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Chinese in Trees??

posted 14 years ago by djrosenblatt
6 replies | jump to latest

About 5 minutes into the film, Roseanne sees a newspaper headline, "WORLD ANNIHILATION FEARED BY SCIENTISTS". Under that is another article, of which the first 2 lines of the headline read, "100,000 CHINESE LIVING IN TREES AS...", with the remaining line cut off at the bottom of the screen. Anyone know what that's about?

Oddly, when I googled the "Chinese Living in Trees" line, all I found was that the same headline appeared off to the side of a newspaper in a scene in another flick, Ed Woods' "The Bride and the Beast". (I daresay its appearance in an Ed Woods film lends it some veracity... only because Woods was probably too cheap to print his own fake newspaper!)

[–] MadSimian 12 years ago

One possibility is that it was a fake headline based on the fact that flooding was and still is a major problem in China. In fact, one of the biggest natural disasters of the early 20th century was the Chinese Flood of 1931:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1931_China_floods

In other words, the full headline could have been "100,000 CHINESE LIVING IN TREES AS FLOOD WATERS RISE FURTHER". lol

Sig-Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.-Sun Tzu

[–] balducci2 11 years ago

"Watching the 1935 film 'Doubting Thomas', I noted a familiar newspaper headline... Where had I seen "110,000 Chinese Living in Trees as a Result of Flood" before? Why, in the Daily Planet! Way! According to a quick Google search, the same headline shows up in newspapers on the Andy Griffith Show and in the 1958 film Bride and the Beast. Wonder what THAT'S all about, eh?"

http://s13.zetaboards.com/In_The_Balcony/topic/6861856/1/

A different headline appears a year before 'Doubting Thomas' in a (real newspaper), the Spokane Daily Chronicle - Sep 5, 1934, with the story being how 110,000 Chinese are living in trees as a result of floods.

I think we can assume that someone made up the fake newspapers for films, reused the headlines it created in different projects, and originally based this particular headline on a real news item of the day. And then they kept reusing it for decades.

[–] djrosenblatt 11 years ago

Just for the sake of completeness, someone on that same board mentioned that the headline "also shows up in the the Three Stooges short 'The Sitter-Downers'".

Your analysis of how this came about seems right on the money. This seems to be analogous to Hollywood's renowned "Wilhelm scream" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YDpuA90KEY).

Badgers? We don't need no stinkin' badgers! But if you could show us something in a nice possum...

[–] Libermeus 11 years ago

Also, in the movie, Eric criticized Michael's desire to stay away from the city by saying he "would end up living in the trees", so maybe it was a comment on being uncivilized or going back to nature. Or, he was just being racist and comparing Michael to the Chinese.

[–] djrosenblatt 8 years ago

Well, I just happened to come across it again. balducci2 mentions seeing it in the Daily Planet newspaper in Adventures of Superman, but doesn't mention which episode. I just found it in the Daily Planet of the very first episode of season 1 of the series, which, based on balducci2's link, is a different one. (The top headline in episode 1 is "SUPERMAN RESCUES AIRPORT MECHANIC"; in balducci2's, it's "ROPE BURGLAR DEFIES POLICE".)

Two other instances I just dug up:
1) One IMDB contributor mentions seeing the headline in the movie "Ghost Patrol (1936)" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027669/reviews;
2) According to http://s13.zetaboards.com/In_The_Balcony/topic/6964900/1/, it appears in the 1936 movie, "The Devil-Doll", starring Lionel Barrymore.

So, to sum up all known appearances (so far) of 100,000 CHINESE LIVING IN TREES (and allowing for its slight variation of 110,000 CHINESE LIVING IN TREES), we have:

Movies:
Doubting Thomas (1935)
Ghost Patrol (1936)
The Devil-Doll (1937)
The Sitter-Downers (Three Stooges short, 1937)
Five (1951)
The Bride and the Beast (Ed Woods, 1958)

TV:
Adventures of Superman (1952) (at least two episodes)
The Andy Griffith Show (1960) (unknown episode(s))

Just my humble contribution to the annals of useless knowledge.

Badgers? We don't need no stinkin' badgers! But if you could show us something in a nice possum…

[–] elephuntingun 7 years ago

Sounds like it could be the stuff of an inside industry joke.

Like Alan Smithee
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Smithee

or the Wilhelm scream.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdbYsoEasio

http://tinyurl.com/9-simple-easy-guacamole-recip