Fresh, Hot Wastes of Time

It’s been a long time since I saw Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. I can’t help but wonder what it was like around the time it was released. Was it scandalous? Were people blase about it? Did they have problems finding financial backing to make it? Who was impacted by the film? It’s easy enough to read film reviews and look at income statements; it’s entirely different to grasp the feeling of the moment.

Wikipedia says that Spencer Tracy was dying at the time the movie was filmed. Katharine Hepburn made this movie with him, knowing it would be his last. How heartbreaking could that have been?

Here’s a post I wrote on the IGDA ARG mailing list in reference to someone asking about ARGs for kids:

I’m sure I’ll get shouted down by the anti-Disnites 😉 , but I’ve spent quite a bit of time pondering lately about the nature of Disney World. They treat all the characters as absolutely real, to the degree that the person in the Mickey Mouse suit doesn’t say later, “I was in the Mickey Mouse suit,” but rather, “I was _working with_ MIckey Mouse.”

Everything that’s not roped off at Disney World is available to touch and play with. When the sign at the Muppet Show 3D says “Key’s under the mat,” the key is really under the mat. If there’s an old-timey phone in a store, you should pick it up and hear an old-timey conversation.

Those who take behind the scenes tours are warned not to say anything about the characters not being real while “on stage,” or in view of other guests. If they do, their guide will play absolutely dumb.

So while there’s not really a game (although they do have different scavenger hunts), it’s definitely an alternate reality. Obviously the curtain is hair-thin, but within the milieu of Disney World itself, the TINAG principle stands tall.