Transport - The Past

Ever since the dawn of man some ever evolving form of transport has existed.

(Hutchinson, G. 1997)

Amazon lists many books relating to transport in the past, mostly educational books such as Medieval Ships and Shipping by Gillian Hutchinson (1997).

 (Georgraphers A-Z Map Company. 1939/2008).

Whilst looking through Amazon I also had a look at Atlas's and A-Z maps. I found this was an interesting example; it's a reprinted (2008) edition of an A-Z map of London from 1939. I feel this is a very good and strong example that people have been interested in transport far back in the past (1939) and the more recent past (2008). This is quite a quirky item that I believe would spark most people's interests - especially if they live in London.

Trains Planes and Automobiles. 
 (Paramount Pictures. 1987).

Of course I couldn't look at transport in the past without mentioning Trains, Planes and Automobiles (1987). The whole plot of the film is about two characters trying to get home for Christmas, however unfortunate events (such as planes being delayed, a car crash, etc)  prevent them from an easy trip. The film was very popular when it was released, and in 2000 it was voted the 10th greatest comedy film by Total Film Magazine.

To me this film proves an extreme interest in transport in the media. The fact the whole film's plot is about traveling home and the common problems and setbacks you can face and it is one of many people's favorite films. The film is also of course held together by the funny comedy of the situations they find themselves in, and I believe if the film was done as a factual "boring" piece it wouldn't be very popular at all. People therefore enjoy the comedy applied to the mundane and stressful situations in the film.

One Piece at a Time.
(Columbia. 1976).

One Piece At A Time (1976) is a song sung by Johnny Cash about a man who sneaks parts out of a Cadillac whilst he works at the factory over a few years and at the end puts it all together. However because the parts are all from different years and makes the car ends up being a mismatch and looking very weird.

There are quite a few different songs that are about traveling such as Take Me Home, Country Roads (1971), Free Bird (1973) and even On the Road Again (1979). There's even more songs about traveling than I've listed here (http://matadornetwork.com/bnt/30-songs-that-capture-the-spirit-of-travel/), but the fact that there are these popular songs about traveling shows that people even want to listen to songs about it!

 Bullitt.

(Warner Bros. 1968). 

I thought it would be interesting to see when the first car chase was in a film. Bullitt (1968) staring Steve McQueen is commonly known as the first film with what we regard today as a car chase. The film's iconic car chase also greatly popularized the Ford Mustang and has been an inspiration for many sequences since.

(Coopmans, L. 2006).

British Grand Prix 1952.
(Getty images. 1952). 

Car chases lead on nicely to car racing. I wondered how long the Formula 1 had been running for and was surprised to learn it has been going since 1950. I thought that the Formula 1 was a much more recent invention. The cars have changed dramatically since then of course, pictured above is the Alpha Romeo which won the 1951 championship. (Willamson, M. 2009).

The Formula 1 Grand Prix has been broadcast on TV ever since its first days of racing, with its first colour broadcast being the 1967 German Grand Prix. Other forms of media such as magazines and newspapers have also covered the event in great detail since the start gaining a wide following. (Telegraph Media. 1968. Britian's Formula One Champions.)

Bicycle
When we think of the bicycles in the past we think of the penny farthing.

(Cheshire Life. 2010).

I found an interesting event that takes place every 10 years in Knutsford where people race penny farthing's. (Cheshire Life. (2010).

(CULT-TV. 1998).

Whilst looking for past media about the penny farthing I found an interesting use of it as a counter in The Prisoner Board Game (1998). The penny farthing was an icon in the TV Show, used on the badges displaying each prisoners number.

(Royal Doulton. 1843).

Whilst doing an eBay search for 'Penny farthing' I came across this rather interesting Royal Doulton figurine called 'Biddy Penny Farthing'. The Royal Doulton figurines are now considered quite rare and very valuable. I was very interested to see this hand painted figurine named after the bicycle, proof that it was quite popular in culture so that people would get the reference.

Airplanes
Planes have always been popular in the media.

  Airplane.
(Paramount Pictures. 1980).

I couldn't talk about airplanes in the past media without mentioning the obvious Airplane (1980) starring Leslie Nielsen. The whole film takes place on an airplane trip when food poisoning takes hold of some of the passengers and crew. Funny humor mixed in with situations that wouldn't occur on a normal flight ensure entertainment in the usual Leslie Nielsen (see The Naked Gun).

Final Destination.
(New Line Cinema. 2000). 

Final Destination (2000) taps into a lot of peoples fear of flying and death when a teenagers 'foresees' the plane blowing up and saves his friends, only to be hunted down by death afterwards. The film was very popular and has sparked many sequels. 

I believe that the film Final Destination (2000) was successful because it didn't do anything particularly unrealistic. Although it exaggerated and invented exotic deaths for people, they were all still things that you believe could happen (if you were to be so unlucky).

I thought an interesting thing to look at would be a past press launch of an airliner, however it was quite hard to find information about it. I did manage to find a video on the Airbus website of the A350 launch press conference http://videos.airbus.com/video/iLyROoafIleD.html

I also found a press release video from airbus to the media for the launch of the Airbus 380.

The Airbus A380 Launch Customers and More!
(Airbus. 2009).  

Previously companies have made quite a big deal about the launch of a new aircraft and have more recently made tried hard to get them published in as much media as they can. They even throw big parties in aircraft hangers to allow people to get up close and personal with the impressive scale of the planes, such as with the party they held for the first completed Airbus A380 in France, 2005.

Airbus A380.
(Airbus. 2005).

I believe that airline companies, such as Boeing and Airbus, like to publicly announce these new planes to boost their share prices on the stock markets. (The Telegraph. 2010. Airbus A380 Facts and Figures.)

A famous plane in the past is Concorde. Concorde was shut down and grounded in 2003 after a series of failures on aircraft and most notably a crash which killed all 100 passengers in France in July 2000. Concorde was most notable for its fast travel times and noticeable dipped nose.

Concorde has been in the media with books detailing the aircraft and events, such as The Concorde Story (2005) by Peter March. (March, P. 2005).

(March, P. 2005).

Concorde Airfix Set.
(AirFix. 1998).

(Wenk, D. 2007).

Trains have also been popular in the past media. A prominent example would be in western films, where steam trains were the fastest method of transport. Films such as Wild Wild West (1999) and Back to the Future Part 3 (1990) took this concept and added an amount of fiction to them to make them more interesting to the viewers.

Back to the Future Part 3.

(Universal Pictures. 1990).

I believe companies are very keen to add steam trains to films of this genre and time period because many people associate the period with the steam train. Ironically I believe that previous films set in this period, like The Great Locomotive Chase (1956) and Joe Kidd (1972), are responsible for this.

(Royal Mint. 2004).

In 2004 a £2 coin was released with a picture of a steam train on the back of it to commemorate a centenary of Richard Trevithick's steam engine design.

The EuroTunnel has had a lot of media attention over the years.When it opened in 1994 the BBC had a large coverage of the event as the Queen attended to officially open it. (BBC News. 1994. 1994 President and Queen Open Chunnel.)

(Alba Home Vision. 2010).

A year ago the official story of the making of the tunnel was released on DVD. Although the official guide book to the tunnel has been on sale since it opened.

 Mission Impossible.

(Paramount Pictures. 1996). 

The tunnel is also very popular to be featured in films, such as Mission Impossible (1996).

Army Chief to Review Eurotunnel Security.

(BBC News. 2001).

The Eurotunnel has also been in the news over the past few years however for negative reasons. Many immigrants hide on lorries driven into the trains and come over to the UK illegally. This has received a lot of negative press, and arguments have been made to step up security for the depots. (BBC News. 2001. Army Chief to Review Eurotunnel Security.)

Hornby R1071 Eurostar 00 Gauge Train Set.

 (Hornby. 2009).

Hornby even released a Eurostar train for their railway sets in 2009.

(Eurostar. 2005).

I believe from the examples I have collected I have showed that there has been a strong interest in the past in different types of trains. There are lots of media, ranging from factual books to toys covering lots of different kinds of trains and locations.

Advertising

(Heimann, J. 2001).

I found an very interesting book on amazon which is a collection of adverts from the 1950's. This book, published in 2001, is a prime example of advertising in the past media.

 (ZEUS Cameras. 1950).

 (Cambillis. 1950).

 

(Pabst. 1950).

The adverts of the 1950's had a very stylized, almost cut out, look to them. I think this is an interesting contrast to the adverts we have today with fancy computer graphics.

I thought it would be interesting to know when the first radio advert was broadcast. I found that on November 2, 1920 a radio station called KDKA aired the first radio advert in history. (WGBH. 1998). Since then radio advertising has been a frequent and constant stream of media.

(Hayhurst, I. 2009).

I believe that radio advertising has changed dramatically since it started in the 1920's. When people couldn't watch TV, radio had a large listener base - so companies could reach a very large audience with a simple radio advert. However as TV was invented and people stopped listening to radio as much I believe it has 'devolved' into a form of getting your message across to a more localized audience rather than a national wide audience. (Farber, D. 2004).

"The first commercial shown on TV in Britain was for Gibbs S R Toothpaste and was transmitted at 8.12 pm on Sept 22 1955 during a variety show hosted by Jack Jackson." (TurnipNet. 1999).

I found the above quote of the first commercial shown on British TV interesting. Adverts seem commonplace on TV today and I can imagine it was weird for the audience back in 1955 when the TV program was interrupted for an advert.