Culture & entertainment
Discover facts about culture & entertainment. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Culture & entertainment
How Hollywood can bring dead actors back to the screen
Studios can use computer-generated likenesses of deceased actors, placing their digital faces on living body doubles. Estate contracts help govern the use of…
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Britain tested color TV with a girl, a clown, and a chalkboard
BBC Test Card F, introduced in 1967, pictured Carole Hersee beside the clown doll Bubbles. Engineers used the image and surrounding patterns to adjust…
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The painstaking hand-painted frames behind Snow White
Hundreds of artists hand-painted thousands of individual cels to create the film’s fluid animation. The enormous production costs put the studio at risk of…
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The voice behind thousands of movie trailers
For several decades, Don LaFontaine's gravelly baritone became the voice of movie trailers. He recorded tens of thousands of previews and was closely…
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Original concept for high-definition television broadcasting was rigorously tested during the nineteen thirties.
Early systems transmitted electronic images with several hundred lines, far sharper than mechanical television of the time. World War II halted plans to bring…
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The inaudible sound that makes horror feel worse
Some filmmakers add infrasound—rumbling frequencies just below the range of human hearing—to horror soundtracks. Though viewers may not hear it, the…
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Why animators kept mirrors on their desks
Before motion capture, animators used desk mirrors to study their own expressions, contorting their faces to capture the subtle details of a grimace.
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Popeye gave spinach a superhero sales pitch
In a 1932 strip, Popeye praised spinach for its vitamin A. The cartoon converted nutrition into an instantly visible transformation: eat the greens, gain the…
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The James Bond theme began as a song about sneezing
The melody was first composed for a theatrical comedy about a man whose sneezes changed reality.
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Silent-film speed could be changed twice
A camera cranked slowly recorded fewer frames of an action; projecting those frames faster made the action race past. Projection speed could change the effect…
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How Coca-Cola helped define Santa's modern look
In the 1930s, Coca-Cola hired illustrators to portray Santa as a jolly, round grandfather dressed in the company’s bright red. Earlier illustrations often…
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The labor politics behind the Oscars
Studio executives created the Academy to mediate labor disputes as unions gained strength. Its awards also helped keep stars loyal to the studios.
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Why TV test bars came with a 1,000-hertz tone
The bars help broadcast technicians check analog video levels and adjust contrast. Their accompanying tone is set to exactly 1,000 hertz to test audio.
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Return of the Jedi disguised itself as a film called Blue Harvest
The production used the fake title while filming, helping conceal the presence of a new Star Wars movie. A bland or misleading working name can reduce…
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One film takes more than 35 days to follow a product backward
Logistics traces a pedometer's journey from sale toward the production process that put it on the shelf. Its 857-hour running time makes the ordinary consumer…
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Doctor Who invented regeneration to replace its star
Regeneration let Doctor Who replace its lead without ending the series: the alien could transform into a new actor.
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How empty stadiums got digital crowds
Broadcasters used augmented reality to add cheering digital crowds to empty arenas, so viewers at home saw packed stands instead of silent seats.
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Political talk show that outlived its creators
“Meet the Press” premiered in 1947 and has aired continuously for more than seven decades, sticking to live political interviews through sweeping cultural…
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Hitchcock built an entire apartment courtyard indoors
The 31 apartments were built to scale, with working plumbing and electricity.
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The BBC once filled its news slot with piano music
On April 18, 1930, the BBC announced that there was no news, and piano music filled the bulletin's slot. It is a striking contrast with a rolling news feed:…
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A comic empire began as a late night sketch
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles began as a late-night joke, poking fun at the dark, brooding tone of 1980s superhero comics.
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Reality TV has storytellers hiding behind the scenes
Story producers shape the drama without writing formal dialogue: they manipulate editing timelines and prompt contestants behind the scenes to build explosive…
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Three dimensional cinema is a century old
The first commercial film to use red-and-green anaglyph glasses debuted in 1922.
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The first feature-length animated film came from Argentina
An Argentine filmmaker made the 70-minute political satire El Apóstol in 1917 using cutout animation—20 years before Snow White. Every reel was later…
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