Roundup: Pop Culture & the Arts ...
Movies, Documentaries and Museum Exhibits
This page features links to reviews of movies, documentaries and exhibits with a historical theme. Listings are in reverse chronological order. Descriptions are taken directly from the linked publication. If you have articles you think should be listed on the Pop Culture page, please send them to the editor editor@historynewsnetwork.org.
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (11-2-09)
Brian Keogh, who died in 2006, said that he discovered the original recipe in two leather-bound folios written in sepia ink. The recipe was written in two different styles of handwriting, which analysts believe was due to the fact that no one knew the entire recipe. His daughter Bonnie Clifford is now working with the museum to test the papers.
The classic condiment is thought to contain ingredients including cloves, vinegar, pickles and tamoraide.
Worcester City Museums collections officer David Nash said: "There has always been a lot of secrecy surrounding the recipes and pride that it is made locally...
SOURCE: NYT (11-1-09)
The case began with the murder of a 13-year-old worker at Frank’s factory, Mary Phagan, in 1913, but it was not destined to remain a simple homicide. The authorities eventually focused on Frank, who was part of a Jewish middle class that was beginning to find life uncomfortable in Atlanta as a new wave of immigration heightened fears and prejudices.
Also implicated was a black janitor named Jim Conley, and Frank’s murder trial...
SOURCE: Lee P Ruddin (11-1-09)
The Indian government has demanded that some of Indian Summer’s scenes be rewritten and depictions of physical intimacy between Jawaharlal Nehru and Edwina Mountbatten be cut out before granting permission to film on location in Delhi, Punjab and Kashmir.
All foreign films shot in India must be approved by a vetting committee which screens the script to make sure “nothing detrimental to the image of India or the Indian people is shot or included in the film”.
The drama was based on Alex Von Tunzelmann’s book Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of Empire (published in 2007 to coincide with the 60th anniversary of independence), which tells the story of the pair’s “intense and clandestine love affair” both before and after 1947.
The same historian...
SOURCE: Tonic (11-1-09)
More than 112 years after Dracula first made his appearance, the blood-sucking icon is back for more action. According to a story on CNN.com, a sequel to Bram Stoker's 1897 classic, Dracula, was released this month in the US.
Dracula The Un-Dead was written by Dacre Stoker, Bram Stoker's great-grandnephew, and Ian Holt, a Dracula historian. (Side note: Dracula historian? Are there Merlin or Harry Potter historians, too?). A college writing project sparked Dacre's interest in pursuing his family's legacy, and in 2003, he was approached by Holt about co-writing a novel.
The two drew much of their inspiration for the project from a rare find in Philadelphia's Rosenbach Museum and Library: 125 handwritten notes from Bram Stoker himself, which included various bits of information, plot lines and characters that didn't make it into the original book.
Dracula The Un-Dead will include many of the same characters as the original,...
SOURCE: OpEdNews.com (10-30-09)
Ellsberg risked life in prison to expose the lies that had taken this nation into war in Vietnam, lies from Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson. And Nixon believed that Ellsberg had incriminating documents on his own lies, which led Henry Kissinger to call Ellsberg "the most dangerous man in America."
Like most whistle-blowers, Ellsberg was not an outside reformer. He had promoted and advanced the war from inside the Pentagon. He had tried to be a force for moderation. But peace activists reached his...
SOURCE: James Castagnera (11-1-09)
Reviews I’ve seen have been less than kind to “Amelia.” The film “never gets off the ground,” said one. “It never, however, truly takes flight,” echoes another. Yet another carps that the film “barely makes it out of the hanger.” “Where is the steely force that drives grand ambition, the fears, the flaws?”
All right… fair enough… “Amelia” is no tour de force character study of the great female aviator. Falling a little short of two hours in length in an era when three-hour films are no longer rarities, Director Mira Nair’s movie is as old fashioned as the aircraft that Earhart flies. However, if we can’t appreciate a straightforward, old-fashioned rendering of...
