In 1941 my father was an Army Air Corps grunt who was enlisted for flight training in the event a war were to occur (it was still several months prior to December 7, but as he used to tell me ‘the war was in the air’). There were three training
For the past couple of years I’ve been comparing where we currently are with Artificial Intelligence with where we were in 1994-1995 with the internet; alternately impressed and scared, dismissive and fascinated, eager to figure out how to use it to give us some kind of advantage we never thought
Venice Beach, California, has always been a home for freaks. It was built for freakish reasons–to resemble Venice, Italy which it doesn’t at all–and was captured on film by freaky genius filmmakers; Orson Welles used it to sub for Tiajuana in ‘Touch of Evil’, Charlie Chaplin filmed ‘Kid Auto Races
Formation flying is an exacting and treacherous art–it’s still done and it’s still beautiful to behold, but it’s now greatly aided by technological communication. In the earliest days, however, there were no Bose headsets or radio transmission between pilots to be had, so the entire feat was accomplished using hand
Above is one of the dullest, driest, least charming training films about airplanes that I’ve ever seen. I love it. If you’re enraptured by vintage aviation then you will too. If you’re not I suggest you watch it as an alternative to taking the Quaalude that you may not have
Did you know that actor/director/restauranteur/sailor/guy who-co-produced ‘The Sting’ Tony Bill was a serious pilot and aviation history buff? A master pilot and aerobatics flyer, he’s owned and flown an envy-producing bunch of vintage hangar-candy among which are a 1946 Globe Swift, a 1935 Aeronica Chief, a 1929 Parks P-2A bi-plane,
Here are a handful of late 1950s/early 1960s animated TV commercials for such diverse products as pretzels, underarm deodorant, children’s cereal, Lucky Strike cigarettes and Beechnut chewing gum. The last mentioned features a nifty jazz score and the others are all witty and interestingly drawn. We’re beyond the lush and
Smoking on airplanes was once okay. Hell, I participated in that challenging sport for quite a few years. But advertising smoking on planes is another thing entirely. Above is a late 1950s commercial for Winston cigarettes. Apparently this particular airline handed out mini-packs for you as gift favors–kind of like
What better way to greet the long-awaited eastern spring than by watching an old newsreel about the New York Blizzard of 1947. Over ninety tons of snow buried New York state beginning on Christmas night and ending the following day, having dumped twenty-six inches of snow onto the city streets
This short doc from 1938 shows us the unbelievably intricate, detailed and tedious process used in crafting an animated picture in the era before Hanna-Barbara ruined animation with their cheap, non-moving backrounds and unrealistic body motions. ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ is the subject at hand and I can’t