All Episodes

ABC:LHS #027-2   Chevalier Quixote Jackson...
...saved hundreds of lives when he invented and perfected the endoscope. At the Mütter Museum at the College of Physicians, you have probably marveled at the drawerfuls of small objects under the steps - foreign bodies retrieved from the windpipes and gullets of hundreds of his patients.

ABC:LHS #027-1   Dr. Charles Euchariste de Medici Sajous...
...was the last of the Belgian branch of the de Medici family.  He became an accomplished otolaryngologist, but switched gears in mid-career to master the up-and-coming science of "secretions", later called endocrinology.

ABC:LHS #027   Fathers (and Mothers) of American Medicine
Charles Euchariste de Medici Sajous was a prolific author and editor who specialized in "glandular secretions;" he is remembered today as the Father of American Endocrinology ... and the last of the de Medicis.
Chevalier Quixote Jackson mastered the skill of retrieving foreign bodies from the lungs and esophagus; he is the Father of American Endoscopy.
Hilary Koprowski was a Polish-born virologist who beat Salk and Sabin to the development of an effective polio vaccine, but who is little remembered today.
His wife, cytopathologist Irena Koprowska, was a co-developer of the Pap smear.
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ABC:LHS #026-4   Wedgwood Nowell...
...was a theatrical Jack-of-all-trades in the early days of motion pictures, as he produced and starred in dozens of silent films, while maintaining a career on the stage.  

ABC:LHS #026-3   Frank Mayo...
...made a living for many years by playing Davy Crockett on stage, until his friend Sam Clemens suggested he might try Puddinhead Wilson. He died on the road.

ABC:LHS #026-2   Mary Ann Lee...
... is considered by dance historians as America's first prima ballerina. She taught many others and served as inspiration for hundreds of dancers. She was known in Philadelphia simply as "Our Mary Ann."

ABC:LHS #026-1   William Wood...
...was a jack-of-all-trades in early 19th century Philadelphia theater.  His Personal Recollections of the Stage is a classic of the genre.  

ABC:LHS #026  Four Laurel Hill Performers
William Wood started as an actor but soon moved to managing Philadelphia theaters. 
Many people consider Mary Ann Lee to be America’s first professional ballerina. 
Frank Mayo was an actor who became beloved through more than 3000 performances as Davy Crockett. 
Wedgwood Nowell produced or acted in more than 300 plays before moving to Hollywood and acting in more than 300 movies over his long career.  

ABC:LHS #025-5   John Caspar Wister...
...was considered the Dean of horticulturists in the United States, second only to California's Luther Burbank. His work at Swarthmore's Scott Arboretum survives him.

ABC:LHS #025-4   Rodman Wister ran away from home to become a drummer boy.  As a bonus, you can hear several drum tattoos at the end.

ABC:LHS #025-3   Langhorne Wister...
...was a colonel with the Bucktail Regiment during the Civil War when he was shot through the mouth at the Battle of Gettysburg.  He was later promoted to Brevet General. 

ABC:LHS #025-2   John Wister...
...was founder and manager of a major iron works and a bank, as well as serving as a Civil War soldier. 

ABC:LHS #025-1   William Rotch Wister...
...was lawyer, soldier, and founder of the Germantown Cricket club.  He is considered the "Father of American Cricket".  He had three remarkable daughters and several sons.

ABC:LHS #025   Five Wister Men to Know 
It is very easy to get lost in the Wister family.  Anyone familiar with Philadelphia History probably knows about Caspar Wistar, who founded the Wistar Institute, and author Owen Wister, who wrote the first Western novel The Virginian and is buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery.  But this was a large family.  There are 40 Wisters and 30 Wistars buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery, along with 3 Wisters at West Laurel Hill.  
Today I am going to talk about four Wister brothers and one of their sons buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery. 
William Rotch Wister was lawyer and founder of the Germantown Cricket club. 
John Wister was founder and manager of a major iron works and a bank. 
GEN Langhorne Wister was a colonel with the Bucktail Regiment during the Civil War, shot through the mouth at the Battle of Gettysburg. 
Rodman Wister ran away from home to become a drummer boy. 
John Caspar Wister, son of William Rotch, was considered the dean of horticulturists in the United States.  

ABC:LHS #024-4   Ruth Dietz Eni...
...went to work for her father at Dietz & Watson and rose to be CEO.  When the PR department went looking for someone to play Momma Dietz on TV commercials, they looked no further than the front office.