Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

I meant to post this yesterday, but got caught up in data dis-traffic shenanigans.

In other psychological apocalyptic hocus pocus news from the past, The multi-city world premiere on 7 continents of ON THE BEACH opened Dec 17, 1959. You can watch the 5 min trailer that includes footage of the premieres...Worldwide media proclaimed the film a "Great Success! and an "Unprecedented event!"



The film is set in Australia, the only remaining haven for mankind.

Kids/teens/adults who saw this movie back then still have nightmares about it to this day. Or those who read the novel of same title by British author Nevil Shute, published in 1957 after he emigrated to Australia.



The film opens with a shot from a bedroom window. It pans to the sky as the narrator (James McKechnie) recalls the time he looked out his window. He saw an object flying through the sky. Throughout the film the object is only referred to as It. Although It (bearing an uncanny resemblance to the B-2 stealth bomber or black triangle UFO, though likely inspired by the YB-35 or YB-49) was very far away and seemed to move slowly, it came swiftly and was unnoticed. When It flew over the mountain, the leopard and the deer looked up. When they saw It, the deer ran free from the leopard's claws and they both hide in fear. When It flew over the fields, the owl and the rat looked up, and the rat ran free of the owl's claws and they both hide in fear.

Australia's "The Age" newspaper on the premiere of ON THE BEACH. Author and Langwarrin, Australia resident Nevil Shute was a no-show for reasons...



Nestled right beside above article is:



ON THE BEACH author Nevil Shute's refusal to attend the premiere of the film adaptation "has really stirred things up in America."





On the Beach Film Review




The real USS Sawfish (SS-276)

Radio Call Sign: November - Whiskey - Foxtrot - Mike

USS Sawfish was a diesel-electric submarine sponsored by Hattie Wyatt Caraway, the first woman to be elected to the United States Senate (Arkansas) in 1931 to 1945; and christened the sub on 26 August 1942. Stationed at Pearl Harbor she did 10 war patrols during WWII, Decommissioned on June 20, 1946; Sold for scrap on Dec 2, 1960.


The phrase "on the beach" is a Royal Navy term that means "retired from the Service." The title also refers to T. S. Eliot's poem The Hollow Men, which includes the lines:

    In this last of meeting places

We grope together

And avoid speech

Gathered on this beach of the tumid river.

Printings of the novel, including the first 1957 edition by William Morrow and Company, New York, contain extracts from Eliot's poem on the title page, under Shute's name, including the above quotation and the concluding lines:

    This is the way the world ends

Not with a bang but a whimper.

On the Beach (2023 Australian theatre production) a play adapted by artistic director Kip Williams and playwright Tommy Murphy for the Sydney Theatre Company. (As one might suspect, really weird just based on the stage stillshots)

Gotta luv that cover...


From Penguin Books UK edition of Eric Schlosser's COMMAND AND CONTROL.


Father Christmas gets a mention in one episode of "The Prisoner" in the following exchange in episode 6 titled "The General":

Number 12: Who's the head man?
Number 6: Santa Claus