Saturday 23 February 2013

Sci-Fi on Film: 1951


After a tentative start in 1950, (see my posts on this Home Page) 1951 was quite a busy year in the sci-fi film genre. These are some of the films that will be featured in this blog.

· The Thing: From Another World
· The Man From Planet X
· When Worlds Collide
· The Day the Earth Stood Still
· Five
· Unknown World
· Flight To Mars 



The first film to be featured will be, The Thing: From Another World. But before we do, let’s take a bit of time to get a feel of that significant year for sci-fi in the movies…


A Taste of the Times (1951)


  • The President of the US is still Harry S “The Buck Stops Here” Truman
  • Despite peace talks, the Korean War continues.
  • The UN condemns the People's Republic of China as being the aggressor in Korea.
  • Seoul falls first to Communist forces and later to US-led UN troops
  • MacArthur threatened the Chinese with an extension of the Korean War if the proposed truce was not accepted. He was soon to be dismissed by Truman.
  • Colour television makes its first appearance in the U.S.
  • The first transcontinental wireless phone call was made.
  • Charles F. Blair, Jr. makes the first solo flight across North Pole, the setting for The Thing!
  • Recording of the song “Rocket 88,” which has been credited as being the first rock ’n’ roll record.
  • UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer), the first commercial computer able to handle both numeric and alphabetic data, makes its debut.
  • The first nuclear power plant is built by the US Atomic Energy Commission.
  • The first H Bomb test was conducted on Eniwetok Atoll.
  • Construction of back-yard A-bomb shelters increased.
  • Atomic testing began in the Nevada desert.
  • Stalin declares that Russia has an atom bomb.
  • FBI director J. Edgar Hoover is responsible for a secret nationwide program intended to remove politically suspect employees from their jobs.
  • Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death for treason. 


©Chris Christopoulos 2013

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