WEBVTT - 9 High-Flying Facts About Skywriting! 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:06.439 You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope 0:00:06.640 --> 0:00:13.720 and iHeartRadio. Guess what mango was that gave. 0:00:14.040 --> 0:00:17.240 So you probably had this marked in your calendar already, 0:00:17.280 --> 0:00:20.599 but last week was actually the one hundred and second 0:00:20.640 --> 0:00:25.520 birthday of commercial skywriting in America. I did not have 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:28.880 that on my calendar for some odd reason. But I 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:31.240 really am surprised we can pin down an exact start 0:00:31.280 --> 0:00:33.760 date for such an old medium, Like I know, there 0:00:33.760 --> 0:00:37.040 are so many candidates for like the first newspaper ad 0:00:37.200 --> 0:00:40.400 or the first billboard, and there's a lot of confusion there, 0:00:40.600 --> 0:00:42.920 that's true, but it's a little different when the ad 0:00:42.960 --> 0:00:46.400 appears out of thin air ten thousand feet above times square, 0:00:46.600 --> 0:00:49.360 somebody's going to keep track of that. And that's exactly 0:00:49.400 --> 0:00:52.720 what happened on November twenty eighth, nineteen twenty two, when 0:00:52.760 --> 0:00:56.040 British pilot Captain Cyril Turner took to the skies above 0:00:56.120 --> 0:01:00.360 New York City using a specially designed exhaust system spelled 0:01:00.360 --> 0:01:05.480 out Hello USA, Carl Vanderbilt seventy two hundred. It was 0:01:05.600 --> 0:01:08.480 the first time skywriting had been used to promote something 0:01:08.520 --> 0:01:11.039 in the US, and even though it wasn't clear what 0:01:11.360 --> 0:01:14.240 was being promoted, the ad still worked like a charm. 0:01:14.480 --> 0:01:18.119 Within a couple hours, roughly forty seven thousand people had 0:01:18.120 --> 0:01:22.119 called that not in the mystery behind the message had 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:26.600 pequed people's interest, proving the effectiveness of skywriting and securing 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:29.080 its place as a new, eye catching way to promote 0:01:29.080 --> 0:01:30.360 a product that. 0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:36.360 Is such a bizarre slogan like Hello USA called Vanderbilts 0:01:36.400 --> 0:01:40.520 and in two hundred like what is that even advertising? 0:01:41.000 --> 0:01:43.520 Yeah, well that's the thing. It was actually an ad 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:48.160 for skywriting itself. While Captain Turner was painstakingly writing the 0:01:48.200 --> 0:01:52.639 message overhead, his partner, Major John Jack Savage was watching 0:01:52.720 --> 0:01:56.120 from the ground with a very special guest, George Hill, 0:01:56.520 --> 0:02:00.200 the then president of the American Tobacco Company. So the 0:02:00.240 --> 0:02:02.840 real purpose of the stunt was to persuade Hill to 0:02:03.000 --> 0:02:07.640 advertise his cigarettes via skywriting, but Hill was skeptical since 0:02:07.680 --> 0:02:10.880 the average message only lingered for about ten minutes in 0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:13.840 a light wind, which didn't give people much time. 0:02:13.680 --> 0:02:14.160 To see it. 0:02:14.800 --> 0:02:17.240 I mean, it certainly gave enough people at the time 0:02:17.280 --> 0:02:19.519 to like call that phone number, But I guess that's 0:02:19.520 --> 0:02:21.560 where the phone number idea came in here. 0:02:21.880 --> 0:02:24.160 Yeah, that's right. It was the number of the hotel 0:02:24.200 --> 0:02:27.799 where George Hill was staying, Hotel Vanderbilt, and the resulting 0:02:27.840 --> 0:02:30.480 flood of phone calls convinced Hill to take a chance 0:02:30.520 --> 0:02:33.960 on skywriting. So the following year, the American Tobacco Company 0:02:34.080 --> 0:02:37.960 used skywriting in a successful campaign for Lucky Strike cigarettes, 0:02:38.320 --> 0:02:41.480 and in the decades that followed, skywriting became a popular 0:02:41.520 --> 0:02:42.519 form of advertising. 0:02:42.880 --> 0:02:45.320 I mean, it is pretty fitting that the first client 0:02:45.360 --> 0:02:48.560 of smoke based advertising would be a cigarette company, right, 0:02:48.639 --> 0:02:52.280 That's pretty perfect. But that is just the first of 0:02:52.520 --> 0:02:55.880 nine high flying facts we've got about skywriting. We've got 0:02:55.960 --> 0:02:58.720 so much more to cover, so let's strap in and 0:02:58.800 --> 0:03:23.000 take off. Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to part time Genius. 0:03:23.040 --> 0:03:25.320 I'm Monga's tritiguler and on the other side of that 0:03:25.360 --> 0:03:28.320 soundproof glass arranging cotton balls on his desk to spell 0:03:28.360 --> 0:03:32.200 out PTG, which is a very sweet tribute. That is 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:36.200 our friend and producer, Dylan Fagan. It's probably not as 0:03:36.240 --> 0:03:39.440 effective as real skywriting, but we will take what we 0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:42.480 can get. Thank you so much. Dylan. Also, Will is 0:03:42.520 --> 0:03:46.280 not here today. He's off on a business trip doing business. 0:03:46.320 --> 0:03:49.800 But joining me today is our old research pal Gabe 0:03:49.880 --> 0:03:53.520 and our friend and super producer Mary Philip Sandy Gabe, 0:03:53.600 --> 0:03:57.040 you came up with idea for this Nine Things? Why skywriting? 0:03:58.320 --> 0:04:01.800 Well, I think it's probably the most whimsical form of 0:04:01.840 --> 0:04:05.360 advertising that we have, and I've heard a lot about 0:04:05.400 --> 0:04:07.960 how it's kind of a dying art form and that 0:04:08.040 --> 0:04:10.160 was really interesting to me. And I also don't think 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:13.320 I've ever seen it in person myself, so I'm really 0:04:13.360 --> 0:04:15.640 hoping to get the chance before it kind of, you know, 0:04:15.880 --> 0:04:19.640 goes by the wayside. Wait, you've never seen skywriting? No, 0:04:19.720 --> 0:04:22.040 not really. I've been to air shows, so I've seen 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:25.400 like streaks of smoke behind jet planes or something like that. 0:04:25.480 --> 0:04:27.440 But for the most part, I feel like I've only 0:04:27.480 --> 0:04:30.039 seen like the budget form of skywriting, which is like 0:04:30.040 --> 0:04:33.320 those long banners that trail behind planes, like at the 0:04:33.320 --> 0:04:35.400 beach or something telling me to go to a pizza place. 0:04:35.600 --> 0:04:37.320 Yeah, I've never seen skywriting of you. 0:04:37.640 --> 0:04:38.359 Yeah, definitely. 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:39.839 Where are you going where there's skywriting? 0:04:39.839 --> 0:04:41.680 I don't know if I've seen it a few times 0:04:41.680 --> 0:04:45.160 at the beach. What beach, I don't know, Provincetown they 0:04:45.160 --> 0:04:48.480 had Okay, well it be a fancy beach. 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:50.640 Yeah, not the kind of beach I go to. 0:04:51.720 --> 0:04:57.320 Well, I go to not fancy teaches too. I'm just 0:04:57.320 --> 0:04:59.200 saying I've seen it at the beach. I know that 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:01.680 is where I've seen to play in skywriting. 0:05:01.880 --> 0:05:02.920 We'll take your word for it. 0:05:03.000 --> 0:05:03.320 Ye know. 0:05:03.400 --> 0:05:05.240 Every just everyone go to a fancy beach and you 0:05:05.279 --> 0:05:06.960 might see some skywriting. 0:05:07.080 --> 0:05:08.080 Cross your fingers. 0:05:08.560 --> 0:05:11.360 But I don't know. I've lived like more than forty years. 0:05:11.360 --> 0:05:14.080 I feel like you, sup must have seen something like that. 0:05:15.560 --> 0:05:16.560 He feels really attacked. 0:05:16.600 --> 0:05:20.080 Right now, It's okay, we're not shouting. 0:05:19.720 --> 0:05:21.600 You for skywriting jealous. 0:05:21.640 --> 0:05:22.719 I'm happy for you. 0:05:23.160 --> 0:05:25.640 Okay. So Mary Gabe got it started with the intro. 0:05:25.760 --> 0:05:28.000 Why don't we throw to you for the first five Okay. 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:29.920 As someone who has never seen skywriting, I had to 0:05:29.960 --> 0:05:32.799 do some research. But one thing I learned this week 0:05:32.920 --> 0:05:35.240 is that part of the reason we've had so few 0:05:35.320 --> 0:05:38.159 encounters with skywriting is because the medium really took a 0:05:38.200 --> 0:05:41.240 nose dive after its heyday in the early twentieth century. 0:05:41.279 --> 0:05:44.599 And that's partially because of the popularity of television and 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:47.200 then eventually the Internet, which are much easier mediums for 0:05:47.200 --> 0:05:50.359 getting the word out, but concerns about public safety also 0:05:50.440 --> 0:05:53.360 played a big role. After nine to eleven, the airspace 0:05:53.400 --> 0:05:56.920 around major cities became much more tightly restricted, and the 0:05:57.400 --> 0:06:00.400 kind of erratic movements that are involved with skywriting began 0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:03.800 to make people nervous. So while skywriting remains a draw 0:06:03.839 --> 0:06:06.680 at air shows and sports events and music festivals, it's 0:06:06.720 --> 0:06:09.320 just become a lot less common in everyday life. 0:06:09.480 --> 0:06:11.880 It's also, I imagine, like pretty expensive, right. 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:14.680 Yes. Most skywriters charge a few thousand dollars for just 0:06:14.760 --> 0:06:16.919 ten letters, and if you want a longer message, or 0:06:16.920 --> 0:06:19.360 you want it repeated multiple times, then it could set 0:06:19.400 --> 0:06:22.240 you back more than ten thousand dollars easily. And that's 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:26.040 not even counting the transportation costs, because in most cases, 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:29.760 the pilot's plane has to be shipped to the location 0:06:29.800 --> 0:06:31.760 where they actually want the skywriting to appear. 0:06:31.839 --> 0:06:36.480 Ye, the plane. That's crazy. It also sounds like a 0:06:36.520 --> 0:06:38.680 pretty big hidden cost, right. Yeah. 0:06:38.720 --> 0:06:40.520 I don't know how much it costs to ship a plane, 0:06:40.520 --> 0:06:41.800 but I would imagine it's not cheap. 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:45.599 Yeah, that is interesting. Well, one thing I learned this 0:06:45.640 --> 0:06:49.039 week is that skywriting was actually invented for military use. 0:06:49.279 --> 0:06:52.640 The practice was developed at the beginning of World War One, 0:06:52.880 --> 0:06:55.359 and this was back when British pilots in the Royal 0:06:55.400 --> 0:06:58.360 Air force discovered that they could create white smoke that 0:06:58.560 --> 0:07:01.240 hung in the air by running paraffin oil through the 0:07:01.279 --> 0:07:04.920 plane's exhaust pipes. Right, And at first they just used 0:07:04.920 --> 0:07:08.160 the smoke to play around during air drills, but pilots 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:10.840 quickly realized that it could actually be used to create 0:07:10.960 --> 0:07:14.680 smoke screens to obscure the movements and confuse enemy pilots. 0:07:14.800 --> 0:07:18.440 It's a really fascinating use. And it wasn't until after 0:07:18.520 --> 0:07:21.520 the war that those British officers started working on a 0:07:21.560 --> 0:07:23.920 way to use skywriting in advertising. 0:07:24.080 --> 0:07:28.320 This was England that gave us the idea of commercial skywriting, that's. 0:07:28.200 --> 0:07:31.480 Right, And so in nineteen twenty one, Major Savage developed 0:07:31.520 --> 0:07:35.440 a more sophisticated method for generating smoke and controlling its release, 0:07:35.640 --> 0:07:39.440 and in May of the following year, Captain Turner tested 0:07:39.440 --> 0:07:43.960 the device in England by skywriting the word castrol, which 0:07:44.000 --> 0:07:46.400 you've probably heard of as a kind of engine lubricant 0:07:46.520 --> 0:07:49.440 used in both cars, and playing sure castro yeah, or 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:53.760 if you've seen Cars movie, that's in it. Now you're 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:58.440 speaking my language, now, okay, yeah, skywriting Cars movie. I've 0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:04.360 seen everything. But the pair's first attempt at aerial advertising 0:08:04.440 --> 0:08:06.960 didn't draw much notice. They actually decided to try one 0:08:06.960 --> 0:08:10.440 week later, and for that flight they found a paying customer. 0:08:10.520 --> 0:08:13.200 So the men were contracted by the Daily Mail, you know, 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:16.800 the newspaper, to spell out the paper's name over Epsom 0:08:16.880 --> 0:08:19.200 Downs during the Derby Steaks horse race. 0:08:19.400 --> 0:08:21.080 So people did they pay attention then? 0:08:21.240 --> 0:08:23.560 Yeah? Of course, I mean, and it wasn't just Derby fans. 0:08:23.840 --> 0:08:26.800 The message could actually be seen for miles in all directions, 0:08:26.960 --> 0:08:29.520 including by people who did not know it had been 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:32.880 written by a plane, which is crazy, right, Like if 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:35.320 you think about the phenomena, there were kids at a 0:08:35.360 --> 0:08:38.400 nearby school who saw the message outside the classroom window 0:08:38.520 --> 0:08:41.280 and they assumed it had been written in the clouds 0:08:41.360 --> 0:08:46.520 by an angel. I mean, that's so incredible, like it's 0:08:46.559 --> 0:08:48.440 this message from heaven and that it's just an ad 0:08:48.480 --> 0:08:50.600 telling you to get a newspaper. 0:08:52.040 --> 0:08:54.080 Yeah, especially the Daily Mail. I don't know that the 0:08:54.080 --> 0:08:57.880 angels read the Daily Mail. 0:08:56.720 --> 0:09:01.000 Right, Heaven's paper is the tagline. 0:09:00.480 --> 0:09:03.800 But well, to be fair to those kids, there is 0:09:03.840 --> 0:09:08.240 something vaguely supernatural about floating letters in the sky, and 0:09:08.320 --> 0:09:11.600 while expert skyriders can make the job look easy, it's 0:09:11.640 --> 0:09:15.560 actually an extremely demanding profession. Like pilots have to map 0:09:15.600 --> 0:09:20.160 out there every move before takeoff, every turn, roll dive, 0:09:20.320 --> 0:09:23.199 and every flip of that smoke switch, and then they 0:09:23.200 --> 0:09:27.120 have to execute those maneuvers from memory while going one 0:09:27.240 --> 0:09:29.920 hundred and fifty miles per hour at ten thousand feet 0:09:29.960 --> 0:09:33.160 in the air. It's kind of like performing a choreographed 0:09:33.240 --> 0:09:37.359 dance while also painting a mieral is insane. 0:09:38.080 --> 0:09:40.320 I actually would have assumed that there's like, you know, 0:09:40.360 --> 0:09:43.600 a digital technological assistance here right, like a flight path, 0:09:43.720 --> 0:09:45.440 you know, like when they're actually using the plane to 0:09:45.440 --> 0:09:47.960 fly places. But it sounds like you're saying they just have. 0:09:47.880 --> 0:09:49.679 To know what to do. 0:09:50.080 --> 0:09:52.319 Yeah, they have to just be like dead on precise, 0:09:52.480 --> 0:09:55.400 and there's not much room for error either, Like the 0:09:55.520 --> 0:09:58.640 smallest slip up could ruin the look of the entire message. 0:09:58.880 --> 0:10:01.640 For instance, if a pilot doesn't open or close the 0:10:01.640 --> 0:10:04.280 flow of smoke it's just the right moment, then two 0:10:04.360 --> 0:10:07.400 letters might bleed together, or one letter might end up 0:10:07.440 --> 0:10:10.960 taller or shorter than the rest. Plus all the letters 0:10:11.000 --> 0:10:13.360 have to run along the same straight line to spell 0:10:13.360 --> 0:10:16.200 out the word, and they have to be spaced apart evenly. 0:10:16.679 --> 0:10:19.680 It is so much to keep track of, but Probably 0:10:19.679 --> 0:10:21.800 the hardest part is that the message has to be 0:10:21.840 --> 0:10:26.160 written backwards and upside down, like it's something I've never 0:10:26.200 --> 0:10:29.320 thought of before. But because the pilots are writing parallel 0:10:29.360 --> 0:10:31.320 to the ground, they have to spell out the letters 0:10:31.360 --> 0:10:34.240 in reverse so that the message appears correctly when viewed 0:10:34.240 --> 0:10:39.040 from below. And some letters are particularly hard like skywriters 0:10:39.040 --> 0:10:41.680 often say, oh is the hardest because you have to 0:10:41.720 --> 0:10:45.120 maintain a constant angle of bank during the turn. But 0:10:45.480 --> 0:10:47.720 the straight parts of a letter are a different kind 0:10:47.760 --> 0:10:50.000 of challenge, and that's because you have to keep them 0:10:50.080 --> 0:10:53.160 roughly the same height, and pilots have all kinds of 0:10:53.240 --> 0:10:57.000 tricks for getting the timing just right. Some count Mississippis, 0:10:57.200 --> 0:11:00.319 and at least one of them, a pilot named Nathan Hammond, 0:11:00.640 --> 0:11:03.800 sings the Scooby Doo scene song to help him stay 0:11:03.800 --> 0:11:06.720 in the right rhythm. Whatever works right, whatever works. 0:11:07.840 --> 0:11:10.520 But speaking of music, one of the most famous instances 0:11:10.559 --> 0:11:13.760 of skywriting was a holiday message that John Lennon and 0:11:13.840 --> 0:11:17.199 Yoko Ono commissioned over the city of Toronto in December 0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:20.480 of nineteen sixty nine. They hired the legendary skywriter Wayne 0:11:20.480 --> 0:11:23.760 Mansfield to spell out the message quote war is over. 0:11:23.840 --> 0:11:27.120 If you want it Happy ex miss from John and Yoko. 0:11:27.960 --> 0:11:32.840 I love that there's a legendary sky writer, ye Mansfield. 0:11:33.160 --> 0:11:34.840 Oh you haven't heard Wayne Mansfield. 0:11:35.480 --> 0:11:38.560 Look, I've only seen skywriting. I don't know who it 0:11:38.600 --> 0:11:42.440 could have been him, but obviously that message is so 0:11:42.520 --> 0:11:43.880 much longer than ten letters. 0:11:44.040 --> 0:11:46.720 It's actually forty four letters to be exact, which makes 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:49.840 it one of the longest skywritten messages of all time. 0:11:50.200 --> 0:11:52.480 It was so long, in fact, that Mansfield had to 0:11:52.480 --> 0:11:56.080 make special preparations ahead of the flight. So for reference, 0:11:56.160 --> 0:11:59.120 a pilot will typically take up about thirty gallons of 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:02.000 skywriting flu which is enough to write about a dozen letters, 0:12:02.400 --> 0:12:05.320 but for John and Yoko's message, Mansfield had to haul 0:12:05.400 --> 0:12:08.280 four times that amount. But all that extra effort earned 0:12:08.320 --> 0:12:11.040 him some repeat business from the couple, because eleven years later, 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:14.960 Yoko hired Mansfield again, this time to deliver a birthday 0:12:15.000 --> 0:12:18.080 greeting to her husband and their son Sean. The second 0:12:18.080 --> 0:12:20.920 message was written over the skies of Manhattan, and although 0:12:20.920 --> 0:12:22.559 it was a little bit shorter than the last one, 0:12:22.600 --> 0:12:25.080 it just said happy Birthday, John and Sean Love Yoko. 0:12:25.520 --> 0:12:28.440 Mansfield still had to bring plenty of fluid. Yoko wanted 0:12:28.520 --> 0:12:31.080 him to write it out nine times. 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:33.800 Nine times, feel successful by nine. 0:12:34.000 --> 0:12:36.680 Both John and Sean were born on October ninth, so 0:12:36.800 --> 0:12:39.199 I don't know, maybe that's why. But the number also 0:12:39.480 --> 0:12:42.560 held some special significance for Lenin throughout his life. The 0:12:42.800 --> 0:12:44.960 numbers on the school bus that he wrote as a 0:12:45.040 --> 0:12:47.839 child added up to nine. The first house he lived 0:12:47.840 --> 0:12:51.280 in was at nine Newcastle Road, and the Beatles' first 0:12:51.320 --> 0:12:53.560 appearance at the Cavern Club was on the ninth of 0:12:53.600 --> 0:12:56.720 February in nineteen sixty one. And as John Lennon himself 0:12:56.760 --> 0:12:59.120 once said, it's just a number that follows me around. 0:12:59.120 --> 0:13:02.520 But numerological apparently I'm a number six or three or something. 0:13:02.600 --> 0:13:04.440 But it's all part of nine. 0:13:04.920 --> 0:13:08.360 That is just math there. That's math. But you know, 0:13:08.520 --> 0:13:11.240 as long as we're talking pop culture, I do want 0:13:11.280 --> 0:13:13.680 to share the inside scoop on what's probably the most 0:13:13.720 --> 0:13:17.040 well known skywriting scene in movie history, and that is, 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:21.320 of course, the surrender Dorothy sequence from the nineteen thirty 0:13:21.360 --> 0:13:25.000 nine film The Wizard of Oz. Does the Wizard of 0:13:25.040 --> 0:13:27.360 Oz hold a special place in either of your lives? 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:28.280 I've never heard of it. 0:13:30.240 --> 0:13:32.880 I had a Scottish terrier because of that movie. Really, 0:13:33.000 --> 0:13:36.319 her name was Toto's Tama Shanter. In fact, Oh wow, yeah, 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:37.560 perfectly called her Danny. 0:13:37.679 --> 0:13:43.000 Yeah, that's very very So you are definitely familiar with 0:13:43.040 --> 0:13:45.680 this scene, and it is a scene that takes a 0:13:45.720 --> 0:13:48.680 place a little over halfway through the movie, shortly after 0:13:48.760 --> 0:13:53.880 Dorothy and her entourage arrive at the Emerald City. They're 0:13:53.920 --> 0:13:55.679 on their way to meet the Wizard, when all of 0:13:55.720 --> 0:13:57.960 a sudden, the Wicked Witch of the West appears in 0:13:58.080 --> 0:14:02.720 the sky. On her broomstick, skywrites the words surrender Dorothy. 0:14:03.200 --> 0:14:05.400 Okay, so I was kidding. I have seen The Wizard 0:14:05.440 --> 0:14:08.000 of Oz and that part you're talking about. It always 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:10.320 baffled me as a kid, Like I knew she wasn't 0:14:10.360 --> 0:14:13.240 really flying, but I could not figure out how they 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:14.400 made it look so convinced. 0:14:14.559 --> 0:14:17.240 Well, this would have been like way before digital effects 0:14:17.240 --> 0:14:19.200 were a thing, Right, So I'm guessing if I had 0:14:19.200 --> 0:14:20.680 to guess, I would say they took footage of a 0:14:20.720 --> 0:14:23.120 real skywriter and then they just superposed like a little 0:14:23.160 --> 0:14:24.440 broomstick over the plane part. 0:14:24.520 --> 0:14:26.600 Right, Yeah, I mean that's what I thought too. But 0:14:26.720 --> 0:14:29.840 according to the special effects artists who actually handle the sequence, 0:14:29.920 --> 0:14:33.720 and this is a genius named Jack McMaster, there's actually 0:14:33.760 --> 0:14:36.880 no skywriting in the movie. In fact, the sky that 0:14:36.920 --> 0:14:39.040 we see is just the bottom of a glass tank 0:14:39.200 --> 0:14:43.520 filled with tinted water. And as for the witch's broomstick, well, 0:14:44.080 --> 0:14:47.560 let me tell you how McMaster explained it. Quote. The 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:49.720 bottom of the tank was covered with an inch and 0:14:49.720 --> 0:14:53.080 a half of water mixed with cala oil, and that 0:14:53.160 --> 0:14:55.960 was supposed to be the sky. The camera was beneath 0:14:56.000 --> 0:14:59.600 the tank shooting up. The miniature which who did the skywriting, 0:14:59.640 --> 0:15:01.960 was three three eighths of an inch high, and the 0:15:01.960 --> 0:15:05.600 broom she was writing was a hypodermic needle filled with 0:15:05.640 --> 0:15:08.840 a combination of canned milk and black dye. I wrote 0:15:08.840 --> 0:15:11.760 the message upside down and backwards in the fluid in 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:14.360 the tank, using the needle in place of a pen. 0:15:14.800 --> 0:15:17.880 I practiced for two months before I did it. 0:15:17.920 --> 0:15:21.840 Is not incredible, that is so elaborate. I've seen that 0:15:21.840 --> 0:15:23.840 movie dozens of times. I never would have guessed that's 0:15:23.880 --> 0:15:25.640 how they did it. But I do like that even 0:15:25.680 --> 0:15:27.760 though it wasn't real skywriting, he still had to master 0:15:27.840 --> 0:15:30.000 the art of writing upside down and backwards. 0:15:30.320 --> 0:15:33.560 Yeah, I guess that deficultly carried over. But apparently the 0:15:33.600 --> 0:15:35.920 message he wrote was even a little longer. In the 0:15:36.000 --> 0:15:39.480 original cut of the movie. It actually read surrendered, Dorothy 0:15:39.960 --> 0:15:45.600 or die, and it was signed with the Witch's initials WWW, 0:15:45.720 --> 0:15:46.480 which is amazing. 0:15:47.080 --> 0:15:50.360 She's like not playing around. So why they shorten it? 0:15:50.560 --> 0:15:52.800 Well, according to The New York Post, it was because 0:15:52.840 --> 0:15:55.960 the Wicked Witch was deemed too scary by test audiences, 0:15:56.080 --> 0:15:58.560 so the producers went back and they toned her down 0:15:58.600 --> 0:16:01.760 a little bit, including by cutting out the death threat. 0:16:02.160 --> 0:16:05.040 It's probably a good call, is She's still plenty scary 0:16:05.080 --> 0:16:07.720 if you ask me. But it is interesting that they 0:16:07.760 --> 0:16:10.400 went with black smoke for the scene. You know, it's 0:16:10.440 --> 0:16:13.760 suitably witchy and stands out against the blue backdrop. But 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:16.960 you'd be hard pressed to find anything but white smoke 0:16:17.080 --> 0:16:18.160 in real skyriding. 0:16:18.280 --> 0:16:19.160 Yeah, why is that? 0:16:19.240 --> 0:16:21.960 Actually I've seen colored smoke, like you know, at air shows, 0:16:21.960 --> 0:16:23.640 and the technology exists. 0:16:24.040 --> 0:16:27.320 No, absolutely, but white smoke is the default because that's 0:16:27.360 --> 0:16:31.160 the natural color produced when paraffine oil is vaporized. And 0:16:31.240 --> 0:16:33.160 in the case of black smoke, I mean, if you 0:16:33.200 --> 0:16:34.760 saw that pouring out of the back of a plane, 0:16:34.800 --> 0:16:36.960 you'd probably assume something was wrong with the engine and 0:16:37.120 --> 0:16:40.920 maybe take cover. But as for the multicolored smoke trails 0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:43.040 that you often see at an air show. Those are 0:16:43.200 --> 0:16:46.280 possible because the planes are flying at much lower altitudes. 0:16:46.640 --> 0:16:49.360 Skyriders tend to work much higher up, and it's hard 0:16:49.360 --> 0:16:52.800 to produce a consistent, legible colored smoke at that height 0:16:53.000 --> 0:16:56.240 because of atmospheric conditions. And that doesn't mean it can't 0:16:56.280 --> 0:16:58.520 be done, But the main reason it's never caught on 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:02.200 is that colored smoke requires some heavy duty dies to achieve, 0:17:02.280 --> 0:17:04.680 you know, the different hues, and they tend to stain 0:17:04.840 --> 0:17:07.639 everything they touch. That's not a huge deal when the 0:17:07.680 --> 0:17:10.359 smoke is just trailing behind you in a straight line, 0:17:10.600 --> 0:17:13.719 but a skywriter has to swoop and dive and curl 0:17:13.800 --> 0:17:16.159 to spell out a message, so there's bound to be 0:17:16.200 --> 0:17:19.720 some blowback. And for most skywriters, colored smoke just isn't 0:17:19.760 --> 0:17:22.040 worth the extra effort of, you know, scrubbing it off 0:17:22.040 --> 0:17:24.080 the plane's exterior after every job. 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:27.320 That's interesting that it just causes such a mess that 0:17:27.320 --> 0:17:31.199 they don't want to deal with it. Well, I know 0:17:31.240 --> 0:17:32.919 we've got a couple more facts to go before we 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:35.760 crown a winner here, but first let's take a quick 0:17:35.760 --> 0:17:52.760 ad break. Welcome back to Part Time Genius, where we're 0:17:52.760 --> 0:17:56.439 talking all things skywriting. So Mary, I think, as far 0:17:56.480 --> 0:17:58.320 as the order goes, you are up next. 0:17:58.440 --> 0:17:58.680 Yes. 0:17:58.840 --> 0:18:02.119 So one thing I was curious about is why skywriting 0:18:02.119 --> 0:18:04.400 smoke is necessary in the first place. I mean, we've 0:18:04.400 --> 0:18:07.679 all seen the white streaks or contrails that jet planes produce, 0:18:07.720 --> 0:18:10.679 and those aren't the results of purposely adding something to 0:18:10.720 --> 0:18:13.000 the exhaust like with skywriting. I mean, it's just the 0:18:13.040 --> 0:18:15.520 results of jet fuel combustion at high altitudes. It just 0:18:15.560 --> 0:18:18.760 happens when the fuel is burned, carbon dioxide and water 0:18:18.880 --> 0:18:21.520 vapor are expelled from the jet's exhaust pipe, and when 0:18:21.560 --> 0:18:24.200 that hits the cold air of the upper atmosphere, the 0:18:24.240 --> 0:18:26.520 water vapor condenses and then it freezes along with the 0:18:26.520 --> 0:18:28.960 other particles, and it creates that visible cloud that you 0:18:28.960 --> 0:18:29.760 can see from the ground. 0:18:30.400 --> 0:18:33.520 So why do skywriders actually bother with smoke? Then if 0:18:33.560 --> 0:18:35.280 they could just use the contrails, well. 0:18:35.200 --> 0:18:37.640 Actually they can't. It turns out they cannot use the contrails, 0:18:37.640 --> 0:18:43.480 so that's why it's not possible. Skywriters have to fly 0:18:43.520 --> 0:18:45.760 at a much lower altitude for their messages to be 0:18:45.800 --> 0:18:48.399 visible from the ground, so the air is not consistently 0:18:48.520 --> 0:18:51.199 cold enough to produce those contrails, and not only that, 0:18:51.640 --> 0:18:54.840 most skywriters are using smaller propeller driven planes. A jet 0:18:54.880 --> 0:18:57.560 is not maneuverable enough to make those tight turns that 0:18:57.600 --> 0:18:59.640 you need to do to form letters, and so without 0:18:59.680 --> 0:19:03.200 the water vapor from jet fuel combustion, contrails wouldn't form 0:19:03.200 --> 0:19:05.480 even if the air was cold enough. But that said, 0:19:05.520 --> 0:19:08.040 there is one way for skywriters to produce clouds, and 0:19:08.080 --> 0:19:09.960 that is to draw them using smoke. 0:19:10.640 --> 0:19:13.679 That's a real thing, Like people say, skyriders thousands of 0:19:13.680 --> 0:19:15.240 dollars to just draw a fake cloud. 0:19:15.880 --> 0:19:18.320 I wouldn't say it's a regular occurrence, but it has 0:19:18.359 --> 0:19:20.320 happened on at least one occasion, and this was back 0:19:20.359 --> 0:19:22.240 in two thousand and one. It was part of a 0:19:22.359 --> 0:19:26.520 public exhibit by Brazilian artist Vik Munis. He's a photographer 0:19:26.600 --> 0:19:28.879 first and foremost, and a lot of his work deals 0:19:28.920 --> 0:19:32.239 with the relationship between illusion and perception. But for his 0:19:32.240 --> 0:19:35.600 first large scale project, he decided to explore that theme 0:19:35.680 --> 0:19:38.560 through a different medium, skywriting. But to be clear, he 0:19:38.640 --> 0:19:40.480 was not the one actually doing the flying. He just 0:19:40.560 --> 0:19:43.160 designed a series of cloud shapes and then he hired 0:19:43.160 --> 0:19:45.680 a pilot to draw them in smoke all over the 0:19:45.720 --> 0:19:48.640 Manhattan skyline, and they did this about four times over 0:19:48.640 --> 0:19:51.320 the course of one week in February. And although the 0:19:51.359 --> 0:19:54.520 cloud outlines only lasted a short time before being blown away, 0:19:54.880 --> 0:19:57.080 there were still all these reports of people on the 0:19:57.119 --> 0:20:00.439 streets and in office buildings just being completely trans fixed, 0:20:00.520 --> 0:20:02.439 you know, standing there waiting to see what the plane 0:20:02.440 --> 0:20:02.879 was drawing. 0:20:04.119 --> 0:20:07.480 So there was like no message or anything being advertised. 0:20:07.960 --> 0:20:08.359 It was art. 0:20:08.400 --> 0:20:10.320 It was art. It was just clouds. It was it 0:20:10.359 --> 0:20:13.000 was more of a like an ephemeral exhibit, right, like 0:20:13.040 --> 0:20:15.080 a sand sculpture. It's there and then it isn't. But 0:20:15.440 --> 0:20:18.600 full disclosure, the cloud stunt was meant to coincide with 0:20:18.800 --> 0:20:21.080 a show of his photography at the Whitney Museum, So 0:20:21.200 --> 0:20:22.639 I guess in a way you could say it was 0:20:22.640 --> 0:20:26.919 an advertisement or self promotion promotion, but no one on 0:20:26.960 --> 0:20:28.719 the ground would have known that or made that connection 0:20:28.760 --> 0:20:30.520