Biped Beavers & The Man Bats from the Moon

Dark Histories

Ben Cutmore

History

4.8 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 27 September 2021

⏱️ 89 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

1938 saw one of the world's most famous media hoaxes terrify a nation of unexpecting listeners when the original War of the Worlds radio broadcast was sent out across the airwaves unannounced, leading many to believe it to be a genuine news item. Somewhat more obscure is the tale of its precursor, when 103 years earlier in August of 1835, daily New York newspaper The Sun ran a week-long series of articles concerning the discovery of life on the moon. The paper’s “Lunarians” were a bizarre species of temple building man-bats living in perfect harmony with the animals that surrounded them. It was a humbug to match the audacity from any of the exhibits in P.T. Barnum's American Museum and as unbelievable as it may sound today, at the time there were many who firmly believed it, fueling debates that raged across all levels of society. Sources Goodman, Matthew (2008) The Sun and The Moon. Basic Books, NY, USA. Adams Locke, Richard (1835) Great Astronomical Discoveries Lately Made By Sir John Herschel, LLD FRS &c At the Cape of Good Hope. New York Sun, NY, USA Allen Poe, Edgar (1846) Some Honest Opinions at Random Respecting Their Autorial Merits, With Occasional Words of Personality. The Literati of New york City - Vol VI. USA. Liverpool Mercury (1835) Alleged Discovery of Men, Animals, Vegetables Etc. In The Moon. Friday 25th September, 1835, p.8. Liverpool, UK Herschel, John F. W. (1834) A Treatise on Astronomy. Carey, Lea & Blanchard, London, UK. ---------- For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories The Dark Histories books are available to buy here: http://author.to/darkhistories Connect with us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories & Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dark_histories/ Or you can contact us directly via email at [email protected] or via voicemail on: (415) 286-5072 or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/cmGcBFf The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017 Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

Transcript

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0:00.0	1938 saw one of the world's most famous media hoaxes terrify a nation of
0:06.3	unexpected listeners when the original War of the World's Radio broadcast was
0:11.0	sent out across the airwaves unannounced, leading many to believe it's
0:14.8	the genuine news item. Somewhat more obscure is the tale of its precursor when
0:20.9	103 years earlier in August of 1835, Daily New York newspaper The Sun ran a
0:27.9	week-long series of articles concerning the discovery of life on the moon. The
0:32.8	papers Lunarians were a bizarre species of temple-building manbats, living in
0:38.5	perfect harmony with the animals that surrounded them. It was a humbuck to
0:43.0	match the audacity from any of the exhibits in P.T. Barnum's American
0:46.8	Museum, and as unbelievable as it may sound today, at the time there were
0:51.8	many who firmly believed it, fueling debates that raged across all levels of
0:56.0	society. This is Dark History where the facts are worse than fiction.
1:05.2	Hello and welcome to Dark History's Season 5 episode 15. I'm Ben as always,
1:11.2	and it's absolutely great to get onto this subject, which is a topic that I've
1:17.3	had in the bank for a really long time. I've been working on it in bits and
1:23.9	pieces for a really long time because I knew this was quite a subject that
1:29.1	requires slightly different research methods for myself, and it kind of
1:35.7	prolonged it a little while, but basically this episode's been being worked on
1:39.1	for quite some time, so I'm really glad to finally kind of get it down and get it
1:43.2	out because it's a fantastic story and just excellent story. Before we get onto
1:50.5	it, I do want to just say thank you very much to everyone who's bought the Dark
1:56.6	History's books that launched a couple of weeks back now. When I made them, I'd be
	...

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