All language subtitles for The UnBelievable with Dan Aykroyd s02e15 Unexpected Spectacles.eng

- [Dan] Warning, what you are
about to see could be disturbing

to some viewers.
Viewer discretion is advised.

[upbeat music]

Imagine looking up at
the sky one day

and spotting a guy
floating above the earth

in a piece of patio furniture.

[upbeat music]

- Larry reaches 16,000 feet.

That's three miles
above the earth.

- At this point,
Larry's freezing and he

is rapidly losing oxygen.

Now he's kind of freaking out.

[upbeat music]

- Or watching a fireworks
display that's radioactive.

- Las Vegas hotels and casinos

host these parties that end

with an atomic explosion.

- Guests basically
just drink and party

and sing all night till
just before dawn when bam.

[bomb exploding]

- How about heading
to the racetrack to place a bet

on a primate?

- These monkeys are
taking it seriously,

riding the greyhounds
like their thoroughbreds.

It's insane.

[upbeat music]

- These are the
spectacles so unexpected,

they are truly Unbelievable.

[intense music]

[intense music continues]

[music crescendos and ends]

Early 1920s, America is a
time of prosperity and hope.

It's also the start
of prohibition,

and people are looking
for things to do

instead of well, getting sauced.

Eating contests are
gaining popularity

and beauty pageants too,

but there's one strange
spectacle that

I guess you could say rises
above the rest.

[tense music]

- It's January, 1924
in Hollywood, California,

a local theater owner
decides that he's gonna try

and use some sensationalism

to drum up a little
more business.

He decides to hire
a stunt man to climb

onto the theater's
100 foot tall flagpole

and than just sit up
there to draw attention.

- [Dan] Who is brave
or foolish enough

to take this job?

A man by the name of
Alvin Shipwreck Kelly.

- Shipwreck claims to have
survived 32 shipwrecks,

including that of the Titanic.

Probably not true,

but this is how he earns
his moniker shipwreck.

And it works, people can't take
their eyes off of him.

They buy movie tickets just
to see if he's still up there

when they get out.

- [Reporter] After 13 hours,
13 minutes, aloft, he's down.

- It makes the papers,
and now everybody

wants the guy to
promote their business.

- Over the next decade,

Shipwreck tours 28 cities
in the United States

to drum up business
by flagpole sitting,

he earns up to $500
a day per appearance.

That's $10,000 in today's money.

- [Dan] Because he's
getting paid by the day,

Shipwreck's in no
hurry to come down.

That's when he starts
racking up records.

[soft music]

- In 1927, he spends 22
days on top of a flagpole

at Madison Square
Garden in New York City

to help promote
a dance marathon,

and in 1929, he spends 49 days

on top of a 225 foot pole
in Atlantic City steel pier

amidst wind, rain,
and lightning.

- The logistics of this
are endurable

but still very dangerous.

[upbeat music]

- [Dan] With only a 13 inch bar
stool cushion, rope stirrups

and thumb-sized holes
to maintain balance.

Shipwreck has to get creative

when accounting for
some other challenges.

- In terms of going
to the bathroom,

what he does is he
discreetly places this tube

that goes all the
way down the pole

to take his bodily
fluids all the way

to a receptacle waiting
that's on the ground,

so that when he has
to go, you know,

he can do so without
anybody seeing

- [Reporter] As Shipwreck Kelly
fame flag pole sitter has vowed,

he'll hold his perch for as
many hours as it took Lindbergh

to fly across Atlantic.

- [Dan] By the late 1920s,
Shipwreck is at peak popularity

as the luckiest fool alive.

Adults are enamored and
children wanna be just like him.

With that naturally
comes competition.

[upbeat music]

- You got guys showing
up from all corners

trying to outdo him,

all trying to break
Shipwrecks record's.

- And then we have
the beauty queen

of flag pole sitters Betty Fox.

She's skipping
rope, she's dancing.

She does all sorts of tricks
to kind of set herself apart

and she even has a
telephone that connects

to the bottom of the
flagpole so that her fans

can come and have a
conversation with her.

- [Dan] While no flagpole
sitters plummet and die

in 1929, the stock market does.

- The realities of the
great Depression set in

and people don't really
have the cash or patience

to watch a guy sit up
on a flagpole.

People just stop
paying attention.

- While the flagpole
sitting era comes to an end,

Shipwreck Kelly must
have the last word.

In 1934, he mounts a flagpole
to the top of a biplane

and goes for one final ride.

[upbeat music]

- Say what you will
about Shipwreck Kelly,

but it's undeniable,
he went out on top.

[upbeat music fading]

If looking at a
guy sitting on top

of a flagpole sounds unusual,

imagine a guy hanging
around at 16,000 feet.

- It's 1962 and a 13-year-old
boy named Larry Walters

walks into an army surplus
store in Los Angeles.

Suddenly something unusual
catches his attention.

These large weather balloons

that are hanging
from the ceiling.

And that moment begins
Larry's fixation with flying.

- As he gets older, he
graduates from high school.

He heads down to the Air
Force Recruitment Center,

and as they go through
the process,

they get to the eye exam

and he finds that his
eyesight is not up to snuff.

[soft music]

- [Dan] With his dream dashed,

Larry spends the next
15 years doing odd jobs,

eventually becoming
a truck driver,

but his fixation with
flying never goes away.

[soft music]

- Now the year is 1982,
and a 33-year-old Larry

is pulled over to
the side of the road

and he's looking up at the sky

and he starts thinking about
those great big weather balloons

he saw hanging from the
ceiling when he was 13.

- Right then and there,
Larry hatches his plan.

He's going to get
some weather balloons,

fill them with helium.

He's going to sail
through the air

over the San Gabriel mountains
and land safe and sound

in the Mojave Desert.

- Some people may think it's
a crazy idea or a pipe dream,

but it isn't to Larry.

[tense music]

Larry shares his idea with his
girlfriend Carol Van Deusen.

She sort of laughs it off
like a crazy flight of fancy

and she thinks
he'll never do this.

But Larry disagrees,
this is now a mission.

- Larry draws up blueprints.

He decides he's going to
take 42 weather balloons,

[upbeat music]

rig the balloons to an
old fashioned lawn chair,

attach 30 gallon
size jugs of water

to release weight if
he needs to go higher.

And he also brings with him

a BB gun.

- Plan is that when he
gets to about 7,000 feet,

he will then start
shooting judiciously

a few of those balloons
and start his descent.

- [Dan] Could this
absurd plan even work?

- Yes.
[distorted voice]

- [Dan] On July 2nd, 1982,
Larry decides to find out.

[upbeat music]

- You can just imagine what this

must have looked
like to neighbors.

They're out in the
streets looking, gawking,

along with Carol is
Larry's best friend Ron.

He's here to film the whole
thing for posterity's sake.

- As fate would have
it, just as Ron yells,

"Larry don't do this."

A gust of wind blows
up, snaps the rope

and the chair
flies into the air.

- [Dan] In no time, Larry
reaches 500 feet and counting.

Suddenly he's at 1,500 feet,

the height of the Sears Tower
and he keeps rising.

- After just one hour,
Larry reaches 16,000 feet.

That's three miles
above the earth.

That's higher than
the maximum altitude

of a Cessna airplane.

[upbeat music]

- At this point,
Larry's freezing

and he is rapidly losing oxygen.

To make matters worse,

[tense music]

he's been blown off
course by the winds.

[ominous music]

And now he's
encroaching on airspace

around the Los Angeles airport.

- At that point, a Delta
flight launching out

of LAX almost hits him.

[plane engine roaring]
[upbeat music]

- [Dan] With dangers mounting,

Larry realizes this lawn
chair needs to be grounded.

[upbeat music]

- Larry pulls out his BB
gun and starts his process.

He shoots down 7 of
his weather balloons.

[dramatic music]

And then he drops his BB gun,
it slips out of his hand.

[tense music]

- [Dan] Fortunately for Larry,

he's popped enough balloons
to start his descent.

Unfortunately, he's headed
straight for the power lines.

- Via CB Radio, he's
able to make contact

with city power authorities
who actually kill the power.

So Larry is not electrified
to death when he lands.

He is brought back down
to the ground surrounded

by well-wishers who
are cheering him,

who are asking him to sign
pieces of his weather balloons.

He's greeted like
a returning hero.

- [Jane] Did it
have a name, by the way?

- The craft itself?
- [Jane] The craft, yes.

- Yes, it was called
"The Inspiration."

- [Jane] "The Inspiration."

- [Dan] Larry receives
his 15 minutes of fame

for this stunt, and even appears

on several late
night talk shows,

but he's also slapped with
a $1,500 fine from the FAA.

Interestingly, the actual
lawn chair Larry piloted

now hangs in the Air and
Space Museum in Washington, DC

making this strange spectacle
a part of aviation history.

- There's nothing like a day at
the racetrack from the popcorn

popping to the sound of
buglers kicking things off,

but this is no ordinary race.

[upbeat music]

- Greyhound racing has
been a popular sport

in the United States dating
all the way back to 1919.

[upbeat music]

By 1930, 67 dog tracks have
opened across the United States,

most of them in Florida.

- It's a huge spectator
sport, not just to watch,

[upbeat music]

but to bet on as well.

[upbeat music]

A couple from Miami named
Loretta and Charles David

asked the question,

"How can we make this
already popular spectacle

even more spectacular?"

- [Dan] Their plan simple,

just add monkeys.

- The idea is take a monkey,
put on the back of a greyhound

and essentially make
a monkey jockey.

- [Dan] Making
jockeys outta monkeys

isn't as easy as it sounds,

actually that doesn't
sound easy at all.

[gates clicking]
[tense music]

- Greyhounds are
naturally predatory.

Remember when they're
running around the track,

they're actually chasing a
rabbit to eat it and kill it.

The challenge is taking a
small mammal like a monkey

and getting them not just to
coexist, but to work together.

- [Dan] The Davids
are up for the task

and move forward to bring this
spectacle to the racetrack.

- Loretta and Charles import

12 baby Capuchin
monkeys from Panama.

Each of these baby monkeys
cost about $35,000 today,

so this is a huge investment.

- The genius part of this

is that the Davids also
get 12 greyhound puppies

and they raise the monkeys
and the puppies together

basically as siblings.

- After two years of
bonding, becoming buddies

working together
every day, training,

it's time for them
to hit the track.

- The first race
in Florida is held

in January of 1933 in Miami.

The bell goes off and they
spring outta the gates.

[upbeat music]

These monkeys are
taking it seriously,

riding the greyhounds like
they're thoroughbreds.

It's insane.

- [Dan] The monkey
jockeys become so popular

that the Davids take them on
tour all over the country.

Gamblers and track owners are
making money hand over fist.

The monkeys, however, quite
literally work for peanuts.

- Despite the popularity
of these races,

the Humane Society does step in

and deems the sport
cruel to animals.

Because of this,
Charles and Loretta

retire their monkeys at
the end of the 1930s.

[dramatic music]

- Now, if monkey jockeys
don't thrill you,

perhaps another much smaller
spectacle might fit your fancy.

- [Host] When a
flea plays soccer,

he's in fact trying to jump.

- I think when you
say the word flea,

people conjure up images

of the fleas you might
find on a cat or a dog,

and they're a terrible nuisance
as is, but for most of history,

people share their homes with
fleas that feast on human blood.

And the difference is,

they're not only larger and
stronger, they're trainable.

- [Dan] We know this
thanks to Leon Bertolotto

who round 1892 sees
moneymaking potential

from these little guys.

- Bertolotto invents
a new art form,

the flea circus.

- Audience members
are astonished

to see these little
pests, not sucking blood,

but pulling a little chariot
or carriage or train car.

- [Host] The fact
is, fleas can pull up

to 200,000 times
their own body weight.

- So the big question is,

how do you train a flea
to be a circus performer?

- [Adam] The trick turns
out to be keep the fleas

in a glass jar.

After two weeks
of bouncing around

and smacking their little
heads on the lid of the jar,

the fleas become docile.

- [Dan] Once
they've calmed down,

their power is ready
to be harnessed.

[upbeat music]

- The proprietors
of these circuses

who are called professors,

will attach a minutely
thin copper wire to them

and rig the other end of
the wire up to little carts

and objects, which the flea
will then proceed to pull.

- [Dan] Unlike monkeys,
fleas don't work for peanuts,

they demand a different
kind of payment.

- The fact that fleas
drink human blood

makes them extraordinarily
easy to care for.

The professor will
roll up his sleeves

and allows them to feast
on blood before showtime.

- By the late 1950s, the
bizarre spectacle starts to fade

due to a shortage of performers.

Thanks in part to
one clever invention.

[vacuum whirring]

If you're determined to
experience a flea circus

in all its magnificence,

you can still find one
performing annually

in Munich, Germany
at October Fest.

- In the 1920s,
stunt flying shows become

a popular form of entertainment,

propelling daredevils
to push the boundaries

of what it's possible
to do while in the air.

This leads one woman
to turn an accident

into a real showstopper.

[upbeat music]

[plane engine roaring]

- Gladys Ingle is a
Hollywood stunt woman.

She's a daredevil.

She's also the 4th
woman in America

to achieve her pilot's license

and she becomes the
only female member

of a group known as,
The 13 Flying Black Cats,

which is a group
of stunt trick flyers

that performed shows in
Southern California.

And Gladys is one of the
prime performers in this show.

[tense music]

- This woman has no fear.

She'll walk on the wings of
planes in the middle of the air,

she'll stand on the wing of
a plane as it's doing a loop,

and she'll even shoot arrows
at targets on the ground

while she's flying.

[plane engine roaring]
[dramatic music]

And by the way, she's
doing all of these stunts

without a parachute,

so if she falls, she dies.

[tense music]

- [Dan] One death defying
feat in particular

will go down as
Gladys's greatest.

[tense music]

- January of 1926,
The Flying Black Cats

are putting on one
of their air shows.

A pilot named Art Goebel

is flying one of these
planes, doing stunts,

when suddenly one of his
wheels falls off in midair.

This is the 1920s,

landing a plane with two
wheels is hard enough.

Landing a plane with one wheel

without crashing
is nearly impossible.

- The question becomes how
do you change a tire in midair?

More importantly,

who would be bold enough
to do such a thing?

[tense tone]

- Gladys Ingle volunteers,

several of her Black
Cat teammates

strap a tire to her back.

[plane engine roaring]

She gets on the wing of a plane

and heads up into the air
towards the distressed plane.

- As Gladys is
riding this biplane,

the crowd is fixated.

[dramatic music]

This biplane, on which
she's riding on the wing,

inches closer and closer
to Goebel's plane.

Crowd on the ground
is looking at her going,

"No, are you mad?"

[suspenseful music]

[dramatic music]

- She's jumping onto another
plane with a tire no parachute.

- She tiptoes across the wing,

gets to the center of the
plane, and then shimmies down

the side of the belly of
the plane down to the axle.

And then with one
arm takes the wheel

and miraculously attaches this
wheel while it's in midair.

[intense music]

Gladys makes her way
back onto the wing

and rides the plane all the
way back down to the ground

where Art Goebel safely
makes his landing.

It's uncanny what just happened.

The crowd is eating this up.

- [Dan] Unbeknownst to the
awe-struck spectators below,

this was all part of the show.

[air whooshing]
[light dramatic music]

- The stunt is actually born
out of something that happens.

During one of the
practices, Art Goebel,

one of the wheels
fell off of his plane

and it is Gladys that goes up

and changes the tire in midair.

They realize this could
actually be a pretty cool stunt

to perform in the show.

Why don't we just keep doing it?

And so they do.

In fact, Gladys will
perform this stunt 300 times

and the audience eats
it up every single time.

[upbeat music fading]

- While watching a
tire change in midair

is clearly spectacular.

There are other dangerous
ways to get a thrill

right here on land.

[upbeat music]
[train horn blowing]

- It's the 1890s and
there's a new sensation,

two trains smashing
into each other.

They're called
Train Crash Shows.

- [Dan] One of the first and
most infamous train crash shows

takes place in a town just
outside of Waco, Texas in 1896.

- It's billed as,
"The Crash at the Crush"

and the guy behind it is
a man named William Crush.

He's a passenger agent

for the Missouri,
Kansas, Texas Railroad,

also known as the Katy Railroad.

- The Katy Railroad
has been struggling

and Crush has been tasked
with drumming up new business.

And what better way to
get people to ride trains

than to get trains to crash.

[train hooting]
[upbeat music]

Crush secures two retired
Katy Railroad locomotives.

He paints them red and green
and he has the railway engineers

create a length of track
between two hillsides.

He's creating an amphitheater
for this spectacle.

He even builds a temporary town,

appropriately named Crush,

to house what's
going to be an influx

of more people than this
county has ever seen.

[tense music]

- On a beautiful
September 15th Texas Day,

people begin
flooding into crush.

40,000 people have arrived.

- At 5:10 PM William
Crush mounts his horse

rides out to the
midpoint on the track,

and then with the wave of
his hat, begins the contest.

[train hooting]
[dramatic music]

- The engineers pull
the throttle back,

the boilers are raging

and the steam is
rushing through.

[train hooting]

- Red and green locomotives
come tearing towards each other.

The engineers, they dive off.

[train engine whirring]

- The trains get up
to the top speed.

- The crowd swells.

People are screaming,
they are loving this

and they cannot wait to see.

[train hooting]
[suspenseful music]

[trains crashing & exploding]

- [Dan] It turns out
to be a bigger show

than anybody bargained for.

- The sky fills with
missiles of iron and steel,

just these massive
chunks of train

that are flying up into the air.

People jump from their seats,
they're trying to book it

and get out of the landing area.

Some of the debris does
come down onto the spectators.

Two people are crushed
and killed instantly.

- [Dan] Not surprisingly
Crush is fired immediately.

- But after the railroad
company realized

that a lot of the
people in the crowd

actually had a spectacular time,

the railroad company
rehires him a day later.

[light music]
[trains exploding]

- Despite the crash
at the Crush disaster,

Train Crash Shows stay
popular for several decades.

However, as the Great
Depression takes hold,

people no longer see the sense

in destroying perfectly
good train locomotives.

No matter how spectacular

a spectacle that may be.

- There's no spectacle quite
like a classic blowout.

One of those epic ragers
you heard about in college

that you might have been
at or you wish you were at.

This is the tale of
one such throwdown.

[dramatic music]

- It's 1694,

and former Captain Edward
Russell has been promoted

to first Lord of the
Admiralty in the British Navy.

The top job.

[tense music]

This promotion is a big honor,

but then he finds out he's
being sent to C�diz, Spain

and he does not wanna go.

- He just got married.

He's 42 years old, he'd been
at sea for a number of years.

He wants to stay in London.

[dramatic music]

- [Dan] Admiral Russell
does not wanna go to Spain,

but he knows he can't refuse
an order, so it's on to plan B,

throw the soiree of the century.

[upbeat music]

- Admiral Russell
lives on King Street.

It is a posh,
expensive neighborhood

and it is filled with the
very members of parliament

that are sending him away.

This party isn't just
his farewell to London.

It is meant to both annoy
the members of Parliament

and also let them know

just how pissed off
he is at having to leave.

- Admiral Russell proceeds
to walk into his garden.

He heads to his fountain,

which is about 30 feet in
diameter, and he pulls the plug.

[soft music]

- He fills the fountain
with 250 gallons of brandy,

125 gallons of Malaga wine,

1,400 pounds of
sugar, 2,500 lemons,

20 gallons of lime juice,
and 5 pounds of nutmeg.

- This punch bowl is enormous.

So much so that Russell
has to hire a boy

in a little tiny boat
to paddle around,

mixing the cocktail.

- [Dan] Word quickly gets out

about the Admiral's
defiance spectacle.

- 5,000 people show up

to drink from the
admirals punch bowl.

People are drinking,
they're frolicking.

Eventually all
hell breaks loose.

It's a bacchanalian event.

- It goes on for a day, it
goes on for a couple of days,

and then we get
to the eighth day

of this massive, massive soiree.

People are just
getting so belligerent.

A man takes a look
at the fountain

and he sees it as a golden
opportunity to go swimming.

[upbeat music]

- Pretty soon, dozens of
people are in the fountain.

They're doing laps, they're
swimming and they're drinking.

The madness just accelerates.

[upbeat music]

After eight days, the
fountain runs dry,

thus ending the greatest
party in British history

where the first Lord
of the admiralty

becomes the first
Lord of debauchery.

- Admiral Russell still
has to go to Spain,

but not without giving
his superiors a spectacle

they won't soon forget.

Looking for another way
to entertain your guests?

Instead of a DJ,
try booking an act

equivalent to
10 million tons of TNT.

[tense music]

- It's the 1950s
and the atomic bomb

is on the minds
of every American.

[upbeat music]

It's the one thing
we have to defend us

from the dangers and the
specter of communism.

[bomb exploding]
[upbeat music]

- The government's been
running atomic tests

around Yucca Lake and
Nevada for over a year.

There's so much public interest

that they decide to broadcast
an explosion to the public.

On April 22nd, 1952,
more than 200 reporters

and camera operators
gather at News Knob

only 10 miles away
from the blast.

- [Dan] 35 million
Americans tune in

to see this breathtaking
display of destruction,

but it leaves some wanting more.

[tense music]

[bomb exploding]

- Watching it on TV
isn't good enough.

They want to see it
with their own eyes.

[upbeat music]

- It gives birth to a Cold War
phenomenon of atomic tourism.

And it just so happens
Las Vegas is only 50 miles

away from the test site.

- [Dan] Then some
bold entrepreneurs

take things a step further.

- Las Vegas hotels and casinos
host these parties that end

[bomb exploding]

with an atomic explosion.

- Guests basically
just drink and party

and sing all night, till
just before dawn when, bam!

[bomb exploding]

- People are even able to watch

from the comfort
of a hotel pool.

Just think about
that for a second.

You're sitting on a floaty.

[upbeat music]

You have a cocktail in your hand

watching a nuclear explosion.

[bomb exploding]

- [Dan] But concerns
about nuclear fallout

soon bring an end to this
radioactive spectacle.

- On October 7th,
1963, President Kennedy

and the leaders of Great
Britain and the Soviet Union

signed the historic
Limited Test Ban Treaty.

From now on, you can
only test underground

and that puts an end
to these parties.

[bomb exploding]

- As the Cold War continues,

the general public realizes

maybe atomic weapons aren't
really a cause for celebration.

- Imagine trying to
save infant lives

by staging a spectacle.

Well, that's just what happened
at the turn of the 20th century.

[tense music]

- In the late 1800s,

infant mortality is a
major crisis in France.

Premature infants generally
die when they're born.

[tense music]

There's a Doctor
St�phane Tarnier,

he's interested in this subject,

but really struggling
to find an answer.

- One day when Dr. Tarnier
is at a zoo in Paris,

he sees a chicken egg incubator
and he has a eureka moment.

If warming an egg at
consistent temperature

can make it hatch,
could warming a preemie

the same way make it thrive?

[dramatic music]

- Dr. Tarnier acquires
an incubator,

makes some adjustments,

and places a
premature baby inside.

Kept at a consistent
body temperature,

the preemie is able to put
on enough weight to survive.

His experiment works.

- [Dan] Despite its success,

the medical community isn't
ready to use equipment

meant for animals on infants,

but that doesn't
stop Dr. Tarnier.

[dramatic music]

- In 1896, he spies opportunity
at the Berlin World's Fair.

- He decides to
set up an exhibit

where he gets six incubators

and he places six premature
babies in these incubators

to put on display
for people to see.

[bright tone]

And he gets a large crowd.

People are flocking to
see these premature babies

in these incubators
continuing to survive

and continuing to thrive.

- [Dan] Oddly, no doctors
take an interest except one.

[upbeat music]

- Dr. Couney, a German
American obstetrician

is visiting the World's Fair.

He sees Dr. Tarnier incubators
and the premature infants

and he recognizes immediately

the scientific possibilities

and the medical
importance of this.

- [Dan] When Dr. Couney
returns to America,

he presents the idea
to hospitals,

but they are skeptical.

- It's not cheap to
save premature babies.

Each incubator itself costs
about $40,000 in today's money.

- Dr. Couney is not above
a little bit of showmanship,

so he takes incubators

and the premature
infants on the road.

He tours around
the United States

as this incubator sideshow.

The public loves it.

They turn out, they see this,

and it serves two
incredible goals.

One, these premature
infants are doing better.

Many of them are living,

two, it's making
Dr. Couney some money.

- And eventually
Dr. Couney makes enough money

to create this spectacle as
a more permanent fixture.

- [Dan] No, not at a hospital.

As unlikely as it sounds,

he finds a place at an
iconic seaside resort.

- If you visit Coney Island
at the turn of the 20th century,

you'll come across
a marquee that reads

"Life begins at the
Baby Incubator."

It's a site unlike anything
audiences have seen before.

- [Dan] For 20 cents
or about $7 today,

people can see
incredibly tiny infants,

some only two to three pounds
growing in these incubators.

- To get people
to keep coming back,

Dr. Couney plays up the drama.

He'll have his nurses
remove their wedding bands

or engagement bands and slip
the rings around the wrists

of these babies to
show and emphasize

just how small these babies are.

- Just two years in, he
is making so much money

that he opens another location

on the Atlantic City boardwalk.

It's crazy to think today that
in the early 20th century,

this baby incubator sideshows

are the only dedicated
neo-natal care facilities

in the United States.

In fact, it's not until 1939

that the first neo-natal
care unit opens

at Cornell Hospital in New York.

- [Dan] With hospitals around
the country catching up,

Dr. Couney closes his
incubator sideshows in 1943

after having saved an estimated
7,500 premature infants.

[upbeat music]

Now, if you find it strange,

that thousands of babies
could draw such a crowd.

How about a grizzled old
man riding a bicycle?

[upbeat music]

- Gustaf H�kansson is
a 66-year-old bus driver

from Helsingborg, Sweden.

When Gustaf is
not driving a bus,

he's more often than
not on his bicycle.

He loves to cycle.

He's quite good at it and
he's very competitive,

and he truly believes he could
beat anybody in a bicycle race.

- [Dan] Gustaf decides
to put his claim

of bike racing
supremacy to the test,

and signs up for a
thousand mile bike race

from Haparanda to
Ystad in the South.

- But there's a slight
problem with Gustaf's entry.

The maximum age for this
competition is 40 years old.

Gustaf feels rejected, but
this isn't going to stop him.

- "You won't let me in the race?

I'm gonna show these
people whose boss."

- Because Gustaf is not
an official rider,

when the gun goes off,
Gustaf holds back.

[gunshot firing]

Letting the official
competitors get a lead on him

by about a minute and then
starts pedaling after the pack.

- [Dan] What happens next?

You wouldn't believe
it, even if you saw it.

- Three days into this
race, and by some miracle,

this 66-year-old Gustaf
is in the lead by 125 miles.

Pretty soon newspapers
pick up on the story.

Gustaf fever is in full effect.

Every town, every village,
every city along the route,

people are there lining up,

and as he approaches the
chants, start...

- [Paul] St�lfarfar, St�lfarfar,

which translates into
English, Steel Grandpa.

- [Dan] But not everyone is
rooting for Steel Grandpa,

- Even though he's not
an official entrant,

the race officials are miffed.

They can't stop him per se,

but they gotta do
something about this.

He's winning their race
and he's not even in it.

- So they make him pull over

and undergo a mandatory
medical examination

hoping that they
can disqualify him.

Unfortunately for them, Gustaf
passes with flying colors.

So this only adds to the living
legend of the Steel Grandpa.

- [Dan] At the finish
line, on July 7th, 1951,

a huge crowd gathers to
see their 66-year-old hero.

- As he crosses the finish line,

children from the town come
out on their own bicycles

and accompany him into
the winner's circle.

People erupt in cheers.

It's a spectacle to behold.

- [Dan] However, this
underdog's victory

is not without controversy.

- People are saying the
Steel Grandpa is a cheater.

- The race rules stipulate
that riders must end the day

at a particular
checkpoint and then sleep

and then resume the
race the next morning.

But Gustaf does not
abide by this rule.

- At the end of each night,
he takes an hour of rest

and sets back off in
the middle of the night,

that allows him to get
way ahead of the pack.

- [Dan] Okay, maybe
he cheats a little,

but it certainly doesn't
affect his popularity.

The very next day, the
King of Sweden himself

invites him over for tea.

- He turns into Sweden's
hottest celebrity.

Every subsequent bicycle race,

Steel Grandpa is invited
to as a celebrity rider.

[dramatic music]

- Steel Grandpa continues
to ride bicycles

until his death in
1987 at the age of 102.

Staying at the top of your
game into triple digits

is an accomplishment we all
hope to see for ourselves.

Steel Grandpa, we salute you.

- On the steel pier in
Atlantic City in 1928

a large crowd is looking up
at a woman on top of a horse,

that happens to be
standing on a platform

40 feet in the air.

The big question,
is she about to jump?

And also, whose idea is this?

To answer that, we must
first go back 70 years.

[tense music]

- William F. Doc Carver is
an entertainer and a showman,

and in 1883 he partners
with Buffalo Bill Cody

to be part of his
Wild West show.

But Carver eventually

breaks with Buffalo Bill
to go out on his own.

- [Dan] In the early 1900s,
show business is not easy.

- Doc is looking for
the next big thing.

What can he do to draw huge
crowds and make a lot of money?

- [Dan] He takes inspiration

from the popular high
diving acts of the day

and asks the simple question,

would it be better with a horse?

- Doc Carver takes his
idea to San Antonio, Texas.

He is promoting the
heck out of this show

to take place on February
17th, 1907 at Electric Park.

But there's one problem,

he needs someone
to take the plunge.

- And he finds his rider,
in 19-year-old Oscar Smith.

So Oscar Smith and the horse by

the name of Little Powder Face
ascend this platform.

[tense music]

[water splashing]

- Oscar and the horse
make a beautiful dive,

come plunging into the pool.

A huge splash erupts,

the horse surfaces,

unfortunately, Oscar does not.

He's killed by the impact.

- [Dan] Despite Oscar's death

Doc's horse diving
show will go on,

and it turns out it
becomes immensely popular.

- He actually sets up
two different teams

that crisscross the country
and they make a lot of money

because they draw huge crowds.

[water splashing]

- But Doc Carver is not
one to be satisfied.

- He's always on
the lookout for a rider

that will take this
show to the next level.

- [Holly] Enter Sonora Webster.

- Sonora joins Doc Carver's
horse diving show in 1924,

and the crowd is
in love with her.

She becomes the star.

- [Dan] Sonora, even
marries Doc's son,

and they set up a
permanent show on the

steel pier in Atlantic City
doing 100s of jumps.

Then one day there's
a terrible accident.

- In 1931, Sonora is
jumping off the platform

a dive she's done
100s of times before,

but she enters the water
a little bit off balance

and with her eyes open.

The awkward impact causes
both of her retinas to detach,

causing permanent blindness.

- [Dan] Sonora is determined
to go on with the show,

even if she can't
see it herself.

- She makes the spectacle
even more daring

and continues to perform
for the next 11 years,

completely blind.

[water splashing]

- When she stops diving in 1942,
horse diving's heyday ends.

However, she's so
well known for it

that there's actually a
film made about her in 1991

called "Wild Hearts
Can't Be Broken,"

which she doesn't
love incidentally.

[tense music]

- Horses diving into
a pool from 40 feet

may sound unbelievable, but
what about a wrestling match

where your opponent
could rip your head off?

[upbeat music]

- Professional wrestling today

is arguably one of our
biggest spectacles.

[upbeat music]

A $1.3 billion a year industry.

But back in the 1950s,

it's a struggle to
get fans in the seats.

- [Dan] The genius marketing
idea get these giant guys

to wrestle something
even more giant, a bear.

[bear roaring]
[dramatic music]

- As with any absurd spectacle,

there has to be a star,

and the star here
is Terrible Ted.

Now Terrible Ted,
when he was a cub,

had his teeth and
claws extracted,

but as a full grown bear, he's
still over seven feet tall

and weighs over 600 pounds,
which is pretty threatening.

[tense music]

- April 1st, 1950 Terrible
Ted has his first match

in front of a sellout crowd
at Asbury Park in New Jersey.

Terrible Ted takes on a
fighter named Tony Galento,

who was one of the toughest

and most feared
fighters of his time.

- And keep in mind,
this isn't scripted,

this isn't rehearsed.

You don't run through
something with a bear.

You just let the
bear do its thing.

And Terrible Ted pins him
down in less than a minute.

[bell ringing]

- After this win, Terrible
Ted's legend begins to grow.

He gets adopted by a human
professional wrestler

named Jean DuBois,
who trains him.

Between 1969 and 1974,

Ted wrestles multiple
big name wrestlers

including Superstar
Billy Graham, Bobby Henan,

and Rocky Johnson, father
of Dwayne the Rock Johnson.

- And of course, Ted wins
all of these matches, why?

Because he's a giant 700
pound bear, that's why.

- [Dan] When terrible
Ted retires in 1974,

another bear taps in.

- In the 1970s and 80s,
Victor the Wrestling Bear

travels the country
facing wrestlers

like Rowdy Roddy Piper, Gary
Hart, and Gorgeous George

defeating all of them.

In fact, Victor claims a
record of 15,000 and nothing,

and he gets so famous

that he even ends up on
the Ed Sullivan show.

- Eventually the
sport is phased out,

but the debate still rages over

who really was the greatest
wrestling bear of all time?

Whether it's watching someone
attempt to pin a giant bear

or fleas walking a tightrope,

or even an elderly man on a
bike, besting fit 20 year olds.

These surprising spectacles
entice us for one simple reason.

They are all truly Unbelievable.

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