+++ Halloween Special - Transylvania 6-5000 with (on Audio track 2) Audio Commentary by Jerry Beck (Animation Historian) +++ Transylvania 6-5000 (1963) is a Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies animated short directed by Chuck Jones. The short was released on November 30, 1963, and stars Bugs Bunny. It was the last original Bugs Bunny short Jones made for Warner Bros. Cartoons before Jones left for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to found his own studio, Sib Tower 12 Productions. It was his second-to-last cartoon at Warner Bros. before moving to MGM, and the second-to-last Warner cartoon in 1963.
Bugs demonstrates how to handle a pesky vampire with six simple magic incantations. The title is a pun on "Pennsylvania 6-5000", a song associated with Glenn Miller and referring to the now-archaic system of telephone exchange names where the first two characters of a telephone number were expressed as letters: "Transylvania 6-5000" stands for "TR 6-5000" which devolves to 876-5000.
Sixty-five million years ago, a giant meteor hit the earth causing a global catastrophe that destroyed an estimated three quarters of the plants and animal species on the planet, including the mighty dinosaurs. Little was known about the survivors who lived in this post-apocalyptic world until a mining operation in Cerrejon, Northern Colombia — excavating coal cut from deep within the earth’s crust — exposed an important layer in the earth’s geological history laid down more than 10 million years after the extinction of the dinosaurs. In 2003, when paleontologist professor Jonathan Bloch, University of Florida, first heard that this important layer had been exposed, he and his research team rushed to Columbia. He had spent his career studying this Paleocene period in the earth’s geological history. Could this be the lost world he’d been searching for?
Alex4History's supplementary notes:
From the Secrets of the Dead series
Narrated by: Jay O. Sanders
What links Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler and a priceless Celtic cauldron recently discovered at the bottom of a lake in Bavaria? In this film an investigation uncovers allegations of mafia involvement, an international fraud trial where millions of dollars are at stake and a forensic discovery that stuns the archaeological world and steers the mystery towards Himmler's SS shrine at Wewelsburg and Hitler's obsessive quest for the Holy Grail. This seemingly priceless and beautiful object has brought death and disaster to everyone who has attempted to own it but who did make it and why?
Hosted by Shaun Dooley
Biography of Heinrich Himmler, focusing on the Germanic Pagan faith he revived, Wewelsburg Castle, and interviews with victims of his racial policies.
-- This is shared without profit for educational and historical purposes ---
Bunker Hill Bunny is a 1950 Warner Brothers Merrie Melodies theatrical cartoon short, starring Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam as a Hessian mercenary in the American Revolution. It was directed by Isadore 'Friz' Freleng and written by Tedd Pierce. Hawley Pratt and Paul Julian did the layout and backgrounds, while Arthur Davis, Ken Champin, Virgil Ross and Gerry Chiniquy headed the team of animators. Mel Blanc provided voice characterizations, and Carl Stalling created the musical score.
+++ First WW2 aviation docu I've seen that refers to damage from birdstrikes...that are still a hazard to this day - Alex4History +++
On 6th December 1942, No. 2 Group RAF undertook a raid on the Philips Strijp and Emmasingel radio and vacuum tube works in Eindhoven, one of the biggest producers of electronics in Europe at the time. Also known as the Eindhoven Raid, all flying took place at ground level to avoid anti-aircraft defences, with the Bostons, Mosquitos and Venturas successfully knocking out the Philips works for an estimated six months. Tragically however, fourteen British aircraft were lost and 135 civilians were killed.
Visuals: IL-2 Sturmovik: Great Battles https://il2sturmovik.com/
Sources:
Operation Oyster World War II's Forgotten Raid: The Daring Low Level Attack on the Philips Radio Works, Paul Schepers, Kees Rijken, Arthur G. Thorning
FILM ID: 1346.14 MEDIA URN:44408 GROUP: Pathe newsreels ARCHIVE: British Pathé ISSUE DATE: 17/12/1942 https://www.britishpathe.com/asset/82235/
https://www.key.aero/article/low-level-daylight-mosquito-raids-world-war-two
Music: ‘Into The Unknown' by Scott Buckley – released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au
Map in video and photos of Strijp and Emmasingel factories: pp. 53, 19 and 21 in Operation Oyster World War II's Forgotten Raid listed above in full.
Video Source:
Soto Cinematics
https://www.youtube.com/@sotocinematics
-- This is shared without profit for educational and historical purposes --
One of the best World War II dramas ever created, and inspired by real events, Secret Army is a British television drama made by the BBC and the Belgian national broadcaster BRT (now VRT) created by Gerard Glaister. It tells the story of a fictional Belgian resistance movement in German-occupied Belgium during the Second World War dedicated to returning Allied airmen, usually having been shot down by the Luftwaffe, to Great Britain. It was made in the UK and Belgium and three series were broadcast on BBC1 between 7 September 1977 and 15 December 1979.
Fay Weldon said of the series: "There is, in the making of such programmes, a level of professionalism, and sheer patient, largely unacclaimed, hard work from producer to script editor to writer to designer to vision mixer to editor by way of sound and lighting engineers that is probably equalled only in a heart transplant theatre".
Starring: Bernard Hepton as Albert Foiret, Jan Francis as Lisa "Yvette" Colbert, Christopher Neame as Flight Lt. John Curtis, Angela Richards as Monique Duchamps, Clifford Rose as Gestapo Sturmbannführer Ludwig Kessler,
Michael Culver as Luftwaffe Major Erwin Brandt, Juliet Hammond-Hill as Natalie Chantrens, Valentine Dyall as Dr Pascal Keldermans, Ron Pember as Alain Muny, Eileen Page as Andrée Foiret, Robin Langford as Cpl. Veit Rennert, James Bree as Gaston Colbert
Created by Gerard Glaister
Producer — Gerard Glaister
Script editor — John Brason
Script supervisors — Frank Radcliffe, James Cadman
Designers — Ray London, Richard Morris, Marjorie Pratt, Austin Ruddy
One of the best World War II dramas ever created, and inspired by real events, Secret Army is a British television drama made by the BBC and the Belgian national broadcaster BRT (now VRT) created by Gerard Glaister. It tells the story of a fictional Belgian resistance movement in German-occupied Belgium during the Second World War dedicated to returning Allied airmen, usually having been shot down by the Luftwaffe, to Great Britain. It was made in the UK and Belgium and three series were broadcast on BBC1 between 7 September 1977 and 15 December 1979.
Fay Weldon said of the series: "There is, in the making of such programmes, a level of professionalism, and sheer patient, largely unacclaimed, hard work from producer to script editor to writer to designer to vision mixer to editor by way of sound and lighting engineers that is probably equalled only in a heart transplant theatre".
Starring: Bernard Hepton as Albert Foiret, Jan Francis as Lisa "Yvette" Colbert, Christopher Neame as Flight Lt. John Curtis, Angela Richards as Monique Duchamps, Clifford Rose as Gestapo Sturmbannführer Ludwig Kessler,
Michael Culver as Luftwaffe Major Erwin Brandt, Juliet Hammond-Hill as Natalie Chantrens, Valentine Dyall as Dr Pascal Keldermans, Ron Pember as Alain Muny, Eileen Page as Andrée Foiret, Robin Langford as Cpl. Veit Rennert, James Bree as Gaston Colbert
Created by Gerard Glaister
Producer — Gerard Glaister
Script editor — John Brason
Script supervisors — Frank Radcliffe, James Cadman
Designers — Ray London, Richard Morris, Marjorie Pratt, Austin Ruddy
Steal Wool is a 1957 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Chuck Jones. The short was released on June 8, 1957, and stars Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog.
Mel Blanc provided for the voices of all the characters in this cartoon; however, like all Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog shorts, this short is mostly composed of visual gags.
This is the fourth short featuring Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog. The title is a play on steel wool.
For more info:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Wolf_and_Sam_Sheepdog
Hannibal, one of history’s most famous generals, achieved what the Romans thought to be impossible. With a vast army of 30,000 troops, 15,000 horses and 37 war elephants, he crossed the mighty Alps in only 16 days to launch an attack on Rome from the north. For more than 2,000 years, nobody has been able to prove which of the four possible routes Hannibal took across the Alps, and no physical evidence of Hannibal’s army has ever been found…until now. In Secrets of the Dead: Hannibal in the Alps, a team of experts – explorers, archaeologists, and scientists – combine state-of-the-art technology, ancient texts, and a recreation of the route itself to prove conclusively where Hannibal’s army made it across the Alps – and exactly how and where he did it.
Alex4History's supplementary notes:
From the Secrets of the Dead series
Narrated by: Jay O. Sanders
Produced and Directed by: Giulia Clark
Features: Dr. Eve MacDonald (Historian)
Prof. Bill Mahaney (York University, Toronto)
Prof. Chris Allen (Queen's University, Belfast)
Mike Loades (Military Historian)