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I always felt there was something sinister—cold and disturbing—about “the world’s first computer-generated TV host”, quintessential 1980s character Max Headroom—but perhaps that was the idea. It didn’t surprise me when I heard that in the US, the show was scripted by Twilight Zone writers—George RR Martin did one (unproduced) episode.
Watching TV as a kid, looking up from my homework, I would occasionally catch bits of the show. It didn’t seem like an actual show, it didn’t have an intro or end credits: it suddenly came and went, as if some malevolent digital subversion had hijacked the channel to spout nonsense at the audience, in that stuttering, electronic, vaguely threatening voice.
I kind of miss that weird, satirical cyberpunk stuff though.
Marcello Nizzoli, adding machines: 1/ Olivetti Summa 15, 1949 2/ Olivetti Multisumma 20, 1964 3/ Summa Prima 20, 1974. Slow calculators with no stored memory (beside the paper strip). This changed with the introduction of the microchip in the 1970s. Museo de Informática, via Ceres
The first story goes like this: a columnist, commenting on a revealing dress Marilyn wore to an awards gala, remarked that she looked cheap and vulgar, and that she would look better in a potato sack. This prompted the publicity department at Twentieth Century Fox to capitalize on the spat and dress her up in one.
The second story features a more benevolent columnist, who is said to have exclaimed that Marilyn would look good in anything, even a potato sack. The publicity department then took these photos to prove just that.
Which story is true? We might never know. No one has ever actually found these columns. It could just have been some clever guy at Fox who came up with the idea all on his own and then loosely cobbled a story around it.
There’s something odd though, and this hasn’t been remarked before as far as I know. Look at the first photo, then at the second. They are from different sessions. In the first photo, which seems to be from 1950/1, her hair is different, the burlap sack is a different one too. The second photo looks to be from around 1952.
Idaho became the main “potato state” in the 1950s, overtaking Maine, likely because of the rise of the french fry industry. Around the same time, “Grown in Idaho” was introduced as it mark of quality. So perhaps it’s a promotional stunt from the Idaho Potato Commission?
After some more gentle encouragement from me, Tumblr has finally woken up and restored this incorrectly flagged post, some 20 hours after I appealed it. I’ll reblog it now so you can see it too.
