meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
the memory palace

Episode 66 (The Pirate Queen)

the memory palace

Nate DiMeo

Radiotopia, Publicradio, History, Natedimeo

4.87.2K Ratings

🗓️ 21 June 2015

⏱️ 17 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The music:

*Under the credits is Harlaamstrat 74 off of John Dankworth's great, ridiculous Modesty Blaise score.

*The recurring piano theme is Les Marionettes by Zbigniew Preisner from his score to La Double Vie de Veronique (And, have you seen The Double Life of Veronique? Man, that's good)

*Eugenia's dreamy little theme is Just Saying by Jamie XX off of In Colour

*That organ track is called Organ Track by Nicolai Dunger from The Cloud is Learning

*Al Davis' dance theme is Watusi Bounce from Bo Diddly's Ride On/The Chess Masters

*Helen watches Eugenia on the lawn at the Grand Hotel to the tune of To a Wild Rose by Patricia Rossborough from the collection Dainty Debutantes: Female Novelty Pianists of the 1930's (And, ugh. Dismissive much?)

*The Judge drones over one of Scott Watson's Six Solos for the Beginning Tuba Player from his 2008 album, Stepping Stones for Tuba, vol. 1 (like I need to tell you that)

*The ending piece is Mike Andrews lovely Library Chant from his score to Miranda July's lovely Me and You and Everyone we Know

Notes:

I first stumbled across this story in my torn up copy of New York: Confidential! Jack Lait and Lee Mortimer's truly mucky, muck-raking guide to the city's underbelly from 1951. I read a ton of old news paper articles about the case (the New York Times covered it extensively, if you want to go back and read those).

The two most useful books I came across in the process were Joshua Zeitz' Flapper and Lewis Erenberg's Steppin' Out: New York Nightlife and the Transformation of American Culture, 1890-1930

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This is the memory palace.

0:02.0

I'm Nate the Mayo.

0:05.0

Neither of them slept.

0:07.0

Helen Kelly couldn't.

0:09.0

She was up all night, staring at the ceiling,

0:12.0

wishing her husband weren't dead,

0:15.0

worrying about her 19-year-old daughter, Eugenia,

0:18.0

in about the million dollars.

0:20.0

Eugenia Kelly was up all night,

0:23.0

with the tango pirate.

0:26.0

Her mother knew it, because Eugenia flaunted it,

0:29.0

and what Helen Kelly knew would have kept any mother up in 1915,

0:33.0

because she'd read about this sort of thing in the paper.

0:36.0

There was a plague upon the land.

0:39.0

It had started amongst the lower classes,

0:41.0

among the immigrant streaming engine New York-like,

0:44.0

pestilent rats down at Gangklaik,

0:46.0

and no one was entirely immune.

0:49.0

In some, the weakwild, women, girls,

0:53.0

were dangerously susceptible.

0:56.0

Because on its face, this dancing was so innocent,

1:00.0

who didn't enjoy it in the proper circumstances,

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Nate DiMeo, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Nate DiMeo and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.