Tote that barge, lift that bale. (click image to enlarge)
Today is the federal holiday where workers, or at least most workers, get the
day off. It started out as a day to recognize trade unions and the labor
movement. In 1894 politicians pandering to the unions declared it a federal
holiday. By now the labor union slant of it has been pretty much washed away
and it recognizes all workers but, even more importantly, it is the unofficial
end of summer and so there are sales, barbeques, and family gatherings.
Still, in spite of the popular beliefs of
much of our non-laboring class, those pyramids don't build themselves and so tomorrow work resumes. To
leave on a properly cynical note I'll quote Anna Louise Strong, "They say the
Pharaohs built the pyramids Do you think one Pharaoh dropped one bead of
sweat? We built the pyramids for the Pharaohs and we're building for them
yet."
Stevan Dohanos (1907 – 1994) is best known for his paintings for covers of the
Saturday Evening Post. He also painted murals for post offices and designed
stamps. He painted in the mid 20th century realistic Americana style. His
paintings were often complex to set the scene he was depicting.
Hell's Angels was the 1930 Howard Hugh's film that won the first Academy Award as best film. The version of the film I've linked has been remastered and colorized. Normally I dislike colorizing old black and white movies, but it works well in this instance.
The Hell's Angels was originally filmed as a silent film, but Al Jolson's introduction of sound to films led Howard Hugh to reshoot the film as a talky. Still, there is a lot of silent movie DNA in the film. Their body language and facial expressions can be exaggerated. Most notably the blocking for conversations can be somewhat odd, rather than doing an establishing shot and then cutting back and forth between the characters, they tend to just face each other at an uncomfortably close distance as they talk in a static shot.
The story centers on two upper-class British brothers. Roy is upright and very proper and is infatuated with his girlfriend Helen, who he prizes because he thinks she is pure and demure. On the other hand, his brother Monte is a bit of a bounder, who drinks too much and chases any skirt he sees. Hilariously, when we finally meet Helen (played by Jean Harlow) she turns out to be a completely over-the-top strumpet. Hmmm... it appears Roy isn't the best judge of character. The film starts pre-WWI and follows them through their time in the RAF.
The above video is queued up to the start of one of its most famous sequences -- a Zepplin raid on London. The German Zepplin commander is adequately villainous, he's quite delighted when he thinks he's blown-up Trafalgar Square. When the English planes show-up he needs to lighten his dirigible to gain altitude and escape. Dropping his ballast and tossing spare equipment overboard isn't enough, so he orders some of his crew to jump off the ship and they, being good Hun automatons, oblige him by uttering 'for the Kaiser and the Fatherland' before jumping through the open bomb bay doors. Oh, the humanity.
There is another large set piece battle near the end of the film. Roy and Monte bomb a German ammo dump in a captured German bomber. As they try to escape the Red Baron and his Flying Circus spot them and give chase. A squadron of British planes arrives to try to cover their escape and a huge dogfight ensues. They used 137 pilots for film and the final dogfights scenes between the captured German bomber and the two squadrons is spectacular.
Should you watch it? The film is nearly 100 years old and so there are many differences in the presentation and mores of the day. One big example is that there is no score to the soundtrack, it is all dialog and ambient sounds. The film is also pre-code, so it is not as prudish as later films; Jean Harlow's dress that she wears to the party should have been enough to convince Roy that Helen may not be the delicate flower he imagines her to be. Yet, the filming and storytelling methods work nicely so I would say it is well worth a viewing.
The YouTube version I linked to above has a blizzard of ads, if you prefer to skip that you can buy ad-free versions it.
Eric Ravilious
(1903 – 1942) was an English artist and designer. Although he worked in a
variety of medium, he is best known for his watercolors. He painted landscapes
and scenes of everyday life. He was also a British war artist, and he was lost
in 1942 on a search and rescue flight out of Iceland.
On January 15, 1919, a 20-foot-tall wave of molasses, traveling at 25 mph, ripped through North Boston causing massive destruction and killing 21 people. It was caused when a 50ft tall tank, storing 2.3 million gallons of molasses collapsed. The molasses had industrial purposes, used in creating alcoholic drinks and compounds for explosives.
Along with the death and injuries, there was widespread damage -- an elevated rail line was bent, and several other buildings were demolished, with many more suffering different degrees of damage. The rescue and cleanup were difficult because, well... molasses is sticky. Eventually it was discovered sea water could break down the molasses, so water was pump from the bay and sprayed over the area.
The owners of the tank, trying to dodge liability for its failure, tried to blame an anarchist bombing plot, but that claim was dismissed and they were found liable due to poor construction. It was to lead to tightening building regulations to improve safety.
