01 March 2008

Cartoons with Bugs and the Merrie Melodies Gang!

If you're like me, you've grown up with Merrie Melodies and probably Bugs Bunny. These are the classic American cartoons. Nothing to buy, no toy product placement here, just simple side-splitting entertainment at its best.

Knowing this, I visited the archive.org site tonight and found the following you might be interested in:




(1)



(2)

Born in 1939, this classic short was directed by the famous Tex Avery. Great cartoon, but unfortunately, many of the gags might not be recognized by folks today.


Our next cartoon is Bugs Bunny. The unique aspect about this cartoon is that it was produced during the war years. Here's the first shot:



(3)


Now, notice the board:



(4)


I've posted the links below to the pages on archive.org where you can either view the cartoons online or download to your machine for later viewing. I've also included some Wikipedia resources just to give you the backstory.

Have fun and have a safe weekend!

See you Monday!


Links:

Wikipedia, Merrie Melodies

Wikipedia, Bugs Bunny

Archive.org Classic Cartoons

Tex Avery, commercial site


Sources:

(1)(2)(3)(4) Archive.org, Film Chest collection
(http://www.archive.org/details/classic_cartoons)

29 February 2008

Robinson, Reese and "Dem Bums" of Brooklyn

The All-American game


Baseball!(1)


Ebbets Field, Brooklyn NY(2)


"Dem Bums"--Brooklyn Dodgers


I'm not the most ardent fan of baseball, especially today's modern version. What with all the controversy lately, I've been starting to become more interested in baseball history. There's quite a bit of lore, stories, games, the pitch, and the catch. There's a lot for me to learn.

I've been visiting the Brooklyn Public Library lately and in their archives section, they've got information on the old Brooklyn Dodgers, before they moved out west. I then learned about an incident (in the NYTimes) involving two great players on the team:



Jackie Robinson(3)


Pee Wee Reese(4)

The year was 1947 and the infamous "color line" had just been broken in major league baseball. The story goes Robinson was having a bad day at the field and the crowd was on their feet, railing against him. Said the Times:

"...With Robinson receiving death threats and heckling and taunts from the crowd in a ballpark on the road, Pee Wee Reese walked over to him on the infield at a point either before or during a game and offered a quiet but significant gesture of friendship and comradeship...." (Source: NYTimes)

From this point, the integration of baseball in the late 1940's started a seismic shift in American society that would come to a head in the fifties and sixties in places such as Little Rock and Birmingham. No longer would African-Americans be considered second class citizens.

There's a ton of information here, too much for one post almost, but I wanted to list it. Try the links below...there's some great stuff!

Have a great day, see you tomorrow.


Links:

American Memory Project-Baseball

Brooklyn Public Library

NYTimes article on Robinson and Reese

Wikipedia: Baseball's color line

Wikipedia: Jackie Robinson

Wikipedia: Pee Wee Reese





28 February 2008

Doughboy News!



Being a soldier far away from home is no picnic. You are surrounded by strangers, eating bad food, and doing things you don't ordinarily do--and that's just the beginning! Military life is quite a change from civilian life no matter in which country you live.

As a result, any news from home is a great thing. This can be letters, notes, books, or any sort of printed materials. So what is all this about? Well, today's post is about this:



(Source: LOC)

The Stars and Stripes Newspaper!

Published for the doughboys during World War I, the paper became a little bit of home for our boys overseas. Jam packed with:

Sports!




Advertisements




...and news:



(Source: LOC)


Nothing better to cure homesickness than the daily news!


What's even more remarkable is the great job the Library of Congress has done in digitizing and making available to resesearchers the issues of this paper. Try the link below. The papers are crisp, clear and the images can be zoomed in and out and work quite well. If you just want more information on the Stars and Stripes, check the links as well.

Have a great day, see you tomorrow!


Links:

American Memory Project: Stars and Stripes

Wikipedia entry (new and old versions of paper)


Main Page: American Memory Project

Stars and Stripes Museum (commercial site)

Modern Stars and Stripes

Management Note; New WorldCat Functionality

Hi all!

I wanted to take and do a double post today. The first is this, a note from me about some new functionality. The second post will be the regular feature...that is history.

Being a librarian, to me there is nothing greater than finding information, particularly the information I'm looking for. Be it a book, trivia, history or just whatever, knowing I have access to it is great.

So, to help me AND you, I've put a search box up on the blog from WorldCat:



Nope, I'm not getting any money for this...I just put it on the blog so if you run across a book or topic and you want to see if your library has it, just type it in the search box and see what happens. If you are overseas and not in the USA, it should still work. Would you let me know if it doesn't? I would appreciate it.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled history post!

27 February 2008

"Don't shoot G-Men, Don't shoot," A Portrait of John Dillinger

Characterized by unemployment...


(Source: LOC)


Prohibition...


(Source: LOC)

and conflict, the middle years of the 1930's were not easy ones for Americans.


It was also a time for gangsters, the Mafia, the mob. Capone, Machine Gun Kelly and others, their day-to-day activities glorified in the press and popular culture on a daily basis.


One of the most popular was John Herbert Dillinger.


"...OK, boys; let's go make a withdrawal...."
-John Dillinger

(Source: Brainyquote)

In and out of trouble since boyhood, Dillinger soon became THE bank robber and all around bad guy of the 1930's:



His exploits became fodder and provided an means of sensationalism and escape for the American public, but there is no denying the fact that he was a hardened criminal.

(Source: FBI)

In the end, however, in the summer of 1934, the G-Men or FBI got their man. Outside the movie theater , The Biograph in the Lincoln Park area of Chicago, he was gunned down in a hail of lead by FBI agents.

Over time, many legends have sprung up concerning Dillinger, chief of which was that it was not him, but someone else who's fate ended that day. Authorities claim it was Dillinger, but in some places the mystery lives on.

Sorry for the late posting, but I got bogged down in research on this topic, plus it was fun reading about it. Lots of good links today, so make sure to visit some of them.

Have a great day and see you tomorrow!



26 February 2008

Jeep Carriers: "Combustible, Vulnerable and Expendable."

I think sometimes resources can be overlooked because they are so common. Does that make sense? The upshot is I was reading some National Geographics last night. I had previously rescued these from a death in the dumpster, but that's another story. Anyway, I was reading the November 1943 issue and came across a full color article on the escort carriers in use by the Navy. I think one often does not hear them mentioned as much as the more glamourous full-size carriers such as the Lexington, Saratoga, Yorktown.


Some facinating facts I've found about these escort carriers:

  • Mostly built on converted hulls of cruisers, oilers, merchant ships. They were never intended from the ground up to be carriers.
  • Their origins can be traced to Halsey and Roosevelt. In particular the need to transport planes to Britain before the war. It seems at this point, the big carriers couldn't get the training in they needed because they were too busy ferrying planes back and forth.
  • Used extensively in anti-submarine warfare in the Atlantic as well as landing operations in Europe and the Pacific.


All in all, it seems these workhorse ships are very often overlooked in the vital role they played in World War II. Take a moment to check the links as there is much more information that what I could put out on this blog post.




Have a great day, and see you tomorrow!


Links:

Emergence of the Escort Carriers (PDF link)


Escort Carrier Listings

Royal Navy Escort Carriers

The Carriers (online article)

Navsource Naval History

Escort Carrier Designation and Names

Taffy-3 (Wikipedia) Battle information

25 February 2008

Little Joe, Ham, and the Liberty Bell

After the successes of Sputnik and the American satellite, Explorer I, the race for space was on! Well chronicled in titles such as We Seven, The Right Stuff, and others, the American space program and astronauts became the new heroes in the Cold War with the Soviets.

The next big question was getting a man in space. Could it be done? Would they die? It was all unknown at this point.

So we started Project Mercury.....

(Source: Nasa)

Started in 1958 and culminating with a series of manned flights in the early 1960's, Project Mercury, without a doubt, proved man in space was feasible. Said Nasa:

"...Largely because of Project Mercury, which fostered Project Apollo and fathered Project Gemini, the United States had become committed to send men to explore the Moon only 350 years after Galileo first turned a telescope toward Earth's natural satellite...."

(Source: Nasa-This New Ocean: A History of Project Mercury)


The program, however, did not always have 100% success. There was wrangling over costs as well as the new, unproven technology. In fact, one of the launches only went four or five inches after liftoff:

"...The expected blast momentarily churned the air around launch complex No. 56. But then the roar stopped as suddenly as it had started. Watching by periscope from the blockhouse, the startled engineers saw the booster wobble slightly on its pedestal and settle back on its fins after, at the very most, a four- or five-inch liftoff. The Rocketdyne A-7 engine shut down, and the escape pylon zipped up 4,000 feet and landed about 400 yards away from the launch site. Three seconds after the escape rocket blew, the drogue package shot upward, and then the main chute spurted out of the top of the capsule followed by the reserve parachute, and both fluttered down alongside the Redstone...."

While today's space travel doesn't seem to make the front page news anymore, it wasn't always this way. Perhaps because of the pioneers such as this first project, this is why. In all, Project Mercury provided leadership, technology, and exploration of space.

Have a great day, see you tomorrow!

Don't forget the links below for much more information in detail.


Links:

Nasa Project Mercury

This New Ocean (online book)


Project Mercury (Wikipedia)

Bibliography (Background on Project Mercury)

Nara (search for Project Mercury)

24 February 2008

Disney went to war!

Well, so much for Monday! I've been doing research once again and ran across this incredible blog about Walt Disney and World War II! It's called "Toons at War" and the link follows:

http://toonsatwar.blogspot.com/

Working with the government, Disney and his employees helped out at every stage of the war with training film, cartoons, etc. Says Wikipedia:

"...Throughout the duration of the war, Disney produced over 400,000 feet of educational war films, most at cost, which is equal to 68 hours of continuous film.[3]"


Links:

Wikipedia entry: Disney's contributions to the war effort (World War II).

Disney Film: Victory Through Air Power

Toonopedia for an example of a Disney film.