Talk:The Second Time Around (1961 film)

Latest comment: 1 year ago by 172.250.237.36 in topic December 12, Saturday - 1908 or 1914?

December 12, Saturday - 1908 or 1914?

edit

About 20 minutes into the movie, 'Lu' just finishes her first month as a ranch hand, with a scene that begins by showing the calendar date as "Today is 12, SATURDAY, Sunday 13 December." We are told that these events are supposed to have taken place around the year 1911.

This could not have been the specific year, 1911, the month of December, which is shown, according to the scene showing the page of the calendar. The calendar shows the day of the week, the date, and the month, but not the year.

According to the 'day of the week' website, December 12 1911 was a Tuesday. The next time the 12th of December fell on Saturday was in the year 1914, and the first time it falls on a Saturday before, is in the year 1908.

https://www.dayoftheweek.org/?m=December&d=12&y=1911

Is it possible that these events took place as early as 1908, or even as late as 1914? The day on the calendar clearly shows, Saturday, 12th December. The stagecoach from New York to Arizona would have taken a good amount of time, but it's not easy to think that 'Lu' would have left New York during the year 1911 and only arrived in Arizona by 1914.

Also, later in the film, another scene shows one character mentioning that "Arizona will be a state any day now." Since the Arizona Territory became a state on 12th February, 1912, that scene would have had to take place shortly before then. This rules out the year 1914 as the date on the calendar in the previous scene. Yet the next closest date, 1908, seems very early, and anachronistic, since the events on the calendar and the events of the next scene would have been relatively close to each other chronologically. It seems perhaps, more prudent to assume that the events took place sometime during the year 1912 and that the calendar may be anachronistic.

172.250.237.36 (talk) 12:06, 18 June 2023 (UTC)Reply

It's just a staging error. If the film says 1911, it's 1911. Clarityfiend (talk) 00:34, 19 June 2023 (UTC)Reply
Since later in the film, Arizona achieves statehood (February 12th, 1912), that would have taken place during the second half of the month of February of 1912. Earlier in the film, it's depicted that 'Lu' would be given a bath on Saturday nights, and the calendar shows the day of the week as Saturday, in the scene showing her in a bath tub.
I agree, there's an error. That calendar page shouldn't have said it's December 12th, since the 12th of December of 1911 was a Tuesday. The correct dates closest to that would have had to have been either December the 16th or December the 9th, of the year 1911.
172.250.237.36 (talk) 15:54, 19 June 2023 (UTC)Reply