Who said that postulates don't work? L Ron Hubbard had a postulate to smash his name into history.
This morning I was working the crossword puzzle in the Orange County Register. Clue #47 across said: "Hubbard of sci-fi (2 wds)" and left 4 spaces to fill in the name. I put in "LRon" and that turned out to be correct.
Its funny with these crossword puzzle clues, once they come into use, they usually last for decades. One such clue is a 4 letter word for a dog who played in the movies. the answer is "ASTA" who is the dog owned by Nick and Nora in the movie series "The Thin Man". This puzzle clue appears all the time but unless you are old or a crossword fan, no one would know the answer. I am both old and a crossword fan. The Thin Man movie genre is from the late 1930's and early 1940's.
Kids on my block started going to the movies on Saturday from about 1947 to 1950. I saw the "Thin Man" play there but it was already pretty old. I'll Google The Thin Man and see what they say. Here's the link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thin_Man_(film)
For nostalgia buffs, prices movie tickets in the late 40's were generally 50 cents for adults and 25 cents for kids. However, the movie we went to, called the Variety was a budget type theater and the rate was only 25 cents for adults and 9 cents for kids.
THAT'S RIGHT, 9 CENTS FOR A CHILD TO ATTEND THE MOVIES!! Even with a conversion factor of 10 or 11 to one for inflation, that would still be only $1 for kids and about $2.50 for adults in today's money. Not only that but for that tiny bit on money,
we got to see previews of common attractions, 2 feature films, 5 cartons, a newsreel and a Serial!! The neighborhood parents loved it. They would drive about 6 kids to the movies on Saturday afternoon and dump us there for about 5 hours so they could have their private time. The movie theater, the "Variety" on West Adams Blvd. was about 1 mile from our house so we could walk home if we had to, but one of the parents always showed up to drive us home.
The first Thin Man movie came out way back in 1934. It starred William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles and of course their dog Asta was featured in the movie. The film was so successful that it spawned 6 sequels with the same stars. The last sequel came out in 1947. What a successful franchise, seven films over a 13 year period and then immortalized in crossword puzzles. Besides Asta, the dog, there are sometimes crossword puzzle clues asking for a star of the "The Thin Man". They leave 4 letters but the two answers Nick or Nora both contain 4 letters one doesn't know which one is the correct answer until one solves some more neighboring clues.
In closing, I might add that its funny how postulates can work, Hubbard wanted to SMASH his way into History. In a way, he did that by becoming a crossword puzzle clue. We have The Thin Man as a puzzle clue 80 years after the movie was made, and Hubbard will probably be a clue for many decades to come. I don't think that being a puzzle clue was what LRH had in mind but in a sense, he has become a part of history by being a crossword puzzle clue
Lakey
PS, I forgot to mention food prices. Small candy bars were 6 cents while popcorn and large candy bars were 12 cents, about 75 cents and $1.25 resoectively in today's money. They sold an "all day sucker" for 12 cents. It would last hours if one just sucked on it and did not bite into it. As to drinks, I don't remember that because my parents did not allow my brother or I to drink soft drinks. Probably a small coke was 6 cents and a large coke was 12 cents. Just imagine popcorn then and popcorn now, what a difference!
