With the election of the mayor of New York City just hours away, I thought it might be instructive to flashback to a very different city and time. This is a short news clip that aired on WPIX in the early-to-mid 70s in which New Yorkers are asked what they
Here’s a little reel featuring the opening credits of the Friday night network TV show line-up in the fall/winter of 1957–and what a load of crap it turns out to have been! Far from making us misty-eyed for the golden age of television, we are instead rendered inert with boredom
I’ve always loved the cumbersome nature of old film and recording technology. At the same time, though, I’ve never been able to truly grasp it. Nowhere is this more true than with the above fascinating reel showing the method by which sound and film are recorded in the early 1930s
Apropos of yesterday’s semi-deep-dive into food on airplanes of the past, here’s a silent reel of 1970s footage depicting a few meals served in a first class cabin of a United Airlines Boeing 747. The steak actually looks rather good though there are too many carrots and no steak fries
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKaeIhGT368https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PF_bkJhoIE It’s easy to make fun of airplane food but frankly I’ve always (mostly) liked it. As a kid traveling on PanAm I looked forward to the Chicken Kiev, a scrumptious dish I never saw offered in a restaurant. If I’m traveling on Jet Blue Mint, I’m treated to a
In post-World War Two America, there was a strong belief that private aviation was going to sweep the country, and that small airplanes would soon become as common as cars. Partly this arose from the fact that thousands of men who were trained to fly during the war were returning
It’s astonishing that World War 2 was somehow fought without the use of computers, cell phones and the internet. In fact, only the lowly Fax (‘Fascimile’) machine provided any true up-to-date technology. Somehow vast projects were organized and immaculately executed in record time–planes were designed as trainers to teach squads
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gu-cHtE5AYQhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJoiBRIxpwM The actor Robert Taylor was an avid flyer starting in the 1930s. He often flew himself and his co-stars to location, terrifying the studio executives who saw their valuable ‘properties’ vulnerable to sudden wreckage and instant death. (Planes then didn’t have built-in parachutes to guide them to the ground
The emergence of radio as we know it–programming that emanates from a reasonably priced box placed in the living room–was in its infant stages when the above one-hour broadcast was made, from a station in Newark, New Jersey. As you’ll see from this rare and invaluable Edison experimental recording from
Here’s a short, rather astounding clip from 1974 wherein legendary sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke calmly and confidently explains to a father and his young son various not-yet-invented things that will dominate our future including, but not limited to, the home computer, the internet, remote workplaces, Tickets.Com, online banking and