{"id":84812,"date":"2013-12-14T16:48:45","date_gmt":"2013-12-14T21:48:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/?p=84812"},"modified":"2013-12-14T19:10:50","modified_gmt":"2013-12-15T00:10:50","slug":"looking-back-at-hobbit-dates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/2013\/12\/14\/84812-looking-back-at-hobbit-dates\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking Back at Hobbit Dates"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whether you\u2019re man, beast or a mountain, time stands still for no one, and we are only here for a brief moment enjoying our small fraction of eternity. Yesterday marked the official release of the second Hobbit<\/em> movie, and it stands as one of several important dates in Hobbit<\/em> history. It’s reminiscent of December 14, 2012, the date An Unexpected Journey<\/em> finally opened for most of the world. (That was a Friday also.) And what of November 27, 1977? That was the Sunday after Thanksgiving, and it was the first day people could finally see a movie based on one of J.R.R. Tolkien’s books: an animated adaptation of The Hobbit<\/em>. January 3, 1951 is a lesser recognized date, but it was then that the second edition of The Hobbit<\/em> became available – the one with the updated “Riddles in the Dark” chapter that brings the book in line with The Lord of the Rings<\/em>. And finally, there’s September 21, 1937, a Tuesday. That’s when The Hobbit<\/em> was first published and this whole adventure began. I thought it would be fun to look back through the years through the eyes of these dates, and so here now is my little time capsule:<\/p>\n

World Population:<\/strong><\/p>\n

September 1937: 2.2 billion
\nJanuary 1951: 2.6 billion
\nNovember 1977: 4.3 billion
\nDecember 2012: 7 billion
\nDecember 2013: 7.1 billion<\/p>\n

These are, of course, estimates. And it was especially ridiculous to talk about the \u201csixth billionth\u201d or \u201cseventh billionth\u201d baby, since the number of people in the world, due to deaths and births, is a fluid number always bouncing around. But it is said that somewhere in the world, a woman is giving birth every second. (Personally, I think we should find this woman and stop her.)<\/p>\n

Population of India<\/strong><\/p>\n

September 1937: 303 million
\nJanuary 1951: 363 million
\nNovember 1977: 645 million
\nDecember 2012: 1.3 billion
\nDecember 2013: 1.4 billion<\/p>\n

To put this in perspective, there are less than six million people in my home state of Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

The Pope:<\/strong><\/p>\n

September 21, 1937: Pius XI
\nJanuary 3, 1951: Pius XII
\nNovember 27, 1977: Paul VI
\nDecember 14, 2012: Benedict XVI
\nDecember 13, 2013: Francis<\/p>\n

Interestingly, John Paul II became the pope in 1978 just before the animated Lord of the Rings<\/em> movie was released and died in 2005 just after the extended edition of The Return of the King<\/em> came out. So he\u2019s our LOTR movie pope. (It\u2019s also curious that Hobbit<\/em> movies were made just before and just after his time as pope. Maybe there\u2019s some spiritual significance to it all.)<\/p>\n

Ages of Maury Laws, Christopher Lee, and Misao Okawa:<\/strong><\/p>\n

September 21, 1937: 13, 15 and 39 years old
\nJanuary 3, 1951: 28, 29, and 52 years old
\nNovember 27, 1977: 53, 55, and 79 years old
\nDecember 14, 2012: 89, 90, and 114 years old
\nDecember 13, 2013: 90, 91, and 115 years old<\/p>\n

Maury Laws was the music composer for the aforementioned animated Hobbit<\/em> movie. (Laws did the music for most of the Rankin\/Bass specials, including Rudolph the Red-nose Reindeer<\/em> and the animated Return of the King<\/em>.) Interestingly, he lives here in Wisconsin not far away from me, and I was able to catch up with him last month.<\/p>\n

“I usually had about a month to score the background music for a film. The songs were written first. That was before the film was made. The action was animated to the music. First there was a script which I read. In a film the songs are part of the story and have to relate to the plot. I then worked with the lyricist to write the songs. I would go through the script with the director to decide where background music should be used. Animation has a lot of background music. An hour show would most likely have forty five minutes of music, including the songs. All the music had to be orchestrated and recorded to exactly the times it was written to. Making a film is very complicated and has several elements that have to work together. There is picture, dialogue, sound effects and music all mixed together in the last process of the production. Many people are involved.”<\/p>\n

I mentioned to him that my favorite song of his was “Leave Tomorrow Till it Comes” from The Return of the King<\/em> and he remembered it well. “I always thought it was a pretty good song,” he said. I shared with him this updated version<\/a> and he enjoyed it, seeming genuinely touched to see how his music lives on. “When the shows first came out I used to always watch them. Now I don’t always watch. It’s fun sometimes to watch them again.”<\/p>\n

As for Misao Okawa, she’s a Japanese woman who lives in Osaka. The interesting thing about Okawa is that she was born in the same decade as Professor Tolkien. To put it in perspective, she was 65 when John F. Kennedy was assassinated and almost 66 when the Beatles first appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show \u2013 older than both Kennedy and Sullivan. Not to say she’s been around for a while, but in a few years she’ll be referring Elrond as a young whippersnapper.<\/p>\n

World Leaders:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1937: FDR, Hitler, Chamberlain, Stalin
\n1951: Truman, Stalin, Attlee, St. Laurent
\n1977: Carter, Callaghan, Brezhnev, Trudeau
\n2012 & 2013: Obama, Harper, Putin, Cameron<\/p>\n

Apparently when a landmark Hobbit day happens, we have to have a Democrat as President of the U.S.<\/p>\n

The average cost of a movie ticket in the United States:<\/strong><\/p>\n

September 21, 1937: 23 cents
\nJanuary 3, 1951: 47 cents
\nNovember 27, 1977: $2.23
\nDecember 14, 2012: $7.96
\nDecember 13, 2013: $8.30<\/p>\n

The cost of a U.S. postage stamp:<\/strong><\/p>\n

September 21, 1937: 3 cents
\nJanuary 3, 1951: 3 cents
\nNovember 27, 1977: 13 cents
\nDecember 14, 2012: 45 cents
\nDecember 13, 2013: 46 cents<\/p>\n

Dow Jones Industrial Average:<\/strong><\/p>\n

September 21, 1937: 157
\nJanuary 3, 1951: 239
\nNovember 27, 1977: 844
\nDecember 14, 2012: 13,135
\nDecember 13, 2013: 15,755<\/p>\n

Average price of a gallon of gas in the U.S:<\/strong><\/p>\n

September 21, 1937: 20 cents
\nJanuary 3, 1951: 27 cents
\nNovember 27, 1977: 62 cents
\nDecember 14, 2012: $3.38
\nDecember 13, 2013: $3.24<\/p>\n

Believe it or not, a gallon of gas cost only about $1.15 in the U.S. on December 19, 2001 when The Fellowship of the Ring<\/em> came out!<\/p>\n

U.S. National Debt:<\/strong><\/p>\n

September 21, 1937: $37 billion
\nJanuary 3, 1951: $255 billion
\nNovember 27, 1977: $718 billion
\nDecember 14, 2012: $16.3 trillion
\nDecember 13, 2013: $17.2 trillion<\/p>\n

I hear that Minas Tirith had a surplus under King Elessar\u2019s rule. But then that was a monarchy and he didn\u2019t have to deal with Congress.<\/p>\n

Films that just opened:<\/strong><\/p>\n

September 21, 1937: One Hundred Men and a Girl
\nJanuary 3, 1951: King Solomon’s Mines
\nNovember 27, 1977: Close Encounters of the Third Kind
\nDecember 14, 2012: Hitchcock
\nNovember 22, 2013: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire<\/p>\n

Films that will open next year:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

April 4, 2014: Captain America: The Winter Soldier
\nMay 16, 2014: Godzilla
\nNovember 7, 2014: Interstellar
\nNovember 21, 2014: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay
\nDecember 17, 2014: The Hobbit: There and Back Again<\/p>\n

Popular formats for buying music:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1937: 78 rpm records
\n1951: 78 rpm records
\n1977: 45 & 33 rpm records
\n2012 & 2013: Digital downloads<\/p>\n

Hit Songs:<\/strong><\/p>\n

September 21, 1937: \u201cOne O\u2019Clock Jump\u201d (Count Basie)
\nJanuary 3, 1951: “The Tennessee Waltz” (Patti Page)
\nNovember 27, 1977: \u201cYou Light Up My Life\u201d (Debbie Boone)
\nDecember 14, 2012: \u201cDiamonds\u201d (Rihanna)
\nDecember 13, 2013: “Wrecking Ball” (Miley Cyrus)<\/p>\n

TV Show Debuts:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Late 1937: \u201cThe Disorderly Room\u201d (UK)
\nEarly 1951: “What’s My Line”
\nLate 1977: \u201cThe Love Boat\u201d
\nLate 2012: \u201cGuys With Kids\u201d
\nLate 2013: “Almost Human”<\/p>\n

The American television industry had not yet taken off in the 1930s, but when The Hobbit<\/em> was first published, Professor Tolkien could have watched several English shows, including \u201cThe Disorderly Room\u201d (if he had had a television.) I\u2019m not too sure he would have enjoyed \u201cGuys With Kids\u201d though.<\/p>\n

Events:<\/strong><\/p>\n

September, 1937: The Chinese Revolutionary Army defeats the Japanese in the The Battle of Pingxingguan
\nJanuary, 1951: Nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site begins
\nNovember, 1977: British Airways begins London to New York service aboard the supersonic Concorde
\nDecember 2012: A shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, United States, leaves 28 people dead, including 20 children.
\nDecember 2013: The China National Space Administration achieves Earth to Lunar transorbital insertion of their Chang’e 3 probe.<\/p>\n

The Elementary School shooting happened the same day The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey<\/em> came out in the United States.<\/p>\n

Popular Baby Names:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1937: William, Donald, Mary, Betty
\n1951: Patrick, Russell, Sue, Linda
\n1977: Steven, Jeffrey, Amanda, Jennifer
\n2012 & 2013: Liam, Mason, Olivia, Ava<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always found the change in the popularity of names to be an interesting area of study. If I were to say the names \u201cElmer\u201d and \u201cMildred\u201d, you\u2019d think of a couple of grandparents; yet there was a time when these were new and hip baby names. It\u2019s fascinating to look at how names come in and out of style, and what names become dated while others become timeless. (I think “Michael” is fairly safe.)<\/p>\n

Deaths:<\/strong><\/p>\n

October 17, 1937: J. Bruce Ismay, managing director of Titanic and survivor of the sinking
\nNovember 2, 1950: George Bernard Shaw, Irish writer
\nDecember 18, 1977: Cyril Richard, voice of Elrond in the animated adaptation of The Hobbit<\/em>
\nDecember 11, 2012: Ravi Shankar, Indian musician and friend of the Beatles
\nDecember 5, 2013: Nelson Mandela, South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, politician, and philanthropist<\/p>\n

Hope you enjoyed!<\/p>\n

– Celedor<\/a>, December 14, 2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whether you\u2019re man, beast or a mountain, time stands still for no one, and we are only here…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":84085,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[14,495],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","category-miscellaneous"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/SmaugAwakes.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1tLoH-m3W","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84812"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84839,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84812\/revisions\/84839"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}