# What are the most constantly shown movies or video clips in history? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 13, 2006, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-constantly-shown-movies-or-video-clips-in-history/352570 "2006-04-13T20:36:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sir\_Rhosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-constantly-shown-movies-or-video-clips-in-history/352570/21 "2006-04-14T00:59:21Z")
Oh, and one I’ve always wanted to know the background of. In every documentary about the history of engine-powered flight, there is a grainy silent black and white clip of some weird helicopter-like craft (basically a chair with a rotary blade attached above) bouncing spastically up and down, but never actually achieving flight. Anybody know the who, what, when, where of this craft? Sir Rhosis ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-constantly-shown-movies-or-video-clips-in-history/352570/22 "2006-04-14T01:01:18Z")
Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech Lou Gehrig’s echoing “Today (today) I consider myself (I consider myself) the luckiest man (the luckiest man) on the face of the Earth (on the face of the Earth)” farewell at Yankee Stadium Humphrey Bogart’s “Here’s looking at you, kid” speech from _Casablanca_ And a special nomination: The film most shown in American school classrooms when I was growing up (mid-60’s to mid-70’s) had to be _Hemo the Magnificent_. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-constantly-shown-movies-or-video-clips-in-history/352570/23 "2006-04-14T01:23:07Z")
Nazi stormtroopers goose-stepping in parade, plus Hitler giving the Nazi salute. The fleet burning at Pearl Harbor. Footage of kamikaze planes being shot down by or crashing into US warships. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-constantly-shown-movies-or-video-clips-in-history/352570/24 "2006-04-14T01:23:14Z")
> [@Art Vandelay](#): > > **Gone With the Wind** > **Wizard of Oz** > **It’s a Wonderful Life** > **A Christmas Story** > > I can’t imagine any other feature film has been reran more than any one of these three films. You obviously don’t have basic cable. \*When Harry Met Sally The Birdcage As Good As It Gets \*Any of \*The Godfather \*movies Any of the \*James Bond \*movies ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-constantly-shown-movies-or-video-clips-in-history/352570/25 "2006-04-14T01:33:06Z")
The Chinese guy stopping the tank in Tianenman Square The clip from FDR’s “Day of Infamy” speech People running from the cloud of rubble on 9/11 Nixon’s “Checkers” speech (“I am not a crook”) The girl screaming over her friend’s body at Kent State The pile of bodies at a concentration camp The New Year’s Eve ball at Times Square “This is your brain on drugs.” ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-constantly-shown-movies-or-video-clips-in-history/352570/26 "2006-04-14T02:12:08Z")
> [@Sir Rhosis](#): > > Oh, and one I’ve always wanted to know the background of. In every documentary about the history of engine-powered flight, there is a grainy silent black and white clip of some weird helicopter-like craft (basically a chair with a rotary blade attached above) bouncing spastically up and down, but never actually achieving flight. > > Anybody know the who, what, when, where of this craft? > > Sir Rhosis It’s the “Sky Car” made by a W.P. Kindree. That’s included in the aforementioned wacky aircraft montage, along with the plane that looks like a set of Venetian blinds that crumples, and the guy with rocket skates. I don’t recall the name of the Venetian Blind aircraft, but both it and the Kindree Sky Car were made in the Ohio or Michigan area. I have this information at work, having received it as the result of a query to one of the Smithsonian Institution museums. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Rhosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-constantly-shown-movies-or-video-clips-in-history/352570/27 "2006-04-14T02:20:29Z")
^^^Thanks so much. Sir Rhosis ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-constantly-shown-movies-or-video-clips-in-history/352570/28 "2006-04-14T02:23:10Z")
> [@Art Vandelay](#): > > Gone With the Wind > Wizard of Oz > It’s a Wonderful Life > A Christmas Story Strangely enough, three of the four films on this list are owned by Turner Entertainment. _It’s A Wonderful Life_ became a public domain film in the 1970s and soon became a Christmas mainstay of local stations across the country. (It was determined the film’s soundtrack was still copyrighted, however, and the film rights are now owned by Viacom.) > [@Sir Rhosis](#): > > Oh, and one I’ve always wanted to know the background of. In every documentary about the history of engine-powered flight, there is a grainy silent black and white clip of some weird helicopter-like craft (basically a chair with a rotary blade attached above) bouncing spastically up and down, but never actually achieving flight. > > Anybody know the who, what, when, where of this craft? I was thinking about this clip of stock footage about the same time as I was thinking of the cannonball one, but I didn’t post it for some reason. On the DVD commentary for two Season Seven episodes of _The Simpsons_- “Homerpalooza” and “Sideshow Bob’s Last Gleaming”- they comment about these two stock footage clips. The cannonball one is parodied in “Homerpalooza,” and since “Sideshow Bob’s Last Gleaming” starts at an air show, they wrote this whole history about the wacky airplane which never made it into the show. W.P. Kindree’s Skycar, eh? I prefer the would-be _Simpsons_ name- Absalom P. Sanguinet’s Vibrella. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-constantly-shown-movies-or-video-clips-in-history/352570/29 "2006-04-14T02:32:52Z")
[The Fucking Witches of Goddamn Eastwick.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=346608&highlight=Goddamn) ---
**Author:** ![bmoak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@bmoak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmoak)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-constantly-shown-movies-or-video-clips-in-history/352570/30 "2006-04-14T03:09:40Z")
Burning Yule Log? ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-constantly-shown-movies-or-video-clips-in-history/352570/31 "2006-04-14T03:13:57Z")
Mao announcing the formal start of the People’s Republic on October 1, 1949. If not the most aired, it might be the most seen. ---
**Author:** ![Threadkiller](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aca169/32.png) [@Threadkiller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Threadkiller)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-constantly-shown-movies-or-video-clips-in-history/352570/32 "2006-04-14T04:26:07Z")
The stopwatch from _60 Minutes_. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-constantly-shown-movies-or-video-clips-in-history/352570/33 "2006-04-14T04:42:00Z")
It might just be me, but freaking {b]Road House\*\* (aka Mullets Over Missouri) is on cable every other time I turn on the TV. ---
**Author:** ![JohnBckWLD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JohnBckWLD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnBckWLD)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-constantly-shown-movies-or-video-clips-in-history/352570/34 "2006-04-14T04:48:21Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > The Chinese guy stopping the tank in Tianenman Square As opposed to the lesser seen [Chinese guy catching the tree in the Great Hinggan Forest](http://www.break.com/index/catchatree.html) ---
**Author:** ![Honey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honey/32/5074_2.png) [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-constantly-shown-movies-or-video-clips-in-history/352570/35 "2006-04-14T05:30:28Z")
**Heeere’s Johnny** - Tonight Show. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-constantly-shown-movies-or-video-clips-in-history/352570/36 "2006-04-14T09:52:19Z")
> [@BwanaBob](#): > > How about that clip of the Hindenburg crashing? That’s got a lot of mileage. That was going to be my contrabution. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-constantly-shown-movies-or-video-clips-in-history/352570/37 "2006-04-14T13:57:58Z")
> [@JohnBckWLD](#): > > As opposed to the lesser seen [Chinese guy catching the tree in the Great Hinggan Forest](http://www.break.com/index/catchatree.html) Were those ads for FoxSports or ESPN? I loved those series of ads. ---
**Author:** ![Bertie\_Wooster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/58f4c7/32.png) [@Bertie\_Wooster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bertie_Wooster)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-constantly-shown-movies-or-video-clips-in-history/352570/38 "2006-04-14T14:12:46Z")
I’d just like to say that I’ve never seen _Steel Magnolias_ nor _Fried Green Tomatoes_. I think I’ve seen all of _The Shawshank Redemption_, but not all at one sitting. That said, whenever 19th century immigration of Ellis Island are brought up on television, they seem to drag out one bit of footage: a man in a cap holding a baby and furiously waving a tiny American flag. I’ve seen that one dozens of times. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-constantly-shown-movies-or-video-clips-in-history/352570/39 "2006-04-14T15:35:32Z")
OK, more on the wacky aircraft: The “Venetian Blinds” aircraft was the “Cycleplane” designed by a W. Frederick Gerhardt (sometimes spelled “Gerhart”). He was a former aeronautics professor at Michigan State University. It was flown by a “John J. Fox” of St. Louis, MO. The accompanying article also dates the attempted flight at 1923. They suspect that it occurred at McCook Field in Dayton, OH, but have not been able to prove that. At the time of my correspondence (2000), they sent me the entire available archival material (their words) on it–which amounted to one photograph, and one newspaper clipping. W.P. Kindree was from Detroit, MI. According to my letter from the “Air and Space Museum,” > [@](#): > > We have no still photos of this unusual contrivance or any archival information relating to it. It may be of interest to know, however, that in Movietone news reel outtakes, that our Film Archivist has seen, the contrivance literally self-destructs. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-constantly-shown-movies-or-video-clips-in-history/352570/40 "2006-04-14T15:47:19Z")
That set of clips of weird aircraft is on an old newsreel, “Aeronautical Oddities” - and you can buy it on DVD from the EAA for US$9.99: [http://shop.eaa.org/html/04\_videos\_special.html](http://shop.eaa.org/html/04_videos_special.html) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-constantly-shown-movies-or-video-clips-in-history/352570.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-constantly-shown-movies-or-video-clips-in-history/352570.md?page=3)