DIMENSION X
Destination Moon
June 24, 1950
Robert Heinlein wrote Rocket Ship Galileo, a short novel published in 1947. At the time it was classified as "Juvenile Science Fiction". Today we'd call it a YA (young adult). This story was the inspiration for the treatment (screenplay story summary) he presented to screenwriter Alford Van Ronkel aka Rip Van Ronkel. Within a few weeks Ronkel had written the first draft of the screenplay. The working title was Operation: Moon and it was completed in 1948.
Two years later, 1950, filming complete, it was time to, as they say today, "get butts in seats". The studio, Eagle Lion Films, launched a multi-pronged promotion. Prior to the June 27th, 1950, premier of the film, the studio provided Dimension X with a radio play script. The July 1950 issue of Astounding Science Fiction included a short story version of Destination Moon by Heinlein as well a behind-the-scenes story titled Shooting 'Destination Moon'. Fawcett Publication produced a comic book version.
The story is an action adventure and character study set against the backdrop of space travel. There is also, like in most of these Cold War era productions, fear of communist domination in the background, punctuated by a newsflash that interrupts the show.
HISTORICAL GLOSSARY
Barnes praises the work General Thayer has done in comparison to the other military leaders. He says, "Some of those old mossbacks would still be using horse cavalry if they could get away with it." The single word metaphor "mossback" compares a person to a turtle or other shellfish that has moss growing on its back. If the animal moved around and changed position once in awhile the moss wouldn't be able to grow on its shell. Therefore a person who is a mossback is slow moving, opposed to change, and old-fashioned. A person like this would have wanted to keep the US Cavalry. The Cavalry was a military branch formally created by an act of Congress in 1861. In 1942 it was absorbed into the Army and essentially ceased to exist. The Cavalry fought on horseback and when you joined you were issued a horse. You kept that horse throughout your time of military service, it is equivalent to today when you join the military and you are issued a gun that you are responsible for during your service.
Barnes says, "I've been building and flying ships by the seat of my pants since they had piano wire between the wings." The idiom "fly by the seat of my/your pants means to accomplish something with grit and good judgment alone because the necessary resources are not available. And it comes from early aviators who flew with nothing but a seat in the plane: no instruments, no radio communication. The "piano wire" reference is the same as using the term "baling wire". I guess today we would use say "bungees" in the same context. It is an easily attainable resource to hold something together when you don't have the tools and equipment to do it properly.
When Mr. Brown, aka Brownie, groans with what seems like a stomach ache, but turns out to be appendicitis, Sweeney asks, "Eatin' green apples?" He is talking about unripe apples, not Granny Smith or whatever apple varieties are green in color. It was common knowledge in the 1950s, and the decades that preceded, that eating an unripe apple caused indigestion. Is that true? I don't know. I never ate an unripe apple because my grandmother said it would give me a stomach ache.
At one point Sweeney refers to the space suit as a "monkey suit". One gimmick of 1950s entertainers who included animals in their performances was to dress a monkey in a suit or tuxedo. Referring to this popular practice, the term "monkey suit" became a dismissive description of men's formalwear. It was a term that showed disdain for the necessity, or pretension, of dressing up. It often denoted a class difference and was used by the working class to mock the value of dressing formally. In this context calling the spacesuit a "monkey suit" is Sweeney's way of emphasizing how little he values the experience of space travel.
Sweeney grumbles about the situation of being just 110 pounds too heavy and the dire consequences by saying, "Oh, that's fine. I could have gone over Niagara Falls in a barrel, but I had to come to the Moon." Going down Niagara Falls (and not getting killed doing it) was a stunt that many entertainers and attention seekers tried. The first to do it successfully was Annie Edson Taylor in 1901. She braced herself in a barrel which she had padded with a mattress. She made the fall safely and gained celebrity, but not much wealth. Dozens of others copied her stunt, and "going over Niagara Falls in a barrel" became an idiom meaning to do something with great risk and little benefit.
15 сен 2024
