Reds! Official Fanfiction Thread (Part Two)
- Thread starter Miss Teri
- Start date
As an RPG fan, I'll sayy that I'd like to know more about how they turn out ITTL too. And I guess I'm curious about how the 'Blue Alert' franchise is being handled after its second game, (thinking pretty hard about the Mental Omega mod here).
PS: How many fanarts of Rubyverse (or alternatively Waververse if I got my binge reading right) characters are around? I know Molotok and Columbia got ones for instance, but I dunno about other characters.
PS: How many fanarts of Rubyverse (or alternatively Waververse if I got my binge reading right) characters are around? I know Molotok and Columbia got ones for instance, but I dunno about other characters.
Terry English (By Mr.E)
Terry English is a comedic-esponage strip that ran in 2000 AD from 1987-1994, created by Kim Newman and illustrated by Alan Davis, an homage and parody of the 60’s and 70’s British spy and Eurospy genres with a supernatural twist. It was also collected by Eclipse Comics in the United Republics
The eponymous character is an agent for “Department D”, at first described as a section of the Joint Security Bureau (and later revealed as the Diogenes Club from Sherlock Holmes, subsumed into the JSB after the formation of the Franco-British Union), who investigates paranormal activity throughout the FBU, mostly parodies or riffs on popular fiction of the period. Terry wears eclectic fashion, and embraces countercultural trends, while being fiercely and devoutly patriotic (always wearing a signature Union Jack jacket. One story has him rejecting a look from the FBU flag). He is accompanied by French agent Vanessa and “two-bit bobby” Carlton.
While he fights a variety of foes in the stories from Nazi Pagan skinheads summoning the Norse gods to a minor European king building a fortress in the Mediterranean from material found in Atlantis, his main enemies is the Section Zero, a division of the MDSS that also deals in paranormal activity. Section Zero is represented by Russian-American “The Big Bear” (an amalgamation of Maxine Kaplan’s Nikolai Balabos and Marvel Comics’ Nick Fury, complete with eye-patch), and more frequently by Debsy, an attractive female agent.
While homaging the Eurospy genre, the strips also deconstruct the Cold War era they emerged from. “The Oxbridge Rebellion” has a plot involving Section Zero summoning mind-control demons amongst student radicals on FBU college campus’. Another story features Terry and co. helping agents of a British-Cuban corporation (lead by the head of a thinly veiled Howard Hughes analogue) battle American magicians.
Terry himself is a sexually promiscuous, hard smoking, hard drinking, drug user, who is only kept due to his very special “skill set” (said in one strip to be “offin’ commies”), and as the strip went on, it gradually turned hard towards satirizing FBU anti-communism. Terry’s enemies grew more and more ludicrous, and their scheme grew more and more absurd (at one point, The Bear has a parody of Marvel’s Thor destroy London with a storm monster). The final story arc featured Terry being trapped in another dimension, and returning in the 90’s, where he is confused by the new Detente and the languor experienced after the 80’s, and has one final confrontation with Debsy (now having succeeded The Bear as leader of Section Zero), which ends with them sleeping together.
Terry English was adapted into an animated show in 1996, and later to a live action one in 2014.
The eponymous character is an agent for “Department D”, at first described as a section of the Joint Security Bureau (and later revealed as the Diogenes Club from Sherlock Holmes, subsumed into the JSB after the formation of the Franco-British Union), who investigates paranormal activity throughout the FBU, mostly parodies or riffs on popular fiction of the period. Terry wears eclectic fashion, and embraces countercultural trends, while being fiercely and devoutly patriotic (always wearing a signature Union Jack jacket. One story has him rejecting a look from the FBU flag). He is accompanied by French agent Vanessa and “two-bit bobby” Carlton.
While he fights a variety of foes in the stories from Nazi Pagan skinheads summoning the Norse gods to a minor European king building a fortress in the Mediterranean from material found in Atlantis, his main enemies is the Section Zero, a division of the MDSS that also deals in paranormal activity. Section Zero is represented by Russian-American “The Big Bear” (an amalgamation of Maxine Kaplan’s Nikolai Balabos and Marvel Comics’ Nick Fury, complete with eye-patch), and more frequently by Debsy, an attractive female agent.
While homaging the Eurospy genre, the strips also deconstruct the Cold War era they emerged from. “The Oxbridge Rebellion” has a plot involving Section Zero summoning mind-control demons amongst student radicals on FBU college campus’. Another story features Terry and co. helping agents of a British-Cuban corporation (lead by the head of a thinly veiled Howard Hughes analogue) battle American magicians.
Terry himself is a sexually promiscuous, hard smoking, hard drinking, drug user, who is only kept due to his very special “skill set” (said in one strip to be “offin’ commies”), and as the strip went on, it gradually turned hard towards satirizing FBU anti-communism. Terry’s enemies grew more and more ludicrous, and their scheme grew more and more absurd (at one point, The Bear has a parody of Marvel’s Thor destroy London with a storm monster). The final story arc featured Terry being trapped in another dimension, and returning in the 90’s, where he is confused by the new Detente and the languor experienced after the 80’s, and has one final confrontation with Debsy (now having succeeded The Bear as leader of Section Zero), which ends with them sleeping together.
Terry English was adapted into an animated show in 1996, and later to a live action one in 2014.
FLASH GORDON (1979) (By Mr.E)
A short supplemental, since this property was mentioned recently (Special thanks to @Time slip for some storylines in the comic strip that could be used as inspiration)
Flash Gordon (1979)
Directed by Sergio Leone
In 1936, Yale students Flash Gordon and Dale Arden, visiting the observatory, come across their astronomy professor, German immigrant Hans Zharkov, making observations of a distant planet, called Doitsu. He is fairly cryptic about why, aside from “the event.” The next night, they see a meteor fall near the observatory. As they approach the meteor, a deranged Dr. Zharkov pops out with a pistol, threatening them. He forces them onto an experimental rocket he had been developing, and they launch into space.
Sure enough, the rocket reaches Doitsu, and Zharkov grandly reveals that the planet’s trajectory was putting it on a collision course with Earth. Dale concludes that this was impossible (based on the calculations previously shown on Zharkov’s board), and Flash tries to fight Zharkov to bring them back to Earth. However, this only causes the rocket to nearly crash land. Flash and Dale emerge unscathed, while Zharkov is presumed dead. As they wander the planet, they encounter large dinosaurs and primitive cavemen, before a large rocket ship arrives and soldiers capture them.
They are brought to the city of Adolvopolis, an advanced city adorned with the image of the tyrant, Supreme Emperor of Doitsu Adolf the Abominable. Sure enough, Adolf brings the two to his court. The longtime totalitarian ruler of Doitsu, he had keep the races separate, and that was key to keeping order. However, with the discovery of the planet Earth, he decides to launch a brutal conquest and “cleansing” its population of inferior blood, along with Doitsu’s own races.
Flash and Dale are imprisoned in his extensive prisons, but are released by Adolf’s daughter Aura, who is fascinated by the off-planeters. They escape Adolvopolis, and leave for the varying lands of Doitsu.
They wander the jungles of Doitsu, until they come across the peaceful kingdom of Tropica, ruled by Queen Desira. They recover there, but their socialist sensibilities are miffed by the regalness of the kingdom. They are soon captured by the leader of local rebels, led by Barin. They are exposed to the dark underbelly, where Desira’s rule (backed by Adolph’s forces) causes poverty and death across the populace. They soon hatch a plan to overthrow the Queen.
Meanwhile, Adolf is alerted to the remains of the rocket, and another survivor- Dr. Zharkov. Adolf assures a distraught Zharkov that the planets would not collide, and tricks him into thinking that he wants peace, hoping to have him remake the original rocket plan.
The plan to overthrow the Queen is foiled thanks to her security chief Captain Brazor, but our heroes are saved by the floating city of Hawkman, which is a multi-race commune ruled by a council led by Vultan, Thun, and Bulok. They are attempting to resist the rule of Adolph across the planet, and Flash, Dale, Aura, and Barin are recruited (all the while, the latter two have a burgeoning relationship).
They soon travel across the various kingdoms of Doitsu, helping inspiring the people to overthrow Adolf’s respective puppet rulers. When they return to Tropica, they find Desira has been exiled to the desert, due to Brazor overthrowing him. She decides to cast aside her royal status to join the heroes in overthrowing Captain Brazor.
Adolf pressures Zharkov to accelerate the project in the wake of the mass overthrows. Zharkov overhears some of Adolf’s lackeys revealing his true plans, and Zharkov is arrested.
Most of the planet under their control, Flash and the heroes go to confront Adolvopolis, but are beseiged by his forces, led by Reichskommondo Gordo. While moving across the palace, Flash finds and frees Zharkov, who feels awful about the entire affair. They reconcile, while the rebellion seems poised to fail under the weight of Gordo’s assaults, and they, along with Dale and Barin break into Adolf’s quarters. Adolf hopes to kill the two and display their corposes as a warning. When his personal guard manages to capture the four and poison him, his plan seems to succeed.
However, when he actually displays the corpses, the crowd storms the palace, and the forces are overwhelmed by them and the freed prisoners from Adolf’s dungeons. Sure enough, it is revealed the poison pills were actually temporary epilepsy pills, and Adolf is easily overwhelmed and arrested, along with Gordo and his regime enforcers.
Doitsu is placed under the control of a ruling Soviet, with Vultan, Thun, Bulok, and Barin the inaugural members. Barin and Aura marry, and the film ends with Flash, Dale and Zharkov blasting back to Earth, though the credits said “FLASH GORDON WILL RETURN IN….. ADOLF’S RETURN!”
-----------------------------------------------
Trivia:
Flash Gordon (1979)
Directed by Sergio Leone
In 1936, Yale students Flash Gordon and Dale Arden, visiting the observatory, come across their astronomy professor, German immigrant Hans Zharkov, making observations of a distant planet, called Doitsu. He is fairly cryptic about why, aside from “the event.” The next night, they see a meteor fall near the observatory. As they approach the meteor, a deranged Dr. Zharkov pops out with a pistol, threatening them. He forces them onto an experimental rocket he had been developing, and they launch into space.
Sure enough, the rocket reaches Doitsu, and Zharkov grandly reveals that the planet’s trajectory was putting it on a collision course with Earth. Dale concludes that this was impossible (based on the calculations previously shown on Zharkov’s board), and Flash tries to fight Zharkov to bring them back to Earth. However, this only causes the rocket to nearly crash land. Flash and Dale emerge unscathed, while Zharkov is presumed dead. As they wander the planet, they encounter large dinosaurs and primitive cavemen, before a large rocket ship arrives and soldiers capture them.
They are brought to the city of Adolvopolis, an advanced city adorned with the image of the tyrant, Supreme Emperor of Doitsu Adolf the Abominable. Sure enough, Adolf brings the two to his court. The longtime totalitarian ruler of Doitsu, he had keep the races separate, and that was key to keeping order. However, with the discovery of the planet Earth, he decides to launch a brutal conquest and “cleansing” its population of inferior blood, along with Doitsu’s own races.
Flash and Dale are imprisoned in his extensive prisons, but are released by Adolf’s daughter Aura, who is fascinated by the off-planeters. They escape Adolvopolis, and leave for the varying lands of Doitsu.
They wander the jungles of Doitsu, until they come across the peaceful kingdom of Tropica, ruled by Queen Desira. They recover there, but their socialist sensibilities are miffed by the regalness of the kingdom. They are soon captured by the leader of local rebels, led by Barin. They are exposed to the dark underbelly, where Desira’s rule (backed by Adolph’s forces) causes poverty and death across the populace. They soon hatch a plan to overthrow the Queen.
Meanwhile, Adolf is alerted to the remains of the rocket, and another survivor- Dr. Zharkov. Adolf assures a distraught Zharkov that the planets would not collide, and tricks him into thinking that he wants peace, hoping to have him remake the original rocket plan.
The plan to overthrow the Queen is foiled thanks to her security chief Captain Brazor, but our heroes are saved by the floating city of Hawkman, which is a multi-race commune ruled by a council led by Vultan, Thun, and Bulok. They are attempting to resist the rule of Adolph across the planet, and Flash, Dale, Aura, and Barin are recruited (all the while, the latter two have a burgeoning relationship).
They soon travel across the various kingdoms of Doitsu, helping inspiring the people to overthrow Adolf’s respective puppet rulers. When they return to Tropica, they find Desira has been exiled to the desert, due to Brazor overthrowing him. She decides to cast aside her royal status to join the heroes in overthrowing Captain Brazor.
Adolf pressures Zharkov to accelerate the project in the wake of the mass overthrows. Zharkov overhears some of Adolf’s lackeys revealing his true plans, and Zharkov is arrested.
Most of the planet under their control, Flash and the heroes go to confront Adolvopolis, but are beseiged by his forces, led by Reichskommondo Gordo. While moving across the palace, Flash finds and frees Zharkov, who feels awful about the entire affair. They reconcile, while the rebellion seems poised to fail under the weight of Gordo’s assaults, and they, along with Dale and Barin break into Adolf’s quarters. Adolf hopes to kill the two and display their corposes as a warning. When his personal guard manages to capture the four and poison him, his plan seems to succeed.
However, when he actually displays the corpses, the crowd storms the palace, and the forces are overwhelmed by them and the freed prisoners from Adolf’s dungeons. Sure enough, it is revealed the poison pills were actually temporary epilepsy pills, and Adolf is easily overwhelmed and arrested, along with Gordo and his regime enforcers.
Doitsu is placed under the control of a ruling Soviet, with Vultan, Thun, Bulok, and Barin the inaugural members. Barin and Aura marry, and the film ends with Flash, Dale and Zharkov blasting back to Earth, though the credits said “FLASH GORDON WILL RETURN IN….. ADOLF’S RETURN!”
-----------------------------------------------
Trivia:
- Adapted from Alex Raymond’s comic strip of the same name, adopting numerous elements of the original “Emperor Adolf” and “Tropica” storylines
- George Lucas attempted to conceive a Flash Gordon film in the early 70’s, which gradually morphed into Star Wars. Fredrico Fellini (who had contributed to the strip in the 40’s) also considered the project.
- Leone was a fan of the original strip and strove to make it faithful to Raymond’s look, especially in depicting the varying lands of Doitsu. He also retained the explicit anti-fascism and strong socialist streak of the strip, including making Adolf a Mussolini look-alike with a Hitler mustache.
- Special effects done by Rick Baker, Jim Danforth, and Dave Allen [1]
- Regarded as part of Leone’s comic adaptation duology, with The Phantom (1982), and was praised for its faithful and entertaining story
- Sequel, Adolf's Return was made without Leone's involvement (though some of the same cast returned)
Different Perspectives (By Bookmark1995)
Bookmark1995
Banned
I want to explore the different attitudes people can have of the same person, and how they can be influenced by politics. As well as explore an alternate path for one of America's most infamous segregationists.
Different Perspectives
Cuban Worker's Rag
James Eastland, Corrupt Reactionary, Dead at 81.
Alberta Cisneros
James Oliver Eastland, corrupt reactionary and oppressor of both African Americans and the Native Cuban people, has died. Remembered for his hardline anti-worker stance and virulent racism, Cuban exile Raul Garcia described him as a man who "would be in the middle of worst hurricane in Havana, and he'd say the Spics caused it, aided by the Communists." [1]
Eastland was born on November 28, 1904 in Mississippi. His background could not be more emblematic of the exploitation and hate he would support, being the son of a major cotton planter [2]. He soon would learn the art of exploitation and racial division in order to divide the proletariat and exploit them even more.
By 1932, Eastland was serving in the bourgeois Mississippi legislature, while managing his cotton plantation with brutal tactics. Unsurprisingly, he would soon become entangled in the future class struggle.
During the Second American Civil War, he endorsed state laws that enabled the persecution of African-Americans to even greater levels. He was allegedly responsible for the production of a racist pamphlet that advocated for black genocide that included in its text: "We hold these truths to be self evident that all whites are created equal with certain rights; among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of dead niggers."[3] During the war, he was injured in a bombing plan by the Red militias of the Deep South, which only brought his racial hatred to new heights.
When MacArthur's forces collapsed, James Eastland was among those bourgeois cowards who chose exile in Cuba, his plantation turned into a collective farm, instead of joining his fellow Klansman in the tribunal, and became one of the staunchest allies of MacArthur regime. He served in the Cuban Senate from 1934 to his death in 1986 [4], where his corrupt bourgeois masters guaranteed his seat, and from where he would push his highly reactionary and racist agenda
Eastland was among the architects of the persecution of the Afro-Cuban people, pushing harsh racial laws that emulated the Jim Crow era. After rebuilding a new plantation, he used Afro-Cubans as slaves in a desire to being back the good ol'South. Many exiles have described the working conditions on Eastland's plantations as "beyond medieval".
"Eastland had the mentality of a totalitarian," said Belita Lopez, an Afro-Cuban exile and former slave of Eastland who fled Cuba in 1967, "you had to praise him, obey his every word. He always sought to feel like a master, to be dominant over others."
From 1958-1978, he served as the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the Cuban Bourgeois Senate, from which he would use a platform for his backward, anti-proletariat beliefs. When the kind-slaveholder regime of Kennedy rose to power and sought to throw more crumbs to the oppressed Cuban proletariat [5], Eastland, ever fanatical in his division of the working class, used his Senate Judiciary powers [6] to block legislation, seeing the concept of equality as poisonous, until a backroom deal among the Cuban capitalist elite ensured that James Eastland couldn't block Kennedy's crumbs.
His work also involved using the wealth of the Cuban people to build a war machine in order to bring back capitalist chains to mainland US soil.
His death was lauded by the capitalist overlords who expressed gratitude toward a man who promoted reactionary nationalism in a bid to distract the proletariat from the true threat.
[1] Paraphrasing LBJ's OTL words about him.
[2] Eastland's background, racist cotton planter, almost makes him a living embodiment of Jim Crow. I just find it fascinating, in the morbid sense.
[3] This was a quote from an actual OTL pamphlet published by white supremacists during the Civil Rights Movement. I can imagine the Second American Civil War would've brought Eastland's racism to brutal levels.
[4] OTL, he retired in 1978 when he was told that he was too identified with Jim Crow to gain the black vote.
[5] Hard leftist making things sound more negative.
[6] OTL, he used his Chairmanship to block civil rights. LBJ had to use a unique parliamentary trick to get around Eastland.
Havana World -Hearst Corporation's Top Havana Newspaper
James Eastland, Patriot, Last of the "Framers of 34" [1], Dead at 84.
Roger Davis
February 19, 1986
James Eastland, longtime senator and conservative icon, died today in his home. President Kennedy issued a statement, honoring his legacy and lamenting "the passing of an era", alluding to the fact that Eastland was the last of the 1934 Congress, known as the "Framers of 34", which established the current federal structure governing the exiled Republic. A statement from the federal government saying that Eastland's funeral will be held next Wednesday.
Eastland in his lifetime was both praised for staunch defense of American ideals, and criticized for his perceived racism and elitism.
"Whatever you say about Eastland, he never did anything by halves," said Senator William Winter [2], one of his aides and another fellow Mississippian exile. "Whether it was the military or anti-communism, he would defend it to his laugh breath."
Born on November 28, 1904 to a cotton planter in Doddsville, Mississippi, Eastland soon entered both his father's trade and politics, finding success in both.
On the eve of a the revolution, he owned one of the largest cotton plantations in Mississippi, and served in the Mississippi House of Representatives as a member of the long-dominant Democratic Party.
When the Communist Party entered power [3], Eastland rallied around General MacArthur and the National Salvation Movement, seeking to preserve the principles of both free enterprise and, more controversially, segregation.
With the fall of the American government and way of life to the Red Horde [4], Eastland fled Mississippi in late 1933, his plantation expropriated by the Red government. In 1934, he rallied to MacArthur's somewhat authoritarian National Salvation Front, and was elected to the first Havana Congress in early 1934.
While lauded for his attempt to keep America alive on Cuba, his reputation has suffered in recent years for his attempts to push nearly totalitarian levels of segregation onto the Cuban people. These attitudes were credited to the loss of his wealth and prestige.
"Eastland was full bodied racist, no doubt," Wallace said. "But I consider it to be the misguided pain of a man who unfairly lost everything."
He soon rebuilt his cotton plantation, building a 7000 acre farm in Pinar del Rio, in the Western region of the island.
From 1934 to 1986, he remained one of the staunchest defenders of restoration, and was known for both racial remarks and his provocative statements. His initially used his legislative powers, as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to block legislation regarding Cuban emancipation.
However, his racial hatred was often surpassed by his personal hatred of the Debs government. When questioned about détente in 1976, he infamously remarked "I think the only peace we can bring to Debs is the one with a nuclear warhead at the end of it." He was a staunch supporter of invading the mainland, even after nuclear annihilation made this goal impractical.
Despite the emancipation of native Cubans, he remained a staunch defender of his racism [5], having little regrets, but quickly evolved into a mentor and guide to freshman politicians as he aged.
"Despite his beliefs, we remained good friends," said Alfred Mendoza, among the first native Cubans to serve in Congress. "Even though he thought little of my beliefs, he respected the institutions enough to show me the process of legislation." [6]
Eastland was survived by his wife and four children.
[1] I figured the Americuban exiles would try and connect themselves to the original framers.
[2] OTL Mississippi Governor and agent of segregation.
[3] Americuban whitewashing of MacArthur's obliteration of democracy.
[4] Trying to demonize the Red forces.
[5] OTL, even though he did join the NAACP, he never really atoned for his racism.
[6] Eastland was known OTL to be friends with his political opponents. He even stayed friends with LBJ, despite the Civil Rights Act.
Different Perspectives
Cuban Worker's Rag
James Eastland, Corrupt Reactionary, Dead at 81.
Alberta Cisneros
February 19, 1986
James Oliver Eastland, corrupt reactionary and oppressor of both African Americans and the Native Cuban people, has died. Remembered for his hardline anti-worker stance and virulent racism, Cuban exile Raul Garcia described him as a man who "would be in the middle of worst hurricane in Havana, and he'd say the Spics caused it, aided by the Communists." [1]
Eastland was born on November 28, 1904 in Mississippi. His background could not be more emblematic of the exploitation and hate he would support, being the son of a major cotton planter [2]. He soon would learn the art of exploitation and racial division in order to divide the proletariat and exploit them even more.
By 1932, Eastland was serving in the bourgeois Mississippi legislature, while managing his cotton plantation with brutal tactics. Unsurprisingly, he would soon become entangled in the future class struggle.
During the Second American Civil War, he endorsed state laws that enabled the persecution of African-Americans to even greater levels. He was allegedly responsible for the production of a racist pamphlet that advocated for black genocide that included in its text: "We hold these truths to be self evident that all whites are created equal with certain rights; among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of dead niggers."[3] During the war, he was injured in a bombing plan by the Red militias of the Deep South, which only brought his racial hatred to new heights.
When MacArthur's forces collapsed, James Eastland was among those bourgeois cowards who chose exile in Cuba, his plantation turned into a collective farm, instead of joining his fellow Klansman in the tribunal, and became one of the staunchest allies of MacArthur regime. He served in the Cuban Senate from 1934 to his death in 1986 [4], where his corrupt bourgeois masters guaranteed his seat, and from where he would push his highly reactionary and racist agenda
Eastland was among the architects of the persecution of the Afro-Cuban people, pushing harsh racial laws that emulated the Jim Crow era. After rebuilding a new plantation, he used Afro-Cubans as slaves in a desire to being back the good ol'South. Many exiles have described the working conditions on Eastland's plantations as "beyond medieval".
"Eastland had the mentality of a totalitarian," said Belita Lopez, an Afro-Cuban exile and former slave of Eastland who fled Cuba in 1967, "you had to praise him, obey his every word. He always sought to feel like a master, to be dominant over others."
From 1958-1978, he served as the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the Cuban Bourgeois Senate, from which he would use a platform for his backward, anti-proletariat beliefs. When the kind-slaveholder regime of Kennedy rose to power and sought to throw more crumbs to the oppressed Cuban proletariat [5], Eastland, ever fanatical in his division of the working class, used his Senate Judiciary powers [6] to block legislation, seeing the concept of equality as poisonous, until a backroom deal among the Cuban capitalist elite ensured that James Eastland couldn't block Kennedy's crumbs.
His work also involved using the wealth of the Cuban people to build a war machine in order to bring back capitalist chains to mainland US soil.
His death was lauded by the capitalist overlords who expressed gratitude toward a man who promoted reactionary nationalism in a bid to distract the proletariat from the true threat.
[1] Paraphrasing LBJ's OTL words about him.
[2] Eastland's background, racist cotton planter, almost makes him a living embodiment of Jim Crow. I just find it fascinating, in the morbid sense.
[3] This was a quote from an actual OTL pamphlet published by white supremacists during the Civil Rights Movement. I can imagine the Second American Civil War would've brought Eastland's racism to brutal levels.
[4] OTL, he retired in 1978 when he was told that he was too identified with Jim Crow to gain the black vote.
[5] Hard leftist making things sound more negative.
[6] OTL, he used his Chairmanship to block civil rights. LBJ had to use a unique parliamentary trick to get around Eastland.
Havana World -Hearst Corporation's Top Havana Newspaper
James Eastland, Patriot, Last of the "Framers of 34" [1], Dead at 84.
Roger Davis
February 19, 1986
James Eastland, longtime senator and conservative icon, died today in his home. President Kennedy issued a statement, honoring his legacy and lamenting "the passing of an era", alluding to the fact that Eastland was the last of the 1934 Congress, known as the "Framers of 34", which established the current federal structure governing the exiled Republic. A statement from the federal government saying that Eastland's funeral will be held next Wednesday.
Eastland in his lifetime was both praised for staunch defense of American ideals, and criticized for his perceived racism and elitism.
"Whatever you say about Eastland, he never did anything by halves," said Senator William Winter [2], one of his aides and another fellow Mississippian exile. "Whether it was the military or anti-communism, he would defend it to his laugh breath."
Born on November 28, 1904 to a cotton planter in Doddsville, Mississippi, Eastland soon entered both his father's trade and politics, finding success in both.
On the eve of a the revolution, he owned one of the largest cotton plantations in Mississippi, and served in the Mississippi House of Representatives as a member of the long-dominant Democratic Party.
When the Communist Party entered power [3], Eastland rallied around General MacArthur and the National Salvation Movement, seeking to preserve the principles of both free enterprise and, more controversially, segregation.
With the fall of the American government and way of life to the Red Horde [4], Eastland fled Mississippi in late 1933, his plantation expropriated by the Red government. In 1934, he rallied to MacArthur's somewhat authoritarian National Salvation Front, and was elected to the first Havana Congress in early 1934.
While lauded for his attempt to keep America alive on Cuba, his reputation has suffered in recent years for his attempts to push nearly totalitarian levels of segregation onto the Cuban people. These attitudes were credited to the loss of his wealth and prestige.
"Eastland was full bodied racist, no doubt," Wallace said. "But I consider it to be the misguided pain of a man who unfairly lost everything."
He soon rebuilt his cotton plantation, building a 7000 acre farm in Pinar del Rio, in the Western region of the island.
From 1934 to 1986, he remained one of the staunchest defenders of restoration, and was known for both racial remarks and his provocative statements. His initially used his legislative powers, as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to block legislation regarding Cuban emancipation.
However, his racial hatred was often surpassed by his personal hatred of the Debs government. When questioned about détente in 1976, he infamously remarked "I think the only peace we can bring to Debs is the one with a nuclear warhead at the end of it." He was a staunch supporter of invading the mainland, even after nuclear annihilation made this goal impractical.
Despite the emancipation of native Cubans, he remained a staunch defender of his racism [5], having little regrets, but quickly evolved into a mentor and guide to freshman politicians as he aged.
"Despite his beliefs, we remained good friends," said Alfred Mendoza, among the first native Cubans to serve in Congress. "Even though he thought little of my beliefs, he respected the institutions enough to show me the process of legislation." [6]
Eastland was survived by his wife and four children.
[1] I figured the Americuban exiles would try and connect themselves to the original framers.
[2] OTL Mississippi Governor and agent of segregation.
[3] Americuban whitewashing of MacArthur's obliteration of democracy.
[4] Trying to demonize the Red forces.
[5] OTL, even though he did join the NAACP, he never really atoned for his racism.
[6] Eastland was known OTL to be friends with his political opponents. He even stayed friends with LBJ, despite the Civil Rights Act.
Lillian Martin (PNWKing)
PNWKing
Banned
Lillian Martin
Lillian Martin was born on June, 11, 1905, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the daughter of Finnish immigrants who in the common culture of the old republic changed the family name from "Martinen". When her father came home from the War, he was a changed man for he had become a committed member of the Worker's Party. Lillian as the 1920s dragged on became closer and closer to her father politically. By the 1933 Revolution, she had become committed to her new values and she became one of the first women to enlist in the Revolutionary Army, assisting in the capture of Minneapolis. She soon became one of the first women to enlist in the UASR regiments sent during the Spanish Civil War, where she served with valor earning two medals.
But this chapter of Lillian Martin's life would not end. Soon World War 2 opened, and Martin became one of the first women to sign up again, as she had done during the Revolution and the Spanish Civil War. She earned three more medals in World War 2. Post-war she entered the Minneapolis Revolutionary University, soon studying English & journalism. In 1952, she would publish her memoirs. In the 1960s, Martin's works became more and more important. In the 1970s and Post-Second Cultural Revolution America her work became more and more popular and influenced several other female writers across America.
She died at her home in Minneapolis, MN, in 1982. Quickly her books would end up out of print. However, in the 1990s, several Martin fans from the 1970s rediscovered their love as they aged for Martin. Her works returned to print for the first time since 1985 in 2001. Collections soon became popular across the UASR and the Comintern sphere. Since 2003, Martin's works have become increasingly popular for a new generation as many collections have been published. Many female writers in the past decade have cited Martin as an influence.
Lillian Martin was born on June, 11, 1905, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the daughter of Finnish immigrants who in the common culture of the old republic changed the family name from "Martinen". When her father came home from the War, he was a changed man for he had become a committed member of the Worker's Party. Lillian as the 1920s dragged on became closer and closer to her father politically. By the 1933 Revolution, she had become committed to her new values and she became one of the first women to enlist in the Revolutionary Army, assisting in the capture of Minneapolis. She soon became one of the first women to enlist in the UASR regiments sent during the Spanish Civil War, where she served with valor earning two medals.
But this chapter of Lillian Martin's life would not end. Soon World War 2 opened, and Martin became one of the first women to sign up again, as she had done during the Revolution and the Spanish Civil War. She earned three more medals in World War 2. Post-war she entered the Minneapolis Revolutionary University, soon studying English & journalism. In 1952, she would publish her memoirs. In the 1960s, Martin's works became more and more important. In the 1970s and Post-Second Cultural Revolution America her work became more and more popular and influenced several other female writers across America.
She died at her home in Minneapolis, MN, in 1982. Quickly her books would end up out of print. However, in the 1990s, several Martin fans from the 1970s rediscovered their love as they aged for Martin. Her works returned to print for the first time since 1985 in 2001. Collections soon became popular across the UASR and the Comintern sphere. Since 2003, Martin's works have become increasingly popular for a new generation as many collections have been published. Many female writers in the past decade have cited Martin as an influence.
SpookyBoy
Banned
For anyone who is interested, I made a thread for photos from the Reds! universe over at SV
THE MOGUL (1990) (Mr.E)
The Mogul (1990)
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
In 1974, an elderly Jack L. Warner lives in relative obscurity in a Havana retirement home. He suffered a stroke, which leaves him unable to speak or walk. He is watching a television, which morphs from a British period drama to the 1902 film The Great Train Robbery. Jack is suddenly thrust back into 1903 in Youngstown, Ohio, where he and his brothers screen the film in a rented theater, first marking their impact in the film industry.
In 1918, after years as distributors and minor producers, the Warner Brothers (Sam, Harry, Albert, and Jack) establish a studio in Culver City, California, where they make a successful war film (My Four Years in Germany), but are unable to replicate that success. Eventually, they are forced to move to a studio on Olive Avenue. There, in 1923, a veteran named Lee Duncan brings in a German Shepard that he had found in a bombed out kennel in France. Jack perceives Rin-Tin-Tin as intelligent and manageable, and he proves a massive box office hit with his films, saving WB. A young man named Darryl F. Zanuck rises from writing one of Rin Tin Tin’s pictures to become Warner’s leading executive producer.
In 1925, Sam begins to negotiate with the company Western Electric to develop a new sound technology for film. While the others are skeptical, Sam manages to get them on his side, and the new Vitaphone system is put to work for the 1928 feature The Jazz Singer, starring Broadway star Al Jolson. However, the day before the premiere of the film, Sam Warner dies of pneumonia (though the film implies his brothers may have had a hand in his death). The Jazz Singer puts Warner Brothers on the map, and they follow up this success with crime films like The Public Enemy and Little Caesar. However, WB’s success and their authoritarian rule over the studio also puts them into conflict with the various guilds and unions in Hollywood. Jack provides information about some of his staff involved with strikes or the burgeoning communist movement to the MPPDA to ensure they don’t get work, and testifies with other studio heads like Louis B. Mayer and Harry Cohn in front of the Fish Committee about Communist activities in Hollywood.
As the Revolution comes to California, the Warners are split as to where to go. Harry wants to return to Canada, while Jack advocates taking their resources to Cuba. As the Warner lot becomes closer to the Red line, the Warner Bros attempt to flee. Harry and Albert both receive telegrams from Jack, telling them the location of a smuggler that could take them to Canada. However, Harry ends up in a location just outside of Los Angeles, where he is soon caught in the middle of a battle, and killed. Albert is killed in a similar fashion, as his limousine is caught in gunfire.
Jack soon arrives in Havana, where he formally relocates the Warner lot (recreated to look like the old Culver City one), and quickly uses his existing resources and experience to establish Warner Bros as a leading film producer for the new Cuban market, and himself among the White American business clique. He is bitter when he learns that Zanuck has stayed in the mainland, and taken over operations of the old studio for the Reds, feeling Zanuck had betrayed him personally, though he finds a new protege in David O. Selznick, a former RKO executive.
Despite this, there are fewer resources in Cuba than in the US, so he pools his resources with previous bitter rival Cohn and Columbia Pictures. This partnership proves very fruitful in 1938 when the two co-produce an adaptation of White exile Margaret Mitchell’s bestseller Gone with the Wind, starring Errol Flynn and Vivian Leigh.
The mega-success of Gone with the Wind impresses General MacArthur, who commissions the new Warner-Columbia alliance to make films promoting the “American Way”, and offers him massive subsidies through a new program from the “Department of Communications” to make movies to promote Cuban policies.
The program begins with epic American historical features like Washington’s War and Gettysburg, before Cuba enters the war in South America. Warner and Cohn are commissioned to make a film about the war effort. Plagiarizing an old World War I script from the pre-Revolution days, In the Jungle proves a massive success, and provides a road map for Warner and Columbia to make large, epic war films, with racist views of native Cubans and big battle scenes. These Macaco films further curry favor with MacArthur, and Warner and Cohn end up in his inner circle, influencing policy, and becomes Cuba’s leading tastemaker.
During the war, Frank McCarthy, a former line producer at Columbia, crosses over into WB, and becomes a protege of Selznick. McCarthy’s brother Tommy is a high ranking figure in the Irish Mob (McCarthy, in fact, describes his childhood and young adulthood to Warner as very similar to James Cagney’s character in The Public Enemy), and Warner is convinced by his friend Meyer Lansky (one of the heads of the Havana Outfit) to promote McCarthy to an executive position.
As the war winds down, and “Macaco films” continue their dominance in cinemas, the old rivalry between Cohn and Warner intensifies, especially as they attempt to jockey for the subsidies. Cohn seems to start to win in this contest, especially with his advocacy for a limitation of Franco-British films being released (The Third Man and other films from Alexander Korda, now a pawn of Warner’s other old rival Louis B. Mayer becoming major hits). Still, the two use their combined influence to have Joseph I. Breen, the long time censor for the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association of America, removed for “hindering the production of patriotic films” (Breen had denied releases to several Macaco films for their violence). Warner and Cohn also try to hinder the rise of television in Cuba, but Warner eventually gains the foresight to start a television department, with shows like Caracas [1] and western Old Colorado, which he is then able to sell to the BBC. McCarthy decides to leave Warner as well to form his own studio in Santiago, prompting Warner to acrimoniously cut ties and call him “just another Zanuck”
Cohn’s health starts to take a turn for the worst, and with declining profits (Warner taking a larger share of their co-productions due to technicalities in the contracts), he makes Columbia public. Warner takes advantage, secretly organizing a syndicate to buy up Columbia stock. Eventually, he buys up most of it. Cohn assistant brings news of this to Cohn in the hospital and he dies of complete shock.
Warner completes his takeover and merger of Columbia, celebrating it by knocking down the wall that previously separated the studios. Warner-Columbia, however, is only kept alive by the Department of Communication subsidies, with their stable of Macaco and Westerns becoming less and less successful.
MacArthur’s 1963 death and the rise of Kennedy prove further disastrous, as Kennedy ends the “propaganda state”, stopping subsidies, despite Warners plea to Joe Kennedy. To make matters worse, his son Jack M Warner (Jack Jr.), whom he had become estranged from, defects to the mainland. Warner tries to make one last attempt at capitalist success, making both a traditional epic Macaco film in The Fires of Venezuela and buying the rights to TH White’s The Once and Future King, and adapting the Ill-Made Knight.
Both films have massive production difficulties, with The Fires of Venezuela dealing with the Brazilian military withdrawing support and the harsh tropical environment in Brazil, and the tensions between Warner and British actors in The Ill-Made Knight. Both films are gigantic flops, and unable to handle the growing debt and expenses, Warner declares bankruptcy, and sells off the studio piecemeal to buyers.
Now living in obscurity with relatives, his mental state deteriorates from dementia. In one instance, while with Harry’s son Lewis, he mistakes Lewis for Harry, and hints at how he had Harry and Albert killed in the Civil War. He also suffers a stroke while watching A Long Night, produced by McCarthy as a deliberate attack on the Macaco films that made Warner famous.
Warner lives the rest of his days in assisted living, before his death in 1978. A few years later, Harry and Albert’s remaining children learn evidence from the mainland that Jack had both of his brothers killed by misleading them, along with testimony from In the Jungle star William Demarest that all three had killed Sam Warner right before the debut of The Jazz Singer. The resulting legal battle inside the family was still ongoing as of the film’s release (settled in 1994).
[1] A show about a former NBI agent turned JSB operative in Venezuela, foiling plots by “agitators” and Red American agents
--------------
Special thanks to @Mr. C for reminding me of this idea. Also to @Bookmark1995 for their piece, which gave some info used (Read it here: https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/reds-fanfic.341837/page-272#post-15745852)
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
In 1974, an elderly Jack L. Warner lives in relative obscurity in a Havana retirement home. He suffered a stroke, which leaves him unable to speak or walk. He is watching a television, which morphs from a British period drama to the 1902 film The Great Train Robbery. Jack is suddenly thrust back into 1903 in Youngstown, Ohio, where he and his brothers screen the film in a rented theater, first marking their impact in the film industry.
In 1918, after years as distributors and minor producers, the Warner Brothers (Sam, Harry, Albert, and Jack) establish a studio in Culver City, California, where they make a successful war film (My Four Years in Germany), but are unable to replicate that success. Eventually, they are forced to move to a studio on Olive Avenue. There, in 1923, a veteran named Lee Duncan brings in a German Shepard that he had found in a bombed out kennel in France. Jack perceives Rin-Tin-Tin as intelligent and manageable, and he proves a massive box office hit with his films, saving WB. A young man named Darryl F. Zanuck rises from writing one of Rin Tin Tin’s pictures to become Warner’s leading executive producer.
In 1925, Sam begins to negotiate with the company Western Electric to develop a new sound technology for film. While the others are skeptical, Sam manages to get them on his side, and the new Vitaphone system is put to work for the 1928 feature The Jazz Singer, starring Broadway star Al Jolson. However, the day before the premiere of the film, Sam Warner dies of pneumonia (though the film implies his brothers may have had a hand in his death). The Jazz Singer puts Warner Brothers on the map, and they follow up this success with crime films like The Public Enemy and Little Caesar. However, WB’s success and their authoritarian rule over the studio also puts them into conflict with the various guilds and unions in Hollywood. Jack provides information about some of his staff involved with strikes or the burgeoning communist movement to the MPPDA to ensure they don’t get work, and testifies with other studio heads like Louis B. Mayer and Harry Cohn in front of the Fish Committee about Communist activities in Hollywood.
As the Revolution comes to California, the Warners are split as to where to go. Harry wants to return to Canada, while Jack advocates taking their resources to Cuba. As the Warner lot becomes closer to the Red line, the Warner Bros attempt to flee. Harry and Albert both receive telegrams from Jack, telling them the location of a smuggler that could take them to Canada. However, Harry ends up in a location just outside of Los Angeles, where he is soon caught in the middle of a battle, and killed. Albert is killed in a similar fashion, as his limousine is caught in gunfire.
Jack soon arrives in Havana, where he formally relocates the Warner lot (recreated to look like the old Culver City one), and quickly uses his existing resources and experience to establish Warner Bros as a leading film producer for the new Cuban market, and himself among the White American business clique. He is bitter when he learns that Zanuck has stayed in the mainland, and taken over operations of the old studio for the Reds, feeling Zanuck had betrayed him personally, though he finds a new protege in David O. Selznick, a former RKO executive.
Despite this, there are fewer resources in Cuba than in the US, so he pools his resources with previous bitter rival Cohn and Columbia Pictures. This partnership proves very fruitful in 1938 when the two co-produce an adaptation of White exile Margaret Mitchell’s bestseller Gone with the Wind, starring Errol Flynn and Vivian Leigh.
The mega-success of Gone with the Wind impresses General MacArthur, who commissions the new Warner-Columbia alliance to make films promoting the “American Way”, and offers him massive subsidies through a new program from the “Department of Communications” to make movies to promote Cuban policies.
The program begins with epic American historical features like Washington’s War and Gettysburg, before Cuba enters the war in South America. Warner and Cohn are commissioned to make a film about the war effort. Plagiarizing an old World War I script from the pre-Revolution days, In the Jungle proves a massive success, and provides a road map for Warner and Columbia to make large, epic war films, with racist views of native Cubans and big battle scenes. These Macaco films further curry favor with MacArthur, and Warner and Cohn end up in his inner circle, influencing policy, and becomes Cuba’s leading tastemaker.
During the war, Frank McCarthy, a former line producer at Columbia, crosses over into WB, and becomes a protege of Selznick. McCarthy’s brother Tommy is a high ranking figure in the Irish Mob (McCarthy, in fact, describes his childhood and young adulthood to Warner as very similar to James Cagney’s character in The Public Enemy), and Warner is convinced by his friend Meyer Lansky (one of the heads of the Havana Outfit) to promote McCarthy to an executive position.
As the war winds down, and “Macaco films” continue their dominance in cinemas, the old rivalry between Cohn and Warner intensifies, especially as they attempt to jockey for the subsidies. Cohn seems to start to win in this contest, especially with his advocacy for a limitation of Franco-British films being released (The Third Man and other films from Alexander Korda, now a pawn of Warner’s other old rival Louis B. Mayer becoming major hits). Still, the two use their combined influence to have Joseph I. Breen, the long time censor for the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association of America, removed for “hindering the production of patriotic films” (Breen had denied releases to several Macaco films for their violence). Warner and Cohn also try to hinder the rise of television in Cuba, but Warner eventually gains the foresight to start a television department, with shows like Caracas [1] and western Old Colorado, which he is then able to sell to the BBC. McCarthy decides to leave Warner as well to form his own studio in Santiago, prompting Warner to acrimoniously cut ties and call him “just another Zanuck”
Cohn’s health starts to take a turn for the worst, and with declining profits (Warner taking a larger share of their co-productions due to technicalities in the contracts), he makes Columbia public. Warner takes advantage, secretly organizing a syndicate to buy up Columbia stock. Eventually, he buys up most of it. Cohn assistant brings news of this to Cohn in the hospital and he dies of complete shock.
Warner completes his takeover and merger of Columbia, celebrating it by knocking down the wall that previously separated the studios. Warner-Columbia, however, is only kept alive by the Department of Communication subsidies, with their stable of Macaco and Westerns becoming less and less successful.
MacArthur’s 1963 death and the rise of Kennedy prove further disastrous, as Kennedy ends the “propaganda state”, stopping subsidies, despite Warners plea to Joe Kennedy. To make matters worse, his son Jack M Warner (Jack Jr.), whom he had become estranged from, defects to the mainland. Warner tries to make one last attempt at capitalist success, making both a traditional epic Macaco film in The Fires of Venezuela and buying the rights to TH White’s The Once and Future King, and adapting the Ill-Made Knight.
Both films have massive production difficulties, with The Fires of Venezuela dealing with the Brazilian military withdrawing support and the harsh tropical environment in Brazil, and the tensions between Warner and British actors in The Ill-Made Knight. Both films are gigantic flops, and unable to handle the growing debt and expenses, Warner declares bankruptcy, and sells off the studio piecemeal to buyers.
Now living in obscurity with relatives, his mental state deteriorates from dementia. In one instance, while with Harry’s son Lewis, he mistakes Lewis for Harry, and hints at how he had Harry and Albert killed in the Civil War. He also suffers a stroke while watching A Long Night, produced by McCarthy as a deliberate attack on the Macaco films that made Warner famous.
Warner lives the rest of his days in assisted living, before his death in 1978. A few years later, Harry and Albert’s remaining children learn evidence from the mainland that Jack had both of his brothers killed by misleading them, along with testimony from In the Jungle star William Demarest that all three had killed Sam Warner right before the debut of The Jazz Singer. The resulting legal battle inside the family was still ongoing as of the film’s release (settled in 1994).
[1] A show about a former NBI agent turned JSB operative in Venezuela, foiling plots by “agitators” and Red American agents
--------------
Special thanks to @Mr. C for reminding me of this idea. Also to @Bookmark1995 for their piece, which gave some info used (Read it here: https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/reds-fanfic.341837/page-272#post-15745852)
Bookmark1995
Banned
I love how you tie the various contributions together. It adds realism to the whole thing.
THE WEREWOLF OF PARIS (1938)(Mr.E)
(Content warning: the following piece mentions of rape, incest, and murder. None are described in detail, but they are present within the text)
The Werewolf of Paris (1938)
Directed by Edward Dmytryk
Screenplay by Guy Endore, based on his novel of the same name
An unnamed American graduate student in Paris (Marguerite Churchill) is traveling at night, talking to an associate, Eliane (Nan Grey). The conversation quickly turns to lycanthropy and whether it is possible, as well as its connection to sexual desire. The two stumble upon a bunch of paper in the trash, and within it, the graduate student picks up a manuscript dated 1873. Skimming through, the words “Lupanar” (brothel) and “Loup” (wolf) stand out to her. The manuscript was written by Aymar Galliez, and was written specifically as evidence in the defense of one Sergeant Bernard Calliet, during his court-martial in 1871.
Gaillez (Lon Chaney) begins by discussing the Pitamounts, a lycanthrope clan that had existed for centuries, but had gradually been destroyed by their rivals, the Pitavals. The last of them, Father Pitamount (Warner Orland), comes across a young woman from the village named Josephine (Evelyn Ankers), during a thunderstorm in March, 1846, when she takes refuge in his church. Pitamount takes advantage, and rapes the young woman (not explicitly shown).
Josephine eventually gives birth on Christmas Eve to young Bernard Calliet. Calliet is raised by Josephine, her uncle Gaillez (who briefly goes to fight in the failed 1848 revolution), and a servant Francois (Fay Helm). While seemingly normal, he has a number of peculiar traits, refusing cooked meats, and having a penchant for raw animal meat. Eventually Gaillez is forced to lock him up for long stretches. However, as he grows up, this bloodlust grows even larger.
Eventually, the grown up Calliet (Creighton Chaney[1]) begins to have bizarre dreams about turning into a wolf-like creature, and going out at night and killing livestock, as well as digging up and eating corpses. In real life, meanwhile, dead livestock and partially eaten corpses begin to pile up, causing rumors of a vicious wolf in the region.
Calliet’s bloodlust is coupled with a strong sexual drive, which he satisfies by visiting a local brothel. He also has an incestuous affair with his mother. Gaillez slowly realizes, through reading the local history and observing young Calliet’s behavior, that he is, in fact, a werewolf.
Calliet learns of the circumstances of his birth, and confronts Father Pitamount. Both transforming into their wolf forms, they attack each other, but Calliet kills him. Thinking it was another dream, he visits a prostitute (Gloria Holden), who he also attempts to kill as a werewolf (but she escapes).
Gaillez is able to convince the townspeople of his evils, and Calliet is forced to flee before they can kill him.
Calliet winds up in Paris, where he is able to indulge his hunger by attack denizens in the night. To have a steady income, he joins the National Guard in time for the Franco-Prussian War. While in a canteen for soldiers, he meets and falls in love with a young woman named Sofia de Blumenberg (Josephine Hutchinson), who is revealed to be a masochist, who allows Calliet to feed on her blood after she cuts herself to satiate his hunger.
Calliet joins the Communards during the Paris Commune. However, stories of his actions get back to Guillez, who comes to Paris (armed with a silver bullet) in time to witness the brutal repression of the commune by Royalist forces. As he surveys the brutal atrocities against the Royalist, while looking for clues for Calliet’s location, he muses about whether Calliet or the French loyalists were the real monsters. He eventually sees Calliet and Sofia, and thinks that he no longer has urges because of her .
However, as the royalist close in on the Communards during the “Bloody Week”, Calliet decides to go and find someone to kill. He brushes against a Royalist, and off-screen, transforms and attacks him in front of Guillez’s eyes (the onscreen transformations were dismissed as dream sequences previously, marking the twist that Calliet was a real werewolf and not imagining it). Guillez shots Calliet, and while he only grazes the werewolf, he transforms back into his human form.
Calliet is captured and put on trial for his attack. Guillez defends him, admitting his own superstition and fear prevented him from understanding and helping Calliet to suppress his urges. He also muses that his evil was lesser than “some evils done in the name of country” (implicating the French government and their brutal repression of the Commune and the mass execution of the Communards). Despite this, Calliet is imprisoned, eventually placed in an asylum, where Guillez visits him one last time. Guillez updates him on some of villagers (including his mother), and apologizes to him again for not helping him, which Calliet accepts.
The post-script of Guillez’s defense describes the final fate of Bernard Calliet: while drugged, he hallucinates Sofia, on the prison walls, and (alluding to a suicide pact the two had earlier in the film) jumps off the wall. The real Sofia had killed herself due to the stress of losing Calliet
Upon finishing the manuscript, the graduate student visits a local cemetary, and finds “Sgt. Bernard Calliet (1846-1872)” thanks to a ledger. She digs it up, and opens the casket to find the bones of a dog inside.
------------------------
Trivia:
[1] Known widely OTL as Lon Chaney Jr., a name he resented because it was forced on him by the studio.
[2] It’s basically the make-up for the OTL Wolf Man
The Werewolf of Paris (1938)
Directed by Edward Dmytryk
Screenplay by Guy Endore, based on his novel of the same name
An unnamed American graduate student in Paris (Marguerite Churchill) is traveling at night, talking to an associate, Eliane (Nan Grey). The conversation quickly turns to lycanthropy and whether it is possible, as well as its connection to sexual desire. The two stumble upon a bunch of paper in the trash, and within it, the graduate student picks up a manuscript dated 1873. Skimming through, the words “Lupanar” (brothel) and “Loup” (wolf) stand out to her. The manuscript was written by Aymar Galliez, and was written specifically as evidence in the defense of one Sergeant Bernard Calliet, during his court-martial in 1871.
Gaillez (Lon Chaney) begins by discussing the Pitamounts, a lycanthrope clan that had existed for centuries, but had gradually been destroyed by their rivals, the Pitavals. The last of them, Father Pitamount (Warner Orland), comes across a young woman from the village named Josephine (Evelyn Ankers), during a thunderstorm in March, 1846, when she takes refuge in his church. Pitamount takes advantage, and rapes the young woman (not explicitly shown).
Josephine eventually gives birth on Christmas Eve to young Bernard Calliet. Calliet is raised by Josephine, her uncle Gaillez (who briefly goes to fight in the failed 1848 revolution), and a servant Francois (Fay Helm). While seemingly normal, he has a number of peculiar traits, refusing cooked meats, and having a penchant for raw animal meat. Eventually Gaillez is forced to lock him up for long stretches. However, as he grows up, this bloodlust grows even larger.
Eventually, the grown up Calliet (Creighton Chaney[1]) begins to have bizarre dreams about turning into a wolf-like creature, and going out at night and killing livestock, as well as digging up and eating corpses. In real life, meanwhile, dead livestock and partially eaten corpses begin to pile up, causing rumors of a vicious wolf in the region.
Calliet’s bloodlust is coupled with a strong sexual drive, which he satisfies by visiting a local brothel. He also has an incestuous affair with his mother. Gaillez slowly realizes, through reading the local history and observing young Calliet’s behavior, that he is, in fact, a werewolf.
Calliet learns of the circumstances of his birth, and confronts Father Pitamount. Both transforming into their wolf forms, they attack each other, but Calliet kills him. Thinking it was another dream, he visits a prostitute (Gloria Holden), who he also attempts to kill as a werewolf (but she escapes).
Gaillez is able to convince the townspeople of his evils, and Calliet is forced to flee before they can kill him.
Calliet winds up in Paris, where he is able to indulge his hunger by attack denizens in the night. To have a steady income, he joins the National Guard in time for the Franco-Prussian War. While in a canteen for soldiers, he meets and falls in love with a young woman named Sofia de Blumenberg (Josephine Hutchinson), who is revealed to be a masochist, who allows Calliet to feed on her blood after she cuts herself to satiate his hunger.
Calliet joins the Communards during the Paris Commune. However, stories of his actions get back to Guillez, who comes to Paris (armed with a silver bullet) in time to witness the brutal repression of the commune by Royalist forces. As he surveys the brutal atrocities against the Royalist, while looking for clues for Calliet’s location, he muses about whether Calliet or the French loyalists were the real monsters. He eventually sees Calliet and Sofia, and thinks that he no longer has urges because of her .
However, as the royalist close in on the Communards during the “Bloody Week”, Calliet decides to go and find someone to kill. He brushes against a Royalist, and off-screen, transforms and attacks him in front of Guillez’s eyes (the onscreen transformations were dismissed as dream sequences previously, marking the twist that Calliet was a real werewolf and not imagining it). Guillez shots Calliet, and while he only grazes the werewolf, he transforms back into his human form.
Calliet is captured and put on trial for his attack. Guillez defends him, admitting his own superstition and fear prevented him from understanding and helping Calliet to suppress his urges. He also muses that his evil was lesser than “some evils done in the name of country” (implicating the French government and their brutal repression of the Commune and the mass execution of the Communards). Despite this, Calliet is imprisoned, eventually placed in an asylum, where Guillez visits him one last time. Guillez updates him on some of villagers (including his mother), and apologizes to him again for not helping him, which Calliet accepts.
The post-script of Guillez’s defense describes the final fate of Bernard Calliet: while drugged, he hallucinates Sofia, on the prison walls, and (alluding to a suicide pact the two had earlier in the film) jumps off the wall. The real Sofia had killed herself due to the stress of losing Calliet
Upon finishing the manuscript, the graduate student visits a local cemetary, and finds “Sgt. Bernard Calliet (1846-1872)” thanks to a ledger. She digs it up, and opens the casket to find the bones of a dog inside.
------------------------
Trivia:
- Controversial in its day due to some of the themes it touched on. Seen as a direct repudiation of the Breen Code, especially in the character of Father Pitamount.
- Filmed primarily in Louisiana, with New Orleans (still with Civil War damage) passing off as Paris
- Guy Endore adapted his own 1933 novel for film, having been an accomplished screenwriter for several years. Edward Dmytryk had been a prolific B-movie director.
- Creighton Chaney’s make-up process originated with Lankershim make-up artist Jack Pierce, who had conceived it for an unmade (unrelated) werewolf film called “The Werewolf of London”. However, Chaney resisted Pierce as he attempted to apply the make-up, forcing Creighton’s own father Lon Chaney (who obviously had experience) to step in, and help with the process. [2]
- Mixed reception upon release, with some taking issue with the gruesome violence and shocking content, while others (notably the Daily Worker) praised its production values and depiction of the atrocities committed during the Paris Commune. Later widely seen as a classic
- Part of the Lankershim monsters, and considered a classic among them (alongside Frankenstein and Dracula). Sgt. Bernard Calliet is listed as one of cinema’s greatest villains in several publications
- Got a spiritual sequel of sorts in 1947’s The Werewolf of Berlin, with John Carradine as the last of a German werewolf clan, who lives through 45 years of German history (1900 up to the end of the Great Revolutionary War in Europe in 1945).
- Winter Wolf is a Soviet co-produced remake in 1954, taking the same basic plot but centering it on the Decemberist uprising in 1825. Stars Mikhail Kuznetsov as the titular “Winter Wolf”
[1] Known widely OTL as Lon Chaney Jr., a name he resented because it was forced on him by the studio.
[2] It’s basically the make-up for the OTL Wolf Man
Albion High (By Mr.C)
Darger Part V is still being worked on. Until then, here's something I wrote based on something in the Discord server:
Albion High
We belong
The brainchild of writer Diego Cabrera, and co-production between Cuba’s NBS-SNR and the FBU’s Galaxy (owned by Mirror-MGM), Albion High (2000-2005) was a teen soap opera in both English and Spanish focused on the eponymous boarding school for “troubled students” located in Havana’s Cayo Hueso neighborhood. Run by the kindly English expat Ms. Susan Finch (Deborah Findlay), the series focuses on Pablo Medina (Andy Garcia), a former Albion High student who now teaches the literature class, and his students. The students of Albion High are taken from all walks of life, but most of them are outcasts and former juvenile delinquents. Main character Amir Gonzalez (played by Pablo Lopez-Diaz) is a former gang banger who is sent to the school by his mother. While initially resistant to the school and its customs (based on British boarding schools), he starts making friends with the school’s array of outcasts. In one of the most famous moments of the series, he declares that his friends are “Broken, just like me.” Other students include Maria Cheng, the spoiled daughter of a billionaire from Hong Kong (played by Elena Tong) who starts an on again off again relationship with Amir, the homosexual Lance (Michael Smith-McDonald) who is the estranged son of a powerful business tycoon, Cliupatra (Valentina Rizzo) the orphaned daughter of a mafia boss, Amir’s sister Aisha (Lupita Castellon) and the emotionally disturbed Jacob (Peter Cooper).
The show tackled many issues facing Cuban teenagers. Among the most praised episodes is “Snow”, which had Aisha become addicted to a skin whitening cream that would eventually make her severely ill. After the episode aired, skin whitening cream sales declined among younger Afro-Cubans. The British school uniforms featured on the show inspired fashion trends among Cuban teenagers, and the character of Lance was one of the first positive portrayals of homosexuals on Cuban television. The show’s portrayal of sexual issues, and the frank discussions of things like homophobia and racism, was incredibly controversial. Donald Trump condemned the series on the floor of Congress as “a terrible melodrama that teaches our youth to hate God and America” after the controversial episode “Sola Scriptura”, which attacked Protestant youth groups as cult-like and racist. But the attacks only increased the show’s renown, and by the final season it was the biggest success story in all of Cuban television. The show began attracting celebrity guest stars, such as controversial comedian Maximo Gutierrez as Amir's older brother Dashiel ("That's what life is, man. A bunch of bad things that happen to you for no reason. Now how about some ice cream?") and toaster[1] Urbane as a street preacher
While the British broadcast was only a mild success in comparison, the theme song by Busted was a number one hit. The show’s biggest overseas fanbase was in Southern Asia, in particular India, Burma, and Thailand. The actors toured the region to massive turnouts in 2003, and it has been cited as an important influence on teenager-focused media in the region.
Behind the scenes, though, production of the show was troubled. Many of the British actors brought in could not speak Spanish, and Lopez-Diaz admitted that his English was “only slightly better than Deborah’s Spanish” in a tenth anniversary interview. Michael Smith-McDonald received death threats from more socially conservative viewers for playing a uranian character, and while he was heterosexual, he often felt that Lance was too stereotypical and would often re-write scripts that he thought would offend the community. Years later he commented that “I’m glad I took the role so that a real uranian person wouldn’t be subjected to what I had to go through.” On early Internet boards, the chemistry between Amir and Maria led to some fans believing that Lopez-Diaz and Tong were secretly an actual couple, which led to a long-running Internet flame war, tabloid speculations, and even a joke in an episode of the show dealing with online bullying. When the two actors actually began dating in 2004, it made things worse. (Tong later said that it was a stunt to increase declining ratings, a charge that the producers deny). Faced with these problems, the show ended in 2005 on a high note, with all the characters graduating and going their separate ways.
While there were plans for a continuation, Tong would later leave Lopez-Diaz on sour terms. Many of the actors felt that the show would be limiting for their careers, and Michael Smith-McDonald even retired from acting “because all the offers I was getting were for Sassy Homosexual Best Friend roles and I wasn’t having it.” Lopez-Diaz attempted a film career with the action drama Turf, which was a box office failure. Tong, meanwhile, pursued a career in pop music while still acting on the side. Her 2008 album Worth was critically praised and a moderate success, but she felt stifled by her contract with the record label and accused her producer of sexual harassment. While in Venezuela to film a role in the drama film The Caracas Job, she defected to Colombia and has stayed there ever since.
Undeterred, NBS-SNR made a prequel TV special called 1985: An Albion High Story, focused on Mr. Medina. The film effectively serves as a coda for the franchise, showing how Pablo (played by singer Exquisite) learned to appreciate literature from a younger Susan Finch (played by Catherine Tate). Released on the tenth anniversary of the first episode, the special was praised by fans and critics as a moving tribute to “the most important show to have ever aired on Cuban television”.
[1] @Mr.E has decreed that rapping is called "toasting" ITTL based on the Jamaican genre
Albion High
We belong
The brainchild of writer Diego Cabrera, and co-production between Cuba’s NBS-SNR and the FBU’s Galaxy (owned by Mirror-MGM), Albion High (2000-2005) was a teen soap opera in both English and Spanish focused on the eponymous boarding school for “troubled students” located in Havana’s Cayo Hueso neighborhood. Run by the kindly English expat Ms. Susan Finch (Deborah Findlay), the series focuses on Pablo Medina (Andy Garcia), a former Albion High student who now teaches the literature class, and his students. The students of Albion High are taken from all walks of life, but most of them are outcasts and former juvenile delinquents. Main character Amir Gonzalez (played by Pablo Lopez-Diaz) is a former gang banger who is sent to the school by his mother. While initially resistant to the school and its customs (based on British boarding schools), he starts making friends with the school’s array of outcasts. In one of the most famous moments of the series, he declares that his friends are “Broken, just like me.” Other students include Maria Cheng, the spoiled daughter of a billionaire from Hong Kong (played by Elena Tong) who starts an on again off again relationship with Amir, the homosexual Lance (Michael Smith-McDonald) who is the estranged son of a powerful business tycoon, Cliupatra (Valentina Rizzo) the orphaned daughter of a mafia boss, Amir’s sister Aisha (Lupita Castellon) and the emotionally disturbed Jacob (Peter Cooper).
The show tackled many issues facing Cuban teenagers. Among the most praised episodes is “Snow”, which had Aisha become addicted to a skin whitening cream that would eventually make her severely ill. After the episode aired, skin whitening cream sales declined among younger Afro-Cubans. The British school uniforms featured on the show inspired fashion trends among Cuban teenagers, and the character of Lance was one of the first positive portrayals of homosexuals on Cuban television. The show’s portrayal of sexual issues, and the frank discussions of things like homophobia and racism, was incredibly controversial. Donald Trump condemned the series on the floor of Congress as “a terrible melodrama that teaches our youth to hate God and America” after the controversial episode “Sola Scriptura”, which attacked Protestant youth groups as cult-like and racist. But the attacks only increased the show’s renown, and by the final season it was the biggest success story in all of Cuban television. The show began attracting celebrity guest stars, such as controversial comedian Maximo Gutierrez as Amir's older brother Dashiel ("That's what life is, man. A bunch of bad things that happen to you for no reason. Now how about some ice cream?") and toaster[1] Urbane as a street preacher
While the British broadcast was only a mild success in comparison, the theme song by Busted was a number one hit. The show’s biggest overseas fanbase was in Southern Asia, in particular India, Burma, and Thailand. The actors toured the region to massive turnouts in 2003, and it has been cited as an important influence on teenager-focused media in the region.
Behind the scenes, though, production of the show was troubled. Many of the British actors brought in could not speak Spanish, and Lopez-Diaz admitted that his English was “only slightly better than Deborah’s Spanish” in a tenth anniversary interview. Michael Smith-McDonald received death threats from more socially conservative viewers for playing a uranian character, and while he was heterosexual, he often felt that Lance was too stereotypical and would often re-write scripts that he thought would offend the community. Years later he commented that “I’m glad I took the role so that a real uranian person wouldn’t be subjected to what I had to go through.” On early Internet boards, the chemistry between Amir and Maria led to some fans believing that Lopez-Diaz and Tong were secretly an actual couple, which led to a long-running Internet flame war, tabloid speculations, and even a joke in an episode of the show dealing with online bullying. When the two actors actually began dating in 2004, it made things worse. (Tong later said that it was a stunt to increase declining ratings, a charge that the producers deny). Faced with these problems, the show ended in 2005 on a high note, with all the characters graduating and going their separate ways.
While there were plans for a continuation, Tong would later leave Lopez-Diaz on sour terms. Many of the actors felt that the show would be limiting for their careers, and Michael Smith-McDonald even retired from acting “because all the offers I was getting were for Sassy Homosexual Best Friend roles and I wasn’t having it.” Lopez-Diaz attempted a film career with the action drama Turf, which was a box office failure. Tong, meanwhile, pursued a career in pop music while still acting on the side. Her 2008 album Worth was critically praised and a moderate success, but she felt stifled by her contract with the record label and accused her producer of sexual harassment. While in Venezuela to film a role in the drama film The Caracas Job, she defected to Colombia and has stayed there ever since.
Undeterred, NBS-SNR made a prequel TV special called 1985: An Albion High Story, focused on Mr. Medina. The film effectively serves as a coda for the franchise, showing how Pablo (played by singer Exquisite) learned to appreciate literature from a younger Susan Finch (played by Catherine Tate). Released on the tenth anniversary of the first episode, the special was praised by fans and critics as a moving tribute to “the most important show to have ever aired on Cuban television”.
[1] @Mr.E has decreed that rapping is called "toasting" ITTL based on the Jamaican genre
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Reactor 420-69 Ep. 434 (By Mr.E)
“Review: Reactor 420-69 [1]Season 4, Episode 34: Worker 32.4”, the CongressCritter, filmpolitics.syn
I’ve discussed before how Reactor 420-69 was something of a reaction to the trend of “democratic sitcoms” of the 80’s and the rise of detente in the 90’s. The idea of a dysfunctional apparatchik who largely chugs along through their connections and politicking behind their back (itself a repudiation of the model, dedicated bureaucrat) reached its logical conclusion with Homer Simpson, fully incompetent, yet through happenstance, manages to not only retain his job as the leading commissar and inspector for the power plant for 12 seasons, but also sees him become a representative in Deleon-Debs, and in the final episode, Premier of the United Republics (ending with the nuking of London, and nuclear war imminent in the final episode).
Of course, that begs the question. What would happen when you take one of those model bureaucrats, someone who spent their lives working for the good of the people and the advancement of the revolution and put them into collision with a Homer Simpson, who barely knows what they’re supposed to do. Such is the premise of “Worker 32.4”. A new Commissar Frank Grimes is transferred to Reactor 420-69, and is placed under Homer’s direct control. Grimes, an ardent student of Marx, Engels, Lenin, DeLeon, all the greats, chafes under the idiocy of Homer, especially since he is basically tasked with doing all of Homer’s work educating and encouraging the workers, and aghast at his lack of knowledge of the classics.
Gradually, Grimes grows more and more unstable as Homer proves inept at his job, but continually gets accolades and acclamation from his co-workers, and has decent living standards for him and his family. Eventually, he attempts to de-seat Homer in a run-off, only to lose in a landslide, prompting a meltdown leading to his death.
Grimes’ descent into madness ties into what the response to Detente I mentioned earlier. With tensions subsiding, the idea of the dedicated public servant, fighting for the revolution and the international proletariat, once the ideal of the Revolution (as exemplified by Capitol Hill) was seen as an unreasonable ideal, hampered by very human flaws and unable to adapt to a world that wasn’t gearing up to fight the good fight at the moment. Grimes represents this old ideal, now adrift in a world that was increasingly foreign to him. The chaos of the 80’s gave way to the peace of detente, and the ascendance of the Homer Simpsons of the world is a sign that he is ill-equipped for the new global status quo, but refuses to accept it and fights against it.
The satire of Reactor has always been in the tradition of PBS-0 and Mad Magazine , poking fun at the revolutionary experiment and its high pretensions, set against reality. Ideals deconstructed and mocked, and nowhere is that clearer as here.
This episode is a classic and a good barometer of the mood in the mid-90’s, but it isn’t perfect. The subplot of Bart and Milhouse goofing around an abandoned mill, and having a weird capitalist relationship is just bizarre and not funny. I kind of wish the element of Homer’s co-workers tolerating and liking him and helping him through his career could’ve been explored a lot more. Overall, though, this has earned its reputation as one of the best episodes of the show. Definitely check it out on the Season Four BVCD[2] or at the website for Reactor 420-9.
[1] Name courtesy of @BootOnFace . Special thanks to her.
[2] Blue VideoCD. Special thanks to @silverpower for the name and the idea
I’ve discussed before how Reactor 420-69 was something of a reaction to the trend of “democratic sitcoms” of the 80’s and the rise of detente in the 90’s. The idea of a dysfunctional apparatchik who largely chugs along through their connections and politicking behind their back (itself a repudiation of the model, dedicated bureaucrat) reached its logical conclusion with Homer Simpson, fully incompetent, yet through happenstance, manages to not only retain his job as the leading commissar and inspector for the power plant for 12 seasons, but also sees him become a representative in Deleon-Debs, and in the final episode, Premier of the United Republics (ending with the nuking of London, and nuclear war imminent in the final episode).
Of course, that begs the question. What would happen when you take one of those model bureaucrats, someone who spent their lives working for the good of the people and the advancement of the revolution and put them into collision with a Homer Simpson, who barely knows what they’re supposed to do. Such is the premise of “Worker 32.4”. A new Commissar Frank Grimes is transferred to Reactor 420-69, and is placed under Homer’s direct control. Grimes, an ardent student of Marx, Engels, Lenin, DeLeon, all the greats, chafes under the idiocy of Homer, especially since he is basically tasked with doing all of Homer’s work educating and encouraging the workers, and aghast at his lack of knowledge of the classics.
Gradually, Grimes grows more and more unstable as Homer proves inept at his job, but continually gets accolades and acclamation from his co-workers, and has decent living standards for him and his family. Eventually, he attempts to de-seat Homer in a run-off, only to lose in a landslide, prompting a meltdown leading to his death.
Grimes’ descent into madness ties into what the response to Detente I mentioned earlier. With tensions subsiding, the idea of the dedicated public servant, fighting for the revolution and the international proletariat, once the ideal of the Revolution (as exemplified by Capitol Hill) was seen as an unreasonable ideal, hampered by very human flaws and unable to adapt to a world that wasn’t gearing up to fight the good fight at the moment. Grimes represents this old ideal, now adrift in a world that was increasingly foreign to him. The chaos of the 80’s gave way to the peace of detente, and the ascendance of the Homer Simpsons of the world is a sign that he is ill-equipped for the new global status quo, but refuses to accept it and fights against it.
The satire of Reactor has always been in the tradition of PBS-0 and Mad Magazine , poking fun at the revolutionary experiment and its high pretensions, set against reality. Ideals deconstructed and mocked, and nowhere is that clearer as here.
This episode is a classic and a good barometer of the mood in the mid-90’s, but it isn’t perfect. The subplot of Bart and Milhouse goofing around an abandoned mill, and having a weird capitalist relationship is just bizarre and not funny. I kind of wish the element of Homer’s co-workers tolerating and liking him and helping him through his career could’ve been explored a lot more. Overall, though, this has earned its reputation as one of the best episodes of the show. Definitely check it out on the Season Four BVCD[2] or at the website for Reactor 420-9.
[1] Name courtesy of @BootOnFace . Special thanks to her.
[2] Blue VideoCD. Special thanks to @silverpower for the name and the idea
Bookmark1995
Banned
Wow. ITTL Simpsons makes OTL Simpsons look like Sesame Street. I'm guessing it is a lot more biting, cynical, risque, and hilarious then the Simpsons we know.
I'm also guessing that it is more of a workplace comedy, without the dozens and dozens of characters that the fictional Springfield to be a study of modern American life.
Wouldn't a better name for the show have been Sector 7G, since that is where Homer works?