Adventures in History

Diversion….City, The Road and a Trip.

tony@writingwithtony.com (Tony Bandy) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 13:12:44 +0000

Hello Dear Readers and Subscribers!

As you know we are in the midst of doing a series on the Great Depression: analyzing links, resources, and generally becoming familiar with some aspects of that history that may have been forgotten. While that is a good thing, it can be a bit of a downer as well. So today, we are going to take the day off and travel over to the Internet Archive as well as some other great sites, talking about music, drive-ins, and other neat things! Go grab your coat, car keys and let’s go!

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(1)

The Drive-In and the Fifties and Sixties! A classic piece of Americana. I was at the library today and ran across the movie American Graffiti. What a film! It has to be one of my all time favorites! Seeing the film again makes me look back to the late Fifties and early Sixties. Gas was cheap, cars were big and America was on top of the world. Drive-In popularity was soaring! Over at the Internet Archive, there is a great set of Drive-In advertisements like this:

(2)

Great stuff! Now, naturally, what goes with this? Music of course and as we all know, Rock-n-Roll was changing the game at this time! Music was already starting to turn strange to your parent’s ears and their sense of America. Big bands were out, Elvis was in. The Beatles were on the way!

(3)

One of the best ways to experience this is by going back and listening to the radio broadcasts of the era. Sure, the individual music takes you back, but to really understand things, radio (and the drive-time shows), will help you round out the impact that this music had on the era. Try these few links for a waaaay back trip:

“Rockin’ Bird-Joe Niagara

Sun Recording Studio (Birthplace of Rock!)

If you like those links, remember to try the links at the bottom for more information on obtaining “air checks” of radio personalities. Included in these demos and recordings are classic commercials and the wonderful “jingles” that are the cornerstone of radio.

Now it’s just a few short years later. Kennedy has passed and the rumblings of the American upheaveal have started to become noticable. Vietnam is starting to show up more and more in daily newspapers across the land. Did music have an impact here? Well, do you remember Robin Williams and the film Good Morning Vietnam? That was all based on a real person and show broadcast by the AFVN (American Forces Vietnam Network). Try this link for shows, information, and audio.

Finally, I’ll leave you with a classic Chevrolet ad. It’s a publicity film for Chevrolet and is a good film, helping us to stay on our time trip just a bit longer:

(4)

Try the links below for some more wonderful sites and sounds! I hope this has been a great post for you! Remember the podcast below and stay tuned as next time we return to the Depression.

Have a great day!

Links:

The American Drive-In Movie Theater (Google Books Link)

Internet Archive: Drive-In Movie Ads

American Forces Vietnam Network

AFVN-Project Jenny and the Blue Eagles

American Harvest (Part II)

Sun Studio (Wikipedia)

Alan Freed (my blog post)

Sources:

(1)Nara

(2) Internet Archive-Drive Ins!

(3)Nara

(4) Internet Archive-American Harvest Series

Stability, Hold The Course!

tony@writingwithtony.com (Tony Bandy) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 18:43:56 +0000

Hello everyone!

(Bank Runs!)

(Source: Nara, keyword=depression)

Just a note to let you know the podcast is up for last week. I’ve got details on the Great Depression as well as the historical significance of the 1920’s in the build-up to the Depression. You can either listen below or subscribe to the right with your audio software (iTunes, etc.)

Although still doing research, I will be back later with Part II!

Have a great day!

On The Road Again….

tony@writingwithtony.com (Tony Bandy) — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:50:08 +0000

Hello Dear Readers,

Well my research continues on the Depression. I’m currently knee-deep in reference works, magazines, some Reader’s Digests as well as my stacks of notes. I then looked at the calendar and realized that it had been a while since I’ve posted up.

Yikes!

So, wanted to let you know that I’ve got the first weekly podcast finished. Due to scheduling, I’ve had to change the format to a weekly broadcast…where does the time go? In any event, the podcast should be listed below, or you can subscribe to the right.

I should have the first post up for the Depression series tonight or tomorrow. Thanks for your patience, and why not check out the puzzles page for a good crossword?

Talk to you later!

Tony

(Source: Nara)

Watch the Hill Joe, It Gets Tricky at the End!

tony@writingwithtony.com (Tony Bandy) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:14:46 +0000

In today’s world of video games, Internet and wide-screen TV’s, it’s easy to get depressed about the state of childhood in America, especially when we read the same old stories about how America’s kids are nothing more than blubbery couch potatoes. They say we don’t exercise, don’t get involved and eat too much junk food. But you know what?

I’m not so sure about that!

Sometimes it’s easy to believe everything you read, but maybe we shouldn’t….and I include myself in this as well. As I was doing some blog research last night on the Internet Archive for another topic, I stumbled across a video from 1936 about the All-American Soap Box Derby! After doing some more digging, I found out that it is still active today and the kids participate and LOVE it! Sure, some things have changed since the Thirties, but what hasn’t? How come we don’t hear much about this today? Surely, one can’t be a couch potato and do this? So what’s the deal? Let’s find out…..

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(1)

Born in the depths of the Depression, the origins of the All-American Soap Box Derby started in Dayton Ohio, but then swiftly moved to Akron to take advantage of the sponsorship, terrain and economic atmosphere. Attracting both adults and children alike, its popularity soon spread. Sloganized via “Every Boy A CHAMPION”, the race at Derby Downs became an institution. They built the track in collaboration with the WPA, and corporate sponsorship with Chevrolet assured the funding needed to keep the contest going. Celebrities attended the races, including actors and popular media figures of the time, such as Rickenbacker, Ronald Reagan and even Jimmy Stewart.

(2)

While today’s racers utilize prefabricated construction and specialized racing wheels, this was not always the case, especially in the early years. In the book, Champions, Cheaters, and Childhood Dreams, we learn this:

“…Many of the original racers were built from shipping containers for soap. Before the invention of cardboard, soap and many other household items were shipped to retailers in wooden containers. The boxes were sturdy and made of pine….” (3)

(4)

The event, however, has not been without it’s share of controversy over the years, from the origins of the race itself, the decision to move to Akron and even sponsorship. Even with this, it’s become a bit of Americana now. There’s a quote from the official website that is really neat and is something to remember:

“…The goals of the Soap Box Derby program have not changed since it began in 1934. They are to teach youngsters some of the basic skills of workmanship, the spirit of competition and the perseverance to continue a project once it has begun…” (5)

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As usual, I’ve found so much information that I just cannot fit into a single page post. So, to help out a bit, I’ve included a great set of links and sites containing more backstory, images and just generally neat stuff. It’s worth it to trip over to the Internet Archive to see the 1936 film on the event as well as proving a microcosm of America from the era.

It’s a great topic and knowing that it still works even today, proves to me (and maybe you) that our kids are not as bad off as everyone likes to think.

Have a great day!

Links:

Sports In America: pg. 37.

All-American Soap Box Derby (official site)

Soap Box Derby (Wikipedia)

Soap Box Car (plans, designs, etc.) (Wikipedia)

SI Vault. “Gravity Rules”

Summit Memory (Project of the Akron-Summit County Public Library (historical soap box info)

Champions, Cheaters, and Childhood Dreams (book)

Sources:

(1) LOC; Prints & Photographs Division

(2) LOC; Prints & Photographs Division

(3) Champions, Cheaters, and Childhood Dreams. Pg. 9.

(4) All-American Soap Box Derby (film, Handy Jam, Internet Archive)

(5) About page: All-American Soap Box Derby

Ham in Space, or Is that Chimp in my Chair?

tony@writingwithtony.com (Tony Bandy) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 07:04:19 +0000

I took the kids to see Space Chimps today and it was a great movie, both for the kids as well as myself. However, being the history addict that I am, I immediately came home and started doing a little research on the use of chimpanzees in the space program in the latter part of the Fifties and early Sixties….

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(1)

Far from the easy-going, surburbian utopia that is thought about today, America in the late Fifties was a worried nation. The Cold War was center stage and “The Bomb” as well as host of other problems had displaced any complacency remaining from World War II. This national self doubt extended as well to the frontiers of space.

America could just not compete with the hordes of white-smocked Soviet scientists and engineers who kept launching success after success. Sputnik was up, while America’s series of “Flopniks” became a symptom of our inabilities to compete. The average American, it seemed, was more interested in the TV schedule than hard science and space flight.

To counter this, Project Mercury kicked off the beginning of the manned space program for the United States. With uncharted, unfamiliar territory, this was no easy task to accomplish. Could man survive space flight? Would the outer limits tear him to bits? How could the precise flights be calibrated?

(2)

While the initial astronauts chosen for Project Mercury were some of the most talented that could be found, the facts remained that a whole lot was unproved…and untested. In the book, We Seven, John Glenn said this:

“…There were so many unknown problems involved in (Project) Mercury and so many ‘firsts’ to be accomplished, that no one could be certain, when the project first began, just how it would come out…” (3)

(4)

More data was needed. Even though the talented Von Braun and his team as well as other companies were confident in the rocketry and associated systems, more testing was necessary before human flight could be obtained.

They chose a chimp! But why? Well according to experts:

“…Intelligent and normally docile, the chimpanzee is a primate of sufficient size and sapience to provide a reasonable facsimile of human behavior. [312] Its average response time to a given physical stimulus is .7 of a second, compared with man’s average .5 second. Having the same organ placement and internal suspension as man, plus a long medical research background, the chimpanzee chosen to ride the Redstone and perform a lever-pulling chore throughout the mission should not only test out the life-support systems but prove that levers could be pulled during launch, weightlessness, and reentry….”(5)

(6)

Being named after the Holloman Aerospace Medical Center, Ham became the celebrity of the age. Well trained through hundreds of hours of lab testing and retesting, Ham proved a willing subject for NASA.

His flight, MR-2, was scheduled and launched. While in space, Ham diligently worked the experiments that he had been trained with. Even with problems of reentry and excessive high-G levels, the flight was labeled a success and Project Mercury development (and flight) proceeded.

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There is lots more detail to this story than I can present here, so remember to check the links below for more details on Project Mercury as well as Ham. It’s a great story and one well worth remembering in today’s ho-hum atmosphere of Shuttle launches and unmanned space exploration vehicles.

Have a great day!

Links:

Little Joe, Ham, and the Liberty Bell (my old blog)

Mercury Project Goals and Overview

MR-2: Ham Paves The Way. Part of This New Ocean (see link below)

This New Ocean: A History of Project Mercury

Space Medicine in Project Mercury

NASA History Division

Wikipedia: Ham The Chimp

Sources:

(1)The Quiet Revolution (Internet Archive)

(2) NASA

(3) Carpenter, M. Scott. We Seven: By the Astronauts Themselves. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1962. Pg 106-107.

(4) NASA

(5) Ham Paves The Way. Part of This New Ocean (see link above)

(6) NASA