Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

July 13, 1923: Just a $21,000 billboard

The Hollywood sign begins life as a temporary advertisement for a new housing development in the Hollywood Hills. Its precise date of construction is unknown: by the end of 1923, a few news reports in Los Angeles mention, in passing, a giant sign reading "Hollywoodland", illuminated with electric lights. The Hollywood sign was only supposed to stay up for 18 months, but the rising popularity of American cinema in LA turned the sign into an international symbol of the golden age of Hollywood.


Each of the original 13 letters was 30ft wide and approximately 43ft tall, constructed of 3ft by 9ft metal squares rigged together by an intricate frame of scaffolding, pipes, wires and telephone poles,” according to the sign trust’s website. “At night the Sign blinked into the Hollywood night: first ‘Holly’, then ‘wood’, and finally ‘land’, punctuated by a giant period.

The sign cost $21,000, about $395,000 today according to the Hollywood Sign Trust, and the developers behind it included Harry Chandler, the publisher of the Los Angeles Times. Battered by wind and weather, the Hollywood sign falls into disrepair. At one point, the H was blown down (see photo below) or "smashed down", according to urban legend when the the sign’s official caretaker took out the letter H, when he drunk drove his car off the cliff and smashed into it. The caretaker wasn’t injured, but his 1928 Ford Model A was a total loss.

Whatever the case, that “made a cockney out of Hollywoodland”, the Los Angeles Times reported in 1944, with the sign reading “OLLYWOODLAND”. There were public debates over whether the sign should be torn down or repaired. Finally, in 1949, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce finally succeeds in making a deal to rebuild the H, while simultaneously removing the “LAND”, making the sign a refurbished advertisement for Hollywood itself. The 4,000 light globes were forsaken too, since the Chamber didn’t want to foot the electrical bill.

HOLLYWOODLAND sign in "The Rocketeer" ending:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxtj-wRLWaw


July 13, 1955: Ruth Ellis (age 28) became the last woman to be hanged in Britain for the murder of her lover David Blakely. A petition to the British Home Office asking for clemency was signed by 50,000 people but was rejected by Gwilym Lloyd George, the Home Secretary.




July 13, 1975: Staff at the Embassy of North Korea in Australia accidentally crash their Mercedes while driving in Canberra. They go to the nearest house to seek help, but they’re appalled to find that they’ve knocked on the door of the South Korean Ambassador to Australia. Then they go to Canberra’s only Mercedes dealership, but the last car has been sold - to the South Korean legation. LMAO!

I'm not sure of exact date of incident, but reportedly did occur in 1975 when the NKORS had an embassy in Australia... which lasted less than a year.

THERE is no North Korean embassy in Canberra the reason has been the topic of speculation and myth for more than 40 years.

Most explanations centre around a shortage of vehicles on the showroom floor of a local car dealership, and one rebel theory highlights a thrown axe.

North Korea had a diplomatic post here from 2003 to 2008, when five staff were packed up and the offices in the Canberra suburb of O’Malley shut.

An official explanation was that the post, with a rent of $2000 a week, was too expensive for then-President Kim Jong-il’s liking. An unofficial explanation was that the expected revenue from smuggling drugs and other contraband into Australia through diplomatic channels wasn’t paying off.

The first North Korean embassy, opened in 1974, lasted just a year.

Famed Canberra Times columnist, the late Alan Fitzgerald, reported that in 1975 the envoys of the North had wanted to buy a stately Mercedes Benz for official business.

They went down to the local Merc dealer and found just what they were looking for on the showroom floor. However, there was a catch.

The dealer had to tell them the car had already been sold — to the Embassy of South Korea.

This was an insult too great for the men serving President Kim il-Sung and they swiftly left.

There is another account of the Mercedes story involving a road accident. A variation is that the original North Korean vehicle had been damaged in a crash and that’s why they needed a new one.

In 2000 the ABC’s Philip Williams outlined a different story with even greater diplomatic farce.

In 1975 the North Koreans packed up and were so reckless speeding to the airport they crashed their Mercedes. This happened outside the South Korean ambassador’s residence, or so goes the story, adding to the humiliation.

Why the haste?

According to Williams, a short time before the diplomatic departure, American troops just outside the demilitarised zone separating North and South Korea wanted to remove a tree blocking their view of opposing forces.

Someone was sent in with an axe to do the job, but things got out of hand as, apparently, did the axe. The North Koreans accused the woodsman of attacking their soldiers with the implement, and in turn they hacked him to death.

Part of this story is a claim the ill-fated woodsman threw the axe at the Northern folk, and that it was marked, “Made in Australia”.

Thus a major military and diplomatic incident involved Australia.

However, after some consideration a translation error was admitted. The axe had been made in Austria, but it was too late to halt the trail of North Korean envoys and wrecked vehicle in Canberra 10,000 kms away from the DMZ.

News & Views Down Under

July 13, 1977: 8:34 p.m. EDT New York City experiences an electrical blackout due to lightning strikes on deficient infrastructure which lasted 24 hours that leads to widespread fires and over 1600 buildings looted or destroyed. The Blackout was to many a metaphor for the gloom that had already settled on the city. An economic decline due to severe financial crisis, coupled with rising crime rates, and the panic-provoking (and paranoia-inducing) Son of Sam murders, had combined to make the late 1970s New York’s Dark Ages.

The blackout took place at the start of a 9-day heat wave, which would begin on July 13 with temperatures reaching 93 °F (34 °C), and last until July 21 at 104 °F (40 °C), just two degrees off the all-time record high of 106 °F (41 °C), set on July 9, 1936, which occurred during the 1936 North American heat wave, part of the Dust Bowl.

The blackout also caused complications for the producers of the film Superman, who were shooting in the area.

On July 13, 2019, on the 42nd anniversary of the event, a Con Edison blackout occurred, affecting 73,000 people on Manhattan's West Side.




Speaking of NYC, ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK was released 44 years ago this week.

After the Watergate scandal broke in 1976 and made global headlines, young filmmaker John Carpenter was inspired to write a script that reflected the public’s lack of faith in the government. Influenced by Death Wish, he penned a screenplay he called Escape From New York.

However, no studio was interested because, according to Carpenter “it was too violent and too weird.” Then, in 1978, Carpenter directed Halloween. It was one of the biggest hits of the year and Carpenter was the hottest young filmmaker in Hollywood.


Carpenter signed a multi-picture deal with AVCO Embassy Pictures. The first title was The Fog and AVCO President Robert Rehme wanted Carpenter to follow it up with an adaptation of Charles Berlitz’s paranormal book The Philadelphia Experiment. Carpenter started the adaptation but decided there wasn’t a story there worth telling. He went back to Rehme and suggested they produce his finished script for Escape From New York. Based on the title and Carpenter’s 2-minute pitch, Rehme said “Sure, let’s do it.”

A few years earlier, when making TV movie Elvis, Carpenter had told his lead actor the plot of Escape From New York and all about its lead character, Snake Plissken. The actor was Kurt Russell and he told Carpenter if he ever made the film, he’d be interested in playing Snake.

At the time, Russell was best known for his early Disney roles. The studio wanted a seasoned tough guy as Plissken and instead asked Carpenter to consider Chuck Norris, Nick Nolte, Tommy Lee Jones, and Charles Bronson. Carpenter was convinced Russell was the right guy and, backed by producer Debra Hill, lobbied hard to cast him. The studio eventually caved.

In creating the character, Russell took inspiration from Clint Eastwood’s iconic performances as The Man With No Name in The Dollars Trilogy. It was also Russell’s idea to wear an eye patch, which Carpenter agreed was a good character detail.

Carpenter had worked with Donald Pleasence on Halloween and wanted him to play U.S. President John Harker. He pitched it to Pleasence by describing Harker as "the love child of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher". In portraying the imprisoned President, Pleasence drew on his own World War II experiences as a prisoner of war. He’d drawn on this when he had appeared in The Great Escape too. Pleasence was very aware of his British accent in playing an American and suggested a backstory where the dystopian USA had rejoined the British empire. Carpenter said it was interesting and if it helped Pleasence then great, but no way he wouldn’t be putting it in the movie.

Carpenter was keen on casting Isaac Hayes as The Duke as he thought Hayes had “a great face.” And he said for years after, he’d receive messages from Hayes saying “The Duke’s alive and he wants a sequel!”

Carpenter didn’t make up the name Snake Plissken. A friend of Carpenter’s told him about a tough guy he went to school with. His surname was Plissken and he had the nickname Snake because of a tattoo. Carpenter said "Anybody with a snake tattooed on them is my kinda hero."

A scene was filmed that shows us why Snake starts the film in prison. He and an accomplice rob a high-security bank, leading to Snake’s arrest and sentence to New York City. It was cut from the film but appears in the novel adaptation. You can watch it here.

The film was a co-writing credit, where Carpenter wrote with Nick Castle. The two had previous experience working together. Castle played the psychotic killer from Halloween – Michael Myers.

Production designer Joe Alves said it will cost a lot to make New York look ruined so went on a scouting mission. He found East St. Louis, Illinois, which had New York-style buildings that had been destroyed in a huge fire. So that’s where they filmed. Joe Alves and his team would find props by taking several dump trucks to local landfills and filling them up with junk like broken refrigerators and bombed out cars. He said this is where they found almost all of the set dressing and movable objects.

A lot of matte paintings were used and the effects team included a young James Cameron. He worked on many of the matte paintings and produced a lot of the scale models and miniatures. Before CGI, the digital map was a physical creation. Cameron helped draw a matte version of the skyline that was painted black and white to look like a computer image. A model was constructed and a camera went through the model light to produce the effect.

Special effects head was Robert Skotak and he had to work to a tight budget. Most miniatures were made with cardboard and to get the detail on buildings, photos were stuck on the cardboard. There wasn’t budget for colour prints so the photos were coloured in with pencils.

The opening narration, and the computer's voice in the first prison scene, were provided by an uncredited Jamie Lee Curtis.

To allow filming to take place, Carpenter bought the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge in St Louis for $1 from the government and returned it to them for the same after filming was completed. He also managed to persuade federal officials to grant filming access to Liberty Island.

Professional wrestler Ox Baker played Slag, who fights Snake. Baker hit Russell for real a few times. When Russell had had enough he hit Baker in the groin. Baker then calmed down. The scene was filmed in the abandoned hall of St. Louis Union Train Station.

The film came out as a big success. On a budget of $6m it grossed $25.2m. And over the years it has grown in stature to be a cult classic and considered among John Carpenter’s greatest films.



July 13, 1983: VP Bush cast the Senate's tie-breaking vote to save president Reagan's plan to resume production of nerve gas.




July 13, 1985: The "Live Aid" concerts for famine relief in Ethiopia began at Wembley Stadium, London. The concert opened with Status Quo singing, Rocking All Over The World. The highlight of the London concert were performances by Queen, David Bowie, U2, Phil Collins. It Continued at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia (where Joan Baez famously kicked it off by telling the crowd "Good morning, children of the 80's. This is your Woodstock, and it's long overdue!") Following that opening, Baez sang Amazing Grace, and Live Aid Philadelphia was underway. The 17-hour "superconcert" was globally linked by satellite to more than a billion viewers in 110 nations.



Over 60 artists performed between London and Philadelphia (some like Phil Collins attended both) for Live Aid including The Hooters, Black Sabbath, Run-D.M.C., Crosby, Stills and Nash, The Beach Boys, Madonna, R.E.O. Speedwagon, Tom Petty, Neil Young, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Led Zeppelin, Patti LaBelle, Hall & Oates, Mick Jagger & Tina Turner, Duran Duran, Judas Priest and Bob Dylan. Stars such as Jack Nicholson and Chevy Chase also helped promote the event. An incredible 100,000 people packed into Philadelphia’s JFK Stadium and 72,000 attended the Wembley concert.

Live Aid was one of the biggest global television events of all time. An estimated 1.9 billion people across the world tuned in for the concert broadcast, and it was estimated that the TV telecast reached more than 500 million of the world's approximate 600 million TV sets, including in the Soviet Union and China (which was unprecedented at the time in the 1980s).

In a triumph of technology and good will, the event raised more than $100 million in famine relief for Africa. Live Aid was the brainchild of Bob Geldof, the singer of an Irish rock group called the Boomtown Rats.

MTV's concert coverage broadcast kicked off just before 7AM ET in Philadelphia with VJ's Martha Quinn, Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter and Nina Blackwood.

Live Aid MTV Introduction (MTV - Live Aid 7/13/1985)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sammXPNJ2Fw

The Hooters - Full Performance (Live Aid)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GiS6yMxGlA&t=184s

Black Sabbath feat. Ozzy Osbourne - Paranoid (Live Aid 1985)



Live Aid's official opening act was a local favorite, The Hooters, who had just released their debut album on Columbia Records entitled Nervous Night. Even though the BBC TV announcer got the venue WRONG and said that The Hooters were playing at Wembley, Joe Piscopo and Chevy Chase got it right when they introduced The Hooters on ABC TV...



Crosby, Stills & Nash - Teach Your Children (Live Aid 1985)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pH3nROuAY10

At Wembley Stadium, Queen performed Bohemian Rhapsody
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbvyNnw8Qjg


That evening in Philadelphia, Phil Collins took the stage at JFK Stadium to sing "In The Air Tonight." Phil hopped aboard the British Airways Concorde supersonic jet and flew from London to JFK Airport in New York, where he then took a helicopter to Philly...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEWu59OPAbQ

Mick Jagger and Tina Turner paired up for an amazing performance of State of Shock.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2c4114eKGQ

Philadelphia's own Patti LaBelle brought the house down late at night with her rendition of John Lennon's timeless classic, Imagine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXTJ5tNm03s

Led Zeppelin - Live Aid, JFK Stadium 1985 (Reunion after John Bonham's death)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dpdmoo9vMK4


Live Aid's Finale in Philadelphia was an amazing once in a lifetime collection of all of the musical artists who performed at JFK Stadium throughout the day singing "We Are World" in front of 100,000 people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00OeznNG4hM

Most 18 year olds who graduated from high school in 1985 simply wanted to just go experience Live Aid in person. Bernard Watson aka David Weinstein from Miami wanted to play at Live Aid! So Watson drove to Philly, camped out in JFK Stadium's parking lot for 2 weeks, and relentlessly pursued Live Aid promoter, Bob Geldof, to play at Live Aid. He auditioned in the parking lot, and his persistence paid off when Geldof invited Watson to be the unofficial opening act of Live Aid in Philadelphia, even though Watson had never played for an audience larger than 800 people at his high school in Miami. This 1985 news story is fascinating, including how Watson broke a guitar string, dropped his guitar pick, and had his voice crack. But Watson was unfazed, humble and grateful... the show must go on and it did!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUUGOZXwmbw

The Weather in Philly that day was hazy, super Hot & Humid. The Philadelphia Fire Department had set up open air showers on the field, and also sprayed fire hoses into the crowd in an attempt to cool down the sweltering audience. When viewing some of the videos of the performances, the field of JFK Stadium looked like a beach with many in shorts and bathing suits.

MTV's Mark Goodman officially ended MTV's 17+ hour Live Aid concert coverage broadcast with MTV VJs and crew from an empty JFK Stadium in Philadelphia after the 100,000 concertgoers had departed.

Live Aid MTV Conclusion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWNREkHiCBg



July 13, 1987: Day 27, Congressman Jack Brooks tried to question Lt Col Oliver North about Rex ’84 and "continuity of government." He was immediately cut off by the Democratic co-chairman, Senator Inouye. The exchange went as follows:




July 13, 2000: The French Government introduced a reparation measure to compensate 12,600 Jewish orphans whose parents were deported and killed in extermination camps, most of whom are now in their 60s or 70s. I guess better late than never.


The measure was extended to all orphans, who were children of victims of Nazi barbarity by a decree dated June 27, 2004. In 2015, orphans who are still alive can now apply for compensation from a $60 million dollar reparation fund for victims who were transported to Nazi death camps aboard French trains.


July 13-15, 2001: The 9th edition of the annual hacker conference, DefCon, began in Las Vegas, NV at the Alexis Park Hotel & Resort.
DefCon28 was held online in "safe mode" in 2020.
DefCon33 (Aug 7-10, 2025) will be held at the Las Vegas Convention Center.