“Life is just one damn thing after another.” Although it’s not used often, I’ve certainly heard this quote before.
Now I wanted to use it to insert it into this column, so I looked for its origin.
As it turned out, it was similar to Alice going down the rabbit hole. I found eight different authors associated with that line.
In 1909, several cases were published in journals, the most concrete of which was in a book called The Concentrations of Bee by Lilian Bell.
This is the specific passage: “Bob has a motto on his wall that says, ‘Life is just one damn thing at a time,'” said Jimmie.”
Bell explained in the text that one can already see the saying hanging on walls.
I will not go into detail about the other authors, as the originator is not important.
This column is One Thing at a Time. Last week’s column focused on “The Thing,” a novelty song by Phil Harris.
This week’s “thing” has only a distant connection to that.
In 1951, a year after the song topped the charts, another “thing” appeared in American music. It was called “The Thing (from another world).”
This “thing” was an American black and white science fiction horror film.
Let me describe the situation to you. The atomic bomb explosions had taken place five years earlier and people were still worried about the effects of radiation. After Hiroshima, there was skepticism about science and a negative attitude towards scientists who interfere in things that should be left alone.
Then, in 1947, a pilot in Washington state saw “flying saucers.”
It was the ideal atmosphere for a film about an alien life form that arrives on the planet in a flying saucer.
The film is loosely based on the 1938 novella “Who Goes There?” by John W. Campbell. Note: In 1938, the atom bomb was still an unknown theory that had to be proven, and flying saucers were unknown.
The adaptations therefore exploited the public’s worst fears.
The plot revolves around the U.S. Air Force crew and scientists involved who find a crashed flying saucer in the Arctic ice and a human body frozen in ice. The group returns to their remote Arctic research post and transports the body in a block of ice. Oops! This is where the meddling comes in.
The thing is taken to a greenhouse while still frozen.
One of the crew feels the thing staring at him through the ice. This disturbs him, so he covers the ice with a blanket, not realizing that it is an electric blanket and that it is plugged into an electrical outlet.
Well, that’s not good. The ice melts and the thing escapes, killing a couple of sled dogs but losing an arm.
The scientists examine the arm and determine that it is a plant form.
They later come across a third dead sled dog, its blood drained, which tells them it is a vampire-like creature (never good news, even though the vampire craze would continue in the American entertainment industry for decades to come).
On the way, the base loses communication with the outside world and the thing knocks down and devours a few scientists.
The crew discovers that the thing is plant-based and bullets can easily penetrate it. This is not good news.
The thing continues to stalk the rest of the group, looking for someone tasty.
Their heating breaks down, so they huddle together in a greenhouse (at 15 °C – minus the only warm place).
Maybe they want salad for their main course and the thing follows them and falls into a trap.
They have invented a high-voltage electric “fly trap.” It turns into a “crunchy little creature” and turns into a pile of ash.
Finally, the journalist who is looking for a story and who set all this in motion can end his broadcast with the warning: “Tell the world. Tell everyone, wherever they are. Watch the sky everywhere. Keep watching. Keep watching the sky…”
That was a reassuring conclusion.
The film made waves when it was released nationwide, opening the door and screen for films like The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms and THEM.
Compared to today’s gore on the floor movies, all of the science fiction monster movies are pretty tame, but in the 1950s, special effects sold tickets to kids.
I doubt anyone under 18 has ever seen these films.
Oh, by the way, the thing was played by 6’6″ James Arness (before Gunsmoke).
