actually has been numerous studies over the decades, even recently, that forced smiling can actually enhance someone’s mood, find comedy funnier, and the like. I can only guess that this was the impetus behind this plan that not only taught students how to give different kinds of smiles, but actually had them wear apparatus to either simulate a smile, as above, or force their faces into a smile using medical tape.

Yeah, that is creepy. And for the record, I think we all learned from The Joker, that it can have some nasty psychotic side effects as well. Although, you gotta admit, it’s not often you saw The Joker in a bad mood.

Although the rumors of Walt Disney’s cryogenically frozen corpse being stored underneath the Pirates of the Caribbean ride in Disneyland are decidedly untrue, the popular attraction since 1967 apparently held a dark secret of its own.

Built in 1967, the iconic boat ride that spawned four movies, was the last ride overseen by Walt himself; sadly he didn’t live to see it open. It’s unclear as to whether he was involved with the ghoulish decision that was made by the Imagineers for the ride’s design, but either way, are you ready for this?

…Originally all the skeletons in the attraction were actual human bones.

Yup, sounds like a story generated by the internet, but it’s apparently true. The Imagineers were not happy at all with the fake skeletons they had made for the ride and obtained actual cadavers from the UCLA Medical School which were put in all the classic poses all OVER the ride even as you see it today.

The bones stayed in place for a good long while, although it’s not exactly clear how long that was. What we do know is the grand majority were eventually removed and replaced with more convincing fakes…but not all of them.

Not the skeleton in the bed, but the crossbones behind him? Yup, real dead dude parts. I can only guess they left them behind as a reminder of the history of the ride as a hidden in-joke for Disney folks. Either way…still eerie.

Did you know the Nazis had a secret training base hidden out on a ranch in Rustic Canyon, Los Angeles? No kiddin’. This isn’t some alternative history fiction, although I’m sure it’s been integrated into more than a few. The Murphy Ranch was originally build by a widow before WWII as a 22 room mansion with electric generators, a 20,000 gallon diesel fuel tank and a 300,000 gallon water tank. A fire damaged much of the property and she abandoned it only for it to be bought by…NAZIS!

Where was Indy when we needed him?

Norman and Winona Stephens bought the ranch, who were supporters of the Silver Legion of America, or “The Silver Shirts”, a pro-fascist organization, that were modeled after Hitler’s Brownshirts. By 1934, the group had over 15,000 members and begun reparative construction on the Murphy Ranch. The group pictured it as the fortified world headquarters of the Nazi party after the inevitable point when they took over the globe.

But the plans all fell through. Shortly after Pearl Harbor, some of the construction workers working on the property noticed paramilitary troops being trained by a German man on the property. The powers that be came in and shut it down, after arresting its German military officer for sending secret messages to Germany. And the rest, of course, is history.

You can see still the remains of the compound. While overgrown with weeds and covered with graffiti, one still can find decaying buildings, and even secret passages still being discovered by hikers, all over the property. Check out the link from one of our favorite sites, Roadtrippers.com, for directions to the ranch and more information and pictures.