Welcome to Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of I Heart Radio and

Grim and Mild. Our world is full of the unexplainable.

And if history is an open book,

all of these amazing tales are right there on display,

just waiting for us to explore.

Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. When we're little we imagine living in the most amazing places don't we like a giant

castle with a moat full of crocodiles or on a spaceship orbiting the earth,

but one former Texas mayor made his own dream come true in a truly unusual way.

Roy was born and raised in Texas.

He got an early start in politics when he was only 16 years old after his father suddenly

passed away.

Forced to find a job and keep food on his family's table, he worked as an aid at the

1928 Democratic National Convention in Houston, and it was there that Roy got a

taste for his future career. In 1931, he started his own private law practice

after graduating college.

A few years later, he became the youngest member

of the Texas House of Representatives.

His ambitions carried him up the political ladder from a judge ship in Harris County

to Lyndon Johnson's congressional and senatorial campaign manager. The two had

actually met at that convention back in 1928.

And Roy eventually went back to law, but he found new opportunities for success in a variety of industries.

He would take slag or byproduct from steel production and sell it off as aggregate for building roads.

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