The History Cache Podcast

Bessie Coleman: A Legend in Flight

The turn of the 20^th century was an incredible time for aviation and in 1892, eleven years before the Wright Brothers’ famous flight, a pilot was born. Bessie Coleman, known as Queen Bess, was the first African American and the first Indigenous American to receive an international pilot’s license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, two years before Amelia Earhart. Bared from American flight schools because of her sex and unable to find a pilot to give her lessons in the US due to her race, she left for flight school in France. Upon her return, she had an exciting career barnstorming, or stunt flying, wowing audiences with tailspins, parachute jumps, and walking along the wing of her plane while it was in flight. Her tragic death in 1926 came too soon, but her legacy still lives on. Come hear the inspirational life story of the unstoppable Queen Bess.

Historical Oddities Part 2: The Incredible Afterlife of Outlaw Elmer McCurdy and the London Bridge of Arizona

In Part 2 of the Historical Oddities series, we uncover two strange pieces of history. In the 1970’s when the crew of the Six Million Dollar Man was shooting an episode inside a funhouse in Long Beach, California, they accidentally stumbled upon something unexpected…the dead, mummified body of the outlaw Elmer McCurdy. Elmer had been shot dead by a Sherriff’s posse the better part of a century before, so what was his corpse doing hanging from the rafters of a funhouse? Today we examine his incredible true story.

Next, we go across the pond and back again to find out how just what the London Bridge is doing in the Arizona desert. Built after the London Bridge of nursery rhyme fame was demolished and before the bridge that now stands over the Thames, this 19th century granite London Bridge was headed for the junkyard until the city of London auctioned it off to an eccentric American millionaire. Tune in to hear how this iconic English landmark became the world's most expensive souvenir.