Just thought of some more -- George Orwell and The God That Failed

I guess Godzilla epitomizes Cold War culture for me -- nucler anxiety, etc. Maybe The Russians Are Coming too?

In December 1962 I was a senir at Pearl River High School and worked after school in the local Food Fair Supermarket. I remember on break walking to the front of the store in full supermarket dress uniform--white shirt and tie and long to below the knee apron tied round the waist--and reading the coverage of the Cuban Missile Crisis in the Saturday Evening Post. Adlai Stevenson who was Kennedy's Ambassador to the United Nations was castigated in that article for suggesting that we make a deal with the Russians-our missiles out of Turkey for theirs out of Cuba. Only much later did I find that Kennedy had set Stevenson up as a scapegoat and JFK was wlling to go along with the same deal.

Grownups were seriously talking about anti-missile missiles, which Rocky and Bullwinkle attacked with an anti-anti-missile-missile missile. I was six years old or so and loved it. Still do.

→ What book, movie, cartoon, or other work of art best captures the Cold War for you?
Raised on Long Island in the shadow of Grumman where we would read Mad Magazine in what was supposed to have been our bomb shelter, there are two 60s icons that represent the Cold War for me: Mel Brooks' TV series "Get Smart" and the often marginalized Spy vs Spy of the aforementioned Mad Magazine.

I did an on and off again search Sun., Oct. 14, for a story I heard on the Roseau-Warroad (Minn.) MPR news station: 103.5 FM between 6:10 and probably 7 a.m., to no avail.

It was about Moosylvania, Bullwinkle, secession from the US, travel by decorated bus (stopover near a Minn./Canadian lake) from Calif. to D.C. and when there, petitioners couldn't be seen or heard at the Capitol because the timing was interrupted by the Cuban missile crisis in 1962!
These parts, while reported by Julia and heard in more complete detail on Sun. a.m., are nor included on this site. Is the complete report available on line?

This story has been told in these parts for years, and the little island described (and still known as Moosylvania by some) is privately owned.

Keith Scott did me a huge favor when he wrote the book "The Moose That Roared". For decades I wanted to learn as much as possible about Rocky & Bullwinkle, their creators/producers Jay Ward and Bill Scott, and all of Ward's other television programs. Between Keith Scott's book and a fanzine published in the 1980s & 1990s called "The Frostbite Falls Far-Flung Flyer" there now exists a lot of documentation about the numerous productions of Jay Ward. I watched "Rocky and His Friends" when it was first broadcast starting at the tail-end of the 1950s. Crusader Rabbit, "Fractured Flickers", "The Nut House", Cap'n Crunch, Hoppity Hooper, George of the Jungle: these are among Jay Ward's other productions.

I was born in 1961 and missed the anxieties of the following October. So, at the same time I was becoming aware of the grim shadow of our mutual assured destruction, I was introduced to the Cold War through "The Russians are Coming. The Russians Are Coming." Our family tended to live by the motto "you gotta laugh to keep from cryin'." Any media that parodied the crazy paranoia of the time was all right with us. Granted I was only about five or six years old when my folks brought me to see the film at a nearby theater, but I woud catch it several more times on TV--Probably on the same day of the Rocky And Bullwinkle show. Thanks for bringing us back to that era Jula-- Your Natasha accent when saying Moose and Squirrel put a smile on my face.

Great job Julia! We were all talking about the show at dinner and decided that Jay Ward was the original Bullwinkle.
So great to hear about the mad genius behind this brilliant show.

Rocky and bullwinkle is one of the greatest shows ever on tv. One of my top five all time. My list ouldn't include hill street blues, South Park, and ???.

I've often thought that a good test for college students, perhaps for an English class, or maybe as a graduation requirement, would be to etch sn episode, and thn ave to write an essay on all the literary allusion and historical references, to explain the humor. Would be a tough test.

Thanks for a great story!

A great piece! Congrats to Julia. Proves once again that artists are always the true subversives.

Born in October 1950 I have strong memories of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Returning to a formal education later in life I was tapped by a history professor to address I was enrolled in to address and take questions on this event. All the other students were roughly 35 years younger than I, as was the professor, though with a smaller margin.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, BBC version with Alec Guiness rings so true with me. The lines between adherence to and belief in ideology and pursuit of power as a goal in and of itself are blurred. In many scenes the dialogue never provides a clear answer to what truly drives the characters.
I thoroughly enjoyed Gary Oldman's recent performance but feel Alec Guiness
gives a superior performance. His Smiley has steely determination and is ruthless in pursuit. He is also world-weary and wears a mantle of sadness.

PS. Love the show.

Loved it. I think it is one show that forms my bias for not adhering to the party line. (So too did the Phil Silvers Show - Sgt Bilko.)

A favorite moment for me: Boris has fallen into the ocean. Natasha rescues Boris and resuscitates him while saying: "Out with the good air, in with the bad."

(And of course there is the scene where "Mr Big" is revealed. . . . )

An interesting and eclectic piece! How startling to listen to this and realize that, even at six years of age when I loved this show I had the language to understand, at least superficially, that it was about the cold war. That event was so firmly woven into our common experience in this country at that time.
Brava, Julia Wetherell!

Julia,

Loved it!... and I am old enough to have I enjoyed and remember the zany Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. Congratulations on putting together a great "story" about a show that was... much more than what it seemed.

See you soon, and looking forward to your next piece. Keep me posted.

Patrick

Jule's

I can't believe it. I'm driving up in Northern, NM in my service van going to Los Alamos to go fix an elevator and low and behold my niece is on Studio 360 tell'n us about correlation's between Moose and Squirrel and the Cuban missile crisis, a show that I enjoyed when I was a kid but never really put together the similarities between the two because that's not how 7 year old's think, not this one anyway.

When I came though NYC last week your mom told me that you were putting together a piece during your internship with 360 and I was excited to hear that, so when I turned on the radio this morning and got through Dick Estell then Fresh Air there you were on the air, what fun for me! I always listen to NPR and they have so many affiliate station's all over NM I can pretty well get it anywhere. Plus the quality of the interviews are always thought provoking.

Great job Julia the topic was creative and humorous but gave me something to think about.
By the way I'm thinking of moving to Mooslyvania for retirement. Thank's and good luck.

Love You
Uncle Chris