Cinque Terre is a land of lush vegetation, vibrant seaside villages, and panoramic landscapes. Or so any travel guide for the Italian Riviera would tell you. This region, named for the five towns that line the seaside, is also home to a thriving local produce market.
The game Cinque Terre by Rio Grande Games focuses on this aspect of the region’s culture. Each player takes the roll of a farmer operating a fruit cart, traveling along the farming roads collecting produce, then back to the villages to sell. Each game involving a varied market and production to drive competition over supply and demand.
Our game ran quickly, with very little room for competing for public orders. Our prices were high for most forms of produce, making quick runs for valuable produce more efficient. No clear victor showed until the end when secret produce order cards were flipped.
Cinque Terre is a wonderful game for all ages with great replay value for its simplicity. The varying market really drives strategy variation between games, the secret order cards create player variance, while the public order cards press the players into competition.
We would like to thank Rio Grande for this great donation, as well as their donation of Spin Monkeys, Renaissance Man, Arctic Scavengers, Cavemen, and Piñata.
If you would like to give Cinque Terre a try, or another of Rio Grande’s games, they are available for check out here, at the UNT Media Library. In yesterday’s blog post, we learned about the origins of the “Unusual Occupations” film and how its premiere slowly grew to become a county-wide event. In today’s post, we’ll learn about how a group of children made the 37.8 minute ride from Dallas to Denton on a team of Shetland ponies.
“Denton resembled Hollywood and New York combined and that the entire project was done in the best tradition”
Manny Reiner, Publicity Manager, Paramount – New York
Paramount Studios publicist Tom McKean of New York worked alongside local businessmen to create anticipation for the world premiere of “Unusual Occupations.” On February 11th, McKean invited Denton County to submit the names of persons with odd occupations in writing or by telephone to the Texas Theater. The person with the “oddest occupation” would be given a theater pass.Then on February 19th, McKean traveled from New York to Denton to meet with Interstate Theater executives and members of the publicity and entertainment bureau of the Chamber of Commerce. At this meeting, a very strange and fantastic publicity stunt was concocted by the businessmen–local boys and girls would recreate the Pony Express on Shetland ponies to transport the new film from Dallas to the City of Denton!
The next day, the Denton Record Chronicle reported that a cameraman from Paramount News and photographers from Life magazine would be on hand for the start and finish of the pony express, which would travel in relays from Dallas to Denton. At this stage in the planning, known participants included the Dallas Round-Up Club and the Denton City and County Round-Up Clubs. Denton County residents were “urged to be on horseback to take part in the affair which is being planned to given Denton nation-wide publicity.” As the month progressed, it was rumored that Texas Governor Coke Stevenson, Oklahoma Governor Leon Phillips and even movie star Gene Autrey had been invited. It was announced on February 25th that the first pony rider would leave the Paramount Film Exchange on South Harwood Street in Dallas and ride to City Hall where he would pick up greetings from Mayor Lee Preston and a check from Dallas Times-Herald amusements editor to the Record Chronicle in payment of a bill. Ponies would be changed several times throughout the journey and the transfer of pony and rider “will be made in true pony express style, with the old and new rider riding side by side and switching the saddle bag.” The ponies would receive an official escort from city police and the state highway patrol. Residents could gather at the Interstate Theatres to hear announcements from the police escorts via loud speaker. It appears that there may have been another contest to determine who would ride in the Pony Express and the February 26th Record Chronicle listed the contestants as “Betty Jean Abbey (Route 1, Denton)” whose specialty was riding bareback, Mac Foster (611 Crawford St.), Bobby Castleberry (214 Highland Ave.), Curtis Erwin (North Locus St.) and Billy Kirkendall (Cumberland Presbyterian Home). Pony-less children were encouraged to bring stick horses to the event for prizes awarded by Paramount News and Life Magazine photographers. Real ponies would be on hand for free rides in front of the Texas Theatre.
The two colleges in Denton became involved with the extravaganza as well. The Denton Lass-o announced on February 17th that five students from the Texas State College for Women (now TWU)–Ernestine Ashe, Alice Jane Baird, Betty Buchanan, Anna Ruth Ashe, and Lena Marie Adams–would ride with Governor Stevenson in front of “approximately 500 on horseback” to greet the arriving Shetland Pony Express. Not to be outdone, the North Texas State Teachers College (now UNT) announced shortly after on February 26th that their own students had been selected “as part of a mounted ‘guard of beauty’ for Governor Stevenson.” NTSTC students included Jackie Foster (Denton), Sue STubbs (Dallas), Jackie McKay (Madisonville), Jewel Taylor (Coriscana), and Jo Frances Worley. The Texas Theater even arranged for world champion pony rider and roper, 9-year-old Wayne McGill to give a demonstration on the courthouse lawn. The Record Chronicle reported on March 2nd that a “full-blooded descendant of the Choctaw Indian tribe” would also be presented “as an unusual feature of the world premiere…He will furnish entertainment on the lawn of the courthouse while the pony express riders bring the film from Dallas to Denton.” It was reported by the Chronicle that “the Chief” would bring trophies he made to be exhibited on the lawn including hatchets, bows and arrows, and “other hunting utensils.”
It was raining on the morning of Wednesday, March 04, 1942, when at 9 a.m. people began gathering on Main Street in Dallas to watch as the long journey of the Shetland Pony Express began. The first rider was Mack Foster of Denton County. Theater executives gathered at the Paramount Film Exchange on South Harwood Street to watch Foster begin his journey. In this journey through Dallas, he was escorted by men and women on horseback, several police cars, a Paramount news crew with a camera mounted onto their station wagon, a Life Magazine photographer, and several free-lance photographers. Foster advanced a couple of blocks to City Hall where the Chief of Police J. M. Welch handed him letters to be delivered to Denton officials.”The route of the new highway out of Dallas” was chosen and Foster and went as far as Commerce Street and Industrial Boulevard before the first exchange was made.
Curtis Erwin (on pony Jake) took the saddle bag containing the film and letters and continued along the route. Paramount News Cameraman Jack Whitman traveled by station wagon 50 feet in front of the group in order to get traveling shots. Of the shooting, Paramount and Life cameramen later told the Record Chronicle that the rain had impacted their ability to shoot certain scenes. Whitman described an incident just outside of Dallas when he noticed a field of Shetland ponies off of the highway and thought it might make good film to have the fielded ponies meet with the galloping pony express riders. “Cars along the way with other photographers paused in interest,” the Chronicle reported, “but it was a bad guess–the fenced-in ponies merely looked up in envy.” Ponies were changed throughout the journey, about every 2 to 3 miles. C. A. Williams and Sheriff Roy Moore drove ahead to supervise the changing of the ponies at designated stations along the highway.
In Carrolton, a large crowd gathered in the middle of town for Major J.C. Davis and Betty Jean Abbey–a bareback rider and the only girl in the contest. In Lewisville “a herd of wild horses were driven across the street…so that the Paramount News camera might get shots suggestive of the western days.” Crowds on Main Street watched Mayor M.H. Milliken greet Betty Jean. Emmy Lou Hentley and Hoyt Reed posed for a trick pony shot. Other young riders listed in local reports include Bert Gibbs, Jr., Curtis Erwin, and Tommy and Billy Lucas.
At the Texas Theatre, a replica of a pony express relay station was erected as the background for the ceremonies. Denton County residents, including children riding real and stick-horses, crowded into downtown Denton as they waited for the final rider to arrive.The Chronicle observed that “Cowboy boots, jeans, gaily colored shirts, and the 10-gallon Stetsons formed the correct costume for the day.” Texas Governor Stevenson arrived from Dallas in a state police car and visited both colleges briefly before returning downtown. He then lunched with the film’s star, Will Williams, at the Southern Hotel before leaving for an event in Austin. Crowds watched as the 9-year-old trick rider, Wayne McGill, performed on the courthouse lawn. The Chamber of Commerce and Town and Country Round-Up Club prepared barbecue for riders to be served at the county fair grounds. State Senator R.C. Lanning also came to town for the ceremonies (and to visit his daughter at school at NTSTC). Miss Nan Simpson was named winner of the “Unusual Occupation” contest carried in the Chronicle and was awarded $5 prize and a month’s pass to Theater Row.* It’s unclear what her entry was and why it won.
By 1 p.m. that day “a world record was broken as the pony express thundered across the finish line at the Texas Theatre” at 1 p.m. with a total travel time of 2 hours and 37.8 minutes. Because the Texas planned to show Whitman’s Paramount news reel at the world premiere the next day, Whitman was also in a hurry and had to rush back to Dallas to process the film, insert narrative, and return the reel back to Denton before the following afternoon (“Fast Work to Bring Paramount Film of Pony Express Here”).
That evening, a party sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce was held for local businessmen of Denton County and out-of-town guests at the Southern Hotel. The city of Denton was already receiving accolades for the event from Paramount studio executives as far away as New York.
“It is a tribute to the civic interests of Denton. The Shetland Pony farm is remarkable and this should bring national recognition to both the farm and to Denton.”A New Yorker writing for the Record Chronicle perhaps best summed up the event and the spirit it embodied:R.J. O’Donnell, Vice President and General Manager, Interstate and Texas Consolidated Theaters
“This was Denton, this was friendship, this was a day of days. And to this New Yorker visiting Texas for the first time realized that the song ‘Deep in the Heart of Texas’ is aptly titled, for the heart of Texas is deep and the heart of Texas is open and the heart of Texas is as big as the state” (“Denton Opens Eyes of Easter Reporter, Here for Movie Event”).
Join us tomorrow for the gala event, the premiere of the film “Unusual Occupations”
If you have any additional information about the “Pony Express” event, especially the film screenings and the Paramount news reel, please contact Laura Treat at laura.treat@unt.edu or by phone at 940.369.5293.
If you or a family member were part of the extravaganza and have home movies, photographs, or other memorabilia, please consider bringing them down to UNT for a free community digitization event on Saturday April 30, 2016 from 10 a.m. – 5 p..m.
More details about this event are available with Laura Treat or on the project’s Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/SpotlightNTX
Seventy-four years ago in March 1942 a local theater magnate, a Shetland pony farmer, and Hollywood studio executives turned a 1-minute short film into a county-wide contest built on patriotism, nostalgia, and a love for little ponies. In a series of 3 blog posts, we will learn about this bizarre and amazing event. Today we discuss the origins of the film. Stay tuned in the coming days for more!
“Texas is ranch country, and we felt that no other pony farm was in as fine a setting as Mr. Williams.”
An Unusual Occupation: The Williams Shetland Pony Farm
Will Williams was the son of native Dentonite Alex Williams, the first sheriff of Denton after the Civil War. A prominent citizen and businessman, Williams first became involved in the Shetland Pony business in 1905 when he bought his children several of the small animals, ordered directly from the Shetland Islands. As his children outgrew the ponies and the animals became valuable as an import, Williams acquired his first stallion and became one of the country’s most active breeders. Williams sold ponies to people all over the world and many reportedly ended up in the circus, movies, and other entertainment venues.In 1942, the Will Williams pony farm caught they eye of Jerry Fairbanks Studios in Hollywood. From 1937 through 1949, Fairbanks Studios produced a series of theatrical short subjects, “Unusual Occupations,” for Paramount Pictures. Stories in this series featured eccentric, remarkable, and “unusual” people throughout the country who had chosen for themselves exotic jobs and strange hobbies. Potential subjects were nominated for inclusion by local Chambers of Commerce, theater managers, newspapers, magazines, and by the unusual people themselves. Once a story had been selected it was then marked with a pin and slip of paper on a large map of the United States on the research department wall. Action was taken when the clusters of pins “become thick enough to warrant sending one of the mobile photographic units to that particular area to photograph the stories.” It’s unclear who submitted Williams for consideration, but when producer Fairbanks learned of the farm he dispatched cameramen to Denton to shoot the farm. The film shows Williams caring for Shetland ponies on his 640-acre farm in Denton, Texas. His 5-year-old granddaughter, Kay Williams, rides and feeds one of these “little ponies for little people.” Williams is also seen performing a favorite trick which involved teaching his herd of ponies to stop everything and come running whenever he rang the bell and said “Hey!” Of the film and its production, the Denton Record Chronicle later reported that an “expensive color camera made a movie set out of this pastoral farm” and that “Williams and his granddaughter, Kay Williams, became actors for the day. The ponies were slicked up and gradually grew accustomed to the strange equipment. Denton was in the movies!” The stills below are taken from the film which is available for check-out on DVD at the University of North Texas Media Library (DVD 16659R) |
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“It Started With a Bang!” Patriotism and Ponies for Little People
On January 29, 1942, the Denton Record Chronicle announced that J.P. Harrison (Interstate Theaters) had secured from Paramount the world premiere of the short subject featuring the Williams Pony Farm for March 5, 1942. The Chronicle reported that the film which “presents in color and natural surroundings the beautiful little ponies on the Williams farm which has become known over the world” was awarded a special preview screening in Denton “through prompt action on the part of J.P. Harrison, manager of Interstate Theatres.” A dizzying whirlwind of publicity immediately followed as new methods of promoting both the film and sponsoring local businesses were developed. Throughout the month of February there were near daily articles, advertisements, and classified advertisements related to the event. Less than two months had passed since the attack on Pearl Harbor, and Denton County residents’ patriotism was reflected in their “Most Popular and Patriotic Boy and Girl” contest. Winners of the contest would be announced at the Texas Theater and would be awarded a Shetland pony. Denton County residents were encouraged by the Chronicle to “Vote today!” and earn voting coupons by shopping at local businesses including the City Drug Store and Tobin Drug Store, the Williams Store, and on Theatre Row. Local boys and girls including Bobby McMakin ,Mack Kenneth Foster, Quincy Merl Hughes, and Patsy Manson posted classified advertisements soliciting votes. Webber Jan Farris even involved her father. Her advertisement in the Chronicle on February 9th reads, “My dad said he would help me in the ‘Patriotic and Popular Boy and Girl’ Contest in which I am trying to win the pony, and if you have any votes I could have if you will telephone he will come for them, and I would certainly appreciate your help.” As the contest neared its end on February 26th, the 10 highest-ranking boys and girls (of the 339 registered contestants) were named on-stage at the Texas Theatre. The Record Chronicle reported on March 2nd that the contest’s official vote tabulator, Boyd Vaughn, had stayed up late to count the votes and the four highest ranking contestants (of 300 remaining) would be selected and presented on-stage at the Texas on March 3rd .
By February 6th, a sub-contest had emerged to name the Shetland ponies which would be awarded to the most patriotic boy and girl. The advertisement, which called for names for “Two Beautiful Registered Shetland Ponies” promised two $5 defense saving stamps for the two best names with names of a “patriotic nature preferred.” Eligible names would be reviewed by the Texas Theatre’s unnamed “Pony Contest Manager.”
Tomorrow we’ll learn about Denton County’s even more ambitious plans for the “Unusual Occupations” premiere.
If you have any additional information about this film or the pony express event, please contact Laura Treat at laura.treat@unt.edu or by phone at 940.369.5293. If you or a family member were part of the extravaganza and have home movies, photographs, or other memorabilia, please consider bringing them down to UNT for a free community digitization event on Saturday April 30, 2016 from 10 a.m. – 5 p..m. More details about this event are available with Laura Treat or on the project’s Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/SpotlightNTX
Ferris Bueller is a high school cool guy who develops an elaborate plan to skip school with his two friends. Endlessly uplifting for anyone who opposes The Man and just wants to have fun.
The Breakfast Club – DVD 2620
Five vastly different high school kids meet in detention and realize they have a lot more in common than originally thought.
Battle Royale – DVD 1556
Set in the future, a group of 9th grade kids from a Japanese high school get taken to an island by the government and are forced to fight and kill each other. A great film to watch when you’re getting tired of school because at least you’re not forced to fight to the death!
Legally Blonde – DVD 3621
When sorority sister Elle Woods is dumped by her boyfriend, she sets out on a mission to become a student at Harvard Law. Truly a tale of inspiration.
Freaks and Geeks – DVD 2829 v.1-6
A high school mathlete starts hanging out with a group of burnouts while her younger brother navigates his freshman year.
– By Chloe Flores, Student Assistant, UNT Media Library 
This new Marvel movie is definitely not a family movie, no matter how many families you may see in the theaters. And that’s not the only major difference in this movie compared to previous marvel productions, there’s also a noticeable shift in how they’re portraying characters, particularly for female lead actresses.
This can also be seen in recent series Agent Carter, where there are various lead female characters versus most Marvel content with male leads.
If you’re feeling up for a Marvel Marathon, we’ve got your list all figured out, from Spiderman to Agent Carter, and perhaps you’ll notice some shift in how Marvel Studios (Twentieth Century Fox has some influence too) has developed over the past few years.
Ratmen, Trolls, Elves, and Sorcerers: What do they all have in common? They want to rule the world! Only, the world is small after all (please no singing…). When one race expands, another must fall.
Small World, by Days of Wonder, takes place in a realm where every intelligent species vies for power in a limited space. Each player drafts a different fantasy race with a varying power, then begins conquering territory. Eventually the board will be full, and each race will be stretching its resources beyond its ability. At this point, the player can send his race into decline in favor of choosing a new race and beginning their attempt at global domination anew.
Through the game, each player gains points for each territory that their current race and declined race possess. These points, kept secret until the end of the game, determine who wins after a given set of rounds.
Small World is a highly strategic game that is also fairly easy to pick up, yet each game varies vastly and requires new and evolving tactics to keep in the lead. During our recent play through, a slow start eventually overcame the early leader through slow attrition and smart plays.
A highly expansive game, Small World currently has numerous expansions and combines with Small World Underground for a larger and more varied game.
We would like to thank Days of Wonder for this great donation, as well as their donation of Ticket to Ride.
If you would like to give Small World a try, or another of Days of Wonder’s games, they are available for check out here, at the UNT Media Library. Valentine’s Day seems like one of those days you either completely ignore or embrace only with that special other, but I mean, why? Remember back in elementary days when everyone gave everyone a special treat? Valentine’s day can be more than a day about romantic relationships. What about simply appreciating those we care about (chocolate, please)? Let’s face it, that’s probably the core meaning of most gift-giving holidays.
In celebration, here’s a compilation of some of the TV series at the media library who have their own obligatory Valentine’s episodes:
(just add chocolate)
The Office DVD 6426 v.3, “Valentine’s day”
Distraught Pam + February 13th hook up + Happy dance Michael
Modern Family DVD 12038 v.3, “My Funky Valentine”
Boyfriend painting + Naked under the trench coat + Awkward speaker conversation in the car
Supernatural DVD 16536 v.4, “My Bloody Valentine”
Angel eating a burger + Cupid hugs + This smile
The Simpsons DVD 3368 v.3, “I Love Lisa”
Ralph says more than 3 words + Ralph shows emotion towards another person + Creepy train
Arrested Development DVD 4111 v.2, “Marta Complex”
Michael give a love speech + Marta may be in love + Lindsay wants a divorce
So we agree that V-day is just a commercialized way of making people feel pressure to buy red and pink things right? Agreed. But that’s what Sitcoms are for, right?
maybe.
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