The Great Aspinwall Hotel Fire

[Robin Landseadel]

Mark Kohut:
"I would simply say that incipient fascism pervaded almost
everything that followed including the rise of talkies and beyond."
 
Certainly, the continuing technological advances in audio/visual media
helped to create/improve forms of propaganda like the newsreel. Fox News
began in 1919 as “Fox News”, in 1928  became “Movietone News” when
“Movietone” was the Fox sound on film system.
 
https://youtu.be/bqDMAUSLF8Y?si=_wmSym8pg506O7oE
 
Hearst began to issue sound newsreels in 1929 under an agreement with
Fox Films using the Fox Movietone system. That arrangement lasted until 1935 when
Hearst released his newsreels through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The newsreel sequence
of Citizen Kane Is an obvious demonstration of the propaganda techniques of these
Newsreels.
 
https://youtu.be/30Q6ylhwVq4?si=K3vtpzcVX0Z0vtkQ
 
The most famous use of advanced propaganda techniques in film is “Triumph
of the Will”. Quoting from the Wiki article on the film:
 
Leni Riefenstahl, a popular German actress, had directed her first film called 
Das blaue Licht (The Blue Light) in 1932. Hitler was impressed with Das
blaue Licht and in 1933 asked her to direct a film about the Nazi’s annual
Nuremberg Rally. . .    . . . Hitler chose Riefenstahl as he wanted the film as
“artistically satisfying” as possible to appeal to a non-political audience,
but he also believed propaganda must admit no element of doubt.”
 
Triumph of the Will - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumph_of_the_Will
 
https://youtu.be/ckDxCsjUoEk?si=jsTHC286TZKR0wI5
 
Leni Reifensthal’s visual techniques were rigorously applied to one of the most
famous scenes in movie history:

https://youtu.be/xiYfn9kad9c?si=tcmnFtlOjT_V5iVe
 
And yeah, there’s plenty of incipient fascism in Shadow Ticket.
 
And in the United States, circa 2025.
 
 
"There must be a pony in here somewhere."