Joan Allen and William H. Macy are seen here in the 1998 Pleasantville about a community that lives in a 1950s TV sitcom with a plot that goes along the same lines as The Purple Rose of Cairo in reverse meets The Giver. Here are these two presented in 1950s caricatures. Joan Allen is seen here as the perfect mom who can make rice crispy treats and still look fabulous. William H. Macy is the standard 1950s dad who knows everything and always does the right thing but needs a martini after going through a typical day at the office. Yet, this kind of picture shows post war America as many would remember it with a picture of a perfect American home as a cover of burgeoning anxieties over social change.

The few posts I’m going to focus more on the post-war world between the end of World War II in 1945 to 1960. And right now I’m happy that I don’t have to do any more World War II posts anymore because I had to to eight. Many people tend to remember this time as the good old days (at least in America) with suburban houses, white picket fences, manicured lawns, wholesomeness, and fancy cars. Yet, underneath that fancy world of stability and consumerism is a deep underbelly of social anxiety. It was also a time of great change with a higher rate of consumerism, new styles of living like the suburbs of the urban sprawl, decolonization, and highway infrastructure.  And then there’s the advent of television which will find its way in the homes across the world of anyone who could afford one. It is a new media outlet for communication and entertainment as well as of great influence. Oh, and there’s the Cold War and the potential threat of nuclear annihilation that could come at any time. And they call these time the good old days and make nostalgic movies about them. Good grief.

The United States emerged from World War II with relative ease compared to other nations since it was one of the few major countries to come out of the conflict with its infrastructure intact. It was a time of great prosperity and stability with the baby boom, suburban explosion, highway expansion, and other things. However, it was also a time of great anxiety in the United States since World War II changed so much even as Americans tried to revert to what everything was supposed to be. Except it wasn’t. Dad would sometimes have PTSD induced nightmares while Mom would daydream about her days working in a munitions factory when she had a real job and nobody cared about whether she looked like crap. Uncle Arthur would sometimes come to visit from Greenwich Village with his “roommate” Rodney while Mom and Dad asked him why he’s not yet married and would try to fix him up with a nice girl he’d have absolutely no interest in. Then you have Susie who wants to be a doctor which the family doesn’t want to encourage or Elsie’s painting that’s seen as a selfish hobby. I mean after all, aren’t girls supposed to be more concerned with finding a husband than anything? Next you have Uncle Gary who’s in trouble for being a Communist Party membership in his college days and is being forced to name names and Aunt Gertrude’s “free-spirited” attitude doesn’t seem to be helping. Then there’s Little Bobby and Betty Lou who don’t understand why they can’t invite the black kids down the road to Little Mindy’s birthday party. I mean nobody else in inviting the black family to their social events for some reason. And the black family is thinking about suing the local nearby school so their kids don’t have to attend the one farther away. Nevertheless, while there are plenty of movies made in this era, there are a share of inaccuracies I shall list accordingly.

Juan Trippe:

Juan Trippe was a smarmy airline vulture plotting with meretricious politicians to take over the world’s air routes. (Yes, he was a schemer but he was as concerned with long term survival as with achieving a monopoly. He knew that Pan Am needed domestic feeder routes and that his airline would be in a competitive disadvantage if limited to overseas operations. Trippe’s attempt to use political pressure to force Howard Hughes to sell TWA was perfectly rational in a business sense. Had Trippe had gotten his way Pan Am would still be flying and 2001: A Space Odyssey wouldn’t really look so unrealistic with the Pan Am spaceships.)

Howard Hughes:

In 1947, Howard Hughes’ Hercules plane managed to fly over boats and newsreel cameras for over a minute. (The real Hercules was airborne for only 20 seconds and was never more than 70 feet above the water. Also, unlike in The Aviator Odie wasn’t with him during the flight because Hughes wanted there be no doubt that he was at the controls. Those on board with him were: Radio Operator Merle Coffee, Flight Engineer Don Smith, Flight Mechanic John Glen, James McNamara, and various reporters. Oh, and witnesses weren’t seated and separated from Hughes when he was at the controls either since newsreel footage reveals people actually standing in the cockpit with James McNamara steps away from the rich eccentric.)

Howard Hughes loaned Donald Nixon {brother of Richard Nixon} $250,000 in 1956 to secure a Pentagon contract, which would’ve brought Richard Nixon down if made public. (Contrary to The Hoax, the money was to help Donald Nixon save his restaurant chain, which was public knowledge by the 1960 presidential race. So, no, it wouldn’t have brought Nixon down.)

J. Edgar Hoover:

J. Edgar Hoover was a visionary vigilante who stood alone against the reds with all American protests movements as indicative of communism. (Hoover himself believe this but he wasn’t since his red scare targets went beyond communists and anarchists to include prominent and unprominent liberals, federal judges, senators, anyone belonging to any union, the ACLU, black nationalists like Marcus Garvey, and others. His investigation created files on more than 200,000 people and organizations.)

Eugene Allen:

Eugene Allen got the job as the White House butler by getting caught stealing cake in a hotel, getting hired as a waiter and later impressing a White House who happened to be there. (Sorry, Lee Daniels, while it makes for an interesting story, Eugene Allen became the White House butler simply by applying for the job like a normal person would.)

Chuck Yeager:

Chuck Yeager’s NF-104 flight was an unplanned, spur of the moment thing. (Contrary to The Right Stuff, it was well planned as referenced in the book and his autobiography.)

Chuck Yeager was asked to break the sound barrier on October 13, 1947. (Contrary to The Right Stuff, he wasn’t. He had been flying the Bell X-1 since August of that year and made 8 previous powered flights. When he actually did break the sound barrier, it was by accident for he was aiming at Mach .97 but at speeds just under Mach 1, a shock wave made the Machmeter read low.)

When Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier, people thought that his plane had exploded. (Unlike in The Right Stuff, a scientist actually predicted a sonic boom would happen, which was expected.)

There were fatal accidents on the Bell X-1 before Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier. (There weren’t any.)

Chuck Yeager’s wife was there when her husband broke the sound barrier. (Actually she wasn’t. Also, she didn’t know about the first supersonic flight until three months later because Yeager’s Bell X-1 supersonic flight was conducted in complete secrecy.)

Chuck Yeager became a major general. (He retired at brigadier.)

Bettie Page:

Bettie Page was a model in 1946. (She didn’t begin modeling until 1950.)

Bettie Page and her husband Billy didn’t attend Hume-Fogg High School in Nashville, TN. (Contrary to The Notorious Bettie Page, they did.)

Bettie Page was totally OK with her job in fetish/costume/modeling and was quite naïve as to the erotic uses of such photos of her. (Actually while The Notorious Bettie Page shows her like this, she wasn’t necessarily naive. Her attitude basically was “God made us nude, so how bad could it be?” but the more extreme fetish posing fostered sexual deviant desires. Numerous fully nude shoots she did for amateur camera clubs bears this out. Eventually she became fed up with this kind of modeling and became a born-again Christian in 1959, but I wouldn’t blame her.)

William Shawn:

New Yorker editor William Shawn arranged for Richard Avedon to take pictures of Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, arranged Truman Capote’s reading, and accompanied Capote to Kansas for the executions. (Contrary to Capote, Shawn’s sons say he didn’t do any of that and actually felt squeamish about Capote’s reading project.)

Writers:

Ayn Rand:
Ayn Rand’s original title for Atlas Shrugged was Atlas Shrugged. (It was called The Strike when she was working on it contrary to The Passion of Ayn Rand. She didn’t change it to Atlas Shrugged until her husband suggested it. Yet, it’s true she did have an affair with a man 25 years younger than her.)

Truman Capote:

Truman Capote bribed the warden in order to visit Dick Hickock and Perry Smith. (It’s more likely he engaged in a legal firm named Saffels and Hope to negotiate his access deal with the Governor of Kansas no less. So, no, he probably didn’t bribe a warden under the table as Capote implies, but what would you rather see?)

Truman Capote promised to help Dick Hickock and Perry Smith find adequate legal representation. (Contrary to Capote, the real Truman Capote never offered to find a proper lawyer for Hickock and Smith.)

Truman Capote visited Perry Smith a lot from his prison cell. (They mostly communicated by letter but you sort of need to see Truman Capote visit Perry Smith in prison in Capote since you don’t get the suspenseful effect if Capote and Smith were just pen pals.)

During his trip to Holcomb, Kansas, Truman Capote saw the bloodied mattresses during his visit to the scene of the crime at the Clutter house. (Contrary to Infamous, by the time Capote arrived at Holcomb, the mattresses, bedclothes, sofa, and other bloodstained items were burned on November 16 by four friends of Herb Clutter volunteering to clean up the house.)

Truman Capote attended the Clutter family’s viewing at the funeral home. (Contrary to Capote, he arrived in Holcomb, Kansas several days after the funeral had taken place. Also, from Imdb: “According to “In Cold Blood”, the detail about the heads of the deceased being wrapped in gauze was related to Capote by Nancy Clutter’s friend, Susan Kidwell, who visited the funeral parlor with Nancy’s boyfriend Bobby Rupp, while the caskets remained open.”)

Truman Capote witnessed Dick Hickock and Perry Smith’s hanging. (He only witnessed Dick Hickock’s hanging. He couldn’t stand the thought of watching Smith die so he left before it happened.)

Truman Capote wrote with a typewriter. (Contrary to his Philip Seymour Hoffman portrayal, he wrote everything in longhand.)

Truman Capote’s hair was parted on the right side and he wore his watch on his left wrist. (Photos of him show his hair parted on the left side and wearing his watch on his right wrist.)

Julia Child:

Julia and Paul Child had a spat with Julia’s father about Joseph McCarthy during her sister’s wedding reception. (Yes, Julia and Paul were critics of Joe McCarthy but while Dorothy McWilliams got married in 1951, McCarthy was a relative unknown outside Wisconsin and wouldn’t have the kind of pull that would send Paul for questioning in Washington. So the argument in the wedding reception of Julie & Julia is fictional. However, Mr. McWilliams was a supporter of Richard Nixon, who did have a name for himself then.)

The original boeuf bourguignon recipe included carrots. (It didn’t, yet Julia uses carrots in the stew in Julie & Julia.)

Julia and Paul Child moved to Paris in 1949. (They moved in 1948.)

Julia Child’s father didn’t approve of either of his daughters’ marriages. (Julia and Paul’s marriage, yes. Dorothy’s marriage to Ivan Cousins, there’s no evidence he did though it’s implied in Julie & Julia. Nevertheless, despite being tiny, Paul Child was kind of a badass since he was a black belt in judo while he and Julia met each other in the OSS during World War II.)

Scientists:

Dr. John Nash:

John Nash’s hallucinations were visual and auditory. (Actually, Nash was just a schizophrenic who just heard voices in his head, though since film is a visual medium, depicting his illness more accurately in A Beautiful Mind wouldn’t be very helpful to viewers {and the real Nash was perfectly fine with this}. Also, he didn’t develop schizophrenic symptoms until some years after graduate school. )

Between his years at Princeton and MIT, John Nash worked for the Pentagon. (He actually worked for the RAND Corporation as a consultant but he did do work in decoding Soviet communications. Also, he didn’t work for the Wheeler Lab while at MIT because it doesn’t exist and there’s no such pen ceremony at Princeton either.)

Through his wife’s love and devotion, John Nash was able to reduce incidence of frequent hallucinations by committing to a medication regiment and learning over time to ignore them just in time to win the Nobel Prize in Economics. (That’s a nice story, Ron Howard, but it’s full of shit. John and Alicia actually divorced in 1963 {though she did help him and they did renew their relationship when he won the Nobel Prize [which he wasn’t allowed to accept due to being off his meds as well as for fear that he’d whip out his dick and scream racial slurs at imaginary Jews] as well as remarry in 2001}. However, Alicia’s reason for divorcing John had more to do with him getting caught picking up young men at public toilets and not things like schizophrenia, fathering a kid out of wedlock and not paying child support {though this happened before he may have met his wife}, anti-Semitism, throwing his wife to the ground and placing his foot on her neck in front of his own students at a picnic, and you name it. Yeah, somehow boning dudes at men’s rooms was a deal breaker for Alicia. As for the medication, he hadn’t been on anything since 1970 and he recovered despite refusing treatment, which actually might’ve been a better decision in the long run even if he wasn’t allowed to receive his Nobel Prize out of fear of making a TMZ worthy spectacle of himself. But Ron Howard put it in anyway because he didn’t want to encourage potentially mentally ill movie goers to stop therapy, which may not have been available for Nash.)

Dr. Alfred Kinsey:

Dr. Alfred Kinsey was a skinny average looking guy. (Contrary to Kinsey, he looked less like Liam Neeson and more like a slightly overweight William H. Macy. Oh, and he was in his fifties at the time when Sexual Behavior of the Human Male was published.)

Dr. Alfred Kinsey was a passive partner during his affairs with men. (He actually wasn’t, particularly during his affair with Clyde Martin in 1939 and he wasn’t the only one.)

Those who objected to Dr. Kinsey’s research on human sexuality were either anti-sex prudes or conservatives. (Yes, there were people who objected to Kinsey’s research as in the man’s biopic. Yet, some of his methods would’ve been pretty controversial even by our standards. Kinsey was known to persuade many of the male researchers who worked with him to try gay sex, often with him and insisted he was “happily married” to avoid scandal. He also made secret films of his subjects having sex, joining in, gathering unusual data on children’s sexual responses from a pedophile, and presenting them as a product of a wider study.)

Dr. Alfred Kinsey was a professor at Indiana University. (He was a professor of the University of Indiana.)

Dr. Alfred Kinsey’s parents were still together when he was working on his sexual research books. (Actually, his parents divorced in 1931 when Kinsey was 37 and he never saw or contacted his father again after that. Yet, in Kinsey, family and friends are visiting Alfred Sr. at home after Alfred Jr.’s mother Sara was just buried.)

Albert Einstein:

Albert Einstein accepted Werner Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle as a fundamental physical law. (He never did saying, “Quantum mechanics is certainly imposing. But an inner voice tells me that it is not yet the real thing. The theory says a lot, but does not really bring us any closer to the secret of the ‘old one’. I, at any rate, am convinced that He (God)does not throw dice.” [Quantum Mechanics is based on laws of probability … hence the reference to dice.])

Albert Einstein had a niece named Catherine Boyd. (I.Q.’s plot has Einstein’s niece as a main character. However, she probably didn’t exist since Einstein had one sister who didn’t have children. Thus, he was nobody’s uncle, at least in a biological sense.)

Kurt Godel:

Kurt Godel was mischievous and gregarious. (He was famously shy and reclusive. Also, along with Boris Podolsky, he was between 17 and 30 years younger than Einstein. In I. Q. they’re about the same age.)

Sports:

The Houston Astros existed in the late 1940s. (They didn’t.)

Brooklyn Dodgers sportscaster Ray Barber broadcasted the away games for his team in Philadelphia and Cincinnati. (Contrary to 42, no team broadcaster ever went with his team during an away game. Also, at that time, away game broadcasting consisted of recreating the came back in the studio from a pitch by pitch summary transmitted over telegraph wire from the stadium where the game was played.)

Wendell Smith was the first black member of the Baseball Writers Association of America. (Contrary to 42, Sam Lacy was in 1948.)

Brooklyn Dodgers player Dixie Walker was traded for signing  a petition over Jackie Robinson. (While he certainly did sign a petition, he only did so under pressure from his teammates but he was more civil to Jackie Robinson by the end of the season and gained much respect for him. As for his trading, it had more to do with him being in his late thirties and nearing the end of his career.)

Brooklyn Dodgers GM Leo Durocher was suspended by team commissioner Happy Chandler over his affair with an Actress Larraine Day. (Though he was suspended and did have an affair with Larraine Day, Durocher was actually suspended by Chandler due to allegations of gambling.)

Pee Wee Reese put his arm around Jackie Robinson during the 1947 game between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers. (Contrary to 42, this happened in 1948.)

Boxer Billy Fox was undefeated by November 1947. (He had lost a professional match a few months earlier in February against Gus Lesnevich.)

Jake LaMotta:

Boxer Jake LaMotta beat up his brother Joey on the vaguest suspicion that he might’ve slept with his second wife Vicki. (Contrary to Raging Bull, the victim was Jake’s friend and eventual co-author of his autobiography Peter Savage. Somehow they managed to bury the hatchet judging by hindsight but a fight scene between Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesci is probably mandatory in a Martin Scorsese film, particularly if it’s about boxing.)

Jake LaMotta would often perform Marlon Brando’s scene from On the Waterfront during his club routines in the ring. (He actually did Shakespeare, but you wouldn’t expect a famous boxer to be into him. As with the fight with Marcel Cerdan, while LaMotta said it was the happiest moment of his life, Cerdan would die 4 months later in a transatlantic plane crash after agreeing to a rematch with him. What makes it sadder is that Cerdan was on his way to see his girlfriend, the singer Edith Piaf who was devastated.)

Jackie Robinson:

Jackie Robinson proposed to his girlfriend Rachel after he signed up with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. (Actually they were engaged in 1943 while he was still in the Army unlike what 42 implies. And the Dodgers spring training wasn’t held in Panama City, Panama but Havanna, Cuba, but you can understand why the makers of 42 changed that.)

Jackie Robinson broke a bat in the dugout tunnel. (He never did.)

When he was up to bat, Jackie Robinson was hit in the head by racist Pirates Pitcher Fritz Ostermueller which resulted in a fight between the two on the mound. (Actually, Ostermueller was a left handed pitcher whose pitch hit Robinson on the left wrist which he claimed was a brushback pitch without racist intent. There was no fight on the mound afterwards, though I would’ve preferred that over watching baseball.)

Jackie Robinson stole 27 bases without getting caught in his 1947 season. (The number of bases he stole during his rookie year is unknown since caught stealing wasn’t an officially recorded baseball statistic at the time and wouldn’t be until 1951.)

Jackie Robinson was the first black man to play Major League Baseball. (He wasn’t for the first one was Moses Fleetwood Walker, catcher for the Toronto Blue Stockings from 1884 to 1889, when the MLB officially erected its color barrier. Yet, Robinson was the guy who’d break the color barrier in Major League baseball in 1947.)

The Quiz Show Scandals:

Herbert Stempel’s time on Twenty-One was over when he answered On the Waterfront instead of Marty as the 1955 Oscar winner for Best Picture on the insistence of the show’s producers during his match against Charles Van Doren. (Yes, he did give the wrong answer on the Marty question despite that he watched the movie three times because he mistakenly believed that NBC would give him a TV job afterwards. However, Stempel and Van Doren would go on for another tie game before the latter won.)

Twenty-One’s host Jack Barry, Geritol, and NBC were all involved in the show’s rigging. (Contrary to Quiz Show they weren’t. Barry didn’t know anything about the rigging but covered it up when he found out. All the involvement NBC and Geritol had with the Twenty-One scandal is asking Barry and producer Dan Enright to change the show after the disastrous first episode. Without Barry’s knowledge, Enright opted to rig the show.)

Charles Van Doren was single during his time on Twenty-One and never taught again after the scandal. (According to a 2008 article, he said he had a regular girlfriend {not present in Quiz Show} and he actually did continue to teach after the scandal though is career wasn’t the same.)

Congressional lawyer Dick Goodwin met Charles Van Doren while the latter was teaching at Columbia University. (They actually met at the NBC canteen, but the outcome was the same as in Quiz Show.)

Charles Van Doren was a contestant on Twenty-One before the Soviet launch of Sputnik I. (Sputnik’s launched happened in October 1957. Van Doren was on Twenty-One from November 1956 to March 1957.)

Charles Van Doren weaseled his way out of Twenty-One by answering a question wrong live on air during the show as the game show rigging congressional investigation was underway. (Van Doren had already left the show by the time the rigging investigation began. However, Van Doren did throw a question but it was more of NBC’s choice according to him and show producer Al Freedman for they had already chosen his replacement.)

Twenty-One was the only show implicated in the quiz show scandals which lasted for a year. (It lasted for three years and Twenty-One wasn’t the only show that was implicated in rigging nor was it the first, though you wouldn’t know it from Quiz Show. Shows that were also rigged were Tic-Tac-Dough, The $64,000 Question, The $64,000 Challenge, and Dotto which actually set off the 1958 investigations. Nevertheless, the reputations of the key contestants on these shows were ruined and quiz shows virtually disappeared from prime time American TV for decades.)

Dick Goodwin played a pivotal role in the investigation of the quiz show scandals. (Though Goodwin co-produced Quiz Show, which was an adaptation of his Remembering America, he actually had relatively little to do with the investigations.)

Miscellaneous:

Homer Hickam’s dad was named John. (Contrary to October Sky, Homer was named after his father.)

The 1950s was a great wholesome time to grow up. (Despite racism, sexism, McCarthyism, homophobia, smoking and drinking, lead in paint, gasoline, and food cans, pesticides, pollution, conservatism, and threat of nuclear war.)

All adults smoked during the 1950s and had no idea it would lead to further health problems. (Actually only half of adult men in the US did as well as a third of women. Andy Rooney never smoked, for example. Also, doctors were well aware of the effects of smoking at the time.)

CBS producer Fred W. Friendly was a smoker. (Contrary to Goodnight and Good Luck, Friendly actually didn’t smoke and lived to be 82 though many of his peers did. Unfortunately, being smoke free didn’t make him as good looking as George Clooney.)

NBC’s Today Show studio was set in Studio 1A in 1958. (It wouldn’t move to its present day location until 1994 and was actually located further down but in the same building. Still, at that time, there would’ve been no windowed corner or a view of Rockefeller Plaza.)

The Reuben Sandwich was the only invented sandwich entered in a sandwich contest by Reuben Kay. (Well, some claim it was invented by a wholesale grocer named Reuben Kulakofsky at Omaha’s Blackstone Hotel in 1925. However, it was actually invented by one of Blackstone’s waitresses named Fern Snider who entered the recipe in the national sandwich competition in 1956 and won. So maybe we should just call it a Fern Sandwich then.)

Americans in the 1950s were prudes who didn’t talk about sex and didn’t experience until they were married. (Actually Americans in the 1950s enjoyed sex as much as they do now, they just didn’t talk about it nor were they as open to discussing sexual matters as later generations. And, no, unlike what you see on old sitcoms, most married couples didn’t sleep in twin beds {censorship regulations prohibited married couples in the same bed or the word “pregnant”}. Not to mention, after WWII, the Sexual Revolution was well under way with Kinsey’s books on sexual behavior {both which became bestsellers}, Masters and Johnson, the beginnings of the gay community, and the invention of the pill. As for premarital sex, it wasn’t uncommon for many women to be pregnant on their wedding day and the 1950s had the highest rate of teen pregnancy on record. Still, as for teen sex, it wasn’t very common since the prospect of a shotgun wedding was a deterrent for either gender but it did happen.)

You could buy drinks in Kansas in the 1950s. (Kansas was a dry state until the mid-1980s.)

The George Washington Bridge had 2 levels in 1952. (It just had one level then.)

Louis Bamberger was still alive in the 1950s. (He died in 1944 but he’s in I. Q. for some reason.)

Families with disabled children would often have them institutionalized because they didn’t want them to be seen. (Actually families that had a disabled child would often institutionalize them because conditions like Down Syndrome were so poorly understood and the necessary education and facilities for caring one in-home were few. A mentally disabled child simply had a better chance of getting the services he or she needed at an institution. It wasn’t that disabled kids were looked down upon, though that was true and some parents did tell their other children that the disabled kid in question had died.)

Suburban American homes often had sleek modern furniture. (Actually most of the average American family furniture in suburbia mostly consisted of heirlooms and antiques for furniture was comparatively more expensive than it is now. Not to mention, most Americans couldn’t afford to replace a lot of second-hand stuff they already had, even if they did qualify on the installment plan. Besides, there was no IKEA in the US yet.)

Laura Kinney found the Clutter family dead that fateful Sunday morning after the murder in November 1959. (It was actually Nancy Clutter’s two friends Nancy and Susan who found the Clutter family dead at their Holcomb, Kansas home.)

The 1950s era was a decade of conservatism. (Social conservatism, absolutely, especially in regards to sex and sexual orientation as well as the rights of nonsmokers. Yet, views on racial politics and gender roles varied by demographic but the status quo was largely in force in social mores and law books. However, the 1950s wasn’t a good decade for political conservatism in the modern sense, especially since it had been tarred by association by the McCarthy era early on. While we do see the 1950s as a decade of conservatism, most Americans at the time wouldn’t have approved the right wing antics of Fox News or the state of the Republican Party today, regardless of how much they would agree with them. Still, the 1950s was a decade of consensus where right-wing looneyness wouldn’t be tolerated. Both Democrats and Republicans usually elected moderate and bipartisan politicians like Eisenhower. Ironically many people on the political right today have a lot of nostalgia for this decade despite that 1950s American politics would’ve had no place for them, even among Republicans.)

Being drafted in the 1950s was an unpleasant experience. (If you were Elvis, but not everyone. The reason why the US government didn’t get rid of the draft in the 1950s America was more due to the fact many poor men saw it as a godsend, especially those who lived in areas where the only way out was a football scholarship. For a poor 18-year-old boy in the 1950s, the draft was something that gave him a guaranteed employment for 5 years with a reward for a college education under the G. I. Bill at little or no cost. Hundreds of thousands of men would’ve never had the chance to go to community college or attend good universities if it weren’t for the G. I. Bill. Many guys would sign up before they could be drafted so they could choose which branch they wanted to serve in. It was only during the Vietnam War when the draft would become unpopular enough to abolish. Yet, at this time, a military draft could be one poor boy’s ticket to the middle class and economic mobility, which was mostly true.)

Diesel locomotives went through Grand Central Station in the 1950s. (Actually Grand Central Station had only allowed electric locomotives long before then.)

Federal income taxes were due on April 15th at this time. (They were actually due on March 15th.)

Alvin Dewey learned of the arrests of Dick Hickock and Perry Smith while he was having Christmas dinner with his family. (He actually learned about the arrests on December 30, 1959.)

Perry Smith was substantially taller than Dick Hickock. (Contrary to Infamous, they were about the same height.)

TV personality Arthur Godfrey had brown hair. (He was famous for having red hair with his nickname being “Old Redhead.”)

The Interstate highway system was around in 1947. (It began in 1956.)

Americans in the 1950s were a lot more religious than they are now. (Actually while most people were members of a church, they didn’t necessarily go every Sunday. Even if they did, they were much more quiet about religion than churchgoers today and saw proselytizing as intrusive and unpleasant. Jehovah’s Witnesses weren’t well liked because of their efforts to seek more followers. Oh, and Christians did define themselves by denomination and would never have said, “just Christian.” Yet, many people on the Religious Right have nostalgia for this decade despite that most 1950s Americans would view such nuts as one notch above the KKK. Fanaticism of any kind didn’t have any place in 1950s America.)

Gay bars were quite out in the open in this time period. (They were extremely clandestine places since homophobia was rife in the US at the time.)

Frank Lucas began his life of crime when he saw his twelve year old cousin killed by the police when he was six. (This is entirely plausible as told in American Gangster but it was inspired by a story about his cousin being murdered by members of the Klu Klux Klan, which there is very little evidence to support it.)

California used an electric chair to execute criminals in the late 1940s. (It never has used the electric chair as a means of execution.)

Though more of a contemporary movie than a historical one, nevertheless, John Ford’s 1940 adaptation of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath has become the definitive film about the Great Depression. It’s also famous for making Henry Fonda a star in his iconic role as ex-convict Tom Joad. It’s a saga about the Joad family who are forced off their farm in Oklahoma and become migrant workers in California. The Joads’ bleak economic condition and displacement leads to the disintegration of their family as well as puts them in worse shape than ever before. Yet, this movie demonstrates the strength of the idea of community in the face of hard times held by women like Ma Joad who endure just about any obstacle that might hit them.

Unfortunately the bad economic practices of the 1920s soon caught up with everyone that by the 1930s much of the world was engulfed in the greatest economic crisis in history. It began with the Wall Street Crash of 1929 with its effects lasting for over a decade. Banks failed, businesses closed, jobs were lost, homes were foreclosed, fortunes were lost overnight, and so on. Millions of people had lost everything and struggled to make enough to survive. In Europe, while the Depression wasn’t as bad as it may seem in the United States, but some countries were dominated by totalitarianism like Nazi Germany and many of these ruthless dictators had a following of fans outside their borders. And later in the decade, Europe would become engulfed in power struggles that would eventually lead to all out violence in conflicts like the Spanish Civil War as well as World War II. This isn’t seen as a happy time in movies and no wonder yet sometimes films seem rather optimistic of what was going to happen compared to what was yet to come.

In the United States, the Great Depression is a period known for its widespread poverty, mass unemployment, folk singing hobos, and the Dust Bowl. During this time, a third of the nation went to bed hungry. Radical politics was common place with an intensity and popularity perhaps unprecedented in American history. Yet, this is also the decade of the New Deal which was instituted by Franklin Delano Roosevelt with programs like Social Security, public works projects, banking reforms, labor relations, labor standards, and others. While it’s still debated whether the New Deal programs had any effect in the positive sense, what can’t be denied is that many of these programs are still around which have been credited for preventing another horrible economic catastrophe from happening since and for overseeing a relatively stable economy most of the time. But in the 1930s, you also have the beginnings of the Golden Age of Hollywood with musicals, screwball comedies, gangster films, and other masterpieces. Still, while movies set in this time get some things about the Great Depression right, there are plenty they get wrong, which I shall list.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt:

FDR had no qualms for appearing in a wheelchair as president. (Though the image of FDR in a wheelchair is well-known today, FDR went through great lengths to hide his polio-induced disability since he thought that being seen like this would ruin his credibility. Many people had no idea he spent a lot of time in a wheelchair until close to his death. Still, there are a few photographs that exist of him in one.)

FDR said, “So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself” in 1932. (He said this in his first inaugural address which was in 1933. Of course, Scout was only six at the time and probably got things mixed up.)

Sports:

Trainer James “Sunny” Fitzsimmons had an Irish brogue. (He had Irish ancestry but he was born in Brooklyn.)

Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen were fictional characters. (Unlike what The Legend of Bagger Vance tells you, these two guys were legendary golfers as well as real people.)

Babe Ruth left the Yankees in 1935. (He left the Yankees for the Boston Braves in 1934.)

Red Pollard:

Red Pollard’s mother’s name was Agnes. (Her name was Edith. His wife’s name was Agnes.)

Red Pollard was single during his final days with Seabiscuit. (Actually, he had a wife named Agnes who was his nurse when he injured his leg and they were married at Charles Howard’s ranch and had a daughter in 1940 as well as a son several years later. Also, she was the one who gave him the Saint Christopher medal. Still, she’s absent from Seabiscuit.)

Red Pollard was born in the United States and his family fell on hard times during the Great Depression. (Contrary to Seabiscuit, he was born in Edmonton, which is in Canada. Also, his family lost their brick factory business because of a flood and the insurance didn’t cover enough of the damages in 1915. Thus, Pollard went to the United States with a friend of a family who abandoned him at a race track in Montana in 1922.)

Seabiscuit:

Seabiscuit started dead last in the race during his 1940 Santa Anita Handicap win. (Charts show that Seabiscuit was running no worse than fourth at any point during the race.)

Seabiscuit was shorter than War Admiral. (They were both about the same height, with some sources saying that Seabiscuit was the heavier of the two. Also, they were of similar breeding and descended from Man O’War. In fact, War Admiral was technically Seabiscuit’s uncle.)

Jim Braddock:

Jim Braddock’s wife begged him not to fight Max Baer. (Contrary to Cinderella Man, she was thrilled to see him fight Baer since he’d get substantial money out of the fight regardless of outcome, yet she did worry about him and didn’t watch his fights in person since 1930s boxing was a brutal sport.)

Max Baer:

Boxer Max Baer was a brutal thug who boasted about killing two of his opponents in the ring. (He only killed one of his opponents in the ring and the incident haunted him for the rest of his life. He also regularly gave money to the man’s widow and paid for his children’s education. As for the other guy who died weeks after facing Baer, well, he already had meningitis and the flu and even his family said that Baer had nothing to do with his death. Still, Baer was remembered for his lighthearted personality and was celebrated as an American hero for his defeat of Nazi Germany’s champion Max Schmeling while wearing a Star of David on his trunks. Not to mention, he had a son who’d play Jethro in The Beverly Hillbillies. His family was not happy with his depiction in Cinderella Man.)

Lou Gehrig:

Lou Gehrig’s 1939 retirement speech at Yankee Stadium went like this:

“I have been walking onto ball fields for sixteen years, and I’ve never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans. I have had the great honor to have played with these great veteran ballplayers on my left – Murderers’ Row, our championship team of 1927. I have had the further honor of living with and playing with these men on my right – the Bronx Bombers, the Yankees of today.

“I have been given fame and undeserved praise by the boys up there behind the wire in the press box, my friends, the sportswriters. I have worked under the two greatest managers of all time, Miller Huggins and Joe McCarthy.

“I have a mother and father who fought to give me health and a solid background in my youth. I have a wife, a companion for life, who has shown me more courage than I ever knew.

“People all say that I’ve had a bad break. But today … today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth.” (This is his speech delivered by Gary Cooper in Pride of the Yankees. The actual speech went like this:

“Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about a bad break. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.

“Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn’t consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day? Sure, I’m lucky. Who wouldn’t consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball’s greatest empire, Ed Barrow? To have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins? Then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology, the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy? Sure, I’m lucky.

“When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift – that’s something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies — that’s something. When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter — that’s something. When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so you can have an education and build your body — it’s a blessing. When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed – that’s the finest I know.

“So I close in saying that I might have been given a bad break, but I’ve got an awful lot to live for.”)

Lou Gehrig was given a very tragic diagnosis of ALS, dismal prognosis, and brief life expectancy from his doctors at the Scripps Institute. (He was diagnosed with ALS at the Mayo Clinic. Lou knew that his days were numbered and wrote to his wife about it but the Mayo Clinic doctors painted an unrealistically optimistic of Gehrig’s condition and prospects than what’s seen in Pride of the Yankees. Among other things Lou said he was given “a 50–50 chance of keeping me as I am” for the foreseeable future, and was told that he “…may need a cane in 10 or 15 years.” However, this would’ve been a realistic diagnosis if you were talking about Stephen Hawking who has had ALS since his college days and is still alive in his seventies {as of 2014}. Gehrig lived for about two years. Deliberate concealment of bad news to patients, especially when it concerned cancer or an incurable degenerative disease was common practice at the time. Still, because of Lou Gehrig’s unfortunately contracting ALS, this incurable degenerative illness is now known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.)

Lou Gehrig won the American League Triple Crown on the same day as his wedding. (Lou married Eleanor in September of 1933 while he won the American League Triple Crown in the 1934 season.)

Lou Gehrig’s streak started when he first took first base. (Almost everyone believes this but according to records, his streak started the previous day as Gehrig pinch-hit for shortstop Pee Wee Wanninger. The GM put Gehrig to play first base the following day.)

Hollywood:

Shirley Temple was famous in 1933. (She wouldn’t achieve fame until 1934.)

Camille came out in 1933. (It came out in 1936.)

Charlie Chaplin:

Charlie Chaplin was married to Paulette Goddard during the 1930s. (Well, they lived together but we’re not sure if they were technically married because there’s no record of them having done so.)

Jean Harlow:

Jean Harlow was married once. (She was married 3 times.)

Jean Harlow was a horrible sexy person. (Despite the 1965 Harlow movie and other adaptations, Harlow was said to be sweet and funny and was called “Baby” by her friends. Not to mention, she wasn’t as naïve as many movies said she was.)

Jean Harlow died of pneumonia in 1937. (She died of renal failure at 26 perhaps of uremic poisoning.)

Katharine Hepburn:

Katharine Hepburn dumped Howard Hughes for Spencer Tracy. (She and Hughes were done long before Hepburn ever met Tracy. Still, Katharine more or less dumped Howard Hughes because Hughes’ interest in Kate had more to do with her being a famous actress than her personality. Hughes liked the image of being a Hollywood playboy and was more obsessed with collecting women than loving them.)

Katharine Hepburn’s older brother committed suicide when she was a star. (Her brother killed himself when Katharine was a child.)

Cole Porter:

Cole Porter’s riding accident happened in his back yard on a stormy afternoon that sent the horse into a frenzy. Cole was thrown from his horse when lightning struck a tree branch and was soundly trampled. (Though the accident is depicted like this in Night and Day, it actually happened in 1938 on a clear day on a Long Island Estate of Countess Edith de Zoppola and the horse wasn’t his. In fact, attendants tried to discourage Cole from riding a skittish horse to begin with. It happened on the top of the hill when the horse shied at a clump of bushes and reared. Cole failed to kick the stirrups free and the horse crushed his legs. He’d later have several surgeries but would never regain the use of his legs.)

Monty Woolley heard about Cole Porter’s riding accident while making The Man Who Came to Dinner. Yet, he promised Cole not to tell Linda about it. (Monty would make The Man Who Came to Dinner in 1941 and Cole’s accident happened in 1938. Besides he probably knew about Cole’s accident in the papers like everyone else did and there was no way he could’ve kept the whole thing secret from Linda. As for Linda, she immediately rushed to Cole’s side from Europe demanding that no decision about the amputation be made until she got there. She would never leave Cole’s side again and did everything possible to aid his recovery like closing their house in Paris and shipping all her furniture to their California home though she hated the place.)

Billie Holiday:

Billie Holiday was arrested for using drugs in 1936. (Her drug arrest was in 1946 and she always claimed that she didn’t start using drugs until the 1940s. However, I’m pretty sure Billie said this because she wasn’t caught using drugs before then but it’s very likely she used drugs way before then. I mean she worked as a prostitute during her teens and drug usage wasn’t unusual at all among 1930s jazz performers. In fact, drugs like heroin, booze, and marijuana were part of that culture.)

Billie Holiday’s mother was a saint. (Sadie Harris wasn’t a saintly woman who basically left Billie in the care of others during the first 10 years of her life. Like Billie, Sadie was also a prostitute in Harlem and they were both arrested when Billie was 15.)

Billie Holiday recorded “Love Me or Leave Me” in 1934. (She recorded the song in 1941.)

Billie Holiday was inspired to sing “Strange Fruit” after she stumbled upon seeing a young black man get lynched by the KKK. (The song was based on a poem about lynching by a Jewish school teacher in the Bronx named Abel Meeropol {he’d later be the guy who adopted Julius and Ethel Rosenberg’s two sons} and had been previously played in teachers’ union meetings. Billie was introduced to the song by a Greenwich Village club owner but she almost didn’t perform it since she said it reminded her of her father’s death {who was a jazz musician named Clarence Holiday who was denied treatment for a fatal lung disorder because of racial prejudice}.)

Billie Holiday knew her husband Louis McKay during the beginnings of her singing career. (She probably didn’t know Mafia enforcer Louis McKay until later for she married him in 1952 and he was her third husband. Though Lady Sings the Blues was correct that McKay tried to get Billie off drugs, he was no less abusive than her other two husbands as well as an opportunist who eventually left her. Billie certainly would’ve divorced him had she not died in 1959 from liver cirrhosis. In the biopic with Diana Ross, he’s played by Lando Calrisian. However, McKay wasn’t the only man in Billie’s life as a jazz singer but her life was the opposite of a happy Hollywood story.)

Woody Guthrie:

Woody Guthrie’s singing partner at LA’s KFVD was Memphis Sue. (Unlike in the film Bound for Glory, her name was Maxine Crissman known as “Lefty Lou” because she shared Guthrie’s politics and was just as outspoken.)

Woody Guthrie was fired from KFVD in Los Angeles in 1939 because of his left wing politics. (Yes, and no. Unlike in Bound for Glory, Guthrie was never pressed to stop singing union-organizing songs because station owner Frank Burke was a populist New Dealer who agreed with him. The real reason that Guthrie was fired from KFVD was due to World War II when the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany. Guthrie would start singing songs that mirrored the Communist Party line and denounced the war as capitalist fraud. He’d later change his mind once Germany invaded Stalingrad though.)

Glenn Miller:

Glenn Miller and his wife had adopted two children by 1938. (Their kids were adopted in 1943 and 1944 and it’s likely Glenn may have only saw his son once and never met his daughter. Also, unlike his Jimmy Stewart portrayal, he was only 40 when he died.)

“Tuxedo Junction” was recorded after the sequence was filmed. (Actually it was recorded before the dance sequence was filmed.)

Ray Charles:

Ray Charles did nothing to help his younger brother George from drowning in their mother’s washtub because he thought the boy was joking. (Actually contrary to Ray, according to his autobiography, Ray Charles said he tried to pull his brother out of the tub after realizing he was actually drowning but was unable to save him.)

Malcolm X:

Malcolm X’s father was a race leader willing to brave opposition to promote Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association. (Yes, his dad was an activist as well as a Baptist lay preacher but the elder Little is somewhat idealized in the Spike Lee film Malcolm X. The real Malcolm X remembered him as an abusive husband and father though Spike Lee was right that he was most probably murdered {despite police saying Earl Little’s death was an accident and the life insurance company saying it was a suicide}. Still, after his father’s death, his family fell apart.)

Howard Hughes:

Howard Hughes reshot Hell’s Angels for sound. (He just reshot the dialogue sequences only, tweaked the plot, and replaced Greta Nissen with Jean Harlow.)

Howard Hughes was a self-made man. (While this is implied The Aviator, we have to accept that if Howard Hughes didn’t have wealthy parents who died when he was a teenager, he wouldn’t be the guy we know today.)

Howard Hughes referred to Katharine Hepburn as “country mouse” while Hepburn called him “city mouse.” (It’s actually the other way around according to telegrams since Hughes lived in suburban Los Angeles and Hepburn was a regular in New York.)

Howard Hughes was left handed. (According to photos he was right handed.)

Howard Hughes’ first film Hell’s Angels was the most expensive film ever made at that time. (Actually the 1925 Ben Hur: A Tale of Christ was but Hell’s Angels wasn’t far behind.)

Howard Hughes’ germ phobia originated with his mother. (Somewhat since his mother did get hysterical about germs and coddled her only child excessively. Yet, Howard Hughes’ aversion to shaking hands wasn’t since that probably began when he contracted syphilis {this isn’t shown in The Aviator}, which revealed itself in the form of tiny blisters forming on his hands. After receiving medical treatment, Hughes’ doctor recommended him not to shake hands for a while. Hughes would follow that for the rest of his life. Oh, and unlike what The Aviator implies, Hughes liked African Americans as much as he liked germs.)

Most of Howard Hughes business deals were spur of the moment decisions. (Actually, they were complex business deals that were arranged well in advance.)

Howard Hughes burned all his clothes as a response for Katharine Hepburn dumping him. (Go ahead, Martin Scorsese, blame the women in his life for making Howard Hughes do crazy things. However, the real Howard Hughes didn’t burn all his clothes just because Katharine Hepburn dumped him. The clothes burning had more to do with Hughes’ overreacting to his syphilis diagnosis by ordering every piece of clothing and bed linen in his home destroyed.)

Amelia Earhart:

Amelia Earhart was an annoying brat. (She was said to be charming and rather soft-spoken.)

The romance between Amelia Earhart and George Putnam didn’t attract scandal. (Actually it did because he was married with a kid when they hooked up.)

George Putnam was old enough to be Amelia Earhart’s father. (He was actually only 10 years older than her, but Richard Gere is 25 years older than Hillary Swank which makes it kind of look creepy in Amelia. Still, when it comes to sexual chemistry, let’s say you’re better off reading about the real thing.)

Amelia Earhart had an affair with Gene Vidal. (They knew each other but it’s highly unlikely they had an affair. By the way, Gene Vidal was Gore Vidal’s dad.)

Miscellaneous:

Prohibition was repealed early in 1933. (It was repealed in December of that year.)

Hopping onto moving trains was perfectly safe. (No, it’s not.)

Members of the Klu Klux Klan were ardently racist. (Many of them, absolutely. However, there were people like Hugo Black who mainly joined the KKK just to get into politics because he was from Alabama and thought that he needed to do so to enhance his political career. However, he admitted that joining was a mistake. Still, between the world wars, the Klan was a powerful organization in this period. And the Second KKK was more of a nationwide organization with Indiana being the most dominated Klan state in the 1920s.)

The stock market crash was the direct cause of The Great Depression. (What caused the Great Depression wasn’t just the 1929 Stock Market Crash but also other shady business practices like an unregulated finance system, lack of economic transparency, too many people making bad stock investments like buying on margin, living beyond means, and others that had culminated in over a decade. Also, the Great Crash was part of a string of worsening economic conditions.)

Swing music was around in 1933. (Actually the earliest swing music wouldn’t be recorded until late in 1935.)

It wasn’t unusual in the South to have mixed black and white prisoners in the prison population and in the chain gang. (This wouldn’t have happened in the 1930s but we see integrated prisons and chain gangs in a lot of films, including those made in the 1930s like in I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang.)

In 1935, prisoners were executed in Louisiana by the electric chair in the state prison. (Sorry, Stephen King, but Louisiana executions in the 1930s were carried out in local courthouses. The state wouldn’t start electrocuting prisoners until 1940 and they wouldn’t be conducted in state prisons until 1957. Also, it’s unlikely that a 1930s Louisiana radio station give any airplay to a Billie Holiday record.)

“You Are My Sunshine” was a popular song in 1937. (It was written in 1939 and recorded and released in 1940.)

The Stock Market Crash happened in 1928. (It occurred in 1929.)

Lots of stock brokers jumped out of windows during the 1929 Crash. (Few did, if any. Yet, about 23,000 did kill themselves in its first year though.)

The Great Depression started with the Crash of 1929. (Actually as to when the Depression began depends on locations. Sure the Crash of 1929 might have set the Depression in motion and banking system collapsed in 1932-1933. And in the South, the Great Depression was well on its way due to cotton boom of the previous century and its traumatic ending.)

Starvation was rife during the Great Depression. (Though people starved, most were able to survive through resourcefulness and charity. Not to mention, virtually no one starved to death during the Great Depression.)

The people of Sallisaw, Oklahoma were driven from their land due to eviction and the Dust Bowl. (Actually Sallisaw is in the Eastern part of the state and is considered green country. The Dust Bowl never happened there but rather in the western part of Oklahoma. The Joads more likely fled their home due to eviction.)

The Lone Ranger was a popular character in 1931. (Michael Sullivan’s kids wouldn’t be reading books by him at this time because the Lone Ranger was created for radio in 1933 while the books came later.)

Hoboes were just harmless old drifters full of tall tales and song just wanting to see the world.

The Klu Klux Klan used the Confederate Battle flag in their rallies. (Only the US flag was used in KKK rallies during the 1920s and 1930s. The KKK wouldn’t use the “rebel” flag in their rallies until the Civil Rights conflict of the 1960s. This is why we associate the “rebel” flag with racism today and why it’s absolutely not OK to have it on public display even if you are a redneck or Lynard Skynard fan. It’s the same reason why wearing KKK robes and using blackface are never OK.)

You could easily buy alcohol in Mississippi in 1937. (Actually though Prohibition would be repealed in 1933, Mississippi still prohibited the sale of alcohol until 1966.)

W. Lee “Pappy” O’Daniel was a two term governor of Mississippi. (Yes, he did exist and wasn’t made up by the Coen Brothers. Yet, he had no political presence in Mississippi and until 1975, incumbent governors in Mississippi weren’t allowed to run for reelection. The real Pappy was a Texas flour salesman who became a radio personality {as host of broadcasts of Bob Wills and the Light Crust Doughboys}, then used that as a platform to launch himself into Texas politics, becoming governor, and later Senator.)

1930s radio programs had recording sessions. (Recording sessions didn’t exist in radio until the late 1940s. All radio broadcasting at this time was live, with national shows produced twice for the East and West coast.)

The FDIC was created in 1933. (It was created in 1934.)

John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie were alive and well in 1933. (Carnegie had been dead for 14 years by this point while Rockefeller was 94 years old.)

Hobos always carried their belongings in bindle sticks.

You may realize that a lot of the movies I have pictures for related to the 20th century thus far are screen adaptations from literature. However, I think Baz Luhrman’s 2013 adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby which stars Leonardo DiCaprio as the title character pretty much sums up the decadence of 1920s America among the upper class though with the Jay-Z music aside. Still, Luhrman is absolutely spot on with the glitziness and decadence of the era that has shaped much of our perception with its exquisite Art Deco set design. Yet, Leo’s Gatsby is a tragic hero in an age of lavish parties and lifestyles of excess who was driven to make his fortune on an idealized but unattainable dream which eventually costs him dearly and through illegal means. Despite that he managed to rise from poverty to great wealth, he dedicated his endless talent and ambition to become part of a society that cared nothing for him. No wonder they make us read the book in high school though I have much more appreciation for F. Scott Fitzgerald’s work now than I did back in the day.

After World War I and Spanish flu, the 1920s was a time of great change with people embracing a new modernism and casting away the old fashioned trappings of 19th century life for good. Film had become the new artistic medium with the great silent films made all over the world. Jazz and blues have become all the rage in music with new dances like the Charleston, the Shimmy, the Tango, the Baltimore Buzz, and the Black Bottom. Yet, in movies, this is seen as the decade of parties, prosperity, and hedonism. It was the time of the flapper, a 1920s party girl who liked to drink, smoke, spoke in slang and swearing, had sex where and whenever she wanted, and enjoying other delights the Roaring Twenties had to offer. She had short bobbed hair tucked under her swanky cloche hat, wore knee length skirts and short and loose low-waisted evening gowns with turned up silk-stockings, and covered her face with powder and rouge. And the men didn’t look too badly either with their great colorful tailored suits capped with an array of hats. Gangsters especially had fashion sense and style. It was a decade of rebellion and tension whether it was Prohibition in the US that contributed to organized crime and violence or economic problems contributing to the rise of Nazism in Weimar Germany. You also see a lot of cool cars on the road not just limited to the Ford Model T and a lot of electric powered labor saving devices we associate with middle-class living (though many people in even the industrialized world wouldn’t have much access to it.) If you think the 1960s were a radical decade, the 1920s gives that era stiff competition yet with much more glamor and much more honest rebellious hedonism.

1920s America is an excited period in movie history which depicts scenes of parties, bootleg gin, jazz, lively dancing, and flappers in a gorgeous Art Deco interiors and architecture. Of course, this is the decade when US women got the right to vote though this didn’t necessarily mean that women though unfortunately the notion that women should be housewives once they got married remained a popular notion of the day though some women did try getting around it or having some fulfillment in their lives (though many had their choices limited just due to plain old socioeconomics). African Americans also had it better since this the time of the Harlem Renaissance with authors like Zora Neal Hurston and Langston Hughes, jazz artists like Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, and intellectuals like W. E. B. DuBois who helped plant the seeds of the Civil Rights Movement. Yet, it was a time when blackface was common in the entertainment industry, racial segregation was a fact of life, the Klu Klux Klan was a major organization with over 5 million members and had a 50,000 march in Washington D. C., and lynchings and hate crimes were still an all too common occurrence nationwide (especially in the South). It was a time of Prohibition when alcohol was illegal and thus rebellion against the 18th Amendment became common and cool, yet led to organized crime and violence. Yet, it was a time of the Scopes Monkey trial and religious fundamentalism. Finally, it was a time of big business and prosperity, but laissez-faire politics would make an unpredictable and unregulated stock market with high-risk practices like buying on margin which would lead to the Great Stock Market Crash of 1929 and put an end to the Roaring Twenties for good. Of course, there are plenty of things movies in America during the 1920s get wrong which I shall list with key precision.

Sports:

The NFL in the1920s had an annual college draft. (The ideal of an annual college draft was proposed to the NFL in 1935 and wasn’t put into effect until 1936. Leatherheads is a whole decade off on this and probably should’ve taken place in the 1930s since its plot revolves around this.)

Lou Gehrig hit a home run through a window of the Columbia University athletic building. (The athletic building is nowhere near Columbia’s baseball field. Ironically, while Lou Gehrig did attend Columbia on a football scholarship, but dropped out after a couple of years when he went to play for the Yankees.)

The “Hail Mary” pass was a 1920s football term for a long last-second pass down field. (It wasn’t coined until after the Dallas Cowboys beat the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC championship game in 1975. In some ways a “Hail Mary” is a newer term than “the Immaculate Reception” which was something only people raised in Steeler country would understand. It’s hard to explain.)

The NFL league president in the 1920s was appointed by Congress. (The NFL is a private corporation and has never had a league president appointed by Congress. Though the NFL did have a president at this time named Joe Carr, he was probably appointed by a board of directors just like every NFL president since. Also, he wouldn’t have had the power to deal with the media as he did in Leatherheads.)

Archibald “Moonlight” Graham played his lone game at the end of the 1922 baseball season. (He played his only game in June of 1905. Yet, like his Burt Lancaster portrayal in Field of Dreams, he actually did go on to be a doctor and practiced in Chisholm, Minnesota {but he was actually born in Fayetteville, North Carolina}. Oh, and he died in 1965 not 1972. Not to mention, he batted left-handed not right handed.)

Pitcher Shoeless Joe Jackson batted right-handed and threw left-handed. (He batted left-handed and threw right-handed.)

One of the banned players of the 1919 Chicago White Sox was a catcher. (None of the three catchers of the 1919 White Sox were among the eight players banned from that team.)

Babe Ruth was sold to the Yankees because Red Sox owner Harry Frazee’s latest Broadway offering had flopped. (This is a popular myth but it’s really not the case. The real story according to Imdb is: “the sale came about due to the fact that Frazee hadn’t been hand-picked by American League president Ban Johnson to own a team, hence, Frazee was unwilling to do Johnson’s bidding. When Carl Mays jumped the Red Sox, Frazee sold him to the Yankees, ignoring Johnson’s order to suspend Mays. Meanwhile, Ruth was out of control, repeatedly breaking curfew, and jumping the team several times. The final straw came when Ruth was a no-show for the final game of the 1919 season, then held out for $20,000, despite the fact that Frazee had given Ruth bonuses. With the White Sox’ reputation in tatters following the Black Sox Scandal, and Johnson pressuring the Cleveland Indians, the Detroit Tigers, the Philadelphia Athletics, the St. Louis Browns, and the Washington Senators not to deal with Frazee, Frazee had little choice but to deal with the Yankees.”)

Lou Gehrig hit a ball out of Yankee Stadium during the 1925 season. (Actually this isn’t true since no player has done this.)

Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth were enemies from the start. (They were actually good friends until after Lou married Eleanor Twitchell in 1933.)

Babe Ruth and his first wife Helen divorced after Babe was sold to the Yankees. (Actually they never divorced since they were both Roman Catholics but they did separate by then. In fact, Babe didn’t marry his second wife Claire {who he met at a Yankees vs. Senators game} until a few months after Helen died in a house fire.)

Babe Ruth hit a home run at his first bat in the majors. (He didn’t because he was primarily a pitcher and rarely batted. In fact, he didn’t hit his first home run until his second season.)

Claire Ruth was Babe’s only wife. (She was his second, Helen was his first.)

William Randolph Hearst:

William Randolph Hearst shot movie producer Thomas H. Ince in the head by mistake on the former’s Oneida yacht in 1924 during the latter’s 42nd birthday. (His autopsies indicated he suffered a heart attack of indigestion on there. Still, he was taken ashore by water taxi accompanied by Dr. Charles Goodman and died at a San Diego hotel two days later. Yet, there were rumors that Hearst shot him which is probably bullshit but it was the subject of a lot of rumors.)

Charlie Chaplin:

Charlie Chaplin divorced his first wife Mildred Harris after he found out that she lied to him about a miscarriage. (She did lie to him about being pregnant to get Chaplin to marry her but they did stay together when he found the truth. However, Harris was pregnant to Chaplin a month or two after their wedding but the baby survived just three days. Chaplin and Harris divorced the following year.)

Charlie Chaplin had an affair with Marion Davies. (While there have been rumors, there’s no evidence they had. Also, a lot of Chaplin’s love interests were much younger than he was and his first two wives were both under 18. I think it’s more likely him and Davies were just friends. Besides, Chaplin’s sex life had gotten him into quite a bit of trouble during his life and 1924 was the year he knocked up Lita Grey who was about 16. Not to mention, unlike in Cat’s Meow, Chaplin wasn’t on the Oneida during the Thomas Ince incident but did visit him afterwards and attended his funeral, according to his autobiography. Still, we’re not sure how much of Cat’s Meow is accurate because there’s not much evidence to support such events depicted.)

Harry Houdini:

In 1926, Harry Houdini died of a ruptured appendix during his first attempt to escape from the Chinese Water Torture Cell. (This is how Houdini died in the Tony Curtis film, which does a terrible job telling the guy’s life story. For one, Houdini had developed his water torture escape 14 years before his death and performed it hundreds of times. Second, while he did die of a ruptured appendix it was during his 1926 tour and took much longer. In Montreal, he exhibited his strength by letting a medical student strike him in the abdomen. Yet, the blows came before Houdini could prepare himself and his appendix was ruptured. However, he fiercely disregarded his own physical ailments {didn’t seek medical attention} but continued the tour for 9 days until he collapsed and subsequently died of peritonitis in a Detroit hospital on Halloween of 1926. So Houdini’s death had less to do with his escape hijinks he’s so famous for and more to do with him having a severe medical complaint and refusing to seek proper medical attention. No dark forces here.)

Harry Houdini was alive in 1928. (He died in 1926.)

Gypsy Rose Lee:

Gypsy Rose Lee and June Havoc had the ultimate stage mother. (Yes, their mother was one to the max. Yet, Gypsy leaves out that Rose Hovick had a violent temper, ran a lesbian boarding house, and might’ve shot her lover dead for making a pass at Gypsy that was covered up as a suicide. She never stopped demanding money from either of her daughters.)

Cole Porter:

Cole Porter’s original version of “Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall in Love)” was written in the 1920s contained nothing objectionable by today’s standards. (Allow me to show you a sample from the original lyrics in the first chorus: “Chinks do it, Japs do it, up in Lapland little Laps do it…”. You could see why recent renditions of the song don’t include this. Also, contrary to Midnight in Paris, it was written in the 1940s.)

“Let’s Misbehave” was a popular song in 1922. (Cole Porter wrote it in 1927.)

Linda Lee was a young woman when she met Cole Porter in 1919. (Contrary to Night and Day, her name was Linda Lee Thomas who was a 36 years old divorcee when she met Cole in Paris during 1919 who was widely considered one of the world’s most beautiful women. Cole was about 28 at the time. Their relationship was highly intimate but never romantic since Linda didn’t desire sex after an abusive first marriage and Porter was gay {and she knew what she was getting into}. Still, she fiercely supported his musical career and never left him in the 1920s. They were briefly estranged in 1937 though but it was over her wanting him to give up Hollywood and return to Broadway. Also, they spent a lot of the 1920s traveling Europe.)

Cole Porter was straight. (Uh, unlike his Cary Grant portrayal in Night and Day {though Grant batted on both teams if you know what I mean}, Cole Porter liked men. You hear me, all you old people out here who listen to his music, he was gay and by “gay” I don’t mean happy either.)

Franklin Delano Roosevelt:

FDR walked to the podium on crutches when he addressed the 1924 Democratic Convention. (He didn’t walk on crutches. Rather, he was supported by his son James on one side and he supported himself with a cane with the on the other. To the observer, this gave more of an appearance of walking.)

FDR’s crutches were so short that he’d have to lean over and use them to walk on all fours. (No competent orthopedist would ever give FDR crutches that were that short but Ralph Bellamy does this in Sunrise at Campobello. According to Imdb: “Crutches should be long enough so that the user can stand up straight, support his weight on them and propel himself forward with his shoulder muscles.”)

FDR was faithful to Eleanor Roosevelt who was undeniably straight. (Actually FDR and Eleanor weren’t sleeping together by the time FDR contracted polio mostly because Eleanor discovered him having an affair with her social secretary Lucy Mercer. He dumped her and she married someone else, but they did get back together without Eleanor’s knowledge since Lucy was with him when he died. He’s also said to have two other mistresses such as his private secretary Missy LeHand and Daisy Suckley who gave him Fala. Their marriage was actually more of a political partnership than anything resembling an intimate relationship between husband and wife. Despite giving birth to six kids, Eleanor is said to have disliked sex {at least with him} which may lead some to speculate whether she was gay for she did develop rather close relationships with a few female friends {she was even plagued by gay rumors as First Lady}. )

FDR’s polio brought him and Eleanor closer together. (It actually drove them further apart.)

FDR and Eleanor spent a lot of time together after he contracted polio. (They actually spent a lot more time apart in their own lives. They weren’t a conventionally married couple. In fact, FDR’s polio led Eleanor to involve herself more in Democratic politics.)

Charles Lindbergh:

Charles Lindbergh was an upstanding American hero and role model. (Despite the fact that he believed in eugenics, was a Nazi sympathizer before Pearl Harbor, and fathered thirteen children with three or four different women. Kind of puts him in competition of today’s athletes in the anti-role model department despite being played by Jimmy Stewart.)

Charles Lindbergh was a Colonel in the National Guard during his famous flight from New York to Paris. (He was a Captain. He would be promoted to Colonel after he returned.)

Robert Stroud:

Robert Stroud was a vicious killer but his behavior improved once he got into ornithology. (Contemporary inmates resented Burt Lancaster’s portrayal of the guy in Birdman of Alcatraz and said Stroud was far more sinister and unpleasant than he was in the film. Oh, and one of the reasons why he was sent to Alcatraz was that some of the equipment Stroud had requested for his Leavenworth lab was being used as a home made distillery. Also, he was diagnosed as a psychopath during his time at Alcatraz.)

Rudolph Valentino:

Rudolph Valentino worked as a boxer and giggolo. (Contrary to Valentino, he was neither.)

Rudolph Valentino’s early death was caused by an alcohol perforated ulcer. (Contrary to Valentino, the ulcer was caused by stress and his refusal to see a doctor, not booze. Also, he was said to have suffered from peritonitis and other health problems.)

Eugene Allen:

Eugene Allen’s mother was raped by a plantation owner who shot his dad dead. (Contrary to The Butler, there’s nothing to suggest that Eugene’s parents ended up like this. Also, he grew up in Virginia, not Georgia. Still, unlike his film expy Cecil Gaines, Eugene probably had a pretty mundane childhood you’d usually expect of a black kid living in the Jim Crow Era.)

The Matewan Massacre:

The 1921 Matewan Massacre was an isolated incident in 1920s West Virginia. (It was actually part of a prolonged struggle for unionization of West Virginia miners which lasted for decades since the state was dominated with people who were dominated by the special interests in the coal companies that even the authority of sympathetic local officials was often overridden. In 1907, the state experienced the worst coal mine disaster in US history and by 1921 mine safety laws were notoriously unenforced, child labor laws were weak and systematically ignored including educational requirements, coal mine operators didn’t have to pay compensation for workplace injuries, and so on. By this time in history, West Virginia had the highest death rate of any coal mining state with the proportion of miners dying in accidents exceeding that of any European country.)

The Matewan coal mining community needed outside influence to unionize. (They didn’t for the miners had been struggling to form a union for quite some time.)

The Scopes Monkey Trial:

John T. Scopes was engaged to a minister’s daughter. (He wasn’t nor did he have a girlfriend. The Browns in Inherit the Wind were fictional characters with no real-life counterparts. Also, he’d eventually marry a Catholic and convert.)

John T. Scopes’ teaching of evolution was frowned upon in the community where he taught. (Scopes’ trial wasn’t brought forth by some crazy Bible-thumping minister who didn’t want him to date his daughter. In fact, he wasn’t even arrested nor did he issue a plea for empathy. The town of Dayton actually persuaded Scopes to teach the theory of evolution since it was suffering an economic slump after Tennessee had banned such subject from the curriculum. Though initially reluctant, Scopes was planned to be indicted under the ban so the town could have a big publicity trial to bring in the tourists {so they weren’t hostile to people who came there to see the trial}. Also, attorney Clarence Darrow publicly announced he’d defend anyone arrested for teaching Evolution before the trial actually happened and the case was financed by the ACLU who wanted someone to challenge the constitutionality of the Tennessee evolution ban. The plan worked perfectly.)

William Jennings Bryan didn’t offer to pay Scopes fine if he was convicted. (Bryan actually did do this.)

William Jennings Bryan died of a heart attack right after the Scopes Monkey Trial collapsing at mid-speech. (He actually died five days later in his sleep. And, no, he didn’t collapse at mid-speech or had to be dragged out the courtroom while strangely speaking on being inaugurated as President.)

There were no Christian speakers who endorsed evolution during the Scopes Monkey Trial. (There were plenty that said Christians could believe in Evolution, too {a view endorsed by Darwin himself so would Scopes who’d later convert to Catholicism when he got married}, and such arguments are in the original transcripts. But such complexity beyond “us vs. them” simple message is a little inconvenient for Inherit the Wind {though it was intended as a criticism of McCarthyism so there’s not much middle ground there compared to the debate of creationism vs. evolution debate}. Other than what I listed, the trial went as much as it did in the play and later film.)

John T. Scopes was arrested for teaching evolution. (He claimed that he was teaching evolution in his school but nobody could prove that he actually taught it. Still, he did use a textbook with evolution in it, but all science teachers did at the time, even in Tennessee.)

The evolution ban was enforced in Tennessee. (Unlike in Inherit the Wind, Scopes was the only person tried under the law. Despite that the law against teaching evolution would remain in the books for at least over a decade, it was seldom enforced to the point where even college professors in the state taught it without further incident.)

William Jennings Bryan was totally and willfully ignorant of Darwin’s book and evolution in general. (In the actual case, he quoted from Darwin’s book in memory though completely out of context but definitely not of total ignorance.)

The 1925 Serum Run to Nome:

Balto was a gray wolfdog hybrid. (He was a trained purebred Siberian husky {or Malamute} and was mostly black with a white belly and front legs. You can actually see him in the Cleveland Museum of National History. Also, he was actually born in a kennel owned by the famous musher Leonhard Seppala and wasn’t a conceived during a random hookup between a Siberian husky and a wild white wolf. The 1995 Balto children’s cartoon lied. Besides if Balto was a wolfdog that spent most of his life in the wild, he probably wouldn’t have been seen as a viable sled dog, let alone be able to reproduce if domesticated.)

The serum run to Nome, Alaska was a race with Balto being the leader of the first team to carry the medicine to Nome in which he had to travel the longest and most hazardous distance. (Actually the 1925 serum run depicted in Balto was a relay. Balto was the leader of the last team to carry the medicine to Nome. The longest and most hazardous distance was traveled by the team led by Togo whose accomplishments went greatly under appreciated in the cartoon. Many mushers today would consider Togo the real hero of the sled run who actually did have an amazing story worth making into a children’s cartoon. Even his owner thought Togo was neglected by the press commenting in dismay, “it was almost more than I could bear when the newspaper dog Balto received a statue for his ‘glorious achievements'”. Still, he and Balto had the same owner, though Balto was pulled by one of Seppala’s workers.)

During the 1925 Serum Run to Nome, Balto took over the sled run once the musher was incapacitated. (No mushers were incapacitated during the sled run and the medicine was never driven by dogs alone. God almighty, is it just me who thinks Balto is kind of fucked up, here?)

After the 1925 Serum Run to Nome, Balto managed to father a litter of pups. (Balto actually had been neutered at a young age which would make his pups in the sequels be impossible to exist. What actually happened to Balto is pretty grim. Since he was never destined for stardom in the breeding shed, Balto was relegated to being neglected on the vaudeville circuit with his team. Balto and his fellow teammates would later be sold to the company who sponsored his tour. This led to the dogs being chained in a small area in a novelty and freak show museum in Los Angeles. That is, until a Cleveland businessman named George Kimble discovered to his shock how badly these animals and thus worked with a local newspaper to bring Balto and his six companions to his hometown. Balto and his fellow teammates would receive a hero’s welcome in 1927 and spent the rest of their lives in Cleveland’s Brookside Zoo. Of course, this would’ve made a terrible sequel to the 1995 kiddie cartoon.)

Bush planes in 1920s Alaska were used in the 1925 Serum Run to Nome. (Bush planes in the 1920s weren’t used for deliveries, medicine, or mail. Rather they were used for surveys and firefighting and were popularized after World War II. Also, bush planes at this time were concentrated in Canada and weren’t used commercially in Alaska until the 1940s.)

Miscellaneous:

The FRC and the Office of Censorship were around in 1925. (The FRC was founded in 1926 {soon to become the FCC in the 1930s} while the Office of Censor was established shortly after Pearl Harbor in 1941.)

Auto entrepreneur and later horse owner Charles S. Howard’s son Frankie, was a fan of Flash Gordon comics. (This is shown in Seabiscuit but it’s wrong. His son died in 1926 when Flash Gordon came out in 1934. Also, Frankie died in a truck accident at 15 not 10 as the film implies. Not to mention, the elder Howard had three other sons besides him. Not only that, but his second wife Marcela was his daughter-in-law’s older sister. So yeah, he became a brother-in-law to one of his sons.)

The Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building were under construction in 1922. (The Chrysler Building’s construction began in 1928. The Empire State Building’s construction began in 1930.)

The Charleston was a popular dance in 1922. (It would originate in 1923 for a Broadway show and would gain popularity in mid-1926.)

Dr. Spock’s book on childcare came out in 1929. (It was published in 1939.)

It wasn’t unusual for American jails to have black prison matrons. (There’s no way an African-American in 1920s America would’ve been allowed to hold a position of authority over white people. Yet, Queen Latifah plays one in Chicago.)

New York City was a town filled with skyscrapers in the 1920s. (The recent Great Gatsby adaptation exaggerates the number of skyscrapers actually in New York by this time.)

Julius W. “Nicky” Arnstein was Fanny Brice’s first husband. (He was actually her second. Still, he was a professional gambler and con artist as well as already married when Brice met him. He served two prison sentences during their relationship and it was for swindling as well as conspiracy to carry stolen Wall Street securities {worth $5 million} into the District of Columbia, not for embezzlement. He was also kind of a jerk who disappeared from Brice’s life {as well as their kids’ lives who aren’t mentioned in the movie} after his 1927 release. And though Funny Girl said that Arnstein turned to crime because his pride wouldn’t allow him to live off of Fanny, in reality he eagerly sponged off her even before their marriage. And instead of turning himself in as in the movie, he actually went into hiding and didn’t plead guilty when caught. He even used his wife’s money to fight the charges. As for Fanny herself, she didn’t come of modest means for her parents were relatively well-off saloon owners.)

Illinois had its first woman executed I the 1920s. (The first time Illinois executed a woman was in 1845.)

The Teapot Dome scandal was made public in January of 1922. (It was made public in latter half of 1923.)

“Rhapsody in Blue” was a hit in 1922. (George Gershwin wrote it in 1924.)

It wasn’t unusual to see a black rich guy have a white chauffeur at this time. (Well, this was unusual but F. Scott Fitzgerald included such instance in The Great Gatsby so it’s not that it didn’t happen.)

Orson Welles’ 1941 masterpiece Citizen Kane has been deemed as the best movie of all time by many film organizations like the American Film Institute. It’s thinly veiled story about William Randolph Hearst who managed to use his media savvy to get the US into a war with Spain with “Remember the Maine.” Yet, this movie also talks about the rising presence in the mass media in America about the turn of the century which men like Kane and Hearst helped engineer. While I may not think it’s the best movie of all time, I do agree that it’s a movie of great cinematic and historical value which should’ve received more contemporary recognition than it got.

My last part of the series regarding history in the movies will pertain to the 20th century since much of 21st history is too recent for everyone to agree upon since we live in a world of political bias and events of our recent past are very prone to opinionated judgements which may or may not be accurate depending on who you believe. Sometimes relatively recent history isn’t actually considered history at all but may fall around the line of current events since many of the participants are still alive, which is helpful for historians in some respect but sometimes they’d prefer talking about someone who is dead since they can’t really talk back. There may have been certain events that happened within the last 20 years or so but such incidences aren’t times that historians can adequately judge at the moment. Besides, I need to stop somewhere.

The 20th century was an even more transformative time than the one that preceded it with massive changes taking place within the span of generations and decades. In 1900, there were barely any cars on the street and by 1999, much of the western world starting to head toward the information age. Whatever progress is made in any field during the 19th century, would practically be on steroids in the 20th and then some ranging with everything from electricity, fashion, entertainment, to civil rights. Yet, the 20th century brought on its share of new challenges, new problems, and compelled us to redefine our place in the world as in a global village. Not to mention, the 20th century would be fraught by global conflicts, worldwide economic crises, pandemics, genocide, cultural unrest, and other things. Of course, these incidences are nothing new at all and have happened a lot in the past, but 20th century history implies that they are. Yet, the difference is that 20th century events in history are more likely to be recorded and depicted right where they happened and when thanks to the accessibility of information at this time. Events that occurred earlier are more likely to be forgotten until several years later. Not to mention, advances in communication have managed to make manipulating history much harder to do in many cases, though it is possible for many to use the media in their favor. But let’s say that Egyptian Pharaohs had a much easier time toppling monuments of their predecessor and expunge them from records than most of our dictators would today, since camera images can provide plenty of damning evidence than stone hieroglyphs.

Of course, I can’t begin my blog series on movies set in the 20th century until I discuss movie history in the United States around the turn of the century between the end of the American Civil War and US entry into World War I in 1917. This was a time of much excitement and contradiction. It was a time of progressive politics, science and technological innovation, expansionism, and increasing prestige. Yet, this is a time of rampant ethnic and racial discrimination, political corruption, boom and bust economic cycles, and widening divisions between the rich and poor. You have new inventions like phonographs, telephones, airplanes, and film. You have great waves of immigration from all over the world at this time seeking a new life in this country, yet at this time the American Dream has never been so far to reach due to discrimination, limited educational opportunities, child labor, monopolies, and political opposition of unionization. In 1890, the top 1% of Americans possessed more wealth than the poorest 99% combined, which is a reason why much of this period is called the Gilded Age. Still, you have plenty of movies set in this era tell how great this time was but it wasn’t. Nevertheless, there are plenty of inaccuracies I shall list accordingly.

The Statue of Liberty:

The Statue of Liberty was originally green like it is now. (It was originally brown and it took over 35 years for it to change color.)

The Statue of Liberty originally had a golden torch. (The gold leaf covered torch was installed in 1986. The original torch had portholes where it was illuminated from within.)

Industry:

Pinkerton Detective James McPharlan’s initial contact with the Molly Maguires was at Port Clinton’s Emerald House. (It was at the Sheridan House in nearby Pottsville, Pennsylvania.)

Jack Kehoe brought Detective McPharlan into the Molly Maguires. (It was “Muff” Lawler who did since he was the master of the group’s membership. Of course, Kehoe is played by Sean Connery in The Molly Maguires. Still, Kehoe was seen by the Pinkertons as the master conspirator in the Molly Maguires and was seen by Allen Pinkerton as a diabolical figure. Still, in the Molly Maguires there was plenty of private and workplace squabbles, ethnic resentment, and class grievances that gave much rise to the violence in the coal patches of Western Pennsylvania. The movie about them is more about the immigrant experience.)

James McPharlan’s relationship with Mary Raines was a tragic love story. (The woman McPharlan courted was Mary Ann Higgins who was a sister-in-law to one of the Molly Maguires, Jimmy Kerrigan. However, it was a romance that furthered the investigation into the group and nothing more.)

Inventors:

Alexander Graham Bell:

Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in his youth. (It was invented by Antonio Meucci in 1860 and Johann Phillip Reis in 1861 and both called it a “telephone.” Still, he invented a telephone called the Bell – telephone in the 1870s. Nevertheless, Bell would later invent a model for a wireless telephone called a Photophone, which would be precursor to fiber-optic communication. He also invented a metal detector and did experiments in hydrofoils and aeronautics.)

Alexander Graham Bell sent the first sound through a wire in the 1870s. (The first sound through a wire was made by Johann Phillip Reis in 1862.)

Mabel Hubbard fell for Alexander Graham Bell at first sight when she accidentally ran into him when he arrived to her family’s house. (Well, we’re not sure though he was definitely one of Mabel’s teachers and she was his favorite pupil. Still, they were a devoted couple until Alexander’s death in 1922.)

Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas A. Watson were clean shaven men in the 1870s. (Both had beards.)

Alexander Graham Bell was a great humanitarian for the deaf. (Despite having a deaf wife and mother, he was a shitty guy to the deaf community {though he did think he was doing the right thing}. He was a big believer in eugenics {the idea that sterilizing poor and disabled people was rad idea} and wasn’t too thrilled with having deaf teachers or deaf people marrying each other. Not to mention, his ideas on teaching deaf people to read lips really didn’t help their quality of life. So yes, Bell was a real huge jerk.)

Nikola Tesla:

Nikola Tesla was an underrated inventor who was a crazy genius but was screwed by Thomas Edison. (Edison wasn’t a nice guy and did steal inventions from some people but you can’t blame all of Tesla’s failures on him though they did have an intense rivalry. When Tesla got bored of sane science his career totally bombed. Tesla’s attempts to build a death ray and the weather control machine or whatever else he was hoping to build just didn’t work. He may have done some important work in physics as well as been the first person to file a patent of a VTOL aircraft, but neither would actually be built decades later when the actual nuts-and-bolts engineering was being done by someone else. Yet, he’s seen as an awesome underrated scientist in whatever he’s in. Yet, Marconi did still Tesla’s patent for radio while Edison didn’t.)

Nikola Tesla succeeded at building a working death ray. (He didn’t but many of his ideas were used by later inventors and scientists.)

Thomas Edison:

Thomas Edison was a ruthless, violent man who crushed his foes by sending goons to burn down their labs and run them out of town. (Edison might’ve been ruthless and played dirty enough to order a disinformation against AC involving lobbying and killing animals. He’d even briefly switch his view on the death penalty and invent an electric chair if it meant making the other guy look bad. However, Edison would never have stooped so low as to burn his rivals’ labs and run them out of town. As for inventing the electric chair, he would live to regret it.)

Thomas Edison invented the electrical power transmission. (Actually Nikola Tesla did since he was the guy who advocated alternating current. Edison was on team direct current. From Imdb: “Edison insisted on powering his lights with direct current, which could only travel sort distances from the generators that produced it. Tesla used alternating current, which could be run through transformers to increase its voltage so it could be moved over long distances, then reduced in voltage again for home use. Tesla’s alternating current, not Edison’s direct current, quickly became the standard and is what we use today.”)

Thomas Edison was married once. (He was married twice. His wife depicted in Edison the Man only lived to be 30 and died in the 1880s. He also had three kids from each marriage.)

Thomas Edison invented the light bulb. (He invented a light bulb that was more marketable. However, there were two other guys who have before him across the Atlantic Ocean.)

Dr. John Harvey Kellogg:

George Kellogg was a boozed-up vagrant who burned down his dad’s sanitarium. (He wasn’t though Dr. John Harvey Kellogg did adopt 42 children putting Angelina Jolie and Mia Farrow to shame. Oh, and George didn’t burn down his dad’s Battle Creek Sanitarium {though it did burn down in 1902 due to an accident but it had been rebuilt by the time The Road to Wellville is set which is in 1907}.)

Dr. John Harvey Kellogg’s sanitarium allowed mixed quarters among the sexes. (Men and women were segregated at his sanitarium.)

Dr. John Harvey Kellogg died attempting to demonstrate the high dive. (He actually peacefully died in his bed.)

Writers:

Mark Twain:

Samuel Clemens was in Nevada before American Civil War. (He went there after the war started and his brief stint in the Confederate Army, partly to get out of the conflict. Nevertheless, he hated slavery which is well known.)

Samuel Clemens met Henry Huttleston Rogers who told the author he could avoid bankruptcy in his publishing company if he didn’t honor his overly generous contract to publish Ulysses S. Grant’s memoirs. Clemens was willing to risk bankruptcy after seeing Grant dying and poverty stricken since the country owed him such a debt of gratitude. (Clemens’ company did publish Grant’s memoirs which were a huge success and eight years before he met Rogers. Still, like his 1944 biopic The Adventures of Mark Twain, Clemens would’ve risked bankruptcy anyway to get Grant’s memoirs published if he had to because he respected the man so much that he let Grant’s family have 75% of the royalties. However, publishing Grant’s memoirs wouldn’t have been seen as a financial risk because he was still well loved by the time of his death, especially among people who’ve actually known and served with him {which was a lot}. Not to mention, any publishing company would’ve wanted to get their hands on them. Still, Clemens’ business did go bankrupt but not because of Grant.)

Mark Twain wore his signature white suit while his wife Olivia was still alive. (He only started wearing it after he mourned his wife’s death in 1904, at which time he swore to only wear white for the rest of his life. However, knowing that his white suit is his signature look, this can be forgiven in any biopic of him.)

Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, and Jim were real people in Samuel Clemens’ childhood. (They’re fictional characters of Twain’s own creation but they were based on real people he knew when he was a kids. Still, their presence in his childhood is rather appropriate for his 1944 biopic even if those three were fictional creations. Still, at least Jim’s in it even though Twain’s hometown doesn’t include him.)

Samuel Clemens knew of his wife Olivia Langdon when he was still a river pilot on the Mississippi River. (They met in 1867 and before then he probably didn’t know she existed. Oh, and he didn’t meet her brother while he was still a river pilot. Yet, they did meet through her brother Charles and their father wasn’t really keen on the idea on their relationship. Interestingly, their first date was to a Charles Dickens reading and throughout their lives in Hartford, had Harriet Beecher Stowe as a next door neighbor.)

“Warm summer sun shine kindly here, Warm southern wind blow softly here, Green sod above, lie light, lie light – Good night, dear heart, Good night, good night,” was on Olivia Langdon Clemens’ grave. (It’s on Susy Clemens’ grave who died of spinal meningitis at twenty-four, which left her father Samuel Clemens heartbroken and her family devastated. Thirteen years later Mark Twain would later lose his youngest daughter Jean who drowned in a bathtub at twenty-nine following an heart attack triggered by epilepsy {this is widely believed but Jean did suffer from seizures throughout her life}.)

Socialites:

Molly Brown:

Molly Brown and her husband were never accepted into high Denver society until the Titanic sank. (Yes, they were even before then. Also, their Denver house was quite small with only one room having a smidgeon of red wall paper {unlike what The Unsinkable Molly Brown wants you to believe}. Yet, she did have another house called the Avoca right outside the city. Also, her parties were quite well attended. Not to mention, in 1912, she was known as “Maggie.”)

Molly and John Brown got back together after the sinking of the Titanic. (They didn’t though they did care and communicate with each other throughout their lives and his name was James Joseph Brown or “J. J. Brown.” Also, they had two kids absent from The Unsinkable Molly Brown {which gets everything wrong}. Also, she was never an orphan or an only child and she got married in a Leadville Catholic church, not at Brown’s house. Not to mention, The Unsinkable Molly Brown makes her look like a selfish immature bitch when she actually did a lot of philanthropy and activism, especially in the rights of women and workers, education, historic preservation, and others.)

Entertainers:

George M. Cohan:

George M. Cohan was born on the 4th of July. (He wasn’t for he was born on July 3rd. His dad had him listed on the 4th of July out of patriotic fervor. Also, Josie was already two years old at George’s birth {in Yankee Doodle Dandy, she’s younger than him}.)

George M. Cohan received the Congressional Medal of Honor. (He was never in the military. However, he did receive the Congressional Gold Medal. Apparently the guys who made Yankee Doodle Dandy didn’t think people would know anything about the Congressional Gold Medal.)

Jerry Cohan was the last of the 4 Cohans other than George M. Cohan himself. (He actually died in 1917 while his wife Helen died in 1928. George’s sister Josie did 1916. Still, that deathbed scene in Yankee Doodle Dandy should’ve involved George with his mother which would’ve made much historical sense. Either that, or have Helen Cohan present at Jerry Cohan’s deathbed because she outlived her husband.)

George M. Cohan’s wife was named Mary. (Actually Mary Cohan is a fictional character. Cohan was actually married twice. First to a woman named Ethel Levey whom he divorced in 1907. His second was Agnes Mary Nolan but who knows what he called her. Unlike in Yankee Doodle Dandy, Cohan also had four kids who all had careers in show biz. As for his looks, Cohan was a much better looking man than James Cagney who more or less resembled an elder Peter Sellers in his later years.)

Will Rogers:

Will Rogers was white. (He was of mixed race and just over 1/4 Cherokee. He also grew up as a member of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma.)

Cole Porter:

Cole Porter’s Yale “Bull Dog” song was instantly embraced as Yale’s anthem in 1914. (Actually “Bull Dog” is a fraternity smoking song and Cole Porter’s song for Yale was “Bingo! Eli Yale.” Also, he didn’t pay his way through college playing in a pit band or work at a sheet music store. Nor did he drop out of Yale either for he actually graduated. He actually switched from Harvard Law to its music school. Oh, and though he did serve in the French Army during World War I, he didn’t see combat nor was he ever injured. And unlike what Night and Day implies, Monty Woolley wasn’t his grizzled professor, he was an upperclassmen whom Cole knew socially and ended up becoming an actor {though he probably appeared as himself for he was an old grizzled bearded dude at the time}. Still, like Porter, Woolley was also gay.)

Cole Porter’s family was so happy when he decided to become a musician and quit law school. (Cole’s family wasn’t happy at all with his decision to get into music that on one occasion his mother and grandfather didn’t speak to each other or to Cole for several months. He and his grandfather never reconciled.)

The Progressive Era:

Theodore Roosevelt:

Theodore Roosevelt was nearly assassinated during his presidential campaign in 1904. (The attempt on his life was made in 1912, when he was a former president running as a candidate of the Progressive Party. Though the bullet hit him which resulted in him seeping blood, he delivered his speech as planned for a whole 90 minutes and didn’t seek medical attention until he finished. Yes, he was a medical marvel. Still, I wonder why there’s no Hollywood biopic of this man.)

Teddy Roosevelt had a deep, resonant, and bombastic voice. (His recording reveals him with a high pitched upper class New Yorker voice. However, he sounded like this because he typically used a high pitched voice that carries better in an outdoor venue, grew up with respiratory diseases like asthma, and came from an aristocratic family. Most Teddy Roosevelt portrayals sound nothing like the guy did in real life. Also, Hollywood tends to portrays him as a much older man despite the fact that he was only 42 when he became president {making him the youngest US president ever} and didn’t live past 60.)

Theodore Roosevelt was perfectly fine being called “Teddy.” (He hated being called “Teddy” since it was what his first wife Alice called him who ended up tragically dying in childbirth on the same day as his mother and in the same house. He actually preferred to be called “T. R.” Not to mention, he pronounced the name “Roosevelt” with the first part rhyming with “ruse.”)

Charles Curtis served as Vice President under Theodore Roosevelt. (He was vice-president under Herbert Hoover from 1929-1933, not under Teddy Roosevelt. In fact, in 1904, Roosevelt had no vice president since he had assumed the office after the McKinley assassination in the days before presidents in his position usually selected one. His eventual Vice-President was Charles Fairbanks, a senator from Indiana. Still, Ragtime should get its facts straight.)

Harry Houdini:

Harry Houdini jumped in the Detroit River locked in a trunk with the water turned into thick ice as well as had to conduct an excruciating underwater search for a hole in the ice directed by his dead mother’s voice. (Unlike what the movie Houdini says, while Houdini did jump in the Detroit River from Detroit’s Belle Isle Bridge, he was actually fettered in manacles and two sets of handcuffs. Of course, there were later embellishments which hadn’t been verified as depicted in the Tony Curtis film. However, hole in the ice or not, Houdini wasn’t guided by his dead mother’s voice because he performed the trick in November 27, 1906. At that time his mother was still alive.)

Harry Houdini’s mother died the same day as his Detroit River jump. (No, his mother didn’t die that day. Rather she died 7 years later but she was unquestionably the greatest loss of his life that he spent the rest of his life seeking authentic spiritual contact with her.)

Harry Houdini was an enterologist. (He was actually an escape artist contrary to the Tony Curtis film and his “Metamorphosis” trick with his wife actually had him freed and her take his place.)

Harry Houdini’s wife Bess always nagged him into seeking a normal day job a at a lock factory. (Actually their marriage was actually more boring that it was in the Tony Curtis film. Unlike most performers, Houdini had almost no problems reconciling love with his career or marriage and show business because Bess was his assistant and designed his costumes. Still, Bess may not have been able to have kids and there’s the fact that Harry’s family wouldn’t allow her to be interred with him after she died since she was raised Catholic and Harry was Jewish. Not to mention, Houdini’s work as an escape artist gave him more fame and fortune than he would’ve ever had.)

Harry Houdini’s work as an escape artist was inspired by a supernatural voice telling him to seek death at the price of fame. (Sorry, but the Tony Curtis movie has it wrong. His work as an escape artists was inspired by his psychological conflicts and teemed with elements of perverse anxieties like exhibitionism, mutilation, entrapment, insanity, and death. He was also a man who had been driven to escape his impoverished Jewish childhood, which is totally ignored in the film.)

All of Harry Houdini’s tricks were aided by a strange and hypnotic supernatural power. (He actually developed many of his acts by himself with modifications along the way. Besides, he performed many of his acts hundreds of times. Also, his escape acts took hours not minutes. Still, he was around at a time when there wasn’t a lot of venues for entertainment. Still, while Houdini did try to make a “scientific” search for the supernatural, he and his wife had briefly worked as sham mediums and they knew the tricks of the trade. He also devoted considerable energy to unmasking spiritualist charlatans with all the drama and publicity at his command, including one in which he duplicated all the effects of spirit photographs for all to see when Scientific American offered prizes for an authentic one under scientific conditions.)

Miscellaneous:

Small town America, in the past, was populated by people who were more innocent and virtuous than we are today. (Ever hear of lynchings?)

Lynchings only took place in the South. (Lynchings took place nationwide, but the South was the lynching capital of the country. It was also an event in the South where the white people would have picnics and bring their kids, yeah really. And the victims weren’t always innocent black men either as westerns were quick to point out, especially older westerns.)

More immigrants came to the US around the turn of the century than ever in American history. (Unless you are referring to European immigration, then no. Actually there have been more people coming to this country in the present day than there has ever been before thanks to the dropped quotas and bans on non-white immigrants, and even those weren’t effective. The reason why it’s mostly focused on this time period is because most Americans are descended from the people who came at the time around my parents’ generation.)

Charles Ossining invented a cola containing cocaine in the 1910s. (Coca-Cola originally had substantial quantities of cocaine until between 1891 and 1903. By the 1910s, it had virtually none due to the fact that cocaine distribution was already regulated by the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act of You914.)

The US economy boomed during this time. (Well, the economy grew but prosperity wasn’t enjoyed by everyone since this is a time of great economic and social inequality. Also, just because the US economy was big doesn’t mean it was stable, which it wasn’t and had its own share of disasters. You have the Black Friday panic on September 29, 1869, a day when the whole US economy was taken down by two speculators named James Fisk and Jay Gould whose efforts {made possible by a government tip off} to corner the gold market leading to a 30% increase in gold prices followed by large plummet when the federal government stepped in to sell some of their own holdings causing many investors to lose fortunes. You have the Panic of 1873 caused by the closing of a large and respected bank that helped the government finance during the US Civil War and the Northern Pacific Railroad called the Jay Cooke & Company leading European investors to call in their loans to American companies and the New York Stock Exchange shutting its doors for 10 days. Then you have 40% of American farmers losing their farms with many becoming tenants on land they formerly owned during the 1880s. Those who mortgaged to railroad companies found themselves foreclosed and homeless. Finally, there’s the Panic of 1893 caused by the bankruptcy of the National Cordage Company that tried to corner the rope market and was the most actively traded company on the NYSE at that point. This resulted in the failure of more than 500 banks and the closing of 15,000 businesses. Oh, it also led to a run in US gold reserves that backed the dollar that led to President Grover Cleveland having to borrow $65 million in gold from J. P. Morgan. Yet, do you hear about any of these financial disasters in movies? Not a chance.)

It was very possible for immigrants to have their surname change on a whim and without their consent. (This almost never happened unless at the immigrant’s request though this is a commonly believed myth. From Imdb: “Each immigrant had to have paperwork specifically saying their first and last name, and if something did not match, they were sent back to their home country to retrieve the correct paperwork.” Perhaps many immigrants changed their names since it would’ve been easier than having to go back to their home country to retrieve the correct paperwork.)

Immigrants at Ellis Island who were marked with an circled X were suspected as having small pox. (In history, a circled X was a sign for a mental illness, which would be entirely plausible in Vito Corleone’s case.)