Ham Radio On The Silver Screen
And finally this week, with the OSCAR awards just around the corner its time to think ham radio, the silver screen and the little screen. Some of you may be familiar with the 1960's British Broadcasting Company' Tony Hancock Half Hour series and itd bungling ham radio operator segment. And here in the United States there was that famed t-v puppet who had a ham station of his very own. Putting those two aside, Amateur Radio has been on movie and television screens numerous other times, but not always in a way that hams might like. Amateur Radio Newsline's Evi Simons, has more:
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Possibly the earliest time amateur radio appeared in cinemas was the 1941 movie called "The Men of Boys Town". The character played by Mickey Rooney was a radio amateur who chatted frequently from the home of his adoptive parents to a friend called Pee Wee, who operated the Boys Town amateur radio club station. Wonder just how many that inspired to join our hobby?
Probably the penultimate movie was a French film entitled "If All the Guys in the World" which featured a young radio enthusiast Jean Louis in Paris who received a distress message from a ship. Through his efforts and with the help of other radio amateurs around the world he tries to prevent a major disaster.
Another movie was "The French Atlantic Affair" in 1979 about a hijacked cruise ship where a ham radio set was the only independent communication with the outside world.
However the use of amateur radio by movie-makers in the past decade or so has often not portrayed it correctly, and probably done more harm than good to the cause of ham radio.
A string of movies including Phenomenon in 1996, Contact 1997 and Frequency 2000 all concerned the supernatural, with amateur radio merely playing a convenient part of the storyline.
Maybe it's time for amateur radio to be portrayed accurately in a movie, or even a television soap opera using young actors. Perhaps there is a script writer, film industry executive, actor or someone else with influence who can make it happen - after all aren't dreams what movies are made from?
With thanks to VK3PC for much of this, I'm Evi Simons, in New York.
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On the other side of the coin, one of the best ever portrayels of ham radio probably came in the late 1970's on the childrens television show "The Secrets of Isis." There, the central character was a high school teacher named Andrea Thomas portrayed by actress Joanna Cameron. And at the end of each episode Cameron, as Isis, would speak directly to her young audience explaining the moral of each story. And in more than one episode the shows writers used ham radio to move the plot line along. Of coarse it did not hurt that one of the people behind "The Secrets of Isis" happened to be Hollwood producer Arthur Nadel, W6TZY..
Source: Amateur Radio Newsline™ Report 1434
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Possibly the earliest time amateur radio appeared in cinemas was the 1941 movie called "The Men of Boys Town". The character played by Mickey Rooney was a radio amateur who chatted frequently from the home of his adoptive parents to a friend called Pee Wee, who operated the Boys Town amateur radio club station. Wonder just how many that inspired to join our hobby?
Probably the penultimate movie was a French film entitled "If All the Guys in the World" which featured a young radio enthusiast Jean Louis in Paris who received a distress message from a ship. Through his efforts and with the help of other radio amateurs around the world he tries to prevent a major disaster.
Another movie was "The French Atlantic Affair" in 1979 about a hijacked cruise ship where a ham radio set was the only independent communication with the outside world.
However the use of amateur radio by movie-makers in the past decade or so has often not portrayed it correctly, and probably done more harm than good to the cause of ham radio.
A string of movies including Phenomenon in 1996, Contact 1997 and Frequency 2000 all concerned the supernatural, with amateur radio merely playing a convenient part of the storyline.
Maybe it's time for amateur radio to be portrayed accurately in a movie, or even a television soap opera using young actors. Perhaps there is a script writer, film industry executive, actor or someone else with influence who can make it happen - after all aren't dreams what movies are made from?
With thanks to VK3PC for much of this, I'm Evi Simons, in New York.
--
On the other side of the coin, one of the best ever portrayels of ham radio probably came in the late 1970's on the childrens television show "The Secrets of Isis." There, the central character was a high school teacher named Andrea Thomas portrayed by actress Joanna Cameron. And at the end of each episode Cameron, as Isis, would speak directly to her young audience explaining the moral of each story. And in more than one episode the shows writers used ham radio to move the plot line along. Of coarse it did not hurt that one of the people behind "The Secrets of Isis" happened to be Hollwood producer Arthur Nadel, W6TZY..
Source: Amateur Radio Newsline™ Report 1434
posted by RadioIntel.com Annex at 2:03 AM
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