And 'Titanic-opoly' is no doubt doing well this summer. (You buy better staterooms).
hundreds could die just so I could match color swatches!
Overpolite soul that I am, I will leave it to the real descendants as to whether that bath plug was really hurtful or not. But, there have been tackier commercial grabs, such as selling actual items '$alvaged' from a Sad Wreck that, other than for some 'solution's' sake, should have been left alone altogether.
And when will people ever realize that, especially in America and the 'humorous' West, there will always, for every major and minor news incident, be some wag who will think of something funny and asininely apt, some pun or other, readily reducible to a bumper sticker or T-shirt?
The March 20th, {'012} Wisconsin 'microquake' comes to mind. Reportedly, there was the funny followup 'tee' slogan, "I SURVIVED THE 1.5".
I also recall years ago whenever Johnny Carson would risk an Abe Lincoln Ford's Theatre punchline and the audience would pause as a group, mildly aghast, not a one of them alive at the time of the Incident. "Too soon?", Johnny would dazedly ask.
And, lest old and new Allyn Joslyn fans {see previous posts} think I was asleep at the Cap'n's wheel, Allyn also played 'Earl Meeker', (as in slick as 'earl', or he thinks he's 'entitled' over others, but 'meeker' than most and unable to 'take it'), I do so know, in the 1953 "Titanic". A frantic passenger begging for a lifeboat and then, to that end,
reducing himself to the legendary ploy (based in truth) of hiding in shadow under a woman's scarf. He is shamed by Thelma Ritter (and who wouldn't be?), who spots his spats as she leans into him: "I see ya made it Mistah Mee-kuh."
There is a certain trick of memory, particularly with films or photographs seen some lengthy amount of time previous to 'truthfully' recalling them which I may expand on in another post.
For now, I was struck by how little shown is the actual reaction to 'Meeker''s little faux pas. Barely anyone in the boat can be seen reacting. Ritter's mockery is supposed to be enough to turn us off to the wretched act. But, unless I'm mixing my Leviathan disasters and there is more commotion in some similar scene in the '40s version, the effect isn't as big as I remembered it.
I believe when I was a young kid watching, or even later, we just took it more to heart, as it was intended. The stimulation of revulsion is plain, and in one's imagination one fills in a flock of appalled faces that, in fact, are not shown at all. Something to recall whenever told whom we are to "Hate".
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| White Star Line party mask ~ circa 1912 |
Without dancing much further on the ghosts of Our Sunken Brethren, I'd like to 'bring up one more trinket' from the pseudocultural shallows. The time travel standby of winding up on the decks of You-know-what just before the icy You-know-when.
The handiest example: ABC's "The Time Tunnel". Along with millions of unseen others, my sister and I used to watch every Friday night when our parents were out shopping for groceries. The newness of the limited 'hit' then, and our being alone together in the dark gave it an extra tremor it really doesn't have. Beyond the gimmicks of what historic twist to use, like Mr. Peabody and Sherman, in its case it's ironically very 'dated' now, and even soon after it's first reappearance in reruns.
The situations are all fairly commonplace. I'm not an encyclopedia of its episodes. One in particular, "Rendezvous With Yesterday", was naturally the pilot. The >gasp< at the hero's first sight of a "Titanic" life ring has been a touchpoint in other such shows.
Like Lincoln, ("Him again?"); JFK (almost always with the ridiculous, disgusting and mentally lazy 'Oswald did it' bit to unburden the writers and show creators from even more confusing digression); and less often, perhaps General Custer, the Disaster Bound cruise ship (include the Hindenberg) is a perennial, deemed most worthy of 'a little Help from on high' via any handy, wandering Time jumper.
Sometimes the ship's name is changed (clever boots) to the 'Lusitania' or the 'Andrea Doria', but we know what they really mean.
By now, the life preserver, it's circularity a pointed smirk, a TV-kitschy call to the Bowels of the Unholy Sea, begs a bit of crass tinkering, in my mind, just to be sure the Errant Travellers know what they're really up against.
Happy Wandering. And I close with the blueprint of the Ship's 'Sacred' Plumbing 'lest we forget' the base humanity of it all, and that the real pirates of good taste, as well as the original contributing culprits, are, as always, the big-time profiteers. SOS. --Text completed May, 2012
