The Strong’s vast and varied holdings include several hundred artifacts in the museum’s KAR-MI Collection: magician’s props, throwing knives, swords to swallow, theater posters, satiny banners and table covers, and a tattoo set (tattoo set? yes!). But we have few documents or records to explain this interesting mass of materials. So, of course, I have wondered for years: Who was KAR-MI?
The short answer goes something like this: KAR-MI was the stage name of performer Joseph Hallworth (1872–1956), an itinerant entertainer […]
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From Training, to Toy, to Treatment: The Many Lives of Full Spectrum Warrior
How do people use games, toys, and other playthings? It’s a question play scholars and historians must grapple with. A blanket, for instance, serves as a warm companion on a cold night, but it may also act as, among other things, a superhero’s cape or a princess’s gown. One needs only to scan ICHEG’s online collections to get a sense of the variety of ways in which video games might be used to entertain and educate. However, as media theorist […]
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What Big Bird Means to the Presidential Debate
The morning after the first Obama-Romney presidential debate, with the commentators having had a chance to sleep on it, we awoke to a flood of psychologizing. The president had looked tense and acted dismissive, they noted. This hopeful man who had once campaigned on the prospects of the bright future seemed worn down by the minute-to-minute demands of two wars, an economic collapse not of his own making, and a recalcitrant legislative branch. The challenger, an organizational man who seems […]
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Martha Jenks Chase’s Simple Dolls for Simple Doll Play
For more than 100 years, parents have criticized the talking, walking, crying, eating, and drinking dolls that appeared on the market. They have complained that mechanical dolls leave little to children’s imaginations. These complaints sound familiar today, what with the scores of dolls such as Baby Alive, Baby Check-Up, Baby Annabell, Baby Wet and Wiggles, and Little Mommy Hide and Peek. In fact, toy makers and doll makers have offered so many crawling, creeping, speaking, walking, drinking, and eating dolls […]
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New Rule: No Punting
The news that the Buffalo Bills recently released their longest-tenured player, punter Brian Moorman, came as a bit of a shock but not a surprise. With an injury rate of 100 percent, the average NFL career stretches only about three-and-a-half years; Moorman, though, has played in every game since he put on a Bills uniform in 2001. Over the course of his dozen seasons, the two-time Pro Bowler performed some amazing feats. He kicked an astonishing 84-yard punt against Green […]
Games on a Plane
When I hear the word “vacation” I feel happy and relaxed, but the word “travel” often evokes just the opposite. Earlier this month, I took a trip to New Orleans, Louisiana. In order to keep myself occupied during travel, I packed a carry-on bag full of fun diversions, including music, books, and video games.
Despite the compact size of portable video games, I still had to choose carefully among my favorites. I settled on games for the differing circumstances in which […]
Do You Believe in Magic?
Do you believe in magic? Yes, that’s the title of The Lovin’ Spoonful’s 1965 hit song, but I’m actually referring to magic tricks and illusions. The word “magic” evokes different images for different people. Some may think of stage magic, where a magician twirls a wand and a white bunny appears out of a black top hat. Some may picture grand illusionists who can make buildings disappear right before your eyes. Others may consider magic to be “otherworldly” or even […]
Video Games Take Flight
As a young child, I loved to climb the stairs of my aunt and uncle’s house to my cousin’s room filled with model airplanes he had assembled. Spitfires, Zeros, Messerchmitts, and B-17 Fighting Fortresses lined the shelves, parked on bureaus, and hung suspended from the ceiling. I still remember how I felt as I gazed in wonder at the formations of planes flying overhead.
Ever since the Wright Brothers first flight, the romance of aviation has entered our play. In the […]
To Mars and the Moon
On August 6, 2012, along with 3.2 million others, I breathlessly watched the Curiosity space rover touch down on Mars. Launched by NASA on November 26, 2011, and traveling a distance of more than 350 million miles, Curiosity landed in the Gale Crater less than two miles from its target. Within 14 minutes, NASA received the first signals of its survival. Designed to explore the planet for at least one Martian year (687 Earth days), Curiosity’s primary mission is to […]