Blade Runner
Did That Really Happen?
It's a new year, so it's once again time for our annual special episode on depictions of the future! Join us as we take a look at 2019-as-imagined-in-1981's Blade Runner, with discussions of gas flares, Japanese influence on American culture, the resurgence of 1940s fashion, and more! Sources: Ryan Britt, "Blade Runner: How Its Problems Made It a Better Movie," Den of Geek, available at https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/blade-runner-making-of-history/ Roger Ebert Review: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/blade-runner-directors-cut-1992 Ben Sherlock, "Like Tears in Rain," Screen Rant,...
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Singin in the Rain
Did That Really Happen?
For our last episode of 2024, we're traveling back to 1920s Hollywood with Singin' in the Rain! Join us as we learn about mood music on set, elocution lessons, fan magazines, stunts, and more! Sources: Pamela Hutchinson, "The Silent Era Film Stars Who Risked Life and Limb Doing Their Own Stunts," The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2015/sep/07/silent-era-film-stars-risked-their-lives-doing-film-stunts "The Evolution of Stunts: Part I," British Action Academy, available at https://www.britishactionacademy.com/blog/the-action-reel/the-evolution-of-stunts-part-one/ Ronald...
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Lisa Frankenstein
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're traveling back to 1989 with Lisa Frankstein! Join us as we learn about leg warmers, intuitive people and emotional vampires, the world's biggest contraceptive sponge, tanning beds, and more! Sources: Tori Telfer, "A Brief History of Leg Warmers," Bustle, available at https://www.bustle.com/articles/29436-whatever-happened-to-leg-warmers-hint-animals Rare Historical Photos, "The Legwarmers Craze of the 1980s," available at https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/legwarmers-fashion-1980s/ Ngram, "Intuitive person:"...
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Wicked Little Letters
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're traveling back to 1920s England with Wicked Little Letters! Join us as we learn about the real women who appear as characters in this movie, including Edith Swan, Rose Gooding, and Police Officer Gladys Moss! Sources: Audrey Cartron, Women in the Police Forces in Britain, 1880-1931, MA thesis, full text available at https://library.college.police.uk/docs/theses/CARTRON-Women-in-the-police-forces-in-Britain-1880-1931.pdf Sislin Fay Allen, National Archives: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/significant-people-collection/sislin-fay-allen/ History of Women...
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Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're traveling back to 1970 with Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret! Join us as we learn about Earth Day, female cantors, espadrilles, supermodels, adhesive pads, and more! Sources: Sources: Kathleen Horton, "The Story of. . . The Supermodel," The Conversation, available at https://theconversation.com/the-story-of-the-supermodel-26388 Sarah Lindig and Natalie Matthews, "The Evolution of the Supermodel," Elle, availble at https://www.elle.com/fashion/g28495/evolution-of-the-supermodel/?slide=25 Google Ngram, "Supermodel":...
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Wasp Network
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're traveling back to 1990s Miami with Wasp Network! Join us as we learn about terrorist attacks on Cuban resorts, the Angola Crisis, that McDonald's in Guantanamo Bay, and more! Sources: Central Intelligence Agency National Foreign Assessment Center, "An Analysis of Cuban Military Intervention in Angola and Ethiopia," 31 October 1978, available at https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP80T00634A000400010046-2.pdf "Angola, Independence and Civil War," Britannica, available at https://www.britannica.com/place/Angola/Independence-and-civil-war The Angola Crisis, 1974-1975,...
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Sweet Land
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're traveling back to 1920s Minnesota with Sweet Land! Join us as we learn about immigrant marriages, German acceptance in Minnesota, English-only churches, and more! We also debut the new Tina Belcher Film Grading Scale, and award this film a respectable score of Two Butts. Sources: La Vern J. Rippley, "Conflict in the Classroom: Anti-Germanism in Minnesota Schools, 1917-19," Minnesota History 47, no.5 (1981): 170-83. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20178699 Tina Steward Brakebill, "From "German Days" to "100 Percent Americanism": McLean County, Illinois 1913-1918: German...
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Godzilla Minus One
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're going back to postwar Tokyo with Godzilla Minus One! Join us as we learn about the rebuilding of Ginza, war orphans, sea mine removal, how Godzilla stands upright in the water, and more! Sources: "Ginza," Tokyo Official Website: https://www.ginza.jp/en/history/2#:~:text=As%20early%20as%20April%2C%201946,Ginza%20%2Ddori%20during%20this%20festival.&text=In%20addition%20to%20the%20regular,goods%20to%20the%20US%20troops. "Post-war Ginza," Old Tokyo, available at https://www.oldtokyo.com/post-war-ginza-1945/ "The Lost Metropolis: 1930s Tokyo Street Life in Pictures," The...
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The Siege of Jadotville
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're traveling back to 1960s Congo with The Siege of Jadotville! Join us as we learn about General Tshombe, Dag Hammarsjkold, UN forces in Jadotville, uranium mining, and more! Sources: Frank Swain, "The forgotten mine that built the atomic bomb," BBC (2020). https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200803-the-forgotten-mine-that-built-the-atomic-bomb Moore, W. Robert. "White Magic in the Belgian Congo: Tribesmen Mine Uranium, Run Machines, Study Modern Medicine as Booming Trade Opens Up the Vast Colony's Resources." National Geographic Magazine, March 1952, [321]+. National...
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A Haunting in Venice
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're traveling back to 1940s Venice with A Haunting in Venice! Join us as we learn about mad honey, When the Lights Go On Again, the liberation of Bergen-Belsen, Meet Me In St. Louis, and more! Sources: Gunduz, Abdülkadir;Şimşek, Perihan;Ayaz, Faik Ahmet, "Worldwide Distribution and Clinical Characteristics of Mad Honey Poisoning Cases," Central European Journal of Public Health (March 2023) Niko Vorobyov, "What It's Like Tripping on Mad Honey, the Hallucinogen That is (Maybe) an Aphrodisiac," Salon, 2022, available at...
info_outlineFor our final episode of the year, we're changing things up with Escape from New York! Join us as we explore how well this 1981 film predicted the year 1997, with discussions of island prisons, crime rates, Telex technology, and more!
Sources:
Tim Wadsworth, "Is Immigration Responsible for the Crime Drop? An Assessment on the Influence of Immigration on Changes in Violent Crime Between 1990 and 2000," Social Science Quarterly 91, 2 (2010)
Dara Lind and German Lopez, "16 Theories for Why Crime Plummeted in the US," Vox, available at https://www.vox.com/2015/2/13/8032231/crime-drop
John Gramlich, "Voters Perceptions of Crime Continue to Conflict with Reality," Pew, available at https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2016/11/16/voters-perceptions-of-crime-continue-to-conflict-with-reality/
John Gramlich, "What We Know About the Increase in Murder in 2020," Pew, available at https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/10/27/what-we-know-about-the-increase-in-u-s-murders-in-2020/
Dennis Thompson, U.S. Violent Crime Rate Drops Significantly Since 1980s; Reduction may be due to programs that try to break cycle of violence, experts say. Available at Gale OneFile.
German Lopez, "Mass incarceration in America, explained in 22 maps and charts," Vox 11 October 2016, https://www.vox.com/2015/7/13/8913297/mass-incarceration-maps-charts
Associated Press, "In 90's, Prison Building by States and U.S. Government Surged," The New York Times 8 August 1997. https://www.nytimes.com/1997/08/08/us/in-90-s-prison-building-by-states-and-us-government-surged.html
NY Demographics https://www.nyc.gov/assets/planning/download/pdf/planning-level/nyc-population/historical-population/nyc_total_pop_1900-2010.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_State_Penitentiary
Rosie Blunt, "Rikers Island: Tales from inside New York's notorious jail," BBC News 20 October 2019. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50114468
Caroline Delbert, "Forced Exile: The World's Dubious History of Prison Islands," Popular Mechanics 15 February 2023, https://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/a42665100/history-of-prison-islands/
Jake Malooley, "John Carpenter is Scared," Esquire, available at https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a34518538/john-carpenter-2020-interview-coronavirus-trump-they-live-the-thing/
Rotten Tomatoes, Escape from New York: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1006717-escape_from_new_york
WIkipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_from_New_York
Siskel and Ebert Review, available at https://youtu.be/xW-JL58fQQk?si=jadAn9OME4P604ks
Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/technology/telex