In Research Of – Details, episodes & analysis

Blake and Jeb discuss ISO's coverage of FAITH HEALING. The episode goes to places new and old. Jeb gives us historical context. Blake gets angry. Nimoy wears a lab coat.

 

EXTENSIVE Show Notes on our free Patreon page

Weirdumentary has a forward by Stephen Bissette who wrote a book also likely to be of interest to listeners: Cryptid Cinema (affiliate link)
(A follow-up to that book is under construction and will include research by your's truly about the "4-walling" tour of the PGF.)

I linked to Feral House's page for Weirdumentary above at the request of Gary. If you're curious about their catalog, we talked with their owner recently about monstrous food and they also produced Al Ridenour's new book about Carnival.

This is not a complete list of the films in the book - and it also covers a few TV series including In Search Of... and Arthur C. Clarke's _____ (he had three ITV series covering topics similar to ISO with each season getting a slightly different name).

1970: Chariots of the Gods, The Unexplained

1971: The Hellstrom Chronicles, The Man Who Saw Tomorrow

1972: Bigfoot Man or Beast, Monsters! Mysteries or Myths?, The Devil's Triangle, The Legend of Boggy Creek

1973: In Search of Ancient Astronauts

1974: Deadly Fathoms, In Search of Ancient Mysteries, In Search of Dracula, UFOs: Past, Present and Future

1975: Mysteries from Beyond Earth, The Force Beyond, The Legendary Curse of the Hope Diamond, The Man of Miracles, The Outer Space Connection

1976: Beyond Belief, In Search of Noah's Ark, Mysteries of the Gods, The Amazing World of Psychic Phenomena, The Legend of Bigfoot, The Legend of Loch Ness, The Miracle Healers, The Mysterious Monsters, World Beyond Death

1977: Aliens from Spaceship Earth, Journey into the Beyond, Mysteries of the Great Pyramid, The Lincoln Conspiracy, The Underground Doctors, The Unknown Force

1978: Are We Alone in the Universe?, Beyond and Back, Curse of the Mayan Temple, Manbeast! Myth or Monster?, Mysteries from Beyond the Triangle, Mysteries of the Mind, Mystery of the Sacred Shroud, Secret of the Bermuda Triangle, The Amazing World of Ghosts, The Late Great Planet Earth, The Lost City of Atlantis, The UFO Journals, UFO - Exclusive! , UFO: Top Secret, Unknown Powers, World of the Unknown

1979: Attack from Outer Space, Charles Berlitz's The Bermuda Triangle, Death: The Ultimate Mystery, Encounter with Disaster, Hypnosis and Beyond, In Search of the Historic Jesus, The Doomsday Chronicles, The Prophecies of Nostradamus, UFOs Are Real, World of Mystery

1980: Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World (TV), Land of Celtic Ghosts, Mysteries of the Mind, UFO Syndrome

1981: Search for the Titanic

Jeb and Blake head out to sea in research of the mystery of what happened to the crew of The Mary Celeste. 

Links:

The Dei Gratia

Nimoy Fashion Alert 
(NFA Wardrobe consulting by The Hogtown Rake, Pedro Mendes)

 Attorney Fred Flood

In 1913, The Strand Magazine provided an alleged survivor's account from one Abel Fosdyk, supposedly Mary Celeste's steward.

The Mary Celeste (1913 article)

Per "WhatTheFont" website identifier, that font is (appropriately):  JOLLY ROGER! 

Meanwhile on Skull Hut Island...

 

Pop Culture:

Dead Calm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mystery_of_the_Mary_Celeste

Read it, it's a time. Hammer film -Jeb

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chase_(Doctor_Who)

Watch this ISO episode on YouTube

Was Dracula, the Bram Stoker novel, based on a real person in the form of Vlad Dracula? Jeb and Blake discuss.

Discussed in this episode:

Update 1/28/2020: Listener Justin Mullis spotted an error which has led to a correction in this audio and will lead to some additional material in another IRO content drop shortly. -B

Bram Stoker's Dracula the novel

John William Polidori's The Vampyre 

Varney the Vampire, a penny dreadful

Carmilla by Joseph Le Fanu

Dan Simmons Children of the Night vampire book

Todd Browning's Dracula & Freaks

Copola's movie Bram Stoker's Dracula 

Hammer's The Horror of Dracula (1958)

Hellsing, vampire anime

Shadow of the Vampire (2000) fictionalized story of the making of Nosferatu (sort of)

Remastered Nosferatu (English, Scored, and free via YouTube)

Dracula (in the novel) goes to The Scholomance to become a vampire.  

What's a Lich?

Why did Hammer set most of its Dracula movies in Germany? It seems likely to be budget related, perhaps having sets ready? You'd have to ask script writer Jimmy Sangster to be sure, but I did uncover this passage in a book titled "Dracula Goes to the Movies," by Lyndon Joslin:

"Due to the budget constraints of this version, Dracula doesn't take a sea voyage to London, not even via footage pirated from another film. Instead, he takes a hearse to the town of Karlstadt, wherever that may be. There is a Karlstadt in Germany, but in order to get there from Klausenburg in central Transylvania, Dracula would have to travel across modern-day Hungary and Austria. The movie depicts the trip as a mere overnighter, so Karlstadt is evidently a fictional town somewhere in Transylvania. There's a border crossing guard in the story, so Karlstadt must be in a neighboring 'state,' province or district. (The border crossing, we're told, is in 'Ingstadt,' itself apparently a fictional town and therefore not much help here.) Karlstadt here compares with the 'Carlsbruck' seen in the same year (1958) in Hammer's The Revenge of Frankenstein, and with the Karlstaad seen in 1964's The Evil of Frankenstein. The creation of a generic German archetypal town is what goes on here, comparable to Universal's having set part of its Frankenstein series in the never-land town of Visaria. It's ironic that in this, the first British adaptation of Dracula, the Count doesn't go to London, or even to England. In Hammer's series, he doesn't turn up in England until Taste the Blood of Dracula in 1970. Still, Horror of Dracula is so very British that articles have been written about it by reviewers who didn't notice that it isn't London Dracula invades. Seems the undertaker's address in the movie - on 'Friederickstrasse' - would've provided a clue." (Joslin, 2017)

Castle Ambras - home of weird paintings and "cabinet of curiosities"

Lot's Wife geological formations 

• Stoker was going to create his character, and then ran into a history discussing Dracula, and used that as the backstory. Also added the vampire bat aspects.
  • Much of this may come from Emily Gerard's The Land Beyond the Forest. He basically lifts a number of ideas and text from her.
    • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Gerard

She was a travel writer and novelist.

Radu Florescu (obituary) co-author In Search of Dracula

Vampire lore around the world varies in what the vampires do, and how they are created.

The Order of the Dragon 

Ceahlău Massif

The story of Budu

• http://www.ceah
• laupark.ro/en/legends/ The show calls it a megalith, but it is actually two rock outcrops, one for Budu, one for Ana

Bran Castle

The Hardy Boys (and Nancy Drew) meet Dracula (part 1 and part 2) takes place in "Dracula's Castle" which I'm pretty sure features exterior shots of Bran Castle.  This episode features Lorne Greene (Battlestar Galactica and Bonanza) and also singer/songwriter/actor Paul Williams (The Phantom of the Paradise, Rainbow Connection)

The story about what was found in the church seems to be completely wrong.
From Wiki on Vlad Dracula: 

"According to popular tradition (which was first recorded in the late 19th century), Vlad was buried in the Monastery of Snagov. However, the excavations carried out by Dinu V. Rosetti in 1933 found no tomb below the supposed "unmarked tombstone" of Vlad in the monastery church. Rosetti reported: "Under the tombstone attributed to Vlad there was no tomb. Only many bones and jaws of horses."

I think I solved this one. (-B):  

In October 1974, the AP released a news story about Dracula's grave and the island. The story tells that Rosetti investigated then immediately follows with the legends around the remains of Vlad. I'm betting this is the source because it closely matches the episode narrative and would have been easy to find or perhaps remember when this episode was made.
"The grave, said to be Dracula's, was discovered by Romania's eminent archaeologist Dinu Rosetti in 1931 after he followed up a folklore story known only to neighboring villagers across the lake." (see attached PDF for full article)

The famous woodcut of Vlad dining in front of impaled victims.

 

Nimoy Fashion Alert

 

Watch this ISO episode on YouTube

Jeb and Blake fail to find Amelia Earhart.  So they've got that in common with the folks profiled in this week's episode.

Discussed in this Episode:

Amelia Earhart, pioneering woman pilot

Husband and publisher George Putnam

Navigator Fred Noonan 

 

AutoGyros/GyroCopters and how they are different from helicopters. 

Propaganda film Flight for Freedom (DVD) which fictionalizes the story of Earhart as spy.

The Lockheed Electra Model 10 

The Searchers:

Joseph Gervais, the obsessive guy who believed an innocent New Jersey housewife was secretly Amelia. I'm not linking to his stupid book or to the woman he stalked and harassed, though she did pass in 1982. Even when she died, he tried to get to see the body.  No.  No, no, no, no. 

 

Elgen Long - aviator and author of Amelia Earhart: The Mystery Solved 

 

Fred Goerner, author of The Search for Amelia Earhart 

Nimoy Fashion!

 

 

Watch this ISO episode on YouTube 

Blake, Jeb, and guest Ken Hite talk about the search for Nazi Plunder - lost treasure and art following WWII.

Thanks to Ken Hite for joining us on this episode. You can find a huge archive of Ken's excellent podcast (with Robin Laws) titled Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff. Highly recommended!
Ken's also a prolific author and game designer and if you like this episode and weird war history, you might especially enjoy his Osprey (fiction) book on Nazi Occultism.  Also, if you enjoy vampires and Jason Bourne-style spy action, you should check out Night's Black Agents.

Discussed in this Episode:

About this rocket Jeb was asking about: It appears to say ПО РEЙXCTAГУ

"Po Ree-stah-gu"

Also, it appears to be a BM-XY launch system (not sure what values go in X or Y). Apparently, like the Brits called the V weapons "buzz bombs" because of their peculiar sounds, the Germans called this Russian rig "Stalin's Organ" because of its sounds. 

Per Ken, it translates into either "On to the Reichstag!" or possibly "to the Reichstag" like a package address."

 

Walter Horn - a "monuments man"

Martin Bohrman - a Nazi. Hitler's secretary and confidant. 

Jeb, haunted by WORLD AT WAR series intro.

Austria's Lake Toplitz (pronounced To-Plitz-Say)  was a treasure dump - found in 1957

In Florence - Rudolpho Siviero continues the hunt... Rodolfo Siviero ( 1911 - 1983 )

Nimoy Fashion Alert

Austrian fire-men (and treasure hunters) search a lake.

 

Wherein Jeb and Blake discuss the 13th episode of In Search Of... and fail to learn any ESP.

Watch this ISO episode on YouTube.

Notes:

Edgar Mitchell (Wikipedia)

Mitchell's Institute of Noetic Science 

Phenomena by Annie Jacobson (history of Gov't research into Psi)

Zener Cards 

Nimoy Fashion Alert:

One possible explanation of JJ's "psychic" powers is that he may have seen the images from the lens reflection.

Joseph (JB) Rhine mentioned as creator of the experimenter.  I know this is just a TV demo but a big problem w/ these tests is controlling for stuff like that might give away the card selection. 

Duke article on Rhine, including how he got involved in the Exorcist case and missing persons.

SPR article on Rhine.

Discussion of Rhine's motivations as being religious in style, but scientific in content.

David Ossman (Firesign Theater) on Spoonbending from Lawrence Kennedy, an excerpt from Dr. Firesign's Follies.

Robert Monroe of the "Monroe Institute" - home of the waterbed farm lab.

The American Society for Psychical Research. 

UC Davis' Dr. Charles Tart 

David Zink (from the Tiwanaku finale of the episode)

 

Night Gallery Commentary:

Percy Rodriguez (samples of his voice power) - wikipedia entry

An article discussing Rod Serling & Jack Laird on Night Gallery

The Sixth Sense TV show that was inserted into Night Gallery feed on syndication

 

Also Mentioned:

Jason King - the character (and TV Show) that inspired Austin Power's fashion sense. His show was a spin-off from the series that first featured him, Department S. 

 

Watch this ISO episode on YouTube

The In Search Of show profiles the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) and Jeb is not impressed. Blake & Jeb both relate Roswell/Black-Helicopter experiences near the VLA.

Unmarked Helicopters (song by Soul Coughing)

Green Bank West Virginia (radio free zone)

William Proxmire (senator who killed funding of SETI)

The novel Contact was written by Carl Sagan, but the novel was based on a screenplay by Sagan and Ann Druyan. 

Nimoy Fashion - what the heck color is his blazer?

No, seriously! What color is this?

 

Jeb and Blake join Leonard Nimoy and a group of St. Louis clairvoyants as we go in research of psychic detectives.

Watch this episode of ISO on YouTube. 

A quick thanks to Shane Gower for his helpful blog post from 2015 about this episode.

• 1970s Famous psychic Peter Hurkos is featured during the introduction.
• Hurkos was vouched for by Andrija Puharich, after being challenged by James Randi.  Puharich was a major figure in Ancient Aliens, Remote Viewing, and New Age culture in the US.
• "Psychic Detective" has changed meaning over the 20th century from detectives who investigated the paranormal into detectives who were themselves paranormal.
• IMDB and Wikipedia say that Sylvia Browne is in this episode. Jeb and I could find zero evidence to support that assertion. She appeared neither on-screen, nor in the credits. Furthermore, the episode took place in St. Louis and involved local psychic investigators but Browne had left Missouri for California in 1964 according to her obituary:

"She eventually began giving readings to others and, 10 years after moving to California in 1964, she formed the Nirvana Foundation for Psychic Research."

• Irene Hughes makes an appearance, already a media figure when this was shot
• Phyllis Deggendorf is said to attend George Washington University which is in Washington D.C. - but actually it is Washington University in St. Louis.
• Articles about the Sally Lucas murder case discussed in the episode:
  Body of Sally Lucas Found (Sep 1971)
  Details on Sally Lucas' Murderer's trial (Anthony Damico)
  Damico found Guilty
  St. Louis Magazine article on Bevy Jaegers
  Details on the Criminal Trial of Anthony Damico (no mention of Psychics)

Nimoy Fashion Alert: First Sweater Sighting!

Sharon Hill (Scientifical Americans) joins Jeb and Blake to talk about the Atlantis episode of In Search Of...   Watch original In Search Of episode on YouTube.       This is a kind of a disjointed mess of an ISO episode, so our notes are kind of all over the place as well.  But here's a bunch of highlights and additional reading from our own prep notes for the show:

• We'll be covering Easter Island in a terrific upcoming episode, but it has nothing to do with Atlantis.
• Olmec heads don't weigh anything like what is claimed.
• The Tiwankau text about "long before the Pyramids" stuff comes from nazi-sympathizer Arthur Posnansky whose "15,000 years ago" dating has been picked up by many alt-archaeology researchers.
• Thera/Santorini is a beautiful place that suffered a devastating disaster ( 1642–1540 BCE ). When not being called "Atlantis" it spends a lot of time as photographs in Greek restaurants. 
• Antikythera Mechanism is from within 200 - 50 BCE. Plato wrote the Atlantis story more than 100 - 200 years before the device was even made. It has nothing to do with Atlantis.
• Dr. Maxine Asher is a controversial choice for "subject matter expert." Her views may not have been known by the ISO producers? Weird ramblings about Catholics, Jews, 12 Noahs, Psychic Powers, and academic fraud are just some of her career highlights.
• The Piri Reis map appears again. It does not show Antarctica. Nor Atlantis.
• The Edgar Cayce people make an appearance. Their group is called the Association for Research and Enlightenment (ARE).
• The Bimini "Wall" or "Road" is discussed. It looks manmade but was created by natural processes. Other geological features that look manmade include The Giant's Causeway.
• We talk a bit about Peter Tompkins and mentioned: The Secret Life of Plants Secrets of the Bermuda Triangle 
• Oldest reference I found saying that Peter Tompkins might have been the voice in that weird call was from this 2003 post by "Gian." This comports closely to words written on The Quester Files site - by Gian Quasar, whom I presume is the same author. (Note: Blake and Jeb are both highly skeptical that Tompkins is the voice.)
• The Mochica artifacts (and the troubling assertion that their art represents proof of a post-Atlantis diaspora) are presented. There is no evidence that this is true, and Jeb is suspicious that some of those artifacts shown are forgeries.

Nimoy Fashion Alert: