Today, February 21st
This is the 4th major film adaptation of London’s 1903 novel
HARRISON FORD’S “CALL OF THE WILD” IN THEATERS. Based on a year spent in the Yukon, author Jack London hugely popular tale was serialized in The Saturday Evening Post during the summer of 1903 before being published a month later (cementing his reputation). It’s the story of a dog named Buck, stolen and sold into service as a sled dog in Alaska, where he befriends an old man on an adventure that finds him reverting to his wild. ancestral self.
London’s beloved meditation on civilization vs. savagery was first adapted for film in 1923, again in 1935 with Clark Gable and Loretta Young, in 1972 with Charlton Heston, and with Rutger Hauer in 1996—and all featured a real live canine. This time around, Harrison Ford’s co-star is computer generated, created through the motion-capture performance of a former Cirque du Soleil performer, Terry Notary. Not surprising, perhaps, considering it’s director Chris Sanders’ (“How to Train Your Dragon”) live-action debut. But reviews across the board have called the results visually disorienting—with The Hollywood Reporter declaring, “you keep expecting Buck and the rest of the animals to burst into song.”
On a side note, the 1935 film was the last film released by Twentieth Century Pictures before it merged with Fox Films to form 20th Century Fox; while Ford’s remake is, coincidentally, the FIRST released under the 20th Century Studios name (following Disney’s acquisition of Fox).
The bilingual paper was free to those who could only read Cherokee and $2.50/year for readers of English (when paid in advance). Bottom: Bilingual notice in English and Cherokee, published May 15, 1828
THE 1ST NATIVE AMERICAN NEWSPAPER WAS PUBLISHED ON THIS DAY IN 1828. Named for the mythical bird that rose from the ashes, the Cherokee Phoenix was launched to unite and inform the Cherokee Nation’s many townships across (what are now) Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama and Georgia. It was the nation’s first Native American AND first bilingual paper—printed in English and Cherokee, using the Cherokee syllabary (in which symbols represent syllables). While its first editorial criticized white settlers wanting Natives’ land, the paper—like the Cherokee ruling elite—believed survival meant rapid acculturation into white society. In fact, its 25-year old editor, Elias Boudinot, renamed it the Cherokee Phoenix and Indians' Advocate, in the hopes of rallying non-Native readers around their “civilizing efforts.”
The paper’s original logo (top) and current logo (bottom)
The paper was silenced in 1834 due to a lack of funds and four years later, its disparate readers were forcibly sent to Indian Territory. But, happily, it did rise from the ashes in January 2007, with the launch of a website and broadsheet bearing the original Cherokee Phoenix name. Today, it speaks to the critical importance of representation in journalism, and—thanks to the passing of the Cherokee Independent Press Act—news that is free from political or undue influence.
The bilingual paper was free to those who could only read Cherokee and $2.50/year for readers of English (when paid in advance).