
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


We are joined by folklorist and author David Clarke, who traces the legend of the Crying Boy curse, a curious story surrounding prints of several paintings that featured big-eyed crying children. These popular prints were blamed for fires in the UK during the 1980s, and tales sprung up of orphaned street urchins with mysterious powers to start fires. The roots of the tale involve a confluence of journalistic eagerness, firefighter observations, material science, and good old-fashioned odds.
 By Ben Radford, Celestia Ward and Pascual Romero
By Ben Radford, Celestia Ward and Pascual Romero4.8
9191 ratings
We are joined by folklorist and author David Clarke, who traces the legend of the Crying Boy curse, a curious story surrounding prints of several paintings that featured big-eyed crying children. These popular prints were blamed for fires in the UK during the 1980s, and tales sprung up of orphaned street urchins with mysterious powers to start fires. The roots of the tale involve a confluence of journalistic eagerness, firefighter observations, material science, and good old-fashioned odds.

4,038 Listeners

2,665 Listeners

113 Listeners

1,902 Listeners

3,204 Listeners

430 Listeners

946 Listeners

351 Listeners

965 Listeners

2,854 Listeners

1,116 Listeners

2,595 Listeners

1,984 Listeners

2,656 Listeners

758 Listeners