The college sport conferences in today’s television media industries.

The college sport conferences in today’s television media industries.

Many college sports conferences perform and act like large media conglomerates in today’s television sports broadcasting environment. There are a number of significant historical, economical and technological factors, which have dramatically shaped the current college sports conference industry in the United States. Indeed, a number of landmark legal challenges against the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) have altered the conference’s destiny. Economic pressures with shrinking revenues have increased conference competitiveness in the college sports market place. And the proliferation of technological advancements in media distribution has contributed considerably to the fate of many conferences.

The formalization of the athletic conference system was established in 1870s, when a group of eastern universities formed the American Intercollegiate Football Association.  Twenty years later the Western Conference, (Big 10) was established. According to Carl Abbot in his article “College Athletic Conferences and American Regions”, there was a sense of a cultural and regional identity, which needed to be addressed within colleges and universities (Abbot 1990).

The conference system helped establish a natural rivalry between competitive regions. Abbot describes this expression as a symbol of American cultural regionalism, which helped eliminate athletic isolation among colleges and universities (Abbot 1990). As the conferences matured, the college sports system went through a soul-searching period in 1903. President Theodore Roosevelt and many college presidents became concerned with the brutality, violence and winning at any cost mentality-surrounding intercollege sports programs. Roosevelt orchestrated a conference with 62 colleges to bring civility and sportsmanship to the playing field. This conference established proper sportsmanship rules and regulations, which became the impetus for the National Collegiate Athletic Association. (Hanford 1979). However, another foreshadowing event occurred in the mid-1920 when the Carnegie Corporation commissioned a study concerning the state of affairs in intercollegiate football. The author, Dr. Howard Savage, focused on nine general areas of apprehension about the direction college football was going, including the hiring of non-academic coaches, which he believed to have an undesirable affect on the student athletes (Hanford 79). Ten years later, Harvard University hired Dick Harlow, the first coach who did not graduate from Harvard University, signaling the end of amateur and alumni coaches (Hanford 79). These seemingly obtuse and trivial events in early conference history laid the foundations for commercialism by injecting professionalism and winning at any costs attitudes in the college sports industry, freeing the universities and freshly formed conferences to seek and expand their economic fortunes and financial boundaries.   

To aid the expansion of the already growing conference system in the 1960s, commercial jet travel was available, which allowed the conferences to explore and recruit universities and colleges beyond their natural boundaries (Abbot 2012). This technological advancement made movement between states and cities easier for teams to travel greater distances. But jet travel was another piece of the complicated puzzle, which led to the development, expansion and growth of the sports conference systems, which would blossom and grow to substantial economic proportions in the coming years.

 Moving forward to 1972, Congress passed the historical and landmark amendment, Title IX of the Higher Education Act, which was instrumental in altering the landscape of college sports (Thelin 2000). Title IX required women to receive equal treatment in higher education in all academic areas including sports. Indeed men and women needed to be treated equally on and off the playing field, which was clearly not demonstrated prior to this morally significant event according to some scholars, including George Hanford in his article “Controversies in College Sports”. Hanford identified this groundbreaking decision as a mechanism that would eventually lead to financial stress in terms of general funding for college and university programs (Hanford 79). John R. Thelin from the University of Kentucky also pointed out that some in higher education objected to the interpretation of Title IX and thought it would inject requirements that would strain women's sports programs, which were already stressed under current athletic programs (Thelin 2000). Actually revenues were falling at this time, for universities across the country, even without the addition of women’s sports programs, which Title IX required. But Title IX gave athletic directors and university presidents an alibi for their financial misfortunes. Their economic situation fueled the need for universities and conferences to be in control of their financial destiny and monetize college sports. To increase their revenues colleges and universities did not have to look to far.

Some nine years later the conference system went through another seismic shift with the NCAA vs. The University of Oklahoma Board of Regents Supreme Court decision. Many universities and conferences felt the NCAA’s monopolistic practices were unfair and economically stifling. In 1981, the universities of Oklahoma and Georgia sued the NCAA for violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act under a restraint of trade theory (Scully 1985). The NCAA controlled the exhibition and distribution of all college sports programming and they believed television broadcasts might decrease attendance at games. In addition the NCAA had limits on the number of games that could be broadcast, and restrictions on the amount of money received and number of times each school could appear (Scully 1985).

 The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the University of Oklahoma. This favorable decision stimulated conference hopping, which increased competition amongst the academic institutions in athletic events. Universities and colleges could now pick and choose what conferences they wanted to belong to. And for a short period of time, this caused a price drop in rights fees for all college-televised events. Eventually rights fees rose and television audiences did not erode attendance of college sporting events as the NCAA had predicted. A significant occurrence did happen; television revenues did turn college football and basketball into multibillion-dollar industries. According to Lawrence M. Kahn Professor, of Labor Economics and Collective Bargaining at Cornell University, the money, which is now behind college sports, is remarkable. In 2005, college men’s basketball and football broadcast revenues exceeded the broadcast revenue of professional basketball. And earlier in 1999, ticket sales of college football and basketball generated $757 million, which exceeded ticket sales of professional, basketball, football and hockey of that year (Kahn 2007).

 With so much money at stake, the conferences had to change their business models and their positions in the broadcast market. To grow efficiently and seek market dominance, the conferences had one choice. The only logical decision was to migrate to a media conglomerate business model. At the time of this unique upheaval, there were approximately 12 1-A athletic conferences with about 100 universities and colleges. Granted, this unlikely cabal of commissioners and athletic directors had little intention of becoming the next Walt Disney Company or Comcast Corporation. But as time passed their unique position in the market place became evident. They were poised to create, television, digital media and entertainment products for the college sports industry, just like ESPN or CBS Sports. At this point the conferences were aligned for an economic strategy which controls every stage of the media business including, production, distribution and exhibition. In other words the conference are perfectly poised for vertical integration.   

For example the Pac-12, the Big 10, Notre Dame and the Longhorn networks have created their own media empires by controlling the presentation, distribution and           exhibition of their athletic events. These conferences have their own contracts and terms with a variety of providers. In addition they have also created a quasi-vertically integrated businesses model, which has lead to some contractual agreements, which have been very financially beneficial to these academic institutions.

The Pac-12 network, which represents universities in the western part of the United States, created a media network recently to distribute college basketball, football, baseball and other university athletic programs, through a multitude of providers. The Pac-12 network is replacing the traditional contractual business model of broadcast and cable television. And is also using the Internet as a delivery system with its own network brand and services. The Pac-12 media package is worth an outstanding amount of money, an estimated $3.1 billion, distributed amongst all the Pac-12 schools. Money aside, this conference plans to present a staggering amount of programming. With its launch, the Pac-12 was presenting 35 football games, 120 men’s basketball games as well as hundreds of hours on non-marquee sports.

The Pac-12 is a perfect example of a vertically integrated conglomerate, the formulation and foundation of which was established by using a spirited approach to business. It then hired Larry Scott as their commissioner; his mandate was to build a successful enterprise, based on increasing revenues and exposure. Scott and Pac-12’s new president Gary Stevenson was quoted as saying in a recent article in USA TODAY “we don’t think just about a television network or a digital network, but rather, we’re creating a content company” (Martin 2012). Clearly the administrators of the Pac-12 are trying to control every aspect of their burgeoning media business, with their sights on production, distribution and exhibition of their network product. They also hired Bill Cella from the ABC Television Network as chief revenue officer. He has a history of packaging advertising opportunities beyond traditional tactics like commercials into areas like sponsorships, events and integrating brands into programming (Elliot 2012). Cella also recognizes the schools he represents have a great brand, but more importantly, if we read between the lines, Cella is promoting the conference as a brand.

 You can observe the branding during any Pac-12 game. Between the Ford F150 truck commercials and the Anheuser-Bush beer ads, the airwaves are inundated with Pac-12 promos promoting images of campus life and sporting events in the west. In addition the athletic field is lathered with their and insignias. You definitely know you are watching a Pac-12 game, but you may not know what teams are playing.

The Pac-12 also has no partners in its ownership. All the decision making, expenses and start up costs are on its shoulders. But all the revenue will go to the Pac-12 and its university partners, roughly providing up to $30 million annually, which is an increase of 60% for some Pac-12 schools. It represents the new model for production, distribution and exhibition of college sporting events. With their new multi-million dollar 70,000 square foot television facility in San Francisco and internal digital network, the Pac-12 controls every televisual aspect of the 12 universities they represent. It’s an enterprise, which oversees creative content and intellectual property. It decimates news and information with the accuracy of a White House press conference, and guards its commodity like it was a state secret. But this scenario of market domination and vertical integration does not end on a positive note at this time for many of their viewers and customers.

Indeed, the college sports audiences were disgruntled at Pac-12’s inability to negotiate with DIRECTV. This was the point of no return for many of the subscribers. Thousands of customers of DIRECTV were not able to watch their favorite west coast university teams, because of a contractual disagreement with the Pac-12. A number of customers, once loyal to DIRECTV, canceled their annual contracts. And according to Andy Staples of Sports Illustrated, the fans have a fierce loyalty. Disgruntled viewers don’t call in when they can’t see Mad Men or Breaking Bad, but if a viewer thinks he may miss his favorite college football team, he will threaten to cancel his cable service for a provider who can deliver his desired collegiate game (Staples 2012). Clearly the Pac-12 is showing a stronger position by holding firm to their price offer to DIRECTV, and by refusing to negotiate a lower rate with DIRECTV. The Pac-12 executives are demonstrating their market dominance by controlling the costs of distribution. As the representative of 12 major universities, the Pac-12’s vertical integration position allows them to control the momentum of contract negations, even at the risk of losing customers. Eventually, DIRECTV will accept their offer, due to customer demand and the availably of conference’s products on alternative media outlets. Jim Carlisle echoes this statement in his Ventura County Star article, “The Pac-12 wanted to take better control of its TV revenue and increase exposure by moving a significant number of events to its in-house networks”(Carlisle 2012).   

The Pac-12, the Big 10 and the ACC are conferences that resemble media conglomerates. They control the production, distribution and exhibition of college sports presentations. Indeed, these organizations dominate all sectors of college sports television. This type of media control can be seen as limiting, repressive and stifling (Jenkins 2004). These super conferences act as a single entity controlling a vast number of university sports programs, which are subordinate in many ways to the conference. The conference maximizes profits through a number of commercial enterprises including television revenues, clothing, carriage fees, concessions, advertising opportunities and ecommerce. They are in business to market and distribute a commodity that can be sold, rented, streamed, traded, branded and blogged (Jenkins 2004). As history has shown the conferences are adept at change and have no fear of legal or political challenges. They are predatory in many ways. Looking for economic and leveraged opportunities, which will in turn increase their market share and capital value. Conferences dominate the college sports market place, acquiring the weak and crushing the strong.

The University of Maryland, according to today’s headlines, would be considered weak, vulnerable and a perfect example for a conference take over. Once very well funded and having a number of successful seasons from revenue-producing football in the ACC conference it now faces desperate economic times. In an alarming article from The Washington Post, Steve Yanda identifies the University of Maryland as an institution, which cannot keep up with its athletic department expenses (Yanda 2011). The president of the University of Maryland, Wallace D. Loh, echoes this devastating news, “seven sports programs had to be eliminated due to financial hardships” (Thamel 2012). But unlike other economically challenged educational institutions, the University of Maryland currently has a safety net, the Big 10 Conference. After 59 years the Maryland Terrapins are leaving the ACC (Atlantic Coast Conferences) for the Big 10, the oldest college athletic conference in Division 1-A. The Big 10 is the multi-million dollar life preserver for Maryland.  The Terrapins will share television and media revenues of  $200 million annually. This move is a financially sound decision for the University of Maryland even though the Terrapins must pay the ACC $50 million in exit fees (Thamel 2012).

Without media and television revenues from the Big Ten conference, the University of Maryland’s college sports programs would scarcely exist, no coliseum-size stadiums, plush locker rooms and state of the art workout facilities. Monies for all these activities are the results of high dollar contract negations with ESPN, DIRECTV, Fox Sports and the broadcast networks. According to Jeff Eisenberg from Yahoo Sports, “from a financial perspective, Maryland's potential move to the Big Ten probably makes short-term sense” (Eisenberg 2012). In the short term the University of Maryland will benefit financially from this conference’s move. The fans reactions are another component in this complex equation. “The Terps will no longer regularly play their favorite basketball rival, Duke, a matchup that once inspired students to riot on Route 1” (Johnson and Parker 2012).

In general the conferences such as the Pac-12 and the Big Ten can be seen as exploiting a number target audiences and appearing to represent a reconfiguration of media power. The conferences, which are expanding into cable and broadband markets, appear to demonstrate a corporate-driven top-down process without much concern for some consumers (Jenkins 2004). They seem to be taking advantage of the fan base by determining when a conference football or basketball game can be played and televised. Greg Hanson, the long time sportswriter for the Arizona Daily Star, feels “the charm of college football, the autumn afternoon experience, has been sold to the Pac-12” (Hanson 2012). This media conglomerate has only one thing in mind, television revenues. With practically no regard to fan-based loyalty or long time season ticket holders. It’s a familiar scenario and territory of the media conglomerate. Schedule a conference game for maximum television exposure and profit, and disregard the tried-and-true stadium audience. The conferences also understand they are focusing their marketing and branding on a niche target television audience of college sports subscribers and enthusiasts. These fans and supporters will pay almost any price for college sports programming and entertainment.

For example according to Cox cable, to watch Division 1-A college sports in Arizona, you will need to spend at least $70 a month to watch the Pac-12 conference, which is two tiers above the normal cost for Cox’s cable of about $30 extra a month for premium service. So in some instances the conferences are presenting sporting events are “pay per view;” a so-called special event. Through media convergence of sports programming and technological advancements, over the air broadcast delivery was not an acceptable form of monetization for most college sports conferences. The conference conglomerate prefers to brand, market and distribute its products in the most profitable way. Web, cable, DBS and ancillary media avenues have been the choice of most profit oriented conferences systems. Mercifully, a number of years ago television audiences were not required to pay additional sums of money to watch a televised college-sporting event. Granted, the Saturday afternoon college football game was presented on television when broadcasting was the dominant media delivery system and monetizing was in the form of advertising and broadcast revenues.

Historically sports conferences coexisted in a cohesive unit that was bound by geographical borders. Currently they’re 12 division 1-A conferences, which seem to act like media conglomerates by acquiring university sports programs across geographical boundaries. The conferences use predatory tactics to keep competitors at a safe distance and attract college sports programs, which are in need of financial assistance. Conferences also share assets and liabilities with its university partners to minimize exposure and maximize profits. In addition the conferences inspire consumerism by forcing customers to pay for additional cable fees and services for college sports programming. The conferences also use their social resources and media outlets, which applies a synergistic approach to promoting their media goods and services. Unfortunately, the conference system as we know it today might be jeopardy. The current trend for the conferences is to acquire as many university sports programs as quickly as possible. This has occurred with the Pac-12, the Big 10 and the Big 12. Regrettably this development will result in a super conference system, with just a handful of division 1-A conferences, further eroding the regional flavor and individual presence of college sport presentations in the television industry.

Bibliography

Abbott, Carl. "College Athletic Conferences and American Regions." Journal of American Studies 24, no. 02 (1990): 211. doi:10.1017/S002187580002973X.

Arguello, Lorenzo. "The Future Of College Football: Playoffs, 16-Team Super Conferences And Notre Dame Joining A Conference." Business Insider. May 21, 2012. Accessed December 16, 2012. http://www.businessinsider.com/florida-state-big-12-2012-5?op=1.

Campbell, Noel D., Tammy M. Rogers, and R. Z. Finney. "Evidence of Television Exposure Effects in AP Top 25 College Football Rankings." Journal of Sports Economics, August 1, 2007, 425-34. doi:10.1177/1527002506287660.

Carlisle, Jim. "Carlisle: Pac-12 Networks, DIRECTV Can't Reach a Deal." Ventura County Star. September 12, 2012. Accessed December 11, 2012. http://www.vcstar.com/news/2012/sep/20/carlisle-pac-12-networks-directtv-cant-reach-a/.

Cowley, W. H. "Athletics in American Colleges." The Journal of Higher Education, Special Anniversary Issue: A Look Back, 70, no. 5 (September 1999): 494-503.

Eisenberg, Jeff. "Cash-strapped Maryland Chooses Big Ten TV Money over ACC Tradition." Yahoo! Sports. November 19, 2012. Accessed December 08, 2012. http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaab-the-dagger/cash-strapped-maryland-must-weigh-whether-big-ten-155804159--ncaab.html.

Elliott, Stuart. "Pac-12 Conference Hires a Veteran of Media Agencies." Media Decoder Pac12 Conference Hires a Veteran of Media Agencies Comments. Accessed December 02, 2012. http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/11/Pac-12-conference-hires-a-veteran-of-media-agencies/..

Hanford, George H. "Controversies in College Sports." Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 445 (September 79): 66-79. Accessed December 8, 2012.

Hansen, Greg. "Greg Hansen: New Pac-12 TV Deal Is Great, but ..." Arizona Daily Star, November 20, 2012. Accessed December 15, 2012. http://azstarnet.com/sports/football/college/wildcats/greg-hansen-new-pac--tv-deal-is-great-but/article_c8288e67-b037-5918-9ef3-96a58cb96eac.html.

Jenkins, Henry. "The Cultural Logic of Media Convergence." International Journal of Cultural Studies 7, no. 1 (2004): 33-43. doi:10.1177/1367877904040603.

Johnson, Jenna, and Parker, Brandon. "Maryland Students React to Move to Big Ten." Washington Post. November 20, 2012. Accessed December 02, 2012. http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-11-19/local/35509278_1_maryland-students-student-government-big-ten

Kahn, Lawrence M. "Markets: Cartel Behavior and Amateurism in College Sports." Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter, 21, no. 1 (2007): 209-26. doi:10.1257/jep.21.1.209.

Martin, Jeffrey. "USA TODAY." USATODAY.Com. Accessed December 01, 2012. http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/college/story/2012-08-10/new-Pac-12-networks-bold-approach-to-tv-media/56925808/1.

Raney, Arthur A., and Jennings Bryant. Handbook of Sports and Media. Mahwah, NJ: L. Erlbaum Associates, 2006.

Scully, Thomas. "NCAA v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma: The NCAA's television plan is sacked by The Sherman Act." Catholic University Law Review 42 (April 1985): 857-87.

Staples, Andy. "How Television Changed College Football -- and How It Will Wells Again." SI.com. Accessed December 02, 2012. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/andy_staples/08/05/tv-college-football/index.html.

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Thamel, Pete. "Potential Television Windfall Driving Big Ten's Latest Expansion Efforts." SI.com. Accessed December 02, 2012. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/pete_thamel/11/18/big-ten-expansion-tv-money/index.html.

Thelin, John R. "Good Sports? Historical Perspective on the Political Economy of Intercollegiate Athletics in the Era of Title IX, 1972-1997." The Journal of Higher Education 71, no. 4 (July 2000): 391-410.

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Yanda, Steve. "Maryland Athletic Department’s Revenue Can’t Keep pace with Spending." Washington Post, July 20, 2011. Accessed December 14, 2012. http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2011-07-20/sports/35267334_1_president-wallace-d-loh-athletic-department-athletic-director-kevin-anderson.

The Hunger Games

Maybe I have missed something, after viewing “The Hunger Games”, this blockbuster has left me hungry for a better script and protagonist.

A Return Trip

Ok, so I land in Tucson, 20 hours after leaving London. So much for the 8 hour plane ride across the Atlantic.  There was a medical emergency aboard the plane. The plane was diverted to Newfoundland to unload the elderly patient, who apparently drank and ate too much, before departing Heathrow airport. With my late arrival in Dallas, Texas I had to rush through customs for my transferee to Tucson. 

The brilliance of Homeland Security subjects you to rescanning your luggage when you transferee to another domestic flight. As usual, I unpack my computer, shoes, pens and wrist watch into the x-ray bin. Repack my belongings and board my plane to Tucson. I arrive home 20 hours later, GMT-8 Monday night, drop my stuff off and head off to slumber land. I shuffle to work blurry eyed with my luggage strewn across the bedroom floor. 

Wednesday evening I decide to check my email and do some billing. I crack open my Mac Book Pro, boot it up and discover the desktop does not look familiar. I discover with complete astonishment, that my desktop is festooned with Buddhists symbols and Tantric diagrams. What the heck? How could my desktop change? And why is Tara's logged into my computer. Must be some computer glitch. I restart the computer and the Hindu tantric poses pops up again.  I can’t believe what I am seeing. I’ll check the NBC yellow sticker on the back side. I flip over the computer, no yellow sticker with number 1497. How could this have happened? I never let my computer out of my sight. 

How could my computer turn into a shrine for East Indian religions?  I do the unthinkable; I look through Tara's  email, searching for a phone number or email address. I find a message on her desktop, directions to the Albuquerque German Embassy. Oh great my computer is held captive by some new age German fraulein  trying to find her-self on a diplomatic mission in the desert hills of  New Mexico. 

But on the plane, I remember seeing a rather tall Teutonic woman, with a detached demeanor in the aisles of our Boeing 777. Could she be a German searching for inner harmony, who has somehow obtained my brand new Mac Book Pro, with countless photography’s of the secret NBC vendor maintenance shop in London?  This must be conspiracy, orchestrated by ZDF, searching for my patented techniques in desktop MAM training methods.

 I contact the German Embassy in New Mexico. I ask, do they know a Tara ? With German Blitzkrieg efficiency, the German authorities furnish Tara’s phone number and email address. I call the phone number in Santa, Fe New Mexico, the spiritual vortex of the Southwest. “Hi, my name is Henry Rubin and I have your computer”, “Henry Rubin, we have been trying to find you for days, we have your computer"…It seems during the late night airport security check in Dallas, one of us grabbed the wrong Mac Book Pro coming out of the x-ray machine, and without hesitation continued on our late night journey, with the wrong computer. Both computers are now with their rightful owners…

Paranoia in Science Fiction Films of the 1950’s

Paranoia in Science Fiction Films of the 1950’s
The appealing nature of Science Fiction Films is their ability to use scientific possibilities and radical social arguments to convey their controversial narratives. Richard Hodgens believes some of the most original and thoughtful contemporary fiction has been represented in the Science Fiction film genre (Hodgens 30). So in a broader sense any style, vision or mood can be conveyed within the limitless boundaries of the Science Fiction narrative, especially during the 1950’s in US cinema. This belief is also echoed by Peter Nicholls who argues science fiction was deemed socially insignificant and could play host to political criticism of a kind which might elsewhere have attracted attention of Joseph McCarthy and his Un-American Activities Committee (Clute).
Dr. Miles J. Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) is the panicked stricken physician in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). Dr. Bennell in the trailer looks into the camera and screams in desperation “They’re here already! You're next! You're next, you're next!” (Invasion of the Body Snatchers Trailer). This line of dialogue from the trailer of Don Siegel’s classic Science Fiction “B” movie sums up the fear and paranoia represented in Hollywood’s Science Fictions films of the 1950’s. These films allowed Hollywood to explore the pervasive anxiety caused by Cold War politics; these films target the ambivalence towards America’s creation of the very weapons that helped catapult the United Sates into superpower status as well as the generalized fear of nuclear proliferation.
The Soviet Union extended its control across the continent of Central Europe in 1945. Winston Churchill sent a top-secret telegram to President Truman on May 12, 1945, and he confided with Truman of his uncertainty of what was going on behind the Soviet Union’s Iron Curtain (Churchill 1). The telegram was the first time the Prime Minister of England used his now famous term “Iron Curtain” and may have been the original seed of paranoia which ended up sweeping through the United States as the threat of communism grew under the leadership of Joseph Stalin.
As the director and principal scientist of the Manhattan Project at the Los Alamos research lab in Alamogordo, New Mexico, J. Robert Oppenheimer witnessed the first explosion of the atomic bomb in the New Mexico desert. "We knew the world would not be the same" (A Science Odyssey). A collective paranoia was triggered in 1945 and would expand during the 1950’s starting with the end of World War II and the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. With the threat of nuclear weaponry and radiation, Hollywood recognized and capitalized on this postwar “atomic age” anxiety.
In The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Michael Rennie stars as Klaatu, an alien from a distant planet whose spaceship lands on a baseball diamond in Washington D.C. Klaatu wishes to meet the representatives of earth to deliver a vital message, warning the citizens the dangers of atomic technology. “It is no concern of ours how you run your own planet, but if you threaten to extend your violence, this Earth of yours will be reduced to a burned-out cinder your present We shall be waiting for your answer. The decision rests with you” (The Day the Earth Stood Still). The warning is a similar approach the United States took in cautioning the Japanese during the last days of the war. The United States military dropped leaflets on the Japanese people after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima warning the populace the United States was in possession of the most destructive force ever devised by man (American Experience). In addition, the leaflets encouraged the Japanese to evacuate their cities before the second bomb was dropped, even though they had little chance to escape or surrender. In this chilling spectacle of art imitates life, both invaders intended to warn the populations about the looming dangers through fear and paranoia which jolted the people into some degree of common sense. In the case of the Japanese, the Americans were using nuclear destruction as a threat to force the Japanese into surrender, whereas Klaatu, poses his warning as a possible threat for the entire planet. By the time The Day the Earth Stood Still had been produced, nuclear proliferation was evolving as an American bargaining chip in the battle of the Cold War.
Them! (1954), now regarded as a classic Science Fiction “B” bug film was the highest grossing film for Warner Brothers studios 1954. In the opening scene The Ellinson Girl, portrayed by Sandy Descher wanders the desert in her flannel bath robe, staring into the distance resembling someone who had just witnessed an apocalyptic incident. This foreshadowing scene sets the apocalyptic mood of fear and apprehension for Them!. Them!, starring James Whitmore, as Police Sgt. Ben Peterson discovers ants the size of Buicks that are exposed to radiation during the Trinity nuclear tests near White Sands, New Mexico. The irradiated ants destroy people and property as they hunt for nourishment in the barren New Mexico desert. These mutated ants then pillaged their way to Los Angeles where they finally succumb to military flamethrowers of the National Guard. Them! is the classic story of nuclear fear and widespread anxiety of atomic annihilation in the nuclear age (Tsutsui 240). The entomologist in Them!, Dr. Harold Medford, played by Edmund Gwenn reinforces the apocalyptic paranoia of the new atomic era by this foreshadowing statement “We may be witnessing a Biblical prophecy come true”, “And there shall be destruction and darkness come upon creation and beasts will reign over the earth” (Them!). And in the ending scene, Peter Graves characters Robert Grahm asks,
” if these monsters got started as a result of the first atomic bomb in 1945, what about all the others that have been exploded since then? Dr. Harold Medford, answers solemnly, “Nobody knows, Robert. When man entered the atomic age, he opened a door into a new world. What will he eventually find in that new world, nobody can predict (Them!)”.
In Susan Sontag’s essay “The Imagination of Disaster”, Sontag argues a trauma exists over the use of nuclear weapons and Science Fiction films bear witness to this distress. Sontag also states the murderous insect genre “serve a complex psychological function for the anxious movie going- masses, at once distracting us from and numbing us to the ever-present possibility of nuclear Armageddon” (Tsutsui 241).
Them! was not the only film which capitalized on the paranoia of radiation and insects. AB-PT Pictures Corp produced, Beginning of the End (1957). This black and white classic was Hollywood’s first presentation of an atomic bomb (Hendershot 42). An Illinois state experimental farm accidentally creates giant grasshoppers with fertilizer laced with radioactive material. These giant irradiated arthropods descend on Chicago destroying everything in their path, even though they have been doused with poisonous chlordane by the military. Fear increases because science can’t solve the problem, immediately. The military wants to drop an Atomic bomb on Chicago to destroy the grasshoppers, but Dr. Ed Wainwright (Peter Graves) has a solution to lure the locust into Lake Michigan with a recording of the locust mating call.
The mating call draws the locusts to their watery death. An even greater sense of paranoia is injected into the final scenes of the film, when Dr. Wainwright ponders what other creatures have feasted on the radioactive fertilizer and have grown to a humongous size. The government in its role as protector actually fails the citizens of the United States and causes the radiation catastrophe, furthering the paranoia, not from an external source, but from within the authoritative society.
With the adaption of the National Security Council Report 68 the United States tried to contain the spread of communism through policy. Arguably the use of economic and diplomatic measures was more desirable for some. But after the Soviet Union’s test of an atomic bomb, RDS 1 on 29 August 1949, U.S. officials believed they needed an arsenal of strategic nuclear weapons to contain the threat of communism (Leffler 69). As Gary B. Nash in his textbook, The American People so accurately states, “The Cold War was the greatest single force affecting American society during the decade and a half after World War II” (Nash 330).
In 1952, Winchester Pictures Company released The Thing From Another World (1951), distributed by RKO Radio Pictures and produced by Howard Hawks. Early on in The Thing, Captain Patrick Hendry (Kenneth Tobey) is notified, an unidentified aircraft has crashed landed near their arctic research station. Captain Hendry shows the first sign of paranoia by assuming it’s a Russian plane that has crash landed. “Could be Russians, They’re all over the place like files (Saleh 29)”. In addition, to the Soviet invasion theory, paranoia is also abetted by the Geiger counter, a device that measures radiation activity. When the North Pole scientists discover the crash site, the Geiger counter measurements are off the scale, increasing the nuclear fear and paranoia that often accompanies Science Fiction films of this generation.
The scientists soon realize this is no ordinary airplane, but a spaceship from outer space with an alien which is made of vegetable tissue. Even though The Thing, played by James Arness goes on a rampage and kills several sled dogs and personal by drinking their blood. The botanist, Dr. Arthur Carrington, hypotheses the alien vegetable is an intelligent creature and he desires to communicate with it. Eric Smoodin in Watching the Skies believes the vegetable alien in The Thing is a metaphor for Soviet infiltration. Believing the Soviets can infiltrate anything and thus everything is potentially vulnerable and dangerous -- even plants.
In addition Scotty, (Douglas Spencer) the intrepid reporter in The Thing, ends the film with a radio transmission to his fellow journalists, further establishing the anxiety driven narrative, “I bring you a warning. Every one of you listening to my voice, tell the world, tell this to everybody wherever they are. Watch the skies, everywhere, keep looking, keep watching the skies” (Saleh 37).
In The Day the Earth Stood Still a number of paranoia themes, including the threat of a Soviet invasion are introduced. After being shot and taken to Walter Reed Hospital, Klaatu is visited by Mr. Harley, a secretary of the President. When Klaatu wants to get out among the people, Mr. Harley rejects the idea, and asks Klaatu not to attempt to leave the hospital. Clearly, the United States government is fearful and does not want Klaatu influence to spread. In another scene, Mrs. Barley (Frances Bavier) after hearing Klaatu has escaped from an army hospital expresses her concern he is a spaceman from the Soviet Union (Pardon 145). Mrs. Barley’s paranoia is also inflamed by the morning radio reports, “The creature- where is he? What is he up to? He must be tracked down like a wild animal. He must be destroyed.” The realism of the radio broadcasts in The Day the Earth Stood Still is amplified by the director, Robert Wise. Wise used real-life television and radio personalities who contributed to the sense of authenticity and accuracy (Haspel 65). Their voices were so familiar for the exhibition of this film they contributed to the verisimilitude of this paranoid narrative.
As Walter Lippman so appropriately coined the term “The Cold War” in 1947, the House Un-American Activities Committee, went looking for communists and communists sympathizers in Hollywood from 1947 to the 1950’s. The most famous victims of the communist hunt were the “Hollywood Ten”. These eight writers, including one director and producer refused to discuss their political affiliation with the congressional commission. The “Hollywood Ten” were blacklisted from Hollywood and jailed for one year for contempt of Congress (Eckstein 424). Also, during the early 1950’s the Korean armistice was signed, and American newspapers were full of stories reporting American soldiers who chose communism instead of returning home (Johnson 6).
This political atmosphere in the United States created a perfect storm for mistrust and fear that communists were on every block threatening the American values and way of life. Two films in particular, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and Invaders from Mars (1953) exemplified anxiety in their narratives. However, many film theorists, writers and producers of these two landmark film exhibitions have differing views of the causes and interpretations of paranoia in these groundbreaking productions.
The communist-infiltration allegory in Invasion of the Body Snatchers is reflected in the odd behavior of the citizens of Santa Mira. They just do not seem like themselves. They fall asleep and their bodies are taken over by aliens who promise a life free of the pain of love and ambition. According to R Briley, in Reel History and the Cold War: A Lesson Plan, the message embodied in Invasion of the Body Snatchers is to be vigilant. Anyone, doctor, friend or wife could be part of a communist conspiracy (Briley 21).
In Guy Braucourt’s 1972 interview with Don Siegel, Siegel affirms the majorities of people in the world are pods, existing without any intellectual aspirations and are incapable of love. Yet again, in a 1976 interview with Stuart M. Kaminsky, Siegel reaffirms his view of humanity, “many of my associates are certainly pods, they have no feelings, they exist, breathe, sleep” (Sanders 56). Siegel’s execution of paranoia can be seen thru the interpretations of his characters, by turning friends, neighbors and lovers into lifeless individuals who lack emotion, drive and inspiration. Granted Siegel used Jack Finney’s serialized stories, Body Snatchers (1954) and Daniel Mainwaring’s script which guided the film to its unhappy ending (Sanders 56).
But in the most interesting analysis of Invasion of the Body Snatchers Steven M. Sanders in Philosophy of Science Fiction Film, see’s Dr. Miles J. Bennell story told to Dr. Hill (Whit Bissell),of the pod invasion, as a deranged paranoid tale. A complete fabrication of fantasy, without a strand of truth, told by an anxiety driven madman.
Also, in a 1985 interview with Kevin McCarthy, Tom Hatten of Golden West Broadcasters asks McCarthy if there were any political ramifications in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. McCarthy answers with a bit of a chuckle, “the movie was about Madison Avenue, they have no hearts at all, they turn out material just to sell things” (1956).
In William Cameron Menzies’s Invaders from Mars (1953) paranoia is generally depicted as there is no place to hide in postwar small town America (Hendershot 43). In Invaders from Mars, a flying saucer lands in David’s (Jimmy Hunt’s) backyard. David’s father, George (Leif Erickson) investigates the landing and falls into a sand pit and is captured by the Martians. The Martians insert a small crystal device in the base of George’s skull and he becomes a slave to the Martians demands. As the Martians collect slaves for destroying the secret atomic rocket installation of this small western town, paranoia has spread, concerning the Martian invasion and the secret US military installation.
Even before David’s father is captured by the Martians he talked about his work as being secret. And when David visit’s his friend Dr. Kelston (Arthur Franz) at the observatory, there is a heightening sense of anxiety when David is told his visits must be curtailed since, “things got to hush-hush”(Latham 200). The secrecy in Invaders from Mars tends to lend itself to a Cold War allegory. The Martians are represented as Soviets who are invading with Marxist theory and attacking and destroying the working middle class in this military industrial complex.
As Bryan E. Vizzini points out the Martins in Invaders from Mars would also be identified by the spectatorship of the 1950’s as Communists. Given, the Martins are attacking a secret nuclear missile project by proxy with American spies (Vizzini 29). The spies could easily be interpreted as Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. The first American civilians executed for espionage in 1953. With the increased publicity surrounding the Rosenberg trail and nearly two dozen newspapers and magazines, influenced public perceptions of the danger of "communist sub- version in government". The Department of Justice "framed the Rosenberg case for the news media" instead of merely reacting to public fears that the press had fanned (Whitfield 1079). Clearly this hysteria surrounding the Rosenberg trial helped fan the anxiety level.
In the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists a disturbing and anxiety driven view of suburban life was discussed (Latham 201). The atomic scientists believed in 1951 the United States should move its population from larger cities to smaller communities, so as to ease the destruction of a nuclear attack. A 1954 review in the New York Times describes Invaders from Mars as pabulum for adults and has having met the demands of today’s space-struck youngsters (Science-Fiction Tale Exciting Most of Way 2). Little did this 1954 reviewer know Invaders from Mars would propose a piercing commentary on the postwar experience of suburbia and the cry for conformity and anxiety which goes along with the suburban community.
George Pal, a Hungarian animator who worked for UFA (Universum Film AG) in Berlin during the Weimar Republic, immigrated to the United States at the start of the Second World War in 1939 (Saxon 44). Mr. Pal is now regarded by many as the father of contemporary Science Fiction, with films as Destination Moon (1950) and The War of the Worlds (1953).
Destination Moon, produced by George Pal and directed by Irving Pichel is based on the novel Rocketship Galileo (1947) by Robert A. Heinlein. Destination Moon in the opening three scenes does not hesitate to jump on the paranoia bandwagon of the 1950’s. The film starts with an abortive rocket launch at a high security military installation. General Thayer (Tom Powers) and Dr. Charles Cargraves (Warner Anderson) witness the disastrous rocket crash from their desert bunker. General Thayer asks, “What happened Charles, what went wrong”, Charles’s explains the rocket motor failed and was probably due to sabotage. Both Scientist and General agree that it must be sabotage and they should leave it up to “Intelligence” to find the persons responsible. The film audience at the time of exhibition should accept the communist infiltration narrative, particularly since Klaus Emil Julius Fuchs, a Los Alamos physicist had been found guilty in 1950 for passing secrets to the Russians from 1942 to 1949. “It was probably due to sabotage”, this simple line of dialogue, confirms the hysterical political atmosphere surrounding Destination Moon.
In the next scene, General Thayer, meets Jim Barnes (John Archer) of Barnes Aircraft Corporation. Thayer convinces Barnes his company needs to build a spaceship to the moon without government support, because the government is not interested in pursuing space research during peace time.
In the following scene, Barnes, Thayer and Cargraves meet with investors to convince them to invest in their rocket ship to the moon. After viewing a marketing film with cartoon character Woody Woodpecker as the moderator, General Thayer explains the urgency of this moon mission.”The reason is quite simple. We are not the only ones who know that the Moon can be reached. We're not the only ones who are planning to go there. The race is on - and we'd better win it, because there is absolutely no way to stop an attack from outer space. The first country that can use the Moon for the launching of missiles... will control the Earth. That, gentlemen, is the most important military fact of this century” (Destination Moon). These three before mentioned scenes, were the only references to the Cold War paranoia in Destination Moon. The screenplay based on Rocketship Galileo was altered by Robert A. Heinlein, to highlight the Cold War tensions during the McCarthy era (Saleh 17). Heinlein was also anxious about beating the Soviets into space and emphasized the realism and believability of space travel portrayed in Destination Moon. Heinlein also believed a trip to the moon was essential for military concerns and this narrative became part of the national rhetoric (The Future Is Now 58). Indeed, publicity material for Destination Moon also emphasized the need for military exercises on the moon. One of these articles was, “Must America Engage in a Race to the Moon in Self-Defense?” which was published in press kits for Destination Moon in 1950 (The Future Is Now 62).
The War of the Worlds (1953) was Paramount Pictures most successful motion picture in 1953. George Pal produced The War of the Worlds after the script sat idle at Paramount Studios for some 26 years. H.G. Well’s sold the movie rights of The War of the Worlds (1898) to Paramount Pictures in 1925, hoping Cecil B. DeMille would direct the film. Pal discovered the script contacted Byron Haskin to direct the film and Barre Lyndon to write the screenplay. The War of the Worlds was an “A” list Science Fiction saga which took eight months of special and optical effects to complete and won the Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects in 1954 (Pal 2). It cost Paramount Pictures an estimated two million dollars, more expensive than Pals previous films, Destination Moon and When Worlds Collide (1951).
Much has been written about H.G. Well’s apocalyptic novel The War of the Worlds. It was updated considerably, to account for the current political and social issues of the 1950’s. Originally, The War of the Worlds was written based on several historical events, the unification and militarization of Germany, being the most important historical event (Study).
George Pal's, The War of the Worlds reveals a number of cultural fears that plagued America in the years immediately following the Second World War: the fear of Soviet invasion, the dubious security of nuclear weaponry, and fragility of civilized behavior in the face of apocalyptic threat (Journal 2). In November of 1952 the United States tested its first Hydrogen bomb code-named “Mike” for “megaton” which was 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb denoted over Hiroshima (Operation Ivy). A year later, the Soviet Union tested RD-6 the country’s largest nuclear test which was 30 times stronger than the Hiroshima detonation (12, August 1953).
Robert Torry, in his seminal work, Apocalypse Then: Benefits of the Bomb in Fifties Science Fiction Films (1991) describes the realism and special effects in The War of the Worlds. The special effects with the help of Gordon Jennings and Walter Hoffman created the horrors of modern warfare conducted on American soil. With the heighten anxiety of Soviet weapons research, the Martians in The War of the Worlds demonstrated a technology that surpassed the United States and acted as a metaphorical surrogate for the Soviets in this apocalypse narrative. When the military generals decide to drop a nuclear device on the invading Martins, a top secret Northrop Flying Wing is used to drop an atomic bomb on the Martians spacecraft. The atom bomb fails to inflict any damage to the Martian spacecraft. This humiliating military defeat, furthers the narrative of the United States inferiority against a technologically advanced military. Thus, we can view the threat of invasion and annihilation very possible in the age of nuclear weapons on US soil.
The War of the Worlds is also filled with religious allegories. With the Martin threat over, ”The ending is a ringing endorsement of humankind’s place in the universe secured by God’s blessing and protection” (Journal 2). The narrator in a “Biblical Voice” recites an ending prayer during the last scene of The War of the Worlds. “After all that men could do had failed, the Martians were destroyed and humanity was saved by the littlest things, which God, in His wisdom, had put upon this Earth” (The War of the Worlds (1953) - Memorable Quotes).
Although the “savior” ending in The War of the Worlds does ease the anxiety factor of complete human annihilation of the human race. Except history, has demonstrated the contrary to this dramatic ending. “Most scholars agree the American Indian population were reduced substantially following European contact by a variety of Old World diseases “(Thornton, Russell, Tim Miller, and Jonathan Warren 28). In this historical context, the paranoid and cautious view should have resulted in finding microbes from the Martin planet that invades and ravages the human race. Instead, George Pal turns this historical concept on its head. The Martins succumb to the common cold and are destroyed and humanity on earth is saved. This scenario neutralizes religion, science and military might and enforces Well’s acceptance of Eugenics and Darwinism. The survival of the fittest narrative plays well in this story, except the human race is the dominate species, not the technically advanced Martins invaders.
The political and cultural atmosphere of the 1950’s provided a rich and fertile landscape for anxiety driven narratives in the Science Fiction genre. As we look back some 60 years, our interpretations are mixed with historical perspectives, critical scholarship and various opinions. And in some film analysis, the Cold War, nuclear annihilation and McCarthyism have little to do with these thoughtful presentations. But this miracle ending is counter to invasion principals





















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