When theater managers hung out the posters for Arch Oboler’s 3-D feature Bwana Devil in 1952, it was as though a new age of cinema had dawned. “A LION in your lap! A Lover in your arms!” Its tag lines leapt from the lobby cards the way the images did from the screen.
Film scholars credit the picture as the first color 3-D feature. But it also marked the beginning of the end for mainstream stereoscopic cinema, leading a long line of movies seen more as kitsch than craft.
Most people know Freemasonry as an organization with a long and, supposedly, sinister past. Today, its popular image is one of men pulling the strings of power behind closed doors with the goal of world domination.
Indeed, many of the stories about the Masons and their dealings are boundlessly imaginative. One tale even places a London-based lodge at the center of the Jack the Ripper murders, all of which were part of a plan to keep secret Prince Albert’s marriage to a Catholic prostitute from the city’s seedy East End.
Hearing such claims soon had the gears in my mind grinding: What are the group’s origins? Who are its members? What do they do? Are the stories about them true?
Rick Harrison (center) with his father, Richard, and his son, Corey. Today, the three run the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop, which is the subject of the History Channel series Pawn Stars. (Photo courtesy of the History Channel)
As the owner of the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop in Las Vegas, Nev., Rick Harrison depends on his ability to spot a fake. Whether he’s buying an antique firearm, a 200-year-old map, or a silver tea set, Harrison needs to know that he’s laying his money out for a genuine product.
During our recent phone interview, the star of the History Channel’s Pawn Stars was good enough to give us a glimpse of his world through his eyes and share a few tips on spotting fakes with two items that are favorites among forgers: silverware and Rolex watches.
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Editor Judith Jones (Photo by Christopher Hirsheimer)
After more than 50 years in publishing, Judith Jones has earned a reputation as a master of cookbooks. Among the many works that fill her dossier as an editor is Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking (1960), which gave post-war Americans something different from meatloaf and tuna casserole.
Jones confesses that she has always loved cooking, so it’s no surprise that much of her legacy as senior editor and vice president at Knopf fills millions of kitchen shelves around the world. But all of these cookbooks merely overshadow what is arguably her most important contribution to the world of literature–one that she made at the beginning of her career.
(Photo courtesy of David O'Neill)
An old pair of hard-sole shoes, two halves of a coconut shell, and a mashed box of corn starch wrapped in duct tape might be junk to most, but for Tom Keith, they’re tools of the trade. As the sound effects man for A Prairie Home Companion, he’s responsible for the footsteps, door slams, wind gusts, and revving engines that help bring to life the characters and locations in each episode’s skits.
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