Welcomed, airmen, keys, cabinet of curiosity is a production of I hurt. Radio and grim and mild our world is full of the unexplainable and of history is in book. All of these amazing tales right there on display just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the cabinet of

curiosities poker has embedded itself into high stakes gambling cultures across the globe. After all, what's higher stakes them, thousands of dollars floating around the table on the whims of a set of fifty two cards assigned randomly where that challengers attempt a bluff one another into thinking that they have the best assortment of said carts. It's really something, of course, given the high stakes, nature of it, all poker has also led to its fair share of memorable characters, although perhaps none more fascinating than one woman. Alice ivory, duffy old tubs puckered, and, if you don't mind, I'm just going to call her Alice Alice was in irish immigrant, born in eighteen, fifty one who found herself in the colorado territory by the time she was a teenager. After her first husband,

I'd in a mining accidents and she lost her job as a teacher Alice turn to another form of financial support poker. It turns out. She was really good it's really good. Before long she had earned the name poker, Alice and large crowds would gather to watch her play yet through it all. She never lost her values. She dressed like a respectable woman and refused to play poker on sunday, the lord's day. Of course, she kept the thirty eight revolver with her iD times. Two just in case god wasn't paying attention. Gambling in the wild west could, after all, get a little dicey through her exploits at the table. Alice began to live the good life she earned as much as six thousand dollars some nights equal to roughly two hundred thousand dollars today and that's when she began to indulge a bit she'd. Take her earnings to new york, invest in high fashion and build the image of

celebrity about her a celebrity of humble beginnings, who had more than earned her stay in an unforgiving world. You might say she became something of a rags to riches hero, someone that defied all the odds, all the cultural and gender norms and really became something of herself. She used her new found sense of high fashion against the men so eager to draw cards with her, and even when she was in her fifties, she was regarded for her good, looks and heard charming demeanor, although she was no stranger to the fix a guard either It was frequently found puffing on one as she raked in the money of many an unworthy adversary, given how much her professional life was tied to the cards. Her personal life became tied to the game is well while work.

as a dealer at bedrock tom's saloon and deadwood south dakota, a drunken minor tried to attack her fellow dealer. Warren tubs cheat chased the attacker off with her handy thirty, eight revolver and she and tubs struck up a relationship on the backs of this brush with death. They were married just before the turn of the twentieth century and had for sons together. Unfortunately, tubs died of tuberculosis and she had to do

back the poker tables to pay for the funeral. However, the life of a poker player in the wild west was rarely complete without a trip or two to jail for Alice. That came when she had opened up her very own establishment, the poker palace she still upheld the lord's day, though refusing all attempts at poker on sunday. So when a few rowdy soldiers decided to define the lord's day, Alice called her. Thirty eight revolver back into action and killed one belligerent soldier as well as injuring another, and she passed her time in jail by doing two of her favorite things. Reading the bible and smoking cigars at the trial she claimed self defence and was acquitted in her sixties. Alice was arrested several more times for her role as a bootlegger Madame and a gambler, but she never stayed long now receiving pardons due to her old age. When poker alice died. On february twenty seventh of nineteen thirty, she had amassed upwards of two hundred fifty thousand dollars. Roughly

three million by today standards at all, because she knew just what to do when the cards hid her hands in how to use the weaknesses and, let's call them dated beliefs of her adversaries so long as she had her latest dress, her thirty eight revolver and a cigar and, of course, her bible We have such a shot amount of time on this earth before we leave our lives are made up of memories of birthday parties in christmases of work days and weekends, and before we know it the time we thought we had had all run its course Yet one word runs through our lives like a thread time, everything together for when we finally go, and that word is legacy. What do we leave behind?

for those who loved us and who will remember us when we're gone and how. the creatively, minded might published a book or a quarter. Son actors make movies so do directors, and why directorate turned an entire genre on its head. Changing it forever forever, be remembered as the creator of the spaghetti western with its grip here and more realistic visual style, maybe two realistic, but let me explain what I mean. Sergio Leone started working in italian cinema assisting on films made in his country, during the nineteen forties before writing his own scripts in the nineteen fifties, as he continued to establish credibility in the industry He found himself assisting on american back productions that were filming internationally. Like nineteen fifty nine been her in eighteen sixty four, though he got a chance to direct a film all his own. It was western one. Unlike any that had come before it. It was called a fistful of dollars and it said

a relatively unknown actor named Clint eastwood, based on Akira kurosawa's, one thousand nine hundred and sixty three samurai film yojimbo. A fistful of dollars told the story of a stranger who comes to a small border town and gets involved with the two rival families trying to control it. Leone's picture set

apart from the westerns that had come before movies like rio. Bravo starring John wayne had clean, somewhat colourful, costumes and look like a stage musical compared to leone's tougher style. His characters enter the scenes dirty and unshaven there brown dust covered clothes, weren't, flashy or tailored the good guys, didn't wear white and the bad guys didn't wear black. If that's the idea of good and bad wasn't as cut and dried in these new westerns, there was a realness to Leon's films and that added texture was reflected in more than just the costumes. The landscapes themselves felt three dimensional compared to the studio sets of older pictures, mainly because he didn't shoot on a backlot. Much of the time Leon filmed many of his early films in spain. The backgrounds were rich with mountains and hills that seemed to go on forever and the buildings look like they've been there for fifty years, and one thousand nine hundred and sixty six leone x ten.

that realism into what perhaps became the most iconic western film ever made the good the bad and the ugly also starring clint eastwood. The film tells the story of three men on the search for two hundred thousand dollars in stolen confederate gold. Back in eighteen, sixty two, the movie likely owns previous pictures, was filmed mostly in spain. Its ragged scenery filled in nicely for these civil war era. Southwestern? U s a toward the end of the film. The trio play by eastwood leave and clean and eli wallack suddenly tracked down what they believe as the final resting place of the gold in sad hill cemetery buried in someone's grave wallack makes it to the grave site first and starts digging until he caught up by the others. Eventually, the dirt is cleared away and eastwards character kicks the lid off the coffin. Looking down, the men see that they have been

there's, no gold, just a skeleton now most other directors would have had a prop department make a skeleton for the production, but leone was it like other directors. He originally had a prop skeleton in the grave, but after some fiddling with its still couldn't get it to look right on film to him, it looked fake, no matter how much dirt he threw on it, assists in art director, carlo Leyva did some digging, no pun intended. I swear and discovered that a woman from Madrid had exactly what they were looking for. She was in possession of a skeleton that belonged to her mother. Actually, the skeleton was her mother. The daughter allowed the production crew to use her late. Mothers remains in the film which is who the characters in the viewers see inside the coffin in that scene, but don't worry, she wasn't desecrated the dead in lending them. Her mom

The deceased woman had been an actor when she was alive and her dying wish was to have her skeleton used in movies so that she could act even in death. Her time on earth may have been short, but her legacy will live on forever immortalized in cellulite, in a classic western film. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the cabinet of curiosities subscribe for free on apple pie yes or learn more about the show by visiting curiosities, podcast dont come the show was create, by me, Erin monkey in partnership with how stuff works I make another award winning show called lore witches upon cast book series enter. Vision, show and you can learn all about it over at the world of lore. Dont come until next time. Stay curious,.