In this short Disney film (The Winged Scourge, 1943), the Seven Dwarfs teach us how to protect ourselves from the mosquitoes that transmit malaria. But some of their methods may not be quite advisable today...
Thanks to MicrobeWorld for letting me know about this video!
A collection of old Disney documentaries (including this one) can be viewed at thelostdisney channel on YouTube.
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The following videos are short educational films made in the 1940s and 1950s and provide some basic knowledge on infectious diseases and microbiology. How much has this basic knowledge changed after half a century? Which specific statements in the videos should be changed (and why) if you wanted these films to comply with today's microbiology? Please leave any comments here.
Video no. 1: Bacteria footage (AVG-BF231) [on bacterial biology]
Video no. 2: Insects As Carriers of Disease (1945) [a Disney film]
Video no. 3: Outbreak of Salmonella Infection (1954)
The three videos were uploaded onto Google Video by A/V Geeks. They have been digitizing thousands of TV commercials held at Duke University’s Hartman Center for Advertising.
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Now I am explaining the connection between Charlton Heston and actinomycetes. It is indeed a very simple link, as you will see.
As a boy, Charlton Heston was not Charlton Heston —not yet— but John Charles Heston and, under this name, he attended New Trier High School at Winnetka, a northern suburb of Chicago. There he might have met some students who later became famous, such as actor Rock Hudson (then still known as Roy Harold Scherer, Jr. [*]) and Nobel laureate Jack Steinberg (a physicist, donated his Nobel medal to New Trier High School). However, perhaps the three boys never met, because of their differences in age: Heston was born in 1923, "future Hudson" in 1925, and Steinberg in 1921. You know, two years may be seen as a generational barrier by teenagers, even (or especially) if attending the same school.
Have a look at the New Trier High School's logo: it shows the Porta Nigra (Black Gate) built by the Romans around 180-200 AD in Augusta Treverorum —now Trier, Germany. The reason is that Winnetka is one of the villages in the New Trier Township, Illinois; the township was established in 1850, and its name was most likely chosen by a German settler. Trier claims to be the oldest city in Germany, founded in or before 16 BC. In addition to possessing a remarkable set of Roman and medieval buildings, Trier is known as the birthplace of philosopher Karl Marx (1818-1883).
But... am I digressing? Then, I will finish the explanation in a new post.
Image sources:
Heston as Moses in The Ten Commandments: Wikipedia.
Hudson, New Trier Highschool's logo, and Steinberger: Wikipedia (1, 2, 3).
[*] The name "Rock Hudson" is a combination of the Rock of Gibraltar and the Hudson River (!)
A year has passed since my first post on this blog.
Happy birthday, Twisted Bacteria!
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A great actor, Charlton Heston, died on April 5th, 2008.
Can you find the connection between Heston and actinomycetes?
(Please leave your answer as a comment to this post. I will do the same).
Charlton Heston's image from Poletti.
Image credits for actinomycetes: CDC/Dr. David Berd (PHIL #3078), 1972. From the CDC Public Health Image Library, via Wikimedia Commons.
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