# Killer Chic

An episode of [Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1396546917), 11 Aug 2026, 10 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/arttrk.com/p/D5CA5/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/e062c374-9a39-42fa-888f-ae2c007b3c85/a1094253-1a6b-4b37-9b93-b4a201353715/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=f0f95fe5-d5de-4abe-ada4-ae2c007b3c8e

Today's tour through the Cabinet involved two deadly topics that require a curious change in our perception. Order the official Cabinet of Curiosities book by clicking here today, and get ready to enjoy some curious reading! Join our Patreon for ad-free episodes!: https://www.patreon.com/grimandmild See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:04] Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
[0:07] Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild.
[0:12] Speaker 2: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
[0:17] Speaker 2: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
[0:20] Speaker 2: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
[0:25] Speaker 2: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Throughout history, the pursuit
[0:37] Speaker 2: of beauty has often come at a steep price. Modern
[0:40] Speaker 2: day fad diets and cosmetic surgeries can very literally make
[0:44] Speaker 2: people sick, and they pale in comparison to what previous
[0:48] Speaker 2: generations went through in the name of esthetic perfection. The
[0:52] Speaker 2: nineteenth century was particularly terrible for killer fashion. A number
[0:57] Speaker 2: of trends actively poisoned, suffocated, or burned their wearers. Lead
[1:02] Speaker 2: and radium laced face creams attempted to smooth the skin
[1:05] Speaker 2: while sickening the user. Tapeworms and belladonna were used for
[1:09] Speaker 2: weight loss or brighter eyes. Clothing was no different, too,
[1:13] Speaker 2: from toxic dyes to structural designs that restricted breathing. Killer
[1:18] Speaker 2: fashions of the Victorian era reveal a period where beauty
[1:22] Speaker 2: standards frequently overrode basic human safety, and the most pervasive
[1:27] Speaker 2: killer in the Victorian wardrobe was arsenic. During the mid
[1:30] Speaker 2: eighteen hundreds, the desire for vibrant emerald green fabric for
[1:34] Speaker 2: dresses led to widespread use of Paris green and arsenic
[1:39] Speaker 2: based pigment. Bodices dyed with this chemical were not merely
[1:43] Speaker 2: dangerous to the wear, but became mobile sources of toxicity.
[1:47] Speaker 2: The dye would leach onto the skin and release toxic
[1:51] Speaker 2: vapors as the wearer danced and sweated in the heat
[1:54] Speaker 2: of crowded ballrooms, gently poisoning anyone standing nearby. There are
[1:59] Speaker 2: accounts suggest testing that a woman wearing such a gown
[2:02] Speaker 2: could accidentally poison patrons across half a dozen different ballrooms
[2:06] Speaker 2: simply by moving through them. But it wasn't just the
[2:09] Speaker 2: poison that could prove fatal. The construction of some clothing
[2:13] Speaker 2: posed fatal risks through restriction. One of the most notorious
[2:17] Speaker 2: examples was the father Killer collar, a high, stiff neck
[2:21] Speaker 2: piece that encircled the throat so tightly it could cause strangulation,
[2:25] Speaker 2: and as you might imagine, the name came from a
[2:28] Speaker 2: grim reality. If a person wearing one turned their head
[2:31] Speaker 2: quickly or leaned back, the collar could compress the trachea,
[2:35] Speaker 2: choking them more insidiously. Though tight lacing of corsets could
[2:40] Speaker 2: reduce a woman's waistline by more than six inches if
[2:43] Speaker 2: laced properly. It also compressed internal organs, shifting the stomach
[2:48] Speaker 2: and liver downward in the body, and restricted lung capacity,
[2:52] Speaker 2: leading to fainting spells and in extreme cases, asphyxiation. But
[2:56] Speaker 2: another killer among the garments was fire. Massive skur and
[3:00] Speaker 2: flammable fabrics like tool and cotton were immensely popular in
[3:04] Speaker 2: the nineteenth century, making well dressed women into tinder boxes
[3:08] Speaker 2: just waiting for a spark. The wide hoop skirts that
[3:11] Speaker 2: were in fashion were particularly susceptible to ignition when brushed
[3:15] Speaker 2: against fireplaces or candles. Unlike tighter fitting clothes worn by men,
[3:20] Speaker 2: these flowing dresses could catch fire instantly, leading to horrific
[3:24] Speaker 2: burns that were often fatal before medical help could arrive.
[3:28] Speaker 2: The flammability was exacerbated by chemicals that were used to
[3:32] Speaker 2: treat the fabrics for sheen and stiffness, turning a simple
[3:35] Speaker 2: walk past a fireplace into a potential death sentence. And
[3:40] Speaker 2: the use of mercury and hat making was also widespread,
[3:43] Speaker 2: and its effects became so notorious that it inspired the
[3:46] Speaker 2: Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland. The real life mad
[3:50] Speaker 2: Hatter condition, illustrated whimsically by Lewis Carroll's story, was in
[3:54] Speaker 2: reality a debilitating neurotoxic disease which caused tremors, delirium, and hallucination,
[4:00] Speaker 2: as well as a host of other physical and psychological
[4:03] Speaker 2: side effects. All of this highlights a period where dress
[4:06] Speaker 2: value is measured in its ability to confer status, definitely
[4:10] Speaker 2: not safety. Modern regulations have largely eliminated the most egregious
[4:15] Speaker 2: dangers of arsenic dyes and lead cosmetics, but dangerous fashion
[4:19] Speaker 2: trends still persist, echoing across social media and the modern
[4:23] Speaker 2: beauty industry. The ghosts of all those arsenic dyed ballrooms
[4:27] Speaker 2: and burning crinoline may be a product of yesteryear, but
[4:30] Speaker 2: they still haunt us in all of our impossible and
[4:33] Speaker 2: occasionally dangerous beauty standards. So here's to hoping that in
[4:37] Speaker 2: the future we choose our health over clean lines and
[4:41] Speaker 2: skin without a blemish. After all, beauty means nothing if
[4:45] Speaker 2: you're not around to appreciate it. Streaming television and films
[5:03] Speaker 2: has severely impacted theater audiences and film executives are looking
[5:07] Speaker 2: for any way to get audiences back, so when a
[5:10] Speaker 2: small independent film makes more money than a big budget
[5:13] Speaker 2: Hollywood one, executives sit up and pay attention. Recently, horror
[5:18] Speaker 2: films made by YouTubers are outgrossing major studio films, leading
[5:22] Speaker 2: executives to hire more YouTubers to direct them. But this
[5:26] Speaker 2: isn't the first time that this pattern has played out
[5:28] Speaker 2: in Hollywood history. In the nineteen fifties, the arrival of
[5:32] Speaker 2: television hurt theater attendance, just as streaming has today. So
[5:37] Speaker 2: in nineteen fifty two, when the independent film Bwana Devil
[5:41] Speaker 2: was a huge success, the studios all wanted to know why,
[5:45] Speaker 2: and it turns out it was using a new fangled
[5:47] Speaker 2: technology known as three D. All of the studios scrambled
[5:52] Speaker 2: to adopt this new technology, and just like the YouTuber
[5:55] Speaker 2: hiring craze of today, three D became all the rage.
[6:00] Speaker 2: Warner Brothers became the first major studio to get a
[6:03] Speaker 2: three D film into production, entitled House of Wax. It
[6:07] Speaker 2: was actually a remake of a horror movie about a
[6:09] Speaker 2: killer who encases his victims in wax, and to make
[6:13] Speaker 2: it they hired Hungarian born director Andrea de Taff, based
[6:17] Speaker 2: on his reputation from a series of successful westerns he
[6:20] Speaker 2: had made. What they didn't stop to consider was that
[6:23] Speaker 2: he only had one eye, and a person needs two
[6:26] Speaker 2: eyes to see in three D. The movie was far
[6:29] Speaker 2: too long into production before anyone realized this, though. Jack Warner,
[6:33] Speaker 2: the head of the studio, didn't want to replace Andrea,
[6:37] Speaker 2: so instead he told him not to wear his distinctive
[6:40] Speaker 2: black eye patch on set. At the very least, he
[6:42] Speaker 2: didn't want anyone from the press to see it and
[6:45] Speaker 2: publish a hit piece about how Warner Brothers had hired
[6:48] Speaker 2: a one eyed man to direct a three D movie.
[6:51] Speaker 2: Little did Jack know, though, he had actually hired the
[6:53] Speaker 2: perfect person.
[6:55] Speaker 1: You see. As I mentioned, andre to Tof was born
[6:57] Speaker 1: in Hungary and he lived there for many years. During
[7:00] Speaker 1: the Nazi occupation, he was forced to use his skills
[7:03] Speaker 1: in cinematography to film Nazi marches. A lot of his
[7:07] Speaker 1: skills were therefore developed in the moment and on the job,
[7:11] Speaker 1: filming elaborate complex set pieces, or to put it another way,
[7:15] Speaker 1: filming real life Nazis was pretty good practice for filming
[7:18] Speaker 1: a horror movie. Andre knew how to show the audience
[7:22] Speaker 1: where to look and when, and how to make them
[7:24] Speaker 1: care about what was happening on screen. Ironically, these were
[7:28] Speaker 1: more important qualities in directing the three D movie than
[7:31] Speaker 1: actually being able to see one. If a three D
[7:34] Speaker 1: shot isn't lit or framed correctly, objects in the foreground
[7:38] Speaker 1: that aren't meant to pop out will distracting the viewer
[7:41] Speaker 1: from whatever the director intended them to look at. And
[7:44] Speaker 1: if the audience simply doesn't care what's happening in the movie,
[7:47] Speaker 1: then they won't be excited by something popping out at them.
[7:50] Speaker 1: But Andre made sure that House of Wax was as
[7:53] Speaker 1: spooky as possible. He hired a great classic horror leading
[7:57] Speaker 1: man named Vincent Price, and you've heard his voice on
[8:00] Speaker 1: Thriller by Michael Jackson, and he put him in some
[8:03] Speaker 1: truly disturbing makeup. The story of House of Wax follows
[8:07] Speaker 1: a wax sculptor whose studio burns down, disfiguring him and
[8:11] Speaker 1: destroying his life's work. Price's disfiguring makeup was so good
[8:15] Speaker 1: that he was forbidden from eating at the studio commissary
[8:19] Speaker 1: because he was grossing everyone out. Price's performance meant that
[8:23] Speaker 1: the audience cared about the story and Andre's cinematography, with
[8:27] Speaker 1: heavy shadows and jump scares, kept them immersed and afraid.
[8:31] Speaker 1: All of the heads and arms and fists that were
[8:33] Speaker 1: jumping out of the screen were therefore very effective. Most infamously,
[8:38] Speaker 1: Andre actually created a real massive fire to depict the
[8:41] Speaker 1: Wax Museum burning down. He had his team light one
[8:45] Speaker 1: figure on fire at a time so they could get
[8:47] Speaker 1: a close up of each one burning, but they kept
[8:50] Speaker 1: the fires going and then pulled the camera back to
[8:53] Speaker 1: show the whole museum was on fire. Effect specialists awaited
[8:56] Speaker 1: off camera, dousing any fire that spread beyond the stage.
[9:01] Speaker 1: The only problem they encountered was that the fire rose
[9:03] Speaker 1: so high and burned a hole in the sound stage ceiling.
[9:06] Speaker 1: A shaft of blue light trickled down onto the scene,
[9:09] Speaker 1: and it's visible in some of the shots in the movie.
[9:12] Speaker 1: That wasn't too much of a problem, though, but Vincent
[9:15] Speaker 1: Price's eyebrows being singed off was a little more realism
[9:18] Speaker 1: than Andre planned for. Luckily, those could always be drawn
[9:22] Speaker 1: back on. The film was a huge hit with audiences
[9:25] Speaker 1: and is still considered one of the best three D
[9:27] Speaker 1: movies ever made, and all it took was a one
[9:30] Speaker 1: eyed filmmaker who was more curious about craft than gimmicks
[9:34] Speaker 1: to make it jump off the screen. I hope you
[9:40] Speaker 1: enjoyed today's guided tour through the Cabinet of Curiosities. This
[9:44] Speaker 1: show was created by me Aaron Manke in partnership with
[9:48] Speaker 1: iHeart Podcasts, researched and written by the Grim and Mild team,
[9:51] Speaker 1: and produced by Jesse Funk. Learn more about the show
[9:54] Speaker 1: and the people who make it over at Grimandmild dot
[9:57] Speaker 1: com slash Curiosities. You'll also find a link to the
[10:01] Speaker 1: official Cabinet of Curiosity's hardcover book, available in bookstores and online,
[10:05] Speaker 1: as well as ebook and audiobook. And if you're looking
[10:08] Speaker 1: for an ad free option, consider joining our Patreon. It's
[10:12] Speaker 1: all the same stories, but without the interruption for a
[10:14] Speaker 1: small monthly fee. Learn more and sign up over at
[10:17] Speaker 1: patreon dot com slash Grimandmild, and until next time, stay curious.

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