NEW YORK, Oct. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Think you know your U.S. history? Think
again. The new History Channel(R) special WEIRD U.S. goes after the stories
that disappeared between the cracks of your high school history book -- the
stories that seem too outlandish to be true. Did the residents of Morristown,
N.J. really make wallets out of human skin? Were Abraham Lincoln and Elvis
Presley really descended from settlers who predated Plymouth? Is it possible
that there's a nuclear missile site in your neighborhood that you don't know
about? This is still history ... but it's a kind of history you've never seen
before. It is the history of the weird, the bizarre, and the macabre. WEIRD
U.S. premieres on Sunday, October 31 at 10:30 ET/PT.
WEIRD U.S. is hosted by the two Marks -- Mark Sceurman and Mark Moran, and
is based on their upcoming book, Weird U.S.: Your Travel Guide to America's
Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets, which is published by Barnes and Noble
and will be available in bookstores October 4th, 2004. From their
headquarters in New Jersey, they travel across the country investigating the
strangest bits of local lore and legend. The Marks take a hands-on approach
to separating fact from fiction. Shockingly, what they uncover often seems
even weirder than the stories they had heard.
WEIRD U.S. begins with an investigation into the case of Antoine LeBlanc.
LeBlanc was a Frenchman who in 1833 committed a triple homicide in Morristown,
NJ. He was caught, tried, and sentenced to death by hanging. However, local
legends have purported that LeBlanc's execution was far from ordinary. Modern
day residents claim that after his death, LeBlanc's skin was removed and sent
to a tanner who transformed the material into wallets. The two Marks visit
Morristown in search of the weird, but true, history of Antoine LeBlanc -- and
also to discover if any of the macabre wallets still exist.
WEIRD U.S. continues with an investigation into the Melungeons. In 1673,
when the "first" settlers arrived in Appalachia, they discovered an entire
group of people already living there. These people -- the Melungeons -- were
of unknown ancestry. They had physical traits common to Northern Europeans,
Africans, and Native Americans, as well as unique physical characteristics
like "shovel teeth" and a prominent bump at the back of the skull. Yet, where
had they come from? Were they descendants of early sailors? Were they a lost
colony that no one knew about? Today, many people in the south think of
Melungeons as little more than mythical trolls who lived in the mountains.
Yet, the Melungeons were real and their ancestors are alive and well. The
WEIRD U.S. team undertakes the mission of figuring out who these people really
were utilizing modern DNA testing procedures.
The two Marks also investigate the Nike missile defense program. During
the Cold War, many suburbanites never realized that there were nuclear
missiles in their neighborhood. Nike missiles were intended for air defense
against Russian bombers. The missile sites were located in the suburbs around
major cities, often in the middle of a group of homes or next to a school.
The program was abandoned with the advent of intercontinental missiles, but
many of the Nike missile sites still exist. WEIRD U.S. finds one of the sites
in Long Island and goes underground to discover what secrets are still there.
Their quirky journey also includes a visit to Gibsonton, Florida.
Gibsonton became famous as the town where sideshow entertainers went to
retire. This small town was home to giants, dwarves, sword swallowers, fire
breathers, alligator men, monkey girls, and seal boys. It was the one place
where sideshow attractions were not stared at or seen as different. The
legendary king of sideshows, Ward Hall, offers a unique perspective on modern
Gibsonton.
Mark Sceurman and Mark Moran are publishers of Weird N.J. Magazine, a
travel guide and magazine about places you won't find on state-funded maps or
located on any tourist attraction pamphlets. They began publishing the
magazine in 1989, traveling the backroads of the Garden State in search of
local unwritten history and modern folklore, recording what people think or
remember as being weird or odd in their town. They invite viewers to send in
their local and weird history to editor@weirdus.com.
Executive Producer for The History Channel is Carl H. Lindahl. WEIRD U.S.
is produced for The History Channel by KPI.
Now reaching more than 87 million Nielsen subscribers, The History
Channel(R), "Where the Past Comes Alive(R)," brings history to life in a
powerful manner and provides an inviting place where people experience history
personally and connect their own lives to the great lives and events of the
past. In 2004, The History Channel earned five News and Documentary Emmy(R)
Awards and previously received the prestigious Governor's Award from the
Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for the network's "Save Our History(R)"
campaign dedicated to historic preservation and history education. The
History Channel web site is located at http://www.HistoryChannel.com.
SOURCE The History Channel
