As I mentioned above, Scut Farkus’s coonskin cap points to 1955 or later. Estes Kefauver made it a trademark in his 1948 senatorial campaign, but it would be unlikely for a kid to wear something like that before 1955. So the various cultural artifacts in the film cover at least a 20 year period, from 1935 to 1955.
What some people are forgetting is that wearing a coonskin cap goes back to, at least, the early 1800s! Perhaps Scut Farkuss was not emulating a fad based on a tv series, but was just really wearing an honest-to-goodness practical headpiece! So, now, I submit that the movie references cover the years from the early 1800s to the 1940s.
The coonskin cap reference is useless, because they were *popularized * in the 50’s, but could be found earlier.
Again, if all the facts lined up perfectly, that would actually be a problem, because we are talking about an adult recalling his childhood. Having everything line up perfectly with history would make me question whether the story was being told by an adult recalling his youth, or was just being shilled to me as such.
This point has been covered up-thread already, making all discussions about when the story was supposed to take place moot. It takes place in 1940, and because adults can’t remember everything about their childhood perfectly, we see hints of that throughout the movie.
The fact that no one else wears one seems to point to the fact that there was no Davy Crockett fad. And Scut Farkuss, being from the wrong side of the tracks probably wouldn’t have a TV anyway. While there are some later artifacts, most of the majors clues are right around 1940 (like Little Orphan Annie). There is no specific date set, but the movie is pretty clearly pre-WWII.
No, you are incorrect, it is not set in 1940, and it it not set in any specific year.
BTW, How do you explain the song on the radio from 1943 if the movie is set in 1940? How do you explain the producer and writer saying it was not set in any specific year? Are you privy to some information that’s not available to A) the producer/writer and B) the general public?
Now you’ve done it. I want to Amazon* some of the essays and other stories from Jean Shepherd. Any recommendations?
- I did it here first. I used Amazon as a verb.
Sure, they could be found earlier, but the fact that a kid is wearing one is a pretty clear cultural reference to the fad of 1955. Can you find an instance of an urban/small town kid being depicted wearing one before then?
I thought it took place in 1982.
Disclaimer: I’ve never seen the movie all the way through, it seems too stupid to me.
Many families didn’t have television in the early 50s We got our first in 1953 and we were the first in the neighborhood. Radio serials were still around even then. I listened to The Shadow secretly from my bed, while the adults listened in the living room.
That is also touched upon in one of the three Jean Shepard collected story books involving his ‘Ralph Parker’ persona (the three are ‘In God We Trust, all others pay cash’, ‘Wanda Hickeys Night of Golden Memories’, and "Fist Full of Fig Newtons’ - I don’t think ‘Ferrari in the Bedroom’ or other such books of his have stories of the Parker persona, but I could be wrong). - OK, that blurb was for Enright2
Anyway, in one of the inconsistancies caused by these stories being published over decades, he lamented that his dad always aspired to own a good brand of tires (I forgot which brand), but sadly never did in his lifetime
An adult recalling his childhood. :rolleyes:
An adult recalling his childhood. :rolleyes:
As for the writer/director/whomever claiming it wasn’t set in a particular year: While they might not have intended to set the year, they did set it via dates on pins and stickers on car tags.
Anything that drifts from historical accuracy can be attributed to the fact that the story is from an adult recalling his childhood. Errors are to be expected.
How the hell do my threads keep making Threadspotting? I’m really not that interesting of a poster, people!!!
Leave it to the SDMBers to make a hot mess out of a simple thread.
A producer stating in the commentary that it’s set “amorphously later Thirties, early Forties.” :rolleyes:
Wha? You dismiss the song as the producer recalling his childhood incorrectly, but somehow the tags on the cars and the dates on the pins were accurately recalled and can therefore be relied upon as an indicator of the date the film’s set?
How about the police car in the flag pole scene? That wasn’t available for sale until 1947? Are we to dismiss that as an incorrect recollection well because it doesn’t fit your theory??
A tag, a sticker, a date on a pin: Conscious decisions to place a date on something.
A car model: They are making a movie of which nailing historical accuracy is not required and (apparently based on the movie’s success) do not need to make the effort to get the exact model year cars for said movie. Most people don’t (and didn’t) notice or care.
Different issues.
Please explain exactly how you determined which of the many different lines of evidence accurately determine what year the movie is set in, and which are inaccurate? Especially when the producer has stated that it’s not set in any particular year?
How?
A tag, a sticker, a date on a pin: Conscious decisions to place a date on something.
Props that don’t quite fit: They get stuff close, like cars. Dead-on accuracy not required.
Things like hats, songs and other nostalgia drawn from memory will vary, because memories ain’t perfect. This is expected. Pinpoint accuracy in this regard would be less realistic.