Episode 52 — Insane Deleted Scenes from History

[JulyDiaz 2797]

'Historical fiction' is almost always more of the latter than the former: so much history just doesn't look very interesting onscreen. But our passion for only the screen-friendly bits of the past means we often wind up with a much more boring and less accurate mental image of historic events.

 

Any WWII film set in Germany paints all the people as part of a hive mind set on world domination. But what if we told you the National Socialist Party never won a single election with more than 42% of the vote? The real Nazi party was much smaller than we tend to remember -- but it was also way crazier. From Hitler’s nerdy obsession with fantasy books to Himmler's attempts to resurrect the dead, the Third Reich was much LARP-ier than you've been lead to expect.

 

This week, Jack O'Brien, Soren Bowie, Michael Swaim, Robert Evans and JF Sargent talk about the flip sides to well-known historic moments that Hollywood left out.

 

We'll also talk about 'Little House on the Prairie', the TV show and set of children books about a little family that could out on the American frontier. The one thing Laura Ingalls Wilder left out is that her next door neighbors at the time were a family of crazed cannibal serial killers.

[ClaireSheller 30]

Ok I waited through the footnotes to see if you would say anything, buuuuuuut it's Mary Todd, not Martha. Martha was George's wife...

 

Y'all should do an extension of this episode that discusses historical moments that were horrific at the time but then completely forgotten by subsequent generations. E.g. The Wreck of the Sultana, the Peshtigo fire, the Parsely massacre etc.

 

I always enjoy the podcast! Keep up the good work!

[insurgent1979 9]

why wasn't this "BEFORE" halloween?!!!!!

[andsheewas 1]

The fact checking in this was awful. As mentioned before, it's Mary Todd Lincoln. And she was into seances long before her husband's death. She had lost two children prior to the assassination, and only one of her children would live to adulthood. So, I think she can be forgiven for being a little off the rails.

 

I would love to see a revisit of this with a little more care taken. But this is free entertainment, so thanks for that. The site continues to have great content, so that is why I was a little disappointed with this episode. Also, it was my first listen to the Cracked podcast. Regular listeners, any recommendations for starter episodes that are a little less lazy than this one?