View allAll Photos Tagged inventor
"You...you're using a live spider brain in it?"
"Yes, it's a bit of a shortcut, I'll admit, but the Exposition is right around the corner!"
The King Sejong Statue was erected at the center of Gwanghwamun Square on Hangeul Day (October 9) of 2009. Sitting with a gentle smile on his face and a book in his hand, the bronze statue of 9.5m in height celebrates the King and his great achievements.
In front of the statue lie a celestial globe, a rain gauge, and a sundial, all of which King Sejong invented himself during his reign. Behind the statue, there are six columns with golden carvings depicting the King's major accomplishments, as well as an underground passage to the 'Sejong's Story' exhibition hall. Surrounding the statue, on the edges of the Square, is the 'Waterway of History,' a stream flowing on tiles with inscriptions of Korean history. (english.visitkorea.or.kr)
For the prompt of kid inventors, Brigette illustrates two inventions made by kids, popsicles and earmuffs.
Eleven-year-old Frank Epperson invented what we’ve come to know as a popsicle. It was a winter’s eve in 1905 when Frank decided to mix a frozen concoction containing soda water powder and water. He accidentally left the drink outside overnight, with the stirring stick in the glass. The mixture froze solid and the first popsicle was born..
It was 1873 and Chester Greenwood was just 15 years old when his ears got painfully cold one day while ice skating. He found that wrapping a scarf around his head didn’t help much, so he decided to find a better solution. Greenwood designed a wire frame and had his grandmother to sew beaver skins to it–thereby making the first pair of earmuffs. He ended up patenting the invention by age 19 and even selling them to soldiers during the First World War.
youtu.be/wO9XjCM6tB8?t=3s Trailer
1964 was a better year for sci-fi and Columbia's First Men in the Moon (FMM) was the year's big-budget treat. HG Wells' 1899 novel was adapted to a more modern retelling by Nigel Kneal (of Quatermass fame), but is still fairly faithful to the original. Two men (and a woman) travel to the moon in 1899 and encounter a civilization of insect-like beings. FMM also features the animation of Ray Harryhausen. He gives the usual monster (moon cows), but brings the selenites to life.
Synopsis
A modern (1960s) UN moon mission lands, only to discover a little British flag and a paper claiming the moon for Queen Victoria. On earth, they trace the names to an old Arnold Bedford in a nursing home. He tells his story as flashback. He rented a cottage next door to an eccentric inventor. Cavor created Cavorite, a substance which blocks gravity. Bedford sees the money-making potential, so attaches himself to the work. Cavor, however, wants to explore the moon. To that end, he built a sphere. Bedford agrees to go with him, thinking of gold on the moon. Bedford's fiancee, Kate, is pulled aboard at the last minute. Amid some mild antics en route, they arrive on the moon. Cavor and Bedford explore, finding a labyrinth of tunnels and little insect people. They return to the surface, but the sphere (with Kate inside) has been taken by the selenites. They re-enter the tunnels in search, but become separated when a giant "moon cow" caterpillar beast attacks them. The selenite scientists study Cavor and Kate, eventually learning english. The selenites are disassembling the sphere for study. Cavor is given an audience with the Grand Lunar. He tells the Grand Lunar about earth and men. Cavor's description of war alarms the Grand Lunar, who decrees that Cavor must remain on the moon to prevent more defective earthmen make the trip. Meanwhile, Bedford and Kate have reassembled the sphere, but need Cavor to get the shutters to work. Bedford interrupts the Grand Lunar audience, causing a fight. Cavor and Bedford flee to the sphere. Cavor fixes it, but refuses to return to earth. Bedford and Kate return. End flashback. Old Bedford sums up his tale. TV reports that the astronauts on the moon find abandoned underground cities. Quick conjecture is that some virus wiped out the inhabitants. Bedford quips that Cavor did have a bad cold. The End.
There is much to like in FMM. Lionel Jeffries almost steals the show with his highly colorful portrayal of Cavor. The matt art, scenery, sets and models are well done. Harryhausen's work doesn't dominate, but enhances the alien-world feel.
There is more of Wells' original anti-imperialism message than anything of the Cold War. The portrayed fact that the first moon landing was an international effort shows a bit of optimism.
Nigel Kneal's screenplay tries to maintain much of Wells' original story, but a few concessions had to be made to make a good movie for mid-60s audiences. Rather than modernize the tale, Kneal framed the Victorian story as a flashback within modern bookends. Kneal omitted the frozen atmosphere and fungal plant life, (as modern audiences would not buy that). He kept a simplified version of the selenite civilization, and the moon cows. He also kept Bedford returning and Cavor remaining.
Kneal's script pulls in elements from a couple of Wells' other stories. He repeats the trope of the aliens taking the protagonist's machine underground, which Wells had in The Time Machine. Kneal borrows from Wells' War of the Worlds to have the aliens all killed off by a simple earth germ. In Wells' novel, the selenites are not wiped out. Modern folk knew the moon was lifeless, so a handy plague was needed.
Embedded in Wells' novel, and echoed somewhat in Kneal's screenplay, was stratified, dehumanizing industrial society. A cute counterfoil to that and commentary on unionized culture, was the scene at Cavor's house where the three workers argue about whose job it was to stoke the furnace. The metal worker complained that since he wasn't a stoker (by profession), it therefore wasn't his job. The gardener agreed that he wasn't a stoker either. The butler also agreed that he was a butler, not a stoker, so none of them stoked, but all went out for a pint.
In Wells' War of the Words, imperialist humans get a taste of their own medicine from the über-imperialist Martians. In FFM, imperialist humans go to someone else's planet. In both the novel and the screenplay, the two protagonists embody classic British imperialism. Cavor is the benevolent explorer, missionary and claimer of places. Bedford is the exploiter capitalist, who puts little value on the lives of the "brownies". This condensed duo of earth-ish imperialism plops down amid a greater power. Cavor and Bedford play out the traditional arguments (benevolence vs. conquest) but Bedford's view prevails and he goes about smashing their cities. In Kneal's script, imperialist man manages to completely ruins things -- even if only by accident (Cavor's cold germs). This has several earth history parallels too.
It was fairly common in 19th century sci-fi (e.g. Wells and Verne) to have only men as the protagonists. Post-WWII Hollywood was unable to resist inserting a woman into the character mix. They usually served as simple cheesecake, or love-triangle fodder, or the damel to be rescued. In FFM, Kate is a bit less flagrantly the intruded woman. She is useful to keep up dialogue while Cavor and Bedford are separated. She is a occasionally the damsel, but not obnoxiously so. (Heck, she blasts some selenites with a shotgun). We can be thankful the producers resisted including a cute animal in Disney fashion.
Bottom line? FMM is a classic that no one should miss -- even viewers who don't normally go in for sci-fi. The story is thoughtful, the acting good, and the production very good.
While many contemporary science fiction and fantasy films find their inspiration in graphic novels and comic books, H.G. Wells is still the gold standard when it comes to an indisputable master of the genre. More than 62 years after his death, the film industry continues to steal from and rework ideas and storylines from his popular fantasy novels. Most of them have been enormously successful (The War of the Worlds [1953 & 2005], The Time Machine [1960 & 2002], The Invisible Man [1932], Island of Lost Souls [1933]). In fact, one of the first silent films to become an international success was French filmmaker Georges Melies's 1902 adaptation of Wells' First Men in the Moon, released as Le Voyage dans la lune.
TCM review by Jeff Stafford
In Wells' original 1901 novel, the story, set in the rural village of Kent, focused on an eccentric scientist, Cavor, conducting anti-gravity experiments on a man-made substance called 'Cavorite,' and his neighbor, Mr. Bedford, a struggling, debt-ridden playwright. Enlisting Bedford's help, Cavor eventually succeeds in proving the "gravitational opacity" of cavorite and together the two men depart for the Moon in a glass-lined steel sphere powered by Cavor's invention. After successfully landing on the lunar surface and exploring the terrain, Cavor and Bedford are captured by moon men Selenites and imprisoned. Bedford manages to escape, and believing that Cavor has been killed, he locates their stolen sphere and returns to Earth. Once he is back, Bedford publishes an account of his adventures and learns from a Dutch scientist experimenting with wireless waves that messages are being sent from the moon by Cavor. It appears that Bedford's former neighbor has learned to live and communicate with the Selenites but eventually Cavor's messages become incoherent and then abruptly stop. The story ends with Bedford assuming that the Selenites silenced Cavor because they were afraid of further Earth expeditions to the moon.
Georges Melies's loose 1902 adaptation of Wells' First Men in the Moon condenses the story into a brief running time of barely eleven minutes but in 1919, Gaumont studio attempted a longer feature version, directed by J.L.V. Leigh, which added a female character as the love interest. It is now considered a lost film. No one else attempted to film Wells' story until the early sixties when screenwriter Nigel Kneale, stop-motion animator Ray Harryhausen, and director Nathan Juran were brought together by producer Charles Schneer.
After securing the rights from Frank Wells, son of the famous author, Schneer approached Columbia Pictures with the project. Despite their initial reluctance, Schneer's previous successes for them - 20 Million Miles to Earth [1957], The 7th Voyage of Sinbad [1958], Jason and the Argonauts [1963] convinced them to finance First Men in the Moon [1964]. Kneale, who had penned The Quatermass Experiment, a highly influential science fiction series on BBC-TV, updated Wells's original story to include a clever framing device set in present times in which a United Nations space mission to the moon discovers evidence of a British expedition in 1899, during the reign of Queen Victoria. Kneale also expanded the role of the female love interest who was first introduced in the 1919 version. Martha Hyer was cast in the latter role with Lionel Jeffries and Edward Judd being tapped to play Cavot and Bedford, respectively.
In the book Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Life, the special effects master describes some of the difficulties of filming First Men in the Moon. "Along with numerous other tasks, I was also faced with the design basics for a whole alien civilization. Because the Selenites were to be insect-like, I decided that all doors and apertures were to be hexagonal, a common structure in the insect world. Whether it was scientifically accurate was secondary to the consideration that it should look realistic, be practical and above all spectacular. These basics were relatively straightforward, but when it came to broader aspects of the story that included tunnels, lunar landscapes, lens complexes, oxygen machines and the palace of the Grand Lunar, the budget prevented any of them from being built as full sets, so I designed them as miniatures and incorporated the actors with the aid of traveling mattes. For example, the huge bubbling vats that produced the oxygen were three- or four-foot high miniatures. However, these design headaches were nothing compared to Charles [Schneer] and Columbia Pictures announcing that the film, if possible, should be photographed in widescreen to give it an added attraction."
Filmed in the anamorphic process known as "Dynamation," in which live action and stop-motion animation can be combined via rear-projection and split-screen techniques, First Men in the Moon proved to be more restrictive and cost-prohibitive for Harryhausen on a creative level. As a result, his famous stop-motion work was only highlighted in three key sequences the Selenites in their high tech laboratories, the giant mooncalf and the Grand Lunar.
Most of the live-action cinematography took place at Shepperton Studios where a full-sized section of the moon's surface was constructed on a sound stage for the framing sequence and for the arrival and departure of Cavor's sphere from the lunar surface. NASA served as technical advisors on the film and the blueprints for their own Lunar module aided Harryhausen tremendously in designing the entire U.N. expedition sequence; it would also serve as a dry run for NASA which would stage a real moon walk for the entire world on television on July 20, 1969.
Less successful was the design of the Selenites. Harryhausen said, "I have never been keen on using 'men in suits' as animated creatures, but several scenes called for masses of smaller 'worker' Selenites, which would have taken an eternity to animate. So we had to resort to using children in suits. I designed a suit made into twenty-five moulded latex costumes with reinforced sections. Although they were never really convincing, mainly because the children's arms were not spindly enough to match the animated Selenites, the low-key lighting allowed Jerry [a nickname for director Nathan Juran] to use the suits with reasonable success."
Despite the many technical frustrations he experienced while working on First Men in the Moon, Harryhausen also enjoyed some aspects of it. "Some of my fondest memories during production," he said, "were the surprise visits of several personalities. The first was Frank Wells, son of H.G. Sadly, I only met him briefly, but he showed great enthusiasm for the design and animation, and we talked about his father. Another visit was by one of Hollywood's greatest directors, William Wyler. He was shooting a film on another stage, and although he wasn't there very long, I did manage to talk with him, and he seemed intrigued at what we were doing. Furthermore, when British performer William Rushton was unable to turn up for the part of the writ server, we unexpectedly secured the services of one of the world's top actors. Lionel [Jeffries] persuaded Peter Finch, who happened to be shooting The Pumpkin Eater (1964) on the next stage, to guest in the role. To save time, Lionel wrote out Finch's lines on the back of the summons paper, which he delivered with enormous enjoyment."
When First Men in the Moon opened theatrically, it was treated by most critics as a children's film and not as a bona-fide sci-fi thriller in the style of Wells' The War of the Worlds or The Time Machine. Howard Thompson of The New York Times dismissed it, writing, "Only the most indulgent youngsters should derive much stimulation let alone fun from the tedious, heavy-handed science-fiction vehicle that arrived yesterday from England..." The Variety review was more positive and reflected the film's general reception, calling it "an exploiteer's dream. Family audiences should flock to the wickets. It is an astute blend of comedy, occasional thrills and special effects work. Film is a good example of the kind of fare that television cannot hope to match in the foreseeable future."
Moviegoers did not, however, flock to see First Men in the Moon as they had previous Harryhausen ventures such as Jason and the Argonauts and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. Part of the problem may have been the film's emphasis on comedy instead of suspense or action-adventure and many reviewers noted that the whimsical tone neutralized any potential excitement. The Hollywood Reporter, in fact, proclaimed it "the first space fantasy comedy." Harryhausen was also working with a different composer this time instead of Bernard Herrmann, who was unavailable. While Laurie Johnson's score is atmospheric and evocative of its setting, it lacked the dynamic range and intensity that Herrmann's music brought to such Harryhausen films as The 3 Worlds of Gulliver (1960) and Mysterious Island (1961), among others.
Harryhausen also admits that "...the poster Columbia came up with really didn't help to sell it. It was too childish in its attempts to point out that it was 'in' in the Moon, not 'on.'" Yet people who avoided the movie missed a visual treat, brimming with rich Victorian-era art direction, futuristic set designs reflecting the Selenites's world and unusual special effects. "Personally," Harryhausen stated, "I believe it is one of the most faithful adaptations of Wells' novels, but perhaps the time was not right for such a film, or perhaps the real moon landings were too close. Hopefully, posterity will look upon it with kinder eyes."
Producer: Charles H. Schneer
Director: Nathan Juran
Screenplay: Nigel Kneale, Jan Read; H.G. Wells (story)
Cinematography: Wilkie Cooper
Art Direction: John Blezard
Music: Laurie Johnson
Film Editing: Maurice Rootes
Cast: Edward Judd (Arnold Bedford), Martha Hyer (Katherine 'Kate' Callender), Lionel Jeffries (Joseph Cavor), Miles Malleson (Dymchurch Registrar), Norman Bird (Stuart), Gladys Henson (nursing home matron), Hugh McDermott (Richard Challis).
C-103m.
youtu.be/wO9XjCM6tB8?t=3s Trailer
Additional Lobby Cards in Set www.flickr.com/photos/morbius19/sets/72157641173484945/
1964 was a better year for sci-fi and Columbia's First Men in the Moon (FMM) was the year's big-budget treat. HG Wells' 1899 novel was adapted to a more modern retelling by Nigel Kneal (of Quatermass fame), but is still fairly faithful to the original. Two men (and a woman) travel to the moon in 1899 and encounter a civilization of insect-like beings. FMM also features the animation of Ray Harryhausen. He gives the usual monster (moon cows), but brings the selenites to life.
Synopsis
A modern (1960s) UN moon mission lands, only to discover a little British flag and a paper claiming the moon for Queen Victoria. On earth, they trace the names to an old Arnold Bedford in a nursing home. He tells his story as flashback. He rented a cottage next door to an eccentric inventor. Cavor created Cavorite, a substance which blocks gravity. Bedford sees the money-making potential, so attaches himself to the work. Cavor, however, wants to explore the moon. To that end, he built a sphere. Bedford agrees to go with him, thinking of gold on the moon. Bedford's fiancee, Kate, is pulled aboard at the last minute. Amid some mild antics en route, they arrive on the moon. Cavor and Bedford explore, finding a labyrinth of tunnels and little insect people. They return to the surface, but the sphere (with Kate inside) has been taken by the selenites. They re-enter the tunnels in search, but become separated when a giant "moon cow" caterpillar beast attacks them. The selenite scientists study Cavor and Kate, eventually learning english. The selenites are disassembling the sphere for study. Cavor is given an audience with the Grand Lunar. He tells the Grand Lunar about earth and men. Cavor's description of war alarms the Grand Lunar, who decrees that Cavor must remain on the moon to prevent more defective earthmen make the trip. Meanwhile, Bedford and Kate have reassembled the sphere, but need Cavor to get the shutters to work. Bedford interrupts the Grand Lunar audience, causing a fight. Cavor and Bedford flee to the sphere. Cavor fixes it, but refuses to return to earth. Bedford and Kate return. End flashback. Old Bedford sums up his tale. TV reports that the astronauts on the moon find abandoned underground cities. Quick conjecture is that some virus wiped out the inhabitants. Bedford quips that Cavor did have a bad cold. The End.
There is much to like in FMM. Lionel Jeffries almost steals the show with his highly colorful portrayal of Cavor. The matt art, scenery, sets and models are well done. Harryhausen's work doesn't dominate, but enhances the alien-world feel.
There is more of Wells' original anti-imperialism message than anything of the Cold War. The portrayed fact that the first moon landing was an international effort shows a bit of optimism.
Nigel Kneal's screenplay tries to maintain much of Wells' original story, but a few concessions had to be made to make a good movie for mid-60s audiences. Rather than modernize the tale, Kneal framed the Victorian story as a flashback within modern bookends. Kneal omitted the frozen atmosphere and fungal plant life, (as modern audiences would not buy that). He kept a simplified version of the selenite civilization, and the moon cows. He also kept Bedford returning and Cavor remaining.
Kneal's script pulls in elements from a couple of Wells' other stories. He repeats the trope of the aliens taking the protagonist's machine underground, which Wells had in The Time Machine. Kneal borrows from Wells' War of the Worlds to have the aliens all killed off by a simple earth germ. In Wells' novel, the selenites are not wiped out. Modern folk knew the moon was lifeless, so a handy plague was needed.
Embedded in Wells' novel, and echoed somewhat in Kneal's screenplay, was stratified, dehumanizing industrial society. A cute counterfoil to that and commentary on unionized culture, was the scene at Cavor's house where the three workers argue about whose job it was to stoke the furnace. The metal worker complained that since he wasn't a stoker (by profession), it therefore wasn't his job. The gardener agreed that he wasn't a stoker either. The butler also agreed that he was a butler, not a stoker, so none of them stoked, but all went out for a pint.
In Wells' War of the Words, imperialist humans get a taste of their own medicine from the über-imperialist Martians. In FFM, imperialist humans go to someone else's planet. In both the novel and the screenplay, the two protagonists embody classic British imperialism. Cavor is the benevolent explorer, missionary and claimer of places. Bedford is the exploiter capitalist, who puts little value on the lives of the "brownies". This condensed duo of earth-ish imperialism plops down amid a greater power. Cavor and Bedford play out the traditional arguments (benevolence vs. conquest) but Bedford's view prevails and he goes about smashing their cities. In Kneal's script, imperialist man manages to completely ruins things -- even if only by accident (Cavor's cold germs). This has several earth history parallels too.
It was fairly common in 19th century sci-fi (e.g. Wells and Verne) to have only men as the protagonists. Post-WWII Hollywood was unable to resist inserting a woman into the character mix. They usually served as simple cheesecake, or love-triangle fodder, or the damel to be rescued. In FFM, Kate is a bit less flagrantly the intruded woman. She is useful to keep up dialogue while Cavor and Bedford are separated. She is a occasionally the damsel, but not obnoxiously so. (Heck, she blasts some selenites with a shotgun). We can be thankful the producers resisted including a cute animal in Disney fashion.
Bottom line? FMM is a classic that no one should miss -- even viewers who don't normally go in for sci-fi. The story is thoughtful, the acting good, and the production very good.
While many contemporary science fiction and fantasy films find their inspiration in graphic novels and comic books, H.G. Wells is still the gold standard when it comes to an indisputable master of the genre. More than 62 years after his death, the film industry continues to steal from and rework ideas and storylines from his popular fantasy novels. Most of them have been enormously successful (The War of the Worlds [1953 & 2005], The Time Machine [1960 & 2002], The Invisible Man [1932], Island of Lost Souls [1933]). In fact, one of the first silent films to become an international success was French filmmaker Georges Melies's 1902 adaptation of Wells' First Men in the Moon, released as Le Voyage dans la lune.
TCM review by Jeff Stafford
In Wells' original 1901 novel, the story, set in the rural village of Kent, focused on an eccentric scientist, Cavor, conducting anti-gravity experiments on a man-made substance called 'Cavorite,' and his neighbor, Mr. Bedford, a struggling, debt-ridden playwright. Enlisting Bedford's help, Cavor eventually succeeds in proving the "gravitational opacity" of cavorite and together the two men depart for the Moon in a glass-lined steel sphere powered by Cavor's invention. After successfully landing on the lunar surface and exploring the terrain, Cavor and Bedford are captured by moon men Selenites and imprisoned. Bedford manages to escape, and believing that Cavor has been killed, he locates their stolen sphere and returns to Earth. Once he is back, Bedford publishes an account of his adventures and learns from a Dutch scientist experimenting with wireless waves that messages are being sent from the moon by Cavor. It appears that Bedford's former neighbor has learned to live and communicate with the Selenites but eventually Cavor's messages become incoherent and then abruptly stop. The story ends with Bedford assuming that the Selenites silenced Cavor because they were afraid of further Earth expeditions to the moon.
Georges Melies's loose 1902 adaptation of Wells' First Men in the Moon condenses the story into a brief running time of barely eleven minutes but in 1919, Gaumont studio attempted a longer feature version, directed by J.L.V. Leigh, which added a female character as the love interest. It is now considered a lost film. No one else attempted to film Wells' story until the early sixties when screenwriter Nigel Kneale, stop-motion animator Ray Harryhausen, and director Nathan Juran were brought together by producer Charles Schneer.
After securing the rights from Frank Wells, son of the famous author, Schneer approached Columbia Pictures with the project. Despite their initial reluctance, Schneer's previous successes for them - 20 Million Miles to Earth [1957], The 7th Voyage of Sinbad [1958], Jason and the Argonauts [1963] convinced them to finance First Men in the Moon [1964]. Kneale, who had penned The Quatermass Experiment, a highly influential science fiction series on BBC-TV, updated Wells's original story to include a clever framing device set in present times in which a United Nations space mission to the moon discovers evidence of a British expedition in 1899, during the reign of Queen Victoria. Kneale also expanded the role of the female love interest who was first introduced in the 1919 version. Martha Hyer was cast in the latter role with Lionel Jeffries and Edward Judd being tapped to play Cavot and Bedford, respectively.
In the book Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Life, the special effects master describes some of the difficulties of filming First Men in the Moon. "Along with numerous other tasks, I was also faced with the design basics for a whole alien civilization. Because the Selenites were to be insect-like, I decided that all doors and apertures were to be hexagonal, a common structure in the insect world. Whether it was scientifically accurate was secondary to the consideration that it should look realistic, be practical and above all spectacular. These basics were relatively straightforward, but when it came to broader aspects of the story that included tunnels, lunar landscapes, lens complexes, oxygen machines and the palace of the Grand Lunar, the budget prevented any of them from being built as full sets, so I designed them as miniatures and incorporated the actors with the aid of traveling mattes. For example, the huge bubbling vats that produced the oxygen were three- or four-foot high miniatures. However, these design headaches were nothing compared to Charles [Schneer] and Columbia Pictures announcing that the film, if possible, should be photographed in widescreen to give it an added attraction."
Filmed in the anamorphic process known as "Dynamation," in which live action and stop-motion animation can be combined via rear-projection and split-screen techniques, First Men in the Moon proved to be more restrictive and cost-prohibitive for Harryhausen on a creative level. As a result, his famous stop-motion work was only highlighted in three key sequences the Selenites in their high tech laboratories, the giant mooncalf and the Grand Lunar.
Most of the live-action cinematography took place at Shepperton Studios where a full-sized section of the moon's surface was constructed on a sound stage for the framing sequence and for the arrival and departure of Cavor's sphere from the lunar surface. NASA served as technical advisors on the film and the blueprints for their own Lunar module aided Harryhausen tremendously in designing the entire U.N. expedition sequence; it would also serve as a dry run for NASA which would stage a real moon walk for the entire world on television on July 20, 1969.
Less successful was the design of the Selenites. Harryhausen said, "I have never been keen on using 'men in suits' as animated creatures, but several scenes called for masses of smaller 'worker' Selenites, which would have taken an eternity to animate. So we had to resort to using children in suits. I designed a suit made into twenty-five moulded latex costumes with reinforced sections. Although they were never really convincing, mainly because the children's arms were not spindly enough to match the animated Selenites, the low-key lighting allowed Jerry [a nickname for director Nathan Juran] to use the suits with reasonable success."
Despite the many technical frustrations he experienced while working on First Men in the Moon, Harryhausen also enjoyed some aspects of it. "Some of my fondest memories during production," he said, "were the surprise visits of several personalities. The first was Frank Wells, son of H.G. Sadly, I only met him briefly, but he showed great enthusiasm for the design and animation, and we talked about his father. Another visit was by one of Hollywood's greatest directors, William Wyler. He was shooting a film on another stage, and although he wasn't there very long, I did manage to talk with him, and he seemed intrigued at what we were doing. Furthermore, when British performer William Rushton was unable to turn up for the part of the writ server, we unexpectedly secured the services of one of the world's top actors. Lionel [Jeffries] persuaded Peter Finch, who happened to be shooting The Pumpkin Eater (1964) on the next stage, to guest in the role. To save time, Lionel wrote out Finch's lines on the back of the summons paper, which he delivered with enormous enjoyment."
When First Men in the Moon opened theatrically, it was treated by most critics as a children's film and not as a bona-fide sci-fi thriller in the style of Wells' The War of the Worlds or The Time Machine. Howard Thompson of The New York Times dismissed it, writing, "Only the most indulgent youngsters should derive much stimulation let alone fun from the tedious, heavy-handed science-fiction vehicle that arrived yesterday from England..." The Variety review was more positive and reflected the film's general reception, calling it "an exploiteer's dream. Family audiences should flock to the wickets. It is an astute blend of comedy, occasional thrills and special effects work. Film is a good example of the kind of fare that television cannot hope to match in the foreseeable future."
Moviegoers did not, however, flock to see First Men in the Moon as they had previous Harryhausen ventures such as Jason and the Argonauts and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. Part of the problem may have been the film's emphasis on comedy instead of suspense or action-adventure and many reviewers noted that the whimsical tone neutralized any potential excitement. The Hollywood Reporter, in fact, proclaimed it "the first space fantasy comedy." Harryhausen was also working with a different composer this time instead of Bernard Herrmann, who was unavailable. While Laurie Johnson's score is atmospheric and evocative of its setting, it lacked the dynamic range and intensity that Herrmann's music brought to such Harryhausen films as The 3 Worlds of Gulliver (1960) and Mysterious Island (1961), among others.
Harryhausen also admits that "...the poster Columbia came up with really didn't help to sell it. It was too childish in its attempts to point out that it was 'in' in the Moon, not 'on.'" Yet people who avoided the movie missed a visual treat, brimming with rich Victorian-era art direction, futuristic set designs reflecting the Selenites's world and unusual special effects. "Personally," Harryhausen stated, "I believe it is one of the most faithful adaptations of Wells' novels, but perhaps the time was not right for such a film, or perhaps the real moon landings were too close. Hopefully, posterity will look upon it with kinder eyes."
Producer: Charles H. Schneer
Director: Nathan Juran
Screenplay: Nigel Kneale, Jan Read; H.G. Wells (story)
Cinematography: Wilkie Cooper
Art Direction: John Blezard
Music: Laurie Johnson
Film Editing: Maurice Rootes
Cast: Edward Judd (Arnold Bedford), Martha Hyer (Katherine 'Kate' Callender), Lionel Jeffries (Joseph Cavor), Miles Malleson (Dymchurch Registrar), Norman Bird (Stuart), Gladys Henson (nursing home matron), Hugh McDermott (Richard Challis).
C-103m.
"read, every day, something no one else is reading. think, every day, something no one else is thinking. do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. it is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity." -- christopher morley
"reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking." -- albert einstein
readers books
sonoma, california
© All Rights Reserved Please don't use this image on websites, blogs or other media without my explicit permission. best on black. click image to view on flickr black or see it somewhere on my stream in flickriver: www.flickriver.com/photos/msdonnalee/
sonoma, california
American postcard by Art Creation for the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, Dearborn, Michigan. Caption: Henry Ford and Thomas Edison in conversation at Greenfield Village, in 1928. Their friendship had begun in 1896 when Edison encouraged the then young and unknown Ford's automobile experiments. The deafness, which had afflicted the inventor since childhood, is evident in this pose, as Henry Ford speaks loudly in his ear.
Thomas Edison (1847-1931) was the inventor of the phonograph, power stations, and the carbon switch microphone. With his pioneering film studio, he produced and directed such silent films as The Trick Cyclist (1901), Bicycle Trick Riding, No. 2 (1899) and the first American film version of Frankenstein (1910).
Thomas Alva Edison was born in 1847 in Milan, Ohio, USA. His father, Samuel Edison, was of Dutch ancestry and his mother, Nancy Elliot, was of English descent. Thomas was home-schooled. He used a primitive cylinder and foil device to create the first known recording of a human voice (his own, reciting the poem "Mary Had A Little Lamb"). Although he invented the cylinder recorder (phonograph), it was Emile Berliner who created the flat disc. Edison licensed the patent(s) from him. Other inventions to his credit include cellophane tape, waxed paper, an improved version of the typewriter keyboard, and 'the electric pencil', a forerunner to the fax machine. He is often credited with the invention of the incandescent light bulb, but that is untrue; he only perfected it. Similar bulbs were already in existence but they were expensive, did not last long, and gave off a bad smell. By developing a low-cost, long-lasting, carbonized cotton filament, Edison made electrical light cheap enough to be financially practical.
Thomas Edison is also credited with the invention of sprocketed cinema film. He also invented the Kinetograph camera and the peephole kinetoscope viewer. The Edison Manufacturing Company's earliest films were produced solely to demonstrate the use of the peephole viewer. The studio made several experimental short films, some lasting only several seconds, mostly to test his equipment. One film, Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze (1894), features a man sneezing, runs for 1-1/2 seconds. Many of Edison's experimental films were made in a small wooden building dubbed 'The Black Maria' because it resembled a police wagon of the same name. Edison's Black Maria was built on a lot next to his lab and office. The building, essentially a large wooden shed covered with tar paper, was small enough that it was mounted on circular tracks so it could be turned to accommodate sunlight through an opening in the roof. The original has long since burned down, but a reproduction of the structure is located at the Edison National Historic Site, a museum with a preserved laboratory facility in West Orange, New Jersey. Edison himself played virtually no role in the production of individual films by his company which produced the first American film version of Frankenstein (1910). This film paved the way for modern-day horror as we now know it. Edison formed the Motion Picture Patent Company (MPPC), and teamed up with a few other prominent figures in film production, giving them a sort of monopoly on filmmaking. They wouldn't let other filmmakers use their technology, and they controlled the different steps of production. Supposedly, they even hired goons to enforce their monopoly. His attempts to force independent filmmakers to use his patented movie equipment resulted in an exodus of the film industry from the East Coast, where almost all films were produced, to California and a little town called Hollywoodland, now known as Hollywood. The last years of his life were plagued by financial failures, including plans to make houses out of poured formed concrete (it never caught on with the public) and making rubber from goldenrod (it decomposed too quickly). In 1928, he was awarded a Congressional Gold Meda. Thomas Edison was married to Mina Miller and Mary Stilwell. He died in 1931 in West Orange, New Jersey, USA. When he lay dying at his home in New Jersey, newspaper reporters were anxiously awaiting a sign from his wife of Edison's death. She signaled Edison's passing by turning a light ON, not off, in his bedroom. Edison's son allegedly captured his last breath in a glass jar. The jar is on display at the reconstructed Menlo Park at Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan.
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
youtu.be/wO9XjCM6tB8?t=3s Trailer
1964 was a better year for sci-fi and Columbia's First Men in the Moon (FMM) was the year's big-budget treat. HG Wells' 1899 novel was adapted to a more modern retelling by Nigel Kneal (of Quatermass fame), but is still fairly faithful to the original. Two men (and a woman) travel to the moon in 1899 and encounter a civilization of insect-like beings. FMM also features the animation of Ray Harryhausen. He gives the usual monster (moon cows), but brings the selenites to life.
Synopsis
A modern (1960s) UN moon mission lands, only to discover a little British flag and a paper claiming the moon for Queen Victoria. On earth, they trace the names to an old Arnold Bedford in a nursing home. He tells his story as flashback. He rented a cottage next door to an eccentric inventor. Cavor created Cavorite, a substance which blocks gravity. Bedford sees the money-making potential, so attaches himself to the work. Cavor, however, wants to explore the moon. To that end, he built a sphere. Bedford agrees to go with him, thinking of gold on the moon. Bedford's fiancee, Kate, is pulled aboard at the last minute. Amid some mild antics en route, they arrive on the moon. Cavor and Bedford explore, finding a labyrinth of tunnels and little insect people. They return to the surface, but the sphere (with Kate inside) has been taken by the selenites. They re-enter the tunnels in search, but become separated when a giant "moon cow" caterpillar beast attacks them. The selenite scientists study Cavor and Kate, eventually learning english. The selenites are disassembling the sphere for study. Cavor is given an audience with the Grand Lunar. He tells the Grand Lunar about earth and men. Cavor's description of war alarms the Grand Lunar, who decrees that Cavor must remain on the moon to prevent more defective earthmen make the trip. Meanwhile, Bedford and Kate have reassembled the sphere, but need Cavor to get the shutters to work. Bedford interrupts the Grand Lunar audience, causing a fight. Cavor and Bedford flee to the sphere. Cavor fixes it, but refuses to return to earth. Bedford and Kate return. End flashback. Old Bedford sums up his tale. TV reports that the astronauts on the moon find abandoned underground cities. Quick conjecture is that some virus wiped out the inhabitants. Bedford quips that Cavor did have a bad cold. The End.
There is much to like in FMM. Lionel Jeffries almost steals the show with his highly colorful portrayal of Cavor. The matt art, scenery, sets and models are well done. Harryhausen's work doesn't dominate, but enhances the alien-world feel.
There is more of Wells' original anti-imperialism message than anything of the Cold War. The portrayed fact that the first moon landing was an international effort shows a bit of optimism.
Nigel Kneal's screenplay tries to maintain much of Wells' original story, but a few concessions had to be made to make a good movie for mid-60s audiences. Rather than modernize the tale, Kneal framed the Victorian story as a flashback within modern bookends. Kneal omitted the frozen atmosphere and fungal plant life, (as modern audiences would not buy that). He kept a simplified version of the selenite civilization, and the moon cows. He also kept Bedford returning and Cavor remaining.
Kneal's script pulls in elements from a couple of Wells' other stories. He repeats the trope of the aliens taking the protagonist's machine underground, which Wells had in The Time Machine. Kneal borrows from Wells' War of the Worlds to have the aliens all killed off by a simple earth germ. In Wells' novel, the selenites are not wiped out. Modern folk knew the moon was lifeless, so a handy plague was needed.
Embedded in Wells' novel, and echoed somewhat in Kneal's screenplay, was stratified, dehumanizing industrial society. A cute counterfoil to that and commentary on unionized culture, was the scene at Cavor's house where the three workers argue about whose job it was to stoke the furnace. The metal worker complained that since he wasn't a stoker (by profession), it therefore wasn't his job. The gardener agreed that he wasn't a stoker either. The butler also agreed that he was a butler, not a stoker, so none of them stoked, but all went out for a pint.
In Wells' War of the Words, imperialist humans get a taste of their own medicine from the über-imperialist Martians. In FFM, imperialist humans go to someone else's planet. In both the novel and the screenplay, the two protagonists embody classic British imperialism. Cavor is the benevolent explorer, missionary and claimer of places. Bedford is the exploiter capitalist, who puts little value on the lives of the "brownies". This condensed duo of earth-ish imperialism plops down amid a greater power. Cavor and Bedford play out the traditional arguments (benevolence vs. conquest) but Bedford's view prevails and he goes about smashing their cities. In Kneal's script, imperialist man manages to completely ruins things -- even if only by accident (Cavor's cold germs). This has several earth history parallels too.
It was fairly common in 19th century sci-fi (e.g. Wells and Verne) to have only men as the protagonists. Post-WWII Hollywood was unable to resist inserting a woman into the character mix. They usually served as simple cheesecake, or love-triangle fodder, or the damel to be rescued. In FFM, Kate is a bit less flagrantly the intruded woman. She is useful to keep up dialogue while Cavor and Bedford are separated. She is a occasionally the damsel, but not obnoxiously so. (Heck, she blasts some selenites with a shotgun). We can be thankful the producers resisted including a cute animal in Disney fashion.
Bottom line? FMM is a classic that no one should miss -- even viewers who don't normally go in for sci-fi. The story is thoughtful, the acting good, and the production very good.
While many contemporary science fiction and fantasy films find their inspiration in graphic novels and comic books, H.G. Wells is still the gold standard when it comes to an indisputable master of the genre. More than 62 years after his death, the film industry continues to steal from and rework ideas and storylines from his popular fantasy novels. Most of them have been enormously successful (The War of the Worlds [1953 & 2005], The Time Machine [1960 & 2002], The Invisible Man [1932], Island of Lost Souls [1933]). In fact, one of the first silent films to become an international success was French filmmaker Georges Melies's 1902 adaptation of Wells' First Men in the Moon, released as Le Voyage dans la lune.
TCM review by Jeff Stafford
In Wells' original 1901 novel, the story, set in the rural village of Kent, focused on an eccentric scientist, Cavor, conducting anti-gravity experiments on a man-made substance called 'Cavorite,' and his neighbor, Mr. Bedford, a struggling, debt-ridden playwright. Enlisting Bedford's help, Cavor eventually succeeds in proving the "gravitational opacity" of cavorite and together the two men depart for the Moon in a glass-lined steel sphere powered by Cavor's invention. After successfully landing on the lunar surface and exploring the terrain, Cavor and Bedford are captured by moon men Selenites and imprisoned. Bedford manages to escape, and believing that Cavor has been killed, he locates their stolen sphere and returns to Earth. Once he is back, Bedford publishes an account of his adventures and learns from a Dutch scientist experimenting with wireless waves that messages are being sent from the moon by Cavor. It appears that Bedford's former neighbor has learned to live and communicate with the Selenites but eventually Cavor's messages become incoherent and then abruptly stop. The story ends with Bedford assuming that the Selenites silenced Cavor because they were afraid of further Earth expeditions to the moon.
Georges Melies's loose 1902 adaptation of Wells' First Men in the Moon condenses the story into a brief running time of barely eleven minutes but in 1919, Gaumont studio attempted a longer feature version, directed by J.L.V. Leigh, which added a female character as the love interest. It is now considered a lost film. No one else attempted to film Wells' story until the early sixties when screenwriter Nigel Kneale, stop-motion animator Ray Harryhausen, and director Nathan Juran were brought together by producer Charles Schneer.
After securing the rights from Frank Wells, son of the famous author, Schneer approached Columbia Pictures with the project. Despite their initial reluctance, Schneer's previous successes for them - 20 Million Miles to Earth [1957], The 7th Voyage of Sinbad [1958], Jason and the Argonauts [1963] convinced them to finance First Men in the Moon [1964]. Kneale, who had penned The Quatermass Experiment, a highly influential science fiction series on BBC-TV, updated Wells's original story to include a clever framing device set in present times in which a United Nations space mission to the moon discovers evidence of a British expedition in 1899, during the reign of Queen Victoria. Kneale also expanded the role of the female love interest who was first introduced in the 1919 version. Martha Hyer was cast in the latter role with Lionel Jeffries and Edward Judd being tapped to play Cavot and Bedford, respectively.
In the book Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Life, the special effects master describes some of the difficulties of filming First Men in the Moon. "Along with numerous other tasks, I was also faced with the design basics for a whole alien civilization. Because the Selenites were to be insect-like, I decided that all doors and apertures were to be hexagonal, a common structure in the insect world. Whether it was scientifically accurate was secondary to the consideration that it should look realistic, be practical and above all spectacular. These basics were relatively straightforward, but when it came to broader aspects of the story that included tunnels, lunar landscapes, lens complexes, oxygen machines and the palace of the Grand Lunar, the budget prevented any of them from being built as full sets, so I designed them as miniatures and incorporated the actors with the aid of traveling mattes. For example, the huge bubbling vats that produced the oxygen were three- or four-foot high miniatures. However, these design headaches were nothing compared to Charles [Schneer] and Columbia Pictures announcing that the film, if possible, should be photographed in widescreen to give it an added attraction."
Filmed in the anamorphic process known as "Dynamation," in which live action and stop-motion animation can be combined via rear-projection and split-screen techniques, First Men in the Moon proved to be more restrictive and cost-prohibitive for Harryhausen on a creative level. As a result, his famous stop-motion work was only highlighted in three key sequences the Selenites in their high tech laboratories, the giant mooncalf and the Grand Lunar.
Most of the live-action cinematography took place at Shepperton Studios where a full-sized section of the moon's surface was constructed on a sound stage for the framing sequence and for the arrival and departure of Cavor's sphere from the lunar surface. NASA served as technical advisors on the film and the blueprints for their own Lunar module aided Harryhausen tremendously in designing the entire U.N. expedition sequence; it would also serve as a dry run for NASA which would stage a real moon walk for the entire world on television on July 20, 1969.
Less successful was the design of the Selenites. Harryhausen said, "I have never been keen on using 'men in suits' as animated creatures, but several scenes called for masses of smaller 'worker' Selenites, which would have taken an eternity to animate. So we had to resort to using children in suits. I designed a suit made into twenty-five moulded latex costumes with reinforced sections. Although they were never really convincing, mainly because the children's arms were not spindly enough to match the animated Selenites, the low-key lighting allowed Jerry [a nickname for director Nathan Juran] to use the suits with reasonable success."
Despite the many technical frustrations he experienced while working on First Men in the Moon, Harryhausen also enjoyed some aspects of it. "Some of my fondest memories during production," he said, "were the surprise visits of several personalities. The first was Frank Wells, son of H.G. Sadly, I only met him briefly, but he showed great enthusiasm for the design and animation, and we talked about his father. Another visit was by one of Hollywood's greatest directors, William Wyler. He was shooting a film on another stage, and although he wasn't there very long, I did manage to talk with him, and he seemed intrigued at what we were doing. Furthermore, when British performer William Rushton was unable to turn up for the part of the writ server, we unexpectedly secured the services of one of the world's top actors. Lionel [Jeffries] persuaded Peter Finch, who happened to be shooting The Pumpkin Eater (1964) on the next stage, to guest in the role. To save time, Lionel wrote out Finch's lines on the back of the summons paper, which he delivered with enormous enjoyment."
When First Men in the Moon opened theatrically, it was treated by most critics as a children's film and not as a bona-fide sci-fi thriller in the style of Wells' The War of the Worlds or The Time Machine. Howard Thompson of The New York Times dismissed it, writing, "Only the most indulgent youngsters should derive much stimulation let alone fun from the tedious, heavy-handed science-fiction vehicle that arrived yesterday from England..." The Variety review was more positive and reflected the film's general reception, calling it "an exploiteer's dream. Family audiences should flock to the wickets. It is an astute blend of comedy, occasional thrills and special effects work. Film is a good example of the kind of fare that television cannot hope to match in the foreseeable future."
Moviegoers did not, however, flock to see First Men in the Moon as they had previous Harryhausen ventures such as Jason and the Argonauts and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. Part of the problem may have been the film's emphasis on comedy instead of suspense or action-adventure and many reviewers noted that the whimsical tone neutralized any potential excitement. The Hollywood Reporter, in fact, proclaimed it "the first space fantasy comedy." Harryhausen was also working with a different composer this time instead of Bernard Herrmann, who was unavailable. While Laurie Johnson's score is atmospheric and evocative of its setting, it lacked the dynamic range and intensity that Herrmann's music brought to such Harryhausen films as The 3 Worlds of Gulliver (1960) and Mysterious Island (1961), among others.
Harryhausen also admits that "...the poster Columbia came up with really didn't help to sell it. It was too childish in its attempts to point out that it was 'in' in the Moon, not 'on.'" Yet people who avoided the movie missed a visual treat, brimming with rich Victorian-era art direction, futuristic set designs reflecting the Selenites's world and unusual special effects. "Personally," Harryhausen stated, "I believe it is one of the most faithful adaptations of Wells' novels, but perhaps the time was not right for such a film, or perhaps the real moon landings were too close. Hopefully, posterity will look upon it with kinder eyes."
Producer: Charles H. Schneer
Director: Nathan Juran
Screenplay: Nigel Kneale, Jan Read; H.G. Wells (story)
Cinematography: Wilkie Cooper
Art Direction: John Blezard
Music: Laurie Johnson
Film Editing: Maurice Rootes
Cast: Edward Judd (Arnold Bedford), Martha Hyer (Katherine 'Kate' Callender), Lionel Jeffries (Joseph Cavor), Miles Malleson (Dymchurch Registrar), Norman Bird (Stuart), Gladys Henson (nursing home matron), Hugh McDermott (Richard Challis).
C-103m.
Imagine what the world would be like if the printing press had not been invented.
EPCOT Center | Future World
Thanks for looking. I appreciate feedback!
Location: Temple Street, Yau Ma Tei, Hong kong
Contax G1
Contax G Carl Zeiss Planar 35mm f2 T*
Rollei Retro 400s
Kodak HC-110 (B)
6:30 min at 20ºC
Memorial stone donated by Elsie Kühn-Leitz in Wetzlar. In English it reads, "To the inventor of the Leica who made Leitz and Wetzlar famous"
Famous composer Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) by Italian sculptor Marino Marini (1901-1980). Seen at an exhibition of Marini at Museum De Fundatie Zwolle, the Netherlands.
More Marino Marini at
An inventor from the Northern Rivers approached Fairymead Sugar Co about the purchase of a vehicle based on this prototype. The major selling feature of this vehicle was a gearbox which, with the flick of a switch, was capable of dragging it from a bogged situation which was demonstrated on the salt flats at top of the plantation. It did work, even with that 10 tonne mill roller strapped to the back. Very impressive, but no further contact was made by Fairymead.
O Google comemora com um Doodle animado, nesta terça-feira (24), os 132 anos de nascimento do engenheiro e inventor,Sundback solicitou a patente pela criação do zíper, também conhecido como fecho Éclair, no ano de 1914, mas ela lhe foi atribuída somente três anos depois, em 1917
/
ift.tt/1OvQhhe Otto Lilienthal, a German inventor, in flight (Germany - c. 1895) [2000x1370] #HistoryPorn #history #retro ift.tt/1TgDwnp via Histolines
The Postcard
A postally unused postcard bearing no studio name. The card has a divided back.
Nellie Bly
Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman was born Elizabeth Jane Cochran in Cochran's Mills, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, U.S. on the 5th. May 1864. However, Elizabeth was better known by her pen name Nellie Bly.
Nellie was an American journalist, industrialist, inventor, and charity worker who was widely known for her record-breaking trip around the world in 72 days, in emulation of Jules Verne's fictional character Phileas Fogg.
She is also noted for her exposé in which she worked undercover to report on a mental institution from within. She was a pioneer in her field, and launched a new kind of investigative journalism.
-- Nellie Bly - The Early Years
Elizabeth Jane Cochran was born in "Cochran's Mills", now part of the Pittsburgh suburb of Burrell Township, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania.
Her father, Michael Cochran, born about 1810, started out as a labourer and mill worker before buying the local mill and most of the land surrounding his family farmhouse. He later became a merchant, postmaster, and associate justice at Cochran's Mills (which was named after him) in Pennsylvania.
Michael married twice. He had 10 children with his first wife, Catherine Murphy, and 5 more children, including Elizabeth Cochran, with his second wife, Mary Jane Kennedy.
Michael Cochran's father had immigrated from County Londonderry, Ireland, in the 1790's. Michael died in 1871, when Elizabeth was 6.
As a young girl, Elizabeth was often called "Pinky" because she so frequently wore that color. As she became a teenager, she wanted to portray herself as more sophisticated, and so dropped the nickname and changed her surname to "Cochrane".
In 1879, she enrolled at Indiana Normal School (now Indiana University of Pennsylvania) for one term, but was forced to drop out due to lack of funds.
In 1880, Cochrane's mother moved her family to Pittsburgh. A newspaper column entitled "What Girls Are Good For" in the Pittsburgh Dispatch reported that girls were principally for birthing children and keeping house. The article prompted Elizabeth to write a response under the pseudonym "Lonely Orphan Girl".
The Dispatch's editor, George Madden, was impressed with her passion, and ran an advertisement asking the author to identify herself. When Cochrane introduced herself to the editor, he offered her the opportunity to write a piece for the newspaper, again under the pseudonym "Lonely Orphan Girl".
Her first article for the Dispatch, entitled "The Girl Puzzle", was about how divorce affected women. In it, she argued for the reform of divorce laws. Madden was impressed again, and offered her a full-time job.
It was customary for women who were newspaper writers at that time to use pen names. The editor chose "Nellie Bly", after the African-American title character in the popular song "Nelly Bly" by Stephen Foster. Cochrane originally intended that her pseudonym be "Nelly Bly", but her editor wrote "Nellie" by mistake, and the error stuck.
-- Nellie Bly's Career
-- The Pittsburgh Dispatch
As a writer, Nellie Bly focused her early work for the Pittsburgh Dispatch on the lives of working women, writing a series of investigative articles on women factory workers.
However, the newspaper soon received complaints from factory owners about her writing, and she was re-assigned to women's pages to cover fashion, society, and gardening, the usual role for women journalists.
However Nellie became dissatisfied, and still only 21, she was determined "to do something no girl has done before." She travelled to Mexico to serve as a foreign correspondent, spending nearly half a year reporting on the lives and customs of the Mexican people; her dispatches later were published in book form as 'Six Months in Mexico'.
In one report, she protested against the imprisonment of a local journalist for criticising the Mexican government, then a dictatorship under Porfirio Díaz. When Mexican authorities learned of Bly's report, they threatened her with arrest, prompting her to flee the country. Safely home, she accused Díaz of being a tyrannical czar suppressing the Mexican people and controlling the press.
-- Nellie Bly's Asylum Exposé
Burdened with theatre and arts reporting, Bly left the Pittsburgh Dispatch in 1887 for New York City. She faced rejection after rejection as news editors would not consider hiring a woman.
Penniless after four months, she talked her way into the offices of Joseph Pulitzer's newspaper the New York World and took an undercover assignment for which she agreed to feign insanity to investigate reports of brutality and neglect at the Women's Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell's Island, now named Roosevelt Island.
It was not an easy task for Bly to be admitted to the Asylum: she first decided to check herself into a boarding house called Temporary Homes for Females. She stayed up all night to give herself the wide-eyed look of a disturbed woman, and began making accusations that the other boarders were insane.
Bly told the assistant matron:
"There are so many crazy people
about, and one can never tell what
they will do."
She refused to go to bed, and eventually scared so many of the other boarders that the police were called to take her to the nearby courthouse. Once examined by a police officer, a judge, and a doctor, Bly was taken to Blackwell's Island.
Committed to the asylum, Bly experienced the deplorable conditions first-hand. After ten days, the asylum released Bly at The New York World's behest.
Nellie's report, later published in book form as 'Ten Days in a Mad-House', caused a sensation, prompting the asylum to implement reforms, and brought her lasting fame. She had a significant impact on American culture, and shed light on the experiences of marginalized women beyond the bounds of the asylum as she ushered in the era of stunt girl journalism.
In 1893, Bly used the celebrity status she had gained from her asylum reporting skills to schedule an exclusive interview with the allegedly insane serial killer Lizzie Halliday.
Biographer Brooke Kroeger wrote:
"Bly's two-part series in October 1887 was
a sensation, effectively launching the decade
of “stunt” or “detective” reporting, a clear
precursor to investigative journalism, and one
of Joseph Pulitzer’s innovations that helped
give “New Journalism” of the 1880's and 1890's
its moniker.
The employment of “stunt girls” has often been
dismissed as a circulation-boosting gimmick of
the sensationalist press. However, the genre
also provided women with their first collective
opportunity to demonstrate that, as a class, they
had the skills necessary for the highest level of
general reporting.
The stunt girls, with Bly as their prototype, were
the first women to enter the journalistic mainstream
in the twentieth century".
-- Around the World in 72 Days
In 1888, Bly suggested to her editor at the New York World that she take a trip around the world, attempting to turn the fictional Around the World in Eighty Days (1873) into fact for the first time.
A year later, at 9:40 a.m. on November 14, 1889, and with two days' notice, she boarded the Augusta Victoria, a steamer of the Hamburg America Line, and began her 40,070 kilometre journey.
Nellie took with her the dress she was wearing, a sturdy overcoat, several changes of underwear, and a small travel bag carrying her toiletry essentials. She carried most of her money (£200 in English bank notes and gold, as well as some American currency) in a bag tied around her neck.
The New York newspaper Cosmopolitan sponsored its own reporter, Elizabeth Bisland, to beat the time of both Phileas Fogg and Bly.
Bisland travelled the opposite way around the world, starting on the same day as Bly.
Bly, however, did not learn of Bisland's journey until reaching Hong Kong. She dismissed the cheap competition. She stated:
"I would not race. If someone
else wants to do the trip in less
time, that is their concern."
To sustain interest in the story, the World organized a "Nellie Bly Guessing Match" in which readers were asked to estimate Bly's arrival time to the second, with the Grand Prize consisting at first of a free trip to Europe and, later on, spending money for the trip.
During her travels around the world, Nellie went through England, France (where she met Jules Verne in Amiens), Brindisi, the Suez Canal, Colombo (Ceylon), the Straits Settlements of Penang and Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan.
The development of efficient submarine cable networks and the electric telegraph allowed Bly to send short progress reports, although longer dispatches had to travel by regular post, and thus were often delayed by several weeks.
Bly traveled using steamships and the existing railway systems, which caused occasional setbacks, particularly on the Asian leg of her race. During these stops, she visited a leper colony in China and, in Singapore, she bought a monkey.
As a result of rough weather on her Pacific crossing, she arrived in San Francisco on the White Star Line ship RMS Oceanic on the 21st. January, two days behind schedule.
However, after New York World owner Pulitzer chartered a private train to bring her home, she arrived back in New Jersey on the 25th. January 1890 at 3:51 pm.
Just over seventy-two days after her departure from Hoboken, Bly was back in New York. She had circumnavigated the globe, traveling alone for almost the entire journey. Bisland was, at the time, still crossing the Atlantic, only to arrive in New York four and a half days later.
She also had missed a connection, and had to board a slow, old ship (the Bothnia) in the place of a fast ship (Etruria). Bly's journey was a world record, although it was bettered a few months later by George Francis Train, whose first circumnavigation in 1870 possibly had been the inspiration for Verne's novel.
Train completed the journey in 67 days, and on his third trip in 1892 in 60 days. By 1913, Andre Jaeger-Schmidt, Henry Frederick, and John Henry Mears had improved on the record, the latter completing the journey in fewer than 36 days.
-- Nellie Bly The Novelist
After the fanfare of her trip around the world, Bly quit reporting and took a lucrative job writing serial novels for publisher Norman Munro's weekly New York Family Story Paper.
The first chapters of Eva The Adventuress, based on the real-life trial of Eva Hamilton, appeared in print before Bly returned to New York.
Between 1889 and 1895 she wrote eleven novels. As few copies of the paper survived, these novels were thought lost until 2021, when author David Blixt announced their discovery, found in Munro's British weekly The London Story Paper.
In 1893, though still writing novels, she returned to reporting for the New York World.
-- Nellie Bly's Patent for an Improved Milk-Can
In 1895, Bly married millionaire manufacturer Robert Seaman. Nellie was 31 and Seaman was 73 when they married. Due to her husband's failing health, she left journalism and succeeded her husband as head of the Iron Clad Manufacturing Co., which made steel containers such as milk cans and boilers.
In 1904, Iron Clad began manufacturing the steel barrel that was the model for the 55-gallon oil drum still in widespread use in the United States. There have been claims that Bly invented the barrel, although the inventor was registered as Henry Wehrhahn.
Nellie was, however, an inventor in her own right, receiving U.S. Patent 697,553 for a novel milk can and U.S. Patent 703,711 for a stacking garbage can, both under her married name of Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman.
In 1904, Robert Seaman died, and for a time Nellie was one of the leading women industrialists in the United States, but her negligence, and embezzlement by a factory manager, resulted in the Iron Clad Manufacturing Co. going bankrupt.
According to biographer Brooke Kroeger:
"She ran her company as a model of social
welfare, replete with health benefits and
recreational facilities.
But Bly was hopeless at understanding the
financial aspects of her business, and ultimately
lost everything.
Unscrupulous employees bilked the firm of
hundreds of thousands of dollars, troubles
compounded by a protracted and costly
bankruptcy litigation".
Back in reporting, Nellie covered the Woman Suffrage Procession of 1913 for the New York Evening Journal. Her article's headline was "Suffragists Are Men's Superiors" and in its text she accurately predicted that it would be 1920 before women in the United States would be given the right to vote.
Nellie also wrote stories on Europe's Eastern Front during the Great War. Bly was the first woman, and one of the first foreigners, to visit the war zone between Serbia and Austria. She was arrested when she was mistaken for a British spy.
-- The Death of Nellie Bly
On the 27th. January 1922, Nellie Bly died of pneumonia at St. Mark's Hospital, New York City, at the young age of 57. She was laid to rest at Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City.
-- The Legacy of Nellie Bly
-- Honours
In 1998, Bly was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. Bly was one of four journalists honoured with a US postage stamp in a "Women in Journalism" set in 2002.
In 2019, the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation put out an open call for artists to create a Nellie Bly Memorial art installation on Roosevelt Island. The winning proposal, 'The Girl Puzzle' by Amanda Matthews, was announced on the 16th. October 2019.
The New York Press Club confers an annual Nellie Bly Cub Reporter journalism award to acknowledge the best journalistic effort by an individual with three years or less professional experience.
-- Nellie Bly in the Theatre
Nellie was the subject of the 1946 Broadway musical 'Nellie Bly' by Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen. The show ran for 16 performances.
During the 1990's, playwright Lynn Schrichte wrote and toured 'Did You Lie, Nellie Bly?', a one-woman show about Bly.
-- Nellie Bly in Film and Television
Bly has been portrayed in the films 'The Adventures of Nellie Bly' (1981), '10 Days in a Madhouse' (2015), and 'Escaping the Madhouse: The Nellie Bly Story' (2019).
In 2019, the Center for Investigative Reporting released 'Nellie Bly Makes the News', a short animated biographical film.
A fictionalized version of Bly as a mouse named Nellie Brie appears as a central character in the animated children's film 'An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster'.
Anne Helm appeared as Nellie Bly in the 21st. November 1960, 'Tales of Wells Fargo' TV episode "The Killing of Johnny Lash".
Julia Duffy appeared as Bly in the 10th. July 1983 'Voyagers!' episode "Jack's Back".
The character of Lana Winters (Sarah Paulson) in 'American Horror Story: Asylum' is inspired by Bly's experience in the asylum.
Bly was also a subject of Season 2 Episode 5 of 'The West Wing' in which First Lady Abbey Bartlet dedicates a memorial in Pennsylvania in honour of Nellie Bly, and convinces the President to mention her and other female historic figures on his weekly radio address.
Bly has been the subject of two episodes of the Comedy Central series 'Drunk History'. The second-season episode "New York City" featured her undercover exploits in the Blackwell's Island asylum, while the third-season episode "Journalism" retold the story of her race around the world against Elizabeth Bisland.
On May 5, 2015, the Google search engine produced an interactive "Google Doodle" for Bly; for the "Google Doodle" Karen O wrote, composed, and recorded an original song about Bly, and Katy Wu created an animation set to Karen O's music.
-- Nellie Bly in Literature
Nellie Bly has been featured as the protagonist of novels by David Blixt, Marshall Goldberg, Dan Jorgensen, Carol McCleary, Pearry Reginald Teo and Christine Converse. David Blixt also appeared on a 10th. March 2021 episode of the podcast 'Broads You Should Know' as a Nellie Bly expert.
A fictionalized account of Bly's around the world trip was used in the 2010 comic book 'Julie Walker Is The Phantom' published by Moonstone Books.
Bly is one of 100 women featured in the first version of the book 'Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls' written by Elena Favilli & Francesca Cavallo.
-- Eponyms and Namesakes
The board game 'Round the World with Nellie Bly', created in 1890, is named in recognition of her trip.
The Nellie Bly Amusement Park in Brooklyn, New York City, was named after her, taking as its theme Around the World in Eighty Days. The park reopened in 2007 under new management, renamed "Adventurers Amusement Park".
A fireboat named Nellie Bly operated in Toronto, Canada, in the first decade of the 20th. Century.
From early in the twentieth century until 1961, the Pennsylvania Railroad operated an express train named the Nellie Bly on a route between New York and Atlantic City. In its early years, it was a parlour-car only train; in 1901 it crashed, killing 17 people.