This 1938 Film Shows How Sound Effects Were Made for Serial Radio Shows

“Back of the Mike” demonstrates, in detail, how dramatic sound effects were made for radio serials using specific devices and actors voicing different roles.

A boy lies on his bed (wearing a white shirt and a necktie), listening to a radio western. We see the images the radio creates in his mind, then we cut to the studio, where we see that this whole fantasy world is created at a frantic pace by announcers in three-piece suits and sound-effects technicians operating incredibly complicated jury-rigged devices.

We get to see such things as one guy doing both voices in a conversation, an adult do a very convincing impersonation of a child’s voice, guys playing cowboys impersonating the sound of conversing while riding by playing “horsie” while reading their lines, and all the weird stuff used to make sound effects.

Friday links

July 26 is Brave New World author Aldous Huxley's birthday: here's a brief bio, audio of him narrating Brave New World, a 1949 letter from Huxley to Orwell and a Huxley vs Orwell infographic.

Why is airport food so expensive? The reasons you pay a massive markup on a water bottle are more complex than you might think.

These Sisters will make your Evil Siblings look like Angels.

Birthdays this weekend include free-market economist Milton Friedman's (July 27): here are some favorite quotes and short videos, and Beatrix Potter's (July 28): in addition to Peter Rabbit et al, she produced some gorgeous botanical drawings.

The house from The Goonies gets so many fan visits (around 1200 per day), the owner has tried to stop them coming by covering the house in a blue tarp.

Why It May Make Sense to Draw Eyes on Cows’ Butts.

ICYMI, most recent links are here, and include the Apollo 11 anniversary, early blacklisting in Hollywood, a laser that identifies people from a distance by heartbeat, and the anniversary of the 20th of July plot (the unsuccessful bomb attempt by insiders to kill Hitler in 1944).

The 47 names Disney considered for the 7 dwarfs

In the 1930s, as Disney began work on the movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (an adaptation of Snow White by the Brothers Grimm), the writing team compiled the following list of potential names for the seven dwarfs - characters who, in the original story, were unnamed.

As we now know, Bashful, Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, and Sneezy were picked. The name of their leader, Doc, was chosen at a later date, although I don't see Happy on this list, either.

By the way, in 1912 the story had been adapted for the Broadway stage, and the names chosen for the dwarfs were Blick, Flick, Glick, Snick, Plick, Whick, and Quee.

Here's the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Original Theatrical Trailer from 1937:

And here are the options they compiled (What the heck is Neurtsy? And why leave off Sleazy and Smutty?):

1. Awful
2. Baldy
3. Bashful
4. Biggo-Ego
5. Burpy
6. Daffy
7. Deafy
8. Dippy
9. Dirty
10. Dizzy
11. Doleful
12. Dopey
13. Dumpy
14. Flabby
15. Gabby
16. Grumpy
17. Hickey
18. Hoppy
19. Hotsy
20. Hungry
21. Jaunty
22. Jumpy
23. Lazy
24. Neurtsy
25. Nifty
26. Puffy
27. Sappy
28. Scrappy
29. Shifty
30. Shorty
31. Silly
32. Sleepy
33. Snappy
34. Sneezy
35. Sneezy-Wheezy
36. Sniffy
37. Snoopy
38. Soulful
39. Strutty
40. Stuffy
41. Swift
42. Tearful
43. Thrifty
44. Weepy
45. Wheezy
46. Wistful
47. Woeful

via Lists of Note

March 10th is Chuck Norris' birthday: 5 most badass movies and a bunch of Norris "facts"

I'm not going to try to recount Chuck Norris' entire biography here - go to Wikipedia for that. A couple of excerpts:

Carlos Ray "Chuck" Norris (born March 10, 1940) is an American martial artist and actor. After serving in the United States Air Force, he began his rise to fame as a martial artist, and has since founded his own school, Chun Kuk Do, which is based primarily on Tang Soo Do and includes elements from every combat style he knows. Like many other martial arts, Chun Kuk Do includes a code of honor and rules to live by. These rules are from Chuck Norris's personal code. They are:

1. I will develop myself to the maximum of my potential in all ways.
2. I will forget the mistakes of the past and press on to greater achievements.
3. I will continually work at developing love, happiness and loyalty in my family.
4. I will look for the good in all people and make them feel worthwhile.
5. If I have nothing good to say about a person, I will say nothing.
6. I will always be as enthusiastic about the success of others as I am about my own.
7. I will maintain an attitude of open-mindedness.
8. I will maintain respect for those in authority and demonstrate this respect at all times.
9. I will always remain loyal to my God, my country, family and my friends.
10. I will remain highly goal-oriented throughout my life because that positive attitude helps my family, my country and myself

Here's his website: ChuckNorris.com. So, the movies:

Way of the Dragon (1972)

The Octagon (1980)

Silent Rage (1982)

Lone Wolf McQuade (1983)

Missing in Action (1984)

Have a different favorite?  Link to it in the comments.

Some Chuck Norris-isms:

Chuck Norris' tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried. Ever.

Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.

Chuck Norris doesn’t call the wrong number, you answer the wrong phone.

Chuck Norris lost his virginity before his dad did.

When Chuck Norris crosses the street the cars have to look both ways.

Death once had a near-Chuck Norris experience.

Once a cobra bit Chuck Norris’ leg. After five days of excruciating pain, the cobra died.

Chuck Norris sleeps with a pillow under his gun.

Chuck Norris ordered a Big Mac at Burger King, and got one.

Chuck Norris can strangle you with a cordless phone.

Chuck Norris can kill two stones with one bird.

Chuck Norris has counted to infinity. Twice.

Crop circles are Chuck Norris' way of telling the world that sometimes corn needs to lie the f*** down.

The Great Wall of China was originally created to keep Chuck Norris out. It failed miserably.

The quickest way to a man's heart is with Chuck Norris' fist.

Neanderthal Chuck Norris

Previous post: UK scientists recreated Neanderthal man, who looks just like Chuck Norris.

More Norris-isms here and here.

More information at his website, Biography.com, Wikipedia and IMDB

"I should have killed you when I had the chance" - the movie supercut

NSFW language. Also includes also "You should have killed me when you had the chance" and "You should have killed him (or her) when you had the chance", and a few longer/shorter versions thereof and permutations. List of films below:

Featured titles:

Spy
Star Trek
Hercules Reborn
The Frozen Ground
Drop Dead Gorgeous
This Means War
Game of Death
Enemies Closer
Pit Fighter
Born to Be Bad

00:27

Cold Mountain
Ella Enchanted
Harbinger Down
Vampire Academy
No Way Out
Bend of the River
21 Grams
Hulk
The Dead Pool
Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the Thirteenth

00:49

Bad Medicine
Life During Wartime
Vacancy
Valdez Is Coming
Tai-Pan
The Lion in Winter
Silverado
Street Trash
Gorky Park
Lost Command

01:13

Redirected
Psycho IV: The Beginning
Leprechaun
Noah
Chisum
Brick Mansions
Who’ll Stop the Rain
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
The Expendables
Point Break

01:36

Frontera
Gran Torino
Animal Factory
Blade: Trinity
Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves
The Emperor’s New Groove
Mortal Kombat: Annihilation

02:07

X2
The World Is Not Enough
Run All Night
Lost in Space
Above the Law
The Getaway
Vendetta
Shocker
Freejack
Sergeant Rudlege

02:31

Law and Order
The Two Faces of January
Crank
Hard Rain
Bamboozled
Get Lucky
Mindwarp
Mission: Impossible II
Quo Vadis
Red River

02:59

The Perfect Sleep
Black Mama White Mama
Welcome to the Punch
Spawn
Your Highness
Tall in the Saddle
The Wild Bunch
Without a Clue
The Desperadoes
Hard Candy

03:25

Invasion U.S.A.
Heavenly Sword
The Rookie
Bound
Alex Cross
Severance
Last Knights
The Ant Bully
New Jack City
A History of Violence
The Night of the Generals

It's W.C. Fields' birthday: quotes, bio and film clips

January 29 is the anniversary of the birth, in 1880, of American film actor and comedian W. C. Fields (wiki) (1880-1946), born William Claude Duckenfield in Philadelphia. Fields ran away from home at the age of 11 and got his start in vaudeville as a juggler. He made his musical comedy debut on Broadway in 1906, moved on to the Ziegfeld Follies, and appeared in his first silent film in 1915. 

By 1930, he was a staple in Hollywood comedies, playing a series of drunken, misanthropic - and yet wistful - rascals who mirrored his own real-life persona. Fields is perhaps best remembered as starring opposite the inimitable - and bosomy - Mae West (1892-1980) in My Little Chickadee(1940), but it was in The Bank Dick of that same year that he gave his most classic performance. An excellent biography of W. C. Fields by James Curtis appeared in 2003. 

In one of his more celebrated remarks, Fields responded to the question of why he never drank water by noting that

"Fish f__k in water."

A selection of quotes:

Never give a sucker an even break.

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Than quit. No use being a damn fool about it.

Horse sense is the good judgement which keeps people from betting on horses. 

A rich man is nothing but a poor man with money. 

There's not a man in America who at one time or another hasn't had a secret desire to boot a child in the ass. 

~ W. C. Fields (various attributions) 

The funniest thing about comedy is that you never know why people laugh. I know what makes them laugh, but trying to get your hands on the why of it is like trying to pick an eel out of a tub of water. 

~ Fields (quoted in Anobile, A Flask of Fields)

Much of Fields's humor turned on his legendary alcoholism:

A woman drove me to drink, and I never even had the courtesy to thank her. 

I always keep a stimulant handy in case I see a snake - which I also keep handy.

That drink has made a new man of me... He'll have one, too. 

Once, during Prohibition, I was forced to live for days on nothing but food and water. 

I exercise strong self control. I never drink anything stronger than gin before breakfast. 

His famous suggestion for an epitaph (June 1925):

Here lies W. C. Fields. I would rather be living in Philadelphia.

He was an isolated person. As a young man, he stretched out his hand to Beauty and Love and they thrust it away. Gradually he reduced reality to exclude all but his work, filling the gaps with alcohol, whose dim eyes transformed the world into a distant view of harmless shadows. 

~ Louise Brooks (1906-1985) (on W. C. Fields; quoted in Tynan, Show People)

The famous diner scene from Never Give a Sucker an Even Break:

If you have more time and interest, here's a "best of" compilation from several of his movies:

PSAs on movie theater etiquette from 100 years ago

These lantern slides on silent movie theatre etiquette from the 1910s show that inconsiderate audience members have existed since the dawn of cinema. 

Most early movie theaters had only one projector so “etiquette slides” were used to divert the audience while reels were being changed. These glass slides often featured lighthearted instructions for proper behavior while viewing a film.

They're collected in Silent Movies: The Birth of Film and the Triumph of Movie Culture.

I don't get this one - what else would you use?

From Old Hollywood, via Boing Boing.

Friday links

March 17 is Saint Patrick’s Day: origin, history, videos, and how to make your own green beer. Related: From Slave to Saint, The Story of Patrick and why are four-leaf clovers lucky?

The first American woman to command a ship was a pregnant 19 year old. She did it while fighting off a mutiny, nursing an incapacitated husband, and braving gale-force winds.

The United States v. Paramount and How Movie Theater Concessions Got So Expensive.

This is nuts - watch these guys changing tires while driving.

The Long Linguistic Journey to ‘Dagnabbit’

Why it’s Impossible to Accurately Measure a Coastline.

ICYMI, Thursday's links are here, and include the Ides of March, a history of hair transplants, what antibiotics are made of, shoe rationing in the U.S. during WWII, and, since Stephen Hawking died on Einstein's birthday, the Hawking vs Einstein rap battle.

Groundhog Day/Superbowl links

Groundhog Day, Candlemas and weather predictions. Related: Where Did Groundhog Day Come From? 

Don't like what the groundhog has to say about how long winter will last? You're in luck: Punxsutawney Phil has been correct just 39% of the time since 1887.

Jonah Goldberg's classic Groundhog Day column.

8 years? 34 years? How long was Bill Murray stuck in Groundhog Day?

How to Write Groundhog Day by... the writer of Groundhog Day.

As Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell take off down the street once Groundhog Day has ended, Nat "King" Cole is singing Almost Like Being In Love - here's Mark Steyn with a history of that song.

Some Super Bowl reading:

Life magazine archive of photos from Super Bowl 1.

An Animated Guide To American Football For Liberals, Ladies and Limeys.

Super Bowl stadiums made from meat.

Football during WWII, when almost all able-bodied men joined the military: The combined Steelers/Eagles team called the Steagles.

Were footballs ever actually made of pigskin?

The Lost Tribe of Gypsy Harlots: The Mythical Invasion of the Super Bowl Hookers.

ICYMI, Thursday's links are here, and include beer, wine and whiskey pairings for all those Girl Scout cookies you're buying, illustrated fitness tips from 1900, some February links (pagan Roman purification (februa = purify) and Mary's purification 40 days after the birth of Christ), and recreating ancient recipes. 

Friday links

The 47 names Disney considered for the 7 dwarfs.

Happy Bastille Day! Here's an old Jonah Goldberg article on the subject: The French are Revolting.

Museum discovers three cases of Madeira wine from 1796 in cellar. The wine was stocked in anticipation of John Adams’ presidential election.

The 100 Greatest Props in Movie History, and the Stories Behind Them.

A history of the closet.

ICYMI, Monday's links are here, and include how barbed wire changed the West, Nikola Tesla's birthday, the Japanese soldier who refused to surrender for 29 years, the history of the equals sign, and correlation is not causation: charts of weird things that correlate with each other.

Thursday links

It's Vincent Van Gogh’s birthday - here are his rarely-seen sketchbooks and the unexpected math behind Starry Night.

Who Owns Your Face? Advertising companies, tech giants, data collectors, and the federal government, it turns out.

Brutalist Sand Castles.

On March 30, 1848, Niagara Falls Ran Dry. Bonus: Niagara Falls sketch by Abbott & Costello and The Three Stooges.

Great Migrations: Following human genes around the world.

The United States v. Paramount and How Movie Theater Concessions Got So Expensive.

ICYMI, Monday's links are here, and include how big land animals can get, where to hide from nuclear bombs, a collection of vintage celebrity endorsements, and the origin stories of famous sports.

Monday links

Spring is here - The vernal equinox is on March 20th at 6:29 a.m. EDT. Here's Vivaldi, science, myths, "spring spheres" and more.

How Movie Effects Were Done in the Silent Film Era.

Into the woods: how one man survived alone in the wilderness for 27 years.

Blowing up a watermelon with 20,000 volts of electricity, in slow motion.

17 ridiculous 'smart' gadgets that really exist.

A gallery of vintage armored cars.

ICYMI, Friday's links are here, and include a map of New York’s earliest skyscrapers, dozens of nuclear test videos that have been declassified and uploaded to YouTube, forged art that fooled the Metropolitan Museum for decades, and lots of information on Saint Patrick. 

Wednesday links

Yesterday was National Fruitcake Toss Day: here's a video of people launching fruitcakes from trebuchets, catapults, air cannons, and giant sling shots.

Floridians and Mastodons Once Coexisted.

Know Your Sh!t – Identifying wildlife droppings.

This will get your morning off to a rousing start: a supercut of people falling and landing on vehicles, set to the cannon-punctuated finale of the 1812 Overture.

The Giant Concrete Arrows Across The US.

The Crazy Tricks Early Filmmakers Used To Fake Snow.

ICYMI, Monday's links are here, and include a life-size T-Rex balloon animal, Isaac Asimov's birthday (including his 1964 essay predicting life in 2014), an explanation of leap seconds, and video of the infamous 11'8" tall "can opener" bridge shearing the tops off of trucks.

Monday links

A very Happy New Year to you all!

Today is Isaac Asimov's birthday. Here's his 1964 essay predicting life in 2014 and a recently published paper on creativity he wrote in 1959 for DARPA.

How Breakfast Became a Thing.

Which Actor Has Died The Most On Screen? Surprisingly, it's not Sean Bean.

What is a leap second, anyway?

11 Foot 8 Inches: The Infamous ‘Can Opener’ Bridge.

Here's a Life-Size T-Rex Balloon Animal.

ICYMI, Friday's links are here, and include Dave Barry's 2016 Year In Review, top 2016 science stories, lots of hangover science and cures, a warning from 700 AD on what not to do on New Year's Day, Mark Steyn singing and explaining What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?, and my favorite New Year's resolution story.

Airplane Crash Supercut

What not to watch just before flying: this airplane crash supercut. The movies included here are listed below the video.

Watch full screen!



World War Z
Fight Club
Hook
Final Destination
LOST
Planes, Trains, & Automobiles
Flight
The Grey
Almost Famous
Final Destination 5
Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus
Donnie Darko
Snakes on a Plane
Air Force One
Turbulence
Iron Man 3
Passenger 57
Home Alone
Twilight Zone, The Movie
Breaking Bad
Superman Returns
Executive Decision
Cast Away
Wayne's World
Airplane!
Die Hard 2
Con Air
Knowing
Alive

And just in time for Christmas, 30 day free trials of Amazon Prime:

Supercut of dancing in ‘80s movies

If you grew up during the 1980s (or if, as in my case, have kids who did), you'll recognized most if not all of these - I don't think there was anything unfamiliar to me, and I was just around when these movies were playing on the VCR in the background. 

As is frequently the case, these supercuts make me want to watch a whole bunch of these films again. This compilation didn't come with a list of the movies included: I started to try to produce one but there are 80 clips (although lots of repeats, especially Footloose, Flashdance and Dirty Dancing), and I soon gave up. Some YouTube commenters also had partial lists, so I've cobbled together a list, below, that is both out of order and incomplete. Feel free to add more, if you recognize clips I've left out. 

Video editor Robert Jones:

August 5th marks the 30th anniversary of Lionel Richie’s album “Dancing On the Ceiling”* and to celebrate here's a nostalgia overload of 80 movie dance scenes from the 80's getting down. They bad, uh-huh!

Watch full screen!

Footloose

Dirty Dancing

Beetle Juice

Top Secret

Good Morning Vietnam

Risky Business

Grease 

Teen Wolf

Batman

Spaceballs

Stripes

The Blues Brothers

Big

Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Back to the Future

Howard the Duck

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure

Desperately Seeking Susan

One of the Rocky movies

The Breakfast Club

Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo

Pretty In Pink 

Breakin'

Caddyshack

Revenge Of The Nerds

Three Amigos

Annie

Roadhouse

Short Circuit

Romancing the Stone 

Coming to America

Smooth Criminal video clip by MJ

Edward Scissorhands

Perfect

Gremlins II

Labyrinth

Twins

The Goonies

Peggy Sue Got Married

National Lampoon Vacation

Add more if you recognize things I've missed!

*Here's the official music video of Lionel Richie performing Dancing On The Ceiling:

Related: This compilation video of Christopher Walken dancing in over 50 movies will make your day (movie list at this post):

Christopher Walken supercut : Dance Now by MisterBuzz

Previously:

Supercuts of Memorable Dance Scenes in Movies.

Wednesday links

For fans of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: don't panic - today is Towel Day!

From 32 starlings in the 1890s to 200 million now: The Shakespeare Fanatic Who Introduced the Bard’s Birds to America

Not The Onion: NYC Mayor Proposes $2 Million Deer Vasectomy Campaign.

The Science of Laziness: Is There a Couch-Potato Gene?

Color Palettes From Famous Movie Scenes

Romanian cave sealed for 5.5 million years is full of strange creatures.

ICYMI, Monday's links are here, and include advice from c. 1450 on soothing a teething baby, thelast tribe of headhunters, how to become a mutant, and survival tips from 100 years ago. Also, an answer to an age old question: could you get drunk from drinking a drunk person's blood?

A Supercut of Birds in Movies

I have birds on my mind after spending time last week with the Audubon photo contest winners - apparently BurgerFiction does, too.

Related posts:

Supercut: 100 Greatest One-Liners Before The Kill

"I should have killed you when I had the chance" - the movie supercut.

Supercut of people falling and landing on vehicles, set to the finale of the 1812 Overture.

Supercut of Improbable Weapons.

Supercut: We don’t negotiate with terrorists.

Supercut: Hit by a Bus

A Supercut of Epic Movie Explosions.

Supercut of the Phrase ‘We’re Not so Different, You and I’ in Movies.

Supercuts of Cheesy Computer Hacking Scenes in '80s and '90s Movies

Supercut: Fake Ads in Movies

Supercuts of Memorable Dance Scenes in Movies.

Supercut: Best/Most Memorable Catchphrases in TV History, Parts 1 and 2

And my personal all-time favorite: Defenestration supercut: movie characters driving, falling, jumping and being thrown through glass windows.

All previous Supercut posts.

It's Fred Astaire's birthday - here are clips of some of his best dancing

Today is the anniversary of the birth of the legendary American dancer extraordinaire, Fred Astaire (wiki) (1899-1987), in Omaha, Nebraska. Born Fred Austerlitz, Astaire made his vaudeville debut with his sister, Adele, at the age of five; by the 1920s, they were dancing on Broadway and in London.*

After Adele's marriage in 1932, his search for a new partner led him to Hollywood, where he teamed up with Ginger Rogers for ten classic song-and-dance films, including Top Hat (1935) and Shall We Dance? (1937). Cool, sophisticated, and rakishly elegant, Astaire gave the illusion of effortless ease to the most technically exacting routines, notably with subsequent partners like Cyd Charisse (in Band Wagon, 1953).  His remarkable potential was not always obvious - early in his Hollywood career, a casting director (who must have been drunk) famously wrote, 

“Balding. Can’t act. Can dance a little.”

Astaire fundamentally changed the way dance was portrayed on film. Utilizing extended takes, Astaire, whether solo or with a partner, performed uninterrupted, intricate dance sequences that kept audiences captivated for decades.

Top Hat (1935):

Swing Time (1936):

Too Hot To Handle:

Related: 

Here's an excellent compilation of Rita Hayworth dancing (much of the time with Astaire), set to Stayin' Alive:

*Fred and Adele:

Monday links

2016 Audubon Photography Awards Winners: the Grand Prize winner is quite extraordinary.

Mercury is making a rare transit across the sun today. Good explanation here, live stream from 7:12 AM until ~2:45 PM Eastern time here. 

Can you use a magnifying glass and moonlight to light a fire?

Frank Sinatra was offered the John McClane role in Die Hard before Bruce Willis.

The Independent Discovery of TCP/IP, By Ants.

Why the Army Needs Foam Goat Heads.

ICYMI, Friday's links are here, and include a roundup of Mother's Day links, why it's illegal to use milk crates for anything other than milk, V.E Day anniversary, bizarre traditional dishes from all over the world, and how a wine and cocaine cocktail became Coca Cola.