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
Decca records may have passed on signing ‘The Beatles’, but they more than made up for that goof by producing the above record which may be my favorite long-playing record ever (next to that Monty Python record on which one side contains two completely different sets of material and you
I mentioned on Monday that we flew in a Biplane this past weekend and experienced one of life’s must-do activities. (Cheap is wasn’t. But I’m happier paying for that than I am for a theater ticket to a Broadway musical I’m sorry that I wound up buying a ticket for).
This past weekend we attended the Rhinebeck Aerodrome, an amazing outdoor (and indoor) display of vintage aircraft, which not only serves as a museum of flight but which also offers an air show consisting of stunt flying of vintage planes by some very very very brave, well trained pilots. As
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jIeUm2KAqYhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlb7WNwcs_I The transition silent stars had to make to sound movies was a treacherous one, the main problem being not that they sounded funny but that their voices didn’t always match their on-screen personas. This could work in two different ways. On the one hand, the voiceless William Powell was
The story of Salome, her father King Herod, her passion for John the Baptist, his rejection of her which somehow leads her to do a suggestive dance that arouses her stepfather (I think) to grant her whatever she wishes which turns out to be John the Baptist’s head on a