Do you know who Cary Grant is? How about Wernher von Braun?

[jztemple2]

A couple of weeks ago my wife and I were the only passengers on a harbor cruise, so we had some time to talk to the skipper and to his crew person, a 22 year old graduate student in Marine Biology. At some point I was talking to the 22 year old about my father who had an interesting life. I was mentioning about the time he and Cary Grant played a trick on friend of my father... at this point she asked "Who?". She had no idea who Cary Grant was. OK, fair enough.

I was then talking to her about the time my father met Wernher von Braun at the Explorers Club in New York City. Again she asked "Who?". Hmm. Am I expecting too much to think that a 22 year old college graduate might know about either one or both? So I thought, hey, how about doing a poll with the OO folks? Now, no fair Googling their names or asking your great grandparents . I'm really interested in finding out how well known these two disparate people are among the OOs.

If you like you can also post your age and/or some interesting highlights of your own. Thanks for reading this far!

[McNutt]

I had a college student worker about 15 years ago who had never heard of John Wayne and had no idea who fought in World War 2.

[Kraken]

As an avid viewer of movies from the 1930s-50s, I'm quite familiar with Grant. As a great fan of spaceflight, I know von Braun's role. I mentioned in another thread that I heard him lecture while the space shuttle was in development in the late 70s. But then, I'm 63, so I know everything that happened more than 20 years ago.

[ImLawBoy]

I'm not a huge fan of old movies or a space/rocket junkie, but I know both of them (not personally). I'm 49.

[Smoove_B]

I just had a student tell me this week that they didn't know anything about the anthrax attacks that occurred here in the U.S. after 9/11 because they weren't born yet and it was never covered in any of their history classes in high school. You're expecting a 20-something to know about Cary Grant and von Braun?

[funnygirl]

Ok, so I'm pretty sure I'm older than dbt, and a year or so ago I went to a salon for a haircut and the girl asked me what I would like. I said I would like it if she could make me look like Helen Mirren. Hairdresser: Who's that? Me: Well, never mind, how about Jane Fonda?
Hairdresser: Shrug
And both of them are still alive and working!

But then again, I doubt if I could point out Selena Gomez or Ariana Grande if I saw them in a crowd.

[Jaymann]

It's strange how there can be gaps in your knowledge. I never heard of Maradona until I read here of his demise.

My children had some knowledge of history, they asked me if I fought in the Civil War.

[YellowKing]

Turning 46 tomorrow and knew who both of them were, but I'm also a movie and history buff so that's not surprising.

However, betting on a 22-year old knowing a movie star from the 1980s is pushing your luck, much less one from the 1940s. It used to annoy me, but then I realized I was being unreasonable. Every generation has their own nostalgia, and I can't expect them to take the time to learn mine.

[dbt1949]

They're both younger than me.

[Rumpy]

Definitely know about them both. To be fair, I'm not all that familiar with Cary Grant and his work, but I do know he was one the top actors of his day. And as a person who's both into astronomy and space in general, I'd be a fool not to know about von Braun.

[NickAragua]

I'm 39. Not sure off-hand who Cary Grant is, but Wernher von Braun I'm pretty familiar with as I spent a lot of time studying the history of space exploration. Unfortunately I forget most of the details, but that's life I suppose.

[Hrdina]

I know them both (I'm 53).

I'm more familiar with Gary Granite,though.

[Sudy]

36. My mother raised me on various classic films. I know Cary Grant, specifically from Charade (1963). I recognized Wernher von Braun's name, but didn't know/remember who he was before I looked him up. I enjoy history, but haven't taken a lot of deep dives into WW2 and spaceflight.

I had no idea Madonna played soccer until today.

[Jaymann]

I'm 39. Not sure off-hand who Cary Grant is,

[Skinypupy]

I know who Cary Grant is, although I don’t know if I’ve actually ever seen one of his movies.

Never heard of the other guy.

[Zarathud]

Know Cary Grant but cant remember his movies.

Also know van Braun as a historical figure from science fiction.

48

[Kraken]

Spoiler:

Wernher von Braun was a Nazi rocket scientist who came to the US as spoils of war. He envisioned building a fleet of space shuttles that would construct a space station that would stage deep space missions to the moon and Mars. The US space program got hijacked by the space race, but von Braun's vision is still the bones that it's built upon.

There you have von Braun in three sentences, and you only really need to know the second one.

I'm sure 22-year-olds know a lot of things that I don't know or care about, so I'll cheerfully grant them Cary. Entertainers come and go. I'm slower to forgive not knowing important historical figures. But science and history are my bias.

[Isgrimnur]

[Blackhawk]

I know who they both are, and have since childhood. I think you're barking up the wrong tree looking here for comparisons to the 20-something, though. Most of us are old enough to have grown up hearing names like Cary Grant and seeing his films on Sunday afternoons. I remember Father Goose, Operation Petticoat, and House Boat. Von Braun I remember from some book or other I had on space travel, plus enough mentions of his name from time to time (I just heard that 'hit London' line somewhere a few days ago, but I can't remember where.)

Now, no fair Googling their names or asking your great grandparents

We aren't going to ask our great-grandparents, as a significant portion of us are already grandparents ourselves (I'm 47 and have three grandkids.) You're looking for the whippersnapper forum.

[Daehawk]

Of course I know both. Young folks are simply dense. Well not all of them but a good many.

[Tao]

I am very familiar with Carey Grant, one of my all time favorite actors. When I read the name Werner Von Braun my first thought was German Rocket plane but I couldn't come up with any more detail. For those who say they are either unfamiliar with Carey Grant or never saw any of his movies you have missed out. To this list I would add Arsenic and Old Lace but otherwise this is spot on. Just hit the double nickel, 55.

Essentaial Carey Grant

[jztemple2]

I knew about Cary Grant in my teens because during summers in high school and college I worked on a harbor tug boat, a couple of weeks on, then a couple weeks off. Since I was paid every week, even the off ones, I convinced my father that I could just bum around the house on my off weeks. So I stayed up watching the late, late movies on our local TV station, sometimes till dawn. They ran lots of movies from the 30s and 40s. I remember one time my dad coming out at 7am, his usual wake up time, on a Saturday and me stretched out on the couch watching the end of The Great Ziegfeld (1936). He just shook his head, but I was making good money and staying out of trouble

I knew about von Braun because of my early interest in space and of course I was going to school at Cocoa Beach High during the Apollo program.

[Daehawk]

My wife was a big fan of Penny Serenade though it made her sad.

[dbt1949]

I have 6-8 movies of Cary Grant in my dvd collection.
Don't have any of von Braun tho.

[Archinerd]

I just had a student tell me this week that they didn't know anything about the anthrax attacks that occurred here in the U.S. after 9/11 because they weren't born yet and it was never covered in any of their history classes in high school.

I didn't really know what Watergate was all about until I was well into adulthood for the same reason. (I'm 40)
I'm sure there are tons of people my age who know nothing about it at all, except that it was some sort of political controversy.

[Kraken]

Wow, never heard of Tom Lehrer -- thanks for posting!

[Isgrimnur]

[Jaymann]

I just had a student tell me this week that they didn't know anything about the anthrax attacks that occurred here in the U.S. after 9/11 because they weren't born yet and it was never covered in any of their history classes in high school.

I didn't really know what Watergate was all about until I was well into adulthood for the same reason. (I'm 40)
I'm sure there are tons of people my age who know nothing about it at all, except that it was some sort of political controversy.

That's like saying 9/11 was some kind of airplane malfunction.

[dbt1949]

Johnson was president when I went in the army. How many have heard of him?

[Jaymann]

Johnson was president when I went in the army. How many have heard of him?

Andrew? Yeah, supposedly he was kind of corrupt.

[hitbyambulance]

https://www.vice.com/en/article/a3zj5j/ ... nce-a-week

[Anonymous Bosch]

While I haven't seen every Cary Grant movie, this is what immediately comes to mind for me:



When I was a wee nipper, we learned about Wernher von Braun in terms of his relevance to the Nazi A-4/V-2 rocket program (which, for obvious reasons, was much more significant to those who lived in the southeast of England than most Americans).

[gbasden]

[gbasden]

I've definitely heard of both. I'm very familiar with Von Braun and his accomplishments. I've seen a few Cary Grant movies, but it's not really my favorite era of film. I'm 52.

[raydude]

49 here. Old enough to have seen several Cary Grant movies and I owe my current profession to being interested in space at a young age and so read up on all the early pioneers, including Von Braun.

As far as I can tell, the last mention of Von Braun in popular culture was in the 1999 film October Sky, where Homer Hickam keeps talking about wanting to meet him. So yeah, I don't expect a 20-something to know about him unless they were a fan of the space program.

Speaking of old things, my non-video zoom background is a screenshot of the space invaders game. One of the younger scientists (30 something) on the zoom call asked what the little blobs were on my screen. I replied, "It's an age filter."

[Blackhawk]

Don't be too harsh on young people. Them not knowing who Cary Grant or Von Braun are is the equivalent of us not knowing who Louis Bleriot or Mary Pickford are. We're judging them on how well they know our grandparents childhoods. Who was your great-grandmother's favorite actor?

The problem here is assuming that what was important to us 40 years ago should still be important today.

[Sudy]

But one of the great things about getting older is being able to complain about the younger generations and their misplaced priorities and troubling values!

Everyone knows older things are better. It's why I insist on cutting my own bread and refused the polio vaccine.

[Jeff V]

But one of the great things about getting older is being able to complain about the younger generations and their misplaced priorities and troubling values!

Everyone knows older things are better. It's why I insist on cutting my own bread and refused the polio vaccine.

About 15 years ago, I was on a project that involved lots of travel and I was occasionally paired up with a contractor who graduated with honors from Cornell. She was mid-20 something, I was mid-40 something. I was surprised about how much she knew about pop culture from my generation -- and was amused by her gaps. Mostly because she had some obscure stuff nailed down but was clueless about more common stuff. The only real example I recall was when "Swamp" from the Talking Heads came on the radio, she correctly remembered it was in the movie Risky Business, but said she never heard of the band.

[Kraken]

(I was being ironic, or meta, or maybe meta-ironic. Sorry it didn't come across that way.)

[Lorini]

Of course I know who von Braun is My dad started at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1960 and I started there in 1981! I'm not a movie person but I've heard of Cary Grant.