Not that many years between then and now, but this clip already looks strange. Of course there was seeing this now ubiquitous technology presented as a Bright New Future, and scenes of People Looking at Television Screens needing explanation. There was the wonder of seeing a performance! in a studio! (live, of course, with sets designed for tight shots and shallow depth of field (bad optics, need for a wide aperture, or was it just hard to refocus those things?), and an orchestra consisting of one guitar), in one's own living room. (Less obvious: no flicker on the screens, I suspect because the thing was filmed rather than videoed.) There are the tube-based electronics for realizing the devices---you want signal to go here, you route it through evacuated glass like so, and if there is any gas inside the envelope, you can actually watch the electrons go! There is the understanding that naturally, the skilled work of building the sets will take place in America.
What seems stranger from here in 2008 however, is the audience. The "skeleton crews" running the experimental stations consist of women, veterans and old men, because young men are out doing what needs to be done. The previous generation fought the Great War, this generation is fighting the current world war---but the next... There are still people alive, old men and women, who were in their prime then, but the world has changed, and in some ways, not for the better. I suspect that it was understood that "yes we can" adapt to these new high-tech jobs after the war, without some floppy-eared jackass having to community-organize anyone.
I come from the generation after the children of the generation of this clip. Maybe my generation and the next will tire of the post-modern softness, and give its descendants a reason for admiration.
The more clips like this I watch, the more it seems to me for some reason that an American from 1945 was 10 times the man an American from today is.
Anyway, can I point out something I have noticed ? It seems there is one really good Tale Of Future Past that hasn't yet been added to the Tales Of Future Past:
I would say in defense of my fellow Americans, that having a large population helps keep virtues from dying out. Many may neglect them, but some don't. Exchange during my highschool chemistry class (paraphrased): --Mrs. D..., having gone to college in the 1960s, did you attend many protests? --No, I had classes to go to.
James Lileks (I think) once argued for the Great War generation as the greatest. It grew up during the Belle Epoque, fought its war, had its ups and downs in the '20s and '30s, and still managed to raise its children; the next generation also went through a lot, but kind of flubbed the kids.
Past generations are better than the present ones in the entire world. My grandfather grew up in a village, worked as an assistant of a mechanic who abused him, ran away, witnessed the guerilla war against nazis and fascists in Yugoslavia (he was too young to make any contribution), and finally got a job as a welder in 1946 when he was 16 !! He later became a shipbuilder and traveled through a few dozen countries, including almost all of europe.
Whatever I accomplish during my lifetime, I'm a failure compared to him.
7 comments:
Not that many years between then and now, but this clip already looks strange. Of course there was seeing this now ubiquitous technology presented as a Bright New Future, and scenes of People Looking at Television Screens needing explanation. There was the wonder of seeing a performance! in a studio! (live, of course, with sets designed for tight shots and shallow depth of field (bad optics, need for a wide aperture, or was it just hard to refocus those things?), and an orchestra consisting of one guitar), in one's own living room. (Less obvious: no flicker on the screens, I suspect because the thing was filmed rather than videoed.) There are the tube-based electronics for realizing the devices---you want signal to go here, you route it through evacuated glass like so, and if there is any gas inside the envelope, you can actually watch the electrons go! There is the understanding that naturally, the skilled work of building the sets will take place in America.
What seems stranger from here in 2008 however, is the audience. The "skeleton crews" running the experimental stations consist of women, veterans and old men, because young men are out doing what needs to be done. The previous generation fought the Great War, this generation is fighting the current world war---but the next... There are still people alive, old men and women, who were in their prime then, but the world has changed, and in some ways, not for the better. I suspect that it was understood that "yes we can" adapt to these new high-tech jobs after the war, without some floppy-eared jackass having to community-organize anyone.
I come from the generation after the children of the generation of this clip. Maybe my generation and the next will tire of the post-modern softness, and give its descendants a reason for admiration.
Nice find David...
Isn't that the 1960 City of THE FUTURE?
-----
Youtube search for "1936 television song".
The more clips like this I watch, the more it seems to me for some reason that an American from 1945 was 10 times the man an American from today is.
Anyway, can I point out something I have noticed ?
It seems there is one really good Tale Of Future Past that hasn't yet been added to the Tales Of Future Past:
http://www.luft46.com/
I hope the editor will be reading this.
Ivan...
It WAS the The Greatest Generation".
(There's a book with that title.)
I knew it ?
I knew it !
Ivan, good to see you again!
I would say in defense of my fellow Americans, that having a large population helps keep virtues from dying out. Many may neglect them, but some don't. Exchange during my highschool chemistry class (paraphrased): --Mrs. D..., having gone to college in the 1960s, did you attend many protests? --No, I had classes to go to.
James Lileks (I think) once argued for the Great War generation as the greatest. It grew up during the Belle Epoque, fought its war, had its ups and downs in the '20s and '30s, and still managed to raise its children; the next generation also went through a lot, but kind of flubbed the kids.
Past generations are better than the present ones in the entire world. My grandfather grew up in a village, worked as an assistant of a mechanic who abused him, ran away, witnessed the guerilla war against nazis and fascists in Yugoslavia (he was too young to make any contribution), and finally got a job as a welder in 1946 when he was 16 !!
He later became a shipbuilder and traveled through a few dozen countries, including almost all of europe.
Whatever I accomplish during my lifetime, I'm a failure compared to him.
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