Here’s something I haven’t done before. Remember the days of auto stunt shows? Guys jumping over cars? Demolition derbies?
“So You Want Thrills!” No, that’s the name of the movie, not a statement of fact. Featuring Jimmy Lynch and his Death Dodgers. And what do the Death Dodgers drive? If you said “Dodge cars”, take two gold stars and advance to the next blue square.
That one is from 1948. Our bonus video is from the early 1980s, and alsp features Chrysler/Dodge cars: “The Hell Driver Formula”.
That’s something I wish I could have seen when I was younger. Unfortunately, there really weren’t any tracks in the Houston area where a team could do this kind of driving. They did do a stunt show/demolition derby in the Astrodome when I was young, and I remember going to that at least once: the high point for me was the guy who sealed himself in a coffin and blew himself up. There was also a car jump involved, as I recall, but (odd as it may seem) space in the Astrodome didn’t allow for a truly epic long car jump.
(They were doing these shows in the Astrodome at least up until 1985: a Wikipedia search reminded me that Karel Soucek, a “Canadian daredevil” who went over Niagra Falls in a barrel, was killed during one of those shows.)
Oh, what the hell, one more: “Paul Riddell’s Imperial Hell Drivers”. I think this is from Canada, eh? Oh, wait, I’m sorry: I checked Wikipedia, and it is actually from a show in Quebec. Apologies to both the Canadians and the Québécois in my audience.
Legendary Army Ranger, trainer, and gun guy Chuck Taylor passed away a few weeks ago. I wasn’t aware of this until Bayou Renaissance Man posted a nice tribute to Mr. Taylor on his blog, which I encourage you to go read.
Theodore “Ted” Keith passed away last September. I was not aware of this until it was posted on one of the forums for Smith and Wesson collectors.
Ted Keith was the son, and last surviving child of, the legendary gun guy Elmer Keith, about whom I have written in the past and certainly will in the future.
Ted Keith was a special guest at the 2012 S&WCA meeting in Boise. I didn’t get as much of a chance to talk to him as I would have liked (his time was pretty booked), but I have one outstanding memory of him: I was standing in the Boise Cabela’s with a bunch of other S&WCA folks looking at the Elmer Keith Museum (which, at the time, was located in the Boise Cabela’s). Ted was going around introducing himself to everyone there: he walked up to me, stuck out his hand, and said “Hi, I’m Ted Keith.”
Pan Am was founded in 1927. By an obscure mathematical property known as addition, this would mean that 1977 was their 50th anniversary.
So they decided to do something special. Pan Am flew a 747-SP1, the “Clipper New Horizons” around the world from San Francisco…
…over the North and South Pole. The flight took 54 hours, 7 minutes, and 12 seconds.
Here’s a Pan Am promo film/documentary about the flight.
Bonus video #1: would you like to watch a reasonably attractive blonde in a Boeing promo film for the 747? Then “Assignment 747” is for you!
Bonus video #2: If you want something with a little bit more substance, “The New Era: Flight Testing the 747 Superjet”. Personally, I think I’d watch this one before I watched the one with the blonde, but that’s just the kind of hairball I am.
Would you believe the Central Intelligence Agency has a YouTube channel? Probably.
Would you believe the (even more secretive) National Reconnaissance Office has one? Maybe.
A couple of short ones today, and a longer one:
“Development of CORONA, The World’s First Reconnaissance Satellite”. This is on the CIA’s channel, but was apparently prepared by the NRO. I’ve touched on CORONA before, but this is a more recent, better quality, and declassified look.
Bonus video #1: From the NRO itself: “The Last Bucket Catch”, about the film retrieval from CORONA. As you may recall from the previous CORONA video, they were basically snatching containers of undeveloped film out of the air.
Bonus video #2: Because we all love it, “Angels in Paradise: The Development of the U-2 at Area 51”. From the CIA in 1960: according to the YouTube notes, “This video was made for family members of the people working on the Angel reconnaissance plane to explain the workers’ long absences from home.”
There are times when I just can’t believe this stuff is out there…
Annie Glenn. The phrase “love story for the ages” is over-used, in my opinion. But it fits here. She and John Glenn were childhood playmates, and were married for 73 years.
I don’t want to burn off all of my military content before Memorial Day. But as it turns out, I’ve got a couple of things in reserve.
So here’s something we hope you’ll really like: “Floating Fortress”, from 1952. A slice of life onboard the USS New Jersey during the Korean War. Nice video of the big guns being loaded and fired.
Bonus video #1: As you may know, Bob, the battleship New Jersey is currently a museum ship in Camden. As you may have guessed, the museum is closed for the moment…
…so the good folks there put a virtual tour of the New Jersey up on YouTube.
Bonus video #2: “The American Dreadnaught” from 1968, which covers the de-mothballing and recommissioning of the New Jersey during Vietnam.
I’m being lazy today, I admit: I had an eye doctor appointment this afternoon, didn’t have time to get this done before my appointment, and my right eye is still kind of messed up. But I didn’t want to miss a day.
So, please to enjoy: “Action at Dog Island”, a 1972 film about drug interdiction from…the Royal Navy?
She was married twice: to John Y. Brown Jr., former Governor of Kentucky, and Robert Evans.
Captain Jenn Casey, Royal Canadian Air Force. She was a public affairs officer with the Snowbirds demonstration team: the plane she was in crashed during a demo in Kamloops yesterday. The pilot, Captain Richard MacDougall, ejected but suffered serious injuries.
We’re still in the “produced “under the personal supervision of Jack L. Warner”/Owen Crump era. But according to Wikipedia, the Bell System wasn’t all that happy with the first two Warner films, and actually approached Frank Capra about coming back. I gather he turned them down.
Film number seven in the series: “Thread of Life”, about DNA and related matters (heredity, genetics, all that stuff). This is from 1960, so it’s worth considering where we were at the time: it wasn’t until 1952 that DNA was established as the carrier of genetic information, and it wasn’t until 1953 that Crick and Watson published the double helix paper. Franklin and Gosling’s X-ray diffraction photo was from 1952.
This is literally within a couple of years of the beginnings of molecular biology, and the Bell System is trying to present these concepts to the general public.
What if – and I know this is a crazy thought – but what if someone like Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos produced a one hour video once a year to explain some scientific concept to the general public? Get some real hotshot director like Tarantino to direct, bring in subject matter experts who come across well on camera, hire a charismatic host…? I think you could do this without veering into the political arena, though I’m sure the temptation would be hard to resist for some.
Film number eight in the series: “About Time”. The people of Planet Q have a problem. They haven’t been into the concept of “time”, but they just got their first clock and want to know what time they should set it to. They are unhappy with the initial answer – “Set it anywhere you like.” which leads to a discussion of time, the nature of time, timekeeping, how do we really know what time it is anyway, and relativity theory.
Spoiler #1: the ultimate answer turns out to be…”Set it anywhere you’d like.” But there’s a catch: the people of Planet Q are looking for audiophiles who are interested in high quality cassette tapes.
Spoiler #2: if you don’t want to watch the whole film, but are just interested in the guest appearance, Dr. Richard P. Feynman appears at about the 45 minute mark.
Is it just me, or is there a little bit of resemblance between Feynman and Leonardo DiCaprio?
Okay, that may not have been the best DiCaprio photo I could have picked, but I have reasons. I really think DiCaprio could pull off the Feynman role, if they ever make that film of his life.
But I digress. There was one more film in the series: “The Restless Sea”. Unlike the first eight, it was only 30 minutes long. It also wasn’t produced by Capra or Warner: this was actually a Disney production. Les Clark, one of the early Disney animators, directed, and Walt Disney appears as himself.
Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find this one anywhere. Wikipedia’s page lists various public domain/DVD/VHS/laserdisc releases of the Bell System Science Series, but none of them seem to include “The Restless Sea”. I suspect this is locked away in the Disney vault, possibly on the same shelf as “Song of the South”.
Next week: I want to continue the “Science Sunday” theme, but I don’t have any good ideas right now. Suggestions from the gallery are very welcome.
Borepatch and ASM826, because this is related to some things they’ve been posting
and RoadRich, because planes. Also, tonight is “12 O’Clock High” night.
“The Story of Willow Run”, from FoMoCo. Willow Run was where Ford built the B-24. They initially were turning out parts that Consolidated and Douglas put together, but that turned out to be troublesome. In October of 1941 Willow Run got permission to build complete planes, and ran the line until May 1945. At peak, the line was turning out a finished bomber every 55 minutes.
Bonus video: unrelated to the above, but related to something earlier in the week. From 1937: “Boulder Dam”, a film from the US Archives about the construction of the dam that later became known as “Hoover Dam”.
It’s Friday. It’s the weekend. I feel like I can run a little long going into the weekend.
This video did come up in my recommendations, but my decision to feature it today was inspired by this tweet from Morlock Publishing:
> physical fabrication is in the dark ages
things said by people who don't work in / have any knowledge of the physical fabrication world https://t.co/0WaumdO7kp
— Dogs Don't Make Jokes Near Humorless People (@MorlockP) May 14, 2020
and this re-tweet from the same:
Everything is really freaking difficult. This cookie mould line? Probably a hundred person years of work from experts in dozens of fields. https://t.co/wcUzj9JA7M
— 20 8-car trains per hour, 19 hours/day, every day (@HeadwaysMatter) May 14, 2020
From 1959, another film from those wonderful folks at Shell Oil: “The Drama of Metal Forming”. Lots and lots of hot metal being worked: this is another one of those things that fascinates me.
Bonus video: from the good folks at the Ford Motor Company (FoMoCo): “Steel on the Rouge”, about making steel at the River Rouge plant.
As best as I can tell, the River Rouge steel mill is still in operation (this video is from 1968): FoMoCo apparently sold off the steel mill part of their business in 1989, and the Rouge mill has changed hands a couple of times. Currently, it seems like it is owned and run by AK Steel Holding.
The Thunderbirds did a flyover of Austin and San Antonio yesterday.
I shot this video from our back porch. I wasn’t sure which direction they’d be coming from or what altitude they would be out, so I erred on the side of shooting at a wider angle.
One of the things I feel lucky about in my life: I visited Las Vegas before 9/11. Which means Mike the Musicologist and I were lucky enough to tour the Thunderbirds museum before it was closed off to anyone without a DoD ID. We were also lucky enough to be able to take the Hard Hat Tour of Hoover Dam. I need to dig out my hard hat from storage.
(I still have never actually seen the Thunderbirds at an air show. The Blue Angels, yes, when I was really young.)
Bonus video, just for the heck of it: “Odyssey 1977”, video of the F-18 prototype at the Paris Air Show that year.
Ms. Kupperman survives him, as do a son and a daughter. His son, Michael Kupperman, is an artist who wrote a graphic novel memoir of his father called All The Answers (affiliate link).
