Young Indy Anachronisms

ATMachine

Member
Has anyone besides me found that Young Indy has a few anachronisms?

Here's one I noticed. In the Peking 1910/Journey of Radiance episode, there's a scene where Miss Seymour is giving Indy a lecture on Emperor Qin Shi Huang-di and mispronounces his name as "Quinn", not the correct "Chin". The Chinese guide traveling along with them corrects her pronunciation.

One problem: In 1910, the standard spelling of Chinese characters in English was very different than it is today. The modern Chinese romanization system was invented by the Chinese Communist Party only after they won China's prolonged civil war in 1949. English-language writing of the day would have rendered Qin Shi Huang-di's name as "Ch'in Shih Huang-Ti", approximating the correct pronunication.

(As a side note, the Indy Emperor's Tomb video game, in which Indy digs up Qin's tomb, uses the old-fashioned spelling in its subtitles. Though I'm not sure it wasn't just a lucky coincidence, given that the same game designers couldn't be bothered to find a 1935 map for the "traveling red line" sequences and used modern country boundaries.)

Anyone else notice things like this in the YIJ series?
 

Junior Jones

New member
I just watched Hollywood Follies last night, and right at the beginning he's watching Ben Hur. According to the documentaries on the same disk, Ben Hur didn't come out until a few years later.
 

NoCamels

New member
I noticed that too. (by the way, if anyone wants to see the 1925 version of Ben Hur it's a special feature on the DVD of the Charlton Heston version).

My dad is convinced that nobody in 1916 would have said "that's on a need to know basis, and right now you don't need to know" like in Daredevils of the Desert. I'm not sure I agree, but I couldn't really say.

If you read the disclaimer at the end of the credits, it does actually say something about the timing of historical events may have been altered to fit the storyline, as well as the regular "this is a work of fiction and the real people have been fictionalized". So I'm sure there are probably a few more anachronisms out there.
 

The Tingler

New member
ATMachine said:
(As a side note, the Indy Emperor's Tomb video game, in which Indy digs up Qin's tomb, uses the old-fashioned spelling in its subtitles. Though I'm not sure it wasn't just a lucky coincidence, given that the same game designers couldn't be bothered to find a 1935 map for the "traveling red line" sequences and used modern country boundaries.)

Although they did correctly call Xi'an "Sian"! Although in the same game you couldn't have the Chinese translation without turning ALL the subtitles on! Lazy swines.
 

tupogirl

New member
Indy's hair (both C and F) seems to be a little too 90's. The Belgian army doesn't give you a right proper haircut when you join?

There are other phrasings that catch me sometimes and I think 'I doubt they said that back then'. But I notice that even on shows like How I Met Your Mother when they do flashbacks.
 

Stoo

Well-known member
In the original version of "Travels With Father", the map in the red line sequence said Instabul.
On the DVDs, it now says Consantitinople.
 

ATMachine

Member
Stoo said:
In the original version of "Travels With Father", the map in the red line sequence said Instabul.
On the DVDs, it now says Consantitinople.
That is rather incorrect from our perspective, as Westerners didn't start calling the city Istanbul until after World War I. However, the Turks have known the city as Istanbul since even before they conquered it.

(In point of fact, though, if a pre-WWI source wanted to use the Turkish name it would likely have been spelled Stamboul in English.)
 

Stoo

Well-known member
Yes, apparently Instanbul means "in the city" so it's been called that for hundreds of years.
We can assume the "repair job" came after someone pointed out that a map, made by westerners,
would not have used Istanbul since it wasn't yet "official".

Another interesting change in "Travels With Father" DVD is the removal of a an acienct Greek temple
in the background. My guess is that it was a modern reconstruction that didn't exist in c.1910.
 

phantom train

New member
I was in college when the YIJC was first broadcast in 1992-1993, and I specifically remember being in a world history class the week of (and maybe even the day after) the "Curse of the Jackal" broadcast.

At the beginning of the class that day, I mentioned to my history professor that I had really liked the episode - he had also seen it, and he proceeded to take about ten minutes at the beginning of the class to de-construct it (even though it had nothing to do with the material being taught that day). Anyway, he mentioned that:

* Howard Carter was not in Egypt in 1909 digging up tombs (or whenever the Corrier Carrier sequence in COTJ occured), but in the early 1920's.

* It's questionable whether T.E. Lawrence was in Egypt in 1909.

* Though this isn't necessarily a historical anachronism, my professor also mentioned that it's probably impossible for someone to ride a bicycle on the desert sands with any effectiveness (as T.E. Lawrence was doing when he "rescued" little Indy and Miss Seymour).
 

tupogirl

New member
phantom train said:
* Though this isn't necessarily a historical anachronism, my professor also mentioned that it's probably impossible for someone to ride a bicycle on the desert sands with any effectiveness (as T.E. Lawrence was doing when he "rescued" little Indy and Miss Seymour).

LOL I was thinking that! I have also been reading a biography of his and I read no mention of a bike! LOL.

I thought there was a Hemingway one in 1920, since after the war he worked in Toronto. But he did live near the U for a few months then.

Until I read it in an actual history book, it's a work of fiction...
 
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Whipper

New member
Junior Jones said:
I just watched Hollywood Follies last night, and right at the beginning he's watching Ben Hur. According to the documentaries on the same disk, Ben Hur didn't come out until a few years later.

Hm. I'm fairly sure there was an earlier silent version of Ben Hur than the 1925 version, but I haven't seen Follies in a long time and can't say which one Indy was watching. If it IS the '25 version, then yeah -- anachronism.

Though, as a script point, I might say there's not much problem with Indy watching Ben Hur, other than the original movie itself being several years old in 1920, which might or might not be an oddity. I don't know whether older movies had much rerun value in theaters back then, or if operators Did keep those prints and run them for more variety to bring a few more customers in during non-peak hours. I'd have to do some more research.

Alas, there's no smilie for puttin' on the academia specs... :)
 

Whipper

New member
tupogirl said:
LOL I was thinking that! I have also been reading a biography of his and I read no mention of a bike! LOL.

Yeah, that's a pretty funny point, especially when you've got Old Indy reminiscing and saying a thing like, "He rode like the Wind..." :D
 

tupogirl

New member
Whipper said:
Yeah, that's a pretty funny point, especially when you've got Old Indy reminiscing and saying a thing like, "He rode like the Wind..." :D


Maybe on a camel...I love Lawrence of Arabia. Makes me feel good about being a quirky, do things my way (within reason) kind of gal.
 

NoCamels

New member
IMDb does list a 1907 version of Ben-Hur that was about 12 minutes long, but Indy is definetly watching the 1925 version. Apparently the chariot race in the 1907 version is just Ben-Hur and Masala (sp?) going around a stationary camera. (I've seen the 1925 version, but not the 1907 one.)
 

vf wing

New member
phantom train said:
Though this isn't necessarily a historical anachronism, my professor also mentioned that it's probably impossible for someone to ride a bicycle on the desert sands with any effectiveness (as T.E. Lawrence was doing when he "rescued" little Indy and Miss Seymour).

That's one of the standout images from My First Adventure, him meandering up to the pyramid on his bicycle in very unlikely fashion. I'm guessing it was included as the foreshadowing to his own eventual death in a motorcycle accident.
 
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