The Backstory with Patty Steele

Bruce Ismay ran the White Star Line but managed to save himself from the sinking of the Titanic by hopping into a lifeboat. Was he a coward . . or simply canceled by vicious press? His granddaughter said the greatest tragedy of Ismay's life . . was surviving.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Reincarnation is one of those topics that you either believe is a real possibility or you think is nuts. But there are stories with no other easy explanation. They come from both everyday folks, especially little children, as well as some big-name “A” list celebrities.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If women in the 1800s wanted to take a swim . . they were pulled into the surf in a cabana on wheels, wearing 30 pounds of wet wool. So how did we get to the bikini, much less the thong?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

While watching the Catholic Church choose a new pope earlier this month, it seemed completely immersed in tradition. But Pope Leo the 14th is a very different leader than an earlier namesake . . Pope Leo the Tenth, from the powerful Medici family. His reign in the early 1500s and his love of partying and living like a king . . brought about one of the biggest religious upheavals in European history.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What happens when you’re born into tremendous wealth and social standing, but all you want is a bohemian life filled with creativity and freedom? In 1910 the life of a socialite was pre determined before birth. One young woman felt trapped and simply disappeared. But what really happened to Dorothy Arnold?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’ve been intrigued in the past few weeks with the ancient traditions surrounding the choice for a new pope to lead the Roman Catholic Church. But that transition hasn’t always been smooth. This is another look at one of the darkest moments in Church history. It was the Cadaver Trial of a dead pope, which took place 1100 years ago.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jessica Savitch had a dramatic rise... and an even more dramatic fall in the network news business of the 1970s and ’80s. It’s a shocker! But her tragic story oddly inspired Will Ferrell to do the movie Anchorman: The Rise and Fall of Ron Burgundy. Here’s the backstory!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Few authors have impacted literature and our culture like On the Road author Jack Kerouac. But his short life was filled with pain, depression, addiction, and murder... as well as brilliance. This is a peek at his rise and fall.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nothing like the Kentucky Derby... even if you’re not a dedicated thoroughbred race fan. Those animals are exquisite bundles of pure muscle. So... imagine trying to kidnap one! How would you do it... and what happens after you get him? It happened over 40 years ago in Ireland to one of the most remarkable European Derby winners of all time and his billionaire owner. This is his story.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How does a book start out as a complete failure only to suddenly be celebrated as one of the great American novels, decades later? And what was its heartbreaking inspiration? This is the story of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic The Great Gatsby, published 100 years ago this month.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nothing makes us melt like a great story about a kid and a dog. Lassie was a megastar in the 1950s, watching over her 7-year-old boy Timmy...but was her act lifted from the first canine movie star back in 1905?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One of America’s most prolific female serial killers was Aileen Wuornos. She admitted to killing at least seven men before she was executed in 2002. Her life was depicted in the 2003 movie Monster. But how did the little girl, tormented by schoolmates as "the cigarette pig," become a monster?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mar-a-Lago, President Trump’s long-time property in Palm Beach, gets a lot of press these days. But it’s an architectural marvel. The thing is, its past is way more glittering than its present. It was built in the roaring 1920s by a young woman who was, for most of her life, the richest woman in America. This is about where her money came from and how she spent it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The murder of movie star Lana Turner’s mobster boyfriend by her 14-year-old daughter was the biggest story in Hollywood in the late 1950s. But did young Cheryl really wield the knife? Or did she take the hit for her mother?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Two of the most famous inventors of the late 19th and early 20th century were Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. They were great friends and shared a strong belief in the afterlife. That connection led Ford to obtain a test tube from Edison’s son…allegedly containing Edison’s dying breath.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hard to imagine loving a politician so much that a third of the entire U.S. populace shows up to watch his funeral train go by and millions file past his open coffin. But sadly, Abe Lincoln was decomposing before their eyes. His two-week journey home was on a train meant to be the 1860s version of Air Force One, and his only trip on it was after his death. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

44 years ago this month, the song Superfreak was released by funk legend Rick James. But success didn’t sit well with him .. eventually leading to prison and an early death.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

April 15th will be the 160th anniversary of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. He was noted for having a personality that was a unique combination of strength and determination, softened by incredible sensitivity to the pain of others. So, he was aware of the passions that influenced Americans on both sides during the Civil War. Did that knowledge and sensitivity allow him to predict the events of his own murder?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Robert Downey Jr. has had an amazing career—huge movies as a young actor and even bigger ones in his 40s and 50s. But in between, he spent serious time in prison on drug charges. How did he find sobriety?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The 113th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic is just weeks away, but the disaster still resonates. Two of the 710 survivors were tiny little boys, traveling with their father under an assumed name...after he kidnapped them from his ex-wife. They were the only children to survive without a parent or guardian that night. The older son, just 4 at the time, lived until 2001 when he was 92. He shared their amazing story.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Boston Marathon is next month, but women weren’t officially allowed to run in it until 1972. Officials said it would shock a woman’s body to run more than one and a half miles at a time! In 1966 one woman began to change all that by sneaking into the race wearing her brother’s shorts and a new pair of men’s running shoes since they didn’t make them for women until a dozen years later. But Bobbi Gibb’s finish time was outstanding.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What’s the real story behind the love affair and long delayed marriage between King Charles and Queen Camilla? Their love affair predated his marriage to Princess Diana by almost 20 years. But British rules about virginity caused one of the biggest scandals in history. This is how it all came down.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There is so much fascination and mystery in the history of feudal Japan. The true story of the only black samurai in Japanese history will be brought to life in the coming week with the release of Assassin’s Creed: Shadows. But who was he, how did he become a samurai and what happened to him?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Boleyn sisters were red-hot English socialites in the early 1500s. Their rise and fall, one as the mistress of King Henry the Eighth and one as his queen, was shocking even by the standards of the time. Why did a bishop call one of them the “most infamous whore of all”? How did they catch the king? And how did they lose him, along with one of their heads? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The destruction of Pompeii in 79 AD by the volcanic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius was complete. But the people who lived there left behind personal stories. Graffiti was their social media.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Imagine a world with no internet. Head back 30 years or so and you’ll see how the world wide web changed everything about how we communicate, learn, bank, socialize, and entertain ourselves. And we have one kind of geeky guy to thank.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kate Chase was the 20-year-old queen bee of Washington society at the onset of the Civil War. She had the ear of Abe Lincoln and the hatred of his jealous wife Mary Todd Lincoln. Kate married rich but then fell for another powerful man…until they were caught. And that changed everything. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s hard to imagine how a couple of 21-year-old kids could think up a scheme to snatch the son of one of the most famous entertainers in the world, much less carry it out. This is the crazy story of the kidnapping of Frank Sinatra Jr.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

George Washington’s 293rd birthday is this weekend, and his death in 1799 was a shock to the brand-new United States of America. Everybody loved him and a lot of people wanted a piece of him…literally. That led to the plot to steal George Washington’s head.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How does a guy go from running with gangs on the Lower East Side to reinventing the mafia to going to prison as a convicted felon…to finally working with the U.S. government to protect NYC’s waterfront during World War II?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Emotional attachment is thousands of years old, but it actually started off with apes! For humans, Valentine’s Day started off as a blood-soaked pagan fertility festival loaded with alcohol, nudity, and blood! On the flip side, the romance element is a pretty recent invention. You can thank the Victorians for that. Plus, find out who sent the first Valentine!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s called the most famous love story of all time: William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. But was it a true story or did it come completely from Shakespeare’s brilliant creative mind? Maybe neither.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Wisconsin countryside in autumn during the 1950s sounds idyllic. But it was the scene of a horrifying series of murders and body-snatching cases. Ed Gein, in “The Butcher of Plainfield,” was the loner who inspired movies like Psycho and Silence of the Lambs. So…what’s his story?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Who wrote the best-selling book in the U.S. in the 1800s? Why was she attacked from both sides for her story? And finally, how did she come to write the same exact book, word for word, 40 years later?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hollywood, cults, sex, and crime. It all seems like the perfect set up for a Netflix multi-season series. But this is the real story of the rich and famous getting brain washed into a criminal sex club that ultimately led to convictions on charges of conspiracy, sex trafficking, child porn, and more.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We all dream, but what stops us from making those dreams a reality? This is about a middle-class kid from Ohio who never stopped believing in the future.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Explorers are a special breed—fear of the unknown and of the awful possibilities of failure don’t seem to deter them. Perfect example: the handful of people who have explored the Mariana Trench, the deepest place on Earth.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Some people are wildly talented but just can’t get out of the way of their own ego and ambition. Take Aaron Burr. He destroyed his political career by killing Alexander Hamilton in a duel, went on to treasonously plot a land grab to create his own empire, and wound up dying alone in a boarding house on Staten Island. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Donald Trump and Grover Cleveland are the only two presidents to get elected to two nonconsecutive terms. Their personalities and lifestyles explain a lot; neither liked having their opinions questioned, neither cared what others thought of them, and both had beautiful, much younger wives. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Take a look back, and you’ll see how similar human reaction is over the centuries to so many things that happen to us today. Take the recent fires in LA and the great Chicago fire of 1871. How do people decide what to save, and what matters most, when faced with a catastrophic event?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The fires in California are terrifying to watch. But fire has a deep history…and there are lessons to be learned.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Success doesn’t always come easy. We’re talking boobs, plastic, marketing directly to little kids…and getting indicted for corporate fraud. Who knew there was all that drama surrounding Barbie dolls and their creator, Ruth Handler?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this replay episode of The Backstory: Did you know that as recently as the Victorian era, somebody could have you committed to an insane asylum just because you disobeyed a husband, were too opinionated, were caught masturbating, and so much more? The treatment ranged from being chained to a wall, beaten...and more. And no one had to prove your insanity! This is the story of how one woman, post-lock-up, changed the status quo.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’ll do anything to look fabulous these days—Ozempic, Botox, plastic surgery—but we have nothing on our ancestors. Sounds unpleasant, but they used face creams made from animal and human pee. They glued animal pelts on surprising body parts. And they literally poisoned themselves in their quest for perfect skin and hair. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Was Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" inspired by political outrage? That’s the story and it makes sense when you hear what he went through and what he was seeing in London back in 1843.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this replay episode of The Backstory: We all have our Christmas traditions, but how did Santa Claus, Christmas trees, and George Washington’s recipe for heavily spiked eggnog rule the season?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Espionage in the mid-1900s was very much like what you see in the early James Bond movies. Kim Philby, a British aristocrat and a notorious double agent lived a life a lot of us fantasize about. He was never arrested. But why…and what happened to him?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this re-release episode: War is a terrible thing under any circumstance. But imagine the Civil War. There were more deaths than the combined total in WW1 and WW2. Food, uniforms, medical supplies, working weapons, and more, all in short supply with con artists stealing as much as 25% of government war funds. But the passion and ideology so many soldiers brought to battle was astounding. This is the story of Johnny Clem who desperately wanted to fight for the Union. He joined the military at 9 years old and retired as a general 55 years later after marrying a Confederate’s daughter!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this re-release episode: Have we really only known about dinosaurs for less than 200 years? They roamed the earth for almost 200 million years and were wiped out in a matter of months. Where did they go and how did we find out about them?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’ve all had jobs that we’re less than proud of but took out of a lack of judgment or, most probably, a need to make a buck. But what happens when you make a bad choice and the whole world is watching? Stars like Brad Pitt, Jacob Elordi, Julia Roberts, and lots more weigh in. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.