No One Asked Nic Cage If He Had A Pencil!

In which we discover what archival research is really like. Plus the usual round up of stuff watched, and read. And a little Fab Four related news too.

You know those scenes in the movies and TV shows where you see someone in an archive hunting for a clue and they are surrounded by stacks of books with old maps and documents spread out on the desk in front of them? 

Well surprise, surprise it doesn’t work like that. Or at least it didn’t during our recent dip into the world of archival research.

One thing that was consistent with all three facilities that we visited, was that you could only have one item to examine at a time. However, the definition of what constituted an item varied considerably from something as small as an individual photograph or document in one place, to a box full of files in another. And even what constituted a file of papers varied. In some places, it would be a singular manila folder with papers, while in others a file could have multiple manila folders in them.

Each facility had a different process for checking out the items you needed. In one it was a casual “tell me when you are done and I’ll go get the next thing on your list,” in another it was a paper request slip that accompanied the item and you couldn’t take another until the slip and its associated item had been returned together, while for the third archive, we had to apply for and obtain an Archives Card, basically a library card for researchers, with a barcode on it that was scanned and assigned to each item. Here they also weighed each item before and after you handled it!

Rules about photographing the archival assets also varied. In one there was a strict no-photography rule, which resulted in a lot of hand-written note-taking, while the other two allowed you to use your phones to take pictures. Both charged a fee for this, at a different rate of course, and while one wanted you to complete a form identifying what documents you had photographed, the other didn’t seem to care.

If there was one other area that all three facilities agreed on, it was the choice of writing instrument for note-taking. Pens were strictly forbidden in the archives. Any notes had to be written using a pencil. Not something we had thought of. Thankfully at our first stop, they had some spare ones on hand. A quick stop at a newsagent at a motorway service station ensured we were suitably armed for the other visits.

Funny thing is, all the times I’ve watched the National Treasure movies, I don’t recall anyone ever asking Nic Cage if he’d bought a pencil with him!

Other Stuff

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Brabazon Bits

Some new interesting additions to the Brabazon marketing ephemera collection arrived just before we headed to the UK for our research trip.

One was a large trading card with an early artist’s impression of the aircraft from a “Wonders of the Air” set that was issued by Knockout Comic in Australia. But perhaps the most unexpected was a postage stamp issued by the tiny three-mile-long island of Lundy which is located in the Bristol Channel.

Pages and Screens

Books Read in 2023 - “Secret Identity” by Alex Segura

I enjoy Segura’s comics work and was looking forward to his entry into the thrillers-set-in-the-comics-industry sub-genre.

Unfortunately, it didn’t really work. Set in the New York of 1975 it promised a noir vibe but didn’t deliver. The central mystery wasn’t that mysterious and the protagonist took way too long to do anything proactive.

My main problem was that I really didn’t care about any of the characters or what happened to them, and I’m still unsure of the motivations of some of the key players.

On the comics front, the constant name-dropping of comics industry people was distracting and threw me out of the fictional world-building.

I’m not sure including sample pages from the comic that was central to the plot was a good idea. They looked like a cheap mid-90s indie comic rather than the ground-breaking art described in the text. - I think the book would have been improved by leaving more to the reader’s imagination. Maybe it works better for someone not as familiar with comics history.

Movies watched in 2023 - The Desert Rats

A by the numbers mid-1950s war action movie that bears only a passing resemblance to the actual historical events it’s based on. Although this one is elevated by the on-screen presence and acting chops of Richard Burton and James Mason.

Podcast Procrastinations

Thanks to connections made through my Before They Were Beatles podcast,  I’m excited to announce that I’ve been engaged as the Consultant Historian for a new Beatles tribute band project.

This won’t be your typical Beatles tribute band of mop-top pretenders. Focused on the music of the Hamburg and Cavern days of 1961-1963, these are your proto-punk, leather-clad, rock-n-rollers, The Savage Young Beatles.

The Savage Young Beatles will make their US debut at the upcoming Abbey Road on the River festival, where I’ll also be attending as a guest.

It’s going to be a fun ride.

Coming this Sunday (Match 12th) at 3:30 CT (US) - join me and the rest of the On Her Majesty’s Secret Podcast Rogue Agents crew as we display the depths of our 007 ignorance with a live-streamed James Bond trivia quiz hosted by The Longbox Crusade. Join us by clicking HERE.

Weekly Web Round-Up

Batman On The Cover  - This week we moved into November 1967 with the Batman-related DC comics releases for that month including Detective Comics, Batman, Justice League of America, and World’s Finest.

My favorite from those being the tug-of-war Detective Comics cover.

Thanks for joining me for this week’s Rambles. As always don’t forget to sign up for a FREE subscription so you don’t miss future updates.

See you next time

Alan J. Porter