06:38

[Music – I Double Dare You by Jack Harris & His Orchestra, Albums More Sophistication & Hits of the 30s]

Section 2 – History & Historiography

[Music fade out]

06:51

An Egyptian proverb states: To speak the name of the dead is to make him live again.

The discovery of King Tut’s tomb was without a doubt a defining moment of the Roaring Twenties.  The excitement found its way into art and culture in a big way. 

However the discovery itself almost didn’t happen.

In the Valley of the Kings, Howard Carter had been searching for the elusive find since 1907, only stopping for World War I.  Now, he was under pressure to get results as he had received strict notice that this would be his final season funded by Lord Carnarvon.

07:26

On November 4, 1922, a young water boy tripped over a stone that would lead to one of the greatest archeological discoveries ever made.  The stone and spilled water led to a set of steps leading down to a doorway. 

The team of archeologists explored a little further but halted before opening.  Howard Carter telegrammed Lord Carnarvon – “At last have made wonderful discovery in Valley; a magnificent tomb with seals intact; re-covered same for your arrival; congratulations.”  Lord Carnarvon with his daughter Evelyn were fast on a ship leaving England. 

Carnarvon and Carter were only two of many hoping for financial success through discovery, but the recent British deal with Egypt meant that Egypt would own the findings.  They had hoped to be grandfathered into the previous deal.  They weren’t.  This new deal was an effort to curtail the perpetual pillaging of ancient antiquities into foreign markets.  Case in point – after the Napoleonic invasion, the Nineteenth Century saw a flush of mummy unwrapping parties, which is as gruesome as it sounds and a horrible desecration. 

08:36

This new find of a very minor pharaoh with its unprecedented abundance of artifacts stunned and excited the masses and their imaginations all over again.  A whole new wave of Egyptomania spread along with another prevalent but less tangible Egyptian commodity – curses. 

Then the curse became real.  Only a few months after the entering the tomb, Lord Carnarvon died on April 5, 1923.  The cause of death was from a mosquito bite on the face that got infected when nicked by shaving.

09:08

Rumors of a curse came from several potential sources.  First and foremost reporter Arthur Weigall commented at the ceremony back in February that he only gave Carnarvon 6 weeks to live – this was more from spite after being blocked from earlier access due to the Lord’s exclusive deal with J.J. Astor of the Times (London).  Two weeks before Carnarvon’s death, romance novelist Marie Corelli claimed to quote prophetically from an obscure ancient book that “the most dire punishment follows any rash intruder into a sealed tomb.” Even literary genius behind Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle implied Carnarvon’s death to have been caused by ‘elementals’ guarding the tomb.  Other rumors imply Carter himself might have employed the myth of the curse as a way to ward off people sneaking in and stealing from the site or even possibly as publicity stunt to garner even more attention.

No matter, the idea took a stronghold.  When an autopsy was performed on King Tut, they discovered a lesion on Tut’s face.  Alas despite speculations, they were unable to identify if that matched the location of the now already buried Carnarvon’s fatal one.

10:19

The curse was said to kill off those who first entered the tomb.  And in a slate of events, that seemed very likely – potential victims included Prince Ali Kamel Fahm Bey of Egypt shot by his wife in 1923, Sir Archibald Douglas Reid who supposedly X-rayed the mummy died mysteriously in 1924; the governor-general of the Sudan Sir Lee Stack was assassinated in Cairo in 1924; Arthur Mace of Carter’s excavation team, possibly died of arsenic poisoning in 1928; Carter’s secretary Richard Bethell was supposedly smothered in his hotel bed in 1929; and Bethell’s father committed suicide in 1930. 

However most of the entrants lived at least 15-20 years later and had more ordinary causes of death.  Overall 26 people were present at the official opening, and only 6 had died within 10 years.  From the 22 at the opening of the sarcophagus, only 2 had passed, and for the 10 present at the mummy unwrapping in 1925, all were alive in 1934.  Arthur Callender passed away in 1936. Howard Carter himself died of lymphoma in 1939.  Evelyn lived until 1980, and her friend Ava had a relatively shorter life but still survived until 1956.

11:41

The latter 2 debutantes are of particular note.  More blessed than cursed, the It Girl debutante of 1920 Evelyn married a British Earl later in 1923 and lived a charming life and was popular in horse racing circles with her husband.

Her friend Ava was not as fortunate.  Ava was born in 1902 as Ava Alice Muriel Astor, she went by Alice (I’m using Ava as I have many Alice’s, and her mother Ava really won’t appear too much in our story).  Ava is the older half sister of our recurring heir Jakey Astor, and a cousin to our It Girl debutante Louise Astor Van Alen as well as the J.J. Astor from the Times.  All the Astors descended from the fur trader and Freemason John Jacob Astor, America’s first self-made multi-millionaire and whose descendants dominated both American and British High Societies. 

12:34

Despite all the rumors about mummy curses, it seems the real cursed fortune lay with Ava’s family.  A decade before the discovery of King Tut’s tomb, tragedy already struck in one of the most famous maritime disasters of the 20th Century – the Titanic. 

Ava and Jakey along with their oldest brother Vincent lost their father John Jacob Astor IV.  Returning with his second wife from their honeymoon to Egypt and Europe in 1912, he was the richest man to die on the Titanic.  We will visit more of this tale, the will, and fortune later.  Trust me there needs to be a few episodes to unpack it all.  But for now, I shall note Ava received a relatively decent sum for an Astor female. 

13:17

She was one of the first heiresses that enamored me when I began developing this story.  For our heiresses, Ava is the shining example of what life could be when they come into their own fortunes.  Adventure, travel, luxury, and married to handsome and charming Prince Serge Obolensky.  She is also a cautionary tale.  Ava was a restless spirit forever haunted.  Her brothers faired not much better at all.  In fact, their fortunes and lives all seemed cursed up until the end.

13:45

After her parents’ divorce in 1909, she grew up in Britain thus befriending the Carnarvon family.  While I cannot locate her name so far in the records of those on specific King Tut events, her own biographies including her former husband’s reiterate the claim she was the 4th person to enter the tomb and always wore a special rams headed necklace discovered there.  King Tut is always a part of her story, but she is not a part of his.  Maybe she was there at the very beginning, maybe she wasn’t, maybe at a later trip.  She was certainly more than connected to those involved, and it had been a personal defining experience of her life.  She was also very into mysticism, and it was well known she believed herself to be a reincarnated Egyptian princess or priestess. 

14:28

A cursed fate sealed twice.  The Egyptian obsession with death leads to an obsession with life and reincarnation. 

No wonder a newly developing art form takes inspiration from the themes of curses, mummies, and reincarnation.   Hollywood and its growing cinema audience requires content, and reincarnating subjects and themes serves that need well.

14:50

Even pre-discovery, there was a 1918 silent film “Eyes of the Mummy Ma” directed by Ernst Lubitsch and starring the screen siren Pola Negri as the titular reincarnated mummy.  Despite being a very successful film star in several exotic roles, we today know of the dark Polish beauty more for her elaborate and overly dramatic performance at the funeral of her former lover – Rudolph Valentino.  But that isn’t the only reason worth mentioning Pola, but that’s another storyline to resurrect later.  If only our young heiresses had paid more attention to her fate.

15:25

After the King Tut discovery, the mummy motif and any associated curses were a hot commodity and by 1932 got its own series of creature features within the Universal Monster pantheon with Boris Karloff and Lon Chaney Jr in the titular role. 

I have warned you this is a very complicated tale I’m telling.  Even the stories within the stories, there are larger interweaving connections.  That silent film star Pola Negri, the literary genius Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and their personal fortunes will come up again. 

The reincarnated themes and stories of cursed fortunes seem to run for all eternity.