Hidden History Happy Hour

The kind of history you didn't learn at school - with booze.

[Hidden History Happy Hour @HistoryHrPod]

ICYMI: our latest episode!

@ajcdeane and @denvercunning tell a romantic tale of death - and extoll the WWII exploits of the Polish Cichociemni Paratroopers.

Watch here 👇
https://t.co/huFSRlwyV1

[Alex Deane @ajcdeane]

#deanehistory 221.

Having played for his country in the World Cup in 2006, Jamie Carragher was omitted by Fabio Capello from the initial selection for the England World Cup squad in 2010.

Such things are a terrible blow, especially when you have represented your nation before and think you will be on the team sheet this time.

But - despite the inevitable press interest in the issue, the English press famously being rather probing by nature, and despite any inclination he might have to complain - Carragher kept his own counsel.

And it turned out that another centre-back, who would have gone to the World Cup in his place, was injured in the penultimate Premier League game prior to the tournament. Carragher joined the side after all.

The lesson, even for players yet more established and better regarded than Carragher, is obvious. Press pause on your fury… especially when there’s still a chance that someone else’s bad break might bring you good fortune.

[Alex Deane @ajcdeane]

Latest episode of the Hidden History Happy Hour is now out! Hope you enjoy it!

@HistoryHrPod

81. Our Funny Valentine https://t.co/vDX395LXQQ via @YouTube

[Alex Deane @ajcdeane]

Our new @HistoryHrPod episode is out!

80. Operation Algeciras: Argentina’s Secret Plot https://t.co/WUnmi7UiFm via @YouTube

[Alex Deane @ajcdeane]

If you like stories like these, we tell them over a drink on @HistoryHrPod and - though I keep this rather quiet - there are two books…

https://t.co/4AuUYNMpvJ

[Alex Deane @ajcdeane]

New episode is out! Title says it all 👇🏻

78. Pirates, Alcohol & Shipwrecks that Changed History https://t.co/T9GR2w3RhF via @YouTube

[Alex Deane @ajcdeane]

The Last Prisoner.

András Toma was born in Eastern Hungary in 1925. Drafted into the Hungarian Army in 1944, at war against the Allies alongside the Germans, Toma – still only nineteen – was captured by the Soviets in 1945, during fighting near Auschwitz.

The Russians put their newest prisoner in a standard prisoner of war camp, but when that camp closed in 1947 they moved him… to a psychiatric hospital. Because they couldn’t understand what he was saying.

And he remained there… for fifty three years.

The first fifty years of that time was spent, not merely mostly in isolation, but moreover without Toma having a single conversation.

In 1997, a Slovak doctor visiting the hospital overheard the patient’s chatter and realised that, rather than the mad babbling the Russians had believed it to be, this man was speaking Hungarian.

The authorities positively leapt into action and a mere three years later, in 2000, Toma was returned to Hungary.

He had been in captivity for so long that he had forgotten his own name.

Naturally something of a cause celebre at this point, the last prisoner of the Second World War was the subject of enquiries by 82 families believing he might be a lost relative. None fitted the bill.

But based on fragments of information about his past that Toma himself was able to provide, he was finally matched – along with DNA testing to verify it – with his family in Sulyánbokor.

Toma had never been discharged from the Army, and his service was unbroken so his time in captivity was fully recognised with back pay and a retrospective promotion to Sergeant Major.

He lived with his family until his death in 2004. The funeral of Hungary’s long lost son was attended by some 2,000 people.

But for the fortuitous visit by the doctor, he would have died in a ramshackle ex-Soviet asylum. Which makes one wonder…

How many other such lost prisoners, languishing for years or decades too, were simply never identified?

#Deanehistory 218

[lili @LiliLapis30]

@photomikeyhere Well you ought to try @HistoryHrPod Happy Hour. You like a drink, like History, a good story and I’m sure you’ll like the company.

[Alex Deane @ajcdeane]

We also have a drink and tell stories like this on the @HistoryHrPod - latest episode here:

https://t.co/RzJsVhVc1E

[Alex Deane @ajcdeane]

#Deanehistory 217. Miss Miriam Melbourne’s Great Goat Getaway. 

It is well known that the Channel Islands were the only part of the British Isles to be occupied by the enemy in the Second World War. 

Occupation came after significant - but not majority - evacuation of the islands, and it progressed from relatively benign unpleasantness at the outset to appalling circumstances in the war’s closing stages when all those left on the islands - islanders, occupiers, forced workers brought to build elements of the Operation Todt sea defences - endured severe food shortages to the point of starvation. Between the two, and the liberation that ultimately came, the gamut of resistance, passive and active), of suffering and collaboration leaves a wartime legacy still keenly felt in the islands to this day.

Rather less well known is the quiet achievement of Miriam Melbourne. Suitably alliteratively named, Miss Melbourne had dedicated herself in the 1930s to the revival of the Golden Guernsey Goat, a lovely animal enjoying something of a heyday today as trendy households seek suitably cute and placid pets that can also help them to be seen doing their bit for the environment. But, whilst first recorded in the early 1800s, the GGG was wobbling at near-invisibility in the years between the great wars of the twentieth century, until Miss Melbourne threw herself into their recovery.

Then of course the Nazis came, and most of the islanders had many other things to worry about. Miss Melbourne remained focused. Even in 1944-1945 as livestock across the Channel Islands were being slaughtered en masse for food, she sheltered her herd in caves on Guernsey.

One spares a thought for her fellow islanders. It could hardly have been completely unknown that their eccentric cave-visiting friend had a clutch of tasty goats at her disposal and, well, they were bloody hungry. But the proof of their stoic silence is in the non-eating, as surely if they’d self-interestedly grassed her up or undertaken butchery themselves the GGG wouldn’t have survived the occupation. 

So it is to the collective credit of the Gurnseymen and women of the war years as well as Miss Melbourne individually that they survived - as, today, all of the world’s stock of Golden Guernsey Goats are descended from Miriam Melbourne’s herd.

In July 2024, the King visited Guernsey and bestowed the title “Royal” upon the breed. The first livestock animal ever to enjoy this title, the Royal Golden Guernsey Goats would not be with us without the stubborn Miss Melbourne.

[BryanCunningham @denvercunning]

UPDATE: Use this code here for 20% off:
https://t.co/t7ckrDPUue

[Alex Deane @ajcdeane]

The latest Hidden History Happy Hour episode is out!

I loved telling these stories & chatting with Bryan. Hope you enjoy it 👇🏻

—

77. A Dart Board Episode https://t.co/NQcx41raFx via @YouTube

[BryanCunningham @denvercunning]

CHECK IT OUT! Next one dropping soon.

[Hidden History Happy Hour @HistoryHrPod]

Thank you to our sponsors: Wolf Project

Get 20% off with the code - H4TWENTY 👇
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[Hidden History Happy Hour @HistoryHrPod]

🚨 ICYMI: In our last episode, the boys @ajcdeane and @denvercunning returned to a favourite theme:

Gallantry at Sea - with midget submarines and the heroic last rides of a retired dairy farmer 👇
https://t.co/g50zvVuIzK

[Hidden History Happy Hour @HistoryHrPod]

This is just one of many stories shared by @ajcdeane, who has a talent for uncovering quirky and surprising history in his books and in his appearance on
⭐️Hidden History Happy Hour.⭐️
If you love stories that challenge how you see the past, be sure to tune in to our podcast (on youtube, spotify and apple music)!

[Alex Deane @ajcdeane]

#Deanehistory 216.

In this time of amber heat alerts, which in the ignorant olden days might have been called “summer,” the thoughts of some amongst us turn to the soothing bliss of ice cream.

So it was with Howard Hughes, the late multimillionaire of Spruce Goose plane fame.

In his later years, Hughes became a recluse, relying on a small inner circle to interact with the rest of the world, taking up the penthouse floor of a hotel in Las Vegas and, when the thought occurred to the hotelier that Hughes might move on, buying the hotel.

He installed internal screens so his room couldn’t be seen even by the guards taking up posts at the door. He had doorknobs removed to prevent others going where he didn’t want them to. He compulsively washed himself in alcohol rub, which dripped onto paper towels on the floor, which then had to be shredded – and then burnt, with a member of staff tasked to watch until certain that nothing but ashes remained.

All in all he was an odd one. And this manifested itself in having the same meal every day, which ended in this period with Baskin Robbins banana nut ice cream.

The problem was that said company switches out its flavours from time to time, and one day a junior flunkey returned from the shops to tell a more senior flunkey that there was no more banana nut to be had.

This caused enormous ructions in the ranks of the Hughes praetorian guard. Heaven knows that the boss couldn’t be told that what he wasn’t was not to be had, and there was only a tub or two left in the supplies.

Thus it was that a Hughes executive called the leadership at Baskin Robbins and asked them to run a discontinued flavour for them. The answer was what you’d get from most businesses – sure, it can be done: but it’s going to cost you, and you have to buy in bulk.

Do it, the instruction came. Do it. And at very significant expense to the Hughes empire, Baskin Robbins obediently pumped 350 gallons of banana nut ice cream into a freezer truck, which was driven overnight from Las Angeles to Las Vegas.

Thank the good lord, our flunkeys no doubt said. For this is just in time. We are down to the last scoop of the old stuff. Now we have enough to last Howard for a lifetime!

That night, Hughes – having had no meaningful contact with the outside world for a very long time, and certainly no line of sight on the ice cream crisis that had been averted at the last moment – put down his spoon contently and said

“That’s great ice cream, but it’s time for a change. From now on I want vanilla.”

From that time forward, anyone meeting with Hughes executives – or sometimes even came into contact with them in the Las Vegas streets – bemusedly found themselves pressed to take the gift of a tub of banana nut ice cream.

Stay safe in the heat!

[BryanCunningham @denvercunning]

Don’t miss this one. @ajcdeane @HistoryHrPod

[Alex Deane @ajcdeane]

Here is the @HistoryHrPod podcast about such stories (with booze), which I co-host with @denvercunning:

https://t.co/65GsChLtsf

[Hidden History Happy Hour @HistoryHrPod]

Hey! 👋 If you haven't already, check out our latest episode, 76: “Enormous Stones Part Deux,” where Alex & Bryan dive into some seriously epic naval derring-do, from daring midget submarine raids to a retired dairy farmer’s courageous final voyage. 🎧 Listen here: https://t.co/tG30FfBN6H

Or If you haven’t checked us out at all yet, come aboard! Our older episodes are packed with everything from clandestine WWI espionage to bizarre royal scandals; there’s something for every history lover: https://t.co/5lcCngJ21j #HiddenHistory #NavalHistory