The Cardiff Giant & The Great American Humbug

Dark Histories

Ben Cutmore

History

4.8 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 20 April 2020

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The world of the strange has always held a certain draw. The pull of a mystery, the intrigue of a natural obscurity or the exciting twists of the unexplained. This was a market that was heavily seized upon in typical bombastic fashion in America during the 19th Century when the art of the humbug was refined, polished and displayed on a grande stage by the likes of P. T. Barnham and his museum of magic, conjuring and social, cultural and natural oddities. In 1869, a new chapter in the pantheon of the strange was freshly penned with the discovery of a 10 foot tall petrified human giant on a farm in Cardiff, New York. As one might expect, all was most definitely not, what met the eye and the saga would, if nothing else, slot right in as suitably bizarre. SOURCES Dodge, J. Roy, (2018) Cardiff & its Environs, Lafayette, New York. Barnham, P. T., (1865) The Great American Humbug, Lapham's Quarterly, Accessed Online: https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/swindle-fraud/great-american-humbug Murphy, J., (2012) The Giant & How He Humbugged America, Scholastic Press, NY, USA. ------ 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 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/6f7e2pt 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	Thanks for downloading Dark Histories.
0:02.0	Before we start, I just want to throw out a few ways that you can get involved and help support the show.
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0:24.8	Of course, just continuing to spread the word about the show on social media, leaving reviews
0:29.9	and sharing with all your family and friends is also a huge help.
0:34.0	So thank you to everyone for all that.
0:36.4	All right, enough of this.
0:38.3	Let's crack on with the episode.
0:40.2	The world of the Strange has always held a certain draw, the pull of a mystery, the intrigue
0:48.7	of a natural obscurity, or the exciting twists of the unexplained.
0:53.0	This market was heavily seized upon in typical bombastic fashion
0:58.0	in America during the 19th century
1:00.0	when the art of the humbug was refined, polished and displayed on a grand stage by the likes of
1:06.9	P.T. Barnum and his museum of magic, conjuring and social, cultural and natural oddities.
1:13.0	In 1869, a new chapter in the Puntian of The Strange was freshly penned with the discovery of a 10-foot
1:20.8	tall petrified human giant on a farm in Cardiff, New York.
1:26.6	As one might expect, all was most definitely not what met the eye, and the saga would, if if nothing else slot right in as suitably bizarre.
1:36.6	This is Dark Histories and a facts are worth than fiction.
1:50.0	Hello, welcome to Dark History season 4 episode, I don't know, 8 I think. I hope this phones you all very well.
	...

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