MovieChat Forums > Kitty Foyle (1940) Discussion > 500 "Light Years" In 1940?

500 "Light Years" In 1940?

posted 7 years ago by mcdemuth
3 replies | jump to latest

In the movie, Kitty Foyle discusses being "500 Light Years Apart" from the man she loves...

When I saw this movie the first time, I was surprised to hear Ginger saying those words...

While there were a few Science Fiction stories around, and comic books introduced the world to Superman from the planet Krypton in Action Comics #1 on June 1938, just two years earlier...

This was SEVEN years before Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier... and many people even in 1947 didn't believe it was possible...

So in 1940, there must have been very few people who believed it was actually possible for humans to go the Moon, or Mars... or even another Star System.

Seems to me, that it must have been pretty advanced thinking for a member of the general population (NOT A SCIENTIST) to talk about "Light Years" in an everyday conversation in 1940...

I wonder how many movie goers understood what that meant back then.

[–] joystar5879 7 years ago

Kitty could easily have seen Chapters of BUCK ROGERS or FLASH GORDON serials at the movies, or read them in the comic pages. Both of the serials were running in 1939-40, and were extremely popular.

I do hope he won't upset Henry...

[–] DirkBuckam 7 years ago

Einstein had published his papers on special and general relativity in 1905 and 1915 so the American public, one could assume, would have been at least peripherally aware of what a light year was by 1940. Even if they couldn't describe it, they knew it meant "real fast and real far".

[–] liscarkat (16434) 4 months ago

It was just as much common knowledge then as it is now. Most people probably couldn't and still can't define it scientifically, but they have a pretty good idea that it's a long, long way.