Echoes From My Days at the Ivory Tower

Some interesting tidbits relating to a couple of my former professors.





First is a review of The Foreign Film Renaissance on American Screens, 1946-1973 by Tino Balio. I took two or three classes with Prof. Balio and wrote a lengthy paper about the reception of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's films in America for one of them.

Here's a pretty amazing statistic that I'm sure I learned in class but forgot: "Through the 1950s, foreign films accounted for about 7 percent of total box office—a staggeringly high number that has never been duplicated." I'm sure that that percentage is downright minuscule these days but I wonder what percentage of total money spent on movies foreign films get. (Rentals and Netflix in addition to box office.) Anywhere near 7%?

Another former professor-related thing pertains to this guy:





That's Charles Anderson, one of my favorite profs from my time at the UW. That lone poli sci class I took with him left a profound impression on me. The UW Alumni Association has posted recordings of some of Anderson's lectures. They are from the 1980s and were broadcasted on the radio at the time but are now available at iTunes. These recordings are of Prof. Anderson's lectures for the Integrated Liberal Studies 205-206 classes. The topic is the history of Western thought as seen through political, social, and economic lenses.

I'm only on the third lecture (of 54) so I can't relate a whole lot on the substance other than to say that Greece is where it all started for us. I will note that A) it is weird to think a college lecture was ever put on the radio and B) it's funny to hear him say that listeners can write the station or the department for copies of the syllabus instead of going to a webpage.