The Wikipedia entry about Jeremy Bentham, a 1900s “philosopher and social reformer,” proves that the British have better senses of humor than the Americans:
As requested in [Jeremy Bentham’s] will, his body was preserved and stored in a wooden cabinet, termed his “Auto-icon”. Originally kept by his disciple Dr. Southwood Smith, it was acquired by University College London in 1850. The Auto-Icon is kept on public display at the end of the South Cloisters in the main building of the College. For the 100th and 150th anniversaries of the college, the Auto-Icon was brought to the meeting of the College Council, where he was listed as “present but not voting”. Tradition holds that if the council’s vote on any motion is tied, the auto-icon always breaks the tie by voting in favor of the motion.
An interesting introduction to the world of set designing for TV: you get 8500 square feet of space and 8 weeks during which you have to assemble a convincing (and in this case obsessively accurate) reproduction of a 1960’s office. Read more about this project at Dwell Blog - “Mid-Century Madness .” What I find particularly cool:
“All the executive chairs in cast aluminum and leather are original Time-Life chairs that were in the Time-Life building,” she tells me. “We found them at an office surplus store in Gardena called TR Trading.”
So what this is saying: basically, there are giant warehouses with awesome “old school” and authentic furniture in them. All we get here in Minneapolis is small, overpriced boutiques of mismatched mid-century pieces. An overstuffed warehouse would be a refreshing change. Anyway, talk about attention to detail:
“The typewriters are way off. The Selectric didn’t come out until 1961 and we’re in 1960. But we explain it away by saying that what the secretaries have are all prototypes that they got because Sterling Cooper is handling the Selectric advertising account.”
Anyone who calls 1 model year difference (during a period over 40 years ago) “way off” is pretty detail oriented. That said, if this is what a TV show I haven’t yet heard of goes through to make its sets, I can only begin to comprehend what a major motion picture studio brings together in period films such as Pleasantville.
In this video, a mobile phone salesman on “Britain’s Got Talent” sings Nessun Dorma. I won’t spoil the results, though you may have seen this one already.
