I’m watching Radio Days and there is a segment about a girl who fell down a well, the rescue covered live on radio. I looked up ‘Polly Phelps’ (the name in the film) but only saw references to the film.
What was the name of the child in the original ‘child down a well covered live on radio’ meme?
With all due respect Q.E.D., Jessica fell down the well ten months after Radio Days was released. So I doubt that Woody was thinking about that case (unless he has previously undisclosed psychic powers).
ISTM that there were cases in the 1930s of people trapped in mines (such as depicted in 1951’s Ace in the Hole), that were big sensations on the radio, although I can’t think of any specific ones right now.
I bet she’s on city water now.
Google is failing me right now but there was a “baby in the well” story many years before Jessica McClure. It was famous because it was in the early days of TV and it was one of the very first, if not the first, times that TV news stayed with a live broadcast of a news story while it was happening and preempted scheduled programming. IIRC, it was in California and by the time they got to the child, it had died.
Kathy Fiscus, for my generation.
Birth: Aug. 21, 1945
Death: Apr. 8, 1949
Three year old Kathy Fiscus fell into an abandoned well while playing in a field in San Marino, California. Thousands of people sat transfixed in front of their television sets as frantic volunteers tried to reach the child trapped nearly 100 feet down in a fourteen inch pipe. After 52 hours, they finally reached her only to find that she had apparently died early in the rescue efforts. This event introduced a new dimension to news coverage – live, onsite television broadcasting. “Kathy Fiscus Laws” were enacted across the country, requiring the capping and filling in of abandoned wells. The old well that claimed her life has long since been filled in. There is no trace of it on what is now an athletic field at San Marino High School. Her Marker bears the inscription, “A Little Girl Who Brought the World Together”.
Cause of death: suffocation as a result of a fall into a well
Pictures at:
Thank you.
It looks like Ignatz beat me to it but here is a more detailed article about the incident that I just found.
Sorry, I meant to post this link.