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Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities,

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a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm and

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Mild.

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Our world is full of the unexplainable,

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and if history is an open book, all

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of these amazing tales are right

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there on display, just waiting

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for us to explore. Welcome

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to the Cabinet of Curiosities.

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The Black Hand, the Wise Guys,

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the Cosa Nostra. The Italian

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Mafia has gone by many names over

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the years. Even though it's become a staple

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of American pop culture, the real

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organization feels as hard to pin down

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as it's ever changing nicknames. But

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one thing we know for sure is that the mafia

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got its start in Sicily, an island

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off the southern coast of Italy. It grew

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from several small groups of criminals into

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a kind of shadow government, controlling

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trade and finances across the island.

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But how did the mafia get that power

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in the first place. Well, the answer is

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small, yellow and surprisingly

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sour. For hundreds of years,

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Palermo, the capital of Sicily,

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was called the Concadoro, which means

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the shell of gold, not because the

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region was very rich. In fact, the people

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of Sicily were historically very poor,

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and not because of any vacation ready

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golden sands. The people there were

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much too concern with subsistence farming

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to go to the beach. No, the shell

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of gold refers to the trees that surround

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the region, or more specifically,

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the golden yellow fruits growing on

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those trees. Palermo, as it turns

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out, is the perfect place to grow lemons.

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Until the late seventeen hundreds, Sicilian

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lemons had been treated as an exotic

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ingredient for cooking and not much

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more. All that changed, though, when

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one naval doctor had a medical breakthrough.

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The doctor, James lind had been looking

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for a way to prevent scurvy from killing

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his sailors. Scurvy would cause his

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patients to become weak, they would develop

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sores all over their body, and sometimes

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their teeth would even fall out. Today

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we know scurvy comes from a lack of vitamin

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C. Back then, James Lynde

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had no idea what was causing it. All

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he knew was that giving sailors citrus

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fruits seemed to help, especially limes,

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oranges, and lemons. By

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seventeen ninety five, James Lynn's idea

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had caught on and the Royal British Navy

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ordered gallons of lemon juice to be sent

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out with each ship. Suddenly, the golden

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shell didn't just refer to the trees.

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It also meant the money flowing into Sicilian

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lemon growers. But as you might expect,

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new cash couldn't fix old problems.

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Sicily in the eighteen hundreds was a hard

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place to live and even harder to govern.

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Bandits wandered the roads, and local

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magistrates couldn't be counted on to protect

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their citizens. With so many living

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in deep poverty, people would do any to

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feed their families, including stealing

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the lemons. Citrus growers needed

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someone to guard their crop, which is where

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local groups of unemployed men saw

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their opportunity. At first, they

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offered protection. It seems simple enough,

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right the grower would hire them and they would

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patrol the lemon groves at night, chasing

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off would be bandits. Pretty soon,

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this protection they offered seemed more like a

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threat. If growers didn't pay them,

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they might steal the lemons themselves,

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and in some cases the money still

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wasn't enough. Why work to protect

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the lemons for a pittance when they could make

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a fortune selling the fruit. Instead, the

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Protectors began working as middlemen

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between growers and exports, hiking

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up the prices and taking a big slice

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of the lemon pie for themselves, and

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the growers were stuck. Sicily

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had only just become part of the Kingdom of

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Italy, and many Sicilians saw

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the far away government in Rome as oppressive

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outsiders. At least with their protectors,

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you knew who you were dealing with, so

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the bandits of the so called Protectors

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ranged across the island. The local

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term for these organized groups of criminals were

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men of honor. Since they all had a certain

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bravado, people started calling them the Sicilian

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word for swagger, mafia.

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The mouth puckering roots of the mafia

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also helped its expansion over the next

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century. The mafia got its tentacles into industries

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all across Sicily, from growing

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wine, grapes and wheat, to manufacturing

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and even local government, but the big

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money maker was always lemons.

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In the early nineteen hundreds, Sicily got

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some new competition. It turned out that Florida

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also had the perfect conditions for citrus

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growing, and Florida oranges, lemons,

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and limes flooded the market, tanking

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Sicily's economy, thousands

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of Sicilians left the island looking

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for a new life in the United States. The

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mafia needed a new revenue stream,

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so they two headed to the land of opportunity,

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and if Martin Scorsese's movies are

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anything to go by, they found it

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in abundance. Today, the Sicilian

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Mafia is known and feared around

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the world. They're the stuff of silver

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screen legends and real life tabloids.

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But they got their starts in the humble citrus

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groves of Palermo. When a gangster gave

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a grower an offer he couldn't

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refuse. You

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know, some days you just need a little reward.

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To keep you going. I'm not talking about something

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big, more like life's little luxuries.

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For some people, that might mean a coffee from their

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favorite shop. For others, a new video

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game that they've been wanting to play. Many

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people find their little bit of luxury at

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the nail salon. It's an affordable way

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to relax and get a bit of pampering in

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and if they're in the US, there's a good chance

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the nail technicians sitting across from them

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is Vietnamese. In fact, nearly

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half of all American nail salons have

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Vietnamese owners. The reason why

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it might surprise you. It's one that goes

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back fifty years to an actress

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named Natalie. Natalie had

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never been one to stand by when someone

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needed help, so in nineteen seventy

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five, when she saw thousands of Vietnamese

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people fleeing their country after saigonfell,

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she knew she had to do something. True,

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she hadn't started out as a humanitarian.

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In fact, for most of her life she was a

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performer, first a model and then an

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actress in the nineteen sixties. After

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that, she was an animal rights activist, turning

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her home in California into a wildlife

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sanctuary for lions and tigers in

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nineteen seventy two. But by seventy

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five she was at a military base in

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northern California, voluntaring to

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help refugees start a new life in the United

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States. Her first task to

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help twenty newly arrive Vietnamese

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women find jobs. To

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say this group of women had been through the ringer

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would be an understatement. Back

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home, many of them were wives of military officers,

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others worked for US military intelligence.

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They'd gone from comfortably middle class

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to crammed into military barracks. They

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were in an unfamiliar country with an unfamiliar

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language, food, and culture. Many

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had been separated from their husbands and children

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in the chaos, and now, with Natalie's

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help, they had to start entirely

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from scratch. To help them, Natalie

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brought in seamstresses, typists and

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anyone she could think of to train these women

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in good paining jobs. But it wasn't

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the lessons that excited them. It was Natalie's

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nails. During the sessions, several

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women kept admiring how long and elegance

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her Beverly Hills style manicure was,

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which gave Natalie an idea. In

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the nineteen seventies, manicures and pedicures

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were inexpensive luxury, reserved

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for the wealthy women who could afford them.

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A good nail technician could make a lot

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of money, and they didn't need to be fluent

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in English to get started. Natalie

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flew her personal manicurist up from Beverly

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Hills and enlisted the help of a local

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beauty school. She made sure the trainers

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emphasize expensive beauty techniques

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that would attract clients with more money to spend,

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and just a few weeks later, twenty new

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licensed nail technicians joined the workforce.

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And those twenty women that Natalie helped move

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to Vietnamese neighborhoods all across the country.

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Seeing how well they were doing in the nail business,

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more and more of Vietnamese immigrants wanted

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to do the same. One couple, Dm

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and Ken Newin saw the perfect opportunity.

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Back in Vietnam, Dm had been a Navy

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commander while Kien was a hairdresser.

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Now living in Garden Grove, California, they

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were having trouble finding work. When

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Kien's friends returned from training with

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Natalie, they realized that for Vietnamese

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immigrants, the nail industry was the new

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frontier. Someone just needed to lead

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the charge. So they opened up

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the Advanced Beauty College in Garden

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Grove, offering manicure and cosmetology

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training in English and Vietnamese. Today,

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the Advanced Beauty College has trained thousands

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of nail technicians, most of which have

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been Vietnamese. And when you

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step back and look at it, these nail technicians

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didn't just make over their clients, they

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also made over an entire industry.

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You see back in the nineteen seventies, a manicure

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might run you fifty whole dollars, which is

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the same as nearly three hundred dollars today,

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which made it a relatively unattainable

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luxury. But Natalie's nail trainees

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saw a niche affordable manicures

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for working women. But by cutting

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prices and expanding to working class

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neighborhoods across the country, the nail

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industry exploded. For the first

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time, you didn't have to be a Hollywood

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actress to get your nails done, all

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thanks to Natalie Hedron, who admittedly

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was a Hollywood actress, as is by

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the way, her daughter and granddaughter

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Melanie Griffiths and Dakota Johnson.

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I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of

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the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe

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for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn

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more about the show by visiting Curiosities

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podcast dot com. The

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show was created by me Aaron Manky

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and partnership with how Stuff Works. I

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make another award winning show called

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Lore, which is a podcast, book

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series, and television show, and you

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can learn all about it over at Theworldoflore

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dot com. And until next

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time, stay curious,