John Carter, Kemosabee
I could be wrong. In fact, I hope I am. But based on past performance, I tend to see a certain masked man bringing disappointment to the box office this summer.
Let us be honest. The last time movie audiences saw the story of the former Texas Ranger in 1981, it pretty much tanked. And who remembers the man behind the mask? According to IMDB, he never did anything else.
If you are a certain age, Clayton Moore is that man. And Jay Silverheels his faithful Indian companion. You likely can’t hear the William Tell Overture without hearing, “Hi ho, Silver! Away!!!”
As to the story, it hasn’t changed much since radio days. As Wikipedia tells it:
“A posse of six members of the Texas Ranger Division are ambushed by a band of outlaws led by Bartholomew “Butch” Cavendish. Later, an Indian named Tonto stumbles on the scene and recognizes the lone survivor, Ranger Reid (whose first name was never given on the show), as the man who had saved his life some time in the past. He nurses Reid back to health. The two men dig six graves for Reid and his comrades, so that Cavendish will believe that there were no survivors, forgetting that Cavendish thought he had killed seven men in that canyon, including the traitorous scout who led the Rangers into the trap. Among the Rangers killed there is Reid’s own older brother, Captain Daniel Reid, who had been a captain in the Texas Rangers. Tonto fashions a black Domino mask, using material from Captain Reid’s vest, to conceal the Lone Ranger’s identity. Even after the Cavendish gang is brought to justice, Reid continues to fight for law and order and against evil and crime, using the alias of “The Lone Ranger.””
Pretty much all of the versions stick to that story. It’s a tale of revenge and the fight against injustice.
Just like John Carter.
And just like John Carter, it is a story that has been told over and over again. Some better than others, like the original Die Hard. Say what you will, but both stories have roots that cross the same ground. Others may be disguised as “buddy” pictures or lone wolf character studies, but they go back to that Texas Ranger legend.
So, you know this has to have some folks worrying inside the Mouse. At least, we can hope someone is having sleepless nights because of it. Will audiences buy Johnny Depp as Tonto? Based on the trailers so far, it is no worse than his role as Barnabas Collins in Tim Burton’s under-performer, “Dark Shadows”. At best, we get Captain Jack Sparrow with a crow on his head. Look for dead crows to appear somewhere in the next Pirates film, guaranteed as an on screen joke. We get plenty of action, trains and flying debris, too. But is there a story in among all of that to draw audiences? Certainly not a new story, at any rate.
I would love to be wrong here. Really. But let’s recall, shall we? A film with a classic story line, actors who should do more than chew scenery, and buck up when playing against computer generated imagery… It is John Carter, all over again.
The Lone Ranger will get his revenge, in the end. Justice will be served. But will it be enough that audiences will be tickets in the numbers Disney hopes for?
“Who was that masked man?”
The most desired of Disney guests
This may come as a shock to the Disney fan faithful, but they are not the most desired guests. Nor are the Annual Passholders. Be they Premium or Premiere. And not the members of D23 either. Denizens of Internet message boards don’t make the cut as well.
Not that Disney disdains the members of these groups. The cash they bring, folding money or plastic, makes the Accountanteers smile. These folks tend to be just the gravy on the main dish.
The real meat? The folks for who a Disney theme park visit is the “once-in-a-lifetime” experience. That mythical family of four, who has been planning this special vacation for some time. The people who will take in the Park(s) for the first time.
They see Disneyland with fresh eyes. They aren’t focused on peeling paint or burned out light bulbs. Instead, they see Mickey and will quietly wait in line for their moment of quality time with him, in Main Street’s Town Square. It’s a good bet that they also buy that PhotoPass picture of the family with him, too. And that is simply the start of their adventure in the Magic Kingdom.
Despite all the numbers of folks who make up the groups mentioned above, the most desired guests will always be those who are in the majority every day. I know, shocking, isn’t it? The rabid fans who have to be seen with every character or can share that last bit of trivia about the Park at the drop of a churro really don’t matter as much as they would like to believe. Misplaced sense of entitlement and all, sadly disdained by some cast members and they are what they are.
So, why are the common guests more sought after? To start with, the disposable income they have to part with is more per capita than that of the repeat guest. If they are only going to be visiting the Park for a short period, they are far more likely to spend than their counterparts. Stay in an on-property hotel, eat at a restaurant inside the parks and purchase that multi-day passport. Thrown in those PhotoPass pictures, souvenirs and snacks and it all adds up. Bringing revenue that the folks in those groups won’t match.
Another great point for this choice demographic is that they tend to take the most important souvenir of all with them when they leave. Word of mouth. And with social media expanding as it is, they share with family and friends how wonderful their visit was. And Disney doesn’t pay anything for this free publicity, either. Again, smiles from the Accountanteers…
So, why does Disney court the special groups as it does? In the big picture, the effort to keep the repeat business is worth the cost. It does offer returns. And when have we ever known the company in the Eisner and Iger era to ignore any revenue stream? That gravy helps keep the bottom line happy. Which keeps shareholders happy. Happy, happy, happy.
So, the next time you visit any Disney theme park, thank the folks making that “once-in-a-lifetime” vacation. Without them, we would never have things like Carsland or any other expansion. Because what they bring are the true treasures that the Disney company likes best.
Buck up and make that monthly payment on your Annual Pass.
The next Star Wars trilogy: Where dies story?
That title came out of the blue but I think it pretty well describes my thoughts on what audiences can expect come episodes VII, VII and IX of the Star Wars franchise. At least, I hope I could be wrong…
What those of us who grew up with the first three films (that is episodes IV, V and VI) hope for is a story that takes a cue from those stories and does not attempt to retell or change the past. For example, no time travel or deus ex machina easy outs. No cheap rehash of the previous stories.
For example, just because the Emperor and Darth Vader are dead, and another Death Star blown to bits, does it mean that the Empire is toast. Some one would likely fill the void and continue to try and hold it all together. There are still plenty of other Star Destroyers and Imperial troops still waiting to be dealt with. And assuming Luke, Leia and Han (along with Chewie) have managed to stay alive some 30 odd years later, odds are that the Rebellion is still fighting to win more star systems over to join their cause.
Where does that leave us as the audience? Well, I don’t think we need a story that tries to tell us what happened during the last 30 years. A few hints or a tease perhaps, but we don’t need or deserve a moment by moment tale that wastes valuable screen time. In all that time, likely the Rebellion and the Empire have seen gains and losses.
But maybe we can learn of a character who is sincere in his desire for peace. Think Rudolph Hess in galactic terms. Someone of high enough value who is willing to give him or her self up in order to set things right. Only to be betrayed by others who see a victory to be won. Creating a new threat to be dealt with.
Perhaps here is the time to have the way with the audience. To make up for those all too easy moments when Darth Vader was revealed as Luke’s father. When the simple path out was taken. Instead of the plot twists and turns the story could have shown us. Played with us, toying with our emotions, only to dash them on the rocks.
The audience needs to remember. The story arc all through these films is not meant to follow any of the organic characters. George Lucas, on a number of occasions, has said that this is the story of the droids – Artoo and Threepio.
As nice as it will be to see old favorites on the screen, they need to play their parts and step aside. Cut down or simply retired. With new characters to tell us new tales. Getting in and out of trouble. Having the kind of adventures we hope for from a Star Wars film. With a nice touch of mythos thrown in for good measure.
In the end, do we hope for peace to be restored through out the Galaxy? Sure. A new order of Jedi as the guardians of justice? Perhaps. Maybe all we get is a few more good steps along the way. Never really seeing the goal realized.
Life is uncertain. Telling new tales should take that point and use it. But to be fair to audiences? Don’t go for the easy out. Give us a story that makes us look for something new. Not just a rehash of what came before. ’cause we’ve seen it and done it already.
Temptation By Opportunity
It is no secret that railroads interest me. Family connections to the profession guaranteed it.
From a young age, that interest became a passion. Both in model form as well as full size. So much so, that when I graduated high school, there was a brief period where I seriously considered it as a career. Things led me otherwise and my passions became a hobby. For close to 25 years, I volunteered at a railway museum. You name it, I did it. Steam, diesel and electric trains. Engineer, fireman, switchman, conductor, waiter, steward, ticket sales, gift shop sales, promotions, restorations, track work… it was good experience. I learned a lot, from some great people. And from some not so great ones, too. I also volunteered or have been involved in a number of other railway preservation efforts across the west.
I was involved with a model railroad club during the same time. Starting while still in high school, that association lasted more than 35 years. Again, I learned a lot, from some great people. And from some not so great ones, too. And I filled all kinds of roles, many of them in the same vein as at the museum.
Things change. Those opportunities are not what they used to be. Today, I have turned that passion into a business. Still a hobby of sorts, taking people for trips aboard chartered private railcars. In providing service in the traditions of generations gone by, my interest is shared with others.
Today, I found out that an opportunity exists, literally, blocks from where I live. The former Southern Pacific station in Livermore is owned by the City. Plans now call for the city to move the structure from its original location to a new site, next to the former Western Pacific rail line, now owned and operated by the Union Pacific. One possible use for the structure that has been proposed is a railway museum.
As far as I know, there is no formal group in town that focused on railroads. There is a group which saved the depot from demolition in 1973. Their focus is on local history. I am glad they stepped in and saved the structure when they did.
So, the dilemma at hand? Should I step up and get involved. One side of me enthusiastically says, “Go for it!” There is an opportunity to start fresh here. Create whole cloth a proper organization dedicated to the preservation of the railway history of the Livermore valley. Using the station building as cornerstone of that effort.
Yet, the other knowingly says, “No, thank you.” The effort required to get this going will be one that will likely take all of the free time I have to see it to fruition, much less into opening as a museum. All the proper paperwork to complete to create a proper 501(c)3 non-profit historical and educational organization. The proprieties must be observed.
The truth is that creating such a museum would be a great deal of work. And it will not be unique by any means. In the area, there are several other former Southern Pacific stations preserved that house museums. Several are home to scale model railroads. And they all do a fine job in meeting their goals.
Some hard thinking ahead…
There ain’t no Sundays west of Omaha.
Terminal nostalgia aside, life in years gone by was not easy or fun most of the time.
As much as anyone, I wish for a time when things were simpler and less complicated. But the truth is that if one looks back to the era seen above or a couple of decades before, folks worked pretty much all the time. The 40-hour work week with weekends off was a dream. The average Joe and Jane started their days before the sun came up and if they were lucky, finished some time after it went down. Leisure time was an occasional break, maybe on Sundays after church, but there were still plenty of chores to keep them busy, even then.
As an example, my great-grandfather, Christopher Cameron Walker, was born in a mining town. Eureka, Nevada on October 7, 1881. The miners who worked there at the time worked hard underground, getting the lead silver ore out of the mines. It was often hot, dirty and long hours 6 days every week. Few men got rich and those who did owned the claims the miners worked. The labors of the miners put dollars in their pockets, created by the ingots of that lead silver sent down to Selby, CA on the San Francisco Bay to be smelted down separating the lead from the silver. (The site of the smelter remains one of the most toxic places in all of California, with asphalt covering the worst area right on the bay shore.)
And Chris? At the age of 12, his father told him it was time for him to make his own way in the world. No more living at home, which by this time was in an even smaller and less profitable mining camp in northern Nevada called Safford. Chris had some schooling but not enough to have given him a trade, like his father – who successfully was apprenticed as a stone mason and a brewer before he left England for the USA.
Options were limited and Chris went to work as a vaquero on a number of different ranches up and down the nearby Pine Valley. A job he held for the next eight years. On the back of a horse, every day, wearing the same clothing. If it got cold, he might wear a second shirt. Otherwise, it was the same slouch hat, shirt, coat, jeans and boots. Working gear for the job of whatever needed doing on the ranches. Sometimes that involved rounding up the wild horses that roamed the valley. They would be gathered and driven to the rail head in Palisade to be sold for use back east. Life was pretty monotonous.
Health care? If you got sick, you either got better or you died. In many places, medicine came in the form of poured from a bottle. Badly mixed with alcohol and opiates if you were lucky. Doctors were something found elsewhere. Few and far between outside of big cities. The Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918 killed more people because there was little known about it and even less as to how to treat it all around the world. With soldiers coming home after the war, they brought it to populations ripe for infection. Another common fatal condition of the time? Childbirth. Took the lives of both mother and child. And even if both survived that, young children were lucky to survive life in those times. You name it, plenty of conditions carried on from the Victorian era into the modern world. And we won’t even go into violent death…
Chris gave up life on the range after a ride on the narrow gauge railroad that ran down the Pine Valley. But change from the biological horse to the iron horse was no easy time. You worked as called by the railroad. If it took 18 hours to get from one terminal to another, that is what it took and you worked that long day, for the amount the railroad paid. You just did what you had to because that is what the job you took was all about.
Today, many people may take for granted that unions fought and organized to get better conditions for workers as well as better hours and pay. On the railroads, a federal law guaranteed that no one could work more than 16 hours straight in a day. Later, the law was changed and that day reduced to 12 hours. And retirement? Railroad unions successfully organized one of the first federal government paid retirement systems, and it still is in place today, separate from Social Security.
The truth of it all is that life was harder then. Living in the old west was not as glamorous as stories, television and movies make it seem. Yes, things may have been simpler. In the days before cell phones and iPads, the lucky ones were those who worked hard to make a better life for their children. So that they would not have to go through what their parents did. Better educations, better medicine, better food… all of it.
It can be easy to forget all of this. Grumbling about spending a few extra hours working overtime. Cutting into your weekend. Instead, be glad that someone did make an effort so that you have what you have today. Don’t take it all for granted, because I can guarantee that folks back then who were not so lucky would not.
If for nothing else, we owe a word of thanks to the people who came before us and made today possible. ’nuff said.